In Willow city inside a Large building with the sign 'Hunters Guild' hanging on the door, was an isolated office near the back of the building.
Inside this office sat a man in his late 40s. He wore an imposing metal armor which unlike the guards, was more streamlined and less chunky.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
"Come in" he said in a tired voice.
"Hello Guild captain, can i have a few minutes of your time ?" said a man after he closed the door. He had a normal build of a middle aged man and wore leather armor on his body.
"Okay David you may take a seat" the man in metal armor gestured to the chair opposite him and David sat on it.
"Guild captain for the past few months i have been hearing the normal hunters complaining about a shortage of wildlife in the forest. At first i thought nothing of it until i also saw how the meat merchants where running out of business." David started explaining.
"I asked the merchants the problem and they told me that the hunters are having more trouble hunting in the forest. Apparently the forest is running out of animals" David said.
The guild captain raised an eyebrow "What does that have to do with us? We only hunt mana beasts"
"I am getting there captain. After these claims my team and i went out to the forest to investigate, and sure enough we almost couldn't find any animal. However we noticed some strange markings on the vegetation, Some trees looked sick and there where drag marks on the ground like something heavy was being moved."
"However the strangest thing we found was the corpse of a large brown bear. The bear's throat was ripped out and it's skull was cracked. The markings on the corpse showed signs of a struggle, there was also blood on it's claws which didn't look like it came from its own body" David concluded.
The captain combed his fingers through his beard in thought. "So you think it's a mana beast?"
"Yes sir" David answered.
"That doesn't make any sense, why would a mana beast leave the beast zone to come closer to the city ?. And by what you said, this bear was able to injure it. That would mean the mana beast is a grade one beast at either the initial or middle stages." The captain said.
"My question is why would a mana beast that weak move out of the beast zones to come here. It needs other mana beasts to grow stronger after all" David wondered
"That's what I'm also wondering myself. Anyway it doesn't matter why it moved. You and your team should be able to get rid of it quite quickly right?" The captain asked.
"Yes captain, these days we can even go after initial stage grade two beasts" David proudly announced "I just came to ask for your permission to hunt this beast sir"
"Permission granted" the captain said.
Willow city, like all others was situated in the middle of a forest. Actually one could say that the whole world was a giant forest while cities and villages where inside this forest.
The area surrounding the cities and less than ten kilometers from the city walls was called the animal zone. This was where all the wild animals lived and where the normal hunters went to hunt for food.
This is also the zone where Zane currently is. His village of Nok was also in this zone due to Willow city, however it was at the very edge of the 'safe zone'.
The area outside of the animal zone was the beast zone. It was any area 10 or more kilometers away from any city or village. This was where the mana beasts lived and where the mage hunters went to hunt. These zones occupied 75% of the whole planet, while the cities occupied only 15% and animal zones the last 10.
The planet didn't have any oceans or sea, just a few lakes and rivers.
A few hours before David went to talk with the guild captain. Zane was busy looking for an opponent to test his new strength, and as luck would have it he found a lone brown bear drinking water off a lake.
After making sure that his fight wouldn't be disturbed, Zane threw a Six thousand point sight grenade at his target.
<(- 6000 Mana)>
Zane had used up almost all of his mana, however he needed to see the bear throughout the fight. He couldn't risk going blind during the fight, he could really die.
'Six thousand mana is Six hundred seconds, Six hundred seconds is ten minutes. I need to finish it in ten minutes or less, if only i had a stopwatch...'
"Ohh thanks system, i guess it's time to start!"He said as he jumped down the tree, landing with a loud thud.
The bear obviously heard the sound of his landing. Zane's body had kept his previous weight.
ROARRR!
The bear roared as it charged at the human that Interrupted it's water drinking session.
AHHHHHH!
Zane shouted as he ran towards the charging bear, he refused to be outdone by a bear. It should be noted that this was the first time Zane fought ANYTHING in close combat without weapons.
BANG!
The two opponents collided as they began to push each other. None overpowering the other. The bear then lifted a paw and brought it down on Zane's shoulder.
Zane was way to slow to react and the paw connected. Due to how close the two where, the bear had hit Zane with it's forearm. Zane was thrown back a couple of meters, he quickly stopped himself with his good arm before popping his dislocated shoulder back into place.
"ROUND TWO!" Zane shouted as he charged in once more.
BANG!
His shoulder barged against the bear's stomach as it stood on two legs. Due to the fact that Zane had taken the initiative, he was successfully pushing the bear back but of course....
BANG! BANG !
Zane felt the gigantic paws of the bear pound his back like a drum. This caused him to flinch and the bear didn't hesitate to pick hum up and throw him against the nearest tree.
His back collided with the tree with extreme force, however the tree was just as strong and didn't give. Zane was surprised to notice that his spine was still intact.
'My body is now way more resilient' he discovered.
"Woah!" he exclaimed as he jumped out of the way.
BANG!
The Bear smashed into the tree head first and was disoriented for a few seconds. Zane didn't waste those precious seconds as he charged at the bear.
BANG! CRACK!
The sound of the bear's jaw breaking was music to Zane's ear. Not wasting any time, Zane followed up with an upper cut, hoping to knock the bear off it's feet...he failed.
ROAR!
The bear roared in anger as it lashed out on Zane, successfully ripping off the skin on his chest.
"Fuck!" Zane exclaimed as he was shot back.
He glanced at his chest and saw that the bear's attack didn't manage to go past his muscles. Zane quickly healed himself with the remainder of his mana before charging in once more without hesitation.