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- Alrek Ocorro ~
*Click-Click-Click-Click* Anxiously clig my pen while I looked out the window of my office, sing over the massive crater where several buildings oood tall, I watched huge vehicles e from the air and ground, surrounding it in a heartbeat before people in glowing suits of armor flooded the pce.
It was the Uates military.
Or at least a part of it. -Just how am I going to resolve this...- Although it was a situation I would have done anything to not be involved in, the main subject of the situation was someone whom I could not ignore. -If I get Miss Lestir on the side of the ISO, I might be able to gain some ground to the west...-
Being a level 600, she was fortably iop fifty users worldwide with level alone. -Seeing how she stood in front of 'those three', she's probably far strohan a normal level 600 as well...-
She was essentially a polished diamond that simply hadn't been cimed. -And if I resolve this for her, I gain her favor...-
But while I didn't want to say it, that was a big 'if'.
*Knoock* Hearing a kno the door, I instantly stopped clig my pen, a out a deep breath, purging all nervousness from my mind. "Hooh..." -Alright...- Turning around aly setting down the pen, I spoke firmly, "e in."
*Fwip-Woosh* The door immediately swung open, revealing one of the ISO's employees holding the door for two entlemen.
Two gentlemen I reized.
"Sergeant Major Samuel Moreno, Doctor Evan Faraday," I spoke formally, but stood my ground without a bow. "It's a pleasure to see you two. Please have a seat." Motioning toward the couches, I picked up a small stack of paper and looked the Sergeant in the eyes. "We have much to discuss."
But while the doctor quickly, and calmly sat down, the sergeant held his head high a his skeptical looked aimed at me. "You better have a damn good expnation for this... You should already be aware of the bde's edge you're walking by proteg a destroyer."
Walking up to the table, I handed Doctor Faraday several papers. "Sergeant, if she wished, she could have pletely destroyed this city. I 't be certain 'The Eclipsed' would have been able to stop her, and I am certain you wouldn't have been able to either." 'The Eclipsed' was the name of the squad she had run into a group of three guild masters known for their irength against creatures that relied too mu their eyesight. -A she made Taka,- The tiger demihuman, -look like a house cat...-
Although the results of a teamfight could never be decided so early, Miss Lestir's demeanor in that situation was enough to give me chills.
But of course, those who weren't there wouldn't uand. "I sure hope you uand the weight of your words, Director." Speaking with a bit of bitterness, the Sergeant finally walked up and sat on the opposite side of the table as the doctor.
"Don't worry, I am more than aware." Standing at the end of the table, I slid him a stack of paper. "Her name is Evreir, a level 619 with css, no items, and no skills."
The daze instantly thinned with skepticism. "No css, items, or skills? That's not possible for her level." He was the lead researcher of the Magic Tower here in Arlington.
But while an unrivaled genius in his field, this was something he had never seen. "Please check the official dotation of her sing if you don't believe me." Pausing to let them both find the page and read it, I watched the doctor's eyes go wide. "She returo Earth the moment the System began glitg, and I have more than one reason to believe her system was somehow wiped in the event."
C his mouth with his hand, thoughts raced behind his eyes.
But the Sergeant's eyes were on ane. "She.. cimed she killed the mohat appeared near Rid..." He seemed like he couldn't believe his own words.
-So he did reize that...- Although Evren had told be about the monster, it was something I hadn't heard of and had ails on, -So I was nervous to include it.. but it may help...- Based on their reas, it actually seemed to help her case. -Things are going well...- "In any case, it's best we quickly resolve the misuanding. Don't you two agree?"
Expeg my proposition to nd, I smiled.
But her the Sergeant nor the Doctor seemed to agree. "Unfortunately, I don't think it will be that simple..." As his gaze rexed, he finally set his papers down and looked me in the eyes.
-Uh oh...- He was about to say something Miss Lestir hadn't let me in on.
Something that would only make things more difficult. "Just an ho, we received a report." Lifting his hand, he motioo the employee by the door, and had them open it to reveal a young human woman, half-dressed in military attire. "This is a pilot we had on the se in Rid. She had a close enter with this so-called 'Evreir', and-"
*VWOOM-CRACKLE* Cutting him off, the well-lit hallway behind the young woman instantly went dark as if it was absorbed before, out of nowhere, it all vao reveal the glow of city lights, and the clear, uricted view of the sky. -H..huh?-
It was a sight that made my brain short-circuit.
A perfect sphere, about a hundred meters wide was instantaneously removed, and a huge vacuum ripped the air out of the room. *WOOSH* Reag up and c my ears, I barely kept my eardrums from rupturing as the gss wall behind my desk exploded. *SHATTER-CRACKLEEE*
But even though Doctor Forna put up a barrier to protect us from the gss, and caught the young dy before she could be thrown out of the room, we were all pletely disoriented, and gasping for air after the oxygen was ripped from our lungs.
"HAH, HAH, HAH..." My breaths were heavy, as if all gasps, but I still couldn't catch my breath... With everything that had tied my senses in a knot, a coherent thought couldn't even form.
My body was simply focused on survival.
However, even if I had the ability to think, nothing would have ged.
There wouldn't have been a sihought that could form through such a mix of fear and fusion.
I could only ask myself what happened as the crisp, thin air blew into the room. -W..What just.. happened...-
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Late Afternoon - Unknown Season : Leviathan | Css: ERROR- Evreir ~
*Creeeaaaak* The sound of stressed metal filled the air as the opy swayed in the wind, slowly rog the huge, circur k of the spire bad forth over the river as if the spire was a bit of bait on the end of a fishing line.
Looking down at the raging rapids and the several-hundred-meter-long fish casually lurking in it, I let out a long breath to try and ease my nerves. "Hooh..." But it could only help so much. -Just my fug luck...-
Gently leaning against what used to be the floor while standing on the cracked gss, I stayed pletely still, and opened my system to get more details on the quest. -I might be really fucked if this quest is bad...-
Thinking about things rationally, I actually felt alright, if a bit anxious. -sidering the system said I pleted all the avaible missions when it let me return to Earth.. maybe that meant there just weren't any harder missions...- Implying that the ability to return to Earth in the first pce was merely a fail-safe the system used to resolve an error that was seemingly never meant to happen. -But that makes me wonder if I do it again...- As I navigated the system, I sank into thought. -If I clear the hardest missions the system has avaible again, I return like I did before?-
But, I was getting a little ahead of myself... The god that came to Earth to 'retrieve' me, clearly didn't want to leave me alive. -If he did, he would have put me in a lower rank world.- That way I would have been trapped and forced to return to being a sve of the system.
However, wanting me dead also implied something else. -If he's smart, this will be the hardest mission the system has avaible...-
sidering it hadn't even been a day since I returo Earth, I was actually pretty fident that the quest I was assigned wouldn't be as hard as what I was doing before my return. -But that means nothing without my upgrades...- Even a much easier mission than what I was used to would force me to stick my neck out. *tap-tap-tap*
It all came down to what the quest was...
And as I finally navigated to the 'Questing' panel a out a nervous breath, it reseo me. *Vwoop*
Quest: Siarget EliminationDescription:
Mission Rank: -0
Target Location: 4,215 kmTarget Cssification: Wyverian DemigodEstimated Css: Upper Demigod
Reward for pletion: N/A
Failure is triggered by: Death
Seeing it was a siarget eliminatio, with a mission rank of -0, my eyes gleamed. pared to the 'Rank: ERROR' pary exterminatios I was used to, it was a literal walk in the park.
However, the moment I looked at what I was going to have to kill, I felt the enthusiasm drain from my face. -You have to be kidding...- It was nearly the worst possible matchup for me. -A fug wyvern...-
Without my upgrades to buff thrown projectiles, the bow I used from time to time, or even my axe, I was in trouble.
However, it was still something far easier than what I was used to. "Hooh..." -It's not unmanageable...- Even though the world's rank was ridiculously high, and the matchup was awful, the quest itself was parably easy. -It'll test me.. but it should be doable...-
Letting out several long, slow breaths to ease my he mix of emotions f a cesspool of distras in my mind drained, and my senses heightened, bringing the detailed image from my aura into the forefront of my mind.
I was in the middle of an absolutely gigantic rai, packed with trees that stood well over a kilometer tall, and poputed with monsters and is that matched their scale. -But around the river.. it's pretty empty...- Besides the fish ier, there wasn't muearby. -This must be some monster's territory, but he's not around... Lucky me.-
Having gotten my bearings, I swiftly popped my back off the wall, and tapped the tip of my metal boots into the thick gss under my feet, shattering it instantly before falling and grabbing a shard of gss still ected to the structure, and swinging myself toward shore. *SHATTER-WOOSH*
The air was dense, and thick with the stench of wildlife and humidity, but as I plummeted several hundred meters and caught myself on a huge leaf, the air became so thick with moisture that it felt like I was trying to breathe uer. "Ugh..." The stench of fish from the river didn't help either. -How unpleasant...-
But I didn't have the time to dwell on it.
"Hyup!" *WOOSH* Zipping up into the air again, I firmly pnted my foot in the side of a massive tree before darting off it, bolting through the forest as if ricochetiweerunks. *Thunk-Thunk-Thunk-WOOOOOSH* But my eyes never left the quest paill open in front of me. -4214, 4212, 4213, 4218...- I was watg how my distance from the target was ging in order to find out where it was.
It was a method I had used more than a few times. -There you are...- *FWOOOSH* Finally getting my line, I started zipping straight toward it, causing the distanumber to start plummeting.
But I wasn't actually going to fight him, at least not yet. -I o make a on first...- Pausing on one of the rger trees, I smmed my arm through the bark before ripping out a splintered k of dark chocote-colored wood and throwing it into my iory. -That should do...-
*Beep* "1725 Kilograms of Dark Acra Collected." The monotone voiy system immediately pierced the deafening noise of wind as I darted through the forest.
But I was ready for it. "Open 'Smithing Table', and go to 'Design'." *Vwoop* As the panels updated, a holographic box appeared in front of me with a small sphere at its ter. "Enable linked molding, and hand trols."
*Beep* "It is not reeo use hand trols to mold as it lead to imbances, insistency, and errors-"
"Do it anyway." *Beep* Stig my hand into the hologram the sphere instantly began morphing, being a staff before splitting into several other pieces, with one being the core of the staff, several being eg pegs, and another being an axe head.
They were all different pieces of the axe that I would have the system create and assemble using materials I had collected.
But while I po have the shaft out of wood, and many other parts like the core and pegs out of mythril, I needed a special material for the axe head. -I need something durable enough to keep an edge even at high temperatures...- Because of the wiance when I swung, I needed a material that wouldn't melt, bee brittle, or malleable.
And while I would have used bck mythril if I had any, because it was lost to the system, I had to get creative.
*Spsh* "HHHmmmm." Hearing a loud, deep grunt, so heavy it made the ground shake, I looked up to see myself closing in on ane river before bursting out of the tree line and spotting a huge isnd amid the rapids.
But, it wasn't really an isnd.
*Thunk* The moment I nded on it, a hollow thump rang out, and after making sure I wasn't going to slip off the thick wet moss c it, the whole thing vibrated so violently it calmed the surface of the river. "HHHmmmm"
It was a massive turtle that seemed to be sleeping, with each deep hum sounding with a rhythm as if it were the sound of sn.
But I wasn't there to wake it up or kill it. -I hope you don't miaking a little bit of your shell, buddy...- Quickly making my way to the water's edge where the edge of the thickest, top portion of the shell ended, I squatted down, scraped away some of the grass-like moss and tapped it. *Ting-Ting* With it hitting the knuckle of my glove, it sounded somewhat metallily muffled by the b of moss c it.
But that meant it was the type of material I was looking for.
Something I came to name, -anic metal...-
It was essentially formed in the scales or shells of creatures that had lived and evolved in mana-dense enviros and been exposed to immense amounts of mana throughout its life, be it from the enviro or the creature itself. These materials, while not teically metal, were strengthened by mana to the point that they could rival mythril in durability and strength, while even exceeding it in things like temperature resistand chipping.
Depending on the creature it could even have other, more iing effects. -As long as the on has a det supply of mana, it even heal any damage it receives.-
My main on, Draco, was also made out anic material, it was what gave it the ability to grow stronger with time. -But I still 't even begin to fathom the creature it came from...- Even at my peak, before the system wiped my upgrades, that axe took some effort to wield. The more time that passed the heavier it became, to the point that it was being a bit much. It was as if there wasn't a limit to how much mana could stre. -But I won't have to worry about that here...-
Quickly reag down toward the rounded edge of the shell, he water, I dug my fingers into the shell before ripping up a k about a meter thick. *CRACKLE* For me it was a huge k, more than I would realistically need, but...
"Hhhhmmmmm..." The turtle, being nearly two kilometers long, would never notice such a tiny chip in its shell.
*Vwoop* Tossing the six ton k of shell into my iory, I ed up my design of the axe head ahe materials, seleg the ses of my materials to use in order to optimize the strength of everything with the grain, before finally assembling it.
*WOOM* As I selected 'Begin Assembly', a loud ripple sounded and several materials appeared out of my iory before being engulfed in a single spherical, void-like gate.
To be ho, I had no idea how it worked, from cutting up pieces to assembling everything, and I never really questio.
However, as I reached out and caught the dark wooden handle of the axe as it fell out of the gate, looking up at the light blue mythril pegs, gold detailing, and ivory-like white head, I couldn't help but ask. -I wonder how it does that...-
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