Chapter 26 - 26

The lizardman's painful screams echoed in the forest as it took its last breath.

[Swamp Amphibiod ( level 32) killed.]

[+31,000 exp]

Alex had to manually extract all the collectible material from the corpse before storing it.

After collecting all the material, Alex looked around and a frown appeared on his face.

He had been repeatedly casting area scans since the lizardman had created too much noise before dying. That ought to have put the others at guard and they should've sent some scouts, but there was no sign of any of them. This behavior was strange and was something that one wouldn't expect from creatures with the intellectual capabilities comparable to humans.

Something didn't seem to be right, so Alex decided to have a look around and proceed cautiously..

After two hours, the frown on Alex's face only deepened. No matter how he tried to lure out the lizardmen guards, they didn't leave their places even when he walked away in front of them.

Things were getting difficult. If he could not lure them out, he'd have to confront an entire group of seven lizardmen at the same time. And to make things worse, he didn't know where the next group of them was.

After a few more fruitless attempts to lure them out, Alex finally had to switch plans. He couldn't continue with his attempts to lure them, so he could only confront them.

Having no other choice, Alex could only tell the system to use exp to reach level 32.

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[ +35 all stats, +70 free attribute points, + 14 skill points.]

[+350 HP, +525 MP]

[475000 exp has been used.]

Since the guards didn't seem like they'd leave their positions anytime soon, Alex decided to try something that he had been holding up for the past two days.

His mana core had already reached white(98), and it would upgrade to yellow, but he didn't know what the process was. Alex was with Sheri and Lucas all the time when he was in the forest and he didn't know if his mana core promotion would cause a scene like when he reached Tier 1, so he didn't dare try it in the forest for the fear of attracting mana beasts and in the inn for the fear of causing a commotion. This was the perfect opportunity for him.

Alex created some distance from the lizardman guards and began absorbing the Poison fang Hyena cores. He had already developed a resistance to goblin cores, so this was his only other option.

[Poison fang Hyena mana core absorbed.]

[+2 core points.]

[Conditions for mana core promotion achieved.

Do you want to undergo core promotion?]

[Yes/No]

Alex readied himself for whatever was going to happen and pressed yes.

[Mana core promotion initiated.]

Alex felt like a vortex of mana was gathering on the top of his head and all the mana from the surroundings was gathering there. His body was absorbing mana crazily.

While absorbing, Alex suddenly felt a pain in his mana core. His mana core was expanding at a crazy rate. Before he could do anything, a sudden shockwave of mana spread throughout his body and even in the air surrounding him.

"Cough! Cough!"

Alex coughed out one mouthful of blood after another.

His mana core had exploded, leading to nearly every internal organ in his body being damaged.

"Cough! Cough!"

Alex continued coughing blood.

His face became pale and he could feel his consciousness slipping from his body.

With difficulty, Alex immediately grabbed his sword and stabbed it across his palm. The pain was the only thing keeping his consciousness from slipping and he had to stab himself repeatedly to stay awake.

While stabbing himself repeatedly, Alex still continued to keep his senses on high alert.

He couldn't let himself lose consciousness even if the lizardmen showed no movements, and to top it all up, he couldn't use area scan due to lack of mana core and there were creatures other than lizardmen in this dungeon. The corpses that he first saw were proof of that.

After what seemed like a few hours, another vortex of mana was formed around Alex and his body began absorbing mana.

A stabbing pain emerged from where his mana core previously was. It was a feeling like something was twisting and pushing his organs aside.

Slowly, a yellow coloured mana core was taking shape by the compression of the mana that Alex was absorbing.

Finally, when his mana core was the size of his fist, the absorption and the pain from the mana core stopped altogether, but the pain from his organs only got worse.

This wasn't a problem though. Alex immediately cast healing on himself and his organs began recovering at an incredible rate.

[Mana core promotion completed.]

[Rate of absorbing mana from the surroundings has been doubled.]

[+500 permanent increase in MP]

[10 units of World energy have been used to sustain the host's life processes for two hours.]

A series of system notifications marked the completion of his mana core promotion and Alex stood up.

He looked around and immediately understood why the system had to spend 10 units of World energy to sustain his life. He was surrounded by a pool of blood, there was a ghastly wound in his left hand and there were dried streams of blood coming from his nostrils, eye sockets and mouth.

Somehow, he felt that the blood around him was more than what his body ever contained.

Alex exhaled and a whitish mist left his nose and mouth. He looked at his clothes which were tattered and sighed. After everything was done, he proceeded to absorb four more cores before picking up his sword and stepping towards the lizardmen guards.

Just like the previous attempts, the lizardmen guards refused to leave their positions even after seeing Alex approach towards them.

The first reaction that Alex got from them was when he was just ten meters away from them.

All seven of the lizardmen guards raised their spears while pointing the spears at Alex and gave out a weak growl.

Alex immediately clenched the hilt of his sword and charged towards them. The lizardmen guards were infuriated by this sudden intrusion and attacked Alex with their spears. Even with his passive ability, it was very difficult for Alex to even land an attack.

These lizardmen weren't the goblins that Alex had faced earlier, they were all seasoned warriors and could easily block or dodge his ranged attacks while their numbers overwhelmed him in melee combat.

Alex charged in once again and swung his sword sidewards at one of the lizardmen who blocked using its spear, at the same time another spear moved towards Alex's chest. Alex moved sidewards and attacked another one, but before he could slash his sword completely, it was blocked by the spears of two other lizardmen who had been standing beside it.

Alex immediately retreated and a spear appeared where he was previously standing. These lizardmen were very good at teamwork and if Alex hadn't retreated when he did, he would have been trapped in their encirclement even if dodged or blocked that last spear.

The lizardmen and Alex eyed each other, trying to evaluate each other.

The only relief for Alex was that his mana recovery was much better now than what it had previously been, so he could prolong the battle, but not by a very significant margin.

Alex charged in again while using speed enhancement and attacked one of the lizardmen using his sword. It was blocked again, but unlike last time Alex used a wind blade just to push the lizardman backward. The spear of a nearby lizardman came striking at Alex's guts, but Alex was only pushed towards the other side.

Using a mana barrier, Alex managed to stop the spear from piercing his guts and used the impact to move towards another one.

This lizardman was caught by surprise and Alex's sword pierced its heart in an instant.

[Swamp Amphibiod (level 30) killed]

[ +29,000 exp]

Alex quickly escaped in the shadow of a tree before the spears of the other lizardmen reached him and appeared a few meters behind them.

The lizardman nearest to Alex charged at him in a rage. Alex also moved forward. The sword and the spear collided. The lizardman tried to overpower Alex and increased the force behind his spear, but a brown coloured wind blade was stabbed into his guts.

It continued to weakly advance towards Alex only to be beheaded by the next attack.

Now, only five were left and the pressure created by the barrage of attacks reduced significantly.

Alex charged into the formation of the five lizardmen and stabbed one of them in the shoulder. It roared in agony and began to frantically attack Alex with its spear. Alex cut the spear with his sword and stepped back.

The lizardmen were prideful creatures, so the one hurt by Alex couldn't take it and broke the formation to attack Alex with its claws. The lizardman charged forward and swung its tail on Alex. Alex dodged the attack and slashed his sword at the neck of the lizardman.

Suddenly, the ground under Alex's feet began to crumble and pointed rocks appeared from beneath. Alex jumped in the air to dodge the mud slash. A lizardman from the group of four suddenly raised its arm and released a series of water bullets on Alex.

Alex also released a series of wind blades in response. The wind blades being at level 2 were much stronger than the water bullets and hit the lizardman after cutting through the water bullets.

The lizardman was injured and blood flowed out of the cuts and wounds of its body. After landing, Alex immediately charged in at the injured lizardman and whacked his sword. The lizardman was cut into two from top to bottom and died immediately.

Suddenly, the swampy ground under Alex's foot began to cave in and a vortex began to pull him in.

Seeing Alex get trapped, the four lizardmen immediately pounced at him from all four sides.

But, when the four were still in midair, Alex disappeared into the shadow created by one of them which happened to fall on Alex.

Before they could realize what happened, Alex appeared out of the shadow of the lizardman and stabbed its stomach with a brownish wind blade. Alex then used his sword to cut the lizardman into two.

The remaining three were horrified and wanted to retreat, but a loud squeak was heard from behind them.

A large Swamp Amphibiod around the size of two regular ones appeared, carrying the corpse of one of its kind. Alex was a bit confused. He hadn't killed this one, so where did the corpse come from?

Alex immediately got his answer the next moment though.