As the sun rised and the new day broke in the scenery in the jungle was as natural and rich with green everywhere and the dew on the leaves and small puddles and ponds which were formed were all shown.
Zae and Noto started using shadow steps to get through the forest again
They could see the top of the Apecolo mountain from where they were coming from
"Snipe I can see the top!"
Zae shouts on as he uses shadow steps to traverse through the landscape
"I can see that aswell, I got eyes too you know"
Kiri replies coldly as he too dashes into the forest using shadow steps.
One might wonder how Zae was using 'Copy Skills' to the time limit of a day.
The secret is that the skill 'Copy skills' does not have a cooldown and Zae can use the copied skills continuously by taking his copy memory into account.
After a couple of hours they could see half of the Apecolo mountain.
It was very huge and looked more like a mountain range running along east-west direction rather than a single mountain.
The most difficult thing about the domain quest they received was that the exact location of their targets were not specified and they had to search for it themselves.
<"!!!>
Zae suddenly senses some monsters in front of them
"Kiri be careful some monsters are in front of us"
Zae warns Kiri who was just about 10 metres next to him. They both stops on a tree on separate branches.
"Tell me their traits"
Kiri asks with a serious face
"Nothing special, stats are weak too, we can take them out with a headshot"
Zae replies with confidence
"Snipe did you notice?"
Zae adds with a serious face.
"Yes, someone's been following us from morning"
Kiri whispers
"Yea, I sensed him but I thought he was just going the same direction
as us but he stopped aswell"
Zae replies
"That guy doesn't have a domain yet but he has a mana drain skill"
Zae adds
"What?? a mana drain skill??? copy it fast!! It will be super helpful for us later!"
Kiri adds with a shocked expression
"I already did when I first sensed him"
Zae replies
"But what should we do about that stalker, should be approach him?"
Zae asks
"Just act like we haven't noticed him yet, move in just like before we'll see if he approaches us once we enter the mountain"
Kiri replies as he looks towards the mountain
"Yea, I was thinking that too, well then lets go"
Zae and Kiri then resumes their dash towards the mountain but faster.
The unknown shadow like follower also starts as soon as they moved
Both Zae and Kiri was surprised that the stalker was actually able to keep up with their speed of 400 metres per 3 seconds
The pursuit of the follower was not ending and also the monsters kept on appearing one after another
Zae and Kiri were both using their magic shot to deal with the monsters in one shot. All the shots they set in were headshots with utmost precisions.
They continued moving through the forest and when the forest ended they entered a vast plain.
Just after the vast plain was the Apecolo mountains.
It was very majestic and Zae could not sense any people except for the pursuer.
They only other things Zae could sense in his extreme sense's radius were monsters
"What's the radius of your extreme sense now?"
Kiri asks as they continue dashing through the plains
"About 1.3 KM... Oh and he is not in our tail anymore"
Zae replies
"I guess he got tired or he thought we'd spot him if he gets in the plains"
Kiri adds
"I guess we should just take advantage of this and make as much distance as possible"
Zae and Kiri starts using their full speed to traverse through the plains.
"We're nearly there!"
Zae and Kiri encounters more and more monsters on the way.
With each encounter the monsters they met were becoming stronger and stronger.
This made them drain most of their mana and energy and they had no choice but to rest at the foot of the mountain. It was already mid day at that moment.
"We're here atlast"
Zae takes a sigh of relief.
"Yea, we should rest up for now and start looking for our quest's location afterwards"
Kiri starts looking at all the skills that he had inorder to strategize his quest.
Zae also starts looking at the copy memory list
[1. Kiri Duori(Shadow assassin)
2. Noto Zanshi(Battle technician)
3. Reva Midoshi(Blood Paladin)
4. Tias Kuroguchi(Blood enchantress)
5. Westborn licarga(Pack master,)
.
.
.
.]
Zae's copy memory had a lot of good skills and stats which he could use so he was less tense than Kiri since he could adapt to any sort of battle by using the skills from others to counter his opponents.
But Kiri on his side was very cautious since his target was the shadow queen, and to complete the quest he had to make a contract with her. Also, he was sure that it would be very difficult to fight the shadow queen with shadow skills.
Both Zae's and Kiri's quest were on the impossible end. Of cource they did not know that their quest was gonna be a life and death struggle. They had to give it their all just to complete the quest.
And if they couldn't then they would not be able to develope further because of the cap system.
When they were just resting and having their strategies running through their heads Zae senses the same person again.
"Snipe, The pursuer is back, and this time he's coming towards us"
Zae warns Kiri with a serious expression and they were both ready for a battle if it were to start.
A shadowy figure appears in front of them, It was a guy wearing black robes with a katana at his back. His face was covered with a mask and even the head was covered with a cape
"Who are you? and what do you want from us"
Zae asks as he takes his offensive stance
The guy who just appeared starts walking slowly and says
"It is I, who should be asking you two this question! Why are you in my family's territory"
Kiri's Sniper appears in his hands and he suddenly vanishes from sight.
"It's no use..... I can sense both your presence"
the black robed guy says as he grabs the handle of his katana, ready to unsheath any time.
"We don't want to fight, so what do you say, want to talk it out with us?"
Zae says with a serious tone while also ready to take any attack if it came to him
"What do you greedy people even want to talk about? You guys already took so much from us... what more do you want to take from us?"
The black robed guy shouts in anger as he says that.
"You might have mistaken us for some other people"
Zae lets loose of his stance
The black robed guy charges towards Zae as he unsheathes his katana. He dashes straight for Zae with an intent to slit his throat.
But before he could reach Zae even though the action was lightning fast a shot came down from behind Zae just in front of the black robed guy.
As soon as the bullet reaches the ground and intercepts the black robed guy, Zae realises he cannot talk unless he restraints his movements and activates his skills
#Copy skills
#Copy stats
Zae copies the stats and skills of the black robed guy
#Paralysis strick
Zae uses the skill copied from the black robed guy.
SFX:Shinnn
"Aaahhhhhhh"
The paralysis strick hits the black robed guy and as soon as the paralysis strick hits him, Kiri shoots a paralysis shot for insurance.
The guy was knocked out in the process.
"I guess we over did it"
Zae with a hesitant voice.
Kiri suddenly appears next to Zae and says
"We didn't have a choice, atleast he's not dead"
Kiri goes and checks his pulse and both of them picked him up and pulls him towards a tree.
•After a little while•
"You're awake huh? here drink some water you must be thirsty"
Zae comes next to the black robed person and offers him water.
The black robed guy turns his head around but when he tried to move he could not beacause of the effect of the paralysis strick and paralysis shot made the effect to stack thus lasting much longer.
"Why didn't you kill me?"
The black robed guy asks in a hazy voice
"As we said, we're not the people who you think we are. The paralysis effect should wear off in about 15 minutes we're leaving you some food and water feel free to eat it. We're just here to complete our domain quest. Well see ya, we're getting a bit late"
Zae starts walking away from him. He had a very regretful expression in his face after he heard that they were here just to do their domain quest and not to steal.
"I'M VERY SORRY, I thought you two came here for our family's treasure aswell"
The black robed guy shouts in apology
"It's ok don't mind it, oh by the way what's your name?"
Zae stops, turns around again and asks
"And what do you mean your family's treasure?"
Zae adds with a straight face
"Ku.....Kiro"
Kukiro replies
"Oh okay then Kukiro do you know anything about the Illusion spider or the shadow queen?"
Zae quickly changes topic and asks
"Are the illusion spider and shadow queen your quest?"
Kukiro asks in a shocked state.
"Yes, why are you so surprised"
Zae adds
"I don't know much about the shadow queen since she lives at the top of the mountain but the illusion spider is a bad news"
Kukiro replies with a dreadful expression
"So you do know about them!"
Zae adds
"Yes, our family has been trying to get rid of the illusion spider for a long time but all of our attempts to take it out always fails. Even though it's level is only at around 50-60 but it can still defeat others more higher levelled than it."
Kukiro says with a scared expression
"It is said that the illusion spider can also imitate human forms and thus, it is very hard to recognise and also, it can use the skills of the humans it copies."
Kukiro adds
"Hmmmm... Interesting, so do you know its location?"
Zae asks
"Yea, It should be in a cave just 2 KM North from here, It sleeps during the day and comes out at night to feed"
Kukiro replies
"Thank you so much"
Zae thanks him with a smile
"Don't worry about it, I'm sorry that I attack you out of my own assumptions"
Kukiro bows strongly and apologises
"Don't sweat it, Oh and you said that the shadow queen..."
Zae replies and adds
"Yea, she lives at the top of the mountain but no one knows anything about it since the temperature up there is very cold. But as far as I know, it should be as strong as the illusion spider"
Kukiro replies
"So thats it thank you so much for the information, Snipe I guess we split ways here"
Zae looks at a nearby tree and Kiri suddenly appears next to him
"I guess, be careful on your end and since we couldn't complete our bet, lets bet on who will het their domain first"
Kiri replies with a confident smile
"Sure.... Well then see you here tomorrow"
Zae says as Kiri disappears in the shadows
"Hey Kukiro, you just go home after you're okay.... I'll take care of the illusion spider for you guys"
Zae replies as he fades into the shadows.
Kukiro thinks as he regrets what he did