Two more days had passed since his decision to not run, and in that time, he had killed more Gloomkin, slowly whittling down their numbers in small skirmishes. It wasn’t easy—he had to be careful not to draw too much attention. But the effort had been worth it, he had gotten a total of 63 exp since he leveled up. This also showed how unproductive it was to go for low-level monsters for experience points. Kael had killed a level 2 gloom kin and the amount of experience points they offered was almost less than nothing now.

  Yet all the killing had helped reduce the amount of Gloomkin, not by much but anything helped. He was also getting closer to Level 6, just a few more kills, that was all he needed. Yet, as satisfying as it was to gain experience, he also knew raw levels were just part of the formula and that he needed to refine his skills with the level-ups.

  Kael looked down at the small stick in his hand. It wasn't much longer than fifteen centimeters, made smooth by him removing some parts, trying to make it as straight as he could. He had just finished his latest round of body reinforcement practice, testing his ability to enhance multiple limbs with essence at once. The results? Acceptable.

  He had managed to infuse both arms and one leg simultaneously, but the effect was so weak that it was practically useless in a real fight. It was akin to a stream getting split so many times that the amount in each branch was so little it was insignificant. It wasn’t enough to just split the tendril of essence—he needed to increase its size. Right now, he was channeling his essence through what felt like a thin straw, restricting how much flowed into his body to begin with.

  For the past day, he had been focusing on fixing that problem, trying to drag a bigger tendril from his core. He was making progress—his Essence Control stat helping with exactly that. Like Kael had promised himself last time, he had kept an eye on the effect the stat had before and after the last level-up. The increase allowed him to manipulate essence better, he knew that, but it also allowed him to split and shape it more precisely. But the stat wasn’t a magical solution.

  It didn’t automatically tell him how to use essence. It was like someone giving him a vague concept of what a house was supposed to be—but then expecting him to build it without instructions. The more essence Control he had, the more detailed the description became and felt, but the actual construction? That was entirely up to him.

  He had a feeling that with one more day of practice, he might be able to make the breakthrough he needed. If he could just increase the tendril’s size, he could enhance all four limbs at once—and actually feel a meaningful boost from the resulting essence flow.

  Satisfied with his progress, Kael turned his attention back to his second ongoing experiment: infusing essence into objects.

  He had finally figured out why his essence wouldn’t properly reinforce his antler blade.

  The first problem he had was that Kael had simply started too big. The antler blade was a relatively large object, and trying to force his essence into it with no prior experience had wasted too much energy. Too many failed attempts meant less practice overall. That was why he had switched to smaller sticks. More attempts, less wasted essence.

  The second problem he ran into was that the blade wasn’t his body. He knew exactly where his essence flowed inside himself, but when it came to external objects, he was blind. He had no idea where the essence was supposed to go or how it was meant to be distributed.

  That led him to his third approach: Instead of trying to force the essence into an object, he simply let it flow out. He held the small stick lightly between his fingers and let his essence seep out towards it—not controlling it, not shaping it, not willing it to do anything specific just letting it naturally absorb. And just like that, it worked. Making a short lasting triumphant smile appear on Kael's face.

  The stick glowed faintly, then blue veins showed the essence forming crack-like patterns across its surface. Kael watched carefully, analyzing what happened as the flow continued. He had done this with a few other sticks, and he was still trying to figure things out.

  After some testing Kael had found that the reinforcement increased the durability of the object, making it stronger. But the effect was temporary. Like now, as soon as he stopped the flow, the reinforcement began to fade. Within a minute or two, the glow was gone, and the stick was back to normal just now with new small cracks on it.

  However, there was another major issue. If he let too much essence flow, the veins would spread throughout the entire object—build before it exploded.

  Literally exploded.

  His first few attempts had ended with sticks shattering into splinters, the pressure of essence building up too much inside the material. The image of his antler blade blowing apart in his hands was enough to make him grateful he hadn’t succeeded when he tried experimenting with it.

  Kael frowned, turning the stick in his fingers. He needed a better method. Right now he was like an open faucet, he was opening his core to just let out essence endlessly, and he could feel himself draining fast. There was also the fact that not all the essence released was seeping into the object some of it was just vanishing in the air. This then makes this kind of method not a good long-term strategy, if a fight lasts too long, Kael's core would run out. He needed to control the prosses better. Find some way he could take advantage of this in combat.

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  That’s when an idea struck him. Instead of trying to keep the essence flow open permanently, what if he only infused it before attacking?

  The process would be simple, Let essence flow into the weapon before a strike. After the attack lands repeat as needed. If it worked, it would increase his weapon’s durability without risking the pressure building and breaking it apart. It would also make sure he didn't just empty his core all at once.

  He needed to test this.

  Kael grabbed the new Gloomkin spear he had taken from his most recent kill. He didn’t trust the crude weapons of the Gloomkin much—they were poorly made, fragile, and unreliable. He had tested the build quality and how good they were, finding that after a few good attacks, they just broke. But that made them the perfect disposable test subject. If this method ruined the weapon, he wouldn’t be losing much.

  He set out into the forest going further out this time, his senses sharp as he searched for a target. Kael proceeded to spend some time looking and tracking what we could, ending up finding a level 3 Longtusk boar at the end. It was not like the first one he had seen, this one looking more like a normal boar, but larger, with longer and sharper tusks. The creature foraged near the roots of a massive tree, its thick hide shifting as it tore up the ground in search of food. A single charge from it could skewer a man if he wasn’t careful.

  Kael narrowed his eyes. This is a test, he reminded himself. He wasn’t here for experience points, nor was he hunting out of necessity. This was purely to see if his new essence infusion method would work in actual combat.

  His fingers twitched as he let his essence flow into the spear. The veins of blue light crawled along the weapon’s shaft, starting from his grip and slowly creeping toward the tip. Kael’s jaw tightened. The time it took for the spear to have veins run throughout it and start to glow fully, took way too long for his liking. Knowing something would take a while and then experiencing it were two different things. It also helped you realize what you thought might be a manageable problem, to be a more immediate issue.

  The boar twitched. Its ears perked up.

  Kael barely had a second before it lifted its head and snorted, nostrils flaring as it turned in his direction. Its eyes locked onto him. Then the beast charged, leaves flew up behind it as it barreled forward. Kael leaped to the side, avoiding the sharp tusks as they gouged deep into the earth where he had been standing.

  Kael didn’t hesitate—he pivoted, raising the spear and lunging forward. The glow of essence finally reached the tip just as he thrust the weapon into the boar’s side.

  It pierced deeper than expected. The essence infusion had strengthened the spear, allowing it to push through the creature’s thick hide, drawing blood. The boar let out a high-pitched squeal, flailing wildly. "Maybe I should have picked a more quieter animal for this..." Kael muttered to himself, waiting for the animal to attack again.

  Shortly after it was done squealing and trampling about, it then went for another charge. Kael then proceeded to do the same dance with the boar, waiting for the essence to seep into the spear enhancing it, followed by he then attacking. It was at his third round, the boar now having two slashes and some stabs across its body that it happened. Kael tried to pull the spear back—when he heard a...CRACK.

  The spear snapped in half. The peace in his hand starting to fall apart.

  Where the glowing veins had spread through the wood, it suddenly started to fracture, the web of cracks expanding outward. The weapon couldn’t handle the strain anymore, splinters dropping to the ground.

  Kael barely had time to react, just looking on as this happened. That's when the boar turned on him instantly, thrashing in rage. Blood leaked from its wounds, the injuries not being deep enough to slow it down by much. What was left of the broken top half of the spear still inn its side.

  The boar lunged—Kael was caught off guard and had no time to dodge. Instead, he directed the flow of essence from his core to enhance his legs, then jumped over the tuskes and directly onto the creature’s back.

  The boar squealed and tried to thrash violently, the wounds he had given it made it unable to do so properly, but the beast did not care and tried either way. This was then followed by it just running in a circle. Kael wrapped his one arm around the thick bristled hide of its neck, barely managing to hold on. The spear had failed—but he still had another weapon.

  His free hand shot toward his waist, fingers curling around the familiar handle. In one swift motion—Kael drove the antler blade into the base of the boar’s skull. The beast stiffened suddenly sliding forward a bit. Making so Kael fell forward hitting the ground. Getting up and looking back Kael saw its muscles locked up—then, slowly, it collapsed onto the dirt, twitching once before falling completely still.

  The system experience notification flashed across his vision, but he ignored it. He ran a hand through his damp hair. That could have gone very wrong. Kael glanced down at the remains of the broken spear, frustration bubbling in his chest. The weapon hadn’t shattered on impact. It had lasted for a few strikes. But the problem had been clear, even though the Gloomkin's crude weapons weren't the best, Kael had destroyed some and knew when they broke due to quality. No this was something else.

  The constant infusion must have weakened it.

  The essence had spread through the entire spear, causing small cracks that grew worse over time until the structural integrity failed. All this said was that Kael couldn't use crude wooden weapons, they were simply not viable. Not unless I get a weapon that can actually handle essence reinforcement.

  Having a weapon that would splinter at any moment wasn't a good thing in Kael's opinion. His eyes drifted to the antler blade, still embedded in the boar’s skull. I guess I can't test with you yet.

  Kael took another slow breath. This wasn’t a failure. It was just another step in refining his skills. He had learned something today—something that would help him in future fights. With that final thought, Kael pulled his blade free, then Keeping the noise that had been made in mind, cut some meat pieces to take with him as fast as he could with his knife, following the steppes of his now usual routine. Finally, he wiped the blade clean against the boar’s hide and stood. Having foresight that a prolonged fight could attract something, he had gone a further distance away from his tree house than usual. But still wanting to be careful Kael took the long way home. Enhancing his legs and running as fast as he could, while trying not to make obvious tracks.