Chapter 1071: 1071. Tests

A starry sky spread in the depths of the Dark Gorge, and the few lights let out by Noah's flames illuminated the environment. Shadows formed, and the creature's appearance became more visible even if the black fire had submerged half of it.

Noah had already grasped its form with his consciousness, but looking directly at it gave him more hints about its species.

'Is that a Pterodactyl?' Noah thought as waves of shock filled his mind. That wasn't his first time seeing an ancient or extinct species, especially after the events in the hidden world. However, that specimen's features were so unique that he couldn't help but admire them.

The creature didn't have a proper body. It didn't have any skin or tissues, but it had a fixed form. The only traces of its existence were its aura and the outlines of its shape. It resembled a basic Blood Companion when "Breath" didn't fill its insides.

Nevertheless, those were only its most evident characteristics. The feature that left Noah speechless was the fabric of its body. It wasn't material, and it blended perfectly with the darkness around it. It was as if darkness itself made its few strands of tissues.

Noah's interest surged at that sight. A magical beast purely made of darkness would obviously attract his attention, and he had all the time to test its capabilities.

The Pterodactyl's aura placed it in the lower tier of the sixth rank, but Noah's flames didn't appear able to hurt it. They suppressed the creature, but its structure remained untouched.

Moreover, it seemed that the beast was becoming used to the flames since it began to struggle to come out of the starry sky.

Two hypotheses appeared in Noah's mind, and he promptly shot forward to test them. His figure appeared above the struggling beast, and a punch landed on the black lines that depicted its head.

Noah felt some resistance when his knuckles hit the creature's ethereal edges, but his fist crossed them after that. A grunt came out of the beast, but it didn't seem to have suffered any damage.

'It should have felt this one,' Noah thought as he floated above the beast, 'But the flames can only stop it.'

The Demonic Sword flew in his grasp at that point, and Noah slashed without any hesitation. A black line landed on the creature, but it didn't cross its body like his last attacks. Instead, it exploded into a cloud of corrosive smoke after making a dent in its head's lines.

A loud cry finally came out of its mouth, and its struggles to come out of the fiery sea became more intense. Yet, Noah continued his tests and unleashed a series of violent attacks under him.

Noah gained a general understanding of the Pterodactyl's prowess after he launched all he had on it. The beast appeared resistant to every attack, especially when it came to techniques relying on his darkness and physical strength.

However, it felt the blows enhanced by his sharpness, and his dark matter appeared able to overcome most of its natural defenses.

The Pterodactyl's body was a mess after Noah completed his tests. The lines on its wings and slim torso had missing pieces on multiple spots, and only its head had remained mostly intact.

Noah had done that on purpose. The head generally was the essential part of any creature, so he had focused on other spots to continue his testing and learn more about that species.

Even an unknown creature in the sixth rank couldn't do anything against Noah's might. The more he fought with his new body, the more he could express its power. Suppressing a beast on that level barely took any effort.

'It shouldn't be this weak,' Noah eventually thought. He had a general idea of how strong a creature in the sixth rank should be, and the Pterodactyl didn't even meet the standards of weaker species in his knowledge.

Still, the prison-like structures inside the Gorge hinted that it had been kept captive. The creature's strange body didn't allow him to see any sign of starvation, but Noah found that as the only explanation for its low battle prowess.

There was also the chance that they were a weak species, but Noah didn't believe that his opponent was at its peak. A species on that level would have never survived in any food chain.

'How does it even eat?' Noah pondered while the Pterodactyl cried in pain. Its screeches were deep growls that spread through the Gorge's darkness and made the rocky walls tremble.

The starry sky had dispersed by that point, so the Pterodactyl could touch the Gorge's blackness again. Some of the lines that made its body began to regrow as the creature remained immersed in the darkness.

The process was slow, but it was still faster than natural healing. It seemed that the darkness was the environment that took the best out of its species.

Snore had formed next to Noah when he tested the elemental attacks, but it coiled around the powerless Pterodactyl to perform another test. After the Blood Companion sealed its grip on the creature, Noah flew upward to expose it to the sunlight.

The Pterodactyl began to cry in fear. Noah heard its pleading growls as the sun started to illuminate its peculiar form. However, he ignored them to improve his knowledge of that creature.

The black lines that made the Pterodactyl's body began to fade as light illuminated its shape. The mighty rank 6 beast vanished when exposed to the sunlight, and only a few mental waves remained in its spot.

Noah's consciousness trapped those mental waves before they could disperse, but he saw only darkness when he absorbed them inside his mind. He felt the hunger that they carried, and a faint sharpness accompanied it.

'They can't live during the day,' Noah added pieces of information in his mental bestiary before diving back inside the Gorge.

The fear of dealing with traces left with divine beings disappeared after he confirmed the Pterodactyl's weakness. He had nothing to worry about if that was the species in charge of the Gorge.

Darkness enveloped him once again as he descended past his previous spot and flew toward the bottom of the fissure. His consciousness sensed a series of presences waking up at his passage, and he didn't hesitate to shoot toward them.

Pterodactyls of various levels filled the depths of the Gorge. Noah saw two more specimens in the sixth rank surrounded by an army of beasts in the fourth and fifth rank. There were hundreds of creatures hidden in the darkness, but Noah felt that they were only a tide of ants.