Chapter 14: Murloc Island

Varian dashed through the muddy land and felt like a gust of wind. Never had he felt so free and so fast.

'Is this what being an Awakener feels every time?' he thought and leaped to a treetop.

Without little effort, he landed on top of the four meter tall tree. Then he gazed down at the ground, and with an adventurous smile, removed his gauntlets. With no hesitation, he dived down head first and punched into the ground, adding with his own strength the full force of the fall.

'Boom!'

'Crackle!'

Dust rose into air, and the ground cracked. Varian stood in the centre, his eyes looked at his own hands in disbelief.

Other than a few scratches, they were perfectly fine.

'I would certainly have a fracture had I tried it before awakening.' Varian slowly adjusted to his new state.

Even though he hadn't mastered the powers of his path, he was already familiar with them.

He could now feel the aura enter his body and feel it turn into something new. What was flowing inside him wasn't strictly aura anymore. It was a part of aura, but different from it.

Body Awakeners called it chi. Varian felt aura enter his body and turn into chi. Chi coursed through his muscles and bones. He could tell almost intuitively that he wasn't using the full potential of the chi in his body. He could improve.

This improvement would be the basis of his progress in his Level 1.

[+5 Xp]

[First Path:

Body Level 1: 10/100

Stats: 3.5% Greater Human]

Varian felt his stats rise by a significant amount and sighed in satisfaction.

"Grawll" Varian's ears perked up, and he caught the sound coming from a long distance.

He focused and found a group of murlocs gazing at him from a distance.

With a single thought, the gauntlets equipped themselves upon his hands. It was a perk of 2 star treasures.

Fully armed, he charged at them. His each step covered a few meters with ease and in no time, he was in front of the murlocs.

Taking the initiative, he hurled a punch.

'Swish'

His punch cut through the air and connected with the neck of the murloc.

'Screech'

His gauntlet tore through its neck, and like a water fountain, blood spurted into the air.

'Weak,' Varian thought and observed the other murlocs. They were about four of them.

They hissed and lunged at him. Their claws would dig into his flesh should they succeed.

Varian gave them no chance and charged at one of the murlocs. Like an arrow breaking paper, Varian broke the murloc and dodged the attacks.

The spikes of his gauntlet pierced the heart of the murloc and killed it. Varian yanked his arm, and the corpse flew out. Four left.

'Kindness to enemy is cruelty to self.' Varian believed and followed. He didn't feel the slightest remorse at using murlocs to train himself.

When he first began training, he was naïve and tried to be as compassionate as possible.

He fought normal animals which didn't awaken but were stronger than their usual breed. They were called Level 0s.

He only tried to spar and didn't try to kill. But at some point, they threatened something or someone...

'Why can't I remember what caused me to change? I used to insist on being compassionate but somewhere down the line, I was completely fine with killing.'

Varian searched his memories but couldn't find the reason. Perhaps continuous practice numbed him to killing. Maybe.

Ignoring the questions, he focused on the four murlocs in front.

"Graawl" they screamed and lunged at him again.

Varian pounced at one of the murlocs. But suddenly, the murlocs used their tails to lash at him.

The four tails came from four directions and blocked his routes of escape. Since he was in mid-air, he couldn't jump or duck. He only had limited mobility and had to take the attacks head on.

Even though murlocs weren't intelligent as humans, they could cooperate in groups and had a good battle sense.

"Damn!" Varian gritted his teeth and chose to gamble on a Body Awakener's agility.

He twisted his body in midair and avoided the attacks of two tails. He caught the other two tails with his gauntlets and crushed them with his bare hands. He positioned his feet onto the murloc in front. In the next moment, he crashed into the murloc he was originally aiming for. His kick sunk its chest bones and killed it in one shot.

All this happened in the blink of an eye.

The next moment, Varian rolled down the ground to avoid the attack of the only intact tail.

Before he could get up or even move, the two murlocs whose tails were minced clawed at his face in rage. If he couldn't block it, they'd pierce his brain.

"Fuck!" Varian cursed and brought his gauntlets up to block the attack.

Murlocs showed their cunningness and shifted the attack at the final moment, aiming at his heart region. But due to the sudden change, they slowed down for a moment.

"Back at you!" with a single thought, the gauntlets loosened themselves and Varian hurled them at the murlocs with his complete strength.

'Bang'

'Bang'

Due to the sheer force, the murlocs were blown back just before their claws could touch him.

Varian rushed to them and stepped on their necks, ending their lives and saving his.

'That was... harder.' He wiped the sweat from his forehead and reequipped his gauntlets.

[+10 Xp]

[Body Path Level 1: 20/100

4% Greater Human]

Varian felt the flow of chi in his body improve.

'I knew it. Combat is the best training for me.' He grinned, then his ears perked, and he jumped ahead.

'Screech.'

A spear passed through the area of his previous position and hit a boulder, breaking it in two.

Varian turned in the direction of attack and saw a single murloc walking toward him.

It was 5 feet tall. Its scales were turning dark blue and its tail was longer than usual. In its hand was a bone spear.

'This... is a Peak Level 1 Murloc.' Varian gasped. He could tell it reached the peak of level 1 from the sheer pressure it gave off.

This was his strongest enemy to date, not even the Abyssal, despite Abyssals being the strongest in a given level.

The reason he was able to kill the Abyssal was twofold. One was Varian's own daring strategy. The second, without which Varian wouldn't have succeeded was — the Abyssal's internal injury.

So Varian didn't kill a peak Level 1 Abyssal. He killed an injured Level 1 Abyssal and almost died in the process.

Now, he had to face an uninjured peak Level 1 Murloc.

Varian didn't fear the challenge. His current enemy was much stronger than his previous enemy.

He smiled.

'My enemy might be stronger, but so am I.'

Varian and the murloc looked into each other's eyes and the next second, they shot at the other at breakneck speed.