Reaching the ghoulroot

Alex slowly moved through the thick foliage. He reached a place where the small path ended and the forrest started. He found out that although the place was called a garden, it was essentially a thick forrest. Like a normal forrest , there were dense trees in front of his eyes.

The place that he was at was just the entrance to the garden of ghoulroot which was two and a half kilometers away from the outpost. He stopped near one of the tree as he took out the map from his bag.

He found it odd that in the age of digital equipment, he was given a map for the location. 'Maybe they have experienced these things themselves and a map might be the best way to make sure that the data is available to hunter at all times... ' he thought as he studied the map. It was made of thick material and was printed with careful designs.

He could see the small path that he took to arrive and the outpost that he left behind. He saw the outline in dark for the area of ghoulroot garden and a small area few kilometers away from the place that he was at was marked with blue hatching in the map. This was sector R18 that he was supposed to clear.

There were other area in different shades, a few were marked in green color, few in yellow and a very small numbers of areas were marked in bright red. The red areas also had a skull drawn on the map. Alex saw that there was a small red area in the direct line of path that he was supposed to take to reach Sector R18.

Alex was confused at the symbols. The indication of skull clearly showed that there was danger in the area but there was no instruction in the manual that he was supposed stear clear of the said areas.

Alex thought for a moment ' Maybe this is a test of some sort and they are trying to see if I can move through the area or if I opt for the safer route. Taking the safe root would take twice as much time as I would have to cross multiple mountains. ' Alex was in a dilemma as to which path to choose. On one hand he wanted to pass the test as being a special forces hunter was once in a lifetime opportunity. On the other hand, if he chose to go around the red area through the mountains, he was in for a two day mountain climbing journey.

The special forces hunters were said to be on the same level as those best hunters from hunter association. Alex although reluctant, wanted to try his best and proove that despite being an average guy, he too could become someone larger than life through hard work and dedication.

' Even if this is not the test and there is danger here, I must take the faster route. I simply can not afford to waste two to three days in just travelling. ' By his rough calculations, even if he covered a decent sized area everyday, it would take him more than three month to clear sector 18. ' Besides I would have to go through here in future if I want to replenish my supplies a week later. '

He made his decision as he swiftly started walking. The first area that he entred was marked as Sector 1, the area was green and it was easy for him to travell. There were green bushes and different plants in the forrest. When he was leaving, he was gifted a small knife by Ron, Alex used the knife to cut the dense vegetation in his way as he advanced towards the heart of the ghoulroot garden.

He did not meet any monster along the way as he could now see that the yellow area was only 300 meters away. Axel could clearly see the colour of the trees change from the marked area as the treees were darker and more dense.

As he entred the thick foliage, he saw his first monster. It was a deer with undead body and dead skin with rotting flesh. It was said that the undead type monsters were result of certain parts of death realm fusing with earth. There were also random spatial cracks that would open at random and release different kinds of wild energies.

Maybe certain spatial crack released undead energy in the area and transformed dead animal carcasses into undead animals.

Axel stopped on the spot as soon as he saw the deer. He knew that the deer was a sensitive creature and would be alerted at the slightest sound or movement. As his line of sight was clear, he slowly willed his skill to activate and soon the outline of the undead deer lit up.

Axel mentally confirmed the target as in a moment, the deer sensed that something was wrong. Unfortunately it was too late as a huge orange flame engulfed it. There were screaming and screeching noises coming from the burning deer as the flames were said to be the worst enemy of undead type creature after holy energy.

The deer thrashed and jumped to no awail as the remaining flesh was being burned off it's bones and slowly the whole deer turned to ash. Only some strong bones remained as Axel checked his status after his first kill.

Name - Alex Heracles

Race - Demihuman

Level - 0

Class - None

Skill - (D) Immolate

As he opened the level tab , he saw that he would require 100 exp to level up and he had just aquired 5 exp from killing the undead deer. Axel smiled as he got more motivation to kill the monsters. He wanted to attain level 10 quickly as at level 10, a hunter would get to choose his starting class.

The starting class would provide the hunter with two huge benefits, the first benefit was that he would be able to select a class from three randomly generated classes based on his experience. Each class would come with class specific skills.

This was the reason why, every hunter would push themselves hard towards level 10 even if they had trash skill at the start, the class specific skill was a way for them to make a comeback and a chance for those stong awakened hunters to become stronger.

The second benefit of reaching level 10 was that he would be awarded one evolution point, he could use the evolution point to upgrade any one of his skills. Each level up would also force the world to energies to harmonize with the body to make him get stronger and stronger.

It was like an attribute upgrade but the system would distribute the attribute points equally to give overall strength boost. At level 10, a hunter would be as strong as 10 normal humans and the results varied from people to people so there was no consistent way of measuring how strong a hunter would get with each level.

Alex soon felt that he was slightly mently strained as he looked at the pile of ash on the ground. Although his skill was overpowred, if his mana couldn't keep up with the consumption, it would all be for nothing. He could feel that at most, he would be able to take out four more undead deers before he had to rest.

As he decided move slowly from the place, he saw a new monster emerge from the bushes a few hundred meters away. A huge skeleton of a bear slowly walking towards the pile of bones and ash. Axel backed off into the bush once again as the undead bear stopped near the ashes and took a good sniff with its decaying and rotten nose. It was missing an eyeball and there was only an exposed skull and an empty socket for the entire right side of his face.

Axel could see that the bear was three meter tall and there was no way he would win the fight if bear attacked so he decided to take the safer approach and slowly wait for the bear to leave. Unfortunately, the bear sniffed some more and axel's heart almost leaped out of his chest in horror when the bear turned to face him with it's one remaining eye and an empty socket locked onto his position from good 200 meters away.

" immolate! "