Chapter 31: The dark forest

"What! Your magic energy increased by 20 point in a single level up!!"

After asking Ramie about this particularity to see on whether it was similar to her case or not, Reem reacted in very dispirited manner, disappointment apparent in her eyes.

The importance of the magic energy volume was of an extreme importance to the artifact holders, which was an obvious fact considering that it fuels their spells. So, simply, the more magic energy points they had, the more they can cast their spells, and by extension, the better their chances of survival becomes. Saying that magic energy was the ammo to their weapons wasn't far from the truth.

So, Reem's disappointment by this piece of information made her lose focus in her eyes momentarily.

In fact, having leveled up, she had already received the 'manual instructive information.' And among the information, the terms Common, Rare, Special, and Epic were not left out of elaboration.

In short, these four terms are the grades of the artifacts, which depicted their rarity.

It wasn't only that. The information also included a fascinating fact in this regard. It stated that the artifacts were not obtained by those with magic talent randomly, but instead, following a certain system!

And this system was centered on one key point… and that was the overall aptitude of the user, which further included many aspects!

Meaning, that Ramie did not acquire this specific bloodline artifact with the rarity 'special' randomly, but according to this piece information – was because it was the most suitably to his own aptitude.

This fact gave rise to a lot of new questions that needed to be answered. However, this was not the time to waste, as the night was imminent.

Looking at Reem dazed expression; it wasn't hard to imagine the reason. After all, the artifact that had 'common' rated class, would gain 5 points of magic energy each level up, the artifact with 'rare' rated class, would gain 10 points, the artifact with 'special,' would gain 20, and 'epic' would gain 40 magic energy points.

Considering these numbers, it wasn't hard to imagine how massive the magic energy reserve that those with 'epic' and 'Special' grade would end up having after few levels, comparing to Rare and Common grades.

Since Reem had a rare graded artifact, then it meant that she would only receive a meager 10 magic energy points per level, which was only half comparing to Ramie's 20 points!

As for Neil and his 'Common' grade artifact, his bitter expression was more than enough to portray how he felt in this regard. After all, who would be happy knowing that the human world entered its darkest time while only receiving a low grade weapon?

However, considering that he had received one at all was still a comforting fact. As such, Neil consoled himself. After all, normal weapons don't level up, and they certainly need ammo to do the trick… which is a commodity that will undeniably grow scarcer and scarcer with time… unlike their recoverable magic energy.

Faced with Reem dazed expression, Ramie didn't know what to say to comfort her, or Neil.

Anyway, at this point, ramie wanted to get the issue of his form out of the way, to avoid any misunderstanding that might happen with Jeffry and Reem. After all, Reem was apparently strong enough to kill two magical beasts. So, he didn't want her to see his face accidentally and kill him on the spot or something.

Thus, he signaled to lance, to get this issue out of the way.

Understanding his gesture, Lance proceeded to inform the pair of father and daughter about Ramie's special 'case.' In order to avoid any unnecessary incidents once they see his current appearance.

"Oh… this kind of thing actually happened…? Then, um… can I see your face…? I promise, I won't scream or anything." Reem asked. An interested expression was on her face.

Ramie pulled down the shirt, revealing the lower part of his face, and then he pulled back the hood.

Pssssssst!

Seeing his face, Jeffry sucked in a cold breath, he was at loss for words. His face remained stiff for quite some time.

Ramie noticed that Jeffry's grip on his rifle tightened. It was obvious that he was forcing himself not to the point the weapon at him.

"Eh…?" Reem eyes lit up, while scrutinizing his face. She then started caressing her chin, while muttering to herself in an audible voice; "… you look very similar to last boss in a game I played few years ago…"

Then, and realizing that she her thoughts were audible, she smiled embarrassingly, while casting an apologizing look at him.

It wasn't only ramie, but Lance and Neil too were speechless about her reaction. Now, it had to be said… that even Lance and Neil had yet to adapt to his face. Yet, this girl was taking it too easily, way too easily.

Not to mention displaying some shock, she didn't even frown. Comparing to her, Jeffry's reaction was the more normal one.

Anyway, afterward, Ramie went looking for another hoodie and a trouser, as the current ones he wore had three big hole on them, due to casting his spell.

…

As the last ray of light disappeared, the night came once again, enveloping the city, and signaling the start of yet another bloody night.

Howl!

At almost the same time, different savage cries and roars of beasts resounded everywhere outside, declaring the start of another night of terror.

In a certain building, inside a particular apartment, were five people, sitting in the living room. All the windows were covered with extra layers of sheets, to prevent the candle light from attracting a lethal attention from outside.

The faces of the five did not brim with overflowing, witless fear and anxiousness that someone in their situation should display. After all, they were trapped in a city where death was lurking behind every corner and inside every alleyway and building.

Instead, those five were eating dinner with only slight vigilance in their eyes, as if the unending terror outside didn't have much to do with them.

"Reem, you shouldn't eat too many sweets. Eat bread too. Otherwise, you won't feel full." Jeffry spoke to the dejected looking Reem.

"OK, OK father…" She replied to him absentmindedly.

Having learned about Ramie's 'case,' she kept casting sympathizing looks from time to time toward him.

Jeffry could only smile in response. He knew that today, she was not going eat anything aside from that pile of sweats in front of her on the table.

Suddenly, Reem's eyes lit up with joy, exclaiming: "Whity is here!"

SHRIEEEEEEK!!!!!!

Before she finishes her words, a high-pitched piercing shriek of a beast rang outside, right atop their building!

The sound was so piercing that even if someone covered his ears 20 buildings away from here, he'd still hear the shriek.

This high pitched sound carried so much power and authority, that the surrounding beast's cries in area of several building around all went down by an entire level, as if they were deeply intimidated by this beast.

The moment Ramie heard the shriek, he sensed a strong and oppressive aura pulsating atop the building, bringing about a strong sense of oppression and might that did not shy away from challenges. It was as if this beast was declaring itself as a local tyrant.

This aura was much stronger that Lance's aura, but its nature was similar to Ramie's, which meant that this creature was a magical beast.

As this shriek sounded, and instead of showing fear, the five of them inside of the apartment were relieved instead.

Sensing the tyrannical oppressive feeling that this aura brought about, Ramie couldn't help but to cast another glance at Reem.

This petite girl beside him that was gnawing mercilessly at the sweats… was actually the master of that strong beast!

That's right, this beast was actually her summon!

According to her, the first spell she got in her artifact was a summoning spell. And using it, she managed to summon this magical beast, which is the only reason why she and her father survived this far. It was also the reason why no other beast dared to come inside this building, which answered the question of why had Jeffry said when he first saw them that this building was safe, and why he seemed so certain about it.

Also, this beast was the reason why she managed to upgrade her artifact to level three. As apparently, this 'pet' magical beast of her was the one bringing her the magical cores of the beasts that he had slain outside.

From the moment she and her father resorted to this building to escape the flying beast's assault till now, and thanks to this 'pet' of hers, neither her life or her father's were threatened not even once.

This girl was indeed very lucky!

Apparently, this 'Whity,' was considered among the strongest of tier-1 beasts, a peak tier-1 beast!

The information he received from the artifact were not only regarding the use of his artifact, but also on the beasts as well.

For starters, they were called beasts and not creatures.

Also, these beasts were divided into magical beasts that had magical cores inside them, and normal beasts that had life energy cores inside them.

The magical beast's core contains magical energy that is required to level up the artifacts. As for the life energy cores, needlessly to say, they were useful for the warriors to raise up their life energy ignition percent, and even break through to higher levels and gain even stronger and denser life energy.

As for the magical beasts, it was just as Reem had previously told him, once someone with an artifact delivers a killing blow to a magical beast, then the artifact would remotely extract and brings the magical core to the artifact user. But if a non-artifact user kills the magical beast or other beast kills it or it dies by other reasons, then the magical core had to be extracted manually by dissection. Of course, this remote extraction method only applied to magical beasts, and not normal beasts.

Also, another interesting fact about the normal beasts and magical beasts – which was that other than the tier divisions, the beast's tiers were further subdivided into low, mid, high and peak, to represent their power levels within every tier, which depends on the volume of magic energy or the density of life energy these beasts had.

The magical beast that Reem had summoned was considered a peak tier-1 magical beast… which is to say that it is considered the strongest among tier-1 beasts!

This was the reason why Reem and her father were so sure why their building was safe and that no other beast will dare to sneak in

Thinking to this point, Ramie remembered the tire-2 Wicked Dog that had assaulted the bakery store. More precisely, he remembered the strong aura which that beast gave off, which was easily stronger and more oppressive than the aura Reem's summon was giving him. He asked Reem:"how strong exactly this summons of yours…?"

Having learned that she was a year older than Ramie, the shyness and timidity had completely went away, and she assumed the big sister role when talking to him. Also, after learning of his special 'situation,' every time she looked at him, sympathy would well up in her eyes.

"Don't worry, in this area of several buildings, whity is somewhat of a king around here, so, no beast under tier-2 can beat him!"

"Also, even the dog that had attacked you before won't make another move! So, as long you remain in whity's territory, don't worry, no other nearby beast will dare to make a move with whity around!" She answered Ramie with a warm tone.

Hearing her answer, not only Ramie, but Lance and Neil too were taken aback. Not by her tone when addressing Ramie, but by the vital information she had just revealed.

Hearing her words, Ramie's eye lit up under the new hood he had found in another apartment. He and the other two had already told Jeffry and Reem regarding the large dog attack in the bakery store. So, for Reem to make such claim, in such certain tone, Ramie had to know whether she was just trying to assure him or if she has a reason to say such heavy words.

He had a clear, unforgettable impression of the heavy and towering aura that the tier-2 beast dog had exuded back in the store, and he was sure that that beast was stronger than Reem's summon based on the difference in their auras. Till now, and knowing that such huge threat might be looming around, he couldn't really relax even with Reem's powerful summon overseeing this building.

"Are you certain?" Ramie asked, wanting to see why she was so confident.

"Mmm…" Reem nodded, appearing to be certain of her claim.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Um… well, when I summoned Whity first, a special connection was formed between us, and that's why I wasn't scared by him when he suddenly showed up after the summon. Right now, and at all times, I can tell where he is, and… to a certain extent… even his thoughts. We can also communicate with each other! It's not like we can exactly talk or something… at least, not with words… but with… um… how should I put it…" talking to this point, she assumed a pondering posture for a moment, before her eyes lights up: "Thoughts! Yes… it's like we can talk with our minds! Yes, minds…"

"Oh!" Ramie did not expect such a thing was possible, at least not until he heard it from her. As for Lance and Neil, they too appeared startled by this answer.

Continuing speaking, she took a long breath and spoke in one go: "Whity himself assured me that he's the strongest around… and that no other beast, not even the lord of this area, which is the dog you had encountered… would dare to fight him in his own territory! He also told me that the dog is low tier-2 beast, so the gap between them isn't very, very large. More ever, that bad dog is severely injured. So, rest assured, he won't dare to attack for the incoming few days!"

Apparently, she seem to be very relaying on this summon of hers.

Ramie felt a bit confused, he remembered her just saying that she communicate with her summon via thoughts and not words… So, was it possible to her to understand so much with only thoughts? The only possibility was that this mind link thing was even better than communicating with words.

"Can you completely control your summoned beast?" Ramie couldn't help but to ask this question.

"Yes. Whity does everything I told him to… And in my summon spell description, it says that am his master, and that he'll do all I say. So, I told him to protect me and father."

Ramie felt relieved at her answer. Then, the intensity increased in his shining yellow eyes under the hood, as he intended to ask the next question.

Seeing that Reem being so responsive to him, probably out of sympathy for his special 'circumstances,' he asked: "Is whity one of the beast that had attacked the city?"

Reem was a bit taken by his sudden question. Then she bit her tiny lips, and answered, weakly: "…yes."

"Oh… then… did it eat any…humans?"

"No! He eats plants and vegetation, not meat." Reem answered firmly, appearing very certain of her words.

Ramie was really curious now, as he didn't expect that there would be vegetarian beasts. But, he believed her. At least, until things prove otherwise.

"You said that you can communicate via your thoughts. So, did you ask your summoned beast where did it come from, and how did he arrive here?" he asked one of the most baffling questions he had in mind. Ramie was very eager for the answer.

"…Yes of course, I asked whity that, but… it seems that even he didn't know. According to him, several days ago, he was in his territory, which was located inside a very, very huge dark forest that spanned endlessly, in all directions. However, suddenly, one the beast kings, the one that was controlling the portion of the forest where Whity lived, ordered all of the beasts under him to charge at shiny grounds that were filled with magic. Then, he found himself here, along with the other beasts."

Ramie's expression darkened under the hood at this answer, and his yellow irises shone momentarily with eerie yellow flash, which made him especially frightening.

Luckily for everyone around him, the much lowered hood and the new scarf hid this frightening seen.

Dark forest!

He didn't consider himself to be knowledgeable regarding geography… but he didn't think that there was such place on earth… at least not enough to contain such ferocious beasts with 'magic' abilities and strength enough to demolish the military to such a pathetic degree… not to mention the voice's words that mentioned a gate?

So, the logical conclusion even without the voice's words – would be that these beasts had come from another world… another dimension… or another place! Because, obviously, if these beasts were located on earth, and with such terrifying strength and numbers that overwhelmed the world, then they would have been discovered long ago…

…