Chapter 18: Uladia Forest [2] - Checkmate
As Silas strolled into the forest, he could not help but think back to everything that had happened over the last 4 weeks that had brought him to the forest in the first place.
Silas, for the first time since coming to Gilea, was slightly worried; however, before getting into Silas' worries, there were a few positives that Silas had seen over the last 4 weeks, an example of this being Silas' increased motivation and stronger work ethic.
Silas had no problem learning and researching magic all day without a break before the bet. However, the same could not be said for his workout routine and sword training, which were much more difficult.
Magic interested him. Every day he would daydream about the applications of the elements, mana, and the world in general. It was all interesting because it was the kind of thing that he was into.
Sadly, Silas wasn't "into" physical activity, no matter how much he tried to sugarcoat it for himself, but the "deal" he made with the girl had semi-fixed that problem.
He had placed his pride on the line. He was not about to let himself lose to a 7-year-old who would eventually become an 8-year-old the next time he fought her.
Sure, no one would blame him for losing against an older girl who is capable of probably defeating most adults, even those who know how to use toki.
However, Silas himself would not be able to live with the shame of losing to someone so much younger than him.
Yet, in the end, the bet had done exactly what Silas hoped it would have. It sparked a sense of competition inside him that he hoped to nurture in the future in order to get used to how Gilea worked.
After all, Gilea's society was the furthest thing from what Earth had. Strength meant everything in this world, and Silas wanted to harness that motivation into an unending hunger, similar to his unending hunger for knowledge.
Once he does that, he will become unstoppable.
However, he threw those thoughts to the back of his mind for now. His goal was to get stronger, and one of the main ways to do that was to either killed the creatures of the forest or to put himself into a situation where his body would be forced to evolve.
After 4 weeks of training, Silas had realized that the evolution blessing only activated when he pushed himself to the absolute limit, and while he wasn't 100% certain of such a thing, he did start training differently.
Instead of simply working out, Silas began to push himself to the absolute limit.
Instead of doing only 30 pushups and giving up when the strain on his muscles was too much, he began to push himself to the limit, to the point where he felt his muscles screaming at him to stop, and his joints rattling against each other.
However, extreme training like this did the trick. His muscles would repair right after due to his natural healing, and not only would they recover stronger than ever, but after his evolution blessing took effect, something else began to happen simultaneously.
Looking down at his hand, Silas balled it into a fist before clenching it as hard as he could without using mana.
Suddenly, a wind pulsed out of his hand due to the speed and power put into the clench.
'Now that my muscles are being rebuilt with mana already infused into their very cells, I'm beginning to get much stronger without using any of my elemental fusions. I'm not sure why the evolution blessing chose to evolve me this way, but I'm not complaining.' Silas grinned.
The evolution blessing could have done anything from making him bulkier to increasing his speed of aging, yet it somehow chose the best-case scenario.
*Crack*
Silas suddenly widened his eyes and stepped back, swinging his axe at the incoming creature. He didn't have enough time to activate mana fusion, so he worked with what he had.
However, before the axe could hit the creature, it suddenly spun mid-air, whipping its tail at the side of the axe and pushing it away from its proper trajectory.
It seemed to be some kind of brown bunny with a really long tail; however, before it could attack again, Silas pushed out his hand and muttered-
"Wind blast."
The wind howled as a tier 1 magic circle appeared before his hand.
The wind gathered in front of the silver magic circle in less than a second before releasing in the form of a powerful torrent of wind.
However, before the wind could hit the bunny, it spun mid-air, whipping its tail at Silas with the intention of cutting him in half from top to bottom.
Its tail ripped right through the air blast like a hot knife through butter.
Without a moment of hesitation, Silas side-stepped out of the way of the attack and spun on his heel.
His maneuver was too quick for the animal to even understand what had happened, but when it saw the glint of the axe slicing through the wind and right toward it, it was already too late.
Without skipping a beat, Silas' axe ripped through the neck of the bunny, decapitating it in an instant and making it fall to the ground completely limp.
"Phew." Silas breathed out in relief. His mystic eyes activated the whole time, so he could easily see the attack approaching him, but it was still pretty dangerous.
"I should avoid getting distracted like that in the future." Silas sighed before proceeding into the forest.
[You have killed a snake bunny]
[Devouring one life force]
[You are evolving]
'I wonder what it means when I evolve after killing something. Last time I got a resistance to wind magic and an stronger control over mana... This time I got nothing.' Silas thought to himself, but he could feel something changing as he devoured the creature's life force.
Silas continued to stroll through the forest while glaring at everything like a hawk.
The forest seemed really quiet for a place called "the most monster-populated forest in the county," but Silas didn't think much of it.
He would have suspected that there must have been some kind of strong monster around that scared off the rest of the creatures, but his mystic eyes didn't show him anything, and since they had always been right so far, Silas trusted that there must have been another reason for the absence of monster.
"Oh?" Silas raised his brows before smiling. He could see two mana signatures in the distance.
Crouching, Silas activated wind fusion and shot right toward them like a bullet.
Silas swerved and dodged the trees in the way while sometimes bouncing between them in a zig-zag formation. A professional would have known to use the branch's elasticity as catapults, but Silas was far from a professional.
However, once he appeared a few meters from the creatures, he could not help but raise a brow.
He could see them huddled up, both of the shuddering as they stared at him. They were both wolves with dark blue fur and 6 solid red eyes. They didn't have pupils or whites in their eyes. They were simply just red.
However, while one stood its ground and growled at Silas, the other cowered behind the braver one.
'They knew I was coming? Wait... If I remember this correctly, animals on Earth are capable of feeling danger or bloodlust. Since I'm not technically all that dangerous compared to many creatures here, I must be releasing bloodlust, right?' Silas thought to himself.
Yet, within the moment of thought, he did not hesitate to lift his hand toward the two wolf-like beasts, forming water out of thin air and forming it into a constantly spinning drill.
The moment it left Silas' hand, he felt a powerful recoil shoot through his arm, causing his arm to fly up while he slid back.
Water drill was one of his own spells, but he doubted that it hadn't been created before. It was simply not in the textbook, so he decided to form the runes in a way that would allow him to make a drill out of water.
The drill ripped through the air and appeared before the wolf in an instant, yet before it could hit the beast, its 6 eyes flared with mana before its body moved out of the way of the attack.
*BOOM*
However, the moment it moved out of the way, the drill slammed into the second wolf, taking its life right there and then while leaving a dust cloud in its wake.
"AWOOOOOOOO." The wolf howled in grief after watching one of its own die in the hands of the human before it.
Silas could feel the anger it had within it, and at that moment, he also felt something else.
"So this is killing intent, huh." Silas muttered under his breath before pointing his hand at the beast again.
The wind howled once more while as a bullet made out of air appeared before Silas' hand.
*Bang Bang Bang*
Silas shot through bullets in a sequence, but despite their speed, the wolf simply began to run in random patterns without losing any of its momentum.
Silas continued shooting at the beast, yet unlike the animals on Earth, it was a lot more agile and was capable of moving in patterns that even he couldn't predict.
'I have everything. Power, physical strength, and the intelligence to use them all, but I don't have the experience I need to fight these beasts on equal footing.' Silas thought.
'Change of plans.' Without dissipating his magic circle, Silas changed the runes of it and quickly formed another spell.
Suddenly, a blade of wind formed and shot toward the wolf.
Silas had realized there was no need to delete a magic circle if you used the same element either way. Only the sub-runes only needed changing, while the elemental rune in the middle usually remained the same.
When the Blade of wind neared the wolf, Silas dropped his axe to the floor and slammed his other hand onto the ground, forming a brown tier 2 magic circle.
"Earth Pillar."
A pillar of earth shot out from where Silas knelt, but when it neared the beast, it simply jumped and landed on it.
Silas grinned as the wolf stared down the barrel of death, watching an air bullet spell near him at a speed that he could not react to.
'Checkmate.'
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