Unexpected Events

The next morning the group is made out of Alex, Anna, and Brad. They felt even more nervous having him join them since the day before he nearly got killed but after some talking they agreed and took him.

Marco avoided being at the center of the group because he didn't want to be targeted like last time. He had woken up earlier that morning and wrapped the pelt of the wolf that he had killed around him. Even if it was a bit messy he felt better because he had noticed how hard the pelt of the wolf was. He was lucky that he had cut the underbelly of the wolf otherwise he would have been dead for sure since the rest of the body wouldn't have received more than a scratch.

He had also tied the 5 ft long chain to the axe, it wasn't easy to maneuver and he was definitely not used to it but he felt more comfortable with the increased reach.

After a few minutes of walking through the forest, they finally came upon two snakes that seemed to be made out of crystals. Marco looked at them with curiosity and watched as Alex and Anna approached them from both sides.

He looked at Brandon and whispered "It's okay, you can go help them. I'll climb the tree there's nothing to worry about."

Brandon turned around and shook her head "No my orders were to stay by your side and guard you. If I do anything other than that then the captain is going to have my head haha."

Marco sighed and insisted "Look at the moment I only have you five, if anything was to happen to one of you then I would be in greater risk don't you think. The whole reason that I'm here is to become stronger in the future, not to kill off the people that are protecting me. I order you to help them out, even if I don't know what those things are I can tell that they have a body that seems to be made out of crystal which means that they are pretty durable."

The guard debated his to options and in the end, smiled and nodded "As you wish your Majesty"

He ran towards the two guards who had already engaged in combat, meanwhile, Marco used the axe and its four feet as a grappling hook and began to climb the tree. From there he was able to watch the battle and observe all of the guards' movements.

Both Anna and Alex were surprised to have Brandon jump in and help them. The captain quickly looked in the direction that he had seen Marco and found him on top of a tree waving at him.

Throughout the battle, the snakes tried to land a hit on the guards with their fangs or tails. Every now and then they would also open their mouths and spit out fire as if they were dragons. The guards seemed to have calculated the time gap between shots and they got back to a safe distance before the fire ever reached them.

Every swing they took was towards the head and sent chills in Marco's body every time he heard the sword clashing against the crystal. At one point Anna's sword became stuck in the snake's body. Luckily Brandon was there and finished the job while Anna rested. Once that one was destroyed they ganged up on the one that Alex was facing, which was bigger, and finally, after a 15-minute long fight, they were able to break apart the snake's head. He jumped down from the tree and looked at the crystal bodies.

He picked up one of the head fragments (("Hey LEAD analyze this real quick"))

Ding 🤖 "On it, the results will be found in your status board all you have to do is open it"

Marco quickly opened it and found the information.

[Pyro Crystilan Viper]

Has the ability to spit fire and burn its victims. Its body is made purely out of red crystal and is extremely durable. It is also able to reproduce twice a year and will keep on growing nonstop. The only way to kill it is if the head is removed from the rest of the body.

He looked at the definition and took a deep breath (("LEAD when this thing says that it will keep growing nonstop, do you know about how much it will grow yearly. Like I mean these things won't be able to be the size of a tree right. The ones in front of me are about 7 ft long, do you happen to know how old they are."

Ding 🤖 "Sorry man I don't, all that information that was there is all I know. Like I said before the more I'm upgraded the more helpful I'll become. If I were you I would get started finding more followers you need to reach 50 to be able to upgrade me again."

Marco sighed and nodded ((" Easy to say, if I leave this place and get recognized by the enemy then I'll be dead meat. I gotta get stronger to be able to make any of that possible."

Ding 🤖 "Trust me, man, I'm the last person that wants you to die. All I'm saying is that you're moving too slow for my liking."

He was about to respond but he felt someone pull him by the shoulder, he turned around and found the angry face of Alex "Your Majesty you and I have something to discuss, I thought that our agreement was to make sure that you stayed next to Brandon the whole time."

Marco nodded and looked at the captain straight in the eyes "Look Alex I get that you want to keep me safe and I appreciate that. The thing that I want you to understand is that we are going to have to take risks in order to get our kingdom back. I need all of you to be alive and for that I can't be holding you back but at the same time I can't just stay sitting down doing nothing. Besides, tell me what would have happened to Anna if Brandon wasn't there to help her."

The captain looked at him and sighed "Very well your Majesty, sorry for going against your word."

He shook his head and smiled "look, man, like I said you guys are like family, and just like you want to make sure that I'm safe I also want the same for you. I know that I'm a pain on all your asses but there's nothing I can do about that at the moment so just focus on yourself. I'll stay away from any trouble and only join in if it's something that I can handle is that all right?"

All three guards froze when they heard him say asses but after a while, they began to laugh. Alex nodded and they began to collect the bodies of the snakes which were heavy. They headed for camp and left him there while they went to the village to sell the crystals and the other remains from the Chainlink Wolves.

Apparently, they needed to sell them and buy some new weapons since their swords were completely chipped.

While they did that Max trained with his bamboo staff and continued training for about 6 hours until he decided to spend some time meditating but not before collecting his daily money

[Pocket Money Activate]x15

[Money Received: 3 silver]

[Total Money: 6 silver, 9 bronze]

After a few hours, he sighed and lay down looking at the stars and fell asleep thinking about the future

----------------------------

2 weeks later

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He slowly began sneaking on the horned lion from behind while it was focused on Alex. Marco looked around and made sure that Anna and Jack were prepared to attack from the sides, they all nodded and attacked together.

The lion heard their footsteps as they charged at it from three directions and it began attacking Alex but the captain was ready and used his big longsword to deflect its attacks and make it back away to stay far from range.

While Alex kept the lion busy Anna and Jack pierced the lion's sides with their broadswords and they turned the sword around before pulling it out to increase the damage that was inflicted.

Meanwhile, Marco used his body to spin his Naginata to create a fan-like motion and allow both the blades to inflict damage on the back of the lion's legs. The black pelt of the lion soon turned dark red and it came crashing down on the floor after standing still while it bled to death.

He sighed and dropped at the floor "Thank god that it all went according to plan, I was expecting something weaker to take the bait, when I saw this bad boy I nearly soiled my pants haha."

The guards nodded and agreed "Yeah I'm amazed that he was able to stay alive after losing so much blood, if we would have met him head-on and not had all this planned we would have had a bit of trouble."

Anna and Brandon began to skin the lion and take all the valuables they could while Alex and Marco took guard duty in case any other creature showed up.

Ding 🤖 "That's a nice haul man, look at you haha. Never thought that you could make such a change in 2 weeks."

Max smiled (("Well I used the axe to kill small animals that I could handle then I leveled up again. After waiting a week I finally got my double-bladed Naginata and that's when the party got started. My mana got increased the more I leveled up and then I was able to rank up my Pocket Money skill after using it 100 times which now hands out 40coins for every 10Mp. That allowed me and the guys to get better equipment allowing us to hunt with a bit more confidence and that gave me the ability to level up more."

Ding 🤖 "Gotta say that ability scares the crap out of me, you're now able to get 1.3 gold every day and things will just get even worse as you rank up the skill even more, no wonder the goddesses gave you the shop option. Otherwise, the inflation that you would cause in this world will be huge haha."

(("Yeah it's a shame that I haven't saved up enough yet but as soon as I can I'll roll for a skill. I don't really need any monsters tamed at the moment since the less attention I attract the better. How much do I need to be able to roll for a skill?"))

Ding 🤖 "It's 50,000 for one roll and 500,000 for 10 rolls but you get 2 more for free."

(("Yikes that is expensive haha, well I'll leave that for later, right now I gotta get stronger,"

[Status Board]

-------------------------------------------------

Name: David Lance

Level: 6 (970/6400)

Health: 300/300

Stamina: 302

Strength: 294+73.5

Agility: 309

Mana: 325/325

Magic:

-Pocket Money (LV3)

-Charm

-Tame

Team Power-ups:

-Health Reduction

-Strength Enhancement

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Ding 🤖 "Hey idiot, don't get distracted, you have company at your 6."

Marco turned around and found 5 men in full red body armor. He let the others know and together they made a defensive line. Since the guards were still away from earshot distance Marco whispered to Alex "Are they the enemy?"

The captain shook his head "No, our enemy wears blue armor and they have a different style. I've never seen armor like those before which means that they could either be a kingdom from an extremely far place or a new unit from the Void Kingdom."

They became tense and waited for the men to arrive when they got there one of the oldest men spoke "My lady request your audience"

Alex stepped forward and smiled "And who would your lady be, and what business does she have with us?"

The man shook his head "Sorry but I can't give you that information and we also don't know why she was interested in you lot."

Alex sighed and nodded "Can you at least tell us how far away your lady is so that we can know where exactly we are being taken to. With all due respect of course you know I'm just not fond of the idea of following a stranger."

The man nodded and pointed at the hill "She is there."

Marco and the rest looked at Alex for an answer and after a few seconds the captain nodded "Fine then take us there but we would appreciate it if some of your men could finish what we were doing while we go and talk with your lady."

The man nodded and left 2 men behind, and they followed the other three to the top of the hill. After a 20 minute walk, they arrived at the top of the hill that had one tent surrounded by men in red armor.

(("LEAD, could you give me hand here and estimate how many are here"))

Ding 🤖 "There are 236 men and 4 women in the interior of the tent."

The 3 men guided them toward the tent as all the surrounding men looked at them confused. When they were in front of the tent the man stopped them and he yelled "My lady we have brought the hunters that you requested to see."

Inside the tent, they heard a young and feminine voice "Come in Victor"

They swiped open the clothed doorway and entered, the first thing that Max saw was a red-haired woman in red armor. She smiled at them and said "Welcome"

Ding 🤖 "Oh snap this just got interesting haha,"