13 Undesirable encounter during materials gathering (1)

In a lush, wet area where cliffs and hills were two sides of the same coin, there was a wide-reaching shrine ruin. In former age, the shrine was once a place where people gathered to pray for protection from the profoundly immoral and wicked. In present days, however, the shrine had fallen into decay and was now haunted by the roars of beasts, day and night. The reason for this unfortunate decline was unclear. Despite of this, the shrine still maintained its holy nature and exuded a mysterious aura, allowing nearby vegetation to grow in abundant.

---Alfraed heard of this secluded place from none other than his master. He often wondered how could his master know such place even existed, as it was not mentioned in any general record, must be because his master had lived a very long life. In that regard, whenever he mentioned an age-related topic, his master showed chillingly sinister smile and rewarded him a generous increase in training menu...….

A-anyway, overall his master was a good person, might be. From Anspia, it would take four days to reach the place by using horse-drawn carriage, and another four days for the return journey. Yet, it took Alfraed only two and a half days to go there. This was possible because his body and stamina had been relentlessly tempered through harsh training. Furthermore, whenever he felt strained, his healing magic could make it recover. Thus, aside from having quick meal and a little bit of sleeping, Alfraed was literally running non-stop at top speed, which was faster than a horse.

"…Finally…arrived…" said Alfraed roughly, trying to catch his broken breath, and moisturized his parched throat with water afterward.

Alfraed dearly wished he could have more time to lie down. But, he needed to immediately gather what he needed and went back home to start his preparation. Though, there was another reason he simply could not rest, the various beasts living here were already attacking him without reservations.

"Annoying…" voicing his irritation, as he clad his hands with barrier magic, and knocked out a pack of two meter-beasts resembling pink gorillas with face of a hippopotamus and black underbellies that had a patch of blonde hairs on top of its heads swiftly.

In general, barrier magic was a defensive magic used to protect oneself or allies from incoming physical or magic attack. After realizing how hard a barrier could be, Alfraed also utilized it for offensive purpose, strengthening his already devastating punches.

Then, from his rear, an extremely violent, unrelenting, and ultra-aggressive dark brown-furred, ape-like creature with bright red face, broad muscles, and large horns, shot a roaring electricity blast from its mouth.

Noticing its hostility, Alfraed evaded the blast by jumping to the right.

The creature repeatedly shot another blasts to incapacitate its prey. But, Alfraed could see the trajectory of the attacks and continuously dodged every single blast while moving forward, until he arrived in front of the creature, and smashed its rock-like jaw with an upward punch.

He made it look easy. However, that particular beast could give an average pair of silver-ranked adventurers a hard time. And, if not careful, they could be beaten to death by that three meter-beast.

"Thank God, it wasn't in rage" commented Alfraed after the creature's body fell to the ground. 'Rage' was an ability this creature had, characterized by its raised, glowing fur, allowing it to become a faster, stronger hunter. Fortunately, it did not have the chance to activate that ability.

"GGRRAAAHHHHHHH!!!"

Now, a beast with turquoise colored fur and ursine body structure was rushing to where he was. The beast had a ridge of erect hair aligned with its nose and its back made of a tough hide, somewhat characteristic of a carapace. Hair runs from its cheeks, connecting to its back, where it formed a trim along the sides of the back. And, the claws that had elongated, red nails was targeting his face, and missed.

Alfraed ducked the incoming claws and jumped backward to gain distance. At that time, within his line of sight, he saw many more enraged beasts were coming to devour him…

"There's no end to this…" muttered him in a frustrated tone, as he imagined innumerable hours needed to get rid all of these beasts, a luxury he did not have.

Regardless, he was prepared, to resolve this situation, Alfraed took several glass cylinders from his thigh bags, horizontally pulled out rings attached to them, and threw it toward the approaching mindless beasts. The cylinders exploded, releasing a thick, cloud of gas in the vicinity.

The beasts paid no attention to the seemingly harmless gas, and continued to head his way, but soon dropped powerlessly to the ground as they could no longer hold their eyelids from opening.

The now masked-Alfraed was protected from the potent sleep gas, and could finally explore the area and gathered what he came here for in peace.

Two hours remained until the sun set in the horizon, and without him realizing a pair of hollow eyes were watching him ever closely from a distant…

-------

Alfraed knew quite a number of areas to gather materials for making Greater Grade Potions, and normally he would go to any of them, as he knew the areas quite well. Unfortunately, those areas were faraway from where he lived now, even with his physical prowess, he definitely would not be able to meet the deadline to prepare the remaining two-hundred Greater Grade Potions in a week, now more or less four days remaining. Furthermore, taking too many materials from a single area might disrupt its ability to regrow the taken materials. In that case, he would have to go to, at least, six areas. That was the main reasons he went to this new area, since it was the closest from Anspia.

"Wonderful"

Putting aside plethora of beasts that were trying to eat him earlier, here was a great place to harvest materials, as hard-to-come-by materials were growing plenty. Taking what were needed to make 200 Greater Grade Potions should not be an issue.

"Let's see, looking at this area, I think, taking up to.... six-hundred, should be fine"

So, he decided to take more, but still in acceptable quantity.