The moment Leo stepped foot outside the safe zone, his heart started throbbing with excitement, almost as though he’d just entered another world.
Although it was just a couple of steps, Leo could feel an immediate change in the atmosphere.
His eyes wandered left and right without stopping— he’s never been this focused even during important examinations.
Suddenly, a loud bang resounded not too far away from their location, causing Leo to jump and point his weapon in that direction.
“W-What was that?!” He asked.
“We’re not the only ones out there. There will be other Adventurers. Although I told you to stay focused, you don’t need to be so stiff and nervous. That will actually make it more likely for you to mess up.” Miss Camille said to him.
“I understand… I will try to calm down a little.” Leo sighed.
However, it was easier said than done. After all, he’s never seen monsters before, much less fight them.
He was only an ordinary student less than a month ago, and despite all the training he’s done, it didn’t mentally prepare him for this nerve-wracking adventurer, not to mention the desolate background that made it naturally hard for people to see very far into the distance.
‘Calm down, Leo. Miss Camille, an S-Rank Adventurer, is with you…’ He quickly calmed down after seeing how calm Miss Camille appeared, almost as though she was taking a stroll in the park.
“There’s a monster 500 meters directly ahead. Prepare for battle.” Miss Camille suddenly said.
“Huh?” Leo narrowed his eyes in the direction in front of them, but he couldn’t see anything.
‘How can she see so far away? I can’t see any further than 200 meters!’ He wondered inwardly.
Sure enough, a few moments later, Leo could see a four-legged entity running in their direction.
This entity had the body of a wolf and was covered in thick brown fur that naturally blended with the background. It was about 2.5 meters tall or 8.2 feet, much taller than most human adults.
Its red eyes radiated with bloodthirsty killing intent, and its sharp teeth that resembled that of a saber tooth tiger.
When Leo saw this horrific entity that was much bigger than himself running at them, his natural instincts kicked in, causing his body to freeze from fear.
“Leo! Wake up and fight that thing!” Miss Camille shouted, snapping him out of his daze.
“T-There’s no way I can fight that thing! It’s nothing like the golem during the Adventurer’s Examination! It’s much bigger, faster, and scarier!”
“Do you want to live the rest of your life holed up in the city like a coward, or are you going to live life to the fullest without any fear?! You may not be the same Leo that I once knew, but I can see the similarities! I know that you’re capable of defeating this monster!” Miss Camille said to him as she prepared to attack the monster if it got close enough.
Leo gritted his teeth after hearing Miss Camille’s words.
Even though he was always bullied and lived a lonely life in his previous world, there was one thing that defined him— something that he held great pride in.
He may be weak, but he was not a coward. Even if he was guaranteed to lose and get beaten, he never went down without a fight when he was bullied.
‘This may be a different world, but I am still the same person!’ Leo gritted his teeth and tightened his grasp on his sword.
After taking a deep breath, he took his first step towards the monster.
Once the monster was close enough to Leo, it raised its right paw and swiped its razor-sharp claws at him.
‘I can see it! Compared to the speed Khrome swings his sword, this is nothing!’ Leo subconsciously smiled after realizing that he was not powerless before this monster.
After dodging the attack, Leo performed a simple sword swing.
“HA!”
Leo released a loud roar as he swung his sword.
Whoosh!
The sword went right through the monster’s left leg, severing it in a single strike.
The monster released a painful cry, but Leo did not stop and continued to swing his sword while he moved to the monster’s rear.
Whoosh!
Another leg was cleanly severed, causing the monster to lose balance and collapse.
When he saw an opportunity to finish the monster, Leo jumped at the monster’s head while plunging his sword downwards.
The monster released a loud whimper as Leo’s sword thrusted into the ground, piercing the monster’s skull in the process.
After twitching for a bit, the monster ceased all movements, and a puddle of blood appeared underneath a moment later.
Leo wiped the monster’s blood off his face using his sleeves and gasped for air afterward.
Despite having plenty of stamina left, he felt oddly exhausted.
“Congratulations, you have just killed your first monster.” Miss Camille approached him with a slight smile on her face.
“How do you feel?” She then asked.
“Oddly satisfied…” He said in a trembling voice while his body also shook from excitement.
“In case you’re wondering, the Sand Golem you fought at the Adventurers’ Guild is actually weaker than this F-Rank monster.” Miss Camille suddenly said.
“Huh? Even though it was considered an E-Rank?” Leo was confused.
“It’s only considered E-Rank because of its high defenses and powerful strength. However, it’s actually quite slow and not really that dangerous if you can avoid its attacks— not that you would know since you destroyed it before it could even move.”
“Anyways, you’re not done with this monster yet.” Miss Camille suddenly said.
“What do you mean? It’s already dead, isn’t it?” Leo raised his eyebrows.
“Yes, but the mana core is still within its body. You won’t earn any money with this corpse, so you have to harvest its mana core.”
“How do I do that?”
Miss Camille handed him a fancy-looking knife with a black blade and said, “Carve a hole in its head and retrieve the mana core from within.”
“A-Are you serious? That’s freaking disgusting…” Leo was reluctant.
“Then we can just forget about it and you won’t earn any money.” Miss Camille took back the knife.
“W-Wait! I will do it!”
After taking the knife, Leo took a deep breath and started carving a hole in the monster’s head.
Once he could see something shiny, Leo split open the hole with his bare hands and retrieved the pebble-sized mana core from within.
“Seriously? This is smaller than what I had in mind.” Leo looked at the mana core in his hand with a dumbfounded gaze.
The exterior of the mana core appeared to be some kind of crystal with a smooth texture, and the interior contained azure-colored liquid. Furthermore, even though he’d yanked it out of the monster’s head and he was holding it with bloodied hands, there was not a single smear of blood on it.
“So this liquid is what pure mana looks like?” Leo asked.
“Yes, but it’s not pure mana. In order for humans to consume it, we have to purify it using alchemy.”
“And how much would this mana core cost if I were to sell it?”
“About five hundred dollars.”
“Five hundred dollars?! That’s a lot of money! No wonder why people risk their lives to become Adventurers! However, it’s going to be a pain in the ass carrying around these mana cores, especially if I want to hunt a lot of them before returning to the city.” Leo sighed.
Miss Camille narrowed her eyes at him for a moment before reaching for something in her spatial storage.
“Here.”
Leo looked at her palms to see what she wanted to give him, and it was a golden ring.
“Is this a proposal?” He spoke with a smile.
“Forget it.”
“W-Wait! I was only joking with you!” Leo panicked when she took it back.
After receiving his apology, Miss Camille handed him the ring and said, “This is a D-Rank artifact called Spatial Ring. It will allow you to use spatial storage and store items inside like this.”
She proceeded to demonstrate what he has seen many times by now.
“Are you sure? Aren’t these things expensive?”
“Yes, it cost about ten million dollars.”
“T-Ten million?!”
After some quick calculation, Leo realized that he needed to kill 20,000 more F-Rank monsters to be able to afford it.
“Consider it your birthday present,” she calmly said.
“Huh?” Leo looked puzzled for a moment before realizing that it was actually his real birthday today.
“Oh, now that you mention it, I am 19 years old today.” Leo said.
“I don’t usually celebrate my birthday, not to mention how busy I’ve been with training recently, so I didn’t even realize it.”
“Thank you for this gift, I will treasure it for life.” Leo thanked her after accepting the ring.
She nodded, “In order to use it, just pour some of your mana into it.”
“Does this mean I cannot use it at school since I am not supposed to be able to use any mana?” Leo then asked.
“Even if you cannot use magic, you can still use mana. Everybody has some mana in their body regardless if they can use magic or not. This is why ordinary people can use artifacts despite not being able to use magic.” Miss Camille explained.
“I see…”
Leo poured some of his mana into the ring, and a hole appeared right on top of the ring. Furthermore, the image of an empty room without any doors suddenly appeared inside his head.
“You should be able to naturally see the space inside the spatial ring inside your head now.” Miss Camille said to him.
“Yes, I can see it. So this is what it looks like inside the spatial storage, huh? It’s basically just an empty room.”
After tossing the mana core into the spatial storage, he could see it entering the spacious room inside his head.
Once the mana core was inside, he proceeded to take it back out to see how it worked, and sure enough, he could see his hand reaching into the spatial storage inside his head.
“All right, we have rested enough. Let’s continue your training.” Miss Camille said to him a moment later.
“Yes! Thank you again for this gift, Miss Camille! I will definitely repay you in the future!” Leo said to her.
Miss Camille silently nodded her head and started wandering the Wilderness shortly after.
Leo stopped thinking about the Spatial Ring and focused on the training again.
After walking for another 10 minutes, they encountered another monster, and it looked almost like the one Leo killed before with some slight differences in size and details.
Leo didn’t hesitate this time around and immediately confronted it, killing it a few moments later.
