"How long was I cultivating for?" thought John as he stood up and looked out the window. The moon was high in the sky, indicating that at least several hours had passed since he started cultivating.
"Weird, it felt like no time at all" thought John. "Well, time for bed I guess. Tomorrow is when the true journey begins."
The next morning, John sat up in his bed for a few minutes before getting up and walking out into the hallway. Downstairs, John noticed several men passed out at their tables in drunken stupor.
After ordering some breakfast from the Innkeeper, John sat down at a table and ate his breakfast.
"This might be the last good meal I have for a while" thought John as he scarfed down his meal.
After finishing his meal, John walked out of the Inn and explored the town for a bit. The town had many different buildings, ranging from trade halls to brothels, but nothing of interest grabbed his attention.
"Guess I'll head out" thought John as he turned south of the town and headed towards the nearby treeline. The Skycleave Mountain range was visible in the far distance, its peaks jutting high into the sky.
After walking for a few minutes, John arrived in front of the forest and paused for a moment before heading in. The bright sunshine was immediately replaced with a darker atmosphere as the dense tree cover stopped much of the sunlight. Large trees several feet wide and hundreds of feet high could be seen everywhere.
Taking care of his surroundings, John ventured deeper into the forest. Unlike the forest surrounding the Fenix clan, the trees here were not marked at all, so John had to rely on his intuition on where to journey.
"From what I know, this part of the forest should still be a relatively low beast level area. As the road strays further northeast away from the Skycleave Mountains, the beast level will steadily rise. It should be a few days before I need to really worry about my surroundings" thought John as he ventured through the forest.
After walking for a full day, John still hadn't found any sign of a beast worth fighting.
"Although I saw some low level beasts earlier, those wouldn't have been much of a challenge. Oh well. I'll set up camp for today and keep heading deeper into the forest tomorrow."
John quickly made a rudimentary campsite before sitting down and cultivating some more. Several hours later, John emerged from his meditative trance.
"It happened again it seems. I'm not sure what the reason is, but I can tell my cultivation is progressing quite rapidly lately. I should be able to reach the Mist Creation realm soon" John thought with an excited look on his face.
After standing up, John took out one of the items his father had given him and set it up. It was a small formation disk, and when activated set up an invisible perimeter around the disk. If anything moved within the hundred yard radius perimeter, John would be alerted. Having set the perimeter up, John fell asleep deeply.
The next morning, John woke up to the calls of various animals and insects echoing throughout the forest. After packing up the formation disk, John once again started walking deeper into the forest. Unlike the day before, instead of staying parallel with the road, John decided to stray a little bit farther from it, heading deeper towards the Skycleave Mountains.
Half a day later, John entered a large clearing in the forest and suddenly stopped, silently taking out his greatsword.
"That should be a Gray-Scaled Crocodile. It seems as if its equivalent to a peak Body Refinement cultivator" thought John as he stared at the animal.
About one hundred yards from John, the Gray-Scaled Crocodile was basking in the sunlight next to a large crystal clear pond. The beast was ten feet long, and had razor sharp teeth. It was known for its powerful tail attacks, as well as its deadly strong bites.
"It should be a bit stronger than Ironhide Lizard I fought a while back" thought John as he slowly approached the Crocodile. After creeping up to the animal slowly, John stopped for a few seconds before laughing out loud in self shame.
"Hahaha, why am I being so careful? I'm using this journey to strengthen myself. Even if I sneak up on this beast and successfully kill it, I will gain no battle experience. Every fight of mine must be on the edge in order for me to advance the fastest that I can"
The sudden laughter and monologue afterwards alerted the crocodile. The crocodile roared in rage as it saw John walk towards it. It quickly dashed towards John, arriving just a second later. Its head violently snapped towards John's waist.
"Let's play" shouted John as he dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding being bitten in two by the beast. John punched the snout of the beast with his full strength, which pushed the crocodile backwards a few feet while it howled in pain.
Enraged by the sudden attack, the Gray-Scaled Crocodile twisted its large body sideways and sent its massive tail whipping towards John.
"Boom!"
The tail crashed violently into the ground where John had just been standing, leaving a small hole in the ground and sending dirt flying in every direction.
"Wow, that tail has some serious power. I should try my best to avoid it" thought John as he dodged the tail attack. Using the opportunity that had just opened, John dashed forward and swung his greatsword down with all his might.
"Roar!"
The crocodile howled in pain as the sword sliced deeply into its back.
"Its defense is pretty tough. This attack would have sliced an Earth Wolf clean in half" thought John as he quickly backed up, narrowly avoiding yet another tail attack.
After dodging the attack, John once again dashed forward, his sword piercing towards the beast this time. Although it tried to avoid the attack, the crocodile was a hair too late as the sword plunged into it all the way to the hilt.
Quickly pulling his sword out, John once again dashed backwards quickly as the crocodile tried to bite him in half.
"It's moving a lot slower now. The two blows so far have dealt critical damage it seems. Time to end this" said John as he once again dashed towards the beast. Right as he was about to land the final blow, the Crocodile quickly whipped around, sending its tail crashing towards John.
"Gah!"
John barely raised his sword in time before he was sent flying backwards by the tail attack.
The crocodile dashed towards John, hoping to land a fatal blow after its successful attack. John sluggishly stood up as he tried to stabilize himself, blood flowing slightly from his lips.
John looked up and saw the crocodile dashing violently towards him. He quickly steadied his sword and prepared to take its attack. Just as the crocodile was about to reach John, it collapsed, eventually coming to a stop directly in front of John.
"Is it dead?"
John quickly backed away from the beast and observed it for a bit before realizing that it was in fact dead.
"I guess my second attack must have hit its heart" thought John. "I got extremely lucky. Had I not hit his heart, I would have been in serious danger."
John slowly approached the crocodile before stabbing his sword directly into its head, confirming the kill. He stored the body in his storage ring, at which point he sat on the ground in pain.
"I got too overconfident at the end of the battle. Even a wounded beast is still deadly. I need to keep that in mind for future battles and never underestimate my enemy no matter how grave the situation looks for them."
John took out one of the Life Mist healing pills he had brought along and popped it into his mouth. He sat on the ground and focused on recovering, only standing up several hours later.
"Let's continue on. My first battle has already given me an incredible lesson. I knew coming out here was the right call" thought John as he continued to venture deeper into the forest.