These stone-cold boulders smashed into the ground, Stanis barely managing to slip past them. But they weren't finished just yet, instead the boulders rising up once more, and then again, and again, battering down all the same whether they hit him or not. It wasn't a matter of taking their time and calculating how to hit Stanis as much as it was about trying to keep him occupied, not allowing him any time to breathe and thus inevitably leading to a slip-up somewhere.

These monsters, who looked quite dull and defence-based, were smarter than anything he had fought so far. They had identified his strengths through their primitive methods, namely through the death of their brother, and now were acting upon his weaknesses.

Stanis himself had a Dexterity value closing in on 100 and yet even that seemed to be just a bit off what it should be as continuously dodged hits by the breadth of a hair. He had no opportunity to go on the offence whatsoever, one second of misplaced thought and his body would be smashed through just like the trails of cracked ground that followed him.

"Layman's Rush" roared Stanis, his sudden burst of speed catching the monsters off guard as he escaped their flow. Of course, he could have used that time to counter-attack the monsters and deal some damage but at the same time he knew his strength and its origin; they wouldn't be hurt by his tooth or nail. And this gave him the perfect opportunity to use his strengths as he cast Blueshot spitfire, magic bullets firing out and creating dust clouds out of their bodies.

It was a weird occurrence, to say the least, their bodies so filled with rock and dust that their blood circulated it through their blood-streams unfiltered. Not that his attacks really damaged them though, rather the opposite as they shrugged it off.

All of a sudden, an idea popped into Stanis's head and lit a lightbulb, a lightbulb that shouldn't be lit in the heat of a battle. However, it was already too late for any further thought as his curiosity had already taken control…

One of the monsters roared before leaping towards a close rock, then barrelling down towards where Stanis stood.

In his palms formed an icicle, one that grew exceptionally fast as it became over an arm's length within the second he had. He didn't even look at the falling monster and instead just fired the icicle, his body rolling away from the impact a split-second later.

The icicle struck, doing little more than scratching the monster. It exploded on impact, shards flying out dangerously, and more importantly, ice granules filling the air. The other monster struck at Stanis, he repeating his previous actions and shooting out an icicle, before escaping the hit in the nick of time.

This was repeated 8 more times, Stanis getting proficient at this hit and run style as he shot 6 icicles during the last round. The air surrounding their scene was hot, not unbearably but still hot. The energy in the air had been enough for the simple ice granules to melt, the air now thickening with water-vapour.

Stanis had a grin on his face as he looked towards the striking monster: a mad-grin…

He forgot where he was for a second as he focused inwards, ignoring the boulder seconds away from splitting his face. Mana rushed to his fingertips, he finding the right source and fuelling it with over half his remaining mana.

A glimmer of a lightning bolt escaped his finger, the next second filled with light brighter than white as the Gods smote the world.

*KZZRSSRZZZZZ*

Stanis was temporarily deafened, struggling backwards only to find himself lying on his back. His eyes regained their sight and he looked, seeing nothing but darkness.

He struggled more, forcing himself onto his feet and stumbling away, each step heavier than the last as he realised half his body had been burnt black. This was not only in the sense of the colour but also in the fact that they weren't functioning properly, he having to effectively hop with a dangling arm and an anchoring leg.

The darkness eventually left his sight, the sun lighting up the rest of his world. He had night vision and thus being blinded by darkness was a rare occurrence to him, although all questions left his mind as he turned around to see the particulate-thick smoke. It was only then that he realised he had been holding his breath the whole time, opening his mouth to allow breathing, only to start spluttering and wheezing.

A burnt, porky smell was plastered all across his mouth, his heart gagging at the thought of it. It was about 15 seconds later that he regained his ability to breathe, no longer taking it for granted as he greedily absorbed as much clean air as he could.

His mind suddenly remembered where he was, slowly peering around for any sight of the monsters. He walked around the plume of smoke that rose to the sky, the source a circle around 5 metres wide. Stanis used Scout and sense to help him with his search. Well, he tried to but couldn't as he realised he had no mana left whatsoever…

Recalling his actions, it was with foresight and clear thought that he realised how stupid and dangerous of an event he had just survived. The air had demanded more electricity than he had supplied, it forcing him to supply his whole mana's worth and even more, just before he luckily managed to break the link. And that was only one part of the danger, the other large part being the obvious explosion that had just taken place.

Even now the air was tingling with electricity, Stanis patting down his hair as he realised that every single strand was standing on their ends. He was about to use Destructive mana recharge when he saw the monsters in question, both hit so hard they had been blown out of the smoke, their bodies as charred and ghastly as could be.

Stanis went forwards having already lost the energy to care, stopping himself only once he realised that the monsters weren't dead yet. And thus, in honour of the battle they had just shared, he got closer and Destructively mana recharged on them, their bodies wilting up under his touch. This also had practical use as it made his next work easy.

Before anything else, he cast Light healing all over the right-hand side of his body.

He was still slightly delirious but not as much as before as he dragged the two bodies away further from the smoke, inwardly surprised that no enemies had come to check the scene yet. Nevertheless, he wasn't going to leave his fate to luck and knew he had to act fast.

He used his left hand as a pseudo-blade as he dug into their bodies, struggling at first but then using mana to aid him in his dissections. He took both of their storage stones and threw them in his bag, which surprisingly hadn't been burnt. He was about to dissect them fully when he remembered Scout and sense's upgraded ability.

He had been buzzed about it at first, an analysis ability added onto a scouting one. But of course it wasn't going to be that easy, instead him quickly figuring out that the analysis ability had little effect on living creatures. Well, it worked on weak animals that he could easily overpower but enemies he was around equal to? Nope. But at least it worked on their dead bodies, at least this way he could learn a little bit more about them.

Rashkar

Level 68

Description: Quadrupled animal with focus on defence.

Rashkar

Level 67

Description: Quadrupled animal with focus on defence.

It, however, turned out to be more useless than he thought it would be. At least now he had a level and name to them though if nothing else. What was curious was the fact that they were over 20 levels above him, meaning his true strength was most likely in the low 70s if going by this levelling system. Stanis checked his status and confirmed his suspicions; he had levelled up 4 times from killing 3 Rashkars!

Stanis Volkov

Age: 18 years

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

Level 51 (Progress to the next level is 63%)

Unallocated points: 8

Class: Origin

Strength: 94 [56 ->57]

Dexterity: 95 [57]

Constitution: 94 [58]

Intelligence: 93 [43 ->44]

Wisdom: 87+5[42]

Tenacity: 89[59]

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

His points were something he could allocate at a different time though, right now he had dissecting to do. He quickly cut the Rashkars into many parts and arranged them based on strength. The strongest parts of their bodies turned out to be their boulder-fists and shoulder blades. He took these parts from the two bodies, and a few other tough bones before running from the area, his ears picking up several howls in the distance.

It seemed the Rashkars he had just killed had been working at a distance away from the others, which was the reason why the sounds of them fighting hadn't attracted any attention. But it was another story when it came to the black smoke that rose high into the skies or the disgusting, burnt smell that infected the air.

****

Stanis was a good distance up the mountain when he finally stopped and opened his backpack, taking out the storage stones and bloody bones. He opened both storage stones and was disappointed. He had heard from the others, when on the Jaguar journey, that the storage stones now had a very small win rate compared to before, but it was another thing to see that with his own eyes. It seemed the success-rate had been temporarily boosted before in order to allow the Humans a fighting chance.

Stanis forgot about this and checked how much material he had scavenged from the Rashkars' bodies. With some rough guesswork, he estimated he had enough material for about 2-3 swords: not enough to be truly successful in but just enough to check if there was any potential success hiding in these bones in the first place. Even if there wasn't, Stanis was now set on coming back here due to how good opponents the Rashkars were.

He had another grander plan in mind, one which had rooted to life after reaping the rewards from the Rashkars. Based on how good a material their bones turned out to be, this plan could either go forwards or stay a plan. Either way, that was something for the future and so he applied all 4 of his points into Dexterity and 4 into Intelligence before beginning his trek back, this time sprinting the whole distance.

Things had just calmed down in the Yora Village but Stanis's return would mark the end of that…