14 What now?

It looked like amid all the chaos, the fire spread rapidly and covered the entire city. A large cloud of smoke could be seen rising up far away as the three traveled deep inside the forest.

"What now, old man? Where are we going next?"

"Hmm… we have a destination. But the question here is, what will this lady be doing from now on?"

The three were on horseback, traveling deep inside the forest.

Luna was dressed in a dark robe, which she probably found in the city after they separated. It looked a little big on her, but was far better than the slave-like clothes that she was wearing.

After what they had done, it wasn't a good idea to travel openly without a decent level up. The forest was the right spot to gain more combat experience and level up.

"I think… they will try to hunt me again. So, it will be better to stay as a group a little longer. That is, if you two are okay with having me."

"Alright then! We will train here a bit and head towards the nearest dungeon. Normally we would need a warrior and an assassin with us to make a complete party, but we will have to do with what we have now."

While talking about training, Lucifer realized that he had turned off notification while saving the items in his arsenal. When he opened it to turn it back on, he realized that a lot has changed in his status.

His level was now 3, which was because he had gained a new subclass assassin. He was still a level 1 mage, but he had become a level 2 assassin.

As a level-up bonus, he had gained a skill called 'Hide.' It was a skill that allowed him to blend in with the surroundings and hide his presence—the most basic skill assassins possessed.

"Ho-ho! so kiddo leveled up, huh? What about you, missy?"

Luna checked her status.

"I am level 17 now, but I gained no skill."

"That's still good. The even level up is the one that usually gives you skills after all. So, here, let me add you to my party."

The old man opened his status and clicked a few things. As he did that, the two received the invitation to the party simultaneously.

Once they accepted the invitation, they were able to see each other's more detailed status and skills.

As Lucifer was looking through the skills of the other two, a particular skill of the old man caught his eyes.

He only had 2 skills; one was the Long sight that he probably got when he leveled up as a guide. The other one was 'The first page of Justice,' which seemed a little odd.

Like Lucifer's Arsenal, it could be one of the skills that came with the system. But the name was odd compared to other normal skills that he had come across, so Lucifer decided to ask.

"Hey, old man, what's this first skill of yours? The name seems a little weird."

"Oh, that's just what allows me to star-read. It's part of the fool's system, so I guess it will level up as we go."

"So, you have the Fool's system, huh? Why am I not surprised?"

"Ha-ha! I am not sure about you, but I was pretty surprised when I got it. Also, the Missy here has the queen's system, and a long list of skills."

"Yeah, all us witches had the Queen's system. We were considered a superior race to humans because of that... which is probably why we caught the church's eyes."

It looked like she was remembering her tragic past. What's surprising was how she could still remember an event that happened so many years ago. But then it could just be that they possessed stronger memory power than humans.

When the three reached a little inside the forest, they prepared to rest there for the night.

They were still at the forest's outer layer, which was occupied by animals and smaller monsters that feared humans. Normally, monsters in this region didn't attack unless provoked or cornered.

It was only occasionally that the monster from the middle layer came here to hunt, so this region was considerably safer than the rest.

The sky was clear, so the three gathered the dry leaves and sprayed them with alcohol.

Many insects and monsters hated the smell of alcohol, so this was one way to prevent them from coming near.

Once they prepared the stay, Lucifer used stones for hunting down a turkey.

After gathering a few edible wild mushrooms and firewood, the three prepared the dinner.

It was roasted turkey and mushroom, which didn't taste much good without salt. However, in hunger, that dinner was a delight.

Lucifer did ask Luna if she could use magic to create salt during the dinner. But as the old people say, 'magic isn't invincible,' the answer came as 'no.'

After they were done, the party called it a day and rested there for the night.

The night was quiet, with occasional howling, hissing, and crawling noises. But to some, that quiet was creepier than actual noise.

That some here happened to be the old man, who couldn't sleep with the noise the leaves were making. It was almost morning by the time the old man was finally able to fall asleep.

In the morning, Lucifer was the first to wake up. He collected a few nuts and pineapples in the forest, so the breakfast was at least better than the dinner.

After breakfast, the three started their journey towards the deep forest.

The center of the forest was dangerous for them, even during the day. So, they were only planning to stay on the middle layer where the monsters ranging from level two to fifteen used to live.

The perfect thing about training this way was how it allowed them to gradually face bigger threats, as the three leveled up.

They released the horses there and started hunting down the lower level monsters that included monster spiders and ants.

The spiders were easy to kill, but if they came out in groups, it was hard for them to deal with all at once. Also, they were so big that their bites could sever human limbs like scissors cutting paper.

They isolated the spiders using baits, which included the meat of wild animals, and killed them by attacking from behind.

They were only level five, so all they were good at was collecting experience points to level up.

None of their body parts were useful. But the thread they produced was indeed expensive, so the trio collected and stored it in Lucifer's Arsenal.

They didn't go for the queen spider on the first day and stuck to this method. They were gradually planning to move forward, so the trick was to reduce their number first, and hunt their queen on the second day.

Even though Luna specialized in healing, crafting, and medical magic, she possessed some knowledge when it came to fire and other elemental magic.

By sharing what she knew, she was able to teach Lucifer the basics of elemental magics.

It could be because of the mage class, but Lucifer picked it quickly and started manipulating flames in no time.

At the end of the day, Lucifer leveled up to level 3 mage and level 3 assassin, the old man leveled up as level 5 guide and level 2 engineer, and Luna leveled up as level 6 mage, level 7 healer, and level 5 medic.

It was a quick boost considering how Lucifer was level 6, Michael was level 7, and Luna was level 18 now.

But was it going to be enough to beat the level 15 queen spider and her family of crawlers?