Monks

Beneath the second blade, a thick curved blade, was a smaller, more typical passot (a type of sword), although both were similarly encrypted with circles, each with hidden layers and uses. Beneath that was finally the curved Black Katana, the deadliest of them all. So it has in total, four layers, each stronger than the last in terms of usability.

Any opponent fighting him was in for a treat.

"Hey, someone's coming. He's still far away, alone and slow, but his mana is intense." Page warned, "although, don't be too warned. He's weak."

Nadaho, sitting on top of Eddie, looked into the distance and squinted. Eddie roared, "Arnold!!"

"Arnold? What is he doing here?"

"He suddenly sped up. Is he here to kill us?"

"Can he? The turbulent mana will rip him to shreds."

Arnold roared and his body grew into a muscular form.

"Wait, now he can make it through. But I doubt that form will last long." Page narrowed his eyes while looking at him. Suddenly, Arnold came at them much faster than before. "Let's go to him."

The five of them ran at Arnold, although Nadaho was sitting on Eddie's shoulders and staying within Page's bubble of protection. When they got close enough, Arnold glared at them and bore his sharp teeth and claws, swiping at them while the mana around him was rustling and pulling his orange fur out. Zeeth held his sword and thought to himself, 'I am so lucky! I get to use this already!'

Arnold's hands came at him and he was about to smack him down using the flat side, but Arnold was able to jump back at the last moment, right into Page's bubble. His body shrunk and he returned to normal, gasping, "I'm not here to fight! Sorry for that, but without turning into a beast, I couldn't withstand the mana. How are you balancing all this crazy mana, by the way?"

"What are you here for?"

"I'm here because I wanted to thank you, Dives told me everything. You risked your life and even lost your foot for me, I'm sorry for that."

"Oh, that's fine. Did you really come all this way just to say that?"

"Well, partially. I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am for being a colossal idiot, taunting you just because you looked dirty. And smelled funny."

"Hey!"

"Zeeth, he has a point." Page said, looking at his robes.

"My point is, I let my rich mindset get ahead of me when I should've been especially open to others as a noble. This is why, as of today, I want to invite you as a captain of the Army. you would lead a hundred people on missions your boss gives."

"I've said this to Dives, but I don't want to be bound by contracts and bosses who limit my movements, I just want to travel the world and be on my own."

"Yes, he has told me. This is why your boss is going to be a more open-minded and easy-going fellow who understands your wishes and will comply."

"You have such a relaxed boss- ooooh! Are you going to be the boss?"

"Haha, yes. And under my leadership, you can do whatever you wish, unless my superior tells you to do something, which is very rare."

"What about the one hundred men?"

"They belong to guard duty, they don't usually do anything except stand in front of the castle grounds, partoling by themselves. They don't need a leader although we have a vice-captain, their role is simply to call them together when needed and distribute soldiers and money, which are systems we figured out and automated years ago. You only need to be there once a month to check-in, and even then, you can simply send a letter. And you are paid 200 Styrs a month, I know it's kinda low but its a very simple job, the king has been lowering the wage for a while now because of how little they think they do. But it's a great way to get your foot into the kingdom's ladder."

"I'm fine with the wage, but are you sure this is alright? I'm an outsider and have no reason to protect them."

"Yes, it's totally fine, this is a very low requirement job, but it's still a great gateway job into the kingdom."

"How do I start?"

"Just put your thumbprint here and swear the oath."

"But one more question, why come all this way just to do this?"

"One, because you are strong, stronger than me and many others so I want to become acquaint with you. But as I've told you, I want to change. And I think hiring you, someone I recently looked down upon for your exterior is my first step to fixing myself."

Arnold thought back to what Dives told him, "that man is a hidden gem, grab a hold of him before someone else does and he runs off into the distance where you couldn't hope to reach him again. Trust me on this, he will shake the world, it's only a matter of time."

"Arnold," Zeeth pushed his thumb onto the screen he showed him, "Dives told me you awakened a talent, was that how you dodged me earlier?"

"Oh, yeah! It's called Animal Instinct, a passive talent! It's so awesome, without even thinking, my body reacts to the tiniest thing when it thinks I'm in danger, even when I'm in my mindless lion form. It also allows me to turn it on and off when I need to."

"Is it related to what I saw when you were passed out? With the orange-haired girl?"

"Hmm? What are you talking about? Cina?"

"No, it was some other girl, she was really young and it seemed to be from your memories when you were a child."

"What? I don't remember that."

"Zeeth, we need to talk." Page said urgently. "Arnold, you should head back soon, we have to get something important."

"Yeah, I'll be going now. Oh, the oath."

Zeeth recited off his screen, "I, Zenith, swear to the Great Wolf, upon my family and my name to do all that I can to protect my land and people that I have chosen to serve as a soldier."

"Thanks, I'll be going now." Arnold turned but the air behind him ripped and tore apart. A small child holding a ball and hair sticking up into spikes walked through. "What-who is that?"

"Arnold, step back," Page muttered, "that is something you can't handle."

The child's face darkened and morphed. Its mouth curved into a wide, distorted grin while its eyes twisted downwards. The ball darkened and became a mace that charged at the closest person, Arnold. It struck his chest and he started coughing blood, but just before it hit, he turned into the beast and barely survived. Page dashed behind it and used a mana-filled hand to grab its head, but the demon turned its neck a full 180, cracking many bones on the way, and bit his hand.

Its teeth fell apart while he used his hand to rip the head off. Its entire face ripped in half but it was still alive, using the ball that became a black staff to hit Page. he grabbed the stick, which stopped and became a scythe that hit his chest. It was only now that he noticed, there was a constant layer of mana around Page. he could only see the little scar that the scythe made.

Zeeth used his sword while it was distracted to cut its neck off. The heavy sword went through half of its neck and stopped. It twisted its hand and its fingers became spikes. He let go of the sword to dodge the spikes but they kept chasing him so he made a wall of water that froze the spikes. Each spiked finger grew its own spikes like trees but he kept freezing water over them to trap them forever. He grabbed the hilt of his sword while the demon girl summoned fire to break the ice, unlocked the locks, pulled out the second sword, and hit the other half of its neck, slicing it off.

"Thank god," Arnold coughed.

But it didn't die, the body was still moving so Eddie ran in, grabbed its arm, and crushed it while Elton used a sword of his own to slice the other hand off in one quick swipe. The morphing ball fell and Black used a black beam to hit its heart.

"Finally!" Nadaho sighed.

"Why did you say that? That's the cliche words for it to live again!" Zeeth yelled, and just as he said, the demon didn't die. Instead, the black beam seemed to have helped it, its arms healed and the ball came back to life. Zeeth finally took out the third sword and slid it right into its chest. He felt it go through its skin, pierce something inside and come out through the front.

"Nobody. say. anything!" Zeeth stated, worried and waiting for it to live again.

'The thing takes power from my attacks?' Black said with a hint of worry. Never had he fought someone that his magic was so weak against; feeling a new sense of helplessness.

'That doesn't sound too strange. Your main attack is black magic; and demons, I assume, are full of that too.'

'I don't follow your logic.' Black said curiously.

'I guess it's just things from my homeland.'

Page tossed the demon into his spatial bag and told Arnold, "I think you should get back. These things can appear anywhere and the portals are starting to get out of hand, they could appear in your land next."

"What was that?" Arnold yelled.

"A demon. If you find a gate opening, close it as soon as you can, if they are kept open, things can turn catastrophic. Demons will flood our land, get back and warn people to close it, the time for their existence to be revealed has come. Here," Page gave him a small book, "this is everything you need to know about the gates to prepare. Warn everyone. My father is on this as well, you should have some support."

Arnold took the book, flipping through the pages, "got it"

Confused but determined, Arnold became the beast and ran away.

asked, "Zeeth, you saw his memory?"

"Yes, do you know anything about this?"

"Yes, and it's the secret to talents. Everyone thought- no, thinks- that talents are randomly awakened, but that's not the case. We should walk and talk somewhere more private. This is sensitive information."

Zeeth swung his massive sword around onto his back and stared into the distance; to where they were going. Back to the monks.

"Hey, we're going this direction." Page said, pointing behind him.

"Oh, ke-hum. Yes, of course. Damn, I wasted such a cool stance," he muttered.

With that, they ran back to the monk, back to the monster of the east, and back to the place where Cuddles died. Memories came flashing back to him of the worst moment of his life, well as much as he could remember. Having seen so much of his life on Earth, this alien planet that he came from, he realized his life before this was no cakewalk. To him, this world was a bit more familiar since his memories were mostly from here so far.

They arrived at the monk's place the next morning and the monster Rah could be seen much more clearly now. It was a massive beast but from a distance, it didn't seem so bad. He could see the wreckage from the last battle, where rocks and moss still littered the floor. He could finally tell, the monster was trapped in an invisible forced wild made up of markings he couldn't see that allowed things to enter but not leave. The only exit was the small entrance near some cave walls.

A monk walked in front of them carrying a large metal basket with a lid on it, "Hel~lo. Are you here to challenge the beast? You will have to wait about a year."

"No, I'm here for my slimes."

"Ooh~! You're the boy? You have some very good slimes, very friendly. Yes, follow me and you shall meet them." The bald monk turned around in a large motion and headed towards a large metal building not far from the unmoving beast. Just seeing it brought back flashes of memory, its many eyes swiveled around to stare at them, how its many tongues whipped out and demolished the ground around them.

"I'm gonna kill that thing," Zeeth whispered angrily.

"Really?" Someone asked. It was the monk who beat away the demon woman with his staff, "that's not going to be easy. Especially at your level."

"Hey, slime thief."

"Do you even want your slimes back? Well, good news for you, they seem to really miss you. It only took three days for them to grow homesick and look for you."

His hundred slimes weren't far from them. While a few small slimes that he didn't recognize crawled around the monk, his other hundred thundered across the floor and bounded on him. The happiness he felt at the comfort of his slime was overwhelming, he even forgot about all his worries and burdens, like Rah or the demon woman when they wrapped around him. He closed his eyes and reached his hands out to grab them and let them grab him back. He fell over, his slimes cushioning his fall as he expected, and laughed as they all happily gurgled and moved.

"I was wrong," the monk said, "you seem to be a good master. They were merely tired, likely due to constant fighting. You need to learn to take a break. Although you seem to have learned over the past week. You are much calmer now, you are all ready."

"Ready?"

"Well, you want to kill the monster right? There is nothing I want more than to kill it as well so I train people that I deem worthy."

"You're strong, why don't you do it?"

"Because I have knowledge on it that no one else does and I don't want to have it ended here. I come from a long lineage of head monks that live only to guide others. I teach only those who truly want to defeat the monster, and you will be my fifth student."

"Who said I was going to work with you?"

"Do you know anyone else with this much knowledge on slimes and water attributes? You've seen me in action, is there anyone else better than me?" he said smugly, "even amongst my predecessors, I am especially in tune with water and slimes. No one has been able to befriend them as I do without a skill or talent." he placed his hand on a small slime in his pocket that closed its eyes when he patted it. "And I can't end my line of guidance monks here by dying before I pass this onto my child. Besides, look at some of your slimes. I don't know how or why, but they are taking the properties of my land."