In the Forsaken Lands, outside the Safe Zones.
The morning sun shone over the canopy of trees of a lush forest, while the Safe Zones had hills and mountains the Unsafe Zones – which was the unofficial title of the point where people disappeared, never to be seen again – had mostly smooth paths. Occasionally, there would be sloping paths that were either natural or made by magical beasts. After a few hundred people had disappeared there, King Roman the First didn't try to send stronger people explore it, he didn't see the need to waste his manpower on a cursed place, after all his time wasn't a time of peace.
Even still, every now and then some overconfident adventure group would saunter into the Unsafe Zones and disappear like the wind. Some people thought they were eaten by monsters, some people thought they were turned into monsters themselves. A selective few thought that the people that vanished lived but couldn't find their way out, so they created their own society.
But no one was brave enough to prove their claims, everyone slowly left the Unsafe Zones alone.
But some people had now entered said zones, the space of the Forsaken Lands have been restored to a normal, so they marched in headstrong with a mission, a mission to increase their strengths.
The trees in an area shook as a Bronze Monkey slammed its fists on the ground in anger, its body was littered with cuts and burn marks and one of its eyes was a bleeding mess. Its other eye glared vehemently at Pascal.
''Yeah, yeah, glare at me all you want, we both know that we wouldn't have bothered you if you hadn't ambushed us'' Pascal taunted it, ''well maybe we would have bothered you, but this is the Unsafe Zones, the strong survive while the weak perish, and I choose to be the former. As for you…'' Pacal smirked mockingly.
The beast seemed to have understood Pascal and roared in anger, Pascal watched cautiously as the three-meter-tall beast prepared to attack. It bent its legs and launched itself at him. The former Pascal would have wet his pants if a Third Rank beast had rushed toward him like that, the latter him however was tougher.
He raised his sword in front of him and used [Vanguard] before the beast reached him, and a huge golden castle appeared in front of him. The beast sent a punch to the castle, its fist created tiny cracks on the castle's body and a single crack appeared on the ground. But the castle held on, and Pascal's arm only felt slightly numb, the castle had absorbed most of the shock.
[Vanguard] was a defensive skill Pascal had unlocked, it creates a huge castle in front of Pascal that acts as a shield and absorbs most of the impacts of attacks, the only disadvantage was that it was unidirectional and can only protect his front, leaving his sides and back open. Like now, a group of none ranked Bronze Monkeys were racing towards him from behind, but before they could reach him a wall of fire appeared in the middle, sending them scrambling backwards.
''Oh, no you don't!'' Morgana increased her concentration, and the wall of fire became numerous fireballs and rained down on the beasts, she didn't waste time with them though, but concentrated on another side as there were many of them. The monkeys were very agile as they hopped from tree to tree, Morgana had to be careful when she attacked so she wouldn't start a forest fire.
The Third Rank monkey was still pounding on Pascal's shield when it jumped back suddenly, its timely retreat saved it from the blast of flames Zahir sent its way. Zahir chased it in the air with flames gushing out of its maw, the monkey screamed in anger but couldn't do anything as long as Zahir stayed aloft.
''Morgana, let's wrap this up now, yeah?'' Pascal said ''Use any finishing move you have, oh, and be careful not to start a forest fire….''
''I fucking know that!'' Morgana snapped back.
Pascal just chuckled and ran towards the Bronze Monkey, with their mental connection he asked Zahir to lead it towards him. When they got close Pascal leaped into the air and activated the skill [Majesty], a five-meter-tall golden armored giant appeared behind him, the giant's movements mirrored his own. He slashed down, and the giant cleaved the monkey in two.
He quickly deactivated the skill when he landed, it took a lot of mp. He checked up on Morgana and saw that she was almost done with her side.
Morgana used her self-created skill [Candle], numerous flames the size of a candle flame appeared around her, she used [Sense] to locate and lock on to the remaining monkeys before attacking. The candle flames moved with great speed and accurately hit all the monkeys, immediately the flames hit their fur, it exploded. Sweat dripped from Morgana's forehead as she concentrated immensely on the explosions and reduced their range, while simultaneously snuffing out any fires that were burning on the trees. A few seconds later the explosion ended, leaving the charred remains of the bronze monkeys behind.
''Woo,'' she breathed out heavily and wiped off the sweat from her brows, Pascal clapped behind her like he just saw his idol. She rolled her eyes at him before playing along, ''Thank you, thank you, I'm not that great.'' She acted bashful, then they both burst out laughing.
Zahir landed and ran up to her, she smiled and reached up to pat his head, ''Look at you, you're a big boy now aren't you? I see some bulges on your head, you're probably growing horns…''
Pascal watched as Morgana and Zahir played, after two months of grinding Zahir was now level 11, when he reached level 10, he 'upgraded' and grew to the size of – but somewhat bigger than – a horse. His scales became more durable, and because of his size he could now carry Pascal into the air with him for a while, his speed would decrease if Morgana joined.
''Did you level up?'' Pascal asked.
''Hmhm,'' Morgana nodded, ''level 16, you?''
''17.''
Morgana snorted, ''The only reason you're above me is because I let you take the Third Rank beast, next time, I'll be the one fighting the strongest beast.''
''Sure thing.''
When they left the Overlord's City two months ago, they didn't know what to expect, after all the Unsafe Zones had their own myth, but it turned out to be an expanse of trees and vegetation. Pascal was dead sure that it was the distorted space that absorbed people into the Unsafe Zones and distributed them randomly. He was also sure that the vanished people were all dead and didn't build a society in the in the woods. The people who entered the Unsafe Zones back then were mostly normal people who wouldn't survive the attack of a normal wild animal, much less a magical beast. And the adventurers weren't particularly strong either.
Pascal and Morgana spent most of their time in the woods and only returned to the city to restock on food, Pascal was trying to draw a detailed map of the Unsafe Zones, and although there were a lot of followers scattered across the forest it would probably take years for him to finish it, but he continued anyway, after all there wasn't anything for him to do in the city.
''Come on, let's keep moving before the blood of their blood attracts other beasts.'' Pacal said.
''We're going back tomorrow right? Last time we returned my uncle looked so worried…''
''Yeah, we're going to stay in the city for a while.''
''Okay. Cut some meat off the big beast to feed Zahir.''
''Sure.''
…
David floated above, the only thing he could see in his immediate line of sight were trees. Looking farther at the horizon the canopy of trees seemed to end, he may be wrong, but it looked like the woods didn't take up an extensive space, unlike the Gangu Forest. He floated down to his group to tell them his findings.
When his feet were planted firmly on the ground he noticed George glaring at him, David just rolled his eyes and ignored him. George had been bitter since David learned how to use his telekinetic ability to levitate his body, giving him pseudo-flight capabilities, any time David rose to the sky he would always find George's fixed gaze on him.
''I can see the end of the woods from the sky, it would take us two weeks at most to get there.'' David said. Sarah and Veronica nodded to show that they heard him, but they were more focused on Henry's and Mary's fight. Since there was nothing to do, they all decided to split into two teams, the girls against the boys, and do mock battles. They had all randomly selected their opponents, Henry and Mary were the first to start.
Mary shot two [Sure Strike] at Henry who was moving sideways, he immediately casted [Mirror], the space in front of him rippled and an identical arrow was reflected on the surface. Although the arrow was a reflection of Mary's arrow the strength wasn't the same, Mary's arrow smashed the reflection away and kept towards Henry, he used [Mirror] again but this time he implemented more magical energy into it, the two arrows hit and cancelled each other out. He quickly did the same for the other arrow.
He brought his hand down with a chop and sent a [Splice] her way, a sharp line of condense space shot towards her with great speed, Mary used [Quick Steps] to dodge it and move closer to Henry but found more cuts coming her way. She jumped high in the air and used [Air Step] to jump higher, then she bombarded him with a barrage of arrows. Damon didn't use a skill but unloaded his magical power to the air around him, distorting the space of his surroundings to an extent. The arrows all twisted when they got near him struck the ground harmlessly.
Because the Space Element was hard to comprehend, although Henry was in level 13, he didn't have many skills unlocked, but he had a plan that if done right, would determine the outcome of the fight.
He rushed forward while sending spatial cuts to Mary, Mary responded with mostly [Homing Arrows] which he took care of by distorting the space around him, but since the arrows were meant to chase him, they didn't drop to the ground but circled him, if he stopped channeling his magic, they would hit him. The [Homing Arrows] would stay as long as Mary supplies them with magic, and as long as they were in her line of sight.
But they didn't matter, because he had reached the right position. He waited for Mary to load an arrow before thrusting his arm forward, he would use his arm to direct a [Mirror] to make her focus on breaking it, then use his mind to execute his finishing move. But he noticed in shock that the arrow Mary was aiming at him glowed at the tip.
'Shit!' He thought as Mary shot the arrow. She had anticipated his move, or rather she had tricked him from the beginning, and her trick was actually the same as his. She shot [Homing Arrows] at him to make it seem like she was mostly focusing on it, waited until he got in the right position then attacked. The only difference between their plans was that she knew which move he would make and executed a perfect counterattack.
'Well played.' Henry thought as he saw her smirk. She shot the [Exploding Arrow] she loaded, and Henry used his skill to stop it. The skill he used was called [Inverted Universe], it isolates his target in another space. If he used it on a person that person would see their themselves being reflected on the numerous surfaces of the isolated space, like they had been trapped in a mirror dimension.
The arrow hit the surface of the space and imploded, the space shook and trembled but stood strong. After the explosion ended Henry stopped supplying magic to the skill, Mary had already shot two [Smoke Bomb Arrow] to his sides to obstruct his vision, then she used [Silent Steps] when she entered the smoke. By the time the smoke cleared, Mary was at his back.
Throughout all this, Henry didn't try to fight back, he had already lost when she obstructed his vision, he knew she could still aim at him through the smoke, and even before that she had been going easy on him, after all she was three levels above him. But he was also going easy on her, he could have still isolated her with the [Exploding Arrow]. Neither of them used heavy attacks or went for the kill, after all they were just sparing.
''You win.'' Henry said, Mary just smiled. They high fived each other and left the battle area.
The next to spar were George and Veronica.
They stood 15 feet apart and stared at each other for a few seconds, none of them wanting to attack first. Seeing as their staring contest wasn't going to stop anytime soon, Veronica took the initiative and made the first move. From her feet, a trail of spiky ice raced towards George, he responded with his own trail of hard rocks. When their attacks smashed together, the trail of rocks immediately overpowered the ice and smashed them to any pieces, Veronica jumped out of the way before the rocks hit her, but the rocks turned and chased her. She used [Ice Skates] to slide away in a speed faster than the rocks could follow and sent [Ice Pikes] at George.
Geroge created an earth wall to block her attacks before throwing the wall itself at Veronica, she created a small ice bridge and skated over the wall while it smashed the bridge to pieces. Veronica knew that her element was at a disadvantage against George's element, earth would smash ice before ice could freeze it, but she wasn't disheartened, instead she was thinking of a way to overpower his earth.
She used her strongest skill, [Ice Storm]. It was a domain-like skill, when it was activated the ice elemental energy in the air began multiplying at a fast rate, frigid wind blew, and ice began to form in a 10-meter radius around her. The wind grew harsher, leaving small cuts on George's body and making him shiver. She had changed the surrounding to benefit her, for the next five minutes she would be able to draw on an endless supply of ice elemental energy.
George thrusted his arm downwards, stopping right before his palm touched the ice that covered the ground. The earth beneath him shook and burst open, he grunted and raised his other arm up, rocks of different shapes and sizes – the smallest being bigger than an adult's head, the biggest half the size of a human's body – levitated around him. Veronica created huge ice walls between them, she was ready to take on his attacks.
Thus began their war of attrition.
Geroge would rain a barrage of rocks on Veronica's shield, but it would be replaced the second it was destroyed. Veronica knew that she couldn't keep dragging the fight since the duration of [Icy Storm] was coming to an end, she created huge spikes and launched them towards George. Geroge threw numerous rocks and boulders, breaking the ice spikes in the air before they reached him. His focus was on them, so he didn't notice the [Ice Trails] rushing towards him from the side on time.
The [Ice Trails] was strengthened by the [Icy Storm] so it was bigger and faster than before. George hurriedly made a wall, but the wall only stopped the ice for a few seconds before it was ripped apart. Those seconds, however, was enough for George to activate [Stoneskin], the earth elemental energy formed a brownish hue around his body just before the ice trails smashed into him.
He was blasted backwards and hit the ground heavily, but he wasn't hurt. He bounced back up and ran towards Veronica, whatever she threw at him he just hit to the side. He bulldozed through her ice walls; he was like an unstoppable force.
''Come on then!'' Instead of retreating Veronica decided to face him head-on. She punched forward and a thick column of ice launched from the icy floor, it hit Geroge with its full force and blasted him backwards, he sailed across the air for a few seconds before slamming into an extra thick ice wall.
Veronica raised her hands to the sky and casted [Icy Hail], the remaining energy from the [Icy Storm] strengthened and enlarged the hails that dropped from the sky. George channeled his magic to the fullest, and thrust his palms upwards, a wide and powerful [Seismic Shock] erupted from his hands and reduced the [Icy Hail] into smithereens.
He focused on Veronica and used [Earth Bind], the earth burst from beneath her feet and tried to swallow her up, but she quickly froze it. George followed that with [Earthen Grasp], two giant hands formed from the earth tried to clasp Veronica in their palms. Veronica rose herself 10 feet into the air with an ice column and the hands grasped that instead. The ice column only lasted a second in the hands tight grasp before breaking, Veronica created an ice slide and slid down.
George and Veronica stared at each other, there were at an impasse. Although Geroge's element was stronger and abundant Veronica's was faster, more inconstant and filled with variables. No matter what they did they couldn't one-up each other.
''Draw?'' George suggested.
Veronica nodded, ''Draw.''
Next was Sarah and David.
David scratched the back of his head and laughed bitterly, ''This would be such an unfair match.''
Sarah snorted, ''Don't try to trick me into letting my guard down.''
''Oh, I wouldn't dream of it!'' He thrusted his arms forward, and tried to grab her with his telekinesis, but Sarah quickly equipped her [Valkyrie Dress], the immense energy in the armor dispelled his control. ''Of course, it's telekinetic proof.'' David muttered.
Sarah made a [Sword of Light] and grabbed it, ''Don't worry, its blunt.''
''Wow, that's a blow to my self-esteem.'' David created an illusion of himself next to him, they both ran towards Sarah. Sarah brandished her sword and attacked. David concentration was split, he covered his fists and feet with a telekinetic pulse, he would occasionally interchange his position with his illusion to trick Sarah, he also kept telekinetic pulses on his illusion when it attacked to confuse her more.
Their close-up fight was a short one though, Sarah created different swords and rained them down on David and his illusion, David flew backwards to dodge them, but his illusion was destroyed. Immediately he landed he used his [Construct] skill and let his imagination run wild. The skill allowed him to create constructs of anything he can think off if he had enough magical energy, George once joked that the skill was a knockoff of what Sarah could do.
He constructed normal kitchen appliances but enlarged them to insane proportions. They were all murky grey in color and floated menacingly over David's head. Well, as menacing as spoons and ladles could look. He waved his hand and they all shot towards Sarah.
Sarah spread her golden wings and charged forward, she strengthened herself with [Herculean Strength] and diced the constructs closest to her. David didn't give her much time to rest, he created countless constructs, both big and small, and attacked her from different angles. While she was busy, he flew up and moved towards her, hidden behind a construct.
While Sarah destroying the constructs, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her head, making her stop in the air, then a construct whacked her into the ground, the remaining constructs rained down on her, creating a large heap of dust.
David had used [Mind Shock] when he was within range, or else he wouldn't have been able to hit her, but he knew she was fine. The dust cleared to revel a large golden dome; it opened up to revel an unruffled Sarah. Immediately she appeared she shot a [Robust Blast] at him, he made a series of [Forcefield] that were torn apart in a second. He dodged to the side and her attack hit the ground instead, but he was still blasted away by the shockwave.
''Hey! Are you trying to kill me!'' David yelled.
Sarah snapped her fingers in return, and five [Magic Circle] appeared.
''Oh, shit!'' David quickly jumped away, and dodged the beams of light that shot out of the magic circles, he looked back at the smoky holes behind him and hissed. The magic circles shot at him again, this time he flew up to avoid their beams. They chased after him and fired at him every two seconds. David was sweating a bit now, his forcefields only lasted seconds under the barrage of the high energy beams and he didn't know how to destroy them. he decided to use his new skill, he wanted to save it for later though.
Before the beams hit him, he casted [Teleportation].
His body glowed a soft blue hue momentarily before he disappeared and appeared behind Sarah. Before she could do anything, he used his self-created skill [Projectile Wave], and summoned thousands of semi-translucent pikes that slammed unto Sarah like a big wave.
There were countless tings that sounded, like the pikes were hitting metal. David could see a bright light blooming from within and teleported away before an energy blast smashed the wave apart. There was a whistle-like sound as Sarah rushed towards him like a comet, the forcefield he made was torn apart by her sword before it rested harmlessly on his shoulder.
''I win.'' Sarah smiled cheekily.
David rolled his eyes while smiling, ''Like there was ever a doubt that you wouldn't.''
They both chuckled as the returned to the group.
''Wow, we have totally destroyed this clearing.'' Veronica gazed at the melting ice, the upturned earth and small pits in the clearing that had destroyed its placid ambience.
''Nah, we gave it pizzazz.'' George said. They all laughed.
Suddenly, they heard a growl coming from behind them, a three-meter-tall beast jumped out. It was a feline type of beast, with white, striped fur on its body and purple fur on its legs. It had been attracted by the magical energy that spilled from their attacks.
Immediately they saw it, they switched into combat mode. First Veronica froze its limbs, when the beast noticed its movement had been inhibited it retaliated by blasting an energy ball – into an isolated space, Henry smirked at the beast's confusion. An arrow exploded on its head, followed by a packed vibrational force that sent its head down, where an ice spike was ready to impale it.
It didn't take a minute for them to completely slaughter a Third Rank beast.
Although David and Sarah didn't do anything, they didn't have to. Henry was level 13, Veronica and George level 15, Mary and David level 16 and Sarah level 18. At this point, each of them could slap a Third Rank beast around.
''Man, look at all this meat! Too bad it can't fit into our storage spaces.'' George lamented.
''Maybe it will when we reach level 20. For now, let's cut it into size'' Henry began slicing the beast.
''Ah, level 20, I can't wait to reach it. I feel like our magic would get an upgrade when we finally reach it.'' Veronica said wistfully, and everyone agreed.
''Isn't that Alex?,'' George waved Alex who was walking in another direction far away, ''Hey, Alex!''
Alex turned around when he heard his name and waved back, then continued on his way.
George dropped his arm ''I like that kid, too bad he likes spending most of his time by himself.'' He said.
''Kid?'' David snorted, ''You're not that much older that he is.''
''Whatever!''
Sarah chuckled, ''Lets grab the meat and go back to camp, Annie would definitely be excited to eat meat now that her mother had released her from vegetable diet punishment. Remember how she looked when she ate those plants?"
They all laughed merrily at Annie's expense.