SPLURT! SPLURT!
While cutting down Low-Rank 1 Rat Demon Beasts, Zar made his way deeper into the Great Forest of Jargon. The keys he snatched still lingered in the back of his mind as he gutted the giant Rat Demon Beasts, a dead gleam in his gaze.
While absorbing the Innate Energy inside the extracted Demon Cores like any other time, Zar stopped midway, a frown forming.
"The Innate Energy is so little," he complained, throwing away the half a dozen drained Demon Cores. "I'll never be able to break through to the 3rd Layer Qi Condensation Realm at this rate. And if I have no chance of achieving the Foundation Establishment Realm, I'll have no hope of crossing the Bridge of Avowed!"
The Great Forest of Jargon was extremely large—so expansive that it was split into many sections, one of which was the few-hundred-mile-wide plot of land Zar lived in.
However, this plot of land was not connected to the rest of the Great Forest of Jargon—at least not directly. It was instead more of a small extension, one where the only way out was a ten-mile-long suspension bridge infused with a sliver of a Core Formation Realm Expert's aura.
Yet just that tiny sliver prevented anyone below the Foundation Establishment Realm from passing.
And with very few powerful Demon Beasts to hunt, as well as his status as an outlier in the Town of Verndale, Zar had no viable method to improve his cultivation enough to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm. To make matters worse, trade with the outside world was limited to those in charge of Verndale.
Moreover, Zar used no proper Cultivation Technique to absorb and refine Innate Energy from Demon Cores…
Everything was stacked against him!
"Haiz…" The moment Zar felt like expressing his frustrations, he bottled them up and released sigh after sigh. "My life isn't meant for beginners. But that's fine; after all, I have this."
Jingling the keys he stole from the wolf-man guard at the Gates of Verndale, a small grin formed on Zar's dirt-covered face. These were what would get him into the Town of Verndale. They were what would alter his fate as an outlier who'd live out the rest of his miserable life inside a forest that wished to slowly torture him.
He was sure of it!
These keys were the key!
Later that day, after nightfall.
*Rustle, Rustle*
The slight rustling of bushes blended with the heavy blowing of the wind as a shadowy figure slipped around the high-reaching wooden walls of Verndale. He saw the same wolf-man guards from earlier standing watch at the front-town gates. They chatted with one another, each carrying in their hands a lit torch… and a sword.
A sharp, shiny metal object that Zar never had the privilege of wielding. As a Godling, he wasn't permitted to wield any sort of weapon, so he was forced to use his sharp, animal-like nails to dice up any Demon Beast prey.
After a brief pause, Zar resumed his original route, heading toward a regular-sized, bar-windowed door embedded into the eastern side of the town's circular wall formation. There, standing guard by the door, was a single Hyena Therian watchman, slightly dozing off while leaning on his long spear.
Having already accounted for this, Zar appraised the watchman's approximate strength. After confirming him to be of the Late Body Refinement Realm, Zar crept up to him like a phantom.
"Hurm…?"
Drowsily wincing his eyes, the watchman swore he saw something swiftly moving around in the dark. Rubbing his eyes, he got a better look, only to see an icy cold face fill his vision.
His consciousness blanked an instant later...
After taking a cursory glance at the knocked-out watchman, Zar approached the locked door. Putting one of the keys into the door's lock, he opened it, bypassing all its magical enchantments as easily as that.
Passing through the door, a completely foreign sight opened up before Zar. Although the town permeated with an eerie night-time silence, the bright glow from light poles and the interiors of people's houses made him feel something he had never had the chance to feel before.
It made him feel like he… like he—
Fit in.
Exhaling sharply, Zar's expression hardened. He knew this was no time to be getting absentminded. After all, he knew that the place he was looking for was heavily lax on protection right now, but he didn't know how long that would last.
Climbing atop a two-story home—one possessing a Victorian-style feel, same as with the rest of the few hundred other buildings in the town—Zar paid little attention to the architecture. Instead, he sped along the shilling rooftops, kicking up dust as he made his way toward a tall tower in the northeast of the town's center.
From a rumor, he had heard that this tower was the possession of a Core Formation Realm powerhouse. And as far as he could tell with his very limited senses, there was no such powerful presence residing within the tower.
There was one at the Mayor's Manor, but as long as Zar avoided stirring a commotion, he wouldn't need to worry about that old master.
After reaching the base of the tower, Zar's eyes fell on the top, which stood a few dozen meters off the ground. With his goal within sight, he discarded any remaining hesitation, scaling the tower as a blur of claws and legs.
Upon making it to the top of the tower, Zar first made sure there were no heat signatures inside. After confirming that the coast was clear, he leapt through an open window, finding himself inside a pitch-black room.
However, even in the absence of light, Zar didn't let that stop him from achieving his goal. Making use of eyes highly adapted to the night from his time in the wilderness, he skillfully maneuvered around the room.
Eventually, something resonated with his Sky Core, urging him to shoot his head in a certain direction. Tracking the origin of the resonance, he found himself entering a larger-than-average room—clearly some sort of office or laboratory.
The source of the resonance called from within this room.