Wind Habitat

Three monsters lay on the ground between the trees. The flame-red fur of these monsters was covered in blood. There were countless cuts on their bodies and the vitality in their eyes was long gone. Two of them had their hearts pierced, and in front of the 3rd one, a black-haired youth took out a red-green glowing stone from inside the heart with his hand.

"4 Noble Flame Hawk cores. Good!"

This youth was, of course, Paul. After killing the first one, he had killed all the other swarm members with his wind blades, and he had a look of joy on his face.

"If I keep this up, it could be a good hunt."

After taking one last look at the corpses, he turned in the opposite direction of the mountain and started moving forward. He could feel the four cores and feathers in his pocket. He slowly traveled through the forest without crossing the borders.

After a while he came across a snake. This snake was 4 times bigger than a normal snake and the plants where its orange body touched were drying up from the heat. Its red eyes had a black pupil in the shape of a line. Paul couldn't decide whether to attack or not, but Spadia's voice echoed in his mind.

"C-level monster, Flame Python. Flame mana is quite dense, we could use it."

Paul took Spadia at his word. He lunged forward and before the snake could react, a wave of wind tore its head off. He approached the snake, took the core and sat down on a stone.

"That makes five cores. I remember that was the number you gave me, so I don't need to hunt anymore?"

Spadia laughed for a while. "It's enough now, but you don't have time to assimilate the kernels. They'll probably show up soon."

Paul frowned but asked in a normal voice. "Master, what exactly will be revealed?"

Spadia laughed some more. "You fool. You just killed four Noble Flame Hawks, but they were all close in power. This means that the pack leader has yet to reveal himself. The Noble Flame Hawks have a pretty good core and their pack leader is either a C-level "King" grade monster or a B-level monster. Since you have all the Golden Summer Feathers, we won't be hard to find."

Paul wasn't scared since he had just hunted three C-ranked beasts, but he was lost in thought for a while. "If it's a 'King' rank, its power will be higher than the others, but the attacks of the Noble Flame Hawks are generally fire-based, so it shouldn't be difficult. If it's a B-ranked monster, it might be a bit of a problem, but I'll get over it somehow!"

Paul left the forest and slowly made his way up the mountain. He hoped to encounter some monsters on his way, but he found nothing. He wandered around the mountain for a while, but when he found nothing again, he returned to the forest.

He was still waiting for the pack leader as he made his way through the forest. He was confident of winning, so he looked around for other monsters. After a bit of wandering he found only a small D-level Green Squirrel, but he left it as it was of little use to him.

As he was slowly wandering around in despair, his face lit up when he heard a scream from the sky. He immediately looked up and looked at the sky. There in the sky was a bird with a golden beak and golden eyes, covered from head to toe in golden feathers. Its golden feathers shone with the sunlight falling on them. It had an angry look in its eyes.

When Paul turned to it, it lunged at him and swung its talons. At the last moment Paul drew back and struck back with his wind blades. When he saw that the wind blades did no damage, he backed away and retreated deeper into the forest.

"Good call, son. You can't easily defeat it in an open field."

"Master, what exactly is that monster's level? My wind blades couldn't even cut it."

"I didn't think it would be in the center, but I think it's a King-ranked Supreme Flame Hawk. It's a B-level monster. Enough to protect the bottom floor of the towers."

Paul was a little surprised to hear that. He never expected such a powerful monster in the center. He was looking for a place with dense trees at full speed when suddenly the trees in front of him started to burn. Paul looked up and saw the Great Flame Hawk looking down at him.

When they locked eyes, the hawk darted at Paul at full speed. Paul didn't hold back this time because his plans had just been destroyed. If he had tried to run, the hawk would have outrun him and overtaken him. If he had gone to a place with dense trees, the hawk would have continued its attack, burning all the trees.

As Paul was thinking how to attack, the hawk's talon came closer. Paul drew back slightly and swung his wind knife at the falcon's wings. Again the wind knife did no damage, but the Hawk made a second attack, wounding Paul's left arm.

When Paul realized there was nothing he could do, he started to run backwards, but before he could get far, the claws left cuts on his back. Paul fell to the ground, spitting blood. He looked up and looked at the Falcon. The falcon was looking at him with an arrogant expression. Fear began to fill Paul's heart, but suddenly he heard his master's voice.

"The falcon's skin is tough and durable, but not inside. One wound and you can win!"

Paul smiled sadly. He couldn't even wound its wings, so it wasn't easy to make a wound on this thing. In his despair, he suddenly thought of something. He held out his right arm to the Falcon and gestured for it to come while smiling.

The Falcon was surprised at the arrogance of someone so wounded. It rushed forward and bit Paul's right arm. He wanted to watch Paul's arrogance slowly fade as he suffered. When his golden eyes looked up at Paul, he saw Paul's eyes brighten and his smile widen.

"Die, motherfucker!"

Flames began to spread from Paul's right hand inside the falcon, burning it from the inside. The falcon had just let go of Paul's arm and was writhing in agony.

Paul laughed and came over and cut out the falcon's eyes with his wind knife. The hawk's screams got a little louder, but then suddenly stopped. The falcon was completely dead. Paul prepared to take the core, but then suddenly he heard his master's voice.

"Get back!"

With a sudden reflex Paul stepped back and at that moment the falcon's body began to burn. The golden feathers were burning with golden flames. It was truly a sight to behold.

"After the Great Flame Hawks die, their blood burns and completely destroys the entire body from the inside, except for the core. This is said to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of his dead body."

"How can they take advantage of it except for the core?"

"Those feathers were all Golden Destiny Feathers."

Paul immediately stared at the flaming hawk with the knowledge he had learned. It was covered in feathers, of which it had 12. And it had just burned itself. With a slightly sad expression, he waited for the corpse to burn completely and then went and picked up the bright red and green colored core.

"I'd better go back now."

Paul put the core in his pocket and set off up the mountain.

After a while he reached the mountain. He climbed up the stairs and started looking for something to bandage his wounds. He stopped looking when he heard his master's voice.

"If you absorb the cores, your core will produce mana faster, which means your wounds will heal faster. Instead of wandering around, absorb these."

Paul climbed onto the bed and took the cores out of his pocket. 4 Noble Flame Hawk cores, 1 Flame Python core and 1 Supreme Flame Hawk core were in front of him.

"How do I do it?"

"How do you do what?"

"How do I assimilate the cores?"

"Ah, feel the energy in the core and channel it into your core."

Paul immediately closed his eyes and checked the mana around him to feel the nuclei. After a while he felt the energy inside the nuclei and began to channel that energy into his nucleus. After a few minutes his core had absorbed all the energy. He opened his eyes and felt the flame and wind energy inside him increase.

"Hey, this is working pretty well."

"Uh-huh."

"Old man, did something happen? You sound weird."

"Well, I won't lie. The previous generations needed something like 15 minutes to assimilate a core, but you assimilated 6 of them in a few minutes, so I'm a little surprised."

Spadia's voice trembled a little with excitement as he spoke. He had not expected Paul to be able to control the energy so well.

Paul was happy with these words and a smile appeared on his face.

"Then I will get stronger faster than before, won't I?"

"That's right, but you still have a lot of work to do, son. You'd better hunt some more."

With a smile on his face, Paul quickly got out of bed and dashed towards the exit of the room.