Chapter 4: Rank Up part 1

Exiting the mountain, Elias’s first objective before anything else was to test his new strength as gaining a new tail meant a boost in power to any demon fox.

Deciding where to go Elias grew to his maximum size and ran to an opening 1 kilometre away from the mountain, reaching the opening there were a few 5 meter high boulders with a blackish ore veins going through them most humans would recognise this as black iron and was a considerably good metal for normal weapons with several scratch marks showing much power was used to make these and were ranging from 2 cm deep to 6, all of these markings were once made by Elias at different points in his training.

Though the rocks were good at testing his strength, what Elias liked the most about this place was the scenery, as at the end of the opening there was a fairly high drop point from where people could see the sun setting and rising, also due to the trees separating in this area you could also see the stars in all their glory at night time.

Remembering all of the times he came to practise here and seeing himself now, Elias couldn't help but put on his usual proud expression and murmured to himself ‘I'll definitely make all those guards have a shock when they see my human form hehe’ laughing to himself as he imagined all of the guards looks when he has his human form made him both more determined and made him drool over what he would look like.

Stepping up to a new rock with no markings in at all, Elias made a big swing with his front paw showing his knife like claws and powering his paw with his Ki he made an arc like motion and in a blink of an eye his paw came down and engraved the rock with 5 7cm deep markings, which also managed to go through the lack iron veins with no trouble at all.

Looking at the scene Elias thought to himself ‘Hmm… strange I thought my power now would at least go through the entire rock with ease… but how com I hardly made any progress from before I ate them two cores?’ Soon Elias thought the coloured essence didn’t affect his strength but something else, showing a puzzled face which contradicted the noble aura he gave off he gave up on thinking about the topic.

Testing his strength, Ki, speed and his inherited skill Fox Wrath (his tail skill he used in chapter 1) multiple times gave Elias a good grasp of his new power and limitations, which made him decide to only go after C and B rank monsters as they would both test his skill and their cores would contain considerably more power than the D rank beasts he was harvesting from before.

Decreasing his body to half meter tall and 1 meter long made him look not as much of a threat that his taller size would do, but it would also give him more manoeuvrability in smaller places and gave him the ability to hide in the trees to ambush his prey.

Jumping into the trees Elias headed 10 kilometres to the south as this place held both C and B rank monsters but mainly C rank as it was the border between the 2nd and centre circle, at this point it was around midday so Elias quickly found a large branch to sleep on as most monsters were nocturnal animals so he decided that midnight was a good time to wake up.

While dreaming about his human form, as he did most nights ever since he entered the B rank of his Ki cultivation, a low growl that seemed to shake the ground slightly woke Elias up from his dream.

Angered at being woken up so suddenly Elias saw a large lion shaped animal only that there were black spikes coming out of his back was attacking a 7 meter long python with purple scales and two heads facing off in a battle.

As Elias was very adept in recognising the different species of monsters in the forest and deduced that the lion figure was a C ranked spiked lion which was generally at the peak of the C rank and usually wouldn't go any higher as it was a fairly common species.

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However the python creature drew Elias’s interest as he realised it was a B rank dual headed python this was not a creature that could approach his father in strength but was fairly powerful around this area, but the fight did not draw Elias’s attention as being a prince he had seen many powerful fights in his past but the item they were fighting over as Elias was shocked to see that there was a sword embedded into a rock several meters behind the lion.

This piqued Elias’s interest as the material that the sword was made from did not look ordinary at all as the blade was mainly golden with complicated black runes etched into it was slightly curved as it got further to the top, coupled with a black hilt and no hand guard this made the sword look very mysterious and was not like most of the swords he saw the guards use at the mountain, so Elias deduced that it was quite the treasure.

Seeing the two monsters about to face off Elias made use of his mischievous nature as a fox to wait until one of the creatures died before acting, this would make his job easier as he could collect two cores but would also let him see the winner of the fights face when he approached the sword, with that thought he chuckled to himself and with his two red irises in the night made him seem very ominous.

“Snake why do you interfere with my business… I'm only a mere C rank compared to you why would you bother with me” The lion spoke with clear uneasiness to his voice, hoping the snake would go his separate ways quickly, but was let down as a cold and callous voice sounded saying “Ha!... still acting ignorant, but since I'm here I might as well tell you that I'm here for that sword behind you as I found it very unusual”.

Met with this response the lion immediately tensed up ready for battle but his face saying he had little hope of winning made him seem very pitiable to people who saw the scene.

As the lion tensed up the snake suddenly shot from its position at a speed that did not match its size, when it closed in the lion did not lie still as it raised one of its paws in defence and one making a wide arc to attack and grab the snake, seeing this the snake made a small smile and narrowed its eyes into small slits it coiled itself in midair and flung its tail in a clockwise arc to hit the lions right side.

Quickly readjusting his defence the lion continued to make his claw attack while taking on the snakes attack, which would at least cost him his arm, as the two collided it was clear to see who came out on top as the snake's strike was not to be underestimated even by A rank monsters as it smashed straight through the lions right arm turning it into pulp and even slightly damaged the lions chest by leaving a deep cut at least 8 cm long. But the lions attack was also shown to be pretty strong even for his rank as he managed to take off a few scales as blood poured down its body.

The snake enraged at its damage because if people knew he was hurt this badly by a C rank monster he would lose a lot of respect around this area, let out a fierce hiss and moved both of its heads in opposite arcs to bite down into the lion letting its poison take care of the lion confident in at least one hitting due to the lion missing an arm.

True to his thoughts the lion dodged one of the heads but was immediately hit on his right side by the other head and injected its poison leaving the lion to collapse unwillingly, letting the lion have time to accept its fate the snake slithered away to the sword still standing strong inside the rock.

‘Humph all it came down to was their training… no actual skill was used, and here I thought I would get a good fight’ viewing in disgust Elias jumped down from his tree and approached the lion thinking to himself ‘Oh well at least its more cores for me… I wonder what expression the snake will make’ grinning evilly he finally made his move.