Chapter 26: Defeating The Yak
The battle lasted for a few more minutes than Miguel initially expected.
The yak was proven to be so tough and strong that his all-out punches could make a part of its body go numb. Its attack also grew ferocious the longer the battle ensued. The Shadow Steps were used at maximum capacity as Miguel was afraid that he would be gravely injured if he received even just one charge attack from the yak.
At the last moment before its death, the yak even erupted with fire all over its body. Miguel was caught off-guard; fortunately, he was able to dodge in time by using Shadow Steps to a tree's shadow a few meters away from the yak, allowing him to completely evade the yak's desperate move.
If it was not enough, Miguel was even prepared to cast the absolute right there and then to prevent himself from getting harmed by the yak's fire eruption.
A radius of six meters was burned to crisp around the yak's body after its eruption of fire. If Miguel had not used Shadow Steps in time, he was afraid that he would have become a burnt corpse right now.
Miguel took the longsword and the dagger that he had thrown to the side when the battle went up in intensity earlier. He was afraid that they might get in his way during a battle, so he threw them aside for the duration of the battle.
However, he could not deny that there were several instances where he almost decided to use the graded weapons to deal with the tough yak, as its' defense was quite strong.
Fortunately, he persevered and was able to deal a massive blow to the yak's head, making it desperate and casting the fire eruption as a last struggle to survive.
After its fire eruption, though, the yak immediately sprawled to the ground in exhaustion. Perhaps that was the drawback of using such a powerful skill. After that, Miguel only punched its head a single time before it finally died.
By persevering through the use of his physical powers, Miguel was able to perceive his current strength clearly. The areas where he currently lacked were being amended as the battle was raging on. The degree of his control over his current body reached a new level, allowing him to use movements more efficiently and concisely than before.
Miguel approached the body of the massive yak again as he looked at the new entries that had just appeared on his grimoire.
[Defeated Level 3 Normal Grade, Old Fire Yak with a Perfect Performance: User is rewarded with 67 Experience Points.]
[Defeated Level 3 Normal Grade, Old Fire Yak with a Perfect Performance: Grimoire is awarded with 22 Experience Points.]
The experience points he received from this battle were a lot better compared to what he received from the Fire Maned Hare earlier.
It was because, aside from the fact that the Old Fire Yak was at a higher level than him in regards to his Summoner Rank, he was even evaluated with a Perfect Performance, allowing his experience gain to be multiplied even more.
One must note that the difference in power between levels would scale by a large margin. This was also the reason why even a beast with a higher grade but a lower level would still be defeated if they fought a low-grade but high-level beast.
So, fighting someone who was a level higher was extremely difficult and dangerous.
Nevertheless, if they succeed, the rewards gained will also be astronomical, the higher the difference in level. Depending on the evaluation, the reward would scale even more.
According to Marcel and the grimoire, the total experience points gained would be shared by the summon, the summoner, and the grimoire, with the grimoire receiving the least amount of experience compared to the other two.
This was also one of the main reasons why grimoires were relatively hard to upgrade in grade.
However, since his summon was all inside the grimoire, the experience points gained were only shared between him and the grimoire.
Aside from the two new entries above, there was also an extra piece of entry at the bottom, which surprised Miguel.
[Due to your performance in the battle against the Old Fire Yak, you are rewarded with [Shadow Steps] Level +1.]
The reward mechanism of the World's Will was complicated. No one has figured it out, and they may seem random at times, according to Marcel.
Aside from experience points, the user would also sometimes be rewarded with a new beast, a new skill, an upgrade to existing skills, new beast skills or abilities, beast evolutions, a Beast Grade upgrade, or even an extra grimoire page, and so on.
He did not expect that he would receive an upgrade to the Shadow Steps this soon.
He checked its description and noticed the changes the extra level brought. From short-distance teleportation to mid-distance using shadows.
Previously, he could only teleport to the shadows around ten meters away from him. Now, he should be able to use it at double the distance compared to before.
Miguel was satisfied with this award.
Aside from the fact that it was draining the grimoire's energy too much, the Shadow Steps were indeed a good skill to have.
If not for it, his battle with the Yak that was a level higher than him would surely be even more difficult.
Miguel closed his grimoire and let it return to his Inner World. He then carried the yak and the hare that he had set aside earlier as he began to return to the village.
Although he did not find a new cultivation spot, Miguel did not think too much about it and decided to return.
The sun was gradually setting as well, and if he walked slowly, he should be able to arrive at the servant quarters before it got dark.
With his current strength, Miguel barely struggled to lift the Yak, which weighed over 400 kilograms. The strength of a 2nd Stage Cleansing or a Beginner Novice Martial Artist was indeed not something to scoff at.
With the yak placed over his shoulder and the hare hanging around his neck, Miguel arrived at the servant quarters and saw someone he did not expect to be there.