CHAPTER 20.

The whole situation was surreal. But the results were undeniable. It took him thirty minutes to cover one hundred kilometres and at the end of it he wasn't even out of breath, the girl in his arms was soundly asleep and the eggs were safe and sound in their incubators.

Adrian had been in this forested region for less than two hours and yet he had faced 386 monsters. Truthfully he would have lost count had it not been for his status magic tracking it for him.

The area itself had the annoying combination of dense foliage and rough terrain. This fact in combination with the monsters made it a very difficult place to navigate. For an ordinary adventurer or even a small army, the difficulty in moving through the place and the constant ambushes by monsters would have been taxing.

Hunting through this region in the dead of night after a long day of travel and combat should have been impossibly stressful, especially since he had to protect a young child and two eggs.

It wasn't.

Adrian felt relieved as he cut down monster after monster. It was easy and he had unlocked and mastered more than nine hundred forms since he had entered the forest and gained hundreds of drop items. Better yet Raphtalia had grown by 14 levels and Adrian himself had levelled up by one.

It took all his attention, consistent use of Nightvision and Blindsight and several combat skills but in the end, he could keep up with the monsters. It was truly wonderful to have an enemy that he could deal with. No complications, no irritating emotions nothing. Just a simple slaughter.

Adrian had to wonder just when it had become so very simple to fight giant monsters. Frogs that were bigger than he was, odd-looking eight-limbed lizards, two-headed snakes, massive five-meter long birds...he had fought a menagerie of beasts it was amazing and yet in a way relaxing considering that all of the monsters he had faced had died in a single hit. Perhaps in the future, it might become dull to be faster and stronger than every single monster but for now, it was convenient. More often than not Blindsight let him see them before they could sense him but even if they went on the attack the simple reality was that he was much faster than they were. His speed stat, especially when combined with his perception stat, did more than just allow him to run faster.

Reflexes, hand-eye coordination, information processing, attack speed...all of them had improved and the status enchantment that allowed for SP preservation and regeneration ensured that he could use his skills freely.

Thanks to being free from the spies and manipulators from his party he could even use his skills to their full potential and even use the skills that he had decided to keep hidden from them. Adrian might have left them impulsively upon realizing that Andrea had a mental manipulation ability but it was still the right decision to make.

Adrian had no real idea what power the girl had but she had been able to react to changes in conversation and the actions of people before they had shown any sign of it.

Agatha's sudden entrance, Bellamy's words and actions and even his own expression had been reacted to before any sign was shown. Adrian would not have noticed it had he not used the perception boost that Dash provided but once he did notice it...there was no way to miss just how effortlessly she reacted in just the right way.

Precognition or something along the lines of mind-reading or mental alteration was his best bet but he suspected that it was mental given that she had shown no sign of using the precog power in combat. Adrian had no desire to stay around a potential mental magic-user. It was way too risky. It was possible he was wrong but he doubted it.

Adrian had deemed her a lesser threat, had trusted in her information and had even felt a great deal of sympathy for her. Could that have been genuine? Yes. But he considered it far more likely that she had some sort of subtle ability to influence his mind to an extent. Not outright mind control perhaps but something that let her influence him and alter his behaviour. It was the perfect way to control a Hero and Adrian felt like a fool for not considering the fact that they would not have used such tools to control him.

Still, some good had come out of it. He looked towards Raphtalia who was floating alongside him in her wooden carrier, dead to the world.

Adrian would not have dared to rescue her if he hadn't been leaving the party behind. After all, the Hero of the Sword could not show demi-humans pity nor aid them without being declared a false hero.

The risks of helping her were undeniable but in the end, he had not been able to just leave her to rot in that cage. It was foolish to think that he could raise a child when he had nothing save for the Sword. Sure he could feed her, clothe her and give her the medicine she needed. Hell, he was almost uniquely capable of levelling her. But the reality was that she was always at the risk of dying while she was with him.

Raphtalia and the two Filolial eggs that Adrian had bought from that piece of trash were kept inside a wooden carrier that he had created with a combination of two of his crafting skills. Carpentry and Tailoring. He had unlocked both skills on his first day.

Adrian had used Carpentry to create a bed-like structure with a raised edge using the Status Menu, in fact, the whole set up to create the design had been a lot like AutoCAD, so he had little trouble in making his design. It had been easy to make with a large cavity for Raphtalia to sit or sleep in and two smaller spaces for the incubators. He had then covered the wooden construct with some thick cloth made by his Tailoring skill.

All in all, this had taken him no more than fifteen minutes in total. But the most important part was that he had also designed two slots where he could project his swords using Sword Projection. Given that his skill allowed him to create and telekinetically control his swords flawlessly, this ensured that he could telekinetically lift the whole wooden carrier with ease and have it move around with him without compromising his mobility.

Plus the Sword Projections embedded in the wooden construct could fire ofSword Beams if need be. Combined with Blindsight to keep track of both his enemies and his dependants it allowed for a reasonable degree of security.

It was a good system. Hell, it was a brilliant system that allowed for mobility, attack and let her get some much-needed rest. But it was still not completely safe. It never could be. He had to find a place for her to live before the first wave hit. His mind went to the timer and then he began his hunt again.

29:12:24:29

He didn't have time to waste.

He flared his Blindsight, the skill quickly expanded into its kilometre radius range and let him glimpse the numerous monsters in range. More than half of them were awake but none of them were very close to him. Adrian didn't bother gathering much information on them, the chances of them surviving his initial volley was next to zero.

Adrian commanded the swords in the wooden carrier to stay in their current position and then triggered Dash to move vertically upwards.

Then while holding the positions of the monsters in his mind he activated the One Hundred Swords skill. An ability that was akin to his Blade Projection skill in that it created swords but very different in SP cost, durability, damage and number. It was inferior toBlade Projection in every way in terms of quality but it allowed him to create more swords with a lesser overall SP cost.

In a situation like this where he had to target about fifty weaklings that were in such convenient range? It was perfect.

At first ten blades launched from his sword, each of the ten then produced ten more blades before crashing into their targets like meteors. Most of the monsters died but three of them had survived the assault simply by moving.

Thankfully they were all in the same direction. Adrian triggered his Dash again and launched himself in that direction after landing on the ground he ran normally letting Blindsight guide him until he was right next to the first monster.

It was called Minor Fire Drake a dragon-like monster he had faced before. It was nothing special, about five meters long with multiple hearts but only one brain. It could breathe out fire but Adrian simply ran up to it and stabbed it in the brain. The beast didn't even have time to react.

The other two died just as easily but he killed them from range using two Air Strike Slashes. Dull but SP efficient.

Adrian switched his sword to his dismantling one which had a powerful SP regeneration status enchantment and then activated his Blindsight in full. Keeping careful track of Raphtalia and the two filolial eggs while moving around and absorbing the corpses. It took nearly three-fourths of an hour to do so and return to Raphtalia so that he could continue his hunt.

It was truly stunning how it took no real time to kill them but a lot of time to harvest the monsters and any plants in the area. Still, the stats, skills and drop items were nothing to laugh at so he continued his current pattern.

The next hour was far duller. He didn't encounter any real monster hotspots like the one before so he took them out in two's and three's at most. It was far less efficient but his experience gains far almost constant so he didn't complain. Adrian was starting to realize that it would take at least twenty thousand monsters to get to level fifty though. Hell, it would probably take more than that given that during his little killing spree Raphtalia had gotten to level 17 while he was still stuck on 33. He had expected that it would take him longer but the difference was more severe than expected. Less than 10% on the way to level 34 and Raphtalia had levelled up three times in the process.

He couldn't see her stats without her permission but with her being a target of the companion series, which he had unlocked with some of her hair, they were likely to be high. He could only hope that the upgrades that he had subjected the series to were worth it. He still wasn't sure exactly whatstat growth enhancement (medium) actually meant.

Adrian pushed away the unnecessary thoughts. He would deal with things as they came. No point in worrying about something that was likely to be positive. It was really annoying that these monsters had already ceased to be a threat, he was getting used to the forest, his combat method was getting more and more efficient and his stats had gotten a fair boost in the past few hours. Sure it was a little annoying that of the 1000 plus swords forms that he had unlocked precisely none of them had a combat skill but the stat boost and crafting skills were nothing bad.

And there he was drifting again.

He shook it off and focused on his Blindsight, he resolved to get some rest after half an hour. Of course the barely a minute after this he encountered his first proper dragon.

It was truly massive. Nearly fifteen meters long with two heads, four hearts and oddly enough six legs and some sort of odd stumps in place of wings. It was like some sort of mutated classic western dragon. Frankly, Adrian had given up on biology in general regarding monsters but a five chambered heart in a reptile made no sense, especially since the other three hearts were three-chambered hearts. It was honestly like someone had decided to just plug in more organs into the body for the hell of it.

At the moment it was nearly half a kilometre away so Adrian carefully expanded the range of his Blindsight checked for other monsters in the vicinity and once their absence was confirmed started to prepare for what was probably his toughest fight to date.

First, he projected Eight swords, joining the two he already had floating around him. Then he left the carrier behind, no point taking her close to the beast, and changed his Sword form to the heavily upgraded Pyramid Tortoise Sword so that he could use Sword Beam with impunity.

Then he Dashed forward towards the sleeping beast. His ten blades locked in place around him at the ready, once he neared the dragon it began to stir but Adrian was ready. He kept the perception enhancement and send six of his swords targeting the critical locations on the dragon.

Skin, flesh and bone offered no resistance as the two heads and the hearts were pierced in an instant. The Dragon didn't even get a chance to scream before it died.

For a moment Adrian kept the remaining four projections active and ready, his Sword ready to blast the dragon if it so much as twitched. Then he got the Exp gain notification and felt a massive flare of disappointment that surprised him.

Had he really been looking forward to a fight?

Adrian ignored his idiotic thought and retreated back to the carrier before heading back to theMajor Hydra Dragon. It would probably take at least fifteen minutes to butcher the thing. Best to keep Raphtalia as close as possible given that he would be in the same location.

He switched to his Dismantling Sword while using the projections to cut up the beast into more manageable sections. Absorbing the dragon piecemeal was wise but it was also tedious. For all that the Dismantling Sword helped by making the cuts deeper than they should be and by cutting flesh and bone with equal ease and even guiding him to cut in just the right places, it didn't change the simple reality that cutting a giant monster was time-consuming and quite disgusting.

He was about halfway through consuming the monster when a scream lanced through the forest. A human scream. Without any thought, his sword shifted form to the one with the greatest attack and speed rating and he flared his Blindsight to full power while dragging the carrier closer to him.

Then he realized that the scream was Raphtalia. The girl had just woken up and seen a huge dead dragon.

He turned towards her and Dashed to her position despite the fact that she was quite close and then the thought hit. He had dragged the carrier closer to himself and the bloody dragon. Absolutely wonderful. He was a total idiot.

When he saw the shivering girl who, from what he could smell, had managed to urinate all over herself he truly felt out of his depth. How in hell was he supposed to raise a child in a situation like this?

He steeled himself regardless. It was his responsibility now, he no longer had a choice.

Of course, his resolve didn't give him an answer to the obvious question. How was he supposed to help the girl whom he might as well have traumatized again?