“Mia remember to watch its tail.” [Chris]

With tomorrow the start of the festival Chris wouldn’t have too much time to practice with Mia. So early in the more before dawn Chris wake her up and they went to a monster infested area to hunt.

From this there are three benefits; Mia gets actual combat experience, Mia is able to enslave more souls to quickly increase her power, and the two of them get to practice teamwork in real combat. Chris had always thought that real combat is the best teacher since the threat of dying can bring out someone’s true talent.

Chris was astounded by Mia’s growth, in just four hours she could already take down an S-rank monster with little to no help from Chris.

Right now, they were fighting with a Golden Scaled Tyrant Lizard. The lizard was an S-rank monster and the second they had found even after Chris stretched [Terra Network] to its limits.

The Tyrant Lizard was four meters on and two meters tall while being covered in spikes that acted as both weapons and deterrents to directly attack it.

Around Mia Glitter slowly circled her its wings releasing a blue light. Mia raised her hand and a purple, fiery human skull formed in front of it. Mia shot the skull forward and it screeched as it landed on the lizard’s chest. The purple flames spread over its body turning the once beautiful golden scales black.

Mia sat down her breath was ragged, the fight it with the Golden Scale Tyrant Lizard had lasted fifteen minutes in that time Chris had stood back to let Mia test her limits.

“Ok, let's take a break.” [Chris]

He sat beside Mia and with a wave of his hand a blanket appeared covered with meats, cheese, and fruits, with a container of juice. The reason everything suddenly appeared was because of one of the five black crystal rings that decorated Chris’ left hand. The rings were a version of the dimensional box that Burdock had altered to be shaped like rings to make carrying them simpler. Last night, while Chris was packing for the day of training Burdock, had found him and when Chris complain that he didn’t really want to carry the food in a backpack fearing that it would either go bad or be ruined by Chris moving around. Burdock then offered to give the rings to him, as they were still in development he want to see how well they work. He said they were completely stable and most like the finished product and from what Burdock said each ring can hold up to one thousand meters cubed.

So far the rings showed no sign of problem so Chris thought they would become very useful in the future.

“Mia, you actually have grown stronger just from the time we have spent here.” [Chris]

Mia, who was chewing on a piece of meat, nodded then swallowed. She showed a bright smile and sparkling eyes.

“Yeah, I can feel myself getting stronger and it’s all thanks to you Chris!” [Mia]

Chris laughed, patting her head Chris shook his head smiling in a way that could only be called brotherly.

“That not true if you couldn’t handle this train then you wouldn’t have grown so much. Now go enslave the tyrant lizard’s soul and we will move on.” [Chris]

Nodding vigorously, Mia quickly got up and ran up to the floating blue shining ball that was the lizard’s soul. She stretched out both of her hands and a red circular magical formation grew out of the blue ball horizontally creating a ring around it. After Mia mumbled some word the circle started to shrink, eventually it was tightly wrapped around the soul and suddenly the circle and soul transformed into a fingernail sized red pearl that flew into Mia’s chest.

Mia turned around to tell Chris the enslavement had been successful when a wall of roots burst out of the ground and the sound of arrows piercing wood could be heard.

“I was wondering when you guys would make your move.” [Chris]

Mia peaked out from behind the wall of roots and saw over one hundred men wear blue full body armor while carrying various weapons. In the crowd of men was six individuals that wore either purple mage robes or golden armor. There was one man that stood in the center of the crowd wearing pure white armor, he was obviously the leader. Chris was sitting on top of the wall of roots looking somewhat bored.

(One hundred fifteen A ranks, four melee fighters in lower realms in the 2nd stage, two mages in the 3rd stage and one melee fighter in the middle realm 1st stage.) [Chris]

“Mia takes the trash, I will handle the rats.” [Chris]

Chris’ voice was icy and full of mockery, then his tone turned apologetic.

“I’m sorry, knew these guys were around so I used the idea to train in the mountains to lure them out. But really I had the even intention of making you stronger, after all killing all those A ranks will give you a good power boost.” [Chris]

Mia looked at the group of men, she was not afraid of kill them. She had killed people before when she was a slave, Mia just hated killing other. But with her life a stake, it didn’t matter its kill or be killed in this world.

“Don’t you think you're being a little too arrogant though you are in the 2nd stage of the middle realm doesn’t mean you’re are unbeatable.” [White]

Chris burst into laughter as he stood and leafy wings sprouted from his back.

“No, I don’t think I am, but why would I intentional lead you out here without the confidence to kill all of you.” [Chris]

Suddenly a heavy pressure assaulted the group of men and many fell to their knees.

“Now then, Mia I’ll leave you some help so don’t worry. As for me, I’m going for a short walk.” [Chris]

As Chris finished speaking, ten Guardians and five strikers formed around her. Then Chris vanished along with the seven S ranks.

*

“Hey Orthos” [Chris

“Kekeke, yes master?” [Left Orthos]

“Do you think you will go up to 30% if I kill these guys?” [Chris]

“Hmm, right now I am a 29% if you kill all of them I might increase to 33% in my awakening process.” [Right Orthos]

“Alright the let's make this quick, I still want to train with Mia before it gets too late in the day.” [Chris]

In less than a minute, Chris had led the group of enemies several hundred meters away. He stopped and hovered in the air, he tilted his head to avoid a shining blue arrow. The arrow continued in the distance, not long after an explosion was seen.

“Hey now, that dangerous someone might get hurt.” [Chris]

Chris casually turned around his voice full of mockery. The one that had fired the arrow was one of the purple robed enemies, his face was shrouded in the shadow of his hood so no one could tell if he was even a male or woman.

The two mages both raised their staffs which were black metal rods with large red crystals. A magical formation appeared in front of each red crystal and they began to chant. At the same time, the golden armored men leaped forward and used the trees around as springboards to try and reach Chris.

Seeing the four men attempt to attack him Chris’ smile became ferocious. When finally one of the men swung his sword all that he meet was air. Chris had vanished at the last second, reappearing a few meters away.

“Are you guys serious? You won’t kill me with that level of strength.” [Chris]

One of the knight’s sword flashed red, thrusting it forwards a beam of red light shot towards Chris. Chris dodged the attack by moving sideways, he then flapped his wings and with a burst of wind became a bullet. As he passed by one of the men Chris grabbed his face and smashed him into the ground.

Behind him, the three remaining men ran towards him brandishing their swords. Chris throw the now lifeless knight at his comrades forcing one of them to evade the corpse. As the one knight avoid his dead friend flying passed him a flash of red light came from Chris outstretched arm. In the next moment the poor knight had all his limbs severed, he fell face first onto the ground and screamed in pain and surprise.

The other last two didn’t stop their charge, a ghostly image of a wolf covered the front of the left and a right’s entire body was glowing with a green light.

The left was the first to attack Chris dodged his sword, but the wolf leaped from his body and bit off Chris’ left arm. The right man brandished his sword sending a shockwave that sent Chris crashing through the woods.

Chris lay on the ground coughing up blood, his legs and right are were broken.

“See what your arrogance has gotten you. Now you will die by my blade.” [White]

The white armored man stepped out from behind a tree and made his way over to Chris, his sword drawn. He slowly approached Chris’ crippled body, the two golden knights were not far behind him.

The three each raised their swords, murderous intent flowed like a river from the trio.

“Die!” [White]

Chris was stabbed one in the heart, head, and abdomen. The three knights held their swords in place as Chris squirmed. After struggling for a minute, Chris lay still.

“Hmph, this guys was tough, but his overconfidence is what killed him.” [Gold 1]

The two mages entered the clearing and looked at Chris, both let out a sigh of relief.

“How naïve.” [Chris]

Chris’ icy voice echoed through the mountains and a tsunami of blood lust washed over the group of S ranks, subconsciously their legs shook with fear.

Chris slowly stood while being surround by sparks of fire that looked like petals. Some of the petals collected at the stump of his severed arm and to their horror started to form a new arm and hand. In only two seconds, Chris’ arm was replaced like nothing had happened and his broken limbs looked to be perfectly fine.

(Damn, [Phoenix Flower Regrowth] just is to OP.) [Chris]

Phoenix Flower RegrowthRank 1any wound that is not fatal will fully heal within 3 secondsPassive: Cost 100 MP per second

sub skill: Phoenix Flower RebirthPassiveYou can revive twice a dayeach revive give +20% stats (stackable)Cooldown time: 24 hoursIf you don’t die a second time within 6 hours cool down time is reduced to 0

“Impossible!” [White]

The white knight was first to recover his armor trembled slightly, he was sure Chris' heart had stopped.

With Chris completely recovered he looked over at the group, he was no longer smile. His face was emotionless giving his enemies a chill that ran down their spines.

“Enough playing around I want to finish this now and go have a nice talk with your young master.” [Chris]

The white armored man and his group all stiffened.

“When did you figure it out?“ [Gold 2]

They were curious, none of them actually gave away any hints of who had sent them. So one of the golden armor men asked in a fearful tone.

Chris smirked and answer in a tone of murderous amusement.

“Since the beginning, I have spies in many places. Before you even left I already had created a plan to kill all of you then go kill young master Ben.” [Chris]

White armor was stupefied, he had played right into this man’s hands so easily. Still he couldn’t surrender, or the snake in front of him would kill his master who he valued above his own life. Mustering his courage, the white armored man shouted what would be his final order.

“Kill this bastard we can let him leave or the master will be in great danger.” [White]

The two golden armored men separated going left and right while the white armored man held his sword high and began to chant something. The two mages lifted their staves and the magic circle from before appear but this time they look bigger and more complex.

“ [Twin Fire Storm] !” [Mage 1 & 2]

The two magic formations fused together and a massive fireball appeared over their heads. As soon as the ball of fire appeared it split into hundreds of fist sized fireball and surged towards Chris.

Suddenly twenty Guardians burst from the ground and quickly formed a transparent green barrier. The fireball rained down crashing into the wall of green forming countless ripples. When the rain of fire ended the ripples reversed and hundreds of green transparent arrows fired turning the two mages into porcupines.

Orthos’ state of awakening has reached 30%Orthos has gained the skill: [Vacuum Claws] Orthos has gained the skill: [Blaze Gatling]

(Not bad, let’s give these new skills a test drive) [Chris]

The two golden knights came in for a pincer attack the one with the wolf image over him swung low while the green glowing one swung high. Chris hopped off the ground spinning his body to angle himself correctly so that the two swords passed him with a hairs breath of moving room.

Chris landed, immediately he gain some distances and raised his hands. In front of his palms eight baseball-sized black flames formed four in each hand. They suddenly fired and not even a second later more had formed to follow the previous ones. The two golden knights were barraged with hundreds of fireballs in an instant, turning them to ash.

“Damn, I will kill you with the skill my comrades had bought time for me to use.” [White]

His sword now was enveloped in a white light making its blade seem three times larger. He kicked off the ground and shot forward like a bullet his sword held high. He brought down the towering sword with incredible velocity.

“Weak” [Chris]

Chris right arm shot out and knocked the sword out of the knight’s hand. The White Knight didn’t even get time to realize what had happened before Chris’ right hand had already passed his throat creating four cuts.

The man fell to the ground his head roll a short distance in front of him.

Walking away from the bloodbath Chris notice that the knight that had his limbs chopped off was still alive. He was laughing quietly, as Chris passed he turned his head to look at him.

“Even though he lost to you, the young master is still protected by some stronger than all of us combined. There is no way you-“ [stumpy]

“Jen Seeve, an S rank in the high realm 3rd stage he is almost an SS rank.” [Chris]

The man’s eyes widened, Jen was supposed to be a hidden trump card if this man knew of him just how much does he really know about the Gorm family. The man was about to say something when a flash of red pierced his forehead.

“Hey, Orthos what your state of awakening at?” [Chris]

“34%” [Right Orthos]

Chris became excited, his lips curled into a wicked grin. With what he had planned, Orthos might jump to 35% by the end of the day.

*

Chris appear at the are he had left Mia, looking around he was slightly shocked. A sea of blood and gore filled with mangled corpse surround the young girl who was just finishing the enslavement process of the one hundred fifteen souls she had been left to fight. Around her, the minions he had set to protect her in case of an emergency had moved because they hadn’t needed to.

Chris had quickly looked over what the minions had saw, Mia was more ferocious than he had imagined. She had killed several dozen with her attack and then used her skill [Possession] to control the corpse of the fall to kill the rest while she continued to rain death on the ones still alive. All the while Glitter would mend the wounds on the corpse, allowing for them to fight savagely as they did with Mia having to watch them.

“Not bad, you’re fighting style is polished quite nicely.” [Chris]

Mia turned to him a small smile on her face from being praised. Chris walked through the hellish scene like it was no different from strolling through a park. Glitter flew over to Chris a dim blue light appear on his cheek where a small cut was. The light quickly closed the wound and Chris chuckled.

“Thanks, if Glitter keeps growing then pretty soon Claira will have some competition.” [Chris]

“R-really!” [Mia]

“Yeah” [Chris]

Mia blushed and turned away while fist pumping. Chris smiled softly at the young girl and picked her up.

“W-w-w-what are you doing!?” [Mia]

She squirmed in his arms but calmed down when she saw he wore a serious face.

“We have to hurry it seemed something need my immediate attention.” [Chris]

*

An hour later Chris landed in the front courtyard of Kelros castle, he gently put Mia down.

“Remember the plan okay” [Chris]

Mia looked at him with a worried look and nodded. Seeing her response Chris turned vanished in an instant.

Mia sighed and ran to go get the others to tell them Chris plan.