The refreshing wind blew over Kadyn's face as he eyed the view in front of him. The rustling trees swung harmoniously, and the twittering of birds—and the howls of beasts reverberated throughout the jungle. He sniffed the cold breeze and peered into his surroundings.
After examining his surroundings, he started to look for the herbs. "Oh, that is [Sweet Grass]. I can use it to make a healing powder. Though it is just a low-level herb. Something is better than nothing."
His eyes glittered when he found a batch of sweet grass. He carefully dug it out and stored it inside the bag that he had prepared previously. Though he knew it wasn't a wise choice to store the herbs in a bag like this, he had no choice. He had no herb-storing box.
Nonetheless, after that he continued to search and found many herbs. But none of them was of high quality, most of them used to treat for a normal wound or scratches, and those herbs were just a little better than the normal weed. He needed to go deeper if he wanted something more.
After thinking for a moment he scurried deeper into the forest. Though he knew it was dangerous, he also felt a thrill of unknown threat inside his heart. He was eager to use the spell he learned.
"Boom!"
As he wandered, he heard the sound of fighting and hurried towards the noise. After fifteen seconds later he saw a man engaged in a battle with a beast from between the brush. He had a dagger in his hand, sweating profusely. Kadyn saw his clothes had been torn from many places, smudges and blood marks could be seen all over his body. And in front of him was a vicious-looking wolf, growling and grunting at the man while the crimson blood dripped from its fangs—on the corpse that laid on the ground in front of the wolf.
"Damn you!" the man cursed furiously and dashed forward at the beast. He knew it was impossible to escape and could only fight head-on with everything he had.
The beast also did not stay idle and lunged at the man. Just when the wolf was about ten meters away from the man, a star pattern appeared under his feet. Simultaneously, the ground shook and a wall of yellow soil formed in front of the beast. It was a five-star spell. The man stopped and sneered. "Stupid animal."
"Smash!"
The wolf smashed into the wall and crumbled it with tremendous force. It lost the balance and fell in the dust. Wriggling and moaning. The blood oozed out from its robust scalp and the animal struggled to stand.
Hunter didn't want to give it any chance, so he hurried towards the beast with a sharp, shining dagger in his hand. When he was about two meters away from the wolf, it sprang at the man with an unbelievable speed and opened its glittering fangs to tear the man apart.
"Fuck! It was acting!" the man cursed and realised that the beast was trying to hoodwink him and it succeeded. The man was too close to avoid the attack and neither could he cast a spell in such a short time. When he had lost every hope, a flame arrow appeared in front of him and smashed into the wolf's skull. The beast was slammed away with a tremendous oomph.
The man also fell to the ground and huffed with deep breaths. Wasting no time, he turned around and saw a boy around the age of seventeen or eighteen walking leisurely towards him.
"You all right?" Kadyn asked him.
Hearing Kadyn's query, the man was brought back from his stupor and replied. "Ah, yes, I'm alright. Thanks for your help."
"Growl~"
Wolf stood with its charred skull and shook its head to wash the dizziness from the head. Afterwards it looked at Kadyn with full of resentment and hatred and dashed at him. Kadyn pushed himself towards the beast and once more cast the [Arrow Rush].
Before the wolf could reach Kadyn, the spell slammed it away. The hunter saw the entire process and became surprised. Kadyn could cast a spell at such a speed. Even he needed around two seconds to cast a five-star pattern. However Kadyn had just now didn't even taken half a second.
What was this situation?
Though Kadyn was unaware about the casting time and all. He wiped the sweat from his temples and cursed. "Fuck, why my head is feeling dizzy and body ache?"
If someone else knew that it was his first time casting a spell, he would vomit on his face for saying such a thing. At elementary mage level, the mana was scattered all about the body, while the soul was inside the head of the mage. The mages could manipulate the mana in their bodies with the help of the will and the source of will was the soul, that's why he felt pain in his head.
Many experienced mages won't feel any ache as they were familiar with the limit of their body and use the magic according to that limit, but Kadyn had no idea about it. The muscles inside his body stretched when the mana exceeded the limit. He used his will to control this energy, generating headache and body pain as it was too much for him.
However Kadyn didn't stop there, he took a deep breath and once more cast a spell—the beast that had just stood was smashed once more.
"Howl!"
Wolf howled indignantly and abysmal hatred flickered inside its crimson eyes before it dashed away. After casting this spell, Kadyn couldn't take the pressure anymore and sat on the ground with his drenched clothes, and a cool breeze rustled through the copse of the trees.
Suddenly Kadyn felt danger and his hair stood on their ends. He struggled and shifted his fatigued body at the side and avoided the attack by a hair. "What are you doing?!" Kadyn demanded when he saw the attacker was none other than the man he saved. It was the first time he met such an ungrateful wretch in his life.