Shadow parasite

"You have that weird look in your eyes yet again. It's so hard to guess what you are thinking about sometimes."

Gorn grinned: "Nothing much, just got an interesting idea."

Lora's curiosity was off the charts, but she handled that well.

"Let me think for a bit... ."

After a few minutes, Gorn continued: "Before I join the mercenary guild I want to take a small trip into the wilderness. Just around the outskirts, and not that deep."

'So he is confident in joining the Mercenary Guild, and even exploring outside of the city.'

"What do you think about coming along with me?"

"I wanted to explore the wilderness since I was just a little kid," slowly said Lora.

Looking at the sky, she continued: "I don't know exactly how strong you are, but if I remain there alone for whatever reason, I'm dead."

She got up, and stretched her legs: "I only have one life, I can't risk it in such a stupid way can I?"

What she said made a lot of sense. Gorn was a little embarrassed: "Well, while I know that I can protect you, I can't one hundred percent guarantee your safety yet."

He knew these things very well, however, he was very curious about what her answer would be. Furthermore, he had some business to resolve there, not just admire nature.

"We will leave that for the future then, provided I don't die until then," said Gorn.

Lora grabbed Gorn by the chest and pulled him towards her kissing him. "Call me when you are back in the city, so we can celebrate!"

With those words, she left, without waiting for any reply. Gorn watched her disappearing figure.

'Not bad at all. I like her.'

Leaving those things aside for the moment, he focused on the work at hand. Before bolting towards one of the city exits, Gorn analyzed a few more people. There were quite a few individuals with a power level above one thousand, and even close to two thousand.

'Indeed, I need some life-saving skills, otherwise, my safety is not guaranteed even inside the city.'

Another thing Gorn found intriguing was the way everyone was dressed. He saw multiple types of armor and weapons. It felt like he was at a cosplay party.

Changing directions, Gorn headed towards the city exit, which was not that far away from the Mercenary Guild. At this point, he did not want to delay this matter anymore.

Going with other people could be a lot safer in a way, however, that was only valid for trustworthy people. Going alone with his current power was just fine in his opinion. At least if he did not go too far away.

In a few minutes, Gorn reached the exit. It was heavily guarded, but no one stopped anyone from entering or exiting. The guards were there to deal with the monsters, and nothing else.

Strong creatures did not approach the city for some reason, but the same thing could not be said about weaker monsters. From time to time there were a few of them who came too close, but that happened rarely and was easily resolved by the city's high walls and the current guards. Gorn stepped outside the city for the first time. Seeing the vast forest ahead of him made his heart beat faster.

"Let's go!"

Putting some pressure on his legs, Gorn bolted into the distance and soon disappeared into the sea of green. The terrain close to the city was rather flat, but that changed very quickly.

The weather was nice, so countless mountain ranges and peaks could be seen in the distance. Some of them were so big, that the top was shrouded by thick fog, making it very hard to tell just how high they were.

Gorn stopped abruptly.

Sliding a few meters, dust slowly rose from his location towards the blue sky. Everything seemed to freeze. Now, the only important thing was in front of him, in plain sight.

Race: Monster

Bloodline: High

Power level: 510

Abilities: Madness(Lvl2)

Loot: 510 gold; Madness(Lvl2)

Confirm target? Yes No

Gorn felt like he was facing a t-rex, and it wasn't just one, but ten of them. Extremely sharp teeth, long claws, and muscular bodies. All of them turned to look towards him.

Gorn could feel their bloodlust even from a few hundred meters away. The creatures were two meters tall and a little more than four meters long. That, coupled with the fact that it was ten of them made for quite a gruesome scene.

"Reapers!"

Just as he finished saying that exact word, the reapers sprang towards him with great ferocity. Gorn felt a cold chill down his spine. For a moment it was like he was rooted in place without being able to react. His instincts quickly set in. Without much thought Gorn conjured an immense fireball, sending it towards his attackers. One reaper was hit squarely in the face.

Blood flew in all directions.

Creatures killed: 1/1000

A headless corpse greeted the dirt. Gorn had no time to be happy about the perfect hit. Sprinting towards the nearest tree, he prepared another fireball.

Smelling blood, the pack of reapers turned even more savage. Their eyes turned red, and their power increased. Without much care for their bodies, the monsters smashed violently into the tree.

Gorn's pupils shrank as he saw the tree trunk obliterated. At that point, he wished he had chosen a bigger tree. Using his overwhelming power Gorn managed to keep his balance on the falling tree and jump into the distance. But not before shooting another fireball.

Creatures killed: 2/1000

His target was not random. He specifically chose the strongest monster. Unfortunately for him, the monsters did not care about the death of their kin and continued to madly attack.

By jumping from tree to tree Gorn managed to kill all eight of them. He was much more powerful, however, his lack of experience was very apparent.

Gorn sat on a thick tree branch while panting heavily. The amount of force he put into those fireballs had drained him quite a bit. That, coupled with the adrenaline resulted in quite an uneven breathing. Those fireballs were made at a maximum power level, clearly an overkill. Luckily, this forest was no normal forest. The potent fire from his fireball burned the nearby vegetation for some time but stopped shortly after.

"Shit, that was intense!"

Seeing them in real life was very different from reading about them. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, only two of the reapers had a power level of five hundred.

"To think these shits are just juvenile reapers... ."

Despite the recent battle, Gorn was all smiles.

'I can also farm monsters and monster skills!'

This was huge news and completed the trip's objective.