Talia spent her four stat-points on Intelligence, and a surprisingly warm smile appeared on her light-pink lips. She gazed up at the enormous ape, “Antonio… It has truly been too long since we have last met. However, this is perhaps, not the best time to reminisce.”

Tony chuckled, tearing the two mana-cores out of that gigantic golden alligator’s brain and tossing them into his mouth. After swallowing, his body was engulfed in a blinding light as well, though there was no announcement.

He shouted “Hahaha~, level twenty-six! Tammy, no!” as he leaped across the battlefield rapidly and managed to barely make it in time to prevent a relatively small female gorilla from being devoured. Unfortunately, his left arm was ripped off in the process, and copious amounts of thick, sap-like, bright-green blood leaked from his shoulder.

A dark-blue ape towards the back of the battlefield bellowed in a deep and deafening voice, which was followed by thousands of thick vines erupting from the ground. They wrapped around the seven surviving golden alligators at the same time, rooting them momentarily.

Then hundreds of gigantic flowers sprouted from his flesh, releasing a thick fog of yellow pollen. When that substance was inhaled by the wounded gorillas, it caused their HP and injuries to rapidly recover, and those that were healthy, gained temporarily boosted Strength, Vitality, Endurance, Agility and Dexterity, at the cost of Intelligence and Wisdom.

Talia wasn’t affected positively or negatively, since she wasn’t considered an ally or enemy, but the alligators began convulsing and suffocating. She took that opportunity to start firing dozens of arrows into their eyes, nostrils and the sides of their thick, scaly necks.

As they died, each one gave her at least two-hundred points of experience, while the largest and strongest golden lizard, was an Ultra-Elite and level-thirty, rank-C; it did take a lot more effort to kill, but after ten shots to the head, it finally died.

Once the battle ended, her level instantly jumped up to thirty and she placed four of her stats into Dexterity, while the other half was split between Endurance and Vitality.

[Companion Information

Name: Talia(Aeris Ramirez)
Titles: The Ruthless, Of the Endless Storm
Level: 30
Experience: 225/900
Age: Adult
Race: High-Elf
Rank: D
Class: Huntress
Specialization: Ranged Damage Dealer, Healer, Support
Profession: Musician Level 47]

[Stats

Health: 140/140
Mana: 255/255
Stamina: 70/70
Mana Regen per minute: 200
Health Regen per hour: 140

Strength: 17(+10)
Vitality: 7(+7)
Endurance: 7(+7)
Dexterity: 50(+52)
Agility: 61(+63)
Intelligence: 44(+7)
Wisdom: 15(+5)
Perception: 24(+2)
Charisma: 14(+10)

Willpower: 32
Luck: 29
Aura: 110

Attack Rating: 135(+720/+47)
Defense Rating: 7(+82)]

 

Talia flew over to her friend’s side and casually landed next to him, asking “Antonio, why are you here?” His arm was rapidly regenerating, but still nothing more than a stump. The little gorilla clinging against the right side of his chest was terrified and actually crying quietly as its entire body trembled.

Tony sighed, glancing around at the battlefield and noticing that at least four of his ‘family’ had been killed. However, there were at least a dozen children, babies and even pregnant females who managed to survive the fight unscathed.

He frowned deeply, “Our home was invaded by demons… Hell, the whole damn jungle is infested with those bastards! When all the chaos started, we had over a hundred members, now it’s just us. Sure, the few of us who are still alive, are almost all really powerful compared to a week ago… but at this rate, we won’t be able to survive!” As he was speaking, most of the other apes began quickly stripping the flesh off of those huge golden alligators. The rank-C mana-cores were consumed by their ‘leader’, the Druid who was both a healer and a powerful ‘crowd-controller’.

The back of Talia’s mini-skirt and panties were surprisingly repairing themselves, as she smiled at the furry giant. All the skin on his face and body was pitch-black, while his hair was bright-blue.

“Antonio, you know that I could never forget you… I simply did not expect you to flee in this particular direction. After all, when last we met, your territory was on the northwestern edge of The Forbidden Forest. Hmmm, regardless, it is fortunate that we were able to encounter each other here! Follow me, I shall lead you to a place where you will be safe!” She turned around and her body lifted a few meters off of the ground, slowly levitating towards the south.

He shouted “Mama wait! I’m not the head of this ‘Family’… They don’t even understand what we’re saying, so they have no idea what we’re even talking about!”

Talia gazed off into the distance and saw a small green dot that was growing larger every second, and within a minute, she could make out a tiny parrot. She turned towards her ‘son’ and told him “Hmph~, well, their ‘new’ leader has arrived now! I must continue on with my Quest… Our ‘reunion’ shall be postponed until after I return.”

As she finished speaking, that little bird rapidly transformed into a ten-meter tall, naked fox-girl, who was a whole head taller than those bright-blue gorillas. All of them were first terrified, but after hearing a few of her soft and gentle ‘purrs’, they were instantly soothed.

Tony muttered “Inari… such a powerful aura and even her rank is so high. Such a beautiful voice…” Under the gargantuan young woman’s ‘Charm’, not a single one of those gigantic apes was able to resist the urge to listen to her commands.

Thus, the Huntress soared off towards the northeast again, but decided not to fly too high. Not only that, but she also utilized ‘Camouflage’ whenever she encountered possible enemies.

She was certainly powerful, just not in the same way as Michael. Even though she had a relatively high Defense Rating, it wasn’t nearly enough to compare with a Tank. There was also the benefit of having severely reduced damage taken from various Elements. It was common for people to have Tanking as their second or third specialization, but rare for it to be first.

Talia’s secondary specialty was Healing, but it had never been particularly useful for her. In fact, if she was a ‘pure’ Damage Dealer, like Jasmine, she would be able to receive a massive boost to her overall ‘DPS’ to anything of the Chaos or Earth Affinity.

Unlike a certain Nephilim, the High-Elven Huntress didn’t constantly talk to herself, or scream obscenities out of irritation. Flying through Ariel’s Meadow was actually fairly pleasant for the most part, and gave her a profound feeling of attuning with Wind and Nature at the same time.

If it wasn’t for the constantly battling magical-beasts all around her, Talia likely would have been able to gain some sort of enlightenment. Passing over rivers, lakes, through light forests and strangely enough, there were quite a few defensive fortifications constructed: ancient castle cities, mysterious and gigantic lone spires, relatively new temples of Naturae, and indestructible statues of humanoids.

There were simply too many interesting things all throughout that zone. She had discovered at least five Dungeon entrances and one outdoor Raid. However, even though the outskirts of Ariel’s Meadow was typically a starting area for Players and Adventurers to gain experience, the interior was completely different. It was actually on par with Raphael’s Jungle before the demonic uprising; there were many types of dragons, gargantuan monstrosities of all shapes and sizes, plus plenty of small but deadly creatures.

Fortunately, Talia had the common sense to go around, heading towards the far eastern edge, until she reached the Archean River. Only then, did she start following it to the northwest; she couldn’t fly over the unfathomably deep river either, because there were simply too many aerial beasts in the sky and hidden enemies below the water’s surface, which were anywhere from level fifty to seventy-five.

Of course, they ‘normally’ couldn’t be bothered to kill a level-thirty sub-Elite, but with all of the chaos lately, it wouldn’t be surprising if her presence would annoy them enough to take action. Essentially, the only possible route was to use the Carrabelle Bridge, but getting there from where she met Tony, required her to travel over six-hundred miles.

It wasn’t possible for her to fly nonstop all of that time, so she would occasionally find a small riverside frontier village, belonging to the Luxian Warbeast Theocracy, and take a short break. They typically had a wide variety of magical-beast dishes, clothing stores, and she even found some fancy jade, emerald and other green-gemstone jewelry.

The best part about her little excursion, was that the ‘Fast-Travel System’ was back online. When she eventually became tired and ran out of room in her inventory to store random items, she simply teleported home and slept in her own bed.

Thus, she wasn’t in any hurry to complete her ‘Quest’ and used it as an excuse to go on a shopping spree.