Chapter 163: Emergence (5)


    "...?" Turning his head over to the direction of the shout, Shinto''s eyes slightly shook as his body that was just recovered from fatigue felt as if it wanted to cry out. Greeted with his enhanced vision at the front, he noted that a slime was frantically running towards the group that was lying down. "...are you kidding me?"


    With an annoyed voice stating out his woes, his eyes narrowed over to the countless red eyes that were moving around behind the slime that wore a fancy suitMinister Yer.


    "H-Help! Ahhh! Someone, help!" Minister Yer cried out whilst running for his life. "Humans! Humans! Save me!"


    "Huh? What''s going on?" Frey uttered out in confusion as she turned in the direction of the loud voice. However, with only being able to see darkness, Frey''s expression remained undaunted. "Did something happen?"


    "...Frey, Raina," Shinto muttered out their names whilst moving his eyes over to the direction of Ethaniel and Erith who were still unconscious. "You can choose either to, run or fight against a colony of killer bats."


    "W-Wait... Could you repeat what you just said?" Frey dumbfoundedly mumbled out in confusion. "A colony of killer bats...?"


    "...it appears so," Shinto sighed whilst taking out his staff and holding onto it. "We''re just not going to get a break, huh?"


    "Humans!! Please help, I beg of you!" Minister Yer continued running through the cavern whilst closing in on the distance between the group. "I don''t wanna die! Ahhh!!"


    "So we''re going intobat while Ethaniel and that slime are out ofmission?" Raina seemed to be shuddering. "If the enemies are at level 70 and above... How do you expect us to win?"


    "E-Eep! Level 70 and above? And you''re saying the monsters are bats?!" Frey cried out. "They suck blood, right? Creatures of the night... AHHH!! Can we run?! No wait... Is it possible to fight them? No no, they''re level 70!"


    "Ugh... I''m starting to dread this ce so much more..." Shinto sighed. "But, it''s fine. They''re bats and it''s currently..." Turning his head towards the entrance of the cavern, he noted that it was now nighttime. "...never mind. This is just great."


    "Hold on... Are we like, dead for real?!" Frey shouted out. "If we''re going to die, we might as well put up a fight! I''m not going down without a fight!"


    "...sigh. Can it even be helped?" Shinto clicked his tongue whilst moving his eyes to the newly updated skill: [ Shadow Recreation ]. Soon after, he narrowed his eyes over to the two titles below Kon. "I guess it''s a better time than any to summon one of them. But... Which?"


    With the number of life-threatening situations thrown at him back-to-back, Shinto felt dulled of losing his life as of right now. Thus, whilst taking his time to consider what to summon, Frey and Raina were preparing to cast out their skills into the darkness, which was slowly revealing that of a figure of slime and countless bats flying behind him.


    "Bats... One, two... There''s so many to count!" Frey''s eyes shook. "We''re so dead, aren''t we?"


    "We can''t win this... We really can''t," Raina''s staff trembled as she saw the sheer numbers of bats that were in front of her. "Since it''s nighttime too... Going out is also asking for a death wish."


    "...you two, go on ahead," Shinto stated. "If all things go well with this... We can survive. But..."


    "...but, if all things go wrong, the afterlife it is?" Raina questioned.


    "Pretty much so," nodding his head, Shinto took a step back from the group whilst finallymitting towards his thought. "...judging from the titles, it''s basically a Cobra and a ck Bird? Perhaps a Raven, or Crow," Shinto didn''t have all day to think about this. However, with the way things were, he still had enough time before the battle starts as the Minister seemed to be especially far away from the group.


    "..." Closing his eyes, Shinto thought about the meanings behind the name. As stated by [ Cobra of the Empress''s Sting ] and [ ck Bird''s Darkness ], he could immediately tell that they were rting to that of animals like Kon, who was a fox.


    "...in this situation," calmly thinking to himself, Shinto looked up towards the countless bats that were finally reaching the group. "As the air will get crowded... I''ll take upon this."


    ...


    [ You have used the skill ''Shadow Recreation'' ]


    [ You have called out to ''Cobra of the Empress''s Sting'' ]


    [ ... ]


    [ They have heeded your call. ]


    [ You have sessfully summoned a shadow! ]


    Upon murmuring out the name of the skill and stating the title that he was going to summon, a dark shadow began to appear before him. In the next moment, a sound of hissing could be heard, however soon stopped.


    "...it seems that Master''s the first to call for me," a female''s voice protruded out. "Haha. I win brother."


    "Squeak!" Upon the voice of the female echoing through the caverns, the bats began initiating their attack onto the group. Frey, who was at the center began to be barraged by the countless sonic sound waves which rang through her ears.


    "A-Argh...!" Frey gritted her teeth at the collision of the waves onto her which brought her health down to the yellow almost immediately. "...t-this...!" With the attacks all aimed at Frey, her health only went to yellow. Individually, they might not be scary, however, as a group, they could deal high amounts of damage. "If you want to bring me down, it won''t be that easy you bats! Raina do that big boom magic thingy!"


    "Alright," holding up onto her staff, Raina began to murmur out her chants as soon a wide burning wave of me shot out towards the colony of bats in the distance that was beginning to surround Frey.


    "S-Squeak!" Being hit by therge wide attack, the bats were pushed back slightly. However, they didn''t back down. Just as they were about to send out another wave of sonic attacks over to Frey and then to Raina, multiple shes from the darkness began to cut down the bats one by one.


    "...h-huh? What the... This?" Frey dumbfoundedly at the sight, noting that most of the bats were turning into grey ash. "Hey, Raina! Is this your doing? Good job! Keep up the good work and we can win this!" With excitement boiling in her blood, Frey rushed up as she threw out multiple punches at the bats that had fallen down due to the suddencerated arcs and ended them in their weakened state.


    [ Nightcrawler Cavern Bat has been defeated! ]


    [ You have levelled up to level 35! ]


    [ You have levelled up to level 36! ]


    "...woo! These guys give so much experience! Wait... Is it because there''s so much of them? But woo! Raina you rock with those spells!" Frey cheered.


    "...but, Frey... It wasn''t my doing?" Raina stared nkly at the cheery Frey.


    "Huh...?" Shinto''s eyes slightly widened in curiosity, however, from the shadows, he could not see the figure any longer as if she had disappeared amidst the shadows. "...hah, she went off and battled immediately?" Shinto wasn''tining about this. He had hoped to see the animal that he had summoned, but there were other things to prioritize.


    With one step forward, Shinto began moving his staff over to Frey as he chanted out a skill [ Mark of Umbra ] onto her. In the next moment, Shinto shot out a field of shadow into the area whilst going into it.


    "Huh...? If it''s not you... Then is it Master?" Frey tilted her head whilst noticing the shadows around her. "Hey! You didn''t tell me you got a new power! If it''s like this... Why did you struggle?!"


    "...cough. This thing is technically not from me..." Letting out a cough in reply as he was about to shoot out his Divinity spells. But, his staff stopped midway as he noticed that the number of bats from earlier instantaneously dwindled down to only around ten. "...what?" Blinking in shock, his eyes was soon greeted by a dark arc that shed through the final ten numbers.


    [ Nightcrawler Cavern Bat has been defeated! ]


    [ You have levelled up to level 39! ]


    "...wow, it ended just like that?" Frey muttered out in excitement. "Hey! Master! Can you show me that again?!"


    "F-Frey... Like I said... It wasn''t me who did this..." Shinto awkwardly uttered out. "This was due to"


    "Oi, human!" Upon Shinto''s attempt to reason, a loud shout soon came from the slime who had been hiding behind Ethaniel''s body. "If you could have done this earlier, why didn''t you do it instead of making me run for my life?!"


    "Like I said... This wasn''t due to..."


    "Wait... You could''ve done this for that elementals too! Oi! Do you take me for a fool?!" Minister Yer cried out. "Ughh! You damn humans"


    "Ugh... As I said, it wasn''t due to"


    "...hey, slime?" A sudden female''s voice crept up from behind the minister. "Although only ke knows of suchnguage from you, I can still hear your condescending tone. Do you have a death wish?"


    "E-Eep!" Minister Yer yipped.