Trying to force energy and everything that came with it from one Skill into another was an extraordinarily crude method of using Skills and hardly provided a desired outcome. Especially not to Aaron in his current form. But that wasn’t his intent. And against the relatively mediocre bat minions, he didn’t really need to go all out and had plenty of energy to spare. Which was great, because with all that excess energy, he could comfortably go overboard for the sake of training.

  What’s more, his ring was soaking up much of the energy output he was exuding, and having extra to feed was helpful, but also insightful. Although there was a strange vibration to the energy that was being sucked up by the ring.

  However, there was a more pressing realization that struck him as he funneled energy from one Skill to another. It was changing. The very makeup of the energy changed when it was converted into a Skill, which made it unsuitable to then try to push it into another Skill.

  In other words, his [ Soul Vortex ] Skill required either mana or aether. But what he was trying to use was time mana? Well, at least that was what he was mentally calling it.

  It was mana that had turned into something different when used to power [ Gorgon’s Time Dilation ], and as such, it had developed different attributes from regular mana.

  This had led him to another realization. He was at the tip of the iceberg when it came to understanding the energy of the multiverse. And while energy or mana that had formed into a Skill wasn’t quite the same as a unique energy source, it was its own thing. And he believed understanding that would help him pursue better control over it.

  Within minutes of his deadly dance against several disabled bats, his mind was both in the battle and musing on his revelations, and he started to gain a more sensitive feel for energy.

  Spinning through the air like some kind of Kung Fu practitioner, he dodged several attacks at once and returned with his own perfectly placed, but not overly powerful strikes.

  Aaron was no longer a pushover against beasts like this. He didn’t need to throw everything into an attack, and palms, kicks, and punches could send them flying backward like henchmen in a Jet Li film.

  In truth, he was toying with them. He could end the fight quickly, if it pleased him to do so. But this was a good opportunity. He could feel the aura and the energy of the beast lord below, and it wasn’t moving.

  If the boss wasn’t going to attack, then he would take all the time he wanted to sharpen his Skills. After all, he had bigger, looming threats to deal with, and if he continued to put his training off, he’d never be ready for them.

  He also realized that this was yet another area of his technique that he had ignored. Developing sensitive be control of energy forms had been what got him to where he was. Without that, he’d never have achieved as much as he did in the trials. But as his reserves had grown and his methods of recovery multiplied, he had left this area of his personal development to go untrained. But it wasn’t entirely laziness. He hadn’t realized that there was more to learn.

  However, he was starting to truly understand that there was always more to learn in the multiverse.

  And as he drew on his reserves mid-fight, using the chaos of battle, and the way it honed his senses, a deeper understanding of energy and how it was manipulated started to take root within him.

  He could feel it growing stronger. He could feel the energy following through him, and he could feel as the ring gripped hold of it with an entirely different type of energy, and drew it into its grasp.

  And as energy was consumed by the ring, a faint pulsing could be felt from it, emanating from deep within. There was something truly different about it, and Aaron had a feeling that he wouldn’t discover such a thing until he understood how exactly energy was converted and twisted into different things at a deeper level.

  However, what he did understand was that the ring was quite something to overcome, especially while under attack by multiple enemies. And it was made harder still when they began to hit him with their sonic abilities.

  Every chance they got, they fired disruptive waves of sonic energy that crashed into him, not so unlike his own attacks, rippling through and aiming to disrupt his energy.

  It wasn’t just his energy that was under attack, though. The sonic waves staggered him, put him off balance, and even made him feel a little sick in the stomach.

  The problem for the bats was that they needed far greater numbers to overcome Aaron’s superior skill. A viscous smile came across his face as he realized how much harder the sonic attacks made him work.

  Pure terror warped the faces of the bats as they realized what was going on. The mad human before them was enjoying this. He was enjoying that their debuffing Skills was making him work harder than ever to overcome them.

  “Baha!” Aaron laughed as he smacked one of them away and then threw himself at two others. “I haven’t had a brawl like this in a while!”

  The bats looked at each other, concerned, but there was no break in the battle, and they had no choice but to do whatever they could to survive the madness that was Aaron Dober.

  Aaron, on the other hand, was grinning from ear to ear. This fight was as perfect as they came. The simian reaver had been too strong, and every other fight hadn’t been quite challenging enough to really drag new breakthroughs out of him. The beaver and Zero had been close, but he had dispatched of them a little too quickly; perhaps that was more his fault than theirs.

  The only thing that would have made it better would have been if his life were truly in danger. But sometimes one had to slow things down a little to truly get a better feel for what they were doing and what needed improvement.

  His senses heightened as his mana followed from one Skill to the next, and he paid close attention to how it changed and mutated. This was the key to Skill merging, he realized. As the mana then transformed into a Skill, it changed, and understanding this new, altered form was the key to controlling it better.

  This wasn’t just about Skill merging, though. Aaron realized that if he better understood how energy changed when funneled into a Skill, he would likely be able to control Skills better as well.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  But even though he was toying with his enemies, they could only handle so many strikes, and they were collapsing around him with each exchange. And he wasn’t the only one. Even without taking a look, he could sense that his companions were close to ending the rest of the group.

  This battle had been a good bit of training for not just him, but also the others.

  His attention temporarily shifted to the aura beneath them. It was a little troubling that it hadn’t moved. There hadn’t been that many bats down there, and there had to be a reason it wasn’t surfacing to save its companions.

  Not that it mattered too much. Because of his training, he had kept [ Soul Vortex ] running at all times, and as such, was tracking his surroundings in detail, and was easily able to keep an eye on the aura.

  That said, the battle hadn’t been without cost. Training himself against the bats had been energy exhausting, and had long whittled down his adipose reserves to nothing, even forcing him to eat while fighting the relatively weak enemies.

  Part of the reason it had used so much energy was that he had also kept [ Gorgon’s Time Dilation ] running the entire time. And that had come with its own benefits. Slowing down his perception of time had given him the ability to really focus on what he was doing and examine the inefficiencies in his techniques.

  This wasn’t what he had been aiming to achieve when trying to merge his Skills. All he really wanted to do was to free up some space to purchase new Skills, and hopefully make a better Skill in the process. And that kind of made him feel a little bit like an idiot, because what he had discovered was perhaps even more useful.

  It was all too obvious. Slowing time was the perfect method to tweak the finer aspects of his style, and he was annoyed that he hadn’t thought of it sooner. And he made a mental note to practice it further once his training cube had finished construction.

  His fist landed hard against a bat as he was mid thought, crushing the beast’s larynx, and it crumbled to the ground before him.

  He had once again entered into a bit of a trance and blinked as he realized that he was surrounded by corpses.

  In the end, he had killed eight of the beasts, and they well and truly outleveled him, resulting in a good bit of experience.

  Bonus Experience rewarded for killing a creature of a higher level than yourself!

  [ Empty-Handed Energy Monk ] has LEVELED UP!

  65 → 68

  He was a little surprised that he hadn’t hit level 70, considering how many high E-grade beasts he had just killed. There must have been a considerable boost in experience when defeating D-grades, at least from the E-grade.

  Then again, he was approaching high E-grade fast, and grinding experience was no doubt getting harder. And he could see why weaker people would start to struggle at these levels. Anyone who hadn’t taken advantage of the Tutorial’s bonus experience and generous Quests now had to level up the hard way, and even Aaron—as powerful as he was—wasn’t given a free pass.

  He looked over as he surveyed the battlefield, and Talia was watching as the last of their people defeated the stragglers. It seemed she, too, understood the importance of not fighting everyone’s battles for them. The fight was won, and they might as well earn some experience.

  But Aaron’s thoughts quickly trailed away as he thumbed his ring again. His thoughts had returned to the odd energy he had sensed within it, which now felt like it was completely hidden. It was so subtle that it was very easy to miss, but when it was consuming energy, there was something awakening within it. There was definitely a missing piece to this puzzle, he didn’t understand. But he doubted any answers would come now. But if he further improved his understanding of how energy is converted into different forms, he believed that he could piece it together.

  He barely even realized when the last of their enemies fell, and Talia flew over to him.

  “That could have been worse,” Talia said, dusting herself off.

  “Right,” Aaron agreed, sounding distant and lost in thought. “Strange, though. There weren't that many of the beasts below. Why hasn’t their leader shown themself?”

  “You actually worried?”

  Aaron wasn’t actually sure if he was or wasn’t worried. More curious.

  “A little. But we don’t have time to sit around.”

  He thought about his response as he gave it. He did feel a little worried, but it was more aimed toward the ants, rather than the beast lord beneath them. So while taking an opportunity to train without diverting from their mission had been a great opportunity, anything that slowed them down weighed on him. And that worry seemed to be shining through.

  And this was one of those times. Unless there were gains to be had, they needed to keep pushing. Because that was exactly what the ants were doing.

  “The aura is disconcerting, but we can’t sit around,” he said. “I’ll lead us down there. There shouldn’t be many left. Hell, it might only be the beast lord herself left. And if we can’t beat her, then what chance do we have against the ants?”

  “Point taken,” Talia nodded. “Round up, everyone! We’re heading below!”

  “But Talia, hang back with the group. That way, if we’re walking into a trap, I’ll be the only one who gets themself killed,” Aaron smiled.

  “Sounds good to me.”

  But before heading to work and descending the caverns below, Aaron made sure to throw the corpses into his scabbard. No one else seemed to care, although that might have just been out of a feeling of debt toward Aaron. Nonetheless, he wanted the meat. Also, perhaps Marko could do something with the hides. He also made sure to have a good feed before they got moving, much to the concern of everyone else.

  Clearing the rubble from the cave entrance didn’t take long with twenty-plus superpowered individuals, and soon they were descending down into the caverns once more.

  But they didn’t get as far as Aaron had in his spirit form. For when they reached the massive chamber where all the prisoners were held, Aaron came face to face with Countess Lorella, her bat wings stretched wide.

  “So you’re the owner of that delicious blood I smelled?” She licked her lips with an eerily long tongue and sniffed.

  Aaron noted her human-like features again, and now, face-to-face, he realized her eyes were completely gray and appeared empty of sight.

  “Me? Must be,” he said, limbering up. “And you’re the beast lord, right?”

  “Beast lord?” Lorella tilted her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  It seemed that the System took liberties in the naming conventions it used for its quests.

  “Answer me this,” Aaron said, voice cold and stony. “What did you do to these people?”

  “Oh, them,” Lorella gestured around. “You’ll see. I must say, though, before we do this. It was quite the little trick you pulled against my poor little bats. But down here, I am the Countess, and you’ll find I don’t go down as easily as they did.”

  Her bright red lips smiled wide, and she began to laugh hysterically. Then, ribbons of red energy shot out from all around, and Aaron could sense through [ Soul Vortex ] that the very essence of the humans around them was sucked from their bodies and drawn into Lorella, leaving their bodies to fall to the ground limply.

  And just like that, hundreds were dead.

  Even for Aaron, it was disturbing to witness, and he felt a pang of guilt hit him. What if he had tried to rescue those people instead of following through with the plan that they had made? Could he have saved them?

  Probably not, he realized.

  What she had just done was casual. Easy. She could have done it at any time, and she waited until he was standing in front of her. Even if he rushed straight there, she would have just done the same thing.

  Regardless, this wasn’t the time nor place to get caught up in guilt. He had a beast lord to slay.

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