191 Rank-9 Beast.

'Where would I ever find her though... Even in the last second, I wasn't able to sense her power,' Ozul thought before he tried to shift his thoughts to something else.

"I should hurry up," he muttered and turned to the direction told by the Spirit.

Running for a mile or two, Ozul noticed that there hadn't been any Beast disturbing him. It could only mean that he was on the right path. Usually, there wouldn't be any weaker Beasts just roaming in the territory of a powerful Beast. Otherwise, they would either get instantly killed or be toyed with before getting killed.

He searched around, but there was nothing different about the terrain either. In the end, he gave up on finding the Beast today and found a tree to rest.

'It wouldn't be any late if I find it tomorrow...' Ozul thought before he went to close his eyes.

Just as he had closed his eyes, he opened it again.

*Fwoosshh*

The whole tree was cut in half right after he had jumped from there.

Ozul rolled on the ground before he used Ball of Purity to push himself above the ground. However, he wasn't given the time to look around when something came slashing at him from above.

*krsssss*

He dodged the attack but at the cost of his right hand's sleeve torn apart. He looked at the torn cloth hanging by a thin thread and realized how close it had been. Just a second later, and that could have sliced him in half instead.

'This is not giving me any chance at all...' Ozul looked all around him. There was nothing in sight except for the endless trees surrounding him. Then he suddenly remembered that the last attack hadn't really come from around him...

"!!!"

He looked up only to notice another slash of white directly above his head. It was so close that he did not have any chance to dodge. He could only hope that the Ball of Purity would be able to take it head-on as he put all of it in front of him.

*Khrreeee...*

At the same time, Ozul heard a loud screeching that seemed to wake up the entire forest, causing a chain reaction which made birds fly away and Beasts in the distance roar in fear.

Ozul did not have time to focus on this scene as the white slash of energy hit the shield made up of Ball of Purity. He was pushed several feet away because of the impact, but fortunately, the black matter handled the attack without any scratch.

The screeching from above also stopped as Ozul immediately balanced himself. There was no time to waste, so he looked above while also getting ready to face another attack.

This time though, he was able to notice a giant creature above him. More precisely, it was an avian creature that Ozul immediately recognized as the Golden Beak Vulture.

'When I stopped finding you, you came to find me?' Ozul did not need to check as he could estimate that the Vulture was a Rank-9 Beast because of the power between those earlier slashes.

Ozul also noticed that the Vulture wasn't attacking him and was examining him at the moment, "You are strong, human," It spoke. Talking like humans was not a problem for Beasts at this Rank. Instead, what surprised Ozul was the fact that it tried to converse with him.

The more a Beast grew in intelligence and power, the more it would start to take pride in it. So, it could be said that a Rank-9 Beast was also just as arrogant. Even if not every Beast was like that, most of them did.

"And you are sneaky," Ozul replied. He knew that it would be easy to trigger someone with so high self-esteem.

"What are you trying to say, Human!?" The Vulture spoke with a deep voice and started to pressure Mana on him. It was as Ozul had expected, the Beast was already starting to get angry.

"Even with all this strength, you are quite a coward. Attacking someone who was going to rest, if it isn't being a coward, then what is it?" Ozul spoke in a calm voice which further triggered the Vulture. He himself didn't care if one sneak attacked his enemy or announced it to the world but knew that it would make the Vulture angry.

From the previous attacks, he knew that the Vulture was more or less stronger than him. Even if by a small margin. So, he had to take all the advantages that he could before they started to fight. Hurting the Vulture's pride to make him angry was one it.

If people knew Ozul's way of handling a stronger enemy, they wouldn't stop cursing at him, "Why are you making him angrier than it already is?!"

Though Ozul wouldn't care about what others thought. When one is angry, they are more likely to make mistakes and a single mistake in a fight could decide the outcome.

"Know your limits, insect!" The Vulture shouted before he flapped his wings and generated winds so strong that they seemed to cut the thick trees in half.

Since Ozul knew that the Ball of Purity could really take on the attack, he generated a shield in front of him that blocked all the sharp winds. "What? Does the truth hurt?" he again taunted. Maybe the Vulture wouldn't make any mistake, but even the small chance was worth the effort.

"You...! Ha!" The Vulture stopped in the middle of his sentence. Under Ozul's unsure eyes, it stopped flying and slowly dropped to the ground.

*Zmmm*

The ground shook a little as the Vulture's massive body landed on the ground. Its sharp eyes stared sharply at Ozul with a hint of anger in it.

Ozul did not know what it was about to do since he never thought that the Vulture would suddenly stop his attacks and be able to control his anger.

'What is it trying to do?' Ozul could not help but observe his surroundings. There were only unending trees around him.

"Human. I know what you are trying to do. Since you are so smart, answer me some questions or you will not have a good end," the Vulture started speaking like some businessman which caused Ozul to squint his eyes at it.

'Is it really a Beast?' Ozul could not help but think. Although he knew that the Beasts gained intelligence the more they advanced in Ranks, but he didn't know it would be this much. He also hadn't met a Rank-9 Beast before, so it was new to him.

"Are you going to speak or not?!" The Vulture raised his voice. It wasn't at all as patient as the Spirit either.

"What do you want to know?" Ozul asked. Although he wanted to get the Core and be done with it as soon as possible, he was also curious about what this Rank-9 Beast wanted.

"First of all, do you know that you were in my territory?!" The Vulture asked like some grumpy guy scolding kids who came to take their toy from his lawn.

"Yes, I knew," Ozul replied truthfully. There was no point in lying anyway.

"What were you searching here for so long?" The Vulture continued.

"I was searching for you," Ozul again replied truthfully.

"So, what-... You came here specifically to search for me?" The Vulture registered his words a little late.

"Yes."

"Why?" The Vulture did not know why a human would specifically look for him, a Rank-9 Beast.

"I want your Core."

"... You want my Magical Core?!" The Vulture again raised his voice, but Ozul nodded his head nonchalantly.

"You dare!?" It seemed that the Vulture was finally angry because of the behavior of this 'human' in front of it. Winds were again generated around him before they died down.

"... Agh! Human, now that you have seen my power, you should know that you are no match for me. But I am giving you another chance." Again, to the surprise of Ozul, the Vulture stopped midway and did not attack. Instead, it again offered a chance to him that he really did not want to take.

"Chance for what?" Ozul asked curiously, he did not know why this Vulture so badly wanted to let him go. There was nothing stopping it to attack him right now, nor was he so handsome that even Beasts would not want to hurt him.

"I will let you go. But you will have to give me your artifact!" the Vulture spoke with pride. Ozul, though, was even more confused now.

"What artifact?" This was getting annoying for him now. But he calmed himself down after realizing that getting angry even before the battle started would be idiotic of him.

"Don't try to act so ignorant Human! I want the artifact that you are using to conceal your strength right now!" the Vulture said angrily.

'Oh...' Only now realization dawned upon Ozul. Since he did not have any Mana, the Vulture had assumed that he was using an artifact to conceal his strength which was quite normal since no ordinary human would be able to block those attacks without any cultivation.

'So it is trying to get the artifact from me directly since it isn't sure if it's in my Spatial tool. Because it would be troublesome to take it out from that," Ozul concluded. He thought that the Beast might be aware of the Spatial tools, but did not know the proper functions of it.

'Why does it want the artifact to conceal its strength?' Ozul only had this one question. In this forest, he did not think that there was any Rank-10 Beast that this Vulture wanted to hide from, so what else could it be?

"Oh? This artifact is cheap, I can give it to you. But tell me why do you need it first?"