A flash of terrifying thunder illuminated the surrounding area. Sparks of lightning flashed across the area as a terrifying storm of wind blew through a forest. As one looked through the forest, the more variation of topography that could be seen. Changes in vegetation occurred as more and more gigantic trees could be spotted. The firm soil had traces of beasts that could be spotted. Fog covered the surrounding area, greatly limiting visibility and the deeper one goes into the forest, the thicker the fog becomes.
One of the most noticable aspects of this forest was the complete blanket of darkness. The stars and moon provided incredibly dim light at most, and the only thing that truly illuminated the surroundings was the terrifying thunder and lightning strikes. A torrent of rain pounded into the ground.
This was the Immemorial Battle Forest, a legendary place in the Divine Demon Empire. It was claimed that this place was built from the ground up by the first Demon Sovereign and Empress, Lilith, as a training ground for younger generation Demons. The Immemorial Battle Forest was open access to any Demon, and was crawling with viscous beasts that could be used for training.
*****
Somewhere inside the forest, a young man was laying prone on the ground, the torrent of rain lashing onto his body as mud began splashing onto his body. The young man was around 5'7 in height and his brilliant golden hair was tainted with the mud.
Soon, the young man's fingers twitched, and his eyelids squirmed slightly before opening, a pair of heterochromia eyes with one being blood red and one being a brilliant golden colour that gazed around in complete confusion and later shock.
The loud clap of thunder shook the boy, making him realize and looking around his position. He was in the middle of a mysterious forest, and had absolutely no idea how he had gotten here. His mind drifted, and began deeply thinking about the last thing he did.
' I had finished training with Karthus and went to bed, how did I get here? Assassins? No, they'd kill me immediately. Maybe a test from Karthus? He took me from my room and dropped me here to test my survival skills? I guess my mother agreed.'
The young man, Damon thought to himself and rationalized the situation as he stood up, the mud washing off his body due to the rain. Damon looked around, he was completely naked, his brilliant black, gold and red twin dragons tattoo's flowing down his arms very noticable. Damon looked around himself, seeing if there were any weapons or notes left by Karthus to help him, but found absolutely nothing.
"Damn Karthus, no time or resources to prepare myself." Damon said in his mind, stunned how Karthus had left him with absolutely nothing to help himself. Damon mused angrily as he quickly changed into survival mode.
Damon extended his mana, scanning the surrounding area for any potential threats. Unfortunately, the fog in the forest seemed to have some mystical powers as it greatly limited Damon's mana scouting capabilities.
"Immemorial Battle Forest." Damon immediately said. Growing up, he was forced to learn the world's geography, and could immediately determine where he was after analyzing the surrounding area. The main characteristic of the Immemorial Battle Forest was the terrifying mist that resticted a beings ability to sense the surroundings using mana by over 80%.
Damon went onto one knee and pressed his left hand onto the ground before speaking.
" Αιώνιος Πρόσκοπος."
Immediately, a wave of mana spread out quickly across the surrounding area, and a mental map on the surrounding area entered Damon's mind.
Unfortunately,the fog limited the scope of Damon's spell, making the mental map much smaller than usual. Thankfully, Damon casted the spell in the Draconic Language, which boosted the power of all spells chanted mentally or out loud in that language.
Damon stood up and injected mana into his feet, before jumping off into the sky. Damon landed onto a tree branch and jumped towards another tree, flying across the forest at high speeds as he searched around for a nearby exit from the forest.
Unfortunately, it seemed Karthus had stranded Damon deep in the forest, as he couldn't find any exits nearby.
~CRUNCH~
The crushing of a small tree branch immediately entered Damon's ear, and Damon immediately halted his movement, his gaze locked onto a nearby group of beasts. The crunching sound echoed across the forest as Damon spotted a pack of Wolves hurriedly eating a dead deer. The wolvers were all huge, with a snow white coat of fur.
'Frost Wolf.' Damon immediately recognized what type of wolves they were. Frost Wolves were wolves that had control over the Ice Element and had characteristics such as High Speed, Strength and Elemental Control, and usually moved in packs, which made them dangerous to newly awakened individuals. These wolves could eventually evolve into Celestial Frost Wolves in the future.
"αληθινό μπαράζ βολής." Damon softly whispered in Draconic Language. A arc of lightning covered his entire arm as a Bow made of mana appeared. A arrow made of lightning appeared in the bow and Damon pulled the quiver, releasing it.
The Lightning Arrow expanded over time, growing larger and larger at it appeared near the pack of wolves in a flash, turning into a large arching shot of terrifying lightning.
~ROAR~ROOAARR!~
The terrifying roars of the pack of wolves immediately echoed across the area as Damon's attack crashed into them, immediately smashing into one wolf, and exploding its head, the wolf's body stumbling and falling, a torrent of blood pouring out of the headless dead body of the wolf.
Damon attempted to jump to another tree branch, but quickly realized that the entire tree he was standing on was already frozen, including his feet. It was at this moment that one of the ferocious wolves aimed for his face and leapt up.
"Damn it."
Damon ducked low, allowing the wolf to fly over his head and crash head first into the frozen tree, making it shake terrifyingly and begin to fall. Damon leapt to another tree and quickly ducked down, another wolf flying over his head.
"αληθινό μπαράζ βολής." Damon said once again, the magical mana bow appearing and two terrifying shots of lightning flying out as Damon fired, immediately killing the two wolves who previously attacked him.
Damon turned around once more and immediately activated his
"Ενίσχυση σώματος."
Mana filled and strengthened Damon's body, and accompanied by the bone-chilling sound of a sonic boom, Damon's foot flew forward, smashing into the head of one of the remaining wolves and exploding it, an implosion of blood ocurring and covering Damon's bare naked body, but it slowly began to wash off due to the torrent of pouring rain.
The corpse of the now-headless wolf powerlessly fell down to the ground, yet Damon didn't have time to worry. Damon swiftly turned around and moved his arms, catching a wolf milliseconds before the wolf and its terrifying jaws latched onto his face and killed him. The wolf continued to bit towards Damon as he held the angry wolf off.
Damon pushed the wolf away and unleashed a blast of jet-black demon flames that incinerated the wolf's body. Damon's senses immediately spiked, warning him of danger as he jumped up, a spike of ice smashing through the floor he was standing at, almost impaling him.
Damon ducked down in mid air, but not fast enough. The wolf's terrifying claws slashed across Damon's back, leaving three wounds that immediately began to bleed out as both Damon and the wolf landed back onto the ground. Damon wincing in pain at the wounds on his back.
Damon gathered Mana in his hands and unleashed chains made of pure mana, restraining the wolf while he dashed in, kicking the wolf's head off and finally killing the last remaining wolf.
Panting heavily, Damon fell to the ground on one knee as his mana began to recover. Even using it for one ( 1 ) second actively, Damon's
Damon knew he couldn't stay here for long, he gathered the wolf's dead bodies and immediately began to disassemble it, taking important aspects such as the wolves' fur, bones and Mana Core that was inside the wolves bodies.
Damon ran off into a different spot, worried that the scent of blood would attract more and more beasts the longer he stayed nearby. Damon heard the roars and shouts of various beasts back where the battle took place and continued running off.
Damon channeled mana into his back, trying to quickly heal up his wounds while he lept onto a tree and continued jumping between trees, until finding a safe place nearby where he stopped and sat down, beginning to regenrate his mana and heal up.
Damon held the Mana Cores that were present in the wolves, and began channeling the mana from the cores into his body, using it to cultivate and channeling the mana to heal his wounds. Mana Cores could also be used to cultivate, by channeling the Mana out of the Cores and into your own body. However, the mana would need to be purified firstly, and how much mana one can obtain from the core depends on the talent of the individual.
"System, Sign-In." Damon said in his mind.
[ Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the Achievement { First Monster Kill }. One Sign-In opportunity is awarded for completing the achievement. ]
[ Ding! Congratulations for Signing In the Eternal Storage Ring.]
[ Ding! Congratulations for Signing in the Alchemist Knowledge Codex. ]
Damon immediately read about the description in his mind about these rewards.
[ Eternal Storage Ring - The Eternal Storage Ring is a ring forged by a Goddess of Space. The ring has infinite storage space, and could store anything aside from living beings. Anything within the storage ring will have its time frozen indefinitely until removed from the ring. ]
The ring was black and gold, with a beautiful purple skull on top. Damon immediately put it on moved all of the wolves resources he assembled into the ring.
Then, Damon immediately went and read about the other reward.
[ Alchemist Knowledge Codex - A Codex holding knowledge and techniques related to Alchemy. The Codex contains information about all forms of ingredients, from plants, herbs, monster blood etc. The Codex also holds all information needed to potion making techniques. The Codex is an eternal super encyclopedia about Alchemy. ]
Damon immediately accepted the Codex and a flood of information entered into his mind, stunning him for a short time before he stabilized himself. Now looking around, Damon could see and immediately recognize all the herbs around him, their names and what their uses were, and what potions could be made with them.
Damon stood up, already fully healed with his mana completely regenerated, and began plucking these herbs. Damon continued plucking these herbs, wondering about what he would do with them in the future.
~STEP~
A stepping stound entered into Damon's ears, making his ear twitch. The sounds were incredibly soft, but Damon could also sense beings walking closer to him as he sensed them using mana.
Damon turned around, his eyes locking onto numerous humanoid beings. Damon didn't know what race exactly the humanoid people were, as they were completely covered in black clothing that protected their identities.
The people had seen that Damon had caught them, the sound of sheathing ocurring as all of the immediately took out jet-black daggers.
"Assassins...."
*****
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