Four more days have passed since Emeros, and his party found the secret temple in the middle of the cliff's drop.
Except for Perment and Emeros, everyone was back up the cliff and were on their hunt.
They were attacking the strange creatures now born from the death of orcs and imps.
ραndαsnοvεl.cοm The imps were said to have been creatures infected by the blood of demons. In comparison, orcs were born from the corpses of demons whose vile energies created a new life.
Blood and body were fighting and were being spilled in the mana-filled land causing a foul beast of strange form to take shape.
The darkness that spread was thick and potent, and the malice and hatred of the two races were reacting to the magic of this underground world.
And because of that, creatures of terrifying power that had never before been seen in the Zarefard Kingdom had now appeared.
This creature of malevolent and cruel form was the very first foe that Kyros fought when he had awakened.
A Shade was there!
The dark creatures known as the Shades began to appear from the numerous battles in the past weeks.
All that time, the party of Emeros was using the battle to absorb energy from the corpses when they had the chance, and in a few days, they managed to cross their levels past level 10!
Emeros had warned the group of them and told them that these creatures are very hard to kill since they have little physical form.
A tall shade with an orc's height and body wandered around the dark. It had just awakened and taken shape and moved to seek a prayer to prolong its life.
It then saw Brent standing up in the distance.
Brent was trembling as he held his sword that would be useless against it. Though they had seen many of this, it was larger and stronger than the rest!
"I can't believe that we have to attack these things!!" Brent cursed as he roared and made wide sword swings to draw the beasts.
The Shade's dark mouth opened as it roared and charged at Brent.
The Shade was born but had to feed itself due to the lack of darkness in the cave. There were little parts that were not illuminated due to the mana that seeped out and needed to keep feeding to survive. It was hungry and desperate and flew like a shadow moving through the ground.
Brent held his ground and waited as the beast drew closer and pounced on him.
"Throw the Portable Kingly Ensnaring Ball now!" Brent shouted.
Instead of fighting these creatures, Emeros began to create a strange round orb made of the magic ores found deep inside and crafted them with energy conversion circles. At the center was a mark that Perment didn't know. He could not craft the word even though he formed it perfectly.
But, of course, he could not. Only the heir could craft the 'King' glyph and cause it to have power.
These stones would be used to catch the Shade, a potent energy Emeros required.
Serena suddenly appeared to the side just as the Shade was about to attack. Their previous experience told them these creatures would retreat when they sensed these balls. And the last time they attacked and tried to catch one, they had numerous wounds.
But now, they revised their strategy and used bait instead! Serena waited until the last possible moment, sprung out with her high dexterity, and threw a ball glowing with red and white energy.
The dark Shade sensed the energy and began to flee. Even in its hunger, it recognized a power that could tame it!
But it was too late; the ball reached it, and the binding of the king called the restless vagabond.
The red and white ball fell and quivered as the fire and holy energy contained the Shade that tried to flee.
But after several attempts to escape, the binding finally took place, and the dark creature gave in to the king's laws and submitted in servitude.
"Good job! That creature was probably level fifteen based on its size!" Wesret praised.
Brent was trembling. This creature was terrifying. They could not block its attack or hit it with a swing of their weapons!
"Why did you shout the full name?" Philip laughed.
"You could have just said, throw it... But you had to shout the entire name that Master Emeros bestowed on it."
"I don't know! I panicked! You try to do that and stand while a terrifying dark monster can't hit charges at you!" Brent complained.
"Oh, come on! In the past week, you've had the same training and experiences we had." Don frowned.
"Not exactly. They have never been placed to the point of near death like when we fought against Rorcast." Wesret answered.
"We have been at a point where we needed to move or die. They always had a safety net." Wesret explained as he held the ball.
Brent frowned.
"I don't say that to put you down, Brent. Your time will come. With everything here, we all will be faced with that choice. That moment whether to move forward or retreat. It does things to you and changes you." Wesret added.
"In any case... we've used all our Pokeballs," Philip revealed.
"Pokeballs?"
"POrtable Kingly Ensnaring ball." Philip emphasized the letters.
"We should get back. The battle between the orcs and imps has paused. Emeros's guess that the human mines would be moving here is happening now. It seems it's finally time to move. Let's get back and make our reports." Serena spoke.
The group returned down the cliff, and Emeros greeted them.
Perment was still in bed and was convulsing.
"Is... he alright?" Serena asked.
"No. He's drinking his second potion. His level is now down to thirteen. I guess this should be enough for his climb." Emeros calculated.
"Master, will we do the same thing soon?"
"Yes. But from what I can tell since you guys already had grown from the start, the increase will only be by several points—about one or two level differences. But for Perment, it will be massive. More than five points would increase. What the kingdom doesn't know is that for those with innate dispositions to certain stats, drinking this poison could be beneficial, although it's very costly." Emeros explained.
"They don't have these gloves or the highly effective energy that my energy conversion circles have. So the option to train their bodies through De-leveling is not the question. But with our advantage, we can kill, gather energy and help others level up easily, making this a very lucrative option for us."
Don was already juggling as they talked. The rest was also doing it.
"But master Emeros. Why did we do this now? Shouldn't we have done this to Perment after we defeated those mages?" Tyra asked as she was juggling three daggers. As the days passed, they were more and more impressed with Emeros and had reached the point where they had high respect for him.
"This is for Perment. Experience matter. You've been with us for more than a week. But they grew more at the same time Don and the rest had. We experienced greater hell. Now, you two have it much easier. This battle will be a terrifying fight that could wipe us all out."
"Why are we forcing ourselves to be in this great danger?" Brent asked.
"...My master said that the difference between great people like him and the rest is that those who are powerful overcame powerful opposition. I didn't understand it at first, but now I do. The more I tried to walk the path of my master, the more how much of a monster I realized he was. I am not making you champions or heroes. I aim to make all of you capable of standing against gods and fallen." Emeros answered.
Brent was amazed at Emeros's answer.
Emeros collected the stones and could not help but feel excited as he saw the number of Shades the team had captured.
Fifteen balls were given to him.
"Are there more of the shades?" Emeros asked.
"There should be more on the battlefield. The imps have retreated, as you have guessed, Master. The kingdom is now attacking the imps. The two-pronged attack forces the Imp Demon to be on the defensive."
"Oh? Then we have to move tonight. This will be the opening we needed!" Emeros exclaimed.
He had already determined where the hideout would be. Emeros knew the guarded mages would use their magic to hide the base.
Rorcast would hide the secret base he had whenever other monsters were present. But since he needed to draw humans inside, he often left just enough energy so that magic-capable men could find the secret entrance to trap and devour.
But now, the mage would certainly hide all traces. It would be impossible to find where the base was, but Emeros had spent the last week deciphering the possible location where the secret base was. But the problem was, it was right in the middle of the battlefield of the imps and orcs!
"Are we ready for it, Master? We are only at level eleven! Brent and I are still at level ten! Even with Perment at thirteen, if the Mage is as dangerous as you think he is, one or several of us may die in this!" Tyra asked.
"It's fine. It'll be dangerous, but this won't be a suicide mission." Emeros smiled as he held out the Dark Core of the Imp Demon over the Pokeballs.
Dark energy began to surge out as the Dark Core absorbed the Shades!
Emeros watched as the Dark Core was drawing out and sealing the Shades.
"Kyros... I'm one step closer to you now!" Emeros smiled in glee.
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