6 CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 6
After the brief, and somewhat "engaging" conversation with the system, Reily decided to focus on the mission.
He had already lost 5 hours sleeping, and he didn't want to waste any more time because he knew from experience how exhausting it was to catch those "cute little devils."
So, he got to work.
It was already noon, and that hour was characterized by much more activity in the forest.
If the stronger beasts hunted at night, during the day the slightly less dangerous ones roamed.
Obviously, this also depended on the hunting grounds.
After some time, Reily finally reached the outer part of the spirit forest.
Here wandered the weaker monsters, and although most of them hadn't evolved into magical beasts, they were still a challenge for an unawakened like Reily.
Having hunted some of these little monsters before, Reily had an idea of where they usually went to look for food, so he decided to reach the area and set a trap.
He walked for another 6 minutes and finally arrived in the part of the forest where horned rabbits were more frequently spotted.
He began searching in this area, trying to be as cautious and quiet as possible so as not to alert any nearby beasts.
He searched for a while until he saw a creature hopping in the distance.
It was small, no bigger than a basketball. It had a body covered in white, silky fur, and eyes as black as obsidian, with a subtle gleam of cunning in them.
"I found one"
Reily rejoiced at the sight of the creature in front of him. It was a horned rabbit.
Unlike normal rabbits found on Earth, these, besides having a horn on their head, were also slightly larger.
The reason Reily was happy wasn't just because he had finally found his prey, but also because, judging by its physical characteristics, he could tell the rabbit was still quite young.
Monsters, after reaching a certain age, developed their mana-core, becoming low-level magical beasts, and then became stronger by hunting and eating the core of their prey.
The stronger species usually were born with their core already formed, but as for monsters like horned rabbits, they had to grow and mature to a certain age before developing a core and evolving.
In the case of horned rabbits, to determine if they had already evolved, one just needed to observe their horn on the forehead.
If the horn was just protruding from the forehead, then the rabbit hadn't awakened.
If the rabbit's horn had already grown to the point of reaching 8-10 cm, then the rabbit had become an F-rank magical beast.
More experienced adventurers could determine with a glance whether a beast had evolved or not, but less experienced ones tended to use the length of their hand index finger as a reference for the length of the rabbit's horn.
What Reily had in front of him was clearly an unawakened one.
He looked around to see if there were others of its kind nearby because younger rabbits went hunting in the company of their mother, who taught them to find food while also protecting them from other beasts.
Not finding any others of its kind nearby, Reily thought it had separated from the others and decided to act.
With light and quick steps, Reily circled around the area and reached the back of the rabbit. He had already drawn his dagger and was ready to attack the prey in front of him.
The rabbit, which had stopped to nibble on something, didn't notice the presence behind it.
SWISH
Without wasting time, Reily moved his arm and thrust the knife into the bottom of the rabbit's head.
The rabbit, unaware of what had happened, died instantly, without making any sound.
Immediately after the rabbit's death, a series of notifications sounded in his head.
DING!
[You have killed an unawakened horned rabbit]
[You have gained 5 EXP]
Feeling the last notification, Reily was pleasantly surprised.
" i can gain experience by killing unevolved beasts too?"
[Yes, host. Every beast, regardless of whether they have awakened or not, has a certain amount of mana within them. By hunting them, a portion of their mana will be absorbed by your body, allowing you to become stronger. The higher-ranked beasts you hunt, the faster you'll level up.]
'Wait, did he just say my body absorbed mana? How can I absorb mana if my mana-core is still dormant?'
Indeed, those who didn't naturally awaken their mana at a young age needed to use external sources to do so.
These external sources could be specialized mages or magical devices capable of injecting a certain amount of mana into the subject's body and awakening their mana.
One could request the use of these devices in adventurer guilds or magical academies if they were one of their students. In the latter case, the requirement to use them was to be admitted with a certain grade regarding the theoretical part of the exams, and moreover, the minimum age to enroll in the academy was 16 years old, so this wasn't an option for Reily at the moment.
In the former case, however, one needed to pay a certain fee, so Reily couldn't wait to earn enough and go to the capital.
He wanted to go to the capital, not to awaken, because he could do that even in the guild of Andrsis city, but he wanted to go there because he knew that he would have more opportunities there to become stronger quickly.
However, after his recent incident, going to the capital was no longer an option as it would be like digging his own grave.
But now the system was telling him that by killing monsters he could still absorb mana.
Does this mean that if he continues to hunt, sooner or later his mana-core will awaken on its own?
Too many questions began to crowd his mind, so he decided to ask the system.
"System, is there any chance I'll awaken if I continue to hunt beasts?"
[Yes, host. It is possible for you to awaken your core by killing and absorbing the mana of beasts.]
Hearing the system's confirmation, Reily's mood soared. Now he didn't have to worry about awakening.
With the system, not only could he awaken, but also become stronger quickly.
Although becoming a vampire had brought new problems for him, Reily thought that as long as he remained hidden and constantly hunted, he would gain enough strength to hide the fact that he was a vampire.
Reily had many goals he wanted to achieve in this life, and he intended to achieve them all, starting with joining the adventurer guild.
There were no age requirements to join the adventurer guild; anyone, experienced or not, could pay the registration fee and attempt the test.
The registration fee was one silver coin, and once paid, one had to pass a combat exam against a guild examiner.
If the examiner, at the end of the assessment, deemed the challenger ready, they could pass, otherwise, they failed.
Besides the money, one of the reasons Reily wanted to awaken was also because he didn't trust himself to pass with his meager physical strength.
Without it, he would only be wasting his hard-earned money, so, hearing the system's words, he was ecstatic.
"System, what level do I need to reach to awaken?" Reily asked as he took the rabbit's corpse and prepared to leave.
[The host needs to reach level 10 to awaken.]
"Level 10?"
Reily paused his movements for a moment and summoned the system screen.
[------------------------------------
<System >
Name: Reily Nast
Level: 2 (EXP: 21%)
Age: 14
Race: Vampire (low-level bloodline)
Blood thirst: 3%
[HP: 13/20]
[MP: N/A]
[STR: 10]
[DEF: 10]
[INT: 10]
[AGI: 10]
[CHARM: 10]
Storage (lv.1)
[VP: 10] (Void points)
----------------------------------]
He had gone from 13% to 21% by killing just one rabbit. This meant he would have to kill at least 10 more to reach level 3.
Considering that it required more and more experience to reach the next level at each level, Reily had the feeling that he would have to massacre the horned rabbit race and hunt for a long time before reaching level 10.
In other words, he would have to find better prey and work like a mule for the future to come.
"Haa, never once is everything simple, is it?"
