It was, surprisingly enough, Karen who breached the silence first. The woman had been jolted out of her unconsciousness by the cataclysmic sound that had ripped through the forest moments earlier.
“That was… Something that even I am not equipped to deal with.” Her voice quavered as she spoke, a marked difference from her cocky attitude earlier. Sam would have wanted to take credit for her transformation, but he knew that it was solely due to a healthy dose of fear. Finally mustering up the courage to ask for assistance, the woman continued.
“Sometimes, even a god among mortals must ask for help. I have deigned to let you all assist me in my endeavor to kill this foul monster.”
Sam sighed and Reaper looked at her with a flabbergasted expression on his face.
“What the hell is your deal, lady? No real person acts like that. Besides, you’re even weaker than me anyway. The Arbiter would have already killed you if he hadn't decided to show mercy on your sorry ass. I’m not working with someone like you.” Reaper stalked off and back into the woods, beckoning for Sam and Eduardo to come. Slowly, as if in a dream, the massive figure of the Bear lumbered on after them. With an apologetic look on her face, Karen’s ally walked off as well. The woman gnashed her teeth there and then in the forest clearing, but she knew that she was up a creek now. Rather than do the wise thing and try to resolve the matter, she made her own way off towards the source of the roar. Sam and his new allies made their way back to his group, who all tensed upon seeing the unfamiliar faces.
“Calm down. These people are here to help us. I’m sure that you all heard the roar earlier?” Reaper said to the team. They all nodded. “Good. Well, not good for us, but good that you’re listening.” Reaper cleared his throat. “Ahem. Anyway, the only way that we’re going to beat this thing is with strength of numbers. These two are some pretty high rankers, and although I am pained to admit it, the Bear here is ever higher ranked than me on the leaderboard. Apparently that does not apply to the arena however, as he was only able to draw against me.” The massive Russian man growled warningly. “It was a joke! It was a joke,” Reaper hurriedly said.
This information calmed down the members of their team, and a few of them even looked excited that they had received extra help. Unfortunately, none of the new arrivals’ allies had survived, but they would only have been a dead weight anyway. Sam and the other high rankers looked apologetically at the weaker members. They didn't have to say what everyone was thinking. The reality was, that none of them would likely be coming out of this unscathed. Even Sam would probably lose to whatever that thing was that had projected that domineering aura from the center of the forest. Sam could barely cover 20 feet with his aura at this point, and the roar had spread out for miles. It probably became stronger the closer one was to it, but it was still far and beyond anything that he could do. With a sigh, Sam realized what he had to do. The team members wouldn't like it, but it was for the best.
“Everyone except for Reaper, The Bear, The Angel of Death, and our new member, you all need to run back to the start of the woods. It's not safe for anyone here not in the top fifty. Hell, it’s barely safe for us anyway.” He was met with a storm of argumentative speeches, but he ignored them. With a nod at Reaper, the man summoned condensed bats of energy behind each of the recalcitrant people and knocked them out. A small palanquin of gray energy formed underneath them and carried them back through the forest. Reaper stumbled, but then rose up again, panting.
“I can only hold that skill for about 15 minutes, and then I'm going to have to leave them wherever they reach. I’m going to be tapped out for the boss fight, just so you know.”
Sam nodded and placed his hand on the man’s shoulder. It seemed to bolster him somewhat, but in reality Sam wanted to segue into a new conversation.
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“Just a quick question. How are you doing that stuff with the gray energy? You don’t have a Dao, right?”
Reaper looked at Sam like he had sprouted a second head.
“Huh? What do you think I’m using? My elemental affinity of course.”
Sam cocked his head.
“What? What’s that?”
Reaper sighed at this.
“Look, if this is some sort of joke, this is not the time. Didn't you receive the System missive about elemental affinities upon gaining your class? Everyone else did as far as I know.” Sam shook his head. If everyone else had received this thing, then it was likely due to his strange Dao abilities. It was all starting to slot together, and the picture that it painted of the System was not pretty. It had hidden his Dao heritage from him until he had gained his class, and now it seemed to be hiding even more from him. In addition, Jeffrey had told him about the stigma that the System had against the Dao and how it had taken over its function in the universe. Was it possible that Sam had somehow gained the personal attention of the System, and worse, it was hostile? If that was true, why was he not already dead? The System was, from what he could tell, basically a god, perhaps more powerful than any god that a human had even conceived. If it had wanted him dead, it could have metaphorically snapped its fingers, and it would be so. He was being treated like some piece in a vast game board, and he did not like it one bit. The only way that he was going to survive was to look for any opportunity that he could get. This was the first one.
“Reaper, can you share this missive with me?” The man looked confused, but he nodded. Then he furrowed his brow.
“Wait a sec… Why isn't it letting me share it with you? Something about an error. I’ll just tell you, I guess.” The man cleared his throat and began.
“An elemental affinity is your connection to one of the primordial elements. There are twelve of them, which you can find out about later. More importantly, upon getting a class, people find out what element they are most attuned to, and can attempt to form a connection with it. It's quite tough, but it grants you great power. Now, how you do it is-” Reaper screamed and clapped his hands to his head.
“What in the name of God? All of the information was just sucked out of my head! It's all gone!” Reaper looked at Sam with fear in his eyes.
“What did you do?”
Sam threw up his hands.
“Nothing! How would I do something like that? I’m not some sort of telepath.”
Reaper nodded.
“Ok, ok. You probably didn't do it. But I can’t tell you any more, it's gone. Good luck on finding your own path.”
Sam began to walk towards the Bear, but the man backed away in fear.
“No, no thank you. I want my memories to stay right where they belong, my brain.”
Sam sighed and resigned himself to a lot of trial and error later. For now, he did not need whatever the others had. He already had his Dao, and that was enough to deal with whatever threat came their way. At least, he hoped it was.
Now divested of their charges, the group was able to move at full speed. Sam rode on the back of the Bear’s armor and watched as they sped through the woods at around the speed of a car. He was probably faster than the man inside the suit, but it could cover more ground than him with every ponderous stride, so it was more efficient. Sam tried to pick up some small talk with the man, but he did not answer. Either he had no wish to talk to Sam, or he was too busy concentrating on the path ahead. Sam would have bet on the former of the two.
After a few minutes, he gave up and closed his eyes, trying to survey the state of his Dao. It was very hard to check on his Dao, because there was no official stat for it, but a few seconds of meditation could reveal how much energy he had left. As he had expected, his Dao of Anger was about half full, and his Dao of the Arbiter was almost completely full. He had enough in the tank for a few battles, or one massive one with the boss.
They traveled for what seemed like hours, but was really only about 30 minutes. The forest blended into itself and it was hard to keep track of time. Sam wished that his System interface had a clock on it, but there was no such luck.
They reached a clearing some time later, one that was filled with corpses. Some monster ones, but there were a good few humans in the mix as well. All of them had died by the same manner, massive claw wounds dotting their body. If that was not a sign of the boss, then Sam was afraid of the implication. If something that large existed in the forest, and it wasn't even the boss, then it was even more dangerous than he had thought.