NOVEL NEXT First Kill
It was almost midnight, and the white moon showered cold moonlight upon everything in the great Falcon Wilderness. Tall trees filled the sky with their canopy, preventing the moonlight from reaching the ground properly.
Atop one such tree, a young man with a lean body and hair as dark as a stormy night sat, looking around with an excited grin on his face.
"It feels nice to be here. Hmm, though I can't say I missed it," Arthur shifted on the branch and mumbled.
He was here for his first kill, at least in this life. He only had one week to accomplish his task, and it wasn't easy. His plan was to reach Level 10 in seven days, which was pretty much impossible, but he still had to do it if he wanted to marry his love.
"Time to hunt!"
Arthur grinned and jumped down, knowing that it would attract attention. The nights were dangerous in the wilderness, and nocturnal predators were out hunting. He aimed to hunt them.
Of course, he wasn't arrogant enough to think that he could fight anyone just because he was more experienced. But he knew that in the layer he was in, only weak Abyssal Creatures resided, so unless he was jumped by a swarm of them, he would be fine.
Still, he was only Level 1 with stats at the lowest of sentinels.
He stood in complete silence, closing his eyes and relying on his other senses for this fight. He had long learned how to battle even if his five senses were disabled, so fighting without his vision wasn't difficult.
He felt his surroundings, heard even the crawling of tiny bugs, the falling of leaves, and the crunching of dried leaves. His ears perked up as he took out his Abyss Destroyer, the jet-black longsword, from his System Core.
He was newly Awakened, and normally, people needed some time to adjust to their newfound strength and the disbalance of their bodies. However, Arthur had it easier since he had fought many times in his past life, where he had to control his strength to a certain degree.
Getting accustomed to the Awakened's strength was nothing.
Just then, the shadows surrounding him seemed to come alive as several figures jumped at him with their blood-red eyes shining in the darkness of the wilderness.
Arthur opened his eyes and looked at the six figures jumping toward him. They weren't completely visible, and he could only make out their silhouettes. However, just from their presence and figures, he guessed their identity.
'Six Abyssal Dark Wolves? All of Low-Stage Tier 1?'
A grin appeared on his face as his battle spirit surged inside him. His blood boiled in excitement as he predicted their movements and rolled to the side.
The six shadows landed on the empty ground and turned their heads simultaneously at Arthur, their blood-red eyes reflecting hunger and madness.
The Abyssal Dark Wolves were one meter tall, wolf-like creatures with fur as dark as a moonless night and blood-red eyes filled with endless hunger and madness.
Arthur looked at them and smirked. Then, instead of fighting, he took a step back and ran away.
"Ain't no way I'm fighting all of them at once. They'll eat my meat raw, and my meat is reserved for someone else."
Arthur skillfully maneuvered through the tall trees, dried leaves, and rugged terrain, feeling the six shadows closing in on him. They were just Low-Stage Tier 1, which meant they were like him, sitting at the lowest of their hierarchy.
Arthur was confident in dealing with them, but a group still posed a risk, which he didn't want to take so early.
He slipped through a fallen tree trunk and once again resumed his run while keeping an eye on the side shadows. One of them was already very close to him, so he prepared his sword as he jumped off a rock and caught a thin branch of a tree.
Using his momentum, he did a rotation, coming face to face with the creature pursuing him. He grinned at the blood-red eyes and used his other hand to thrust his sword into the Abyssal Dark Wolf's forehead, right between its two eyes.
The red glow in the creature's eyes dimmed before vanishing completely as a voice resounded in Arthur's head, even as he resumed his escape.
[Congratulations on Killing a Low-Stage Tier 1 Abyssal Dark Wolf.]
[You have gained 0.1 Soul Fragments.]
Seeing the number of Soul Fragments he had obtained, Arthur clicked his tongue, thinking, 'I knew these big puppies were worthless. What the hell is 0.1? But I can absorb their cores, so it'll give me more Soul Fragments.'
A loud howl filled the silent wilderness as the Abyssal Dark Wolves howled one by one, seeing their companion's death. Their eyes turned even more maddened as they began pursuing Arthur with no intention of stopping.
"Good, good! Go completely mad! I'll personally deliver your corpses to a mental hospital."
Arthur grinned as he continued to run through the wilderness with five shadows pursuing him. They were faster than him and knew the jungle better, so it didn't take long before Arthur was surrounded by them.
Still, he made sure there was a considerable distance between each wolf, and that was what he wanted. He clutched his sword tightly and used his Awakened physique's power to close in on an Abyssal Dark Wolf.
It was the closest to him, and it seemed they had prepared for such an action as the wolf lunged at him with its mouth wide open, saliva dripping from its terrifying razor-sharp fangs, ready to chew his meat.
"Ah! Now this is a little bad. A little, that is."
Arthur grinned and met the wolf head-on.