Chapter 12:

‘’Phew, done. ‘’ Leo exhaled and closed the status windows. Just like when he leveled up, a refreshing wave of mana spread through his body and he felt each part of his body being strengthened. Leo grinned as he felt the incredible power inside his body, he could tell that he was in love with this feeling. Even if it was just for the sake of enjoying that feeling he would continue to work hard and level up.

‘Chuckle, I shouldn’t be a mere snack anymore, right?’ Leo asked Luxia with a smug smile. He couldn’t help but remember the system evaluation the first time he looked at his status, it called him ‘snack’. Now, even if he was far from being a powerhouse, he should account for more than a snack, right?

[Hum, to be honest, in the grand scheme of things you are still a very light snack.] Luxia said, not caring a bit for his feelings. Her voice may be human-like but she was still rigid and logic-driven. 

‘Tsk, I will show them who is a snack.‘ Leo retorted, he was a little displeased with Luxia words but he knew she wasn’t trying to be mean and well she was just telling the truth. He couldn't blame her for that.

[Yeah, you will show them, but right now you should focus on surviving and achieving your first evolution.] 

‘Yeah, Ma’am. Your wishes are orders.’ Leo said with a light chuckle. It was certainly good to have someone he could talk with like this. It would have been harder for him if he had to stay alone without anyone to talk with. 

[I have finished reading ‘Aria for the noob’. Would you like to hear the resume now.] Luxia said.

‘Oh, that’s good news. Yeah, tell me.’ Leo's eyes sparkled at the idea of learning about Aria. He was very curious about this world he was now part of. The more he could learn the better it would be as he would have an easier time surviving. 

[Ok.]  After receiving his confirmation, Luxia started talking and Leo focused and silently listened to her words. When she stopped, Leo had an amazed and determined expression. It was only now that he understood how narrow his view of the world was. The universe was huge, bigger than he could ever think.

The universe they were living in was constituted of a multitude of worlds filled with all kinds of wonders and lifeforms. Each of these worlds could be divided into four ranks: the garden, the Low-world, the High-world, and the Prime world. The rank of each world was determined according to the achievement of its natives. The mightier the natives were, the more powerful the world would grow, and the more powerful the world was the mightier its native could become.

 Of the four kinds of the world, only the Garden didn’t have mana. In Low-worlds most of the natives were mortal without power and only a limited number of existence could come into contact with the supernatural or the magic world. In Low-worlds, the natives could hardly sense or use mana by themselves, most of the time, they would require the use of external tools. High-worlds were worlds where most natives could thread on the path of power and sense mana. However, they would only be able to reach the peak of mortal power. Prime worlds have a complete path of power and their native could transcend mortality.

Aria was such a prime world, consisting of many realms such as the mortal realm, the divine realm, the spirit realm, and such. The mortal realm was the plane where mortals resided. It was a boundless realm made of many supercontinents, called mainland, separated by vast stretches of water. 

Asteria was a supercontinent as large as Earth's original Pangea. There were many intelligent races on Asteria such as the humans, the elves, the beastkins... The dominant intelligent race was the human that ruled the three main powers of Asteria. However, the humans only conquered a small part of Asteria. Most of the mainland was wilderness ruled by beasts. Thus most of the human territories were surrounded by wilderness and under the constant threat of powerful beasts of all kinds. With such a sword constantly around their necks, the humans of this world put an ever greater emphasis on personal power and abilities as they were indispensable for them if they wanted to survive.

To achieve the power necessary for their survival and dominance all the natives of Aria relied on the mystical energy known as Mana. On Aria, the talent in wielding mana determined a person's fate. According to their level of power, all the beings of Aria could be divided into seven ranks: Rank E- Rank D- Rank C- Rank B- Rank A- Rank S. However, individuals from different races wouldn't always have the same level of power despite being in the same rank. 

For beasts, the importance of power was even greater than it was for humans. Unlike humans who could hide behind their walls, the beasts were out in the wild and had to constantly struggle for their life. As a beast, the way Leo would grow would be by eating other beasts and passively absorbing mana. The mana would slowly strengthen him and once he reaches the limit he would have the possibility to rank up. The difficulty of ranking up would vary with the quality of each beast's bloodline. Beasts with better bloodlines would have an easy time ranking up while a beast with inferior bloodline would have more difficulty ranking up. 

[Name: Leo 

Race: Shadow Cat 

Qualification: Common]

'Hey, how far would I be able to go if I had to rely on my shadow cat's bloodline.' Leo asked.

[Common beast could be considered lucky if they can reach rank C. And even then they would take a considerable amount of time to reach that rank.] Luxia said. Like always, her answer was honest and right on point.

 'Ha, that sucks. Luckily I have you, otherwise….' Leo muttered with a thoughtful expression. He learned a lot today. For example, he learned that he was a bottom feeder on the food chain and would need to climb five ranks to be able to do as he wished. If he had to rely on himself to achieve that goal, only God knew how long it would take or if he would even be able to achieve it before dying.

'I need to grow stronger and quickly evolve.' Leo muttered as he stretched his body. Now that he was healed he wanted to go out and hunt a little more to raise his level. While he has a dungeon crystal he thought it would be better to use it to fill his last level. It would be better to use it after gaining one or two more levels.

'So, let's go out again.' Leo muttered and strode towards the exit.

Leo quickly exited his cave and headed outside. Once he was outside he took in a big breath of air and looked around. The forest was as lively as it was when he left some time ago. Again, it didn't take too long for him to find his prey. It was a group of three golden rabbits. Two of them looked exactly like the one he hunted previously and one was a little bigger. 

'Hum, that would be my first group fight. It will be interesting.' Leo grinned as he activated Shadow Cloak and moved towards the rabbits. He crouched and slowly walked towards the rabbits, making sure to not make too much noise and startle them. 

[Golden furred rabbit: Rank E

HP: 80/80

Danger level: Minimal]

[Golden furred rabbit: Rank E

HP: 110/110

Danger level: Minimal]

Once he was close to the group he activated Dash and bolted towards the closest rabbit. In a flash he reached the rabbit and slashed its throat with his claw, instantly killing it. Needless to say, Innate hunter was already active and the rabbit, unable to react to the sudden attack, died on the spot.

Squeak...Squeak

Startled by the sudden death of their companions, the two rabbits turned towards Leo and started to squeak loudly. Surprisingly, they didn't try to escape but instead charged towards Leo.

'Oh, that's unexpected. Even rabbits look down on me.' Leo muttered and pounced on the bigger rabbit. The latter immediately reacted and lowered its horn to pierce Leo. Leo was already on his guard and easily dodged the rabbit's attack. As the rabbit went past him he activated Dash and once again pounced towards the rabbit. This time his momentum was greater and he was coming from the side. The rabbit was unable to react and Leo was able to stab it and create a big gash in its side. Just as he was about to bite its neck the second rabbit caught up and tried to interrupt him. Unfortunately for the rabbit, Leo was waiting for him and slapped it away with a swing of his tail. Thanks to his high agility, Leo was now able to easily control his tail. While he may not be able to do some complicated actions, swinging it at will was not a problem. Plus the strength it exerted was the same as if he attacked with any other part of his body.

With the last rabbit out of the way, Leo turned towards the big rabbit and tore its throat, ending its life. Now, alone, the last rabbit was naturally unable to resist Leo who quickly sent him to the afterlife to join his companion.

'Hum, that was easy. However, the experience is really little.' Leo muttered. Those three rabbits just gave him 80 Exp when only one gave him 60 on his first hunt.

'I should start hunting bigger prey. But my size....' Leo muttered as he looked at his body. 

'It is convenient to sneak around and I have good mobility. However, against bigger beasts or humanoid opponents, my disadvantage is clear.' Leo thought as he climbed on a tree to rest and recuperate his stamina. 

As he was resting a commotion broke out inside the forest and he saw two humans, a young man, and a young girl, running away from a couple of creatures that looked like..hum..goblins. 

Once they were close enough, Leo was able to take a better look at the two peoples. The two were relatively young people with relatively average looks, the kinds that wouldn't leave a long-lasting impression and would be easily forgotten. The two of them had leather armor on and were in really bad shape. As they ran, Leo could see from their tired expression and damaged armor that they went through a hard fight.

Chwiiik….Chwiik

Chwiikk

Behind them, the group of goblins was relentlessly chasing while letting weird sounds. It was the first time Leo was seeing goblins and he couldn't help but feel repulsed by their appearance. The goblins were short, one meter or so tall, with weird and sickly green skin. As they chased after the pair they would often let out weird cries, opening their mouths that were filled with disorderly and pointy teeth and were overflowing with drool. However, the most disturbing thing was their lower parts that were out in the open and pointing forward. From that, it wasn't hard to guess what would happen if the young girl were to fall into their hands. It was a very disturbing scene. It was like seeing a green-skinned child running butt naked in the streets with a hard-on and drool overflowing his mouth as if he had rabies.

"We can't continue like this, Levina. You go, I will stay behind and stop them." The young man said as he stopped and faced the goblins with his bloodied and chipped short sword.

"What are you saying, brother? There is no way I would leave you behind." Levina said. Just like her brother, she stopped and turned around to face the goblins. Without hesitation, she nocked an arrow on her bow and aimed at the goblins.

"I told you to leave. Can you listen to me, for once?" The young man glared at his sister. 

"No, No, I would only leave if you come with me." Levina vehemently opposed her brother. 

"Sigh, why do you always make it difficult for me? If you say you will only be a hindrance. I don't plan on dying here. Just go, I will catch up." The young man said, trying to convince his sister. However, the latter just said silent and looked at the goblins that already started to surround them. 

"Please Levi, I promise I will follow after you. Just go. PLEASE." The young man shouted as he slashed one of the goblins and dodged the sneak attack of another.

"Bro...Brother, you promised me. Don't you dare die on me." Levina said tearfully and finally turned around to leave. However, due to her stubbornness, she lost her chance to escape and two goblins went past her brother and attacked her. 

"Kyaaa.." Startled by the sudden attack, she let out a shrill scream and barely managed to block the goblin attack with her bow.

[Levina: Rank E

HP: 120/200

Danger level: Moderate]

[Trent : Rank E+ 

HP:90/300

Danger level:  Moderate]

'That girl is something. Her behavior is what is going to get her brother and her killed. If she had escaped one of them could have survived, but now....' Leo thought as he silently watched the drama unfolding under him. It was clear from their looks and their low Health that the two of them weren't in condition to fight against so many enemies right now. While there were many goblins, all of them were just rank E, the young man could have fended for himself and escaped if he was alone. However, his sister wasn't as powerful as him and he had to pay attention to her and help her during the fight.

While it was admirable of her to refuse to leave her brother behind, she failed to understand the situation and instead created trouble for him. Leo wanted to scoff at her for that, but he knew that if Anna and him were in a similar situation Anna would never leave him behind.

'Sigh, having a sister can be troublesome sometimes. What should I do now?' Leo thought as he watched the fight, the siblings were already at a disadvantage and there were many additional wounds on their bodies. The goblins' side too wasn't undamaged as two dead goblins laid on the grass and many goblins were riddled with wounds.

'Tsk, I want to help them but I can't. They are bigger than me and most of them are wielding a weapon. Gonna be tough and I would get nothing of it. Not worth it.' Leo muttered as he stood up. Since he wasn't going to help them, he wouldn't sit and watch them being killed. If he just witnesses it without doing anything he would end up with a guilty conscience and he didn't want to.

However, just as he was going to leave, a floating window appeared in front of him.

[Ding….]

[You have received a mission. ]

[Savior 1.0

Mission introduction: After seeing people in a predicament the kind soul inside of you was stirred and you felt the urge to be a savior, the hero you always looked up to as a child. Don't hesitate to don your cape and fly at the rescue of those in need. 

Clear condition: Ensure the survival of at least one of the siblings.

Rewards: Skill card ×1, Level +1, 3AP, Random potion ×1.

Punishment: Levina and Trent will die.]

'Luxia, you know how to motivate someone. Now the risk is worth it.' Leo grinned as he set his sight on the goblin. It was time for him to step on the dance floor.