Kyle’s eyes darted around the forest as he ran among the trees. All his senses were spread out searching for as many monsters as possible.
After the horned cats, he killed a few more monsters and discovered another fact about the blue flames he didn’t need to touch the ice statues to break them. A single fleeting thought was enough.
Kyle sighed when he saw his mana reserve. Within three hours he lost 80 percent of his mana.
‘It would be hard to learn the spell language because only those with high intelligence and the ones who picked the mage path from the start can easily chant the spells in their mind but maybe I should learn some basic spells to control some natural elements. In that way, I can save a lot of mana.’
He mused in his mind. The blue flames consumed too much of his mana. If not for his (A)-Rank mana stat after fighting with the horned cats he would have used all his mana.
Kyle’s ears perked up when he heard a faint rustle on his left side. He immediately changed his direction, heading straight toward the voice.
Soon, his eyes caught sight of two tall figures fighting with a (D)-Rank fire eagle. The eagle cried out loudly and a burst of fiery flames sprakled around her wings. Kyle’s gaze stopped at the round nest on the tree behind her.
‘Is she protecting her eggs?’
Kyle stood beside a tree and watched how the eagle flapped her wings and a sea of fire descended on the two figures.
He clicked his tongue. Just within three hours the participants already started forming groups to fight the monsters.
‘Sigh, lonely me.’
The moment Kyle spoke about how lonely he was Bia scoff sounded in his mind.
-‘Then come back. Why the hell are you going through such a long process just to enter a secret realm? If you want to enter it so badly just use Instant Teleportation and you can easily slip inside under everyone’s nose. Also, don’t worry about me I have secured my spot with Mia.’
Kyle controlled the urge to roll his eyes. If only entering the secret realm was so easy. Moreover, even though he could use instant teleportation who would guarantee the strong elites guarding the entrance wouldn’t notice him?
Maybe he could escape the senses of an (A)-Rank or (S)-Rank individual with the help of Instant Teleportation but what about an (SS)-Rank individual?
He pinched his brows when he saw the two figures empowering the fire eagle. This wasn’t the first time he saw someone else fighting with a monster but he always left them alone because he was the one who found the monster late.
However, in the next second Kyle’s eyes sparkled.
‘Wait, I can steal the kill? Can’t I?’
Bia’s dry and almost mocking laugh sounded in his mind.
-‘Don’t tell me you just thought about the fact after roaming around for three long hours? I think you are forgetting this is a competition. Do you think the others would do the same as you? No, if they saw you fighting they would probably lay around for an ambush.’
Kyle didn’t refuse Bia’s words and stayed quiet.
‘I know about all this that’s why I don’t want to be the weaker party.’
He shook his head to disperse the thoughts and looked at the fire-eagle. The eagle recovered and was now attacking the two figures with renowned vigor.
‘I don’t need the eggs it would be a hassle to carry them around for two months. I will just kill the eagle and leave.’
He waved his hand and flames appeared behind him. The flames took the shape of two arrows and under Kyle’s will they shot forward heading straight toward the fire eagle.
A sharp whistling sound sounded in the air. The first to notice the flame arrows were the two figures and after them, the eagle panicked when she saw the arrows.
The two figures watched the arrows with wide eyes. The arrow’s speed was very fast and before they could comprehend what was happening the eagle’s painful cry rang in their ears.
The duo watched the blue flames enveloping the eagle’s body and under their horrid gaze the eagle’s body started freezing and within a few seconds, she turned into ice.
Their breath was stuck in their throats and they moved back solely due to natural reflex when the ice statue of the fire eagle dropped on the ground with a resounding boom.
Tiny ice pieces scattered on the ground and one of the figures dropped to his knees with beads of sweat trickling down his forehead.
“What… the heck?”
He sounded scared, astonished, and panicked at the same time but no one answered his question because the other figure fled the moment he dropped to his knees.
Meanwhile, Kyle was already gone after shooting the arrows.
He ran around the forest, killing as many monsters as possible but he made sure to stay away from the other participants.
He tested all of his skills and whenever he was low on mana he would stop and climb a tree to rest for a while.
However, because of his casual skill testing a big uproar was going on the outside world and the atmosphere in the dome was quite heavy. A lot of eyes were fixed on the big screen floating below the dome ceiling.
Anlee breathed out a large amount of air and looked at Aira with simple astonishment.
“I want to see what is this kid doing. Is it not possible to find his figure in the many projections.”
Aira gazed at him from the corner of her eyes. The nobles and other individuals sitting behind them perked up their ears when they heard Anlee’s question. They were dying to know who was this kid ‘Kyle’ and what the heck was he doing! Not just them even the audience who heard Anlee’s words looked at Aira with eagerness.
Aira hummed casually.
“Don’t look at me like that I can’t do anything. I could have tried only if I knew what he looked like.”
Anlee clicked his tongue and gazed at the screen.
“After seeing the unimaginable amount of points he stacked just in half a day what do you think his spot would be after two months?”
1_Kyle Ohan 12,890
2_Larji Homes 1367
3_Regius Gravis 1200
Aira scoffed.
“Have you gone blind? At this point, even an idiot can tell he would stay at the top no matter what.”
….
Meanwhile, when the night arrived and dark clouds gathered above Kyle’s head he finally stopped and started looking around for a safe place.
In the end, he wasn’t able to find a clean place and just decided to settle down above a tree for the night.
However, the moment he climbed the tree his eyes caught sight of a fist-sized harmless squirrel nibbing on a dry leaf.
Kyle eyed the squirrel and held his breath. In the next second, he quietly left the tree and ran away in the opposite direction.
The squirrel squeaked lightly when he heard a rustling sound behind him. He looked back with beady eyes but saw nothing except some falling leaves.
A confused expression appeared on his face and he tilted his head to look around but after finding nothing his focus returned to the dry leaf.
On the other hand, Kyle finally released his held breath when he was at least ten meters away from the squirrel.
“Scary!”
He shuddered and started looking around for another place to sleep.
After five minutes, he finally settled down on another tree. The sky was dark and soon a few twinkling stars appeared among the clouds.
Kyle looked peaceful. He gazed at the sky but he wasn’t sleepy because after seeing the squirrel his past trauma came back.
After leaning on the tree branch for a while, he sat down with a sigh.
“I really hate squirrels. Especially their sharp teeth.”
He shook his head and took out a finger-sized skill core from his mind space. It was quite fascinating how the skill core wasn’t affected by the blue flames.
The flames would completely freeze the bodies of the monsters that’s why Kyle almost forgot to look for the skill cores. However, when he killed a (E-)-Rank monster a few hours ago he was surprised when he saw a tiny white ball among the ice pieces.
He would have completely ignored it due to its small size but because the core was sparkling brightly between the ice pieces he bent down to pick it up.
Kyle closed his eyes and grabbed the core in his figures and the next second information about the skill core appeared in his mind.
____________
#*Fright (F+)-Rank;
User can influence the enemy’s brain for a few seconds, making them feel unpleasant and scared.
Mana isn’t required for this skill.
____________
Kyle sighed and didn’t absorb the skill core because he already had a (A)-Rank fear skill.
“It’s useless.”