Two days passed since Zane granted Star the adventurer title. Star obtained the mage class and successfully upgraded her race to Human Ⅱ. However, she wasn’t given the opportunity to give up her tier one abilities and start anew. Zane was a little surprised, but he assumed that the system had a reason for not giving Star the opportunity.
During the past two days, Zane and the others covered the majority of the distance to Star’s home. Zane gave advice to Star while the group ran and did his best to help her quickly level up. However, it was difficult to do so since Zane, and now Star, were unable to gain experience from killing beast or people.
Zane noticed he wasn’t gaining experience from the things he killed during the first day he traveled with Star and the others. When Zane took a glance at his status, he saw that he gained experience points, but it was far less than he expected to receive for the people he killed. After he checked his system messages, Zane was able to confirm that he didn’t receive any experience points for the people he killed.
Once again, Zane was left confused by the system. He didn’t understand why the system would suddenly stop giving experience for people and beast killed. After taking some time to think about it, his best guess was the system was unable to grant experience for deaths on another world. Of course, Zane wasn’t sure, but it was the best guess he came up with.
Now, Zane, Star, Blake and Blair would have to rely on quests, leveling up skills and performing actions related to their class to gain experience. Blake was granted the adventurer title the day after Star was granted hers. Blair a woman who favored the spear was the third person to receive the title from Zane.
“We're almost there,” Star announced.
Star was standing by a tree in the center of a clearing with a smile on her face. The tree was tall, thick, and had multiple names carved into its trunk. Although Zane didn’t know the language used, he had no problem reading the names.
“We made good time. We’ve reduced our journey by several days.”
“It's all thanks to Zane. Thank you for taking care of all the demonic creatures we met along the way.”
“Don’t mention it,” Zane stated.
“Let’s take a few minutes to rest here before we continue. We need to be in the best condition so we can handle anything.”
Zane sat on the ground and closed his eyes. The break would be short and there was no time for Zane to begin a proper training session. Therefore, Zane let his mind drift as he thought about the potential threats he would face at their destination. Blake and Star told Zane about the trouble that Star’s home was facing while they traveled.
Recently, Kaleem was invaded by different types of demonic creatures. The demonic creatures killed and destroyed everything in sight. The worst aspect of the invasion was the way demonic energy corrupted the mana in the air and everything else it interacted with.
One example of its corruption was the magical beast that turned into a demonic beast. The magic beast became more violent after they were infected with demonic energy. They began to attack towns in cities in groups with the demonic creatures that came to Kaleem. The combination of demonic beasts and demonic creatures was a terrible combination.
Eventually, the gods watching over Kaleem found a way to repel the demonic creatures from the world. It wasn’t clear how the gods got rid of the demonic creatures, but everyone was grateful for their efforts. Although the demonic creatures were gone, the demonic beasts remained, and they continued to attack cities like they did before.
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The leaders led their armies to slaughter all the remaining demonic beasts, but they were unable to kill all of them. The demonic energy in the air was creating new mana creatures every day. It was decided that all towns and cities would be left to fend for themselves. They would have to hunt demonic beasts to keep the population low and the armies would only help if large number of demonic creatures were attacking.
Of course, the armies weren’t able to help all of the cities and towns. There were many towns that were left to fend for themselves. One of those towns was Star’s home.
“Alright let’s head out,” Blake announced.
A few seconds later, the group set off. The journey was short, but it was filled with tension. The closer they got to Star’s home the more roars of demonic beasts they were able to hear.
When the group exited the forest, they saw a sea of demonic beasts recklessly charging at tall stone walls. The walls seemed to be protected by magic and Zane could see several people sending different types of attacks from the top of the walls Zane smiled at the familiar sight, but Star and the others wore different expressions.
Glancing around, Zane could see expressions of concern, shock, fear and despair. Zane was a little surprised by the negative expressions around him, but he quickly remembered how weak his companions were. Zane was about to say a few words, but Kent beat him to it.
“Let’s head back. There’s nothing we can do here.”
“Kent what are you saying?” Star asked in an angry tone.
“I’m saying,” Kent waved his hand toward the rest of the group. “What everyone else is thinking.”
Nobody refuted what Kent said. Star looked at a few of the warriors in the group, but none of them met her eyes. She turned to look at Blake who looked at her with a complicated expression.
“Star I know I promised to help you, but we can’t recklessly charge forward. I can’t ask my team to risk their lives like that. Let's wait here for a few seconds. If there something we can do to help, then we’ll do it.”
“So, you want to do nothing? How can you stand here while our home is being destroyed?”
“Your home, not Blake's,” Blair responded. “Blake doesn’t have to defend the town your father is the leader of, because he was born there.”
“Blake has a duty to-"
“Were attacking,” Zane interrupted in an excited tone.
Everyone was caught off guard by Zane’s words. Turning to look at him, they saw that his face now wore a wide grin. His eyes shined with excitement as they moved back and forth to examine the enemies.
Dire Imp Lvl 54
Dire Demonic Snake Lvl 52
Demonic Snake Lvl 42
Demonic Slime Lvl 47
Demonic fiend Lvl 49
Zane was examining the enemies in front of him while the others were talking. He didn’t agree with the group's decision, and he was free from the feeling of hopelessness that the group was afflicted by. Based on Zane’s previous experience, he guessed that there were approximately one thousand demonic beasts attacking the town. At first, Zane thought he would be able to fight one to two hundred demonic beasts before he needed to rest. However, those numbers completely changed after he used Identify.
Zane now had absolute confidence in slaughtering his way through all the demonic creatures. At the very least Zane would be able to kill half of them as he leveled up from the experience he gained. Of course, Zane didn’t know for sure if he would be able to gain experience, but he was sure enough to risk his life.
“What are you saying?” Blake asked.
“Use your Identify talent and look at the demonic beats in front of you.”
“They have level?” Star asked in confusion.
“Yes, and if you remember, I told you about gaining levels from killing magic beats and mana creatures.”
“Are you saying we should attack so we can gain experience and level up. Don’t you think that’s a bit reckless?” Blake asked.
Zane sighed when he saw they didn’t quickly grasp what he was saying. “The three of you should remember that you recovered your energy after you leveled up right?”
Zane smiled when he saw they finally grasped what he was saying. “I see two options. Option one, I lead the charge to the wall where we drop off the dead weights. If the three of you have gained enough levels, you can stay on the wall and upgrade your class before coming back out.”
“Option two, we attack from behind. The majority of the demonic beasts are focused on the wall. There is a small chance that a large number of demonic beasts will turn to attack us. If that happens, we should be fine, but there will be a slight risk to the rest of your friends. I’m fine with either option or any option that leads to attacking the beasts in front of us. The final decision is up to you.”
The group was stunned by Zane’s proposal. Zane didn’t rush them to make a decision. He knew that there would be plenty of demonic beasts left for him to kill. He only had to ready his weapons and wait.