Annie closed the door and stared at Draven with a grim expression. "Mr. Draven…"
'Oh no…' Draven's heartbeat pounded harder.
She suddenly burst into a peal of uncontrollable laughter while pointing at him.
His face contorted.
Annie waved her hand while trying to stifle her laughter. "There's nothing wrong with you, but…" her expression became solemn. "Your days have decreased by one."
Draven nodded and came down, walking towards the door to leave.
When he crossed Annie, she suddenly called out, "Draven."
He paused.
"I thought of another safer way for a First Order Transient Elite to slay a Third Order Transient monster—high Order range weapons!"
Draven's eyes brightened, and he nodded in understanding.
He then left for the Plane. Using the beacon in the Council Association after changing into his gears, Draven entered the Plane.
Draven strolled from the dome—the inner sector— and entered the outer sector of the Haven, searching for his house. He soon found house 122.
Summoning the key, he unlocked the sealed silver door. It was just an empty room made of dull silver material.
'Nothing? During this period, should I stay here and focus on hunting? No! I should keep going back to Earth, or else I might die of depression.'
He left the room and swiftly made his way towards his aim. The path was on the opposite side of the forest he escaped from.
Activating Soul Sense and donning his mask, Draven cautiously made his way deeper into the Plane. But he didn't see any monster on the way, except wandering Elites.
About an hour later, he arrived at the border of a forest suffused with green fog that hampered his vision range, even with the mask.
This was where he chose to hunt—the fog forest.
Because of the green fog that obscured the vision of Elites, few dared hunt here, with many dying from monsters ambushes. But because of this, the population of monsters in this place was also very high, with many in the Second Order. There were rumored hidden Third Order Transient monsters from what he read, which was scary because they were the peak of this Plane. Though it wasn't certain.
Draven looked around, seeing many people at the border, some in groups and others alone.
'They are waiting for monsters to wander from the depths.'
He turned and squinted at the forest.
'Though dangerous, this is the only place I can see many monsters to hunt to speedily saturate my mana value; all the safe places have been cleared!'
Taking a deep breath, he walked inside, ignoring the background talk and yelling of the Elites at the border that were shocked by his boldness. The trees were not too tall.
In a few minutes, he had left the border, even with his careful and slow movement. Gripping his swords tightly while warily noting his surroundings, he trudged deeper. Ambush in the forest was very easy. Fortunately, the vision of the mask made him observe a few meters around him with clarity.
Suddenly, he felt a caress in his chest. He froze and gazed in the direction, but the fog obscured his vision.
'A Second Order Transient monster! Damn this fog!'
Draven cautiously closed in on the direction of the monster while estimating the distance from him.
He also discovered one flaw of the Soul Sense—it made him able to deduce the strength of the living being from the caress but could not determine the distance.
'I need to know the maximum range of this skill to make an estimated distance of targets,' he thought as he focused ahead.
Suddenly, he saw the hazy outline of a quadrupedal monster walking in the distance.
Draven halted and pondered, 'Confronting it face-to-face will drain my Soul Vitalis, except…'
A mad gleam flash in his eyes.
He looked at the direction of the monster and yelled loudly, before quickly scaling the tree. His gloves, Penta Claw, and his climbing skills made the process quick and smooth. When he got to the top, he swiftly found a stable branch and crouched, then activated [Stasis].
A cooling sensation spread through his body as he went still. About a minute later, a huge creature that resembled a panther with a long snout like a dog slowly walked around his previous position, its ears twitching. It froze and vigilantly looked around.
Draven held his breath and thought, 'It's really true. Monsters in this fog forest have super sensitive ears. It precisely got my position.'
This was why he didn't dare run, afraid of making noise and alerting the monsters.
'Wait… what if I didn't only attract it? I need to kill it quickly! Single body part it is.'
Making up his mind, Draven tried to focus, trying to enter the strange state he was in when he went through the spider hordes, but it didn't work.
The panther turned to leave, and he leapt down and channeled all his strength to his right hand while activating mental serration.
Draven slashed at its neck.
The monster abruptly darted aside, narrowly evading the blade that cleaved the ground.
It roared and lunged at him while swiping its claws.
Draven rolled and slashed at the neck with his left sword while switching the strength.
The sword cleaved open the lower throat, and he drove his right sword into the wound. The sword plunged into the monster. Then he switched strength and slashed at the head with his left sword.
The monster swiped its paw at that moment, sending him tumbling.
Draven swiftly pulled himself to his feet and stared at the monster with a ready stance and only one sword. It had a sword lodged in its bleeding throat.
Wobbling and whimpering, it tried to escape but collapsed in a few steps.
[Second Order Transient killed: Hybrid Mastiff.]
[+1 Soul Vitalis.]
[+1 Gear.]
Draven exhaled before rushing to the body. He quickly pulled out his sword and opened the skull to get the monster crystal.
He deactivated [Igni Vitalis], dismissed his swords, tossed the bloody monster crystal into his mouth, and climbed the tree. When he reached the top, he hid within the readied spot, enclosed by thick leaves, withdrew the monster crystal and activated [Stasis].
He went still with bated breath, waiting for what was going to happen. He had felt the distinct caress of many monsters a few seconds before.
Lowering his head, Draven's breath hitched when he saw three deep bleeding gashes on his chest. The claw had broken his armor.
'Screw hell! What if they smell the blood?'
He suddenly felt his plan might not be as safe as he imagined, but it was too late as the three monsters dashed to the dead monster.
They growled at each other before they rushed at the dead monster, burying their heads into it. A few seconds later, five more joined them.
All Second Order Transient monsters.
He noticed they were all black wolves.
'A pack?'
He watched as they feasted, and in about a minute, the eight wolves devoured the monster without leaving a bone. One suddenly raised its head and stared at Draven. Draven stared into the green eyes of the wolf, and he could see it clearly through the mask's vision. It was like time went still as they held each other's gaze.