Outside my cabin the air was chilly and the sun was almost down. It seemed this world was not that different than Earth. It was dusk, I quickly snuck out to the forest before anyone could see me. I was supposed to be injured. If Colton caught word of my recovery he might want to start trouble. I needed to learn how to defend myself before I caught any more heat.
I knew how things went in these magical worlds. I had watched plenty of animes. In a world like this, it was kill or be killed. He wouldn't let me rest until one of us was dead.
The forest was large and ancient. The trees were tall almost scraping against the sky. I had never seen trees this high on Earth. It reminded me of the time I had visited the Redwood national park in Cali. But these trees dwarfed even the redwoods. Redwoods grew to be about 300 feet high, but these ancient trees were at least 500 feet high.
This place was called the Kambel Forest, we were journeying through it to reach the next Kingdom on our caravan's stop. At every kingdom, we would pick up new nobles heading to the mage recruitment grounds. There was a heavy price for even entering the mage recruitment ground, commoners didn't even have the chance to. Most low born nobles didn't either, I was lucky my father got the token for me to be able to participate.
The caravan would always stop around night time in areas like this and youths would head out to try their luck. The Kambel Forest had many magical beasts, strange creatures, and plant life. Luckily we were on a caravan guarded by mages. They would slay any powerful magical beasts in the area to give us a chance to try our luck.
This was considered tempering on our journey and gave us the opportunity to get massive windfalls. As normally someone traveling through a forest like this would have to be on guard against powerful Rank 3 or Rank 4 magical beasts, just to search for rare herbs. It was still dangerous however, the mages only killed truly deadly magical beasts in the area. They wouldn't spend their time worrying about the strong Rank 1 or Rank 2 magical beasts.
A Rank 2 magical beast was at the level of a preliminary Champion, so if you met one of those alone you were as good as dead. That's why nobles still choose to group together in the forest even though there were massive windfalls to be had. It was simply safer to remain with a group. Even though a Rank 2 magical beast was strong a group could take one down, or at least protect their lives.
Because I was traveling alone, I would have to be cautious during my evening trek through the Kambel Forest. If I met a Rank 2 magical beast it would be a catastrophe. These beasts were nothing like the animals on earth. They were much stronger and more ferocious. A Rank 1 magical beast was at the level of an animal on earth. But a Rank 2 was much stronger and a Rank 3 magical beast was something you'd only see in a faerie tale.
Luckily I had been camping before on Earth so I knew a bit about wilderness survival. The first rule was always to give animals a wide berth to start with. If one becomes aware of your presence you were probably too close to start with. Even though they were magical beasts they weren't superhuman. Rank 2 magical beasts still had normal senses.
Although I was being cautious, I wasn't quite through my journey through the forest, the best way to avoid magical beast attacks was not to sneak up on them. Rank 1 and 2 magical beasts were not the top of the food chain. So they avoiding other creatures when possible. Just like animals did on Earth.
As I strolled through the forest I picked up everything I saw of value and greedily placed them in my tattered bronze storage bracelet. Thankfully Daquans knowledge of herbs was ingrained in my mind. Since he spent so much time studying them they were his clearest memories. With just a glance I could tell the value of a herb.
I hadn't found anything of true value so far. Most things I had found were worth between 2 to 5 gold, for most people they would probably go unnoticed. A special mushroom here, a unique colored herb there. It wasn't much, but with enough of these things, I would be able to sate the hunger of the greedy Dragon System. Thankfully my tattered bronze storage bracelet seemed to have an endless capacity to store things.
At first, the storage area was only a five by five box. Anytime I would think it was full if I placed something else in it the storage would grow by a bit. How could a greedy system like this let me leave anything of value on the side of the road?
My luck was good my first-hour trekking through the forest, but eventually, it ran out. I stumbled upon a Rank 1 magical beast. As soon as it saw me walk into its territory it started growling.
[Hercules Badger: Rank 1 Magical Beast]
[Str: 1.3 Agi: .4 Vit: 1.3]
[Danger Level: Low]
It was a medium-sized badger about 3 feet long including its tail. It looked very similar to how a badger would look on earth, except it had some massive claws. I guess that's why it was called a Hercules Badger.
The system popped up stats of the Hercules Badger when I looked at it. Although it was strong with a great vitality it was very slow. That's probably why it didn't even move when I came near it.
I would take the opportunity to fight this creature! As long as I moved fast I would be able to avoid its strong oversized claws and kill this creature.
I would use this battle to test the might of my snake movement technique and get an understanding of where my combat skills lay in this world. If I was ever to take down Colton Sharpe I had to temper myself with battle.
I knew how to fight, but this was a magical world after all. I can't be out here playing checkers when other dudes are playing chess. Since it was a magical beast, I would use my hunting knife to slay it. I pulled out my hunting knife and dived at the Hercules Badger!
[Daquan. Str: .63, Agi: .73, Vit .73]
"Serpent Movement Technique!"