Cute little things
As they entered the gate the first thing Karl took note of was the surrounding,
"Mountains?" Karl said.
"Yes... and according to the academy teachings what are the monsters to watch out for once the environment of a gate is mountains" Eloise said as she brought out a sheet of paper.
"..." There was silence behind her, she turned her head back and faced Karl.
Karl looked at his back, left and right.
"Who? me?"
"Who else?"
"Uhm, I think we are to watch out for aerial type monsters" Ezelda said.
"Correct Ezelda" she said while staring at Karl.
'What was that?'
[That is what you would call asserting dominance]
'What?'
[Yes Karl, like it or not she's your superior and she looks like she's going to show it to you in this gate]
'...'
A guy in red armour from the Liberty guild walked up to them. "From the Bureaucracy right?, let's walk together" he said as he stretched his hand forth to Eloise.
"Who is your division leader?" Eloise asked.
"Uh? do I not look like one?" he said.
"I'm not joking" she said immediately after hi.
"I am the division leader, Draven Hooper, a B rank esper and I've challenged the tower once"
Eloise wrote on the paper as he spoke,
"Okay can you tell me your team composition?" she asked
"Why would I?" He said.
"I thought you wanted us to join you, I have to know who I'm joining"
'...let's endure this for now... she's pretty, I'll use my regular skills on her, push her into danger then save her' Draven thought to himself
"Nine in total, two healer class, C and B ranks, three range class, one E rank and two C rank, one B rank mage, one C rank psychic class and two warrior class, B ranks myself and another guy" he answered.
"For a grade S gate, that's pretty okay, then we'll be in your care" She said.
"Karl, I'd like you to-" she turned back but there was no sight of Karl.
"Where is Karl?" She asked with a surprised face.
Ezelda and the others looked around them, but they could not find Karl.
"Are you looking for one of your own" Draven asked.
"Damnit! Kaleb, I'll leave you in charge" She said as she sprouted purple wings from her back and flew off splashing dust on Draven.
"We'll be in your care" Kaleb said to Draven, who just turned away, 'what the hell!'
Meanwhile,
Karl softly lands on a tree branch and observes below him,
[Monster info]
Monster name: Small mountain Drake
Monster level: 50
Monster grade: C
Monster ap: 6780
Monster dp: 11200
[Mountain drakes are a descent of dragons, like they can actually breathe fire from their mouths]
"I see this will be fun, Rise"
Quincy and Nightkiller came out of the ground below the tree where Karl was, the drakes that were gathered together were quickly alerted and they immediately got on guard, four drakes, growled slowly at the two of them.
"Why are they not attacking right away"
[Probably because they can sense a likeness]
"I see, Quincy... kill them" Karl said.
"Yes, my lord"
Immediately she spread her fingers and her claws curved out, she dashed at the drakes and sliced the neck straightway before it could breathe fire, the fire it was about to breathe seized in its lungs and it exploded, the other was about to fly but NightKiller grabbed the wings and tore it off as he threw himself on the drake's back, he stabbed continuously from.the back and the drake that was already flying fell back to the ground. The two drakes at once breathe fire at them, but in form of fire balls, Karl got down.
~boom~
~boom~
Each ball of fire was exploded of with his fist, then afterwards bright flames gently enveloped his hand.
"Skill activation: Continual flame"
Karl dashed at the drake, the flames in his hands rose and raged as he ran at the drake, he punched the drake and the flames dissipated the area he punched right that instance, from the point of the abdomen he punched to the upper body was integrated and nothing was left except the lower body and the head, the drake fell to the ground. The second one was about to jump on Karl but Quincy and Nightkiller in sync sliced through it before it could.
"I love this skill" Karl said as he admired the way flames covered his hand.
[Yes but you have given yourself away]
*sniff*
Karl sniffed his nose in the air, "How did she catch up to me so fast...damn" Karl ran off, Quincy and Nightkiller naturally followed.
Minutes after Karl had left, Eloise landed. She looked around and observed the dead bodies.
"...did he do this?" She bent and observed the monster's corpse.
"Burns, blades...can he control fire too...? ahh damn" she said as she sprouted the wings again and took off.
Karl ran past another group of drakes.
[Did you deliberately miss that]
"Shouldn't we leave her something to keep her busy" Karl said as he jumped into the forest, within the low lands on the mountains, as he landed his eyes fell on a large number of small drakes that were instantly alerted, immediately Quincy and Nightkiller dashed at them, flames covered his hands as he also jumped in.
After a while,
"Skill activation: Call of darkness"
Darkness rose out of the bodies of the drakes.
~skrrrrreeeeeewwtch~
They all screamed as the came out and bowed their heads.
"Damn this bastards just gave away our location"
[I know right but they are cute]
"Seriously?" Karl stared blankly at Black who has been beside him the whole time.
Karl stood on the back of one of the dark drakes, all of them were dark, with thir eyes red and their necks red, the flames that softly seeped out of their mouth was red, but a very bright red.
The dark drakes took off, and so did Quincy and Nightkiller on the rest of the dark drakes. They congratulated themselves as the flew off.
Karl flew higher into the mountains through within the forest as he didn't want to give away his location and ability.
~wham~
He was suddenly jammed by another drake, he softly landed on the ground as the drake that jammed him arrogantly tore off the dark drake, which was even still alive after most of its body has been bitten off.
"Return" Karl said and it immediately turned to darkness and found it's way into Karl's back clothe.
"Wow that's new...they always entered my shadows before"
[Basically what they need is your darkness and black is a Good colour to show for it]
"Well, let's face what's in front of us"
[Monster info]
Monster name: Mountain Drake(mini boss)
Monster level: 70
Monster grade: A
Monster ap: 16400
Monster dp: 24000
"Quite strong huh" Karl said as he looked into the status window of the monster. Meanwhile the drake carefully crawled around Karl, with high alertness, Karl opened his hands and two longs swords formed.
"Tenshai Kura first form: Befallen traitor"
~whim~
~swoosh~
~swoosh~
Karl literally merged with the darkness as he swirled the two swords in opposite direction and with high speed severed the head of the drake before it could even react, he stopped behind the drake and its head fell off. He turned back to it.
"Call of Darkness"
The darkness scattered abroad firstly then disappeared.
[Skill activation call of darkness failed]
"Huh?" Karl was surprised as the window appeared in front of him.
[Try it again, with more convictions and power, you have to make them fell the difference in power]
Karl tightened his fist and straightened his expression, his eyes slowly glowed as he said, "Call Of Darkness"
The darkness spread again and the dark drake rose out of it, same with the others but bigger, and with a pair of horns which the others didn't have, it's eyes were like that of an owl and red, glowing with anger, it's neck was red and so was the flames that sipped out of its mouth, one could mistaken it for a dragon.
[Name your dark Knight]
"...I will name you after the sword style you were defeated by, Kura"
[Dark Knight have been named Kura]
"Can't he talk or he just decided not to"
[He can't] Black responded.
"I don't get, he's a Knight grade, doesn't that mean that he is as strong as Quincy"
[No]
[Quincy is a dungeon boss, who's power was greatly reduced due to your incapabilities, which means when you eventually grow stronger, the limiter on her powers will be undone]
[And the ability to talk is a unique trait, normally no dark soldier of yours can talk until they evolve to the Kriegerin grade, except if you are powerful enough to call forth a monster from the Kreigerin grade]
"Tell me what stage is Quincy supposed to start from?"
[The least of the least starts from Soldier grade which has a level of 1-10 before upgrading to a senior soldier]
[Afterwards an evolution grade known as the page grade with level 1-15 after the level is completed evolution is complete and they are evolved to the Knight grade which is level 1-20, after then Chevalier level 1-20]
[Then another evolution phase known as the Kriegerin level 1-30]
[Then the Knight commander level 1-30, at this stage you can start assigning armies to any of your dark soldier that has reached the knight commander level, you can assign a maximum of 100 soldiers]
[Then Knight lord level 1-30, when there are multiple Knight commander and a soldier reaches the Knight lord level, you can grant them with maximum of 400 dark soldiers]
[Then another evolution stage is reached, the guardian phase, level 1-40]
[This third evolution is when any of your soldiers gain the ability to speak, and since Quincy can speak, that means that she was atleast qualified to be a guardian level dark soldier, but it could be more]
"Is there more of the grading?"
[Yes, after the guardian, we have the army of darkness commander level 1-50, at this point a thousand dark armies can be assigned to any dark soldier that has reached this level, then the army of darkness lord, level 1-50, at this point four thousand dark soldiers can be assigned to anyone at this point and final evolution the sword, this phase as no level and is the final one, at this point, the dark soldier as gained seven hundred times the strength they had when they were alive and they can be left to command, a total of ten thousand armies, commanders and Lords included, if there are multiple swords, The best of them could even be your second in command]
Karl was amazed, "looks like I have a long way to go"
[Bet you do]
[So don't think you've done it because you barely managed to call forth a Knight level dark soldier]
"I don't get why he's staring hard at me though" Karl looked at the dark drake, "Hey you, bring you head down before I do it for you"
The dark drake raised it head up and pushed it chest out.
"Haha" Karl cracked his knuckles, "this reminds me of the good old days, someone needs a discipline again" He said as he got closer to the dark drake.
When he was done, the drake was on its knee, with its hands in the air and eyes closed, just then Quincy and Nightkiller landed and began to offload body of drakes that they killed.
"Quincy, what is this for?" Karl asked.
"My lord, I thought you would require more soldiers, so I brought them for thine"
'...she's thoughtful, is this the ability of a supposedly guardian level soldier' Karl rubbed his chin as he thought, his eyes then glowed and without even saying the skill, the Darkness spread and they began to come out.
[Impressive]
[You are becoming the darkness yourself]
[I didn't think it was time to get into that phase of my teaching for you]
[You proved me wrong]
Karl smiled, "Well... you can say that again, let's leave the rest of the mobs for them and just go for the boss" Karl said as he climbed Kura and its immediately spread it large wings, with much admiration and determination in its eyes, it flew deeper into the forest but on a higher steep, the rest also followed.