Return of the Woodcutter

Before the horde reached Aito, he created some more space between them, dug the road for ammunition, seizing a rock that could barely fit in one hand. 

Since there was a single targeted item, he was certain to be able to apply all his skills with precision. 

—Active Skill: Lv4 Durability—

—Active Skill: Lv3 Weight Control x8—

Aito flung the rock. Like a cannonball, it butchered hobs in a straight line, finishing its course by embedding itself into a wall. 

'Amazing…,' he thought, running dozens of meters away before easily jumping on a nearby rooftop. If that was the kind of strength Ascenders had, he did not imagine what Awakeneds could do. Or maybe not all of them had that kind of strength? Who knew? 

With his stamina temporarily at level 4 and mana at level 5, he barely felt fatigued from what appeared to be a warm-up exercise to him—not the Gwen kind of warm-up, though. 

Sensing his taste for experiments gained on the island coming back to him, he shattered a part of the roof to make himself some ammunitions and continued to throw projectiles after projectiles at the horde. Imbuing them with different skill combinations to see what worked best. 

They weren't a threat anymore to him, but mere lab rats. 

He quickly came to realize that to maximize the efficiency of the effect of his skill, he had to do it in a particular order. 

First came Durability that increased the overall tolerance of an item to all sorts of pressure applied to it. Simply put, physical damage—mostly. 

Then he would increase the weight of the item. If the targeted item wasn't resistant enough to pressure, its own increased weight could crush or weaken it. That's why using Durability beforehand was important. 

Finally, Aito would use Impact that could enhance its destructive range. If he used it first, he discovered that somehow, Durability drastically weakened its effect as if it created a layer of defense that Impact must get through to reach the target. 

He had also realized by now that Impact only worked on, well, the first impact. If the projectile passed through a hob, Impact wouldn't activate if another one was touched by it.

His comprehension of the skill wasn't deep enough to overload it yet. However, with a deeper understanding of how aura worked, he was certain to be able to overload Impact if he were given just a day of training and master it after two or three days. 

Aito jumped from his previous rooftop to another one, turned around, but realized that some hobs were running towards the cathedral. 

'Has it been that long already?' He thought, finishing absorbing a mana core. Having no clock to time it, he judged the taunting to last between thirty minutes and an hour. Hard to judge when busy fighting. Also, he had been too deep in his experiment to realize how much time has passed.

Before they could get too far, he took out the horn and recalled his lab rats back into his experimenting range. Hobs running for the cathedral rapidly turned towards him and unwillingly got back into the chase. After all, by now they had understood they were no match for their supposed "prey."

Having abused skills for too long, even with a level 5 mana, only a quarter of his mana well remained. Understandable since he had kept using them. 

Moreover, he could feel his soul force unable to keep up with all the abuse. His stats were too unbalanced compared to his real abilities. His soul force could only tolerate his current power, not embrace it entirely. 

If he continued his experiments with such eagerness, he might enter a feeless state. 

'That could become troublesome,' he pondered.

Something challengers often misunderstood was that soul force also fueled their physical abilities—although only a meager amount was necessary at their levels.

Food alone could not possibly sustain a challenger's body that went beyond earthly human limits. Thus, the paralysis during a feeless state. 

One Against Many was a great skill without negative consequences, but it could not prevent the use of soul force to fuel physical needs. On the contrary, that Unique Skill required more soul force to be used. 

Now, with a strong link to his soul established, Aito could properly feel the consequences of his actions. 

'Hum, I'll have to tune down on the experiments,' he thought, thinking about switching to the next phase of his new plan he had adapted to his current temporary abilities. 'But before that, let's try one last thing.' 

He prepared his last experiment, grabbing a rock twice the size of his hand, applying every skill he could to their limits. 

—Active Skill: Lv4 Durability (overload)—

—Active Skill: Lv3 Weight Control x10 (overload)—

—Active Skill: Lv2 Impact—

Putting his every iota of strength into it, Aito launched his projectile. The rock obliterated more than thirty hobs, creating a large crater, slightly shaking the surroundings. 

"Oh… impressive," he said, touching his black beard. "I can probably use it to destroy buildings. Though, this combination requires a lot of aura. It'd be a waste to continue using it on them. However, the pebble-shotgun was less costly and more efficient for mass clearing. Well, that again depends on what, how, and when it is used. But it is unarguably enough to deal with those lab rats. No need to use costly combinations." 

Sensing hobs approaching thanks to his Domain, he prepared for the next step of his plan. 

"Alright, let's see how long they'll last," he said, running towards the city border, stopped, waited for them, and ran again. 

He repeated those steps time and time again. Absorbing a few mana cores along the way. Sometimes using Pneuma while resting when he waited for his lab rats that were visibly getting more tired. No matter, he invigorated their fighting spirits with the horn. 

And thus, after a few hours and detours later, Aito reached a plaza at the border of the city delimited by a wall that surrounded the entire fifth floor like a dome. 

The horde was slowly trotting after him, their saliva gushing out of their mouths. Some hobs fell due to exhaustion.

Full of vigor, Aito didn't allow them to rest and used the horn to probe their limits. Seeing as some hobs were unable to move, he smirked devilishly. 

"Time to reap what you sow," he said, before hacking away at the exhausted hobs. He encountered almost no resistance as he butchered them. Calling back those who were fleeing with the horn. 

It wasn't a battle, but a massacre.