Silas was surrounded by an array of ferocious beasts, ranging from dire wolves to grotesque beasts that he had never seen before.

He raised his hands defensively, trying to keep the beasts at bay, but he failed to notice the most dangerous one standing right in front of him.

He felt a sudden disturbance and quickly turned his head towards the source.

The bear had opened its mouth, and in an instant, a large earth bullet, the size of Silas’s head, appeared before it.

A sense of dread washed over him as he watched the bullet hurtling towards him.

Reacting instinctively, Silas dodged the earth bullet, but the shockwave that followed was enough to break every bone in his right arm that had barely blocked it.

He grimaced, knowing that the difference between a pristine garnet core and a dull topaz core was like night and day, and this fight was going to show why that was the case.

As he tried to regain his balance, he suddenly felt a sharp pain that made his eyes bulge in agony.

He puked out a mouthful of blood as the sound of the wind cracking reached his ears.

He realized too late that he couldn’t hear the whip crack after the attack, thanks to his ear injury.

He had been hit by a diagonal slice that spanned from his hip to his shoulder and continually gushed out blood with every heartbeat.

He gritted his teeth, suppressing the rage and pain as he got a glimpse of the monster that attacked him from the corner of his eye.

It was a creature made of vines, a monster that was clearly not to be underestimated.

Another earth cannon blasted its way through the trees, appearing before Silas once more, but this time he was prepared.

He touched the ground with all five fingers, creating an earth wall before dashing to the side with wind fusion.

Ignoring the bear for a moment, Silas stretched out his hand and created a normal-looking tier 1 fireball, but something was different about it.

The fist-sized ball of flames began to spin and in less than a second, it turned into a marble-sized ball of flame that shot towards the monster.

“Life fusion,” he muttered through gritted teeth, channeling his life force energy to increase his healing rate.

He knew it would take a few seconds, but he couldn’t afford to let his guard down.

The vine creature whipped several vines at him in desperation. It was still a dull-garnet core, but it knew the fire bullet would have killed it instantly. Silas dodged the vines with ease and focused on the monster.

His eyes narrowed as he realized that this was not going to be an easy fight. He was outnumbered, surrounded, and outmatched. But he was determined to survive.

‘I can use earth fusion to tank the vine attacks, but it takes a second or two to switch. Its not worth it.’ Silas thought, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

The vine monster was instantly turned into ashes when the ball of flames touched it. However, it was not the vine monster that he was a worried about.

He saw the maw of a dire wolf suddenly open, its sharp teeth ready to sink into his flesh and possibly even bite his head off. He had to act fast if he wanted to survive. With a split-second decision, Silas raised his arm, offering it as a sacrifice to the dire wolf’s open jaws.

The wolf’s powerful bite dug deep into Silas’s arm, causing him to howl in pain. But he quickly regained his composure and used the wolf’s momentum against it, throwing the creature aside.

A shrill whistle pierced through the forest, signaling the approach of even more monsters and beasts. Silas knew he was trapped with no escape.

“I need to run,” Silas muttered to himself, but he quickly realized it was too late.

With a smile on his face, Silas summoned an axe made of earth and threw the dead wolf into the air. He caught the axe with his only working arm, while his other one hung limply by his side.

An enormous bat creature swooped down and slashed at Silas, but he managed to dodge just in time. ‘I wasn’t the target.’ Silas widened his eyes when he saw the dead wolf gone, and when he looked at where the bat had flown, he felt his heart drop in panic.

The corpse of the wolf was flying at him like a catapulted boulder.

Silas stomped on the floor and created a magic circle under his feet. While it was impossible for a mage of his level to create spells far away from him, Silas was capable of using 4 of his 5 mana entry points to create spells, something 99% of mages probably didn’t even know was possible.

It was simple logic. If he could create spells for his hands, why not his feet?

The impact kicked an enormous dust cloud that penetrated the forest’s canopy.

Being hit by the full strength of the shockwave, Silas was launched away in an instant.

However, he was not the only one who suffered from this attack, as the impact not only turned every creature in the area into a bloody paste, but it also injured anything near it since the corpse continued to shoot into the horde even after hitting the ground.

Fortunately, Silas had activated earth fusion before being launched away. Otherwise, he would have most definitely suffered the same fate as those other creatures.

*Blegh*

Vomiting out a mouthful of blood, Silas wiped his mouth and staggered to his feet. The creature’s eyes were only on him despite dozens of their brethren dying.

*Thud*

Looking over to the side, Silas saw his axe fall beside him.

‘Lucky me…’ Silas tried to smile, yet it only made him cough out more blood.

He had to heal, but he knew that the moment he activated life fusion, he would be vulnerable.

Grabbing it, Silas used it as a crutch to stand up.

His body was battered in every single way. Every movement was excruciating to the point where even the adrenaline couldn’t hide his pain.

Or maybe his body was rejecting the adrenaline?

He didn’t know, but he didn’t care.

Blood flowed down from his head and into his eyes, yet he didn’t even blink…

He simply stared at all the monsters in front of him, and listened to the ones behind him.

They sounded like marching soldiers…

Everything had slowed down. Everything became muffled, while his eyes became cloudy.

He could see the earth bear opening its maw and gathering a ridiculous amount of mana in front of it.

He could see the dull-topaz-cored bat zooming toward him with the lust for blood in its eyes.

He could see dozens of dire wolves marching at him, their red eyes flaring in a berserker’s rage, while several reptiles spanning from crocodile magical mutations to chameleons were strolling like they had all the time in the world.

Every beast was there. Bunnies, sloths, komodo dragons, gorgonflies, bloodseekers, bloodmaws, thundertusks…

‘They’re all here to kill me…’ Silas thought. His eyes were listless, as if he had given up.

Yet…

‘Me? A nobody… They want to kill me?’ A chuckle left his mouth as an uncontrollable flame appeared in his eyes…

‘You want to throw 5 years of my hard work down the drain? You want me to go through that hellish reincarnation cycle?’ Silas’ expression twisted into that of pure rage.

Pain continued to course through his body, yet he no longer felt it.

His body wasn’t supposed to be capable of moving yet, but somehow he moved it. No, he didn’t just move it…

He was pointing his axe at the monsters as an aura as large as an ocean made of pure blood left Silas’ body. His eyes had a fanatic spark in them. Maybe it was the desperation that allowed him to keep moving, or maybe his determination keeping him standing. But, in the end, it didn’t matter.

“If you want to kill me…!” A tier two magic circle appeared in front of his axe. It was an orangy red… The color of flames.

“You’re going to have to try harder than that!” A maniacal laugh left his mouth before a pillar of flames shot out of the circle, as the spell ‘incineration cannon’ quickly penetrated the first line of creatures, turning them into cinders.

At the moment, he felt as if a second spark had been created next to his flame of unending hunger for knowledge. The flame and spark suddenly fused without skipping a beat, and before Silas knew it, there was a second feeling that grew in his cold and bloodied soul.

It was thrill…

A thrill for battle!

[You are evolving]

——————

[A/N: Bonus chapter for reaching the powerstone goal incoming later today]

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