A shadowy figure silently advanced in the dense foliage of the forest, dexterously weaving through the thicket and brushing aside the many protruding branches and vines. With the comprehensive improvement of his strength brought by his tower, Chronus’ range of perception was now much larger compared to before. He was now confident to avoid any plants that could threaten him in this area of the forest.

“Ironbark trees prefer to live in areas that are not too crowded. This environment is not suitable for the tree,” thought Chronus, frowning.

“The middle section of the forest is already this densely populated with vegetation. The core area will only be worse. If it’s not possible to find the tree, I’ll have to make do with an inferior substitute and replace it later.”

Chronus decided to search a bit more before returning. The area covered by the forest was too large and it wouldn't be possible for him to survey the entire expanse any time soon. As he was about to call it a day and end his exploration, he discovered an abnormality in his surroundings.

There was a strange pungent smell wafting in from ahead that was very different from the earthy scent of the woods that he was familiar with. He concealed his breath and carefully approached the source of the smell. As he got closer, the nauseating odor intensified, making him wrinkle his nose.

Chronus soon discovered a rotting carcass on the path he was walking on. Most of the flesh had been torn off it, leaving a battered skeleton decaying on the ground. Chronus could barely make out what the creature had been before its death.

He found two more similar carcasses nearby as he continued moving forward, until he arrived at his goal. A large swath of the surrounding woods had been violently destroyed, revealing an open space about the size of house. The ground was littered with chewed up bones and covered in animal waste and other filth. Submerged in the repulsive matter was a hill-like mound of stones and waste wood.

Inside the mound lay a large monster. It was nestled inside the large pile, resting soundly and seemingly unperturbed by the disgusting mess that it was living in. From a distance, the monster looked like a massive blanket of tangled and dirtied fur. As Chronus circled around to take a closer look at it, he discovered that it was a mutant ape.

The ape was huge, three times as tall as Chronus was. It was covered in broad, bulging muscles that made it frightening to look at. Befitting its living habits, the mutant ape had a coarse, matted coat of black hair that grew out and entangled all sorts of debris and scraps. Its eyes were closed, but two cruelly curved tusks extended from its bottom lip. Most notably, Chronus found a third arm protruding from its back, adding to its monstrousness.

“This mutant ape is a monster at the bottom of rank 1. It has no elemental fluctuations, which means it relies mainly on brute force to fight,” observed Chronus. When monsters and beasts reach a certain point of strength, they would develop a degree of intelligence. This would be especially apparent in species such as apes who already had an advantage in this regard.

Being at the bottom of rank 1 meant that the mutant ape’s intelligence was still in its rudimentary form. This would greatly decrease the risk Chronus would face if he decided to fight it, which he decided to do. Having settled in this forest area for a long period of time, the ape was likely to have some valuable resources stored in its crude dwelling. Most importantly, even if he wasn’t completely sure of his chances of coming out victorious, his safety was guaranteed and there was nothing the ape could do to prevent his escape.

Since the ape was sleeping, Chronus wouldn’t provide the mutant ape the consideration of alerting it to his attack. For so long, the ape had never encountered a rival in this forest and didn’t have the slightest inclination of being alert. Chronus’ attack caught it completely by surprise.

“Anchor Shadow!”

A dark stake grew out from the mutant ape’s shadow. This was a spell that would anchor the target in place through its shadow. It was normally not too useful, as the anchor itself was fragile and could be easily destroyed by anyone who had knowledge about combating mages. The ape, however, had no such knowledge, which was why Chronus selected the spell to use.

The mutant ape vaguely felt something wrong, but didn’t know what it was. It groggily raised its head and opened its eyes. Through its blurry vision, it saw a figure standing in its territory.

“Roar!”

Unacceptable! The ape had ruled over this area for as long as it had been alive. No one could challenge it, and it had the ability to crush everything it saw. That this small figure dared to blatantly step into its territory in front of its face was an unbearable insult. The ape tried to jump up and rush the intruder, but suddenly lost balance and fell on its face when it tried to do so.

“Soul shock!”

Now that the ape was restrained, Chronus’ priority was to ensure that the beast didn’t try and figure out the mechanism in which it was done and attempt to free itself. The best way to do so was to make the mutant ape’s animalistic instincts suppress its intelligent thought, turning it into a raging monster that only knew how to blindly attack.

Due to the beast’s terrifying physique and vitality, many of Chronus’ spells would have their effects reduced when used on it. The best place to target the mutant ape was its soul, which was not nearly as strong. The large disparity between the mental strength of Chronus and the ape made the soul shock especially effective.

Sure enough, on feeling the piercing pain in its head, the ape’s eyes turned bloodshot and it frantically shrieked in anger. The ferocious aura from its roar made Chronus’ heart faintly palpitate. The mutant apes’ muscles swelled and it slammed a punch in his direction with all its strength. A shockwave boomed as its fist flew through the air, but was stopped in its tracks when it tried to dash forward.

“False image! Soul shock!”

Blinded by a new surge of pain, the mutant ape didn’t realize the figure it was now targeting was nothing more than a silhouette hanging above the ground and that the actual intruder had now reached its side. Seizing the opportunity, Chronus chopped downward with his axe, splitting open the dense fur and mutilating the ape’s flesh.

Building up more and more rage, the mutant ape’s attacks lost all their reason. All three of its fists frantically bombarded the image, occasionally weaving in kicks and tackles. Even though not directly targeted, the anchor in its shadow began to quiver and reach its breaking point. Making full use of the monster’s mindless frenzy, more and more wounds were added onto the ape’s body by Chronus.

Blood freely flowed out of the ape’s body and the entire clearing was baptised in crimson. The ape’s excellent physical quality was the only thing keeping it fighting, but exacerbated by its energy intensive all out attacks and massive loss of blood, the ape’s furious state soon wore off, replaced by a profound weakness. Succumbing to its tattered body with almost no piece intact, it fell to its knees and collapsed. Through Chronus’ strategy, it couldn’t use its greatest strength and could only be defeated, aggrieved.

Chronus dispelled his shadowy double and walked up to the hulking mountain of flesh. In plain view of the ape’s tired eyes, he raised his axe over its head and hacked downward with all his strength. The silver blade cleaved through the many tough sinewy layers and severed the beast’s head from its body, which fell to the ground with a dull thud.

Chronus lowered his axe and took a deep breath. The fight went much better than he anticipated, mainly because the ape was so cooperative in attacking the false image and ignoring the shadow anchor. Digging around the ape’s corpse, he was slightly disappointed.

Most parts of the body were completely unusable. The corpse itself had no magic elements. The meat could contain unknown diseases or parasites, and the skin was completely shredded from the fight. Even if it could be used, Chronus didn’t want to make anything out of the filthy material. He pulled some of the tendons out of the corpse, and the rest was ignored.

With the mutant ape out of the way, he could now move onto his main reason for engaging in a fight with it. Chronus rubbed his hands together and entered the ape’s den.