Silvi let loose with her shadows, creating spikes wherever she could. Kira scratched her head and lightly tossed her hammer into the air. In mid-air, the heavy heads changed into something that resembled one singular spike with tiny hammerheads on the sides. With a grunt, she caught it, and after winding up, threw it with all her might. It would return to her shortly, it always did.

Charles was the last one through and took a moment to take in how much damage the kraken had taken in the brief moments they had been there.

In their opening salvo of attacks, it had already shrunk back from the wall and was flailing its appendages in the air. Streams of blood arced through the sky as it reacted to the sudden pain they caused it.

Charles fired off one firebolt after another at the monster. The spell used to have a max range of sixty feet, however, that had increased with his understanding of the element. It was no problem for him to hit the kraken from his current position near the wall.

An unearthly scream rent the air as its eyes turned red. Instantly, the kraken started to shrink and the wounds they had inflicted began to heal in front of their eyes. Nearly a minute later, and the kraken was still shrinking. During that time its form had slowly begun to change.

It was at this point that Charles shook himself from his stupefied gaze and finally used ‘Analyze’ on it.

Deep-Water Kraken Lv. 26

Deep-Water Krakens are the stronger, smarter, and better original versions of their distant cousins, the River Krakens. These krakens are known to be less territorial than their lesser brethren unless it is mating season. They possess the ability to perform limited transformations.

Well, that explained one or two things. This wasn’t even the same species as the kraken they had fought before. This was its stronger, and better in every way progenitor.

Was winter mating season for Octopi creatures? Did that have any relation to why it was attacking the town? Charles rolled his eyes and dismissed the thought. Even if it was the right period, why would a kraken choose a place on land instead of in the ocean?

At least he had gotten the confirmation that not all levels were created equal. Both krakens were within a few levels of each other, but it was easy to see the current one was far stronger. The species those levels belonged to played a larger part than any of them had thought before this.

Well, looking back, it had been somewhat obvious. As his own race changed, so had the number of status points he got with each level. There was no reason to think it wasn’t the same for monsters as well.

However, that did mean that identifying monsters was less useful than they originally believed. It gave them a ballpark estimate and nothing more. It could be wildly off base, like with their current kraken opponent, or something closer to what they were used to. There was no telling unless you knew which monster was an advanced race.

A pair of legs slurped out of the bottom part of its body, followed by the rest of a humanoid form. Within moments, all that remained of its previous octopus’ like self was its head. Everything else looked human. A somewhat androgynous and naked, but human female form.

“Why have you chosen to interfere?” She asked in a strangely liquid voice.

Everyone stopped mid-motion in shock. They had run into monsters that could speak before. It wasn’t common, but it had happened. They didn’t usually ask why someone had chosen to interfere in their fight though. That was a different level of strange.

Charles took a few steps forward. “What do you mean, ‘Why did we interfere’? You were attacking this town, and we don’t want to see it destroyed. I think the real question, for us at least, is why were you attacking the town?”

“They took my child! I want him back!” She hissed out in her bubbling fashion.

The group lost all their tension as they relaxed. They weren’t going to fight a mother who just wanted to retrieve her kid, not if they didn’t have to anyway.

Charles ran a hand across his face with a groan. “Fine, we didn’t know any of that. If you’ll give me a minute, I’ll go inside the town and see what I can find out, along with hopefully getting your son. Is that agreeable?”

There was an unpleasant hiss from her. “Don’t take long. He has already been out of water longer than he should have been at his age.”

He didn’t want to burst her bubble of hope, but Charles doubted her son was even still alive. It would be best for them all if he was, but the odds were stacked against them. What kind of a person would capture and keep a monster alive?

It took him a few moments of banging on the front gate to gain their attention and another few moments to be let inside. His impatience was growing by the second as they wasted precious time.

The leader of the town, Jeremy, was waiting for him when he walked through the gate.

“Charles, it’s been a while. I wish I could say it was a pleasure, but…” He lifted his shoulders and let them fall helplessly. “Thanks for saving us. What’s going on?” He looked past everyone and through the open gate to the scene beyond.

The kraken turned humanoid monster was standing out there, plain as day.

“One of your people took her child. She came to retrieve him, nothing more. If you can bring him out, preferably alive, that would be great.”

A group near the back stepped back as their faces suddenly lost all color.

It was an action that didn’t go unnoticed as Charles zeroed in on them. “What did you all do?”

“No-nothing! We didn’t do anything.”

Jeremy walked towards them, the crowd parting before. “Allan, Julia, Roy, the rest of you. I’ve given you all fair warning in the past about what you were and weren’t allowed to do while living here. Now answer Charles! What did you do?” His voice was a veritable roar by the time he finished. Not bad for a man who hadn’t even wanted to be in charge.

“It wasn’t anything serious. We just captured a little octopus monster and brought it back. It was so weak that we thought it would make for a great research subject.”

Charles began to get a really bad feeling as they continued to speak about how they had brought it back and begun their experiments.

Jeremy, for his part, lost control and began yelling at them. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT WASN’T ANYTHING SERIOUS? DO YOU NOT SEE THAT MONSTER THAT ALMOST DESTROYED OUR WALL? THAT IS ON YOU AND WHAT YOU DID?” He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. “Please tell me it’s still alive, at least?”

The three at the front he had identified early all nodded and then shook their heads.

“What does that mean?” He demanded with a groan. “Either the thing is alive, or it isn’t.”

“It is alive, but we did have time to begin our experiments on it. It’s currently missing a few pieces.”

A couple of the people in the crowd blanched and stepped back from them.

“You cut into it while it was still alive?” Charles wasn’t sure if he was glad the kid was still alive or not. He could heal it, but what would the mother do when it was revealed what they had done to it?

“We wanted to see how a few certain internal systems reacted to the stimuli. So much has changed since the gods came back. Much of what we know concerning biology and science has to be thrown out. We are merely laying the groundwork for our descendants.”

“Great, they’re fanatics. I hate obsessive fanatics who can’t see beyond their own desires more than anything.” Charles spat to the side in disgust. “Bring out the kid. I’ll see what I can do for healing him. Jeremy… I’ll leave these people that have endangered the entire town to you.”

It was only when he spoke those words that they blinked in horrified realization and sank to the ground.

“But wait, we were only trying to help with the pursuit of knowledge!” The female Julie cried out.

“There is a time and a place for such actions, and neither belongs in a period of time during which we are still struggling for survival. I had warned you all multiple times prior to this. I’m sorry, but your actions have crossed the line.” Jeremy closed his eyes in sadness. “The six of you are hereby expelled from the town of Harvard. You are no longer members of our community.”

The words were mostly symbolic in nature and meant for the crowd. He couldn’t actually expel them without going to the system room or the gazebo first. Still, the words had their desired effect as the six lost the light of hope in their eyes.

“All of us? I only joined their group last week?” A nondescript man in the middle cried out.

“Were you there when they captured the baby kraken?” The man nodded. “Then shut up!”

“Where are we supposed to go?” A woman at the back of the group asked in a terrified voice.

“I don’t know, nor do I care. If you all had actually cared, you would have thought about your actions more before doing this. But you didn’t and now here you are. I just hope that wherever you end up, you don’t endanger more lives.” Jeremy finished, stepping to the side so they could clearly see the path to the gate.

“What about our stuff, or supplies?”

“What about them? Have you forgotten you are no longer members of this town? That means none of the buildings will open for you and the merchant is closed for business. Just leave.”

The other members of the town began to press in on them, anxious to see them gone before anything more happened.

The six walked slowly out of the town a minute later with dead eyes. Who would have guessed that their desire for knowledge would have brought about this ending?