After successfully purchasing the food from the stores, Carlos blended in with the crowd and slipped away from the newly employed knights in the area that had just been sent by the king to search for the youngest prince.
It was much easier to hide due to the sun setting, increasing the intensity of the darkness that secluded Carlos. He had a plan to hire a carriage outside of the city, however, the hardest part was to get out of the city that was now under heavy restrictions to deny entry and exits of citizens.
Carlos eventually spotted a huge forest of thick and tall trees beyond the path he was walking on. Feeling slightly bothered by the sun setting, he summoned his sword in his hands and headed inside the forest.
During the night, all kind of deadly monsters arise from the earth and terrorise human beings, causing them to always be in fear of the silent and deadly night.
Only the bravest and the strong could gather courage and fight these monsters. These people are called hunters, they fight and eradicate monsters. They can gain profit and fame through the art of killing unruly creatures.
The privilege given to only hunters is the access to enter gates, called dimensions that contain all kinds of monsters. Hunters wouldn't enter the gate for no reason at all, however, these gates inside are known to contain extraordinary prizes to hunters who manage to defeat any boss in the dimensions.
Many prizes has been given to hunters, some range from expensive and ancient swords to the ability to gain an affinity they themselves don't have. However, entering such a dangerous world comes with a hefty price, not many hunters enter it if they are unprepared and unconfident in their abilities. As not many make it out of the dimension alive and unwounded.
Carlos has never fought a monster before. After all, he had been sheltered and protected all his life. He had never even seen a monster before but he knew they existed due to readings in the library that were forced by Aiden.
"Thanks Aiden." Carlos murmured as he cautiously walked into the forest.
If he had stayed out in the open and blend in with the villagers, he would be caught way too easily, judging by the knights attire and the weapons they held, it was obvious that they were of much higher caliber than the one who guarded the interior of the castle.
Carlos's hair also stood up like a sore thumb. Each strand of his hair looked like they were made of diamonds as they sparkled brightly in the nightlight. His eyes were special as they looked like priceless crystals that were sapphire in color.
He was far too easy to spot even from a distance, wearing his black cloak did help but in the darkness of the night, his hair could be seen shining through the supposedly opaque cloak itself.
Knowing this, Carlos made his way into the forests as quick as he could. He stepped in and flinched at the endless sound of rustling leaves, he heard the leaves being crunched whenever he advanced.
However, when he continued walking, there was a completely different sound of crunching. Much louder and disturbing, it made Carlos slightly regret his decisions to enter the forest.
When he quietly sneaked behind the tree to investigate the source of the sound, his jaw dropped, his crystal eyes starting to wave at the sight infront of him.
A humongous feline with hard iron teeth that were stained with blood, as they penetrated through ripped pieces of flesh. Seeing this was disturbing enough for Carlos, however, seeing the half eaten head of a human's on the grass floor made his legs shake with fear.
Running was the only thing Carlos could think of, but his legs did not obey his requests, all he could do was to sit behind a tree, witnessing the horrendous scene unfold before his eyes.
To Carlos horror, the feline stopped eating it's meal, slowly turning it's head towards him. It dropped the chunks of meat in it's mouth and dashed towards him.
Getting over his pathetic emotions that made him weak, Carlos grabbed the summon sword and dodged out of the feline's landing as it's claws dugged deep into the ground.
Taking advantage of the element of suprise, Carlos got on his feet. Ice started building around him and the feline, he hissed and snapped his fingers, spikes emerged from the walls of ice and brutally penetrated through the tough skin of the feline.
It growled in pain when the ice entered it's skin, freezing it's organs and blood that didn't suprisingly didn't spill out of it's huge body. Carlos grabbed his sword and swipe the blade across the mouth of the creature, cutting it's head in half.
Half of feline's head plopped onto the ground as blood spilled out. Carlos ignored the disturbing scene infront of him and walked towards the head of the feline. He picked up it's head, using his sword, he dugged out the feline's teeth and stored it into his bag.
Gory sights weren't rare for him to witness as he had seen his father chopped off helpless servants head before, but what he saw today was on a completely different level.
"They were right. It isn't all rainbows and joy out here." Carlos grumbled before heading deeper into the forests, more ready this time while gripping his sword tightly.
In just an instant, Carlos lost all his fear from earlier as he made it through the forest with ease, cutting down monsters that were much less scarier and smaller than the one he saw before.
Fortunately, Carlos soon spotted a hut in the distance. He pulled the head of his cloak over his head even more, hoping to conceal his hair. His eyes were still far too easy to identity. All he was hoping for now is a miracle that the people living in hut couldn't recognize or know about him.
It was a far fetched miracle but it was possible if these people were ignorant about the matters in the kingdom they were in, or they were too far from the centre of the city to know about these matters.
Carlos knew he had walked for a long time, maybe even to the edge of the city, but he doubted so. However, he knew that they were still little rural areas that existed within the kingdom's city that were hard to find.