Bang!
A dull, bone-shaking thud echoed through the mist-shrouded forest, followed by the dying wail of a beast.
A boar-like monster, its body as if forged from stone and covered in jagged black spikes, collapsed to the ground with a crash after taking a single crushing punch. Dust rose in a thick cloud.
[Killed LV.4 Monster: Ironback Tusk Boar]
[EXP Gained: +26]
Two faint golden notifications floated at the edge of his vision. Alex casually wiped the splattered blood from his knuckles, his expression calm as ever, stepping over the corpse without so much as a pause and continuing deeper into the forest's gloom.
This was the third monster he had felled since entering the secret realm—two ordinary beasts and one level-four elite. For him, they were nothing.
With 300 points in speed, he moved like a ghost, striking with pinpoint precision at vital spots. One punch was all it took to end a fight; if a critical strike triggered, there wasn't even a need for a finishing blow.
For most newly awakened, a secret realm was a trial by blood and fire. But for Alex, reborn with a second life, it was merely a place to harvest experience and profit.
"I wonder where Gregory landed… Should I go give him a hand?"
He strolled forward at an unhurried pace, eyes scanning the fog-draped surroundings.
Upon entering the realm, every participant was randomly dropped somewhere along the outer edge. Not starting out together with Gregory was normal, and Alex wasn't in a rush—the so-called "Shadowed Forest" novice realm wasn't large. Keep moving toward the core, and they would meet sooner or later.
"Shame I haven't picked up any skills yet. Just relying on raw stats feels… dull."
With a single blow, he shattered the skull of a striped demon tiger hiding behind a tangle of vines, letting out a quiet sigh.
In this world, the art of battle for Skybreakers was never limited to innate talents alone.
Just as in the legendary chronicles of old, slaying monsters could yield not only experience points, but also rare elixirs, equipment, gold—and, if fortune favored, even elusive combat skill scrolls.
Of course, if you wanted loot to drop, you'd have to start with elite monsters at the very least. Beasts below level 5? The odds of them producing anything were practically zero.
Fortunately, the Shadowed Forest was a standard training-type secret realm—not only crawling with low-level monsters for newcomers to cut their teeth on, but also featuring a central core area teeming with elites.
If you wanted high-tier drops, that was where you had to go.
And Alex's goal… was to plunge straight into the core and take on enemies above his level!
…
At the same time—
On the forest's outer edge, a ball of ghostly blue fire tore through the shadows of the trees, slamming squarely into a two-headed direwolf. The flames erupted, swallowing the beast whole.
"Done," Brown muttered with a faint smirk before glancing at the archer beside him.
Leon held a longbow of violet crystal, his pupils glowing a deep crimson as he invoked his Spirit Eye talent, piercing through layers of foliage to scan the distance.
"See Alex yet?"
"Not yet." Leon shook his head. "But if he's in this realm, no matter where he hides, he won't escape my sight."
Brown nodded, a cold gleam flashing in his eyes.
"Manfred's already given the order—if we take Alex out in here, each of us gets a silver-grade weapon when we get back."
"A D-rank piece of trash like him… no matter how much he jumps around, he's not living past today."
Both men hailed from second-rate noble families of Lin Yuan City, awakened early, trained early, and far surpassed their peers in both level and combat experience.
Brown's talent—Ghostflame—allowed every attack he made in battle to bounce back healing to himself. Leon, on the other hand, possessed the powerful perception and insight of Spirit Eye, which, paired with his bronze longbow, left no enemy safe from his arrows.
In their eyes, Alex was nothing more than a lamb waiting for the slaughter.
And as for whether killing someone was illegal?
On this continent where the strong devoured the weak, secret realms were already graveyards filled with countless bones. Who could ever tell if a corpse had been left by a monster… or a man?
…
"A secret realm really is a perfect place for killing and looting," Alex mused to himself, strolling along a narrow path toward the core, one hand thoughtfully stroking his chin.
As a man reborn, Alex knew exactly what kind of scum Brown and Leon were.
In his previous life, it was in this very secret realm that the two had hounded him relentlessly. If not for Gregory's desperate intervention, his bones would have long since been picked clean.
Now that fate had been rewound… how could this debt go unpaid?
"But time's short. Three hours isn't much. Farming monsters comes first."
He gave a small shrug, his figure flickering once before melting back into the shadowed depths of the forest.
"When I run into those two bastards… I'll just kill them on the way."