The Decrypted Woods starting area still permeated with its ever-present haunting, chilling silence. No matter what time of the day it, morning, afternoon, or late evening the Decrypted Woods never changes.

Its eerie dark shade atmosphere still went strong, and there wasn't any ordinary person venturing out into this area.

There was only one person briskly traveling along here, and he in no way, shape or form could be considered ordinary.

Asher was the one walking. He was taking more assured steps while venturing deeper in the Decrypted Woods starting area.

Usually, where he would go for training is where limited yet dangerous Mana monsters roam around. And the prowess of those Mana monsters was generally around his, before his System's soul awakening.

All of those Mana monsters were average beings with very heightened capabilities that surpass any regular humans.

But for today and now on from today, Asher would finally take his training a step deeper in the Decrypted Woods.

The dark shade of the woods seemingly got a bit more profound, and the air was a touch bit more chilly. In these necks of the Woods, it's where weak Spirit Tier 1 Mana monsters lay.

When Asher found out this is where the supposed weak Spirit Tier Monster 1 Mana monster resides, it was only relative to the guardsmen's perspective.

In actuality, the Spirit Tier 1 Mana Monsters roaming around here were all equal to any newly awakened Spirit Tier 1 cultivator.

And this just means, while Asher may have more options for training, the danger had just got elevated to a whole other level.

More so than ever, the threat of death was hugely imminent when facing Spirit Tier 1 Mana Monster. Unless one is already naturally experienced in combat, no other freshly awakened Spirit Tier 1 cultivator would ever come here to simply train.

But, none of those general rules of thumbs applied to Asher's mindset.

He had no hesitation about throwing himself into the jaws of dangers if it means he can grow in power and his mental state.

While walking, Asher's eyes were more vigilant than ever.

Even with the hard-to-see through dark shade of the woods, Asher's eyes could still paint a near clear picture of his surroundings. His enhanced vision adapted to the Darkness of the Decrypted Wood, sharpening his eyes with each passion second.

Not only was Asher relying on his eyes, but he was also vigilant in every other of face's senses.

His ears picked up on the slightest gust of wind crumbling past some bushes. And his nose whiffed in the putrid foul odor oozing from some trees and bushes.

But out of everything, his most helpful new ability for this place was his Aura Sense.

There wasn't any relying on bodily danger sensations from here on out. Asher has no need to make such close call judgments now.

With his Aura Sense, Asher could feasibly pick up on any living being from about thirty feet away from him. His Aura Sense was akin to a circle, allowing Asher to pick up everything in every direction.

When entering this part of the Decrypted Wood, Asher was ready to take on some challenging Spirit Tier 1 Mana monster.

It didn't matter who it was or what angle it would come from; Asher was prepared to take the first strike.

However, none of that blood-pumping action happened yet.

A few minutes already passed, and there still wasn't any fiber of life around his Aura Sense.

Usually, at the beginning of the starting area, Asher could run into a Mana monster in just a manner of seconds to a minute.

But around here, everything was deathly silent.

Asher actually felt his nerves strike up a bit as the silence here was even more profound and suffocating than the beginning of the starting area.

It is confirmed that any Mana monster encountered in this area is massively more dangerous than anything before. And just waiting for a beast like that to appear was even getting to Asher's usual rock-solid mind.

After walking a long distance already, Asher stopped walking. He briefly closed his eyes and took a slight breath to quell any small rising nerves.

And it was finally then a pinging jolt ran through Asher's entire body!

He flung his eyes back open and clenched down his blue axe as he felt a horrid negative intention flow into his Aura Sense. This negative foul intention surpassed anything Asher ever felt before.

No matter who it was in the Kane gang, not even they hold such volatile harmful intentions towards Asher.

Though Asher didn't have Aura Sense back then, he could still tell how much hostile intentions they had through the danger sensations running through his body.

But now, Asher could identify what type of immense negative intention is.

This is pure wild Killing Intent!

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It's similar to the danger sensations he felt towards a pre-awakened Spirit Tier Mana Monster. Yet now, it significantly surpassed anything those monsters could ever emit.

'Mnnn….I'm looking forward to this. I can see how you fight perfectly clearly this time.' Yuki's voice ranged in Asher's mind.

Asher couldn't pay much attention to her comment as he readied himself for a dangerous fight.

Only a second passed, and Asher already felt that Killing Intent presence rapidly close in on him. Asher closed his eyes for a split second, trying to see if he could just faintly visualize what was coming towards him like he did with Devon and Mack.

However, Asher could only sense it was coming from the trees. Any attempts at visualizing this Mana monster failed as it was just too quick.

When snapping his eyes back open, Asher heard the loud rustling of trees.

'Hua!'

Asher tried his best to keep his gaze locked on something that was shaking the branches of trees. From a very brief look at it, Asher could tell it was a considerably large Mana monster.

And its speed was immensely swift as it only appeared out in the open for a split second before dashing into another tree.

For any pre-awaken Spirit Tier cultivator, their eyes wouldn't be able to see anything. Although even for Asher, his eyes were experiencing a substantial sum of difficulty trying to track this large monster.

This little game of trying to lock on this Mana Monster continued for only a couple of seconds. From his Aura Sense, Asher could tell the Mana monster was only ten feet away from him in those trees.

And right then, Asher set his sights on a remarkably shorter tree than the bunch.

What made this tree just slightly different was its overabundance of leaves covering all of its branches.

It was in the same instance Asher locked his gaze on this specific tree that his pupils immediately dilated.

A massive gust of wind breeze right past Asher, chaotically swaying his clothes and hair.

At the same time, Asher felt every fiber of his body instinct roar at him to duck!

'Hua!'

Asher was just the slightest bit late in ducking as that intense gust of wind blared into his eardrums.

"Tch!" Asher loudly clicked his teeth while a great pain flared from the right side of his face.

He couldn't see it, but a line of blood sprayed into the air after that gust of wind blasted past his face. And on his check, a wide line of blood pooled down Asher's face.

'Nng, that speed….damn. So it's a Mana monster gibbon.'

Even when taking damage, Asher's analyzing mind didn't stop going. He pushed the flaring pain from his pain and was already trying to develop effective countermeasures against a monster quick like this.

Asher relied on his Aura Sense and swiftly snapped his head towards another specific tree.

He couldn't rely on a lucky chance like last time where the Mana monster gibbon had just narrowly missed slicing his head right off.

In the imminent threat of death, an idea instantly popped into Asher's mind. His eyes lit up with a fierce glow as his own Killing Intent began to spill over.

'Lightning!'

With a swift Mana monster like this, it was whoever got the first clean strike to win it all.

And Asher realizes that unless they're some powerful Tier being, nobody can actually outrun the speed of Lighting! Even if his Ghost Lightning didn't precisely reach proper Lightning-like speeds, it was far faster than anything Asher could do physically.

In one instant smooth motion, Asher strutted his arm forward and surged his Ghost Lighting energy towards his palm.

At the same time, he felt the wind beginning to violently shift once again.

In the same instance, Asher felt the slightest shift in the breeze, a line of Ghost Lightning burst onto his palm, and Asher shot out his Ghost Lightning right towards that tree!

'Chi!'

Asher's Ghost Lightning tore through the air, and he heard an intense, electrifying noise, not even a half-second later.

"Sceraaa!!"

Accompanying the sound of electricity was the blood-curdling shrieks of the Mana monster gibbon.

Asher's eyes quickly shot up just a mere six feet in front of him. The large horrifying body of the Mana Monster gibbon was sprawled out on the ground.

Asher spotted traces of his Ghost Lightning periodically sparking on the monster's body.

With each spark that appeared, the Mana monster gibbon only increased, thrashing about on the ground. From Asher's Ghost Lightning, it's experiencing its whole body getting painfully electrified inside and out!

While the Mana monster gibbon was thrashing about in pain, Asher's eyes spewed out an harsh light.

His Killing Intent surged as he wasn't going to give this monster any chance to rest. In the instance Asher saw the Mana monster gibbon, he promptly sprang right towards the monster, his axe roaring for the kill.

But right when Asher was only two feet away from the Mana monster gibbon, its eyes suddenly became clear!

The Mana monster gibbon forcefully pushed past its immense anguish as the imminent threat of death forced it to instinctively protect itself.

"Kea!!"

The Mana monster gibbon shrieked while lunging at Asher with shocking speed.

Asher's eyes dangerously narrowed. The Mana monster gibbon wasn't nearly as fast as before, but its speeds was still something Asher could only barely react to.

Asher changed his entire movement, surging Aura's energy through his body and forcefully shifting his body to the right.

A gush of wind brush by Asher and four streaks of blood sprayed into the wind.

Though Asher managed to move out of the way from getting his head sliced off, the Mana monster gibbon's razor-sharp claws still cut his right arm. It shredded four bloody lines into his sleeve and spurted blood out from his arm.

Asher felt his arm burn with pain, but that wouldn't stop him at all.

"Tch! Now!"

Asher shouted as he surged a large sum of Aura energy into his left arm and swiped his axe down at the Mana monster gibbon before it could sweep past him.

Asher Ghost Lightning instinctively mixed in with his Aura energy in an immense boost of speed, allowing Asher to move at instantaneous speed for this very split second!

'Chi!'

With Asher's lightning speed, his axe had cleanly cut through the Mana monster gibbon's neck, cutting its head right off!

The monster's headless corpse crashed to the ground as blood brutally sprayed from its neck like a fountain.

The Mana monster gibbon's decapitated head rolled on the ground and on its face, its eyes enlarged as it didn't even know how it died.

The Decrypted Wood fell back to its eerie silence.

Asher took a look around him, observing the bloody mess of a battle. He took a deep breath as the stinging pain flared through his body.

Asher, however, wasn't really affected by his injuries as he had worse ones before when training. And he felt his Aura energy at least stopping the bleeding on his face and right arm.

Though he wasn't seriously injured, this battle was far closer than most of his fights.

That Mana monster gibbon's speed was far too quick.

Asher closed his eyes for several seconds. All he needed was a few moments of rest to catch back most of his lost energy reserve.