Chapter 379: Massacre (1/2)
Finally realizing how he would be able to improve his understanding of his Epiphany to the next level at a quicker pace, Aurus could not help but become excited, sensing that his whole body seemed to be hinting to him that killing would be beneficial to him.
Nevertheless, even though his body seemed to be screaming to him to find another animal to kill right now, Aurus was still doubtful as to whether or not killing an animal would help improve his understanding of the Epiphany by that much. For all he knew, the moment he killed the animal was just a coincidental moment wherein a large amount of Wind energy particles surged into his body out of nowhere.
With that in mind, he decided to test it out one more time, eventually finding another rabbit nibbling on a bunch of leaves not far from where he was. Hovering over it as an aura of killing intent and bloodlust emanated from him, Aurus extended his right palm once more before shooting out a blade of wind, decapitating the rabbit as its blood gushed like a fountain.
As the rabbit's blood trickled out from its body, a large amount of Wind energy particles condensed around Aurus before being absorbed by his body, drastically increasing the progress of his Epiphany incomparable to what his progress looked like while he was just absorbing Wind energy particles from the surroundings.
Seeing that his progress had increased by a lot once more, the thought of killing being able to improve his Epiphany in less time had become somewhat more solidified than ever before, with his body aching to take control over his body and go on a maniacal rampage from it. But of course, Aurus was still doubtful as to whether or not it was true.
In his mind, something like this happening once was a fluke, but for it to happen twice, it might just be a miraculous coincidence. But if it happened another time after that, then Aurus definitely wouldn't hold back.
And so, with that in mind, Aurus went ahead and moved throughout the forest a bit more to find another animal to kill, eventually spotting a small fox frolicking through the various foliage and trees littered around the forest. Unlike the small rabbits he had killed, which took on a slight green shine due to the overabundance of Wind energy particles, the way the overabundance had taken effect on this small fox was its tail completely taking on a pastel green color.
In any case, even if its abilities were stronger compared to normal foxes, it still didn't stand a chance against Aurus, who mercilessly shot a blade of wind towards the fox, piercing directly through its heart.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Seeing that a large amount of Wind energy particles had condensed and been absorbed by his body once more, Aurus was now certain that the killing of animals had great effects on his progress regarding the comprehension of his Epiphany. In fact, after killing two animals, he felt like he was quite near to reaching the third level of his Epiphany.
Nonetheless, with Aurus killing animals three times and all of them allowing a large amount of Wind energy particles to be absorbed by his body all three times, Aurus allowed his mind to be a bit more loose, letting his primal instincts take over his body. Of course, he made sure to not go overboard, knowing very well of the impacts killing brought to the environment. But in any case, he had no qualms in killing animals as it improved his combat power.
With that in mind, he then went on a killing spree, killing any thing that moved throughout the whole forest located near the edge of the Divine Wind Valley. Funnily enough, with his primal instincts mostly doing all of the work, he had even targeted some of the leaves that swayed along with the wind, only to soon find out that he had accidentally hit an animal behind it.
Nevertheless, with him going on a killing spree, the speed at which his comprehension of his Epiphany progressed had vastly increased compared to before, with it breaking through to the fifth level within a span of ten minutes. By the time he felt like he had eradicated almost all of the species living inside the forest, he had already reached the sixth level.
At this point, his primal instincts had gained greater control over his body, with it automatically heading towards the forest on the other side of the Divine Wind Valley within a few moments. At the very instant he arrived, he started to go on a massacre yet again, not even sparing the somewhat rarer animals that roamed the forest.
To clear the forest on the other side of the Divine Wind Valley, it had only taken Aurus half an hour to do so, with his understanding of his Epiphany breaking through the eighth level due to the sheer number of animals he had killed so far.
Well, to be more specific, he had only killed around a few hundred animals so far. But thanks to how it gradually became harder for one to comprehend one's Epiphany, the number of animals he had to kill to reach the next level drastically increased for every consecutive level. Which was the reason why he had only reached the eighth level after killing so much.
Then again, even though he had only reached the eighth level of his Epiphany out of the 99 levels out there, Aurus was surprisingly in a state of euphoria, a euphoria that was triggered by the killings he had done so far. Normally, Aurus would be hesitant to kill a being unless he needed to do so to improve. But now, those hinges holding him back had now become looser than before, making one wonder as to whether or not he could still remember his earlier words of not going overboard.
Fortunately, by the time his instincts realized that there was next to no more animals for him to kill in the other forest, his rationality gradually took over his body, slowly removing the euphoria he felt from killing the animals as guilt and shock overwhelmed his body.
”How…did it turn out like this?” Aurus muttered to himself, wondering how it had gotten this bad within such a short amount of time. Sure, he had allowed his mind to loosen up a bit, but never did it occur to him that something like this would be the result of it.