The first day was Rio just looking for a beast to kill, he didn't run into anything that could give him good EXP, only little bugs and birds, however, they're still considered EXP, albeit how small it is, Rio gained about 200 EXP from all the creatures he killed on the first day, it is very slow when considering he would need to break through to the mage realm in six months.
On the second day, Rio found a cave and ventured in to see if there were any animals resting there, Rio went all the way into the cave but there were no beats, however, there were traces of it. So, Rio decided to camp out and wait to assassinate the beast and gain some EXP.
The next morning, Rio heard a low growl and some footsteps approaching the cave, the best way for him to describe the beast would be a werewolf, except that its tail was half his size and had small spikes coming out of it.
He must've sensed something amiss as he looked around the cave when he entered, however when he realized nothing seemed to have moved or touched in the cave, he put his guard down and proceeded to sleep in a way a dog would, with his face facing his butt.
After ten minutes and making sure the beast was asleep and bringing both his runic weapons out, shadow shifted and stabbed each side of the neck with all his strength and brought both blades towards me in a diagonal manner, making an x-shape on its nape.
There was a little squeal from the beast when Rio plunged the weapon into its neck, however, the following attack seemed to have silenced him. Rio confirmed the kill when he heard,
[Ding! Host killed a spiked-tailed wolf and gained 9,000 EXP]
Before he could bathe in his achievement, Rio's hair rose and his head felt a bit numb as if it was tingling. Soon after he heard another growl, however, this one was more threatening as he heard fast-approaching footsteps. All of a sudden, he saw some kind of spiked bat hurdle towards him, Rio's body seemed to react promptly as he used his short sword to redirect the attack as it was too strong for him to fully block.
Now Rio saw why it was worth 9,000 EXP, Rio looked at his stat while paying attention to the upcoming danger ahead.
[Ding!]
Name: Rio Casmir
EXP- 9,040
Class: 3rd rank mage apprentice
Subclass: 4th rank Shicidan Martial Artist
Strength: 20.0
Agility: 20.0
Endurance: 6.0
Mana: 15.0
After seeing his stats, he then proceeded to quickly put in 5 points into mana and put 4 points into Endurance.
[Ding! Updating stats...]
[Ding!]
Name: Rio Casmir
EXP- 40
Class: 4th rank mage apprentice
Subclass: 1st rank Hachidan Martial Artist
Strength: 20.0
Agility: 20.0
Endurance: 10.0
Mana: 20.0
It was risky, doing this process between battles however, that is the only way to ensure victory against this beast. The beast started running towards me, while his muscles were still constricting my movements. It flung its tail at him sideways, he tried as much as possible to use his weapons to block it however, Rio's body didn't seem to listen to him.
'Crash'
Rio's body slams into the cave wall, with blood leaking out of the holes created by the spikes. The process was finally finished and he could move his body freely, however, his body was definitely not in a state he could fight the beast head-on.
It ran towards Rio trying to finish the job and used the tail once again, however, he narrowly dodged it by pushing off the ground disregarding the pain Rio's body was screaming at him and while in midair he used origin magic to instant cast a fire blade spell learned in Tiamat's memories, due to Tiamat being a black dragon all he was taught was fire and dark magic.
Rio shot the fire blade at where the tail was and sliced the tail in half it started spraying blue blood and the beast started wreathing in pain, Rio used the opportunity when the beast was in pain and shot a level three fireball spell, which burnt the beast which didn't even spare his ashes. Rio was momentarily shocked by the power of a level 3 fireball; it is not even a black tier of human Level.
[Ding! Host killed a spiked-tailed wolf and gained 9,999 EXP]
'I knew the monster was stronger and quicker than it was supposed to be. That must have been the female spiked-tailed wolf, as it says the female gender is usually faster and with a long tail.' Rio thought while the adrenaline wore off and was gradually feeling the pain the beast left on his body.
'status' Rio thought
[Ding!]
Name: Rio Casmir
EXP- 10,039
Class: 4th rank mage apprentice
Subclass: 1st rank Hachidan Martial Artist
Strength: 20.0
Agility: 20.0
Endurance: 10.0
Mana: 20.0
'Put ten points into mana, wait, cancel that command'
[Ding! Instructions canceled]
Rio went into his space ring and pulled out a small box and opened it and let a small smile. 'i nearly wasted my points for no reason I have this mana explosive pill that can let me burst through one major realm, now I am at the 4th rank Mage apprentice, I can use this pill than use my points to increase my mana stats afterward.'
Rio burnt the body of the dead beast he killed before the other beast came and attacked to make sure the blood doesn't attract any monsters. Looked around for a bit then sat in the lotus position and threw the pill into his mouth and swallowed it. Rio then concentrated on his Dantian to see the process of the mana explosive pill.
Once the pill reached Rio's stomach, it instantly disappeared, it felt like it was never there, to begin with, a couple of seconds went by then he felt his Dantian gradually taking in an influx of mana, so he used the earth's embrace to try to pull as much mana in as possible, it took around 8 hours for his mana core to be filled since he used most of it in the battle of the beast and ranked up to 4th rank Mage apprentice.
Once it was filled, the Dantian still continued taking in a huge influx of mana and he started feeling a bit uncomfortable. The discomfort turned into pain but it was still bearable until cracks started to appear on his Dantian, which hurt like hell, but he tried to stay composed and focus on trying to mend it.
More cracks appeared as the pain grew, Rio was still concentrating however doubting the credibility of the pill 'is it not a breakthrough pill or is this a side-effect to skipping and breaking through to the next realm directly.' thought of doubt and confusion appeared in Rio's mind but he decided to stay strong hand hold on until the end.
5 minutes later a Dantian filled with cracks was about to shatter and Rio focused as much as he can trying to stop that from happening.
'Crack'
'Crack'
'CRACK'