Maria opened the tome and started chanting. She was getting covered by a red aura that was coming out of the red tome, and air can be seen flowing around her making her purple hair float around. She then started drawing a magical circle in front of her as the ground started to shake. The Faceless was about to run towards Maria's direction but Rem stopped it by pushing the monster away it all his strength. Cen and Olly also helped by attacking the Faceless.
That was all the time Maria needed, and soon the land underneath the Faceless started to shake and crack. Rem saw this and pushed the Faceless to the ground by kicking it's legs with all his strength. Cen also helped by using almost all of her SP to create many shadows that dragged the Faceless down. This made the Faceless stumble and Rem took that chance to run away as fast as he could. The land underneath the Faceless started enlarging at a fast pace. This made the Faceless stumble again as it even got it's feet stuck in between the cracks.
*Roar*
"Bolganone." Maria calmly chanted as the shaking of the ground started to intensify. This made everyone stumble and fall to the ground. An eruption came after that, a loud bang can be heard as the roars of the Faceless started to raise in volumes. Rem looked at the situation and saw that the underneath the Faceless was a flaming hot lava that was consuming the Faceless' body. It took only a few seconds before the Faceless was turned into bones and ashes.
When the Faceless was completely consumed by the lava, the ground started shaking again as the fissure that opened up was closed looking like nothing had happened.
"Ugh! *Pant*" Maria panted for air as the book she was holding started to turn into ashes.
"Miss Maria!" The three shouted as they run after her. Maria just smiled at them as she closed her eyes and turned unconscious. Olly panicked and started to do some healing spells to her. Fortunately, Maria has no more wounds but she was just exhausted from the fight.
"I think miss Maria is just exhausted." Cen sighed with a smile as she checked Maria's pulse.
"Mn!" Olly nodded with a smile as she looks at Maria. Rem smiled at them too and started to go towards the horse of Maria. He plans to heal the guy since it was injured. It was worth the trouble since it's their form of transportation after all. Olly saw this and followed him to heal the frightened horse.
"Let's go back to the town after we got some rest and heal our wounds." Cen suggested as she lays Maria's head to her lap and remove the broken eye glasses that Maria was currently wearing.
"Sure, Cen. I also want to look for that Joshua. How dare he abandoned us as he runs for his life." Olly says with gritted teeth. Rem nodded along since he badly wanted to punch the guy in the balls for doing that. He knows that he'll probably do the same if he was powerless to do anything like Joshua. But he won't say that since his image will get ruined.
--
After everyone got rested, they went back to town together with a conscious Maria. She woke up after an hour of resting. She still needs to rest from the looks of her but she insisted that she needs to be awake since there might be some mercenaries and knights coming towards them. She will be needed to explain the situation when they face them along the way.
'I got so many levels from the fight with that Faceless that it leveled me up to 10. Well, it has to be expected with that kind of monster that kept punching me but this kind of leveling won't always happen. I didn't even got to kill the beast which means that I didn't got the most out of that Faceless. I still didn't got any skills yet from the Fighter class so I guess I'll usually get a skill from levels 15 and 20 always.' Rem thought as he looks over at his current stats.
{Name: Kein Liulfr (Rem Thorne / Ian)
Race: Hellfire Wolfskin
Age: 3 years old
Boon: Lucky
Class: Fighter
Level: 10/20
EXP: 54/100
HP: 23/23 (80%)
SP: 22/22 (80%)
Str: 22 (80%)
Mag: 21 (80%)
Skl: 20 (50%)
Spd: 21 (60%)
Lck: 26 (60%)
Def: 19 (55%)
Res: 21 (60%)
Note: ()= Growth Rates
Damage: 22 (+6) [+4] = 32}
"How much level ups did it gave you, Cen? I leveled up at least two times in that fight. It gives so much experience just by attacking it. It made me actually reach my level cap as a Priestess." Olly was smiling as she says this.
"Mine too reached it's level cap. Our little bro must got tons of experience too, right?" Cen asked as they travelled.
"Yup, sister Cen. How about you, Miss Maria? Did you leveled up?" Rem asked.
"Yes, I've reached my level cap as well when I killed that Faceless. It was not a worthy trade though considering I used one of my treasured tomes at it." Maria sighs as she remembers her tome turning into ashes.
"Sorry for your tome, Miss Maria." Olly's earlier mood turn into sour as she also knows how expensive Maria bought that tome in the past.
"Yeah, that tome was worth so much that Miss Maria stopped gambling for four months. Mind you, it's four months!" Cen jokingly said as the group laughed at it.
"I remembered that, Miss Maria was sulking for those months since she can't gamble. We had to work ourselves twice as hard just to earn the money that we used to buy it." Olly chuckles.
"It was worth it though, it managed to save our lives. We'll just have to go find another one like that. It is worth it since it can save us." Maria says as a smile blooms on her face.
"Uhuh! We should go run that Joshua dry for making us spend this much." Cen replies making Maria and Olly nod. Rem just shook his head as they traveled.
After a few hours of travelling, they saw a group of knights and mercenaries on their view. Rem can see Joshua at the lead with a serious expression but it changed into shock when he saw Rem's group. Maria signaled for Joshua's group to stop. Once they are close to Joshua's group, Rem counted them and they numbered for about 20 plus.
"Where is the Faceless?" Joshua asked as he looks behind Maria's group.
"We killed it." Cen coldly answered.
"What!? Impossible! Don't lie to me, girl." Joshua replied, not believing a word from Cen.
"We really did, sir Joshua. We killed it as you run away to call for help. Coward." Maria whispered the last part but Joshua still picked that up.
'This bitch...' Joshua wanted to retort but stopped himself since he didn't want to offend Maria if she was telling the truth. He can't face a Faceless like that which means that Maria is stronger than him.
"Thank you for clearing the danger out, Miss Maria. Please go rest up as me and my group will check the place if there are still any hidden dangers." Joshua said. Maria knew that the guy was being cautious for now. She knew that Joshua will only check if her statement was true. Once he discovers that she was telling the truth, he'll start to curry favor to her.
'Despicable knight!' Maria thought as she smiles at Joshua and his group.
"We'll be going then." They left them as she wanted to rest as soon as possible. Joshua only looked at them as he orders his group to start searching. He was still not believing Maria and once he knew that it was fake he'll make Maria be quiet from his stunt from earlier. His reputation will be ruined if many knew that he run away from a battlefield.
"Why didn't you ask for a compensation, Miss Maria? We should run him dry." Olly asked.
"Don't worry, Olly. Miss Maria has a plan, and she'll make sure that she get a reward for the loss we got." Cen smiled.
"That's right. Once that dastard learns that we are telling the truth, he'll turn fearful of me. He'll surely do his best to satisfy me since he is a coward after all. Cowards like him are people who will pay anything to keep one's life." Maria smiled as she dreams about the things she'll be taking from Joshua's purse.
"500,000 gold should be the minimum." Maria whispered which Rem and the other two heard,
'I pray for your soul, Joshua...' Rem and the other thought as they look at Maria's wicked smile. Rem chuckled as he looks forward to the money they'll get from that Joshua.
'I should go ask for something once Maria got the money...'