Draven Was shocked he had never received a message like that before. He quickly held his hand out and placed all the books and the Lich's staff into his inventory before snatching James and running out of the crypt at full speed. Draven did trigger another trap that he had missed but he was far too fast to be affected by it. As soon as Draven was outside he ignited the runes in his legs and launched himself with his left leg at an insane speed away from the village as soon as he landed he ignited the rune on his right leg and kept this momentum. "What's going on? Draven talk to me," James said with a worried expression and was rather embarrassed that he as a grown man was being princess carried by his son. "I think whoever brought us here killed the lich before he could reveal any secrets and is now looking for us," Draven replied whispering. He wished he could take his father with him into the shadow that would be much stealthier and faster. James's eyes went wide after hearing this they were in no shape to deal with them right now and seeing there was a portal to take them somewhere else after hitting gold rank he couldn't imagine the power of these beings.
Without question Draven stopped on a dime and pressed his back against a boulder he then made himself and his father invisible using illusion magic. Draven was starting to run on fumes and keeping up the illusion wasn't helping in any way as he had to constantly shift the illusion as their body moved from breathing or when the wind caught their hair. Within seconds two creatures appeared out of nowhere. and began to look around. They were large bipedal beings with reversed knees much like an ostrich. Their armor or skin Draven could not identify which it was but they were pitch black. They had four arms each with long blades attached to their elbows. They had no face which is why Draven leaned in the direction that it was a suit they were wearing. A dim blue light radiated from their body and head.
"Ri'ha lok'num."
"The trail ends here." one said to the other.
"The humans are interesting much like in the first experiment many were deemed useless while a handful had the potential to wield great power. To think at this stage a Bronze Veteran Elite failure has been defeated while 98% percent of the population has yet to leave the Novice Village. This confirms our hypothesis." The second creature said.
"Yes I agree but this only confirms part of the hypothesis that only those of the catastrophe class races would be the most powerful it has yet to be proven if they can reach the potential of the originals or for that matter go beyond." The first replied.
"True, but the fact that Humans can adapt to all the species is a wonderous find. No other race in the universe has this level of adaptability. They show great promise to our cause." The second stated.
"Then we agree to let the two Dragons in hiding go? The Lich was destroyed before any important information was divulged. And after confirming they are of the Dragon race their achievements are entirely plausible and in line with expectations. I see no evidence of a Djinn appearance." The first said.
"The Instincts of Dragons are quite extraordinary to know to flee. But unlike the originals who stayed to face our challenge, The human part must have overcome their pride and fled. It is quite fascinating. Had the Dragons fled we may still be fighting the war with them but their pride brought their downfall." The second said as he looked in their direction.
"Shit shit shit... They know we are here my illusion magic didn't fool them. But I need to keep pretending like I'm hiding or they will know I can understand them." Draven thought to himself as he began to panic. Draven then attempted to scan them.
"Yes, I concur we allow them to escape it will be interesting to see them among the Gold Ranks. I was first skeptical due to the traces of shadow magic and now illusion magic but given they are Dragons it is plausible that those are their innate elements. Perhaps that one has the potential of becoming a Sorcery Dragon. They were quite fierce opponents. Had the entire race those capabilities in magic we may not have defeated them until eons later." The second continued."
"Then shall we screech before leaving? It will strengthen their belief that we are another humanoid creature as our language is unintelligible to them." The first suggested.
"I agree" The second said.
They then both screeched a high-pitched sound that drowned out all the wildlife noise. It was a terrifying screech that filled your body with a feeling of shock causing Draven to go stiff and unmoving like a deer caught in headlights. Then they disappeared. Releasing his illusion magic Draven fell to his knees panting he barely had a drop of mana left in him.
What were those? James said looking terrified. Did you see how fast they were? James looked to Draven for answers. Draven slowly placed his dad on the ground the ice shard had melted since being stabbed with it. He now had a deep gash that went all the way through his upper thigh. "I'm afraid to say what I think they are, they may still be watching," Draven whispered in a barely audible tone knowing James could hear him given how close they were and having heightened senses. Draven ripped his shirt off and started to wrap it around James's leg. He could see the wound healing as his father also had faster regeneration speed but it didn't change the fact that he was losing a lot of blood.
Getting the hint James looked at him what level are they?" He whispered back "I wasn't allowed to see and from now on no talk about the system I'm a dragon that is it even if you think we are alone. James nodded. He could tell Draven had a very clear understanding of what this was all about and would tell him when he could but now was not the time. "I'm going to meditate and gather my mana while pretending to rest afterward we are leaving and heading straight home. We killed the boss we can come back later to check the resources around here we have enough to study for a while." Draven declared. James agreed as he was more interested in hearing about what had just happened than what was written in any of the books they gathered.
While Draven was meditating, James was becoming restless he was worried they were being attacked by creatures far above their level. Draven had mentioned they were being chased by their captors but he didn't expect such an alien form. Plus that appearance made them look like some weird science experiment they didn't have a face or anything. His leg was in a lot of pain but he could feel that it was healing without a med pod he was sure that it would be as good as new in two days tops. Looking at Draven he remembered that he was now level 20 and would be ranking up tonight. He was not looking forward to having spikes in his face but he had to admit that being a dragon had amazing perks. After 40 minutes Draven opened his eyes and he felt rejuvenated. There was nothing better than the feeling of being filled with mana. Not wanting to waste another second Draven picked up his dad and started flying. James could have flown himself but he had lost a lot of blood and Draven didn't want him passing out mid-flight. As it consumed more stamina than running at full speed would.
Flying much faster than when they left they had made their way back to Ironforge in a fraction of the time it took them to travel to the novice village in the Flying Brick. Draven dropped him off to get healed at a med pod while he left to go take a shower at the house. After showering Draven looked at the terminal in his office and became worried.
"System can the terminals be used as a listening device?" He asked in his mind.
Draven did as the system asked.
Draven waited anxiously for an answer he was nervously shaking his leg to get rid of the tension building up.
"Can you delete any recording it may have?" Draven asked hopeful.
"Well, I know what I'm doing now." He thought to himself. Draven left a note for his dad explaining he had to urgently leave and would be back as soon as possible. He shouldn't worry as everything was ok but he needed to do something right now to make sure it stayed that way. He then left the house and the Town and rushed towards the mountain. He knew of quite a few places that were loaded with fire elementals. Around Blackrock Mountain were several spots that had Fire elementals they even reappeared after some time. Drave could only assume that after being created in the mountain they left and began to mingle at the entrances for whatever reason.
Draven hurried to begin his massacre of elementals he had no plans of returning before he upgraded the system. Before starting Draven decided to eat the XP orb from the lich and see what that new magic was all about. This was a good time to practice using it.
"Damn that was an orb from an elite a whole rank above me and I was at the starting line of Bronze rank." Draven could see how tough leveling up was going to be in the future. He figured that Orb would have given his dad 3 Levels. Which made Draven want to cry just thinking about it. But he wouldn't trade his other races for anything so he sucked it up and just accepted the added difficulty. Draven felt the basic information of his new magic entering his mind and started to play with it as he willed a stone on the ground to fly to his hand and it did. "This could be useful," he thought. Maybe he could also read people's minds and talk to people through their minds as well. That would make communicating so much easier. But for now, levitating things like a Jedi was about as much as he could do. But he was sure the force was strong with him and with enough practice, this would become a deadly asset for him. Draven approached one of the fire elementals and began to tug on its core with his mind. Sure enough with enough force the core of the elemental flew out of its body and it died on the spot. This is going to be too easy. And so his massacre had begun. Jennifer POV The not-yet-named gang had entered the novice Village earlier in the day and spent a while looking around and talking to people. They were not the first to enter from another village as many seemed to come from the neighboring village where the other party was dropped off. According to them the conditions in the other village used to be very bad but since its leader left it started to improve. This Village was very similar to their own with only slight differences in terms of appearances and the location of the buildings but the society was very different. Here the Orb Hunters were more plentiful it seemed that more creatures entered the training grounds allowing more participants to level up. Before Draven came along for them going to the Training grounds was very scary not only because of the monsters but also because of the Orbhunters. With how scarce the creatures were if they witnessed you taking one of their kills they would kill you on the spot in the hope you hadn't consumed the orb yet or just to ensure you didn't take any more in the future. It seemed here that issue didn't exist as those who had not trained in the Training grounds did so purely due to the fear of fighting the creatures. They were also very surprised to see orbs being sold in the market. Due to how difficult it was to obtain an orb in their village the threat of a Rogue stealing the orbs you brought into the village was very high. Celine had initially become a rogue for that very purpose but she never had the opportunity to do so as it quickly became a golden rule to eat XP Orbs on the spot and not to enter the village with them after a few people had been robbed. The first person to be robbed led to the first incident of someone attacking a person within the village which in turn led to the first person being teleported away. After the rogue was caught he attacked his accuser and tried to flee but ended up being surrounded by a bright light and then vanished. After they understood how this village operated they felt much more comfortable in completing their task. It was common that after hitting level 5 Orb hunters would leave to check out the other village and/or start grinding for orbs in the nearby forest after hitting level 10 they would leave and never be heard from again. This was probably due to them hitting level 11 and not being able to return to their village. With no safe place to sleep, they likely died or perhaps joined Craig's crew. They asked around who the leader of the Village was and no one was able to answer as no one had taken up that role. The other Village had Craig before he left and now someone by the name of Raff took charge. Our town had Draven and before that, any Orb hunter was in a position of authority to tell the regular people what to do. But this village simply existed and everyone did their own thing without any leader at all. It was weird. Maybe no one wanted the responsibility of being the leader and since everyone had access to getting stronger without getting in the way of others doing the same they kept each other in check. On the outside, this may seem to be the more peaceful solution but this was not conducive to survival. Without a leader you had no one to spur you on to do better, no projects would be completed or even started, and no resources were being pulled together to achieve a common goal. Nothing was being done as a whole. Now they weren't sure anymore about the best way to approach this situation. With no leader it meant to get people to follow them they had to convince everyone individually instead of convincing one person. The leader could then introduce them and tell them the plan himself but now they had to make a scene to get everyone's attention. "I say we just go to the market and start yelling about having important information that everyone needs to hear to survive. As far as we know Ironforge is the only Iron town in the area so they have to join us or never hit level 11 and eventually be left behind. We might have to repeat ourselves a few times throughout the day but being loud in a large crowded area should get people's attention." Greg said earnestly. May nodded in agreement. Loud and direct I think that is the simplest and most effective way as well." She replied. Jennifer sighed as she didn't have any better idea she wasn't one for speaking to large crowds but this needed to be done and she didn't want to disappoint Draven. "Ok, let's give it a shot remember first impressions are important don't exaggerate anything keep it simple and truthful, and speak with confidence and most importantly speak with authority. Speak with the mindset that we are the ones giving them a chance of a lifetime and they should be grateful that we are here to help them." Jennifer said to the group. They nodded and made their way toward the Market.