While the group of beasts and trial candidates were battling, more beasts appeared and the situation became more dire.
But at the same time, more trial candidates also appeared at the same time, and the trial candidates wished to watch the slaughter of the first group of candidates at the hands of the beasts.
But how could Simon allow such a thing?
What he did was simple.
He repeated what he did with the first group.
He flicked a rock at the beasts while staying near the positions of each group. This drew the attention of the beasts to the groups, and the chaos that occurred became even more chaotic.
Some candidates were suspicious of how the beasts were suddenly able to notice their presence, but they never found Simon despite their attempts and suspicions.
In such a dark environment, and in an environment where the wind was heavy and loud, they could not find him with their little experience and skills.
The main reason why he excelled so much at ambushing the trial candidates was not because of his past life as the Hero of Earth.
No
It was because of his bloodline.
The turbulent wind of the Blackwind Valley made Simon to feel like he was home. Like he was in his territory.
He felt a deep connection with the wind, and the wind also loved him.
At his level, he could not control the wind, but he had a natural understanding of it.
This helped him to know from which directions the wind would blow from, when to jump and make loud noises so that the wind could mask it.
And so many other little knowledge that helped him avoid the eyes of the candidates.
However, the beasts were a problem because they could smell the blood on his clothes and body.
One of the dire beasts nearly exposed his position, but he quickly and silently killed the beast with his claws.
Time went on, and the sounds of battle and the stench of blood drifted across the region, drawing more beasts into the region.
And to Simon’s surprise, the trial candidates who were forced to battle the beasts by him, began forcing the unfortunate trial candidates who approached the battle.
This continued until it became an extremely chaotic region where over two dozen beasts and demons were battling and killing one another.
To change his clothes, he knocked out one of the candidates who had a similar size to him and wore his clothes.
He could have killed the candidate, but what was the point?
He had done enough killing of children.
What he did though, was to take the unlucky candidate’s condensed shadow essence and fuse it with his.
As Simon stood on the branch of a tree with his arms hanging low and his gaze like that of a predator, he saw another candidate slither away from the battle with fear in her eyes.
The candidate was running for her life, but no one was chasing her.
All she wanted was to escape this damned region of death.
Her curiosity got the best of her, and now it was about to kill her.
She regretted ever coming to the region of death despite all the warning signs it had.
’If I survive. I’m never coming here again and I’ll never allow my curiosity to lead me.’
Unfortunately for her, Simon did not know and would not even care about her thoughts in the slightest.
As she was running through the woods, she passed by a tree, and a hand shot out of the tree and chopped her neck with lightning fast speed and an immense precision.
She fell unconscious immediately, then she fell to the ground with a thud.
Simon crouched and did as he had done many times.
He searched her body for her condensed shadow essence, and when he found it, he left her.
As for her fate?
He didn’t care one bit.
This was not the first, second, third, fourth, or even tenth person he was doing this to.
Whenever he found trial candidates who found a way to escape, he’d ambush them and take their condensed shadow essence from them.
He never killed anyone of them. He only made them unconscious, and left their lives to fate and luck.
If it was not their fate to die today, then they’d live.
If they were lucky enough to survive without getting killed by another candidate or beast, then so be it.
His condensed shadow essence had fused with over two dozen condensed shadow essences, and the shadow marble he held in his hand was much darker than that of others.
"I wonder how many points I have. It’s unfortunate I can’t calculate it since I’ve just been stealing other people’s points."
Simon looked at where the core of the battle was taking place, and he wondered if he should continue what he had been doing.
He was certain that he already had more than enough points to pass the second trial, and if he did not have, he was very close to it.
"I’ll just kill any beast I see on my way."
He decided that it was enough. He had been picking off beasts and other trial candidates after creating a region of death, but it was getting boring to him.
Besides, he had a feeling that instead of just killing beasts and stealing condensed shadow essence, he could choose to explore the Blackwind Valley instead.
He turned away from the direction of the battle and closed his eyes. He perceived the wind, he listened to it, and he tried to look for something peculiar.
Something unusual.
’It would be nice if I could find hidden treasure or something... Or should I look out for a Dread Beast?’
’No. That would be too dangerous for me. I might have close to the physical strength of an Archfiend now, but the difference between an Archfiend and a Fiend, and a Dread Beast and a Dire Beast is extremely vast.’
Just as Simon had this thought, he suddenly noticed something odd in the wind.
It was something nobody would notice or something only those with an extremely high wind affinity would notice.
’The wind coming from the east is warm, not cold?’