Devouring the Heavens (ATG)

Chapter 8: Hammering out a Plan

A/N: So if you guys aren't aware, Webnovel has been 'shadowbanning' comments recently. This means that any comment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.

So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want to comment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative.

Well, Enjoy the chapter...

-----------------------------------

After a good night's rest in the cave, Shane had decided that his mind needed a break from the tension that the endless combat that the last week brought and so he sat down in the sun near the pool and started putting his analytical mind to more nefarious uses.

First and foremost was finding a way to get that flower and the beast that guarded it without having to fight it head-on. He wasn't so sure where his obsession for the flower came from but he just knew it had to be something good and so naturally he then had to have it.

Perhaps it was pettiness from the fear he felt and how he was made to retreat on his first day here or maybe that he almost got eaten by a wolf because of it.

The beast naturally had to die as well and if he could absorb the corpse while being at a much lower cultivation than it, he would benefit greatly. Obviously, if the beast and the flower proved too difficult to get and the situation looked dangerous, he would just go further into the forest and grind to increase his cultivation before coming back.

Shane was quite confident however as he actually had a pretty solid plan for how he was going to do this and it involved using the aptly named [Profound Paracap] which was the fungi with the paralysis spores.

Although the plan was basic right now and required a few other things to remove some of the risk factors, it didn't stop a feral grin from spreading on his face at the thought of succeeding.

'First order of business is a spot of gardening hmm...' Shane barrelled off into the forest and came back a few minutes later with an empty and decaying tree stump that was similar in size to the one with the Paracaps growing in it.

He quickly opened it up and separated it longways into two cylindrical segments, both of which he placed against the rock wall, next to where the Paracaps in the initial stump were.

He then disappeared into the forest for a few more hours and when he came back, he was filthy, carrying a bundle of huge fern leaves and scowling like someone just stole his jungler's first blood in a ranked game of LOL.

"Damn that's nasty! Ahaha sweet sweet fresh air"

Shane almost cried tears of joy as he dropped the bundle and took some huge gulps of fresh air, glad to be away from the smell. What was in the bundle? Profound beast shit of course! He needed some good fertilizer to grow more of the fungus and although it was disgusting, profound beast manure was sure to be better than normal soil.

After he had once again firmed his resolve, Shane unwrapped the bundle and tried his best not to gag at the stench. He then mixed in some common low-level shredded profound grasses and some moist soil from the side of the pool along with his profound energy and spread it out within the two new sections of tree stump.

He Coated his hands in profound energy and wrapped a strip of hide around his mouth and nose and very carefully scraped some spores from some of the Paracaps. He then planted these spores into the newly named 'Profound Soil Mix'.

He sneered at that and thought 'everything else is called Profound something here, why can't my shitty soil be called Profound too'

Shane then spent the next couple of days climbing the incredibly tall but surprisingly devoid of energy trees around the clearing with the flower in hopes of catching a glimpse of both it and the beast protecting it.

The first tree he climbed, he just about managed to get an appraisal off on the flower and it told him all he needed to know.

It was everything he hoped for and more [Tri-Color Forest Orchid: True Profound Herb]

*Whistle* "Holy shit it's a true profound herb! If I devour that flower alone, I would reach the late Nascent realm easily probably" He almost fell out of the tree from shock and giddiness! Although that feeling was soon replaced by a cold sweat as he realized that whatever was guarding the flower would not be in a lower realm than it.

Shane was right and a few minutes later, the soil within the clearing began to churn as a huge 12-15m long body started to rise out of the ground. What appeared after the soil cascaded downwards and the dust settled was a large and muscular brown-green, limbless lizard that looked like a cross between a crocodile and a snake.

The beast coiled its tail and raised up to a height of around 4m. It's large, scaly, thick as an oil-drum body, rippled with visible power as it shook the loose dirt free. The long serpentine head swayed slightly in a rhythmic fashion as its forked tongue darted in and out of its mouth, tasting the air and running across its dim, glassy eyes.

It had ridged nostrils and spiked brows that contrasted with its head's overall sleek look. Its long snout ended in a hooked beak from which its saliva dripped and pooled onto the ground.

The body of the Wyrm bristled and twisted as two rows of sharpened spikes popped out and ran along its entire length. This, along with the armor-plated scales that protected the rest of its body, reminded one more of a crocodile than a snake despite the lack of limbs.

The thickness of the body remained constant for around 75% of the beast before it gradually tapered off and split two whip-like and fully armor-plated tails.

It opened its maw and a sound, somewhere between a hiss and a bellow, reverberated throughout the clearing and the nearby forest. Overall it looked rather majestic for a big lizard.

Damn that lizard would make a nice pair of shoes!" Shane cheekily thought then whispered "Appraisal" [Forest Sand Wyrm: True Profound 4] His breath hitched and his eyes shined with an appreciative light as he withdrew his presence almost entirely before it could sense him.

Unfortunately, the Wyrm proceeded to move around the clearing for a few hours, occasionally approaching the flower and a mound of dirt next to it, forked tongue tasting the air all the while. Eventually, nightfall came and the Wyrm circled the clearing one last time before sinking headfirst into the ground and disappearing from view.

Shane carefully climbed down the tree and slinked away into the darkness. The Paracaps, as they were, were definitely not going to cut it but he was very reluctant to let it go like this and so he came up with a crazy idea...

The ordinary trees and plants within the forest had very little in the way of profound energy and devouring and refining them gave him only a minuscule amount of progress back when he was still at the [1st of Elementary Profound].

Of course, he tried that already, he had read enough ATG fanfics about cheating to godhood! Unfortunately, this wasn't a fanfic, it was his life now! and although he could think of several ways to cheat himself, absorbing an entire forest wasn't a viable one.

Just because the converted energy wasn't useful to him, it didn't mean that the unrefined vitality of the plants wouldn't be useful to the Paracaps! And so Shane decided to devour a few trees on the way back and store their unrefined vitality in his profound veins. There he could wrap it up in his own profound energy instead of absorbing it or letting it dissipate.

This was apparently quite dangerous as after devouring only three trees, his veins started to feel prickly and uncomfortable.

The longer he tried to keep this energy contained, the more his profound energy was exhausted and so he swiftly made his way back to his new garden of poisonous fungi. When he arrived he used his profound energy to separate the unrefined vital energy into three and wrap it up. He then forced it out of his body and released it above each of the three groups of growing fungi.

Mentally and physically exhausted, Shane retired to the cave and quickly fell asleep after eating an unsatisfying meal of dried meat and fruits. The initial food stores had run out a couple of days ago and Shane kept one of his kills to use as food along with some apricot-like fruits he found in the forest.

Unfortunately, the weak wolf Shane had caught was far inferior to the dried meat he had been eating before, and naturally, he was once again filled with determination and resolve to get stronger as soon as possible.

The only difference being that this time the reason for his resolve was so that he could enjoy a good steak! The kid was weird no doubt but that meat was just too delicious, in fact, he even drooled in his sleep just dreaming about it!

The next few weeks passed in a blur, Shane went back to hunting and devouring [Elementary Profound] beasts in the mornings. In the afternoons, he would explore the forest while searching for any beasts with elemental affinities and low-level profound herbs to devour and feed his quickly growing group of Paracaps with.

Funnily enough, the Paracaps had grown to a height of around 10cm after the first time he transferred energy to them. Now after a few short weeks, They were around 40cm tall, had large flat, oval heads on them that were adorned with hanging purple protrusions the size of a thumbnail. The group as a whole was surrounded by a slight ethereal mist of a sickly light purple color.

The Paracaps had also been progressing through what Shane assumed to be some sort of evolution as they had gone from [Profound Paracap (weak)] to [Profound Paracap (Toxic)] as the protrusions seemed to grow larger each day.

Shane felt that when the protrusions matured, the fungi would undergo a complete metamorphosis and he was extremely excited to see what it would be.

The Paracaps weren't the only ones to go through a change in the last few weeks, as Shane himself had reached the peak of the [9th of Elementary Profound]. The only problem was that the area around the cave had no beasts above the [6th of Elementary Profound] and, although his combat proficiency had progressed tremendously, his cultivation's rate of advancement had slowed considerably.

At one point, his scouting bore fruit and he had discovered a pack of wolves of late [Elementary Profound]. They were led by a trio with wind affinity and he tracked them back to their den out in a rocky plain. He scouted them for almost a week before he managed to confirm their numbers were just over 30.

Seeing this, Shane realized his fists just weren't going to cut it this time, and he needed a weapon.

From observing the pack of wolves hunt, he estimated that he could easily take the [1st of Nascent Profound] Alpha and the two [Elementary Profound (peak)] Betas if they were alone.

Fighting the whole pack together bare-handed, however, would be almost impossible and probably quite suicidal, especially if the leaders were able to utilize their wind energy.

It seemed as if lady luck had been listening in and on his way back from a scouting session, he happened across a group of SteelOak trees! [SteelOak Tree: Wood as heavy and hard as steel]. This was just what he needed! He could easily make a badass weapon out of this!

Shane was even lucky enough to find a reasonably sized branch on the floor near one of the trees, and was absolutely over the moon!

SteelOak was for all intents and purposes, wood as tough as steel. It was even a silvery metallic color! The only difference between this and actual steel, was the wood grains you could see and the fact that it was organic material, not mineral.

This wood was not only extremely hard, it was also incredibly heavy! The whole piece weighed at least 250kg! It took Shane almost an entire day to chip away at the branch with his profound energy until he had a 5ft long, wrist-thick shaft with a roughly cuboid head at the end.

That's right, he made a Warhammer! The whole thing was one solid piece and roughly 75kg in weight. It was crude but it was definitely manly! Smashing things to a pulp is a man's romance after all, ok!

He had etched a grip into the shaft, 6 inches from the end, it was long enough for both his hands to fit and he wrapped it with soft hide for good measure. And so, a primitive yet extremely heavy and most importantly effective, Warhammer was born!

He had been using it daily to bully some of the [Elementary Profound] beasts around the area and after a few days of training with it during combat, he could easily swing the hammer around as if it weighed nothing and kill [Elementary Profound 8] beast with a casual blow.

Shane's gains had not been small these last few weeks and they were only about to get greater. That was the reason why, even though he was, at this moment, in a rather grim situation, a feral grin never left his face.

Shane was currently standing upon a raised stone ridge as he bared his teeth at a trio of large wolves. He was covered entirely in blood, only some of it his own and he breathed heavily as a sliver of both exhaustion and madness danced together in his glowing red eyes.

His hammer covered in all manner of blood and gore, rested across his shoulder, his untamed hair fluttered in the wind, and with the sun at his back, he looked like a wild god of war! Behind him lay the broken corpses of nearly 30 wolves and in front of him stood their leaders.

Shane glanced at each of the wolves in front of him and scoffed at the cliche names in appraisal. Two, 2M tall [Wind Wolf: Elementary Profound (peak)] and a single, much larger and more deadly looking [Savage, Alpha Wind Wolf: Nascent Profound 1]

'Well shit, if they all attack at once I may have to lose a pound of flesh today.' Not a pleasant thought, and so instead of waiting for the wolves to attack him together, he poured profound energy into his arms and legs as he pushed off the ground, leaped into the air, and raised his hammer above his head while gritting his teeth.

The smallest of the Elementary Profound Wolves had absolutely no time to react as Shane's hammer cleaved through the firmament and popped its head like a water balloon!

*BOOOOM!* It didn't stop there and continued through, connecting with the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust and sharp splinters of rock that were sent flying in all directions.

"*Groan*" The impact painfully rattled his bones but Shane couldn't and wouldn't stop moving. With a visible effort, he pushed off the ground towards where he could sense the other Elementary Profound Wolf. A flash of red from his eyes was all that could be seen within the dust cloud.

Not a moment later he appeared, looking like a demon drenched in blood and with a few new cuts and scratches. He laughed wildly as he dashed forwards, spun once, and connected his hammer with the wolf's side. A sickening *Crunch* was heard as its entire body was propelled into a nearby tree before slumping to the ground.

By now, Shane was exhausted and panting heavily as his red eyes bored into those of the Alpha. Using profound energy without any arts was really tiring for both his mind and body but it also seemed to help nourish his constitution as he felt stronger each time he recovered.

He still wasn't aware that profound energy manipulation was an extremely difficult thing to do, even in the higher realms, let alone Elementary Profound, and kept practicing it as he felt like his control wasn't good enough.

This wolf was a Nascent Profound realm beast and probably had strength on par with his but its speed was definitely higher! That wasn't even including the wind ability that he knew it had but hadn't seen in use yet.

So, Shane decided to do something risky. If he could piss the beast off enough to make it mindlessly attack him in rage, he could keep it from utilizing the wind and hopefully kill it without suffering too much injury. And so he thought of some fury-inducing words that he had always wanted to use on someone and let rip...

"Defying me to the very end huh? Look into my eyes, Mongrel!" The Alpha obviously had no idea what he was saying but as he puffed his chest out and hooked a finger at it, it did understand that it was being provoked.

The wolf snarled and pounced towards him immediately! Its paws were raised and a faint green shimmer of energy ran along its terrifying claws.

Shane leaped backwards away from the wolf as he laughed to himself. 'Holy shit it worked! Everyone hates you huh Gil-chan.'

Three jagged gashes opened up on his tunic and dug into his shoulder as yet more blood splattered. 'Shit! The wolf must have used the wind energy to extend its claws in that last attack' He thought as he exploded with all of his profound energy and poured it into his arms and all along the edge of his weapon. He then began to spin like a top with the hammer extended.

The Alpha, sensing danger, tried to pounce again but it was too late! When the beast was in the middle of its lunge, Shane angled the Warhammer slightly and released it. The hammer whistled as it flew through the air at a frightening pace and landed squarely on the wolf's midsection

Time seemed to slow as a visible ripple spread at the point of impact before the head of the Warhammer sank unnaturally into the wolf's flesh... before it passed straight through the body and exploded out of the other side followed by a shower of blood, gore, and bits of its spinal column. The force of the impact was so strong, that the body was roughly severed into two pieces.

The front half of the already dead wolf landed right in front of Shane with a loud wet squelch! And the rear half was blown several meters away, trailing entrails through the air like streamers as it went.

Close to being the most disgusting thing he had ever seen and with the awful smell, it caused Shane to act immediately. He quickly used 'Devour' on it, luckily causing most of the other stray parts of its body to erupt into a mist of green profound energy. The swirl opened and it was all sucked into his palm, completely refined and stored inside of his profound veins for later.

After a few moments of recovering his breathing, Shane crawled to his feet and went over to where his Warhammer was lodged in a tree.

He then had to spend several long minutes chipping away at the bark with profound energy as his wrists were almost certainly fractured right now. He could feel them healing, as the bones felt warm and itchy but he couldn't put much strength into them yet.

After freeing his weapon, he first went to the corpses of the two Wind wolves and devoured them before refining and storing the energy. He wasn't sure what would happen if he absorbed a beast with the ability to wield an element, so he decided to wait until he was safely back at the cave.

The other wolf corpses, all between the [6th-8th of Elementary Profound] were immediately devoured, refined and absorbed. Some of the energy was converted to vitality and used to speed up his body's recovery and replenish his stamina but the rest was converted to Profound energy.

The large influx of Profound energy was enough to push him over the boundary and allow him to breakthrough into the [10th of Elementary Profound]. The excess energy helped him reach halfway to the peak but he could also feel portions of it being siphoned off and absorbed directly into his body and life force, strengthening both.

Surprisingly, his wounds started closing at a visible speed and he felt his control over profound energy also improve yet again.

By the time Shane made it back, it was late afternoon and he jumped straight into the cool water of the pool almost dying it entirely red. Although the spring at the bottom of the pool and the run-off stream would ensure it was back to clear by tomorrow, he still mentally slapped himself for potentially contaminating his only water source with blood and whatever bits of organs were hanging out in his hair right now.

After cleaning up, he practically flew back into the cave with an excited grin plastered on his face. 'Time to gain my first affinity, then it'll be Sayonara for that big lizard!'

This chapter upload first at NovelBin.Com