The night was cold. The massive boulder prevented the wind from striking at them, but the air was still cold despite that. Santiago was laying on his back with his eyes closed. Oddly enough, it didn't seem as if he was starting to sleep, he was just... laying with his eyes closed.
Sion was sitting next to the camp fire, he felt pretty cold and tried to warm himself up by rubbing the palms together above the fire.
" W-what.. A-a-are you r-resistant to c-cold?! " Sion yelled.
" Pretty much I guess " he didn't bother with opening his eyes.
" D-despite losing your powers, y-you still act as a R-r-royal you b-bastard " he let out through his teeth.
Santiago giggled, it sounded mockingly. With his hands behind his head, he was laying on the ground, not bothered by anything.
Santiago's fire wasn't getting extinguished despite having no fuel whatsoever, it was just burning on the snow for few hours now. Sion didn't mind it all all since he was cold.
~Rune
As something grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him in the snow, he found himself in the Runes world.
" Well, it's been long since you called me. " Rune said with a raised eyebrow.
" Yeah, sorry about that. I just wanna check up on the supplies. "
" Sion I haven't eaten anything you stored here. You still have 25 sandwiches and 20 water bottles. " he laughed.
Sion pouted; " I know I know.. I meant weapons "
Rune places one hand on his chin. He was thinking. He then turned around and clapped his hands. Massive pile of weapons appeared, it was at least 10 meters tall and filled with daggers, swords, shields, bows, maces etc.
" I believe.. I have quite some collection by now. " Rune said.
" Hmm.. all those barely have any energy.. don't you have anymore of those.. Gilanndi things? " he asked.
" Gilanndi? Why would you want those? "
" They are obviously stronger than regular weapon.. duh-.. " he explained.
" Gilanndi is the name of a old kingdom. I used to have a spear, sword and shield. If I'm not mistaken, you either destroyed or lost all of them. Only one that remains is the dagger. "
" Ah! That's good, that's good! " he smiled.
[ WOOSH ]
He was outside again. Truth was, he just wanted to check up on Rune and see him. Now that he was outside again, cold air affected him again.
" D-dammit... why is it s-so cold?! " he yelled.
Santiago pointed upwards; " Somewhere, above us.. there is an SS class monster.. that would equal to 2nd Class Hunter. It's aura causes everything to freeze, your energy is literally slowly being frozen. If you keep focusing on cold and not on surviving, you'll die. "
" W-wait what do you m-m-m-mean? " he was curious; " SS class equals 2nd Class? "
Santiago sighed. He sat up and crossed his arms. His black Hunter cloak was coated around him; " I forgot you were raised in a cage, no offense. But yes, that's right. SS Class monster is equal to an 2nd Class human, Erttem. Just follow the logic from there,
S Class monster is 3rd Class human,
A Rank monster equals 4th Class human,
B Rank monster equals 5th Class human...
There are indeed C, D and E rank monsters but they are just too weak to have official classification. Regular humans defeat them with no difficulty.. " Santiago explained.
~Did you know all of this Rune?
[ Runes voice: Well, pretty much. That man is a high Class Hunter, he probably knows more about us monsters than I do. ]
~Well, I guess you're right..
" T-then tell me S-Santiago.. what about Royals? A-a-are there monsters that m-match them? " he was cold
Santiago was looking in the fire; " Well of course.. Triple S Class monsters.. despite your first impression, they aren't that rare trust me.. about 10 appear each year. If you want to defeat an SSS Class monster, either bring a Royal or several of 2nd Class Hunters. "
" Woah.. so they are r-really strong.. you ever f-fought one? " he asked.
" Once, back when I was Master of Hunters in a Heavenly Empire. Truth be said, I was a 1st Class Hunter, so it took me under an hour to defeat it.. " he smiled, he was obviously relieving the memories.
" Doesn't t-that mean-? "
" Yeah, I received a SSS Class item.. item much more powerful than Rune of yours. " he pulled out a necklace that was around his neck; " It nullifies poison and cold.. well, it has one more effect but... I'm not telling you, hehe " he laughed.
Sion shrugged his shoulders; " That's f-fine, Rune and I w-w-will s-surpass that item of yours in no t-time. I bet it will t-take me less than a month to d-d-defeat an SSS Class m-monster " he crossed his arms, closed his eyes and nodded.
He didn't see Santiago smiling.
[Santiago] ~No, not a month. You can't surpass me in such a short amount of time.. but Lori might be right, in 2 years.. who knows which one of us will be more powerful...
[ 6 hours later ]
It was middle of the night. Sion was sleeping tightly, he was snoring and picking his nose. No one would guess that this guy is actuality freezing.
Santiago was sitting next to him, beside the fire. He was making sure nothing approached two of them while they were resting. Santiago could go nights without sleeping without any side effects.
He was sitting so still, someone could think he died. He was leaned on the giant rock that provided cover for them, his arms were crossed. He was just staring at the faint light of Greyre that appeared every now and then.
[ CRACK ]
Something was approaching them. Santiago slowly stood up and pulled his left dagger, darkness enveloped it as it did before. In a mere fraction of a second, hundreds of eyes opened in the darkness, they were surrounded by 'Jumpers'.
[ GROWL, ROAR ]
Their roars were loud, but all noise was engulfed by loud scream from Santiago's dagger. It echoed through the mountain for several seconds with each swing of his. Hence this dagger was called...
' The Black Scream'
SS Class Item, received from a Dark Overlord of High Orcs. Traps the souls of beings it kills inside the blade. Souls are said to scream in pain each time Santiago swings.
Jumpers were dying one by one. After the first 'scream' Sion woke up. He was laying on the on the ground covering his ears; " WHAAAAT THE FUUUUUUU-!!!! ", needless to say, he was terrified.
Santiago smiled as he continued cutting them down, he didn't move an inch, he was just swinging it around. No monster got close to Sion nor Santiago. Only thing that entered their 5 meter radius was their blood.
Sion stood up and despite the noise tried to move. He raised one open palm at Santiago, trying to give him a signal to stop. Santiago indeed stopped, his eyebrow was raised; " What? "
Sion tightened his gloves.
[ Ability Collection activated, Gilanndi dagger added ]
" I need to t-train as well! " he yelled and stepped in a battle stance. As soon as Santiago stopped slashing, dozens of Jumpers appeared around them.
Sion got coated in dark green aura, his eyes glowed in the same colour as well. He jumped forward and slashed at everything that moved. He looked over his shoulder and yelled to Santiago; " Do these t-things have feeling as h-h-humans? " he blocked one attack and slashed the monster.
" No.. they feel only hunger.. just as 99% monsters does. Those that can speak posses feelings. " he responded.
" Good. " he squeezed the dagger.
[ Ability Collection activated, Gilanndi dagger stored ]
He took off his gloves.
[ Ability Reapers touch activated ]
All of a sudden, Sion started radiating much denser and ominous energy. He ran faster, and faster, and faster. he sped up to the point greenish sparks were left behind him.
He jumped from one monster to other. Jumpers couldn't react to his speed, they were falling one by one. From Sion's brilliant speed and agility throughout the entire area, half of the mountain got lit up. His bright green cloak and sparks he left behind were making light on the mountain.
" Woah! " Santiago gasped surprised.
But Sion got faster, at this point, with every touch that he left on a Jumper, bones broke. Jumpers were dying and left laying completely broken.
" Oh shi-! " he slipped on one dead Jumper and crashed into incoming swarm of Jumpers.
" Sion! " Santiago prepared to go help him.
[ ZAP, EXPLODE ]
All Jumpers flied through the air. Sion jumped through them. He was moving very low and by barely touching each and every one of them, he ripped their souls out with Reapers touch.
[ Runes voice: So you're planning on amassing souls for Devils Contract huh? ]
~Yeah!
Jumpers stopped coming, he must've wiped out entire swarm. He looked around, countless bodies were lying on the floor. He switched his look at his hands.
" That was... quick... how? " he wondered.
" Hahaha! Are you actually wondering at your own power? Marvelous! " Santiago yelled to him; " You seem to have rapid growth ability, it takes much less for you to grow stronger than other people. But that speed though... "
" What about it?! "
Santiago smiled; " It was speed of a high 3rd Class Sion. Well done. " he clapped few times.
~How many have I collected?
[ Runes voice: Right now.. you have 397 souls. That's enough-.. ]
~For 3 heals, right?
[ Runes voice: Correct. Glad to see your power isn't the only thing that increased. You don't seem as dumb as you were on the first day. ]
~Thanks! I guess..
Sion put on his gloves again. He took a deep breath, and breathed out. He looked at Santiago and gave him thumbs up. Both of them went back to the campfire.
" You noticed anything different? " Santiago asked.
" What? What's different? "
Santiago pointed at Sion; " You aren't cold anymore. Like I said, your energy was freezing. Now that you've heated yourself up, you won't be bothered by cold throughout the night. "
" Woah, you're right. I'm not cold at all! " he jumped from happiness. He then looked confused; " Couldn't I just train with you? "
Santiago laughed and waved his hand at him; " You're still few years too young for that hahaha! Don't misunderstand anything, those were all A Class monsters. ". Sion grabbed his hair and pulled it; " Aww come on! ", he expected they were SSS Class or something.