After getting out of the city, Neon started running. With light steps, he became a shadow and rushed toward the forest.
After an hour, he was breathing roughly as he came to a stop at the entrance of the forest. After regaining his breath, he walked in casually, without any wariness. He knew that in this part he would only meet weak beasts. He came to hunt in this forest because of money.
To his despair, he noticed that only working as a squire wouldn't allow him to save enough for his objective. Furthermore, if he depended on the accumulation, he would have a breakthrough to the grandmaster level long before reuniting the necessary gold. So he decided to go hunting.
It was a fairly usual occupation, even a Guild of hunters. He could exchange everything he hunted for money there, so it was convenient.
The walk in the forest was peaceful, he didn't meet any beasts. He was awed by the beauty of the place, the trees were tall and full of vitality, and even the air was purer. Everything in this world seemed more beautiful, especially nature which hadn't been destroyed by technology.
Five kilometers deeper in the forest, he met his first prey. It was a big bull-like creature, at least 4m tall. It didn't notice him at first as it was savoring a delicious meal judging by its enthusiasm.
Neon used his silent steps, making no noise as he rapidly closed in on the bull, it was one of his assassination techniques when he was still in the organization, he had learned it from an old master instructor. One needed great control over one's muscles to use this art.
When he was within 2 m of the beast, he unsheathed the bloodthirsty sword given to him by Nick. Instantly he felt himself swell with power, without taking the time to appreciate the boost, he flicked his wrist. The sword drew a beautiful arc toward the bull's neck.
The sword was so fast it seemed to disappear in the air, only the sound of wind being cut apart could be heard. The bull finally noticed an irregularity but before it could react the sword had seamlessly separated its head from its body. Crimson blood gushed out of the headless body painting a gory picture. Thankfully, Neon had already retreated 5 m avoiding the blood. He was a little shocked at how easily he dispatched it. Normally with his strength, it would have taken at least a moment. With the bloodthirsty sword, it was over in an instant.
He took his sword and made a hole in the center of the bull's head. Inside its forehead, he could see a shining bead with a murky blue substance swirling. He knew what it was, a beast core.
'I am lucky, it had already started condensing its core.'
Beasts were not like humans who had to dig their mana pool before becoming a grade one magician, they only needed to absorb the ambient mana continuously. After condensing it to a certain stage they would automatically form their beast core ascending to a level one magical beast. The difference between a normal or level zero beast and a level one magical one was huge. It was like the difference between heaven and earth.
'This can at least fetch 50 gold. It seems I was right in coming here if I kill enough beast, I can gather the necessary funds faster.' Neon smiled at the thought.
Currently, even with the Bloodthirsty sword, he couldn't confront a level one magical beast, let alone kill it. But this level zero was still within his capacity. So he decided to only limit his hunt to this zone of the forest, he knew that if he went deeper he would encounter level one or two beasts, the thought alone made him shudder.
'Well let's continue.' He put the bead in his leather bag and went looking for another prey.
A few minutes later he encountered another beast, he smiled and sped up, hand already on his sword ready to draw. As he got near he noticed flame burning on the feet of this beast. It emitted powerful fluctuation. Crouching in front of a cave it gave a menacing air even while asleep. Neon startled and hid behind a big rock. He calmed his breathing and erased his presence.
'Fuck to think I would meet a level one creature just after having decided to stick to weaker ones. My luck is shitty. Thankfully, I realized what I was up against before attacking. I didn't know there would be one in these parts. It seems that the line between the outer and inner region is a bit blurred.'
Observing more closely, the beast looked like a cross between a tiger and a lion, except it was bigger, standing at 5m tall. Flickers of flame could be seen all over its red fur. Beside it, there was a single flower. The flower petals were glowing a bright crimson and heat could be felt even from Neon's position.
'I don't recognize it but it should be a magical herb, judging by this phenomenon and the level-one beast standing guard beside it.'
Neon was excited, a magical herb! Even the lowest-grade magical herb could fetch hundreds of gold. He truly stumbled into a big opportunity. But he calmed down very quickly as he knew that every opportunity came with danger.
He was in a dilemma, attack or not? He knew that the sanest thing to do for someone his level was to run away but this flower was truly too tempting. After agonizing over it for a few minutes, he steeled himself and decided to give it a shot. After all, he was SHADOW in his past life. He lived unafraid of ghosts or gods as one of the most powerful men on earth. What was a little life-or-death situation?
After pumping himself for this endeavor. He stopped hiding and walked toward the beast. When he was ten meters away from it. One of its eyes opened, and seeing a human in front of it, the beast was startled then infuriated. It could guess that the human had nefarious intentions toward its treasure. Beast at its stage already had a level of intelligence almost comparable to a human. It stood up and let out a roar.
*ROARRRR*
The roar shook the forest, startling birds and other animals who fled in panic. The beast was looking at Neon with a ferocious glare as if they could not coexist under the same sky.
Neon too was observing the beast, he had long since entered a combative state. He would only get like this when he was facing a life-threatening danger. His eyes were void of any emotions and cold, so cold. He was like a death god that awakened.
Neon stepped forward, turning into a blur he reached the beast and slashed with his sword. The sword had an intimidating momentum as it cut the air apart. The red runes on the blade of the sword glowed faintly as the enchantments were activated. The creature responded with a straightforward sweep of its claws.
When the sword met the claws, an unbelievably strong force went through the blade and through Neon arms. His expression changed and he speedily retreated to disperse it. On the ground, a deep trace was left. His hand was shaking and the sword was vibrating from the effects of the blow. Between his thumbs and index, a wound appeared.
'What monstrous strength, grade one is indeed different.'
He vomited a bit of bad blood to clear his circulation. He was still rattling from the impact. Steadying his breath he decided not to confront the beast frontally but to rely on his speed to launch fast sword strike. He took a step and his figure flickered like a candle flame, he seemed to have not moved but he instantly appeared by the side of the beast and launched a piercing strike targeting its heart. The sword swiftly passed through the first layers of skin before stopping totally.
'What tough body, truly these magical beast have a tyrannical physique!' he marveled before retrieving his sword. His silhouette flickered again like a ghost avoiding the enraged beast retaliation.
The beast stomped the ground powerfully leaving cracks at the place Neon just left. Pissed at Neon having avoided it, the beast let out an enraged roar before pouncing toward Neon who had appeared 10 m to its left. Its speed was truly astonishing as in a single bound it had almost reached him.
Startled Neon dodged to the side. Before he could take a breath the beast had already turned toward him and sent a blow with a speed that belied its stature. Neon only saw a shadow before he received a powerful impact sending him flying for 15 m before crashing heavily against a tree.
The tree shook as its leaves fell on the ground. Neon had just opened his eyes when a paw filled his vision, without thinking he rolled to the left.
'BOOM'
He looked just in time to see the tree explode in splinters after the terrible strike. Swiftly retreating he vomited another mouthful of blood.
'My internal organs are damaged. Still, I didn't think its speed would be so horrifying.'
Angered by this slippery prey, the beast let out another roar as the sparks turned into flames on its body.
Soon its entire figure was engulfed by the flames, making it look like an infernal creature. Seeing its current state Neon felt a huge threat. He guessed that it should be some kind of fire beast from its appearance but he never thought that it would have such powerful innate ability.
'CRACKLE'
The surrounding temperature reached a new high with the beast transformation.
'It won't be easy to come close now, let alone attack it.' realizing this Neon didn't bother fighting it anymore as he sped toward the magical flower.
The beast saw his action and was immediately incensed. It had religiously defended and watched over this herb for years waiting for it to mature. It had fought against other beasts who wanted to take it for themselves and emerged victoriously.
Now that it was almost time for it to harvest the flower, this detestable human came to steal it. The beast couldn't tolerate such affront. The flames burned more intensely as the beast's eyes turned red.
Like a meteor, it sped toward Neon who had almost reached the herb. Feeling the incoming beast Neon made a dash jump and extended his hand ripping the flower from the soil. He made a front somersault landing on his feet before running like the devil was behind him.
The beast looked at his back with madness and took off in pursuit, its speed was truly remarkable, if not for Neon's footsteps and agility it would have already caught him. The continuous evading of Neon made it crazy, It took a deep breath in.
Neon who was running for all he was worth felt a suction force coming from behind, it wasn't strong enough to affect him but it made him look at the beast behind. The flaming creature closed its open maw then its torso inflated. An intense sense of doom fell on Neon before he could even react the beast opened its mouth and breath out launching a burning fireball the size of a basketball. The fireball wasn't slow in the slightest.
It already reached him before he could muster the thoughts of evading. Knowing he needed to face it head on, he unsheathed Bloodthirsty and swiftly slashed backward. The sword and the fireball met and a huge explosion resulted.
Neon was swept by the explosion and used that momentum to speed up. He had burns on his arms and hands, blood was pouring out of his wounds but he didn't stop moving forward. Stunned by the fact that Neon wasn't reduced to ash after taking a direct hit from its flames, the beast growled and continued its effort to kill him.
So in the Darkwood forest, a fantastique scene could be seen, a youth barely 14 of age being chased by a huge maddened lion-tiger-like fire-type magical beast.
From time to time the beast would inhale violently and release a powerful fireball targeted at the youth.
Over the body of the youth in question, numerous injuries and burns could be seen. If there was someone spectating he would be amazed at the fact that this kid wasn't burned to death yet.
In reality, it should be like this but thanks to the relentless cultivation and the fact that Neon was half-step into the grandmaster level he was able to hold on barely against this hellish-like creature's flames.
Even he himself was amazed by himself. This battle helped him accurately gauge his prowess. To his surprise, he of now was already comparable to the grandmaster level warrior of his world, even a little bit superior thanks to being a martial supreme expert.
But it wasn't the time to think about that as his actual situation wasn't looking bright. He had already exhausted his stamina since a while ago and wouldn't last very long.
The beast was still on his heels and was even gaining some distance as he was weakening by the second. Looking at the surrounding he didn't feel like he would be able to escape outside of the forest before this beast caught him.
Unknown to him, a few kilometers from his position a shadow, sitting on the branch of a tall tree was looking at the cat and mouse game with interest.
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