I will be the Strongest

Prologue 2

When Lucifer disappeared, the ocean waters returned to their place. Daniel sank many meters after his fall, but he did not die. He could neither see nor hear anything happening around him. But the pain persisted and lasted for a long time.

'Perhaps I am already in hell...?' he wondered.

But no, that wasn't the truth.

It had been some time since the pain had stopped. Daniel found himself in darkness, without his vision, smell, or hearing, but his sense of touch still worked. In fact, it was several times better than before. When the heat that enveloped his body left, all that remained was the cold of the ocean.

His body was still almost completely immobile, but little by little, he started to return to normal. First were his fingertips, then their entirety. And that was probably what kept him alive during that time. No, it wasn't quite that.

Instead of saying he was alive, it would be more accurate to say that thanks to this, he managed to reach dry land as quickly as possible, right? After all, even with the various monsters that haunted those waters, none could inflict a single scratch on Daniel. And yes, they tried.

'Huh? What was that?'

First, small and medium-sized monsters came, perhaps even some sharks among them, one of the few remaining in the oceans; monstrous beings, almost completely modified by the vast amount of mana in those waters. They tried to attack Daniel with all they had, their claws and teeth were sharp, and the hunter could feel this every time they came into contact with his body.

'Argh! ...Damn it!'

As a hunter, Daniel had been hurt by monsters many times before. However, somehow, this time, something seemed very different. He was not hurt by those monsters at all, he was sure of that.

Daniel couldn't see, but after some time, using his sense of touch, which somehow seemed incredibly enhanced, and something new, a "skill" he didn't possess before, "mana detectioneading," the hunter gained an almost perfect "vision" of everything around him; at least, everything that had life.

With this vision and almost perfect control of his touch, Daniel could easily say that those monsters didn't hurt him. It seemed they were incapable of doing so; then where did this pain come from? Over time, everything became clearer, and he finally found an answer, a reason for so much pain.

The peripheral "vision" was indeed incredible because with it, Daniel could easily "see" miles away, but like everything in life, even this had a price. And that price was simple: mana reading wasn't efficient enough to "see" so far, but the same couldn't be said about his body senses, his sensitivity which, apparently, was elevated to a level beyond what should be possible.

By controlling his body's sensitivity, the pain Daniel had been trying to get used to for a long time disappeared. But as a consequence, with the complete inhibition of his touch, the range of his "vision" drastically decreased, reaching only around 1,000 square meters.

Then, a little after the first monsters gave up attacking him and a little before his finger movements returned, the second wave of monsters came. This time it was a bit different, stronger, more intense. Those monsters were incomparably stronger than the ones that came before.

Even with the inhibition of his touch, Daniel could feel with extreme clarity how large and sharp those monsters' teeth were. Unable to defend himself or fight back against the attacks, completely powerless in such a situation, all he could do was endure it all. In his "peripheral vision," the space around him was quickly being taken over by increasingly larger beings.

After some time, strange sensations took over his body, something was different, but he couldn't tell what it was. Then suddenly, something changed, something old had returned, but now with great improvements.

'Huh? Is that...?'

Suddenly, a horrible, simply putrid smell filled his nostrils completely, and at that moment, Daniel understood: "My sense of smell is back!"

Thanks to that odor, which seemed to be making his body rot from the inside out, his urge to vomit was so strong that he didn't notice, but for a moment, for a brief moment, Daniel was able to move one of his fingers: his right index finger.

'How can a simple smell have such an effect? What is this?!'

How long did that last? Less than the period his touch was active? Maybe more? Or perhaps it was the same amount of days, weeks, or months? Maybe, in reality, only a few hours had passed, but Daniel had no idea. He was sure of only one thing: to him, it seemed like an eternity.

After blocking his sense of smell, Daniel returned to paying attention to his surroundings, and with that, he noticed that the number of monsters attacking him after that period had decreased significantly.

'Maybe they fought each other...?' he wondered. But soon a possible answer to that question came to his mind: 'No, that's not it!'

Something seemed strange, and by activating a bit of his touch to "see" everything around more clearly, he was sure. The monsters surrounding him were not attacking him; in fact, they were desperately swimming in the opposite direction of where Daniel was, but something wouldn't let them even move from the spot.

'This doesn't make sense. The big ones are no longer here, so what's causing this...? Why are they so afraid?'

In the vast ocean, a place where depending on where you look, it seems infinite, a gigantic whirlpool appeared among the waters.

'Even 'looking' so far, I can't see what's causing this. Is there something that can do such a thing...?'

Along with the monsters circulating around, Daniel was slowly absorbed by the intense whirlpool.

'Big... beyond that creature, is there something big enough to cause this...? Damn! Not on land...'

After the emergence of the portals, the ocean became a place overrun by monsters. Not every hunter had a useful skill for underwater use, and the hunters couldn’t exterminate those creatures in a territory where they were at such a disadvantage. Over time, that place became home to a new ecosystem full of terrifying and deadly creatures, perhaps more so than those found on land.

In the sixth year, many began speculating about what monsters might still appear, which would be the hardest to deal with. Among the many mentioned in the aquatic environment, one name stood out: Kraken.

In the seventh year, rumors of sightings began to spread even among the non-awakened; “I saw something while walking near the beach. It was huge, bigger than anything I’d ever seen before. It looked like a massive island, but after being distracted for a while, I looked again, and it was gone. Could it be a new monster? Could it be the Kraken?”

‘No, no, no, no, no... it doesn’t exist, it was just a legend used to scare the crazies who still thought about entering the sea even with the monsters roaming free... it doesn’t exist...’

Descending at great speed, Daniel’s body was among the monsters captured by the whirlpool.

‘But some time ago, Leviathan was also considered just a legend... But seriously? The Kraken?!’

When he was near what many would consider one of the main entrances to hell, for a brief moment, his sense of smell was heightened to the limit, and Daniel, who couldn’t smell anything, received something back. His mouth movement had returned, and with it, his voice, allowing his first words after so long to slip out quickly and unconsciously, escaping his mouth as small air bubbles that burst upon reaching the surface. Now, what did he say, when unfortunately no one could hear him? What was the word chosen to be said after so long? The answer is more disappointing than one might imagine: “Damn!” That was the first word said after so long.

From all sides, something always tried to squeeze him. For having been inside a monster longer than anyone would want, the reason for this was obvious: the creature was trying to digest him.

‘Just like before, I must completely block my voice... which I’m already doing, right? Keeping my mouth shut, in silence. Now, I must push it to the limit... but just by screaming normally or using mana to reinforce my words? No, actually..., is that even possible?’

After so much time, Daniel stopped wondering how much time had passed, which made him calmly proceed in his attempt to elevate his voice to the limit. His first attempts to implement mana into his words were absolute failures.

‘For my voice to have returned, my sense of smell must have gone through this same stage... But when?’

Daniel didn’t know how to cause the implementation of mana, after all, it had happened more naturally than anything, he wouldn’t even have noticed if his voice hadn’t returned at the same moment, but his body clearly remembered each stage.

First, starting with the nervous system, then the olfactory cells, moving to the nasal cavity, and finally, covering all the nasal passages completely. It wasn’t just a simple strengthening, it was a dual action: while these parts were strengthened, especially the nervous system, to withstand a greater and denser amount of information, their sensitivity was also drastically increased, to the limit, so his sense of smell reached the limit.

The result? Daniel encountered a stench so putrid it caused him apparent severe physical pain. The pain was so much that, once again, without realizing it, he was able to forcibly move his right index finger.

‘What happened? Am I... am I being expelled?!’

Suddenly, the odor disappeared, and the pain caused by it was replaced by the immense pressure of his body being rapidly driven to the surface. Again, naturally, upon reaching the surface, emerging like a great amount of air from his fortified lungs, passing through the vocal cords in the larynx, the words quickly passed through his lips and could be heard by the outside world: “Damn! Did I just get digested?!”

How loud had those words been? Daniel couldn’t know. But the result was obvious: his hearing had returned.

At first, all he could hear were the sounds of the sea, the waves, and finally, some monsters trying to attack Daniel, but failing repeatedly and giving up.

Having a small notion of how mana implementation worked, expanding the range of his hearing was the “easy” part of the process. It wasn’t immediate, but compared to the other times, there was a clear reduction in time.

Now the inhibition... that was the, let’s say, complicated part of the process and might have taken even longer than the others because when Daniel completed it, he was already on a large deserted beach surrounded by a gigantic wall.

Lying on the sand with the sea waters coming towards him repeatedly, hitting his feet and sometimes reaching his hair, and with the scorching sun warming his body, Daniel opened his eyes and saw something simply phenomenal. The moon set right before his eyes, not commonly seen in the sky, but so close that he could touch its surface if he raised his hands.

Closing his eyes, one of the stages was already completed, now only one remained: the expansion of his vision.

Starting in the brain, moving through the optic nerve and retinal cells, the lens, the pupil, and ending the process in the corneas. Daniel opened his eyes slowly.

It was instinctive; the moment his eyes met the center of that gigantic ball of plasma, witnessing the nuclear fusion of hydrogen atoms, the thermal sensitivity of his body was heightened to the maximum. At that moment, it was as if Daniel was before, no..., at the center of the sun.

At that moment, thanks to his vision and body sensitivity, Daniel was unbelievably at the center of the solar system’s central star. The pain caused by 15 million degrees was unlike anything he had ever experienced; compared to this, the monster attacks when he was in the open sea could be likened to the bites of small ticks.

The sensation of his skin, organs, and bones simply ceasing to exist infinitely, a pain so great that it prevented him from even trying to open his mouth, ended only when Daniel was “pulled” back to the earth, to the beach where his body indeed was.

“Aaaaaahhhh!” the screams of despair woke him from his trance. “Help! Please, someone! Someone help me!”

After a few moments, Daniel opened his eyes again, but even with them open, everything was so dark. Sun rays passed through small gaps and made him realize, his eyes weren’t just closed, by instinct he had covered them with one of his hands.

His movements had returned, but Daniel had no time even to show his relief and joy. Hearing the screams, he jumped to the top of the great wall surrounding the entire beach and saw minotaurs, rank A monsters, massacring various people, men, women, and children. For a moment, that vision reminded him of the failed raid against Leviathan, the bodies torn apart in the streets reminiscent of the bodies floating in the ocean that day.

As the only survivor of a completely one-sided m******e, Daniel returned different. On November 27, 2021, the day of his resurrection in a country he had never visited before, nine years after his "death" and four years before the birth of another "monster" in this same country, the first irregular emerged.

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Hi, the author here and, well, to be honest, I don’t know what to say. I've lost count of how many times I’ve rewritten this story—not changing the story itself, but mostly trying to make the beginning as coherent as possible with the rest of it that's already in my head (in fact, I decided to update the available chapters all at once because, thanks to some intrusive thoughts after rereading the first few chapters, I was about to go through this process yet again. Hahaha).

A fact is, when rereading the chapters I’ve already written, I realized I ended up doing something that I personally don’t like much in other stories: a relatively slow start—or maybe a really slow one, much slower than I would have liked.

And since I don’t like wasting time (kind of ironic to say since I started rewriting this story back in 2021... with some breaks due to school, of course, but still, it’s been a long time, right?), and I imagine you don’t either, I decided to mention this right from the start so that anyone looking for something quicker to read is aware of this initial 'slowness' (though most chapters are short, which definitely contributes to that too…).

Well, if you’ve made it this far, my most sincere thanks for reading. And for those who, for some reason, even after this warning, still decided to give it a chance and push forward... are you okay? Need any psychological help or something? (Just kidding, hahaha) I hope to see you in the current chapters. Have a great day/night or afternoon? Who knows...? See you soon.