After beheading the giant turtle Yefan crumbled on all four, he was so tired that his chest was rising and falling at an amazing rhythm, it was understandable knowing that it was probably the hardest battle that he faced since he challenged magical beasts.

The giant turtle had a tail that can penetrate rocks like mere butter and had a unique ability to shoot water projectiles , to the still no so experienced Yefan it was already quite the hurdle to not die so even if he got severely injured when defeating it at least he learned many things , the only weakness of the magical beast and fortunately for him was its slow movements due to its size so after getting rid of the tail its combat ability dropped by at least half which made the fight easier for him.

The blood of the monster continued to pour dying the floor red and flowing with water getting carried away, Yefan with difficulty stood up but each step made his ribs feel like breaking again the pain was mind breaking but he felt a more unsupportable pain when he fell from the bridge that was akin to a nightmare but his tolerance increased drastically because of that incident.

Leaning on a rock as a support he gulped some water before calming himself and regaining a regular breath, looking at the corpse of the now not so mighty giant turtle he felt absentminded, not so long ago he was a lazy high school student who was always bored but now he was confronting death with monsters like it was normal, even himself had suspicions.

(I mean I know that I trained with the old man and I was always on the calm and rational kind of character but it feels like my personality changed I’m too calm and the sight of blood isn’t sickening anymore it’s totally incomprehensible … I should not have adapted this quickly …maybe that thing is the cause?...never mind all I have to think about now is surviving in this hellish place and escape)

For an instant Yefan expression loosened slightly but it quickly regained its original coldness and calmness, in his state he didn’t have the power to face another enemy and thinking for an instant a long period of time passed but not even a shadow of a magical beast appeared so he concluded that this territory must have belonged to the turtle magical beast.

SFX: Cracking!!!

Suddenly a deafening sound resounded and without noticing the sky already became dark with grey clouds, that sound a moment ago was that of thunder striking the ground .

“It will probably start raining soon …”Yefan mumbled while looking up to the sky.

Indeed not too long after the first drops of rain began to fall, because he didn’t want to be soaked Yefan decided to make a shelter.

“Anyway in my present state I can’t make any forceful movements so let’s recuperate here …food there is plenty “gazing at the mountain of meat near the river Yefan made his decision.

After that he began to cut some wood from the trees, it was easy considering the sharpness of his long sword.

Yefan back on earth experienced one time camping in the forest because of the military training session that was an obligation in school, the type of shelter he chose was a lean-to he cut many long branches made a rectangular frame by crisscrossing many smaller branches and he covered it with foliage as to not let the water pass through ,following by using a large rock and a tree to complete it by making it lean on them , clasping his hands satisfied he proceeded to make a small bed with soft looking leafs for sleeping.

Completing the strenuous task with some difficulty due to his injury he made a small fire and began to roast turtle meat for his dinner all of this took several hours and it was already dark, the rain poured incessantly covering all the sounds of the jungle, Yefan sat cross-legged and began to recuperate.

Five days have passed, during those five days Yefan didn’t move from the giant turtle territory instead he devoted his time to meditating and tending to his injury what shocked him was that his seemingly fractured ribs that should normally have taken several weeks to at least heal even if only incompletely had totally reconnected and there was not even a trace of injury remaining.

Yefan was amazed at the resilience and rate of healing of his body he already noticed this ability when battling the lizard all his shallow wounds took only half a day to heal completely.

Thanks to his hardly fought battle and continuous meditation he also increased his level by two reaching the rank of apprentice level 3 which satisfied him , if the old man was still alive he would’ve have praised his rate of improvement again and again.

“Time to move from this shitty place!” standing up from under the shelter Yefan put his sheathed sword behind his back and prepared to leave.

Having recovered completely he decided to start moving and left continuing his path of escape from the wilderness , before leaving he cut several pounds of meat and stored them inside his ring that and also he filled several jugs of water in case of some unpredictable incident.

A week passed by , during his long run he faced many magical beasts but not one time he felt threatened , the magical beasts he encountered were mostly of the first and 2nd rank.

Due to his victorious battle with the turtle Yefan aura transformed and from his body a pressure was constantly emitted which kept away the small fry consisting of first rank magical beasts.

Instead many second rank magical beasts attacked him, there were many types’ wolves, bears, birds and even some strange ones who didn’t resemble animals on earth but Yefan easily got rid of them by decapitating or cutting them to pieces, fight after fight the pressure of Yefan increased and a bloody aura enveloped him, he already became numb and used to slicing magical beasts, the day he fought and the night he mediated that was all he had done.

All of these fights little by little made Yefan notice something about himself, he enjoyed them sometimes he was even coldly smiling or grinning at first he was excited but then he began to feel bored of the magical beast who became weak, he felt like seeking stronger opponents.

“Weak …weak … too weak …” mumbled Yefan while piercing a feline type magical beast.

The expression under his hood wasn’t discernable but from his tone of voice we can imagine an emotionless and bored one.

One thing improved was his sword wielding, his movements became sharper and his strength increased, also his agility and precision had an apparent growth, as he faced a large number of adversaries his imperfections inside his techniques disappeared little by little.

“Oh finally a cleared area “

Yefan staring not far in front saw that the trees became less and less and instead was large plain, walking out of the trees and stepping inside the new area he spotted some unusual peculiarities.

The soil had many noticeable white and smooth looking stones embedded, like being part of the ground all around the floor was full of them and also there were many circular looking holes, they all looked similar and were scattered here and there, they had a diameter of approximately one meter and were near rocks.

Stepping on this plain Yefan was submerged with unease, he felt weird like something wasn’t right, and straightening his back he further advanced while observing the ground, the sense of unease intensified by the second.

SFX: Crack!

Under his foot something cracked, removing it he looked attentively and saw that the thing that made the sound was one of those stones, but looking closely Yefan was stunned.

“Shit!”

The sense of unease reached its summit, and Yefan felt his body turn cold his hair stood on end, this feeling was overly familiar, this feeling was danger …

“Bones, those are all fucking bones! “

Indeed all of the white stones where in fact not, they were remains of corpses and they were abnormally smooth like they were cleaned or polished by something sharp ,that was what made Yefan feel more that the situation was terrible.

SFX: rustling!

Muffled Sounds reached the overly sensitive ears of Yefan, looking around he saw the source of unease, inside all the holes, bloody red eyes crept in the darkness, bit by bit hideous creatures made their appearance.

“Rats? Troublesome!”

The creatures looked like rats but their size was more imposing and they had spikes on their back covered with thick dark greyish fur, they had claws that seemed like sickles made for harvesting lives, their teeth were sharp and covered in viscous saliva adding to their cruel appearance.

What Yefan didn’t know was that this magical beast was named bone cleaner, this was a pack type magical beast and like rats their offspring’s were numerous due to their all year fertility, what was terrible about them was that they didn’t let even a trace of flesh on the bones and depraving the corpse of all its blood, letting remain only the shiny pure white bones.

Yefan thought it was troublesome because like rats they attacked in groups.

SFX: grrrrr!

All around him was the rumblings of the bone cleaners ferociously looking at Yefan like a sumptuous meal, Yefan noticed there was also remains of humans, these creatures already tasted human flesh.

He instantly unsheathed his sword and guarded himself, against this many enemies, the battle will probably become more difficult than with the turtle, Yefan look became serious and his blood lust was overflowing from his body, this magical beast was probably around a mid-leveled 2nd rank.

Without further ado one of the magical beasts leaped straight at Yefan with his claws aiming at his neck , followed by the second and third one and so on …

SFX: Clank! Clank! Clank! …

Sound of metallic impacts reverberated incessantly, Yefan blocked the blows with his blade continuously while taking a step back each time, their speed wasn’t that fast to threaten him but it still was incomparably fast so he got pushed back little by little living a trail with his feet .

Each time he blocks a strike another bone cleaner launches another one, the speed at which Yefan was blocking at made even his sword appear as a blur, the beasts were crazily attacking their red eyes never faltered, they showed no tiredness.

The old man taught Yefan three sword techniques in which he only succeeded in learning the first one, this technique was to be used in close combat so he never had the occasion to use it because of the weak magical beasts or like the giant turtle who used long distance attacks, but now he was at a disadvantage and if he continued like this he will slowly become tired and that means he will die.

(Against these magical beasts the blade will not inflict much damage to them … I will use that …)

Yefan blade made a familiar sound and was instantly covered in blue lightening, the pressure of the lightening blew away some of the bone cleaners leaving him to catch his breath, but like being mad they didn’t stop their offensive and instead immediately rushed again toward him.

“First technique of the Ackerman sword style: whirlwind blade!” murmured Yefan coldly.

His blade covered in lightening began to blur and live several blue flashes, added to the blue lightening the technique became more fearsome, each bone cleaner that approached Yefan transformed into minced meat in the span of a few seconds, blood and gore splattered the surroundings but not even one drop stained his clothes, the flashes of blue light left a trail and made appear like a whirlwind of death for the bone cleaners.

Howls continued to emit from the dying bone cleaners and their number continued to decrease, Yefan noted that there was at least a dozen, suddenly the cries disappeared.

Seeing that the all of them died Yefan sword stopped and the whirlwind dissipated.

“Fewh …”Yefan exhaled deeply.

The technique looked like it was executed simply but it put a lot of strain on him, and with the consumption of magic being increased he felt a little weakened.

Looking around, his sense of danger didn’t decrease in the least and appearing not surprised the snickering sound was heard again.

This time the number of bone cleaners were two three times more than the first batch, Yefan frowned and his pupils contracted , this was an open area de didn’t have were to hide.

“No choice but to kill them all!”

Yefan roared and this time he took the initiative to attack by jumping toward them , landing inside the group of bone cleaners, he relentlessly hacked, slashed and pierced, each strike would cut a bone cleaner in two or pierce its heart, with his sword of blue lightening he was like a god of war and harvested the lives of the pitiful beasts without stopping, even the crazy rat like creatures began to feel tremendous pressure, Yefan with a cold smile and overflowing murderous intent was killing endlessly but suddenly they became regrouped and fear vanished from their two beastly red eyes.

“Fuck! Not good! “Yefan facial expression became unpleasant.

More and more bone cleaners swarmed from the holes, their numbers had no end it was a frightening sight, Yefan forced himself to think calmly then focused his Mana, a circular shadow appeared under his feet before he disappeared inside, the bone cleaners were momentarily frozen not understanding what happened.

Yefan appeared at a distance of ten meters, this was the magic spell shadow movement that he got from Wilkins this time it helped him escape the encirclement of the magical beasts, but having a developed olfactory sense they quickly located him and crazily rushed at him like a wave of starved rats.

Yefan without even looking behind his back used his agility to its fullest and ran with all his might, the swarm didn’t fall behind and followed him like a curse.

“Fucking rat like bastards!!” Yefan was swearing loudly as he ran his expression became ugly .

(Am I going to die?)

(I didn’t even cross a quarter of this hellish place)

(I didn’t even avenge the old man)

(I didn’t reach the pinnacle of power!)

As he was thinking Yefan saw that a cliff appeared in front of him, it was now a dead end, looking behind him the bottom was quite far and looking in front of him, his saw the multitude of red eyes full of bloodthirsty madly rushing toward.

(No… I will not die….i will not die!!!!!!!!!!!!)

“Come on! You ugly bastards!!” Yefan expression became ferocious and full of anger.

They quickly reached him, the first ones jumped directly biting at him, trying to block with his sword he got destabilized and fell off the cliff with two or three of the bone cleaners...

End.