1 Vanished
In a certain forest on the planet Rhost, a young man was fighting a beast. The beast was a brown dog with white eyes. It was larger than the average canine-type beast of the same rank. It was a mid-rank 2 feral dog.
"Hoooh"
Raia slumped to the ground and tried to catch his breath. In front of him was a lifeless body of a black dog that had a small horn on top of its head. On its neck, the sword of Raia was stabbed as its body was covered with cuts and wounds.
He is just a 9th level martial foundation. Martial foundation is the lowest of all the states of modern cultivation. It is the start of all cultivation.
In this state, the basic foundation of cultivation is formed, like the meridians and energy flow.
Raia is just 17 and he spent five years just to reach his current realm. It is not hard to break through to the next stage but he is scarce in resources so it took him a longer time to develop his foundation.
A mid-rank 2 beast is equivalent to mid level Martial Physique state, the state after Martial Foundation, in terms of cultivation level. Battling a beast with a higher state is very courageous of Raia.
"What a tough dog." He said as he examined his body. There were scratches here and there but they were nothing compared to the bite on his left arm.
He fought the black feral for a few minutes before killing it while it was biting his arm. Blood continued to flow out from the wound bite. After covering it with a cloth, Raia went to the corpse of the feral dog.
He pulled his sword and looked at its blade.
With a sigh, he said, "Guess I'll repair it again."
This is the only sword he got. It has been with him for years now and it is the only weapon he had while hunting beasts. This was not the first time its edges were full of nicks.
If it were other people, they would just buy a new one. However, Raia does not have the money to buy himself a new sword. Additionally, his father runs a small smithy so he can just repair the sword himself or ask his father to repair it.
His family is ordinary and they have enough to get what they need for their daily necessities.
However, cultivation resources were a bit expensive. Even low-grade pills were a thousand silver credits each. That amount was not something that he just casually asked from his parents.
That is why, during his free time, he will hunt monsters in the outer part of the forest near their city to hunt beasts, sell their parts and purchase cultivation resources.
"It's getting dark. I should finish this quickly."
With that, he started to dismantle the body of the feral dog. Its horn, fangs and skin can be sold. And although its spirit crystal is tiny, he can still use it to cultivate.
'Rustle Rustle'
He was ready to go when he heard a rustling sound and turned around. His eyes widened to what he saw.
A pack of feral dogs were being chased by a huge wolf.
'Oh boy.'
Raia quickly ran away for his life. He knew that he couldn't defeat that wolf. From just a simple look at it, he realized that it was a rank 5 saber fanged wolf.
The wolf is about four meters in height and its body is covered in gray fur. Its eyes are flaming red and there are two large fangs on its mouth. The claws it had are sharp and can rip the feral dogs into two without effort.
There is no way he could defeat it.
Additionally, he already is wounded and exhausted from the half a day of battle.
These types of beasts settled deep inside the forest but there are times when a few of them hunt for food outside.
He ran quickly as fast as he could and didn't look back. He took out his phone to report the emergence of the beast.
However, before he could do anything, he felt that something was coming from his side.
He immediately raised his sword and tried to block the claw of the wolf that appeared from nowhere.
The scabbard barely stopped the sharp dark claws of the saber fanged wolf from slicing him into two. He was overwhelmed by the wolf and was sent flying until he crashed into a nearby tree.
Bang!
He spat a mouthful of blood and saw that a small part of his side was torn by the wolf.
The scabbard of his sword immediately cracked.
Raia raised his head and discovered that the wolf was charging at him again. Its eyes were full of killing intent.
He instantly put down his backpack and drew his sword.
In terms of speed and strength, the saber fanged wolf was far superior to him. If he can't run away from it then it is better to fight for his life.
An attack came from the wolf and its claw brushed against Raia's hair when he dodged it.
He tried to strike the wolf but was kicked in the process. He was thrown away the second time. Raia felt his ribs were crushed and breathing became hard for him. He vomited blood again but he stood up.
The saber fanged wolf looked at him amusingly.
It charged again to Raia but he evaded its attack with all his strength. This time, he didn't try to counter the strike of the wolf but he just retreated.
The wolf rushed to him again, and Raia dodged once more.
His wounds kept bleeding all this time and he can feel that his body is reaching its limit.
Half an hour later, the wolf kept charging at Raia and he successfully evaded all its attacks.
It can be considered a miracle that he lasted this long.
The saber fanged wolf can easily kill him in one strike but it kept him alive for so long.
'This wolf is playing with me.'
Raia's body was shivering, and there were claw marks all over his body. He slumped to the ground.
The wolf looked at him and thought he had already given up, and walked to him slowly.
It sniffed Raia and when the wolf saw that he was still alive, it bit his left arm.
"Arrgghhh!!"
Raia shouted to his lungs even though it was very painful for him. He then gritted his teeth and gripped his sword as tight as he could.
He decided to use the stunt he pulled to kill the feral dog earlier.
With all his remaining strength, he stabbed the wolf's eye. It loosened its bite on his arm and tried to fight back and attack Raia.
But Raia was not finished yet, he shouted and pushed the sword all the way through the saber fanged wolf's eye, reaching its brain.
Just a few seconds later, its huge body collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
Raia breathed relief after seeing that the saber fanged wolf was dead.
He smiled at the thought of selling its parts and cultivating using its crystal.
Raia wanted to shout and laugh like insane but his whole body hurts.
'I have to tend to my wounds first before I die.'
The bones in his left arm were broken and his flesh were torn apart. He took a low grade healing pill to at least stop the bleeding of his serious wounds.
He then sat and ready to wrap his wounds when he realized that the body of the wolf was starting to disappear.
It turned into dust and after a few seconds vanished like it was never there. His sword dropped to the ground.
He hurriedly walked towards the original spot where the wolf was and there was a confusion written on his face. He forgot about the pain and his attention was focused on the empty place where the saber fanged wolf disappeared.
"What happened? Where did it go?! Are you kidding me?!"
Puzzled by what just happened, Raia looked around and noticed that there was a small transparent orb, the size of a baby fist, left behind by the saber fanged wolf.
"Hm? What is this?"
He squatted down to pick the orb up. Even if he didn't know what it was, he was sure that it was something that he could sell. After all, it came from a saber fanged wolf.
However, the moment his fingers touched the transparent orb, it disappeared from its spot.
The dumbfounded Raia stared at the ground for a few moments then asked himself again.
"Is this real? I just killed a saber fanged wolf but I didn't get anything from it!"
He shouted and cursed. His anger rose really high.
'What a waste of my life! I risked everything and won against it but it didn't give me anything in return!'
'But what is that wolf actually? I've never heard of a beast dying and vanishing like that after dying. A mutant? Whatever. I'm surely just unlucky this time.'
He went back to get his backpack and planned to return.
This moment, his body shuddered and all his energy left his body.
His vision began to get blurry and he felt his body collapsing to the ground.
'Are you serious?....'
With a thud, he fell to the cold ground of the forest.
