They had arrived in an enormous room, both in width and height. Rows upon rows of werewolves, hundreds upon hundreds of them, maybe thousands, stood on the ground. They were all specialized units instead of the weaklings Alicia and Shen had fought until now.

The werewolves in the first row had a thick physique and wore plate armor adapted to their flexible bodies. The second row had arms longer than average, and there were piles of round rocks the size of Alicia's fireballs in front of each of them. The third row wore multiple bracelets with mystical scriptures in their arms. The fourth row was short, wearing grey camouflaged cloaks. Things continued to uncountable rows.

And ten bulky wolves, grey, white, and black, waited at a long balcony on the back of the room, far above them all. Shen could only barely see them because of his F-rank eyesight.

"Inspect," he said, but the wolves were too far away, and it didn't work. Then he used the ability on the nearby werewolves.

| Enhanced Werewolf Defender (F) | 180 / 180 HP

While checking the first row better, he noticed one in every ten was larger than the others, and their plates were darker. He inspected them too.

| Enhanced Werewolf Defender (E) | 300 / 300 HP

Shen widened his eyes in surprise. Those were the very first E-rank beings he saw, and they weren't even middle bosses!

It seemed this lair was more special than he had thought.

No enemy moved when he entered the room. He had expected that, but Alicia didn't. She was always a few dozen yards away from him, and when she finally arrived, she panicked.

"Fuck! Run!" she screamed.

"Wait!" he said quickly. To her credit, she did stop running despite her fear. "They will only react to our attacks. We can do this."

"Are you fucking out of your mind?! They have E-ranks! We found no E-rank yet!"

Shen nodded. "That is strange and out of the norm," he admitted. "Usually, enemies appear separately so we can get used to them. I'll test them alone. Stay outside the room and prepare to run if I say so or help if it looks like we can handle them."

Shen had to admit it: he was expectant. His first E-ranks! He wanted to fight them so badly he was doing something not very smart in attacking an entire row with ten E-ranks like that.

Cultivators had to constantly control their emotions, but he was definitely failing in that right now.

He threw the backpack and his extra G spear—which he used to spar with Alicia—to the side and moved on.

At first, he was overly cautious. He took one step at a time, slowly, prepared to run away if things looked dire. The rows were almost a hundred yards apart, which usually meant they would act independently, but this labyrinth was different, so he couldn't be sure. If more than a row attacked together, he would have to run.

Fortunately, only the first row reacted when he got closer. That gave him confidence, and he rushed at the enemy.

The werewolves themselves rushed at him too, but not like the weaklings from before. The ten E-ranks roared in ways that F-ranks seemed to understand and obey. Only nine F-ranks came straight at him; the others started moving to surround him completely.

Shen's spear moved straight at the closest enemy's head. His F+ agility made his attack too fast for them to dodge, and it pierced their eyes—which were left unprotected by their open helmet—with ease. He moved the spear horizontally to maximize internal damage, and the beast turned into motes of light as its brain was turned into paste.

| Enhanced Werewolf Defender (F) | 2,234 → 2,244 AP

He continued the spear movement to deflect the claw swipe coming from his side. F+ claw met F metal, and the latter held, though a tiny part was chipped away. More importantly, Shen was strong enough to push the claw attack sideways and thrust with his spear at the werewolf's eye too.

Another strike, another kill.

| Enhanced Werewolf Defender (F) | 2,244 → 2,254 AP

It was frustrating that their armor was so useless. Shen twisted his body to avoid new incoming attacks from three enemies and purposefully hit one of their chest armor with all his might, including qi.

The thing dented inwards heavily but held. At least it wasn't completely useless; he was simply abusing its weak spots.

Shen did short work of the nine werewolves and waited for the next wave. Instead of the E-rank, more F-ranks came. They were swiftly disposed of again and again until only the E-ranks remained.

And finally, they came at him.

Seven remained at some distance, surrounding him, while three approached. That was the optimal number for their size so their attacks wouldn't get in the way of each other. They didn't rush at him but positioned themselves symmetrically equidistant from each other.

Shen held his spear expectantly, his feet firm on the ground yet prepared to move. He knew better than to underestimate new enemies, so he kept qi moving through his entire body. After getting F+ stats—resistance included earlier today—he could keep it going for twenty minutes.

The E-ranks had probably been waiting for him to make a mistake or attack first. When he didn't, they came for him instead, all three simultaneously.

Their speed was incredible.

Even using qi, Shen was at least thirty percent slower than they were. Fortunately, his techniques made up for it, barely. He twisted his body to dodge and counterattacked.

His spear moved toward a beast's eye. It dodged and kept going, too fast for Shen to pull the spear back, and fleeing would make him run into another werewolf. He had expected and planned for the enemy's dodge though.

The timing of his attack had been just so he would have enough time to Backstep in between them all. He managed to leave the closest encirclement but failed in getting behind the werewolf he had attacked. Its eyes followed him perfectly, and it turned even at the cost of falling on the ground because of its momentum, which was better than leaving its back exposed.

While it fell, one of the other two jumped over it, the other kept coming at Shen, and even one of the seven detached from the larger ring surrounding him to replace the fallen beast.

Shen made a split-second decision then. The Windstorm Spear Art had a move called Swift Still Illusory Barrage, a complex feint. It required him to stay still, but doing so while getting attacked by all sides would be less than ideal. Fortunately, the Gale Footwork had a move called Stable Blow of Winter. It allowed one to move with such stability that they could dodge while using techniques that required standing still. A little power was lost, but it was a workaround for his situation.

Shen had used both moves previously, but not together. He hadn't even considered it before, but now it just came to him that it would be perfect. The only issue was that failure would leave him in an awkward position.

He didn't fail.

He stepped forward and sideways while his spear delivered a hail of thrusts against the closest werewolf. The other two tried to hit him, but he dodged without missing his attack. The one under the barrage raised its vambraced arms to protect itself, but Shen's attacks barely touched its defenses. The strikes were intended to confound and hide the actual attack rather than deal damage.

And the attack came as soon as he saw an opening.

The Swift Still Illusory Barrage banked on the enemy doubting the user's strength and speed for even a split second. That was bound to happen, considering his attacks were so weak. A mere instant of confusion, of wondering what was going on, of dropping their defenses just slightly, would be enough.

The beast created a tiny gap in his arms to see in between. That was the moment Shen used all his power and speed to thrust.

His spear reached the middle of the werewolf's arms before it could even see beyond them. The spearhead pierced through them, pushing them away, and only then did the enemy notice the attack. By then, it was too late.

Shen's weapon pierced the Shadow's eye and crushed its brain. The carcass became light.

Shen believed the others would be easy to deal with in the same manner, but he was wrong. They learned from their companion's mistake and didn't fall for the same attack. That was the issue with feints.

None of the previous Shadows had behaved that way. The same attack would always be repeatedly used on them. E-ranks were really different.

Shen was forced to keep fighting for a long while. Ten minutes later, it wasn't another feint that won him the fight, but rather his improvement.

The battle pushed his F+ stats to new limits. Stat tiers were ranges rather than specific numbers, so he could improve to a point even after the upgrade.

Shen got faster and faster until he, using his qi, was only ten percent slower than the werewolves. That wouldn't be enough, but fighting was also great for improving his techniques.

Shen's Gale Footwork was pushed to the very limits of what level 2 could provide him with. And then, he broke through those limits.

| Skill Level Up — Gale Footwork (D) — Level 3

Information rushed to his mind while he fought. A plethora of movements he intellectually knew but hadn't yet used because they were a bit too complex was given to him with an apprentice's muscle memories. Some other moves were corrected. A few he had never read about or seen, but that the system had made part of the Skill, were also taught. At the same time, his F-rank enhanced learning ability let him make connections and reach conclusions on how to better utilize that knowledge.

| Skill Sync Complete — Gale Footwork (D) — Level 3

Faster speed plus better movement technique equals dead enemies.

He Backstepped again, using improved micromovements, a better base of understanding of the Gale Footwork, and moving faster than the last time. The werewolf in front of him tried to follow his movement, but he was already behind it while its head was still moving only fifteen degrees to the side.

Shen's spearhead found an opening between helmet and body plate, and easily pierced the beast's skull.

The corpse turned into light, soon followed by its companions.

Shen had won.

"What. The. Fuck," Alicia said.

She had seen Shen fight before, but this was something else. The guy clearly had been holding back in his previous fights. Maybe because no enemy had been able to force him to show his true power?

But now...

Now Alicia became scared of him.

And that was the exact moment she believed him too.

Every single word of his just had to be true because not even a monk in some battle monastery or whatever somewhere could do that. At first, she had withheld her attacks to avoid drawing attention to herself, but then, she had just watched, mesmerized, as he got faster and faster until he became a blur and killed the second E-rank werewolf.

That was also the moment reality crushed her.

The world was fucking ending, wasn't it? Shen might be impressive and unique now, but others would eventually reach that level. How would society deal with superhumans? It wouldn't. Nations would fall, and the damn atomic bomb Shen had been so scared about before... God, she hoped they weren't fucking used.

Shen had said some people in his time could destroy cities with a snap of their fingers. Where had those people gone? Would they return?

Would humanity get that same damn power?!

What about the monsters they were fighting everywhere? Would they come to Earth? Shen had mentioned that the Guardian System created some of them, but others were made from real people out there. Those things existed in the Multiverse Alliance. What if they decided to take a piece of Earth for themselves? Or to enslave them all?

And to make things worse, the system could create such amazing werewolves, yet it couldn't deal with the Void? It needed stronger Guardians for that?

Fucking hell, what the fuck was she fucking doing?

Screw taking vengeance because of her lost money, sad childhood, and teenage years, she needed two things right now:

First, get as strong as possible in the second stage's remaining time.

Second, beg Shen to not abandon her.

Alicia had a feeling that she needed both power and someone to watch her back to guarantee some measure of safety in the coming days.

She let Shen rest, and when he started demolishing the next row of enemies, she did all she could to both help him and get some AP for herself.