Chapter 31

Calter rode his horse while traversing the Thousand Beasts Forest. Just the area that has low level Magic Apprentices level beast were already a few kilometers. In truth, the more powerful the beasts are the larger area they will have. Thousand Beasts Forest is extremely big, it can be accessible by a lot of cities, both small and big. Making it a very famous forest

Calter went passed the low-level area and went to the one that has mid-level beasts. With his power he can battle high level Magic Apprentice level beasts but the forest was famous for the high population of beasts. It was uncommon for a beast to be alone and they are at least in pairs of two or three

This time, Calter didn't summoned his skeleton group. He wants to fight himself. Summoning skeletons would use a huge chunk of his mana. He can't activate high level spells. But with a mana that's up to him to use, he can use one level 6 Spell or a few level 5 spells

If he uses level 5 Spells, it would be as strong as normal level 7 Spells! He has the power to fight mid-level beasts as long as they don't have that much numbers

The Cloud Stepping Horse arrived at the outer area of mid-level beasts easily, no beast can catch it with its speed. As long as Calter doesn't went to deep, the chance of meeting large numbers of mid-level beasts was low. This was the best place for his current strength

Calter jumped down from the horse and they slowly walked around. The forest really lived up to its name as in just a few minutes they already encountered a group of three muscular lions

The lions saw Calter and growled at him while slowly walking towards him. The lions are all level 4 Beasts and looked at Calter as if the youth was their prey. But too bad, they were bound to be disappointed. Calter is not their prey!

The lion's speed exploded and their figure cut the air. Their sharp nails wanting to rip Calter in shreds and use him as a food

Calter didn't waste any time and his black magic wand appeared on his hand. "[Dark Magic: Darkness Ball!]" Five balls of black acid were shot from Calter's wand. Although he can cast higher level Spell but fighting was not all about wasting mana and casting powerful spells!

A level 1 Spell of his has the power of level 3 Spells and that kind of spell won't necessarily be ineffective against level 4 creatures. It was not enough to one shot kill them but if the lions were hit accurately, they would suffer serious injuries

The lions waved their paws with sharp nails to destroy Calter's attacks. However, when the acid met their skin it slowly corroded it. The lions hissed in pain and turned to looked ferociously at Calter. The human that they thought was their pray actually injured them, how can they not be angry?

Too bad, anger won't mean much without a power. In no more than a second, five more black balls were shot from Calter's wand. This time the lions learned their lessons and decided to dodge the balls. But Calter can skillfully control the trajectory of his spell

Five balls were within his mind's limit. More than that and it would be extremely hard to control and the power would lessen. The lions didn't think that the balls can travel in a curve path and chased them causing them to suffer another injury

One of the lions was lucky as he only got hit by a total of two balls but the other two tasted four balls each. Burnt marks appeared on their bodies as the acid that was left slowly corroded their bodies

The lions stared at Calter with caution. They suffered injuries yet their 'prey' was uninjured and acting like a machine gun constantly shooting spells that can hurt them. The wounds were just superficial as they were all level 4 beasts with high defense but the acid that was left were giving them pain and further damaging their bodies

But lions are prideful in nature, they would rather die than flee from someone that they thought is their prey

"[Dark Magic: Dark Shots!]" Calter pointed his wand on the lions and it continuously shot black bullet size attacks. The lions were hit on their bodies further enhancing their injuries but they ignored it and continued charging at Calter's position

Calter smirked and the dark bullets changed its target. This time, it targeted the lions' eyes. No matter what you are, one's eyes were very fragile and easy to damage. The bullets managed to destroy the lions' eyes and continued on their brain. With their brain being attack by a spell, the lions' body landed on the ground and stopped breathing... just like that, Calter easily killed three creatures above his level easily

Looking at the corpses of the three lions Calter can only sigh in regret. Level 4 beasts are more expensive than level 3 beasts and a whole corpse was priced around 100 Magic Crystals. Too bad, there were many parts that was corroded and they might only have the price of a fully intact level 3 Beasts. Scenarios like this are common. One can kill beasts at his level but it doesn't mean you'll have a high price on it

Normally, only high-level Magic Apprentices would hunt mid-level beast. With their power, they have some assurance on killing the beasts without leaving too much damage on their bodies

"Dark Type Magicians are really unsuitable to be hunters" Calter can't help but sighed in helplessness again. Dark magics often have sinister effects and most of the time will left nasty wounds on one's body. In a war they are effective at giving fear to the soldiers with their bizarre and cruel effects like extreme pain but in hunting magic beasts, they are at disadvantage

Calter collected the bodies on his spatial ring and walked around with his Cloud Stepping Horse. He was not disappointed as it was easy to bump into a group of beasts in this forest

He easily encountered another group of 'training experience' and 'magic crystals'. This time the beast that Calter encountered were all made from rocks

It has a huge rock as a head and two limbs like arms on its side and two on the bottom that looks like thighs and legs on the other hand. It was a rock monster, magicians that has spells effective on the rock monsters would be delighted encountering them. But to normal magicians, it was troublesome to deal with them

Their whole bodies are made up of rocks and the only thing that can be sold on their bodies were the core inside their head. It was only a small earth core but one doesn't need to worry about damaging the beasts' body like other flesh and blood beasts

Their cores are also one of the most expensive at their level. But with their bodies made up of rock it was harder to kill them than other creatures. Just like the skeleton warriors, they don't feel any pain no matter how much you harm their bodies. The only way to kill them was to destroy their heads and get the earth core before they reformed. The weaker rock monster has lower regeneration speed that can last from tens of seconds to a minute. However, it was hard to destroy their heads then grab the earth core. Even if the core was exposed, the earth monsters can still move

Their eyes after all are not like flesh and blood creature's eyes and they actually mostly see with their senses. Calter's acid ball won't have much effect on these hard rocks

Although it was hard to kill them but what Calter exactly needs were tough opponents for tempering! He pointed his wand on the rock monsters while gathering his mana on it "[Dark Magic: Minor Explosion!]"

A small ball of black light was shot from Calter's wand. The ball was smaller than the darkness ball but its power was not something Darkness Ball can compare!

Minor explosion is a level 3 Spell. Calter made a Magic Mark of it and it now has the power of a Level 5 Spell. That's level 5! The group of five rock monsters are only at level 4, it was more than enough to blew their heads and expose their cores!

As soon as Calter shot the spell on one of the rock monsters he immediately gathered mana again on his wand and cast another spell. "[Dark Magic: Black Hand!]" Black hand is a level 2 Spell but it's power might even be inferior than level 1 Spells. It wasn't an attack type magic but only a support one

The black hand easily grabbed the earthen brown core and went back on Calter's side. It was hard to get the core if you pick it manually by hand as the rock monster can still attack you but it was easier to do it from a distance

The insides of the head of rock monsters were completely empty aside from their core hovering on it. As soon as it was exposed, the core won't be able to put up even the tiniest resistance. Well, that's the case for the weaker rock monsters

The rock monsters' diet were rocks and the rocks' essence formed their core. The more rocks they eat the more their core will grow. As they don't need to eat other creatures, rock monsters only attacked someone when they were attack

The rock monster's body fell on the ground as its core was taken from it killing it. The other four looked at Calter angrily, two went to charge at the youth while the other two gathered energy on their mouth and shot a beam of light

"[Dark Magic: Darkness Ball!]" The spells' speed was faster than the running rock monsters and Calter decided to deal with them first. The two rock monsters' long-range attacks have the power of level 4 Spells and Calter's magic cannot completely cancel it

But Calter never used a spell that has the same power as the spell coming to him. As long as the spell can alter the attack's direction it was enough. Rock monsters don't have much intellect and Calter won't believe that they are like talented humans that can control their attacks' trajectory

The long-range attacks can't do any damage on Calter now and he controlled the other three balls to attack the two rock monsters. Acid at this level don't have much effect on rocks. Darkness Ball after all has mediocre immediate effect, its power lies on its corrosive effects. But to corrode hard rocks? Calter's spell doesn't have the power yet

Fortunately, rock monsters have high defense but are extremely slow. Add that with their joints made from rocks, it was harder for them to move. Even just Calter's normal human running speed was enough to get away from them

Calter run away as casting spells one after another hurt his mind a bit. It was fine if the spells are all level 1. He can activate quite a lot of them one after another. But he used one level 3 and one level 2 Spell. Those have higher burden on his soul

He decided to run a bit and kite them until the fatigue of casting spells vanished. Fortunately, the fatigue was not that serious and only caused mild pain. But the more spells he activates, the burden would stack up

The horse was chasing Calter but although the youth was running, for the horse it was a mere walk. When the fatigue finally vanished, Calter pointed his wand on one of the rock monsters that attacks physically

"[Dark Magic: Minor Explosion!]" A small condensed explosive ball was shot from Calter's wand and easily exploded on the rock monster's head. The rock monsters were taken aback as they thought Calter would continue running but he actually activated another spell again and this will cost them another life