As I tried to catch my breath and let my magicules recover, I felt a sharp ache on my left ankle spike. Grunting, I looked down at my ankle only to see the burned wolf monster on its side gnawing away at it.

Without hesitation, I pulled my leg from the wolf's jaws and stabbed the wolf in its neck, instantly putting it out of its misery. Slowly, I pulled my sword out of the wolf and started hobbling over to a tree near me. Leaning against the tree, I held my sword in my left and non-dominant arm.

With my right hand hanging limp and my left hand gripping my sword tightly, I kept my vigilance while trying to get a bit of rest. In my blind rage, I had forgotten a very crucial piece of information about wolf-like monsters. They likely lived in packs of 5 to nearly 15 units.

I felt frustrated with myself, to think I would forget about something that I myself often told visiting monster hunters. After I stopped panting, I slowly made my way back to the village. By the time I emerged from the forest, it was already night.

In the end, I had been lucky. Had the rest of the wolf's pack heard the fighting or smelled the shed blood, I would have been doomed. No amount of magic prowess was going to stop a pack of 10 monster wolves from mauling a lone man.

Seeing me enter through the back door, covered in blood and still holding my sword, William just shook his head. Then, he got up and prepared medical supplies such as alcohol, ointments and bandages.

With one of the five big buckets of water we have in the building, I washed the blood and grime off my body. Then, we spent the night talking about what I had done, what I had done wrong in the fight and how I could improve while the old man patched me up.

The next day, after tending to the few customers we had from morning to afternoon. I began going through the motions for my family's sword techniques. I particularly went through the movement techniques.

Had I been able to dodge the second wolf's first attack, I would not have been in such a bind. Those first cuts had thrown me off from the start. Sure, the monster had used some kind of skill to freeze my body. But the best move would have been to run away the moment I noticed the second wolf. 

However, no matter how fast of a sprinter I was, outrunning a wolf monster was impossible. Impossible without magic that is. That is why I was trying to develop some kind of movement-enhancing magic to compliment my swordsmanship's movement techniques.

Yes, I could try to learn the [Haste] spell from the wind school of magic. However, fire magic was quite frankly my most proficient form of magic and was the easiest for me to incorporate into the already difficult swordsmanship techniques.

I had also decided to spend some time creating more external spells or spells that could be cast instantly so that I could fend off ambushes similar to what I had faced more easily. After a frustrating and ineffective round of sword training, I sat down and meditated on what type of spells I could use while in close range or when I am ambushed.

Unsurprisingly, I found much more success doing this. I had quickly developed a special little spell. The spell formed a thin ring of very slightly hot fire around me. It would automatically activate when it touches an enemy, forming a tiny [Fireball] to blow the enemy away. Overflowing with creativity, I named the spell [Flaming Knockback]. I proceeded to practice using the spell and cancelling the spell.

Then, I thought about my skills. Though I had initially thought to use my unique skill to cover for my much weaker melee capabilities, it was clear that the skill was too taxing for me to use regularly. I should just keep it as a trump card.

My extra skill, [Buring rage] would be absolutely useless in a fight against monsters.

Yes, it increased the strength behind each of my swings. Yes, it made me slightly faster too. But I found that temporarily sacrificing my ability to think was detrimental in a fight and would probably get me killed one day. Even without using the skill, I was already having anger management issues causing me to make stupid decisions. I didn't need a skill that enhances it.

My other extra skill, [Enhance Fire Magic] was also pretty much useless as it used my internal magicules... unless...

Sitting on the ground again, I began meditating once more. Could I perhaps use this skill utilising external magicules?

Opening my eyes once more, I pointed a finger at the stone ground and cast my magic. [Fire Tongue], [Enhance Fire Magic] I thought. I focused hard on making sure not to use any of my internal magicules.

Sure enough, it did not work. Not in the slightest. 

Gritting my teeth, I clenched my fist and contemplated hitting the ground. Then, I turned to the monster-infested forest and stared hatefully at the luscious green leaves. I then contemplated launching my greatest fire spell to start a forest fire. Turning and looking in the direction of the village leader, I once again contemplated murdering the current leader so that a new and more competent one could be appointed.

In the end, for the third time this month, I decided not to cause any more trouble for the old man and the rest of the villagers and just went home frowning, mumbling curse words and grinding my teeth in anger.

I would kill that incompetent fat pig one day... one day I will do it but that day wasn't today. Perhaps I should run for village leader, if I can't change the system from outside with protests, requests and warnings, maybe I could change it as the leader. I would build a wall to separate us, humans, from the vicious monsters. One day...