Chapter 45: Into the Forest.
"Huff....hufff..."
Felix was finding it hard to breathe while he knelt on the floor on his one leg and supported his balance with his short sword.
"Goddamn it...huff.....when are you going to fall?"
Steve was slightly bent down as he too was extremely exhausted from the continuous fight they had.
Their serious training without a stop had taken them two hours as both of them were slashing their swords at each other with the intention of winning this duel.
"I won't stop.....huff...unless I can't stand anymore..."
Gritting his teeth, Felix stood up and swayed a bit before holding his sword tightly.
Steve looked at the boy who was unwilling to stop and shook his head ending their training.
"We can stop now, I didn't have lunch today so I'm gonna have dinner early."
He walked to the side and wiped his sweat with a towel.
Felix looked at himself and realized that he was still far away from defeating his training partner and thus replied between his breaths.
"You can go, I'll continue to train alone and come for dinner a bit later."
Staring at the boy who started swinging his sword in a repeated manner, Steve scratched his head a bit annoyed.
"Uhh, you crazy guy.....just don't knock yourself out from all the hardcore training.'
Instead of wasting time convincing the boy to rest, he took his weapon and belongings before going out of the room, waving at him.
"I'll be going now. Make sure to turn the stand outside the room after you leave."
All alone in the training room, Felix closed his eyes and started meditating while standing inside the room.
After getting used to meditating and knowing how it works, he could now enter into a focused state like any other experienced warrior could.
Breaking out of the meditation which was of just a few minutes, his mind was fresh and energized as he took a deep breath before raising his short sword up into the air and slashing down with full force.
The sword just made a slashing noise and hit the ground without anything happening.
"Sigh....it seems having average talent really cannot bring me some surprises."
He was thinking of imitating how Steve had manifested aura but it seemed he could not do that yet. Sighing at his untalented self, he continued to step around the room for an hour practicing the basic moves from his sword arts manual.
There was no one here, so he could try those techniques and add more to the sword art from his inspiration.
After the training session, Felix returned to his room and refreshed himself.
He then went and had dinner at the dining hall before coming back and deciding to rest for the day.
His mind drifted into sleep with only a single thought left.
'Tomorrow I'll make sure to gain many skill points, hehehe....'
With a smile on his face, he imagined a lot of skills he could create and went into deep slumber.
*****
The next day in the dining hall.
Felix sat at the table eating his breakfast while the chatterbox accompanied him and didn't stop talking with his food still in his mouth.
"...even if you feel that you're confident to take down the monster, make sure it's unaware of your existence. Once, I had almost kissed the goddess of death because the monster sneaked up on me. Also, do not go fight with it without checking around the area for any other monsters..."
Felix slowly ate and listened to his 'wikipedia' talk, while already having activated his skill 'Parabolic Hearing' to only hear the useful information.
The other guild members looked in respect at the silver-haired boy who could stay in his right mind while sitting beside the infamous troublemaker and chatterbox. They for sure would have taken out their weapons if the guy ever approached to talk with them.
After ending their breakfast as well as the one-sided discussion, Felix got to know a lot of information regarding the way of hunting monsters as well as knowing a suitable place he could go for missions.
Steve had stated that there were a lot of forests surrounding the city but only the one in the west of the city was where monsters of lower ranks stayed.
He went to his room and took out his short sword, before going downstairs to the reception hall near the desk.
"Miss Elsa, can you show me some missions of hunting monsters?"
Elsa who was busy going through some documents on the desk looked at the boy and frowned after hearing what he said.
"....Felix, are you sure about this? Steve had already told me you were capable of fighting on par with him, but I'm still concerned about you going alone in the forest.", Her tone was laced with worry which reminded her of what had happened on his last group mission.
Felix didn't go down and decided to convince her in any way.
"I won't be fighting against strong monsters but the same of rank 0 like me. So, there won't be much danger as I've already trained a lot these two weeks."
She thought about that and her tension decreased. If he was going to fight suck weaker monsters then there was no need to worry so much.
Putting forward her hand, she smiled at him and said.
"Here. Give me your map."
He smiled hearing that and took out his map from behind him, before giving it to her.
Elsa marked some more directions and places, highlighting some details even outside the drawing of the city. After a minute of focused marking, she handed it back.
"Take it,.....and also this and this."
She opened a drawer from under her counter desk and took out a few vials that had some green-colored liquid and a scroll.
"These are basic grade potions, which may aid you in your mission."
Taking the vials in his hands, he thanked her.
"Thank you for this."
She shook her head and said.
"Don't thank me yet, that'll be deducted from your mission reward. And this is the mission scroll."
"Cough-"
Felix coughed when he realized it was not a gift but calmed himself down and stared at the mission scroll intently.
"You'll have to capture a few of these horned hares drawn in the scroll. They can be easily found in the wild, so you don't have to venture deep inside the forest."
"Alright."
"Also, don't waste time and come as early as you can. The nighttime is especially dangerous as many monsters start to roam around then."
He nodded and took the scroll from her before turning to walk out of the guild building.
"I'll be going now, bye."
"Umm be careful, and good luck."
Elsa sighed looking at the adventurous boy and wished for his safety. Even though she was worried about him, she knew that only by taking a risk would he grow further into someone strong. And she didn't want to stop him from doing that as that would only limit his potential.
*****
With a sword hanging on his belt and a map in his hand. A silver-haired boy reached the western border of the city and approached the big and sturdy gates that led everyone out of the city.
"Hmmm, so beyond this is the western forest huh...."
He kept back the map and took out his guild card ID which he showed to the guard standing at the gate.
The guard checked it and let him go out the gate while respectfully looking at him mistaking him for a noble with his handsome appearance and expensive clothing.
Exiting the tall gate, Felix walked on the straight path while looking around at the several colorful trees of the forest.
Yes, the forest was not the typical forest filled with green trees instead there were trees consisting of different colors, like yellow, blue, orange, and pink.
"Amazing..."
He stared at the stunning sight of the beautiful trees in fascination. The other people who were going out of the city didn't have much of a reaction except for a rare few who seemed to have also been new to this place.
Taking a deep breath, Felix went out from the straight path where all the travelers were walking and entered the forest while putting his hand on his short sword.
Knowing there wouldn't be any monsters in the nearby area, he activated his skill 'Silent Steps' and ran deep inside the forest with a grin.
"Skill points, here I come..."
Without the slightest bit of worry and ignoring what the receptionist had reminded him, the boy sprinted into the forest hoping to quickly find some monsters.
After getting a lot stronger than he previously was, he wanted to test his newfound strength by defeating many monsters of the wild until he got exhausted, but he could never imagine that fate had stored something else for him.
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