While Sebastian was out testing his newfound strength, Lycaon was busy trying to repair his friendship with the other. For obvious reasons, Baron and Carlos were the only ones to accept Lycaon again but that was on Sebastian's orders.
Approaching the camp's forgery, he walked inside and watched as Baron and Carlos hammering away at their newly made weapons. As soon as they were done hammering away, they then moved onto the grinder to sharpen the blades. After a few minutes had passed, Baron placed his hammer to the side and lifted his mask up.
"What do you need?" Baron asked.
"Do you think you can craft me a pair of gauntlets? I'm willing to kill other beasts if it means I can obtain my gauntlets. I would stick with my sword but if it happens to get stuck or destroyed? I at least want a back-up weapon." Lycaon explained.
"Fine. Space magic can't really be coated on a pair of gauntlets so we're gonna need a beast that wields fire magic. Assuming you want a skill relating to fire, I will need at least five fire beast crystals.
As for the other beasts, go check the board over there and accept some of their requests. If I can make a suggestion, I'd accept them all and retrieve all of the crystals when you return. It will greatly change their opinion of you." Baron explained.
Sighing, Lycaon walked over to the board and inspected it. From the looks of it, these beasts weren't gonna be easy to kill. He then ripped the papers off and folded them into his pocket before exiting the cave.
'Whelp, I guess this is where I either die or live.' He thought to himself.
Leaving the camp, he looked southwest from his position and sighed again. The distance between the camp and the southern part of the dimension was a long way to go and would take at least five days to reach that region.
'It can't be helped. In order to get stronger and repair my friendships.'
—
Five Days Later…
Breathing heavily, Lycaon finally arrived in the southern region also known as the Sun Desert. Like its name says, it was a very hot desert compared to the other regions. The only reason why he was breathing heavily was because you were required to climb a mountain to access the region.
"Finally! Now, where the f*ck is this fire salamander at?" Lycaon asked himself, overlooking the desert.
The fire salamander was an uncommon beast to come across as they mostly reside near lava pits in the desert but those were hard to locate. Luckily, they weren't too hard to find as they would often roamed the desert for sandworms underneath the desert ground.
Slowly walking along the desert ground, his eyes shone a glow blue hue as he activated mana eyes. This was the most basic and universal magic spell anyone could learn.
Soon, he saw a flying beast in the distance and recognized it as it was the one Kai was looking for. From time to time, there would be hunting parties sent to different regions but due to the time limit of three days in the region, not everyone could find the beast they wanted.
Appearing beside the Flaming Eagle, he thrusted his sword into its chest and ripped it open before ripping out its core. Generally, they were difficult to deal with but since it was taken by surprise, it was an easy kill.
"That marks one beast down for Kai, just need four more."
Pulling out Kai's paper, he marked one beast out of five. He then pulled out the rest and noticed he grabbed a total of seven different papers.
With beast crystals, one could get a weapon with an active skill or passive skill. Normally, one would prefer an active skill since it provides more offensive or defensive capabilities.
While he was focused on what was in front of him, he didn't notice the slightly rustling of sand behind him. As he looked further south, a sandworm lunged from the ground and nearly took a bite out of him but was unfortunately stopped by his stasis field.
Cleave!
Quickly turning around, he cleaved the sandworm in half and kicked it away. He then jumped back and prepared for the next few sandworms. Sandworms naturally roamed in groups of five as they would often target medium-sized beasts and latch onto it.
"Fine, if you don't want to come out, I'll make you! Flame Pillars!" He shouted as he pressed his hands against the floor.
Five pillars of purple flames rose from the ground and lit one sandworm on fire. Turning his sword into a bladed whip, he whipped it forward and pulled back hard.
Crack!
The sandworm then was bisected in half and fell to the ground. Immediately, another sandworm burst from the ground and lunged at him but was stopped by the stasis field.
Unlike other beasts, sandworms didn't have eyes and only relied on their senses of heat detection, and moisture level. They also could detect the slightest vibration and target their prey.
Slash!
He then kicked the body away and another sandworm jumped for its dead comrade and latched on. Just before Lycaon could attack it, a large sandworm lunged from the ground and swallowed them whole.
"Wait a damn minute! Get back here!" Lycaon shouted as the large sandworm started to leave.
Throwing his bladed whip, he wrapped it around the other corpses of sandworms and chased after the large sandworm. As he was following the sandworm, he noticed a group of salamanders approaching the running sandworm.
He then jumped back and laid on the ground. He wasn't dumb enough to try and target a group of salamanders, especially since they were Mid E-Rank.
Watching the salamanders, they spat up a glob of lava and it landed in front of the sandworm, blocking it off. Another salamander did the same thing and rushed forward. As it rushed forward, another salamander pushed it away and jumped into the sand.
Chomp!
Just like that, the salamander ate the sandworm and swallowed it whole. The other salamanders didn't like that it stole their food as they proceeded to bully the salamander.
Afraid, the salamander started to run away while its tail fell off its body. The other salamander then ate its tail and went on with their day.
'Perfect.' Lycaon thought, standing up and stealthily walking to the lone salamander.
After a while of following it, it looked around at its surroundings before laying down and falling asleep.
Swoosh!
Lycaon then flash-stepped above the salamander and coated his sword in space magic before plunging his blade into the salamander's head and twisting it. Soon, a loud crunching and squishing noise was heard.
"One crystals down, four more to go." Lycaon said.
Before he could proceed on, he felt his mana start to drop rapidly and felt heat from behind. As he turned, he saw a big glob of lava in his face.
He then jumped back and watched the glob of lava fall to the ground. Turning his blade back into a bladed whip, he coated it in space magic and carefully swung it around. Unlike his sword's blade form, the whip form was a lot difficult to control with space magic coating it.
"Bladed Whip Arts: Wildly Whippings!" He shouted, making up a random move.
Swinging the whip wildly, one of the salamanders' feet was chopped off and fell forward before being decapitated. Angered, one of the salamanders lunged forward and nearly bit down on him but was stopped.
Cleave!
With three of the salamanders dead, he was confident in facing them by himself. So far, he had been doubting his true power but with this, it proved his worries wrong.
"Come at me!" He shouted.
As he was waiting, he noticed they weren't moving or rather it seemed like they weren't gonna move at all. Reattracting his blades, he turned it back into its sword form and put it away.
Two red orbs then formed in his hands and pointed them at the salamanders before releasing them. The salamanders, in response, lunged forward and hoped to swallow the attack but that was their mistake and a flaw with their intelligence.
Bang!
After they swallowed the red orbs, the orbs blew up inside their bodies and pieces flew everywhere, one even landing on his shoulder.
"Ew!" He flicked it off.
Walking over to each of their corpses, he extracted their crystals and smiled. He then thought about returning but remembered Baron's suggestion and sighed.
"Maybe I should find a beast with high durability. They would make a good shield." Lycaon said to himself before heading out.
—
Three Days Later…
"Four flaming eagle crystals, eight fire salamander crystals, three poisonous scorpion crystals and one ice snake." Lycaon said, counting his crystals.
So far, he thought he made good progress. Although he didn't find any beasts with high durability, he still had to visit the other regions of the dimension.
"Maybe I should do one last hunt on the way back to the other regions."
Climbing down the cliff, he arrived at the bottom and headed east. After a few minutes of walking, he felt two powerful nearby beasts.
Slowly and quietly, he approached the beasts and peaked over a rock. It was then that he noticed they were metal hippopotamus. A rare beast that had high-durability but was out of his ranking as they were Low D-Rank.
"If only Antares was here." Lycaon whispered.
"You called?" Sebastian said beside him.
"You see those metal hippopotamuses? We need to kill them so I can get a bet…" Turning to his right, he saw Sebastian.
"When the hell did you get here?" He asked, whispering.
"Baron told me and I figured you would need my assistance. Besides, my priority is to get everyone to trust you again. So, I'll have you return with the crystals while I return a day later than you." Sebastian explained his plan.
"Sounds like a perfect plan but this will likely take a week or longer to complete."
"That's fine. Anyways, you needed help killing them? I got this."
Flash-stepping forward, Lycaon watched as Sebastian swung his scythe down and nearly cleaved one of the hippopotamuses in half with a Sinister Strike. He then appeared beside the other hippopotamus and did the same thing but this time he didn't cut through its hide.
"A defensive skill? Since you turned your body into metal, do you dent?" Sebastian asked before slamming his fist into the hippopotamus's side.
Crack!
It then started to snort in pain as its body cracked. Soon, another punch descended upon its body and cracked again.
He then pulled out his scythe again and did a Sinister Strike, and bisected it. The last remaining hippopotamus tried to run away but fell to the ground as blood dripped down its side.
"Lycaon, try to see if you cut through its skin with your space magic." Sebastian instructed.
Listening to his words, he coated his sword in space magic and tried to cleave it in half but it didn't happen. There was only one possibility as to why he couldn't bisect it and that was due to the low concentration of space magic within his blade.
"Is your weapon restricting the amount of space magic you use? Or is it a skill issue?" Sebastian asked.
"My weapon. It isn't strong enough to hold space magic. At home, there's a special blade capable of withstanding space magic but I have yet to prove my worth for it." Lycaon explained.
Stab!
"That's unfortunate. Whelp, beggars can't be choosers." Sebastian said, ending the beast's life and looking east. "Shall we continue on with our adventure?"
"That's the plan. Though I do want to do most of it by myself so can you hide in the shadows and help me when I need it?"
"That's exactly what I was going to do. You won't get much stronger with my assistance."