17 Heading Out!

The parchment didn't contain much text, but luckily for Raymond, it contained exactly what he was looking for. To begin with, the parchment contained information on the different realms of sword force. According to the parchment, there were only two realms of sword force, at least if you don't count the small grades such as low, mid, high and perfect. These two realms were sword force, as well as sword momentum.

After reaching perfection in sword force, reaching sword momentum would be the next step forward, however, this small step was harder than reaching the perfection of sword force from scratch. According to the parchment, the main use of sword force wasn't the passive enhancement, but rather the active use of it. This was exactly how Raymond had guessed, and luckily for him, the parchment also told him how he was supposed to stimulate it.

Sword force was a power that originated from the soul itself, and this was also the reason why it was invisible to the naked eye. To use this power, and to strengthen it, Raymond had to communicate with the sword within his soul. This sounded pretty abstract, and to some people it was, but to Raymond, the process was pretty straightforward. The only reason people had a hard time mobilising the power of their souls, as well as communicating with the sword within it, was because they lacked talent.

If you had a strong soul, to begin with, these things wouldn't be much of a problem. Raymond could figure out that his soul was stronger than most, but he wasn't completely sure why. The only thing that he could think of was his transmigration, as well as his inherent talent. What Raymond didn't know was that both of those two guesses were actually correct. The biggest reason why his soul was strong was because of his transmigration. To arrive in this world, his soul had to go through numerous trials and tribulations, which directly strengthened it several degrees.

The god of wealth's physique also strengthened his cultivation talent, and this included his soul. Raymond was pleasantly surprised by all of this since sword force was supposed to be something that was really strong. With another trump card in his arsenal, Raymond was even more excited to head out into Greencrest Forest to temper himself. Before he left though, he went to the courtyard a final time to test out the power of his sword force.

Standing out in the grass, he slowly entered a strange state whilst he mobilised the power of his soul. When he swung his sword like he usually did, the power was completely incomparable to before. Not only was the power almost an entire 50% stronger, but the sharpness and swiftness were on a completely different level too. To Raymond, this was more than a pleasant surprise. He didn't expect that the power of sword force would enhance his strength by an entire 50%.

He also realised that this power wasn't infinite, it was taxing on his soul. But it would last him at least 10 minutes, which was more than enough to work as his trump card. According to the parchment, this power would completely transform into something way more powerful when he reached the sword momentum realm. Raymond couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of enhancement that would give his strength, but he was excited nonetheless.

With some more reassurance, Raymond decided that now was a good time to head out. Sure, he could wait until the next day just so that he could be out earlier, but Raymond didn't really care too much about that. The trip to the forest was fairly short since it was just next to the city, but Raymond always kept his vigilance up. The outer rim of the forest was fairly harmless for most cultivators, but Raymond was still careful.

He was here to get some battle experience, but the battle experience would do him no good if he had to die for it. With that in mind, Raymond slowly started to explore the forest. Every now and then, he would hear and see people fighting with rank 1 beasts, but he kept his distance. Although he would love to help people if they truly needed it, with the strength he had right now, he was in no state to help anyone else but himself.

Soon enough, Raymond could hear some movement not far from him, and before he could think too much, a beast slowly entered his line of sight. This beast, or wolf rather, had spotless white fur, and a weird green mark on its forehead. After reading the encyclopedia of demonic beasts, Raymond was pretty confident in his knowledge of demonic beasts, and he could immediately tell that this was a young gale wolf.

Luckily for Raymond, this gale wolf had barely matured from a cub, otherwise, he would be in a lot of trouble. Most gale wolfs would become high-grade rank 1 upon reaching adulthood, with some even going one step further, becoming paragons of rank 1. This young gale wolf could barely be considered to be mid-grade of rank 1, which meant that it was on pretty equal grounds with Raymond.

Raymond looked at the gale wolf, which started to aggressively growl at him as soon as he was spotted. Since it didn't seem very friendly, Raymond slowly pulled out his sword and got ready to fight. The young gale wolf seemed to be even more agitated by this action, as it immediately leapt into action. Raymond made use of his Basic Footwork Technique to instantly sidestep it without issues.

Whilst sidestepping the gale wolf's attack, Raymond also made use of this opportunity to send out his own. The sword in his hand slashed out without any problem, instantly heading for the wolf's neck. The gale wolf wasn't able to comprehend what happened, as its head was instantly severed from its own body. The cut was neat, but even so, some blood still splashed on Raymond's face.

Raymond just stood there for a while, staring blankly at his own hands. Surprisingly, he didn't feel any guilt after killing the wolf at all, the only feeling in his heart was surprise. He didn't expect to kill it with a single attack. According to their realms, their strength was supposed to be pretty similar to each other. This made Raymond frown. Either he was stronger than he realised, or this wolf was just weak. Either way, he didn't feel satisfied by this fight at all.

To think his first fight in this world would be so anticlimactic. Raymond could only helplessly smile to himself. After wiping off the blood on his face, Raymond quickly spread a powder over the gale wolf's body. This was a pretty common powder that most cultivators used since it could erase the scent of blood. The reason they wanted to erase the scent of blood from a demonic beasts carcass was naturally that they didn't want even more demonic beasts to come knocking on their door.

Gale wolves were known for their beautiful and spotless white fur, which could be sold for a decent amount of money. With that in mind, Raymond decided to take some with him to sell when he went back to town.