A Night Hunt in the Dark Forest
How could he have forgotten? Only after recalling that childhood memory did Ted finally realize. The dark princess who had lived in solitude for over a thousand years without finding a master—the very girl he had made a promise to his grandfather about—was none other than her. The one who had just fled into the forest in tears after being tormented by everyone...
"Damn it, how could I be so stupid to only realize this now!"
Regretting that he hadn't reached out to her sooner, Ted belatedly dashed into the forest, chasing after the dark princess.
"Hey, kid?! The Dark Forest is too dangerous for a low-grade adventurer at night! Come back! Hey!!"
The gate guard's shout, filled with worry for Ted's safety, echoed behind him. How ironic that a voice so cruel to the dark princess—a mere weapon—could be so kind to him, a human... Feeling a bitter pang at the hypocrisy of this discriminatory society, Ted plunged deeper into the treacherous Dark Forest.
Monsters originally came from Intelligence Weapons that had been corrupted by darkness. Because of this, their power amplified significantly when night fell, with some becoming several times—or even dozens of times—stronger depending on the individual. Consequently, most adventurers avoided venturing out at night. They would camp in safe zones after dusk and exercise extreme caution in dungeons, which remained dangerous regardless of the time of day. Since sunlight never reached the depths of a dungeon, those subterranean spaces were always brimming with dark energy, turning even a trivial surface slime into a lethal threat.
"Damn it... the tracks are getting harder to follow."
Ted grimaced as he stared into the pitch-black woods. The forest, already steeped in night, was now completely dominated by a sinister energy. The normal sounds of woodland wildlife had vanished, replaced by the eerie, fear-inducing cries of monsters echoing through the trees.
"This is bad... Why did the dark princess run into the forest of all places?"
Ted cautiously pressed forward, tracking her faint footprints. He desperately wanted to light a torch, but doing so would be tantamount to broadcasting his exact location to every monster in the vicinity. Left with no choice, he relied solely on the sparse moonlight filtering through the canopy to guide his steps through the gloom.
"Was I too reckless? No, if I let her go now, I might never see her again."
If she left the city in her despair, finding her would become an impossible task. It was far better to catch up to her now, while her trail was still fresh.
A sudden chill ran down his spine.
In that split second, Ted felt an ominous presence.
"Something's there!"
Driven by pure instinct, he threw his body to the side.
Whoosh! Thud, thud, thud!
At that exact moment, a volley of crude wooden spears rained down, impaling the very spot where he had been standing. It was an ambush.
"Damn it, is it a monster?"
Cold sweat breaking out on his brow, Ted scrambled to his feet and quickly ducked behind a nearby tree, scanning his surroundings.
"Just my luck. Of all times to run into a monster at night. What are they?"
He reached into his inventory to pull out a hand mirror, but stopped himself.
"Right, I forgot about the bracelet Lyla gave me."
The Magic Smart Accessory bracelet she had gifted him possessed the ability to project a 360-degree view, allowing him to peer around blind spots. Activating the bracelet's function, Ted observed the area beyond the tree through a holographic display visible only to his eyes.
"There they are."
Five F+ Rank Specters stood in the clearing, their rusty blades glinting under the moonlight.
"Oh, just five F+ Rank Specters?"
Ted let out a quiet smirk.
"I've already taken down a pack of Specters estimated to be E+ Rank—two tiers higher than these guys. Even if it's night, a few F+ Ranks should be a piece of cake..."
With that confidence, Ted prepared to activate Blood Circulation. However, he felt a completely different sensation surging through his body first.
"Huh? This is... could it be?"
It finally clicked. He had actually mastered Mana Circulation, the advanced upgrade of Blood Circulation. He had been fighting so frantically during the day that he had used it purely on instinct without even realizing the breakthrough.
"My skill upgraded!"
Though it was a bit late to notice, Ted cheered inwardly at his own growth. Mana Circulation was far safer than Blood Circulation, even when pushed to its limits. This meant he could now draw upon significantly greater power with minimal backlash.
"Perfect. I'll wipe them out in an instant. Five of them will be gone in a flash!"
With that thought, Ted kicked off the ground with explosive force. He lunged toward the nearest Specter of the five, swinging his sword directly at its neck. Enhanced by Mana Circulation, he believed a low-tier Specter like this would pose absolutely no challenge.
But in that very instant—
"Gah?!"
Ted experienced something utterly unbelievable. The Specter, staring directly at him, dodged his swinging blade by a hair's breadth. Not only that, but it countered by driving a slender fist straight into his abdomen.
Thud!
The impact sent Ted flying backward, crashing hard against a tree trunk.
"Ugh... cough..."
The force behind that slender fist was unimaginable for an F+ Rank Specter. The breath was violently knocked out of Ted's lungs, forcing a ragged gasp from his throat. The shockwave that penetrated his armor was so severe that he couldn't even stand up for several seconds.
"W-What the hell...?"
Had he misidentified them? There was no way an F+ Rank Specter possessed this level of reflexes and raw strength. Could they be higher-ranking monsters? Swirling with questions, Ted scrutinized his opponents once more.
Yet, no matter how much he looked, they were definitely Specters. They wore the tattered garments and carried the crude weapons characteristic of the common F+ Rank Specter. But if so, where did that absurd power come from? Did they possess some rare skill? Unlikely. If they were rare variants, they wouldn't be wielding such shoddy gear; they would have equipped better weapons looted from dead adventurers.
"Then could it be..."
Ted rolled his eyes upward, staring at the dark sky.
The night. That was the answer. The dark energy of the night had amplified their strength far beyond normal limits.
"Damn it, boosting them this much is just cheating."
A Specter at night was on a completely different level compared to its daytime counterpart. Their speed and strength now rivaled those of a daytime Orc. He had to treat this not as fighting five Specters, but as fighting five Orcs in broad daylight.
"Kikikiki!"
The Specters cackled, mocking the foolish adventurer who had dared to enter the Dark Forest at night. Seeing how they didn't immediately rush to finish him off, they clearly intended to toy with him before delivering a brutal death. At this rate, he would end up as a nutritious meal, leaving nothing but bones—or perhaps not even that.
"...I'm not going down like that."
As his body recovered from the shock, Ted pushed himself up, grabbing a handful of dirt from the ground. He raised his sword, bracing for combat.
"Kikiki! Hu-man! My food!"
"Kyaha! That one's mine!"
Two of the Specters lunged forward, competing to reach him first. They were incredibly fast, possessing explosive leg strength that defied their fragile appearances.
"I need to push it even further!"
Determined not to let his guard down this time, Ted accelerated his Mana Circulation to its absolute limit. Instantly, his mind cleared, his cognitive speed multiplied, and the world around him seemed to slow to a crawl.
The Specter on the left would enter his striking range first, followed closely by the one on the right. However, Ted's true targets weren't the two rushing toward him. His real objective was the other three Specters standing further back, laughing in their complacency.
"Now!"
Ted charged head-on toward the two oncoming Specters. Just as they were about to enter each other's attack range, Ted flung the handful of dirt he had secretly scooped up straight into their eyes.
"Kieek?!"
"Kyaah?!"
These monsters could instantly regenerate any physical wound unless their Core was destroyed. However, dirt in the eyes wasn't a wound, meaning they had no magical way to instantly clear it. His tactical gamble paid off flawlessly.
"You two can wait!"
Ted slipped right past the blinded Specters and closed the distance to the remaining three. Caught completely off guard, the trio reacted a split second too late.
Swish! Slash!
"Kiah?!"
"Gurgle, cough..."
With a single, fluid sweep of his blade, Ted successfully decapitated two of them.
"Kieek?!"
Unfortunately, the third one managed to dodge by tilting its head back at the last possible second.
"Tch!"
Wasting no time, Ted thrust his sword deep into the vagina of one of the decapitated, temporarily immobilized Specters.
"Ngggyaaaaah?!"
The Specter's face contorted into an expression of sheer, ecstatic bliss before its body dissolved into particles of light. At the same time, Ted swiftly leaped backward.
Step!
Reversing his grip on his sword, he thrust it backward, impaling one of the blinded Specters behind him.
Squelch!
"Kyaaa?!"
"You're my meat shield now!"
Using raw physical strength, Ted spun his body 180 degrees. As he dragged the impaled Specter around to face the front—
Thunk!
A spear flew through the air, piercing straight through the meat shield's torso. It was a throw from the Specter that had dodged his initial slash.
"Great teamwork, Miss Specter," Ted mocked.
"Kyaah!"
Taunting the Specter that had just skewered its own ally, Ted delivered a brutal kick to the knee of the other blinded Specter struggling nearby.
Crack!
"Kieek!"
As the Specter shrieked in agony from its knee bending sideways, Ted snatched its weapon away.
Squish!
He shoved the weapon deep into the Specter's anus, shattering its Core.
"Hngggghhh~?!"
The Specter convulsed violently, spraying a thick stream of lewd fluids from its urethra, before dissolving into nothingness with a face flushed with pure ecstasy.
Now, only one remained.
"H-Human! Cowardly!"
"There's no such thing as 'cowardly' in a fight to the death."
"Urgh!"
Realizing that four of its companions had been wiped out in the blink of an eye, the surviving Specter spun around and fled. Ted couldn't let it escape. If he lost track of it, there was no telling when or where it might ambush him for revenge.
"Like I'd let you get away!!"
Ted scooped up one of the crude wooden spears scattered on the ground and hurled it with all his might. However, the Specter leaped to the side, causing the spear to miss entirely.
"Kieek?!"
But in its desperate rush to dodge, the Specter botched its landing and took a spectacular tumble.
"Ha! Idiot!"
Ted dashed forward to finish it off. But the moment he finally reached the fallen monster—
Twang! Whoosh!
"Huh?!"
Something suddenly snagged Ted's leg, hoisting him violently into the air. To his dismay, he had walked straight into a trap.