Chapter 11

So fucking stupid! Hakon cursed himself as a massive Acidic Beetle charged straight into him.

It was the size of a hut and had a pitch-black horn, which it used to impale him. Or try to. Hakon was fortunate that the monster was not as fast as the eagle monsters were. Unfortunately, that did not change how stupid his move had been.

In an attempt to impress the Ancestors, Hakon sought the Colossal Terror. That turned out as stupid as it sounded. He was too weak and suffered the consequences of unfounded arrogance.

The hut-sized Acidic Beetle failed to impale him but its head snapped to the side and struck him. The sound of ribs breaking reverberated as the horn struck his side with terrifying force.

Hurled backward, Hakon grit his teeth and scrambled to his feet. Then came a massive gob of acidic beetle spit. It hurled through the air in a beautiful arc, heading toward him with deadly precision.

Hakon cursed and yelped, using [Dash] with as much mana as he could muster before using [Running] in the same instance. Maybe the Skills did not overlap, but he certainly felt like they helped him survive as he leaped out of the gob’s area of impact. It landed where he stood a moment ago and splattered, sending goblets everywhere – his back included.

The smell of burned flesh hit him at once, so did the numbness. The numbness was terrifying. It was incredibly potent, and only further affirmed that he wasn’t ready to fight the Colossal Terror.

So he did something pathetic. The tribe may shun him for that, but Hakon had not yet earned the right to die. He fled with a promise in his heart.

I will return to crush you! Just you wait! Hakon growled, the shame of defeat burning deep within.

***

Hakon appeared behind a beetle, hand clamped around its maw. He pulled it up and dragged the bone dagger across its neck before the monster could respond.

There was no hesitation as he stepped back into the knee-high grass, pulling the dying back with him.

It took a while to return to his temporary base, if one could call it that. Anyway, Hakon got to work once it was clear that there were no more monsters to fight. He turned the beetle on its carapace and cut carefully into its soft belly.

The blade carved through flesh and organs with crafted precision, revealing a yellowish sac with some effort. It was important to keep the sac intact for a little while longer, which meant he had to spend a little longer until the sac was finally in his hands.

“A big one.” He mused, inspecting the sac for damages.

It was as large as his hand and numbed it just by touching its stretchy surface. He wasn’t even touching the Acidic Beetle’s spit, yet its sac already numbed his palm and fingers. That was good.

Satisfied, Hakon placed the sac above the bowl, which was yet another carved-out carapace, and emptied the yellowish-green content into it.

“That was about time.” The carapace bowl was finally full. That took him long enough.

[Lesser Deed – Slay 25 Acidic Beetles(10/25)]

Several Skills improved during and after his hunts. [Combat Awareness], and [Swordmanship] leveled once. [Throwing], [Evasion], [Dash], and [Field Crafting] improved by two Levels, and [Silent Steps], [Weakness Detection], [Running], and [Dagger Mastery] went up by as much as three Levels!

Seeing his Skills improve so quickly was exhilarating. It was addictive. Almost more so than gaining two new Skills.

[Grappling Lv.6]

[Dismantling Lv.3]

The System had recognized the Skills from past experiences, which did make some sense. However, he did not think his beetle hunts had a lot to do with grappling. Other than locking the monsters in place, using some of the lessons his father and other old warriors taught him and his peers, little connected his hunts with grappling.

But who was he to judge the Ancestors’ wisdom?

He was a nobody. A young warrior, who had yet to gain his first Deed.

Ready to change that, Hakon dipped his numb fingers into the bowl. First his fingertips to analyze how quickly the numbness would spread, then the rest of his hand as his fingers went numb and the smell of burned skin and flesh pierced his nostrils.

There was no time for doubts as he utilized [Flow Control]. He moved mana through his body and embraced the sense of wrongness with his whole heart all while the Skill granted him heightened control of mana. [Flow Control] made moving mana through the tunnels much easier. The Skill did not require his attention to do anything, but to use it at full capacity and to expand upon it – push it to new lengths –, Hakon had to do more.

He had to fix all that was wrong about the Skill. After all, no Skill was perfect. If they had reached perfection, the Ancestors would have told him, and he would no longer be able to improve them. Since that was not the case, Hakon continued. He trusted the Ancestors and guided [Flow Control] until it reached his hand.

The numbness in his hand receded in a moment’s instance, but it returned just as quickly.

“That makes sense.” Hakon mused, Enhanced Comprehension stirring, his hand raising out of the carapace bowl. Droplets of viscous beetle spit dropped back into the bowl, yet its bright yellowish-green substance was joined with something else. Black, pungent sludge trickled down from his arm alongside the beetle spit.

The corner of his lips curled up, and he continued to guide mana through the hundreds of tunnels in his hand. They were small, too narrow for even the smallest trace of mana to move through…or so it felt like at first. But that was his mistake. He was mistaken; It was not mana’s fault. It was his control of mana that was lacking.

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Hakon could successfully circulate mana through the thicker tunnel, and he did not have a problem with the smaller tunnels in his shoulder and upper arms, but that only included the main tunnels. The branches moving away from the main tunnel were too narrow for the amount of mana he could control.