Chapter 5:

The Night Our Adventures Began

"Oh, now I understand. No, no, no! Don't mess around whit me! That was just the Final-Star Use of the Skill, right?!
Right?! Why are you so strong when you're only at the First Level Intermediate Awaken stage in both Complex
Energy and Mystical Energy?!" Rose asked almost shouting.

"I am a hundred times stronger than normal First Level Intermediate Awaken cultivators, you shouldn't have
assumed that having double cultivation doesn't bring me more than one benefit." Thorn responded casually as he
put one of his fingers inside the gorilla monster's neck.

"That's ridiculous! That'd mean your basic strength will always be two entire stages higher than your actual
cultivation!" Rose's face was distorted by incredulity, envy, and finally resignation. It was evident that this madness
was true since he was actually that strong.

He brought his finger which was now stained with the gorilla monster's blood into his mouth.

"*Cough* *cough* *cough*... What a repulsive flavor!" Thorn coughed and said this, but immediately after, he
repeated his early action and tasted more blood.

Seeing this, Rose said impatiently: "Why are you wasting our precious time?! We have to get out of here before we
attract more monsters. If the gorillas corner us, we'll be domed. Your Complex Energy and Mystical Energy aren't
infinite!"

He looked at her and hitting his back said, a playful smile on his face: "I'm waiting for you to ride me."

Rose became speechless, but soon realized: (I guess it's the fastest way...) Having no better options, she rode his
back grudgingly.

Piggybacking her, he stood up. Then from his bare feet, a gale began to come out. Slowly, they ascended.

Rose was not surprised by this since it was known that most Wind Element Awakened Skill users could fly.

In no time, both left the room. Floating above the hole Rose dug, Thorn asked: "Where is the exit?"

She quickly explained to him the route to get to the entrance of the cave, and then they set off. On their way, they
met another gorilla monster but Thorn quickly slew it. And just like that, they came out of the cave without
additional hindrances.

The moment they got out, they were covered by the dense fog of the forest.

Only after ascending for quite a while did they leave the foggy region.

The instant their eyes met the sky they could not help stop moving and just keep on looking at that starry sky.

It was a night like no other. The rainbow-like rings of the planet split the triangle formed by its three full satellites in
half. One of these satellites was blue, the second was red, and the third was white. All of them were shining brightly,
and yet, they did not overshadow the colorful and flickering lights of the countless stars in this seemingly infinite
firmament.

Thorn's eyes stopped blinking. Involuntarily, his mouth opened and it remained open. His heart was invaded by a
sense of satisfaction stronger than any other good feeling he had felt in the last one million years. This emotion was
so overwhelming that tears began to form in the corners of his eyes. The freedom he was feeling when looking at
this sky was just too real, and too perfect. Voice shaking, he couldn't help but slowly mutter: "... The sky... was it
always this... beautiful?"

On his back, the look Rose had been giving at this starry sky could only be described as captivating. It was more
passionate than any look a maiden could use to gaze upon her life's most beloved one.
After a while, she whispered as in a trance: "The sky has always been beautiful, but at this moment, on this night, it is
definitely showing off more than usual... Perhaps it wanted to give you a welcome gift..."

Silently, they appreciate that sky for a long time.

__________

In this world, there were innumerable energy minerals that were obtained from Earth Element Awakened Skill users
and the parts or secretions of certain monsters and plant monsters. These energy minerals could form, under high
temperatures, an alloy called zenanium. The zenanium's properties varied greatly depending on the types and
amounts of energy minerals used in its creation. The zenanium was classified, from lowest to highest quality, with
these characters: E, D, C, B, A, S, S2, S3, etc.

The civilized races used the zenanium as the main material for the fabrication of daily tools and the construction of
roads, sewers, bridges, buildings, city walls, ships, chariots, etc. Even the daily clothes were made of zenanium with
elastic properties.

In general: Body Evolution cultivators' weapons and armors were made of E-class zenanium, Basic Awaken
cultivators' of D-class zenanium, Intermediate Awaken cultivators' of C-class zenanium, Advanced Awaken
cultivators' of B-class zenanium, Full Awaken cultivators' of A-class zenanium, and so on.

Lurep Village's black D-class zenanium walls were 20 m thick and 120 m high. These imposing walls protected two
million civilized race individuals! Thanks to their great heaviness and their complex structure they could withstand
even the attacks of someone at the Ninth Level Full Awaken stage. In addition, they had an anti-flying-creature
weapon system, and because of this, the buildings within the village were not constructed higher than the walls.

Lurep Village had three large gates: The north gate that faced The Land of Monsters, the south-east gate which faced
Lurep Village's Port and the west gate through which four large highways that led toward other villages ran past.

These roads were always occupied by civilized races entering or leaving either on foot or in chariots. Some of them
were just visiting while others were transporting goods. But no one was entering or leaving flying. For various
reasons, inside of any village or city, it was forbidden to fly or fight.

Early in the morning.

At a chair on the balcony of a building that overlooked the north gate, a humanoid sat, his arms crossed over his
chest. He lacked a head, in its place, there was pitch-black smoke hovering about. He was a dullahan.

This pitch-black smoke not only allowed others to identify a dullahan from another, thanks to their varied shapes,
but also all dullahan used it to see and hear because it worked as a sensor of light and vibrations.

As for this dullahan's pitch-black smoke, it had the shape of three horizontal little rods.

He had the body of a robust male and was wearing a pitch black A-class zenanium armor with white and red
patterns. As for his cultivation, he released a Third Level Full Awaken Aura. He was Dani Zelu, the young master Ben's
secret pawn. He had been following Rose cautiously so that 'the possible protector' would not notice his presence.

At that moment, he observed how Rose stepped into Lurep Village while cheerfully talking with a young man who
had black hair and violet eyes and was wearing only a bloodstained cloak. Dani Zelu’s dark voice, coming out of his
neck, sounded: "When she went out, she was alone... from which hole did that lad pop out?"

__________

Rose and Thorn sauntered through Lurep Village's streets.

A while ago, she had brought him to her inn so he could take a good bath, she too had taken a bath, and then they
had gone in search of a clothing store.
He looked shocked and said in an agitated voice: "I can't believe what you're saying: Now, the civilized races'
territory is only one-tenth of the world! And, how can it be possible that the slimes, xandrias, arlis and even the
dragons themselves had gone extinct?!"

She gazed at him with evident concern in her eyes, and said: "I'm sorry... I guess it must be hard for you to accept
that you are now the last xandria left in the world."

"Well, I knew that sooner or later my race would go extinct, our Racial Skill is almost useless after all. So, I was
somewhat prepared for that. What surprises me the most is the extinction of the dragons!" Thorn's expression
became solemn as traces of fear appeared within his eyes, he explained: "They were the most powerful civilized race
in existence, unrivaled living beings whether on land, above in the skies or even in the depths of the seas. Not only
were they the most powerful, but also the most numerous and those who occupied the greatest extent of territory
in the world. Even if all the other civilized races had come together to battle the dragons, the dragons would have
won so easily they wouldn't even consider it as a fight but just as the boring act of trampling ants!"

"Wow! That powerful?!" Because there was almost no information about the time before the Great Catastrophe,
Thorn's words really caused a great impact on Rose.

"That powerful! Now, do you understand how absurd it is to me to hear that those sovereigns of the world had just
like this become extinct?" His voice sounded calmer now, but there was still a lingering fear in it.

They continued walking, and after some detours, they stopped in front of a three-story building that had colorful
clothes drawn across its walls.

Rose glanced at him and said: "This seems a good place."

One hour later.

They were returning to the inn while Rose sported a bright smile, she was even humming something. On the other
hand, Thorn sported a white t-shirt with some black words on it that read 'I am the boss', and... a long black skirt that
reached down to his calves. He tried really hard to put on some pants; tragically, his attempts failed due to the size
of his mushroom head!

So, he had a very angry face right now. It was a face that clearly warned 'if you dare ask me why I'm wearing a skirt,
I'll paint your cheeks red with slaps'.

And it happened that no matter what world it was, in none of them there was a lack of morons.

In this case, it was a tall and muscular humanoid with white skin, golden hair, blue eyes, and pointed ears; namely, a
war elf. Wearing just a blue and black singlet, he approached them laughing and said, his finger pointing at Thorn's
skirt: "Hahaha...! Boy, why are you wearing a skirt? Hahaha..."

Of course, after hearing such blatant mockery, Thorn had no choice but to get into a good position to slap him.
However, just before he could raise his hand, he saw through the crowd a humanoid who, instead of hair, had green
snakes and whose eyes were completely green.

He was a male gorgon wearing a white armor that had on the chest the symbol of the Broken Earth Kingdom's flag: A
ship on the upper part, a wheat stalk on the lower part, a spherical flask on the right part, and a blacksmith hammer
on the left part. It was basically the combination of the crests of the Four Great Families.

This gorgon belonged to the kingdom's militia, he was a soldier. With a stern bearing, he was patrolling the village in
search of some fool that might dare to break the laws.

Seeing this soldier, Thorn remembered what Rose told him before entering the village: It was forbidden to fight here.
Reluctantly, he swallowed his anger and said to the impertinent war elf: "Ge–"

"What a man with so little chivalry!"

But before he could finish, Rose's furious roar cut in.

Her face a mask of grief and indignation, she pointed her finger at Thorn and said: "My friend may not have swelling
breasts nor a butt that could attract a lot of admiring glances, but even so, she is a woman! And it's absolutely
disrespectful to call her 'boy'!"

"Eeeeeehhh?!" Several passersby who heard and saw what was happening were dumbstruck by the sheer absurdity
of Rose's words.

"W-what?!" After shouting this, the war elf hurriedly stepped forward to take a closer look at Thorn's face, his eyes
almost bursting out of their sockets.

As for Thorn, he was rendered speechless to the point of having vacant eyes.

After looking at him for a while, the war elf finally said with a big nod: "You do really look like a woman! You're even
cute!"

At this point, Thorn was tempted to kill both the muscular war elf and Rose in a brutal and savage way with his own
fingers and nails.

"Yes, it's a bit difficult to notice it at first sight, but she definitely is a pretty girl."

"*Sigh*... I feel too incompetent as a man. How could I not recognize a beautiful lady even when she is standing right
in front of me...?"

"Mmm... I wonder if she is already committed to someone, what I would give to have a fiancée with such beautiful
and exotic eyes!"

The bystanders commented as they walked away. Meanwhile, Rose struggled with all her willpower to keep a
straight face.

The war elf suddenly kneeled before Thorn and put his forehead on the solid ground, then said in an apologetic tone:
"Please, beautiful young lady, forgive my previous blindness. This definitely will be a black stain on my honor as a
man that I'll bear for the rest of my life. If there is, by any chance, something, anything at all, that I can do for you to
make amends for my terrible mistake, feel free to name it."

"Get lost." From Thorn's mouth, a voice darker and colder than Dani Zelu's echoed out. Unfortunately, his voice was
so distorted by anger that it became high-pitched, thus giving off the wrong impression of being a woman's voice.

"Yes! Of course! I'll not annoy you any more with my disgraceful presence." In the end, it happened that the war elf
retired having his cheeks painted red but not by slaps, it was by utter shame.

Thorn shot a look full of resentment at Rose; unexpectedly, what he saw after doing so was a smiling Rose who was
lifting her thumb.

She said to him: "You don't need to thank me." She then put her hand on her chest, raised her head with pride and
continued: "You can trust on me to keep your 'big secret' safe from wild women."

(Why are you so proud of yourself, bastard?! Of what secret are you talking about?! I would be immensely glad if 'my
size' becomes public knowledge!) Thorn wanted to scream this with all his might, but the blood that got stuck in his
throat out of anger prevented him to do so.