Jonathan kept his feet however, and he was able to stand for long enough to get out of the way. He lacked the strength to get in and out from under its stomach for long enough to inflict more damage, and he instead settled for punching it into the side with a mana imbued fist. The attack crashed in, but it was nowhere near as devastating as it had been before. The fight was slowly but surely turning into something that he would need his strongest skill to win. It was a desperate, last ditch gambit as it would damage him beyond repair unless he was able to level up, but he was confident about being able to level up from this titan among monsters.

Jonathan stumbled out of the way of an attack, but when he was unable to fully escape the range of the swipe, and it tore through his flesh, he resolved himself to his chosen course of action. Closing his eyes, he looked deep within himself, and seized his Divinity in his mind, pouring it into his body. Golden energy filled his frame, and he surged forwards, bringing both fists crashing into the monster in front of him. Flesh and bone was blasted outwards in an arc of red and white, and Jonathan struck again and again, heedless of the fact that his body was tearing itself apart. The Leonid roared in agony as Jonathan slowly tunneled into its body, but as he punched, he severed its ligaments, rendering it unable to move. Summoning a mana drill to his hand, he pumped even more Divinity into that skill, and the blue ball blossomed into a golden sphere of power. Cocking his palm back, Jonathan screamed in wordless fury before slamming it into the monster’s head. Bone and flesh buckled before his attack, and his sphere of energy tore through the monster's brain, killing it instantly.

As soon as this happened, Jonathan banished the skill, coughing up blood and chunks of flesh. Using the skill for so long had begun to liquify his internal organs, and only the essence coursing into him from his kill could fix that. He tried to remain conscious, but he eventually succumbed to the pain and blood loss.

A few hours, or perhaps an entire day, later, Jonathan woke up next to the corpse of the massive monster, and he gaped at his handiwork. The battle was like a haze in his mind, and all he remembered was being forced to bring out his ultimate skill to defend himself against the creature. However, as he looked upon the broken and battered corpse, he stood in awe of the power that he had briefly channeled. It had inflicted a terrible toll on his body, only mitigated by him leveling up, but the damage was still awe inspiring. Giant craters were smashed into the monster’s flesh, and its head was completely gone, turned into a pile of meat. Notifications waited for him, and he eagerly opened them.

You have killed a Leonid Ash Reaver!

You have leveled up!

The battle had only given him one level, which was certainly cutting it a bit close. It seemed that something was adjusting the amount of essence that he got from monsters, perhaps to adjust for his tremendous strength. It made sense, after all it would take more energy to increase more stat points, but it still reeked of the games of the System. It was probably ecstatic about being able to limit his strength. After all, if he died, then he would never figure out the true secret of the runes. There was something else there too, a message that filled Jonathan with dread.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

You have reached the cusp of your Resilience Threshold!

Until you invest a free point into it, it will not increase.

At least it was not something that he had no choice in, and he decided to save it until later, when he was pending a breakthrough on all of his stats. At that point, he would have no choice but to break through. There was one final notification waiting for him, which was for his quest. However, all it said was that he had been rewarded with revenge, which was all well and good, but ultimately useless.

Jonathan ignored the existential dread from that near miss, and instead made sure that every one of his belongings was present. Finding that they were, he gathered up everything around him, finding a few of his Leviathan Marks scattered across the ash, and left the scene.

His clothes were covered in blood, and his armor was nearly on its last legs, with massive tears in the leather. The only thing that wasn't damaged were his gauntlets, which were still just as durable as ever.

He walked off into the ash, trying as hard as he could to ignore the sight of the pile of corpses far behind him, where the bodies of the freed slaves rotted on the ash. He had led to their death, no matter how indirectly, and it made him feel terrible about his decisions. Realistically, even if he had stayed with them, they would still have all died, as the monster had been too powerful for him to both fight and defend the slaves, but unfortunately, hindsight didn't care.

Eventually, Jonathan forcibly shut his mind down, and kept his brain unfocused, simply using his breathing to count the steps. A few hours later, he emerged from his meditative state, finding a notification waiting for him.

You have gained a new skill!

Meditation:Uncommon

You can tear your mind away from the horrors of the real world for a long stretch of time, allowing you to take a break from your inner angst. It can also be used for passing long stretches of time.

Jonathan tidied away the notification, and thought about the skill and its uses. It was certainly valuable in this area, with its endless monotony, but did he really want to excise large portions of his life? His time would be better spent furthering his progress with his mana manipulation skill. As soon as he thought that, he got to work.

Keeping his core in his mind's eye, Jonathan began to poke and prod at the glowing blue orb, creating tendrils of mana that he worked in and out of the orb. He worked on his compressing skills too, as using mana within one’s body without actually expanding it did not cost anything in the way of mana. Still, he almost had a thousand points in the resource, and he wasn't going to run out without some serious exertion, but he had no idea where his travails would lead him next, and it could very well be days until he found anything of note.

Instead, he worked on his mana manipulation skills within his own body. It was incredibly slow going, but he kept at it, until he eventually ranked up the skill a few days later. By that point, he had caught sight of another city in the distance, and was heading towards it. His enhanced physicality had rendered it so he did not need as much food as before, and his pack was still filled with cans. What he wanted however was to be able to buy some sort of proper armor. He had picked the leather armor initially in an attempt to fit his fighting style, but he had come to realize that it was almost useless. His Strength and Dexterity were good enough anyway to use heavier types of armor, and he was aiming for a suit of chainmail armor, or half plate. He had no illusions about the price of such a thing, and he knew that it would be expensive, but he would cross that bridge when he got to it.