Preparing for the Fight

"Eh?" Jean could not believe it as he looked at the beautiful woman beside his dad. "Dad, are you serious?"

"Yeah," John nodded in response before adding, "Your mom just wanted to look different in the World Net, that's all. Speaking of which, didn't you take advantage of modifying your appearance as well?"

"Well…yeah, but…" Jean slowly replied, trying to remember the reason why he changed his appearance. Not long after, his mother went ahead and laughed as she said, "Changing the color of your irises and adding a small patch of hair under your chin? That doesn't suit you very much, son."

In response, Jean had his head down in embarrassment as he accepted the fact that this beautiful woman was his mother. He could not help but scratch his head as he replied, "It's because I don't want others to recognize me outside the World Net…"

"Well then." A light smile appeared on Jane's face before she bent her knees to look at her son at the same level. "It seems we've thought of the same thing."

"You also decided to change your appearance so people don't recognize you, mom?" Jean looked at his mother at that instant, obtaining a reply from her not long after.

"Mhm. I changed my appearance so if people had grudges with me on the World Net, it would take a long time for them to find out who I was in real life. Not only is it for that purpose, but it's also to protect you two. I don't want you, nor Jason to get involved in my fights."

While Jean felt warm in his heart that the reason behind her changing her appearance was for protection, John, on the other hand, could not help but lightly pout as he said, "What about me?"

"You're a grown man, you can defend yourself quite well." As she replied to her husband's question, she stood up before a staff that was almost as tall as her appeared on her right hand not long after.

"Anyways, shall we head into the Azure Forest?" Taking a few steps closer towards the barrier, Jane turned around before looking at Jean and John.

In response, Jean stood up from his seat while John made his way beside his wife. Not long after that, Jean made his way beside his mother, before saying, "Let's go and hunt the boss!"

"Yeah!"

…

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

"Did you put all of your stats into Agility, son?" While the three of them were running towards the inner area of the Azure Forest, John could not help but look at how fast his son was moving, slightly shocked at the great difference between the speed of his son when he entered the World Net and right now.

Jane could not help but become shocked as well, saying, "Just a bit more and you'll already be running as fast as me. Did you seriously put all of your stats into Agility, Jean?"

"Well, I tried," Jean replied while looking at the terrain in front of them. "I had to allocate some stat points into Strength and Vitality so I could increase my Agility stat even further, but other than that, yeah. I put all of my stats into Agility."

"I see…" John and Jane replied at the same time, wondering as to what level their son was at right now to achieve such a great difference in speed. Nevertheless, they knew that they could just ask this question later, placing it in the back of their heads as the three of them continued to run for a bit more, finally arriving at the inner area of the Azure Forest a couple of minutes later.

Whoosh!

At the very instant they had entered the Azure Forest's inner area, they attracted the attention of the users that were grinding in the Azure Forest for levels. Those users could not help but look at the users that just entered the Azure Forest, their mouths agape after finding out that Jean was one of the people that just entered the Azure Forest.

"Gasp! It's the Wolf Slaughtering Monarch!" One of the users could not help but mutter as the three passed the user along the way.

"Hm? Wolf Slaughtering Monarch?" John could not help but ask as he looked at Jean. "Are they referring to you, son?"

"Yeah," Jean replied with an expression of slight embarrassment on his face. "I used to be called the Rabbit-killing Demon for killing a lot of rabbits. Then, it changed to the Wolf-killing Demon once I started to kill wolves. I don't know what I did to get that nickname though."

"Man, rumors do spread among users," John could not help but say to himself. He then muttered, "I wish I had a nickname as well."

Not long after, one of the other users in the Azure Forest could not help but notice the three, specifically focusing his attention on Jane. His expression being the epitome of shock, he could not help but shout as he was attacked by the rabbit he was fighting, "Oh my god! The Crimson Goddess is actually in the Azure Forest!"

"Crimson Goddess?" This time, it was Jean who asked, looking at his mother beside him. "What did you do to get this nickname, mom? Was it because of your almost full red appearance?"

"Well, it's a part of that," Jane replied to his son's question with a light smile. "Other than that, I'm also well known for being well versed in flame magic, as well as the variants of flame magic."

"Oh?" Jean's eyes could not help but light up after hearing that his mom was in fact, a Mage. While continuing to walk towards the boss of the Azure Forest in a leisurely manner, Jean looked at his mom and asked, "After we kill the boss of the Azure Forest, can you show me some of your magic?"

"Sure, I'll be glad to," Jane had a grin on her face as she replied. On the other hand, John's expression was quite the opposite, a glum frown on his face as he muttered to himself, "I hope someone recognizes me along the way and tells me about my nickname."

Unfortunately for John, along the way to the big boss of the Azure Forest, not one person recognized him, only recognizing Jean and Jane for their nicknames. This, in turn, made John depressed, to which Jane and Jean consoled him, telling him that he would surely obtain a nickname once they see his full power while fighting the boss.

Thankfully, this consoling made John motivated, proceeding to use his full power to make a sprint towards the big boss as fast as possible. In response, Jane and Jean, who were left behind, looked at each other with a light smile on their faces. By looking at each other for a short while, the two of them had a unanimous agreement that they weren't in a rush, making John wait for them.

"Now that I think about it…" Along the way, Jane and Jean slightly felt bad for their decision, deciding to increase their movement speed by a bit to reduce the time needed to reach the boss of the Azure Forest. While they were moving at higher speeds, Jean could not help but look at his mother and ask, "Mom, what name do you have in the World Net? Is it just like dad's?"

Hearing that her son thought that her name was like her husband's, Jane could not help but slightly cringe as she hastily replied, "No, not at all. My name in the World Net is CrimsonBlossom. Anyways, if you wanted to know my name that badly, you could've just checked my general stat screen, you know."

"Well, I thought that you'd be embarrassed if I found out your name," Jean replied to his mother's words not long after. After that, the two of them focused on heading towards the boss of the Azure Forest as soon as possible, taking a few more minutes to finally arrive at the area, with John leaning on the side of a tree's trunk, waiting for them.

"Took you two long enough," John could not help but say in a slightly angry manner, leading to both Jane and Jean apologizing for taking quite a while. After that, John stood up and looked at a certain portion of the area they had entered. At that certain portion was a wolf that was around twice as large as the normal wolves in the Azure Forest. As of right now, it was currently slumbering, but it did not stop the three from looking at the features of the large wolf.

Other than having a splotch of white fur on its head that pointed upwards that made it seem like it had a crown, it also had claws that glistened like crystals under the rays of the moon. One could also see two words that were written exquisitely hovering over the large wolf's head.

"Wolf King," Jean muttered to himself, gulping his saliva not long after. He could not help but look at his father and mother, who both had determined looks on their faces, as if their goal was to kill the big boss of the Azure Forest. Just as the two were about to step into the territory of the slumbering Wolf King, Jean stopped the two of them by hastily blocking their way.

"What's wrong, son?" John could not help but ask. "Aren't we going to kill the big boss?"

"Yeah. What's wrong, Jean?" Jane asked after John. "Are you scared that you're going to die or something? If so, we'll always be by your side to protect you, you know."

"That's not it." Jean shook his head at his parents' questions. Normally, one would talk about how scared they were just as they were about to fight against the big boss, persuading the others to just hunt other Stray Bits. As for Jean, it was quite the opposite.

"I don't need the protection, to be honest," Jean said with an excited smile on his face, before adding, "I just want to say that I wanna fight against the big boss as well."

"Eh?" John and Jane could not help but wonder if they've misheard their son's words. But by the looks of it, they had not misheard as he continued, "I'm not backing away from the fight, I just want to increase my stats a bit more so I could deal more damage to the boss. Could you two help me collect Wolf Fur from the wolves so I could enhance my equipment?"

It took a while for them to process what their son was requesting, the first one to understand being Jane. After collecting her thoughts, she asked, "You're not afraid of fighting against the boss? You're not afraid of dying?"

"Why would I?" Jean asked her mother, before adding, "I'll have to fight against it sooner or later. I just want to be better equipped right now so I could deal damage to the boss."

"And you want us to help you collect Wolf Fur?" This time, John was the one who asked, before adding, "You do know what Wolf Fur does, right?"

"I do," Jean nodded. "It enhances Starter grade equipment to Starter+ grade. Well, I have almost all of my equipment at Starter+ grade anyway. I just need to make 4 more Starter+ grade rings before I can say I've fully equipped myself with Starter+ gear."

Hearing that their son had Starter+ grade equipment could not help but make them freeze up in place in disbelief. It had only been around 8 hours or so since their son started entering the World Net, but he already had Starter+ grade equipment? And to top it all off, almost all of his equipment was at Starter+ grade?

The two of them could not help but stiffly look at each other, recalling the hardships they had to go through to equip themselves with a full set of Starter+ grade equipment, taking around two weeks or so to fully do so, but Jean only needed less than a day to do the same thing? In the end, they could not help but let out sighs, looking at their son from a new perspective.

'Is it because of the multiple TIMMORPGs he had played before he entered the World Net?' John could not help but wonder if this decision of his back then was a genius one.

Nevertheless, after about a minute of silence, Jane was the first one to accept Jean's request, saying, "Sure, we can do that. It's not like we're in a rush or anything."

"Not only that, but we can even show you the full power of two peak level Cleaners working in tandem." John continued where his wife left off, a huge grin on his face afterward.

Seeing as both of his parents acceded to his request, Jean could not help but have a big smile on his face and say, "Wolf King, we'll be back. Make sure you're ready to taste my power!"

After that, Jean turned around and dashed at his maximum movement speed, leaving the couple alone as they looked at each other with slight smiles on their faces. After a while, they then started to run where Jean was heading towards, taking a few minutes to arrive at what seemed to be an area teeming with wolves.

By the time the two had arrived, Jean had already started fighting against the wolves, taking on 4 wolves at once. The two decided to watch Jean fight against those wolves in silence, slightly surprised that he was, in fact, able to stand his own and kill the wolves without taking any damage.

This sight could not help but make John curious, deciding to ask his son, "Jean, what level are you at right now?"

"Mm?" Slightly startled by the sudden sound, Jean turned around to see his mother and father looking at him with slight awe before recalling his father's question. He then replied, "I'm at Level 8 already. Is that too high?"

"Level 8…" John could not help but suck in a bit of cold air before replying, "No, not at all. Anyways, let's start our Wolf Fur hunting, shall we?"

At the very instant John was finished speaking, a holographic screen appeared in front of Jane's field of vision as she muttered a few words. Not long after, a holographic screen in front of both John and Jean's field of vision. On their holographic screen was the question 'Would you like to join CrimsonBlossom's party?' written on it. The two confirmed their choices and soon, new information was written on the holographic screen in front of them.

'Tenebris has joined CrimsonBlossom's party.'

'Xx_SilverAxe47_xX has joined CrimsonBlossom's party.'

'Due to the number of the members exceeding 2, the amount of experience and Bits gained from killing Stray Bits has been increased by 10%'

After closing the holographic screens in front of them, they then looked at each other with smiles on their faces before looking at the wolves roaming around the area they're in.

Jean was the first one to talk, letting out a light yet malicious chuckle before saying, "Well then, let's start the hunt!"