My Alter Ego’s Path to Greatness - Chapter 54

#54

Elf (2)

A few days ago.

“Whoop—ha! “Maybe it’s because it’s so close to the mountains, but it’s refreshing.”

Harley arrived at the Iron Citadel on the border of the Tulk Kingdom, bordering the northern mountains.

There were many twists and turns before he arrived here, having started out as a mercenary in Tarak.

The world is big and there are a lot of crazy people.

There were some idiots who, even after seeing Harley’s beautiful and massive muscles, started arguing about her being uncivilized and all that.

“That thing destroyed Ralph’s gang…”

“Shh! “Don’t make eye contact.”

They seemed to have made a name for themselves and attacked with confidence.

This is because they were skilled in using Aura, the energy that warriors control, at a high level.

“You broke all the bones in my limbs with your bare hands, right?”

“I heard the knife doesn’t go in well?”

When an argument first broke out, Harley was worried about how to respond since she had never fought with a human before.

He is supposed to be a hero, but he can’t control his strength and just kill people in the city.

‘So I grabbed them one by one and twisted their bones nicely!’

That way, you wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally killing them!

In the process, he was able to experience how much force the human body can break under, so it was a helpful experience for him.

‘Plus, I was able to learn how to use Aurors.’

Their bodies suddenly hardened along with the haze rising from their struggling bodies.

Even though it broke when I applied more force, the increase in physical ability itself was not bad.

‘It’s good that they thought it was useful and figured out a way to do it by trapping them…’

The problem was that it couldn’t be used with this body.

Because his body was closer to that of a magical beast than to that of an ordinary human being.

It was natural that technology created with the human body in mind could not be used.

It was a plan that could not be helped since he was much stronger now than if he had returned his body’s components to human ones and used aurors.

‘Once you know something, you’ll be able to use it later.’

Harley quenched his appetite with regret and set out for the northern mountains in search of game that would immediately make him stronger.

***

“Whoa!”

“Hahahaha—! Search!”

Harley’s eyes turned, and she burst into laughter and swung her ax at the beast in the shape of a large bear.

As soon as the ax in his right hand hit the knee of the man standing on both feet and passed by, the ax in his left hand got stuck in his crook.

“Kwook!”

The bear’s front paw strikes straight down.

He let go of the attack by simply taking a step to the side, and then plunged the ax in his right hand into the man’s elbow.

A sophisticated ax technique that does not match Harley’s wild appearance.

The double axes held in both hands drew a graceful trajectory and trampled the beast’s entire body.

Kwasik!

“Get it out…”

The moment the guy stumbled from his seat due to repeated ax strikes.

“Huh!”

Harley took a deep breath and lunged at the beast, twisting her waist as much as possible.

With the strength strengthened by the expanding muscles and the recoil of rotation, the bear’s leg…

Blow—!

I threw a low kick.

In an instant, the monster’s leg bones were shattered and its body spun ninety degrees in the air and fell to the ground.

“Eurachacha—!”

Hunter Harley, who never misses an opportunity, immediately jumps and slams his ax into the bear’s neck.

“Queuouk!”

The ax blade does not penetrate deeply into the tough leather and steel-like muscles.

Until it doesn’t work out.

The exciting ax cutting began as both hands alternately struck down the swollen muscles.

After such a short period of time….

“Khahaha! “That was quite a tough opponent!”

Harley finally stood on top of the dead beast and burst into laughter.

Then he picked up the ax and threw it, stabbing his sharp, deformed hand into the heart of his prey.

Nails digging deep into the strong body of a magical beast.

Soon, a magic stone the size of a fist came out of Harley’s grasp.

He roughly brushed off the blood on it, put it in his mouth, chewed it, and was lost in thought.

‘…the bare body is stronger than using a weapon…’

A cruel truth that was tried hard to ignore.

I even got an ax and practiced ax skills, but it was of little use against monsters!

The physical strength of those who used the mana stored in their bodies by altering it was beyond imagination, so they could not inflict much damage with weapons that contained no energy.

Right now, I was able to use my overwhelming strength to kill it with a single blow, but if this continues, no matter how hard the black steel ax is, it will be broken.

However, if you apply a moderate amount of force, you cannot cause damage, so you fall into the irony that your bare body, which can give its best, becomes stronger.

In this way, he was no different from a hidden expert who hides his true strength and pretends to be weak!

‘what? That might not be a bad idea…’

He was tempted for a moment, but it was a no-brainer because it didn’t suit his goals.

“Whoa, shall we take care of the requested items now?”

Harley sharply pulled out her nails again, feeling the composition of her body change through the magic stone.

Then, the bear’s stomach was cut open to remove the requested bear’s snail.

‘It’s so easy to use the power of a demonic beast through ‘Body Transformation’, so why use a weapon… huh?’

For a moment his movements stopped.

The power and vitality of monsters that have corrupted the mana in their bodies.

The power auror of warriors who purify the absorbed mana within their bodies.

‘In any case, it is the same as the power of processing the energy within the body to fit one’s own needs. There is just a difference in how it is handled.’

Monsters used mana instinctively with their natural bodies, so there was no need for a complicated purification process.

Through acquired efforts, humans have developed methods for refining auras to use mana and techniques for manipulating them.

The methods are different, but the goal is the same.

Then, by combining those two advantages….

‘Wouldn’t it be possible to skip the refining process and control vitality using auror manipulation?’

In fact, an important and complicated part of Auror training was the process of refining mana.

The high level of technology has been passed down as the vision of each faction.

But the method itself wasn’t that big of a secret.

Because it wasn’t that difficult of a technique to begin with.

He immediately went to work based on the knowledge he had previously gained about Aurors.

Several trials and errors followed.

Using 「Mutation」 and 「Physical Mutation」, we analyzed the differences between the human body and the current body and adjusted the sense of gap.

Black magic, blood magic, divine power.

Thanks to my experience handling a lot of energy, the work progressed quickly.

The moment when I was concentrating on managing my vital energy by eating bear meat when I ran out of calories.

A flash of light passed in my mind.

《The entity has met the conditions and achieved enlightenment. Acquire the special skill “Biological Aura.” A

vague haze rose from the ax in one hand.

“Huh… huhahahahahahahahaha!”

Harley’s mad laughter explodes loudly.

It was the moment when a monster in human form gained human power.

***

Damn—!

A large decapitated head falls to the floor.

Coo!

The huge ogre fell, causing tremors in the surrounding land.

“Hehehe… That guy is really strong.”

Harley collapsed on the spot and lay down on her back.

His physical condition was also not normal.

His entire body was covered in blood, and regurgitated blood was still pouring out of his mouth.

“Regeneration” was in constant motion, but the torn left arm was still being repaired.

Growling—

In the meantime, a crazy hunger surges through me.

During the battle, all the energy accumulated so far was depleted due to the use of energy through “Body Transformation,” “Biological Aura,” and “Regeneration.”

“Ugh… I need to eat something to gain energy.”

Harley, who staggered to his feet, approached the fallen ogre and applied aura to the ax in his right hand.

A huge ogre that is nearly 5 meters tall.

The entire body is filled with muscles of overwhelming density, so not only strength but also agility are at a transcendent level.

Its senses are so keen that even if it sneaks up on a sleeping person and surprises them, it immediately reacts and counterattacks.

“Maybe it’s because I only have muscle, but it’s so mushy.”

During the battle, the bones of his entire body were broken several times and his internal organs were ruptured, but he endured through “regeneration” until the end and used “Biological Aura” to gradually eat away at the guy’s physical strength.

“Hahaha—! But in the end, this body is the winner!”

Now I burst out laughing.

Perhaps thanks to the “freakish eating,” it seemed like he had finally recovered enough stamina to be able to smile.

“The effect is good as he is a strong guy. “It’s worth the effort to hunt!”

As soon as I filled my stomach, stored up energy, and even chewed the magic stone, my body reacted immediately.

Muscles swell and compress repeatedly.

My bones became stronger, my nerves became sharper, and my skin became tougher.

“Whoa… that’s good.”

Feeling satisfied with his stronger body, he dismantled the ogre’s body.

After gathering enough loot to fill my subspace magic tools with such rare materials and retrieving the ax in my left hand that I had missed, I looked around to move on…

“And then, where is this place?”

In a dense forest.

Due to the intense battle with the ogre, the surroundings were turned upside down and the direction was unknown.

Harley immediately climbed a nearby tree and looked around.

I felt refreshed by the vast sea of trees that spread out widely.

“Ahaha! “It looks like you got too excited and went in too deep?”

Over the past few days, he had been using the beast’s developed sense of smell to track various types of prey, but as he blindly followed new scents, he seemed to have gone deep into the depths.

The accident occurred after traveling recklessly, blinded only by various genes, without considering the vastness of the northern mountain range.

“Well, at night, you can just look at the stars and move around!”

Of course, it wasn’t a big problem.

Now that he had been living in Outerica for over a year, it was simple enough to check the direction through the stars, so there was no need to use the transmission line.

I couldn’t use it anyway because it was on cooldown.

After coming down from the tree, he headed back into the forest with the intention of doing some more hunting until night fell.

When the day was slowly getting dark…

Sniff—

“Hmm?”

The magical beast’s sensitive senses sensed something very familiar.

A nostalgic feeling, like the scent of hometown that I have smelled for a long time.

“The smell of dark magic?”

It was also a faint reverberation of magical power that seemed to have been suppressed through a cloaking field.

Based on my experience staying in Hans’ secret laboratory for quite a while, this was 100% positive.

“Is there a warlock hiding?”

After thinking about it for a while, I secretly moved to where I could smell the smell.

Because the familiar energy felt by the magic beast’s senses was somehow unnerving.

I was able to find it at the end.

A barrier spread by black magic.

‘This looks familiar too.’

Hans immediately interpreted the barrier seen through Harley’s eyes and presented the results.

A barrier that Hans encountered in the beginning, right after he took the fragment of the first immortal king and became a demilich.

It was a concealment barrier used by the Oath of Yeokcheon.

‘Were they hiding here too? Well, they seemed like they were big enough to be found only in the Kingdom of Thalia. Even back then, there was some sort of ban on them.’

All the souls had escaped somewhere.

Hans could have ignored the prohibition now, but he was hiding from the saint’s pursuit and couldn’t even think about looking for them.

‘But this is how I discovered it.’

Just as a feeling of joy came over me for some reason…

‘Huh?’

Hans, who sensed the subtle flow of dark magic through Harley’s sensitive senses, came up with a new diagnosis.

‘Is the sacrificial ritual in progress? And this…’

I analyzed the situation using the black magic knowledge of “Forbidden Knowledge.”

A sacrificial ritual of this magnitude is bound to leave traces somehow.

So, they usually move immediately, but since they move by creating a negative dimension gate using black magic immediately after offering the sacrifice, it is nearly impossible to track them.

In other words, if you miss it here, you won’t know when you can meet again.

“Hehe… I barely met you like this, so I should at least see your face, right?”

He smiled viciously, showing his teeth, then took out an ax in both hands and focused his attention.

Perhaps due to hunting the ogre, a thicker haze surrounded the axe.

The bioenergy generated throughout the body is contained in the two ax blades.

“Hahahaha—! Break down!”

The two axes that went behind the shoulders struck the barrier, drawing a large trajectory.

Kwaaaang—!

With a loud explosion, a hole opened in the barrier and a hidden cave was revealed.

A bustling noise was heard from inside, but Harley didn’t care and walked confidently inside.

“I can’t see you doing well again.”

It was a gang of guys who stabbed Hans in the back and massacred the villagers.

I don’t know if there’s room for this side to take advantage, but if that’s not possible, shouldn’t they do everything in their power to interfere?

In the meantime, it would be nice if we could salvage something.

If you don’t think it’s going to work, just jump out!

‘I’m definitely not doing this because of the back end.’

As I was running towards the place where the energy of black magic was strong, a group of humans came out from inside.

“What?! “Who are you?”

“Stop it!”

They were the warlock’s minions.

One at knight level and five at mercenary level.

‘There’s no need to wait! ‘Go straight to full power!’

Harley’s leg muscles swelled and his body curled up like a wild animal about to attack.

Right after that.

Quang!

He was already right in front of the knight-level guy.

“Ugh! How dare this guy!”

Dark magic blooms thickly in the drawn sword.

Despite the sudden attack, he skillfully swung his weapon and knocked away Harley’s axe.

Kaang—

“What?!”

But that was his defeat.

The moment when his body was shaken by an unexpected and tremendous force.

Squeak!

Because the ax in Harley’s other hand hit his neck.

‘Inattentiveness is one’s greatest enemy.’

Considering his weapon swing and level of dark magic, he would never have died this easily, but thinking of Harley as an ordinary warrior was what hastened his death.

“Kahaha! Attack all at once!”

He burst into laughter and rushed at the remaining minions.

After some time has passed.

Harley was running down the aisle again with blood splattered all over her body.

‘It’s not like the idiots are worth worrying about. Are all the warlocks inside?’

When I was bracing myself for the final battle with those guys.

His senses felt something approaching rapidly from the ground.

“What kind of trick is this!”

It didn’t feel alive, but approaching him so freely in the enemy’s stronghold couldn’t have been favorable.

Just as he was about to swing the ax.

“Ouch!”

A little girl popped out from the ground.

A cute appearance that cannot be hidden even by shabby clothes and black shackles around the neck.

It was an elf girl with pointy ears, light green hair, and orange eyes, holding a tree branch in her arms.

And at that moment, Harley realized who this girl was.

“…Hahahaha! “This is causing trouble!”

He deliberately laughed loudly and scratched his head to hide his embarrassment.

“Yes, little girl. “What’s your name?”

Still, I checked with myself again to be sure.

Trying to smile as softly as possible.

The muscular man she first met in the warlock’s den immediately asked her name, but the elf girl only flinched a little and answered the question obediently.

“Cecely…I’m Cecily.”

In the middle of Yeokcheon’s pledge hideout.

It was the moment when high elf candidate Cecily and barbarian warrior Harley met.