Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 521: Tracking

Asher sighed as he gazed at the corpse at his feet, then sighed again before shaking his head slowly. He had thought the Ape could at least entertain him for a short while, perhaps offer a bit of resistance or excitement to break the monotony of training, but it seemed he had overestimated it.

The fight had been too boring and easy, almost disappointingly so, which was why he had simply finished it with his second attack and saw no reason to drag the encounter out any longer than necessary.

Without another word, he vanished from his position and appeared three hundred meters away on a tree branch. He did not linger near the Ape’s corpse for long, as he knew the thick scent of fresh blood would inevitably attract more monsters to the area.

If another person had killed the Ape, they would have definitely taken the corpse with them; after all, this was a Mark rank beast, and its materials alone could sell for thousands of gold coins on the market. Its hide, bones, were all valuable resources. However, Asher could not be bothered with such trivial profits, as money had never truly been something he lacked or cared about.

Sitting on the branch of the tree, Asher took out the mission scroll permit from his system inventory. It was normal practice to read it carefully before starting every mission, since it usually informed the students of the exact amount of time they were allocated for their current task, along with other relevant instructions or restrictions that might affect their approach.

Unfurling the mission scroll permit, Asher’s eyes moved smoothly across the details written on it, but this time, it contained more than just the mission’s allocated duration.

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The last recorded village where villagers had disappeared is Blackstone Village, proceed there swiftly.

Mission Duration; One month.

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Asher read the contents carefully as the mission scroll informed him of the last village from which the most recent set of villagers had vanished. Seeing the mission duration, Asher could not help but arch an eyebrow slightly, wondering if the mission would truly take that long to complete.

On the other hand, it made perfect sense when he thought about it more logically; after all, even some first-year missions occasionally stretched to ten days or more depending on complications, so something this mysterious and dangerous lasting an entire month was not exactly unreasonable.

Asher transferred the mission scroll permit back into his system inventory. He waited for a moment, then another, seconds stretching into a full minute, then two. Asher sat there slightly confused, because normally, after reading or unfurling the mission scroll permit, a compass would automatically materialize in his hand to guide him toward a target location, but this time, nothing happened at all.

Asher fell into thought. He did not think this was a mistake or oversight by the Academy. Instead, he immediately guessed that it was likely normal among the upperclassmen. Maybe once they reached the second year, the Star Academy stopped providing them with compasses, or perhaps it happened in the third year. Asher honestly did not know, since he had not asked which year the mission originally belonged to and had simply picked it without hesitation.

’But why would the Star Academy do this?’ Asher thought to himself, his brows narrowing slightly, but the moment that thought occurred, an answer followed almost immediately as his sharp mind pieced everything together.

’So that’s it,’ he mused to himself with a small shake of his head. The conclusion Asher had reached was simple and rather obvious. Since the Star Academy provided tracking classes, assassination courses, reconnaissance training, and various survival lessons, then from either the second year or the third year onward, students were likely no longer given a compass and were expected to reach their destinations on their own using whatever methods they had learned. It forced them to apply their knowledge in real-life situations rather than rely on convenience tools.

Therefore, they would have to implement everything they had been taught into practical scenarios. After all, without such enforcement, all that learning would be meaningless theory. Knowledge that was never used might as well not exist at all.

Asher could not help but quietly applaud the Star Academy’s methods. They truly ensured that everyone made proper use of what they had learned. And as for those who did not bother learning or improving, well... they could only fail the mission and add another blemish to their record. Failure itself would become the lesson. And then there were people like Asher, who was merely a first year and was technically still being taught how to track properly.

’I guess a few things will change after the first year,’ Asher mused to himself, completely unbothered about the tracking issue in the slightest. With a thought, his body gently rose into the air as though gravity had simply loosened its grip on him, and he floated upward toward the sky. Within seconds, he was hovering above the entire forest canopy, the treetops stretching endlessly beneath him like a green ocean.

With another thought, he manipulated the surrounding light photons and bent them around his body, rendering himself invisible. Although he wanted to fight something or someone and enjoy himself, he was not foolish enough to recklessly expose himself.

What if an End rank monster happened to glance his way simply because he was floating openly above its territory? Although he was confident in his strength, he always remained cautious. Until he became the strongest man in Crymora, caution would always be the wiser choice.

Star Energy flowed smoothly into his eyes with precise control, his vision immediately expanding as his sight extended far beyond normal limits. Details sharpened, distances shrank, and the horizon became clearer. Up ahead, he could make out a faint silhouettes of carriages moving forward along a path. Asher did not think much about it, as he already knew they were likely heading toward the nearest territory or settlement.

Astra energy flowed out through his body, wrapping him in a body-shaped barrier that reduced air resistance and protected him from external pressure. Then, with a single thought, he shot forward like a fighter jet, his speed tearing through the sky and leaving faint sonic booms in his wake. The air screamed past his ears violently, yet he did not slow down in the slightest and simply continued flying forward with unwavering momentum.

Why bother tracking manually when there were easier methods available to him? Of course, if it were other students, they would probably start studying footprints, carriage wheel marks, broken branches, wind direction, and all sorts of subtle environmental clues. But Asher saw no need to waste time doing any of that. He could do it if necessary, but he simply did not want to.

And with that, he shot toward the nearest territory at incredible speed as he finally began his mission in earnest. What would come of this mission, he did not know, nor did he overthink it. He did not dwell on possible dangers or outcomes. For now, he was simply happy to be outside the Academy walls, breathing the open air, and stepping onto the path of a real mission once again.