Chapter 95 – Silent Ocean
Kaden silently entered the middle zone of the Forest of Asterion with calm, steady steps.
He acted like he hadn’t just turned an entire zone into a slaughterhouse soaked in death and blood. He acted like all of it hadn’t been done by someone who was still only at the Awakened rank.
He didn’t acknowledge it.
He didn’t even pay attention to it.
All that mattered to him now... was to kill all the beasts in the middle zone and make this entire place one drenched in the same fate...death and blood.
No less. No more.
But still,
’Is there anything I could have done better?’ Kaden thought silently as he walked, wandering, even, through the middle zone.
His steps looked lazy, aimless, almost casual but his perception was on high alert, and he knew exactly where he was going.
’Nothing comes to mind...’ he responded to his own question.
He had wondered if there was anything he could have done better. But after reviewing every move, every step, every strike in his head... he couldn’t find a flaw.
It all looked perfect.
And that was the problem.
The fact that it felt perfect meant something had gone wrong.
Either in his way of thinking or in something he couldn’t yet see.
Because perfection didn’t exist. Not even in this world of monsters and magic.
To him, perfect meant flawless. Perfect meant something without weak points.
And Kaden didn’t believe such a thing existed in either world.
But that wasn’t the point.
The point was that he thought his performance had been perfect.
That... was dangerous.
Because once you believe something is perfect, you stop trying to improve it.
And Kaden couldn’t afford that.
So if his own opinion wasn’t reliable... he asked for another.
"Little Rory, what do you think about my fight just now?" he asked softly, right as he casually slashed to his right, cutting down a beast that had tried to sneak up on him.
At his question, Rory tilted her head in her usual way.
Kaden’s lips twitched, already anticipating a useless answer, but,
"You did good, Master. Your kills were clean and you didn’t waste time on weaklings."
"That’s why I can’t judge. They were too weak."
"If I have to judge your performance, I’d do it in a situation where you struggle. That’s more telling. More demonstrative."
Rory said it seriously, like an old grandmother who had lived for hundreds of years.
And the more Kaden thought about her words, the more he realized... she was right.
He looked at Rory, surprised. "So you’re not so dumb, huh..." Kaden muttered quietly, making Reditha hum faintly in red.
"What did she say?" Rory asked, curious about Reditha’s opinion of her.
Kaden shrugged.
"She said you’re dumb and weird," he said nonchalantly, and instantly Reditha hummed even deeper, her crimson light pulsing looked like she was...protesting?
But before Rory could think about it too much,
"Wow, Reditha? That harsh? Bad, bad girl. But I’ll listen to you."
Then he turned his head to Rory again and added,
"She said you’re ugly. But your blood must be tasty."
He shook his head.
"Don’t mind her. Looks like Reditha is just rude today."
He said it with an apologetic tone, but inside?
’Heheheh, I didn’t know this could be so fun.’
Because yes, Reditha hadn’t said any of that.
Kaden had made it all up. Blatantly lying and throwing her under the bus without even a flicker of shame.
But then, suddenly, he stopped.
He’d finally reached the poisonous zone.
The place where he had once faced the Dreadthorn Bear.
He expanded his perception and scanned the surroundings. No beast in sight.
He was pleased.
He stepped inside, then sat right in the center of the poisonous fog and closed his eyes.
He still had three days. And only a couple of hours had passed on the first.
So Kaden wanted to test something, with his Mana Sense ability, before he began his slaughter when night came.
Mana Sense allowed him to detect mana in the air and facilitated its absorption and recovery.
And here, this place filled with dense fog, was saturated with a single kind of mana:
Poisonous mana.
And Kaden intended to see if he could absorb it... and use it in combat.
So he started.
He took a deep breath and exhaled softly, eyes closed.
And then—visibly, to the naked eye—the foggy, toxic air began to swirl around him.
Then slowly... he started to absorb it.
From the very first breath, he didn’t feel discomfort. No nausea. No pain.
’It must be my Poison Resistance trait,’ he noted inwardly and continued his absorption.
Hours passed.
The sky dimmed. Night approached.
Slowly, the mana inside his body began to split into two: one neutral, one poisonous.
And once the two reached equilibrium, balanced and swirling inside him, he tried to push further.
But that’s when the pain hit.
It wasn’t unbearable, but he stopped anyway, not because of the pain itself, but because he wasn’t interested in making all his mana poisonous.
He stopped there and stood up.
It was the perfect time to hunt.
This time... all of his abilities would move with him.
Not just Reditha.
His blood skills. His new traits. The poisonous mana he had just absorbed and also his stats and unique skill.
He had to be efficient in killing today and coincidentally, it was night now.
Perfect timing.
So he stood and walked forward.
This time, Kaden had a very specific kind of kill in mind.
No more flashy slaughter like in the outer zone.
Here, he would kill silently.
So silently... that no one would even realize it was happening until it was too late.
To do this, Kaden planned to exploit his Corrosive Blood, his Soulbrand... and the poison mana he has inside of him.
He had already decided on his plan.
And so, he departed.
His steps were light. Almost nonexistent.
He activated his perception to the maximum, already locking onto his first target.
It was a black, human-faced spider. A special breed whose face looked eerily human, like that of a young man, meaning the spider was still relatively young.
Its legs were long, each tip as sharp as blades, and its entire body was covered in a deep black carapace.
It looked hard to kill.
But that didn’t matter.
Reditha was sharper.
Kaden appeared beside it in total silence, then, with a slow but impossibly fast movement, he drove Reditha straight into the spider’s skull.
It wasn’t just a stab.
It was a soul-strike.
Now that Kaden could hurt the soul itself, the single thrust not only tore through the spider’s mind, hurt the soul, and also corroded its head and poisoned it in one smooth, horrific motion.
The result... was monstrous.
The beast wanted to scream, to roar in pain, to lash out.
But Kaden placed his hand over its disgusting mouth, silencing it with nothing but calm force.
Only a muffled whimper escaped.
Its eyes locked onto the only visible part of its killer’s face,
Crimson eyes.
And by staring into them, deeply, hopelessly...
It felt like it was drowning in a blood-soaked ocean.
An ocean that was killing it with perfect indifference.
As if its death... was as natural as the way waves crash during a storm, swallowing any creature foolish enough to be caught.
How pitiful.
—End of Chapter 95—