Dred’s mouth was covered in blood and Cor was lying on the ground beside him, unmoving. There was barely any light in Dred’s eyes as he looked up at Elena. Elena got on her knees and leaned closer to Dred to examine his condition. “What happened to you?” she asked, her voice and hands shaking. After using Inspect on him, her mouth opened wide.

“Curse of Necro? Don’t tell me…” her face turned even paler as her eyes turned blurred. Standing up, she kicked Dred’s side.

“Fuck you! And here I was worrying myself to the death!” she shouted.

The curse of the necro was a very weak curse, though nasty. It was dangerous only if there was nobody who knew how to use Light Magic else it could be cured in the blink of an eye. Since Dred knew Light Magic, she realized that he wasn’t in danger, even for a moment.

As soon as Elena realized that Dred was playing a prank on her, she looked around, only to notice the corpse of an animal not far behind him. “It’s not even your blood, is it?” she asked, furrowing her brows.

“Ouch… no, I used the blood of that animal. I’m really sorry, I didn’t think that you would take it so much to your heart. But I was in the wrong,” he replied as he transformed into his demon form and rubbed his aching side.

Resting her forehead on the big rock beside Dred, she closed her eyes and sighed loudly, holding her chest. Raising her head, she looked at Dred with anger in her eyes, “Screw you, idiot!” she shouted, kicking the big rock with full strength, making it crumble and shatter into splinters. Pointing at Dred, her lips opened but no words came out. Stomping on the ground, she turned around and walked away, cursing at Dred.

“You shouldn’t have done that…” Audrey remarked, furrowing her brows and shaking her head.

Dred looked at Jake, who just confirmed Audrey’s words with his eyes, but said nothing. “I’ll go and apologize again,” Dred hung his head.

“You should,” Jake sighed loudly, adding, “You really scared her… or to be more exact, not just her but everyone. You are a part of our team. Better said, you are a leader of our team, so you shouldn’t do these kinds of things in the future. If not for knowing you, I’d have lost a bit of my trust in you after this.”

“When I was in the military back on Kriton, not one soldier did something like this and it’s not without a reason. Pranks like these can easily make people lose their trust in you.”

“I’m glad to hear that you understand, but I also understand that I screwed up real bad this time. Elena will probably hold a grudge against me for this and so will you. I can’t say anything other than sorry,” Dred muttered as he left.

“Haah- I won’t hold it against you, but Elena might be different. We haven’t had any arguments before this, so I don’t know how she handles them,” he commented in a low voice, the wind taking his words into Dred’s ears.

After walking for a few minutes, he found her sitting beside a small puddle, throwing small rocks into it. Sitting down beside Elena, he stayed silent for a few seconds before saying, “I deeply apologize for my prank. It was utterly stupid, but I can’t undo it. I swear that I’ll never do this again.”

She looked at him from the corner of her eyes before turning back to the puddle. Dred looked around with more care, only to notice the upturned trees, which were broken in half. “You must hate me now,” he sighed loudly.

Turning to look at him, Elena punched one of his horns, almost breaking it off. As the energy of her punch rushed through his whole body, his muscles stiffened up from the pain he felt for a moment. “Ugh… I deserved that.”

Elena stayed silent for several long minutes, but seeing that Dred wasn’t leaving and was trying to make up for his mistake, she thought, I shouldn’t make this any bigger. Not just for me but for our team either. “Why did you do it?” she muttered.

“I- I don’t know.”

“Don’t fuck with me. You aren’t like this, are you? Tell me why you did it!” she asked once again, turning even angrier after hearing his reply.

“I… Haah- okay,” he sighed loudly as he looked at the sky. “You know, whatever I’m blabbering, this group is perfectly fine without me too. I felt a bit needless beside you, so I wanted to see your reaction. I had that ‘What if’ feeling. I mean, we were born together and stuff, but we know each other the least. We only understand each other. I don’t even know what I am to you or what you are to me. We were just dumped in some random forest and we were supposed to destroy the fucking Universe! Isn’t that questionable? Our reason to live?” he questioned, turning to look into her eyes.

“It is, and so what? Even if it sounds evil or questionable, I am interested in it. I want to see the real concept beyond this ‘mission’ we have. I want to experience and realize why it is a good thing to ‘reset’ everything. And do you think that it was a good idea to find out if we cared about you in this way?” she asked, her voice somewhat calmer, but still angry.

Dred’s eyes opened wide as realization dawned on him. “It wasn’t and I wasn’t thinking, I’m sorry. I shut out everyone and kept my troubles to myself, while you shared them with me. Now I feel as if I betrayed you…”

“Is that why you have been so silent for such a long time?” she asked, raising a brow.

“Yes. I saw you getting along with the humans, then turning two people into your blood servants, then we destroyed the same community. It made no sense! Everything felt questionable!” he shouted, flailing his arms.

Calming down, he slumped his shoulders as he continued, “But I didn’t want to bother you with my thoughts, so I kept silent and just did what you said. You made a decision and changed our mission for the better. I took a liking to your concept since it made more sense to me, but I was still just a puppet who followed you. I was born to be your shadow.”

“Then do something to change it. Look at the sun, it casts its light on me. And do you see the shadow behind my back? You can join it if you feel like it, but be your own lord. You don't have to be what you were born for. At least, that’s what I believe in,” she replied with a smile.

Dred hung his head, his mind filled with Elena’s words, his thoughts swirling in his mind.

Looking at the puddle, Elena continued, “You know, this prank of yours made me realize something. We were born together and we have been together ever since. We took that for granted, but either you or I could die in the future, which I really don’t want to experience. Do you have any idea how scared I felt when I found you? My chest cramped and my heart was beating in my ears!”

“From now on, please think about our emotions too and try to understand us and our motives. Pranks like these will destroy the good mood and change our convergence for the worse. I too am at fault for not noticing how you felt-”

Raising his hand, Dred interrupted her, “No. You shouldn’t watch out for everyone’s emotional state alone. I should have done this differently. That’s all.”

“Fine then, but let me continue. Why did you even think that we don’t need you?” she asked with her brows raised, tilting her head to the side.

“I don’t- Okay, I know just don’t look at me like that. Mention just one moment to me when you really needed my help.”

“There is none, but it’s true to Audrey and Jake too. I could have done everything alone, but it’s easier if we do it together, isn’t it? It took much less time this way,” she replied, furrowing her brows.

“You have a point there. I guess I’m just an asshole,” he sighed loudly. Elena chuckled upon hearing his words.

Tilting his head to the side, he said, “Aren’t you angry? You don’t seem to be angry anymore. I thought for sure that you would hold a grudge.”

“I’m still a bit angry, but I’ll get over it. You see, it’s really interesting that we knew each other the least from our group of four since you rarely talked or shared your thoughts and emotions with us. I know much more about you after this conversation we had,” she replied with a chuckle.

“I’m trying.”

“I know, you are more active nowadays,” she nodded her head. “Haah- don’t you dare to scare me so much ever again. You are the only person who can understand me completely. What would I do without you? Stupid,” she asked, flicking his scale covered forehead.

Looking into his eyes, she said, “I should have kicked you much harder.”

“You should have.”

“I should have punched your face instead.”

“Yes, you should have,” Dred agreed with everything. “Do you want to?” he asked, showing the side of his face to her.

“No.”

Hearing her reply, Dred didn’t say anything and just looked into her eyes for a few seconds. Leaning forward, he embraced her and pulled her into his bosom. He felt her arms coiling around his back. “You are utterly stupid,” she said.

Chuckling, Dred replied, “I am. I’m really sorry.”

“You should be. I won’t forgive this, so make sure to make up for it in the future.”

“Mhm,” he mumbled as he caressed the back of Elena’s head. After staying that way for a minute, Elena pushed him away and stood up, dusting off her butt. Holding out her hand. As Dred took it and stood up, she said, “Let’s go, bro. We have a few things to discuss and I want to see Cor’s evolution too.”

“...” What the hell? Why did it feel so wrong from her lips? It’s just… strange, Dred thought.

“No, it’s just no good. I can’t call you bro, haha,” Elena shook her head, thinking the same as Dred. “I guess we will need more time to find out what kind of relation there is between the two of us.”

“Yeah. Also, I’ll apologize to Audrey and Jake first,” Dred agreed with her.

When they returned to their original position, he saw them sitting on the ground, resting their backs on the trunk of a tree, strangely silent and unmoving. Stopping in front of them, he bowed down and said, “I’m sorry.”

Audrey and Jake made surprised faces, along with Elena. Seeing that the mood was tense, Elena said, “You bowed down to them but not to me? Haah?”

“You are a special case, so I-” Dred started but Elena interrupted him.

“No. I want you to bow down to me, you peasant!” she exclaimed, sticking out her chest and pointing at the ground in front of him. Everyone laughed at her words, knowing that she was just joking.

Seeing that everyone felt better, Jake said, “I don’t feel angry anymore, but please refrain from doing this in the future. I’ll get angry with you if you get hurt! Haha.”

“You seem to be strangely understanding with me. What about you, Audrey?” Dred asked with furrowed brows, feeling suspicious.

“N-nothing…” she replied.

“Oh, they were listening in on our conversation,” Elena answered Dred’s confusion.

“...”

“Hahaha, what are you talking about? Anyway, let’s talk about more serious things,” Jake said with an awkward laugh, scratching the back of his head.

“...” Dred stayed silent and shook his head, but he couldn’t hide the grin splattered on his face.

---

“Right. When we entered the palace-” Elena explained everything to Dred from the beginning till the end. When she finished, Dred agreed with her and a few minutes later, Cor showed signs of awakening too. With the help of Dark Magic, she tried to turn Cor’s clothes into dust, but her Magic didn’t have any effect, which surprised her a great deal.

“Now, that’s what I call strange. I don’t think that his resistance is so powerful, considering how weak he is compared to us. It must be his clothes,” she muttered.

Cor sat up with wide opened eyes, panting heavily. “Huh? This felt way too alive,” he said as he calmed down and returned to his original state. Not. The whites of his eyes, which were red before, turned black. His irises stayed red as before and he kept his white hair too. Grabbing his shirt, Elena pulled it up and looked at his chest.

“Hey, hey, lady, I understand that your heart is beating rapidly for me, but I don’t have such feelings. But I could have a taste of your Mana filled body~” Cor said with a chuckle.

“Shaddap, I was just checking what kind of role you’ve got. You are the monster who dances, which is what I needed.”

“A dancer?” Jake asked, raising a brow.

Audrey looked at him, holding her forehead, “It obviously doesn't mean a real dancer, don’t be stupid.”

“I- I knew it…” he said, scratching the back of his head.

“Hahaha, you are so silly. Anyway, this type has great defensive methods, but weak when it comes to attacking. In short, he is similar to a training dummy, very durable… Once we upgrade your level and abilities, you’ll make a great tank with that skinny body of yours,” Elena patted his shoulders.

“Eh? This doesn’t sound too good for some reason. But I hope that you will still help me find my past, though I don’t care as much about it as before for some reason,” he muttered at the end, his hand under his chin.

“It’s because you became Dred’s blood servant. You’ll be more interested in him and his goals than in your own from now on. But we made a deal, so we’ll definitely help you,” she replied, helping him up.

“That’s really nasty. You didn’t tell this to me before,” he said with furrowed brows, looking at Dred.

“I don’t think that it would have changed anything. You just accepted your role easier this way,” Dred said, shrugging his shoulders.

“Wait, who are you? Where is that panther?”

“I’m that panther, but I didn’t show you this form of mine before,” Dred answered as he turned into his true form.

“Oh! I understand.”

“When you finished chatting, could we talk about your classes?” Elena asked, her voice barely hiding how excited she was.

“A-Alright, there is no need to get overexcited,” Cor held up his hands. Thanks to drinking Dred’s blood, he understood much more about how the world worked. “Classes.”

Classes

Necromancer (Common)

This class uses undead creatures to fight, combined with Dark Magic. In your case, it would increase the power of your body.

Guardian (Common)

This class excels in defensive spells and skills and is good at melee combat too.

Forsaken (Epic)

This class needs unique conditions to be unlocked. It focuses on defensive methods.

“The Forsaken one protects those who found his lonely soul,” Elena muttered as she looked at Cor’s frozen face. “Did you remember something?” she asked.

“No, but that word fills my heart with a sad feeling. I- I don’t know who I am,” Cor replied with a small stutter, picking the Forsaken class without waiting for anyone’s recommendation.

In normal cases, people unlocked Common classes at first and as they grew in power, they unlocked more powerful Uncommon, Epic, or in some rare cases Legendary classes. But thanks to being a blood servant of Elena, it wasn’t strange to see an Epic ranked class in his list. If not for his unknown past, Cor surely would have got another Epic ranked class, instead of Forsaken.

“Specialization,” he muttered, his voice devoid of emotion, unlike before.

Untouchable

Hollow

Shell

You have been Forsaken once and you don’t want anyone to touch you. This specialization will help you in escaping any kind of attack. Additional Skill: Ethereal.

You are empty, why not make everyone and everything else empty? Additional Spell: Absolute Zero.

Like a turtle and its shell, you can protect yourself and those who you deem important. Additional Spell: Shell.

“I have a shell already, I don’t need another one. You said that you need somebody who is good at defensive methods and Untouchable sounds like something a coward would use. Hollow it is,” Cor quickly thought over his possibilities and picked Hollow. Elena didn’t say anything since she not only wanted to leave it to him, she also agreed with him.

The weirdest thing was that skills and spells given by classes and specializations weren’t necessarily logical. It was an odd thing, considering that any spell or skill people created made sense. So in some cases, the system provided people with illogical and questionable skills and spells.

Forsaken (Epic)

Lv.

Untouchable

Hollow

Shell

10

Ethereal: This skill can turn your body into a non-material form for five seconds every thirty seconds. Nothing can damage you while in this state.

Absolute Zero: This spell can nullify one Spell or Skill every ten minutes. If a Skill was nullified, it won’t be usable again for five minutes.

Shell: You can form a Shell around your whole body, increasing your defense a great deal. This Spell can be cast on other targets too, but only one can be active at a time.

“Oh, that’s a really handy spell. Now then, show me your status,” Elena said. Nodding his head, Cor showed his table to everyone.

Name: Cor

Race: Wraith King

Level: 92

EXP: 4567 / 4800

Class: Forsaken (Epic)

Specialization: Hollow

Health: 164 770 / 164 770

Mana: Cosmological Constant

Titles: Blood Servant; The Forsaken One

Strength: 29 853

Vitality: 32 954

Agility: 25 679

Will: 60

Intelligence: 25 689

Wisdom: 27 853

Elemental Magic:

Fire Lv.28 (23%); Water Lv.26 (43%);

Wind Lv.34 (41%); Lightning Lv.33 (61%);

Nature Lv.31 (51%); Earth Lv.30 (7%);

Light Lv.10 (3%); Dark Lv.43 (6%);

Cosmological Constant: Lv. 1 (5%)

Resistances:

Magical: 27 853 (+3033)

Physical: 14 926 (+1625)

Passive:

Stamina: 164 770

Precision: 128 395

Skills/Spells:

Mana Control Lv. 40 (32%)

Meditation Lv. 43 (17%)

Sense Lv. 41 (74%)

Body Enchantment Lv. 35 (25%)

Necromancy Lv. 30 (63%)

Absolute Zero Lv. 0 (1%)

Racial Skills:

Resistant Lv. 10 (89%)

Necro Bite Lv. 5 (32%)

Inherited:

Minor Devour Lv. 7 (55%)

Shadow Form Lv. 52 (23%)

ShadowStep Lv. 31 (20%)

“Oh? Your race has a great resistance ability. That will come in handy,” she said with a smirk, filling Cor’s heart with a feeling of dread.

“I think that it’s for the best that I don’t have a sense of pain…” he gulped loudly.

“Definitely,” Elena replied with a smile. “Alright, let’s go back to the castle for now. Who will stay out of this mission and train Cor while we take care of the other Empire?”

“I don’t feel like beating up a dead person,” Audrey said with a shrug of her shoulders.

Elena, Dred, and Audrey looked at Jake.

“Fine… but don’t you dare to die,” he hung his head.

“I think that I’ll hate you in the future,” Cor remarked, looking at Jake.

“What? But it’s not like I want to beat you up or anything. It’s for your sake and for the team!” he exclaimed, feeling wronged.

“Like anyone would believe that…” everyone said at the same time.

Dred transformed into his Wyvern form and flew towards the city to get the list they requested.

Cracking his fingers, Jake walked towards Cor. “Let’s increase that resistance of yours. We will go in cycles. Beating up, meditation, body training, meditation, beating up.”

“What about resting?”

“Dead people don’t rest.”

“... Fuck this shit,” Cor cursed out loud before crashing into a tree.