I sleep fine, dreaming primarily about what had transpired yesterday, from being rebuilt from nothing but a soul and the fights I had and trying to think of ways to improve my combat abilities. Improving my stats will make me stronger than ordinary monsters that only try to level up and don't try to improve themselves. I kept thinking of new things that would make me stronger such as using my magic to harm myself to gain resistance to said magic, but I didn't know if this would work.

As I was dreaming of new ways to get stronger, a brief flash of light interrupted me as I desired.

Loving and bound to each other, we were. Soul-bound we were. To protect each other. Pain, pain, and pain, Then darkness and emptiness. Missing she was from me. Pain as what was left was destroyed. Why, why, why are you gone? Why did you leave? I love why it is so erratic. And why could I hear her laughing? Why did it hurt so much?

My blood was boiling, and my heart was pounding. Unknown rage fills me to my core. I knew that I was missing a vital piece of myself. I heard a voice in the back of my mind, so familiar yet far away. Fading away, but the anger it had stayed with me. It was fueling the one deep inside me.

My eyes opened to the place before me. Monsters lay around the pond and rested without fighting or killing each other and trusting that no other would break the holy rule laid by the Mother. The rage grew as I watched the sleeping monsters. Why, why was it different here than? What was It?

I needed to leave this place and kill something. Anything, I don't care what it is as long as it dies and makes me stronger. Moving through the sleeping forms of the monsters, I left the pond and started to run south.

Running without a care, I ran further and further to the plains, making it there within just 5 hours. I stood in the middle of the plain and called at a challenge to anything that could hear it. “Fight me. Come and kill me or die at my claws.” I roared out the skies above. It was darker than it was when the other monsters were active. But I could still see well enough.

Then I heard the pitter-patter of feet, not one pair but many. My blood boiling increased as I finally had an outlet for my rage. A group of 10 monsters more miniature than me charged towards the more small hills of the plains. I didn't care that they outnumbered me. It just made me even more excited! It looked like black oil covered these creatures' heads, and white covered the rest of its body. Ants stood on six legs with a humanoid upper torso with two arms with little spears made of bones. Taintspawn Lv 3 Tier 1.

Level 3 was the highest of the ten of them. I could use my magic to thin at their ranks, but I couldn't bring myself to think like that right now. I needed to physically crush them to relieve myself of the fire that burned my blood. I would only heal myself and not anything else.

Crouching as low as I could, I launched myself toward the oncoming Taint group as they were about to throw some of their spears. Seeing this, I rolled to the side out of the way of the flying spears as they impacted where I had once been. Seeing me dodge the spears as they began to charge again, I did the same.

We reached each other within seconds. Spears came thrusting at me as they tried to impale me. Only a few had hit me, as most of them had missed trying to hit me over the others. I grabbed two by their necks and yanked them out of the pack. Two more spears landed in my gut before I was able to break their necks. I was down to 40 hp after the attacks they made, but even then, I didn't heal as my vision became red as the anger grew inside. Who are they to work with each other, and why did the sight of them piss me off even more.

All of them were weak and had no intelligence behind their eyes, and they were dull and empty, like puppets being controlled from the shadows. This thought made me even angrier as I proved that to be the case when I threw one of the corpses to block the view of the others while attacking the one in my sight. They had all still attacked where I was, a fucking hive mind. So be it, then. If this were how they wanted to play, I would play with them till every one of their species was dead in their blood pools. I tried to limit the damage I received by taking on the hits that seemed to do the least amount of damage to me to keep my reserves full for as long as possible. I would use everything I had to kill these repulsive Taintspawns. I was using the body of one to block some attacks and hit others away. My claws were covered in greenish-black blood. It took five minutes to kill almost all, even though they were physically weaker than me, but their working together made it harder to fight them as they kept grouping up and stabbing me every chance they got simultaneously.

After, they were all dead except for level 3 in the group. “Bring me more to slaughter. I know you can hear my voice, you hive-mind bitch. Give me more. Or I will come for you next. I will be waiting here for more.” I growled at the last one with my hand grasped around its neck. Seeing nothing from the eyes of the taint I held, I ripped its head off. I felt that the hive mind could at least send more out after me, but I wasn't sure how many would come. So I healed myself just a bit and waited to recover my resources. I sat there and looked at my notifications from the system.

You have killed multiple Taintspawns of various levels exp is being awarded plus a bonus exp for killing a group of enemies.

You have reached Lv 3 Str + 2 and Int + 2, Vit +1, Free points + 2.

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Gained Passive Skill Novice Monster Fighter Lv 1/10 Tier 1 Gain a mastery of fighting as an absolute monster should. Increasing damage was done using the natural weapons your body has. The higher the level, the faster the reaction you will have.

Gained Passive Skill Danger Sense Lv 1/25 Tier 3.

Gained Passive Skill Stamina Regeneration Lv 1/4 Tier 1.

Why did I get that skill now instead of when I first got the others? I had thought of eating these things, but the smell coming from the blood and my new skill, Danger senses, warned me against it trying to hope I would find something after killing off the rest of what the Hive sends my way.

Thirty minutes passed before I heard the sounds of a lot more taints as they marched here for me. I had recovered almost everything. I had spent only two mp left till full. The anger grew the closer those things got to me. As I saw the number of them double in size. Twenty-five of them had come to kill me, the hive mind had sent them my way, so I should make them feel as welcomed as possible. The highest level was only 6. I grabbed the spears that the things had used on me earlier and stuck them into the ground next to me, waiting for them to get closer before I began.

Once they were 80 yards (73.15 m) away, I picked up the nearest spear and started to chuck them at the taints until I ran out of spears. Not caring about killing them with the spears, I was returning the trash they had left lying around, so it was only polite to return them to their owners.

This had confused the hive mind seeing me throw the spears right back at them. It had almost forgotten to do that itself. Shame having to utilize weapons in the first place, even though they had claws and mandible. It was because they relied on weapons that made them physically weak in the first place. Still, I ran to the side to dodge the first wave of spears heading my way, the second wave of spears, and the spears I threw at them. Having only one spear each, they charged me.

Time to see how the monster fighting skill works in live combat. With novices being higher in rank than inferior, it should be better in general. I walked the rest of the way to meet the charging swarm of puppets as they tried to stab me once in range. Claw deflected spear while I would kick them into each other to tangle them up and lock up some of their movements.

A spear came towards my left eye, so I brought my claws up to knock the spear away as my right came to slash at its throat, dying instantly as another took its place to try to surround me. I would not let them trap me like that. Fighting this swarm became easier as time went on. It seemed that the hive mind couldn't learn from what I was doing and only wanted to use its higher numbers to slowly whittle and kill me when I was exhausted. But if I ran out of St., I'll switch to magic. After all, they were pretty. It was stupid. But I wouldn't need to do that at all.

In and out, ducking and weaving as I slashed, ripped, stomped, and kicked them around. The only one that hadn't attacked was the higher-level one in the back, probably waiting for a chance to strike when I was hurt. Blocking another blow to my head, I broke the spear as it tried to stab with the handle that was still in its clawed hand. Danger senses were weird to get used to as chill would run through the spot where I was about to be hit. And the monster fighting made it easier to block and deflect attacks that came from blind spots where I had no idea they were there until that chill happened. I didn't know what it was the first few times, and a few spears stabbed me, taking a good 20 hp altogether. But these new skills were lifesavers. All fell within 30 minutes. Even the higher level one had only taken around 2 minutes to kill. I moved the corpses to the side and put them in the same pile as the spears.

You have slain 25 Taintspawns of various levels exp is being awarded. For killing a small swarm of Taintspawns, you have been given bonus exp.

You have reached Lv 5 Str + 4 and Int + 4, Vit +2, Free points + 4

Skill evolving: Inferior Health Regeneration → has become Basic Health Regeneration Lv 1/10. Health recovers at the double the previous speed. 1 Hp every 5 minutes.

I decided to do the same thing I did earlier with the free points I had to maximize the gains I had by boosting my Int by another 4 points, making it 123/123 mp for me to sling around, seeing as I would need it when they came again for me—probably having less than 30 minutes this time for the hive mind to send more after me.

But first, I needed to rest before they refilled the hp and st to full. Sitting down increased the rate at which it regenerated faster than standing up. I felt this anger as the sky started to brighten, going from a dark shade of purple to a lighter shade with flicks of red and blue. The anger I felt earlier was slowly vanishing without having any hold over me. My body was sore from all the fighting, but every minute I rested, the soreness evaporated away, making me feel better.

I wonder how long it will take for the next wave before they come for me. It has been over 30 minutes now, just waiting for them to appear, then 20 more minutes passed. Why the fuck wasn't more coming to me? This was free exp. I hear other things in the distance but no marching sounds. Is it because morning has come, or was it not trying to kill me anymore? It was stupid but maybe not too stupid, and other monsters were coming this way now, so perhaps it sent the swarms out for stragglers that decided to stay out late from the pond. Well, whatever, for now, I need to get some food. And since I go this vast amount of mp now, I should use it to help some of my other skills rank up, too, Increasing them from Inferior to basic. That would be more beneficial to me right now than waiting on a foe that won't be coming until it was night here. After I am stronger, they will all be exterminated. Such filth should not be allowed to exist. I was clenching my hands as hard as possible, and my hands started to bleed as my claws dug into my flesh.

I had to stop thinking of those things, or the anger would return. Calm down. I need food, so let's try to guess what would taste the best.