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n‘This is an opponent that would have very likely killed my past self, but with the procedure, I should be able to deal with it.’

n‘The fight might not be very easy, but I shouldn’t be in danger as long as I’m careful.’

nSlowly, the wheel stopped on an unfamiliar picture. It obviously was a beast Shang had never heard of.

nOn the image was a tiny monkey with a backward-facing baseball cap and skater clothes. The monkey was also playing on a modern drum set.

n‘There is one monkey species in the Ice Wyvern Zone, the Rumbling Yeti, but I don’t think that this is one.’

nA moment later, Shang’s opponent appeared in the distance, and Shang lifted an eyebrow.

nOn the picture was a small monkey, but this definitely wasn’t a small monkey.

nThis was a nearly three-meter tall, muscular ape. It looked more like one would imagine a troll would look like.

nThe jester lifted his hammer and struck the bell before vanishing.

nThe ape noticed Shang and immediately shouted with aggression and rage.

nCRK! BANG!

nA second later, a huge club made of stone appeared in one of its hands, and without waiting for a second, it began to charge at Shang. It was running on two legs and one hand, the other hand busy holding the club.

nIn comparison to the previous beasts, this one seemed to be very aggressive.

nThe Trash Bird had immediately fled.

nThe Spire Mire had been hidden.

nThe Climate Weasel had threatened Shang without charging at him.

nThe Pest Queen had been on the defensive.

nBut this ape immediately charged at Shang.

nShang narrowed his eyes and readied his sword. In the previous times, he had needed to show his speed early since he had been the one to initiate the confrontation.

nThis time, he could keep his abilities a secret.

nThe earth trembled beneath the ape’s rumbling charge, its club swinging around aggressively with every step it took.

nThe ape reached Shang and immediately lifted its club to smash him into a fine paste of meat.

nShang pointed his left arm to the back.

nBOOM! BOOM!

nTwo quick Blasts left Shang’s left arm. At the same time, his entire body began to emit steam as a severely cold wind left his body.

nShang’s arm nearly exploded, and his body had a dangerously high temperature.

nBut in exchange for all of this, Shang’s speed reached a new peak.

nShang had never been so fast in his life.

nBOOOM!

nThe club struck down on Shang’s previous position, but he had already left it.

nBut Shang didn’t retreat.

nHe was charging in!

nBehind Shang, a chaotic storm of Fire and Ice Mana destroyed the parts of the ground.

nThe black sword shone under the light of Shang’s world.

nAnd then, Shang passed the ape.

nThe body of the ape seized and quickly fell to the ground…

nIn two pieces.

nThe intestines and organs of the ape were flowing out of its severed torso, and the ape tried to push the organs back into its body as it screeched in pain.

nShang charged to the side and circled the torso until he arrived at the opposite side of the ape’s body.

nThen, he quickly severed the ape’s arms and put his own hand on the ape’s head.

nA couple of seconds later, only a couple of parts of a dried-up torso were left.

nShang’s body had reached its peak again, and it was filled with life energy.

nThis was a beast a level above Shang, which meant that it gave a lot of life energy.

nFilled with life energy, Shang had left the fight in a better condition than when it had started.

nThe cheering returned, and Shang only looked at the shriveled corpse of the ape.

n‘If my opponent doesn’t get the chance to unleash their abilities, they might as well not have them,’ he thought.

nHow powerful was the ape?

nIt had a weapon that could be reproduced endlessly by simply expending more Earth Mana.

nIts speed was about average, but its destructive power was rather high.

nIts flexibility was probably on the higher side since apes could move their bodies in very weird ways when compared to a quadruped.

nHowever, it had no apparent ranged abilities, which was a weakness.

nAll in all, it was a very average beast.

nSo then, how had Shang been able to beat the ape this easily?

nSurprise, explosiveness, initiative, speed.

nSurprise, because the ape hadn’t known how fast or how powerful Shang was.

nExplosiveness, because Shang managed to create an extremely powerful attack. The quality of his weapon, the power of his body, and the added momentum of his speed made his attack devastating.

nInitiative, because Shang went in instead of out. Instead of looking at how the fight went and watching his opponent, Shang had thrown all caution to the wind and went all-in before the first cards had even hit the table. It was a high-risk, high-reward gamble.

nSpeed, because Shang had used his absolute everything to make his charge faster. Not only had Shang destroyed his arm, but he had even gone beyond his normal usage of his passive speed-increase.

nShang surprised his opponent, moved the battle to a location where one hit proved fatal for any party, hit the ape before it could properly react with his speed, and unleashed a power that was beyond the ape’s ability to resist.

nOne shot, one kill.

nEven if the ape had the ability to kill a Zone Beast with its club, it would have been useless in the fight. After all, it had never hit Shang.

nThe ape’s strongest aspect had been its offense, but its offense had never gotten the chance to come to light.

nIn the previous couple of fights, Shang hadn’t had the chance to pull something like this off.

nAll of Shang’s previous opponents had already noticed Shang’s speed before he had even gotten close to them.

n‘This would have been a risky maneuver if my body had been weaker,’ Shang thought. ‘However, it would have given me a chance to win. It seems like, with enough luck, I could have maybe won against this opponent, even without the procedure.’

nShang looked at the leaflet that had appeared on the ground beside him.

n“Mountain Tribe Ape,” Shang read.

nShang read the leaflet, and another beast was added to his imaginary bestiary.

n‘Seems like they live in a Zone quite far to the north. The Zone is filled with high mountains, and it has a lot of Lightning Mana. Of course, due to the abundance of mountains, beasts with Earth Affinities are also very common there.’

nThe quote of the God was also quite interesting.

n“Imagine a beautiful garden filled with lightning. Now, imagine a stupid, ugly, and immovable rock in the middle of your garden. That’s what these things are.”

n‘According to the leaflet, these things are living in tribes. I can imagine the trouble lightning beasts would have with these apes living on their mountains.’

nShang put the leaflet away, and the wheel returned.

n“Level six: Powerful Early General Stage beast.”

n‘I have already gone past teacher’s score in the beast category.’

nThe wheel began to spin.

n‘This opponent was easy, but I doubt that the next one will be as easy.’

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