The water in his palm reflected his image.
Ray was a short and skinny 19-year-old. He was neither too handsome nor too ugly, and he never really cared about his appearance, but seeing the burned skin on his face and his half-burned black hair made him feel bitter.
His mana has somewhat recovered, so he cast minor heal again, and now his face is almost completely healed, but his hair is still the same.
"Maybe minor heal cannot grow hair."
Without any choice, he cut off his burned hair. He looked strange with long hair on one side and short hair on the other, so he cut off most of his hair. Now he looks like he has a buzz cut.
He tried to stand and found that it's not as painful as before.
Now his mind is a lot clearer. He knew that the first thing to do was find shelter; the forest is not safe.
There was only one event of a new gate forming, and that event was called the apocalypse by the people of Earth.
Some gates may open immediately some centuries, and the only way to prevent the gate from opening or collapsing was to clear it, and only those acknowledged by the system could pass through the gate.
And what was the system? No one knows! Some say it's a divine intervention; some say it's something the ancient humans built to protect themselves from OWHLs. After all, 200 years ago was the peak of human civilization; their technology can often feel magical to humans of the current age.
However, the problem with gates was that they open randomly on the surface of the planet, making it impossible to find all the gates, let alone clear them, and therefore forests like the one Ray is at are dangerous.
Ray cast minor heal a few more times; now he is almost completely healed, almost because minor heal wasn't too effective in healing many injuries at the same time. He could only focus the effect on a single injury at a time or disperse the effect throughout his body, which would weaken the effect.
.
A tall, muscular, middle-aged man with a snake tattoo was riding a carriage through the snowy mountain path when he saw a person being attacked by a pack of beatwolves.
The muscular man was Henry the Crab Hunter, belonging to the Medusa Guild.
Henry stopped the carriage and picked up his shotgun and fired two shots at the beatwolves. Of course, this only injured the bearwolves, but it was enough to scare them away.
Bearwolves were wolves as big as a bear. They were also stronger than a bear and smarter than a wolf.
The person who was being attacked looked at Henry with a hint of fear in his eyes.
This person looked like a skinny young man with a black buzz cut and blue eyes, and he was wearing rugged clothes; his torn jacket didn't seem enough to help him against the cold.
Henry noticed the faint mana fluctuations from this person, suggesting that this was someone who had awakened.
Yes, this was indeed Ray.
"What is going on with my luck lately? Not only am I attacked by a pack of beatwolves, but I also had to run into someone from the Medusa Guild…and it's not just anyone, but it's Henry the Mountain himself."
Ray, however, wasn't injured because Henry saved him at the right time, and now he had to face someone more dangerous than a pack of bearwolves.
Bearwolves were only D-rank monsters; Ray's Shadow Wolf was at E+ rank, so he was actually in a pinch, but he still had a chance to escape. But Henry? Impossible! Even if Henry wants to kill Ray right now, there's nothing he can do to save himself.
"Relax, kid! If I wanted to harm you, I would have already done so." Henry seemed to have understood what Ray was thinking about.
Henry put his shotgun in the carriage and asked
"You're the kid who blacked out when you touched the mana stone, right?"
"Yea, it's probably me," Ray replied. He was still thinking of a way to escape, but what Henry did next shocked him.
He tossed Ray a stack of coins.
Ray was unable to process the sudden kindness from someone who he considered an enemy.
Henry didn't bother to explain, and he was gone with his fancy carriage before Ray could even ask anything.
In the carriage.
Henry was deep in thought when Ray fainted. Henry was the one who tossed him with the trash. Ray looked like he was dead two days ago, and now he is awakened. This sudden change was intriguing to Henry, who has seen countless Hunters over the years.
"What an interesting lad!? I wonder what secrets you are hiding."
.
Ray watched as the horse carriage drove away.
With a sigh he put the stack into the pocket of his torn jacket and summoned Shadow Wolf.
This wolf was bigger than a bearwolf. If a bearwolf was as big as a bear, then the shadow wolf was as big as a house.
But after being attacked by a pack of bearwolves, Ray knows that his familiar stood no chance against a D-Rank monster like bearwolf.
Ray rode his shadow wolf to the western part of Trancosco, where most of the hunters lived. Of course, his slums in sector B had many hunters, but that was nothing compared to sector A, where the headquarters of many hunters guilds were.
Shadow Wolf was fast; it reached sector A in just a few minutes.
By the way, Ray took these few minutes to give the wolf a name; now he is called 'Ares.' The awkward thing was that Ray figured out that Ares was a girl after he named her; however, he didn't change the name…it was too cool to change.
"Stop!"
A man wearing iron armor underneath a blue jacket stopped them when they reached the gate to sector A. Similarly dressed men and women were guarding the wall with many weapons in their hands. Ray noticed that the most common weapon was bows and arrows, followed by guns and then swords and spears.
The man in front of him looked at Ares with a strange gaze.
"Is this your familiar?" He asked Ray
Ray didn't say anything; he only nodded. The man moved aside and let Ray pass.
The reason? Ray could control a huge wolf, so he is a valuable human resource.
Of course Ray understood this; that's why he came riding Aries.
When Ray entered the inner town, what welcomed him was a town brimming with life; all kinds of shops and marketplaces were shining with various lights.
Aries was drawing too much attention, so he quickly unsummoned her.
Sector A was also called central Trancosco. It was a coastal town that was once destroyed by a powerful sea monster, but now it's a hub for hunters from all around Bahia County. Even some from outside Sunstone Kingdom often visit Sector A due to the presence of three cleared gates here.
Cleared gates were also called dungeons; they faced no risk of dungeon collapse, and the monsters inside would respawn at a certain interval of time.
In other words, you could farm XP here.
Ray entered a tavern and used two silver coins from the stack Henry gave him to book a room for himself, and he fell asleep as soon as he lay down.
And now Ray understood why he was unable to use his innate skill when he wanted to.
"So I can only use it in my dream?"
Ray was currently in the white room; he was sitting on the wooden chair, which doesn't seem to have any particular functions, unlike the glass table.
The crystal door on the floor shined, and a new quest window opened up in front of Ray.
Main Quest: Survive till sunset.
Reward:
Rejuvenation pills ×10
Sub-Quest 1: Kill 10 enemies.
Reward:
100 points
Sub-Quest 2: Kill 100 enemies.
Reward:
E-Rank skill: Wind blade
Ray knew that this was not going to be easy, so he braced himself and pressed 'yes.'
The next moment he found himself in a battlefield; he was standing amidst thousands of soldiers all lined up to face another army of equal size.
Ray was just another soldier in this army. He was wearing brown-red armor and a Roman-style helmet. He had a long spear in his hand and a sword at his waist.
A soldier dressed from head to toe in brownish-red armor of similar style to Ray's blew a loud horn from the top of his house.
The army that Ray was a part of began to move forward; they were walking at first, then they began to run with all their might, extending the long spears forward.
"Fuck! Fuck!" Ray couldn't help but curse because the enemies he had to kill were humans this time.
An enemy soldier in green armor rushed at Ray with a sword in his hand. Ray didn't hesitate to impale him with his spear. He had already learned from the previous level.
Ray was fighting with all his might, slaying enemies and trying to stay alive at the same time. He cast minor heal whenever his mana recovered; however, he was still injured and bleeding.
He found himself surrounded by enemy soldiers. A soldier wielding a great sword rushed at Ray with a grin on his face, shouting, "Die, Rivaldian!"
But what greeted this enthusiastic soldier wasn't Ray's sword or Spear but a 3-meter-tall black wolf and its sharp teeth.
With Aries help, Ray completed not only the first sub-quest but also the second one. He noticed that the sun was about to set and felt something wrong.
"This was too easy!"
Ray's premonition was right. Suddenly the ground started to shake, and an explosion occurred at the far end of Ray's camp. A bright light followed by a terrifying shock wave assaulted Ray.
Aries used his body to shield Ray; the shock wave sent both the red and green armored soldiers flying.
One of the red-armored soldiers screamed, "Archmage! They have an archmage in their camp!"
"Archmage? Could it be a Hunter?" Ray looked at the direction of the explosion, and at the exact time another similar explosion occurred to his right, where red-armored soldiers were gaining the upper hand.
This Archmage, whoever it is, doesn't seem to care about the lives of his allies at all.
When Ray looked up at the sky, he found many balls of fire floating aimlessly.
"Uh?" Ray was so distracted that an arrow pierced his neck.
Aries was desperately trying to shield Ray from attacking soldiers and arrows flying on the battlefield, but it was all for naught, and one of the meteors (giant balls of fire) fell on top of Ray, killing him.
Ray opened his eyes in the white room and decided not to try again today. He exited the tower, and this time he didn't immediately wake up but remained asleep till the next morning.
The first thing he did when he woke up was check his status window.
Name: Raymond Castro
Age: 19
Sex: Male
Strength: 5
Wisdom: 5
Agility: 5
Senses: 5
Mana: 5
Innate skills:
Inversed Tower of Manas (Rank:???)
Acquired skills:
Summon Shadow Wolf (Rank: E+)
Minor heal (Rank: F)
"Huh? Did my strength increase?"
Ray noticed that his strength was now 5; it was 4 when he awakened.stood up and noticed that he was a bit taller than before and his skinny body had a bit of muscle now.
These changes happened soon after he awakened; it's just that Ray never got enough time to check the changes in his body as he was busy surviving.
These recent events made one thing clearer to Ray.
"I need to get stronger fast, but first I need a license."