With smoke in the air and victory in my mind I manually recover my mana as I sit on the floor at home.
Such an overwhelming victory has given me these addictive tingles all over my body. It's like a drug that captivates you the first time you take it. Now that I've had it, I want more.
I was already planning on doing this but now that experienced this sensation any doubt I had had completely disappeared.
Sitting on the floor I replenish all my mana before heading back towards the light, however, this time my aim is the giant dinosaur's territory.
On the way I watched the sun begin to set through the smoke that I created earlier.
Usually, I wouldn't head out at night, but my victory high has gotten the better of me.
Once I reach the borders of its territory I slow down and stay low as I approach the beast. I don't know if it will notice me or not, so I move as slowly as possible.
The beast was only a few hundred meters from the edge of the territory, but I took an entire hour approaching it.
By now the sun had set and night had begun.
Approaching the beast I examine its body. It's large enough to cover the entire field even curled up in a ball as it slept. It has 4 limbs, and its head is as large as a bulldozer. As it breaths, small torrents of wind blow the grass from its nose, leaving them permanently bent sideways.
As I inspected its body, I searched for weak points that I could use against it. However, even its weak points were heavily armoured and nearly impossible for me to exploit.
Its eyes were obvious, however, my basic knife wouldn't pierce its damn eyelids even if I had both arms and used all my mana to strengthen myself. I was certain the knife would break first.
Tendons and soft skin were my next thought but once again my knife wouldn't be able to pierce it.
I considered solely relying on my fire like I usually did but I was hesitant about that for a number of reasons.
Currently I'm basically a one trick pony with a missing limb and a damaged body. If my fire isn't enough to harm something, what the fuck do I do next.
With these thoughts my victory high quickly dissipated. Reality checked in and out of the station in an instant, taking all my confidence with it.
After inspecting the dinosaur a while longer, searching for anything I could use against it I finally gave up and left the scene quietly.
I'm not capable of even touching that things weak points, let alone slaying it.
I even considered killing it from the inside by using its rear exit as a doorway. However I had many doubts about this method, one of them being to possibility of toxicity or maybe even magma. Who knows what something like this could be hiding…
After leaving the scene I didn't want to the entire night to be a waste so I got to work removing all the weak creatures between my home and the mysterious light.
I got incredibly close to the light, even standing on top of a building a few hundred meters away from it. However, I didn't get any closer.
Everything between the abandoned building I stood on, which resembled a half destroyed war bunker, was completely destroyed.
It wasn't like this when I first discovered the light. It was inside an old, abandoned building before but now it's completely exposed.
However, despite being out in the open I still can't determine what's going on. The destroyed area is a massive circle of flattened land. The only extremities is a few rocks and rubble piles that poke out a bit.
And the mysterious light is in the very centre of this circle, but it is exuding from the ground between the cracks. The cracks in the ground have a subtle purply-blue light shining from them.
I felt incredibly curious about the source but it wasn't time for me to find out. I want to be at full strength when I approach the light just in case something happens. In fact, I want to be significantly stronger before I do.
Whatever is happening to this world is not normal. Well… that much is obvious but what I mean is there is something bigger going on.
Not including the sudden invasion of copious amounts of corrupted creatures, we also have mysterious lights in the ground, humanoid corrupt creatures that can talk, and mammoth dinosaurs the size of football fields.
I didn't think much of it at first but after getting a close look at the giant dinosaur and calming down my victory high, I realised how weak I am.
Sure, I fought an army of Reaper's and I thought I was strong because of it but in the end aren't all those Reaper's already dead. Are they actually strong? Fighting them definitely prepared me for fighting corrupt creatures but it's not like I got out unscathed.
At this point I've barely survived.
I can hold my own in a one-on-one fight or even a hundred-on-one as long as it's a weapons fight. But up against invisibility, eyes that can melt you, insurmountable strength and indominable defence I am completely powerless.
And that's without even mentioning the lady he is 'completing' this task for.
'Slay the corruption and protect the people huh' I thought. How the heck do I do that when I can't even find people. Let alone the state of me.
There are too many things that I don't understand and to put it lightly I don't fucking like it.
Heck, I don't even understand my own fucking powers. I can boost my abilities, cast fire attacks and create a shield out of mana, or create some light but why the fuck can I do these things. Not to mention how fucking poorly I've been using them! Even fucking [Spark]!
I just realised how stupid I have been at times by forgetting to use [Spark] in dark environments!
Or using [Rubius] to block those Lamia's attacks! Why didn't I do that more!
If I can control fire then why am I just throwing it around!? Can't I be a bit more precise!? WHAT IF I COULD CREATE A SWORD OUT OF FIRE!? OR A NEW ARM!?!?!?!?!
Whilst pondering about all the stupid things I've done and assessing every thing I have experienced since I first died, I walked home completely absorbed in my thoughts.
As I did I always returned to the same conclusion.
That I am a fool.