About two hours later, Their crew arrived at a forest in the South of the claymore town. It was called 'Magical Beasts Forest'. It was a name given by the people of Claymore town because, in this forest, there are many magical beasts who are as powerful as one-star mages with some being able to fight two-star mages.
This was the same forest where the previous host of max's body and a few of his guards who were novice mages were killed by a beast. This time it was different as he was with Emily, a two-star mage, and a group of knights.
Every knight usually is a one-star mage but not every one-star mage can become be a knight. They have to pass a standard test given by The Mage Association to qualify to be a knight. Similarly if one wants to rank up after novice mage, they have to go to The Mage Association for your evaluation. The mage association will determine according to set standards if you are eligible to rank up or not. Normally, they are evaluated based on their 'Mana Units'.
"Emily, How are you going to show me your magic here? Need we come here to the forest for that purpose?" Max asked Emily when they arrived in the forest. Though he already had an idea of what she planned.
"Yeah, we needed to. In Here you can see me and these knights in action when we encounter any beast. Moreover, It seems that the number of beasts has increased by quite a lot in the past few years, thus many merchant caravans that travel near the forest to go to other towns and cities, are being attacked by them, so our manor received requests to resolve this situation. So we can conveniently help reduce their number a little." Emily explained.
"Oh! That's the case." After listening to her, max came to the realisation, If you want to experience something, do it in action. And from this Max can also see that although, these beasts are strong but they can be tackled easily so that he didn't develop a phobia of beasts.
Max shook his head inwardly at this. Did she think he would be afraid just because he was attacked one time, oh well, technically two times? No, he wasn't. He just wanted to improve his strength before going on adventures.
He diverted his attention and focused on feeling Lilly's slim and smooth waist. He put his head on her right shoulder and inhaled her scent. He started to feel horny by it and his 'Little Brother' who wasn't little in any sense started to rise and eventually stabbed itself in Lilly's back.
Suddenly Lilly shuddered slightly but didn't do anything and continued riding the horse and oh well...
Max controlled himself and didn't do anything more as there were Emily and others with them.
After a while, they finally encountered a black tiger with red marks all over its body. It was 3 meters tall and was very bulky. It looked utterly ferocious but none of their crew including Lilly was scared. This was surprising for Max as he knew that Lilly was only a maid. How could she keep her calm in this situation?
"Wow, it's a red-striped black tiger. It's comparable to a one-star mage in strength." A knight exclaimed.
"Yeah, it's a good opponent to fight. It can fight 2-3 one-star mages with its full strength."
"It's a great opportunity to show our strength to Young miss."
Every knight was excited and wanted to fight it to show off their strength in front of Emily. If a two-star mage took them as her subordinates, it would be very easy for them to improve their strength.
"Quiet!" Emily raised her hand and shouted.
Following her shout, everyone stopped talking and focused their attention on her.
Emily turned to Max and said "Now these knights are going to fight this tiger. Watch carefully."
"Three of you can go and kill it." Emily pointed at the tiger and ordered. Following her words, three knights drew out their swords and chanted some spells.
"Emily, why are they drawing out their weapons? Can't they simply use their magic to kill it?" Max asked her, bewildered.
Emily looked at Max as if she was looking at an idiot. She then explained "Unless you are a seven-star mage or in other words unless you are a King mage or above you can't use magic directly without any medium. These swords, they are enchanted with magic, are a medium for them to use their magic to cast spells and do various things. Without these, they can only do some household chores with their magic."
"Err... Why do you need a medium like that to use magic in fights?" Max asked again, his curiosity piqued.
"That is because we don't have good enough control over mana and mana has a berserk nature. So usually it backfires when we try to use some advanced magic or in a fight where you need precise control, if not a single mistake will cost you your life. But after you become a King mage or above your control over mana has also been strengthened, then it is easy to use it however you want." Emily explained.
"It means that it is necessary to have a medium to be able to use magic, is that right? But if I am neither a King mage nor I want to use these swords or other weapons. Is there nothing I can do about it?" Max inquired.
"You can use a 'Talisman' in that case. There are special talismans for that purpose. You can just wear it and then you can use your magic in fights or anything you like, but that is only after you have some control over your internal mana pool. Besides these talismans cost a lot." Emily smiled after finishing her last sentence.
They then focused on the fight. Black tiger was moving very fast and would occasionally strike with its claws and fire a black beam from its maw.
The knights on the other hand were chanting some spells. Some of their swords were glowing while some were firing mana arrows, slashes etc from their swords. One could see their attacks moving with their naked eyes. It was a scene just like the movies.
'Fascinating! This is awesome. This is really a magical world. I wonder if they can fly too?' Max wondered.