Overall, only five other Guards, all directly under the Lieutenant, went with Suun to strike out against the unknown male which slew most of the Farmers a week ago. These five, along with their new Tracker and barely healed Suun, were sit down in front of herself as she berated them until their ears bled. Or, rather, until the Wolfman asked for a clean cloth to stop the trickle of blood which tried to escape his body from his right ear. To which she gave leave for him to be taken to the Healer that was stationed with them.

Once he was gone, she turned back to the six who were the target of her anger and, doing her best to control her emotions, sneered, “And why did you attack the bastard when I said to wait?”

The one to speak first was one who held the appearance of a snake, if Humans were able to have such features without stepping into the realm of Half-Breeds called Kindred. To top off his look, he had oil-slick, raven coloured hair with pin prick eyes which shifted wildly as though discerning a way to escape his Captain. “W-we weren't gonna attack him, Captain,” his voice hissed much like a Snakeman's would if they were trying to avoid being caught despite falling into a trap designed to specifically catch someone like him.

“Bullshit,” growled Captain Rin, her hands slamming down upon the table, “You assholes have been pulling this shit since the beginning. I've been turning my eyes away for this long because you lot haven't done anything serious beyond taking a pastry from Farmer Agnes.” The group, except from Suun, sweated heavily from both remembrance of the scene and due to her knowing about it. Of which she spotted in their eyes, which grew wide at the mere mention of the woman's name.

“What? Didn't think I found out about the walloping she gave you idiots?” she leaned over the table to sneer at them, “The whole community knows, 'cause she isn't one to keep quiet about it.” Of which led to her leaning back to allow such a revelation to sink into the group, and smirked as a few blood vessels pulsed in a few of their foreheads. Perhaps they were contemplating revenge, but such thoughts were quickly pushed to the side as their boss continued with, “And now you lot have gone and attack the bastard I wanted to skewer myself, but judging by your lack of a body, I'm led to believe he escaped and had probably fled knowing more were coming for him.”

“N-no, Cap'n. Wasn' like tha',” croaked a sweating and overly muscular Human by the name of Brutus. Of whom was built like a stone wall, had a square-shaped head with rugged features that was coupled with a semi-healed and bulbous nose. This was coupled with baby blue eyes and short-cropped, platinum blonde hair. Many a woman would have thrown themselves at him and his loins, if not for a single factor:

He was as smart as a rock on a good day.

That is to say, he was not the best conversationalist, nor was he one to do much of anything beyond following his brother's, Suun's, orders.

However, currently he was doing his best to form the correct words, his eyes shifting from one side to another as he thought as hard as he could to express what he desired to say. Of which took some time, with only a few coughs leading to them stifling the noises they made as their Captain glared death in their directions. For she was the most patient with him, even going out of her way to speak with him on occasion. Right now, though, she wished to hear his thoughts.

“Br-brother said to run. He want'd us to get 'way, 'cause the man did somfin to uh tree?” Brutus scratched his head, not sure what his words would mean to his boss, and was soon given a small biscuit for his troubles by her. To which she gave a wide and toothy grin as he bobbed his head once before shoving the whole of the biscuit straight into his mouth, munching happily as he was excused from the building.

Once he was gone, she turned back to the remainder of the group, her hands upon her hips as she frowned whilst watching them with a discerning eye, “And what did he do to a tree?”

This time, Suun spoke up, “W-well, we tried to attack him at the treeline, but he vanished into the forest. After an hour of searching, we found him, prepared an ambush, but...” His face was growing paler as he recalled the scene, though it was hazed with fear. For he witnessed the man-thing distend his jaw to an impossible length in order to bite down upon the bark with four canines. Of which led to the tree to wither away as though its life force was being drained, leaving only ash and dust after he was done, and wiped away a trickle of an amber liquid upon his lips. Thus leading to their expeditious retreat, as the man turned towards where they were positioned, and grinned a haunting and feral grin upon themselves.

Yes. Such a recalling was projected upon their Captain, who looked upon them with a strange and incomprehensible stare. It was as though she believed them to have made such an event up within their minds. Or, as it was more likely to herself, the man was a Mage of some renown and wanted to cause them to flee as he was preparing his work. Either way, she couldn't allow such a person to roam free within her community. Especially one which bolstered a reputation of safety for newly appointed Adventurers who hunted in the forest called Nu'Bai.

*****

Sarah sat the book down in order to scratch her head with some confusion. For Brutus, who was their oldest friend and Lich King of the Necropolis of Terra, did not start out as a guard for farmers. Instead, he was a personal guard to the royals of New Wair, and his brother was one who ran an organised crime family upon the streets of the city. This revelation was confusing for her, and wondered what else was different in the story upon her lap. Such as the summoning which slew his mortal body, as well as what came after such an event.

“I mean,” she muttered to herself slowly, “He was given the Enchanter Class in the other one, and Brutus was a dunce until they met...” To which she shook her head, causing her hair and fur to swish back and forth as it continued to change colours.

“Ugh,” her voice droned as she leaned back against the mountain of pillows, “I just want the information, and not having to sit hear and be confused at what I'm reading,” and released a sigh as the Goddess pulled the book closer to her person, her eyes scanning the words printed upon the sheets once more.

*****

Less than a week prior to the incident which sent Lieutenant Suun and his underlings running from the man with the white skin, Karastak was heading northward, away from the cave which had been his “home away from home”. His reason for leaving was quite simple, as he and his magicks had caused a deforestation of half a kilometre around where he had resided. Therefore, he was advised to vacate the area for fear of discovery by way of the little voice in his head.

Along the way, he asked about the world he was on, along with some crucial details about, “Levels.”

“[What about it?]” chimed in Azazel, whom he visualised as lazing about upon a hammock of some sort.

“Well, there are Magicks, Classes, and Skills here, so what about Levels and Status Menus?”

“[Well of course there are those, but you won't need to worry about them.]”

“And the reason why?” his voice stretched out the last word spoken, leading to her to sigh with some exasperation.

“[Karastak,]” he felt as though she were lecturing him as though he were naught, but a child who still hadn't learn and understood his lessons fully, “[the status menu and level system is governed by the System of the world. You are outside it, understand? You don't need to concern yourself with such things.]”

“But,” Karastak frowned, and sent a mental image of himself as a puppy with large eyes, eliciting an adorable “aww” from her, “what level would I be if I were a part of it?”

Once again, Azazel sighed before continuing to speak, “[You would be Level 8 at this stage in your short life. It would have been higher if you hadn't spent all your time fiddling around with just Spark, Ice, and Flame.]

“[Hell, you should be able to use Growth, Levitation, and Shield by now, but no,]” her voice drawled, “[You decided it was more important to explore those three words more.]” After such a small rant, he felt and saw within his mind's eye her pouting greatly from watching him explore the many uses of such words.

Unfortunately for himself, the word of Spark was only good enough in blinding his eyes when he added too much energy to it, or showering the space of the word with fine, yellow sparks. Flame, on the other hand, created a bonfire of two and a quarter metres in diametre when adding too much, or a candle flame when only giving it a trickle. Whereas Ice had the ability to cause a flash freeze of two metres around the word, three metres if he focused it into a cone, or just make the air around the word chilly.

“Well, I did use Scorch.”

“[Yeah, but it only blackened the rock and vaporised wood,]” grumbled Azazel, not at all impressed with what he had done thus far. Which soon led to them creating an awkward silence between them as Karastak continued to move forwards through a somewhat dim forest due to the light of the sun above being blocked by the leaves of a great many trees stretching their limbs to the heavens in order to receive the rays which gave them their energy.

The scenery around him, the greens, browns, and greys of foliage, earth, and stone was rather calming to himself. However, it was rather quiet, as though the forest he was in had taken a deep breath due to his presence. Which would have suited him just as well, if Azazel wasn't so quiet from pouting.

“[I'm not pouting,]” she pouted, giving him the visualisation of her glaring at him with her fists on her hips. He would have argued further, anything to remove the loud silence which flitted through the air and between his ears, if he wasn't alerted to the sound of a great many somethings laughing and chattering in a guttural tone.

Frowning somewhat, he moved forward at a steady pace so as to not alert the owners of the voice. Of which led him to a large tree about twice his width. Whereupon his eyes did spy a curious scene of a dozen green-skinned things in loincloths. Each were dancing around what appeared to be someone from the farming community he had raided the shorts he wore a few days prior. What is more, the creatures had stone-tipped sticks and were using them to poke the person, who grunted and feebly swung a large and bleeding arm at them.

Such a motion caused the group to laugh at the attempt, resulting in the supposed farmer to duck down and curl up into a ball. This action caused the group to grin with a mouth full of broken teeth as they moved in for what appeared to be the final blow. However, Karastak had a different idea.

Without hesitation, he removed himself from behind the tree, causing the group to turn towards himself and sneering whilst waving their sticks with as much menace as they could muster. “How pitiful,” he commented before taking a deep breath before releasing the same scream which erupted from his lungs since appearing within the world. Of which caused the creatures to shat themselves before scattering into the forest around them.

“Now then,” his legs strode him over to the one such creatures were tormenting, and gently pushed them upon their back. Thus revealing a bloodied man who was far more brutish in appearance than anything else, and appeared to be wearing linen overalls that were too small for him, along with the remains of a tunic. “Hmm,” his voice hummed as he reached down to pat the man's cheeks, “You alright there big guy?”

“[I think he might be dead, Karastak,]” chimed in Azazel, his mind giving off the impression of her resting atop his head, peering down upon the scene.

“It'd be a pity if he was... hmm...”

“[What are you thinking?]” His mind gave off the visualisation of her poking his right cheek, desiring to know what was going on inside his mind, despite already having access to it.

“Well, I was thinking that a follower or a minion would be good. Especially one as strong as this one, and perhaps knows more about the world,” he explained slowly, feeling his uppermost canines slowly form themselves, “You did say I was a Vampire, and if the transformation is anything like what I read about back in my last world, then it should be easy for me to start having minions.”

“[Yeah?]” Azazel frowned, retreating from his mind for only a moment before returning, “[Well, the transformation of an Energy Vampire is incredibly slow, by the look of things... Hmm...]”

“What?” he asked as the world around him explodes with colour due to him switching to his second sight. Here, he quickly stared down upon the brutish person on the ground, and found out he was still alive somehow from the way the energy flowed throughout his large frame. “Quite resilient, aren't you?”

“[Meh, he's part of that community; they're all built like stone walls, especially those who take the Farmer Class.]”

This revelation caused Karastak to become puzzled as he frowned from the confusion. “Farming is a Class?”

“[Huh?]” she began, then erupted into laughter when she fully absorbed his question, resulting in his frown deepening. Of which lasted for quite some time, but when it ended, she spoke slowly, “[Yeah, everything you can think of is a Class here. From Farmer to Warrior, everything can be obtained and trained as a Class.]”

“Huh,” his eyes blinked slowly as he leaned over the man's unconscious form, “you learn something new every day. However, what I wish to know is if I just need to bite and drain him a bit before sharing some of my blood, or if there is something else I have to do before claiming this one as my minion.”