In a grassland near Elbas city called Mammoth Plain, seven cultivators walked at a slow pace, warily inspecting their surroundings.
Those plains were a danger zone named after the type of magical beasts that mainly inhabited it.
They were, of course, elephant-type creatures.
"Kurt, remind me why we are bringing this kid with us"
One of the cultivators asked Kurt who was walking in the vanguard position.
"Newton, stop complaining. We need to show him that we can safely kill a rank 4 beast or he won't stop hunting rank 3 creatures. I know that you don't care about the weaker hunters' situation but they have harassed me to no end because of Vance."
Newton snorted and gave a scolding gaze to the young man at the end of the group.
That man was, of course, Noah.
After the discussion in the guild, he had reached an agreement with Kurt.
Noah would join the group hunting rank 4 creatures and gather information about the beasts without the need to join their fight.
Yet, he will receive the same share of profits from the corpses of the beasts and will also inflict the finishing blow once the fight was over, also, he added two more conditions.
The first one was that no one was allowed to watch him as he killed the creature, the Blood drain spell would expose his aptitude after all.
The other one was that he had to first see with his own eyes how the hunting group worked to be sure that he could be safe even in that environment.
He would never entrust his life to someone that he didn't know so he wanted to be sure of their capabilities first.
Kurt didn't mind the conditions and accepted, ultimately leading to the situation where they were.
The Mammoth Plain was a danger zone fairly close to the capital, which meant that it had undergone many cleaning operations.
The magical beasts in the fourth rank were few and scarce, making that area one of the safest danger zones.
Also, elephant-types magical beasts usually had poor reproductive abilities which strongly limited the number of beasts in each pack.
That's why, even if they had been walking in the yellow grassland for more than a day, they didn't meet any creature with rank superior to the first.
'They all have a rank 4 body and a dantian at least in the liquid stage of the second rank.'
Noah judged.
The cultivators in front of him were among the strongest hunters in the guild.
Nevertheless, with the exception of Kurt, all of them had a second profession.
Some of them were city soldiers or enrolled in the Royal army, others were personal guards of wealthy nobles, they all had another job that fully valued their strength.
After all, at their level, they could become captain of the guards of some noble family, yet they chose to remain in the Royal city due to the illimited opportunities that it offered.
Their bodies were the proof that the restrictions over the techniques in the Royal city were far laxer than in any other noble mansion where someone had to accumulate years of loyal services just to obtain a rank 4 nourishing method.
As for their dantian, the liquid stage of the second rank was generally considered the minimum strength required to hurt rank 4 creatures which, coupled with their number, allowed them to successfully hunt rank 4 magical beasts.
'Kurt should be the strongest since his body is incredibly tough. Newton and the two sisters, Ada and Ella, have a common rank 4 body but their dantian should be in the solid stage of the second rank. As for Hazel and Vic, they too have a common rank 4 body but their dantian is weaker, probably in the liquid stage.'
Noah summarized in his mind.
Judging the strength of those around him had become a habit by then.
'I can fight Hazel or Vic if I use the Demonic form but I don't have the slightest confidence in winning. Maybe, if I catch them by surprise and use the Demonic sword, I might be able to severely injure them.'
He was comparing himself to the weakest of that group.
His Demonic form could increase his battle prowess by one stage.
If he was to use that form with the shard that he had created, he could unleash one attack having the power of the solid stage!
'That's too naïve though. I don't know the actual power of the shard, I'm just sure that it's in the middle tier of the second rank. Also, all of them should have some spells so their actual battle prowess is hard to predict.'
Martial arts were weaker than spells, they were generally considered as an imitation of spells after all.
That's why it wasn't rare for a cultivator to have a battle prowess superior to the level of their dantian, one simply needed a strong offensive spell to achieve that feat.
"So, you were a student at the academy, right? Let's see if listening to the explanations of some professors can beat actual experience. What have you discovered about our target from the traces on the terrain?"
Ada spoke to Noah.
She was originally the one appointed to gather clues about the beasts but, since Noah had joined their group, she felt like her position was challenged.
Noah was forced to interrupt the mental evaluation of his companions and began to sort his thoughts to answer Ada.
"We are following the tracks of a pack of Shrinking elephants with around fifteen beasts of rank varying between the second and the third. There is only one rank 4 specimen with them which also explains why Kurt chose this area to show me your strength."
The hunters stopped their tracks and stared at Noah with wide eyes.
They were quite surprised about how detailed his explanation was and could not help but look at him in a new light.
"How can you be sure of it?"
Ada continued.
She knew that there was only one magical beast in the fourth rank but that information came from a report of one of the scouts in the capital of which Noah wasn't aware!
Noah pointed to a small hole on the terrain below the yellow grass.
"Rank 4 Shrinking elephants have the habit of reducing their size as much as they can when they travel with their pack. However, they can't reduce their weight. A smaller surface with the same weight will create deeper traces on the ground."