Sera's story only made it about halfway before they got distracted with…other activities. Beth had to say, it was very pleasant to have Sera around during such things, especially with other women involved. Her knowledge and experience were a great to help with keeping things going and making sure everyone was fully satisfied.

Megoria left very early in the morning, having not even really slept after they had finished their fun. As a peak Ascended, she didn't need to sleep more than a small bit a month, and even their strenuous activities hadn't tired her out at all, physically or mentally. Beth, however, needed a proper rest after the monster fight and was quite happy to fall asleep with Sera curled up on top of her. She slept in for once, not waking until the sun was high over the ship the next day. She didn't care about doing anything for the rest of the day, laying around with Sera and relaxing until the night, where she slept for quite a bit again.

It was the day after when they headed out again, still having plenty of targets to pick from, each of those targets being massive clusters of beasts the monsters were rallying and indirectly or directly controlling. They picked one of the two they had on this continent, the continent with the remaining leaderships of each of the two great powers, and headed towards it in the airship. While Beth had her sights set on a much better ship, she had to say, their current ship was still very nice. Relatively fast, very comfortable, good defenses, powerful guns, and a pleasure to fly, according to Blood, anyway. Even though a starship would be much more powerful, in many respects, she still wouldn't upgrade unless she could guarantee something just as nice, if not nicer, in the new ship. Of course, their finances weren't anywhere within spitting distance of that, but it was good to have some idea of what she wanted and what she would accept.

The next big group of beasts was not mobile or close to it, just a massive cluster of creatures gathered together and waiting. It would normally be something basically impossible to see, as the beasts were extremely varied and would have not just fought with each other but slaughtered each other, but the monsters made it possible. And that certainly wasn't a good thing, as it greatly increased the level of danger and threat, though that was more on a civilizational level. To somebody like Beth, diving into a group of a hundred thousand giant lizards wasn't that much different if the hundred thousand beasts also had wolves and mantises and basilisks and devils and more. Beasts were beasts to a group like hers, and they would be corpses rather than beasts soon enough.

This group was more than a hundred thousand beasts, more like a million or just over, and the three girls were able to clear it out in just a couple hours. It was more about the sheer mass of it with something like that, though Beth being able to shatter and vaporize large swathes of area did help. Still, a million beasts took up a huge amount of real estate and took a long time to work through, and then they had the cleanup afterward. Beth was already starting to regret her Mana Physique a little bit, in terms of it giving her the flame controlling ability, but she knew it would be good for more than just helping more quickly and efficiently roast corpses.

From that group, they moved on to the second group on that continent, Beth suspecting that Baelvyr was leaving many of these groups just for them to cleanup. They had a decent few hours of flying, Beth and Sera relaxing and working on some study materials while Blood controlled the ship, until they eventually reached the second group. This cluster of beasts wasn't any smaller than the one they had just taken out, and it would take them a few hours to clean everything up. Even then, their speed was phenomenal compared to just about any other group that would be doing this. A group of Gold Emblems likely wouldn't be able to clear as fast as they did, though a lot of the heavy lifting was being done by Beth with her Mana Physique giving her such power.

Sweeping through millions of beasts in one day was crazy, even for people far senior to the three girls, but Beth wasn't even tired after they got done with it. Rather than head out for another continent, however, they moved back to where Megoria was parked and decided to take another break. With Baelvyr out roaming, they had the beasts well under control at this point, and Beth wanted some time to prep. She was hoping that she would get a rematch with that thorny fucker, and if she did, she wanted to be more than ready. She was going to have to push herself to improve, really buckle down for the first time in a while in training and try to really thrash her weaponskills. Speaking of skills, she had made a few improvements just from that last fight, and she took a second to review her sheet before starting any training.

Name

Elizabeth Anne Bell

Class

Crushing Hierophant

Level

210[5]

Strength

4460

Dexterity

2230

Endurance

3006

Intelligence

830

Wisdom

830

Free Points

0

Mana Physique

True Flame Mana Physique[Platinum]

Titles

Silver Flame Empress' Inheritor

Skills

Ancient World Gate[3]

Beastly Tyrant Platinum[5]

Blacksmithing Journeyman[1]

Celestial Annihilation Gold[3]

Corruption Resistance Gold[1]

Elemental Resistance Gold[0]

Focused Meditation Silver[8]

FrostFlame Eye Gold[0]

Indomitable Heart Gold[4]

Lordly Reconstruction Gold[4]

Monstrous Blow Gold[2]

Pain Tolerance Gold[9]

Spatial Mana Detection Silver[9]

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Spatial Obliteration Platinum[3]

Spatial Resistance Copper[9]

Spatial Step Gold[9]

Swift Gold[3]

Swords Expert[3]

Unarmed Expert[5]

Wealth

2o 21m 97d 15p 3g 14s 73c

Emblems

CRA Silver Emblem (300CP)

Bonds

Blood

Perhaps the most surprising thing on the whole sheet was that she had gotten a level in Unarmed, likely from being pushed so hard in the fight with the monster. The second most surprising thing was the two levels in Beastly Tyrant, though she had been pumping that incredibly hard, even utilizing it in a new way in conjunction with her Mana Physique. She had some levels across the board, both in her skills and her overall level, but most of them didn't amount to too much compared to the weaponskill and the platinum skill. Or platinum skills, considering she had gotten one level in Spatial Obliteration from all that.

The more worrying thing was that she had gotten a level in Corruption Resistance and two levels in Indomitable Heart. She hadn't gotten those levels from the beasts, as she had checked her stats a little before the monster fight and she didn't have any new levels in those skills. She also hadn't fought anything in the two massive groups that day that should have pushed those up in level, let alone pushed Indomitable Heart up two levels. That immediately made her very suspicious of that monster and what had happened during that fight.

'Baelvyr,' she sent to him. After just a moment, he responded by calling her.

'What's wrong, girlie?' he asked.

'Just checked my stats in more detail. My skills to resist corruption and mental influence both leveled, and I don't think it was from any of the beasts. Does that monster have some mind manipulation power?' she said.

'I was wondering if ya would notice that,' he grunted out. 'Monster's got some kinda spore shit that it does. Real subtle like, too. It would have done a real number on ya, had ya not had those good resistances at Gold-level already.'

'Is that how they're influencing the beasts? Like the direct method, I mean,' Beth said.

'Naw. Monsters don't use a specific skill or ability like that. It's part of their nature, like havin' a Presence is for a sapient, or better yet, havin' the ability to humanize for beasts. Ya won't see a skill on their stat page, if ya could see it, that has anythin' to do with controlling beasts. It's natural to 'em. That's part of how they grow and also part of their power. Monsters don't get humanization, not in the way sapient beasts do, and they don't get Presences. Controllin' beasts is part of what they have that fills in that gap,' he said.

'Wait, you said they don't get humanization the same way sapient beasts do. What way do they gain humanization?' she asked.

'They can humanize, as in, they can take a human form, but it doesn't give them any extra strength. It's more a convenience thing than anythin' else. Unlike beasts and other sapients, they don't like bein' in human form, or, most of them don't, anyway. A lot of them prefer their monstrous appearance,' he explained.

'Okay, didn't know that. I need to study more about monsters,' Beth said.

'Yeah, there's some shit about monsters on the Gold Emblem test, so ya three should probably know some shit just for that. And these kinds of scenarios are why that stuff's on the test, by the way,' he replied.

'Thanks for the heads up,' she said.

'Yeah, yeah. I got some more shit to take care of here. Ya still fightin'?' he asked.

'We cleared the two big packs on this continent. We're back at the landing site now, in our ship. We're gonna do some training. I did get a level in Unarmed, but I want a lot more,' she said.

'Yeah, just stay there for now. We've cleaned out quite a bit and I'm gonna let the beasts go for a while. We need a gap to let the monsters feel comfortable and start inciting shit again. That'll mean more work for ya in a week or so, so get ready for that,' he said.

'We'll be here, and we'll be ready,' Beth said.

'Then I'm hangin' up,' he replied, making good on his word right away.

"Goodbye to you, too," Beth snarked aloud, chuckling lightly.

"You alright?" Sera asked her.

"Yeah, just talking with Baelvyr," she said. "He suggested studying monsters more, though I don't know how much you know about them."

"Ah, not that much," Sera replied. "I was a good student…about some things, but I have a few gaps in my knowledge. I mean, I know the basics, but I don't know all that much about monsters, other than to be very careful of them."

"Well, I'm sure what you think of as basics is probably still a whole lot more than I know. I just know they're things, usually beasts, corrupted by some negative influence or power," Beth said.

"Sure, but there's more to them than that," Sera explained. "Monsters are beings that are corrupted by an evil force. They long for control and destruction, and they have a power to control and order beasts as a result. Causing death and destruction, especially when done through controlling others, though that's not required, is what allows them to increase in power. It helps in their leveling, though the process isn't fully understood, but it is understood fairly well, and it also helps them in boosting their overall strength.

"Monsters don't have Presences or Humanization, but they have two factors. Beyond the control of beasts, they have stronger, more durable bodies, often with better healing and regeneration than beasts or other sapient beings. Secondly, they can develop a system of runes on and around their body that allows them to rapidly absorb both mana and vitality. Most people call that their Rune Net, and it's something that people have tried, and almost completely failed, to replicate through just enchanting. At least, in the Milky Way, we don't have anybody that can do anything like that. What the far more powerful and knowledgeable people in other galaxies or places can do, I don't really know, but we don't have those techniques. Anybody claiming to have figured out how to do it is probably a scammer."

"And all this comes from killing monsters? Or capturing and studying them?" Beth asked.

"Well, some of it," Sera said, shifting in her chair in the mess. "This is, uh, a touchy subject, but let's just say that, uh, not all monsters are evil. That's a crazy and controversial thing to say, but it's true, as much as a lot of people want to deny it. We know a lot about monsters because, well, some of them have told people about themselves."

"The more I learn, the less I know," Beth said. "And the crazier everything gets."

"It's always going to be like that," Sera said with a laugh. "Like, I have no idea about anything but the most basic of basics when it comes to Ideals. And I know even less than that about anything that comes after. If you want to reach those heights eventually, you have to do a lot of learning, in more ways than one."

"There's some learning I'm ready to do right now," Beth said, grinning at Sera.

"You must be talking about anatomy. I'm something of an expert in the subject," Sera replied with a toothy grin of her own.

"I hope you can teach me lots," Beth said, moving over to Sera and sitting on her lap.

"The night is still young," Sera laughed, picking Beth up and heading to the captain's cabin.

The next morning, they were up bright and early, but they didn't really have anything on the agenda that they had to do, they were just focused on training and research for now. Beth needed to learn some more about monsters, but she really needed to train even more. She was pushing her weaponskills to the limit, and the best thing for that was fighting, though she couldn't get the absolute best thing, which was fighting somebody even more skilled than she was. Unless she could sandbag Baelvyr into giving her some more training, but he was busy with a range of things and likely wouldn't be amenable. He would also likely be enjoying his time not having to be in charge of their home CRA Hall, even if the work he was doing was almost as annoying as being a Hall Master.

The one thing she could do was push herself with enemies of a much higher level, which her gate let her do, and that was exactly what she did. She set it to a hundred levels up, the limit of what she could do right now, putting the beasts over the level three hundred threshold. With the beasts set as orcs, she was sure to get a real challenge out of them, even if their weaponskills with whatever weapons they would have with them were somewhat lower than hers. It was a brute force method, but she was satisfied with taking what she could get with that, hoping to push a level in each skill over the next couple weeks, subjective time. If they had a week or so objective time, that would be close to ten weeks of subjective time, and the fight with the monster had shown she was being a bit complacent. That one fight boosted her higher weaponskill by a level, and if a single dangerous fight could do that, then a long series of somewhat dangerous fights should be able to push her as far if not farther. Should being the optimal word in that thought.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.