Experience Points

The grimoire floated behind him as his figure dashed towards the hare.

The hare was busy eating grass and was not aware of Miguel dashing towards it.

It was only when Miguel was already five meters away from it that its fur and ear finally stood on end in alert. It's fiery mane blazed even more threateningly as it turned its red eyes towards Miguel.

Unfortunately, five meters was already a very short distance for Martial Artists of the same level as Miguel.

He arrived in front of the rabbit in a jiffy and kicked it as hard as he could at the area on its hind leg where no fire was present.

With his strength, the fiery hare was kicked like a weightless ball and smashed towards a tree with a resounding sound.

It dropped to the ground, unmoving. It's fiery mane died down, and that's when Miguel realized that it was already dead.

At the same time, his grimoire floated in front of him and automatically flipped onto the first page.

There, Miguel saw new information that he had never experienced before.

[Defeated Level 1 Normal Grade Fire Maned Hare with Outstanding Performance: User is rewarded with 11 Experience Points.]

[Defeated Level 1 Normal Grade Fire Maned Hare with Outstanding Performance: Grimoire is awarded with 4 Experience Points.]

This new batch of information was mentioned by Marcel and the grimoire before. 

This was the world's will, evaluating his performance and rewarding him with experience points based on it.

According to Marcel, a user's rank, a grimoire's grade, and a beast rank will upgrade once the experience points awarded by the world's will reach or surpass a certain amount.

According to Marcel, a Beginner Apprentice Summoner would rank up to Intermediate Apprentice once their experience points crossed around a hundred points. As for the exact amount, only the world's will will know.

As for the grimoire's experience cap at Bronze Grade, no one really knows. According to Marcel, it took him almost 30 years before his Bronze Grade grimoire was upgraded to a Silver Grade. He said that it might depend on one's talent, as there were others who were able to rank their grimoire up even though they were younger than him by a few years. He stated that ranking up a grimoire was the most difficult to achieve.

Hence, those who were able to and those who awakened with higher-grade grimoires were revered by many.

As for the reason why he was not awarded with experience points when Aaliyah killed Jonas, it should be because her level and grade were too high compared to Jonas. The level difference was so huge that even the latter's absolute shield was not able to do anything to Aaliyah's fire.

It could not be called a battle at all and was more like bullying; hence, it must be the reason why the World's Will did not evaluate it.

Though losing a fight will not result in the deduction of experience points, the World's Will values fairness the most and won't allow cheating. When it deemed someone as staging a fight or someone was purposely losing to let another person win some experience points, the World's Will would be able to detect it and even punish the perpetrators greatly.

Miguel closed the grimoire and returned it to his Inner World. He picked up the Fire Mane Hare and continued moving forward.

The hare was so weak that it died with one kick from him.

Aside from that, Miguel had still not found a suitable place to cultivate as well. But he was not in a hurry searching for one either, as he would leave the village soon anyway. It was just an alternative, and if he doesn't find any, then so be it.

It did not take long before Miguel found another Wild Beast. He was already very far from the village, and he reckoned that Jonas must not have patrolled this area often.

The beast this time was another type of fire beast. Fire-type were the most common beasts here in Blazing Expanse, after all.

This was a huge yak that was over a meter and a half in height. Its underbelly and lower chest were on fire. Its upper body was charred black; whether it was due to the fire beneath it, no one knows.

The moment Miguel spotted the yak, the yak also spotted him in return. Its massive head turned to look at him as its massive body also rotated towards him.

Seeing that it was very alert, Miguel knew for a fact that this yak was definitely stronger than the one earlier. He did not dare underestimate it, so he immediately summoned his grimoire and prepared to cast the absolute shield at any given time.

The absolute shield was like a cheat given to grimoire summoners. With it, they could guarantee their own safety while they commanded their beast to fight.

However, it was not without weakness either. Upon activation, the absolute shield would stay in the same place until the time was up. If the user decided to leave on their own, the shield would automatically break, and the user would not be able to summon it again on the same day.

At the same time, when a summoned beast was defeated in battle, the absolute shield would also weaken and would break if all available beasts were defeated. Aside from that, when the shield was broken forcefully or by defeat, it would also cause some damage to the owner's mind, just like when their summoned beasts were defeated or killed in battle.

Although it was like a cheat code, this was also some kind of weakness for the grimoire summoners.

The yak snorted at Miguel in the distance. Its nose flared up and let out oozing smoke as its front hoof scratched the ground in rage.

Without wasting any more time, the yak charged towards Miguel, leaving fire behind in its wake.

One of its skills was probably activated as it charged towards Miguel ferociously.

Seeing that, Miguel did not panic and calmly dashed towards the yak as well. The next moment, his figure suddenly vanished as he stepped into the shadow of one of the trees.

The yak was startled and immediately skidded when it realized that the target was no longer in its sight. Its nose flared up in anger as it searched for its puny opponent.

On the other hand, Miguel has already materialized at the back of the yak. The skill, Shadow Steps, was indeed very useful. It could confuse and catch the enemy off-guard. This was just one of the reasons why Miguel decided to learn this skill first.

Of course, the main reason was to move stealthily and do things that others would not be able to perceive.

The yak still did not realize that Miguel was already behind it.

Miguel did not allow it to do so, and he immediately delivered a punch to its hind leg.

His punch looked ordinary and looked as if it were just a normal hook punch. However, if an expert Martial Artist were to see this scene, they would surely be amazed at how fluid his movements were.

His waist was half-turned, and both of his feet were planted firmly in the ground.

The punch looked ordinary, but it contained all the strength he currently possessed.

With his perfect memory from his previous life, Miguel was able to utilize such a skillful punch without needing the body's muscle memory.

Boom!

Miguel's fist landed on the yak's hind legs. The leg of the yak rippled as its massive body was lifted three feet above the ground before it was thrown four meters away. Its body landed on the ground with a loud thud as it let out a painful scream. The fire on its underbelly and chest dimmed for a few seconds before it erupted with even more ferocity as it stood up from the ground with shivering legs. It looked at Miguel with even more rage as it retreated and prepared to charge at him once again.

Meanwhile, Miguel shook his right hand with a slight frown on his face. Although his move may look perfect, Miguel knew that it was far from perfect. In fact, it looked rigid in his eyes, to the point that he almost doubted himself.

'It looks like I really need to train from step 1 once again and let this body get used to my movements,' he muttered to himself as he looked at the yak that was only shaking its leg from his full-forced attack.

Although its hind leg was probably numb right now, Miguel knew for a fact that it did not cause that much damage to the yak.

Realizing that the opponent was tougher than he initially thought, Miguel did not panic, and an excited smile even surfaced on his face.

Swoosh!

Two figures, one massive and one small, dashed towards each other at the same time.

Their bodies met in the middle, as a fierce battle between a large yak and a small human ensued.