Chapter 23

Walking through the portal felt like they were walking through a very viscous and dry jello, as they noted how strangely warm it was as well. It was truly a surreal experience that left them feeling strange and unsure how to process it. Shaking those thoughts out of his mind, Rey looked around at where the portal took them.

They were in a thick, verdant forest, as greenery and vegetation met their eyes everywhere they looked. The smell of nature was heavy there as different insect and Beast sounds filled the forest. Dia subconsciously stood closer to Rey as she held her bow tightly in her hands.

Kazumi wore a slight frown as he saw how densely packed the forest was and how numerous and close the Beasts sounded. Even though he was in the Advanced stage, he could tell this Novice dungeon was going to be trouble.

Confused on where to go, as Rey was expecting more of a traditional dungeon, he saw a clear path leading deeper into the forest, and wondered why he didn't notice it at first. Rey immediately frowned, as he could already guess that this was going to be somewhat chaotic.

With how thick the forest was and all of the noises he heard coming out of the forest, the gamer in Rey could already tell that they were going to be facing some guerilla warfare. Seeing no other way through, they readied their weapons, stepped on the path that was wide enough for a group of 5 to stand side by side, and entered the forest.

As they walked down the path that they couldn't see the end of, all of the loud chaotic noises that they heard while they were outside of the forest has died down and the noise now sounded very far away and slightly distorted. Even Rey, with his heightened sense of hearing, couldn't exactly pinpoint where the noises were now coming from.

Sweat began forming on their faces, as the very air around them grew thick with tension and anxiety. They looked left and right of the path, and could barely see into the densely packed forest.

"What the hell? This is just the Novice dungeon, right? Why the fuck is it so scary?" Rey asked as he held his staff tightly, expecting to be attacked at any second.

Dia and Kazumi nearly bumped into the back of Rey when he suddenly stopped and looked around frantically.

"Eh? What's wrong?" Kazumi asked ask he lit a new cigarette to try and calm his nerves. His usually calm and lazy expression was now replaced with one full of tension.

"I think I heard something..." Rey said as he tightened his grip on his staff with one hand and a Talisman appeared in the other.

"A sound? I didn't hear any-" Kazumi said before the sound of a branch snapping stopped the words in his throat.

They all looked to the right of the path where they heard the noise, but as soon as they turned their heads, as a louder, even closer snapping was heard from the left. Dia yelped as she raised her bow towards the sound with shaky arms. Rey could smell the fear radiating off of her.

"Oh fuck this, I'm not going out like that!" Rey said as a few more Talismans appeared in his hands.

If one were to look at the Runes on the Talismans, they would see a drawing of an explosion, which is what Rey recently altered the new Inscription, [Detonate], to look like. Feeding some Mana into the Talismans, Rey quickly tossed two on each side of forest, while he took out another Talisman that had a shield on it, which was the Rune he made for the [Ward], Inscription.

As soon as Rey activated the ward, a transparent square barrier formed around the trio, and 4 explosions went off simultaneously. Letting out yelps and pained howls, 6 Beasts leapt of of the forest in an aggressive stance, while the bodies of two mangled and bloody Beasts fell to the ground unmoving.

Rey was shaken as the Beasts looked like snarling, eyeless wolves that had no fur or skin, only flesh and muscle. Right when Rey was wondering if the bombs he threw somehow tore the flesh from the beasts, Dia gave him his answer.

"Flesh Hounds!" Dia yelled fearfully as her legs began shaking. Neither Rey or Kazumi faulted Dia for being frightened, as these beasts looked like they were straight from a nightmare.

As if Dia's scream was their que, the Flesh Hounds, 3 on each side, pounced at the trio, only to smack into the Ward. Not letting the transparent green wall stop them from getting their vengeance, the Flesh Hounds began clawing and biting at the Ward. Just as Rey thought the Ward just might hold for them, light cracks began forming one after the other thanks to their ferocious attacks. It won't be long before the Flesh Hounds break through to them.

Knowing that they didn't have a lot of time, Rey's gamer experience kicked back in. He wasn't some amazing guild leader or one of the top players, as Rey was always more interested in just exploring the game worlds and having fun rather than building up influence and leading others. Even him rebuilding the Shinigami wouldn't happen if his life wasn't in danger thanks to the tyrannical Vanguardians.

But, there were times when he did participate in raids and war events, where he always ended up leading people even if he had no intention to. But, thanks to that experience, Rey knew exactly what to do with their small numbers.

"We need a formation! Kazumi, you take the lead and cut them all down! Dia, stay in the middle and fire as many shots as you can! I'll take our rear and make sure they don't flank us. I only have a handful of Wards, but if you get hurt, use these Heal Talismans!" Rey ordered as he handed each of them a handful of Talismans and positioned himself behind Dia.

As they all got in their positions, the Ward shattered like glass, and the Flesh Hounds threw themselves forward. Before they could get too far, Kazumi dashed towards the right and slashed his katana, slashing into one Flesh Hound, before crossing his sword and sheathe over each other to block the claws from the closest beast, getting knocked back a few feet.

As Kazumi was waiting for the Hounds to attack him again, a swooshing came from behind him as an arrow shot right into the head of the leftmost Flesh Hound that Kazumi slashed in the beginning, staggering the Hound before it slumped over to the side died.

While Kazumi and Dia were busy with the remaining 2 Flesh Hounds on the right side, Rey was handling the left, not taking any chances, Rey took out another Bomb Talisman and threw it at the middle Flesh Hound. Having already seen what that dangerous strip of white paper can do, the 3 Flesh Hounds that were running next to each other split apart and scattered.

Unfortunately for the middle Hound, it wasn't able to dodge fully, having it's right hind leg shredded and nearly blown off, it could only growl and snarl as the large metal sphere of Rey's staff smashed into it's skull.

Since the other two Flesh Hounds ran a distance away to escape the danger, they could do nothing as Rey crushed the middle Hounds skull open. Seeing the middle Flesh Hound being killed, the other two Hounds grew livid as cracks appeared in the ground as they launched themselves at Rey, intending to tear him piece by piece.

Seeing the last 2 Flesh Hounds coming from his left and right, Rey channeled Mana into the end of his staff and pointed it at the right Hound as he prepared to cast a spell.

"[Rock Bullet]" was all Rey uttered as a sharp, jagged rock formed at the end of his staff and shot towards the Hound on the right, while he ran towards the Hound on the left.

Unfortunately, though Flesh Hounds have no eyes, it was somehow able to dodge the blast with fast, agile movements. But, that wasn't the only blast that went firing towards the Hound, as sharp rocks flew at the Fresh Hound from left to right.

Though doing this was somewhat draining on Rey's Mana, he knew from his VR gaming experience and his training with his family from Earth, that getting surrounded by multiple enemies was the worst, and could lead to death with one mistake.

As Rey and the left Hound came into range of each other, he was unable to send as many Rock Bullets at the Hound on the right, but he did discover something else very useful. Rey wasn't sure if it was because he was a Sensor or not, but the closer that the Hounds got, he was able to sense them persistently like a radar, and know their location at all times.

So, even without taking his eyes off of the Hound of the left, when he fired at the right Hound, he heard a sharp yelp and tumble to let him know that it was dangerously close.

Not sure if the right Hound was dead or not, and not wanting to be attacked from his blindspot, Rey leapt to the side, putting the whole battle in his view. Rey was able to see the left Hound he was fighting hot on his tail. The Hound that he shot at on the right wasn't dead, but he had miraculously shot off the front left leg of the Hound and mangled the back left leg, leaving the Hound as an immobile, whimpering mess.

In Kazumi and Dia's battle, Rey could see that they were doing well and were nearly done with the last of their Flesh Hounds. Not wanting to be left behind and with the last of his Flesh Hounds getting closer, Rey decided to try one of the new spells he was practicing recently. Channeling his mana towards the end of his staff and holding his staff in the air, prepared to slash down at any second, Rey was ready to cast the spell.

"[Water Blade]!" Rey yelled, as he felt the moisture in the air gather at the end of his staff, forming a shaky image of a blade.

When the Water Blade was formed, and the Flesh Hound got within striking range, Rey slashed down with all of his might. The Flesh Hound, who suddenly sensed a great amount of danger coming from the blade formed from water on the staff, tried to run away as fast as it could, but it was unable to stop it's momentum. The next second, 2 perfectly cut halves of the Flesh Hound flew past either side of Rey, spraying him with it's blood.

Nearly tapped out of his mana, Rey fell to his knees in exhaustion, feeling sweat drenching his fur, as his vision started getting fuzzy, and his breathing got laboured.

"Rey!" Dia screamed as she ran over to his side in tears, fiddling with the Heal Talisman in her hands, as she didn't know how to use it.

Seeing her act so concerned for him warmed Rey's heart, as a tired smile formed under his black featureless mask.

"Dia, I'm fine, I'm just a little tired. Those Heal Talismans only do healing, they don't recover energy. Give me a few minutes, and I'll be fine." Rey said with a slightly sluggish tone.

Feeling something being tossed at him, Rey reached out to catch it, only for a small, colorful rock that was the size of a grape to end up in his hand. Looking up at the person who tossed, Kazumi, Rey tilted his head in confusion.

"It's a Beast Core. Have you really never seen one before?" Kazumi asked, as he walked over casually, resting his hand within his robe. The bottom half of his mask was slid over so that he could take a smoke.

'Jinbe, what the hell is this thing? And why the hell do I feel stupid for not knowing what it is?' Rey asked, feeling like he just stumbled onto something very instrumental.

'Oh my, it keeps slipping my mind that you're an Outworlder, and don't know certain things. There are two main ways for people to increase their Cultivation Level. One is the method you're already familiar with, which is Meditation for Mages or Cultivating for Warriors. But, their is another, more dangerous, but faster way of increasing ones power, which is through absorbing Cores.' Jinbe said, and Rey was immediately reminded of the small, gem-like cores that would be within monsters on the games he used to play.

'Every living being posses a Core, but they are often called different things. For Beasts, it's a small gem called a, Beast Core. For Monsters, it's called a, Monster Core. But, for Humanoid Mages, they have what's called a, Mana Core, which is often referred to as a Mana Pool. For Warriors, it's slightly different. Once they start Cultivating and reach the first stage, their hearts become their core, and their bodies become a a complicated vessel for their Ki.' Jinbe informed, dropping a knowledge bomb on Rey.

'Now, the main reason I had you leave Harrend Village was because their are no Beasts there, and I wanted you to venture to gain life and battle experience, but to also help with the important part of these Cores. Once you kill something, you have a chance of getting their Core Energy, and absorbing it within yourself. If you destroy the Core as you're killing them, the Core Energy will flow into you, but much of the Core Energy will be wasted. But, it you can kill them and fully extract the Core afterwards, you are able to fully absorb the Core during Cultivation.' Jinbe said, shocking Rey.

This sounded just like a video game to him. Whenever you kill things on a game, you get Experience Points, or 'EXP'. This method of gaining Cultivation Levels through getting this Core Energy was the same thing. Thinking about everything, he was now basically in a familiar 'Game World', only there was no game system and this was real.

With that knowledge, Rey was no longer wondering why people willingly killed Beasts, or people were so willing to kill in this world. Rey was also more grateful for this Training Dungeon that Jinbe had given him. Jinbe wasn't wrong, as with this God-given space, Rey will be able to quickly stand with the top-players of this world.