Learning

"Captain, there are beasts up ahead just a few hundred meters away." The scout, or Shadow as he preferred to be called, said.

The jesting expression on Dalt's face quickly disappeared when he heard so.

"How many? How about their ranks?"

Shadow went silent for a moment before he recounted, "There are three beasts in total. Three Green Bulls to be exact. As for their ranks, I assume that they are around High Baron-class."

"Now, this is troublesome."

A pensive look also appeared on Alia's face. She could not help but notice the irregularity. "Why are there High Barons so close to the outer area? We barely entered the deeper parts of the forest…"

"I don't know. It's probably related to the mission the guild issued. Something odd must be going on inside the forest. Should we take a detour? Our first and foremost objective is to investigate after all. We don't need to take risks." Dalt asked.

"I suggest we take the detour." Kark suggested with a serious expression on his face. "These bull bastards are annoying to deal with. I honestly don't want anything to do with them, especially so when they are all High Baron-classes. We could definitely handle it albeit more difficult if they are Mid Baron-classes, but higher than that would be a problem."

It was then that Shadow interjected. "I suggest otherwise. I think we should take them on. Although I mentioned that there are three of them, I still have not mentioned that they're a few hundred meters separated from each other."

"Then… If that's the case, it would be better to clear them out. I agree with Shadow. It's better to get rid of them even if we have to take more time. It's better if we clear out variables if something awry ever happens deeper into the forest. I don't want to run back here only to encounter three High Baron-classes." Alia added.

Dalt pondered for a while, considering his party members' analysis, before deciding.

"Alright. Let's do as Alia and Shadow said."

He was more inclined to agree with Kark's suggestion hearing that the beasts ahead were Green Bulls, but the premise set by Shadow erased his reluctance.

Their conversation sparked the curiosity that had been bubbling in Akt's mind since earlier. He did not want to disturb them while in an important conversation, but he could not resist asking, "Seniors, I apologize for interrupting, but I've been curious about one thing from the very beginning."

The serious atmosphere dissipated when the rest heard him speak. It was Dalt who kindly asked. "Ah. I forgot that you're there. What is it, Akt?"

"Can't you really handle three of those beasts if they were together? I heard from earlier that all four of you are also cultivators of the Baron-class. Is there such a big difference between the 'Low', 'Mid', or 'High' ranks that you mentioned earlier for you to be reluctant to face the beasts? Plus, why can't it just simply be Baron-class without any additional labels?"

Although some of the questions he asked were quite obvious, he still asked them nonetheless. He wanted to confirm his speculations and not assume thoughtlessly lest he get in trouble in the future. Dalt and the rest of the party members looked at him with weird expressions.

'He could not be that clueless, right?' was what they thought.

It was normal for them to think so because it was quite rare for someone with cultivation bordering to the Knight-class to not know of these things by now. However, Akt was not from this world. He spent his first weeks single-mindedly occupied with obtaining a manual and cultivating, so he did not have much time to gather information about these. The manual also did not include details about power rankings and only focused on the cultivation aspect. Plus, even when he bought something to eat, he rarely stayed outside his room for an extended period of time. As a result, his information about everything was fragmented. The group could only assume that he was cultivating in a secluded place before, somewhere deep in the mountains, and did not know.

The group looked at him with warm eyes as Kark explained patiently.

"About that, Akt… You're in the High or Peak stage of the Body Tempering realm, right? Then, did you notice that there were qualitative changes happening in your body a couple of times when you were cultivating? The cultivation of a cultivator undergoes these changes for a total of four times per realm. This is where we got the 'Low', 'Mid', 'High' and 'Peak' labels."

Akt knew about this from the data he analyzed from the cultivation manual. However, he could only nod awkwardly because while he knew of it, he still had not gone through what Kark was talking about. He just broke through to the Low stage of the Body Tempering realm recently. He did not want to tell them that the reason he was as strong as a Knight-class was that he was a superhuman prior to being a cultivator.

Fortunately, the rest of the party misunderstood his awkwardness as an embarrassment for not knowing.

"However, while cultivation realm is important. It is hard to gauge someone's battle prowess by simply looking at their cultivation. That is why the top experts of the Martial World established a power ranking system based on peerages to measure someone's combat ability while accounting for the mastery of their weapons, bloodlines, items, cultivation realms, and many more."

"It's so damn confusing." Akt chuckled.

"I know," Kark also laughed along. "Just like how people in the same cultivation realm do not possess the same amount of strength, it is also the same with the power rankings. For example, not all Baron-classes have the same strength considering that every individual has their own skill sets and specialties. Therefore, the top experts borrowed the levels of the cultivation steps and applied it to the ranking system, dividing each class into four stages."

Akt nodded in understanding. While the people in this world had no need for this segregation and simply rely on their reputation to prove their strength, it certainly made things a lot easier and more efficient with things like this to go on. It made assessing one's strength less complicated.

Alia also chimed in. "Plus, beasts and other races have their own cultivation system. We simply can't use human's cultivation realms to assess their strength. It'll be more confusing then."

A sigh left Akt's mouth. There's still so much he did not know. He had to find a place to learn more about these after he saved enough money to idle.

Dalt's voice sounded moments later, snapping him out of his thoughts. "And you're probably going to ask about the Green Bulls next, aren't you? I can see the curiosity in your face."

"W-Well, yes. Please, tell me about this one, too"

"Ehem!" Dalt cleared his throat out loud. "Let's see. Green Bulls are… bulls but green."

"Pfft—"

Muffled laughter echoed in the forest. Kark, Alia, and even Shadow who did not talk much shook in laughter

"You don't say…"

"He even cleared his throat!"

"Fuck… You suck at this, Dalt," Kark chortled. "Let me take over, alright?"

Unwilling to be humiliated, Dalt looked towards Akt with hope. However, his expression darkened when he saw the white-haired porter avert his eyes while his shoulders shook. He could only nod albeit unwillingly.

"Well, the Captain is right, though. Green Bulls look just like normal bulls but color green. But unlike normal bulls, these wild beasts are menaces especially when they're on their home ground— the forest. These beasts are deceptive. They might look like power-types that would charge the moment they spot you, but they're actually more agile than they let on.

"The moment you encounter one, they would pretend to run away and then use the forest as a cover to camouflage themselves. The unsuspecting victims would never even imagine that a bull would be going for an ambush. Even as someone who had experienced it, I still find the whole thing preposterous."

"For real? That's certainly unexpected. 'Bulls' and 'Ambush' don't really go well together normally." Akt asked in suspicion.

"Yup. For real." Alia, at the side, confirmed.

Akt could not wrap his head around the idea. The bulls he knew were simply not built for a stealthy approach. Just imagining a bulky horned creature sneaking around caused him to feel odd inwardly. The design and the purpose just did not mix well with each other. Still, He felt that he was truly in another world when he thought about this. This world's logic and natural laws were different from what he was familiar with on Earth.

Having decided that the chit-chat was enough, Dalt spoke, "Alright, we can continue that later. We should get going."

"What about the battle plan?" Shadow inquired.

"Hm. The usual is fine. I'll take the hits with both you and Kark as damage dealers. Let's have Alia at the back with her bow together with Akt."

"Alright. Sounds like a plan."

Akt thought that it was a reasonable plan. Although he preferred to fight instead of staying in the back line, he was not upset. He knew that while he could jump classes, he still was not strong enough to aid them from the front against a High Baron-class beast.