God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

The Trolls we\'re earth-elemental creatures and thus, could manipulate the structure of the earth beneath their feet and make it flow like water, or turn it into hard spikes or hardened armor that could cover their bodies. Another thing for him to worry about...

Nonetheless, the Goblins arrived at the base of the mountain far quicker than he could. But since he was a few steps ahead, they were unable to notice him.

He allowed them to continue on their journey before he began following them. They didn\'t go anywhere near the Garden of Self-Reflection. They did however spend the majority of their time in the Valley of Death.

Cain nicknamed it that because of its proximity to the Evil Mountain, and the amount of danger he sensed from it. He realized the danger originated from a presence that was quite similar to one he had experienced before.

\'A Tier 1 creature...\'

Cain was sure about it. There was most definitely a Tier 1 creature lurking within the Valley of Death. Its aura was quite similar to the aura of the {Alabaster Levithan} he had once encountered within the depths. However, if he was right, then this Tier 1 creature would have no interest in him if left alone. He just had to pray and hope that was the case.

Cain observed the {Chaos Goblins} and {Chaos Trolls} as they damaged across the Valley of Death. Individually, they were pitifully weak, especially because the vast majority of creatures in the valley were rather strong.

However, their overbearing numbers made up for it greatly. Most creatures were unable to do anything before they were filled with holes and stab wounds by the treacherous goblins.

The real dangers were the Trolls. These creatures possessed such great strength that the ground crumbled under their attacks. Although Cain had a vast pool of strength stats, at the end of the day, everything still boiled down to physique.

Stats are simply a metric system used by the system to convey the magnitude of a certain characteristic the host possessed.

For strength, it represented the maximum amount of power or brute force he could achieve with his physique, weight as well and body composition. This was why even though his strength stats were so high, creatures with lower strength stats could still compete with him in brute force.

His human body was simply too weak to let his physical stats shine. Even the physiques of the Goblins were as good as that of humans with excellent muscular and bone structures. It was an unfair disadvantage, but it was nonetheless the reality of the situation.

However, the {Draconic Transfiguration} was slowly changing that. Soon, he would possess the physique of a being with so much fleshy energy, that its mere presence would demand all other creatures to bow.

If he survived his current predicament...

Cain watched for a while, bidding his time patiently. Then, when the time was right, he struck...

The {Chaos Goblins} and {Chaos Trolls} had taken down a rather large creature and were celebrating the success of the hunt. Only a few of them had died so far, which meant the hunt was going quite well.

As they undressed the carcass and separated the bones, fangs, and claws from its flesh and hide, one of the Goblins that acted as a sentry felt a slight disturbance above him. It glanced up and saw something it couldn\'t quite understand. A Sigil carved from pitch blackness floated silently in the air, shimmering with black light.

The look of confusion on its face deepened but after a while, it became uninterested and went back to doing what it had been up to previously.

Meanwhile, Cain had darkness burning in his eyes as he began stage two of his ambush. Since he knew the damned creatures had a terrifying resistance to magic attacks, he decided that to kill them as fast as possible, he couldn\'t rely on magical means.

He needed speed...

Fortunately for him, he was anything but slow. His agility stat was terrifying, but on top of that, he had {Burning Spirit} and the lightning enchantment attached to it. He also had {Azure Burst}, and one of the passive abilities attached to the {Hand of Stingè} increased his speed as well.

However, he knew that it might not be enough, so for safety sales, he decided to activate {Rakshasa}. Since it didn\'t eat at his mana pool, and only needed some Ki and Devil Essence to be activated, he saw no harm in it.

Soon, he had turned into a black apparition with crimson streaks lining his body from head to toe, forming strange, cracked patterns.

Cain breathed heavily as the dense energy coated his body. He could feel the circulation of Ki within his body increase tremendously as soon as it was activated. In this state, he could activate {Abyssal Crimson Slash} not only faster, but with more dexterity.

He could attach the energies to his fists, feet, and other parts of his body to attack, he could allow it to cling to his weapons and as usual, he could project it forward like a projectile attack. The attack was also much more powerful...

Two blades materialized from his {Armament Armory} and into his hands. They were instantly enveloped in the energy that oozed down his body.

Now, he was ready...

When the Chaos creatures were hit, they had no idea what happened. It happened so suddenly, that most of them were unable to respond at all.

Cain turned into a black and crimson blur with sparks of lightning chasing after him as he tore through their ranks, a trail of blood and dismembered body parts falling to the side.

In a literal blink of an eye, every single one of them had been killed. Cain turned around, a strange expression on his face as he stared at the death he had brought upon the small contingent of creatures.

\'Perhaps I overdid it?\' Cain was unable to say anything.

He had falsely convinced himself that battling with the creatures would have been tougher than it actually was because when he had fought with them on the mountain, they had done a number on him. However, only after this did he realize there had been so many more factors involved in that battle.

The slope of the mountain, the advantage the creatures hardcover him, the weapons they were using, and so on...

If the roles were reversed, and he had the topographical advantage, killing them all quickly wouldn\'t have required him to activate so many skills and abilities at once.

And so, staring at the once green grass now covered with a blanket of bright red blood, Cain felt conflicted.

However, that only lasted for a few seconds before he completely forgot about the unfortunate fate of the Chaos creatures and excitedly turned to face his gains.

Since they were of a lower level, he didn\'t get a lot of stat points. Instead, the main spoils of the battle were the carcasses of the creatures the Chaos Creatures had killed.

Cain walked over to the already butchered large creature with glee. He had realized that the larger the creature was, the more Ki he could get from devouring its flesh. The probability of it possessing a Nexus of Ki was also higher. However, the only creature he had come across that had a Nexus of Ki was still the {Bog Serpent Wyrm}.

Nevertheless, he was still happy to take what he could get. Eating the spoils of another was surprisingly an enjoyable venture.

He grabbed the valuables; the fangs and claws, from the corpses of the Goblins that had put them away. Then, he began putting all the meat into his inventory. Once he was done, he released the {Sigil of Darkness} and left as quietly as possible.

A while after he left, another group of goblins passed through the same area. The nose of one of them twitched as the heavy scent of blood was carried by the frigid wind.

A few minutes later, angry war cries and wails filled the air as the Chaos creatures mourned the deaths of so many of their kin.

A hundred {Chaos Goblins} and ten {Chaos Trolls} were killed just like that. It was something that had never happened before.

***

Cain knew that what he had done wouldn\'t have gone unnoticed. The next stage of his plan was to see how they would react so he could adjust his plans accordingly.

Taking a deep breath, he settled down in the cave and began making a fire. Soon, the sound of meat sizzling above flames could be heard.

He took the meat off the fire and dug into it. Meat juice exploded in his mouth as he enjoyed the spoils of his victory. Soon, a large amount of meat disappeared into his stomach. He burped in satisfaction before letting out a sigh.

"What an exhausting day..." Cain said to himself in the darkness.

The {Dark Soul} separated itself from the darkness and came to float before him. Cain had given it the mental command to continue spying on the group of Chaos creatures as they headed toward the mountain. From what he could gather, they had indeed noticed the dead bodies of their kin, just like he predicted. All that was left to do was wait and observe.

Soon, a vicious roar reverberated through the cavernous system of the mountain.

Cain\'s eyes widened, \'Sounds like I pissed him off real good.\'

Cain knew the chief of the Chaos creatures would be furious. However, the amount of rage he felt within the roar was quite intense. And it wasn\'t even directed at him...

\'Such a scary monster...\'

Cain shook his head. He ordered the {Daek Soul} to go back to observing the creatures. The specter slipped back into the darkness to observe what was going on.

The entire camp was filled with howls of rage and mourning. Although a few of them died when they went out to hunt, it wasn\'t very frequent, and the amount was very little. Having more than a hundred of them gone, even though their numbers was in the thousand, seemed to have quite the effect on them.

The Chief was angry because something like this had happened twice in a single day. It was unheard of. His power as the ruler of the Chaos creatures had been challenged.

\'This is quite entertaining to watch...\'

Meanwhile, the culprit was sitting in the same mountain as they were, watching them lose their minds with a small smile on his face as he picked meat from within the gaps in his teeth.

Soon, he got bored of all the howling. Opening his inventory something within it caught his attention.

A shining piece of ore...