I only glanced at my status window before closing it, I'd allocate the free points afterward.

I needed to think about the fight to see what went wrong, the fact that my wing was pierced and I was injured all over made me worry.

The way things moved so fast was overwhelming, I could never get used to how things can change in this short amount of time. It felt as if a lifetime had passed just through the sheer craziness, unpredictability, and an intense emotional rollercoaster.

The fight went terribly that's for sure.

Ideally, I should have just attacked the drake with all of my available spiritual power which would knock him out for a couple of seconds giving me the perfect opportunity to bombard him with several wind blades aimed at the exact spot thus immediately killing him.

However, it was inevitable it all started with the quest!

I needed to shift his focus from the rabbit to me, thus losing my biggest advantage stealth and sneak attacks. Then, I was awed by how majestic the drake looked, which also played a big part in clouding my judgment.

The most realistic and terrifying dragon art I saw in my previous life could not hold a candle in front of it, and most importantly it was just a lesser drake with a very thin bloodline. Deep down, I felt suppressed!

The drake displayed intelligence incomparable to any foe I had faced before, it did not just charge mindlessly but I was bewitched by its eyes, I thought we had some special epic pre-battle moment, yet it turned out it was just setting a very good trap.

Fortunately, I was able to turn around before it bite me thus stunning it with Piercing Gaze. I could have ended the fight right then and there, but then I had another stupid idea which somehow seemed good at that moment, to kite it!

I thought, I had higher agility so what's the harm? The fact that I was scared when I looked at it, and the trap that was set for me definitely influenced the idea that made me favor distance.

Yet, I could not land any critical wind blade and I was just draining my mana pool for nothing, luckily the pangolin appeared after I was just about to turn tail and run when the drake pierced my wing.

That was exactly why I preferred the stealthy and sneaky way of combat, to use everything you had in the very first moment of the fight.

Because clearly the longer the fight drags out the more prone to error you become, I should also pay attention to psychological battles. Previously, there was one and the loser was evidently me.

Sigh... I was still too green, that drake played me like a guitar!

Luckily, the pangolin appeared!

Now that I think about it, the pangolin must've been the one who killed all of the other mandrills. I was not just mindlessly running west, I wanted a place free of any big monsters to take my time to kite drake.

Thinking of this whole fight I remembered something, the rabbit was following us before when I was fighting with the drake. I did not know why, but it made me think of how close it was to become my prey.

What if by some chance, the rabbit was in my way while the pheasant was in the drake's? Wouldn't I have received a quest to help the poor pheasant that was currently lying motionless in my inventory and I would have killed the rabbit?

There was the prerequisite for the target of the quest to be going through intense emotional turmoil.

However, thinking about it a little I could tell that in this exact scenario there was no objective good or evil. The drake was probably just looking for food and hunting prey in its territory, the rabbit must've also been looking for prey, I was looking for prey and so was the pheasant.

Everyone was doing what they needed to survive, no one is to blame but the strongest and luckiest were the only ones who survived.

There was a very clear difference between this quest and the previous one with the bandits.

The bandits did not need to use women like that to survive, it was a mere by-product of a twisted sick mind that went through a lot of experiences that were justified only to satisfy itself thus giving birth to sick individuals.

However, in both cases, a need was involved. The monsters had a biological need for survival, whereas the bandits had a psychological need or more like a desire to dominate and control the fate of others to do with them as they see fit.

The appeal to hold someone's life and death in your hands, especially with how overly sexual humans are. How tempting would it be for a strong person, to capture a woman and do with her as they see fit, with no judgment, no repercussions and they could always kill her when they're done to cover up and hide their darkest hidden desires.

So, is morality the purity of a need? Or it's inevitability?

Everyone in this world longs and desires to survive, but not everyone desires to dominate others.

The desire to dominate either stems from a deep psychological weakness which expresses itself through the need to dominate in order to feel some semblance of control, power, and strength thus convince itself of its strength, or from the fact that life can be boring, for some who have no real respect nor put any value in lives others than their own, the concept of domination must be very captivating.

I was sure there were other reasons, but I was also certain none of them were honest nor innocent.

If they are prepared to go to such lengths to indulge in their desires, they must also be prepared for retribution, a price must be paid. Nothing is free in this world, so it was just a matter of whether they were capable of getting away with it or not.

We'll see...

An evil smirk could not help but make its way into my face.

I could not deny, how good it felt to kill those bandits! I still think about it, the feeling of righteousness, and heroism coupled with the sounds of the screams of evil and the notification. It was simply exhilarating!

However, I did not give much energy to such thoughts, I was just aware of them. There was no suppression nor addition, just a simple observation of the fact of what was and is happening...

I opened the shop and went to a certain category of items...

[Common Beast Pouch] (50 Karma Points)

[Common Beast Pouch: Allows one monster below Foundation Establishment to enter a spatial dimension. (The Monster must be willing)]

--

[Rare Beast Pouch] (75 Karma Points)

[Rare Beast Pouch: Allows one monster below Core Formation to enter a spatial dimension. (The Monster must be willing)]

--

[Unique Beast Pouch] (150 Karma Points)

[Unique Beast Pouch: Allows one monster below Spirit Reconstruction to enter a spatial dimension. (The Monster must be willing)]

--

This was the first time I was able to see what realm was above Core Formation, usually, those items are greyed out and I could not access their information.

This item was technically a Core Formation items, it just said below Spirit Reconstruction thus giving me a brief idea.

Hmm... It appears that after forming a core, the spirit must be changed. However, the keyword here is reconstruction, it won't be just a simple change unless they don't actually care about semantics.

I had 250 Karma Points, so I could easily get three Rare pouches nice! I had been thinking about a way to hide the other monsters the moment Jia told me about beastmasters, then I remembered the description of the tigers 'extremely high potential'! Of course, I immediately thought of danger. There was also the fact that she told me avian beasts are also very popular, so I had to make the necessary arrangement to hide everyone, while I hide in her shadows.

Now, I had a way to hide the tigers and the Mama bird.

I wanted my first time entering a human city to be as low profile as possible, I still had no information about humans and so as long as I had no idea how to navigate it'd be better to be as inconspicuous as possible.

Once I get there, I could easily take my time and gather information about everyone, then I'd know how to plan moving forward.

The beast pouch looked just like a medieval pouch with two strings at the top that function as an open/close mechanism. It strangely looked very eye-catching, black smooth exterior with very fine artistic engraving.

Thankfully, it had several options you could choose from. I chose the cheapest looking one of the bunch, rough exterior, golden brown color, looked dirty, and had no artistic shenanigans whatsoever.

I bought three, leaving me with only 25 Karma Points. However, I needed an extra 150 to finish my plans.

Using my spirit sense, I could not feel anything different about it just a piece of cheap leather. Though, I had to put a monster inside of it and check again.

I also tried to put it in my inventory and it worked just fine, but this too needed a monster to be certain.

But I did not think it'd work, the space inside the inventory was not suitable for any living being.

My wing was recovering just fine, just a couple more minutes and I'd be as good as new.

I closed my eyes and chose to sleep, I had not slept in a while and this was the best time to do so. Of course, before that, I did not forget to put an alarm on my map function to notify me the moment a monster stronger than Low Body Refinement gets closer than 100 meters from me.

This way I could rest with my mind at ease.

...

I woke up after a while, I did not know how much time had passed, but the forest was once again enveloped by darkness giving off a gloomy atmosphere.

My wing recovered and everything looked great. I jumped from the tree top with my wings closed, just as I was less than ten meters from the ground I spread open my wings blocking the fall. I did not immediately fly away but hovered for a couple of seconds enjoying the feeling of perfect balance, then I rushed south with all of my speed.

Suffice to say, I arrived very quickly.

The Mama bird was sitting above the watchtower, I told her to go there because it'd give people a bit of security. We said our hello without using any words, just with a spiritual sense.

Because it could be focused, it meant that once you're focusing on something a bit of your spiritual energy gets materialized and can be sensed by creatures in that area. Just now, when I focused on the top of the watchtower I sensed around her and she also used her focus in a non-offensive way, our energies brushed against each other just like a handshake.

This was also why I thought that the map function was one of my greatest and most powerful tools. I could see enemies even farther than with my spiritual sense and I could even get a visual display of what they were doing and a bit of their surroundings without even alerting them because there was no spiritual energy of my own for them to discover. There was just an Omnipotent map that was able to focus on everything it was able to reach.

After checking the camp, I went where I left Cai Yi, the tigers, and Kali.

*Screech!*

I made my famous high-pitched sound to rile them up, I always do it before we play.

Indeed!

Just like trained soldiers Kali opened her eyes and ran in my direction at her fastest speed, ShereKhan was lazily laying on a tree branch also stood up and jumped nimbly towards the other branches, and Rajah who was asleep with his mouth open and drooling below the tree in which his brother was sleeping also stood up and ran after them, though clearly with less energy.

Only Cai Yi was out of the loop and looked shocked and afraid, but after seeing me from afar she calmed down.

I did not hold back and kept flying at the same speed, just as Kali was about to reach 20 meters from me. I created a dark shield facing the direction she'd pass by and hurriedly created an Umbra Hand forming a punch inside the shield, the moment Kali passed by the dark shield, she received a punch to the face from her right side.

*Thud*

She fell and slammed against a nearby tree.

I did not stop and continued,

*Whoosh*

With a terrifying speed, a wind blade was aimed directly at the branch ShereKhan was just about to jump into.

*Roaar*

He made a victorious roar because once he sensed the wind blade he knew I would not be targeting him but only the branch so he created a purple lotus which enabled him to step on it.

He did not just stop there, he was suddenly enveloped with dozens of bolts of lightning dancing all over him as he kept creating one purple lotus after the other and ran at an even faster speed than before.

When he was less than fifty meters from me, all of the lightning bolts that were coiling around him started targeting me one after the other, I only let two of them land giving me a slight buzz, and dodged the rest.

*Roaar*

A terrifying elusive yet giant black tiger standing at five meters tall with dark violet eyes was walking on air rushing in my direction.

I had seen this move before, it was the tiger's strongest move, the tiger was an apparition solely made of densely compressed lightning elements, and it was able to deal some serious damage.

Rajah was the one who formed it, the brothers both have two different fight styles.

Sherekhan approaches fights with the idea of enjoying the journey not the destination in mind, he gets crafty, uses new moves, tries different things, and likes to prove himself in the fight.

Rajah liked results, the faster the fight ended the better, thus he usually does the best he could to appear small and insignificant, but the moment he catches a good opportunity he attacks with everything he has.

[Dark Shield]

*BANGG!*

The tiger apparition and the shield collided a thunderous sound resounded, unlike anything you'd expect from a Body Refinement battle, Cai Yi who was resting by a tree looked shocked and terrified.

She was only able to sit confidently amid these monsters because she was confident in her ability to hold them off.

Naturally, the tiger broke very easily whereas the shield was still standing.

I activated Sky Dash and started controlling my mana to transform into dark elements, then I completely engulfed myself in a cloak made of darkness.

This was not necessarily a skill, but merely basic magic elements manipulation. This cloak would enable me to cover my energy even more tightly and would act as a destructive force once it comes into contact with anything other than me.

However, this requires immense Mana just for some minor advantages. That was why skills and spells were supreme, they were not just half-assed tricks, but thorough and deep researched projects by people who had understood the fundamental rules, laws, and the workings of the elements to a very profound level, which enabled them to create miracles!

I dove down with all of my speed and grabbed Rajah's tail with my claws and threw him towards a nearby tree.

I moved back and did the same thing with ShereKhan and made him fall on top of his brother.

*Screech!*

I also made a roar of victory, there was definitely something freeing about making a very loud sound! It took a bit of confidence in oneself to let yourself out like that.

This was another victory of mine, just like every single time.

The first time, I played with them this roughly it was not even intentional, but I discovered that they absolutely love it!

Kali, not so much but she loves participating in anything that we do so she could only brace herself and dive head-on. I could understand her it was painful, if there was someone who thrash me around as I did to them, I'd without a doubt run.

*Roar*

The brothers stood up one after the other with their heads down, yet their eyes could not hide their immense fighting spirit and unwillingness to lose.