Chapter 16 Elysia's Cold Heart

Shaman felt the presence of the man, so she walked up to Elysia and whispered in her ear.

"We are being followed and it seems to be one person, when they jump out do you think you could kill him with your arrow." Elysia understood and nodded but also blushed a little from Shaman being so close.

Elysia's blush helped as the man watching saw this and thought they were just flirting.

'tch, these damn girls, they won't see the light of day once I'm done.' The man gritted his teeth as he was a little jealous and even leaked a bit of killing intent.

The man had also jumped out to attack out of rage since he could not stand them.

Elysia saw the man jump out from some Bushes behind Shaman and was fast approaching. Elysia quickly pulled back the string only using 3MP for her arrow this time. She quickly aimed at the man who was now a few meters away, she let go of the string and it was almost point-blank which hit the man almost instantly lodging itself in his heart.

The man who now has an arrow in his chest fell to the ground and started screaming.

"IT BURNSSS, IT BURNSSS!!!!!" The man's desperate cries could be heard as he was being cooked alive. After a minute the man had finally died as his heart had been burnt to a crisp.

Elysia had a cold glare while looking at the man.

"Jeez Elysia, although you use fire you sure do have a cold heart." Shaman had a joking tone as Elysia did not hesitate to kill a man unlike she was initially when she first arrived to this world.

Elysia broke out of her glare and returned back to her usual mood.

"Well, when you get put through mental torture for many days and have to barely live off crumbs for years you tend to not have much emotion for other people that treat you badly." Elysia blurted out a tiny bit of trauma she had experienced.

Shaman had a blank expression as she believed what Elysia had been through, although she was captured and did not seem like someone who would live in the slums, but from what she had said indicated that she had lived a very hard life beforehand.

A sudden burst of sadness could be felt within Shaman and all she wanted to do was comfort her.

Elysia cocked her head to the side looking at Shaman a little confused.

"Oh you poor girl, it's okay I'll make sure you don't live a life like that ever again." Shaman then leapt at Elysia and hugged her as she felt really bad for her and for such a talent to be treated so badly, all she wanted to do was just protect her.

although in reality that won't be the case and there was always going to be danger she wanted Elysia to have some comfort in this world.

"Whenever you're ready, I'll listen to your story." Elysia who was blushing like mad could not believe her ears.

"y-yes I w-will." Elysia's cold heart had melted and the walls she had put up to protect herself were now being crumbled even further by Shaman. After this, a System message popped up for both of them.

[Bond between user Shaman and Elysia has deepened, all quests will now show to Elysia and rewards will go to Elysia depending on contribution; some expectations apply to some rewards.]

"This is AMAZING." Shaman cried out and jumped off Elysia.

"We can now do the quest together and better yet we both get the rewards." Shaman was a little baffled by this causing Wolfy to fall off again but this time Shaman was not able to catch him.

Wolfy rolled a little before stopping and he just laid there and accepted his fate.

"uhh what are these quests you are talking about?" Elysia had an idea but was unsure what it meant.

"System gives me a quest to hunt a tier 4." Shaman yelled out and it had actually given her the quest.

[Quest: Hunt a tier 4 beast]

[Tier tier 2 leader beast killed 0/1]

[Rewards]

3 level ups

30 attribute points

Elysia's eyes widened when the system popped up as now she understood what Shaman had meant.

"As you can see we can be granted a quest depending on the situation, it seems like they can be activated manually or automatically but once you are strong enough quest won't appear for the same thing, also the rewards scale with how difficult it is." Shaman had explained what she knows as she is still unsure how it works but that was her best guess.

"I'll let you kill it and complete it since this will instantly bring you up to level 10 and we can get you to evolve. Also, do you know why the beast tier seems so easy like as a tier 1 I killed a tier 3 with no problems?" Shaman had also asked Elysia why beasts were so weak as it seemed like the tier did not represent them well at all.

"Oh I know this one, it's probably because there are 20 tiers when it comes to beast tiers and the reason for that is to just separate the intelligent beast with unintelligent ones. So, for example, most wolves are tier one but the wolf leader will be tier 2 as it is more intelligent but it is still a tier 1 level." Elysia had learnt this from her father as he was an adventurer before he died.

"That makes sense but that is just stupid for having a system like that, couldn't they just give them a different name like tier 1 leader so people know it is better than a normal tier 1." Shaman blurted out a retort as she did not understand why people were so stupid.

"I do think it is stupid but that is just how it is." Elysia also thought this as it was just confusing.

"System, can you change it so when I inspect a beast it just goes through 1 to 10 and if it fits the criteria of an intelligent beast just add a leader to the end." Shaman knew she had some control over the system as it names everything itself.

[Done]

"Thank you." Shaman sighed, relieved that now she can tell the difference between the 2 and won't make her head spin, Elysia also got the same message.

"Wow you really can do what you want, do you have full control or something?" Elysia was now curious as it seemed like Shaman had a great influence on it.

"I really don't, it just seems that anything mundane is done without issues but if I ask a tall order it goes silent or just says no." Shaman crossed her arms and sighed a little as she wished it was that easy.

"I guess that makes sense but we probably should get going, we don't have all day."

Shaman nodded and they both went off to the forest, Shaman had also retrieved the fallen Wolfy, they also borrowed the man's coins but did not take his weapon as it was only a tier 1.

*

Both Elysia and Shaman grinded a little bit with Shaman upgrading her Sword dash and slash to level 2, Wolfy also did some killing and was able to level up all his skills except shadow cloak and also got level 9. Elysia also managed to get to level 8 meaning only 2 more levels.

"We have made some progress but still no tier 2 leader yet." Shaman was a little bit disappointed as they were in the right area to encounter one but were unable to.

"Do we want to call it quits or continue a bit longer?" Elysia was also disappointed as she was saving her MP for a killing blow on a tier 2 leader so she was unable to kill many things and wished she had brought normal arrows.

"Hmm, I think we will go a little further since we are in no hurry." Shaman pulled out some food and water, they all ate and continued through the forest but the tier 2 leader they were looking for had been following them.

A black panther was silently moving through the bushes and was now approaching the trio.

Shaman had noticed the movement as it finally got close enough for Shamans heightened sense of hearing to hear it approaching.

"ELYSIA, jump back and get ready." Shaman shouted as she was unsure what it could be.

Elysia had done what she said and readied her arrow. Wolfy had also joined Elysia and stood back

A massive black panther jumped out from the darkness growling at Shaman.

'Fuck that's a massive panther with some ripped muscles, did it take steroids or something.' Shaman was a little surprised by how big it was as big as a car.

Since Shaman was not moving the black panther took the initiative and leapt at Shaman.

Shaman had pulled out her sword blocking the claw attack and getting pushed back.

'Damn this massive cat is strong.' Shaman got a little worried as it was overpowering her, so she also decided to inspect it.

[Black panther (Tier 2 leader)]

[Its muscles act as armour and have very few weak points, only magic attacks are effective as physical attacks bounce off]

"Elysia when you get a chance use 75MP and aim for its eye until then I will try to keep it distracted and try to open it up." Elysia was a little panicked but she trusted Shaman and got ready to fire her shot.

Shaman was fighting off the panther blocking its attack, She had also tried to cut its wrist to disable its paw but it was just too quick for Shaman to reach. Shaman was on the defensive and was getting more enraged as it was unable to kill Shaman.

Elysia ended up jumping on one of the surrounding trees and was watching the fight. She had also moved around trying to get an angle.

'Please Shaman be okay.' Elysia had a worried look as it looked like Shaman was struggling to fight the panther.

After 5 mins of fighting the panther started to get exhausted as it was using its full strength on Shaman and only thought the little fox girl was a little bug. Shaman noticed this and went to strike the panther in the stomach with shadow claw, she decided to use Shadow claw and used its own shadow against it so it could get that bit of extra power from the darkness. It managed to hit leaving deep cuts and the Panther fell over in pain.

Elysia, seeing this who was ready to fire let go of her string, the sheer amount of power of the arrow went through the air at great speed and instantly went through the panther's eye and lodged itself in its head killing it in an instant. A fire had erupted from the wound melting its head.

Due to the excessive amount of MP used Elysia had passed out and fell off the tree. Shaman had expected this and rushed over and caught Elysia.

"You did a great job." Shaman had a smile as the quest complete sound was heard and because she felt like it, she decided to give Elysia a kiss on her forehead.

'Since she was knocked out, nobody will know what I did.' Although she thought Elysia was knocked out, she was barely holding consciousness and noticed what Shaman had done but because of Shaman's kiss, she had passed out.