Prista (1)
Eve started racing through the woods, noticing that all sorts of wildlife were avoiding him. Deers, rabbits, wolves, even squirrels would run away whenever he approached, and it was apparent why. Anyone in the third phase could easily defeat an organism without magic. Although Eve himself couldn't use magic, the tokens he used enhanced his body to such a degree that he could easily knock down a tree with his fist. His stamina was also significantly increased, and he felt he could run more than he could have ever in his life. However, there was an even stronger existence running right next to him.
"Hey, answer my question. How did you do that?" said Maxim, keeping the same pace with Eve with relative ease.
"Do what?" exhausted from running, Eve decided to stop for a moment.
"Turn the body into tokens. You don't even have a Sanctuary-commissioned bracelet."
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"I don't need the bracelet."
"You don't need the bracelet, my ass. If you tell me you can turn the bodies into tokens with some insane power, I'm going to kill you," Maxim grabbed Eve's wrists, checking to see if he somehow cloaked the bracelet and managed to slip it under his detection. To his surprise, he found nothing.
"I can turn the bodies into tokens with my insane power," Eve winked at the dumbfounded boy standing before him.
Maxim sat in silence for a while before letting out a scream that shocked the entire forest.
"YOU CAN TURN BODIES INTO TOKENS?" Maxim stood up and put his hands on his head, trying to process the absurd information he just received.
"Yes, and you better keep that to yourself, or you won't get to keep the gold mine that is me to yourself." Eve stood up, energized from his short break, and continued to run through the forest. Maxim quickly caught up and bombarded Eve with more questions.
"Does the High King know about this? No, if he knew, there would be no chance you're still alive. How many other people know? Did you manage to live because of some other mysterious power as well?" Maxim started waving his hands about like a crazy clown to cope with this insane situation.
"Shut up; we're close." Eve motioned to Maxim to stop moving as they crept behind a bush. In front of them stood a large clearing where a white horse stood. The horse had a magnificent blonde mane as well as being three times larger than any ordinary horse. However, setting it apart from any typical fauna was the meter-long rainbow horn sticking out of its forehead—a unicorn. Eve could immediately sense that this creature was the strongest one in the entire forest.
"How many tokens can I get out of killing this thing?" Eve whispered.
"How am I supposed to know? It's your ability!" Maxim furiously whispered back.
"I'm not talking to you, idiot. Antares?"
"The unicorn is in the 5th phase, wielding the elements of light and earth. I bet you could get more than a million tokens from this one, as well as that interesting-looking horn; it could contain great magic power."
Eve grinned, looking hungrily at the prize he had discovered. However, he wasn't ready to be too hasty. He knew that he was nowhere near to taking on a being in the 5th phase as of now; anyone in a higher phase was easily 10 times stronger than the phase below them, meaning that the unicorn was more than 100 times stronger than Eve. If Eve were to provoke the docile creature, it would surely mean death. Luckily, he had an even stronger ally.
"Hey Maxim, I'll make you a deal," Eve said, jolting the still confused commander to a clear state of mind.
"Yes?" the greedy commander jumped at the prospect of making a deal with a potential monstrous talent.
"Kill that unicorn for me, and I'll be your personal bank, no fees included. Whenever you get a kill, I'll transform it into tokens. This way, you don't have to ever rely on the Sanctuary again. You also know it right, how they take a commission from your kills?"
Maxim didn't have to think for more than a second before he accepted the offer. The only reason he even joined the High King's army and participated in the war against the monsters on the Eastern Front of the Underworld was to gain a higher rank, allowing him to bypass the commission fee on monsters killed. The one thing Maxim hated the most was taxes.
"One condition, though, I refuse to turn human corpses into coins. I will not have you murdering mass amounts of people to grow stronger."
"Don't worry, I might not seem it, but I don't enjoy killing humans," Maxim turned towards the unicorn, releasing the aura of a predator.
"This'll be a piece of cake, sit back and watch, newbie." Maxim summoned the dark element in his left hand and the light element in his right hand, forming two orbs condensed with mana. With a slam of his palms, he pushed the two orbs together, and in a split second, time-space itself seemed to distort. Eve started to fatigue almost immediately as he saw the air around the unicorn turn into a sickly green-blackish color.
The unicorn sensed what was happening and attempted to retaliate by summoning forth a beam of light from its horn. The light reflected against the air like against a mirror and reflected towards the unicorn. Realized at its crucial mistake, the unicorn tried to run but realized its body wouldn't move. It was trapped in an invisible cage that started to compress it from the outside. Its own light pierced its chest, killing the unicorn immediately. With a pop, the commander released his magic, and the air returned to a normal hue.
It was now Eve's turn to be surprised. Maxim had killed the unicorn in a matter of seconds, using a technique that took advantage of the unicorn's magic and used it against the beast. It was not just the pure power Maxim displayed against such a high-level magic beast; it was also his ruthless efficiency in dealing with it. As he said, it was simply a piece of cake for him. Eve made a mental note to never get on Maxim's bad side and walked up to the corpse. With a touch, the unicorn's corpse started sprouting a stream of tokens, which Eve rapidly absorbed in and converted to his own power. Eve could feel a vast influx of energy, even more than when he absorbed Petra. After a few minutes, he felt a stop in his core. He looked down and saw that the tokens stopped flowing into his body.
"Antares, what happened?" Eve whispered curiously.
"It appears that you are about to approach the 4th phase. This is where it gets tricky, as some humans never reach this phase. I think your body still needs some time to process the tokens you already absorbed. Give it a few days, and with some rest, you should be able to ascend to the 4th phase with no problem."
Eve looked down at the massive mountain of coins still left.
"How many coins are there left?"
"You absorbed about 75% of the coins obtained from the corpse."
"And how should I transfer this huge amount?" Eve said, realizing that he had no means of moving a mountain of coins around.
"Have you finally reached your limit, newbie?" Maxim called out to the boy and wrapped his right arm around Eve.
"No, I didn't," Eve snarled, "but I do need some way to carry these coins around for future use."
"You don't have a pocket dimension?" Maxim looked surprised before realizing that Eve hadn't gone through the selection.
"Right, you don't have a pocket dimension. Here, I'll give you on, on the house," winking at Eve, Maxim pulled a small red velvet pouch from his pockets and handed it to Eve. Eve grabbed the pouch and opened it as tokens started to float into the tiny pouch.
"Woah, this is so convenient."
"Yeah, not everyone can just absorb massive amounts of tokens like you do, so us normal people have to carry our money around with us."
Eve scoffed at the irony of Maxim calling himself a "normal person," and Eve reached for the shiny, glittering horn left on the floor. The unicorn's entire corpse, except for its horn, has disappeared. Eve acquired his first monster drop.
"Antares, what can I do with this?
"I bet a monster drop from a 5th phase unicorn could sell for a lot of tokens on the black market. Other than that, perhaps you can use it as a weapon?"
Eve pondered this for a few moments before deciding to store it inside his pocket dimension to use for later.
"Let's get going," Eve said, and the pair started to run again, racing through the woods at an even faster pace than before. Before long, they could see the end of the forest and broke past the treeline to a clearing filled with wheat, corn, and peas. In the distance, they could see tall stone walls and a large central gate as wagons passed through the rugged road. It was the first city on the Western frontier of the Underworld: Prista.