"What is it, mother? Did I do anything wrong?" Nyx asked with a confused expression. She had thought her mother would be happy since she had quickly mastered Phantom Slash, but for some reason, her mother looked more worried than happy.
"It's nothing," Aina smiled. "Let's go again."
The dagger in Nox's grasp flashed through the air, slicing the skeleton wolves that were pouncing on him from all sides like wild dogs gone berserk, with only one goal: to tear apart anything in their way.
Their eyes were bloodshot as the horde continued to surge forward, giving Nox little time to breathe. Sweat and exertion glistened on his face, and he panted heavily, but there was a determined glint in his eyes.
Beside him, he had his two companions fighting alongside him, Fluffington and Thirteen, though they looked exhausted as well. Still, they were one of the reasons Nox had lasted this long.
A month had passed since Eve had simply instructed him to control his two beasts like a general on the battlefield while fighting alongside them.
Traditional beast tamers were often very weak; if the enemies got past them, all was over. Nox didn't want to go down this route, so he had meticulously practiced with his dagger.
He had wielded all other weapons but came to realize that he was most adept with daggers. By coincidence, that was also Eve's specialty, so the two got along just fine, with her showing the kid a few pointers now and then.
But she still remained rather aloof, and her words were as brief as ever. Most of the time, they were silent, and quite frankly, Nox liked this silence.
Finally, Nox dealt with the last skeleton wolf by burying the blade of his dagger inside its eyes. Fluffington and Thirteen also finished off their opponents.
"Huff, huff!" Nox fell on his butt. He had been multitasking the whole time—fighting the undead summoned while giving commands to his beasts for a straight five hours!
'Ever since that white-haired kid did what he did, Fluffington seemed to follow each of my orders without asking for anything in return.'
Thinking for a while, Nox smiled. 'It seems I'm not the only one who wants revenge. After being beaten up like that, it really gave him a rude awakening, huh?'
"You're slowly getting the hang of how your class works. That's good for a change," Eve commented. She had been watching him for the past week and was a little shocked at how disciplined and persistent he was.
She could see his body was practically begging him to give up and rest, but he still kept on fighting with bloodshot eyes.
'And he's just five years old… I've seen my fair share of human children, and one thing I'm very certain of: they're a bunch of lazy brats, but this kid is different. From the swing of his daggers, you can see he really wants to get stronger.'
'Arthur was very lazy, wasn't he, Aina? Where did he get this personality from?'
Unknown to Eve, Nox was blessed with the traits of perseverance and hard work of the great Elephant… What she was seeing was simply those traits in effect.
Yes, Nox was determined to get stronger, but these traits buffed him and made him more serious.
'This kid, maybe he isn't that bad,' Eve thought. She'd heard about Nox's mischievous, unserious nature, but after seeing him work so hard this past week, she was starting to get a good impression of the boy.
'The son of that man.' Eve's ruby-colored eyes darkened for a split second, and the aura around her took a 180-degree turn. However, just then, there was a slight vibration in her Pocket. She stretched her palm out, and the communication crystal appeared.
"Miss Eve, where are you?" A voice that Nox recognized as Elvin the archer spoke from the other side.
"I'm busy. What's the matter?" Eve replied with a frown on her face.
"An Intimidate Tier Blue Fanged Python has been spotted very close to the walls… If possible, could you lend me a helping hand? For some reason, this bastard—shit! Don't stop firing! Fall back!"
"If it's really serious, why don't you head over? I'll remain here and train," Nox suggested. Fluffington and Thirteen were currently resting on their stomachs, but as soon as they heard 'train,' the two beasts immediately feigned sleeping.
Eve seemed to think for a while before looking at Nox. "Follow me. Let's put everything you've learned into practice."
Nox and Eve arrived at the northern side of Cromwell Barony, and what they saw left Nox stunned.
A giant cobra that was over hundreds of meters in length was in a fierce battle with Elvin and a group of Awakeners from the Cromwell Barony.
(Awakeners are those who have successfully Awakened their class.)
The colossal snake easily towered over the town walls, its beautiful yet terrifying pale milky eyes and long forked tongue dangling, staring menacingly at the humans who were hacking away at its hard blue carapaced skin.
"A venomous serpent with azure scales and fangs that can pierce through solid stone."
Rating: Intimidate Tier Level 2
Special skills: Venomous Acid (Active), Camouflage (Passive), Constriction (Active), Enhanced Strength (Passive)
Ultimate Evolution Path 1: Azure Serpent Lord
Requirements: Reach King Tier, obtain the Sapphire Fang of Serpent Kings.
Azure Serpent Lord: Enhanced strength and agility, scales turn as hard as diamonds, able to split into multiple serpentine forms, each with independent thought and action, overwhelming enemies with coordinated attacks. Can command sea creatures within a vast radius, bending them to its will and forming an army from the depths.
'Powerful! Cerbagh was just a Level 7 wildling, the Sky Kraken was at Intimidate Tier, but this guy… he's much stronger. I can feel it… and those abilities seem very badass.'
"What are you thinking? Prepare to join the fight," Eve said indifferently.
"Nothing, just that this beast seems to possess lots of powerful skills that would be a bit tricky to deal with," Nox voiced his opinion.
"Skills?" Eve frowned. "You can see the beast's skills?"
"Yeah, is there anything wrong? I mean, can't everybody see them?" Nox asked with an incredulous expression.
"No, we can only see their Name and HP."
"Oh," Nox said, realizing. Now that he thought about it, this was one of his Beast Tamer skills he had received after Awakening his class.
[Analyzed: Read them like a book… with a glance, know monster's information and see all possible evolution directions.]
Eve looked at Nox for a while. She wanted to ask him what more he could do. Usually, people could use special artifacts to see information about beasts, but those were very expensive and only the first-grade guilds could get their hands on them.
Nathan wasn't that rich, so Eve knew it was not an item…
'But something that has to do with his class. How convenient.'