Encounter in the Forest

Takt killed a slime with a dagger.

Takt picked up some herbs.

Takt killed a slime with a dagger.

Takt picked up some herbs.

Takt killed a slime with a dagger.

Takt picked...

He screamed in frustration before throwing a pouch, where he was storing all the herbs, on the ground before stomping it with his feet.

"Who the heck gave me these mundane tasks?!!! That freaking old hag!!!"

Takt pulled his hair out of extreme stress before surrendering to his fate and falling on the ground, with tears flowing from his eyes.

But, after a few seconds, he continued the tasks assigned to him. He also wiped off the dust from the pouch given to him and checked the content which was fortunately still looking okay.

He trekked deeper into the forest to fulfill the tasks assigned to him for his training program.

For information, his tasks consist of different tasks focused on first-hand experience for his magic training like battling monsters, gathering materials and scouting the area.

After several minutes of completing the tasks, Takt was able to finish about seventy five percent of it but he already acquired too much fatigue to continue.

"Damn it! Is it the limit of my body? Is it because I didn't train and exercise back in my own world?" He was walking with the help of a tree branch as a cane.

He looked around and found himself walking deep in the forest. When he decided to rest for the day, he walked towards the direction of the exit but found himself getting into the deeper part of the forest than going out of it.

"Huh? Where is it? Haaa..." He sat down due to exhaustion. "I'm tired. I want food. I want water! That old hag didn't give me enough resources! And where is it? Is it still the same forest?"

The place he is currently in was a dark, eerie part of the forest that had too many unknown trees with creepy and ominous branches. As he looked at the trunks, he felt a chilling aura like those carves in it looked like a face.

"Wait..." He tried to stand up. "Did I just get lost in the forest?" he guessed before sighing. "What an idiot?"

"Well, she taught me how to feel the mana in my surroundings so I could do a little bit of search magic to find my own location."

He closed his eyes and tried to focus on the mana flowing inside his body. Like what Cornelia taught him about how to control his mana, he slightly raised the speed of their flow all throughout his body, increasing the amount releasing from his body.

Before, without prior knowledge on how to control his mana release, he just unknowingly wasted the little bit of his mana through its release. Although he has this out of the world speed of replenishing his mana in mana core, he still couldn't properly cast magic without proper mana control.

"If I can stretch my own man in my surroundings, I will be able to affect the man surrounding me and widen my search area. Like what she said, I could faintly sense some indicators of mana. It seems like I'm having a GPS tracker and those points that I sense are the mana sources, probably some monsters or whatever being it is. So, looking at their clustering and my position..."

Upon further investigation of the mana sources he sensed, he was able to figure out his general location. He was on the west side of the location of his entrance point in the forest. With a proper image of his location, he followed the trails towards the east to go back to the place where he entered.

But, little did he know, he just entered the outer part of the place where he got transported by a portal.

Khunlun Forest.

Lesser Britannia City had a simple geographical location given its current position of being the center city in the Rollaire Continent.

In its north, the wide plains stretching towards the commerce city, Salvatorre. In its east had the towering grand fortress of Grevallis Kingdom. In its northwest could be found the deep green forest, known to be home of the legendary beings, elves. In the southwest, there could be found a grand route towards the home of alchemy, Ismuth City. And lastly, in its south located a long mountain range serving as its divine protector, Caraga Mountains, and in that mountain could be found the Khunlun Forest.

It is a forest known to inhabit different types of creatures and a hunting spot for adventurers to do some quests. But some part of the said forests had a deadly and unauthorized place as it said to have a strong and condensed miasma that a normal, even high level adventurer, wouldn't be able to endure. And from that miasma, creatures can be born called monsters which were subjected to extermination as it held different levels of threat and danger.

"Oh, I'm getting closer to the entrance."

Takt felt relief that he was able to get out of the forest safe and he was able to test the magic and techniques he learned from Cornelia. He was also able to assure that his mana strength increased, even a little.

"But, I still have about ten types of materials to gather. And about twenty magic stones to collect." He sighed in dismay.

Magic stones can be collected through killing monsters. Monsters which were known to be born from miasma also carried magic stones that served as their life source. That's why, killing a monster will assure one with a magic stone drops, aside from some other materials. It can be used to make equipment, enchant weapons, and even in processing potions so it has a different value based on its quality and rarity.

Takt was busy going out of the forest that he wasn't able to detect a certain threat lurking near him. As he was about to see the entrance of the forest where he came from, he felt a sense of assurance, only to get caught off guard.

"What's this heavy presence?"

He looked back by instinct and found a towering figure of about two meters in height, emitting dark aura-like in his body. After getting a complete look of the creature, he only felt a familiar feeling like the first time he felt when he got transported into this world.

An extreme urge to survive.

"What the heck..." he commented as he slowly stepped back.

He got intimidated by the creature which looked like a big wolf with sharp teeth, gnarling at him and a certain two horn-like thing in its head. It was somewhat focused on him for some reasons.

"I need to get out of the forest."

A loud roared can be heard next that frightened the nearby small animals and scared the hell out of Takt.

"That's not a wolf. A wolf doesn't roar!"

His feet moved swiftly towards the outside of the forest as that big creature followed him without hesitation.

"It's really on me. Did I just happen to step on its tail along the way?" He ran hysterically like running for his life.

But he couldn't shake off that monster which was slowly catching up to him. He tried to think of a solution or any possible method to save himself from that threat but he could just come up with fighting to death or die running away.

"How unlucky! I didn't sense its presence. If it's a monster, it should have a magic stone which I could sense but..." He felt confused as he didn't sense it approaching him. "Even in this closeness, I couldn't sense any magic stone present in it."

"It only means that this thing is..."

"Damn it! You damn monster, it's not your real body, right?!" he shouted at it but only got deafening barks as a response.

The monster that was chasing him seemed to be just a projection of the real monster but it was still able to cause damage in its surroundings as it trampled down every tree on its rampage.

His body was already in its limits with the piling of exhaustion, hunger and aching wounds he acquired from finishing his tasks.

"I will die before reaching the exit! I couldn't fight that monster. I'm too scared and can't focus for me to cast magic."

"Just what luck!!!" he screamed.

Then, the next thing he knew was his body got pushed upwards by a strong force and saw himself flying the air before crushing into some trees. He vomited blood in results and felt that some of his bones got broken.

He tried to stand as that monster gradually approached him, mocking his weakness and playing with him. As he stood up with his unsteady posture, the monster rushed towards him, giving him another strong push that threw him a few meters away.

"That damn monster..."

He coughed up more blood and couldn't stand up anymore. He tried to move his hand to crawl only to feel an excruciating pain from his beaten body.

"Damn it! Will I die? Will I get killed here? I just got transported to another world and experienced something amazing. Will I just let myself..."

He suddenly thought that he got something like an answer. Then, he tried to trace back his thoughts and remembered something from his first time into this world.

He smirked before laughing like crazy and gradually stopped as the monster was about to finish him. He tapped his hand to the ground hard, enduring the pain before casting as a magic circle appeared below him.

"Fireball."

An explosion happened, causing him to fly away from that place. He smirked and pointed to the monster saying that it won't be the last time they will meet.

"You won't be able to follow me outside the forest like before. When I've been chased by something like you the first time I came into this world. It didn't follow me outside so you won't be able to."

He seemed to calculate his distance to the outside of the forest after doing some search magic and decided to escape from getting himself fly from the explosion of his own magic.

As he fell down to the outside of the forest, he immediately prevented himself from crashing down by casting an improvised wind magic based on his fireball magic.

He didn't swirl the mana into a sphere shape to cause heat but make it blow upward like a geyser. He landed not safely but he didn't acquire more injuries.

He checked himself and found that his body got some injuries from the explosion. He took the chance to get a healing potion from his pocket as a first aid for his injuries.

"Damn it! I need to drink the potion." His hand that was holding the bottle was shaking and trembling from weakness. "I need to survive..."

His eyelids felt heavier and his consciousness started to fade until the last string of awareness snapped causing him to succumb into darkness.

"Ahhh! It's the second time!"

*****