Chapter 8: Lost Kids, Blood Hounds, and The Trading Hub

* growl! A battle beast growled before it fell down slowly and In the neck of the now-dead wild battle beast is Shadow who choked the pitiful battle beast to death.

* Thud!

" Good job, bring it here so that we can have lunch, I'm starving, " Damian said.

Shadow dragged the battle beast towards Damian and he started to butcher the dead battle beast he starts to roast some meat while Shadow started devouring his portion of the meat, Shadow grew bigger again and is now two meters long.

After their filling lunch, they continued on their way, they are roaming the dark woods not just for Shadow to fight against other battle beasts and gain fighting experience but also to search for poison and dark resources to help Shadow improve his attributes.

During their travels, they managed to gather some poison attribute resources such as the Tri-colored mushroom which has three different poisons and can help improve the potency of Shadow's poison his poison attribute might turn into the Tri-colored poison which is a middle-level poison, unlike his current poison which is a low-level normal poison, despite being lucky finding a poison attribute resource they can't find a dark attribute one even though they are in the Dark Woods which is where dark attribute battle beasts and resources should be.

"Ahhhh!!" Damian and Shadow heard a loud scream not far away from them.

They immediately went to where the sound came from, and they discovered a group of kids surrounded by fierce battle beasts.

"Bloodhounds! And it's the whole pack at that! " Damian recognized the red-furred wolf-like battle beast, though they can be found anywhere this group of kids are pretty unlucky running into a whole pack.

Bloodhounds are middle-class battle beasts, they are popular battle beasts because they can learn the skill called Blood burn where they can increase their strength by a whole tier for a short period of time.

Four kids are being surrounded two boys and two girls and there are three battle beasts among them, all three are low-class tier 1.

The Blood Hounds slowly approached the group of kids.

Damian didn't make a move immediately instead he observe first and saw that one of the girls is holding a bloodhound pup.

" These idiots, trying to steal a bloodhound pup in front of the whole pack " Damian said in his head.

Damian took a few seconds before he decided to help the kids.

" Shadow let's take them one by one" Damian commanded. And Shadow disappeared in the dark.

" Shit! I told you to give up on that bloodhound pup " one of the boys said.

" It's your guy's fault, if only you could keep your mouths shut we won't be in this situation, " the girl holding the bloodhound pup said angrily.

The group of four started to argue when suddenly one of the bloodhounds suddenly fell down.

" Huh?" The kids being surrounded confusedly stared at the dead bloodhound.

" Let the bloodhound pup go and run away immediately " Damian appeared behind them, he sneaked behind the bloodhounds when Shadow successfully ambushed one of the bloodhound and took their attention.

" Who are you? " One of the boys asked, suspicious of Damian's identity.

" You don't have to worry about my identity, why you should be worrying about is your lives, if you want to leave let go of the pup and run away we will hold back these bloodhounds," Damian said.

The girl holding the bloodhound pup unwillingly put the pup down and she started running away, the other three ran away as well not looking back, Damian on the other hand ran towards the direction of the bloodhounds and he started fighting them, along with Shadow they both managed to buy enough time for the group of kids to run away.

Then they swiftly escaped as well, no matter how strong the two of them became, they are still not strong enough to win against a whole pack of middle-class bloodhounds.

...

Far away from the location of the bloodhounds, the group of four kids are still running away, they have been running nonstop but Damian still hello managed to catch up to them.

" Turn left," Damian said, the kids are surprised to hear Damian's voice out of nowhere.

" Ho ho how? " One of the kids asks in surprise.

Damian didn't answer him instead he took the lead and the four followed him silently.

After a few more minutes of running Damian stopped, this is where Damian trained Shadow before.

There are still the remains of the fire where they usually cook their food.

" You can spend the rest of the night here there are no wild battle beasts nearby " Damian said.

" Thank you, " the four kids said in unison, if it wasn't for Damian they would be dead by now.

" Tomorrow morning I will guide you out of this woods, " Damian said.

He jumped up to his nest and the four just watch his back as he leave.

" So cool, " one of the girls said.

" Yeah," one of the boys said.

" Take a sleep so you can recover your energy, " one of the boys said, he is the leader of this small group.

...

Morning came and the group of four kids woke up early and they even hunted a rabbit to eat.

Damian jumped down.

" Come, eat with us, " the leader of the group said.

Damian didn't refuse the invite and he sat down beside them.

He took a piece of meat and started eating.

" Brother, how long have you been staying here? " The group leader asked Damian, and he referred to Damian as "brother" since he does not know Damian's name and it seems like Damian has no intention to tell them his name.

" A couple of months " Damian answered.

" I see," the leader said, hearing Damian's answer made them all shocked internally.

A couple of months, the four of them have only been in these woods for a day and they almost die immediately.

" How strong is he?" The group of four kids asked in their heads at the same time.

" Since brother has been staying here for a long time, have you heard of the trading hub? " The leader of the group asked.

" Trading hub? " Damian asked.

" So you don't know, you see not long ago a recruit like us made a trading hub on the outskirts of the mountains, we learn about the location of the bloodhound from the trading hub, she used a rare resource in exchange for an information about the location of a middle-class battle beast that is why we ended up here " he explained.

When the girl who exchanged her rare resource for the information heard what their leader said her face turned sour.

" I see, " Damian said. The leader didn't ask any more questions and they finished eating in silence.

In Damian's head, he already decided to visit the so-called trading hub.

Since he cannot find dark attribute resources he wants to try his luck at the trading hub plus he has some rare resources which he had no use of.

" Let's go, " Damian said as he stood up.

" Okay," the four said.

They immediately went on their way with Damian on the lead, he used the knowledge he learned from the map, he uses the shortcuts and safe routes indicated on the map, not long after Damian and the rest reached the end of the Dark Woods.

" Thank you very much, for your help, if it wasn't for you we would all be dead by now, " the leader of the group said.

" No problem, let's go you lead the way this time " Damian said.

" Huh? " The kids asked in confusion.

" I don't know the way to the trading hub, if you don't mind can you lead the way? " Damian said.

" Of of of course, I will lead the way, follow me "The leader enthusiastically leads the way.

Their group travelled a few more hours, before they arrived at the bustling trading hub, almost every kid remaining is currently in there.

" Brother welcome to the trading hub " the leader of the group said.

" Thank you, " Damian said.

" No problem, well we will go on our way so you can enjoy your time here and look around," the group leader said as he guides the other three away from Damian, they plan to confront the kid who gave them the information on the bloodhound pup.

They both went their own ways, Damian started to look around and he saw kids shouting looking out for the resources they are looking for or if they are looking to exchange information.

" Looking for someone to exchange my spirit fruits, I will only exchange it for purple grass! " A kid shouted, when Damian heard it he approached the kid.

" Hello there brother, do you have purple grass? " The kid asked with a smile on his face.

Damian nodded.

" Three blades of purple grass for one spirit fruit " the kid informed him of the exchange rate.

Damian took out fifteen blades of purple grass.

The kid who is exchanging spirit fruit stared at the blades of purple glass with his eyes sparkling.

He handed Damian five spirit fruits and he immediately took the purple glass and put it inside his pouch with a big smile on his face.