Inner Area & 8 Months later
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Forest
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Alan's POV
I soon arrive at the surface with Norton following behind me.
It took us a few hours to get out as Norton stepped on many traps on way back and I let him handle the traps in order to train his senses .
That's why it took us a lot more time than earlier
We will now be entering the inner area of forest and after that we will go the Holy Waterfall to get my Holy element powered up.
We start walking toward the inner area of forest.
We soon entered the inner region and it was quiet everywhere except for the occasional chirping.
I was extremely cautious as I know there are stronger beasts here.
I can also find 'those' also here since monsters here are strong enough to have it.
We are walking steadily and I also covered my skin with Earth 🪨 element so as to counter any ambushes that may happen in future.
We soon heard some rustling sounds near bushes and grass and I used my vision which were covered with mana to enhance my vision and I also covered my ears and nose with mana so as to help me improve my senses.
I saw a long jiggly beast coming towards us at a very fast speed .
It came out of bush and we saw it.
It was a long and giant serpent which had green body skin colour with black patches and dots
It hissed at us.
Hiss! Hiss!
It looked quite poisonous and it had sharp fangs and had slits in its yellow eyes.
It was looking at us like we are the prey.
It pounced on me as sson as possible.
"Go behind and attack with your magic"
"Yes Master."
I launch my fireballs at it and sensing the heat from it and danger of being burnt , it started dodging it steadily.
I took that opportunity and took out my longsword and went on offensive.
It looked angry and launched its tail at me which I parred with my sword.
It continued for few times before Norton launched balls and Arrows made up of Darkness 🌑.
The serpent 🐍 sensed danger and tried to retreat a step back but I took that opportunity and slashed it and it started bleeding
Hiss!
It hissed with pain.
It's blood was green in colour and as soon as it fell on the muddy ground below, it acidified the ground and a hole formed in it.
It would be very useful so I will make sure to drain it's blood and I am also sure that it will sell for a lot of gold
Hahaha 💰.
Alan's eyes shined with greed, like a merchant who saw a rare treasure .
The serpent 🐍 felt a chill down its spine and it's body trembles a bit as it looked with Alan with wariness.
Although it did not understand why it felt like that but it's Instinct told him that this guy was up to no good.
The serpent attacked again and I parred it again and this thing continued for a while but the serpent was slowly getting tired.
Seeing that it had no chances to win, it decided to retreat but how can I let a bag of gold coins go away if it wants to so easily.
Norton fired arrows towards it escape path and I slashed it from behind and killed it.
Haha Now it's all mine.
I slice it up and found the thing I was hoping I could find earlier here
This!
It was a green ball and it looked the size of a golf ball and it's called beast heart where their life energy is accumulated.
It also contained the poison.
These beast heart are not useful for humans but they are very useful for basic machines and jewellery and it is also used to feed domesticated beasts.
I will sell it for good amount when we reach any kingdom ,
We continued our journey and encountered more beasts but fought with them with all our strength.
As we went deeper, more stronger beasts were found.
I also read the magic theory books on our journey and many meditation theories and concepts.
I started improving my own techniques and same with my combat powers by battling strong beasts.
Travel!
Knowledge!
Battles!
Travel!
...
We continued...
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8 Months later
Alan's POV
Huff Huff Huff
I was currently chasing a wild beasts with very agile speed and was almost matching it's speed.
In these 8 Months, me and Norton have explored every area of the inner forest and there is almost no beast which we can't defeat ourselves.
In these 8 Months , Norton became a Rank-2 Mage and I opened his Ki circuits and I am currently giving him knowledge about how Ki actually works and it's whole process as I don't want him to absorb nature energy subconsciously and covert into ki loke other people in this world.
He was very surprised as I opened his circuits as he also knew that no one has both mana and ki.
He got so surprised that he started believing that it was me that enabled him to use both Mana and Ki.
He started worshipping me literally like a god but I got too cringed so I had to spout some random quote I got from my old world about equality of whatnot and only then did he stop calling me god after a week and returned to normal.
He has managed to gain my trust fully in these past months.
He is someone I can trust my back with .
He is also close to reach Rank-1 Weapon Master with the help of my simplified methods and explanations.
As for me,
I am close to Rank-4 Mage and Rank-3 Weapon Master.
This might look like a long time period considering my previous rapid advancement but I concluded few things like :
1. Condensing a mana core in body is very difficult and consumes a lot of my focus and as I always live in forest, I have to keep an eye out and be on guard at all times ,even if I can kill any beast here doesn't mean I am immune to their attacks and considering my cautiousness I would even be cautious against a rabbit in wild
2. The second thing I concluded that my body age is also low, I mean I am still 7 and will become 8 after a few months and creating a mana core also has some relationship with my body age.
It doesn't matter that I make my body strong physically, I am sure there are some time-relations with mana and I would need a long research on it so it is pending but I will do it later .Even 8 Months are early but since I have support of Ki, it also eases my work by constantly strengthening my body frame while mediating.
Slash !
I kill the beast that I was chasing and today it will be our food.
I come back and see Norton training his sword skills.
He notices my presence and throws his sword away and come to me.
"Master, you should leave these menial tasks of catching hunts to me, you should not bother yourself with this, please..."
What a good guy heh.
Now time for some bullshit.
"Norton, you should focus more on your trainig as it will eventually help me achieving my plans and I also wanted to train so no big deal , there is no small task in the world as every task has its own importance "
I say this shit while maintaining an elegant posture.
His eyes becomes shining and determine and for a second I saw his eyes moist, maybe he got emotional .
Hmm well whatever,
"Norton we will soon be reaching civilisation so try to reach Rank-1 before if possible and we will be going to stay in the nearest kingdom for some time, so don't hunt too much these days and focus on your training more"
"Yes Master!"
I nod and left him to train himself.
Oh and one more thing is that he also awakened a new element that is Fire 🔥 element btw.
So he has now become a dual mage.
I also collected a lot of beast hearts and in addition I killed a few bandits here and there and got some silver from them also, so I doubt I will lack money there unless the prices are sky high.
Well let's keep training as I think there will be many interesting things I will find in Human Kingdoms and might also find something which adds to my strength.
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Norton POV
It's been almost a year I started exploring with Master.
In the past 8 Months, me and Master trained very hard,
I never did any training in my life before but with Master's aid , I got used to it and now I can easily kill many of the beasts in inner region, though I might sometimes need help from Master.
These beasts would even give a Rank-3 Mage or Rank-3 Weapon Masters a fight to death but my Master isn't to be compared with normal standards too.
I hope I become strong so that I will be aid to Master
My Master also did many miracles in these past 8 Months, he awakened my Ki circuits and now I can use ki.
He also graced me with knowledge that I could never how to get , things like nature energy, subconciousnes, Body structures and so on...
I know that no one is capable of using both mana and ki and I never expected myself to have both at my disposal.
At that time, I started worshipping Master daily , he is truly a godly being and he graced me with talents that I could have never achieve if I hadn't met him .
He rejected my worship to him and I became anxious that he might not like my way of worshipping him , I didn't ever want to upset him as not even my entire life can be valued to his mood .
I was about to change my way of worshipping him but he told me
"Norton, remember:
'Normality is a paved road:
It's comfortable to walk, but no flowers 🌸 grow '"
This single sentence of his was enougb for me to understand how scholarly he was and how dumb I was.
He has no need for such titles and formalities as my thoughts and actions are what matters.
He is a simple and down to ground person and taught me that there are mountains 🗻 beyond mountains and skies above sky .
I was getting arrogant just because I got a bit strong and he showed me right path to walk on.
Master , you will always remain a god in my eyes now even if you deny it and I will always follow you.
I should not underestimate any jobs even if they are menial as they will have a reason in life.
Sorry Master I am still too far behind you to not get such meanings but I will improve myself for you and become someone you can depend your trust on.
I got very emotional at that moment and I was on the verge of crying but I controlled myself and knew that crying will not get me anywhere.
I will train more harder Master .
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Alan's POV
"Achoo !!"
'The heck, did I catch cold ?'
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If only Norton could see what Alan was thinking,
Even Alan didn't know the meaning of the words he spoke and just thought that it matched the situation and spit them out to maintain his image.
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