Jacob looked at the Crock Snake with a hint of fear. If he hadn't felt the vibration of the branches, he might've been in a world of pain.
This crock snake was a very nasty Magic Beast proficient in camouflage with its innate ability Water Mirror Illusion of its Water Magic Core.
Although it was just a rare tier-5 magic beast, it was akin to a rare tier-8 beast without any magic core.
'At least I don't have to worry about food shortage, and this also solved my problem of finding a 1-Star Water Magic Core. A good first day starts indeed.' Jacob's lips curled up, and he cut open the crock snake's skull.
An azure membrane encased a small round object hidden within its brain matter, and when Jacob touched it, it burst like a bubble, and a gentle blue light fell on Jacob's eyes.
It was an azure color Water Magic Core just like the earth core he had found back in the goblin's stomach.
He stowed it away to save it from diffusion, then cut off the head and threw it down before he started gutting the snake's body. Blood flow all over the tree as the smell of the potent blood linger in the air.
Jacob then stowed away the fresh meat and left the snake's innards on the bloody trees for scavengers.
He knew this was just the start, food was the biggest problem for living like him, and magic beasts like crock snakes were all over the dark woodlands.
Furthermore, only sneaky beasts like crock snakes who know how to hide in plain sight could survive this place full of dark begins, and Jacob didn't want to be their food.
Although there was a 'Life Scanner Device' in the alliance market to detect such creatures, it was too expensive for Jacob, so he could only do without it.
If he had stayed in the freedom plains to accumulate wealth, it would take him decades, and it was too dangerous because any place rich with magic beasts and rare resources was under the control of four powers.
If someone wanted to hunt, they needed to give away 60% of their accumulation and be part of four powers.
Jacob could easily undermine the former rule, but he didn't want to appear in the freedom plains because he knew Nixon was searching for him.
Because soon after he got 'kidnapped,' the entire Easter City's Nightmare Knight Legion stirred and madly started to search for him as well as they destroyed any known or suspicious hideouts of the Killer Skull Society.
Not only that, but he even found himself trending on the local news again, which was the second time he appeared in trending.
Lastly, the Killer Skull Society didn't reply or make pass any statement in refutation of Nightmare Knight Legion slender, which was equal to admitting they really kidnapped the blanker.
But Jacob found it fishy since he had seen the history and the Killer Skull Society cared about their public image as the face of justice, so their silence was quite unusual.
That was why Jacob didn't want to stay in the freedom plains since they were monitoring devices of all of the four powers, and he didn't want to fall into someone else trap after making an escape.
So, coming here was his best choice, where four power or three hegemonies had no control.
Although unknown dangers haunt this place, Jacob knew as long as he treads carefully, he would be fine.
Lastly, Jacob wasn't without a plan. He knew a place out here which could shelter him and wasn't as petty as the four powers or three hegemonies, the Dark City of Rare Plains!
There was a dark city in freedom plains, but after some research, he discovered that the Dark City in the freedom plains was known as Freedom Plains Dark City, not the Rare Plains Dark City.
So, it was pretty evident that there was another Dark City somewhere in the vast rare plains, and the rumors about it were also all over the star network.
Like the common plains, Dark Cities were the most dangerous places in a region, and one just needed to search for them.
The Dark City of Freedom Plains was also in the most dangerous zone of the Rare Freedom Plains, but it was quite famous, and its location has long been publicized, so it lost its mystery.
But the Dark City outside the Rare Freedom Plains was still as mysterious as the zodiac plains, and Jacob wanted to search for it because he had been in a dark city and knew just how advanced that place was from the region they were located.
Although his goal was somewhat ethereal and suicidal, Jacob was quite confident in searching for it with all the clues he had.
After his rest, he didn't stop anymore and continued to head toward the north, where the rare wilderness plains were, but he was still far from reaching there.
Only 5% of Dark Woodlands fell in the territory of Rare Freedom Plains; one could only imagine the lands they covered on this side.
However, Jacob was soon stopped in his track when he heard a commotion a couple of meters ahead. His steps became almost silent as he slowly crept toward the fighting area.
He soon reached the gully's entrance and remained hidden within a tree crown.
A cloaked figure was holding a long double-edged sword clashing with a skeleton warrior with a spear. There were couples of bones scattered around the two.
Furthermore, the cloaked figure was clearly powerful, as it had already taken care of all those skeleton soldiers. The skeleton warrior had already lost half of its left skeleton, and only his right side remained.
But it was still fighting fiercely with its right side and didn't let the cloaked figure deliver the killing blow and protect its skull.
Alas, the cloaked figure seemed to be toying with it, and as if it had sensed something, its sword suddenly came alive, and the blade whistled through the air, and before the skeleton warrior spear could block its skull was blasted the very next moment.
The dead flame appeared and then diminished, marking the death of that fearsome skeleton warrior.
Jacob was naturally astonished by this person's swordsmanship, and he was very dangerous.
But Jacob's heart jumped when that cloak person suddenly performed a strange movement and vanished from his vision before he felt goosebumps from the side. Without hesitation, swords appeared in his hand, and he slashed them at a horizontal angle.
'clang…'
Eerily sound of metal clashing together rang in the vicinity.
Jacob looked at the cloaked figure who had somehow appeared right where he was observing the battle and was over twenty feet above the ground.
Their blades were locked together, trembling as both sides tried to push them to each other.
Jacob's eyes turned cold before he entered 2X acceleration, and he could now hold this sword with one hand, and his second sword was free.
With a light push, Jacob suddenly thrust his right-hand sword toward the cloaked head.
"Oh?" A man's voice rang with a hint of fear when he felt Jacob's power increase and the blade coming for his head.
The next moment, his strength also exploded, and using his sword, he twisted its blade and could barely block Jacob's deadly sword thrust a few inches away from its cloak.
He didn't underestimate Jacob anymore and again twisted his feet in strange angles before he vanished from Jacob's sight again!
"Forgive me. I take you for a sneaky animal." The man's jeering voice rang from the ground again.
Jacob still felt lingering sourness from his hands. This man was clearly as strong as him and did not forget about his skills, especially that strange movement. He would've thought the man was using teleportation if he hadn't had good reflexes.
Jacob didn't want to fight to the death with such a person, and it was indeed his fault that he was sneaking around the man when he was in a deadly battle against a dark being.
If it were him, he would do the same or even worse.
"It was indeed unbecoming of me. Farwell." Jacob didn't want to linger anymore, in case this guy had companions like him.
"Wait!" The man quickly uttered as if he wanted to say something.
But Jacob didn't want to stay even more now, so he took the opposite direction of the gully and, without paying more attention, started leaping from tree to tree.
"What are you running for, I said wait!" The man suddenly started to follow Jacob as he yelled at him.
Jacob coldly said, "Don't follow me, or I'll make sure you never walk again." Thereby, his speed suddenly exploded.
The cloaked figure was astonished as it really stopped following Jacob when he saw the increase in his speed.
He mumbled with a hint of intrigue, "A strong newcomer has appeared in the woodlands. I'll have to report it to the leader!"