The smoke spread throughout the air. The rain was making it harder for the scent to really spread, but bestial monsters were far more sensitive than regular animals. As long as Ashton kept on moving, he should be able to lure quite a few bats toward here.

  The scent was basically a mixture of sweet berries and bugs, though the only taste that was left in Ashton's mouth when he smoked the cigarette was the bug aspect. There weren't any actual insects in the cigarette, of course, but there were a few herbs that could be mixed together to create a similar, pungent smell.

  Ashton was actually pretty happy that Poppy wasn't out here, and was instead inside of his vessel. With how many flying enemies were going to come and swoop down, Ashton felt like it was too dangerous for her to be out and about. Elementals were one thing, because their bodies would start to fall apart once outside of Ashton's channelling range anyway, but this was Poppy's real, physical body.

  While Ashton could resurrect her if she died, dying was a painful experience that he wanted to avoid putting his summons through if at all possible. The elementals also didn't experience any pain in the first place, unless there were attacks that could target souls. But those were rare, and if it came down to it, Ashton would figure out a tactic, though that wasn't something to be concerned with for the time being anyway. There were summons that he could call on with the ability to protect one's soul.

  Rather, contracting some protective summons might not be the worst idea in general. Right now, Ashton was skewed heavily toward offense and utility, but had no way to protect or heal himself when it came down to it. Potions were one thing, but they could never compare to a dedicated, skilled healer. Healing potions were medicine. But not even the best medicine in the world could replace a surgeon.

  For now, Ashton put a healer and a protective summon onto his list. One with the ability to create some kind of barrier would probably be great, and would allow him to move relatively freely. Barriers were extremely versatile, and would even come in useful in the situation that he was in right now.

  Many individuals with the power to create barriers could do what the undine was doing for Ashton right now, blocking out just the water from falling down on you. They could block out attacks from the outside, but allow attacks from within the barrier through, so that you could attack from your own safe place.

  And, more importantly, powerful barriers could place 'restrictions' on those that passed through them, or activate certain effects automatically.

  For example, just a moment ago, a massive bat swept down toward Ashton, but he immediately focused his channelling on that bat, automatically gathering rainwater around its wings. While it didn't fully drop to the ground, it wasn't able to move well enough to dodge out of the way of Ashton's staff.

  [You have killed a [Wolf Bat]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 11 Coins]

  Wolf bats were one of the more common sorts of massive bats around here. There wasn't all too much 'wolf'-like about them beside their ridiculous size, though that was probably all that was needed anyway.

  Ashton was a bit annoyed that he couldn't take this one apart and harvest the magic stones, but that wasn't his focus right now. He really, seriously had to focus on gaining experience and money. Magic stones were an important resource, but he wasn't able to get through the amount that he currently had right away anyway.

  [You have killed a [Wolf Bat]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 12 Coins]

  A slightly larger individual shot down at Ashton, and actually made him stumble back a bit because of the impact against his staff. The weight of a wolf bat couldn't be underestimated. Either way, it seemed to be working.

  There were a few swarms fluttering around here, with dark shadows swooping through the sky. Every once in a while, one would come down to Ashton, and he would strike it down relatively fast. His reaction time was good enough, even if this was close to his limit.

  The bats weren't the only thing he had to deal with, though. There were a few more xantusi, and in their case, Ashton made sure to actually skin them properly so that he could use their hide later.

  It took about an hour and half a dozen of these cigarettes for Ashton to reach his limit. He had killed dozens of bats, but smoking these cigarettes wasn't exactly good for his throat. While it was possible to counteract most of the damage they did through some healing herb mixtures, there were none in the cigarettes that he smoked to attract bats.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  There was a reason why he smoked this instead of just feeding the herbs to the salamander, though. Having multiple summons out at the same time heavily restricted the things that he could do with each individual summon. It wasn't exactly the worst thing in the world, but having the salamander summoned would make it far harder for Ashton to have three different stable flows of magic going through the undine.

  The umbrella, the magic sight, and the way he almost instinctually and automatically covered the bats in water. Right now, Ashton had split his mental energy accordingly to what each task could benefit from. Out of these, the one that was given the most focus was the magical sight.

  Should Ashton add the salamander to the mix, then he would have to reduce the amount of mental energy he could focus on that task. And that wasn't something that he was willing or able to do right now. Plus, the salamander would fundamentally change the way that light bounced around in this area. Not only would it mess up how well he could see in the dark, since he would lose the bit of adjustment to the darkness that his eyes had already made, but he would become the prime target for monsters in the area.

  Since Ashton was otherwise almost completely silent, due to the silent step shoelaces, he didn't want to take that risk, although it would be much more efficient to simply let the salamander spread the scent around.

  But that should be fine. After reaching level 10, he should get a decent power boost that should help with that.

  For now, though, Ashton took a short break and drank a bit of a mana potion. His throat was feeling sore from the smoking, but he would be fine. He looked over at the undine and saw that they had gotten a bit small, so Ashton opened a water bottle and topped them back up to full size.

  "If you're tired, let me know, yeah?" Ashton told the elemental, but they seemed fine. They swam around Ashton's head happily. With a smile, he pulled out a small candy out of the ingredient pouch on his belt and popped it into his mouth. Some saliva should help with his throat.

  While he was taking a brief brake, he pulled up his status window. He was at a good spot stat-wise for level 9. His spirit stat would probably reach 25 with the next level up, so that was great. His other stats weren't lagging too far behind, either.

  The summons were levelling up well, too, and his money...

  [Coins - 3075 -> 4264]

  ... had also gone up a little since the last time he checked. He was still almost six thousand coins away from being able to form a contract with the Salesman. But with the way things were going, he should probably get there in a day or two. Though, Ashton also needed some money to actually buy things and commission the spirit for particular items.

  "All in due time, Ashton." He closed his eyes and let out a slight breath, waving his status window away.

  Things would be fine. He just had to concentrate and-

  Ashton flinched and spun his staff around. All the nearby raindrops shot at the best that just flew down into Ashton's channelling range. It came completely out of nowhere, and ridiculously fast, as well.

  But... it just fell down onto the ground. It was twitching slightly. Ashton's eyes widened as he stared down at the injured bat. Well, first, he crushed its head with his staff, and then took a closer look at its injuries.

  It had deep wounds all over its body and its wings were torn. It was bleeding heavily, and its muscles had clearly been ripped. The wounds on its body were equally spaced away from each other... This was a bite mark. Something large had this bat between its fangs, swallowing its entire upper body.

  He shivered.

  "No... Not yet, right?" Ashton smiled wryly, not wanting to believe it. And then came a screech that made his hair almost jump out of his skin.

  He looked up. But Ashton couldn't see anything. Whatever it was, it was outside of his channelling range. But then, something else dropped onto the ground, creating a deep, red ripple. Regular water created just white ripples, but this one came from blood.

  It was falling down into his range from far above. He hadn't noticed because of the undine's magic umbrella, but there was something right above him, blocking the rain.

  A loud flap of the wings could be heard. From the gust that it created, it must be close. The fact that Ashton didn't hear it before now meant that it was hiding itself earlier, but was trying to make sure Ashton actually heard it. With a loud slam, the thing dropped down a distance away. The ground almost shook from its sheer weight.

  Ashton held his breath, to try and make as little sound as possible, just staring forward at the source of the sound. Notifications appeared around Ashton. They weren't a physical thing, so they didn't shine 'real' light, but they were still blinding in this moment of concentration.

  [[Observer in the Veil] is expressing their confusion]

  [[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] warns you to run away as fast as you can]

  [[Executor of the End] prays you may not yet get to meet them]

  With each and every heavy step, it came closer. And soon, it entered Ashton's channelling range. Raindrops fell onto its snout, which was held far higher than Ashton's head already.

  As the creature moved in closer, the rest of its scale-covered head was revealed. Cracked horns laid on top of its head, and sharp, neatly-aligned fangs sat in its maw.

  Soon, a claw was pushed into Ashton's range as well, connecting to a massive wing. It was almost invisible to his eyes in this darkness, but the rain allowed Ashton to truly see it. To see the wyvern slowly stalk toward him.

  He could only see its rough shape and not any details, but he knew that it was staring right at him. Ashton could feel its cold gaze on his skin.

  And then another message popped up in front of Ashton.

  [You have a New Quest! [Special Quest - The Ruler of Drakewood]]

  [Special Quest - The Ruler of Drakewood]

  [You have encountered the ruler of the Drakewood region, the proud descendant of dragons, the Crimson Wyvern! But humanity would never let a beast take away their home, would it?]

  [Goal - Kill the Ruler of Drakewood]

  [Reward - 25000 Coins, 5x Rare Item Selection Box, 5x Rare Weapon Selection Box, Large Amount of Class Experience]

  [Failure - The Ruler of Drakewood will continue to grow in power]