Stationed at the entrance of the forest, Marcus and the rest waited anxiously for news from the scouts.
A bit over thirty minutes had passed since they left.
"Milord, I still don't understand why I'm here. While I do understand that you want me to get stronger, I don't have to participate in the hunt, do I?" Bradley spoke up nervously.
He still couldn't get over the idea that Marcus was going to make him do something crazy.
"You will."
"I see…" Bradley said, then took three steps before pausing and retracing his steps.
"Sir, I don't think I heard right. Did you say that I'll be participating in the hunt?" He spoke rapidly.
Marcus chuckled. "I'm joking." He tapped the Steward's shoulder.
The latter sighed with relief.
"Stop worrying too much, Bradley. At most, you'll only have to tag along and watch from a safe distance."
"You're here because I want you to be part of the first people to practice this Art."
And also because I don't know how long a Beast's Blood essence can last after the death of the creature.
We have no way to store and preserve it at the moment.
Marcus thought.
"I see…" Bradley nodded lightly, but there was no sign of relief on his face.
Milord… you've made me your test pig, haven't you?
"If we are successful today, Bradley, when we get back, I want you to select smart individuals that will work under you in the near foreseeable future. Their age doesn't matter, as long as they're competent and capable. After that, draw out a suitable compensation and salary plan for them."
Rubbing his chin, Bradley fell into thought. "Sir, that would require me to teach them."
"I know," Marcus closed his eyes and took in a deep breath.
Why delay all of my plans because of the actions of my enemies? What's stopping me from doing everything simultaneously?
He had been considering the cost of simultaneously developing whilst preparing for the upcoming battle.
What he feared the most was unplanned destruction after completion, and the loss of his people's lives due to his impatience.
But that was all before he received the few million gold coins from the Avanti Merchant House.
Once again, he needed his people to be educated. Knowledge was wealth and health.
Furthermore, the number of people under him had surpassed that of his previous life, making stagnation a major disadvantage even after purchasing the necessities from close-by States.
I shouldn't only think about building the strength of my people; their minds and wisdom need to be carried along.
Fine…
Marcus sighed and barely smiled; there's nothing stopping us from creating scholarly warriors.
As soon as this idea came to his mind, it solidified. Marcus immediately decided that this was the way to go. As for the cost, he would tackle them as they came.
They will build the schools, as well as more training grounds. His people will attend lessons and study during the day.
And at night, they would spend a portion of it training to be warriors.
When there's peace, his people will thrive as they increase their knowledge.
And when war comes knocking, they'll be able to drop their pens to pick up the sword.
This felt ideal to Marcus.
…
Suddenly, the young lord's eyes snapped open as he turned his head in a certain direction.
Not long after, a smiling Joshua and an annoyed Floki exited the forest.
"Lord Marcus! We found an easy target!" Joshua shouted before reaching Marcus.
He seemed to be enjoying himself.
With a raised brow, Marcus said, "Really? Description."
"Yes, yes. It's big, about thirteen feet tall on four legs. It has a big nose and thick skin that is folded on top of each other; it has a face that only a mother could love. Ash in color, no claws or sharp canines. Nothing on its body that seemed particularly dangerous per se. Moreover, I am almost certain it's a Feral Beast." Joshua rambled on.
As everyone listened to the young knight's description of the Beast, they couldn't help but scrunch their faces as they doubted what they heard.
"That sounds like a docile animal rather than a beast," Logail mentioned.
"It's definitely a beast; I could see its energy. It wasn't something that a normal animal would have."
Everyone exchanged looks when they heard Joshua reveal his ability to see 'energy'.
They then turned their gazes towards Floki, who shrugged his shoulders.
He too had no idea that Joshua could do something like that until some minutes ago.
As for Marcus, he wasn't surprised.
He had more or less heard Joshua confessing something similar close to the end of his previous life.
However, the man's description was… for lack of a better word, mocking.
Nevertheless, Marcus indulged. "Let's go check it out once Caleb and Mercidin return."
As though they spoke of the devil, the second scout duo returned at that moment.
"Ha, we won! We already found a Beast." Joshua said.
Mercidin didn't let Joshua's antics get to him. In fact, he acted as if the man didn't exist and walked past him.
"Lord Marcus, we found a possible target some twenty minutes away." He bowed. "It looked young. We did search around a bit for its parents, but found no signs of them."
Mercidin finished his report and waited.
The young lord paused, weighing the options.
A young and isolated beast did sound good. It might even be the perfect target for what they wanted to do, as it was weak and easy to take down.
But Marcus hesitated to pick it because it might not be able to serve their purpose. Because it was weak, he feared that it wouldn't be sufficient to cultivate the Blood Bane Art.
"How many minutes away is your target?" He said to Joshua.
"About fifteen if we move fast enough."
"Okay, then let's be on our way there."
The knights quickly readied themselves.
"Logail,"
"Yes, Milord?"
"Take Bradley on your back. We can't have him coming into the forest with a horse. It might give away our position. Will he slow you down?"
"Not at all, sir," Logail smiled as he approached the steward.
Bradley frowned, but he couldn't say anything. "Do be careful when running."
Logail smiled and nodded his head. He leaned down, making it easy for Bradley to get on his back.
"Take a few buckets along." He ordered. "Let's go."
With that, they ran into the forest. Joshua and Floki were in the lead.
*****
It didn't take long for them to see the beast Joshua found.
About two hundred meters away, Marcus and his men stopped to observe the beast and their surroundings.
The beast was lying around in an open space that seemed to have been created itself by falling the trees around.
After making sure that there weren't other beasts around, they quickly spread out, circling the beast from afar and under the cover of the trees around.
It was a Tapir Beast. And true enough, its looks weren't aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. Almost everything that Joshua reported about it matched up.
However, it was big and clunky. Furthermore, it didn't look like it was built for offense.
The Tapir didn't give off the aura of a predator either. Being cautious, Marcus used his [Inspect] skill on the beast.
…
[Tapir Beast: Avoids the lowlands and tends to roam in groups.
Level: Low-rank Feral Beast.
Abilities: Great defense. Sticky Snot.
Weaknesses: Poor eyesight. Soft underbelly.]
…
Reading this information, Marcus felt relieved.
This beast shouldn't be a problem.
The only thing that made him pause a bit was the part about Tapir moving in groups. However, this one was alone. If anything was to happen…
They would have to deal with the beast swiftly before it could call for the others.
This further solidified Marcus's decision to attack.
He raised a hand, signalling his men with gestures from his fingers.
Logail, stationed close to Marcus, had dropped Bradley on a wide and thick branch of a tree, leaving the three wooden buckets they brought with him…
A few of them were to rush in when the time came, drawing the attention of the beast.
While it was distracted, the rest would attack it, delivering the killing blows.
It was a simple 'distract the monkey to steal its peach'.
As for relaying the weakness of the beast, the young lord didn't think that it was needed.
He had great confidence in their Marc Steel weapons.
Marcus then gestured with his hand; "Attack!"
Immediately, Mercidin, Floki, and Brown jumped out of their hiding places. They rushed towards the beast, making their presence known.
The Tapir was somewhat slow–almost unresponsive. In the sense that after seeing three men running at it, the beast didn't even bother to flinch.
Rather, it was looking at the creatures making weird noises as they approached it, as though it had never seen such two-legged creatures before.
Its instincts didn't alarm it to any danger from them, which meant that they were pitifully weaker than it.
So there was no point in doing anything.
Just as it was observing them, the single and sparse hairs on its thick skin bristled.
Slash!
Blood splashed in different directions as pain assaulted its senses.
Roar!