**SOMEWHERE ON HORTA**
Bejin grunted softly as he finished, the gasp from the elf in his grasp signaling that she too had come to the climax of their coupling. He flung her off his body, settling back onto his throne as he pulled his massive owlbear skin robe closer to his body. He sneered at the quivering elf, then turned to his guards who had been watching their coupling from the side in complete silence.
"This one barely made any sound. Send her back to the pens, give her half the rations she asked for. She was not as enthusiastic as she claimed to be when she asked for an audience with me." Bejin turned to the elf. "Or do you have any protest about my kindness?"
The elf, covered in bruises and unmentionable fluids mixed with sweat, shook her head. Perhaps at some point she had been a beauty—she still was, though her missing eye diminished it slightly, along with the dirty clothes she had on.
The elf shakily got to her feet, her eyes glistening with unshed tears as she followed after the guard. Bejin watched her leave, developing a certain level of appreciation for her rear as she moved. "Perhaps I was hasty in my judgment," he muttered to himself, clawed fingers tapping a rhythm into the armrest of his throne. "Next time I'll make sure to put her up against a wall." He grinned, crimson scales rippling across his form.
Bejin got to his feet just in time to see another guard rush into the room. The lizardman was smaller than his elite royal squad. His guard uniform was actually robes, denoting him as a guardian of the temple. Bejin's eyes narrowed. "Temple guard?"
"My overlord, I submit myself to your mercy as I bring a message from the system." Bejin sat back down on his throne, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees while clasping his clawed hands.
"Speak!"
His voice thundered across the throne room, every pillar shaking with its echo. The temple guard kept his head bowed.
"I-it is a quest, my king... a quest for you. I was unable to get the full details due to how damaged the pylon is, but... i-it seems a new pylon has awakened."
Bejin felt his eyes widen to epic proportions—considering he was a lizardman, that was still a large amount of his face. But still, he had moved from his throne in shock, already holding the temple guard aloft, towering over him as he held the smaller lizard up.
"Are you absolutely sure of what you're saying? If I find out you have been lying to me, I will have you flayed, guardian. This is no joke."
"I wouldn't dare to joke about this, my king. The system gave a direction! It will resume giving the territory quests, and we can expand slowly. Once they get to level two, they will unlock the dungeon function. After that, it's just a matter of finding the dungeon that spawns on their territory and invading it. We would be able to conquer their pylon and, in doing so, save our people from annihilation!"
Bejin opened his hands and let the lizardman drop to the ground. He ignored the choking coughs of relief from the temple guard as he returned to his throne. But try as he might, Bejin could not keep a smile from stretching across his snout-like mouth. He turned to the left where an open balcony stood. Beyond that was the ruins of a great city that was slowly being swallowed up by the face-trees.
"I inherited a broken pylon, and it has taken me six conquests to fix it up to the point where the pylon's stat page is barely legible. But the gods of our forebears have deemed it fit to forsake us on this cursed world. Finally, there is a chance to take over another pylon and use that to fix that which has been broken. And once that pylon is fixed, I will resume the mandate our forebears had given to us before we became marooned on this cursed world."
The temple guardian bowed low as Bejin spoke, every retort held deep in his belly, tempered by both fear and extreme resentment. Bejin had inherited nothing—their people had failed to keep their original pylon. But they had been saved by a druidic civilization of elves. The owlbear cloak hanging off his shoulders was the pelt of the true owner of this territory. Bejin had stolen this throne in treachery and subjected six other territories to extreme horror or genocide in his attempt to fix the pylon after it was broken during his coup against the former leader. It seemed that horror was about to begin once more.
BACK WITH KENAN AND KATE
Kenan had to be honest—there was a slight amount of jealousy seeing Kate light her pinky finger on fire. Who wouldn't have thought about it at some point in their lives? They would have definitely wanted to control the elements in one shape or form. Now it seemed Kate would be the one to live those dreams. But far be it for him to take this away from her, not with that kind of happy smile on her face.
"Well, if you don't mind, I'd like to see if I did at least get as much as you did from the fight."
Kate paused as a light dusting of red covered her cheeks in embarrassment. She'd gotten a little carried away testing what she was now capable of with the leveling up of Basic Elemental Mastery. She moved slightly to the side, letting Kenan have a direct view of the stat screen as it rippled to reflect his own notifications.
[Cleave Has Reached Level 1! -10% to mana cost. Damage and attack speed have increased slightly]
[Cleave Has Reached Level 2! -10% to mana cost, damage and attack speed have increased slightly. You can now slightly combine other skills.]
[Alert! The skills Basic Wind Bullet And Cleave Have discovered a synergy! Spend 1000 Exp to combine both skills now? Or level them both to level 10 and combine them for free after actualizing their full potential!]
Kate gasped as she read through it. "So that's what that was? You combined—or tried to combine—both skills. You're crazy, but that at least tells us how pliable the skills are and how far we can push them. But honestly, I don't think it's every skill that has synergy like that."
Kenan nodded in agreement with Kate.
The Basic Wind Bullet and Cleave developing a synergy was one of those hit-or-miss situations. He had to be careful. While he wasn't exactly sure if there were dangers attached, he wasn't sure he wanted to find out what it felt like to combine two skills without synergy. It might hurt, or do something much worse. Still, this had happened in the heat of battle, and Kenan hadn't actually thought twice about it before he'd made his move. He shifted his attention to the rest of his notifications.
[+1033 exp to Basic Wind Bullet]
[Basic Defense Mastery Has Reached Level 1! +10% to all defensive actions or skills.]
[+842 exp to Basic Weapons Mastery]
Name: Kenan Keys Davis
Level: 2 (0/1000)
Unallocated EXP: 718
Stats:
Physique: Basic Lv 2 (500/1000)
Spirit: Basic Lv 2 (500/1000)
Mental: Basic Lv 2 (500/1000)
Soul: Basic Lv 2 (500/1000)
Perception: Basic Lv 2 (500/1000)
Magic: Basic Lv 2 (500/1000)
Skills:
Active Skill:
• Basic Wind Bullet — Lv 2 (1033/1250)
• Cleave: Lv 2 (9/1250)
Passive Skill:
• Basic Weapons Mastery — Lv 2 (842/1250)
• Basic Defense Mastery: Lv 1 (19/250)
Name: Katherine Kate Davis
Level: 2 (0/1000)
Unallocated EXP:730
Stats:
Physique: Basic Lv 2 (0/1000)
Spirit: Basic Lv 2 (500/1000)
Mental: Basic Lv 2 (500/1000)
Soul: Basic Lv 1 (50/100)
Perception: Basic Lv 2 (500/1000)
Magic: Basic Lv 2 (500/1000)
Skills:
Active Skill:
• Basic Fire Bullet — Lv 2 (630/1250)
• Basic Earth Bullet: Lv 1 (188/250)
Passive Skill:
• Basic Magic Mastery — Lv 2 (200/1250)
• Basic Elemental Mastery: Lv 2 (19/1250)
Kenan and Kate took a step back from the pylon, both a little bit silent for a moment. It was Kate that broke the silence.
"Since we don't have to fight, I say we hold onto our exp first. Let's look into completing the other quests and see how much exp we can have gathered."
Kenan raised an eyebrow. "All the quests?"
Kate frowned for a second at Kenan's sudden question. In her excitement over discovering her new yet limited elemental manipulation, she'd forgotten what the seventh quest entailed. But now that Kenan had reminded her, she frowned at him.
"Is that the only thing you can think about right now? Is that all I am to you? Because our survival depends on it, you'll put me on my back, and all of a sudden everything is forgiven and forgotten!"
Kenan frowned at Kate's outburst, his hands held out in a placating gesture. "That's not what I meant, and I don't think you and I being together would solve anything. You mean more to me than a good tumble in the sheets. I thought I proved that when I asked you to marry me. I get that you're angry, and it's your right to be. I don't have a good excuse for you, but you keep trying to pick a fight and make me into something I know that I am not. And I'm sure deep down in your heart, you also know that."
He paused, his voice dropping lower, rougher. "So take all the time you need. Or don't. If you can never forgive me and it means the end to our lives, I'm okay with that. As long as I spend those last moments with you—even if you hate me—then my life was worth it."
Kenan paused and ran a hand through his hair, unshed tears held in his eyes. "Excuse me. I'll go get rid of the bodies."
Kate watched him step away, two words escaping her lips to best describe the atmosphere right now.
"Damn it!"