บท 42: Chapter 42 – Increase in Strength
Gravis continued running after the bandits. Along the way, the bandits picked up lots of other bandits. At the beginning, the new bandits didn't believe the old bandits and attacked Gravis. Yet, after their weapons broke, they immediately joined the makeshift bandit caravan.
Now, every bandit that saw the caravan immediately joined them in running away. Gravis smiled while watching the bandit caravan growing bigger and bigger. Chasing those bandits was a lot of fun.
Suddenly, a cold shudder went through Gravis. He nearly fell for Heaven's trick. He had started enjoying the feeling of superiority. If he hadn't noticed Heaven's intentions, his will would grow weaker. Gravis realized that he could not relax. Heaven was treacherous and used every kind of scheme to stop him from growing.
"Even this innocent bit of fun could be weaponized by Heaven," Gravis clenched his teeth. "You really won't allow me any kind of happiness," he muttered to himself as he continued running.
"Why are we running? We are over 20 people by now! With that many people, we can even take down a low-grade demonic beast!" one of the bandits shouted to the others.
"Are you kidding?" one of the first bandits of the caravan shouted through intermittent pants. "My full power spear thrust didn't even break its skin!" Gravis had already been degraded to an 'it'. "If we can't even break its defense, then how are we supposed to kill it?"
"There must be something we can do! I'm not sure I can hold out much longer!" the same bandit who proposed the attack said.
"Quit whining. I've been running way longer than you, and I can still keep going," shouted the very first bandit. "You're going to be impressed when you see how far your body can be pushed in this chase. We only need to run! The closer we get to Body City, the stronger our fellow brothers get."
"But it's so far," one of them whined. "Why don't we just scatter?"
"And get picked off one by one? Are you insane? There is safety in numbers," another one immediately shut down the idea.
"Hey! You just said that our numbers don't matter, so how is there suddenly safety in numbers?" the bandit seemed annoyed.
"Have you ever seen a swarm of fish? They can't do anything about their predators, but due to their numbers, many of them survive. I doubt the monster will kill every single one," one of them explained.
"Fuck you, I'm taking this chance!" another bandit shouted as he left the street and ran to the right into the forest.
"Tch, idiot," a bandit spat on the ground.
They watched how the monster chasing them would react to the fleeing bandit. Surprisingly, the monster seemed to ignore the bandit. When others saw how it ignored the bandit, they immediately took their chance and also scattered in all directions.
"You idiots!" cursed the first bandit, and continued running along the path. "Who will warn our brothers, if you all run for your lives?" he shouted at them, heroically. It seemed like this bandit had quite the loyal heart. Even if it might cost his life, he would still warn his brothers on the street. Luckily, he was not completely alone. Another Bandit followed him.
"Ignore those selfish bastards! We'll warn our brothers!" he stated heroically as they pitifully continued running.
Gravis tried to ignore everything. If he were to attach any emotions to this situation, it would only help Heaven. After all this running, Gravis finally decided to take a break and slowed down. Also, he started getting hungry. He didn't bother to bring any rations since he could just hunt any wild animal or ferocious beast.
The two bandits grew ecstatic as they saw Gravis giving up the chase. Yet, they continued running. They had to get away as far as possible. After some minutes, they ultimately left Gravis' vision. He didn't care and just rested for a couple of minutes.
After he had rested enough, he ran into the forest to get some food. He searched for some minutes until he heard a loud roar echoing throughout the forest. "Interesting," Gravis muttered and ran to the roar's origin.
When he arrived, he saw a big clearing in the middle of the forest. There were no animals and no grass. This seemed unusual. Gravis also saw the origin of the roar in the middle of the clearing.
It was a sizable badger. It was probably around two meters high, and its grey fur was glistening in the sun. It calmly lay in the middle of the clearing.
"Low-grade demonic beast," Gravis quickly concluded. After all his fights, Gravis developed a certain feeling towards beasts. Just by watching a beast, he could roughly gauge its strength. "Just what I needed," he muttered. Finally, something that could put his new tempered skin to the test. On top of that, low-grade demonic beasts in the wild always loitered around natural treasures.
There was a difference between low-grade demonic beasts in the wild and the ones near human settlements. The target monsters of the Hunting Guild's missions always stayed close to human territory. Those monsters were using humans as a food source to keep growing. Yet, the monsters in the wilderness always took the best spots.
Gravis walked to the badger but didn't activate his Will-Aura, while carrying his saber in his right hand. The badger noticed him and slowly rose to its feet. Normally, it would just roar to scare anything away that was coming closer. Yet, this time, there was a difference. It had started getting hungry.
The badger didn't stand on ceremony and charged at Gravis, and when it reached him, it swiped one of its claws at him. Gravis wanted to try out his tempered skin and blocked the claw with his free arm.
CRSH!
The claws left some shallow gashes in his arm that bled. It didn't use its full power, and its claws were not its primary weapon. Gravis knew that and concluded that a normal attack would not injure him heavily. That was a significant improvement to the past. If he got hit by anything in the past, he would be severely injured. In the past, he couldn't allow for any mistakes. He always had to be perfect.
It seemed like, with his tempered skin, he only needed to evade the really strong attacks from low-grade demonic beasts. The pressure had lessened immensely. Yet, everything had its advantages and disadvantages. While surviving grew easier now, the tempering of his will grew harder. If the pressure lessened, his will could not increase that quickly anymore.
Additionally, Gravis was absolutely sure that he still couldn't take on a middle-grade demonic beast. Their attack power and speed was just too overwhelming. Tempered skin or normal skin, it literally didn't make a difference. He would get severely injured or killed either way. This left him in an awkward spot. Tempering his will grew severely harder by fighting low-grade demonic beasts, but middle-grade demonic beasts were definitely too strong for him.
When the badger finished its attack, Gravis instantly released his Will-Aura, which had grown stronger by killing the centipede. The badger immediately stiffened. It felt like a mighty beast was close and would kill it at any moment. If its enemy weren't so close, it could react properly, yet the sudden shock made it unable to move.
Gravis had already guessed that his Will-Aura would stun the badger, so he immediately jumped for its head and buried his saber into one of its eyes, as far as he could. The badger couldn't react in time, and the saber cut through its eye, right into its brain. The badger panicked and swiped one of its paws at the saber. Gravis simply retreated, leaving his saber stuck in its head.
BRCK!
The full power of its swipe struck the saber. It didn't matter from which side it struck the saber. The cutting edge was angled to the inside of its brain. If it hit it from the inside, the saber would cut through its brain, and if it hit it from the outside, the saber's blunt side would shake or destroy its whole skull.
As for breaking the saber? That was impossible for a low-grade demonic beast.
The swipe hit the saber's inner side, and it cut deep into the badger's brain. The badger immediately seized and fell to the ground. Its muscles and limbs were spasming out of control. Gravis jumped to the saber and moved it around in the badger's brain. Shortly after, the badger completely stopped moving.
Gravis looked at the dead badger and started thinking. "My Will-Aura has substantially increased after killing the centipede, and I can use it as a surprise attack. My skin allows me to block most attacks of low-grade demonic beasts. As long as nothing unforeseen happens, low-grade demonic beasts should not be any threat to me anymore."
He sighed.
"I've grown stronger. Enemies that always required me to execute a nearly flawless plan perfectly, can now be killed casually." Gravis didn't feel excited. He didn't know why. In the past, he always imagined him being incredibly excited or happy when his strength increased. Yet, it felt like he didn't care. Why was that?
Gravis had already realized the reason, but it was hard acknowledging it.
It was because he was alone.
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