Chapter 340 - Observation

"Angus, I am glad you are safe." said Jayna

"Me too." said Angus while embracing Jayna.

After having a long night's rest and intimate relations with each other, Angus and Jayna wake up early in the morning and decide to wake Anna before having breakfast. With some spells and hitting her head, they finally woke up the troublemaker.

After having breakfast together, they go towards Jacob's medical room. Unlike Angus and Jayna, who could recover after one night's rest, Jacob and the others need at least a few days to recover completely. 

Therefore, in this weakened state, Jacob could not do much but handle a little paperwork while being medicated. Since he almost overused the mana potion, he couldn't take any typical medication to regenerate and recover his mana faster.

He needs to let his mana recover naturally before making a full recovery. Still, he needs to rest and not overwork himself to fasten his mana regeneration.

Entering Jacob's room, "Ohh.. Angus, you are here. Are you sure you are alright to be walking around now?" asked Jacob.

"Yes, I am completely fine now. I was just exhausted before." said Angus.

"Well, It seems you are not lying about having superb regeneration in mana. Hmm… Angus… Y-You.. You are not using some kind of item to upgrade your aura, right?" said Jacob in disbelieving in what he felt from Angus.

"Err.. No." said Angus.

After closing and opening his mouth with a disbelieving expression for a while, "Just to make sure, you are already reaching third grade, right?" asked Jacob.

"Yeah, kind of…" replied Angus.

Hearing Angus reply, Jacob immediately releases a deep long sigh, "Haa… Sometimes, having a too genius son is really a headache." said Jacob.

After calming himself,  "Fine, I guess since you tried to cover your and masked your third-grade aura, it means you understand not to flaunt this information to everyone." said Jacob.

"Of course. That's what I am about to do. Still, it is a surprise for you to notice this right away." said Angus.

"Well, at first, I only felt it faintly. But, after focusing on feeling it, it is easy to distinguish your true strength." said Jacob.

"As you keep upgrading your core, your perception will also increase, especially in your surrounding area. With your way to mask your core, I guess only the sixth grade or above could see through your grade." explained Jacob.

"Still, some high perception people may also be able to perceive you. So, you need to be careful. Alright, since you already made a full recovery and reached third grade, I have a few tasks for you. It will also serve you as training to adapt to your current power." said Jacob.

"Tasks?" said Angus.

"Yeah. Normally, these tasks should be done after some soldiers recuperate and make a full recovery. However, it will be better to do it as soon as possible." said Jacob.

"Well, I guess I could help a little bit." said Angus.

"Good, here is the list of the tasks. Don't worry, it is nothing difficult." said Jacob while giving a parchment to Angus.

Looking at the tasks list, "Hmm.. I see you want us to scout the surrounding area along with the hunting ground." asked Angus.

"Yes, it seems your hunting grounds are working more properly than before. Using our detection device, we notice that many monsters stay in the hunting ground rather than roaming the nearby area and attacking the Fortress."

"I planned to make several hunting grounds in the deeper area. If everything works as planned, these hunting grounds will be able to reduce the number of monsters during the monster wave. However, we need to observe and inspect these hunting grounds further first." explained Jacob.

"I see good ideas. I suppose we could also kill the monster that we find." said Angus.

"Yes, and be careful in case you find a high-grade monster. Also, make sure to be back before dark." said Jacob.

"Sure.. Sure.. Don't worry and focus on your rest." said Angus before leaving Jacob's medical room.

After a little bit of preparation, they march towards the Dark Forest with a few bodyguards. On the way towards the Dark Forest, they find many of the monster corpses in the area getting sorted and stored properly. 

They even find the logger and forager doing their jobs like usual around the forest edge. They still need to cut down the continuously growing trees. 

Moreover, they need to work harder than before since the tree is growing faster after absorbing the lingering miasma from the monster corpse. In just one night, half of the field in front of the Black Fortress is already filled with various vegetation and pitch-black trees.

Ignoring the worker, Angus and his team immediately enter the Dark Forest and go towards one of the hunting grounds he set up before. Once in a while, Angus uses [Great Mana Echolocation] to detect the surrounding.

Like Jacob said before, Angus finds that there is no roaming monster in the surrounding area. All of them seem to be gathering in the hunting area. Using his detection skill, he finds that the hunting ground is more crowded than before.

Angus also found that most of these monsters rarely fight each other, which is a rare case unless a high-grade monster commands them. Still, using his large detection skill, he didn't find any high-grade monsters.

The strongest monster he could find in the surrounding area is only a third-grade monster which normally could only lead a small group of monsters. Confused by this behavior, Angus and his team immediately enter the hunting ground and do closer observation.

Because of the Chain Bomb Angus planted before, the entire area is turned into a wasteland, but many vegetation and small pitch-black trees start to grow in the whole area. 

Looking at their growth rate, Angus suspects it will take a few days before the hunting ground goes back into the lust forest like before. 

Just as Angus and his team enter the hunting ground perimeter, they instantly find many low-grade monsters attacking them. Seeing it is only a bunch of low-grade monsters, Angus leaves their extermination to Jayna and Anna. 

"Jayna, Anna, I will give them to you." said Angus while taking out some notebook.

Hearing Angus's command, the two girls immediately fight and butcher the approaching monster. In the meantime, Angus begins to record the nearby monster in his book. 

Besides doing some observation of the hunting ground, one of his tasks is to scout and make a record of the monster in the surrounding area. Using his large detection skill, this is an easy task for him. All he needs is to stay in one spot while noting the monster in the surrounding area.

However, Angus also needs to check the hunting area condition. Therefore, he also needs to check the miasma and mana gathering rune he planted before. While walking around, Angus finally finds the reason why the monsters didn't fight each other like usual.

It turns out the monster here has surplus food from the dead monster's corpse. Because of Angus's Chain Bomb, many monsters died and left their corpse all over the place. 

These monster corpses are the source of attraction and food for the other low-grade monsters that occupied this place. Because they have an abundant amount of food, most monsters are not fighting for the food like usual.

Still, after many observations, he also noticed that these lower-grade monsters are also growing faster than before. With the miasma and the food in the surrounding, the miasma in their body becomes denser and more saturated.

Some of the first-grade monsters also show the sign of breaking through the second grade. Seeing this, Angus decides to clear some of these monsters before they become too troublesome to be taken care of.

By the time they finish their task in the first hunting ground, It is already midday and lunchtime. During this time, Angus notices some differences in his body. First, his mana is purer and denser than before. 

He could use less mana to cast spells or use skills with the same power as before upgrading. He also notices his body finally reaching another limit after being enhanced by his mana.

After breaking his physical limit using the first gate, his body became stronger than any ordinary human being. After a certain point, his body will also reach another limit. Now, he needs to open the second gate of life to break his physical limit.

Currently, his physical condition has already reached its limit. He is ten times stronger than an ordinary human. He could easily overpower and kill any first and lower-grade monster only by his physical strength alone.

Still, this situation annoys him since his control over his strength is slightly off. Previously, his body was still not fully adapted when he increased his attributes. Now, combined with his upgrade, his control over his body is more chaotic.

He often bends his metal cutleries or breaks his cups. He also breaks a few stuff in the inner base when he touches something.. After checking his status, he finds that his strength and dexterity have increased by another point.