Chapter 9: Done Gauging Out
I looked at the monster standing 100 meters away from me.
"I must have made a mistake, seems like I lost direction. Sorry. I will leave. Have a good day"
Saying that I turned around to find the doors blocked.
Damn. You can't be serious.
You want me to fight this thing? Goodness, gracious ..what sort of joke is this? What sort of damn butterfly effect is this?
If anything shouldn't I be fighting a weak monster? The side villain was F ranked! I am G+ ranked!
Just what sort of twisted logic is needed for my opponent to be D-ranked!? A whopping 7 levels higher than me!?
"Ghh"
I looked at the monster in front of me once again after hearing whatever noise it produced. It stared at me.
Then he smirked.
I remembered how Wolfy had smirked at me as well.
Just how high are these monsters' egos?
Anyway, it was clear that wants to toy with me, with the difference in our level so distinguishable he realized I was like an ant to him. Someone who posed no danger.
Which is, of course, nothing but overconfidence that will cost him his life.
"Ghaghk"
Behold my intelligence, I know what he means. He wants me to attack first. Ah, he really is planning on toying with me.
Bullying is bad you know! Didn't your mama teach you!?
Wait, is this something I should be saying, as someone who barged into someone else's turf and started killing the beings of this residential area?
Eh, who cares? I gripped the hilt of my daggers tightly. I am dual-wielding, though, all the knowledge that I possess amounts to nothing but just swinging my weapons.
One might think I am taking the situation lightly but that's not true. It's not like I don't understand the difference between us or the gravity of the situation.
It's just I have already started to temper with my brain.
After all, it was time to do so.
I was cutting off emotions that are related to pain but I am not an expert. So, my brain is kinda weird right now.
Sometimes, I felt happy and the next instant the feeling of sadness came over me.
My emotions were fluctuating at a faster pace.
I will need a few seconds before I have the proper control. This shit is hard!
Alright, I am getting the hang of it but I feel like someone's drumming my head.
Agh, I need to focus on what's in front of me.
"Thanks for not attacking me"
I said as I coated the mana in my weapons, I felt the mana leaving my body for the first time and rushed towards him.
After closing the distance between us. I swung my weapons toward his chest, and he simply dodged. He didn't attack me using his board sword but simply dodged, effortlessly.
I attacked him again, he scoffed effortlessly twisting out of the way.
Without a moment's delay, I followed up, throwing my right hand towards the bridge of his nose, only to watch him again twist in dodge.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Again!
Again!!
Again!!!
I pulled myself back.
"Haaa...haaa..haaa"
I panted heavily.
The minotaur didn't move. It simply watched me.
His eyes looked at me, bored, as if saying 'Is this all?'
You bastard.
I couldn't hit him even once.
"Ggh!"
Uh-huh.
Fuck.
It seems like he ran out of patience.
In the next moment, his figure disappeared.
Suddenly, a powerful blow connected to my left temple, and my skull rattled with the heavy impact, as if I had taken a hit from a metal bat in full swing. My body lurched over.
"Augh!"
Then came a follow-up attack. My head snapped around in the opposite direction as the strike to the right temple sent me flying. The thing that struck me felt so hard that I couldn't believe it was just a fu*king fist!
"Guh?!"
Another attack, blasting me from underneath the chin. The vibrations carried straight to my brain, and the world went white. My consciousness might have left me if not for the control I have over my brain.
And with that I was sure.
I will win.
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"Augh!"
I let out a hoarse voice and rolled over, convulsing on the concrete. Lying on my back, as I gasped for breath.
"Ggh"
The minotaur approached me, placing his foot over my solar plexus and, without pause, set his full body weight on it.
Crack! Crunch!
The sound of my bones breaking was audible. My body squirmed.
Tears came out of my eyes, a physiological reaction I couldn't do anything about, and blood vomit leaking from my mouth.
"Ggh!"
The Minotaur grunted.
And I knew why.
Because I am not giving him the reaction he wants! Too bad! No screams for you!
I am in control of my brain, any and all type of pain is blocked, try as you may I wouldn't feel anything even if I got eaten alive!
"Agh!"
I coughed up more blood as I got hit in the stomach once again, his kick sent me flying through the air.
The next instant he was again in front of me. It's not just fast at this point.
It's like this guy is teleporting!
Right now, I am simply a punching bag to him but I don't feel any pain so, I guess, it's fine.
He sent me flying through the air once again.
We aren't playing soccer and I am not the ball either!
Bam!
And I hit the wall.
But just because I don't feel any pain doesn't mean I can't die.
My body was tattered, my bones broken, my weapons lying somewhere in this room.
With the help of 'strings,' I got myself back on my feet.
I cracked my neck as I looked at the minotaur coming towards me with his broadsword, guess he wants to end it now.
Despite that he didn't appear towards me as fast as he had been, he simply started walking towards me.
"Guess, playtime's over" I muttered.
I got my answers.
This world is different from mine. A world where you are ranked but what did it actually mean to be ranked? What did it mean to have G-ranked strength, a G+-ranked perception, stamina, and all the crap?
What's the difference between ranks?
Now, I knew it.
The difference between a G- ranked and a G+ ranked is the difference between G+ ranked and an F- ranked.
Apparently, it seems like a G- ranked can kill a G+ ranked. The difference existed but it wasn't overwhelming.
On the other hand, the difference became larger when the ranks of individuals were completely different alphabets.
The difference between G+ rank and F- is greater than the difference between G+ rank and G- rank.
Of course, I knew this, but I needed to know 'how' much difference it actually means.
That's the reason I fought all those monsters before coming to this room. I could have simply avoided them all.
And I also learned about how hidden dungeon works.
What could be the reason behind me having to fight against a D- ranked monster?
The answer is simple, unlike the villain I have the right material to deal with even an E+ ranked monster.
But will my bombs work as effectively on a D-ranked individual? No.
Not only that, this monster won't give me the time to pull things out from my dimensional storage and even if I throw my bombs at him, he will dodge them before they hit him, he is just that fast.
In other words, goodness me, if I had brought some over-the-top materials with me then the monster I had to fight would have been of even higher rank.
Regardless, it was time to end this charade.
There's no way I had lose. Not when he didn't kill me. Not when he isn't actually a D- ranked monster.
The guy had the skin of Minotaur, something that's hard to cut. But I had a short sword which could cut through anything below D- rank if I put in enough strength I should be able to cut this guy as well.
This guy has the characteristics of a Minotaur but is his stats D-ranked? No.
If his stats were really that high, I should be dead. When he punched me, it should have torn my stomach open, when he sent me flying I should have hit the wall with enough force to go splat.
That should be the difference in D-ranked and G+ranked.
But none of the things happened, in other words, his stats aren't that high, maybe an F ranked? or borderline F+ ranked?
Same as it was for the villain.
And that much is doable for me. To begin with, that is what I had been expecting from the beginning.
Yeah, I finally understood how this hidden dungeon assigned the monster.
Why is it doable for me, you ask?
Simple, I can temporarily raise my rank to F-rank.
The reason why people can't raise their ranks is because rank is an overall measurement of strength, stamina, perception, and agility. That's why even if you use mana strengthening you can only increase some of them and only to a certain degree.
But I am different.
I can control not only my body but my brain as well.
Strength, Stamina, Perception, and Agility. I can increase all of them in a proper sense, unlike others.
But it's not going to be that easy, is it?
It was time to put everything I had on the line. I pulled out the short sword that was in my dimensional storage as I bit the tablet that I had hidden inside my mouth, it was the Elixir that I solidified before coming here.
The minotaur noticed my injuries healing but it was too late.
Playing around too much with your prey is an amateur mistake~
Too bad, mistakes can't be undone.
Heightening my senses, entering a hyper-focused state, increasing the secretion of adrenaline to the max, overlapping all my muscles and nerves with mana.
The world around me started to fade only leaving the minotaur in my eyes, experiencing a slowed sense of time I kicked off the ground.
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The minotaur after noticing the change around Noah hurried to kill him as he pushed off the ground swinging his broadsword towards Noah.
Noah simply ducked.
Normally, Noah shouldn't have been able to dodge, he shouldn't be able to react. But right now it's a completely different matter.
Noah has increased his optic vision with the help of mana and by releasing the required hormones inside his brain he also felt a slowed sense of time and a faster thinking process, with its help, Noah recorded all the information about the Minotaur's movement and ..predicted where the attack will come from.
The next instant, Noah moved away from the Minotaur as if in queue the Minotaur tried to move towards Noah but before he could do that...
Bang!
The acid bomb exploded. It was impossible for the minotaur to dodge it.
The liquid didn't do much damage to his tough skin but it certainly got in his eyes.
"Gaaaaaghhhhh!"
Of course, some of it was sprayed on Noah too but unlike the minotaur, Noah didn't feel any pain nor did even his muscles twitch, taking advantage of the minotaur's agony, Noah threw a sleeping bomb toward the minotaur as he himself got out of the range.
Bang!
The smoke from the sleeping bombs was released into the air surrounding the minotaur.
As if his instinct kicked in, the minotaur swung his massive broadsword in the air causing the smoke to disappear.
Noah closing the gap the next instant between him and the minotaur, swung his short sword through his chest.
The sword stabbed through the minotaur's skin as it slid through into his body.
Bam!
Noah's body was sent flying through the air by Minotaur's kick.
But that didn't matter, Noah's sword was coated with poison.
"Ghaygh!"
The minotaur roared as he removed the short sword from his chest and threw it away.
"Not enough.."
Noah muttered as he bit his own palm, tearing apart his own flesh.
The blood that dripped from Noah's hand turned it into a short sword. Noah simply used the mana to coat the blood to give it a shape.
It was to compensate for the lack of weapon.
He realized after fighting the hound that even with a healing potion he couldn't regain the blood he lost in the battle.
And that could be fatal. To solve the problem, Noah simply decided he couldn't afford to lose blood.
Thus, he decided to control even his blood using mana.
Utterly Ridiculous.
"Gghaahhh!"
Minotaur roared, his vision destroyed because of the acid that entered his eyes and movements a bit sluggish as the poison and the sleeping bomb both showed their effects.
"Should have had killed me right away"
With the short sword made of his own blood, Noah lunged towards the minotaur.
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Noah stood in front of the minotaur's dead body with his ragged breathing, his muscles contracted as he lost the control he had over his brain and his body.
"Aghh!!!"
He screamed.
He felt nauseated, vomiting a mouthful of blood, his eyes feeling extremely sensitive to the lights present inside the room so he shut them close. He felt as if his head was going to burst at any moment. Blood started to come out of his eyes, ears, and all of his orifices.
He rolled all over the ground screaming, and convulsing, his body spasming and twitching.
It has been a very long time since Noah had registered something as truly painful.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone