Among the innumerable peaks of the Mountain of Magical Monsters, there were also innumerable ageless trees and forests, through which a journey across the range proved very difficult. If that wasn't enough, one had to always be crossing peak after peak, ravine after ravine, or maybe by a roundabout path.
"When traveling within the Mountain of Magical Monsters, do not move by cutting a path through the already existing thorns and bush. It's better to take another route." Kaiya Tanaka continued to give Renji the benefit of his experience. Renji listened intently as he continued forward.
"Remember, the biggest mistake you can make in the Mountain of Magical Monsters is to make noise constantly. This will cause many magical beasts to pay attention to you. Even if you are forced to make some noise, you need to immediately leave the nearby area." Kaiya Tanaka continued. "Remember, if you are injured, you must immediately do your best to staunch any loss of blood. The stench of blood will attract beasts as well. The noses of magical beasts are far more sensitive than we humans.
Renji nodded. The enormous tree tops obscured the entire sky—it seemed as if there were countless of them. Reminded of some information he had picked up from books at the Keito Institute, he looked around. A place like this – should one time come when the sun has all but ceased to appear, one must know how to locate north, south, east and west. As agile as a monkey, Renji hopped over the sequence of messy tree roots and viney growth. However, just as he walked past.
"Whoah." Renji sucked in a cold breath as he saw something not too far away. The corpses of three men and two women were a few dozen meters away from him. The five corpses hadn't rotten much yet, but the bite marks on them were very visible. The corpses all had several large dismemberments. A male corpse had half its leg eaten and a huge hole ripped in its belly lying on the ground. His severed intestines were strewn about in the area. Half of the woman's head had been devoured, with only one eyeball remaining and a white skull bone with a few pieces of hair still attached.
Renji's complexion suddenly turned pale as he forgot to breathe.
"They should have died three or four days ago." Kaiya Tanaka came to Renji and searched the five corpses very carefully. His face was still very calm. "Renji, look closely. On every person's chest, there are some unremarkable wounds, similar in every case. If my guess isn't wrong, these five should have been killed by humans and most probably by one man."
"Kaiya Tanaka, did you say killed by a person?" Renji gazed, shocked, at Kaiya Tanaka.
Kaiya Tanaka smiled serenely. "Renji, this is your first time coming to the Mountain of Magical Monsters. When you have been here for some time longer, you will understand that in the Mountain of Magical Monsters besides guarding against the attacks of local beasts you also have to guard against the attacks of other humans.
"The attacks of humans? Why would other humans attack?" Renji felt a bit of flame beginning to grow in his heart. With their huge number, the local monsters had already gained overwhelming advantages over their enemies in the Mountain of Magical Monsters. He didn't expect the humans here would fight each other as well, instead of helping each other.
"This is very common. Why are there humans who try their luck in this mountain? Nearly all of them come here expecting to obtain magicite cores. If they defeat a magical beast, they will only obtain one core, but if they kill a human being that human being might possess a number of magicite cores inside his backpack, or possibly even more." Kaiya Tanaka stroked his white beard.
Finally, Renji understood. Greed! It was all because of greed. Some of the people here wanted to conveniently obtain a large number of magicite cores, and really, killing the other human beings here would be a good method.
"Renji, you better be very careful. Looking at things here, it means the person who killed these five must have had an insanely incredible ability. Look, if you examine these close, you'll see that four of them were to be warriors, and one was a magus. All five were sent out within days of each other — one clean cut, right to the heart. Think how chilling this is—how ruthlessly precise, all for just one blow. But, again, we don't know how strong exactly these five were, so we can't estimate how strong their killer could have been." Kaiya Tanaka frowned. "The very fact that these five would be willing and capable of facing the perils of the Mountain of Magical Monsters means they could not have been weak. "From that, we can rest assured at least that this person who killed them was no lesser than you," he mumbled as Renji approached closer to see for himself and then nodded with a hum in agreement. The killing blows were far too clean and efficient.
"This is still just the outer perimeter of the mountain range. Hurry on in." Kaiya Tanaka laughed. Renji nodded, and then continued his journey in. Going forward, the sight of corpses of either man or monster became quite common, along with many rusty weapons. Renji also occasionally ran into a few weak monsters.
Nightfall. Renji and the small Umbramouse were both crouched, eating a boar's leg each. Renji was sitting on the ground while the small Umbramouse was seated on his shoulder.
"One does not make fire, in Mountain of Magical Monsters, at night." Kaiya Tanaka commanded once again.
"Understood, Grandpa Kaiya." Renji knew quite a bit about the basics of survival here. This place wasn't an ordinary wilderness, and the beasts here wouldn't be afraid of the fire.
He sat down on the floor, closed his eyes, and calmed himself while starting to feel the flow of Earth Essence and Wind Essence around him. The feeling emanating from the elemental essence around him was akin to being in his parents' embrace.
With his really good affinity to Earth Essence and Wind Essence, Renji could detect them rather distinctly.
"The Pulse of the Earth. The Flow of the Wind." A peaceful smile was on Renji's face, as he began to fall asleep. Renji absolutely believed that any vibrations in the ground caused by something approaching, or any disturbances in the wind created by something hurtling towards him, would wake him up immediately. These were the strengths of the earth magi and wind magi.
The night deepened slowly. Curled in front of Renji, the small Umbramouse 'Echo' also began to make very faint, light snoring noises. The night wind grew even cooler now, but it was summer in the Mountain of Magical Monsters now, so only at night would it feel cool and refreshing. During the day, it felt stiflingly hot.
Late at night. Everything was dark.
"Rustle, rustle." The soft rustling sound of something working its way through the grass came to the pair's ears. Two thickset-silhouetted Tempestwolves, with glossy blue fur, were now pacing back and forth in the woods. Their green eyes had a glimmer in them, and they were following everything intently. Their strong limbs were walking around the area without any sound. The cold light of merciless white fangs shone.