Chapter 1: Explosive Entrance

Even after getting couple of kilometers away from the passageway to New Earth, Zax could still feel several Soul Senses sweeping him from afar.

‘These Curators are really annoying. Especially that Blue Sea guy, he seems to hold a grudge with me for what happened before... ‘

After a certain distance, the Soul Senses gradually disappeared, all but the Blue Sea humanoid beast’s. He pestered Zax for quite a while even after all the others settled down.

‘He is gone’. Zax stopped in his tracks, surrounded by the hundreds of meters tall tree in this giants’ forest. “That Blue Sea Curator probably got tired of bothering me”.

It did not leave Zax in a good mood. There was another thing on his mind that made him feel even more uncomfortable than nosy Curators he could do nothing to put in their places.

‘This damned marks they left on him. I can tell that they are somewhere on my or inside my body, by even my soul energy cannot detect the exact places they are at’.

The marks felt to Zax like a vexing itch under the skin, impossible to subside. To live with them until his day of return to New Earth or enrollment to one of the five powers, if he so chooses, would be something he will have to get used to.

‘There should be a village near by and another at that direction. If you go to any of them I might encounter a language barrier ... But I rather not enter a human city without familiarizing myself with the proper conduct’.

Zax was in a bit of a dilemma. He knew the city named “Glorious Ground” of the Blessed Army was his desirable destination. But if he will go there not sure how to handle himself, it would be difficult to get around and make it a good starting point for his venture.

“Mm?” A distant sound caught Zax’s attention. Turning his head to where it came from, the tree obstructed his field of view. As for using his Soul Sense to see what is going on...

Zax decided to refrain from using his Soul Sense all too often in Ercas Mir for two reasons. First, as attractive as the new setting was and as interesting as it was to capture every bit of it, it would just tire him mentally if he will get absorbed in it with his Soul Sense for an extended period of time. His eyes, ears and other senses will do just well on this department. Second, when a cultivator uses Soul Sense and accidentally sweeps a cultivator of the same level or higher, the other party will know about it. In this new environment, Zax preferred to rather not reveal much of himself without knowing who might take notice.

“A calf?” When he got closer to the source of the sound, enough so he could detect it with his Soul Sense without spreading too far and wide, Zax finally released it. What he found was a frantic calf like creature.

It had the shape, the common color of the fur, white with brown stains, sounded the same, but from a deeper observation there was something off about it, apart from the reason it was screaming and running around frightened. Its skin was not skin and it fur was not fur, its entire exterior was a smooth shell like body armor and at the back of its neck was a thumb size pale looking scale.

“A Deformed Being!” Zax realized. “Could it be a baby? Its energy level is so pure and high! Already at the Core Breaker level!”

“MMEEEEE! MMEEEEE!”

The calf bellowed in horror, and from a place not too far more similar sounds could be heard.

WHOOSH!

Zax jumped on one of the surrounding trees and began to run toward from above by crossing the magnitude of long branches. ‘Something chasing it?’

If the calf was separated from its herd or chased by another Deformed Being, Zax would not have much to worry about, but if it was a cultivator or a group of cultivators that are responsible for the commotion he will not expose himself before finding and examining them first.

It must be mentioned that Zax was not afraid from the Deformed Beings or cultivators in Selivereb, not even from the five Curators, but he did have compelling reasons not to show off...

BOOM!

BANG!

A loud explosion resounded. Accompanying it was the sound of a falling tree.

‘There!’

Zax retracted his Soul Sense. His ears picked up human’s voices, though he could not understand their meaning, more so due to the mixture of earth shaking bellows and roaring from the same direction than the chance the language spoken was native to Ercas Mir.

As he rushed ahead, the more cows like Deformed Beings Zax saw running away.

‘What’s that!’ Zax halted, standing on a tall branch in a spot where he found a clearing in the foliage for his field view.

The scene that took place, roughly two hundred meters from him, was outright brutal!

A group of humans with cold weapons, forty seven in number, a massive bull like Deformed Being and an even bigger alligator looking Deformed Being were in a bloody skirmish.

The battle transpired in an open field, near the tree line to the forest and less than five hundred meters from an alarmed village.

Some of the humans, the minority, by their dressing were most likely residents of the village, perhaps its warriors. The majority seemed to be, by their actions, armors and level of cultivation, hired mercenaries. They, along with the bull, were doggedly attempting at killing the injured alligator.

‘Could that creature be a Black Chrome Alligator? It is written in Earth’s Records that at adulthood a Black Chrome Alligator can reach a step from the Peak of the second realm. This one, however, has the level of strength of an Intermediate second level Core Master. It should be a juvenile. Still ... it’s very vicious, to be able to fight these guys to a state of even losses ... The bull is near the Peak of the first realm, eight of the humans also in this level. The rest is lower and only two are in the Beginner phase of the first Core Master level. Moreover there are almost twenty human bodies, who know how strong they were?’

The skirmish continued with horrendous effort from both sides to try and persevere as red dyed the field of battle.

The wounds inflected on the body of the Black Chrome Alligator were constantly bleeding and its escape route was cut off by fallen down trees. Of the forty seven humans still living, most were exhausted, more bitter as a result of the casualties friends and kin than their own injuries. One of the horns of the bull was broken, and it gave the impression of staying on its hooves by sheer will, rage and wild instinct, as its eyes were completely red and around it were the half eaten carcasses of the cows Deformed Beings of its herd.