After finishing the fight, Alex crouched down and carefully extracted the monster cores from the two fallen beasts. The small crystals glimmered faintly in his hand before he placed them safely inside the bag hanging from his shoulder.
He slowly straightened himself and looked around the quiet forest. For a moment, everything seemed peaceful again, with only rustling leaves and the distant sounds of insects filling the air around him.
Alex adjusted the strap of his bag and glanced at everything he had collected throughout the day. The herbs and monster cores already made this hunting trip far more successful than he had expected.
'I think this will be enough for today,' Alex thought while looking toward the direction of Greenheart City.
The bag already contained several herbs and a few monster cores, which was not a bad result for his first proper hunting trip. More importantly, he had gained valuable combat experience.
Alex was just about to turn around and begin walking back toward the city when—
~WUSHHH!~
A sudden blur shot through the air.
Before Alex could even understand what was happening, a powerful force slammed directly into his body. The impact was so sudden and overwhelming that he could not react in time.
His feet immediately left the ground as his body was thrown violently through the air. A moment later, his back crashed hard against the trunk of a nearby tree.
~THUD!~
The force of the collision knocked the breath out of him. Pain spread through his back and chest as he fell onto one knee, struggling to inhale properly.
For a brief moment, Alex's vision blurred, and the entire world seemed to spin around him.
'What... just happened?' Alex wondered as he struggled to regain his focus.
He forced himself to look up.
Standing several meters away was the creature responsible for the attack.
The monster slowly stepped out from the shadows of the forest, and its very presence made the surrounding atmosphere feel heavier than before.
Its body was larger and far more intimidating than the beasts Alex had fought earlier. A faint but oppressive aura surrounded the creature, making the difference in strength immediately obvious.
Alex could feel it clearly.
This creature was on an entirely different level.
His expression tightened as realization struck him.
'Foundation Realm... Fourth Layer. The same as me.'
The monster began moving toward him at an unhurried pace, its presence carrying unmistakable killing intent. Its cold eyes remained fixed on Alex, as if it had already decided that he was nothing more than prey.
Alex clenched his fists and forced himself to stand properly. His body still felt the strain from the earlier battles, but he pushed those sensations aside and focused entirely on the enemy before him.
He did not have any complicated strategy.
He only had the simple method that had worked against the previous monsters.
Wait for the attack.
Dodge at the last possible moment.
Then strike back.
It was risky, but it was the only fighting method Alex currently trusted.
The monster suddenly burst forward.
Alex reacted instantly and shifted his body just in time to evade the incoming attack. At the same moment, he launched his own counterattack, driving his fist forward with everything he had.
For a brief instant, it seemed as though his punch would land.
But the creature moved with frightening speed.
Its body twisted away from the attack at the last possible moment, avoiding Alex's fist by the smallest margin. Before Alex could regain his balance, the monster had already launched its counterattack.
The attack came almost instantly.
Alex's eyes widened in shock.
In that single moment, he understood the problem.
He was too slow.
A powerful force slammed into his body before he could properly react. His body was thrown backward once again, crashing hard into another nearby tree.
~THUD!~
Alex's body struck the tree with tremendous force, leaving him momentarily disoriented. For several seconds, the world around him blurred while a dull ringing filled his ears.
The truth of the situation became painfully clear.
He had no techniques.
He had no weapons.
And he had almost no real combat experience.
Every advantage in this fight belonged to the monster.
Alex coughed harshly as he struggled to steady his breathing. A mouthful of blood spilled onto the ground while he leaned forward, desperately trying to remain conscious.
His entire body felt battered from the repeated attacks. Cuts and wounds covered his skin, some shallow while others caused sharp pulses of pain whenever he moved.
Yet something unexpected happened.
The intense pain that had gripped his body moments earlier suddenly began to weaken. The burning sensation from his wounds slowly faded, while the bleeding gradually started to slow.
Alex blinked in confusion as he noticed the injuries on his body beginning to close.
They were healing.
And they were healing incredibly quickly.
The change was visible even to the naked eye, as damaged flesh gradually restored itself while the pain continued disappearing.
Even Mei Lin was surprised when she witnessed what was happening.
'What kind of healing ability is that?' Mei Lin thought as she stared at Alex from her hidden position among the trees.
A short distance away, the monster had stopped advancing. It watched Alex silently, its cold gaze filled with caution rather than the confidence it had shown earlier.
The creature seemed to be waiting.
It was checking whether Alex was truly dead.
Several minutes passed while the monster remained still and continued watching him.
But instead of lying helplessly on the ground, Alex slowly pushed himself upward.
His breathing was heavy, and his body still trembled from the earlier blows. However, a quiet determination had appeared in his eyes.
The pain had not completely disappeared, but it no longer controlled him.
If anything, surviving those attacks had only strengthened his resolve.
The moment Alex realized that the monster was waiting, he decided that he could not give it any more time.
Before the creature had a chance to react, Alex suddenly surged forward. Ignoring the pain still lingering throughout his body, he forced himself to move faster and gathered every bit of strength he had left.
His heart pounded heavily as he closed the distance between them. There was no room for hesitation anymore, because another exchange like the previous one could leave him unable to continue fighting.
Drawing in a deep breath, Alex focused all his strength into a single strike. Every ounce of power and Qi he possessed flowed into his arm as he drove his fist forward.
The blow landed with tremendous force.
~BOOM!~
The monster was knocked completely off its feet, its body hurled backward as it crashed heavily across the forest floor.
~THUD! THUD!~
Its body tumbled violently several times before finally sliding to a stop several meters away.
Alex remained standing where he was for only a brief moment. His chest rose and fell rapidly while he struggled to catch his breath, and his arm trembled from the enormous amount of power he had poured into that single attack.
But he knew the fight was not over yet.
Without giving the monster even a second to recover, Alex forced his exhausted body to move again. He ignored the fatigue weighing down his limbs and rushed toward the fallen creature.
He could not allow this opportunity to disappear.
Alex reached the monster and immediately struck again, driving his fist downward with the same fierce intensity as before, perhaps even greater.
~THUD!~
The impact echoed through the otherwise quiet forest.
For several tense seconds, nothing moved.
Alex stood there breathing heavily while staring at the monster beneath him.
Then the creature's body went completely still.
The fight was finally over.
"Hhhh..." Alex breathed heavily as he staggered backward and collapsed beneath a nearby tree.
His back pressed against the rough bark while he struggled to breathe properly. His chest rose and fell rapidly, and every muscle in his body trembled from exhaustion.
The battle had drained nearly all the strength he had left.
For a while, Alex simply sat there and allowed the silence of the forest to settle around him. He did not move because his body needed time to recover after the intense battle.
Slowly, his breathing began to steady.
His wounds continued closing, and the pain throughout his body gradually became easier to tolerate. Although he was still exhausted, the overwhelming feeling of danger had finally disappeared.
What replaced it was a quiet sense of relief.
He had survived.
After resting for a few more moments, Alex placed his hands against the ground and pushed himself back onto his feet. His legs still felt weak, but he forced them to move.
Step by step, he walked toward the fallen monster while keeping his gaze fixed on its lifeless body.
Alex crouched beside the creature and began carefully extracting the useful materials he had learned about from the books in the library.
With steady hands, he removed the monster core and then collected its fangs and teeth. He placed each valuable material securely inside his bag.
"That was... really sudden," Alex murmured to himself, his voice low in the quiet forest.
The fight briefly replayed inside his mind. Only a short while ago, he had been certain that he might die there, yet somehow he had managed to turn the situation around.
After finishing his work, Alex stood up and began making his way out of the forest. The towering trees gradually became thinner as he walked, and before long, the massive city gate came into view in the distance.
As he walked, however, his thoughts returned to the strange moment during the battle.
'System, why was I healing so fast?' Alex asked silently while continuing toward the city.
A response appeared almost immediately.
Alex nodded slightly as he processed the answer. It made sense, considering that his Primal Origin Physique was supposed to be an extremely special physique.
However, another question quickly surfaced in his mind.
'Earlier, you said I didn't have enough authority. Now you're explaining this to me. Why?' Alex asked inwardly, still curious about the system's rules.
The system responded calmly.
Alex fell silent for a moment as he carefully thought about those words.
Slowly, he began to understand what the system meant.
Some knowledge could only be properly explained after a person witnessed or experienced something firsthand. It was similar to how someone could hear an explanation about walking but would not truly understand it until they actually experienced it.
The system seemed to follow the same principle.
Lost in thought, Alex continued walking toward the city gate. The events of the battle replayed in his mind several times, allowing him to think about what he had done wrong and what he could improve.
Then another thought suddenly surfaced.
Alex slowed his steps slightly as he remembered something he had seen countless times in the cultivation novels he had read during his previous life.
Many characters in those stories consumed monster cores to gain energy and strengthen their cultivation. The idea had always seemed fascinating to him back then, but now that he was living in a world where monsters and cultivation were real, the thought felt completely different.
'System, can I eat monster cores?' Alex asked inwardly.
The answer came almost instantly.
Alex considered the response carefully while continuing toward Greenheart City.
So, it was possible to consume monster cores, but there were limits.
If the core came from a monster stronger than him, the energy contained inside it could become dangerous rather than beneficial.
"Alright... I understand," Alex murmured quietly while giving a small nod.
His hand instinctively brushed against the bag hanging at his side, where the monster cores rested.
A faint sense of curiosity stirred within him.
Now that he knew they could be used to strengthen his cultivation, those small crystals suddenly seemed far more valuable than before.
Alex looked ahead toward the city gate and continued walking.
His first real hunting trip had already taught him several important lessons.
And judging from what he had just learned, his monster cores might become an important part of his cultivation in the future.