With the realisation that he hadn't checked his Interface since finishing his big fight, he felt obligated to check it especially if he was gonna try tackling the "cyclops".
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[Soul Chip Interface]
>Core Power: [Truth Seeker]
>Proficiency: [65%]
>Rank: [I]
>Attribute: [Light]
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[Minor Skills]
>Slashes [G] Proficiency: [100%]
>Basic Aura Control [F] Proficiency: [100%]
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Ash was shocked.
The progress this singular fight had given him was greater than his last six hundred attempts.
He was already more than half way there to ranking up.
From what he knew a rank two person was already considered quite the powerhouse.
With new found motivation Ash stepped forward.
This time he had no real intention of defeating the giant, he simply wished to gauge it's strength, just see how much he could do against it.
Entering the town square he was welcomed by the sight of the "cyclops". He hadn't seen it for the longest time, he had almost forgotten how it looked.
I still had that big eye looking thing on it. And it also still radiated with an odd glow.
The moment Ash entered it's vision, the large beast reacted instantly swinging its grotesque arm at Ash.
Ash knowing he couldn't dodge in time intead decided to slash at it hoping he would cut through, like he did with the other corpse monsters.
His slash connected and cut through surprisingly easily.
Ash felt a sudden surge of joy arise within him, but that didn't last.
The cut off pieces of flesh began squirming and slowling crawling towards the main body.
Ash knew what was happening, but without leaving him time to organize his thoughts the other arm came swinging.
*Swish*
Ash cut it much like he did with the other one.
In the time that he cut the second arm the first one had already regenerated and was ready to swing once again.
Ash knew this couldn't go on.
While he was able to cut through the arms with somewhat ease, it still took more effort to do so than the other monsters before it.
That was when Ash noticed something.
The monster hadn't moved an inch since the fight began.
Upon looking closer Ash realised that this thing had no legs, in the end it was just a weirdly shaped pile of corpses.
But this didn't change much since having extra range didn't help him at all.
He still had to close the distance.
Another strike came, Ash cut once again and started running.
He ran towards the monster, its frame becoming bigger with each step.
Only up close did he truly realise how massive this thing was, and how many bodies it had in it.
This monster had to have been made out of atleast a thousand or more people.
An entire town's worth of people were crammed into this one ginormous abomination.
Now that he was close he had to think of his next step.
Where to attack next?
He didn't know its weak point so he could only guess, but if he had to bet it would have to be one of two things.
Either its giant eye or the source of that bright light.
Since it was already night the light was especially noticeable.
But since it seemed to be buried somewhere deep among the corpses he chose to first strike at its eye.
The next question was how he would do that.
While thinking of his moves the attacks kept on coming with him slashing down the giant arm once more.
The monsters eye was quite high up, definitely not something he could reach from the ground.
Then should he just chuck his sword at it?
No, definitely not.
He didn't have any throwing skills so its power would be weak. And he wasn't even guaranteed to hit.
Then an idea came to him, one maybe a bit reckless, but still the best he could think of.
Just then another swing was coming in his direction.
Ash readied himself, but instead of slashing he plunged his sword in the arm's direction.
*Squish*
The sword embedded itself into the giant arm.
At the same time Ash held onto the sword like his life depended on it.
In the next moment he could feel his legs lifting off the ground as the monsters raised its arm.
Ash, with everything he had started climbing, trying to get to the top.
He found a point where it felt somewhat stable, and took his sword out from the flesh, just for him to plunge it in once again further up.
He kept on climbing, but the monster had already noticed what Ash was trying to do.
It started to shake its hand and approached it with his other.
Ash was hanging on still, but with the other arm approaching he knew he had to do something or else he'd die.
Running out of options an idea popped into his head, arguably one that he didn't like.
'Fuck me, if I survive this I'm definitely gonna get some unknown virus later on.'
In that moment before the arm could hit Ash buried himself into the pile of corpses.
Being buried there was odd as the corpses were all cold, but Ash could feel a strange energy radiating through them, with it even trying to enter Ash.
Though disturbed it wasn't as bad as he had expected, as he was able to get used to it rather quickly.
Feeling the tremors stopping, he assumed the giant had somewhat calmed down.
Trying to verify his theory Ash peeked out with his head, and could see the other hand already resting far away.
It seemed this was as far as its intelligence went. Its object permanance wasn't anything special.
Ash quickly pushed himself out and continued with his climb.
He was pretty much at his destination by the time he was spotted.
As he was spotted the arm came, but since he was already so close Ash didn't bother with hiding again.
He got up and with the best footing he could find he jumped in the eyes's direction.
*Slash*
He slashed at the eye, and in the process entered the monsters main body through the large cut.
Landing he was once again inside the monster.
Before he could even react his entrance point closed, with the "cyclops" seemingly fine as the movement persisted.
'So it really wasn't the eye.'
With that now figured out it was time for Ash to get to the monsters other weakness.
The bright light.
In truth Ash already had an idea what the light was.
It was the monsters core.
Monsters the SCC and other military organizations faught always had cores to them.
These cores were also one of the most valuable parts of monsters as they could be converted to powersources, and energy was always in demand.
But its importance was also the reason why Ash didn't instantly go for it, and instead opted to go for the eye.
As his knowledge in the field was lacking he simply doubted that the most valuable part of a monster would also be its weak point.
I mean how are you supposed to get it if you have to destroy it?
Still with his options depleted he had to try destroying it.
Already being inside the monster he was able to quickly locate it, there was just one problem.
It was the lack of space.
As this was a place where bodies were thrown on top of one other, he lacked the space to swing his sword.
The weight of the bodies was fine though, with it being evenly distributed throughout its body.
Unable to cut his way through Ash began crawling towards the light.
Progress was slow as there were a lot of corpses to get through.
Slowly, but surely the light became brighter and brighter, till he arrived before the core.
Looking at the core it was just a stone with a heavy white glow to it.
It also seemed to be comprised of around four or five smaller stones, all giving of slightly different lights.
One had a slight blue tint to it while another carried a slightly greener tint. Many different colors were present inside the stone.
Looking at the "core" Ash felt a slight chill run through himself.
'The SCC soldiers.'
This giant monster was in the end piloted by the fused core of the now dead SCC soldiers.
It seemed their fate indeed ended the same as everyone elses.
Ash didn't hesitate anymore and extended his hand to grab the core.
Touching it he could feel something that was almost like a heartbeat.
Then with all the strength he had Ash clenched down on the stone trying to shatter it.
And to his surprise it did.
The stone shattered, its light disappearing.
In the next moment all movement ceased, the "cyclops" was dead.
Ash didn't hesitate and while some of the effects still lingered crawled out so as to not get killed by the corpse mountains weight.
Arriving outside Ash took one look at the giant, now defeated monster and let out a relieved sigh, followed by a bit of laughter.
"Hahaha, finally it's over. To think it would be this easy, hahaha."
Suddenly the sound of laughter came from behind him, accompanied by clapping sounds.
"Hahaha *clap* *clap* haha"
"It was easy now, wasn't it?"
Ash turned around and readied himself by raising his sword.
But in the next moment he could hear a slight whisper from behind him.
"Easy now."
A hand touched his shoulders.
"Congratulations Ash. You've completed the trial and defeated you first real monster."
The voice continued whispering.
"You weren't ready then, but now you are."
Ash's patience ran out and he was about to voice himself when the voice spoke up once again.
"Also congrats on hitting rank 2."
Ash was shocked, and as if on command the Interface came up.
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[Core Rank Up Possible]
[Please follow the instructions for ranking up]
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