It took Kronos a whole 20 minutes to regain his consciousness, as for 20 minutes after trying to unleash too powerful a sword strike, he had blacked out completely.

When he woke up, he saw Rocky and Buhara cooking some meat over a campfire, while Erin was chugging a bottle of stamina potion.

Beside Erin were 2-3 more empty bottles, which ranged from health potion, mana potion and refreshment potion.

“Agh….” Kronos groaned in pain, as he felt sore all over his body when he tried to move.

His condition was not good at all, which was odd considering the fact that he usually recovered very fast from any sort of injury and never really experienced muscle soreness.

“Good morning sleeping beauty, there are 25 minutes left until our break ends. Better Freshen up” Rocky said, as Erin placed a bottle of refreshment potion beside Kronos for him to drink.

Seating up, Kronos felt his head be attacked by a severe case of vertigo, as his head felt as heavy as lead.

“What happened?” He asked, as Erin simply pointed towards the carcass of the dead dragon, and then towards the meat that Rocky and Buhara were cooking.

“Dragon meat?” Rocky offered, passing him a smoking skewer, as Kronos grabbed it with saliva dripping from his mouth.

For five minutes, he only focused on eating and drinking the recovery potion, as after having some food he felt considerably better with his vertigo fading as well.

“Better?” Rocky asked, as Kronos nodded, his face flushed red from the embarrassment of his previous failure.

He had boldly declared that he could slice the dragon in half with ease, only to end up being unconscious and a burden to the team.

“So what happened?” Rocky asked, as it was important for Kronos to introspect from this experience.

If he did not understand what caused him to be knocked out unconscious then it would render his newfound ability useless, as Kronos needed to understand just how far he could push his strength.

Scratching his head, Kronos thought about Rocky’s question for a while before letting out a deep sigh.

“I think although I have infinite vitality, there is a limit to how much vitality I can pour into the sword at once.

I think the amount of vitality I can pour into it, is the sum of how much damage my body can take from one hit.

So assuming that I’m reduced to dust from an attack from my head to toe…. That’s the amount of vitality I can channel into the sword at once.

Because I tried to push beyond that barrier and pour a crazy amount of vitality into the sword for a big attack, I think my body could not handle the backlash and I was knocked out cold–” Kronos said, as after introspection he understood just what his limit was.

“So theoretically, as your body continues to grow stronger, you will be able to channel higher amounts of vitality into your sword, correct?” Rocky asked, as Kronos nodded earnestly.

Although the sword did not allow him to put a crazy amount of vitality into it at once, an amount that would be enough to even kill gods, the sword did still allow him to push to his body’s limits which would grow over time.

It was still an overpowered weapon in his hands, however, instead of being an end-level weapon, it was more of a growth type weapon whose strength was equivalent to Kronos’s inherent power.

The stronger Kronos got, the stroger his sword attacks could get, however, the limit for now was an attack approximately near tier4 in strength.

“Take it easy, Sir Kronos…. We are a team. No-one expects you to kill every monster by yourself. Leave some fun for the rest of us” Erin said, trying to cheer Kronos up, as he slapped him on his back.

Smiling, Kronos accepted his shortcomings and grew from this experience, as although he did not express his gratitude towards the team, he felt it deeply in his heart.

Soon, the 45 minute break was over and although the team was not fully rested, they recovered enough to be on the road once again, as leaving the dragon carcass behind they started to move towards their destination once again.

With roughly 30 hours worth of journey still left, and them not having encountered the most dangerous parts of the journey where they would be facing a den of dragons, the worst was yet to come, however, with the spirit of camaraderie strong amongst the group, they did not fear failure.

*********

( Meanwhile Sophia )

At the same time as Rocky and his team were facing tough challenges within the tower, Sophia was facing tough challenges of her own under the tutelage of Ares.

Having started to learn about forbidden Soul Arts, she was strengthening her soul to potentially battle the soul of the ancient warrior residing within her.

Unfortunately, the process of strengthening her soul was neither pretty, nor simple, as it required tonnes of sacrifices from living beings and acts of extreme cruelty to be committed.

Not only did Ares starve her for days and force her to eat questionable drugs, but he then also encouraged her to butcher tonnes of innocent lives in ritualistic chambers, as he strengthened her soul in the most inhumane way possible.

Slowly but surely, he was changing Sophia and her personality, as beaten and broken, Sophia clung onto Ares and his advice as if it were the Gospel.

If Ares asked her to kill, she killed and enjoyed the process of killing and if he told her to not eat, she did not touch a grain of food.

Turning into his pet, Sophia slowly lost bits of her original personality, as she started to grow more powerful, yet cruel with every passing day.

If a Soulmancer were to walk into the same room as Sophia someday, they would probably be repulsed by the ugly stench of her soul, however, that was the price she was paying for a fast gain in power.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep