Chapter 276

"Haaaa.... Haaa... ha... ugh... my bones... haaa..." Ray could be heard groaning loudly as he lay on the rough, uneven ground while taking in deep, heavy breaths.

Around him lay the shattered remnants of the King-rank beast’s body.

He panted heavily, his chest rising and falling in deep waves while he stared up at the night sky.

Now... he fully realized that he was truly no longer in the human world.

The sky was pitch black as it usually should be, but with broad hues of red stretching across the dark canopy like strokes made by a painter on a canvas.

The stars, too, looked slightly different from the ones he knew.

"Argh..."

There was not much time to admire the celestial view, as he could feel movement at the very edges of his vision.

’More beasts?’

Quickly pushing himself up with a low grimace, he scanned the area around his position.

Piercing the darkness with his extraordinary vision, he could see more of the exact same type of creature he had just fought prowling the terrain.

And some of them had already sensed the disturbance, appearing to head directly his way.

"Shit."

Quickly moving around, he rushed toward the dead monster and began rummaging through the broken carcass.

Soon enough, he managed to pull out two shimmering cores from the depths of the exact spot he had targeted with his Holy Blast Orb skill.

’Great....’

Sending the cores straight into his system inventory, he was about to flee the scene when something shiny caught his eye.

"Huh?"

Moving closer to the dead titan, he spotted a small... pill?

Crouching in front of the carcass, he wiped away the stream of blood running down his face from his temple before reaching out.

«Will you hurry up? Or do you want to be skewered by another monster?» Bruce growled loudly in the depths of his mindspace.

Realizing that he didn’t have enough time to properly observe the object, he simply pulled it off the corpse of the Earth Shaker and shoved it into his pocket immediately.

Springing to his feet, he looked around and quickly dashed in the opposite direction of the approaching threats.

He didn’t have time to properly survey his surroundings, but he caught sight of an incredibly tall hill.

Rushing toward it, he immediately grabbed hold of its side where a small protruding rock could be seen.

Holding onto it tightly, he began pulling himself up, moving faster and faster with every breath he took.

"Haaa.... haaaa..."

He was heard panting loudly as he kept hauling his body upward with all his might, his aching bones and limbs groaning for a little bit of rest—just a tiny bit.

But he couldn’t afford to stop.

Lifting his leg toward a small ledge, he placed his foot on it and was about to pull himself upward some more when he realized too late that the small rock was loose.

Putting his weight on the stone pulled it clean from the cliffside, and it went falling downward while Ray instantly lost his footing, on the verge of plummeting.

Before he could fall, he grabbed hold of a narrow crack in the side of the hill and anchored himself immediately.

Breathing a heavy sigh of relief as he looked down at the falling debris, he lifted his head and peeked into the distance from where he had just run.

About four Earth Shakers had already converged on the dead one.

’Jeez... are those four King-rank beasts? They sure look exactly like the one I killed. I can’t really tell for sure.’

After a quiet moment, he looked up.

He still had a considerable amount of height to clear before he could reach the safety of the top.

Gritting his teeth, he resumed the arduous climb upward.

....

A few minutes later, Ray pulled himself over the final ledge and finally crashed onto a wide platform atop the hill, which was about as spacious as a dining table.

But he couldn’t bring himself to care about the size right now; he landed flat on his back, letting out ragged pants of pure exhaustion.

His chest heaved up and down repeatedly like someone who had just run a marathon.

Finally, a moment of rest.

"The hell have I been pulled into?" he muttered amidst heavy pants while letting his perception stretch wide to encompass his surroundings.

Luckily, no creature or being was nesting on this spot, and the hill was incredibly tall for a beast to begin climbing.

Even if one attempted the ascent, he would know well in time, so for the time being, he was completely safe.

Hence, he was allowed to breathe in peace.

’That... that was very hard. I—I wouldn’t have been able to defeat that beast if it wasn’t already injured and its life halved. I mean, a King-rank beast that previously took the combined effort of the whole squad and even forced Bruce to transform? Nah... I would have been dead. Thank goodness it was already injured and weakened.’

«I guess my natural affinity for luck has just favored you,» Elyon commented with a breath of relief.

Throughout the narrow escape from the clutches of the other approaching beasts and the grueling climb up the hill, the celestial had been completely on edge.

But Bruce?

The werewolf was as relaxed as he could possibly be, acting as if the entire dire situation didn’t affect him in the slightest.

"Haaaa.... haaaa.... I’m—I’m parched. Damn it," Ray panted some more as he lifted his upper body, allowing himself to sit upright while he stared ahead at the long stretch of jagged hills.

He was incredibly thirsty and wanted something to drink, but unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing he could do at the moment.

Heading back down to at least drink from the sea of water below was completely tantamount to suicide, as he risked ending up dead under the scythe of another King-rank beast.

’On second thought, I’m not even that thirsty. I can manage.’

Then, he scratched his head, turning away from staring at the landscape ahead to just look out into space in general.

But in reality, he wasn’t staring at nothingness.

A translucent blue screen hovered vividly in front of his vision.

’Time to see everything I have gained from defeating those spider beasts up until now.’