Innocent Huji

"I can see that you've a lot of experience in combat moves. However, without using it against a real wild beast, your ample experience will amass to nothing." Xue Yiran began to lecture. "Firstly, to survive in the dangerous wilds, you must have an ample knowledge about each beast characteristics, their behavior, and their living environment. Although information on these topics have been constantly taught to us at the academy, still among the billions of species living in the wilds, there are still millions of them unknown to man. And even if we do know them all, do not forget that the human brain is sometimes forgetful. If you can recall a million of species, you definitely won't be able to recall a billion of them." This was a matter fact. "So instead of facing against virtual monsters, I'll be engaging you in a physical fight."

Ian listened to the girl attentively as if it was the most important thing that matters to him. Even though her appearance was quite different, when she spoke, he could still sense the coldness radiating from her body.

"In a gloomy place devoid of technology, what can we do to protect ourselves. Well, there's only one answer to that. That is to rely on our sixth senses. Vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste and Proprioception. Do not forget that even when using them, one could still be at disadvantage due to the craftiness of the wild beasts. Nonetheless, you'll have to rely on these two most important senses in order for you to survive. That is the senses of touch and hearing. Your sense of hearing helps to detect any abnormal sound in your surroundings, while your touch senses help to detect any changes in the wind flow. Even if an invincible beast is nearby, their actions of movement will absolutely lead to a shift in the direction of the wind."

Xue Yiran continued. "The virtual net realism is almost the same as the real world, so there should be some distortion in the wind flow whenever I move. Today, I'll be battling you. So, try and defend against my attack using the trick I taught you."

"Okay." Ian nodded, before projecting a long sword in his palm.

"Then let's begin." A small dagger appeared in Xue Yiran hand.

Ian was ready for her charge when suddenly, the figure in front of him vanished into thin air. Not only that, the previous battle arena terrain had now shifted to that of a dark forest. Up in the sky was the gloomy firmament that only existed in the wild. Chilly wind blows by. The tall trees' branches sways in accordance to the direction of the wind while letting out a terrifying whooshing sound.

"She really put more effort into this." Ian's lips curl into a smile, when he saw how advantage the terrain was for Xue Yiran concealment. Nonetheless, he didn't let go of his guard but instead, amplified all of his sixth senses to the maximum. His ear twitched, as he tries to detect any abnormal sound around him.

But before he could think further, his back suddenly stiffened. Danger!

Like greased lightening, Ian turned around and wave his sword behind him.

Clang. The sound of two metal clashing resonated in the dark forest.

"Not bad." Xue Yiran smile when she saw Ian's timely reaction, but that didn't stop her from attacking further.

Xue Yiran attacks were ruthless. All were aimed at the vital parts of the body. It doesn't matter how experience Ian was in combat moves; his face was filled with perspiration as he tries to keep up on defending Xue Yiran attacks. Any single mishap could lead to his demise in a matter of seconds.

It didn't take long for injuries to start appearing on his body.

'She's so powerful.' He had tried to fight back several times, but he couldn't even touch the tip of her clothes at all. While he was using a long sword, she was only holding a short dagger. Yet, she was able to escape all of his attacks in a tricky way, and even counter back.

'Was she this powerful.' Ian was starting to suspect that his skills were trashy in contrast to hers.

At the end, he was defeated by her.

"You're strong." Ian complimented after he had healed himself.

"And you're weak."

Ian choked at her truthful statement. Shouldn't her next sentence be 'you're not bad either'. How come she suddenly not following the conversation rule.

"Well, thanks for being candid about it."

Xue Yiran wasn't lying by labeling Ian as weak. During their brawls, there was a lot of holes in his defense. If this was back in the apocalypse, he would have long loose his life in the hands of those man-eating zombies.

"When facing your opponent, don't just blindly charge at them or defend yourself in a crude way. When defending, be protective of your vital parts. Although beasts are not knowledgeable about the human anatomy, you might lose your life at the instant once you're struck in those places. Not even a healing medicine can save you by that time."

Different healing medicine of all kinds existed in the wilds, yet none of them can reformed a beheaded head.

Xue Yiran explained to Ian about the vital parts of the body he should take notice of.

Receiving an unexpected newfound guidance, Ian was really pleased to have taken the lead to ask for Xue Yiran contact information. He had been training based on the experts battle feed he had watched, yet none of them had bothered explaining about the human anatomy. Even the vast curriculum of Roland academy was not focused on this, but instead centered around the weakness and characteristics of various beasts in the wild.

"So should we continue training?" Xue Yiran was eager to have another go.

"Why not." Ian was similarly excited to implement this newfound knowledge.

With that, the two went on training for hours until their time for using the private battle arena was over.

"I never thought I would learn so much in a single day. This is all thanks to you." Ian said from the bottom of his heart.

"It's nothing much. Most of the result is due to your ability to grasp what is being taught. To be truthful, it's actually fun teaching you. If you were like a blank shell, I wouldn't hesitate to cut off connections with you." Xue Yiran ability lies mainly in physical combat against human. Although zombies were monsters, their body is still a human body.

So ever since getting here, she had a hard time fighting against beasts with thick defense. Her battle against Ian truly brought out a feeling from her old memories.

Since their hour was over, they both walked out of the arena.

"Where are you heading to?" Ian asked when he noticed that Xue Yiran wasn't logging out.

"To meet a certain annoying man." Xue Yiran didn't bother hiding information of her master. "Why don't you come with me. The annoying man might also take a liking to you."

"If he's so annoying, then why are you still meeting up with him?"

"Ah, not that I've a choice either. He is my master."

Master? Since she's so strong, she must definitely have someone teaching her. Ian deduced that Xue Yiran master must be someone formidable, for him to have brought up a student like Xue Yiran. Perhaps due to his curiosity, Ian didn't refuse Xue Yiran offer to meet her master.

The area to Logan's house was quite far, so the two boarded a hover bus. The speed of the hover bus in the virtual net was slow as compared to the real world, so Ian and Xue Yiran began conversing during the journey.

"Seeing that you're Axel, you must be very closed to the founder of creamery creamer store."

Everyone knows that Axel was the face behind Creamery creamer. You could say that he was the sole influx behind the shop popularity.

"Hmmm, you might as well say that." Xue Yiran didn't want to disclose her identity and gave a mild answer. "Our relationship is that of a worker and employee. I was hired because of my goodlooking face."

The moment she mentioned that, Ian couldn't find a way to refute it.

'Yes, your face is indeed goodlooking.'

"When actually did you start to go into the wilds? Your skills wouldn't be this honed without subsequent practices."

"It was after I left Roland academy. Then, my parent company was currently facing bankruptcy, so I joined the Tyron guild to earn some money." Xue Yiran answered, before asking Ian, "What about you? You were under a disguise earlier. Did your parents knew that you went outside of the safety line?"

"No. Mentor Amos only mentioned to them that we'll be going out for practice but didn't state the exact place."

"I see. Wait a minute." Xue Yiran lip pause as she suddenly realized something. "You're the crown prince, how come you don't have a contract beast? That's impossible." How can a crown prince go out alone without having a protection. Back on earth, even those top powerhouse has some bodyguard protecting in secret.

Now that she had realizes it, Ian didn't bother hiding it.

"Yes, I do have a contract beast. His name is Huji. I was under a disguise back then, so I couldn't summon him out."

"Oh. Then why didn't you make mention of it back at the arena?" Xue Yiran asked once more.

"That... Huji is a very shy beast. He's quite shy when facing against strangers."

'A shy beast.' This will be the first time Xue Yiran would hear such term classifying a ferocious wild beast.

Innocent Huji who was shot in the foot by his master: "..."

(⁠ノ⁠ಠ⁠益⁠ಠ⁠)⁠ノ⁠彡⁠┻⁠━⁠┻

'How dare you call me shy? This is such a big disgrace to our dragon race. Tell me, who are you calling shy. How about I destroy the whole place to show you how shy I am.'

Ian ignored the raging beast in his consciousness and continued his conversation with Xue Yiran.