34 New Trouble

Finishing his daily Serene Mind practice, Jim immediately began using Detection. He wanted to find a new secluded space to practice magic. Starting with the city outskirts, he couldn't find any place which was hidden enough.

Spreading his senses outward, he noticed something strange. There was a young man in a business suit walking through a wooded area, he obviously wasn't dressed to go hiking, Jim decided to search the area ahead of the man.

Reaching his mind out further, he suddenly couldn't sense things clearly. It was like the entire area was blurred, a veil pulled over his eyes. It piqued Jim's interest, he focused and tried to see through this...what should he call it? Concealment? Let's go with that.

'Good God, what is that!?' Jim was startled, 30 minute had passed and he finally saw through the concealment. There was a creature in the middle of the area, it's upper body looked similar to a man, but its face was distorted, like someone took a bunch of mouths and eyes and just threw them at a face until everything stuck. From the stomach down, the creature's body split into hundreds of tentacles, each thicker than Jim's chest.

The young man just arrived where the creature was, he just kept walking towards it like it wasn't there. One of the creature's tentacles stretched out and stabbed the man through the chest at lightning speed. Pulling him in, the creature quickly devoured the man's corpse until not much but bone was left, tossing the remaining gore behind it into a pile. The pile must have hundreds of human bodies, thousands of animals, it was absolutely disgusting.

[Gluttonous Void Treader]

[Level ???]

[HP: ???]

[MP: 0]

[Strength: 40,000]

[Dexterity: 2,000]

[Vitality: 5,000]

[Agility: 20,000]

[Magic: 0]

'Where the hell did this thing come from?' Time was of the essence, it was obvious the young man had been manipulated in some way to come out here by this thing. If he was going to prevent any more deaths, he needed to strike now. Sneaking out, he sped over to the creature's territory. Approaching, he stared the thing down, it seemed startled that something could actually see it.

"Kraaaa!" The creature screamed and sent out a tentacle, Jim used Great Dark Fist to meet it. *Bam* The two forces clashed, Jim's fist was sore, but the creature's tentacle was nearly unharmed. 'This is bad!' Jim could tell that just exchanging blows would end with his own defeat, he switched gears.

Jim had Pure Yang Sun Fire and Frigid Heart Flame emerge from his body and form a layer of defense. He began casting magic and sending out multiple Flame spells at once towards the creature's head. "Graaa!" It was enraged, the barrage of fireballs accurately hit the softest and most vulnerable part of its body before it could react.

Quickly bringing up tentacles to defend itself, it sent dozens of them out to strike at Jim. Jim continued his barrage while trying to dodge, three of the tentacles managed to slam into him. It hurt like hell, even worse than the cannibal old man's strike. Jim continued dodging the rapid strikes coming his way, he slowly got a sense for when a blow would be coming at him and how to move his body to dodge it with room to spare for the next.

Jumping around, Jim continued searching for angles to shoot fireballs into. The cultivator fires were doing a good job slowing down and damaging the speeding tentacles. The creature grew completely enraged, it abandoned defense and started slamming tentacles into the ground in a mad berserk state.

'That's my chance!' Jim circulated Surging Thunder Steps as the ground under his feet collapsed. He rocketed to the creature's head and activated Great Dark Fist, cast Spark, and directed his cultivator fires to the same point. The creature's arms suddenly reformed into blades and shot out, piercing Jim's chest

*Boom* The massive surge of energy slammed into the creature's head and turned it into minced meat. A powerful recoil sent Jim flying backwards. He slammed into a tree, snapping it in half. Landing, he began coughing up blood. 'Didn't think that damn thing kept a trump card like that.'

Looking down, he started channeling Reiki to start mending his body. 'Damnit, I'm still too weak, that thing was actually able to pierce my defense.' The ambition within Jim's heart grew even stronger, he wanted more, he wanted to grasp absolute power.

[Dimensional Travel Forcefully Activated]

[Searching...]

[Suitable Location Discovered, Transporting Host]

Still injured, Jim's surroundings suddenly changed. He was back in that white space again. After what felt like an hour, his open wounds had closed, he could feel he wasn't at peak condition yet, but he no longer felt it dangerous to move about.

The surrounding fog began clearing, Jim was in a forest again. The foliage was incredibly dense, trees, bushes, tall grass, you couldn't get plantlife out of your sight no matter where you turned. 'Wait, how do all these plants live like this? They should be spaced out to absorb enough sunlight.'

Jim found the Mana here was also extremely dense, it was like someone gathered all the mana across the united states and packed it into a small point. But it wasn't just one point, everywhere around him had this density, he almost felt like he was drowning, it was suffocating.

[Mana Overload Resistance Skill Obtained]

[Danger Sense Skill Obtained]

[Dodge Has Reached Level 8]

[Great Dark Fist Has Reached Level 7]

[Fire Magic Level Max]

[Fire Magic Derivation Skill - Flame Magic Obtained]

[Fire Element Mage Job Unlocked]