Time passed and nothing had changed. Dylan fought several monster hordes after killing that troll and the goblin rider.
He thought that after killing them, everything would be more difficult from now on but it was met with a disappointment as the regular kinds of monsters, mainly goblins and kobolds, attacked him again in tides, the only difference was their numbers that increased more than usual.
They were easy to kill and that what he did. He killed them all until he couldn't feel anything.
He lost the count of how many goblins and kobolds he had killed, the number surly exceeded the three digits.
Anyway, his power also increased but not much at all, only slightly and that was due to the monsters being weak. His strength was more than them making the increase after absorbing their souls not felt.
He only felt a slight increase in power after absorbing a hell number of monsters.
Then after those several hordes of monsters, he was met with the same troll and goblin rider with the difference that they were two trolls and three goblin riders.
This time Dylan delt with them efficiently, not like the first time, he killed them all using his incredible speed and skill and sword mastery.
They didn't take much time. After that he absorbed their souls.
Maybe the only benefit he got was his sword mastery that progressed from the beginner level to the intermediate level.
Learning new skills and techniques in handling the katana in his hand with great dexterity and mastery.
But still not enough, he needs more.
He also discovered, with time, that absorbing the souls only increased his attributes like strength, agility and stamina not mana. He didn't even have mana to being with.
Which raised a question in his head about why he didn't awaken the mana inside him if he was absorbing the souls of the monsters he killed?
And he got his answers when the demons inside told him that to awaken his mana, there were two ways, one was to awaken it naturally and two was by using some external ways.
Some of them weren't good like sacrificing part of the body as an offering to the abyss in exchange for awakening mana veins and more terrifying ways that could make your stomach churn.
The more Dylan heard the more he felt uneasy and disgusted but what more was that he felt that he had no hope in awakening mana.
But the demons inside him said that there was another method that they didn't mention which was by changing his race to a higher one, so he could awaken the mana in his body but this method had a huge draw back.
Many tried this method but failed and died.
To change someone's race, he or she must be compatible with the race they want to change to, otherwise, death is only the end.
This made Dylan feel more quite disappointed but at least he had a chance, he just hoped to be compatible with a strong and good race.
"Anyway, thinking about it for long won't get us anywhere, for now let's continue moving." He said before he dashed through the clearing in front of him with incredible speed.
Few minutes later, Dylan found himself in front of a huge cave carved into a huge rocky mountain, just being in front of it made him want to puke due to the disgusting smell that was coming out of it.
"Ugh! What is this smell?! It's so repugnant! I feel like puking right now."
[Hold on Dylan, just get used to it.] A voice said in his head.
[Yes, besides, there are even smells that are more disgusting and repulsive than this one, this is just—]
[A normal level of bad smell.]
"Damn, that's crazy." Dylan said before calming himself down.
[You can adapt by slowing your breathing and exhaling small amounts of air in your lungs in a regular manner dear Dylan~] suddenly another voice said.
Dylan did as she said and felt slightly better than before.
But then suddenly, he noticed a glowing yellow eyes staring at him from inside the cave. Due to the sky being red and the cave being so deep having no lights, it was dark inside.
Immediately, he went on full alert taking out his sword and getting ready for any attack.
He didn't need to wait much as before he could think of what was that staring at him, the glowing yellow eyes disappeared making Dylan perplexed, but then out of the blue, he felt his instincts screaming to him to run making him more confused before a sharp tip of a dagger appeared in front of his face directly going for the eyes.
It was so sudden that Dylan couldn't even think of what was that, it felt like it just teleported or appeared out of thin air in front of him.
The world seemed to slow down in front of Dylan as he felt death coming at him with open arms.
He screamed.
'MOVE! MOVE! MOVE YOU DAMN BODY OF MINE!'
He shouted inside him for his body to move but to no avail, it was like his body was rooted in its place unable to move an inch.
'MOVE! OR I WILL DIE!!' He screamed again.
Dylan tried his hardest to move even a little millimeters but he couldn't.
His blood ran cold and his breaths hitched.
'I AM NOT GONNA DIE TODAY!' He shouted again inside him with all his will and strength before finally—
Swooosh!
The dagger went past him going straight to the ground.
"Huff...Huff... That was close." He said as sweat was dripping out of him.
This was the second time he felt that death was so close to him.
If not for absorbing so many souls to strengthen his body, he would have died right now with a dagger in his head not knowing who did it.
Dylan looked at the creature who did this just to find a little and small sized goblin smiling evilly at him showing its sharp teeth that looked like needles.
The creature was small in size, smaller than a normal goblin with green skin, but it gave off a feeling of danger that felt like ants crawling on your skin.
"Can a goblin be this fast?" Dylan questioned.
[This is a variant Dylan.] Suddenly a womanly voice said in his head.
"A variant?"
[Yes, it's not always but sometimes a mutation could happen to a newborn monster. This mutation results in making the newborn looks different than his kind but as he looks different, he is stronger than his peers like that one, he has incredible speed that the naked eye cannot follow. Thus we call those mutated monsters variants.]
Dylan nodded as kept looking at the smiling small goblin in front of him.
A mutation could happen to the newborns making them look different but stronger.
The more Dylan thought about it, the more he felt like a frog in the well.
'The world is so vast.' he thought.
Well, it is but he is getting stronger, right?
[You need to figure out how to deal with this variant by yourself Dylan.] The same captivating mature voice said to him.
"Can you not just tell me how?"
[If we told you, then you wouldn't get stronger, you would only depend more on us whenever you found yourself in a difficult situation like this.] The same vice said.
[Exactly, use your mind and you will definitely find a way, after all nothing is impossible in this universe, Dylan!] An energetic voice said to him making him sigh and think that he was stupid to ask for something like that.
They were right, if got used to their help, then he wouldn't get stronger at all, and just think about it, what would happen if those you always turn to for help in those difficult situations disappeared from your life, what would you do?
Stand there and wait for your death or using your mind to think of a way to survive?
The answer is obvious.
"You are right, I went overboard, sorry for this."
[It's okay, as long as you realize that, then it's fine~]
With that, Dylan pushed away any confusing thoughts from his head and cleared his mind.
He put all his concentration on the enemy in front of him, not losing sight of him for a moment.
'Here we go.'