Drake focused on the warrior class demon monkeys.

Shadow steps!

Drake became a shadow as he rapidly approached the demon monkeys. Having cultivated the steel body, he was much faster than before and reached the first warrior class demon monkey in an instant.

The monkey’s evil look transformed into fear as Drake appeared inches away from its face.

“Hammer fist!” Drake exclaimed as he activated his martial technique and punched the monkey in the face, sending it flying into the horde of monkeys behind, causing them to start panicking in fear.

He turned to face the next two warrior class demon monkeys hanging off a tree, who now looked at him warily.

On the other side, Blaze was killing a bunch of demon monkeys with each slash of his sword, making a beeline to the closest warrior class demon monkey.

Helen herself was fighting against several servant class demon monkeys simultaneously and dispatching them off one by one.

The demon monkeys which had glared at the humans like prey, were now crying helplessly in terror as they were mercilessly killed off one after another.

Within a few minutes, all of the warrior class demon monkeys, and most of the servant class demon monkeys were gone.

The three regrouped and were about to finish off the final few demon monkeys when they were interrupted.

“ROAR!” A huge roar reverberated through the forest.

It came from further away, and it sounded like one of the demon monkeys as well, but far more powerful.

The group looked at each other and immediately ran in the direction of the roar. They soon came across an empty clearing. Numerous trees were blasted away, indicating that a ferocious battle had occurred.

“ROARRRR!” The echo appeared once again, but it was much closer this time. The group rushed towards the roar and finally found its source.

A large and muscular demon monkey was gripping a girl by her throat. The girl was covered in blood and barely conscious. She looked at the group and a weak voice spoke out.

“Help… me…”

Normally, they would have rushed to destroy the demon before she even asked. However, this demon monkey was not like the others. It was radiating a powerful aura.

It was a pseudo-commander class demon!

The demon monkey locked eyes with their group while squeezing the girl’s throat harder.

“Bastard!” Blaze yelled.

Dragon step!

Blaze became a fiery mist before appearing right next to the demon monkey. He swept his sword towards its neck, but the demon monkey caught the blade with its free hand.

Blaze smirked. He poured his mana into the sword and whispered, “Fire. Blade.”

A blade of fire shot forth from the sword. The demon monkey dropped the girl and dodged at the last second. The fire blade continued flying forward at an incredible speed and cut through a bunch of trees before finally dissipating.

The demon monkey looked at its palm which now carried a deep cut that was bleeding profusely, before clenching it into a fist and glaring at Blaze menacingly.

The two started clashing ferociously.

Drake and Helen quickly made their way to the girl who was now unconscious. Drake had a precious few healing pills which he had bought for emergencies. He knelt down and carefully fed her one of the pills and her wounds started healing.

Up close, he could see that she wasn’t an ordinary girl. She had bright green, medium-sized hair which looked normal, however, her skin carried translucent creases similar to the bark of a tree. Drake curiously ran his finger across her arm but it felt surprisingly smooth, despite the creases making her skin slightly resemble tree bark.

‘Is she a dryad?’ Drake gasped.

Due to the pills Drake gave the girl, her wounds healed rapidly and the girl opened her eyes, revealing pure green pupils that sparkled with life. She looked dazed for a moment, before suddenly and quickly sitting up as if she remembered something urgent. The girl looked around to spot Drake and Helen next to her.

“Thank you for saving me,” she spoke with a soft voice.

“You’re welcome,” Drake replied. He wanted to ask her more about who she was, but this wasn’t the time.

The girl looked to her left and spotted a green longbow lying on the floor. She grabbed the bow and stood up.

“We need to help your friend; he won’t be able to hold back that demon for long.”

As if to prove her point, Blaze was sent flying back by the demon monkey and he landed in front of the group. Blaze looked back to spot the girl standing up now and was also surprised at her appearance.

“A dryad?” he asked shocked. “Never mind now, can you fight?”

“Yes,” the girl replied, readying her bow. She poured mana into a ring artifact on her finger, and an arrow of mana condensed.

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A roar echoed from the location Blaze had just been sent flying from.

The girl took aim.

A shadow started sprinting towards the group.

Breathe… the girl thought, as she poured mana into the bow. Both the bow and the mana arrow started glowing brilliantly.

The demon monkey suddenly jumped out, revealing itself. It was furious and ready to attack.

“Decimate,” the girl whispered.

She released the arrow and it shot forward ferociously. The demon monkey was startled and brought its muscular arms forward to defend itself, but they only blocked the arrow for a second before the powerful mana arrow tore through.

The demon screamed in pain and started falling. It landed heavily on the ground, creating a small dust cloud rose.

Everyone looked on in shock.

‘Did she… do it?’ Drake wondered.

“Don’t be silly, it will take more than that to bring it down,” the girl spoke calmly, readying another arrow. “But it must be weaker now. The two of you attack it while it's down,” she said to Blaze and Drake. “I will support you from here. And you, protect me,” she said the last line to Helen.

They didn’t expect the girl to start giving out orders, but they made sense, so nobody had any complaints. Blaze and Drake activated dragon step and shadow step respectively and rushed forward, while Helen moved in front of the girl, ready to protect her from any surprise attacks.

The arrow had torn through the demon monkey’s forearms before grazing past its shoulder. It was injured now, but the injuries were far from fatal.

Drake and Blaze thrust their swords at the demon monkey. The demon roared in fury as it grabbed both of their swords by the blade. Holding the swords, the demon monkey pivoted on its heel and spun, before releasing the two to be sent flying.

“Decimate,” Sylvia whispered, releasing another powerful arrow using this opportunity.

“Eek!” the demon monkey shrieked but it had learnt its lesson and did not try to block the arrow this time, instead choosing to jump sideways just in the nick of time to dodge. The arrow shot past before colliding with a row of trees, splitting several dozens of them in half before dissipating.

Drake used this moment of distraction to pour mana into his boots and activate shadow steps simultaneously, increasing his speed to the maximum and jumping. He appeared above the demon monkey in midair before kicking down with hammer leg. The demon blocked the kick with its arms but was still sent crashing to the ground.

Before it made contact with the ground, Blaze appeared, sword at the ready.

“Fire blade!” he screamed, pouring a huge amount of mana into his sword. A large and powerful blade of fire shot into the air and hit the demon monkey directly, completely stopping its momentum and pushing it up slightly.

“Yeeeee-aaaark!”

Even the pseudo-commander class demon monkey couldn’t block such a powerful attack at such a close range.

The demon monkey screamed in pain as the blade cut deeply into its back while burning it at the same time. The blade couldn’t cut through the demon’s entire body, but it had injured the demon severely.

The demon landed with a thud releasing a mini dust cloud again, while Blaze and Drake retreated a few steps to observe it cautiously.

“It must be over now,” Drake said.

“I think so too,” Blaze agreed, but the next moment, a huge aura came from the dust cloud as a black figure rapidly approached them.

“Decimate.”

Another arrow furiously shot forward towards the aura before it could reach them.

Maybe its haste and fury made its attention focus completely on Blaze and Drake, but the attack took the demon completely by surprise. This time, the arrow pierced through its chest.

The demon gasped as life slowly faded away from its eyes, and it fell to the ground.

It was truly dead this time.

The group gathered around the dead demon monkey.

Blaze looked at the girl and spoke. “Thanks for that, you saved us in the end.”

“I must be the one thanking you,” she replied with a smile, but then her expression changed slightly. “Oh apologies, how rude of me to not introduce myself first. My name is Sylvia Everglen, from the Everglen tribe of dryads. It’s my good fortune to have met you all, thanks once again.”

‘So, she is a dryad!’ Drake thought to himself.

Dryads were a type of faerie. Since faeries formed from the world’s mana depending on where the faerie was created, they would be widely different in appearance. Near forests, the most common faerie to form were dryads. Nymph faeries formed near water, golems from sand, and gnomes from rocks.

“No worries. I’m Blaze,” he replied, wrapping his sword back with the same white cloth.

Drake was curious why he always wrapped it up. ‘Was it another dragon thing?’

“I’m Drake.”

“And I’m Helen. It’s nice to meet you too,” she said with a smile.

Everyone was silent for a second before Drake asked a question.

“So, what were you doing here and how did you end up in that situation?”

“I wanted to ask you all the same thing, but I will go first,” Sylvia replied calmly. “I am here, probably for the same reason your dragon friend isn’t with his tribe. My tribe sent me out to get some worldly experience. I was heading to the town of Basindale when I was ambushed by the demon monkeys. If it was just the servant and warrior class demons, I would have dealt with them, but the pseudo-commander class demon took me by surprise.”

“I see,” Drake responded.

She continued looking at him questioningly and Drake was confused for a moment before realising what she wanted. “Oh right, the reason why we’re here. We are hunters who took on a mission to dispatch off this camp of demon monkeys. We are actually from Basindale as well.”

Sylvia’s green eyes sparkled. “What a coincidence. If you don’t mind me troubling you once more, could I accompany your group when you return?”

“Of course, that’s no problem,” Blaze responded. “You’re quite strong. Maybe you could join our party too.”

“Party…?” she looked confused.

“We’ll explain on the way,” Blaze laughed.

“Actually, can you all wait a minute?” Drake asked. “I need to gather some things from here.”

“Oh, for what?” Blaze asked curiously.

“Pill… refining,” Drake replied with slight hesitation.

“That’s interesting,” Sylvia said, looking at Drake interestedly. “Are you an alchemist too?”

“An aspiring one… it’s a hobby,” Drake explained with a laugh. “Why don’t you guys gather up the demon monkeys’ corpses. We could probably get good money for them. Also, I think we left a few servant class demons earlier, so you can finish them off too. I should be back before then. I’ll meet you guys at the carriage.”

Saying so, he turned around and left, before they could start asking him more questions on why he was interested in pill refining.

The elves’ book on alchemy which Ray gave him upon graduation, actually had a large section dedicated purely to herbs and other ingredients, explaining their key properties and how they were used. Given his scientific mind, he found it quite straightforward to understand and he soon became quite knowledgeable on various types of herbs.

Drake scanned the forest for herbs he could use in the pill recipes Helen had bought. He managed to find several, very useful ones. He also found some good ores and other materials.

After gathering everything into his storage pouch, Drake returned to the group who were waiting for him by the carriage as agreed.

“Did you get everything you needed, master Drake?” Helen asked.

“Yes, and lots of them,” Drake replied happily.

The group of four got into the carriage. It was a tight squeeze with an additional member in the already small carriage, but they managed somehow. It helped that Sylvia was quite short, just a bit taller than Drake, who was still young.

After surviving a dangerous battle, the group was relaxed and chatted merrily with each other on various things. Sylvia, like Blaze, was especially curious to know about human life, and Blaze was excited to explain the things he had learnt. They were all laughing and having fun, despite the uncomfortable carriage ride.

When they were halfway through their journey, however, the carriage came to an abrupt stop. The group was confused about why before hearing a panicked voice.

“Bandits! Bandits are attacking!”