Searching for a Stronger Foe

[You killed F-rank Virac Spider]

[+10 EXP]

Art pulled his dagger from the head of the spider-like creature, which was about half his size.

He was currently in another part of the forest, filled with these beasts. The trail of bodies behind him said it all.

After wiping out the entire black wolf pack from their territory, he had shifted his attention to this place—and he was proud to say that he had almost done the same here. Cough.

This was just a bus stop on the way to his actual target. It took him some time to do the math, but he figured it out.

He hadn’t been the best at school in his former life, but at least he had picked up some things.

He could remember three major reasons that could cause migration, and he believed they were also applicable to this world.

The red-eyed rabbits had migrated because of one of these three factors: first, climate change, which was obviously not the case. Second, a lack of food, which he also doubted. And lastly—predators.

If the last option was correct, it meant that a stronger beast had entered their territory, and he believed it was E-ranked.

Their former territory was near the boundary they weren’t meant to cross, and he was currently headed there.

He hoped he was right. It usually took several mages of the same rank as a beast to take it down. But Art was much stronger now compared to the time of the ceremony, which had taken place two weeks ago.

Yes, another two weeks had passed since his encounter with his true weapons, which were still inaccessible.

His level and strength had grown since then. Why wouldn’t they? He had almost driven two species in this area to extinction.

When he had woken up after his encounter with his true weapons, he found himself lying in his bed, back in his room.

A few days later, some people arrived to check the level of weapons that they had received, along with their health.

The only publicly available information was that three people from the Von family had obtained S-rank true weapons, the second-highest record in history—not just for the Vons but for the entire Silver lineage, as several others from branch families had also received one. A few were even upgradeable.

Upgradable true weapons had a high chance of surpassing their normal limit and reaching the next rank or higher. Art had a good idea of who those people were.

A celebration had erupted within the Silvers, and he was sure that news of this had spread to other families and beyond.

But that wasn’t the only piece of news. For the second time in the history of the Silvers, someone who had entered the room hadn’t come out with a weapon.

Everyone in the Von branch believed it was him—except for Iris. Come to think of it, she had been looking at him strangely for some time now.

The funny part? They were correct… in a way.

With one of his cores locked and the other undeveloped, he hadn’t been able to summon his true weapon. Even a forced summoning—used to help those unfamiliar with the process—had failed, leading to him being labeled true weaponless.

If only they knew he had two true weapons with high self-consciousness. The whole kingdom would be left in shock—they had never seen a dual-core mage before.

Think that’s all the news? Well, there’s more.

[ Auxiliary Core Formation: 99% Complete ]

It had been stuck at 99% for 28 hours, 36 minutes, and… 52 seconds now. He figured it would be fully formed within a few more hours at most.

Wondering how he knew the exact time?

That was how excited he was. Not only would he finally be able to use magic, but he would also gain access to one of his true weapons. Perfect timing, too—because the annual contest was starting the day after tomorrow. He couldn't wait to face-slap them.

The dagger he was currently using was an E-rank magical weapon given to him out of pity. It didn’t have any form of consciousness, but from what he had observed, it wasn’t bad at all.

It came with two perks. The first was an increase in his agility stat by 10 points and his strength stat by 3 while wielding it. But the interesting part was that after ten consecutive hits, with no more than three-second intervals, his lost HP would increase by 1. And there was no cooldown.

He was sure they had no idea about this feature. If they did, they wouldn’t have given it to him. Best of all? This weapon was upgradeable.

He shook his hand to rid the dagger of blood.

‘I shouldn’t be far now,’ he muttered, continuing to run. He wanted to wrap things up in two hours and start preparing for the contest.

After a few minutes, he arrived in an area with sparse trees and tall grass.

This was just before the boundary—and the former habitat of the red-eyed rabbits. The corpse of one greeted him as proof.

Due to the mana in their bodies, not just beasts but even humans deteriorated at a slower rate after death. The same applied to their aging process.

The stronger one became, the slower they aged. An S-rank mage could be 200 years old and still look like someone in their forties. Of course, this depended on how long it took them to reach S-rank. Art was looking forward to living a long life.

He moved forward cautiously through the high grass. The deeper he went, the taller the grasses became. When they started reaching his waist, he couldn't ignore them anymore and used his dagger to cut through.

This wasn’t the best place to fight a beast, and he suspected that whatever was lurking here was comfortable in this vegetation.

Seeing the potential danger, he decided not to proceed further. He loved EXP farming, but his life was more important.

As he turned to leave, he suddenly heard rustling sounds approaching him. His head snapped in different directions, tracking the sound—whatever was making it wasn’t moving in a straight path toward him.

He began walking backward quickly to reduce the height of the grasses around him.

The rustling abruptly stopped—not too far away. So did he. His eyes and ears were sharp enough to detect even the slightest movement, and whatever was making that noise seemed impatient.

‘There!’ he shouted, leaping away just as a wave of sharp force cut through the grasses where he had stood.

He landed a distance away, his eyes locking onto the beast before him.

“Oi, oi! Are you kidding me?” he muttered, slightly surprised.

The battle for the true alpha of this area was about to begin.