-Vol 3: Enemies in The dark-

-Destructive Energy Manipulation-

Kenshin didn’t have to tell twice, the children followed behind him like lambs. Using his map to its limit, he was successful in finding the most optimal way to avoid fire.

He could no longer go back the way he came from, its already closed off by the fire. After an extensive search, he found a way. The fire has yet to touch it. The only problem was that it’s a long winding path that goes through a particular place marked as a red zone on the map.

During the dungeon break, the whole dungeon was marked red by the map. He alone would have no fear passing through that area. But he had a group of children with him as tag-along.

There was no other way; he had to risk it.

As the fire was rapidly approaching near the camp and enclosing their escape roots, Kenshin didn’t think it through. He simply led the children through that way. If any problem emerges, he had to fight it out.

“Everyone, follow behind me. Mindful of your steps and keep an eye out for your friends! Watch out for fire.” Kenshin commanded.

“Yes,” Everyone shouted in unison. The loudest was the girl he had saved earlier. She was also the one at the front of the group, acting like some sort of leader to the gang.

As they ran behind him, Kenshin noticed these children were unusually fast and good at keeping up at him. Granted he had purposefully slowed down his pace so 1% of his total speed. It made him impressed.

‘Good! At this rate, we will be out of the danger zone soon!’ Kenshin thought. He was running ahead while simultaneously checking the map for any unusual occurrences.

Just when he finished that thinking process, the ground started to shake. In the map, a large amount of green dots appeared. They were speedily closing on the track, which Kenshin and the children following.

Needless to say; the green dots belongs to the monkeys who live deep in the island. Now that the fire had consumed the whole island, their home was lost. To save themselves, they were also making their way towards the coast.

Coincidentally, his path and their path coincide with each other. Looking at a large amount of green dots; Kenshin concluded that, there might be no less than a thousand monkeys. If their paths have to coincide; these children would surely lose their lives.

‘Shit!! Just my jinx of a mouth!!’ Kenshin cursed.

The ground’s shaking didn’t stop, it increased. Kenshin stopped, prompting everyone to stop too.

Frowning, he checked the map, trying to find any other way. Time was scarce, the ground’s shaking didn’t stop; it increased by every passing second.

Repeatedly zooming and zoom outing the map, he tried to see if there was any other way.

“This is!!” he murmured when he saw an isolated path, crossing through the way he was moving. In fact, that path was directly below where he was standing.

It was an underground path. The entrance to the underground path located a few meters to the left of where he was standing right now.

“AAHH!!”

Just when he was contemplating on whether he should go through the tunneled path or find some other way, a boy behind him screamed in fright. The reason for that being, a huge number of burning green monkeys running towards them. The number was immense with no sign of ending.

Kenshin’s eyes narrowed to slits when he saw the monster stampede.

“Quick! Run!!” Kenshin shouted in the top of his lungs while he ran in the front, leading them to the entrance of the underground path.

The children started running behind Kenshin. Nobody dared to look back at that fearsome stampede. Kenshin sent a Death Slash flying. It traveled through the burning fire, blasting away the trees and burning bushes in process.

As the fire was everywhere, Kenshin had a sudden inspiration. Like what he had done with Flaming Slash, he gathered a Death Slash and instead of sending it flying, he made it stay put in his hands. The crescent energy construct hung in front of him like it’s held by something.

Slowly it twisted and turned before, compressing to a sphere. It then began expanding and took the shape of a hexagon of pure energy.

[Ding* You have comprehended a new use of your skill]

[Gaiend 5 SP]

[Skill Death Slash evolves]

[learned skill Destructive Energy Manipulation]

[Destructive Energy Manipulation Lv 0][10000 EXP to next Level up]

[Use: Create, shape and manipulate destruction energy, the energy at the opposite spectrum of healing energy, as per the user’s wishes]

[MATK: 900; MDEF:900]

[10 MP/second]

“WOW!!!” the timing was so great that Kenshin couldn’t help but wanted to cheer.

He instantly conjured another one of those shields and placed it at the left. One at the front and one at the left. The journey became all the more easier.

The children were awed at the sight of two big purple floating shields around them. They felt safer and ran with all they have behind Kenshin.

Kenshin frowned, although the new skill was very powerful, the drain on his MP was very high. 20 MP per second, it was not low, even for him. If this continued, within a minute, he would completely drain of all MP.

Thankfully he had Passive Regeneration. It lifted some of the burdens. He realized his biggest challenge now; it was his MP regeneration speed. Unless he finds something to increase his regeneration speed, he would be unable to last long in a fight.

He had personally experienced, a fight with the monster was akin to a battle of attrition. The longer he survives, the more monsters he could slay.

‘Ugh! If only I had that 500% bonus!’ he lamented.

The monkey tide was getting closer, Kenshin finally reached the entrance. Well, it can’t be called entrance, as it was just a sinkhole, the same as the dungeon’s gate.

‘What with this dungeon and sinkholes!?’ Kenshin wanted to have a chat with the core of this dungeon.

“Everyone, Jump down!” Kenshin commanded. By now, he had retracted the energy shields.

Hearing his commands, the children looked at him with ‘WTF’ look. Jumping down an unknown sinkhole! Wouldn’t it be equal to sending one to death!?

“Don’t worry, the hole leads to an underground path. Besides, aren’t you guys strong? Can’t you guys handle a little pain?

The prideful children gnashed their teeth at his provoking but nobody dared to jump in. It was the girl, to whom he had saved, jumped first. Seeing her jump, all other children looked at each other in wonder and hesitation.

“There was a cave here!” she shouted after a few seconds from within the hole. Hearing her scream; a sigh escaped from everyone’s mouth. One by one, all the children jumped in.