Speed Is King

"That's twenty two." Jessica panted heavily as she collapsed onto the ground, completely exhausted. She hadn't expected to fight against so many powerful beasts so quickly.

She had barely left the forest before a herd of fearsome mutated feral bovines charged at her without a single warning.

Thankfully, she had spent the previous few minutes spending all her points on various skills and stats.

Phoenix System (S-Grade)

Character Name: Jessica Musk

Current Level: 32

HP: 1600/1600

Current Experience: 300/3200

Strength: 6

Intellect: 3

Endurance: 3

Reflexes: 6

Luck: 3

Fire Resistance: 10

Available points: 0

Skills

[Level 3 Flame Burst - Release a ring of fire around you and dealing 300% fire damage.]

[Level 5 Flame Sword - Generates a sword of flame that deals 500% fire damage.]

[Level 2 Flame Wings - Creates a pair of flame wings that allows you to fly for 2 minutes.]

With her Flame Wings granting her a powerful 3-dimensional aspect to her attacks, she was able to skillfully utilize her Flame Burst skill and her Flame Sword to slowly kill the mutated feral bovines one at a time.

Still, her lack of experience in fighting showed very glaringly when she quickly ran out of energy overkilling many of the mutated feral bovines with excessive damage.

She had to retreat, consume a precious energy bar, before returning to continue her mad attack on the herd of mutated cows.

When the twenty second and final mutated feral bovine finally collapsed and died, Jessica collapsed along with it, her energy completely spent once more.

"It's only been half a day, and I've already secured twenty two kills. At this rate, I will complete the first state of the System Upgrade quest by today! This is very, very good. Excellent, in fact!" Jessica raised her clenched fist triumphantly.

After a few minutes, Jessica recovered enough of her energy to stand up and study the dead mutated feral bovines.

"Brother said that high level beasts will have a monster core within them. These mad cows are pretty low level, there shouldn't be any beast cores." She muttered. But to be sure, she took out her Flame Sword and diced one of the carcasses to pieces.

"No beast core." Jessica nodded in satisfaction. She glanced up at the sky and noted that the sun was about to set.

"I probably have another two hours of sunlight before it gets dark. Time to continue. I must kill eight more beasts before finding a place to rest for the night." Jessica said to herself in determination.

All of her fears had disappeared without a trace as she got used to her powerful system. The only things in her mind were survival and killing. The more she killed, the more powerful she would become. And the more powerful she became, the higher her chances of saving Jennifer would be.

She set off once more, a small and lonely figure trekking slowly across a massive grassland filled with ferocious beasts.

Her long and bloody journey had just begun, and the twenty two cold carcasses of mutated feral bovines she left behind were but the first of countless massacres she would carry out in the following days.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Jennifer took a bite of her perfectly seasoned grilled meat and glared hatefully at Rak'Tharos. She chomped on the meat loudly and swallowed it with flourish.

Rak'Tharos opened his mouth to speak but Jennifer immediately said, "No."

"You don't even know what I am about to say!" Rak'Tharos shouted in irritation. "I can kill you with but a single thought, you know that right?!"

He released his powerful aura once more and pressured Jennifer with it. Jennifer gritted her teeth and fought with all of her might to withstand the aura. But it was far too strong for her. She collapsed to the ground helplessly.

Rak'Tharos stood up and made a move towards the grilled meat in Jennifer's plate. After he had successfully acquired the meat, Rak'Tharos retracted his aura and smiled at Jennifer triumphantly.

"Go on, eat it." Jennifer said coolly as she dusted herself and sat back down by the campfire which Rak'Tharos had made. "I'll never make another grilled meat for the rest of my life if you take a single bite out of that."

Rak'Tharos' smile froze, as did his hand gripping the steaming chunk of heavenly smelling meat.

"How did it turn out this way? What happened? Why is she able to threaten me this way?!" Rak'Tharos screamed in his heart.

But he didn't have a choice. He had to lower the meat and return it to her.

Her cooking skills were too godly, and the food she was able to produce with the simplest herbs and the most common meat was too ridiculously delicious.

After tasting it one time, Rak'Tharos had completely fallen in love with it and had immediately forced her to cook it again.

Which she refused, of course.

Not even threat of death and painful torture could change her mind.

"Fine! Here have your stupid meat back!" Rak'Tharos roared. "I am not that interested anyway!"

But the fact that her threat worked and the powerful Beast Emperor obediently returned her the meat simply proved that he was lying through his teeth.

In an extremely strange development in the relationship between Jennifer and her captor, Jennifer completely held the upper hand.

Rak'Tharos glared at Jennifer with undisguised jealousy as she slowly finished her portion of meat. He opened his mouth once more to threaten her, but Jennifer beat him to it.

"Power." She simply said.

"What?" Rak'Tharos asked in confusion.

"Make me as strong as you, and I'll cook for you everyday." Jennifer said.

Rak'Tharos blinked at her a few times and then roared with laughter!

Jennifer remained silent and merely began cooking another portion of the meat.

"Oh. You're being serious." Rak'Tharos said in surprise after he finished laughing.

Very soon, the heavenly smell of grilled meat came wafting out of the campfire once more.

Rak'Tharos gulped and swallowed his saliva for the upteenth time that evening.

"You couldn't possibly eat another portion, can you?" He asked Jennifer slyly. If she can't finish the meat, then he'll swoop in to finish it for her!

Jennifer shot him a look that said "Watch me." and began to eat once more.

"GAHH!! FINE! FINE!! FINE!!!! I will give you power!! Happy? Now give me that!" Rak'Tharos finally gave in.

"What assurance do I have?" Jennifer asked him, the slightest hint of a smile appearing on her lips.