The Start (2)

While resting, Thomas started to get bored. He looked around at his two exhausted friends and then the sight of Magnus caught his eye. He began to smile as he thought of an idea to alleviate his boredom.

"Oi, porter, stand there and hold a piece of stone or something and be my target practice," Thomas ordered, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Uh, can't you just do it with Tyler? He can improve his skill with blocking while you can practice your aim," Magnus replied, trying to reason with Thomas.

Tyler and Thomas exchanged amused looks, struggling to suppress their laughter.

Finally, Tyler broke the silence and said, "Nah, I don't feel like moving my body right now. Let me rest a bit."

"You heard him, porter. Now stop being a coward and come here. It's not like I'm going to miss anyway," Thomas said with a scoff, his confidence unwavering.

Knowing what was about to happen, Magnus hesitated, his mind racing with possible consequences.

"Come here now, or do you want me to just practice aiming by shooting you from right here?" Thomas's voice held a dangerous edge.

"Okay," Magnus replied reluctantly, then turned to Tyler and asked, "Can I at least use your shield?"

"Sure," Tyler responded with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Magnus summoned Tyler's shield from his storage and started walking towards the wall Thomas had indicated. As he made his way there, his foot caught on Ryan's outstretched leg, causing him to stumble and fall under the weight of the shield.

"Oops, my bad, Magnus. Didn't see you there," Ryan said, a mischievous grin plastered on his face.

Magnus stood up, his face flushed with irritation, and made his way to the wall. Turning around, he held the shield up to cover his head.

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah-"

A sharp pain suddenly shot through Magnus's left thigh, causing him to cry out in agony.

"OW, WHAT THE FUCK? I THOUGHT YOU WERE NOT GOING TO MISS?" Magnus shouted angrily, his hand clamped tightly around the wound.

"Sorry, Mag, you know that everyone makes mistakes, right?" Thomas said sarcastically, a broad grin on his face as he joined his friends, who were laughing at Magnus's misfortune.

After removing the arrow, Magnus hastily applied a healing potion from his inventory to the wound, which instantly closed up, leaving no trace of the injury.

"Magnus, are you done with treating that wound of yours?" Tyler asked, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Yeah, I used a healing potion on it, so I'm all good now," Magnus replied, his voice tinged with residual irritation.

"Good, then we'll move on to the next room," Ryan announced.

The group of four stepped into a room filled with vibrant, colorful crystals. In the center, an enormous, majestic wolf stood, its fur shimmering with a celestial glow.

"Is that... a space wolf?" Magnus stared in a mix of fear and awe, his eyes wide with wonder.

"I guess we're in luck today. I heard that their blood is like an elixir and can heal and improve your body," Tyler's eyes gleamed with greed and anticipation.

The 5th room's formidable monster, known as the Door Boss, can sometimes possess elemental attributes - wielding the forces of fire, water, wind, earth, and space. When facing such a foe, you must be wary, for using the same element against it will prove futile.

The 5th room's monster had a unique attribute: space. This meant that it could be damaged by any type of attack, but the damage would be reduced to a mere 25%. Defeating such a powerful foe would be no easy feat.

"Ah, this is going to take a while. Porter, give us our weapons," Ryan ordered, already sizing up the formidable creature.

Silence. No response.

"This useless porter, are you deaf? Give us our weapons!" Tyler shouted angrily.

"Wait... where is our porter?" Thomas asked, a puzzled expression on his face.

"That useless porter. Did he piss his pants off and run back to his dead mommy when he saw the space wolf? What a coward," Ryan scoffed, his initial confidence wavering.

"Wait... that porter... HE WAS HOLDING OUR WEAPONS!" Tyler's face fell, the realization dawning on him.

The smug smiles vanished from the group's faces as they comprehended the gravity of their situation. Without their trusty weapons, they were woefully unprepared to face the formidable space wolf.

"How are we going to defeat the space wolf now? Even with a weapon, it takes about 15 minutes to kill it. How are we going to do it?" Tyler's words were cut short by a deafening roar.

The space wolf had awakened, its eyes glowing with a primal hunger.

"I still have a hunting knife. I can still fight. It might be a space attribute, but it's still just a D-rank monster," Thomas said, his voice laced with confidence. Turning to the scared Tyler, he added, "Stop being a coward. You can still strengthen your muscles, right? Use that to fight."

Tyler took a deep breath and replied, "Okay. We can do this!"

As Thomas was about to address Ryan, he was horrified to see his friends being torn apart by the rampaging space wolf.

Without hesitation, Tyler rushed towards the wolf, his muscular fists pummeling the creature's flank. Thomas joined the fray, swinging his knife with all his might, slashing at the wolf's leg.

After a grueling battle, the wolf began to weaken, its movements slowing. Seeing an opportunity, Tyler became overconfident and let his guard down.

"It's weakening, we need to finish it quickly. Oh, when we get out of this, I'm going to kill that porter. No, wait. I'm going to torture him, then-"

"TYLER!"

*Chomp*

Tyler's head and upper body vanished, devoured by the space wolf's powerful jaws. Only his legs remained, a grim testament to the creature's ferocity.

Witnessing the brutal demise of his best friend, Thomas was overcome with grief and rage. With tears streaming down his face, he charged at the wolf, his knife plunging into its left eye. He continued to stab the creature relentlessly, his anguish fueling his savage onslaught.

Finally, the wolf's lifeless form collapsed to the ground, its once-mighty presence reduced to a bloody, unrecognizable mess.

"I will get revenge for you and Ryan, I promise. I will kill that fucking porter," Thomas vowed, his voice thick with emotion.

As he stood up to leave, he stumbled and fell, exhausted. He looked around his body and saw scratches from the wolf's claws everywhere. It hurt. He didn't realize it before, as he had been focused on the fight, but now that it was over, the pain he had been trying to ignore started to surface.

He looked around, desperate. He needed to exit the room before the door disappeared. Then he saw the blood of the space wolf. Unlike normal monster blood, it was the color of space instead of green. Then he remembered what Tyler had said about space attribute monsters' blood.

It can heal and improve an individual's body.

As that thought came to his mind, he crawled to the wolf's corpse. He reached out his hand like a bowl and scooped the colorful blood with his fingers. Then, he drank it. He drank it like a maniac.

After consuming about a liter of the wolf's blood, Thomas thought to himself, "Yes! Now I can get out of this door and kill that bastard!" ...wait, why don't I feel better?

"Why is the space blood not working? Is what you are probably wondering, right?" Magnus's voice came out of nowhere and interrupted Thomas's thoughts, then continued, "It's because after consuming the blood, you have to give it about 30 minutes for it to start healing your body. Geez, next time do your research before wasting those precious liquids."

"You... YOU BASTARD. IF IT WASN'T FOR YOU, WE WOULD STILL HAVE OUR WEAPONS AND COULD HAVE EASILY KILLED THAT WOLF! I WILL KILL YOU!" As Thomas recognized the voice, he stood up and, despite his pain, charged at Magnus with a knife.

As Thomas charged at Magnus, the latter sidestepped and tripped Thomas, causing him to fall face-down to the floor.

"Oops, my bad, Thomas, didn't see you there," Magnus said with a creepy smile.

"Ughh," Thomas, still trying to recover from his fall, moaned.

"Oh yeah, how about some shooting practice? I was practicing with your bow while waiting for you. I even figured out how to make mana arrows!" Magnus said with a proud look on his face.

"You bastard. DID YOU FORGET THAT YOU CAN ONLY STORE STUFF?" Thomas laughed as he started to stand up.

"Um, I don't think you understand. Nobody said that I can't use a weapon just because I can only store things," Magnus replied with a shrug, then continued, "Are you going to come here or do I have to shoot you from here? I need to improve my aim by shooting a living person."

"And with what arrow? Those arrows only work for me," Thomas replied as he started to walk closer to Magnus with the hunting knife behind his back.

"Bro, have you not been listening to me? I said I was able to use mana arrows-"

Magnus was interrupted as he was stabbed by Thomas. Thomas laughed maniacally as he pushed the knife deeper.

"I did, I heard everything you said. Honestly, I'm surprised even a failure like you were able to learn how to make mana into objects. BUT IT WON'T MATTER, CAUSE YOU WILL DIE TODAY!"

"I admit that I was not paying attention, but wow, you clearly can't see that your knife didn't stab me," Magnus asked with disappointment on his face.

"Huh...?" a confused Thomas questioned as he looked down. He wasn't the one pushing the knife in, the knife was being consumed. Consumed by a blue portal. Then the knife disappeared.

"Thanks for the new knife, buddy," Magnus said as he summoned the knife to his right hand. "I have to admit, I never liked the bow. I could get used to this knife. It's light and easy to swing."

Then Magnus looked at Thomas. Thomas was now on the floor, tears in his eyes. He knew he couldn't do anything anymore. He could master any weapon, but without them, what was he supposed to do?

As Thomas turned around and started crawling, he was suddenly kicked down by Magnus.

"Where do you think you're going?" Magnus said creepily.

As Thomas looked at Magnus, he saw the scary blue eyes and dark aura glowing from him.

"No... please... I can give you anything! My brother, he is one of the Sovereigns! He is the Sovereign of Mirage! If you do anything to me, he will find you and kill you and your family! Please, just let me go. You've already killed 2 of my friends, have mercy!" Thomas begged while looking at Magnus desperately.

"Blah, blah, blah, whatever you said, and who said I'm doing this for revenge? I'm just doing it to take out the stress that has been gathering for 10 years," Magnus said with a menacing look.

Seeing that he had no chance, Thomas decided to use this opportunity to start running. Before he could go any further, he was stabbed in the leg.

"AGH" Thomas screamed in pain as he looked up just to see a knife coming straight at him.

*stabs*

*stabs*

*stabs*

*stabs*

*stabs*

*stabs*

Six stabs: one at the right hand, one at the left hand, one at the left chest, one at the left thigh, one more at the right thigh, and finally one at the neck. As if that wasn't enough, Magnus put his right foot on Thomas's private part and stepped on it.

Satisfied, Magnus took a step back and said "Never threaten my family."

After collecting the rest of the space wolf's blood and harvesting some crystals, Magnus sat down and breathed out a large sigh.

"Sovereign of Mirage, huh? I wonder if all this was worth 5 thousand dollars." Magnus said as he gazed at the trio ascender's corpse.