Damon's Ascension-Chapter 53: Frontal Assault 2

Whichever it was, seeing a humanoid silhouette sprinting towards oneself at such a terrifying speed caused the stunned guards to feel alarm, especially when Damon got right into their faces. They lifted up their guns to fire at him in order to slow him down while also shouting to alarm their fellow men.

Alas, it was far too late. Damon had not simply shot them from afar because energy bullets, for all their power, had limited range for effectiveness. Damon could guarantee a shot on anything within a hundred meters, but beyond that, he would be wasting energy.

So he charged close to the group, not to attract shots or display his speed, but simply to enter the necessary range to dispose of them. Damon was not a skilled marksman, so he had to slow down and take aim before firing.

Luckily, there was no need to consider recoil or wind resistance. Wherever Damon aimed, the bullet would faithfully follow that path until it ran out of power, and so it did, turning the guard who was about to shout into ash.

He was not the only one who spotted Damon, but all those who were similarly about to make a report were immediately taken down by consecutive rapid-fire shots, causing about seven men spread out around the back area of the hillock to become silent forever.

While Damon recharged his energy reserves, he immediately utilized his Worldly Essence gained to advance to Level 6. This took about 5 minutes, which gave Damon more than enough time to refill his energy reserves for Devour.

With his newly added stat point, Damon paused and glanced at Mobility and Fortitude. 4 points in Mobility would definitely rake him to the next step in terms of prowess, allowing him to move at a top speed of over 35 m/s, which was over 120 km/h.

Another point in Fortitude would see his stamina requirements increase by a fold once more, bringing with it untold benefits. This battle could not be won by one man unless he possessed the power of an army in his body. Granted, Damon was nowhere near that level, but a 3rd point in Fortitude would allow him to ’farm’ this battlefield more efficiently.

Ultimately, Damon did not invest in any of his physical stats. Rather, he unhesitatingly placed his newly gained stat point into his Mentality, feeling the energy rush towards his brain as great changes were made there.

The reason for Damon’s choice was quite simple. He chose this stat not out of a desire for greater computing power or mere curiosity about the difference between an SSS-grade stat and an F-ranked one, but because he struggled to adapt to enhanced physical abilities.

It was honestly a predictable problem, especially in the case of Mobility. A human being could travel at extremely fast speeds using vehicles like cars, trains, or even airplanes, achieving velocities like never before.

However, the issue came in the fact that at some point, the human brain could not keep up with the movement, which was why one was advised against speeding.

Mobility increased agility and flexibility but not acuity or perception. Or to put it more simply, Damon could run fast, but he couldn’t think as fast.

This was not yet a serious problem due to the small gap in stats and the strong mental power of humankind. After all, when driving a car, the driver would be able to maintain control and awareness even at speeds of around 100 km/h. However, beyond 200 km/h, motion blur starts to distort perception, making it significantly harder to process the surroundings.

Just now, Damon could have physically continued rushing into the fortified position and blasted everyone while maintaining his speed. However, that would have been like putting the ox before the cart; his body would have been able to handle it, but his mind couldn’t keep up. Instead, he had to stop and eliminate them one by one as quickly as possible.

You can imagine how incredibly inefficient that was. Thankfully, this was a low-level Essence Instance set in the past where weaponry was relatively poor. If it was a modern military outfit, his current speed would not be enough to take them down even while moving quickly.

Most importantly, Mentality was necessary because Damon planned to get an EX rank clear on all objectives, which inevitably meant routing the army. To do that, just raw speed wasn’t enough; he needed better control and perception, which necessitated his choice.

However, Damon never expected that when the peak of the changes occurred, he would experience intense pain in his head, his skull deforming and reforming as blood leaked from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.

He eventually vomited out more black sludge, but within was a throbbing ball of flesh that made Damon feel intense disgust. Looking at it, he felt like it was... an underdeveloped brain tumor?

Damon’s face changed. Was that developing within his head all this while? Did that mean that were it not for Ambrose bringing Galactic Civilization to Earth, he would have eventually developed a brain tumor?

Damon’s heart felt cold. In the end, no matter how intelligent or cunning a person was, they couldn’t escape the fate of being bound by the whims of nature and their own flesh.

Damon was no medical practitioner, but looking at the size of that thing, it seemed like it would have become a problem in just a few years.

However, why wasn’t it expelled by his Fortitude and rather by his Mentality? Was it really a brain tumor or was it something else entirely?

For his Avatar to possess this - assuming it wasn’t a brain tumor - it meant that he had to have been affected with something during the time he was on Ambrose’s ship, before he was voted in as Prime Representative.

During that time, they had eaten, slept, and shat in the spaceship, especially when one considered that they had entered those pods to activate their abilities. It was entirely possible for Ambrose or one of his grunts to have placed something within them.

As for the why, it was obvious. Putting aside Ambrose, because he was the least likely suspect in Damon’s mind, the grunts had been there and had seen the entire sampling of the first 100. Even humans in the room, ignorant of the Galactic Society, were aware that this was abnormal, much less the grunts.

Who wanted to be a grunt forever? Why not take a gamble and put some controlling method within this special species and then hand them over to a stronger power in the universe in exchange for wealth and power?

The more Damon thought of this, the more certain he was to have uncovered the truth of the matter. There were only two reasons for this: the fact that whoever had placed this in him never expected it to come out because humanity stats had been graded during the initial sampling, but was something only Ambrose knew.

If said grunt had been told that humanity had an SSS Mentality, he would never have dared even if he was given 1 billion Worldly Essence.

Secondly, the bloody thing was still active even after being spat out, looking like a pulsating piece of flesh, having no intention of withering with its nutrient supply cut off. This alone clued Damon in to the fact that it couldn’t possibly be a mere brain tumor.

Damon rose up and walked over to one of the nearby corpses, ripping its uniform to wipe the blood on his orifices while also using another piece to pick up the tumor-like flesh and storing it.

After that, he slowly felt the beneficial changes of increasing his Mentality, and Damon felt the exact same as Felicia. A deep sense of regret swelled within him for not investing in Mentality from the start. While it was exhilarating to feel his power, speed, and vitality surge, none of it compared to the sheer brilliance of having his acuity sharpen and his mind expand.

Having clear control of your brain meant better control of your body. The thoughts in his head were clearer and not a constant jumbled mess, while his senses had become more attuned, his already normal sight increasing to see even more vividly.

Memories that had once been fragmented and difficult to access now surfaced with crystal clarity, unfolding in stronger, more coherent sequences, neatly organized. Not only could he visualize them in detail, but he could also relive the emotions tied to each moment.

Most importantly, Damon could feel a harmonization between his increased abilities and his mind. The SSS-grade Mentality was higher in value than the F-grade physical stats, so compared to them, 1 point of increase was akin to 9 points in them.

Put simply, Damon’s 2 points of Mentality could easily handle up to 9 points in the sum of all 3 physical stats. Right now, they numbered 7, so he could invest 2 more points before reaching the equilibrium and becoming ’normal’.

This was heartening because even though he now had to wait for 32 hours for his body to accumulate enough for the next Level Up, he now had a solid direction for stat addition. He would also need 2560 units of Worldly Essence and in 32 hours, he could produce 1920 with Devour.

That left 640 units needed to top up.

Damon clutched his Energy Flintlock and looked at the hillock before him. The sounds of gunshots were still echoing, yet his lips curled as he felt his required amount of Worldly Essence would not be hard to acquire.