He lifted it and placed it over his face. It stayed in place without straps or bindings, almost like it was meant to fuse with him.
He waited a moment, expecting discomfort. None came. Breathing was easy, vision was clear.
It was as if the mask wasn’t even there, yet he knew its presence would hide him from prying eyes.
[Ranking Board will open in 58 minutes.]
[You will be able to choose a new nickname after the Ranking Board opens.]
"Good," he muttered. "That gives me time to move before the board appears."
Isaac opened the Special Shop again.
He had more than enough "currency" to spend, but the instinct to hoard remained.
Until a few weeks ago, he had been a money grubber, counting every Obol. That habit wasn’t something he could shake easily.
His eyes lingered on clothes with defense stat.
For a moment, he considered it.
But after a breath, he closed the option.
His Constitution was already at a thousand, and with the Extreme Form Lock title, his body’s durability was leagues above most participants.
Any armor or defensive gear here wouldn’t add much.
"The defense gear in the special shop isn’t worth it. I should focus on the hunt instead of wasting stat points."
Taking a steadying breath, he activated his Sovereign of Land skill.
Mana rushed from his body into the earth like a flood breaking through a dam.
It spread outward in waves, sinking into the soil, wrapping around roots, flowing under creeks, and filling the land with his awareness.
The forest revealed itself to him.
He could sense every tree, every shift of grass, even the ripple of water in a narrow stream.
And then he felt it.
"Found it."
A bipedal creature.
Its mana was immense, hot and forceful, almost like standing near a blazing furnace.
Isaac’s senses locked onto it.
But the moment he detected it, the monster seemed to notice him in return.
Its head turned, and then it bolted in the opposite direction.
"Running already?" Isaac muttered.
He shot forward without hesitation.
His body blurred across the forest floor.
With a thousand points in Agility and the improved physique he inherited from Alice, each of his stats carried the weight of six times their normal value.
That meant, he had 6,000 stat effective Agility.
On top of that, the Extreme Wind Kissed title wrapped him in streams of invisible current.
His speed surged higher, and his movement left no trail of destruction despite the sheer velocity.
Yet the distance between him and the monster remained the same.
"What the hell?" Isaac frowned, running harder.
The chase stretched on.
Ten minutes passed.
His feet carried him over roots, through gaps in trees, across uneven earth.
The wind whipped against his mask.
But no matter how hard he pushed, the distance refused to shrink.
He hadn’t even laid eyes on the creature.
If not for the Sovereign of Land tethering him to its position, he would have thought he was chasing a ghost.
He clenched his teeth.
"How is this thing keeping pace? It’s not slowing down... it’s not even breathing hard."
The answer came to him as his mana continued to scan.
The creature was feeding on ambient mana.
The energy flowing through its body carried a faint trace of the same power Isaac had felt above the canopy.
"It’s absorbing mana from the sun, and using it to keep running. What is this monster? A solar powered car?"
He grimaced. That explained why it wasn’t tiring. As long as sunlight bathed the forest, it would keep pulling strength from it.
"I’ll have to end this differently."
Isaac reached into his spatial ring and pulled free the Infernal Fang Spear.
The weapon pulsed with heat.
Its sharp edges gleamed faintly even in the shade of the forest.
He summoned thick roots burst from the ground, snaking toward the monster’s legs.
The roots lashed around its ankles, but the creature reacted instantly.
It leapt upward, twisting in midair, avoiding the trap before it could tighten.
"Got you," Isaac muttered under his breath.
Before the creature could land, golden flames erupted across the length of the spear.
The flames weren’t ordinary. They belonged to his Flame of Judgment skill, the same skill that took down the N’theris Serpent.
The spear’s own inherent ability amplified it, layering destructive fire on top of his already devastating skill.
Isaac drew his arm back and hurled the weapon.
The spear cut through the air like a missile.
Trees in its path cracked and splintered, bark exploding in fragments as the weapon tore holes clean through them.
A heartbeat later, it struck its mark.
The monster’s body convulsed as the flaming spear pierced through its chest and drove it into the ground.
The explosion that followed shook the forest.
Golden fire expanded outward in a violent burst.
Leaves ignited, dirt erupted into the air, and shockwaves rattled through the nearby trees.
Isaac slowed, finally stopping as he reached the smoking crater.
He exhaled.
"Finally."
He glanced at the timer.
[Ranking Board will open in 44 minutes.]
"It took me fifteen minutes just to deal with one. At this pace, collecting the seven fragments of map is going to be slow. Way too slow."
[Ranking Board will open in 43 minutes.]
"Completing the whole trial in twenty-four hours... is not looking possible."
"I need a different strategy."
He pushed forward until he reached the spot where his spear had pinned the monster.
The ground was blackened, cracked, and smoldering from the explosion. Chunks of dirt were thrown high, some still raining down from broken branches above.
And there, lying across the ruined ground, was the creature he had chased.
Isaac paused, eyes narrowing.
The monster was... nothing like he had imagined.
It was big, easily three meters tall, with long limbs and a thick body.
But its form wasn’t monstrous in the grotesque sense.
Instead, it was covered from head to toe in white fluff, like dense fur that shimmered faintly in the light.
Its head was rounded, with ears that stuck up like soft peaks.
Its eyes, though closed now, had been large enough to dominate its face.