Stanis grumbled as he ran across the mountain. It would have been a steep climb was it nor for the pathways that ran across it.

Thoughts about blacksmithing raced across his head, either being shot down or finding a deep place to settle themselves down for a later use. From the testing he had done, it was obvious that it was the metal itself causing all the failures. This was the reason why he had asked Alyona where the strongest enemies in this region were, because if he couldn't use metal, then all he could do was find stronger and tougher materials.

Of course, there was always the chance that the enemies behind the mountain would be like the Spectres, bone-less and without storage stones, but that was something for him to deal with once he got there. Even if he couldn't find his desired material from the monsters' bodies, he was sure he would at least find something in the region.

Having come to this conclusion, his thoughts about blacksmithing largely stopped as he looked upwards. The peak of the mountain was out of sight. Stanis had the urge to take a detour and climb up the mountain but decided against it. It wasn't the right time; Yils had told him to kill a tier-three and yet he had struggled against the Spectre boss, despite having tens of others backing him. His face simply wasn't thick enough for him to go back after that…

In fact, it was only after he had left their home that he had realised how weak he had been compared to them. Like, he knew he was weak while there due to the myriad of reasons, but it was while not living with them he realised how weak he actually was. This was why he wanted to reach tier-four before going back, at least then he would be able to stand a little straighter in their presence.

Eventually, all the thoughts in Stanis's head had been thought through. It was then that he switched to practising his circulation and Lightning seed. He was quite proficient in his other skills, it was only Lightning seed he was lacking in.

The trouble with it was the amount of concentration it needed to maintain it, an amount of concentration he simply couldn't throw away in the heat of a battle. This was why he tirelessly practised it, after all, he knew the potential hiding in this skill if he did manage to master it. It wasn't even an upgraded skill but he was certain that it had greater potential than his others' anyway.

As for his circulation, that had been one of the two things he had originally come to the village to do. It was all good and all making armour and weapons but his equipment would be simply useless without the strength to back them. There was also the fact that this was all with the aim of reaching tier-four, and he knew that equipment wasn't the way you passed that boundary, rather through a qualitative change in strength.

This was how three of his days passed. He could have crossed the mountain in a single day if he had sprinted the whole journey, but instead he took it slow and focused on his training. And this proved itself as he checked his status:

Stanis Volkov

Age: 18 years

Mana capacity: 278(regeneration is capacity/4 per hour)

Level 47 (Progress to the next level is 18%)

Class: Origin

Strength: 94 [53 -> 56]

Dexterity: 95 [55 -> 57]

Constitution: 94 [55 -> 58]

Intelligence: 93 [40 -> 43]

Wisdom: 87+5[40 ->42]

Tenacity: 89[54 -> 59]

Skills: Layman's Rush, Scout and Sense, Light Healing, Destructive Mana Recharge, Ice shot, Blueshot spitfire, Lightning seed

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The average for Humanity had also grown by a similar amount in the period. Stanis guessed that this was due to a few villages worth of humans being wiped out as he doubted villages similar to Haven were rare. There was also the fact that stronger enemies were coming out all the time: anyone who couldn't keep the pace would merely die then and there.

Not that Stanis feared the increase in stats that much. If the average stats looked like that, it meant the strongest people had stats closer to 80 in most attributes, which was awfully close to his, but his strength didn't come from his stats in the first place. The reason why he could dominate others was actually due to the grade of his magic mastery. His ice crystal was the closest to a tier-four he currently had, with Lightning seed just a fingertip behind it. Stanis doubted that anyone else had anything close to tier-four yet, instead the strongest humans had probably just entered mid-tier-three.

As for his progress with Lightning seed over the duration, the lightning bolt that had started out as long as a finger was now about 30cm, or exactly that off a foot's. Even better was the aura it gave off: just like the ice crystal gave off a certain aura with the glittering trail it left behind, the lightning bolt had a similar aura. Only the Lightning seed's aura was far more menacing and frightening than anything he had managed with Ice shot.

The lightning bolt currently in his hand was zig-zagging across the air like a mad dog trying to attack a person, only to be stopped by its leash each and every time. Stanis was maintaining this with less than half the concentration he had been using before, the process having been repeated so many times that his body simply knew what to do without needing orders.

Stanis was currently just a few minutes of the other side of the mountain when he had whispers in the distance. He mindlessly moved towards these whispers until they grew louder, his mind all of a sudden fully awoken as the sound grated against his ears. It was a similar sensation to finding a stone in the food you just ate, each crunch making you cringe.

Stanis's irritation only grew as he moved closer to this sound, his mind fully set on murdering whatever was creating this awful noise. He had known that the sound would get worse as he got closer but even then, he was surprised when he heard how it had actually changed. Not only did the crunching get louder but there were also groaning and booming voices accompanying it.

Now close enough, Stanis used Scout and sense, the results further putting him on edge. A few hundred metres away from him, hidden by the vast amount of colossal rocks, were monsters.

They were quadrupled and were around 2m tall, so similar to the Jaguars in that aspect. However, unlike the Jaguar's sleek bodies, these monsters had bulking bodies that simply looked impossible to move. Stanis estimated that the 2m monsters must at least weigh a ton, and yet they were still moving around on their legs like that was nothing.

And their legs, oh their legs! Instead of the standard claws most monsters had, these creatures had small boulders for their feet. What's more, they had twisted faces with wide eyes, no noses, holes for ears and mouths wide enough to split their faces into two sections. Hiding inside these cavernous mouths were wide sets of molar teeth. These molar teeth were the culprits behind the crunching sounds he had heard from the distance as these monsters kept whacking off stone layers with their boulder-feet, before eating it up like a hot meal.

Stanis, on the one hand, was intrinsically frightened by these bizarre monsters, but on the other hand, was excited as he further examined them.

Across their bodies were layers of stone-like skin. If these monsters were close to as strong as he thought them to be, then this stone-layer must be a viable defence against monsters of similar strength. This meant that it had to at least be immensely strong, if not even stronger. Well, there was only one way to find out, wasn't there?

He began producing ice crystals around him, the three monsters in front of him catching wind of the imminent danger as he produced the 12th one. They frantically looked around them, bellowing as they searched around. One of these monsters was coming his way and Stanis could see the worry in its eyes: perfect.

Half of the crystals blasted forwards, the monster not having enough time to react as every single one of them pierced through its skin. The monster roared before leaping onto the large rock next to it, before barrelling down towards Stanis's spot. Stanis immediately fell back at this, inwardly shocked at this monster's defence. That number of ice crystals would have been enough to kill several tier-two Spectres and yet all they had done to the monster in front of him was enrage it.

Stanis felt his feet slightly go off the ground as the diving monster landed, its force so large that the shockwave lifted him off the ground despite being metres away. He turned around, only for his eyes to widen at the many cracks below the monster's feet. He gritted his teeth before releasing the rest of his crystals, the monsters doing its best to dodge but royally failing, each and every crystal once again stabbing into it.

The monster was struck down by this, violently struggling on the ground and causing a pseudo-earthquake as it fought against death. Not that it would win though, nobody won against death when their time was due. But its time wasn't due just yet, instead it still had a few good minutes of struggling left. This kind of defence absolutely astonished Stanis since the 12 ice crystals had taken a decent bite out of his mana-pool and yet all they had amounted to was downing the monster, not even instantly killing it.

But he had no more time to think as the other two were on him, roaring a strange scream as their boulders came flashing down, the sun itself eclipsed by these crude hammers…