On the outskirts of the city, A young teenager was venturing towards the vast forests near the city, while adorned in travelers clothing. The young man looked barely 16, but any onlooker would be shocked if looked directly at his black eyes they would notice the flame of passion burning fiercely within his eyes.

Of course, this teenager was none other than Ray & right now he was advancing towards the “silent Night forest”.

This was the forest located near the outskirts of the city, that stretched for more than 3000 miles. Moreover, this forest had several strong beasts that resided at the core of the forest, while the beasts that resided near or at the core of the forest were strong.

The Lord of the forest was an Earth Dragon who was currently an existence within the celestial Realm, meaning that the Lord of the forest had long since freed itself from the chains of time and had become an immortal that could live for as long as it got stronger and it currently had thousands of years to live for and get stronger, Moreover, it could at any moment attack human territories but,

It never attacked the land outside the forest as it was not only a prideful creature but also had a pact with the emperor of ‘Rysal Empire’, the pact stated that, “neither humans nor beasts would expand then territories”.

However, any humans going into the forest would be at the mercy of beasts while any beasts would be at mercy of humans if they left their territory.

Yet, that did not stop many humans from venturing into the forest to obtain natural treasures, legendary legacies, or to hunt beasts, as beasts contained spirit cores while their bodies were also used for crafting treasures and artifacts whereas consuming their meat would grant the consumer power also at the same time making them stronger and also provide them with immense benefits.

Thus, as the saying went,

“The reward is in the risk”.

Hence, many people went on with it, while some weak and unknown people got so strong that they happened to challenge the heavens themselves while so famous existences had also perished within the forest.

Yet, very few dared to venture into the forest & take risks to get stronger while many people wasted their lives in fear, and some looked for safer alternatives.

However, Ray was neither the former nor the latter as he directly ventured into the forest.

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Ray continued to travel towards the forest & on the way, many travelers venturing out of the forest looked at him in contempt, while some just looked at him with pity.

However, that served as fuel to Ray’s passion causing his passion to burn more fiercely as he looked at everyone’s expression towards him while his resolve along with the desire to get stronger only reached new heights.

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It had been a total of two hours since Ray left the city & now he had reached the outskirts of the forest.

He took a map from his inventory & observed that his spot was blinking with a red light constantly, stating that he was venturing on a dangerous path.

However, Ray ignored it and checked the map for the location of ‘Silver furred wolfs’.

Apart from that Ray also remembered the information that he got about these wolfs from, the ‘Guild’s Association’, stating that these wolf’s lived in small packs and did not have many stronger magical attacks while they were creatures that had the magic affinity toward the wind element with their basic attacks being, [Howl] and [Wind Blade].

[Wind Blade]: “A basic attack that is created by concentrating wind into a blade to attack the enemy”

While

“[Howl]: battle cry used to alert the members of the pack”

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Ray recalled everything as he equipped both of his artifact-type beast souls and just as he did so, a flash of light encompassed him and the next moment, a black armor adorned his figure, with a golden sword sheathed on his waist. Both the armor and sword exuded the aura of an intermediate tier thus indicating their presence as intermediate tier beast souls.

Although these beast souls were only intermediate tier & did not have special characteristics or a beast name attached to them, Ray didn’t give much thought to it as intermediate tier beast souls were still better than basic tier beast souls and even cost a lot. So, to someone who came from a hard background already a privilege to own an intermediate-tier beast soul.

Then, Ray disappeared into the forest,

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While Ray ventured into the forest, Aurora on the other hand was amused & a little shocked by the change of character shown by her host as she realized that he might have loved his family to change so much in such low time just for their sake, thus she watched Ray search for his target, Ray finally spotted a creature whose features matched his target.

The creature had silver fur all over, it stood on all its four limbs, had pointed hairy ears while its sharp fangs dripped with the blood of its prey along with its saliva, the wolf was currently feasting on its prey with its snout buried within it it’s prey’s body.

Ray, seeing that the wolf had not yet sensed him, took his chance & attacked the wolf with a magical attack of his own. The skill Ray used was,

[Lightning bolt]:-( “Uses 10 mana to condense a bolt of lightning to attack the enemy with its special destructive and penetrative along with a  paralyzing effect that temporarily paralyzes the enemy”),

This was the description Ray got when he acquired the skill. Therefore, Ray used this skill due to it is the special paralyzing effect.

Hence as Ray thought of this skill he felt mana in his body churning and spreading towards his hands, just then a lightning bolt appeared in between his hands. Then Ray pointed his hand towards the wolf and released his attack,

[Lightning Bolt],

Swoosh,

However, to Ray’s absolute surprise, the wolf sensed the approach of the lightning bolt & moved out of the trajectory of the lightning bolt yet it still grazed through one of its limbs. Lightning cracked on its fur and the wolf winced, seemingly affected.

Ray, although unable to get a perfect hit, was still happy as the lightning bolt had served its purpose.

Then, under the gaze of ‘silver furred wolf’, Ray approached the wolf and unsheathed his sword that causing the wolf to slightly narrow its eyes as it sensed the presence of an intermediate-tier beast from Ray’s equipment.

Thus, the wolf got on its guard against the seemingly weak human.

Ray, on the other hand, held the sword & without any exaggerated moves, attacked the wolf using his skill,

[Slash]

Swoosh,

Ray gave the wolf no chance & unleashed his relentless pursuit against the wolf to which it dodged and in the next attack the wolf blocked his attack with its paw,

SLASH!!, Click!!!,

Ray quickly took a step back, held the sword in a backhand grip & horizontally slashed at the wolf,

[SLASH]𝗈𝑣𝓵xt.𝒸𝒐𝓜

Splatt !!!,

A large deep wound opened upon the wolf’s back and the wolf took a step back. As the wolf winced in pain, Ray once again cast his spell,

[Lightning bolt],

Bzzt !!!, Crack!!, Bzzt!!!,

As the lightning bolt left Ray’s hand, the pain hindered the wolf’s reaction speed hitting it squarely at its chest, and sending it flying towards a tree.

Howell!! Screech!!,

A screech along with a cry of pain escaped from the wolf’s mouth but Ray did not waste any time and as his cold eyes flashed with a murderous glint, he took advantage of the wolf’s paralyzed state and slashed fiercely at its neck,

[SLASH],

Splatt!!!,

Blood gushed out from the wolf’s neck as its head rolled down on the ground with its eyes filled with disbelief, as a puny human had killed it.

On the other hand, Ray fell to the ground from exhaustion while a series of notifications sounded within his consciousness.