Chapter 183: Not far from 100.

Chapter 183: Not far from 100.

In the end, I decided to go for [Aura dash] the implications of being able to chain the skill into itself was too tantalizing to pass up. Furthermore, the systems wording left enough room for interpretation, which I hoped would turn out for the better.

After mentally reaffirming my choice, my status screen updated, showing my new skill in the list.

Now, for the moment of truth Was it possible to dash upward or not?

I breathed in, breathed out and jumped. My feet left the ground no quicker than they usually did, filling me with momentary dread. The ball in my gut was quickly washed away, however, when I continued to go up. Gravity had yet to take hold of me and allowed me to keep going.

I continued to soar, until I managed to touch the ceiling of the giant tunnel, halting my momentum and reinstating gravity. The fall took a full three seconds, so when I finally hit the ground I bent my knees with the impact on instinct. Not that a fall from that height could have hurt me, though. Taking stock of the situation, I realised that the skill had taken a minuscule amount of neutral dark mana, that had aimlessly been resting in my core, to activate.

The dash part had certainly taken effect, but I still had to test the second half of the skill description. I attempted to activate the skill a second time without entering a mana-overloaded state, but as expected, it refused to.

In fact, it took another ten seconds before the skill did as asked, carrying me straight ahead rather than up, this time. It had to be said, this new and improved movement skill carried me much further and got me there much faster than Aura step had, which was already an improvement. More importantly, there werent any visual cues that could warn my opponent of what I was doing, whereas previously I had needed to create very visible footholds to get around.

I wasnt going to lie, that particular issue had been rather limiting, practically forcing me to face my enemies head-on, as they would see all of my movement coming a second in advance.This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

Now that the skill activated and launched me when I so much as considered the idea, that cue had disappeared. Upon my second round of practice, I realised that the skill had some cosmetic features as well. Whenever I dashed, some black smoke would cover me until the dash had ended. It didnt impair my vision at all, but might be helpful in overwhelming inexperienced opponents.

My final part of the checklist involved the cooldown of the skill. It mentioned that as long as I fulfilled the mana-overflow state, it would not have one at all. Period.

Finding nothing, I was about to fly down one of the side tunnels when the cave began to shake. The familiar rumble of an approaching monster greeted my ears, giving me enough time to plan.

When the creature rolled into the cavern about a minute later, it didnt see. For a matter of fact, I didnt smell me either, as I had searched my bag for the smelliest, most pungent pills I could find. I had then spread the decoys around the room, hoping to fully overwhelm the creature.

I realised that hadnt worked when the garbador worked itself up into a rage and started smashing the smeared spots with practiced precision. Did it think that an entire group of intruders had appeared? Realizing that time was limited, I flew over to it. I had to dash under the massive claw that was aiming for a pill spot to get to its belly. Maybe I didnt smell as strongly as the pills did, because the armadillo didnt react until I had pierced its leathery belly with my broken sword, its pointy end still holding enough of an edge to deal with the skin.

Leaving the curse mark was another thing that I knew to do at the first opportunity, its sickly green light glowing from under the grey leather. I stabbed it again and again, as fast as I could, escalating the curse more and more. Just when I was about to repeat the same strategy from before, expecting the garbador to curl up in an attempt to crush me, I saw something from the corner of my eye.

A rogue claw came flying in from my periphery, nearly turning me to paste. At the last second my dash activated, throwing me to the side from a still position. I retreated by flying under its armpit and circling around to its back, unable to see but very much able to hear the wet squelch as the garbadors claw dug into its own flesh.

What kind of decisiveness did a creature need to possess to go to such lengths?!

I continued my path to the front of the creature and watched as it rampaged, rolling over to every pill spot I had left. When it had flattened them all and uncurled itself, I saw its gaping wound in full view. Its stomach had been turned into a red mess, the creature dead set on killing or being killed. My curse mark was still there though, having dug its way in too deep for the creature to cut out. Now that its skin had been shredded, I didnt need to get in close to kill the monster either. Some sword arcs would do the trick

A few minutes later, my assumption was proven correct. All I had to do to kill the armadillo was stay up high and take the occasional swing when the monster left itself open. It was still going for the pills, because while the pills themselves were destroyed, the creature lacked the finesse necessary to remove the smells. Its non-existent eyesight didnt help either.

It took a little while before the garbador finally died, because I wasnt advancing the curse mark as quickly as before. That didnt matter, though. As long as no second garbador showed up, it was destined to die. Either to the curse or to its own wounds.

When it finally toppled over and the system notification came in, I realised that level 100 wasnt far away at this point.

Ding! Combat finished. Congratulations on reaching [Hollow essence Knight] level 86!