Vincent rushed forward, treading on the grassy ground with a lot of uneven surfaces, moving along the trees, as his magical eyes spread far and wide in search of any kind of traces of grim gore.

"Found my preys." Several minutes later, Vincent's eyes glistened in a profound light as the images of a small group of monsters made up of three Grim Gore popped up in his mind. He could see three magical beasts. They were roaming aimlessly in the northwest area of the woods, merely a few dozen meters away from him.

Immediately after, Vincent put strength in one of his feet, leaping up to a borough of the nearby tree with branches dried of any sign of life. After that, he rushed from one bough to another, crossing trees after trees, closing up on the monsters. At the same time, his presence lowered as much as possible and his speed multiplied by a few times while he used his magic resonating eyes to scan nearby areas for dangers.

His capability to move with incredible speed while utilizing multiple techniques to lower his presence, increase his speed, and scan the area for danger by controlling the magic resonating eyes was something he had earned due to the hard work he had put in in the past few years.

After a few more careful strides, Vincent was now standing on one of the many branches of a thick tree, surrounded by a lot of vibrant green trees and large bushes that absorb magic power from nature to grow, the thickness of greenery proving sufficient enough to hide him from the plain sight of three monsters.

"There they are." He said as he spotted a group of three blue-skinned monsters with black membrane all over their hideous bodies acting as a powerful form of defense comparable to double life patrolling the northwest woods together.

The three monsters were short and hairy, seemingly not much different than monkeys, yet their fangs and claws were sharp enough to act as weapons, and their long, powerful arms held enough strength to crush the bones of any human.

They had three eye sockets on their skull, and each socket had a scarlet eye embedded in it.

Vincent looked at them with a scrutinizing gaze, appraising their strength and weaknesses, and after a moment, his eyes brightened with the intent to battle.

"While they are not very intelligent, these monsters compensate for their weaknesses with their burly muscles and excellent defense. A thin layer of negative energy barrier coats their bodies, acting as a protective barrier that can absorb all damage from an attack to a certain limit and giving them extra defense, which makes it hard to kill them with weak attacks. However, as long as I put an adequate amount of strength in my attack, I will be able to break through their negative defensive barrier and kill them in a single attack."

After he pinpointed the weaknesses of the monster and the fastest way to kill them, which he had summarized in his mind while hiding within the greenery, Vincent took out the dagger gifted to him by Old Miller from his black serpent ring and clutched it tightly in his hand.

This dagger possesses the highest damage output out of all his offensive items as its sharpness increases the faster it gets swung.

After performing a set of hand signs to utilize a magic technique and infusing mana into it, he became confident that a single swing will break the thin layer of defense around their bodies and chop them in two.

"Now, I just need to wait for the perfect moment." He muttered under his breath.

A few tense moments passed as Vincent looked down, staring unblinkingly at the monsters, waiting for one of them to come below the trees and under the range of his attack.

The monster patrolling the area approached the road covered with trees and thick bushes.

It didn't take for one of the three unsuspecting preys with low intelligence to reach right below the trees.

Then, abruptly, he leaped directly downward without hesitation, dropping towards the head of the grim gore like a harbinger of death.

Whoosh

Vincent leaped down from the tree and immediately swung his black dagger glowing in blue towards its head with incredible strength and speed.

He was too fast, stealthy, and strong.

The small group of monsters couldn't even respond before his dagger reached one of their companions.

The dagger penetrated through the thin barrier like a hot knife cutting soft tofu.

SPLASH!

A second later, the head of the Grim Gore split into two, acidic black blood sprinkling all over the grasses.

‹ You've slain an adult Grim Gore at the seventh rank of the magical realm ›

‹ 70 experience points gained ›

‹ Lv 4: 70/700 ›

A notification sounded in his ears as he stepped on its back and threw himself towards the next two prey.

The two monsters had a ferocious and murderous look on their face as they lunged upwards towards him, baring their teeth and swiping their claws at his body, intending to kill him while he is still in mid-air.

[Blood Bending: Crimson Moon Walk]

In the split of a second, once the attacks were about to reach him, Vincent did something impossible in the eyes of the monsters, as a thin but solid platform made of blood manifested below his feet.

His right foot stomped hard on the crimson platform, shattering it, but also allowing him to jump again while in mid-air. He flipped over the two monsters, causing their attacks to land on each other and breaking each other's negative energy barrier.

"Die!" In a smooth motion, he landed on the ground.

Immediately after, he smashed his foot on the ground, twisted his waist to the side while facing the monsters, and threw the dagger in his right arm forward.

Puchi!

A split second later, the dagger penetrated through the brain of one of the two monsters and quickly passed it to stab towards the one behind it.

It dodged to the side, but the dagger still took one of its forelimbs with it, nailing it flailing and hairy arm into the trunk of a tree.

"UGH!!!"

Angered and aggravated by the sudden loss of its companion and limb, the monster charged at the weaponless Vincent without thinking.

It concluded that since the human male was without a weapon, it will kill him without much of a problem.

Today, it has decided to feast on the blood and flesh of the human to revenge its dead comrade.

"What a fool." Vincent's crimson eyes narrowed down to thin slits as he performed hand signs to utilize his signature magic technique.

A moment later, the monster leaped at him. At that very moment, fate has been sealed for it as if the reaper has aimed its scythe at its neck.

BANG!

A gunshot sounded as the magic bullet send it flying back several meters with incredible speed. It smashed through a few trees, causing a lot of its bones to break and blood to rush out of the massive hole in the center of its stomach.

A few moments later, it came to a halt after slamming into a thick trunk of a tree. In the very next second, it slid down and dropped to the ground with a dull thud.

That very moment, a notification sounded in Vincent's ears, telling him that he had killed a rank-5 magical realm monster and a rank-8 magical realm monster and earned a total of 130 experience points.

‹ Lv 4: 200/700 ›

"Sweet!" Vincent exclaimed without a care as he was sure that there wasn't a single monster nearby. "Fortunately, my plan had worked. Otherwise, it would have been hard to defeat them."

After picking up his dagger from the ground and jerking it to clean it from the toxic blood of the monsters, Vincent stored it in his spatial ring, thinking as he did that, "Why are the monsters far stronger than mentioned in the books. A Grim Gore strength should be around first to the fifth rank of the magical realm, but two out of three I fought were fat strength than that. What is going on?"