Enigma of Sin

When Kayn called Zerana to inquire about Lydia, she simply told him that Lydia was called back for an important assignment and would most likely be unavailable for a month or two.

Kayn was a bit upset that Lydia hadn't mentioned any of this to him, but maybe she figured Zerana would tell him. Kayn could only hope that she would be back home by the time he arrived in order to maximize their time together before he inevitably sets off again.

***

Kayn continued to move as scheduled and was probably only a few weeks out from being home now. He was hoping that he could find at least one stronger monster or bandit before he arrived at home so that he could fully test his strength.

He had completed his Magic Bullet training with the results of his last few elements as follows:

For the lightning element, he discovered that just launching a more compressed and powerful bolt from his finger was more effective than creating a small ball of lightning before launching it. The power from lightning came from its abruptness, so just launching out a bolt instead of revealing the element before launch was the superior choice.

Darkness worked just as well if not better than intended after he figured it out. The more darkness he compressed into a small bullet, the faster whatever was hit would decay. Of course, this was still dependent on the density of the object or being he was hitting. Therefore, he could use lower speeds, but still get terrifying results.

Light was one of the two trickiest elements. Light by nature wasn't solid, so Kayn had to figure out a way to solidify it and ensure it had the outcome he desired. Light was also mainly utilized in healing spells, which required contact.

While Kayn could launch the light, it didn't seem to do a whole lot in its pure form aside from alert the enemy. He could use the light element to enhance his fire and lightning spells, but couldn't figure out a way to use it alone, so he gave up on it for now.

Since he was able to utilize shadows to restrain beasts, he applied that theory to shape and launch his bolts. This is where the problem arrived. The shadow bullet would disappear as soon as it hit any light along its path.

It wasn't possible for him to launch a bullet from point blank using the target's own shadow yet, so it had to come from his position. Kayn eventually came to the solution of trying to adjust the trajectory of the shadow bullet after it was launched.

This was what made Kayn focus on the fire element for a while in order to study in depth the process of how he can control it after he cast it or just taking over it in nature.

During the day, Kayn would summon several balls of fire and rotate them around his body while focusing on how his mana was moving and what caused the flames to do as he willed.

During the night before he slept, Kayn would start a fire without magic since he didn't want to risk any influence of his own mana, and then take control of the campfire while focusing on his own mana flow.

It was a tedious process and Kayn only recently came to grasp a small amount of how it actually worked, but he still couldn't apply it to any other element yet as his knowledge was just too shallow. This was a topic he determined that he needed to take time to study in a peaceful solitary setting rather than while traveling.

Whatever it was that caused the fire elemental mana to follow his will, it was difficult to isolate and apply it to another element.

On the other hand, Kayn was becoming extremely adept at casting spells while also fighting with his sword. Without using Sense Extension, if Kayn spread his senses to his immediate area while fighting, his hands moved with sword and spell respectively and seemed to move on their own as they each aimed at different targets.

Most of his targets were simple E-class rune beast packs, but he would occasionally run into the rare D-class. Packs, fortunately, would always have an alpha or leader that was one class higher than the rest of the group. C-class leaders would typically take a few minutes each to fight since he couldn't one shot them like the lackeys, but it was good practice for him.

On this day, Kayn was doing his typical routine when he spotted a rune beast that was currently feasting on what looked like what had at one point been a massive lion.

The rune beast was a hippopotamus that stood at least 3m (9'9") off the ground at its shoulders and was almost three times as long. The tusks coming from its mouth were close to a meter in length each and it could probably swallow Kayn in one go if it opened its mouth all the way open.

Kayn decided to try and go with a sneak attack with his sword to the beast's neck. He didn't think he would be able to slice through its neck in one go even with his blade lengthened and strengthened with wind and earth magic, but he wanted to try.

Kayn approached the hippo from behind and then quickly ran and jumped-up slashing at the thick neck of the hippo. This was Kayn's first mistake in this battle and underestimating his opponent was his second.

His sword only went about 5cm deep before stopping, at which point the hippo swung its head violently to the side. The head of the hippo was much faster than Kayn anticipated the beast to be, and being hit felt like a train had just run him over.

The impact caused Kayn to fly back for several meters before his body hit the trunk of a thick tree. Kayn clutched at his chest while coughing a mouthful of blood indicating injuries to some part of his upper digestive system. He stood up while stumbling trying his hardest to refocus.

The hippo was already charging at him and he only had a couple of seconds to jump out of the way before the rampaging beast's jaws clamped shut where his body had been just a moment before causing the nearly meter thick tree to be broken at the base.

Kayn quickly infused his body with lightning in order to enhance both his reaction speed and impulses while also infusing it with wind to speed himself up and light to start the healing process to his damaged internal organs.

Since his sword was still stuck in the side of the hippo's neck, Kayn started to bombard it with the most powerful spells he had created thus far. Each spell was a combination of elements that would create a greater effect than just using the element by itself and they were all quick and easy to cast.

Fire blasts, lightning bolts, ice spears, and other relatively cheap cost spells were enhanced with wind and launched repetitively and as fast as Kayn could. Since the power was only around a normal 4th tier spell, the damage they were causing to the hippo seemed minimal.

Unfortunately, Kayn wasn't able to dodge all of the hippo's attacks and took another headbutt, albeit this time with defenses up so he wasn't launched too far away, but it still caused him a lot of pain.

Even though Kayn knew that his life was in danger, he was actually having quite a bit of fun. This was his hardest battle to date and he was finally able to see what the power of his spells actually amounted to against targets near or above his strength.

All of the sudden thin earthen spears shot out of the ground catching Kayn by surprise. His right foot was impaled and before he could do anything, the hippopotamus was once again in front of him shutting its jaws over his body.

However, this was just the moment Kayn had been waiting for as for the last 10 minutes of the fight he had been compressing several elements into a certain shape nearby his body.

The earth element was the base of the spell that Kayn shaped as a 25cm long and 5cm thick cone. He compressed the earth so much that he doubted it was any less hard than chromium. This gave him an idea that faintly popped into his head for the future, but for now he needed to focus on the deadly monstrosity in front of him.

Next, he coated the earth in flame and after pushing his mana into the flame was able to increase the flame's temperature to the point that the flames turned orange-white. Using wind, he increased the rotational speed of the earthen bullet to the extreme while also maintaining the small firestorm around it.

Kayn quickly thrusted his left arm forward and launched the bullet at the open mouth of the hippo moments before it could clamp its jaws shut around him.

The result was a bit more than Kayn expected as the magic bullet enhanced with three different elements left a gaping hole from the mouth of the hippo to the rear where its tail no longer existed. Inside of the bullet tunnel was charred flesh and flames burning throughout the beast.

The hippo was paused in place and soon collapsed on the ground as it seemed that the magic had followed along the beast's spine and destroyed most of its motor control. As the light left the hippopotamus's eyes, Kayn released his tension and slumped to the ground as well due to being extremely exhausted.

Kayn had used about 90% of his total mana in the short period of 15 or so minutes since he was constantly casting and infusing his body with the elements. This made him realize that even if he had improved most of the spells to consume less mana, fighting like that was still too much for him.

If there were two of these massive beasts around, he would surely die unless he could figure out a more effective way to damage them. The spells that hit the durable hide of the hippo barely caused any damaged aside from looking like burnt or frozen areas, even lightning only left a small black mark. Not to mention his rare grade sword was useless aside from making what amounted to shallow cuts on its hide.

While Kayn didn't know what class the beast was, it was definitely in between high C-class and mid B-class. The durability and strength of the animal leaned more towards B-class while the magic it used from its runes was closer to high C-class as all it had shown was the earth spears before perishing.

At this point Kayn stood up and retrieved his sword in order to try and cut into its body and see if it had a core stone. If it had one, he would be able to have it appraised to learn the actual classification of the rune beast.

Kayn discovered it was much easier to slice into the animal now that it was dead, thus he came up with the hypothesis that it was somehow also infused with earth magic to make it more durable. This was the first time that Kayn had seen anything or anyone other than himself do what he did with elements by using them in his body.

Unfortunately for Kayn, there was no core stone that he could find, nor was there any way for him to pull the beast to the nearest adventurer depot to sell it. Kayn had to settle for cutting off part of what he considered the best cut of meat, the short loin. He also decided that it would be useful to collect the gigantic hippo's hide as it was still plenty durable.

After collecting his prize of meat, one large hide which he cut and folded into multiple pieces, and two long tusks, Kayn decided that it was time to finish his journey home. He missed his mother, and while he still hadn't been able to contact Lydia all this time, he wasn't too concerned since his mother was very reassuring about her being okay.

Not to mention Kayn was close to home already. He only had to cut across a small mountain and find a road and that would lead him home rather than continuing his travels through the forested area.

But first, Kayn needed to fully heal his injuries. He was bleeding in multiple places, could feel that several of his ribs were broken, and he was still coughing up blood which meant his internal organ injuries hadn't healed yet. If Zerana saw him in his current state, she would probably restrict his freedom faster than he could lift a finger in opposition.