Free Web NovelChapter 10: Giants
CH 10: Giants
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Old Jansh asked curiously. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t find a single reason why Rios would be so eager to kill nothing more than a level-two beast!
"I don’t mind telling you. The truth is, what I want isn’t the beast itself but the core inside it. The more cores I consume, the stronger I become. So from now on, whenever we encounter a beast, we should hunt it. By the time we reach the City of Light, I should have reached level two. Don’t you think that would be safer and better?" Rios smiled foolishly as he imagined the number of points he would gain from killing that beast.
"What?!" Both Luna and old Jansh shouted at the same time, looking as if lightning had struck them.
"What? Did I say something strange?" Rios looked at them in confusion.
"M-My Lord, did you just say that you can consume beast cores and increase your level by consuming them?" Old Jansh spoke with a trembling voice as if he couldn’t believe what he had just heard.
"Yes. Is there a problem?" Rios asked again, as though consuming beast cores was perfectly normal.
"A problem? No, no, there isn’t any prob—" Old Jansh shook his head politely, still too shocked to process his own answer. However, he quickly regained his senses and hurriedly corrected himself.
"Yes, My Lord, there is a problem. The whole thing is a problem! It is common knowledge that neither intelligent races nor beasts consume the energy inside cores directly because of the extremely unstable chaotic energy contained within them!"
"If someone wants to absorb energy cores, they would only absorb a tiny portion of their energy in the most desperate situations. Even then, traces of chaotic energy would remain inside their own core, and they would need sufficient time to remove that chaotic energy."
"Of course, the amount of time required depends on how much chaotic energy contaminated their energy core," old Jansh explained with concern as he recalled a time when he had been forced to consume a beast core to recover energy and save himself from a dangerous situation. He also remembered how long it had taken him to purify his energy core afterward.
Then, as if remembering something else, he spoke with a fearful expression.
"But there is one race that can consume energy cores without worrying about chaotic energy."
"Oh? Now you’ve got my attention. Tell me, who are they?" Rios asked with genuine curiosity.
"They are the Giants, My Lord. That race is strange in every possible way," old Jansh said as his body trembled with fear.
"Strange in every way? How?" Rios became even more curious. He had fought a Giant not long ago, but he hadn’t noticed anything particularly strange about it. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
"My Lord, unlike the other seven races of this continent, the Giants are outsiders. They only appeared a hundred and fifty years ago. Yet during that short period, they conquered lands, destroyed cities and kingdoms, and the number of lives they have taken exceeds the total casualties of all the wars among the seven races combined throughout a history spanning one hundred thousand years."
Old Jansh’s body trembled even more, and his face turned pale from the terror the Giants had brought to the region. Still, he managed to steady himself and continue.
"The Giants are an extremely powerful and fierce race. They are born with monstrous physical strength and incredibly durable bodies that allow them to fight people a full level above them on equal footing."
Old Jansh looked at Rios with deep admiration. He had personally witnessed Rios kill a Giant capable of fighting a level-three expert head-on while Rios himself was still only level one.
Doesn’t that mean Rios can fight level-three experts as well?
That was what old Jansh thought.
"The height of every Giant depends on their level of strength. The stronger they become, the taller they grow."
"Level-one Giants range from one meter to ten meters in height. Of course, those are newborn infants, as most Giants are at level two or level three."
"Level-two Giants range from eleven to twenty meters tall, just like Ang, the Giant Your Majesty killed not long ago."
"As for level-three Giants, they stand between twenty-one and thirty meters tall." frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
Old Jansh continued his explanation while Rios listened attentively.
"But their immense size and strength aren’t the strangest things about them, My Lord. Unlike the other seven races, which consist of males and females, the Giants are a single-gender race!"
"What?! Then how the hell do they reproduce?!" Rios was stunned by the information, and his imagination immediately began wandering toward all sorts of bizarre possibilities.
"My Lord, when a Giant reaches level three and receives enough nourishment, a Giant embryo begins developing inside them. Unlike females of other races, Giants do not give birth through reproductive organs because they simply don’t have any. Instead, they expel the embryo through their mouths as if they were vomiting."
Old Jansh spoke with obvious disgust while mentioning the subject.
"Holy shit, man, that’s disgusting." Rios felt a strange sense of nausea and wanted to throw up, but unfortunately, he was a tree now.
"And that’s not even the end of their strangeness, My Lord. If their method of reproduction is the strangest thing about them, then the speed at which they grow stronger is the most terrifying."
Old Jansh’s face grew pale again as he continued.
"The Giant race is extremely selfish, greedy, and naturally inclined toward violence, slaughter, and destruction above all else. Their ability to devour energy cores and refine the chaotic energy within them only makes this worse."
"Unlike the other races, which can only refine about ten percent of a core’s energy while still leaving traces of chaotic energy behind, the Giants can refine nearly fifty percent of a core’s energy without leaving behind any chaotic residue whatsoever."
"But even that ability has limits. Even Giants cannot consume more than ten cores at once. If they do, chaotic energy will begin accumulating inside them and leave traces within their core. If they exceed the limits their bodies can withstand, their bodies will begin swelling until they explode!"
