I watched Garon charge straight at me, his fists hardening until they became tougher than metal.
I chose to abandon my swords. Those low-quality blades wouldn’t even be able to scratch him, and even if I coated them with essence, it wouldn’t change much... they would probably shatter after a few exchanges.
Essence flowed through my body as the smile faded from my face.
Still, he had gone through all this trouble to look for me inside this maze...
In truth, he had challenged me to fights many times before, but I had either refused or simply ignored him.
I suppose that blow I landed on him during the exam wounded his pride deeply. Then things only got worse after his loss to Elliot.
So, it seemed he had decided to vent all that frustration on me.
"I need to end this quickly and keep moving."
As I thought that, a thin layer of essence formed over my left fist—and at the same moment, Garon reached me.
With an enraged roar, he swung his massive fist at me with insane force.
I tilted my body slightly and let it pass without touching me, while channeling power into my essence-coated hand and punching straight toward his vital areas.
"Garon Blackfall... you lost to Elliot without him even using half his strength, and you still have the nerve to challenge me?"
He raised his other arm in a defensive stance and blocked my punch.
When my fist struck his arm, a loud metallic sound echoed through the area.
"And who do you think you are? You lost to him too—and you’re still running away from me like a coward."
I didn’t answer.
The essence I had planned to release upon impact flowed back into my body... after all, there was no point in releasing a shockwave into his arm.
Instead, another layer formed around my other fist, which had already reached his side—right where the liver was.
My fist slammed into his body, and I released the essence all at once.
A thunderous sound exploded through the tunnel as Garon grimaced in pain and was blasted backward into the cave wall, his back crashing into it as cracks spread along the stone.
He stared at me with slightly widened eyes, shock clear on his face, words forming on his lips.
"Advanced Rank?"
Well, that reaction was only natural.
After all, even with Essence Stones, no one should be able to break into the Advanced Rank in just two weeks the way I did.
That was because not everyone consumed Essence Stones at the same rate—it all depended on one’s level of control over essence.
While it took me only half an hour to absorb a medium Essence Stone, it would take Garon and the others about an hour and a half...
Of course, Elliot was an exception.
Garon’s confusion lasted only a few moments before he regained his focus—only to find me right in front of him.
"So what? You’re not going to tell me it’s unfair now, are you?"
My muscles tensed as I threw another punch at him. He blocked it and counterattacked with his other hand.
"What? You think I’m a coward like you?"
"No... just an idiot," I replied.
I leaned my body, dodging his strike, then twisted with the momentum of my movement. I coated my leg with essence and kicked him directly in the side beneath his ribs, the essence exploding on impact and shaking his internal organs.
Even if he was solid on the outside, the inside was still the same.
His body flew along the cave wall, regaining balance several meters away, thin lines of blood forming at the corner of his mouth.
I walked toward him.
"As I said, Garon... you’re an idiot. Just an insect in this world—one with nothing special except a ridiculous hardening ability."
My essence surged as I closed the distance. The moment I reached him, he tried to strike me, but I dodged his punches and retaliated with my own.
"All of you are just weaklings who think you stand at the peak of humanity, just because you’ve been praised ever since you stepped into this life."
Garon roared in fury and hurled his entire body at me like a tank, trying to crush me against the wall.
"You arrogant bastard!"
I gathered more essence in my hand than ever before. As his massive body neared, I stepped aside—not enough to fully avoid him, but just enough to place my fist exactly where I wanted.
My fist slammed into his side.
Using the overwhelming power of my strike and redirecting the momentum of his charge through my punch, Garon was sent flying into the cave wall.
A deafening crash echoed through the corridors as debris scattered everywhere. I didn’t give him a single moment to recover.
I appeared in front of his body, stuck in the wall, essence coating my fist.
"Arrogant? ... Of course. In the end, you need arrogance—and a lot of it—to reach where you want to be... and even a bit of madness."
I punched him, driving him deeper into the wall, then raised my hand and struck again, without stopping.
"A month ago, you had a chance to fight me. But now it’s over... no matter how hard you try, you’ll only see the gap between us grow wider."
He tried to stand and resist, but the relentless barrage of punches left him unable to do so.
I punched and punched and punched... without stopping.
I felt the bones in my fingers break and deform, yet I continued.
I wanted to break him...
Break his body and his mind.
To show him his reality, his weakness—to make him stop this foolish behavior and grow faster...
Because after all, if that post about the game I read in my previous life was true—
Humanity would need every bit of strength it could gather.
Garon roared with all the strength he could muster.
"Someone like you has the nerve to say that... what do you think you are... a future king?"
I raised my hand, already grotesquely deformed. All five fingers were broken and twisted in a bloody mess.
But with a surge of essence, they regenerated and returned to normal—and I continued punching once more.
A loud sound echoed through the tunnel, like a massive hammer striking an anvil.
"A king? ... No... you don’t understand."
With every essence-laden strike, Garon’s body was torn apart from the inside, while fragments of the wall flew everywhere.
"How many kings have there been since humanity first awakened? ... Maybe hundreds... but all they ever managed to do was cleanse a few insignificant lands in this world... only to die miserably in the end."
My hand never stopped striking.
"I will climb higher... higher than anyone else."
I struck again and again, until my hand shattered once more.
"I... I will be the one who reaches the zenith."