Chapter 32: Escaping the city (1)

Ramie proceeded to ask Reem more details about her summoned magical beast. After all, and knowing that the camp was no longer in this city, but was moved to the capital, their destination naturally shifted there as well.

So, to better formulate plan to leave this city and go to the capital, they first needed to learn everything about the strongest asset they now have… which was obviously Reem's summoned beast.

Luckily, when it was Ramie the one who asked her the questions, and thanks to her sympathy toward his 'condition,' she held nothing back, telling him everything about her artifact, and her summoned beast.

As Reem proceeded to explain more and more, Ramie was really stunned, as more and more of his questions were answered.

For instant, why are the creatures only active at night? Why were they attacked by the dog beast? Why are they safe in this building? Why does the beasts roar and howls so much at night, as well as other things…

After rounds and rounds of discussion, turned out that although Reem's summon was a beast, he was a bit different from other beasts… at least according to Reem. She said that through their mental connection, she had understood many new things regarding these beast's behaviors.

According to her; her summon had a gentle temperament, was exceedingly intelligent, almost as intelligent as human, and did not consume meat for food. And apparently, although he was considered a beast, he belonged to a different category of beasts, different from the man-eating ferocious beasts that overtook the city.

According to her, the difference between 'Whity,' which was the name she calls her summoned beast with, and other beasts, was wider than the difference between carnivorous and herbivorous animals.

She kept speaking up for her summon more and more, trying to convince the three of them of how gentle whity is, how harmless to other humans he is, and that unless provoked, he wouldn't harm a fly. She kept putting out words for him, even though she didn't have to.

However, these efforts of her were unnecessary… as Ramie and the other two with him, didn't actually care whether she summoned a zombie, a monster, or any other atrocity or abomination.

As long as it on their side, and helps them survive through this city and move to the capital, they wouldn't mind if she summoned the king of ghosts!

Reem told them that the beasts that had settled in the city, according to 'whity,' had a strong concept of territory. And that in every night, and aside from hunting the remaining humans, these beasts would battle each other ferociously to mark their own territories and then defend or expand it… each according to its own strength and capabilities. Hence, these nightly cries were their way of putting out claim on these territories and warn other overstepping beasts, or to challenge other nearby beasts to expand their lands.

The weakest tier-1 beasts were fighting each other to occupy new lands and establish their own domains… which could range to anything from a small sized room in any building structure to an entire building… or even several buildings. All according to the beast level of strength.

As for tier-2 beasts, according to Reem's summon, there were only a handful of them in the entire city… each controlling a large portion of it.

When it comes for the beasts above the second tier… some of them seemed to have followed the retreating military forces, while others departed for other areas outside the city.

Now, tier-2 beast can be said to be the overlords of the city, as they divided it among themselves unhindered. This piece of information made Ramie heave a breath of relief. After all, the sight of two gigantic creatures battling each other and destroying buildings and streets as if they were made of fragile clay made a deep impact and fear in his heart.

Although he only really saw one of these tire-4 beasts outside the building and not the other one, but considering the damage caused by the terrifying fight as well as the fact that the giant beast he saw didn't gain the advantage in that confrontation… it wasn't hard to conclude that the other beast was of the same rank too.

Luckily, since these things had left the city, then it means that their overall situation wasn't completely hopeless. At least, they wouldn't be squashed to death with no chance of resisting.

Also, this area they were in seems to fall under the tier-2 dog beast that had attacked them back in the bakery store. Also, this dog beast and all of the other tier-2 beasts were the main reason why the rest of tier-1 beast go completely quiet and hide in day time. Of course, the fact that all of these beasts had come from a dark forest where the light rarely shines in also played a part in this particularity.

With time, a new Hierarchy system of domination similar to the one that was established in dark forest was slowly taking shape here in the city. In the mean time, large numbers of tier-1 beasts were fighting to protect their own small territories of rooms, floors, or even entire buildings, while tier-2 beasts were fighting to dominate entire areas of the city.

Luckily, the tier-2 wicked dog beast that had dominated this area was the weakest among the tier-2 beasts in the entire city, as it was only a low tier-2 beast. More ever, he was injured, which reduced the difference between him and the peak tier-1 beast summoned by Reem to a bridgeable gab.

This particularity meant that right now, this part of the city was actually the safest for them to be in.

…

When the night completely descended, and the other beasts started their daily ritual of battles, Reem's summoned magical beast let out this ear piercing cry to establish his dominance over this building, and even few nearby buildings, hence, was the earlier sharp cry.

Now, and after coming to learn these new information from Reem, Ramie understood why she didn't use her summon beast to leave this.

After all, if she and her father were to try to leave this city, then they would have to inevitably leave this area that was controlled by the injured dog beast that didn't currently pose a deadly threat to them, and pass through to other areas located under the domination of other stronger tier-2 beasts, and risk bringing deadly attention onto them.

Instead, Reem's plan was to wait until her summoned beast advance to become tier-2 beast before trying to leave the city. Because, as things stood, and with her summoned beast level of strength, which was on the verge of advancing into the next tier, and becoming tier-2 magical beast, stepping into another tier-2 beast territory might be interpreted as an act of challenge, and incur an aggressive act. Thus causing them to land in unfavorable situation. However, if her summoned beast was to advance to the second tier, then if he's unable to defeat the other tier-2 beasts, at least, escaping this city wouldn't be a problem then.

As according to her summoned beast thoughts, this was the way for these beasts to prevent any other beast from advancing, to trim down the competition. Luckily, the wicked dog beast that controls this area was weakened at the moment, and is busy on defend his own territory, rather than trying to suppress her summoned beast.

Having learned this new information about the beasts behavior, Ramie was extremely interested in learning more and more of these details. After all, the more he understands regarding his enemies, the better he knows how to deal with them, and the better his survival chances becomes.

Anyway, right now, the pair of father-daughter standing was obvious to Ramie and his two companions. Their intention was to hide here and let her summoned beast increase his level to tier-2, not to only improve their chances of leaving the city, but also to better protect themselves on the way to the capital.

This course of action was different from what Ramie and the other two originally had in mind. It had put them in difficult situation, as on one hand, and judging by Reem's summoned beast strong aura of magic, it went without saying that sticking with Reem and Jeffry would provide them with a strong layer of protection. And if her information regarding her summoned beast strength and the immanency of his Advance to higher tier was accurate, then it was all the more reason to stick with them.

However, on the other hand, leaving this city as fast as possible while the beasts were busy fighting each other for territories was the sensible thing to do, and depending on her words, if her summon stepping to into another territory with its mere tier-1 peak level might incur a violent reaction from the local tier-2 beast, then how aggressive would the reaction be if her summon actually advanced to tier-2…?

Also, she had said that the fight for territories included all the beasts, from the lowest tier-1 to the strongest tier-2, which was probably how the local tier-2 dog beast was injured in the first place. So, what if another tier-2 beast defeated the already weakened dog beast and swallowed its territory! Doesn't it mean that danger could still come to their doors even if they barricaded themselves and hid here…?

So following that logic… wouldn't be best for them to leave this city before such scenario comes to pass.

According to the artifact absorbed knowledge, the way for magical beasts to advance their tier is similar the artifact's users, which is by absorbing magical cores.

If a tier-1 magical beast wanted to advance its level, then it had to kill other tier-1 magical beasts and absorb their cores, more specifically, the magic energy stored inside these cores. The higher the level of the magical beast that the core is taken from the better… as the stored magic energy volume in the magic core becomes larger in higher levels. So, if the magic core was acquired from a weak magical beast, then to advance, several or tenths or even more are required to raise the levels within the tier, not to mention an entire tier. Of course, if a tier-1 beast gets a magical core from a stronger tier-1 beast or even tier-2 beast, which would naturally contain a much larger volume of magic energy, then advancing a small level or even an entire tier becomes possible… all depends on the level of the magical beast in which the core came from… It might take even one magic core to advance to a higher tier.

This manner of advancing goes for the rest of the tiers of beasts, and not just tier-1 beasts. As for the vicious beasts that had a life energy core inside them, it was the same, but with life energy cores instead of magic energy cores.

As such, Ramie's concern was that if Reem's summon raised its level to tier-2 in several days or weeks by hunting magical beasts and absorbing their magical cores… then what guarantee there is that the already stronger tier-2 beast around won't manage to raise their own levels.

More ever, there was another thing Reem said that supported this concern of his… Which was… since the magical beasts were less in numbers than normal beasts, then wouldn't it mean the magic cores that are required for the magical beasts to level up will be correspondingly less in numbers as well, and harder to find…?

And wouldn't that in turn mean that normal beasts can advance their levels faster than magical beasts!

So, what was he, Lance and Neil suppose to choose…? Leave on their own? But, didn't Reem say that the other areas around were controlled by even stronger beasts…!

He could not shake off the sense of oppression he felt from that wicked dog beast overwhelming aura of power… and that was actually a mere low tier-2 beast and was also injured!!

The only reason they had survived back in the bakery store was because that dog wasn't interested in them… probably, because he knew that they couldn't leave his territory, and maybe he was saving them up for later on.

They fell completely under the mercy of a weak and injured low tier-2 beast…! So, what will happen if they were to encounter a healthy, mid, high or even peak tier-2 beast…??

Feeling the crushing weight of the situation, Ramie let out a sight. Seeing the complicated, pale, and flustered looks alternating on Lance and Neil's faces as the discussion went on… it was obvious the course of action they'll go with.

In fact, he himself felt that staying with Reem and Jeffry was the best choice to make… or at least the least dangerous one. As, after Reem had upgraded her artifact to Lv.2, she got a skill point in which she exchanged to get a supportive spell that can use to cast a spherical, protective shield of energy on an area of five meters in diameter, which meant that it could be used to shield the five of them in case of emergency. And it is needless to say how important such spell can be to protect their lives.

Besides, they were taking chances with both choices, and since the possibility of being attacked was almost equally high in both cases… then, they might as well take their chances with a strong beast on their side rather than without.

After all, their chance of trying to use a boat to escape the city had gone down the drain… as according to Reem, the beast that took over the entire coast area and the harbor was the strongest and most vicious one in the entire city.

After a short exchange of words, Ramie, Lance and Neil agreed to stay with Reem and Jeffry for few days, for her summon to advances to tier-2. But in exchange, they put forth the condition that if Reem's summoned beast still didn't advance in five days… then Jeffry and Reem had to join them as they take their chances and leave the city. After all, after asking Reem about the estimated time for her beast to advance, she couldn't give them an exact number, hence, and not willing to wait for death to arrive at their doors, while they're just waiting, they placed this condition.

Reem and Jeffry agreed readily on the proposal. Apparently, they too weren't feeling very optimistic about the chances of the summoned beasts advancing before some strong beasts attack them.

Before, it was only the two of them with the summoned beast, so, they felt that waiting was the wisest choice, but now, there were two artifact holders with them, as well as a warrior. So, their chances of successfully leaving the city went up by a good margin.

Reaching this point, Ramie asked Reem: "can we see your summoned magical beast?"

…