Three more hours passed since Helena began fighting the forest troll.
"Haaaah…Haaaah…Damn it! When will this stupid bastard die?! I already hit it with quite a few deep cuts and it's still standing!"
Helena couldn't help but complain.
She was winning the exchanges most of the time but the troll still hasn't died yet. She was also starting to get tired. At this rate, her stamina might run out before this troll dies!
There was nothing she could do but keep attacking though.
Luckily, her hours of effort finally started to yield results.
Although still standing, the troll is currently grievously wounded. While trying to dodge Helena's attack, it accidentally slipped and hit the nape of its neck at a protruding mithril ore.
*ROOOOOOOARRRGHH*
"Ha! Take that you cockroach! Still, that was odd. It just slipped a bit and hit its nape, wasn't it overreacting a bit too much?"
Helena thought to herself.
Information from her previous attacks came rushing into her head.
"So that's your weak spot! You've been avoiding it every time I'm trying to chop your head from the side. I should've just focused on cutting off its head from the start!"
Enlightenment dawned on her as she tried to repeatedly cut off the troll's head.
The human seems to have learned of its weakness!
The troll started to panic and gaps started to appear in its defenses.
Helena seized the chance and cut a deep one around the left side of its neck.
So close! A little deeper and its head would have flown off!
"Calm down, victory is yours, no need to rush so much. Finish the fight cleanly"
Helena took a deep breath and said to herself.
After a while, she started to attack the troll again. This time, her strikes were unhurried and she was cornering the troll with each passing second.
As she was preparing for her finishing move, an unexpected thing happened.
A thin magic circle appeared around her legs and it immediately boosted her movement speed.
"W-Woah woah woah!!! What the heck?!"
Helena exclaimed in surprise as she accidentally activated some sort of dash-like skill. The problem is, she was not aware that she had one so she almost went past the troll.
She was someone who cherishes opportunities though so she quickly gathered her wits and focused on the troll's neck.
Helena stabbed the troll's neck as she went past it.
Blood fountained from the troll's neck as its head rolled to the ground.
"Haaaahh…Haaaahh…The bastard finally died!"
Helena sat on the ground as she celebrated her hard-earned win.
The troll put up a tough fight.
"What was that dash earlier though?"
Helena tried to recall if she consumed anything that could have awakened such skills within her.
The yeti prime meat!
She didn't feel anything even after she ate it so she thought that it didn't have an effect on her.
It seems that yetis have a frightening skill like this.
"The one we fought didn't use such a skill though?"
Helena couldn't help but ponder. She gave up after a short time though, she just concluded that the one they fought was still a bit too young and was still in the process of learning the skill.
She quickly dropped the matter and focused on the troll's dead body.
"Does this guy have a core?"
Helena pondered as she began cutting through the flesh of the troll's dead body.
"It stinks! Why the fuck does this thing stink so much!"
Even though she was complaining, her hands didn't stop and she continued butchering the troll's corpse.
A few moments later, she retrieved the heart of the troll. It had a weird purple color but she didn't pay any attention to it.
The problem though is how will she keep this heart? If she brought it on her journey, it might rot.
"I know! I'll just bring this into the blue zone first and store it at the Eternal Ice Cave."
Helena smiled proudly after coming up with this idea on her own. Seems like she's getting the hang of using her brain!
After drowning in her own praises for a while, she once again focused on the troll's corpse and started cutting through its limbs
"I hope this thing has prime meat! Who knows? I might gain another ability"
Helena was optimistic as she was cutting through the limbs. Her excitement was quickly replaced by disappointment though as there was no prime meat inside the troll's limbs.
She consoled herself by thinking that the heart should be a good harvest. She trusted that Blanc would have an idea or two about how to use this troll heart.
After resting for a while, Helena carefully tried to exit the cave.
Fortunately for her, she did not encounter trolls on the way back because most of them were still sleeping as she passed through their camp.
After half an hour, Helena successfully exited the troll camp.
She quickly made her way towards the blue zone. The faster she can get there, the sooner she can resume her solo training.
The one-on-one battle with the troll helped her improve so much. She hoped that she could encounter more battles like the one today.