There was a short silence and then Ken spoke.

“The hobgoblins want me to become their leader. They say they want to get stronger so that this never happens again, and they’ve asked me to train them and make them stronger...”, unexpectedly, Ken bows his head, “Please Ray, I know technically since you beat me and I became your number 2 I don’t have the right to just leave and stay here, especially when we’re on such an important mission but I thought about it a lot and I think this may benefit you too, if there's even a small chance that a war breaks out between the Demi-humans and the Humans, you will be at an extreme disadvantage, even with strong member such as yourself and Lilly, but if you had an army of strong monsters as alleys, I'm sure we could help turn the tides of the battle. Please, let me stay here and turn these lot into warriors, we’ll get stronger together and evolve and by the time we next meet, you won’t even recognise us, we’ll be worthy allies.”. Ken continued to bow. It was a very well thought out point, Ray could tell that he had been thinking about this ever since he woke up and of course, Ray expected this and already had his answer.

“There's no need to bow Ken, we’re friends after all and I know that you’ve wanted to create a group of strong monsters, after all, you tried to do that with the goblins. And having a group of strong monsters would be very beneficial to us your right, if this is something you want to do, I won’t stop you, I’m looking forward to seeing the group you create, whilst you're at it, I’ll train my ass off and find some alleys of my own.”, Ray responds with a smile, Ken looked up and smiled back. Ray had to admit, he was sad that he was going to part with Ken, he was his first friend in this world after all and it would be disappointing to no longer be travelling with him, but this is what Ken wanted to do and he wasn’t going to act like a selfish brat and stop him.

Molly and Tom walked up to him, tears in their eyes

“Thats no fare, you promise you’d train us.”, Molly said through tears, Tom couldn’t even muster up any words.

“Ken puts his hands on both of their heads. This isn’t goodbye, it's seen you later. I want you guys to train really hard and work on everything I told you about and when we meet again, once your both big and strong. I’ll let you join my army.”, Ken says, grinning at them. They both wipe their tears and grin.

“we’re going to become so strong that the next time we meet, we’ll beat you.”, the twins say in unison, determination in their eyes.

“Thats the spirit!”, Ken says

“Well then, how about before we leave, we have ourselves a little feast then!”, Lilly says clapping her hands together.

The group spent a few hours eating and celebrating reminiscing on their journeys together through the dungeon and when all the food was gone and they had rested for a bit, Ray, Lilly and the children headed for the exit.

“So, you're planning on staying here then?”, Lilly asks.

“Yeah, we’re going to make this our base of operation... until it becomes too small that is. So, if you need any help, you know where to find us.”, Ken says with a smile on his face. He was clearly excited; he finally had some soldiers who were motivated to get stronger.

“Same to you, if you ever need any help, head southwest.”, Ray informs Ken.

“Yeah, if you give them the name Lilly Meowlron, I doubt they’ll attack before I'm informed.”.

“Good to know.”, Ken chuckles.

They arrive at the end of the tunnel, to witness the sunrise.

“It's a new journey for the both of us it seems.”, Rays says, a hit of sadness in his voice.

“Yeah, we’ll have some great stories to tell each other when we meet again, and next time we fight, I'll definitely win.”.

“Hah, in your dreams.”, Ray laughs. He suddenly reaches into his bag and pulls out sheets of paper. “I didn’t expect this to be a going away present, but I translated the basic water magic spells into Gobda for you so you can learn the.”. Ray says, handing Ken the paper.

“Thanks Ray... I appreciate it.”. and with that they clasp hands one last time and part ways for now. And as Ken watches the group walk off into the distance, a hint of sadness appears on his face, he was going to miss that group, he turned around, and headed back into the tunnels.

A day had passed since the group had departed from Ken and Ray was currently on the hunt. Whilst they were travelling, he had spotted a great big bear and decided he wanted to try bear. He also thought that the bear fur would make for some good new clothes for everyone, after all, the others were still wearing those rags and if it weren’t for Rays bandaged body, he would be walking around in the nude, in his head, he cursed that wizard who burnt his clothes.

As he got closer to the giant bear, he realised just how massive the bear was, it was about triple his size and as wide as him, with razor sharp claws and fangs, with one swipe he could dismember him with limited effort. Ray looked up at the giant beast and realised this may be quite difficult, if only there was a way he could stay at head height, like if he could fly or hover. Ray quite literally stopped and looked down at his feet.

“Flame manipulation, I can manipulate any existing flame or create my own... but can I only do that with my hands?”.

Ray closed his eyes and imagined a mighty dragon breathing devastating flames, he took a deep breath, a little too deep and coughed out a small puff of flames which quickly disappeared. His jaw dropped in amazement.

“This power just got a lot cooler.”, Ray said looking down at his feet.

The bear who had been wandering around, randomly attacking medium sized animals to eat, had no idea on the impending doom that was heading his way. A red heard wolf-man, wrapped in bandages flying through the air using flames he shot out of his feet.

As Ray rushed in, wobbling all over the place as he flew, he noted that the flames form his feet were kind of hard to control and slower than he expected, this was due to his low control on the output and direction of the flames in his feet. He'd have to practice more to refine it. He flew in like a rocket, sword in hand, Piercing the bear in the back which let out a mighty raw of pain, it swung around swiping with its razor-sharp claws which Ray narrowly dodged, slightly losing his balance in the sky and then balancing it out.

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If Rays sword was longer, he would have pierced right through the bear's heart, the bear roared in anger, sending vibrations through the air causing all the nearby animals to flee. He was definitely the king of the animal kingdom in this area. Ray would usually activate his flame aura to deal more damage, however he was currently having to focus on keeping himself sky bound and so that would just hinder him in the long run, he would definitely have to train even harder from now on and learn more about this Phoenix power, there seemed to be things he did not yet know.

Even though this foe was huge and definitely strong, Ray was not warried. He had just defeated an opponent more the 2 times his level was. Ray was currently level 83, he was not too far from his next evolution, which would be a big one, he would finally not be classed as a monster anymore and would receive a huge boost from evolving which should allow him to use even more of his power. Not to mention, for what this world had in store for them, he needed to achieve this ASAP, preferably before they reached the southern beast tribe, he’d hate to have to explain every single thing and risk being attacked, he’d much rather show up as a full Beast-man and neglect to mention a few details.

Suddenly the giant bear swiped at Ray with his giant paw, Ray once again dodged the bears attacks, it sure packed some power... but it was ridiculously slow. Ray charged up a bulk of fire at his feet, churning it and charging it, building tension and kinetic energy, BUUUFFFF, he released the energy in and explosion, launching him forwards sword in hand, pointed at the bear's stomach. The results were as if you were to shoot a cannon ball at a person's stomach, the sheer force and power knocked the bear off of its feet and Ray flew right out of the other side. Ray looked at his blood-soaked hands... he was covered pretty much head to toe in bear blood.

“I... I thought you were stronger.”, Ray said looking at the bear, who had a Ray shaped hole in his stomach.

Ray, shopped up the pear into manageable chunks and headed back in the direction of the group... it was quite an odd sight.

“Great... main priority now is to find somewhere to bathe.”. Ray said feeling gross

“you have levelled up to level 84.”.

Ray met back up with the group and told them about what just happened, all of then unanimously agreeing that they should find somewhere to wash up as they cringed away from them...

“Am I that repulsing right now.”, Ray though dejected.

Whilst Ray flew around in the air searching for a body of water to wash in, he noticed a bunch of small manmade roads that led to a small town that was situated around a massive arena that resembled a slightly smaller version of the colosseum of his world. He was curious but had a feeling that that was a human civilization and wishing to avoid any unnecessary problems with humans right now, kept this information in his back pocket. After flying around for a further few minutes he spotted what a waterfall hidden between the mountains, they would have never spotted this if he hadn’t been able to fly. He quickly returned to the group, who were still slightly avoiding him and guided the way.

When they approached the area Ray promptly claimed the first bath and ran to the body of water, cannon balling in, however to his surprise, not only did Leo and Tom follow him, but so did everyone else, including Lilly, who was hiding her body. Ray had to admit, that she had a great figure. Ray screamed.

“What are you all doing in here, I claimed the first dip.”, he said covering his eyes

Lilly, who had fully submerged herself neck deep in the water and was a bright red answered.

“W-well Leo and Tom wanted to go in with you which i said was alright... but then then Molly went to join Tom stating she wanted to play, then Sara and Sky said they wanted to play too and eagerly dragged me here before I knew what was happening.”. she was desperately avoiding eye contact with Ray.

This was strange to Ray, Leo and Tom were ok they were all boys at the end of the day, but the other... that's just weird. What if someone saw and mistook him for a creep, he’d rather DIE than be falsely accused. Ray stood up to leave but Lilly grabbed a hold of his arm. Rays face went beat red... what was this? What's going on?

“Y-you'd don’t have to leave; this place is big... besides the kids said they wanted to play. Ray sighed.

“Fine... but where I'm from, we don’t play in pools naked, if we’re going to play, we’re doing this my way.”.

“Your way? What do you mean?”.

It took Ray a while, but it was done. Using his red Scalf He had made shorts for the boys, fully covering one piece bathing suits for the girls and a bikini for Lilly... he had ran out of cloth to make her a fully covering bathing suit... though he wasn't complaining, he physically slapped himself “What was wrong with him these days?”, Ray thought, it had to be a side effect of becoming a beast-man, they must have an accelerated libido.

After making sure everyone was properly covered, he left some wise words of wisdom.

“Now listen here kids, you shouldn’t take your clothes of around other people, do you understand.”, it was vague advice, but they’d understand when they were a little older.

“Yessir.”, the Kids say as they run off into the water

“I was talking to you too, where my yessir.”, Ray asked arms folded.

“I’m not a child, I’m 17, that makes me an adult and the oldest here, hell I should probably be saying that to you, how old are you huh? 16, 15?”.

Ray was shocked at 2 things. That you were an adult at 17 in this world and that he had forgot to inform the group of his age, Lilly had mentioned hers when telling him, about the events of 10 years ago, but did he forget to say his?... did she seriously think she was the oldest of the group?

“But... I’m 18... I’m the oldest one here.”, Ray said bluntly.

“Wait your older than me?!!”. Lilly said jaw dropping.

“Yeah... did I forget to say, whoops.”, Ray smirked.

Lilly was bright red.

“God how embarrassing...”, she said, remembering how she had just confidently stated ‘that makes me an adult and the oldest here, hell I should probably be saying that to you, how old are you huh? 16, 15?’, embarrassed she ran and submerged herself in the water, as Ray watched her, he thought she was quite cute when she was embarrassed.

“HEY BIG BRO, HURRY UP.”.

“Coming.”. Ray said as he ran over and cannon balled into the water.