Killing the Bear

"My lord," Dante greeted Cain as he jumped down to Cain's side and bowed. 

"Thanks, Dante," Cain said with a smile. 

"Don't mention it. It's naturally my duty to eliminate any threat to you, my lord." 

"Oh, by the way, Dante, can I borrow your sword for a bit? I want to borrow it to kill the bear," Cain asked as he looked at Dante's sword. 

"Of course, you can, my lord." Dante carefully handed his sword to Cain. 

Cain then examined the sword's information since he was curious about what kind of sword Dante used to kill his enemies and found that it increased damage by quite a bit when used with a Dark Element skill. 

'It's a pretty good sword,' Cain thought to himself as he looked at it. 

"Cain, don't tell me… the reason you didn't attack the bear back then was just because you didn't have a sword? Is that why you borrowed Dante's?" Elara asked with a smile. 

"Cough!"

"Cough!" 

"Of course not! First, I was waiting for Dante to arrive, because in case I couldn't kill it, who would protect us then? 

Secondly, I borrowed his sword because I wanted to try my dark element skills too, and since his sword could increase dark-element related skills, I thought I might as well borrow it to make my attack stronger," Cain coughed, making up excuses on the spot. 

"Sure, sure…." Elara giggled as she put her hands over her mouth, watching Cain closely. 

"Ahem… Nix, why are you still here instead of heading towards the bear? Let's go right away!" Cain patted Nix and changed the topic out of embarrassment. 

"Roar!" 

Nix let out a slow roar and looked at Cain with a confused expression, not knowing the location of the bear. 

"Go towards the southeast." Cain slapped his forehead, realizing he had forgotten to tell him. 

When they were about 75 meters from the bear, they saw it eating the dead fire leopard, tearing its body apart and munching it one bite at a time. 

The bear noticed their arrival but ignored them, assuming they were merely passing by again, as it had assessed them as weaker than itself before. 

Looking at the big bear eating leisurely, Cain immediately unsheathed the sword, raised it above his head with both hands, and swung it down while using his [Dark Slash] skill. 

Swoosh! 

A 3-meter-wide crescent blade made of dark energy flew out of the sword, heading towards the bear, which had noticed the moment Cain cast his skill. 

"Let's see how strong it is when I am using it with half of my energy at once," Cain thought as he watched the crescent blade fly swiftly. 

The bear, sensing the threat, became serious and quickly used its [Wooden Wall] skill. 

Three thick wooden walls rose from the ground in front of the bear. 

It didn't stop there, as it used another skill, [Wooden Spear], as a first countermeasure to interrupt the attack. 

Several large wooden sticks rose from the ground, intertwining to form a spear that rose into the sky, colliding with the oncoming attack. 

However, the spear failed to stop the crescent blade, which sliced it in two and continued moving toward the three massive wooden walls. 

Unfortunately for Cain, the blade only broke through the first wall and stopped at the second. 

"Hmm? I guess it could only do that much with half of my energy, huh?" 

Cain frowned as he looked at the unsuccessful attack and immediately swung the sword again diagonally, wanting to see the crescent blade from a different angle out of boredom. 

Swoosh! 

Another 3-meter-wide crescent blade made of dark energy flew out of the sword as he used the remainder of his energy. 

"Huff!"

"Huff!"

"Huff!" 

Cain breathed heavily and dropped to his knee, caught off guard by the exhaustion he hadn't expected. 

"It seems my body becomes extremely tired after exhausting all my energy, even though I'm not physically tired," Cain thought, ordering the system to refill his energy. 

"My lord, are you okay?" Dante immediately helped Cain up, also surprised that his lord had carelessly depleted all his energy. 

"Cain, what happened? Just let Dante kill it, don't push yourself." 

Elara became extremely worried, checking him over for any signs of harm, as she didn't understand that someone could become exhausted from depleting their energy since she wasn't awakened herself. 

"I'm okay, don't worry," Cain replied with a smile before looking towards the bear to see that the result was the same. 

[Ding! 10,000 Evolution Points have been deducted for the cost of filling the energy.] 

As Cain heard the notification, he felt the unknown energy pouring into his body, and his exhaustion suddenly vanished, leaving him full of energy again. 

"Roar!" 

The bear roared loudly, enraged by Cain's unexpectedly powerful attack. 

It immediately counterattacked, seeing Cain's fatigue from using his skill twice in a row and thinking this was its opportunity. 

The bear used its [Wooden Spear] skill again, aiming at Nix, who was flying in the sky. 

Seeing the incoming spear, Cain reacted by slashing the sword again while using his [Dark Slash] skill. 

Swoosh! 

This time, a 5-meter-wide crescent blade made of dark energy flew out of the sword, heading toward the bear as Cain used all his mana instead of just half, thinking he could kill it this time since the bear had already suffered two of his attacks, likely draining much of its mana. 

"System, fill my energy again," Cain ordered. 

[Ding! 10,000 Evolution Points have been deducted for the cost of filling the energy.] 

With his energy restored, he used his [Dark Slash] skill once more. 

Swoosh! 

Another 5-meter-wide crescent blade flew out of the sword, following the previous attack and unknowingly creating an X-shaped strike toward the bear. 

Cain then ordered the system to refill his energy for the last time, satisfied as he watched his powerful attack approach the bear. 

[Ding! 10,000 Evolution Points have been deducted for the cost of filling the energy.] 

Unfortunately for the bear, much of its mana had already been depleted from defending against Cain's previous two attacks.

Which resulted in its spear being sliced into four parts as Cain's attack slashed through the thick walls and struck the bear, killing it instantly by cutting its body into four clean sections. 

Cain then heard the system notifications and immediately checked his rewards, curious about what he would receive for his first kill. 

Upon reviewing the rewards, Cain was shocked, not expecting them to be so generous.