Edward plunged his whole arm into the Panther’s corpse, greedily absorbing its energy. The Panther’s essence was of a higher grade than the other monsters he had defeated until now, and as for the quantity, only Cyclops could compare. He sensed his aura cheers inside of him at the influx of energy. He was growing stronger. Somehow, part of the energy from the defeated monster even turned into mana, enlarging his mana pool.

Last time he had to share the Panther’s essence with Ignis and Adotinus but this one belonged only to him. It is dangerous but also much more rewarding to hunt alone. And yet even with all the energy he was absorbing and all the progress he was making he didn’t see any sign of reaching a new level. His strength was increasing quantitatively but there was no qualitative change.

If this is still not enough to trigger an evolution it’s no wonder that no one ever reached the next stage. If there is even such a thing. I doubt that there are more than a dozen monsters at this level of strength in this world. To achieve a hypothetical breakthrough, one would have to scour the whole planet hunting for monsters, and alone on top of that in order not to dilapidate the monsters’ essence.

I don’t see anyone having reached the Patriarch level abandoning all of their gains to chase after a wild hypothesis. I mean it hasn’t been that long since I reached the Patriarch level, and I already have attachments to Gobéliard even if I managed to escape all of the paperwork.

Edward finished absorbing the creature’s essence when he saw the rune in the sky turn inert. Shit Nephelin is coming. He teleported away already beginning his escape from the city. The next moment Nephelin appeared on the site of the battle. “STOP RUNNING AWAY YOU COWARD!!”

He charged at Edward, but the latter had already teleported further away. “YOU ARE THE MOST ANNOYING FOOD I EVER MET!! COME BACK AND LET YOURSELF BE EATEN LIKE THE OTHERS!!”

A vein throbbed on Edward’s temple. This guy really doesn’t see us as anything else than food. That explains in part why he is underestimating us so much. If I was him and had to deal with three individuals under my level with an army at my disposal, I would have disposed of them long ago.

I wish to shut him down by telling him it is but a postponed fight. I will deal with him on my own terms. And yet he can’t be a complete moron either. He is the one who has set up all of this rune system after all. If he starts to install traps we are done for. It’s better to swallow my pride for now. My time will come.

Edward had to suppress the growing anger within him.

Nephelin chased Edward while yelling insults but without getting any results. Edward was faster than him thanks to the range of his teleportation and he gave him the cold shoulder, he ignored Nephelin completely which only serve to infuriate the monster further. Before long, Edward had left him behind in the dust.

This time it didn’t take long for Nephelin to give up, barely one hour after Edward had left, the rune system lit up again with Nephelin hard at work repairing them. He seems to have given up. It’s already the third time he is chasing me, by now he should have understood that it’s useless.

All right, time to continue where I left off. There aren’t that many Manticores that I have to deal with. Edward headed back inside Pescara’s ruins. He had a job to finish.

With all of the monsters that he had already slaughtered, his task became easier. The monsters’ groups were smaller in size and with his recent increase in strength he didn’t need to distract and separate the monsters anymore, he could simply barge in. He didn’t waste any time either, as a group of three Manticores, two giant snails, and forty-something centipedes stand in his way, he used his acceleration immediately and charged into the fray, “Rèng khwāmrĕw”.

He teleported in front of a snail and cut all of its tentacles before it could react, effectively crippling the creature for the rest of the fight. The Manticores charged at him and the remaining snail deployed its tentacles. In the background, the centipedes and ever-present flying eyes were moving in slow motion. Edward seemingly burst with the addition of three summoned clones. The clones distracted the Manticores which didn’t know where to focus anymore, but the snail tentacles were more effective at culling them.

Without their acceleration the clones were too slow to fend off the different tentacles coming after them and they got snuffed out one after the other. It bought just enough time for Edward to reset his two seconds delay teleportation. He teleported to the snail while its tentacles were lagging behind in the place where Edward used to be. It took but a few swings of Edward’s daggers to cripple this second snail. However, he didn’t have the time to finish it as the Manticores were sending powerful crescents of energy in his direction. Edward dashed away, still not willing to endure those attacks frontally. The centipedes that were in the way and were too slow to move got slashed into different bloody pieces.

By now the flying eyes were shooting rays of energy in every direction, they were too slow to aim at Edward but their number made it annoying all the same. Rays of energy were falling everywhere and Edward manifested a few clouds of aura needles that he sent chasing after them to cease their incessant attacks.

The three Manticores were the only monsters left able to pose any threat to him. They had good defense and offense but were slightly lacking in speed. It took more time for Edward to take care of them, but with the help of his clones to distract them and create openings, he was able to overcome them. Also, Edward was getting used to fighting enemies with strong bodies, with repeated encounters against such opponents he was getting better at charging attacks with condensed aura in a short period of time. The trick was to make his attacks as powerful as possible while not taking so long that his targets had the time to avoid them.

Once the Manticores were dead, Edward absorbed their essence while summoning a few clones to exterminate the centipedes still crawling on the battlefield. He even had the time to finish the snails and consumed their power without any reinforcements coming his way to bother him. Just like that Edward was able to take care of one group of monsters after the other.

Nephelin isn’t coming to stop me this time. It seems he really has given up. It’s all the better for me. Even monsters’ reinforcements are slow to come when they ever come at all. He frowned. And I still haven’t encountered the flying eyes’ main body. With the distance that I covered, this can’t be a coincidence. It must be avoiding me. Still, I can’t ignore it. If it is able to control all the flying eyes at the same time it could be quite troublesome. And the main body had decent firepower as well, it was able to detect and destroy my clone before I had the time to react.

It will be hard to find the main body if it’s actively avoiding me, with all of its offspring acting as scouts it can monitor my location in real-time. I may be able to find it with the help of my clones but it will take time. Edward looked at the network of runes above him being repaired by Nephelin. I can damage his runes to buy more time but I feel like Nephelin is close to his breaking point. If I continue to pester him, I’m afraid of what he will do. If he forsakes those runes and decides to run wild, I won’t be able to stop him. I can escape him, but a city cannot flee away. I don’t want to be the one responsible for pissing him off if he decides to simply destroy everything in his path.

Edward contacted Ignis and Adotinus through his clone. His clone had a limited lifespan but they could recharge its energy when needed, making sure it was a permanent point of contact between them and Edward. “Are the preparations ready from your side?” Edward asked them before adding, “I feel like Nephilin won’t endure that game of cat and mouse for long. I have one more troublesome monster to deal with and a few Manticores left over on my side.”

Ignis laughed. “You can always add more traps. But yes, I will finish the main setup in a few hours. We will be ready by the time you finish dealing with the last monsters. We had to go outside Pescara to install the traps without getting spotted. You will have to kite Nephelin to our location.”

Edward tracked his clone’s position compared to his. “All right, that’s not a problem, I just have to make Nephelin mad enough. With how angry he already is it shouldn’t be too hard.”

It’s almost time to end the game. Forget the clones, Nephelin didn’t show up even when I slaughtered his monsters. Revealing my position won’t change anything. Edward unfolded his aura, letting it brazenly expand on the whole city, or what was left of it. His aura detected the eye’s main body, it was a lot bigger than its congener and surrounded by swirling clouds of smaller flying eyes. Edward smiled wickedly. There you are. He used his long-range teleportation, appearing five hundred meters away.

In the scope of his aura, he sensed the giant eye stop in its track. It had realized that its location was compromised and that it couldn’t escape. In the sky all of the smaller flying eyes flew in the direction of the main body, forming a giant maelstrom. It’s gathering its forces. Edward wasn’t able to sense the main body anymore due to the concentration of flying eyes swirling around it. And Nephelin isn’t showing up. What’s the deal with those runes for him to forgo everything for them?

With a few more teleportation Edward reached the main body’s location. With the number of flying eyes in the sky it almost felt as if it was night, their number was enough to even obfuscate the sun. Be it hundreds or thousands, you are too weak. Adding more of you won’t make a difference, Edward thought confidently.

The whirl of flying eyes enveloping the main body split apart, within it the main body had tripled its size. Not only had its eye grown larger, but its body also wasn’t limited to a massive eye anymore. Its body extended beyond that, a mass of darkness covered in numerous smaller eyes and drifting tentacles. Beyond the main body, numerous nodes of flying eyes formed, the monsters aggregating and fusing together to become bigger and stronger.

Okay…That changes thing was Edward’s last thought before the fight began.