Fighting beasts was exhilarating and he felt good to finally have killed beasts himself, but if he was honest he didn't want to do it again. Ah, who knew hunting was this stressful? He winced as his body ached all over.
He decided to check his profile
Name: Hikaru
Rank: Disciple
Summons: 1/1
Soul Rank: Threat
Soul Cores: 7/30
He now had seven soul cores… Hikaru couldn't help but be impressed, after all he had started this hunt with just one core. Right now he only needed 23 more cores before he would reach paragon. At this rate, it was probably going to take a while. However progress was still was still progress and Hikaru was happy at his new profile.
He got and dusted off his palms. Nameless was already busy with the hogs, in an unhurried manner, he punched his hand into each carcass and drew out the core, then he dropped them into the back. Hikaru felt a little amused watching nameless go about this with all seriousness.
When the crystals were done, nameless moved to the heads. He began to slice them off their bodies and then he put them into the bag.
Now they had six crystals and six hog heads in total. Hikaru wanted to head back to the real world now but he didn't know If they could yet. Right now they had six crystals and six heads, Hikaru didn't know exactly how much they would be worth. If it were six full carcasses, he might have been conifdent in making a profit, but just heads….
In retrospect, he should have asked the woman at the stall.
In any case, he wasn't wiling to take the gamble. he turned to nameless. "Nameless"
The summons turned to look at him.
"We need to kill six more beasts, then we'll go back." Hikaru said
Nameless gave a thumbs up. "No problem master".
They continued walking.
As they walked deeper, the atmosphere around them began to change. The change happened gradually and then suddenly.
The forest suddenly became dimmer, fading from the light of late afternoon to dark evening and the air became very cold. The sounds changed as well, before the background noise of the forest had been a series of lively chirps, now the chirps had been replaced by eerie sounds.
Hikaru slowed down and turned to nameless.
Nameless was already looking up, he had a grim sober look on hs face as he studied the sky aboved them
"You feel it too?" Hikaru asked.
"Yes." Nameless lowered his gaze. "This place is different."
Hikaru sighed. Lets get our six kills quickly and leave this place.
Nameless nodded and they kept on walking until they were interrupted by a sound. The two of them stopped abruptly and Hikaru listened. The sound came again and this time it became more obvious that it was growls.
The two of them exchanged glances and nameless moved the front towards the sound, Hikaru followed on his heels.
The clearing they entered was a small one, it was surrounded by a ring of trees that grew close on all sides. In the center of this clearing were four beings. Two of them were large grey wolves and the other two were a girl and her summons, an eagle.
The eagle was a large one, it was roughly the size of a large dog and it was watching the wolves with focused attention.
The girl was another matter.
She was around his age, and almost his height, she was dressed in a white nightgown. her hair was blonde and it fell loosely all the way to her shoulder blades.
And her face.. it was.. Hikaru felt heat rush to his face and he looked away from her quickly.
Her face was the most beautiful face Hikaru had ever seen. It was a inhuman beauty that seemed like it was sculpted on porcelain, just looking it at scrambled his brain a little.
The girl's face had another quality other than being beautiful, she was also very expressionless,
Hikaru frowned. Why was she dressed in a nightgown in the middle of the forest? Surely that would make fighting uncomfortable and her loose hair as well, Hikaru didn't know much about fighting with long hair but he was certain that such long hair would be a disadvantage. So why did she choose to do both things?
He couldn't think much about this however, because the wolves finally turned teir attentions to him, and they snarled.
It was then that he girl looked at him properly. As she did, a faint hint of recognition crossed her eyes. You're the one who summoned a human instead of a beast. Her voice was equally toneless.
Hikaru felt heat rise in his face immediately, he didn't like that sch a thing was what the blonde beauty in front of him knew him by. "Yes," he said. He gestured toward Nameless. "His name is Nameless."
The girl turned to look at nameless and at the same moment, nameless also turned to look at her. the two of them stared at each other without any hint of emotion or change in expression. Hikaru watched this baffled. He couldn't tell who was more emotionless between two of them, and as if tht wasn't enough, they were both inhumanly beautiful, it was like watching twins!
The girl then looked back at Hikaru. "Is he strong?"
"Yes." Hikaru said. he didn't wish to tell her that nameless was a paragon menace even though it would probably make her less impressed of his human summon
She nodded once. "Good. We need the numbers."
Hikaru frowned as he looked at the wolves and then looked back at them. These wolves were acolytes and the girl and her summons should be able to take them down, even if it would be a little stressful.
He cleared his throat. "Not to be arrogant, but.. four of us against two wolves seems like overkill, doesn't it?"
Her expression didn't change. "Four against two would be overkill," she said, in the same flat tone. "But there aren't two wolves."
When Hikaru frowned in confusion, she continued. "Wolves move in packs, and the pack leader is usually considerably stronger than the rest."
It was then that understanding finally dawned on Hikaru
"Crap," he said.