Biohuman

Lee Seng heard the quiet chatter of the group as he exited the forest. The campfire burned brightly as Olivia huddled next to it wrapped in blankets. She shivered as her eyes were the first to notice Lee Seng. They quickly looked elsewhere as the others turned to see who or what that was.

"Seventeen minutes and forty-five seconds to spare." Keng nodded. "You certainly took your time, didn't you?" Keng broke off from the boys and moved over to Lee Seng. He waved and Lee Seng nodded in response. "What took you so long? Come across anything?" Lee Seng shook his head and moved to the fire.

"Have you been keeping our soul count the same while I was asleep?" Lee Seng asked, sitting down. Keng sat down and nodded.

"Yeah, I've periodically done it throughout the years… Why? You look at them?" Keng replied.

"All of my skills except two are at level twenty. There's so many skill points. How did you even get that many skill points?"

"Hm, you're only at level twenty? I swore it kept us both up to date… Maybe I was wrong about that." Keng shook his head and removed the thought from his head. "A bunch of Savior stuff happened while you were asleep. Probably why we have so many skill points. What did you do with them?"

"My class or job or whatever the hell it is, changed again."

"It can change? How?" Keng asked intrigued. Lee Seng gave Keng an odd look before continuing.

"Yeah… this time it changed when I got darkness manipulation. It evolved Eldritch Night into Cosmic Horror." Lee Seng raised his hand and showed the darkness manipulation. Keng gasped as he watched the night sky appear on Lee Seng's hand. Lee Seng slowly introduced light, and spots of stars appeared.

"H-how can you do that?" Keng asked.

"What's happening over here?" Calis asked, sitting down next to Lee Seng. Manny, Ritsuka and Evan plopped a seat near the fire and turned their attention to Lee Seng. They watched the cosmic energy grow dark and then fade. "Darkness?" Calis looked at Lee Seng.

"What?" Lee Seng turned. "Did you just speak… in a different language?"

"Oh, he does that all the time." Evan motioned.

"I said 'darkness'. You can manipulate darkness, too? You are a strange one, Lee Seng. Maybe I was wrong to think you and Keng were the same person." Calis commented. He moved his finger between Keng and Lee Seng. "You too are so different even though you look similar."

"We don't look that similar anymore." Lee Seng looked at Keng. "He's got a better nose than I do."

"Shut up. We're the same!" Keng pouted. The boys laughed.

"What's going on over here? You two kinda just went into your own world." Ritsuka asked.

"He was showing me his new skills." Keng answered.

"New skills? You got new skills?" Manny asked. Lee Seng nodded.

"Besides that, most of my previous skills evolved, but look at this!" Lee Seng raised his hand over the fire and summoned a black wisp. The wisp danced within the fire, blocking a small portion of light and heat.

"What's that?" Calis asked.

"Some sort of… wisp?" Keng guessed. Lee Seng squashed the wisp and nodded.

"I haven't tried all of the abilities out but most of the skills I was offered were passive skills." Lee Seng sighed. "I do have this ability…" Lee Seng snapped his fingers and Cthulu's Moon appeared in his hand. The sheathe was a green metallic color with gold and silver accents. Lee Seng stood up and grabbed the hilt and pulled the katana out.

"I evolved my weapon!" Lee Seng smiled. "Isn't it cool? Apparently, it's Legendary rank!"

"W-wait, h-how did you evolve a weapon?!?" Ritsuka asked. "Can you evolve mine?"

"How'd you even get a legendary weapon?" Evan asked.

"I haven't tried, yet." Lee Seng sheathed the katana and made it disappear. "I haven't even gotten to try that bad boy out in a fight, yet! I'm itching to fight now."

"Let's… save our energy for tomorrow." Manny suggested. Lee Seng sat down and agreed.

"I'm not entirely sure how it turned legendary… Frankly, I don't know how the evolution ability even works… Maybe I should've read it… But this is a good segue into the ruined city." Lee Seng cleared his throat. The girls both turned and gave their attention to Lee Seng. Lee Seng noticed Olivia's teeth were chattering.

'Is it that cold?' Lee Seng wondered. He shook the thought off. It was a bit chilly.

"I didn't go into the city, but I managed to run into something… not that fun." Lee Seng told them. "There are very few colors you can see in this monotone world. Red, ethereal green, silver, gray, and purple."

"Purple?" Liz perked up. Lee Seng nodded.

"I came across a bird about four or five feet tall with a huge wingspan. It had purple eyes and I think it detected my energy usage. Luckily, I was able to evade it or else I would've been a caught Fox." Lee Seng began to sigh but the sigh turned into a yawn. He raised his hand to cover his mouth as his head went backwards.

"What happened to the bird? Did it see you?" Manny asked concerned.

"It didn't see me, thankfully. It flipped the car I was hiding by, but I wasn't seen… At least, that's what I think is what happened."

"Do you think it's a monster from the Realm?" Keng asked.

"Either a monster or something much worse."

"A Deimon?" Keng replied.

"Someone who can summon familiars?" Evan whispered. He bit his lip as his face turned to Ritsuka. "Those types of Observers are extremely rare, right?"

"1 in 3.5 million people." Ritsuka nodded. "That's how rare a Summoner is."

"Summoner?" Calis asked. "What is that?"

"They don't exist in Daros?"

"No." f𝔯𝒆𝚎𝚠𝑒𝚋𝓃૦νℯƖ.co𝘮

"There's an on-going scientific study of their DNA and how they're able to summon familiars." Manny spoke up. "1 in 3.5 million was the estimate five years ago. They're rare enough, but we've seen one or two here or there. According to the interviews and scientific findings, a Summoner oddly blends in the three different main categories: Fighter, Glass, and Observer."

"That's what I never understood about their category." Liz interjected. "Wouldn't it be easier to classify them under Specialist?"

"Summoners are mostly out of the spectrum of the four main classes but are classified in Observer because of their own innate abilities. On their own, they can't do anything by themselves." Manny answered.

"The category system bases someone based off their innate abilities. Summoners are Observers because they can only create contracts with monsters." Lee Seng added. "They're rare in today's world, but there is an A-rank Summoner in Korea. He has over fifteen different contracts with fifteen different monsters if I'm remembering correctly. He has exceptional fighting ability, too. Oftentimes, he's killing the baddest monsters on his own."

"I think he's S-rank now." Ritsuka commented.

"Summoners are rare is what we're getting at." Lee Seng sighed. "If this Deimon or whatever is a Summoner… We are going to be in for a fun time… Especially since that bird had the strength to flip a car like nothing." Evan's jaw was the first to drop.

"I-it flipped a car?" Evan stuttered. "Doesn't that mean it could…" He swung his arm through the air and mimicked the sound of blood spilling as Evan dropped his body to the ground.

"You aren't going to die…" Liz rolled her eyes. "If you aren't stupid."

"But we could!" Evan shot up from the ground and looked at Liz with manic eyes.

"We won't die." Manny told Evan. "We just need to use more than three brain cells at a given time and we'll be at least scarred." Evan erupted in a panicked scream. ƒ𝓇e𝙚𝔀𝐞𝚋𝓃𝐨𝘷e𝙡.𝒄𝗼m

"Manny!" Liz shouted. "You just—Argh!" Ritsuka began to shush Evan as he thrashed around.

"We're all gonna die! AHHHH!" Evan shouted.

"Can't you just mute him?" Lee Seng whispered to Keng.

"I haven't tried to mute him before…" Keng raised his hand and started to scrawl runes. The silver runes lit up as Keng pushed them and pointed at Evan. Evan's screams vanished and it grew quiet. Evan screamed for two seconds before realizing there was no sound coming out of his throat. He grabbed at his chest and felt he was vibrating but no sound was coming up.

"I should've done this a long time ago." Keng chuckled, lowering his hand.

"Why'd you mute him? You said you wouldn't mute him unless it was necessary!" Ritsuka asked, perturbed.

"We're in the Realm of Limbo. In a forest. You want monsters coming our way? I'm pretty sure everyone and their mother heard that scream." Keng pointed at Evan. Evan stood up and marched over to Keng. He grabbed his collar and shook him as he mouthed off words.

"Unmute me right now, fox boy!" Lee Seng translated. "How dare you mute me? I'm going to kick your ass if you don't unmute me right now!"

"Can you promise to be quiet first?" Keng asked. Evan stopped and looked at Lee Seng and continued talking.

"Mmmhm." Lee Seng nodded. "Mmmhm. Gotcha. What? Is it my fault? I merely suggested – Okay, okay. Let's take a breather here, dude. We really don't want those birds coming for us. Let's get some rest before the big day, hm?"