Since he absorbed the numerous souls of the beast his senses had improved a lot as he can hear Denis's whispers from fifty meters away, along with seeing the route ahead of him with his improved eyesight.
He needed some time to adjust, so he had Dusk follow ahead of them meet up later on, which took about an hour for him to get use to.
About two days had passed, since they tailed the man named Denis who looted them, yet no mishaps happened as of yet.
There were beast who attacked every now and then, but it wasn't difficult enough that they had to step in, so they took a leisure time as they followed him from behind.
After observing for a while, Stigma had noticed some signs that there was no problem in the future even if they killed him.
With his enhanced senses, he was able to see and hear him cleary.
He first examined his posture, they say how a man walks tell you how they lived, and what he saw explained that he was like a veteran who was used to such labors, so he was reluctant to kill someone who was trying to earn a living.
Along the route, they had encountered three serpents each were fast and deadly, so he then took the initiative to observe how he fought.
Normally if one trained all their lives, their back and stance would tell how they practiced, but no one can tell the difference between a natural born and a trained one unless they showed results to prove it, so he included in examining the hands.
What he was looking for were scars, such details can tell if anyone did actual labor, showing how much mistakes they made or how long have they performed.
An example would be someone who had done boxing, the knuckles would show some skin was peeled and removed from the abuse they had done from continuous exercise in punching a sandbag.
He also examined the weapon, if it would show some form aging, or signs of of being replaced.
What he saw however, had proves he was weak.
He also noticed that although he had talent in using the spear but his lack of experience was obvious as the serpents were using coordination and surprise attacks, and he only swung it around from practiced movements and hit nothing.
His hand showed it was rugged, so he had done some muscle training and was strong in the physical sense.
He had caused some successful injuries to one of them, but it only lead to an opening for the other two.
It took him awhile, but he had finally killed one when he threw the spear from a kilometer away at it's head, then caught and ripped one with his bare hands.
Exhaustion came to him and he laid down on his back.
He was still lacking in experience as he forgot the third one, so to make sure he didn't die Dusk had appear and grab it as it was ordered to and brought it over to where Stigma was hiding, making it look like it was scared of and ran into the woods.
When Stigma checked the status they were rank 1 Tier, early and mid staged, but he had took roughly three hours to finish it.
Since he had no use for it he had Dusk rip it in two, took the core and ate the remains with his newly named familiar Kirin.
He then continued with his trip after resting and fetching the cores, while Stigma stored the core inside his ring.
Lastly he had noticed the lack of proper equipment, the cultivator named Wade had a space ring, which he guessed was due to him having a powerful sponsor.
Yet this man was carrying a knife like how he did, and had a flint and steel to start his fire.
When he meet Wade he had a space ring, which indicated that whoever was employing him had wealth and a backer, and assumed all cultivators had one.
"Guess I was wrong."
Looking at his ring finger, there was the space ring that he went through so much to get.
His curiosity got to him, since he had yet to explore the entire ring, so he decided to check it afterwards.
*Bark!*
Turning his head, he saw Kirin getting restless as it pulled on his clothes.
He then focused his hearing but nothing should be making it anxious, since there were no beast near them.
"Master, it seems to want to play around since it got stronger, I am also curious about its growth."
'Hmm, now that I think about it, she had a point, might as well since I had a feeling it would take a while...'
He then ordered Dusk to follow him, if it heard one of the words 'found it' or 'Slave Market', then return to lead the way.
He grabbed Kirin, then sneaked of from behind running at full speed to the opposite direction, while Dusk was following Denis from the shadows.
"Master, where are we going? You could have waited to that spot, then Dusk would meet us after he found the Slave Market."
"I have a place I want to go to, there we could practice with no problem."
He had a destination in mind, it was perfect for him and Kirin to practice and have combat experience as well
"As you wish master."
Hilda knew how her master was a man of wonder so she didn't insist in his decision.
***
At a seperate location, trudging down a grassland was a group of men were clothed in brown hoods covering their bodies and faces, riding horses with red manes that flew by the breeze.
The age group range between twenty to fifty years old, and the one leading them was the youngest who looked back at his companions.
"...We'll rest up ahead on the hill, so bear with it for know!"
"Young Lord, I speak for everyone here, we can go on for another day then we can rest."
The oldest looked to be man in his fifties, he grey hair and a very tanned face.
The others behind him also agreed with a shout of agreement, clearly they are pressed for time.
The leader was about to say something, when he saw something flew past them, with his team exhausted he had to prepare for the worst.
"HALT!!!"
The team did as they were told, since they saw it as well. Preparing their stance and weapons showed they were trained properly with a few veterans leading the way.
The flying creature then circled around them, showing somersaults three times before landing slowly landing on the ground. It had a brown feathers, and a small eyes, on its back was a small container with an insignia.
"...At ease men, it is a messenger from our clan."
Seeing the symbol had put him at ease, removing the cap and read the message.
At first he read the first paragraph and smiled, but when he read the succeeding lines he lost his smile and reread the lines to be sure.
"Young Lord..." A member voiced out, what could the message contain that would spoke their leader.
"Good and Bad news, Good news the date had been extended."
When they heard it they were relieved, but they noticed something was missing.
"Then we don't need to rush anymore sir..."
"No, we must make haste, bring out writing tools to give our reply, we will continue after crossing for a whole day, until then no breaks!"
They were surprised on why their leader was agitated, but they did as they were told, after writing the message and sending the messenger of they continued after their short break.
"...Young Lord Felix, what had gotten you so spooked..."
Felix then turned his back and told the news in a grim tone.
" 'The Naga's are preparing, be wary', that is what it says..."
Hearing such a news was a nightmare, so they dropped everything be it drinking or napping and rode their horses towards their destination, to prepare as well.
***
It took about an hour, but they have finally arrived at their destination.
"We're here!!!"
Stigma had found this place when they were tailing Denis for a day and left it alone.
When he was resting, he practiced his energy and used his skills and found a bundle of lights inside the ground.
He saw some of them moving around, but soon found three of them before.
A nest full of 1st Tier Heavenly Beast!!!
He wanted to test his and Kirin's abilities, along with gaining experience.
But with them all bundled up together he would be angering all of them instead of killing them.
While Stigma was busy planning on how to separate them, Kirin dashed towards the nest and was wearing a coat of lightning.
"Kirin!!!"
He screwed the planning and went after it, grabbing Hilda and started hacking away the nearest snake aiming from Kirin's blindspot.
"Why do all my plan go the wrong way!!!"
Learning from his previous experience, he didn't swing Hilda with too much force but enough to use the muscles on his arms.
He already had enough Zen energy to have a breakthrough, he remembered a phrase that stuck to him by his father.
Learn to crawl, before you can walk, then run.[1]
His attack pattern was simple he swung his sword beheading about three snakes, stomped the ground if it got close, dodging when they were overwhelming him.
From time to time he would charge towards from the side, only to be greeted with the others strengthening their defense, so he had to jump back and continue swinging her around, killing them by two's or three's.
Since Hilda can use her skill to weaken the surface, then followed by the blade, using her in slashing was considered an ultimate weapon in the hands of an expert.
But in his hands it was similar to swinging a stick, so he still had to train more to fully use her.
From his surroundings, bodies of snakes were littered, all either beheaded or sliced in half.
He felt proud of his small accomplish, but lost confidence when he saw Kirin's pile.
It was literally a beast of nature, unlike him who was taking it easy, Kirin was dashing from area to area.
When a snake came close he immediately jumped away from it, then did a move that was similar to bolt tackle.
Its fighting style was simple, biting the snakes or slashing at them, from time to time it released a surge a surge of thunder that almost blinded and made him go deaf, like actual lighting.
Every now and then, most of the dodging was from Kirin than from the snakes.
It looked like it was enjoying its new found strength and ignored the frantic it's frantic master.
If he knew any better, it was playing around by destroying the nest completely.
After a few flashes, the ground was covered in burn marks and some the corpses where beyond recognition, if he hadn't dodge in time, he would have been screwed.
What the hell!!! Did it have some form of resentment against me!!!
But the perpetrator was wagging its tail as it trudged towards him, like he didn't notice his path of destruction.
He was about to scold it, when he heard the entrance of the nest overflowing.
When he used his skill, he was shocked.
What was coming out was a 3rd Tier!!!!
[Species: Great Serpent
Rank: Common (III)(Early)
Skills: Defense Up (II), Intimidation (IV), Bind (III)]
Before he could reach, a flash of light flew past him, the next thing he knew, there was a beheaded corpse of the great serpent coming out of the ground.
The body slouched a puddle of blood came in front of it.
After thinking through the events, he guessed that Kirin had cloaked itself in thunder then aimed at its throat.
It was too fast that he could not even begin to believe that it was still a beast, but a godly being from the actual mythology.
Scary!!!
He slowly realized that he was raising a beast!
[1] Learn to crawl, before you can walk, then run - basically learn step by step.