"Roy, land over there." Rem commanded, pointing at an island in the distance.
"Kiii!" Roy did as he was told, landing on the island.
"How odd... There's a barrier here." Rem noticed.
"Let's explore this place." Rem suggested.
"Kiii!"
"Shift back into your human form for now. Be on guard, Roy." Rem warned.
Roy did as he was told, obeying Rem.
'There's definitely something wrong here. I can't sense any people or monsters... Maybe it's the barrier's doing?' Rem looked around the island.
*Bzzzzz...
'Hm?' Rem heard some buzzing, but she wasn't sure if she was hearing things or not.
"Roy, did you hear it too?" Rem asked in a serious tone.
"It sounds like buzzing," Roy replied.
*Bzzzzz...!
"There it is again! I honestly don't have a good feeling about this..." Rem looked around the island.
*Bzzzzz!!!
'The noise is getting louder...'
Suddenly, Rem spotted a huge herd of insects coming their way. Rem immediately grabbed Roy and dragged him in a bush with her. Activating her stealth, Rem inspected one of the insect's stats.
[Name: N/A]
[Race: Scorbee]
[Role: Worker]
[Level: 63]
[HP: 59,000/59,000]
[MP: 64,000/64,000]
[Element: N/A]
'You've got to be kidding me... A huge, bee-like creature with a scorpion stinger... That looks deadly. Plus, there are hundreds of them! Maybe even more. What are these creatures...? They're dangerously close to Orthio City too...!'
{They've probably been living here for a few years.}
'Is the barrier the thing that's keeping those creatures away from the city?' Rem wondered.
Rem and Roy stayed in the bush until no living being is in sight.
"Let's get out of here." Rem decided.
Roy nodded and shifted into his dragon form. Getting on Roy's back, Roy tried to fly off the island. However, the barrier prevented him from doing so.
*BONK!
"Kiiiii!!!" Roy yelped in pain.
"Shoot... Now we can't get out. Well, that can't be helped. Let's explore this island as a way to get rid of all these creatures."
"Why don't we try to break the barrier?" Roy asked.
"If we break the barrier, they would find a way to the city. You saw how many there are, didn't you?"
Roy nodded.
"There must be more of them nearby. Shift back into your human form. This way, we wouldn't get spotted easily." Rem stated, walking towards the jungle.
Roy shifted to his human form again and followed Rem from behind.
'002, do these flying insects like fire?' Rem asked.
{Of course, they don't. They hate fire. Can't you see how cool it is, here?}
'That's a volcano, isn't it?'
{Yes, it's a volcano that hadn't erupted for decades.}
'I can tell. There must be a way to cause the volcano to erupt, isn't there?'
{Possibly.}
「Master, I can't sense any living being here. Not even you...」
'I've noticed that too. I can't sense anything either.'
「I'm sturdy, but not fireproof.」
'Okay, that's good to know.'
Rem stopped in her tracks. In front of her, there were three of the flying creatures Rem saw earlier. She glanced at Roy and looked at the creatures. Roy understood what Rem wanted him to do and nodded.
'This sword isn't not fireproof so I'll create a thin barrier around the sword myself.'
Holding onto the small necklace-sized dagger in her pocket, Rem imagined it turning larger, and it did. With a full-sized dagger in her hand, she applied a thin layer of shadow magic around the dagger. She then added fire magic around the dagger. Getting closer to the creatures, Rem dashed in front of one of the creatures. Trying to slice the Scorbee apart, the Scorbee blocked Rem's flaming sword with its scorpion-like stinger.
'Oh, great...'
Fighting with a Scorbee was similar to fighting a real human with a sword. Rem had to dodge the Scorbee's attacks while having to deal with the others. Roy aimed his right hand at the Scorbees, using his fire magic to blast them apart. Two of the Scorbees died from the blast. The blast didn't even leave their bodies behind.
"Good job, Roy." Rem complimented, teleporting behind the last Scorbee standing and decapitating it with her dagger.
Green blood splattered everywhere. Some blood got on Rem's left arm, melting that part of her sweater off.
'Their blood can melt things???' Rem was shocked, feeling a bit warier of these creatures.
"Roy, don't let their blood get on you." Rem warned.
"Are you alright...?" Roy looked down at Rem's arm.
It looked slightly burned.
"I'm fine. It's better to blast these creatures off, but we need to save our mana for later. Making a volcano explode isn't cheap, you know?"
Rem continued her way towards the volcano. On the way to the volcano, Rem spotted a few people with horns on their heads.
'There're five... Demons??? Wait, no. They're not...? I'm not sure. Though, they don't seem like demons. Why would a demon be here? I'll check to make sure.'
[Name: N/A]
[Race: Ogre]
[Role: Ancient Ogre Tribe Hunter]
[Level: 65]
[HP: 67,000/67,000]
[MP: 20,000/20,000]
[Element: Earth]
'They must be strong and intelligent to be able to hide from these flying creatures. How did they survive anyway?' Rem followed the half-ogres from a distance.