章 24: 4 Guardians

A/N - I'm changing Empire to Kingdom since it doesn't feel right... at least right now.

*****

"This is perfect,"

It fit right in my hand, if I feel unstoppable now imagine once it has an actual metal blade and comfortable handle.

As I swung the scythe around everybody in the room slowly adjusted their gaze towards me. The more I swung the scythe around, the more comfortable it felt in my hand. Once everybody got their fill of watching me practice, they were soon filled with motivation to practice with their own unique weapon.

[Gained the following skill]

[Scythe Mastery (Partial)]

"Oh, I got a new skill, Scythe Mastery. Well, it's only partial but I assume that's good,"

"M-master how did you get mastery so fast, even if it's partial that was insanely fast. Usually, it takes years to obtain that but you got it in mere minutes," Kumo says.

"As expected from Master, even though I use my spear every day I have yet to obtain mastery of it," says Akito.

"I'm pretty sure it's due to Master having insane talent with a scythe. It took my dad 10 years to obtain partial mastery of his sword," said Sophia.

We practiced for about 30 minutes more until I had an announcement to make.

"I and Kumo are going to be going on a trip to different places on [The Mountain of Twighlight]. I just wanted to teach you guys martial arts before we leave since I would also like you guys to teach your subordinates," I said.

Aika was about to say something but I quickly stopped her.

"I did this because Kumo is about to evolve and I would like to spend some time with her since she's been feeling down. Homura will take over my spot until I get back and I expect the village to expand," I said while walking towards Kumo.

"Let's go," I said while petting her.

We quickly left the room while I took the stone scythe with me. The only response from my subordinates and servants was them saying that they wouldn't disappoint me.

When we left the castle I looked over to Kumo and it seemed like she was about to cry. Ever since I obtained a humanoid form I always wanted to pick her up. I wrapped my hands under her belly and picked her up causing her to be frightened a bit.

"Shall we leave now," I said while flying high into the sky.

We head in the opposite direction of the [Forest of Poison] because that is the direction to head higher up the mountain. I've been keeping the enhanced senses skills on always in order to get used to it because, in the beginning, it was a very alien feeling. I just got used to it this morning while practicing martial arts and my scythe, but even with these enhanced senses, I can barely see the peak. There were barely any clouds so it was pretty easy to see the top which was blanketed by a sheet of snow.

As we flew above [Waterfall Hills] I started to realize the sheer amount of rivers and waterfalls there were. If there were trees covering this place I would have never realized all of them were here.

Even though it looks like the ground is flat if you look hard enough or notice the environment it slowly starts to go up. Soon enough though the barely noticeable change would soon become more recognizable. Also, the number of rivers and waterfalls exponentially decreased as well.

Once the rivers were completely gone I soon noticed trees that had a mix of yellow and bright red leaves. It soon turned into an entire forest which once I noticed we slowly descended. When we landed I noticed that the trees were only slightly bigger than the ones in the [Rock Boned Forest].

[Ignited Forest]

[A forest that used to be part of the [Rock Boned Forest]. After the [Canyon of Volcanoes] spread too much it started to set fire to these trees. The guardian of the [Canyon of Volcanoes] was able to put out the fire almost instantly but the damage still remained. The stone inside of the Rock Boned Trees absorbed the heat. Since the rock inside is basically the roots of the tree, it eventually caused the tree to grow again but the leaves and trunk are constantly hot.]

That is probably the longest explanation for a place I have seen but it gave me a lot of information. First of all this place used to be the [Rock Boned Forest] which is pretty interesting since now I know that the [Canyon of Volcanoes] is so dangerous that even affected the other parts of [The Mountain of Twiglight]. Finally, there is that guardian, I should ask Kumo about this.

"Kumo, what is a guardian?"

"Oh, I don't know much about them since they rarely show themselves. There are four guardians and they are all called by multiple names so what I read is, whatever you think of first is what you should call them. The first one is a black dragon on the very top of [The Mountain of Twiglight] it is said to be the strongest out of the four. The second is a white and glowing rainbow phoenix which is the 2nd strongest. Next is the third strongest, a brown deer with white spots all over its body, the antlers on its head are huge and golden as well. Finally the weakest but not weak at all is a silver wolf which from what I've read, is that its fur shines in the moonlight," explained Kumo.

"Damn, if they found out a kingdom was built on their mountain they might try and destroy it. I need to get stronger because I probably can't even beat the weakest one right now," I said.

"If master says so I'm sure she can do it," Kumo replies.

I first shoved the thought of fighting them out of paranoia for my kingdom to the back of my head in order to focus on getting stronger right now. We then started to walk deeper into the [Ignited Forest].

Our first prey was a black and red giant slug about 3 feet tall and 6 feet long. I couldn't help but grimace from the sight of it.

[Burnt Berserker Slug]

[A type of slug when touched, its slime is set on fire. This also includes the trail of slime it leaves behind. These slugs are in a constant state of [Berserk], but due to this, they only live up to 2 weeks at most.]

I and Kumo slowly approached it from behind where we saw its trail of slime. I quickly use [Thunderbolt] causing a bolt of lighting to shoot out of my hand causing an explosion once it collided with the slug.

[Thunderbolt has leveled up]

The smoke cleared up but the slug seemed unphased by my attack so I rush in to punch it while using [Forbidden Magic: Medusa]. I land punch it but it gets abruptly stopped by the thick layer of slime over it.

"Oh, shit,"

The slug then burst into dark red flames that start to burn my skin.

[Fire Resistance has leveled up]

I quickly activate [Enhanced Regeneration] which slowly peels my burnt skin back to its original white smooth skin. Instead of turning it off after I decide to leave it on just in case I forget I have it in intense battles.

As I step away from the unphased slug I see the surrounding shadows created by the trees start to sprout out. Soon they formed into spears that are now charging towards the slug. The slug quickly noticed and tried to dodge but since it was so slow, it was only able to dodge 2 of the 7 spears. The impaled slug stopped struggling and we got the notification confirming our kill.

[Servant Kumo gained 600 XP]

I decided to give it a little try since I wanted whatever skill it had. I licked the gooey slime that it secreted and unsurprisingly it tasted burnt.

[Gained the following skill]

[Liquid Fire Secretion]

...

None of us leveled up but we traversed our way through the forest. For the next half a day we only ran into Burnt Slugs, we took care of them with [Shadow Control] and [Shadow Magic] forming blades or spears to kill them.

[Shadow Magic has leveled up]

[3600 XP gained]

[You have leveled up (x2)]

[Servant Kumo gained 3000 XP]

[Servant Kumo leveled up (x4)]

Even though it was late in the afternoon we continued out slaughter until we found a new prey that looked pretty familiar.

[Burnt Berserker Wolf]

[A type of wolf when touched, its fur is set on fire. These wolves are in a constant state of [Berserk], but due to this, they can only live up to 2 weeks at most.]

Yep, it was the Berserker wolf but different it still had its usual bloodshot eyes, and its fur this time is a light shade of red as opposed to its usual dark shade of red.

I assumed it functioned the same as the slug since it had burnt in its name so I avoided touching it and used [Thunderbolt] from a distance. The wolf wasn't as careless as the slugs so he dodged every bolt of lightning I shot at him. Kumo used [Shadow Control] to try and cuts or grab its ankles to limit its movement but whenever she latched onto its ankles it was able to brute force its way out.

It seems a difference in level and stats does make a difference.

Instead of switching to [Shadow Magic], I wanted to try out something different. I activated [Boost] giving upping my speed slightly. I went in for a punch with [Forbidden Magic: Medusa] and just as I expected the wolf's fur burst into flames. It looked like the petrification reach it but the wolf had burnt off all of its fur including the petrified spot making it look like a shaved cat. It was a horrible sight but I still proceeded with what I wanted to try. With the remaining flames dispersing into the air, I used [Fire Control] manipulating them to run into the Wolf. It seemed like it worked since it started to char away into the wolf's flesh eventually roasting its organs, killing it.

[800 XP gained]

"Kumo lets eat we haven't had anything substantial since this morning,"