The mask shattered and the Hollow’s body quickly dissipated.
But Lucas sensed a strange power being absorbed into his left arm.
This power was spiritual energy as well, yet compared to his own it was incredibly violent.
Clearly, it was the power of a Hollow.
Realizing that, he immediately opened his attribute panel.
〔Name: Chad〕
〔Spiritual Pressure: Seated Officer (69%)〕
〔Abilities: Brazo Derecha de Gigante (Elementary 56%), Brazo Izquierda del Diablo (Unawakened 15%), Reishi Manipulation (Elementary 53%)〕
Since his awakening, Lucas had been training for five days.
His spiritual pressure had risen 25% through training, and with the daily natural growth of 1%, it now stood at 69%.
One step closer to Lieutenant level.
The Brazo Derecha de Gigante gained progress whether he was building spiritual pressure or drilling his body.
Across five days, 10% a day plus the 1% natural growth, it had improved by a total of 55%.
Reishi Manipulation rose 5% a day through training.
He still had to work his body daily and could not pour everything into spiritual pressure, so its pace was slightly slower.
The Brazo Izquierda del Diablo rose 1% a day, which should have put it at 14%.
Instead it read slightly higher.
Clearly, that came from absorbing the power of the Hollow he had just killed.
Five days of progress like this was undoubtedly immense.
In the manga, after Chad awakened and trained for ten days, his spiritual pressure was likely only approaching high Seated Officer.
He beat his opponents back then purely on terrifying attack power.
Lucas had reached high Seated Officer in five.
Give him another five, and he could push it to Lieutenant.
“Apart from entering Hueco Mundo, I can actually absorb the power of a Hollow.”
“The Chad in the manga didn’t have this, so it has to be another benefit of unlocking the limiter.”
He was pleasantly surprised.
He had assumed the Brazo Izquierda del Diablo would have to wait for a natural awakening.
He had not expected it could feed on a Hollow right now.
Which meant these things were essentially walking experience packs.
“You’re not just a monster in training, you’re a monster in a fight. You didn’t make a single mistake facing something like that for the first time, though you used a bit too much force and wasted some spiritual power.”
He was genuinely impressed.
The man’s combat style was very calm.
In his first battle he had not used any ranged attacks at all.
He closed in and shattered the mask with a single punch.
And you had to keep in mind that he did have ranged options.
“It was my first time facing an enemy, and I had no concept of a Hollow’s defense, so naturally I used a bit more force.”
Lucas knew he had overdone it.
There was no need to burn spiritual power accelerating a punch against small fry like that.
Even without the acceleration he could have shattered the mask in one hit.
“Exactly. Judging an opponent’s situation accurately takes a lot of combat experience.”
Uryū nodded.
It was only because he had fought Hollows many times that he could gauge a foe by the intensity of the pressure it released, and then kill it with one precise arrow.
Just as the two were speaking, another Hollow appeared out of the void.
This one was smaller than the lizard, and more humanoid, though its mask resembled a snake.
Smaller in size, but judging by the spiritual pressure it gave off, slightly stronger than the previous one.
This time Lucas did not close in for melee.
He released a shockwave from a distance and shattered the mask outright.
“Why isn’t my left arm reacting? Am I out of absorption range?”
Watching the Hollow dissipate, he noticed his left arm stayed quiet.
Guessing the distance was too great, he walked right over.
Seeing that, Uryū did not think much of it.
He assumed the man was just curious.
After all, when he first started fighting Hollows, he had been curious watching them dissipate too.
“Sure enough, it was the distance.”
Up close, his left arm did react.
The exact same power poured in, though the total was less than before.
Realizing that, Lucas decided that in future fights against Hollows, he would engage in melee as much as possible.
For the rest of the time, the two of them roamed the surrounding forest, since the Hollows the bait attracted would not stay in one place.
Even without intelligence, a Hollow would instinctively move toward places with human Souls.
But when they encountered the eighth one, it was completely different from all the others.
“You can see me? Are you Shinigami? No, that’s not right. You aren’t Shinigami, you’re humans.”
Upon seeing the two of them, the Hollow spoke.
Yes, this Hollow could talk.
Many ordinary Hollows were like beasts and possessed no intelligence.
But there were also some that carried special abilities, with greater power and greater wits than the rest.
“Sado, be careful. This kind isn’t very strong, but the intelligence makes them quite troublesome.”
Hearing the thing speak, Uryū warned him at once.
This type was very difficult to deal with even when weaker than the two of them.
The opponent could think, and they had no idea what special ability it might have.
“I understand. Let’s test it out first.”
Lucas did not rush in blindly.
He fired a shockwave instead.
He did not put much spiritual power behind the attack.
It was merely a probe, to see how the thing would respond.
The attack was too fast and came too abruptly.
The Hollow had not expected him to have ranged attacks, and could not dodge.
But it did have an answer.
Several tentacles suddenly emerged from its body, intertwining rapidly in front of it to form a defense.
“Boom!”
The shockwave collided with the tentacles and caused a violent explosion.
After the bang, the blast sent the Hollow’s body flying.
The tentacles it had extended for defense were blown to pieces.
But Lucas clearly saw that the body, where it had crashed onto the ground, was rapidly regenerating.
“Looks like its special ability is those tentacles.”
Having learned the opponent’s ability, Lucas gathered a large amount of spiritual power into his right hand the very next second.