When Stebs Soot left I felt that I had enough social interaction to be able to fight for the next week. I needed to hunt quite a lot according to my training plan and luckily thanks to Stebs Soot I had an area rich with targets.

The goblins had ranged quite far looking for other goblin tribes, but they didn't find anyone close by that they could reach. Beasts and monsters were growing in strength and some areas had become unpassable.

Their current biggest problem was towards the north in the swampland where the dungeon was where they used to go to prove that they were adults. The swamps were infested with fire salamanders. It was good to know that they weren’t the dungeon monsters so perhaps I had enough time to clear the dungeon before it broke.

The beasts instead were an evolution of a beast that had always inhabited this swamp. The problem was that they were growing too strong and were breeding faster than nature around them could support.

The goblins suspected that there were plenty of fire salamanders that had reached the first tier as quite a lot of weaker fire salamanders were slowly pushing out of the swamp looking for their own areas to claim. I was going to be able to help the goblins defend their border and hopefully gain some levels. I put my gear back on and headed towards the swamp.

While using my movement ability to run I was able to make quite a lot of progress. I was once again mapping a new area and I constantly had to fight an urge to go and look at interesting finds. Even before I reached the swamp, I ran into a few weak fire salamanders. It seems that the creatures were intelligent enough not to try to burn down the forest and they seem to either be in small groups of up to five but mostly they were alone.

I needed to intimidate them before they were willing to use their fire in this environment. Fighting once again I was able to get another salamander to use its fire. This one was stronger almost silver tier. Letting the fire hit me while using my defensive abilities I was able to level up my fire resistance abilities. They seem to have a limited amount of this fire and when it was finally out, I quickly cut off its head killing the fire salamander instantly.

It didn’t have a monster core meaning that it was a beast. None have had cores. This will make this hunt a lot less profitable but also a bit safer. I wanted to thin out the numbers more, but I just needed to push further in to find actual opponents.

When I reached the river that separated this side of the forest and the swamp, I took a moment to admire the contrasting views. On the forest side, there was a vibrant green but on the swamp side that was a darker yellow green yet there were bright spots of colour.

The colour came from small plants or insects. Even before I cross the river some of the insects started to move towards me. The only thing that I had to do was strengthen my energy field that I use to keep out mosquitoes. I walked along the river until I found a place that I could jump across. During that time, I had to fight two fire salamanders who swam across the river to try to kill me.

It seemed a little out of character, but they seemed starved. I’m guessing that there are so many in the swamp now that there isn’t much left to eat. I wonder if they have already turned to cannibalism. When I finally set my feet onto the swamp land I knew that I was going to hate my stay here. If I stepped incorrectly half my boot was submerged in the mud and water. I expected this to get worse the deeper in I went.

I have had some experience with swamps but nothing extensive. It was going to be a learning experience and I was just going to have to accept fighting with the environment as much as the monsters in it. I continued in the general direction that the dungeon was supposed to be in. The only creatures that I ran into that were larger than a rat were the fire salamanders. They had completely taken over this environment and I could already see the signs of an ecological collapse.

After a full day of travelling, I finally reached deep enough into the swamp that the salamander started to be in a solid silver tier or slightly above. The next morning while going around a large enough body of water that I would call it the lake the water next to me burst and a huge fire salamander attacked out of the water like a crocodile. Using my movement ability, I quickly got clear, but it didn't stop and continued to come after me.

It was at the higher end of silver tier, but it was way too big and had a few unorthodox evolutions that I hadn’t seen before on any of the other fire salamanders. This wasn’t a beast but a monster. That fact was demonstrated the next moment when it didn't hesitate to use fire. I tried to dodge but it was able to control its fire so that it would follow me.

My options were to either jump into the water which didn’t seem the best of choices or to rush the monster hopefully killing it quickly. My two-handed sword landed on the usual spot just behind the head, but its scales rippled and energy covered them. It was able to save its life, but it still received a bad wound as just before the hit I was able to power up my attack more than I originally intended.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

I jumped over the beast and let its own fire hit it. Its fire didn’t do anything to it, but it did distract it for a moment giving me a chance to turn around and move in for a properly powered-up strike and take its head clean off.

It was the first fight that I wasn’t able to finish in one strike. That was a good thing as it meant I was reaching a more difficult area. The monster core had a fire element seed in it which I didn’t take as I already had one.

I stored the core but the next time I was going to have to go hunting I needed to find the proper adventurers pack so I wouldn’t let so many resources go to waste. The skin of the beast would probably be quite useful, but I simply didn’t have the extra room to store it. While technically I could store it for now, I was going to find a better one to keep.

I continued to push forward but now I use a bit more energy in my fight to finish them as quickly as possible. My class levels had barely moved and after a few calculations, the number of silver-tier beasts that I needed to kill was staggering. About 600 silver ranks to level up. In my time here I had only killed about 50. If I was able to fight first-tier monsters, I would most likely have a few level-ups.

After another two days of travel, I was finally able to sleep. I found a particularly large tree and slept on one of its branches. When I woke up I found that two salamanders had also decided to rest underneath the tree. I quickly ended their lives and cooked myself some salamander steak which I was quite tired of. Only a few of the fire salamanders still had the ability to detach their tail, most used it as a whip-like weapon instead.

Towards the end of the day, I finally found a first-tier fire salamander. This one was a monster and quite a big one. The trail was quite easy to follow as it was almost the size of a school bus. When I finally had a visual on it, I could see plumes of fire periodically erupt from its scales. It seems that its main source of food was other fire salamanders. Its flames were strong enough to cook the beast variety of its brethren.

Using stealth, I try to catch up with it. While its movement wasn’t fast, it also wasn't slow. It was once again on the hunt to find some food, so it was a bit distracting. This helped me get close to one of its black legs without it noticing me. From my experience fighting lesser variants of this monster, I knew that they had sharp senses, so I was only going to be able to power up my sword for a brief moment.

With just one cut there was only one real target. It had quite a large artery up its leg. If I cut it the monster will be on a time limit and I will just have to survive until it’s weak enough that I can kill it safely. I took a few quick steps and jumped towards my target. When I was almost at my target I concentrated everything I had to power up my sword. My cut needed to be deep so I refined the energy for sharpness and so it will explode outwards causing a deeper cut.

I was correct about the monster being incredibly sensitive to the energy around it as almost instantly it started to react. The fire along its scale started to spread and behind it, I could sense how the scales hardened. I would need a lot of power to pierce through those scales. My surprise attack was, however, fast enough that I was able to deliver my strike and then push off its leg and to safety from the fire that now engulfed the monster.

Its roar was monstrous and made my ears hurt but I was already powering everything up. For a moment the monster stopped, and it knew that I wasn’t an easy opponent. It backed off a bit and tried to breathe fire onto me. When it opened its mouth, I started to throw knives into it. The inside of the mouth wasn’t so well protected, and I had enough time to truly make those knives to damage.

Its fire still burst out but most of it was pointed into the sky. I moved forward while preparing for the next attack. While it wasn’t impossible for the next attack to not be a tail swipe, they usually tried it. This time was no different as soon as the monster's eyes once again landed on me its back legs started to prepare for a huge tail swipe. The power of the attack was a bit lower as one of its back legs was wounded but the tail still swiped out at an incredible speed.

I however didn’t dodge. I already use a bit of my core energy to make myself weigh as much as possible. My sword was ready and at the correct moment, I struck out. My blade went straight through that tail cutting almost half of it off. The strike still rattled my bones, but my body was strong enough to handle this. There were also many arteries in the tail and as soon as I cut it off it started pumping out blood causing it to fly everywhere.

The monster let out a bellow of rage and rushed toward me. I started to back off, but it was hard to keep my footing in this environment. It seems that it had some fire manipulation as well. When it wasn’t able to catch me, it started making fireballs from its burning body and sent them flying towards me. I was glad that their accuracy wasn’t the greatest, but the volume certainly made up for it. During the next 10 minutes, I dodged and struck down as many of the fireballs as I could, but some got through.

I was able to deliver a few more flying slashes that were strong enough to cause wounds and eventually the monsters slowed enough that even its fireball aim was so off they didn't cause any more trouble. Still getting close was dangerous. It burst out its fire every time that I got close, and my armour was thoroughly singed. But I was able to land more and more hits finally ending its life.

I carved out its monster core and rested for a while. I had to level up my heat resistance abilities a few more times. I figured that when I was finally done with this hunt, I might have levelled them up quite a lot. I cleaned myself up as best as possible and after a last look at the monster’s corps, I sighed and continued onwards. So much wasted material. At least for the next time, I will better know how to prepare.