As Terran's thoughts rested, his body stopped at the corpse of a blessed. While the fight was so far one-sided, with the monsters dying in waves; there were always the unlucky, and one was not invulnerable even with power, especially in the current situation. Not everyone here had an S rank blessing after all.
Gripped in one of the hands of the corpse was a short sword with black runes engraved in the shaft.
"Excuse me Mr., I thank you for your sacrifice. Unfortunately, I'll have to be borrowing this." Terran said as he bent down and pried the sword out of the man's hand. Upon contact, Terran felt the warmth that lingered. However, this fact did not seem to faze him as he picked up the blade.
"The least I can do is avenge your death."
Yet, after giving the area a quick scan, Terran gave up on finding the man's killer. Causing him to breathe out a sigh of contemplation.
"I guess I'll have to do this by elimination, and hope I get lucky. Ooooo, here comes target numero uno."
Bounding towards him was a giant wolf standing more than two meters tall. As one of the weaker creatures, the wolf had seemingly identified him as some easy prey. Unlike the occasional animal living in the wasteland, this wolf's golden eyes did not seem to see Terran as any sort of friend.
The look filling Terran's face would cause anyone to assume that he was waiting for food at his favorite restaurant as it was covered by anticipation. Finally, too impatient to wait, Terran closed the distance between him and the beast.
Sadly, the sword did not fill in any of Terran's weaknesses even after swinging it with all his strength. Hitting the wolf was like hitting a boulder, causing the sword and the rest of his body to vibrate with enough violence that his brain rattled.
In this moment of weakness, the wolf lunged with its razor-sharp teeth, causing Terran to sacrifice his unused arm.
Watching your own arm being used as a chew toy before disappearing into a monster's stomach would cause anyone to shudder. Instead, however, it only served to annoy Terran.
"Such a rude puppy! Before this fight is over, I'll teach you to sit and roll over. Tch, don't most people use treats to train their dog? Ahh, I got it! I'll just cut off one of your dirty paws and shove it down your throat whenever you need a treat! That should do the trick!"
Despite Terran's confident proclamation, currently, instead of the wolf's, it seemed he was using his own ligaments as treats.
The only reason he was not flustered by his inability to cut the beast was the fact that he knew he was doing something wrong. Moreover, he had an idea of how to correct his action.
If one could observe all the blessed fighting in the surrounding, they would not have to be a genius to make this deduction. Regardless of the beast's size, every blessed managed to cut through them easily. Some may have strength or weapon-enhancing blessings, but this fact could not be true for all. Regardless of that fact, all the runes on their weapons gave off a faint glow. A glow that his sword, with its black runes, sorely lacked.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Terran took a moment to close his eyes. The sounds of battle faded from his ears as he concentrated for the second time today on the labyrinth of mana roots twisting around his body.
The gruesome sounds of the battlefield disappeared as he was surprised to find that a few of the previous kinks in his mana roots had been straightened out. Although the changes were few and barely noticeable.
Happily taken aback, Terran focused on what he had in mind before, willing the world energy already coursing through his body towards his hand wielding the runic sword.
Unfortunately, Terran noticed no change in the sword even after the energy reached his hand. Instead, the world energy continued to pool up as it disproportionately filled his hand.
"No good," Terran mumbled as he felt an itch in his hand, the pressure building up now almost physical.
He was on the edge of giving up this experiment, thinking his time would be better spent trying something else. Yet, he continued, something in the back of his mind telling him he was standing on the cusp of something important.
The mana continued to build up, and with it, a throbbing pain. It was sudden, too sudden, in fact, for Terran to react. The feeling of his hand exploding jolted his body, and his eyes shot open. His concentration was broken. Yet, the sight was unexpected.
Drool lathered his legs, while his one arm had long since regrown, the wolf had chomped down on his legs. Its beastly expression was gleeful as it had seemingly found an infinite food glitch. Terran's thighs, which it continued to snack on, allowed it to never run out of meat as more would appear the second it took a bite.
This scene spoke more than any number of words when describing the pain in Terran's arm. This was because he had not even noticed his leg being devoured while concentrating on his mana roots.
However, his legs turning into a buffet was not an unexpected sight, at least not the one previously mentioned. Instead, it was the sword. Its runes were not glowing. No, they were shining, shining as bright as any star in the sky. Meanwhile, his hand was still attached to his arm. From the outside, it looked perfectly fine, but that was far from the truth. Even for Terran, someone with a godly tolerance for pain, his hand felt anything but fine. He was in excruciating pain.
"Huh, did I get stronger, or did this sword get lighter?"
While he had never had any trouble lifting the sword, swinging it was another matter. It was not an exaggeration to say that, once he had initiated his first swing, the blade had directed his blow. However, now he was confident that he could swing it without being at the mercy of inertia.
The wolf had absolutely no fear of Terran. It knew from his previous strike that even the weapon could not scratch its skin. This was why it didn't bother to dodge when the sword came swinging towards its neck once more. But, unfortunately for it, its confidence did nothing to stop its' blood from spilling as the sword sliced clean through its neck as if it was nothing more than air.
[2/100]
The number in the corner of Terran's retina updated as the wolf collapsed on top of him.
"So much for teaching him tricks, I didn't think he would break so easily. I guess I can only blame the angels, they didn't even bother putting down a beware of dog sign, much less teaching him any manners."
This was only a passing thought as a sharp crack resounded, pulling his attention back into reality. A deep fracture had appeared on the sword, and many more were quickly spreading.
However, before the sword could completely shatter, the shining runes began to dim. Not even a glow remained; they were once again black. With the change, at least the pain had gone away.
Terran didn't understand the intricacies, but he had some idea of what had just happened. He had broken the metaphorical flood gates, only for them to be reformed by his blessing. But, just like his body, the weapon had not been able to withstand the raging flow of mana and hence began to crack.
"That could have gone worse!"
Unlike any sane person, Terran immediately repeated the painful process. Although it was hardly noticeable, it took less concentration to push his mana. More importantly, there was already a significant amount stored in his hand. So, when he began to concentrate, the same pain of his flood gates failing rushed back into his hand.
The runes reverted to releasing copious amounts of light, and new cracks spread.
"No point in sitting on my ass while I wait for the sword to break." Terran thought as he dashed off in the direction of a large pack of wolves.
[3/100]
[4/100]
[5/100]
The numbers continued to rise as the body of the wolves piled up. It did not take much to kill them with the runic sword. Slicing through them was no different from swinging the blade through the air. Of course, Terran was taking many hits. Unconsciously, he was using his left arm to block all the strikes. The wolves would bite it off only for a sword to pierce their skull a second later. Before the next wolf arrived, he would already have a brand-new arm.
Whenever his healing repaired the flood gates, Terran would simply tear them down without hesitation. The process repeated. That was until the last straw was snapped, and the mighty runic sword shattered into a million pieces.
[30/100]
Terran nearly progressed through a third of the number he assumed to be his quantified trial in a short amount of time. But, of course, this was not solely his doing. If it weren't for the steady stream of wolves charging at him, his sword would have quickly shattered before he could even reach double digits.
Everything was going smoothly, but life was never so easy.