Chapter 98: First Entry into Collins

Before him lay a vast forest, stretching as far as the eye could see, with no visible boundary. The expansive area was covered in dense woods, and the lush trees presented a vivid green landscape.
“It’s really huge!” With the blue sky, white clouds, green mountains, and lush fields, Rod couldn’t help but marvel at the scene.
The two mercenaries who had come with him to Collins Forest earlier had already headed into the forest, each going in a different direction.
Rod remained alone, still motionless. After examining his small handbook and map, he decided on a direction to move forward—toward the left front. According to the descriptions, there was a high chance that Wind Leopards might be found there, allowing him to complete the task in the shortest time possible.
Following the map’s indications, he entered the forest shortly thereafter. As soon as he stepped in, the light dimmed significantly. The dense trees blocked most of the sunlight. Looking up, he saw only a few rays of light filtering in, casting a gloomy glow over the forest and highlighting its damp atmosphere.
In winter, although the trees shed little leaves, there were still plenty of dead leaves on the ground. When people stepped on them, their footprints sank slightly. The scattered footprints also indicated that someone must have passed by recently—there seemed to be quite a few people coming and going.
Moving slowly forward, he covered a considerable distance. Surprisingly, there were no magical beasts as expected. It was eerily quiet, so quiet that it became somewhat worrying.
It would have been better if some magical beasts appeared; such silence only increased his unease.
He tightly gripped his Dark Dragon sword and gently touched the armor on his body. Taking a deep breath, he smiled and continued moving forward.
He kept a close eye around and listened carefully, advancing cautiously, always on guard for any magical beasts. To his disappointment, after nearly an hour, he encountered no abnormalities. Everything was eerily quiet, and everything was going surprisingly smoothly.

“We can’t go in any further!” Looking at the map and reviewing the path he had taken, he saw that the entrance was no longer visible behind him. An hour of progress, though slow, had still taken him deep inside. According to the map, the area ahead should be the intermediate zone. Most of the magical beasts there were around the Silver level. It wasn’t suitable for him to enter now, and the chances of the Wind Leopard being there were extremely low. He decided to move sideways in a nearby direction, keeping a close eye on the surroundings and ready to adapt to any situation.

……

Not long after Rod started moving sideways, a pair of eyes had already spotted him in the darkness. They followed him slowly, with a hint of bloodthirst in those eyes. A faint humming sound was heard, so soft that only the observer could detect it.

“It seems there’s no gain this morning!” Looking through the dense leaves at the sky, he realized it was already noon. He could see the sun hanging in the sky through the gaps in the leaves. With a sigh, he sat down, took out some dry food and water, and prepared to have lunch. Under such extreme mental stress, his energy was being consumed faster than expected.

Yet before he could put the food in his mouth, Rod’s expression changed. He quickly put away the food, gripped Dark Dragon, and stood up abruptly, scanning the surroundings nervously.

Just then, he heard a faint roar—a beast’s roar, no doubt about it. There must be a magical beast nearby, and it had likely already targeted him.

He took steps and began moving around cautiously, his gaze shifting constantly. Suddenly, a loud roar came, followed by the sight of a huge black shadow charging at him.

Without time to assess the situation or identify the enemy, he quickly dodged, rolling aside to avoid the attack. A cool breeze brushed across his face, allowing Rod to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Finally!” With a soft cry, Rod raised his sword as another huge black panther rushed at him.

The black panther was a Bronze-level physical magical beast, known for its speed and strength, with great offensive power. If he had been caught by it earlier, he would likely be lying on the ground now. This panther seemed to be an adult, about 1.5 meters tall and 2 meters long, with dark fur, long fangs stretched out, and a drop of saliva hanging from the corner of its mouth, clearly seeing him as delicious food.

With a silent sigh, he swung his sword to push back the black panther, then suddenly exerted force with his back foot, taking a swift step forward. Holding the sword in one hand, he launched a fierce attack on the panther. Though it were all the simplest moves, their seamless succession unleashed considerable power, forcing the panther to dodge left and right and focus solely on defense.

The man and the panther engaged in a thrilling duel deep in the forest. There were no fancy moves—only the simplest and most straightforward attacks. The panther’s steel-hard claws and sharp fangs, along with Rod’s Dark Dragon, occasionally sparked dazzling light amidst the intense clashes.

Rod even wondered if it might catch fire, thinking such a silly thing amid such fierce fighting, as sparks kept appearing.

Bang… At that moment of distraction, the panther reached its peak speed. Sensing the enemy’s strength and its own life under threat, it launched a ferocious counterattack, using every weapon at its disposal—claws and fangs—while also striking from time to time while defending.

“Damn it!” he cursed under his breath. The favorable situation vanished in an instant, and Rod regretted having been distracted in battle—something that would surely make others laugh if heard.

Fortunately, this black panther was only at the beginning stage of Bronze level, still somewhat inferior to him. Coupled with the low intelligence of magical beasts and their difference from humans, Rod found it relatively easy to deal with it. He suppressed the enemy’s attacks without encountering any dangerous situations and launched a counterattack.

“Hmph, let’s see how long you can dodge!” Several attacks were blocked without success, prompting Rod to snort coldly. His combat energy surged again, and the Dark Dragon emitted a humming sound. A dark black light flashed across the sword blade, and the Shadow Sword instantly multiplied—into two, then four, then eight—eight blades charging from different directions.

Whoosh… Before the panther could react, a flash of dark light appeared. Rod’s voice rushed past the panther like a beam of light, stopping behind it.

Holding the sword by one hand at his side, a drop of blood slowly slid down the blade of the Dark Dragon.

Immediately afterward, a low growl was heard. The panther crashed to the ground, its unwilling eyes fixed on the human before it, struggling in pain and howling. The ground beneath it was already stained red with fresh blood.

A terrifying scar ran from head to tail along its back, creating a huge gap; its black fur turned red, the flesh inside bulged out, revealing bones stained red with blood. Its spine was broken, leaving it unable to fight back or escape. Having followed this human for so long in search of an opportunity to attack, it never expected such an outcome. With a frustrated roar, its eyes gradually closed as it lost its life force.

“Thank goodness!” Relieved that the first magical beast he encountered wasn’t strong, he hurried forward, took out the dagger he had bought, and began to collect the spoils. He scraped off the black panther’s skin, cleaned it up, ignoring the smell of blood and the bloody mess, and put it into the bag he had purchased. He also took its fangs and claws—although not very valuable, they were the only things of worth about the panther, and he figured selling them for five or six gold coins shouldn’t be a problem.

After finishing, without even taking a breath, he quickly left this horrible place. The smell of blood here could easily attract magical beasts from the surroundings. If a powerful one or a group of them showed up, things would get troublesome, so he had to evacuate as soon as possible. This was also the key to surviving as a mercenary.

He continued moving forward, getting closer to the left side of Collins Forest. Along the way, he ate to satisfy his hunger. By evening, he still hadn’t encountered the Swift Wind Panther he needed, but he was lucky no harm had come to him. Throughout the journey, he only ran into three high-level magical beasts, all of which posed no real threat and were easily defeated. When he checked his bag, it was already one-third full—quite satisfactory. The only regret was that it had taken a day longer than expected to find what he needed. But fortunately, he still had plenty of time—four more days to complete these tasks.

Looking at the sky, after some hesitation, he began searching for a place to spend the night. Logically, over 98% of mercenaries would avoid spending the night in Collins Forest. Nighttime was the most dangerous time here, with the risk increasing exponentially compared to daytime. But Rod didn’t plan to go back. He needed to train and improve his strength, so he wouldn’t miss any opportunity to exercise. At least for him, every moment here was a good chance to train.

Finally, before dark, he found a place to rest—a natural bed formed by the branches of three large trees connected together, hanging in mid-air at nearly five meters above the ground, which was a fairly ideal spot to rest. After lighting a campfire and roasting some meat to satisfy his hunger, he decided not to move on and instead went up there to recover from the energy he had expended that day. Unaware that danger lurked everywhere in Collins Forest at all times, the inexperienced Rod didn’t realize that his actions and carelessness had brought new threats to him.