Chapter 279: sublimation 3

“For this implementation stage, you have only 7 months to complete it. Using the term only seems like an exaggeration, but the implementation stage is the hardest stage of all”.

“For this stage, efficiency is key. You have to scour through the knowledge and experience that you already have about your technique, you need to implement it in a battle”.

“And of course, there are opponents for you. The right opponents”.

“You already had an encounter with one, the dinosaurs. All of them roughly have a power base of 4th rank high-grade soldiers, their children have peak 3rd rank strength but they are always tightly protected by the parents”.

“Do not question the set-up or the weird personality of these predators, it was all created to facilitate your sublimation”.

Hearing all these extreme demands, Clark blew up despite all the trauma that he already experienced at the hands of this old man. “You don’t expect me to kill such exobeasts right?”

“Yes”.

“…”

“There’s no way for you to kill one with your own strength, even the children. The only way is if you grasp and implement your self-created technique. You have to break your limits Clark, or you’re dying here”.

“But…”

“Leave”. The old man interrupted him and waved; he disappeared the next moment.

Before Clark could protest again, his sight blackened for a second before lighting up again the next. When his vision finally adjusted, his face became solemn; he was back in the evil bamboo forest.

He wanted to curse at the old man, but this was when he remembered that he actually didn’t ask for his name despite staying together for 5 good months.

“What came over me?”

He quickly put that concern aside and ducked, his heart started beating rapidly, he just heard the twig of a bamboo tree being snapped into 2.

He felt like crying, this was just too fast. At least the first time when he was here, it took a reasonable amount of time before he met the first dinosaur. Did the old geezer rig the set-up?

He didn’t even have any of his weapons, how was he to fight enemies that were 2 ranks above him?

Roar!! Thud! Thud!

In his memory, he didn’t remember dinosaurs having such good eyesight but this old man clearly rigged things again. Seeing the enormous predator that was lumbering in his direction, he picked himself up and went on the run.

“Stay away you bastard! The old fool tricked you! I’m not food!”

Despite all his yells and curses, the dinosaur did not relent in its pursuit as the distance between the both of them kept on getting closer and closer.

“F*ck it!” He no longer put his hopes on luck as he stopped and kicked at a bamboo tree that stood to his right.

With one smooth hit, the bamboo was uprooted. He held the back of the bamboo stick with his hand and hit the front with his leg, forming something like a javelin but much cruder.

Pow!

He threw his make-shift weapon with all his might at the approaching enemy. It did connect with its face, but the sound of the impact made Clark’s heart sink into the depths of despair.

Ponk!

The dinosaur finally closed the distance as its enormous maw aimed at its target. Already experienced with this, Clark leaped backward and rolled swiftly as he created further distance between them.

Before the beast could reorient itself, he already kicked and uprooted another bamboo stick. He thrust the pointed end at this fellow’s thick hide only to produce another ponk sound, his hands hurt.

Before he could react, with a much swifter snap, the predator ripped his head off. Clark died…, and of course, he fell down from the sky at another part of the bamboo forest the next moment.

This was what he hated most about this forest. Whereas in the other stages with the old man he just suffered pain, this time, he suffered the pain of dying which was extremely traumatic.

Though he felt angry, he quickly calmed himself as he started planning for his next encounter with these predators.

What made humans unique? It was their immense intelligence and cunning. Though that was mostly fart before some exobeasts like Drakonous, humans were still more intelligent.

This was not something that could be done in a day. According to the old man, he had 7 months and to him, that was more than enough.

Picking himself up before any of the dinosaurs could find him, he first decided to make a camouflage cloak for himself to better hide from their scrutinizing gaze of death.

Next, he had to set traps.

Even if the bamboo trees were mostly to make the background more epic and were more or less useless against the dinosaurs’ thick skin, he could still make use of them in a trap.

After all these, the only problem was how the hell was he supposed to kill any of these exobeasts with his bare fists. “Damn old man!”

…

A dinosaur casually moved through the bamboo forest, its long neck enabling it to munch easily at any bamboo that was spreading its tiny leaves to obstruct its path.

Blood was dripping down this fellow’s neck from a large wound that was inflicted on it just a few minutes ago.

It just finished a battle with one of its siblings and emerged as the winner. As it was not fond of eating its sibling’s thick flesh, it forfeited the food and decided to hunt for more eatable food.

As this huge predator lumbered across the bamboo forest, a pair of eyes watched it alertly from a few dozen meters away.

Clark laid on the forest floor, his eyes watching his target sharply as he made sure that not a movement was made from his direction.

He was dressed in a make-shift brown and green attire made from the leaves in the forest. Though it was already 5 months since he was here, he always blushed when he saw himself in this barbaric cloth.

This time, he hardly cared though, his eyes were focused and trained on his new target only.

After hundreds of encounters with the dinosaurs of the forest and dying hundreds of times, he finally started drafting targeted strategies to aim at the weakness of these predators.

For the past 4 months, his life could be summarized as hell in a dream.

As the dinosaur lumbered forward like a truck in his direction, he grasped the 2 bamboo sticks that were in both of his hands tighter.

He was already planning this attack for over 5 weeks; he did not want to mess it up. It was not easy to get such a nice opportunity, if he missed it, he would surely regret it for a long time.

The dinosaur was running straight in his direction but he did not move. As soon as the dinosaur’s first leg went past his body, he finally moved.

With mind-blowing power, he erupted from his position beneath the exobeast as he shifted his upper body back slightly and swung sideways with all his might.

Boom!!

The 2 bamboo sticks hit the predator’s second leg with force, making it stagger for a moment. Its eyes blazed with fury as it finally detected the tiny bug that ambushed it.

With a swift but smooth drop of its head, its sharp teeth bit downward but Clark was gone.

As soon as they hit, the bamboo sticks broke into fragments so Clark no longer lingered in one place. Running swiftly like the flash, he evaded the bite, rolled forward a bit, and continued his escape.

The dinosaur turned immediately and went in pursuit.

After running dozens of times from the pursuit of these bastards, one improvement that was noticeable in him was his speed. He was now extremely fast, just like a rat escaping from a cat.

He swayed left and right, slipping through the claws of the now frustrated predator as he led it calmly to his predetermined direction.

Thud!

The next moment, the dinosaur roared as its enormous mass of a body fell like a 2 storied lorry. The ground shook due to this great fall but Clark stabilized himself quickly.

He dug a hole in the ground which the dinosaur fell for. One of its legs got stuck in the hole, and this succeeded in bringing down its whole body due to the sheer inertia force.

As soon as the dinosaur fell, his plan started in earnest.

A wall of bamboo sticks suddenly jumped out of the ground, their sharp polished tips gleaming as they all dug clumsily into the hide of the dinosaur, pinning it in place.

Other bamboo sticks were bent by the predator’s force, erupting from the ground with force and using its own weight as a power source to tie its huge legs firmly to the ground.

Roar!

The now angry predator roared but Clark was hardly fazed.

After stalking for 2 weeks, after planning and setting this up for another 3 weeks, all the puzzles finally fell in place and this bastard expects him to be intimidated just by a single roar.

“You need a doctor buddy!”

Thud! Clark turned to face the dinosaur directly man to beast before sharply stumping on the ground.

The next moment, the grass on the floor stirred. Carefully modified and shaped bamboo sticks suddenly shot out of the ground all around him, hovering before him like stick-shaped drones.

“Take this bitch!”

His hands moved extremely fast, leaving only afterimages behind as the bamboo sticks hovering in the air diminished at a visible speed, all of them flying at the dinosaur’s face.

Due to the force that he applied when throwing, the dinosaur could not react before the bamboo sticks reached its face.

2 hit its eyes but to Clark’s shock were repelled. Well, if 2 could not do it, dozens would.

Pu! Pu! Pu!

It only required another minute before this dinosaur got both its eyes blinded from the bamboo stick throws.

As it bellowed in rage, thrashing around, Clark was already sprinting closer from its sides with a special bamboo stick in his hand. Unlike the others, the pointed edge of this one was covered by metal.

Jumping with all his strength, Clark thrust the bamboo stick straight at the injury on the dinosaur’s neck as the metal pointed end finally drilled inside, earning another painful roar from the predator.

This pain seemed to have stimulated it as the dinosaur abandoned all its fatigue and trampled fiercely, all the traps holding it down snapped into parts in the face of this power.

Thud! Thud!

Turning his head to the side, Clark saw 2 other dinosaurs running in his direction to help their sibling. His face became anxious, but he was not ready to retreat.

This was his best shot so far; he was reluctant to fail.

Dodging the swift bite of the exobeast, his legs left afterimages behind, dust shooting everywhere in his wake as he ran under the wounded predator.

No weapon was with him again, only his fists were available to him. But at this moment, he felt that it was enough, he felt a strange energy brewing in his fists and he threw it outwards without hesitation.

Boom!

Blinding white light flashed, blood sprayed, the forest shook, bamboo trees were cleaved down, and Clark’s vision darkened.

“Congratulations…”

Clark could not hear this, he was dead.

[Thanks for reading.]