The mammothian let out a pained grunt. It stopped following Veldic and switched its target to Ariota instead. Its instincts screamed that Ariotawas more threateningthanVeldic.
Veldic looked at Aroita gratefully. Ariota smiled back smugly at Veldic, but her expression changed to that of worry very soon.
"Oi, that group of level 2 beasts have changed their direction and are coming towards us." Ariota said to Veldic.
"They must have been attracted to the smell of the blood.... Can you kite it for a moment? I'll make sure to end it with this attack." Veldic said, pointing at the mammothian.
Veldic's sword radiated a bluish light while he took his stance.
With a flash, Veldic disappeared from his position and appeared just beside the mammothian.
"Everyone, continue towards the direction we were going." As he spoke these words, Veldic swung his sword in a semicircular arc.
The sword gave out a weak humming sound as it cut through the flesh and bones of the mammothian.
Veldic followed the group and rushed away immediately after the attack.
'Thud!'
The group heard the sound of something heavy falling on the ground. The raging mammothian wanted to chase after their group, but its leg twisted in an unnatural way and it fell down on the ground.
When the sensation of burning pain registered in its brain, it let out a pained bellow which sacred away all the nearby creatures.
After running for half a mile, the group was thoroughly tired, but they had smiles on their faces.
"Whoa! I am spent." Noah said as he slumped on the ground.
"Didn't you just take a rest some time ago?" Ariota, who didn't usually bother to take part in such conversations, said with disdain.
"And I remember that you did nothing except for that useless punch of yours in the fight. It was Veldic who..."
"Lorna, don't let yourself be fooled by that per...." Ariota was still in the middle of her words when Veldic turned to her, closed his eyes and smiled lightly. Once she looked at his expression, Ariota immediately shut up in the midst of her sentence.
Kyle, who had been looking from the sidelines, felt like something was going on between those two and he wasn't the only one in the group who had such thoughts.
"There is a level 2 beast towards the right." Ariota knew that she had messed it up, so she tried to divert everyone's attention away from herself.
Taking the signal, Veldic immediately walked off in the direction pointed out by Ariota.
....
"With this, we conclude the first assignment of your academic year. The examination scores will be tallied up by tomorrow. You can expect those scores and ranking lists when you next arrive at school on the coming Monday." The teacher in charge of the examination said while looking at the students without any change in his expression.
The students who had been tense for more than ten hours relaxed and some of them even sat down on the ground with a sigh.
"Do you think that we will take the top position in this assignment?" Noah asked with an excited expression.
"If we are being realistic, then I don't think that it will be easy to beat those larger groups of more than twenty people." Veldic said while pointing towards the groups made up of five or six smaller teams.
"If only they didn't have strength in numbers.." A girl from the group sulked.
"But we may have a chance. Some of their group members have been killed once. If the school deducts points for deaths, maybe we can have a chance." Ariota replied.
The group members perked up as soon as they heard this. As long as there was even the slightest chance, they would pin their hopes on winning.
Soon after the teacher declared the end of the assignment, the students were asked to board their school hoverbus.
"Hey Kyle, don't you think that it would have been better if this assignment took place at night as well?"
As soon as Kyle sat down, he heard Veldic's question.
Kyle felt like changing his seats. This guy had been acting like a group leader all day. That made Kyle nearly forget that he was secretly a pervert.
And exactly because Kyle knew this secret, Veldic didn't bother to hide before his best friend.
"It would have been good if we got to spend the night in the same shelter as the girls. If luck was on our side, maybe we could get a peek at the girls...."
Kyle felt that their conversation was going in the wrong direction. If someone overheard it, he didn't know about Veldic, but he surely won't be able to face those stink eyes.
'Change the topic...something for a normal conversation...yes'
"By the way, what's it between Ariota and you? I always felt that she despises you for some reason." Kyle asked.
"Oh her, she is the daughter of Guild leader Glenn. Also, she caught me reading one of my grandpa's Mangas once. It was an R-18 Manga..." Veldic, who had always been proud of that collection, stared at the floor when he recounted how he had to bribe Ariota into not telling anyone.
"She has been treating me like I am some unsightly trash in her way ever since. Sigh! She used to be so...." Coincidentally, Ariota turned around to stare at Veldic before he could complete his words.
Veldic was in a mood to continue, but stopped abruptly.
"By the way Kyle, you said that it may take you some time to ascend to the second floor. Can you estimate how much time it may be?" Veldic changed the topic.
"I am not certain, but it should take me about a month or so.." Kyle replied.
"Oh, remember the thing that we talked about that day? I'll register for the freelancing team as soon as you ascend." Veldic said with an excited expression.
"Sure, but you should know that registering me to your team can be dangerous. You do know what happened to my parent's guild, don't you?" Kyle said in a serious tone.
"Oh, don't worry about that. I know, but I will still ask you to join us." Veldic said in a resolute tone.
After a half an hour long journey, they were back at the school.
Butler Lynn was already waiting for Kyle at the school entrance. He drove Kyle back to his home.
The blinding light in the room dispersed and Kyle found himself standing in the inn room in Accelente City.
'Status' Kyle muttered.
[Name: Kyle Zehern ]
[Ascendant level: 1]
[Life tokens: 2]
[Status:]
[HP:10/10]
[Mana equivalent: 20/20]
[Exp: 80/100]
[Stats:]
[Strength: 26(13)] [Agility: 26(13)]
[Stamina: 26(13)] [Endurance: 26(13)]
[Energy affinity:26(13)][Intelligence: 26(13)]
[Skills: tap to expand]
[Abilities: tap to expand]
[Equipment: Doppelganger blade]
[(Sword/mortal/tier 1)]
Now that all his stats were equal to those of a mid level 2 ascender, Kyle decided to seriously explore the Dictator's sanctuary.
Last time, he was there only to confirm the claims made on the forum. He had encountered a 'Spike tailed hound', a beast from the second floor of the Ascension Temple in that place.
But this time, he wanted to clear the special zone and find a way to ascend to the second floor.
Kyle walked out of the city gates and arrived before the mountain range. The familiar notification appeared before him once again.
[Checking for special mission trigger]
[Trigger condition: Monarch's path met.]
[....]
[....]
[Detected entry in a special zone.][Special zone: The dictator's sanctuary]
Kyle walked forward while focusing all his attention to his surroundings. Just a few steps deeper into the forest, he heard the sound of horse hooves coming towards his direction. Two horses dashed past the spot where Kyle was standing a few moments ago.
"Why do you think that they activated the defences of the sanctuary?" The rider of the first horse asked.
"I don't know, maybe...."
Before Kyle could hear the reply of the second person, the two people had already moved away.
All he could pick up from their conversation was that they had activated the security of the Dictator's sanctuary. The troublesome part was that these two people were definitely transcendents.
Didn't that mean that other guards may also be transcendent.
[Generating a new mission…]
[...]
[...]
[Mission generated]
[New mission: A Monarch's Ascension.]
[Mission description: Infiltrate the Dictator's sanctuary and defeat the Dictator of the current floor.]
[Mission Rewards: 1.Potion of Ascendence
2.Unlock one ability.]
After viewing the notification, Kyle looked through his storage bracelet. He did have emergency rations which could last him for a few days.
Since he was already here, Kyle decided to move along with the mission. He dismissed the notification and started moving deeper into the mountain range.
After a few minutes, Kyle reached the location where he had encountered the Spike Tailed Hound. There were no signs of their battle around the region except the hole in the tree behind which Kyle had taken cover.
Kyle walked past this point and walked deeper into the forest.
[Blaze horn ram]
[HP: 35/35]
[MP: 40/40]
[Stats: ]
[Strength: 30] [Agility: 15]
[Stamina: 21] [Endurance: 25]
[Intelligence: 19] [Energy affinity: 25]
Kyle encountered a beast blocking his path. It looked similar to a ram on earth except the fact that it had a large flame burning between its two horns.
The beast perked up as soon as it felt Kyle's presence. The flames between its horns began to swirl.
The flames began compressing under the effect of the swirl. A major part of the flames was compressed under the effect of the swirl and formed a fireball.
The ram scratched the ground with its hooves and launched the fireball at Kyle.