Chapter 389 How Far Can I Go?
There had been quite a few interesting things in the destroyed settlement of the Heligav, with most of them being information about their allies on Jundra.
The map of the northern side of the continent they were living in was also quite intriguing.
All nine human shelters, the Forest of Life, and more than 10 settlements of other races had been marked on the map.
Nial didn't know the names of the other races, or if they were more settlements of the Heligavs but one mark was quite unique. Two particular symbols? were written on top of the mark, which made Nial feel interested in it.
The symbol for [Alliance] and [City] had been written above the mark that had become Nial's second destination.
He was not sure if it was an intelligent decision to jump right into the lair of a bunch of races but without risk there wouldn't be any rewards either. That was what Nial told himself when he began to travel in the direction of his destination.
"How many months will I have to travel without being able to read anything, or to properly absorb mana? I'm wasting my time like this…" Nial grumbled after traveling for three days.
His mana core rank was obviously not high enough and he wanted to improve as a Runicier as well. However, if he wanted to absorb mana properly or read a book in a fully focused state, Nial wouldn't be able to run as fast as he was doing right now.
"Should I just subdue a beast at the Prometheus rank?" He began to wonder as he began to expand his range of perception and [Mana Sense] with the goal to find a suitable beast to subdue.
There were a bunch of powerful beasts he had passed by but none of them were great mounts. Tigers, Cheetahs, Velociraptors, and so on were not exactly suitable to ride on, not without a saddle, at the very least.
Thus, Nial ignored them as he passed through their territory. Not many beasts dared to attack him because they felt uneasy while approaching him.
The beasts could instinctively sense that Nial's true attack power was much higher than a newly advanced Prometheus Original was supposed to have. His two beating hearts and the terrifying amounts of mana the Heart of Darkness pulled toward him at any time were not to be underestimated.
Unfortunately, the fact that his Heart of Darkness pulled tremendous amounts of mana toward him was not only advantageous but it was risky as well.
He attracted the interest of many powerful beasts that had emerged on Jundra not too long ago.
This was also the reason why Nial ended up encountering a huge scaled Rhinoceros when he entered the land the beast had ordained its territory.
"How about you let me walk through your territory and we will end this nicely without creating a bloody mess?" Nial asked once, just to receive a thunderous roar as an answer as the blue-scaled Rhinoceros charged at him angrily.
Its horn seemed to grow in size as huge amounts of water formed around it. Nial frowned deeply as he visualized the five-meter-tall monster that was running straight toward him.
It was a beast at the Deux rank and certainly not something Nial should underestimate.
Nonetheless, he wouldn't flee from the fight, just because he was not able to make the Rhinoceros leave him in peace. Nial was done with running away. If the monster wanted a fight, it would receive the chance to die at his hands.
With determination flooding his entire being, Nial retrieved a bunch of runic armaments from his spatial ring. It was just a moment later that he wore black leather gloves, a flexible metal chestplate, a new pair of pants, boots that could regulate the gravitational force weighing on him, and a bunch of more runic armaments.
Each of them had been created with the augmentation of the Heart of Darkness and only Nial was able to wield them properly.
This was especially the case for the huge broadsword that had manifested in Nial's hands.
It was extremely heavy but Nial swung it around as if he was holding a small wooden branch. He smiled lightly as he circulated mana through his entire body, and activated all the runic armaments he was wearing in one go.
The pressure he released intensified and his physical strength increased by leaps and bounds. Nial's body felt featherlight and so did the broadsword he wielded after all runic armaments had been activated.
Nial dashed toward the charging Rhinoceros without hesitation. He was ready to go all-in and kill the beast that wanted to unnecessarily pick up a fight instead of letting him have a calm journey through Jundra.
Nial had many things on his mind but fighting the blue-scaled Rhinoceros at the Deux rank was not one of them.
Thus, it was time for him to eliminate his opponent as quickly as possible, without the use of his Essence of Darkness or dark energy.
That was why he felt that the fight against the Rhinoceros wouldn't be for naught and he would learn a lot.
Nial took lots of things into consideration as he jumped ahead and activated the runic constellation [One with the wind]. It was an Intermediate runic constellation, which Nial had combined with lots of other runic constellations, such as [Burst Wind], [Gale], [Dash], and more to create a similar effect like short-distance teleportation.
With One with the wind, Nial could run on the wind for a few seconds. Meanwhile [Burst Wind], and [Gale] created winds around Nial that shot forward, providing him the opportunities to burst forward and to run on the winds, using them like stepping stones. On the other hand, [Dash]'s effect was quite simple as well.
It allowed Nial to maintain great balance wherever he was running over. The effect might make it look like the runic constellation should be named something different but that was not really a concern to Nial.
He relied on the effects of his runic constellations, not the name some idiotic creator gave them after spending years to study about runic constellations.
Nial just used them and their effects were amazing. He was very satisfied as he shot up in the air. Meanwhile, the blue-scaled Rhinoceros charged over the ground below him in an effort to attack him with his horn, which was exactly what Nial wanted.
He could perceive that the beast tried to slow down and turn around to initiate a different kind of attack, but Nial didn't want to give the blue-scaled Rhinoceros any chance to retaliate.
The battle had to end with a single blow, otherwise, it would become a hassle!
Nial activated the broken runic constellation [Gravity] of his boots and he increased his gravitational force manyfold.
Simultaneously, he activated [Burst], a runic constellation of his chestplate that blasted him straight on the ground.
With shocking velocity, Nial was catapulted to the ground, where the blue-scaled Rhinoceros' body awaited him.
The Rhinoceros had instinctively erupted a huge wall of water that had shot up horizontally to block all the attacks from above.
However, Nial ignored this altogether as he activated all the runic constellations of his augmented Tier-2 runic weapons.
The huge broadsword's color changed to sky blue as a chilling cold spread out from it. This was the doing of the Advanced runic constellation [Frost King] that had been further augmented by [Chilling Cold], [Frost Blade], [Vibration], and [Force of Destruction] to create a powerful and highly lethal attack.
Nial slashed the huge broadsword downward while the tremendous gravitational force weighed down on him. Thus, the moment he smashed the wall of water, it froze due to the Frozen King's blade before it burst open.
Nial's fall was not slowed in the slightest and his attack was not yet completed either. He slashed at the broad back of the blue-scaled Rhinoceros, using his momentum, tremendous weight, and force in a single attack, hoping that it would be enough to kill the mighty beast.
But no sooner than his attack impacted the Rhinoceros, Nial felt a tremendous resistance. He had already had some idea that beasts were different than Angels, Heligav, and other races when advancing in the ranks.
However, only now could Nial truly fathom the difference of a strength of a beast with specific racial limits and unique traits too that of humans. Such traits couldn't be learned entirely even by attempting to learn and exert specific techniques and intelligent races, such as humans and elves, had to learn how to control mana, how to improve themselves, and techniques to enhance their strength.
Beasts would advance in the ranks and become stronger until they would reach their racial limits. Humans and other races would have to work hard to improve one step at a time. Thus, while humans didn't possess as much of a restriction on their strength, it would take them far more time to improve and they would be able to advance as long as they possessed the right mindset, willpower, and luck.
As for beasts, they would always be stuck at their racial limit if they were not capable enough to unlock the hidden bloodline within their body or evolve their bloodline on their own!
In the end, it was said that most beasts were stronger than Originals at the same mana core rank after they reached maturity. This was why Nial had far more issues penetrating the scales of the Rhinoceros, let alone its hide as opposed to fighting the Deux ranked Angel.
At least, he had been able to overwhelm the Deux Angel, even though it required him to make use of his Darkness Essence, dark energy, the Ancient Devilization, and both his rage and wrath!
Right now, Nial was trying to use his physical strength, a bunch of augmented Tier-2 runic armaments, and the ginormous amount of mana in his possession to his advantage…to fight a beast that was a full rank above his own.
That was insane to put it simply, but the same could be said about the fact that the Frozen King's blade was powerful enough to penetrate the blue-scaled Rhinoceros' wall of water, its scales, and a few centimeters of its flesh.
Nial was baffled when he was only repelled after a good portion of the Frozen King's blade had cut into the flesh of the Deux beast. It was truly shocking and more than enough for him to be satisfied with the result of the battle.
The Heart of Darkness began to beat rapidly and a flood of dark energy and Essence of Darkness was released at once. Nial's body oozed out darkness that spread over to the Frozen King's blade where it infiltrated the body of the blue-scaled Rhinoceros.
The beast began to shake heavily and it used enough force to push Nial more than a hundred meters away by conjuring a stream of water that hit right into Nial's abdomen.
However, instead of feeling dissatisfied about that, Nial blocked the water stream by activating his chestplate's runic constellation [Iron Will].
This was enough to block the attack from inflicting serious injuries to him while the light metal armor ended up with a dent inside.
But that was only a small loss in exchange for surviving a surprise attack.
"So that's how far I can go by solely using my physical strength, mana and runic armaments…. I didn't use a single ability and was still able to injure a Deux-ranked beast. That's quite good!" Nial thought with a faint smile on his face as his experiment came to an end.
He activated the Curse [Hodur's Heir] and his second ability [Blood Eclipse Moon], erupting bloody black miasma from his body.
"Now sleep my little kid! Don't complain to me when I devour you!"
**
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