In the clearing between the dense trees, a red tiger with dense muscles and bull-like horns on its head stood on the cracked ground. Its crimson-red eyes were like blazing suns, scanning the surroundings.
It had many wounds on its thick hide, from which dark blood was leaking. However, this only increased the madness raging inside the creature's eyes.
It suddenly let out a loud roar as it felt a pang of pain from its backside. It hurriedly swept its tail, which was like a whip, at the human who dared to launch a sneak attack on it.
But the tail hit the empty ground, cracking it even more under the powerful impact.
The tiger tried to take a step forward, but its legs began wobbling as it fell forward. At that moment, a dark blade fell on its neck, ending its life.
It couldn't even muster one last struggle because of the weakness it felt all over its body. It was as if it couldn't even control its own body properly.
A young man sat on top of the fallen creature, with his hands on the dark sword's hilt. His face was marred with dirt and blood, and his body suit was ripped in many places.
Still, his emerald-green eyes shone with intense excitement as he grinned, showing his pristine white teeth, a contrast to his own battered state.
[Congratulations for killing the High-Stage Tier 1 White Bull!]
[You have received 0.5 Soul Fragments.]
'Nice!'
Arthur pulled the sword back and put it in the makeshift scabbard hanging from his waist. Then, with his bare hands, he ripped apart the creature's flesh from the sword wound.
After searching around for a moment, he took out a sphere from it and stored it in his backpack, where many similar spheres were already stored.
"Can't you just use a sword for that?"
Arthur looked up at the voice and found a short, gloomy young man whose condition wasn't faring any better than his. Soaked in dried blood from head to toe, he looked like an imp.
Noah stopped and narrowed his dark eyes at him, "Why do I feel like you just insulted me?"
Arthur was speechless and asked, "Are you a woman?"
"The fuck do you mean by that, bitch?" Noah hissed, as he threw his dagger at Arthur.
Arthur easily caught the dagger and replied, "No! I just felt like asking because of your intuition."
"So you were really insulting me, huh," Noah rolled his eyes at his companion and came close to the corpse.
"Stop being a lil' boy," Arthur used the dagger to cut a fine piece of meat from the corpse and gave it to Noah, who carefully stored it away.
Looking at the White Bull one last time, Arthur stood up and called out, "Status!"
[Name - Arthur Stark]
[Age - 18]
[Rank - Novice]
[Level - 6]
[Soul Fragments - 18/100]
[Path - ]
[Skills - ]
[Artefacts - Abyss Destroyer.]
For the past few days, the two of them had done nothing but hunt on the periphery of Falcon Wilderness. The only time they rested was when fatigue took over them.
But even then, Arthur had only reached Level 6, far less than he had wanted. He had to return to the Academy the day after next, and he hadn't even accomplished what he came here for.
He sighed, feeling tired. His body was screaming for rest, but he hadn't given it much. Now, he was so exhausted that he just wanted to drop dead.
'Still, without Noah, I wouldn't even get to Level 6,' Arthur sighed as he looked at Noah.
Since only High-Stage Tier 1 Abyssal Creatures could give Noah a significant boost, he had given every Mid-Stage Tier 1 Abyssal Creature they hunted to Arthur.
Even after so many days, Noah had only leveled up once, reaching Level 8. This just showed how tough it was to level up.
'It is still better than Cultivation where you have to sit in place for who knows how long,' Arthur shook his head.
Their plan for hunts was simple. When it came to High-Stage Tier 1 Abyssal Creatures, Arthur would stall them and Noah would kill them.
For Mid-Stage Tier 1 Abyssal Creatures, they did the opposite, which helped them save some energy. Since he had grown much stronger than before, stalling the powerful abominations wasn't exhausting for Arthur anymore.
All of a sudden, Arthur's hair stood up in alarm as he felt his scalp go numb. He felt as if death was approaching him. These were his instincts, something he had honed by battling the harrowing beings of other worlds for years.
They were screaming at him of death.
He instantly reacted and tried to find the source of the problem. It was then he detected the shadows growing heavier behind Noah and felt a chill.
'No!'
A bad premonition rose in his heart as memories of his past life resurfaced in his mind—the time when Noah died while protecting one of his own.
His blood ran cold as he gritted his teeth and moved at inhuman speed. However, he knew he was already late. Not to mention that the foe was fast, and his own body was beyond exhaustion, not reacting the way he wanted.
Fortunately or unfortunately, he had lived in situations like this for far too long to give up so early.
With a quick motion, he shoved Noah to his left, barely managing to do that as the next moment something smashed him with powerful force, sending him tumbling away.
A metallic sound echoed as his body struck a tree, breaking it and sending splinters everywhere.
Coughing up blood, he felt as if every bone in his body was crying for help. They hurt so much, as if they were on the verge of breaking apart.
His vision blurred due to blood coating his eyelids as he coughed even more blood and slumped down on the ground.
Every fiber of his being was in pain, and even the slightest movement sent jolts of pain to his head.
However, he didn't die.