5. Fault

As the sun rose high in the sky, Clifford stood atop a tree branch, his left hand touching its trunk for support. After a night of good sleep, his theory was confirmed. Now in peak condition, his body was fully healed, and he felt a decent amount of dark force coursing through his veins.

He wasn't close to being hungry since the previous day's meal had been sufficient to sustain him for the next couple of days unless he ended up absorbing all of the dark force, which would leave his body screaming for more due to its addictive nature, of which he wasn't yet aware.

The dense forest, blanketed by towering trees, sparked a couple of new ideas for him. In front of him, numerous trees stood with about 1 or 2 meters between them, their branches nearly at the same height level as the one he stood upon. Until he could find worthy prey, he decided to hone his hunting skills.

He decided that the first step to becoming a decent hunter was to control his power, thus making it his priority. He found the most suitable way to jump from one tree branch to another without making noise. Thus, he began his training. Taking a ready stance, Clifford pushed the tree branch he stood on with his foot as he jumped forward toward the next tree.

The branch broke as Clifford went flying forward, surpassing his target and crashing into three more branches. It ended in failure as he fell to the ground, causing cracks to spread through it as a dusty cloud surrounded him. Despite the failure, Clifford didn't stop repeating the attempt, which became his sole focus for the next couple of hours.

After about three hours of training, despite continuous failures, Clifford began to show improvement. Although he never succeeded once, he no longer broke the tree branch he used as a starting point. Furthermore, instead of crashing into more branches, he simply started to fall short before reaching his destination.

This didn't discourage him, as he easily noticed his improvements. However, by now, he was tired from repeating the same sequence since the beginning of his day. After this practice session, he decided to find something that could push him a little further.

This prompted him to make use of his eyes. Although he didn't understand anything about the halos he had seen earlier, he guessed it was some sort of energy radiation. "Perhaps a brighter halo meant stronger?" That was his only theory for now. Although it wasn't entirely wrong, it also wasn't entirely right.

The halo displayed the concentration of life force; a higher life force meant higher strength. However, that only applied to beasts of the first and second tier, as beasts of the third tier could cultivate just like humans. This meant they could use techniques that boosted their strength without affecting their life force, thus invalidating his theory.

To no avail after two hours of searching around the area, he decided to expand his knowledge of the forest by exploring it. As nothing in there could compare to the halo of the wendigo he devoured earlier, which might have been the highest he could find among first-tier beasts, his best option was to delve a little deeper for a stronger opponent.

Taking a hard turn toward the north, he jumped from one tree to another until he realized that he was getting far from the cave. Now, the brightness of the halos around him began to sharply increase, far surpassing that of his previous prey. This made him slow down his speed as he chose to observe the creatures to decide which one he could take on that could benefit him the most.

One of the beasts that caught his attention was a massive monster sleeping on the ground a little far from him against a large tree. The beast resembled a bear, its colossal form stretched out beside the tree, its massive frame covered in orange fur. Its right arm was abnormal, with a large blade reaching 1 meter long replacing its lower half. Its left arm was relatively normal, ending in a sharp claw.

The blade seemed like a promising weapon he could use, encouraging him to target the beast. But how could he kill it? Fighting that thing head-on seemed unrealistic to him. Even though its halo wasn't much brighter than the Wendigo's, its size was something else entirely. This made him doubt his theory from earlier.

It didn't take long for him to make up his mind. Finally, he took the risk and executed his plan. Holding out the antler he brought with him, he proceeded to make use of it. After breaking each of its branches near its end, he had two small parts with sharp ends that he could now use.

His idea stemmed from bows, and although Clifford had no bow, he could aim the small self-made arrows using his hand. That would leave him at a disadvantage in terms of accuracy, but he had no other options. It might have seemed silly, but if his idea worked, the fight could become much easier for him. Holding his breath and silently praying not to miss, Clifford aimed at one of the beast's eyes.

He chose the eye pupils for a couple of reasons: first, the beast's body was covered in fur from head to toe, making other areas less accessible. Second, the fur on the face was less dense, making it a more viable target. Third, although it was just a guess, comparing the bear to himself, he considered the eyes to be one of the weakest areas that he could target.

Gathering all the strength he could muster, he proceeded to throw the makeshift arrow, making its speed reach as high as his strength allowed. It didn't take long for the result to show as the arrow grazed the bear's face, missing the target. The arrow passed by and hit the tree, its noise and the minor injury caused by it awakened the enraged beast from its slumber.