The cave was dark, but due to my night vision skill, I could see as clearly as day. It was a cave that seemed to have housed a few monsters before, and there were bones of dead animals all over the place. Of course, I didn't mind this as long as they weren't human bones or anything like that.
"This should do."
With this, I sat down in the cave and organized my thoughts.
"Status."
{Name: Kain
Species: Red Ape
Age: 20
Rank: 1 (13.2%)
Skills: Magic Sense, Night Vision, Monster Language
Inherent Skills: Strengthen, Harden}
My status was pretty much the same, with only my new language skill and my rank increasing in percentage over the past two days in this world.
To increase my ranking, I had to kill monsters, absorb a part of their souls, and increase the percentage. This was the norm and a pretty straightforward method, but there was another way to increase your ranking other than this, and that was meditation—or to be exact, cultivation like in Chinese novels. Of course, this wasn't as fast as killing monsters and taking a part of their soul, as it required time and patience. The main advantage it had was in the long run because, sure, killing monsters was faster, but it had a huge disadvantage: taking in different monsters' souls could corrupt one's own soul. Meanwhile, cultivating only had the disadvantage of time; it was far better with its ability to strengthen the soul naturally. It also increased the capacity of the soul to take in more souls and increase its potential limit, and it could purify the souls of monsters to protect the soul from corruption.
[Cultivation learned]
[Rank increased by 0.1%]
Yes, I had gotten the skill I wanted. This skill was going to change everything, and if this was the same world as the game I designed, this could lead to my advantage.
"The only problem is this..."
I was still a red ape. I needed to increase my rank quickly, but this required time and patience. There was no need to rush it. Right now, I needed to cultivate and hunt monsters.
[Rank increased by 0.2%]
Yes, I could feel my soul increase bit by bit. This was great—if a lifeform evolved into Rank 4, they could change their form freely, and this was my short-term goal now.
"I need to hit Rank 4 in a year."
Saying this in my mind, I got up and dusted off my butt.
"Of course, it's not gonna be easy. First, I need to get out of the territory of the red apes."
But for that to happen, I had to hide for two days to be presumed dead. The apes were a pretty smart bunch.
"If they found out I was hiding, it wouldn't end with me getting thrown out of the tribe—I would get killed, too."
First, I needed to find food to last me for these two days, and for that, I needed to hunt monsters.
"Let's go!"
---
There it was—the monster I had prepared to hunt for food. It was a deer-like creature, but unlike a regular deer, this one was stark white in color and had huge black horns. It was larger than a moose. This was called a black-horned deer, and if I remembered correctly, it could shoot magic from its horns, so I had to be careful.
I was trying to sneak behind it to kill it without a fight. It was a late Rank 1 beast, a little higher than me, but I was confident I could take it on with the skills I had.
[Strengthen]
Deploying the Strengthen skill, I felt my muscles ripple. This skill increased my muscle strength twofold.
Leaping with great speed, I felt the ground burst behind me. I wound up a punch with all my strength.
[Harden]
The Harden skill was applied to my fist, hardening it like rock, adding to the boosted strength. With a sonic boom, my fist connected with the black-horned deer, sending it flying into a tree, bursting through it with shocking momentum and finally crashing into the ground, leaving a small crater.
"That should've done it."
My fist felt like it was burning from stacking two skills on top of each other—this was a feat that was only available for Rank 3 and up, but I knew a way to activate it at a lower rank.
[Rank 1 monster killed]
[Rank increased by 12.4%]
I could feel my soul bloat up as strength filled me. The deer was dead, its side burst open, its entrails covering the ground.
"Status."
{Name: Kain
Species: Red Ape
Age: 20
Rank: 1 (25.56%)}
Sitting beside the dead deer, I could see my rank had increased to twenty-five percent.
"That's why killing monsters is faster than cultivation, but I'll do both—that will help me get stronger faster, and I'll be two steps ahead of others."
Now I needed to take this deer into the cave. I'm pretty sure it could last me more than two days.