CHAPTER 39: THE TERRITORIES BEFORE THE SLIME NEST

Ray reduced Tristan’s corpse to ashes before heading towards a certain direction.

The Slime Nest was located west of White Sparrow Town. It was in the direction he was heading.

Worth noting, on the enchanted map, it didn’t look too far, but the reality was different.

It was over a hundred miles away.

Ray calculated quickly.

Traveling by foot, it would take at least a day and an half to reach. If he ran at full speed, he could cut that time drastically.

After all.

His max speed was no joke.

At his fastest, he was almost on par with an iron-rank beast that specialized in agility.

A normal man could sprint about six miles an hour at best, but peak iron beasts were eight times faster than that.

They could hit nearly fifty miles an hour.

That was the speed Ray could reach too, which was absurd for a human!

"Hmm. Although it will be quicker if I ran, I’d better not do that," Ray decided thoughtfully.

There was a reason weak Beast Tamers didn’t head out often.

Danger lurked everywhere in the wilderness.

In the wilderness, if one wasn’t careful enough, they could lose their life without ever knowing why.

In simpler words, running wildly through the wilderness was the same as courting death.

He could only move cautiously while keeping an eye on his surroundings.

"Exactly what lies ahead?" Ray wondered.

He stopped and opened the enchanted map, thinking about what he might face on the way to the Slime Nest.

Between his current location and the Slime Nest lay the territories of two different demonic creatures.

The first was the Monstrous Mosquitoes. They were creatures that mostly attacked in swarm. If you see one of them, more were bound to be near. They killed their victims by draining the blood and sucking out their organs with their powerful suction skill and terrifying proboscis.

For mere mortals, even a single one wasn’t manageable, and when they attacked in swarms, iron rank tamers could only die while bronze rank tamers could only flee to save their lives if they didn’t want to die.

The neighbours of these murderous nuances were the Mystical Fire Apes.

They moved in packs and had a habit of attacking any intruder without hesitation.

In fact, both species were territorial, meaning they would strike at anyone who dared step into their territory.

Ray could expect fight them the moment he was discovered going through their territory!

’There’s going to be a lot of fighting before I can get to the Slime Nest. I should thoroughly prepare for it,’ Ray thought to himself.

Both the Monstrous Mosquitoes and the Fire Apes were listed in the Beast Encyclopedia as iron rank demonic beasts.

They weren’t a real threat to him even in groups as he could kill bronze rank tamers, but Ray believed it never hurt to be cautious.

Besides, there was no law, no pattern, no certainty in the wilderness that said powerful demonic creatures would remain in their own domains.

A Bronze-rank or even a Silver-rank beast could appear in the middle of a territory ruled by iron-rank creatures, and there was no one who could predict when or why it would happen.

"The wilderness followed its own law, and that law was chaos."

This was why so many beast tamers lost their lives outside the towns and cities of the Leon Kingdom. They leave with the belief that they were heading into the hunting grounds of weaker creatures, only to be ambushed by something far above their level.

It wasn’t a rare occurrence either.

Stories of such deaths were whispered in every tavern and training hall, repeated so often they had become warnings carved into the very culture of tamers.

This single mistake—underestimating the unpredictability of the wilderness—was the leading cause behind the sudden disappearance of countless beast tamers!

Knowing the enchanted map couldn’t point out the variables that could result in his death, Ray took out his enchanted items.

He strapped on the Turtle Shell Armor and tightened the Deadman Gauntlets around his hands before resuming his journey after putting the enchanted map back in his storage ring.

Although he felt more secure with the items on him, he never lowered his vigilance. His eyes swept the surroundings over and over as he walked.

Buzz!

A sharp, droning noise cut through the silence.

Ray turned his head toward the noise and saw a Monstrous Mosquito flying out from behind a tree, its wings flapping incessantly.

The Monstrous Mosquito was half his size about three feet tall.

It was ridiculously bulky for an insect.

Its wingspan stretched close to five feet, translucent membranes vibrating so fast they blurred.

Its abdomen was long and swollen, its thorax ridged like black iron, and its faceted eyes were glossy and cold.

Hooked, claw-tipped legs dangled beneath it, scraping bark as it skimmed past the trunk.

Whoosh!

Its wings blurred as it flew toward him at terrifying speed. Its long, cone-shaped proboscis was like a rapier aimed at his throat.

However, before it could any real harm, Ray opened his mouth wide and spewed out fire.

The Monstrous Mosquitoes, engulfed in high temperature flames, veered off course as it was overcome with pain. It crashed to the ground as the high temperature flames melted its body to a grotesque mess.

A notification chimed in Ray’s mind.

[You have killed a Peak Iron Beast. You have gained +50 EXP!]

Ray smiled as he noticed something.

His sharp gaze caught the small but meaningful change in his system panel.

When compared to the fact that he needed over fifty thousand experience points just to reach the next level, the amount of experience points obtained from killing it was pitiful, almost laughably pitiful, but the true value of this kill was in the progress it gave him, because killing it had pushed his Fire Dragon Breath skill one step closer toward an upgrade.

To evolve, the skill required him to kill twenty demonic beasts using fire. Since Monstrous Mosquitoes were classified as demonic beasts, this single kill directly contributed to fulfilling that condition, and now, he was one step closer toward upgrading the Fire Dragon Breath skill into a stronger, more terrifying form.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

The sound of a swarm moving through the air was unmistakable.

Ray’s eyes lit up with joy as he turned his gaze forward.

His eyes burned with anticipation as he counted them.

One, two, three... over twenty Monstrous Mosquitoes were in the swarm!

"This is perfect," Ray thought, his lips curling into a smile. "I will use them to level up my Fire Dragon Breath skill!"