19 Solo Exploration!

Hearing the grudge filled voice, every turned to the voice's location. A man stood up with a white suit, he had gray hair with the typical donut hair cut. The man was glaring daggers at Melanie, he clearly wanted Aria for himself!

"Felix, there is no need for discussion, the Palace Of Light will get first pick. The Vindicators are second so you're not suffering any losses, technically." Neo didn't want to hear it, this guy was a representative, he had a reputation of complaining a lot when something didn't go his way.

"Please, just a second, my Lord. I have a proposal to make, it's a challenge to see who gets first pick." Felix slyly looked at Melanie who expression remained indifferent.

"Oh?" Neo thought for a moment then shook his head. "This isn't my decision to make, this is the representative of the Palace Of Light's choice to make." Even though Neo never showed himself in public, he knew about the rivalry between the Vindicators and the Palace Of light.

Felix turned towards Melanie with a cold smirk. "Hmph! What do you say, do you want to battle me, it isn't a physical battle but a Battle of Wills!" In simple words, it was a battle with their minds, the Mind Element!

"Hahaha! Look at you, you're such a petty, sad, and a spoiled man!" Melanie laughed in contempt, she had tears in her eyes from the sight of Felix!

Many people wanted to laugh, but didn't, they just watched with anticipation. Others didn't mind as the heroes will serve the same purpose in the end. Unless they wanted to exploit the strength of a hero for their own selfish purposes!

"You damn bitch, are you going to battle or what!?" Felix lost his temper, he really wish to attack this stuck up woman, but he couldn't do that in the presence of such powerful and high figures.

"Language, Felix! We don't speak like that in this place and surely in a sacred place like this!" A Temple Guardian watching from the side immediately spoke out against Felix's foul language.

"Ah, sorry, it's just that she called me petty and I overreacted a bit." Felix scratched his head and apologized.

"The Palace Of Light has the most merit, and with you not being able to accept that, it seems pretty petty." The Guardian shrugged and every else in the room couldn't agree more.

"Damn it! Forget it then!"

"Who said I didn't want to battle you?" Just when Felix was about to sit, Melanie spoke out, how could she let him go just like that?

"Oh? So, you want to do battle? Haha, you'll regret no turning away when you had a way out!" Felix stepped forward with a grin on his face, he wanted to humiliate the Palace Of Light so much, and it was the perfect time for it!

Melanie didn't reply and stepped forward as well, she was still smiling, but not smiling at the same time.

Suddenly, green Aura formed around both their bodies. Their Mind Elemental Forces clashed with one another. The guardians had already form a light barrier around the two to prevent any powerful mind attacks hitting anyone.

It would be wise to not get hit with this PsyForce, it could destroy someone's mind with a glimpse if strong enough! Everyone watched in amazement, this was especially so for the new heroes, this power was what they could gain!

Jack knew better, he had the Mind Element and grew excited seeing how strong it was. Just from the forces, it looked like Felix was winning. Senna frowned when she saw this, she didn't like Felix, he was too arrogant like most Vindicators.

However, at that moment, Felix's Mind force was destroyed under Melanie's attack all of sudden!

"Ugh!" Felix experienced a terrible shockwave to his mind, giving him a terrible headache! With that, he was blown away by the mind force as he slammed into the barrier that was set by the Temple Guardians.

"Impossible! Councilman Felix's Mind Force has reached the Mastery Level of C, how is that possible!?" One of the men that came with Felix couldn't believe it, mastery was everything!

"It's simple! If you feel the force she's giving off, you can tell that her Mastery Level has reached B-Grade!" Neo had sensed it long ago and could tell she had advanced to the next stage with her Mind Element.

"B-B-Grade!" Everyone was surprised, B-Grade was extremely hard to achieve, but she had done it. For example, if your abilities were all the same level, they would cancel each other out. However, if the Mastery of a person was higher, but they had the same Level technique/ abilities, the higher Mastery Grade would triumph against the lower.

The man walked over to help Felix up, but Felix pulled away holding his head, he was angry. Felix glared with hate at Melanie, but she only smiled mockingly toward him. "Well, it has been settled, you can take the hero you picked and have a seat." Neo shook his head, the Vindicator surely lost face today, that's for sure.

Many factions sighed, the Palace Of Light was getting stronger and stronger, what a pain! Afterward, Felix chose Jack as his hero, Jack had no problem with it and went over to his side. After 30 minutes, certain factions were finally done picking their hero.

Neo gave a quick speech before having everyone dismissed out of the Altar Room.

"Hmm, Keep a close eye on the Palace Of Light, their strength seemed to be growing even more," Neo said thoughtfully.

"Yes, sir, we have a couple of spies in there that have been keeping watch. Sadly, none of them knew of Melanie's breakthrough!" The hooded man hurriedly and said.

"Understandable, but mainly have them keep an eye on that hero Melanie took, she doesn't seem simple at all! We have to keep all of the heroes under our control, we can't let one go!" Neo wasn't talking so softly anymore, it was like he had completely changed.

"Yes, Yes, most certainly, sir!" The hooded man bowed. "But what about when this is all over with Demons and Devils, will we send them home, afterward?" The hooded man asked curiously.

"Home? This is a one-way trip, there is no returning home after they've come here! We'll use them for our greater purpose in due time, we'll pamper them for now, but later!" Neo smiled sinisterly, this gave the hooded man a cold chill which left him silent.

Neo looked at the hooded man. "Make sure the spies report everything the heroes learn and do, we have to keep a track record for later." Neo said nothing more and walked away, it was no telling what he was planning or thinking. The heroes could used, in fact, they had been used in the past for many purposes unknown.

"Yes, I'll give them the message immediately!" The hooded man quickly left soon after to report.

....

Heaven's Gate Dungeon.

"Nice! not bad, you little fellows have worked hard, too bad two of your buddies died!" Vitiate shook his head. Two Goblins fell to their death trying to get these Fire Crystals, but what could he do?

The Goblins brought back a great amount of Fire Crystals, these crystals were good for birthing bird and reptile-like creatures/monsters. Vitiate gave the 8 Goblins nice armor and good weapons, it didn't take much to really please these little guys.

Vitiate warped back to the 10th floor where he placed the eggs at, he sat the crystals next to the Griffin eggs as planned. This place was a paradise Garden for Lily, she was still playing in the garden area. "Good! The little goblins told me it was night outside right now, I want to explore a bit by myself."

This was dangerous, but Vitiate had many escape abilities if he ran into trouble. He also had the Techniques called Nightshade, which made him invisible at night. This also suppressed his presence to some degree, so it wouldn't be so easy to spot him.

Vitiate warped to the Dungeon entrance and exit and walked out. He quickly activated Nightshade and ran off into the forest. The Spider attack in the past was never explained, he just thought it was a random attack, so he didn't mind it.

Vitiate climb the tree and started jumping from tree to tree silently. His dexterity stat was pretty decent, so he could to this.

Author note: Dexterity is Agility, pretty much. :D

Vitiate passed many monsters while jumping from tree to tree, he had spotted 5 minotaurs, 3 Lizardmen, and some primitive goblins so far. After about 15 more minutes, he spotted a group of humans that looked exhausted.

"What in the world, there are still idiots that dare to come to this forest!" Vitiate Paused and spied on the Human group. Two were carrying swords and one carried a spear, while the other was clearly a doctor since he was treating another man.

There were a total of 7 of them, 2 swordsmen, 1 spearman, 1 doctor, 2 Bowmen, and someone that was carrying a map in his hand, he must be an explorer of some sort. The man put the map back into his bag after looking at it for a brief moment.

Vitiate eyes turned sharp, a map? This was something he needed most right now, so he just decided to listen in on their conversation.

"Fuck! We ended up getting split from the other group!" One of the swordsman said, he had a large brown beard with sharp eyes.

"They had the slaves we were going to sell to the nobleman in Goa Village! If they die, we'll lose a lot of money and all will be for nothing!" One of the bowmen wasn't thrilled at the thought of losing money, but who would?

"That damn monster just attacked us out of nowhere, its scorpion-like tail impaled our other warriors to death. The creature is clearly a poisonous type, they died so fast from the poison, how can we fight something that fast and dangerous!?" The Explorer was angry, but this was within everyone's expectation. They were the ones who decided to cross the Red Sea and come to this Big Island!

"The elves killed a nobleman and his crew about a month or so ago for kidnapping their kind! The Elf Kingdom is on this island, and they often scout this forest so if they see us, we're done for!"

"Wait a minute, is it me, or does it feel like we're being watch?" The Bowmen stood up and readied his bow after hearing the bearded swordsman.

"Have I been discovered, but that's impossible for them!" Vitiate was a bit surprised, but didn't move an inch.

"Come out and stop hiding!" The swordsmen all readied their swords and looked around cautiously. Vitiate frowned, it looked like he was found out, but just when he thought that, a monster jumped out of the forest and roared!

It quickly shot fire from its mouth, everyone was stunned and quickly evacuated the area! Sadly, the wounded Bowman wasn't so fortunate, he was torched to death by the fire!

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"Ahhh!"

He screamed, but it was nothin anyone could do!

Vitiate was surprised and looked towards the monster that jumped out. It had a Scorpion tail, with bat-like wings on its back. The creature had the body and head of a lion, it was clear what it was!

"Manticore!" Vitiate instinctively said.

There were two types of Manticores, there was one that had the typical lion face and head. Then there was the Manticore that had a face similar to a human. It was smarter and would make evil facial expressions, grins, and laughs like humans. This type of Manticore actually got off on seeing people's miserable and fear-stricken expressions before it killed them, as it would usually laughed while doing so!

"Interesting, let's watch and see what happens!" Vitiate just spectated, maybe he could take them all down at once.