ALL NOVEL Chapter 20: Dream.
Chapter 20: Dream.
A few years ago.
An elderly man walks alone through the violet forest. Gavin is a mage teacher at the Mage Nation Magic Academy. Normally, he is in his laboratory or playing with his grandchildren. However, he is dying, and his body becomes immune to the extended life potion effect because of the overdose. Now the only way to extend his life is to reach the master rank.
That’s why he leaves his home to find an epiphany. But the journey is not easy, especially because of his age. Although the forest is dangerous for someone like him, walking through it is like walking through a park. But if he sees a powerful monster or a monster nest, it is easier to flee than to fight.
One day, Gavin witnesses a large black-horned bear with a horn on the forehead and two sheep horns entering a cave. A typical horned bear has only one horn. An evolved horn bear, on the other hand, has three horns on its head.
If he can kill the horned bear and extract the monster's core and use it as an ingredient with other magic herbs. He can pay an alchemist to try concocting an extending-life potion. Although he knows it will be useless to consume the potion, he has no choice. However, the horned bear will die without a fight.
Inside a large cave. Certain parts of the cave have already collapsed or been destroyed. An elderly man and a horned bear are fighting.
"Stupid bear, just die and give me your monster core!" The elderly man in a mage's robe yelled. While casting a red-orange fireball spell at the horned bear that charged at him. The fireball, however, only manages to burn the monster's fur because of the monster's thick and hard skin.
The large horned bear stands on two legs and swipes the elderly man with its large claw.
Gavin creates a sphere barrier to protect himself. But the impact from the claw sent the man flying into the cave wall. When the elderly mage thought everything was over and was ready to cast a spell, an earth spike tried to impale him from behind. The attack pierces through the barrier and aims at Gavin's back. But he created a mana shield above his skin and survived. Gavin kept his distance from the horned bear and restored the damaged sphere barrier.
"It looks like I have underestimated you." Gavin's elderly body is hurting from the impact. He noticed something strange the longer he fought. The horn bear doesn’t look exhausted and managed to cast many earth elemental attacks that required a lot of mana.
The monster's strength is determined by its species and age. Level one is for the lowest danger, and level five is for the highest danger that requires an army or Grand Master rank to handle. Although the horned bear was considered a level 3 threat, it will take several adept ranks to kill the monster. The elderly mage is already a pseudo-master mage. As a result, any creatures below master rank have no chance of defeating him.
Another threat level is determined by the situation. A single normal goblin, for example, is so weak that a normal teen or adult human can kill it, which is a level-one danger. However, when they are in large numbers, they become a level three or four threat.
"You leave me with no choice!" This time Gavin raised both hands, and a magic circle appeared. Mana from the magic circle transformed into a red-orange flame spear. But the changes do not stop, and the flame soon turns into a blue flame spear with intense heat.
The horned bear is not afraid and charges toward him. "Die!" The blue flame spear flies like a rocket and hits the large monster.
The flame spear penetrated the monster through its skin and scorched the inside of the horn bear wound. The large horn bear's painful roar can be heard throughout the cave. When the flame spear comes out from the other side of the horn bear's body. The flame spear exploded to do additional damage. The blue flame engulfed the large monster's body.
Gavin is panting and watching everything that has happened. He is exhausted and has a grim face. His body is getting weaker because of his age. Compared to warriors that focus on training the body, the mage's body ages like a normal human's even when he takes the extended life potion. Unless he broke through the master rank to extend his lifespan.
When the blue flame is gone, what is left is a charred horn bear carcass.
"Let’s hope that attack doesn’t damage the monster core." Gavin walks closer to the carcass and inspects it. However, it is not strange that monsters don’t develop the monster core.
When Gavin is preparing to dissect the carcass. The charred horn bear's eyes suddenly opened and bit his arm. In a panic, Gavin cast a powerful fire spell to attack the monster. He has made a mistake in this situation. The best option is to defend and create a mana barrier. Because of that, a large explosion happens between him and the monster. Gavin's body gets thrown away and hits the cave wall, and the explosion causes the cave entrance to collapse.
Gavin is still conscious but has sustained a serious injury. He never thought he would die in this type of place. If he knew, he would rather die with his family close by. Feeling regret, the elderly mage closes his eyes.
-
There are only a monster and a human skeleton in the cave.
Ben looked around the chamber before coming closer to the three-horn monster skeleton. After stiffing and licking the small green sphere. He opens his mouth and swallows it.
After consuming the green glow monster core, Ben can feel the green sphere releasing energy and then being absorbed by his monster core. Feeling drowsy, the horned bear found a comfortable place and time to sleep. Ben is having dreams about a horn bear's life from birth to adulthood.
While he is sound asleep, the horn bear's body begins to change, and two small horns grow from his head.
-
Gnoll monster nest, violet forest Inside a large hut, several elders and the leader of the Gnoll are having a meeting. The only outsider is an elderly goblin wearing a horned headdress and holding a wooden staff. A gnoll is a humanoid monster with a hyena head; a goblin is a humanoid green-skinned monster; and an adult goblin is half the size of an adult human.
"Grorlurk, we don’t trust you!" The gnoll leader, sitting on a cushion on a high platform, spoke. After saying that, the other gnolls agreed. Because betrayal is common among monster species. Especially the evil, cunning, and cowardly nature of the goblin when things look bad. However, the gnoll is also well known for its viciousness and ruthlessness.
"You need to consider this before winter arrives." Grorlurk is a goblin shaman who has been ordered to create an alliance with the gnolls. But the situation does not look favorable.
"What is the benefit for us? We don’t need any help to attack humans?
"Although both of our kinds reproduce fast, we will lose many of our broods to hunger and war with humans." The goblin calmly spoke without any agitation. "The only way to reduce casualties is by joining forces."
"What about the lizardfolk?" Asked the Gnoll leader, "There are only three monsters that dominate the violet forest. The gnoll, goblin, and lizardfolk. They agree not to disturb each other's territory. There are other monsters in the forest, but they are few.
"They refused to join." The shaman goblin sees that the gnoll leader is still thinking. He continues to speak. "Let me tell you something, several big monster tribes from Pondover Forest are going to join forces and attack this kingdom."
"Is it true?" The gnoll leader is surprised by the news. The monster tribe is what the monster society called themselves. But the humans, elves, and dwarves called them monster nests to show their superiority. Except for the Beastmen kingdom, because they experience discrimination from the other races.
"Have you told the lizardfolk?"
"Yes, but they still refuse to join."
"This might be an opportunity for our tribe to grow stronger." The gnoll leader, after discussing it with other elders, agreed to join the alliance.
-
A raven is flying in the sky and has landed on a brunet hair man's shoulder.
Levi, sitting cross-legged, opens his eyes. There is a limit to how far he can share the vision with the undead raven. But it’s enough for him to map out some parts of the violet forest. The only problem is that Levi's body is defenseless when changed to the raven vision. Fortunately, he had already prepared his meat shield, the undead wolf.
According to what he saw, there is a gnoll monster nest nearby. After commanding the undead raven to scout for danger. He leaves the area to avoid the monster's nest. Although he desires more death points, it will be futile if he dies surrounded by a horde of monsters.