The terrain was filled with cracks, some narrow and some wide enough for humans to fall into. An area of over a hundred meters was completely changed, as if some natural calamity had struck it.
At the center, Arthur knelt on one knee, using his dark sword as support. His breathing was uneven, and sweat dripped from his head like a small stream.
He was exhausted—truly exhausted. But there was a wide grin on his face. Raising his head, he looked at the foe he had been fighting for a few minutes already.
The Giant Monkey had stopped attacking Arthur as it held its head, its giant body swaying left and right. It was as if the Giant Monkey had drunk a lot.
"Hehe! Just as I expected, you rely on your Abyssal Energy too much, big guy!"
Arthur slowly stood up and smiled.
Just after a few seconds into the battle, he had figured out that the Giant Monkey was using Abyssal Energy to enhance its body a little too much.
Tier 1 Abyssal Creatures used this method to grow stronger and reach Tier 2. They would circulate their Abyssal Energy and use it to enhance their bodies. Since they had an abundance of it, they kept it in permanent use.
This gave them a buff in their physical constitution, which slowly became permanent as their bodies adapted to the new strength. They would continue to do so until they reached Tier 2, where their method of growing stronger would change.
The Giant Monkey was the same, but it relied on the buff a little too much. Arthur had been wondering why the Giant Monkey was so strong despite being in High-Grade Tier 1, and he finally figured out the reason.
Although the overuse and over-reliance on Abyssal Energy did give the Giant Monkey a buff, it also created a huge weakness, which Arthur exploited.
As he took a step forward, Arthur shouted, "What are you waiting for?"
The moment his words fell, the Giant Monkey stumbled forward as dark blood seeped from its neck. It tried to stand, but it was too late.
Arthur smiled and walked towards the struggling Giant Monkey. Its low grunts echoed, filled with madness. He shook his head and walked past the big head.
There, on the back of the Giant Monkey, he found a young man kneeling, using a dagger as support. The dagger was deeply embedded at the base of the Giant Monkey's skull.
A small smile formed on Arthur's face as he thought, 'Heh, even now, he knew where to strike. The base of the skull... he really didn't want to take any chances.'
Still, it was good that they were alive and had even managed to kill the Giant Monkey. Granted, he was at a loss here since he had to do all the work, and in the end, he got nothing.
But that was intentional.
'I should let this bastard level up early so he quickly leaves the forest. If he stays around, I'm damn sure he would get the Chosen title,' Arthur clicked his tongue, knowing Noah's luck too well.
Seeing him, Noah took out the dagger and jumped down from the corpse as he finally got the notification of the kill. He smiled, looking at the strange hologram before him.
"We should leave quickly. Although this area is only filled with weaker Tier 1s, if they surround us, we're screwed," Arthur said, taking a seat on the ground right beside the corpse.
Noah nodded, understanding the situation, and quickly got to work of extracting the Soul Core from the Giant Monkey's body. It wasn't an easy task, but he still needed to do it if he wanted to get stronger.
Sitting outside to keep watch, Arthur began to think about the things he needed to do. Though, aside from killing and leveling up, nothing came to mind.
His whole Essence was practically drained, and he wouldn't be able to fight for some time. The most he could do was absorb the Soul Cores he had, but he didn't feel safe out in the open.
The world was already cursed, and harrowing beings could pop out of nowhere. Literally. So, he preferred to perform the process in a quiet, safe place.
Granted, there was no safe place left on Earth anymore.
"Why am I thinking about all this now?" Arthur sighed. However, he suddenly sensed subtle changes in his surroundings.
They weren't anything major, but having lived years on the battlefield, his senses had grown much sharper than anyone else's.
These changes could be very minor, like shifts in the air or its smell, the shapes of shadows… or anything that could give away an opponent.
He instantly stood up and said in a low voice, just loud enough for Noah to hear, "We have company, so let's go before they get here."
Catching his signal, Noah also got up, holding a small dark sphere in his hand and a piece of Giant Monkey meat in his backpack.
With his lips twitching at the sight, Arthur whispered, "You damned glutton! This could've turned us into a hot meal for those companies."
"We don't have time, you know," Noah shrugged and pointed toward the direction of their cave, the one they had stayed in for a while. It had collapsed but was still a great place to hide in this forest.
Arthur nodded at Noah and used the little Essence he had left, along with some he'd recovered, to run toward the cave. It took only a few seconds for the two of them to reach it.
As they were about to jump inside through the hole in the ceiling, they heard a crunching sound behind them. They looked at each other and nodded, jumping down into the cave.
They were sure that by the time they got out, there would be nothing left out there—not even bones. This was how Earth had become after the invasion of the Voidborns.
The weak had no place in this new world, not even in death. Their only salvation was to get stronger.
'But getting stronger is also hopeless. Even if you reach the peak, you're nothing before that monster!'
Arthur sighed, taking a rest after a tough battle.