Varian saw the tree slowly slipping into the ground as a golden light shone.
He stepped towards it and saw a spinning fruit bathed in the light.
"...this won't be poison, right?" He grabbed the apple-like fruit.
The lightning mana in his body roared.
It was like it was screaming at him.
'Devour. Devour. Devour.'
So Varian devoured the fruit.
It was soft and cold. After entering his mouth, it melted and Varian could feel the smooth lightning mana boiling in his body.
In response to the incoming lightning mana, the one within his body boiled and they slowly merged.
The System prompted.
[+1Xp]
And stopped.
"Huh? Wtf?" Varian wanted to kill.
It resumed and this time, it didn't stop for a while.
[+1 Xp
+1 Xp
…
…
+1 Xp]
The lightning mana rose and lightning sense expanded continuously.
The incoming lightning mana was almost out and his lightning mana seemed to reach a peak.
It couldn't increase for a while.
Varian sat down and guided his lightning mana. His lightning sense turned inward.
He saw the lightning mana inside him— It was a golden river that seemed to be confined by something invisible.
'Focus.'
Varian controlled it and with the push from the external mana, he broke the confinement.
[Advancing]
The System prompted and sparks appeared around him.
Then, a few aura crystals in his space ring disappeared and Varian felt his lightning mana surge.
It was much higher compared to the peak Level 1.
His combat power improved a bit more.
'Status'
[Body Path Level 3: 40/400
Space Path Level 2: 60/200
Lightning Path Level 2: 0/200]
'Wow! Lightning Path is almost catching up.' He compared.
'Was I too slow in my Space Path?'
[No. Without the reward of this special location, your progress would eventually slow down. To break the bottleneck, and advance, you'd need a few more days.]
'Well, the reward is indeed great.' Varian grinned.
Then he recalled 'How am I supposed to exit here?'
As if answering his query, the cave shook and a white light flashed.
"Ha!"
Varian found himself back in the tree burrow.
"At least warn me!" He was about to slam the burrow.
"Oh-oh" But recalling where that led him to, he retracted his fist and exited the burrow.
'Should I enter the Inner Zone?' Varian dashed through the forest and reached the river bank.
'I will only go if I'm the strongest in Outer Zone. Inner Zone monsters would likely be in Level 4…' Varian walked along the direction he came from— Golden Mountain.
'Then I should defeat a boss of the Outer Zone.' He planned.
In the Outer Zone, like in any zone, the weakest monsters lived farthest from the center. The strongest lived closer to the center.
The ones that lived at the absolute border were called as Bosses. There were many bosses and their strength varied.
However, all of them were at the top of the Outer Zone pyramid.
So defeating a boss meant he was strong enough to get into Inner Zone.
'Outer Zone, Inner Zone, then Core Zone.' Varian grinned as he ran at a breakneck speed. The surroundings seem to vanish as he moved from one location to another.
Finally, he saw the golden mountain. The apes were patrolling strictly. They expanded their watch deeper into the forest.
They were also searching extensively along the river.
'Thank you for making me rich.' Varian said sincerely.
He maintained a considerable distance and wasn't seen by the golden apes.
'Before I exit the outer zone, I have a debt to settle.' His speed rose and he shot towards the familiar location.
The same nest.
Compared to a few days ago, the rocky cave opening had a few more scratches, more gravel and less boulders.
"Come out!" Varian yelled.
He was going to beat the heck out of this bitch!
Varian hated it for two reasons.
If it treated him like a prey or just attacked him like the usual golden apes, he too would've treated it as a normal foe.
But this one went as far as to use him as a prey to teach its kids how to hunt.
'I can't go any lower.'
The second was…the rat didn't have anything special in its cave.
'Why don't you be like the golden apes? Have something precious, you know or what am I supposed to get for attacking your nest?' Varian thought with a straight face.
Thankfully, neither the mother rat nor the golden apes knew his thoughts or they'd be march together to hunt him.
As he was immersed in justifying why he had to kill it, the creature arrived.
"Roarrr" The mother rat was larger than the last time. It was already the size of an adult elephant and now it looked like a mammoth.
Its aura was even stronger than the last time.
'High Level 3. The beast cores helped, huh.' Varian gripped his sword.
He leaned forward and put pressure on his feet.
Whoosh!
He shot at the mother rat and reached it in the blink of an eye.
"Roarr" The mother rat wasn't to be outdone.
Despite its bulky size, it dodged his sword and clawed at him.
The claw was so strong that all the air in the way was blasted.
Boom!
Boom!
Indeed, its physicals strength was higher than Varian.
'But I'm not coming with just physical strength.' He channeled his space power and lightning mana.
Creak!
The space around the mother rat solidified for a split second and—
Zapp!
A lightning arc of one meter shot at its head.
Creaaak!
The mother rat forcefully broke the solid space and the lightning arc struck at its neck.
"Roarrr!"
It roared in pain but its paw didn't flinch. It was about to tear his chest apart.
"Hmph"
A lightning wall appeared in between the paw and his chest.
Screech!
The mother rat broke the lightning wall at the price of small injury and losing a bit of its momentum and—
Creaak!
It hit the solid space. This further weakened its momentum and delayed some time before the paw finally reached Varian's chest.
But what greeted was a spiked gauntlet.
Boom!
Crack!!
"Roarr!"
The paw's bones were broken as the mother rat wailed in pain.
Zapp!
At the opportune moment, the space around its head once again solidified and a lightning ball shot at it.
Creakk!
The mother rat broke the solid space and managed to dodge again.
Boom!
It also avoided taking the lightning ball on the wound of its neck.
But—
Crack!
Crack!
Varian's gauntlet punched its face, and broke its skull.
"Ro…ar!"
It opened its mouth to bite him down in a final attempt.
That didn't help.
Space binding prevented it from closing its mouth for a split second and a lightning arc shot into its mouth.
Zapp!
Boom!
Its insides were blasted.
Blood, flesh and bones splattered into the air.
Thud!
The huge body slowly collapsed.
Varian gazed at it coldly.
A few days ago, it was the hunter and he was the prey.
Now, he was the hunter and it was the prey.
Taking a deep breath, he gazed towards the border of Inner and Outer Zone.
He had to clear one more enemy before he stepped into Inner Zone.
'Outer zone Boss, I'm coming.'