Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 56

Resilience in shadows
“I get it now”

*just as {mystic insight} describes, this monster’s made out of living creatures’ shadows, meaning it cannot be hit, while its skill {shadow manipulation} creates physical items out of non-living beings’ shadows.

If my guess is right..

Then that javelin in his hand has a physical presence, and can be hit by my spells, meaning it can also hurt me*

‘Let’s test this’

Hans displayed both his palms in the direction of the monster, and cast the spell { blizzard}.

A freezing cold aura emanated from his hands, even colder than the ones he had cast before.

A second later, a thick layer of ice created on the desert’s surface, making it all slippery and solid.

Even then, the monster’s feet just passed through it, posing on the original sand, and only one thing was completely frozen by Hans’s wide spell.

In the hand of the shadow, the javelin became more similar to an ice spike than anything else.

‘As expected, I was correct’

While he was already celebrating this achievement in his head, Hans had been recognised by the shadow as an enemy.

Soon enough, the almost non existent monster rushed towards him, charging an attack with the ice spike in his hand.

Hans quickly bounced back, but was immediately matched by the shadow, that attacked him in mid air, striking from above.

Hans covered his body with both his arms, crossing them above his chest.

{ice armor}

The hit was incredibly heavy, slamming him to the ground.

The impact against the sand was so strong that his interiors couldn’t remain unscathed, they twisted and hit one another, making him vomit blood.

Before any other attack could be directed against him, he cast {fire javelin}, and even if burning hot, he grabbed it with his hand, swinging it against the monster’s weapon.

The impact immediately shattered the shadow javelin, leaving the figure with nothing to attack nor interact with Hans.

‘How’s that?! Bet you can’t attack without a physical weapon’

Contrary to his expectations however, the shadow’s weapon didn’t disappear, but just fell to the ground, dived in countless shards.

Once again, the monster called for them, and the shadow fragments gathered once again in his hand, forming the weapon Hans had tried so hard to destroy.

‘This is… unfair’

The monster acted once again, dashing towards Hans, attacking him with ground breaking strength.

Every single swing was enough to make the air around them tremble.

And every hit that came in contact with the desert’s surface, repelled the sand in all directions.

They exchanged a few blows, Hans tried to break the weapon with all his might, one, two, five, eleven, after breaking the shadow’s weapon almost twenty times, Hans understood he couldn’t fight back.

All his strength, dexterity, and endurance, were used at their best to avoid the incomings attacks, he sometimes even used {ice armor}, {breeze}, and {lighten} to make fully use all his stats in the best possible way.

One after the other, the blows seemed to get stronger and stronger, one faster than the other.

It was all just his illusion, he was getting tired and couldn’t hold on anymore.

Just like for someone tired carrying a lot of weight will result more difficult, his exhaustion increased the battle difficulty.

His chances of survival slimmed every second, as the monster’s attacks started scratching his skin.

Finally, when all hope was lost, he spotted what he was aiming for from the very moment he started dodging instead of counterattacking, the gate was just a few dozen meters away from him.

Aivoiding the biggest attacks and taking the smaller ones, Hans closed the distance between him and the gate, until it was just a couple of metres.

He dashed forward with all the energy he could muster, hoping to beat the monster in dexterity, but his now strained and weak body, could not do that even with the help of other spells.

Before he could set foot in the gate, the monster caught up to him.

The fact that he was getting tired over time, wasnt the only reason the blows felt heavier and heavier, it was also because of the monsters adapting to his new body.

Now, after hours of fighting with it, the body completely blended with its mind.

An axe kick hit Hans from the right shoulder, making him fly away, furthering the distance from the gate.

As his blood run dow his chin, flowing from his exhausted body to the cold sand, a thought took over Hans’s head.

‘F*ck, is this how I die?’

‘Not now, I’ve just.. started to live again.

please, god, the devil, anyone, if you exist, please..’

Before he could finish this thought, the black weapon swung towards his head.

The few milliseconds it took to reach it, felt like hours, Hans’s mind went blank, as his life flashed before his eyes.

His sibling, his parents, those he once knew as friends, and Aiden, they were all present in Hans’s mind at that moment.

He was full of regrets, it seemed unfair, but his time had arrived, he closed his eyes, accepting this fate, there was nothing he could do anymore.

His broken body couldn’t even move a finger, much less defend from an attack already pointed at him.

The black javelin swung, and it all came to an end.

‘Huh?’ He couldn’t feel anything, only a chilly breeze pushing his body backwards.

‘Could this be, the afterlife?’

‘It doesn’t feel bad, actually it’s really similar to..’

As he tried opening his eyes, Hans realized what was standing in front of him.

The desert.

His position hadn’t changed, and the scenery was just the same as ever.

But something was missing, the shadow.

‘What in the world could it have possibly been.

Could it really be.. Go-‘

As he was thinking about it, the answer hit him in the face, the first morning sunlight covered his cheeks, and made his red blood stand out even more.

He had survived, maybe a divine intervention, maybe an unprecedented luck, something made the sun rise in that precise moment.

Whatever it had been, Hans was grateful.

He could now see his family again.

Crawling, he made his way out of the gate.

barely walking, he hid, his presence with {stealth} releasing it only when he had returned home safely.

Afraid of being attacked while in such a weakened state, he refrained from publicly visiting the hospital.

Luckily, he kept a first aid kit at home, which he used to bandage all his wounds.

Most of them were small scratches, but some were deep cuts, that could’ve mutated into scars if not treated in time.

He was also full of bruises on his arms, from when he parried the shadow’s heavy hits, and his right shoulder was dislocated from the powerful kick.

‘Wait!

He kicked me?!

Wasn’t that bastard supposed to possess a spirit body? And not being able to interact with anything but those shadow weapons?’

Hans couldn’t notice it at the moment he received it, but that kick wasn’t supposed to happen, only once the shadow had done it, what could’ve ever allowed it to attack with a physical body?

Hans didn’t know the reason, but he knew one thing: what he needed to do right now.

During the slaughter in the B-rank gate, his level had risen to 134 and his wisdom to 1479, just a couple of levels away to tier-5.

He initially intended to raise his rank by defeating the gate boss, but since he still had four days to clear it, he decided to break through before trying once again.

He was exactly seven levels away from the next tier, but with his level being so high, he needed to clear at least a C-rank gate to upgrade.

He had a plan, today, he would’ve rested, while tomorrow he would’ve gone to a C-rank gate, and broken through.

And three days later, he would’ve entered once again, hoping to leave behind his back a closed gate.

He immediately called the gate management team leader, asking him for a C-rank gate, and luckily, one had appeared just the day before.

From their studies, it seemed like in the last couple of months, the amount of gates appearing had been increasing exponentially instead of linearly, endangering the security of the citizens.

Well, for Hans this meant nothing but more experience, allowing him to grow quicker.

When a couple of hours later Aiden returned from school, he almost had a heart attack seeing Hans lying on the bed all bandaged.

Hans just told him there had been an accident during a raid without going into further details.

They passed the whole evening together, watching tv and talking, apart from the bit of time that Aiden spent studying for his incoming math test.

Even without having much experience since he dropped out of school early, Hans managed to help him solve all the exercises he asked for.

They then went to bed, and when the sun finally rose, the fully recovered Hans took up his equipment, and headed towards the C-rank gate.