Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 182

Chapter 182: Same Results Different Methods
Even if Hans was expecting the bats to swarm him, the exact opposite happened:

The bats continued hanging on the ceiling, while the boss monster relentlessly attacked Hans from the distance with the skill: {shockwave dart}

He almost couldn’t keep up with the attacks because of the beast’s rhythm.

He ran around the vast room, avoiding the incoming attacks by moving left and right.

Wherever the shockwave landed the ground cracked, and a little pit was created.

The cave’s surface became more uneven as the shock darts continued to miss, and that made it even more difficult for Hans to evade them.

‘Why do they just keep coming? Does this skill not have any sort of cooldown?’

Hans’s speed was limited, and his stamina had already been slightly drained by his previous actions, slowing him down even more.

As he cast a glaze toward the boss monster, an interesting sight unleashed before him:

Pierced by the boss’s fangs, a bat was being clenched in the beast’s mouth.

In the course of the five following seconds, the bat’s body was drained of its energy before being dropped to the ground by a considerable height.

After that, the giant animal flew towards the closest bat and bit it, slowly killing it in its mouth while continuing the attack.

‘What a broken combination’

Hans thought, seeing the monster’s stamina getting replenished without any chance for him to interfere.

‘If I don’t find a way to get out of this situation… I might have to evade shock darts for the next few hours.’

Hans not only didn’t want to run away for hours just to completely tire that beast out, but he also lacked the stamina to do that.

He had yet to recover from all the things he had done that day.

‘Let’s see… how to get rid of that beast without waiting for it to finish all those ‘snacks’?

If there was a way to do it even without using magic, I guess it would be one of the two: either I jump up there and straight up slash it in two, or I try to replicate that thing I’ve seen online.

The way close-range awakened use their aura to hit targets from afar, some people call it aura blast, since it’s similar to a mana blast.

The difference between the two is that while the mana blast’s power gets dispersed because of its shape, the clean-cut of the aura blast remains intact, allowing the users to obtain the same power they would have when using their blades or their fists without actually closing on to their opponents.

No one’s explained it to me, but I don’t think it’s difficult to figure it out-‘

“Ack!”

‘I might be getting a bit too distracted by this thought, let’s, first of all, think about surviving.’

Hans cleared his mind from all those thoughts for a few seconds as he bolted around the cave, evading the attacks coming his way.

When a few minutes later, the monster stopped attacking to catch another bat, Hans took the chance and retreated, leaving that hall and returning to one of the smaller tunnels.

‘It won’t be able to follow me here, and I will have time to make all the preparations before rushing back in there’

Hans sat down to recover as much stamina as he could and in the meantime.

He had thought about it, and executing the mana blast seemed like the best option, on the contrary, jumping so high would’ve meant remaining in the air for a long time, making him vulnerable and easy to dodge.

But doing what he had set his mind to was difficult to pull off.

He tried to organize his actions by dividing the attack into various steps…

The first thing he would have to do would logically be to manifest aura.

Since his stats were over one hundred, that was an easy one to achieve.

Secondly, he would need to swing his sword, and then release the aura just before the end of the attack.

Even after dismissing the aura, the amount that had already been released would still linger around for a bit before completely dissipating, and because of the inertia built up by the attack, that remaining aura would be thrown towards the target of the swing.

However, just like hitting the ball when playing tennis, the timing of the aura release was the most important part, since it would’ve determined the trajectory of his attack.

Just a slight miscalculation of the release time could’ve deviated the spells by a few meters, and even more in case he aimed at greater distances.

“I’m sure manifesting and releasing aura every time must be tiring, I cannot afford to try it out here, I will directly see how effective it is against that bat.”

Hans was ready to step up once again, this time, with a clear objective in mind.

As soon as he set foot inside the boss’s territory, a shock dart was launched his way, and he barely evaded it twisting his torso.

‘You will see…

This time you’re not the only one who can attack from afar’

Hans sprinted forward and began channeling his aura through his sword.

And even while maintaining that focus, he evaded the incoming attacks thrown against him.

‘Not yet…’

Hans thought.

‘Not yet…

He repeated once again even after advancing a few steps.

Then, as one last dart shock came his way, he swiftly moved out of its trajectory and raised his sword.

The bat was now flying around to catch some bats to replenish its stamina, which made it defenseless.

‘Either now.. Or never’

“Heup”

Hans grabbed the sword handle firmly and took a deep breath before finally swinging his sword.

While the blade was still falling, Hans released his aura, and a blast of it was shot forward.

He didn’t even think about the results, because in case he had missed, he wanted to have a second chance.

But as his sword was raised once again, he froze seeing the system’s window in front of his eyes.

[congratulations! You have killed the gate’s boss]

[the gate will close in thirty minutes]

He couldn’t even catch a glimpse of it.

The beast… had been split in two.

“W-woah”

‘Is this power… really achievable without magic?

Now that I think about it…

Why the hell would I even need it? I would be better off just using magic.’

Hans felt really stupid for a second…

“Bah… whatever, I’m sure gaining another skill won’t hurt me.

And not only that, but the reward is also quite sweet”

[you have comprehended the move {aura blast}(C-rank).

It will be listed below the general skill {sword mastery}]

[your skill: {sword mastery} has exponentially increased in level]

{sword mastery(D-rank)

Increases damage dealt with swords by 20%}

“I can be satisfied with myself now… it’s time to get out of here”

Hans was exhausted, not only the continuous tracking of the opponents had drained his mana, but his stamina had also been depleted because of his fights.

As he made his way back out of the gate, a chilly breeze blew upon his bare skin.

In the distance, the sun was setting just above the surface of the vast sea, and Hans’s hypnotic amber-colored eyes reflected that beautiful warm light.

‘Should I pay them a visit?’

That was his thought, he intended to pass by the group’s house, at least until he could go to Preston’s lodgings to sleep.

“Let’s see…

Mumbled Hans while taking his phone out of his back pocket.

The screen had been cracked, probably during the fight. But at least it still worked just fine.

[Christina_ Has sent you a message:

Hi Hans, it’s Christina here, in case you change your idea, you can come to us at any time, the address is….

…also, please consider dropping by because Clare’s been acting weird ever since you left…

‘Uh… I guess I’ll stop by before nighttime’

Hans typed the address on his phone and began walking following the directions.

But while he was slowly making his way towards the place while watching the beautiful sunset, a sudden thought hit him.

‘Should I get a gift?’

When he was little, whenever his family visited others they used to buy something like a cake or other bakery.

And Hans, thinking it would’ve been impolite to show up empty-handed, decided to do the same.

…

The young man couldn’t care less about the monsters he had just defeated, and their corpses were left to rot on the cave’s cold floor.

[congratulations! You have cleared the gate {gloomy cave} you have been rewarded with some exp]

Hans ignored the notification since his level still showed no signs of improvement.

…

In the meantime… somewhere inside the San Diego Association branch.

“I think I might’ve missed what you just said…

Could you please… repeat it?”

Preston was talking to someone on the phone, and his expression looked anything but happy.

“S-sir…”

Replied a voice coming from the other side of the device.

“…It’s been confirmed.

An A-rank gate…

Has appeared on our city’s shores.”