Hoping to get stronger, he went out to search for stronger opponents.
The first thing that he came across was the horde of ants, each of them was the size of a normal dog. Their attack power was average and their speed wasn't very fast. However, they were very strong in numbers. And most importantly, they didn't have any special skills or magic attacks.
He defeated dozens of these ants with ease but then his stamina started running out due to all this fighting. Even after killing hundreds of ants, there were still an unfathomable number of them.
So, instead of fighting so many ants at once, he decided to go straight for the queen ant. It would be faster and easier to kill her than trying to fight thousands of them at once.
After killing some ants, he swiftly retreated and hid himself. He even erased his scent with mana so that they wouldn't be able to smell him.
Then he began searching for the queen ant. He knew from his childhood that the worker ant carried the food to the queen ant. After finding the right worker ant, he waited until she came near it before attacking her. He had to hit her hard to make sure she died quickly.
Soon the moment came, the queen ant was bigger than the worker ant near it. As soon as the queen ant picked up food from the worker ant, he speedily struck her with his dagger. He then saw a flash of light sparking from his strike and an explosion occurred. It was the moment when the queen ant exploded. The shockwave was powerful enough to kill several ants nearby.
This made him realize that the queen ant's body contained an extremely high amount of Calcium Nitrate which was highly explosive.
That was why he couldn't sense anything while striking her, but he could definitely feel it when the force from his blow carried over to the rock she stood on and sent her flying. He had heard about the defensive power of a Queen Ant before, but this was different. This wasn't just pure defense; there was some sort of mysterious force that supported it.
He realized that if he used physical attacks again, he would only make things worse for himself. His opponent had managed to stay unscathed even with that explosion. It didn't seem like she had any magic or special abilities. In other words, if he wanted to defeat her, he needed to rely on piercing techniques instead of relying on his dagger’s attack power.
"If I want to win against this queen ant... I need to use a technique that can cut through anything."
The only thing he could think of was the "Umbra!," the same technique that he'd used during the battle against the spider. It was a magical attack so it could bypass physical defense to a certain extent.
This time he tried channeling light energy to his dagger and a white glow covered the entirety of it including the chains. He then striked with a long chained dagger attack and it neatly pierced her thick body thoroughly.
Noy fell to the ground, "Aghh... I get tired too easily. I should increase my stamina, it's almost depleted." This was another flaw that he found after this fight.
When the queen ant was killed, the ant immediately fell into dismay. Without the queen ant, they couldn't function properly which resulted in them scattering away. This made it easier for Noy to kill the scattered ants individually.
It took him more than a week to finish killing the other ants. But he had successfully killed over five thousand of them which meant that he was getting stronger. He only used daggers on those ants as he wanted to increase his proficiency in his dagger skills.
After resting for a while, he moved on and ran into the horde of bats hanging upside down from the ceilings. He didn't think they were much stronger either but their number was a problem.
They sat so densely next to each other that in around a 100 m radius, there could be more than several thousand of them. If they saw him first and flew towards him together then it could be a problem. He didn't know how to scatter them either like how he did with ants. So, he gave up on using his chained daggers on bats and started preparing a spell.
He first prepared a fireball combined with the lightning spell, then he made it bigger and launched it toward the center of the bat with an aerial wave. He quickly followed up with a water wave that swept up the dead bodies of the bat.
"Haah.. my spells are getting powerful and my efficiency in mana is also increasing. I can even control each element better now."
However, it seemed that his mana was still not enough for his spells to work effectively. He needed to increase his mana pool more.
"I'll also ask Akriel how I can further increase my mana pool."
Then he carried on with his hunt to get stronger. On his hunt, he came across large centipedes, rabbits, wolves, and many other monsters. He promptly defeated all of them while mapping out the area.
He found out that this place was kind of a circle in shape with forest and dungeon terrains scattered around. He went to all kinds of places and now one last place remained to complete his mapping.
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This was the only place he hadn't explored. It almost had an eerie feeling to it. It looked like a normal forest on the outside but no creature could be seen or heard around.
It also had an almost straight pathway leading to somewhere but he didn't know where it would go. Since he wanted to map out the whole area, he decided to go on this pathway to see where it would lead.
Then a golden lion-like monster jumped in from of him with blood in its mouth. It seemed like it had just hunted something and eaten it just before arriving there. It was larger and bigger than a normal lion and lightning whirled around him. He could also feel a lot of mana from him. This confirmed that it was very strong.
Ever since Noy consumed the mana liquid, he could sense the mana from others indicating whether someone was strong or not. However, he couldn't sense Akriel's mana in the room.
He was certain, "It must be at the top of the food chain here. Maybe this is its domain and I have crossed over it."
The lion stared brazenly at Noy. It looked like it would devour him just with its eyes. He could feel the gaze pierce through him. There was also some kind of holy magic that radiated from it.
Then the lion roared loudly which almost caused the same destruction to the surroundings as a huge tornado would.
"It's the first time I've seen a monster so scary and powerful," Noy said, trying to sound calm despite his shaking nerves.
Noy was tempted to try attacking the lion's head. However, he knew this would be a suicide mission since the lion had already begun casting magic. The only thing he could do is run. There was no way, he could defeat that monster. He needed to get away from here before it attacked him. And yet...
"I won't lose!" Noy shouted, and the lion roared in response.
He didn't hesitate any longer; he swiftly double-jumped towards the lion's back.
The lion reacted immediately by canceling the spell and turned around quickly. It opened its jaws towards Noy who still hadn't turned his dagger on it. It had a very fast speed as if it were made out of the air itself.
Noy leaped backwards dodging the jaws just narrowly. But then he realized that he was cornered, he couldn’t run while in the air and there was no room for him to dodge its jaws.
If he couldn't stop this beast now, he would die.
There was only one option left for him: he would have to use his chained dagger.
"Haah!" Noy yelled out as he threw his daggers covered in the light aura.
His dagger hit the lion's side but, surprisingly, the lion absorbed the blow without flinching.
"It's absorbing my mana!?" Noy thought in disbelief.
Then the lion's tail swung down towards his body.
"Ahhh!" Noy screamed as he rolled away.
He took a deep breath and tried desperately not to panic. He let his mind wander while his body kept dodging its tail. He wasn't sure how he was able to think clearly at that moment, but he did. His thoughts circled around until they reached a conclusion.
"I can't fight this thing."
He'd heard about the ferociousness of the normal lion monster and that its claws alone were more powerful than anything else. So he was convinced that there was no point in fighting it right now. He was ashamed but there was nothing he could do.
He concealed himself and increased his agility temporarily, then retreated as fast as he could with greeting teeth, "This is the second time that I have run away from a monster. FUUCK.... I WILL GET STRONGER… AND THERE WILL BE NO THIRD TIME."
As he retreated, the lion suddenly stopped chasing after a while. Noy didn't know why, maybe because he had left its territory, but he didn't mind it.
With the new renewed goal to get even stronger, he decided to increase his training exponentially and push his body to the limit.
After that, he went and fought more other monsters in the dungeons except for that lion for a few months straight before going back to Akriel.
Noy was walking through the room when Akriel came back from behind Noy and surprised him.
"Seems like you are not dead yet." Akriel smiled.
"Of course not! I am more resilient than you might think." Noy replied with an annoyed but happy face. He had seen Akriel many months later afterall.
"You look like you have many things to talk about. Come eat and talk." Akriel took out a bowl of stew and gave it to him.
"I have basically mapped out this whole place with the exception of the hidden rooms where I found that mana liquid and the spot that I couldn't go through. There lived a golden lion with the lightning attribute that also exuded a holy kind of aura. I wanted to fight it but it was too strong for me. So, I just retreated."
"Hmm... I also don't know exactly where you found that mana liquid but it’s definitely one of the hidden rooms scattered around." Akriel pondered.
"The lion you fought must be the Nemean Lion. It's a really powerful beast with holy attributes. It's a god's servant, so he must be following someone's order." Akriel thought carefully, " It must be guarding the pathway that leads to the outside door."
"So that leads to the outside door? Then why haven't you gotten out of this so-called prison already? And that lions' a god's servant?"
"Slow down I will answer all your questions one by one. Firstly, most of my powers are sealed in this place. I can barely defeat that Nemean Lion and even if I manage to defeat it, there are two guardians blocking the door and stopping anything from going outside. They are extremely powerful and are too much for me to handle in my current state. As for your last question, I am pretty sure it's here to watch over the path and keep an eye on me."
"So did you do something bad?" Noy asked it in the heat of the moment but quickly regretted it as he didn't want to dig up his past if it made him uncomfortable.
"I'll tell you when the time comes..." Akriel replied with a sad face.
"Alright, I will wait for that moment. Uhh.. may I ask you something else?" Noy wanted to change the subject.
"Go ahead."
"I seem to get stronger every time I kill a monster but lately it has stagnated. Can you appraise me to see what it's about?"
"Okay sure." Akriel put out his hand and a light glow briefly radiated from Noy.
"You do seem to have a skill that allows you to get stronger after killing monsters, but when you get stronger and stronger it requires more and more monsters respectively to match the growth. It looks like you were born with this skill. So, let me teach you something that will nicely complement this skill of yours."
“Basically every dead monster will still have mana within their body that will eventually disperse into nature. You should capture that mana within yourself and purify the mana inside your body to make it your own.”
Then Akriel practically taught Noy how to absorb mana from the dead monsters.
"This will greatly aid you in being an excellent mage. You will be able to cast higher-level magic with ease as your mana pool increases." Akriel smiled.
This was a huge boost for Noy. He would become stronger the more he fought with these two skills.
No matter how he thought about it there was no downside to these powers.