Alex charges at the Forest Wolf while in his mana-enhanced state. The wolf tenses up its body, ready to retaliate. As he neared the wolf's head he makes a slight sidestep to the left, but the Forest Wolf responds immediately by moving its head to the its right, getting ready to bite him. Alex in his enhanced state can see the wolf's movement clearly. He reacted by twisting his body to the opposite direction and make a sudden stab with the wooden sword at the wolf's left eye. The wolf can't react to Alex's fast speed in its current exhausted state. The wooden sword stabs at its left eye straight into its brain. The Forest Wolf lets out one last painful howl and collapses on its right side.

"Congratulations, you have killed the . You have earned 2 credit," Fay's voice sounds directly in Alex's head.

"Huff.. huff.." Alex pants with both his hands holding his knees.

It was an exhausting battle that lasted more than 20 minutes. He might have came out of it unscathed, but one wrong move and it would have been life-threatening. After calming down, he pulls out the wooden sword from the Forest Wolf's left eye and cleans it. He sits down while showing a big smile on his face. That was his first fight which was done successfully. He also earned 2 credits. It's a small amount, but it is a start. Alex uses [Observe] and check his current information.

>-----Name: Alex Volff

Age: 15

Race: Human

Rank: F*

Credits: 2

>-----Basic Stats:

- Strength: 28

- Speed: 26

- Agility: 27

- Endurance: 30

- Spirit: 42

- Mana: 3/45

>-----Skills:

- Energy Manipulation (F)

>-----Kill Count: 1

Achievements: 0

Records: 0

>-----

He closes the floating image with a thought and starts recovering his strength. After 5 minutes of rest, Alex's mental state has gotten back up to its best, but his Mana hasn't filled up yet. Suddenly, the Forest Wolf's corpse lying a few meters in front of him starts to glow with a gray light and starts melting into its surrounding. Alex doesn't get surprised witnessing this mysterious scene as he already expected it. It was in the basic survival information circulated by the UDA. The UDA doesn't give any explanation to why this strange phenomenon happens. The flesh and blood creatures melts into its surrounding after their death. But, then again, this Realm of Defenders in itself is a strange phenomenon with no explanation, so Alex just shrugs it off and not think about it anymore.

Alex keeps waiting for his Mana to fill back up while training on moving his spirit around his body to get more familiar with this skill. After alternating between training and resting for 30 minutes Alex confirms that his Mana is full again. He continues moving around the forest to find another creature. He manages to find and kill another 12 Forest Wolves that day, earning a total of 26 credits. He uses the same method to kill each one, keeps hitting them, wait for them to tire out and go for the finish using the {Energy Manipulation} skill. He keeps resting for around 30 minutes after each kill while training his spiritual control. Alex can feel his spiritual control gets a little bit better after each training session. Also, the time he takes to finish off a Forest Wolf keeps decreasing after each kill. He manages to hit the same spot on their body at least 4 times against each Forest Wolves starting from the 5th wolf he faced. He even managed to finish the last wolf in 10 minutes. He got a bit lucky there as he managed to hit the same spot 7 times within 10 minutes and caused its skin and muscle to break down and bleed out. It was easy to go for the kill after that.

When he finished resting after the last kill, Alex can see that the white sun in the sky is starting to go down and parts of two moons are starting to be visible. The time in Realm of Defenders is roughly similar to the outside world, which means he must have spent around 11-12 hours hunting. It's starting to get dark. Hunting in the dark is more dangerous as creatures gets wilder at night. They also have better senses than human so they fight better than humans when in the dark.

Alex starts going back to Beginner Town by following the [Radar] blinking in the air in front of him. He hasn't ventured deep into the forest, but he's now more careful to avoid meeting any creatures lest he be delayed. It takes him around 80 minutes to go back to Beginner Town. He doesn't own any resident in Beginner Town yet and his pitiful amount of credits can't afford to rent a place, so he tells Fay to transport him back to his personal space. A black light starts to surround him and within seconds he's back inside the transporter capsule in his personal space.

Alex goes to the holographic computer beside the [Transporter Box] to check the store. The cheapest items in there is priced at 20 credits, but they are completely useless to him now. These items are low-ranked raw materials for production. The cheapest usable items for him now are priced at 50 credits, which includes [Return Stone], some basic skill books, some basic potions and other miscellaneous items. As he doesn't have enough credit to buy something useful, he closes the store page and heads to the training room.

After filling up his starving stomach, Alex starts training the {Energy Manipulation} skill. He can feel his spiritual control and the control of his Mana gradually getting better. When it's almost midnight according to Earth's time, Alex stops his training and starts resting on a futon in his training room. He needs to be in his best condition for the next battles.