By the time the last fleeing goblin was slain, Drake was covered in blood; while Her mind thirsted for more violence.

Her inner desires raged at being left unfulfilled, and she trembled at the amount of fury that roared throughout her being.

Drake read the multitude of notifications that swarmed the corner of her vision. Not realizing that she hadn’t read them since her night alone in the forrest that surrounded Lilith’s manor.

*Notification* Achievement Unlocked - Rank Cataclysm - Legendary

You have survived an encounter with a being more than 7 ranks above you and survived. This legendary achievement has increased your attribute point generation three fold.

Warning - acquiring this achievement comes with a draw back. The value of your soul is now that of treasure. For higher ranked monsters, your death comes with an achievement of legendary proportions. Beware, the vibrations emitted by your soul will now attract powerful enemies.

Achievement Unlocked - Undead Bane - rare

Not many unranked have survived being assaulted by an undead army, but you have.

You are now a reaper of the damned. When slaying undead monsters or Cultivators with death affinities, your attribute gain is doubled.

Achievement Unlocked - One Cultivator Army - Legendary

You have fought against hundreds of monsters and defeated them all in mere moments. This legendary Achievement is made such by your unranked state, elevated from its normal epic rarity. When fighting against overwhelming odds your attribute point gains are tripled.

Achievement Unlocked - Cultivator queen - Epic

You have been chosen as the leader of a potentially legendary ranked minion. When fighting with this bond after its newly forming soul is completed your attribute gain will be multiplied seven fold.

Beware - higher ranked monsters and Cultivators can sense the powerful vibrations emanating from your bond. This may cause all normal system related restrictions thrusted upon dungeon bosses to be lifted, raising the difficulty of any boss, small or large to untold levels.*

Woah, some of that sounds good, great even, but those warnings sound a little… deadly.

Drake’s eyes narrowed and she took in the absurd amount of attribute points she had.

131.7 I wonder how many points is normal for my level? That could be a lot I guess, I’ll have to ask Vanish and Aurora when I get a chance. Drake breathed deeply looking over the rest of her status, looking over at her newest minion after she was done taking in all the changes.

You are definitely going to take some getting used to big guy…

She was glad that she was able to get the minion to help her and her friends survive the goblins assault, but felt that leading from the front was the opposite of what she’d wanted for the situation they’d just lived through.

It made me that much stronger, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.

Drake stood frozen, her thoughts all over the place. She felt drained, tired in a way that she’d never experienced before. The sensation she currently struggled with wasn’t physical or mental, but felt as if the magic that now ran through her body was aching as it grew, pushing against its boundaries like a growing muscle that throbbed and needed to be stretched before she used it again.

Drake,… Drake, can you hear me?

Aurora put a hand on Drake’s shoulder and she turned to look at the girl. Worry filled her friend’s eyes, and Drake smirked in an attempt to convince herself and Aurora that everything was okay.

I’m okay roar, just give me a second.

Yeah, sure you are, and will you pick a nick name already, your starting to remind me of my siblings with how many different names you are giving me at this point, and if anyone should be named roar its you Drake, Aurora replied mentally, smiling timidly at Drake.

Not going to lie, I like that as a nickname, and I’ve never had siblings, my brother disappeared before I was born, to be honest I also have trouble making friends, you and Vanish are the closest things I’ve ever had to friends and we barely know each other…

Well my family gave me up, if you have room for me and Vanish in yours I’m sure he wouldn’t mind being our brother, how does that sound?

Drake froze in that moment. Her mind flicked around, jumping to memories where she’d been ridiculed or rejected for trying to build camaraderie unsuccessfully; now not knowing how to feel being presented with the potential of loyalty and maybe even love and an everlasting bond.

She was an absolute mess, and stood near knee deep in viscera. If any moment that she would have believed an occurrence like this would have taken place, this was not a contender for one of those situations by far.

Um… yeah, I’d love that.

“Hey you two, stop doing that, I’m here too,” said Vanish. Drake turned to see the young man playfully sulking; his eyes sad even though he smirked at Aurora and her with his arms crossed.

“Don’t be a baby, I was just asking Drake if we should make you our brother,” said Aurora with a smile. Vanish’s eyes widened and he looked over to Drake.

“And…”

“And what,” asked Drake in response to Vanish’s question, causing the boy to sigh.

“What did you two decide?”

“You should already know Van,” said Drake, rolling her eyes, and Vanish’s features sagged as he looked away.

“I see, well I will work to prove myself then.”

Drake frowned and approached Vanish, pulling his gaze toward her by extending a bloody hand, lifting his chin to stare into his eyes.

“Don’t be stupid Van, you are my brother even if you don’t want to be.” Drake rustled his hair and Vanish squirmed, trying to swat her hand away.

“Stop it your a mess woman, and Van is the best name for me you could come up with,?”

“Tell me about it, she is terrible at nick names,” said Aurora.

“Whatever you two,” said Drake laughing, finally looking around. Goblins lay dead in every direction of the crossroad they stood within.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

In the light of the instance’s ceiling she could now see that the goblins were various colors. Some red, others blue, and the majority were green and orange.

“What’s up Drake, you’re wearing your twenty questions face?”

“Nothing, noticed that the goblins are different colors, just wondered if that had any significance?”

Aurora shrugged, that is the kind of detail that we might learn when we go to Reliquary, but in all honesty I have no idea, want to ask the guy following us?”

Drake and Vanish frowned, sharing a glance as they both looked around, seeing no one but their team and dead goblins.

“umm, what guy?”

Aurora, turned around and pointed.

“Him, you going to keep hiding, or did you plan on joining us at any point,” asked Aurora waving down an empty hall. Drake nearly asked if Aurora was okay, until a blond haired boy appeared from thin air, picking up a goblins dagger from the ground. His eyes narrowed as he looked between Drake and the others, speaking softly.

“How can you see me when I’m stealth, are you ascended or something?”

Aurora nearly answered, but Drake tapped her on the shoulder, drawing her friend’s attention, quickly shaking her head in Aurora’s direction.

Don’t answer that, we don’t know him, and Lilith warned us against trusting anyone we meet down here for a reason.

Thanks, I almost forgot, I’mm not used to being around people my parents didn’t trust me to spend time with.

“Its okay, I can tell, just take a moment before you answer okay.

Aurora nodded, and her eyes narrowed before she glanced at Vanish and then back toward the stranger.

“I have my ways, you in here alone, we’re not in here to make friends, but I can talk with my team if you need help?”

Aurora, I thought I was bad, are you not even going to ask his name?

No silly, scan him, Cultivators don’t ask names unless we have too. That’s normally a sign of great respect, its something you do to your elders after they become so strong that they can’t be scanned.

Yeah, I’m new sorry, just leave me back here and I’ll try and look scary.

Yeah, you do that, now quit distracting me, we probably look crazy.

Drake took a moment to finish collecting herself, and scanned the stranger. Surprised to come to understand that a common introduction wasn’t normal.

That’s going to take some getting used to.

*Notification* - Scan - Cultivator

Name: Cortez OakRoot

Rank: Novice

Age: 14

Class: Locked / Burgeoning Naturalist

Average Attribute Level: 2.9

Scan Result - This young Cultivator is a ranged Assassin devoted to the nature of darkness and the power of Gaia.*

Drake was surprised to see Cortez’s rank and average attribute level, realizing that she hadn’t even managed to scan a single goblin. She finally returned to the conversation being had to see Cortez staring at her even though he spoke to Aurora; mentally taking a note to scan the next living goblin they came across.

“I lost my team a while back, I have to complete my assignment before I go back to my academy, you guys students?”

“No not yet, we are probably going to go to reliquary once our master says we are ready,” said Aurora and Cortez frowned, looking between them all slowly.

Why is he looking at us like that, Drake asked Aurora mentally.

I have no idea.

“You aren’t students at any academy, but your in a dungeon getting leveled by an ascended,” asked Cortez, gesturing toward Drake. It was Their turn to frown as Drake and her friends shared confused stares.

“I’m not an ascended, far from it kid, what’s wrong with you, your Overlay broken?”

“Umm, no I just assumed you were helping these two unranked get achievements or something, when I try to scan you nothing comes up?”

“Oh…,” said Drake, looking to Vanish and Aurora for answers. Both shrugged and Drake looked back toward Cortez, making another mental note to see if Aurora or Vanish could scan her.

“We are all Achievement Hunters, our whole team is unranked,” said Drake, immediately feeling stupid for sheering the information after telling Aurora to keep as much about them to herself not but a few moments prior.

Cortez’s eyes went wide, and he stared at them opened mouthed.

“This instance is for Cultivators on the verge of Adept, what kind of achievements are you three after, better question, what kind of master would risk unranked Godlings in a place like this?”

Following the trend of giving absolutely too many details about themselves, Vanish jumped in before Drake could stop him.

“My grandmother Lilith Constantine is our master, and we just got a legendary achievement,” said Vanish with a smile.

Silence filled the area. Cortez blinked slowly in astonishment, and Drake sighed, knowing that if they hadn’t shared too much before, that the line had officially been crossed.

I still don’t know if Lilith is a good person to be associated with, but he hasn’t ran off in terror yet so I guess that’s good… Wait how the fuck can this dude and Vanish see Aurora right now? I wonder if its that new belt she made? Its probably the belt…

More questions rushed into Drake’s mind as the awkward silence grew, Drake making more mental notes for information she needed to research once she returned to Lilith’s manor.

If aurora didn’t know anyone with legendary achievements as a princess of Imperial, then there is no way that Vanish did. I bet that what Lilith has us in here doing is as close to suicide as kids our age can get, especially if he is assuming we are Godlings.

“On that note guys, we should probably get back to it, I don’t want to be in here forever and Lilith said we better clear this whole place out in a few days or less,” said Drake”

“What, you are going to go for a full clear achievement as well,” asked Cortez alarmed.

Aurora simply nodded in the boy’s direction.

“You know that you will have to fight a instance boss right, students that have gone to Reliquary for season cycles don’t even try that, are you sure that you all can pull that off?”

“We won’t know until we try,” said Aurora, and Drake turned, not wanting to give the boy a single chance to ask any more questions of them. She didn’t know what was out of bounds and neither did her team from what she could tell.

I hope none of what we just told him comes back to bite us…

…

Amber and the rest of her team fought a floor down from the entry level of Reliquary’s testing dungeon. Flames billowed outward from her hands as she took aim, and her team slaughtered goblins in every section of available space in the large open room around them.

She wiped ash from her black hair and dusted her black tunic, sighing at the mess that managed to touch her clothing. The cloth she wore was valuable enough to be considered a treasure in some realms and she was saddened that she would have to replace it.

Just the simple cost of growing more powerful I guess.

She looked to her left to see Victor, snap the neck of a goblin that squirmed wildly in his hand before he dropped it and teleported toward his next target. His white hair and tunic disappearing and reemerging across the room.

Amber’s eyes then drifted toward Brice to see the short boy’s arm turn into water, summoning a wave of frigid mana that slammed into an entire group of goblins. The monsters stood no chance, their potential for survival stripped away in an instant.

The water washed over the monsters, freezing them solidly up against the wall that Brice stood next to, just before he spun, kicking out and shattering the frozen mass of water that had consumed the goblins as his arm reformed, leaving nothing but icy particles to fall to the ground like colored snow.

So theatrical, thought Amber as she watched Brice’s blond hair and deep blue tunic blow in the breeze caused by his own attack. The boy landing facing away from the frigid gale that blew wildly around him.

She glanced at the large group of goblins that rushed into the room, raising her hand to direct a wall of flame at the monsters, stopping as the twins, Alexander and Miracle charged into the group, causing heads to roll. The twins dirty blond hair dancing gracefully in the air as their sword swings sent blood and powerful waves of force in every direction. Amber’s eyes barely able to track the Pairs movements as they acrobatically flipped over one another’s strikes, defying gravity as their full plate armor glinted beautifully in the dim light of the instanced catacombs, their bodies somehow remaining untouched by a single drop of blood.

They’d long ago all gathered the one hundred weapons that each of them needed to complete the assignment given to them by their primary instructor for their first quest. Now, they decided to entertain themselves by seeing how far into the dungeon they could reach before the levels and ranks of the goblins became too much for them to handle.

At this rate I bet we could clear this place out completely…

Amber sighed and took point, moving toward the next room. She walked through the nearest hall, and mana leaked from her pores increasing the temperature around her ten fold. A ring of fire manifested in the air with a 3 yard diameter as she began to jog, picking up speed as she charged toward the next open cavern.

The room was massive and held one of the various set of stairs that lead upward, another that lead downward, and countless goblins all preparing for battle. What surprised Amber was that unlike any room prior that she’d entered, none of the goblins faced her.

The oddity was so strange, that instead of beginning to rotate her incendiary tornado as she always did to open combat, she froze in the entryway and watched, letting the ring of fire hang in the air around her.

What in the love of bloody elements is going on here…

Then she heard a roar. The sound was like that of a beast, once caged and now free to rampage. The goblins visibly began to tremble at the sound that vibrated the walls.

Amber took a step back, nearly retreating until she saw a Goliath skeleton charge into the room. The giant monster coming from the stairs that lead to the floor above, the stairwell positioned across the room from her well in the distance. The tall monster was followed by six skeletons, all seven wielding shields and spears, carving a path into the goblins, slaughtering them by the dozens.

Amber’s mouth fell open, and she took another step backward. Only for the situation to become that much more strange.

An incredible beauty walked casually down the stairs behind the skeletons, wielding a strange weapon made of bone. Her right half covered in a strange armor that Amber had to focus on to realize it too was made of intricate plate armor like bones. The armor a quality she’d never seen before in any realm, above or below Imperial.

Who is she?

The girl stepped down from the last step, looked around the room with a narrowed gaze, and smirked. Amber watched the girl dash forward at an uncanny speed, and run up the back of the giant skeleton even as the monster charged forward, jumping into the air by using the tall monster’s shoulder like a step to launch herself upward.

Two more skeletal arms detached from her back mid air, transforming into a sword and spear, as she lifted her strange weapon above her head.

A dazzling crimson light rippled up the weapon and she brought the instrument down with a slam. A powerful wave surged outward crippling everything it touched. The life ripped from the goblins eyes as the sound of breaking bones spread through the room. The wave striking everything it touched with a force of pure havoc and brutality.

“PUSH!”

The girl’s single word filled Amber with a dread that made her take an additional step backward.

Amber was unable to take her eyes off the girl. Opposing emotions flooded her system as the sword and spear discharged with raw energy that slew goblins by the handful. With each strike made, both weapons ended lives, spinning around the girl wickedly.

Amber both wanted to test her strength against the girl that’s eyes roiled with the light of the sun behind her irises, and run for her life; turn back and tell her team that another was here to clear this instance and they were at risk of death by merely being in the same place as the contender.

Amber watched the stranger roar; now knowing that the beast she’d heard had shown itself. The girl using a mixture of brute force with her weapon, and the art form known as Genocide seemed to be an unstoppable force of carnage and mayhem.

“What the hell is this,” said a familiar voice behind Amber. She glanced to see Victor wide eyed and opened mouthed as he too watched the massacre take place.

The sound of a powerful snap drew Amber’s attention back toward the room, and she watched as the girl’s foot descended, causing another crimson wave to scatter a clustered group of goblins toward the ceiling; only for the monsters to be slaughtered before they could strike the ground.

The skeletons at her back killed everything that moved, easily thrusting their spears through the bodies of the goblins that fell from the air, nothing left alive around the Cultivator, every monster bloodied and broken.

It was in that moment that Amber’s eyes met the girls own, and she knew she was looking into the eyes of death. The smiling girl waving simply before she spoke the last words she ever expected to hear from an embodiment of destruction incarnate.

“Hello, I didn’t steal these kills from you did I?”