Stretching his limbs, Sebastian figured this would be a great time to create new skills. Ever since he arrived, he never tried to create new skills like he said he would. Reason being was because he didn't have enough time to create them.
By spreading his black aura thin, the entire ground was covered in his black aura, which caused the Abyssal Leopards to become cautious. When they came in contact with it, they tried to move out of the way but noticed it didn't cause any harm to them.
Just as they were about to move, a spike rose from the ground and pierced through one of the Abyssal Leopards' bodies. The rest saw this and jumped away from the ground, and into the trees.
"I figured you would do that." Sebastian said.
Stretching his arm out, a hand made of his aura was formed and grabbed one of the leopards from the tree before pulling it in and stabbing a dagger into its heart. The rest of them took the opportunity and lunged onto him.
Chomp!
"You f*cker!"
Grabbing the leopard attached his chest, he ripped it off and threw a fist coated in world energy, shattering its head. Before he could recover, another leopard lunged forward but was intercepted by a blue wall.
He then pulled his Umbral Blade out and cut through the air like a whisper. Before they could comprehend, a swift and precise moon crescent slash cut through the air and bisected their legs from their bodies.
"Woah! My abilities feel a lot stronger! Should I challenge a Mid D-Rank beast? Nah, I'm getting too ahead of myself." Sebastian contemplated. "Maybe I should just fight something that's the exact same rank as me."
Heading closer to the Northern Mountaintops, he figured he would try to fight a gray yeti as their power was equal to a beast between the rankings of Beginner D-Rank and Low D-Rank.
Upon getting closer to the Northern Mountaintops, he sensed the power of a gray yeti and immediately went in the direction. One thing he wanted to test out was how strong his spiritual energy had gotten.
As he approached the yeti, he equipped his katana by his side and released killing intent onto the yeti. Out of all of his weapons, his katana was the only weapon with the ability to be infused with his Emperor's Will.
The gray yeti then looked in his direction and started to run. It was angered that someone of lower strength was willing to challenge it.
As the yeti was approaching him, Sebastian slowly started to pull the katana out of its sheath and infused it with his Emperor's Will. Soon, a wave of Emperor's Will was released into the surrounding area and a loud sharp ringing noise followed as red arcs of spiritual energy started to arc off from the katana.
The yeti also stopped in its tracks as he felt a strange energy overcome its body. As if it was getting tired, the yeti yawned and its head started to spin in circles before collapsing to the ground.
Sebastian, on the other hand, felt his spiritual energy deplete rapidly. Unbeknownst to him, by infusing his spiritual energy into the katana, it enhanced the katana's spiritual energy strength greatly by nearly two times the normal strength.
Taking advantage of the unconscious yeti, he approached it and stabbed his blade into the yeti's head before extracting the beast core. He then noticed a gaze from the Northern Mountaintops and already knew who it was.
"Come on! I'm just trying to get stronger!" Sebastian shouted at the mountain.
'Leave this place or continue to face my wrath.' An ancient beast spoke in his mind.
"You were responsible for those attacks?! Damn you, King!"
During the past year, hordes of beasts attacking the camp started to become a normal thing. At first they thought the attacks were random but soon came to the understanding that they were being targeted.
Obviously they made the assumption that it was the King trying its best to kill Sebastian but they couldn't prove that theory until now that is. Another theory they came up with was how close Sebastian was to ranking-up.
With theory confirmed, Sebastian proceeded further into the mountaintops. He planned on fighting every beast the King sent his way as it would help him greatly but he did notice something when he absorbed the gray yeti's core.
'That's strange. Normally, I would've received more strength but it feels like my progression has been slowed. Unless the higher your rank is, the slower you rank up.' Sebastian had thought.
—-------
Back to the Camp…
"Dammit! I forgot to give him his damn axe!" Baron shouted as he looked at his hand.
Over the course of the year for him and Carlos, they had gotten better at blacksmithing. If they had to guess, they were at least a D-rank blacksmith or higher. The creation of Lexi's prosthetic and sword had greatly boosted their understanding of blacksmith as well.
Within a year, everyone managed to achieve Low E-Rank in magic while they finally achieved Beginner E-Rank in physique. Although it may have seemed slowed, they were working on both sides of the charts.
"By the way, are we gonna talk about the elephant in the room?" Lendell pointed at the fire lion-like beast.
"Oh my goodness! Is that an Ignisfelis?!" Kai shouted, running in their direction.
Approaching the lion, he reached his hand out and waited for the beast to approach him. Since he wielded fire magic, he figured it was only natural that it would approach him.
"Kai, I wouldn't do that. We still don't know what it's capable of." Baron warned.
"Relax, I know more about them than you. Besides, it would have killed you already."
After finishing his sentence, the beast approached him and moved its head beneath Kai's hand as if it wanted to be petted. Baron nearly felt like fainting as the beast in front of him was a D-Rank yet it somehow acted like a house cat.
'Maybe it won't attack us.' Baron thought, slowly approaching the beast and reaching out his hand.
As his hand was about to touch its head, it swiped its claws at him and roared. It was as if Kai was the only one capable of befriending and touching the beast.
"I shall name you Solrath." Kai declared.
"What? You can't just claim a beast wit-"
As if he was happy with the name, Solrath pushed Kai and started to cuddle with him. Baron's jaw opened in shock as he couldn't believe his eyes.
"Do you want to go on a hunt, Solrath? Do you? Do you?" Kai asked in a playful manner.
Wiggling his tail back and forth, Solrath roared and walked toward the gate. In response to his obedience, Kai walked to the gate and opened before running into the forest.
"Was I seeing things or did Kai just take that lion with him like it was a dog?" Lycaon said, rubbing his eyes, unable to comprehend what had happened.
—---
"Are you three gonna keep following or are you gonna return home" Sebastian asked as he turned around.
Behind him, the three fire lion-like cubs were following him and somehow managed to know where he was after disappearing from them. He didn't really care for them but remembered that the one from before had protected him and warded off any other beast.
"Don't tell me he abandoned his kids… You're a horrible father." Sebastian said, holding his hand out and covering them in his blue aura.
He then formed a sack and pulled it over his back. For now, he decided to take care of the cubs until he met with the lion and would make sure to give him a good punch for abandoning his kids.
"Unfortunately for you three, I'm gonna continue hunting so enjoy the ride and maybe I'll feed you some beast crystals." Sebastian said to the three cubs.
Walking straight ahead, he walked closer to the Northern Mountaintops in hopes of getting stronger and gauging his true strength.
"Roar." One of the cubs roared quietly.
"You sense one? Where"
"Roar."
"Oh, five of them? That's good. Wait a minute!"
Staring at the cubs in confusion, he was bewildered by his ability to comprehend what the cubs had said to him. If he had to make a theory, he would have had to guess it was part of his rank-up reward as a Primordial Werewolf. It was only logical as to his knowledge, no other werewolf had the ability to converse with beast unless they had beast magic.
As much as he wanted to make guesses about it, he had to focus on the approaching yetis.
"Sit here while I deal with them, alright?"
"Roar"
Thinking of a weapon to pull, he tried to summon up his Dane Axe but noticed it didn't come out of his ring. It was until now that he remembered that Baron had his axe.
"Return!" He shouted, reaching his arm throughout the air.
—---
"What abilities do you think his axe has?" Baron asked.
"If I had to guess, it probably has the ability to… Is it normal for it to glow and float like that?" Sophie questioned.
Staring at the axe, Baron noticed that it was floating and slowly leaving the cave. Trying to be quick, he jumped for the axe but it zipped out of the cave before he could even touch it.
"What am I gonna tell him?" Baron said in horror.
—--
Grab!
Now wielding his dane axe, he threw it into the forest and didn't come back after he tried to retrieve it with the command again.
"ROAR!"
Coming from out the forest, the five yetis could be seen running at him in anger. Among the yetis, he noticed that his dane axe was stuck in one of the yetis' shoulders.
"Give it back!" He shouted.
Flash-stepping in front of one of the yetis, he slammed his fist into the yeti's face and pulled his axe out of its shoulder before bludgeoning it with it.
The other yetis saw this and thought about attacking but he glared at them before they could make a move and felt a strange energy enveloping them, which paralyzed them. His eyes then shined red before opening his mouth and biting down on the yeti's neck.
As if he was a vampire, he began to drain the yeti of blood before biting its head off. Upon seeing how easily one of their own was dealt with, they shook their ideas off and could only hope that the person in front of them would show mercy.
"That felt refreshing! It's as if my bottomless thirst has been quenched." Sebastian said before looking at the four frightened yetis. "Do you fear me?"
Nodding, the yetis revealed their fear for him and made hand gestures to allow them to live. Sebastian, surprised, didn't expect them to know sign language.
"I suppose you can leave." He stated.
Feeling the energy around them disappear, the yetis ran further into the forest and in the direction of the Northern Mountaintops.
"Stupid apes." Sebastian grinned as he followed them. "They're leading me right to the camp. If I slaughter them all, then surely I'll be able to reach at least Peak D-Rank."
As he was following them, he began to notice the change in environment. Although they were getting closer to the Northern Mountaintops, he noticed that the area they were heading in didn't have much snow or ice.
It was as if there was something preventing the build-up of snow. It wasn't until he arrived at a special gate in the wall, did he notice that there was a powerful beast within the mountain.
'Now why would there be a special gate in the Northern Mountaintops? And what's with this presence? It almost feels like they're an A-Rank. Perhaps they're guarding the exit to this dimension.' Sebastian thought.