Hajime, having taken down one of the Night Shade agents, closed the distance between another one and struck him on the back of his head. With two of them already beaten with relative ease, the remaining two agents attempted to flee.
However, Hajime used mana manipulation to create tendrils, dragging them back. With a fast strike to their necks, he knocked them unconscious. He deactivated the mana manipulation skill and wiped his hands. He took out his dimension pouch and summoned a small sapphire crystal ball. With a wave of the crystal ball over the bodies of the agents, he initiated an incantation;
"Let the remnants of memory gather at the tip of my fingers and reveal the hidden mysteries of unseen events. Memory fogging Magic!!".
With the incantation, Hajime altered the memories of the Night Shade agents. Instead of the night shade being defeated, he made them believe that they had eliminated him and disintegrated his body. Hajime opened a warp portal and returned to the vampire garden. Once there, he went to the Alchemy Lab and put away the material he purchased from Alfonse. He went to the study, where the others were waiting for his arrival. Once there, he informed them of the need to travel to the waning woods continent. The mention of the waning woods intrigued both the beast girl and the elf, who were now part of the team.
Hajime looked at the new dress the beast girl was wearing and complimented it, making her shy yet glad. As for the elf, she wore a maid dress, similar to Silk's dress. He decided to prepare for the journey the day after tomorrow. From what he heard from Alfonse, he was also curious about the healing properties of the Tears of time flower. As such, he offered to pay any price Hajime wanted, if he could get him one.
This was perfect for Hajime, since he needed a craftsman to help with the construction of the artifact. Hajime turned to the elf girl and asked whether she knew of the tears of time flower. The elf girl had not.
This made them understand that the elf girl had been kidnapped at a young age. The only thing the elf girl remembered was her older sister, who had left to find food for them by the time she was taken. Hajime decided that Elisa would come with him where as Silk would stay and watch over the young girls. The beast girl seemed sad when he said this. Hajime, noticing her sad expression patted her on the head, and gave a reassuring smile. The smile brought back memories to the seemingly mute beast girl and she felt at ease with Hajime. The heart-warming site brought joy to Elisa who was watching them. Hajime and Elisa decided to return to the inn to keep up appearances as travelling adventurers. When they arrived, they had dinner with the inn keeper and her daughter and retired to their room. That night, Hajime dawned his reaper mask to pay the harvenger a not so friendly visit. His twenty-four-hour starved state suppression had been complete and he gained its associated rewards. He was now able to kill and assimilate soul energy. He traced the harvenger's location with his mana manipulation and found that he had taken shelter in another section of the underground tunnel system. Hajime quickly located him, decapitating him alongside his guards.
A system notification appeared;
Administrator has assimilated three individual soul energies.
Status point conversion successful:
[administrator]: Hajime Floriene Grimm
[ age] : 18
[ class] : Reaper
[ job class] : Soul Devourer (hidden)
[ level] : Lv. 150
[ physical composition] :
Strength: 4500
Agility: 1008
Health points: 400000
Mana points: 40000
Regeneration: Lv. 89: 200mp/second
[ unique skills] :
Shadow cloak- Lv. 17
Sky walker- Lv. 15
Destruction Magic- Lv. 30
Mana manipulation- Lv. 45
Suppressor- Lv. 19
Fortitude- Lv. 23
Far Scope- Lv. 14
Magic Rank: SS
Guild Rank: F
Hajime knew that his stats had grown, but in order for him to get stronger, he needed to battle the Night Crawlers. That was the curse of his Soul Devourer class. The night was still young, the light of the crimson moon complimenting the eerie atmosphere. It would take almost a month's time to reach the waning woods from the imperial capital. He needed to find information on what Alfonse told him. According to Alfonse, imperial family members with the empire's official seal, could access warp platforms to instantly teleport to any place that had its warp platform connected to the one in the imperial capital. At the moment, the only way to gain the insignia was to win the Tournament of brave warriors. Hajime decided to find strong monsters in the Ambrosia woods to improve his skill for the tournament the following day.
Using a warp portal, he found himself back in the forest, the nostalgic familiarity hanging on him. He summoned the Petal Scattering Blade and prepared to test out his new found abilities. Using far scope, he detected hostile monster a few meters ahead and dashed forward with Shadow Cloak activated. On a nearby tree branch, he watched the squad of ogres as they scavenged for food. He was patient, anticipating the right moment for his assault. He was about to ambush, when a loud howl disrupted the calmness of the night. It was a grey fang. From the sound of it, Hajime could tell it was in distress. He chose to ignore, but his inner instinct wouldn't stop nagging him to go and check. He gave in to curiosity and leapt in the direction of the sound.
When he got to the source of the howling, he found a pack of grey fangs mercilessly slaughtered he checked their dead bodies, noticing how the slashes on the bodies felt like those of a monster. A savage one at that. He used far scope once more and there it was, an earth dragon. Hajime knew that it was too late since the wolves had already been slaughtered. Somehow, he felt guilty, knowing he had once slaughtered a pack of grey fangs himself. He was getting ready to return to the ogres, when he noticed a high-pitched yelp, reminiscent of an injured dog. He used far scope once more and this time, he noticed a wolf cub about to be slashed by the dragon. With a sudden dash, Hajime intervened and slashed at the dragon's feet. Cradling the wolf cub in his arms, he pointed his blade at the dragon.
Hajime placed the cub down and stood up ready to slay the dragon before him. The earth dragon prepared a devastating claw smash, but Hajime simply leapt mid-air to evade. Bringing his blade down, he activated the basic move, Petals That Scatter, to tear the dragon into pieces. As the body of the dragon collapsed to the ground, fountains of blood gushing out, Hajime turned to the beast cub.
"You are alright now... ... ... ...".
With admiration for its saviour the wolf cub ran to Hajime's side, licking his boots and tapping them with his white furred paws. Hajime was pleased to see the cub alright and looked at it, only to see his servitude mark appear on its forehead as a system notification appeared reading;
New familiar acquired.
Dark Type Beast; Grey Fang Cub.