023

I didn’t need to look for long as I quickly found a small group of 5 of those hideous creatures hanging out in the distance. I was still heavy so I stopped a few metres away from them and hid myself behind a tree so I didn’t alert them with my heavy footsteps.

I didn’t actually jump in between them. I was almost tempted to use [Sprint] again but I stopped myself. I checked my Qi.

QI: 352/433 [0.4/sec]

Enough. I immediately increased my weight by 35Kg, all the weight that I had removed.

If I had to guess that my weight was 85 Kg before making any changes then that means that level 2 of [Stone Skin] increased my weight by a 100 kilos. With the total weight now reaching 185 kg, I slowly made my way towards the creatures. If I wanted to I could even run but I didn’t want to tire myself out right at the beginning of the fight.

The 5 creatures caught sight of me and immediately made their way towards me. I kind of expected this action judging by the previous encounter with this creature.

I put both my arms forwards and with a punch carrying all the weight of my body, let it out on the first creature to reach me. Like a puppet cut away from its strings, it flew back with enough force to fall on the two behind it. This also slowed the remaining two who were on the back as well.

I used [Qi Manipulation] and moved the few points of Qi that I had recovered and used it to power my legs just enough so I could move my body towards the creature quickly.

I used my kick this time, with the metal plate that covered the front of the foot, I kicked the head of the creature in the immediate front and I was greeted with a prompt.

[790 EXP awarded.]

The two who had lost the balance because of it were now covered with the brain matter of the one I just took care of.

Ignoring the two, I focused my attention on the two that jumped towards me using their comrade’s bodies as footholds.

I wasn’t prepared for such an attack so I put both my hands forwards and covered my face, their claws landed on my arm, but they didn’t even manage to scratch it. But I still felt it though.

With the swipe of my arms outwards, I smashed the two with the back of my hands.

Both of them landed to the side and this helped me attack the two who were on the ground clawing at their eyes. Looks like the blood of these things is quite corrosive. Thankfully because of [Stone Skin], I don’t feel it.

I ignored them for the time being and focused my attention on the one on the left. It got up, but before it could completely, my foot that I had prepared with the intention of kicking its head off came in contact with it and did just that.

[820 EXP awarded.]

The one on the back used this opportunity to hold me from the back, it caught me using its claws that it was trying to pierce into my skin, too bad for it though.

I flowed Qi into arms and using one arm I took hold of one of its arms and using the other, jammed my elbow on its head.

[660 EXP awarded.]

Finishing off the remaining two didn’t take long, they were still struggling with their eyes.

[400 EXP awarded.]

[390 EXP awarded.]

[Stone Skin has reached level 3.]

[Qi has increased by 20.]

[Weight Control is now level 2.]

[Weight Conversion: 10 Qi -> +/- 2 Kg]

[Qi has increased by 10.]

[Max HP increased by 1.]

Just as the message for [Stone Skin] arrived my body instantly became heavier. I immediately recalled that I had added all the weight that I had previously removed from my body.

I wanted to cancel the skill since I didn’t have the Qi to remove the weight, but I stopped myself. The benefit of living in this pressure was too much. I didn’t want to cancel it unless I was forced to. Even though moving around in this weight is too much, I can still barely handle it, although I can’t say that I can run now.

So with my mind set and [Awareness] perked up to max, I slowly moved away from the blood filled area and moved to a quieter one and cleaned myself of the corrosive blood.

There I sat down and rested while my Qi recovered completely. My HP surprisingly had taken a few blows and wasn’t full anymore, maybe because I was pushing it too much.

HP: 260/286

But I’ve been in worse situations, so this wasn’t much. Seeing my depleting health almost wants to make me want to test the unique skill, but I’m not going to as I was in no way going to harm myself on purpose seeing as I was neither crazy nor a masochist. Let’s just hope that I never come into a situation where it has to activate.

If only I knew that I spoke too soon.

…

With the thunderous echoes of rushing horses, a fairly huge group of warriors could be seen galloping their way towards East Green.

They weren’t actually heading towards the town but rather towards the forest in the north.

As they reached a certain distance before the gate, the one leading the group came towards the front.

This figure looked considerably taller than the others and was quite imposing as the figure wore a black full body armour that covered even their face.

“Yorick, take 5 men and guard the gates. If you see anyone in the way, tell them to go back to East Green. The northern forests are off limits for the time being, make sure the union also knows that.”

A very confident and firm voice of a woman came out of the armour. As soon as her words landed in the ears of Yorick, he didn’t waste any time as he nodded and took the men towards the gate.

“The rest of you, come with me.”

“Yes, Commander!”

She led the way as the remaining group abandoned the road and went in the forest.

Their destination was already fixed, deep in the woods towards the north was a large group of Ice Trolls, these trolls based on the direction they were heading would reach East Green in about two days.

Thankfully the outpost’s scouting team had spotted them. But it was too late, they didn’t have time to go and warn the union of such a swarm, so the outpost decided to deal with it on their own.

“You, you and you, go in that direction and you go in that. We’ll take the front. Make sure none of the trolls pass this barrier that we build.”

Hearing the commander’s orders, the four went in their respective directions, the three on the left while the one on the right. The commander, now only left with two men behind her formed this net that would hold the trolls back when they encounter them.

It was just that they weren’t hoping to see what they did when they entered the troll’s area.

“Commander, this…”

“I see it as well.”

The commander got down and inspected the scene in front of her.

The bodies of five trolls, all defeated with no more than two fatal blows.

“What kind of a fight was this?”

“Do you think a beast did it..? I see no signs of any attacks or any lingering energy around here, so it can’t be a human…”

“Don’t say something like that man. We already have more than 50 trolls to take care of on our own, if you consider in a monster like this or worse, monsters, joining in, then…”

The commander just stood quietly ignoring the talk amongst her juniors. With a keen eye for details, she surveyed her surrounding scene. She eventually couldn’t help but notice the footprints around the area. They were pretty hard to miss considering how deep they were.

They were unlike any other footprints she had ever seen, the profile of the print was huge, making her assume that it might’ve been a fairly large person.

She couldn’t understand why though. According to her knowledge about the situation in town she got when the merchant came with supplies a few days ago, was that the town was in quite a situation around the south gate.

A fairly huge swarm was predicted around there, so she was sure every capable hand was out surveying the southern wilderness. This was mainly the reason she was sure they wouldn't get any immediate help from the union.

The normal volunteers also don’t come this deep in, they stay in the outskirts and hunt the weaker creatures there.

This begs the question though, if all capable hands are busy and the young and inexperienced volunteers don’t come this way, then who was this person?

Although trolls are Tier two creatures, they can still be a problem in large quantities, even more if they’re preparing to breed.

Going by the time of year, it was usually around this time.

No wonder a group this size was together, they were hunting for excess.

Now that the new-borns need to be fed they will go around hunting anything and everything that moves.

In the end, seeing as they were only wasting their time standing there, they decided to follow the path that they were on, deeper into the troll’s area.

Coincidently, the footprints were heading the same way.