Part 1

It took me quite a bit of time to adjust to my new schedule. To be precise, a couple of weeks.

Starting training out of nowhere for the first time really took a toll on my body. When I wasn't training with father either way I was studying or I was collapsed in my bedroom due to muscle fatigue. Because of this my exploration goal was put to a stand.

Luckily it did not last long.

After a couple of weeks my body started adapting to the training rhythm and little by little the time it took me to recover diminished.

My research of a quiet place to train could resume.

Since the east side of the outskirts of the city had no suitable places for my training the only remaining places to explore were the north side and the west side. Going counterclockwise I decided to explore the north side.

I figured that I needed something to orient myself in case I find a nice place, so either way I had to write my own map or buy one. I was never a good drawer so buying one seemed the best option.

If the east side could be considered the “farming side” then the north side would be the one filled with roads. The north side was mostly composed of plains. Only here and there one could see a little greenwood, the majority of them close to the river banks. As much as I wanted to enjoy the view of the river I decided to stray further from the main roads. The river was very busy with little wooden boats that carried goods and people into the city so it would have been very unlikely that I could find a suitable place there.

Smaller roads detached from the main one and went in every direction. I decided to follow those smaller roads for the time being.

The landscape was beautiful. A land covered in green plains interrupted here and there by a small hill or a little forest, small tributaries of the main river sliced all the green with a beautiful light blue color making the whole scenery feel alive.

Wildlife such as boars and deers roamed this plains free.

It would have been the perfect place for my training if not for the continuous transit of horse-drawn carriages and groups of people riding on horses.

“*tch* It pisses me off the fact that such a perfect place has to be ruined by those damn rich assholes going around in their fancy ass carriages!”

I said one time while snaking on a sandwich under a tree on top of a hill.

“And to think I spent a whole month looking around just to be always disappointed whenever I found an interesting place! Maybe I'm making a fuss over nothing and no one would bother looking my way even if practiced here...but I feel like I shouldn't disturb anyone with my training!”

The exploration of the north side went on for a whole month and, even though I found some nice and private places to train, someone would always disturb that place to stop for picnics, ride a horse or hunt wildlife. I really started getting tired of that place.

“I guess that's as far as I go. Well I did only cover an area that could be reached within an hour or so of walking on foot, so further away there might be quiet places...but there is really no use in exploring further since I have to walk to and from there every day. Ugh what a bother!”

In the end even the north side revealed itself unsuitable for my purposes.

My only last hope of finding a private training place resided in the west side of the outskirts.

Part 2

It was an awfully hot morning that day.

More than two weeks had passed since I first started exploring the west side.

The west side was basically the same as the north side but without that many roads and way less tributaries. On the contrary the plains on the west had a lot more trees than the north. Also a lot more wildlife roamed free thanks to the higher density of forests, one morning I even had an encounter with a two meters bear, the speed boost spell resulted to be extremely useful.

What I really liked about this side of the outskirts was that it seemed that only on the west side a strange type of tree grew. It looked like a birch tree but was shorter and it had bright orange leaves. The further I went from the city the more frequent I saw this type of tree until whole forests were composed of it.

During my exploring I only saw a handful of people travelling by foot or by horse on the west side. I later found out that this side was mostly used as a hunting ground and in past times as a training ground for the soldiers since it was full of low tier monsters.

Except for the bear encounter those two weeks went smoothly. I marked on my map a couple of nice spots and explored the majority of the place. It felt like I was just taking a walk in a park.

Until that day.

The hot hair was making me sweat buckets so much that I had my vest tied around the side of my belt and the first couple of buttons of my shirt opened. My water supply was almost over and the tiredness was really kicking in thanks to the temperature. I was ready to go home early for the day.

“Mhh I wonder if something like ice creams exists in this world...maybe shattered ice! Oh well I’ll just look for something to cool me off”

I was thinking out loudly as I was walking in the shade of the border of an orange birch tree forest.

As I carelessly walked while looking at the map I heard some rustling. I didn't really mind it too much, it was not the first time that a squirrel or a bird springed out of a nearby bush.

I just kept walking as the rustling faded into the depths of the forest.

I kept walking and whistling a silly tune and checking the map every now and then.

Ten minutes passed and another rustling tickled my ear. This time it was heavier and louder, as if it was closer to me than the last one.

Still, I didn't pay much mind to it.

[Animals inhabited this forest, what's the big deal?]

I thought to myself.

Only a couple minutes passed until I heard another rustling.

This time something was off. Something smelled strange, a familiar smell but I couldn't really figure out what that smell was in particular. It piqued my interest though.

I concentrated on the smell and tried to remember when I smelled something similar. It was a strong smell, unpleasant, it felt like metallic.

A cold shiver ran across my spine as I realized what that smell really was.

[Blood!]

What to do now? It could have been the result of a fight between animals or the prey of a hunter...or a wounded person. I remembered my encounter with the bear, I was able to escape since I could use magic but what if someone else encountered it, could they escape?

[No probably no, they couldn't have escaped like I did. That means...fuck!]

Without a second thought, as I was doing something soo natural, I picked up a rock near my foot and ran into the forest sharpening my senses in order to follow that blood scent.

It didn't take long to find traces.

A huge blood stain stood in front of me on a tree.

The crimson sticky liquid was dripping from the white trunk of the tree down to the ground forming a little dark red pool. I instinctively closed my mouth with my hand as a retch reached my throat and I could feel the disgusting taste of vomit on my tongue.

I followed the traces. This time was easier, bloody handprints covered many white trunks.

My heart was racing, I could feel every vein of my body pumping with blood, my breath was heavier than usual and I no longer felt the hotness of the weather.

I walked for what seemed like five minutes around the forest following the traces until I ended up in an open area inside the forest with a little rocky formation, big enough to have a little cave inside of it.

Here the smell of blood was stronger and the blood stains were a lot more frequent.

[On the other side of the rock someone is bleeding. Judging from the quantity of blood lost, if it's a human that guy is probably dead. I just hope I made it in time!]

I had the feeling that something was off but couldn't figure out what. It was just a feeling, like I was being watched. An enormous amount of eyes pointed towards me.

I ignored the feeling and proceeded to walk around the rocky formation.

Sitting on a pool of blood with his back leaned on a rock there was a man with a huge hole in his side.

The man was breathing with extreme difficulty while pressing both sides of the hole with his hands to stop the bleeding and casting a healing spell.

But the spell was incomplete, probably due to the extreme loss of blood the man had no energy to sustain a high tier healing spell, if he knew one.

He was a tall man, probably a little less than two meters, had short dark brown hair slicked back with some locks of hair falling on his forehead. He was very well defined, strong arms and a steel six pack. A sharp chin made him look very elegant, but what mostly surprised me about his looks were his eyes. Big eyes with golden irises, they looked like gems.

[Shit I gotta help him!]

I snapped out of my thoughts as I heard him groaning in pain. He didn't hear me coming.

“Hey hey what happened? I know a bit of healing magic, let me help!”

The man looked at me with terror.

“Human! Are you here to kill me?”

I was confused.

[Killing him? I just offered help, why would I?]

“No no, I dont wanna kill you, i'm here to help!”

“LIAR!”

A scream that felt more like a roar made my knees weak made me fall in the pool of blood.

“Tricks won't fool me! I’ll kill you as soon as I heal my wounds!”

As he was talking I saw his teeth, they were sharp, especially the canines, like a predator.

[This guy’s not human!]

“Ok listen here, I don't know who you are or what you are but clearly you are not human! I don't know what happened to you or why you want to kill me. I'm just here to help. I followed the blood thinking that someone was in danger and found you.”

He didn't answer, he just growled back at me, like a cornered animal.

“Listen, let me help, obviously you have no energy to cast a decent healing spell and I don't know any high tier healing spell but if we both cast low tiers we might be able to do something. You can watch me, if I do something out of context you are free to kill me ok?”

[Please don't actually kill me!]

He looked at me, pearls of lucid sweat were dripping from his forehead while his eyes were planted in mine. He looked at me for a good twenty seconds as if he was trying to read my intentions.

He didn't answer, he just nodded.

That's all I needed.

I kneeled near him and put my hands on top of his and concentrated my mana on his wounds. The spell I was trying to make was a beginner tier spell that was supposed to cauterize and sew up small wounds. Of course it wasn't enough to fully heal his huge wound, but it was the strongest healing spell I knew at that time.

Healing magic requires a lot of concentration and a good amount of mana manipulation in order to send the caster’s mana where it was most needed to stimulate the cells to auto-heal themselves.

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I didn't know what kind of spell he was casting but the sum of our two spells seemed to have some effect. Cells started to slowly heal his hole and create the missing muscles, organs and tissues. That guy was as white as a corpse. He probably used every last ounce of strength he had to cast that last spell.

“Uuff I'm glad it worked, at least for the time being you are not going to die! Sorry if I didn't help much but that was the highest tier healing spell I knew, I'm very sorry!”

He turned his eyes towards me now sitting beside him with my back on a nearby rock.

“It’s ok. It’s enough”

He was still on guard, not missing any of my movements.

I looked at him and showed my best smile in hopes to cheer him up, or at least make him relax a little, but his expression did not seem happier or relaxed. On the contrary he made a troubled expression and looked in the distance.

“*tch* They are coming”

“What? Who is coming?”

“Enemies”

“Enemies?”

“Too late to run. They know we are here”

Howls and rustling could be heard approaching from the depths of the forest towards our position.

I stood up, panicking and looking for a way to escape but the rustling sounds came from every direction. One wrong move and I would find myself face to face with one of them.

In no time long grey snouts started coming out of the trees surrounding the rocky formation.

We were surrounded.

Part 3

I had nowhere to run and even if I had, I just couldn't leave this wounded man there.

[Shit! What am I supposed to do?]

Slowly, from the shadows of the trees a pack of wolves approached our position, bearing their fangs. The more I looked at those beasts the more they looked different from the wolves I knew from my past life. Those wolves were taller, at least one and a half meters each, with bigger and stronger legs and dangerously long claws on their paws. Their fur was of a dark black with a dark orange shade, crimson eyes and silver like teeth made their snouts look extremely devilish. Some of them were drooling at our sight, others were sniffing the air as if to savour the moment before attacking the prey.

The pack was slowly approaching us. They were on guard.

“Silverteeth wolf. Iron tier monster. Their only weak point is their throat. They surrounded us, you can't run”

The mysterious man spoke. The words he said made my knees weak once again.

Monsters.

Monsters are something very common in this world. There are “normal” creatures like boars, rabbits, wolves, bears, ecc; creatures that I knew from my previous world that could attack humans but did it rarely. And there are creatures who attack humans at sight in order to feast on them, those are the monsters. Some of them look like normal animals but actually those monsters are somewhat different from the animal, like an empowered version.

I didn't know much about them, I never studied anything about them or asked my parents.

[Why didn’t I fucking think of it? If there are adventurers of course there must be an enemy they fight! Fuck! And what does iron tier mean?!]

I was trembling. Cold sweat dripping from my forehead and blurring my view. My heart was beating at a speed I’ve never thought it would beat. Not even when I ran a race in my past life my heart would beat this fast. I could feel my whole chest getting tighter.

[Is this fear?]

I felt like puking but my stomach was completely empty, my mouth dry and my hands were shaking. I wanted to run but my legs were not answering my will. I only had one thought running through my head.

[I'm gonna die]

Why did it scare me so much? I had already tried to kill myself two times, why would the thought of death scare me this much? Probably it was just my survival instinct. Human nature at its finest.

I fell on my knees with tears in my eyes. Unable to scream even if I wanted to. Unable to stand even if I was trying to. Unable to run even if it was the only thing that my instincts were suggesting me.

In the meantime a sole wolf approached closer.

It was but a moment. The blink of an eye.

His jaw wide open was now in front of my eyes. I could see his sharp silver teeth and the red tongue. The stench of clotted blood that came out of his mouth was sickening.

I saw it.

I saw my own death. My head bitten off by that wolf’s mouth. The fresh crimson blood sprinkling out of my severed neck just like the city’s fountain.

It was but a moment. The fraction of a second.

Instinctively, I tilted my head backwards and right, opposite from where that wolf was coming. In the meantime I concentrated mana on my hands that were touching the ground, preparing to launch a spell. A single thought.

[Kill]

What came out from the ground was the spell that I studied but never got to actually practice truthfully. The beginner earth magic spell “stone pillar”.

Stone pillar created a cylindrical-like shaped pillar made of stone. In the book it was used to slow down enemies, dodge some spells or achieve a slight higher ground. It was never mentioned it could be used as an attack spell even though it was classified as an attack spell.

The spell I casted was stone pillar for sure, I didn't know any other earth spells like that, but somewhat it was different.

Two sharp cone shaped pillars raised from the ground and reached the wolf’s neck, severing it at the exact moment of impact.

Thick red blood sprinkled everywhere from the wolf’s severed neck.

The wolf head fell and rolled to my right side. An horrifying deathly look was plastered on the wolf’s snout. Blood coming out from the cut and the mouth. His crimson eyes wide open were still looking at me, this time they had no glow in them. There was no life in those eyes.

The wolf’s body fell flat to the ground in front of me.

I was now covered in blood dripping from the head to my clothes. My vision was clear as day even though my left eye was covered in a red curtain. I touched my head and, right over my left eye, fresh red blood was coming out of an opened cut. I could feel my flesh pulsing at my touch. I didn't feel pain, probably because of the adrenaline rush. I followed the cut with my fingers. It went from a couple of centimeters over my left eye and down to half of my cheek. A right line that crossed my left eye. Luckily my eyeball was left unscathed, I could still see.

I wasn't fast enough. In the end the wolf was able to bite me, even if just a little.

I looked at my hand, covered in my own blood.

My mind was blank, not even a single thought was crossing it, only a blind rage was filling my whole body with intense heat coming from deep within my stomach.

The left eye closed in order not to fill it with blood and my right eye wide open to compensate for the loss of the other. I looked around me. The wolves stopped moving and were now glaring at me and menacingly growling.

Something clicked inside me. I stood up and glared back at my enemy.

Only a word was resonating inside my head.

[Fight!]

Part 4

-MYSTERIOUS MAN’S POV-

[A silvertooth wolf just attacked the strange human in front of me and yet he is alive. Better yet, the wolf died. What is going on? I thought I saw him dying, having his head cut off. Was it just an illusion?]

The human was on his knees looking at his hands. He had a cut on his face. One of the wolf’s teeth scratched his left eye and now blood was flowing out of the wound.

Yet the small human stood up.

One moment ago he was on his knees on the verge of passing out due to fear and now he was standing on his own two feet.

[Who is he?

I thought that by being only able to cast a beginner tier healing spell he wasn't a very experienced mage, but he just used the advanced tier spell “iron spear”, it was incomplete for sure but efficient nonetheless.

And now he is standing? I could feel overwhelming fear in him just moments ago but now...now it’s all gone. His breathing is steady, his pulse is in check. His decisiveness is palpable.

Who is he?]

I was only able of thinking.

My blood loss was too great, even lifting an arm would prove to be an incredible ordeal at that moment.

On any normal occasion having to fight such a low tier pack of monster would prove nothing more than a child's play, but right now I was on the brink of death, if not for this strange human I would have been already dead before the wolves came.

I was ready to accept my death as soon as the wolves appeared.

But he? What was he planning to do?

The wolves were looking at him, he just easily killed one of them, they were now on guard. The tension was dense and no one moved.

Not until that human raised his head. He looked directly towards the wolf in front of him.

I didn't see what kind of look he gave but it must have been a strong and fierce one because the wolf backed away a few steps.

[Incredible!]

I had no strength to speak. Luckily I had enough strength before to give him some information on the monsters in case he wanted to fight. Not that I expected a human to do anything about it, especially this small one. Unexpectedly this human was ready to fight.

I was curious. I came all the way here to see the humans, what better time than this to study one of them?

[There are at least ten other wolves around us and he is alone. Now that I look at him he seems to have a decent mana flow. Actually not only decent but very beautiful indeed. It's so developed and with so many opened channels. Even among my people it's rare to have such a beautiful mana flow.

It’s a shame he will die today with me. With some training he would have really become a tremendously powerful individual. What a sha-]

My thoughts were interrupted by the scene that unfolded in front of my eyes.

The human was now spreading his arms as if he was inviting the wolves to attack him, mocking them, with his own blood dripping from his left hand and falling into the pool of blood that formed from my and the dead wolf’s blood.

He laughed.

A dreadful and maniacal laugh.

I had chills going down my spine. Fear stinged my mind. A strong fear, the one you feel when in the presence of something totally unknown, a tremendous foe.

It wasn't just me who felt such a fear, the wolves around us stopped growling and lowered their heads a bit, covering their necks. A tremendous pressure and bloodlust were now leaking from this strange human.

[How can this small human have such pressure? Who is he?]

This question kept tormenting me until he spoke.

“HAHAHAHA LOWLY ANIMALS! DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN CLAIM MY HEAD THIS EASILY? NOT EVEN DEATH ITSELF WAS ABLE TO CLAIM ME AND YOU THOUGHT I WAS GONNA GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT? HAHAHAHA COME, COME KILL ME IF YOU CAN, FILTH!”

A terrifying voice full of blood lust emitted from that small human.

His presence was similar to that of the elders of my tribe.

In the face of death he was laughing, no sane man would show such an attitude. I was truly paralyzed by fear, not because of the wolves or my imminent death, but because of him.

In a moment all the wolves howled and ran towards him. Fangs and claws as sharp as razors ready to cut through flesh, all pointed towards a small human.

“Lesser speed boost”

Said the human and mana flowed to his legs.

He dashed to the right side dodging the attacks of two wolves on that side with an incredible speed. With a hand on the ground he screamed.

“Stone pillar”

The same spell as the one who cut off the head of the wolf from before was now performed. Two huge sharp cone-like shaped pillars raised from the ground and pierced the two wolves who just attacked him through their chests raising them from the ground of about half a meter. Their blood was now vastly dripping from the sides of the cones covering the brownish color of the stone in red.

The human clearly said “stone pillar”, a beginner tier spell, but he used the same spell as before or rather “iron spear”. That was strange, what was he doing pronouncing the name of a spell wrong? I did not understand.

The two pierced wolves were still alive but had no way to free themselves. It was a slow death penalty.

He then quickly jumped backwards to evade the claw attack of a wolf followed by another claw attack and a bite attempt. He barely dodged everything. The man then dashed backwards again in order to gain some distance from his foes and pointed his left palm towards the three wolves who just attempted to his life and said.

“Wind blade”

A beginner tier wind type attack spell that creates one single big scythe-like blade made of wind. It's not very used since it requires a lot of precision to hit the target.

Once again the spell he casted was different from the spell name he pronounced. This time it really was a wind blade but he didn't create just one but a burst of them, at least a dozen small ones. All at the same time. The destructive power was incredible. The spell literally shredded the three wolves in pieces, cutting off heads, limbs, chunks of flesh. Blood sprinkled everywhere.

I was astonished.

In my whole life I had never seen someone fight like this, not even among my people.

[Who is he?]

A wolf rushed towards him from the back with his jaws wide open.

The man stretched his right arm towards the mouth of the wolf.

The arm was already half inside the mouth and I sensed the tension in the jaw muscles of the wolf. The wolf was about to close his jaws, ripping off that man's right arm.

“Fireball”

Said the man and a blaze of bright red lames came out of his palm.

The wolf’s jaws did not close. On the contrary they spread wide open while flames filled the wolf’s belly and bursted in his insides leading to the explosion of his whole body.

I was looking in awe as blood and flames rained down on the man and all around him.

I had never seen a scene so majestic yet dreadful in my entire life.

I was looking at his back while the falling flames casted threatening shadows on his small figure. The man turned around facing the remaining four wolves who were now paralyzed by fear. His raven black hair waving in the wind caused by the explosion, his light blue eyes glowing in the shadows created by the fire, his expression, so threatening yet so calm. Everything of him screamed “power”.

Of the wolf he just killed with the fire spell nothing was remaining, only chunks of burned flesh and fur with some shattered bones here and there were spread in the forming pool of crimson fiery hot blood.

He was the true monster there.

The wolves felt it.

I felt it.

Running for them was not an option, he would have chased after them. One last stand .

The hunter became the hunted.

He was the true monster.

The wolves ran towards him in a desperate attempt to kill that man bearing their shining silver fangs.

He smiled. Towards an imminent attack he smiled. A wicked smile stained by blood.

He ran towards the wolf on his extreme left and when he was close enough he jumped over him making a half roll midair. While doing so he put his left hand close to the wolf’s head and said.

“Stone bullet”

A rock formed in his palm, a very sharp rock, and then the rock launched itself towards the wolf’s head piercing from side to side leaving a hole in his skull. The man was launched backwards by the recoil of the spell and fell with his back down to the ground while the wolf fell dead to the ground instantly, blood sprinkling out of his wound.

The other three wolves turned around to face him but he was already standing up.

“Stone walls”

A defensive spell that creates a shield made of stone. It's a basic tier spell and as such it's extremely weak. But why did he use it on such occasions?

He didn't use it as a defensive measure, rather he raised four stone walls that surrounded the three wolves. A death trap. He then quickly jumped on top of a wall and said.

“Wind blade”

The same destructive spell as before.

Blades made out of wind bursted out of his wide open palms raining down on his prey trapped below.

Blood spilled like a fountain out of the stone walls while the wolves yelps quickly faded away, then silence.

As he jumped down from the wall his spell deactivated and the stone walls crumbled on the ground revealing their content. It was a slaughterhouse, chunks of flesh and bones covered in blood were laying on the ground.

It was a massacre.

One small man against ten iron tier monsters. All the odds were against that man yet he shattered those odds and covered the ground with his enemy's blood. What was a beautiful green clearing in the middle of a forest before was now the scene of a massacre filled with blood, flames and dead corpses.

He walked towards me careless of the blood he stepped on. He himself was covered in blood, both his and the wolves’. As he reached my position he stood in front of me.

“Who...are...you?”

I asked with what remained of my strength with a trembling voice.

He looked me in the eye and simply smiled. A peaceful and pure smile. One that did not suit that bloody figure of a monster I had just seen.

He fell on his knees and to the ground.

The man fainted.