It slammed down onto the forest floor several meters away, reverberating through the earth far louder than one would expect for its size, and Aaron felt an odd wave of energy ripple through.

  It was the first time he had really experienced something like it, and his [ Soul Vortex ] was telling him that it was Earth Affinity energy.

  Hmph, interesting.

  The man-sized primate glared at him, barely even registering his party lined up behind him. Its white fur was woven through a hide that looked oddly similar to laminar armor, and huge claws jutting out from its fingers, looking more like daggers.

  Judging by its level alone, Aaron knew he had to take the fight seriously. Even if it was no Mo’han in terms of prowess and inherent Skill, it was not only a D grade, but it was more than 30 levels into D grade. 30 levels in D grade was the stat equivalent of 90 levels in E grade, and that wasn’t even counting evolution bonuses or the qualitative change that the stats took on when race went up a grade.

  This thing is stronger than Mo’han, Aaron realized. And I’m wearing a parasite ring.

  He was stronger than he had been when he fought Mo’han, but only by a few E-grade levels. Even if he removed the ring, he doubted he could win. He had lost against Mo’han the first time, after all, only winning after literally dying half a dozen times to figure out Mo’han’s abilities and finding a single small opening. This Simian Reaver was stronger and faster, and unlike in the Shadow Trials, Aaron didn’t have the luxury of true immortality to aid him.

  He activated Fate Weaver to try to get a read on the monster, but he wasn’t even given a second more to think, because at that moment, it flashed before him, appearing only inches away, and slashing out with its huge claws.

  In less than a second, Aaron was barely saved by a [ Spectral Rush ] that sent him incorporeal just in time to survive, and then flew him backward and out of range.

  However, his Skill put him out of position and placed several goblins between him and the primate, forcing him to shoot back into melee range without a plan.

  He wasn’t some superhero throwing himself in front of a train for strangers. He wasn’t going to dive on a bullet and sacrifice himself. But he knew that these little greenskins would be massacred in seconds if he didn’t intervene, and at least he had the means of surviving a losing battle.

  But it only took seconds for him to realize just how bad this battle really was. The simian's claws cut through the air stupidly fast, and within a couple of microclashes, Aaron had wounds up and down his body, leaking blood all over the place.

  Between the deadly slicing attacks, he had managed to land a few weak punches, but they barely fazed the irate reaver. And the moment he broke engagement, and created some distance between them to try and get his wits about him, the simian shot razor leaves that continued to cut his body up.

  Bouncing around and only just keeping himself alive with the thanks of fate reading, vines whipped out from the surrounding trees, and tried to tangle his legs whenever he stepped foot on the ground.

  It was attacking from all angles, and if he stopped moving for even a second, something was going to get him.

  The battle had only been going for seconds, and Aaron had spent most of it incorporeal, spamming [ Spectral Rush ] as he dashed around just to keep himself alive.

  His goblins and his human companions had barely registered what was happening, and within a few seconds of the furious melee, Aaron had his right arm sliced off by a vicious attack from the simian.

  But despite the gory wound it had inflicted, the simian actually paused for a second. It too could feel the massive influx of energy pouring into Aaron, and within a second or two, he was a different man. It hadn’t even been that long since he put the ring on, but he had leveled up multiple times since then and had never felt his body at 100% with this newfound power. It felt good.

  Drawing on some of his reserves, he funneled energy into his severed arm, and within moments, it had regenerated. But he was far from convinced of the outcome of this fight.

  This thing was no pushover. It was powerful. It was smart. And it was angry.

  “Everyone, get back already! Run for your fucking lives! I’ll meet you back at our temporary camp!”

  They didn’t need to be told twice. The goblins and his human companions turned and fled without another word. Perhaps a sneaky trap, or well placed arrow might have provided some assistance. Maybe Treg had something up his sleeve he wasn’t aware of, too. But Aaron knew there was no messing around in this fight.

  Just one mistake, and it would be all over. It would only take this enemy seconds to slaughter his companions, and he couldn’t be everywhere at once. And he wasn’t about to throw their lives away on the gamble that they might be able to provide a little help.

  The simian attacked again, but this time the reaver appeared behind him, and it seemed to be able to use the shadows of the giant trees as some kind of movement Skill, appearing around him in a blink.

  And once more, the battle turned into desperate chaos as the D-grade beast continued its relentless attack. As expected, even with the ring removed, this was no easy foe.

  Delving into Fate Weaver, he searched for an opportunity and engaged. But no matter how well he picked his battles, wounds were quickly mounting up across his body.

  But if he could drag the fight on for just a few more seconds, then he could help the others escape and then focus on himself. They clashed again, fists meeting fists, and punches were exchanged for wounds, but within the exchange, he landed a [ Soul Shattering Strike ], and not even the deadly simian could pretend like that was nothing.

  Its energy went wild, fluctuating, and a second later, the primate’s eyes glowed with hatred. This was new, and certainly not the fear he was used to inflicting on his enemies.

  But he had no time to muse on the outcome, as the reaver attacked furiously in that instant.

  But there was an even bigger problem than the rage he had induced in the beast. While he had damaged its energy, physically, it looked undamaged, while he was starting to look like a walking corpse. And the battle was becoming more and more one-sided as it continued, and it was starting to look like a hopeless fight.

  Another clash ended with several very deep wounds slicing Aaron up, and simian followed up with poisonous vines that shot out from around him, cocooning him in their venomous, leafy flesh.

  And seconds later, he was dead, overwhelmed by the toxins seeping into his broken and bloodied body. But unlike how he usually fought, he restrained the aether from rushing back into his lifeless body, holding his resurrection back, and took control of his spirit.

  For a few seconds, he just stood there as a spirit and watched the simian. It sniffed the air and looked in the direction his companions fled, but it didn’t follow, and then he noticed the scratch marks on the trees.

  He wasn’t entirely sure what the simian’s deal was. He figured that it must still go hunting for prey, as it was very strong, and it needed to kill to get stronger.

  But it also seemed unbothered by hunting his companions as long as they were outside of its marked territory.

  Perhaps they were too weak? Maybe this beast wasn’t dumb, and it understood the System like he did. Understanding that killing weaker foes would only weaken its own path and, therefore, its ascension. Especially when they were so much weaker than it. It was one thing to kill a slightly weaker foe from time to time, or even to slaughter a group of them, but making a habit of doing so would likely have consequences.

  But it also wasn’t in a rush to go anywhere, which was rather annoying. It just plotted around, scanning the surroundings, but then again, this was its territory.

  It was at that moment that Aaron wondered if it had gained experience for killing him, since he wasn’t technically dead yet. He needed to know exactly what enemies felt when they killed him, he realized, and would test this later when he was somewhere safe.

  But for now, he needed an escape. However, first he needed to recover his belongings, and used some of the tiny reserves of aether active in his spirit to activate [ Spirit Hands ], pick up the ring, and delicately slide it into this scabbard without alerting the simian.

  Next, he had to save himself. But wandering around as a spirit wasn’t the same as using [ Spectral Projection ]. He had very limited aether and no other energy sources. It was really just an in-between state when he died, and it weakened by the second, threatening true death the longer he prolonged resurrecting himself.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  But he also had to be smart. This thing was going to kill him again if he tried resurrecting within sight, and once it knew his trick, there was a good chance he wasn’t getting away.

  He either had to wait for the simian to wander off or distract it somehow. And waiting for it was leaving his future in the hands of destiny, and that simply wasn’t something he was willing to do, unless he could see his fate for himself.

  But as he mused on his options, several ideas came to him. And one in particular got him excited. If he could just distract the simian for a second, then maybe it would work.

  With his plan devised, he used the last dregs of aether to grab hold of some meat from his storage, cupping it in his spirit hands to hide it, and then moved as far away from his body as he could before flinging it into some bushes away from him.

  The trick wasn’t perfect, but it worked. The suspicious simian turned and looked in its direction. And for a moment, he thought that it wasn’t going to take the bait. But as it sniffed the air, it must have caught the scent of his meat, and couldn’t resist investigating.

  The moment it was far enough away and looking in the opposite direction, he revived and had to hold in the gasp of life pouring into his body. It was one of the longest times he had spent dead, and he could feel the otherworldly necrosis threatening his life.

  It was too close, and the feeling was ice cold and terror-inducing. But he couldn’t linger on that. He needed to act quickly. He wasn’t out of danger yet, and he immediately used his Cape of Shadows to hide in the shadows.

  It all happened in a second, but the simian wasn’t easily confused, and it turned straight back to where he was, sniffing and scanning the area.

  But it had neither seen him use the cape nor had it seen him previously use shadow abilities, and therefore, it hadn’t expected it. Not only that, but it hadn’t seen him resurrect, or had any reason to believe he might still be alive.

  However, his corpse was missing, which was no doubt suspicious. But if he had to guess, the simian seemed to think something else was around. And whatever it was, it had caused both the distraction and stolen his corpse.

  But although he was invisible in the shadows, he knew that his Skill wasn’t perfect. Yendal, for starters, could see straight through it, and this simian clearly had good senses and smell. It wasn’t a Perception-focused monster, or else it would have already noticed him, but it clearly didn’t treat Perception as a dump stat either, and sooner or later, Aaron would be found.

  He had to think quickly, and only one idea came to mind. He started to throw more food, picking the most pungent, stinky food he could find in his scabbard.

  Of course, he wasn’t just throwing it. Aaron used his [ Spirit Hand ] Skill to sneakily pick out the food without breaking from the shadows. It also allowed him to grab and conceal the food within the spirit hand, and drop and throw it from further away, not giving away his position.

  The simian was no fool, though. It didn’t just go running after every piece of food he threw, but that didn’t matter. All the pungent meats, foul herbs like rotweed, and disturbing dishes he chucked out filled the air with a rotten stench that twisted the simian's senses into overdrive. It resisted for a long moment, but it soon became too much. And after a few seconds, it bounced away to the treetops in search of fresh air, and Aaron didn’t waste a second fleeing.

  Flying through the forest, he barely spent a second in his corporeal state, blasting [ Spectral Rush ] repeatedly, with no concern for the energy drain it had.

  And soon, it seemed that he had done it. But escaping the powerful D-grade hadn’t been cheap. He had wasted a good portion of his stored meals, including some of his best. It was very bittersweet, but at least everyone had survived.

  He paused and took a moment to catch his breath, closing his eyes and thinking back on the battle. Then, he shuddered.

  I almost died, he realized.

  If not for a lucky combination of abilities and items, Aaron would be dead. And not Shadow Trials dead. Dead dead. All that time he spent pushing himself beyond his limits would have been wasted, barely a week after he got out.

  He replayed some of the scenes from the battle in his head. He saw the reaver’s terrifying claws carving up his body, trying their best to tear him to pieces. They were incredibly fast, and even with [ Equal and Opposite ], he wasn’t able to block them. They simply had too much force behind them. And yet…

  I should have done better, he thought. Yendal could have won.

  Despite its immense speed and power, unlike Mo’han, its attacks did not have residual energy that forced Aaron to waste resources when he didn’t even get directly hit. If he had just predicted and dodged its attacks better, he would not have wasted any energy at all. And with Fate Weaver, something like that was more than possible.

  He glanced back the way he had fled from, and for a moment, he was tempted to go back and test himself against it again. He had been caught off-guard before, and was not only fighting on the back foot, but was distracted by the thought of Zach, Marko, and the goblins escaping. If he went back there right now, now that he knew more about its abilities and what he needed to do to defeat it…

  He hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. No, it was still too risky. Even if he was calmer, it was still too fast and strong for him at the current moment. He would just die again, this time permanently. He needed to work hard and train before challenging it again. And now that he had that experience, he understood why Yendal had given him the ring. Against an opponent that so thoroughly outclassed him in terms of stats like that, he would never be able to make up the gap with more energy unless he matched its level. If he wanted to beat it as he was, he needed raw skill. And there was no better way to train than with the parasite ring inhibiting the crutch that his energy reserves had become.

  That was not to say that he would abandon that part of his style, but it was now more clear than ever that he had been relying on it too much. Yendal was right. While Oozagh was powerful, she was the Martial God, not him. He could use Oozagh’s tactics to enhance his energy, but her style of supreme efficiency and perfected basic skill had to remain at his core.

  I’ll come back for you later, you bastard, he thought, looking in the reaver’s direction.

  Then, he turned away and returned to the others.

  “You made it back!” Marko cheered as Aaron appeared through the trees and raised his arms as if he wanted to give him a big bear hug, but caught himself and stopped short.

  “Yeah, only just, though,” said Aaron. “That was too close.”

  “Damn, we really are doomed, aren’t we? We’re all gonna die here,” Treg bemoaned, shaking his head and falling into despair.

  “We’re not gonna die here. Stop being so damn dramatic. We’re just going to have to change our plans,” Aaron huffed.

  Treg looked up, but he didn’t appear convinced.

  “You got another plan? What are you thinking?” Marko asked.

  “There’s no way we can take the simian. Or the wendigo, for that matter. We could try backtracking and circling way around, but honestly, I don’t think that will work. It will be a long detour, and there’s no guarantee that there won’t be more D grades. I think that our best option is to go through the wolves.”

  The others were silent for a moment, which was broken by Zach dropping down from the trees. Catching Aaron’s gaze, he spoke up.

  “Mate, I know you’re strong and all, but that’s a D grade with a pack of monsters higher level than all of us. I don’t think that’s any better than trying the other two ways.”

  “No, it is,” said Aaron, shaking his head. “I’ve been thinking. That wolf might be a D grade, but it also looks like a Leader type. That means it should have weaker combat ability.”

  “And wouldn’t that mean it makes all the others stronger?” said Marko. “It doesn’t matter if it’s weaker if it can turn all the other wolves stronger.”

  “It does, though,” said Aaron. “Because I can kill it. I’ve killed D grades before, and I’m stronger now than I was then. This one is a leader type, too. The only problem is that I need you guys to keep the other wolves off my back until I do. If we do that, then we should be able to route the others no problem.”

  Marko and Zach shared a glance, then shook their heads.

  “Sorry, mate,” said Zach. “I know you’re confident and all, and I know you want to get to your friend, but I’m not going to risk my life like this.”

  “I need to find my parents, and I can’t do that if I’m dead,” said Marko. “I want to get to your friend’s settlement as much as you do, but I’m no fighter. I’d rather take the longer, safer route if we can.”

  “I have people to take care of,” said Treg. “I’m not going to sacrifice my people on a gamble.”

  Aaron opened his mouth to continue to plead his case, but then stopped himself. He wasn’t in the Shadow Trials anymore. These people weren’t the ones who were willing to push themselves to the point of near death to get stronger. These were ordinary people thrust into a dangerous situation, and they just wanted to survive. If they were the type to take these kinds of risks, they wouldn’t be at such a low level.

  “You’re right,” Aaron sighed. “Sorry. I was thinking too selfishly. Let’s back up and go around. That’s my bad.”

  As he said those words, the others seemed to release a lot of tension from their bodies. They were probably worried that Aaron would insist. Even if they weren’t keen on trying it, they also couldn’t afford to lose their strongest warrior in such a dangerous place.

  “Thanks, mate,” said Zach.

  “Nah, I wasn’t thinking clearly,” said Aaron. “I’m used to rushing into things. Thanks for talking some sense into me.”

  “No worries.”

  “Alright, Treg, tell your people to get ready to move. We’re backing up.”

  The goblin nodded and turned to the rest of his people, and soon, the group was on the move again. They barely spoke as they moved back through the jungle, occasionally scouting ahead and around to the sides to see if they could find a viable route around the D-grades.

  Soon, however, the goblin druid returned from their own scouting with a concerning report. In the direction they had come from, something was killing monsters, creatures and plants alike on a massive scale. A chill ran down Aaron’s spine as he wondered what kind of creature could possibly be doing something like that.

  He had recovered enough by then that he was able to use his own scouting Skill and soon sent his spirit forward to see for himself what was happening. At first, he found nothing and wondered if the druid was somehow lying to them, but after traveling more than a dozen kilometers, he finally found something: an ant.

  Formic Drone [ Level 36 ]

  It was about the size of a dog, and while it didn’t look very threatening, especially considering its low level and lack of Titles, Aaron knew that ants never came alone. With a stony face, he watched as it walked around, antennae twitching until it stopped, bending down to smell something. Aaron flew closer to see what had interested it, and his face fell.

  It was an empty fire pit. One of their empty fire pits. The ant was tracking them.

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