Let's go back in time several weeks, to June 5th. This afternoon Renji bid farewell to his three bros. With a leather sack slung over his back, Renji started down the road to the Mountain of Magical Monsters.
"Squeak squeak!" The little Umbramouse, sitting on Renji's shoulders, went on, all eagerly. "Boss, we finally head to the Mountain of Magical Monsters. My god, I feel so excited!" The voice of the little Umbramouse rang in the head of Renji.
Renji just smiled. Right then, a white beam of light shone out, morphed into Kaiya Tanaka. Kaiya Tanaka instructed, "Renji, traveling alone, must be very careful. Maybe you meet bandits."
"I know, Grandpa Kaiya." Renji laughed. Grandpa Kaiya had already said a thousand times that it was dangerous out there and that he needed to be careful. Right now, Renji was dressed in sturdy cloth slacks and a sleeveless shirt. From his physique alone, anyone would definitely think that he was a warrior. According to Grandpa Kaiya, on the Mountain of Magical Monsters, mage robes were far too cumbersome and would get in the way.
Renji was quite fast. Even if it was a bit rough from Keito to the mountain range, according to Renji's stamina as being a fourth-ranked warrior, he had already traveled for forty kilometers in one hour. At this very time, he came across three people at once ,.
"Hrm?" Renji's gaze focused on one person in particular. That person was dressed in the robes of a student of the Keito Institute. Of the other two, one was extremely muscular and bore a giant warblade on his back. The other man was extremely skinny and had a shortsword sheathed by his side. That skinny man alertly turned his head and stared at Renji.
Renji didn't mind watching all this, speeded up, preparing to pass them by.
"Renji, is this Renji?" Suddenly an over there voice. Renji got to turn his head to look at the past. The man dressed in the magus robe of the Keito Institute smiled and called out, "Renji, I am Derato, but I remember."
"Oh, Derato, you are! " Renji comes back to a stop, this block, in fact, Renji knew this Derato. Derato was in the same fifth grade class as him, and he too was a wind magus. Although he and Derato weren't very deep in friendship, they were babies at the same time. He dragged two warriors and smiled warmly, "Renji, I didn't expect that you, a magus, could dress like this. I almost didn't know you.".
The moment he felt things were completely different and read the cover of The Nightmare City, only then he realized it was me."
"Karusa, Motaro, let me introduce you. This is Renji, one of the two top geniuses of our Keito Institute. He's only fifteen years old, but he reached the rank of magus of the fifth rank." Derato enthusiastically introduced. Karusa was that muscularly built warrior, while Motaro was the skinny warrior.
"I have always heard Derato refer to the two greatest geniuses of Keito Institute. Never had I thought that today we would be fortunate enough to meet you," Motaro said respectfully, while Karusa widened his eyes round as an ox. "You're a magus? You look like a warrior to me?"
Renji didn't explain. "You all are going to Magical Monsters Mountain?" Derato nodded.
"Yes, that is right. Last year, I only did field practice with Karusa and Motaro. We can really cooperate well with each other. This year, some exploration activities we intend to carry out in the vicinity of the periphery of the Mountain of Magical Monsters' outer ring. Renji, you have to go with us, sure thing. It is safe to travel in groups.".
Renji nodded. "I will follow them until the mountains. Derato is my classmate, so it should be free of any problems. After that, we shall part ways."
Having made his decision, Renji and his trio all moved toward the mountains together. The four persons were travelling at a very high speed. Even the physically weak Derato was able to move at rapid speed through the usage of the wind-style spell 'Rapidstream'. Thus, their group quickly moved forward on the barren roads. Karusan's boisterous voice rumbled, "Renji, if you join with us, then we would have two magi of the fifth rank. When the four of us work together, we might even be able to kill a magical beast of the sixth rank. The magicite cores of magical beasts of the sixth rank are worth around a thousand gold apiece.
"If we kill a few of them, we won't have to worry about our living expenses for a century."
Ten pieces of gold a year were enough for most people. A thousand pieces of gold were a huge sum. Ten thousand pieces of gold… Renji's heart felt itchy with attraction. At the bottom of his mind, he suddenly remembered the books regarding magical beasts that he had read. Those books discussed the energy core all magical beasts had within them— the magicite cores. "'These magicite cores will solidify in the bodies of beasts of the third rank and higher. But for beasts which have not reached the sixth rank, the value of the cores is not high. They probably aren't even worth as much as one of my sculptures'," Renji thought to himself. In fact, the magic stone of the magical beast of the sixth rank grade just worth about a thousand gold. If measured with his bottom limit, Renji's sculptures were most certainly even qualified to be hung in the hall of the experts, worth about a thousand gold or so each in value.
This sixth-rank magical beast's killing, in terms of difficulty and danger, was far more than the danger of sculpting.
'I'm coming to the Mountain of Magical Monsters for the purpose of training myself. Obtaining magicite crystals? That's just an extra bonus,' Renji said to himself as he eyed the three in front of him.
Derato and the other two had ambitions that belonged to the Supernovas. Evidently, they were extremely eager to obtain magicite cores.
"The magicite cores of the magic beasts of the third, fourth, and fifth ranks aren't worth much, and even a core from the sixth rank is just worth a thousand or so," Derato said, shaking his head unconcernedly. "If we kill a magical beast of the seventh rank, then we will be rich." When he said these words, Derato's eyes gleamed. Just like humans, the magical beasts of the Sixth-Order Magus and Seventh-Order Magus had a very huge gap in power. Just the core magicite of a magical beast of the seventh rank would amount to tens of thousands of gold coins.
If they could only kill one, it would be regarded as extremely rich and never need to worry for the rest of their life in the countryside. "A magical beast of the seventh rank? According to our ability, it might be a suicide action," Renji said so casually. Renji had once seen the Dragon King's power, the magical beast of the seventh rank. At his current level of strength, Renji probably couldn't even break through the Dragon King's terrifying defense. Then, if he couldn't break through even the defense, how should he be killing a magic beast of the seventh rank?
How would it be possible?
That cunning fellow with a sly look, Motaro, nodded, "The four of us put together are definitely not a match for even a sixth grade magical beast. Fighting against a seventh grade magical beast means suicide."
Derato rubbed his head as he pursed his lips, "I was only chatting that's all.". There, a hundred yards back in this mountain forest, was the man dressed in green and covered by leaves, his cold eyes fixed on them, though he was grinning and laughing all the while. He never stopped moving his mouth, as though he muttered some spell, and at the same time the longbow in his hands was pulled to the limit. Suddenly, with a bright blue light, an arrow came tearing through.
It traveled at a staggering speed, making the hundred meters range short work.
Renji, who had been busily chattering about, suddenly felt his entire body hair stand on end. His heartbeat immediately leaped to the top level of tension. "Danger!" Renji quickly dodged to the side.
"Whooosh!" That high-speed arrow passed, leaving his dancing body behind, like a bolt of light, digging into the robe of the Derato's chest, piercing it, to make a huge loophole in the body, and flying a few dozen meters back. Derato held his throat, eyes widening; some vague words gurgled in his mouth as fresh blood gushed from the hole in his chest.
"Urg…urg…" The longing to live blazed in Derato's eyes; then they displayed his horror and fright, but as the blood continued to flow out from the yawning chasm in his chest, quite speedily, all life was gone from Derato's eyes and he fell. Renji, Karusa and Motaro all went suddenly flat against the grass as they watched behind them with sharp alertness.