The orc shaman was a force to be reckoned with. Despite his feeble appearance, he moved with purpose and precision, each swing of his staff resulting in the death of a monster. All around him, the bodies of bear-type beasts were littered, piling atop each other to create a small hill. From these hills, blood flowed out, staining the forest ground with blood. After dealing with the last of the monsters in his path, the orc shaman meticulously picked up all the monster cores, storing them in his storage before heading deeper into the forest. Even though he had been fighting for the past couple of hours, not even a trace of exertion could be seen on the orc's not-so-handsome face. It was as if his stamina was limitless. Although Nox didn't know, among all his pets, the one who had farmed the most experience points for him was none other than the orc shaman. From a branch of a wide tree, the Inferno Prince watched the orc, unaware of his presence as he advanced deeper into the forest. His eyes flashed. "What type of monster is this?" he muttered to himself, his tone laced with curiosity. "It's the first time I'm seeing a creature such as this, and not only is it powerful, it's also very intelligent." A certain thought crossed Valkor's mind and he couldn't help but stiffen a little. "Could it be that this monster is from that place—the Marked Zone?" The ancient forest was massive and linked all the other dragon kingdoms, even bigger than the total area occupied by the dragon populace. Valkor didn't find it strange that he was only encountering this monster now, despite venturing into the forest a couple of times in the past to gather monster cores to assist his evolution. "Well, this could be a lucky chance." A cruel glint flashed across the Inferno Prince's face, his eyes gleaming with purple flame as he began to leap from branch to branch, following the orc shaman while maintaining a short distance between them. ... Somewhere else inside the ancient forest, Astralux, the spatial jellyfish, hovered slightly above the air. Her tentacles moved lightning fast, lashing through the air to capture a winged monster that was trying to get away after witnessing countless of its kind being destroyed by this beautiful yet terrifying creature. Unfortunately for the beast, Astralux possessed the skill Spatial Manipulation, and she could easily bend space to her will. Just when the creature thought it had gotten away, the air in front of it split apart—as if reality itself had cracked—and a tentacle captured it in a fierce grip. Without showing any shred of pity, Astralux crushed the unfortunate creature with her tentacles and caught its monster core mid-air. "Run! Run!" Solora, the beautiful baby python, was just as savage. She was chasing a group of weaker pythons. One might've thought she would have shown mercy because they were her kind, but there wasn't even a shred of compassion. She was like a demon, and her eyes gleamed with madness. When she eventually caught up to them, a one-sided massacre unfolded. Fluffington, the supreme sprite wolf, the rock golem, and Balzy—they were all relentless. The pets, through their connection, had sensed Nox's determination to reach Level 70 and were giving it their all. Nox slept for two hours before stirring awake to the sound of a level-up notification. [Ding! You've reached Level 64] Nox blinked a couple of times, trying to familiarize himself with the surroundings. He found himself on a makeshift bed created out of moss. It was soft—perhaps too soft—to the point of being uncomfortable, but Nox didn't complain. It was better than nothing. His gaze then fell on the flickering bonfire kept at the center of the clearing. There he saw Thirteen, roasting some animals he had caught. After confirming that his stamina was back to 60%, Nox slowly got up and approached the panda sneakily. "Hey buddy, what are you up to?" he whispered, startling Thirteen, who had been too engrossed in what he was doing. The panda nearly threw the stick of meat away, only stopping himself at the last moment. The panda's eyes gleamed with happiness when he saw that his master was fine. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎 "For... you." the panda said slowly as he handed the meat to Nox. "Oh, thank you. How thoughtful." Nox stroked Thirteen's head as he bit into the meat. Though its outside was golden brown, the inside was half-done and lacked seasoning as well—but Nox didn't mind. What mattered was the effort and time behind it. "Alright, let's continue from where we stopped," Nox said as he jumped to his feet. After the meal, he felt energized as if he could run a marathon and never get tired. "At the end of the day, food is still very important." Nox then proceeded to continue his hunt after sending Thirteen away to go hunt. He had barely taken a few steps when he noticed the presence of countless beasts. "Let's do this!" Nox cracked his neck and pounced toward the monsters, directly jumping into their fray. Oblivion Edge flashed through the night, and Nox was soaked all over again. After killing the monsters and taking their monster cores, Nox stumbled across a lake. Because he reeked so badly, he didn't hesitate to strip butt-naked and jump in to wash the filth off his body. Then he continued again, continuing to massacre any monster that stood in his way. His pets fought; he fought as well. And when he sensed that they were tired, he called them back and sent them to the taming space where they could recover their stamina much faster. And just like that, the next day arrived. But Nox didn't head back to the castle despite knowing that the next day was the finals of the Competition of Kingdoms. He continued to grind relentlessly, and so did his pets. 'My experience points are increasing much faster than I thought.' Nox paused as he killed and checked his experience bar. With a single glance at the rapid pace it was climbing, he could tell it wasn't only his pets that were farming him those points. "Could it be the Ant Queen? Or that Dimension Boss?" Nox mumbled to himself and nodded his head. "It must be the Ant Queen." In his thoughts at that moment, Nox suddenly felt a throbbing headache through his connection with his pets. His eyes widened when he recognized this phenomenon. It was only when his beasts were severely injured that he received such signals. He quickly activated Astral Vision. "Him... what is he doing here?" Nox's eyes shone with anger when he saw the Inferno Prince attacking the orc shaman with a cruel, savage expression on his face.