Gnolls were a race that looked like a bipedal hyena with ferocious ws and short bodies.


    The gnolls in front of Felix trotted about in the forest, two of them each carrying a dark wolf''s corpse along them.


    Felix slowly neared to them using his Silent Steps skill and blended between them under the darkness of the night.


    ''They''repletely unaware of me....''


    He scratched his head, watching the short gnolls who were giving their everything and dragging the heavy wolves that were much bigger than their own size.


    In their dedicated and serious work, they didn''t notice a stranger among them who was curiously looking at their enthusiastic loot.


    ''Let''s just follow them for now.''


    He deliberated while keeping a bit of distance from the gnolls and kept his eye on them as they traversed through the forest.


    After a while, they came across another group of gnolls who ran happily andmunicated with them beforeing along.


    Some other patrol gnolls also arrived towards them, who all grinned hungrily and followed behind them too.


    ''Are they going to have a party or what?'', Felix wondered as the many gnolls jumped about and helped carry the wolves.


    Sometimeter, they finally arrived at arge area where many gnolls could be seen gathered around a huge rock with a t surface above it.


    And atop that rock stood a tall and mighty-looking gnoll whose figure gave off a powerful aura, looking at which Felix frowned seriously.


    ''Is that a Rank 2 gnoll? But why does it...look much stronger than the Rank 2 bandit....''


    While Felix hid behind a tree, taking in the scene, the gnolls that were carrying the wolves moved to the huge rock and ced the corpses there before prostrating towards the Rank 2 gnoll.


    The Rank 2 Gnoll nced at the weaker gnolls and the tribute they had offered it, and then gestured for them to carry it all near him.


    The gnolls did as he told them to do, and then the Rank 2 gnoll grsbbed and tore apart the corpses as it devoured them without leaving a hair.


    Felix took a gulp seeing the ferocious manner of the gnoll and weighed his set of actions.


    ''There''s around a hundred gnolls at this ce, making it a suitable hunting ground for me, but the presence of that Rank 2 gnoll is bugging me for some reason.....''


    He thought for some time while watching the gnolls surrounding their leader excitedly.


    A minuteter, all the gnolls separated as they left in their different patrol groups, leaving behind some gnolls at the ce, including the Rank 2 gnoll, who went to rest on the huge rock.


    ''This is much better. Now I''ll be able to hunt them separately without alerting their leader....'', he thought as his eyes lit up watching the gnolls go.


    He chose a group of ten gnolls and sneaked behind them as they moved into the forest while searching for some other prey.


    Felix waited patiently as the group of gnolls travelled far from their base so as to hunt them down when they had reached a bit of distance from their gathering site.


    Jumping from the shadows of one tree to the other, he eyed his prey as they wandered around in the forest.


    ''Here is good.''


    The gnolls had distanced themselves from their ce, so Felix walked out from the dark and faced them.


    Hearing the footsteps behind them because Felix had not used any of his skills, the gnolls turned around in shock and became alert.


    Their eyes reddened at the sudden appearance of a human being, and without wasting any time, they hungrily pounced on him with their ws out.


    ''Earth Spikes.''


    An unexpected attack from the ground caught them by surprise as sharp spikes pierced their lower bodies.


    Two gnolls were dead from that attack while the other few were injured slightly.


    [You have killed a being higher than your own rank.]x2


    [You have gained 10 skill points.]x2


    Four of the gnolls who were affected by the spikes reached beside Felix and shed their long ws at him, intending to kill him mercilessly.


    ''Agility Burst.''


    But their attacks passed through the air as a gush of wind passed by them, heading towards the injured gnolls.


    Felix arrived beside the injured gnolls in the blink of an eye, and before they could react, he unleashed his torrent of attacks.


    ''ck Horizon 2nd Technique: Striking des!''


    He danced between the gnolls while beautifully swinging his sword, captivating them who remained frozen at the quickness of his attack.


    Thin lines appeared on the many gnoll''s necks before their heads were sliced apart from their bodies within seconds, and they dropped dead on the ground headless.


    [You have killed a being higher than your own rank.]x4


    [You have gained 10 skill points.]x4


    Seeing the death of almost half of their patrolling team, the remaining gnolls got scared, but they overcame their fear as they howled towards the sky angrily.


    ''Typical monsters....''


    Shaking his head, Felix dashed using another Agility Burst and arrived in between the four gnolls while they were still howling.


    He brought an end to their animalistic behaviour by moving his sword in one swing as he beheaded their necks that were still raised up towards the sky howling.


    ''ck Horizon 1st Technique: Singr sh.''


    Blood sprayed out from the throats of the headless gnolls, illuminating the dark as their blood shined under the moonlight.


    [You have killed a being higher than your own rank.]x4


    [You have gained 10 skill points.]x4


    With the bodies of the four gnolls dropping down with a thud, all the gnolls had now been killed.


    Standing amid the corpses, Felix turned around and went back to their gathering ce.


    ''Let''s look for another patrol team...''


    He dashed onwards as he was not yet satisfied with the amount of skill points he had gotten.


    This might be hisst chance to hunt outside the city before the guild war starts, because this mission''s result woulde to worry Miss Elsa, who wouldn''t allow him to leave the city again to keep him safe.


    So he decided to earn as many skill points as he could this time, so that it maye to help him in the near future.


    Rushing away, Felix reached back to the gnoll''s base following the hidden marks he had left behind, but he quickly hid himself against a tree when he noticed someone else other than the gnolls was there at the ce.


    ''Who''s that?'', he furrowed his brows while carefully peeking at the scene.


    Atop the huge rock, a man wearing a dark robe could be seen standing still in front of the Rank 2 gnoll, while the gnoll was practically grovelling at the man''s feet.


    As it in the middle of the night deep inside the forest, he felt a bit nervous about another human''s intervention, but his curiosity got the better of him.


    Felix felt the situation was strange, but he couldn''t hear or make out what was happening, so he used his Silent Steps skill and moved towards another tree that was near to them.


    The moment he reached behind the tree, the man standing on the huge rock turned his head around suddenly and waved his hand at the tree.


    "Swishh!"


    A de ofpressed aura formed out of nowhere and shed at the tree, cutting it in half with its wooden pieces flying about.


    The man nced briefly at the destroyed tree, checking for any anomaly, but then shook his head.


    "That''s weird, I certainly felt someone there.....",  he muttered in a calm tone.


    Turning back, the man looked at the shivering gnoll before him and talked with himself.


    "Hmm, this one is not so bad. It''s better than those useless goblins, I guess."


    The man went back to what he was doing earlier, but a few meters away from him, a certain boy was sweating heavily under the ground.


    ''Holy shit that was close!!'', Felix cursed in his mind while slowly and carefully swimming inside the ground as he moved away from that ce.


    When he moved a bit farther away, he poked his head out and peeked at the distant figure of the man along with the trembling gnoll.


    ''That was dangerous! What kind of attack even was that? But before that, how did that guy notice me with my skill activated??''


    He wondered before a crazy thought entered his mind, which made him widen his eyes.


    ''N-No way....he''s not someone from Rank 4, right?'', Felix took a gulp in fear.


    Realising this fact, he submerged back into the ground and moved further away from that ce.


    ''Better safe than sorry.''


    He came out of the ground after moving a bit further away from that ce and pondered about the situation.


    ''To appear this deep inside the forest in the middle of the night while wearing a dark robe...I can only think of the dark guilds who would do such a thing, but for what purpose?''


    Coming to this conclusion, Felix frowned for some time before then he rxed back and shook his head.


    ''There''s no point in dwelling on the reason. What I should do now is get further away from this ce and hunt somewhere else.''


    Felix chose a different direction after calcting for a few seconds and ran towards there hoping he''ll meet some other monsters, instead of some hidden masters.


    On the other hand, after the dark robed man finished doing his work, he slowly floated above the ground and disappeared into the distance, moving into the same direction that Felix had chosen to go.


    That night, many things were bound to happen, some of which would bring many troubles to a certain silver-haired boy.