Chapter 66. All at once

Ryder walked inside the forest once more and started moving deeper. Although the forest looked small, it was way bigger than he could imagine.

He walked in the forest for over an hour, but he didn't find any beast.

He could feel himself getting tired, so he brought a fruit out of his storage space and started eating it.

"Geez, where the heck are the beasts. Even the last time, it wasn't this hard,"

He couldn't help but wonder if the beasts were hiding from him.

After 20 more minutes, he finally saw a beast at some distance from him.

It was a 3-Toothed Rabbit. Although it was called a Rabbit, it was as big as a full-grown cattle.

It had 3 sharp teeth that were coming out of her mouth. The teeth looked just like that of a sabertooth. The 3-Toothed Rabbit had black fur.

'Level 12 beast? Shouldn't be a problem if I'm careful,' Ryder thought as he gazed at the beast.

It was the first time he was facing a beast at that level. Before this, the strongest beast he faced had only been a level 10 beast.

Even the Town Lord that he had killed when he came to the Demon Realm had only been at the 11th level.

<Are you going to kill that?>

Just as he was about to step forward, he heard Janus' voice.

'Yup. Don't screw this up for me. Let me level up in peace,' Ryder thought.

<There's no mission, for now, just a suggestion. You should stay away from that beast,> Janus replied.

'Why?' Ryder inquired, but Janus didn't answer.

'You must be thinking that I'm weak. Let me show you how wrong you are! I can definitely take care of that beast!' Ryder said with a confident smile on his face as he stepped towards the 3-Toothed Rabbit.

He didn't want to give the 3-Toothed Rabbit a chance to escape; that's why he ran as fast as he could.

"Fire Blast!" While Running, Ryder also cast his flame spell as soon as he saw that the 3-Toothed Rabbit had noticed him.

The 3-Toothed Rabbit saw the ball of flame coming towards him; he opened his mouth wide and attacked Ryder with his Shadow Ball. It looked like a pitch-black energy ball that came out of its mouth and collided with Ryder's Flame Blast.

Both the attacks destroyed each other, but Ryder managed to utilize the time as he got near the 3-Toothed Rabbit and swung his Scythe at its neck.

The 3-Toothed Rabbit reacted faster as it twisted its body in order to save its neck. It protected its neck, but it's back was sliced through. A deep gash appeared on its back, but since it's skin was so thick, the 3-Toothed Rabbit wasn't seriously injured.

Although there was no blood, the 3-Toothed Rabbit still made a loud painful cry as it looked towards the sky.

" Cry as much as you want, but no one is going to save you. This forest is as empty as it could get. Take it from an experienced explorer like me. I don't think there would be any beast within the 10 miles radius of us," Ryder said smilingly as he used another flame blast on the 3-Toothed Rabbit.

The Flame blast struck the 3-Toothed Rabbit and made it scream even louder.

Ryder raised his Scythe to deal the finishing blow, but that's when he heard the sound of footsteps on the grass.

He could hear various kinds of noises as well.

Ryder glanced around him as he started sweating.

He could see around 8 3-Toothed Rabbits that had surrounded him from every direction.

"Enraged Slash!" Ryder called out as he swung his Scythe and sliced off the neck of the 3-Toothed Rabbit that was near him since he didn't want to let him recover and attack him from behind.

[+8000 Exp]

[Special Effect of Moon Scythe Activated: Absorption]

[+1 Intelligence]

Ryder saw the experience gain notification, but that was the last thing he cared about at the moment.

"You guys are real bastards, aren't you? I looked for 80 minutes, but not a single one appeared in front of me, and after I found a beast, you all appeared to screw me over," Ryder let out with a wry smile on his face as he glanced at the beasts.

"Whatever, Don't think that I'll be scared. You're nothing but weak," Ryder gripped his Scythe firmly as he said.

All the 3-Toothed Rabbit started running towards Ryder together. Since they were all on different sides of him, Ryder wasn't able to see them all.

"Flame Blast!"

"Flame Blast!" 

"Flame Blast"

Ryder fired flame blast one after another towards the beasts that were on his back to delay them while he ran towards the beasts to his front.

The trick worked, and the fur of three 3-Toothed Rabbits easily started burning, which stopped them and shifted their focus.

Ryder got to the 3-toothed Rabbit that was in front of him and used Enraged Slash.

Since the beast was only level 10, it was Ryder's first target, and it was killed in a single strike.

[+4000 Exp]

[Special Effect of Moon Scythe Activated: Absorption]

[+10 strength]

Ryder didn't stop and shifted to the nearest 3-Toothed Rabbit that was just as weak.

[+4000 Exp]

[Special Effect of Moon Scythe Activated: Absorption]

[+5 speed]

[+4000 Exp]

[Special Effect of Moon Scythe Activated: Absorption]

[+1 Intelligence]

[+6000 Exp]

[Special Effect of Moon Scythe Activated: Absorption]

[+15 strength]

The notifications kept coming one after another as Ryder killed 4 of the 8 beasts. Unfortunately, the skill absorption didn't activate even once. He has expected that since the chances of that happening were only 5 percent.

There were still 4 beasts left; they were the stronger ones though.

One amongst them was at level 15,2 at level 12, and 1 at level 13.

Ryder wasn't worried. Instead, he was excited at his gains.

"It would be so great to absorb their stats as well. Hopefully, I'll get their Shadow Ball attack as well," He muttered to himself.