"Kill it!" A boy shouted.
Currently, a group of five are chasing after a beast. Before they were chasing the beast, they were hiding in a bush while stalking it. Up until now, they were stalking it for a few days for its unique materials.
Although they were weak, they had power in numbers. Since arriving in dimension, Lycaon and his friends were adapting to their environment quickly and hunting beasts like and right.
Their blacksmith was Baron. Before the massacre of their village, Baron's father was the blacksmith of the village and always taught his son the way of being a blacksmith. He didn't like the path of the blacksmith but he still respected his father's wish to train in the way of a blacksmith.
Never did he think he would need to use those skills to create armor and weapons to survive their harsh environment. It's only been a few days since their arrival and so far they are adapting quickly.
Their teacher, Jack Goldburn aka the Sun Knight, taught them well and showed them that they needed to adapt quickly in an unfavorable environment. Over the time of their training, Jack had them go from forest to mountains to the plains and sometimes the swamps to see how fast they could adapt.
At the beginning, they were struggling to adapt and sometimes would lose a limb from the surrounding beasts. But over time, they got used to their environment quickly and adapted.
Stab!
Once the beast had lost enough blood, a girl finished it off quickly before it could suffer more. A boy created a small sled out of wood and began to attach vines to it. After putting the beast onto the sled, they started their adventure back toward their home cave,
"How long do you think until we can escape this place?" A girl asked.
"I don't know. At most a couple of months before the dimension arrives back at the academy's hunting grounds." A boy revealed.
Although they were quick to adapt, they didn't like being in their environment. Their weapons were weaker since Baron couldn't create any weapons with active skills. All they had was weak weapons and their auras. They could always use their werewolf transformation but it always used a lot of energy.
"Baron! We got the beast you requested!" A girl shouted inside a cave.
Looking inside the cave, it wasn't that bad as they created their own furniture from nearby beasts and their own forgery with their magic. If Baron had better tools, his job would be easier and the weapons he would produce would be stronger.
A boy turned around and began to inspect the quality of the beast.
"I know I would be asking too much but it could be better. At least it's mostly intact."
Pulling a knife out, he began to skin the beast and take its beast core out. After that, he pulled a sword out of his forgery and made cracks into the weapon. He placed the beast crystal into a bucket and placed it above a lava pit.
A couple minutes later, he poured the smelted beast crystal onto the crack and soon it started to cool down. Grabbing his hammer, he started to hit the sword while someone beside him was dismantling the beast's hide.
"Give me it." Baron said.
After getting the beast's hide, he wrapped it around the sword's hilt and sheath. A glowing hue surrounded the weapon as Baron had finally created it. He created a weapon with an active skill.
"I finally understand it. Bring me more beast like this or similar rank, if you want a stronger weapon with an active skill." Baron said.
Baron picked up the weapon and walked further into the cave. Lights could be seen further down and a single throne was there.
On the throne was Lycaon. Although his appearance was different as one of his arms were gone and the weapon by his side had lost his appearance.
"So you finally created it." Lycaon said, walking toward Baron.
Grabbing the blade, Lycaon finally had his hands on a C-Ranked weapon. After many trials and errors, Baron managed to make a weapon with an active skill. Although the process was shameful as they had to kill heavily injured beasts to obtain it but right now, they didn't care for the process. For as long as they could survive, they would do it again.
"Is that beast here again? I wish to give him payback for doing this to my arm." The rage in Lycaon's eyes could be seen.
"Yes, but are you sure you want to attack it? Your ability to repel or slow any attack coming your way was useless against it." Baron warned.
"Yes. I can't allow something as dangerous as that to be roaming while we remain here."
Standing up, Lycaon made his way out of the cave while Baron followed. The moment the sun hit his face, his appearance changed.
His once black hair turned silver and his once brown eyes turned red. His eyes are both intense and alluring, hinting at a hidden power or unique quality that sets him apart from others.
Looking down from the mountain, a beast stood still and stared back at him. It is obvious that the beast was waiting for Lycaon to come down to fight.
"So you've come! Once I finish you, you'll make a great scarf for me!" Jumping down the mountain, Lycaon had activated his Space Magic.
Pointing his finger toward the beast, he released a red ball and released many more toward the beast. Standing on its two legs, the beast slapped each attack away and lunged forward.
This beast was well-built as its muscles were bulging and bore a resemblance to a lion. Its white fur set it apart from other similar beasts as its fur symbolized the strength and purity of its bloodline.
With a single swing, a crimson red flame shot out from its claw and nearly struck Lycaon, if not for his ability to repel/slow incoming attacks around him.
'I've read about this beast. In the ancient text, it said that this beast has the ability to adapt to his opponents abilities temporarily, the longer the fight goes on. I guess that explains why it was able to bypass my zone.'
Swinging his sword, Lycaon managed to create a slash through the beast's hide. Before, Lycaon couldn't make a single marking on the beast but this time was different.
Creating distance from the beast, he swung his blade and it separated into multiple different pieces, and turned into a whip with blades on it. He twirled it in the sky and swung it toward the beast.
Reacting, the beast tried to grab the blade but it was pulled back quickly and a loud snapping noise could be heard. Right then and there, the beast's hand was sliced off and it let out a loud roar.
Roar!
The beast's magic power increased as a red hue appeared around it. In an instant, the beast appeared in front of Lycaon and swung.
Slash!
Lycaon expected his zone to slow down the beast attack but instead, its attack went through and cut his lower abdomen.
'Impossible. It only tried to hit me once with its magical power and it managed to adapt that quickly? May its adaptation happens quicker, when it faces the same opponent in the past.'
Twirling his blade into the sky, he swung his blade down and quickly curved it to the right as the beast stepped back. Although it looked like the beast dodged it, Lycaon's blade hit a tree and wrapped around it until the angular momentum whipped the blade toward the beast.
Slash!
The blade embedded itself into the beast's chest and soon was pulled hard by Lycaon. It all happened so fast that the beast didn't realize the tree, which Lycaon's blade was wrapped around on, started to fall in its direction.
The bladed whip returned to its normal form as an ordinary yet dangerous sword. Charging forward, Lycaon coated the sword with his weird aura and continued on forward.
The beast, realizing Lycaon was about to go head-on, didn't shy away and rushed forward. Unbeknownst to the beast though, the tree had fallen on it and Lycaon's attack connected as it slashed it in its neck.
After receiving the attack, the lion-like beast rose up quickly and its body was enveloped in red crimson flame.
"Flaming Body? Who knew a beast like you could use a skill like that." Lycaon said.
Wasting no time, Lycaon charged forward and this time, he used his own flames and lit the beast up. The moment his flames touched the beast's flames, the flames turned into purple flames as well.
Roar!
"Quiet, beast!"
Lycaon's weapon turned back into a whip and wrapped around the beast's neck. With a tug, the weapon cut through the beast's neck and disconnected its head from its body.
"You'll make nice armor or weapon for me in the future."
Picking the beast up, Lycaon slowly walked up the mountain and dropped the beast beside Baron. Baron already knew what had to be done and grabbed the beast's corpse and brought it to his makeshift forgery.
Walking to the back of the cave, Lycaon sat down on his throne and stared outside the cave, wondering when rescue would arrive or the next portal would open.
_____
A loud bang reverberated inside throughout the training hall and caught everyone's attention. Turning their heads, they saw a giant metal robot land on the ground but that wasn't the surprising part, as the surprising part was the fact that the robot was strong as a Mid D-ranked individual.
It's only been a month since arriving at the Celestial Academy and Sebastian had garnered the attention of nearly everyone in the school. "The boy who managed to defy all the odds" "Manaless boy is the strongest?" and "Slade's apprentice?" was going around the school in the school's newspaper.
Although it wasn't his plan to garner everyone's attention, he overestimated everyone in the academy and thought they would be nearly as strong as him. So while he was the center of attention, he gave his allies the job of gathering intel on the academy.
"Antares! The headmaster wants to talk to you!" Slade shouted.
Standing at the door, the headmaster was staring and smiling at Sebastian. The man's creepy smile gave Sebastian the chills as he wondered what it was about.
"It has come to my attention that you far exceed what is needed at your grade level so I want to know whether you want to stay at this grade level or jump a few grade levels to learn better techniques." The headmaster explained.
The offer was tempting as he'd be able to learn more information but he had a problem with it. It would attract too much attention to himself. News already spreaded around the academy but if it were to get out, then his cover would be blown as some people already know from outside the academy. So he could only come to one conclusion.
"If I may ask, I want to be placed with the 1st year students. Although I'm inclined to accept a higher grade, I don't want to attract too much attention to myself." Sebastian replied.
"Well, even if I wanted to place you in the higher grades. The other students wouldn't like it, specifically the nobles that worked hard to get where they are."
"Sweet. When will I get started?"
"Today! It's best that you get suited in with the other students as well but I will have to say this. Don't try to fight them, even if you learn techniques from Slade, they won't help against the high ranking students."
Before Sebastian could say anything else, the headmaster disappeared from his sight and Slade had a big smile on his face. It was clear that Slade liked Sebastian's decision and although he couldn't teach him 2nd year and above techniques, he still got to teach someone strong.