The Shadow Wood Forest.
Levi was waiting for someone on the outskirts of the Shadow Wood Forest, dressed in leather armor from top to bottom excluding his head.
Armor was quite easy to find near areas that had people hunting for monsters day and night. Shadow Wood Forest was the Dusty Ridge city's famous monster hunting area. Shadow Wood had a variety of monsters particularly those who excelled at shadow or dark arts. The Forest had numerous Tier 1 and Tier 2 monsters, clearing them regularly was a must, otherwise they would be overwhelmed by them.
This made Shadow Wood popular and at the same time, dangerous, and popular places always had businesses that made an earning by collecting monster corpses and selling armor.
The armor Levi was wearing was basic armor for every beginner. Levi did not want to spend money on expensive things, with his power and the first seed he cultivated he was capable of defeating any Elementary Grade Tier 1 monsters and might even contend with some Intermediate Grade Tier 1 monsters on equal footing.
While he was thinking about which monsters to target for the first day, he felt a hand on his shoulder,
"Finally, you are out. I wanted to go immediately in the morning if you had gotten an Origin Energy Accumulation manual beforehand." Caleb said with some hint of annoyance. Caleb wore a very costly metal armor and carried a war hammer with him.
"I do not have servants at my beck and call Caleb. Can't you also focus on breaking through to the Elementary Grade Tier 1? It has only been less than a day we met. Because you have a better manual passed down in your family, you should make full use of it before going forward with killing monsters and —"
"Okay, DAD. Can we go now?" Caleb did not want to be lectured by Levi. He already got an earful when he was preparing to come here from his father, but he somehow convinced his father so that he could hunt together with Levi.
"Fine. I have some targets in mind, and we will only focus on hunting those monsters. We will first go with the Elementary Grade Tier 1 Dark Claw Bear. I have already asked around and found out their hunting grounds."
He knew with Caleb's family resources he had already reached Tier 1 Elementary Grade. Combined with his own strength they can clear out monsters like Dark Claw Bear with ease.
Dark Claw Bears used the energy of the Shadow Wood Forest to grow, they reproduce at a rate that if not kept in check might become a majority in the Shadow Wood Forest, Fortunately, neither the humans nor the other monsters were having it. However, because of their population, they were sold at a good price at the market, and people had various tips and tricks to kill these bears since they were in demand.
Tips and tricks alone would only help a little, their Signature skill, the Dark Claw skill is also problematic to face for beginners. Levi chose the Dark Claw Bears for their good selling price and demand he was not a rich guy now, he still had to earn.
"Then what are we waiting for." The muscle-head Caleb was already raring to go.
"Let's go. But you must listen to me alright, no fighting head on."
"I like fighting but that doesn't mean I am an idiot. My family already lectured me a lot on this."
"They lecture because you don't listen."
"Alright, I will listen would you stop being my Dad." Caleb was already getting restless to enter the forest.
---
"Hmm... The Family Head said to follow the young master Caleb, in case he needs protection, But why does the young master hang out with that failure of Anderson."
Just a little behind Levi and Caleb an old man was following them. He was ordered to protect the future family head.
"Fortunately, they were smart enough to decide which monsters to hunt, otherwise I would have pulled young master out the moment they chose the wrong area to enter. Dark Claw Bears are a good for hunting for beginners, I am pretty sure young master Caleb did not come up with this idea." The old man sighed.
"Well, letting him follow the Anderson kid is much better than other arrogant kids of other families."
The old man hid himself and kept following without making a sound, into the Dark Claw Bears hunting area.
---
Levi and Caleb were already at the periphery of the hunting grounds of the Dark Claw Bears. They found quite a lot of other monsters, Caleb was eager to fight them however, Levi held him back, fighting someone you aren't prepared to meet is sometimes fatal. When they were quite a bit into the hunting grounds, they soon saw two Dark Claw Bears, Both of them at Tier 1 Elementary Grade strength.
The Dark Claw Bears looked menacing with their reddish eye and massive bodies, with around 2 meters long and 1 meter tall.
Caleb looked at Levi with bright eyes, to which Levi could only nod helplessly.
Caleb gazed at those bears with killing intent, and instantly activated his talent [Rock Giant]. The earth rumbled and stones began to float by itself, soon bits and pieces of stone large and small began to attach around Caleb's body, in an organized manner as if some mysterious law was working behind it. Caleb's 1.7 meter body soon shot up to 2.5 meters emanating tremendous aura of the earth element. Levi was shocked at his transformation, however, he knew the Stone Family must have provided Caleb with a better Origin Accumulation Manual.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Caleb gave a roar before charging towards the bear with his war hammer to which both the bears responded with an equally menacing roar and slashed with their claws at Caleb. Caleb's sudden 2.5 meter form shocked them to unleash their skill instantly.
As soon as the claws shining with a dark light slashed at Caleb, The Dark light manifested into its corporeal form looking like a dark blade, advanced rapidly towards the Giant Caleb.
Levi, who took advantage of Caleb distracting them got near to them and was waiting for them to unleash their Dark Claw skill, to strike at the precise moment. He did not hesitate and activated the first seed, to gather power in his right hand and got up from his hiding position. There was 2-3 meters of distance between them that Levi crossed instantly with his enhanced strength, and got near one of the bears, punching directly at the vitals of the bear with full force. The bear closest to Levi was shocked at the sudden attack and was not even able to dodge within a short time. The punch landed on its chest and the bear weighing 250 kilograms was flung 1 meter into the air, before falling down heavily. The bear struggled for a while to get up but failed, soon his rhythmic breathing faltered and the shine in his eyes disappeared.
After seeing its family's death right in front of it, the other Dark Claw bear looked at Levi and was about to charge, to release his anger. However, too bad for him Caleb had already returned after defending against their Dark Claw skills, and sprinted towards his enemies.
"DIE!!!"
He raised his war hammer and smashed at the bear's head.
BOOOOMMM!!
The head wasn't strong enough to handle the full force of Caleb's war hammer in his Giant Form and turned into a gory mess instantly killing it. Levi looked at this speechlessly, he could only punch a bear and still wouldn't be able to make this much of a mess.
"Let's collect their bodies, and sell them first. We don't have a storage space item."
"Don't worry your brother Caleb here got the Storage ring specifically for this purpose and it won't even degrade their corpse for a long time." Caleb grinned.
Levi was a cool headed guy otherwise someone else would have punched him for flaunting his wealth. But Levi was glad internally, he would not have to return immediately after hunting, and the sun was still high above their head.
"Let's continue then. Until we can no longer see the sun above us."
Caleb instantly stored the corpses and the duo began to venture further in where they could find more bears.
---
Caleb and Levi continued their tactic of hunting the bear using Caleb as a distraction. Together they hunted about 32 Dark Claw bears before they could no longer continue due to less energy. They did not dare to venture too deep in case they encountered an Intermediate Grade Tier 1 bear.
They returned to the marketplace outside the Shadow Wood forest and sold 30 bear corpses. The shopkeeper was astonished at the 30 corpses while analyzing his customer's strength. It was not everyday you get to see kids at Elementary Tier 1 strength kill 30 bears. He knew that the customers were strong enough and offered a better price for them. 300 gold coins per bear corpse was already great for beginners, Levi and Caleb split the money 50-50 and returned home. Levi carried 2 corpses back, it was his request to Caleb to let him have 2 corpses for experimenting, and was willing to pay for it, but Caleb was least bothered about money and directly gave the 2 corpses to him.
Levi wanted to try and see what would happen if he deconstructed the Dark Claw bear. He was walking tiredly not knowing that someone was gazing at him, hiding in the dark.
It was the old man who was sent to protect Caleb. He looked at Levi's back and could not help but be surprised. The old man was with Caleb and Levi from start to end, he was shocked at their efficiency at killing bears. Killing 5 bears in a team of beginners was already a big achievement. However killing 30 bears in a day in a team of 2, even if he included Caleb's ridiculous strength increase, was still amazing. The old man had thought they would at most kill 10 bears, but more than half the credit goes to Levi for his tactics otherwise they would not be able to kill 30 bears.
'sigh... such great talents. A great storm is coming and the Anderson family is in the center of it.' The old man had to report this to the Stone Family's Family Head immediately.
The old man did not wait long and immediately escorted his young master back to his family.