Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 520: Ape

After barely a minute, the Facilitator handed Asher the mission scroll permit. Along with it, he also handed him two teleportation scrolls. Asher accepted the three items without hesitation, calmly transferring two into his system inventory as he held onto one of the teleportation scrolls in his hand.

"Anything else? Something I should know or do?" Asher asked, his gaze shifting toward the Facilitator once more. The Facilitator met Asher’s eyes and simply shook his head, signaling that there was nothing more to say. It was just like every other mission up until now; how he survived and carried out his task was entirely up to him and him alone, with no guidance, no intervention, and certainly no safety net once he stepped outside the Academy’s protection.

Receiving his reply, Asher nodded his head, then tore the teleportation scroll in his hand. A white light instantly consumed him whole, swallowing his figure like a curtain of radiance, and in the very next moment, he vanished without a trace.

The Facilitator stared at the exact spot Asher had disappeared from for a brief second longer than necessary, then sighed quietly before exiting his professional mode and returning to his usual leisurely demeanor, as though another student departing on a potentially fatal mission was nothing more than routine paperwork.

Asher felt space twist around him as a strange and indescribable sensation flooded his senses, like his body was being pulled apart and stitched back together at the same time. The moment he felt solid ground beneath his feet again, his purple eyes sharpened, and his Omni Perception, which he usually restricted whenever he was within the Star Academy, unfurled to its absolute limits, expanding outward like an invisible tide and covering a distance of three hundred meters around him, leaving not even the slightest blind spot.

After his breakthrough into the Swiftstar Life Rank, Asher’s Omni Perception range had increased drastically, moving from two hundred meters and finally touching the three hundred meter mark. The improvement was not merely numerical; the clarity itself had sharpened, allowing him to perceive movements, breaths, and even faint fluctuations of mana with frightening precision, as though the world had slowed down solely for him.

As Asher scanned his surroundings, he could not help but sigh softly. He had been teleported into a forest... yet again. This was the fourth time he was accepting a mission, and every single time he tore a teleportation scroll to begin one, he would always appear in a forest, as though fate itself insisted on dropping him into the same environment over and over again.

Not that he could not understand the Star Academy’s reasoning behind it, but still... he sighed regardless. Trees stretched upward as usual, their heights ridiculous as always, with even the smallest ones touching five meters. Their thick trunks and dense canopies blocked out much of the sky, casting long shadows that painted the ground in shifting patterns of green and black, while the air smelled faintly of damp soil and moss.

The next moment, a roar tore violently through the forest, the sound coming from about fifty meters to the left. Asher did not even need to turn his head, as he already knew what it was. It was simply an Ape beast that had likely sensed his presence and deemed him a threat for trespassing into its territory.

It was a beast at the Mark rank, but to Asher, who had defeated a Grave rank monster before, a Mark rank creature was simply too weak and unworthy of serious attention. Still, he had been training for far too long without real combat, and his body itched for some action, even if it was against a weak beast that posed no real danger.

If other first years heard Asher’s thoughts, they would likely go mad with disbelief. After all, how many of them could defeat a Mark rank beast alone? Maybe a few prodigies at best. But Asher had never been within their scale or measurements of power to begin with; from the very start, he had been something entirely separate.

(Monster Rank; Whisper — Echo — Veil — Fang — Mark — Grave — Crown — Myth — Void — End)

With heavy stomps that shook the earth, the monster blurred forward as it crossed the distance in a blink of an eye. It appeared before Asher, its massive frame hulking over him as though he were nothing more than a child. Muscles bulged grotesquely beneath its fur, its chest silver and hardened like steel, its black-and-silver coat bristling, its eyes glowing red with primal hostility.

The moment it arrived before him, it attacked without hesitation, its huge forearm slamming downward toward Asher’s head with booming force that tore through the air like fragile paper. Despite its enormous size, that same mass did nothing to reduce its speed.

Seeing the incoming attack, Asher simply raised his own forearm with a calm and steady demeanor. With a thunderous boom, forearm met forearm, and the air at the point of contact exploded outward between them. Asher felt the force surge through him, but he tanked it effortlessly. The ground beneath his feet groaned under the pressure, yet it did not crack as he remained perfectly stable, like an immovable pillar.

A faint smile appeared on Asher’s lips for a brief moment. Before the Ape could even blink, Asher vanished, leaving only an afterimage where he had once stood. He appeared midair beside the Ape’s head, and with a simple swing of his foot, his foot heel slammed into the Ape’s temple with the force of a descending sledgehammer.

The air screamed the instant the attack landed, the impact exploding outward. Inertia and momentum took over as the Ape was torn sideways, smashing violently through trees as Asher’s attack launched it like a kite caught in a raging storm.

Trunks shattered, branches splintered, and debris scattered everywhere before, after a few seconds, it finally came to a stop. Even then, it ricocheted off the ground and rose immediately to its feet, its red eyes snapping toward Asher’s location with renewed fury.

Asher did not rush. Of course, he had held back significantly; if he had not, he would have exploded the Ape’s head with a single strike earlier. He simply walked toward it with his hands in his pockets, his steps steady and rhythmic, his expression relaxed as though he were taking a casual stroll rather than confronting a raging monster.

Although it was a beast, it was not entirely brainless. Instinct still ruled it, and what it had once perceived as easy prey had now transformed into something incomprehensible. Without missing a beat, it immediately activated its ability, desperately seeking to end the battle before the situation spiraled further out of its control.

Its muscles twitched and stretched grotesquely, its height increasing as raw power flooded through its body. Veins bulged, bones cracked audibly, and its aura surged violently. Seeing this, Asher continued walking forward, utterly indifferent, as it made absolutely no difference to him.

With a final roar, the Ape stomped the earth, splitting the ground open with a jagged crack. Its leg muscles tightened like coiled springs, then it launched itself forward like a thunderbolt, its speed peaking in real time. It punched toward Asher, its massive fist barreling toward his face with enough force to shatter stone, but the moment it came close, Asher moved. His gloved left hand rose almost lazily as he parried the Ape’s fist to the side with the back of his palm with humbling ease.

The fist tore into the ground beside him, ripping open the earth as dust and stones geysered skyward from the sheer impact. Before the Ape could launch a second attack, Asher’s left hand moved again, and he delivered a backhanded slap straight into the Ape’s cheek.

The moment hand met face, the impact was instantaneous. The force traveled through the Ape’s skull, and its head exploded into a grotesque shower of blood, brain matter, and shattered bone fragments. Before the blood could even splatter onto Asher’s body, everything halted midair, suspended as though time itself had paused for a fraction of a second before gravity reclaimed it.

The Ape’s hulking, bulky body collapsed onto the ground with a heavy, lifeless thud, its massive frame shaking the earth slightly as it lay there unmoving, having died from nothing more than a simple backhanded slap from a boy who was literally on same realm with it.