บท 18: Kill the Runaway Sheep

When James entered the cave and discovered Minji had already fallen asleep, he decided to take a nap as well before returning to hunt beasts to fill up his experience.

However, as he passed the stone stove, James heard Little Snow howling softly.

"Awoo."

James turned back to see Little Snow howling and tilting his head to the stone stove a couple of times, as if to say,

"Master, Little Snow is hungry."

Looking at the adorable Little Snow, James took out a large portion of the big boar that he had just killed and ate it together with Little Snow.

After a while of sitting together in front of the stone stove, the meat was eventually cooked.

And when James ate a piece, his eyes lit up with amazement because he felt an energy that surprisingly increased his physical strength.

Even though it barely made him stronger and had little influence on his strength, he was rather pleased when he discovered this.

After finishing their meal, James and Little Fluffy went to sleep.

Several hours later,

James woke up when he felt someone shaking his body.

"Brother, wake up... Let's eat together with Little Snow."

"Okay, wait a minute." James replied as he yawned and sat up on the bed.

Afterwards, James joined Minji and Little Snow in front of the stone stove, waiting for the meat to be cooked.

...

After an hour of eating and conversing cheerfully with Minji and Little Snow, James went outside again to kill beasts so that he could upgrade his rank again.

As he exited the cave and entered the dense forest, James decided to sweep around the cave as he had done previously before continuing the journey.

While he was walking in the same way where he had the battle last night, he was considering what he would do this time.

Because he still didn't know his current combat limit, and it's pointless to test it when he only needs to kill two more peak rank 2 beasts to upgrade his rank again.

As a result, he decided to upgrade his realm first and test his current combat limit again later.

Because he simply needed to find either two peak rank 2, three high rank 2, or four middle rank 2.

Accordingly, he intended to find two peak rank 2 because he thought that it would save a lot of time since he could still kill them with only a skill.

When James arrived at the location, he was surprised that he didn't detect any beasts around. After some thought, he decided to go in the direction that the iron-horn sheep had fled last night.

The sheep most likely ran because it sensed that his sword qi from his sword fire skill (Flame Splitting Slash) could kill it in one hit.

That's why it fled right away, and fortunately, the savage dog was insane enough to charge at him and let it become a part of his experience. 

As for the fire wolf, it couldn't escape even if it wanted to since it was entangled by Little Snow.

While walking around leisurely, he heard a notification from the system.

[Ding! Detected a Gopher, Mid-level Iron Rank Beast 50 meters northwest ahead]

When he looked at the notification, he was disappointed.

First, the beast was of low level.

Secondly, it was similar to a rat, even if he killed it, he didn't want to eat the meat, and a beast core of rank 1 isn't particularly appealing to him.

So, he chose to ignore it and continue walking aimlessly.

After walking around for a hundred meters, he finally heard a notification again that caught his attention.

Prior to this, he also heard a few notifications, but all of them were low-level beasts.

[Ding! Detected an Iron-horned sheep, High-level Bronze Rank Beast 50 meters straight ahead]

[Race: Iron-horn Sheep]

[Attribute: - ]

[Rank: High-level Bronze Rank Beast]

[Qualification: Bronze]

[Skills: Iron Horn Strike, Charge]

[Description: This is a powerful sheep that could strengthen its horn while charging at its enemies. The wool on its body could also absorb physical damage and protect its body to a certain extent.]

'You can run, but I will catch you eventually, you little lamb.'

James smiled when he saw that this beast was the one that had fled from him last night.

If James hadn't been scared that their fight would lure a more powerful beast, such as a rank 3 beast, and it was still nighttime and he didn't know the surrounding area, he would have pursued this sheep until he killed it.

Afterwards, he slowly approached it sneakily as usual, until they were around 25 meters apart.

The sheep was lying beside a tree, and appeared to be sleeping soundly.

James unsheathed his sword slowly and walked slowly again to shorten the distance between them. When the distance between them was around 12 meters and he believed it was close enough, he decided to use his Fire Sword Skill.

This time, James didn't want to hassle himself too much with knowing his current limited combat power.

He just wanted to get stronger quickly by gathering enough experience so that he could upgrade to the next realm.

As for testing his combat limit, he would do it later, when the time was right.

His priority now was to become stronger quickly for self-protection and to find a place with inhabitants where he could learn more about this world.

[Flame Splitting Slash]

James raised the sword with both hands and executed his Fire Sword Skill.

"Whoosh!"

The crescent moon-shaped sword qi covered in flames flew out of the sword and moved towards the Iron Horn Sheep so quickly that the sheep had no time to respond. The attack slashed its body in half, burning the severed part, and even the blood had evaporated as it was consumed by the flames.

[Ding! You have killed the High-level Bronze Rank Beast.]

[Ding! The experience at peak rank 1 has increased to 75%.]