The night passed by without any special happenings and we managed to get our sleep. The third day of the quest has finally begun and we needed to map the Western area for today.

“Hey guys. It's time to wake up.” was what I wanted to say

“Mmffgh.” was what came out

My hands were tied and I was gagged and blindfolded.

Oh my god the undead forces has kidnapped me I'm so dead

“MMMMRFFGGHHH!”

I felt someone untie the ropes and slowly remove the blindfold....

Breadtalk.

“April fools! Sorry just wanted to make you wet your pants. I'm too tired to think of a good joke. Loki gave me a two. Can't blame him though.”

I made a fist shape rise from the ground below Breadtalk, quite literally punching his balls from the zero angle as hard as I can.

After the commotion in the morning, we set off first thing in the morning to get on with the quest as fast as possible. I had a bad feeling that the longer we drag, the harder this quest would be.

We set off immediately on to the western side. We did not have to walk far to find the first monster. It was a lvl 70 gorilla as I suspected. However something was very wrong with it. It was dead.

“Sword marks all over it with a few arrows sticking out. You think another party is here hunting with us?”

“Maybe. Let's go in further maybe we could find out more.”

We ventured further into the forest, finding more and more gorilla corpses. However after about 30 minutes of walking, we heard a few roars and sounds of a fight breaking out. We rushed over and saw a gorilla fighting against a group of warriors. Just one catch though. The warriors were undead.

They were undead skeleton warriors which were about the same level as gorillas but as they had the overwhelming number advantage, the gorilla soon went down.

No undead should exist within the forbidden forest. What is wrong with the forest? First werewolves and now undead skeleton warriors?

“Jinx. What do we do now?”

“What we always do.”

I used Rooted on the skeletal warriors and all of us immediately engaged. I gave light mana to every weapon. Breadtalk had gotten a two handed mace with a spiky ball as a head. Apparently it didn't seem to do anything so it was a first where we saw a weapon from Loki without any special effect. There was a number 99 printed on the handle though but I doubt that was of any importance.

Soup dashed in and used a new skill he just met the basic requirements for learning.

“Gladiator's rage.”

His weapon glowed red along with the goldenish glow it had from light mana and he slashed it through one of the skeleton warriors.

Gladiator's rage was one of the bread and butter skills of what made the foundation of the class. It was the skill that allowed famous gladiators to solo an entire dungeon of monsters without any additional help. The longer the gladiator has been in battle would increase his damage. The more monsters the gladiator has killed throughout the duration of the buff, the higher his endurance, sustenance and vitality levels would become. The duration of the buff was dependent on the proficiency of the skill so I guess this was why Soup used it, he wanted to raise it's proficiency as soon as possible.

All of us hacked and slashed at the skeletal warriors. I experiemented a bit with their undead nature as well. I created a field of holy light around us and their attacks weakened considerably and it dealt damage per second as well.

Xantos was extremely efficient in taking down these skeletal warriors as well. She had already grown in size to be about 1.5x that of Breadtalk already and it was only 3 days. She was capable of using holy magic so she cast something that look like a holy ray of light upon each skeletal warrior, lowering their HP significantly. Breadtalk was just flailing his club along like a giant spiky deathball. Beathoven played a rockish melody that increased our attack speed to heighten our efficiency in killing them.

The group of 5 immobilised skeletal warriors were vanquished quickly.

“So why do you think there are a group of skeletal warriors here?”

“Maybe they cae out from the castle to hunt. The troops in the castle may include skeletal warriors and troops need training after all. Maybe this was their mission.”

“Sounds fair enough. But how come they can come out during the day?”

“Undead love the night but that doesn't mean they totally melt under the sun. Besides the canopy is so thick I think they will be able to function normally.”

“Undead give additional experience though due to the nature of their type. We should get quite alot of experience if we hunt them down. Let's go.”

We scoured the surrounding areas and found out skeletal warriors hunted in groups of 5. We took each group down the same way, efficiently and quickly and made our way deeper towards the west.

Suddenly, we heard sounds that were loud but it sounded different from all the fights we've heard so far. We decided to check it out.

In a valley, there were a few tents set up and it turned out the noise we heard was this base camp that the undead had set up. Skeletal warriors were busy repairing their weapons, chatting away and the loud hammering noises with their voices were what we heard.

There were about at least 5 groups of them so at least 25 skeletal soldiers. We could easily deal with 5 or even 10 of them but the thought of 25 skeleton warriors charging at you seemed a bit scary. Except to Breadtalk of course because all he did after processing a moment's worth of thought through his brain was to jump straight into the fray.

“NOT AGAIN.” And the 4 of us went straight in with him. I quickly set up a holy area around us and thought about my options. Immobilising all of them assuming 30 skeletal warriors would mean I could only last 10 seconds. Not a wise choice. I stuck to basics and decided to rely on my katana mastery instead. Beside me I could see Soup rared up and ready to go with his Gladiator's rage activated and ready to go, the bloodlust showing in his eyes. Xantos was already casting holy rays everywhere and swooping in to annoy a few of the skeletons.

“Guys! The number on my weapon reduces each time I hit an enemy with it and it's about to go to 0 soon. Brace yourselves I guess?”

Great. Of course all of Loki's weapons had to have a secret to them. I wonder what would require 99 hits onto enemies to activate but it looks like I was about to find out. He swung his mace onto the helmet of a skeletal soldier and the head of the mace actually detached and latched itself onto the helmet.

“Guys. There's another number now on the head of the giant spiky iron ball instead. It says 10,9,8,7....”

Realising what it could be I quickly set up walls of earth around all the party members. I suspected it was a bomb. However, after I counted to 0, there was no explosion albeit a sound of gushing wind.

I released the spell and looked around. All the skeletal soldiers were nearly down to 0 health and all of them had spikes similar to that on the giant spiky mace head covering their entire bodies. The head of the mace also automatically went to attach itself onto the handle, making it whole again.

Seems like whenever Breadtalk strikes the enemy 99 times, the head of the mace would become a time activated bomb that shoots out it's spikes endlessly instead of an explosion. It was a pretty handy skill for clearing big pile of mobs but it had to go through 99 hits on enemies first. No wonder a 2 would let you get such an item. However the timing was just nice as they had a huge crowd now. I proceeded to cut down the skeletal warriors one after another who were weakened in the holy field and had their movement speed slowed down by Beathoven. Soup was plowing through skeleton after skeleton and Xantos was still casting holy rays.

Thanks to the activation of Breadtalk's weapon, the situation was dealt with rather quickly. The 30 skeletal warriors all died and we took their base camp as our own to consume our lunch and follow up with necessary preparations.

My cooking level was progressing well and with the recipe the villagers gave me, I could give the party a 10% hp boost for 2 hours once they consumed my food. Soup's repair skill has also almost reached the intermediate level after repairing weapons every day during these hunts. Beathoven played so many songs that most of his songs were reaching intermediate level soon and his chaotic melody has already reached beginner level 9. It was giving us 140hp and mp regeneration which was an extremely impressive buff. I could use gravity crush all day long and still have full mana. He told me he was also composing a new song as he mastered almost all the typical songs he had from the book his guild master gave him. Self composed songs like chaotic melody seemed to have much better effects so I was looking forward to his new song.

After lunch, we decided to venture further into the forest to finish mapping up the place. To no surprise, what lay deeper ahead of us were hordes and hordes of skeleton warriors which we cut down body after body, head after head. They were quite similar with us on levels by now but due to our skill proficiencies and experience, it was as smooth as cutting through soft cheese. Up until we saw what was seemingly the final group for us to finish off. However this was not normal.

What we saw ahead of us was what seemed to be the leader of the fallen gorillas, a huge king kong about twice the size of a normal gorilla protecting a herd of his kind behind him, as around 20 skeletal warriors begun their final approach. Being the sort of guy I am, I couldn't simply ignore this and I quickly assaulted the skeletal warriors head on instead of Soup leading the charge instead.

“Typical Jinx, he's just a goody two shoes isn't he?”

“Well I don't particularly hate types like that.”

“Hahaha well good guys finish last anyway so I dont mind!”

The three of them knew me so well they didn't even hesitate one moment and join the charge. Xantos apparently was the only one a bit stunned to dive into the chaos but I guess our craziness rubbed off a little on her and she quickly rose to the occasion. Quite literally. As in flying and everything. Ok sorry i tried.

I was outraged and angry now that I actually saw the king kong try to protect his kind behind him while he was wounded and injured already no doubt from earlier battles and I casted the biggest holy field yet. It's intensity was also heightened and it was not only confirmed by a faster drop in HP from the skeleton warriors but also a message I received.

Elemental Affinity to Light increased!

By spending time with a mythical creature associated with light and feeding it regularly, you have purified your light mana even further and the close approximity you have spent daily with the creature has heightened your level of affinity to light. Protecting this gorilla family from the skeleton warriors have also been witnessed by the demigod of these lands, Valhalla and all these acts combined have given you additional affinity to light.

Light Affinity + additional 5%

Cool. I remembered what Dumblemore told me about increasing my elemental affinity. I had to make use of such chances to expose myself to higher purity of elements. This increase meant that all my light spells were of a greater purity thus efficiency and impact. I tested it out by trying to use a holy spell that Xantos has tried to teach me but I was unable to learn from her.

“Lesser heal!”

I concentrated my mana on Soup as he used Gladiator's Rage and Berserker's Call and aggro-ed almost 10 skeleton warriors to himself. A ray of holy light from the heavens shone on him and his hp increased by about two fifths of the bar. The skeleton warriors nearby also suffered damage due to the close proximity with the holy ray of light that had healing powers.

New Skill : Lesser Heal

Your attempts to learn this spell from Xantos has been in vain as you did not have the required affinity with light in order to manipulate light mana to be able to heal. However, upon increasing your light affinity, you are now able to use your mana to heal your allies slightly. Any undead in the surrounding area of the heal would suffer damage proportionate to the amount healed.

Mana cost : 200

I always suspected that you needed a minimum amount of affinity to a certain element before you could learn certain spells as well and this answered my theory perfectly. This was how higher tier spells could slowly be learnt. By increasing affinity.

It was a very useful spell. I was very concerned about our group not having a healer and have always thought using health potions would be the only other alternative. However health potions were rarely dropped and expensive but essential in boss fights where health levels usually decreased extremely fast. Looks like I could also act as a healer in situations as well and the mana cost was not too taxing as well. Sure it was high but if it could heal two fifths of Soup's hp pool it could most definitely heal mine back to full due to my relatively low vitality. I had no skills to increase my defence level as well, i just relied on parrying and dodging so if I took a big hit I would most likely be almost dead. I decided to try and fix this weakness.

I usually just used earth for building walls to trap monsters or mostly change the terrain but it looks like now is a good time for inventing defensive skills before embarking on the quest into the castle walls. I imagined a thin layer of earth mana surrounding me and hardening my skin and armour.

New Skill : Elemental Armour

Gives different buffs according to which element is wrapped around the user. Mana cost remains the same though regardless of type of mana used. A very flexible skill that can be used in almost all situations with a moderate mana cost.

Mana cost : 20/s

I immediately scrolled through the different elements to see their effects. Fire made surrounding enemies take damage as the flame from my aura scorched them. Ice made enemies who have hit me slightly slower as the frost on my armour would slow down their movements. Water made me more resistant to status effects as they seemed to be washed away and impeded by the water. Lightning made the enemies who hit me directly or with weapons that could conduct electricity stunned for a short period of time. Earth increased my defence directly and made me sturdier. Gravity made me heavier which meant I would be able to hold my stance more firmly and not get knocked back by strong attacks. Light made me glow brightly, causing damage to nearby undead enemies or causing a higher chance for opponents to miss due to the irritating light emitting from my avatar. Darkness cursed the nearby enemies to have a weaker attack speed and attack rating due to the overwhelming sense of despair they would be able to sense from me.

Looks like this skill would be very useful. I also needed the existence of Beathoven to be able to cast so many spells in a fight. Mana regeneration is usually 1% of your total mana per second. However Beathoven's song gave me about 5% of my total mana per second instead which meant I could maintain my elemental armour, electrical impulse and wind steps without losing mana at all times. He really seemed like the one who did the least in fights due to his nonexistent damage contribution but in actual fact, if Beathoven went down in a fight, I would most probably be useless after 1-2 minutes. I was extremely grateful for his class choice and I think Soup and Breadtalk also realised how important he was to the party.

We defeated the skeletal army with ease. However the situation was trickier than that and it was still not solved. The king kong looked at us with apprehensive eyes. They did not know whether we have saved them or would finish them off. It would be an easy thing to do as the king kong looked extremely damaged. The gorillas behind him were also quite wounded.

We went in with the intention of wiping out the monsters and levelling up and this would be the perfect opportunity but seeing wounded enemies which were easily picked off was not my style. I sheathed my katana and tried to communicate with the king kong.

“Do you understand our language?” I asked.

The king kong nodded. But did not speak.

“Can you talk?”

He shook his head.

“I am not going to kill you. I have prepared some food earlier and I will give you all some food. In return all I ask is that you recover your strength in order to assist us later. To the northeast there is a castle where these skeleton warriors likely came from. We will be raiding that castle in a few days and we would like you to be on our side so we stand a better chance and you get a chance to avenge all your fallen comrades today. Will you accept my offer?”

He nodded immediately. Firmly. It was without a doubt that he understood my offer.

I immediately took out my cooking supplies to prepare a meal for them. I included bananas in them just for fun as I suspected that if this game were as realistic and awesome as it was, these gorilllas would love bananas like crazy. It was a recipe I made up myself and I decided to feed it to them and see what happened.

At first all of them looked apprehensive as I offered the food. They smelled it for abit and then took a wary bite. And after that in a split second all the food was gone as they swallowed it whole after tasting the first bite.

New recipe created : Going Bananas

Thoughtfulness on your part has enabled you to create a dish that the ape family loves. Eating this dish would enhance their energy and physical attributes temporarily. Gives them enhanced recovery rate as well as endurance for 2 hours after consumption. Only for apes. Not applicable for humans.

Oh well looks like I'm born to cook for apes.

There were about 20 gorillas at first which was quite a simple task to feed. However, the king kong let out a loud roar and shortly after, more gorillas appeared from the canopy of the forest, swinging down to the temporary rest point we had set up. I had to use all the bananas I bought from town as well as send Xantos and Beathoven to collect more to finish feeding the gorillas. There were about 100 in total which meant there used to be a lot more before the skeletal warriors came to hunt them down.

The western area by now was fully mapped and the last area to go was the north. We had to make full use of the time given to us but we made sure not to map areas at night. Vision decreased so efficiency fell greatly and it was common sense that certain undead species become significantly stronger at night like the werewolf we saw 2 nights ago. We had to be safe. We started walking back to our camp as I said goodbye to the king kong. He was their leader and throughout the short 2-3 hours we hung out with each other, I could sense that we developed mutual respect and goodwill for the other party. I had no doubt that when I decided to raid the castle, all I needed was to call on him and he would be there to provide assistance. They could serve as an army alone already. However I doubt that was enough.

When we reached the village, everything seemed normal and we decided to immediately get rest so we could completely finish mapping up our first area in the game and stand a higher chance of completing the quest. Little did we know that this quest was actually staged by a certain compatriot of ours that has noticed each and every step we took.

Deep in the mountain ranges of Jötunheimr, Loki was busy entertaining himself by using his spirits in the real world to take the form of birds, watching Jinx and his party venture into the forbidden forest. There was no such quest for newbies. When Jinx heard the information from Elena, Elena was actually in the toilet. Loki just used shapeshift to pretend to be Elena and gave him the quest.

“My dear children, have you been watching the chosen ones? Have they passed your first test you have set for them?” Loki telephatically asked his children.

“My dire wolves and werewolf proved to be little challenge to them and I am particularly impressed by one person in the group. I see no problem in choosing them.” His son said.

“My snakes have also proved to be of little trouble to them. I expected them to fail at the king cobra but they answered my expectations spectacularly. I too have no problem in choosing them.” His other son said.

“My skeleton warriors were crushed. I think I had set the difficulty level a bit too easy but for now I approve of your choice father.” His daughter replied.

“Good good. I think the first test was a bit on the easy side though as they have quite a powerful synergy and line up of characters. However the next test will truly test their mettle and from there, we can see their true worth and whether or not we should risk it all investing in their potential. I think the next few days would be the most interesting show we will get to watch in decades. I sincerely hope that our long wait has ended for all of our sakes. I am running low on energy now as I need to reserve some to watch their moves. You all should too. Until next time, Fenrir, Jörmungandr, Hel.”

End of Chapter 10