"Fuck my luck."
His sword immediately appeared in his hand.
He lowered his body into a combat stance, gripping the hilt firmly as his eyes swept across the enemies ahead.
"Well..."
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"It’s better than itching."
Nine enormous bears stood before him.
They resembled ordinary black bears at first glance, but each was nearly twice the size of a normal adult bear.
Their bodies were packed with thick muscles beneath coarse black fur, while enormous claws extended from their paws.
Drool dripped from their jaws. Eighteen crimson eyes remained locked onto Noah.
GRRROOOAAARRR!!
The largest bear suddenly roared. And that was all the others needed.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
Nine massive bodies charged simultaneously. The earth trembled beneath their weight.
Noah tightened his grip on his sword. Mana surged from his newly advanced Condensed Core.
A pale-blue aura enveloped his body, strengthening his muscles as additional mana flowed into his sword.
A thin line of frost formed along its edge. His left foot slid forward. His breathing steadied.
"Come."
The first three bears were already closing in.
Noah moved..His sword swept through the air.
Three times rapidly.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Frozen Lotus Blade Art.
[Third Petal — Petal Scatter]
Three semi-transparent crescents of compressed frost emerged from his blade.
They resembled enormous pale-blue lotus petals. For an instant, the three frost crescents scattered in different directions.
The bears continued charging. One attempted to move left. Another rushed straight ahead.
The third suddenly changed direction. Yet the frost petals didn’t follow them.
Instead they curved backward.
Their trajectories converged upon the positions the monsters had occupied only moments earlier.
And because several more bears were charging directly through those same positions.
The three petals struck.
BOOOOM!!
A violent explosion of frost shook the forest.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Ice spread explosively across the ground.
The earth cracked beneath the sudden drop in temperature as enormous crystalline formations erupted upward.
"GRRRAAAHHH!!"
Several bears roared in pain.
One frost crescent sliced deeply through a bear’s abdomen before detonating, instantly coating half its body in ice.
Another struck a second bear across the shoulder.
The third exploded between two charging monsters.
BOOM!!
Blood sprayed across the frozen earth.
One bear collapsed immediately.
Another stumbled several steps before falling, its hind legs trapped beneath thick layers of ice.
The third had its front leg nearly severed.
"Only one dead?!"
Noah’s expression tightened. These monsters were tougher than he expected.
And he didn’t have time to complain.
WHOOSH!
Something enormous came from his right.
Noah instinctively raised his sword.
CLANG!!
A massive paw smashed against the blade.
"What the—?!"
The sheer physical force overwhelmed him. Noah’s boots tore through the earth as he was thrown several meters backward.
Thud!
He struck the ground and rolled twice before forcing himself back onto one knee.
His arms trembled.
"Damn..."
His palms had gone numb. These bears weren’t individually terrifying.
The problem was their numbers.
ROOOAARRR!!
Another bear lunged at him.
Noah twisted sideways.
Four enormous claws passed inches from his face.
He immediately retaliated.
Swish!
His sword cut across the monster’s exposed side. Blood sprayed outward. But the wound wasn’t deep enough.
The bear spun around surprisingly quickly. Its paw slammed into Noah’s shoulder.
BAM!!
"Argh!"
Noah was sent staggering sideways. Pain exploded through his shoulder.
Before he could regain his footing. Another bear charged from behind.
His eyes widened.
"Shit!"
Noah threw himself forward.
BOOM!
The bear crashed into a tree instead.
The thick trunk cracked under the impact.
Noah rolled across the ground before immediately extending his left hand.
Mana surged.
CRACK!
Several thick ice spikes erupted beneath the bear. One pierced through its thigh.
"GRRRAAAHHH!!"
The monster roared violently.
Noah didn’t hesitate.
He dashed forward. His sword thrust directly through its open mouth.
SHLK!
The blade pierced through the back of its skull.
The bear’s body immediately went limp.
Noah pulled his sword free.
There was no time to breathe. Three more were already coming.
Noah retreated while observing their movements.
Don’t let them surround me.
That was the most important thing.
Nine opponents weren’t particularly dangerous if he use ice weapons. But he decided to go hard way.
Now if they surrounded him even with his superior speed, avoiding attacks from every direction would become difficult.
Noah suddenly turned and sprinted between two trees.
Exactly as expected the bears chased him.
Their large bodies forced them into a narrower formation.
A smile appeared on Noah’s face.
"That’s better."
He abruptly stopped.
Turned.
His left foot planted firmly into the earth. Mana surged into his sword again.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Three frost petals bloomed. The pale-blue crescents scattered apart.
The leading bears instinctively changed direction upon seeing them.
Exactly what Noah wanted.
The petals curved.
Not toward where the monsters were going. But toward where they had just been.
Two crescents crossed paths directly behind the leading bear.
BOOM!!
Frost erupted violently.
The explosion caught the second and third monsters charging behind it.
"ROOOARRR!!"
One was thrown sideways.
Another had both hind legs engulfed in rapidly expanding ice.
The frozen ground spread beneath them. Their movements became sluggish.
Noah’s eyes sharpened.
Now he charged.
His sword flashed.
Slash!
The first injured bear’s throat opened.
He stepped past it.
Rotated his wrist.
Slash!
His blade entered beneath the jaw of the second monster.
Blood sprayed across his clothes. The third attempted to strike him. Noah ducked beneath its paw.
Then stabbed upward.
SHLK!
His sword pierced directly through its chest.
The bear roared and attempted to crush him with both paws.
Noah immediately released his sword and jumped backward.
BAM!!
Its paws struck empty ground.
Noah raised his hand.
The sword embedded inside the bear’s chest suddenly became covered in frost.
Ice rapidly spread through the wound.
The monster staggered.
Then collapsed.
Noah breathed heavily.
"Haa..."
"Haa..."
His shoulder hurt.
There were claw marks across his clothes, and blood slowly trickled from a shallow wound along his upper arm.
His mana had also dropped considerably.
But when he looked ahead. Only four bears remained standing. Two were already injured. The largest one stepped forward.
Its crimson eyes stared at the corpses scattered across the frozen battlefield.
Then at Noah.
GRRRRRR...
Noah smirked. "Let’s end this."
---
Just like that, five days passed.
Noah had spent those five days surviving alone in the forest—fighting and killing monsters, collecting their mana cores, and constantly pushing himself through one dangerous encounter after another.
For food, he roasted the meat of the monsters he killed or ate whatever edible fruits he could find.
At night, he usually slept high in the trees, where he was less likely to be attacked by monsters while resting.
But today, he discovered something different.
"What is this?"
Noah questioned curiously.
His master, Akari, had told him that she would come and find him after seven days, no matter where he ended up.
Because of that, Noah hadn’t paid much attention to which direction he was traveling.
And now, he had somehow stumbled upon a strange place.
It was a large, open circular space in the middle of the dense forest.
What made it unusual was the enormous circular stone platform covering the ground.
Around its edges stood several small stone pillars, each reaching roughly to his waist. Resting atop every pillar was a perfectly spherical red crystal.
Noah cautiously stepped onto the stone platform.
His eyes immediately fell upon the intricate patterns carved across its surface.
He crouched slightly and examined them more closely.
"Not designs... Are these some kind of runes?"
Noah couldn’t tell for certain.
Akari hadn’t mentioned anything about a place like this.
He slowly looked around at the red crystals surrounding the platform.
"What could this be?"
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