Chapter 522: Hunting In Second Sanctuary
Moon rode deeper into the floating island, eventually reaching a region he hadn’t fully explored before. The terrain here was harsher, jagged rock boulders and heavy mist.
[You have entered a zone with a 2,500 Lives Penalty]
Moon glanced at the notification casually, then dismissed it without a second thought.
The penalty zones were designed to discourage weaker Evolvers from venturing into dangerous territory. Dying inside one cost extra lives on respawn. But Moon had over a hundred thousand lives in reserve.
A twenty-five hundred penalty meant nothing to him.
More importantly, the strongest threats on this island had already been dealt with.
The pavilion, the spirits dwelling with it and Layla and her forces. With those gone, very few entities remained that could pose a real threat to his life. Beasts roamed the island, some of them powerful, but nothing that could match him at four-star combat power.
On this island, Moon was nearly unbeatable.
That said, his reserved nature never let him grow complacent. He had survived this long precisely because he never underestimated his opponents. Overconfidence killed more talented Evolvers than weakness ever did. So even now, riding through territory he had effectively conquered, Moon kept his senses sharp, his awareness extended, ready to react to anything unexpected.
He found his two Second Star beasts waiting for him in the zone.
The Four-Headed Hydra rose from a pool of dark water as he approached, its massive frame casting a long shadow on him. Beside it, the Fire Hound prowled along a ridge, its dark fur smoldering faintly, flames licking along the edges of its claws.
Both of them turned toward Moon as he arrived, their cursed obedience pulling them into alignment with his presence.
Moon studied them carefully.
Both had grown stronger.
While he had been away, the two beasts had been hunting freely across the island, working through his last standing order to keep getting stronger. The Mark of Omen buff he had alternated between them before leaving had clearly accelerated their growth, pushing whichever beast carried it to new heights during their hunts.
Back on Earth, Moon had lost his sensory connection to them. The distance between the surface and the Second Sanctuary severed his ability to feel their physical locations or read their surface thoughts. But the cursed bond itself had remained intact. His last command had continued to guide them, and they had continued drawing on his mana to sustain the connection.
"Not bad." Moon nodded in satisfaction as he assessed their auras. "Their power has risen by nearly two acupoints each."
The growth rate was impressive. If they continued progressing at this pace, both beasts would cross into Third Star territory within a week or two. For Second Star beasts to climb that quickly was extraordinary, a direct result of the rich hunting grounds, and the Mark of Omen acceleration.
He let out a small sigh.
"If only they provided me with lives and experience. That would have been perfect."
The limitation of his Curse skill still bothered him. The cursed beasts grew stronger, served loyally, and fought effectively. But their kills belonged to them alone. Unlike Mirage and his spirit, whose victories fed lives and experience directly back to Moon through their bonds, the cursed beasts were a closed system. Whatever they killed strengthened only themselves.
Moon had accepted this trade-off. The beasts were tools, weapons, expendable frontline forces. They weren’t partners. The Curse provided control, not connection.
Still, the thought of all that wasted potential nagged at him.
He pushed it aside.
"Alright." He looked across his small army. Mirage beneath him. The fox at his side. The Hydra and the Fire Hound flanking him. "Let’s get to work. I want to push my own reserves as high as possible before I head back."
The beasts moved into formation around him.
Moon spent the next hour cutting through every beast that crossed his path.
The lower-tier creatures fell without resistance. One-Star and Two-Star beasts that would have posed a threat to ordinary Evolvers were nothing to Moon now. His sword carved through them, his lightning dropped them where they stood, his beasts tore them apart before they could even register the danger.
But the spiritual energy returns were disappointing.
One-Star and Two-Star beasts no longer provided meaningful spiritual energy. The amounts were negligible, barely making a difference in Moon’s vast reserves. His acupoints had grown so dense and powerful that the trickle of energy from weak beasts didn’t make even a small dent.
The lives were still decent, though. Around fifty per kill after his Grim Reaper talent passive. The total accumulated steadily across dozens of kills. Not spectacular, but consistent.
It took a full hour before Moon encountered his first Three-Star beast.
HISS!
Faint almost imperceptible. Moon’s Battle Instinct flared a half-second before the attack came.
A pure black shape erupted from a crevice in the rocks to his right, moving with terrifying speed.
Five meters of pure muscle mass and dark scale, easily weighing as much as a fully grown horse, the snake launched itself at Moon with its fangs bared, aiming for the gap between his torso and his raised arm.
Moon reacted on instinct.
He twisted in Mirage’s saddle, his new sword already clearing its scabbard. Weaponmaster activated, amplifying his strike fourfold. He met the snake’s lunge head-on, driving the edge of the sword into the side of its neck just behind the jaw.
The blade bit deep. The scales were unable to deflect the attack, splitting open under the force of Weaponmaster and the B-Rank sword. Blood sprayed across the rocks as the bleeding effect from Weaponmaster’s evolution made the wound wider.
The Dark Mamba recoiled, its momentum broken, its body writhing in pain. It tried to coil back for a second strike.
Moon didn’t give it the chance.
He raised his free hand and released two consecutive bolts of lightning. The first struck the snake’s head, locking its muscles. The second followed a fraction of a second later, channeling directly into the wound his sword had opened, the current flooding through the creature’s nervous system.
