Cage sighed, he butt was getting stiff from being on the stone all the time. It had been a week since he had started doing slave work in the mine. It was easy for him, but repetitive. He was hoping that something would happen today because he was beginning to get bored.
Cage and Andrew had expanded the room to a moderate size. Now that it was big enough for them to have plenty of room, they had more free time. Cage was also very close to completing his skill which he was very happy about. It took him a while to get to the point he was at, but significantly less time compared to his first time making a skill.
Cage stood up to go wake Andrew. 'It should be about time to leave for-'
'...- Group Four is to report to the South Gate in 30 minutes ...-'
'Speak of the devil...'
After shaking Andrew to get him up, they made their way to the South Gate after having their meal. Cage had never been to the south area before so he was curious to see the other Quadrants. He had only ever seen quadrant seven after all.
Arriving at the South Gate Cage noticed that everyone was more lively than usual. Curious as to why, Cage asked Andrew. "How come everyone is so excited?"
Andrew lightly chuckled, "Quadrant seven has the highest mortality rate, we were lucky that nothing happened in the past week. Normally we would have been attacked multiple times in one day."
Cage nodded in understanding. 'Who wouldn't be happy about not going to a dangerous area...'
While Cage and Andrew were conversing, Zaria arrived. She looked around to make sure everyone was there, then proceeded to tell everyone to get their tools. Cage noticed that there was a selection of new tools today.
'It seems we will be gathering something different today...'
Baskets were lined lined up neatly against the wall. Seeing as everyone else was grabbing one, Cage did so as well. After grabbing a dagger and attaching it to his waist, he followed everyone else out of the warehouse and lined up.
Zaria smiled and said, "I have a treat for you guys today... Because you all worked so hard, we get to rela-*cough* go to Quadrant 2 today. The quota will be 100 boom-fruits."
Everyone began to excitedly discuss random things like who was going to be the fastest or what they were going to do in their free time.
Zaria began to lead everyone to the South Gate, "Alright, lets go!"
As opposed to the Eastern Gate which led to an open stone plains, the Southern Gate immediately opened up to a forest.
Cage was initially perplexed. A forest underground didn't make any sense.
Regardless, he continued onward along a path through the forest. Soon, the vegetation gradually began to reduce in number. The temperature also began to increase somewhat to a point where it was warm, but not unbearable.
The ground was stone an had a lot of blast marks situated around what looked like obsidian trees. On the branches of the obsidian trees was a small gray fruit. Cage was able to sense that mana was stored inside and it seemed chaotic. There seemed to be around 30 or so fruits on each tree. With only a quota of 100, it wouldn't take him too long.
"The quota is 100 boom-fruits and remember, don't drop the fruits. If you do, they will probably explode..." said Zaria.
'Explode? Well, they are called boom-fruits...'
The obsidian trees, or boom-trees, were spaced out quite a bit. Cage guessed that the fruits would explode and spread the seeds out.
While he was in thought, everyone had already claimed a tree. Cage went a little ways away to stay out of everyone else's way and found a tree of his own.
Cage placed down the basket and went to grab a fruit...
He was too short.
Seeing as he couldn't reach it, he went to go climb it. Like a monkey, he quickly scaled the boom-tree and grabbed a gray fruit. It felt like a rock to the touch but was surprisingly soft like a normal fruit.
Scaling down, he placed it in the basket. He repeated it five more times, but his pace was slower than that of a snail.
The way he was doing it was just too slow, he was only getting one fruit for every two the others got!
Pondering his options, Cage had a simple but hopefully effective idea.
[Burst!]
Activating his skill at the soles of his feet, he jumped up and snatched a fruit mid-air.
Before long, he had picked the entire obsidian-like tree clean of all its fruit. Moving on to the next tree, he repeated the process until he moved on to another tree.
Three hours later, he had a grand total of 99 fruits at this point. He only needed one more, then he could use the remaining time for whatever he felt like.
He prepared to jump one more time but before he was able to, he heard a swoosh of the air.
Cage instinctively side stepped and felt something brush past his head. He barely dodged it and a few hairs fell. The projectile was a razor sharp black-needle, it was so fast and sturdy.
Turning to the direction the projectile originated from, he felt a chill go down his spine. There was a beast that looked like a wolf and was the same size as Cage with many black spines protruding from its back. It looked like a mix between a porcupine and a wolf. Cage felt the same amount of mana as Andrew had, maybe even more.
'A Stage Two beast! It might even be peak level!'
Cage quickly grabbed the dagger from his waist.
Grrrrrrr!
They were both in a stand off waiting to see who would make the first move.
Seemingly fed up with the stand off, the beast charged swiftly at Cage. It lunged forward and slashed at Cage's neck with its claws.
Quickly pivoting his foot, Cage dodged in the nick of time and swung his dagger down to the beast.
Pang!
To his utter belief, the dagger bounced off! It was like he had tried stabbing steel!
Seeing the gap in Cage's defense, the beast continued with its flurry of attacks.
Cage quickly realized that the beast was faster than him. With every successive dodge, the attacks would get faster and faster.
At this rate, it wouldn't be long before Cage would be overwhelmed.
He parried the next strike with his dagger, making the beast caught off balance. Taking advantage of it, he sent out a front kick and used the impact to make distance between them.
The beasts eyes turned red in rage, it clearly didn't like being treated like a kick bag by mere prey...
"Awoooooo!"
The beast jumped up and spun mid air. Dozens of black needles rained down at him at the speed of a bullet!
'Crap! There's no room to dodge and too many to block!'
Cage jumped back swung his dagger trying to protect his vitals, but it proved to be futile. Several needles hit him and embedded themselves in his body.
He felt his muscles become heavier and sluggish. Things just kept getting worse.
'Poison! This is not good...'
On top of the poison, he now had many puncture wounds and blood continuously seeped out.
The beast sneered then charged at Cage again with its fangs bearing.
It lunged at Cage intending to clamp down on his neck.
Cage quickly slid under and punch his arm forward at the belly of the beast.
[Burst!]
"Yip!"
The beast let out a sharp cry in pain. It could feel that its internal organs were damaged.
In a fit of rage, it began to attack with increased vigor and speed.
Cage could only react passively, the slashes and bites were just to numerous and too fast. More and more scratches appeared on his body.
He jumped back to try and catch his breath, but the beast jumped into the air and did a front flip. More black needles came raining down.
He was already poisoned and the blood loss was making him slower. As a result, more needles got through, advancing the poison even more.
Cage could feel his mind slowing down as the poison spread through his system...
The beast tensed its muscles and shot at Cage like a cannon.
He brought his dagger out to intercept the beast.
[Burst!]
The dagger moved at an incredible speed, faster than the beast could respond!
Twang!
Cage's face turned from joyful ,to shocked, to ashen. The dagger cracked in two as it collided, his arm buckled under the beast's weight and he fell on his back.
The beast pinned him down, and stared him into the eyes. Saliva fell on his face as the beast growled menacingly. Cage was too busy worried about his life to worry about how gross it was.
He mustered up all of his remaining strength and tried to force the beast off of him, but to no avail.
He felt his strength slowly begin to fade.
His eyes slowly began to cloud over.
'It's useless, none of my attacks can even hurt it... If only I had finished that vibration skill...'
The vibration skill!
He worked like his life depended on it. Cage closed his eyes and at a breakneck pace, he formed runes a ran through the formation to make it as perfect as possible.
The beast was currently gloating in its victory, the weak little cat in front of him had closed his eyes accepting its fate!
It was definitely going to enjoy its meal when the little cat let out its last breath. The weak little cat kept dodging its attacks and even kick it! It was greatly annoyed.
The beast brought its fangs closer and closer to the little cat's neck. When it was mere inches away from clamping down, it felt a strong sense of danger!
It jumped back and went on guard.
Boom!
A huge shock wave of mana erupted from the little cat's body.
Cage slowly stood up like a marionette regaining life. Talking to the beast, he said, "I really should be thanking you... heh heh"
Crack.
He slowly began to crack each finger on his hand individually.
Crack...
The beast felt an overwhelming sense of fear.
Crack...
"Awoo..." The beast whimpered.
Crack...
Cage had a smile plastered across his face like a demon would. "heh... If you hadn't brought me to my limit and to the edge of death, I wouldn't have completed my skill..."
Crack...
Cage looked to the beast, "Thank you... Now die."
[Burst!]
[Resonation!]
Whoosh!
The ground webbed out with cracks under the force as Cage kicked off.
He brought his hand, which was vibrating intensely, and plunged it through the beast.
Squelch!
Blood spurted out and a hand could be seen protruding from the back of the beast.
The life slowly left its eyes. Cage threw it off his arm, which was now dyed red, and walked back.
Cage had over a dozen needles piercing the front of his body and numerous scratches. He walked over to the obsidian-like tree, grabbed the last fruit he needed, and placed it in the basket.
Smiling contently, he closed his eyes and fell forward unconsciously.
Whoosh!
A silver wolf beast-man appeared with a gust of wind and caught Cage with his arm before he fell to the ground.
Andrew smiled softly, "You did good, kid..."