9 Encountering First Enemy...
Deep within the Great Wildlands Forest, outside the territory of the SunBurn kingdom, stood a boy who appeared to be around 12 years old. He had black-as-night, medium-length hair and sapphire blue eyes; his features were so perfect that they put even the gods to shame.
The boy stood on the edge of a deep pit that was once a harmless mountain…
"I think it's about time I go explore this world a bit," he started talking with a small smile. "Cultivating is one of the best things ever, but I feel that to gain power even faster, I need to fight strong enemies and increase my combat power through battle," he ended with a clenching of his fists.
The young prince had a serious look on his face in the beginning; however, such seriousness quickly turned comical, as he said, "I can hardly wait to start finding some fun situations to intervene in the middle of! Maybe a dragon and Phoenix are out there fighting somewhere and they need me to intervene!! Where I will then beat them both to a pulp and cook them into a delicious stew!!"
His bold words echoed out across the barren landscape, and with a wide grin, he added, "Or maybe a damsel in distress needs my help because an evil Demon Lord captured her, and like the gentleman I am..." He paused for a moment before he said, "I'll go and fight the Demon Lord to my heart's content, and after beating the Demon Lord to a pulp, I will kidnap the damsel myself and proceed to drop her in a forest full of monsters!! If she gets captured, then she obviously needs some toughening up, and what better way to toughen someone up than a horde of monsters?!"
The young prince started to have ludicrous thoughts again as he thought of the adventures he would have in this world called 'Asterion'.
That was until he realized that he had forgotten something quite important…
"Hold your horses, me! You forgot something vital that you need to do before you venture out into this wide new world of yours," he exclaimed with a slightly expectant look on his face.
What exactly was so important that he had to hold off on exploring the world was because he needed a...
"I need a name!" He announced.
"I need a name name that fits me to a T, but what should that name be?"
He pondered the matter for a second before he stated all the requirements that his name had to abide by.
"Hmm... My name has to be something cool and maybe a little domineering. It can't be too flashy or pompous sounding either."
The young prince had few prerequisites for the name that would be with him for the rest of his life, but that was enough for him.
"How about…" He muttered, his fingers rubbing his chin.
After a few seconds of 'deep thinking', he knew what he would be calling himself as his eyes lit up, and he declared, "Azmond! That will be my name!"
Azmond repeated his new name inside his head a few times, before he thought, 'It has a very nice ring to it, although it sounds a little like some sort of demon lord's name, which doesn't really suit my kind and gentle personality... but who honestly cares about small details like that, Haha!'
Azmond became lost in his own little fantasy as he imagined the terror- err, the joy he would cause in all those who heard his name!
*****
Azmond, after reveling in his new name for a bit, begins to walk in a random direction at inhuman speeds, looking to find something within the ridiculously large Great Wildlands forest that could put up a good fight!
.....
A couple of minutes later, Azmond encountered his first enemy in this strange new world of cultivation…
*Rustle! Rustle!*
A short and green-looking creature around 3 feet tall with a hideous wart-infested face and large pointy ears suddenly popped out of a bush a few hundred meters in front of Azmond!
"..."
Azmond stopped in his tracks and took a good look at the hideous creature, and only one thought occupied his mind at that moment, 'Is that a fricking GOBLIN?!?'
At that moment, he finally understood the gravity of the situation--a situation where he had found himself in a whole other world than the one he was used to.
Azmond was in a new world where monsters and beings of all sorts and sizes roamed around wherever they pleased…
It was a world where he could fight monsters and mythical creatures whenever he felt like it!
Azmond, when speaking about meeting wondrous creatures, conveniently forgot the fact that he had been living with a 10-meter-large White Wolf for months!
That was not to mention the fact that he was able to cultivate and cause mass destruction with just a punch!
And let's not forget that his body, which looked like that of a 12-year-old when he was, in reality, not even 2 years old, just conveniently slipped past his mind as well...
Nonetheless, for whatever reason, what really let the fact that he was in a new mysterious world settle in was one single weak, ugly green monster.
....
"A new world, huh? Oh, what fun I'll have with you!" Azmond smiled a little in anticipation as he looked at the goblin in front of him with a predatory gaze.
He slowly walked up to the goblin with that same smile until the goblin finally saw the monster approaching it.
"!!!"
When the goblin looked into the eyes of the creature before it, the only thing it felt was...
Fear.
It felt fear for the very first time in its life, fear that came from the very soul of its being telling it that it would die soon.
The goblin had seen many creatures out there stronger than it was, but the creature before it was different.
The goblin was afraid of the creature! Not so much of its certain death, but of what would happen to it if it didn't fight back...
It was afraid of angering the monster before it; the goblin knew something, as if, on instinct, it knew that it needed to die first before the monster became angry at how weak it was.
But how? The goblin couldn't move, it couldn't speak... it couldn't even breathe out of fear of the monster in front of it…
It wanted to just run up to the freak and get its death over with.
But it couldn't…
So the goblin just stood there staring, staring at the monster coming towards it with a joyous smile on his handsome face.
...
"..."
The goblin stood there motionless for what felt like ages, but in reality, not even a full second had passed since it first spotted the handsome monster.
As the seconds ticked by, the scary monster was now mere inches away from the goblin, and that was when the goblin heard the monster speak for the first time since it arrived, with a voice so deep and husky that the goblin pissed itself out of fear.
"Do something. Anything!" The scary monster commanded, but the goblin was frozen in fear. It couldn't do anything, even if it wanted to.
"Disappointing..." The scary monster's expectant smile turned into a slight frown when it saw the goblin not move an inch out of fear.
"Such a disappointment," Azmond murmured. "My first real monster fight was supposed to be fun, something exciting, but this is what I got instead."
His eyes scanned over the terrified countenance of the goblin before his frown only got deeper and deeper, something that horrified the goblin even more.
"Whatever, let's just get this over with, shall we?" Azmond announced with a sigh.
"..."
The goblin put on a relieved expression when it heard the scary monster say those words; it just wanted to get its life done and over with.
However, it would soon be put back into the pits of despair with the next words that came out of Azmond's mouth, as he said, "Is what you thought I'd say, didn't you?!?" He began with a slightly sinister smirk. "That would be oh so nice for you now, wouldn't it?? Well, too bad~. I'll show you what happens to cowardly little green pigs who ruin my fun!" He ended with an explosion of a blue aura.
WAAA!
Azmond's aura erupted outward, as it seemed like it would consume the entire area of the forest they were in!
"?!?!"
The goblin already closed its eyes when it thought it was going to get a quick death, but it opened its eyes in absolute terror when it heard what the scary monster just said!
Nonetheless, it was too late to run away now, as two fierce eyes already had their target in sight.
"I wonder if you like dirt, little green P-I-G-G-Y?!?" Azmond asked the goblin with an oddly demonic look on his handsome face.
.....
Info Dump Down Below: Reader, be warned!
....
Azmond learned a few abilities after he broke through to Quantum Qi Condensation, all of which he learned from the second section of the Divine Devil Arts.
One of those abilities was an Earth-related ability, an ability called Earth Dominion that allowed him to conjure up the Earth Element to control however he pleased. Of course, that was only as long as his energy storage was large enough, and his technique proficiency was high enough.
Furthermore, each of Azmond's 1000 Qi cyclones was like a large energy storage container inside his Dantian space with the Qi that makes up the cyclones the energy that he had available to him. While the cyclones themselves were the 'energy containers'.
There was also another thing that he had gleaned into with the help of the Divine Devil Arts.
That something being the ability classification in the world of Asterion.
A classification that was divided into 5 Main ranks from lowest to highest ---> |Common --> Mortal --> Sky --> Earth --> Heaven| with each rank further divided into 4 levels, which were from lowest to highest |Low --> Middle --> High --> Top|.
An example of such a classification would be Azmond's Earth Dominion skill, which was a Middle/Mid ranked Mortal-Class skill.
For reference, a mid-rank mortal class skill book could be the sect heirloom of a very small sect.
The last thing that he had learned was the Ability Proficiency Rank, which was divided into 6 ranks from lowest to highest ---> |Beginner Proficiency --> Minor Proficiency --> Greater Proficiency --> Complete Proficiency --> Mastered --> Assimilated|
....
Info Dump Over, You made it back alive, Soldier!
....
******
"Since You don't want to have fun fighting me, little green piggy... then I will just make my own fun!!" Azmond announced with a wide, toothy grin
SWISH!
He used Earth Dominion to conjure up a giant glob of the earth element, which he then molded into a giant 10-meter-long floating hand.
OOOM!
He made the hand grab the frozen-in-fear goblin before it brought the goblin right up close to his face as he gave the most terrifying stare the goblin had ever seen.
"Have You Ever Been Drowned In Mud Little Pig?!?" Azmond asked with an insane look on his face.
Following such a question, he began to use another skill he gained from The Divine Devil Arts Scripture - |Water Dominion|.
It was a skill very similar to his Earth Dominion skill, except it gave him the ability to control the water element instead.
|Water Dominion| was also a Mid-Mortal Ranked skill.
....
Azmond conjured up a 5-meter sphere of water that he combined with the Giant Earth Hand to make a 12-meter mud hand.
"Not exactly what I was hoping for, but I can't expect much more when both my Earth and Water Dominion skills are still at beginner proficiency," he muttered.
Azmond gave a slight look of disappointment before he quickly returned to the task at hand.
That 'task' being a flight trial.
"Now let's see how far you can fly, little green piggy."
Azmond squished the mud hand with his Qi and molded it into a 15-meter-long spear.
He held the mud spear in some magical way as he lunged forward and threw the spear with everything he had in the direction of a Large mountain tens of miles away.
BOOOM! BOOOM! WSSSSHH!
The spear traveled at insane speeds as it made 2 sonic booms on its way to the mountain peak.
The Spear made it to the mountain peak with an explosion that destroyed part of the mountain.
The goblin was still inside the mud spear, slowly suffocating to death with no way to escape.
It struggled and struggled, regretting ever going into the forest that morning and meeting that psychopath.
It went out that day hoping to find some human females to r*pe and bring back to its lair to breed them for a few years, but all it got instead was a slow and excruciating death dealt out to it by a human male...
It took 5 minutes for the goblins' suffering to come to an end as life faded out of its eyes…
After the goblin had died, Azmond said, "I should definitely work on increasing the proficiencies of these 2 skills. I can imagine a plethora of different combinations and ways to use them."
Nonetheless, regardless of his thoughts on skill improvements, his previously disappointed facial expression had already turned a little satisfied with the results of his first battle experiment as he started to walk in a random direction at insane speeds again.
Trying to find something that would put up a decent fight…
