I wasn't concerned about getting lost, as the only mountain peaks around were the ones the Blood Moon Sect was built on. Since they were quite tall, I could just look for them and walk in that direction.
I ventured straight into the forest, hoping to walk toward the center, though I didn't know where the center was. Hopefully, I would get lucky and be traveling toward it, or even if not, I hoped to go farther than the other disciples on their hunting trips so I could still find beasts for myself.
Birds were singing in the trees as I walked fast but not to the point of running. I wanted to get to my hunting area as soon as possible.
After about half an hour of walking, I was kind of bored. I thought I should practice my techniques while walking. Not just that, I should practice using the terrain. You never know when I'll be running from a crowd of assassins in a forest, or maybe I'll be the assassin doing the chasing. I imagined myself running through the forest and hitting a tree with all my limbs sticking out like a cartoon character, and the assassins rolling on the ground, laughing their asses off while trying to point and wiping the tears from their eyes. Hmm a no, let's practice.
As I walked by a tree, I punched it. Bark and wood fragments scattered everywhere. Even with my reinforced body, it still hurt a little. I decided it would be best if I bought some type of glove; otherwise, my fingers were going to be sore tomorrow.
I opened the shop and started looking through all the types of gloves. Some were more like gauntlets, but I really didn't need that much metal. After looking and some consideration, I settled on a long leather glove that went three-quarters of the way up my forearm, with thicker leather on the backside and thinner leather on the palm and underside. The glove also had overlapping metal plates made from grade 3 material to protect the fingers while still remaining flexible.
With my new gloves, I tried punching the tree again.
Boom!
Splinters and fragments scattered everywhere as if a small cannon had hit it. Ahh yes, much better. No more knuckle pain.
I decided to practice by picking a tree a little ways away in the direction I wanted to go, then practice the footwork while running and jumping onto and off trees, over or passing under the fallen ones while making my way to my target. Then, strike while moving and don't even stop. While still moving, pick a new target, rinse and repeat.
I took a few steps back, focusing my mind, and took off. Bang! Punch the tree as I pass. I spot another tree about 15 yards ahead for my new target. Take three more steps, there's a fallen tree still propped off the ground at an angle. I jump and use it as the next place to step. Up ahead and off to the left, there's a thick tree with no branches on the lower half. I take my next step off the log and onto the side of the trunk, then off the trunk onto a branch of the tree in front of it and back to the ground. After a few more steps and jumps, I reach the target tree. I strike Bang! as I pass; I've already found the next target.
As I keep repeating this process of randomly deciding my next step, whether it be the ground, a tree, a branch, a rock, etc., I can feel myself improving much faster than ever before. This excites me; I'm sure by the time I go back to the sect, I'll have perfected my techniques.
Bang!
Bang!
Boom!
The sound of my practice echoing off the trees made it sound like a mini war that could be heard in the vicinity. If there were ever beasts here to start, there sure aren't now.
I practiced the rest of the day and all night. When I saw light start coming back to the forest, I stopped. By now, I'm thinking I'm far enough from the sect that I should start hunting. I'm only a half-step away from perfecting my techniques, so they will definitely be perfected by the time I get back. My footwork now became instinctive, a part of every step I took. I also noticed how I started by randomly picking my next place to use as a foothold, but as time wore on, I started to be able to pick the most optimal path to the target. This was an unexpected great benefit as it will probably serve me forever in any multiverse with forests, no matter the power level.
I walked at a normal pace for an hour before slowing down and trying to sneak my way forward. I'm not really sure this is the right way to go about it, but after a short while later, I spotted a speed rabbit in the distance. I stopped and thought about the best way to approach it. If it gets scared, it'll probably run so fast I'll never catch it with the current distance between us.
I drew my sword and crouched down as low as possible. My current plan is to sneak as best I can toward it, and when it notices me, freeze if it doesn't run or leap toward it and chase it if it does.
It's only about 10 yards away as I put my plan into motion. I took small steps forward while changing between looking at the rabbit and the ground to avoid any twigs and such things that can make noise. Creeping forward at a pace slower than a snail, I made my way toward the rabbit. I could feel my heart pounding inside my rib cage, and hear every beat so loud it seemed the rabbit would also hear at any moment.
After almost half an hour and only 3 yards left, I saw its ears turn towards me, and its head lift up as it stopped eating. I couldn't tell if it was going to run or not, but I wasn't taking any chances with it being in striking distance.
Surging forward with all the speed and strength I could muster, I flew toward the rabbit. It started to bolt with its incredible speed. Oh no you don't, you don't get to run and waste so much of my time! I swung; the air crackled as the tip of my sword approached the sound barrier. Only the last few inches managed to hit the rabbit as its speed is truly remarkable, but when something traveling that fast hits a rabbit, the rabbit gets decimated. The back third of the rabbit turned into meat paste, and my sword hit the ground so hard it splattered dirt and stone everywhere as if a landmine had exploded.
The rabbit tried to move for a few more seconds but wasn't going anywhere without its back legs and succumbed to its injuries.
I rolled over onto my back and lay in the small crater, shaking as the adrenaline wore off. Turning my head, I looked at what was left of the corpse and the crater and snickered. I think I overdid it a little, but it doesn't really matter as I successfully hunted my first beast; I'll get better with time.
After a few minutes, I sat up and collected the stone from the rabbit. It's only a grade 1 stone, so it doesn't contain much energy, but every little bit helps.
After using the stone and using my devour skill on what remained of the corpse, I stood up and continued the hunt.
On the first night, though, I made a discovery that would drastically improve my hunting efficiency. I was in a little clearing and wanted to taste one of the speed rabbits to see if the meat was any good or not, so of course, I lit a fire. After placing the meat on my metal plate and setting it in the middle of the ring of fire I built around it, I waited for a few minutes for it to cook. However, I then heard a flapping sound. Not knowing what it was, if it was a low-grade beast, it's fine, but if it's a high-grade, it could be life-threatening, I retreated under a tree. A giant moth came out of the sky and started flying around my fire, its giant wings creating air currents that made my plate with the meat fly out of the fire and scatter on the ground.
How dare this moth play with my food! Enraged, I drew my sword and rushed out of my hiding place, cutting down the giant moth in a single strike. I looked sadly at my ruined food and turned toward the moth. I kicked it, wondering why it had to ruin it. Then I realized the reason. My fire attracted it, like how a porch light attracts normal moths. I grinned, realizing I can use this to my advantage and lure the moths to a literal flame.
I made a long stick with a torch on the end and buried it in the ground so the torch was about 6 feet in the air and lit it. Then I put out my original fire and went off into the trees to hide. Sure enough, after about 15 minutes, another moth came around and started flying around my flame. I immediately cut it down and dragged its corpse off to the side by the other one out of the firelight and returned to my place.
A new moth would come every 10-20 minutes, only to be killed and its corpse added to the pile. After 5 hours, I had a huge pile of these giant insects, and I heard a new animal coming. It was a lunar wolf slinking toward the corpse mountain. This is great! Use fire to attract the grade 1 moths, and use the moths to attract the grade 2 wolves!
I stayed frozen in place as I waited for the lunar wolf to start eating. As soon as it stopped looking around and started eating, I jumped out, beheading it. I wasn't sure that I should keep the wolf's body by the moths in case it scares away more wolves, so I moved it to the other side of the clearing.
The lunar wolves would show up about every hour, attracted to the scent of the dead moths. Sometimes there were normal animals also attracted, but I scared them off by throwing a rock in their direction. By daybreak, I'd collected about 30 grade 1 stones and 4 grade 2.
Over the next week, my days went relatively the same: see a rabbit, then sneak toward it for 15-30 minutes, then jump out and kill it. I only found 1 ice serpent, but that one was the easiest to kill with its slow movement speed. I'm sure there were more around, but they were probably hiding in some deep dark hole. I did get to try some rabbit, I just cooked it during the day so as not to be ruined by moths; the texture is not very good, it's too tough, so I'll stick to using my devour skill on them.
After spending that much time in the forest, it was time to return to the sect. After getting so many stones, I could now mimic a peak stage astral refinement, almost reaching core condensation but not quite. I decided to keep mimicking the middle stage with no improvement until I went to collect my 2 grade 3 stones from the advancement, lest anyone get ideas about taking them. I made my way back while practicing in the same manner as when coming in. By the time I exited the forest, I had perfected my techniques.
I had saved 3 grade 1 stones to show whoever was collecting the tax that I imagined there will be about my successful hunt. I could have shown nothing, but I thought it would be less suspicious to be a really bad hunter than someone with nothing at all.