Beet was floating in the air as he controlled his four rhea shades. All of them were circling a seven feet tall black wolf. The wolf had already figured out that it was Beet who controlled these creatures, but it still needed a little more essence to advance tier-5 before being able to fly. For now, all it could do was growl at him and fight against his shades.
The rhea shades barely had the power of early tier-4, but their claws and beaks had a reddish hue on them. The [Blood Edge] was already active on all of the shades, giving their claws a sharpness that was enough to penetrate the wolf’s skin easily.
There was no fairness in this fight. Not only this wolf had to fight against four puppets of the enemy without even touching its real foe, but his partner was also being occupied by another, although in a much better condition.
‘’Come on, Beet! This one is getting anxious,’’ Ethan called as he [Blink]ed away from the furious wolf chasing him.
The one he fought was at mid tier-4, and it wouldn't be too hard for him to kill it, but the plan was to make Beet kill them both and switch two of his shades with them. So, all Ethan did was keep one of them away from going near the other while Beet was going all out to claim the kills.
The shade’s claw missed the wolf’s neck closely, but another one slashed its leg, crippling it completely. Once the beast’s mobility was hindered, the shades went berserk and attacked from different angles. Strike after strike, the injuries of the wolf increased until finally Beet made a dive and finished the beast with his own scythes.
‘’Finally! Get this one, I didn’t damage it in the slightest!’’ Ethan shouted and took the last wolf between himself and the shades, blocking its path to escape.
Beet opened its mouth and a mana potion without a lid appeared in the middle of it. Grabbing the bottle gently with its mouth, he threw his head back to drink it in a swig. Sending the empty bottle back to his necklace, he dashed for the last foe along with his shades.
Ethan slowly backed off and watched shades getting torn by the wolf only to form themselves back quickly. Even if the rhea shades lost a limb, it would disappear before touching the ground, and another would be created, at the expense of a large amount of Beet’s mana.
Yet, the little terror didn’t mind and kept fighting like a savage. Getting his shades beaten wasn’t ideal, but since he lacked the experience with the skill, he chose to sacrifice some of his summons and create opportunities for the others.
Ethan didn’t comment on his fighting style because he hoped that the rhea shades would be replaced with better alternatives as soon as possible. The creatures were only good for encircling the enemy and kicking the shit out of it. That was why once he detected these wolves from his ship, he immediately informed Beet about his plan.
Today was the end of their first week since leaving Niamaris. The journey was smooth so far, but that wasn’t a good thing. Ethan was hoping to hunt enough to reach tier-4 before they left the Emerald Forest, but the tier-4 monsters were very rare around this area, and he didn’t want to kill a massive amount of tier-3s. He kept driving the ship and hoped to find a good hunting ground, but they were about to leave the forest and he was still 23% away from the next level.
At least they managed to find good shade materials for Beet.
The black wolf dodged the incoming claw and bit the shade’s leg before throwing it toward another one. It made a jump toward the Beet, but another shade jumped at the same time, blocking its way. As it grabbed the shade with its paw and started falling down, the last of the shades also jumped and joined the chaos.
They all tumbled to the ground shortly, but before the wolf recovered from the shock, the shades were already pecking it with their beaks. Covered with [Blood Edge], their beaks were effortlessly stabbing the creature all the way through. The wolf wailed loudly and struggled to shake them off, but Beet arrived at that moment and slashed its neck, ending its life.
Ethan watched the chaotic fight with interest and wanted to applaud for the effort. ‘’No technique whatsoever, but at least you can make them fight coordinately. Honestly, it’d be best if we could find you some diverse shades. Like one defensive, one flying creature, and two range attackers. Though, I’ve no idea when that would be,’’ he commented as he came closer. ‘’Go on then, make your new shades.’’
Beet gave a reluctant look at his rheas and sent two of them into his shadow while the other dissolved into the air and a wisp of dark mana returned to him from the both. He jumped over the wolf’s corpse and stabbed its scythe to its forehead before sending his death-aspected mana. Just like he did with the rheas before, he absorbed a large amount of atmospheric mana with the help of [Shade Creation] and directed it into the corpse. Once finished, he jumped back to the ground and started watching it with anticipation.
The shadows around the corpse started moving and before long, a dark creature with eyes like an abyss pulled itself from the corpse.
‘’Now, that’s what I’m talking about!’’ Ethan said with a smile and came close to pet the shade. The gorgeous creature didn’t move the slightest and even after he jumped onto its back, it was still standing like a statue. ‘’Alright, let’s see how fast it is. Come, we’ll keep it short and return for the other one.’’
Beet flew over and settled on the shade’s back as well before making it sprint at full speed. The scary-looking, seven feet tall, and fifteen feet long wolf ran like the wind. Ethan had to grab it with his hand to stabilize himself. Not to mention his own speed, it was even faster than his old mount Jolly, but the problem was the control. Since it was Beet who was controlling it, every sharp turn was a close call for him. He barely managed to not fall over, and it certainly wasn’t a pleasant ride.
When they returned from their short trip, Ethan looked like he was about to throw up, while Beet seemed to have a blast, starting to create his next shade excitedly.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Even though the wolf riding was disappointing, he was pretty sure that these wolves were much better fighters than the rheas.
As Beet finished his business, they jumped back on their ship and resumed the journey. It was the next day that they left the forest behind and ventured into the dead plains. Although he knew from his map that the area was quite large, seeing the sheer vastness of the place personally was enough to stun him. The armies which had fought here had to be in the numbers of hundreds of millions, and they likely didn’t fight in the same place. Like a walking calamity, those enormous armies must’ve moved around Mirasatra kingdom and destroyed everything in their path.
Their ship continued above the barren land with large craters all around. There were some monsters and animals on the ground, but none of them seemed to be worth their time. Only some of the flying creatures offered a good hunting opportunity, but they were all below tier-5, and their numbers were few and far between.
Ethan was driving the ship for six hours without stopping and taking a break for three hours before repeating the same pattern again. Since he was cultivating a lot, he didn’t require any sleep, but it was getting boring rather quickly, to the point that he started digging his favorite snacks which he’d originally planned to eat months later. Thankfully, there wasn’t much distance left, and another week later, they arrived at the mountain range where the inheritance site should’ve been.
He left the cabin and went up to the deck, gazing at their destination. The mountains started appearing in his sight and they were getting bigger and bigger as they passed. The majestic rocky mountains seemed to be devoid of any life, yet they were giving an ominous feeling to him which he couldn’t tell why.
According to Katherine, the place they should look was on the highest mountain, close to its top. Once Ethan made the ship fly higher, he quickly found their target. As they came close, Beet also left the cabin and jumped onto Ethan’s shoulder.
‘’A big skull-shaped rock. Just a few hundred yards below the top, facing east,’’ he repeated Katherine’s words, both to himself and Beet. ‘’It’s hard to notice at first, but once you find it, you won’t doubt it.’’
He planned to fly the ship close to the mountain and only descend if they couldn’t find it from the sky, but before they even started to look, a dozen flying creatures made a dive from the top of the mountain.
Ethan narrowed his eyes. ‘’Vultures? Whoa, there are three tier-5s. Beet, release your shades on the deck and hide in the cabin if one of them attacks you. Don’t fight yourself until I diminish the numbers.’’
Beet did as he was told while Ethan called his daggers, waiting for the creatures to enter his domain. The moment they did, he sent [Shadow Spikes] to the tier-5s, one of them avoided it completely, but the other got a hole in its wing. It was nothing much but still disturbed its flying mobility. He kept sending [Shadow Spikes] to the ones at the back and hoped they would arrive at the ship separately.
Since he planned to fight with a lot of [Blink]s, he decided not to make a landing and instead fight in the air. As long as the ship was inside his domain, he was able to keep it flying or make it stable in the air.
Ethan waited for the perfect chance and the moment the tier-5s were on him, he unleashed his [Mana Aura] and slashed his dagger, cutting off the vulture’s head. He didn’t hesitate for a moment and [Blink]ed next to the other one, stabbing his dagger. But the creature had already awakened from its panic and blocked it with its claw.
While the low tiers were still frozen still, Beet took a risk and flew over them with blood gushing everywhere he passed, but the injured tier-5 also joined the others and directly went for him.
‘’Alright, don’t get ahead of yourself!’’ Ethan called and appeared to block the tier-5. ‘’Stay on the deck.’’
These creatures were much easier to handle than the wyverns. The only problem was that he didn’t have a footing. Every time he [Blink]ed, he had one chance to attack before either starting to fall or [Blink]ing again. That was why he pretty much abused [Blink], using it every two seconds. That also ensured that the fight was short-lived.
When finally they killed the last one of them, Ethan only had a few shallow injuries while his mana was below half. Thankfully, among the giant shades and the ghost-like human, the vultures didn’t even choose to attack Beet, leaving him uninjured.
Ethan checked his experience bar and found it at 98.6%. Shaking his head with a wry smile, he started collecting the cores of the vultures. Three of the carcasses fell to the mountain and he had no idea where they'd ended up. He planned to look over since one of them was a tier-5 but didn’t hope much as they were thousands of yards above the ground and the mountain itself was enormous.
Finished with the loot, he brought the ship closer to the mountain and flew it around a few hundred yards below the top. It was mostly giant cliffs, some caves, and small flat areas. After half an hour of looking around, Beet jumped to his shoulder again and pointed at an area with dry trees.
‘’You think it’s there? Alright, let's check.’’
Ethan descended the ship to the eerie-looking groove and started exploring it along with Beet. Between the dead trees, there were sharp and long rocks, but nothing like Katherine had described. Fortunately, Beet seemed to sense something and was leading the way.
They walked for about 15 minutes before coming to a dead end. Ethan was using his [Mana Sense] all the time, but he couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Only after lifting his head, he saw the huge rock that vaguely resembled a skull. Its eye sockets were clear cut, making him sure this was it. Since there was no way to get there, he used a [Blink] while Beet flew after him.
He looked around curiously to see if there was a way in, but before he decided how to proceed, Beet sent his mana to the rock and the skull's eyes started to glow with ghastly green. It slightly vibrated and skated to the left with rough movements before a dark passage appeared behind it.
Ethan smiled excitedly. ‘’Good job! Come on, let’s get you some skills!’’
They entered the passage, and after five minutes of slow and cautious walking, the corridor led them to an open area. An enormously open area that wasn’t much different than outside. Technically, they were inside the mountain and this place was a cave, but just the ceiling went hundreds of yards up, and he couldn’t even see the end of the cave if this was called a cave at all.
‘’This whole mountain is empty inside,’’ Ethan said in amazement. ‘’Is it related to the Mirasatra kingdom? Their capital is also similar to this one, only much bigger, and it’s not that far away from here. Maybe their origin is related.’’
Suddenly, the torches on the giant columns started to flare up. A batch of 10 was bursting into flames every second and in just under a minute, they were able to see how vast this place was. As well as the enemies they were going to face. Beneath the hundreds of torches that illuminated the place, hundreds of disgusting-looking, rotten corpses were running toward them in frenzy. Ghouls.
‘’Oh, fucking hell! I can smell them from here,’’ Ethan scowled and threw an irritated look at Beet. ‘’Great career choice, mate. Couldn't you be a wood elemental like Paprika?’’
Blinking his eyes innocently, Beet pretended that he didn't understand.