A huge stalactite fell on the gargoyle's shoulder immobilizing its right arm completely. Seizing the opportunity, Leo jumped on the statue's back and started chipping its neck with his sword. After hitting stone for a while, weapon's condition was very bad. The sword became completely dull and cracks started appearing on its blade.
Before Leo could do some noticeable damage a huge fist shadow started descending on Leo's back. Shifting his body to the right Leo threw himself off the Gargoyle's back specifically choosing a side without an arm.
Bang...
A collision between a stone hand and statue produced a loud sound.
Inspecting the Demonic Statue Leo noticed some fractures appearing on its node and upper back. The previously undamageable opponent became an enemy that Leo would beat without even striking it.
Running around its humongous body Leo provoked gargoyle to attack him while injuring itself. While jumping around Leo tried to evade its fist by dashing between the statue's legs, but didn't expect the statue to have enough intelligence to use its legs as a weapon.
Leo saw a huge shadow becoming bigger and bigger. Looking up he saw a Demonic gargoyle trying to stomp him. Barely evading Leo jumped in the air only to be hit by a stone fist and be sent crashing to a wall.
Vomiting mouths of blood Leo stood up and appraised his condition. He felt that some inner damage was inflicted, his left arm was bent in an unnatural angle. Leo also heard his rib cage cracking, but didn't know if it was broken.
Cursing his ignorance Leo slowly stood up and started using [ Dragon's Mana ] making his body recover faster. Of course the stone structure was not generous enough to let Leo heal and slowly approached Leo throwing another jab at him.
Rolling backwards and dodging the punch Leo felt that his Mana was almost depleted. Raising his Mana circulation speed Leo felt pain and his body protesting, but gnashed his teeth and proceeded doing it.
Suddenly all the pain while circulating the technique at faster rate disappeared. Leo felt a strange sense of comfort and relief when suddenly system notification appeared.
[ Dragon's Mana } Understanding Level Reached !!! ]
[ Newbie ➜ Beginner ]
Techniques, skills and abilities all have Understanding levels or else called Mastery. The higher one's Mastery/Understanding over them the stronger effect skill will have. For example, previously Leo could attract 4 Mana points every minute while using { Dragon's Mana }, but now he can collect up to 7 of them at the same period of time. Leo also felt his healing process speeding up considerably.
After breakthrough in Mastery Leo felt his Mana increase. If previously Leo's Mana reserves were almost depleted now he had a quarter of Mana left. Using [ Mana Envelopment ] on his legs Leo evaded another first thrown by a gargoyle. He felt that [ Mana Envelopment ] has also gotten stronger, but put the thought at the back of his mind, because checking it in the middle of the fight would be a suicide.
Dodging another kick sent by the statue Leo ran to the statue's side and jumped on its back, once again trying to damage its neck. Now that there were some cracks and Leo could stab the sword in them and deal some damage.
One by one stone parts were slowly falling off the gargoyle's neck, but the Demonic Statue was no longer aimlessly throwing its fist around. Instead of punching itself, it was a lot more careful and tried to grab Leo, making him retreat. Now that self-destruct plan didn't work Leo was a bit sad, because the statue left all the chiseling work to him.
Crack...
While sculpting the Demonic statue's neck Leo's sword's blade suddenly broke. Sadly looking at the sword's handle Leo threw it away and took out his trusty yet not so destructive daggers and leapt on the gargoyle's unguarded right shoulder.
Stabbing both of his daggers at the cracks Leo's muscles expanded while stone pieces fell off the gargoyle nape.
Finally after another 20 minutes of painfully slow killing process the statue fell and system notification popped up.
[ Evolved Gargoyle { Demonic Statue } Defeated...]
[ Reward +200Xp; Demonic Crown { 1/3 } ]
[ Level 4 Reached ! ]
Collapsing on the ground Leo took a deep breath. The fight was very hard and stressful. Even one hard hit from those creatures could easily kill Leo if he let his guard down.
Resisting a need to sleep Leo sat in a lotus position and started circulating Mana across the body to heal his wounds.
****
After an hour of continuous meditation Leo stood up and opened his Stat Tab to add some Stat points.
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Level 4; [ 135/350 Xp ]
Strength 27 +
Agility 30 -
Defense 26 +
Mana 28 +
Stamina 30 -
Additional Stat Points: 5
_______________
Leo wanted to add some points to agility, because agility has saved him a lot and Leo felt that it would be a good choice. Unfortunately, for some reason the system wouldn't allow it. He tried again and again, but it was pointless.
' Oy, system ! Why can't I add Stat Points to Agility ? '
[ Host can't add more SP to certain Stat, because of Worldly Chains ]
[ Reach { Level 5 } and evolve to { Mid } Stage Awakener Rank to break through the Limits ! ]
' Worldly Limits ? '
Scratching the side of his head Leo added 2 points into Mana maxing it and another 3 into defense. His body heated up, but the heat disappeared quickly leaving a faint feeling of pleasure. Leo felt his body become sturdier and Mana became easier to control. Closing the system Leo raised his hand which held a crown made out of red metal.
_______________
Item: { Demonic Crown 👑}
Garde: B
Description:
A part of a key that unlocks the Palace of Hell....
_______________
Smiling at the description of the Crown Leo lips curled into a smile.
' Isn't Hell a myth ? '
Leo chuckled.
Slowly the smile disappeared from his face and Leo paled.
' Weren't gargoyles also a myth ? '
Carefully putting the Crown into the watch's inventory Leo got another system message.
[ Recipe part found ! ]
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Demonic Crown Collected
New Recipe Unlocked ! { Hell Castle's Key 🏰 }
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Scared of his rewards Leo opened the Recipe Tab with 2 Interactive Recipes in its catalog. He quickly tapped on { Hell Castle's Key 🏰 } Recipe.
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{ Hell Castle's Key 🏰 } Recipe
Requirements:
1. Demonic Crown 👑 { 1/1 } ✔️
2. Demonic Ring 💍 { 0/1 } ❌
3. High Demon's Blood 🩸 { 0/3L } ❌
_______________
Inspecting the new recipe Leo's shoulders slumped down. High Demons have the power of advanced Rank human which is very powerful, hence Leo's only chance to obtain it is to buy it. Unfortunately he doesn't have a lot of money and blood costs a fortune.
Closing The Recipe Tab Leo decided to check out what happened to [ Mana Envelopment ] skill and why did it become stronger before Leo leveled up.