The bodies of monsters littered the streets. Their numbers difficult to count.
"Twenty-five."
Ash voiced out loud his progress.
The number of monsters he had defeated this time was a group of twenty-five.
Naturally this meant his skills had increased substantially.
Opening his Interface Ash took a quick look at his progress.
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[Soul Chip Interface]
>Core Power: [Truth Seeker]
>Proficiency: [10%]
>Rank: [I]
>Attribute: [Light]
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[Minor Skills]
>Slashes [G] Proficiency: [47%]
>Basic Aura Control [F] Proficiency: [45%]
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Thanks to his progress Ash was able to upgrade his [Slash] skill, into something more flexible in [Slashes] which allowed for effective slashes regardless of if they were downward or not. And while still crude it was already something that was starting to look like a proper sword skill.
But he had gotten this skill a while ago and Ash was now focused on other things.
Looking at his screen Ash let out an annoyed sigh.
"It still refuses to move."
The problem was his core skill. It hasn't moved an inch for the last fourty or so cycles.
It wasn't surprising as the core was the most difficult of the skills to raise.
The core skill and the person's energy core are one and the same. If its rank gets raised the person doesn't only get an upgrade to their skills strength, but will also see their physical and spiritual abilities increase.
The reason for Ash's slow progress was nothing difficult to discover, it had to do with his opponents.
While he called them monsters, these were nothing like real monsters, they were merely imitations made from the dead bodies of normal non Awakened people. There was a reason why these people never became Users. The amount of energy they carried was simply not substantial enough.
Picking up his sword Ash continued down the street, straight towards the large horde comprised of twenty-six monsters.
...
Waking up in the cave once more Ash was quick to get up, already used to the scenario.
Since beginning his lengthy training Ash had been through nearly a hundred cycles.
While it may seem like a long span of time since they were never long they only translated to about a week of time, still since then Ash had changed considerably.
His life by now had lost all value to him, with him only seeking improvement at any cost.
Thanks to the fact that his condition always returned to the state he had when he first awoke, he had no need for resting.
As such the usually lazy Ash had a complete change in personality, choosing to instead spend every moment of his on trying to improve.
Walking out of his small cave Ash felt the droplets of blood once again, naturaly he payed them no mind.
Ash didn't wait and ran to where the first monster would show up.
Once it showed the fight was over in less than a second with the monster laying in two pieces.
Ash briefly glanced at the three streets, entering one of them without much thinking.
The street he entered was the one he had entered in his last hundred or so cycles.
While he could have tried his luck with the other two, Ash knew he wasn't quite ready.
The main street leading to the town square was an obvious no-go.
The side street with the slightly larger monsters was still not ideal.
There the numbers didn't go up, they just all swarmed at once. He had no intention of entering before maxing out his two minor skills.
Entering the street he first encountered the minor groups which he was able to kill in a few second.
Soon he was already deep into the endlessly stretching street facing fourteen enemies at once.
The enemies were slow, large and easy to cut. And while they may have posed a problem to him before, by now before the twenties they were mere warm-up for him.
Moving through the large group Ash swung his Aura infused sword and defeated the large group.
Continuing on, he was able to easily cut his way through before arriving at the group of twenty.
The reason why Ash regarded the twenties as his new starting line was because this was when things got actually difficult.
This was the point from which they covered every angle, and came at him endlessly not even leaving a second between the attacks.
Of course the most dangerous part was the start, as once their numbers decreased they would return to being simple fodder.
Readying himself Ash took the initiative and charged in.
The monsters quickly reacted to his presence, instantly charging at him.
Ash still ran at full speed and then ignoring their advances.
*Slash*
A slash landed on the closest of the monster instantly killing it.
But Ash didn't stop, he couldn't he moved into a sideward slash, catching one of the monsters with it and killing it.
It was at this moment that Ash felt something hitting his back, but before he could even react he was already dead.
...
Ash woke up, with an expression of annoyance, but understanding.
Since in the last run he had gotten a new record of twenty-five he became overly cocky and rushed in mindlessly.
He was overconfident and impatient.
The time he had spent here has had its toll on him.
He had even started praying to God by now, even though he wasn't that overly religious even as a church raised orphan.
It was simply too much. So it was natural that he would try to quicken things, but it seems doing so was foolish.
Ash didn't wait long, only taking a quick mental note of not getting overconfident. With that he stood up and began his run once again.
...
Four.
Fifteen.
Fourty.
One hundred.
Two hundred.
Five hundred.
The runs just kept on endlessly pilling on, with his progress stagnating.
Around the six hundredth run he looked down at his Interface, with an emotionless expression.
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[Soul Chip Interface]
>Core Power: [Truth Seeker]
>Proficiency: [20%]
>Rank: [I]
>Affinity: [Light]
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[Minor Skills]
>Slashes [G] Proficiency: [99%]
>Basic Aura Control [F] Proficiency: [99%]
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He stood up walking over a large crowd of corpses im his wake.
Arriving before a large cement wall.
In the end it turned out he was wrong.
After getting over the obstacle of a hundred monster group there it was.
The end of the endless street.
Touching the large wall, he could feel sorrow hit him, one that he may have repressed for the last hundreds of cyles.
Clenching his hand into a fist he leaned against the large wall and hit it lightly.
"Why...? Why is there a wall here? Why couldn't it have just been the orphanage?"
This time he hit the wall at full strength.
"WHY?!"
His hidden hopes of a quicker road were destroyed.
This reinforced his suspicion, that his only way forward was through the town square. He knew for certain that the other side street wouldn't have anything either. Still he had to go there regardless.
Turning back he started walking down the street.
While fighting he hadn't noticed, just how long this street truly is, and also the destruction he had caused to it.
Every step he took, the mushy texture of flesh remained under his feet, while the smell of rotting followed him.
Maybe it was because of the adrenaline, but till now he had been able to ignore it all, but now that he had calmed down it was hitting him all at once.
Just how long he had been here, and just how many "people" he had killed.
Till now he had been in a trance looking at everything like it was just some game, but it wasn't everything was real, and everyone he had cut down had once been people, with most being from this town, and with some even potentially being people he knew.
Of course he never took the time to truly see it, to see just who these people were.
For all he knew amongts these copses lay his fellow orphans, the music store owner, the guy from the town hall or maybe even Granny Agate.
With these thoughs hitting him, his steps slowed till he came to full stop.
He looked down at the gruesome sight, trying to find faces among the ocean of corpses.
'Granny...'
Ash knew, he knew that there was no way for Agate to have survived, but at least he hoped she wasn't here among these corpses.
Of course finding her would be nearly impossible, their numbers were staggering and most faces were either destorted or cut in two.
After only a minute of searching did Ash gave up and looked up at the now setting sun with tears in his eyes.
"WHY?"
"WHY, WHY, WHY!?"
"WHY DID THIS HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE? WHAT DO YOU WANT FLOCH!?"
"HEEY! TELL ME!"
Of course despite his shouting, no answer came.
His legs gave out and Ash was now sitting in the pools of blood and intestines below.
People say many experience shock in different ways. Many experience delayed reactions, with them only realising things much later on.
It seemed that shock had finally caught up to Ash.