The remainder of the forest path was uneventful; this so-called 'Hells Forest' was little more than a walk in the wild, although for normal mortals this place is the same as a death trap.

The Aura of several Mortal Leaving beasts could be detected from the depths of the forest:

Mortal Leaving Pinnacle Realm (13/800 XP)

'XP was still XP after all, I couldn't afford to miss any opportunity to grow one step closer to becoming stronger; I channeled my energy into my legs and set off in an instant - I detected twenty Mortal Leaving Primary Realm beasts in the surrounding area, twenty free XP points for me to harvest was enough to set me off on a sprint in their direction, close by there were at least six Mortal Leaving Intermediate Realm beasts too.'

In total it was fifty experience points, I grinned slightly as I ran in their direction; like the reaper of death wherever my daggers were drawn the beasts fell, in a short five minutes I had reaped the lives of ten beasts earning myself ten experience points, saving the stronger ones for last.

I had no specific preference towards the order in which I killed these beasts, I just preferred moving in order of strength despite them all being weak enough for me to insta-kill it felt more natural to chase the weakest first before progressing onto the strongest, it felt like the thrill of edging closer to the larger prey.

I have no idea whether these emotions are the result of the twin daggers I'm holding or just some subconscious desire in my heart finally being unearthed by my killing spree. The XP quickly racked up and all of the twenty-six beasts were killed, my XP had risen by a fair amount and had pushed me one step closer to the Core Gathering realm.

Mortal Leaving Pinnacle (63/800 XP)

I felt satisfaction looking at the slowly rising bar, I couldn't help but think about staying in the wild for a few more weeks and hunting the beasts in the surrounding area until I reached the Core Gathering Realm but I didn't have enough time to hunt forever, I needed to find techniques to utilize the power I had more efficiently and a body strengthening technique; both things the Tiger King had suggested I find whilst descending through the layers.

I was confident that the Royal Capital of this layer would hold both of these things after seeing the bandits having brokethrough to a higher realm than normal mortals could ever reach, it was most likely they had a backer who provided them with the resources and manuals to train themselves; it seems this Kingdom would see blood in the years to come but that was none of my concern - as long as no one bothered me I wouldn't lower myself to kill someone weaker than myself unless they presented a threat or were arrogant towards me.

I revealed a cold grin in an instant, however, if they were on the same level or stronger than me? Kill. 

No matter the means I had to kill them, if I could surprise them with an attack from the Shadow Realm I was confident in taking down someone on James level in an instant; I sighed, I could also use Ruler to order them to stop but I needed experience in fighting - what if I met an opponent stronger than myself but had only relied on commanding Shadows to stop so I could kill them; even if the opponent was weaker with a better technique and battle experience I still stood a chance of losing horribly even if I could escape.

All these thoughts were flashing through my mind in an instant as I was walking, the mental capabilities of someone at the Pinnacle of the Mortal Leaving Realm were nothing to look down upon; I could have several thoughts in the same second, it was an advantage that only came with an increase in my level of existence. I could only imagine the day that a single second would allow me to have trillions of ideas and thoughts, what realm would I be by then? An Immortal perhaps?

I sighed as I looked into the distant blue sky, yes blue sky; The Tiger King had removed the barriers from my eye-sight using a technique of his clan, it was a simple ability to look past the falsities of an illusion, its only purpose was to see beyond the walls that King had placed around his realm which was why I had been able to see an independent sky different to the sky on the surface, what LED lights? This was clearly a world in itself, I could only sigh that James, the old man, hadn't reached a high enough realm to see past the lies of King and truly believed everything he was told. 

Was that the life of someone without power? To be toyed with until your death? It was a fact of this cruel world that I would never accept, the only thing I had to do was fight with all my power; die if I have to. I would never live under the orders of someone else even if it meant my death... 

The burning desire for freedom was once more ignited in my heart as I stared into the hazy sky filled with clouds; the day I reach a realm capable of creating a world like this would be the day King died. For someone who wanted to treat me like a doll in his little game of acting like a King, I would show no mercy.

"Human." An intense pressure bore down on me in an instant; its voice echoed in my mind like the Tiger Kings had, yet it was more intense as if trying to shatter my soul at that very moment. 

With all my strength I pushed back against the soul-crushing intent in that pressure and managed to resist it; weaker than I had imagined it had come too suddenly that I was almost killed in an instant. I couldn't help but shake from the thought.

"Oh? You're alive." The voice sounded detached from the world, slightly disappointed that I wasn't dead and completely indifferent to my resistance; it was the type of enemy I could kill in an instant - the one that looked down on me with the arrogance of a higher realm. The Tiger King had said I was no match for the strength of a Core Gathering expert but who would know until I tried? 

The Abyssal daggers gave me new strength as I held them, their power was unmatched when I compared them to the weapons I had seen so far; they far outstripped the power of the Retractable Daggers I had used in the Tiger death fight just weeks ago, this was the best chance to test my real strength against a foe stronger than me as killing intent flashed in my eyes and I used it to counterbalance the pressure from whatever beast was trying to kill me.

"I had wanted to give you a painless death with that, you've killed many of my subjects and they demand an answer; why must you fight? You're merely an ant, it's unfortunate but you have to die today." They were words of regret but the voice clearly felt nothing, I was merely a more annoying fly than what it was used to, it both p*ssed me off and gave me an advantage in this fight. 

"Why." I asked whilst slowly edging into the shade of a tree, I was waiting for him to reveal himself before I entered the Shadow Realm; I needed a clear target to aim for yet I stopped nothing among the surrounding trees leading me to look into the branches themselves, "It's no use looking for me; just die peacefully." 

"Whhssssssss" I heard the whistling sounds of something flying towards me, "Meld," I said in my mind; although I hadn't seen him the projectile had given me a general direction, he was up in the trees somewhere, I felt like that while he didn't fear me he was wary of me from the way I had resisted his pressure.

"Ai-Ai-Ai" I could hear screeching from the trees in the Shadow Realm, a general idea of what beast I was facing formed in my mind; it was definitely a monkey.

Leaping onto the nearest tree, all the time keeping myself to the shadow I made swift but careful movements along the treetops; even the slightest swaying of a branch could alert an enemy on this level to my presence. The careful process took a minute of my remaining time before I saw the silhouette of the Monkey, it was small, much smaller than the Tiger King but I could feel the strength coming off of it - it felt like a mountain was standing in front of me as I tried to avoid looking directly at him. 

So this was the qualitative difference between a Core Gathering and Mortal Leaving Realm cultivator huh? I bitterly smiled thinking how I had thought I could match the strength of such a beast, only by relying on the sharpness of my daggers and a surprise attack did I have complete certainty of bringing him down in an instant with that in mind I maneuvered myself behind him after another minute of careful leaps along the trees. 

He was currently searching the ground with his aura, spreading his senses over a vast portion of the forest; I could feel the wave of energy sweep through me but it simply passed through me as if I didn't exist, at least for experts without knowledge of the Shadow Realm they couldn't see me, good to know.

Pulling the daggers from their sheaths I approached his back slowly, channeling as much energy as I could into both my legs and the daggers I leaped forward at a frighteningly fast speed - my trajectory would land me directly onto the monkeys back at this rate.

It was only half a second before I was next to my target, it happened too fast for even my brain to handle but as my daggers were about to puncture his heart he shifted to the left in that split second instant and survived my killing blow; although injured he wasn't dead.

I quickly pulled my daggers from his flesh and stabbed at him once more, this time I was met with a furry fist towards my head - barely I managed to move out of the way but a deep cut on the side of my cheek was left from the frightening power behind that punch, had he not been injured I was certain that punch would've taken my life.

"Ai-Ai-AI!!" The monkey was enraged, I couldn't tell what he was saying since he didn't directly send his thoughts into my head but I was one-hundred percent sure he was p*ssed and ready to kill me.

With no hesitation I threw my daggers towards him, he sneered at me as he moved his body to the left slightly and dodged them; exactly what I was waiting for, the daggers did a complete one-eighty turn and flew into his back, both of them came out the other side leaving a gaping hole in his chest. 

I had used the combined power of two daggers, one pushing the other to puncture a wound straight through his stomach.

"AIIII!!!" He screeched in pain and stared at me hatefully, but I wasn't ready to stop there; I had to land my final killing blow - grabbing hold of both daggers I lunged at him with all my strength.

The monkey didn't have much of his strength remaining either so as if coming to an agreement we both understood that the winner of this exchange of blows would be the one left standing.

His fast came flying towards my head as I had both daggers aimed at his stomach, in an instant I moved my left arm and the dagger in it to match the punch of his right fist - the dagger plunged into his fist and absorbed the brunt of the power behind the blow, the hilt shattered in the process and my arm fractured from the impact.

With my other dagger I plunged it into the heart of the monkey, he'd acted fast to pull his other hand up to stop me but I had acted a second faster - the life in his eyes was extinguished with that blow as I was left with the corpse of the beast.

+200 XP Gained! Beast King Monkey Killed! (Core Gathering Primary Realm)

How easily I could've lost my life just now... Whether dumb luck or the 'plot armor' I was so used to in novels I had survived to live another day - the bones in my arm had completely shattered after they had fractured, the force in the punch still hadn't dissipated fully by the end leaving my arm hanging their lifelessly, and the deep cut on my cheek was bleeding intensely. 'Growing stronger always comes at a cost - this time it was almost my life' I thought, the chill I had felt when exchanging those final blows with the Monkey had yet to pass; I could only sit and recover from my injuries before continuing my journey...

I had truly almost courted death by my actions of hunting the beasts but I didn't regret it, I deserved to be killed if I couldn't handle the consequences of my actions... I sighed before clearing my mind and recovering the energy I had lost in the fight, the deep cut on my cheek gradually faded into a scar and the bones in my arm were visibly stringing themselves back together.