When Eldric opened his eyes, he found himself standing in front of a large pitch-black portal.
It was already nighttime, so the only source of light seemed to be the moon in the sky.
Turning around, he found a small number of people standing around talking to each other. Every single one of them was wearing armor and holding a long sword. Perhaps it was because of the night-time, but the number of people didn't seem more than ten.
The sudden appearance of Eldric didn't surprise them, on the contrary, after seeing him appearing out of thin air, they made some distance from him, as if afraid of being associated with him.
"Well, that's weird." Eldric who noticed the change in their expressions couldn't help but wonder about their reaction. But since he was here to complete the mission and not make friends, he didn't dwell on it too much and walked inside the portal.
As soon as Eldric walked into the portal, the people outside were stunned.
"Did... Did he just go inside without any equipment?"
This was the first thought that came to their mind.
"Poor bastard. Seems like he just passed his trial and wanted to make a name for himself."
"Well, guess he is going to learn the hard way."
There was a hint of gloating in their voices as they thought about the pitiful outcome of the young boy. Without an armor or weapon, it was impossible to last long inside the zone much less hunt the beasts. And from the looks of it, the boy didn't seem to be a rare or above-grade professional. Otherwise, he wouldn't be here at this time of night, hunting alone instead of being with his peers at university.
"I remember you were like this too. Didn't you do something like this once?"
"I am gonna kill you."
Soon the entire group was bustling with laughter and noise, forgetting about Eldric who was already standing inside a large meadow.
"It's day here?" Narrowing his eyes, Eldric raised his hand on top of his head to avoid the direct sunlight on his eyes. He didn't know how time works here, but at this moment this wasn't his priority. He looked in front of him and at a distance, he could see the figure of a few green bulls.
Compared to ordinary bulls, the bodies of these bulls were almost twice as large. Even the horns on their head were almost half meters long. Occasionally, they would trample the ground below and poke it with their horns.
"Gulp." Eldric swallowed a mouthful of air as he looked at them in silence. This was not the trial, it was in real life. Every injury here will be real. And if somehow he died...
"Hiss." Eldric didn't dare to think about that.
Glancing around, Eldric soon found a lone bull roaming in the distance. Bending his waist, he slowly walked towards it without alerting any other bull.
It wasn't until he was only a few meters away from the bull that he took a deep breath and activated his newly gained skill, Surging Leap.
Soon the figure of Eldric was already four meters above the ground. Before the bull could even notice him, Eldric's figure thrust forward like an arrow with his legs at the front. The entire process seemed like a missile flying up before making a ninety-degree turn and shooting at an incredible speed.
"BOOOOM."
With a loud noise, the head of the bull caved under the pressure as a crisp noise of its neck breaking sounded in Eldirc's ears.
"Huh!?" Looking at the twitching body of the bull on the ground which soon became lifeless, Eldric was stunned.
He didn't think that such a fearsome-looking creature could be killed so easily. For a moment, even he was astonished at his own strength. But soon this astonishment turned into ecstasy as he realized what it meant.
"Now the horns." Ignoring the bulls in the distance which were now alert and looking towards his direction, he bent down. The only way he could think of removing those horns was to try to break open its head and pull them out.
Granted, it was going to be a bloody scene, but at the moment, he had no other choice.
Just when his hands were about to touch the corpse, it suddenly turned into specks of light before disappearing completely, leaving behind a pair of horns on the ground.
"Huh!?" Although a bit surprised, Eldric didn't think too much about it. After all, he had seen this scene many times in the trial. The only difference was that now there was an additional material on the ground after the body disappeared.
Touching the horns, Eldric was wondering where to put those horns when a small window opened in front of him.
Narrowing his eyes, he looked at the window which was exactly similar to an inventory in the game, he tried to put the horns inside and the moment he thought about it, the two horns disappeared from his hand before an icon of horn with '2' written on it was displayed.
"Well, that makes things easier."
After playing with the newly gained inventory for a while, Eldric realized that the only things he could put in were materials. He tried putting rocks, grasses, and even his own clothes. But to his dismay, nothing happened.
"Forget it." Eldric soon lost interest before focusing his gaze back on the bulls in the distance.
After using the skill, he already knew there was no cooldown on it. He could use it as many times as he wanted as long as his body could support it before getting tired.
With a smile, he confidently walked towards the group of bulls.
Aware of the danger, instead of running, the bulls gathered together while looking at the human in front of them.
As soon as Eldric reached a radius of ten meters from them, the bulls suddenly rushed forward, intending to squash him in pieces.
Were it before he got his second skill, Eldric might have run away. But now...
Bending his legs, he activated his skill and jumped into the air before plunging towards the nearest bull.
"BOOOOM"
The familiar scene of him breaking the neck of a bull played out. The only difference was that Eldric didn't stay in one place, but jumped again and plunged towards another bull.
He was like a grasshopper in the field, constantly jumping around as the sounds of bones snapping kept on echoing. But unlike the grasshopper, his speed kept on getting faster and faster with each leap. By the end, he was almost a blur in the eyes of the bulls. This was the effect of his skill, giving him a small increase in speed.
Within a few minutes, there were already twelve bulls dead on the ground that soon turned into light and disappeared, leaving behind twelve sets of horns.
"Wow... This was fast." Looking at his inventory which was now showing the number '26' below the horns, Eldric couldn't help but smile heartily.
From accepting the task to arriving here and completing the task, less than five minutes have passed.
"Let's just explore a bit before heading back." Now that his mission was complete, Eldric didn't immediately return to the zone but decided to explore first. After all, this was his first time inside a domain. It would be a waste to leave immediately without exploring it any further.
So, for the next half an hour, Eldric kept on roaming the meadows. But other than the endless plain ground and hordes upon hordes of bulls, he didn't find anything.
"Let's just head back." Tired he made up his mind and opened the panel in front of him only to see that he couldn't teleport to the zone.
[Please exit the Domain.]
Looking at the short message, he twitched his mouth before looking back into the horizon which was miles away. Helplessly he could only walk back to the entrance with a bitter smile on his face.
.
.
.
"Surround it. Don't let it escape."
Before Eldirc even reached to the exit, he heard faint voices in the distance. Narrowing his eyes, he thought for a moment before slowly making his way toward the voices. After reaching a safe distance, he didn't immediately announce his presence, but looked at the scene of five people surrounding one bull and attacking it from every side.
Other than one guy holding small knives who would occasionally jump from time to time to hit its weak points, the rest were all holding long two-handed broadswords. They would use skills from time to time and divide the aggro of the bull equally. Just from looking at them, one could tell that it was a team of experienced people.
"Once assassin and four warriors." With the way they were fighting and the skills they were using, it didn't take long for Eldric to guess their professions.
It was a weird sight to see a team consisting of only melee without any long-distance damage dealer or support. But when he thought about it, it made sense.
The people in front of him were in their late thirties and were still struggling to take out a single bull. Even if they wanted to invite a priest or mage, no one would be willing to join. After all, even in the ordinary professions, a mage, and a priest are somewhat rare and welcomed by every group.
Seeing how they were still struggling with a single bull, Eldric had no intention of joining them so he just stood there in silence, waiting for them to finish.
It took the entire team of five almost ten minutes to kill one bull, leaving Eldirc speechless.
And just when Eldric thought things were over, he saw a scene that stunned him.
One of the warriors pulled out a knife from his pocket and slowly began to dissect the corpse of the bull on the ground.
"WHAT THE FU..." Eldric almost shouted in disbelief.
This shout immediately alerted the group who looked in his direction. With their swords drawn, they were ready to pounce at any moment. After all, this wasn't the first time someone tried to steal their loot.
Eldric didn't want things to escalate, so he slowly walked towards them with a harmless smile on his face.
"What are you doing?" Looking at the familiar boy who they met a while ago, the group didn't dare to relax. They didn't dare to mock him or take him lightly despite his lack of equipment and young age.
"I mean no harm." Now that he was exposed, Eldric didn't bother hiding, at least the people in front of him got the wrong idea. Walking towards them under their vigilant eyes, he stopped at a distance of five meters before looking at the corpse.
"I just wanted to know why this bull didn't turn into light?" This was the thing bugging him the most. Why was it that the bull he killed disappeared into thin air, whereas the bull the other party killed stayed there?
"...." As soon as Eldric asked this question, the group was stunned for a moment before one of the members looked at him with eyes filled with pity.
"Oh, you poor child!
Don't you know that if one uses the transport function from Zone, the corpses of their opponents will disappear as a form of convenience fee? The only thing left would be the materials required for the mission.
And this will last until one teleport back to the zone."
"....."
"..."
"..."
"Huuuh!?"