There was a popular town, known for its beautiful oceans and beaches. It would often receive many visitors and tourist, all looking forward to admire the view and sail the beautiful ocean. A true paradise, especially for the rich.

However, today, it was anything but that. In fact, a true nightmare was currently occurring in this exaction holiday location.

On the beach laid many lifeless victims. Their eyes had be gouged out and there were wiggling fish coming out of them.

Underwater, still meters away from the shore, was a humanoid creature with blue skin, the teeth of a shark and green eyes. It had thick huge tentacles for its legs and hair.

In its hand, it carried an object that looked similar to that of a violin. But both the bow and the violin itself were covered in algae and rotten sea moss that had greatly altered whatever human qualities it may have had before.

Whenever the bow would slide against the rusted strings, a ferocious sound wave would be fired in all directions, bringing loud ear-piercing screeches as far as the waves went.

Hearing the screeching melody of its rotten instrument would cause ordinary humans to vomit out sea leaches, have tentacle burst out their eyes and their ears bleed out seaweed.

The Corrupted Water Nymph: Firuzeh

Classified: A-Rank

Hundreds had already been killed. Practically all citizens who were on that beach at the beginning of the attack had no chance of escaping alive.

Fighting the A-rank monster was General Malet.

He was fairly large man, holding a large double-headed hammer. The heads of his hammer were shaped like cubes made of an unknown iron-like, red and black material. He wore the badge that every general wore although the badge's icon had been cracked by now.

For unknown reasons, he had no issue breathing underwater, nor did the music seem to have affected him as badly as the others.

However, he was still in deep trouble. His ears were bleeding out blood and the strength of all his attacks were incredibly downgraded thanks to them being underwater, "This is bad. I'm not suited for underwater battles. That's suppose to be General Enri's job."

The A-rank sea monster suddenly lunged forward at rapid speeds. He smashed his hammer on the floor and a wall of black cubes appeared in front of him. The sea creature swiftly swam around the wall and bit Mallet's shoulder from behind. Its jaws pierced his armours and straight into his shoulder.

He clenched his fist and five black cubes appeared from above them. The cubes automatically came down and smashed Firuzeh's head and body.

The A-rank monster let go of him and swam back, playing its cursed violin one more time.

The sound waves hit Mallet and his ears bled even more.

The man remained standing. He separated his weapon into two and dual wielded them. His weapons began glowing as it energy gathered inside them. The A-Rank sea monster's violin also began radiating an ominous aura around it.

But then they both then stopped abruptly.

They felt a presence from above which is exactly where their attention went.

Through the surface of the ocean sea...they both saw a figure, falling towards them. From where they were, they could only see a yellow blur. The figure came closer and closer.

Upon reaching the surface of the water, the falling yellow individual ...punch it.

With that one punch, the entire ocean opened up. All surrounding water, and sea creatures were pushed back way back. Within seconds, the beach ocean was no longer an ocean. It now just consisted of wet sand, and other unfortunate sea animals that were now exposed to the air. In the distance, you could see the large waves of water that was slowly returning.

The figure, who turned out to be a woman with blonde hair, landed near where General Mallet was.

Before the nymph could react, the woman turned around and punched the air. A sudden gust of wind was fired like a cannon and it went straight through Firuzeh's body, leaving a large gaping hole in the creature's chest.

Without even looking at the monster anymore, the woman turned to face Mallet, "Yo."

Mallet sighed heavily as if he had been holding his breathe the whole time, "Thank you."

Standing in front of the general was none other than "The Ruthless Brawler: Lily". One of the Original Nine Heroes.

"You sure that was A-rank?" She asked with pinch of disappointment in her tone.

"Yes. It was classified as such after its third appearance." His doubled headed hammer disappeared from his hand.

"Seriously? Their standards must have really fallen. Even that S-rank monster was a huge disappointment, you know."

"Well the rankings aren't always accurate and you were fighting along side Arthur himself after all..." Mallet replied, "but I heard that even with all nine of you, it still took you about two days to slay it, am I wrong?"

"That's only because it had an annoying skill that could duplicate itself every time we struck its core. It got repetitive after a while." Lily replied casually as if a mountain sized creature that could replicate itself wasn't an end of the world scenario.

"I see... The Nymph creature is still alive." There was no urgency in his voice. He didn't even bother to summon his weapon again.

"Oh?"

Truth to the Mallet's words, the A-rank nymph was still moving and its skin was turning dark purple. The gaping hole in its chest slowly closed itself. It let out a shriek that sounded like the combination of a screaming woman and a whale's cry.

Its violin transformed into one that looked more sinister which matched the creature's new purple skin. It played its instrument again, large purple sound waves with ghostly faces on them were fired in Lily's direction. Dooming Deep-Sea Melody!

Crossing her arms, Lily stood in front of General Mallet... as she allowed the attack to directly hit her.

All unfortunate sea creatures that were left suffocating in the wet sand had their bodies dissolve completely into nothing as soon as the sound wave passed them. As for the Hero and the General... Mallet kept observing as Lily... poked her finger through her ear, scratching it to relief a small itch. A smile slowly formed on her expression, "Not bad...not bad at all. I take back what I said earlier...this should be fun!"

The creature flinched. Clearly alarmed by the fact that its music had little to no effect on her. It raised its bow once more. But then Lily appeared right in front of it with a clenched fist that was aimed directly at Firuzeh's face.

"Four Punches: Gauntlet Furry!" A gaping hole appeared in the creature's face. Despite only throwing one punch, three more gaping holes appeared on the creature's body as if three other invisible fist, each as powerful as the first, attacked it at the same time.

The creature wailed in pain as it retreated. However, even though the holes in its body were the size of a cannon ball, it healed itself quite swiftly. Now that there was no water, its movements were slightly slower. It's played its violin again, sending the same deadly sound waves.

Cracking her knuckled, Lily pulled back her arm...and punched the sound waves. As if her hand physically touched it which logically shouldn't be possible: sound isn't something a human can touch, "Eight Punches: Knuckle Onslaught!".

Not only did she deflect the deadly song with her fist, seven more powerful strikes went straight through Firuzeh as if they were cannon balls. The seven gaping holes, which took up 80 percent of its entire body, healed again, but Lily continued.

"16 Punches: Physical Devastation!"

In its sight, the water Nymph witnessed 16 golden fist manifest from nothing above Lily's head, all coming towards it. Firuzeh's entire body was blown away into pieces, almost completely sent into oblivion. Completely devastated. All that remained was a single piece of Firuzeh's tentacle. From that tentacle, the A-rank sea monster grew an entire new body within seconds.

In a fit of anger, Firuzeh used the bow to slice off the strings of the violin, releasing its most powerful attack. Hell's Aquatic Harmony!

Lily sprinted straight towards the attack with aa grin. 32 Punches: Merciless Barrage!

The sound waves collided with her fist. At first the two attacks seemed equal. But as seconds flew by, it soon became clear...that Firuzeh never stood a chance.

By the end of the collision, Lily was the only was left standing. Not a single trace of the monster had been left behind.

Just like that, Firuzeh: The Corrupted Water Nymph was slaughtered.

"You Generals sure are getting too weak nowadays."

"I'll have to disagree... You heroes are just too strong." He replied before taking out a small canteen filled with healing water.

"HAHA! Probably. But my life sure gets way too boring because of that."

...

-I-I-I-I-

...

It took about two week for me to fully recover. Both Alfred and the Reaper, however, required at least three weeks to recover. Alfred was an interesting case. On the third week and still wearing my bandages, I would watch day by day as the cracks in his armour slowly closed themselves. Alfred spent most of those three weeks sleeping.

The travelling beast-man doctor told us that while his medicine didn't work on Alfred, healing skills probably would. We didn't have a healer but fortunately time seemed to be Alfred's best healer.

One day, when i was watching over him, I saw him move his head slowly towards me.

"You okay? How are you feeling?" I asked softy.

"..."

I gently placed my hand on his helmet, "That's good to hear."

We stayed like that for a moment. It felt absurd that Alfred and I were even still alive after what happened. With that said, it did bring attention to a particular topic that I had been neglecting.

"Alfred?" This was a topic I purposely choose to avoid purely because the thought of it horrified me. But after the incident with Viridescent, I needed to know, "Are...are you capable of dying?"

He paused for a moment...before nodding gently.

"I see..."

I was told that stereotypically, when a summoner's creature "dies", they can simply be revived using a skill after a long cool down. But it was clear that my role was a different case from that. Because once I used the skill "The First Knight" to summon Alfred, the skill completely vanished from my skill tree.

"Alfred...if there's a situation where you're close to dying, retreat no matter what...ok?"

He didn't answer me.

...

-I-I-I-I-

...

Once we had healed properly, both the Reaper and I were given a full blown lecture by Eve9654, the same neutral who weaved my clothes. She was especially harsh on the Reaper. It was the first time I had ever heard her yell but judging from her tone this clearly wasn't the first time Eve had to lecture the Reaper.

"Know your limits!" Eve scolded loudly, "Do you have any idea how scary it was seeing you two come back home in the middle of the night, half dead!"

"Hehehe," The Reaper giggled softly while scratching her cheek and smiling innocently.

"Don't 'hehehe' me, woman!" She said as she karate chopped the Reaper's head.

"Oww..." The Reaper clutched her head as if it actually hurt, she then pouted childishly, "I'm sowry,"

"What kind of apology is that?!"

We both remained kneeling as she continued to chastise us endlessly.

"You too, Summoner!" She pointed at me causing me to flinch for the seventh time, "Don't just go agreeing with everything the Reaper suggest! You're suppose to be the one stopping her from doing things like that? Understand?!"

"Y-yes ma'am."

I received several more chops to head.

Afterwards, everything returned to normal as it was before.

Well, mostly.

...

-I-I-I-I-

...

"Taunting Chain!"

The elemental dinosaur with skin covered in grass, roared as it charged towards me. I felt the grass beneath me, wrap tightly around my legs.

It's wide open jaw, came towards me with sharp teeth. At the same time, two large green vines made of grass emerged from the ground to attack me. Alfred sliced both vines with his giant great sword. The dinosaur continued its charge.

"Bladed Mitigation!"

It bit down of my shield. As soon as it did, it flinched and winced in pain.

It let go and retreated a few steps.

"Shield Enhance!" My shield grew immensely larger in size, "Shield Dash!"

The grass wrapped around my legs weren't strong to hold me in place as I automatically got lunged forward with my giant shield.

I collided into the giant green T-rex, causing the monster to fall over to ground.

Alfred then jumped towards the fallen creature with his giant great sword. His weapon glowed brightly before the head of the dinosaur was sliced clean of its body.

The slice was so great that it left a deep cut on the ground as well.

The monster's headless body moved for a few moments before becoming completely motionless. Its body then slowly disappeared into particles, leaving behind a medium size piece of monster meat.

I panted heavily as I watched the particles disappear into nothingness.

We were both silent at first. As if there was nothing but disbelief in our hearts.

But my disbelief swiftly turned into a bright smile. We did it. The first C-rank monster Alfred and I had ever defeated. It was hard to believe that only a few months ago, i was completely scared by these dinosaurs. But to be fair, they all looked harmless compared to Viridescent, especially with Alfred by my side. The power gap between C-rank and B-rank monsters was clearly way too big.

I dropped my weapons and tackled Alfred with large hug, I cheered, "Alfred! We did it! We did it!"

He seemed taken aback by this but slowly returned the hug.

We soon heard distant clapping.

Watching from a distance was all the villagers along side the Reaper while the Scout watched from one of the rooftops.

Naturally, there was a huge celebration in honour of our victory. I couldn't help but reminisce about the time when we celebrated the first E-rank monster Alfred and I had defeated.

We all sat around a huge bon fire as we ate the considerable amount of food that the Reaper had hunted for everyone. Cheers and laughters roamed the entire village as if even the wind itself was congratulating us.

"Oi, I don't remember you guys celebrating this hard for me." The Reaper said jokingly with a playful grin.

"How about you defeat a B-rank monster first, then we'll talk!" One of the Zeno villagers replied.

"Haha! It's going to be a while until we have another celebration like this then!" The Yukari fake who was in charge of growing crops, happily joined in the banter.

The Reaper's grin grew larger as she crossed her arms, "Hmph! I'll have you know that the Summoner, Alfred and I were actually pretty close to doing so."

"YEAH RIGHT! Says the woman who came home just barely on death's doorstep!" The Eve fake who lectured us the other day cried out. She was still slightly annoyed as she chomped down on her food.

"The Scout did say that you guys didn't stand a chance," Arthur6239 added, "Viridescent must've been quite the scary monster."

"EXACTLY!"

"Aww, come on Eve, don't be too harsh on them." Elizabeth1129 chimed in.

"THEY ALMOST DIED!"

We all laughed as the celebration and playful chatter continued throughout the night.

We only had water but that didn't matter.

Alfred and I toasted our drinks together in celebration of the first ever C-rank monster we had defeated.

During the night, the Reaper randomly challenged Alfred and I to a sparring match using a tone that was way too casual. I strickly refused.

...

-I-I-I-I-

...

There were a lot of things for me to think about since our defeat with Viridescent: my new skills, Alfred's growth and...my new summoning slot.

Carrying buckets of water to the village often gave me the time to think about these things.

"They really do grow up fast". I thought to myself as I looked up at Alfred who was currently carrying two buckets of water. He was taller than me now. The size and height of an average, built young-adult. His silver armour showed no skin and through the lines in his helmet, there was only what seemed like a darkness.

His attitude had changed slightly. He was less needy for attention and became more "gentleman" like. He would often opens doors for other and help the other villagers if they needed help hence he had become quite popular among the neutrals. Despite growing stronger, he still wouldn't do anything reckless unless I was involved. Rather than sleeping, he now preferred to take patrols the village like a night guard.

He still followed me almost everywhere I went though.

The only person who seemed quite disappointed by Alfred' sudden transformation was one of my roommates, Lily3209. Mainly because she never got a chance to hug baby Alfred.

"His not cute anymore." She complained one day with a pout.

I admit that I too somewhat missed chibi Alfred. I was aware of his growth but I never expected him to skip an entire decade of growth within mere seconds. I was slightly disappointed that I never got the chance to see him slowly grow. With that said, his strength and power is incredible now.

Alfred and I could now take on C-rank monsters. Well, not all of them.

Just because monsters fall under the same rank, doesn't mean they are equal in strength and some monsters may be a terrible matchup for you.

For example, Red-Eyed Bears are considered C-rank but have proven to be too much for Alfred. These bears had rapid healing and the only way to defeat them is to keep attacking them fast enough until their HP drops exactly to zero or just obliterate them in one shot. While Alfred's strength is enough to cut them in half, he is too slow to keep up with the bear's healings.

I agree that what the Reaper did was beyond reckless- no, suicide would be more accurate. No doubt we would've died without the Scout... But the method did work. I had gotten new skills. A lot of them. In fact, I had never learned so many skills all at once. Although, despite the results, it's still a method I prefer to avoid using.

First, my two passives "levelled up". Endurance II and Regeneration II. There wasn't much to say about this. Their descriptions haven't changed at all. Only their name. The Scout informed me that it wasn't exactly an uncommon occurrence and that skills have been reported to go up all the way to level X and higher. There isn't any notable difference besides the increase in effectiveness. Although I wish the descriptions would be more specific in that regard.

Moving on, I had also learned four new active skills. Taunting Chain, Bladed Mitigation, Shield Dash and Shield Enhance.

It was already somewhat obvious before but the skill "Taunting Chain" really did cement in the idea that the "Summoner" role I picked was really a tank class. A person who is meant to take all the damage. I never saw myself as a tank before my reset. But as the humans like to say, I guess "life is just full of surprises".

I tested the skill on the Reaper once. There was no response. Which lead me to the theory that maybe the target actually needs to be hostile first. The description also didn't clarify how long the effects last or how strong it is. For example, with our battle against Viridescent, the Reaper was still able to catch the creature's attention even after I used "Taunting Chain" on it.

Bladed Mitigation is quite interesting. It reduces the damage I take for 30 seconds, but similar to Endurance II, it does not directly increase my defence stat like "Quadruple Hit Endurance". It also reflects damage...but does not specify how much damage is reflected or what exactly counts as damage. For example, when I fought that dinosaur the other day, it bite down on my shield but didn't damage me directly, yet it still seemed like some damage was reflected.

While experimenting, I found that "Bladed Mitigation" can eventually defeat a slime even if they only hit my shield. Although it's a very time consuming process. The skill also sparked its own question: if I'm taking 20% less damage, wouldn't mean less damage is being reflected? It was slightly counterintuitive if you think about it. Perhaps the damage part of the skill is only meant to be a small bonus.

Then there was the two most noticeable skills. "Shield Enhance" and "Shield Dash".

Shield Enhance's description is almost quite useless. There are two crucial features of this skill that the description fails to mention. My shield increases almost tenfold in size. The other feature that the description doesn't include is that along with the size, the weight of my shield also increases dramatically. In other words, when i use this skill, I'm practically immobile unless I either drop the shield...or use shield dash.

Shield Dash. By far the most powerful offensive skill I have. It isn't useful for only battles. It can be used for escaping as well. This skill was the only reasons how we were able to escape Viridescent's Lair after all. The battle with Viridescent also coincidentally told me that even if my legs are not functional, the skill still works. When activated, it will automatically push me forward and it'll feel as if I'm sliding across the ground.

It will also work regardless of how much weight in on me when I use it. This makes it a good combo skill to use along side Shield Enhance. By enlarging the size of the shield during a shield dash, I am able to either hit more targets or take down giant opponents.

Combo skills. The term people use when they find that two or more skills go well together when used consecutively. I never had a set of combo skills before this. Honestly, it was almost to surreal to believe in.

Another question: can Shield Dash break through obstacles such as trees? With Shield Enhance, yes. Without, no. The power, impact and speed depends on how high my defence stat is. So theoretically, I could break through buildings if my defence stat is high enough. I didn't test it on the village house for obvious reason.

There was also another theory I had about this skill that I really wanted to test.

"You ready?" I asked Alfred.

He nodded.

We found a flat area of grass that wasn't too far from the village. In fact, we could still see it from here.

I summoned my stone shield and raised it so that the shield was facing the sky.

"Shield Dash!"

A ball of energy wrapped around me right before...I flew.

I was half-expecting it to work...but it worked.

Just like that, I was flying in an upward, straight direction towards the sky. Interestingly, I also learned at that moment that my hand seemed to be glued onto the shield handle when I use this skill.

From the ground, there were two neutrals looking up at me while squinting their eyes.

"Is that...is that the Summoner?"

"Are you sure that's not just a...AAHH! OH MY GOODNESS IT IS!"

Then the skill ended. Still facing the clouds, I found myself falling back towards to the ground,

Thankfully, Alfred was prepared. He jumped and caught me in his arms when I got close enough. I could tell that the results of the experiment shocked him just as much as it shocked me.

"Thank you. Sorry to worry you." I said scratching my head.

Two of the villagers came over with panicked voices. I apologised and assured them that I was fine.

With that, my theory was confirmed: Shield Dash will automatically launch me forward in whatever direction I point my shield, even if that direction is towards the sky. Although this experiment lead to another question: if I used shield dash off the edge of a cliff, would I fall or keep going forward? I wasn't planning on testing that question for obvious reasons.

One last thing to think about. Right before I passed out from my injuries, I saw the words "You have unlocked a new summoning slot: 1/1 - to - 1/2" across my line of view.

So apparently I have more space now to summon another knight. But... I can't. To summon Alfred, I had to use the skill "The First Knight" which disappeared after I used it. I assume the skill will be called "The Second Knight" but as of now, I haven't unlocked it yet. I had originally assumed that summon slots came with those skills but I guess that's not the case. Are there individual conditions to unlock those skills as well?

This also brought up another question. How many knights will I be able to summon by the end? Will they all be like Alfred? As a summoner, will I be able to summon other things besides knights? At this point, all I could do was speculate and wait.

The idea of another knight did excite me but at the same time, it made me slightly nervous. Not sure how if I was capable enough to watch over both Alfred and a new knight. I couldn't help but think back during the time I first met Alfred. In hindsight, the memories made me chuckle a bit.

...

-I-I-I-I-

...

"Intent?" I repeated.

"Yes. The damage you do can also vary greatly depending on your intent," The Reaper explained, "For example, your skill "Sword Strike" could kill a regular person, but knowing you, your sword strike would feel like a gentle slap to the villagers here. Assuming your sword was wooden, of course. This is why the same skills can damage a monster but barely hurt a human. Because people are generally less hesitant when fighting a mindless monster."

"I see..."

"There are also a lot more layers to it than people think. For example, what's your goal when fighting a monster?"

"To defeat it."

"Exactly. You fight monsters with the intent to defeat them. I fight monsters with the intent to kill them. Now with monsters, that may sound the same...but defeating a person and killing a person are two very different things. One will do significantly more damage than the other."

"So what you're saying is that I could be doing more damage if I simply change my intent."

"Yep! But do be careful, if you get too carried away, your body may get too used to attacking with the intent to kill. The humans call it "muscle memory" I think. Controlling it does takes time."

"That does sound risky." I could imagine that getting out of control if you weren't careful.

I was aware that the damage you do is somewhat influenced by how much power you put into it. However, the concept of there being different layers of intent never occurred to me. But it made sense. It would explain why so many sparring matches and tournaments are even legal and don't end up with countless of deaths. Because you would naturally be forbidden to attack with the intent to kill.

"So now that you know that... Want to fight-"

"No." I said strictly, "We can still get injuries right? We don't have a healer for that."

"Aww, you're no fun." She pouted.

I didn't even need to look to know that Alfred was also quite eager to have a match with the Reaper. He never asked though, probably cause he knew I would say no.

"Alfred, Reaper, we're the only ones capable of fighting in this village. If we both get injured it'll put the village at risk." I was told the other day that while the Reaper and I were recovering, there were multiple days where the Scout had to spend several hours luring monsters away whenever they appeared.

Both the Reaper and Alfred crossed their arms at the same time.

"Your mother is quite boring isn't she?"

He nodded.

"Oi."

A gust of wind blew by interrupting our conversation. With the wind came several leaves with written words on them. They flew around the Reaper's head. She grabbed them and read the writing on it.

I saw her eyes light up as she read it in silence.

"What is it?" I asked.

"The Scout just returned from his trip."

I didn't know he was even on a trip.

"Looks like you and I will be going on a little adventure." She continued.

"Why?"

"He found another one."

I tensed almost instantly at those words, "You mean..."

Her signature grin slowly appeared once more, "Shall we go introduce ourselves?"

...

To Be Continued

A/N This chapter was finished on 19/03/2022

...

Aria Current skills:

Passives:

- Chance Damage: Your Sword Strikes have a 5% chance of doing additional damage which equals up to 1% of your defence.

- Regeneration II: You will gradually heal HP over time. Rate of healing increases when asleep.

- Endurance II: Decreases damage taken.

- Quadruple Hit Endurance: Your defence will increase by 5% every-time you are hit. Can stack up to 20%. The defence boost will reset after the fourth hit or if 1 min have passed.

Active:

- Sword Strike: Deals 10 damage to target. CD: 5 Minutes.

- Defensive Gift: Increases a target's defence by 10% for 1 min. CD: 30 min.

- Shield Dash: Dashes forward at a rapid speed. Speed and damage dealt by the dash will equal to 50% of you defence. CD: 1 min. (Must be used with shield)

- Shield Enhance: Strengthens you're shield for 10 seconds. CD: 45 seconds.

- Bladed Mitigation: For the next 30 seconds, damage taken is reduced by 20% and damage is also reflected. CD: 10 minutes.

- Taunting Chain: Fires a chain that forces the target to battle you. CD: 5 seconds.