"I want to start exploring the Realm of Defenders now," Alex Volff says to Fay the fairy.

This is his 7th day in his personal space. He has used the first 6 days to prepare as much as he can. Now he needs to go out and start earning credits. He needs at least 50 credits to buy a return stone to return to Earth. He doesn't want to stay in there for too long for his first trip, otherwise he might make his mother and sister worried.

"Okay. But, before I send you out, I need to tell you a few things. First, you will be transported to the Beginner Town. The town is surrounded by magic barrier that prevents hostile creatures coming in while Defenders can come in and go out as they please. Inside the barrier is regarded as a non-combat zone. Remember, you need to be in a non-combat zone to be able to come back to this place," Fay starts explaining some basic things.

Alex already knew all of this, but he has learnt that he can't skip this so he just listens.

"The next thing is, the areas around Beginner Town are filled with F-ranked creatures. The areas nearest to the town generally only have 1-star creatures. The further you ventures from the town you will find stronger creatures. Be careful not to run into 3-star creatures and above. Based on your current stats you will have difficulties dealing with them. Oh, and don't venture too far because you don't want to meet E-ranked creatures. Even meeting just an E* (E-ranked, 1-star) creatures will mean the end of your life," warns Fay.

"I suggest you only fight with F* creatures for this first experience. You need to get used to the rhythm of battle and survival before moving on to more difficult fights," Fay finishes off his explanation.

"Okay, I understand. Now please send me out," Alex nodded and replies to Fay.

"Then, go inside the transporter and I will send you out," Fay points to the transporter.

....

Alex appears in the middle of a large open square bustling with people. Some people take a quick glance at him and continue with their activities. He's wearing the same clothes as plenty of people around him, beige long-sleeved shirt, beige trousers with a wooden sword strapped on his waist. After shaking off the distorted feeling, Alex ignores the activities around him and starts walking south. With his increased physical capabilities and his quick pace it still takes him around 30 minutes to be able to see the edge of the barrier.

This Beginner Town is more suitable to be called Beginner City due to its size. This is equivalent to big cities on earth with tall buildings everywhere. These buildings are being used as residential and commercial properties. There are Defenders who choose to stay in this Realm for a long time or even permanently instead of going back and forth between dimensions to save credits. There are also Defenders who don't have talent for battling choosing to learn production skills and trade their products with other Defenders for credits. They can buy blueprints and recipes from the store. They can get the raw materials to produce items at a cheaper price so they can sell the finished products at a cheaper price than the Realm of Defenders' store. Of course not everything in the store can be produced by Defenders. Skill books and some items don't have blueprints or recipes available for purchase. There are also those items with highly-complicated production method which only a handful of Defenders are able to produce. These items are difficult to find outside the store and most people uses the store when they need to buy these items.

Alex ignores all of this as he doesn't have any credit to spend now anyway. He keeps walking until he gets outside of the protective barrier. Around 300 meters in front of him, he can see a lush forest. He takes an alert stance, grabs his wooden sword and starts walking towards the forest.

....

Inside the forest a teenager with dark short hair is standing face to face with a silver furred wolf. The teenager is Alex Volff and he is facing off with the first hostile creature that he found after entering the forest. Alex is quite big for a teenager his age, standing at 1.75m tall, but the wolf in front of him is almost as big as him. The wolf is around 1.5m tall and 2m long. It gives off a pressure looking at its size and ferocious expression.

Alex calms down his nerves and use [Observe] on the wolf.

It says that this wolf is one of the weakest creature in this realm, but the pressure it's giving off is real. The realization that this is the start of his constant struggle between life and death now dawns on Alex. He raises his concentration to the maximum waiting for the Forest Wolf to make the first move. The wolf then starts howling and charge at him with a frightening speed. Alex who was ready for this attack rolled to his right before the wolf arrives to his original place. The wolf that missed its target stopped and turned to its left to face Alex again. Alex steadies himself in the time it took for the wolf to stop and turn.

The wolf immediately charge at him again in a straight line with its fangs ready to bite Alex into pieces. But this time instead of rolling out of the way, Alex timed its attack and sidestepped to its right side. The wolf charged past him for around 2 meters, stops and turn around to face Alex again.

"Hmm.. as expected. The information from UDA is accurate. This Forest Wolf is quick when charging at a straight line, but quite slow on the turn," Alex mumbles to himself.

He grabs the wooden sword firmly with his right hand and tilts his body so his left foot along with his left side of the body is in front of his right foot. He lifts the wooden sword and rests the back of its "blade" on his right shoulder, getting ready to counter its charges.

The Forest Wolf growls at Alex. It is getting irritated that its first two charges misses the target. It immediately charges at Alex again. This time, Alex makes a sidestep to his right with is right food so he's facing the left side of the wolf and swings his wooden sword at its torso. He immediately feels the sensation of hitting a very hard tree from his right hand. The Forest Wolf seems like it receives a bruise, which is only a minor injury.

The wolf gets angrier and keeps charging at Alex. Alex keeps his rhythm and delivers more blow to its torso. He tried hitting its legs and head to cripple it, but the wolf is alert and able to avoid the blows to its head and legs. 10 minutes gone by with the same scene repeating over and over again. The Forest Wolf's movement starts to get a bit sluggish due to its injury piling up. It's also getting a bit wary of Alex and doesn't charge at him immediately after each turn.

Alex senses its sluggishness and wariness. He picks up a stone from beneath his legs and throw it at the Forest Wolf to provoke it. The wolf gets angry again after getting hit by the thrown stone. It charges at Alex once again. This time, Alex tries hitting its head again after sidestepping to avoid its charge. The Forest Wolf is still alert and avoid a hit to its head by ducking so the wooden sword only managed to hit its torso.

Alex spends another 10 minutes doing the same thing again. This time he tried to hit the same place repeatedly to deepen its injury, but only managed to do it twice. Alex can feel his body getting tired, but the wolf is in worse condition than him. Its movement is getting more sluggish and its breath is getting labored. Alex provoke it once again by throwing a stone at the Forest Wolf. But it doesn't have any immediate reaction this time. It's too exhausted to mount another charge.

Alex's eyes flashes a sharp glint. This is his time to finish this. He uses the {Energy Manipulation} skill by circulating his Mana all over his body. He can feel his tired body gets significantly stronger. Then, he charges at the Forest Wolf getting ready to finish it off.