When I find the ettin it is already dead, and its corpse is being pushed by six shadow apes. They are pushing the corpse into a cave under the roots of a giant tree, thanks to the tree this area is much darker than the surroundings. That must be how the apes are still active even though the cavern is in 'day' time.

Activating mage knight blade to create my swords I charge at the shadow apes. They spot me quickly, grab their crude spears, and charge to meet me. I guess they have gotten used to nothing being able to hurt them, too bad for them.

Soon enough their high pitch screams are echoing through the forest and giving me another headache. If I am going to keep fighting these things I really need to figure out something to use as earplugs. Then again, if it means I can finally rank up, I can endure the pain.

Out of the six shadow apes, I kill four, and the other two flee into the cave under the tree. I quickly retrieve the cores of the four and then set off in pursuit of the other two. As I enter the cave I notice it is not natural, it has been dug out by hand, probably made by the shadow apes.

The other thing I notice is the ettin's corpse is gone, that probably means that more shadow apes dragged it away while I was fighting. Since I have no idea how many shadow apes might be down here I slow down and proceed cautiously. After all, they are difficult to fight, if I get surrounded I will be in a tough situation.

The tunnel continues for several thousand feet before opening up into a large round chamber. There are dozens of shadow apes inside, most of them are busy taking apart five ettin corpses. It seems like an entire tribe of shadow apes lives down here, I need to be careful.

Normally, dealing with superior numbers isn't a big deal, but with the shadow ape's protection from non-magical damage it isn't so simple. Charging into the room would be suicide, especially since I have no idea how many more apes might be close by. There are a total of ten tunnels leading into this chamber, yet I don't see any sleeping areas.

So, this probably isn't the main nest for the shadow apes, just a work area. Since I can't just charge in, I need to draw some out, so I target one that is within thirty-five feet of me and attack it with Wind Slash. When it screams every ape turns in its direction, after making sure I am seen I back into the tunnel.

As I hoped, a group of shadow apes come after me, there are ten of them. I wait until they have moved into the tunnel and away from the chamber before I use Lion's Rage. Unfortunately, I am disappointed because it has no effect, apparently it doesn't count as magic damage.

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That leaves me no choice but to use mage knight blade or wind slash to break their protection. As I fight the shadow apes I continue backing away from the chamber, to draw my opponents away from backup. Their screams sound out one by one as I hit them with my swords, until all ten have screamed.

As soon as the last one screams I stop backing away and use Lion's Rage again. This time it works properly and taunts all ten shadow apes, now they can't run away. Now I can go on the offensive, I focus on killing them one by one.

Of course I can't avoid all of their attacks, but since they are basically using sharpened sticks it doesn't do much damage to me. This seriously feels like bullying, but I want to rank up so I ignore the feeling. What surprises me is even as I am killing them no reinforcements come.

If they are a tribe then they should value their members, or maybe they are just too used to being invulnerable. There is probably nothing in this underground world that can hurt them so they are overconfident. Once the last one dies I start collecting cores, now I have enough to rank up plus two extra.

So I turn and leave the shadow ape's cave, I need to find a safe place to rank up. The safest place to rank up is probably my room in the castle, so I start heading for the exit. Of course, nothing is ever easy, I run into ettins constantly as I am trying to leave.

Each time I run into one I stop to fight it, after all they are why I came here in the first place. I end up having to kill nine ettins just to reach the exit of the underground world. Luckily, they don't bother setting guards at the exit or the passage to the surface, only outside the cave.

After killing the two guards I kill another four ettins as I make my way out of the hills and onto the trade road. Once free of the ettins I run all the way back to town, only stopping to wash off before heading to my room. It is still the middle of the night so other than the sentries there isn't anyone up to see me and wonder what I am doing.

Once safely in my room with the door locked I sit on the floor and pull out the shadow ape's cores. After setting two aside I start eating the remaining twelve, I quickly gobble them all down.

Core Upgrade Progress: 100%

Core Upgrade Completed!

Congratulations! You are now Rank 5! HP +100, SP +100, All stats +15!

Core Upgrade Progress: 1%

'Yay! Finally back to rank five! Stats!'

HP: 4794/4794

SP: 1825/1825

Strength: 550(600)

Agility: 418

Endurance: 419

Intelligence: 259

Wisdom: 440

Charisma: 198

Willpower: 81

Luck: 55

Toughness: 65

Regen: 55

Unspent Points: 50

'Ugh, my strength is still capped? Now I need to get to rank six I guess.'

Since I have them I go ahead and eat the other two shadow ape cores.

Core Upgrade Progress: 7%

'Now that I have ranked up they only give 3% each?'

So, if I get another thirty-one shadow ape cores I can reach rank six, that might be doable. The ettins tend to spread out in the underground world making hunting them easier. So I can hunt ettins during the 'day' and shadow apes during the 'night'.