Several months had passed since Arka first unlocked a fraction of the cave's secrets. He used that time to forge the foundations of his strength with a newfound discipline. Mornings were spent on the beach, trying to awaken his own Aura. He would stand still for hours, trying to feel the warm energy that had once appeared reflexively in battle, but now he had to summon it with his own consciousness. The process was frustrating, but occasionally, he would manage to make his fists feel heavier or his sight sharper for a few seconds. It was a small progress he fought hard for.
His nights were dedicated to Mana. He would meditate on the veranda of his stilt house, gazing at the calm ocean while trying to sense the "lake" within his soul. He learned to create small ripples on its surface, a mentally exhausting exercise that slowly made him more aware of the magical potential sleeping within him.
Amidst this routine, Arka felt that he and his team had hit a growth ceiling in the part of the forest they usually explored. Driven by the need for new challenges, he decided to lead an expedition into a deeper part of the forest, a dense area at the foot of the mountains he had thus far avoided.
The deeper they went, the stranger the atmosphere became. The trees grew closer together, blocking the sunlight and casting the forest floor in twilight. The usual sounds of insects and birds vanished, replaced by an oppressive silence. The foxes walked closer to Arka's side, their fur on end, their senses on full alert.
Suddenly, Hanzo, who was scouting ahead, stopped and let out a low growl. Before them, in a rocky area, a giant lizard-like monster two meters tall stood motionless. Its hide was as hard as gray stone, covered in patches of moss, and its long claws shone like freshly sharpened obsidian. Its yellow eyes stared at them, unblinking, cold, and devoid of emotion.
The monster moved. With a speed unexpected for its size, it lunged forward.
The fight was the hardest they had ever faced. Arka leaped back, loosing a series of arrows, but they all just bounced off the monster's hard hide with a pathetic clink. Bullyu charged forward to block the attack, but the monster easily swatted the stout white fox aside. Selen immediately ran to treat Bullyu's bruised flank. Hanzo tried to use his invisibility magic to attack from a blind spot, but the monster's hide was too thick for his fangs and claws.
They were forced to fight with everything they had, relying on their perfect teamwork just to survive. Arka became the command center. He didn't need to shout. A short nod toward Bullyu was enough. Years of hunting together had honed their cooperation into pure instinct. Bullyu instantly understood, charging forward to draw the monster's attention, while Hanzo automatically moved to find a blind spot to attack its leg joints. Arka looked at Selen, and the vixen, understanding his gaze, began to run circles around the monster, preparing an illusion to confuse it.
After a long, grueling battle that left them all wounded and breathless, Arka finally saw a thin gap between the scales under the monster's neck as it reared its head to roar. This was his only chance. Capitalizing on the distraction from Bullyu, Arka shot forward, coating his sword with all the remaining Aura he could muster, and thrust it with all his might into the gap.
The blade went in, and the monster shrieked before finally collapsing with a thunderous crash. Arka fell to the ground with it, panting, staring at the monster's carcass in horror and disbelief. What is this thing? Why was it so strong?
That night, after Selen had finished tending to their wounds, a mix of curiosity and a lingering fear led him back to his books. He unrolled a thick scroll titled "General Rank Classification and Basic Bestiary". With a still-trembling hand, he searched for a description that matched his memory. He found it: Stone Gorgon.
His heart pounded as he read the description of how this monster was a territorial predator that lived in rocky areas. Then, his eyes fixed on a single line at the bottom that made his blood run cold.
"Threat Rating: E-Rank (Apprentice)."
Arka stared at the sentence, reading it again and again, unable to believe it. E-Rank? Apprentice? He let out a soft laugh, a dry and horrified sound. The monster that had nearly killed them all, that had required the full combined power of himself and three latent legendary beasts to defeat, was just a beginner level monster?
It was in this moment that the realization hit him. It wasn't a pleasant epiphany, but a horrifying one. All his mastery over this island, all the strength he had taken pride in, was worth nothing. He had just caught a glimpse of how vast and dangerous the world outside was. This island wasn't the world; it was just a tutorial zone, and he had barely passed.
With a newfound sense of dread, he continued to read the scroll, wanting to know just how deep this "rabbit hole" went. He began to read about D-Rank, where Warriors could form a battle aura and Mages a mana core. Then C-Rank, where a Knight's body could withstand an arrow. Then B-Rank, where they could shatter steel walls. The scale of power in the world of Hexa was now laid out before him, not as passive information from a book, but as a steep map on which he had just realized he was still standing at the very bottom.
The road ahead of him was still very, very long.