Turning Back

Noah ran through the forest of spiders like a shadow. His body constantly flickered a distance of hundred meters to pass obstacles. The Explorer Map was open next to him showing where he wanted to go.

Thinking of S Class monsters he had two locations in mind: Freedom Peak and Death's grasp.

Freedom Peak was completely up north, the closest teleportation hall was thousands of kilometres away. So Noah had chosen to check out Death's Grasp first.

With his current equipment, he felt like he could battle a normal S Class monster. The devil Incarnate he had seen previously was still out of his league, there was no way he could fight it alone. As for killing an S Class he wasn't too sure, he wanted to properly gauge the power of one first.

He was going to depend on Flash Step to escape if things got dangerous. This was why he was willing to take the risk and fight one.

"Death's Grasp is just ahead," Noah saw through his Explorer Map. He took out a Mana potion and drank it to completely fill his mana again. He didn't have mana regeneration anymore so although he had a higher mana attribute than before, it was still effectively less in battle as it would run out faster.

Flash Step!

Noah appeared at the edge of the area, he then slowly walked forward and then came to a stop. Death's Grasp started from the step in front of him, but oddly he felt like he would die if he took another step.

The forest trees in front of him looked the same, maybe their trunks were a little darker. The sky was still blue above and he didn't feel the aura of a monster. If anything on his Explorer Map he couldn't see any monster nearby for quite a distance which was concerning.

His senses were tingling, telling him it was dangerous and he should leave. Noah stared at the spot in front of him for a trap. Then used his spatial sense to see if he could sense a monster hidden well in the trees or underground. After not sensing both of them he raised his right foot and froze.

The feeling became a lot stronger, 'Looks like this plan was a bust', Noah thought as he took a step back. He then turned around and walked away. He trusted his gut, if it felt like he was going to die from a step, there was no need to test it.

He looked at his Explorer Map as he retreated, "I've confirmed the location of one S Class monster."

…

Deeper in the forest, scarlet red insect eyes looked in Noah's direction. Even though Noah was far, the eyes watched as if he was in front of them. The moment Noah raised his foot the eyes seemed to sharpen. Seeing that he turned around and hadn't entered its domain, it closed its eyes again, disappearing in the branches of the trees as if it was never there.

...

As Noah made his way back he cut out Freedom Peak as well, he assumed it would be the same situation as it was here.

"With these two out, I still have 740 more places to check." Noah looked at the locations he had deduced. He had planned to search them after the merging of the worlds but this changed after facing the S Class Devil Incarnate with Moonlight.

He was now sure that Moonlight would have finished investigating S Class monsters and would be starting to search for them. So he needed to be faster, the S Class monsters were a limited resource and dropped the best items you could get in all of the Protected Zone. These were the true treasures the System bestowed on starting races.

Noah started his search. Each of the 740 segments was 10,000 km square large so he would have to spend hours looking around. Luckily he had increased sense attribute so his Spatial Sense was able to cover a larger radius which helped speed up the process.

Starting from one side he quickly moved around the location, crossed it out on the Explorer Map and moved on.

...

By the time he did his 10th one for the day, it was nighttime.

"If I continue at this pace It'll take 74 days to go through all of them. Hopefully, I'll be able to find one S Class monster I can fight before the worlds merge." Noah said as he ran.

His running speed was much faster than the Levitation Staff with his high attributes, he would run out of stamina but his talent Genius Martial Combat Body helped him recover quickly.

"I should finish for the day after this," Noah said as he increased his speed.

He moved through the forest and spotted a monster.

[Forest Troll]

A Class

Level 85

'Investigate.' Noah used it on the monster.

_____

[Forest Troll] (A Class)

Level 85

HP 70,000/70,000 Mana 3,300/3,300

Attack Power 2,500 Magic Power 1,800

Skills- [Earthshake], [Forest Control], [Sleeping Gas], [Wood Hammer]...

_____

Unlike the status page, which showed for humans, the skill showed more general information.

"So a monster does have HP! That's why it's basically impossible to one-shot high-rank monsters.: Noah thought, "Let's see how long it take me to kill a monster with 70,000 HP."

Noah appeared in front of the troll, the flashed near its legs.

Shing! Shing!

His sword left his sheath and moved like string leaving two cross marks on the Forest Trolls ankles as he passed.

"ARRGGHHH!" The troll fell to the ground as the corruption energy spread through its legs. It turned to look at Noah casting a spell.

Noah pulled out the Helleborus, 'Curse of Weakness.'

The Troll had black energy flash on its body. Its overall attack and defence had decreased. Noah's hand holding the gun went to the sword, 'Silent Screech,' An inaudible sound was emitted as Noah scratched the sword lightly. The troll that was trying to stand fell to the ground again.

'Insanity Venom. Wild Swordplay, Death's Dance ' The Cursed requiem had a dark green energy cover it like a thin transparent film. With the two buffs active Noah disappeared, he didn't Flash Step rather his agility was just that high that he couldn't be seen.

The Troll still casting stopped before it finished staring at the spot Noah had been standing. Its body then fell powerlessly to the ground. On the back of its neck a black wound with dark purple veins going to its head.

Noah stood on the other side watching the items drop, "Seems like 70,000 HP isn't that much. Well, it's to be expected from a normal A Class monster."

He picked the items and left for ImmortalCloud.

...

At the Inn, Alice and the others hadn't returned, so he changed out of his equipment as he thought planed on the best way to find S Class monsters.

As he went through his Explorer Map he saw the Goblin Castle.

"Bloodhood won't be able to complete it soon, so I might as well run it. If I complete it now and it closes, it won't set them back too much." Noah thought.