I walked out from the hut and I saw that the old man was no longer there. I turned around and saw that the hut was also gone. I was now standing inside an empty clearing. This was exactly how it happened in my last life as well so I wasn't surprised. Once I took the heart of darkness, the old man disappeared. I think that maybe that old man was just an illusion created by the heart of darkness to allow people to find it, but it didn't matter.
I needed to get to the central market here on the first floor. My clothes were dirty and there was a lot of blood on them. I need to go into the dungeons to start the next phase of my plan but to do that, I'll need a ranker's badge and a team that will come with me.
Rankers below E+ are not allowed to enter the dungeons on the first floor on their own. You can only enter with a team of five F or F+ rankers, three E- rankers, or two E rankers. I wasn't a fan of working in teams, but there was something I needed from a dungeon on this first floor and I will not be able to get it unless I work with a team. But before I can even think of joining a team, I have to first get my stats up to F rank from F- rank. This was a large forest and there were many magic beasts that I could hunt to increase my rank to F.
I won't be able to gain any skills or artifacts from them since you can only gain skills and artifacts from strong dungeon monsters, but they will allow me to gain some stat points and that will have to do.
I set out into the forest to start my hunt. I easily tracked down the nearest magic beast. A large [Stone Bear] with black skin. It had a magic stone on its forehead and red eyes. It was tearing into a gazelle that it caught and it wasn't paying much attention to its surrounding. I used that to my advantage and attacked it from its blind spot.
[You have directed magic to your legs.]
[You have directed magic to your arms.]
I shot off the tree branch and slashed the bear across its back. The bear roared in anger and I cursed then I realized that the cut wasn't deep enough. For a moment there, I forgot that I was no longer in my adult body and I thought that one slash would be enough to split the bear in half.
I was still on the bear's back, so I stabbed my sword into its neck and hung on desperately as the bear started to turn around to try and throw me off.
The [Stone Bear] didn't have a lot of magic so its defensive and offensive stats are very low, so before five minutes, the bar finally fell over and died.
[You have killed one [Stone Bear]]
[Strength +0.5]
[Stamina +0.5]
[The Heart of Darkness is laughing at your terrible hunt.]
I ignored the Heart of Darkness and focused on the new stat that I gained. It was lower than what I was used to getting, but I know I couldn't complain since this is only the first floor. My body was very weak and I couldn't use a lot of my usual fighting techniques since it will injure me and hinder my growth right now. Even the weapon that I was using was subpar, so I knew I could do better.
I bent down and cut out the stone in the middle of the bear's head and put it in a bag. This stone was worth a few bronze coins in the market so if I get enough of these, then I should be able to buy clothes and food for the next few days.
[The Heart of Darkness is calling you a weakling.]
"Shut up, you idiot," I said in annoyance as I directed magic to my feet again and jumped towards the nearest tree to continue the hunt.
----------+----------
[You have killed thirteen [Stone Bear]'s]
[You have killed twenty [Forest Wolf]'s]
[Strength +4]
[Stamina +5]
[Magic Power +3]
[Magic Control – F (Current Progress 0.5%)]
[You have ranked up to F rank]
I sighed as I finally got the notification of my rank increasing from the system. I have been hunting all day and I was already getting tired. My stamina is pitifully low and this body is too young. If I don't rest then I'll be too tired to go into the dungeon tomorrow.
I checked my bag and I saw that I had enough stones and claws to get me some good armor to wear along with the clothes and food. Since I am still so weak, I will need to have good armor so I don't get killed inside the dungeon. It will be hard for anyone to believe that I hunted this number of wolves and bears in just one day.
The only reason I hunted them so easily is because I know this forest like the back of my hand. I know where to go to avoid the bandits and I also know how to move around the territory of the stronger beasts without alerting them to my presence. If I had met any of the stronger magic beasts like the [Mountain Lizard] that was an E rank, then that would be the end for me.
I started walking back towards the central town. I wasn't too deep inside the forest, so it only took ten minutes before I left the forest and entered the town. Many rankers were living in this town. Most of them were F rankers who gave up on climbing the tower a long time ago, but there were also some E- and E rankers among them. There were also a lot of non-magic users around that were selling their wares and running stores and bars.
I immediately went up to a blacksmith shop and entered. The girl behind the counter was a pretty girl that was around my age. Once she saw me, her eyes widened a the amount of blood on my clothes.
"W-Welcome to the Rano Smithy," she stammered nervously, but she quickly got her composure back and asked, "What can I do for you? Do you want to buy something?"
"Is the blacksmith in? I'd like to sell him some wares?" I needed to talk to the blacksmith if I want to sell the stones and claws for a good price. This girl was just a receptionist that memorized some numbers so that she can sell the weapons here to regular customers. She wouldn't know what to do if I want to sell monster parts to her.
The girl hesitated for a second before she finally nodded and went to call someone in the back. She came back out with a burly short man that was wearing an apron. He used a rag to clean his hand as he approached me.
"The name's Rano. I heard you got something for me," the man said in a strange accent. He folded his hands and nodded to me, "Let's see it then,"
I turned my bag over and poured out the contents on the table and Rano's eyes widened in surprise at the number of stones and claws on the table. He grabbed one of the stones and stared at it intensely before whistling, "This is some high-quality [Stone Bear] crystal. Not even a dent." He turned to me suspiciously, "How did you get your hands on all these?"
"I hunted them," I answered while putting one hand on my sword. Rano stared at me for a few more seconds before he shrugged and threw the stone back into the pile.
"I take it you're looking to sell them. Since they're so high quality, il give you two bronze for each stone and one for the claws. It's a good deal since I usually only pay one for those crystals."
"I'll sell you the crystals for three bronze each and the claws for two." I said curtly, "If you aren't willing to pay properly then I'll just take it somewhere else." The claws and crystal were very important crafting ingredients for armor and weapons respectively and the prices that I called were the regular market price for them. If Rano didn't agree to buy them, then I knew two more stores that would buy them for that price.
Rano narrowed his eyes at me and thought about it for a moment before he finally smiled, "I suppose you already know the market then. Fine, I'll buy them for three and two bronze since the quality is so good," Rano turned to speak to the receptionist, "Mary, go and count them out and bring out the money."
The receptionist – Mary – nodded before she went to do as she was told. There were fourteen crystals and twenty claws, so she came back with eighty-two bronze coins in a bag and handed them to me. Once I was sure that they were all there, I put them away and looked around.
"You looking to buy some armor?" Rano asked as he looked me up and down, "I'd suggest you get some clothes too, since yours is so dirty."