Wandering around Ashen Forest, Isaac found that Novice-Ranked Wolves were quite a scarcity.

After all, even though he spent hours venturing and fighting a plethora of wolves, he never met one in his caliber.

Naturally, he didn't want to curse himself and say it out loud, so he kept quiet. However, it seemed the Heavens heard his callings.

Unlike the other times a wolf attacked where he was given a sound que and reacted off that, this time, his instinct, sharpened by the dozens of battles alerted him milliseconds earlier than the sound.

*Rustle*

*Swoosh*

Hearing the rustling of the leaves and the wind contorting, Isaac backed up, narrowly avoiding the claw of an ashen-tinged wolf.

Alerted by the severity of the situation, Isaac immediately used a spell to dismay his opponent, stopping it from attacking again.

'Fire Lance.' Conjuring three spears, he coupled it with three more fire daggers.

Backing up once again after throwing his spells, he awaited the results, clouded by the gray cloud.

However, seeing the wolf unaffected due to barrier of mana surrounding its body, Isaac was reminded why he was told that beasts of the same rank surpassed that of mages.

Although, the gap increased even more from the Expert Rank and above. This was mainly due to the fact that beasts finally gained more intelligence, thanks to that, they could now use abilities similar to the mages' spells.

Ultimately, however, in the lower ranks, their natural biology coupled with their superior mana reinforcement, made many mages unable to beat them at the same rank.

Focusing on the fight, however, Isaac decided to use the spells and techniques he acquired yesterday.

'Fire Spear Aura.' Suddenly, his brandished spear glowed orange, and gave an aura of heat, Isaac had no doubt that once he was stronger, the heat exposed outwardly, would increase the very temperature in the technique's radius.

Not only that, once impaled, but the area of contact would also fair against invading motes of Fire Mana, causing their body to burn.

Isaac knew this as he'd already tested the technique on various wolves, he would be an idiot to only use it against an enemy of equalizing strength.

Seeing the wolf warily look at his spear, Isaac doubted it'll be the first to attack, so darting towards the wolf confidently, Isaac used another spell, 'Fire Chains.'

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

With the wolf getting ready to pounce on Isaac, its movements were stopped by the searing, restrictive chains that burned its fur, even though its barrier of mana.

Increasing the mana output, the wolf finally destroyed the quickly drawn chains. However, it looked up, seeing a burning spear, heading directly towards his brain.

'Lion's Spear' Using a special strengthening technique, the burning spear effortlessly went through the brain of the wolf.

Breathing slightly heavier than usual, Isaac continued moving, not before storing the wolves' body in his mana ring.

He didn't take the other bodies as his mana ring space wasn't infinite, nor did he desperately need money, he had a master that could pay all his expenses, after all.

Using three techniques consecutively strained his body, more than empty his mana capacity. Seeing how he felt as if he had lost a total of one tenth of his current capacity, Isaac now knew the power light purple mana.

Resting on a tree branch, he decided to rest his body as he had the chance to freely do so now.

After an hour of resting, he continued wandering the forest, deciding to go where he thought was the center of the forest, hoping to fight stronger enemies there.

Continuing his walk, Isaac was starting to get annoyed at the fact that one, he wasn't finding any Novice-Ranked wolves, and second, he hadn't even found a pack of wolves to have a challenge against.

Again, unbeknownst to him, he was currently being followed by an entire pack, seemingly, however, they were led by a giant wolf, this time, however, with dark-tinged fur, unlike the ashen wolves he previously fought.

Continuing his walk, Isaac was met with nothing once again, deciding to go back, as that's where he first fought his first Novice-Ranked wolf.

He thought that if that wolf was Novice-Ranked, perhaps other wolves near it were too.

Although his thinking wasn't exactly that great, he was extremely bored. And ultimately, boredom can cause even the sanest man to do stupid things.

However, stopping in his tracks was the sound of growling.

Looking in the direction of the sound, Isaac found a dark furred wolf, with reddened eyes and teeth clenched, almost stopping the saliva from its mouth to stop from flowing down his face.

Clearly, this wolf was anything but normal, not only that, but Isaac also saw four other wolves, all emitting the aura of Novice-Rank, thanks to the previous wolf, he now knew the aura that wolves of that rank emit.

Although it didn't cover every beast as even in beasts, some were stronger, slower, faster, sturdier, and the list goes on.

However, seeing the intense group, Isaac felt excitement rising yet again, and this time, he knew he would have to go all out.

If he didn't? He'll probably die here.

Seeing the black wolf, who couldn't resist itself run at him, with the other wolves slightly lagging behind, he prepared himself to attack before the others could reach and gang on him.

Dashing, Issac internally said, 'Fire Spear Aura.', now coating his spear in fire motes, the wolf cautioned itself, however, it didn't stop it's run whatsoever.

Noticing its maddened state, Isaac readied himself, letting it get close before, 'Fire Burst.', bursting himself upward, he quickly twisted his body in a way he was looking downward towards the wolf.

The wolf, seeing his speed, couldn't even track him with its eyes yet, and seeing that, he used 'Lion's Spear.', which allowed for easier piercing.

Piercing the wolf's head, and quickly retracting his red painted spear, the wolf's brain matter and blood flowed out, being used to the sight by now, he used another spell.

'Fire Palm.' From his palm, a torrent of fire trickled out, stopping the wolves as they would've been burned otherwise.

'Fire Burst.' Issac flew towards the newest wolf, and with his spear still coated in Fire Mana, he pierced the wolf, and let the fire take care of the rest.

Repeating the process three more times, besides using Fire Chains a couple times, he now held the bodies of five Novice Ranked wolves, and obviously, an anomaly as well.