Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

Chapter 62  Drawback

Crash!

Mira's fist collided with the crocodile beast with intense force, sending it flying into the tree behind it.

Crack!

The tree came crashing down on top of the beast from the sheer force it came crashing into it.

The over 100 metre tall behemoth collapsed down, sending debris and swampy water flying everywhere.

But Mira wasn't done.

Ignoring all the carnage and commotion her attacks had caused, she charged into what remained of the tree and found the crocodile beast laying there, half dead and most of its lower body missing.

The huge crocodile just desperately opened and snapped at Mira with its mouth, twisting its body in agony and hissing even more desperately when Mira hammered her punches one after one on what remained of its body.

The huge E rank crocodile beast bled profusely through all its missing body parts and stopped struggling after a few minutes of suffering.

[You have killed a beast, Mutant Crocodile]

Mira saw the notification from the system in front of her eyes and heaved a sigh of relief.

She deactivated her talent, undoing her transformation and returning her golden blonde hair back to its short, black and grey original look.

But soon the drawbacks of her talent started showing and she could barely keep her balance, going pale and looking like she was about to faint.

Alex rarely had time to fully take in the majestic battle he just witnessed before he quickly ran over to her position and caught her before she fell unconscious into the swamp below.

'Incredible! Seeing her talent in person is a much more exciting feeling than hearing about it!'

With the unconscious Mira on his back, he trudged through the swamp and carried on moving forward, doing his best to try and leave this cursed environment.

***

Three hours later, Alex was still walking through the same monotonous scenery — the tall trees and dark swampy forest floor being the same everywhere he looked.

Mira had regained her consciousness an hour prior but she was still groggy from the previous fight.

In fact she still had a massive headache. If it weren't for the fact that she was currently being carried by Alex, she'd have the urge to run over to the nearest tree and bang her head against it.

That was how much agony she was in.

"I've never seen an A- rank talent in action before, but your strength was absurd when you fought that beast." Alex struck up a conversation with her to try and ease some of the boredom of seeing the same thing ever since he had arrived on this planet.

"Yeah well as you can see, it isn't all sunshine and rainbows." Mira responded to him in a scratchy voice as she sipped a bottle of water she fished from her backpack.

"The more energy I use in that state, the more effect the drawbacks have on me when it's over." Mira repeated the major flaw of her talent, reminding Alex that her strength comes at a cost.

"True. I guess it would be absurd if you gained all that strength with no drawbacks. If that were the case then your talent would probably be S- rank or above, haha." Alex was only half joking when he said this.

If an A- rank talent was as powerful as this, then what about an A+ rank or even the elusive S rank talents?

He didn't even want to think about it. The idea of such power being granted right from square one seemed unfair for him.

He had to work for his power, surviving the attack of the Galephant when he was just a weak F- rank, and then absorbing that mysterious flame from the Flaming Lion.

Both situations had been life or death battles that he had come out on top of either due to luck or a combination of skill and luck.

Either way, this didn't concern Alex anymore, as something much more rewarding had just entered his gaze. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"The swamp's ending!" He shouted back to Mira as she couldn't see over his shoulder.

A few kilometres ahead, he saw a drastic increase in sunlight and picked up the pace.

Some minutes later, he arrived at the edge of the swamp, finally out of the dirty and murky waters.

On the other side, a vast and rocky mountainous region greeted his eyes.

'It's better than the swamp and forest I guess.'

He was neither happy nor unhappy at seeing this new environment.

It didn't provide much cover or places to hide, but that applied both to him as well as the beasts in the region.

It would be much easier to spot beasts here.

"Put me down, I can walk myself from here on." Mira called out to him from his back — Alex let go of her and she jumped down to the ground, her small frame looking much more vibrant and sturdy than when she collapsed from exhaustion.

Alex took a look at her and was speechless.

"You recovered a while ago didn't you?? You just didn't want to walk through the water yourself…" He asked her, seeing how she looked just fine physically. Only having the headache to worry about.

She looked away from him, her cheeks slightly red at being caught red handed.

But she didn't answer him.

She started walking through the rocky terrain and left Alex trailing behind, looking like he was plotting some sort of revenge.

He looked down at his watch.

'22.5'

His points had gone up by 12.5 when Mira killed the crocodile beast.

'I hope we can find some more E- rank beasts and higher soon.'

With their goal being first place, they wouldn't stop for anything like sleep until the test ended.

Their bodies had evolved when they first became awakened, and now that they were Evolvers they could go for weeks on end before they needed rest.

But they still needed to take in a steady amount of water and food every day. In fact they had to take in ALOT more calories than when they were normal humans.

This was because their bodies demanded more energy due to their increased physical characteristics.

Their energy problem could only be supplemented when they learned a technique to absorb energy from the atmosphere directly.

But being from the slums, Alex and Mira didn't know that.

Even if they did, they had no way of accessing such a technique without first enrolling in a university.

The duo continued walking for 1 more hour, and after not seeing a single beast during that time, the sun had started setting.

Alex found a safe spot, picked up some dead branches from the ground and made a makeshift fire. Taking his combat knife, he skewered some pieces of mutant crocodile meat and roasted them over the fire.

They sat and ate for 10 minutes in silence, not getting comfortable as they would resume their search soon.

Crunch

It was very faint, but Alex was sure he had just heard a sound coming from around 500 metres of their fire.