While still technically on the same part of the planet as the Golden Prince and his personal Kingdom, another being was still quite the distance away from the Crabs. Far enough that while the journey was doable just by walking under Crab standards, the four Humans Jordan saved would have died from exhaustion long before they reached it. Thought it was due to this fact that even after a little while had passed since Jordan had taken over the beach Kingdom, Haje still enjoyed the freedom of remaining alone in the area before more Crabs showed up.
Compared to the time it’d taken the small group to flee from the area with the Elemental Lord, Haje had been a practical speed demon for getting there. Which only made sense for someone whose top speed was like a car zooming down the freeway with a fully pressed-down gas pedal. And compared to aimlessly wandering around, it certainly didn’t hurt to already know the direction he could just run straight toward.
As soon as Jordan had first left after telling Haje about the Elemental Lord, he’d been heading east without allowing any distractions. Even when he passed by a lake with what appeared to be giant crocodiles made from sand, who more importantly averaged Level 8, Haje simply ignored them. They just couldn’t compare to the much more appealing prey that his mind had already squarely focused on.
By the present time, Haje had already carved something of a trail of destruction, however. While he didn’t go out of his way to hunt down anything he saw in the distance, the same couldn’t be said for anything that got in his way. Or, as foolish of a decision those monsters would soon learn to regret, anything that tried to attack him.
Haje personally did find it interesting that the creatures of this world were so different from those of his home planet. Back there, basically everything tried to attack his kind for the shared reason of consuming the powerful cores at the center of their large stone bodies. Yet none of these beasts had that instinct. As far as Haje could tell, the ones that did strike him was only because their Descriptions described them as being the highly aggressive types who would also do so for anything they came across.
But none of these living obstacles really served to slow down Haje. He didn’t even really get the chance to get a good look at the attacking creatures, more than half of the time. This was due to how when one jumped at him from the side as he ran, Haje just reflexively swung and killed it with a single blow. The Experience Points gained so far had steadily gotten some pretty good progress for him, however.
When Haje and Jordan parted ways, Haje had done so at a true Level of 5, and then an effective Level of 20 due to his Skill. While the former would still look the same to anyone who used Appraise on him now, the latter had already gone up by another Level. That was just due to the technicalities in how his Skill actually functioned.
Finally, he crossed what was just another one of the borders between different biomes. It was only soon after doing so, that he spotted something. When Haje used Appraise, it confirmed that he had indeed reached the area where his current target was waiting.
Species: Earth Elemental
Level: 11
Description: An uncommon elemental found within areas of Vervina-C with high concentrations of earth-attuned energy. They have beings of limited intelligence who primarily rely on their magically infused stone-like bodies to shrug off any attacks. Unless provoked, these elementals are known for their generally neutral nature toward others.
If Haje had a mouth, he would have grinned. Of the various creatures native to this planet, this was already the highest Level one he’d encountered so far. Before him was just the single Earth Elemental, at least that he could currently see. As unlike Humans or other creatures with some form of eyesight, Haje’s kind actually “saw” the world around them with their core. It still allowed him senses like sight, smell, and allowed him to feel pain from his stone despite the lack of anything resembling nerves.
How exactly it worked was something that remained unknown to him, as at the very least, none of those in his clan had ever cared too deeply about even trying to find out. But all it fundamentally meant was that they way he did perceive the environment was different from Jordan or other Humans in general. For example, the gateway which just had a fair amount of purple glow to Jordan was practically blinding to look at for Haje. Yet it also allowed to less “see” and more sense the Earth Elemental from afar, likely due to its own nature being a far more magical existence.
Haje charged the elemental. With two arms already pulled back, he threw a double punch just as it turned around. With how the System had gone out of its way to highlight its toughness, Haje imagined that-
Experience Earned!
As he glanced over at the pop-up that also included the adjusted gain of Experience Points due to his Skill, Haje slumped a bit. That hadn’t even been him giving his all. As not only had Haje not used half his arms, but he also hadn’t put all his force behind that strike just now. He truly hadn’t expected that the Level 11 foe would so easily perish from just that single attack. Perhaps it just made sense due to the disparity there was between them, when compared to his effective Level, but even so…
It didn’t matter. Despite its Level, a foe that died so easily couldn’t even really be called a foe. It was just another obstacle to go straight through in order to reach his true target. The fact that it’d slowed him down by even just several seconds was due to Haje’s own choice to pause, and not anything it’d directly done. But just like anything else that was too weak, it was quickly expunged from his memory as he moved on.
Yet while he found them far too easy to find interesting, Haje wasn’t foolish to simply ignore the other Earth Elementals. Whenever he saw one, he continued to make a point to kill it. This was partially for the hope that if he killed enough of its kin, it might make his hunt for the Lord easier by drawing its attention.
But the main reason was for the continued gain of Experience Points. Something that was only expedited by the discovery that the first elemental was just on the weaker side, as he found some that were Level 12, and a few that were Level 13. After his Skill was then taken into account for the Experience gain, it didn’t take that many slain elementals for Haje to see further growth in his effective Level. And not by just a little, either.
Level Up!
Level 5 to Level 6
For while his true Level had just gone up by one, his effective Level now sat at 24. And just to make his gains even more fruitful, during this killing of elementals, he’d already gained another Skill evolution even before reaching this point. In the back of his mind, Haje believed that his new friend would likely be interested to learn that the next increment was at Level 21.
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It seemed that without counting Level 1, the Skill advancements had steadily come as increments of five. So starting from Level 6, then 11, 16, and now 21. With 11 also marking the much more important step of one’s Grade increasing. Yet didn’t count as being a “true” D Grade until one had a Skill reach Grade E5, to then be taken up to D1. When that happened for Haje, it felt like a wealth of hidden potential had been unlocked, and had simply been waiting until his Skill Grade met the prerequisite.
Had Jordan not given him any Advancement Crystals, it would have only been upon reaching an effective Level of 21 that he would have reached this point on his own. When the two of them had spoken about it earlier, they’d both been quick to reach the same conclusion. For literally anyone who wasn’t Haje, that kind of delay would be deemed as unsustainable for many. Jordan himself would have a hard time imagining how long it would take him to reach Level 21, especially since limited growth in Skill would likely just make it all the harder to get to higher Levels in the first place.
It meant that while not technically mandatory, the use of Advancement Crystals was just the only thing that made sense. For just a single Skill to reach true D1 at least, one would need to use at least 11 of these gems to make up for the difference in evolutions. And it didn’t take a genius to understand the implications of this.
Killing others wasn’t just an incentive, it was almost required if one wanted to stand any chance against those who were willing to do so. When they’d spoken to each other, Jordan had clearly been suffering complicated emotions about how heavyhanded the System had been to force this result as their reality. While Haje understood why he would feel that way, he himself didn’t really mind so much.
If that was how things needed to be for them to remain the hunters and not the hunted, then so be it. Haje simply hoped that his new friend and Lord would also make his peace with this fact. For even if other members of Haje’s own kind were to target him, then he would simply turn their own deaths into fuel to empower his continued life. If such was the way of things, then adapting in whatever way was needed to thrive was the only option that made sense.
Speaking of Jordan, Haje then recalled something he’d been asked to do. Coming to a sudden stop, he also had a chance to actually take a proper look at the area he was currently in. Though it was nothing remarkable at first glance, just a dirt field filled with stones and boulders of various shapes and sizes. But when Haje focused on a rock that was near him, one smaller than his hand, he noticed something. There was a certain… power, hidden inside it.
Before Haje investigated further, he took a moment to take a look into the shared pocket space for their Guild. He’d been asked to regularly check it, but had only just now figured to do so for the first time since he and Jordan parted ways.
Normally, Haje might not have checked it for days, if not weeks. But it was only just now that he suddenly realized that he and his Human friend might have very different ideas for what “regularly” meant, and assumed it was sooner, based on how the fleshy beings of his homeworld had always seemed to generally work under shorter timespans than his Species.
Inside the pocket space were two pieces of paper. Haje tried to take one out, but immediately sensed that he couldn’t. He then tried to remove the other, and did so with ease. Haje simply nodded in acknowledgement, already knowing that this was an intentional function by Jordan as the Guild leader to ensure that messages went to their intended recipients.
After taking it out, he then read the text written on the piece of paper that was so relatively tiny in his hands. It was just fortunate that due to the particular way Haje saw the world, the size of the text itself didn’t actually make an impact on his ability to easily read it.
A few moments later, Haje simply made a small tear in the paper and then put it back. For him, that was easier than writing down an actual reply. And in any case, it would serve the same purpose anyway of basic confirmation that the message had been read. As for what the message itself said? It’d been worded as a request for if he had the time, but by already acknowledging his new friend as his Lord as well, Haje took it as simply a polite command.
Since Haje had always just relied on the elders of his clan to plan their moves as a group, he was fine with this dynamic, even if he was far ahead of Jordan in terms of actual combat prowess. If pure brawn was the only thing that mattered for deciding leadership, then his own clan would have likely fallen apart like before they’d come to this world and…
In any case, the instructions were rather simple. After Haje defeated the Earth Elemental Lord, he was to check for the corpses of Humans. Jordan did not know their exact location, only that there would be a couple near each other in one spot, and many more in another.
If Haje managed to find the corpses, then he was to turn them into Advancement Crystals. Though Jordan did add that if he couldn’t find them, that was okay and he would have his summons search for them later. Or that if Haje didn’t wish to touch the bodies due to whatever condition they were currently in, that was find too, and all he still needed to do was report back their approximate location.
However, there was one final note at the end. If Haje did turn them into gems, he was not to add them to the pocket space for the Guild. Instead, Jordan heavily stressed that it was much better that they were delivered in person and away from the other Humans instead. This section had even been separated from the rest with a line, which only highlighted it further.
When Haje had read that part, his only reaction was a shrug. He wasn’t the type to question the reasoning for such a focus on a discrete delivery. If that was what he preferred, then that was what he would do. But with that taken care of as something to do after he defeated the Lord of the Earth Elementals, Haje turned his attention back to the strange rock and picked it up. He sensed that the power emanating from it was definitely coming from deeper inside it, so he naturally proceeded to break it in half with a carefully measured strike from one of his fists.
Inside it was a brown crystal, one that had not been broken into two pieces. Instead, like an outer shell, the rock around it was simply the only thing to be damaged. Now that it was fully exposed, Haje felt a deep sense of power from this crystal, something that felt like he was starting into a conduit for the power of rock and soil itself. Curious, he attempted to use Appraise on it.
Name: Crystal of Earth
Grade: E5
Description: This rare but naturally occurring crystal has potent energies associated with the concept of earth. So long as the crystal remains connected to its concept, the energy within it will continue to slowly increase. If left alone, this built-up energy will lead to the occasional spawning of an Earth Elemental.
Haje considered the item for a moment, specifically its Grade. Even now as he held it in his hand, he indeed sensed that the power within it had already started to wane. Though the current rate of energy loss was slow, to the point where it was barely even noticeable. For the time being, he went ahead and simply stored it in the Guild’s pocket space for Jordan to find whenever he next checked it.
But just before Haje then moved on, he sensed something that was both much more powerful than the crystal and quickly moving his way. Before it’d even gotten close enough to enter his field of vision, he felt its presence. Turning toward the direction the feeling was coming from, Haje already felt excitement beginning to pool up inside of him. There was no need to continue a search for the Earth Elemental Lord.
It had clearly just found him, and would reach Haje any minute now.