The Endless Battle [1] - Outsmarted?

Several months passed after that, and not much had changed in that period.

Silas had finally passed the age of 5, but as usual, there was no party. He assumed that he would only get a party after the age of 6 since that's the only time his sister got one.

After they returned home with the chief's assistant, Silas gave the staff to his grandmother. The first time he used mystic eyes on it, he instantly knew what it was. Not only was the wood made out of something that had a really good conductivity to mana, but the crystal place embroidered on it was beyond amazing.

The crystal seemed to radiate the fire element, and not only that, but it also seemed to repel the water element to a certain extent. It felt like it was a mana core of its own, absorbing and releasing mana at a steady rate, yet every time Silas pushed a little bit of mana into it, that rate of cultivation seemed to increase.

After taking the cloth off in the comfort of their own homes, Silas finally realized that it had a Dull-emerald crystal attached to it, with that crystal having a small red ball of flame in the center of it, dictating the element it absorbs.

Silas felt a little envy when he saw it. When he touched it, he could sense how fast he would have been capable of casting spells with it. The concentration needed was much less, and the efficiency at which he could cast spells would have multiplied, and the pure strength behind his spells would have been astronomical.

Yet, instead of watching his grandma with greed and cursing her for the items she had, he chose to use this as just another form of motivation to get stronger before reaching the age of 6.

At the same time, he realized something else when he touched that staff.

'If I can get my own mana crystals, I can practice absorbing the elemental mana inside them into my core... If I can do that, I'll pass that elemental exam with flying colors...

The ideal choice is to get an A or lower on two elements. Getting three would put me on everyone's radar, and that is not something I want until I can fend off those people.'

So far, he had gotten clear crystals with only pure mana inside them. Those tended to come from beasts who had no elements but rather just had enhanced strength.

He had no idea what he should do with them, but one thing came to mind...

Regardless, 7 months passed in the blink of an eye, and when he was almost 5 and a half years old, he began to lose his patience. He had remained stuck in the pristine garnet core for far too long, and worst of all, his sister was beginning to catch up to him.

In that time, his sister hadn't said a word about him leaving the house, but she did seem to get closer and closer to telling their parents about it every day Silas went out.

He knew it wouldn't be long until she cracked, but he tried to stretch that out for as long as possible.

In the meantime, however, Silas was trying his best to find a way to break through into the topaz core, and after a lot of deliberating, Silas had decided that cultivating with the beast cores might have been the best idea.

Sure, he could sell them for a fortune or even use them to make an armor or weapon of his own, but he wanted to make those things out of stronger items. Using garnet and onyx crystals for something like armor would be a waste.

'I hope I find a beast capable of using elemental mana today.' Silas stretched. His parents and grandmother were all asleep. Hell, even Syra was asleep.

Leaving their home, Silas began to walk toward the forest with the axe in his hand. He had grown much stronger in the past 7 months, to the point where he could probably kill many of the beasts in the forest without using any spells or fusions.

His axe was chipped and a lot duller than it used to be. It was the axe the intruder had thrown at him a few years back, and since it was the only weapon in the house that didn't belong to anyone, Silas decided to use it as his main hunting tool.

Silas walked into the forest and ensured his bloody aura was completely suppressed so the beasts wouldn't escape him. He always had his aura suppressed to a certain extent. All he had to do was repeat what he did the first time he suppressed his aura: just suck it in and not let it go.

The melodious sounds of the forest entered Silas' ears and made him reach full alertness. His eyes quickly turned green, allowing him to see all mana signatures in the area.

"Hmmm. That's weird." Silas muttered to himself after realizing that there weren't that many beasts around...

To be fair, even the forest sounded off. It didn't have the fine tune of beasts rustling, fighting, howling, and chirping... None of those things were there. It was like the first time he entered the forest. The only sound that could be heard were the synced rustles of the trees blowing with the wind.

It was ghost-quite, yet every time the wind blew, it sounded like the howled screams of the souls that remained within the forest.

'Something is here...' Silas thought with a scowl, yet for some reason, he couldn't pick up a mana signature or vitals nearby of creatures that weren't hiding or running away.

'Should I run? No... Yes? Ugh. I should investigate, right? It might be a monster with an elemental affinity.' Silas debated, but ultimately, his greed was stronger than the fear pooling in his stomach.

Jumping from tree to tree, Silas searched for the anomaly until he finally saw it.

A large surge of mana concentrated into a single figure, radiating a frightening amount of bloodlust.

'The earth element... This is going to be tricky.' Silas gritted his teeth.

According to the books he read, beasts with the earth element were very tanky. However, it made sense. Monsters and beasts evolved to suit their elements. Even red dragons formed glands to spew fire out of their mouths.

The creature before him had the earth element, so every muscle in its body would be enhanced with that element, making it not only heavy but also extremely durable, a little similar to earth fusion.

'It only has a pristine garnet core... I should be fine.'

Landing on a tree nearby the beast, Silas narrowed his eyes, and the towering brown bear stood on all fours with a back that looked almost like a mountain.

'Its going to be hard fought, but if I kill it...' Silas grinned. This battle was clearly not for his axe, so he simply stabbed it into the side of the tree he was standing on before pointing his hand toward the beast.

A pentagram appeared before Silas' hand, and as mana began to pool inside the magic circle, Silas thought of one word.

'Fire missile.'

A fireball larger than Silas appeared before him, immediately grabbing the attention of the bear; however, by the time it had turned around, Silas had already shrunken the sphere of flames into a ball the size of his fist.

It took less than 2 seconds to form before tearing through the air, shooting right toward the bear, and exploding on impact.

A blinding flash of light illuminated the forest while the flame shot up and in every direction. The explosion was magnificent, to say the least. Silas was almost certain that the beast would have been seriously hurt, so without thinking, he jumped down and began walking toward it.

His mystic eyes couldn't really see through the flames created by his spell, but he didn't need it... Or at least, he didn't need it to understand that he had messed up.

A sudden gust of mana shot out in every direction. Murky brown energy flooded out of the beast's body in the form of a magical aura. It was unlike anything Silas had seen before, but at the same time, it was not the time for him to marvel at it like an idiot.

'Wait...' Silas narrowed his eyes and looked at its core once more.

That wasn't a pristine garnet core...

It was a dull topaz core.

'It concealed its core level!' Silas inwardly screamed, but just when he thought it couldn't get any worse-

*ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAR*

The bear lifted its body from the flames and stood on two legs as it roared into the sky.

It looked completely unscathed...

The roar reverberated throughout the entire forest.

Eyes began to shine from within the shadows of the trees. Silas could still see them with mystic eyes, but the result of his discovery only worsened his confidence in himself to survive such an encounter.

Hundreds of eyes were glaring at him; now, even the bear was glaring at him.

'This was a trap...' Silas realized before a grim thought entered his mind.

'Did I just get outsmarted by a bunch of beasts?'

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