"Hou?"
Death uttered in surprise as a creature suddenly emerged from the surrounding large bushes of the forest they were traversing on their way to the dungeon.
It resembled a pig, yet it was far larger, nearly twice the size of a normal one. Its fur was pitch black, four tusks jutted from its mouth, and its eyes were dark and lifeless. Thick saliva dripped from its open maw as it snarled.
He recognized the creature immediately.
Pointing a finger toward the monster, which roared and prepared to charge, Death stood his ground as Serene quickly moved behind him.
"[Fire Ball]"
From his fingertip, a raging fireball shot forward. The monster had no time to react before it was instantly caught in the attack. Flames engulfed its body as it screamed in agony, its cries fading as it burned out and collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
"What was that monster... I have never seen something like that in Norim?" Serene asked.
"That was a flesh-eating Ma-pig. They resemble ordinary domestic pigs, but they are a monster variant that feeds on flesh, humans, monsters, even their own kind," Death replied. He placed a hand beneath his chin and rubbed it thoughtfully. "Though this is the first time I have actually encountered one here. I have crossed this forest path over a dozen times. As far as I know, these monsters travel in herds. It should not be wandering alone, nor should it be in this forest. This is not its natural habitat."
Ma-pigs were monsters more commonly found in vast open plains, where their prey had nowhere to hide or confuse them once they began the chase.
"Could they have been brought here by someone?" Serene added.
"That is a possibility. I will have to inform the guild about it," Death said with a hint of concern. "While they pose no threat to me, I cannot ignore the possibility that some kind of scheming or plotting may be going on. And who knows how such a thing might interfere with my goals."
His gaze then drifted toward Serene, who appeared visibly tired.
"Take a rest, Serene. We have been walking for two hours, and you certainly need it."
Serene lay down near a tree to rest. Death followed and sat behind her, dematerializing his scythe. There was no need to keep it manifested when he was not engaged in any activity.
"Death... what do you plan to do once you have achieved your goals?" Serene asked quietly.
Death paused. He wondered how he should answer such a peculiar question. He could give a grand response, but that would only waste words. It was better to answer plainly, simple and direct.
"I do not know..."
"You do not know?"
"This is the first time I have decided to do something for my own sake. What happens after that is something best left for the future."
He noticed Serene shiver slightly before letting out a sneeze.
Waving a finger, the surrounding twigs and fallen leaves on the ground gathered near them.
"Fire."
The pile ignited, flames flickering softly.
"It is rather cold today, is it not?" Death said.
"It is," Serene agreed, holding her hands close to the fire to warm them. "I still find it hard to believe that Death can be so kind..."
"I am not kind. I am, in fact, very cruel, more so than you."
"Huh?" Serene looked at him with visible confusion.
"I am Death, and Death takes away everything that was born, is born and shall be. I have reaped newborn babies by giving them deadly diseases before they could even walk or speak. I have taken sons, husbands, and brothers from their mothers, wives, and sisters who died in pointless wars. I have taken parents away from children, making them orphans, and I have taken children away from parents, leaving them childless. I am everywhere and nowhere at once. I killed everyone, kill eveyone, and will be killing as long the last Diya of Life is not extinguished."
"It's a very tough job."
"Indeed it is..."
Death immediately stood up, manifesting his scythe back into his grasp as he sensed a sudden disturbance in the surrounding area.
"Get up, quickly. Something troublesome is coming this way..."
"What is it, Death?" Serene asked, her expression filled with concern.
The hollow, empty eye sockets of Death glowed faintly with small purple flames as he scanned the forest, stretching nearly ten kilometers in every direction. Yet, he found nothing.
"Whatever it was, it has already left. We should move on as well," he said after a moment. "Though I would rather not continue walking through this forest for now.... until I understand that strange presence," He ponder a bit before answering. "Serene, we will teleport directly to the dungeon."
"Are you going to use a teleportation spell?" she asked.
"No. I cannot," Death replied. "Despite being a magic caster, I specialize mostly in elemental spells, with only a little necromancy. I never bothered to learn teleportation spells."
As he spoke, he placed his hand into a black void that appeared out of nowhere. It was his personal inventory, a pocket dimension where he stored his most prized possessions. From it, he retrieved a blue feather. The void faded the moment his hand withdrew.
"We will use this. The Feather of Mytra. It can teleport us to any desired location, whether we have been there before or not, as long as we know the exact coordinates."
Serene stared at the feather in disbelief. "Unbelievable... to think it is possible to store a tier five spell inside an item. I thought it was only possible up to tier four."
Death listened to her words, though he was not surprised. Over the past week, he had learned much about sofia, its nations, and its limitations.
Magic was divided into twelve tiers, ranging from one to twelve. These tiers were further divided into categories such as elemental, arcane, divination, and necromancy, each with its own subtypes. For example, disease and blood manipulation were considered subtypes of necromancy.
Each twelve levels unlocked access to a new tier of magic, with tier twelve becoming available at level one hundred and thirty-three. Beyond that existed something known as Forbidden Magic. He had found little information about it, as no one seemed to truly understand it, though he believed the gods did. If the feats attributed to them in the lore he read at the Sofia Library were true, then their spells might even surpass Forbidden Magic itself.
As far as he could tell, the highest tier of magic humans could normally cast was around tier six. That placed even the most powerful mages below level seventy-three, where tier seven would normally become accessible. He knew little about other races, as information regarding their magical limits was scarce.
The only true exception among humans was the Hero. A Hero could wield magic as high as tier eight, placing their level somewhere between eighty-five and ninety-six, just one level shy of tier nine. That was only if the Hero happened to be a magic-based class or a hybrid.
From what he had read, the Hero class itself was fluid in nature. Some Heroes specialized in physical combat, relying on martial skills rather than spells. Others were pure magic users, while a rare few were hybrids. No two Heroes were truly the same, as the class adapted to the individual's potential.
Only a handful across generations were ever chosen to bear it, usually one Hero per race, or an equivalent class in rare cases.
"That is because you hum—no, you mortals do not possess the means to create something this useful," Death said. He activated the feather, which began to emit a soft blue glow. "However, if I were to compare the feather's potency, I would place it as equivalent to the seventh-tier spell, [Mass Teleportation]."
[Mass Teleportation] was a far superior version of the basic [Teleport] spell.
While [Teleport] only allowed the caster to move themselves, unable to bring allies or other living beings along, [Mass Teleportation] could transport multiple individuals at once. Objects did not count toward this limitation.
The number of people the feather could teleport was far greater than that of an ordinary tier five spell. Although the item stored the magic within itself, its teleportation potency matched that of [Mass Teleportation], allowing up to twelve individuals to be transported together.
Unlike the spell itself, which suffered from a ten percent accuracy failure rate, the item executed the effect with perfect accuracy.
This also saved Death a significant amount of MP. Each spell tier consumed a proportional amount of magical power. For example, he possessed four hundred and fifty MP, only fifty points shy of the theoretical maximum of five hundred. This meant he could cast a tier one spell up to four hundred and fifty times. The higher the tier, the fewer times it could be cast, and that was without accounting for buffs, enhancements, or other forms of magic that could further increase the cost.
Moreover, MP took a long time to recover. If he were to exhaust all of it, it would take him an entire week to fully regenerate his reserves.
Otherwise, he would simply spam all twelve tiers of spells on anyone who stood before him, regardless of their level. That was also the reason he didn't wanted to figh the gods.
"Now, hold my hand."
Serene took his hand, and the two of them vanished as the teleportation activated.