"Are you sure there are beasts around here?" Melody asked for the umpteenth time.
"Yes, there are." Lukas answered. "There has to be."
His tone was uncertain as he said the second sentence. They'd been walking for almost fifteen minutes and still hadn't seen any monsters.
"Maybe your presence is scaring them away," he added.
"Unlikely. They're only E-rank. I'll sense them before they'd even be able to sense me. But I haven't been able to sense a single one." She grumbled.
"Maybe someone already came here before we did and cleared most of them." That sounded plausible. What if an E-rank party had decided to come here instead of a dungeon. So he asked, "Why don't we just go to another zone?"
"No." Melody said immediately. "Let's not grow overconfident. We have to see how you'll perform against F-rank beasts first before we try anything else. Remember that you still have to clear a whole dungeon by yourself."
Lukas sighed but couldn't refute her argument. Regardless of his increased stats, he had to remind himself that he wasn't infallible.
The only problem was that he was itching for combat. He wanted to test out his new skills against an actual opponent in a life and death battle.
Melody's assessment had gotten his blood hot and there were no opponents to help him cool it down.
He cursed under his breath. "Where are all the damn—"
"Wait!" Melody raised her hand, her voice hushed. "I can sense a group of E-rank beasts."
"Finally!" Lukas grinned.
Melody led the way, moving carefully through the forest. Soon, she stopped.
"They're just up ahead. You'll have to go alone for the rest of the way. If they sense me, they'll take off immediately. Of course, we can keep up with them, but I want to see you in combat when I'm not present."
"Alright."
"If anything goes wrong, I'll intervene immediately."
Lukas gave her a nod before continuing on his own.
As he walked, he became aware of his lack of armor. He had nothing to protect himself from any stray hit.
Melody had also come without armor and hadn't mentioned it. Probably because of their current financial status.
He kept walking for almost a minute before the beasts came into view.
They were three giant toads, sitting beside a cluster of bamboo trees, their skin blending in with their surroundings. If he hadn't known they were there, he probably would have walked right past them.
They sat at a moderate three feet tall, their glands swelling and contracting.
He had read about them. They were ambush predators, and their most dangerous weapons were their tongue. If one was able to survive their ambush, then they should be relatively easy to take care of.
He stepped forward, his sword held in one hand and moved towards them.
One of the toads shot its tongue towards him without warning, but Lukas was ready.
He activated [Hex Shield], a shield made of cursed energy materializing before him and blocking the blow.
The other toads shot their tongues at him, but instead of blocking, he rolled to the side, and the moment his two feet were back on the ground, shot forward.
He blurred towards the toads, arriving in front of them before they could even finish retracting their tongues.
He swung with his full strength and almost stumbled in surprise as his sword sheared completely through the toad, killing it instantly.
[You have killed an E-rank Giant Toad.]
He stared at the corpse in surprise, then at his sword. He'd seriously underestimated his 866 strength stat.
Seeing that he was distracted, one of the toads shot its tongue at Lukas, who immediately snapped out of it, his hands splayed in front of him.
A [Hex Shield] appeared, blocking the attack.
He blurred straight to the toad, and with one swing of his sword, ended its life. Before the last toad could even realize what had just happened, he descended on it, thrusting through its brain and out of its jaw.
[You have killed an E-rank Giant Toad(x2)]
He stood there for a moment, observing the carnage he had just wrecked. Two toads completely bisected, and one whose brain was destroyed.
Melody walked through the bamboo trees, clapping with a smile on her face. "Bravo!"
Lukas turned to her with a grin of his own. "How'd I do?"
"It was a bit touch and go at the beginning, but once you realized your own strength, the fate of the toads was basically set in stone."
"You didn't notice how strong you were when you were fighting me, but I'm glad you were able to get over that surprise quite quickly. And this brings me to lesson four. Do not always go all in."
"If you put too much strength in your attack against a weak opponent, it leaves you open. So, always moderate your strength depending on who you're fighting."
"Yes, my lady." Lukas answered with a grin. "So, am I qualified to take on higher beasts now?"
"Of course." Melody nodded. "Where would you suggest?"
"The Scorched Forest." He answered immediately. "There's sparse vegetation, so we'll be able to see the monsters coming, and the most powerful monsters there should be C-rank. That way, if they prove too troublesome, you can help me take care of them."
"And if we encounter anything stronger, we'll immediately get out of there." Melody added.
"Agreed."
"Very well. Lead the way."
Lukas sheathed his sword and after a few seconds of looking this way and that to get his bearings, began to walk.
"What if we meet an A-rank beast there?" Melody asked as they walked.
"Trust me, it won't happen."
"But what if it did happen?"
"It won't. The city officials are always on the lookout for B-ranked beasts and above. If any of them even get within a certain radius of the city, they'll immediately send a party to dispatch it. Even if an S-rank beast comes and there's nobody available, the City Lord would take care of it."
"What if it's an Adept level monster?" Melody asked in curiosity.
"Then we hope the City Lord is able to kill it, or we're cooked." Lukas answered honestly. "But high level monsters rarely wander this way, so I doubt we'd ever see an Adept level monster around here."
"I guess I'll have to take your word for it." Melody said.
They kept walking for a quarter of an hour, before they burst out of the bamboo forest.
Stretching towards the horizon was a new forest but this one was different.
The trees were sparsely spaced out, with a gap of at least thirty feet between them. The trees were all burnt out husks that rose twelve meters tall with not a single leaf on them.
However, the most interesting detail was the layer of soot that covered everything, including the ground.
Beasts could be seen roaming the space between the trees, stalking each other.
"Welcome," Lukas spread his hands theatrically, "to the Scorched Forest."