Colossal Beast

Henry was now standing in front of a large cave, he was about to enter and explore it's contents.

When he arrived at the hunting ground, he didn't linger around and immediately looked for a cave. He had learnt on the internet that caves were habitats for a some higher ranked beast.

"Hopefully i find some beast's worth fighting," Henry muttered as he stepped into the dark cave

As Henry ventured into the cave, the darkness enveloped him, and the air grew thick with the scent of damp earth and minerals. He activated the horus eye, casting a thermal imaging overlay across his vision.

The darkness transformed into a kaleidoscope of colors, revealing several heat signatures. The cave's walls, once invisible, now glowed with a faint blue hue, indicating cooler temperatures. The air currents, imperceptible to the naked eye, became visible as swirling wisps of purple and green.

He went deeper into the cave, his Horus Eye guiding him through the darkness.

Finally, he emerged into a vast, cavernous space. A shaft of light illuminated the area, casting a warm glow on the rocky scape. Henry deactivated the thermal imaging, blinking in the sudden brightness.

The light source seemed to emanate from a hole in the cave ceiling, casting an otherworldly radiance. Henry's gaze swept the area, searching for signs of life.

But there was nothing.

"Strange," Henry muttered, confusion etched on his face. "What's going on? There should be li...

Just as he wondered, his senses intensified, He felt vibrations in the ground, a subtle tremor.

Henry frowned, he removed his sword from the storage ring, and began to step the ground carefully. The vibrations increased and became louder, his eye widened as his instinct screamed at him to leave the area.

Without hesitation, Henry quickly activated dash and left the place in a flash. And almost immediately, the ground erupted as five large worms burst forth, from the area Henry previously stood.

The Grotto Worms were massive, their segmented bodies undulating as they emerged from the ground. Each worm measured over 5 meters in length, with a width comparable to three abled body men combined, with thick, mud brown skin that glistened in the shaft of light.

Their jaws were wide open, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth spread around the mouth like that of a lamprey.

Henry immediately activated inspect and viewed their info

*Name: Grotto worm

*Type: Magical beast

*Rank: D

*Abilities: None

*Hp: 30

But Henry already knew what they were due to his research, he only needed to know their rank. They were lower ranking annelids, which meant their skin was still vulnerable to a rare grade sword.

"This should be over quickly," he said to himself

Eiiiiiiiiiikk!

The worms noticed Henry and they leapt forward, charging towards him with incredible speed

Henry stood ready, sword at the ready, as the five Grotto Worms approached him. He enabled time perception, slowing down the flow of time around him

The Grotto Worms charged, their massive bodies moving in slow motion. Henry analyzed their movements, anticipating the perfect moment to strike.

"Activate Dash," he muttered

[-5 Ep]

He acceleratored forward, covering the distance between them in an instant, he closed the gap to the first worm, striking it's exposed joint.

[Grotto Worm 1: 18/30 Hp]

Henry saw the notification and smiled

"Looks like a single attack won't be enough to kill them," he muttered before raising the sword over the worm's head segment, he brought it down, slicing the head off it's body. The system notification confirmed its demise

[0/30 Hp]

[5 exp gained]

Henry immediately dashed to the next worm, positioning himself behind it, he struck it's underside dealing significant damage to the worm

[15/30 Hp]

He wasted no time and pierced the worm's head, killing it immediately. The usual notification appeared, but with an extra message

[5 exp gained]

[Stamina: 30]

"Shit!" Henry quickly disabled the time perception so as not to lose all his stamina, he had to defeat the rest of the worms without it.

The other worms attacked, but Henry's enhanced reflexes allowed him to dodge and counterattack.

Henry dashed between the worms, striking their vulnerable spots, attacking them with unmatched speed.

[Grotto Worm 3: 10/30 HP]

[Grotto Worm 4: 12/30 HP]

[Grotto Worm 5: 8/30 HP]

Henry continued his relentless assault, incorporating his Dash skill to continously strike the worm's bodies, cutting and slashing vigorously, not giving them a fighting chance. And eventually they all died

The last worm collapsed, its massive body crashing to the ground, while Henry received his rewards

[5 exp gained]

[5 exp gained]

[5 exp gained]

[Exp: 55/120]

[5 D-Ranked Beast core gained]

Henry smiled, satisfied with his performance. He had taking out three Grotto Worms in 30 seconds, using the Dash skill to it's maximum time limit.

"Huh?" he muttered, sensing more vibrations from beneath the ground.

Suddenly Ten more Grotto Worms emerged from the depths, their massive bodies undulating as they surrounded Henry.

But Henry didn't panic, instead, he had a wide grin on his face

"Okay! Let's get serious," he said excitedly, equipping the energy pistol in his left hand

He activated Dash once again and charged towards the beasts, engaging them in an undying frenzy.

******

Ten minutes later,

Henry was now walking out of the cave, sweat along with a transparent fluid, which happened to be the worms blood, spread all over his body.

[Ep: 390]

"Huff! huff! huff! That wasn't easy at all, good thing i still have a decent amount of energy, i can't wait 200 minutes for it to be refilled," he panted, as he navigated his way out of the cave with his thermal sight.

Henry had used the Dash skill five times, while also having to go as far away from the worms, during the skill 10 second cool down

"But i can't argue with the results," he muttered, a smile plastered on his face as he went through the system's notification

[You have gained 75 exp in total]

[Exp: 130/160]

[15 D-Ranked Beast cores gained]

After killing the ten worms that emerged after the first battle, he had fought and killed five more Grotto Worms, earning him more exp and beast cores.

Henry finally reached the entrance of the cave, which would now be his exit, he deactivated the thermal imaging and stepped out of the cave, but remained at the entrance, waiting to scan the area

"Alright, just need to find maybe one or two beasts to kill, and level up," he muttered to himself, as he checked around the surrounding, trying to spot the next unlucky prey.

He was about leaving the area when he felt another vibration from beneath the ground, but this time it wasn't just his senses, the ground within 50km around him was trembling greatly

Henry wondered what could be happening, as the floor of the cave began to crack. The crack was spreading from deep in the cave and was fast approaching Henry's spot.

He noticed this and was going to quickly dash from the spot, but before he could even activate it, his senses screamed at him, telling him one thing: Death.

Whatever was coming had reached Henry already, and thanks to his improved reaction time, he felt it beneath him. Henry leapt off the ground without hesitation, summoning all his strength and energy, he jumped into the air, propelling himself upward.

And almost immediately Henry jumped, a wide hole emerged out of the ground, at the exact spot he was standing, erasing whatever earth was there before.

Henry was already suspended in air, and was still ascending, but the hole also seemed to be rising as well, following closely below his foot.

Henry's eyes widened as he gazed down at the massive hole hurtling towards him. It's was about 15 meters wide, laced with crystalline blades, each several meters long and were arranged around it's inner tunnel, which led to lord knows where.

"Fuck! It can't be," Henry thought, his mind racing. He already had an idea what the hole might be

The hole's ascent slowed, but its trajectory remained fixed on Henry. He realized that whatever was controlling this phenomenon intended to swallow him whole.

Henry's instincts screamed at him to move. With a burst of adrenaline, he activated his Dash skill

Henry shot forward, towards the ground with great speed, narrowly avoiding the hole's deadly grasp. The blades on all sides closed upon each other catching nothing but air.

Henry heaved a sigh of relief, he had just escaped being eaten by a massive hole of death. His suspicions were correct, the hole wasn't just any hole, it was the mouth and inner throat of a larger annelid.

*Name: Colossal Grotto Worm

*Type: Magical Beast

*Rank: B

*Abilities: Hyper burrowing, Geosensation

*Hp: 100

Henry's inspect skill displayed the info on the large beast, it was a B rank Grotto Worm, it's body width was five times larger than the ones Henry fought in the cave, and it's overall length was about 10 meters.

"Great! The mother has come to seek vengeance for her children," Henry muttered to himself, activating his time perception to buy some time and think.

"I have only two options. Run, or Fight. But my sword might be useless against it," he thought, staring at the huge beast's thick brown scaly skin.

"Or i can just keep striking a particular weak spot until it falls," he concluded, not wanting to lose the sweet sweet exp, he would gain by killing it

Henry prepared to activate his Dash skill and begin another non-stop slashing frenzy, when the system screen suddenly popped up

"Huh? What does it want?" Henry thought as he went through the content of the message

[New Random Quest Available]

[Defeat the Colossal Worm without using the 'Dash' skill]

*Reward: Instant level up

Henry had a smug look on his face "Really! Why now of all times!" he exclaimed

"Well if i kill the beast, I'll get enough exp to level up anyways. So, no thank y...

He was interrupted by another message from the system

[To ensure completion of the Quest, the skill 'Dash' has been rendered inactive]

"What!" Henry voiced out in frustration.