6 Let him cook!

"147!"

"148!"

"149!"

"150!"

The kids finished counting as Kael smashed open the last piece of wood he had brought back from the forest. Wiping a little sweat from the corners of his face, Kael assembled the woods, and Amy suddenly questioned while taking in a candy ball.

"But what are you going to do with all the wood, Kael? Do you feel cold at night or something?"

"Nothing like that, I just want to try cooking some food for myself. I have arranged spices, so I guess there won't be any issues," Kael explained as he started preparing a place to cook beside his house. He also made a foldable chair and a simple table with the leftover wood he had.

"Food? But you didn't buy any meat or bread? What will you cook? Mushrooms?"

Kael heard another kid and just shook his head as he finished setting up the chair. Finally, he picked up his giant axe and, while looking at the setting sun, he commented.

"Why would I buy meat and waste money when I can just hunt it myself? Go back to your houses now; it's getting dark..."

As Kael said that, he started preparing to leave the village, placing a few materials with him. But just then, the kids started to shout in surprise.

"Hunt? It's nighttime!"

"The forest has monsters too, you know!"

"It's dangerous to go out alone like this!"

"True! My father said it's extremely dangerous to even step outside the village at night!"

Kael just scoffed and continued on his way, checking a small throwable axe in his hand.

"Well, your father is right; it's indeed dangerous. That's why you should return to your houses."

Kael said and casually left the village. The guards watched him but didn't say anything because they also had expected his level of strength to be a certain level.

'Well, I guess it's finally time to start familiarizing myself with my new strength in this world. This new body is a bit too strong to be called human.

This body of mine seems to be familiar with something called 'Aura,' although I myself don't know much about it. This body has definitely used it before, so maybe it's '4 Star Aura Mastery.'

Basically, in this world, there are two main forms of energy: Aura and Mana. Aura is for people who use their physical bodies to fight, such as knights, swordsmen, assassins, archers, and such.

Mana is for people like mages, alchemists, healers, and such. Though healers have a bit of a different path, their strength is still measured by the number of stars in Mana Mastery.'

The ranks of mastery are divided into 9 Grades, from 1 Star Novice to 9 Star Myths, and I'm currently a 4 Star Aura Mastery Expert who himself doesn't know how to properly utilize aura.

But it's not just about skills; as the number of stars increases, your strength and capabilities also reach limits beyond ordinary people. A normal person can't ever beat someone with even one more star than them. That's how the world works here, mainly authority and strength of every type. Now, my purpose in knowingly entering this dangerous place is to measure my capabilities. At worst, I'm still confident enough to escape any trouble in this place."

Kael nodded, and just then his gaze moved to the sidelines as he immediately threw the axe in his hand. The next moment, the axe was seen stuck in a tree not far away, and there was a corpse of a snake-like thick monster on the ground.

"Well, that was easy. It seems like killing 'Basic' Grade monsters isn't even worth the effort. Monsters are also divided into 9 Grades: basic, common, rare, mystic, epic, calamity, legendary, mythical, and cosmic. In such a countryside area, the strongest monster can't be more than a mystic grade at best... so it's just the perfect place to start my recovery process..."

Kael commented as he grabbed his axe back along with the snake's corpse.

"Monsters' corpses are worth a lot of money, so it will be a waste to let it go..."

Kael smiled and packed it into a thick leather bag he had brought along with him. After a few minutes of searching, he encountered a boar with enormous teeth coming out from the corners of its mouth and some sort of aura-like glow emanating from the blue markings on its brown fur.

"A rare grade? Well, this one will be a challenge to knock back some muscle memory of this body," Kael nodded and took out two axes. He threw them straight at the boar, knocking it unconscious, and flashed his giant sword with a grin.

"Sup ~"

"Wiiiiiiiiiii!!!"

The boar didn't even think before charging straight towards Kael, and the blue marks on its back seemed to be glowing brightly, igniting blue flames over those teeth coming out from the corners of its mouth.

"What a cool fellow," Kael grinned. As the boar came a few meters away, Kael immediately jumped up to a nearby tree with the help of his thick axe. However, the boar charged right through the tree where Kael was previously standing.

"Man, I would have lost my private parts if I hadn't been quick, but the instincts and reflexes of this body are indeed very impressive!"

Kael smiled and took out the axe from that tree, then jumped directly onto the boar, which was still shaking its head in confusion.

"Die!!!"

Kael slashed right towards the head of the boar, but as he had expected, his axe got deflected away by the overgrown, flame-covered teeth of the boar, which had also recovered its state of mind.

"I need to work on precision, I guess," Kael muttered. By the time he could act, the boar was already in front of him, but thankfully, Kael was still good enough to use his axe to block the charge of the boar.

"Well, what if I don't know how to use aura yet? My strength is still that of someone who is a 4 Star Aura Master! Now you're dead, Piggy!!!"

Kael roared and took out another large blunt sword from his space pouch, thrusting it right through the face of the boar, finishing it off completely.

"As expected, swords aren't my thing; axes suit me best..."

Kael noticed that his grip had almost slipped from the sword despite the easy thrust. With a sigh, he took out his axe and looked upwards towards the moon above.

"Well, I guess I can still try a few more times today before returning."

Kael said that, and as he looked at his axe, he noticed a little dark reddish layer of energy surrounding it. Kael could sense it, but he still couldn't grasp a way to manipulate it.

"So that's aura, huh? Nice assist material..."

Kael said that, and over the span of an hour, he encountered a few more monsters of common grade and one more rare grade wolf-like creature.

"Honestly, these types have a crappy taste, but their furs are good. I'll make them usable in a few days, but for now, this must be good enough!"

Kael smiled with satisfaction. He had finally somewhat managed to move aura around his weapon, although he still didn't have great control over it, as a 4 Star Aura Expert would. However, with sheer muscle memory and instincts, he had made considerable progress for the first day.

∆∆∆

[https://discord.com/invite/UQP4ufaRWz]

Join the damn Discord, you ungrateful followers! Follow the commands of the almighty (⁠눈⁠‸⁠눈⁠).

∆∆∆