Lunar Energy

Clenching his handmade weapon Kai held his breath sincerely hoping for the monster to just pass through the area without noticing his presence.

Tap... Tap...

The creature's footsteps were becoming louder and louder when they suddenly stopped. Kai wasn't so optimistic to think that the beast disappeared, hence shifted to the side, taking a peek at the exit of the cavern.

Oh, how big of a mistake it was!

Two eerie red eyes were right outside the cavern, inspecting it, the monster would've probably left if Kai hadn't shown himself.

As soon as Kai's head emerged around the corner the beast narrowed its eyes and soon a screeching sound left its throat. Since the beast's frame was bigger than that of the cavern's entrance it had no way to reach Kai, hence started clawing the outer walls of the cave.

Scratch... Scratch...

The sharp claws of the beast were scratching against the rocks creating a dull yet annoying sound. Seeing how the situation was unfolding Kai was genuinely satisfied, because he didn't have to take the monster head on.

It isn't that Kai was a coward, it's just stupid to fight a Ranked monster while being a normal human. At the end of the day a being who can use Mana is like a god to those who can't. A perfect example would be the creature aiming to kill Kai, even though it is Baron rank monster, the weakest rank for monsters, its claws can easily collide with rocks even slashing some of them. No normal animal or a human is able to achieve such feats.

Scratch... Scratch...

The beast kept clawing the cavern's entrance, not allowing Kai to concentrate. Kai didn't know how much longer the monster could keep clawing the cave, but it was starting to get on his nerves.

' Should I just throw my weapon? '

Balancing the harpoon on a single finger he was watching the dark silhouette constantly moving its limbs near the cavern's entrance.

He didn't know what kind of monster attacked him, but he was sure that the monster was either starving or just held a grudge against humans.

Sighing in defeat, Kai put the weapon to the side. Injuring the monster would seem like the best choice, but he had to think about other possibilities like the beast being not heavily injured and snatching away his harpoon.

' This is so stupid '

Looking towards the tenacious monster Kai closed his eyes and covered his ears trying to meditate. Fortunately this time he was lucky to fully concentrate in a few minutes and was able to cut off all of his senses.

Millions of molecule size mana particles were present everywhere Kai looked. Out of curiosity he shifted his attention to the monster. He noticed that the beast had an orb located in its lower abdomen with millions and millions of blue dots contained within it.

' Mana Core '

Seeing the fully formed mana core Kai also noticed that it was black, indicating that the beast was rather weak, a Baron rank monster. The lighter the color of the Mana core the more power a being has.

Retracting his attention back to the 2 mana particles that made up his mana core Kai took a deep breath.

He was planning to attract two mana particles at once.

Gazing at the two blue dots floating nearby each other he started slowly pulling them towards himself. Even though it was hard, Kai was getting used to this and the whole process seemed relatively easier than yesterday. Today he managed to add another 5 Mana Particles to the foundation of his mana core before being forcefully ejected from the state of absolute concentration.

Scratch... Scratch...

With a frown on his face Kai turned his head towards the monster. At first he thought that the monster was here just to hunt and was unwilling to let such an easy prey escape right under its nose, but now Kai felt like this was not normal.

Which sane creature would choose to willingly scratch its claws against rocks for 3 consecutive hours?

Looking towards the entrance Kai made sure that the monster wouldn't be able to squeeze itself inside the cavern and rolled to the side trying to get some sleep.

Unfortunately the beast kept clawing the cave for the entire night, Kai only managed to close his eyes when the sun could be seen in the horizon.

Even after he started sleeping he was thrown into the white desert once again, approaching the same, black oak tree Kai didn't even bother to lift his head up knowing that the raven would be on one of the branches.

The bird suddenly landed right beside his feet, even closer than the last time.

' Isn't it getting closer and closer every time? '

Warily looking towards the bird Kai scratched his neck while trying to sort out all the information he knew about this weird phenomenon.

He was sure that the bird was a powerful monster, but he couldn't determine its rank accurately. Just by looking at the raven he was fascinated by the intelligence visible in its deep cyan eyes.

' I wonder if I'll be thrown outside if I try to touch it like the last time... '

Kai almost wanted to try his theory, but kept his hands to himself. Closing his eyes Kai wanted to try sensing the Mana nearby.

It didn't even take a minute for him to enter a state of absolute concentration. The white desert was surprisingly suitable for meditation.

As he was searching for blue mana particles suddenly something attracted his attention. Small, barely visible particles were all around the place being even more common than mana.

Out of pure curiosity Kai tried to attract one of them towards his core and surprisingly it reacted as a normal particle would. When this new type of particle stuck itself onto the other particles Kai could somehow feel that it was more potent than Mana. Kai didn't know why, but he felt that this black particle was more powerful than all of the 7 Mana particles combined.

Carefully inspecting his core from the side he got another shock, because the newly acquired black particle has tainted the Mana ones and changed their color to black.

' What the hell... '

Opening his eyes Kai instantly directed his gaze towards the bird observing him from a distance. As his eyes met the birds he was suddenly thrown out of the desert back to reality.

Scratch... Scratch...

The monster was still present outside the cavern, but Kai paid no mind to him, he was checking out his mana core, more specifically the new type of particles he just absorbed.

Even though they reacted in a similar way to mana he knew it was a different kind of energy, a stronger one.

" Lunar Energy... "

Kai's eyes shot wide open as he turned his head towards the monster who just spoke. Since the night was long over Kai could see the overall appearance of the monster and was a bit surprised seeing that it was some kind of lizard.

' What the hell is this monster! '

Grabbing the harpoon Kai stood up while warily eyeing the creature.