Monsters were, in many ways, weaker than spiritbeasts. Spiritbeasts tended to become stronger, smarter, faster, and more durable all at once. Monsters seemed to specialize in a few directions.And in that way, in those directions, they became stronger than spiritbeasts.I stared up from where I had rolled away from the shaman. It let out a series of gutteral chants, raising its wand in the air and twirling it. The path behind me was ripped to shreds, walls of cutting force carving gouges into the ground.Completely invisible, astonishingly powerful. It was like a cultivation art, highly specialized and practiced for years.The same difference existed between me and Talc. Talc was able to overwhelm me despite being weaker than me in several ways.So what if my skin could shrug off knife wounds? It didn’t matter when he had a [Skill] that could cut metal.But this goblin wasn’t Talc. It was much weaker. And I wasn’t just a cultivator or just a leveler. I was both.I braced to dodge another wave of invisible cutting force, but none arrived. Instead, fire began to wrap around the goblins wooden staff.I didn’t know if I could cross the space between us before it released the fire curling around its staff. I didn’t wait to find out. I focused on [Spacial Rending,] and, with a flex of my Willpower, slowed the goblin down.The fire slowed, too. The effect wasn’t mental; it wasn’t a slowing of perception or a dampening effect on force. Time and space themselves seemed to slow around the goblin.If I hadn’t slowed it, I wouldn’t have dodged the miniature sun of fire that collected at the tip of its gnarled staff, exploding in the wake I left behind, fire and pain scorching my back.Monsters were strong.A few levels beyond level ten amounted to a completely different scale of power. Ten levels meant ten attribute points. But if it was gaining more attribute points after level ten? If it was (...)