"Oh, now I understand. By the way, why are you so strong if you're only in the First Level Intermediate Awaken in both Complex Energy and Mystical Energy!?" Rose asks almost shouting.
"I am five times as strong as a normal First Level Intermediate Awaken cultivator, you shouldn't think that having double cultivation doesn't bring me more than one benefit. Also, my understanding of the wind had become quite impressive." Thorn responds as he puts one of his fingers inside the gorilla type monster's neck.
"That's awesome!" Rose gives a compliment, having her eyes full of admiration.
He then puts his finger, which is stained with the gorilla type monster's blood, in his mouth.
"*Cough* *cough* *cough*... What a repulsive flavor!" Thorn coughs and says this, but immediately afterward, he repeats his early action and tastes its blood again.
Seeing this, Rose says impatiently: "Why are you wasting our precious time!? We have to get out of here before we attract more monsters. If we're cornered, we won't be able to get out of here alive because it is obvious that you don't have much Complex Energy and Mystical Energy left!"
He looks at her and, hitting his back, he says: "I'm waiting for you to ride my back."
Rose becomes speechless, but soon she thinks: (I guess in this way we will move faster.) So she rides his back.
Piggybacking her, he stands up. Then from his bare feet, a gale begins to come out. Slowly, they begin to float and ascend. Rose is not surprised by this since it is known that most Wind Type Awakened Skill users can fly.
Soon, both leave the room, and floating above the hole that Rose dug, Thorn, asks her: "Lead me to the exit."
She quickly explains to him the route to get to the entrance of the cave, and then they set off. On their way, they meet another gorilla type monster but Thorn quickly slays it, don't allowing it to use its Awakened Skill, just as he did with the other one. And like this, they come out of the cave without more incidents, and then they are covered by the dense fog of the forest.
They start to ascend quicker than before and, a few minutes later, they leave the foggy region.
At that moment, they couldn't help but stop moving, and then they just keep looking at the starry sky.
This is because the sky with which they had met is just too beautiful, this night is really a night like very few, it is a soul striking night. The eye-opening rings of the planet split flawlessly a triangle formed by three full immense satellites in half.
One of these satellites is blue, other is red and the third one is white; all of them are shining brightly, but even so, they don't overshadow the colorful flickering lights of the stars that seem to be alive.
Thorn's eyes stop blinking. Involuntarily, his mouth opens and it remained open. His heart is invaded by a sense of satisfaction stronger than any other good feeling he had felt in the last one million years. This emotion is so great that tears began to flow from his eyes. The freedom he is feeling when looking at this sky is just too overwhelming, and just too perfect. With a quiver in his voice, he can't help but slowly mutter: "... The sky... was it always that... wonderful?"
Meanwhile, the look that Rose shoots at this starry sky is just captivating, because it is more passionate than any gaze that a maiden could use to look at her life's most loved one. It is a stare whose passion has not been weakened in the slightest by the number of times she had seen this firmament.
After a while, she replies sweetly: "The sky has always been wonderful, but, this night, I guess, it is showing off more than usual... Maybe it wanted to give you a welcome gift..."
Silently, they appreciate that sky for a long time.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
In this world there are many energy minerals, which are obtained from Earth Type Awakened Skill users and the parts or secretions of certain monsters and vegetable monsters. These energy minerals form in high temperatures an alloy called zenanium. The zenanium's properties vary greatly depending on the types and amounts of energy minerals that are used in its creation. The zenanium is classified, from lowest to highest quality, with these characters: E, D, C, B, A, S, S2, S3, etc.
The Civilized Races use the zenanium as the main material for the construction of daily tools and structures such as roads, sewers, bridges, buildings, city walls, ships, chariots, etc. Even the daily clothes are made of zenanium with elastic properties.
In general: Without Awaken cultivators' weapons and armors are made of E-class zenanium, Initial Awaken cultivators' weapons and armors are made of D-class zenanium, and so on.
The Lurep Village's black E-class zenanium walls are five meters wide and eighty meters high. Thanks to their great thickness and their complex structure they can even withstand the attacks of someone in the Twelfth Level Full Awaken. These imposing walls protect two million Civilized Races' individuals! In addition, they have a system of anti-flying-creatures weapons, because of this the buildings within the village are not constructed higher than the walls. They are made in such a way that they have three large gates: The north gate that faces The Land of Monsters, the south-east gate that faces the Lurep Village's Port and the west gate through which four large highways that lead towards other villages run past. These roads are always occupied by Civilized Races entering or leaving either on foot or in chariots, some of them are just visiting while others are carrying goods. But no one is entering or leaving flying. For various reasons, inside the walls of any village or city, it is forbidden to fly and also to battle.
Early in the morning, on the balcony of a building overlooking the north gate; there is a humanoid sitting with crossed arms, he has no head and a light jet black smoke cloud is above his neck, he is a dullahan.
The Dullahan's light jet black smoke cloud takes various forms and each dullahan has a characteristic form of light jet black smoke cloud over its neck.
This light jet black smoke cloud not only allows others to identify a dullahan from another but also all dullahan use it to see and hear as it function as receivers of light and vibrations.
As for this dullahan's light jet black smoke cloud, it has a shape of three horizontal little rods.
He has the body of a robust male. He is wearing a pitch black A-class zenanium armor with green and red patterns. Also, he releases a Third Level Full Awaken aura. He is Dani Zelu, the young master Ben's footman. He has been following Rose prudently and cautiously so that 'the possible protector' doesn't notice his presence.
At that moment he observes how Rose enters in Lurep Village while talking to a young man with black hair and violet eyes who is wearing only a bloodstained cloak. Then his dark voice coming from his neck sounds: "When she had left, she was alone... where that boy popped up from?"
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Rose and Thorn walk through the Lurep Village's streets. She had taken him to her inn so that he could take a good bath, she too took a bath, and then they go in search of a clothing store.
He looks shocked and says in an agitated voice: "I can't believe what you're saying: Now, the Civilized Races' territory is only one-tenth of the world! And, how can it be possible that the slimes, xandrias, arils and also the dragons have become extinct!?"
She looks at him with compassion and says: "I'm sorry... I guess it must be very hard for you to find out so abruptly that now you are the last xandria in the world."
"Well, I knew that sooner or later my race would go extinct after all our Racial Skill is a useless thing, so I'm not really impressed by it. What surprises me the most is that the dragons too have become extinct!" Thorn's expression becomes solemn and in his eyes can be found traces of fear, he explains: "They were the most powerful Civilized Race that existed, unrivaled living beings whether on the land, above in the air or even in the depths of the sea. Not only were they the most powerful, but also the most numerous and those who occupied the greatest extent of territory in the world. Even if all the other Civilized Races had come together to battle the dragons, the dragons would have won so easily that they would not even consider it a battle but simply a one-sided massacre."
"Wow. That powerful!?" She is surprised by his words.
"That powerful! Now, do you understand the great surprise you have given to me when you have told me that those sovereigns of the world have just like this become extinct?" He asks without losing his shocked expression.
They continued walking and after a while, they stop in front of a three-story building that has several types of clothes drawn on its walls.
Rose looks at him and says: "We arrived, here we will get some clothes for you. Let's get in."
One hour later.
They are returning to the inn while Rose wears a smile, Thorn wears a white t-shirt with some black words in it that says 'I am the boss' and... a black skirt that reaches up to his calves. He tried really hard to put on some pants but, his attempts failed due to the size of his mushroom head!
So he has a very angry face right now, it's a face that says 'if you dare to ask me why I'm wearing a skirt, I'll paint your cheeks red with slaps'.
And it happens that no matter what world it is, in none of them is there a lack of morons.
A tall and muscular humanoid with white skin, golden hair, blue eyes and pointed ears, a war elf; who wears a blue and black singlet, approaches to them laughing and says pointing his finger at Thorn's skirt: "Hahaha... boy, why are you wearing a skirt? Hahaha..."
Of course, after hearing this, Thorn starts moving to be in a good position to slap him.
But just before he can raise his hand, he sees through the crowd with a sideways glance a humanoid who instead of hair has green snakes and his eyes are completely green, he is a male gorgon wearing a white armor that has the symbol of The Broken Earth Kingdom's flag: A ship on the upper part, a wheat stalk on the lower part, a spherical flask on the right part and a hammer on the left part; It is the combination of the Four Great Families' crests.
This gorgon belongs to the kingdom's militia, he is a soldier. At this moment he is patrolling the village in search of some fool that may dare to break the laws.
Seeing this soldier, Thorn remembers that Rose had told him that it is forbidden to fight inside the village so he has no choice but to swallow his anger. Then he says to the impertinent war elf: "Ge--"
"What a man with so little chivalry!"
But before he could finish speaking he is interrupted by Rose's loud roar.
She points her finger at Thorn and says indignantly: "My friend may not have protruding breasts nor a butt that could attract a lot of admiring glances, but even so, she is a woman! And it's a great rudeness to call her 'boy'!" Her voice resonates loudly.
"Eeeeeehhh!?" Several passersby who heard and saw this were surprised.
"Eeeehh!?" After shouting this, the war elf looks at Thorn more closely and with wide eyes.
As for Thorn, he was speechless and with vacant eyes.
After looking at him for a while, the war elf says: "Now that I see you better, you do really look like a woman! You're even cute!"
At this moment Thorn is tempted to kill both the muscular war elf and Rose in a brutal and savage way with his own fingers and nails.
"Yes, it's a bit difficult to notice it at the first sight, but she definitely is a pretty girl."
"*Sigh*... I feel embarrassed about myself as a man by my inability to recognize a beautiful lady even when she is in front of me..."
"Mmm... I wonder if she is already committed to a man, what I would give to have a fiancée with such beautiful and exotic eyes as hers."
The bystanders comment and start to move away while Rose tries with all her willpower not to laugh.
The war elf suddenly kneels before Thorn and puts his forehead on the solid ground, then he says in an apologetic tone: "Please, beautiful young lady, forgive my previous harsh words. This will be a black stain in my honor as a man that I will carry my whole life. And if there is by any chance something that I can do for you to make amends for my terrible mistake, feel free to say it."
"Get lost." From Thorn's mouth a voice darker and colder than Dani Zelu's, echoes. Unfortunately, his voice was so distorted by anger that it had become high-pitched, thus giving off the impression of being the voice of a woman.
"Yes! Of course! I will not annoy you anymore with my disgraceful presence." In the end, it happens that the war elf retires having his cheeks painted red but not by slaps, it was by shame.
Thorn throws a look full of resentment towards Rose, but what he sees after doing so is a smiling Rose who is lifting her thumb. Then she says to him: "You don't need to thank me." She punches her chest, raises her head with pride and continues saying: "You can trust on me. I'll keep your 'big secret' safe of wild women."
(Why are you so proud of yourself, bastard!? What secret are you talking about!? I would be happy if 'my size' becomes public knowledge!) Thorn wants to scream this with all his might, but the blood that got stuck in his throat out of anger prevents him to do so.