First Hunt In The Velves Forest
-Two Days Later
Clash! Clash! Clash!
Within a forest of tall trees, the sounds of battling could be heard across the vicinity along with battle cries.
"Grrhhhhh~"
A loud growl was heard next and along with it came a few cries of pain.
"Ash, make sure to hold that point! no matter what don't let go!" A man yelled out.
From above it could be seen that a massive black ox with horns resembling tree branches was being attacked by a group of six men.
Four ropes were attached to the two forelegs and two hind legs.
Three of the men were pulling the Ox in separate directions while the rope tied to the left hind leg was scrapping again the ground as the creature struggled to free itself.
Behind, towards the left, a man could be seen several feet away from the creature, laid out on the ground while holding onto his right hand with a look of pain on his face.
The other two men were attacking the creature from the sides with their weapons. One had two daggers and the other had a machete.
Even though they kept hacking repeatedly at the creature, it remained vigorous and continued to struggle vehemently.
The injuries they had managed to inflict on the creature so far were superficial. These men who were strong hunters barely managed to cut across the surface of the creature even though they were using a lot of strength.
From the looks of things, it was quite obvious that they were having a hard time dealing with this creature.
"Derek! Get the fuck up! are you going to lay there all day?" One of them shouted out while struggling to hold onto the rope from upfront.
He was slowly being pulled as his feet slid across the ground due to a loss of manpower.
Derek who was kicked to the ground earlier quickly jumped up and ran to grab hold of the rope.
He managed to pull it from his end before the creature could headbutt another one of their teammates.
From the far east side of this area, a figure stood atop a tree watching this scenario.
He had a custom-made wooden bow strapped to his back as well as wooden arrows with sharpened tips.
He turned to the right and witnessed a similar scene happening a few hundred feet away on the ground.
'It will be best to move forward, I won't find any creature to hunt around here,' Landria said to himself as he looked up ahead.
These spots were the usual areas where the hunters from Riverbeak town would come to hunt within the Velves forest.
This area was still relatively close to town, not too deep into the forest. On the far eastern side, there was a small mining cave where the Ying ore was mined.
The Ying ore is one of the special materials used for the forging of weapons. It was valuable around these parts but in big Kingdoms, it would have really low value since there were better materials available for forging weapons.
Most of the young ones from Riverbeak town that weren't involved in hunting worked at the mines.
Landria didn't see working at the mines as suitable for him so he decided to hunt instead.
There was a bit of mana in the surroundings around here and he could tell that there would be more as he moved up ahead.
Landria closed his eyes and raised both his index and middle fingers together.
"Mana sense..." He muttered causing a gust of wind to spread forth from his figure as a blue magic circle with two triangles within appeared behind him.
Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting!
The vicinity began to light up with tiny glows, spreading out from Landria's position to a radius of hundred meters.
"As expected, there is no other creature to hunt in the vicinity," Landria voiced out as he opened his eyes and the glows surrounding the vicinity began to disappear.
At this point, he decided to move but he looked around again and could see the hunters in the vicinity struggling with their targeted creatures.
'They're veteran hunters, they can handle it,' Landria resisted the urge to help them remembering he only had ten custom-made wooden arrows.
He had created this with the three kids' assistance a day ago using a piece from one of the strongest trees around them. It took a lot of work but it was necessary since there was no money to buy hunting weapons.
Mana circulated from his insides again as Landria waved his hand to perform a magic spell.
"Wind steps," He voiced out, causing two small wings made of wind to appear around both his feet.
Thwwhii~
Landria leaped forward from tree branch to tree branch with ease, crossing up to ten meters with every jump.
His speed was pretty fast as he performed this action repeatedly till he left a wide distance between him and the area where the hunters were situated.
"This must be the end of the safe zone," Landria voiced out his thoughts as he realized this area was way more silent and there happened to be a higher concentration of mana compared to behind.
The hunters from Riverbeak town usually never came this far since the beasts in this territory are said to be more powerful than normal humans can handle.
It had ended badly for a lot of hunting parties that decided to go beyond the safe zone because they couldn't find creatures to hunt within the safe hunting zones.
If Landria was in any way normal he would be worried but he had hunted multiple magical creatures when he was younger and came out victorious.
Although he always had a hunting party with him, the creatures he would be hunting this time were significantly weaker compared to back then so he was confident in being able to handle it on his own.
Thwwwhiii~
Landria proceeded to jump forward once more. He went beyond the safe zone and resumed leaping from tree to tree.
In about three minutes more he stopped after hearing a low growling sound in the distance. It was quite low but Landria's ears were able to pick up on it. He looked slightly towards the left and jumped down from the tree branch he was currently standing on.
Fwwhiiii~
Only a small rustling sound was made as the wind wings surrounding his feet, slowed his descent.
Landria proceeded to cautiously move forward amidst the forest of trees surrounding the vicinity. He moved from side to side, blocking his frame with trees up ahead as he sneakily looked forward.
Taking a few more steps, he could see a slightly empty area up ahead with a massive chunk of black rock in the middle.
Landria moved forward slowly while still observing the area. Except for the leaves scattered all across the place, there was nothing else to be seen in that particular empty area.
Beyond it, the forest continued but it looked like a place someone could camp in.
'The growl came from this area,' Landria was a little confused that he couldn't find anything around here since he was sure the growl came from this direction.
He decided to use mana sense once more to observe his surroundings.
"Mana sense..."
The instant he mumbled these words, a pair of eyes suddenly sprang open on the massive chunk of black rock up ahead.
Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting!
It stared in Landria's direction as the entire vicinity lit up with fluorescent light glows, exposing Landria's position even more.
"Shit!" Landria voiced out as he made eye contact with the pair of red eyes.
"Ggghhrrrrrr!!!" A loud beastly growl reverberated across the surroundings causing the birds in the area to fly away in fright.
Landria quickly reached for the wooden bow strapped to his back as well as an arrow. While he did this, the massive black chunk of rock moved. First increasing in length then turning around.
It turned out to be that the chunk of rock was a beast and its back had been turned to Landria the whole time. It was initially in a seating position.
Parts of its skin were a rough shade of black and rocky.
Its back especially looked like a piece of rock.
Standing on two legs, the creature looked like a yeti but dark with glowing red eyes.
With the Rocky-like skin covering its body, it looked like it was completely armored up and it was at least twelve feet tall.
Thwwiiiii~
An arrow suddenly cut through the air the instant the creature stood to its feet and turned around.
It was headed for the left eye of the creature but it quickly raised one of its massive hands.
Bam!
The arrow shattered into two halves as it slammed into the arm of the creature which was raised to cover its face.
Landria up ahead who was holding his arms out with the wooden bow in his left hand and the string in his right fingers, quickly jumped upwards in the next moment after seeing his attack fail.