At the insistence of his new travelling companions, Aaron sat and waited as they prepared their most recent kills.
It had been a short fight. A bunch of lizards, and he let Marko and Zach handle most of it.
And as it turned out, Marko wasn’t just a skinner. Good thing too, because being a skinner sounded like a very limited Profession. What he was was a skinner and butcher, and once he knew that Aaron wanted meat, he was more than happy to assist.
Aaron had to admit, he was very grateful. He watched as Marko’s knife dexterously cut the animals into perfect steaks. It was a far cry from the butchered mess he created.
Well, the owlbear is still good for a stew…
Marko was already in the habit of butchering beasts, but before meeting Aaron, he saved his Skill for ones that actually looked appetizing, and didn’t bother with meat from beasts like the owlbear. But with Aaron around, nothing went to waste.
I’m going to have to make some edible dishes for these guys. Prove to them that all meats are born equal.
“Good thing you were here,” Marko piped as he butchered a lizard. “I dunno if we’d have been able to take the leader of these alone.”
There’d only been half a dozen of the lizards, and the leader was a measly level 75. Even with how weak the energy shackling ring made him feel, it was still an easy fight. However, there did seem to be more and more lizards the further they went in this direction.
It felt weird being thanked for such a thing, but it was pretty obvious these guys wouldn’t have survived out here alone.
“Okay, are we good to go?” Aaron said as they finished up.
“Yeah, all good here.”
“Same, ready and waiting,” Zach called from a treetop.
Zach was an archer with a far-seeing Skill that stretched his vision for miles, making him a great lookout. It was limited, of course. Caves, for example, were a problem. And the jungle limited the Skill’s usefulness, but he worked around it by jumping to the tops of the trees.
From the treetops, Zach could see for miles, and if Aaron hadn’t upgraded his [ Gust Step ] into [ Spectral Rush ], he likely could have taken him even higher into the sky to see further afield, not that he was complaining. The improvement to the Skill was more than worthwhile.
Still, it concerned him that Zach couldn’t see anything promising. Just jungle as far as the eye could see.
Then again, they were essentially in a virgin world now. It made sense that most of it would be covered in forests and jungles until they managed to cut some of it away and build cities.
But that wasn’t what worried him. The idea that Talia and her Tutorial buddies could be a very, very long way away was still bugging him. A couple of days marching through the jungle was one thing, but he didn’t want to get stuck doing it for months.
“Keep up, I’m running!” Aaron shouted as he blasted off through the trees, making sure to keep his pace reasonable so they could keep up.
But only a few minutes later, Zach called down from the treetops as he was leaping between them.
“Hey, Aaron, up ahead!”
“What is it?” He said, skidding to a halt.
“It’s a big one. Level 99 Spitfire Goanna. It looks mean, too.”
“Oh? Well, that sounds perfect.”
“Ahh, are you alright?” Mark asked as he spotted Aaron’s eerily twisting expression.
“I’m better than alright. I finally found some decent prey. You two, just stand back and keep yourself safe. I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Are you sure? I’m sure I can weaken it for you.”
“Weaken it? Why the hell would I want you to do that? I want it at full strength.”
Marko looked at him like he was mad, but didn’t say anything. After all, he had killed the owlbear alone, and that seemed to give the guy pause when it came to doubting him.
“Okay. I’ll be waiting back here.”
Aaron nodded and turned toward the beast. In a small clearing ahead, he spotted the goanna sunbathing. There were bones scattered all around the giant beast, indicating that the clearing was some kind of lair.
“Okay, here goes nothing. Just keep out of sight. It shouldn’t spot you back here. I’ll be back before you know it,” Aaron flipped Marko a thumbs up, cracked his knuckles, and walked straight out into the clearing.
The huge, snarling lizard was closer to a dragon than the goannas Aaron remembered from Earth. Huge fangs accompanied its maw, and its hide looked thick and leathery.
“Hey, big fella,” Aaron limbered up, and it turned toward him.
He already knew what was going to happen, thanks to Fate Bender, and activated [ Spectral Rush ] as it opened its mouth and spat fire.
Flames shot out, whipping across the ground, and he darted from side to side, avoiding them as he closed the distance.
But to his surprise, he hadn’t been fast enough. Flames blasted across his body, and half his body was burned and blackened by the goanna’s attacks.
Dammit! Was I always this slow?
He remembered the ring he was wearing. Had it really slowed him down this much? He knew it was going to make him weaker, but he hadn’t expected it to mess him up so much. He had only fought weak monsters so far, and never needed to go all out, so he hadn’t noticed it so much before.
Oookay, this is going to take some getting used to!
Against a beast like this, Aaron didn’t really plan too much anymore. He had fought stronger and was confident in his ability. But that quickly changed when a moment later, another fireball sent him flying backwards with an explosive shockwave just as he was about to get into striking range.
He hit the ground, bounced, and slammed back into a gigantic tree, spitting blood and falling to his knees.
Glancing up through dizzy vision, he spotted the lizard. It was fast, damn fast, and it was dashing straight across the landscape toward him, razor-lined mouth ajar.
It no doubt figured it was going to get itself a nice meal, but before it reached him, a powerful arrow surrounded in shimmering azure energy slammed into its head.
Knocked off course an inch or two, the lizard looked up and hissed, but Zach, who had fired the arrow, was already jumping away, bounding from treetop to treetop.
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It was only a second, but that was all the distraction Aaron needed, and he shot forward. He was slower with the ring on, but he wasn’t that slow, and in less than a second, he was upon the lizard, swinging a [ Soul Shattering Strike ].
The weakening powers of the ring proved more intense than he had expected. But [ Soul Shattering Strike ] was no normal attack, and this wasn’t a Mo’han tier prodigy.
The attack slammed into the beast’s soul, sending vibrations rippling through it and shutting down its energy organs. But more than that, the beast looked terrified.
He had punched straight through, into its soul, and in an instant, its spirit for combat was shattered.
But Aaron didn’t just throw the one punch. He followed up with a combo, pummeling into it with a haymaker that was immediately accompanied by a burst of spectral punches blasting off into the weak spot he had created.
The attacks were weaker than they would have been without the ring, but they still hurt, and splattered gore about the place as he opened a gnarly wound.
But the real fight-deciding attack had been his [ Soul Shattering Strike ], and now, the goanna didn’t want a piece of him. It had lost scales and was bloodied up from Aaron’s attack, but it looked in good enough shape to continue the fight, if not for its morale being crushed.
Normally, that wouldn’t have bothered Aaron, but it was fast. Really fast. If not for the ring, Aaron wouldn’t have just been able to keep up, but would have outpaced it. But he was determined to keep it on, even if it meant his kill getting away. Yendal had chosen the reward for him, and she didn’t do anything without a reason.
If she believed wearing this ring would be good for his development, then he was going to wear it. At least as long as he wasn’t fighting truly powerful enemies.
However, that proved annoying at that moment, as the goanna was creating more and more distance between them.
He was blasting [ Spectral Rush ] over and over again as he tried to keep pace with the fleeing beast. But the goanna also seemed to have a movement Skill that covered it in flames, and made it move incredibly fast.
But then just as he was starting to lose hope, something happened that he hadn’t expected. The goanna’s foot got snagged on something as it raced through the jungle.
The trap that had caught the goanna appeared to be a giant bear trap formed of energy, and it was anchoring the beast in place.
“You’re mine now!”
Stuck in place, it couldn’t do much. And Aaron’s strikes came fast and relentlessly, first destroying what was left of the lizard’s energy and defenses, and then beating the life out of it.
Bonus Experience rewarded for killing beasts of a higher level than yourself!
[ Empty-Handed Energy Monk ] has LEVELED UP!
46 → 48
He took a moment to enjoy the feeling of energy flowing through his body as he leveled up. He knew these insane gains weren’t going to last forever, but man, was he enjoying it in the meantime.
Wiping his hands, he also decided to spend his stored Stat points quickly. He decided to throw all his spare points into Agility. Agility provided explosiveness, and whilst it didn’t increase his power and damage output as much as Strength did, it helped. However, what it certainly did do better than Strength was to make him more agile and better at dodging.
He didn’t really need to improve this part of his game, but he wanted to get back to what had made him strong to begin with.
It was something that had been bothering him for a short while now. He felt like he was leaning a little too much into reckless strength and abundant energy, and his last Skill selection only confirmed this suspicion. This aspect of his technique was a part of him that was undeniable, and he had needed that power to be able to damage Mo’han, but it wasn’t his entire story. He needed to remind himself that the best way to survive an enemy attack was to avoid it altogether. His newfound weakness, brought on by Yendal’s ring, had given him a much-needed wake-up call.
While he had trained for a long time with Yendal on precise movements, dodging, and general efficiency, after the battle with the lizard, he realized that he needed more. In the trials, he had relied heavily on his ability to infinitely revive to hone his skills. It made him very strong against the opponents there, but there was still something he was lacking: experience. He had almost no experience in battles with real consequences. Every battle he ever fought against a powerful opponent, it was either in a situation where he would survive no matter what, or with the crow, where he already knew all its moves.
Now that he was in the real world, he could only revive as long as he had aether, and any opponent strong enough to kill him once could likely do it again. He didn’t have infinite do-overs. He couldn’t afford to recklessly charge in and figure out his opponents’ moves at the cost of his own life. He needed to settle down and get back to the basics.
He glanced over his status page briefly.
[ Name: Aaron Dober ]
[ Age: 23 ]
[ Race: Human [ Awoken ] ]
[ Grade: E ]
[ HP: 72300 ]
[ MP: 37700 ]
[ SP: 97800 ]
[ AP: 3000 ]
[ Class: Empty-Handed Energy Monk, lvl 48 ]
[ Profession: Ogre Gastronomist, lvl 46 ]
[ Stats ]
[ Strength: 656 (+403) ]
[ Vitality: 723 (+442) ]
[ Fortitude: 978 (+581) ]
[ Dexterity: 410 (+265) ]
[ Agility: 740 (+440) ]
[ Intelligence: 467 (+286) ]
[ Willpower: 377 (+253) ]
[ Charisma: 335 (+250) ]
[ Perception: 541 (+316) ]
[ Titles: Shadow Trials Trailblazer, Stamina Control Prodigy, Mana Control Prodigy, Vitality Control Prodigy, Holder of a True Blessing, In the Eyes of the Gods, Aether Wielder, World Overlord, Endurer, Dominator, Challenger, Shadow Trials Hall of Famer, Behemoth Slayer ]
[ Traits: Fate Weaver (Alpha), Major Blessing of Oozagh the Rotund, True Blessing of Yendal the Empty-Handed, Herald of a God, Death Cheat ]
[ Racial Skills: Inspect, Lingua Multiversa, World Map ]
[ Profession Passive Skills (3/3): Mass Produced Cooking!, Conductive Gut, Adipose Fusion ]
[ Profession Active Skills (6/6): Spirit Toes, Oozagh’s Breath, Foul Ichor, Unsightly Degustation, Perfect Measurements, Spirit Hands ]
[ Class Passive Skills (3/3): Reverse Cycle Faux Core, Equal and Opposite, Soul Vortex ]
[ Class Active Skills (6/6): Soul Shattering Strike, Spectral Projection, Gorgon’s Time Dilation, Turbocharged Haymaker, Spectral Rush, Spectral Bullet Punch ]
“Eh, this thing is quite the training aid, but it didn’t make it too hard,” Aaron murmured, glancing down at the ring as he panted above the corpse.
“Wow, you actually killed that thing,” Marko said, appearing through the trees nearby. “I mean, I knew you could do it. But.. still, it was a big one.”
“Oh, hey mate. The trap was that you?”
“My little trick worked, did it?”
“Trick?” Aaron raised a brow.
“I didn’t mention it. But my Class is Beast Trapper. In fact, most of my Class Skills are focused on traps. I actually only have a couple related to this bad boy,” he said, flailing the cleaver he used as a weapon.
“I see. Well, thanks, you did well. If not for your trap, this guy might have gotten away. And that would’ve been a pain.”
“No, don’t thank me. We’d die out here without you. I’m just trying to make myself useful,” Marko said, walking straight past Aaron and getting straight to work on the corpse.
“You’re doing plenty, mate. Don’t sell yourself short.”
He wasn’t lying or trying to make the guy feel good. He hadn’t expected any real help from these two when he decided to save them. He was doing it out of his own humanity. But it seemed he had underestimated them, assuming that because they didn’t stand a chance against the owlbear, they were essentially useless.
How wrong he was. Of course, even if the goanna had managed to eat him whole, Aaron was harder to kill than that. Still, it saved him from having to resurrect and use a bunch of energy. Whilst he had collected a lot of meat already, he didn’t have the endless stores of food from the Dining Hall and Crafting Station anymore, and so it was probably best that he didn’t waste energy unnecessarily. Not until he had a reliable source of food, at least.
And all of that was before even mentioning Marko’s help in trapping the escaping lizard. Sure, he could just take the ring off. But this way, he could have his cake and eat it too.
Zach can probably make me some cool stuff, too.
“All done. Meat and hide carefully separated,” Marko dusted off his hands and looked proud.
“Thanks,” Aaron said, and grabbed the neat piles of meat and hide and stuffed them into his scabbard. “Okay. We've got lots of land to cover. Let’s keep moving.”
“Umm, guys…” Zach shouted from a nearby treetop.
“What is it?” Aaron cupped his hands and called back.
“It looks like there’s a battle taking place up ahead. A big one.”
“A large battle?” Aaron's eyes glittered with excitement.
He had just been thinking about how he needed more practice, and a big battle sounded like the perfect place to start.
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