I woke up and groggily looked around before sitting up in the bed. The action also caused Jane to wake up since she started rousing next to me. I stood up and did a few stretches, feeling refreshed after finishing them. I looked at my metallic arm and an idea popped into my head. Jane was still getting out of the bed when I tried it. I poured mana into my arm, making the runes glow. Using the mana, I channeled it into the shape of a crest shield and held it in a defensive stance.

New Skill! Conjured Shield A shield made of mana that will act similar a mithril shield. The caster will have a sense of familiarity with it, having been created from their own mana. Defense: 75 Cost: 8/sec Cooldown: 10 seconds New Skill! Conjured Shield Mastery Your proficiency in using the Conjured Shield. A higher Mastery increases defense, reduces cooldown time, and decreases mana cost Mastery: Beginner 1 Effect: 2%

Though it did have a high mana cost, the defense boost was more than useful and it would allow me to use my arm-blade if the shield got in the way. The casting was similar to Ice Flechette and I could probably chant the spells in my mind if I kept mastering them. The shield gained many details since it was turned into a spell. A winged design was present on the front of the shield and it became opaque. It was black in color, with the wings being golden and contained glowing, blue lines of mana coursing through it. It was a sturdy shield and, like the skill said, I felt a sense of familiarity with the shield.

"Wow, that's a fancy shield. Can you wield it properly though?" Jane asked me.

"I'm sure the Deflect skill works with shields too. Besides, having nothing other than a small, albeit cool, blade in my off-hand can get frustrating." I waited for my mana to regenerate before summoning the shield again. I realized now that it was almost weightless, even though it was supposed to imitate a mithril shield. The shield was positioned in a way that would allow me to freely cast spells and use my arm-blade.

I was joyous because of this and unsummoned my shield again. Looks like I'll have to upgrade my wisdom stat sometime. I went to the bathroom and prepared some combat clothing as well as the bath. Jane placed her own set of clothes next to mine and I got into the bath. She followed and also entered the bath.

We bathed together for about 15 minutes before getting out. I dressed in the clothes I prepared and equipped all my gear. I decided not to reveal the shield I gained until we were in combat. I wanted to try a shield bash to see how effective it would be on monsters but that would wait until we set off again. Exiting our room, we checked Lance and Rose's room to see if they were up.

To our surprise, the two were still sleeping. Having done the same double bed arrangement as Jane's, they slept soundly in each other's arms. I thought of ways to wake them up, and I just decided to wake them up normally. Walking over, they roused a little hearing my plated boots. I pulled their blanket away and they started squirming, looking for their vestige of warmth.

After a bit, both of them woke up and saw us standing there.

"Rise and shine, you two. We're about to leave soon." I said to them. A frown formed on their faces before it disappeared and they went to get ready. Jane and I went downstairs to grab a meal while we waited for the other two. After we finished our quick breakfast, Lance and Rose came downstairs and they sat down at our table. We waited for them to finish eating before we left.

As we walked to Azon's gates, stares were directed at our party. We were well geared and looked strong. My metal hand was also showing since I didn't feel like disguising it. Other stares were also directed at Rose and Jane, whose beauty could cause almost any man's heart to skip a beat. Eventually, a group of ruffians appeared in front of us.

"Hey ladies, come with us and we won't hur-" Before the frontmost ruffian could continue, I already summoned my shield and bashed him as hard as I could in the face. It was clear that diplomacy wouldn't get us anywhere, so I took action before they could do anything. The attack knocked out some of his teeth and broke his nose. He was out cold.

The other ones took this as a sign and started charging at me. Lance was about to charge forward, but I held him back with my shield arm to take out any thugs that slip by. They tried to engage me in hand-to-hand combat, which was their biggest mistake. Throwing punches right and shield bashing to my left, I bobbed and weaved through their sloppy attacks while taking them out. Common street thugs wouldn't be able to do much against me.

There was a crowd of people watching as I took out the thugs and they cheered as I kept going. It took a few minutes to get rid of all the thugs. They were on the floor unconscious, some were face down in small craters while others had missing teeth, broken noses, or large bruises. I turned around and saw some around Lance. Looks like some did manage to slip through.

We continued on our way to the gates where we showed our status cards to the guards and left. I never put any thought into it, but unless you allowed someone to, they couldn't see your stats on the card. Only your rank was shown. A guard tapped my shoulder and I turned to him.

"Hey, good job taking care of those dumbass thugs. I'd have taken care of it, but I have to stay here. Have a safe journey." The guard shook my hand before nodding. I nodded back and left with the others to continue our journey to the Tecca Empire.

Since this was the middle of the desert, I assumed that we were a little more than halfway there. Maybe 400 kilometers? I don't remember. I started racing off and so did the others, leaving a trail of sand in our wake.

A month passed, and we were still in the desert. We managed to cover a large amount of distance within the month, and I thought we would make it out soon. Night fell, and it was time to set up camp again. I still had plenty of food in my inventory and started the same process to start cooking again. Constantly cooking has made this a practiced habit and I prepared a meal much more quickly than before. My cooking skill had leveled up to Advanced due to the daily cooking.

Cooking Your proficiency in cooking. Higher Mastery levels make your dishes tastier. Mastery: Advanced 3 Effect: 46%

I seriously thought about the tavern idea for when I got tired of the adventuring life. Maybe I'll start an Inn and live peacefully. We ate our food and made the usual small talk before going off to sleep. Jane never set her bedroll down anymore since she just crawls into mine whenever I go to sleep. I crawled into mine and she snuggled into it too. We hugged each other while laying there and I looked at her beautiful face before falling asleep.

Our journey continued through the desert. At the border, we saw a wall made of stone. There were guards on the wall and I asked them where the border gate was located.

"It's about three kilometers down that way." He pointed to my right before continuing to scan the horizon. Our group ran towards the direction he pointed and arrived at the gate. There was a person that looked like an officer there and some guards. We arrived and showed our status cards, which allowed us access.

"Where are you guys headed?" The officer had a polite tone, maybe because of our ranks?

"I'd like to arrive at the Tecca Empire's capital, if possible." I told him. He put his hand on his chin and thought about what I said. After a bit, he dismissed us and went back to his post. I wonder what that was about?

As we sped away, Lance told me the distance to the capital would be another hundred kilometer journey. I shook my head at the distance. Our journey was relatively slow since we kept a steady pace of about 5 kilometers a day. I thought that we should increase our speed and stop only to sleep or drink. It would drastically decrease the time the trip would take and I was sure we could go without food for at least a week. Though the others might complain incessantly about the food part.

"Hey guys, do you want to increase our speed and only stop to sleep or drink? I want to get to the capital faster." I said.

"Yeah, sure. Though I'll be missing the meals you make." He rubbed his stomach after saying the last part. The girls chuckled a little when he did that. "Plus, I can see your excitement for the capital."

"Alright. We'll do that then. Thanks, guys." I said with gratefully. They nodded at me like it was a natural thing to do. I'm extremely lucky to have met them as companions. While we ran, I couldn't help but think about how the harem was doing.

The journey took about five days. Our stats supplemented our speed and we managed to cover about twenty kilometers a day. Even I was surprised about our speed. At the gates, we showed our status cards and they let us in. The capital was called Ironhorn because of the presence of a massive horn located on the west side of the city. The horn itself is 25 meters tall. The base was ten meters wide and it was curved and tapered, with the tip of it pointing upwards. The horn was buried base first in the ground and Lance informed me that it was rumored to have come off a massive beast thousands of years back.

I stared at the massive horn before continuing on my way. Seeing the horn, I realized that maybe SSS rank adventurers weren't the strongest in the world, just the strongest humanity had to offer. Maybe it was possible to push past that rank. What if there was another continent the people here just didn't know about? I discarded these thoughts and asked a nearby person where the Adventurer's Guild was.

The Guild was in the same area of the city we were located, which was the Northern side. We followed his directions until we came upon a Guild that looked basically the same as the one in Lerton. Walking in, we looked around and found the request board. I decided to take on an A rank request since I was sure we could complete it safely. I looked at my status card and added any points I had into Wisdom.

Name: Michael Adkins Class: Controlled Berserker of the Greatsword Arts Race: Human, Male Level: 84, B-rank Titles: Greatsword Enthusiast, Gifted By God, Controlled Berserker Class Effects: +120 to Strength, Agility, Dexterity, Vitality, Control; Doubles at level milestones; Going into a controlled berserker state increases your stats by a factor of 2x; Blind rage increases stats by a factor of 4x Attack: 1261 Defense: 385 Health: 2750/2750 Mana: 700/700 Health Regen: 1.375/sec Mana Regen: 0.35/sec Strength: 300(+460) Agility: 125(+395) Dexterity: 120(+240) Vitality: 155(+120) Intelligence: 50 Wisdom: 70 Luck: 30 Leadership: 32 Control: 30(+60) Rage: 23 Skills: Greatsword Mastery, One-Handed Greatsword Mastery, Arm-blade Mastery, Throwing Mastery, Heavy Armor Mastery, Ice Magic Mastery, Ice Spear, Ice Flechette, Ice Flechette Mastery, Conjured Shield, Conjured Shield Mastery, Wind Enchant, Pain Tolerance, Evasion, Sneak Attack, Cooking, Trap Disarming, Danger Sense, Deflect, Controlled Berserking, Blind Rage, Bartering, Persuasion Title Effects:

Greatsword Enthusiast: 1.2x Attack with Greatswords, 1.3x Durability with Greatswords, 1.1x Attack Speed with Greatswords

Gifted By God: 2x modifier to Strength, Dexterity, and Agility; Maximum Greatsword Mastery; 2.5x Experience Modifier

Controlled Berserker: Allows you to control your anger and direct it onto one enemy, creating an intimidating aura; Controlled Berserking bonus increased to 2.5x from 2x

My leadership stat had gone up naturally since I often gave orders or led the charge in combat with the others, and with my new mana value, I could keep up my shield for longer and well as cast Ice Flechette more frequently. I decided to use the Flechette spell in place of Spear since I was a much more close-combat oriented fighter. Both Jane and Rose were better long-range fighters than me anyway. I put my status card away before looking at the requests with the others.

Rose eventually found a request after we searched for around five minutes. This request involved going to a nearby tower and clearing it of monsters. We were doing this for a mage that wanted to use it as a lab for research. He would enchant our weapons as a reward for clearing it out. What I hadn't realized at the time was that our enchanted weapons would help my party against the event that would change the world.

We brought the request over to the reception desk where the lady filed it and gave us directions to the tower.

"It's about three kilometers to the southwest of Ironhorn." She said.

"Alright, thank you very much." I politely thanked her and we left. I decided to go do a bit of shopping to restock the supplies I used during the journey here. I asked a nearby person for a general store and they gave the location of a place that was a short walk from here. Thanking them, we headed over where all of us purchased supplies such as food and some other needed items.

We left the Southern gate after checking to see that we were all prepared and sped off toward the approximate location of the tower. I decided that we should speed past anything and everything on our way to arrive there faster.

About twenty minutes passed before we made it, and we sized up the tower before heading inside. There was a sign on the side of the doorway that designated the tower as an A-rank dungeon. The monsters inside were plant-based, with many of them being immobile due to being rooted to the ground. I assumed that these monsters would be easily dealt with but I wasn't sure about the final monster of the dungeon. We would deal with that when we got there.

I took out my sword and entered first, with Lance, Jane, then Rose in order behind me. We had to go downwards into the tower since a different party had cleared the top. Apparently, they didn't want to go downwards since they felt something ominous below. As we went along, we saw remains of many plant monsters scattered around. I wasn't fazed since they were monsters, something that would try to kill you.

We looked around and found the staircase descending into the darkness. Since it would be a close-combat scenario, Jane put her bow away and grabbed Iglis. What I didn't expect was for Rose to cast magic on her staff, activating some runes and turning it into a warhammer. I was shocked by this but was relieved since she could handle herself if anything arose. Lance and Rose tied lamps to their belts while Jane and I didn't bother to. I had some degree of night vision and was able to see pretty easily in the dark.

Our party was rearranged so that the girls were in the middle, with me in front and Lance in the back. We slowly descended into the darkness of the tower's underground area. What awaited us was something I didn't expect to see.

Corpses. Corpses of men. Everywhere. They were all stripped and lying on the floor dead. Strangely, they were all drained of their blood, looking extremely pale. Those adventurers that came before us were right to not come down here. I sheathed my sword and examined a nearby corpse while the others kept watch. Then I felt something tug on my ankle. I looked down and saw a vine wrapped around my foot. That was what I saw before being dragged into the darkness.

-Lance POV-

I turned around and saw Michael getting dragged away. All of us frantically chased after him, barely managing to keep up. As I got beside him, I swung my spear precisely so that it would cut the vine and give him a shallow cut at most. As he came to a halt, he stood up and coughed a little, dusting himself off before unsheathing his sword.

Michael and I stood next to the girls, with all of us having our backs together. Then came the onslaught. Waves and waves of plant-based humanoid monsters assaulted us from all four directions. I shuddered at the thought of them being former humans. As we fought them off, I saw that these monsters were basically humans without features. Every cut I gave made them bleed green blood. They had no facial features, just a head on a human body lacking even genitals.

Green organs and blood gushed out with every hit. I looked at Michael and saw him cutting down everything that came near us. He was like an impenetrable fortress. Nothing could get past him. I then steeled myself and continued fighting.

-Michael POV-

The waves seemed endless until I could see no more monsters in the distance. As we finished off the last one, it seemed as if we killed around 200 total. Was this the number of victims that fell prey to the unknown monster? I looked around and saw it in the distance. It cast magic and lit up the entire underground area of the tower.

The monster was an Alraune. In the middle of the flower-like base was an attractive woman who released a sweet smell that got rid of any violent thoughts against it. The others were out of commission, seeing that they put their weapons away. I resisted the effect that it brought and thinking about what could happen next made me gag. It gave me a seductive smile and I could tell that it had wicked thoughts underneath.

I raised my sword and prepared to fight this thing, with or without the others.