After devouring all of the corpses, Alex left the building with a total of 265 Evo Points and 100 Vitality.

If he wanted, he could use the Vitality to strengthen himself,f but the CV wouldn’t be substantial, so he instead saved it for future use.

As Alex made his way to the city gates, his gaze fell on the various buildings, pavilions, and stalls filling the Nyxare city.

Nyxare city by itself was no different than a maze with various alleys branching out of the main street, which didn’t go much deeper into the busier areas.

The buildings were made of black stone and aged wood, which looked extremely premium because of their natural marquetry. The stalls and shops had big white and red banners with the business name in big dark letters, and people were going about their lives.

"Did you hear that Rodric’s Pen got raided by the slaves that he had captured this morning?"

"That man deserved it. Even though he earned so much by selling those slaves to the Kingdom’s nobles, he never donated anything to our church."

"Yeah... no wonder such a disaster fell upon him."

However, some of those people had some distinctive traits. Although they looked similar to humans, they had beast-like features.

They were beastfolk.

According to a myth, in an era forgotten, the mystical beasts which once ruled various realms fell to different races, and when their blood fell onto humans, the affected turned into beastfolk — A kind which had the mythic bloodline of the mystical beasts and the adaptive nature of the humans.

Seeing them, Alex’s eyes shone with interest.

I’ll have to check if I can get their Evo Blueprint or not. He thought and looked away from them.

After about an hour, with everyone giving him a cold shoulder, Alex finally reached the city gates. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Two guards in light plate armor and swords at their hips stood near the gates, and as Alex closed the distance, their gazes shifted to him.

They stared at him with cold eyes, but none stepped forward as everyone except city criminals was allowed to enter or exit the city gates whenever they wanted.

Alex casually stepped past the wide-open gates, and his gaze fell on the heavy forest at the edge of his vision.

"I have to reach level 5 as fast as I can," Alex mumbled under his breath and moved forward.

After walking for fifteen minutes, he reached the forest’s periphery and halted.

Nyxare’s forest was separated into three rings. The innermost ring had F to E Rank beasts, the middle ring had D to C Rank beasts, and the outermost layer had B Rank beasts with a rare few A Rank at the very end.

Alex’s grip tightened onto [Sharp Dagger], and he stepped into the forest.

Twigs and dried leaves crunched under Alex’s boots. The smell of moss and damp earth drifted into his nose, and after just ten minutes, the sound of soft steps brushed his ear from the left.

Alex’s head instantly turned to the left, and he instinctively stopped breathing.

With an extremely serious look on his face, he walked closer to the sound and peeked at the dark brown rabbits scurrying across a clearing.

As Alex focused on them, a blue screen appeared before his eyes.

[Wild Rabbits]

[Type: Beast]

[Rank: Bronze V]

[Level: 2 (F)]

Although the level difference between Wild Boars and them was just 1, they were in no way as strong.

There are about a dozen of them. Though not enough for a level up, they’d still provide me with a lot of experience.

Alex carefully closed the distance between.

But suddenly, one of the Wild Rabbits looked at him, and its mouth widened to alert others.

Shit! Alex cursed in his head, then channeled mana into the Dexterity Amplification channels of his feet, his speed doubled, and he dashed forward.

Swoosh!

He appeared before that same rabbit and plunged his dagger into its head.

"Eek!!"

Blood splattered on his hand, and the rabbit let out a dying squeal before its eyes lost their glimmer.

[Kill: Wild Rabbit (Bronze V) (F)]

[Experience: +10]

[Evo Points: +10]

Alex pulled out the dagger and dashed toward the next rabbit.

The remaining rabbits had heard the last sound of their companion and had already pivoted to escape, but alas, none of them were as fast as that yellow-eyed demon.

One by one. Rabbits fell to his dagger, and after twenty minutes, the whole place fell silent.

[Kill: Wild Rabbit (Bronze V) (F) x11]

[Experience: +110]

[Evo Points: +110]

Alex swung his right hand and cleaned the blood covering the dagger’s blade.

"It went much easier than I had thought," he mumbled and stored all of the rabbits into his inventory.

As he finished, the day reached evening.

Should I return?

Just as he thought, faint sounds reached him from the right, and without wasting a breath, he dashed toward them.

He soon reached the place, and his gaze fell on a pack of Babirusa (Deer-pig / Hairless Boar), and his lips widened into a smile.

"There’s enough for me to reach level two," he whispered and moved.

Mana filled his channels as he rushed from one babirusa to another and slit their sides and the back of their necks.

The boars tried to fight back, but they were too slow.

After half an hour, Alex caught the last babirusa and stabbed the dagger at the back of its neck.

"Heik!" It let out a short groan and fell to the ground with a thud.

[Kill: Babirusa (Bronze V) (F) x7]

[Experience: +70]

[Evo Points: +70]

[Ding! You have leveled up!]

[Level 1 → 2]

[+2 Combat Value.]

Alex’s lips widened into a grin. He clenched his fist a few times.

Then he crouched beside the nearest dead beast to devour it, but suddenly, he felt a chill on the end of his spine and jumped back just in time.

The very instant shallow claw marks appeared at the spot he had been, Alex’s eyes landed on the deep shadow stretching way further than it should have.

Above that shadow was a blue screen.

[Shadow Spirit]

[Type: Half-spirit]

[Rank: Bronze V]

[Level: 9 (F)]

"Crap..."