The Master of Uradan

Rohan opened his eyes as the sun was waking up. He hadn't slept at all, but it wouldn't do much to a warrior to not sleep a full night. He lowered his eyes and looked at the mana cores on his hands.

This forest, home of mad monkeys which had almost killed him, of a colossal beast suspected to be as strong as a Supreme Warrior from its Aura, and situated in an unknown and unauspicious region.

It was enough to make Rohan want to flee for his life as fast as possible. But this small crystal on his hand, as big as a walnut, made Rohan feel an urge to chase after the monkeys to kill them all.

He previously had thought he had already encountered those kinds of cores, but he couldn't remember it. With the assault of the monkeys, he didn't have the time to put much thought into it back then, but now it was obvious. Although it was smaller, much smaller, the cores he had taken from the monkeys reminded him of the red crystal back when he had become a warrior.

Compared with the mana cores coming from the dracasses, those were filled with much more mana. It even baffled Rohan as the monkeys didn't seem to be this strong. For them to have such a quantity of mana, the only explanation was because of this place.

Even on the Barren Lands, known to be devoid of mana, the dracasses had a mana core containing a bit more mana than what possessed Rohan. In this strange forest, the density of this intangible energy should be higher, but Rohan wasn't sure if he was feeling it.

He put back the cores inside his bag, and with a jump, he landed on the ground. Just like that, Rohan started his second day inside this forest filled with danger.

He continued in the same direction, following the traces left on the soil. However the remnant of energy had disappeared during the night, and this path wasn't a deterrent anymore. The birds flew around without caring about anything, masters of the sky as they mocked this human on land.

The forest was once again lively, and a few hours after Rohan had started to travel, he discerned a trace on the soil, in between some green plants and dried leaves. He approached the area and crouched down.

With the help of his finger, he drew the contour. An animal. He looked behind him and focused on the ground. Indeed, there were other marks here and there. Rohan smiled wryly. He was still far from being experienced, he was just lucky his eyes had looked in this direction.

It was the second day inside this forest, and the lack of resources would develop into a nasty issue. He couldn't recognize the beast with only the trace it had left behind it, but Rohan was almost certain it should be alone, as well as being small.

He took out a dagger from his bag and tracked down this animal, praying for it to not be a dangerous foe. Apart from the food, his body would also require water. Although he had a resilient body that could survive without many resources, it was only for a short time, and there was also an inconvenience.

His body would indeed take some time before it withered totally, but it meant at the same time that he would need more food and water to replenish all his strength. Furthermore, that was without taking into account the wounds he had on his body.

Without any armor to protect a minimum of his body, the monkeys had successfully injured him a few times. It didn't impede his movement for now, but a water source was what he wanted to find to clean his body. He only had so much water inside his gourd, and he wouldn't dare to throw it away like that.

Rohan carefully advanced with his body lowered, hiding on the green foliage. By luck, he was facing the wind, and he wouldn't have to think about contouring the whole area. Suddenly, weak rustles made the leaves move.

He tightened his dagger, ready to aim for the animal. Only a few meters in front of him, the movement became turbulent and soon, a small animal left his hiding place.

Rohan was momentarily stunned as he watched the small animal jump around. His dagger was frozen on his hand, aiming for his future mean. A smile bloomed on his face. He allowed the small animal, covered with white fur to hop for a few seconds. Then, with terrifying precision, he threw his weapon.

There was no need to use any skill, as his strength sent the blade blurred in the air. The cute animal hadn't seen anything strange, and it would never understand what happened. The tip of the dagger easily penetrated its skull, killing the rabbit on the spot.

Rohan truly wasn't expecting such a normal animal to appear here. The appearance of the powerful beast shaking the world and silencing the forest must have biased his assumptions on this place. This was proof there weren't only magical beasts waiting to drink his blood and cut him into pieces in this place!

Rohan shook his head and walked toward his target. It was quite sad to kill an animal this cute, but Rohan couldn't care less at this point. His survival had priority over everything else, and with so much blood he had on his hands from the monkeys, one more beast wouldn't add a lot anyway.

He immediately removed the skin and meat of the rabbit. He only had spent three months with the Blackwolf clan, but what he had learned was extremely useful here. Who would have thought he would have once again to survive in a forest by himself. Rohan let a soft sigh leave his mouth.

He cleaned his hand with a few leaves and covered the meat with some large ones. he had already removed the blood, but now there was another problem. He needed to light a fire to eat it.

He gazed for a short time at the spot where the rune of the spell wind blade was. Couldn't this wizard at least let behind him a fire spell? How was he supposed to cook his meat now?

Lighting a fire was something extremely basic that virtually everyone learned when they were a child. It was such an obvious skill to have that no one would even believe that someone didn't know how to do it.

Unfortunately, Rohan had lived the majority of his life inside a mansion with a couple of servants helping with the daily chores. The only fire he knew to light was the one inside the forge, but at least he only had to use different kinds of tools back then.

But here, in the middle of a forest? Where would he find a silex, a furnace, or a bellows? Even the members of the Blackwolf clan hadn't thought about teaching Rohan how to make a fire. How could they even think that this warrior was unable to make one?

With more options, he could only try. He decided to make a fire here and took some random twigs.. Focusing more than ever before, Rohan went all out to try to light a small spark.