After I had spoke to the scholar I headed back to the room at the Inn to process this new development of events, the Yuem were X rank+ practitioners in either the form of a mage or a warrior, Malus certainly didn’t give off the feeling of a warrior, his body didn’t look sturdy enough, the aura he gave off was plenty magical.

Moreover, having had that type of conversation with the scholar I was clear that the Yuem hadn’t appeared before me for no reason, it was likely a sign that I was useful to them in some way, maybe they found me interesting and wanted to toy with me, after all, isn’t that what people with power do to appease their boredom?

As I was thinking inside my room in the Inn I was interrupted by a voice in my mind, it was Exo.

[Ah Master, Speaking of that Malus guy, he was seriously weird, he has this strange aura about him too.]

[Yeah, I noticed that, it was too suspicious I should of been more cautious, Exo, why didn’t you speak up beforehand if you noticed it?]

[I… was probably offset by us meeting Malus, I’m sorry Master!]

[Ah, don’t worry about it, just remember to warn me next time if you think somethings fishy]

With that in mind Exo silenced in my mind and stopped speaking, he was usually rather quiet and never spoke unless spoken to, I wonder if he’s shy?

Still thinking It hits me that I need to find somewhere to train, My battle experience is still extremely low, afterall, I’ve only fought 2 weak mages and that wasn’t even considered a fight, they were still low ranked and I had the element of surprise on my side.

After a bit of consideration and not getting far with thinking of good places to train I head back to that scholars place to ask him about my dilemma.

<><><><><><><>

“Hmmm so you want a place to train, what rank are you, and are you mage or warrior?” Scholar Jean says whilst rubbing his chin in thought.

“Uhm actually I don’t know, I haven’t looked at my status in a while, also, I could be considered both but mostly warrior at the moment, I’m bad with magic at the moment you see…” I replied.

I recite ‘status’ in my mind and try and pull up my status bar for me to look but something unexpected happens.. nothing happened, I try and try again but still nothing.

I look at the scholar and with a shrug I say “It seems my status bar won’t show.”

Jean looks at me with a hint of disapproval “I don’t know why it’s not showing but put your hand on this, it will give me a rough idea of what rank you are” He said whilst grabbing a small crystal ball from behind his desk, I put a hand on the crystal and it lit up a little and then Scholar Jean nodded, satisfied, “Yes, Yes, it seems you're around rank B, for this it would be best to train in the upper class wilderness that accommodates monsters of the B+ rank, it is the Milan wilderness, further south near the demons territory, Here take this.” Scholar Jean says whilst handing me what looked to be a map that would take me there.

I frown at the mention of the demon territory, aren’t I basically wanted there? afterall I did kill an important nobles families only sons, it’d surely be dangerous going south, but this wilderness, judging from the map is quite far away and secluded, I’d be able to make it there without going through any demon cities or towns.

<><><><><><><>

With the map safely tucked in my clothes I went to buy provisions I’d need for the long trip to the Milan wilderness, it was at least a 2 weeks travel to get there and I needed to stock up on necessities.

The city was a merchant city so I found what I needed for only a few silver and then I set off outside the gates with a small bag on my back and a map in hand.

The journey wasn’t as rough as expected, it was quite straight forward, I had to defend myself from a few wild animals here and there but I used their meat for food so it was rather helpful, I looked at the map and the surrounding areas and It showed that the entrance to the wilderness was a couple hundred meters in front, I could of guessed this without the help of the map though because the scenery over there was breathtaking, the mountains stood tall and the peaks looked like they threatened to pierce the heavens and the trees stretched into the outline of the sky, there were flat plains of grass and rocky areas too, it was diverse and stretched for as far as the eye could see, but I knew not to be tricked by the landscape of the wilderness, it was a place full of magical beasts rank B+, it probably housed beasts above my imagination and anyone under the level of a B rank would die in this place.

I continued walking on the nonexistent path through a tall grassy area, in the distance was the Milan Wilderness, I would enter there soon.

I slowed down my speed of jogging to get some food out my bag when I heard the slightest russell in the tall grass to my left, if it weren’t for my finely tuned senses I wouldn’t of heard a thing, I turned my head towards where I heard this little noise and nothing was there but the swaying of the grass in the wind, I shrugged and carried on, this was a big mistake!

As soon as I turned my head away something flew out the grass! I saw it in my peripheral vision just slightly, the figure flew at me with speed I’d never witnessed before and a sharp gleaming object went straight for my neck!

Just dodging by a hairs breath I ducked and rolled across the floor and turned to meet my attacker, it was a small monkey type creature with long, sharp claws and fierce looking eyes, it growled at me when my eyes met it, it viewed me as nothing more than food, a glint of ruthlessness in it’s eyes made me consider this monster a serious enemy, after all it’s stealth, speed and ruthlessness were nothing to laugh at! it was at least a C or above rank magic beast! I hadn’t even entered the wilderness yet, it was just the outskirts!

The beast growled with more vigour and shot forward once again with it’s claws sharper than steel, it was fast! I rolled to the side again and the claws caught my arm, ripping up the sleeves on my clothes and little drips of blood came running down my arm, shit!

“Exo!” I called, instantly in my hand was a black short-katana like blade, I undid the weight magic which was restricting my movement and attacked the beast with a thrust, it dodged easily and slipped behind me, it’s mouth wide open as it begun it’s counter-attack, luckily I seen it coming and jumped, laughing inwardly as I went high up in the air, thinking ‘how could this beast possibly jump as high?’, almost instantly the beast jumped at me from the ground and came to the same height as I jumped and slashed with it’s sharp claws again! for underestimating my enemy it cost me a nasty slash wound all the way down my leg, the clothing also ripped slightly and blood dripped towards my ankles.

I landed and crouched on the floor, fully alert, and attacked whilst the creature was coming down from it’s jump, it was vulnerable whilst landing! I bided the exact time where it would be most vulnerable and attacked with a slash of my sword, the monkey looking creature tried to dodge but was too late, my sword had already reached it’s neck, with a swing I cleaved at it’s head and blue liquid blood dripped out from the cut whilst it’s head rolled across the floor, eyes still fierce and glaring at me even in death, having the time to look at the creature properly for the first time, I recognised it as a Monog, a magical beast which is the offspring of a magical canine type beast and a magical monkey type beast, the Monog’s were at most a C rank magical beast! how fierce!

If this was a rank C beast I can imagine how strong a B rank or above will be, this is the Milan wilderness! no wonder you have to be B rank or above to come here, we’re not even inside and already Rank C beasts are appearing!

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Thanks for reading ;p

Short chap Next chap won't be long!