Turning point

Finally, Arim managed to stab the rank-E crow-like monster into the back as it was trapped in a strong net. The group managed to find the monster core on the Engineer’s list. These creatures were completely the opposite of what they could imagine; these creatures feared them even though they had a strong muscular build and when Arim’s group approached close to them, they all ran with amazing speed. It took Arim’s group a day to set up traps on how to capture them under Madam Ava’s guidance. 

Arim pulled the shiny core out from the monster and carefully put inside his pouch on his side that was attached to his belt. That was Arim’s first monster core while the rest of the group; all got two cores since Arim was mostly assisting them instead of charging forward.

The guide, Madam Ava was pleased that they finally got enough and decided to move on to their next spot. “According to the information I got, there will be a patch of Jelly Flower growing here”, as she pointed on a map where her servant had lay on the ground floor. Arim managed to squeeze in as the group gathered around the guide. “Just be careful where to step as some area could be a sinkhole and it would be very difficult to get out. Best to use the tree branches around us, they are strong enough to hold our body weight and able to avoid any sinkhole. Remember, land on top of the Jelly Flower”

The group had no difficulty reaching their next destination as the guide and her servant were able to clear the path for the rest of the group. It clearly showed that they could have the power of rank-D monsters, killing the strange creatures without any problem. It wasn’t long until they saw the patch as they saw that the patch of Jelly Flower was nearly the same height as the trees in the jungle. The green petals were all transparent and even the stem with the same color but the pistil was solid yellow, and the tip of the stigma were attached with something shiny. The guide finally stopped as the rest followed.

“That’s the flower and those shiny things are the cores. Now listen carefully; you can only pluck no more than ten cores of each flower, otherwise they will attack back. Now pair up in a group of two, and each person must only grab five cores and return to me. Understood?” Madam Ava instructed as the two servants stood behind her, “We will keep a watch to ensure your safety, now go!”

A hand patted on Arim’s shoulder, and he looked back and saw Sir-k, the woman who meant to be an elephant-like Beast-folk. “Can I join you?”, she asked in a weak voice as she was feeling unwell after the loss of her friend and was always staying at the back of the group close to Arim. “Of course.”, Arim could only reply as he pointed at the flower, “We will go for that one then”

Arim and Sir-k jumped simultaneously and landed without ease. Arim smiled at Sir-k, assuring her that everything was fine as he began to pluck the core. Each core was covered in a sticky substance, and it was not easy to pull off, and it took a longer time than they could imagine separating the core from the stigma. Arim carefully used his blade to find a gap and cut the connection and with that precise technique, he finally plucked the last one. Then he heard a horrible scream, not far from him when he realized it was Sir-k crying for her life. As Arim approached Sir-k's side, he saw that Sir-k was entangled by black ropes around her body, and as Arim goes closer to help her, the ropes were thick threads, and a giant Black Worm was on the flower petal with them.

“How did that thing get here?” Arim questioned himself as he rushed towards the worm and slashed with his blade. The worm squirmed as it pulled the organic thread, tightened Sir-k’s body, and she screamed even louder. Arim halted, trying to figure out a way to free Sir-k before Lady Ava and her servants landed beside Arim.

“I told you not to take more than five each”, her eyes locked onto the wiggling black worm as Sir-k’s skin was getting cut and she was bleeding fast. “Please help me!” cried Sir-k when she thought she was going to be saved by the guide and her servants. Just then, one of the servants appeared close to Sir-k and pulled the pouch that belonged to her. “No! Don’t leave me here. Please!” Sir-k pleaded again, reaching out to grab the servant, but the Black Worm yanked Sir-k closer to it. Arim wanted to rush in again, but the other servant placed a hand on his shoulder, and Arim was unable to move a single inch. The pressure was so strong that Arim dropped both his knees and watched as the Black Worm slowly pulled back and dropped downwards, dragging Sir-k’s life-less body.

The servant with Sir-k’s pouch dropped it in front of Arim, “You will carry this for now on” Arim angrily looked up at the servant and asked, “Why didn’t you save her? How could you leave our own people to die like that?” The servant looked at Arim but remained silent.

“Eisse-J, return to your post”, Lady Ava told Eisse-J as she walked up to Arim and with her hand, she slapped across his face “My authority is absolute and you must obey otherwise I could easily feed you to the worms just like your friend there. Now get up and grab that pouch and worry about yourself for now on” The servant behind Arim released his grip and slowly followed Eisse-J direction. Arim got up and followed back to the post as he was told. The other four collared Beast-folks had returned from the gathering and when they saw the guide, they ran up to her.

One of them said, “Madam Ava! There’s a strange rune beside those flowers and it seemed like it’s active because there is a small humming noise coming from the rune. Is it safe?”, the bare-chested man cross-folded his arms looking at the guide’s reaction. The man with long shoulder-lengthen curly brown hair was covered with many scars, standing much taller than the two servants and probably the strongest Beast-folk of the whole group. Even though he changed to a human, he was still physically strong and agile amongst the group, and he even carried his own hand-made hand-axe made of sapphire colour blade with a grey and a bear-like carving at the bottom of the handle. “I heard stories that these could be portals that enable us to travel to far distant places but until this day, nobody could figure out how. Even the smartest people in Central Plain had no idea how to make it work. But now, this rune is active mysteriously, and in my opinion, it would be wise to leave it alone”

“Ah, Eoz, are you getting cold feet?” Madam Ava chuckled with a smile, “Is this not the best opportunity to explore a whole new area where we can find stronger cores to advance our power? It’s even a great opportunity for my servants to flex their strength since they are already bored with these low-level monsters in this jungle. Am I right boys?”, she turned at Eisse-J and Anaid as they both nod in unison.

Madam Ava quickly looked at Eoz with a wide smile, “Now, show me that rune.”

Eoz remained silent and followed Madam Ava’s command as he, too, gave a nod and leaped away to a Jelly Flower. The group quickly followed Eoz and not too long; they arrived at the front of the portal rune. The ground around the portal rune was solid, and if it wasn’t for the humming noise coming from it, Eoz would not have spotted the portal rune as it was well hidden.

Arim’s group were all amazed at what they were witnessing, a grand majestic stone-work, glowing unreadable symbols at the edge of the stone frame as the gateway was covered in a waving liquid making watering wavy sound. The liquid was like a melted steel color, constantly moving as the surrounding of the portal was covered in moss and short grass. The base of the portal was surprisingly made of metal when Madam Ava walked closer, and her metal heels clinked with the metal ground. “Interesting”, she muttered to herself as her hands tracked around the frame of the stone-work. She took a few minutes observing the grand discovery of an active portal before she turned around and looked at the group who were still in awe.

“Anaid, you take the lead”, Madam Ava shouted out as Anaid walked up, “The rest of you continued to stay in your respective pairs”, then she gave a sharp look at Eisse-J who was standing beside Arim. “You stay close to him as the rearguard”. Eisse-J walked closer to Arim as he gently pushed Arim to start walking.

Madam Ava took out a small capsule from her leather-skin jacket and broke it with her bare hand. For the first time, they witnessed another fascinating thing Arim’s group had never seen. A small puff of cloud surrounded Madam Ava’s hand and suddenly a steel claymore appeared as it grew into its original size. The capsule was another invention by the Engineer, an easy way to store large objects but could only be limited to one object per capsule and living objects would not work. But strangely enough, cores from plants and monsters also cannot be stored inside, and the Engineer had little break through on solving the problem. But never-the-less, the capsule was great for the humans of the Holy-Land to carry a giant weapon like the claymore easily and continued with their daily routine.  

At the same moment as Madam Ava, Anaid also took out two capsules from his long jacket and a moment later, a pair of gloves with steel blades appeared in both his hands. Arim looked back at Eisse-J, as he too took out a capsule, and a steel staff weapon appeared in his hand. Arim quietly pulled out his blade, ready to guard himself and knowing very well that they could be facing a very dangerous environment on the other side of the portal. The rest of the group also pulled out their weapons to be on guard as they slowly walked up to the portal.

“Let’s go!” Madam Ava smiled with excitement as Anaid walked into the portal.

Arim and Eisse-J were the last people in the group entering the portal and immediately they stepped foot on unfamiliar land; they heard the screaming of pain, and a strong smell of monsters' blood covered their nostrils. Arim’s eyes widened as he saw many cat-like monsters devouring a dead corpse. On his left he could see Madam Ava fighting back, with an arm already missing, and Anaid was by her side. But he was struggling to fight three monsters at the same time. On the far right, Eoz, the strongest collared Beast-Folks was defending himself against a pack of monsters, but he too was covered in blood with many deep cuts. The rest of the group were all screaming in fear, trying to run back in the direction of the active portal. However, those cat-like monsters cut them off.

“Run!”

Arim heard the word and from the corner of his eye, he saw a monster jumping towards Eisse-J. As he turned to look, Eisse-J’s head got bitten off. From that split second, Arim knew that death wait for them all and he froze like a statue. The crunching of bones and the gnawing, the monster was making made Arim feel sick and fear tingling in his spine.

The monster looked in Arim’s direction and slowly walked up to Arim. Suddenly a voice unfamiliar to Arim bellow at him.

“SWALLOW THIS QUICKLY IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!”

Arim could see a shiny orange coloured core flying towards him and easily caught the core with his hand. Without thinking, Arim swallowed the core just as the cat-like monster jumped at him. But before the monster could bit off Arim’s head like the creature did to Eisse-J, Arim could feel his Beast-Folks powers returning and dodged the crucial moment, escaping a mere death. With the blade still in his hand, he slashed the monster’s flank side, but the blade shattered. But with swift movement, Arim rotated his body and immediately used his other hand and fist punch the monster’s face. The monster took the impact and was sent flying away from Arim and laid dead on the floor. Without wasting more time, he looked at the direction where the core came from and saw an old man and a young girl around his age hiding behind a large boulder.

“THANK YOU, KIND SIR” Arim bellowed back before he noticed he was surrounded by five of those cat-like monsters. Arim immediately pulled out the Dragon Ring that his father had left inside his trouser pocket shortly after they were on the wagon. He never thought he would need it until this moment, surrounded by unknown monsters to him. After slipping the ring onto his finger, the Dragon Shield was manifested into Arim’s hand, very similar to the capsule’s mechanism. Arim was able to hold his ground, blocking and parrying blows of claw strikes and mouth biting with the Dragon Shield. But as time kept dragging, Arim was slowly getting tired and finally gave an opening gap for a monster to jump on him.

Just in the split moment, the monster was killed by the old man as the girl began slashing and kicking the rest of the monster. Arim was amazed at the girl’s power as he collapsed with exhaustion. Arim could feel somebody was carrying him before he finally lost conscience.