Chapter 5: Winged snake
The two snakes did not find him. They thought the terrible beast who killed their brethren ran away. Seeing that no one was there, both snakes started climbing the tree.
The tree was 14 meters high. It took them only ten seconds to crawl their way up. When they arrived near the dead snake, one of them breathed fire at the body. While the other one stayed a distance away.
When the body was nearly burnt, the beast scanned through the body like it was searching for something.
"A fire element winged snake. If the color of the snake represents the element it is associated with then what element was the snake I killed?"
"It is best that it did not use elemental attacks. It would have been far more difficult to come out of that fight unscathed" said Roan
When the first snake was done with the search, the other red winged snake took turn to search. First Snake did not wait for it's companion to search the dead beast. It dashed from the top of tree and glided away.
It did not look like the relationship between two red snake was good. They both maintained a distance of nearly two meter from beginning.
It was more likely that the first snake was leader and the second one it's lackey.
The second snake was half done with searching the dead body. It did not look like it will take any more than 15 seconds to search the full body.
Roan looked at the first snake and gauged the distance between the tree and snake was more than hundred meters.
"It will at least take 15 seconds for the snake on tree to completely search the body. The first snake is already more than 150 meters away."
"If I just wait for ten more seconds and time a sneak attack, then I might be able to deal a critical hit. If the other snake rushes back it will likely take 20 seconds, which is more than enough to kill the snake in critical condition"
Time ticked by , when ten seconds passed Roan dashed toward the snake with a big knife in right hand and small knife in left.
The red snake was almost done with the search when it felt something sharp penetrate its body.
Roan thought the snake would be sensitive. It would escape the deadly blow when he came close and will only be dealt critical hit.
But when he was already halfway through dashing the beast was totally unaware. Roan took the big risk and dropped the small knife.
He grabbed the big knife with both hands and stabbed through the beast with all the strength he could muster. The beast was penetrated with its body facing the tree.
The snake's neck was penetrated. Only a little skin was keeping its head and body attached. The knife was also half stabbed into the tree with the snake's little skin in between them.
Roan grinded against the tree and the snake head and body in middle was cleanly separated.
Except for the sound of stabbing into tree, no noise was made. The red snake did not even get a chance to scream.
Roan pulled the stuck knife back from tree. This time he knew the position of crystal in winged snake. He cut the supposed stomach of beast and pulled the crystal out.
The crystal was red in color. It felt hot when touched, he placed the crystal in bag with the other one.
Roan checked for the other snake but it did not seem to be aware that it's lackey had been killed.
" The snake is not here right now. It does not mean it will not rush back. I have already gained two intermediate tier beast crystals. Let's take it slow"
He did not want to fight a fire element snake in Forest. Even if he managed to kill it, the fire might spread making chaos for other beasts. He jumped to the nearby tree , leaving the tree behind.
After jumping from thirty to forty trees, he felt a little tired. He looked back, the distance he traveled was more than 200 meters.
"It's better to take break here. I cannot tire myself when all I have is a big knife and a little speed and strength."
It was evening now, he traveled more than 50 kilometer. "Professor was right intermediate tier beasts are strongest beast that inhabit this space. Now for food, I have to find a basic tier beast or a weak intermediate tier"
"The forest however does not have that many beasts. After traveling for fifty kilometer, I have only seen a little more than twenty beasts."
"Even among them , all of them seem to follow a hierarchy. No one travels alone like the green winged snake" sighed roan.
"Leaving the hunger aside I don't know if I should absorb the beast crystal now or take it back to the academy"
"Academy does not seem to know that I have trained in white sutra. I do not know the reason but it seems likely the work of grandpa."
"Even that guy Sam did not know a lot about escorting me and he said the principal asked him to escort me."
Roan wondered of his grandpa's connection with the principal or rather the school.
"I might as well absorb it now. It is always better to not attract a lot of attention"
Roan brought out the beast crystals from his bag and tried to decide on one out of two.
"I should try the green winged snake's crystal. It looks like it is not associated with a particular element but it was the strongest of the three."
"And it is more easy for me to absorb a non elemental beast crystal." He picked the beast crystal and examined it with great care.
To absorb the beast crystal, one could run his training sutra and use it to absorb the energy from crystal. If one did not have a training sutra, consuming the beast crystal was only option.
"A normal student would not dare to absorb the crystal. I, however have already practiced a sutra"
"I don't think professor would have thought someone would absorb the beast crystal while in this space"
Roan took the beast crystal and sat in lotus position. It was his first time absorbing a crystal.
Before this he only cultivated on his own without any external help.
When he was comfortable and could focus, he started running the sutra. When sutra normally worked he used it to absorb energy from nature.
Now he had a load of energy stored in the crystal waiting for him to absorb and refine it. Energy entered from the crystal into his body.
He felt like he cultivated for a month and all the energy absorbed in that duration came all together now. In just one circulation of his sutra he refined the energy he would gain training a whole month.
He stopped for a moment to check his body. All the energy absorbed was perfectly refined in his body. His sutra did all the hard work for him.
He pushed his sutra to limit. He absorbed all the energy from the crystal in little more than ten minutes. The crystal was reduced to dust.
Suddenly his body started to ache, his head started to hurt. He could not move his body, he felt his body tearing itself.
After a minute of overbearing pain, his body stopped aching. He felt a strange energy pass through his blood.
He felt his body grow strong, he now had a feeling that all of his senses evolved. His vision was twice stronger than before. He could see a beast a kilometer ahead of him even in dusk.
He was able to sense nearby things through his hearing. It felt amazing, he now wanted to test the strength of his punch.
"Refining a beast crystal is more beneficial than I imagined. All of my senses including my body has grown stronger"
"No wonder Tom said, students training in here will have a lot of potential"
He threw a normal punch to the tree, the tree trunk caved in an inch. He felt intoxicated, this was his normal punch and he could thrust it an inch.
Before him refining the crystal it took all his strength with both hand and a fast dash to push half of the knife inside the tree.
The main strength there was still the knife and not his own body. He threw a punch again, this time with all his strength.
dong!!
A fist size hole of 6 inches formed in the trunk of tree. His hand started bleeding a little, skin on his fingers were scratched.
Suddenly message sounded in his brain, he thought it was the pain coming back again. He prepared himself to endure, but the result was not as he expected." [ White 267 activated ] "
He did not feel any pain. He was stunned for a moment before a screen appeared in front of him.
Roam white
STATUS
Strength - 17
Stamina - 16
Agility - 17
Energy - 10
Bloodline - 267
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone