"I leveled up again!" Selene exclaid with excitent, wiping sweat from her forehead after finishing off a level twenty-four jungle predator they’d encountered along their journey toward the eastern coast.
"Nice work. Well done," Moon said with a soft smile, walking comfortably beside Mirage. "You need to reach level twenty-five soon though. The Heretics definitely aren’t going to take our earlier encounter lightly. When retaliation cos, having you at level twenty-five will make a difference in our survival odds."
Selene nodded seriously, her montary excitent tempered by reality. "I’m at level twenty-three now. Two more levels before I can attempt my own class advancent tasks and choose my pathway. If we encounter enough strong beasts on the way to the Crab King’s territory, I should be able to reach the threshold by the ti we lure the Crab King out."
Yara walked slightly ahead, guiding them along the safest route through increasingly rough terrain as they approached the coastal regions.
The eastern shore awaited. The challenge that would determine whether Moon’s impossible evolution tasks were achievable or simply cruel jokes from an indifferent system.
♢♢♢♢
"There they are, the Island Crabs," Yara said, pointing toward a group of massive crustaceans feeding on the carcass of a beast they’d clearly hunted successfully at the shoreline.
Moon and Selene both focused their attention on the crabs, assessing their size, and threat levels. They were on the sa level as the Island Crabs they had hunted so ti ago.
Selene turned toward Moon with an expression of eager yearning on her face. "Can I...?"
"Go ahead," Moon said with an encouraging smile. "We already agreed this would be the plan anyway. You take the lead on hunting until you reach your limit or level up."
Selene practically jumped with excitent before stepping forward confidently, her movent so sudden it surprised Yara, who instinctively reached out to grab her arm in fear for her friend.
Moon gently caught Yara’s outstretched arm and shook his head. "It’s okay. Let her fight. Don’t worry, your friend is strong. She can handle a few oversized shells with pincers attached."
Looking at his veiny arms grabbing hers, Yara’s cheeks flushed with sudden color at the unexpected physical contact, and she nodded mutely.
Realizing what he’d just done without thinking, Moon imdiately withdrew his hand as if burned. He could tell from the distinctly unhappy expressions on the Savi warriors’ faces that they did not appreciate him touching their maiden so casually, despite their general respect toward him.
"I’m sorry, I didn’t an any disrespect," Moon apologized imdiately to Yara, then turned toward the warriors who, despite not understanding his English words, could clearly gauge his apologetic intent from his tone and body language. "That was inappropriate, forgive ."
The warriors’ expressions eased considerably, and they nodded acceptance of his apology with dignified understanding.
Yara imdiately shook her head, the blush still coloring her cheeks. "I-It’s okay, really. Don’t worry about it at all," she stamred, then hurriedly jogged after Selene in what was clearly an attempt to escape the awkwardness she felt.
The four warriors followed behind at their usual protective distance, and Moon brought up the rear, releasing a heavy sigh of exasperation at his own thoughtlessness.
He felt terrible about touching the maiden of the Savi Clan without any form of consent or warning. Physical contact clearly carried cultural significance among their people that he’d violated through ignorance.
Moon could sense that the atmosphere had beco awkward and strained despite everyone’s attempts to act normal. He could only curse himself inwardly for the social misstep.
The Savi people had been incredibly hospitable and generous to him and Selene, far better than most humans would have been in similar circumstances when dealing with complete strangers who’d literally appeared from nowhere. To repay their kindness with such thoughtless behavior made Moon feel bad, even though he’d ant absolutely nothing inappropriate or malicious by the gesture.
’I need to be more culturally aware, these aren’t just NPCs in a ga. They’re real people with real social rules I need to respect.’
WHOOSH!
Wind blades traveled through the air with, severing the massive pincer of a crab that had attempted to catch Selene from the side. The limb fell heavily to the sand, twitching reflexively.
Moon observed carefully as Selene employed wind and earth elents exclusively to engage and eliminate the crabs. They’d already agreed beforehand to make the absolute minimum noise possible during the hunt. Fireballs and explosive attacks created too much sound that could potentially attract Heretic patrols if any were operating within audible range of the coastline.
Stealth and efficiency took priority over raw destructive spectacle, at least for the ti being.
Selene managed to successfully fight a total of seven level twenty-four crabs before the situation began escalating into genuinely dangerous territory.
Two more massive crabs, each one larger than the previous ones suddenly erged from the shallow water with aggressive intent, their pincers clicking.
Their approach imdiately put Selene in danger. The risk of being surrounded and overwheld was much larger now.
Moon imdiately stepped in, positioning himself between Selene and the new arrivals. "I’ve got these two. Keep working on finishing the ones you’ve already engaged."
Selene flashed him a grateful smile before refocusing on her current targets, resuming her fight.
Moon drew his dagger from spatial storage and confronted the two erging crabs directly. He deliberately avoided killing them imdiately, instead using them as mobile training dummies to practice and refine his dagger techniques against living, aggressive opponents.
Without the Dagger Art skill actively guiding his movents, Moon needed to consciously recall and apply the muscle mory he’d developed. Each parry of snapping pincers, each dodge of sweeping claws, each precise thrust toward vulnerable joints reinforced the techniques deeper into his body’s automatic responses.
The crabs were also strong, their armored shells deflecting his dagger strikes, and their pincers could easily sever limbs if they connected properly. But they were also predictable, their attack patterns relatively simple compared to more agile beasts.
To Moon, they were the perfect practice opponents.
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