The distant rays of the midday sun beamed down on the forest and pierced through the gaps of the forest roof, leaving faint streams of light to trickle to the crumpled-leaf-covered ground. Showing them some grace, the streams of light lit up the way, inadvertently making a clear path for Zalroth and co to follow. At their leisure, the group traversed the path illuminated for them with Zalroth and Kaze using low-level Gale Blades to cut down any vines too tangled together to be moved aside.
Trailing a little behind the others, Metsu shuffled through the forest constantly averting her eyes to the side at every rustling bush or snapping twig she heard. At the sound of a slightly louder and closer deeper snap, Metsu swung her head in the sound's direction and blankly stared at the wobbling shrub.
"You didn't strike me as the easily scared type, Metsu," Al remarked as he and Metsu stopped by the wobbling shrub and its adjacent bushes. The duo stared in silence as the others continued walking, only doubling back to the short duo after realising they had fallen behind.
"Not scaredy cat," Metsu pouted, pushing Al slightly to knock him off balance and making him toss his suitcase into the bush by accident.
"Butterfingers!" Al grumbled before noticing the rustling bush had stopped moving and Metsu ducked down. Al's ironwood suitcase blasted out of the bush, rocketing straight for AL's face and he narrowly ducked to avoid it; however, he raised his head too quickly, getting the blue shoulder strap of the suitcase snagged on his face and getting dragged with it to the ground before a cloud of dirt shot into the air.
"No wonder you suck at rhythm games," Kaira remarked as he lifted Al by his shoulders while a faint red line plastered on his forehead. Al angerly muttered incoherent nonsense as he aggressively picked up Potions Galore(his suitcase) and put its shoulder strap on him properly, with some stuggles. Metsu lightly rubbed the slap mark on Al's forehead, making his sigh as she called the mark a headband.
Zalroth fired a Gale Blade at the shrub, cleaving it and the hiding monster-type goblin cleanly in half. Zalroth exhaustedly sighed, gently itching his forehead as the sleeping Nagami pressed her body against him while mumbling about making the best weapon.
"Can you not have us stop every five feet to fight a monster you spot?" Zalroth asked, his voice expressing how exhausted and fed up he was. Metsu flinched, lowered her head, and tapped the tips of her fingers meekly.
"But enough points close, for fast and big swarmer," Metsu mumbled shyly, locking her fingers in a weak grip as she raised her head and struck Zalroth with her puppy dog eyes. Deeply exhaling, Zalroth silently waved his hand in acknowledgement, and Metsu happily nodded before skipping over to the dead goblin. She crouched by the corpse and raised a hand over it.
[Activated Skill: Radiance Requipment]
[Activated Ability: Copy Compression]
Metsu sat there for a few seconds, waiting for something to happen before the goblin's body became swept and encased in a layer of light. The light split off from the goblin, briefly taking on its shape, before dissipating into Metsu.
[Metsu Acquired: Copy Points]
[Metsu gained: 5 light Points]
"Only three hundred now," Metsu mentioned quietly. Zalroth tapped his chin and pondered something while Nowa stared at him.
"That would be a total of a hundred and twenty total monster levels, Boss," Nowa stated smugly, from both getting the number first and calling Zalroth boss again. Only mildly flinching, Zalroth lowered his hand as he tried to ignore the boss part.
"Indeed but that's only for creating a very rare monster with ones in all stats, that's not including the extra points needed to increase those stats or a very rare monster core she'd need to even create the light copy monster in the first place," Zalroth stated calmly, leaving the others in silence.
"Forgot about that...," Metsu whined as she noogied the ground. Zalroth slightly shook his head, wondering if it would be worth letting Metsu use the very rare monster core Ardentus found to create a copy monster for faster transport. While he pondered, Kaira walked over to Al to check out his forehead damage, and Nowa slowly arched her way in front of Zalroth until he noticed them.
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"Yeah?" Zalroth asked unamusedly. Nowa placed a hand on her hip and cast a contemptive stare at Zalroth, her stern face betraying her true thought as she glanced at the other to ensure they weren't listening.
"Some things aren't adding up for me, so I hope you can enlighten me," Nowa whispered. Zalroth closed his eyes, lightly exhaling from his nose as he looked away.
"My answer will depend, so I want to be sure by getting to the town I spotted on the map, as I'd prefer not to give everyone half-baked info," Zalroth explained with an amount of sincerity that slightly weirded out Nowa and made her faintly blush. She took a step back, clearing her throat as she looked away.
"Well, at least you aren't denying... whatever you know," Nowa mumbled as she scratched the back of her head, eventually tightly squeezing her head from her rising awkwardness clawing at her brain.
[Acitvated Skill: Detect(Creatures)(Level: 4)]
[Activated Skill: Appraisal(Level: 3) x2]
"I'll take the one on the left, you lot deal with the right one, and Kaze focus on keeping the others out of danger," Zalroth stated as he dropped Nagami on Kaira's back, almost making him stumble and eat the dirt. Nowa smirked, knowing exactly what Zalroth was implying and relishing the chance to distract herself from the embarrassing situation she caused herself.
[Activated Skill: Magma Fist(Level: 2)]
Nowa slammed her fists together, shooting small spurts of magma between her fingers before more came gushing out and wrapped around her fists like gloves.
"About time something worth fighting showed up," Nowa barked as her blush faded. As a nearby tree shook and just as quickly toppled over, Kaze donned a defensive stance, equipping his steel rapier with a flower-shaped and cup-hilt handguard, and holding it in a reverse grip.
"I'll see to it," Kaze stated coldly, priming his blade as Kiara and Al ducked behind him. Excluding Zalroth, everyone braced themselves at the pair of looming and burly shadows marching out past the felled trees. A black fur-covered paw slammed into the ground ahead of the party as the larger shadow swung its head to the sky. Zalroth narrowed his eyes, recalling the rare direwolf doing a similar action, and dashed straight for the larger monster while employing Accel Drive to close the distance.
[Activated Ability: Weakening Howl]
Banking on his timing, a howling shockwave erupted from Zalroth right as an equally intense howl exploded from the larger monster. The deafening shockwaves careened into each other, unleashing a screeching clash of violent bangs which quickly cancelled each other out and left the air oddly silent. The taller monster gradually lowered its head, the subtle change in the sway of its body betraying its confusion which Zalroth picked up on and smugly smirked to.
"What's wrong? Didn't expect your opening move to be countered?" Zalroth said energetically; following up his remark, Zalroth socked the monster in the snout with a Frostbite Armament-infused punch before the two disappeared from a flash of Zalroth's Particle Warp. The remaining monster and the other humans turned their heads to the spot Zalroth and the other monster previously were, leaving both parties equally surprised at their disappearance.
"I didn't think he seriously meant he'd fight that thing on his own," Al remarked bewilderedly while rummaging through Potions Galore for any potions he was willing to part with. Nagami couldn't help herself from smugly grinning in her sleep, her grin growing large enough to snap her awake.
"You don't need to worry about Zalroth, he has Kotatzugami if he finds himself in a pickle," Nagami proclaimed, boasting it could easily one-shot the monster without Zalroth even using a skill.
"But would he use it?" Metsu asked weakly. Nagami proudly raised a hand before she flinched and became dishevelled after thinking about it and realising he wouldn't, being the battle maniac he was. In a stoop, Nagami crumpled to the ground, curling up into a ball as she complained at the realisation that Zalroth would never use the sword she made him anytime soon.
[Shadow Grizzly(Rare)][Level: 185]
[HP: 400][Hexa: 10]
[Vitality: 40][Stamina: 400]
[Attack: 280][Hexa Attack: 1]
[Defence: 250][intelligence: 1]
[Agility: 150][Speed: 181]
[Nightmare Grizzly(Very Rare)][Level: 480]
[HP: 8880][Hexa: 5000]
[Vitality: 888][Stamina: 2500]
[Attack: 1000][Hexa Attack: 50]
[Defence: 850][intelligence: 1500]
[Agility: 955][Speed: 905]