*Growl!*
*Stab*
[You got x2 20ml Tier 2 magical ink bottle]
"Haa… that was… the last wolf." I said while taking my claws out of the wolf guts and wiping them from blood. Then I shifted my gaze towards my Katana's shards in the green wolf mouth.
"Again, Paul will kill me this time. I hope he forgives me if I give him the ink."
"I would kill you too if you used a great sword like Yamato that way." Kaito said while hitting my head with the sword sheath.
*Bonk!*
"Ouch! Sorry master Kai. But I improved, right?"
"Do you call ripping off a wolf heart with your hands like a beast improvement?"
"Come on Kai. A true warrior must know how to use his hands!"
"My student isn't a barbarian like your race, Zorath. Stop corrupting him."
"Corrupting? I'm fixing him!"
"Yeah, I agree with that muscular head."
"Shut up Cecil!"
I watched them fighting again while skinning and cutting the wolves we killed.
'More meat for us, hehe.'
I put the skin and meat in some bags and cut the wolves' fangs to use them for arrows, then put their blood in some bottles and their cores in a smaller bag, leaving only the wolves' skeletons and some useless organs in the ground.
'Unfortunately, I can't absorb the mana cores.'
"I'm done. Let's return, we may trade the skins for something useful from Gilbert."
"Oh, I heard some beautiful girls from team 4 saying that he can make good barriers for the night. But he wants 10L of Tier 2 ink in exchange."
"Gurr. He is becoming greedy. Wait, what were you doing with the girls?"
I followed master Kai closely, heading to the camp while ignoring their stupid conversation.
'Can't believe that a month has passed that fast, yet, there are no signs of the forest end.'
Many things have happened in the last month.
After entering the forest, we got attacked instantly by Tier 2 magical green wolves that can shoot poison and manipulate plants. They were a real headache at the start but we are used to them now. But I got a big scar on my back because of them.
For the next few days after then, we got attacked by the green wolves and trees until we met the third and strongest enemies in this forest.
They were red 3m tall spiders with arms as sharp as blades. They had both Tier 2 mana and aura cores allowing them to use fire magical attacks and strengthen their already strong bodies.
Unfortunately, the first to fight them were team 1, and they lost one of them.
*Grrrrrr!*
"Tsk, another wolf. Nameless, kill it."
"Yes master."
I dropped the bags on the ground and enhanced my body with Darkness and turned my hands into sharp claws.
Suddenly, the wolf threw a ball of poison towards me and moved the veins in the ground aiming to my legs.
'Heh, I'm already used to this.'
I leaped towards the wolf and dodged the poison ball mid air. After falling in the ground I made small bursts of fire under me to rush towards the wolf.
Once I got close enough, the wolf lunged towards me, trying to bite my neck with his poisoned fangs, but I lowered my head instantly and dodged its attack.
"Got you!"
I gripped the wolf head and raised it to the air after making sure that 2 of my fingers would pierce the wolf's eyes.
I grinned while looking at the struggling wolf screaming in pain.
The next moment, I kept tightening my grip slowly and painfully, until finally—
*Crack_Spalsh!*
[You got x1 poisoned fang dagger]
The wolf's skull crushed under my pressure, the blood and the brain parts fell on me and covered my whole body, which only made my grin widen.
But that wasn't enough. I wanted to kill, to see blood, to—
*BONK!*
"Ouch!"
All of a sudden, master Kai hit my head with his sheath, making me back to my usual state.
"You lost control again. But don't worry, Yamato will save you everytime until you get used to this."
"Y–yes, thank you."
I stopped my enhancement and started cutting the wolf.
'That was really dangerous.'
I recalled what happened 3 weeks ago.
All of a sudden, I finally felt my second affinity, and fortunately—or unfortunately— it was darkness. Since then, I started learning how to use it from Drago.
The darkness was really a strong affinity. With it, you can literally melt in darkness to use that state for hiding or moving quickly, you can solidify it to use it for defense or make claws like I did earlier, you can enhance your eyes to see in the dark and it even has decay effects!
With the decay effect, I only needed to touch those trees and they would simply turn into dust!
But unfortunately, everything has its cons.
The first thing was that the decay slightly affected the weapons, making them break early.
The second thing was what gave the darkness its bad reputation, it was corruption.
The more you use darkness without rest, the more 'Dark' thoughts you get in your mind. So unless you had something to stop it like a trait or artifact, it wasn't a good decision to use it.
But the good thing was that with training you can resist the dark thoughts a little. The first time I used it, I ended up trying to eat Aurelia's head so there was some progress.
"Oh, we are back. I will try my luck with that demoness Ruby again." Cecil suddenly said, cutting my thoughts off.
"Sure buddy. I hope she will crush both your balls this time, Buhaha!"
"Heh, I found some beautiful flowers in our way. She won't resist my charm this time, trust me."
I took the first step into our temporary camp and couldn't help but stare in awe.
Multiple trees were connected together, making 4 big spiky walls with a big gate that we entered from.
In the inside, there were only 4 buildings, the first was a house that was big enough for us to sleep in, the second was Paul's and Aurelia's workshop where they make artifacts and potions, the third was a storage filled with ice made by Cecil for storing food and the fourth was also storage but for the items that didn't need freezing like the fangs and cores.
The best part? It was made in less than 2 hours!
'The plants affinity can really do miracles.'
Every 2 days, we would put everything in bags and start moving with the other teams to finish this forest. So everytime Aurelia would need to make everything again.
I shook my head and headed towards the storage. But I stopped when I found Braham there speaking with an elf with black hair.
'Isn't that Tkiee from team 1?'
"Hahaha! You surprised all of us when you announced that Maria is your wife now, Congratulations."
"Cough. Well, things happened so fast. I didn't expect to fall in love in this situation either. And you should look around you. Maybe let's say… a beautiful woman with blue hair is in love with you."
"Pfft, there is no way a woman like th—!"
Braham suddenly felt my arrival and looked at me.
"Oh, Nameless! Do you remember Tkiee? He proposed to Maria yesterday and they married!"
"Wooh, congrats sir." I shook hands with Tkiee while congratulating him, but my thoughts were different.
'Marriage inside a forest full of monsters. What a great decision that only the orcs would like.'
"By the way, I didn't come here just to say that, I also have some great items to trade."
Our eyes lit up when we heard trade. I instantly called everyone to see what he got.
In the past weeks, the 9 teams got divided completely, so now, we used trading with each other to stay connected in this place.
Tkiee put his hand on his bag and held a black necklace with a golden eye in the middle.
"That's something for you Nameless, according to Gilbert, this little boy can decrease the darkness madness. We got it from killing a fire spider so it's Tier 2. I want 3L of water and an item with good value."
My eyes shined and my lips curled into an excited smile before shouting"Deal!". After all, that was exactly what I needed!
'Hmm, what should I use in exchange?'
After thinking for a moment, I gave him the water and a Tier 2 spear that has lightning enchantment.
After some minutes, we finished the trading and gave Tkiee farewell before he left.
"Cough, hey Paul, I need another sword." I said while scratching my hair.
"Again?! Stop breaking my children!" Paul shouted while gritting his teeth from anger.
"Hey." Ruby suddenly said, "We have only 30 minutes before the middle of the night. Get ready."
Our expressions turned serious instantly. We all remember what the scary figure said about the end of the month.
The next moment, Nora and Drago made a fast dinner for us, and after finishing eating, each one started absorbing the cores that we collected.
Unfortunately, there were no aura cores today.
*Bonk!*
"Ouch!"
"Try to sense your second affinity. If you make a great cultivation technique, you won't need cores."
"Y–yes master Kai!"
I kept meditating for the next 20 minutes, but unlike the darkness, there was zero progress in this affinity.
*Bonk!*
"Ouch! What's wrong this time?!"
"Only 5 minutes remained. Prepare yourself. All of you."
We all stood up instantly. We made our usual formation but this time Drago disappeared into darkness for emergencies.
4 minutes remained.
Paul took my ink bottles and drew a barrier formation on the ground.
2 minutes remained.
Aurelia gave each one of us a white potion.
"Th–this potion can be used for regeneration."
1 minute remained.
Immediately, I enhanced my body with Darkness and turned my hands into claws.
0 minutes remained.
*DING!*
* * * * *
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