Alex walked along the trees, the afternoon sun was hot, but the forest breeze would blow occasionally, giving him a comfortable feeling. The trees shaded the sun, leaving space for just small twinkles of light, Alex sighed, the surface was where he belonged after all.
He let Globby out after waving to George, he chuckled as he briefly thought of him. He and George hit off the second they met, somehow George's outgoing nature and his reservedness balanced each other out and brought about an unusual friendship.
His life in the Overlord City in the past few weeks was nothing short of amazing, he didn't need to work for an unlawful noble, he didn't need to worry about food and housing, and best of all, he had freedom, something he had been deprived of for as long as he could remember. When they first got to the city most of the residents were not around so it looked somewhat deserted, if it wasn't for the fact that everything looked new and clean, they would have thought that the map had led them to a dead city. Luckily, after wandering around for half an hour they found someone who gave them information.
First, they were in disbelief when they heard that they could live anywhere in such a big city, then they were shocked about the impending disastrous future that the High Priestess saw, Alex more so because he had witnessed the very thing happening. He told the person, who told someone named Old Angus, later the Overlord knew. After a few days every single resident of the city knew. He was visited by the Overlord and High Priestess one day and they asked him to recount every detail about what he saw, the news shocked everyone, but instead of hiding or running in fright, they instead focused more energy in leveling up.
Alex himself was determined to get stronger, he felt guilty for leaving the mole people alone to deal with the walking dead. He was going to get stronger so he can go back and see if they needed help, and if he was too late and met their corpses instead then he was damn well going to avenge them.
After wandering for a while, he returned to meet Veronica and Riven where they were training in the forest, Elaine wasn't with them, Veronica wouldn't let her train in the Unsafe Zones. After Veronica chose a house, she invited him to live with them since he didn't have any family, he accepted her offer but declined when she suggested him not train and grind for exp points with everyone.
He could hear the sounds of Veronica's fans and Riven's groans and yells, he grabbed Globby and merged with Anticus. Four thin wings grew from his back and flapped so fast until they disappeared, after Anticus reached level five he was able to fly when merged with it. He rose up and sat down on a nearby branch, from there he could watch Veronica and Riven train.
Vivian stood straight with one arm behind her back and the other one raised up, both hands were holding War Fans. She turned sharply and threw the fans in the air, the fans curved in an arc then returned to her, she caught them steadily. Alex clapped for her, she noticed him and smiled at him.
The reason why what she did was so deserved praise was because the move was actually a skill, but she didn't activate the skill and still executed the move perfectly. A lot of people have been trying that lately, and when they perform a skill move without casting it the skill disappears, since they could perform the attack without it. It was akin to a parent teaching a child how to eat, after they've learned how to use the cutleries, they wouldn't need the parent to hold their hand anymore.
Riven continued performing basic sword moves as he spoke, ''Did the skill disappear?''
''Not yet,'' Vivian said, ''I need to be able to do it at the drop of a hat.''
''I see. Ha!'' Riven slashed down.
Alex rested back as he watched them, although the forest was filled with dangers there were sometimes like this when there would be peace. Sometimes just watching people interact made Alex content.
He was level 13 now, and he would grow stronger still.
…
Jamine dragged a magical beast towards Damon and Ronan, even though she had done this a lot of times Ronan still thanked her profusely. Because of the mission the Overlord gave them Ronan decided to join her and Damon in the Unsafe Zones, and since they needed to get to level 20 the most Jasmine mostly helped them catch beasts and bring it to them to kill. Because of that they were both level 18. Jasmine herself was level 15, since defeating an 'enemy' also gave them a certain amount of exp points.
''Here," she stopped in front of them, 'Who's killing this one?''
''I am,'' Ronan raised his hand, ''thank you.''
''It's all good.''
Ronan brought out his weapon and stabbed the beast, the venom on the body had the beast frothing in the mouth in seconds. He called Mamba to eat the beast after it died, since it was its venom that was used to kill it, it was safe for Mamba to eat it. Jasmine and Damon both turned their heads when Mamba began swallowing it. Although the beast was big Mamba was almost as big as a Third Rank beast, plus as a snake it could widen its mouth to swallow prey bigger than it. It soon finished its meal.
After it was done, they continued on their way.
They could [Sense] a couple of powerful beasts around them, but they weren't above Third Rank, so they went to seek them out. Jamine used to complain about that fact that [Inspection] was changed to [Sense], she protested that she missed knowing the levels of beasts and people, but she found out later that [Sense] had a more extensive use than [Inspection]. The latter only showed you basic information about someone – if it was a stranger and not a follower, it would only show their levels – but the former, although doesn't show any information, it gives a heightened instinctual awareness and detection of their surroundings to an extent, they could sense the hostility and strength of beings around them, and the people with high levels could even sense elemental energy.
Like now, they could sense a Third Rank beast staring at them from above.
They all looked up and saw a giant beetle hanging upside down, there was a huge structure above it, from it they could sense several lifeforms, although they weren't as strong as the beetle.
''A Fiendhorn Grey Beetle, weird to find it here. And it even built a nest…'' Ronan said.
''Good, a nest means more beasts for us.'' Jasmine equipped her whip as she spoke. She also wore her cat ears and tail.
''I understand the ears because it enhances your perception, but why do you wear the tail too?'' Damon asked.
''Because its sexy.'' She said plainly.
Damon was dumbfounded. So what if it was sexy, if the only things that could appreciate it were magical beasts?
Before he could say anything, they sensed another beast coming from their left, and even when they checked they didn't immediately see what it was. It was a Third Rank beast too, in the shape of a giant black cat, but because it melded with the shadows only Damon could sense it clearly.
''Alright, let's not dillydally. I'll take that… Uh, shadow beast, while you two take-on the beetle nest.''
''With pleasure!'' Jasmine cackled and snapped her whip upwards, she used [Elongate] and whacked the nest. The giant beetle buzzed in anger, and other beetles of smaller sizes – but still as big as a pig – rushed out of the nest. Thin wings shot out of their backs and flapped with great speed, soon the sounds of hundreds of beetles filled the area, it weirdly sounded like a calvary.
''Great, they can fly.'' Jasmine grumbled.
''I'll take the big one!'' Ronan merged with Mamba.
''Yeah, yeah.''
Ronan leaped up into the air and aimed a punch at the giant beetle, the beetle used its horn to block it. The result was the beetle being hit back with its horn denting, deforming its face. Although Ronan and Mamba didn't have a lot of shared skills Mamba was level 14, its muscles were brimming with strength and its scales were as hard as adamantine. When they merge Ronan gets access to that strength.
The beetle tried to run away, before Ronan landed he kept his feet on a tree, he aimed his body and jumped with his full force, the tree behind him snapped and half of its body fell to the ground. Ronan sailed towards the beetle with great speed and impaled it with his weapon. By the time they landed, the beetle was dead.
Jasmine used her signature [Whip Dance] to attack the beetles around her, although most of them were ordinary magical beasts there were some Second Rank beast here and there, giving her an ample supply of exp points. From the corner of her eye, she saw Ronan also killing the beetles.
''Hey, you said you'd leave the smaller ones for me!'' She glared at him.
''It's not my fault,'' Ronan spoke as he fought, ''they all rushed to me after I killed their leader. And aren't they too much for just one person?!''
Jasmine grumbled angrily and took her anger out of the beetles. She used [Meteor], she snapped her whip up high and dragged it down with great force, when it hit the ground, the energy packed in the tip created a shockwave that smashed the beetles around to pieces.
While Ronan and Jasmine were massacring the beetles Damon had stepped close to the shadow beast.
''It seems you don't seem to have an official name since that bookworm doesn't even know it, then how about I give you one,'' Damon rubbed his chin, ''How about Shadow Panther? A bit basic but it's nice, right?''
The panther snarled and disappeared into the shadows; it looked like it went into the Shadow Realm but Damon's connection to the Shadow Element told him otherwise. It had actually used the shadows as a veil to cover itself, it was still there only hidden.
''Playing with shadows in front of me? That's cute,'' as Damon spoke his magical energy bubbled around him, ''unfortunately though, I don't plan to waste time with you.''
He raised his hands in the panthers' direction and casted [Shadow Eater].
The shadow where the panther hid abruptly expanded, scaring it. It tried to leave the dark area but found itself, or rather its shadow, stuck. For a moment, the panther was stuck in-between the Shadow Realm and the real world, the next second, it was torn apart.
What the skill [Shadow Eater] does on the surface was very simple, but the process was complex. When used a Shadow Mage would use shadows to eat a living being's shadow, and since normally as long as something displays a shadow in the real world it would exist in the Shadow Realm, but if the shadow was also in the Shadow Realm it disrupts the equilibrium. So, what happened was the panther bounced back and forth, from the Shadow Realm to the real world, over and over until it was shredded. After that it finally casted a shadow because it had was different from before.
[You have leveled up]
Damon was already close to level 19, it was only a matter of time for him to reach it.
He wanted to let Jasmine and Damon deal with the beetle beasts but there were hundreds of them, it would take a lot of time for them to kill them all, and he was getting hungry. He created shadow spears from the shadows around them and rained them down on the beetles.
''Damon!'' Jasmine's yell could be heard right after.