The Arcadia System

'Now, what?' sighed Reve.

Just after the young man had killed the terror lizard, he grabbed another arrow and nocked his bow, pointing it at Reve.

"What are you doing?" Reve immediately hollered.

His senses were telling him that the masked man was extremely barbaric. Even his fur cloak was proof of that. He had no concept of partnership.

Just in case, he wasn't clear, Reve repeated him, making sure to express his disapproval, "What are you doing?!"

He inwardly noticed something wrong, 'Oh, damnation!'

While talking, his transformation reversed back. His so-called ultimate mode retreated. This was a total disaster to Reve, especially at this moment. He was now back to the small cat his normal form took.

He was putting up a tough front and yet, he damned himself.

The feedback of the mode and the use of [Telekinesis] rushed back to him. He found him reeling in an absurd amount of mental pain, "Ahhhh!"

He had already known of this feedback. Normally, he should have restricted himself by using the smallest amount of attacks possible but he got too absorbed in testing the limits of the lizard's immunity.

To top it off, he also unleashed his [Telekinesis] without regard for the repercussion. It was no surprise that he was suffering from his loose action.

It was only until then did the young man stop in his tracks.

As his vision wavered, Reve could spot the young man walking towards him.

He snarled while in pain, "What are you doing?"

He needed to display that he wasn't as defenseless as the young man thought so he activated his [Telekinesis], threatening to release a barrage of tree attacks on the man if he moved one step further.

It was only after he did that did the young man stop. He looked to the sky and shot out a blast of ki.

The blast exploded far up in the sky. It seemed to be a signal.

Not long after he did that, a group of young people rushed out of the trees and surrounded the young man.

Reve was surprised by this sudden turn of events. The group noticed Reve and took a fighting stance warily. They looked at the young masked man but when he didn't respond, they dropped their guards.

They passed by Reve and started scavenging what they could from the corpse of the terror lizard while the masked man kept staring at Reve.

Reve thought, 'These are young humans. Something is wrong with them. Strange.'

He finally used his appraisal skill on the young man.

[Amazon(Lv.60)]

'What? I thought all the amazons are dead!'

When he thought back on the event, every piece of the puzzle started piecing together.

Back then, he had come across a camp of amazons. The half-amazons were butchered by the terror lizard. Reve had uncovered an underground channel in the settlement. In one of the paths was a blood conversion pool for making new amazons.

He hypothesized that maybe the halflings had used the underground passage to protect their young ones.

To be sure of his assumptions, Reve used his skill on the group of young people.

[Human(Lv.10)]

[Human(Lv.12)]

[Human(Lv.9)]

[Human(Lv.20)]

[Half-Amazon(Lv.40)]

[Human(Lv.41)]

The first thought he had was, 'They are weak. This makes sense. They failed the conversion process….then only the masked man passed….?'

This would also mean that the group had lived on their own since the destruction of their settlement. He wondered just how many had already before they could become able to survive.

Knowing this, Reve realized that the attack on the terror lizard was an act of vengeance.

'Interesting. A group of young people living in the forest' smirked Reve.

Any human he met in the forest had died easily to the magical beast. Sure, there were strong humans, extremely strong ones like Circe, but they are not so easy to chance upon.

Reve allowed the group to take what they needed from the terror lizard. He wasn't like them. Even if he ate the flesh of the lizard, he wouldn't gain an ounce of strength.

Magical beasts and most other humanoid races had limits but the limits of humans and amazons were not something some of them may come across in their lifetime. However, for a magical beast like himself, he had already reached his limits.

Also, Reve had somewhere to go to. He had no time to waste.

Hence, he exited himself from the location and continued on his journey.

As he kept walking and recovering, he noticed someone following him. When he looked back, he spotted the masked man.

It seemed he had left his group, but why was he following him?

Something didn't make sense.

'The terror lizard was most likely a candidate, which is why we met each other on our way, but what about this young man?' wondered Reve.

Was he also a candidate?

Maybe, it was Reve that misunderstood. Who said only magical beast could be candidates.

Amethyst chose peculiar people and this masked man was definitely peculiar. Perhaps, peculiar enough to be a candidate.

'No, he is exceedingly peculiar,' reasoned Reve.

The young man was converted to an amazon. That alone was something special but his weird battle style and prowess were superb.

But…...But, why did he keep staring at him? Was there something weird on Reve's body?

...….

Hours later, Reve finally reached the north of the island. He entered a region of absolute ice.

Even with his elemental affinity, he shivered tremendously. As he stepped on the ice ground, he almost froze his body.

'What is this?'

Despite this region behind the north point, it should be snowing here. In fact, there shouldn't be any sign of ice.

'As expected of the home of Amethyst.'

Reve had already marked it off as the doing of the annoying god. It was probably he thought it was more fun if he froze half of the island.

In Reve's view were multiple ice mountains that blocked his path. There wasn't anything like a floating palace or a tower piercing the sky.

'I guess I will have to cross the mountains first. That damn god!'