Chapter 7：Forest Hunting (1/2)

Alex walked out of the eastern gate of the Scarlet city and soon realized that he had come to the wrong place accidentally.

It was an evening last time when he had entered the city and had gone straight to a tavern to look for lodging to log out, and not bothered to remember any of the interior landscape of the city.

Now that he had randomly come out of the eastern gate, he realized that he had actually entered the city through the western gate. But that shouldn't matter to him that much.

'Whatever. I just need to hunt some monster that's all,' he thought. The east side of the city was also covered in forests, the same as the west side, so he should have no problem in finding the monsters.

He walked into the forest and started looking for any signs of a monster. Suddenly, he saw something.

It wasn't a monster, but a small tree. For some reason, the tree was nothing special. It was easily overlooked in this large forest, but he couldn't do so. Something about this tree called to him.

So, he did what his heart told him to and slowly walked towards the tree. The tree itself was about Alex's height, making it look like a little growing tree. But it already had big leaves and was sprouting a little fruit.

Alex saw a name appear on top of the tree when he came close to it.

[Dwarf Berry Tree

Bears the 'Dwarf Berry']

”The dwarf berry?” Alex looked at the only fruit sprouting in the tree. He reached his hands forward and touched the berry.

[Dwarf Berry]

He didn't get any more information than that. This felt the same as when he touched all those materials in the entrance exam for the Hong Wu sect.

'Is this an alchemy material? Is that why I know the fruit's name?' he thought. He believed his conjecture to be correct. So, he plucked the fruit and kept it in his inventory.

He couldn't tell how good this material was, or if it even made anything useful, but he still decided to keep it.

He found a few more alchemy materials along the way. So he picked whatever he could and kept it in his inventory. After walking a bit longer, he finally found a monster.

It was a deer with blood-red fur on it. It had dark black eyes and sharp thorn-like antlers on it. Alex got a little frightened when he saw it. Then he looked closely to check what level it was at.

[Carmine Coated Deer: Skin Tempering 6th realm]

The deer was 4 levels higher than the fox he fought in the western forest. But, that didn't matter to him anymore. After all, he was 16 levels higher than when he fought the fox.

He quickly brought up his weapons panels and equipped his sword. The steel sword gleamed brightly in the scattering sunlight in the forest.

The deer saw him, and turned towards him, preparing to charge. Alex got his weapon ready.

The deer suddenly started running towards him, directing its antlers towards him. This monster was much faster than the one he had fought yesterday.

But, for some surreal reason, it didn't feel like the monster was very fast. In fact, he almost thought the deer was running in slow motion.

Alex realized at that moment all of his senses were amplified. He could hear the trees and leaves in the forest rustle in the wind. He could smell the different plants and even the ground in the forest.

He could feel the subtle change in air pressure and temperature that he couldn't normally be able to tell. He could see the colors in the forest much more vividly than he could just a minute before.

Similarly, his sense of time was amplified as well. The deer that was charging intensely, felt so very slow for him.

He slowly raised his sword. It was only slow for him. In reality, this action was very fast.

As soon as the deer reached him, he swung the sword down.

Swish

The deer's left half split, and fell away from its right half. It was cut precisely through the middle in one hit. Alex was used to seeing farm animals butchered so he didn't get disgusted seeing the innards of this monster.