Isekai Journey Of The Magic Archer

[Eon's POV: ]

While moving through the forest and looking around at the various elements of the forest, we finally came across the first obstacle in our path.

[{ "It's a (Blue) rank beast." )}

===Status===

[Mint-bask Karnoli] ★★

Strength: 152

Stamina: 144

Dexterity: 156

Magic power: 161

{Skills: Flash jump, Hyper Bloom, Dash cut, Loom, Devour.}

—> A creature that basks in the sunlight coming from the scattered trees around the forest.

—> They are powerful carnivorous creatures that hunt their prey with strategy. They possess little intelligence however, their hunting instincts are something one cannot ignore.

—> As they live for a long time, these creatures do not find a life partner for a big part of their lives, and whenever they are searching for a mate, they do not form any unique bonds with them. For them, the process of procreation is nothing more than a natural calling.

—> They are dangerous beings that are highly aggressive. They might attack you the moment they see you.

…

============

The creature resembled a beast with strange tentacles coming out of its star-shaped face. The creature had six legs, the skin on its body was visibly tough like leather armor, the creature possessed fortified claws and the teeth that the creature possessed resembled the inner tentacle teeth of a squid.

The sharp teeth arranged in an attractive pattern throughout the star-shaped mouth were something they must not ignore.

Not only were the creature's teeth and mouth dangerous weapons, but they even possessed strong, acidic saliva that could melt even the bones of the things they ate.

They were difficult to satisfy when it came to food for that reason as well, and they were strong so they knew just how to use their strengths.

[{ "Wow…" }]

The creature was strange and it was eating the corpse of a fellow (Blue) ranked creature so happily that seeing the look of warm smiles on their faces just did not go well with Eon.

He wanted to take out his weapons and blast fire at the creature. It is what would have happened if he had been with a group that could handle the aftermath of the situation. However, that was not the case.

Right now, even though the people around him were pretty capable individuals, he could not be reckless in a situation like this one.

This was a training opportunity for many of them, however, it was this kind of creature that we needed to avoid in this situation.

[{ "Do you see it, Anna?" }]

This was a beast in its most natural habitat doing something beasts do– hunting another beast.

[{ "It's… strange, big brother." }]

She wasn't new to seeing creatures hunting weaker creatures, but she could see that the thing that this beast was eating, a (Spirit earth turtle) was a much bigger being than the creature.

The creature was smaller, the creature looked much uglier than the turtle, and the difference in strength, as she might be feeling, was also pretty different.

The creature that was eating the bigger being was actually weaker in comparison, and yet the one lying dead on the ground was the bigger one.

[{ "Why is the pretty turtle dead while the strange six-legged creature is unscratched? Shouldn't it be hurt if the two of them fought?" }]

The law of nature, the victory of the stronger. It was something she was painfully aware of thanks to her dear friend Taika, someone who had been controlling her instincts ever since we left the tower.

'She was not in the Jeep with the rest of them and she wasn't with any of us either. She was moving by herself.'

She was a tiger, a beast, and this forest was a paradise of beasts.

We had discussed that there might be unique effects of the forest on her, but she had tested it over the last few days by going outside the tower barrier and it was relatively fine.

Right now, she was already at the first checkpoint where we would be stopping, and she was waiting for us as she cleared up any troublesome things on the way.

She was kind of a spearhead but she was also a wild beast in her own natural habitat. She was having so much fun that even we needed to be a little wary of her, so we weren't moving together with her.

She was on her own as we moved in a uniform formation. But, moving like this also had its own perks.

[{ "The stronger one doesn't always win, Anna. Remember that strategy is always as important as your strengths.

If you can devise a strategy appropriate enough for your hunt, you can take down even calamities… that's what we have been doing throughout the ages. And that is what we had originally learned from beasts like these." }]

This was a lesson I wanted her to remember well.

We had stopped some distance away from the beast but those of us who were currently traveling through the tree branches could see the creature directly from this height.

Zoe and the others who were inside the vehicle could also see the creature on their magic screens. They could see every detail of the creature, the raw details that children should not be exposed to.

They could closely see how the entire body of the turtle was scarred, they could see how the strange creature was eating its hunt with its large, teeth-covered mouth.

Anna was pretty far from the creature but she could still tell the difference in strengths that these creatures had. She could feel the creature, the raw emotions of the creature, as well as how it was just a normal natural process for them.

[{ "What do you feel, little one? What do you think the turtle was feeling in its last moments?" }]

I didn't know if she could feel it or not, but it seemed like she was anticipating my question.

[{ "The turtle… was feeling regret. It wasn't sad, it had accepted the fact that it was losing its life." }]

Her tone was very sad. For someone as empathetic as Anna, seeing the dead creature was never a good thing– and yet she was handling this better than I expected, actually.

[{ "For the beast, this was simply another one of the normal hunts. It did not feel any remorse for killing the pretty turtle. It did not feel anything special as it ate the favorite parts of the turtle.

I guess it's not interested in the rest of its body so it will leave it, but… It's even sadder since it's just so disrespectful to the turtle." }]

[{ "And yet this is the way of nature." }]

The beasts hunt not because they are looking for a meal they could finish. They know they are stronger, they know they have an advantage, and they know there are abundant things that they can eat.

Unlike the hoarders that use all parts of their hunts, unlike the many ant and spider species that live here, these beasts would simply have their meals the way they want, and then they would move on to their next hunt.

The strength they get by eating the parts with the most nutrients, the parts that contain most of the refined Mana of the creature is what they are after.

[{ "There is no concept of respect among beasts, and the beings that get hunted always put up their strongest fights before accepting their fate. It is nature… I don't call some creatures Creatures, some beasts, and some beings, Anna.

At the end of the day, even though they all are energy beasts, they are different creatures that belong to a different category of natural elements.

In nature, there are things that someone with our perspective would like and things that we might never get our hearts and heads around." }]

This was still a simple example. When she sees the true cruelty of the nature of this deadly forest, I don't know how I will explain some crucial things to her. I don't know how I'd answer her questions as well, but in this place, we foreign elements are not something that could live like the beasts like Taika.

'For her, this is a world of her own kind. For me, to some point, this is a world that I have gotten used to.'

For Rein, this sight was nothing less than thrilling. She loved the beast that was eating the turtle, she has asked me if we can have it three times already, but I don't know how I can shoot her down completely.

We cannot have beasts like these. They aren't that rare in this forest, but if we take these creatures with us, I don't know how we will preserve their lives.

'They are used to this world and the Mana of this world. Even if we can recreate an environment similar to here, we cannot recreate the Mana of the forbidden forest.'

Taking creatures with us just like that is incredibly risky so, I'm against it for most parts.

'Sadly she has great persuasion techniques so I don't know how long I will get to handle this.'

Carla was neutral about this situation. She did not like it and was hiding it well, but she was pretty shaken by the situation.

Quin and Chry weren't as affected by this as I thought either. Both of them seemed to have seen far crueler things so this much was nothing to them.

Alf, on the other hand, was pretty shaken by this view. He wasn't expecting to see something like this, so his stomach could not handle this sight either.

President and Del, Grandpa, and others in the Jeep were relatively better as well. However, if this was simply the start of our ride, they did not know what worse things we were going to see on our way to the destination.

'They weren't afraid of what we might encounter, but they were anxious for certain.'

They had prepared themselves mentally, however, it wasn't a simple thing. They needed to work harder on keeping themselves prepared for worse situations.

'We were still not fighting, so, when that time comes, things would be entirely different as well.'

Fighting in this forest is never a simple thing… they will figure it out before we reach the first checkpoint, I guess.