[CC] Chapter 55

The remaining mole monster twisted its neck up and let out an ear-piercing screech, its beady eyes boring down on Shouren with unmasked rage. Without waiting for another moment, the monster dashed straight towards Shouren, its ivory fangs gaping at him.

Shouren brought out his hammer before him again, positioning it before his chest. However, his calculation was wrong.

“Ugh…”

Shouren swore under his breath as he doubled over. The monster was moving much faster than a few minutes ago and invalidated his previous estimation of its trajectory. Its claws had torn into Shouren’s thighs.

Hells! I was trying my best not to get injured anywhere on my legs. Alright, it’s not just moving faster, but it’s acting more irrational as well. Unlike its previous coordination with the dead mole, it’s behaving more recklessly now.

Shouren used up another unit of lumen to reinforce his leg and stared at the monster, reflecting the same fury it felt. He could process information faster, but it was still prone to mistakes if his existing information was wrong or changed in any way. In the midst of battle, Shouren thought back to the time he first upgraded his Intelligence from F to E rank.

I didn’t need a lot of lumen when my Intelligence upgraded to E rank. In fact, there wasn’t even a notification that stated the lumen was sufficient. Could it be that E rank attributes don’t necessarily need lumen to upgrade? That would make what grandma told me incorrect then. Hold on, there could be differences in how everyone’s attributes function. They could operate in a similar function like insights.

Shouren ignored the searing sensation on his thighs and thought about his attribute. The unnatural speed of his thoughts allowed him to shuffle through his memories despite the ongoing battle.

He felt an invisible veil begin to unravel before his mind. If there were different requisites for attribute upgrades at each rank, that meant to bring the rest of his attributes to E rank, Shouren didn’t need the higher quality lumen. That would only apply when he wanted to upgrade them from E rank to D rank. He didn’t need to go to the 2nd floor, and could raise them all on the 1st floor itself.

At that same time, the mole didn’t give Shouren a chance to breathe and pounced on him again. The boy was ready this time and swung his hammer at the monster to block its claws from reaching him.

“Y-you little—”

Shouren dropped to his knee and growled in sheer pain. He blocked the mole’s claws with his hammer, but the monster didn’t stop there. For the first time in the battle, the mole twisted its neck and bit down on Shouren’s temple with its ivory fangs. He managed to push it off before it could rip the flesh out, but the damage was done.

Shouren was on the brink of taking out his [Uncommon] spell card, Cinder Lance, and blast the rotten mole to smithereens. However, he suppressed that urge and stood back on his feet. He didn’t put his body through hell just to give up now. He needed to learn to fight, and every mistake he made now was a lesson he’d keep forever.

The monster is furious after I killed the other mole, and there’s no point in predicting its movements anymore. It’s driven by pure savageness at this point.

Shouren rubbed his left eye using his shoulder as the blood dripped from his temple and into his eye, staining his vision red.

That made it worse.

Shouren sighed with chagrin as the blood spread to the rest of his eyeball, making his sight worse than before.

When my Intelligence first upgraded to E rank, it wasn’t through an insight. If I assume that the building of the traps was the reason, then why did the notification pop up only after I killed the snake monster? Maybe the system needed a tangible result or outcome after using the attribute? This is so confusing…

Shouren resumed his earlier train of thought. For some reason, his brain kept pushing for him to think, even amid the battle.

E rank requires a monster kill, but D rank doesn’t. The notification for my latest Intelligence upgrade came after I already killed the python, meaning D rank needed insights and sufficient lumen. This should be the same for other attributes as well.

Various pieces of the puzzle were beginning to click inside Shouren’s mind. The battle was forcing his brain to push his thoughts into an overdrive.

Meanwhile, the mole scurried on the ground and howled in madness as it pounced on Shouren again.

“I don’t care anymore. I’m taking you down, monster!”

Shouren growled and pushed his thoughts away as he crouched to the ground before unleashing a wide swing of the hammer. The metal grazed the mole’s ears but didn’t land a solid hit. However, it was enough to make the mole retreat momentarily. But it soon bounced back again with its claws reared at Shouren.

“Come, you little bugger.”

Shouren laughed in mania as his vision clouded crimson, and the adrenaline numbed all his injuries. He was bleeding through multiple areas on his body. However, the boy was laughing with pleasure as he swung the hammer at the monster, his body and clothes drenched with blood.

Why is it… fun?

The moment Shouren stopped thinking too much about getting hurt, he found himself actually enjoying exchanging blows with the monster. Unlike his first calculated attempts with the hammer, Shouren found joy in simply swinging the hammer in the direction it wanted to move.

“Hahaha!”

The mole clawed through Shouren’s forearm, but before it could hit the tendon, the boy dropped to the ground and kicked the monster in its ribs. He was aiming at its head, but the mole pulled back at the last second, causing his foot to land on its ribs instead. Shouren wasn’t just using his hammer, but his whole body. He ignored the claws and let the fear of the monster dissipate inside his mind.

The mole landed back on haunches, but it was noticeably wobbly on the ground. Shouren leaped at the monster, his hammer trailing behind him as he curled the metal head towards the mole’s skull. Shouren was no longer making the predictions with his brain and just immersed himself in the thrill of the battle. The boy looked at the monster like any other slum kid he got in a tousle with on the street.

The mole screeched and rolled to the side, evading the hammer’s path. It breathed with agitation, its furry chest rising and falling in desperation. How was the human boy still fighting? Numerous gashes and lacerations covered his body, yet the human boy grinned devilishly with blood smeared across his face. Who was the actual monster here?

Shouren didn’t break momentum and charged at the mole. He was snatching the upper hand and didn’t want to give it time to collect itself. The boy swung the hammer with abandon, letting his instincts take over. He missed almost all his shots, but a couple struck the mole’s body. If only the hammer was heavier, Shouren could have smashed the monster into a pulp by now. But if the hammer was any heavier, he wouldn’t even have had the strength to swing it this easily.

I’m actually winning?

Shouren’s hazel eyes blazed with excitement. He was channeling a steady amount of lumen to thwart his injuries from getting worse, but other than that, he had relied only on his hammer and his vault for the fight so far. He hadn’t used any of his spell cards yet.

The mole abruptly shrieked as Shouren’s hammer stuck its knee and fractured the bone in its hind leg.

Shouren didn’t waste the crucial opening and in one smooth breath, he retrieved the hammer back into his vault and summoned it again into his other hand, and brought it down on the monster’s skull. Just as he was about to use the same trick and summon the hammer inside the dizzy monster’s mouth, Shouren’s brain churned in activity.

His previous conclusions regarding his attributes all darted through his mind, and Shouren grasped at the last theory. There was only a single way to test it if he was right or not. He only had a couple more seconds before the mole would be sober and he would lose the opportunity to claim the space inside it.

Drops of blood continued to drip into his left eye, along with the blood leaking through the gashes on his back, arms, legs and every other part of his body. Shouren looked nothing like an innocent 10-year-old boy. His hazel eyes flared with decisiveness as he latched onto the back of the dazed monster, locking its claws with his limbs.

I better be right about this idea.

Shouren tightened his grip around the mole. The monster’s beady eyes were starting to gain focus. In that instant, Shouren’s teeth descended on the monster’s neck, his jaws closing around the flesh with all the strength he could muster. The mole thrashed in rage, trying to break free, but Shouren pressed it down on the dirt, preventing it from gaining any leverage. The boy then tore out the chunk of flesh from the mole’s neck and latched his mouth back on it.

This is so gross.

Shouren wanted to gag and retch his insides, but he steeled his nerves and drank the monster’s blood. It wasn’t the first time he’d ingested a monster’s raw flesh and blood, but it was definitely the first time he did that on an alive monster.

The mole was already half-dead when a portion of its neck was ripped out, and its thrashing slowed as its vitality drained further. Tears poured out of Shouren’s eyes, mixing with both his and the monster’s blood as the boy drained the monster more of its health. Eventually, the light faded from the mole’s enraged eyes and it slumped in Shouren’s grip.

A flash of gray light flickered over its body as a card hovered above.

However, Shouren wasn’t even paying attention to the dropped loot. Instead, his eyes were staring in shock at the notification blinking in front of him.

I was right…

[Attribute upgraded. Constitution F —> E]