Money doesn’t grow on trees, but if you’re a ninth rank mage, it does get thrown at you. All Ethan had to in his past life was walk into a city and nobles from all over would shower him with gold.

However in this one, he had yet to regain even a drop of mana, let alone built up his circuit. He was a rank 0 mage, so pretty much a nobody. Of course, this didn’t deter him from going into the mountains alone to hunt mana beasts.

His weapons of choice were a kitchen knife and a bowl. His opponents were creatures, which after being exposed to ambient mana, managed to build mana circuits within their bodies and achieve monstrous strength.

Nonetheless, Ethan didn’t let facts bring down his mood. In his past reincarnation he might have sucked at most things, but there was one field where he excelled: murder. Having sported the highest kill count of his generation, the mage had numerous tricks which he could use in this situation.

Instead of searching for prey, he first gathered herbs. Ethan could make poison out of dandelions let alone from the mana imbued plants he found on these mountains. After smashing them together, a thick purple paste, which reeked of death, had coalesced in his bowl. He then used the knife to carve a small spear out of a branch.

Finally, he dipped the tip in poison and prepared for combat. If someone would have stumbled over the skinny youth with his bowl of goo in one hand and a sharpened stick in the other, they may have mistaken him for a goblin.

As fate would have it, someone did find him soon enough. While he was passing a particularly large tree, a deep below was heard from behind followed by the appearance of a giant bear. Though it was walking on all four legs, the creature was as tall as a human, and its claws were longer than a grown man’s palm.

‘A rank one beast.’

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Ethan had miscalculated. Using his sixth sense, he was confident in picking up the forest’s beasts and avoiding the strong ones. However, there was so much mana imbued into this place that it was impossible to tell monsters apart.

The bear in front of him could probably kill 10 grown men without breaking a sweat let alone a scrawny teenager. Even so, the mage felt no fear in front of his opponent. He couldn’t help comparing it to his past enemies, so in his mind it looked almost cute.

Suddenly, the bear charged towards Ethan knocking down the large tree on its way. Feeling the earth shake beneath his feet and looking at his bony arm that was holding a mere kitchen knife was fortunately enough to bring the boy back to reality.

“Shit!”

In a panic, he threw the spear and ran for dear life. Only after putting sufficient trees behind him and the beast, did he finally built up the courage to look behind his shoulder. Several dozen feet away, the bear lay dead with a stick poking out of its eye.

“...Not bad.” Thanks this unexpected victory, Ethan immediately relaxed. His body was indeed weak, but his aim remained true.

“Roar!” While the former mage was pumping himself up, a slightly bigger bear had appeared behind the last one. After sniffing its spouse, it charged towards the human in a murderous rage.

However, Ethan had regained his composure and was now unfazed by the monster. ‘Is it the mother?’ he wondered. ‘Maybe the husband?’

When the bear was 10 feet away, he threw the bowl towards its eyes and hid behind a tree. As expected, an ear piercing roar was heard followed by the sound of wood being slashed to pieces. The blinded monster stopped in its tracks and was swinging its paws at random.

Unfortunately, the more it struggled in pain, the more poison ended up slipping down its face and into its maw. As a result, roars turned into whimpers, and soon, even those disappeared. With a nonchalant expression, Ethan walked towards the bear and grabbed its paw.

“The hell?”

Realizing he was no longer strong enough to drag a several ton monster, the teen sighed miserably. To get paid by the Alchemist Association, he would now have no choice but to gut the monsters and take out their mana cores which had likely coalesced after their deaths. Not only would he not get paid for the fur, meat, and bones, but he would have to cut his way through blood and shit filled intestines as well.

“Ethan Masalis, how have you fallen…” While holding his breath in vain, the former rank nine mage got to work.