4 Days later...
Me and Wezrall were on the road. Well, we were already on the road for a whole day - as to not waste any time. When the time came to leave Ordial, the Guildmaster made sure to give me as much information as possible about the city I was going to. He gave me the exact location of the guild in the city, the best inn in it and other useful things to know.
He even gave me his old map that had the entire continent of the world I was inside of - just so I wouldn't get lost.
Apparently, the City of Merchants, Yiinao, was around a month long travel from Ordial and the usual small territory maps would not suffice this time around.
I have to say one thing - I did not realise just how big this world truly was..
The area around Ordial was just a small part of a giant continent, that spread on for what I imagine in life is hundred-thousands of kilometres in every direction. It genuinely was... Something marvelous.
Anyways-
The path me and Wezrall were taking to Yiinao was one of the less public ones. Aka, we were not using any of the well known and labeled roads and instead were using any other roads that just happened to lead in the same direction.
Partly to avoid any unnecessary encounters with other people, also partly so we could resume our true forms again.
Which also meant that yes-
I was in my snake form, chilling around Wezralls neck as he was in his Wendigo form. Luckily for us, the Guildmaster supplied us with a carriage we were allowed to drive all on our own - probably because he knew that we'd prefer to not have an escort.
[Wezrall] "My Lord, are you sure you don't want me to hold the map? I can do it-"
"No, no it's fine Wezrall. Just keep controlling the carriage."
[Wezrall] "I- .....Very well..."
Yeah, Wezrall was the coachman here controlling the carriage. I was in charge of the map - but how? you may ask.
I don't have any hands in my snake form, so holding a map would be impossible... Right?
Weellll... Not exactly.
I - well, more specifically Ancient One - thought of using my 'Shadow Manipulation' skill to create two 'shadow arms' which I could control like normal ones while remaining in my snake form.
Basically giving me arms, as a snake.
Yeah! Arms on a snake!
Most peoples worst fear, if I do say so myself.
Especially when does arms just so happen to be extremely powerful shadow appendages, capable of much more than normal mortal arms.
'Wow.... What a way to make something already rather terrifying, more horrifying..'
I thought, sighing, before looking at the map again.
Currently we were on a road that took us straight through the Abyssal Woods - the first of many landmarks we would have to cross through to get to Yiinao.
"Hey Wezrall, can I ask you something?"
I asked, rolling up the map before tossing it into the carriage, making the shadow arms disappear afterwards.
[Wezrall] "Hmm? What is it Lord Faofa?"
"Do you know anything about Monster Rankings? I've been wondering about that for a while."
I-
I could have told you a while ago—
[Wezrall] "Monster Rankings? You mean the threat level of monsters?"
"Threat level? How does it work-?"
Wezrall thought for a moment.
[Wezrall] "Well, to put it simply - The 'Ranking' is based from D to SSS. Each 'rank' or 'level' refers to the destruction the monster is capable of causing, with the three highest ones - S, SS and SSS, meaning Catastrophe, Calamity and Pandemonium respectively."
Jesus, those are fancy titles-
I'll guess that the last one is capable of some serious destruction for it to have such a fancy word as its title.
"And then the lower you get, the less Destruction the monster is capable of?"
[Wezrall] "Exactly. However, I should mention that these threat levels, aren't always accurate."
"Hmm? How so..?"
[Wezrall] "Because they're determined based on the monsters level and stats - or in other words, both things make up 50 of the threat level. So, a monster could have S rank stats, but it's threat level would be only C or B, because its level isn't high enough."
I see...
So basically, both Level and Stats play an equal amount of importance in determining a monsters threat level, meaning that if the level is low but stats high, the rank will be dragged up by the stats, but dragged down by the level.
That... Couldn't get simpler.
It also explains my relatively high stats, but rather low rank. Guess my level is dragging it down huh..?
As we continued down the road, the sun beaming down onto it through the many tree branches, creating many, many spots of light that shot onto the road and us, I was fidgeting around inside the carriage in my human form.
Mainly experimenting with my skills that I had to try and discover or learn new moves or such that could come in useful sometime in the future or so.
Master, what exactly are you doing?
'Experimenting.'
...Okay... Another question:
Do you realise that you're playing with fire by experimenting so carelessly with your skills?
'Yeah and so? The worst thing that can happen is that I end up destroying this carriage-'
Actually, there are other—
The carriage suddenly stopped, causing me to fall to its 'floor' a bit.
"Ow.... Wezrall, what the hell - Why'd you stop—"
As I got up and walked to the front, looking out, I saw how the carriage had been surrounded by a bunch of knights dressed in pure white and gold armour.
They looked to be human, so it was a good thing both me and Wezrall were in our human forms - but they also looked familiar...
Like I had seen them before.
Looking through your memory, I can confidently say these knights or 'Soldiers' belong to the Holy Night Orders army.
'I figured as much..'
I shed a sweat.
Why did they surround our carriage and more importantly - Why do they look like they're about to fight us??
[Wio] "My Lo- .... Shin, what do we do?"
"Stay here, I'll settle this."
I whispered to Wezrall, hopping out of the carriage and walking a bit out into the open.
"Good afternoon fellas, quite a nice day don't you think? Even while we are in the Abyssal Woods."
I spoke casually, keeping my guard well up high. The guards looked a bit on the edge, gripping their weapons more while also tensing up a bit upon seeing me move so casually.
This made me a bit confused.
I stood in one place, shedding a couple of sweats as I did. The guards began to whisper among one another, however did not advance towards me or the carriage.
I looked back at Wezrall, who simply shrugged. After a bit, I sighed.
"Can we get through? We're trying to get to Yiinao-"
[Guard #1] "Suspect is thinking of resistance, take formation!"
Oh shit-
After the one guard said that, the guards aimed their weapons towards me and the carriage before beginning their advance towards me and the carriage.
Well shit- Looks like I can't get out of this by talking.
[Wio] "Shin, allow me to get rid of these pests—"
"No Wio, remain on the carriage. I'll take care of this.."
I stated, stopping Wezrall from making more trouble for us. Knowing Wezrall, he would not let a single one of them live, so I was better off taking care of this problem myself.
Wezrall seemingly wanted to protest, however remained silent and simply sat back down in his seat on the carriage.
Afterwards, I exhaled, forming my Venomous Halberd.
"Sorry guys, but looks like I'll have to use self defense."
I stated, before dashing at two guards closest to me, knocking them back in an instant, while avoiding to hurt them. The others immediately reacted to this and began to rush towards me, to attack me.
I quickly leapt into the air, right before they could strike me, before propelling myself right at them, using a platform mid air that I had created using 'Abyss Magic' as a base.
Upon crashing into the group, I flung them up into the air, before using 'Shadow Manipulation' to discard them all over the place - throwing them against trees, in bushes, against boulders, etc - all the while avoiding doing too much harm to them.
I was a monster, but I still had a heart.
I continued this self defense act for quite a bit, finishing up with the last few standing guards, before making my halberd disappear. All the guards or soldiers should I say were all over the place, defeated.
Not going to lie, despite being outnumbered, I beat all of them with quite the ease.
Although that probably should have been expected, as my stats are quite ridiculous.
I then turned to face Wezrall again, before beginning to walk towards him.
"See Wio, it's that easy—"
[Wio] "Shin, look out!—"
Imminent Danger detected:
Taking protocols to defend against it—
"Huh?"
Was all I could push out, before a sudden slash of a sword came flying towards my head. Luckily, I managed to avoid the attack by swiftly sinking into my shadow, dodging the strike.
After hopping out of another shadow, a bit away from the delayed attacker, I looked at him. The one who had attacked me was dressed in deep black and grey, with red accents and cloak on it. The armoured knight scuffed before standing tall, looking towards me, with what looked like... 6 eyes on its helmet?!
[?] "Impressive, you managed to dodge that."
He stated, in a rather deep voice.
I shed a slight sweat. Who was this guy?
While I cannot confirm his identity, I can say for sure that his Magical Energy and power exceeds that of yours and Wezralls.
Extreme precaution is advised.
So no pushover.
Got it..
"Who are you and why did you try to attack me?"
[?] "Simple. You attacked the Holy Soldiers, so I decided to step in and help them."
"They surrounded out carriage without any reason and then obviously were about to attack us!"
[?] "Fair enough."
He stated, before smashing his sword into the ground infront of himself.
[?] "As for my identity..."
He began, taking off his helmet, to reveal a skull with six different eye sockets inside i, with large, sharp teeth and small red dots inside the eye sockets, that was all finished off with a light grey tone to the skull.
[Thanatos] "I am Thanatos, one of the Horsemen of Apocalypse, representing Death."
He announced, standing proudly infront of me. Thanatos? As in the Thanatos from my old world..?
Talk about a legendary being of myths...
Looks like I am in very hot water right now..
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Arabor here!
Hahaha! I know it has been a while,
But I've simply been busy entertaining myself by playing chess and cards with Iyka and Odale.
However, now I'm back to observe Faofa with you all!
It seems like in my time away, he has begun a journey towards the Merchant City of Yiinao, which means he is also getting started on the real journey across the world.
I'm curious on what the problem is in Yiinao, for Faofa needing to go there to resolve it.
...Hmmm?
Thanatos? As in Thanatos Del Death?
What is he doing here...?
Next Chapter:
84. -
"Thanatos Del Death."