“The greatest news today in Royal Road is the increasing number of monster appearances in the Western Continent. There have been reports of many monster dens suddenly expanding into the reaches of once safe areas. It is advised to not travel in these areas for now as the monster levels are relatively high for non-combat high levelled players.”

xXx

Setting off on the road, the group chatted to each other ignoring the fact that even walking was gradually getting harder and harder with the restrictions on their body due to training.

“Thank God that Alena gave us this quest” said Shadow with a sigh of relief.

Though agreeing with him, Miriel still said, “Why are you complaining? You're not the one who was swarmed with male fans trying to touch you...eck” she made a face of disgust remembering it.

“Even being in that scene was bad enough...even if no one noticed me for the most part” he replied slightly depressed. He didn't know whether to be happy or not.

“It is a good thing that we did that task with a different face” said Sain. Due to the insight Alena had, she made it so that during that...fashion show....their faces were a bit different from before. The nose would be straighter, eyes would be larger, cheeks would be a bit higher and so on.

These were small changes but changed the impression people had on them greatly.

Though because of this, they were thankful enough to move about without people looking or even approaching them, they did not like the experience nonetheless.

“I feel this chill when I try to remember what happened...” commented Lyndis, “In all my life I have never seen people so...perverted. Raven frankly got the worse of it” she said looking at him.

He was expressionless but you could tell that he was trying very hard to stay that way when...'girls' started rushing to him when they got the chance. Honestly it was more like a stampede of hungry beasts in the presence of a meal for the first time in a while.

“Can we...not talk about it....anymore?” asked Serena a bit red. She did not expect that many people...to have that kind of fetish for young girls...or was it just her?

With a cough by Sain, they got back on track with what they needed to talk about.

“Too bad we didn't take a carriage...” said Sain in a disappointed tone.

“How could they?” Miriel asked, “When they know that the area we are going is an dangerous area right now” she looked into the distance where they were heading. It would soon be night as the sun was setting to their right.

“Couldn't they just let us off in an area nearby? We would still pay them and they will be a safe distance away from said dangerous area” Shadow started complaining.

“They didn't even want to take the chance right now...” Sain sighed remembering how all of those drivers rejected him quite badly. It seems that the news of the areas in the game, at least part of the western continent was spreading.

There were less and less people coming out to explore the wilderness...though the number of cities in the game is extremely high and even more so for towns and villages as well now. How much is this? Think of the number of cities, towns and villagers at the start of the game, and times it by five.

The central continent is more or less fully packed else for the dungeons and it is spreading to the other four ends of the continent. After that, it is the northern and eastern continents where there is more development.

The only thing was that the western and southern continent were...more harsh on new players that it is less populated. While not as bad as one of the 10 restricted zones, the plane of despair, the western continent has a larger quantity of monsters than normal while the southern continent was even worse with less monsters but more of ones that were extremely high levelled.

As such these two sides of the continent would evermore be less popular than the other parts of the continent. Which was fine for the group as they hated crowded stuff either way.

“What the hell is going on? First monsters are coming out more often and we get a quest to slay a Chimera” Lyndis sighed thinking of the amount of stress she will get out of this.

Sain replied with, “I believe they are at least partly connected though, I mean chimeras aren't exactly natural.”

“So...a quest to find the culprit or something?” Lyndis wondered.

Miriel tapped Lyndis' shoulder and said, “We only have a quest to slay one chimera. Please don't jinx it so we have to find the culprit of this...” she thought back to the scene of lined up corpses being used in an experiment and having to burn them.

“....”

The group was silent for a while longer until Serena asked, “How long..will it take to get there...?”

Sain looked at the map which he took from his inventory and given by Alena on the general area of the chimera sighted. They were heading south of Lily City to a location around 300 kilometres from there.

Taking into account that they will need to stop on villages along the way to resupply and being attacked by monsters plus their own training which was still ongoing....

“Around a month a guess.”

There was an unified sound of groaning from some people. To be precise, Lyndis, Miriel and Shadow.

“What is it?” Sain had to ask. Complaints from anyone was a rare thing and he wanted to know what was up.

“A month of...this” said Lyndis pointing at the bracelets they have on. Thanks to it, all of them have at least twice the weight to endure, in some cases quad-triple plus restrains that make it even harder to move about.

Even walking was a difficult task to them while they were trying to perfectly control their bodies let along fighting. More than often, each day they would suddenly pause for no other reason than that they couldn't move.

In combat this would be fatal.

“The only good thing I can see that can come from this is that by the time we get to the chimera, we will be more or less partly used to these restrictions” said Sain, “Though it really hurts to think our battle abilities have dropped several notches now” he further added grimly.

At the level 160 range, the group could be said equal to a level 170 or level 180 group in their normal state. However right now with their training, they were only equal to a level 150 or less group.

The sudden drop of battle ability ranged around 30 so naturally the group felt weak. However that was not all they had to deal with.

“Don't forget that we need to train our circulation skills and art skills as well” Miriel added, “Those skills are really powerful but the circulation skills won't do much at this point and there is too much of a high chance that our art skills will fail when we use it.”

“In that words, practise more and more...” Shadow sighed, “Why does it always resort back to more training. Is this new life a string of everlasting training?”

“A wise man once said that to live is to train until the end~” said Lyndis in a good mood seeing Shadow depressed like that.

“What wise man?!” retorted Shadow without intending for it causing his body to weaken for a second and snap back.

xXx

A little while later, Sain said to Serena, “Oh that reminds me, I want to know some of the details of one of your blessing spells.”

Looking a bit startled since Sain called out to her all of a sudden, Serena rapidly nodded and then allowed Sain to ask away.

“The 'Blessing of Eternal Suns' spell. It's duration is around 2 hours and it's cool down is 12 hours right?”

“Yes.”

“Among the effects are a 15% stamina increase and stamina consumption to be halved as well right?”

“Yes..”

Serena was sure that Sain wanted her to use the spell but was not sure on why he was asking her this instead of inspecting the spell with his 'Party Scan' skill. It had that effect to see everyone in the party's skills and spells to the last detail.

“Hmm....” Sain scratched his cheek in habit and muttered, “So we use this spell now or during a battle...stamin will decrease even faster during battles now....what to do, what to do...”

In the end, Serena could not understand the rabble that Sain was spilling out of his mouth as he debated to himself on the timing on using the blessing on the group.

xXx

The greatest difficulties the group faced right now was that of monster attacks.

“15 Dire Wolves are coming!” Shadow shouted retreating back more slowly then he ever thought he could. Of everyone, he was the most affected by the training which restricted speed more than anything else.

'Enemies already? Wasn't this suppose to be a relatively safe area with little monster activity?'

“Right” Sain responded and confirmation to the situation. Dire Wolves weren't that strong, around the level 130 point but with them at their current state...could they still win?

Either way it was a good time to test themselves in real combat.

“Formation is as usual all right” he said to the others.

'Well this will be a good time to test out how much we can do now...'

Raven was standing at the front with Lyndis a bit behind him. At the back row were Sain, Miriel and Serena with Sain a bit further in front. Shadow was either to the far right or left but he chose to stay near Lyndis at this point.

Around 15 metres from them, the Dire Wolves were charging all at once. They were quite spread out as well.

Sain, Miriel and Serena prepared their spells. They dared not use those 'Art Skills' yet as there was still a good chance of failure. As such....

“Magic Arrows!” “Ice Bolts!” “Lead Slicer!”

Magical attacks of a dark, blue and green colour flew from them respectively. Ever since Sain got the Violent Energy Circulation skill, his magic looked darker than before and only grew like that as the skill developed.

Bang Bang Bang...!

As the first attacks hit, the Dire Wolves moved and split into three groups. The two from either side continued to charge while the middle group, that was hit and harmed stayed back a bit.

'Three of them were hit and damaged, the other twelve split into groups of six. This might be bad.'

“Tch, if it was at usual, they would have been killed instantly” Miriel muttered before chanting, “Fortified Barrier!” onto Raven.

Raven moved up a bit prepared to intercept. It looked like the Dire Wolves of both sides will attack at once...but Raven was quite good in these situations now. Holding his Halberd with one arm, he swung it horizontally shouting, “Meteor Stream Art: False Strike!”

BANG!

There was a large impact when Raven hit several of the Dire Wolves away. Out of everyone, Raven was least affected by the training as he was mainly a strength/tank person. He did not need to move much at all.

'Raven hit several of them at once...eight of them will now back away. That means there are still four that will attack immediately.'

“Evil Rule Art: Mind Shock!” chanted Sain. A gust of black magical power appeared around one of the Dire Wolves and caused it to fall into the confusion status.

“Glacier Strike!” Miriel chanted sending one of the Dire wolves flying away dealing lots of damage in one hit though it would usually kill something of this level in one shot.

“Lyndis! Shadow! Deal with the other two!” ordered Sain.

It was at this moment that Lyndis and Shadow ran from their position and started attacking as well.

“Fire Blade! Dragon Dance Art: First Slash!”

“Burst Speed! Divine Shadow Art: Assassinate!”

Both of them did not hesitate in using their 'Art Skills' and as such instantly killed two of the Dire Wolves with a single blow each. However even so, the Dire Wolves focused on Raven more than anything else.

This was the effect of 'False Strike' which makes the enemy think you dealt a powerful blow to them. It can be served to make an enemy run away from you or fear you but in the end it forces them to pay attention to you more than anything else.

'The eight Dire Wolves that Raven hit are coming at him now. The three from before are as well. The injured one is retreating a bit.'

As Lyndis and Shadow were attacking from the sides, Raven was being attacked upfront and at a range and rate which he couldn't counter attack at.

As such Sain chanted, “Astral Bind” while Serena chanted, “Root Bind” onto the enemies that were near Raven while Miriel fired off her ice magic attacking them as well.

'Two are stopped, another one is killed, one died from bleeding, there are eleven left. Hmm?'

However in the mist of this, Sain noticed that Lyndis and Shadow's health were rapidly decreasing more than Raven's.

“This is...”

He looked see that they weren't doing their usual high speed combat but rather was parrying attacks with their weapons and not moving a lot.

Sain thought this was most likely due to the restrictions on speed with the increased gravity around them. Moving like before would be too straining so they need to slow down which means their usual combat style of hit and run wasn't working.

But quickly enough, the two sort of got used to it. They were taking fewer and fewer hits and their movements weren't as rough as before but was a long way from what it used to be.

With some time, the amount of Dire Wolves were reduced to three though at the same time most of the group took some damage here and there. Feeling that this was drawn out for too long, Sain gave the order to go full out.

“Dragon Dance Art: Second Slash!” “Meteor Stream Art: Aura Saber!” “Divine Shadow Art: Triple Slash!”

Lyndis, Raven and Shadow all killed a Dire Wolf with those attacks and finished the battle off while consuming a large amount of mana each.

You have gained experience

The amount of experience they gained wasn't even 0.1 of a percent. There was a difference of around 30 levels between the group and the Dire Wolves after all. Fighting a rabbit when you can slay a lion means you don't get that much.

“That was tougher than I expected....” said Sain seeing that Raven, Lyndis and Shadow were at around half health. Usually they would not be even scratch by enemies of this level.

“You mean quite pathetic right?” Miriel sighed, “We are 30 levels higher than them and yet...”

“We just need to get used to these restrictions” Sain interrupted quickly, “We are fighting as if we were 30 levels stronger than them.”

While these 'Art Skills' were indeed very powerful, they consumed too much mana to be used continuously at all. Even some of the weakest of skills cost more than anything else they had so far.

“My mana is mostly drained from that one fight...urgh” Lyndis made a disgruntle noise from her mouth seeing that her mana levels was quite low, “What about you two?” she asked Raven and Shadow.

“Almost gone.” “Yeah almost completely depleted as well.”

Hearing that, Sain checked his mana levels as well. They were a lot lower than he expected with only a third of his mana left. This was mainly due to him needing to use his spells more often to kill an enemy now.

In any case, they would need to adapt to using these new skills and spells and how to sustain themselves while using them.

xXx

In the middle of the trip...

“That reminds me...we haven't actually gone shopping to get you a new staff you” said Sain all of a sudden surprising Miriel.

With hands hands on her hips and a gleaming look on her face to him, she asked in a completely sarcastic manner, “And how long did it take you to figure that out?”

“Around...a few weeks I guess...” replied Sain not hearing the sarcasm at all. Opening and closing her mouth several times and deciding whether to lash out at him, in the end Miriel only sighed and said, “We were busy, are busy right now. That date can happen later on.”

“Yeah we need to find a time and date where the three of us can go out together” said Sain.

“....”

Miriel sighed even harder this time and then poked Sain on the back with her staff and asked in an ice cold voice, “Please tell me you are not intentionally this dull in the head?”

“....”

Sain thought about it quickly for the first time and said gently, “If you wish it can be just the two of us then...”

Miriel smiled brightly to that before kicking him in the leg saying, “Make sure you get that faster this time.”

Sain could only mutter under his breath saying, “Though if you only told me sooner...”

Since Miriel and Serena generally got along in his eyes, he thought she would want to take her along as well to not make her excluded. Only that in this case, Serena really wanted to be excluded for many reasons.

xXx

And so a month passed by quite quickly.

They, during this time were attacked a large number of times, mainly due to the increasing number of monsters appearing all of a sudden, but at the same time that they were weaker than they were originally which made them feel 'weak'.

Their above average fighting spirit can only do so much in preventing monsters from attacking them. Right now, they were in the outskirts of a half destroyed village that was attacked by this Chimera.

“Do you know what happened here?” Sain asked a passing man that seemed to be a lumberjack by appearances alone.

The man turned, surprised to see such young people here and then replied, “You should get out of this area. It's too dangerous and the younger ones have already been safety evacuated away.”

“In that case, why are you here then?”

“To get some supplies and tools that are needed later on.”

“So you have no problem answering some questions right?” Sain was using that same everlasting smile that Alena had on right now throughout the conversation. He would not take no as an answer at all.

“R-Right...” the lumberjack replied, “What do you want to know.”

Sain looked around and the remains of the village was in a bad state. He would want to ask a few things on that.

“First, how long has it been since all of this?”

“Around a month or so.”

Sain thought that was around when they got the request though they could have gotten here quicker if any carriages would dare go with them at least...there were some things that reputation and influence could not get when they were only at this level.

“Hmm...a Chimera did this right?”

“Yes!” the lumberjack said more excited now, “That thing came out of nowhere and destroyed everything around here!It made it's nest nearby.”

“Give me a brief description of the beast and the location of the nest then” said Sain in a cold voice, no longer playing around.

“Ah” the lumberjack was surprised at the sudden change in tone and said, “Well...the body is of a goat with the head at the back...has a lion's head and has three snakes as it's tails. If you walk a few hours to the west, you can probably find it. Are you searching to kill it?”

“More or less.”

The lumberjack looked curiously at the group and with some feelings of sympathy said, “Good luck with that. I have to go now, in case anything happens, there are a few basements in some of these houses that you can hide in.”

“Thanks for the information” said Sain waving the lumberjack away.

When the man was gone from sight and they were completely alone in this half destroyed deserted village, the group started talking to each other.

“Well this battle is going to be fun” said Shadow with some sarcasm in his tone.

“It has a goat's body...this will be interesting” said Lyndis not getting on what Shadow said before her.

“We..still have to be wary...” warned Serena despite the two not caring the much.

Sain nodded and agreed, “Serena's right. That creature might have some perk that will make it troublesome to handle. And there might not be just one of them as well.”

“Explain” said Miriel.

“It has a nest, if it's female than it might breed seeing that there were reports of more of them elsewhere, this might be the case” said Sain.

“Then let us hope that is not the case” said Shadow, “This place is currently a safe zone. There's nothing around here at all, not even the tiniest creature which means that chimera is kinda strong or that it has a dangerous attribute to handle.”

“That's quite the insight coming from you” exclaimed Lyndis. Shadow could only glare at her to this. What did she think he was? An encyclopaedia of just random remarks?

“Anyway” said Shadow ignoring Lyndis at this point, “We should go kill that Chimera already. We can't get that much stronger waiting around here plus it will only get more difficult with time if it goes around killing things and levelling up.”

The rest of the group except Lyndis nodded to this and they made their way to the general location of where the Chimera should be.

xXx

Several hours later they were exploring some open caves where it looked like the Chimera was here...at some point.

“Large scratch marks, destroyed walls....yep that Chimera was here all right now but right now...again” Sain said repeating himself for Gods knows how many times.

“Sain...” Miriel said with a sigh, “Do us all a favour and don't say those words in that order EVER again.”

“....”

Sain looked at Miriel and then looked at the others seeing that they were quite stressed right now...though partly due to him he must admit. The only problem was that he was bored out of his mind now.

No action, not even a hint of it and just repeating this search with no success at all.

It was no wonder he was trying to keep his mind on something.

“All right” he said promising not to say those words in that order again, “In that case I will direct my boredom in another-you got to be kidding me” he swore seeing the one thing that he wanted to see and yet didn't want to see right now.

“Chimera!” he shouted drawing out his spear in hand as the Chimera noticed them at the same time.

With a lion's front, goat body with the head on the back and tails of snakes, the creature was extremely large four times the size of a grown lion and barely fitted into the cave that they were in right now.

“ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!”

With that roar alone, one can judge the strength of another being compared to oneself. Immediately Sain and the others knew that this creature was stronger than them. Around level 180 if his estimates was correct.

“Shit!” Sain cursed, his legs were partly giving way for many reasons right now but things were going to go from bad to worse.

Spat!

All of a sudden from the three snake tails, green gas appeared from their mouths in large quantities that completely blocked off the way.

Upon breathing it in...

You are poisoned! Health will decrease 5 points/second

“Poison” he exclaimed pulling his arm over his mouth. Even though it was a light breath in, his health was decreasing at such a rate.

There were several stages of being poisoned. One breath will lightly poison you, two breaths will moderately poison you and any more than that will cause you to be heavily poisoned. While he and Serena had skills to remove the poison, now was not the time as the Chimera was charging at them.

BANG!

“Barrier Queen Art: Guard Point Barrier!”

Raven who intended to block the charge was sent flying away but not before Miriel managed to place some barriers on him. At the same time due to the effects of the 'Guard Point Barrier' which deflected attacks back, the Chimera was also sent flying back taking damage.

If they were going to get out of this alive then...

“Evil Rule Art: Sleep Hypno!” he chanted consuming 500 mana immediately with that one spell. The effects of the spell fell onto the Chimera and...

“Didn't work?!” he exclaimed seeing that the Chimera was still moving, “No...only the Lion head is sleeping which means...”

The goat head made a shout at them before a magic circle appeared in front of it.

“This is-” before he could speak another word, lightning struck them.

“AHHHH!!”

You took 367 damage

You took 445 damage

….

The damage stacked up a bit more and Sain around lost half of his health.

Party Member: Miriel is in critical health

Party Member: Serena is in critical health

He cursed once again seeing these messages. It was only due to their slightly higher magical resistance that they didn't die from that at all.

“Moderate Heal! Minor Heal!” he chanted while the other three tried to stall for as much time as possible. Right now he was only focusing on those two and he healed Serena first and then proceeded to heal Miriel second.

Compared to a mage to a healer, which one was more important right now? It was the healer even though Sain would really much want to heal Miriel first, his judgement did not let him.

BANG BANG BANG!

As the battle got more chaotic the Chimera banged it's body onto the sides of the wall which caused some loose stones fall down on them.

“Done healing them yet?!” Lyndis shouted, “We are getting slaughtered here! Flame Strike!”

As she shouted that, she fired that fire skill at the Chimera but that didn't do much at all as the flames were only a quarter of the usual size it would normally be. Annoyed at what Lyndis did, the Chimera jumped and hit the ceiling of the cave not taking any damage due to it's thick skin.

BANG!

“Ah...damn” Sain muttered as more stones the size of a person's head fell down. It was then that the end of the cave cracked up to a unknown path.

'We are too weak to take it out right now plus it got a surprise attack on us...'

Seeing an opportunity Sain shouted, “We're running away, come! Into the cave!”

“Wait where-ohhhh” Lyndis looked a bit too excited seeing this new entrance while Shadow and Raven focused more on stopping the Chimera.

Both of them were quite wounded and Sain could tell that they only had a third of their health left.

“I'm coming~” said Lyndis as she ran over and grabbed the still unconscious Serena. Meanwhile Sain grabbed Miriel and ran following her.

“Let's go!” he shouted one last time to Raven and Shadow. The group quickly ran inside, deep into the cave as the Chimera let out one last lightning attack at them which fortunately missed though it still chased after them.

xXx

Upon waking up, Miriel felt like her body was rocking a bit and moving quite quickly...though she herself was not moving at all. She wondered what was going on and opened her eyes.

“Oh, you're awake” said a voice that could only be owned by Sain...though it was strangely close to her right now.

It couldn't be...

Upon opening her eyes however, what she saw was a raging Chimera chasing after them quite quickly.

“Whatthehellisgoingon?!” she screamed out loud as if she saw the face of the devil himself. Right now, she was latched over his shoulder as he ran as quickly as he could.

“Ah, Miriel” Lyndis called at her and she turned her head to her left to see Lyndis waving with a smirk on her face. Miriel blushed red and was about to speak but...

“Now is not the time to talk! RUN!” Sain suddenly shouted which caused Miriel's ear to ache a bit due to the loud noise.

“This is never ending, we need to cause a cave in!” said Shadow much to the terror of Serena who was being carried in Lyndis' arms...Miriel could not help but to see that Serena was being princess carried while she was not...she would need to get a word in with Sain later on...

It was at this point that Lyndis screamed retorting, “Are you trying to kill us?!”

“At this rate, we are going to be killed either way!” Shadow shouted back.

Miriel turned her head to see that Sain had this irritated face that twitched once in a while like he wanted to scream something out. In the end, Sain said in a calm collected voice that was scary considering the situation:

“Lyndis, give Serena to Raven or Shadow. Miriel will use 'Shriek' on my mark to stop that Chimera even for a second and Lyndis will use her 'Fire Bombs' to cause a cave in, in front of the Chimera hopefully killing it as well.”

Those instructions were made clear with Lyndis giving Raven Serena but Miriel had to ask, “Why aren't you letting me down? My speed is actually higher than yours right now.”

“....”

Sain did not answer and without a response after a while, Miriel decided it was not worth knowing right now when they are so close to death by Chimera.

A few minutes passed like this with the tension increasing. Sain did not say anything yet so no one made a sound at all. Soon enough, the Chimera though slowly was getting closer and closer to them.

In one case, Miriel's face was almost ripped off by a claw attack if not for Sain quickly using 'Astral Bind' to stop it at the last moment before speeding off.

“....Any time soon is fine you know” said Miriel pouting a bit. At this rate they would run out of stamina and...she would need to carry Sain and...no no no, she can't think of that.

Right now they were approaching a clearing that had multiple paths that they could take. Seeing this, Sain knew the plan he made hastily would finally start.

“Miriel use 'Shriek'....NOW!”

In a panic from being snapped out of that delusion she was having, she shuttered out, “Wha-wha what?! Right, Shriek!” before using the spell.

Shrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkk!!!

Though not using her staff, the spell came out of her hands and caused a massive amount of irritation to the Chimera. It seems that the spell with those magic restricting bracelets on made wasn't strong enough to stun the Chimera with a quarter of it's power.

“Lyndis, 'Fire Bombs' now!” shouted Sain with the next order.

“Right, Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bo-”

Lyndis chanted those words and threw the 'Fire Bombs' at the Chimera or rather at the walls and ceiling and such.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!....!

A series of chained explosions occurred causing the cave in though only around the area in which the Chimera was at.

Seeing this, Lyndis uttered, “....Did we-”

“ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRRR!!!”

“-Not at all I guess” Lyndis had this strange frown that was mixed with disappointment right now as Sain quickly said, “Let's escape quickly. That thing can probably break through in no time.”

As such, once again, the group went in deeper to this mysterious series of cave tunnels.

xXx

After a few mire minutes of running around the place, trying to see if the Chimera was following them, the group stopped completely exhausted.

“A-Are...we safe....?” Lyndis panted out holding her knees. She let go of her strength a little to much and caused the restraining training tool to snap her back.

“OW!”

A sharp sound came from her mouth as she was bend backwards. No one was in a mood to laugh at her nor had the energy to. First of all, Sain said to Serena one thing:

“Serena, use 'Blessing of Invisible Torments' on all of us. That will make it harder for anything to find us for around half an hour.”

Serena did so and started chanting the spell, “The shadows lie deep into the darkness of light and beyond. The hunter of day becomes the hunted at night and the hunter of twilight hunts them both. Blessing of Invisible Torments.”

Party has been blessed by 'Blessing of Invisible Torments'

Beginner Level 10 'Stealth' will be applied to whole party

With that, even from each other, the group felt like their presence dropped a notch.

“Sain.”

It was a strange feeling to see everyone at once being slightly similar to Shadow in how it was so easy to hide one's presence.

“Sain.”

In fact even the presence of Miriel which was still over his shoulder was quite low now as well to the point in which if he wasn't directly touching her and her weight pressing down on her, he would not, most probably recognise her as fast.

“Sain!”

“Hmm?” Sain heard Miriel call out for him for some reason, “What is it?” he asked.

“You...can let me down now.”

“....”

It was only now that he released that he was still carrying Miriel over his shoulder...though he could have sworn that he was thinking of that earlier in his mind...

Letting her down, Miriel did not even look at him but patted herself down. Sain could strangely remember the feel of her legs...no! He did not have a leg fetish! Definitely not!

With a cough...well several, Sain said to the others, “We should explore this area..there doesn't seem to be any monsters so it's not a dungeon.”

The others agreed with Shadow saying, “Let alone monsters, I don't think there is anything living here besides us...and that Chimera that's probably alive.”

“Yeah” said Miriel ready to face Sain now, “We didn't get a quest notification that the Chimera was slain, else it might be a different one we are hunting. Or that thing might be a Chimera but something disguised as one as well.”

“I doubt it is the last option and the second option is unlikely as well” said Lyndis.

“True but it is still possible...” replied Miriel.

“Anyway, what should we do now while we recover our status, Sain?” asked Shadow looking at him. Sain did not pay attention at those words as he was focused on something else that caught his eyes.

He moved to the wall and touched it...

“This feeling is...familiar...” he muttered having that dread feeling again.

“Sain?”

The rest of the group looked to see what was wrong. It was only then that their expressions changed as well. The walls...the shadows on the walls were.

“Body print...?” said Serena gasping her hands on her mouth. On the walls were countless prints of bodies being there, lined up endlessly across the entire wall and the next and so on.

“This can't be happening again...” Sain muttered hitting the wall lightly. He did not want to experience that again.

'Should we search for it...or just leave as fast as we can?'

'No....from that mine and here, the same thing happened and the rising number of monsters.....this can't be a coincidence....'

Sain gritted his teeth thinking of what they could find if they searched for it. Last time was a laboratory of bodies being used to produced zombies, or at least creatures that near their existence endlessly.

What else could be here...

“Sain” said Shadow in a low voice but Sain could hear it clearly, “I know you are deciding whether or not to find what is going on here...but unfortunately it is right here....I don't think we have much of a choice now that I've seen...'that'.”

Every word that came out of Shadow's voice was strained and sounded like he was chocking. It sounded like he had seen something he revolted.

'I can't get weak right now...'

Picking himself up again Sain turned and looked at the others and then said to Serena, “You don't need to see this if you do not want to. You are the youngest of us and barely count as a teenager. You don't need to see this.”

“I-I'm fine...” Serena made her resolve and walked with the others to see what on that other side.

“This is...” Sain sharply breathed in.

There was a room that was all so similar to the one that they found in the mines. But this one was different was it was not used to create countless weak monsters. Instead it did the opposite and used those countless weak monsters to make few strong ones.

“This...what should we so...” asked Miriel in a depressed tone not sure on what to do.

Seeing this, everyone's hearts dropped a bit. The sight of countless monsters being produced from the bodies of dead humans and mashed together was a bit too much with all the gore...not that anyone would dare describe it in detail.

“We should leave this place alone” Sain finally said.

“What?!” Lyndis made that sound as she was in utter disbelief.

“You want to leave” she pointed at the large tank where it looked like another Chimera was being made though only in it's early stages, “That unharmed and functioning?!”

Sain nodded which only made Lyndis angrier.

“What.is.your.deal?!” She almost grabbed Sain when Miriel stopped her.

Sain looked at Lyndis without blinking and said, “Finding two in a row means there are more right?”

“Yes....”

“That means there is a person or group behind it all.”

“Yeah...”

“Which means they might check up here to find this whole place trashed. What would they do when they find out?”

“Hide the other places.”

Their conversation answered the question on whether to destroy this place or not like the mines. Now that he thought about it, it might not matter anymore. Whoever was behind this probably knew what happened at the mines.

Which means it doesn't matter what they did here or not.

However, he still did not want them to suffer anymore because of this. These last quests were questioning their morality and ethics a bit too much.

Making a wrong choice may lead to a bad end.

And Sain would stop that no matter what.

xXx

A week passed by in these cave tunnels. The reason being was that they were checking if there were other secrets or clues on who was behind all of this.

But the only real reason Sain proposed this was to keep their minds on what would happen when they did not destroy that place. In a whole week they have found nothing and even encountered that Chimera a few times.

Eventually they decided it was best to just fight and kill it and leave than stay here.

In the plan they made, they would face the Chimera in this large open space as taking those Lightning or Poison attacks would be suicide in a closed space, plus there was a risk of a cave in as well.

Second was that the snake tails and goat head on that back would be taken out first. While the Lion front was dangerous with it's claws, it was not as bad as taking on the other two sides when the Lion side was taken out.

Finally was that when you take one side out, after a while it would regeneration back to normal. The amount of time that this happens in depends on each part but the Lion head will come back in 10 minutes, Goat head will come back to 15 minutes and the Snake Tails will come back in 5 minutes.

But enough of plans and such. Right now, Sain and the rest of the group were confronting the Chimera head on. It seemed that being crushed by rocks wasn't enough to even flinch it at all with it's thick hide.

Currently, the group had several effects on them due to preparations.

First was the 'Blessing of Strengthened Night' which would give them a 20% stat boost in the night or a dungeon.

Second were barrier spells. Everyone had a layer of 'Fortified Barrier' on them though some of the other ones from her 'Art Skill' wasn't used since it cost too much mana before a battle.

Third were further buffs from Miriel. These included 'Melody of Sound' in both strength and agility to boost them by a further 50%. This was combined with one of the effects of 'Sound Tune Variations' which was one that allowed them to sense danger better.

Fourth were the buffs that came from Sain. 'Iron Skin', 'Swift Legs' and 'Berserk Fury' which at this point increased endurance, agility and strength respectively by 90 points. This combined with the effects of the buffs from Miriel greatly stacked over.

Finally there were the healing spells that Serena stacked over. 'Heartbeat Healing' was naturally used and greatly increased their health regeneration by almost 70 points per second.

All of this were stacked over each other before the battle began and Sain wanted to finish this as quickly as possible before their disadvantage increased too much. Another thing was that the wolf summon, Luna was here as well.

“Go attack that Chimera with the others” he ordered. The wolf responded in agreement before attacking as well.

'Now then....'

“Boost!” he shouted activating the 'Mark' on his right hand.

Boost has been activated. All stats, effects and consumption will double

Effects of the 'Mark of the Serpent' is now active. 'All Knowing Eyes' is now active.

“Compress Magic Mastery Release!!” he added quickly as well.

Compressed Magic Mastery has been released. Magic Strength +420%

With both of these in effect Sain looked at the battle which started seconds before he activated both of these. Strength and Weaknesses of the Chimera were revealed to him!

However he noticed something strange...

'Something...is watching...us?'

BANG! BANG!

Right now, Lyndis and Raven were immediately at half health after taking a hit. The Chimera was moving rapidly and swung it's head at both of them.

“Health Restoration!”

Serena was healing them and Miriel activated her barriers as well to help out. If there was any time to use that spell, Sain thought, it was now.

“Evil Rule Art: Skill Rejection!” he chanted causing the lightning that was gathering by the will of the goat head to disappear as it could no longer use skills or spells. 1500 mana, most of his mana was consumed as well as a result of this spell.

“ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRR!!”

Noticing that it's skills and spells was stripped away, the Chimera roared and attacked using a leap attack instead. This attack was so sudden and unpredictable that Shadow was...no Raven pushed him aside using his body and took the hit...again.

BANG!

However by then, there were several layers of defence on him so his health was only reduced by a third. Sain made sure to heal him a bit with his 'Moderate Heal' at least before going back into the battle.

“Shadow Step! Burst Speed!” Angered, Shadow used both weapons at hand to slash at the eyes of the Lion Head before rapidly retreating though it wasn't as fast as before since the Chimera noticed him still.

Shadow was surprisingly leaping around the place in multiple directions. Did the effects of 'Burst Speed' allow him to get back most of his former speed?

Sain looked over and saw that Lyndis was dodging to the sides and Serena in her 'Rabbit Form' which had white rabbit ears, feet and a tail appear was dodging around the place rapidly while using spells on both sides to heal and to damage.

“Speed Strike!” Lyndis shouted moving at the back of the Chimera and chopping off the three snake tails at once.

“Magic Arrows!” “Ice Bolts!”

It was only then that Sain and Miriel started attacking the Goat Head. It would be troublesome to have to face lightning again when his 'Skill Rejection' wore off.

Soon enough Raven got back into the fight while only Sain and Miriel stayed at the back-line...though Serena was suppose to as well until that part of the plan.

“ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRR!!!”

All of a sudden by some means, the Chimera turned red and had this frightening aura around it. Sain knew immediately that it went berserk. In this state it's damage and speed would at least double.

“This is bad, retreat!” he shouted not willing to get into a battle like that where several of them could be killed instantly.

The Chimera leaped...and landed in front of him.

“Damn!” Sain motioned the spear in his hand to block...

“Barrier Queen Art: Transcendent Triple Barrier!” Miriel shouted.

Transcendent Triple Barrier is active (Can block any attack for 20 seconds, heals 20% of health of anyone inside and gives bonus to attack, defence and speed as well)

BANG!

Sain was knocked back all the way to the wall. However thanks to the effects of the 'Transcendent Triple Barrier', he took no damage at all and will not for the next 20 seconds. However with all her mana spent, Miriel was the one in danger now.

“Miriel!” he shouted trying as fast as he could to use a spell, anything to save her.

“Dragon Dance Art: First Slash!” Lyndis charged from the side and used her sword to smash the Chimera away with force. You could tell that her sword just had it's durability dropped by a lot thanks to that.

With a calm mind now that Miriel was not in danger though kinda useless now, Sain said, “We're finishing this in one go.”

The others nodded as Miriel got out of the way.

“Evil Rule Art: Downplay Rule” he chanted forcing an oppressive presence onto the Chimera. All of a sudden there were seven different negative status effects placed onto it.

However Sain noticed that most of them, the more useful ones like paralyse or sleep quickly disappeared as it was negated. And with that, all of his mana as well and some of his health due to having less than 2000 mana at the time.

Seeing that the Chimera was like this now though in turn Sain turned out useless for the rest of the battle, the others acted as well pouring everything into their next attacks.

“Beast Transformation Art: Wyvern Shift!”

“Eh?” Sain was surprised that Serena would use that move right now.

All of a sudden, the large room they were in got smaller as a small sized wyvern appeared and bit into the side of the Chimera causing blood to gush out of the wound.

“GAH?!”

Surprised at the appearance of the Wyvern that was Serena, it allowed Serena to attack it a few more times but retaliated in response. The Chimera bit into the flesh of the Wyvern Serena which caused her to scream in pain.

Serena as the wyvern picked the Chimera up with her mouth in rage and threw it onto the wall causing it to crack. After that, she turned back into her human form completely spent.

“Meteor Stream Art: Meteor Burst!” Seeing Serena like that and the Chimera injured he used that final move as well.

“Ram!”

Raven's body was covered in a golden light as he charged and smashed his body into the Chimera causing massive damage to it.

BANG!

He also did the combo attack with his Halberd before he noticed that Lyndis was about to attack as well. The effects of the final move quickly wore off as Raven's mana and stamina were completely depleted with this.

“Dragon Dance Art: Final Slash!” Lyndis shouted.

A red eastern dragon appeared around her almost as an illusion as she too charged in and attacked.

BANG!

The Chimera tried to counter attack but at that moment, Lyndis' body was too fast for it...even though her body was restricted due to the training, she simply used all the force in her body to leap once to attack.

With a Vertical Swing down she made a straight cut through the Chimera's Lion Face.

But even with that, it did not die at all. Without taking out a vital point, it could potentially recover back soon enough before the group could.

However there was still Shadow who watched and waited for this chance.

“Divine Shadow Art: Final Assassination” he said calmly walking to the Chimera slowly and yet quickly. It was calm and silent as the Chimera's life was taken by a fatal critical hit that dealt six times the normal damage plus the factor of surprise.

You have completed the quest: Hunt down the Chimera

- You have levelled up x3

They levelled up three times due to the completion of the quest and due to the killing of a monster that was 20 levels higher than them.

“....”

The group was completely silent. They were too exhausted to talk right now and some of them were focusing control of their bodies so they would snap back.

“Honestly...why did you all use those final skills one after the other?” he asked sighing.

“Because it was cool...” Lyndis barely muttered on the ground.

Right now, due to all of them using the final move in their 'Art Skills', they were in no state to even talk properly right now let alone move.

Such techniques were deemed to be a final resort for a reason and they had no strength left to even move...for only half of them that is.

Sain, Miriel and Serena were all fine since their 'Final Move' only took mana and health when they did not have enough. However Lyndis, Raven and Shadow's did consume all stamina plus more.

Taking out a mana potion which he brought and never used until now, he drank it and healed those three so they wouldn't die with their one health.

“AHHH!” “DAMN!” “....!”

And just in time as well.

Right now they were watching three people having their bodies snapped back because they had no stamina left to resist. Sain could not tell that he was being amused by this scene or was pitying them right now.

“Hahahahaha!” Miriel let out the laugh while Serena was giggling as well. Sain thought they had a pretty good relationship with the group by laughing like that...Sain also could not help but to laugh a bit while two people complained to them while another one was silent.

Either way, they needed to wait for them to recover...and for that month trip back to Lily City that would just be as exhausting as the trip to here.

Sain rubbed his shoulder feeling that it was becoming stiff from him trying to make it stay put for so long.

xXx

“Eden I have completed the task.”

[Good work Sain. How was it?]

“The Chimera was taken down though with difficulties and that place is still in tact so it will produce more monsters like the Chimera...though it was not only limited to creatures that we could see normally.”

[I didn't mean that but rather your relationship with the rest of that group of yours]

“Fine.”

[That is neither good or bad. Sain, will you bet you will be close enough to them that they won't leave you when they find out about your side jobs or distance enough they won't care?]

“....”

“Speaking of things to be discuss, does your daughter know?”

[Know? You mean about Alena? What does she not know?]

“No, not her but the other one. The one in Kallamore investigating the endless amount of monsters that come each week. This and that are related to each other right?]

[Sigh...]

“However you knew that which means Weed knew that and therefore the Kingdom knew that. While areas are actively being purged to get rid of these monsters nests, why hasn't the Kingdom done anything about Kallamore?”

[I really hate kids that figure things out quickly you know]

“Is it because that the monster nests serve as protection? Or as a seal to keep people out of whatever is really under Kallamore. I find it strange how for hundreds of years ago, Kallamore's once last stand was there and they somehow manage to get through that at the time. Kallamore at that time was invading quite harshly to get more territory while the other Kingdoms did not to Kallamore. What is under that place that those Kingdoms did not want to deal with?”

[And this confirms it. I really hate kids that figure things out quickly]

“Then-”

[If it happens then we have to deal with it. If it does not, we do not need to deal with it. Do not disturb the hornet's nest when you can even if it will attack in the end]

“....Is that a warning?”

[No. That is advice if you ever decide to do something stupid. Tell Alena about those monster nests and she will notify the Kingdom to help clear them out. It will probably take the rest of the year to finish this up]

“....”

[Hurry up and get stronger else the game will be too difficult to catch up later on]

Onwards?PreviousExitNext

Author's Notes:

- Word Count: 9000~

- Could have posted this yesterday but I was too tired...still am tired...next chapter will take a while longer than usual again...not getting much sleep these days.