Wulan stood for a while in silence. It was only partly because he was cautions, after all, the python was pierced through the head by a gigantic stalactite so there was no way it would still be alive. Rather, it seemed as if he was paying a bit of respect to the dead python.

‘Rest well.’

After that he walked towards the 7ft tall beast lying motionless on the ground. Anyone could have thought of this strategy but it needed the person to be able to dodge all those ferocious attacks and make a crack into the scales on its head so that it could be pierced through.

 It was no exaggeration to say that Wulan would be the only one who could do something like that at his current level.

The speed he had displayed was especially ridiculous. In his past life Wulan had trained his body to the point where he could go faster than sound. 

But at the moment he wasn’t able to use much Qi nor did he have a strong body like his past life. However, he still had the experiences and knowledge of the Solar Martial Monarch.

And this knowledge included many Martial Arts just like the one he used, (Koros Steps). This was an instant-movement-skill that Wulan was proud of and he even used it in his previous life. The rank of the skill couldn’t be determined because the speciality of it was that the more Qi one put into it, the faster one got. It was even possible to reach Mach 20 with it. 

‘Without exhausting almost all my energy it would have been nearly impossible to accomplish…’

Wulan took a deep breath and then turned to look towards the beast and by extension the gigantic stalactite.

“Hm?”

Strangely, the giant rock was emitting pure white energy. Wulan was very surprised. He was familiar with this kind of light because he had witnessed something very similar in his past life. But he was not sure if his memory was serving him correctly because this thing was,

“Brill Ore?!”

Brill Ore was a unique material. It had several uses, but the most important ones were that; It could be used to forge weapons which were very effective against Magus, this was why Martial Artists used it for their weapons. 

Magus also had a use for it, they could use it to determine the affinity of a person like the one from the academy but most importantly, the weapon of a Magus, a wand, could be made by using this Ore.

This was because the Brill Ore was able to absorb and store energy. This meant that it could absorb a certain amount of Mana from an attack and thus weaken it. It could also release a bit of the accumulated Mana that was stored, which was also why Magus used it for their wands.

“I never thought that I would find a Brill Ore of the second level here.”

A smile bloomed on Wulan’s face.

“With this, I should be able to forge myself a nice little sword. I will have to do the whole process myself, but it still makes me happy.”

The Brill Ores were divided into ten levels, the one they took the test on was only level one. Brill Ore was rare, in this city it would be considered a treasure, even if it was only at level one, hence it was a great fortune that Wulan found one that was level two. 

This ore also resolved one of his worries, because it would help him avoid the gaze of a certain someone.

“The old man who was spying on us shouldn’t be a concern anymore.”

…….

The old man who had been observing the kids looked at the broken crystal in front of him, over and over again with a baffled expression.

“After I tried to look into that cave the crystal suddenly broke, what is going on here?”

The last time he saw something in the Ranuing forrest was when the Vipar Light Beast completely ate the five kids of the Poison snake clan.

Ninor was greatly shocked by the fact that a level 6 Novice beast resided in the forest. The Ranuing forest was a place where only level 2 beast should live, so there shouldn’t be a possibility of such a beast suddenly appearing. Aside from all that, he was more devastated by the fact that the son of the Poison Snake clan was killed. 

He had no way to interfere with the Ranuing forest, much less, to enter it. He could still watch it through the crystal but it just broke so all he was able to do was to wait for the portal to open once again. 

There was still some time remaining but it wasn’t long, however, if this beast were to attack more of the students, especially more of the young masters, the situation would become horrible. The sole thought made him shudder all over his body. 

……..

Wulan had already harvested the beast heart and the Brill Ore. The ore was actually not very big, it was only the tip of the stalactite, but it was still enough to make a sword out of it. 

‘The Vipar Light Beast probably slept in this cave because of the ore, it was probably also the reason why it could grow to a 6th level Novice beast.’

He was running out of the cave to get to Luna as fast as possible, but suddenly eight Water Pythons appeared in front of him. They started moving toward him slowly while eyeing the Brill Ore.

“Fuck…”

Wulan’s body and Qi was already exhausted to a great extent, if it weren’t for Luna, he would have long ago layed down. His body was practically screaming for a break but now there were even beasts that wanted to attack him. 

If he were to strain his body even more by using Qi, he definitely wouldn’t have the strength to get to Luna in time. 

‘I can’t use my Qi, but this is still the body of a Magus after all, I need to think of a way to awaken my Mana and use basic mana manipulation! It shouldn't be that hard since both my Qi and Mana are connected now, right? Right?!’

He closed his eyes and appeared in his essence, he lightly tapped the blue light which was coexisting with the red Qi. 

He failed. He wasn’t able to circulate the Mana around him at all. He tried it again and again until there was a whip like tail coming straight at him.

Wulan was surprised by this attack, he knew these water pythons wouldn’t wait much, but they still attacked too early. He jumped up from the spot he was standing on and stopped 7 inches behind his original spot. His body ached as he landed.

“Tsk, this isn’t gonna work. I might as well just use the last bit of my Qi to struggle in this situation.”

He didn’t feel any fear even though he was in a life threatening situation. This was the courage and guts that he accumulated 500 years of his past life. The things he had faced were far more extreme than just something like a few low level beasts.

The second python came running at him, it opened its mouth widely. It’s fangs were as long as a human finger and it’s whole mouth was watering. 

Wulan whose legs were tired, shifted his upper body to the left. The other pythons started moving toward him as well. 

“Damn it…” 

He ran towards Luna's direction. His speed wasn’t enough to pass these pythons yet he didn’t stop, his whole body was screaming, but he ignored the fatigue and pain, he needed to save Luna!

The situation definitely looked bad.

While he was running his mind was in disorder. He was not worried about his safety. If he hadn’t run away and instead used his remaining energy and strength carefully to fight against the beasts, there wouldn’t be a problem, however, he didn’t have the time for that.

He was more worried about Luna, one hour and thirty minutes had passed since the trail started. If he didn’t cure her from the poison in time, it would cripple and potentially kill her. She also wouldn’t have the strength to leave this place on her own.

His mind was working at high speed and all kinds of possibilities and ideas popped up in his head and were thrown away again, suddenly a dangerous thought lit up in his mind.

“If I want to force out the Mana inside my body, then there might be a method. If it is the accumulated energy inside the ore it may…”

Many ideas of forcefully taking out Qi and Mana went through his head but this method has never been heard of. Many just did it the normal and safe way and took it step by step. Learning how to use Mana was easy and he could wait, that was, if it was any other situation however, currently he had to save someone who is important to him, so his safety was only secondary.

“Well whatever, it’s not the fall that kills you.” 

He suddenly stopped and took out the tip shaped Brill Ore, raised it up in the sky and…

He stabbed himself.

It went straight towards his heart however, before it could almost reach the heart he stopped it. The stalactite tip started to release its stored energy.

The energy felt like a roaring violent beast which met its enemy but suddenly it stopped. The moment the Magistial Rex started to react to the energy, it was as if the energy suddenly fell silent. Now it felt like it was a little animal who was meeting a superior of its race.

The different types of energy in this world that consist of Qi and Mana are known to have life. However, no one really understood how it worked.

The Brill Ore emitted its stored energy and formed a ball of light which went inside his heart, like a magnet was pulling it in. His essence devoured the ball and after that, Wulan suddenly felt a great pain in his heart.

 The Magistial Rex started to beat faster and faster and the whole sea of essence was throbbing. The blue star in his essence was reacting to the white light and then, it swallowed the energy. He could feel the Mana inside his body awaken and suddenly another great thing happened.

Energy was spreading through his body while half of it was staying stored in his essence. This went on for a couple of seconds until a blue light flashed from Wulan’s body. This usually meant a breakthrough in the Thousand Star world.

“Swiiish”

Third level Novice of Martial Magus.

Wulan broke through in this desperate situation by directly pushing the stored energy inside the Brill Ore into his essence and thus forcefully awakening his Mana that was slumbering in his heart.

Even though there was a great pain from his chest being pierced through, there was a smile on Wulan’s face.

“It seriously succeeded! Hahah!”

He started to draw out the energy stored inside his heart, his Mana. His blue eyes flashed and he could feel the energy that was sleeping inside his essence slowly wake up. It was like an ocean of energy, which he could draw Mana from.

Not only was he able to activate his Mana, he was even able to get to the third level on the second day, already. Luck seemed to have been following him since he came to this life.

“Hehe, all the misfortune from my past life is turning into fortune for this life, ironic.”

Compared to the long time he lived, the two days he spent in this new life were nothing more than a moment, however, it still felt like a longer time than the weeks, months and years he had spent just taking in energy. 

Especially since he experienced very much in this short amount of time. He now had a family, a loving mother, and even a person that cared about him, so all the impressions and feelings he had in this short amount of time were more than he had in all those years of getting stronger.

This was a new feeling that he never experienced before.

He could feel his strength increasing, even though he still wouldn’t be able to defeat the Viper Light Beast on his own, he was confident that he would be able to beat up Sunir and all his followers at once, without having any problems. 

Although many things happened in his essence, on the outside only a couple of seconds had passed. 

All the eight pythons were striking at Wulan, some of them were using their fangs while others were using their tails. 

Wulan, even though he broke through, Wulan decided to use Mana to deal with them. He could remember all of Lakiron’s spells but he had not learned to control any element so he instead did what Luna had done.

“[Mana enhancement]!!”

He said while blue light was surrounding his body. This mana was much purer than Luna’s thanks to the Rex essence. 

Wulan didn’t move, instead he waited for the attacks to come at him. 

“Swiish”

A blue tail with hard scales came striking at him. He didn’t dodge, instead he grabbed it with his left hand. 

He pulled the python close to himself and grabbed its head with his right hand, after that he used his strength to crush the head of the beast. While that he was already taking out the heart of the beast with skilled movements and after it was taken out threw the corpse away.

Another beast struck him, this time he dodged and came back at him. He hit its neck from behind with an elbow that was covered with [Mana enhancement].

This was not a style which Magus fought with, this was the combination of using Martial Arts combat techniques together with [Mana enhancement]. 

He didn’t take the time to take out its heart, after all, he could do that later as well. He smiled while shooting towards another python. He was elegantly handling his footworks and attacks.

He kicked them with his feet, hit them with his fists or struck them with his elbow or knee. 

If anyone saw this, they wouldn’t believe that the person who was fighting was actually a Magus and had only used [Mana enhancement].  

“...”

After a couple of minutes he exterminated all of the pythons. He took their hearts and immediately continued to run.

He ran as fast as he could, because he was a level higher than them and because he was covered in the blood of beasts the few pythons nearby hid themselves from him, saving him the trouble.

He finally arrived at the place where he put Luna. But his breathing turned chaotic as he saw her condition, her face was as white as a sheet of paper and her breathing was very unnatural, she was drenched in sweat and she was obviously in pain. Wulan immediately rushed to her side. 

“LUNA!!”

                                        To be continued.