Next day
'That was a good-night sleep' Nile thought while stretching himself.
"How long have I been asleep." Nile asked while trying to look outside through the space on the boulder.
"It's late afternoon " Darren said while getting up and pushing the boulder aside from the entrance of the cave, once he was done he said- "We will be staying in this place for a while, so let us go outside and scout around atleast 50 kilometers. In the outer part of the forest, there aren't many mid or above warrior-rank monsters so it would not be much of a task."
"Yes, even I have to get used to my dagger and skill. Fighting monsters seems to be the best option." Nile said while getting ready to leave.
"Hahahah, I have never seen someone having such great enthusiasm for battling monsters." Darren laughed out and gave voice to his thoughts.
They soon left the cave and started searching for their prey. It did not take long, a (human) rank-4 moose who was 10 feet high, with huge 4 feet long antlers came across them.
"Darren let me fight it, only interfere when necessary." Nile said and started walking towards the moose.
When Nile was 20 meters away, the moose sensed him and started in Nile's direction. Realizing the monster had sensed his presence, Nile rushed towards the moose, when he was just a few meters away he threw his dagger at the moose. The moose jumped to a side evading the dagger. Even though most of the monster's species were not smart, but they still had a sense of pride and the monsters could sense the cultivation levels of other humans or monsters below their cultivation level. The moose had a rank-4 cultivation level which was on par with rank-6 (human). Seeing someone weaker attack it, the monster was enraged. The moose rushed towards Nile.
Seeing the situation Nile was in, Darren was ready to jump in when he saw Nile toss the water container in the air. Water started falling from the open lid, then he used his skill and made 5 icicles in mid-air from the water. He then drove 4 of them towards the running Moose and held the remaining one. The moose was startled but soon regained composure and used its antkers to block the sharp icicles.
'Did Nile just underestimated his opponent, first he threw his weapon recklessly and now attacking the moose head-on.' Darren was ready to step in the battle, but soon dropped the idea when he looked behind the moose and a smile appeared on his face.
The dagger Nile had thrown earlier at the moose was flying towards the moose at great speed from behind.
'SWOOOOOOOOOSH' one of the legs of the moose was severed by the dagger. Nile had used the dagger's skill (telekinesis on the dagger.)
'KYAAAAAAAAAAAA '.The moose grunted in pain. It fell on the ground, but due to its speed, the mosses' body rubbed against the ground for a few feet stopping just a foot away from Nile.
Nile jumped forward towards the monster and shoved the sharp icicle in its neck, instantly killing the Moose.
"Bravo" Darren jumped in with excitement.
"That was very calculative of you Nile and those distractions even fooled me." Darren said patting Nile's shoulder in appreciation. There were only a few cultivators who could defeat monsters who were on the same level as them (human cultivators weaker than monsters on the same cultivation level). Nile here slew a monster who was above his cultivation level with ease, It was unheard of in this world.
Later they both moved further and slew different monsters. Mostly Darren took care of the monsters, killing almost all of them with a single strike.
In the late evening when they were returning, they came across a small pack of wolves. There were 8 wolves, having an average cultivation level of rank-6, except for the pack leader who was a warrior rank-2 monster. In total there were 9 monster wolves.
Darren asked Nile to stay out of the battle as it would only restrict Darren to use his full power.
It had not been even a minute into the battle when Darren landed a killing blow on one of the wolves. Seeing Darren keep up with the whole pack so effortlessly and even killing one of them in a 9v1 head-on battle, the leader took a more innovative approach and started to attack Darren from his blind spots. Even though the pack leader was not able to land a clear and decisive hit but still some scratches started accumulating on Darren's body.
Seeing the tide of the battle slowly shift towards the monsters, Nile closed in and concentrated his energy on the dagger, and threw it with full force at a wolf who was lunging towards Darren.
The dagger pierced through the wolf's stomach, when other monster wolves saw what had just transpired they shifted their gaze towards the direction where the dagger came from. This moment of confusion was all Darren needed, he sprang towards the pack leader and used his double-handed axe to land a killing blow on the leader, the skull of the monster wolf (leader) split in two by the impact. The core strength of the pack was the leader, it was stronger and smarter than the rest so Darren attacked it as soon as he got a chance.
'AWOOOOOOOOOOOO' all the remaining wolves cried in unison. Seeing their pack leader die without having any consideration about their life they all pounced at Darren, soon they faced the same fate as their leader. Within just a few minutes nine wolves laid lifelessly on the ground.
"Thank You Nile, you were very helpful" Darren said while bowing to show respect to the little kid who aided him in the battle.
"You would have had won even without my help, I just saved some time." Nile said smiling. Darren would have had eventually won the battle but there were chances he might have been injured. Nile paused for a while and asked Darren- "What skill do you possess by the way? I did not see you using any, were you holding back ?"
Darren thought for a while, took a deep breath and replied "I did use one of my skill, I currently possess 2 skills. The first skill boosts my strength and speed to 170% whenever I am wielding an axe, it has a progressive growth. The other one is the creation defense type skill, with this skill I could manipulate the ground in creating a vertical wall for protection. This has a lot of drawbacks, as I have to make contact with the ground to use this skill and the ground should be natural."
"Darren what is meant by progressive growth of a skill ?" Nile questioned, he had been curious about it since the time he obtained his skill.
"It means that particular skill does not have a growth limit and will grow with the cultivator possessing the skill." Darren replied while searching for monster cores inside the wolves.
In 9 corpses only one contained a monster core. Putting the core inside his pouch, Darren and Nile returned to their cave to rest.