As the Sky Eagle split apart right in front of him, its blood was about to splatter across Evan’s face when suddenly, a transparent wind barrier appeared in front of him.
The blood struck the barrier and slid down its surface, dripping onto the ground.
Seeing the dead eagle and the wind barrier that had protected him, a smile appeared on Evan’s face.
He looked at his Status Window and saw a notification there.
[You have killed the Unranked Sky Eagle — Level 9. You have acquired: +3 Agility, +2 Health, +2 Stamina, +5 Mana.]
Evan dismissed the wind barrier and took out a Mana Potion from his Storage Ring.
"Damn, I really want to improve my Mana control."
He muttered as he drank the potion.
After drinking the potion, he walked toward the dead Sky Eagle and stored its corpse inside his Storage Ring.
Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly noticed a shining blue stone lying in the pool of blood beneath the eagle.
"Hmm?"
Evan picked up the stone and examined it closely.
The stone was only about the size of a fingernail and shone like a polished diamond.
However, Evan knew that it wasn’t a diamond.
It was a Mana Core.
Because of his high affinity toward Mana, he could clearly feel the pure Mana stored inside the small core.
Mana Cores were something that formed naturally inside the bodies of magical beasts.
However, not every magical beast possessed a Mana Core.
Only a very small number of magical beasts had them.
How Mana Cores were formed inside magical beasts was something no one knew.
However, these cores were extremely valuable and could be used for many different purposes.
Since this Mana Core had come from a Level 9 magical beast, it wasn’t particularly rare.
Many people were capable of hunting Unranked magical beasts, so obtaining an Unranked Mana Core wasn’t impossible.
The grade of a Mana Core depended on the magical beast it came from.
An Unranked Mana Core could be obtained by killing an Unranked magical beast.
However, if someone wanted to obtain a Rank One Mana Core, they couldn’t get one from an Unranked magical beast.
They would have to kill a magical beast between Level 26 and Level 50.
After examining the Mana Core for a moment, Evan stored it inside his Storage Ring and continued walking toward the exit of the forest.
Fortunately, he didn’t encounter any other magical beasts along the way and successfully left the Dark Forest.
After leaving the forest, he followed the same route he had taken when he entered the Dark Forest.
He had deliberately chosen a secluded location where hardly anyone entered the forest, so there was no one around to disturb him during his training.
Evan found a clean and relatively flat area and set up his tent.
Once the tent was ready, he set up an alarm around the campsite so that if any magical beast approached while he was sleeping or training, he would be alerted and could react accordingly.
By the time Evan finished setting up his camp and the alarm, it was already afternoon, and his stomach was grumbling.
Instead of eating the food his grandmother had packed for him, Evan decided to cook something himself.
He walked a little farther away from his campsite and, after reaching a suitable location, took out the corpse of the Forest Tiger from his Storage Ring.
He wanted to taste the meat of a high-level magical beast.
Before killing the Forest Tiger, Evan’s body had been too weak, and he could only safely consume the meat of magical beasts below Level 10.
But now that his level had increased, he wanted to try the meat of a stronger magical beast.
He had deliberately come some distance away from his campsite so that when he cut the tiger’s body and its blood spilled out, other magical beasts wouldn’t be attracted toward his camp.
Evan looked at the Forest Tiger’s corpse and coated Black Star with Mana.
He then cut off a portion of the tiger’s meat.
After obtaining enough meat, he stored the remaining corpse back inside his Storage Ring.
He returned to his campsite and started a campfire.
From his Storage Ring, he took out the tiger meat along with various spices.
He had already cleaned the meat properly, so he immediately began cooking it over the fire.
As the meat slowly cooked, a delicious aroma spread through the air.
Evan couldn’t help but swallow his saliva as the smell reached his nose.
After around twenty minutes, the meat was finally ready.
He took it off the fire and immediately took a bite.
As the tender meat entered his mouth, it seemed to melt instantly, and Evan couldn’t help but sigh in satisfaction.
However, he didn’t waste too much time eating and quickly finished the entire meal.
Once he was done, he immediately focused on his goal.
"First, I need to train my Mana control so that I can use my skills more freely."
After deciding to focus on Mana control first, Evan didn’t waste any time and immediately got back to work.
He planned to train his Mana control in the same way he had trained his weapon coating.
When his grandfather had first taught him how to coat a weapon with Mana, Evan had been unable to properly control the amount of Mana he infused into his sword.
As a result, he had accidentally infused far too much Mana into the weapon and caused it to break.
He had repeated the process again and again until he finally learned how to control the amount of Mana he used for weapon coating.
Now, he planned to do the same thing with Wind Monarch.
He would use the skill again and again until he could control it more freely and efficiently.
His body should be able to recover in around two days.
He knew that two days wouldn’t be enough to perfectly master Mana control, but he still had to learn as much as possible during those two days.
Evan walked toward a large stone and stood in front of it.
He closed his eyes and focused his mind.
He slowly began sensing the surrounding wind and Mana, trying to understand their flow as clearly as possible.
After concentrating for a while, he raised his hand.
"Wind Blade."
The surrounding wind gathered before him and formed a sharp blade.
WHOOSH!
The Wind Blade shot toward the large stone.
BOOM!
The blade struck the stone, leaving behind a deep mark.
Evan immediately checked his remaining Mana to see how much he had consumed.
---) Mana: 60/112
Although his Mana consumption had improved compared to his first attempt, it was still far from satisfactory.
Evan knew that if he could perfectly control his Mana and Wind Monarch, he should be able to create a Wind Blade of the same power while using only a tiny amount of Mana.
Without wasting any time, he took out another Mana Potion and drank it to recover the Mana he had consumed.
He then continued training.
Throughout the entire afternoon, Evan repeatedly practiced controlling the surrounding wind.
He created Wind Blades again and again, carefully observing how much Mana he consumed each time and trying to reduce the amount.
As the sun began to set, Evan finally returned to his campsite.
He prepared dinner for himself and ate before sitting beside the campfire and thinking about everything he had accomplished that day.
"My Mana control is improving, but it’s still not fast enough," He muttered under his breath, the campfire reflecting in his ocean-blue pupils.
"Along with Mana control, I should also think about how to use the Wind Monarch skill properly. Right now, I am only utilizing a portion of its true power. If I use it in different ways, maybe my Mana control will improve even faster."
After deciding what he would do the next day, Evan went inside his tent and lay down.
He was exhausted after training throughout the entire day, so just a few seconds after lying down, he fell asleep.