He was tempted to go out and fix it, but he needed a bit more power.

Although the Panda said that it would generally take several months (or a year) for someone to increase one's rank from awakened tier 1 to tier 2, Finn at least wanted to learn to improve his battle prowess with the barrier as his backup.

He woke up early, made a quick breakfast, pre-prepared his lunch and dinner, before jumping straight into battle. He had already absorbed all his awakened essence cores the previous night (which shocked Pang), so he had to replenish them as much as he could.

He spent almost the entire day hunting and then absorbing everything before heading to sleep.

To hasten the process, he threw out a few slabs of meat to attract more monsters.

Monsters tended to be attracted by blood or commotion; if one appeared, it was more likely that other monsters followed.

There were several brindlejaws and a small group of brootrats this time. Well, this was good, at least he didn't have to go out to progress the Brootrat clearing mission.

This was also why he could still be calm while staying inside the barrier despite the time limit. It was slow, but it wasn't like there was no movement in the mission.

He continued to train his handling of the weapon with these monsters. He had a great passive, but he still lacked experience. He also needed to figure out ways to handle these beasts effectively without depending on the barrier, because there were missions where he could not have it.

His amber eyes traced over the damned beasts, memorizing their range movements, developing his instincts when handling them. Brindlejaws were the size of a small cow, muscle-bound and hungry for blood, while the brootrats were literally just shit-colored large rats with sharp tails.

He spun his halberd, pointing at the monster's head just as it pounded. This time, he immediately used his new skill.

[Activated Heated Arc! -5 Mana]

ROAARR!

It did not expect to bump into something sharp, and it shook its head in pain, with its forehead bleeding.

Finn saw how the warmth of the skill weakened the monster's skin, increasing the penetration effect by quite a bit.

It felt really good, and it felt like with the skill, the halberd performed almost as sharply as the elven dagger!

Finn steadily held on to the other end of the halberd before swiftly pivoting so the monster barreled over the brootrats, which took a bit of damage from the rampage.

They were really fast, but their disadvantage was that they could either get trapped between larger monsters or be stepped on by them. Even if it didn't kill them, it gave Finn the chance to do so.

He pulled the elven blade out and he swept low to target the other brindlejaw's knees, using the momentum to hit the brootrats too. He did this repeatedly until he could activate the skill again.

[Activated Heated Arc! -5 Mana]

ROARRR!

Combined with Finn's familiarity with their movements and their weaknesses, he soon started to harvest the monsters' lives even faster than before!

[Killed! Brootrat (Awakened)]

[Killed! Brindlejaw (Awakened)]

He also started fighting outside the barrier, too, taking inspiration from the kids back then. Of course, he wouldn't get his entire body out, and he made sure he just had to step back if he wanted to get back into the barrier.

[Killed! Brindlejaw (Awakened)]

[Killed! Brootrat (Awakened)]

[Killed! Brootrat (Awakened)]

He stopped only when his stats were low. He spent the entire day fighting, resting when his stamina was unable to keep up, and then jumping back up as soon as he had a decent amount.

By the end of the day, he managed to kill more than a hundred monsters and collected a whopping 13 cores!

[Status]

Name: Finnick Altheus Solthar

Race: Human

Class: Innkeeper, Chef

Level: Awakened Tier 1

Awakening Type: Physical

Affinity: Fire, Earth, Wind

…

VITALS

HP: 120/300

Mana: 145/300

Stamina: 102/300

Wallet: 30 Gold

Hearth Points: 3780 Points

…

Skills:

Active: [Ingredient Scan] [Dish Analysis][Heated Arc] [Foraging] [Farming] [Assessment]

Passive: [Blade Proficiency - Growth Type (Lv 2)] [Monster Instinct]

[Strong Stomach] [Improved Palate] [Fire Resistance]

Condition: Normal ]

Looks good.

He rewarded himself with a new, warm dinner using some of the sauces he had slowly developed over the past few days (he'd introduce them as a product later).

He took a bath and allowed himself to rest for a few hours, ensuring that he was in peak condition for the next day. He even had some essence food snacks prepared at the side.

After resting, he sat down on the carpet floor and took out all his cores, letting them surround him.

Perhaps it was just his imagination, but essence flowed better if he had plenty surrounding him. Was it because he was surrounded by the energy, so the energy could only go to him? Who knows…

Regardless of whether he was absorbing the 'core bed' or not, he had a feeling it still assisted in his quick absorption.

He took the first one into his palms and started to absorb it. He entered a zone, taking a core from around him as soon as he finished with one.

He didn't notice it, but Pang did. The first core only took 30 minutes! Then he absorbed the next one, and the other, and slowly the time reduced even more!

This changed when he took his 12th core. Just before he finished absorbing the core, he felt his entire body shake from the inside.

It felt as if he had just been hit by a truck! And then the damned driver didn't see him and decided to reverse! And then decided to just murder him to pay less medical bills and drove over him again!

And it was painful as heck!

"AHHH!" he gasped, his body squeezing into itself on the carpet. He could hear the leisurely naggy Panda running out again.

"What's going on!?" he gasped, gritting his teeth and feeling all his veins pop out.

The panda seemed quite surprised as well. "Whoa! You're really upgrading already…"

"Huh? Didn't you say those take months?"

"Most people only absorb the equivalent of two or three awakened cores at most, la!"

"You should've warned me!"

"I wanted to see how many crystals you can absorb, la…" he said. "Besides, only rank upgrades can actually kill. Tier upgrades are much milder."

"..."

Sigh. There was no talking to him.

Finn's mind went blank as all his energy was shifted to handling the damned pain. In his mind, he was hunting for that damned truck driver, stabbing him!

It felt like forever before the pain settled down. He was covered with sweat as he pushed himself up. He looked at the panda, who was now lounging on the verandah.

"What the heck. Is every Tier upgrade like this?!" he gasped, fist clenched and teeth gritted until it bled.

Explode? It certainly felt like it…

"Well, it is painful," he said. "But no one was as dramatic as you."

HEY!

Pang didn't know for sure, but it seemed like this was nature's balancing act. After all, he was absorbing so many essence cores so quickly. There was bound to be a side effect!

But well, he shrugged in the end. It was painful, but at least this gave him more time to cook, right?

Means more food for them~

[Congratulations! You have successfully progressed to Awakened Tier 2!]

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