Chapter 103: Pain from Pleasure?!

Spurt!

Another down.

The monsters were now reduced to a mere three of their original count.

Haa…

I took a deep breath to let my nerves relax. At the same time, I withdrew my mana pressure. Keeping it active for so long had taken a toll on my mana reserves.

The rate at which my body was trying to absorb the mana from the surroundings was clearly lagging behind my mana expenditure.

The moment I stopped releasing my mana pressure, I could feel my reserves replenishing at a faster pace than before.

Clank!

I had instinctively raised my sword to block an incoming claw. Looking around, I could see all three monsters upon me.

Sidestepping, I avoided being encircled, while at the same time appearing beside one of the scorpion’s legs.

With a swift motion, I cut two of its massive legs, making the creature lose its balance.

Before I could attack further, the other two beasts aimed their claws at me.

Their speed was now faster than before.

I avoided their attacks by a hair’s margin before reciprocating with mine.

I could see a monster having one of its claws missing. It was the same dark-coloured scorpion that had attacked me at first.

As I focused my attention on the scorpion, I could sense the mana in its body raging violently.

With my limited rank, I wasn’t able to peer deeply and could only get a superficial view of its mana meridians.

Spurt!

My thoughts had never stopped my movements.

My blade was already upon the neck of the scorpion whose legs had been cut.

With its body unbalanced, the monster couldn’t keep up with my movements.

The result being its head rolling on the sand, blood spraying in a wide arc.

Two left.

I moved towards the monster with the missing claw, as it was the easier target of the two.

But the creature had fast reflexes. It had already sensed my movements, and with my mana pressure no longer hindering the monster’s speed, the scorpion attacked me with its tail and the remaining claw at the same time.

Its attack was fast, but predictable.

That was the only advantage while fighting monsters at the lower level. Their brains weren’t strong enough to fight using strategies, so their attacks followed a single set pattern.

Dodging the attack, I approached the monster’s main body, slashing my sword through its sides.

As I ran with my sword embedded in its body, the scorpion gave a thunderous roar as its body was torn apart from the sides.

Though my attack left a huge gash across its body, it wasn’t deep enough to end the monster’s life.

Still seeing that the scorpion was out of combat for a while, I focused my attention on the other monster, whose legs were above my head, moments away from crushing me.

I stomped the ground below to propel my body high up in the air before twisting mid-air, my blade moving in a refined arc as the legs that had been buried in the sand while attacking me were cut in their respective halves.

As the scorpion’s momentum had been disturbed, I took advantage of its liability, dashing straight at its head.

With a slight jump, I was already upon the creature’s body, and with a powerful swing, my blade met the hard shell of its neck.

Spurt!

Thud!

The scorpion’s lifeless body made contact with the ground below.

Haa…

Letting out a shallow breath, I turned my head, looking towards the last of my prey.

Huh?!

The scorpion was currently flat on the ground, its tail along with the remaining claw suspended in the air.

It was an abnormal thing to see.

It looked like the scorpion was writhing in pain, but at the same time, it didn’t feel like that.

It was closer to a pain derived from… pleasure?!

Observing in silence, I didn’t stop the monster from its ongoing activity.

I tried to sense the flow of mana in its body, only to find the already volatile mana moving in destructive waves across its meridians.

The mana was crashing against the monster’s core, or that was what I sensed.

My assumptions could be wrong, as I wasn’t strong enough to dissect its entire mechanics of mana.

A minute had already passed with the monster’s body frozen in the same position.

Seeing no result, I moved to end the creature’s life, only to stop in my tracks.

I could sense the mana in my surroundings rapidly moving towards the monster. The effect wasn’t strong, but it was enough for my understanding.

The monster was undergoing an evolution.

The same thing had happened when I ranked up, just on a much larger scale.

It was common knowledge that monsters could evolve too.

After all, the first one to evolve in order to become a Sovereign was none other than a monster.

But I had never seen any monster evolving before me… at least not until now.

Monsters had it easier, as they could increase their ranks by consuming other creatures like humans, elves, vampires, and so on.

They could also cultivate subconsciously, similar to how other intelligent races cultivate, by absorbing the mana in the surroundings after tiring out their bodies in combat.

Just the difference being that monsters did it without thinking, as it was second nature to them. Something that had been imprinted in their biology, the same as breathing without active effort.

I could feel slight vibrations in the mana particles around me.

Looking at the monster, I knew that in its current state it was the most vulnerable to kill.

The most logical decision was to kill it before it could evolve.

Even the time remaining for the test to end was drawing closer…

But—

I wanted to fight it.

I had never fought a gold-ranked beast before. Though I had a strong urge to do so, Arthur had advised me against overstraining my body without having any real gains.

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