On the ground lay two beasts, both with their heads missing.
It seemed that their heads were indeed their weak points.
Ash honestly felt a bit stupid, asking why it took him so long to realise something so simple. I mean of course the head would be it's weak point, it is the weak point of most living beings. No head, no thoughts, simple.
Walking up to the cut off heads Ash took a long look at them, trying to see if he would recognize any of them, but it seemed he didn't. None of the faces were of people he knew.
Seeing this Ash let out a sigh of relief. Killing people even if they were now monsters felt wrong, but not knowing the ones involved atleast eased his conscience a bit.
Ash was still near his cave, he still hadn't truly entered the town. He still had no idea what would await him deeper inside the town. Would the monsters stay the same? Were there even more monsters, or was this all? He had no idea, but it didn't matter much, because he knew he had to go deeper.
Deciding on where to go Ash entered the street in the middle. Of course he did so, because that was the quickest way to the orphanage.
Entering the street, he was able to get a view down the whole street all the way to the town's center where the SCC staff were supposed to be.
'I wonder what happened to the people of SCC.'
The SCC employed people with potential, so the people sent here must not have been weak, but it seemed they weren't much of a challange for Floch.
'They are probably already dead.'
His assumption made sense, since in none of the loops were they ever present. They were most likely just one of the many bodies littered around town.
Ash would have normally been scared by this realisation, but during this two or so day long period of time he had changed. He no longer needed someone to save him, and Floch also didn't scare him anymore.
It was clear to him that Floch would not kill him, atleast not permanently. This loop was the biggest tell.
Even before the in first life, he had no hopes of defeating Floch, but as he had no other choice he decided to go down swinging. But now he went to him not to challange him, but to question him.
Walking down the street, Ash was unsettled, as the monsters were seemingly nowhere to be seen.
While he considered that those three were the only ones, this assumption was always closer to a wish. He knew full well things wouldn't be so easy.
Continuing his walk, he arrived at the town square, but upon arriving, what welcomed him was not the SCC envoy, nor just a simple pile of corpses.
There stood a gigantic monster, which much like the ones before were made of corpses, but there was something different about it, beyond just it's size.
There seemed to be something glowing in the middle of it, a small light too pure for such a disgusting giant.
Standing there Ash knew full well that he was not equipped to defeat the monster before him.
In that moment the monster slowly turned around and locked eyes with Ash.
Looking at it from the front Ash saw that the monster had a face, beyond just the corpses on it. It looked like a giant cyclops.
The cyclops looked at him, and swung its arm.
Ash was sent flying with force incomparable to the one the other monsters had.
In a moment Ash was splattered on one of the nearby buildings, dying instantly.
...
Ash woke up once more in the cave.
Things were the same as before and Ash was about to head out when the Interface appeared once more.
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[Talent scanning is complete]
[Thank you for using Soul Chip Corporation for you procedure]
[Showing results...]
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[Soul Chip Interface]
>Core Power: [Truth Seeker]
>Proficiency: [3%]
>Rank: [I]
>Attribute: [Light]
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[Minor Skills]
> Null
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Something has changed.
During the loops Ash had seen the screen many times before, so he naturally noticed when something changed.
'The Proficiency, it has gone up.'
His proficiency of truth seeker has seemingly gone up by a whole one percent.
This led Ash to one conclusion.
'Progress carries over from loop to loop.'
He hadn't checked it before dying, but he was certain this increase was the result of his fights.
But he didn't understand why his skill went up.
He hadn't been using it, it made very little sense to him.
In truth Ash having had bare bones education, didn't know that core power proficieny increased when ones core grew through fighting or training. The core and the power it wielded were intrinsically connected, when one grew the other did aswell.
Discarding the question, Ash focused on the bigger problem, like literally bigger. The cyclops monster.
It was a given that he couldn't beat it, not right now, and maybe never.
His best course of action was simple.
Just avoid it.
While going directly through the town square was the quickest path there were many other streets that led to the orphanage.
Of his two options, between going right or left, the right one was quicker by a bit.
With not much to think about Ash felt like that was his best path forward.
Of course before he could go he had to get rid of the three monsters that were scheduled to show up.
With the first one showing up Ash was quick to make work of it.
This time with his knowledge of it's weak point he aimed for it's heads and was able to quickly slay it.
He was so fast that the other two, would take another seven minutes to show up.
Deciding that it was pointless to wait Ash went ahead and entered the street on the right, where one of the two monsters would be waiting for him.
Stepping into the street, Ash was quick to spot the monster in the distance, it was the biggest of three.
Last time Ash was able to fend it off easily as once he figured out their weak points they were pretty trivial opponents.
This time as well he was able to kill it in just around two minutes.
Upon killing it out of curiosity Ash decided to take a look at his Interface to see if any changes had occured.
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[Soul Chip Interface]
>Core Power: [Truth Seeker]
>Proficiency: [3%]
>Rank: [I]
>Attribute: [Light]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[Minor Skills]
> Null
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Looking at the screen Ash was a bit disappointed, as seemingly no changes were made since he checked it a few minutes ago.
Continuing his walking down the street Ash soon came face to face with more monsters.
The monsters were seemingly ordinary, around the size of the one he had just slain, but there was one problem.
Their numbers.
Ash was quickly able to tell that there were atleast a few dozen in this narrow street alone, probably more waiting for him deeper in.
He was confident he could take on two at once, maybe even three or four, but he knew that that many he could not do so.
Alas it was too late, for he was already spotted by the horde.
Realising that running was pointless Ash instead chose to fight.
He wanted to gauge just how many he could take down before being taken down himself.
And in the end the answer was more depressing than he would have thought.
...
"Zero... zero, hahahaha."
Ash couldn't take down any, as he was quickly overwhelmed by the horde and stomped to death, his usually dodgy style of fighting proved useless.
It was apparent to Ash that he also wouldn't be able to take this path, but atleast he considered his chances of ever going down that path better than with the middle one.
Left with no choice Ash decided to head down the path on the left.
The screen showed no changes, and the first monster was dealt with easily, and now Ash was already going down the path on the left.
The first thing he encountered was the weaker of the two latecomers.
Since it was pretty much the same as the first monster he was able to deal with it in a few simple moves.
As he moved down the path it didn't take long for him to find another monster, this time in a pair.
Two were harder to deal with than one, but their collective strength hardly amounted to more than the strength of the larger sized monster.
As he kept walking he was soon face to face with monsters once more, but this time there were three.
Ash was able to promptly take care of them.
Taking his sword out from one of the monsters Ash looked at the three monsters before him with a bit of worry.
'I have a feeling I know where this is going.'
Sensing the pattern, Ash wasn't disappointed to find himself facing four monsters next, and five after, and then six.
In the end it seemed his current limit was six, as this was number was seemingly enough to overwhelm him.
His biggest problem was that the streets were narrow, and with nowhere to move he found himself unable to dodge.
This fighting style has seemingly failed him again, as he was stomped to death by the six monsters.
...
Waking up, something became apparent to Ash.
His paths were blocked, his tecnique was ineffective.
He had to change his fighting style.