*VRRMMM~

The eye of the Oculus glowed brightly, following which the red half-transparent beam of light descended upon defenders.

- AAAAAAAAHHHH~

- Noooooo!!!!

*PSSST

Several middle-aged men were fried alive. The spectators were horrified.

Upon seeing the hopeless situation, villagers further descended into the abyss of hopelessness, but their families were waiting for their return. They couldn't fall here!

- Bro, wake up!

The middle-aged man smacked the back of the head of his friend, who had lost his mind. Unfortunately, those who had lost their minds wouldn't awaken this easily. Their eyes seemed empty and desolate as they swung their weapons at their comrades.

- Damn it, archers, bring down this vile creature!

The chief roared.

Tens of arrows started raining down upon Oculus, but when the arrows reached it, their momentum was half dissipated due to the distance.

When the arrows reached its body, the tentacles would wrap around them and snap them in half.

The Oculus was gliding in the air while shooting down red beams of light.

- Die!

The chief roared as he threw the spear at Oculus. The spear flew at high velocity.

- Skreeeee~

The Oculus gave one last shout, which attacked everyone's mind and then it vanished in mid-air.

The spear passed through the empty air and disappeared in the Horizon.

- Fuck! Come out!

The chief hollered but to no avail. He knew the Oculus was still here but in stealth mode. Even he couldn't detect its presence anymore.

Seeing chief's failure, Lorian cursed in his mind and decisively ran in his direction.

His mind was highly alert as he avoided the strong monsters along the way, while finished off the weakened ones, harvesting some Battle Exp.

- Chief!

Lorian yelled. The old man was surprised to see him running in his direction, which was basically the front lines.

- You brat, what are you doing here?

He yelled while clutching the head of the ferocious beast and smashed it down, then stomped on it. Next, he used its head as a stepping stone to jump back and avoid the sweeping, dangerous paw of the huge monkey-like beast.

- Catch it!

Lorian threw his mask at the chief. The old man involuntarily grasped it with his hand.

- It's an artifact. See if you can feel Oculus' presence after equipping it.

Lorian explained shortly and rolled to avoid the massive beast, which smashed on where he stood moments ago.

- Roar!

The beast rolled around and came to halt, glaring at Lorian in anger. Lorian ignored it and continued running forward.

Chief's eyes flashed as he understood Lorian's meaning. He instantly realized that mask was an artifact, which would raise his perception. He was astonished to find out that youngster possessed such a thing. Earlier, he thought it was just a normal mask.

He equipped it and focused wholeheartedly.

The artifact would raise one's attribute by percentage. The wolf mask had 5 units of increase in perception, which was equivalent to a 50% boost. The chief was at a higher level and possessed much higher perception than the average human. If he was given such an artifact, the benefits it would bring would naturally be better.

- Well?

Lorian asked impatiently.

- Good, I can vaguely feel its location.

He drew another spear and was going to throw it, but Lorian stopped him.

- Wait, can you throw me up instead?

Stolen novel; please report.

His intentions were to kill the Oculus on his own as the system would reward him greatly.

- Are you crazy?

The chief yelled in impatience and looked at him like he was a madman.

- Yes or no?

Lorian chose to ignore his gaze.

The chief hesitated.

- I can, but your bones will be crushed upon collision, also, have you thought about the landing? You'll die. Why are you risking it anyway? I can bring it down on my own. You are wasting my time! The people are dying.

Lorian was also afraid of it, but he was resolute enough to ignore his fears. By his estimates, the Oculus wouldn't instantly crash down upon being impaled by his sword, but float down, slowly losing strength, so the landing wouldn't bring his demise.

- Throw me up! I have the confidence to kill it in one blow.

Lorian didn't give in and bullshitted his way in.

- You...fine. I can only throw you up in its direction, the rest is up to you.

- Return the mask first.

- ...Right.

After retreating at a safe distance, the chief grabbed Lorian and held him up like a spear.

A massive surge of strength invaded chief's arms as his hands bulged and veins wriggled above it.

- Haaaa, kill it!

Lorian was catapulted through the air. He concentrated with all his might and gathered the coldness on the tip of his sword. Lorian resisted the air pressure while flying like a rocket.

He also started sensing Oculus' presence as he got in closer proximity.

- Die!

His eyes shone with crazed glint as he tore through the air and aimed the sword right at the eye of the Oculus.

- Huh?

Lorian was dumbfounded as he felt no resistance when he pierced the Oculus. Dread filled his mind as his mind screamed alert. Now he was flying 10 meters above ground and the fall would kill him.

'It was an illusion?!'

'No, no, no! It's not a star monster yet, why does it possess such high control of psychic sense? This wasn't written in the monster index!'

The Oculus reappeared in the sky, but it wasn't in the place it ought to be. It made a terrible noise and shot the red beam of light at Lorian.

- Am I going to die here?

Despaired, Lorian started falling in midst of the beast horde.

The beam of light missed him as he was falling at high speeds, but this brought him no comfort.

He regretted it. He was greedy and wanted to kill the Oculus.

...

- No, I don't want to die!

His potential was aroused before he fell to his death.

Learned skill: Force step 

Lorian channeled his whole strength in his right leg and concentrated his whole power to create small, thin layer of ice as a foothold.

*Snap

*Bang

Unimaginable pain coursed through his knee as he felt something broke.

- Aaaah!

He created a small platform of ice in mid-air right before fall and stomped with his right leg to lessen the momentum. Unfortunately, the fall was too vicious. Not only did his right leg's bones shattered, his internal organs were shaken as he vomited blood.

The only thing to rejoice about was that he was alive.

- Grrr!

- Roar!

But he fell right in the middle of 5 ferocious beasts.

Lorian's eyes were bloodshot as he downed the bottle of holy water with trembling hands.

He was sprawled on the ground, bloodied all over, barely able to move, while 5 pairs of vicious eyes stared at him, ready to pounce and tear him apart. They were some distance away from him and were running in his direction.

In this place, he was forsaken. No aide would come.

- No, I don't want to die!

In the moments of despair, Lorian used frostbite skill to the maximum. The human was over 70% consisting of water. The frostbite allowed him to use the limited amount of liquid in his body as a catalyst to create ice and draw it out of his body for different purposes. This time, he used holy water to replenish his injuries, but unexpectedly, it was much, much better catalyst than the normal water.

Not only did he control its flow to accelerate the process of the holy water spreading throughout his body, he used it as a medium to activate frostbite inside his body.

His internal injuries were severe, but he froze them to some extent to delay its effects.

If anybody else was in his place, along with usage of skill in this manner, their biological inner cycle would be disrupted and they would die anyway. Luckily, Lorian possessed an anti-poison body, which didn't exactly work as its name stated. The anti-poison body was kind of immunity, which accommodated unknown in the body and created anti-bodies if this unknown energy was harmful. This would, in turn, raise his overall resistance and immunity. His body was working on its own to not make the freezing of his internal organs deadly.

This was the sole reason why Lorian's crazy last ditch effort worked...and it worked perfectly.

As for holy water, Lorian pestered chief to give him some. He wanted to use it to cheat his way through the 2nd floor of instances as it was very effective against ghosts. Who knew this would come in handy here? The chief was stingy at first, but with Elise's interference, Lorian secured a whole jug of holy water!

*Sssssssss~

A huge amount of cold mist started radiating from Lorian's body. As he used the holy water as a catalyst this time, the effect of his frostbite skill increased several times over.

His eyes turned blue as they radiated coldness and ferociousness.

The pain he was experiencing from his whole body was so immense, that his neuro system turned numb. It was a feat that he hadn't passed out. But how could he? He was in grave danger and he knew, the help wouldn't come.

His right leg was thoroughly broken, but Lorian had no time to think about that. He was unable to stand up as he was fallen on his face. He painfully wriggled his body and managed to land his left leg on the ground while still lying on the ground.

- Grrraaarrr!

The monster which looked like kobold approached with a huge club in hands and intended to smash it on his already beaten body.

- I. Won't. Die. Here!

Lorian growled as he unexpectedly grinned savagely under his mask.

*Bang

The new skill he learned, force step came to him like an instinct. He used the scattered strength of his whole body, concentrating it solely on his left foot. He was propelled in the air as he somersaulted in the air while slashing kobold's neck with a sword, which was radiating a large amount of coldness. It was thoroughly frozen in ice.

+86 Battle Exp

Lorian had no time to pay any attention to the system. 4 other monsters were approaching with savage expressions.

After killing the kobold, he slammed on the ground heavily, but a layer of ice which was created around his body lessened the fall. Still, he was once again sprawled on the ground. Only his left leg was bent, ready to stomp and jump away. His right hand was clutching his sword tremblingly.

- I won't die here!

He growled once again while struggling to raise his body in kowtowing position.

The holy water was being circulated at great speed with the aid of his frostbite skill. His frozen wounds were being healed, but it wouldn't take immediate effect.

He was still in great danger, but his cold eyes showed, he wasn't going to give up.

Everything else was gone and only instincts remained.

He was like a beast, with only a few thoughts going around in his subconsciousness.

To kill.

To survive.