Eternal Elysium

Asher looked around first to see anything that could be used to go on higher ground since the trees around were not tall enough to be of any help.

The pack of dogs—with grey fur—was at a hill-like structure, giving them higher ground. The rocks surrounding them were a nice stepping stone for both going over and taking a leap in the air.

'Let's just go behind them slowly, then I can simply air step.'

Going through a roundabout way, Asher soon went behind the dogs; they were quite large compared to the typical dogs he had seen, and his steps made a soft rustling sound on the grass below him. He gulped after seeing their sharp claws but didn't take a hasty decision over it.

"I am pretty sure they are not actually dogs, but I still don't know what they are called."

In these moments only does it make sense that he actually has memory loss; if not, his usual sharpness will make people wonder if he is blank in the head or not.

Stepping a bit higher now, Asher pointed his gun toward the one who was closest to him and used static—the monster's time froze; this gained no attention from the other two newborns, as they continued to look down or do their own things.

Bang—!

The gun glowed in white stripes as the shot was fired; the bullet accurately pierced the head with a loud noise to make the other newborn startled. They looked at their fallen companion and then at the place from where the shot was fired.

'12 meters is the radius in which I can apply static.'

Seeing the sight of their companion, the other two did not sit idly following his smell; they soon sprinted toward him with their sharp fangs pointed out, filled with saliva.

As they came closer, Asher quickly jumped from his position, took a single step in the air, and used his shoes as a foothold. Air step—this is what he decided to call it.

Doing the air step, Asher jumped above the dogs, landing beside a nearby tree, and pointed the gun again toward the one that was nearby him and used 'static' and shot toward it, as if sensing something amiss with the dog; the other pushed it, breaking the effect of static, making it run toward him again.

'Tsk' Seeing them come again, Asher did not sit idly either; he ran toward another tree after leaping in the air and, with an air step, did a double jump.

"Why am I even calling it an air step? It's just a double jump; I can't walk in the air anyway yet."

Grumbling to himself as he leaped in midair, Asher aimed his gun toward the monsters and shot one again. The bullet moved through the air, with swift and white light clearly visible midair; it hit the target's legs, making it stammer on the ground.

The other still safe quickly leaped toward Asher as he landed on the ground; seeing this, Asher smiled.

'Static,' the monster was stopped in midair.

In a not-so-hurried manner, Asher pointed his gun at its head.

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Bang—!

The creature's head instantly exploded as his dead body still leaped forward, due to the fact it was still in motion when 'static' was applied.

Asher walked toward the final monster, the one that was shot in the leg. It was trying to run away only to get stopped while struggling to stand up.

Not wanting to waste any more bullets, Asher took out his dagger and cut its throat, making it fall forward.

Seeing the sight of three monsters he just killed, Asher felt empty.

"I thought it would be cooler..."

Asher couldn't help but lament this anticlimactic fight he just had; sure, it was cool to jump above them, shooting one that was frozen in midair. But that's all. Everything else was too boring and easy.

He had hoped the fights would be like how stories are told of a hero fighting evil. But sadly no such things were possible; only survival matters.

"Let's just get this over with." He said to myself,

Walking toward the tree where he had hidden the bag before the fight, Asher again sighed.

He then walked toward the fallen bodies to gather the shards.

"I won't be able to get their fur or anything, sadly."

He, after all, doesn't know how to properly dissect them; if he tried to, he would probably destroy them and waste time.

After the extraction of their shards placed near their hearts, Asher walked away to search for new prey.

Asher didn't expect to meet any monster with a higher rank than a newborn rank to begin with. He was still in the outer zones of the forest; to get higher-ranking monsters, he would need to dwell deeper, which he was currently not going to do.

Walking forward aimlessly for an hour, he still did not encounter any monsters.

"Where the hell are all the monsters? Wasn't this place supposed to be filled with them?"

Asher, annoyed at finding nothing for an hour straight, grumbled.

But soon he found something quite like what he was looking for hanging on a tree.

"A monkey?"

'No, it has three tails, so not exactly a monkey, but still, what am I finding? A dog? A monkey? Next, what? A parrot the size of a human will appear'.

Asher quickly took his gun and used static again on the low-rank monster; with a single shot to its chest, it fell off the tree.

Normally monsters have higher agility and perception than humans to dodge simple attacks, but with the help of 'static,' such problems were useless to him.

Sighing again, Asher walked towards the fallen monster and knelt beside it to extract its shards.

"Four shards I have got now."

Holding them in his hands, he saw three very small ones and one larger than the rest. And put it in his bag.

Being grateful to not have met anything dangerous yet, Asher sighed in relief at his luck.

'I still am unable to keep static on two beings at once. I can do it for a living being and an object, but two living beings still take a toll on me.'

Having so much time now at hand, Asher again inspected his ability.

The cost to stop something of a lower rank than him, like a mundane human or newborn, was low, and he kept it for 20 seconds without putting too much strain on his mind, while beings of the same rank at full concentration could be kept for around 10 seconds.

Asher already knows what a being of a higher rank is, as he had already tried it on the tree. Normal items can be kept as long as he has energy and can concentrate.

"The next thing I need to try is to keep static on many opponents at the same time."

Determined now to try something challenging, Asher found childish excitement in it.

Cling—!

Cling—!

Hearing the sounds of something or someone clashing, Asher hurried his footsteps as he walked deeper and did an air step to the tree and reached its top easily.

Seeing the dense forest from above for the first time, Asher looked toward the source of the sound. His eyes narrowed sharply as he tried to see what was happening from afar.

Two silhouettes were fighting a beast.