Endless Journey: Infinite Realms

Chapter 59 The Real and the Fake

Even though Asteria repeatedly told him earlier that he was a powerful Monster right now, Alex still had to make sure that he will be safe in this fight.

He looked at the giant boar, who looked like it was about to squash the little monsters in front of it.

This irritated Alex, which prompted him to taunt the giant boar.

"Oi, you fat stinkin’ pig." Alex said as he waved his tentacles around him in a provocative way. "Do you really have no hobbies right now except ganging up on little monsters? Come on man!"

Alex’s words seem to have taken some effect, as the giant boar’s sight was now focused entirely on Alex.

"Squee!!" The giant boar started to charge towards Alex, as if it intended to skewer him alive, but it stopped after just a second, with it suddenly dropping down, and then with it kneeling in front of Alex.

Alex did not try to find out how was the boar able to kneel. Rather, he was curious on why the giant boar was kneeling in front of him.

Was it the effect of his FED Manipulation? After thinking of that, Alex started to feel disappointment at the giant boar, as he could not believe that his bear was actually just a weakling.

But to Alex’s surprise, the giant boar did something that he did not expect.

"Forgive me for not seeing your majestic arrival, oh Great One!" The giant boar started to speak, with its whole body cowering in fear.

"..." Alex was sure that this fear did not come from his power, but rather from the authority that he supposedly possesses.

"Ok, this complicates things." Alex muttered to himself as he realized that his Monster Form was more special than what he could have intended.

It seems like not only his Monster Form has some special abilities to boot. It seems like it also holds an influence over the Monsters!

"Ugh, what should I do?" Alex thought to himself as he realized that he is an awkward situation right now.

He came in wanting a fight, but what he got instead were a bunch of crying monster kids and one oversized boot-licking boar.

"..." This dilemma rendered Alex silent for a few seconds.

The giant boar, who still stayed kneeling in front of him, seems to have noticed Alex’s silence.

The giant boar slowly raised its head as it hesitantly said,

"Great One, are you a new arrival in our world?"

"And what if I am then?" Alex replied as he adapted a tough persona in front of the boar. "You got any problems with that?"

"Of course none, Great One!" The giant boar hastily said as it kept its head down. "It’s just that powerful Monsters like you who came from other Monster Worlds are extremely rare..."

"Oh, is that a bad thing then?" Alex did not deny or confirm what the giant boar said. Right now, Alex wanted to fish for more information before he can make his next move.

"There is nothing bad about that, Great One!" The boar shook its head quickly, as if it was afraid of Alex’s wrath. "In fact, I am overjoyed by your sheer presence, oh Great One!"

Alex could have believed the last sentence that the boar uttered, if not for the fact that the boar was starting to piss itself already.

"Tsk." This time, Alex did not act as he actually felt irritated by the boar’s attitude.

"If you are really happy to see me, then why are you acting that scared?"

"It’s because your sheer power is enough to make me feel like this, oh Great One!" The boar shouted as its tremblings started to increase.

"Oh really?" Alex inquired as his tentacles stared to slither all around the boar. "Does that mean that my power level is something that you are unable to fight back, hm?"

The giant boar seemed to not care if Alex was ignorant of the power system in the Monster World as it quickly replied,

"Great One, just by looking at you, I can feel that you are as strong as the Generals of Queen Mother!" The boar seems to have a worshipping look in its face as it said this name. "It was only them that were able to make me feel this helpless and weak!"

"F**k Asteria, you expected that something like this will happen, right?" Alex muttered to himself as he resisted the urge to facetentacle.

From the looks of it, Alex did not just acquire some kind of weak-ass Monster Form.

It seems like what Alex got was a really powerful one.

But instead of being happy, the fact that what he got was a powerful monster body rang some warning bells on Alex.

After all, having a strong cultivation body means that the Main Mission will be something of high difficulty.

Naturally, Alex did not want to do a difficult mission, as his goal was to just breeze through everything.

The giant boar, taking Alex’s silence as the permission to speak more, decided to continue talking.

"The Generals of Queen Mother are all extremely strong! They can shatter mountains with their fists, and they can kill a lot of Generals from the Human Faction!"

"I see." Alex nodded, as he noted that he must make more research about this Queen Mother later, especially about these Generals.

After saying these words, the giant boar stayed silent, as it seemed to be waiting patiently for Alex to say something.

Alex resisted the urge to sigh as he realized that question time will be temporarily over for now.

"So then, what should I do with you now?" Alex said as he looked at the boar with his slimy eyes.

Since this boar treats Alex like a bigshot, then Alex will act like one.

"I can forgive you for not noticing my presence earlier. However, I will still have to punish you for that."

"I shall accept any of your punishments, Great One." Instead of sounding angry, the giant boar seems to be actually more relieved that it was being punished by Alex.

"Ok..." Alex closed his eyes as he tried to remember everything that Alina and Asteria told him to hunt.

"Basically speaking, you need to get all of these..."

****************

Minutes later, and the giant boar scampered away from Alex, probably starting its one-hour search for all the food and honey that Alina and Asteria asked Alex to get.

"Hehehe, having a minion sure feels nice." Alex muttered to himself as he watched the running giant boar. "Wait, maybe I can make all the monsters here in the forest as my minions..."

"Do-do-don’t kill us please!" Alex’s trains of thought were broken as he heard a scared and determined voice talking to him.

Alex looked at where the voice came from, and he realized that it came from Little Monster No. 1, the dog-looking monster.

"Oh right, I forgot that you five were there." Alex replied honestly, as he really forgot about these five little monsters nearby.

Alex was so engrossed with talking with the giant boar, so much so that he forgot the presence of these little monsters. It was only when Little Monster No. 1 talked to him that he remembered that they existed.

Alex then tilted his head as he realized that calling the dog-like monster as Little Monster No. 1 will be a hassle for him.

Because of that, Alex decided to just refer to it as No. 1. The same thing will also go for the other monsters.

"Hmm, it seems like you were not that scared of me, compared to that boar earlier." Alex commented as he saw the little monsters looking at him with a less hostile look compared to the boar before. "Aren’t you scared of me too?"

"Of course we are!" No. 1 said as it covered the other four monsters protectively. "You look... scarier than that ugly boar, but you seem kinder than it."

"Hohoho, are you really sure about that?" Alex grinned as he used his FED Manipulation, slightly increasing the fear felt by the little monsters in front of him. "Are you still not scared?"

"Muu..." All the little monsters started to tremble, as they could feel the effects of what Alex just did.

But to Alex’s surprise, all of them seemed to endure their increased fears, although they all looked like they could be crying.

At this point, Alex started to feel guilty, as he realized that he seems to have been a little excessive at the little monsters.

"Fine, fine, I am the good guy already." Alex said as he withdrew his FED Manipulation. "See, I am not scary anymore, right?"

"Alex, what the hell are you doing!" Alex felt a hand smacking his head, forcing his head to plant to the ground.

"What the hell?" Needless to say, Alex was pissed to whomever did this to him. He looked at the perpetrator as he wore the most murderous expression on his face that he can wear. "Do you want to get beate-"

"....."

Alex’s words got stuck in his throat as he realized that he was in checkmate right now.

"What, beaten up?" Alina, who was in her Vampire Queen Form, gave Alex a cold look as she crossed her arms in front of her. "Or maybe it should be you that must be beaten up."

"Well..."

"Don’t use that word in front of me." Alina huffed as she glared at Alex angrily. "Do you realize that you were scaring a bunch of children earlier? Look at them! They were about to piss themselves!"

"Wait, why are you here anyway?" Alex asked as he endured Alina’s angry stare. "Shouldn’t you be waiting for me at the clearing?"

"That is what I am supposed to do, but Asteria told me that I should follow you, since she said that I will see something interesting." Alina snorted as she took a deep breath. "And it seems like she was right."

What happened after that were just a little surreal.

Alex saw Alina approaching the little monsters, with her face wearing a very kind expression. "Are you all scared? Don’t worry, Big Sister is here to help you!"

Alina’s current angelic appearance, combined with Alex’s horrifying features, were already enough to show to the little monsters that Alina was a figure that they can trust.

"Waaa!!!" No. 4, the little monster that was made up of insects, was the first one to jump and hug Alina. "Big Sis, I am so scared!"

"There, there, there." Alina soothingly said as she patted No. 4’s back. "You are safe with Big Sis here."

The other four little monsters did not hug Alina, but they all scurried behind her, using her as a shield against Alex.

"See? You scared them a lot." Alina snorted as she shook her head in dismay. "It’s a good thing that you did not extend your fear manipulation for a longer time, or else these kids would have been traumatized."

"You call them kids? I think you should call them little monsters, since they are literally little monsters." Alex said as he gave an apologetic grin at Alina. "But I think I really went too far on scaring them earlier."

"!!!" To Alex’s surprise, he saw all five of the little monsters flinching when he said that they were not kids.

Alina also flinched too, but this time, her angry look changed into a pitying one.

"Umm, can you tell me what is wrong?" Alex said as he felt the sudden shift in the atmosphere. "Did I do something wrong again?"

"Well, you actually did not do something wrong, as it will be really hard for you to see it." Alina muttered as she hugged No. 4 more tightly.

"See what?" Alex asked as he saw the little monsters looking more... despondent?

"You know about my eyes, right?" Alina said as she let out a deep breath.

Alex nodded in reply, remembering everything that Alina said about her All-Seeing Eyes.

"Well..." Alina gritted her teeth for a second before she continued talking.

"I can see their real appearances, but I can assure you that their real appearances are not the monstrous forms that you see right now."

"Don’t tell me..." Alex’s breath hitched as he looked at the human clothes that the little monsters wore. "That they are..."

"Their real appearances are those of human children!" Alina said as her eyes started to burn with anger. "I do not know what happened to them, but somewhere along the way, they were forced to become monsters!"

"!!!"