Azrael spread his senses to their full extent. Even though he was almost a kilometer away from the river, in the silent night of the forest, he could still clearly hear the voices of the people who were fighting.
Soon, through the sounds he heard, he determined that it was a human male and a monster who were engaged in combat.
He thought for a moment and decided to go and take a look.
Currently, he had no clue how to proceed with his trial, but the human fighting over there might be someone from New Moon City and could provide him with some direction.
He nimbly climbed down the tree and rushed in the direction of the sound.
In just a minute, he reached the location of the fight. The bright light of the stars dimly lit the dark forest, and Azrael saw a man who looked to be about forty years old, fighting against a nearly three-meter-long crocodile.
Actually, fighting wasn’t the right word. It would be more accurate to say that he was barely holding the crocodile back from eating him alive.
The man had messy, shoulder-length, unkempt hair, and his body was riddled with wounds.
Blood dyed his leather armor red, the iron spear in his hand was filled with numerous cracks, and he had a look of despair on his face.
Azrael shifted his attention to the crocodile and sensed that this monster was even stronger than the Swift Tiger he had killed before.
He carefully observed the crocodile attacking the man for a few minutes, and his eyes turned sharp.
’If I use everything I have and attack it from behind, I should be able to heavily injure or even kill it with just a single move.’
---) Cosmic Energy: 177 (This cosmic energy also includes the 40% increase brought by the mid-level breathing method)
After killing the monsters he had encountered while traveling earlier, all of Azrael’s stat points had increased by about 2 points.
He moved through the forest, hiding behind the trees, and soon stopped behind a thick trunk.
The man fighting against the crocodile was constantly retreating while trying to escape from the monster, and Azrael determined that he would soon pass by this tree.
He climbed up and hid himself among the dense leaves.
"Damn those bastards of the Tower. If it wasn’t because of them, I wouldn’t be in this situation," The man gritted his teeth and cursed loudly.
When Azrael, who was hiding in the tree heard the word Tower, his eyes lit up.
’This man must know something about the Tower Masters I need to find,’ He thought and held the Fallen Star tightly.
Soon, the man walked past the side of the tree where Azrael was hiding, with the crocodile following closely behind.
Azrael’s eyes narrowed, and the cosmic energy within his body began to flow. The black-colored Fallen Star glowed with the blue light of cosmic energy, and a sharp aura radiated from it.
At the same time, Azrael used cosmic energy to cover his hand and jumped down from the tree, aiming directly at the top of the crocodile’s head.
He used the force utilization technique Lia had taught him and unleashed 120% of his muscular power.
Last time, when he had tried using more than 100% of his strength, he had broken his hand. But this time, now that his stat points were higher and he had used cosmic energy to reinforce his muscles, he only felt a heavy strain.
The crocodile monster, who was pursuing the man suddenly felt a deep sense of dread.
The monster immediately stopped and tried to move sideways.
However, Azrael was already just a few meters above its head, and by the time it realized the danger, he had already descended and slashed down with his sword.
The World ability of the Fallen Star activated, and its weight increased by three times. After training with Fallen Star during the past two months, Azrael had realized that the weapon’s base weight increases along with his strength.
Currently, the base weight of the Fallen Star was around 165 kg. Tripling that brought it to nearly 500 kg.
Azrael’s falling speed from the tree, combined with the sword’s massive weight and his utilization of 120% muscular strength, created a dreadful aura that loomed over the crocodile.
The sharp edge of the heavy greatsword struck the crocodile’s tough hide, and the Sword Domination ability increased its attack power by an additional 50%.
Under the full force of Fallen Star, the monster’s tough skin was sliced open as if it were mere cloth, and before it could even let out a roar, its long neck was detached from its body.
Even after decapitating the monster, the sword didn’t lose all of its momentum and crashed heavily into the ground beneath it.
Azrael’s right hand, which gripped the sword went numb from the impact, and he almost lost his grip.
The power he had unleashed using nearly all of his means was far higher than he had anticipated.
Even he hadn’t expected to kill a monster—stronger than the Swift Tiger—so easily.
Just as Azrael was still processing the situation, the crocodile’s body turned into motes of light and disappeared into his body.
(You have killed level 7 Mud Crocodile. Strength +2, Agility +1, Stamina +2, Cosmic Energy +1)
(You have leveled up and reached Level 4)
Azrael raised an eyebrow upon seeing the number of stat points he had gained after killing the Mud Crocodile and felt delighted.
But he soon pushed that to the back of his mind and turned to look at the man, who was now staring at him in disbelief.
"Are you okay?" Azrael walked over to the man.
The man snapped out of his daze upon hearing Azrael and quickly bowed his head.
"Thank you, fellow adventurer, for saving my life. If you hadn’t arrived in time, I would’ve died here."
Azrael nodded and asked curiously, "Why did you come to such a dangerous place?"
He had heard the man cursing the people of the Tower earlier, so he suspected that his presence here might be related to the Tower.
The man hesitated upon hearing Azrael’s question, but eventually, he gritted his teeth and responded.
"It was because of the people of the Tower."