The Poisonous toads generally lived in swamps like the Swamp lizards, it was reasonable to address its injuries to a conflict with the other species of magical beasts.
'These cuts are so small, they aren't caused by rank 4 creatures.'
The toad was only one meter tall while the Swamp lizard had an average height of two and a half meters for their rank 3 version.
'Was it overwhelmed by rank 2 lizards? If that's the case, how many specimens are ahead?'
Noah stared in the direction where the toad came from with a bit of uncertainty.
'For a pack to be this big, it usually means one thing: they are expanding!'
Magical beasts were a mutation of normal creatures due to the "Breath" in the environment.
As time passed, each type of magical beast became a different species, giving birth to many peculiar creatures.
At least, that was the most accepted theory about the birth of magical beasts.
The "Breath" could turn humans into cultivators and animals into magical beasts, such mystical energy was indeed amazing.
'With the exception of mating, new magical beasts can be generated through the influence of high-level beings on the environment. A rank 4 Swamp lizard could have turned an unimaginable number of normal lizards in magical specimens of its pack.'
Noah reviewed those pieces of information in his mind.
His knowledge in the field of magical beasts was vast, the academy had given him the best instruction in the entire country after all.
'How many creatures are there below rank 3? How many above it?'
He knew that killing a rank 3 creature using weaker beasts was a hard task which meant that the pack ahead had to contain at least a few thousand beasts.
Noah resolved himself and put the body of the toad in his space-ring before continuing in his march.
He had chosen that hunt because he was confident in his ability to escape if things became ugly, there was no reason to retreat before confirming the entity of the danger.
As he continued in his advance, more bodies of Poisonous toads appeared on the ground.
'These died because of their injuries. If they had remained in the range of the pack, they would have been eaten already.'
A large pack required a big quantity of food.
The best food for magical beasts was, of course, other magical beasts, there was no way that they would have let go of rank 3 specimens like that.
The quantity of "Breath" remaining in their bodies was too alluring for them!
Noah crossed another kilometer before reaching the borders of the swamp, there were no more corpses near it.
'This is wrong.'
According to the information about Mellow forest, the swamp area had to be at a few kilometers north from his position, yet it had appeared already.
'The environment is mutating due to their presence, there is more than a single rank 4 lizard.'
Noah concluded.
Magical beasts, like cultivators, emitted a strong aura and the higher their level was, the more they could influence their surroundings.
In Twilboia Cliff, that phenomenon hadn't happened because the rank 5 Albino snake spent most of its time sleeping and it prevented any rank 4 snake to live for long.
In Mellow forest instead, the swamp was advancing, which meant that there were strong beasts radiating their aura on the environment.
However, to Noah, that meant only one thing.
'More bodies to collect!'
As far as he was concerned, he would just fly away as soon as a dangerous situation presented itself.
Noah uncovered his torso and two pairs of wings came out of his back.
He shot in the air and flew over the muddy waters of the swamp.
Soon enough, he found the first lizards calmly swimming in the quagmire below him.
'Rank 1 and rank 2, they have no value to me.'
There were tens of lizards in his field of view, Noah thought for a bit before wielding one of his sabers.
He launched two fuming wind slashes toward the crowded areas which collided with the terrain and dispersed toxic smoke.
Two black clouds twenty meters wide were created in the swamp, devouring every living being that touched the smoke.
Since he became a rank 2 mage, his Demonic form increased in strength, just with a casual attack more than fifty magical beasts were killed.
As for his expenditure of mental energy, it was negligible.
'It's better if I avoid being ganged up by them, I don't think they can do much to me but it's better to be safe when dealing with rank 4 creatures.'
He wanted to avoid being encircled by hundreds of beasts, that's why he killed those weak creatures with no hesitation.
The lizards that survived his attack dispersed and retreated toward a deeper area of the swamp.
Noah continued to fly in that direction, launching attacks as soon as the number of beasts in one area increased.
His advance was slow but that allowed him to preserve most of his strength and be sure that there would be no attacks from his back.
He was basically securing an escape route.
'Finally.'
When he had flown for another kilometer, the first rank 3 lizards appeared.
They were lazily standing over ten or so rank 2 lizards and some of them emitted peculiar cries as they moved over them.
'They are indeed mating.'
Noah thought.
'If even their rank 3 versions are allowed to do that, that means that it's an order from their leaders. They are forcibly increasing the population of the pack to expand the swamp.'
The chain of command was quite strict in magical beasts' packs, for weaker beasts to have their chance to reproduce indicated that the stronger ones in that pack allowed it.
'Only three of them sadly. Better than nothing.'
Noah flew toward them, revealing his presence.
The beasts roared seeing an invader but they had no time to react as the more powerful in their group were stabbed by black claws that drained every drop of their blood.
Noah used the Blood drain spell to deal with the rank 3 beasts in order to preserve their bodies and then flew back into the air to clear the weaker specimens with fuming wind slashes.
In less than ten minutes, that area was emptied of Swamp lizards.