Simon continued deep into the city arriving before an abandoned shop after hearing noise from inside.
Peeking through a shattered window, he saw five kittens haft a meter in size playing inside with human head remains.
The kittens had fluffy white-fur, they would have been cute to see and girls would surely love them but what he saw, gave him chills.
Like cute Kittens from hell.
None the less, he recognised these Fluffy kittens as Silver Cats, which looked adorable when they are young but become blood-thirsty speedrunning demons that killed there pray in a blink of an eye once fully grown.
Readying himself, five flaming arrows a meter long locked on to them.
Meow!
Sound entered his ear, as he felt chill down his spine.
Looking sideways, a speeding claw targeted at this face.
Nearly connecting to his face not for his inhuman speed dodging at the last moment.
"Damn it!"
Glaring at Silver cat with extremely caution.
Meter tall and two meter long with silver fur paired with a blue eye, that was a true Silver Cat.
Silver Cat was Level 1 Dreadbeast. Known for its fast movements, paired with its incredibly sharp claw, combat power that is a step above Glutton Rats.
"Let's go!"
Attacking with flaming arrows aimed at its vital spots.
Brain, heart and Spine.
But Silver Cat dodged his arrow easily and struck its claws at Simon's throat.
Aiming for quick kill.
Claws were terrifyingly sharp that could easily slice through his throat.
"Go to Hell!"
With a scream, flaming wall formed blocking its path.
Silver cat leaped sideways, dodging the flaming wall, easily going pass it.
Then continue pouncing on Simon, who greeted it with a flaming spear to its face
True to its reputation as a Speed-type Dreadbeast, Silver cat dodged the flaming spear.
BOOM!
Little did it expect that the flaming spear would explode on its face.
Explosion threw the silver cat away, hitting the concrete wall.
Seizing the opportunity, Simon quickly appeared before it.
Created a flaming spear, thrusted it into the silver cat's belly.
Killing it on the spot.
Simon sighed.
Speed-type Dreadbeast were nasty to handle, without close-combat Astral Lord.
Lucky for him, his training paid off.
Cutting out the Silver's Cat heart, he shot a glance at those silver kittens inside the shop and with a snap.
BOOM!
Shop was engulfed in Flames, followed by explosion that cause the shop to collapse on itself, Swallowing that kittens with it.
Taking those kittens, heart was useless, they were not official level 1 Dreadbeast without reaching adolescence, making their heart worthless to them.
But they had to die because they were Dreadbeasts.
...
Help! Help!
Simon moved forward, as he heard a distressed voice calling for help.
Following the voice, he witnesses something straight out of an anaconda movie.
A Teenager was wrapped by 18-feet snake.
This trapped teenager was trying his best to fight back frantically, at the same time was calling for help.
but the giant snake was too strong for him, his struggle was futile.
Snake squeezed tighter, teenager's voice became weaker, and bones inside his body started to crack.
Spotting Simon, the teenager screamed louder knowing well that he was his last hope.
Looking at the teenager, Simon knew that without him taking action the teenager will die for sure.
And he cannot let that teenager die either.
In the examination, stealing was permitted but killing was banned, and watching another cadet in danger, leaving him for death was no-go.
Even outside the competition, leaving fellow human in danger without helping them.
Basically, showed one's character.
"Damn snake, look here!"
Simon raised his hand, with flaming spear and arrows shooting at the open mouth of the snake.
When flaming spear and arrows struck, the snake whaled in pain. Loosening its grip.
Seeing the chance the teenager activated his ability.
As strong wave of heat pulsated for his body, momentarily stunning the snake.
Seeing the momentarily stunned snake, Simon dushed forward with flaming spear in his hand.
Aiming for the snake eye.
Piercing!
Flaming spear ripped through the eye socket, ripping into the snake's brain, cooking it inside.
Teenager escaped.
"Thank you so much for saving me!"
Teenager looked at the snake's head that had boiling internal fluids coming from its eye socket.
"I would have died, if it weren't for you!"
"You're Welcome, but next time just be more careful" Simon reminded the teenager, as he patted him on the shoulder.
Suddenly, his view was filled with text making him freeze on the spot.
Name: Adam Nolan
Race: Human
Special Ability: Infrared Waves (Awakened, replicable)
"Infrared waves? This man's special ability is infrared waves!
Amazing, this is great!"
Simon could not help but get excited.
Abilities that he copied till now was Fire manipulation, Aerial and Reinforce Muscles over the Six months' time.
But other than Fire manipulation, he could not use either Aerial nor Reinforce muscles too openly like he did with Fire manipulation.
Worried that other might catch on and associate him with the special ability of copying.
However, it would be different story with infrared Wave. Because it belongs to Fire-Elements type.
In fact, this skill was naturally acquired by Fire-Elements Astral lords when they become 5-Star Astral Lord.
"I am a Fire-elements Astral Lord. So, me demonstrating infrared waves, will not rise any suspicious, others would think that it's a natural ability that come with his Fire-element skill."
With his mind racing, Simon quietly replicated Adam's skill, after some talking with each other, he left.
Simon found a relatively inconspicuous and safe place in abandon build inside the city to install this new skill.
After 10-minute of excruciating pain, Simon was back on the street resuming his hunt for the Dreadbeasts as if nothing had happened before.
There were many Dreadbeasts hiding around the place but most of them were level-1 Dreadbeasts.
With Simon's current strength, those level-1 Dreadbeast were child's play.
As he killed a dozen of Dreadbeasts along the way.
"State Zoo"
Simon ended up in front of a Zoo.
He was welcomed with sound of heated battle, when he followed the sound and arrived to see group of people attacking a Giant Gorilla that was using Giant tree as baseball bat.
This ten-meter-long giant gorilla like mini-king Kong.
Covered in black fur that made its body tough and hard to injure.
"A Stuck-Tree Gorilla, a Level-2 Dreadbeast."
It was using the giant tree whenever any Astral lord neared it.
Recognizing the gorilla, Simon can't help but give a mental salute to these people for having guts to steel!
Because the mere thought of challenging Level-2 Dreadbeast without even having the strength of Star-1 Astral Lord was baffling in itself.
As Simon was pondering about what to do next, a Flaming Arrow, flew over tree, directly hitting Gorilla's head.
Watching the shape of flaming arrow, he felt awfully familiar with it.
Because there exists only two people attending this test who was able to do this,
One being Simon himself because he created it and named Crimson Arrow.
It was technique he created, after finding out that using techniques increased the attack power by a large margin.
Other being Ivan Tarnell who he taught the technique too.
Why, were he and Ivan the only people who could use this technique that Simon created because the technique needs high level of control and concentration that only 4-Star Astral Lord could have.
When he taught it Ivan, because of its high control ceiling, Ivan could barely do it, but it was better than nothing.
Ivan trained harder than others improving his control to point that Simon believed that if he were not present, Ivan would get to top position.
Now seeing the flaming arrow, he understood that Ivan was among the group.
"Why is Ivan mingling with these people?" Simon furrowed his brows.
Ivan aside, there were many other teenagers and some that looked older.
There was young man in track suit, if Simon was not mistaken this young man was commanding the whole attack.
Ordering the Astral Lord to attack and retreated.
"Come on, Guys! This beast is getting weaker now!" he commanded as he readied his attack.
Young man was an Earth-Element Astral lord. His ability looked impressive with Earth spear floating around him.
Plus, his range of attack was beyond 5 meters nearly reaching 15 to 20 meters.
Which was range only 2-Star Astral Lord could have.