"Why let him go, you saw the look in his eyes?" Zoe had thought it over since the man had limped away. She had already concluded that Mikael was abnormal, so he would have his reasons for doing things. So what was the reason this time.
"Yeah, I did see the look in his eyes. But Zoe, do you believe the reasoning that the greater the danger the greater the reward?" Mikael turned his eyes and gazed at her thoughtful look. Her eyes suddenly opened wide and he knew she had gotten it.
"Your targeting the noble clan backing him." This was the realization she had come to. Just as Mikael had said, the greater the danger the greater the profit, and killing the current Ronald would hold no profit. But what about a Ronald who had come back as a Dreamer and held the Byakugan as his eyes. Would his Noble clan reject him. The answer was obvious. They would welcome him with open arms!
But this line of thinking had its own problem. What if Ronald were too scared to come looking for trouble with them? This was also impossible. Neither Mikael nor Zoe was blind. They couldn't see the hidden malice behind those eyes. So a future confrontation was all but guaranteed.
But Zoe thoughts wondered once more. How confident would one have to be to make enemies of unknown strength? But she had misunderstood Mikael, what he feared most was the lack of a strong opponent to make himself stronger.
"I'll be as patient like a farmer. Betting the harvest of the future with the cultivation of today."
........
*THE NEXT MORNING*
"We should start leaving." Mikael walked out of the cave and basked once again in the morning sun. His body felt rejuvenated.
Zoe walked beside but her gaze remained on him, observing constantly, surprisingly she was smiling. Just barely.
His eyes wandered the place until his eyes locked with Nikolai. They shared a nod and once more ignored each other. His gaze once more wondered and finally settled on the other leader. The man with the cunning closed eyes. His name was Shen Yi as Mikael had come to know.
Piles of grenades they had been making all night filled the area around them. Most looked tired but there was now a more joyous aura around the Dreamers, despite the many that had already died. Mikael was keeping count. All the ones that were still alive were potential moneybags for him.
Mikael also noticed the silent glares the two groups gave to each other, a silent rivalry in the way they interacted.
"This trip is definitely going to be fun." He said to Zoe, and she could only nod at his musing.
"We head out now!" Nikolai shouted. He had become the voice of command for the general group and many followed along, moving into the forest.
LOCATION: INSIDE THE FOREST
Visibility decreased the further they moved into the forest. The darkness encroaching and fully devouring them. It became so difficult to see where you were walking, it was like a dark black fog had descended upon them. The darkness had a certain mystical cold that spooked the hearts of everyone.
Mikael believed he was better off, his eyes quickly adjusted to this darkness, but he noticed something wrong. His senses which he had dialed up had become useless within this darkness. The sound becomes mute and seeing far distances was a hopeless endeavor.
"Torches!" Nikolai shouted at the top of his voice, but it somehow came out muffled, as if a barrier were interrupting his voice.
But the Dreamers quickly acted. Pulling out their self-made torches. Bashing them against the tree canopy quickly lit them up.
The surrounding became more visible, but not that much.
Everyone walked at their own pace trying not to stray too far away from the group. Mikael was beside Zoe. A distance from the other Dreamer but close enough to act if anything happened.
"Do you know why I wanted to sign a contract with Nikolai?" Mikael began, breaking the creepy silence. He didn't even have to whisper, his voice came out muffled.
"For Dream points?" she guessed. Was there any other reason? Zoe had been curious about how he conducted himself. The way he thought spoke of the cunning and experience he had.
The contract they had signed with Nikolai was straightforward. First, Mikael would provide him with instructions on how to make the grenades and Mikael and Zoe would receive 1000 dream points from every Dreamer who participated in the deal. Nikolai was also required to share everything they had managed to discover about the forest from their earlier exploration. Which was almost nothing.
Nikolai had easily agreed. He was in fact the one who had even proposed the idea of making the torches which were working out now. The fact that this would boost his prestige among the new Dreamers and allow him to easily recruit more of them was even more beneficial.
"Yes, the dream points were a major reason I shared the grenade formula," Mikael continued, "but there's another reason."
He paused, building up the suspense until Zoe began to look annoyed before he continued. "If you remember correctly, while the hint said, 'light and heat,' we reasoned that it was referring to fire. Correct?" Zoe nodded.
"What we did after reasoning that the hint pointed to fire was create grenades to produce the flames needed to scare off the creatures. But where exactly did the hint say the creatures were afraid of fire?"
Zoe's eyes widened in shock. It was true—the hint had never stated that the creatures were afraid of fire.
That was a conclusion they had drawn themselves. If they took that reasoning further, the opposite could also be true: If the creatures were not afraid of fire, then…
"They would be attracted to it," Zoe gasped, her eyes widening further. Suddenly, the realization hit her as she looked sharply at Mika beside her.
"You plan to use them as bait? "Her realization was immediate.
"Correct. The main reason I gave them the grenades was so they could test out that exact theory. Perhaps I'm wrong and the creatures aren't attracted by fire, but at least if they are, the creatures will go to the larger group first instead of us." Mikael said, he had never planned to stay throughout the journey with these large crowd. If he wanted an easy journey through the forest, he would have simply used the transport station. Zoe had also hinted their being better opportunities within the forest.
…
"My leg, something just touched my leg!" This had been the constant shouts of many as they walked further into the Forest. But they soon came to know it was nothing more than a false alarm.
What had happened was that the undead would at certain times reach from the ground where they rest and hold onto passing Dreamers, and they did nothing else after this. Even when attacked they remained non-responsive. The Dreamers had soon come to realize the massive number of undead present within the forest, buried under the ground they walked upon sending terror throughout the crowd. This terror was only diminished by the fact that this undead remained in their statis rest.
Visibility was starting to decrease, and they walked further away from their original starting position. About fifty minutes had already passed, mostly in silence while others-maintained conversations among themselves. No one was willing to slow down and be left behind. The darkness was simply to oppressive.
She was contemplating the implications of their actions, but then she shook her head violently, and her gaze hardened. Yes, no matter what, winning was all that mattered.
Mika nodded with approval. Compassion was important, but having compassion for a potential enemy was sheer folly.
"Do you hate the way I do things?" Mikael asked, more out of curiosity about how others perceived his methods.
"No, it's the most efficient method. "Zoe replied with a tone of finality.
The map icon showed them their progress as they traversed the forest. Barely covering the halfway distance, but that was to be expected, they needed to be careful. All of them were unaware of what could be hiding within this forest.
A sudden cold suddenly dropped on Mikael sending a shiver down his spine. It was the same feeling he had felt ever since he entered the forest, but it had suddenly become worse.
*'KABOOOOOOOMMMM'*
A sudden explosion broke the silence that had persisted until that moment. The Dreamers were violently thrown away from the impact zone, scattering them away in different directions.
Mikael had been quick enough to pull Zoe close before the shockwave hit throwing him to the ground.
It happened then, as if the forest were finally coming to life. The silence that had once persisted in disappearing. Strange noises started to come from above, quick movement that would disappear and even the blurry bodies moving quickly through the brunches.
It was like some slumbering monsters had suddenly awakened.
"Run!" Someone shouted, and immediately took off, disappearing into the darkness that was the forest. These got the other Dreamers to follow soon after, scrambling from the ground.
Dark shadows were swiftly jumping through the branches, heading in the direction of the explosion. They looked to be in the hundreds, nimbly moving through the upper trees.
He pulled Zoe to her feet, and they escaped the impending doom. Fighting an enemy you did not know the numbers of was foolish.
"Get on my back," Mika instructed Zoe while crouching down. They had already discussed this, and the subsequent event unfolded quickly. He was more efficient in crossing the otherwise rocky environment that was in this forest region. And if anything did happen, Mikael was sure he would be able to react faster to it.
For now, at least, they needed to get as far away as possible from here. Whoever had made that explosion had screwed every one of them.
Zoe Finaly took out her weapon from her storage, acting as look out for all potential enemies. Two twin pistols, glocked and ready to fire.
'Sheww sheww.' The creatures in the darkness finally attacked.
Mikael quickly jumped aside, dodging the weird long extension that had pierced where he had just stood. The object retracted, disappearing once more into the darkness before Mikael could identify what it was.
Countless such attacks came soon after, forcing Mikale to dodge constantly. A sidestep to his left, a quick jump forward. A sudden stop and then he immediately started running once more. He did all this while making sure Zoe was stable enough to use her guns.
"This reminds me of the time I got lost in the Amazonian forest. Huhh, good times." Mikael suddenly though of that journey, poisonous animals, flesh eating bacterial, snakes the length of trucks and cannibalistic tribes' men. What a time it was.
"Now's not the time to be reminiscing." Zoe was more focused on trying to kill the invisible enemies.
Suddenly he saw a mass of something come right at them, bringing with it a toxic fume that immediately made him worry. Mikael quickly dodged to the side, and he saw how that liquid mass splattered on the ground and it melted the patch of land it landed on.
'Bang bang' Zoe aimed in the direction the attack had come from. He heard a scream from their which quickly went silent.
Zoe had been shooting constantly at the appearing and disappearing creatures. He was unsure if any of the shots landed but it was acting as a good suppression tool.
"They're called shadow lizards. Their main attack is to use their tongue as a high-speed shot and their secondary attack is to spit out acid. When you kill them, they can drop loot. "Zoe explained and immediately resumed shooting. The darkness did not bother her much.
Mikael only nodded but kept the information to mind.
It almost felt impossible how the surroundings darkened further. His enhanced hearing picked up slight movements above them and Mikael took his sword from storage cutting through the attack that came from above and drew blood for the first time. He saw the object that had been cut twitching on the ground while leaking blood. It had a slimy look to it.
"Light the torch," Mikael said silently. Zoe tapped the torch against a passing tree, which was instantly engulfed in pale blue flames.
"Roar." The creatures that had been following them recoiled in displeasure at the light, hissing out as their tongues lashed out in displeasure.
They seemed to even fear the sudden light source and Mikael managed to finally see the creatures themselves. Ugly reptiles with dark glossy scales. They were hunched over on all fours and their mouths leaked a toxic acid that made fumes rise from the scorched ground. Mikael saw countless eyes staring at them, malicious hunger in their eyes.
But it would be foolish to stay here any longer, so he once more started running. With the addition of the light source, Mikael was able to see much more.
He was able to see how the shadow lizards would open their mouth, and their tongues would rush out like high-speed bullets lashing out at where they were supposed to be. He was able to see how their mouths would suddenly puff up after which they would spit the corrosive acid towards them. What impressed him was Zoe's ability to kill these creatures. Every one of her bullets that he saw was a 100% hit. One look, one hit it was almost miraculous to see.
"You didn't tell me you're also a magician." Mikael's voice was actually shocked.
She then did something that shocked him, and it was because he was constantly paying attention to everything in the surroundings that he was able to notice it. One of the shadow lizards had been hiding at an impossible angle while following them. He saw how the bullet seemed to have missed before it made a complete curve, making a semicircular bend and landing between the eyes of the creature.
A bullet that could curve! This was the most magical thing Mikael had seen other than the undead and this shadow lizards.
"There's a lot of things about myself That I haven't told you." Zoe said humorously.
Mikael was unsure how many bullets Zoe had but currently she was easily handling everything. All he had to do was focus on running to the end point and dodging.
"Why did you want to pass through the forest instead of using the transport station. "Mikael had been curious about this question for a while. And what better time to ask than now, they had not even used the grenades they had prepared yet.
"To kill the area boss." She answered after a while, still taking her time to shoot the following Shadow lizards. Had their numbers decreased or was Mikael just imagining it.
"How are you sure we'll even find the area boss and what benefit will it bring in killing it?" Mikael persisted in his questioning.
"I wasn't so sure at first, but this area is called the Eternal night forest. In normal situations, it's an extremely dangerous region within the wilderness area. Dangerous that any hopes of us surviving would be zero. "
"But I think because us newcomer Dreamers spawned here. The difficulty will decrease greatly. The reason I believe we'll find the area boss is because I have considered both of our luck value. "
Mikael quickly thought about it and recalled the description of luck affecting different situations differently. And how could it affect random encounters. But what did Zoe mean by saying she had considered both of their luck?
"If we do manage to kill the area boss, we'll be able to first get a large number of loot but also the chances of us acquiring a Conquest token of this area will increase further." Zoe explained while still maintaining her shooting accuracy. She easily changed the empty magazine to a new one and then continued.
Mikael was still new to everything, so the importance of most things eluded him. He was unsure of how loot worked but he could make sense of it. What he wanted to know was what a conquest token was.
"A conquest token gives you the right to claim a certain piece of land within the wilderness. And since you have already found the location of the transport station, we're assured of getting it if we manage to beat the area boss."
Mikael was sure of it now, the frequency of which the shadow lizards attacked had dropped significantly.
His instinct started screaming once again, urging him that something was wrong.
It appeared in his vision instantly before the sound could come. A huge rock mass thrown at them like an unstoppable force ready to directly squish them. While surprised at the sudden appearance, Mikael was already ready for danger to appear.
Mikael moved, just enough for the boulder to brush past him and land further away, reaping tress from their roots and crushing violently to the ground. While he had avoided the boulders path, the air pressure it had moved with pushed him away.
Both their eyes traced the path the boulder had come from.
"I think we're both very lucky Zoe." Mikael said as he lowered her form his back.
"One of us at least." Zoe replied as she stepped on the ground.
A huge completely white bear came into their vision. It had glossy white fur, red anger filled eyes, and did he mention that it was extremely big.
The creature had dark black crystals jutting from its back and glowing ominously. Around them was a sort of dark miasma. What was truly strange was that despite the bear having such a bright white color, it somehow managed to blend into the dark surrounding perfectly. It was like his eyes were playing games with him as he looked on upon the beast.
"I'll get to higher ground. "Zoe said acting immediately as she disappeared into the darkness. Surprisingly, the bear did nothing to stop her movement, a sort of arrogance nonchalance in its behavior. But Mikael was not one to be fooled, even now at this distance he could sense the bears overwhelming presence. He now realized its aura was the one keeping the lizards away from this region.
The area which the creature resided in was a somewhat cleared up circular piece of land where no trees grew. Mikael could see a form of burrow he believed the area boss resided in. He quickly used identification, hoping for any form additional information on this bear.
[[
Creature: Death Bear king [Weakened]
Creature rank: C [Weakened]
Hp: 400
MP:600
Strength:37
Agility:30
Physique:35
Intelligence: ???
Ability
1.????[Locked]
2.????[Locked]
Skills:
1. Beast Roar
2. Gale Claw
3. Black Fog
4. Hunt
5. ????[Locked]
6. ????[Locked]
7. ????[Locked]
]]
"Holy shit." Mikael was suddenly aware of how much of a mess he was in. Not only was this creature stronger than him. Mikael was even unable to see a significant amount of its information. And the fact that it was weakened and still had such stats was shocking.
But this information allowed him to understand his own advantages, his biggest which was his agility. The unknown Intelligence value of the creature was worrying but there was nothing much to do about that.
....
"Roarrr!" Death bear charged forward, it's shear mash crushing the ground and instilling fear in anything that stood in front of it. The fact that it was able to move with such speed with its mass was terrifying!
It reached him in mere seconds, its beastly mouth open and ready to bite down.
Mikael was shocked by the speed the beast had moved with, but he was not so easily distracted in a fight that he knew he could die.
His body moved, like flowing water, completely avoiding the bite. He moved again, his eyes tracking the bears movement keeping watch over its next move. This first encounter had made Mikael realize something about the agility stat. The fact that the bear was physically faster than him did not mean its reaction speed was equally so. And this was where his advantage lay.
Death bear did not let him go for long, its body rose in an instant, and now it stood on it's two hind legs. Its arms opened wide as if about to hug him and then it started slashing wildly at his moving figure.
One bear claw, became two, two became three, and before he knew Mikael was under the attack of a barrage of claw attacks, fast deadly and one sweep away from claiming his life.
But his body was extremely flexible and added to the water stream style Mikael practiced, every attack was missed, barely by an inch. An inch that Mikael was sure was enough to severely injure him. The strength the bear showed was clearly enough to rip through his body.
He had been too passive but that was to be expected. The creature eclipsed him in both attribute points and skills. And the fact that it might have possessed an ability he was unaware of was worrisome enough. But it was time to counter, his blood was excited. His heartbeat wildly, and a smile had come to him.
Mikael stayed close to the bear, his footwork working perfect in such close proximation. It was like a dance, a dance of death that spiked the blood flow in his veins.
His inherited ocular ability allowed him to read any biological body as if it was a book. How muscled tense, the slight twitches before an attack. The movement in the joints, and his body moved before the attack could land. What he did required skill and trust in your abilities. And Mikael had both.
But despite the luck of injury on both sides, there was still a problem. Mikael had been unable to attack since the fight started. The bear had immediately put him into a passive situation. He needed some distance. Distance he had tried to gain but was quickly shortened by the bear's physical speed.
'Bang Bang'
Help quickly arrived, and gunshots rang out.
...
A/N: Thank you for reading