Leave The Monster Alone

Once the fog lifted, Mark found himself in a predicament. The wall he had climbed had not been a wall at all but the body of the huge creature right in the middle of the cave. His hands still remembered the touch texture the other had.

And from that experience, he knew that the other would not be harmed by any kind of ammunition he had. Now, he had grade A weapons in his shop but resources were hard to come by.

In simpler words, he could not buy it right now even if defeated a hundred more monsters. 

The monster had been calm till now but as soon as the fog thinned, that rock hard body began moving and unfolding itself. Mark gave a brief look to his other party members who did not look that concerned at all.

"Every time I see him he just gets even uglier. I'm so glad Long is our dragon representative. At least they look good" this was another trivia Mark had no use of right now. He would like it more if they finally did something about this monster.

His system pinged with a new message.

_____________________

Classification: A class beast - Oractus (Alt name: The sea monster's pearl)

Way to trigger: Steal the pearl of the monster to aggro it.

Rewards: Regular rewards -sea pearlX1 (can be used once to complete the vial formula)

_____________________

Nothing new huh? It was just an update of the last time he had been here.

"We need to steal its pearl to trigger it into action," Mark called out to the other two who nodded. Maybe they knew this information themselves as well but haven't shared it with them yet?

The monster in front of them was still not fully awake, his moments sluggish which made it really easy to dodge. But it was only the beginning of this fight.

"Do you want to help us fight this? I think I'll make for a good experience overall" the snake asked as he dodged the attacks aimed at his way by the huge monster.

The female on the other hand just punched away the attacks. It should have hurt but she seemed perfectly alright throughout. Their power and agility were on a completely different level than humans and Mark was glad that they were on his side.

He dreaded the day they would have to face them on the battlefield.

"Can I back out? I don't think I'm suited for this fight at all" Mark commented with a little humour in his voice. Like hell, he would be allowed to back out just like this.

"Alright. You get the pearl and we'll handle the rest. It's not like a puny human like you can do anything anyway" the shock was real because the other had agreed just like that.

Mark had thought a little bargaining or other favours would be involved before he would be allowed to back down but nothing like that happened at all. The other had presented him with the perfect opportunity just like that.

"He's just saying you are useless in a fight right now" the female broke it down better for the human to understand. She was never one to mince her words and this time was no different.

For Mark, these were a sign of relief. There was no hidden plot here, just convenience after all.

"I understand. I'll retrieve the pearl then" the group separated into two - Mark and Kuro in one, the other two in one and they went to their respective positions.

The main job of the other two was to aggro the monster while Mark and Kuro could steal the pearl. The monster was already starting to move away from his nest so it was easy to approach the party.

As for the pearl? It was huge, almost as big as Mark's head and heavy like a bowling ball. It was definitely not going anywhere at all at this rate. But Mark had a secret weapon too, his system's storage.

The huge and heavy pearl disappeared and as soon as it did, Mark felt a pair of angry eyes aimed at his person. The dragon had aggroed on him, ignoring everything else in the vicinity.

A huge rock-like substance landed just a  few centimetres away from him and it exploded. The burning sensation was not heavy which meant it would be alright in a few minutes. 

But he would not be able to take a lot of those. He needed to hide through this fight but he did not know how to. Did his storage have something?

"Use my skin" the voice shouted and Mark felt something click. The shed skin of the divine snake was durable and his best option. He just needed to find a good spot first.

Thankfully, the actual wall of this place had small cave-like spaces only made for one human and he hurried toward the hole. 

The snake on the other hand tried his best to aggro the giant lizard on himself or Vodi but it ignored them in favour of going after Mark and his pearl. He hated dealing with such problematic cases and he would avoid it if he could.

Alas, he needed the humans to survive just a little longer and gain the power that was meant for them. That was what the upper divinities had decided.

The 4, now 3 of them had a stupid competition going on amongst them to impress their creator at any cost. It had started all of a sudden one day when the heavenly dragon had died and his core had disappeared.

Their creator had been crushed at that death because everyone knew he considered the dragon as special as the youngest of those 4. 

The other three had vowed to find the dragon's reincarnation but everyone knew they were aiming to find that lost core or create their own dragon.

Someone needed to evolve for that to happen and that someone needed to be human. That was why this problem had started in the first place and everyone had been given a part to play in this.

This Mark was just another victim of it all. But he was different too, something about him set him apart from everyone else.

He had asked the sage if he was the reincarnation but had been refuted. That honour had already been bestowed to a human named 'Luna'. Everything was a road set to ascend that one human into the seat of honour.

Even if it caused everything else to be destroyed in the process, they did not simply care at all. For those higher-ups, they all were tools.

And Fidi was one such tool. But then why did he see Mark as such a unique existence? He even gave him his shed skin for protection that one time.

"Stop daydreaming and destroy this beast. I do not want to spend any more time here" the female divine beast, his long time friend Vodi. She never questioned their belief, her gaze almost lifeless but she had not always been like this at all.

Divinity changed a beast but not always in the best ways.

"I knew, I know. But isn't this fight fun? We hardly ever get to let loose" the female gave him an almost nasty look but the snake knew she loved to fight as well. It was in her body language, honed by experience.

As for himself, he did not like to fight much but even he needed stress relief once in a while and he let himself loose.

Instantly, Oractus's moments changed in the pattern. The earlier ruckle changed into a heavy and complicated attack pattern but neither minded. Their small form could dodge easily and they were faster than the monster.

"Time to finish this now. It has been some time since I called upon my core" the snake smiled a softer smile, his hands outstretched and it flashed with a familiar light.

If Mark would have seen it then he would have recognised it as the divine core, similar to the one they gave to Kuro. the light expanded in the form of a whip, its surface shining in internals.

"It will hurt badly so I'll say sorry in advance" not that the monster understood his words at all. Oractus had lost all its reasoning a long time ago. This was just a destructive shell, no longer having any mind of his own.

The whip came down with a cracking sound and it cleaved the hard surface like a knife on butter. It did not go too deep before it was called back by its owner. The monster cried out at the assault, its body losing power.

The problem with these monsters was their inner strength. Unlike divine beasts and other special monsters, the ones with a hard body cover had really fragile and soft insides. So if someone was able to reach that far, then their victory was ensured.

And this time, they had already won as soon as they had entered. After all, a failed dragon was no match for a divine beast.

The Dragon's Lair had been cleared