Just Another Beginning After the End | TBATE

Asceticism Journey (2) - Hints

A/N: Sorry for the cliffhanger... not. It was kinda fun lol. The power...!

Anyways, I... honestly don't even have words for this chapter.

I'm sorry if all the poo gets to you.

Happy reading :D

I almost dropped the body of the mana beast.

"This is...!"

Light!

It was way too light!

Like I had said, a coal pterodactyl was too heavy to fly anywhere outside of its natural habitat.

"Even if it were a mutant, this thing is still too light...!"

It made sense why I never heard the sound of the body hitting the floor. This thing was as light as a feather!

It was so light that I felt like I wasn't holding anything, despite clearly feeling the sensation of the mana beast in my hand.

The dissonance in my senses caused me to freak out.

But I quickly exhaled, trying to calm myself.

Freaking out wouldn't help anyone. I needed to analyze the situation calmly, and I didn't mean Dumbledore calmly.

Stabilizing my mind, I began to think.

I couldn't bring it back as any form of communication with anyone was strictly prohibited during an Asceticism Journey. That was why I was given this seal.

An intricately carved jade piece shone from my hip.

It radiated mana that interacted with seals that all patrols, guards, and registered hunters wandering about the forest had.

In any case, that meant that I needed to resolve this situation on my own since breaking the rule would result in me being unable to attempt an Asceticism Journey for another decade.

I carefully carried the corpse back to the camp, afraid that the mana beast could fall apart at any moment.

When I arrived at the camp, I sat down and examined the corpse. The campfire illuminated the black mass, revealing that it wasn't black at all.

"A midnight blue..."

And various scars and stitch marks.

I titled my head.

A nightmare fox?

Stealth abilities and a midnight blue color were traits unique to nightmare foxes.

So why would it be present on a coal pterodactyl...?

...

I flipped it over and studied it from all different angles.

Or was it a coal pterodactyl?

The scars were artificial. It was hard to tell them apart from normal scars, but that was the case for any stitch scars from my old world.

...Where the medical field was far more advanced.

The crease in my brow thickened before eventually falling apart.

I sighed.

I expected this to be a nice and easy journey where I trained and got stronger, but it looks like I was wrapped up in some annoying things now.

I stared into the eyes of the mana beast, which looked more like the eyes belonging to a thunderhawk, a species that evolved to have excellent eyesight.