Chapter 173: Dominant Force

Shane was still not sure how exactly he could release his bloodlust before he would establish it within him.

Once the bloodlust within him was firmly established with his desire to retain freedom as the foundation, and everything else as sub-foundation, it would become much easier to release his bloodlust.

However, for now, he had to take care of the first step which was to figure out the perfect composition for his own, profound bloodlust.

Walking around with Frer, they searched for a suitable beast group Shane could hunt without the need to massacre the weak beasts.

At the same time, they shouldn't be too strong or too many of them, forcing him to retreat or even to rely on Frer's protection.

As such, two hours passed before they found a suitable area with several beast groups whose cultivation rank was only slightly higher than his.

The first group of beasts he found was [Terror Crunch Hyenas] whose stage was between the Low and Mid- Elite stage.

They were not much different than regular Hyenas, only that their maw's strength was terrifying. It allowed them to easily crush the bones of other Mid-Elite stage beasts in a single bite.

As such, Shane had to be careful to not get bitten by the beasts. Even a single bite would force him to recuperate for several weeks. He doubted that his bones were much stronger than a Mid-Elite stage beast with strong defenses.

Right now his flawed Apprentice physique was at the 4th rank, while his Mortal physique increased his strength a little bit. This allowed his physique to be infinitely close to the 5th Apprentice rank.

If he were to add his mana pool that was at the 3rd Apprentice stage and his blessing that enlarged his mana pool by 30% when he started to cultivate, Shane was confident that his mana pool would reach the size of a normal 5th Apprentice, without an occupation.

As such he was stronger than his cultivation rank would suggest.

Occupations could increase one's mana pool size, physical strength, or even both which was why he didn't take them into the calculation. The increment could vary from a very low percentage to a high percentage according to the type of occupation, quality, and rank!

This knowledge couldn't be utilized right now. He focussed his attention on the beast group and his eyes gleamed brightly when he saw the terror crunch hyenas.

Taking out his Crimson Yaeli longsword, Shane didn't wait for Frer to respond. He began circulating mana throughout his body before he charged at the group of 10 hyenas.

Shane released his killing intent at once without bothering to approach the 10 beasts silently. He only wanted to see if he could instantly force out the same bloodlust as before.

His desire to fight against the terror crunch hyenas heightened as well as his excitement when they noticed him from far away.

Issuing their unique sounds that sounded similar to a laughter, their eyes turned red when they saw that someone had dared to show hostility towards them.

As he charged at the hyenas, Shane knew that it was a life-and-death battle. Losing wasn't an option for him and as the emotion surged through him a faint crimson-colored hue enveloped him.

This time, however, he noticed this almost without delay and tried to control the bloodlust to figure out its compatibility with his killing intent.

When he enveloped his killing intent and bloodlust around his curved longsword, it began to vibrate weakly as the two distinct aura's encountered each other.

Feeling this, Shane immediately knew that the bloodlust was not only extremely strong but also not perfectly suited to be intertwined with his killing intent.

His mood had already soured even before he encountered the terror crunch hyenas.

Averting his attention from his curved longsword to the hyenas, Shane enveloped his entire body with a faint mana membrane to protect himself from faint injuries.

Only a moment later, the fastest hyena arrived in front of him. The beast opened its large mouth, revealing two rows of razor-sharp teeth that wanted to tear Shane apart.

However, before the hyena could do anything, Shane used all his force to kick the hyena's head.

Through the impact caused by Shane's kick, the hyena was almost flung away as it yelped in pain when it felt that something was amiss.

Without wasting any time, Shane slashed at the hyena immediately after kicking away its head.

His curved longsword was extremely sharp and of high quality, which allowed him to easily cut the hyena into two.

Shane's bloodlust slowly began to change, forcefully adjusting to his killing intent that slowly intensified. He sensed the other 9 terror crunch hyenas enveloping themselves in a thick mana membrane before they howled in rage.

All of them arrived at the same time and Shane felt the pressure around him increase only a moment after they began to surround him.

Once he was surrounded, the hyenas lunged at him from all directions, as Shane fend off their attacks one after another.

Slashing at them, one after another, he noticed with amusement that his [Tier-2 (Rare)] Crimson Yaeli longsword was sharper and tougher than he had previously expected it to be.

Shane was able to kill the terror crunch hyenas effortlessly by injecting only a small amount of mana into his sword. The sword went right through their bodies slicing them like a hot knife through butter.

Only their maw required more strength to be crushed and slightly more mana was required to be injected into the curved longsword to further sharpen it.

Moving around swiftly, Shane inflicted dozens of small injuries on the terror crunch hyenas' vital spots. His onslaught of attacks slowed them down before he was finally able to kill them off, without having sustained a single injury himself.

He had been unaware of the sword's sharpness and looked at it in wonder. That was when he noticed that the faint crimson bloodlust thickened, while both his killing intent and bloodlust seemed to have started to merge.

However, the merging process looked weird to Shane because both the intents tried to maintain an upper hand.

Shane also felt the same within him and eyed it weirdly because the Slaughterer's Path didn't specify if a force needed to be dominant, and if yes, which one.

Nevertheless, contrary to his first impression, the crimson-colored bloodlust seemed to have higher compatibility than expected.

His impression only changed after he witnessed the two forces fighting against each other for the dominant spot as both his killing intent and bloodlust were rather strong compared to his age.

Frer, who observed the battle, if one were to call it one instead of a massacre, couldn't help but shake her head, trying to deny Shane's terrifying growth.

'Why does everything he is doing look like a walk in the park? Not even a full day passed since we entered the Giant Fluare-plain dimension and he is already about to finish the first step?! Can't he be a little more considerate….'

She was jealous of Shane's fast progress which indicated to her that Shane would be able to finish establishing his bloodlust in a matter of a few weeks. She could only curse him in her head.

On the other hand, she felt proud to teach such a promising youth, even if it would only be for a short time, which made her, oddly enough, a little bit sad.

__________________

W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx

[If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones]

__________________