Chapter Seventy-Eight.

(Zack)

"So I know Kayla," I indicate the female Dark Knight I know. "But I've never actually met the rest of you."

"You can see our names, can't you?" One of the Dark Knights grins at me.

"Yeah," I grin at him. "And even though you can't see mine, you know who I am. But still, let's introduce ourselves! I'm Zack!"

Everyone else starts introducing themselves. In addition to Kayla, the Dark Knights of the Fallen Hunters consists of Eric, Sam, Maddie, Jade, and Jake. The Paladins are Liam, Louise, Nicholas, and Fredrick.

"So do you go by Fredrick, Fred, Rick, or Dick?" I ask.

"Told you he'd ask that!" Kayla laughs as the Paladin chuckles.

"Fredrick," he answers.

"Got it!" I say, then pull out the map I made of the Fallen City. "Here's the current layout of Talorn, to the best of my ability. I made most of it from memory from when Nik was flying me over it so he could drop me off or take me home, but it should be usable.

"The red circles," I say. "Indicate zones that Fallen Adventurers travel through. Since the Shadow of Life is in a coma, they've moved back to the surface and into their zones, according to Nik. They're labeled by the Class of Fallen Adventurer."

Class 1 are regular people – non-adventurers who turned into Fallen Adventurers. There are seven of those on the map.

Then there are Class 2, which are people who had yet to reach Tier 4 of a Class before turning into a Fallen Adventurer. The one I fought fell into this category, though on the weaker end.

Class 3 indicates someone who had reached Tier 4 of a Class before turning into a Fallen Adventurer.

A Class 4 Fallen Adventurer had either Mastered at least one Class or was at least Level 80 when they died. They're extremely tough, and will take the entire team of Fallen Hunters to take on.

Finally, Class 5 Fallen Adventurers are any Adventurers who reached Level 120 before they died. Generally, this means at least one Mastered Class and another that's close to being Mastered or also Mastered.

Even the entire team of Fallen Hunters can't take them on, and they'd all become Class 5 Fallen Adventurers. Thankfully, there's only one in Talorn. Most people who'd become Class 4 or 5 Fallen Adventurers are usually retrieved the moment they die. The ones who aren't generally die in groups.

Talorn doesn't have any of the latter, but it does posses eight Class 4 Fallen Adventurers. The main purpose of this trip is to take those out and attempt to take out the Class 5.

That's where I come in. The Fallen Hunters are going to split into their two parties – three Dark Knights and two Paladins each – and work on the Class 3 Fallen Adventurers. I'm going to handle some of the Class 1's while they're doing that. They're weaker, but still tough, but shouldn't be as hard as the others.

Killing them will raise my Fallen Hunter Subclass, which will make me more effective. Then, I'll take on another weaker Class 2 before meeting up with some of the Fallen Hunters to work on the rest of the Class 2's.

Once all of the Class 1's, 2's, and 3's are taken out, the Class 4's will be tackled by all of us. Apparently, Fallen Hunter isn't like others where there's a limit to how many can fight the monster and earn a Level Up. Normally, they require either a solo kill or a kill with no more than five fighters.

But Fallen Hunter attributes anyone who helped in the fight to kill it, which means that all eleven of us will acquire the Levels.

Well, okay, I will acquire the Levels. They all have the Subclass Mastered already. I won't be able to Master it by the time we leave here, but that doesn't matter.

It'll be – hopefully – Level 10 or higher when we go to face off against the Class 5 Fallen Adventurer.

The reason I come into play for this is because of my Ascended Status and my gear. I'm the most powerful Adventurer in the Boundary when combining my high stats with my gear forged of some of the rarest of resources.

When Jackson finishes my latest request, it'll be pretty much impossible for anyone to exceed my gear, too. But what I've got now should be fine.

Mixing my stats, my gear, and Fallen Hunter together will make me a powerful foe. Then there's the matter of using Demon Form. It's at Level 2 right now, but if I bump it up to Level 3, or even Level 4, before fighting the Class 5, then with the buffs from the Paladins, we might be able to kill it.

It would be the first time anyone has ever killed a Class 5 Fallen Adventurer. The boost to their stats is just too great of a difference. Theoretically, it should be impossible until several Ascensions to take on strong Fallen Adventurers, since they supposedly receive a boost of ten times to their stats, but the Fallen Hunters think it's different.

They think that's only the boost to Vitality and Wisdom. Anything at Class 4 or above would have thousands in each stat, otherwise. They still receive massive boosts, just not ten times to everything.

Looking at the Fallen Hunters, I realize that everyone here would be a Class 5 Fallen Adventurer. They're all Level 150 or higher with at least two Level 40-plus Classes.

There are no known Class 6, but anyone over Level 175 would probably turn into one if not cremated in the seventy-two hours. Or Resurrected.

What would I be, if I died? Or Nathan? Or Nik? Or the rest of their team of Level 200-plus adventurers?

Shaking my head, I return to the focus of today. The Fallen Adventurers, and where they're located on the map. I'm matching up with Kayla's team, which consists of her, Eric, Sam, Liam, and Louise.

They're only going to step in if I'm in serious danger, though I tell them to not heal me unless I'm about to die from an attack, not just because my Health is low.

"We know," Louise laughs. "Zack, we fight with Dark Knights. We know about Dark Vengeance. Unlike most healers and Paladins, you'll find that we're adept and knowing the difference between planned low Health and actual rescue needed."

"For your six Dark Knights," I point out. "I'm an outside factor. And a quick thing – when I take on Demon Form, my stats increase. This means my Maximum Health does as well. You healing me won't steal my Experience, so if you guys can, I'd appreciate being healed as soon as I take on Demon Form. It'll last for two minutes, but it'd take me nearly three minutes to reach that, and Dark Vengeance only works with damage taken. If I can get up to full Health in Demon Form and my Health drops low, that's an extra sixteen hundred damage I can deal with it."

"We'll do that," she says. "What happens if Demon Form ends and your Health is above your actual maximum?"

"My Health drops over time until it reaches the maximum," I answer. "At the rate of half of my regeneration of it. I usually just hurt myself to speed it up. I feel weird as fuck until it's back to the actual limit."

I also bleed a lot from injuries inflicted. And I don't just mean Bleed, but actual blood, as if my body's containing way too much and needing to get rid of it. And then I feel faint after because of the blood loss.

It's not fun.

"Okay," Kayla says. "What are the areas outlined in green?"

"Those are where Bounty Beasts are," I answer. "I've marked down what type of beast they are, as you can see – they're species and Class. This is based on observations from both Nik and me, so it should be accurate."

"And the black regions?" She touches the four black-outlined areas.

"Don't enter them," I say. "At any cost. Those are Bounty Beasts that are probably as powerful as – if not more so – than a Class 5 Fallen Adventurer. Nik and Jesse attempted to take on the one here," I tap the spot around the Dark Temple. "And barely survived."

"Nik and Jesse?" Liam asks. "Two of the strongest Dark Knights in the Boundary could barely survive against it?"

"Fuck," Kayla mutters.

"So it's Jesse!" I exclaim, earning confused looks from the Paladins. "The Dark Order's been hiding from me who the 'secret' Dark Knight was, since there's been one around I didn't know the identity of! I'm amazed that Jesse's a Dark Knight, though. I thought he was rogue all the way."

"He was a Dark Knight first," Kayla tells me. "Considering that Nik and Jesse – by themselves – once wounded a Class 5 and got away with minimal injuries, it probably is best if we stay out of the black zones."

"I have a question," Fredrick looks at me, and I raise an eyebrow. "You said that part of why you want to get rid of the tough foes here is so you can train your team here?"

"Yeah," I nod.

"Bounty Beasts aren't constricted to the zones they're in," he says. "They just usually stay in them. What will happen if your team comes across-"

"Unlike other Bounty Beasts," I say. "These four don't actually leave their zones. When the Shadow of Life had all of the Bounty Beasts and Fallen Adventurers move underground so I couldn't farm them without risking my life – which he knows I don't do except in extreme situations – those four stayed. I tried provoking the Goblin Giant into chasing me, but it gave up when I reached the edge of the zone. For some reason, they won't leave them. So as long as my team listens to me and stays out of those zones, there'd be no issue."

"Two of them," Kayla taps the zone for A'Lutar and for the Goblin Shaman's black zone. "Are spellcasters."

"I didn't dare go against A'Lutar," I say. "The Chieftain at the Dark Temple. The Goblin Shaman seemed to lose interest in attempting to attack you if you pass this zone here."

I tap on the pale blue line around his black zone, which creates a zone around twenty yards thick all the way around his zone.

"I know his spells can hit further," I say. "As he cast a fireball at me when I was here," I tap a spot in the blue zone. "And it hit a building here," I tap a spot outside of the blue zone. "And he was here," I tap a spot in the black zone. "I think his spells can reach up to fifty yards? I'm not sure, though, I didn't want to test it too hard. I actually went into his zone by accident… anyway, they seem to have an 'interest' range."

It's weird. Bounty Beasts aren't restricted to certain zones – unless certain levels of power then binds them into it? But Fallen Adventurers will live their zones, too, they just usually stay where they died. That's why I'm a bit confused by these four.

Are they guarding something? The altar itself is guarded by the Class 5 Fallen Adventurer – he's the only one of them who won't leave the plaza. The others will wander the area around it.

The plan to deal with the half-dozen guarding it involves luring them out and taking them on one at a time. Most of them are Class 4, with three Class 3's as well. It's the most dangerous zone here, and is marked with a dotted line of red and black to indicate this.

"What's the plan with the Bounty Beasts?" Nicholas asks.

"We're leaving most alone," I say. "Only the ones with stars in their zones are getting eliminated. When I'm with my team, I'll help them kill the others, for the large amounts of Experience they'd get."

Kayla stares at me for a few moments, then snorts.

"And I take it you're taking out a few Bounty Beasts while we're here, too?"

"Fuck yeah!" I exclaim. "I'm not letting you do all the work! Talorn is mine!"

The Fallen Hunters start laughing, and I realize how childish that probably was. Who cares? I'm a child!

"Let's go kick some Fallen Ass!"