Standing in front of Mira, Maria, and Vulcan was a very intimidating-looking deer-like beast. It stood there at over 2 meters tall. Its coat was almost completely black and it had red eyes. The antlers on its head looked like a tree sapling. The antlers were huge and looked incredibly hard and sharp. They even looked like wood. There was only one deer that could match this description, and this was the Nightwood Deer.

Mira had a conflicted view on deers. In worlds that don’t have cultivators, creatures that look like deer are almost always passive and never attack anything. They are usually herbivores. But in the cultivation world, it’s a different story. Magical Beasts generally have to fight to survive and more often than not, eating other strong magical beasts can make them stronger. Mira doesn’t really know the specifics regarding magical beast growth other than a few simple things.

The deer just stood there and looked at them. It seems like it was trying to determine their strength.

Mira and Maria readied their weapons as Vulcan was also ready to fight. Mira and Maria split and charged at the deer from both sides. Mira carried the momentum of the scythe with her trying to decapitate the deer right off the bat. The deer just extended its antlers and blocked her scythe. Since the antlers had a lot of forks on them, her scythe was difficult to remove the deer’s antlers. Mira then got kicked in the chest and stumbled back as she finally removed her scythe. Maria didn’t have this problem since she didn’t use a scythe, but she also went for the body of the deer.

The deer’s ability seems that it’s able to control its antlers and extend or contract them at will. The deer tried to dodge Maria’s attack, but she used her Light Blade while she swung down her sword and left a gash on its body.

Vulcan ended up going for its legs. The deer kept extending its sharp antlers to charge at and attack Vulcan. Vulcan had a hard time dodging all of them while moving forward to attack its legs. He ended up getting hit a couple of times by the antlers, but he was able to reach its legs. He used his flaming claws to try and rip off its legs. The deer, of course, isn’t just going to stand there. He kept swinging his head and using his antlers and kicking at Vulcan. Vulcan eventually got kicked and flew out from its legs, but he was able to dig into the bone.

Mira and Maria saw that its legs were pretty badly injured. Mira added ice to her scythe to make it a double-bladed scythe and attacked from the back. Maria went for the head and used her triple draws. She can now use it more than once without losing all of her energy, but it is still not perfect. The second and third illusory blades are still not complete, but it was still a strong attack.

Mira sent Ice Blades towards the deer’s hind legs while Maria used her Light Beam towards its head and Vulcan breathed fire towards its front legs. With its head and legs targeted, it was forced to block or dodge these attacks. Maria and Vulcan charged forward together to try and destroy its head while Mira charged towards its back to try to cut it open from the back.

The deer dodged the Ice Blades with its hind legs, but when its hind legs were returning to their original position, Mira had already removed one back leg.

Maria used her triple draws on the deer’s neck. The deer kept swinging its head and started to try and jump and run around, but couldn’t do it since it had just lost a leg. Maria’s Triple Draw destroyed part of its antlers as Vulcan leaped onto its head and started to dig into its brain. Mira continued with her momentum and removed another leg as Maria used her triple draws again and removed its head. Vulcan then leaped off the deer’s head and could now take a breather.

“Maria store the corpse, I’ll collect the body parts. We are leaving this area and finding a place to rest.” Mira said as Maria nodded and collected the corpse. Mira stored the body parts and they left the area to get away from that area. She didn’t know if any beasts would try and go there to fight for the spoils.

They ran until they couldn’t see any beasts in the surrounding area then stopped.

“I think we should let Vulcan eat his fill. I don’t know if he will get stronger from eating a Mid-Stage Rank 2 magical beast but might as well see and try. Flames might be best, but I have no idea.” Mira suggested.

“I get the feeling that absorbing stronger flames will cause a mutation in his flames as well as strength, but I feel like he should be able to get stronger by eating other magical beasts as well. Maybe.” Maria said to Mira. She was the one contracted with Vulcan.

Maria took out the deer’s body and let Vulcan eat his fill. Vulcan looked at the deer’s body and yipped happily. He started munching into the meat and kept eating until over half of the deer was gone. He then slowly walked over to Maria and fell asleep.

“I guess we should just get some sleep after healing with our wounds a bit.” Mira said as she circulated her energy to heal her wounds. She wasn’t hurt very badly and only had some minor injuries. The same goes for both Maria and Vulcan.

Night came and passed quickly. It was now time for all 3 of them to continue going towards the Core Region.

They started going through the forest at a decent speed. They have spent long enough in the forest by now that traversing through the terrain wasn’t much of an issue. The only real issue is trying to avoid as many beasts as possible. The closer they got to the Core Region, the less they wanted to fight the beasts. They were able to spot some Late-Stage Rank 2 magical beasts on their way. They had no intention of fighting one of these beasts as they are equal in strength to a Stage 6 or 7 Qi Condensation Cultivator. Luckily the beast was asleep and either didn’t notice them or didn’t care. They decided to backtrack and go all the way around this beast. The main reason they could deal with the Mid-Stage Rank 2 Nightwood Deer was that they had Vulcan, who seemed to have the strength of a Mid-Stage Rank 2 Magical Beast, and both Mira and Maria are stronger than your average Stage 2 and Stage 3 Qi Condensation cultivator. Plus, Mira and Maria have great coordination and all Vulcan has to do is attack where they aren’t attacking.

After they went around that Late-Stage Rank 2 magical beast, they continued their journey to the border of the Core Region. It took them about a week of running, hiding, and dodging to get near the border of the Core Region. They decided to fight one other Mid-Stage Rank 2 Magical Beast just to get a little more experience and it was in their way. They didn’t feel like going around this one as they held the element of surprise. It was this bear-looking beast, but they couldn’t identify it. It had green fur, a large horn on its head, and two long tails. Mira shot Ice Needles at its eyes. Vulcan went out and started to attack it with his fire claws. After its eyes were dealt with, Mira went in to attack his legs with her scythe. While he was busy dealing with these two, Maria was looking for an opportunity to jump in. After Vulcan left a wound on him and Mira dazed him for a second, Maria came in and used her Triple Draws and removed his head.

It all happened incredibly fast and the bear barely had any time to think or react before he was already dead. The bear wasn’t that much stronger than the dear. He definitely would’ve been more difficult head-on though because a bear is a bit more battle-oriented than a deer.

They collected his corpse and let Vulcan eat his fill again. He ate almost all of the bear before he fell asleep. This time he slept for 2 days before he woke up. He also seemed to gain around a centimeter or two in height in the last 2 days.

After the battle with the bear, they continued their journey to the Core Region. Once they got closer to the Core Region, they had to look out for caves. Abe said that it was in a cave, but that it went underground. They didn’t know how the cave looked or if it was more of a hole in the ground. They continued looking for any cave they could find. Mira felt that it would not be a big cave, but a smaller one. A large cave would be easier to spot and if the ruins is only something like a rumor in the city, then it would make sense if the cave that led to it was hard to find.

After a while of searching high and low for a damn cave, Vulcan reacted to something. All of the hairs on his body stood up. Mira noticed this change and got ready for battle. Mira looked around then spotted what Vulcan was nervous of. It was a Late-Stage Rank 2 rabbit. It was around a meter long and 50 centimeters tall. It had a horn on its forehead that emitted strands of lighting.

“Fuck. A Thunderhorn Hare and a Late-Stage one at that. I bet it lives in some small ass cave! I’m starting to get a bad feeling from this encounter.” Mira muttered under her breath.

“Maria, I think that we might need to follow that beast. I have a feeling that it lives in the cave we are trying to find.” Mira whispered to Maria.

They then secretly followed this rabbit around. It nearly took an entire day before the rabbit led them back to its hole. They stayed around 100 meters away from the small cave. It was slightly bigger than the tunnel that led to the lava lake.

“Should we fight it?” Maria whispered to Mira.

“Hell no! If it were a bigger beast then we might have a chance if we take it by surprise, but that Thunderhorn Hare is so small and probably extremely fast. And forget ambushing it, rabbits have very keen senses. That’s how they live. If we can catch it, then we might be able to kill it as I bet that it doesn’t have an incredibly strong body. The only problem is that horn and its speed. Getting stabbed by that horn at high speeds will leave a nasty would and it hits the right spot will just instantly kill us. I’d give us a 10% chance of winning. If we could catch it, then we could probably kill it in one hit. I say we wait until it leaves that little cave then sneak into there and find out if it’s what we are looking for.” Mira said back to Maria and she nodded back. Maria didn’t want to fight it as she also felt like they couldn’t win in a head-on battle.

They camped out and waited for this rabbit to come out of its hole. They had to wait for 2 days and nights before they finally saw this stupid thing move. The Thunderhorn Hare came out and looked around. Then it slowly started hopping forward. It then just launched off. The 3 of them could barely keep up with that speed. They knew it would be fast, but not that fast. It was a good thing they didn’t try to fight that.

As soon as the rabbit sped off somewhere they rushed into the cave. They had to squat in the cave as it was a bit too low for them to stand. They walked as they could and soon found the end of the cave, or what seemed to be the end. Mira put her hand on the end of the cave and her hand went through the end of the cave. She was surprised to see something like this. Mira looked at Maria and Vulcan and nodded. She then walked into the end of the cave and was able to walk through. Maria and Vulcan soon followed. Their mouths dropped and they stood there with their mouths agape. The scene in front of them was simply… Amazing!