Chapter 62: Unshackled Limits

—Splurt!

A sudden spurting sound echoed right behind Jash, disorienting his senses for a fraction of a second as his ears twitched in surprise.

Still, it wasn't enough to take away his attention from the front as he scrunched up his closed eyes further, hyper focusing on his sense of hearing.

The viscous movement of fluid aggravated his sense of touch as he finally swung his sword in a full arc, slamming down two leeches in one swing.

'She can handle it,' he thought, trusting his back to Caera as he twisted his grip on the hilt and struck another leech with the flat of his sword.

His sword just wasn't sharp enough to slice through them while they actively focused on him, resulting in him using it as a blunt weapon.

However, the movements which felt familiar to him only roused the curiosity of the three onlookers.

Only Caera didn't focus on it, choosing to channel her dark orange mana into her iris, allowing her to see better in the dimly lit cave.

She watched on as the three leeches increased to five, rushing towards Jash masking their presence in the guise of each other.

Jash had a dark red mana core, thanks to his recent breakthrough, but his body was still adjusting as it continued to absorb the mana.

His overall strength could easily be comparable to any hunter with a light yellow or even yellow mana core, easily rivaling an (F+)-rank monster.

That's how he managed to cleave through his first (E-)-Rank monster in one go, and he hoped to do it again.

'This should be doable,' he reiterated to himself, swapping out his two-handed grip to one-hand.

Using the sword like a baseball bat to swat away the leeches, he gripped one of the daggers in his free hand and used it to impale the leeches.

Channeling mana into his arms to strengthen his blows, he also directed some into his legs to leap and change his position, just in case.

As the five leeches got within his range of 2 meters, he swung his sword to push away the four through the thick crimson pool.

Without waiting for the result, he instinctively thrust the sharp end of the dagger into the mouth of the fifth leech.

The dagger easily entered its open mouth, coming out of its body a few centimeters down its back, spilling blueish blood from its insides.

It hadn't died, though.

It twisted and turned its body in agony, trying to get Jash to drop the dagger but he remained persistent, unaware of the sixth leech approaching him.

—Whoosh!

Another ambush failed as it got flung away due to the momentum of Caera sharp arrow piercing through its slimy body.

'Nice one!' Jash praised inwardly before he leaped a meter to the right, avoiding the first four leeches, who were hot on his tail.

"Tsk," Jash felt annoyed at their persistent chase as he cut the body of the leech hanging on his dagger using his sword.

'Something's wrong,' he thought anxiously. His intuition warned him of some danger but he couldn't make anything out of it.

'Let's be quick,' he told himself and let go of his reservations. 'Whatever happens thereafter is for future me to solve!'

With that being said, he immediately switched his stance and mana channeling method. Though the latter remained invisible to the naked eye.

Usually, mana channeling or mana circulation methods would leak out mana from the body, allowing more experienced hunters to notice the changes.

However, as one increased in rank, their control over mana also substantially increased, allowing them to manage the leaking mana.

Though rarely could anyone below A-Rank even go near a measly 5% mana leakage.

Naturally, Jash went up and beyond any such claims, reaching a staggering 2.3%, that too, only because his body was too weak to sustain any higher amount of mana.

'I hope this works,' he prayed in his heart for the three to not know of it as it would be too much hassle to explain.

Just as he moved, he felt a certain sense of inefficiency and incongruity.

'No... this is wrong...'

Unable to resist following his instincts, he gave in and his posture altered slightly, making him feel a rush of air as he whizzed past the water.

Stabbing the tip of his sword into one and the dagger tip into another, he threw them towards the other end of the cave.

He didn't stay in one position for longer than a second and moved to and fro, eliminating more than 10 leeches in a few seconds.

However, the aftermath was nothing to joke about.

"Haah... Haah... Haah... Haah..."

He panted for deep breaths, his nose oozing out blood as his veins and arteries were on the verge of bursting.

His mana channels were much calmer, but his mana core greedily absorbed all remnants of mana in his body.

His face paled as a sense of vertigo overcame him, almost making him stumble if not for using his sword as a stick to stand.

'Definitely never doing this again!' He cursed and promised inside, unwilling to go through such pain once again.

Fortunately, it was him who did this crazy act.

If it were some other hunter at the same rank as him, even if they could use such methods as last resorts, they wouldn't.

After all, it would truly be their last resort, resulting in nothing but death due to the aftereffects.

This was one of the times when the positive aspect of his absurd awakening time showed up, helping him stand despite his internals being a mess.

'Did I go overboard?' he wondered, thinking of what answers he could provide when he would get interrogated in the near future by his parents.

Luckily, he didn't have to worry about the trio finding out about his different mana channeling technique as it remained strictly internal.

To the other three, his performance was mind-blowing to say the least.

It went beyond the mere concept of excellence.

It was rare for an F-Rank human to defeat similar-rank monsters so easily, let alone massacring monsters an entire rank above them!

Furthermore, if they didn't know any better, they might mistake him as a veteran. His calm and composed aura gave him such a vibe.

Barely standing, he turned to the three who were watching him.

His pitiful look snapped the three out of their shock and reverie as Emma appeared next to him and handed him healing potions.

Kesha led the worried Caera towards him, but forced her to calm down and not rush.

"It seems... we need to go deeper... into those caves... to find the boss monster," Jash murmured, taking gulps of the potions in between his words.

His words stunning the three, who expected him to give up.

"NO!" Caera was the first to voice her rejection as Emma and Kesha nodded softly.

"Something's wrong... There is no reason for us to explore this dungeon any further," she declared in a stern voice.

She took in consideration the sudden appearance of E-Rank leeches as well as the ominous crimson pool before coming to the decision.

Although he understood her reasoning, he felt an even greater need to explore the dungeon to its depths.

'Just how do I convince them? It seems too arbitrary coming from me,' he mused thoughtfully despite his weakened state.