What was that?
Vince's eyes flicked open.
He immediately stood up and looked around, searching for any possible threat. Beyond the mountain's cliff lay a dense forest covered in snow.
The skies were greyish, and snowflakes kept falling from the horizon.
Vince glanced back at the mountain he had come from and noticed that the weather remained fine and sunny on the other side, while this side of the mountain was snowing.
As far as he knew, the venue of the survival test was a real place in this world and not a location in another dimension, like Lily's pocket dimension.
But Vince found it strange that two places so close to each other were experiencing different seasons. In the human world, this could happen if the two places had different altitudes, as higher altitudes tend to be cooler, so a mountainous region might experience winter conditions while a nearby lowland area enjoys summer. In this case, however, the two mountains were at the same altitude.
Well, Vince thought, he supposed such things could happen in a fantasy world.
Or maybe it was part of the survival test—to survive under different weather conditions with dangerous terrain and threats lurking around.
He opened his palm and caught a snowflake, then his gaze shifted to the snowy forest ahead of him.
That's where he heard the shout. He was sure of it.
It wasn't mentioned what kinds of dangers lurked in the survival test's venue, whether there were beasts or villains they needed to defeat, but from the shriek he heard, Vince assumed the traps he encountered in the first mountain weren't as dangerous as what he was about to face.
Not wanting to lose more time, Vince pulled the dagger attached to one of his boots, where there was a boot sheath.
It wasn't a personal dagger, as participants weren't allowed to bring their own weapons, so he had picked it from the range of weapons the facilitator of the entry exam had prepared for the participants.
It wasn't a simple dagger, though.
He pressed a part of the hilt, and the blade extended, transforming into a sword.
It wasn't made of magic; it was simply crafted from pure steel. None of the weapons given to the participants had special features and were just ordinary, so in the end, they would still have to rely on their abilities.
Vince sprinted toward the forest, but the moment he entered, the thick snow clung to his every step, slowing him down.
With each stride, his boots sank deep into the snow, making it impossible to run at full speed.
After several more steps, he heard a deep growl, too monstrous to come from a person.
Vince wondered if there were beasts in the forest, but judging by the painful shriek he heard earlier, it wasn't far-fetched.
In this world, monsters did indeed exist, along with other creatures that were deemed outcasts.
There were four prominent races that led the world: vampires, demons, mages, and beasts (most of whom were werewolves and foxes).
However, they weren't the only creatures in existence. They were just at the top of the hierarchy due to their large populations and how civilized they had become over thousands of years.
What were the odds that he would face a dangerous creature today? Vince smirked at the thought.
Raine had warned him beforehand, and now, with the constant growls surrounding him, he wondered if he was overestimating himself and if coming here had been a mistake.
His breath came in cold, visible puffs as he gripped his sword tighter, knowing something was lurking in the depths of the forest.
Suddenly, a towering figure emerged from the shadows.
Its eyes burned a fiery red, but unlike the red irises of vampires, this monster's eyes were much brighter and had thick black linings.
Not only that, black veins bulged around them like cracks in its skin. The creature was monstrous, standing over seven feet tall, with four massive arms, each ending in long, bloodstained nails, evidence of its recent kill.
Its body was thick and muscular. At first glance, its face appeared humanly due to its shape, but with its distorted features, it looked more like a creature from horror stories than a sane person.
The monster's upper body was bare, revealing its flat chest, bulky shoulders, and four arms, while its lower body was covered by a piece of tattered clothing.
Vince noticed the small stone on the monster's forehead.
It was a black gemstone, similar to his, but after looking a little longer, he realized that the stone had cracks.
That's when he realized this wasn't originally a monster but a person.
However, the person was no longer sane because their power core had been corrupted.
Vince had never seen one before, but he knew about the strange phenomenon spreading across all the lands.
Corruption of the power core, they called it.
It was said the first case had appeared centuries ago, and authorities had been investigating the cause of power core corruption ever since. Yet to this day, there was no clear explanation for why it happened.
The corruption of a power core spared no one except those with dormant cores.
Only those who had awakened their power cores could be corrupted, and once the corruption occurred, the gemstone in their heads turned black and cracked, transforming them into monsters with no sanity, no emotions, and no hope of return.
The only thing left to do was kill them mercilessly to prevent them from killing others.
It was one of the primary duties of the city guardians—to eliminate people with corrupted power cores, or what they simply called corrupted monsters.
The higher the power class of the individual before corruption, the more monstrous they became.
Facing the corrupted person in front of him, Vince gripped his sword tightly.
The monster lurched forward, its claws and jagged teeth ready to tear his flesh.
But halfway through the distance, it vanished from Vince's sight, moving so fast that he barely noticed its shifts in the shadows.
It wasn't running away; it seemed to be toying with its prey.
One thing to be wary of with corrupted monsters was their incredible speed, regardless of their power class before corruption.
Vince's jaw clenched.
Even with his enhanced eyesight as a demon, it was hard to track the monster's movements.
He tapped into his other senses, his sense of smell. If he could track the monster's scent, he could locate it even without his eyes.
But something was off about the surroundings.
The air in the snowy forest carried a scent. Not an earthy one, but something strange and strong, masking the scent of the corrupted monster.
Only then did Vince notice the thin miasma covering the entire forest.
'That must be where the scent comes from.'
Side eye.
Vince nearly failed to dodge the monster's attack, barely leaping backward at the last second.
He realized that a corrupted monster wasn't just incredibly fast, it moved almost soundlessly.
If the monster's feet hadn't touched a tree trunk before it leaped at him, causing the tree to shake slightly, Vince wouldn't have noticed the attack in time to dodge.
The monster reacted quickly, appearing next to him in an instant. Vince swung his sword, but missed, then rolled to the side, sinking into the snowy ground.
A shrill sound escaped the monster's mouth, as if it were laughing at Vince. It stood a few meters away, not launching another attack, just watching him with bloodthirsty eyes.
One more thing about corrupted monsters: they feed on the soul force of their victims, devouring the flesh and blood of any creature with soul force they encounter.
The thought of being eaten alive, with his limbs broken one by one under the monster's sharp teeth, was excruciating to Vince, fueling his determination to kill the creature before it could kill him first.
However, he needed a moment to think.
With the miasma in the forest rendering his sense of smell useless, his eyesight unable to track the monster's speed, and his lack of special abilities or magic affinity, it seemed like he was at a complete disadvantage.
Such a shame, he thought, he got all the losing cards.
Standing with the edge of his sword resting in the snow, Vince huffed and stared at the watching monster ahead of him.
He smirked and then began running at full speed.
No, he wasn't running away.
He was buying himself some time.
If he couldn't rely on his eyesight or sense of smell, then there was only one thing left to do.
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A/N: If you're enjoying the novel, please support it with anything can offer (power stones, golden tickets, gifts) and have a good day, fellas!
Ah, today is so cold. I've been wrapped up in my blanket all day. T.T