'So there really is something going on.' Quinn thought as he continued to follow Ko and the others deeper into the forest. Before leaving, Quinn had released a few more from his shadow lock that could be tied up and left them to Fex. This gave him at least a hundred MC cells to play with and use his Shadow.
He needed something just in case of emergencies. It reminded him of the time when his MC cells were incredibly low, and the Shadow needed to be conserved more. At the moment, he was travelling up the tree's placing the Shadow around his footsteps, making them silent. While also using the Shadow cloak to make himself appear invisible.
'For people to constantly go missing in the first place, I thought those in the shelter would be involved. Who else could pull off such a thing, other than the faction leader.' Quinn looked at them in disgust.
'If I keep following them, then maybe they will lead me to the demon tier beast.'
'But are you planning to fight the Demon tier beast alone?' Vincent replied. 'Even with so few MC points. I think this might be impossible even for you.'
'I have an idea, but I should at least be able to escape if it's not the case. I remember learning about Demon tier beasts. How the higher tier beast seemed to have something similar to the abilities. Why would something as powerful as a Demon tier beast need to use humans to attack us? Either one, it's an intelligent beast, such as a humanoid one slowly weakening us bit by bit or two. It's the only way it can attack us.' Quinn explained.
Eventually, Ko and his group had stopped in a strange place. The tall grass they would usually walk on was flattened, and the peculiar trees looked to have been bent out of place. It was strange to see such an open area in the middle of the forest.
"Is this it? Where is everyone? I can't see them!" Ko shouted, looking around.
"This is all we can remember. I'm sorry." The men in the hooded robes answered.
Ko pulled the person's hood down out of anger and went right up to their face.
"You need to think harder! You have to. Where are the rest of the missing people!" Ko shouted.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtOf course, Quinn could hear this all and was now slightly confused, but in a brief second, he saw it. The marking that wasn't visible on them before, suddenly shot up their neck. It branched out upwards into the back of their hairline.
At that moment, the man's eyes started to glow, and it looked like the one next to him was turning as well.
"You're dead!" The Marked man said as they started to laugh hysterically.
'They can speak!' It was the first time Quinn had seen one of those that was Marked showing any sign of communication. He still hadn't decided whether to jump in or not, but it was clear his initial thoughts were wrong.
Coming out from different parts of the woods into the open space were several beasts. The same type that had attacked the shelter. They had green skins and were long and tall like a giant stick insect. While having several sharp razor limbs, three on each side.
Most of them were at the advanced tier level. Still, there were also a couple of King tier's who had a black exoskeleton instead of green. Quinn knew all of this information due to his inspect skill.
"Enjoy!" The Marked Man said as he was ready to escape with his partner and allow for Ko and his teammate to be killed by the beasts. They pulled out their weapons, and Ko went ahead to try to stop Marked.
'He has to know something. That's the first Marked that has been able to speak!' Ko thought, but as he rushed forward, not caring about his teammate. One of the black-skinned beasts went along, blocking his path. He hit the beast with his weapon, and a clang was heard as if he was striking against metal.
The other six limbs came towards him, and Ko quickly jumped back.
'No, they're going to get away!' He thought but soon saw shadows appear in front of the two of them, and they were quickly consumed.
Then the beast standing in front of him was sliced apart, and all that was seen was an afterimage of a red aura. The top half of the beast fell to the ground, and Quinn could be seen standing behind them.
For the first time, Ko was happy to see Quinn here.
"Damn it, now I only have sixty Mc cells to use, but it looks like we might find some answers," Quinn said, as he quickly went forward, defeating the beasts with one hit each. A strike with his hands, and legs covered in the strange aura, would blow or cut the beasts' body apart.
The other two didn't even have to do anything. They just watched Quinn display skills they didn't even know he had.
Punching them with a strange red aura, not getting hit once, and moving incredibly fast.
'I've never seen anyone deal with beasts so easily. I thought the rumours about his strength were...exaggerated. Is there any human in this world stronger than him?' Ko thought.
All of the beasts were dealt with and Quinn, covered in black blood, walked towards them.
"You two, you need to explain yourself now. What are you doing out here, and why did you bring the Marked out with you?" Quinn's eyes were glowing red, not wanting to waste any time, and his influence skill was activated.
"We came out here looking for the rest of the missing people," Ko answered. "I thought they might lead me to my family." When the question was answered, Ko finally came to and wondered why he had just responded to his question.
'It looks like I was wrong. Ko was just using the Marked that seemed sane to try and find the rest of the missing people. He was just a man on a hunt for his family members.'
"Please, Quinn, I know I have mistreated you, but that Marked you captured. It seemed like he could speak. We have to ask him where the others are. Please, my wife, and my daughter. They have been missing for the last six months now!" Ko pleaded.
Quinn was going to attempt to talk to the strange Marked man anyway, so he didn't really see it as him granting this person a favour in the first place.
Bringing out the Marked that spoke, Quinn quickly grabbed him, pulled his hands, kicked the back of his legs, and stepped on them. With his strength and the armour set, he was sure there would be nearly no one that could overpower him at the moment, and it looked like he was right.
The Marked man's eyes were glowing, and he was constantly chomping towards Ko and the other men in front of him.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Speak, where are the others? What did you do to them!" Ko shouted.
However, the Marked was now acting like all the others. Dribbling from his mouth and constantly biting away, trying to kill what was in front of him. Quinn had already attempted to use the influence skill on the Marked before, but it had no effect, and he knew it would be useless now.
'Do you think that the Demon tier was possibly the one that was communicating through the person? Perhaps the demon tier has more control over the Marked than we thought.' Vincent said.
At that moment, something had come to Ko's mind as he looked at the dead beast behind them.
"The Marked, I finally remembered where I have seen the marking before!" Ko said as he rushed over and pulled his blade over to the dead beast on the ground. He started to carve away inside its body, and finally showed part of the shell, there it was. Inside the body of the beast, the same strange marking could be seen. However, it was slowly starting to fade away after the beast was killed.
"I remember, when I was carving that moth beast, looking for the crystal, I saw the marking just above. They're controlling the beasts as well." Ko also realised that he had outed himself as the person who had stolen the crystal, but Quinn would leave that matter for another time.
'The beasts that are attacking carry the marking as well?' Quinn started to think. 'I thought that the beast was being attracted by something, but not also working with the Demon tier beast. Then is it possible that the demon tier beast were taking the people after every attack and then taking them somewhere to be infected?
'Why are they desperately trying to kill all the humans in the shelter? Beasts attack humans, but I've never heard of them going after humans before.'
Quinn desperately felt like he was missing something, and Ko and the other faction leader couldn't figure it out either,
"The demon tier beast. It can see everything we are doing. It knows we are out of the shelter right now. It was even trying to get rid of you. What Hayley said, about the marking growing quicker in the base!" Quinn said.
"Demon tier beast!" Ko repeated. "Are you saying this is all the Demon tier's beast doing?"
*Ding
The sound of the system message was shown, but coming up now, Quinn didn't think it would be good news.
[New quest received]
[Defeat the demon tier beast before the whole shelter is infected]
*******