Chapter 20 – Venturing Out

The next morning, Theodor slept soundly, only getting up toward noon. Veronica and he worked hard that night, and he was proud to say he managed to fill her up six times before little Theo wanted some rest and the two of them were both satisfied.

'I should raise my cultivation to improve my fighting prowess,' he learned from the experience. As the only senior brother in the sect, he couldn't afford to satisfy only a single woman a night! The poor girls would only orgasm once a month that way, and the cucumbers would never be safe again.

Just when he wanted to check all the notifications he had suppressed during his lovemaking with the sect leader, a certain memory surfaced. 'Crap, I forgot we were supposed to descend the mountain today at dawn!'

He was about five hours late!

Theo quickly got up, throwing the matter of the system to the back of his head. Worst scenario, he would claim even more rewards at once. The young man quickly put on his clothes, hung his sword on his back, and went out of Veronica's room.

The clothes were different from what he was used to. Instead of the comfortable pants and shirt combo, males here chose to wear long robes that were simply designed differently from women's robes, but they were still robes. Theo, unwilling to submit to the local sense of fashion, drew pants and shirts for the tailor and made her prepare a few outfits.

Maybe in a few years when he becomes the strongest being around, he could dictate a new model for male clothes.

"Ah, Junior Sisters, I have overslept…" he awkwardly greeted the three. They were all packed, ready to venture deeper into the mountain range. Luckily, Shaia was kind enough to pack some for him, too, knowing he had no experience.

"Senior Brother, you have worked hard!" Lilia laughed, "I hope you can keep working hard, we all admire the sect leader and want to follow in her footsteps," she nodded excitedly.

"Good job, Senior Brother, we hope you will not forget your junior sisters in the future," Lora added.

"It's not too late to leave the sect. Worst scenario, we might have to find a cave and spend the night, just the two of us…" Shaia giggled like a fool, clearly deep in forbidden fantasies. The other two could only look at her suspiciously.

'Two of us'? Did it mean she planned on killing the other two girls for a dick?

"Let's set out then," Theo laughed and grabbed his backpack, putting it on his back.

The sect had two gates. The main one was stationed to the east, and any girl who wanted to descend the mountain and go to a mortal city nearby passed through it. However, there was a smaller one to the west, leading to the wild area.

A few girls greeted their senior brother on the way out, but nothing else happened.

"Senior Brother, will you tell us about your night with the Sect Leader?" Shaia couldn't contain her curiosity anymore, "She left the room glowing like a blooming flower this morning, I even felt like she was prettier than usual."

But Theo was a man, he wouldn't describe his night with more words than 'we had sex'. Thus, he could only shake his head.

"You can't disrespect the Sect Leader," Lilia flicked the other girl's head from the side.

They passed through the gate without glitch, after all, there were no strangers in such a small sect.

"Senior Brother, you must keep your guard up every second now. This area is controlled by beasts, and although only the weaker ones live in this area, they can be very dangerous if they ambush us or attack in large numbers. If we walk another kilometer or two, we will get to the area of the second-rank beasts," Lilia explained on the terrace.

Her two friends had been there before, so they didn't need this introduction. It was all meant for Theo's safety and survival.

"I see, thank you for the reminder, Junior Sister," Theo appreciated her concern. He was still green in wilderness survival, that's why he didn't try to go alone.

"Senior Brother, there are warm feces here, we can expect a fight soon," Lilia pointed at what she found. They were covered with leaves, but it wasn't a very clever disguise.

The footsteps were large and humanlike, and before each footstep, there was something similar to a square. "Those tracks must belong to a gorilla. The males here go around in small groups of three while the females and the children move in big troops of twenty or thirty. Dozens of males come back to their troops during the breeding season."

"Is it the breeding season now?" Theo asked.

"No."

The four trailed the path taken by the gorilla carefully, trying not to be seen or heard by any lurker in the area. After a turn, they found a small group of three hairy black gorillas with thick muscles sitting around a broken tree and feasting on some worms and bugs.

"Males. They should be of first rank, but perhaps one of them advanced. It's not too rare. Senior Brother, how many of them do you want to tackle? We will eliminate the rest," Lilia, as the group leader, made the decisions. However, the trip was meant for Senior Brother's experience.

Theo stopped for a moment to think. He should be able to easily deal with all three given his rich combat experience, but he only needed one for the achievement. Furthermore, he hadn't met ferocious beasts before as he only slayed helpless creatures so far. Perhaps he'd be shocked or scared if they all pounced at once, it was hard to say.

"It's my first fight, let's take things slow. I will deal with one of them, you can deal with the other two. But if one of the others is of the second rank, keep it busy until I'm done with mine," Theo made a quick decision. There might be a separate achievement for different ranks.

"No problem. Shaia, you take the one on the left, Lora, you take the one in the middle, Theo, you take the one on the right. I will watch the battle to see if anyone needs assistance while guarding from third parties."

The three nodded and rushed to the battle with their swords in hand.

"Roar!" The gorillas shouted in anger upon seeing the humans. They quickly left their meal and began drumming on their wide chests.

'Could it be a sound attack like in the fantasy novels?' Theo thought to himself. But it wasn't, they were mere low-ranked beasts. They wouldn't have such fancy moves.

The six engaged in battle, and Theo concentrated on his opponent. The animal was nearly three meters tall when it stood straight, but now it rested on its feet and fists, almost halving that height. Each of its arms had the same circumference as Theo's waste, packing scary strength.

The beast didn't wait for its opponent to finish scrutinizing it. Instead, it swung a heavy arm at Theo's face, trying to bash his skull to smithereens.

Luckily, Theo didn't panic. He had meditated for over a century and had gone through many spars, some of them even as intensive as life-or-death battles.

The value of the system's mechanics showed once more. If Theo was given his power and talent without fully experiencing the way there, he would be flustered upon facing an intimidating enemy.

The young man easily ducked under the heavy arm and slashed his sword at the beast's waist, leaving a shallow cut behind.

'I can easily cut it in half, but it's my first serious fight outside the system, let's take my time with it,' Theo decided.

"Roar!" The gorilla yelled in anger again. It jumped forward and tried to bite the little annoying human and reap his throat for blood.

Ouch. The annoying human corrected his stance and easily pushed the gorilla's face away with a thud, hitting its temple with the sword's hilt.

The black thing almost fell to the ground in a daze, a sharp pain filling its brain. When it looked back, it saw the young man waiting for it, his sword sheathed behind his back.

"Roar!" The damn human is weaponless! Now is its chance to kill it!

Theo's legs moved erratically from side to side, bringing him away from the gorilla's dangerous slaps. With those huge muscles, getting hit would be akin to having a pillar of stone ram into your brain.

Eventually, feeling the gorilla had no more exquisite moves to offer, Theo sent a fast round kick to the gorilla's face, countering its next swing directly. The kick's power was increased significantly by the beast's momentum, causing a slight concussion.

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

Theo showered its enemy's head with lethal punches, and the beast kept falling back helplessly. Eventually, it collapsed.

'Hmm, nice, my raw strength isn't that lower than that of a gorilla.' Theo was satisfied with the results. Now, he only needed to draw his sword and finish it off.