“Ha!”

*Puchi!*

The crab monster wailed around as it tried to shank out the knife. Sadly, because of its unnatural body, its claws couldn’t reach its eyes, and soon enough all blood within had escaped onto the cold stone.

The body limped weakly onto the ground.

And then, just like any other crabs he had fought before, a white orb flew out and entered his chest, a warmth surged in his chest, but it disappeared just as fast.

“Let us return.”

As Jake finished retrieving his knife, Zed emerged from the shadows. He put his hand over the crab’s crystal, and it began shaking before breaking apart from the crab. He quickly took the shards and put it into a pouch in his other hand.

“Really? But it hasn’t even been that long…”

“No. The mother of these crabs will soon emerge. Fighting it is unnecessary.”

Jake was slightly annoyed by this. After all, if these small fries are these easy, then the boss of these guys shouldn’t be that tough, right?! Was what Jake thought.

Zed continued to warn him about the mother of all these crabs, and how powerful it is. He said that he wouldn’t stand a chance against it, and there was a high chance for a severe injury to be inflicted on him.

“Hey, we can just work together, right?”

“No.”

For the first time, he heard his voice turn serious. Normally, he would be putting up a relaxed attitude, or an odd accent, but he has never heard him speak seriously about something.

After spending some time thinking about it, he sighed and gave up. Zed smiled and turned around, but didn’t move an inch.

“..Zed?”

“Young Jake. Stand back.”

As his words reached his ears, a chill suddenly creeped up his spine. Using his [Shadow Step], he blurred his figure and moved behind a large rock. He wasn’t sure why he did that, but he knew, that something big was coming.

“GIIIII!!!”

*BOOOM*

Suddenly, the wall a couple meters away from Zed collapsed, and a large shadow emerged from the dust. As the dust settled down, Jake got a good view of what had just entered, and his whole body tensed in an instant.

“GGIIII!!!”

The monster that had just appeared looked similar to the crabs he had been fighting recently. However, instead of having no mouth, it had a large razor filled mouth that looked like it belongs to a horror movie or something.

It was several times larger, almost completely filling up the space in the cave. From his distance, the crab looked about 5 meters tall, and had claws as big as a van. The crystal on its back was no different, being about 5 or 6 times larger than the little crabs.

Undoubtedly, this was the boss of this cave!

“Come.”

Zed still looked relaxed in this situation, while Jake could only stare from the back. His fingers shivered as he imagined what it would be like to be grinded in that large mouth. How is it that he was able to stand before that thing without shaking on bit?!

“GGIIII!!”

In delight, the mother crab rushed in. It readied its claws and began swinging it furiously.

But, his figure seemed to flash in and out of existence! He avoided all the furious attacks of the mother crab, and in style too!

“Break.”

Pointing his hand at an incoming claw, a huge wave was shot out, and broke apart the claw!

“G-GII?!”

The remnants of the claw dropped onto the floor and shattered, like glass. The mother crab stopped its careless attacks and stepped back using its eight spider-like legs. It seemed like it was considering something.

“W-What?!”

Jake was shocked to see that the broken claw, was beginning to regenerate! And in a couple seconds, the claw looked brand new!

Zed looked at it with calm eyes.

“Scatter.”

This time, his words sounded stern, cold even. The ground under it began shaking, and caved in. “GII?!” The eight legs of the mother crab were trapped in the broken stone. “Shatter.”

With each word he said, the mother crab fell into an even worse situation than before. After getting its leg stuck, the ceiling above broke and fell onto the mother crab. Its legs were shattered by the unseen force. And soon enough, its mobility was hindered completely.

It stopped trying to move, and began to concentrate on healing its broken legs. It now knew, that it had picked a fight with the wrong person!

“Tear.”

After waiting, he pointed his finger straight at its eyes. The mother crab realised what it was trying to do, and tried to cover its eyes with its claws.

But there was no need.

“GIIIIIIIII!!!!!!”

A small explosion occurred, and one of its eyes exploded! Blue blood spurted out randomly and painted the stone blue. It struggled in vain as more and more stone began dropping onto it. Half of its body was covered by stone.

“Cave in.”

He didn’t wait any further, and caused more stone above it to shatter and drop onto the mother crab. It quickly raised its claws and broke away the stone, but then its claws suddenly shattered!

“G-Giii…”

Soon enough, the stone was up to its claws. No matter how much it tried, its body wouldn’t move even an inch in any directions. It was completely trapped!

As the last of the stones fell, its body was no longer visible. It wasn’t dead yet, but it was close to being dead. As a last resort, it began charging its core with excessive amounts of energy, and it began to expand at astounding speed.

But Zed wouldn’t allow his new partner to be hurt!

Just like a cold-blooded killer, he said his final words to it.

“…Die.”

And then, the whole mountain of stones began vibrating violently, as if it was a large volcano ready to erupt!

Although Jake couldn’t see it, the mother crab was twisting violently as its body was contorting in a painful and unnatural way. Its whole body shook intensely, until it couldn’t hold out any longer!

*BANG!*

The large rock mountain exploded, and chunks of stone and crab meat flew in many directions. Shards of its previous crystal could be seen gracefully emitting its last light. The body of the mother crab was no more.

Zed had won, without moving his legs at all!

“W-Woah…”

Jake could only open his mouth and stare blankly at the complete massacre of the mother crab. Heck, was massacre even appropriate to describe what just happened?

“It is safe now. Let us return!”

Once again, his old attitude was back, and he walked out triumphantly. Alex stared blankly for a moment, but as he realised that his figure was beginning to disappear, he quickly followed his steps into the darkness.

As they walked, they would usually encounter another one of those crabs, but they wouldn’t attack them at all. As if the death of their mother became a warning to them to never mess with these people.

On sight, the crabs would run back into the darkness, and those that failed to run, stood there like a beaten dog and stared blankly at them.

Jake felt quite bad for them. After all, their mother just died! Then again, they are monsters, so he didn’t understand completely about their family ties and what not.

Walking through the maze-like cave system, Zed somehow managed to lead Jake through the same they went through when they went in. The remains of the previous crabs could be seen as they walked past.

How Zed was able to do this, he wasn’t sure.

Now that he thought about it, there were many things that he didn’t know nor understand about Zed. For one, his attacks were completely invisible to the naked eye, and the monsters that faced him seemed to explode on command.

It was just his speculation, but when he saw that last attack on the mother crab, he felt an oddly strong vibration coming from the air around him. If that was true, what could his true powers be then? Was he holding back?

That thought terrified him. If Zed was actually holding back, then what was his true strength?

He shivered as he looked at him. Who would’ve thought that this prophet was actually a monster?!

Besides that, his {Foresight} ability. He said that it was able to see incoming attacks, but as he demonstrated it more and more, he began to doubt whether that really is true. After all, he managed to sense that the mother crab was coming, so was that really its true potential?

“Hey, Zed?” Jake asked as they were beginning to climb back up to the entrance.

“Yes, Jake?”

“What level are you, really?”

This was something he needed to confirm. If this guy was actually super strong, then that would make sense actually. He did kill the mother crab without moving too much after all!

Status: Zed Lv 96

Health: 96/96

Mana: 8975/9600

Strength: 2400

Intelligence: 2400

Resistance: 10

Agility: 2400

Skills:

{Supernova} Rank 4 (11%)

{Foresight} Rank 3 (27%)

{Heart of Despair} R*n$ % (%%%)

[Magic Manipulation] Rank 4 (21%)

[[Concentration]] Rank 4 (53%)

[[Third Vision]] Rank 4 (44%)

{[Demon Wave]} Rank 3 (66%)

Titles:

(Prophet of Neverland)|(Death Defiant)|(Executioner)|(Final Days)|(Last one Standing)|

“…You shall know in due time, young Jake.”

Zed seemed reluctant to reveal his level, so Jake didn’t question it further.

Soon, as they climbed further, they could see more and more sunlight rushing into their eyes. Jake was forced to cover his eyes and slow down, but Zed didn’t seem to be affected by this change in light.

Just what is this man?

Not much after, the walls disappeared, and the field of grass from several hours ago was back in view.

His eyes stared blankly into space as he felt, first-hand, the dangers this world had within.

“I need to be careful from now on…”

Jake thought as Zed led him back to the kingdom of [Tordge].

The walk was completely silent. Zed didn’t say any of his wisdom, and with nothing to hear, Jake listened to the rhythm of the passing wind. He needed to calm his mind after witnessing such a slaughter.

Going past the guard, Zed and Jake finally finished their first day, and what a first day this was!

“Well, I shall be going now. I bid you farewell!”

“Yeah!...”

“Remember, we shall meet here once more tomorrow.”

“Yeah…”

As he waved goodbye, he watched as Zed slowly blended in with the crowd. He felt slightly hungry, so he decided to go and get some food.

He merged in as just another face in the crowd, and pushed along the people to get to his destination. After some manoeuvring, he stopped in front of a cafeteria-type building and went in.

He sat down and loosened his shoulder. He still could feel the tension he felt back in the cave, as he watched Zed slaughter the mother crab with one command.

It truly was a spectacle to behold.

“Sir?”

“Ah…Sorry.”

He ordered a bowl of fish soup and a glass of water. He wasn’t going to buy anything spectacular, and only wanted to fulfil his hunger. Bowing to him, the waitress took his order to the chef.

He put both of his hands on the table and slouched down. This first day had drained him mentally, even if he didn’t get hurt, but the aura that mother crab gave out was something beyond anything he had felt.

He sighed as he shook away the thoughts.

Besides the amazing display he got to see today, he did manage to gain some experience in battle, and some level ups too!

That was nice and all, but after seeing just how powerful Zed was, it really showed to him that he still had a long way to go. And he wasn’t even sure if that was his full strength!

What the hell man…

“Hah…”

Status: Jake Darryl Lv 10

Health: 175/180

Mana: 150/170

Strength: 38

Intelligence: 35

Resistance: 34

Agility: 55

Skills:

{Jester} Rank 1 (Max)

[Assassin] Rank 1 (10%)

[Shadow Step] Rank 1 (19%)

Titles:

(Summoned One)|(Shadow)|(Noiseless)|

Still, although he gained a couple levels, was this really enough?

After learning of the dangers lurking behind the darkness, he began to doubt if he really was strong enough to try and go searching for his friend. Sure, Zed was there, but when he goes down, what can he do?

He sighed deeply and shook his head in acceptance.

“Here you go sir!”

Just as he finished his internal processes, the waitress from before came back, this time holding a platter with a bowl of fish soup and a glass of water.

“Thanks!”

With some excitement, he gladly took the bowl and the glass. The waitress giggled softly and walked back to her station.

As he looked over the steaming soup, he grabbed his spoon and dipped it in.

“…Heaven…”

He said unconsciously as he took a quick taste of the fish soup. And his mouth was overtaken by taste.

He really did like fish. As a fact, fish was his favourite type of meat. Whether it was tuna, or some salmon, or a nice fried fish from another country, he always enjoyed fish-based dishes, especially soups! Especially soup.

As he ate from his spoon, his mind wandered around and began to think about the kingdom. Soon enough, that thought led him back to the day he was brought here.

He almost spat out the soup as he recalled just how surprising it was to suddenly see his school disappearing into thin air and being replaced by the walls of the castle.

Looking around, he could see the soldiers celebrating over this. He didn’t understand at first, the others were the same, but he soon learned that they had tried this technique many times in the past, and after 29 failed attempts, this time, it worked!

And the soldiers and magicians were overjoyed.

But the one who was the happiest, was the king himself. He laughed happily as he continued to tap on his son’s back. The son seemed to hold out, but his ears and face were completely red.

From what the king said, they were actually summoned here by the orders of the king. After realising that the end of the world was near, he ordered his men to begin the preparations for a magic spell his ancestors had handed down, from one generation to another.

That was all he could remember, because he was freaking out over the fact that Alex was nowhere to be seen! Sure, there may be 400 students or so in that room, but after asking the teacher and fellow classmates about him, they said that he was nowhere around! And he clearly remembered waving to him as he went up to the library in seclusion!

His heart nearly jumped out of his throat!

But, after the faithful meeting with Zed, he realised that Alex was actually alive! And not only that, he seemed to have survived a tough battle in the wilderness! What a man!

But then, his mind snapped back to reality, as he realised that his bowl was already empty seconds ago.

Finishing the water from the glass, he paid his expenses and went out.

As he stared into the clear blue sky, he silently promised his friend.

‘No matter where you are, I will find you, one day!’

‘Even if it takes many years, I will meet you!’

‘So, don’t you die yet!’

He proclaimed as he raised his fist into the air. His eyes glowing golden in confidence and determination. He won’t give up just because of this!