The sun shone brightly high in the sky, raining down its warm light upon the world.
Inside the Moon Forest, the tree leaves rustled slightly as the cool breeze flowed, giving the organisms of the forest relief from the hot, sunny day.
On a certain tree deep within the Moon Forest, a person lay motionless. His hands and legs were swollen to the point it looked as if they might burst apart at any moment.
Even the muscles in other parts of his body appeared severely swollen, clearly indicating that he had pushed his body far beyond its limits.
Suddenly, the low ringing sound of metal clashing against metal echoed through the silent forest.
The moment the sound resonated, the person who had been lying quietly shot up into a sitting position.
Fallen Star appeared in Azrael’s hand, and with his still-blurry vision, he glanced down from the tree to see what had triggered the alarm he had set up.
His hands, now gripping the Fallen Star were trembling and It was obvious that even lifting the sword placed his hands under tremendous pressure.
When Azrael looked down from the wooden platform, he saw a level four monster that somewhat resembled a deer passing by.
Realizing it was a false alarm, Azrael sighed in relief, and the Fallen Star immediately disappeared from his hands.
As the rush of adrenaline subsided, his consciousness once again blurred, and his body began sending him signals to lie down and take proper rest.
However, Azrael resisted the overwhelming urge to sleep and instead looked up at the sun.
Judging by its position, he estimated that only about an hour had passed since he first lay down to rest.
He observed his completely broken body and shook his head in dismay.
Due to pushing his body to its absolute limits and recklessly using cosmic energy without regard for the consequences, his current condition could only be described in one word: disaster.
Not only were many of the muscles in his legs heavily damaged and on the verge of complete destruction, but several of his internal organs were also severely injured.
Earlier, even after reaching his limits, he had continued running at full speed for half an hour before finally stopping.
During that half hour, the burden he placed on his internal organs had been no trivial matter.
At this moment, every single part of his body hurt like hell—enough pain to drive an ordinary person insane.
However, Azrael completely ignored the agony thanks to his high pain tolerance, choosing instead to focus solely on how to recover.
He took out two bottles of healing potion and gulped them down in one go.
The healing potions were low-level, as he couldn’t use high-level ones with his current strength.
Higher-grade healing potions contained large amounts of medicinal energy, making them unsuitable for lower-level individuals. Rather than healing them, such potions would do more harm than good.
Just as he finished drinking the potions, his mind reached its limit, and he could no longer hold on to his already fading consciousness.
Without resistance, Azrael lay back down, and his awareness slipped into darkness.
The healing potions he had consumed began to take effect, and slowly, his damaged muscles showed signs of recovery.
However, with that recovery came intense pain, causing the unconscious Azrael to twitch slightly.
The sun gradually reached its peak, and six hours passed.
Azrael had still not awakened, but the swelling in his arms and legs had significantly reduced and they no longer looked like they were on the verge of exploding.
Four more hours passed, and Azrael finally showed signs of waking.
His eyelids fluttered slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes.
Azrael looked up at the clear blue sky above him, and after taking a deep breath, he sat up.
First, he checked his surroundings to make sure everything was in place, including the alarm he had set up.
Once satisfied that nothing was out of place, he finally checked his own condition.
"I finally have some fighting power," He muttered to himself, sighing in relief.
Although he was still far from a full recovery, he now had enough strength to keep himself safe—so long as he didn’t encounter a high-level elite monster.
Previously, he didn’t even have twenty percent of his total strength, and even a level five monster could have posed a serious threat to him.
"That’s the price you have to pay for being weak..." Azrael murmured softly and closed his eyes.
The only reason he had ended up in this state was because he lacked strength.
If he had been strong enough to fight the Titan Ape head-on, he wouldn’t have needed to act like a cunning fox or flee like a sneaky rat.
In the end, it all came down to power.
"Too weak..." Azrael opened his eyes and shook his head with a sigh.
But soon, the light returned to his eyes, and within them, a desire for power burned even more fiercely than before.
"I may be weak now, but..." He clenched his fists. "It won’t stay that way. I will definitely become strong—strong enough to live my life the way I want to."
Regaining his composure, Azrael finally turned his attention to the item responsible for his current condition.
"I hope this thing is worth the effort I put into robbing it."
Azrael didn’t take the light golden orb out of his inventory and instead chose to keep it stored safely inside.
From what he had observed over the past few days, it seemed that the Titan Ape had some sort of connection to the orb and could sense when someone approached it.
If he were to take it out now, there was a chance the Titan Ape would detect it and come knocking on his tree.
Even though the orb remained inside his inventory, Azrael could still see its information through his status window.
He opened the status window and focused on the light golden orb resting in his inventory, and its details appeared before his eyes.
---) Moon’s Essence: A rare natural treasure formed under the influence of ancient Genesis’s moonlight over the course of fifty years. Gentle in nature and can be absorbed by individuals from Level 1 to Level 10 to enhance their power.