Raiding the Sanctuary

Kyle dodged the incoming fireball and charged at the ram. He drew his sword and stabbed it at the ram's forehead.

'Clangg!'

Kyle's stab was met by the ram's horns. The flame which had nearly extinguished earlier was recovering slowly.

Seeing that it would still take some time for the flames to recover fully, Kyle continued with his barrage of attacks. Some of his sword slashes made it past the beast's defences and left cuts of varying depths on its body.

Once the flames were fully recovered, it started to swirl once again. Kyle tried to stop it by swinging his sword at the flames, but it went past the flames to hit the ram's forehead.

'Clangg'

Although not as sturdy as its horns, the forehead was also a part of the ram's defence and Kyle's attack failed to leave any cuts on it.

Kyle jumped to the side of the ram and slashed at its neck. His sword was met with the beast's horns once again.

Kyle leapt backwards and distanced himself from the ram. The ram aimed its head towards Kyle and launched the fireball. Kyle dodged towards the side.

He moved out of the way of the fireball and took a curved path towards the ram. It was at this point that Kyle noticed a change occurring in the beast.

The small flame left hovering above the beast's forehead disappeared. The ram had absorbed the flame and now its entire body was on fire.

The blazing ram dashed at Kyle. Its speed had been boosted nearly three times to that of its regular speed. Kyle was able to dodge this dash by a small margin and the ram continued in a straight line till it slammed into a nearby tree.

The tree fell down and the ram turned back to face Kyle. It left behind a blazing trail as it charged at Kyle once again. With his previous experience at doing this, Kyle only had to side-step the beast to dodge this attack.

The ram charged at Kyle for a few more times before the fire surrounding it vanished and it fell down to the ground in exhaustion. Kyle walked to the beast and stabbed it in the chest.

The ram moved its head to prevent the strike, but it was a moment too slow. The sword pierced its heart and the ram died on the spot.

[Blaze horn ram killed]

[410(180) exp gained]

[Extract usable parts?]

[Yes/No]

'Yes'

[Extracted Blaze horn ram horns×2]

[Extracted Blaze horn ram ignition fur×1]

[Extracted Blaze horn ram meat×1]

Kyle wanted to cover the signs of his recent battle so as to not attract the attention of the transcendents patrolling this area, but the signs were too prominent for him to cover up. Four trees had been uprooted under the ram's attacks and their barks had caught fire along with other little plants which came in the path of the ram's dash.

Seeing the smoke rising from the burning wood, Kyle knew that he shouldn't stay in this area for long. He left behind the burning area and dashed towards his right.

After Kyle left the place, another creature appeared there. It wasn't a guard patrolling the area, but a beast that looked like a giant weasel. This beast's coat was made of small filaments of flames which shook at its every move. It smelled the flames burning around the area for some time before turning to face the direction where Kyle had gone.

Just a few minutes after that, two people on horseback also arrived at the scene. If Kyle had been there, he would have recognized them as the transcendents guarding this part of the mountain range.

"Oh it's just a beast! And here I thought that it was an intruder." One of them said to his partner.

"Yeah, but why would it set the trees on fire?" The second one asked, uncertain of the motives behind the beast's action.

"Oh I know, Lord Waalteem told me about this beast. This is a very aggressive tier 2 beast that likes to feed on other beasts that share the same element as it." The first guard answered his colleague's doubts.

As if to testify to this guard's words, the weasel snarled at the guards and bared its teeth at them.

"See I told ya. This beast is very aggressive....whoa! Hahaha! That's what you get for attacking me. B*tch!"

The guard had been pointing at the weasel as he spoke. While he was still in midst of his speech, the weasel leapt in the air trying to bite off the guard's throat.

All the beasts in this sanctuary were marked by a special spell, resulting in the weasel being electrocuted mid-air. The guard who had been scared out of his life laughed at the beast while trying to conceal the shame of falling off his horse in a panic.

The other guard too was in no better condition. His horse had been standing right next to his partner's, so he felt as frightened as his partner. The second guard swore that he would never stand beside his partner for the rest of his life as the two rode their horses away before the weasel came back to its senses.

At this time, Kyle had already appeared a few hundred metres away from that location. Totally unaware of the fact that the weasel had veered his back for him, he was engaging another foe.

[Sludge lump]

[HP: 20/40]

[MP: 50/50]

[Stats: ]

[Strength: 20] [Agility: 11]

[Stamina: 36] [Endurance: 20]

[Intelligence: 28] [Energy affinity: 42]

[Ability: Physical damage nullification]

Kyle looked at the shapeless, moving mass of sludge before him with a funny expression. Beasts that had gained any type of ability were very rare on the second floor. They were very hard to deal with, or that's what it was meant to be.

But, this creature before him seemed to be different. Although immune to physical damage, it was very weak to mana based attacks.

[Energy cut]

[Energy cut]

[-10]

[-10]

[Sludge lump killed]

[600(250) exp gained]

[Extract usable parts?]

[Yes/No]

'Yes'

Kyle was shocked by the amount of exp he got on killing the creature. It was unusually high for a creature as harmless as that.

[Extracted Sludge sac×2]

This battle was over in half a minute and no signs were left behind. Kyle moved forward while keeping his senses focussed on his surroundings. It was at this time that Kyle felt the need to get a scouting skill.

This time, he decided to move deeper into the mountain range. According to common sense, the so-called Dictator should be found there.

Deeper into the mountain range, the trees got denser and the grass became taller. Kyle was on full alert as he moved forward while looking out for possible traps and the invertebrates.

The poison from creatures of the first floor could easily be countered using the universal antidotes, but he was more likely to encounter creatures from the second floor in this region. The poison of these creatures had harmful mana mixed in it, which would require special antidotes to cure.

Still, these special antidotes required ingredients from the second floor. They may not kill him directly, but their adverse effects could not be underestimated, especially in the current situation.

After walking some distance from the place where he encountered the Sludge lump, Kyle stopped dead in his tracks.

'F*ck!' Kyle muttered under his breath. Before him was a clear patch of land in the forest. A man in a uniform similar to the two guards that Kyle had seen earlier was sitting there, drinking water out of a pouch made of animal bladder.

At first, Kyle had wanted to change his direction and walk away. But through some weird coincidence, the exact moment that Kyle looked at the guard, the person in question put down his pouch.

The guard's eyes swept through Kyle as he moved to put back his pouch. Stunned, he immediately turned his head and his eyes met Kyle's.

Since was already discovered by the guard, Kyle could no longer hide or walk away pretending that nothing happened. He decided to take the lead.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Kyle asked the guard in a calm and composed tone. Kyle didn't know if the other party considered him an enemy or not, so he decided to hold back on attacking.

"I should be the one asking this question. Who are you brat? How the hell did you get in here?" The guard looked at Kyle with a ferocious expression.

The guard wanted to distract Kyle with his questions while at the same time, his hand moved into his pockets.

"Why aren't...." Before the guard could complete his question, he felt Kyle's aura change dramatically.

Kyle disappeared before the stunned eyes of the guard, and the next thing that the guard saw was the world turning upside down.

Kyle beheaded the guard and reached for his pocket. He took out a small bottle from within. A small cloud of red coloured smoke had formed above the top of this bottle.

Kyle immediately willed for this bottle to be placed in his system inventory. The bottle disappeared from his hand and Kyle moved his sword like a fan to scatter the smoke.

[Smoke signal(active)]

Kyle didn't need the system notification to know what this thing was. He looked at the dead body with a complicated gaze. Last time, he acted cool and calm after he killed three people, but his brain was in a turmoil.

This time too, he acted calm on the outside as he placed the mutilated head together with the corpse. While his brain was still in a turmoil, Kyle took out a potion from his storage bracelet and poured it on the corpse.

The dead body turned into mist and scattered in the surroundings.

Kyle walked away from the scene with his doubt cleared. This guard, the ones from back then and the ones that he might encounter ahead were definitely searching for him.