Suddenly, black and blue smoke emerged from the ground and formed into a cylindrical column. The smoke dispersed into the surroundings, revealing a midnight black beast with fiery blue eyes. Twice as tall as a ferocious bear, it’s majestic and mighty mane radiated a commanding, yet regal presence.

If he had to compare it to something back on Earth an unnaturally large lion would do, but if you had asked his younger self how big his pet cat would become he would have just called you crazy.

Kibo turned his gaze towards the unfamiliar words suspended in the air.

“Oh! The status screen popped up, I never got to see it properly last time since the events unfolded so fast. I had never brought her back out since.”

Summon Name: Zana Rank: Elite Soldier [3] STR: 30 CON: 100 DEX: 60 INT: 100 CHA: 20 Skills: ???

He thought to himself while holding a curious expression, ‘Wow, she has been promoted to rank 3. However, her Constitution and intelligence remained the same at 100? Is it possible 100 is the cap? It explains why she is so strong yet her strength is only at 30. On Earth’s standard, she would be considered a Class B which is strong, but not strong at the same time, since Earth’s classes went all the way to SSS, even though we had no one in that class.’

Kibo realised he was getting sidetracked, and decided to finish this up quickly. He looked towards Zana and trembled a little himself, knowing that the beast was under his command.

“Zana, kill all the bandits immediately.” He ordered.

The Majestic beast bowed her head before a devastating roar blasted out in all directions, nearby animals scattered and birds flew away. The bandits looked towards the beast as chills shot up their spines. They shivered as the black beast slowly walked towards them.

“What is that thing!?”

“What are you standing around for? Attack it with your spells!”

“Spells? Oh, so they do have magic, as expected.”

He thought to himself, ‘each world that the portals have ever opened up to has similar magic, surely it’s not a coincidence, but it’s the least of my worries right now. I wonder how strong the bandits are?’

Before even a single spell was fired, Zana leapt towards what seemed like the leader of the bandits, biting his head and lifting him off the ground. She viciously shook her head, ripping off the bandits head and causing the headless body to collapse on to the ground, leaving blood to be sprayed in all directions.

The other bandits, who were already fearful of the beast, instantly saw their only hope shattered as they saw their leader, who was the strongest amongst them, be quickly mauled to death. Knowing they had no hope all they could do was turn and run for their lives, they all ran into the forest in different directions hoping they would survive.

However, Zana turned around and chased after them. A while after, the screams of dying men were heard all around them, six screams to be exact.

At a glance, how Zana attacked may seem random, but targeting the leader instantly destroyed their chain of command, and also showed their strongest could do nothing, so what hope could they possibly have?

“Was that a planned out strategy or am I just exaggerating?” He chuckled to himself wondering just how cunning his summon is. Either a fluke or a thought out attack he didn’t mind since it was carrying out its task skillfully.

He walked up to the lady on the ground, who seemed to be cowering away from him with each step he took, which caused him to wonder, “Am I that scary?”

“Do not worry, I do not mean any harm, however for dragging me into your troubles, I expect a handsome reward, I will not be happy with just a thank you.”

The young lady tilted her head to the side, confused by his words. After some thought, she pieced the little information she had together and concluded that he was probably an adventurer who was hunting in the forest with his strange summon.

She thought to herself, ‘If his summon is this powerful, it makes sense that he would be venturing this deep into the forest alone. And he’s probably asking for payment since that’s how it goes in the adventuring world, they don’t risk their lives for free. I guess my bad luck turned out to be good. But his attitude sucks, couldn’t he at least help me back up and make sure I am alright, before asking for some reward?’

Her face soured as she looked up towards the strange man but she quickly turned it around and smiled innocently along with displaying her puppy dog eyes.

“Are you not going to help me back up, good sir?” She requested in a cute voice.

“Eh? Why would I do that, you got two legs why don’t you use them for once? Who do you think I am?”

She looked baffled at receiving such a blunt response, but before she could rebuke him, her maid rushed out of her carriage and slowly helped her back up.

Kibo thought, ‘What a pain, she seems to be from a well off family and living the easy life. She even gets her maids to lift her up from the ground, do they clean after her when she uses the toilet too? As long as I get to the city and get my reward I can go on my merry way.’

He folded his arm and looked towards her, tapping his shoes towards the ground as if to show he was expecting something.

The lady started to become even more infuriated, his blatant disrespect towards her doesn't stop, however, this man did save her life. She started to calm down and tried to reassess the situation.

‘He saved her life, and had no duty to do so, he could have just ignored the situation and continued whatever he was doing, but he got into more trouble than he needed to, to save me. But he still could have been nicer to me.’

She crossed her arms and muttered under her breath “Hmpf”.

However, she had quickly regathered her composure and looked back towards Kibo.

“Well, thank you for saving me, my name is Lynessa Kensington, I can not give you your reward at this moment, and the journey back to the capital is still far, but if you continue to protect me on my travels back I can promise you a reward fitting for your troubles.” she gracefully mentioned.

Kibo's smile had started to creep back, but he quickly put on his poker face and thought to himself, ‘awesome! Not only do I get a ride back to the nearest city which turns out to be the capital, but I also secure a reward to kickstart my journey into this new world. All thanks to Zana.’ He looked back, seeing her approaching and smiled.

Zana bowed her head once again to show she had successfully carried out her master’s wishes and was awaiting her new orders.

Not wanting to scare the ladies more he sent Zana back.

“Return.”

Zana had slowly dissolved into smoke which quickly entered into Kibo. ‘A simple yet effective command’, he thought to himself. He then turned back around towards Lynessa and replied, “Hello Mrs Kensington, I am Kibo, and I am willing to accept your proposal."

“Great, if you would follow us into the carriage.”

The carriage took off towards the capital, which is another one and a half days worth of travelling away.

‘This thing is pretty cramped for a fancy carriage. Luckily the maid is steering the carriage so there's just enough breathing room for it to not be awkward.’ He thought to himself and continued.

‘Must be fun living life in easy mode, she has the money, a powerful background, magic, maids and so on.’ He turned back around and looked at her once more.

Her hair was made up of different shades of violet, however, the roots were stark white, so along with a flowery ornament decorating her hair which was made up of the same colour, it really made her look pretty. Her eyes were just as enchanting, the top half was dark blue while the bottom was turquoise. I’ve heard of having a different colour in each eye but two colours in the same eye? It just drove home the fact that I was no longer on Earth.

“Ahem!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I was just admiring your beauty.”

Lynessa blushed at the unexpected compliment and quickly turned her head away from him in embarrassment.

“Don’t get me wrong though, I still wouldn’t date you.”

She quickly turned back with infuriated eyes.

Kibo realised something and thought, ‘Now thinking back to when I first conversed with her, she looked cute back then as well, when she was clearly upset. She must be the type of girl who looks cute even when they are angry. I guess she really does have everything.’

Lynessa, mentioned under breath, “Hmpf”, and ignored him.

After several hours of riding and taking short breaks, they finally come to a stop off the road near a riverbank to camp out for one final night before they finally reach the Capital City Fialis.