"You must have imagined it," He said glancing at his right hand and said, "How can I...
F*ck!
He was flabbergasted upon seeing a tattoo of a dragon at the back of his right hand. He then realized that the hot sensation his stomach felt had vanished completely.
When he looked at it, it felt as if the dragon was alive and it grew darker and darker upon a time. After some time it no longer grew darker once it became black as the black could be.
"W-What is this?" Oslo frowned on his condition. He knew it must be related to the core he had eaten but from what he knew there was no such thing as a tattoo of monster appearing in the body when you consumed the core.
'Was it not a core that I ate but something entirely different?'
There were many questions running wild in his mind with no answers. Be didn't even know what it does because of its being the first time had him seeing it.
It was a gamble which needed for him to risk his life. There was a 50-50 chance of being beneficial but knew he could also die if things were to go south. And it was an entirely new concept and tattoos like this weren't seen before.
If he died, who was going to take care of his brother? He opened his mouth but remained silent watching the figure in his hand.
But right now he had no idea as to what it was, so he decided to investigate it upon his return to Earth. Even if there were no leads investigating a bit wouldn't hurt.
He let it be and asked the whereabouts of the magician.
It wasn't far from the village but was outside the wall. Inside the forest of West hill where the dense trees grew stood a castle.
Although it was a normal house built from the rock for villagers, it was a castle where the demon resided. Marie told him that she could accompany him for he didn't know the way.
Getting ready his hands touched his waist.
"Dagger, where is my dagger?" Oslo asked looking at Marie.
"You didn't have any weapon on you when we saw your body lying unconscious."She said shrugging her shoulder
'That was the only weapon I had.' He gritted his teeth upon the possibility that he had forgotten his dagger inside the wretched dungeon.
Weapons were highly needed for adventurers for them to survive the ventures whey went off on. But it was pricy as well. Normal ammunition could also harm magic beasts but not by much because of their tough skin.
To damage them, a weapon forged from bones, horns, and scales of monsters were used which had mana infused with them. Oslo only had one dagger which he had accidentally found inside the dungeon but now it was gone and there was no way of retrieving it again.
" Are you backing off then?" Marie asked.
"No," Since he had already taken the reward there was no going back on his words, "I'll fight barehanded. I may not look like it but I have some skill in hand to hand combat as well."
"Oh, then that means you are some kind of fighting genius right?"
"Of course, no one can match the secret skill I have been honing to date."
Although he said that, he only knew 'Mana punch' and 'Mana kick' which was not even a basic skill. By covering your fist and leg in mana, you punch and kick. It was simple to use and needed no training to master.
Even after they exited the house they saw no villager. It was as if the village was some kind of Ghost town. If a pin was dropped it would make a noise like drums in that silent village.
Creak~
The door which seemed to be made up of metal and was three meters tall was opened smoothly when Oslo just gave it a slight push.
Creak~
The door then closed automatically upon their exit. With the leaves swaying away from the trees in their way they headed towards the castle. Oslo hid behind a tree when the castle was in his field of view. He slowly peeked at the castle.
As Marie had explained there was a two-headed dog guarding the entrance of the house and there were four puppies behind it. With each of them having two heads it was like ten magic beasts guarding the house.
Marie being an ordinary girl without magical power whispered,
"I don't think I can take you any further. That house in front is the magician's castle."
"It's fine." Oslo nodded understanding the situation. He knew he couldn't deal with all the annoyance at the same time, so he had a plan.
Divide and rule!
Suddenly, Oslo jumped in front of dogs leaving Marie dumbfounded. Showing his middle finger he grinned and again jumped back to the forest.
But the dogs didn't show the reaction he was hoping for. No, they didn't show any reaction at all but just stood still. When Oslo again came into their line of sight the dogs did nothing,
"Are they dead or something?"
He walked closer and closer and seeing no reaction coming from the dogs his confidence was renewed.
Tat- Tat- Tat- Tat-
"Come and get me fools." Oslo said as he walked closer, "You can't? hahaha."
Lala~ lala~ lalala~
Grrr~
When he was five meters away from them, they finally showed signs of being alive. Gnashing their teeth, they looked at him with eyes filled with murder and looked like they were about to chomp on him limb from limb.
Oslo subconsciously took a step back and again he ran to the forest. But as before no dogs followed.
"Are they illusions and cannot leave certain proximity only occasionally barking to scare people walking in?"
But he wasn't so sure about that because of the dog that was owned by the girl was actually born from the mother dog in front of him. To confirm whether he hit the mark he took a step forward.
When he was again five meters close, they again greed and gnashed their teeth but surprisingly when he stepped closer they again remained still showing no reaction.
Even though he was just a foot away from the dogs, it didn't incite their ire and the dogs as before stood still. Patting the mother dog, he looked at the forest in the direction of Marie,
"What, Are they just an illusion?"
"No, you fool, watch out!" Marie yelled from her position.
With the corner of his eyes, he saw two heads coming at him at an alarming speed. He jumped sideways and barely dodged the attack by the hair.
When the dog's teeth sank in the ground, cracks began to form like a web of a spider. When it again raised its head, a piece of land rose with it. With its hard jaw, it bit the piece destroying it and covering the surrounding in the dust.
"Whew~ Thank god it wasn't me who got chomped. If it was, I would have died in a single bite."
He stood up and leaped off punching the face of the beast. Even though he didn't use any mana, because of his physique of a D-rank adventurer, the dog was pushed back.
"What? Is your body just for show?" Hitting his palm with a clenched fist Oslo said gazing at the six meters tall monster which was also big-headed,
"If your body is just for show then, I can kick your ass just fine."
The monster seemed as if it understood what Oslo said. Its children were about to aid it when it barked and ordered them to stand still.
Now, It wanted to kill Oslo single toothly.
Oslo knew that if things kept going like this, he stood a chance against the monster even without using his mana. He was saving his mana for the fight to come and didn't wanted to waste on the monster beast such as this.
After all, his body didn't have the supply of infinite amounts of magical energy.
The dog then shook its head hinting that it didn't damage it in the slightest. With drool falling down his big mouths it rushed towards Oslo with a single purpose of killing him.
Bam!