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[Name: Lucas Walker]
[Rank: Beyond 10th Class (Limit Break)]
[Level: 150/100 (Limit Break)]
[Race: Primordial Human (Limit Break)]
[Class: Archer]
[Unique Skills (3/3)]
-Piercing Perception
-Time Anchor
-Spacial Stepping
[Stats]
-Strength: 75,000
-Endurance: 75,000
-Agility: 112,500 (+75%)
-Wisdom: 37,500
-Magic Power: 150,000 (+25%)
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"Seems I've finally reached my peak..."
He could feel it in every fiber of his being, that this was it. He had reached the maximum possible level.
After all these years, his level had never risen past one hundred and fifty, but now he stood at the edge of what was once thought impossible.
The original level cap had been level one hundred, but somehow, through sheer willpower, relentless effort, and maybe a bit of luck, scratch that, actually it was a lot of luck, the only reason he had broken that limit was through the artifact Noah and Lucas had found so many years ago.
The rest was through hunting down beast and the passage of time.
"I guess I can't complain. My strength was supposed to be capped a long time ago."
He wasn't exactly sure how many years had passed since he first came to the Frontier, but it had been more than a decade, that much he was certain of.
Time had grown... strange. After discovering that his lifespan had extended to span over thousands of years, his perception of the world, of purpose, had shifted dramatically.
A Primordial Human. A being said to be blessed with traits akin to gods, such as, immense potential, divine appearance, overwhelming power, and, perhaps most notably, a greatly prolonged life.
Lucas had inherited all of it. His strength, agility, and magic were leagues above what any normal human could reach.
His once-youthful looks hadn't faded, in fact they had refined. His body was denser, stronger, sharper. His eyes saw farther and clearer than ever. His speed had become something surreal.
He no longer needed powerful weapons to face the beasts of the Frontier.
These days, he found himself intentionally downgrading his gear just to inject some challenge into the hunt.
A cracked wooden bow and dull wooden arrows. He'd had taken to using this rudimentary setup while battling monsters that could easily destroy entire city's.
His personal bow, Artemis, a finely crafted magical weapon, sat quietly at home. He had named it after the goddess of the hunt from the mythical stories of his past life.
Powerful and precise, it could cleave through monsters like air. But he rarely used it now, it made everything too easy.
Home was a modest wooden cabin tucked deep in the forest. A solitary place, perfect for hunting and reflection.
He had chosen to live far from civilization, both to minimize danger to others and because he simply preferred the silence.
He was returning from one such hunt now. The target had been a massive ninth-class beast, not sure of the name of such beast, it was a monstrous serpent that had scorched and slithered across the land, leaving destruction in its wake.
It had taken a few minutes to bring it down, mostly because his makeshift bowstring snapped mid-fight, forcing him to improvise with a vine he'd found on a nearby tree.
Not exactly the most elegant solution, but effective nonetheless.
He chuckled to himself. It had been his idea to handicap himself with cheap equipment, that meant that he had no one to blame but himself.
Encounters like this were rare.
While powerful monsters roamed the Frontier, ninth-class creatures didn't show up every day.
Still, they weren't nearly as uncommon here as they were closer to the heart of Gaia.
Beyond the forest near his home lay a vast, treacherous border known as the World Edge.
A massive canyon that spanned as the continent's border. As the named stats, it appeared to divide the world in two.
Even Lucas didn't know exactly what lay beyond it. All he had were fragmented pieces of game lore from a life he barely remembered.
According to those stories, the World Edge separated Gaia and Tartarus, which are two continents that seemed to reflex each other in opposing ways.
Gaia was the continent of light. Humans, elves, dwarves, and animals thrived here. The land was vibrant, full of life, flowing rivers, lush forests, and pure air.
Tartarus was its dark twin, a place where the air was heavy with poison, the water was murky and vile, and few plants could grow. It home to the Demon King and is the land of demons, goblins, dark elves, and other corrupted beings such as monsters.
Fortunately, most of Tartarus's denizens remained on their side.
The World Edge wasn't just a boundary, it was a natural deterrent, a near-insurmountable obstacle that kept the two worlds apart.
Not that it was perfect.
Some monsters did manage to cross. Gaia was not devoid of danger, especially not in the Frontier.
But those that slipped through still had to cross tens of millions of miles of hostile terrain before reaching the Middle or Inner Lands.
Gaia was structured like a layered cake.
The Frontier sat on top, vast and wild, taking up nearly 90% of the continent.
Below that lay the Middle Lands, a sparser, quieter, and primarily agricultural place, occupying around 8%.
Finally, at the base, was the Inner Land, just 2% of the total landmass, densely populated and protected, bordering the sea and housing massive port cities and Kingdoms.
The deeper one traveled into Gaia, the fewer monsters one would encounter.
The royal armies and elite adventuring teams kept the Inner Lands safe.
And if all else failed, there were heroes like Noah, who would step in to deal with the threat personally.
But out here, on the edge of the world, it was different. Here, there were no reinforcements. No cities. No armies. Just Lucas and the monsters.
And that was exactly how he liked it.
But the question now is, who exactly is this person that has a bow and arrow directly aiming at me?
'Who the hell?'
He had just gotten back to his cabin.
A small, well maintained structure tucked into the middle of nowhere, so isolated that even landmarks refused to exist nearby.
It was intentionally placed, hidden so well within the dense thicket of the forest that only those who knew exactly what they were looking for could even hope to find it.
And even then, the forest itself seemed to mislead.
Yet somehow, a few hundred meters out, masked by the natural surroundings, he could clearly sense him.
A presence. Faint, too faint for normal detection. But not to him.
Then came the unmistakable sound, the faint pull of a bowstring being drawn. Tension humming through the air like a taut wire.
Lucas didn't need to turn to know where the arrow was aimed directly at him.
So, he thought with a quiet exhale that seemed more like a sigh, someone is either very confident... or very stupid.