First Hunt

Lin jumped up from a blue crystal-looking boat and landed on the shore of a territory. Owing to the presence of sea beasts, boats and ships were made from hard materials to prevent them from being destroyed outright by the attacks of powerful sea beasts. Unlike boats with sails, these watercraft was propelled by a unique mineral called galestones. These minerals create high-pressure air pockets when submerged hence they were used to drive watercraft.

A bubble-looking dome surrounded the entire territory separating it from the outside. If one paid no attention, you wouldn't even notice its presence. Lin had a peculiar mask on to hide his identity. He didn't want anyone to know who he was as it would raise too much suspicion and may cause him a lot of trouble. The only thing one could see were his eyes as he now had a hooded light jacket which matched his top.

He walked through the barrier effortlessly. It felt like he had just walked through a water curtain. This made him feel weird. On the other side of the barrier, was beautiful scenery. There were many trees and flowers with small ponds here and there. It made the place look like a paradise. He looked around for a bit and chose a direction to go. The territory was several miles large. The deeper one went, the stronger the beast one would encounter. Though some powerful beasts do come to the outskirts from time to time, it was rare.

Unlike most people he bypassed, he had no weapon. Seeing almost everyone around him with weapons, he commented "Well, looks like I'm the only one here without a weapon. Even those level ones have weapons. I would have to use my fists for now until I reach Rank 5 to condense my weapon." He soon discovered some footprints on the floor and bent to check them out. They were almost faded and incomplete.

<NOTICE>

<Footprints of a beast have been discovered.>

<Scanning>

He was surprised when these messages began popping up in his head once more. "I didn't think that was still there. I should find some time to learn how to use it properly." he murmured as he waited for results.

<Insufficient data to determine the type of beast>

<Determining possible route taken by beast>

<Route Determined>

Lin's pupils gave off a faint red glow. He began to see many incomplete footprints heading in a specific direction. "This is handy" he smiled and followed the footprints. After walking for about an hour and a half, he entered a mountainous region covered mostly with short vegetation. The footprints disappeared and were no longer visible.

"Looks like I am at the right place. Where is that beast". He began searching for the beast and soon found a large brown armoured spiked beast grazing about 500 meters ahead. It was about 6 meters long and one meter tall and had a thick armour of oval plates and knobs of bone. It had a strong tail with a club at its end. It stood on four limbs with the back limbs slightly larger than the front limbs. It had a very wide skull with a narrow beak which it used to pull on grass.

<Notice>

<Rock Element beast Ankylosaurus found>

<Level: Quint>

<Rank: 1>

<Specialty: Defence>

"Wow, it even gives information about the beast. This is great. I don't have to worry about engaging a powerful beast unknowingly". He paused and went into a deep thought "Not many people are dual element wielders. Across all territories, there should be only about 6 of them and they are all renowned people now. It would be troublesome if people find out I'm a dual wielder."

He stood contemplating while also watching the beast graze forward slowly. He contemplated which element to use as his primary one. After thinking for some time, his eyes lit up and he said, "I think I should use fire as the primary and lightning as the secondary. Since I'm the only one here, using both shouldn't be a problem."

After he decided, he looked towards the grazing beast and slowly began his approach. When he got within 150 meters of the beast, the beast became alarmed by his presence and slammed its clubbed tail on the ground. Debris flew towards Lin. "Now it's time to put the little I learned to practice," he thought as black flames erupted from his body like a raging volcano. He clenched his fists and began punching madly towards the incoming debris. The black fire soon covered the entire area ahead of him and melted all the debris flying at him.

"Is that all you got?" he cackled and rushed madly towards the beast. Within a few steps, he was already close to the beast. The beast swung its clubbed tail fiercely at him before he could notice. Before he could think about evading, his body naturally reacted and moved him out of the way of the incoming club. "What the hell?" he was as surprised as he was shocked. He didn't think he could move his body in that manner. It felt strangely natural.

But now was not the time to think about that. He had a foe to defeat. The beast kept swinging its tail fiercely at him but he kept dodging it every single time without an ounce of hesitation. It was like his body was remembering something he had long forgotten. After the beat swung its tail again and failed to hurt him, he moved in quickly and punched the beast in the jaw. Black fire erupted from the punch and seared its skin.

Without reprieve, he began dodging and punching the beast from all angles. The beast roared and in a bid to save its life delivered its most powerful attack towards Lin's head. This time Lin didn't dodge the incoming tail. He had already gotten used to the beast attack pattern. He clenched his fist tightly and also sent a powerful punch towards the approaching tail. He increased the heat of the flames on his hand as it approached the tail.

The fist and the tail collided. Flames exploded and the force of the collision pushed him two steps back. The beast, however, was sent flying ten meters back. Its clubbed tail had exploded into a blood mist. The beast struggled to its feet to escape but Lin wasn't allowing that to happen. He raced to the beast and after a few more punches, it dropped to the ground with a thud.

< Rock Element beast Ankylosaurus Hunted>

A familiar message popped up in his head. The area was covered in black flames which started spreading towards the trees. Lin waved his hand to put out the flame and walked to the dead beast. In just 10 minutes, he had defeated the Rank 1 beast. "That was easier than I thought. I didn't even have to use the Lightning element."

He took out a small cube from his bag and collected the beast's corpse.

<Space storage cube>

<Type: Low Rank Normal>

<Capacity: 1/10>

"After spending almost all of my fortune, I was only able to purchase a low-rank normal space storage cube. How disheartening," he said and stood to leave. Space storage cubes were expensive and divided into 5 ranks. Normal, Unique, Gold, Platinum and Diamond. Normal ranked space storage cubes alone cost about a hundred gold. They could be kept in a bag or suspended around the user in invisible mode.

Lin turned and discovered a sudden flash of lightning in a nearby mountain range. He immediately raced towards it.