Max got back up onto his feets ignoring the slight pain in his back. He looked warily at the Water Cobra. Earlier he had failed to notice the crown on its head. But now he did. This bastard was an evolved creature.

A Water Cobra was a Ferocious beast. But this bastard here had clearly surpassed its limit.

" No wonder, this bastard had evolved after eating those fruits.", Max mumbled in realisation.

The snake hissed as it bared its fangs. It was clearly enraged. But it didn't pounce on Max, which was a bit surprising.

Max looked at the snake in surprise. But after a moment, he realized.

" This bastard, he is afraid of me getting near the tree."

" It gives me an advantage. If it's strength is around the low level of savage beasts, I may still have a chance as long as it keeps defending the tree."

Max looked at his dagger and saw its blade had bent in. This was the very first dagger he had made and now this snake had ruined it.

" Anyway, I should have known that it wouldn't work on a beast like this.", Max mumbled before tossing it into his inventory.

Max didn't have any other weapon to use. Weapons were expensive and his pocket money....lets not talk about it...it has been long since he heard from them. But Mr. Stark had told him that he had been in touch with him a few times.

He had thought of buying a decent weapon from the money he would have received from his first quest. But alas, he didn't get many chances to even receive his payment after getting discharged from hospital.

Max looked at the snake and knew it would be foolish to fight it bare hands.

" I will just burn it down."

Max raised his hands and tried to concentrate on the feeling he used to have when he commanded his elemental abilities.

But no matter how he did it, something seemed to be lacking and at the most, he could only let out sparks from his hand.

But the spark seemed to have further engaged the snake and it opened its mouth and shot a breath attack.

Max moved his body and barely got out of its way. But the tree behind him wasn't so lucky. The attack hit the tree and blasted a hole through its trunk.

Max looked at the hole with wide eyes. The breath attack seemed to be a water cannon and some drops had splashed onto Max's clothes after the collision.

" F*ck! "

Max cursed as he noticed his clothes had melted at the place where the drops of water had landed.

"It's strong and its acid is dangerous as well. I will be dead if I get hit by it."

Max looked at the snake and turned to leave. He could have taken a chance if he still had his elemental ability. But now that he didn't, it would be foolish of him to do so.

Max spent his rest of the day moving around and hunting some low level beasts while trying to figure his way out.

When the sun was about to set, Max went back to the river side and started a fire before laying down on the grass nearby.

" F*ck! What's wrong with this place? No matter where I go, the beasts seem to get stronger and more powerful. This isn't following the logic. In normal cases, the further one ventures into Orena, the more dangerous it becomes. So there has to be one direction which would lead me further deep while the one opposite to it should lead me towards the outskirts."

Max really felt his head hurt. He couldn't comprehend his situation. Where the hell was he?

After pondering for a while, Max finally gave up and took out some beast meat to roast.

Max wasn't bad at cooking. Since, he spent most of his childhood around Uncle Rolv, he had also learned many things from him.

As Max thought about it, his mood turned sour. He still had a hard time believing that man had tried to kill him.

….

The meat was finally cooked and Max took out a bite into it.

" Ah! I am still lacking skills. But it's better than eating raw meat.", Max didn't have much of an option.

At this moment, Max remembered about Sera and tried to call her out.

And as he did, the tattoo on his chest gave a blue glow before a light came out of it and Sera appeared.

" Sera, do you wanna eat?", Max asked as he handed over a piece of meat.

Sera accepted it but kept looking at it in confusion.

Max didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He took a bite out of his own meat and kept on thinking what to do ahead.

Sera looked at Max and understood what he meant. She crawled next to Max before biting off small pieces of meat.

Max just smiled looking at her.

….

After eating, Max got up and moved towards the boulder on his right.

Sera had fallen asleep after eating and he didn't want to disturb her. The more he looked at her, the more Max felt that she was no different than any ordinary girl.

Finally, Max moved onto the boulder and took out the beast cores. He had a total of 10 cores. 1 from a peak level ferocious beast, the Black Iron Beetle, 4 from a pack of mid level ferocious beasts, Fire Mongoose and the rest were from a low-level ferocious beasts, Skull Spiders.

A few days back, Max would never have thought of using resources like these. After all, he didn't have a core to refine. But now he too has one.

Max picked one of the cores from Skull Spider. But suddenly he froze. He had forgotten about one thing, he never bothered learning the Mana Art provided by the Academy since he didn't have a core.

So, he didn't know how to refine it.

" F*ck! I should have read it at least once.", Max murmured as he massaged his forehead.

" Ahhh!!... let's try the Ancient Manual. It might help. Even if I don't have the system helps, it doesn't mean I can't try it. After all, I am still qualified to practice it."

Max closed his eyes and drew his past experience before starting to breathe in and out following a certain pattern. He maintained his posture for almost two hours. When he was starting to lose hope, he finally felt a familiar sensation.