One Down, Hundreds to Go

Both sticks Levi threw flew simultaneously toward the black cocoon with speed. He watched them go, fully prepared to react to the cocoon's response. Just as expected, when the spears reached a certain distance, one of them suddenly stopped, as if held by an invisible hand. Under Levi's watchful eyes, the spear turned around and jolted back in his direction.

Already poised to dodge, Levi leaped aside, and the spear embedded itself into the ground, missing him. But this time, there was a change—only one of the two spears had been halted. The other continued its trajectory, unaffected, and struck the black cocoon.

"Noice," Levi muttered, a smile spreading across his face.

His plan had succeeded. When he first saw the cocoon control the spear, Levi had been taken aback, but after calming down and thinking it through, he realized that the ability must have limitations. 

First, the cocoon's telekinesis likely had a limited range, which is why it could only throw back the spear instead of controlling it to strike Levi. Second, there must be a cap on how many objects it could manipulate at once. Though Levi wasn't entirely sure, it was a risk he had to take.

And the risk paid off.

It seemed the black cocoon could only control one object at a time, allowing the other crude spear to strike it. But there was one more problem Levi hadn't anticipated.

"What the…?"

The smile faded from Levi's face as he saw the crude spear hit the black cocoon only to bounce off without causing any damage. The spear fell to the ground, and the cocoon hung there, unscathed.

It seemed the black, feather-like material covering the cocoon was tougher than Levi had expected.

"How am I supposed to damage that thing?"

Levi was weaponless—well, technically not, but thanks to his dark twin, he'd lost his weapon somewhere in the wilderness. Nor did he have any abilities that could help him damage the black cocoon. 

Although his strength and constitution had increased somewhat after his contract with the Demon King, it wasn't enough to obliterate monsters with brute force alone. The boost was slight, hardly noticeable, and Levi knew it wasn't sufficient to harm the cocoon before him.

He was in a situation where he had no idea what to do, and to make matters worse, frustration was building inside him. Perhaps it was a side effect of the Lunacy, he didn't know for sure, but ever since using it, his emotions had become more intense, almost to the point of being detrimental.

"Calm down, Levi," he told himself, staring at the untouched cocoon. As he continued to observe it, he suddenly noticed something.

"The essence… why is it swirling around the cocoon?"

Levi couldn't see it, but he could feel it—the concentration of essence around the cocoon was incredibly dense, swirling around it as if forming a protective barrier.

A protective barrier…

An idea began to form in Levi's mind.

If the monster could use essence to protect itself, couldn't he use the essence to pierce through it?

Levi immediately picked up the crude spear that the cocoon had sent back and concentrated on that thought. 

He felt the essence in his soul sea—it came to him naturally. When he thought about using it, the essence began to flow out of his chest, circulating around his body without a defined path. 

He then tried to control the essence, pushing it toward the spear in his hand. The essence obeyed, flowing to his hand, but the moment it left his body, it instantly dissipated into the surroundings instead of covering the spear as he intended.

Levi's eyes snapped open, troubled. "Not so easy," he muttered, but he already had a solution in mind.

Once again, Levi concentrated on his essence, channeling it to his hands and then toward the spear. This time, he simultaneously activated his innate ability—Lunacy. Invisible yet familiar energy emanated from his body, clutching the smoke-like essence, holding it in place against the crude wooden spear.

A triumphant smile spread across Levi's face. Although it wasn't perfect and some essence continued to spill out, this was more than a good result for his first try.

Levi didn't waste time. With a swift motion, he picked up a small stone and infused it with essence. With a grunt, he hurled the stone at the black cocoon.

Levi wasn't proficient with his left hand, so the throw didn't go as planned and veered slightly off course. But he had anticipated this, which is why he had coated it with essence. Although most of the essence dissipated, the cocoon still sensed it and regarded the stone as a threat.

The stone was caught in mid-air by its telekinesis, and at that moment, Levi mustered all his power and threw the wooden spear, now brimming with nearly all his essence.

The stone was thrown back in his direction, missing him by a large margin because the cocoon couldn't maintain much control over it. Meanwhile, the spear Levi threw flew with incredible speed, incomparable to his previous attempts.

Before the cocoon could recover from its last use of telekinesis, the spear struck it, this time piercing straight through the black feather-like shell and lodging itself deep inside.

—Shrieeek!

A loud shriek echoed through the forest, shaking the very trees. Not long after, the shriek died down, and Levi received a message from Providence.

[You have killed a Nasant-essence monster—Cocoon of Lunacy.]

A smile spread across Levi's face as he collapsed, completely drained of essence. 

"One down, hundreds to go," he mumbled, closing his eyes. Even though what he had just accomplished was a small victory, he couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement.

However minor the improvement, he was stronger than he had been moments ago, and Levi felt an incredible elation and was addicted to the feeling of growing stronger.

---***---

Lore Snippet 09 - Monster Ranks

The Providence classifies monsters using two critical aspects: the number of cores and their ability to impose their will on reality.

Core Classification(Main Category):

Dormant->Essence->Vile->Fallen->Terror->Behemoth->Overlord->Mythical Colossal

Willpower & Intelligence Classification(Sub Category):

Nasant->Inept->Wicked->Exalted->Zenith->Infernal->Diabolic

It's important to note that beasts of certain core ranks are restricted to specific sub-ranks within the willpower classification. The overall hierarchy might look like this:

Dormant

Nasant-Essence-> Inept Essence

Nasant-Vile -> Inept-Vile-> Wicked-Vile

Nasant-Fallen -> Inept-Fallen -> Wicked-Fallen -> Exalted-Fallen

Nasant-Terror -> Inept-Terror -> Wicked-Terror -> Exalted-Terror, Zenith-Terror, etc