It took about seven minutes of running for me to get to the woods. I didn’t enter right away though, I just listened in front of the trees. But I couldn't hear anything. It was dead silent.

I took my earthen dagger from its leather pouch. I didn’t have a sheath for it, so I had to make do with this. I stuffed the leather pouch in my back pocket and headed into the woods.

I did some research before coming here, so I sort of knew what to expect.

Since this was just a small land of woods compared to the vastness of the lunar mountains the beasts that reside here weren't as strong. Spanning from the iron to bronze class.

The rankings of mana beasts, weakest to strongest are as follows,

Iron Class

Bronze Class

Silver Class

Double Silver Class

Gold Class

Double Gold Class

Diamond Class

Platinum Class

As far as I know, the ranking for adventurers is set up like this as well. However, beasts are innately stronger than humans. For example, it takes two silver rank adventurers to kill one silver class beast. This number can vary depending on the two party’s strength. Well, that’s what the books said anyway…

I kept this in mind as I dashed through the forest. About fifteen minutes went by and I didn’t see any beasts. I was getting annoyed so I started breaking branches to make noise. I made sure the snaps and breaking of the wood branches echoed through the forest.

I had never been here before, but I could tell something was a little off. There were only faint sounds of owls and bats, but nothing more than that. My purposeful sounds seemed to draw little-to-no attention.

I could hear a couple of owls around me, but I felt the birds were just curious about what I was.

I just ignored them and was about to continue my run deeper into the woods, but I heard a slight screech noise coming from the top of the trees, causing me to stop in my tracks.

The shake of the branches told me something was up there. I waited a couple of seconds but it stayed quiet, not even the owls' normal hoots were audible.

Despite my outward calmness, I couldn’t shake the light feeling of apprehensiveness in the back of my mind. Because of this, I kept my gaze on the tree, not moving a muscle.

That’s when I saw it.

The dark topaz glow of its eyes; well four eyes to be exact.

Its piercing gaze and killing intent could only be described as predatory. I couldn’t tell what the beast was, but I could tell it was strong.

I kept my eyes glued to it, as it descended down the tall tree. Its body was like a long black shadow swirling down the tree in a spiral.

When it reached the ground its four-eyed gaze pierced me once again. I backed into the moonlight, unblocked the tall trees. I did this so I could see what kind of monster I was dealing with. As expected, the beast followed me.

When it reached the moonlight my jaw slackened at the sight.

It was a Two-Headed serpent. It's dark black scales only added to its intimidating appearance. Its long body diverged at the top making a ‘Y’ shape to support its two heads.

Its two heads wiggle and hissed, both of their gazes fixed on me.

This beast was in fact in the books I’ve read. Although it was much larger than I’d imagined, it was labeled as an iron-class beast. It was a solitary beast known for using wind magic to silence its movements and kill its prey without them noticing.

As it moved, the environment around it didn’t make a sound. Not even the grass rustled in its presence.

I couldn't rely on my hearing if I fought the beast. I would have to follow it carefully with my eyes because once I lost sight of it. It could attack from any angle without me hearing a thing.

I kept my gaze on the serpent, as it did the same. It didn’t seem to attack right away though. Instead, it just looked at me like it was making up its mind to eat me or not.

Was it so used to sneaking up on its prey it didn’t know what to do in this situation?

From what I could tell, that's exactly what I looked like.

Finally, its eyes narrowed as it let out a loud hiss as if to scare me. The two heads brandished sharp fangs that would scare anyone my age shitless.

I gripped my dagger near my chest, ready for any attack the beast threw at me.

The serpent lowered its head and bolted towards me. As if on instinct I enhanced my body and dagger with mana. I kept my gaze on the beast, its silent movements not matching the scenery. Once it reached me, both of its heads snapped out, in an attempt to bite me whole.

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But I already side-stepped to counter. I slashed my dagger at one of its necks, Inflicting a deep cut. Both of its heads let out a screech of pain.

So they both feel the same pain. The book didn’t mention this so it was good to know.

I continued slashing at the serpent, I only got two more slashes in before It shifted its weight, whipping its tail at me.

I ducked to the ground, bearly dodging its slashing tail.

The beast shifted its weight again, turning towards me. The head that I managed to get some attacks on opened its mouth wide, attempting to bite me down once again.

Even though my body was more fit than it used to be, I was still a child. My stamina was not where I would like it to be, so I was sluggish recovering from dodging its tail. I barely had time to up my dagger. But when I did, its sharp fangs were already near my face.

I broke a cold sweat, putting all my strength in my legs, and jumped backwards. The monster chomped down, missing me by a hair.

I landed flat on my back about six meters away from the serpent. It seemed to have grown aggravated at my weaving and dodging because it charged at me again, faster than ever.

As I watched the serpent charge towards me, time seemed so slow.

I was already worn down. Even if I could get up and continue fighting I would just end up in the same situation.

In the end, I only had one option left, and I wasn’t 100% sure it would work.

Even so, I tried it anyway.

I began to coalesce all the mana I could gather from my core into my dagger. My mana core ached from the taxing usage, but I didn’t stop.

Not until my dagger gave off a light green glow. A green glow that could only have been wind attribute mana.

I had finally been able to enhance my dagger with an element. Like my sister, I would also practice stuff in my free time, but I had never succeeded. Well until tonight that is.

Without delay, I slashed the air. My dagger released a blade of wind that glided through the air like a green crescent moon.

When the blade of wind reached the serpent it cut the head I damaged thus far like butter, then my attack dissipated.

“Thank god that worked,” I mumbled to myself, as I watched the remaining head let out a serpentine cry so loud I wouldn’t have been surprised if the townspeople heard it.

I attempted to enhance my dagger once again to finally kill the beast off. But my mana core ached again, the pain ten times more evident. Even so I tried to bear through it. I continued to push mana into my dagger as blood trickled down my nose and corners of my lips.

But alas, fate was not so kind…

My earthen dagger; the one my father had told me would not crumble from enchantment, shriveled to dirt in my palm.

I let out a frustrated sigh, “Dammit Melvin, are you trying to get me killed!?”

I threw the clump of dirt in my hand on the ground and glanced back at the serpent. It seemed it was still in pain from its cries, so I used the time to make my escape.

I got up trying to run away, but due to my overtaxed body and my worn-out legs it looked more like a waddle.

“‘It won’t break from mana enhancement’ my ass.” I cursed, as I continued running.

It didn’t seem like I was getting any further away though.

My aching legs and mana core made my body more sluggish than it already was. If it wasn’t for my desire to live I would have given up long ago.

I could still hear the serpent wailing from pain, so I knew I had a little more time.

But my positive mindset all but vanished when “it” stopped…

I quickly turned around, fearful that the serpent was already charging at me. To my horror, it was.

Its remaining head looked at me with a burning bloodlust. It had no concern over the trail of crimson it left behind, made from its own blood.

My body was not in any condition to fight, my legs were on the verge of giving out and my mana core was overtaxed.

At this realization, I felt an emotion that I hadn't felt in a long time…

Despair. True despair.

What was I supposed to do? What could I do? Would I die? Would I leave the only family I had ever grown to love behind? If so, what was left for me?

It was my choice to come here… a stupid choice…a child’s choice…

I looked at the serpent. It was still charging at me with no sign of stopping. I fell to my knees, too tired to stand any longer and stared in the direction of my soon-to-be killer.

At that moment, time seemed so foreign. Fate seemed to savor my last moment of despair because it was doubtful I would get a third life. No one is that lucky.

The serpent's fanged mouth was only a couple of feet away from my head, ready to bite me down

My vision was interrupted though as an orange figure blurred across my vision tackling the serpent.

“What the hell was that?”

I quickly turned to where it tackled the serpent and looked in awe at the sight.

The serpent was dead. Its remaining head was crushed by the figure’s jaw. The serpent's blood and internal organs were everywhere. I was hardly able to hold back my urge to puke. If it wasn’t for my past life experiences I probably would have.

The “orange figure” seemed to be a small four-legged beast of some sort, but I couldn’t make out exactly what due to the dim moonlight and blood covering its face.

The beast turned its gaze towards me. Its magenta eyes looked at me long and curiously; like it was looking for something.

Its eyes carried an intelligence that I had never seen in an animal. In this life or my former.

The beast walked towards me. As it got closer I could make out what it actually was. This shocked me even more because this beast species was only found deep in the Lunar Mountains, along with dragons, dryads, phoenixes, and other majestic mana beasts like that.

It was the cub of a titan tiger. They were called such because apparently, they were the height of dragons on all fours.

But the beast in front of me couldn’t have been bigger than an alleyway street cat. It looked exactly as the books described titan tigers so it couldn’t have been anything else.

Did the cub need time to grow?

Despite my situation, I couldn’t help but be amused. For some reason though, I didn’t feel like the cub was trying to kill me. If it was, I would already be dead.

When it finally reached me. The cub sat down in front of me and wagged its tail.

I stared stupefied at the feline.

This cub was able to take out an iron class beast with its jaw and it just wagged its tail and gave a toothy grin like it was my long-lost pet. I let out a nervous laugh, “Thanks for saving me…I guess..?”

I didn’t really know what to do. I had no cat food to offer him for his services. But he seemed to like my “thank you” because the cub's tail wagged even faster.

I reached my hand out to pet the tiger. The cub looked at my hand and copied my movements sticking out its paw. I played along and let its paw touch my palm. We stayed like this for a moment. Then out of nowhere the cub released its claws and scratched my palm.

“What the hell was that for you damn demon!?” I yanked my now bloody hand back, “Are you bipolar or someth-”

I didn't even get to finish my sentence as I was interrupted by the bright light that radiated around the tiger cub. As seconds flew by, the light only got brighter and brighter showing every nook and cranny of the woods. I squinted my eyes, not able to bear the light any longer. I only had to do this for a split second though because the light disappeared.

It took a moment for my eyes to adjust back to the darkness but when they did I instantly checked my surroundings for the cub, but it was nowhere to be found. “Where the hell did it go? And what the hell was that?”

I continued to look around for the cub, but all my questions and searching soon became irrelevant to the pain that invaded my body. I fell on my back lying on the patchy grass of the woods, screaming in agony.

It felt like my mana core had turned into molten lava and was burning me from the inside out. My mind, though, felt like it was going to explode from the maelstrom of foreign emotions and memories ingraining themselves in my mind like a brand.

Memories that were not my own...