The Forest 3

within the forest, many people died on their first day. be it by the animals to the incent, or even the wild deadly plants, the number of students dropped to 1,200, less than half of before. those who were lucky to be teleported into this forest with another person managed to have the highest chance of survival, those with a wider range of magic also had a higher chance of survival,

but this was only the first day. As the days went by, the number dropped even more, and by the first week, only 700 people remained in the forest. by then, everyone had a good understanding of the forest and places to stay away from, everyone pretty much had groups which allowed them to split the world and even had a leader to manage everyone

but in the 3rd week, only 582 people remained. By then, those who remained were the lucky ones, or the truly skilled ones. within the deeper parts of the forest, a scarlet-haired girl led a group. with so many mouths to feed, they were forced to go deeper into the forest to find wild animals to hunt

"I smell fire." a young kid said softly, leading everyone to look toward where his nose was pointed. this kid had a sharp noise, capable of smelling poison, and when magical beasts were near, he was one of the few people everyone fought to draw to his side.

following his nose, everyone went up a mountain, and soon they saw a small shabby tree house. everyone looked at the tree house for a moment, before looking at the campfire, there a kid sat wearing jaguar skin clothing, he turned the meat which he was cocking, not bothering to look up.

"... it's you." the scarlet-haired girl said with a frown, this was the same kid she saw break the legs of those two guys last time. Sora ignored her, he knew his strength and capability by now, it was below him to lower himself to pay attention to these kids.

but the scarlet-haired girl was unhappy, she made herself known, so the least Sora could have done was say something, or at least look up to look at her. yet Sora, sat there, his eyes closed while ignoring the world around him.

"what it Ellan?" one of the kids following her asked with a frown,

"This is the guy who broke the arm of the prince of the sword kid empire," Ellan said with a frown, now knowing how to deal with this. but everyone hearing this was the commoner who dared to touch a noble were enraged, they stepped forward, wanting to teach Sora a lesson

"I'm not one to repeat myself, so I will say this once. if I make a move, all of your legs and arms would be broken." Sora said calmly, causing the group of kids to freeze for a moment, but one of them sneered

"what can a commoner like you do? you only injure those two by luck, I want to see you get lucky with me." a kid around 13 years of age shot forward towards Sora, how dared a commoner speak to a noble like him?

he arrived before Sora at great speed, followed by his fist shooting toward Sora's face. Sora with his eyes closed moved his head to the side, barely dodging the attack with a hairs breath, the kid was shocked seeing Sora was able to dodge that, but just as he was about to follow up with another attack, Sora grabbed his arm and with a twist, the sound of his bone-breaking sounded, followed by his pained scream,

Sora moved, breaking his other arm, followed by his two legs. two finish things up, while he fall backward, he went by Sora's foot which stumped his face. all of this was done with closed eyes, so when Sora turned to face the others with his calm and indifferent expression, everyone couldn't help but step backward in fear.

with a sneer, Sora kicked the kid towards him, which the scarlet-haired girl caught, before placing him down gently, but seeing his condition, she was enraged and glared at Sora.

"you went overboard, he might have deserved a getting beaten up for attacking you out of nowhere, but how can he survive within this forest like this?" she said angrily, only for her to get even more enraged as Sora eat the meat he was cocking as nothing happened.

"then it seems like you all have to protect him for the remaining week," Sora said calmly, enraging her even more.

"he can't take on all of us, surround him." one of the people in the group said before all of them moved, but she stopped them.

"fighting here would solve nothing, we might even draw the attention of more powerful animals here... plus, that jaguar clothing he is wearing, it should be from one of the 7 leader beasts, an animal capable of using magical energy. he isn't your match, and we are the ones in the wrong." She said calmly while standing up, leading everyone to look towards her, unwilling to let this slide, but none of them were willing to attack now, if Sora was so powerful then none of them was his match, only she was.

Just when everyone thought she would want them to leave, she shot toward Sora. Yes, they were in the wrong, say she knew attacking Sora would fix nothing, but how could she just walk away after seeing those who entrusted their lives to her get so injured like that?

Sora shot up, just as her fist slammed at the spot he was at moments ago, the power from her fist created a small crater, as well as sent out a weak shock wave that flew away the campfire.

'she is using magic to enhance her strength... she should be around the same age as myself, yet for your fist to hold such power... this isn't the same simple enhancements brought upon by using magical energy to boost oneself.' Sora thought while landing not too far away, although he couldn't see her since his eyes were closed, his eyes were sharp enough to hear just how angry she was.

"I didn't expect there to be others as capable of as me, Ellan was it. you might put up a decent fight." Sora said calmly, she was strong, but he was stronger. and since he had to keep his strength in check, she would seem to be stronger than him.

"I will give you more than a decent fight." She said before she shot forward, her speed reaching a stat of 11. for Sora who was trying to keep a stat of 3, this was something he could only dodge thanks to his powerful senses, if not, he wouldn't have been able to react in time to dodge

Sora shot backward, dodging one of her attacks, but with another step, she seemly teleported before Sora, whose back was pressed against a tree. with a jump, Sora dodge another of her fist, and her fist slammed into the tree, creating a large hole that caused the tree to slowly fall over.

'is this all to her? her combat capability is all right, but nowhere near my level. her rage is leading to her leaving herself open for many counters... if this was anywhere else, I would have killed her to avoid future trouble,' Sora thought while landing to the side,

She turned and threw another fist towards Sora, aiming to land a heavy right hook on Sora's face, but Sora's hand moved, pushing the arm further to the right, leading her to miss his face, Sora stepped in before she could react, and landed a heavy knee to her stomach, but it felt like his knee ran into a heavy melt wall,

she was sent stumbling backward without much damage, but Sora's fist arrived before her, slamming on her neck. She was sent stumbling backward while struggling to breathe, which caused whatever magic she was using to disappear,

Sora didn't care if she was an adorable little girl, the next moment his fist rained on her face before a kick sent her shooting back towards her teammates, who quickly mocked to catch her, but she quickly tried to get them off her while she struggled to get up

'she wasn't knocked out?' Sora thought slightly surprised that she wasn't knocked out by the amount of punches he landed on her,

'then again, her body is unique, she seemed to have cast a spell or something on her body to give it a boost that doesn't disappear.' Sora thought while looking at her using her magic to heal her injury, but the blood which covered her face she ignored. she looked at her, while rubbing her neck, shocked filling her eyes.

for the first time, someone of the same age group managed to defeat her, this was a first to her. but Sora ignored her, went to the tree which had fallen to look at his tree house,

"you caused me enough trouble, I will not break your bones like the others, you not some arrogant good for nothing," Sora said calmly,

"if I may, what's your name?" She asked seriously, today she had lost, so she wanted to know the name of the person who defeated her. tomorrow she shall return stronger than ever for a rematch,

"Sora," Sora said lazily to which she nodded,

"My name is Ellen Dragnof, princess of the Dragnof empire," she said which Sora ignored, not caring that she was some princess. Ellen took a deep breath before having those who came with her return back to their camp, she needed to heal this guy's bones and it would take some time.

'if I'm not wrong the Dragnof empire is one of the big powerhouses in this world, to think Merlin could draw them in.' Sora thought with a deep frown, Dragnof is one of the few empires which tries to coexist with dragons, a rare and seemly impossible concept, but with the fire dragon king being the king's friend, many dragons began giving humans a case, a few of them ended up calling that empire home.

shaking his head, Sora took the important stuff he had and moved. he was not in the mood to be bothered, he was currently at a level for, and all the stats he had were at 10, since he was about to reach a mail stone in levels, the amount of XP he needed was far greater, so for the fast few weeks he had struggled to collect the amount needed, but with Ellen words, he found out that there were 4 others animals like the jaguar, so he was going to go fight them and use them to train.

but first, he needed to rest. his knee was in a great amount of pain after slamming it into her stomach, which was protected with some strange magic, it's not like it was damaged or anything, just in case someone was watching, they might expect his knee to be useless for some time, so Sora was going to give it a few hours to rest.

after that rest, Sora followed up the remaining week using those other 4 animals to train, sharpening his skills even more, and when all 4 were killed, Sora finally leveled up to level 5

{Congratulations host for reaching level 5. a milestone has been reached, and the host gained +5 to his stats.

the host has awakened magical energy

the host has gained a new ability called [Waring Mind]- with this ability, whenever your mind remains within a calm state of being, you gain a boost to your intelligence, stamina, and Charm. if you enter an unstable state of mind, you instead shall get a drop in intelligence, Stamina, and Charm, and in return gain a boost to Strength, Agility, Durability, and Endurance.

[Waring Mind] is out of your control, note that this ability has added effect of making you have an easier chance of getting enraged. you should take the time to control your emotions, which in return would allow you to control this ability.} The system said

Boom

within the forest, magic energy exploded off Sora, and destroyed the land around him, along with his clothing. Sora stood there, feeling the power flowing through his body, this feeling of power, was like nothing he had ever felt before.

{alright host, we got another thing for you to train with. you know how in anime, a person has to learn techniques to effectively use their energy right? we will skip all that, with [Sharp Instncts] and [Waring Mind] boosting your mind, the control of your energy shall be great, to the point that you could master your energy completely. at which point, you would need no techniques, just a thought, and your energy could do it. of course, you would need a good understanding of what you want your energy to do.} The system said stunning Sora

{for example, if you want to create flames that would take the form of a dragon, it could be done if your mastery is high enough. if you want to use your energy to reality wrap, it could be done, if your mastery of energy is high enough and if it's strong enough to affect reality, so you get what I'm saying? magic is simply a title that allows a person to effectively use their magic energy, if we simply focus on you mastering magic energy to its fullest, then you can copy any spell you see without trouble. and when reached the peak, you can will your energy to do anything. so, don't let other magic distract you from this goal.} the system said to which Sora nodded while gathering balls of magical energy in his palms, he grew forward, and watched as they exploded, taking out the land around it, and sending out shock waves

"This is a bit addicting... I can see how people can be swallowed by hunger to gain more power. who would not want to feel like a god?" Sora said softly while looking at his palm before asking the system a question

'since my energy and strength are both even, how strong would I get if both are used together as the others do?' Sora asked calmly

{thats a good question... lets for a moment think about it. you have heard of abilities called flash steps, where a person can boost their speed to the extreme for a short burst of speed.} the system asked to which Sora agree while not nodding his head just in case someone was watching

{then why do you think it's for a short burst of speed? why can't they keep going?} the system asked to which Sora thought for a moment,

'because their body might not be able to handle it?' Sora asked to which the system agree

{indeed, but it's not only their body but their senses. it can't keep up with such extreme bursts of speed. this is where perfect control of energy comes into play, if you can perfectly control your energy to such a shocking level, then you can not only enhance your speed to the extreme but sharpen your senses, and defense to be able to remain within that state for a long time. you can boost your speed as for as your mind could take you, 100 times, 1,000 times, before reaching a point you ignore all space and time, and instantly arrive anywhere you want. it would be like teleportations.} The system said stunning Sora

{the benefits of perfect energy control don't end there, with perfection reached, you would be using as little as possible energy for many things, meaning that you would have a seemly endless amount of energy to draw upon... to say the least, perfection is hard to reach. thats why you should start working on getting an ability related to energy control.} the system said to which Sora went on to try and control his energy until he got an ability.

but controlling magical energy was harder than he thought, so he began trying to do the Rasengan, which is considered the peak of energy control within an anime he watched. if he could learn to master it, then wouldn't it mean he reached the peak? of course, the system shot down such foolish thoughts, Rasengan was not the peak of energy control. it could only be considered 90% of the way there. it was infinitely far from reaching 100%. and one should know 100% is impossible to reach, but one can get infinitely close to it.

but the system had to admit that using other anime knowledge to do this was going to speed things up.