Chapter 101: An Opportunity to Reach the Peak of Third Sequence

The destruction was so extensive that it was difficult to imagine a battle between two individuals could have caused it.

Even hundreds of meters away, the shockwaves had been strong enough to alert nearby students. Those who had sensed them had rushed toward the battlefield, hoping to discover what kind of confrontation could produce such terrifying power.

Now that they had arrived, however, the answer only raised more questions.

Someone had fought a Peak Third Sequence monster here.

And judging by the devastation, the battle had been anything but one-sided.

Grace stood among the newcomers, her gaze fixed on the ruined clearing.

She wore a Rank Two combat suit that fit closely around her figure, its protective plating accentuating her athletic build. A faint fiery aura shimmered around her, making the air near her body appear to waver.

But at this moment, she paid little attention to the others.

Her eyes had settled on the goblin shaman’s corpse.

The creature’s chest had been torn open, and its enormous body lay motionless amid the wreckage. Its head bore the unmistakable marks of a devastating attack, leaving little doubt about the violence of its final moments.

Grace’s expression changed.

She had carefully studied the competitors before the assessment began. She knew who possessed exceptional talent, who had recently advanced in cultivation, and which students were most likely to perform well.

Yet none of them had seemed capable of producing destruction on this scale.

Even the most promising candidates would struggle to defeat a Peak Third Sequence monster, particularly one with powerful magic and the ability to interfere with its opponent’s senses.

And yet someone had done it.

Grace’s instincts began screaming that something was wrong.

Not with the battlefield.

With the monster itself.

There’s something strange about this goblin...

She couldn’t immediately explain the feeling, but she had learned not to dismiss her instincts when something failed to make sense.

A short distance away, Jonathan Spark stared at the ruined clearing.

Faint electric currents flickered around his body, and the air near him vibrated with the energy of his talent. His usual confidence had been replaced by a rare expression of uncertainty.

He tried to imagine himself standing in the middle of this battlefield, facing the goblin shaman alone.

How would he have handled such an opponent?

Could he have survived the creature’s attacks? Could his abilities have overcome the difference in their physical attributes? More importantly, would he have been able to escape the effects of the mist long enough to find an opening?

The more he considered the possibilities, the more difficult it became to picture a favorable outcome.

He couldn’t help wondering who had fought here.

Angela Northwind stood nearby, watching the others with her usual indifferent expression. Her gaze moved across the ruined ground before settling briefly on the goblin shaman’s corpse.

She showed little outward reaction, but her eyes were sharper than usual.

She understood the implications of what she was seeing.

Someone among the academy’s first-year students had managed to kill a monster at the peak of the Third Sequence. Whoever that person was, they possessed strength and judgment that couldn’t be dismissed lightly.

Still, Angela offered no comment.

She simply continued observing the others, her expression calm and unreadable.

Alexander Drag, meanwhile, stared at the corpse and drew in a sharp breath.

"A Peak Third Sequence goblin shaman..."

The words escaped him almost involuntarily.

He knew how dangerous such a creature could be. Even without seeing the entire battle, he could estimate its raw power from its cultivation alone. Its aura, the devastation surrounding the clearing, and the state of its corpse all pointed toward a confrontation far beyond the level expected of first-year students.

But that wasn’t what unsettled him most.

It was the realization that someone among them had been strong enough to kill it.

Not merely survive an encounter.

Not escape after a desperate struggle.

Kill it.

Alexander’s gaze swept across the students gathered around him as he tried to identify the person responsible.

Several names came to mind. There were students with powerful talents, exceptional combat abilities, and backgrounds that gave them access to resources far beyond those available to ordinary Awakened.

Yet the more he considered them, the less certain he became.

None of them seemed to fit what he was seeing.

Who could have done this?

No one present had an answer.

And the person they were searching for was already hundreds of meters away, completely unaware of the commotion his battle had caused.

...

High above the forest floor, Jackson sat on a thick tree branch with his attention focused on the goblin shaman’s core.

"This single goblin shaman core is amazing..."

He had already used the Golden Brush to convert the core into a shadow-type core. After consuming it, he had immediately begun circulating the Shadow Titan Nurturing Method, directing its energy toward the boundary wall surrounding his spiritual space.

The result had exceeded his expectations.

The energy released by the core was far denser than that of an ordinary monster core, and its effect on his spiritual boundary was correspondingly greater.

Jackson could feel the difference.

The boundary surrounding his spiritual space had grown stronger, its structure becoming more stable as the energy from the core was absorbed. Compared with the resources he had previously consumed, this single core had provided an astonishing amount of nourishment.

His eyes lit up.

This one core is worth at least ten ordinary monster cores.

If his estimate was correct, he needed only ten more cores of comparable quality to gather enough resources to begin engraving runes on his spiritual boundary.

That would bring him one step closer to the Fourth Sequence.

The thought alone was enough to lift his spirits.

He immediately took out several cores he had extracted from ordinary goblins and examined them. After converting them into shadow-type cores, he repeated the same process, carefully observing the energy released by each one.

A pleased expression gradually appeared on his face.

"Just as I expected. These goblin cores are at least twice as effective as ordinary monster cores." 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

That was an enormous discovery.

The assessment had originally been an opportunity to test the students’ abilities and determine their rankings. For Jackson, however, the portal had become something far more valuable.

It was a resource-rich hunting ground.

Every goblin he killed could provide a core to strengthen his spiritual boundary. Every successful kill also contributed to the growth of his Aura of Absolute Slaughter, which increased both his physical and spiritual attributes by a fraction with each kill.

The gains from one or two kills were negligible.

But the effect would be very different if he could kill hundreds, or even thousands, of goblins.

The accumulated improvements could become substantial, while the monster cores would provide the resources needed to reinforce his spiritual space.

Jackson’s mind began racing.

If I can eliminate all the goblins in this space, I might even reach the peak of the Third Sequence before the assessment ends.

For an ordinary Awakened, such an idea would have been absurd.

Even if someone managed to collect thousands of goblin cores, the resources might still be insufficient to carry them all the way to the peak of the Third Sequence. Cultivation required more than simply accumulating monster cores, and the resources needed for each successive breakthrough grew increasingly demanding.

But Jackson wasn’t an ordinary Awakened.

His Golden Brush allowed him to modify the cores he obtained, making them compatible with the Shadow Titan Nurturing Method. His Aura of Absolute Slaughter rewarded him for every successful kill, steadily increasing his attributes as the number of his victims grew.

Together, these abilities created a path of growth that few others could replicate.

The more goblins he killed, the stronger he became.

The stronger he became, the easier it would be to kill even more goblins.

And the more cores he collected, the faster he could reinforce his spiritual boundary.

It was a cycle that rewarded relentless action.

Jackson’s expression slowly changed as the pieces fell into place.

Until now, he had been cautious about exposing his abilities or taking unnecessary risks. He had preferred to gather resources steadily, strengthen himself in private, and avoid attracting attention whenever possible.

But this assessment presented an opportunity too valuable to ignore.

He had already survived a battle against a Peak Third Sequence goblin shaman. The greatest danger in the portal was no longer an unknown quantity, and the rewards for eliminating the remaining goblins could be enormous.

He had no intention of wasting such an opportunity.

A cold determination settled over his face.

This time, I’m going all out.

Far away, scattered throughout the forest, countless goblins continued hunting the academy’s students.

None of them knew that a dangerous predator had just set his sights on their entire population.

A faint chill seemed to pass through the forest.

Some students paused in the middle of their movements, glancing uneasily at their surroundings. Others felt a sudden shiver crawl down their spines, though they couldn’t identify the source of their discomfort.

They had no way of knowing that one particular student had just decided to hunt down every goblin he could find.

Jackson, however, was already considering his next move.

Before he could begin his plan, he needed to solve one practical problem.

He glanced at his twin daggers.

Their blades had sustained damage during the battle against the goblin shaman. More importantly, his breakthrough in Meteor Climbing Stance had brought him closer to controlling additional weapons.

He had sensed the formation of a third spiritual strand during the final exchange. If he wanted to take advantage of that progress, he needed another knife.

Two knives were no longer enough.

Jackson carefully stored the monster cores and climbed down from the tree.

His next target wasn’t a goblin.

It was a weapon.

And once he acquired one, the real hunt could begin.