Chapter 49: Three Strikes
Tyler looked at the mana surrounding him. The space was alive with different colored particles, drifting effortlessly through the air like microscopic fireflies.
"There is so much of it," he murmured. "I never imagined it would look like this."
He blinked and turned around. The moment he faced his own trail, his breath hitched. The space behind him swarmed with pitch-black particles. Some vibrated violently in place, while others drifted aimlessly like lost flies. The dark matter clung rigidly to the tree bark, the leaves, and the forest floor. He stared down at his own open palms. The dark particles coated his skin, drawing themselves to him like iron dust to a magnet.
"What the—" he muttered, dragging his thumb forcefully across his palm to wipe it away. He blinked hard. The skill deactivated instantly. The dark particles vanished from sight.
His breathing turned ragged. *What the hell was that? Dark mana?*
He stared at his empty hand. He released a long exhale, squeezing his eyes shut. When he opened them again, the skill flared back to life. The dark mana returned, thickly clinging to his skin. His eyes widened, but as his focus shifted, a bizarre sight materialized beneath his skin. Faint, transparent pathways illuminated throughout his entire arm, pulsing with a glowing, heavy gray liquid. He stumbled a step backward.
"Whoa," he breathed out.
He stared down at his own abdomen. The glowing transparent veins webbed across his core, completely drawing toward the center of his chest. Resting right above his heart was a massive, swirling vortex. Thousands of tightly woven, glowing gray pathways twisted together infinitely slowly, rotating like the eye of a heavy storm. He blinked. The skill deactivated. The normal world returned. He exhaled slowly.
"Those must have been my mana pathways," he whispered to the empty forest. "They really do stretch all over my body, but at the center..." He pressed his hand flat against his chest.
*It's just as I imagined. It's like some kind of channeling energy. But I didn't expect the color to be gray.* He lowered his hand, a deep frown settling on his face. *But the dark mana... there's so much of it here. I had it too, inside of me. But I didn't see it in my veins. There was no dark color at all. Did the system really extract it?*
He looked forward through the deep brush. *It doesn't make any sense. Anyways, I need to find more monsters. So I can get to D-Rank.*
He continued his march forward. The silver spear in his grip vanished, instantly replaced by the heavy weight of his short iron sword. He stepped up to a nearby tree and swung the heavy blade, carving two deep gouges into the bark to mark his path. Walking a small distance further, his eyes scanned the shadows.
*Something's off. It felt like I was getting attacked by a monster every five minutes in the monster zones. Yet I haven't been attacked yet.*
He stepped up to the next trunk and swung the sword. The iron edge struck the thick, rough wood. The metal snapped violently. The upper half of the blade spun away, striking the forest floor.
"Damn it," he muttered, staring at the useless, jagged hilt in his hand. He tossed the broken hilt onto the dirt and sighed, resting both hands heavily on his waist. He tilted his head back, staring up the immense height of the towering tree.
"I'll use the tree to see where I am."
He launched himself upward, his fingers locking onto the thick wood of a low branch. He pulled his body weight up, found his footing, and reached for the next hold. Scaling the towering tree, he finally broke through the dense canopy. From his high vantage point, he scanned the far distance. Through the leaves, he spotted three Hexhorns grazing. To his far left, a cluster of slimes hopped across the ground in unison, though the dense branches heavily obscured the forest floor beneath them.
Curiosity taking over, he shut his eyes and activated his skill. When his eyelids parted, the faint blue glow returned. The air lit up with drifting mana particles. His eyes widened as he stared down at the distant forest. Columns of dense dark mana rose up from the forest floor, stretching high into the air like small tornadoes scattered across the landscape. The pillars held entirely static, vibrating rapidly in place.
"What's happening?" He turned around, spotting more of the dark columns rising behind him, though they were widely scattered. He counted them from his perch. *There are about seven of these things. Are these their territories?*
A heavy curiosity tugged at him, but deep within his gut, a primal instinct screamed at him to stay entirely away from those twisting black pillars.
*There's so much dark mana there. Why is it doing that?*
He blinked once more, deactivating the skill. Stripped of the glowing visual noise of the mana, he could make out the faint shape of the base far in the distance. He redirected his gaze back toward the location of the Hexhorns.
*I'm pretty sure if I hunt some of them, I'll definitely reach D-Rank.*
He quickly descended the tree, dropping the final few feet to land heavily on the ground. "I should definitely avoid those places." He adjusted his footing, setting a direct path toward where he had spotted the Hexhorns.
[LEVEL 22 BROLIN ACTIVATED SKILL: BOUNCE]
*Brolin?* he thought, thoroughly confused. His head snapped left, then right. The silver spear shimmered instantly into his grip. His muscles coiled tight. *Where is it?* he thought, his eyes darting through the brush. *Didn't it activate its skill? It's not attacking.*
A sudden, heavy rush of displaced air erupted from his left. A smooth, brown-golden sphere tore through the air, aimed directly for his shoulder.
Tyler threw his body backward. The heavy sphere grazed the very edge of his armor, missing flesh by an absolute inch. His boots hit the dirt just as the sphere violently slammed into the thick trunk of a tree. The golden surface compressed sharply inward like thick rubber, before violently snapping back to its original shape. The kinetic recoil launched it off the wood with double the velocity. Tyler's breath hitched in pure surprise.
Before his muscles could even twitch to dodge, the sphere struck him dead center in the abdomen. The impact hit with the crushing force of a solid steel cannonball, instantly knocking every ounce of air from his lungs. In the split second of contact, stubby little legs, resembling a turtle's, sprouted from the smooth sides of the sphere and violently kicked off his stomach. Mid-air, the sphere fractured and shifted shape. The creature landed heavily on the dirt as Tyler slid backward, his boots carving deep trenches into the earth until he finally dragged to a halt.
He clutched his screaming abdomen, his eyes watering. *What the hell is this thing?* He glared at the creature. It was incredibly small, hunched heavily over like a standing turtle. Thick golden plates completely covered its back, shoulders, and the backs of its stubby legs. A massively wide, horizontal mouth stretched across its face, with small, beady yellow eyes sitting directly atop the upper lip. The front of its body lacked any armor. Its exposed, brownish-pink belly looked soft and entirely vulnerable.
*Its level is so low, its attack is so powerful.*
The leather cuirass strapped across Tyler's chest suddenly shimmered with a faint blue light. The thick material instantly disintegrated, erupting into a cloud of blue dust, leaving his torso completely unprotected.
"Huh?" he gasped, staring at the empty space.
A red system panel flashed directly into his vision:[THE USER'S ARMOR HAS SUFFERED TOO MUCH DAMAGE].
The small monster abruptly launched itself inches off the dirt. Its limbs pulled inward, compressing back into the golden-brown sphere, and it shot directly toward Tyler. He reacted on pure instinct. Planting his feet, he drove his bare fist forward with immense force.
His knuckles struck the hard sphere, shoving the creature violently backward. It slammed against another tree and ricocheted back with terrifying speed.
*What the hell? It's almost like it's made out of rubber.*
His eyes narrowed to slits as a plan formed instantly in his mind. He planted his back foot and shoved his spear straight forward into the creature's path. The heavy silver spearhead collided directly with the incoming metal plates. The sheer force of the impact cracked the golden armor, driving the silver tip deep into the soft, unprotected flesh beneath.
Thick brown blood spilled rapidly down the silver shaft. The creature instantly shifted out of its spherical form, its stubby hands and feet sprouting out in panic. It unleashed a piercing shriek, convulsed violently against the blade, and then went completely dead, hanging limply from the weapon.
Tyler gripped the spear shaft tight, using the weight of the creature to swing his arms sideways, launching the dead weight violently against the ground to free his blade.
"What a weird creature," he muttered, walking closer to the bleeding corpse.
"Can I extract anything out of this thing?" he asked, staring down at the broken plates.
A panel materialized over the body: [BROLIN BLOOD CAN BE USED AS AN ALCHEMY INGREDIENT].
"Its blood?" he muttered. *Wait, since this thing makes potions, does that mean I'll actually have to drink it?* He swallowed hard, his stomach instantly turning at the thought. *Where do I keep the blood? I guess I can make a few more vials.*
"System, craft three vials."
[CRAFTING...]
The loading bar filled instantly. "Extract," he muttered.
The broken Brolin shimmered with a faint blue light, which immediately dimmed away. Tyler's eyes narrowed. "It's like nothing happened." He opened his hand, and a glass vial appeared, completely filled to the brim with thick, viscous brown liquid.
"Oh... It only extracted the blood. I thought these metal-looking things would get extracted too."
The golden plates covering the dead Brolin suddenly began to superheat. The hard armor melted rapidly into a pooling, golden-brown liquid, forcing Tyler to take a step back in surprise. A second later, the flesh and the melted fluid violently erupted into blue dust, scattering completely into the wind.
*It appears I don't need it,* he thought, adjusting his grip on his spear. "Now to get to those Hexhorns."
He adjusted his path, moving back in the direction he remembered spotting the herd. As he pushed through the brush, bright peach-colored petals stood out sharply against the deep green undergrowth in the distance. He smiled, his stride quickening. *Vital flowers,* he thought. A tight cluster of eleven blooms grew huddled together in the dirt.
"Extract," he commanded. The delicate petals flared a faint blue and completely vanished from the earth, transporting seamlessly into his inventory.
*Great, I can make a lot of potions with these. I wonder if the potions can affect other people.* He slowed his pace, the muscles in his legs tensing as he knew he was finally closing the distance.
Tyler straightened his posture, his eyebrows rising. Before him lay nothing but empty brush and undisturbed greenery.
*They're gone?* A long, disappointed sigh escaped his lips. "Great. How the hell am I going to find them? Maybe I should just get back."
He pivoted on his heel and took a heavy step away. Mid-stride, he paused, resting both hands securely on his waist. *The skill I just got lets me see all mana, right? Maybe I could use it to find them.*
He blinked hard. A faint blue glow instantly illuminated his eyes. He turned back toward the clearing, his eyes widening in pure surprise.
"This place is filled with dark mana," he whispered. His pupils darted rapidly, scanning the dense, vibrating clouds of black particles clinging heavily to the environment. *The system said I can see the mana of monsters. Maybe I can use this to find them.*
He shifted his gaze to the right, peering through the thick veil of darkness covering the forest. Behind a heavy row of trees, three distinctly brown, swirling vortexes of energy pulsed, weaving through the static black particles. The solid wood of the tree trunks offered no visual barrier; the glowing mana rendered the physical obstacles transparent, allowing him to clearly track the distinct shapes of the energy cores hiding within.
*I can actually see them.*
The cool metal of his silver spear materialized directly into his grip. *I can definitely use this to my advantage. Those creatures are behind those bushes and trees. If I throw my spear from here, the obstacles might reduce its attack power.*
His eyes narrowed to sharp slits. *It's time to see what that skill can do.*
[SEVEN-STRIKE SKILL ACTIVATED]
A sudden, intense heat flooded his veins. The muscle fibers across his shoulders, arms, and core instantly compacted, growing completely dense and iron-hard. The heavy metal of the spear suddenly felt completely weightless in his hands. His fingers clamped down hard around the shaft. Keeping his glowing blue eyes locked directly onto the distant brown vortex, he pulled his arm back and launched the weapon with every ounce of his newly refined strength.
The silver spear tore through the air with terrifying velocity. It impacted the thick trunk of the obstructing tree, violently shattering the solid wood into a shower of sharp splinters. Unhindered, the spear erupted from the heavy bushes and sank deeply into the exposed side of the grazing Hexhorn.
The sharp silver blade pierced straight through the beast, erupting from the opposite ribs to plunge deep into the earth. The heavy shaft pinned the creature tightly to the ground. It unleashed a guttural shriek of agony, its entire body convulsing violently against the cold metal.
"I hit it," Tyler muttered.
He immediately sprinted forward. As he rushed past the shattered tree trunk, the remaining wood groaned under its own weight and completely snapped in two, crashing heavily onto the forest floor. He burst into the clearing. The Level 23 Hexhorn lay dead, still pinned tightly to the dirt.
Two more beasts, a Level 26 and a Level 27, whipped their horned heads toward him. Their hooves tore the earth as they instantly charged directly in his direction. His eyes narrowed.
The silver spear dissolved from the pinned corpse and instantly rematerialized into his open hands. He planted his boots, twisted his torso, and thrust his arms forward. The spearhead plunged directly into the eye of the charging Level 27 Hexhorn. He ripped the blade free in a thick spray of blood and immediately pushed off his back foot, launching his body sideways. The beast's heavy, momentum-fueled charge missed him by an absolute inch.
The Level 26 skidded to a frantic halt, its hooves digging deep trenches in the soil as it tried to pivot toward him. Tyler was already in violent motion. Before the beast could fully turn its horns, the silver blade was already inches away. The spear sheared deep into the thick muscle of the Hexhorn's neck. It shrieked in absolute pain as the metal severed its throat.
[LEVEL UP!]
His skin erupted in a blinding green glow. A rush of pure vitality surged through his veins, entirely replenishing his exhausted muscles and perfectly refilling his depleted mana pool. He released a long, steady exhale. The green light flared, intensifying drastically before a massive system panel materialized in his vision.
[CONGRATULATIONS, USER HAS REACHED D RANK. ALL STATS INCREASED BY 30 POINTS.]
"Thirty points," he breathed out.
[NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: PRIMAL SUBJUGATION.]
"A skill?"
The intense green aura vanished completely. "Wow," he whispered. He clenched his hands into tight fists, then slowly stretched his fingers out. "I can feel it. I certainly grew stronger. With all these stats increasing rapidly, it makes me think. What level are my stats exactly? Surely they're not on par with my level."
He shifted his gaze to the system bar displaying his new skill. The glowing text suddenly expanded outward, flooding the panel with a detailed description.
[PRIMAL SUBJUGATION IS A ONE-USE SKILL THAT ALLOWS THE USER TO TURN ANY MONSTER THAT IS MORE THAN 10 LEVELS BELOW THEM INTO A PET. THE MONSTER WILL BE BOUND TO THE USER UNTIL IT DIES.]
"Wait... I can have a pet?"