Covered in fresh blood and viscera, Lukas merrily picked his way through the forest. He'd just finished up a fight and was on the prowl for another. He had a few bleeding wounds, but they were nothing serious, little more than cuts and scrapes, and he could wait to take a potion until he came across a harder challenge.

Just over a week had passed since leaving Calayis and Lukas was weaving his way southwest. Though, carving may be the more accurate term, considering how many bodies he left in his wake, fighting anything and everything he came across. He wasn't heading straight southwest, though. Instead, he took a more circuitous route, taking detours to find fights.

Lukas spread out his aura senses, and while they weren't very strong or well-honed, he could cover a decent sized area due to his strange soul strength. He used this and the distant sound of roars and battles to find beasts. The reason for this was simple, he wanted to get as many levels under his belt as possible. Hopefully he'd even be able to get another ability before encountering other people. The only problem was that the further he traveled the weaker the beasts were becoming, aside from a few standouts that is.

This meant that he needed a lot more beasts to get the same amount of experience that a higher leveled beast provided. As a result, Lukas was absolutely drenched in blood, his clothes once more ruined and tattered.

He wasn't wearing the clothes that Calayis had made for him, those were much nicer than the ones he'd looted from Sera's cave and he would've felt bad about ruining them. He was wearing his cloak, however. He felt a bit bad about it getting torn up so soon after Calayis had fixed it, but the cloak was the closest thing he had to armor, having it blunt some attacks and taking cuts Lukas didn't want to.

Despite the lower leveled beast, Lukas was making some headway in his own levels. He'd had to kill a lot of beasts to get there, and spared almost no time for anything else other than the occasional meditation. As a result he managed to gain four levels in his Rogue of Night class.

Due to the lower leveled beasts, Lukas didn't bother using any of his poisons in battle. The beast died too quickly for them to really take effect, and he also wanted to avoid having the experience from his kills going to his Combat Alchemist class. He wasn't sure how experience points worked, but if beasts only provided a set amount that was split between his classes based on how much those classes contributed to the kill, then he wanted to funnel as much experience into his Rogue of Night class as possible.

This left his Rogue class at level 23 with Lukas aiming for level 25, having a feeling he'd gain his next ability then. He'd gained both of his first abilities at level 5 in the respective classes, and he suspected that level 25 was when the second ability was earned.

Unfortunately for Lukas in order to get those last two levels he'd have to plow through an untold amount of weaker beasts as those in this area were only around level 10-15. The only upside to this was the fact that there were more monsters and beasts in the area, often in packs. conveniently one of those packs was headed for Lukas at that moment, drawn by the heavy scent of blood on him. Lukas had picked up their approach with his aura sense, and once he did he retracted his aura, not wanting to scare any of them off with his superior strength.

Soon enough, Lukas was face to face with over half a dozen Mystic Wolves. With a quick scan, Lukas counted eight wolves, none of them any higher than level 14. That didn't mean he'd dismiss the pack altogether, though. If they played things smart they could overwhelm him and wear him down.

Up until that point the most beasts Lukas had fought at once was four, now he was facing off against twice that many. They were all lower leveled than him and likely had far fewer stats, thanks to Lukas' many titles, but they still posed a challenge.

Against so many enemies agility would be key to avoid being pinned down. Thankfully he had a great ability that allowed him to flit through the shadows around him at speed, and considering he was in a forest filled with massive trees that cast long shadows he was at an advantage. He knew he might have to resort to using poisons if things got tough, but he wanted to wait and see how far he could go without having to use them.

Grinning below his mask, Lukas pulled his dagger out of his inventory and made the first move. Sinking into the shadow realm, Lukas blitzed one of the wolves that was trying to sneak up behind him. Leaping out of the shadows, he plunged his dagger into the side of the wolf's neck. It and the others had tracked Lukas as he moved through the shadows, but with over 130 agility and the subjective time warp of his ability they had no chance to stop him.

Before the fight had even truly begun one wolf was already on the ground dead. Angered by the death of their comrade, the wolves gave up on trying to encircle him, deciding to charge straight at him instead. It was a decent enough tactic, trying to overrun him with superior numbers, but Lukas had no plans to go down against a few weak wolves.

Unintimidated, Lukas charged to meet the first few, his dagger moving like a streak of light to leave nasty cuts and gashes, surprising the wolves. Lukas got a surprise of his own, though, as he found out that like the Mystic Stag, these Mystic Wolves could make use of magic. The three he'd fought, on his first day in this world, hadn't shown any such magic. Thinking back though, those had all been below level 5 and Lukas wondered if beasts unlocked abilities like he did.

Multiple sets of teeth and claws began to glow with an ethereal white light and grow in size to maximize damage. Before Lukas could dive back into the shadows a jaw full of large glowing teeth clamped down on the forearm holding the dagger. Snarling through the pain, Lukas swung his arm, using the wolf biting him as a wrecking ball to knock away those charging him, at the cost of worsening his wound. With a yelp, the wolf biting him let go as it slammed into the others, sending it and them tumbling.

Arm free, Lukas disappeared and reappeared a few meters away, taking a split second to check his arm. The bite marks were large, thanks to the effect of the wolf's magic, and there was a burning sensation that consumed his whole forearm. It wasn't the usual sting that came from an open and bleeding wound, nor was it poison of some kind.

Lukas had been poisoned, not only by his own concoctions but also by other monsters and beasts. What he felt now was some kind of magical effect or affliction. Looking at the wound, he could see faint motes of white light mixed in with his blood. He bet that his whole potion stash that those motes were the cause of the burning. He wanted to see if there were any other effects of the motes, but the wolves pressured him, not allowing him to catch his breath.

Lukas dove in and out of the shadows like a phantom, plunging his dagger into a wolf's side, neck, or flank, leaving long cuts and gashes that bleed all over the forest floor.

Using his higher agility to kite the wolves around, he slowly whittled them down, while keeping them clustered together, pressuring any wolf that tried to flee or break away from the pack. He took hits as a result, each one leaving behind a painful burn, one that ate into his health points.

Despite the wounds he took, Lukas was never in any real danger. He had more than enough health and toughness to be getting on with, and if he ever got desperate he could always down a potion and throw out a cloud of hemotoxin or necrotic poison. By now each wolf had multiple cuts and the poisons would make short work of them with so many entry points.

Before long one wolf after another fell, Lukas pushing his shadow travel ability as hard as he could take it. It was pushed even further when the last few wolves realized their fate and bolted, each scurrying off in different directions.

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Unwilling to let the experience and loot get away from him, Lukas chased each wolf down, killing it quickly before chasing after the others.

In the end, Lukas stood over the corpses of the wolves, breathing heavily. "That was fun," he huffed, looking out over his handiwork.

After taking the time to catch his breath, in which the magical burn of the wolves' attacks went away, Lukas went around looting all the bodies. He got a decent amount of coin and a level for his troubles. Satisfied with his haul, Lukas downed a potion and got moving once more.

***

Andrea picked her way through the northern forest. The area was relatively tamer compared to the southern and eastern sections. The monsters and beasts in the area were generally low copper, meaning the region was mostly used for training young and up and coming warriors and adventurers. This allowed villages and towns to exist rather carefree, so long as they had a few strong people around to keep an eye on things. These places were usually agricultural in nature since the beasts were easier to deal with.

She was in the area looking for her contracted beasts. Usually she avoided the area since the creatures were so much weaker than her, but large packs of beasts were starting to form and it would be difficult for a low copper adventurer to handle a pack of similarly leveled beasts.

The contract paid decently for the amount of work required, and it would give her a chance to test her mettle against a large group of enemies. The contract had been listed after a farmer spotted about a dozen Mystic Wolves near his farm.

Being a non-magic, the man had been forced to watch as a good portion of his livestock were slaughtered. Now he was forced to halt his operation until the roving pack was dealt with, lest he or his remaining herd be subject to another attack.

Andrea had already spoken with the kind old farmer, and gotten details about the pack. It didn't take long for her to find the trail of nearly a dozen wolves and follow it. It took her the better part of the day, but she eventually found the pack, or what was left of them.

"Are you kidding me!?" She swore, kicking a nearby rock.

The wolves before her were all dead and desiccated, as if they'd been dead for a week now. They might have even been killed before the farmer sent word to the city.

Growling to herself, Andrea inspected the bodies to figure out what had killed them. Normally contracts were logged in membership crystals, the same crystal being able to detect combat and determine what was killed. When you killed a contracted monster or beast the contract would automatically complete, and you'd go to the guild to turn in the contract and get paid.

All this was to avoid fraud, and to prevent people from claiming contract rewards and payments if they didn't do the contract. The system was good and smart, but one of its down sides was something Andrea now had to deal with.

If the beasts were already dead you didn't get paid since your crystal didn't log any combat. The guild knows that there's a chance of that happening, the beast being killed by another, and would give a small pay out depending on the situation and evidence. What they wouldn't do was pay if another adventurer had been the one to do the killing.

It didn't take long for her to discern that a person had indeed killed the wolves. It was obvious that no beast or monster had been involved, all the wounds and cuts were clean as though made by a blade. Each wolf was covered in them, from their sides, backs, faces, and necks.

Smoldering with anger, Andrea tried to find any sign of when this had taken place or where the perpetrator had gone. The bodies were desiccated, similar to how they looked after Derek performed a harvest ritual. So, Andrea looked for any remnants or residue left behind by the ritual.

She didn't find anything, meaning the person probably left a while ago, despite the somewhat fresh prints. Andrea found multiple boot prints on the forest floor, but they were odd, starting and stopping in weird places. Teleport powers weren't unheard of at copper rank, but were extremely rare and costly making it unlikely. But it also couldn't have been someone of a higher rank, they wouldn't have bothered with such weak beasts.

Andrea was left gritting her teeth in frustration. Stomping her foot, she roared in anger, her hair catching fire for a brief moment before going out.

"I'll burn whoever did this!"

Turning back the way she came, Andrea stormed off, spending the next couple of hours grumbling darkly to herself. When she made it back to the village she promptly bottled up her anger, and happily let the nice farmer know that the wolves had been dealt with before heading back towards Pinewood.

What followed was an anger fueled march back to the city, one that allowed her to get back in record time. By the time she stormed into the common room of their suite it was dark out, about an hour after sundown.

As Andrea entered the room and began pacing angrily, the others all looked up from their various activities.

"You don't look happy," Derek observed helpfully.

"Did something happen with your contract?" Naiome asked, "That's where you were today, right?"

"Yeah, something happened! It happened again!" Andrea growled.

"What happened again?" Kalic asked.

"Some asshole killed my contract again! That's the third time this week!"

"Are you sure it was a person and not some other beast?" Naiome asked.

"Unless there's some beast or monster out there with swords for arms then yeah! It was a whole pack of wolves, a whole pack! All of them were killed by a blade."

"Well maybe someone did it out of self defense, a whole pack of wolves isn't something you can just run from."

"No," Kalic cut in, shaking his head, "There have been similar reports made over the last few days, all of them from the northern region. People have been getting their contracts poached, just like Andrea. Best just to avoid the area until it gets figured out."

"I'm going to kill whoever it is, I've missed out on three contracts worth of pay because of this asshole."

***

Akira Anuk made her way through the brush of the forest in the early morning, the first rays of sunlight penetrating the canopy above. She was on the hunt for a beast she'd been contracted to kill. It wasn't that impressive of a beast, just some Vipercat that was making trouble for one of the northern villages. It was abnormally powerful for the area, so the contract was given an amount of importance, since few powerful people were sent to patrol the area.

Akira was more than willing to take up the contract, she spent most of her time in the northern forest due to the proximity of her family's estate so it was familiar territory. Despite that, she was itching to go out and explore regions with stronger enemies to push herself, but she'd just started adventuring in earnest and the guild needed to see that she could actually handle herself, which she could.

The reason she had only started adventuring now was because her mother had refused to allow her to join up with the guild until she was 19, the same age as when she had her official social debut. It should have been a year prior when she turned 18, but the story behind that was something she wanted to avoid thinking about.

The debut had been a nightmare, and one that Akira desperately wanted to avoid, but was forced to endure just so she could join the adventurers guild. Before then she'd spent most of her childhood training, readying herself to go out and see the world.

Being a more than capable adventurer, Akira was forced to take on low leveled contracts until she proved herself and gained reputation sufficient enough to gain access to better contracts, which hopefully wouldn't take much longer. In fact, Akira had a feeling that if she did a good enough job with the Vipercat she might be cleared for more difficult contracts. The only problem was the person poaching contracts in the area. Akira herself had lost out on four because all the beasts and monsters she found were already dead.

Her plan now was to get up bright and early enough that her prey wouldn't have been caught yet. She needed this contract completion and wasn't about to let someone take it from her, not like the others. If she could catch the person in the act that would be even better. She could use a recording crystal to get a look at the person, or maybe even capture them. If Akira managed to do that then the payout would be huge. That alone would get her access to better contracts.

'That's assuming I somehow run into the person, and assuming they haven't already killed my contract,' she scoffed internally.

Just as she thought that, a pained roar shook the nearby trees, one belonging to a Vipercat. ​

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