Red Mantis

The enemy beast moved at an amazing speed towards Alex's location and by the time they both managed to see each other over the near distance, the beast was met with a wall of fire on her face, but her powerful blades allowed her to divide the wall in two and be able to move forward without burning.

Alex showed a smile at what happened, he did not expect much of the spell, but he had prepared his own claws and blades for the melee.

He had already observed how the magic at a distance became ineffective in front of the red Mantis, which manages to destroy the spells by interfering with its mana attached to the blades within the attacks in order to disable them and not suffer damage, that made the Mantis Red became a complicated enemy for magical beasts who depended totally on their magic to face their enemies.

Maybe the Mantis adapted or evolved to hunt those beasts, Alex doesn't know but he was interested in facing a red mantis and luckily this monster usually moves alone and not in packs unless it is a red Mantis [Queen] that would be with their children while they hunt, the difference between a normal red mantis and a queen would be its wings and size, while a normal red mantis is smaller than a queen, its wings remain white while those of the queen become pink.

These were details that Alex observed in order to find his objective and not have to face a dangerous situation.

These details led him to face this red mantis that is a little bigger than the others, but its wings are not pink, meaning that it is in a transition, it is stronger than a normal red mantis but not more than a queen, but neither same.

The red mantis was placed very close to Alex and with a swift movement she made a stab with one of her arms-spears towards Alex with the intention of stabbing his head, but Alex's strong instinct made him react with time by placing another spear of darkness on the road with which, he deflected the attack and responded with another stabbed to the torso of the mantis, but the latter also easily deflected Alex's attack.

The mantis looked like an opportunity to see how Alex was busy with her two lower arms while she still has her main weapons-free.

But when she was about to make her attack on Alex, he launched himself at her while a small sense of danger emanated from Alex.

*Ting!*

The mantis defended herself by crossing her blades in front of her torso with barely able to stop Alex's attack.

Alex's attack was a simple one, using his skill on mantis torso to divide her in two, but his attack was blocked by the mantis at the right time or else he would have split it in two.

But the match did not stop there as the mantis and Alex continued to attack each other with their spears and blades or claws.

The combat was extended to a couple of hours in which the mantis only became more acute with its attacks when attacking any opening of Alex, but they were ineffective by Alex's instinct and his high agility as flexibility.

Alex literally became the nemesis of the mantis, but the combat only lengthened because Alex was receiving notifications from the system, which notified him that he had learned the skill [Master in Spears D] and the mantis became a good teacher for the skill development.

Although he also used blades, his way of using it was more like the tip of a spear, which made him have a fourfold increase in the new ability to "Train" with the Mantis.

If the mantis knew all this it will die of a heart attack, but that will not happen since Alex was responsible for killing her when the sun began to hide.

Alex made two attacks on the torso of the mantis, but that was only a feint since that he made the mantis show an opening which Alex exploded by using reinforcement to increase his speed and be able to separate the head from the body of the mantis, but he didn't stop there, he quickly used his [Cut] ability to shatter the mantis' body before it became a killing machine for losing her head.

For some reason the red mantis have an actuator in their body that only activates when they are decapitated, thus activating the actuator and entering a berserker-mode in which all the mantis statistics increase and make they an almost perfect killing machine, but there is also a defect with that actuator and it is that it paralyzes the body for an average of two seconds in which the body gets used to the changes or is the time it takes to activate the actuator.

Alex doesn't know that, but he used those two seconds to shatter the mantis body.

"Mmm~ Nya!" Alex stretched his body to try to relieve tension from his body.

But while Alex relaxes, his aura expands throughout his new territory while he also manages to expand a little by impacting with other auras of other beasts that tried to expand their territories, but by coming into contact with Alex's aura and feeling the danger that he is, since he doesn't diminish his aura to make him appear weaker this time.

That made those beasts give a little of their territory for the fear they felt towards Alex, but this little, Alex ignored it and simply expanded his territory.

<More territory... more space where I am not disturbed> That was Alex's reasoning when it came to getting and enlarging his territory, apart from being able to get one or another SP.

<Maybe I have to face another mantis to improve my new ability> *Pat!*x2

Alex slapped his cheeks with his paws to arouse his excitement for his new ability.

<Priorities... Alex... you have priorities before a new skill ... retrieve the collar, get out of this damn dungeon, split the butt in two of the bastard, dominate my magic... I think I'll focus on the latter> Alex told his priorities with his paw while remembering other purposes he has to distract his mind and not think about things that he doesn't want to think or reason.

<I think, I should at least understand my second element... by instinct I understood that I could control the darkness as a mass... although I can't find logic in that... What is darkness?> Alex scratched his chin thoughtfully while he tried to understand his second element.

After a few hours of turning his thoughts, Alex managed to remember information he knew from the dark.

<The black color is the result of absorbing all sources of light and not reflecting anything and that is only black and not darkness, so is dark matter what I control? Can I create black holes? Can I store or absorb things within this darkness? How do debuffs work with darkness?> Alex was moved by the possibilities he discovered of his second element, which he never paid attention to before because of not having time for that.

Wanting to prove his theory, Alex began to play with his magic as he tried to reach the limits of his discoveries.

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While Alex suffers his own problems, another special event happens.

X107 17 of the 4th Month [Five days after the awakening of the heroes] in Staraktus kingdom in the city Roselfert there was a great stir inside the headquarters of the Adventurer's Guild because of the arrival of the hero.

"Welcome young hero, my name is Silvia VonTreko, I am the president of the Adventurer's Guild and as such I welcome you and I hope you achieve great things" The beautiful president welcomed the Hero while maintaining a firm and elegant position.

The young hero was amazed at the beauty of the president and her exotic purple hair as well as her elegant one-piece dress that highlights her graceful figure.

Although he was not only the only one affected by his beauty, many adventurers with years at the headquarters, still marveling at their appearance and many of them do not leave the city for the opportunity to get her hand in marriage.

The young man's strong will made him endure the temptation to flatter foolishly the woman in front of him but it did not prevent him from showing his silly face when he was amazed by her.

"Nice to meet you... my name is Riak, the Hero of the Staraktus Kingdom" The boy bowed a little in a natural way as a sign of respect for the noble title and position within the guild that Silvia has.

"As you came to my headquarters, I am honored to introduce you to the world of the Adventurers, let me guide you" Silvia indicated the way as she guides the Hero through the guild's facilities to be able to take two Evaluation Exams, although only one is necessary.

They are two exams because a hero is out of the average and his rank as an adventurer could not represent him and for that reason, he is made another test where they classify his strength or utility if he is a support type.

In the end, Riak obtained his F-rank identification card as a rookie Adventurer, but Rank C as a long-distance combatant, all that information is written down on his card, but, although he has the rank C as a combatant, it does not make him suitable for mission rank greater than D for the simple fact that his rank as an adventurer judges his ability to complete missions and knowledge for exploration, map reading, signal tracking, and others necessary knowledge.

Riak was the second hero with great freedom in making his decisions and this was the first thing he decided to do now with his unlocked class.