"my name is Mars, I would like to meet with the elders"

"yes sir Mars, I'll send word to the elder right away please have a seat while you wait"

"okay"

Mars sat down and waited and soon an ancient looking elf walked over to him and spoke

"please follow after me sir Mars, the elders is waiting"

Mars gave a nod and followed after the ancient looking elf further into the giant hollow tree, after going through complex hallways for close to an hour Mars finally arrived in front of a big door which the ancient looking elf gestured to

"the elders are waiting"

"thanks"

Mars walked up and opened the door and was imitatively greeted by the elders voices

"see he didn't kick open the door this time"

"ha! I knew it"

"tch..."

"this doesn't mean anything"

"yeah he maybe will kick it open next time"

Mars paused and eventually decided to ignore the elders bickering and asked them

"I wonder if I could ask for you wisdom?"

"oh he's so polite this time"

"we are really shocked"

"very well since you asked so nicely what is it you need our wisdom for?"

Mars walked up and sat down on a chair and thought for a moment before he spoke

"is there a place nearby where you guys would not mind the local population of magic beasts to go... extinct?"

"extinct you say..?"

"can you elaborate?"

"we are a little confused"

Mars gave a sigh and explained

"I use magic beast cores to get stronger and I need to get much stronger in a short amount of time..."

"so you want to hunt?"

"you could use the barrier forest for that... unless..?"

Mars gave a nod and spoke

"I'm afraid if I hunted in the barrier forest it would become less of a barrier and more of a forest..."

one of the elders gave a nod with an understanding look on his face

"so you wish to hunt another in place..."

Mars gave another nod

"yes exactly"

"we understand... give us a moment..."

Mars waited while the elders thought to themselves until suddenly one of them spoke up

"there this one place.... an island off the west coast of our peninsular... only we forget why it was sealed off in the first place..."

Mars gave a smile

"then that will do fine, can you arrange a boat for me or do I have to swim?"

"we will naturally arrange a boat for you"

"thanks"

Mars finished his talk with the elders and it was decided that the boat that would take him to the unknown Island would leave tomorrow, Mars didn't follow the ancient elver back though the long hallways he instead opened a portal and stepped though...

"Mars what happened to you, you look awful!"

"yeah, yeah I know tell me about it"

Mars waved off Mary that had waited for him on the roof since breakfast but decided it was too cruel and sat her down and told her what had happened, after he was done Mary looked at him with worry in her eyes and asked

"so basically you got wrecked?"

"yup"

Mars agreed, it was the biggest defeat he had since he was reborn, but in his past life if he was known for one thing then it wasn't giving up, if he met a 'wall' he could not pa.s.s he would smash his head against it until it broke

"so that's why I'm going to be training starting tomorrow"

"training?"

"yep I meet with the elders earlier and found a good training ground"

"can... I come... too?"

Mars looked behind him and saw Victoria had sneaked up on them and gave a smile

"sure, as long as you listen to me"

Mary's face lit up and then she asked

"can I come too?"

"hmm... I don't think that's a good idea, but don't worry I'll be home everyday by night to sleep at home"

"okay then, I'll go tell the others"

"sure"

Mars saw off Mary that ran downstairs then he patted his lap and Victoria ran over and laid down on his lap and began purring loudly

"it will be like the old days"

"what... will?"

"the hunting trip, except i won't be clad in animal furs"

Victoria stared out into empty s.p.a.ce before her horns flashed again

"then... can you... stay here some... more?"

Mars gave a smile and patted Victoria on the head feeling her fluffy fur his mood improved further...

The next day Mars arrived at the river, further downstream form where the giant tree was, at his left was the river and on his right the river meet the open sea, a small dockyard was built on the cost of the sea, it was here most of Green rivers meager sea industry which sold more pretty seash.e.l.ls than fish had its roots. Mars and Victoria walked up to the dock and quickly found the s.h.i.+p that had been a.s.signed to take them out to the island, Mars stopped at the plank out to the s.h.i.+p and called out

"permission to come aboard?"

then he waited for sometime until what he at first glance a.s.sumed was a corpse covered in empty gla.s.s bottles suddenly moved, or more like twitched for a second before the corpse, or more accurately figure sat up and looked at him, it turned out to be a middle aged elf with short graying hair and dull green eyes

"...what did you say?"

"permission to come aboard?"

Mars repeated himself once and looked at the elver that stared blankly at him before he himself repeated what Mars just said

"permission to come... aboard?"

Mars gave a nod

"yes don't you usually say that before you board a owned vessel?"

the dull light in the eyes of the elf lit up a little more as he suddenly began trembling

"w-w-w-what a wonderful phrase!"

the elf got on his feet and walked over to Mars before he repeated

"what a wonderful phrase!!!"

Victoria moved her front paws so they covered her ears and glared at the elf that continued

"of course you may come aboard, you must be sir Mars I'm Even"

"nice to meet you Even"

Mars extended his hand which Even looked at for sometime before he looked like he remembered something and also extended his hand and shock Mars' hand, then Mars walked aboard the small s.h.i.+p and asked

"so this is the s.h.i.+p that will take me to the island?"

"yes of course sir Mars, she's seaworthy alright"

"okay then let's go"

the s.h.i.+p set sail and after a few days of sailing Mars and Victoria was left on some random beach with the only thing in view being a vast expanse of forest that started right as the sandy beach ended

"well then let's go hunting Victoria"

"okay..."

Mars lead the way into the forest and soon they discovered their first pray, or more precisely it discovered them

"....seems kind of pitiful don't you think Victoria?"

"yeah... but let's... kill it"

it was a wind deer that was trapped in vines, it looked like it had been running away from something before it ended up tangled in the vines, Mars walked over and quickly ended it before he harvested its magic beast core which was cla.s.s 4. Looking at the 50 energy units contained in the magic beast core Mars felt he had a long way to go before level 70 but nevertheless activated his drain hands and drained the energy units out of the core that then turned to dust as the last unit was drained out of it

"well then, let's continue Victoria... do you sense anything nearby?"

"yeah over... this way"

"okay lead the way"

Mars followed Victoria until they reached a clearing where a group of some kind of humanoid magic beasts stood, they were harvesting a kill of some kind of small animal with a few them standing guard and watching the forest

'what have we here..? they are not goblins but...'

just as Mars was wondering what kind of magic beast the humanoid creatures were his skill activated and showed him the information

name: hobgoblin

gender: male

cla.s.s: 4

basic info: a hobgoblin is an evolved goblin that shows latent talent in magic, besides that they also sometimes carry primitive weapons which are known to be poisoned. They are known to form social structures like villages were each hobgoblin have a distinctive role

'jackpot...'

Mars quickly signaled to Victoria to leave one alive

"why...?"

Victoria tilted her head then Mars explained though a series of hand signals that it was better that way

"okay..?"

Victoria was still a little confused but Mars ignored that and signaled for them to strike