Along the way, Vincent saw the wildfowls, wild boars, and rabbits that his grandpa would mostly hunt for consumption.
The meat of these animals would previously help him increase his mana by a few points. However, after reaching over 50 units of mana, he no longer gains anything from eating them aside from tasting their juicy meat.
As soon as he passed the area where these animals normally gather, Vincent held his cane tightly as he readies himself for any battle.
At this time, he hasn't used his Ascension Card yet so it still remains a Rare weapon.
However, after reaching the seventh enhancement, the Crush attribute had reached 100 points already. This attribute was the thing that is actually giving him confidence that he could win a fight against a Savage Beast even with his limited combat experience.
Growl~
"Hmm?"
Vincent stopped his movement as he suddenly heard a growling beast.
He used his Shrouded Steps, an eight-step movement technique, to silently get closer to the sound.
Whoosh~
It didn't take long for him to find a wounded wolf being surrounded by a group of red birds—No, red crows to be exact.
The crows don't seem to be thinking of attacking the wolf but they are waiting close to the dying gray wolf.
'Was the wolf defeated by these seven crows?' Vincent thought as he looked at the wolf carefully. Its mouth was bleeding and one of its eyes seem to have been crushed.
There were also several cuts and red feathers stabbed on its body… Seeing those red feathers confirmed his guess that the crows were indeed the ones who attacked the wolf.
'But… I heard that the wolves moved in a pack… Is this unlucky one really alone?'
Vincent realized that the wolf's growl may have been heard by the wolves nearby as well. If that is the case, they might be coming here any moment now and he might be in danger. With that in mind, he put a little more distance and climbed up a tree and hid there silently.
Thud!
After five more minutes, the dying wolf whimpered for the last time before dropping its head to the ground.
Caw! Caw!
The wolf finally died as the red crows started tearing its body apart.
During the whole time, Vincent just watched everything happen silently as he continues to survey the surroundings…
'They're here…'
Vincent suddenly noticed the movement of the shrubs on the northern side of the forest and confirmed that the other gray wolves are indeed coming.
This alerted the red crows as well as they hastily devoured a few more chunks of meat before flying away with haste.
"Awwoooo!"
The wolves realized what was happening as one of them immediately howled! As if it was some kind of a signal, the other gray wolves howled in unison creating incredible changes in the surroundings!
Vincent noticed something completely different from this howl!
Their howls contained a huge amount of mana as they targeted the flying red crows!
Boom!
It was like a sound attack! The branches of the nearby trees were cut into pieces as the leaves started to scatter around.
'Sound attack? Wind Blades?' Vincent was unsure about the invisible attack but he can see how lethal it was.
Thud! Thud!
A couple of slow red crows were hit by the invisible attack and dropped to the ground, lifeless!
Awoo!
The wolves didn't waste any time at all as they pounced on the red crows who were unable to get up.
A few bites from them immediately tore them apart as the red feathers were sent everywhere.
Vincent watched everything silently as he was afraid that he'll get noticed by the wolves. Though he's confident with his escaping abilities, it's better not to get involved in this trouble this early. He still has plenty of time to study the ecosystem of this place anyway.
Soon, the wolves left the place of carnage leaving the corpse of their fellow wolf alone.
'So they aren't eating their fellow wolves?'
Vincent has limited knowledge about wolves but it seems that they don't practice cannibalism.
He waited for a few more minutes and realized that only normal animals started appearing as they were drawn by the scent of blood.
"I should hurry…"
Vincent then quickly went to the corpse and found the area where the concentration of mana is high.
"Found it…"
Vincent then used his dagger to cut deeper into the chest of the wolf to find the Beast Core inside.
'Hmm… This is quite smaller than what grandpa has given me. I guess he found those from a more powerful Beast, huh.' Vincent thought as he immediately left the area.
He then decided to familiarize himself with the geography of the place.
Thanks to the gray wolves and red crows, he learned that his Tier 1 Movement Technique is quite effective.
A while ago, he was still too worried about being detected at his previous distance. However, he felt a lot more confident moving now using this technique.
'I should only be worried about them catching traces of my scent.' Vincent thought as he was unsure whether his Mana or Aura could actually cover this.
Anyway, he continued looking around the forest and found three more corpses of Savage Beasts. He found a rotting bear, a half-eaten blue snake, and a goat crushed by a large stone.
They surprisingly have Beast Cores with them so he's starting to think that other Savage Beasts were not interested in this…
'But if they aren't interested with those cores, there should be plenty of cores in the forest. Hmm... It seem that they don't have a way to consume the mana inside...' He thought.
Vincent's knowledge about the Cores is limited. His grandpa didn't teach him about it and he didn't ask this as well.
Nevertheless, his guess seems right as he found the fourth Savage Beast.
It is a dying bear emitting a powerful bloodlust as it stared at the other larger bronze bear. This bronze bear wasn't even injured in any way.
They seem to have been fighting but the victor is about to be decided.
Bam!
Vincent saw the stronger bear crush the head of the dying one with its palm before tearing it apart with its claws.
SSaak!
It was such a brutal scene considering they are from the same species.
Thud!
As Vincent was watching the bronze bear tear apart the defeated one, he saw how it dug the core inside its chest before biting it for a moment.
However, realizing that he can't crush the core with his teeth, he threw it away like he was disgusted by it.
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