Clarence completed his workout routine and took a dip into the lake beside the waterfall as he was too sweaty. He took a quick bath since he couldn't be sure if the lake had any beasts or not.
After getting out, he wore his signature combo of black track pants paired with a similar colored form fitting shirt and set out in a random direction.
After a few minutes of strolling, Clarence spotted a rank two long tailed monkey, who discovered him as well.
The monkey was already upon him just as he was about to raise his dagger to attack, left with no choice, he could only change its direction to do a block. Clarence could easily react with his trained reactions.
With his heightened senses, he could sense a tail coming his way from the side, which he blocked with his bare hand.
'Argh, that hurt'
Clarence had only ever dodged from the start when he fought in this forest. This was the first time he took a direct hit, which was definitely painful.
Despite the fact that he was a rank one demon with a top-class physique even among demons, he was up against a rank two beast, and beasts of all species had powerful physiques. As a result, he couldn't come out on top in a physical exchange.
But even though he didn't come out on top, withstanding a direct hit with just a momentary pain was already very good.
Clarence, before the monkey could follow up with its own attacks, attacked himself to seize the momentum. It also helped him divert the pain from his hand.
Raising his dagger, he slashed out at the monkey, and dodged to the left since he already sensed a tail coming his way.
Long tailed monkeys were known for their tails, which could act as an independent whip-like weapon without needing assistance from their owner.
Clarence grabbed the tail as soon as he dodged it, before it could be retracted after the attack's loss of momentum.
He immediately smashed the tail on the ground, which was followed by its main body, the monkey.
The monkey screeched, indicating that it was in excruciating pain as a result of the impact.
Clarence, with his quick thinking, immediately threw his dagger, seizing that small window of time its mouth opened.
The dagger missed by a hair's width because the monkey snapped its head sideways when it sensed danger. Despite this, the dagger's sharp side still exacerbated a dangerous injury.
It cut open the entire side of the monkey's mouth and lodged itself on the ground a few meters away.
The monkey thrashed around wildly, making a series of high-pitched screech sounds. It wasn't focused on attacking anymore as it was trying to free itself from Clarence's grip on his tails and express the pain it was experiencing.
Clarence, without any show of emotion, tried to stomp on the monkey, but it dodged and counterattacked with its sharp nails.
He could only let go of the tail because he didn't have a dagger to protect himself from its sharp nails. Unfortunately, his dodge failed by a wide margin because the monkey was unexpectedly much faster than before, owing to its rage.
The sharp nails cut through his shirt and slashed a shallow but long wound, starting from his waist to right shoulder.
'Argh, it's really hard to fight without two daggers.'
One of his daggers was exchanged with a modified one time use pistol which he used against the rank 5 snake.
Apparently, when he checked the system earlier, he can exchange back his dagger but obviously with an object of equivalent value.
Just as Clarence rolled away a few meters, the monkey, after getting free from his grasp, ran away. It seems it really was in too much pain.
He thought, 'I was really foolish to think I could defeat higher rank so easily, after fighting them continuously these past few days.
Those weapons are really dangerous, but it also shows how I couldn't win a fight without them. Those earlier battles were all won because of those weapons.'
Clarence was extremely critical of himself after his first loss in this forest. He didn't even try to reason further that without his wits, the earlier battles would still have been difficult.
He picked up the dagger and began searching for a cave in which to apply ointment to his wound.
He discovered an open cave a few meters away after a few minutes of searching. He walked into the cave and removed his shirt.
He then took out a bottle from his spatial bracelet after putting inside the torn shirt.
Opening the cap of the bottle, he started applying the ointment on his wound.
*SIZZLE*
'Argh, it hurts'
He couldn't use higher rank medicines being a rank one, since it would only harm him with its intense medicinal properties.
Instead, he could only use the highest grade ointment among the ranks he could use without harming himself. But they didn't stop the pain, instead it intensified for a few seconds at the start.
Bearing the pain, Clarence continued applying the ointment on his wound. After he was done, he put back the bottle in his spatial bracelet.
Taking out a bandage, he wrapped it around the wound, now covered with ointment with a few layers. After he was done, he put back the bandage and changed into a fresh shirt.
He exited the cave after he was done tending to his wounds and strolled around in the forest.
After a few minutes of walking, he spotted a rank one snake up ahead which seemed to have not sensed him yet.
Not wishing for trouble and having no interest in fighting a rank one. He ignored the snake and continued moving around.
After he strolled around for half an hour, he was already very far away from the place of battle with the monkey.
*BADUMP*
He heard a sound not too far away from him a few minutes later, walking over to see the cause of the sound. He discovered a teen in red clothes fighting a rank two snake.
The teen was wielding a sword and performing several sword techniques in quick succession, but not one hit the snake.
The snake was of an agile species which relied solely on speed and a paralyzing poison to slowly kill its target.
The teen dodged an attack of the snake by a close call and countered with his sword art. Unfortunately, the snake had its head too close to the teen when the latter decided to counterattack.
The sword technique brutally hit the snake and continued raining down attacks on it without slowing down.
By the time the teen was done executing his sword technique, what was left of the snake was just a mangled corpse which hardly resembled its previous body.
The teen let out a short breath and turned to glance in his direction. Clarence knew he was discovered a long time ago.
With the teen being rank one if he sensed it correct and being able to kill a rank two.
The teen should already be able to sense him at the distance from which he was spectating the fight.
The said teen put the corpse in his spatial bracelet, turned around and walked in a different direction.
It could be seen from this that he had no intention of interacting with Clarence, even after discovering him.
Clarence, who genuinely liked the fight, just shouted from his place,
"That was a nice battle."
Upon hearing the words, the teen didn't reply with anything but held his head a little higher instead.
Upon seeing this, Clarence just let out a small chuckle and turned away.
While strolling around, he thought,
'That snake which the teen fought was an agility type, similar to the monkey he previously fought. But that person could defeat the snake despite both of us being in the same rank.
I believe I know where I went wrong; I was fighting with only one of my daggers, despite the fact that my specialty is two, while he was fighting with his sword, which is most likely all he fights with.
The second thing, he had a sword technique, whereas I still haven't practiced a single dagger technique.
Maybe, just maybe, I might've won if I had these two things.'
Clarence was unsure even after taking into account the two factors where he fell short, because the monkey, unlike the snake, had a completely independent tail.
The monkey would still be alive and able to attack even if he attacked the tail. The snake, on the other hand, only attacked with its head, and hitting the head was a sure way to injure the beast.
He could already feel the wound across his chest healing as he walked around. He paused for a moment before removing the bandage and putting it in his spatial bracelet.
He started circulating his golden blue energy after a little more walking because he was ready to fight again. And he intended to start the battle with a sneak attack this time.
He reasoned that since he had lost in a straight-on battle, he should take a step back and begin with a sneak battle in order to notice his flaws.
He would try a straight on battle with rank two beasts once he had defeated rank two beasts with a sneak attack.