I made my way over to the cliffside, where I stopped to take in the amazing view once more. Although this is my second time seeing this view, it was still very breathtaking. Seeing such an untouched land with no buildings or visible civilization was just amazing. I was not sure how things were more inland, but here on the outskirts of the kingdom, it was so sparse that if there was a village down there, it was not visible, for me anyway.
I sat on the cliff edge for about an hour just to take in the sights before finally continuing my trip to the far side of the village. This side of the village was more rocky and unsuitable for farming, so there was nothing but large boulders here and there. This gave me perfect cover as I raced towards the forest.
Once I reached the forest edge and stepped past the tree line, I finally came to a stop behind a large tree and breathed a sigh of relief. As far as I could tell, I did not pass anyone. So I should not have been seen. This meant I had quite a few hours to allow myself to test out the limits of my strength and the system itself. I did not hesitate to cast a mana shield around myself. This shield would last until my mana ran out or I canceled it. Just to be safe, I kept a close eye on my mana bar.
Now that I was protected, it was now time for me to begin venturing deeper into the forest. But before I took another step, I used the short sword at my side to carve a mark in the tree. It was a wonderful picture of the amazingly popular mellow kitty from Earth. Not that I had a lot of mellow kitty merchandise or anything in my past life. Only a shelf…. Or two….
I ran deeper into the forest, which surprisingly looked quite normal to me. Similar to a forest you would find on Earth. I was actually expecting glowing plants and little balls of magical lights floating up into the sky, but alas, I only got bushes, trees, and bugs. There were some overly sized mushrooms that came up to my waist, but that was about the most interesting thing I had seen thus far.
From what I read, the forests of this world were usually broken down into sections. They had the edge of the forest, which depending on the forest, could be from anywhere from a few feet to hundreds of feet. This area was relatively safe and unless searching for food, monsters never really ventured out to this area. And if they did, they would be heading to the village anyway. Then there was the first boundary where the weak monsters normally roamed. If I were to put things level-wise, you could say level 1 to 5 monsters roamed this area. Of course, these are all my own assumptions. The second boundary was where monsters stronger than the level 1 to 5 roamed. I really can't give an exact level range on such monsters since, from what I read, the power of monsters in this second boundary relied solely on how powerful the monsters in the core region were.
I have no clue how strong such monsters were when I think about it. Should I ever be scared of such monsters? I mean… Infinity mana…. Mana shield…. I probably shouldn't get ahead of myself without knowing these things for sure.
I continued forward until I felt the air around me begin to change. I could now hear the calls of some of the beasts within the forest. I slowed down to a stop and began looking around me before slowly proceeding on.
This would be my first time ever seeing a monster, never mind actually trying to kill one. Right now, I can only hope to put what I practiced to actual use. If it was not for my mana shield and my assumption of having infinity mana, I would not even come close to even thinking about trying to fight a monster until I had proper training in doing so.
I may be excited and want to figure out my system after waiting seven long years. But…. That did not mean I did not value my little life. Whether I will have a tough life as a demi human or not, I did not care. I planned to make the best out of this new chance of life that I was given. If I am shunned from villages, towns, and cities, then I will just roam the land and become a vagabond. I had no true goals except being strong enough to protect everything I cared about. Oh, and beating up Trent. I will not give up until I finally give him a good beating!
While lost in my own inner monologue, I paused my steps when I heard the sound of rustling coming from a nearby bush. I quickly got into a fighting stance, ready to fight at any time. My tail swayed slowly behind me as my eyes locked onto the bush that was shaking. I narrowed my eyes and lowered my body slightly, waiting for the moment for whatever it was to come out of the bush. A bead of sweat trickled down my forehead as I nervously waited.
I never thought that coming out to fight monsters would be so nerve-wracking. What seemed like hours was only mere seconds. I took a deep breath and held it in before slowly releasing it as I tried to calm my nerves. At least my wait was not too long. Seconds later, as soon as an object exited the bush, I struck out. My eyes closed subconsciously as a warm liquid squirted on my face and a loud pained squeak was heard.
Feeling something was off I opened my eyes to see my sword had run through a brown rabbit with floppy ears. It had a cute button nose that probably wiggled back and forth when it was hopping around. And I? I almost teared up seeing the cute yet lifeless body at the end of my sword. "Mr. Rabbit, I'm sorry!"
I killed such a cute creature! After almost bursting out into tears, I suddenly noticed a nub on top of the rabbit's head. "Hmmm? Is this a horned rabbit?"
[Horned Rabbit Killed]
[Experience: +5]
[Area Quests Unlocked]
[Area Quest: Kill Ten Horned Rabbits]
[Rewards: Experience +200]
As I was inspecting the horned rabbit, a blue transparent window popped up in front of me with a bunch of messages on it. "Area quest?" I tilted my head while looking at the screen that asked me to kill ten horned rabbits for an extra two hundred experience. I couldn't help but smile when I saw such an amazing thing. "Two hundred free experience points for killing cute monsters… Done deal!"
It may sound horrible, but from what I know, even though horned rabbits looked cute, they could easily skewer a human, instantly killing them if the human was not on guard. Horned rabbits were very good at finding the vital points on their prey, almost as if they had a kind of vital point radar. They were also meat-eaters, meaning the fluffy rabbits back on Earth who looked cute nibbling on carrots and lettuce leaves could not compare to the cute meat-eating deadly horned rabbit. This species of rabbit would most likely kill off any Earth rabbit. The scary thing about horned rabbits is while they looked cute, they were also pack hunters meaning if there is one, then there was sure to be a few more….
I turned my head to see three more horned rabbits hop out of the bush and look at me with their cute beady eyes. This was definitely going to be a torture session, that was for sure. While I did wish to test my mana shield I did not wish to test actually getting hurt so I was never going to purposely allow anything to attack me.
"Eee!" I heard one of the horned rabbits let out a squeak before launching itself towards me. But what surprised me was that it did not seem fast at all. It was as if it was moving in slow motion. I have no idea if this was because I was focusing on it or if it was due to it being hostile to me, but I knew that what was happening right now did not seem right. I was easily able to dodge the attack and counter it by running my blade through its body.
[Horned Rabbit Killed]
[Experience: +5]
[2/10 Horned Rabbits Killed]
A few messages popped up signaling my quest progress and experience gain. Luckily it was not in the middle of my vision but at the top peripheral, just right of my status bars. But I really had no time to care about it as I dodged the next horned rabbit and once again killed it, causing more messages to pop up. I did, however, find it funny that while it was showing me how much experience I gained, there was no experience bar to tell me how close to level I was. You would think such a thing would be mandatory with an experience-based system, but then again, I have what seemed like infinity mana, so my system was probably bugged out.
A few seconds later, I had killed all the horned rabbits that had appeared, giving my current progress of horned rabbits killed at an amazing 4/10. I still needed to find six more horned rabbits. Luckily this type of monster, from what I heard, was abundant within the forest, and I hate to say it, but I do believe I have eaten its meat quite a few times. It also made me feel a little bad for not being able to bring them home…. At least then their deaths would be for a good reason other than my experience points….