(Continued from the previous chapter)
I expected for him to ask my name.
I expected him to approve of my hard work.
I did not expect to be promoted.
Snapping out of my reverie, I noticed that he was gone, and that my comrades, no, my men, were surrounding me, congratulating me, and asking what he gave me.
"I don't know" I said, my hands were holding with carefully, for I did not know what I was supposed to do.
My instincts told me to break it, that it would grant me power if I did so, but I did nothing.
What if it was a test? To see if I could resist it? What if i was meant to safeguard it? If that was the case, then breaking it would be very, very, bad.
I went out to see Lord Verum eating, so I decided to wait until he finished.
When he was done, I walked up to him, and he turned to face me, then looking at me, he raised his eyebrow.
Fear struck me.
Did I do something wrong? Why was his lordship looking at me like that?
Thankfully, his words silenced my internal chaos.
"Why haven't you used it yet?"
So I was meant to break it after all.
*****
(Third person)
After explaining to his new captain his responsibilities, Verum went out to grind some levels.
'I wonder how many different creatures are there in this forest, forest creatures are many, deer, foxes, bugs, birds, lizards, there might be entirely new species as well! Not to mention, all the different mythological one's as well, maybe I can get an encyclopedia sometime?' His thoughts wandered as walked, and he soon came across the clearing were they first hunted.
'This is where we killed the wolves, right? The blood's gone, so there's a restoration effect, now then. Which way should I go?' He thought, as he looked around the clearing, 'West, east, or north?'
Seeing nothing that stood out, he decided to just explore, and headed north, which turned out to be a good decision, for he found a few injured wolves resting. 'They're injured, claw marks, either Felidae, or Canidae, bite marks, so not Aves or Ursidae, higher level too, there's 7 of them, and those are some deep cuts.'
Wanting to take them out quickly, he looked around to spot the best angle of attack.
'There, that spot's perfect, I can take out 4 with a surprise attack.' Thinking so, he shimmied up a tree before parkouring a bit before using Shadow flash to get across a gap to get in position. 'Okay, swords out, fire bolt followed by flamethrower then a stab at that one.' (Insert deep breath sound) 'Now!'
The wolves were exhausted and were not expecting to be attacked out of nowhere, so when 3 of them were suddenly consumed by fire, they panicked, and frantically got up and started looking around. One of them heard something and looked up to see a sword heading towards it, a brief flash of pain, and then fell into eternal slumber.
The others, spotting their attacker, started charging towards him, but to no avail, for they were already weakened, and Verum had just began his hunt. Quickly he cut them down, and the forest regained it's tranquility.
[Level Up!]
'They were too slow, and too easy too kill, hmm. There should be a trail, right? Maybe I can follow it to their predator. Let's take a look around.' He looked around, True observance activated, and actually did find a trail made of blood and fur, and followed it.
The further he went, the more blood could be seen, and soon he reached a spot where there were pools of it all around. 'This should be the battleground, now I just need to find another trail. That one, if I had to guess.' He was looking at a patch of dried blood that went off into the forest. 'It killed one, and dragged it away.' Following it, he soon came across something else.
'Paw prints, but no claws, its a cat.' A little smile appeared on his face, satisfied with his new knowledge, because felines were usually solitary, unlike Canidae, which were always in groups. 'Now then, to defeat all of those wolves it would need to be highly agile, unless it's level is so high that it took no damage at all, which is unlikely, so cheetah, jaguar, or a cougar, lions are unlikely because they travel in prides, and let's hope it's not a cheetah.'
About 300 meters from the assumed battleground, he stopped suddenly, for he had heard something, and waited to confirm.
.
.
.
A very faint sound was heard again, and he immediately climbed a tree, for he knew that they had a very impressive auditory sense. He made his way slowly, careful to not touch any leaves or breathe too loudly, when he had to make a bigger step, he tried to use his ki and mana to surround his feet, just in case it could lower the noise he was making.
After crossing 7 trees and 23 meters, he managed to see a part of it, and internally, heaved a sigh of relief, he could see spots, and those were not circle-shaped.
He inched closer, trying to get close enough to strike it without giving it a chance to move.
When suddenly, his silence broke.
[You have learned the skill 'Sneak']
The notification startled him, making him take a sharp, reflexive, breath, and alerting the big cat to the fact that someone was watching it, and making it snap it's head and move towards his location.
'Damn it! Why now?' Verum thought, and he quickly used appraisal.
[Jaguar] [Lv:9]
[Rank: Cannon fodder]
[HP: 120/120]
[Bite]
[Pounce]
[One of the big cats, the Jaguar is only behind the cheetah in terms of speed]
Seeing it head towards him, he turned around and started jumping away, making it chase him.
However, upon reaching the battlefield, he stopped.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me!"
In front of him stood silver-colored wolves, each with a small streak of green in the middle of it's forehead.