As the sun was going down, the five of them gathered to discuss strategies. Since this mission was given to someone once every two years, they had all the information that they needed to come up with the fastest strategy to get over this quest.
The quickest strategy any of them knew about was the most obvious one. Divide and conquer, but instead of dividing their enemies, they were going to divide their team instead. Each of them would head into a different part of the forest and kill all night creatures they could find there.
The plan was simple but there was a problem. The curly brown-haired mage, Fae and the archer Renee needed someone to tank for them.
They weren't strong like the rest of them nor did they have heavy armour to protect them from the Monklin's agile blows. As a result, their plan of going their separate ways was immediately vetoed by the three of them.
"I know it will take a lot of time this way, but I think this is the best plan to ensure our safety." Markus chimed in while Ashton and the Knight stared at each other.
Ashton was a bit annoyed by the chance of plans, but there wasn't anything he could have done to persuade them to put their lives in danger. If only Markus had not chimed in, Fae and Renee both would have agreed to the proposal and they would already be on their way to the forest, hunting Monklins.
Since the three of them were going to stick together, there was no way the knight would have let Ashton out of his sight either. After all, the king had made it his life's mission to protect Ashton no matter what.
Also, even though they were part of the same team, there was no reason for Ashton and the knight to blindly trust Markus and his group. For all they knew, they could try and betray them for rewards or something. Incidents where members of a party 'accidentally' died were very common after all.
"Fine, we'll divide into two groups then." Ashton sighed and began stretching his muscles, "You people take the north, we'll take care of the monsters in the south. Once you are done, we'll meet in the abandoned city, is that understood?"
All of them nodded and headed to their respective objectives. Once Markus and company were out of earshot, the knight asked Ashton a serious question... Could they trust them?
"There's no way to be sure they won't. However, I'm not here to trust them either." Ashton replied in an uncaring tone, "As long as they can do what I asked of them, I wouldn't bat an eye even if some of them die."
It appeared that the knight was not expecting to get such a straight and cold answer from someone who was just 16. But then again, it was about time he realised he wasn't talking to an ordinary noble brat either.
"While we hunt for the creatures, I'd like to ask something as well. That is if you don't mind obviously."
"Go ahead."
"What's your name?" Ashton asked as they headed deeper into the woods.
"The Royal guards don't have names. Only our captain has a name while the rest of us are just numbers. Makes it easier to order us around and assign tasks." The knight replied in a monotonous voice, "But to answer your question, I'm Seven."
"Weird..." Ashton shrugged his shoulder and everything went quiet again... too quiet.
"They are here." Seven mumbled under his breath.
In a flash, both of them had their weapons drawn. Ashton had his whip while Seven had his longsword. Then, they waited... however, nothing happened. But Ashton knew they were not hallucinating because his [Perception] was screaming at him. They were surrounded by hundreds of monklins.
"You wanna play this game? Fine by me."
Monklins might have wanted to pull a sneak attack on them, but Ashton had just the skill he needed to get rid of their advantage.
[Wolf's Mark has been activated.]
[Presence of more than five creatures found in the user's vicinity. Five nearest targets have been marked. Location of marked targets have been revealed.]
[Damage and Agility have been boosted by 50% for 3 minutes.]
The next moment five claw marks appeared in the air for both Ashton and Seven to see. Without even speaking a word to each other, the two of them dashed in opposite directions. Ashton used his whip to traverse in the forest easily and in no time he found the first of his target.
The Monklin's appearance was quite bizarre, unlike anything Ashton had seen before. They appeared like small humans with four arms, six charcoal-like eyes and a weird gooey greenish skin. However, the Monklin wasn't alone, there were at least a dozen others with him.
But before they could use their agile abilities on him, Ashton quickly disabled them using his armour's [Lure] ability. Since the Monklins were all below level 13, they could no longer use their skills, while giving Ashton the perfect opportunity to hunt them down.
With a single swing of his whip, Ashton caught the head of three monklins and ripped them off of their shoulders.
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You have received 30% Exp by killing 3 <Lvl 10> Monklins.
Current Werewolf Level: 13
Current Werewolf skill points: 23
Current Exp: 48%
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However, Ashton wasn't done yet. After confirming that he was quite far away from Seven, he immediately activated the rest of his genes while battling through the pain from doing so and grabbed one of the severed heads before chomping it like an apple.
"Argh... It tastes like shit! And why the hell do I even know how shit tastes like?" Ashton involuntarily made a disgusted face but took another bite while also drinking some of the disgusting blood leaking out.
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You have received 15% Exp by consuming the blood of a new creature.
You have levelled up! Exp limit has been reset.
Current Vampire Level: 10
You have received 6% Exp by consuming the blood of a <Lvl 10> Monklin.
Current vampire skill points: 15
Current Exp: 6%
You have received 20% Exp by consuming the flesh of a new creature.
You have levelled up! Exp limit has been reset.
Current Zombie Level: 9
You have received 12% Exp by consuming the flesh of a <Lvl 10> Monklin.
Current Zombie skill points: 9
Current Exp: 12%
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This act of eating their kin in front of them enraged the rest of the Monklins, but they couldn't do a thing but run. They were afraid as despite despising Ashton, they did not want to meet an end like the three of them just did.
"Who gave you permission to run?" Ashton wiped the blood off his mouth and threw the head away before charging straight towards them.