Chapter 81 Odd Encounter (1)

After analyzing the tournament fighters, the four friends decided it was time to head home. Actually, Erik had to go to work, so he asked Amber to bring him to the train station. The young woman offered to take Erik to the northern district, but he refused since he didn't want to take advantage of her kindness.

Besides, Erik also wanted to go to the breach and hunt more thaids; If he was lucky, he could even level up, which would surely help him gain an advantage in the upcoming tournament.

So, Amber's driver brought Erik to the train station, it was already 16:00, but despite the hour, there were still many people at the train station.

While waiting for the train to come, Erik thought back at his fight against Zakir; saying it was hard was an understatement. It was clear that Erik needed more training because he was almost defeated despite being much stronger than his opponent.

<I can't lose... not yet, at least. I need to reach the top 22 if I want to join the Red Palace...> The young man thought.

As he was in deep thought, the train finally arrived, and Erik boarded it. The travel was peaceful, and Erik took the opportunity to rest before his hunt.

He daydreamed through most of the trip until he reached the northern district where all the farms were present. When he got off the train, Erik noticed that the city had started making new buildings around the northern train station to modernize the district. Probably the idea was to put offices and shops to give people who lived there easier access to essential services. Well, that was what Erik though.

As soon as he left the station, Erik started walking on the unpaved road bringing him to Mister Fox's farm, though he had to steer right into a wheat field and go through the breach before going to the farm.

As Erik approached the huge hole, he walked through it without hesitation and started searching for suitable thaids to hunt. He had to pay attention since there could be monsters out of his league, so he went deeper inside the forest with cautious steps.

The place was magical, with all the birds singing cheerfully, bees buzzing around, and flowers growing everywhere. As he continued, he found himself near some trees that grew berries of different colors. Erik picked one and ate it.

Along the way, Erik didn't find any sign of thaids except for some dead ones lying here and there. This wasn't an infrequent occurrence, so the young man didn't think about it much, despite not dropping his guard. Erik was confident that, thanks to his powers, he would be able to face any enemy that barred his way.

As he went deeper inside the forest and farther from the breach, Erik found more half-eaten bodies whose sheer amount gave the young man the creeps. Something weird was going on inside the forest, and the student decided he didn't want to know what.

"Fuck..." Erik muttered as he started running back toward the breach.

"AH...AH...AH..." Erik panted as he ran, and while he did so, he swore he saw a silhouette among the trees.

"AH…AH…AH…" he ran more but after a couple of minutes, he heard a deafening noise.

"AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

Erik paled as he heard the beastly howl. According to the knowledge he downloaded, there should have been no creature with howling habits near New Alexandria, especially considering that such creatures were usually high-leveled. That was impossible near the borders since the militaries constantly wiped out any thaid nearby.

Though, as Erik ran, he saw a four-legged monster the size of a large dog running toward him.

"FUCK!"

Judging by the speed it was running, the beast was stronger than him in terms of strength since it was approaching him fast. Erik kept running, he wasn't able to tell what the hell that thaid was from his position, but he bet that was the reason why there were so many dead thaids around.

"AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!"

Erik turned to look back; this time, he was able to see the creature fully. At that moment, his knowledge kicked him, and he immediately recognized the thaid; it was a damn Leylarhad cub.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS THAID DOING HERE?!" Erik shouted.

Leylarhads were wolf-like thaids with two tails and two big vampiric tusks jutting out of their mouths. They were fast, agile, strong, and with tons of Energy since the adults were usually considered C-ranked monsters on the Ferebitz scale.

The young man didn't know how strong a cub was, but judging by its size and speed, it wasn't weak. Sure, Leylarhads were as big as bulls usually, but a cub wasn't tiny either. The creature was as big as a large dog; Erik didn't know how much exactly, so he had to resort to the system to find that out.

"ANALYSIS!" Erik shouted. Immediately, the usual window appeared in front of him.

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- Species: Leylarhad.

- Brain crystal power: Astral Wolf Bite

-Dimension: Approximately a meter and a half high, for 176 kilograms of weight.

-Description: Leylarhads are powerful and intelligent creatures who usually hunt in a pack. This particular thaid is a cub that probably strayed from it. Don't be fooled, though; its mother must be close, as Leylarhads are known to have strong maternal instincts toward their offspring.

-Approximate level: 21

-Approximate Strength: 29

-Approximate Intelligence: 3

-Approximate Dexterity: 21

-Approximate Energy: 104

...

...

…

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"WHAT THE FUCK?! LEVEL 21 WITH 104 ENERGY POINTS?! IS THIS A JOKE?!" It was then that another notification appeared in Erik's vision.

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<Emergency quest: AGAINST ALL ODDS>

-Rewards for completion: 3000 experience points and 1500 DNA points for killing the thaid.

-Penalty: Death.

(Kill the Leylarhad Cub!)

[SYSTEM MESSAGE: UPON COMPLETION, THE BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER WILL END ALL HIS ENERGY RESERVES, AND IT WON'T BE ABLE TO ISSUE QUESTS OUT OF THE DAILY RANGE FOR TEN DAYS.]

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Erik kept running through the forest like a madman; there was no chance in hell that he would attempt to kill this monster. He sped past trees and bushes and ran for at least 200 meters with no sign of the Leylarhad cub stopping or slowing down; worst, the creature was much more close to him than before.

Erik knew he had to do something before the thaid reached him, and since he was far from the breach, there was no way he would be able to save himself. Besides, there was a high chance that the beast would have chased him inside the barrier, so reaching human shelter wouldn't save him from his troubles.

"STUPID ERIK! STUPID!"

Erik kept running, he sped over a thaid carcass which was about two meters long, the beast was probably killed by the deadly cub, there was no doubt in his mind about it.

"SHIT!" Erik said aloud, looking back again to check if the Leylarhad was still following him. The thaid cub followed him like a shadow, and it got closer and closer as time passed.

"Shit, shit, fuck," Erik said. He couldn't let himself get caught. If he did, he would definitely die.

"What do I do? What can I do?"

He could hear the sound of his own breathing. His lungs felt heavy, and he was panting hard. Erik then started channeling mana, making a mana dart with half the mana he had available and keeping half of it in case he missed the shot. The Leylarhad was now just a couple of meters behind him, and Erik could feel the beast breathing.

Then the thaid leaped through the air to kill his new prey, though, unbeknownst to it, Erik jumped back at the same time and turned 180 degrees while launching the dart at the creature.

Erik observed the dart travel through the air with a pale face; if he missed the shot, he would be dead. The Leylarhad watched as the dart traversed the space between Erik and itself, it naturally sensed the amount of mana inside the dart. Still, it could do nothing to avoid it since it was already in the air. A moment later, the dart penetrated the creature's skin, and it released the poisonous mana into his body.

The beast fell to the ground due to pain and started whimpering, though not for long. Erik didn't have any intention of trying to kill the creature, so he turned as fast as he could and fled from there. The problem was that things didn't end there, as the Leylarhad started giving chase to Erik once again.