19 Chapter 19: New Weapon (2/2)

He ground his teeth and slowly stepped inside the lake, one inch at a time. Right as his serrated skin touched the water, a stinging pain assaulted him. Similar to acid, it ridded his wounds of their impurities and slightly burned his skin.

Although the flame-water usually felt fantastic on his skin, when it touched open cuts, it stung like hell. His blood permeated into the lake like a mist, and his wounds started to visibly close. It was almost miraculous, besides the excruciating pain that he felt.

Wilhelm could only persist inside of the water for a short duration of time before the pain became unbearable. A groan escaped from his thin lips as he frantically escaped toward the ground. His body was soaked, and droplets of water dripped from his broad shoulders.

He gasped for breath, hugged his body, and rolled on the ground, grunting in pain. ”G-god damn, that hurts!” He muttered out repeatedly, not a single care for the loud noises his grunts generated.

This continued for a few minutes until the burning pain finally subsided. He slowly stood up from the ground; a deep frown etched onto his face. His eyes were squinted as he stroked his mighty beard in contemplation.

Since his body was no longer bleeding, he could now think about much more pressing matters, such as his unallocated stat point. His stamina was high enough to rectify his old age completely, so he could start exploring a few of the other paths.

His highest attribute was currently agility, which was at 17. As for his other stats, Intelligence, strength, and stamina were at fifteen, twelve, and twelve, respectively. Since his intelligence and agility were already so high, there was no need to increase them any further for the time being.

On the other hand, he had not gained any strength for quite a while. The freaky ants' thick mandibles and exoskeletons were quite hard to penetrate with his current power, so it was only natural to put a few points into strength. He would start amassing agility in the future, but for now, survival was of most importance.

Thinking to here, he glanced at this cracked dagger, which had broke in his last bout. It was no longer capable of withstanding his strength, as it was something taken from Earth. He was in dire need of a new weapon to go along with his latest skills.

With this in mind, he didn't hesitate to place a point into strength and out of the cave, so that he could test his ”masterful hands” skill. Unlike last time, he would investigate a few of the other areas. He had no desire to fight another life and death battle with a huge squadron of monster ants.

If his theory was correct, there were quite a few different types of monsters lurking on the bottom floor, each fighting for complete dominance. Some would be stronger than others, while a few would certainly be the weakest of the bunch. Besides, since the ants were confident enough to send small groups out to hunt and dig, they were undoubtedly one of the races at the top of the food chain.

Wilhelms main goal was to find a lesser race to hunt so that he could gain experience without too much of a hurdle. Thus, he decided to follow the deep tracks in the ground, left by the minotaurs. He hadn't dared to go this way previously, but he figured that the minotaurs were long gone by now.

Hopefully, he wouldn't encounter anything too dangerous. He was still a tad bit tired from his last duel.