57 First Encounter

Once the army finally took off, they used the main road of the empire and ran at a pace where the Rank 0s could follow, it would take weeks till they reached the Myriad Beast Range, because of this burden.

Since the army ran in a formation, any merchant caravans or lone travelers hurried to get out of the way on sight.

It was probably a test even for Rank 1s that were only following one path, especially if that Path didn't include either Vitality or Agility.

The army stopped for a couple of hours at night for the Rank 0 Practitioners to take a break and a month later, the Myriad Beast Mountain Range was in front of them.

Everyone was given a day of rest once they were at the borders of the territory, the Rank 2 and Rank 3 Practitioner were the only ones that had to go scout the situations and prepare a strategy for the invasion.

Once it was ready, the formation would split up and squads would enter the mountains.

If the whole formation rushed in, it would be a disaster in the aspect of mobility, they would get annihilated by not knowing the terrain and one ambush.

The only thing they were told is to take into account the orders from the Rank 2 superior and not rush in past a line that basically marked out the outskirts of the mountain.

Everybody was eager to get to it, they already knew the most important piece of information – the imperial court would pay rewards for each beast killed.

The prices were quite generous as well.

For a Rank 0 Beast the squad that killed it would get 50 gold coins.

For Rank 1 - 250 gold coins.

For Rank 2 – 1000 gold coins.

Considering that a couple of gold coins could let a household live for at least half a year, the rewards were sumptuous.

The faster they began the faster they could get rich, at this point nobody cared that the Beasts were not some livestock they could just slaughter, greed had covered that worry.

To show proof of kill, the head of a beast had to be brought back to the temporary camp, where the squad contributions would be recorded, there were some extra rewards that were meant for the top squads of the whole operation.

Any squad could enter and exit the mountain whenever they wanted, but only to visit the temporary camp and present their game. If a squad deserted, they would be better off going to another empire. Deserters on the continent were considered the scum of society, even beggars in the slums had higher status.

To moment the signal was given, all the squads formed their practiced formation and started rushing into the outskirts of the mountain.

Lucien just stood and looked on with a smile.

'Heheheh, this will be an even bigger haul that I had expected.'

He looked back towards the 3 squad member that were left, originally the team was 5 people including him and once someone died the replenishment was up to the captain.

"Let's go."

The team didn't voice any objections, they were quite scared from the previous event. They just quietly followed while keeping a formation by just the 3 of them.

Once they walked in the territory of the Beasts, there was a change in the atmosphere, a faint bloody scent lingered in the air and it became colder to the point where one of the team members shivered for a bit.

The outskirts resembled a green forest with the occasional rock formation and it became cliffs towards the waist, while the peaks in the distance were covered in ice and snow, the change from green to white started somewhere from the middle of the mountain.

Lucien led the members of his squad and separated from the really populated places. They were walking below a large tree when all of sudden something dropped from above. Lucien reacted the moment something above him moved and jumped to the side, while piercing with his spear towards the diving foe.

Once his spear made contact, Lucien finally realized what they were dealing with. It was a serpent, a giant python. It was at least 10 meters long and its waist was as thick as a human waist.

Lucien had read when he was young how to recognize the Ranks of Beasts. The larger the higher the Rank, while this was not absolute, as there were some small formidable Beasts, but if it was big it definitely was not weak.

Generally if an animal was under 5 meters in size it was not considered a Beast. Between 5 and 10 meters was Rank 0. After 10 meters of size all the way to 100 meters it was considered Rank 1, it followed the same pattern of human stats, but their growth was slower.

A Beast could also be focused on one stat, for example a Strength based Rank 1 Beast would be incredibly tough to kill, if they sacrificed the other stats to focus on one, the growth was sped up.

This Python was obviously barely Rank 1, but it was all rounded Rank 1, it hadn't sacrificed anything and took its time to get to this level.

"It's yours to handle, boys. Let's see your skills."

The 3 team members were stunned to hear that. Beasts were generally stronger than same Rank humans, and this one was a level higher than them, even if they beat it, it would be at the cost of serious injuries or loss of people.

"…Wh….What?"

"DO YOU WANT US TO DIE?"

After being at loss for a bit one of the members exploded in anger.

The Python hissed and got into a position to shoot itself towards one of the team members, it knew that Lucien was the hardest to kill, so it decided to first take out the small fries.

"No, of course not. I want you to be desperate enough, to be willing to give everything for my help, hehe."

Lucien chuckled coldly from the side.