We passed by many villages on the way. Many were very populated and jovial. There weren't any slums or poor areas anywhere, which surprised me. I grew up in a poor district of my city back on Earth, so I was used to spotting them everywhere I went.
Grandmother and I only stopped once to eat at noon and continued on. Running continuously barely took any of my stamina but we stopped every once in a while to rest.
As we neared a giant forest, Grandmother stopped without warning and I nearly crashed into her back.
"Something wrong?" I asked.
"No," She said with an indifferent voice. "This is where we depart."
"Depart? You're not coming with me?"
"My job was to escort you here, not to babysit you."
"I guess that makes sense. You're not the type to just hang around while I fight mana beasts."
Grandmother looked at me and then turned toward the forest in front of us. "This is the Zone of the Silvercrest Empire. The further you go into the forest, the stronger the beasts become." She then turned back to me with slight worry in her eyes. "Don't do anything stupid. You don't need to keep going further in and fight stronger beasts. Just pick an area to stay and fight what you can handle. And if you ever come across something that you can't win against, run away. There's no shame in running away to save yourself."
I nodded.
"You can find mana beasts to eat from and there are plenty of water sources. With your fire element, you won't need to worry about cooking your food. Remember, this is a trial all young mages must endure in their countries to prove themselves."
"I'll do my best."
"Keep track of the days. In exactly 28 days, I'll be in this exact spot waiting for you. I will continue to wait for 2 days. If you have not arrived for 2 days, I will assume you are dead. There's no point looking for you in that maze of a forest, it covers up a quarter of the kingdom."
"28 days, got it. I'll be here."
"Good, I'll see you then."
Grandmother turned around and walked in the direction we had come from. She waved at me and took off.
I sighed and watched her as she disappeared into the distance and over a hill.
"Guess it's just you and me, Emy."
[I'll be in your care, master.]
I smiled and turned to face the giant forest. The trees were hundreds of meters tall and very compact. Around the border between the grassland and the forest were signs. They had skulls and warnings not to go in.
"Let's do this."
I kept along the gravel path until coming right to the edge of the forest. Sounds of bird calls and the trees blowing in the wind entered my ears. But I could feel the hairs rising on my skin. There was an aura of danger surrounding the place.
I stepped across the threshold and entered the Zone. I wasn't expecting anything to happen but was still slightly disappointed when nothing did.
The aura didn't disappear but only got stronger the further I went in. If not for the dangerous aura, it would have seemed like a normal forest. I even saw squirrels and birds in the trees.
I kept walking in until I heard a small squeaking noise from up ahead. I walked ahead and through some bushes, seeing a group of rodent creatures with big ears and sharp teeth.
'This must be a mana beast.'
The rodents were surrounding the corpse of a half-eaten squirrel. Their gnawing sounds rang out through the forest as they nibbled the meat off the bones.
Three small, condensed balls of fire formed over my hand and I shot them toward the creatures.
When it was too late, the creatures noticed the hissing sound of the fire as it cut through the air toward them. Each fireball collided with the beasts and they instantly died.
[The system has designated the rodent creatures as rank F mana beasts. 30 experience points have been granted.]
"Rank F doesn't give a lot of experience. And they were very weak as well," I said as I looked down at the rodent beasts I had killed. "Let's head further in."
Later, further in the forest, I found another group of the same rodent beasts. This time, there were more than twenty. They were traveling somewhere deeper into the forest.
I followed them closely, making sure to not make any noise. If they led me to their colony, I could gain a decent amount of XP.
Along the way, I accidentally stepped on a branch, which alarmed the beasts. They turned on me to attack but I dealt with them quickly as I launched consecutive fireballs at them.
[230 XP has been granted.]
"Is trying to find their colony worth it? Even if I killed 1000, I'd barely make a dent towards my next level."
I continued on in the direction the beasts were headed.
Again, I found another group. But this time, they were significantly larger. More than a meter long and with larger teeth and talons. There were around 40.
I followed them with new hopes about their colony. Maybe there were stronger versions of the mana beasts closer to their colony.
Following them without a sound, I watched their behavior. They were very social creatures, often squeaking to each other and playing together.
Eventually, I noticed a change in the behavior of the group. They stopped squeaking and playing with each other and walked in a formation.
Up ahead, I could make out the opening to a cave, hidden by a fallen tree.
'Jackpot.'
The cave entrance was very wide, enough for many people to enter at once. I surveyed the surroundings, making sure there weren't any other groups around, and headed into the cave.
The beasts were very quiet as I followed them down into the cave.
'By their behavior, it looks like they aren't the strongest beasts here.'
As the cave got deeper the light from the sun outside faded, leaving the entire place pitch black. But with my enhanced vision, I could still see pretty well. It wasn't night vision, but it was enough for me to be comfortable.
Another opening appeared in the cave, which piqued my interest. The group walked through it and I stayed by the entrance, peering through to get a good look before heading in.
The opening led into a very wide section of the cave. In it, there were thousands of rodent mana beasts. Some were like the ones I had first seen and most were the size of the ones I had followed into the cave. But what grabbed my attention were several larger rodents on the opposite side of the area, around 30 meters away from me.
They were as large as a person and had dark brown fur and long, sharp teeth. Their eyes also glowed a deep red.
I turned on my mana vision and peered around the different creatures. The smaller ones had barely any mana but the man-sized ones had enough mana to produce small spells.
As I was about to attack the colony, I heard a rumble through the cavern. Every creature in the wide cavern stopped and froze.
The rumbling increased in volume until suddenly, a large claw ripped through the ground in the middle of the area and emerged from underneath.
A cloud of dust spread through the air and when it cleared, a large rodent creature the size of an elephant was revealed. It had large, piercing red eyes and razor-sharp teeth and claws.
Immediately, all the rodents bowed down to the large creature, showing their loyalty.
In my mana vision, I could see the beast had a very high amount of earth mana in its body.
'What would the rank of that beast be, Emy?'
[By its size and mana capacity, it should be a high-tier rank C mana beast.]
'How much XP for that thing?'
[10,000 XP, sir.]
I inwardly whistled. Combined with the thousands of beasts gathered here, it was like a treasure trove of XP.
I gathered a lot of fire mana in my hands and sent it outwards. Flames completely covered the entire cavern, cutting off all of the exits.
The rodents squeaked in surprise and began to look around for the sudden intruder. Then, a hole appeared in the flames and a figure clad in dense fire armor walked through the opening, which closed behind him.
Panic spread through the thousands of mana beasts. Even the human-sized creatures were nervous about the intruder. Fire was the most dangerous element and they were naturally scared of it.
Only the large mana beast in the center just watched the intruder with careful eyes. It had more experience than the others and could tell that only one creature was capable of this. It was a sentient race from out of the Zone.
As I walked through the opening, I formed two large fireballs over my head and threw them at the nearest crowds of rodents. They tried to escape but were incinerated.
Any creature that tried to attack me was instantly turned into dust by my armor, so I didn't need to worry about dodging or defending.
When I was about to send another pair of fireballs out, the ground underneath me began to shake. Near the giant rodent in the center, two pillars of rock flew out of the ground, heading directly at me.
I quickly sent fire mana to my feet and two explosions caused my body to lift into the air. The pillars of rock crashed into the ground where I just was, causing the cavern to shake and dust to cover everything.
The rodents saw their sovereign's attack and were reassured that they would be safe. Even though they were trapped, with the sovereign protecting them, they would live on!
When the dust settled, I held two javelins of water in my hands. I launched them in the direction of the human-sized rodents who were secretly converging on me and kept flinging javelins until they were all either injured or killed.
The largest rodent only watched as his ranks were killed with ease. He was debating if it was worth it to fight this monster. But he decided to keep fighting. He reasoned that the creature had used a lot of his mana and would grow weaker with time.
More pillars of rock shot out from beneath the elephant-sized rodent and toward me. I used my -Rocket- spell to dodge them as I flew through the cavern.
Eventually, the attacks stopped. I dropped to the ground and faced the rank C mana beast. Now, it was completely covered in a thick layer of rock with pieces of metal here and there to cover vital spots.
The new armor it donned was impressive. It covered such a large surface area and also had metal. But it had sacrificed a decent amount of mana to do so.
I saw the reserves of the beast greatly decrease and prepared to attack. From here on, it would attack me with physical attacks.
I raised my hands and a large amount of fire mana gathered in one hand while a large amount of wind mana gathered in another. I needed to clear out the rest of the beasts if I wanted to fight the big one without any distractions.
I used -Engulf- on the entire area and fueled the fire with a large amount of wind. Bright yellow flames exploded around me and covered the entire area, burning the rodents alive and incinerating them. A cacophonous scream of dying mana beasts echoed throughout the cavern as they all perished.
Once the spell ended and the flames dissipated, the entire cavern was cleared out, except for me and the largest rodent, who was unfazed.
When the mana beast looked around and only saw the ashes of its followers, its eyes burned with fury and it charged toward me with its teeth ready to cut my throat.
Using -Rocket-, I flew upward and out of reach of the beast. A large amount of ground mana swelled in my hand and a large spike of rock coalesced in the air.
I flung the spike at the beast and it traveled with tremendous speed and smashed into its back, causing a shockwave throughout the cavern.
The rodent screeched in pain as the spike pierced through its defenses. Blood spilled from its back and landed on the floor in pools. I had specifically aimed for a weak spot in the armor near its lower back that I could see with mana vision.
When it was reeling with pain, I focused the fire armor on my feet and used -Rocket- to spin me forward. A large spike of fire formed on my foot and I struck the rodent on the head with my heel, causing a bigger shockwave to shake off stalactites in the ceiling and come crashing down on everything.
If my downward kick put it near its death, then the stalactites finished the job as they pierced the rest of its body.
I used a shield of wind above me to push the falling rock away from me as they fell to the ground. I left the dead mana beast and quickly escaped the cave. The entire thing was collapsing from my attack and the shockwave it caused.
I used explosions under my feet to propel me up the cave system and flew out of the mouth of the cavern and into the forest beyond it.
Behind me, the rock collapsed and the cave closed forever.
"That was easy," I said as I dusted myself off. "I only used half my mana and wiped out an entire colony of mana beasts led by a high-tier rank C."
[Good job, master. The XP gained totals 350,000, pushing you over into level 15!]