Instantly as the Gold Hawk swung its claws, ready to tear Khal’s body up into several pieces, Khal’s physique underwent visible changes. His white and smooth skin suddenly turned rigid and cracked while getting a deep black shade; his whole body became almost like that of those Diamond Beetles’ exoskeleton.

*Clang!*

Like hitting a sword into a metal shield, the beast’s claw crushed onto Khal’s arm, but except for a small white mark, it was unable to wound him.

“!?”

Realized what just happened, a slight shock formed on the Gold Hawk’s face but only for a fraction of a second. The next moment it flapped its wings and was ready to increase the distance but it turned out it was too late for that; a black glint flashed before its eyes and the very next second what it was able to see was as the world spun before his eyes. 

Its head had been cut off with one single move.

“This Diamond Skin is so powerful! Not even a Third Stage Beast has what it takes to injure me!” as Khal enjoyed his victory merrily, the Gold Hawk’s body turned into a yellow substance and floated silently above the air.

Khal saw this but before he decided to begin to consume the Essence he took out his Cultivator’s badge and took a slight peek at it.

/Mission: Gold Hawk Hunt/

• Gold Hawk killed: 1/5

“Nice,” said Khal with a slight smile and put his badge away. It seemed what Logan said was really true and simply killing the creatures was enough to complete the mission. Everything else was his.

“Well then, let’s consume this.” said Khal as he sat down and without further thinking started to consume the Beast Essence.

Minutes passed in silence and after 5 whole minutes later Khal finally opened his eyes, revealing a pair of sky blue eyes with a crimson vertical slit in their middle.

[Notify! ‘Power Core’ Heaven’s Eyes consumed 9 ‘Beast Essence’!]

“9? That’s quite a decent amount.”

While Second Stage Beasts gave Cultivators 10 Beast Essences max, 9 Beast Essences from a Third Stage Beast could be considered a good amount; the maximum load one could get from them was 15.

Standing up, Khal raised his head toward the starry sky and watched the moon above the mountain. Seeing that it was still high above Khal lowered his gaze and looked around with a smile.

“4 more to go!”

–

–

–

Hours passed in a blink of an eye and as the moon slowly descended in the west, the sun finally rose on the east bringing the world out of the dusk.

And just as the celestial body vanished from the boundless sky, somewhere in Moon Mountain, a young man was sitting in a lotus position consuming the yellow floating substance on his side with a nonchalant face. His eyes were gently closed showcasing his elegant complexion while his black hair fluttered in the gentle breeze gracefully.

Khal had been hunting for 7 hours straight without rest for the Gold Hawks, but luckily he barely made it in time and slew the final beast before sunrise.

[Notify! ‘Power Core’ Heaven’s Eyes consumed 4 ‘Beast Essence’!]

“…”

Opening his eyes, Khal deactivated his Heaven’s Eyes and glanced at the place where he killed the final Gold Hawk. Out of the 5 beasts, the final one was the most challenging one to kill. While the first four only attacked him in a manner where they tried to cut him up with their claws the fifth one instead tried to spit on him.

Yes, it tried to spit on him. As it was common knowledge, Gold Hawks pressed their Gold Toxic into their prey through their claws, but for some reason, this one didn’t; it simply flew around him with crazy speed while spitting the gold substance on him from time to time.

But unfortunately, the beast was against not anyone but Khal who was able to solidify his skin through the Beast Core he consumed. Naturally, he was sure if that Gold Toxic touched bare skin then anyone would die in minutes but thanks to his Diamond Skin, he didn’t need to fear that. Although it was quite tricky and hard to slay a creature that constantly moved here and there with crazy speed, but in the end, with the help of his Devil Fang and Heaven’s Eyes he was able to slay it and obtain its Essence.

But luckily, he not only was able to obtain his Essence but something else too. Raising his hand that held a curved leaf with a glistening gold liquid on top of it Khal’s mouth curved slightly while a cold glint flashed in his eyes.

“This will come in handy.”

***

At the entrance of Moon Academy right below a small tree’s shadow, a silhouette was standing proudly with his arms crossed before his chest. It was a boy with a handsome face and calm but arrogant posture that told anyone he was a noble with royal blood flowing through his veins.

Naturally, it was Alde and he seemed quite happy since early morning. Even his friends looked at him like some kind of strange guy because of his sudden change of behavior. Alde was the typical guy who was emotionless all the time but once he showed one it was either anger or jealousy; he hardly showed a smile.

Yet, now not only did he start to smile like it was the best day of his life but even helped others who needed assistance. For example, there was a guy who lost a short sword during a bet so Alde decided to buy him a completely new one.

This made everyone stupified instantly! Who would even buy something for a stranger they didn’t even know? This was strange, especially from Alde!

While humming a song slightly, Alde raised his arm holding a pocket watch, and grinned, “It should be time.”

And just as he said those words, a shadow emerged at Moon Academy’s gate while a figure walked in slowly.

“So? How d…” with a smile on his face Alde started to talk, but the instant he recognized the guy before him his whole complexion and body froze up.

“Eh?”

Khal who just arrived back turned his gaze toward the sound, only to see Alde standing not far away from him with a bizarre grin etched on his face.

“Umm… Did you say something?” asked Khal as he knitted his brows in confusion.

“…”

As silence followed his question Khal looked around with a disturbed look, “Sorry, I thought you talked to me but it seems I was wrong. Then… if you excuse me.”

With that, Khal bowed slightly and without saying anything else walked away, leaving the still frozen Alde behind in one place.

Watching as Khal’s silhouette vanished in the distance Alde’s face suddenly darkened while from his tightly clenched fist blood started to flow out onto the ground.

“Senior Alde! Can you plea-, hi!?”

A little boy with short brown hair and a normal face ran to Alde’s side in the hope to get his help, but the moment he noticed his frightening expression the boy screamed up with fear and his body started to tremble unwittingly.

“S-Senior Alde? I-is Everything okay? Did something happen?” with a trembling voice, the boy walked closer to Alde but the very next second he regretted his action.

*Slap!*

“Argh!”

Falling onto the ground with a heavy sound, the boy held his cheeks with a painful expression and raised his head with small tears in his eyes.

“What was th-“

“F*ck off…”

“!?”

The instant as that single sentence sounded, Alde pierced daggers at the boy with his stare in silence, telling him if he won’t go away now, he will kill him.

“I-I’m sorry!” muttered the boy with a pale face and like his life depended on it he ran away in a flash.

Alde on the other hand didn’t care about it at all but tilted his gaze toward the direction where Khal walked and clenched his teeth with so much power that it was almost feared that they will break.