Chapter 64: Can never be too sure.

'I must say this cub is impressive but too bad he has to die.' the knox thought.

When the knox had struck, Blake had managed to move out only getting hit by its fingers, but the knox had thought it was enough, unbeknownst to him, the system had deployed a force field at the last moment reducing the damage he took.

'Either this works or I am meeting my maker… Both options sound nice.' Blake made a wistful smile as the thought of never seeing his mother again, came to his mind.

'I made a promise and I plan on keeping it!' Blake tightened his grip on his sword gathered all the mana he could for what seemed like a final attack.

"Haaa!" Blake made a war cry rushed the knox while activating lightning reinforcement boosting his speed and infusing space mana into the Katana.

'Hahaha… Stupid human cub, the lightning couldn't harm me, what do you think you can accomplish with a plain sword.' The knox sneered at Blake's desperate attempts, but that didn't make it underestimate a cornered prey.

[Aim for the legs and disrupt its balance.]

'On it…' Blake conjured a fireball and lunched it at the knox's face in an attempt to distract, before lunging at the beast's legs.

The reason knox's always fought on their hind legs was to use their height as an advantage and to also protect its vital points which were its head, lungs, and heart.

"So predictable." With years of experience in hunting both beasts and humans, the knox knew the human will go for its weak spot, so it struck its claws at Blake not minding the fireball that couldn't get past its hide.

When the claw was a meter away from Blake, his katana disappeared stunning the knox for few seconds, but a second was more than enough for Blake.

He shot out a flame burst that propelled him out of the claws range and closer to its legs, all thanks to the knox's hesitation. 

He lifted the space-infused katana and with all his might he slashed at its right leg, inflicting a bone-deep cut that made the knox roared in pain as it managed to stop itself falling before striking at Blake.

Blake had expected the Knox's strike and began preparing a flame burst the moment he slashed it. With the speed granted by the lightning reinforcement and the flame burst he shot to the left; Blake was propelled to the right escaping the claws range.

Still, in mid-air, Blake waited till he got into the right angle before he shot another flame burst launching him behind the knox.

'No!' The knox roared as it saw Blake dodging its attack and moving behind him, before cutting its tendons, making its leg limp and causing it to lose balance.

Thud!

The 4 meters tall black-strip brown bear came crashing down on its face after losing its support, giving Blake a window to end the fight.

[Now's your chance!]

The system's made flames of determination burn-in Blake's eye, as he jumped towards the knox's heart with the space mana infused katana in his hand.

"No!" Being unable to react, the knox roared in fear and desperation as it could only watch as Blake's sword draw closer to its heart.

"Die!" Blake screamed as the sword pierced through its thick skin and plunged into its heart.

[It's dead you can stop now.] It was only a few seconds after the system had told him about the knox's death, that Blake decided to remove his sword.

"One can't be too sure..." Blake said as he stabbed it a few more times to make sure it was dead.

After surviving a fight that he thought was his last, Blake was exhausted and wasn't in the mood for surprises.

[Hurry and gathered everything and leave, with the smell of blood in the air and the noise produced during the fights it is only a matter of time before more beasts arrive.]

Hearing the system's warning Blake put the knox's corpse into his dimensional space, but when he approached the mangled corpse of the chief morg he saw that the upper body of the beast had been turned to semi- paste, even the bones had been shattered to bits.

"I don't think this would be worth anything..." Blake said as he tried hard to stop himself from puking.

[Just grab the core at the chest area and let's get out of here.]

"Erm… Where is the chest?"

After leaving the area, with the help of the system, Blake harvested the cores from all the beasts he had hunted that day. He took a quick rest to regain some energy before he began heading back.

He had planned to stay in the forest for two days for intense beast farming, but after going through so much on the first day, he was exhausted and mentally drained, causing him to change his mind and return to the school.

On his way back to the south gate, Blake was more cautious than when he came, after finding out that a beast's perception range was greater than that of the system.

(AN: There are 4 gates used to enter the city. The south gate is the one prince Bryon took them through and the one he is most familiar with."

When he got to the south gate, he wasn't stopped to be checked by the soldiers because it wasn't a new to see a battered adventurer, especially young ones that overestimated themselves and got injured.

He would have loved to go back to the castle and get some sleep, but he still needed to convert his spoils to money.

He boarded a carriage and after a long time of trying to stay awake he arrived at the adventurer's association.

"I have eight items I would like the association to appraise..." Blake said to the blonde receptionist.

One of the reasons Blake joined the adventurer's association was to get his spoils appraised and processed because not every adventurer was a magic beast hunter who could process all the useful parts of a magic beast, so the adventurer's association made it easier and faster for them to sell their spoils for a processing few which was better than going to magic beast hunters who were known for overcharging.

"Please follow me." She took him to a room where they meet Wadsworth, one of the association's appraisers who was in his early 70's.

"Let's get this over with..." Wadsworth said impatiently as he gestured for Blake to bring out the item.

"Well will need a bigger space. I have the carcass of 8 magical beasts with me." Blake said not minding the appraiser's rudeness.

When they moved over to a bigger room, Blake brought the carcass of the 7 morgs, which left both of them in awe.

'I thought Susan said he is an E rank adventurer how did he kill 7 morgs all alone.' Wadsworth was inwardly shocked.

'How did an E rank kill so many morgs? He is still this young.'

Unlike the young receptionist, appraiser Wadsworth quickly composed himself and got to the task.

'The blood was well-drained...'

'A clean-cut to the head, not damaging the hide.'

'He even collected the beast cores without damaging it… such precision! Who is this kid!' The more Wadsworth checked the condition of the carcass the more shocked he was. Normally when inexperienced adventurers brought in their spoils, the corpse would be battered up and wouldn't worth much at the end of the day.

Apart from killing 7 morgs which was a shocker, he didn't see any other cuts apart from that of the head, which meant that the morgs didn't even put up much of a fight.

'A chief morg always leads the singular why isn't it here? Or maybe it is the eight one, but wouldn't that be outrageous for an E ranker to accomplish?' Wadsworth thought.

"You mentioned 8 beasts, is the chief morg the 8th one?" He asked hoping it wasn't as he suspected, but a side of him was hoping it was.

"No, it's something way bigger..." Blake replied.

'Thank goodness… Wait! Way bigger.' Wadsworth wasn't sure if he had heard well.

"Isn't…that a knox?" The blonde receptionist blurted out.

The problem wasn't that it was their first time seeing a knox, but it was the fact that an E rank adventurer was the one that killed it.

"…" Wadsworth looked at the knox's corpse before looking at Blake then Susan. He had begun doubting his eyes.

'What the f*ck is wrong with them? I am tired.' Blake complained because this was the third time both of them were stood still with their mouths open.

[Maybe they are shocked by the amount of space your dimensional space has, to be able to contain all of these or they are probably shocked and can't believe that an E rank adventurer was able to kill all these.] The system analyzed.

"Is there any problem?" Blake's words brought both of them back to reality.

"Sadly, I am not qualified to appraise an elite magical beast. That will be done by a higher appraise." Wadsworth said with an embarrassed look on his face."