Boom
A giant boar rammed through a building wall as it tried to trample on Felix with the latter quickly leaping away to avoid it.
"Oi!...what are you doing?... I said hunt it, not play tag with it." Nathan called from a safe spot a couple of meters away from the action.
Felix directly ignored him as he brandished his sword and took in the full structure of the mutated beast.
Its body was roughly as large as an adult elephant and its tusks were sharp enough to cut through flesh.
Its most definitive feature however was its red eyes which were a normal thing amongst mutated beasts.
These creatures known as mutated beasts had been around for quite some time, having been present even during the Golden age of Cultivation.
At that time, however, they were quite tame with the wild ones also tagged as demons killed by the Cultivators once they were found out.
Their current state had to do with one of the negative impacts of the Incursion.
The once docile and peace-loving creatures that somehow knew how to cultivate were tainted by the blood that dyed the land, turning them into murder machines that killed without thinking.
In any case, it had been two days since Felix and Nathan set out on their journey to the first predicted dungeon.
Along the way, they had undergone endurance training until they came across the wild boar while searching for food.
In Nathan's words, he was tired of packaged snacks and required real meat.
So using skill testing as an excuse, Nathan gave Felix the task of hunting down the boar and that was how the latter found himself running away from the bloodthirsty beast while trying to pinpoint its weakness.
[Notice. Analysis complete]
"Good." Felix barely managed to get the word out as the boar squealed loudly, nearly shredding his eardrum.
For a brief moment, he turned dizzy, disrupting his subsequent actions.
By the time he regained his composure, the boar was already in front of him.
Felix had his life flash before his eyes before a white light flashed past and the boar dropped dead without hesitation.
Boom
The ground trembled slightly before Felix managed to calm his rapidly beating heart.
As he stared at the dead body of the beast, Nathan came up to him and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"Well, that was close."
Felix nodded as he kept staring at the body.
"So what did we learn today?" Nathan sounded like a primary school teacher taking his student through a lesson as he spoke.
Felix pursed his lips. "So far, the enemies I've faced were untrained and easy to overwhelm solely relying on my system. On my own, I am severely lacking."
"Indeed," Nathan remarked. "It's not only about figuring out the weak points of an opponent. You also have to consider if the opponent would allow you to discover their weak points."
"You…" Felix instinctively frowned as he glanced at Nathan.
"What?" Nathan chuckled. "You thought I wouldn't notice that you normally aim at your opponent's weak points?... It's easy to tell that you rely on your system to get away with that but faced with an Awakened that constantly changes his weak points, you would die before you get a chance to pinpoint a weakness."
"I see." Felix nodded. "I hadn't considered the possibility that my skills would be easy to pinpoint."
Nathan tapped his shoulder. "Rookie mistake... but you should be more careful. Try not to use that skill unless as a trump card. Using it without a plan in mind would result in your death."
"Mn."
Nathan flashed a smile before walking toward the boar while rubbing his palms together. "Well, it seems we will be having pork tonight."
His eyes glimmered as he spoke.
Time went by and soon night came.
A fire was lit and Nathan busied himself preparing a feast while Felix swung his sword horizontally, hoping to get to a thousand swings before midnight.
Of course, he quickly abandoned training the moment the meat was ready causing Nathan to wonder if he was serious about completing the task.
His worries were unfounded however as Felix immediately went back to swinging the moment he was done eating which was a wonder considering the amount of meat he ate.
Giving him his first watch, Nathan went to sleep in his sleeping bag while Felix stayed awake.
At some point, the latter dropped the sword and retrieved the sword cultivation manual from [Weapons Vault] to study it.
In the end, he decided not to throw it away and instead kept the manual for future study.
At least it wouldn't be discovered in [Weapons Vault] so there was no need to worry.
[Notice. I don't understand why the host continues to read the book when its corresponding content has already been absorbed]
"Because I need to understand the concepts myself, or else I'd never be able to utilize them properly. I'd be like an illiterate man with a lot of money… everything would quickly go to waste."
[Notice. You have a valid point]
Felix nodded wordlessly as he flipped through the pages.
At some point during the night, Felix heard howls in the distance causing him to close the manual.
[Notice. I detect a few lifeforms approaching the periphery]
Glancing to confirm Nathan was asleep, Felix returned the manual to [Weapons Vault] before retrieving Multi-shot Pulse Gun.
This time, he planned to test his capabilities with a gun.
Taking a deep breath, he made his way toward the howls.
***
[Notice. Analysis complete. The species is denoted as Zombie Hyenas. They enjoy dead bodies and like to play with their prey. Subsequent information states that they can sense fear in their prey and their regenerative capabilities are quite impressive, even being able to survive without a head]
"They live up to their names, huh," Felix muttered before asking. "And their abilities?"
He was unwilling to fall into a similar position as last time with the boar.
[Notice. Two abilities are mostly used by Zombie Hyenas. Speed boost and Howl]
"Yet another sound-based mutant." Felix was currently standing at a vantage point, overlooking the area below which was filled with dilapidated buildings and waste from various sources.
The body of the boar that Nathan killed was currently being feasted on by five of the Zombie Hyenas.
He was partly worried about falling into the same situation as what happened with the boar but on the other hand, it was a great opportunity to make up for his mistake.
How could he grow without taking risks?
Thus, he took a deep breath before speaking softly. "Activate Analyst."
[Unique Skill, Analyst, activated]
"Then let's begin."
Kicking off from the roof, Felix felt the breeze brush against his skin as he descended to the ground.
Aiming, he fired without hesitation.
Bang bang