Chapter 148: Curiosity

Half a month later, Leonel could still be found walking around the forest. Though his harvests could be considered to be great, he was still in an incredibly sorry state.

His Quasi Bronze chain necklace managed to mend his clothes in places they had once been torn, but the limp in his gait, the caked blood and dried wounds on his skin, not to mention the paleness on his face were things it couldn't do anything about. This led to a situation where his clothes were in mint condition, yet his body looked like it had just gone through a hundred consecutive battles.

If one had followed Leonel from the start to now, one would see quite a weird scene. First, Leonel would find himself a beast to target. Second, he would easily kill that beast. And, finally, just when he was feeling complacent in his victory, that very same damned streak of black would attack him from an unpredictable angle.

At this point, Leonel had already had dozens of fights with that unknown beast. And though it couldn't be said that he always definitely lost, he most definitely didn't win either.

It really was too much. He had no idea why this thing was targeting him, but it rarely even allowed him a moment to rest.

By now, Leonel had learned from the dictionary that Dark Elemental Force, and his Light Elemental Force for that matter, weren't normal Force Strengthening Deviations. Each was incomparably rare and powerful. But, this only made him feel more aggrieved.

Just what were the odds of a beast with such a rare ability deciding to target him? Where was the justice?

At first, Leonel thought that maybe those with Dark Elemental Force had some baked in bias against those with Light Elemental Force. But, this didn't seem to be the case at all. He almost laughed at himself for having this thought.

This wasn't some cheap anime his dad liked to watch. There wasn't any light side versus dark side nonsense going on here, this creature just apparently didn't like the way he looked. What other explanation could there be?

Leonel sighed.

In a motion he had practiced one too many times, he flipped his palm, allowing his long-nozzle pistol to appear. He hardly shot a glance at his target before he fired, causing a white pellet of energy to pierce through the left eye of a fox that had been stalking him in some thick bushes. The poor thing hardly new how it died.

And, once again, as though on cue, a flash of black headed for the back of Leonel's head.

Leonel dove forward, ducking and rolling out of the way.

'Eat this.'

Light Elemental Force surged from Leonel's hand and into the pistol. A sharp eye would easily notice the nozzle bulge a small bit before a bead of golden energy shot out from it, barely able to hold out under the power of the bullet.

SHUUUU! BANG!

The streak of black dodged once more as usual, but Leonel heard its faint 'yip' that almost sounded like the bark of a small dog. It usually made this sound whenever Leonel sent an attack toward it that could threaten it and it was something Leonel had been hearing more and more often lately.

The golden bullet collided with a tree that would take ten men to wrap around. Yet, it was blasted through as though no more resistant than a piece of paper.

The bark, the wood, its innards, all of it, was completely vaporized.

Even though Leonel didn't have much of a reaction to it now, the first time he had seen the strength of Light Elemental Force, he was stunned silent.

Leonel grit his teeth. 'You damned beast.'

Thanks to this thing, he couldn't eat, sleep, or even relax. Yet, there was still half a month more in this hell hole. How could he not be aggrieved?

Unfortunately, before he could launch another attack, the beast disappeared again. Once again, from start to finish, Leonel didn't even catch a glance of what it was. He only managed to decipher that it must be a small creature of some sort. Outside of that, he really knew nothing else.

Leonel took a deep breath, calming his agitation. He found a tree to lean against and slid down, taking a rest.

Aside from this particular annoyance, this Hunt couldn't be said to be completely without merit.

For one, he had come into contact with many beasts that provided interested prospects for Force Crafting. The only unfortunate part was that none of these would help him to repair his chain necklace. Unfortunately, he didn't have the skill to repair such a high level treasure.

His two pistols could be ranked around the Tier 5 or 6 Black. It could be said that it was his accuracy and his Light Elemental Force that made them so lethal. In his hands, they were no weaker than a Tier 9 Black treasure, but in someone else's, Tier 6 was the best they'd be able to hope for. Such a treasure was about Leonel's limit at this moment, something that left him a bit disappointed.

But, if these matters were put into perspective, just how shocking was it that Leonel, who had just stepped foot into the Force Crafting world, could already be considered a Tier 6 Black Force Crafter?

'Hm?'

Leonel noticed that there was someone coming toward him. But, since it was a human and not an animal, he didn't bother to move. This wasn't because Leonel assumed that this person wouldn't be hostile. The words Thunderous Clap had spoken to him were more than just a small wake up call to him about the kind of world he lived in now. Rather, it was that he didn't think this person in particualr could harm him even if they wanted to.

When that person entered the clearing Leonel was resting in and saw that it was him, they were stunned for a while.

"Indomitable, it's you."

The person didn't seem to be hostile. Of course, Leonel immediately recognized him. It was none other than Erupting Volcano, one of the young men Leonel had defeated during the gathering. It was easy to tell from the molten magma drawn directly onto his mask.

"Hello." Leonel said as a polite greeting.

Though Erupting Volcano's face was covered by his mask, Leonel could tell from his eyes that he was stunned. Toward such a thing, he could only bitterly laugh. Did they all really take him to be such a bad person? Even to the point they were shocked by something as simple as a greeting?

Erupting Volcano suddenly felt hesitant, not knowing how he should approach.

Leonel laughed lightly. "If you have something you want to say, just say it. I won't bite you."

Hearing such words, Erupting Volcano relaxed slightly.

"I don't know how much you know about what's going on right now?"

"What's going on?" Leonel's brow furrowed.

"As expected, you really weren't aware. In the past half month, there've been a few skirmishes between us and the Eastern Lookout participants. We were caught off guard because most of us traveled alone while they traveled in groups. A lot of us got ambushed and had our stash of beast crystals taken away..."

"So that's what happened..." Leonel mumbled.

"You know about it?"

"Well, a group did try to rob me a few days ago. But..."

Erupting Volcano smiled bitterly. Leonel didn't need to finish. He knew those people hadn't succeeded. Shaking his head, he continued.

"What's more pressing is the lack of S-grade and above beasts. Even A-grade beasts have been getting scarcer and scarcer."

Leonel frowned. Now that he thought about it, this was true. He only didn't notice because that creature was always attacking him. He knew that little thing was at least an SS-grade threat. With such a beast constantly haunting him, where would he get the time to think about why stronger creatures weren't appearing?

"It can't be that we've already hunted them all?" Leonel asked probingly.

Erupting Volcano shook his head. "That's impossible. Even though this island isn't as big as a continent, it's still at least a hundred kilometers in diameter. The population of beasts should be in the tens of thousands. We don't even number a hundred total, how could we clear them all in a few days?"

Leonel nodded. This made sense.

"So none of you have an answer to this?"

"Well... we've been trying to go to the center of the island for a long time. The problem is that there are a lot of rivers and lakes blocking the way there with dense populations of dangerous underwater creatures. I'm actually part of a scout sent out to find and stragglers so we can come together to make a push."

Hearing this much, Leonel fell into his own thoughts. Ultimately, he chose to follow only for the sake of his own curiosity. Why were the beasts acting so weirdly?