After Parting with the carriage, Lucius arrived at his destination the Iron Mountains, with the advice of Leyak he remained near the road and found a good spot to live at, he passed the most of the first month training and learning swordsmanship from him, but now Lucius was facing an important problem a bear type magical appeared near his spot, this was the first magical beast Lucius encountered in his life.

Sfx(Roarrr!!!)

The bear magical beast leaped from his position and with his paw aimed at Lucius,

Lucius seeing the imminent attack immediately stepped aside to dodge, after repeating the sword dance of Leyak until he was not able to move anymore, he had better reflexes and reaction time, the bear was like a giant rock, his attack landed on a tree, the tree god smashed to pieces, Lucius seeing the state of the tree, his face twitched, he was shocked at the sharpness of the horn and the toughness of the bear body

“That’s a horned bear, it’s a second rank magical beast, Hahahaha nothing better than experiencing being between life and death to learn and become stronger “

Leyak voice was ranging in Lucius mind, but it made him more nervous, the beasts in the cave at the silent woods were not living things so he didn’t feel concerned but now he was facing a magical beast a true beast with instincts and a 2nd rank at that.

“I… how can I take down this thing? “Lucius asked with a trembling voice

“Stop being nervous and concentrate it may be a 2nd rank but it’s still a mere beast with no intelligence you can take it down by calmly evaluating the situation and finding a weak point “

Lucius thought it was simpler to think than actually act.

The bear seeing his prey slip from its view was angered, it turned to look at Lucius with a menacing look, Lucius seeing its gaze shuddered, the beast charged toward him with its fifty centimeter sharpened horn, this time he tried to block with his black sword ,

Sfx (peng!!!)

He successfully blocked but in the end he was sent flying crashing in a nearby tree, he fell on the ground spitting out a mouthful of blood.

“Brat I said to remain calm and not rush you need to be more daring and with your mind you can concentrate on dodging and attacking at the same time , if you continue like this you will probably die “

The words of Leyak were like sharp knifes piercing Lucius heart but he was right, he can’t remain a child forever he needs to mature and experience battles to become stronger.

“Right I can’t remain like this “

“Use my sword dance rhythm to strike with the least amount of movements”

The bear was currently approaching step by step toward Lucius thinking that he finished him, but upon reaching, Lucius abruptly stood up and slashed toward the head of the magical beast , his aim slightly missed but the slash landed on the neck , a wound appeared , the beast was surprised and howled in pain but it didn’t die .

“Amazing vitality! But I didn’t think that the neck was the weakness “

The bear was enraged, and he attacked in frenzy, Lucius used the movements that Leyak taught him to block and dodge simultaneously to the side, it was obvious that the wound weakened it, the bear continued to attack and Lucius was dodging all of the attacks, suddenly he dodged by jumping and using the tree as a base he tightened his grip on his sword and delivered another hit at the neck of the beast, it emitted a deafening cry and a big wound appeared this time but , it still didn’t die , but it was weakened to the point that it didn’t have the ability to move , it was hardily breathing .

“Finish it “

Lucius was looking at the beast, the bear was now frightened and tried to flee but its movements were slower than a turtle.

Lucius was hesitating

“What are you waiting for kill it!!!?”

“Bu…but it is badly injured “

“What are you saying?!! A few minutes ago it wanted to eat you, kid you’re too soft and in this world being soft means death!!”

Leyak words made Lucius become determined, he caught up to the bear, he raised his arm and with his black sword pierced its neck ending its life ,blood was splattered on the ground , he then put his sword back in its sheath that was made of some clothe .

“I …I killed a living thing?” Lucius muttered

“Sooner or later you will have to kill don’t tell me that you didn’t thought of killing the target of your revenge “

“No … I ...”

“Stop being naïve and become more assertive, killing is a must, how will you defend yourself? Sometimes you will need to be crueler but you will need to bear the consequences like a responsible human “

“I know “

“If you know then you need to change your character “

Lucius remained thinking for several minutes, he knew that in life he mustn’t falter no matter what for him to take revenge he never forgot his uncle words and his only family anger was stirring inside of him, he mind became clearer and looking at the corpse of the bear he became more and more determined

“Alright what do I do now? “

“Hmm take its magical core “

“Magical core?”

“Hey you don’t know what a magical core is? “

“I didn’t read about it “

“Fuck how can you don’t know every magical beast has a core it’s like its heart all the magic is coming from that core for example that horned bear strength is an enhanced magic it will make its fur and skin harder and augment the strength “

“Oh! , I didn’t know this a core and where is it situated In the body ?”

“Hmm it’s in the middle of the forehead, go extract it it will greatly benefit you in the first place I recommended to go here for the magical cores “

Lucius then made a small hole in the head of the horned bear with his sword and a small crystal like ball the size of a finger was embedded in the forehead, Lucius took it and with some water removed the blood from it, It was blue colored .

“What can it help me with?”

“I can’t believe you a magical core is like a highly condensed ball of energy if you refine it you can raise your cultivation by a considerable amount “

“Really! Then I’m truly lucky!”

“it’s not luck kid you killed the beast so it’s your reward , you can refine it by eating it but a normal person will take several days to refine it but you are not normal you have me with you I can refine it in flash with my spiritual energy “

“If what you say is true how many times it can raise my cultivation?”

“hahah one magical core of the 2nd rank will raise your cultivation by roughly 10 percent so if you have nine more magical cores of the 2nd rank you will reach the 2nd level of cultivation and thus become a 2nd rank warrior but if you extract rank one cores , then you will need triple the amount “Leyak explained .

“Triple!!!! One 2nd rank beast took all my strength to kill how can I kill nine more” Lucius was shocked he needs to kill nine magical beasts of the 2nd rank or twenty seven of the first rank to reach the 2nd layer of cultivation.

“iku ku ku it depends on your fighting capability “

Lucius shoulders dropped, it was too mush

“What are you disappointed for, you need battle experience anyway so don’t complain “rebuked Leyak.

It was already night so Lucius got to clean himself with the water of the smack stream and regained his hut to sleep.

The next day, Lucius woke up early ate some food and quenched his thirst by drinking water.

Then he sat on a nearby rock ate the magical core and entered the meditative state, the magical core was in the stomach of Lucius when a white stream of spiritual energy appeared in Lucius head and came down toward the magical core, it warped around it and began to dissolve it, very quickly it dissipated in the form of many threads of energy, Lucius sensed the thin threads of energy and directed it to every cell of his body that devoured until it disappeared.

“Good you are in the early stage of a first rank warrior ,now you need to hunt magical beasts but when you encounter third ranks escape immediately you can’t injure them with your current strength “Leyak said with a sharp voice

Lucius stood up took his sword and walked deeper in the forest, the dense forest made movement slightly difficult but he quickly found a small area empty of trees.

“Hmm? There are two magical beasts this time but their aura are week its probably two first rank beasts but prepare your sword” Leyak suddenly alerted Lucius

“Yeah “

Suddenly a noise came from behind the trees, a purple shadow flashed and shot toward Lucius, he dodged but he didn’t see clearly the identity of the flash, another flash shot toward him from behind, then 2 shadows shot at the same time, Lucius continued to dodge incessantly, then with his fist was able to hit one of the shadows that fell on the ground what appeared was a small animal with small eyes and purple fur.

“Oh its violet rats, it’s a rank one rat type beast their strong point is agility and their hard long teeth be wary of their bites but they have weak defense “ leayak informed Lucius

Lucius hearing Leyak words relaxed and prepared to strike with his sword, the rat regained its balance a disappeared it really had high agility, and the two rats another time attacked him.

“Concentrate and focus your sight, you will be able to see their position “

Lucius began to focus his gaze at the shadow the two first attacks he dodged, the third he was able to block with his sword but the fourth time, his sword flashed and a rat was cut in two, he was able to pinpoint the position of the rat and immediately slashed resulting in cutting the rat easily, the other experienced the same fate, Lucius collected the two magical cores and actually sat meditating and ate the two cores immediately without losing time , like the first time they were dissipated by the spiritual energy of Leyak and small threads appeared , Lucius directed it to his cells reinforcing his muscle strength and raising his agility .

For three hours Lucius hunted purple rats resulting in collecting twelve magical cores, he ate them and refining them reached the intermediate stage of the first rank.

“Hmm good harvest for today don’t exhaust yourself and return to your hut, begin to absorb energy to replenish your strength “

“Master how much energy before reaching the second rank?”

“Hmm let’s see, about sixty percent is remaining “

“That much huh “

Leyak when observing Lucius saw considerable changes in his attitude, now he became more decisive and complain less than usual it pleased Leyak.

The first month already passed with the next day, Lucius returned to the empty area and searched again for purple rats and he found some but just at that time for the first time the rats fled, Lucius didn’t understand, usually they are aggressive toward him and instantly attack him but this time they actually fled.

Suddenly a deafening noise rang from behind the tall trees, it was like a lion growl, Lucius was startled.

“Quick escape! This beast is a third rank!!!” Leyak was uneasy after seeing the magical beast it was the worst of the third ranks that Lucius can encounter now.

Hearing Leyak words Lucius face became pale and ashen he immediately ran backwards but a shadow leaped forward and a huge claw grazed his head cutting some of his red hair, the creature was 4 meters tall with thick fur and vicious eyes.

“You have lucked out kid if that claw touched you your head would be smashed , this magical beast is named azure cat they are fauve type beasts with azure fur that harder than iron “

“Thank you for the reminder but it’s extremely fast how can I escape from this thing?”

“Run toward the trees and make zigzags between them like this it will be difficult for the azure cat to hit for the time being that Is they are vicious beasts that don’t let their prey slip from their hands “

“Master! Stop aggravating the situation you are further pressuring me when you talk like this “

Lucius slipped between the trees but the azure cat was glued to him every tree that was in front of its claws were cut to pieces easily.

“What to do!! What to do!!!!!” Lucius was screaming in his mind.

End of chapter.