The Siara Continent was vast, vaster than a four year kid could imagine, and the mightiest of king could conquer. It was so without the unknown places that existed but never found.
The places man failed to discover were all explored by a strange and mysterious entity called mana. It existed everywhere, from the dark den of an evil dragon hundreds of miles down the surface, to the temple of gods preached by the wisest of humans.
It gave rise to many questions, as to what it was? Many just believed it was a gift of the god, the nature itself. This answer would be enough to sat the curiosity in common peoples, but the mages thought otherwise.
Thus, the quest to find the origin of mana began. However, even after researchers sacrificed decades of their short life, they couldn't figure out how the earth birthed the mana, though they did figure out how the mana impacted the earth and all the beings in it, fascinating them to no end.
It turned out that just like a lamp without oil, Siara Continent would have no magic without mana. It was like a small spark that ignited the evolution of everything, turning the plants into rare elixirs, ores into valuable metals, and the creatures into demonic beasts.
The demonic beasts were one of the enemies of the human race on the Siara Continent. They had left humanity on the brink of destruction on many occasions in the past.
They were gifted with a terrifying physique which allowed them to draw mana in their body almost naturally. The mature ones would even form mana cores when the mana in their body become potent enough.
Moreover, they were the real predators of the forest, and the beast without the mana cores could only hover at the lowest of the food chain.
Mana core also became the reason they were so desired by the human race and the other races alike. It held immense and pure mana, which allowed them to become the energy source of most of the modern tech in the Siara Continent.
In addition to that, mana cores were also one of the important resources for a mage due to the presence of raw elements.
This led to mass hunting of beasts throughout the continent. The massacre dwindled their numbers to a terrifying level. Despite that, they weren't someone to be taken lightly, especially for Arvad who was currently walking through the hometown of beasts.
He pushed the verdant branch, and cautiously looked around the vicinity. There was nothing except the tiny murmurs of the leaves. In fact, it was this silence that worried him even more.
'Why's there no beast here? I have been traveling for an hour already. Could it be that I am still in the outer region?'
Seeing that it was about to dawn, Arvad felt a little disappointed. 'Looks like I will be sleeping hungry tonight.' He shook his head and rushed forward. 'Now then I should find a safe place to rest.'
Walking ahead for a bit, the trees seemed thicker and more lush than before. They stretched towards heaven, and he couldn't see the end of them no matter how hard he squinted.
"Whoa. This soil seems to be rich in mana, otherwise there's no way these kinds of monsters could exist." Arvad thought aloud. He had been to Flower Sanctuary a lot, so he knew quite a lot about botany.
As a result, he immediately deduced the reason behind the overgrown trees. These small observations were really important while surviving in the wilderness. There could be stronger beasts in the area with abundant mana.
Of course, there were also benefits; there should be many rare elixirs around the vicinity which could help calm down his appetite.
Thinking about it, he excitedly looked around the vicinity for some rare elixirs.
As the twilight shone upon the horizon, the flowers gave off brilliant purple light.
'Wonderful…'
The scene was so magical that it aroused a gasp from Arvad. The light lit up the entire area, giving the forest a dreamy look, and he couldn't help but compare it to the Flower Sanctuary.
However, there was something special about them. The difference was subtle yet Arvad could feel that the flowers there seemed more brilliant and wild. It was as if they were talking to him. The freedom seemed to have made them more cheerful, and compared to them, the ones bound to Flower Sanctuary seemed to be lifeless.
Seemingly lost in the allure of the beauty of forest, he wandered around aimlessly almost forgetting the aim of his voyage.
The chilly wind whirled, bringing a foreign charm along with it. Even after walking for so long, he couldn't perceive even the slightest moment. The situation made him more suspicious each passing second; he couldn't help but feel as if something was horribly wrong.
'It's awfully quiet. As if all the beast has escaped for their life.'
The face behind the mask frowned deeply when his thoughts reached up to here. He felt his heart beating tighter against the chest.
Ba' Dump!
Ba' Dump!
'Shit! I need to get out of here.'
Suddenly, Arvad started running towards the outer region of the forest. Almost his entire body was covered in cold sweat by now.
The fearful possibility turned out to be true, and the ground started to shake wildly. Even the flowers closed their petals upon sensing the chaotic mana flow.
However, Arvad did not have the time to care about these things, he felt the suffocating aura come closer and closer. Nearly every single hair on his body was standing in goosebumps, and his sixth sense was screaming for him to escape.
He ran like a madman through the thick trees, evading countless obstacles along the way. The journey had already exhausted him, and now the effects were reflecting in his pace.
Despite the fact that he could not see what was following him, he knew that it was someone he could not contend with. Just the terrifying aura made him feel suffocated, and his fighting spirit left him second by second.
The naked aura had subdued his spirits, and he felt his soul tremble. No amount of training could have prepared him to fight such a behemoth. The hours of sweet childhood he had replaced with bloody training seemed to be worthless. They couldn't even prepare him to face the giant behind him.
"Is this how I am gonna die? I can't believe it. So much preparation, the hope of teachers, Father…. I can't fall here at any cost. Even if I have to leave handicapped, I must escape with my life."
He hurried towards a single direction without even wasting a second to look behind. "Fuck me, why does this happen the first time I wander around?! Looks like Father wasn't wrong!"
While he was screaming in frustration, he suddenly felt the ground beneath him shake and slide. The few meters area with him as the center began to crack, as if something was grabbing it downwards.
"What the he-"
The gravity shifted and Arvad felt a strong pull from below. Before he could react, he already found himself rapidly losing altitude.
Swish!
Arvad unsheathed the sword around his waist and burrowed it towards the wall besides him with his entire strength. Due to the strong force, he continued to slide downwards.
"Ughhh!" He gritted his teeth and his expression twisted into that of extreme determination. The muscles in his arms bulged as he tightened his grip across the hilt, and pushed it harder.
The momentum of his fall finally came to a screeching halt, and for a moment, he could only hear the sound of his loud and hurried breathing. But, it stopped abruptly when he inhaled a strange smell.
'It smells like a rat's decomposed corpse. No, it's much more horrible.'
The moment he looked below, his entire body shook with terror, compelling him to almost lose his grip. He unconsciously gulped and beads of sweat trickled down his nose, slipping past in the abyss.
'Who could be so strong? Was it a Grade 6 demonic beast?' Arvad thought out aloud. There was a slight tremble in his hoarse voice, and he didn't seem as calm as he tried to appear.
There were hundreds of corpses littered around the abyss, stacked one above another as if they were vegetables. Each one of them was more ferocious than the other.
But, here they were, bound together like some kind of trophies set for exhibition. Not a breath of life remained in their gigantic carcass, with few so gruesome that Arvad felt like puking. There was only blood and death that stubbornly lingered around them.
Just as Arvad was wondering how to climb out of that hell, he shook upon feeling the terrifying aura come closer and closer. And in the next moment, a gigantic shadow flew past his head. The tail swept behind it, working as some sort of air booster, propelling its huge body in the front.
The giant had a several meters long scaly body, and a ferocious dragon head. Every inch of its body seemed like a lethal weapon, dormant with power that could shake the world.
'A dragon… How's that even possible? No, it must be a mutated one. The real one would have killed me by just breathing so close.'
Even though it appeared like a dragon, it was just one of the mutated species; the result of the ancestor dragons venting their dark desires in some pitiful creatures.
Despite that, it still received the wind-element as a gift or compensation, pushing its agility to a terrifying level. The strong body, powerful magic affinity, and a strand of mighty bloodline put its strength to peak of Grade 8, almost touching Grade 7.
In simple words, it wasn't someone Arvad should mess with. He wouldn't even be able to take a single attack of that creature.
Arvad stopped breathing, hoping that the dragon would not notice his puny existence. Seeing the tail leaving his scope of vision, he sighed a breath of relief. Then, all of a sudden, he felt a pair of eyes watching him with extreme killing intent.
He quickly looked up, and felt a breath leaving his body almost unconsciously. Despite the lack of wind element, her silhouette seemed to float with the wind, and her aura overshadowed the majesty of the mutated dragon.
She didn't wear anything like the luxurious gowns of nobles back home, and her attire could even be called medieval, however, there was something special about her in the lack of it.
The black clothes, as dark as the night, tightly embraced her body, sculpting out her peerless curves.
Those strands of dark hair blew with the winds, and the orange halo of some mysterious plants made them appear like waves of flames. And finally, her face, which was undoubtedly the most beautiful one he had ever seen, could not even contend with the beautiful emerald of her eyes.
It was her green eyes that drew him crazy, almost dazing him out of his predicament. They shone through the darkness like the most precious of gems, and at the moment, they were filled with killing intent as they gazed upon him.
'Wait! Green eyes… An Umbra? More importantly, why does she seem…. seem a little angry.'
Just when he was lost in his own contemplation, she revealed something from her sleeves. It reflected under the orange light, and with a gentle push, it rushed towards Arvad at a terrifying speed. Its sharp edge seemed to be glaring at his heart, raw with the desire to bathe in his blood.
'SHIT!!!'
Everything happened in a split second, and by the time Arvad could comprehend it, the sharp needle was already close. At that moment, he could only dodge in the worst possible way.
He let go of the sword hilt, and shrieked as he found himself falling in the loving embrace of a female spider's corpse.