Two days ago, late at night.
Very deep within the mountain forest outside the Darkblood Academy.
*ROAR!*
The angry roar of a beast echoed out.
All the other beasts in the forest trembled in fear as they all lowered their bodies in submission.
*ROOOAAAR!*
The anger in the roar of the beast did not seem diminished at all and seemed to even intensify.
*Boom!* *Boom!*
The sound of trees falling accompanied the loud stomping of the beast.
Suddenly a black shadow slithered out with great speed.
It was a pitch-black snake about two meters long.
The black scales of the snake seemed to be dyed in blood. And it was clear from the deep gashes along its body that the blood was its own.
It slithered forward but suddenly it came to a stop as it collided with some sort of barrier.
Looking forward, the black night eyes of the snake that seems to contain various stars noticed the space in front of it flicker with a red light.
It suddenly opened its mouth wide, and a black light shone from within.
Five breaths later, it closed its mouth and moved forward. This time its body moved unobstructed.
This scene didn't escape the eyes of three beasts in the vicinity, but hearing the booming sound that increased every second, they quickly lowered their heads in fear.
Less than ten breaths later, a massive shadow collided with the barrier, causing a booming sound to resound within the forest.
The barrier flickered with a red light but remained.
*ROAR!*
*Boom*
Intermingling with the angry roars of the beast was the booming sound resulting from the collision between the beast's body and the barrier.
"My my!"
Light footsteps resounded.
On the other side of the barrier, from the shadow of the forest, an old man with a walking stick walked out.
Sensing the presence of the old man, the angry beast suddenly went still.
"What stirred you up to this extent?" The old man asked with a light smile.
Silence.
He didn't seem to mind the silence and instead lightly squinted his eyes, with the same smile still plastered on his wrinkled face:
"Scram!"
The massive shadow which had been acting so domineering in its anger didn't even take a moment as it turned around and scurried off in fear.
Contrary to before, its steps were fast but light.
Seeing the shadow disappear deeper into the forest, the old man looked with indifference at the other three beasts in the vicinity which were lying flat on the ground.
He only spared them a glance before he shifted his attention to the barrier.
After a short while, he confirmed there was nothing wrong with the barrier.
Turning around, the old man whispered:
"What had gotten the little guy so riled up? He is usually so quiet and obedient."
Thinking of something, the old man released his divine sense.
Surprisingly his divine sense easily covered the entire side of the mountain forest separated by the barrier, which spanned over a hundred thousand kilometers.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
......
Deep within the forest, a pitch-black snake hung on top of a branch, with its eyes closed and its body covered in blood.
Sensing something, the eyes of the snake snapped open at the same time it was covered in the spiritual sense of the old man.
The spiritual wave stopped for a moment, but suddenly the eyes of the snake seemed to flicker with the light of a myriad of stars.
A moment later, the spiritual wave continued, causing the snake to close its eyes once more.
.....
After taking two minutes to investigate the forest, the old man rubbed his black beard.
"There doesn't seem to be anything wrong!" he whispered.
Looking at the faraway academy, he murmured under his breath:
"I better check the new student that girl Evangeline has been disturbing me about."
His body merged into the darkness of the forest and he disappeared soon after.
.....
Back to the present.
All the students upon entering the forest encountered a common beast.
It was a white rabbit. But it was bigger and looked more scary than normal.
The rabbits turned and scurried away when they felt the aura of some of the formidable students like Arianne and the outstanding five.
The case was different for Arlo however.
The rabbit upon sensing his presence stopped to observe him for a moment.
Feeling no presence of mana around Arlo, the rabbit suddenly growled before it jumped toward Arlo.
Arlo looked at the lunging rabbit indifferently and merely raised his palm.
*Zing!*
A ball-sized orb suddenly appeared as it rotated at great speed.
Before the rabbit could react, Arlo launched the orb forward, and in a second, it blasted the rabbit into meat paste.
Arlo quickly backed away to avoid the blood from sprinkling on him.
After all, unlike others, he couldn't use mana so he couldn't use the special function of their uniform.
Closing his eyes, Arlo thought for a moment and made his decision.
He still remembered the reward Evangeline had given him at the end of the ranking war.
She had directly transferred the first part of Dirty martial arts into his mind.
He had already gone through the art, and unlike before his interest was truly kindled.
The first part of dirty martial arts involved using every part of the body as a weapon. But that wasn't all. It also included attacking parts of the pressure points of a humanoid organism.
That is right!
Dirty martial arts was a fighting technique that targeted the pressure points of opponents.
It was unique, and if it wasn't for its name, Arlo would have believed it was truly the best martial art in existence.
Not only did Arlo plan on practicing his martial arts, but he also planned on practicing with Anita's powers.
He hadn't had any opportunity until now.
.....
In the evening.
The sun was already setting, as it released its last fiery light to illuminate the world.
Arlo crept slowly as he watched a massive Gorilla that was feasting on the entrails of an antelope-like beast.
The Gorilla kind of reminded him of the Torkun beast he had encountered a short while after coming into this world.
The only difference was that this beast was far bigger, standing at least 10m tall.
Another difference was that its fur was black.
Arlo contemplated for a while as he continued to observe the beast.
Judging from the aura around the beast, it was comparable to a mid-level advanced mage. After finding out that he hadn't truly broken into the one-star stage, Arlo wasn't so sure if he could defeat such a beast.
*Whoosh*
Suddenly a shadow pounced at him from behind.
Arlo caught a glimpse of the shadow and was surprised.
The shadow was a rabbit, but Arlo hadn't seen such a beast since he headed deeper into the forest.
Sure enough, this rabbit was different from the previous ones.
While its fur was still white, it was huge and had a height of at least 6m. Also, its eyes were Scarlett red.
Arlo didn't know whether it had targeted him because he had killed a lot of its kind, after all, there was a much scarier being a few distance from them, so it shouldn't have acted so recklessly.
Caught off-guard, all Arlo could do was raise his left arm to prevent the massive rabbit from biting his head off.
*Crunch!*
The rabbit's fangs bit into Arlo's arm while the sound of bone breaking resounded.
Arlo's face twisted from pain, as he gritted his teeth to the point they almost bled to prevent a painful cry from escaping.
Before the rabbit could apply more force into its jaws, a ringing sound drifted into its ears and before it could react, a ball-size orb released from Arlo's right hand blasted it away.
Arlo quickly got back to his feet as he noticed he couldn't hear the sound of eating from behind him anymore.
'Shit!*
The rabbit got back to its feet and glared at Arlo.
Seeing that his orb didn't cause any substantial damage and just barely drew blood from the beast's fur, Arlo's face turned grave.
*Whoosh*
A massive shadow suddenly loomed over Arlo.
Quickly raising his head, Arlo's face turned pale and he couldn't help but curse.
'Fuck!'
The gorilla had jumped high into the air, and with its hands now clenched together, it was falling above him.
Arlo wanted to move but before he could react, thick black roots suddenly rose from the ground around him and held his hands and legs in place.
Seeing the looming shadow grow bigger below him, Arlo caught a glimpse of the previous rabbit retreating a safe distance, but it didn't leave.
Arlo racked his brain on how to survive this ordeal.
But what he didn't know was that there was a much scarier beast than even the Gorilla who was gazing at everything that was happening.
Its eyes flashed with intelligence, and its size was about 30m.
It was one of the three beasts that were lying down in fear due to the presence of the terrifying creature.
After the old man left, and seeing that no one noticed the gap that was now present in the barrier, the three beasts hesitated for a great while before they finally fell to the temptation of evolving into a much greater beast.
They had noticed the pitch-black snake was special and even if it was strong, it was gravely injured and looked to be on its last legs.
Under the allure of consuming a much greater beast and evolving, the three beasts passed through the gap in the barrier and entered the outermost region of the mountain forest.
*****
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