Lurking Terror (1)

Showing off the remaining precious coral fruit, Leto jeered at the ape. ''Oh, you want this? Come, get me, hahaha~''

The ape furiously banged on its chest and let out a roar as it chased after him.

''Alright, I'll be taking the big guy away now. With this, the debt between us is written off. Farewell.'' Leto briefly turned to Mia before springing off in a hurry.

Mia looked at him speechlessly as if he was crazy. Momentarily forgetting how to even reply, she stood there, stunned, watching his disappearing back, forgetting to even thank him. ''T, take care!'' She could only utter hastily as he led off the furious ape.

Down below, the mercenaries were still stuck in hotblooded battle.

''Shit, where'd that brat come from? Quick, shoot him down!'' Krikk bellowed angrily, staring at Leto in envy.

Leto was traveling through the forest with the vine like a monkey. With the help of his sturdy roped grapple hook, he avoided quite a few deadly collisions.

Soon, before anyone could properly react, he disappeared from the helpless mercenaries' sight.

''Fuck, we got duped. Let's get outta here.'' Krikk spat on the ground. As the benefits were gone, there was nothing to stay for anymore.

The monkeys kept on coming their way, though. No matter how many of them died, they mindlessly charged at them, scratching their faces, throwing stones, swinging their clubs and annoying the shit out of them.

''Retreat!'' Morya also gave his order.

''Did you get it?'' He asked Mia, who just appeared by his side, though he didn't have much hope.

She shook her head. ''The expert baited the ape away in exchange for taking the fruits.''

''Sigh, alright, let's go. It's probably for the best.'' Both sides retreated, leaving the ape's territory.

''Are you sure that girl didn't get the fruits?'' Krikk asked fat mercenary by his side. Anger and frustration were written all over his face.

''Have my eyes ever failed you, boss?'' The fat man grumbled. ''But worry not. I memorized that kid's face. We'll collect this debt with interest.'' He said, squinting his eyes.

''Good. I'll skin him alive the next time I see him.'' Krikk snarled angrily, revealing his yellow teeth.

Meanwhile, Leto was literally flying through the forest, but he just couldn't shake off the persistent ape. It just kept chasing him.

This pursuit continued until evening.

''Hiss!'' The giant cobra was enraged as the red-skinned ape trampled its territory, disregarding its existence.

Bang! The red-skinned ape's fist finally crushed its head in. It was the second 7th level beast it had beaten to death. Its vigorous body was now dyed red and covered in injuries.

''Why don't you just die?!'' Leto cursed as he panted heavily.

Suddenly, the huffing ape vomited two mouthfuls of blood and collapsed, its eyes somewhat dimming.

Leto grinned evilly as he prepared his crossbow. For some reason though, he hesitated. He was struggling internally.

'The beasts are more honest than humans. Will this big guy follow me if I save him? After all, I pissed it off...if it doesn't work I'll have to flee like a dog again. I'm not sure if I can handle another round of chase...should I just kill it? But it's only worth 20 vitality essence at most. Besides, I don't have a spatial ring to store its corpse, so it's gonna be a waste of treasure.'

After about a minute of hesitation, he muttered. ''Ah, screw it.'' and jumped down, standing right in front of the collapsed ape.

Seeing him in sight, the ape growled, showing off its fangs. It weakly stretched its hand at him, but it was already beyond exhausted and couldn't reach him.

''Do you want this thing?'' Leto took out the fruit, inwardly chuckling as the ape's breathing got heavier.

''Here. You can have it.'' He fed it to him, fearlessly approaching the red-furred small giant.

The ape chewed for a moment and swallowed resoundingly.

Soon after, the ape's skin became scalding hot as its fur stood on end.

Evidently, it was about to advance to the 8th level.

Hesitating for a moment, Leto patted the ape's head with his palm and poured vitality essence into him.

The collapsed ape's body started glowing red.

''Roar!'' It let out an earth-shaking sound, scaring the birds away. The bone-cracking sounds came from all over its body. Leto looked in astonishment as its body was slightly growing at rapid pace.

The ape's injuries disappeared without a trace, not even leaving the scars behind.

The red-furred ape once again stood up, looking invigorated and much stronger than before. Its eyes turned completely red.

Leto's heart jumped as he silently waited for the ape's reaction. If the other couldn't appreciate his kindness, he could only flee once again, but he would surely keep this grudge in his heart.

He hoped for the other side's positive reaction, but at the same time, was prepared for the worst.

The ape was staring down at him with his crimson eyes. Its simpleminded brain was churning, calculating the bads and goods.

The other side didn't hurt him. He stole its treasure though and made him suffer, but as it was about to die, the human saved him, returned his treasure and even gave it that mysterious energy, which helped him break through not one, but two levels!

Now it was 9th level beast, one of the kings of this forest!

The ape straightened its back and heavily banged on its chest, following which it bent its head to Leto's level.

He outstretched its furry hand at him slowly. Leto was secretly alarmed, but sensing the other's intention wasn't evil, he let it be.

The ape grabbed him, put him down on its back and roared.

Leto laughed joyfully.

''Let's go kick some ass.'' He guffawed. The ape responded with a roar.

After pouring the vitality essence in it, Leto and the beast formed some kind of connection. He could get through simple intentions.

From that moment, the hunting truly began! The duo slaughtered groups upon groups of monsters in the outer territory.

After advancing, the ape became overpowered. Nothing could stop it in the outer area of Scrying forest. The ape continuously beat down high-level beasts and became overlord of their territories.

Leto intentionally avoided groups of people who were trying their luck in the forest, as he didn't want more complications. He only wanted to harvest vitality essence by washing the whole forest with blood.

A whole week passed like that, carefreely. During this time, Leto and the Red-furred Ape didn't lack high-quality meat. For Leto, the meat of the high leveled beasts was marvelous for the steady growth of his power. However, this wasn't the greatest benefit he got.

''Over 3000 points!'' Leto jumped in joy. He didn't expect to amass such fortune of vitality essence in such a short time.

He was pondering over whether to farm more or power up straight away and learn useful skills which would further increase his battle power.

''Roar!'' Suddenly, the ape, which was leisurely resting and basking in the sun suddenly cried unpleasantly. Leto's expression turned solemn as he realized some sort of danger was coming. The bad omen coming from his gut feeling was getting stronger and stronger.

Just as he was about to give the command to flee, to his horror, he realized the ground under his feet concaved and collapsed without any prior warnings.

''Ah!'' He screamed in panic as he lost his balance and fell into what seemed like a bottomless pit. He tried to pin his grapple hook to the ground, but his falling speed was too fast, and hence, the hook couldn't reach the surface in time.

The ape also roared in terror, but it was impossible to grab the footing. They helplessly fell into the abyss.

'Am I going to die here?' Leto thought bitterly as his falling speed accelerated. He couldn't resign to his fate. How incredibly stupid it was to die this way?

*Splash

His body heavily fell into the water, which brought him surprise and elation. 'I'm saved...I'm alive! For now at least...' He thought as he swam to the water surface.

''Puah, cough, cough!'' He coughed up salty water as he half opened his squinted eyes. His eyes widened as fury and pain appeared on his face.

The red-furred ape was skewered on the giant stone stalagmite, which strangely popped from the water. The ape was breathing its last as its blood was dying the water red.

Leto hurriedly swam to its side, but when he came near, the ape was already dead. He stared at his friend who he had spent last week with, with pain in his eyes. After three minutes of silence, he sighed heavily and closed its eyes.

After coming to the shore, he gave one last look at his deceased friend.

Though he only spent little time with the red-furred ape, he couldn't help but feel responsible for its death, even though it wasn't his fault.

Still, feeling guilty was of no use. Its death couldn't be attributed to anyone. He could only curse his bad luck.

Now, he had to worry about getting out of here alive.

Looking up and seeing the massive crater he fell down from, he sighed in helplessness, his heart turning gloomy. There was no way he could leave with his current physical capabilities. All he could do for now was explore the unknown dark path which lay ahead.

The path was dimly lit with stones of various colors embedded into the damp walls of the cavern. The atmosphere was cold, which chilled to the bones. The ground was pitch black and slippery. The quick movement was dangerous.

Though the more he distanced himself from the lake, the more reliable the ground grew for footing.

Suddenly, Leto halted in his steps, vigilantly aiming his crossbow at the direction from where he heard the sounds of movement.

The muffled sounds grew clearer as abominable existence came into his vision, causing him not a small amount of shock.

''How is this possible?!'' He exclaimed in disbelief.

There was a moving skeleton in his sight, sluggishly moving in his direction seemingly out of instinct. Small red flames could be seen burning in its hollow eye sockets.

Leto closed his gaping mouth, but he was still dismayed. He knew how harsh the conditions were needed for such existence to come to life.

'It's cold here, but...strange. Even more extreme Yin energy is required for such a phenomenon to exist, and that's only one requirement. Am I overthinking things? Could this guy be the only one, created from some sort of anomaly?' He analyzed.

Taking a deep breath, he finished forming his hypothesis. 'What if there are many of them? If so then...I need to find the source!' His eyes shone with greedy glint as he appraised the walking treasure in front of him, but he didn't dare let his guard down as he appraised the monster. His face paled a bit as he exhausted a great deal of his spirit in order to receive better analysis.

[ Skeleton Warrior

Cultivation: Body Tempering, 4th level

✠ 175/175 ✠

⚔ 258

☗ 160

Description: A lesser demon spawned from the mysterious source. Possesses superior defense.

Threat level: Low (☠) ]

Leto sighed as his search results weren't as fruitful as he hoped.

'Seems I'll have to find the source myself.'

Having already formed his goal, he decided to take down the enemy first.

The arrow enchanted with his maximum power pierced the skeleton's skull through its eye socket, weakening the flames burning inside, causing its body to be slanted backward.

Seeing the skeleton frozen, Leto didn't dawdle, drew his sword and hacked its head. The cracking sound rang as the skeleton's skull burst open. Like a puppet with cut strings, the skeleton slumped down with rattling sounds into a pile of bones comprised of its body parts, which fell apart after its skull was destroyed.

After hacking through the skeleton's skull, his sword stopped vibrating.

Leto's body trembled as he saw the pile of bones in front of him turning into dust.

'I see. So this is how it is.' He thought as a slight grin formed on his lips, which immediately vanished as he thought of something. Frowning, he turned much more serious as he came up with the possibility.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm his agitated mind.

'If everything's as I think, then things might be more complicated than I can imagine. I can't let my guard down.' Appraising and one shot killing the skeleton took almost 80% of his power. He decided to collect his battle trophies and retreat.

'Eh? What's this?' He bent down and retrieved a small bronze ring shining from the pile of bone dust.

The ring had an intricate pattern of engravings. At first, his heart had beat in excitement as he realized the value of this ring, but at the same time, his heart sank. An invincible pressure seemed to press on his shoulders, crushing him.

Taking a deep breath, he calmed his agitated mind.

The pile of bone dust lying at his feet was a treasure, which could be used for forging bones. He had the method which he could use to increase his strength using the bone dust.

This wasn't all. The small red floating flames, which fell out of the skeleton's skull and didn't extinguish was the pure essence of the skeleton's soul. By consuming it, his spirit could grow!

The most shocking of all was the ring. It was only an uncommon grade treasure, but creating an uncommon grade accessory was much harder than creating top grade epic grade weapon or armor!

Leto didn't specialize in blacksmithing, but even he knew how hard it was to 'pack' a small item like a ring with power, then something like swords and various sorts of armor.

Though he had obtained such treasures so easily, Leto couldn't afford to be happy as, if his thoughts weren't wrong, something really bad was waiting for him...

Shaking his head, Leto decided to not think too much about it. He resolved to make himself stronger and prepare himself for what was to come.

Unfortunately, his gut feeling was correct. Only...he hadn't realized yet how great of a looming terror was there, staring at him from the darkness...

Leto gently took up the flames in his hands and swallowed it on spot.

His body heated up for a moment, before calming down. When he reopened his eyes, he noticed a slight improvement in the clarity of his mind. The darkness around him, which made the surroundings less discernable wasn't as obscure, as his perception slightly rose. The change wasn't very apparent though, as he even would have thought it was just a feeling, if not for knowing the exact effect of consuming pure soul essence flames.

Checking his status, he nodded to himself, as he was right.

[ Spirit: 106 ]

His spirit directly rose from 104 to 106. Unfortunately though, as one's soul power got stronger and stronger, the difficulty of further raising it also increased...

After being done with the soul essence, he grabbed the ring and appraised it.

[ Ring of Might (Uncommon)

Effect: +50 strength ]

Without hesitation, he equipped it and immediately felt a surge of strength which didn't belong to him.

Though he had hoped to obtain a ring which had a skill engraved, increasing his raw power wasn't bad either.

After collecting the pile of bone dust in his backpack, Leto returned to where he came from, to the lake and pondered as to how to increase his strength in a short period of time.