The Protagonist Already Knows

Feeling the veins in my arm sting with pain, I cast another death-mana sphere and instantly imploded it below me, feeling a shockwave of mana tear at my body.

As cuts appeared all over my feet and legs, I felt myself pushed up into the water and desperately reached my hands up, grabbing the edge of the lilypad right above me.

Hauling myself up, I felt a stinging pain surge through my legs as countless sharp teeth embedded themselves in my skin, drawing blood.

Pulling myself up out of the water and onto the lilypad, I desperately jabbed my Dao at the few fish still stuck on my leg and threw them back into the water.

I don’t even know when it had happened, but a golden line shone beneath my torn shirt, connecting the orb in my stomach to my right palm.

My entire body drenched, my legs slowly growing numb, and head spinning with my pain, I barely managed to stand up and keep paddling.

Panting desperately as blood poured out of the countless wounds on my legs, I glanced backward, seeing the serpent still towering over me, another green orb forming in its mouth.

However, as I looked forward...I saw it: the small circle of lilypads around a piece of floating grass in the distance.

I just needed...one last push.

As the jade-green sphere surged toward me, I suddenly felt the intent within my palm waver for a moment, defying my own goal of pushing the lilypad forward.

It was as if...it was telling me to do something else.

"Cut the sphere."

For the first time...the golden-silk line extended itself, entering into the hilt of my Dao and stretching all the way up to the tip of the blade.

Gazing at my sword, which now had a golden piece of silk shining within it, I slowly raised it and pointed it at the approaching plant-mana sphere.

The clean golden line, now connecting my stomach to the tip of my Dao’s blade, shone even brighter as the sphere met my sword.

For a moment, time seemed to pause as the sphere halted mid-air with the tip of my Dao submerged in it.

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

Three loud bangs exploded throughout my head, as my vision turned pitch-black, my entire body surging with pain.

It felt as if...vines had surged upward from the ground and wrapped around part of my body, stabbing me deeper and deeper while holding me still.

But...then, one by one, the vines slowly snapped in half, as if cleanly cut by a sword, before limply falling to the ground.

I instinctively understood that each time a vine was cut...a part of the plant-mana sphere colliding with me fell apart.

A Dao flew through the air around my body, cutting and cutting...until finally, the last vine had been cut.

My sword had cut a mana sphere.

My eyes suddenly snapped open, and ignoring the bloody-red scars all over my body, I immediately glanced backward.

I was close enough.

"BAHHHHHHHHH!"

As the bestial scream sounded behind me, the serpent diving into the water once again, I leaped forward onto one of the lilypads in the circle.

All I had to do was touch every lilypad in a short period of time.

Sprinting forward, I leaped from lilypad to lilypad counter-clockwise around the circle.

In the distance, a small tornado of algae, the serpent in the middle of it, began to slowly grow and grow, approaching the lilypad circle.

Feeling the suction force of the twister pulling me away, I gritted my teeth and dived forward, landing on the last pad.

At that moment, on the patch of floating grass, a small golden chest suddenly appeared, spewing out two items.

Without any hesitation, I grabbed the edge of the floating grass patch and slowly pulled myself onto it, the twister simultaneously pulling me the other way.

As my grip on the grass weakened, I stretched out my right hand as far as I could and grabbed the two stones.

[Return Stone]

[{S} Sword Technique Manual]

As the two holographic screens appeared before me, I didn’t hesitate to smash the return stone against the ground, watching it crumble before me.

Then...in the next moment, everything went dark.

Opening my eyes, I found my drenched body lying on the cave floor, the familiar sound of water crashing against rocks echoing below me.

Taking deep breaths in and out, I also cracked open the technique manual stone and immediately checked my status menu.

===Status Menu===

[User: Ash Fell]

--> Rank: F+ [Breakthrough]

--> Strength: F

--> Stamina: F

--> Intelligence: F

--> Speed: E-

--> Mana Pool: F-

--> Luck: G

[Gift: Death’s Ledger] / [Rank: EX] / [Element: Death]

--> [Your eyes may...]

---> [Souls Reaped: 1]

--> [Gifted Ability: Anubis’s Ferry]: [Turn Intangible for a short period of time.]

[Skills]

--> [N/A]

[Technique Manuals]

-> {S} [Dance of Ten Thousand Streams]

Rooted in ancient Taoist philosophy, this art transforms combat into a flowing dance, where every step evades danger and turns defense into seamless counterattack. With movements as fluid and unpredictable as water, the user seems untouchable.

"..."

It was done.

I had gotten it.

Finally allowing my body to collapse on the ground, I gazed at the evening sky through the waterfall and calmed my rapid breathing.

Not only that, but my base stat total was finally high enough for me to attempt to break through to E-.

Blood leaked out of my wounds and painted the cave floor a crimson-red, but I was too happy to focus on the pain.

...

...

...

After letting my body dry off for a bit, the bloody scars on my body slowly healing, I stood up and approached the edge of the cave.

The first move of the Sword Technique Manual naturally appeared in my head.

It was a small set of specific footstep movements that, when used with intent, could cause you to vanish from an opponent’s line of sight for a split second.

I had to perform a small dance with perfect accuracy to execute it.