As soon as the door closed behind me, I realised I didn't really have a plan. I knew I was going to have to fight a bunch of the emberfangs, but I had no idea how best to go about it. On one hand, I was eager to test out my new spells and abilities. On the other hand, I wasn't sure I was ready to solo the entire lot in one go. I needed to see how I stacked up. Fortunately, some in the area had been tracking my friend.

  ?

  "Kiko, those Monkeys are on their way. I killed a hunting party near here; their bodies are behind that big old rock. I'm sure the others will notice and come round soon." I said to Kiko, pointing towards the rocky outcrop.

  ?

  "Shouldn't we hide or something if they're coming this way?" Kiko said her voice wobbling with fear.

  ?

  "Don't worry, Kiko," I answered, "You got me!"

  They didn't look convinced. I noticed their bioluminescent patterns shifted toward bluer hues. I had a suspicion that meant something, but had no idea what. It was an awkward ten minutes or so before I heard the familiar hooting and howling. Kiko froze up and huddled down behind a small boulder. I couldn't blame them. Those things had been their captors.

  ?

  I grinned as I anticipated the battle ahead. I was eager to test my abilities. It wasn't much longer before two squads of six emberfangs appeared. They must have arranged for their arrival to coincide. There was a smug look on their faces as one group came from where the bodies of their comrades lay, and another came from behind. They weren't attempting to be stealthy. They were clearly confident that this was going to be an easy fight.

  ?

  Both groups were led by a pair of the better-equipped members, with the remaining four in each group being the feral sought. Upon seeing me, the four leaders divided their subordinates and spread out, surrounding me and ineffectively concealing Kiko. I could have just fired off my blades once they got within range, but I wanted to test my new spells. I looked to one of the leaders coming from the front and ran toward him. My body exploded with power. He barely had time to register my movement until my fist was inches away from his jaw. He tried to step back, but it was too late. My punch dislocated his jaw and spun him like a Beyblade before his face hit the dirt. I grinned as my battle focus, combined with my now active Earthbound Instinct, let me know his ferals were now moving towards me from either side. I activated Tectonic Maw and watched in amazement as the one on my left was crushed. Huge crocodilian jaws made of hard stone rose and snapped shut before sinking back into the earth. That attack was a lot scarier than I had imagined.

  ?

  As the feral emberfang to my right tried to retreat, I launched Earthen Arsenal. Rocks from around me gathered into my hands, forming a shuriken, which I hurled at the fleeing enemy. He barely took a few steps before being decapitated. The rest of his squad hesitated, stepping back. Meanwhile, emberfangs from behind attempted to sneak up on Kiko. I sensed my connection to the shuriken, redirected it at the rear threat, and watched as it sliced through two ferals, embedding in a third and pinning him to a boulder, before crumbling to sand. The last of the first group, with their lead emberfang, charged at me, brandishing swords. Seeing all six coming at me—three of them apparently the smarter ones—I unleashed Bestial Dustveil. Dust billowed into a violent devil and shaped itself into a huge cobra, coiling around me and crashing into my attackers. The spell inflicted heavy lacerations, leaving my enemies blinded and stumbling. With them disabled, I summoned Void Rend, swiftly finishing them off.

  ?

  I dismissed my Dustveil and saw Kiko looking at me, now completely terrified. That had been a ridiculously easy fight. I reckon I could have fought twice that number and have come out on top. Maybe this hunt was going to be a piece of cake!

  ?

  "Hey, Kiko, let's go rescue your pals. You know how to get back into that mountain?" I said, smiling at them in an attempt to reassure them.

  ?

  They stare at me for a moment before nodding. "Where I left before, the guards were busy chasing me. I think it might be left unguarded."

  ?

  I made sure to thank them and led them back to where I'd first met them. The journey was uneventful. The only creatures I saw were small, parrot-like birds with elephant-like trunks. The system called them ornithusks. They watched us curiously, then ignored us, returning to feeding. They used their trunks to reach through rocks and pull out small, purple fruits, which the system called gloamberry. These fruits were apparently very effective at neutralising poisons. I made a note to stock up on them.

  ?

  Once we arrived back at that little rocky outcrop they had appeared from, I kept expecting to see more guards. Or at least hear the hooting and howling. But there was nothing—just the occasional toot from the ornithusks. Kiko moved forward and pointed to a hidden cave opening. It was much too small for me to fit through.

  ?

  "The path is bigger on the other side. It'll be a tight squeeze, but I'm sure you'll fit," Kiko said. Their colours shifted from green to red, then back to myriad greens. I thought about it for a second before pulling out my sword. It felt a bit sacrilegious to use an awesome magic sword that's part of a super rare collection to cut out a bigger hole. I immediately regretted it as the rocks I cut away tumbled to the ground with a loud thud. We stood there for a good five minutes before finally jumping into the dark tunnels beyond.

  ?

  From where I was, the tunnel had seemed completely dark. Now that we were in it, I noticed occasional glowing mushrooms and the same weird lava that had been in the temple. It flowed through transparent tubes in the wall and cast just enough light to illuminate everything in amber.

  ?

  "What's that?" I said to Kiko, pointing to the lava tube.

  ?

  "It's lava that has a lot of molten ores of a magical nature. Mana flows thicker in the deep places of the world, and it can concentrate, infusing metal with unique properties. My people had been harnessing it before Emberfang arrived. Now the pipes haul up the stuff, only to store it and never use it. The Idiot king of the emberfangs had us build him a magical weapon before banning the use of it forever."

  ?

  That was probably the most words I had ever heard them use. Judging by their tone, this lava was likely far more significant than just a building material. My musings ended as we neared a bend. I heard the pitter-patter of footsteps. I pulled Kiko behind me and motioned for them to stay quiet. A few seconds later, the source of the footsteps came into view. Six emberfangs appeared. According to my title, they were all greater emberfangs.

  ?

  "Oh, this is going to be tough, Kiko," I whispered to them as the greater emberfangs all drew their shortswords.

  ?

  I opened the battle by unleashing a barrage with Void Rend. I wasn't shocked—only two failed to avoid my blades, their bodies flowing like water. I'd seen what the last greater emberfang could do, so I was prepared. The two who didn't dodge completely still managed to survive: one took a side blow, the blade leaving a bleeding cut, but not going through. The second contorted his body, losing only a finger. I was impressed he didn't scream, even with pain on his face. I used Earthen Arsenal to create chains tipped with vicious stone spikes. I pushed the ability's limit, dumping a full ten PF into it. The chains whipped around like writhing snakes, trying to catch the six emberfangs as they leapt for me. I used Earthbound Instinct to check on Kiko. They hid behind me, their bioluminescent pattern matching the colours of the lava tube. Not perfect camouflage, but good enough, I thought.

  ?

  Despite all the power I'd put into the stone chains, those damn monkeys were just too nimble. I decided to take a risk. I dropped my spell, and the stone chains burst into a cloud of sand as they fell apart. Before the sand could hit the ground, I burned the rest of my PF to use Earthen Arsenal again. This time, I turned the sand into a swarm of quickly rotating razor blades. There was no way to dodge. I commanded the swarm to shred everything in the tunnel opening before me. It was messy. Even though I tried my best, I wasn't certain that all the cores survived the onslaught. With all my enemies dead, I dropped the spell and let out a breath as the sand fell all around me.

  That fight had gone well; I hadn't even received a single cut. This was going to be a walk in the park! I hadn't even used my ultimate spell yet. I cackled to myself as Kiko led me further through the labyrinthine tunnels. I was glad they'd come along. Everything looked the same to me. I made sure to stop and raid the corpse. Unfortunately, I had shredded three of the six greater cores, but the other three were a great addition. I wondered whether all four would offer me the same options, and what would happen if I got the same ability twice. That was a thought for later. This monkey hunt had been very fruitful. I had three greater cores and twelve regular cores.

  ?

  Having learnt my lesson, I took those twelve cores and used them straight away. I used seven to bring my strength up to max and revelled in the feeling of my muscles rippling as they grew and tightened. I felt like I could lift a building. Still, I knew it was just the stat boost high and would die down soon. I looked at my remaining 60% and decided to use it all; there was no point in saving 10%. I was going to get plenty more cores. I dumped 50% into my vitality, bringing that up to the max. The remaining 10% I used to boost my Prehensile Tail. I felt a bit bad about not having boosted that earlier. My tail had been my most powerful weapon in the beginning, and with my strength maxed, I could feel the power my tail could produce.

  ?

  Kiko led us into a larger chamber with several tunnels leading away from it. The chamber was filled with statues of emberfangs. These were so well produced and lifelike that I remembered what Kiko said.

  ?

  "Are these all future emberfangs?" I asked.

  ?

  "Yeah, they take a long time to make, and this is where we have been storing them," Kiko said as they were looking at the statues with a frown on their face.

  ?

  "What's up?" I said, noticing their strange expression.

  "These are not my work," Kiko said, poking away at one of the statues. "These are not quite the same as the guards I made, but they're someone's attempt at a copy."

  "Well, let's make sure these things never get activated or whatever then," I said, grinning. I then used my Earthen Arsenal to turn all the statues in the room into a bunch of floating swords before dismissing the spell, and they turned to sand. Kiko looked relieved as they watched the sand fall. I smiled to myself as I noted that it looked like she was annoyed that someone had copied their work, rather than that some monkey king had forced their people to make a stone army. Priorities.

  Kiko then led me to several more chambers, each filled with statues. At first, we didn't bump into any more of the emberfangs, and I just destroyed the statues wantonly. That was until I reached one chamber and was greeted by four greater emberfangs. We had surprised them, and before they could draw their weapons, I, using my speed and strength, made quick work of them. I didn't even need to use a spell; I just relied on my magic sword, superior strength and speed.

  ?I was thinking about how easy this whole thing had been when I felt the ground rumble. I turned to Kiko, confused as we entered another chamber, this one empty of statues. Kiko looked terrified. I had a bad feeling; I knew what was coming. I think I had jinxed shit by saying how easy everything had been. That was when five huge emberfangs, wearing the most amazing-looking glowing green armour, appeared. Each held a different weapon. One held a long sword covered in green glowing patterns, and another had a glaive as long as I was, also with the same patterns on the blade. Another had a huge bow with a rapidly growing arrow of green energy drawn and pointing right at me. As for the remaining two, one had a glowing crystalline claw, and the other had two hand axes also glowing green.

  ?

  "Why did I say this was going to be easy…"

  ?