The team had arrived at the Inner Circle of Cage Forest. Grimfield built a tent as a post. He stood before the lines of people menacingly.

“My brothers and sisters, this is the first time we will commence this task. For elders’ sake, I will watch over all of you. The time limit is a week. Each person has to bring three crimson tubers. There will be punishment for people who fail the task. That’s it, you can start the hunt.”

With his watch, every team grudgingly explored deeper into the forest.

Allen and Eren walked behind other teams. When they couldn’t see Grimfield’s tent any more, they turned direction and hid inside bushes.

Eren let out a wooden stick from his bag and recited a spell. The stick grew and formed several branches; it transformed into a vine lantern that floated around.

“Vine Lantern, this is a high tier spell. If it’s imbued with mana, it will release a certain scent that magical beasts hate. Depending on the usage, it can be regarded as a top tier spell. To upgrade it, we need to combine it with this spell….”

Eren recited another spell and created a floating flame orb before him. It entered the lantern. The lantern grew glowing blue leaves all around its body.

Allen smelled fragrant scent from the lantern. “Are you sure this lantern can keep away rank three magical beasts?”

“Of course, why did you think I was chosen as a messenger with zero combat experience? Well, as long as we don’t run into any beast from Core Circle, we will be alright. The flame orb will cease out in six hours. As per the agreement, we have to change turn imbuing mana into the flame orb. First, we need a place to rest and hide.”

As they wandered around, Allen realized they hadn’t encountered any single beast. I guess Eren is really competent, he thought.

They hadn’t found a place to rest, so Allen proposed to build a shelter since they were safe from the beast. Eren agreed to the idea.

Allen made the shelter out of woods. As for Eren, he couldn’t do anything, so he just watched. He had complained if he was stronger, his nature magic could last for a long time.

Under the newly-made shelter, they were idling. Eren had a confident to get relaxed, but Allen somewhat restless.

“They won’t find us, right?” he asked.

“No problem. Usually, the area outside the lantern’s reach is crowded by magical beasts. Besides, I have a camouflage type spell just in case we run into danger. By the way, what do you bring inside that bag? It seems stuffed.”

Allen reached the ridiculously big bag beside him and pulled out some pebbles. “It’s filled with this. I am a martial artist too, you know? I always do my daily training, even though it has become useless for me right now.”

“You are too diligent,” Eren retorted.

“Thank you for your sarcasm.”

At night, he was on the watch. When Eren had fallen asleep, Allen got up and carried his bag. He made sure to go to the place where Eren couldn’t see him. Then, he poured the pebbles from his bag to the ground. He pulled a skeleton inside it.

Suddenly, the skeleton’s eyes lit. It arose and knelt before him.

Allen pointed his finger to the skeleton’s forehead and whispered, “The Mark of Shadow Sentry.”

It was a top-grade dark spell he had learned to raise his odds in survival. A tattoo appeared on each of the skeleton and Allen’s forehead. It had the image of an eye.

“This spell can connect my point of view with a non-living object. Luckily, the undead corpse isn’t counted as a living thing. I can make him scout the surrounding.

“Go, but don’t travel outside the lantern’s reach.”

Allen carried the empty bag with him and went to the shelter again. He just immersed himself in reading from the system and let the corpse did his job. As his watch turn almost ended, he called back the corpse and told him to hide. He woke Eren up, poured his mana into the flame orb, and rested.

Almost a week had passed. Allen was worried because he just advanced a little with normal meditation. If it was like this, he couldn’t past level nine.

“I have to hunt for the soul.”

“Did you say something, Len?” Eren looked at him in wonderment.

“Nothing, it’s near my turn again. Do you want to sleep early? You seem exhausted.”

Eren’s face beamed. “Are you serious? Thank you. Let me imbued the flame orb first.”

After he waited for a while, Eren finally fell asleep. Allen looked for the corpse that was hiding. He activated The Mark of Shadow Sentry and ordered the skeleton to find a rank 1 magical beast.

In just some minutes, Allen saw a rank one beast through the corpse, a Devilmania Tiger. He headed to the corpse’s whereabouts.

Allen ran as fast as possible. He summoned the system for the lighting, even though without it the darkness could only hinder him a bit.

The fragrant aroma kept thinner until it vanished. He knew he had gotten out of the lantern’s reach.

Allen stopped running and looked around. He could feel the skeleton was hiding inside bushes. He found the beast he was looking for.

Not far from him was an adult tiger with a long scorpion-like tail. It had eight legs. It was a Devilmania Tiger, one of the strongest magical beasts around.

“Got you.”

Without hesitation, Allen rushed to the beast and chanted, “Darkness Chain.” A black whirlpool appeared beside him and shot out a chain that was covered in black smoke; the edge of it had a blade.

As expected from the magical beast, it reacted fast and dodged the chain aside. However, he had anticipated it. With his will, the trajectory of the chain bent and led to the beast’s rear. However, as though it had an eye on the back, the tiger caught the chain with its tail.

At this point, Allen was just a meter in front of the beast. He smiled as the tiger leaped at him.

“Renegade Ghost Rush!”

From his chest, a black mist orb with spooky face rushed out and penetrated the beast’s head. It didn’t leave noticeable damage from outside, but the tiger suddenly stunned.

The renegade ghost entered Allen’s chest again. He felt his mana was restored a little.

“Darkness Claws.”

Dark mist covered Allen’s hands. He clawed out the beast’s eyes. The lifesteal aura absorbed the life force from the wounds.

The tiger screamed and went berserk. It jumped back and forth and its tail pierced the empty air.

With the mana he had converted and all from his inner sea, Allen created a black vortex below the beast. A black chain jutted out and penetrated the tiger’s belly.

Allen’s breath was rough, but he still ran to the fallen beast and tapped its head. “Lifesteal Aura.”

After he had absorbed a lot of life force, he escaped and headed to the safe area. He didn’t forget to order the corpse to watch the surrounding. As he arrived at the shelter, he lied beside Eren and giggled.

“Crazy, Renegade Ghost Rush is a scary technique; not only it can stun the opponent’s soul and absorb mana, but it can also suck their blood to restored my vitality too. Darkness Chain is strong too. Finally, even though the Darkness Claws is weak, I can use it to attack opponents’ weak spots. With those three combos, I can kill a rank one magical beast with ease. Other ordinary newbie acolytes need to gang up against one of them. I guess I can count myself unordinary for a magus around my level.”

Allen thought it up a bit. Even though he could kill a rank one magical beast, he had to use up every mana he possessed.

“I need to level up to increase my mana.”

Allen straightened his back and refined the abundant life force he had absorbed.

He coincidentally had successfully absorbed the beast’s soul too. He knew he couldn’t refine another renegade spirit with just one soul and in his situation, so he let the system absorbed it.

Alienix

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