Our first bloody battle

Hiro’s POV:

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The next day we woke up in each other’s embrace. Alice was such a lovely girl. Although we haven't known each other for a long time, but I can feel it. I can feel this unknown feeling in my chest, which is raising day by day. Ever since meeting with her, I had this strange feeling in my soul as if I'd have found my other half, my eternal partner.

Maybe my feelings are returning to me? It seems like I am still able to love. I simply didn't find anyone before, who was particularly worthy of it. “Uh, good morning.” Said Alice sleepily, while she was rubbing her eyes cutely. I’m not into little girls, but she was so cute! After a small yawn, I couldn't help but pat her cute little head, which to she responded with a drowsy look.

I- I want to hug her! This is so terrible. I'm supposed to be nineteen years old and adding to that my inherent memories, I'm even older than that. Yet here I want to hug a three-year-old looking little girl, who has the mind of a thirteen years old! But I can't help it, though I'm going to restrain myself, for now. "Good morning for you too, Alice. Let's cultivate!" I said energetically, which was unlike me compared to my past self.

Hearing my words, Alice jumped out of the bed and started working out with me in a pair. After we were done, we started cultivating. Our cells have consumed a lot more Universe Energy this time as well. What we felt was really ridiculous. We were about to break through to the third stage after such a short time! Being born as an unfair race... feels fucking great! I love my race! I'm not one to cry about losing his humanity. What? And what am I supposed to do with that? Clean my ass?

I'd rather be a monster who might be more human inside, than a human who is more of a monster inside. Our auras were rising continuously and we soon reached the breaking point. Our energies burst out of our bodies as we reached the third stage. Our sights cleared out becoming much sharper than before, our smelling, sensing abilities increased greatly, and our reaction speed and strength have also increased.

I squeezed my fists tightly and felt the great power inside my body. I could kill a mortal with a single slap. This is what I've been missing! After stepping into the third stage, we were able to sense the Universe Energy more clearly. It was strangely moving towards a point on this planet. In the mortal sectors, there is only a single planet each, while in the worlds in the higher realms are numerous planets and even galaxies!

I don't know what's wrong in this sector, but this must be someone's wrongdoing! "Can you feel it, Hiro?" Alice questioned me upon sensing this strange thing. I nodded to confirm it as I said. "I think that we should move towards the point where the Universe Energy is moving and find out why is it like that. I noticed that people are cultivating in the wrong way because of the lack of Universe Energy. They can't sense it as easily as us, and they are cultivating elemental energies."

"That's also the reason why they are turning half into elementals. They are sentenced to death by cultivating in a way like this!" I explained to Alice. "Well, I'm okay with going there, maybe we could find something good at that place too!" Alice said with a hopeful look on her face. We left the inn and moved towards a random vendor to buy some things for our travel.

We bought some normal clothes, a small tent, an axe, and a skinning knife. We also bought two flasks and filled them to the brim with water. "Shall we go on our little journey?" I asked with a lot of hope for an exciting journey. "Yes!" Alice answered me with a smile and the same kind of hope. We were moving towards the gates when we heard a guy shout towards his friend's back: "Hey Xin Xin! Be careful on your way! The desert after the forest is quite long! Make sure to have your flasks filled to the brim!"

"It seems like that we have to be careful of entering the desert or we might die of thirst." I said seriously as Alice also nodded. We left through the gates without the guards bothering to stop us. This made it clear that I wasn't on the Earth anymore. They are similarly cold in the cities, but it's even worse at this place, but to be honest, I don't mind it in the slightest. I know that everyone is 'worthy of getting a chance to live', but in my opinion, it's not necessarily true.

You might be an orphan, you might have a hard life, you might feel that the world is unfair. But that's completely true! I wasn't someone who had everything easy because I was popular because I had rich parents because I was clever or because I had connections, but I've never in my whole life envied such things or cried about life being unfair. In my opinion, that's how it is supposed to be!

Look at how things have turned out. Now I'm here and alive while being the most unfair creature in the universe. After walking for about fifty minutes, we have come upon a rabbit! It was there, hopping on the side of the road, cutely. After eating that bland meal, and finding only roots and herbs for such a long time, that rabbit was looking like a piece of heaven! It had blood and meat! We were both predators who were thirsty for blood, and this little prey appeared in front of us!

We looked at each other only to find the same kind of hunger in each other's eyes. Both of us swiftly ran towards the rabbit to catch it. When we were close enough I jumped on the poor little thing while Alice too jumped, but even higher than me and she stepped on my back to push me down and used me as a step to leap again. She successfully caught the rabbit.

When I stood up and dusted off my front and back, I saw that she was holding onto a dead rabbit in her hands and was looking at me with a sorry look.

“…” I didn't know what to say about her actions.

“I’m really sorry. I don’t know what’s happened to me. I just felt my instincts screaming that ‘Catch that rabbit!’ and I couldn’t stop my body. I-I’ll learn self-control, okay?” Since she was a bit shorter than me she was looking up at me with misty eyes in a cute way, and I unconsciously nodded upon hearing her words, feeling my grudge fly away.

“You are the best!” She shouted happily, which made me feel great.

Then she turned around and started walking a bit deeper into the forest to set a fire since we had to cook the rabbit, but when she almost completely turned around, I saw her mouth widening into a grin.

“Just you wait, did you think that I didn’t see that grin? Haha, I’ll catch you for this. you little devil!” I shouted as I started running after her, and she was running through the forest while laughing happily. After some time I caught up with her when she stumbled and fell head first on the ground. I tickled her for a long time as a punishment, till we both calmed down. Her laughing made me happier. I'm easily affected by her feelings, it seems.

"You silly girl, go and collect some dry moss or something to make some fire, I'll go and collect some branches." I said with a sigh and small chuckle. She was growing to my heart more and more. Her silly jokes were only lightening up my mood. I'm not someone you can't joke with. "I'll also collect some stones~ We shouldn't burn down this forest, which finally has some animals! Though we could go back to set the other two forests on fire..." Alice said grumpily the other half of her sentence, which made me laugh.

I left to do my bidding and soon returned with a pile of branches in my arms. But there was a problem... We had nothing to light the fire with! I looked at Alice worriedly, but surprisingly she pulled out a red core from behind her back. "Fufu~ See? What would become of you without me? It's good that I've put away the core of that Fire Snake. With its fire element inside, we can easily light this fire!" Alice said with a proud look on her face.

"You are the best, Alice! I love you!" I shouted happily upon seeing her take it out. Hearing my shout she blushed as she turned away. Cute~ It's indeed so much different here. On Earth, you can see and hear about sex everywhere. There are porn videos, sexual contents all around you, which makes every single child, much more knowledgeable about things, they shouldn't know at their age. That's the reason why you can't see things like blushing young girls, shy females or males.

They are almost nonexistent. Of course, there are exceptions to everything, but most of them are still like that. Well, that isn't true here, which only makes this place even better! The children are as innocent when it comes to sexualism as they should be at the place. While I was thinking of such things, we were roasting the rabbit. It was soon done and we started devouring it like there was no tomorrow.

Alice was eating, but her stomach was still growling. I was quicker to eat my part so I started looking at how she is cutely nibbling over her part. She looked up and looked into my eyes. She looked at her part, then at me, then back at her part. Realizing that I wasn't looking at her part, but her, she said fearfully. "D- Don't eat me!" I answered her by saying: "What? But you were so cute as you were nibbling on your half~ Maybe I should devour you!"

"N- No! Dragons aren't delicious!" She blurted out, but she quickly slapped on her mouth. "Oh~ So you are a dragon! That's nice! I love dragons, you know?" I said with a smirking face, which liked looked quite hilarious, considering how old my body looked like.

"Haha, don't worry. I'm also a True Divine Beast, so it doesn't matter even if I know. " I added to calm her down, but I soon had to realize, that she wasn't nervous about it. It seems like she trusts me that much. That's great! "Ugh, Since I accidentally told it to you, now you too should tell me your race!" She said in a commanding voice.

"Ha! You wish, I still didn't forget your little leaping action when we caught the rabbit! This is your punishment for stepping on my back!" I said to tease her. "W- What? But that's so cruel! You are so evil! Yes, I'm sure that you are something evil, and that's the reason why you don't want to tell me your race! You beast, you monster!" She started throwing such words at me, with her cute face which was red from wanting to know the truth.

"Hahaha~ Why do you want to know it so much?" I asked, but what I've got as an answer was her face turning into an evil grin. "W- What? Are you planning something?" I asked fearing my ass. I bet that she is planning something evil. "Fufu~ Who knows~ ?" She said. Yeah, she is planning something... I better look out for my ass!

"Okay, let's go. We should reach the center of the place where the Universe Energy is moving towards. It was easy to break through to the third stage, but it's going to be much slower and harder from the fifth stage onwards. By going there, our cultivation speed is also going to increase." I said as I stood up from my place. Alice quickly gulped down the last bit of her food as she stood up.

"Okay, but before that. You have to do something."

“You have to promise me that you will hold your mouth and won’t tell others what I am. I mean they could hunt me down for it... Who knows what’s in the head of some weird people.” Alice said seriously.

“Yeah I know, you are right. Let’s make a promise that none of us is going to tell to others what our real race is unless we do it out of our own accord. For example when I’ll tell you what my race is.” I agreed on her words just as seriously.

“You know I trust you, but if you are let’s say mind controlled then it’s better if there is a promise because it can stop you from telling it to anyone. So let’s go with what you said.” Alice also had the same opinion on this point. She is indeed my other half~

“Yeah.”

There are two ways to make sure of something. One is a promise and the other is an oath. If you make a promise then there are no consequences, but it will completely disable every possible way for you to violate it. Though this can be used only when it comes to secrets. This means that if you have a secret and want to hide it, but you have shared it with someone, then you just have to make him/her promise secrecy, and that person is never going to have a chance to tell your secret.

The person in question can try, but - let's say his - mouth, mind power, or whatever simply won’t budge. Not even level ten people can violate it. Some are saying that it’s the way of the heaven, whilst some are thinking that there is a person who holds this up, but no one knows for sure. Even if they try to write it down then their hands aren't going to move.

The other one is an oath. Here you can make an oath about anything, but you clearly have to specify what you aren’t going to do or what you will do, and you can also specify the consequences of breaking your oath. The default consequence is that you are going to die if you break it, but you can also set it to anything else, like - for example - losing an arm.

(AN: As an example. You didn't kill someone, but others are saying that it was you. You can make an oath that you weren't the one who killed x person and if you are still alive after making the oath, it's going to become an undeniable proof of your innocence.)

After making a promise we left the forest, went back to the road and proceeded to move towards the area where the universe energy is moving. While we were moving, I thought about something, which I could tell Alice. "Alice, although I'm still not going to tell you my race out of fun, but I'm going to tell you something else in exchange." I said seriously.

She looked at me, just as seriously as she said. “Listen, you know that I’m not angry about it... I’m not the kind of person to become angry over something like this-”

“I know!” I cut in her words. I knew her that much. She wouldn't be offended by such stupid things. She also knew when I was joking and when I wasn't. She continued her words: “-I’m also curious about what do you want to tell me, but you know if you don’t want to, you can keep it for yourself. There are rarely any people who would dare to show their darkest sides and tell their secrets, so I would never force you to do something like that, only to become 'equals'."

“Yeah I know, most of them are like that, but you should know by now that I’m not like that. I don't mind telling others what are my dark thoughts like. Though there are some even I don't dare to tell to strangers, but to you, I'd dare to tell anything. On the other hand, this isn’t a dark secret... It’s just that I’m a reincarnated person too on top of being a True Divine Beast.” I said to her with a straight face.

“What!? Well, that explains some things... This is kind of surprising! I truly didn’t expect this!” She said with wide opened eyes and a surprised face.

“Maybe it is because I’m too childish even while being a reincarnated person.” I remarked with a self-mocking tone. “Haha- maybe that’s true.” Was what she answered. “How evil... You aren’t even denying it.” Hearing my words, she simply laughed at it as she questioned. "Fufu~ why would I? So? What was that sector like?"

On the way, I started telling her about my sector, it’s cultures, technologies, and other things. By doing this, time flew by and the sun was already starting to set. On the way, we went through a small village after which came the desert we have heard of. It’s good that we have bought more flasks of water because like this, we didn’t have to worry about it for now. Naturally, we didn’t waste it and subsumed it.

Before we left the forest, we didn’t miss the chance to catch some small animals, roasted them and put their bodies into a bag to eat when we become hungry. We used our qi to repel the sun rays in a small area of us so that our food won’t deteriorate and rot under the sun. Since we haven't traveled for too long, our bodies weren't overheated in the hot desert.

But like in most of the deserts the nights were very cold here too. After finding a bigger rock, we went under it and set up our tent. We ate half-half of one of the two rabbits we caught and then we looked at the tent.

“Since there aren’t any woods we can’t make fire. I’ve bought a blanket so you can sleep in the tent.” I said, preparing to have a not so good night. I had to bear with it. I think that being prideful is stupid in a way, but sometimes, it's still necessary. I was the male, so I should take on the harsh world to shelter my future wife! Okay, that's still not sure, but I believe in our connection. I can feel ourselves growing closer and closer. She isn't my other half for nothing.

“Hiro... I don’t mind if you are closer so you can go sleep there too, with me. We don’t have such big bodies anyway.” Alice said with a sad look. "Why are you looking so sad?" I couldn't help but ask her, but her answer caught me off-guard. "It's because you are still not liking me enough, to sleep in the same bed as me, but then what about you liking me?"

I quickly denied her words because she was completely off. Sometimes I forget that she is still only a thirteen or maybe fourteen years old kid in the head. "No, no! You are completely off about that! I just wanted to make it better for you, but if it makes you happy that I'm sleeping with you, then I'm going to be the happiest guy! No, wait... boy! So are you sure about it?"

“Are you into children’s body?” She asked me, which to I answered honestly. “No... I was never into them. I like girls with big boobs! In my opinion, that's how they are supposed to be!" Hearing me saying it with a straight face, she couldn't help but laugh at my words. “Mhphh~ hahaha, then come here you shameless bastard, I don’t have anything to fear yet!”

“Okay~” I answered, then continued: “But before that, I’m gonna exercise my body, then cultivate. It’s still only dusk so I can bear that much.” Alice also agreed on my words by saying - “Yeah, I’m gonna do that too”.

After half an hour of intense body exercise, we became slightly sweaty, but it was bearable. The sun was already dim and on the other side, you could see a full moon crawling up on the sky.

Both of us sat down and started cultivating. After about twenty-five minutes we both opened our eyes and looked at each other. The sun was already down and the moon was still crawling upwards. It was dark. (AN: Although I only say it once a day but take it as if they would do this meditation and exercise process at least five times a day. It’s just that I don’t want to spam it..)

“Compared to when we were in the town we can finish cultivating faster and faster. The universe energy is also denser. After tiring out my body I can consume even more energy than usually.” Alice said with a thoughtful look.

“Yes, it’s truly worth to tire out and train your body. We’re going to have much stronger foundations. At most in one and half a year and our bodies are going to grow enough to do crazier and intenser training, though it would only do wrong for our quickly growing bodies." I said to which Alice answered with a nod. “Uhn!"

After both of us got into the tent and went to bed we felt a bit chilly, but we didn’t move. This much was although unpleasant, but bearable. After a while, I was able to hear Alice’s breathing becoming stable and steady and she wasn’t moving around anymore. I was almost on the verge to go into the land of dreams, but I was woken up by Alice who snuggled up to me and hugged me.

I was a bit surprised at first, but then I calmed down and I also hugged embraced her. Like that with a bright smile on my face, while feeling her warm body, I quickly fell asleep happily and started sleeping like a log. The next day I woke up to small shriek, which the origin of is none other than Alice. Probably she was startled to wake up to me hugging her body, and my face being so close to hers.

Hearing her shriek, I didn't move for a little while and pretended to be asleep. I soon opened my eyes, only to see her smiling happily while looking at my face. What? What’s up? She shrieked only a few seconds ago and now she is smiling at me so brightly... What has happened? “Good morning, Alice.” I greeted her, not knowing what was on her mind.

“Good morning, Hiro!” She returned my greeting with the same bright smile. “Why are you smiling so much? Did you have a nice dream?” I asked her out of curiosity. “Hm~ We could say that, or we could say that I slept really well in your arms. It was even warmer than my egg! I've decided to sleep with you from now on!" Was what she said, surprising the shit out of me. No, not scaring... Why would I be scared?

“Okaaay. Let’s wake up, train our bodies, eat, cultivate and then move on.” I said thinking about what should we do. “Aye, sir!” She answered still as happily as before. What are you a pirate now? Haha, well if she is happy then I too am happy. After we were done with training and eating we started cultivating.

We were moving through the desert like that for two weeks straight. We also found a few snakes so we had food even after eating what we have taken with ourselves. It’s been more than two weeks since I last broke through. I should be at a much higher level if this damned universe energy wouldn’t be pulled towards the way we are moving. I think we should be at least at the sixth stage even without a high concentration of energy.

Since it’s like this, it seems like we can leave this realm at most in half a year if we reach the core where the energy is being pulled at. We both started cultivating. The energy density was also higher at this place as we were getting closer and closer to the place we were heading to. Since we were on the brink of a breakthrough, we didn't have to struggle too much.

After rotating our energies with a lightning fast speed for about ten minutes, we felt our auras rising. A few moments later, we both felt our energies burst out of our bodies as we reached the fourth stage of Foundation Realm. Now we had fifty-eight horses of strength which meant four thousand three hundred and fifty kilograms of strength. Over this time our bodies have also grown up to look like five or six years old children's.

What was terrible, was that the black mass has come out of our pores once again, and covered our bodies. It was fucking smelling, and it was fucking disgusting. It's not that we don't want to wash it off, but it’s that we don’t have a place to wash off this black thing, which like shit. Since shit is in truth, the slag of the food we eat, our unpurified bodies contain the same kind of 'essence'...

This meant that this black and putrid thing on our skin was... that. Alice at first started to scream then she started flailing her arms and legs so that it will fly off of her body. I was also doing the same. Looking from afar, we probably looked like two shit covered clowns, right in the middle of a production.

“This is why I hate foundation realm!! What’s with this? You get more powerful but first, you have to bear how you are going to be covered in shit!! This is ridiculous! Damn it!” Alice started shouting wrathfully.

“Don’t speak Alice or this might go into your... Mouth...” I tried to speak with my closed as much as possible.

Upon hearing my words, Alice shut her mouth shook her head for a bit with her eyes tightly shut, then after packing up our tent, we started to run madly. Thanks for lady luck we soon found an oasis in five minutes. Both of us, at first filled up our flasks. Luckily, I didn’t forget to stop Alice before she jumped straight into it. After we were done with that, we put it down and then jumped straight into the water.

When we were done with cleaning our bodies, we jumped out of the shitty water. “Haha! Luck is with us! Just imagine if we would have had to walk around like this for days.” I shouted happily, feeling clean. “Hiro, please be quiet, I don’t want to have nightmares!” Alice retorted upon hearing my words. “Haha~ Okay, okay, me neither!” I also agreed with her words, which were true. I felt a chill run through my back upon thinking of what kind of nightmares I could have from this 'shitty' journey.

I've suddenly noticed that Alice's clothes were soaking wet, and I was able to see through it. I looked at her with expectant eyes as I said. “Jesus! You are going to be a real beauty! Especially if your boobs grow into two big, handful mounds! And I don’t even have to wait so much!”

“...” Alice was left with wide opened mouth at this and remarked on it only after a few seconds. “S-Such a shameless bastard! Ogling a little girl’s body. How can you do this to me?” Was what she answered with her arms spread out to her two sides. I went there and hugged her as I said: “Hehe~ don’t worry, I was just kidding, My little Alice.”

“...*mumble* I’m not yet yours.. *mumble*” She started mumbling something, which I wasn't able to understand. If only I'd be at the second level, hearing something like this would have been child's play! “Did you say something?” I tried to pull out of her what she said, but she didn't tell it to me. “No.. let’s go, we still have to move a long distance.”

“Okay.” I had to leave it be, for now. Like this, we started moving forward and getting closer and closer to the place where the universe energy was moving. As we were getting closer we started realizing, that stronger and stronger monsters were appearing.

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A few weeks later, we were climbing up on a cliff. “What’s with this cliff? Just how high is it? Seriously, we have been climbing for about five hours!” Alice started whining, but I felt the same. “I know how you feel. I too am the impatient type of person, but if you reach this part where I'm standing, then you too are going to see the top of this cliff. Which means that we’re fucking close! Finally!” I shouted as I felt my excitement rising.

Hearing my words, Alice became quicker than ever before as she literally jumped to the top of the cliff! “What? Then let’s move!” She shouted as she climbed past me. After another two minutes, we reached the top of the cliff and felt a high density of universe energy rush past us, right into the valley which was in front of us. The energy at the center of it was probably condensed to liquid form, which meant that the concentration was enormous there.

Although normal humans would die drinking it, but since we are True Divine Beasts, even our human bodies are tougher than a normal human's body. Although we too need to be at least at the ninth stage of Foundation Realm, but this means that we could easily break through to the next realm if we drink from that liquid Universe energy. Normally you could see things like that only in the fifth realm or higher.

There was only one problem, and that was that we couldn't be sure that there is liquid Universe Energy. Upon seeing the beautiful valley, Alice started wondering about its beauty. “Wah, So beautiful! This is such a nice view! I bet we could break through here, in at most half a year to the next level!”

“Yes, but be cautious. There are even stronger monsters than we are at the moment. At the center, maybe there are even monsters at the level of Foundation Realm eighth or ninth stage.” I said and Alice answered with a nod of her head.

Although the monsters outside of the valley were cultivating in the wrong way, together with the humans, but since the Universe Energy had a high concentration in this valley, the monsters were likely to reach the ninth stage, and be even more powerful, not like outside, where they could reach, at most the seventh stage. After walking for a while we sensed numerous presences in their surroundings.

“Let’s hunt! We should go and fight together against monsters which are at higher stages than us!" Alice said with excitement clear in her voice. “Yes, My.Little.Alice” I said jokingly with a smile, which to she answered with a blush and a low voice. "Stupid Hiro... You are doing it again."

We quickly moved towards the valley, which was covered in a vast forest so we couldn’t see too far away. Upon reaching a clearing, we didn’t have to wait for long for a monster to appear because we intruded on its territory. We felt the ground shake as it ran towards us. At first, we didn’t see what it was. All we knew was that its presence was almost as strong as that of an expert at the sixth stage of Foundation Realm.

After coming out to the clearing, in front of us stood a minotaur, which was five meters tall with a body full of bulging muscles and it had a strong looking, thin enough to hold, tree trunk in its hand. “Be careful. Its strength is way above ours, but the two of us can beat it.” I said as I saw the monster appearing in front of us. “Yeah, I think that we should rotate with it. Hiro, let me keep its aggro too.” Was what Alice advised.

“Okay but be careful and I’ll start! Come you cow headed stupid mongrel!” I said with a sigh, then shouted at the monster to taunt it. The minotaur upon seeing us probably thought of something along the lines of ‘hmm delicious snacks are coming to my territory’. Upon hearing one of the two midgets shouting something at it, which was me, it became annoyed and decided to kill that midget first.

I started rotating my Qi at high speed and covered my whole body in a defensive layer of qi. Some black scales with a tint of green also grew on the top of my knuckles and hands, covering my skin. Seeing this, Alice had a surprised face. She made a face which told me that she is going to question me about this. Fufu~ I can't wait! The minotaur seeing this, and feeling our pure energies probably knew that it shouldn’t take us lightly.

On the other hand, it probably also felt our ancient auras, coming from our bodies since we were both True Divine Beasts, but this poor monster didn’t know about that. The Minotaur started to wave it’s tree trunk to smash those 'midgets' in its way. Alice jumped behind it, while I bent down to evade the incoming tree trunk and then I started running closer to the monster.

I knew that from this far I would be in a disadvantageous position, so I had to get closer to the monster, where there is less lever arm effect on the tree trunk since the end of the trunk would transfer the most power. That was simple physics... Of course, such things wouldn't affect high-level cultivators, but it wasn't true about us, for now.

After missing with its good old weapon, the monster got enraged at me and it started trying to smash me with it’s tree trunk. But all this while Alice wasn’t idling by. She too was rotating her qi at the highest possible speed and was creating a huge dragon made of qi. People in higher realms were using skills which were made after copying us, True Divine Beasts', or normal Divine Beasts' skills. So naturally, our skills were of the highest quality in the whole universe.

Most likely people would kill to get their hands on our skills. After gathering enough energy in the Qi dragon, she released it towards the minotaur. Exactly when the minotaur missed its first downward swing with its tree trunk, it got a big blast on its back and half of the Qi dragon caught even the back of its head. "Nice shot, Alice! " I praised her.

This probably felt painful to the monster and - for a moment - it forgot about me, who was in front of it. I didn’t miss this opening and hit the monster right in the middle. In its crotch... I immediately jumped backward, fearing for the consequences. It fell to its knees for a short moment, but it braced itself and stood up once again. Its eyes were red from rage. It looked at me with its wrathful eyes and was about to charge at me, but it was struck on its back once again.

In the meantime, Alice made another huge Dragon head and shot it at the back of the minotaur's head. The minotaur was only at the early sixth stage, which meant that it had eighty horses of strength while we had seventy-five at the early fourth stage. We could have easily killed it if we had a weapon or if we could turn into our monster bodies, but that wasn't the case. Alice's attack deepened the wounds on its back, making even the bones visible at some places. It roared out in pain as it turned towards Alice.

I guess it realized that it's no good like this because another such attack from Alice and the monster's heart would be probably crushed. Upon seeing this, Alice used her Qi to make a defensive layer of Qi to cover her body, and her fists were covered with black scales, just like mine. I dismissed my defensive layer of qi and converted it into a coiling dragon looking snake-headed Qi form.

I did the same as what Alice did, just with another form. Alice quickly jumped upwards to dodge the incoming downward swing of the minotaur. The minotaur was probably glad that now it caught one of the 'midgets' and wanted to grab onto my Alice, but it fell into our traps. Feeling the energy of the attack I've made behind its back, it wanted to jump to the side, but it was too late since the roaring coiling snake-headed dragon I've released, blasted into its back and went straight for its heart.

After launching the attack I didn’t wait and ran straight towards the monster when the attack hit, it crushed the monster’s bones and there was a gaping wound on the monster’s back. Utilizing this opportunity, I thrust my hands straight into the back of the minotaur, grabbed its heart and crushed it. While I did this, Alice wasn't slacking off either as she ran up to the minotaur and kicked through its head and penetrated its brain with her right foot.

The poor monster didn’t stand a chance against the two of us. Although this was our first real battle, but I think that we were coordinating quite well. I have to tell you that I felt great! I felt that thrill, the thrill of knowing what might happen if I were to be hit with its tree trunk. I knew that I could feel pain or I could be seriously wounded, but it didn't matter. It came with battles. Battles which went to the death without any rules.

After killing the monster, none of us lowered our guards. I had my past life's knowledge too, but my inherent memories also contained numerous memories about what happens if you lower your defense at such a moment. A monster would surely ambush us. We aren’t the type of people who can’t learn from others’ mistakes and can learn only from our own. After trying to sense our surroundings, we have indeed felt two presences close to us, but they were weaker than us.

Since we didn't let our guard down, they didn't dare to attack. Both of us were covered in blood since the minotaur had such a huge body, which meant that it had a lot of blood. Upon crushing its heart - which was the size of a grown up adult’s head - its blood splashed all over me. Alice had brain matters splattered on her body, but both of us were grinning happily, which most likely looked quite creepy...

“Hahaha- this felt truly great! Yes! This is what I’ve been aching for. The thrill of the fight where a mistake could lead to your suffering or even death. See? In my past life, there wasn’t something like this. We lived boringly and abide those stupid rules! Rules which were forced upon us to protect the weak. I'm totally fine with it relating to the children or women, but why do they have to restrict everyone?"

"Most likely they would call me an anarchist, but it's not like I wanted to kill randomly or something like that. Only those who were bothering me! This is why I love this world! With strength, I can do whatever I want to!” I explained happily to Alice while my face and body was still covered in blood, but I didn't care. I felt good! My predator instincts were also backing me up, making me want to taste it more.

I was able to feel how the beating heart of the minotaur was crushed in my hands, how its warm blood sprayed on my face and on my body. I was never afraid of blood even in my past life. I'd dare to say that I was liking it! “... That was a nice speech. Are you done? Haha~” Alice said jokingly as she started giggling. “You little! Haha~” I said as I threatened her with my fingers and then started laughing.

"But I understand what you meant. I can't imagine such a boring world. I'm sure that it had its own perks and that there were ways to enjoy life, but it was for soft people who forgot how it is to live in the jungle. Maybe they were safe thanks to your stupid rules, but in my opinion, it was only a way for the weak, who was only playing well with their words to control the strong who were stupid enough to listen to them..."

"Why didn't you simply protect the young ones, whilst you should have fought it out with the adult ones. Those stupid monkeys probably forgot the thrill of the real battles, they forgot their true self, their true, dark nature, their predator selves... You said that they were fighting wars, with weapons in the old times right? Those were probably still much more heroic times, with real bloody battles."

"You should learn one thing for sure. Only the weak people are grouping up together. We True Divine Beasts were always alone, and we are going to stay like that, but what do we have to fear? We can beat hundreds of cultivators at the same stage as us! The strong is always alone!" Alice said such a long monolog, but her words were interesting to me, and I also agreed on every point she has said.

Yes, yes! This is what I meant. We are made for each other, we think alike, we feel a bond between us, just by simply meeting, we can sync much better than anyone else, even though we haven't known each other for such a long time. I was missing this feeling in my past life! "Alice, I'm really falling in love with you! You are just so perfect for me!" I shouted honestly.

Alice smiled upon hearing my words as she said. "Haha~ I'll be honest with you, I too have feelings for you or else you could have never laid in the same bed as me. To be honest, even I don't know if I'm loving you or if I'm liking you, but when I think about how I'd feel if you were to leave, I have to think that it's the first one."

"You've just made me very happy, you know?" I said and then continued. “We should search a lake and then we should have a bath. It’s hard to wash out dried blood.” "Nah, it has dried already anyway..." She refuted my words, but it was indeed true... Whatever. "You should just skin this minotaur and make some clothes out of its skin. It’s even good as a weak armor.” Alice said, which also made me remember another topic.

“Hmm- that's true. Hey by the way! Have you thought of a profession to learn? I think that I should learn smithing, leatherworking, and enchanting. I’ll make weapons, armors, and enchantments for us! What do you say?” I advised.

“Well, it’s fine by me. Then I’ll be the pharmacologist and jeweler! I guess I’ll learn some rune inscription too. Then we are going to have everything that is necessary made by ourselves! Haha~” She said. Just like I thought. She isn't the type who would sit back and enjoy the fruit of other's work. She would rather learn something herself and share the workload with a similarly hard-working person. I like it that way!

“Great, you’ll make the pills, jewels, and rune inscriptions and I’ll make weapons, enchantments and armors be it from leathers or minerals!” I said happily. I was hyped to start! Most of the knowledge from these mythical beasts get assimilated into our minds when we are born, so those are like our own memories, but there are things that are much more complicated and those are stored in our minds, but to use them, we have to ‘unfold’ them.

On the other hand, we can become more proficient even in the same profession, fighting arts or whatever there is than our predecessors. It all depends on our talents and invested efforts. Mostly the second, though since the first one didn't really change in our race...

“Now let’s skin this minotaur. The monsters from before have also left so we are clear to work on it." I said and Alice answered positively with an - "Okay.” I started skinning the minotaur. As practice, I started with its legs. Although we don't need that part since I'm not an expert at this to use even those parts, but it’s better to practice with that for the 'unnecessary' parts for the firs time.

Using the skinning knife at first the skin was riddled with holes but since we are quite fast learners, I started understanding quickly how to move the knife, so that the skin will stay in one piece. Although thanks to my noob skills, there were parts which were thinner than they were supposed to be, but the part cut from its chest and the remaining from its back were at least in one piece. All I needed was some exercise.

We ran westwards because we heard the sound of a stream there. (AN: The energy is being pulled towards the south.) After running for a few minutes we reached a streamline. I carefully went into it, with Alice in tow. “Hiro, I think that you should wash that minotaur skin. I mean it smells and it’s dirty.” Alice advised which I followed with a stupid move.

“*sniff-sniff* Ugh... It smells even from about a distance of two meters. I really have to wash it thoroughly. A soap or something would be really good right now...” I said as I felt its smell from such a distance. I've left it on the shore...

“Hehe, at the next realm you can get your hands on those. I too hate this backward realm. There are spaceships, numerous star beasts, and modern civilization, yet all we have here is... These...” Alice said as she pointed with her fingers at the blunt knife and the leather that I've just touched.

“... Well, at least we don’t have to care too much about hiding. I mean the people here are really obscurantists.” I remarked. That was the only good point I could think of... After washing that minotaur skin for about ten minutes, which is very long if you do it by using only your hands... I stopped washing it. I pulled it out of the water turned and twisted it, then I started flailing it to make the water flow or splash out of it.

Afterward, I wore my still wet, but now clearer black cape. Since we are going to stay here for about half a year, depending on how our cultivation progresses, we thought that we should build a house. “I think that we should build a treehouse or something, I mean living in a tent for half a year isn’t such a good thing. Though it’s enjoyable to camp for a few days, but doing that for such a long time would become uncomfortable.

“Should we build it on a tree or should we make a cabin for example at the clearing where we killed the minotaur?” I asked, and then continued. "Which one do you want? We have more space in the cabin but it’s more dangerous and visible to the beasts. If we build a treehouse then it’s less dangerous, less visible to the beasts but it’s going to be less spacious.”

“Hmm~ I prefer building a treehouse. I always wanted to try how it is, it’s less dangerous and I can snuggle up to you when we sleep. It’s more comfortable and warm so let’s do that!” I was surprised to hear her saying that, with such a straight face.

“What are you looking at? Let’s move." She said with a smirking face. She knew what I was thinking... I answered her with a small cough. "N- Nothing..." It was time to build our house!