What is my goal?

Finishing their conversation, they left their room and were surprised to see Jake. He woke up not long ago and was about to have breakfast. Rubbing his eyes, he yawned loudly, not noticing the girls leaving their room.

But before he could bump into them, they both stepped to the side. Audrey looked at Jake with a flabbergasted face, “Hey! Look what is in front of you…” she said.

He turned around with a stupid look on his face. After the events yesterday, he found it a little hard to sleep. He had stayed up for a long time, thinking about what he should do.

On one hand, if he was to follow Elena, he could gain strength far beyond the others. But on the other hand, he was still a soldier in the heart and didn’t wish to abandon his people. The people who needed him.

Over the night, he decided to stick with the humans and prove his people’s worth to Elena. He had realized that she didn’t take them seriously, but thought of them more like a bunch of cattle. Considering how she and Audrey left them behind, he felt his pride provoked. He wanted to show that they too could do amazing things.

Rubbing his eyes once again, he finally awakened from his half-sleeping state. Raising his hands, he waved them, saying, “Ah! Sorry, sorry. I was too tired and didn’t notice you.”

“Well, it’s not a problem. I just pointed it out,” Audrey replied with a shrug of her shoulders, before turning around to leave. Seeing that they were about to jump out through the window, he quickly shouted. “Wait!”

Turning on their heels, they looked at him, waiting for him to continue. “Where do you intend to go?” Raising a brow, he asked curiously, thinking. I should go with them and see how they train so quickly… we, humans, have Quick Evolution yet we still can’t keep up with Elena. And since Audrey left, her strength has grown by a lot. What are her methods? I must learn her ways…

As a retired soldier, I know that we must work hard and train our bodies. But the other people are too lazy to do such things.

Tilting her head to the side, Elena replied, raising a finger every time. “We will go into the forest and train a little, fight a little, hunt a little… really, nothing much.” Laughing, she turned silent.

Biting on his lips, he asked, “Do you… Do you mind if I go with you?”

“You can come with us, but only if you can keep up with our speed,” Elena chuckled as she left through the window. Following after her, Audrey and Jake jumped out as well.

Dred raised out of the ground between Elena’s legs. Sitting on his back, Audrey turned into their shadow, which surprised Jake a lot. “Is- is that something that we can learn?” He asked with a flabbergasted face. Looking up, he realized that Dred was already moving forward.

“I’ll come back later!” He shouted back, as he quickly sped up and caught up with Dred. Jake knew that he shouldn’t waste his breath with talking, so he didn’t say anything. Elena looked at him from the corners of her eyes, nodding. Jumping over the three meters tall walls, Dred turned towards the forest upon landing.

Jake had to balance himself as he had only two legs, while Dred easily moved ahead. Seeing that he was being left behind, he gritted his teeth as he moved every muscle in his body to follow them. Seeing that at least the space between them wasn’t increasing, he felt slightly happy. He still didn’t know that Dred was only jogging… As soon as his paws touched the soil of the forest, he sped up.

Jake enchanted his body to keep up, but it was taking a huge toll on him. After running a few kilometers without the sight of Dred, Jake was happy to finally see them stop. Elena took out a black bow and aimed to her left. Jake saw a huge snake jumping towards Elena’s face, but before it could reach her, she released a wind arrow as thick as her arm. The snake was cut into two halves.

As it fell to the ground, Audrey left their shadows and grabbed the two halves of the snake. She cleaned its body with a mix of Water and Wind Magic. Catching up with them, Jake leaned forward, holding his knees, panting heavily. The burden of using Body Enchantment had arrived as well. Feeling the stinging pain, he sat down.

Using Nature Magic, Elena grew a few branches out of the ground and set them on fire. They cut the snake into many pieces, and pulled them on sticks. The snake was about three meters long, and so it had a lot of meat on its body. Handing over a stick to Jake, Elena sat on her place, grilling her part. When they were done, she pulled out a small bottle of salt from her ring, to give some taste to their food.

“I’ll gather lots of spices in the future…” She mumbled to herself, gulping down a mouthful of her food.

“Why did you not ask me? We have lots of spices…” Jake questioned, still panting slightly. Seeing that his body was already drenched in sweat, Elena knew that he won’t be able to follow them.

Shrugging her shoulders, she replied, “Well… I forgot it and I didn’t want to ask anything from you. I don’t like owing people.”

“Eh? But you can’t do everything alone…” being a retired soldier, he believed in teamwork. That was also one of the reasons why he still stayed with the humans. He believed that sooner or later, Elena would run into a wall with this kind of thinking.

“I know. That’s why I have you. Hahaha~ I don’t try impossible things. Only as much as I can do alone. Well… or with Dred and Audrey in this case,” laughing at his statement, she replied. Finishing her meal, she stood up to stretch her body.

---

“MMM~ Time to work!” Feeling great strength and vigor in her body, she exclaimed in an excited voice. Jake was surprised to hear her answer and he was even more surprised to see her smiling, as brightly as when she was just a kid. Elena as in ‘bright sun’? I can understand your name, haha. He laughed in his mind, standing up, ready to follow Elena’s training.

Now I’ll finally see what your methods are… he thought happily. Doing the same as yesterday, Elena cut out two trees this time as their strength increased by a lot. But she soon realized that it wouldn’t work as she would need too many logs to feel a burden on her body… Not to mention, that it wouldn’t fit on her and the vines too would tear. Either way, she had to look for a new method.

Instead of thinking about such things, Audrey was training her mind by now. She decided to learn how to control gravity as they needed exactly that. With the help of it, they could train their bodies more easily.

Realizing her intentions, Elena felt happy that she had such a useful friend. “Why don’t you use rocks?” Jake asked, his head tilted to the side. Slapping her forehead, Elena realized that she never thought of the simplest thing.

Feeling proud that he said something Elena didn’t think of, he grinned like an idiot. Noticing it, she just shook her head sideways. Using Earth Magic, she cut out four large rocks from the side of a mountain near them. Dred came back exactly at that time, carrying a monster, which had thick fur covering its body. Tearing off its skin, Elena put it on her back and then tied the rock around herself.

Feeling a great weight on her body, she has got to work. Jake was quite surprised by this as this wasn’t that much different from what he was doing before. But then why was it that all of these three gained strength so easily?

OH! I’m such an idiot! She surely got her hands on that Rune of Biotic Enhance! Is this what she meant? If it has such great effects… I don’t dare to imagine what will happen to us in the future. Damn! I should have realized sooner. I must quickly get my hands on those! Realizing the answer, he stopped running and grabbed the sides of his head, raging in his mind.

Elena’s body evolved much easier. This was a ‘side-effect’ of Devour as it made her evolve often… Stopping in front of her, he asked with a pleading face. “Elena… please. Where can I find that Rune of-”

Interrupting him, she replied, “It will appear only above the fiftieth level. Unless you can kill a monster which is high above you in level, the world system won’t reward you with such a thing early on.” Sidestepping, she continued running. Two hours later, they finished training. Stats.

Name: Elena

Race: Progenitor Shadow (Legendary)

Strength: 1357

Vitality: 862

Agility: 1151

Will: 65

Intelligence: 1332

Wisdom: 1120

Oh, that’s nice, Elena thought happily. Packing up the things, she sat on Dred’s back. Jake felt slightly terrified upon seeing it. He was tired after his training, yet if he wanted to follow, he had to use everything he had. Again.

Stopping beside Elena, who leaned to the side, Audrey whispered into her ear. “I can control gravity to a small degree, but I’ll have to train more. Do you want to do it now or once we leave him behind?” Sitting up straight, Elena shrugged her shoulders, saying that the latter was fine. Although Jake tried to listen in on their conversation, the Wind Magic Audrey used prevented her voice from leaking.

Feeling a sudden curiosity, Jake tried to delay their running and find out more about Elena at the same time. “Elena. Could you tell me something?”

Turning around, tilting her head to the side, she asked what did he want to know.

“Even before knowing about this apocalyptic event, your strength grew quickly. I’m sure that you have been working hard ever since you were born. So my question is… what makes you work hard? What motivates you to keep going on and do all these exercises so persistently? As a human, I can’t comprehend it.”

“I get that you grew up easily… But you are still young in the head. Just why?” Not finding the answers to such things, he threw his questions towards Elena.

Laughing loudly, she said while looking into his eyes, “To your last question. My mind works differently and my instincts are different than yours. And the most important, I learn very quickly, not to mention my inborn memories. They helped me a lot in maturing. To be honest, this was also one of the reasons why I visited the humans when I was very young.”

“In a community, my maturing speed increases by a lot. That’s all there is to it. To you first question. I just want to reach the top and live a fulfilling life in the meantime.”

Looking at her skeptically, Jake knew that her goal had nothing to with such things. “Seriously… what is your goal?”

“Hahaha~ sharp, are you?” Jumping off of Dred, she stopped in front of Jake, only a few centimeters away from him. Her dagger appeared in front of her hands, which were behind her back.

Her face suddenly deadly serious, she said, “Now I’ll tell you something. My race is born with a single goal and we have just a single motive. That is something that was clear in me from the moment I was born. So long as I reach the end of my tale, my goal will be finished. And if you want to know what it is, I can tell it to you. But it will cost your life.”

Feeling a raging bloodlust assaulting his body, Jake stepped back in fear. Realizing that he showed his fear, he felt ashamed as a soldier. What am I doing? Am I someone who would feel afraid of stupid bloodlust and such bullshit? He thought, switching to shouting to encourage himself. “Damn it! I want to know! You can’t threaten me!”

“Oh? Can't I? Do you want to turn into my blood servant? I’ll tell you gladly in that case,” smirking, she replied adding, “But if you do so, you won’t be able to disobey my commands, to turn against me, or to even fight against me. In return, you will gain strength greater than ever before-”

Interrupting her, Jake shouted, “No! I won’t serve you! I’ll help the other humans because I’m a human! We are terrible in some cases, but we are still amazing! When it comes to true despair, there is no one who is better in holding together than us! And I want to know if your goal is something… something that threatens us! I want to know what do you want!”

Elena was left dumbfounded upon seeing his outburst. “I never said that humans weren’t amazing. Along with every other race. All of them have their worth. Do you think that I was killing just mindlessly? Every time I kill someone, I take away what they were and wanted to be. The killing isn’t a joke and I’m clear on that. I just don’t bother myself with it.”

“And you shouldn’t think that everything is about you, humans. My goal has to do something with everyone! But it is something really far away, so you don’t have to bother yourself with it,” she said, feeling slightly affected by Jake’s continuous outbursts.

“But I MUST know it! My Cornered racial skill keeps flaring up every time I meet you! Why? Why do I feel cornered in front of you!?” He shouted with an even greater vigor, not finding the answers to his own feelings.

“Don’t you understand that I can’t tell you!? Even my race is something that I’d be hunted for!” Pushing him on the ground, Elena shouted, feeling sad and annoyed at the same time.

“W-What is your mission that you can’t tell to anyone?” Having a sudden realization, Jake asked with his eyes opened widely. He finally realized that Elena’s race was born with a reason. Is she like some kind of super soldier, with nothing but a single mission in her life? He thought with mixed feelings.

Seeing the daggers in Elena’s hands, he didn’t feel threatened this time. Relaxing his body, he laid down on the ground. “You won’t tell it, will you?” He muttered silently.

“No,” she replied, facing the ground.

“What if I turned into your enemy in the future?” Jake asked curiously, seeing Dred standing beside him, his right paw on his chest.

“Then you shall die,” she mumbled.

“Am I not going to die now?” Laughing, he asked as he looked into Dred’s eyes. Dred didn’t like that Jake hurt Elena’s feelings. Their burden was heavy enough even without him.

As an Arch Shadow, Audrey naturally learned of Elena’s goal as it turned into hers as well. She understood why they couldn’t tell it to anyone unless they wanted to be killed.

“I don’t know. This is something I’ll have to carry with me till the end of my life. We all have something to fight for. Why is that not enough for you?” Looking up, Elena questioned.

“Because I feel insecure and unsafe. You fill my heart with dread, which I don’t want to feel. You make me remember the times when I fought in wars before. Unlike in this new kind of world, everything was unsure. I had to fear a bullet penetrating my brain, every time we fought. I don’t want to feel that anymore.”

“I’ve gotten used to this relatively safe combat. But this world is nothing like games or movies! It keeps getting worse and worse! And your kind only makes this feeling grow in me,” having mixed feelings, Jake shouted.

Sighing loudly, Elena squatted down. “Haah- So you are just afraid… but you are no different than the others. You fear me, don’t you? But now I’ll tell you something. If you don’t want to fight against me, ever in your life, then you could live a long life for all I care. Unfortunately, that is clearly not the case, so you have two choices.”

“Serve me with your blood, or die.”

Feeling sad upon seeing the scene, Audrey wiped away her own tears, saying… “You know. She isn’t as much of a monster as you think. You just don’t understand her ways.”

Raising his head, looking at Audrey, he replied, “You are her blood servant, aren’t you?” Seeing Audrey nod, he put down his head.

Sighing loudly, Elena remarked, “You know… I respect your bravery. Even though you are afraid, you still keep moving and even now… you dare to ask such things. Although I don’t know where your bravery comes from, I’d gladly teach you my ways. But only if you wish.”

Raising up his hands, burying his face in them, Jake stayed silent for a few seconds before mumbling, “Just do whatever you want to. If you wish me to, I’ll follow you. I’ve had enough of this.” Tearing up, he raised his hands. Squatting down beside him, Elena cut her palm and placed it over his mouth. Not resisting her wish, he drank her blood. Blanking out, he felt everything turn dark.

“Eh… great. Let’s see what will become of you. Will you be my left hand, serving me from behind the scenes? Or a broken man who doesn’t know what to do with his life…” Talking to herself, Elena mumbled silently. Looking up, she asked, “Shall we wait for him here? I don’t want to walk into another time trap…” replying at the same time.

“I’m glad that you didn’t kill him. It would have been wasteful. He just needs some guiding and he will find his own path,” Audrey commented on the events, turning around to hunt an edible monster.

Nodding, Elena stayed silent. Sitting down beside Jake’s body, she thought with a smirk on her face. Hahaha! I’ve just got an idea thanks to you! I had only one goal before. Now I have another… I shall build the biggest Kingdom of Shadows! Closing her eyes, she focused on meditating and learning the ways of Cosmological Constant.

A few hours later, both her and Dred started writhing in pain on the ground. Feeling their Mana change, they felt rather happy. Perceiving an infinite amount of energy all around her, she spread her arms widely.

Shadows are everywhere, aren’t they? My kingdom shall be the same. We will be everywhere yet nowhere. Haha~ Feeling happy that she found something new to work on, other than her inborn goal, she felt much freer and unrestricted. Is this what my ancestors missed? Something to live for other than their own fates? You are already worth keeping alive since you gave something good to me, looking at Jake, she thought with a smile on her face.

Seeing the changes in his body, she just shrugged it off. Remembering a book she read in Audrey’s room, she cited a few words from it. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff shall comfort me.

Hahaha, that is so ironic, even though I’m the ‘evil’. Audrey and Jake? They shall be my rod and staff. Laughing in her mind, she closed out her surroundings to focus on understanding her own self. She believed in this. The key, the answers to our own pain… everything was within us. What she needed the most was self-understanding. Many people were lacking in this simple thing. It was understanding one’s own self.

Feeling the warm sunlight on her face, she opened her eyes. Looking at her Will, she saw the number seventy. “Haha. I can finally understand it! This Will is nothing more than an indicator of our self-confidence! If we are self-confident, we are harder to manipulate and making decisions will be just as easy. I bet that the maximum Will is a hundred and this is more like a percentage,” realizing the truth behind Will, she laughed loudly.

It was indeed as she thought. As she grew and experienced more, her self-confidence increased along the line. Standing up, her bones cracked after sitting in that position for a whole night. With her mind refreshed, she left with Dred to hunt something edible.

Coincidentally, Jake woke up a few minutes after they left. Looking down at himself, he didn’t see anything in particular. Tapping his chest, he felt normal. Pulling off his shirt, he saw ancient looking tattoos covering his chest. Understanding why Elena didn’t tell her goal, he laughed loudly.

Audrey, who was away to take care of her needs, came back at the same time. “I can see that you like your tattoos, but what are you laughing at?” Raising a brow, she questioned him.

“Huh? Oh, you are here? I’m sorry…” Picking up his shirt, he quickly wore it. “I don’t know why. I’m just happier now that I know it. But it is better like this. I don’t think that I could have accepted this without turning into her blood servant. But girl, this is amazing!”

“I can feel a huge difference in my old body and this. And this strength!” Clenching his fists, he felt happier than he imagined himself to be.

“What now? I thought that you would be depressed or something…” Audrey commented, not knowing where to put Jake’s sudden change of behavior.

Just as she finished her sentence, Dred jumped over a bush, carrying a deer in his mouth. Jumping off of him, Elena looked at Jake closely. “You seem to be much… better?” Noticing his smiling face, she asked, her head tilted to the side.

Taking away the corpse of the deer, Audrey started cooking. Squatting down in front of Jake, Elena used Wind Magic to cut the clothes on him into pieces. “The shadow with two faces,” she said aloud, reading the intrications on his body. Her words caught Audrey’s ears.

“What? They have a meaning!? What is mine?” Forgetting herself, pulling up her shirt, she questioned. As Jake’s and Audrey’s eyes met, Jake looked at Audrey’s upper body, while Audrey looked down. Their faces turned red as they quickly turned around.

“Oo~ How cute. Even I’m going to blush if this goes on,” ridiculing them, Elena laughed. Looking at Jake, she said, “Use your shadow.” Obeying, simple black trousers and a black T-shirt covered his body. Naturally, he had underwear as well…

Standing up, she looked at Audrey. “You don’t have to show it to me. Yours was the shadow who loves and serves. Your type usually stays close to the Shadow Progenitor as you can’t bear to be far away from me for too long. Jake’s type is perfect as a group leader or as a king… showing one face to his subjects and his true face to me.”

“Why did you not tell this to me before?” Audrey asked, raising a brow.

Shrugging, Elena replied with a smirk on her face, “Why would I?” Sticking out her tongue, Audrey shot a rock towards Elena, with a diameter of one meter. As she stepped sideways, Jake was surprised to see it flying towards his face. Holding up his arms, the rock broke upon contact.

Looking at his arms, except for a few shallow wounds, nothing was visible on it. Clenching his fists, he stood up. “Ugh… this is great! Now… I think that now I understand! I was afraid of the unknown! I feared you because I didn’t know you! Now that I do, my fear is gone! But now I feel as if my reasons were retarded…”

“Nope~ Humans were always afraid of the unknown. I had the same problem at first,” Audrey remarked honestly.

“So? What will be my mission?” Cracking his fingers, Jake asked.

“Firstly, I’ll tell you both an additional thing. Both of you can create blood servants, who will be loyal to you. But! My commands will be always higher than yours and they will be the most loyal to me. Still, if you wish to, you can create blood servants, but be very careful. No one must learn about your race. Train your Shadow Forms as quickly as possible. If it reaches the max level, meaning a hundred, no one will be able to read our races.”

“Secondly… while you were sleeping and evolving, I’ve got another goal. I’ll build my own kingdom of shadows and you shall help me in doing so. Since you didn’t resist, you will have to serve me. It was your decision, be it good or bad. You can’t escape anymore. For now, just go back to the humans and play human until reaching the threshold.”

Hearing Elena’s commands, both Audrey and Jake nodded. “I don’t wish to die. I think that… I have a new reason to live. This whole change felt so meaningless to me before. What were we supposed to do? I thought… I never understood. Were we supposed to chase strength? It seemed so much different in the movies we watched. People just took it easy, chased strength and gathered many friends and women.”

“But it was nothing but a false hope of humanity. Instead of such things, we turned greedy over every fucking thing and we didn’t know what to do. No one had a clear image of our future or a goal at that… we just walked around aimlessly in this crazy world. Maybe that was my biggest problem. Now, I finally have something to work towards, even if it isn’t a nice thing…” Laughing, he finished explaining himself.

“Interesting. It’s much easier to find blood servants if people don’t have a goal… which is quite common in an apocalyptic world! Alright, it will be best if I look for such kind of people in the future as well,” realizing why was it so simple, Elena planned ahead.

Telling Jake to go back for now, he left them alone and joined the humans as if nothing happened. Except for the inscriptions on his chest, he didn’t have anything visible from the outside. But even if people were to see his tattoos, they would never think that it had any meaning behind them.

-----

“We should get going as well,” Elena said aloud, ready to leave. Nodding, Audrey jumped towards her, staying in the air much longer than she was supposed to. Noticing it, Elena praised her for it, but as soon as Audrey landed, she bit into her neck. After drinking her blood, she healed the wound on Audrey’s neck.

Mounting Dred, they ran towards the unknown. But unlike the humans, she felt excited upon thinking that far. Rushing through the thick of the forest, Elena used Nature Magic to clear a path in front of them.

Thanks to the seemingly infinite energy around them, she could control the elements easily and unrestrictedly. Since the time was perfect anyway, she decided to train her Magic and then share her knowledge with Dred. It would be a win-win for both of them. She controlled the trees, the wind, the earth. The ground turned smooth in front of them, the wind blew from behind and the trees, bushes leaned to the side.

“Haha, it is much easier to move like this,” She chuckled, talking to herself silently.

Hoo? Someone is out here!? Interesting… As her senses caught a presence, other than the monsters’ nearby, she felt surprised.

Stopping, Dred switched styles and moved silently. Using only very soft movements, they cleared away the dried leaves from the ground. Dred’s movements had no sound. Looking over the bushes, Elena saw a brown haired, fit looking guy, fighting with a tiger. Inspect.

Name: Wick Maynard

Race: Human

Level: 45

Threat Level: 6

Unreadable

Oh? That’s quite surprising. I guess he isn’t a big human lover… maybe a social outcast? She thought upon looking at him. His movements were quite accurate and skilled, considering how early it was. His eyes looked serious and confident. This person can’t be manipulated… licking her lips, Elena thought with a grin on her face.

Unlike with Audrey, she picked her words with clear intentions when it came to Jake. The end result is being what she wanted, only made things easier for her. Hopefully, this battle will be as anticlimactic as I plan it to be, she thought as she turned into a shadow on the ground. Dred turned into his bear form to increase his defense, in case it was necessary to protect Elena.

Audrey stayed where she was and gathered the Mana around her into a thick bolt of lightning. Mixing it with Wind Magic and Dark Magic, her spell turned even more fearsome. Still not noticing anything, Wick continued on battling with the tiger.

---

The tiger jumped towards him, with its right paw raised, ready to strike. Rolling backward on the ground, he stopped right in front of Elena. The tiger came from the front with another strike when Dred jumped out from behind the guy. Reacting quickly, he stepped to the right, but Elena was waiting for him.

Kicking him in the back, he flew towards the tiger. The tiger’s claws slashed across his chest, leaving a large wound, while Dred bit into the neck of the Tiger. Elena threw her daggers towards Wick, who was lying on the ground. Seeing him rolling away, she switched to her bow and shot a thick fire arrow towards him.

Hurriedly swinging his arm, a water blade flew towards Elena’s arrow. But there was a problem. He didn’t spend as much time with spells as Elena. His wisdom being smaller, Elena’s fire turned the water into vapor and struck the side of his face. Following it up with a ball of darkness, Wick screamed out in pain.

Dred released the tiger at the same time when Elena’s attack struck. Both of them jumped back and Audrey released her attack. It struck the ground between the tiger and Wick. Her Dark Magic spread out in a circle, making their bodies rot, while the wind blades cut them into mincemeat. The bolts of flickering lightning had nothing left to burn, so they entered the ground.

Audrey’s Dark Magic reached the bush she was standing behind, making it wither, along with the trees. The smell of blood mixed with rotten and charred leaves spread through the area, entering their nostrils.

Magic had its effects. People didn’t just use Magic and the enemy was gone… they had to watch out for their surroundings if they wanted to keep things in one piece. Not to mention their environment. “At least it doesn’t matter to this world…” looking at the damage, Audrey mumbled silently.

“Yeah, it’s best to gain as much experience with the elements here asd we can since we shouldn’t do it in the next world,” agreeing with her, Elena remarked.

“Won’t you tell me about that other world? Or how does this even work?” Feeling really curious, Audrey questioned her again.

Showing her white teeth, Elena answered, laughing, “Haha, no.”

“Uh… meanie…” throwing her red hair over her shoulders, Audrey mumbled silently as she turned around.

When Audrey’s attack struck, all three of them used Devouring to take away the evolved genes of the Tiger and Wick. Looking at her notifications, Elena felt happy.

You have gained: +78 Agility; +92 Strength; +20 Vitality!

Leveling up to thirty-two in one go was only a bonus. “Let’s see how much better my Devour is!” Thinking of Dred’s status, she exclaimed.

Name: Dred

Race: Devouring Panther (Legendary)

Strength(+20% Bear): 1702 (+340)

Vitality(+20% Bear): 1042 (+208)

Agility(+10% Panther): 1124 (-)

Will: 62

Intelligence: 1001

Wisdom: 1234

Seeing the change, she was sure that she gained quite a bit more from Devouring them, than Dred. Audrey had only Minor Devour, so she was never a part of the game.

Taking her seat on Dred’s back, he rushed forward, only to see something very strange in front of them. It happened about five kilometers later, that they saw a strange village appear in front of them. It was surrounded by tall wooden planks, which were clearly the work of Nature Magic.

“What the hell is this?” Raising a brow, Elena said silently. Audrey appeared beside them, placing her hand on Dred’s side, questioning what was going on. Telling her that she didn’t know either, Elena nudged Dred, prompting him to move forward.

Upon getting closer and closer to the village, the noises of a scrimmage could be heard. Stopping in front of the tall fence, Elena stood up on Dred’s back to look over it. Standing on her two meters tall ‘podium’, she had no problems with seeing what was going on.

What!? Beastmen!? How? Opening her eyes widely in her surprise, she thought. Although neither Elena nor the humans knew of this, the most powerful predators, living deep in the forest, went through a huge evolution! On the first week, they just started slaughtering each other, gaining lots of strength over a short time.

Since only the strongest animals stayed alive, they divided up their own territories. But as they were able to feel the Mana rushing through their bodies more and more, their minds also evolved. Thinking of such a possibility, Elena realized that higher Intelligence meant higher Wisdom as well. Although not instantly, with thicker Mana Veins, more Mana entered the brain, enhancing it permanently.

It was the same as when people trained their agility. The bear she killed a few days ago was also on the path of evolution, with a weak consciousness. That was also the reason why it was able to use Magic. If not for Elena, then it could have come here too. As history has shown it, evolution always followed what was necessary for every creature.

Even though these weren’t real beastmen, they were still on their path to reach it. As a result of their evolutions, these powerful animals’ build changed as well. Thanks to those changes in their bodies, they were able to form voices. Although they were clearly bad at it, they were able to talk. If this continued, then maybe a few more years and the animals could turn into humanoid beastmen.

The advanced minded animals in this village knew about the humans. They also knew that if they were living alone, they could be killed. Such being the case, they gathered at this place and lived in caves, trying to coexist as much as possible. Maybe more so than the distressed humans, who kept fighting among themselves. But there was one person who felt happy about all of these as she had plans. Naturally, it was Elena.

Raising her arms, black fur covered them. Tapping her ears, they slowly shrunk back and cat ears grew out on the top of her head. Her eyes turned into slits and using the energy of the world, she lengthened her spine, growing a tail. Covering it in muscles, skin, and the same kind of black fur, she looked like a complete catgirl. Turning around, she noticed Audrey looking the same, except for her red hair.

“Sister, nya~” she said jokingly, raising her hands. Seeing her long claws, Elena lengthened hers as well.

Sitting on Dred’s back, they entered the village and noticing a tiger stopping in front of them, she used Inspect.

Name: Toruk Mak

Race: Bengal Tiger

Level: 53

Threat Level: 8

Now, that is fun. You will be perfect for my plans, she thought with a confident smile on her face. “Hello~” still smiling, she said with a slight change in her tone. The wind, generated by the roar of the tiger, blew on her face, brushing through her black hair, raising it into the air.

“That’s not a nice welcoming, is it?” Clearing her face, she said. Not understanding what she wanted, the tiger shook his head sideways, not knowing what to do.

“Why... are you here? Nho. How did shu ghet a humanoid shape?” Looking at her, the tiger questioned in a slightly commanding voice. Feeling a little hard to understand his words, Elena had to think a bit before replying.

“I have no idea. It just happened after I killed my enemies. Since when did you come to live in this village?” She asked in a friendly way, soothing the mind of the tiger. Being in the same ‘family’ only helped things.

“Ablout a week ago. Whe plansh to raidh the neharesth city of the humans! They will be ghreat prey! Hunting our ksind with those... booming weaponsh! Now we will show thems who are the true shunters!” Feeling angered upon remembering his past, the Tiger said wrathfully.

I have no idea why is he telling this to me, but I’ll help everyone. She thought, holding back her laughter.

“You can count on me, in that case,” she replied smiling. Not even doubting her, the tiger laughed, accepting them. They looked like beastmen, the form these animals wished to reach. Elena and Audrey were like an example to these monsters. Their self-confident and unbothered behavior only proved that they were one of them.

“Do you have a free house left?” Stopping beside Toruk, she asked.

“Haha, I’m notsh the lheader, but you can bhuild a houshe or cavern for yhourshelf at any free place,” laughing, his crispy voice resounded. She was quite pleased by these monsters. They weren’t as cautious as humans. As long as you were one of them, you could get in easily. The downside was that they probably killed everyone else. Both of these types had their advantages and disadvantages.

“Aren’t tigers lonely? How come you live in such a community?” Feeling curious, Audrey asked.

Finding it a little hard to form clear voices - “Thoshe are my inshthincts. Now that I have a chonsciousness, I can control myshelf much better!” - he replied, feeling proud of himself.

“And how come you know any language?” Still feeling curious, she asked another question.

“We dhon’t know, the same as you, I’d imagine. At fhirst, we felt as if we were half-awake and after shome time, it turned into a weak chonsciousness. A little bit later, whe were able to think. It was ash if we finally woke up. The blue window appeared in front of ush and we were able to think at the same time. Bhut I’m shure that you knew of this,” he replied quickly.

Nodding, Audrey told him that she was just curious if all of them were the same. “I thought so. That’s why I sthill exphlained it,” nodding, Toruk turned silent and left.

Finding a clearing within the village, the three of them used their Magic to make a house of stone. Using Earth Magic, Elena dug a chamber under their house. Now all I need is a hammer and an anvil… placing her hands on her hips, she straightened her body.

In the village, there were tigers, bears, giant snakes, wolves, lions, and even panthers. The latter showed great interest in Dred as he still looked like a normal panther, but they knew that it wasn’t the case. Just like before, two monsters were fighting against each other again. When they entered the village, it was a pack of wolves versus a bear. Now it was the wolves against Toruk.

The latter wasn’t in a good position as the wolves were no longer restricted in strength by their sizes. They were almost as powerful as Toruk, even alone… not to mention them in a pack. That was exactly the reason why wolves were one of the most dangerous species in these kinds of worlds. Knowing that these were only friendly matches to train their combat abilities, which were top-notch anyway… she left the village.

Maybe later she would take part in this, but she was too weak at this time. Leaning over to Audrey, she whispered into her ears, “I have something for you to do if you don’t mind. Could you notify Jake about this?”

Nodding, Audrey turned around to leave. She understood what she had to do. Once Jake learned of this, he would drive the humans to work hard with the reason of outside threat. So long as it wasn’t in front of them, the humans didn’t bother with future threats. That was their way since the old times and that will never change. Of course, there are exceptions to everything, but generally, this couldn’t be denied. In the form of a shadow, Audrey could jump quite large distances, making her travel easier.

Going into the forest, Elena switched to her bow. It was a really good finding in the Ogres’ Dungeon. Using Earth Magic, she looked for signs of iron. After traveling about two kilometers, she found herself on a mountain. Being at the height of a thousand and five meters, she found a cave. Navigating through it, it kept moving deeper and deeper into the ground. Unlike the humans, she was able to see perfectly in the dark.

“This cave has really fresh air. I guess it has another entrance,” inhaling deeply, she mumbled while enjoying the nice smell of the clear water. A slight breeze rushed past her body, raising her black hair.

Seeing the path parting into two ways, she followed the sound of the trickling river. Leaning over a corner, she found something amazing. The ceiling of the cave was covered in small and shiny crystals. There was a small lake under them, reflecting the ceiling, turning the water equally shiny and beautiful to look at. Seeing a small gray colored puddle in the middle of the lake, her eyes opened widely.

It was none other than condensed Mana. If she was to drink it, she could widen her Mana Veins and enhance her body at the same time. But there was a slight problem. A huge lizard - standing at three meters tall - was drinking from the water. Feeling full, it laid down on the shore of the lake. Seeing its scale covered body, it looked very similar to a dragon. A pair of wings could be seen on its back, but it was clearly not such a legendary creature. Maybe once it evolved a few more times.

Name: Cyndraim, the Clean

Race: Half-blood Wyvern

Level: 67

Threat Level: 10

Using inspect, she saw a few things about the monster in front of her. Yuck… that level is disgusting! What am I supposed to do with that? I bet that my daggers could barely penetrate its scales. Not to mention, that I can’t prepare a large-scale Magical Attack. Its senses would surely pick up on the changes of the flow of Mana… she thought, trying to find a method to dispatch the wyvern before it would drink her condensed Mana.

Tapping the wall, she sensed iron in it. Not too much, but if she could extract it, then it would be enough for a few weapons. But what’s the point of weapons if I don’t have enough strength to penetrate its scales? Unless… I use my devour, along with Dark Magic. ARGH! But it is surely quicker than me! Grabbing the sides of her head, she screamed in her mind.

Dred nudged her back with his nose, showing her another pathway. Following him, she was surprised by his next move. Using his vocal cords and a combination of Wind Magic, he talked with a crispy voice. “Wh-at if I, divert… its atten...tion?”

“You can talk now!? Well, but you will need better control over Wind Magic to speak fluently. Unlike those rudimentary beastmen, your jaws didn’t change,” looking at him, she remarked. After thinking about his offer for a bit, she nodded. “But don’t get hurt for me,” patting his head, she embraced him around his neck.

Nodding, Dred left the little anchor he found and rushed through wyvern’s cavern. Ambushing it from behind, the wyvern turned enraged. Roaring, it ran after him. Although his paw strike caused a few scales to break on its back, it was nothing serious. This showed how little chance they had against the wyvern.

If they didn’t do anything in their shadow forms, they couldn’t be hurt. But that wasn’t the case if they wished to steal away the condensed Mana. They would have to materialize to do that. They could attack in their shadow forms, but they too could be hurt at the same time. That was one of the reasons why they didn’t just take it away. The other being that this wyvern was very powerful. And it wouldn’t be surprising if it had a skill, which would be effective even against their shadow forms.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t as quick as they imagined, showing that this monster was mostly built on strength and vitality. This was truly good news for them. Although it started catching up with Dred, it didn’t go as easily as it wished. Elena quickly rushed towards the water and entered it in her Shadow Form.

Teleporting to the bottom of it, she just cut out that piece of earth, as if it was a bowl. Storing it in her storage ring, she jumped out of the water. But she was surprised to see the wyvern standing in front of her.

“*Growl* Did you take me for a fool? I wouldn’t chase the Panther since my body would be too big to fit into the pathways. But now you are going to die for trying to-” seeing that Elena was fleeing instead of listening to its speech, the wyvern quickly stopped talking and rushed after her. But it had a serious problem.

Elena could teleport from shadow to shadow. Considering that the cave was completely dark… she was able to jump forward thirty meters with each step. Spouting flames from its mouth, Elena had to jump to the side. Finding herself in the other bifurcation, she didn’t hesitate to move downward in it.

Knowing that it would just lose sight of her if it were to follow, it sat down there. “I’ll wait for you here! I’ll see if you dare to come out!” it shouted after her. Losing sight of Elena’s back, it turned around to leave.

Not knowing this, Elena rushed towards the other entrance of the cave. It was stupid of her to think that only she knew about the other entrance… Using Wind Magic, she clearly knew where to go. Seeing Dred waiting for her there, she almost shouted in happiness. But feeling her instincts screaming at her, she turned silent. Come here! Shouting in her mind, she called Dred with her hand. Just as he stepped away, a huge ball of flame struck the place where he stood.

The flame melted the ground, turning it into a world of fire and hell. The magma slowly started flowing towards them. The wyvern landed in front of the entrance, laughing upon seeing Elena and Dred being cornered.

Looking at the lava, her eyes turned cold. Fine, you want to play!? Gritting her teeth, she started planning in her mind. As her eyes met with the wyvern’s, she turned her back on it and rushed the other way. The wyvern flew around the mountain, to welcome them on the other side.

But it didn’t know of a crucial thing. These two could use the energy of the world! Turning towards the walls, Elena extracted the iron and stored it beside the condensed Mana. Although she didn’t have much space left, it was worth it. Meanwhile, Dred drilled a long hole, leading to the surface. The wyvern was still waiting for them on the other side, thinking that they would appear sooner or later.

Cyndraim didn’t realize that they left through the newly formed hole, on the side of the mountain, and ran away with its treasured condensed Mana. The best was that… they used their human forms when Cyndraim saw them. Switching back to their beastmen forms, they entered the village once again.

“They… aren’t coming!” it said angrily, flying towards the other side of the mountain. It realized that something was wrong. Noticing a large hole which wasn’t there before, it roared angrily, causing even the ground to tremble. If they used their own Mana, it would have sensed it. But they just ‘changed the properties’ of the earth into nothing. In reality, this was similar to transmutation.

-----

Seeing the village in front of them, Dred jumped over the fence and stopped in front of their house. Entering it, they went down to the basement. Dred sat down in a corner and closed his eyes to meditate.

Taking out the iron they gathered, she noticed that it wasn’t the same as what Triston used. This metal had a tint of blue in it! “Now… how do I turn this into a weapon? And I need an anvil as well!” Placing her hands on her hips, she talked to herself upon seeing the strange metal. Sighing loudly, she realized that she had to gather more metals or steal away Triston’s anvil…

Sitting down in front Dred, she closed her eyes and started meditating. But her efforts were short lived as she was interrupted twice. At first, Audrey came back, telling that Jake was making the humans work hard. Since hearing about the incoming threat, they finally realized that their lives were in danger, and started training seriously. The Cornered and Quick Evolution wasn’t a racial of theirs without a reason.

Just as Elena was about to continue her training, she was surprised to hear a loud roar. Cyndraim landed in the middle of the village, shouting, “Come out! All of you!” Although it was the strongest monster, the others weren’t much weaker either. Toruk Mak wasn’t the strongest in the village…

Feeling annoyed by Cyndraim’s commanding voice, a giant bear questioned it. “What do you want?” It was clearly much better at controlling the elements, making its speech much cleaner and understandable.

“There was a human! She stole my treasure! We must wage war on them as soon as possible!” It shouted angrily, stomping on the ground, making it crack.

Luckily for Elena, it never mentioned Dred… or so she wanted to believe. Making a thoughtful face, Cyndraim added, “Oh, right. And there was a black panther with her as well!”