AN: Hello, your lazy author present you chapter 23 :D, enjoy!!

PR by Zenla, the royal proofreader

******************************

My protective gear, pickaxe, staff, hatchet, khukuri, bow and arrows, and backpack with a camping sheet, food, water, vials of liquids and a rope. All of this is quite heavy. Good thing I decided to start with the easy area, like all good noobs should do. And good thing I knew the enhancement magic. Once I got far enough of the village, I pulled a vial from my backpack, a vial containing a green-grey liquid. I am the son of an alchemist, a certified disciple after all.

I used several plants and flowers, grass, wood and tree bark, and extracted and concentrated their scents, their aroma. I mixed it with water in which I boiled and soaked many kinds of stones for days. The result was this liquid substance with an overpowering scent of plants, ground and trees, all for the sake of hidding my scent. My father wasn't happy with the stench in his workplace, but calmed down when I told him it was to hide from predators, my mother sneakily asked for some of it. I applied it on my body and all my equipment, and started with my exploration.

While I was collecting informtion about the area, I made myself a small map, with a main path to follow. I focused on hilly landscape and visible shear zones, places that look like small fault lines. I know that ores are generated in the crust of the planet and are often pushed toward the surface through differents means, like magma, hydrothermal water or shearing. They also accumulate in places that were once underwater through past eluvial deposits. Geology wasn't my forte, so I had quite a bit of trouble selecting the areas to search. Since there are a few mountains and plateaux in that part of Zanitras, it shouldn't be that hard to find something.

I had to move carefully since I would be focusing my mana sense on the ground and underground instead of the overground surroundings. I could differentiate things with mana in an area of around 10 meters radius, so I had to keep my eyes open, constantly looking around. Even through that, I found myself starting to hum, or even sing a few songs from my previous world. I had to correct myself several times. In my previous life I liked to listen to music when I was moving by myself, always with my headphones, even under heavy rain.

I didn't find anything noteworthy on this first day, I decided to spend the night on a tree. I just felt like singing a lot, and I wouldn't be able to keep my surroundings in check properly. I sang pieces from my previous childhood, even childrens song, songs from some old cartoons, then song from great artists, and songs from animes. It was a little past midnight when I went to sleep. It must have been because it was the first time I would spend a full day and more completly alone, just me and the nature, and a lot of memories.

The second day was almost the same. I spent most of my time scanning the ground for riches. But each time I found something, the quality was way too low to even bother. Now that I thought about it, I did train to recognise ores, but I didn't train to recognise gemstones, I won't be able to recognise emeralds, rubis and the like. I felt like an idiot at that time,thinking about what I may have missed. But at least I also got my hand on a bunch of usefull herbs. The evening was spent once again singing on a tree until I fell asleep.

-------

I suddenly woke up. It must have been 2 hours before dawn, this weird feeling I haven't felt in a while, it was the presence of a monster. A lone one, getting closer. I was completly awake, focusing all my senses on the potential threat. I was wondering if he noticed me even through the smell of the product I applied on me, or if it tracked me through the marks I left on the ground. Once it got close enough, I got an idea of what it is.

A big lizard akin to a komodo dragon, a serran. Not uncommon in the area, a nocturnal hunter which can use body magic for burst of speed, an E rank monster for the weakest, D rank for the strongest. Since it was a reptile, I thought that maybe it caught the remain of my body heat, but it's also been several hour so it was unlikely. I decided to observe it for a while.

The serran stopped near the place where I last stood, looked around and walked in a circle around it. The bastard was really following the marks I left on the ground. I had jumped on my tree using the enhancement magic, no tracks leading to it. The monster continued to slowly move in circles then stopped again. I got an idea, so I took my staff and my hatchet and jumped toward him. I was quite high on my tree, so I was building quite some speed on my way down. I cast strenght enhancement, spun to add power to my attack and threw my staff at its head.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

It struck dead on target while I caught a lower branch to stop my fall. The serran got limp and lied where it was. I dropped on the ground while casting speed enhancement, retrieved my staff. I struck its hind leg with as much speed and power as I could, breaking the bones. It flinched as I was already breaking the second hind leg. I then took little distance from it. Why does monster's mana feel so odd, so distinctive compared to other things?

Now was a good opportunity to observe the mana of a living monster. Still staying aways from him, always behind it as it tried to face me, I concentrated my mana sense on him. We stayed for a while in the same situation while I was trying to make sense of what I felt. The serran had tried to attack me or flee with the speed enhancement, but without its hind legs it couldn't do much. The way it weaved its spell was quite similar to mine.

I could now tell where its mana core was. All its magic was coming from a single place, contrary to people whose magic comes from the whole body. Strike the magic core and the monster won't be able to use magic, people don't have that kind of weak point, you have to knock them out or use some kind of seal. But I still had trouble identifying the source of the weird feeling, so I broke its front legs as well, and sat down on its back while warping my head round its neck to keep it from biting me, hitting it with my staff to calm him down. After a bit of time it stopped resisting, so I was able to focus on my mana sense with direct contact. What I felt confused me, and not just a little bit.

-------

If I wasn't making mistakes, what I felt was another element. I was taught that there were 9 elements, the 4 elements from the material sphere, the 3 from the spirit sphere, and the 2 from the divine sphere. That element was really weird, it felt unstable, making it hard to perceive. It felt like a magic element, but shouldn't be. Unless it's undiscovered, forgotten. Or forbidden, after all it mass something that was only present in monsters, it could be seen as evil.

I shouldn't tell anyone about it until I get into the library of the academy, there should be hints or even actual informations hidden there. I continued to observe the weird mana of the monster for a bit. It would be nice if I could do the same with other monsters, though it probably wouldn't be easy to catch other monsters alive like this one, it's one on the weaker side. No, I came here to look for some ores, not to capture monsters. Then again...

In my past life, we had a lot of pets, mostly dogs, a cat, and 4 grey parrots. Not all at the same time, just that they often died from illness or accidents. Few of them died from old age. Maybe because I grew up with pets in my past life, I felt like keeping this serran as a pet. At the very least I would be able to use it as a training partner for the girls, or just to show them a monster like you would show animals in a zoo. I could also spend some time observing the weird mana. I started to prepare to go back to Argot with my new friend.

******************************

AN: It wasn't what he was looking for, but he still got something interesting...

AND NO, THIS MONSTER WON'T EVOLVE AND TURN INTO A HOT GIRL WHO WILL NTR KERRINA AND MURIEM!!! :D

Eh, that makes me feel like writing a side story where Kerrina confess to Aenthar, he accept, but Muriem NTR her by using her hot ass as bait to steal Aenthar, and then she is NTR by the newly evolved and hot serran-girl... THE END!! I seriously wanted to write a short chapter about it and post it as a joke, a chapter titled "The end" XD .

But I'm lazy  and I want to use that time to finish with the village life part

But seriously, no monsters shall evolve to gain a sexy humanoide form in my story, and no objects turning into sexy girls!!