32 Ghoul Leader

Taking her money and leaving the Castle, Alice walked around the kingdom going from shop to shop looking for possible things she may need or want. While walking through the stalls buying some potions and better camping gear Alice ran into Eric. "Hey Alice it is good to see that you're okay we have all been worried about you after the whole Demon thing. What are you doing out here anyways? " Eric said while putting away some of the items he had just purchased.

"I am fine now, currently I am buying more equipment and items for our next adventure, " Alice said with a smile happy to see Eric again. "That's great news! Our next dungeon will happen in a few days if you want I can help you do some Guild requests and level up. " Eric offered wanting to help her out still feeling bad for Alice.

"I think I will go do some requests on my own to try and level, I need to push myself if i want to get stronger. Thank you though I really appreciate it! " Alice said waving as she headed to the Guild to see what requests she could pick up before heading to the Estate to get Little Shadow.

Walking into the Guild, Alice noticed that the Guild was pretty empty so she walked up the request board and started to read off the ones that are in her rank.

Request - Kill Wild Boar King and return with tusks

Request - Collect 5 Red Serpent Vines

Request - Kill or Capture Bandit Brothers (Higher Reward if captured alive.)

Request - Kill Ghouls near Jakar's Grave Yard

Request - Kill 10 Kappa (Green goblin like creatures with webbed feet often found near the river)

Looking over the requests she could take Alice settled with taking the Red Serpent Vines, Killing the Ghouls, and lastly capturing the brothers. With her requests processed and approved Alice headed back to the Estate to pick Little Shadow up so they could both start leveling up more.

"Ready to go have some fun mister house cat? " Alice said petting Shadow who was sleeping on her bed comfortably. 'Yes, it is about time we headed out just the two of us again, ' Little Shadow said while hopping off the bed and following Alice as she closed her door after him.

Leaving the Kingdom gates Alice and Shadow started to run toward's the forest to find the Red Serpent Vines. Making their way slowly though the forest enjoying the summer weather the two would occasionally fight off the monsters that would make their way to them. Alice would work on using her 'Wind Blade' attack to get some more practice that way she would have a easier time learning other Wind Element spells. Due to her high INT value she was able to deal quite a bit of damage with each attack.

Getting deeper into the forest Alice looked around finally spotting Red Vines and carefully made her way to harvest them not knowing what kind of danger would be around them. Reaching her hand out to grab onto the Vine closest to her Alice jumped back instantly as a Red Serpent blending in with the Vines launched an attack at her.

Sending a few 'Wind Blades' at the Serpent she managed to kill and cut down a few of the Vines getting just enough to finish the Request. "Well that was relatively easy, " Alice said to Shadow as she stored the Vines away and took what materials she could from the Serpent.

'We should make our way to the Gave site, we would just be wasting time on something so easy for now, ' Shadow pointed out as Alice brought out the Request paper to find the location of the Grave site.

Request - Kill Ghouls near Jakar's Grave Yard

Jakar has been having issues with Ghouls destroying Grave Headstones and digging up the graves, he requests an adventure come to his grave West of the Kingdom to get rid of the monsters. Once the adventure has completed the Request they should receive proper paperwork from Jakar to turn into the Guild.

"Looks like we need to head to the West to get to the Grave Yard, " Alice said as the two headed in that direction.

| Special Timed Quest |

| Level up to 17 within two hours |

| Reward - ??? |

| Failure - Lose a random skill |

Stopping as soon as she saw the quest window appear Alice couldn't help but be more fascinated with the system, it had been so long since she had actually gotten a quest from it and now the system wanted her to level up within two hours. To top it off the reward for the system quest was just a bunch of question marks. Even worse she would lose a skill if she failed to level up in two hours.

"Well looks like we need to hurry Little Shadow, I have a time limit that I cannot afford to go over. " Alice said while picking up her pace and running at full speed to the Grave Yard. Making good time Alice managed to reach Jakar's Grave Yard in twenty minutes.

| Time Remaining 1:39:36 |

"I have just under a hour and forty minutes to get this done lets get started, go scout for the Ghouls and tell me if you find me. I will go scout the other side and let you know if i find any of them. " Alice said to Little Shadow as she ran to the left of the Grave Yard.

It didn't take long before Alice was met with the sight of tall grey and smelly creatures eating some of the corpses they had drug from some of the graves. Taking out her scythe Alice let out a few 'Wind Blades' and followed up those attacks by using her scythe infused with the Fire Element to behead the Ghouls almost instantly not giving them a chance to react.

Unfortunately for Alice she had failed to realize there was a Ghoul near a tree behind her, feeling a sharp pain on her back Alice took a knee and sunk into the shadows while reappearing by a tree further away. Putting a hand on her lower back Alice felt a cut and blood covered her hand, pulling out a HP potion from her inventory she quickly drank the bitter potion and launched herself at the Ghoul sinking her blade in the Ghouls chest.

Not able to pull the blade from its chest Alice put a hand up and lunched a 'Fireball' at the face of the Ghoul giving her time to infuse the Shadow Element into the scythe pulling it free. Recovering from the attack the Ghoul ran at Alice swinging wildly, dodging his attacks Alice infused the Wind Element into her scythe letting out a devastating attack causing the Ghouls head to fly off its shoulder deep into the forest.

Not able to check her wound again Little Shadow called out for help while he was being chased down by four Ghouls. Running as fast as she could to aid her familiar Alice jumped high into the air pushing herself further with help of the Wind Element she reached Shadow quickly and landed on top of the shoulder of on of the Ghouls putting both hands on his head she created 'Fireballs' causing the Ghouls head to heat up and explode.

Moving to the next Ghoul, Alice cut the legs off of the one right behind Shadow and swung her scythe in a wide circle around her body sending out a massive wind ring cutting the other Ghouls deeply.

Seeing that the Ghouls were almost dead Little Shadow took his opportunity and pounced from Ghoul to Ghoul using his 'Devour' skill finishing them off. 'There is still one more Ghoul, he is much bigger than these guys and looks quite a bit stronger. ' Little Shadow said taking a moment to rest.

"We should go finish him off then I am on a time limit and I currently only have forty-five minutes left before i fail the system quest, " Alice said as she motioned for Little Shadow to hurry and show her the way.

Following behind Little Shadow as they moved quickly in the direction that he saw the Large Ghoul the two stopped just short of a poorly made structure in the shape of a Alter. 'The large Ghoul should be close by ' Little Shadow said as the two of them cautiously looked around.

Seeing Little Shadow land with a thud beside her she didn't have time to ask if he was alright before she sensed someone trying to attack her. Grabbing Little Shadow in her arms and launching herself forward rolling on the ground Alice quickly got back up in time to dodge another attack by the Ghoul.

Jumping into a tree Alice looked at the monster attacking her.

| Ghoul Leader level 18 |

HP 10,000/10,000

MP 100/100

Not having anymore time to think she jumped up high as the Ghoul used his tree trunk of a club to attack the spot she was just standing at. Infusing the Fire Element into her scythe Alice spun her body attempting to deal as much damage as she could only to have her attack blocked by the Ghouls weapon. "Fuck! I don't have time to waste on you, just DIE! " Alice yelled out as she used the Shadow Element to go right through the wood and stab into the Ghouls neck before jumping off of his body landing on the ground gracefully.

Seeing that attack deal a quarter of his HP she decided to keep aiming at his neck to finish things as quickly as she could. Using her 'Rift Warp' skill to get behind the monster and confuse it she turned her body and quickly used her 'Wind Blade' to attack the back of the Ghouls neck dealing a large amount of damage again.

As soon as she was about to attack again she noticed the Ghouls status change.

| Ghoul Leader level 18 (Enraged) |

HP 3,280/10,000

MP 0/100

Letting out a loud yell the skin of the Ghoul changed from a creepy grey to pitch black, letting out another 'Wind Blade' Alice noticed her attack barely did 300 damage to the Ghoul. "Of course you would have to get stronger, " Alice said changing from wind to Fire and sinking her blade into the Ghouls back and yanking it loose.

Letting out another yell the Ghoul turned towards Alice and swung the club wildly at her destroying everything it hit. 'I would probably die if I got hit by that, ' Alice thought as she started launching 'Fireballs' from a distance landing a few hits and watching as the Ghoul hit the others away with ease.

Sinking into the shadow she came back out sitting on a tree limb and decided it was best to send her most lethal attack in hopes of killing it instantly. Raising both hands above her head five glowing red magic circles started to fuse together forming a red ball of fire that only got darker with the more mana she poured into the attack. Waiting until her mana was almost exhausted Alice yelled at the Ghoul and launched her attack.

Turning to face Alice the Ghoul was met with the sight of a giant 'Fireball' inches away from his face before engulfing his body in flames. Sitting on the tree limb panting she watched as the Ghoul struggled as his HP rapidly dropped until he was no longed moving and dropped to the ground with a loud boom.

| Time renaming 0:02:19 |

| Level up |

| Quest complete |

| Reward - Eye of God |

Looking at her reward Alice couldn't help but wonder what in the world the 'Eye of God' would give her ability wise, the quest was so sudden and didn't give her information. Looking over she saw Shadow sitting by a tree laying against it. Jumping down to be near him she checked to see it he was okay.

'I am fine now no need to look so worried, ' Little Shadow said while licking her hand. "Good you still have to keep your promise! " Alice said thankfully while bringing up her status window to check on her reward.