Unedited*

After a long trek following the trail, Edward seemed ready to give up and look for another way. He had been walking for over 30 minutes, but somehow he had the feeling he had only just entered the forest.

Just thinking about it was stressful—this place was so vast.

But just as he planned to give up his search, his hair stood on end when he sensed a strong thirst for blood in the air. It was so intense that he had never felt anything like it in his life.

Not even when he had faced or seen very powerful, angry vampires had he felt anything as strong as this. But the intensity of a thirst for blood doesn’t always imply strength. He understood that.

He stepped aside to take cover behind a tree trunk and sent his snake to scout the area, acting like a normal snake and hiding its wings.

The snake moved swiftly among the dry leaves and roots of the enormous trees, as if searching for its prey. Its zigzagging motion allowed it to blend in with the leaves, making the little snake hard to spot.

And soon it found its prey. But instead of attacking it, the snake seemed alarmed and whipped its head back sharply, as if to warn Edward of the danger.

Just then, Edward instinctively threw himself to the ground, and a ball of pure red blood shattered the tree trunk where he was hiding.

Edward rolled across the ground and looked up.

When he saw the figure in front of him, he froze. He felt fear.

Fear made his blood boil. What stood before him was not human.

It wasn’t exactly a surprise—wasn’t he in a cursed land of the undead? The problem was that it didn’t look like an undead creature either.

It was a kind of humanoid creature that looked very much like a human. It had limbs like a human’s. Its body was tall. Its hands were red, completely covered in blood. The same blood from its hands was running down its body.

In fact, its entire body was made of blood. Legs, feet, arms, hands, chest, shoulders... It had a small, bloody halo above its head, which seemed to be forming. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Blood poured from its shoulders like flames of fire. It wore a white robe with simple red and bronze decorations.

What proved that he was neither a known type of human nor undead was his face. Although it was somewhat hidden behind a hood, you could see that his face was crystallized in reddish and black tones. He had no eyes, but he could see through thin lines that crossed his head from bottom to top.

It had no mouth, but there was a line that served as one, forming a peculiar and terrifying smile.

The bloodlust radiating from it emanated from its entire body.

[Alert!]

[Unknown creature detected!]

[Searching for information...]

’Unknown creature?’ Edward swallowed hard and continued dodging the attacks of the strange, blood-soaked mage in front of him. Those attacks were truly powerful.

It wasn’t ordinary magic, but it possessed an unstoppable force. Surely on par with C-Rank Magic, which he hadn’t yet experienced.

Its destructive power was just as potent as its speed and corrosive ability. That blood was strange.

But didn’t even the system recognize it?

[Failed to find information. Cannot be found in the current database.]

[Requesting database update...]

[Processing...]

[Processing complete.]

[The database will be updated as soon as possible.]

[You must fight the one in front of you to learn their secrets.]

[Don’t die.]

Don’t die!

’Shit.’ Edward threw himself to the ground again and watched calmly as an attack flew past his eyes. If he hadn’t moved in time, it would have blown his head off.

Edward clenched his fists and summoned his sword. "Even if you can use that strange, powerful magic, you’re not that strong," he said suddenly.

The strange mage tilted his head in slight confusion. But after a moment, his words seemed to have struck a raw nerve within him. The mage roared with a strange sound that no one knew where it came from, for what appeared to be his mouth did not move, but glowed.

His energy surged severalfold, and he used his blood to attack with bursts of precise strikes.

Edward parried her attack with his sword. He gripped it firmly in his hand and sheathed his snake.

He had noticed it from her attacks. This beast must be as strong as a 5-star student. This was his chance to test just how far his strength had come after leveling up his creatures so much.

That’s why he didn’t waste any time. As soon as the first wave of bloody attacks came, he leaped toward it and deflected it with his own strike. His swordsmanship once again shone without restraint.

One deflection allowed him to close the distance by two steps, and with the second deflection, he managed to dodge the third attack. Finally, he stood face-to-face with the mage.

His sword moved in a precise horizontal strike, aiming for the chest. His attack hit its mark, and the chest split open a few centimeters.

Edward smiled. He thought he had won, but his smile faded in the next second. The wound on his chest was quickly covered by some of the magical blood in his body.

"Huh? Immortality?" He turned his gaze to the side when he sensed something approaching. His eyes reacted first; his sword followed with precision.

Boom!

His body was thrown back by the explosion and rolled across the ground until he was forced to stop to dodge a magical attack coming from above.

Edward took several quick leaps backward. Three explosions landed right where he had been a moment before the jump.

"Admirable strength, strange magic, and enigmatic immortality... you’re no ordinary beast."

If it were some kind of legendary beast, it wouldn’t be surprising.

’What bad luck for me to run into a guy like this,’ he thought.

He hadn’t thought it possible that this was the kind of beast found in this place. It had to be a special kind of beast that was rarely encountered. So he’d just had bad luck.

Despite his regrets, he couldn’t help but throw himself into battle against it, searching for its weakness. He struck its chest, abdomen, neck, legs...

Nothing worked.

’Its weakness is the head, huh. But something Crystallized... it looks hard to destroy.’ Edward looked at his sword, taking a moment to catch his breath.

Then he thought about his beasts... he needed the one with the greatest attack power.

’Wind or fire...’ he thought.

’Its attribute is blood; it should be weak against fire. Besides, my fire is special.’ He made up his mind immediately and summoned his Winged Fire Serpent.

"Let’s get serious."

He braced his legs. He widened the stance of his sword. He made his Serpent dance around the trees and sneak up on the creature.

"If it’s high-level, it must grant a lot of experience." Edward smiled and waited for his chance to strike.

However, his opponent wasn’t going to give him a moment to think. The blood in his body surged, and his hands shot forward as he leaped backward, unleashing a barrage of precise and powerful attacks.

Even so, Edward didn’t move. He watched and calculated the trajectory of each spell. He knew where each one would land and what its intent was.

Some sought to immobilize him. Others to prevent him from running, and still others to kill him.

Watching them approach filled him with a slight fear, but he trusted his instincts. He knew when he should move.

So he took a deep breath and waited.

The blood spells were getting closer and closer. The pressure was palpable. The milliseconds ticked by rapidly.

Soon they were right in front of him.

Just then, his eyes flashed. His sword and body suddenly darted forward. He dodged one attack, then another. Suddenly, his body moved at great speed, cutting through several spells.

In an instant, he was face-to-face with the bloodthirsty beast. His sword glowed with a personalized fire spell.

[Blood Stimulus.]

The Rank D magic belonging to the fire branch was a crimson color, almost like blood, but it shone like fire. Its deadly attributes soon made contact with the mage’s body.

That bloody body burned with fury, but also with pain. An agonized scream escaped from somewhere in his head, reverberating in Edward’s ears as he attacked him relentlessly.

He seemed to have taken the lead.

Despite that, his movements suddenly slowed as magic emanating from somewhere within the Blood Man’s body struck his stomach.

Edward felt his entire body tremble from the inside out and was flung backward at high speed until he crashed into a tree.

In the process, despite the pain, he signaled his snake to approach, taking advantage of the opening he had created.

The bloodthirsty beast didn’t notice that a snake glowing with fire had appeared behind her.

She wasn’t the same as she had been a few months ago, when she was merely a caterpillar looking to devour a tiger.

Now she was a snake that struck fear into the heart of anyone who looked at her.

It seemed to understand. The snake appeared to reveal a strange smile...

[Incineration Pollen.]

[Skill being used on Unidentified Target Number 01...]

[An anomaly has been detected...]

[Is it an undead?]