It was as satisfying as it could ever get.

After all, despite the harvest of his senses getting better and better at picking up possibilities of attack with each exchange between the two of them, it can still be pretty frustrating for Novus to just continue being on the receiving end of attacks for a prolonged time, hence right at this moment...

There is a satisfied smile on his face as he feels everything.

First, the slight alarm from the Shadow Slime about to escape by phasing its body once again.

Then the relief as he felt his attack connect to its turbid body, the blow feeling like he just hit a punching bag so perfectly that it is about to collapse.

Lastly, the excitement as he saw the effect of his attack, the Shadow Slime’s body being materialized once again mid-phasing as if his attack completely interrupted the process, the blob flying in the air at a tremendous speed from the sheer brute force of the attack.

Had it been a lower-tier slime, it would’ve simply collapsed and popped from receiving such brute force with its body; however, not only speed and strength, but even the toughness of this E-Tier Shadow Slime is proven to be far superior to its F-Tier counterpart, as despite the significant damage it sustains, it still finds a way to keep itself intact after such a violent attack.

Despite the slight surprise regarding the sheer endurance of the E-Tier Shadow Slime, Novus never failed to take this advantage further as he proceeded to wrap himself around with mana, prioritizing his legs, leaping forward to catch the slime flying from his previous attack, reinforcing his arms, and forming a fireball on his palms as he moved, trying to get as efficient as he could.

Meanwhile, the Shadow Slime that has always been on the attacking end of things during this combat appears to be pushed into disarray the moment that its flow of combat was completely broken by its opponent, its phasing appearing to be unable to activate despite the apparent threat to its life approaching by the moment.

Suddenly, everything turned around, the stealthy hunter who thought it was merely playing with its target now the prey on the chopping board, and the target who was previously the prey now the hunter that chases the slime relentlessly with his fist.

A step to decelerate, leg muscles bulging as he comes into a full stop with his upper body lowered quite a bit, his fist chambered, prepared to fire once the slime he just passed by approaches striking distance, a moment that presents itself just a beat after.

Another hit, coming from down below the target as the young man gives a heavy uppercut, the punch this time possessing far greater force behind it, as it doesn’t stop with the blunt force of the initial hit, a violent explosion comes right behind it, ripping through the gelatinous blob, the volatile fireball’s explosion launching the slime further up into the air.

If there was even any fragment to launch upwards, that is.

Partnered with the velocity that the Shadow Slime is going with from his previous attack, the abrupt stop, along with the sudden change in its trajectory brought about by a violent disruption of external force, his second punch achieves multiple things that will render this enemy dead.

He pierces through the blob, the force of the punch alone generating enough damage to shatter the Shadow Slime’s core.

Then the explosion that follows completely evaporates the goo that protects the core, effectively obliterating the poor target in its entirety.

And as if to confirm whether he triumphed over this challenge or not, it appears, floating in front of him, a semi-transparent screen telling him of his victory.

[Defeated: Shadow Slime. Rewards: E-Tier Evolution Crystal (2), Slime Substrate (4), Liquid Shadow (2)]

"Haahh... haahh... that was a good fight... but... really exhausting..." As soon as he saw the notification popping up, he immediately moved away from the location of combat in an attempt to avoid any possible stronger enemy sensing the fight and profiting from said fight, only stopping after a couple of minutes running.

His caution doesn’t stop there, however, as he expands his senses as much as he can, trying to pick up whether there are dangers around him or not. Only after keeping his guard up for a few minutes more did he decide to exhale a breath of release and sit down to take a well-deserved rest.

Still, he doesn’t completely let his guard down, still keeping his senses up despite trying to recover even just a bit, intending to just go with rest for a short time before opting to recover his resources on the way hunting weaker creatures to meet the requirements of F-Tier Evolution Crystal for his promotion, before eventually searching and going against E-Tier creature once again.

After a few minutes, he had already tried to stand up in an attempt to resume his hunt, but once more, he was reminded of how difficult his previous fight had been, his knees still shaking a bit from the tiredness, and his resources not even recovering properly in the least.

’Well, might as well let this recover a bit more as well’ he thought to himself as he stares at what he thinks is the very thing that allows him to pull through this ordeal, as without it, the natural regeneration of his talent will not be enough, and he wouldn’t be able to figure this absurd sensing method had it not been for his regeneration being fast enough.

[Immortal Energy: 55/200]

This time, he decided to lie down, keeping his senses up just in case there were other threats in his immediate area, a single thought in his mind as the temptation of letting even his senses rest crept into his mind.

’I refuse to die in such a humiliating way for a second time,’ he repeated multiple times to himself, thinking of such with a slight smile on his face as he recalls how he died to an F-Tier Amber Slime during his last entry, not wanting to go in such a pathetic way once again.

More than a couple of hours passed, and the young man finally felt recovered enough that he could start fighting an E-Tier again. In fact, his body and mind had already recovered near peak capacity a little while ago, way earlier before his Immortal Energy fills up, hence why he decided to just continue his rest while he waits for it to hit the limit.

[Immortal Energy: 200/200]

Not that it finally filled up completely, he smiles in satisfaction as he begins walking once again, taking a sweet leisure for a little while before he starts picking up his pace, a slight impatience in his gaze as he starts anticipating another meeting with an E-Tier creature, the desire to see how far he can go, how easier he can deal with it compared to his first E-Tier hunt, filling his mind.

Within the Evolution Domain, where the gap between the weak and the strong is an absolute, a young man who appears to be growing crazier with great battles roams around, defying this barbaric rule as he goes on to search for creatures who are stronger than him to fight.