Where is Henry?

"This just sucks, well I'm not fighting that thing without dash. Nope... Never!" Henry stated, ready to find every possible way to escape the place

Meanwhile the beast was now completely out of the ground, revealing it's huge body.

Eiiiiiiikkkk!

It growled at Henry, anger visible in it's tone and it began slithering towards Henry who was just few meters away

"Shit!" Henry panicked "How am I supposed to even outrun this thing?" he muttered to himself, as he began thinking even faster than normal

The beast was approaching him very fast, it's mouth wide open, ready to swallow Henry whole.

"Ha!" Henry exclaimed, he already had an idea

"Well since I can't use dash, I'll just try another type of boost," he smirked, as the worm gradually became slower, his perception skill was already active on the environment

"Alright, equip Talaria-x," he muttered as he summoned the Winged boot he had received from the system earlier. The boot magically appeared on his feet, replacing the shoes he was putting on before

As he equipped Talaria-X boot, it's sleek, 24K gold surfaces glinting in the sun, Henry felt an electrifying surge of power course through his veins, as it added the promised stats

[Talaria-x has been equipped]

[+20 agility]

[Speed Rate has been increased by 100%]

[Agility: 45 >> 65]

[Speed Rate: 510 >> 1020Km/hr]

Henry had a huge smile on his face as he read the messages, he could feel his body getting lighter

But he wasn't done, from the storage ring, he equipped the only complete suit of body armor present there, along with a futuristic bow that shot arrows made of energy.

[You have equipped a rare grade armour]

[+10 Defense]

[-5 Agility]

[+15 strength]

The system notifications appeared in his face, informing him of the stats he had received from wearing the armor. He had half expected his agility to reduce, as the suit was a bit bulky. But it was light enough to feel comfortable on his body and allow him smooth movement.

It was a black suit that was outlined by blue glowing lines that ran across the armor's side. It had no helmet and was only a rare grade equipment, so it possessed no skills

"Okay, this shouldn't restrict me much," he said to himself as he flexed his arms and stretched his legs. He looked up at the colossal Beast that was already inches from him

He chuckled "Hm, thank the gods for my percep... Uh." he suddenly felt a slight headache coupled with a great body fatigue

"Fuck! I totally forgot, the only downside to this bloody skill," Henry said as he rubbed his forehead, his stamina was already drained and he got confirmation of it

[Stamina: 10]

"Crap, I'm not ready yet," he voiced out, as the worm began to revert to it's normal speed along with everything in the area

"Well, no time to waste then, let's begin," he thought as the beast was now back at its initial momentum and it's jaws were heading straight for Henry

Swooosh!

Henry wasted no time and bolted from the spot, he had accelerated with massive speed, now running across the forest, dodging the trees flawlessly still holding on to the bow

"Wow! I've never ran this fast before, it feels so good!" he exclaimed, but the worm was still on his tail, and it was keeping up with Henry quite well.

"Geez, how fast is that thing," he muttered as he noticed the beast chasing him with incredible speed

[Colossal Worm: 1000km/hr]

The system screen suddenly popped up, answering Henry's question

"Oh? I can see beast's speed as well," he thought, but the system appeared again with another notification

[Colossal Worm: 1100Km/hr]

"What! It's speed increased! That means it's the accelerating speed the system calculates. But it keeps increasing," Henry stated, completely oblivious to the fact that the beast was no longer at his back

"Shit, i better get there on time... Wait?" Henry finally noticed the beast wasn't at his back anymore

"Haha! I outruned it, eat my dust motherfu..."

Craaaack!

He was cut off by the rumbling of the ground "Huh?" his senses tingled

But before he could react, the worm burst out of the ground, just right in front of Henry, who was approaching with speed

It's jaw was wide open, revealing it's sharp teeths, welcoming Henry to the wonders of oblivion

Henry gritted his teeth, "I failed, this beast was one step ahead. Literally," he thought as he headed straight into the worm's mouth... Well almost.

"But I'm prepared," he smiled, activating his time perception skill with whatever stamina was left in him

Time slowed down around him, and he got a front row view of the worm's menacing teeths. His momentum slowed down as well but he was still heading towards the death hole

And just a step away from entering the beast's mouth, Henry leapt with all his might, the boot amplifying his jump momentum. He rose very high in the sky, about 20 feet from the ground, and flipped over beast, landing gracefully behind it

The skill deactivated and everything returned to normal, with the beast grasping nothing but air once again.

"Add all extra stat points to stamina," Henry quickly ordered, as he was already getting woozy

[+10 Stamina]

[Stamina: 15]

The system did as told and just immediately, Henry recovered a little bit of energy. He raised the bow at the worm, who was now completely outraged, Henry had escaped it's deadly jaws twice.

Henry didn't waste any time and fired at it. and blue arrows made of pure energy shot out of the hole in front of the bow as he pulled and released

The worm was now charging in once again, as the arrows hit it's skin. But they dealt no damage, as the worm's scale-like skin repelled the attacks.

But Henry kept firing, without stopping. The worm approached him, but he quickly dashed away from the spot, reappearing at its back and continued to shoot at it

Henry kept doing the same thing over and over, but moving few distances forward, luring the beast to a particular spot

After a series of dodge and shoot, Henry and the worm had moved a few distance forward. They were now in an open area covered by hard, rocky grounds

This was Henry's original plan when he began running, to lure the beast to a much harder floor so it won't be able to enter the ground easily or even at all, as rocky earths were tough to dig or just burst through.

Now he had succeeded but didn't know what to do next, none of Henry's weapon could penetrate it's skin and he didn't want to give up.

He had come a long way to just let this chance slip, he jumped unto a large tree branch and thought of different ways to kill the colossal beast while staying out of sight.

"Hmm, since none of my attacks can harm it's outer ski, what about it's inner body," Henry muttered to himself as another idea developed in his head

"Hey Miley, Can you help me out here? I need an explosive device that can deal damage to that thing," he said, but Miley didn't respond

"Damn it! Don't tell me she's asleep during this crucial time,"

The worm was now mad, like really mad. It went around crashing into trees in the vicinity, and destroying everything in it's path. It was trying to pinpoint Henry's precise location, as it also had the same mentality as Henry; not giving up on the sweet sweet reward it would gain

Henry knew it was only a matter of time, before the beast found him. "Perhaps i should check the shop myself, but that might take time, Fuck!" he voiced out with frustration, as he slammed his hand on the tree

He was expecting to feel great pain from the impact, but it never came, it was then he realized that he was still wearing the suit.

"The suit! Of course!" Henry exclaimed with a smile "I can use it's detonator to finish off the beast,"

Henry had seen on the internet that all beast armours usually had a self destruct protocol, which can be helpful in situations like this

He quickly checked around the suit and found a small red button on the left waist side of the armor. Henry smiled and unequipped the suit, he jumped down from the tree and headed towards the beast with confidence.

"Hey! Looking for me!" he called out to the worm who was now fuming with anger

Eiiiiiikkk!

It responded and picked up Henry's location from the sound of his voice. Without wasting time, it dashed towards Henry who just remained on a spot carrying the armor with both hands

The beast approached him with all it's strength and effort, it wasn't going to lose this time, but neither was Henry.

Just as it was about to descend on Henry's figure with full force, Henry activated his time perception once again and jumped.

Everything was in slow mo, the beast's mouth wide open and Henry suspended in air. This was going to be a final encounter and there would only be one winner

Henry pushed the self destruct button on the suit and the blue color of the suit intensified and blinked, acting like a countdown. He didn't waste any more time and threw it into the beast large mouth.

The armor went down the beast throat with ease and Henry transitioned into a flip, avoiding the worm's deadly clutches and landed with a skid on the ground. It felt like a scene straight out of an action movie.

Time returned to normal and the beast recovered, and discovering that it had failed to catch Henry once again, it exploded with rage

It twisted it's body and turned to face Henry, but before it could begin to move, a large explosion ringed out in the entire hunting ground. It has occurred where Henry and the worm were and it seemed to have come from the beast whose entire upper body segment was now blown apart. With pieces of it's head spread across the area. It had died without even knowing how.

Henry stood victorious, a smirk drawn on his face. He sat on the ground as he read the system's notification one by one

[Colossal Grotto Worm: 0/100]

[You have received 20 exp]

[1 B-rank Beast core gained]

*Random Quest Complete

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

*Reward: Instant level up

[Congratulations you have levelled up]

[You are now Level 8]

[Hp: 80/80]

[Ep: 700]

[+5 has been added to all stats]

[You have received 100 shop points]

[Dash is now available]

[Exp: 20/180]

"The exp given was a bit unfair, i almost got eaten. Twice!" Henry complained

"Infact, in the end the worms i killed earlier were all for nothing. If I had known I would end up facing this large beast, i wouldn't have stressed myself with the smaller ones," he voiced out, feeling robbed by the system

"But at least I got the mana cores," he said, before standing up and heading to the remains of the large worm

"Sigh* this corpse is all messed up. Can I even sell this?" Henry muttered, staring at the worm's body which was now three meters shorter.

[Do you wish to convert the C-Rank beast corpse into system energy]

The system popped up

"Of course, it's all about getting your own share of the spoils. Isn't it?" he sighed

"Fine! Whatever, take it." Henry muttered, and immediately the worm's body starting disintegrating into small wisps of energy and swirling into Henry

The energy entered his body completely, going into wherever the system was, leaving nothing left of the worm's body. Afterwards, he returned the boot back to his inventory and opened his stats

*Name: Henry Myers

*Race: Human

*Level 8

Exp: [20/180]

*Hp: 80/80

*Ep: 513

*Sp: 51, 050

*Strength: 50

*Agility: 50 >> 70

*Stamina: 60

*Defense: 45

*Perception: 50

*Stat point:

[Speed Rate: 510 >> 1020km/hr]

<Abilities >

none

<skills >

*Advanced time perception [passive]

*Health regeneration [passive]

*Dash [Active]

*Eye of horus [Active]

*Sword mastery(master); Instantaneous Heart of a hundred strikes.

"Okay, I'm a bit tired, that's good enough for today." Henry said, as he began to leave the area, heading back to his car. But then he heard a familiar voice in his head, but she was not in her usual mood

[You...] Miley voiced out, her voice shaking and filled with shock

"Ah, Miley. So nice of you to finally wake up, i could have used your help with that beast you know," Henry stated, as he walked through the forest

But Miley didn't respond to that, instead she asked another question

[What... are you]

Henry raised an eyebrow "What are you talking about Miley?"

"Don't tell me you have started again with your 'You're different' speeches," Henry quoted with his fingers

[You're not different... you're another thing entirely. You're not Henry] she declared

Henry paused in his steps, he frowned "What do you mean?" he asked slowly

[Where is Henry] Miley replied with another question

"Look Miley, you clearly are drowsy, so maybe you should take ano...."

[Don't play that game with me, you are not the one the system bonded with. You're a different person entirely] Miley cut him off

[I can sense your emotions, they're completely filled with sorrow and anger and for some reason it's the only thing you've ever known. Like as if you were born with it] She continued

[The Henry i knew was happy, i know because I could feel his joy. But you, ever since that day you agreed to that adoption, it's been different]

Henry sighed "I don't understand, look yeah I admit I've been a bit cranky since that day but it's because I just want to survive okay," he said calmly

But Miley was adamant [No! I can feel two different emotions coming from your soul, i don't how, but I can. And it's telling me that you are not the Henry i first met]

[I only knew him for a few hours... but I can tell you're not him. Your emotional signature is completely different, and to top it all, i can still feel that happiness somewhere but it's like it's being blocked and coupled with fear and agony. So I would only ask once, where is Henry] Miley asked in a stern voice

Henry's face immediately grew a smile, he began laughing like a psychopath, then he suddenly paused

"So, you finally figured it out," he said calmly like those villains in the movies

"Hahaha, and here I thought I nailed the role. Sigh* Oh well, it's looks like my cover is blown anyways," Henry said with a sadistic smile

"But you're right, I'm not the Henry you knew, I'm someone much worse." he stated in a cold voice.