Level Up The Colony
Chapter 70: Waterside

Chapter 70: Waterside

But hunters? They were still human.

Stronger, faster, tougher but not invincible.

That’s what troubled Timothy the most.

He had assumed, like many others, that being B-rank made him immune to common threats.

He was wrong.

There was nuance to rank.

Two hunters of the same rank might differ vastly in raw strength, depending on their build, attributes, and focus.

Just because he was a B-rank didn’t mean he could take a bullet to the chest and shrug it off.

That realization forced him to think more carefully about his future encounters.

He needed to reassess his strategy not just against monsters, but against humans too.

And that thought alone was more unsettling than any dungeon.

Timothy had seen many hunters, including himself, exceed human limits but in the end, they were still human.

He mentally ran simulations, picturing how different hunters might fare against bullets.

His thoughts paused when he recalled the shedding human, the werewolf bastard he had killed.

The memory sparked a realization.

That thing had regeneration and raw speed.

It could’ve survived a few bullets, maybe even kept fighting. And then it clicked again.

Skills.

Timothy had the Armament skill, a defensive ability that had allowed him to tank blows far deadlier than a bullet.

He was beginning to piece it together.

Hunters didn’t actually surpass human limits on their own, only with equipment, evolution... and skills.

That’s when he understood why the system had labeled the werewolf as a "shedding human."

At his core, that creature was still human, but it was evolving, moving beyond its racial boundaries.

That’s what the system was tracking.

Every time he passed a threshold at 100 points in a stat, the system notified him.

Could that be what it meant to shed the limits of humanity? If so, Timothy had already started the process.

His initial stats were around ten barely E-rank.

Which meant The peak of a normal human was 99.

So what happens when he breaks through that? What lies beyond?

He thought back to his assumptions about hunters being nearly invincible.

The strongest hunter alive, an SS-rank in North America might shrug off bullets from SMGs or sniper rifles.

But what about anti-tank rifles? Maybe he’d survive with the help of defensive skills like Armament, but even that had a limit.

Technology wasn’t stagnant either.

If Timothy could reach this conclusion, so could military strategists.

There were likely already weapons and protocols in place, designed for both monsters and humans.

Despite his growing power, Timothy understood one thing: he was still just a cog in a much larger machine.

A stronger cog, sure but not the driver.

Unknown to him, he had only scratched the surface of what hunters or humans could truly become and how much their scope of abilities extended

Hunters killed monsters.

Monsters killed humans.

And humans... could kill hunters.

A full circle.

Maybe that’s what people meant by the "circle of life."

The real kicker? Humans were advancing faster than ever.

But who said monsters weren’t? Just because they didn’t understand it didn’t mean it wasn’t happening.

Timothy himself was proof.

He just couldn’t imagine monsters holding plasma rifles like something out of a sci-fi game.

That idea alone gave him chills.

Still, even now, he knew he wasn’t strong enough.

Being a hunter elevated him above average people, but it also meant facing enemies far stronger than before.

And in this world, there was always someone stronger.

But first, he had other things to handle.

Revenge on the crooks came first.

Yet, a sudden thought flashed through his mind, someone he could now help or save, now that he was B-rank.

Still... no.

It wasn’t an excuse.

He truly needed to push all his stats past the threshold first. He needed strength.

Timothy clenched his fist, then opened it slowly.

He could feel the raw energy, the tension in his body.

He activated Armament and felt the surge of power course through him.

Then he called up the system.

[Daily Quest Completed]

[You have received 4 Free Stat Points]

[Do you wish to claim your rewards? Y/N]

He selected "Yes."

> [Choose a Reward:]

1. Full Recovery

2. +3 Stat Points

3. Random Box

...

He paused.

The first and only time he’d used Full Recovery, he’d been skeptical of the system.

But it worked, it restored him completely, healed his wounds, and even erased battle scars.

It was incredibly useful in battle... if he could stockpile it.

But what if the system never counted him as fully recovered again, and he wasted it?

He needed strength now, raw stats.

He had to break his limits.

The Random Box option tempted him too, though.

In hindsight, it had never really been random.

It always gave him something he’d need shortly, like getting an umbrella right before a rainstorm.

Useful, yes, but also... suspicious.

That intrusive thought unsettled him.

He had been lucky with the Random Box, but maybe too lucky.

Still, this time, he needed to push his stats.

The Raid was coming up.

He selected +3 Stat Points.

[You have gained +3 Stat Points.]

[You now have 10 Free Stat Points remaining.]

Timothy exhaled slowly, One step closer.

...

Timothy spent the rest of the day weighing his options.

He didn’t want to kill humans, not really and torture had never been in his nature.

So he decided to walk the fine line between karma and vigilantism.

But to do that, he’d need his termites operating at full capacity.

Evening came, and Timothy was nowhere near home.

Neither Gray nor any trace of him could be found.

The sky was heavy with clouds, threatening rain, but he paid it no mind.

Tonight’s mission couldn’t be delayed.

Lux, his termite worker, had been summoned earlier and was tasked with memorizing the scent, the pheromone of the bulky man from the attack.

It was a long shot.

Timothy wasn’t sure the termite could follow such a specific trail over an unknown distance, let alone obey a command that complex.

But he had to try.

To increase his chances, he brought Gray along as well.

The termite had been growing steadily, almost too big to carry discreetly but this mission was important.

Besides, it was nighttime.

The cover of darkness was an advantage, especially now that Timothy knew bullets could still hurt him badly when not reinforced by his Armament skill.

He wouldn’t make that mistake twice.

Gray was now in charge of leading the smaller termites.

This night doubled as an experiment, a trial-and-error session to understand the limits of his insect allies.

After a long search and Tracking through

One thing was clear: termites weren’t dogs.

Their senses were sharp, but they didn’t track smells in the same way.

They relied on pheromones, heat, and vibrations.

That made tracking a person who wasn’t consciously emitting pheromones much harder.

The search was slow and frustrating.

They kept circling the same district.

Timothy realized tracking lingering pheromones wasn’t as efficient as tracking other termites in the same colony.

Pheromone trails faded quickly without fresh deposits. Eventually, the trail became so faint it was nearly impossible to follow.

Gray managed to keep the direction alive for a while, but the others fell short, forcing Timothy to unsummon them all except Lux, he’d need something small, quiet, and discreet.

Lux found its place on Timothy’s head, like a tiny crown.

He didn’t mind; he was used to it now.

Their chase ended at a waterside district, part slum, part makeshift settlement.

Not all of it was run down, though.

Even among the lowly, some lived comfortable, if modest, lives.

Timothy would know.

He wasn’t trying to be judgmental, it was just reality.

Disappointed but not defeated, he took it as a learning experience.

Understanding how to properly deploy his termites was invaluable.

Still, he checked the area out of habit, but there was no sign of the crooks.

He decided to head home and try to rest before the upcoming kingpin raid in hours.

He was making his way out of the waterside area, a sloped stretch not far from the local market when he noticed something odd.

Down a series of makeshift alleys formed by thatched roofs and half-built structures, a faint bustle caught his attention.

He paused, listening closely while his eyes peered deep into the darkness

Then he saw it.

A market.

It’s a hidden one, too.

Vendors and buyers milled about, trading things that had no business being sold in daylight.

It was a miniature version of the chaos that hit his social media direct message earlier.

He’d never seen this before.

Midnight was near, and it looked like they were just getting started.

Everyone moved like they were running on some kind of chemical high.

Then Timothy’s heart skipped a beat in excitement.

There, just ahead stood the bulky man.

The same bastard who’d shot him.

He stood there, casually puffing on a rolled cigarette that reeked of something heavier than tobacco.

Timothy’s senses sharpened.

Gray was already twitching his antennae.

"That’s the guy," Timothy muttered.

He was far enough away and cloaked in the sky that was about to rain.

No one had spotted him yet.

Quickly, he wrapped his scarf around Gray, mimicking the appearance of others entering the alley that hid their face, the other end of the scarf went up over his nose and head, forming a makeshift hood.

It almost resembled a hijab, crude, but effective.

That was about as much as the scarf could do without unraveling the disguise.

And with that, Timothy strolled casually into the alley, merging with the crowd.

Visit freewe𝑏(n)ovel.𝘤ℴ𝑚 for the best novel reading exp𝒆rience

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.