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In the starry night on the jungle, everything was dark and gloomy, with night owls and werewolves howling, night creatures dwelling and hunting for sleeping prey. Within this dark and perilous atmosphere, there was a small part, where there was light, light so bright and hot, all the night creatures refuse to come even an inch near, getting away as far as possible.

Looking clearly, the bright light was coming from a large pit of fire, a fire so big and high it reached fifteen to sixteen feet, coming from a pit deep below the earth, with just two people gazing at it from the sidelines.

"Well….that was easier than I thought," Alina said, looking at the dead and burning Kamilozes on top of each other.

"yaa….perks of having me around, don\'t you think so?" Atlas asked.

"haa….it\'s hard to admit, my half month of work was finished in like what, one and a half hour? Your powers are like a cheat if you think about it?"

"Come on, I had to fry my brain of thinking, to acquire these you know."

"You know that many humans die due to old age, trying to comprehend their element to reach such levels right?"

"I guess, I think out of the box, then."

"haa... I\'m starting to doubt my own Master\'s word because of you. Does hard work can really withstand a monster like you?"

"ouch! Calling me a monster. It hurts you know and you know very well, there are people who are more monstrous than me right?"

"sorry…..I\'m still trying to process what I just witnessed."

"haha…..take your time then."

"No, that mutated shit is still out there, it will lay low for a while but the innkeeper is still in danger, we need to go."

"yeah…."

He stretched out his hands and legs, turning his body around, trying to exercise his sour spots, caused due to all the continuous use of \'Blink\'. He wanted to just teleport but he didn\'t want to show his only card to anyone, not even his new mate.

"The normal ones are done here, time to take care of… "

Atlas all of a sudden turned back around, his aura turning sharp like a blade ready to unleash anytime. Alina gazing at him also did the same, looking at the deep dark forest.

"Do you see something?"

"Yeah, I think we attracted some guests, and looking at the number of their species we just burned, they are all angry it seems."

"How many?" Alina said, slowly taking out her long sword from her back."

"Plenty, in fact, be ready, they are unusually fast."

"Mutated ones I suppose."

"Indeed."

Atlas ignited his abnormal amount of mana within, circulating it all over his body, and activated his System to the fullest, ready to use every symbol in his possession if necessary. When they came near enough, he used his \'all-seer\' to identify their status right away.

[Kamiloze (mutated)

Race: kamilian

STR: B+

AGI: A

DEF: C

MP: B+

INT: C+

CHARM: -----

FACE: -----

Rank: B Rank

Soul: E

Class: Shapeshifter (advance class)

Subclass: water bender

Description: somehow mutated from its original form and got the capability to digest humans or any intelligent beings to a level to comprehend and embody them.

Evolved from the race of Kamilians to embody others. Likes to eat any living beings mostly humans, gaining the ability to take their form and continue to eat them again and again to maintain their form. They can change the color of their original or embodied form to go invisible mixing with the background. Can gain more intelligence eating more intelligent beings.

Natural ability: shapeshift, invisibility, water bending, copy magic (temporary)]

\'Damn, these are the most powerful monsters I have encountered until now. Can Alina handle them, she is an A-rank adventurer, so I have to worry less. I will back her up if necessary.\'

The noises of grass and bushes rustling were getting closer and closer. The burning fire from their back creating their shadows darker, thinly covering the area in front of them. As they were waiting with full alert, a foot came out from the bushes, gradually revealing a normal old man slowly coming with a stick.

"We come in peace." He suddenly said.

More people start to come out from the deep dark forest one by one. Some were children, some mature women, and men. All looking like normal people of the village.

"Did you just said that you came in peace, did I hear that right?!!" Alina said with bubbling rage.

\'Shit, she is starting to lose her temper, and what the fuck is this shit face are saying, after killing so many people.\'

"Yes, you heard me correct."

The mana inside Alina\'s body started going ramped, slowly leaking every second.

"You creatures don\'t have any right to talk. All you need is to get sliced from my blade!!" she said with her anger as she pointed her long blade towards the old man, with her mana slowly infusing with her sword, making it brighter and brighter.

She was going to attack right after when she felt a palm touching her shoulder.

"Cool down, you are wasting your mana as you speak. You won\'t be able to handle them at this rate." He whispered in her ears.

Listening to his voice, she somehow calmed down like her body and mind were willing to accept everything that he just said. She controlled her rampant mana inside her and took a long heavy breath.

"haa....sorry"

"It\'s ok, you must have really cared about her didn\'t you." He said, gazing at a particular sweet innocent girl standing side by side with them. Of course, the child was the one who looked like Lushly, the innkeeper\'s daughter.

"Speak!! I advise you to choose your words wisely." Atlas said after closing his concealing aura.

"But.."

"No, give them a chance, remember, they may have already taken some hostages and they seem smarter than usual." He again whispered.

\'really, How the fuck did their intelligence increased to C+? That\'s the fucking average mind of how much we humans have and with that much level of INT, now they can use magic symbols like us, temporary may it be. What a fucking treat.\'

The old man looked at his left and right and gave all of them a nod.

"We have come here to negotiate." Said the old man slowly walking forward with his cane in hand.

He looked at Alina and gave a slight bow but most of his attention was taken by the masked man near the blazing fire.

"We know, we have angered the human girl and possibly also you, so we have come here to apologies for the sins we have committed that gained your wrath." Said the old man looking at fire oblivion at their backs.

"Oh, really? So what\'s your so-called negotiation?"

"…to live in harmony with each other, no more killing and possibly no more hunting. We all have evolved and mutated to a level to contain our human form and our intelligence. Which we sadly devoured from the innocents.

After taking this form, we have slowly started to feel emotions. We started to love, we started to care but most importantly we all started thinking rationally, dispelling ourselves from our instinctive desires and behaviors to only eat and survive."

"hmm..."

"So we will take any kind of punishment or imprisonment. We can follow your people\'s laws and you\'re so-called justice, we will do it all if it means us surviving." said the old man walking closer to Atlas.

"So what say you, Adventurer," the old man said giving out his left hand.

"If you all surrender, that\'s all ok for me," Atlas said, also giving out his hand.

"What are you saying?!!" Alina shouted.

The old man and Atlas both shook their hands, the old man looked like a happy old man, gearing in emotions, tears starting to well up in his eyes.

"Thank you, adventurer, I really thank you. Now my people can finally survive and live a proper life later on."

The situation looked harmonious to a point, monsters and humans trying to work together. Alina was looking at both of them in confusion. She didn\'t believe what her own eyes were seeing. As she was gazing at them with mix-up emotions, something fell down on the grassy land with a thud all of a sudden.

Alina gazed at what just fell down, it was dark but the light from the flaming fire helped her to see much clearer. To her shock it was a sliced-off wrist with a knife in hand, green blood leaking out from its end, and it wasn\'t all, the knife itself had purple liquid dripping from its tips and she immediately knew what it was, from her long line of dangerous adventures.

"It\'s poison!!!"

The old man suddenly smiled, even though his right hand was sliced off, it seemed it didn\'t bother him. The smile slowly turned creepy with the end of his lips reaching his own ears. His face started twitching as he slowly started laughing.

"hya hya hya hya ..HYA HYA HYA HYA!!!!! I thought I got you there but it seems you are one of the clever ones." The old man said, his face slowly changing.

His normal-looking human eyes turned big with his iris changing green in color and the teeth within his long mouth started turning sharp and spikey with his grip on Atlas\'s hand getting stronger and tighter but Atlas didn\'t even flinch as he didn\'t even feel the strong grip on his hand.

"I guess, you also took humanity\'s worst traits huh, lies and deceit, I must say, I\'m quite actually impressed.

Though I thought when would you shut up while preaching your lies but you couldn\'t wait could you, losing your precious hand on the way."

"Hya hya hya …..don\'t worry human, I was just surprised for a second and don\'t worry, I will regain my hand and even become stronger than before by slowly devouring you alive starting from your legs, breaking every bone then slowly reaching your waist and stomach eating your delicious organs…ummm, my mouth is just watering thinking about it and can\'t forget your heart and brain uummm….those are the best part, the despair and pain you will feel I\'m sure you will love the experience." Said the old man, his voice gradually turning deeper and deeper.

\'What the fuck, that\'s fucked up, are intelligent monsters supposed to be like this? I guess it\'s logically true huh, intelligence and the nature of a monster births a smart psychopath like this one.\' Atlas thought.

He knew Alina was ready to attack at any moment, all he needed to do was give the signal and start the massacre but suddenly felt numerous lane symbols targeting his neck from multiple directions.

\'ohh, he was stalling huh, they seem smarter than I thought, I guess they think I\'m a major threat acting this way….it\'s already too late for them though.\' Atlas thought with a smile.

*****

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