A New Adventure

Two years went by peacefully in the Nolten Village. While the execution of Arkaon was massive across multiple kingdoms, it died down a few months down the line.

After it died down, nothing major ever happened. We had no monster invasions, bandit invasions, or some terrible storm.

Despite the peace, I haven't been completely slacking off and especially not my monsters as well.

Every night, I transform into an Oni to train my Halberd swings. Using thrusts, slashes, and repeating it with one arm and the other. I even use the spinning halberd to swing even harder.

I also find and kill monsters sometimes in the day and night. However, they're nothing compared to the monsters in Dystoark. Regardless, I managed to earn some EP out of it even if it's scraps to begin with.

Now with Hyoran, she's gotten better in controlling her Frostfire Magic thanks to Tuya's and Ezo's teachings. Also, a black-haired Lycanian named Nadia who is Ezo's and Tuya's fellow adventurer came by to this village to teach Hyoran and I about the sword.

I remember in the game Hyoran has a good affinity with swords, but she was able to learn very quickly. Too quickly to be exact that she reached rank S+3 without my intervention. She even increased her magic to Tier XV.

The next day comes and we finally gained our independence and Hyoran went ahead to the guild in Noltia where I went elsewhere. Usually, she'd be hellbent on coming with me, but I heard that she won't be the same little girl.

I can respect that for her trying to be better.

Now, I call Ashley.

"Hey, Ashley?" I said.

"Yeah?" Ashley responded.

"I'm ready. Where you at?" I asked.

"I'm at Telgrin Mountains, I'll be waiting there." Ashley said.

[Transmission ended.]

I used Space Magic to transport myself to the top of the Telgrin Mountains and transformed myself into Oni Warlord and summoned Xydrid.

"I'm here, where you at?" I said, looking around.

*Wooosh!*

"I'm here, finding Xydrid at the peak was easy since he's huge." Ashley swooped in and floats in front of me.

I noticed something different. Ashley's wings and tail gave off a different color. Instead of blue, I see her scales have turned purple and black.

"Ashley, your scales." I said.

"Oh, these? A year back, my status as a Tyrant made me mutate." Ashley said. I also progressed my Dragon Heart to Adult-VII.

I checked her stats and it is true.

<Name: Tyrant Storm Dragon - Za'trika (Ashley Rays)>

<Gender: Female>

<Race: Dragon (Outworlder)>

<Rank: X+8>

<Dragon Heart: Adult-VII>

<Skills: Appraisal, Perception, Lightning Magic-L, Lightning Absorption, Wind Magic-L, Wind Resistance, Water Magic-L, Dark Magic-L Water Nullification, Poison Nullification, Dark Resistance, Valorous, Terror, Hyperspeed Regeneration, Ultra Strength, Hyper Endurance, Extreme Speed>

<Unique Skills: [???], [???], Dragon Inheritance, Humanization, Evolutionist, Dark Storm Breath, Tempest Magic-XXII, Storm Magic-XX, Stratus Magic-XX, Tempest Resistance, Storm Magic-XXIII, Storm Resistance, Dragon Fear, Dragon Ward-XIII, Dragon Scale-XIV, Dragon Pierce-XIII, Tyrant Storm Aura, Common Language, Chantless, Tyrant Spirit, Curse Resistance>

<Ultimate Skills: [???], [???], Hero Slayer>

"You even got Dragon Inheritance." I pointed out.

"Yeah, when I reached Adult-V, Dragon Inheritance came up." Ashley said. "It only activates if Za'taranga, my mother happens to die."

"So, ready to go to Nyctala to find Andre?" I said.

"We gotta find him if we're gonna survive in this world better." Ashley said, flapping her wings.

*Wroosh!*

Xydrid spreads his wings and I jumped on top of his back. Xydrid soon began flapping his massive red wings and ascends above the clouds along with Ashley.

I look down to see everything below us is so small, the trees are grass and the mountains are pebbles compared to where we're standing on the ground.

This world is beautiful which I will admit, but it is also unforgiving where anything could kill me. Like how Solufreya killed me. I may have escaped their clutches, but I won't be so lucky the next time.

"If we keep going in this direction at this rate, we'll be in Nyctala before midday." Ashley said.

In the day time, monsters in Nyctala are the least active. But at night time, they become more dangerous and aggressive than the ones in Dystoark. Also, most monsters there are Undeads, Spirits, or in rare cases, Elementals and Hellkins.

However, it's not complete anarchy. Not for Vampires specifically.

However, going from Felexin to Nyctala is long and even treacherous on horseback. Monsters ranging from F to C and uneven terrain. Flying over it makes things much easier.

But then...I wonder how Andre died. He and Danny are looking over my siblings and it's still dangerous out there.

Even so, I got to get to the bottom of this.

"So, Alden, how's your EP? Last time I saw it, you have like 200 million." Ashley said.

"I spent it all on my Elemental Magic to XCIX." I replied. "I was barely able to scrape up a million after going through the forests and stuff. Even with my beasts helping me."

"You reached the Mortal Limit, huh? You remember the requirements?" Ashley said.

"Yeah, it's gonna be a grind." I sighed.

A grind that can take a long time. Unless it's a high ranking monster, adventurer, or hero, it will be a while.

And for that, I got time.