'Phew! Looks like it worked out in the end', he thought with relief.
The next few monsters that he encountered were more of his level, which he could directly fight against.
*Schk.*
"That's the last one in my way here", said Tang Lin as he sliced off the head of a mystic bee.
*Rumble.*
As if the ground had become alive and awakened, the Earth under Tang Lin started to transform.
'Has the Earth calamity finally reached its major form?!' he thought as he focused on maintaining his balance.
*Clank!*
In front of Tang Lin, the area that he had just cleared up, strange beings made from different materials from the Earth were formed.
Most of them were composed of dirt, gravel, rocks and trees.
"Godammit!" Tang Lin cursed at the new horde of monsters that had appeared.
Blood still dripped down the blade of his sword from his previous enemies as he held the grip tighter.
Holding his ground, Tang Lin cautiously prepared to engage in combat as he held Gravity upright.
The first golem-like organism started charging towards him.
Quickly, the golem was closing in as Tang Lin continued to remain stagnant.
***
In a room far away.
"What's he doing?! He's going to die at this rate if he doesn't move", Xue'er asked with anxiety.
"I don't know, but all we can do now is to believe in him", Bing Qiling answered.
"Now, I have to go take care of the other remaining participants. He's not the only promising candidate we have in this batch", he said as he warped out of the room.
*Sigh.*
"Tang Lin… be careful", she muttered worryingly.
***
The smell of blood, the sound of slaughter and the urge to survive. By now, Tang Lin was far too familiar with life and death experiences.
'Just a little closer', he thought as he made a plan.
'When the golem comes closer, I'll dash to my left. Then, adjust Gravity's weight to x50, which I should be able to barely handle and aim for one of its vital points', Tang Lin finalised within his mind.
*Stomp, stomp.*
'NOW!' he thought as the golem came into range.
Jumping to his left, Tang Lin rotated his upper body towards the golem as he charged Gravity with qi and sliced off its right arm.
However, unlike Tang Lin's expectation, the golem didn't stumble, but continued to brute force its way to tackle him.
*Crash!*
"Ugh!" he groaned.
'A miscalculation', Tang Lin thought in dismay as he crushed the golem's back, which was on top of him with the hilt of his sword.
This was because these golems weren't actual living beings. So, they lacked the fundamental instinct of fear and survival.
Finally, the golem stopped struggling when Tang Lin heard a clear sound resound in the air as if something had dropped.
Pushing the golem off of him, Tang Lin saw a blue, cracked ball lying on the ground next to him.
'A qi core? So, that's how they work', Tang Lin thought as he remembered hearing about how expensive they were.
'What a waste', he thought as he was contemplating on collecting the fragments.
*Whoosh.*
"AH!" Tang Lin panicked as he ducked down to avoid an incoming tree.
"HEY! WATCH OUT ASSHOLE! You're going to kill something at this rate", he yelled angrily at the attacking golem as he turned back around to the qi core.
The once, cracked qi core had now been completely obliterated into dust from the tree's impact.
"Y-Y-You! Do you know how much money I could've made from that? GAH, I'll beat you up for another then", Tang Lin threatened grumpily.
Although an emotionless doll, the golem seemed to have a confused look plastered on its rocky face.
After Tang Lin's threat, another rocky golem and two smaller threats appeared by its side.
"AIYO! One at a time man", he said meekly.
Unfazed by his plea, they all started charging at him at the same time.
'Motherfuckers!' Tang Lin thought to himself.
Despite this, Tang Lin maintained his composure, because he had already assessed their capabilities from the previous golem he fought.
'I can beat all of them one-on-one, but it's going to be a bit tricker now that they're coming at me all at once', he thought.
'The most efficient method I can think of is to retreat back into the forest. Then, using the terrain to my advantage, I'll split them up for a moment and use Pierce for a clean one-shot kill on their qi core. Collecting the leftover fragment materials can be decided depending on the situation", Tang Lin analysed as he started to initiate the first phase of his plan by moving back into the forest.
Seeing Tang Lin escape, the golems and treants started to chase him into the forest.
Meanwhile, near the end of the 92nd step, where the forest had stopped growing, a mass of ores were ominously wriggling into creation.
'Nice! They took the bait', thought Tang Lin as he looked back to see them pursuing him.
Due to the dense overgrowth of plants, the golems and treants started to stray from their own paths to find Tang Lin.
Tang Lin, who had climbed up a tall tree, saw this and decided on his first target.
"Time to pay up you little shit", he cackled quietly as he looked at the golem, who had crushed the qi he found previously.
*Swoosh.*
Tang Lin jumped down to the ground as he quickly approached the golem from behind a bush.
*Fwoosh.*
Leaping out, Tang Lin shot out his sword to pierce its back. However, the golem managed to react just quick enough to deflect his sword with its left shoulder.
*Crack.*
The golem's left stone shoulder had fissures forming from Tang Lin's attack.
'Shit! Of course things don't go as planned', he grumbled.
'A pierce type of attack isn't going to work out as well as I thought. Change of plans', Tang Lin decided.
Swinging its right arm around, Tang Lin ducked to dodge its attack as he dashed around the golem from his left.
With a flick of his wrist, Tang switched from the sharp edge to the blunt side of his Gravity sword and swung it clockwise from his right side at x50 weight to build up more potential and kinetic energy.
*BOOM!*
The sword's impact crushed the golem's backside as it lost its balance and fell forward flat on its face.
Stepping onto its back, Tang Lin pierced his sword into its back just in case, which made the golem finally stop twitching in desperation. Pulling it back out, its qi core was pulled out along with it at the sword's tip.
"Now, we're even", he said with a smile.