Welcome to Oasis

They rode for several days, resting at intervals. As the carriage that the elf king gave them did not have horses but instead used ether stones to power it, they only stopped to replenish the stones making the journey faster than if it were horses or even dracohorses. Along the way, Daren kept killing anything and everything swiftly trying to hone his assassin skills. Licht also let the girls have some combat experience outside sparring. Luna transformed into a two-meter blue werewolf with orange pupils with blazing orange tips on its furry tail while Solana was a two meters orange were-lion with blue pupils and its fur had frosted white tips. They mostly fought with their claws and bites as they barely used their ether attributes and when they used it, it was too powerful to be contained.

During a battle against a peak basic green-ranked beast, Daren and the twins fought together to defeat it. The twins used their ether attributes to attack. Their bodies were lit up with their various attributes. Luna's body was blazing like flames while Solana's body had icicles falling off her fur. The beast was frozen and scorched at the same time. Daren who had been attacking previously was dumbfounded at the power the twins released. He would have been caught up in the attack too if he did not jump into a shadow in time.

Midas and Regallas were a bit taken aback by the sudden increase in power after they collided while Licht had a thoughtful look on his face.

After that day, Licht started mentoring them on how to control the strength added and whatnot. They managed to actually learn to limit the power and even learn new techniques. Now in combat, they were faster and even stronger. Daren adapted the sneaky assassin role, striking weak points and retreating, slowing down the monster with his poison while the maids were actual heavy-hitting damage dealers. They attacked the beasts head-on with their increased strength and speedy reflexes.

After three weeks of traveling by carriage, they finally arrived at the town. This was actually faster than if they had used horses. The entire atmosphere of the town was very eerie. There was a black fog that surrounded the town from the outside. There was also whispering coming in from the fog.

Midas stopped and said "So many corrupt souls. I can hear them wailing and begging me to take revenge for them."

Midas took a deep breath and a howl of wind started to howl around them. Blobs of deformed souls were absorbed into Midas's own. He kept them within his and a cocoon was slowly being formed. After a minute, the cocoon was finally formed.

"Master, this town is worse than it was portrayed by the elf matriarch. The souls of the fallen speak of the vile acts that go on in this town. I want nothing more now than to destroy such a place" Midas had a scowl on his face as he was extremely livid.

Licht noticed how Midas was and said "Calm down Midas. We would have a look around and if it is as you say then we can go wild"

Regallas had never seen Midas angry but he made a silent oath in his head to never piss off Midas. They continued onwards till they finally reached the gate of the town. The name above the gate read "Welcome to Oasis" and on the walls hung some bones and rotting bodies, some were of naked women while others were of men who were without hands. Regallas frowned as this type of execution was very barbaric to him.

"Before you enter you need to pay one mid-rank ether stone." An ugly human guard said. Ether stones could also be used as currency but it was not generalized as it was also used for cultivation. Only really wealthy people or people in need of more resources will use them for cultivation.

"That is a bit much, don't you think?" Luna said

"Pay it or scram," The guard said

Midas brought out a bag and gave it to the guard "You can use it to enjoy your last hours"

Licht walked in while the others followed. The carriage was already placed within Regallas space ring so they could walk around the town easily.

"We are all going to split up. Let's see how bad the town really is." Licht said

Midas nodded and then went in one direction while Daren in his shadow went in another. Regallas walked off separately while the twins went together. Licht floated up as he felt really strange auras in the center of the town. He flew in that direction as he was also using his senses to check around the town.

Midas was currently riding his manticore. He had seen and felt thousands of souls within the town but he chose not to absorb them yet, he also summoned several hundreds of his bandits to go scouting around. Daren scouted in several people's shadows and so far, he did not find a reason to keep these people alive. He had saved a woman who was about to be raped in an alley, only for that woman to enter a different alley to rob another person who then killed her and went on to gamble what he had stolen. Daren felt his head spinning as the events kept escalating.

Meanwhile, Regallas and the twins had it worse as Regallas walked through the city rather swiftly but he was almost robbed and molested by several men as they catcalled him and even tried to touch him. The twins went through the same thing except that they deliberately went into an alley where they ran into over ten men that wanted to rape them. They swiftly disposed of the men and continued in their searching.

Licht got to the center of the town and felt a dark malicious aura emanating from the hall in front of him. He felt at least five people inside there with the same aura of the red rank which meant that if Priscilla had actually chosen to face the "old man" when she came to save the twins, she would have been killed. Licht found it confusing why these people stayed in such a small town rather than staying in a kingdom where they would have a lot more than a small town of miscreants but he chose to return as he would find out soon enough.

They all got back to where they departed after a couple of hours.