Glare

The invisible creature turned fully visible for the two to see, allowing them what the creature looked like when it wasn't a mangled mess.

It had light blue skin that seemed to merge with the water and made it hard to see it clearly. Felix had guessed right earlier about its humanoid form, as it had two arms and two legs. Its proportions were a bit off compared to a human though as it stood only at half a meter while its limbs were the same size as a human's.

It almost looked like a blue baby with an adult's limbs. A bit creepy.

It had two large eyes that took more than half of the space of its face. However, its big, moist eyes made it look less threatening, and almost harmless.

[Ausafàr, Level 51, Elite]

Standing on its feet and its arms hanging onto its sides, looking too heavy for it to lift them, the Ausafàr pleaded, "Please! I come in peace!"

Its eyes were glued on the large sword right above it, fear etched on its face.

Not moving his weapon, Drakon spoke with a dangerous voice, "You are being very sneaky for someone coming in peace. And so was your little friend."

The Ausafàr's eyes turned to the dead one's body, the fear in its big, oval eyes increasing. Still, it managed to reply, "W-we were f-f-forced. Please!"

Drakon glanced at Felix, and seeing his eyes, he took his sword back, making the Ausafàr sigh in relief. Getting closer to it, Felix commanded, "Speak."

Taking a step back, the Ausafàr relaxed ever so slightly as it said, "We did not want to kill other creatures. But we had no choice, or we would have been eaten!"

Taking note that the Ausafàr had said 'creatures' and not 'humans', he asked, "By what?"

The Ausafàr visibly gulped as it replied, "How to say in your language… the devourer?"

Felix and Drakon once again looked at each other, as they caught onto the same thing. Whatever it was, this devourer sounded like a boss, and a boss either had juicy loot, or was related to something interesting.

For example, the corpse of the Lesser Demon Yusax. Felix had taken it to the Alchemist's Guild before leaving the city the night before, and he had managed to sell the corpse for a whole 50 Gold. That was quite the sum of money for his level, as before that all he had were 9 Silvers.

100 Coppers being worth 1 Silver and 100 Silvers being worth 1 Gold, the value of Gold Coins was quite high.

However, while interested, Felix did not blindly trust the creature. For all he knew, after failing to kill them, it was now trying to lure them towards the rest of its kin to finish them off.

So Felix did not ask it more about the monster, but instead questioned it on the reason they came here for.

"Do you know where the Rainbow Lotus is?"

The Ausafàr reacted to the mention of the plant, flinching as it heard about it. As it did not immediately reply, both Felix's and Drakon's eyes bore into it, making it tense up.

"Yes! We will give you everything!"

Hearing the creature, Felix narrowed his eyes at it, and asked, "Alright, before we go, what do you know about the area?"

The question seemed to take the Ausafàr aback as it lagged for a moment, before declaring loudly, "There are multiple human villages around, as well as a city, led by strong humans! Humans so strong they can destroy forests and crush mountains!"

Felix snorted in response, before suddenly attacking. The Ausafàr only had the time to widen its eyes before Skera pierced through the space between its eyes.

It dropped like a puppet whose strings were cut, probably confused as to why it died until its last moments.

Dismissing the kill notification, Felix looked at Drakon, who said, "It was clearly trying to butter us up, but it could have been out of desperation."

Shaking his head, Felix explained, "I didn't kill it because of that. Yes, it was overly agreeable to us, but that could have been out of fear, and it wanted us to help its people. The reason I killed it is because it spoke of Fìrma."

Drakon seemed to realize it too as he uttered, "Humans who can destroy forests and crush mountains, huh. Why would they kill every human if they knew such powerful humans were nearby."

Felix nodded, "I don't know for sure whether its story is true or not, as there might always be the possibility of whatever that devourer is watching us right now, and it knew that asking us to return to the city and bring back reinforcement would have angered the devourer, but chances are, this is a trap."

Looking at the mangled corpse, Drakon pointed out, "Yeah, it didn't even look upset about this one's death. That doesn't scream selfless to me. Although maybe the difference in Tier translates to a difference in social status in their community?"

Shrugging, Felix said, "I don't know, but it was awfully weak for a Level 51. Isn't there supposed to be a big jump in strength when one reaches Tier 1?"

"Or maybe their stats are even more skewed than we thought. Maybe that it would have been able to kill either of us with a single attack, but it never got to attack."

Felix nodded, and asked, "Doesn't matter anyway. What do you want to do? I doubt we will be able to fight very well underwater. Should we circle around the lake then, and try to find a trace of that Rainbow Lotus?"

Drakon asked back, "Are you confident of sensing them all?"

"I am. Their skill is quite interesting, as it uses their surroundings to hide themselves. They cover their skin with a faint layer of Mana, which emits a signature that is very close to the Mana from their surroundings. That's why I couldn't sense them in the beginning. Actually, that's probably an Innate Skill considering their rather horrendous skill at Mana Manipulation…"

"Okay, stop it nerd. Yes would have been enough."

Felix scoffed, "Yes, smash big sword, me stronger."

Drakon rolled his eyes, "How old are you? 5?"

"You are under the protection of a 5 year old then. Now, follow me, my squire, for we have a monster to slay, and a MacGuffin to fetch! Onward!"

Drakon looked at Felix, who walked past him, speechlessly, before shaking his head, following him.

Whether it was because the Ausafàr Tribe in the Lake only sent a couple of their people for every intruder or if they had been scared off, Felix and Drakon did not face any more attack as they circled the lake.

Whatever animals had used the lake had probably been scared off by the mysterious attacks from the Ausafàr too, which would explain why they did not see any of them either.

The lake certainly was beautiful, but after an hour spent walking all the way around it, only to end up back to their starting point, not a hint of a lotus spotted anywhere on the lake.

Feeling like he had lost an hour of his lifespan, Felix strongly kicked a rock into the water, groaning, "Shitty Quest."

Behind him, Drakon only complained, "How can you stand that glare?!"

Now in a bad mood, Felix turned to Drakon, who had kept complaining about the sun's glare reflected on the water.

"Will you stop being such a baby about it? Hell, you even complained about it when we were on the other end of the lake! The sun can't shine 360!"

Drakon looked angry too, but as he was about to say something, he suddenly paused, before putting his hand down. Looking at the lake in confusion, he muttered, "It's not doing it anymore…"

"What? Are you kidding…"

His words fizzled out of his mouth as he realized his anger was quickly fading away. A frown now etched onto his face, Felix now felt there was something wrong going on.

But before he could think on it, he suddenly heard a loud splashing sound from behind him. Looking over his shoulder, Felix paled as he spotted a gigantic figure rise out of the water.

[The Devourer, Level ?, Overlord]

A giant snake was standing above the water, the part they could see easily ten meters tall. It was thick enough that it would take several men joining hands to measure its circumference, and its body was covered in greenish scales.

Its head looked more draconic than serpentine though, with two large horns in front of its head, a long maw filled with teeth each bigger than Felix's arms, and a pair of deep blue eyes filled with endless hatred.

But there was something more to it. Something unintelligible, something that the two players could feel but not see. A primal fear which seemed to stem from deep within, an old survival instinct that told them they stood before a certain death.

A fear so deeply rooted and so intense it forced them to freeze up, unable to do anything but to wait for death.

The Devourer's opened wide as it released a deafening roar, bringing a pressure on Felix's shoulders that made him feel like a giant was standing on his shoulders. But that wasn't all, as with the roar, the water seemed to come to life as it started floating up.

Several spears of water formed in the air, each more than four meters long, and all aimed at the two players. Struggling to turn his head, Felix noticed Drakon was in an even worse condition, stuck staring at the dragon with wide opened eyes.

Knowing that if they did not dodge, they would get skewered by the attack, it took Felix all his willpower to move his Mana under the pressure, and form a Runic Spell between them.

'First Circle: Gravity Well'

The water spears were fired so fast that they blurred out of his vision, yet they still missed as Felix was forcefully dragged to the left, towards the spell.

Drakon, who couldn't offer any resistance even if he wanted to, was also dragged to the side, allowing the two of them to dodge the attack.

Stumbling on the ground because of the sudden pull, Felix felt the suppression lessen ever so slightly as moving his body and his Mana became easier.

Facing him was an Overlord Rank monster that was at least Tier 1, so logically, there was no way for him to survive, and just as his body was screaming at him, resistance was futile.

But even as the pressure weighed down on his mind, befuddling it, Felix felt he was missing something.

On the other hand, the Devourer seemed enraged at the fact it had missed, as several more water spears appeared around it.

Earlier, the attack had been telegraphed, but the monster seemed to no longer be in the mood to play with its food as Felix utterly failed to see the attack coming.

However, at the last possible moment, his Mana Sense picked up something, and a single Rune appeared on his left, pushing him to the side.

The last moment dodge was unfortunately not enough as Felix felt immense pain, as well as a sudden loss in weight.

The spiritual and physical pressure forcing his mouth shut, Felix could not even cry in pain as he looked down, and saw his left arm on the ground.

Thankfully, the adrenaline pumping through his veins somewhat lowered the pain, and also cleared his mind. That attack had barely grazed his shoulder, and his entire arm had been severed.

One more hit, and he would die.

Yet, even now, under these circumstances, deep within his own mind, Felix still felt there was something wrong.