Chapter 9: The Magical Beast Mountain Range (Part One)
The Magical Beast Mountain Range stretched endlessly.
Stepping into it, ancient trees that had grown for centuries or millennia blocked out the sky, covering everything. All kinds of weeds spread across the ground, and thorny brambles grew thickly. Withered, fallen leaves carpeted the earth, and footsteps naturally rustled against the ground. Surrounding vines and weeds were dense and tangled.
“This kind of deep, ancient forest that has existed for who knows how many years—with weeds and vines so thick—I reckon even if a magical beast were hiding ten meters away, my eyes wouldn’t be able to see it.” Linley’s heart trembled with unease.
Delin Kowart was beside him.
“Don’t mention ten meters away, Linley. Right in front of you, in that patch of weeds, there might be a giant python hiding,” Delin Kowart said with a smile.
Linley couldn’t help but look at the patch of weeds before him. The weeds were extremely dense, nearly half a person’s height. In such thick growth, a python could indeed be concealed. Taking a deep breath, Linley stood still and silently chanted a magic incantation.
Suddenly, a faint breeze spread out from Linley in all directions, eventually dissipating into the world.
Wind magic — Wind of Detection!
Generally, reaching the level of a third-tier mage allowed one to cast the “Wind of Detection.” However, the stronger one’s power, the wider the range of the detection wind. A third-tier mage’s detection wind covered only about ten meters, while a fifth-tier mage’s could reach over a hundred meters.
“Within this range of nearly two hundred meters, there are only first-tier magical beasts like Bubble Rabbits and a couple of second-tier magical beasts, ‘Earth Scorpions,’” Linley said confidently.
The Wind of Detection could sense the shape and aura of living creatures.
“Don’t be too confident. Powerful magical beasts can burrow underground, and some Saint-level magical beasts can even disguise themselves,” Delin Kowart reminded him, then chuckled. “Of course, for a small fry like you, those powerful magical beasts wouldn’t need to disguise or sneak around.”
Hearing this, Linley became even more cautious inwardly.
“Sneaking? Disguising? The books say magical beasts have intelligence close to humans—it seems that’s not false,” Linley thought to himself. Glancing at the little Shadow Mouse ‘Bebe’ on his shoulder, he added, “This little guy Bebe already has high intelligence. I can’t be careless.”
A stream of air swirled around Linley’s feet, the effect of the wind-type auxiliary magic ‘Swiftness.’
Linley moved quietly through the Magical Beast Mountain Range, carefully watching his surroundings. The little Shadow Mouse on his shoulder also looked around with an air of seriousness, its small, darting eyes scanning in all directions. One human and one magical beast gradually ventured deeper into the mountain range.
“The Magical Beast Mountain Range stretches over ten thousand miles in length and is generally seven to eight hundred miles wide. In the outermost hundred miles, low-level magical beasts are common. If you go deeper than a hundred miles, fifth- and sixth-tier magical beasts dominate. Deeper still, seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-tier magical beasts become plentiful, and Saint-level magical beasts might even appear.”
Delin Kowart once again recounted information about the Magical Beast Mountain Range to Linley.
“Of course, this isn’t absolute. Maybe some ninth-tier magical beast gets bored and wanders to the outer edges for a stroll,” Delin Kowart said teasingly. “Or you might be unlucky enough to run into a massive wolf pack numbering in the tens of thousands. If that happens, you can only blame your bad luck.”
Hearing this, Linley couldn’t help but curl his lips.
Nonsense!
The Magical Beast Mountain Range was so vast—how could he be that unlucky? And if something did happen, Delin Kowart, who was nothing but a soul, had no way to help. What attack power did a Saint-level mage without magic power have?
“Grandpa Delin, I already know all this. Be quiet and don’t distract me,” Linley said irritably.
Delin Kowart chuckled, stroked his white beard, and said no more.
In a deep, ancient forest like the Magical Beast Mountain Range, the dense leaves of the ancient trees blocked almost all the raindrops, with only occasional drops falling through. After walking through the mountain range for a while, Linley realized that the outer areas weren’t particularly dangerous.
Linley exerted a little force with his feet, and his entire body gracefully leaped onto a tree branch seven or eight meters high. He carefully looked into the distance.
“Boss, far off to the right rear, there’s a wild boar,” Bebe’s voice echoed in Linley’s mind.
Linley turned his head to look and, sure enough, about a hundred meters away, he saw a one-horned wild boar cautiously scanning its surroundings. If Linley hadn’t been standing so high, he probably wouldn’t have spotted it.
“One-horned wild boar, third-tier magical beast, earth attribute. It can only cast Earth Spike,” Linley recalled the information about the one-horned wild boar.
“Even though it’s just a third-tier magical beast, a one-horned wild boar can still serve as lunch. Wild boar meat isn’t bad,” Linley thought. He moved nimbly through the forest like a swift creature, quietly approaching the one-horned wild boar. Because the weeds and thorns were so dense, the boar didn’t notice him.
When he was about ten meters away from the boar, Linley hid in the weeds. Through the tangled grass, he could vaguely see the boar not far away.
“Whoosh!”
Linley shot out of the weeds like a dragon emerging from its lair. As the one-horned wild boar warily turned its head, Linley descended from above like a falling star, bringing a gust of wind as he reached the boar. The boar let out a furious roar, thrusting its thick, long horn straight at Linley.
“Ha!” Linley grabbed the horn with his right hand and heaved upward with all his strength.
The several-hundred-jin one-horned wild boar was flipped into the air, seven or eight meters high. Linley leaped up with a light push of his foot, swinging his right leg like a massive cleaver. It struck the boar’s head with the force of thunder.
“Bang!” With a sickening crunch of breaking bones, the boar was sent crashing heavily into a large tree before thudding to the ground, shaking the earth. The boar’s skull was shattered, brain matter seeping through the cracks, and blood oozed from its mouth. Its limbs twitched and trembled a few times before going still.
Relying solely on his warrior strength, killing a third-tier magical beast wasn’t difficult for Linley.
“Even though a third-tier magical beast’s magic crystal core is only worth ten gold coins, I can’t waste it,” Linley said. He took out a flat knife from the leather pack on his back. With a few quick moves, he easily pried open the skull. With a gentle flick of the knife, an unremarkable yellow-brown crystal core popped up. Linley caught it with one hand, wiped it clean on the grass, and put it into his pack.
Then, with practiced skill, Linley used the flat knife to cut through the skin of the boar’s thigh, taking four large wild boar trotters.
After casually cutting some branches, Linley waved his hand, and a ball of flame appeared. He set up a simple roasting rack and began to cook the trotters.
The little Shadow Mouse ‘Bebe’ drooled, his eyes shining as he stared at the trotters. “The meat on these trotters is the best! Boss, hurry up, hurry up! Why don’t you just use fire magic to cook them faster?”
“Fire magic? My fire magic is only half-baked. Besides, roasting meat isn’t about using the biggest fire or the highest temperature,” Linley said with a dismissive curl of his lips. He also took out some coarse salt and other seasonings to sprinkle on the meat.
When Linley had tested his magical talent, his elemental affinity for earth and wind was both super-grade, while fire was only mid-grade. Mid-grade magical talent was actually quite good for an ordinary person. But for Linley, he couldn’t be bothered to waste energy on fire magic.
After all, to match his achievements in earth and wind with fire, he’d probably have to spend ten times the effort.
So, Linley only casually refined some fire magic power in his spare time, though releasing a fireball spell was still easy for him.
After roasting two trotters, Linley and the little Shadow Mouse ‘Bebe’ each took one, while continuing to roast the other two.
“Wow, this is delicious!” Bebe ate excitedly, communicating with Linley as he did. “The meat on these wild boar trotters is way better than farm-raised ones. The flavor is amazing too. Of course, that’s also thanks to your roasting skills, Boss!” Bebe even threw in a little flattery.
Linley couldn’t help but laugh.
“Boss, I want more,” Bebe said, looking at Linley with pitiful eyes after finishing one trotter.
Seeing Bebe’s pitiful expression, Linley didn’t soften at all. He scolded, “One wild boar trotter, connected to the thigh, is much bigger than a roast chicken. One is enough. I’ll save the other two trotters for dinner.” With that, Linley ignored Bebe’s pleading look.
Once the other two trotters were roasted, Linley wrapped them separately in large camellia leaves, placed them in a compartment of his pack, and continued on his way with Bebe.