The ke in the heart of the Umbra Forest was tinted red. A tree branch, secured with a string, fell, and the other end jerked violently. The string went taut as bubbles surged upward, followed by a boy bursting from the water.

  Wounded, he gasped desperately for air. The mantis string he had prepared earlier dragged him the rest of the way out.

  Huffing as soon as his hands touch the ground. Never in his life had he been happier to be back on nd. He pulled himself up out of the water before looking around.

  ‘Urgh…’ He was too tired to think about anything, but his next goal was clear.

  His bag was quite far since he had to take it as far away as possible from the water. He stood up and found the direction of the bag, but as soon as he began moving, he fell down again. His system was shutting down, lungs bursting. With his face first ft on the ground, he began the crawl with just his arms.

  In just a few minutes of his crawl, he was now covered in mud and dirt, while his lower limbs were bloody. Although he was feeling faint, he made sure to keep on breathing, trying to recover his breath.

  Reaching into his bag, he sat up and took a ready-to-eat dried meat. ‘Hungry!’ Simon furiously bit the dried meat as the pupils of his snake eyes twitched.

  “GULP!” He violently swallowed, but he didn’t even finish eating when he fell unconscious.

  His wounds began to seethe with thin wisps of smoke as they closed, some leaking from his nose as well.

  It was already morning when Simon woke up. All of his wounds were already healed, and the most annoying thing was that he had a burning desire to eat.

  He still had some meat in his bag, but it would be a waste to consume it. Looking at the ke, he still needed to pick up his sword and the old man’s memento. ‘That big fish too... it better taste good!’

  He stood up, knees still buckling. He recovered some of his strength on his way to the edge of the pond. After a few deep breaths, he plunged back to the bloody ke.

  After an hour of work, the corpse of the fish was already floating in the water, and Simon was sitting just on the edge of the ke, biting on another dried meat to at least quench his hunger.

  He was looking around for a good spot to set up his firepce, but the area around the ke was too wet. ‘This is going to be a tough spot to start a fire,’ then he set his sight away from the ke.

  Simon took his time preparing the firepce, all while draining the blood from the monster fish he had hung on a tree branch. The fish's head was neatly severed just below the gills, showcasing his precision.

  ‘Time to carve it!’

  Pcing the rge body of the fish into a makeshift ptter on the ground, made using leaves, he began carving the fish. He learned many things during his stay on the isnd, and carving up the rge fish was just another practice for him.

  He used his carving knife for the delicate work and his Giant Mantis sword to chop through the bones. However, the final fin proved tougher than the sword’s serrated edge, causing the bde to break apart.

  ‘Interesting,’ he thought. There were still three more fins under the ke. Then an expected sound echoed from his body—“Growl!!”— his stomach rumbled. Eating took priority for now, especially since he already prepared some of the fish meat.

  He took a piece of fish cut into a Supreme Slice. The hot stone pte sizzled the moment it touched down.

  ‘Ugh… It smells so good,’ He almost drooled as soon as the fish meat released its aroma, but he was taught to properly burn any meat from aquatic creatures because of the possibility of a parasite living in its body.

  ‘Looks good!’ Now he stared at the fish meat on the hot stone pte with his drool, waiting for the right time to take the first bite.

  Minutes passed.

  By its wafting smell, he could tell the meat was already cooked. He pyfully turned his knife before he carved a good part of the seared fish meat and pced it in his mouth.

  “Hmm!!”

  ‘Delicious!’ The fvor of the fish was sweet, and at the same time, it had a mild nutty fvor.

  He followed his instinct and began eating seriously.

  In a few moments, the rge fish meat had already disappeared; only its skin remained, but Simon hadn’t touched the surface of his satisfaction yet.

  As per tradition, the next Supreme Cut would be marinated with pink salt. He quickly worked and pced the meat over the stone pte. A smile of anticipation painted his face ‘It’s taking too long!’

  But the anticipation was forcing the time to go slowly as he stared and waited.

  “Sniff!” ‘Finally!’

  The pink salt gave off a distinctive aroma. The insatiable hunger within Simon urged him to carve the meat again and bite into the freshly seared fish. ‘Delicious!’ he thought, letting out a satisfied “Whew!” Yet, it was just beginning.

  Two days into his stay near the ke, he had already successfully created another sword from the fish’s fins. The bone structure of the fins was just too perfect for the shape of a sword.

  ‘It’s a bit heavier than the Mantis Bde… It's good,’ he practiced some swings, and like instinct, he felt that he could go further; his movements became faster, swings became stronger, and the st ssh he swung was the hardest swing he could do.

  Something clicked within him. One of the old man’s lessons resurfaced.‘This has magic inside it!’

  Simon sat down and id the sword across his p, then began to imbue it with his Bisa.Just like the reddish stone, he knew the fin wouldn’t reject it.

  ‘It’s draining so much…’

  The sensation of his magic being drawn out made him smile. It was familiar—the old man used to train him by forcing him to pour every st drop of magic into a circle etched into the ground.

  ‘I should do some Flow exercises like before.’ He then closed his eyes.

  Simon nodded to himself. At the very least, he still remembered how to draw the circle.

  As he continued feeding the sword with Bisa, he felt something change. The bde was starting to recognize him.

  ‘It’s draining endlessly… huh?’

  Then the sword gleamed.

  “I did it!” Simon said as he opened his eyes.

  He grabbed the sword and swung it down while feeding magic into it. A {Water Bde} shot out forward. ‘This sword can control water!’ The boy fiercely smiled as he pyfully shot more {Water Bde}s.

  He immediately grasped the range of the magic—about twenty to thirty meters, depending on how much power he fed into the sword.

  “I will call this Fin Bde!” he decred as he raised it into the air.

  He still had three more fin-bones he had pulled from the ke, along with the old man’s hilt.

  ‘The more, the better, right?’ he smiled and decided to craft the remaining fins into weapons of the same design. He gnced at the whetstone the old man had left him, recalling the lessons he’d learned.

  ‘Are you still watching me?’ he wondered, thinking about how the old man’s hilt had guided him to fight the monster fish, and now he was reaping the benefits.

  But if he wanted to bring more swords with him, he must upgrade the backpack again so that he could properly hang the swords and have more space for the dried meat, too.

  ‘Time to tinker again!’

  Before Simon left, he finished 3 more Fin Bdes, though the rgest one was made out of the fish’s tail. All had the same property of controlling water.

  More of the fish’s meat was still drying in the air, already cut into fillets, but he could not bring it all with him, so with regret, he buried it along with the rge fish’s remains.

  The Forest Folks.

  The Umbra Forest of the Eastern Frontier was known as one of the realm’s most perilous pces. Its dense growth made navigation difficult, and the monsters within kept even high-ranked adventurers at bay. For centuries, it had been marked as forbidden territory, and those who knew the region avoided it entirely.Yet the real reason for its isotion had little to do with beasts or twisting paths. It was the forest’s hidden denizens who ensured it remained untouched.

  They were dark-skinned, tall, and had long ears. They were akin to humans but were not. They do not call themselves elves; rather, they call themselves Forest Folks.

  The Forest Folks were highly territorial, killing any invaders or guiding them to their demise. They live far longer than humans and care only for their kin and the forest they oversee.

  Three of these forest folks were stalking a boy who entered their territory a week ago. They first found the boy fighting against the Heg Monkeys, and followed him around until he arrived at the pce they call the Holy Spring.

  They knew that he was going to die if he tried staying near the Holy Spring, but now, the boy was eating the rge fish that lived at the bottom of the Holy Spring. They knew immediately that it was impossible to resort to violence, so they decided to stalk him for a while.

  Now they were watching the boy doing another unbelievable feat.