Asher looked around first to see anything that could be used to go on a higher ground, since the trees around were not tall enough to be of any help.
The pack of dogs—with grey fur—were at a hill-like structure, giving them a higher ground.
'Let's just go behind them slowly, then I can air step.'
Going through a roundabout way, Asher soon went behind the dogs; they were quite large in size for the typical dogs he had seen.
"I am pretty sure they are not actually dogs, but I still don't know what they are called."
In these moments only does it make sense that he actually has memory loss; if not, his usual sharpness will make people wonder if he actually is blank in his head or not.
Stepping a bit higher now, Asher pointed his gun toward the one who was closest to him and used static; this gained no attention from the other two newborns.
*Bang*
The gun glowed in white stripes as the shot was fired; the bullet accurately pierced the head, making the first target fall.
'12 meters is the radius in which I can apply statics.'
Seeing the sight of their companion, the other two did not sit idly following his smell; they soon sprinted toward him with their sharp fangs pointed out, filled with saliva.
As they came closer, Asher quickly jumped from his position and took a single step in the air and used his shoes as a foothold. Air step—this is what he decided to call it.
Doing the air step, Asher jumped above the dogs, landing beside a nearby tree, and pointed the gun again toward the one that was nearby him and used 'static' and shot toward it, as if sensing something amiss with the dog; the other pushed it, breaking the effect of static, making it run toward him again.
'Tsk' Seeing them come again, Asher did not sit ideally either; he ran toward another tree after taking a leap in the air and, with an air step, did a double jump.
"Why am I even calling it an air step? It's just a double jump; I can't walk in air anyway yet."
Grumbling to himself as he leaped in midair, Ashe aimed his gun toward the monsters and shot one again, which finally landed in its leg.
The other still safe quickly leaped toward Asher as he landed on the ground; seeing this, Asher smiled.
'Static,' the monster was stopped midair.
In a not so hurried manner, Ash pointed his gun at its head.
*Bang*
The creature's head instantly got penetrated as his dead body still leaped forward, due to the fact it was still in motion when 'static' was applied.
Ash walked toward the final monster, the one that was shot in the leg. It was trying to run away only to get stopped in mid-motion.
Not wanting to waste any more bullets, Ash took out his dagger and cut its throat, making it fall forward.
Seeing the sight of three monsters he just killed, Ash felt empty.
"I thought it would be cooler."
Ash couldn't help but lament this anticlimactic fight he just had; sure, it was cool to jump above them, shooting one that was frozen in midair. But that's all. Everything else was too boring and easy.
"Let's just get this over with."
Walking toward the tree where he had hidden his bag before the fight, Ash again sighed.
He then walked toward the fallen bodies to gather the shards.
"I won't be able to get their fur or anything, sadly."
He, after all, doesn't know how to properly dissect them; if he tried to, he would probably destroy it and waste time.
After the extraction of their shards placed near their hearts, Asher walked away to search for new prey.
Ash didn't expect to meet any monster with a higher rank than a newborn or a lower rank, to begin with. He was still in the outer zones of the forest to get higher rank monsters; he would need to dwell deeper, which he was currently not going to do.
Walking forward aimlessly for an hour, he still did not encounter any monsters.
"Where the hell are all the monsters? Wasn't this place supposed to be filled with them?"
Ash, annoyed at finding nothing for an hour straight, grumbled.
But soon he found something quite like what he was looking for hanging on a tree.
"A monkey?"
'No, it has three tails, so not exactly a monkey, but still, what am I finding? A dog? A monkey? Next, what? A parrot the size of a human will appear.'
Asher quickly took his gun and used static again on the low-rank monster *bang* with a single shot to its chest.
Normally monsters have higher agility and perception than humans to dodge simple attacks, but with the help of 'static,' such problems were useless to him.
Sighing again, Asher walked towards the fallen monster and knelt beside it to extract its shards.
"Four shards I have got now."
Holding them in his hands, he saw three very small ones and one larger than the rest. And put it in his bags.
Being grateful to not have met anything dangerous yet, Asher gave a sigh of relief at his luck.
"I still am unable to keep static on two beings at once. I can do it for a living being and an object, but two living beings still take a toll on me."
Having so much time now at hand, Asher again inspected his ability.
The cost to stop something of a lower rank than him, like a mundane human or newborn, was low, and he kept it for 20 seconds without him taking too much strain on his mind, while beings of the same rank at full concentration can be kept for around 10 seconds. Asher already knows what a being of a higher rank is, as he had already tried it on the tree. Normal items can be kept as long as he has energy and can concentrate.
"The next thing I need to try is to keep static on many opponents at the same time."
Determined now to try something challenging, Ash found childish excitement in it.
*Cling* *cling*
Hearing the sounds of something or someone clashing, Asher hurried his footsteps as he walked deeper and did an air step to the tree and reached its top easily.
Seeing the dense forest from above for the first time, Asher looked toward the source of the sound.
Two awakeners were fighting a beast.