Lady Nerissa Selwyn sat at the head of the long, polished table, her keen eyes scanning the faces of the noble families gathered in the grand council chamber. The room, dimly lit by crystal chandeliers, felt heavy with the weight of uncertainty. The recent attacks had unsettled even the most composed among them.

"These assaults on our operations cannot be ignored," Lady Nerissa began, her voice steady but edged with frustration. "While we may not yet know who or what is behind them, what we do know is that someone is trying to weaken us."

Lord Reynard Valis, a veteran of many battles, his dark hair streaked with silver, leaned forward. "It’s not just the attacks. A group of ten slaves managed to escape just days ago. Whoever is behind this is not merely targeting our resources. They might be humans from Earth with the goal of liberating their enslaved brothers and sisters."

Lady Miranda Ashford, her dark eyes cold, spat out her words. "Escaped slaves and raided supplies—this is an insult. We need to make an example of those humans from Earth. They must learn that defying us comes with consequences."

"But we still have no clear idea who is behind these actions," Lord Edric Faulkner interjected, his tone cautious. "Our enforcers have found no trace of the culprits—no bodies, no identifiable patterns, nothing. We’re dealing with someone who knows how to move in the shadows."

"It doesn’t matter who they are," Lady Ashford retorted sharply. "What matters is that they’re defying us. We should deploy more troops, tighten our security, and crush them with overwhelming force if they attempt to attack us again."

Lord Faulkner shook his head. "But we must be prudent about this. In two days, we will execute all the slaves anyway. Why now? Why such a sudden and coordinated effort? Perhaps they are aware of our plans."

Lady Nerissa nodded, aligning her thoughts with Faulkner’s. "This isn’t just about stealing supplies or freeing slaves. Someone is trying to demonstrate that they can stand against us. I still want to extract all the resources this land has to offer. I agree with Lady Ashford, these attackers have killed our people and taken our resources. We thought sending larger groups would solve the problem, but we should add guards to ensure the safety of our workers."

The nobles murmured in agreement, their resolve hardening. Lady Nerissa stood, signaling the end of the meeting. "We have our orders. Let’s ensure these matters are resolved before we ascend."

As the nobles began to rise and depart, Lady Nerissa remained, deep in thought. Whoever was behind these attacks was bold and dangerous. They weren’t just striking at resources. Why would they go to such lengths to free those worthless slaves? If those otherworlders have indeed banded together, which is entirely plausible considering the size of the second stage, this could become very perilous.

With a final glance at the map spread across the table, she turned and left the chamber, her mind already racing with strategies to root out this unseen enemy and ensure that everything proceeded according to their plans.

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The next day, Thalion met Annie and Jakob. Both were uninjured, smiling broadly as they sat on the branch of the tree where they had spent the night.

“Took you long enough,” Annie said with a smug smile. “We managed to kill two warriors who were on farming duty.” She pulled out a pile of midnight sunroses from her spatial ring, creating a one-meter-tall hill of flowers.

“So, how many did you get?” Jakob asked with anticipation.

Without a word, Thalion summoned his own mountain of flowers, which was four times the size of Annie and Jakob’s combined.

“Holy crap, how many did you kill?” Annie muttered, her eyes wide.

"I harvested from three fields," Thalion replied. "But I need to check the items I collected. I didn’t have time yesterday, but I did kill one with a staff."

“If it’s a water staff, can I have it?” Annie asked eagerly, almost jumping on the spot.

"Sure, let’s see what I found," Thalion mumbled to himself while looking through the stuff in his spatial ring.

He pulled out the Aqua Nexus Staff, a sleek, elegantly crafted weapon made from rare, luminescent blue wood that seemed to shimmer with an inner light. The staff was inlaid with intricate silver runes spiraling up toward the top, where a large, flawless sapphire rested within a cradle of swirling metal tendrils. When used, the sapphire glowed with a deep, tranquil blue, and a faint mist surrounded the staff, giving it an ethereal, almost otherworldly appearance.

“And it’s an Aqua Nexus Staff,” Thalion said, somewhat disappointed. “A really good one at that—30% effectiveness for all water spells. That’s impressive.”

“Give it to me! I want to see it for myself!” Annie exclaimed excitedly. Her eyes grew wide as she caught the staff and identified it. “This is awesome!” she shouted, jumping around and channeling water spells at random trees.

“Do you have any idea why there are no slaves at the farming spots?” Thalion asked, deep in thought. “Everyone was talking about how the task was beneath them, but why didn’t they make the slaves do it? There should be plenty available.”

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“There definitely should be enough slaves. They control at least a thousand,” Jakob said with concern for the other humans who were enslaved behind the walls of the city.

“This is troubling,” Thalion mused. “Let’s ask one of the people we raid next time, but first, I have something else to do.”

Before they could ask what, Thalion transformed into shadowstalker and began greedily devouring the flowers. The taste was so delicious, it must have something to do with his skill. He’d never been a fan of vegetables, but perhaps flowers were different—though he had never eaten flowers before the system.

After consuming half of his mountain of flowers, he had to pause; it was just too much. He couldn’t eat anymore. He transformed back into his human form and started training with his mana barrier.

“Why did you stop? I’ve seen you devour a whole glowhorn before, yet these plants fill you up?” Jakob asked, confused.

“Yep, maybe it’s the rarity of the plants,” Thalion muttered with a full belly. “I don’t fully understand the skill yet, either.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to tell us your class? I mean, we know most of it anyway. You’re some kind of mage in your human form, and you can transform into that wolftiger,” Annie said, curious.

Thalion thought for a moment. She had a point; they already knew most of his abilities, so what harm was there in revealing them?

“I’m a shapeshifter. I can take the form of beasts I’ve killed when certain requirements are met,” Thalion explained, carefully omitting any mention of the sanguine thorn. That secret he would keep to himself.

“Wow, that’s so cool,” Jakob said with admiration.

“Well, it has its ups and downs,” Thalion replied. “You don’t gain many skills from leveling up.”

“Okay, that sucks,” Jakob retorted, most of his admiration dissipating.

Thalion transformed back into shadowstalker and forced himself to eat the small hill of flowers from Annie and Jakob as well.

“Damn, that was a lot,” he said after returning to his human form, while the others laughed at him in amusement.

“Oh, there are 12 new crosses on the map!” Annie exclaimed. “We should get going.”

“Wait. This time we will go together. I want to ask those people some questions,” Thalion interjected.

“Cool, let’s go! Time to kill those slavers!” Jakob cheered.

After an hour of traveling through the jungle, Thalion transformed into shadowstalker, now with all the flowers digested.

“Did your fur get darker?” Annie asked, curious.

Thalion looked at his paws. Indeed, they had taken on a darker shade of gray.

“Maybe it has something to do with gaining a higher affinity for darkness,” he wondered aloud.

“Shh, we’re almost there,” Jakob hissed pointing ahead.

Soon, they spotted a clearing, and the situation was quite different. Three people were working on harvesting the flowers, with two standing guards watching the perimeter.

“None of them are slaves,” Jakob whispered. “They’re all high-level too.”

“I’ll sneak around and attack when they’re distracted. You two engage as well,” Thalion whispered. The others nodded in confirmation.

Thalion silently moved around the clearing, waiting for the right moment. There were two heavy classes and probably one archer, judging by the bow on his back. The two lookouts were likely light warriors or mages. When no one was looking his way, he sprinted into the clearing and bit down on the first light warrior, killing him before the man had time to react. The lookout on the other side of the clearing conjured a fireball and was about to launch it into the air when an ice shard penetrated the back of his head.

With the mage dead, the fireball fizzled out of existence. The other fighters swore as the two heavy warriors pulled out their shields, while the archer shot arrows at Annie, who was hiding behind a tree.

The heavy warriors were no match for Thalion. They had heavy shields, but their attack power was low. Both wielded short swords designed for slowly cutting down their enemies while shielding themselves. Against the shadowstalker, their tactics were almost useless. Thalion pulled the first man’s shield to the side. The warrior tried to resist, his muscles straining, but it was no use. Thalion was just too strong. He didn’t even have to exert himself much. After all, he had wrestled with a glowhorn. A heavy knight was nothing to him.

Thalion bit down on the man’s sword arm, and with a twist of his head, he ripped it out of the socket. The man fell, screaming in pain. Thalion received a cut on his shoulder, but it wasn’t a significant issue. Nature’s resilience was already slowly healing the wound.

The other heavy knight was right behind him, and Thalion didn’t have time to dodge. A sword stabbed into his right hind leg. He spun around, limping with his injured leg, as the man charged at him, a large shield glowing with blue light.

Thalion jumped to the side, but the knight sped up at the last second, slamming into Thalion’s side with the shield, sending him sprawling. But before the knight could react, Thalion used his savage bite on the man’s leg, completely biting through armor, skin, and bone.

The man fell, screaming, holding his leg with both hands.

Thalion turned to the archer and saw Jakob smashing the man’s head in with a rock, leaving only the heavy knight.

To their advantage, the heavy knight had swallowed a healing potion right after losing his leg. With his high health pool, he was the ideal candidate for questioning.

“Why aren’t there any more slaves working in the fields?” Annie asked, her tone insidious, while an ice shard formed in her hand.

“What? Why do you even care about those slaves?” the man asked, genuinely surprised, still clutching his bleeding leg.

“Well, I do, so could you please answer the question?” Annie said in a syrupy sweet tone.

“Nothing at the moment, but we just can’t leave them here after we teleport to the third stage,” the man said with a sinister tone.

“Wait, you’re killing all of them?” Jakob asked in disbelief.

“There’s nothing you can do, even with that beast of yours,” the man replied, still smiling. “I might die here, but you should know. We’ll be taking hundreds down in one go.”

“When are you starting to kill them?” Jakob pressed, his voice tense. “I guess you can’t kill them all at once.”

“They’ll start tomorrow morning,” the man answered casually. “They still want to use the corpses as fish bait before they leave this stage by evening.”

He was about to say more, but a shard of ice pierced his left eye, silencing him instantly as he slumped to the ground.

“They want to move to the next stage when the system shop arrives,” Thalion said, deep in thought.

“But the guy was right. We can’t do anything. There are too many of them, and they’re too strong,” Jakob said, his voice heavy with hopelessness.

“We might not be able to save the slaves, but we can still take out a lot of their people,” Thalion replied, still deep in thought. “And I might have an idea.”

“The only reason they know we’re humans from the other planet is because of the symbol on their robes. It glows when someone with high water affinity infuses it with mana,” Thalion explained.

Annie immediately caught on, equipping the blue robe. The symbol on the front started to glow in a light blue. Jakob and Thalion also donned blue robes, and Annie pointed her water staff at them, causing their emblems to glow as well.

"That is our way in. Let's get you to level 25 first, then let's see if we can enter the city unnoticed," Thalion said, deep in thought.