CHAPTER 42  (Patreon)

Those few points of Reflex made a difference, because boy was that a close call. 

Well, the barrier would have saved me from being a wet splotch on the ground, but I needed it online for this.

I could  tell this was going to be a tough fight.

I dodged sideways and managed to shift the mana pattern in the barrier to be top-heavy just in time.

A red blur had dropped on me with two giant fists striking down in an overhead smash. Thankfully it didn’t fully connect. But the ape was fast and I was caught off-guard. The Awakened gorilla-beast was large, red-furred and aggressively muscular.

And I’d even venture to guess it had anger issues, based on the rabid attack it followed after missing is ambush.

The beast struck again, but I managed to dodge by a hair. But even the glancing blow had such terrible power that my barrier broke.

“Luka, watch out!” mother cried out from the cabin.

“I’m okay!” I yelled. “Stay hidden, mom!”

The gorilla took another swipe at me, but I was already reinforcing my body with mana, and managed to dodge backwards. Simultaneously I unleashed my cultivation reserves on the monster by shooting three heavy Water Bullets at it.

It dodged one, but two struck it and it fell over. After it got up, it was a lot less rabid and aggressive.

These beasts weren’t dumb.

It took pause and started circling me. I matched its movements and the tension between us grew. It was quite terrifying on some primal level to look in the eyes of a massive red gorilla as a three foot toddler. 

But I was a special magic toddler, and took confidence from that. My Apex Predator Perk was affecting it, which meant that I was stronger than it on whatever metric the System used. However, I was at a distinct disadvantage in a matchup like this. I needed space to cast most of my spells. A monkey this large and strong could do a lot in a second.

Its hesitation leveled the playing field, because it gave me time to absorb mana back into my cultivation and recast my barrier.

But ultimately, the beast rushed at me.

Leveraging my Mana Augmentation, Multicasting and Apex Predator Perks and my cultivation gave me a chance. 

Bouncing and dancing around, while hobbling the monster with well aimed Water Bullets, kept me out of its reach— but just so. Sometimes I miscalculated. And caught a blow, but my barrier held, even though it strained me.

Each time by the monster’s logic it should have killed me with a meaty fist, it roared in indignation and rushed at me, throwing wild, full bodied punches. In those situations, I would jump behind a tree and prepare a quick Water Jet. That toppled the beast and gave me space. But I had too little of it to cast strong enough spells to wound my opponent.

Fortunately it got frustrated too, and had lesser self control.

The berserks it would sometimes launch seemed almost like a Class Ability. I wondered about that, and decided to exploit it. I resorted to an old trick.

I cast Basic Water under its feet when the berserk began. It didn’t notice a thing. Then I hit it with another Water Jet, and toppled it. I jumped in the air and pinned it down, while I generated water mass in the mud the ape was now struggling in.

This created the space that I needed. I immediately started casting a proper barrier that didn’t make me sweat every time the beast threw a punch at me. 

Once I had a properly structured barrier that could take a blow, the beast’s berserk was already done. It was carefully getting out of the muddy pit I had created, but it was too slow and careful.

I released the Water Bullet spell and hit the wrist, which elicited an angry roar. The great beast staggered backward and held its hand, but that was a mistake. I already had cast another bullet. I aimed it at the knee, and stopped another charge. The beast fell and got up, but it was now hobbling, with its wrist and knee wounded. 

It must have realized its mistake. It had given me space to pepper it with projectiles. 

To its credit, it learned and caught me off guard.

It rushed straight at me. I tried to stop it with Water Bullets, but it just endured through the damage and exploded into one final attack.

It snatched me up in its giant hand like a fruit. Then it slammed me against a tree, and started pressing.

“Luka!” mom shouted. “NO!”

It was very fortunate that I had a very strong barrier on, or I would have been pulverized instantly. Instead, the hairy palm of the monkey was pressing on air just a handspan away from my face. I couldn’t let fear overtake me, so I fell into a meditative state and just breathed.

In this life-or death situation, I found myself in a deadlock with the Awakened beast.

My barrier held, and I focused all of my attention into strengthening it. It noticed the impasse and changed tactics, and instead slammed me on the ground, but I had been prepared for that, and held a full-body barrier. The spell did flicker, but I was pouring mana into it from both a structured spell as well as my cultivation.

I glanced at the second fight. The warriors were overpowering the gorillas with Veena leading them. She ducked under a fist, and sliced through a gorilla’s ankle. When it toppled, another warrior went for its throat.

They were winning, which meant I had time on my side. I grinned to myself. If the gorillas had been winning, that meant I would have to do something. Now I could focus entirely on limit-testing my barrier without needing to attack. What a lucky encounter!

Unfortunately the Awakened Beast still had some tricks up its hairy sleeve. Not only was the force with which it was pressing me against the ground absolutely crushing, it now raised another hand and pressed it into a massive fist.

Uh oh…

Even though the barrier held, I felt the impact of the first punch in the back of my teeth. I couldn’t withstand many more of those. I needed a trick. I focused on immediately reinforcing the barrier again, while my mind searched for an answer. I needed to surpass my limits.

I got an idea that would work great in theory, but I didn’t know how to actually do it. I could use the dynamic effect from the sabre enchantment. But it had been a little too fuzzy for even my Arcane Deconstruction to solve at this level. I knew I had been close to understanding, but I couldn’t articulate it.

Then I was struck with an idea from my favorite perk: [Magical Insight].

My mind flooded with information. A revelation about the sabre’s magic. It was so simple now that I saw it.

I knew what I had to do. 

The sabre’s enchantment came to mind again. It directed force to the point of impact. The enchantment had been dynamic, not static.

I needed my barrier to do something similar. A dynamic release of all the kinetic energy within the barrier, concentrated on the point of impact. A gorilla-fist shaped point.

Timing. That was the trick.

“Barrier Pulse!”

The fist came down and my shield expanded at a critical moment, causing a shockwave.

The barrier broke, but the pulse threw the beast off me.

[Spellcrafting level 17!]

[+1 Mana Flow]

[+2 Magic Power]

The Awakened beast crashed into a tree, and while I was trying to get back on my feet, I aimed a Water Jet spell at it, to control it and pin it against the tree. The beast was deadly strong, and started pushing through the gushing flow of water. I checked my allies.

Fortunately by now Veena and the warriors were finishing off the regular gorillas.

That meant I didn’t need to cast another barrier and could focus entirely on augmenting the water spell. This kept the beast controlled and pinned down with a crushing force.

Hah, how about that uno reverse?

“Go help him!” Veena shouted.

The warriors let out a cry and they all swarmed the Awakened beast like ants to a beetle.

I managed to pin it down for long enough for the warriors to bleed it to death. The killing blow went to Veena, who jumped up in the air and sliced through the neck of the beast in a brutal overhead swing. It didn’t cut the head clean off, but it gouged the neck enough to finally fell the beast.

“Yes!” Veena cried. “Yes! I got a level in Sword-Dancing!”

“That’s… interesting…” I muttered. She must have had some evolved Sword Mastery Skill.

I wanted to ask more about it, but I felt my baby legs give out. I collapsed on the ground and momentarily blacked out.

I woke up in the hunting cabin in my mother’s arms. 

“He’s awake!” Veena said.

“You stupid, stupid, stupid boy!” mother said between sobs and picked me up to press against her.

Oh good, I was alive.

I hugged her back. “Sorry mom.”

“You could have died! How could I ever— I just—”

“It’s okay mom,” I said and patted her back. “I’ll be more careful next time.”

I hated seeing her like that. I didn't want to worry my mother.

But I wasn't going to stop hunting monsters either. This was way too much fun!

Well, I guess I just had to get stronger, so she didn’t need to worry. 

We held the hug for a while, but then I started gushing about the fight. Mother indulged me and let me explain in detail what had happened. 

Because oh boy had that been great for my growth. Insanely scary and deadly serious. I had been a literal inch away from being crushed by the monster. But not only had I gained a Skill level, I now had a new understanding of how to cast magic. A new spell had been born of that situation, and my ability to think and act under pressure had been galvanized.

The Barrier Pulse.

Had it been stupid and risky? Well, kind of. I had to admit, I had underestimated the ferocity of the Awakened Beast. But I had watched Veena and her warriors defeat the lesser beasts, and had known they would soon help me with the big bad. It had been a calculated risk, and it had paid off.

I grinned to myself. The fight with the Awakened Beast had been just so damn exciting. I really needed to rein in my love for battle before it got me killed. But then again, it did let me surpass my limits. I just needed to find the right balance. 

And most importantly…

“Did they recover the core yet?” I asked.

Veena snorted and my mother gently slapped the back of my head.

“That’s where your mind went? Think of your poor mother’s feelings for once.”

But she relaxed and laughed a bit. She untangled herself from me and put me on one of the cots in the cabin. 

“Little gem, you are so dear to me,” she said quietly. “I hate to see you in danger.”

“Then it is a good thing you’ll soon be too pregnant to see it,” I said and smiled cheekily.

Veena laughed. And my mother shook her head.

“Mom, I must get stronger,” I simply said. 

“You are already strong,” she said. “Must you push yourself so far?”

It was a valid question and I gave it some thought. Why was I so impatient to improve? Because I had a deadline with Ranok? Because I had made a vow when I entered this world? Because I wanted to keep my family safe and give them anything they wanted.

All of it? Sure.

But most of all it was just too damn satisfying and too damn fun. Playing with magic and pushing it to its limits just made me feel so alive.

“I think I must,” I said. “I’m sorry, mom.”

“Well, I suppose that is what boys do to their mothers,” she said. “Make them worry.”

Veena just looked at us incredulously and huffed. “How is it that you are such a baby with your mother even though you are… so… so…Yeah.”

She looked at me and blushed a bit. I tried giving her an encouraging smile, but she looked away immediately. I just shrugged. Who knew what the girl was thinking.

After mother made me rest for a while, I got back to work. 

I spent some time working on Barrier Pulse. The clarity from Magical Insight was waning, but it had made such a strong impression in that life-or-death situation, that I could remember what I had cast vividly. Now I wanted to consolidate my gains. I meditated and cast consecutive pulses and just got the repetitions down with the spell formula. I also dabbled with using the spell with cultivation, but it was too weak for now to deflect a blow from an Awakened beast.

“The core is found,” Betuko said from below.

I perked up. “Bring it up here!”

“Right away, young master!”