A metallic arrow made from the long nails of the brown rabbit I killed a long time ago.
This was a special material, and I didn’t know how to use it properly but, after barely keeping my life in this hell, I could learn many things.
I had seen the unthinkable here and more than anything; I have been to death many times that my previous fights were meaningless.
Fortunately, I had Celes and I could keep going because of my special heart.
I didn’t know if I could survive here without them, but I was sure lucky to have them.
This arrow resulted from my self-taught, experimental, and past knowledge.
I released the arrow, and it vanished from the bow like magic with no sound.
This was a solid arrow and it vanish even when this yellow-ranked creature was looking at it.
The wolf stopped, and his ears moved a bit as if to detect something.
-Swish. -Swish. -Swish.
Three arrows struck the ground, and the wolf roared angrily.
The arrows were fatal and from the glowing enchantments on them and the wolf could feel the fire element.
This was reasonable as it was a demonic beast now, a full corrupted beast with heightened senses.
But, unfortunately for him, this wasn’t the end.
They were arrows I shot just after the metal arrow and, as we looked deep into other’s eyes, he flinched in shock.
I could control my smirk, but this bastard sensed it.
“Too bad you were a little late,” I replied, and took out a quiver full of arrows.
These were normal, but the one that I shot at first was no normal thing at all.
It was a precious arrow that took even me months to finish.
The materials used in it were precious and each one of them was the same as a red core’s worth.
That was precisely the reason I only had six such arrows.
The beasts with fern had gifted me beast cores, too. There were exactly six red ranked and two orange ranked ones.
But, those were used in this past year I had spent in this forest.
I had to survive life or death battles.
Create things to survive and, on top of everything, get strong to face more beasts.
There was this powerful attack skill that I had to use with an energy core to save me from a ferocious corrupted… rat. 𝙚𝙙𝙤𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝒎
That thing is not something I want to recall.
Looking back at the wolf with a smirk, a sharp sound enters our eyes.
-Swiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiish.
-Booooooooom.
The arrow fell on the exact spot the wolf was standing and then, an explosion echoed in the surrounding.
There was no reaction from the forest, as this was the dark forest.
Noice was a common thing in this place and unlike outside where beasts were attracted, they quietly empty the area they stood in from voices like this.
I was fortunate, but this bastard that ran after me for the entire night wasn’t lucky at all.
This one explosion was the perfect version of the one I had used against the special Ent that attacked me.
A real missile with pure power output.
Something that can blow up the whole red-ranked beast.
This was a success, and… the wolf was alive.
“Wooooooo!” the beast howled and stood up with its half-burned body.
An unsightly body that I was now accustomed to seeing.
I knew this was going to happen and so… I started the rain of arrows.
-Swish. Swish. Swish. Swish. Swish. Swish.
I used [Quickstep] and [Shadow Dive] consecutively, so the burden on my mind was increasing. But it was bearable.
The arrow blast had already weakened this wolf and from my detection magic, there was nothing in the area.
There was a clear area some distance away, so I had to stop this one to reach there.
He had chased me all the way for hours, so I didn’t think he had any plan of letting me get away.
This was a ferocious beast, and I had no mercy to spare for him.
“Wooo!!” it shouted in pain and then, after more than twenty arrows, fall to the ground.
Arrows contained poison on the tip, so there was no way it could stand more than them.
But still, this yellow-ranked beast was definitely commendable to have put me through such hell.
-Thud.
The wolf lifelessly falls to the ground as the moon fully took its place in the sky.
Not that it was bright, to begin with.
This dark forest was always night, and I was thankful to have the [Mana Vison] skill.
I knew this was a day from the unique lights and the moon always carried special blue rays with him.
…or her.
Moon was a lady according to religion.
The goddess moon, an entity so important that they prayed to her as one of the most famous religious gods.
Why… am I even recalling these when there was so much to do?
[ “Celes.” ] I called out, and she did her job.
We can now constantly change according to our surroundings as if we are invisible, so it was even more dangerous that this wolf could keep up with us.
He had a sensing skill, and we were still not at the level of hiding our presence completely.
But we were successful in killing a tough opponent after exhausting it and putting in more than necessary resources.
The beast was dead, and… it had no energy core or skill stone.
“Poor bastard.” I looked at it indifferently and walked away.
Thankfully, I was an adult with experience in these things, or else no child or normal person could survive this hell.
Just being grateful for being alive was a tough thing.
Jumping on the tree, I reached the rare open area in this dark forest.
As trees densely covered this forest, open places were extraordinary.
Open areas meant two things: a group or garden of flowers or a dreadful sight that would make you faint.
It filled the first place with unexpected rare herbs and magnificent flowers.
I had found some very rare things that we’re able to survive in this environment and many unknown ones were special to dark places like this.
The second one was misfortunes encounters that you would pray you hadn’t seen at all in your whole life.
I had seen this sight like that one when I found that green corrupted core.
It was a curse that I remembered everything.
That place, that sight, and my calmly beating heart even at then was something I knew not even an adult knight who have seen countless deaths could handle.
And, to my utter bad luck, this was the second one.
[[ Master! Don’t! ]]
‘It’s late Celes, the thing… had already entered my eyes.’