With that single step, everything was decided. The creature would die by my hands, and I would consume its mir stone. My first stride had sealed its fate. With each movement, I flexed my tai energy through the air, and in what seemed like silent understanding between the walker and me, it shot multiple energy beams from its eye. Desperate to unleash everything it could, the creature even hurled its throne-like body ornament at me.
"Stop flexing already and finish it!" Jaipa screamed from beside the tree, his voice cutting through the tension.
I shook my head and rushed forward, dodging the beams in my path. I kept one thing in mind: I shouldn't try to defend against these attacks. I could sense the destruction they held, and even if I could block them, why should I when I could simply dodge?
As I closed the distance between us, I came within range of my Square ability. Without hesitation, I formed the square and teleported onto the creature's body only to find an energy beam waiting directly in front of me.
" Crap! "
The walker had anticipated my teleportation and predicted where I would appear. How foolish of me to think it lacked intelligence! But there was one thing it had missed—I hadn't yet deformed my square. Light glowed close to my skin, and the next second I was five meters away from it. Then, in another instant, I appeared at its stomach, aiming for the mir stone link
I thrust my blade, wrapped in condensed tai energy, forward. I felt slight resistance against my blade, but against my focused power, it wasn't much. The blade penetrated with minimal opposition.
The walker roared with fury, a sound so deafening it felt like my ears might bleed. The roar was like a cacophony of rusted metal being torn apart by giant claws. Its single eye glowed bright under the sun.
" KIRRRRRRRRR! "
Locating the mir stone's link had become easier for me after doing it hundreds of times. As a second passed, the walker prepared to shoot another beam directly at my face.
"Do I look like an idiot to you... Ha..one-eyed weirdo?" I muttered, moving my blade to the left. I thought I would sever the link in one clean motion and so I did. The creature began to fall, but I... was still beneath it.
Seeing this, Jaipa screamed, "Move, you idiot!"
Standing still, I turned to Jaipa and looked at him calmly. "What?"
"Idiot," Jaipa muttered as he rushed toward me.
When the walker crashed to the ground, I was standing atop it.
"Just kidding!" I called out. I had enough tai energy to use several squares.
Jaipa gritted his teeth and whispered, "Bastard."
The walker beneath me was still alive but gravely injured. If I wasted too much time and left it like this, it would die from blood loss.
Jumping from its body, I watched the azure blood flowing from its wounds. Looking at the massive form, I flipped its hulking body over. For someone with a child-like frame, my strength had grown far beyond that of a normal human. With little struggle, I could now flip this hulking 15-meter-tall walker. On the basis of only that I can consider my strength had increased tremendously since my time in the Book of Etresh.
Looking at my hand, then at my wrist, my first thought was that my first key's circle hadn't moved an inch after that incident. I had thought I would finally unlock my first key ability, but it turned out to be slightly disappointing. At the same time, it wasn't entirely disappointing because as the circle came closer, it had helped immensely in battle. Just by moving slightly closer, it had increased my overall strength, agility, senses, and even my body's durability far beyond before. That's why I was looking forward to it progressing further.
As for this... " touching my head"...the horns that had sprouted hadn't grown much since then.
"What?" A voice interrupted my thoughts. "What are you doing? Remove the mir stone already!" Jaipa's voice carried a hint of impatience now.
I pulled my blade from the creature's body, causing a stream of azure blood to gush out. Thankfully, it didn't splash on me. After a moment of silence, I looked at the wound I had inflicted. Extending my little hand toward the opening, I grasped one part of the wound with my right hand and another section with my left. Strengthening my grip by wrapping tai energy around my hands, I began tearing the wound apart, little by little.
When the opening had become large enough, I stopped and looked into the walker's eyes. A stream of tears flowed from its blurry gaze. I pushed my hand inside its body, feeling the warmth of its azure blood as I blindly searched for the mir stone. After a while, I managed to pull it out. The moment I extracted the mir stone, all the struggling the walker had been doing ceased to exit
I had sensed something different about this mir stone from the moment I began pulling it out something unlike the others I had consumed so far. It was noticeably larger, but that seemed to be the only difference. I couldn't see its color because it was covered in the creature's azure blood.
I extended my hand and rubbed the stone against the hard scales of the walker's body. After a moment, I managed to clean it enough to see its color it was yellow,
" An agility mir stone " i muttered to my looking at jaipa
And all of a sudden, something unexpected happened.
Bright energy began to leak from the walker's body, connecting to mine and flowing inside me.
"What... what's happening? Is this the walker's energy that strengthens my key's energy?" I turned to Jaipa to look and asked.
He nodded three times and said nothing.
"So... this is the energy needed to strengthen my own power? Hmm, it doesn't seem like much. Is this really the energy you talked about before?"
"You idiot... The energy I mentioned is exactly what you're absorbing right now!"
"Then why don't I feel like anything has changed in me?" My voice carried a note of disappointment.
"That's because the walker's rank was low!"
"Even these creatures have ranks? What a messed-up world... Anyway, what was the rank of the one I just killed?"
"Ah, this one..." He sniffed looking at me with a smile