Ronan parried the first blow from the marine abomination’s hooked tentacles, even managing to shear off a sliver of flesh from the creature before it hastily retracted the appendage. In the brief window between that moment and its next strike, he looked at the tag above its scaled head, curious to know what to expect from this latest foe.

  [Coruskall - MINI BOSS][Infant Leviathan Lv.75]

  That huge thing is just a baby? Ronan was gobsmacked to learn that, but if anything it only made him curious as to how large and powerful an adult or even juvenile leviathan might be. One day he would find out, and he would kill the hideous bastard. At that moment he had a baby to put down.

  The next strike came fast, the tentacle blurring before slamming against the flat of his blade. Ronan expertly parried the hook at the end of its thick tentacle, deflecting it to the side while observing the leviathan’s body for weaknesses to exploit. There weren’t any obvious ones.

  He kept at it for a while, adapting to each new type of attack that the monster revealed. Apart from the twin hooked tentacles, it could also fire a gloopy, corrosive substance from one of its beaks, while the other launched needles made of bone that travelled as fast as bullets and pierced the metal of the ship where they landed. A couple struck Ronan, burying themselves in his flesh, but they were easy to yank out and the wounds didn’t take much effort to heal with Suture Wound.

  He had yet to master true healing, but his high stats combined with Suture Wound was an adequate replacement for all but the most devastating of injuries. He was drawing closer to a breakthrough on that front, though. He had made the interesting discovery that healing did not have a specific attunement but rather utilised pure mana, which meant that his ability to use healing magic had grown after taking the sorcerer sub-class evolution and gaining Spellcasting mastery.

  The corrosive goo was the most annoying of its attacks. Even wiping it off didn’t completely stop the burn and he had already suffered a lot of damage from it splashing against him. Even when he avoided its spit, the spray caught him on the arms and legs, searing through his clothes and then skin.

  Ronan grew tired of the battle rather quickly. While the infant leviathan was large and had a variety of abilities, it was predictable in its attack patterns. Once he had learnt how to avoid its most devastating attacks, he rarely suffered any damage. The main obstacle to his victory was the fact that it could sit in the ocean at about a fifty metre distance from the ship while damaging it and Ronan.

  The leviathan was likely to be the final enemy of stage 3, which meant he wouldn’t have to worry too much about the damage to the ship, but he had no desire to fight the monster while in the ocean. The part of its body that it had revealed above the surface seemed to be incomplete, leading Ronan to believe that there was more hidden away beneath the waves.

  The distance wasn’t a real problem. He just hadn’t tried to cross it yet because he wanted to first figure out what the leviathan could do. If it had been hiding some sort of secret boss attack Ronan had hoped to bait it into using it so that he could then deliver a finishing blow. It would have used such an attack by that point, if it had one, given how he practically shrugged off everything else it had thrown at him.

  However, he had seen everything the mini-boss had to throw at him, or at least believed he had. It was time to end the battle.

  Ronan was around ten metres from the very tip of the prow. He summoned his recently crafted seafood spear into his hands. He could have conjured a spear, but the seafood spear had the length he wanted for his next attack, and he hadn’t managed to push conjure weapon enough to create a full-sized spear. He judged the distance to the leviathan and then began to sprint.

  He gained speed rapidly, his massive agility allowing him to accelerate faster than a supercar. The ship and the ocean blurred around him as he reached unprecedented speeds for a human. As he stepped onto the prow he bent his leg and then exploded upwards.

  Ronan flew over the ocean’s surface, the waves soaring past below him. The leviathan’s hideous upper body loomed large, rapidly increasing in size. He was aiming for a spot just between one of its eyes and its dolphin-like maw, as that was where he believed its brain should be. If he was wrong, he hoped his attack would have enough power to make up for the inaccuracy.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  There wasn’t much time to think as he flew, but he had planned his attack before he took his first step. The seafood spear was enchanted with both ice and explosion, he had activated Vital Surge, and right before he plunged the shrimp-clawed spear into the leviathan’s flesh, it lit up with a bright surge of mana as the rest of his offensive skills were applied to the thrust.

  Despite the relative weakness of the weapon he’d crafted, the spear still tore through the scaled flesh with ease, parting it like a hot knife through butter. He felt the leviathan spasm and then writhe, before falling still as a blast of mana tore through its insides. He had missed its brain by a small margin, but the explosion shredded a large chunk of it. Another three blows struck it in succession, the fourth causing a third of the colossal creature’s body to simply vanish as Critical Tempo massively multiplied the blow.

  Ronan then realised he had failed to account for the biggest variable of his attack strategy. He was now standing on the dead corpse of the monster as it began to sink into the ocean and slowly dissolve into mana. The ship was rapidly approaching from behind, however, so he hopped back onto it. While he had completed stage 3—a fact he confirmed by the twin chimes that sounded as he dealt the finishing blow to the infant leviathan—there were still five minutes until he was transported to the next one. Five minutes that he would much rather spend on the deck of the ship than treading water in the freezing ocean.

  Once he was back on deck he pulled up the notifications. He was expecting a glut of levels, especially given that he had dealt the final blow with a critical hit. The multiplier on top of the fact he was about 20 levels lower than the mini-boss would mean a big reward. He was intrigued about the stage reward, too. Usually stage 3 granted a personal trait, but he wondered if the Temporal Obelisk would do what it had before and absorb the energy of multiple successes to eventually grant him an upgrade to Fate Alignment.

  It was something he didn’t really take much note of during his iterations, but the legendary version of the skill was less geared towards direct battle applications and more towards general beneficial fortune. That was highly synergistic with his luck stat being as absurd as it was, presumably affecting everything he’d been doing. No news is good news, as they say. If nothing overly tragic is happening then I’m sure I’ll be fine.

  You have killed [Coruskall - MINI BOSS][Infant Leviathan Lv.75]!

  Enemy killed with a critical hit, 2.8x experience gained!

  +4 Bronze Credits

  +986 Copper Credits

  +11 [Mana VII] Mastery

  +14 [Stamina VII] Mastery

  +6 [Spellcasting I] Mastery

  +8 [Throwing Knife I] Mastery

  +4 [Health V] Mastery

  +17 [Spear IV] Mastery

  +4 [Focus] Mastery

  +5 [Perception II] Mastery

  +Infant Leviathan Scales Lv.75 (Rare)

  +Infant Leviathan Tentacle Lv.75 (Rare)

  +Infant Leviathan Steak Lv.75 (Epic)

  +Mini-Boss Shard Lv.75 (Body)

  You have leveled up to Lv.58!

  …

  You have leveled up to Lv.79!

  +330 Vitality

  +330 Endurance

  +198 Wisdom

  +88 Regeneration

  +44 Resistance

  +198 Intelligence

  +198 Acuity

  +440 Charisma

  +21,010 Luck

  +7,326 Free Stat Points

  Congratulations, you have cleared Stage 3 of the tutorial!

  +1 Bronze Credit

  +627 Copper Credits

  You will be awarded your personal trait based on all your accomplished merit thus far!

  ERROR! Personal trait analysis interrupted, person—!$#?^￡

  Chronological divergence in personal trait detected!

  Excess trait manifestation energy has been consumed!

  Would you like to make an offering to the Temporal Obelisk?

  Ronan was expecting the notification and didn’t hesitate to accept. Whatever the outcome, granting the energy to the obelisk was a better choice than letting it go to waste. He wouldn’t see the effects immediately after the first offering, but after a few more nightmare stage 3 completions he would.

  Stage 4 will begin in 5 minutes!

  4:59…

  With all of that sorted, Ronan found a spot on the deck that had the least monster guts and blood splashed across it and sat down. He took out the elite shards and the mini-boss shard he had acquired during the tutorial. Not all of them were energy-aspected, but the conversion was almost three-quarters of the energy volume, so he didn’t mind losing a bit of efficiency to test out his new Mystic Energy Art. He picked up the first shard and took out the art, wondering what processes it would involve.