Chapter 135: Euphoria

Staring at the exposed core of the second [Void Echo], greed flashed through Valerian’s eyes. The thought of maybe gaining something new made his fingers twitch as he reached for the core.

Pulling it out of the monster, he looked at it for a moment before going through the same disgusting process of eating it. When he held the blood-soaked core in his mouth, something unexpected happened.

’Why does this taste kinda good now?’

For some reason, the blood that made him feel like vomiting now tasted sweet, and he rolled the core in his mouth for a moment before swallowing it.

Even the swallowing process felt easier, and not like he was trying to force a rock down his throat. When the core entered his body, he didn’t really feel any differently, but there was a strange sense of ecstasy that made him crave for more.

’Is this part of my dragon side? Do dragons eat cores?’

The dragons on Eldoria mostly kept to themselves, so very little information was known about dragon physiology, but he couldn’t imagine that it was part of his celestial blood to like eating monster cores.

Standing up from the bloody corpse, he looked around the forest. Everything seemed normal. But that didn’t mean that nothing had changed; after the mismatch he felt with the information provided by his [Dragon Eyes], he felt like he couldn’t rely on them.

They were still at stage 2, so maybe if they reached the next stage, he would be able to look past whatever was hiding Lyra’s real strength.

Looking down, he saw the three holes in his stomach. They weren’t big in diameter, and they didn’t hurt, but moving his torso still felt kind of stiff.

He walked away from the corpse to move deeper into the forest.

’There must be other monsters around here. I wonder what would happen when I eat their core...’

A dreamy expression appeared on his face as he fantasized about devouring more monster cores, but that didn’t mean that he let his guard down. Now that he could make out these invisible monsters that somehow managed to slip past his spatial perception, he relied more on his eyes to spot them.

During his walk through the forest, he thought about just how they managed to do that, to just stay under the radar like they weren’t even there. When he thought back to the status window he saw, he remembered that they had the trait [Existential Null].

’That had to be part of their absolute stealth, they must be using it with their [Spatial Phasing]. That could also explain why they had to deactivate it to attack.’

[Existential Null] gave them an invisibility that also erased their mana signature, and pairing that with [Spatial Phasing], they entered the space between space folds to even hide their spatial presence.

With these two traits combined, they were the ultimate ambush predators that didn’t exist in the same plane until they attacked.

’But there must be some kind of downtime until they can slip away again.’

Thinking back to how he managed to defeat them, he came to the conclusion that they couldn’t exit their in-between space and enter it instantly. Creating a time where they were vulnerable, since they didn’t have any natural defenses, only one hit is enough for them to die.

While he was walking through the forest, he could see the spatial distortion created by a [Void Echo] in the distance.

’Jackpot.’

At the same time, the monster seemed to have noticed him as well, but that was when Valerian spotted a second spatial distortion next to it, and then another and another.

More and more of them appeared around him, and when he turned around, he found himself surrounded by ten of them.

’That could be bad.’

Taking on one of them shouldn’t be a problem, and even two is doable. But ten of them at the same time? That could become dangerous for his weakened body.

He activated his [Dragon Eyes] and the full bodies of the monsters appeared before his eyes.

The monsters slowly closed in around him, cutting off any escape route he could have. Turning around, Valerian spotted the closest one of them and made a decision. Instead of letting himself be ganged up on, he would try to rush as many of them as possible. The only issue was that he was skeptical if he would be agile enough with his wounds, but he had to try it.

Valerian moved fast, closing the distance with a short teleport. While activating his [Primordial Scales] and flooding his body with his divine mana, he swiped down on the [Void Echo] in front of him.

A purple layer surrounded the claws, increasing the cutting force by reinforcing it with his space affinity.

The monster stepped back a half step, surprised that their prey knew where they were, but its traits were part of their being, so they knew it better than anyone. So it simply didn’t deactivate its [Spatial Phasing], and Valerian’s claw passed right through it.

’Fuck, I thought that would work.’

He gambled on the fact that maybe by coating his attacks in space mana he could interact with the monsters, but his theory was proven wrong, making him simply pass through it. ℯℯ𝑙.

’I’m sure there is a way for me to hit it, but how?’

Turning around quickly, Valerian saw two of the [Void Echos] already moving closer and preparing to strike him down. This time, instead of acting first, he had to let them come closer so that they would enter his plane again.

The second they became tangible again, he moved in by pulling the space around his body in a certain direction. The sudden shift in position made them miss their attacks, and before they could run again, their lives ended as Valerian’s claws pierced through their heads, spilling the blood that smelled so sweet to him.

Taking in a good whiff, he felt excitement and ecstasy build within him, and a wide villainous grin appeared on his face.

’More.’

Chasing the high their blood brought him, he flicked his eyes around, searching for the closest monster that would attack him. But they were hesitant after seeing one of them die.

But their intelligence wasn’t high enough to understand things like fear, so more of them closed in on him. Valerian’s body exploded in a flood of mana as he pushed the C Rank limit of his body to the very brink.

Channeling his divine mana through his space affinity into the outside world, he could feel the very exact moment the [Void Echos] around him became tangible and were ready to strike him down.

His grin widened, and centimeters before the white sharp claws could touch him, his body disappeared, and another one of them fell with their head impaled from behind.

More of the purple blood spilled on the ground and stuck to his scaled arm. Valerian’s eyes widened as the euphoria took a deeper hold of him. Craving more, he disappeared again, ready to claim his next victim, but their down time was up, and they disappeared again into the space between space.

When his hand only reached for empty air, he felt a frustration so big he felt like he was about to burst, and his eyes snapped to the intangible monsters.

’How dare you not get hit!?’

His frustration mixed with his dragon pride, and anger built up inside him. Needing something to vent his anger on, he teleported again to one of the [Void Echos], reaching for it with his scaled hand.

Pumping his space mana into his hand, the overwhelming want to grab it and squeeze the life out of it mixed with his divine mana and space affinity.

When his hand neared its head, the monster didn’t move away, fully confident in its trait.

The mana bent around Valerian’s desire to make the impossible possible, and his space affinity worked as the conduit to realize this desire.

His hand reached for the head, and the space cracked around it. Thin hairline fractures appeared wherever the hand covered in the black scales passed, and the purple light inside them glowed brighter.

His hand broke through the fabric of space, the sharp claws cutting through the fundamental concept that reality was built on, ignoring all the laws and rules that tried to prevent Valerian from achieving his desire.

His hand arrived where the monster’s head was, but instead of empty air, he could clearly feel the taut skin of the [Void Echo] trembling in his grasp. With cold eyes, like a god looking down on its mortal subjects, he squeezed his hand, and the head of the monster imploded as the space around the head compressed until it collapsed into itself, removing it from existence.

The rest of the monster’s body became visible to the naked eye and fell to the grass, staining it in the beautiful purple that looked more appetizing than anything he had ever witnessed before.

Turning his eyes to the rest of the [Void Echos], his face twisted in a wide grin and his body disappeared from its space, before another one of them fell.