Chapter 15

The first charge was a deadly success. Hakon headed toward the largest ants first, Crusher raised above his head right before it rocketed to the ground. The ants stood no chance. They were slower and not even their tough exoskeleton protected from the impacting force. Their bodies were mashed and even the ground started to shake.

No message popped up, but Hakon felt a pull from [Blunt Weapon Mastery]. Yet, rather than leaning into the Skill’s augmentation, he pushed forward and struck down again. His mind was filled with a sense of wrongness as [Blunt Weapon Mastery] tried to guide him. Hakon ignored it and tried something else. He forced his mind to adjust, to think of the weapon in his hand as something unique instead of a regular blunt weapon.

His thinking shifted as he crushed the fifth ant, and his mind – or was it his Ancient Power? – adapted after the tenth collapsed.

He escaped several globs of acid and stomped on an Acidic Beetle’s head with a burst of [Circulation] before the message he’d been waiting for appeared among others.

[Skill [Poleaxe Mastery] has been learned.]

Hakon snorted. It was not recognized as an existing Skill. Nonetheless, he pushed further, his mind zoning in on [Poleaxe Mastery] with Enhanced Comprehension. His stance improved almost instantly, transforming him into a monstrosity on the battlefield. Alas, he could not escape the masses of enemies surrounding him for long.

[Poleaxe Mastery] improved by two Levels in quick succession, the encroaching danger pushing body and mind to new heights. Then came the first injury. A Giant Ant’s mandibles snapped shut around his leg. It only cut him as he pulled away in the last moment, but the distraction was enough. Two globs of acid splashed on his chest and thigh.

Hakon avoided grievous injuries but that was the limit of his capabilities. Too many ants attacked from all directions to escape the downpour of acid shot. Then there was Crusher. It was cumbersome and restricted his movement almost as much as the masses of Giant Ants did.

Hakon repaid every injury he sustained in kind. Crusher shifted in his hand as he spun around his axis, cleaving several enemies in two. It required a push of [Circulation] to repel the monsters around him, which was followed by a barrage of strikes, shattering exoskeleton, and [Dash]. He escaped the encirclement, his eyes growing wide as he realized just how many monsters flooded the Crawling Expanse.

Ants and beetles alike materialized out of thin air – out of the blue mist that seemed to be everywhere. Even the carnage he left behind was overflowing with the same mist. Some of which dispersed into the ground, while another portion seeped into Hakon, but the rest remained and appeared to form new monsters.

They’re smaller.

His eyes narrowed. The monsters that appeared out of nowhere were small. Smaller than the Giant Ants and Acidic Beetles outside the Fracture.

He groaned and grit his teeth as something wet struck his back. It burned at first and went numb in the next moment. A burst of [Circulation], and two circles through the body were all he needed to remove the worst of the numbness at this point, but it accumulated nonetheless. The more acid shots hit him, the worse his condition was.

Even worse, removing the numbness was more like replacing one evil with another. Instead of feeling nothing, Hakon had to feel how the acid burned through his skin and flesh.

[Proficiency gained. [Poison Resistance Lv.3] improved to [Poison Resistance Lv.4]]

[Proficiency gained. [Pain Tolerance Lv.6] improved to [Pain Tolerance Lv.7]]

The messages were pleasant, but their cause wasn’t. They only told him what he had to go through to improve them further. The best? He knew that it wouldn’t be the last time those Skills improved. It was only the beginning.

His hair stood up to end one moment, and he shot to the side in the next. Several acid shots splattered on the ground where he stood a moment ago, and two more messages popped up.

[Proficiency gained. [Combat Awareness Lv.7] improved to [Combat Awareness Lv.8]]

[Proficiency gained. [Evasion Lv.6] improved to [ Lv.7]]

“That’s more like it!” Hakon rumbled right before Crusher descended once more, mashing yet another Giant Ant.

Carnage continued, yet no matter how many monsters he killed, the flood never ended. It was like the Fracture had countless of monsters for him to offer. And that was not a problem. Or… it wouldn’t have been if he wasn’t forced to use [Circulation] more often than he wanted.

The Skill’s empowerment was powerful. It was useful and allowed him to kill more enemies in quick succession. But the price was a heavy to pay. It cost a considerable amount of mana to maintain [Circulation]. Activating it in bursts alongside [Mana Sense] was fine. It worked decently enough to improve the Skills but Hakon still recovered less mana than he had to use.

Still, every use felt less like a waste. That, however, left him with yet another issue: He had too many projects to work on.

First and foremost, he had to make sure he didn’t sustain any bad injuries. That was already challenging enough, but he had to defeat his enemies at the same time. In the same instance, it was obvious that he was simply too weak to fight the entire Fracture alone. He would never say so openly, yet everyone with healthy eyes and a somewhat intact head could tell that much.

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He was crushing it. By now, he’d already killed dozens of ants and beetles, the Level of several Skills improved, yet he had so much more to do. His mana mass was nowhere near full, his reserves were being drained rapidly, and he had no way to refill them. Yet, he could not preserve his mana too much because more Giant Ants and Acidic Beetles came rushing at him. They surrounded him and attacked him from all sides, until he was forced to break out using the few Skills that drained his mana drastically.

[Mana Sense] improved rapidly as his attention shifted to the one plan that came to his mind, but he couldn’t commit to it. The battle did not allow him to move his mana into Crusher. He felt like he was getting closer, yet there was something that stopped him. An obstacle he had yet to cross.

Was it his mind? His Skill Levels?

Then a new message popped up above all the others. A new Skill!

[Skill [Acid Resistance] has been learned.]

The moment the Ancestors rewarded him, the accruing numbness diminished.

[Proficiency gained. [Acid Resistance Lv.1] improved to [Acid Resistance Lv.2]]