I Became A Hilichurl

After two more days, Victor Wang became fully familiar with his Wind Blades and Palm Vortex, refining the speed of release to avoid any mishaps in actual combat.

He also experimented with generating wind at a distance, and discovered that the farther the generation point from his body, the greater the elemental energy consumed—but it was still possible.

With that done, he decided to seek revenge on a Whopperflower, using real combat to identify his weaknesses. As a bonus, he planned to find two adventurers as witnesses to boost his Adventure Rank.

Though Victor Wang now had strength, he didn't plan on earning money through commissions. Still, it would be a shame not to make use of a proper monster subjugation.

After some arrangements by Katheryne, two idle adventurers were summoned—and coincidentally, Victor Wang had met both before.

One was Lumine. The other, a middle-aged man carrying a Claymore on his back, was the expert Victor Wang had spied on in Whispering Woods before the Dragon Catastrophe.

"Hello, my name is Dust."

"Just call me Ryan."

Ryan looked to be in his thirties. Like Victor Wang, he wore a black cloak, but didn't have his hood up.

After the Dragon Catastrophe, monsters in the wild were no longer as rampant. The Knights of Favonius had returned to their regular schedule, and the number of monster-clearing commissions had dropped. Many adventurers now had more idle time—Ryan was one of them.

In this world, it was customary for those with a Vision to wear it openly. Not seeing one meant the person likely didn't possess one.

Victor Wang scrutinized Ryan but didn't see a Vision.

Still, he wouldn't dare underestimate this man. Claymore users were either total amateurs or absolute elites. From what he'd seen during that secret observation, Victor Wang was certain this man could take down a Mitachurl even as an ordinary human.

After greeting Lumine and Paimon, Victor Wang opted to rent a carriage to take them to Dadaupa Gorge, out of consideration for Ryan.

"Kid, don't tell me you're planning to solo three Hilichurl camps?" Ryan raised an eyebrow, skepticism dripping from every word, though a flicker of curiosity shone through.

"With my strength? No way. If anyone could pull that off, it'd be my teacher." Victor Wang glanced at Lumine. "My target is a Whopperflower. The reason I came this far is that I have history with this one—this fight has to be against it."

Following the same route he'd taken with the two club-wielding Hilichurls while gathering food, they passed an Ice Slime and a Cryo Whopperflower—the latter had already regrown its bud since last time.

This time, three Ice Slimes reacted to their presence, but before they could attack, one was smashed into a slime gel by Ryan's Claymore, and another was shredded by a Palm Vortex.

They're so cute when they're not attacking... all soft and good for beating the heat.

Victor Wang had no choice but to strike the final blow. A well-executed Palm Vortex finished off the last Ice Slime.

He continued on with Lumine and Ryan until finally, a Sweet Flower came into view.

"There you are. Perfect."

From three meters away, Victor Wang unleashed a Wind Blade at the Sweet Flower.

It was sliced in half, the upper portion sliding to the ground. Then a surge of fire elemental energy erupted from the earth—a Pyro Whopperflower appeared!

Victor Wang didn't wait for its entrance animation to finish. He immediately launched a three-hit Wind Blade combo. The blades, strong enough to cut down trees, didn't leave wounds on the Whopperflower's body, but the impact sent it staggering backward.

He remained calm—this was all within expectations. This world didn't operate on HP bars. If a limb got cut, it wasn't just "losing some health"—without a good healer, that arm was gone.

But a body reinforced with elemental energy wasn't so fragile, especially when factoring in elemental resistance and higher-level elemental shielding.

The Whopperflower, having fallen, immediately burrowed and reappeared behind Victor Wang. It closed its petals and fired a Pyro orb.

"Take this, you bastard!"

Victor Wang spun around, elemental defense already activated. His left hand pushed forward at full power, blowing the fireball back into the Whopperflower's face.

Though it took its own fireball head-on, the Pyro Whopperflower's high fire resistance meant it barely suffered.

It closed its petals again and fired three more Pyro orbs. Victor Wang slashed the first with a Wind Blade, dodged the second with a sharp sidestep, then blew the third one back as well.

The second fireball curved around to chase him, but Victor Wang was ready. He gathered elemental energy in his left hand and caught the fireball directly.

This was a basic use of elemental defense.

Understanding Elemental Power explained that when elemental reactions were not considered, equal amounts of elemental energy could cancel each other out. This form of defense was brute-force resistance through sheer volume.

Some skills or elemental reactions produced unpredictable effects, so this wasn't foolproof. But with sufficient preparation, it was more than enough to handle a fireball.

Once caught, the fireball broke down into licking flames that burst from between Victor Wang's fingers. It exploded like a firecracker—but failed to break his defense.

Three rotating Wind Blades in his left hand shredded the excess flame, scattering it away from him.

As the fire dissipated into the air, Victor Wang glanced at his hand. His skin was untouched. He exhaled in relief.

Perhaps seeing that fireballs weren't working, or perhaps as part of its set pattern, the Whopperflower burrowed again and popped up from a distance. This time, it wrapped itself entirely with its petals.

A visible Pyro shield encased its body.

Unlike last time, Victor Wang was unafraid. He fired a Palm Vortex directly at the shield.

As the vortex spun, the Pyro shield rippled and thinned. The vortex gradually shifted from Anemo green to Pyro red—triggering Swirl.

The first Palm Vortex didn't break the shield, but Victor Wang sent a second immediately after.

With the shield shattered, the Whopperflower looked utterly deflated—its head drooping, petals dim, and golden stars swirling in its eyes.

Victor Wang followed up with a strong Wind Blade that slashed across its face. With no elemental defense left, three of its petals were cut off like ordinary flowers.

"Hmph. You're only dangerous to normal people and Hilichurls."

Victor Wang stepped back, calmly waiting for it to recover. This was his first real battle using elemental power—he felt no guilt making the Whopperflower his training dummy. Besides, it was clearly no match for him now. Might as well get in more practice.

During the brief pause, Victor Wang turned to glance at Lumine and Ryan. Both had their arms crossed, quietly observing the fight.

Ten seconds later, the Pyro Whopperflower returned to normal. It immediately raised its shield again, absorbing fire energy from the world. This time, Victor Wang didn't interfere.

The Whopperflower successfully drew in fire energy and began glowing with elemental light. Then it rapidly launched lobbed fireballs from its pistil.

These orbs didn't track. Victor Wang simply circled around the Whopperflower, dodging them with ease. He didn't even use Sprint Technique, just pure footspeed.

He remembered clearly—last time, this move had been unavoidable for him.

The Pyro Whopperflower was out of tricks—or so Victor Wang thought. Time to end it.

Perhaps sensing death, the flower—usually emotionless—suddenly threw out the glowing core hovering beside it. It looked like a lantern… or a fruit.

Victor Wang had never paid much attention to this in the game. The first time he'd been burned to death by it, he hadn't noticed at all. But this time, having seen the Whopperflower recharge its shield twice, he realized it always drew a fire core into its pistil during the process.

Seeing it fly toward him now, Victor Wang was ready. He quickly stepped back—but was surprised to find the core was faster than him.

Emergency situation. Lumine raised her hand, preparing to cast Breath of Wind to rescue him—but Ryan casually lifted his Claymore and held it horizontally in front of her.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Paimon cried out in alarm.

"Relax, little one." Ryan looked at Lumine. It was unclear if "little one" referred to her or Paimon. "He hasn't asked for help, has he?"

Victor Wang had stopped retreating. He seemed to have made a decision.

Lumine frowned, then slowly lowered her hand.

The fire core reached Victor Wang and exploded, expanding into a fireball half the size of a person.

No way to dodge—he'd have to block it.

Victor Wang switched to external energy input and unleashed an enlarged Palm Vortex. A swirling mass of wind the size of the fireball formed in front of him.

Five streams of wind weren't enough to generate a vacuum vortex—but with more speed, more acceleration, Victor Wang created his own youth-version of Hymn of the Anemo Archon in just two days.

When fireball met vortex, it was like flame meeting a tornado. The fireball was pulled in, and its flames scattered outward, igniting patches of grass.

The vortex turned into a flaming vortex—but the fireball was slowly consumed.

Victor Wang stood safely behind it, merely feeling a wave of heat. The grass at his feet caught flame, forcing him to step back.

But the grass was lush and moist. Without fire elemental support, the flames extinguished themselves after only a few seconds.

The Whopperflower didn't burrow away this time. Instead, it charged forward, trying to fire more tracking Pyro orbs.

Victor Wang drew a dagger and threw it forward. Three Wind Blades swirled around it, spinning it at high speed. His self-made technique punched through a fireball and struck the Whopperflower's face.

They locked in a standoff.

Victor Wang gritted his teeth and sped up the Wind Blades. At last, the dagger pierced all the way through. But the Whopperflower's insides were solid—no brain, no organs, like a block of wood. It didn't die outright.

But its decline was visible.

Victor Wang stepped forward and slashed across its face with a Wind Blade. Just like with the Sweet Flower, the Pyro Whopperflower split in two. Its upper body fell to the ground, motionless.

Only then did Victor Wang close his eyes and begin to recover.

Truthfully, he'd already begun to struggle with controlling elemental power during the enlarged Palm Vortex. So much so that he felt mentally drained.