In the continent of Mianol, far to the west in the hot desert, Stake was walking through the desert. Around Stake were rock formations and cactuses. To the far west, one could see dunes.

Stake wasn't thirsty walking through the desert. When Stake was thirsty he used mana to make water. Although he could make water using mana, the environment was extremely harsh for water so it took way more mana to make water here than in the east.

The sun glistens down on Stake's light green skin. It felt warm to Stake. In both of his hands' Stake had two axes. He trugged through the surrounding desert slowly. His mana perception spread around him trying to detect movement. There was no wind blowing currently and everything seemed quiet.

Suddenly Stake detected movement and stopped. Using his mana, he sent an image into his head of what moved. From the image, he saw that it was a furry creature. The creature looked half man and half bull. The creature was a dessert minotaur. The minotaur had a sandy hide with a giant black cleaver in its hand. It stood at 3 meters tall.

It seemed to be searching the surroundings for food. Stake didn't attack and just hid. He wanted to know where the minotaur lived. As the minotaur moved around, Stake followed it. After following the minotaur for a while, the minotaur spotted food. It was an omnivore plant called Venom Snakker.

The Snakker was a plant that looked like a giant dandelion. It spread a sweet scent around its surrounding that attracted creatures. Desert minotaur loved eating snakker. A snakker had special fibers that could increase muscle strength.

The snakker did not have any sight or hearing besides feeling vibration. The desert minotaur was a low rank 1 and it coated its hoves with mana. It was trying to reduce its vibration as much as possible. It walked closer to the plant step by step.

Soon it was ten meters close to the snakker and Stake watched silently. A moment of silence passed and the minotaur reinforced its body with mana. It then dashed forward. Roots rose around the dandelion and pierced towards the minotaur body. The roots didn't do much and the minotaur slashed them away.

Seeing that it didn't draw blood. The snakker reinforced its root with mana and shot then forward. Unfortunately, the minotaur was already too close. The minotaur sliced through the stalk of the snakker and its root became limp. The moment it died, the minotaur started feasting on it. It had to finish eating fast before other creatures smelled the dead aroma of the snakker.

The minotaur ate for a while and finally finished. It grabbed its ax and looked in a direction. From the direction, a giant snake came out. Its scales looked sandy and its tail rattled. It was a Dust Rattler. The dust rattle was 10 meters long and a feet thick. It looked at the minotaur with its red eyes.

It flicked out its tongue and detected many creatures in the surrounding. Stake didn't know the dust rattler could detect him with heat so he just stayed silent. The minotaur roared at the dust rattler and the dust rattler hesitated in attacking the minotaur.

Seeing that it wasn't worth it, the dust rattler went for Stake instead. Stake saw its head striking at him and he proceeded to chop it off cleanly. Stake then looked at the minotaur who roared at him. Before the minotaur could roar more, arrows came flying and pierced its hide.

Stake detected the arrow long ago and dodged it. A group of savage centaurs came out and inspected the wounded minotaur. They circled the minotaur with their long axes while a few centaurs went after Stake.

Circling in formation, the centaurs came in one after another whiling swinging their ax towards the minotaur who could only block. Swing after swing came and sliced the minotaur body. The minotaur roared in pain, it tried to swing its cleaver at the centaurs who easily deflected it.

When the minotaur had fought the snakker, it had used most of it's mana and was currently low on mana. Seeing that it might die, the minotaur dropped its cleaver. It got on all four and charged its way out of the centaur formation.

The centaurs saw him running and started shooting arrows at him. Arrows after arrows flew towards the minotaur. Some arrows landed while some flew off to the side. The centaurs grinned at the minotaur's struggle and howled with their pack.

They toyed with the minotaur while the minotaur kept running. Soon the minotaur came through a rock formation gap and roared. The centaurs thought they had him and charged through the rock formation.

The minotaur passed through the rock formation and the centaurs were also about to pass when two minotaurs came forth and slashed with their cleavers. The centaurs at the front roared in pain.

Seeing their comrades hurt, the other centaur at the back started attacking. While the minotaurs and the centaurs started fighting each other, Stake was watching silently from behind a rock. He had already taken care of the centaurs sent after him.

In the fight, a few more minotaurs showed up and the battle became easier for the minotaur. The minotaurs and centaurs were around the same rank so it was a fair fight. Unfortunately for the minotaurs, the centaur numbered 20 while they numbered 9.

The fight lasted for a while and soon ended. The centaurs were the winner but only 5 of them were left. Looking at the corpses of their comrades, they burned them. After burning their comrades' corpses, they tied up the bodies of the minotaurs with ropes and dragged them home.

Stake silently followed after them. The centaurs crossed hills, rock formations, trees, and rivers until they finally reached their tribe. Looking at their tribe, Stake saw a centaur chieftain. It stood taller than its kind at a height of 5 meters. The centaurs that went out to hunt spoke to the chief about what happened and the chief grunted at them. The centaurs seemed to have a language but it was pretty barbaric.

Seeing that the tribe would offer enough mana cores for him to increase his stats, Stake attacked. Stake threw an ax and it landed right on the centaur chieftain head. The centaur chieftain fell to the ground dead and the centaurs around became shocked.

Looking in the direction where the ax came from, they saw a goblin charging at them. The goblin was fast and by the time they started reacting they were already dead. The female centaurs took the baby centaurs and started running. The male centaurs stayed behind and attacked Stake.

There were at least a thousand centaurs in this tribe and Stake knew some of them would escape. Using a spell, he set his surroundings ablaze. The desert buffed his fire spell and it harmed the centaurs greatly. Stake then proceeded to start killing centaur after centaur.

The battle was short and many centaurs manage to run away. Looking at his surroundings, Stake started to collect mana cores. The mana cores weren't the best quality but they would have to do.

After collecting many mana cores and stacking them in a pile, Stake started absorbing them. While he was absorbing the mana cores, he made sure to keep an illusion around him that hid him from eyes. After a while, Stake absorbed all the mana cores and moved on. His next preys would be the minotaur tribe.

Far East in the Tawn kingdom, Kone and Decol we're currently conversing with each other in a tavern filled with many people drinking and eating to their heart's content.

“How’s your potion business going Kone?”

“It's going well, lots of adventurers in the capital need potions, especially cheap potions.”

“Wouldnt you selling your potion cheap be a problem? After all, you're making the other businesses lose profit.”

Kone nods at Decol. “It's indeed a problem for them and they've sent people to take care of me; but I promised many adventurers i’d keep selling potions cheap if they protected me. So far everything is going great for me, what about you?”

Decol sighed, “I haven't been doing well with my studies into magic, it's very hard to grasp the content. Those instructors at the Mage Tower keep vaguely explaining things. A bunch of weirdos trying to act mysterious.”

Kone thought for a moment and then spoke. “You can always go to Green Flower, I heard there's a magical study place there created by the forest goddess. I plan on expanding my business to Green Flower. We can go together.”

“I don't know Kone, I've already spent a lot of money at the Mage Tower and it's going to feel like a loss if I leave.”

Kone laughed, “I'm making a decent profit so I can guarantee you that we'll live comfortably in Green Flower. Also, I'm sure the Mage Tower isn't providing you with enough resources so let's just leave this place.”

After thinking for a while, Decol agreed. The kingdoms had tried to hide information about Green Flower but it kept spreading. It was said to be a prosperous place currently filled with wealth, knowledge, and other things.