Chapter 299 - The Forest

[You'll catch a cold if you sleep there Mercury~ So wake up~]

Mercury twitched before he let out a groan as he rolled over onto his back, then he spoke out into the empty, cold night air

"Hey there Party…"

[Hehe… Looks like you got done in again~ How pathetic~]

"Yeah… Well… I have no excuse…"

Mercury sat up and felt his shirt, it was damp with his own blood and there was a hole on the front and the back of it, then he muttered

"Well, that sucked…"

[So? What are you going to do about it?~]

Mercury thought for a moment before he spoke

"I'm going to get even, kill me and your days are numbered… No matter if you are a street orphan or a king"

[Finally, you have grown some backbone~]

"Yeah well, I am pissed that's all…"

[Well then, my time is up, be sure to visit a temple sometime Mercury~]

"Yeah see you Party…"

Mercury felt the presence of Party leave and sighed before he took off his shirt and threw it onto the fire, then he dug through his luggage and found another shirt and put it on before he sat down by the fire and muttered

"Status"

Name: Mercury

Age: Error

Race: Null

Class: [Metal]

Class level: 1

Titles: [Last member of the ********* ** *** ******] [First of the ****-*******] [Sinner of the ****** race] [Cursebreaker] [Crippled leg] [Iron ranked hunter]

Strength [9/1000] - Constitution [7/1000] - Dexterity [8/450] (-2)

Intelligence [9/100] (-1) - Wisdom [10/100] - Carisma [10/10]

Class skills: [Metal assimilation, lv--] [Essence refining, lv--] [Essence consuming, lv--] [Essence shop, lv--]

Active skills: [Earth magic, lv10] [Lesser metal weaving, lv--] [Metal domination, lv--]

Passive skills [Cursebreaker, lv--] [Pain resistance, lv03]

"Great… 3 points down…"

Mercury sighed, he was apathetic towards dying already having done it twice now however below his apathetic appearance Mercury, primal anger was seething that found its way out of Mercury with a low growl as he suddenly stood up, his blood was boiling and he really wanted to kill something, but unlike the time when he killed the adventures this was entirely his own will

"...[Essence shop]"

[Essence shop]

Current essence: 40.627

Available skills: none

Available purchases: [Metal gamble, cost: 1.000] [Advanced chunk of Living metal Assimilation, cost: 100.000]

Random status point, cost: 100

Specific status point, cost: 500

Level up, cost: 1.000

"...Level up 10 times"

Mercury felt his essence draining by 10.000 points leaving him with 30.627 points, though he also felt himself grow slightly stronger and opened his status to confirm

"Staus"

Name: Mercury

Age: Error

Race: Null

Class: [Metal]

Class level: 11

Titles: [Last member of the ********* ** *** ******] [First of the ********] [Sinner of the ****** race] [Cursebreaker] [Crippled leg] [Iron ranked hunter]

Strength [19/1000] (+10) - Constitution [17/1000] (+10) - Dexterity [18/450] (+10)

Intelligence [19/100] (+10) - Wisdom [20/100] (+10) - Carisma [10/10]

Class skills: [Metal assimilation, lv--] [Essence refining, lv--] [Essence consuming, lv--] [Essence shop, lv--]

Active skills: [Earth magic, lv10] [Lesser metal weaving, lv--] [Metal domination, lv--]

Passive skills [Cursebreaker, lv--] [Pain resistance, lv03]

"So I got 10 points in five status categories?"

Mercury tilted his head to the side slightly before he decided to just go with it and after spending a few moments readjusting to his new status he walked over to a tree and muttered

"Sorry about this buddy…"

Then he punched out with no particular technique and was none too surprised to see that the tree exploded into pieces and splinters that was shot out like a shogun to everything behind the tree

"Well then, my strength has definitely improved…"

Mercury shook his head, just punching trees wouldn't improve his combat strength, he needed combat experience, still, there were some things he could do

"After all, I need to improve my combat strength if I want to kill that guy… I couldn't even follow his moments..."

Mercury walked back over to his luggage and took out his half-melted sword before he muttered

"I really should learn how to use this thing properly…"

Mercury then sighed before he spoke out

"[Lesser metal weaving]"

Then under his eyes, the blade gradually restored it's pervious from, or so it would seem from the outside at least, Mercury tapped the side of the blade and felt the vibrations inside with his heightened senses

"This feels like a mess… I should learn how to forge a blade, but I guess that it'll do for now…"

Then he sheathed the blade and stabbed it to his hip before he packed up his stuff and began walking east at once, after all, he didn't know if Julia was in any kind of danger so he wanted to make it to the next city as quickly as possible, around the time that the sun rose he found himself at a crossroad, ahead of him was a dense looking forest while the road ahead seemed to lead into the forest, on the other hand, the road to his left hugged the edge of the forest

"Great, now which way is it to the city…"

Mercury stood there for a bit, debating which way to take before he eventually decided to go into the forest, down the less maintained of the roads

"I need combat experience after all… If this is the less traveled of the roads that means there's some danger here, this will be good for some training… probably…"

Mercury shrugged and walked ahead with his cane tapping the dirt road, the time passed, and eventually it was evening, Mercury decided to walk on as he didn't feel tired, eventually it became morning yet the forest still didn't show any signs of stopping instead it became denser and the road all but disappeared

"Well… Shit"

Mercury stopped and thought for a bit before he decided to walk on deeper into the forest, after all, he had already wasted a day of walking and he would rather not turn around so… He kept on walking and by the evening he was well and truly lost

"Well, shit…"

Mercury wanted to walk back, but there was something preventing him, that was the eerie feeling he had been having for a while, he was being watched

"Now what to do…"

Mercury took his backpack off and placed it onto the ground before he drew his sword and called out

"Why don't you come out already?"

Several seconds passed before… Something came out of the underbrush, it looked feline at first glances, like a big cat, almost like a lion as it had a big yellow mane, out from the mane came almost ribbon-like flat tentacles with what looked like bone swords on the ends, it opened its mouth and let out a roar at Mercury that tightened the grip on his sword as he moved his cane closer to his leg before the rock it was made of seemed to turn liquid and wrap around his injured right leg, forming a cast that would protect it and take off some of the stress from the leg, then he grasped the sword with both hands and yelled

"Come already!"

The feline magic beast let out a roar and attacked by slashing out with its bone sword tentacles, Mercury kept his eyes open as he blocked the first attack with his sword before he stepped in and cut through the tentacle severing the bone sword part, the feline magic beast let out a roar of pain before it attacked with the remaining 5 tentacles at once, Mercury dodged to the side and managed to dodge three of them, while he blocked one with his sword, as for the final bone sword it gazed his side before he slashed out and severed it 

"You like that, don't you bitch!?"

In response to Mercury's taunt, the feline magic beast let out a roar and… Turned and fled

"Huh… Well, that works for me… Damn this stings…"

Mercury looked at his side and touched it

"The bleeding is not too bad, still I should bandage it after I disinfect it…"

Mercury sheathed his sword and turned his cast back into a cane before he walked back to his luggage and took out some first aid stuff, after he disinfected the wound he bandaged it and put his shirt back on before he picked up his luggage and continued walking further into the dense forest… He walked for another day and night without meeting anything, then he sat up a camp and rested…

*DING DING DING*

Mercury woke up suddenly as the alarm sounded out, he jumped out of the tent with his sword drawn and saw several people surrounding him, even though it was in the middle of the night he could still make them out, there were 8 in total, 4 wielded swords while 4 wielded bows further back, their intentions seemed hostile, still, Mercury asked

"What do you people want!?"

"You are trespassing, this is our forest, the Ingrid forest"

"Trespassing?"

Mercury looked confused for a moment as he did he lowered his guard and one of the archers saw their opening and let loose an arrow that went through Mercury's shoulder, the pain made him kneel down on the ground as he yelled

"That fucking hurts!"

Then he tapped the ground in anger and the very earth seemed to resonate with him as it formed a capsule around him shielding him from the other three archers, inside the dome Mercury could hear the people outside attack the dome with their weapons as well as various kinds of magic

"So you want to play huh… Fine, I'll play with you!"

Mercury stomped his left foot into the ground as a pulse spread out, outside the dome the ground suddenly shook ever so slightly as rock spikes emerged from the ground around the 8 people that were attacking Mercury trapping them in place without harming them, then the dome around Mercury opened up revealing Mercury that sat on the ground and spoke out

"Fuckers, if any of you move I'll end you all!"