The moment the seal stabilized, Divya straightened her posture.
"Alright," she said, tightening the strap of her pack. "Let's move deeper."
Arjun nodded. "Monsters near the town won't be enough anymore. We'll just waste time here."
The outer forest was already familiar—low-level beasts, predictable movements, shallow experience gains. Even after hours of fighting, the progress crawled.
They left it behind.
As they moved deeper, the forest changed.
The trees grew taller and thicker, their trunks dark with moisture. The air felt heavier, saturated with mana and the constant croaking of unseen creatures. The ground softened underfoot, turning muddy, and patches of stagnant water reflected the canopy above.
"This area feels different," Divya said quietly.
"It should," Arjun replied. "Stronger monsters tend to gather where mana is thick."
A sudden splash broke the silence.
From a marshy clearing ahead, something massive rose from the water.
A frog.
No—not just a frog.
Its body was the size of a small horse, skin swollen and translucent, veins pulsing beneath layers of slick mucus. Each breath it took released a wet, gurgling sound, and its yellow eyes locked onto them with dull hostility.
[MARSH SLIME FROG]
Divya exhaled slowly. "I'll take this one."
Arjun turned to her sharply. "Solo?"
She nodded. "I need to test my control. Stay back."
Arjun hesitated for half a second, then stepped aside. "I'll intervene if it goes wrong."
The frog croaked loudly and launched itself forward, its body compressing before springing across the mud.
Divya raised her staff and fired a condensed mana bolt.
Splash.
The attack struck—but instead of tearing through, it slid off the creature's mucus-covered skin, dispersing harmlessly.
"…Annoying," Divya muttered.
The frog slammed down, sending a shockwave of mud and water outward. Divya stumbled but steadied herself, immediately reinforcing her legs with mana.
"So physical damage is reduced," she said under her breath. "Then I'll adjust."
She stopped forcing raw power and focused instead on control.
Mana flowed cleaner, tighter.
Her next spell wasn't a blast—it was a focused pulse, vibrating at a higher density. When it struck the frog's side, the mucus rippled violently, destabilizing its surface.
The creature croaked in pain.
"Good," Divya said, eyes sharp. "So it's weak to internal disruption."
The frog retaliated, spitting a glob of sticky fluid toward her face. Divya twisted aside, the slime sizzling where it hit the ground.
"That would've been bad," Arjun muttered.
Divya didn't respond. She stepped forward instead.
Her staff glowed faintly as she layered mana again and again, refining it mid-cast. Each attack grew sharper, more precise, forcing its way through the mucus and into muscle.
The frog's movements slowed.
Finally, Divya gathered mana into her palm and released it directly into the creature's chest at point-blank range.
The frog let out one final croak—then collapsed, its massive body dissolving into light.
Green particles rose toward Divya's leaf-shaped symbol.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then—
[DING!]
[WOOD-ATTRIBUTE PARTICLES DETECTED]
[ASSIMILATION BLOCKED]
[REASON: SEAL STATUS ACTIVE]
[PARTICLES CONVERTED INTO EXPERIENCE]
Divya frowned, flexing her fingers. "So I don't get fragments."
"But you still gained experience," Arjun said, stepping forward. "That confirms it."
She nodded. "The seal stops both loss and gain."
"Balanced," Arjun said quietly. "Cruel, but fair."
Divya looked at her palm, then smiled slightly. "I think I'm ready."
She closed her eyes and thought of release.
The vine-like lines around her symbol unwound and faded.
[SEAL REMOVED]
Arjun did the same, dismissing his own seal with a simple thought.
The symbols returned to their unbound state, glowing faintly.
Divya rolled her shoulders. "Alright. No more protection."
Arjun grinned. "Then let's hunt properly."
They turned deeper into the forest, where the croaks grew louder and the shadows thicker—ready to risk decay again for real growth
After that, they decided to separate once again.
"Same rule as before," Arjun said. "If anything feels wrong, retreat."
Divya gave him a knowing look. "And don't forget—solo kills."
Arjun nodded. With a final glance at each other, they turned in opposite directions, their figures soon swallowed by the deep forest.
Not long after, Arjun felt it.
The mana around him shifted—heavy, sluggish, and rooted.
He stopped.
From between two massive trees, a figure slowly emerged.
A Wood Treant.
Its body was tall and uneven, bark layered thick like armor. Long branches extended from its shoulders, leaves rustling despite the still air. Glowing green lines pulsed faintly through cracks in its trunk—signs of circulating wood-type mana.
[WOOD TREANT]
Arjun exhaled slowly and loosened his grip on his sword.
Perfect.
He didn't rush forward.
Instead, his mind drifted back to the sword manual he had read the previous night.
According to the book, all sword techniques—no matter how complex—were built upon eight fundamental strikes:
Vertical downward.
Diagonal downward right.
Diagonal downward left.
Horizontal right.
Horizontal left.
Diagonal upward right.
Diagonal upward left.
Vertical upward.
Eight directions.
Eight truths.
Everything else—combos, skills, techniques—were merely variations, extensions, or refinements of these basics. The same applied to parries and counters.
If that's true… Arjun thought, then mastering these is more important than chasing flashy techniques.
He raised his sword.
The treant attacked first, swinging a massive branch downward.
Arjun stepped in—not to finish it, but to practice.
He executed a vertical downward strike, clean and controlled. Mana flowed into the blade—not explosively, not enhanced like his Slash technique—but evenly, reinforcing the edge.
The bark split.
The treant recoiled, branches regenerating slowly.
Good.
Arjun shifted his stance and followed with a horizontal right slash, then a diagonal downward left, carefully adjusting footwork and angle with every movement.
He wasn't fighting to kill.
He was sharpening himself.
The treant roared and retaliated, branches crashing from multiple angles. Arjun parried—horizontal left into diagonal upward right—steel meeting wood again and again. Each impact sent a tremor through his arms, forcing him to correct posture, grip, breathing.
Too wide.
Too slow.
Foot's off by a fraction.
Mistakes were punished immediately.
Whenever the treant overextended, Arjun answered with another basic strike—no wasted motion, no excessive force. He cycled through all eight directions repeatedly, imprinting them into muscle memory.
Time blurred.
Sweat soaked into his clothes. His arms burned. His breathing grew heavy.
The treant regenerated again and again, its core still intact.
This thing really is a perfect whetstone, Arjun thought grimly.
Nearly an hour passed.
Finally, with movements refined and rhythm settled, Arjun allowed himself to end it.
He activated Slash, compressing mana precisely—not wildly—and delivered a vertical upward strike, splitting through the treant's trunk and shattering the glowing core within.
The treant froze.
Then collapsed, lifeless.
Green particles rose and merged smoothly into Arjun's leaf symbol.
[WOOD CORE FRAGMENTS ACQUIRED]
Arjun didn't celebrate.
He dropped to one knee, sword planted into the soil as he panted heavily. Every muscle screamed in exhaustion.
But his hands—his grip—felt steadier than ever.
"…Worth it," he muttered.
As he stood, he looked at his sword with renewed resolve.
In the coming days, he thought, I'll perfect every one of these eight strikes.
Not for flash.
Not for speed.
But for control.
The path forward had become clearer.