Hope.

This was a precious commodity in the village of Flay, especially since the past months have been particularly brutal for the Tamers.

But Flay now had great hope. And not just hope, but motivation. He could save his village and lift them out of the cruel injustice and dangers it faced. And it all would start by killing the gator.

“So you think that with a sword, my power can reach apprentice swordsman because of my Brute power?” Flay confirmed after hearing Kairo’s various explanations as to why Flay’s strength was not constant.

“I’m positive. By the time we reached this pond lands, you already battled across the river, and while I was healing you, it could only do so much because of the Death Mark. Now that the mark has weakened, and my healing abilities have refueled your energy, you should have enough power to kill and stab this gator right to its brain!”

“I do feel stronger. But can we do it now? The Pteranodon has already sensed us. What if it will sense us and find our exact location?

“You don’t need to pull me out. This gator must be holding his mouth up like this. Don't gators have the ability to keep their jaws open effortlessly? Drop down and jump up and punch or push me.”

Flay’s eyes brightened.

“Will it work? It’s not exactly as strong as stabbing. My Brute Power won't travel as fast to the tip since I'll be holding on the sword on the last second.”

“If you can harness the Brute Power and release a power equal to Apprentice Swordsman, as long as you hold me, I can cause the Brute to power to surge through me and ignite all the energy at the tip of my sword..”

“Sounds like a plan! Well, here goes nothing... Get ready, Kairo!” Flay took a deep breath and prepared himself mentally. The image of his next actions began to appear several times in his head. He envisioned his movements and the timing, and after a few minutes of mental rehearsal, he finally began to draw out the power.

The power of Brute was the power that all who embarked on the path of bodily cultivation needed. It was the foundation that increased their strength, defenses, and vitality. Flay gathered this energy and began to gather it on the palm of his hand. He began to imagine that he was holding a sword.

And then, Flay acted.

He dropped down and quickly jumped up as he performed a stabbing motion as if he held a sword.

At the last moment, his two hands grasped the sword, and it was as if he was performing an upward stab.

The energy flowed into the Slime.

“Incredible.” Kairo thought.

STAB! BOOM!

A stab and a muffled explosion occurred as the sword slid through and pierced through the brain of the gator.

“…”

Flay held the sword tightly and felt drained.

The power was passed on perfectly, and Kairo caused the Brute power to gather at the tip of his sword body and caused it to explode in a concentrated location.

“Did… it work?” Flay asked.

But then, he felt the gator's body lose all strength, and the weight of the jaw was pressing down on Flay as the gator was no longer exerting strength to keep his upper jaw raised.

“This Flay is a sword genius! Without any training or teaching, he managed to do this! Mercury has found his perfect successor in this kid!” Kairo was amazed. What Flay pulled off was a very difficult trick.

“Wow. You’re an amazing sword! I can feel my Brute power coursing around you with such ease!” Flay praised Kairo.

“Now to find that monster core!”

“Where is it? Can you find it?”

“I can look for it by diving into the throat. I'll cover myself with this thick mucus In the gator’s brain so that that the Pteranodon won’t sense me when I move into the mouth.”

“Sounds disgusting. But anything to save the village.” Flay laughed.

“I’ll close the jaw for now. Maybe that will help in masking our location. Go.” Flay lowered the jaw and tossed the sword down into the throat of the gator.

Kairo turned back into a round, squishy, green slime and began to move down into the throat.

Flay lowered the jaw but began to peek his head out and tried to hear for the Pteranodon. He could hear some flapping in the distance.

“It’s still here…” Flay frowned.

“I found it!” Kairos reappeared from the throat, and stuck on its body was a black orb with a strange red light. The orb seemed to be made of stone, but somehow the red light in the center reached all the way to the outer layers of the orb.

“Wow… Its monster core is full of potent energy!” Flay was amazed. He had seen monster cores from the Tamers and could tell that this core would sell for a high price.

“We should help you level up. Right now, your body is unstable. You have Brute power that can appear and cross realms, but your physical body is that of a Rookie most of the time. If you’re a Rookie-6 as you claim to be, this core should help you leap two levels up!” Kairo explained.

Flay froze as he heard it.

“T-Two levels?!”

“Of course. It has enough energy.”

“But… But! If we give a core with this quality to the wizards of the Kingdom, we would need at least three of these to rank up for people of my Rank!”

“When you hire others to siphon the energy, they naturally take a cut for themselves. So that’s one factor. The other is that the technique they use is vastly weaker than mine. The power of Eos Mars allows me to take a hundred percent of their energy and bestow it to another.”

“Then do it! But do you need some of the life essences? You should also strengthen yourself!”

“Thank you, Master! That would also be beneficial for you. How much should I take?”

“Let’s do an equal fifty-fifty split. I need you to get stronger, too. Who knows if I will need you to attack or hop on another monster.”

“Agreed. Let’s do this.”

“Grab ahold of me with your two hands. I’ll course the power through it.”

“Alright.” Flay allowed the gator's jaw to rest on his back. He then took off the gloves he made using the leaves he found and directly touched the sticky, mucusy slime.

“Ugh. This is even more disgusting than your usual slime!”

“It’s the mucus of the gator. I’m using it to mask the Death energy. These things have high life essence after all.”

“Then hurry up and start!”

“Yes, Master!”

The power of Mars’s system was activated. It began to devour the core. A strange light was glowing out of Kairo, and a red light was being sapped out of the monster core. The red light was the Life Essence of the Gator. And this energy was being transferred onto Flay. Unfortunately, half of the energy remained and was absorbed by Kairo’s slime core.

Flay felt the energy coursing through his body. The energy began to move and was slowly strengthen Flay.

But as the two were synchronized and Kairo harnessed the energy, he could feel a strange power blocking the surge of power.

“What’s this?” Kairo felt the strange power blocking the flow of energy towards Flay.

“What’s wrong with your body?” Kairo asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Your body is… rejecting Mars’s power! This is impossible! Mars powers should work on all beings, man, beast, and even the undead!” Kairo then urged more and more of the life essence of the beast to be sent in Flay.

But suddenly, as Kairo forced Mars’s powers into Flay’s body, Kairo felt a strange, terrifying presence.

Suddenly, Kairo found himself in a strange world. He had a vision of traversing through the world, and it was as if time was moving fast at an incredible speed. Kairo saw himself moving beyond the planets and saw the birth and destruction of various planets until finally, he reached a strange realm.

“This place? This is the Realm of the Eos!” Kairo had heard of this place. The astral travel of Kairo brought him to a strange place. It was ancient battlegrounds. One blood-red man stood there, laughing as the blood of all his foes continued to fall before his blade.

Suddenly, Eight strange beings appeared before them.

“The Eos! My Masters!” Kairo saw the familiar beings.

They spoke, and a massive blast erupted around the blood-red man creating a massive crater. But the blood-red man continued to laugh even as his body was being broken down.

The eight Sol Eos began to talk and utter words Kairo couldn’t understand.

Finally, the eight Sol Eos shot a powerful beam that tore from the heavens itself and struck the blood-red man.

“Pluton, God of Death! From this moment, you on, you shall no longer be part of the Sol Eos. Perish now! And may you die never to be an Eos again!” One of the Eos called out. Kairo recognized this as Jupiter, and the massive attack was shot down towards him.

The other Eos began to shout as they harnessed their attack.

“Death shall not be the end of me!” The red-blooded man roared as the attack was sent.

BOOM!

Kairo was consumed by the blast, and the vision changed once more. Suddenly, he saw the Eight Eos standing in front of him.

“This was his fate. And you shall be his seal.”

“Kairo!”

Suddenly, Kairo was awakened from his trance.

The vision ended.

Kairo saw himself back in gator's mouth. Flay had forcibly thrown him off and shook him from the link.

“Are you alright?! What happened? I said, 50-50! If I hadn’t removed my hands, you would have had nothing left!” Flay called out.

“What happened? I felt the energy you were sending. I think I’ve gotten stronger. But I don’t think I leveled up! I think I took more than fifty percent of that energy, but I feel that it’s still going to be a while for me to level up!” Flay complained.

But Flay’s words weren’t reaching Kairo.

In fact, Kairo was thankful that as a slime creature, Flay couldn’t tell what it’s expressions were or what emotions he had.

Because as Kairo looked at Flay, he was afraid.