Chapter 4 - First Encounter, First Kill

After cultivating for the entire day as predicted, Dana finally reached the Second Level of Body Refining realm.

And upon her increase of cultivation, her body size seemed to have also increased, and Dana felt that her body has become much sturdier than before.

Feeling the newfound strength of her body made Dana marvel at the wonders that cultivation brings towards an individual, even with just this slight increase in cultivation rank Dana feels like she could get addicted to this feeling.

Now being Body Rank 2 Cultivator provided Dana newfound confidence in exploring the Forest to hunt for some spirit beasts.

As Dana has been in Devil's Peak for over a day, her stomach already felt a sudden feeling of hunger.

Although it disgusts her at the thought of eating a beast raw, Dana still resolved herself to do so.

Thus Dana not only wanted to hunt beasts entirely for soul points but to also feed herself, as she won't be able to sustain herself for long without substance.

As Dana was curious about how beasts cultivate without a cultivation method, she quickly asked the system with it replying that beasts will devour each other carcasses to absorb the Qi within the flesh.

With this in mind in addition to the feeling of hunger, this further pushed Dana to eat a beast raw, as it not only will solve the current hunger issue but also bring significant benefits to her cultivation.

Concerned for her safety, Dana already asked the system earlier if she had the means to protect herself if she goes hunting in this area.

The System soon responded to the delight of Dana that this area is incredibly safe with only Rank Three and Four Body Refining Beasts, which will pose no threat to her because of her bloodline.

Earlier Dana had gained further insight into the importance of bloodlines towards a beast, in the cultivation world a beast power would correspondingly rank towards the quality of its bloodline, as Dana was a Frost Wyvern which is one of the strongest rare bloodlines, not many spirit beasts can compete with her.

Making Dana unrivalled compared to beasts within the same Cultivation Rank regarding strength, and even creatures which are three or four Ranks above her will pose a minimum amount of threat towards her.

Therefore, with the backing of her bloodline, Dana has truly no fear towards Rank Three and Four Body Refining Beasts.

Not to mention her bloodline purity is astonishingly high, which results in her being naturally stronger than other Frost Wyvern's.

Dana ran at an astonishing speed for her size, her Draconic paws carrying her at an inhuman pace incomparable towards any animal in her previous life are capable of achieving.

After searching around the area, she finally came across her first Spirit Beast, a large Fox covered in blazing red fur.

"System, what type of beast is that and how strong is it?," Said Dana.

[Host that spirit beast is a Firefox, a creature which contains no bloodline heritage but owns a natural affinity for Fire Qi. The beast's primary ability is shooting a ball of Fire by gathering the Fire Qi within its mouth, its cultivation is at Rank Three Body Refining.]

Hearing the System's reply, Dana wondered how many soul points could a Beast of this Rank be worth?

Dana decided to answer her question by asking the System.

[The Firefox is worth two points, as it is a Beast at the third Body Refining Realm which contains no bloodline heritage. Thus its total value is two soul points.]

Seeing the small number of soul points, made Dana even further realise how fortunate she had gotten with her cultivation method.

Staring at the Firefox she firmed her resolve into killing her first beast within this world, and she knew there could not be any hesitation with killing other creatures to survive within this place.

Thus, without wasting any more time, she sneakily walked towards the beast.

As she had only been within this draconic form for a day, her movement was still fairly rusty, but it was good enough that she didn't faceplant on her face every time she moved.

As Dana did not want to spend a long time in familiarising herself with her new body, she ignored this issue for now, as she felt assured of herself in being able with a beast such as the one before her, regardless of how unfamilar she may be with this body.

Getting as close as possible without alerting the beast, Dana pounced towards the back of the creature aiming to sink her fangs into its neck.

The Firefox suddenly felt its survival instinct flare, signalling danger.

Narrowly escaping from Dana's attack, a shallow wound emerged across its neck.

Shock emerged in Dana's eyes, but this look quickly turned into one of understanding.

Dana feels the reasoning behind this, was because she has just been a spirit beast for a mere day, whereas this Firefox has lived as one its entire life, not mention it spent its entire life within a hostile environment, thus has much more experience in that regard in comparison to Dana.

However, as she is still a Frost Wyvern, with natural abilities far superior to the FireFox, was why Dana caused a minor injury towards it.

Upon witnessing Dana's appearance, the Firefox knew Dana is a threat towards its life, and without using its best means for survival it cannot withstand the being before it, so without hesitation released its strongest method of attack; Fire Blast.

Knowing her attack failed, Dana saw the surrounding Fire Qi was gathering within its mouth, Dana knew the Firefox used its best means of attack!

It shot a ball of fire towards Dana, which was releasing a blazing hot sensation.

To counter the Firefox's attack, Dana used one of the Frost Wyvern's bloodline abilities; Frost Breath, causing Ice Qi to form a constant stream of Ice which shot out from Dana's mouth.

Dana could instinctively already use this ability as any spirit beasts will have an inherent knowledge on how to use their bloodline inherited abilities.

Therefore it was no problem for her to use the bloodline ability without prior practice.

This was another benefit in which a bloodline provides an individual with powerful abilities which doesn't require practice to master.

As a cultivator would strenuously practice martial skills which purely requires them to use their comprehension to understand the meaning behind the martial skill.

Whereas an individual with a bloodline can have a high mastery of abilities just as powerful as martial skills, not needing to practice at all.

The Frost Breath directly dispersed the ball of fire, continuing unhindered towards the Firefox, which nimbly dodged to the side away from the Ice Qi freezing the objects which remained within its path.

Seeing the Firefox escaping from her attack again Dana now realised she has indeed underestimated the various other spirit beasts.

Making her decide she should stop having a superiority complex towards other beasts because of her bloodline being stronger, as even if she had a far stronger bloodline, at the end of a day, she was still a human who hadn't experienced real danger her entire life.

Thus, making her far inferior to beasts within that regard.

Furthermore, Dana knew she would have to do some severe training afterwards to gain a good understanding of her bloodline abilities so that she can utilise them with the utmost efficiency.

Otherwise, she just is wasting her natural gifts.

So, therefore she charged towards the FireFox.

The FireFox met her in this exchange as it knew it could not possibly outrun the being in front of it, so knew this was the best possible solution to survive this ordeal.

Dana bit into the Firefox and clawed at its body inflicting savage wounds into the Firefox's hide, as dark blood continuously dripped onto the ground, letting out a howl of pain, the Firefox attempted to land strikes of its own in desperate retaliation.

But, how strong was a Frost Wyvern's body?

Unlike the Firefox, Dana could immediately tear open its flesh like paper and ignore the attacks directed towards her because of her naturally strong defensive capabilities.

After over five minutes past, the desperate struggle from the Firefox finally ceased, as it let out its last breath of life.

"Now that was much more difficult than I anticipated, System I thought this was not meant to be any challenge what so ever towards me?" Dana asked, with a puzzled expression on her face.

Honestly, Dana was full of disbelief as even with her natural advantages of being the much more superior spirit beast, she still received injuries, as the Firefox put up a great fight causing her to lose out on most of the exchanges, due to its battle experience.

However, with her naturally high vitality and strong defence, the Firefox couldn't cause any damage towards her whereas in the Firefox's circumstances the injuries piled up over time, causing the Firefox to get weaker and weaker until it couldn't put up any further resistance towards her.

[Host, it would be an easy battle with a usual Frost Wyvern and the Firefox, as you are very inexperienced with being a beast, you ended up being at a disadvantage towards the Firefox. The system recommends Host to practice towards lower level beasts to gain more adaptability towards your body and battle experience before confronting the stronger beasts.]

Dana now knew how naive she truly was, with the praises of the system about how powerful her bloodline was in this world she had grown too arrogant, thinking she was invincible towards any spirit beast or cultivator at similar of a cultivation rank compared to her.

'Yep I definitely need to do some serious training.' She thought.

That was just a regular Rank 3 Body Refining Spirit beast, and she still struggled despite having one of the strongest rare bloodlines.

"Well, I still have gained two soul points, guess I got more training to do before I go hunting spirit beasts which have uncommon bloodlines and are far higher levels of cultivation than me," Dana thought.

However, Dana's rumbling stomach suddenly disturbed her thinking.

"Guess I have to eat this beast raw..." Dana spoke with hesitation looking upon the carcass of the Firefox.

She knew she has no means of creating a fire at all with her beast-like hands, and as her attribute was Ice not fire, then she can only consume the beast like it is.

Taking a chunk out of the beast, Dana strangely didn't feel repulsed and in fact, the taste was delicious. Soon Dana was chunking down the beast meat with enthusiasm, her previous repulsed expression gone with a face filled with satisfaction about her full stomach.

Content with her appetite filled, Dana felt puzzled over her experience. She thought it strange that as a former human, she should find eating raw meat such as this with disgust but instead she saw it as a perfectly natural thing to do.

Looking upon the previous chunky body of the Firefox, with all the remains being just a bunch of bones.

It seems she was hungry; she just gulped down a full seven stone sized beast...

Inspecting her body, she wondered where the hell did all that meat go?

But, upon realising that her version of 'normal' will not exist upon being in this world she discarded this thought, many crazier things have happened to her within this past day, a large belly is not beyond her realms of understanding.

Feeling her cultivation has made a definite improvement after devouring the Firefox, Dana ignored that her natural reaction was irregular and decided to continue eating spirit beasts.

Well, she does need to feed herself somewhere right?

Finding a quiet area to cultivate, Dana entered a trancelike state absorbing Qi.