Encounter(2) (Revised) – A New World Arc 7

2 days after the encounter with our classmates:

It had been 2 days since we had seen our classmates, it's bad news, goddess Ifrit revived at the same time we wanted to talk more with them. It's unfortunate because we wanted to see how they do, well mostly Hana, I don't remember most of them.

"Sia, what's the safest way to raise our levels after goddess Ifrit is revived? Also, is there a way to know if King Wieka has been brainwashed yet?"- Hana, Sia and I got used to using telepathy more. It is convenient and no one can hear us talking.

"Hikaru, I suggest we go undercover in Welcia first to see the effects of the revival for ourselves, then maybe go to the guild and take on some quests, we need more money so it will be a win-win. But first, can we brainwashed people see through our disguise?"- Hana suggested while sipping out of a cup full of tea.

!Hana's suggestion makes sense. I recommend following her suggestion. As for King Wieka, his mind can only resist 30% of the control but not all. And to answer Hana's question, the skill Lord of Deceit and Lies Lucifer is a skill that was created by the goddess named The Great Sage, she is the only one that can see through your disguise!

"I get it. But why can't other gods see through it?"- I am asking myself the same thing, who is this goddess?

!Not much is known about the goddess, but she is rumored to be the source of all skills in this world, thus she has complete and absolute control over them and even other gods can't get through her control!

"Ok, last question Sia, is there a system in this world that makes you level up slower than before?"- Hana and I were headed for the door.

!Once you get to a certain level monster exp will start to drop less, you can still level up but it will be tedious, you need to beat monsters that are a few levels ahead of you like you did those wolves back there, other monsters are high level that you can kill as well. Or you can try your luck in a dungeon where monsters give the same amount of exp regardless of your current level.!

"Hana, maybe we should go into a dungeon someday. Maybe we can earn a lot of experience there and then level up. It would be awesome if we can find some cool loot in it as well, maybe something that can kill a god, but one can dream, right?"- I can't hide my excitement

"Well, maybe it's a bad idea, we might not know what lurks in there and for all we know traps are a must in a dungeon. Plus, what are we gonna do when we reach the evolution bottleneck? How much experience do we need to get to the next evolution stage I wonder"

!The next evolution bottleneck will be 20 times the exp needed to reach 40 and 30. And to answer another question you might be having. There is a surface dungeon that locals near Admaris Kingdom refer to as 'The path only one could walk', it's a dungeon with multiple paths where you earn substantially more exp points, and a phenomenon known as power-evolution happens, this phenomenon allows you to evolve multiple stages at once!

"That sounds like an interesting dungeon. If we are alive by that point maybe we can go there Hikaru, what do you say?"- Being able to communicate like this sure is a lifesaver for us.

"Come one, let's go, Hana"

We stepped out of the cabin and began to make our way toward Welcia City. The road began getting more ominous, there were strange symbols on the trees and a few ropes that were prepared to hang someone or something, also, there were a few traps here and there, mostly spikes and pitfalls. We ignored most of them but made sure to disable the traps and burn the ropes.

"Move"- I can hear a slow but loud voice speaking to my right

"Let's check it out"- We peeked from behind a tree to see one of our classmates dragged by some villagers from Welcia to a rope.

"Hana, let's go in"- She nodded in agreement.

"Death to the unmarked!!"- Screamed one of the villagers, their eyes white and sunken in with a wide grin on their faces

!I suggest knocking out the villagers and not killing them, killing can alert goddess Ifrit!

"Understood." I used my shadow hands to grab the hearts of the villagers and knock them out, temporarily cutting blood flow.

"Thank you 2….Wait, Hikaru, Hana, it can't be anyone but you 2"- Well, it looked like he recognized us.

"Yes, now, run back to the academy, it is dangerous"

"The academy is the same, but we are safe while inside"- He began to run in the direction of the academy.

Welcia city:

When I arrived in the city, it wasn't any better, currently I could see a few people hanging on some ropes, but they still had life in them, I cut the ropes using my shadow tendrils, lucky for the people hanged they didn't lose their lives.

We waited until they woke up, and now I realize that these people were from different monster races and demihumans. After knocking out a few more villagers, we went straight to the adventurer's guild.

"Ohhhhh, you 2 again. Want quests I assumed right?"- The receptionist smiled at us, it was the same man behind the reception desk. Somehow he didn't look like the villagers outside.

"Yes, we want to take F-rank quests if it's possible, 10 of them to complete if we are allowed to that is. Also what is happening outside, I have seen people getting hanged and executed"- I spoke to the man.

"Well, sure. There are a few quests you can take 5 of them are for gathering herbs and other stuff, 5 for defeating monsters, all of them F rank. And for the commotion outside, I assume you are originally from Admaris, it's due to the new godly decree that Ifrit declared, monsters to be executed on sight. Everyone from any other kingdom has not been affected, even if they were, the effects are minimal. There is nothing we can do for now."- The man gave us the papers in our hands, I looked at one of the missions but it was only wolf extermination, nothing new from what I am seeing.

"Well, thank you, we will get to them right away"- Hana and I looked at Hana and we looked at the quests.

"Be careful, there had been reports of Alpha Magi wolves stalking the area, the 5 killing requests are for the pack, 1 Magi Wolf will rip a G rank to shreds, even an E rank has trouble dealing with 1 of them and a D rank can barely take on an Alpha Magi wolf. Be careful out there kids, just slay the normal wolves and come to the guild directly once you have slain enough of them, you sure will make a lot of money for that many quests"- Well, we already took down 2 Magi wolves with ease. But how strong is an Alpha?

!It's 3 times stronger than a normal Magi Wolf, but they are defeated with ease by using your strategy!

"Hana, come on, we don't want to miss out on the quests"

The moment we turned to the door we saw someone familiar behind us, it was one of our classmates, it was one of the girls from 2 days ago

"What are you 2 doing here? You know it's dangerous, right? King Wieka is almost losing his mind"- She used some sort of telepathic skill to talk to us this time

"We will tell you outside, let's blend in and then we can talk"- We went outside with her, looking back and forth to see if we attracted the wrath of a villager.

"OK, explain to me, what are the 2 of you doing here in Welcia? And why do you wear clothes like these, they look weird on you 2, plus you look nothing like the way you did at the castle, what kind of black magic did you use?"- Ok, so, she cares about our appearance more than she does about us.

"Well, locals wear these so we decided to buy some clothes that a fit for a local. We can't stand out too much. And why are you here, shouldn't you be at the academy?"- I asked her while looking at her, she looked like one of the girls from the other day but on a closer look, something was off.

*Use skill: Shadow Tendril*- I made sure to first immobilize her without noticing with my shadow tendrils, she can't run now.

"That's beside the point, the king and the people at the academy are coming here to register as adventurers, most of them are brainwashed, so it will be best if the 2 of you will just get out before the king sees you, I know how it was the first time, but this time he can't play pretend. Maybe this time he will kill you 2 of good"

"Thank you for the info. Are you going to come to the guild often, I want to know the hours so that we can come here safely"- I kept looking in her direction, not letting my eyes off her.

"Well, we will come early in the morning to accept quests like today, if you come here in the afternoon we will be on quests and come back to Welcia for nighttime shopping"- We nodded and went the opposite way ready to take on the quests. But it was already too late.

"Hey, are these your friends Mieko?"- Another one of the people from 2 days ago looked at us.

"Just some locals I met, they are from Admaris and just moved in here, they wanted to know more about the academy and how the adventurer guild operates. That's all"- Mieko walked back to the group.

"Halt there, royal orders"- A coarse voice spoke from behind us. We didn't recognize it at first, but it was King Wieka's, his voice changed.

"Oh, sorry, my bad, I thought you were monsters"

"Listen here you 2, I have a little bit of resistance to her control, we don't have much time, try to find Fumiko Welcia and seek shelter, eliminate the 2 lords, Ikrel and Welcia if you must, just stay safe, until this madness is over, do it for a better tomorrow.

"Sure"

"Thank you, my liege, we will take our leave now"- After our telepathic conversation, we left and began walking in the forest.

We are now in a forest and we are walking looking around for the materials that we need to gather for the quests, let's see what we have here, I looked again at the requests and all of them are herbs used to make potions, maybe I will visit the potion shop and have someone teach me how to make these dam things, this grass that I gather that is used in potions is everywhere. Me and Hana knocked down the gathering quest in about 2 hours, we gathered enough for the 2 of us to start making potions ourselves.

"Now, we only have the extermination quests remaining"- I looked at our statuses and we were close to leveling up by 1 level.

"Yes, now, let's see where are the wolves?"- Hana seems to be excited about this quest as well, is it me or does she seem happier since the last time we talked?

"So, what are we going to do with so much wolf meat, if we kill these wolves wouldn't we have a lot more than we need? We can't sell it, right? I am tired of just eating wolf meat"- I don't know, we killed so many wolves in the past days and quests that we don't know what to do with the meat. Predator meat is not good for human consumption.

!Negative, you can sell it or sell a dish that has wolf meat in it. If you can produce it in large quantities and open a stall and let someone run it then maybe you can sell all the excess meat and keep what you need!

"What dish are you suggesting Sia?"

!Cabbage rolls and sausages of course, you can use your predator skill to make with the ingredients that you will have to buy, you only need to boil them afterward and then you are done, Hana can take care of the cooking and you of the preparing, also you can use wolf gut for sausages as well, I kept them hidden and far away in your spatial storage!

"Ok, you have a great idea"

"Sia has a good idea. Maybe we should open a stall in the city, but, under these conditions, unless we have external help we can't make it happen."

We walked until we stumbled upon a cave, in the quests it says that they live in a cave, it's almost night, so maybe a surprise attack will work, wait, I am dumb, wolves can be nocturnal?

!Yes, these wolves are nocturnal, but a surprise attack will work, they are just waking up, I suggest you hurry!

"Hana, this is their den, be prepared!"

*Use skill: Shadow Tendrils*- We attacked the wolves with the advantage of the darkness. I managed to kill most of the pack, but deep inside the cave, we could see 2 pairs of deep glowing eyes, seems like they already woke up

!These 2 are the Alphas!

"I will restrain them for you."- Hana nodded in agreement and looked straight at the wolves.

I went ahead first and restrained the 2 wolves, they could move but their struggle put an immense toll on my body.

Hana dashed once, bringing her arms over her head, bringing her blade down swiftly on their head, decapitating the 2 Alpha Magi Wolves.

*Use skill: Predator*- I ate the 2 Alpha Wolves with the predator skill.

#Skills Gained: Rally Howl and Intimidation#- I shared the duplicate skills with Hana

!Combining Skills: Rally Howl and Intimidation into the Legendary Skill Oposser!

!This skill will make monsters less likely to attack you if they are of a lower level!

There were other wolves in the cave, but they didn't offer much of a challenge to us, I just used my shadow tendrils to kill all of them.

*Use skill: Predator*- I used my predator skill on the other wolves and harvested everything that there was to them, keeping their fang as proof, and the head of the Alphas.

I am now level 24 and Hana is level 18.

We headed back to the adventurer's guild.

We looked through the windows of the guild and there wasn't anyone there. Maybe they aren't back yet. We should hurry

We entered the guild and showed our kills to the receptionist.

"Ummm, that's something. I guess you moved from Admaris because of something else. I heard monsters there are stronger, this looked like an easy kill.

!His information is true, people in Admaris are generally stronger and can take down monsters in this region with ease.

"Yeah. You notice things quickly"

"Of course, here is your payment"- We received 10 gold and 50 silver.

We headed home and ate before sleeping.

"Hey, Hikaru, what do you think about the moon in the sky?"- This caught me off guard.

"Well, the moon is beautiful, isn't it? Looks different than the one we were used to but it's just splendid to look at"

"Yes, the moon is indeed beautiful"- Hana stopped eating and looked through the window.

After a few minutes, we finished eating. Hana fell asleep on the table, I carried her to her bed, and she opened her eyes and smiled at me.

"Good night, Hikaru"

"Good night, Hana"- She closed her eyes and started to sleep.

Not long after that I got in my bed and began dozing off.