Richard knew about the foxes and other animals from Noah. His experience from earth in hunting was miniscule.

The target was called a Dire Fox. It was evolved version of the normal fox and it had a high level of ferocity.

The normal version would focus on small animals and fruits, but the big fox went for mostly meat. It liked to hunt down human farmers and children as they were easy and fulfilling, but learnt its lesson after being hunted down.

Now the Dire Fox avoided humans, just like most of the predators.

Humans were the alpha beasts in the region and the animals knew it. They avoided humans from afar and would came into conflict when the person was persistent or when they entered its home or were near its children.

This was the truth even on earth, so most animals avoided humans because they understood the associated danger.

Animals had very good senses, so coming across a predator wouldn’t be coincidence as they would have heard the person moving around or smelled him.

Getting back to the hunt, Foxes lived inside dens that would have escape tunnels. They would also be nearer to a water source and its hunting ground.

It should be hidden in places with heavy greenery that covered up the ground, bushes etc.

It was stealthy and cautious beast as it had many predators, but the Dire Fox didn’t have to worry much unlike the weaker cousin.

The main indicator would be the smell, smell of the fox and its urine. Fox urine was nasty stuff and was all over things that the fox owned.

That was how things happened in the wild, animals marking things with their urine and stool.

It could also be found in Walmart.

Fortunately, it also had its uses. Hunters used the urine to ward of pests in the village or to confuse predators in the wild.

With that data in hand, Richard started moving in the forest with Rex.

He decided to check the water source, there was a stream passing through the center of the forest. It was also one of the most dangerous places, so Richard stayed to the human side of things.

Moving in the forest filled with danger was a stressful task. His hand was on the dagger and his eyes were moving around.

He had to look at the ground and the air.

It was better with Rex or Richard would have taken longer to move around. It was his modern side conflicting with the hunter side, so he just needed some time to adjust.

He just had to understand that there was nothing to fear.

‘There is no need to fear anything. I will die when I will die.’ Richard thought, and it was his way of calming his nerves.

Along the way, he saw different birds and colorful plants. He heard small creatures running about and some of them were watching him.

Richard hoped that he didn’t come across any fast beasts. That would be a tragedy in the making.

Normally, he would be worried about coming across snakes, venomous spiders and all kinds of predators. But, now he didn’t feel such worries.

Walking in the forest made him feel that his footsteps were unnecessarily loud.

‘I should finish learning the Silent steps soon.’ Richard knew the skill but it was a work in progress. It wasn’t easy to use.

Silent was an E Rank technique that made the users steps silent. Ki was utilized through the feet and it interacted with Ki outside the body to erase the sound.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It was a dark element technique.

Thinking about it, it could be replaced with a wind technique. Sound needed a medium for travel, so it could be stopped with a minor wind skill.

The current skill wasn’t difficult to understand but with the low affinity in the dark element, it was difficult to make the symbol and keep it in check.

He couldn’t just do it at the moment and needed practice.

Finishing up with the thought and having a new task to complete later, Richard found his destination. The stream was 15 meters wide and its length was unknown.

“Rex, can you smell a fox?” Richard asked as he patted his pet dog and looked at the water from afar.

He didn’t see any animals and only few prints on the ground nearby.

Rex enjoyed the rub and started smelling the ground as he moved around the place. They moved away from the human path with the bridge and were fully covered in the dense woodwork.

Richard kept distance from Rex while keeping an eye on the surroundings. He didn’t want the prey to run.

After moving for a few kilometers and seeing the normal animals, Richard decided to move on the trees while Rex tried to find a stronger smell than the normal fox that he had caught.

Climbing the tree, Richard activated Sharp eyes. It was directly strengthened with his precise Ki arrangement and understanding of the eyes.

‘I should have tried this from the start.’ Richard thought as he realized how far he could see. It was not sharp like the Eagle but it wasn’t too far off.

He was still not used to the skill, so couldn’t utilize it for long. It could cause intense pain and even bleeding, plus the low Ki reserves at the moment.

Getting a look around, Richard closed it and then moved forward. It was slow progress as it was a new method for him.

Both lives had never jumped from tree to tree.

It wasn’t impossible in this life so he was safe and just needed practice. But only after a few jumps, Richard remembered why he should avoid doing it.

He passed through spider nets and almost stepped on a snake.

‘Damn!’ Richard wanted to curse aloud when he hit those things and decided to walk on the ground, and only get atop to get a look or shoot.

‘I still need to train my guts and body before I can move freely.’

Richard cleared his face from the webs and collected the spider into an earth ware pot that he placed inside the storage. He also killed the snake and put it inside the storage.

Both these creatures were venomous. The spider was big as a kitten and was similar to the Brazilian wandering spider.

The snake was like an average sized python.

The venom wasn’t too potent in these two creatures, but it was enough to cause pain, nausea and a small paralyzing affect.

Hawthorn Woods was a low danger region and even then, the creatures inside were too much for earthling beasts.

The big bad of the woods were a black bear and a leopard.

Both lived on two different ends of the forest and only fought rarely with each other, and ignored each other the other times.

These two beasts were monsters on the foundation realm with human level intelligence. Beasts were usually stronger physically on the same ranks so these two were avoided since they didn’t antagonize the people.

Continuing his journey, Richard continued to check the surrounding with his sharp eyes while Rex utilized his smell.

Finally, after two hours he came across his target. The large fox was the size of a tiger with a sinister feel.

Its eyes were terrifying and demonic while its sound was paralyzing.

Its senses were exceptionally sharp but Richard was covered in plant paste and not standing in the direction of the wind.

Richard grabbed his bow and arrow while signaling Rex to keep still. With Sharp eyes, the target was clear and the bow was like a habit.

He didn’t have long range gun and he wasn’t going to use it either way. It would wake up the whole forest.

With the location in mind, Richard changed the technique to body enhancement.

Feeling the increase in power to his upper body, Richard unleashed the arrow that was also covered in Ki.

Ki had flowed from his hand to the arrow and bow, giving them higher durability. It was strong enough to shatter rocks and pierce through normal trees.

With the release of the arrow, Rex ran towards the target. The sound of the bow was masked by the barks and the fox was hit directly in the ass.

It cried out in pain and shot another one that caught its side. Rex was like a tiger on its prey. The fox was injured and poisoned as the arrows were dipped in a homemade product, courtesy of Noah.

It was made from a mixture of dangerous plants.

It wasn’t powerful enough for the fox, but it definitely caused a lag and gave Rex the advantage.

With that Richard jumped from the tree while never realizing that he had been standing under an apex predator.

There was Jaguar hidden from sight relaxing and watched the process with a bored look. It looked to the side and gave a disdainful look before closing its eyes.

It seems Richard was definitely unlucky and lucky at the same time.

Noah moved away from the tree while feeling like he had been showed in his sweat. He had never seen the beast from so close before.

‘That boy is seriously bad news.’ Noah thought as he saw Richard slay the fox with a dagger to its neck.

The fight wasn’t hard for a Ki user of some skill. The hard part was the process of locating it. Noah was actually surprised by the quick hunt.

His usage of the skills was very efficient and showed that he went further than the initial lesson.

‘He amplified the Sharp Eyes to almost rival the Eagle eyes. How far could he see with the actual eagle eyes?’ Noah thought as he saw the hope of getting stronger. He had reached the point where progress was extremely slow.

Now the otherworldly knowledge carrier could guide him to improve the skills.

Regardless, he was just feeling a little bit happy from seeing his son succeed. He always wanted to see such scenes continue throughout their lives.