Chapter Four: Conflict

“Are they here?” Zhou Tian lay hidden among a pile of withered leaves, his gaze fixed intently on a group of mercenaries approaching from the distance, even as memories of the past few days surfaced unbidden in his mind.

Upon discovering that the game system had been transported with him into this otherworld, Zhou Tian had quickly enhanced his abilities and set out on a hunting journey. At first, his strength was no more than level zero, placing him at the very bottom of the food chain within the entire Forest of Magical Beasts. However, after purchasing the Poison Mastery from the system’s shop, Zhou Tian used his venom to easily kill a good number of low-level magical beasts, and with the experience gained from those kills, soon leveled up to level three.

With his level raised, Zhou Tian’s physical capabilities increased considerably. In theory, such improvements should have granted him greater means for survival. Yet in reality, though his power grew, his body also enlarged significantly with each advancement, and this increase in size brought with it unexpected troubles.

Regardless of Zhou Tian’s peculiar fortune or the vast achievements that might await him in the future, one fact was certain: before he grew strong enough, he was still nothing more than a low-level magical beast. And at the outskirts of the Forest of Magical Beasts, besides the monsters themselves, there existed many mercenaries who made their living by hunting for magic cores.

As for the magical beasts, as long as Zhou Tian avoided provoking those high-level creatures he couldn’t contend with, he could rely on his venom to hunt safely, playing to his strengths and avoiding his weaknesses. But encountering mercenaries was a different matter altogether. Even the weakest of mercenaries possessed intelligence no less than that of a high-level beast, so Zhou Tian’s usual strategies—relying on cunning—were unlikely to succeed against them. Thus, while he was preparing to select a few manageable prey as usual, he stumbled into a group of unwary mercenaries along a familiar serpentine path.

Recalling that moment still sent cold sweats coursing down his spine.

Having once been human himself, upon seeing the mercenaries in this strange world, Zhou Tian failed to fully grasp his own situation. The instant he spotted them, excitement overcame caution and he slithered directly toward them. He had merely intended to greet them, perhaps glean some information about the world from them, but he never expected their response would be an immediate attack.

Though he had once been a human too, he was now a snake. And while humans are also intelligent beings, their nature leaves no room for mercy when confronted with other species. If not for the fact that his current form was that of an utterly harmless, non-venomous snake—causing the mercenaries to underestimate him—he would likely have lost his life in that very first encounter.

In the end, because his captors dismissed him as no threat and intended only to take him back as an ingredient for dinner, they merely captured him. Startled, Zhou Tian bit the mercenary who held him as a reflex and then escaped in the ensuing chaos.

Though humanity held many advantages, their bodies were no match for magical beasts in terms of physical prowess. Even some high-level beasts would succumb to Zhou Tian’s venom, so the mercenary who was bitten stood no chance of survival. Thus, Zhou Tian forged a deadly enmity with that mercenary’s company.

Had Zhou Tian been a high-level magical beast, they would not have dared seek revenge. Or, had the mercenary he killed been of little consequence, the matter would have ended then and there. Deaths among both mercenaries and beasts were common in the forest, and if every loss begot retribution, the resulting conflicts would have long since shattered the uneasy peace. But the mercenary Zhou Tian killed was evidently of some importance, for after his death, the group scoured the forest for Zhou Tian with dogged frenzy.

Initially, Zhou Tian did his best to avoid them, still clinging to the human notion that killing was a crime. Yet the mercenaries’ relentless pursuit and his own inevitable acts of self-defense only deepened the mutual hatred, until now both sides regarded the other as their rightful prey.

As Zhou Tian pondered his past experiences, the mercenaries gradually combed their way toward his hiding spot. When they drew near, Zhou Tian could have leapt out to attack, but instead he chose to remain motionless, feigning ignorance as they searched closer and closer.

Given the circumstances, if the mercenaries were allowed more time, they would surely have found him. But before they could, the situation suddenly shifted.

With a thunderous roar, a gigantic tiger—standing over two meters tall—appeared beside the mercenaries. As though only now noticing the intruders, it let out a deafening cry and pounced.

The mercenaries may not have known why such a beast had emerged beside them, but their battle-hardened reflexes did not fail them in the face of danger.

“Careful, it’s a Thunder Tiger, a mid-tier magical beast! Warriors to the front for shield defense, swordsmen to support, mages prepare to cast, archers, fire at will!”

At the leader’s command, the mercenaries swiftly assumed their positions. After the Thunder Tiger caught a few of them off guard and slew them, the shield-bearing warriors advanced to replace their fallen comrades and engaged the beast head-on.

A resounding crash followed as several mercenaries were sent flying by the Thunder Tiger’s charge.

Despite the losses, the determined resistance of the shield warriors managed to halt the Thunder Tiger’s advance. With the beast’s movement checked, the mercenaries’ counterattack began. Though the number of archers was not great, every mercenary team would surely include these “mage-killers”. In the instant the Thunder Tiger was brought to a standstill, dozens of arrows flew toward it.

Yet the Thunder Tiger showed no sign of panic. As a mid-tier magical beast, its physical prowess far surpassed that of lesser creatures, but it also possessed defenses no low-level beast could match.

A crackling surge of electricity erupted as the arrows neared, and the Thunder Tiger’s magic reduced them all to cinders. Then, in the blink of an eye, it launched a counterattack of its own.

Though magical beasts knew but a handful of spells, all could cast them instantly. Besides the electric net it had just unleashed, the Thunder Tiger also commanded a spell to summon lightning.

As the beast cast its spell, a bolt of lightning as thick as a man’s thigh crashed down from the sky, striking directly at the group of mages.

Though the Thunder Tiger’s spell was not of the highest order, given the frailty of the mages, if they were struck by the lightning, few if any would survive.

But the mercenaries were hardly unprepared. The Thunder Tiger was not facing sheltered magic apprentices, but seasoned fighters who battled magical beasts regularly. This might have been their first encounter with a Thunder Tiger, but they were well acquainted with such attacks. Thus, though the beast’s instant-cast spell was sudden, the mages’ readiness blunted its effect, and the Thunder Tiger’s assault failed to claim any victims.