After the sudden encounter with the princess I took a few deep breathes and got back to what I was doing. I didn't really have any indicators as to where would be the best place to train in the forest, but I was thinking of going into the direction that was the furthest away from the path.
"Seems like I'll have to go deep into the forest."
The adventurers and knights would have surely already taken care of most of the monsters in the parts near the city. So I would have to go deeper inside if I wanted to encounter monsters.
I carefully made my way down the mountain, got off off the path and began to walk into the forest. It was still early so the sun was just rising up and shined through the leaves into the forest. The trees were darker than the ones I encountered in the forest near the village, that could be nothing to worry about, but maybe it actually has to do something with the monsters around here. In the books I read I still remember that there are certain monsters, who only live in certain environments, but there were only a few really dangerous things in forests, so I don't really remember a lot about the monsters in the forests.
-20 minutes later-
I was carefully sneaking up on a creature I read about in the books. Ippikiōkami, a sort of wolf that is only hunting alone. It is a really interesting creature, so I still remember it well, from when I was reading about it. Normally wolfs hunt in packs and are never really alone, but this is the only kind of wolf, who rather hunts alone. Normal wolfs who hunt in packs wouldn't want to have anything to do with it and vice versa. It originated from an internal conflict... The king of the wolf hybrid beasts, I don't remember his name, but I think he was the last big king of the wolf species. They were originally a really strong force in within the hybrid beasts, but as in every race there was someone too greedy, wanting to take the throne for himself. After getting the trust of the king, who had full faith in the members of his race, he was searching for opportunities to get the throne and managed to make connections to different factions inside the wolfs and also outside. The king was warned, but he didn't think anything of it and believed that one of his closest subordinates couldn't possibly be thinking of stealing his throne. He may have been a great warrior, but I have to say he wasn't really intelligent. The end of the conflict was, when the king finally realized that he really had been plotted against and as a result he was so shocked that he lost his mind for a few weeks. In that time he used a forbidden magic that is unique to monsters, who can change their appearance. But it was forbidden for a good reason... In exchange for a tremendous amount of power for a short period of time, the users lose their ability to change into human form again. The king took his closest allies, who were ready to even die for him and performed the magic. He turned himself into a full wolf with tremendous strength and the only reason for his and his allies existence was to kill the traitors... The whole race was near extinction and to this day the empire of the wolves was never able to grow back to their strength they once had. Everyone of the kings allies and he himself died shortly after, but somehow a female wolf was able to bear a child, which had been of a completely different race... That race is extremely rare, but they would never work together with other wolves and so they defy the normal behavior of wolves massively.
And now I am about to ambush exactly such a wolf, they are stronger than normal wolves, but at least they don't hunt in packs. He is currently feasting on the meat of another creature, which I am not able to identify from what is left. He would have already noticed me long ago if he wouldn't be eating right now, but that is of course only good for me. There are a few reasons I want to hunt this wolf, but one of the main ones is that I am hungry and I suspect that maybe I am able to gain something more out of eating the meat of a stronger creature. It's not really something I am sure about, but if my body is able to grow stronger, without seeing any kind of limit right now what would happen if I ate the flesh of a stronger monster, would it benefit me in some way. It's of course way more dangerous than to hunt a weaker beast, but I can find out something about this word by myself and also... It'll be way more fun.
I had my bow in hand and had an arrow ready to be shot. I don't believe that I will be able to hit the wolf from where I am standing right now so I need to get closer. He's bound to notice me, because of his great sense of smelling and hearing, so I am ready to shoot at any moment. I approached it more and more and then when I was about 15 meters away it noticed me... I shot the arrow, but I only managed to graze him and immediately after that he rushed towards me. I dropped my bow and unsheathed my sword.
He was rushing towards me and now, when he was only a 2 meters away he leaped at me ready to bite my head off. I quickly evaded left and when he tried to bite me I swiftly swung my sword at his neck. I missed his neck by quite a bit because he was faster than I expected. But I was still able to give him quite a deep wound near his front leg. I could see that it was in pain and that it wasn't used to the wound, so I quickly used the chance and approached it from the left. It was the side with the wound so I knew that if I would come from that side he would have to come at me with the claw of his left leg or his teeth. I let it seem like there was an opening for him to attack and he attacked exactly as I suspected. When I swung my sword at his right side he tried to swiftly attack my right side. I suspected that, so I took a step back with my right leg, changed the trajectory of the sword and in one swing precisely cut off his leg.
"Raaaahrrr."
Blood was flying around from his torn off leg and he let out a cry filled with immeasurable pain. I was the one who attacked it, but knowing the story behind his race I wanted to quickly finish him off, so that he wouldn't have to feel more pain. I gripped my sword tightly and rammed it into his head. The cries of pain ended and he was lying on the ground not living anymore.
"I know that I killed you, but I don't feel any regret, because this is the path I am willing to take. Now rest in peace."