It was nighttime, and I was standing in a dense forest. The shadows of the trees moved, hinting that there were creatures hiding behind the trees; but to me, who had sharp eyes like a hawk, that meant nothing. I could not be fooled by mere illusions; I could clearly see everything around me. I could see races of birds asleep in their respective nests, guarding their eggs; I could see mole-like creatures hidden underground; I could see hyena-like beings asleep in the open, unafraid of other predators; I could see rather exotic spiders hanging from the trees, hunting their prey; I could see all kinds of animals lurking in the darkness of the night.
I was trying to analyze which individual was the most dangerous creature in the area, but none had caught my attention. Even if I killed these creatures in front of me, I doubted they would be of any use to me; after all, I didn't know if they had innate abilities; not all beasts possessed an ability. I maintained my invisible state so as not to be detected by any creature of the night, and in this state I moved through the forest, jumping from tree to tree. I had stopped using 'wind boost', as that ability produced a strong gust of wind, and I didn't want to alert the creatures of the night, much less wake those who were already asleep.
In this way, I wandered around the area. Although it was difficult, I moved with great confidence; I was not afraid at all; I doubted there was a creature capable of standing up to me one-on-one; and if there was something capable of doing such a thing, it would certainly not live to tell the tale. Of course, I am referring to the creature. Even if there was a creature capable of standing up to me, it would only have one skill, and I doubted that a single skill could stand up to the absurd amount of skills I possessed. The skills I had been using to move from tree to tree were: 'move', 'heart of ice', 'hide', and 'cloak of invisibility'. Maintaining those skills over time was a piece of cake nowadays.
It wasn't long before I finally found something that caught my interest. I was standing on top of a tree, looking at the creature in question. That thing was humanoid, well, almost humanoid; it was hunched over and had disgustingly long teeth: they were like the teeth of a deep-sea fish; it was dark, and its fur was brown. And if compared to a human person, that thing would be some kind of dwarf, and one that seemed to be quite dangerous. That thing's claws were disgustingly horrible; and if we were talking about its face, it was even more horrible. The creature itself was a damn aberration; that beast seemed to be eating something similar to a hyena. The curious thing about the situation was that that being didn't have any scratches.
"Interesting; let's see what you have to offer me, creature."
The strange creature caught my attention; unfortunately, getting my attention right now wasn't a good sign for it. It was male, the creature; after all, it had a penis. Without a second thought, I launched myself like a bullet from the tree I was standing on; the creature didn't even sense me; by the time it realized what was happening, it was too late for it. When I got in front of it, I used 'wind shear' and ripped its head off in one move; the battle didn't last long. The beast's head fell to the ground, and a jet of blood came out of its body; its blood was red like that of humans; it made me a little disgusted, since the creature had certain human features. Without wasting any time, I took the head and the lower part of its body and put it in the bucket; thanks to the bucket, it was no longer necessary to devour the creature's blood to obtain its abilities. Later I would learn about the ability the creature had; I took one look at what the creature was eating and immediately dismissed it as it smelled horrible; I doubted that such a creature could have a good ability.
"First creature successfully hunted; hopefully it has something useful to offer."
After I killed that strange creature, I climbed another tree and started jumping from tree to tree looking for other similar creatures. Literally speaking, I was searching blindly, as I didn't know which creature had innate abilities; but that didn't stop me; I kept searching until I finally found another creature. It had been about thirty minutes since I had started looking for the second creature, and it had finally appeared; but that bastard somehow realized that I wanted to kill it and escaped from me. It was some kind of three-headed snake, very small, but it definitely had good ability; after all, it escaped from me. Every time I got close to it, it would escape underground; it would burrow like a mole, and somehow it knew that I was outside waiting to take its head off. I got tired of waiting for it to come out, so I opted to leave it alone; the bastard was very cunning. If he really wanted to catch her, he would have dug a hole in the ground and dragged her out, but doing so would undoubtedly create a lot of noise and wake up the other beasts nearby. The truth is that he didn't want to attract unwanted attention and end up in a one-on-many fight.
"Let's go for a better beast; one that is less slippery."
- UNDERSTOOD.
So I kept jumping from tree to tree in search of a new creature. To be honest, I was annoyed that the previous beast got away from me; so I was going to be more aggressive and faster with the next one I found.
"There's my next goal."
In the distance I could see a strange tree-like creature, but it was definitely not a tree; after all, it had a mouth and eyes; it was eating an animal with its wooden teeth, assuming that was wood. I found this creature curious; it was large and had arms shaped like branches. I didn't bother to find out what this thing did; after all, I wasn't here to know how these creatures attacked and defended themselves; I was only here for its abilities. Without wasting any time, I launched myself at this creature; I used 'wind shear' and split it in half; and curiously, it didn't die; instead, what seemed to be its hands shot out like some sort of projectiles in all directions. This thing's attack was very fast; it grew its branches at an overwhelming speed; thanks to that, the creature was able to stab me in the left side.
"Interesting; I got it, despite being basically undetectable."
- THAT CREATURE IS AN INTELLIGENT BEING; IT SEEMS TO HAVE EXPERIENCE DEALING WITH INVISIBLE CREATURES.
Without wasting any time, and almost instantly, I launched fifty wind slashes at the creature; I smashed it to pieces in an instant; what had previously looked like a perfectly good tree now looked like pieces of wood lying on the ground; the imposing figure of the creature could no longer be seen anywhere.
"Work ends-".
- HE'S STILL ALIVE.
"Are you serious?"
The creature, despite being reduced to fragments, was still alive; this surprised me greatly; the creature's vitality was impressive. Seeing such vitality, my desire to obtain the creature's power grew greater with each passing second.
"No one had survived so many wind cuts; you are the first creature to achieve such a feat; you have my respect."
Without wasting any time, I applied 'move' to all the fragments of the creature; as if by magic, the fragments flew out and gathered together to form a kind of circular ball. Once it had acquired that shape, I brought it closer with my thought and placed my hands on the wood. As I placed my hand on the creature, I could feel its vitality; it was more than clear that the creature was still alive; it had just lost its shape.
"What a resilient being you are; you refuse to die even after being reduced to tiny fragments of wood."
Once my hand came into contact with the wood, with a single thought I sent the fragments of the beast, which was still alive, into the bucket. Whether the beast was still alive or not, that didn't matter; after all, I could draw out its abilities even if it was still alive; but one thing I was sure of: it would be painful for the creature.
"With the strength that beast displayed, it must definitely possess good skill."
- THE ODDS ARE HIGH.
"Let's go for the next one."
So I kept looking for more beasts; I had identified multiple beasts, but most of them didn't catch my attention; they seemed too weak, and the reality was that I didn't want to have weak skills in my arsenal; I was only interested in skills that could hurt me or my enemies; that was the standard I was working with; if the skill wasn't useful or wasn't capable of even endangering me, then it was of no use to me; I was being very detailed when taking the skills; my targets were the strongest beasts in the area; the problem was that I didn't know exactly where they had gone to sleep; I had in mind some skills that I definitely wanted to have in my arsenal, but so far the beasts in question hadn't shown up.
After an hour of traversing the forest, I finally stumbled upon something that looked like it was worth obtaining; it was some sort of praying mantis, only this one was a giant version, and its body seemed to be glowing in the darkness a light green. From afar I could see that the beast exuded confidence; it was as if it wasn't afraid of any living thing. I soon discovered where it got that confidence from; I could see how this mantis was tearing apart the creature in front of it with its blades; what caught my attention about those movements was that they resembled my 'wind cut' skill, with the only difference being that my 'wind cut' was 100% mana, and the creature's attack was entirely physical; it was more than clear that the blades on that thing's legs were extremely sharp; the creature itself was imposing, but the blades on that thing's legs were a little scary; if by pure chance I were to let it attack me with those legs, I would be cut in half without a doubt. Without giving the creature a break, I approached it, and when I was close enough, I launched a single attack:
"Die; wind cut."
Once I was positioned behind the creature's back, I delivered a powerful 'wind slash' at it; I recited the attack out loud so the creature could hear me, and it did. By the time it turned around to face me, it was too late for the creature; I could see its corpse slowly falling to the ground, its head falling away from where its body lay.
"How easy; this beast didn't put up a fight."
- BE CAREFUL; SHE'S STILL ALIVE.
The beast, which I thought I had knocked down and killed, got up after a few seconds as if nothing had happened; despite not having a head, its body was still moving as if nothing had happened; I could see how the creature was now attacking the void; it was more than clear that it couldn't sense me, and of course I wasn't going to get in range of its attack. I kept watching it for a while, and then decided to give it the finishing blow; I made a huge hole in the giant mantis' chest using an 'energy beam'; after a while it stopped moving, and without wasting any time I put the corpse of the praying mantis into the bucket; all that was left in the area was the blood that the beast had spilled.
"It's hard to tell what abilities each beast I kill has; maybe I should just let them attack me with everything they've got, and see if they're worth killing."
- I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT.
"I was just saying; I know it's not advisable."
The beast hunt was proving to be very easy; they weren't putting up a fight; they were easily outmatched by my skills; from a certain point of view it was obvious that this would happen; after all, I had a formidable arsenal of skills that I could use at any time I wanted. One thing to keep in mind was that I didn't get tired from using the skills; after all, they were being channeled into the black cube. After putting the beast into the cube, I continued to wander around the area in search of new creatures; I continued to move stealthily in search of creatures that fit my standard. In this way I spent the whole night searching and hunting beasts without stopping; I could see that the sun was beginning to rise on the horizon; I had lost track of time while searching and hunting the beasts.
"It's dawning; it's time to return to the mansion; I've taken enough beast samples."
- THERE ARE STILL SOME RARE BEASTS IN THE AREA.
"Ha; don't let greed get the better of you, D; I see your evolution is progressing."
- THANK YOU.
"Hahahahahahahaha".
Without a doubt, D was evolving at an alarming speed, and I was more than surprised by this progress; I could now speak to him face to face, and he was no longer as formal as before; he no longer resembled a machine, although deep down I knew he was still one; the changes he was undergoing were not bad; in fact, they were very good; after all, D's abilities were increasing as time went by; seeing his evolution filled me with happiness, so I decided to indulge this whim.
"Okay, let's do it."
- UNDERSTOOD.
In this way, I continued the hunt and ventured deep into the forest in search of the most powerful beings that inhabited it. My goal was more than clear: I was going to kill the strongest and most lethal creatures there were, regardless of the species or age they were; all of them would fall victim to my cuts. All of this I was doing was in order to deceive my enemies; I wanted to deceive those people who believed that they could kill the elf girl easily. The guy I had fought before, the person from whom I snatched that dark and ominous power, had witnessed my abilities firsthand and had been able to deduce how much energy I possessed; I was more than sure that they would come up with countermeasures to deal with me; I knew that they had the capabilities to deal with me; after all, they had creatures that normally should not exist in this world; that was why I was gathering as many skills as possible; I would give those people the surprise of their lives when they saw the arsenal of skills I possessed. They would have no choice but to tuck their tails between their legs and get away; but the reality was that I wasn't going to let any of them escape alive; their fates would be sealed the moment they reached that mansion; I would be in charge of sealing those fates.
"Besides, I can't die yet; there are three guys I have to kill no matter what; everything bad that's happened to me is because of them; just wait for me, you bastards; I still haven't forgotten what they did to me."