Unlucky

[How long do you think till he wakes up?]

"Not long, we should head inside in the meanwhile."

Rey approached the guard stationed outside the hunting grounds who was looking at Rey with an open mouth.

"Hello! Me and my friend here would like to enter, where should we register?"

Rey asked the guard while dragging Ed mercilessly.

"H..... here, place your hands." the guard brought out a metallic looking black plate sort of device, putting it in front of Rey.

Rey first put his hands on the device and then somehow placed Ed's also.

"Rey Shelding and.... Edmund Clive. Will that be both of you?" the guard was shocked but recovered quickly, showing his professionalism.

"Yep!"

The guard handed him two maps for both of them, some supplies including healing herbs and rations and two flare shots in case if they needed any help, these flares will notify the guards on duty.

"One more thing, on the map you can see that the areas are divided, I will advise you to stay away from the advanced area until you are lv 15 or above."

"Thanks for the advice." Rey positioned Ed above his shoulder and entered the hunting area for beginners.

*10 minutes later*

Ed was finally showing signs of waking up and to be cautious, Rey tied him to a nearby tree. He knew that once Ed wakes up and finds himself in an unknown location, he would surely make s fuss.

"Umm.... what happened and where am I?"

Ed opened his eyes and looked around to see large trees, rocks and flowers instead of buildings and people.

"Shit I have to meet Anna, I need to go quickly." Ed remembered that he was to meet Anna in a few minutes and tried to get up but he was tied tightly to the tree, restricting his movements. He looked up to find Rey who was leaning on a nearby tree.

"Rey, what are you doing here and why am I tied to this tree? I need to meet someone in a few minutes, untie me." Ed still thought that it has only been a few minutes and he could still make it back but it has already been more than 20 minutes and Anna had gone back.

"No can do until you promise that you'll listen and not make a scene."

"Rey this is no time for jokes, I have to meet someone important, release me."

Ed was not expecting Rey to outright reject him and make such an absurd request.

" Promise first and then I'll untie you."

" Fine, I promise." Ed complied with Rey's demand so as to not waste any more time.

"I kidnapped you and your date is ruined."

"..... what?" Ed couldn't comprehend what his friend just said. Kidnapping- ruined date, how did he even know about his date in the first place? He had so many questions to ask but none came out.

"Let me explain from the start and no disturbing please. Flashback!"

"I was on my way to the hunting grounds to test my new and awesome epic class, no need to be jealous. When I saw you coming out of a lifestyle store wearing fancy expensive clothes. You wearing them was nothing unusual but then I saw your Dolex watch and that too the expensive model and that's when it occurred to me, something was not right so I tailed you."

"You stalked me?"

"Shut up and let me complete. Flashback!

So I followed you to check whether you were fine or not, not stalked, and then I saw you meet up with a pretty girl. She was really beautiful by the way, nice choice. That's what I thought before I saw her acting weird. So in order to find the truth, I followed her inside the inn."

" You stalked her inside the women's restroom too?" Ed was getting shocked in phases as Rey threw surprise after surprise.

"That is not important and don't disturb me again and again. Flashback once more."

What am I your personal servant?

'Just do it.'

"So I followed her inside and instead of finding the beautiful Anna, there was a fat and ugly girl. Not to say ugly because the face features were same with added fat, which made her look ug..bad.

I saw her taking some kind of injection and soon she reverted back to the pretty self. I was shocked but thanks to my quick thinking, I exited quickly and knowing that you wouldn't listen easily, I kidnapped you to protect you from that deceiving girl.

Flashback end!"

"Am I supposed to believe this story?"

Ed was sceptical about the quick thinking part.

"Well you should, I also have Sophie to vouch for me in case."

[Yep, he is right for once.]

"See see!"

'Sorry Anna for making you look bad, but I couldn't let him get a girlfriend before me.'

"So that's how it is?"

"Don't be disheartened Ed and let's go kill some monsters."

Rey was uber excited to go hunting meanwhile Ed was a little melancholic by the revelation and angry, so he also decided to hunt to vent out the anger.

Meanwhile Anna was thinking that she got dumped on her first date.

Both of them wandered the area in search of monsters but they unfortunately didn't find any.

"Looks like today is my unlucky day. Rey you go without me, I should have understood the signs and backed off from the start."

'No, no, no if Ed goes away, then to whom will I show off my class.'

"Don't worry Ed, it could be that we haven't gone far enough, we just need to keep searching. Don't be sad."

*15 minutes later*

Rey threw a black dagger at the goblin who just appeared, killing it in one blow.

"Hey! that was mine."

"Sorry slowpoke"

After all this while searching, they had only seen a couple of monsters which Rey killed even before Ed took a step, thanks to his skill .

______________________________

Materialisation (C) Lv.3

Special skill of the Shadow Warrior, honed after years of corrections and practice. Allows the user to materialise his thoughts with the help of attribute essence.

Consumption: Depends on the object

Cooldown: 2 minutes

• The materialised object may give status effects depending on the attribute of the user.

______________________________

Rey materialised daggers with the help of his skill and threw them at the monsters, killing them in one strike and the ones that managed to survive that were affected by the decay status effect.

Even though Rey killed most of the monsters, due to them being low level, the experience given was not very much and he only levelled up twice.

"How are you throwing these daggers so quickly whereas it takes me since time to take them out?"

Rey's skill had an edge over the normal way of taking something out of the inventory. Taking something out of it was akin to pulling something out of a bag, which took time when compared to Rey's skill, which manifested with just a thought.

One more advantage was that if one's hands were tied, their access to the inventory was restricted meanwhile this was not the case with Rey's skill.

"That's just a skill of my awesome epic class." Rey didn't miss a single opportunity to boast in front of Ed.

"I swear if you do that one more time, I'll bash your skull with my Sledge Hammer."

"Fine, fine I get it."

*30 more minutes later*

"I think your luck really is bad today."

" I also feel the same. Does it even make sense to only encounter 8 monsters in 30 minutes and that too low levelled, they didn't even give any significant exp. "

Rey levelled up once more whereas Ed gained three levels in 30 minutes which was worse than the worst of levelling rates for beginners.

"I'm thinking of going back rather than wasting my time here." Ed was planning on going back when he heard a faint voice, "Did you hear that voice?"

"Yep I have been hearing it for some time, I think it is coming from the west. Let's go!"

"But isn't that the advanced area and we are way too under levelled to go there. "

" Do you think we'll get anything by staying here? There will atleast be someone from whom we can ask about the current situation."

Ed was thinking whether to listen to Rey or not when he saw him already heading in the direction of the voice, "Wait for me."

I don't think you guys should go.

"Shut up, no one asked for your advice!"

.....

Both of them walked for some time and as they got closer and closer, the voice became more spread out. If earlier it was coming from the west, now it was heard from the north, west and south.

"Don't you think something is weird, Ed?"

"Doesn't seem so, let's continue."

Ed didn't even stop to think what Rey just said.

Rey was getting a little doubtful as they had reached almost the border of the beginner area with still no visible signs of the source of the voice.

They soon crossed the mark separating the areas, ignoring the clear sign even Rey who was doubtful earlier didn't notice the sign.

"Come to me darling!"

The voice was now louder and the words were clearer. It was a very feminine and seductive voice and both of them increased their pace in an instant.

"Come to me darling!"

Rey and Ed saw a girl in her mid 20's, wearing minimal clothes and sitting on a large cut tree trunk, calling out to them. Looking around they could see a couple hundred people standing in a circle, ogling the beauty. Rey was about to head into the crowd when a system message stopped him.

___________________________

You are entering an area with high essence concentration.

___________________________

"Huh?" Rey came to his senses a he looked around and stopped Ed who was some distance behind him.

[Finally you woke up. I have been trying to get to you but you were not responding.]

"My head is hurting and why are there so many people here?"

[You are currently in the advanced area following that woman's voice here. And control Ed.]

"Get back you idiot!" Rey grabbed Ed by his collar and dragged him back.

*slap* *slap*

He slapped Ed a couple of times to wake him up.

"Ouch! stop it, I'm up"

"What a bummer, I was hoping I'll get a few more slaps in."

*smack*

Ed instead slapped Rey on the back of his head.

"What is happening and why so many people?"

"I don't know but I think something is wrong because I got a system message telling me that the essence concentration was high in the area. "

"I also got the same message."

Ed checked his system to also find a similar message.

They both looked at each other and nodding in unison, covered their eyes with their essence.

"WHAT THE HELL?"

They both roared out in sync.