Ryder walked inside the forest once more and started moving deeper. Although the forest looked small, it was way bigger than he could imagine.
He walked in the forest for over an hour, but he didn't find any beast.
He could feel himself getting tired, so he brought a fruit out of his storage space and started eating it.
"Geez, where the heck are the beasts. Even the last time, it wasn't this hard,"
He couldn't help but wonder if the beasts were hiding from him.
After 20 more minutes, he finally saw a beast at some distance from him.
It was a 3-Toothed Rabbit. Although it was called a Rabbit, it was as big as a full-grown cattle.
It had 3 sharp teeth that were coming out of her mouth. The teeth looked just like that of a sabertooth. The 3-Toothed Rabbit had black fur.
'Level 12 beast? Shouldn't be a problem if I'm careful,' Ryder thought as he gazed at the beast.
It was the first time he was facing a beast at that level. Before this, the strongest beast he faced had only been a level 10 beast.
Even the Town Lord that he had killed when he came to the Demon Realm had only been at the 11th level.
<Are you going to kill that?>
Just as he was about to step forward, he heard Janus' voice.
'Yup. Don't screw this up for me. Let me level up in peace,' Ryder thought.
<There's no mission, for now, just a suggestion. You should stay away from that beast,> Janus replied.
'Why?' Ryder inquired, but Janus didn't answer.
'You must be thinking that I'm weak. Let me show you how wrong you are! I can definitely take care of that beast!' Ryder said with a confident smile on his face as he stepped towards the 3-Toothed Rabbit.
He didn't want to give the 3-Toothed Rabbit a chance to escape; that's why he ran as fast as he could.
"Fire Blast!" While Running, Ryder also cast his flame spell as soon as he saw that the 3-Toothed Rabbit had noticed him.
The 3-Toothed Rabbit saw the ball of flame coming towards him; he opened his mouth wide and attacked Ryder with his Shadow Ball. It looked like a pitch-black energy ball that came out of its mouth and collided with Ryder's Flame Blast.
Both the attacks destroyed each other, but Ryder managed to utilize the time as he got near the 3-Toothed Rabbit and swung his Scythe at its neck.
The 3-Toothed Rabbit reacted faster as it twisted its body in order to save its neck. It protected its neck, but it's back was sliced through. A deep gash appeared on its back, but since it's skin was so thick, the 3-Toothed Rabbit wasn't seriously injured.
Although there was no blood, the 3-Toothed Rabbit still made a loud painful cry as it looked towards the sky.
" Cry as much as you want, but no one is going to save you. This forest is as empty as it could get. Take it from an experienced explorer like me. I don't think there would be any beast within the 10 miles radius of us," Ryder said smilingly as he used another flame blast on the 3-Toothed Rabbit.
The Flame blast struck the 3-Toothed Rabbit and made it scream even louder.
Ryder raised his Scythe to deal the finishing blow, but that's when he heard the sound of footsteps on the grass.
He could hear various kinds of noises as well.
Ryder glanced around him as he started sweating.
He could see around 8 3-Toothed Rabbits that had surrounded him from every direction.
"Enraged Slash!" Ryder called out as he swung his Scythe and sliced off the neck of the 3-Toothed Rabbit that was near him since he didn't want to let him recover and attack him from behind.
[+8000 Exp]
[Special Effect of Moon Scythe Activated: Absorption]
[+1 Intelligence]
Ryder saw the experience gain notification, but that was the last thing he cared about at the moment.
"You guys are real bastards, aren't you? I looked for 80 minutes, but not a single one appeared in front of me, and after I found a beast, you all appeared to screw me over," Ryder let out with a wry smile on his face as he glanced at the beasts.
"Whatever, Don't think that I'll be scared. You're nothing but weak," Ryder gripped his Scythe firmly as he said.
All the 3-Toothed Rabbit started running towards Ryder together. Since they were all on different sides of him, Ryder wasn't able to see them all.
"Flame Blast!"
"Flame Blast!"
"Flame Blast"
Ryder fired flame blast one after another towards the beasts that were on his back to delay them while he ran towards the beasts to his front.
The trick worked, and the fur of three 3-Toothed Rabbits easily started burning, which stopped them and shifted their focus.
Ryder got to the 3-toothed Rabbit that was in front of him and used Enraged Slash.
Since the beast was only level 10, it was Ryder's first target, and it was killed in a single strike.
[+4000 Exp]
[Special Effect of Moon Scythe Activated: Absorption]
[+10 strength]
Ryder didn't stop and shifted to the nearest 3-Toothed Rabbit that was just as weak.
[+4000 Exp]
[Special Effect of Moon Scythe Activated: Absorption]
[+5 speed]
[+4000 Exp]
[Special Effect of Moon Scythe Activated: Absorption]
[+1 Intelligence]
[+6000 Exp]
[Special Effect of Moon Scythe Activated: Absorption]
[+15 strength]
The notifications kept coming one after another as Ryder killed 4 of the 8 beasts. Unfortunately, the skill absorption didn't activate even once. He has expected that since the chances of that happening were only 5 percent.
There were still 4 beasts left; they were the stronger ones though.
One amongst them was at level 15,2 at level 12, and 1 at level 13.
Ryder wasn't worried. Instead, he was excited at his gains.
"It would be so great to absorb their stats as well. Hopefully, I'll get their Shadow Ball attack as well," He muttered to himself.
Next chapter title: Lucifer and the Princess
Ps: I posted a trailer like video of the novel on discord.You can check it out of you like . Link in synopsis
The fire was burning on the fur; the 3-Toothed Rabbits had stopped. Their fur was burnt off and turned black, but their health wasn't affected much.
Ryder had just finished dealing with 4 of them, and as soon as he turned back, he noticed that the remaining 3-Toothed Rabbits had opened their mouth.
"Oh, Shhh," Ryder could see a black ball of light coming into existence.
They all fired Shadow Balls at Ryder at the same time. All 4 attacks were coming from different angles, making it difficult for him to guess their trajectory and dodge them.
"Flame Blast"
"Flame Blast!"
Ryder had fired two Flame Blasts one after another and took care of 2 shadow balls that were closer to him.
Although he managed to deal with 2 of them, the remaining 2 has gotten much closer to him in the meantime.
Ryder realized that he didn't have time to use Flame Blast on one as the other one would strike him.
He planted his feet firmly on the ground as he swung his Moon Scythe towards the remaining shadow balls.
"Enraged Slash!" He roared loudly as he attacked the shadow balls.
The Moon Scythe managed to slice through one Shadow Ball and destroy it, but as the Shadow Ball burst off, Ryder couldn't escape the effects. He was struck by the energy wave that appeared because of the Shadow Ball being destroyed.
He could feel pain as well as his HP going down, but he didn't stop the Scythe as he twisted his body along with the movement of the scythe and destroyed the remaining Shadow Ball as well.
He was struck by another energy blast since the last Shadow Ball had reached dangerously close to him.
He was thrown off like a broken kite as he crashed on the ground.
*Cough* *cough*
"Well, that wasn't fun," Ryder stood up as he looked at the 3-Tooted Rabbits that were running towards him.
"Now I desire that skill even more," Ryder let out as he ran towards the closest beast.
"Flame Blast!" Ryder attacked just as he was 5 meters away from it.
"Enraged Slash!" Before the Flame Blast could even land on the 3-toothed rabbit, he jumped in the air as he swung his Scythe.
The Flame Blast landed on the head of the 3-Toothed Rabbit, and the next instant, the Moon Scythe managed to slice it's head off. He had killed the strongest 3-Toothed Rabbit.
He killed level 15 beast despite only being level 10, mostly because of the increase in stats after absorption.
[+15000 Exp]
[Special Effect of Moon Scythe Activated: Absorption]
[+18 Strength]
[Special Effect of Moon Scythe Activated: Skill Absorption]
[Skill Taken: Shadow Ball]
[+1 Level]
"Hah, now that's more like it," Ryder said smilingly.
Without wasting any time, he raised his hand towards another 3-toothed Rabbit.
"Shadow Ball!" Ryder called out, and a pitch-black orb of energy appeared in front of him and advanced towards the target.
'The mana consumption is slightly higher compared to Flame Blast,' Ryder thought as he looked at his available mana on the corner of his vision.
"Enraged Slash!" He followed the same pattern and killed it as well.
[+10000 Exp]
[Special Effect of Moon Scythe Activated: Absorption]
[+1 Intelligence]]
Only 2 beasts remained, and Ryder still had enough Mana for 3 Flame Blasts.
The last 2 beasts were at equal distance from him, and Ryder could see both of them opening their mouth at the same time. He realized what they wanted to do.
He ran towards the 3-toothed rabbit on his left and fired a flame blast.
The shadow ball had just left its mouth when the flame blast collided with the shadow ball. A small explosion took place that harmed the 3-Toothed Rabbit's eyes, making it groan in pain.
In the meantime, the second 3-Toothed Rabbit had fired its shadow ball that was coming after Ryder at its maximum speed.
Ryder jumped over the 3-toothed rabbit that had lost its vision and landed behind it, while the shadow ball that was coming after him struck the 3-Toothed Rabbit.
*Raaaaa*
The 3-Toothed Rabbit groaned in pain as it was attacked. It was seriously injured, and Ryder utilized the opportunity as he attacked it with his Scythe.
Ryder attacked normally, he didn't even use the Enraged Slash, yet the 3-Toothed Rabbit died.
[+10000 Exp]
[Special Effect of Moon Scythe Activated: Absorption]
[+1 Intelligence]]
"Such a bad bunny, You killed your own friend," Ryder said with a smile as he started running towards the last 3-Toothed Rabbit.
It opened its mouth once more to fire Shadow Ball, but Ryder did the same and used Flame Blast before it could.
Although the flame blast was weaker and dealt less damage than Shadow Ball, It was much faster to cast.
The Flame Blast had reached near the 3-Toothed Rabbit when it fired Shadow Ball. Both the attacks collided with each other and got destroyed amongst themselves.
Ryder used the time he had received as he got to the 3-Toothed Rabbit and gave one last strike and killed it.
[+8000 Exp]
[Special Effect of Moon Scythe Activated: Absorption]
[+1 Intelligence]
Every beast was killed, and Ryder sat down on the ground as he breathed in relief.
His stamina was high, but it was still too much for him to fight so many beasts at once at such a low level.
Most of his mana was also spent, which would take some time to recover. Fortunately, his mana didn't go down to 0, or he would be having a headache as a side effect. He didn't have a mana potion either.
_________________________________
As Ryder was resting, another person was going deeper inside a dark forest.
The person was wearing a beautiful cloak that covered his body entirely.
His face was also covered in a mask; only his deep blue eyes were visible.
He was carrying a heavy sword on his back while he held a poster in his hand.
This poster was exactly like the one that Ryder had found in the kingdom before he was transferred into the Demon Realm.
It had a painting of a beautiful girl. There were a few words written below the painting that talked about the princess being missing and that the person who found her will be heavily rewarded by the king.
Next chapter title: The face behind the mask