Unsealing Emptiness

This time, the Beast wasn’t prepared and the spear plunged deep into his body, damaging many organs even when it had protected them with a layer of Mana.

Blood dripped from the deep wound as Ozul did not push it further. He didn’t know where the Core was located, it was best that he did not push his luck and accidentally damage it. He had come here in this forest for that thing in the first place.

“You! How are you... so strong?!” The Vulture’s insides were messed up right now. Even speaking normally had started to become difficult now.

It could not believe that the human that he was thrashing previously was just as strong. Because he let his guard down, the result was his miserable defeat.

Ozul did not answer the dying Beast’s question and slowly made his way towards it. The Vulture tried to back away when it realized that he wouldn’t be able to win in his current condition. However, another spear pierced its other wing, pinning it down to the ground.

“...Stay away Human! Stay away!” The Vulture hysterically tried to delay his doom.

.....

‘Isn’t any different from humans...’ Ozul thought while looking at the Beast act exactly the same as those humans in desperate situations.

The Beast mustered up its strength and sent several wind blades towards Ozul in a hopeless attempt to stop him, but the latter easily dodged each one of them.

“The snake is in that direction, yes?” Ozul came near its head and pointed in the direction.

“... Hu? Y-yes. It is there-”

*Pikhu!*

Just as Ozul confirmed the snake’s direction, he chose to immediately kill it off. It was pointless to chit chat with someone who he was about to kill.

The Ball of Purity pierced from the back of its head and came out from the front, instantly killing the Rank-9 Beast. After that, he slowly sat down on the ground to have a little rest.

“This was tiring...” Ozul muttered as he looked at his almost naked body, wondering if there were some kind of clothes that wouldn’t be destroyed each time there was an intense fight.

He did not rest for long since the commotion from earlier would make many Beasts come running in here once they realized that the fight here was over. These weaker Beasts always run to such scenes because it is one of the easiest ways to get their hands on quality meat.

One or two of these weaker Beasts wasn’t a problem, but since he did not have any Mana, all of them would swarm him, which would annoy him to no end.

Standing up slowly, he directly made his way to the feathery chest of the Vulture. As he cut those feathers away, Ozul felt how strong each one of them was, ‘No wonder the corpses of the higher ranked Beasts are in so much demand.’

Only the feather of the Beast had so much durability that below Rank-7, one could not even put a scratch on them! How could those nobles not throw in piles of gold to obtain something like that? It was just irresistible for them.

Ignoring all that, he cut right in the middle of the Beast’s chest as this place was usually where the Core was located.

He did not take much time to find the Core as the Mana continuously oozing out of it would make him cringe from a mile away.

Ozul carefully cut away some big veins and arteries to reach the Core. It was noticeably bigger and more clearer than the Rank-8 Magical Core that he had absorbed before. He did not care about the differences as he immediately wrapped it up in the Ball of Purity.

He wouldn’t be able to swallow this big of a Core, and using Ball of Purity was a much more efficient way.

The outer layer of the Core broke into pieces as Ozul applied pressure on it, and then took the Ball of Purity inside his body.

Immediately, a burst of energy came out from him with a booming sound that seemed to again wake up the forest which had gotten silent after the Vulture’s death.

He could just feel the excessive Mana in the air, but all his focus was on his own improvement after absorbing a Rank-9 Beast’s Magical Core.

Ozul could already feel the fatigue fade away like an illusion after the fight. Not to mention, his body felt as if it had improved another rank. Trying to control the Ball of Purity, he immediately felt the improvements there as well.

‘Just one single Magical Core from a Rank-9 Beast, and I think I can already defeat Raymond if he does not use any external means...’ Ozul was satisfied with the gains as he turned around and was about to walk away when he stopped.

‘I should take this with me,’ Ozul stored the giant corpse of the Vulture inside his Spatial Pouch which did not require any effort at all as the pouch automatically sucked it all in.

He wouldn’t have decided to take the corpse with him if it was before, but now he was creating an organization that required powerful and capable armed men to run.

He himself did not need this chunk of precious materials, but every bit of it was useful for the organization. He had read that even the formations require materials from the Magical Beasts. Since the Beasts have all of their body brimming with Mana, they are an easier medium to use in the formation.

Not only that, but the skin and the stuff like feathers would help out the organization’s members a lot. It might also attract talented people to join for the fruitful rewards.

Anyway, since it was useful to the organization, he took it with him before moving out of that location. It wouldn’t be long before the Beasts swarm that place like bees around the honey.

After getting some distance away from the location of the fight, Ozul decided to head directly in the direction of the Snake Beast that the Vulture had mentioned before.

Though he did not know how far it was, he decided to take a slow approach. If he hurried too much, he might miss it or get discovered first just like the Vulture had done so.

. . .

On the way, he noticed many Beasts running in the opposite direction towards the sight where he and the Vulture had fought. He wasn’t surprised to see that the wave of Beasts completely disregarded his presence, and rushed blindly. Every weak Magical Beast thought it to be their chance to grow stronger whenever two strong ones fought.

Ignoring this scene, he continued his own search, though he sped up as he noticed that the other Beasts came from that direction as well.

If there were a Rank-9 Beast anywhere near there, the Beasts would’ve taken a longer route around that area rather than running right through it. It could only mean that there was no Rank-9 Beast anywhere near yet.

Although he did increase his speed, he felt that it was enough for today after the fight and decided to take a rest instead. Even before the Vulture came looking for him, he was about to rest, so in his mind, he was only completing that unfinished task.

In the thick forest, it was easy to find suitable trees to take a rest on. Just as he was about to jump on the tree, he noticed that he was still naked, ‘No wonder I was feeling the wind...’

Fortunately, he didn’t need to worry about it after he had gotten the Spatial Pouch. Ozul had stored many spare clothes in it since that was one thing that annoyed him the most.

After wearing another set of a white shirt and black pants, he climbed up the tree and slept peacefully. Only, it was hard to concentrate because of the occasional Beasts running past him.

. . .

The next day, he did not waste more time searching for the Rank-9 Snake that the Vulture had been talking about and went straight in that direction.

Because of his speed, it took him around two days before he reached someplace where there was again stillness present in the atmosphere. This was an indication that something was unusual here. And Ozul knew that it was the Rank-9 Snake.

He looked around for a bit only to find an entrance to a giant cave. Ozul spread his senses and found the lingering particles of dense Mana that could only belong to a Rank-9 Beast.

‘Hmm... What should I do...’ Ozul contemplated his options.

From the desperate actions of the Vulture to ask for the artifact for concealing his strength, it was obvious that the Snake Beast was stronger than him by a notch.

But after absorbing the Vulture’s Core, he was capable of dealing with the snake as well. Only, he thought that there was a better way to handle it instead of going straight in and creating such a big commotion. He had yet to explore this area, causing so much disturbance could prove to be fatal, especially in this unknown jungle.

That is why Ozul decided to use his one big advantage that he always had over any other Mage or a Magical Beast out there-the fact that he did not possess any Mana.

Just like with the Vulture, if he used his stealth properly, then he wouldn’t need to drag out the fight and battle with an uncertain result.