After arranging his stuff, Rex and Rosie walks out of their room and goes to the other room but Adhara and Laura is not in the room,
They both go downstairs and found Adhara and Laura chatting with the receptionist,
Rex approached them and asks, "What are you guys talking about?"
Laura turns her body and replied, "We're asking about the Lamia, listen to her story", she signals Rex to get closer.
The receptionist pauses for a moment before continuing her story, "So a week ago, a couple that lives not far from here gone missing. The people here try to search for them together but we don't find them even after searching for a whole night, then three days ago, someone reported to the mayor that he sees a creature that is suspected to be a Lamia. He said he sees it on the south, inside the forest across the river"
Laura intervene and said, "But Lamia don't eat adults"
The receptionist glance at her with a straight expression, the gaze was too long making Laura uncomfortable before she replied, "Then it seems the Lamia is a mutated one"
Rex frowns, 'If it's a mutated Lamia the abnormal behavior makes sense'
A mutation of Supernatural, Creature or even Plant happened randomly or rather still unknown by humanity, a mutated will become even stronger and become more aggressive than normal.
There are two paths a mutated will went through, either it will die rather quickly because of provoking a higher ranking Supernatural or become a king by stepping on other Supernatural.
'But in a place like this? There's probably little to none Supernatural that can compete with it', Rex thought.
"What happens to the team sent before us?", Rex asks curiously, 'Maybe she knows more', Rex thought.
The receptionist shakes her head and answered, "They all gone to the south wood but none of them came back, so I suggest you guys to be careful"
Hearing this, Rex and the girls look at each other before nodding their heads seriously.
Five minutes later,
The four of them walks out of the hotel and started going south,
The hotel is near the river, so it didn't take long for them to reach a bridge above the river that separates the city and the south forest.
They walk past the bridge, Rex saw something on the corner of his eyes inside the river, he glanced at the river and saw nothing, even the water is as calm as ever.
The south forest is not any different from the forest they've been through, the forest is dense and dim so Rex instructed the girls to stick together while he himself separate from them to find any clue.
'Adhara can see in this dim forest, so leaving them to her is better', Rex thought before he dashes to the other side.
Rex and the girls spread out to find clues about the Lamia, but even until the sun crawl back down they still didn't manage to find any clue.
After night came, they regroup back and head back to the city.
Arriving in the city, they gasp in shock seeing the beautiful decoration and crowded street unlike a deserted city like before.
They enter the city while looking around curiously,
The city street is bustling with people, stands of merchant also decorate the city sides, if they arrive at the city at night they wouldn't believe the city is deserted in the morning.
Rex was surprised when suddenly Adhara called to him, Rex! Come here, look at this!", Adhara said holding up a glass of red juice.
Unknown to him, Adhara and Laura already in front of a juice stand.
Rex and Rosie approach them and asks, "What is it? Is this some kind of juice?"
Adhara point at the guy serving the juice that looks pale as a dead corpse and said, "I bought it from him, he said this is a juice that we must taste if we're visiting Vouver City"
The guy smiles at Rex and Rosie, "Here try some, it's very cheap only $1 each", he said while pouring two glasses of juice.
Rex looks at him weirdly before he takes one and gives the other one to Rosie but Rosie didn't feel like drinking it, before Rex can even give the drink back Laura already snatched it from his hand,
"If you don't want it, then let me have it", she said while gulping the drink follows by a satisfied expression.
Rex was intrigued after seeing Laura's expression, he smells the juice and immediately a fragrant smell enters his nose.
He gulps dryly before he also chugged the drink empty, "Woah! That's one good juice, what is it made of?", Rex asks the guy.
"It's made of mutated berry fruit, we don't know what the fruit name is but we call it Sweet Mundu", he replied.
Rex nodded his head in satisfaction, just when he's about to move along he saw the guy suddenly holds his back in pain.
"What's wrong? You need help?", Rexa asks.
The guy smiles wryly and replied, "Oh no, It's nothing really. Have a nice night!"
Rex turns his body hesitatingly before he left with the girls to go back to the hotel after taking a brief tour in the bustling city street.
Inside Rex's room, Rex is meditating as always while Rosie is practicing her wind control.
It's been four hours since they got back from the forest, sleepiness starting to envelop them.
Rosie finally falls to the night and goes to sleep after saying goodnight to Rex, while Rex is as fresh as ever because of the breathing technique.
<Mental stat has increased by 1>
Reading this, Rex was excited, this is his first time getting an increased stat point because of the breathing technique.
Just as he was feeling excited, his Supernatural Sense suddenly rang uncontrollably.
<DING!!>
<Sudden Quest!>
<Killing Intent!
There is a malicious killing intent towards you, find the source of the killing intent and kills it
Quest Rewards: 50,000 Exp, 10,000 Gold, and 5 Skill Upgrade>
Reading this, Rex immediately gets up from his meditative state.
He glances at the window before he immediately rushes out of the door, he opened the door quickly and found Adhara also opened her door.
Rex widened his eyes as he meets Adhara's eyes, "Do you feel it too?"
"Yes, I thought I sense something outside", She nods her head.
'Did her sense improve so much because of her transformation? No, it's not that our senses are keen but this Supernatural seems to intendedly leaked its aura', Rex thought.
"Wake Laura up", Rex said.
But then, Adhara replied, "I tried to, but she said she isn't feeling well"
Rex frowns, he then wakes Rosie up, "Rosie! Rosie!"
Rosie moves uncomfortably in her sleep as she slowly opens her eyes, "What is it?"
"Wake up! I and Adhara will check on outside, I think the Supernatural will make a move but Laura is not feeling well so I need you to guard her okay?". Rex said while leaving the room.
Rosie snapped out of her sleepiness and shouted, "Okay! Just be safe okay!"
Rex and Adhara got out of the hotel, the city is already empty again just like in the morning, well considering it's already 1 A.M. it makes sense.
He then dashes along with Adhara towards the source of the aura,
Rex and Adhara follow the aura heading to the south forest, they slip past the dense forest with extreme speed, like a shadow in the night.
The both of them have night sight, so the darkness will not hinder them especially Rex who after got an upgrade to his Night Sight can see better at night than day.
The Supernatural is also fast but not as fast as Rex and Adhara, but suddenly the aura vanishes from thin air.
Rex and Adhara were confused, they search around the place but found nothing.
Rex was pissed when suddenly he saw a little boy on the corner of his eyes wearing haggard clothes standing alone in the woods, the boy looks at Rex before he pointed in a direction.
Rex glanced in the direction pointed but when he looked back, the little boy is gone.
He then decided to follow the direction along with Adhara, they stop when they found a cave deep inside the forest, the cave is well hidden because of the trees surrounding it and a tree trunk blocking half of its entrance.
Rex saw the boy sitting on the tree trunk and points inside, the little boy then vanishes into thin air.
Rex looks at Adhara but it seems Adhara didn't notice the boy, they then look at each other before nodding their head and went inside carefully,
The cave is big, bigger than what it looks like, from the outside, it can easily fit ten people walking side to side.
They walk slowly getting deeper and deeper into the cave,
When suddenly,
Hiisssss!!!
A hissing sound was heard, based on the sound of it, Rex and Adhara confirmed that it is a Lamia.
After reaching the end of the cave, they were greeted by a spacious space, there are corpses of people scattered around there.
"Where is it?", Adhara asks.
Rex look around trying to find the Lamia when suddenly his spine shiver feeling something on top of him, he turns his body around and was shocked,
HIIISSSS!!!
The Lamia is slithering on the ceiling of the cave, it jumped down trying to crush Rex and Adhara but Rex reflexes are faster,
Rex pushes Adhara to the side and avoids the Lamia crash,
BOOM!!
The ground trembles because of the Lamia's weight, Rex rolls on the ground.
Before he can breathe, the Lamia's tail whipped him sending him screeching away.
"Akhh!", Rex grunted in pain.
Rex raised his head to look at the Lamia,
The Lamia's snake body is huge, way bigger than Werewolves. It is black on the backside and dark brown on the inside, the upper body is a woman's body while its hair is swaying as if it's in water.
Adhara muster her mana and sent fire towards the Lamia,
WHOOSHH!
The Lamia didn't wait for itself to get hit, it slithers on the ground making the ground trembles trying to avoid the fire.
Adhara's attack misses, the Lamia propel its body forward wanting to bite Adhara, Adhara didn't have the time to make a barrier so she braced herself.
Rex didn't sit idly,
His legs bulged with muscle, he musters his strength and leaped towards the Lamia who is propelling itself to bite Adhara.
Rex clenched his fists, his fists started to emit a white hue, "Force Beam!"
BAMM!!
The Lamia was flung to the cave wall making a huge crater on the wall, the cave trembles because of the impact.
Rex newfound strength added with his equipment and Force Beam is the strongest punch Rex can muster,
"Are you okay?", Rex asks.
Adhara brushes the dust off her armor, "I'm okay", she then glances at the Lamia in surprise.
'Rex is as strong as ever', She thought but then, she was shocked when she saw the Lamia still moving under the rumble of rock.
HIISSS!!
The Lamia hisses as it slithers fast towards Rex,
Rex's eyes glow red as he activates his skill, "Alpha's Intimidation", but his eyes widened in surprise after getting a notification from the system.
<Alpha Intimidation failed, the user cannot affect a dead creature>
'Dead creature? What the hell?', Rex thought.
The Lamia whipped its tail, Rex deflects it with a punch.
BAM!!
The collision exploded with fire elements, the Lamia's tail flung away and it turned black because of it.
Rex nodded his head in satisfaction after feeling the power of a rank four battle glove given by Adhara,
"Basic Magic! Arms of Fire Golem!", from the sides, Adhara chanted her new spell.
Immediately after, two arms made of fire gripped the Lamia still in place.
The Lamia struggles to break free but the arms are gripping it strongly, "The Lamia is fighting weirdly, it's so easy and it didn't even use its body enhancement which they are known for"
"Yeah, I agree. Let me check", Rex and Adhara approach the struggling Lamia.
Rex inspected it and thought, 'This Lamia looks pale, the system also confirms that it is dead. It is also not a mutated Lamia, so why are there adult corpses here?'
Then suddenly, Adhara called, "Rex! Look at this!"
Rex approaches her, he found Adhara pointing at the elbow of the Lamia.
"You are not an Awakened so you cannot see but there are mana strings attached to its body", Adhara said after looking at the Lamia's body.
HISS!!!
The Lamia still struggling like it's gone mad, Adhara frowns as she holds it harder.
"The Lamia is already dead, you can see that there's no blood coming out of its wound, and look at its pale body", Rex said then suddenly, Rex came into a realization, "Don't tell me it's a puppet?!"
Hearing this, Adhara's face went pale in horror, "You mean there's another Supernatural that can stage all of this?"
'Using another dead supernatural as a scapegoat, while it controls from afar', Rex thought, his face becomes darkened as he finally figured who is he dealing with.
An Intelligent Supernatural!