Hellhound Manifestation

Lucas took a glance at the first page of the grimoire, especially the new information that popped up at the blank part on the bottom of the page.

[Consumed 9 Spiritual Energy to summon the contracted beast, Gentle Dog.]

Lucas was familiar with this situation, as it was also discussed in school previously.

Each summon of a beast will consume spiritual energy. The rate of consumption will depend on the beast's grade and rank. 

Each summoning would only last 30 minutes in total. One can extend it by consuming another set of Spiritual Energy from the summoner.

As for how to recover Spiritual Energy, the most basic would be to enter a meditative state while using a Meditation Manual. Aside from that, they could also consume resources such as potions and some special items to recover Spiritual Energy, but such things were very expensive, and not everyone could afford to buy them.

Lucas closed the grimoire and proceeded to walk forward with the Gentle Dog who led the way while sniffing curiously on the ground.

It was not searching for any beasts but was just generally curious about the new surroundings.

According to the discussion, the beasts would generally appear around 1 kilometer away from the Safe Area, hence the reason why he only decided to summon the Gentle Dog now to save some summoning time.

Lucas reviewed the map he was holding in his hand and proceeded to walk forward a moment later after confirming his destination.

As they walked forward, Lucas suddenly sensed that the Gentle Dog seemed to have become agitated for some reason as it looked in one particular direction.

Knowing what it implied, Lucas immediately ordered it to calm down and stay quiet for the time being.

As per what they studied, one must not act rashly if they discover a beast.

The best thing to do was to observe and assess the situation first. Everyone only has one life, so they were told to be extremely careful when dealing with beasts. Only when one confirms that they can handle the beast will they proceed to strike.

Following the Gentle Dog's gaze, Lucas gripped the knife on his waist tightly as he slowly moved toward that area.

Making sure he did not make any noise, he crouched on some bushes and searched for the beast that the Gentle Dog had discovered.

He was very tense at the moment, as this was his first time going out to hunt for a beast as well. Although there was practical training in school before where they needed to face the beast of their teachers and constantly evade their slowed attack, the current situation was different as wild beasts would go for the kill immediately and would not purposely slow down their movements.

After some careful maneuvering behind the bushes, Lucas finally saw the beast that the Gentle Dog had detected.

As he had thoroughly prepared and even studied the materials provided by Teacher Julian before, the information about the beast instantly appeared in his mind the moment he saw it.

"A Blood-Eyed Mole."

A Blood-Eyed Mole was an Iron Star 1 Beast. According to the data, it was always alone and liked to burrow into the shallow hole it created while waiting for prey to appear.

It only has two available skills: a detection skill and an attack skill. Both skills have a range of three meters from the Blood-Eyed Mole's body. The Blood-Eyed Mole has the same size as that of a house cat. Although small in size, it was actually very ferocious and would attack anything that entered the detection range of its skill, Blood Sense.

Lucas looked at the Gentle Dog and said, "It should be manageable. We only need to watch out for its Blood Spike skill, and then you can go for the kill."

Woof?

The Gentle Dog replied softly, as if it were also afraid of alerting its prey.

Lucas' confidence lied in the Hellhound Manifestation skill of the Gentle Dog. Aside from that, its level had also risen into Iron Star 2, so even if the Blood-Eyed Mole was an Iron Grade beast, he thought that his Gentle Dog, in Hellhound form, should be able to kill the unprepared mole even if his Gentle Dog was only an Unranked Grade beast.

Just like summoners, the strength and level of beasts were also categorized into stars. The lowest was the Unranked, or No Star Rank, and after that was the Iron Star 1-9, followed by the Bronze Star 1-9, and then Silver, all the way to Gold.

For summoners, they need to earn 100 experience points before they can rank up to Iron Star 1. 

Beasts, on the other hand, have a different leveling method. They must consume valuable treasures, learn skills, fight, or even evolve before they can level up their rank.

At this moment, they were still a few meters away from the Blood-Eyed Mole. 

Lucas calmed his emotions and ordered the Gentle Dog to use the skill of Hellhound Manifestation.

The Gentle Dog replied with a woof and instantly transformed into the manifestation of the Hellhound, whose appearance was drastically different compared to its previous one.

From its gentle and clueless demeanor, it transformed into something ferocious and wild.

It has a sleek appearance and is elegant and imposing. In terms of dog handsomeness, it definitely topped the chart. 

It can be made into a cover model of a dog romance novel.

Anyway, its fur color was still a mix of black and white. But this time, the black part took dominance, with the white furs mainly around its neck, as if acting as a mane. 

Its eyes were entirely blue. It looked as calm as the sky, but Lucas knew that ferocity hid deep within it.

Seeing the appearance of the Gentle Dog while using the Hellhound Manifestation still left him in a trance. He still could not expect that the small dog could transform into something as massive as a car and look imposing and dangerous.

Even though the Gentle Dog was his own beast, he could still feel the ferocious and dangerous aura it emitted, even when it was doing nothing at this moment.

This was the source of his confidence.

Perhaps this was what it felt like to be in the presence of a dangerous beast.

Lucas turned to look at the Blood-Eyed Mole. Its detection and awareness range was just around three meters; however, Lucas discovered that it actually seemed to move around and became restless all of a sudden. As if it had discovered something dangerous and wanted to flee at the next moment.

In an instant, Lucas realized that it must have felt the aura and ferociousness of the current Gentle Dog. Although its detection skill only has a range of three meters, its sense of danger has no fixed range. It must have felt afraid all of a sudden, so it decided to bolt out and escape.

Knowing this, Lucas did not waste any more time and immediately told the Gentle Dog to attack.

The Gentle Dog snarled and leapt toward the Blood-Eyed Mole.

Although the snarl was not loud, Lucas noticed that the Blood-Eyed Mole still shivered in fright the moment it heard it.

Without even knowing where the snarl came from, it directly turned around and leaped away to escape.

Unfortunately, the Gentle Dog, in Hellhound Manifestation form, was quite swift and agile.

With a single leap, it arrived in front of the Blood-Eyed Mole in an instant.

It raised its massive paw and smacked the Blood-Eyed Mole that was trying to leap away.

The Blood-Eyed mole squeaked in pain as its body flew and smashed to the ground a few meters away.

Blood rushed out of its orifices as it felt the force of the smash.

In panic and fear, it hurriedly stood up and immediately used the Blood Spike skill with its own blood as the medium.

Three bloody spikes rose from the ground, reaching a meter high. It looked very sharp and strong. If a human was pierced by such a bloody spike, they would surely die in an instant.

Unfortunately, the Blood Spikes can only grow from the ground, three meters away from the Blood-Eyed Mole's body.

The Gentle Dog easily maneuvered around the three spikes and arrived in front of the Blood-Eyed Mole again. 

It smacked it again, directly, to the ground this time. Pinning it down on the ground, the Gentle Dog bit down on its nape and immediately tore the head away from its body, killing it instantly.

Ferocious and bloodthirsty.

This was how Lucas described the Gentle Dog during its Hellhound Manifestation form.

As the Blood-Eyed Mole turns into particles of light, Lucas also notices a new set of information appearing at the bottom part of the profile page.

Delighted, Lucas immediately read the new data. 

However, his expression froze the moment he saw the amount of experience points he gained from the kill.