A few hourglasses later.
Hmm?
Grimm, who had blended in the shadows, suddenly stopped his tracks in the ravenous cavern.
The mask’s ultrasonic positioning sorcery had projected an image of a huge six-legged arachnid at the cave wall ahead inside the black-and-white-colored head-up display of his mask.
Unquestionably, this was an ancient level-three creature from this world. The Evil Blood flows within its body. A sense of impenetrable toughness emanated from the creature.
In the past, Grimm could not defeat the flesh creature that had evolved through passive means.
With no powerful energy to muster; nor any skillful means of survival, the creatures of this world that had lost the law of rainbow camouflage in their evolution were affected by the Evil Bloods. What is left of the flesh creatures of the world was a tough body that had built up in toughness over the years.
“Super-sensitive sense of light? Did it notice my presence?”
Grimm could not afford to miss the Evil Blood that was flowing within the ancient creature. He had to earn the one-thousand-seven-hundred sorcerer’s essence to pay off the Holy Tower of Seven Rings. Even if he could not seal it and hand it over to the Light of Constellation of the Grand Peak, the fortress would still reward him in the end by just destroying the Evil Blood creature.
Hovering mid-air in the cave, hidden among the shadows, Grimm did not dare to make a hasty action.
A sneak attack!?
Although Grimm had enough mastery of the destructive powers that allowed him to kill the level-three creature in a direct confrontation, it was only in terms of his offensive capabilities.
From his past battle experience with the Evil Bloods, Grimm had started to recognize his own weaknesses.
First of all, the range of destructive spells relied upon the principle of the World Veil. Its range was too short and Grimm had to battle the monsters in close-quarter combat.
Secondly, the mana used to conjure the destructive spells was exceptionally high. The amount required would be like if Grimm had to cast the fireblast spell without stop. Without the backing of a sorcerer’s tower, the high-leveled spell could not be cast out like common fireballs.
The final weakness was his low-level that only allowed him to experience a superficial time.
This creates an invisible penalty to his observation and reaction time. A powerful sorcery like the destructive spell would raise an alarm without a doubt. The target would flee with all its might, drastically reducing Grimm’s chance to hit.
Of course, these assumptions were valid if his target was a high-level creature.
A sneak attack would naturally increase his chance to hit, a good choice of attack. The dark pool had provided Grimm with a good condition to launch the ambush!
Well then…
Grimm held his breath and tried his best to control his energy ripple from leaking out. The ultrasonic positioning sorcery locked on to the six-legged arachnid that appeared to be ignorant of his gradual approach.
Grimm was closing in.
He was getting nearer, almost within the twelve-meter range of his destructive spell!
The three-meter wide six-legged arachnid was licking its two front legs. Its body had a deep-black camouflage that blended in well with the cave walls. An impenetrable sense of toughness exuded from it. Other than the main pair of eyes that were located on its forehead, there were another three pairs of ultra-sensitive eyes on its back. A layer of slime covered its dark-colored skin.
Other than the ultrasonic positioning sorcery within the Mask of Truth, Grimm’s pair of infinite eyes that could detect heat signatures also worked well here.
The slimy liquid on the six-legged arachnid seemed to be preserving the spider’s body heat. The heat signature gave an ultra-clear image in Grimm’s infinite eyes.
Beneath the dark pool, Grimm reached for his Sabbatical Goat Staff and stealthily pointed it at the six-legged arachnid. His heart was thumping so hard that it almost jumped out from his throat.
The sneak attack gave Grimm a thrill.
Wasn’t this the same feeling he felt when he was a nightmare hunter in the Nightmare World?
If he had the Robe of Representations and the ability to hide from the senses of various creatures, Grimm would then be a real-life hunter!
Hiss!
Suddenly, the six-legged arachnid seemed to have sensed something. It stopped moving. All eight of its eyes were rolling around as it tried to seek the potential danger that could come from every direction.
Grimm quickly stopped his every move. He didn’t even dare to blink. He could only think for now.
“Was it my breathing? Or did I set off some unnatural flow in the air?”
Grimm did not move, but the six-legged arachnid still acted in an alarmed manner. It was ready to pounce. A while later, something came to Grimm’s mind.
“Was it the enmity in my eyes that set off the target’s instinctive awareness!?”
As anatomy refinery sorcerers become more powerful, Grimm included, they would be able to develop higher levels of Wild Instinct. They could smell danger from a mile away. This was common knowledge among the anatomy refinery sorcerers.
Normally, even a basic anatomy refinery sorcerer would be able to perfectly control his own killing intent. Stealth and survival were the most basic battle skill sets of an anatomy refinery sorcerer.
Control his own killing intent?
Although Grimm was an anatomy refinery sorcerer, he had walked the path of an elemental sorcerer ever since he became a real sorcerer. He devoted his research to the destructive forces and other knowledge that was associated with an elemental sorcerer. Within the path of anatomy refinery sorcerers, his only accomplishment was the level-two Wild Instinct.
Now that he thought about it, the technique of mastering his own killing intent…
The enmity in Grimm’s eyes gradually disappeared. Like a machine that was cooling down, he calmly compiled all the information from his senses and analyzed them in the coldest of fashion. The lust to kill in his will had been forcibly separated.
Now, the spider appeared nothing more than a rock to Grimm!
What Grimm had to do was to crush the rock. Slowly, the blood flow within Grimm’s body began to become tranquil again.
Everything was a first for Grimm. His movements were very slow, very stiff, and very uncoordinated.
Grimm tried tirelessly to experiment with the anatomy refinery techniques that he had once deciphered. He tried to seek for the same feeling again. His blood began to turn cold and he felt extremely uncomfortable. He felt that he was like an ice-cold venomous snake that was peeking into the darkness.
Nevertheless, Grimm soldiered on with his strong will to maintain his conditions.
Quite a while later, hiding his killing intent seemed to work. The six-legged spider started to feel relaxed. No longer watchful, the arachnid once again regurgitated a layer of slime on its front legs.
With a victorious grin, Grimm lightly tapped his Sabbatical Goat Staff at the six-legged arachnid in the darkness.
Crackle! An arc filled with destructive power was launched at the target.
“Oh no!”
Grimm had emerged from his extreme calmness the very moment he ignited the destructive spell.
Boom! Although the destructive arc had hit the side of the six-legged spider’s abdomen, it did not cause an instant death.
As Grimm was about to cast another destructive spell, the enemy seemed to have sensed the dangerous aura that emitted from Grimm and retreated.
“Was it because I relaxed at the last moment? That must be it, I was excited, I was grinning like a victor? What an unforgivable mistake! Looks like there’s still a long way to go in my cultivation.”
Grimm regretted his actions, but it was of no use.
Luckily, although the six-legged spider did not die right away from his destructive spell, he had inflicted over four-thousand five hundred points of damages. Along with the trait of the destructive forces, one-third of the six-legged arachnid was blown apart.
Such was the effect of the destructive forces!
There was a time when Grimm felt helpless against the defensive power of a level-three creature that evolved passively. But now, Grimm could tear them apart effortlessly.
Not mentioning some special circumstances, faced with Grimm’s destructive spell, most of the creatures that were below the level of a World Lord would surely be…
Severely wounded if the attack brushed past them, instant death if he landed a direct hit!
“The sneak attack has failed, I’ll just go right at it!”
Grimm set off a transmuted magnetic field. The Star Stone turned into a black mist and enveloped the severely wounded six-legged arachnid, increasing its gravitational pull. Black flame once again lit up on top of the Sabbatical Goat Staff. The surrounding light was drawn into the center of the mass as he released a highly-concentrated vibrational field.
“Hmm? If I could cover the lightning arc with the dark pool using the law of world veil, that would be a perfect cover for the destructive spell and absorb the surrounding light. That might work out better for a stealth attack in the darkness…”
Moments later.
The severely-wounded six-legged arachnid was burning in the destructive dark flames of the Sabbatical Goat Staff. It stopped twitching.
Grimm excitedly took out a bespoke crystal vial. After finding the few drops of Evil Blood in the carcass, he sealed them into the vial.
