The Game Rune System

Tetsuya and Skylar left the city as the duo.

Both of them were looking a little unbalanced.

On one side, one could see a tall and leather armored woman with an axe in her hand. She carried her head high and her focused expression was kinda betrayed by hard to control anticipation.

Skylar herself was a little unbalanced!

On the other side, Tetsuya had the wooden sword and measly clothes that were thin and light. No one could see him as a person who would go against the beasts around the area!

He also had a faint smile and looked like an air-head.

"I have done my research. Our goal is the area known as 'Toothless Forest'." Tetsuya said out loud.

After he did so, a little excitement faded away from Skylar's face, "It's an area that requires a proper mercenary team to deal with…"

Toothless Forest was an area filled with creatures similar to the tigers.

Their teeth were longer, though. So long that these creatures could use their sharpest weapon to dig through the ground! After years of an evolution, those creatures learned how to make tunnels and their bodies evolved to become earth type one.

"We will call them Tooth Tigers." Tetsuya smiled, "It's said that the nobility uses Tooth Tigers' blood to polish their earth runes while the rest desperately struggle to get manufactured blood from aforementioned nobles. The lowest on the social ladder, the mercenaries, work to get the blood through trial of battle and death."

Trial Of Battle and Death was just a term used by the majority.

It was a natural process in reality. The Tooth Tigers would grow by constantly fighting people and even through natural selection. Their blood would get stronger by such a simple concept and even a few leaders would be born this way.

The leader's blood was exquisite and worthy of a lot of money! The nobility would never use such blood to wipe their runes, but instead would change it into perfect wine and drink it after each training.

Of course, it's all for earth runes and related ones.

"A few years ago, one naive noble tried to monopolize the Toothless Forest. He ended up facing Big Mom's rage and even lost his status… If the rumors are correct, then this noble is probably working as a servant in Big Mom's Household to get back his former noble status."

"How frightening." Tetsuya smirked.

"The reason wasn't because such monopoly would enrage other nobles or disturb the trial of battle and death. It was because foreign hands would break nature and its law. She is a really cool woman." Skylar was full of admiration as she spoke about Big Mom.

This woman was also smart for not seizing everything and properly taking care of her land.

Even Tetsuya believed this would end up beneficial for her in the long run. He himself liked when the lands were properly nurtured with the culture mashing smoothly.

It was similar to the city where he got connection with a sexy auction lady. Her home city looked great and had a different system for an army, so Tetsuya got impressed by that.

He preferred such a city and its master far more than others which allowed him to get that connection.

Nowadays, Reyas was probably the one to exploit it and the huge auction market, but Tetsuya couldn't know as he was far away. Nonetheless, he believed in the red-haired moderator that was witty.

"Still…" Skylar faintly asked, "Won't it be too hard for us to go against those Tooth Tigers? Even if we decide to go for the younger tigers, it still might be too hard as they can easily call their parents."

"If it would be hard, then I wouldn't go here." Tetsuya reassured, then hopped into the carriage.

His first adventurer followed him and the silence ensued between them as there were other mercenaries and people going in between the cities.

-

The carriage left Tetsuya, Skylar and a few foreign mercenaries not too far away from the Toothless Forest. No way such carriage would willingly enter this forest unless some hefty sum was paid before.

A few mercenaries smirked at Skylar and Tetsuya, then headed forward into the forest with their formation set already.

She just glared at them until they disappeared.

Then, Tetsuya let out a faint laugh that began their journey forward.

The Tooth Forest would be like many other forests if not for the small hills that looked natural at the first sight. Only by looking a little deeper one could see that those were unnaturally made hills.

Though it was hard to see through it because of the grass and bushes covering it, Tetsuya could faintly see that those hills could be used as tunnels for the Tooth Tigers.

Since these were straight at the entrance to the forest, did it mean that the creatures planned to expand their region?

It would be kinda fun if the outbreak happened, "I wonder if there are more Tooth Tiger Leaders than usual." It was an assumption that Skylar couldn't refute.

She just nodded and cautiously stomped through the hills.

No sight of the tiger happened to enter her eyes yet, so she had been very careful unlike Tetsuya who just strolled forward.

"I would like to meet the leader first." Tetsuya laughed.

"Please, don't joke like that." Skylar immediately replied, her voice a little trembling.

She had been worried about normal tigers, but her 'leader' just spoke about Tooth Tiger Leader whose abilities weren't limited to digging and using sharp teeth! Such a leader had more in his pockets and surely would be enough to get over them.

Tetsuya wasn't just speaking out of high ego, but because he believed in his sword abilities.

Yes, the world was hard and cruel, but even if he happened to be too weak against the leader, then Tetsuya held a hard belief that his sword would be able to help him escape with Skylar in his arms.

That was the progress of the former ego sovereign!

"What's worse, the leader will certainly be surrounded by its family and underlings. You have never fought against a normal Tooth Tiger, so… Oh my… god…" Skylar stopped speaking, her voice stuttering at the end.

The worst just happened and she was far from looking normal.

A pack of Tooth Tigers led by The Leader just found about them! Surrounded from all sides, the lady and the swordsman were left without means of escaping! Before them, the leader with exquisite eyes faced them.

Its eyes were dark yellow, but there was slit that shone with bright yellow light. It seemed even golden for a little, but the color was not what was important for the mercenary lady, "It's so rich in energy! Those eyes… would cover at least half of my life's expenses!"

If it were a noble lady, then she would lovingly call out her husband to get those eyes for her pale collarbone as jewelry out of those would look well on any woman.

The answer would depend on the husband by then; would he slap his woman for wasting such a resource or would he gladly prepare a necklace for his wife?

Tetsuya was neither of those nor his Ashley had a physical body yet, so he just took out his sword and faced the beast back.

His eyes glued to the leader, "I happen to possess earth rune too." The smirk on his face then unfolded. For many, it would look like a plain human trying to look formidable, but Tetsuya's eyes didn't lie to the Tooth Tiger Leader.

As a beast, he could feel Tetsuya's confidence much better.

"Ashley, keep an eye on MOBA BOARD. I will take our Minion System out of it for now." Tetsuya uttered inwardly.

"Yes!" Ashley knew that playing with the MOBA BOARD's system was not a wise choice as their control over it was not perfect. What if Tetsuya wouldn't be able to put away the runes to the minion system after this battle?

It would waste all his efforts! That was why Ashley kept an eye on the MOBA BOARD and any unnatural signs. Purple Cube floated next to her and she pouted secretly to herself, "I wanted to see how the minions fight…"

If Tetsuya heard such words, then he would reassure her the best.

Nonetheless, it was time to fight now.

The earthly minions, looking like small soldiers with swords and bows, emerged out of the earth and formed an orderly line with proper formation.

"Now, let's have some fun, leader." Tetsuya pointed his sword at the beast leader! He inwardly used his rune to make two commands; First: Attack tigers that come closer to you. Second: Never break the formation!

Those commands were left to the minions per Tetsuya's rune from the Desert Continent.

"Skylar. Take one side of my minions and help them. Change between the sides each two minutes." He then rushed forward to the leader.

Answering this rush, the tiger leader roared and summoned an earth podium. Using this, he jumped high and fell straight onto the swordsman!