Thinking of it, Naib shook his head, chuckling coldly before shifting his gaze toward the corpse of the aquatic beast.
However, the next second, upon looking down, Naib's eyes immediately widen in shock, freezing in his location for a couple of seconds as throbbing veins appear in his forehead, pulsing dangerously and seemingly about to erupt.
"What the... Dammit, where is my meal!? That damn beast; show yourself here in an instant, you dare to take this man's spoil of war!'
Despite not seeing the culprit who took his trophy of war, Naib already guesses that it's connected to the fish that momentarily appeared earlier. It probably deliberately diverted his attention to take the fish he had killed without him noticing!
Although he had no idea how it did it, Naib can only blame it on the fish's unknown skills!
With the innumerable skills present in this world, it's normal that there are plenty of abilities that can take someone else's item without being noticed, probably even better, like spatial skills.
Nevertheless, even if his guess were incorrect, it's undeniable that the fault lies with that fish, the reason for him to lose his meal; hence, after calming down, Naib bowed to catch that fish either alive or dead. Planning to shove a long stick into its butt before grilling it throughout!
Kekeke~
"Don't let me catch you, or else you're going to regret it... deeply."
Laughing maniacally, Naib again activated the potential seeing eyes, coating his retina with a bizarre aura before continuing his journey to catch a meal for himself.
As for that fish, understanding that his current speed was far below the latter, making it quite impossible to kill that one in normal circumstances, Naib momentarily put the thought in the back of his mind, remembering this grudge deeply until he had the ability to kill that hateful aquatic beast.
"You can bully all the poor people in this world but not me."
***
Swish~
Pierce! Slash! Parry!
"D*mnit. Show yourself, you bastard! Do you think you can take my trophy every single time? Can you even eat those things that you stole from me?
"Huhuhu~ this is already the third time. I'm already hungry. Can you at least leave half of the meat for me? How can I continue killing aquatic beasts for you if my body lacks energy?'
In the distance, where mud, dirt, traces of blood, and water began clouding the surface of the stream, the pathetic figure of Naib can be discerned madly swinging the rusty sword in his surroundings, parting the water beneath him to vent out the frustrations hidden within his heart.
However, amidst his frustrations, and although his face was clouded by anger and pain due to the stolen meats that he had acquired with difficulty, a faint light, enough to send chills down one's spine, can be seen flickering in those abyssal eyes of his.
Kekeke~
"This is unexpected; I hadn't expected that the thing I was looking for would be near me this whole time!'
After the trail of the unknown aquatic beast vanished in the corner of his eyes, Naib finally halted his action. Taking a deep breath to relax his tense nerves, he then looked at the thin screen laid in front of him with a smile.
Although it took him quite an effort to have a glimpse of that aquatic-beast figure using the bestowed talent of the system — to get its overall data — the information he got was enough to offset the losses he had made.
"Finally, a beast with an overall potential of 25 points! I need to catch that beast and form a contract with it as soon as possible!"
Ding!
[ Mutated Water Salamander
Realm: Mid-Stage of the Mortal Realm
Bloodline: Low - Elite
Talent: Exceptional regenerative (Rare), Toxic Secretion (Elite), Water Affinity (Elite), Tail Lashing (Uncommon).
Life Span: 4.1/65
...
Overall Potential: 25
Luck: 30
Comprehension: 27
Physical Potential: 23
Talent: 14
Destiny: 31 ]
...
"Although its talent was quite bad, its other potential was astonishingly high, especially its luck and destiny that was hard to fathom."
Other than that, Naib also noticed that the salamander even has 4 skills in its arsenal! Much more surprising is that it has an extremely rare skill and two elite ones that were tricky to deal with!
Not to mention the water affinity that can boost its overall ability when it is around water, its exceptional regenerative abilities alone make it hard to be killed even for beings above its realm.
If Naib guesses correctly, that Mutated Water Salamander's combat ability should have reached the late stage of the mortal realm — allowing it to hunt on its own — hence making him confused why it keeps insisting on stealing his spoil of war rather than hunting for its sustenance.
Wouldn't it be easier for it to hunt beasts on its own rather than stealing from some weakling?
"Don't tell me it is having fun stealing from others? Or maybe because of my charismatic face?"
Sigh.
Nevertheless, since that beast reached the requirements of the system's 1st quest, Naib wouldn't care much about the reason behind its action; instead, he would be happy to entertain the other party — slowly building affinity before finding a way to form a contract with it... or much better if it takes the initiative to form a contract with him.
However, if it doesn't occur, then he can slowly wait until he has sufficient strength to drive the other party into submission before forcefully forming a contract with it.
Although it's not advisable since forcing a beast to form a contract with him makes them prone to betrayal — worse, directly sabotaging him in certain situations, even causing him to easily enter a perilous situation — Naib would do anything just to finish the first quest of the system.
Despite sounding harsh, gaining strength is of his utmost importance.
It could be said that, other than getting the beast's approval, a beast master can also resort to trickery, weakening the beast's mental defense first before forcefully forming a contract with them.
"I will only use that option when I'm desperate.
"Nevertheless, if I wanted to do it, I still needed to gain sufficient strength; I at least needed to reach the late or even the peak stage of the Beast Apprentice realm to have a shot at catching that beast."