Ackster started running through the forest while he threw the last poison goblin's finger down his throat. With the increase in his Fortitude and Poison Resistance, an entire finger was no longer enough to incapacitate him and knock him out. He would have to start looking for stronger and more diverse poisons if he wanted to continue training his Poison Resistance.
But Ackster put that matter aside. At his current strength and the areas he moved around, he wouldn't encounter a poison strong enough to take him out that easily. He could still encounter something rare, but it wasn't likely, especially when he was busy training his Keen Senses and Agility.
Agility was straightforward and relatively easy to train on its own since it dealt with, basically, the ease with which he moved. It was how fast he was, how flexible, his reflexes, and his dexterity.
Running and focusing on his movements was one of the simpler ways to train his Agility. And since he was training his stamina as well, Fortitude would also grow a little. But simply running wouldn't be enough to make either level up, at least not in a matter of days. It would take either incredulous effort or another way to rank them up.
Fortunately, since his profession was that of an adventurer, Ackster just had to make use of his Agility stat while hunting monsters and beasts to speed up his growth.
So, while running eastward, in the direction of Lill, Ackster trained his Keen Senses by looking, listening, and smelling for traces of prey.
Training Keen Senses wasn't as easy as acquiring the skill. But since it was a passive skill, it would gain experience every time Ackster strained his senses. It would be a little at a time, but enough water drops make an ocean, so Ackster didn't rush his progress.
And when Ackster finally found traces of prey, whether it be beasts or monsters, he changed course and tracked them down, at least when he could. Sometimes, his prey's tracks disappeared into thin air, and with Ackster's current skills and abilities, he couldn't find those tracks again.
But that didn't mean he didn't find anything.
In fact, once he got used to it, he saw tracks of beasts and monsters everywhere.
Faint footsteps in the moss, gnawed branches, nibbled bushes, and feces hidden beneath leaves or roots.
Ackster found droves of goblins, kobolds, slimes, rabbits, and deer that he hunted down. He used the antlers from the Sharp-horned deer as weapons and adopted an assassin-like style that made full use of his Agility.
There were several kills where he didn't even use his muscles at all. He just dropped down from above and let gravity do the job while he held onto and guided the antlers into the weak spots he identified.
He had to replace the antlers a couple of times, either because they broke or grew dull. But since that Sharp-horned deer seemed to be pretty common, he didn't have any issues finding weapons. There were also a couple of other beasts with natural weapons on their bodies.
Ackster found a cute little porcupine with needles that, while sharp, were better suited for acupuncture or a more delicate art of combat than the one Ackster was upset with. At least it was delicious.
Unfortunately, since he was still in the centermost parts of the Tenger continent, even if he had crossed the Badhurst-Lill border, which he didn't think he had, all of the beasts and monsters he encountered were still relatively weak.
By now, Ackster was guaranteed that his growth rate was absurdly fast when compared to ordinary people of Millmeria, and it had to be thanks to Strong Body and Ackster's natural talent for absorbing existential power from slain enemies.
Ackster wasn't sure he could compete with The Hero since there were different circumstances. But he was still curious as to how strong the original Ackster would have been if he had undergone moderately strict, or even routine, training from a young age.
However, there was no way he would get an answer to questions like that, so he steered his thoughts away from topics like those lest he began thinking about The Hero and the possibility that his Doppelganger Slime plan failed.
'Damn it.'
Ackster caught himself before he got himself caught up in a dark spiral of paranoia and anxiety that The Hero was hot on his tail at this very moment, burning through the forest to hunt him down.
Instead, he did his best to think about Lill and any possible locations that would fit the Fall of an Angel.
Unfortunately, The Hero only stopped by Lill a couple of times in the original story, and he was mostly in the capital. He didn't roam around the western countryside, nor did the author give any extra details to Karandiel's Fall.
Ackster continued thinking about what he knew about Karandiel's first appearance on Millmeria while lamenting about the fact that every monster and beast he encountered was too weak to give him any significant existential power.
Unfortunately, even after blaming goblins for being so weak and useless, Ackster could only pinpoint one thing he could use to locate Karandiel. Her Fall itself.
It wasn't explicitly stated in the original story that Karandiel's Fall was eye-catching. But Ackster was sure he remembered a passage or mention of an angel's Fall, in general, being very attention-grabbing. It would be impossible to miss.
So, his best bet on locating Karandiel was trying to catch her Fall in action, which was easier said than done.
Although the sky was vast, almost infinitely so from a position on the ground, Ackster could only see a limited part of it at once. It was like trying to see someone throwing a needle into a haystack while being a straw part of the haystack.
Ackster also didn't have any idea where on the map he was at the moment. So, he didn't know if he was in the right area while looking for Karandiel or if he had accidentally strayed too far south and was about to enter Gvhille or something.
Due to the mostly friendly relationships between the various countries on Tenger, Ackster couldn't even rely on border patrols or strictly enforced borders to guide his way.
Ackster sighed, just thinking about it. Whether he could find and see Karandiel's Fall or not wasn't necessarily his greatest problem, either.
If he found it, others would surely do it too.