'Hah, finally I shall have some fresh air.'

Arvad finally climbed up the abyss, and dug out his sword along the way. Carefully inspecting the vicinity, he climbed up.

Huff! Huff!

His chest heaved up and down as he breathed heavily. Despite taking rest several times on the way, the climb took a heavy toll on his tired body. He had already walked for a considerable distance with Roy, not to mention it was already midnight by the time he climbed up.

The analgesic effect of the herb had already faded away due to the constant use of shoulders. They ached so bad that Arvad had to grit his teeth in an attempt to suppress the pain. He desperately needed to find a safe place, and give his body the much needed rest.

Even though he was a lot stronger than the child his age, his body was after all too frail to bear such stress. At that moment, even his willpower had crumbled by a lot.

'Oh my god.'

Arvad looked up, and to his amazement, the former peaceful forest seemed to have been hit by a tornado. The mutant dragon had basically crushed everything in its way, and the beautiful trees and flowers were nowhere to be seen, instead they were replaced by the view of utter destruction.

Fearing that powerful beast might be lurking around the vicinity, he quickly started running towards the outer region of the forest.

Arvad's pace was comparatively slower than the day since the visibility at night was almost zero. The Siara Continent did not have a moon for some strange reason, so the nights were unusually darker, and the stars stood out more prominently.

The forest buzzed with insects or unknown creatures, and despite the night, it appeared more alive than ever.

The teachers always used to tell him that nature gave subtle clues for even the slightest change. You just needed the eyes to understand it. Arvad also heard that the Great Sage could predict the age of a tree by studying its wood.

He found a branch to rest and collect his thoughts before moving on. The signs of that Umbra girl and mutated dragon could no longer be seen anymore, so he relaxed. However, this did not mean he could mess around. They were just one of the many dangers in the forest.

Grrr!

Arvad put his hand around his stomach as it rumbled in protest. 'I should have eaten when I had the chance,' he thought.

Thinking about all the meat he had left back at the abyss, he somehow regretted it. At that time, he was so scared by the thought of encountering that Umbra girl that he did not even think about eating.

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Looking around, Arvad could find nothing but darkness, and the occasional sound of shadows.

The giant trees cast a web above his head, and each branch was hundreds of meters high, so it was impossible to even consider climbing up to pluck the fruits.

'I should drop the dream of a meal, and find a way to rest or my strength would drop drastically.'

Arvad sighed and prepared to continue his search when two dark yellow eyes stared at him into the distance. He was startled and his heart started beating chaotically.

Standing up quickly, he drew out his sword and looked at the silhouette warily.

As if afraid by Arvad's sudden move, it quickly started to run towards the different direction.

Due to that, Arvad saw a glimpse of his body, and he immediately became excited.

'It's a wild demonic beast. Looks like heaven finally pitied me.'

Wild demonic beasts were very weak compared to Grade 9 beasts. So weak that they were not even worthy to enter into the classification. They had no affinity for mana, and they were basically all muscles and instinct.

The stats made their place at the end of the food chain pretty obvious. Despite that, they could not be underestimated since they had the power of few grown men, and defeating them was no simple task for a novice.

"I am not letting you go."

Countless hunters around the nearby towns had succumbed to wild demonic beast throughout the centuries, and they are feared by all mortals.

Smitten with extreme hunger, Arvad started chasing the wild beast like a madman. In the extreme darkness, he just left himself on his senses. Even though the wild demonic beast was not that fast, it was still difficult to outrun it since Arvad was tired.

After running for a long time, Arvad could not count how much trees he had crossed. He knew if it continued, he would fail. Suddenly, looking at the beast core in his hand, he had a realization.

'It must be the beast core which dettered this beast, otherwise it would not be scared of me.'

Arvad patted his head as if he could not believe his own stupidity to not think of it earlier. "Since it's like this, I should take advantage of it."

Grabbing the beast core tightly, he threw it ahead of the closely running beast. It flew in a parabola shape, and fell a little away from that beast.

As if it had met a terrifying enemy, the beast quickly used the friction of the ground to stop, and started to run back at him.

Arvad took a battle stance, and glanced at the incoming beast with full concentration. Even though the beast was scared silly and left with no battle sense, its five meter large body, and sharp fangs were enough to shred his body into pieces.

The beast looked at Arvad, and breathed heavily as if he was angered by the fact that he ran away all the while from such a weak insect.

Roar!

With a roar it carried its large body and aggressively rushed towards Arvad.

'This is bad.' Arvad clenched his hands tightly, and waited for the beast to come closer. Looking at his dark yellow eyes which seemed to be filled with rage, he drew his breath and prepared for the most basic sword move.

Just as the beast was about to slam his tough head, Arvad moved a little through some mysterious footwork, narrowly avoiding the claws that were about to nab him down.

At the same time, he cleanly swung his sword towards one of the four legs of the beast.

There was no magic in his attack, just raw power. Despite that, his sword seemed to be in harmony with the laws of the world, and it made a beautiful arch before landing on the beast leg.

Roarrrrr!

A loud shrill of agony left the beast's mouth as his entire body screeched against the ground, and it landed not far away.

A large piece of leg flew in the air, and a shower of blood fell on Arvad's mask. There was no trace of emotions in his dark gray eyes as he quickly turned around to look at the beast which appeared to be in boundless pain.

"You were weaker than I thought." When Arvad was about to rush forward, he noticed a much giant silhouette before the injured. It bore a close resemblance to the bull he had just injured.

'Shit, you called your mother, you clever bastard.'

Gazing at the beast's leg not far away, he drooled and quickly ran forward to grab it.

Looking at the raging mother beast, there was only one thought in his mind.

'I need to fucking run.'