As Laila was severely injured, the group had to abandon their trip and go to a hospital. Her armor saved her life but the impact was so strong that she will take a few days to awaken. Sans and Clay were walking alone to their hotel as John wanted to stay with Laila.
"I am going back home, Clay." Seriously said, Sans.
"Really? After you become Rank-2 killing those Minotaurs will be as easy as it was killing those flower gremlins."
"I know, I am just regretting rejecting dad from training me. You and I were the top dogs in our combat classes but that's not enough now. If I had trained like the rest of my family. I could have soloed that monster. You should come back too and return after reaching Rank-2, After all, it's only a 20-minute ride."
Clay felt conflicted about Sans leaving. Even though Hiten city was 20 minutes train ride from Cintara city, he knew what it symbolized. He had already planned that he would travel solo because if he traveled with Sans he would have to either tell Sans about his weird op blessing or restrict his own power.
"I will stay for now but don't worry I will be back home soon." Replied Clay.
Sans nodded and they both walked to the hotel eventually reaching their own rooms.
As soon he entered his room Arby walked over to him in his centipede form.
They both talked about what happened. Arby had ordered multiple weapons and adamantine. He had also managed to mimic only the speakers and other needed parts to speak, so now he could speak in his centipede form.
"By the way when you mimic smaller stuff what happens to the rest of your body?" Inquired Clay.
"I have to separate my body into different bodies to do that." Arby demonstrated this by separating its body and moving them independently.
"Does this mean you can be multiple things at once?" Asked Clay. Arby nodded.
"That's good, Turn a part into a watch and stay here, and another one into a sword to come with me."
"My lord I am thinking of ordering so lightweight armor for you. Then I can be with you everywhere and if you need anything I can transform into it."
"Not a bad idea but get something that's stretchable. Let's get to the muscle dimension now, if I grind for a few days I should reach 40%."
Arby split himself into 3 parts and 2 of them turned into watches while 1 turned into a sword. Understanding what Arby wanted Clay took off his watch and wore Arby, he then picked up the sword too.
***
In the muscle dimension. Clay was fistfighting with a minotaur. This minotaur was way easier than the one he fought before because this was non-elemental. But even with using {Thews Boasted}, Clay couldn't do serious damage to the monster.
After being satisfied with the amount of practice Clay unsheathed his sword and chopped off the head of the minotaur. This was the 5th minotaur he killed. While Clay was killing the beasts, Arby had turned into an earphone and was telling all the basics of muscles, like how actin and myosin worked together to contract a muscle.
"Do I go deeper? It's a bit risky but the amount of monsters here is too low I need to go deeper if I want faster grinding." After contemplating his choices Clay went in deeper.
The muscle dimension was an annoying dimension. The only light source was the red gems making the dimension very dim. "I am really tempted to move {Eyes of Panthea} to my natural body with it I will have night vision and thermal vision. It would make hunting so much easier. But I have to control myself I would regret it my whole life if I miss a good muscle ability because I was impatient. I will probably get the same gift after I defeat an elite monster."
As Clay walked in deeper he spotted two minotaurs, activating his {Scales of illusion} he blended into his environment and slowly walked behind one.
*Punchi*
Clay quickly stabbed one minotaur in its heart he then activated the runes in his sword. The whole sword was set ablaze causing the minotaur to die instantaneously. Clay pulled his sword out and jumped back. The other minotaur angered by the sneak attack ran towards Clay.
Clay had deactivated his skill as he wanted to practice the swordsmanship manual 'Critical Sword' more. The manual Critical Sword teaches how to use your opponent's momentum to plant powerful strikes. An opponent like Minotaur was perfect for this manual as their strength became their bane.
The Minotaur charged up to Clay and did a huge vertical swing with its ax. As the monster's body's momentum was downward Clay first sidestepped by using his left foot as a pivot. He then carried his own momentum and did an upward rotating slash. All those forces together made the sword smoothly cut through half the Minotaur's body. Happy with the results Clay celebrated by summoning his muscle whip and testing his theory on the half-dead monster.
*Crack*
*Crack*
*Crack*
Clay jumped around and hit the minotaur with the whip. The whip kept on growing longer on the other end the minotaur was shrinking! 'I thought so, The whip eats the lifeforce or energy inside muscles to grow in turn making those muscles smaller and weaker. I only noticed this because I had tied the leg of the first minotaur I fought. Its legs looked shriveled. It kinda sucks that the blessing doesn't explain the features of a summonable weapon.'
'This whip is a magical weapon. If it was rated it would at least get 4 stars, the ability to suck lifeforce or energy is precious. Let's name you Laila's wrath. You will suck away the pride of all minotaurs. Now I kinda wish Laila died fighting, it would have made this more sentimental.'
"Hehe Haha," Clay laughed in a pitiful manner.
'If I am going to keep having evil thoughts I really need to work on my laugh.' Though Clay.