{ Yr. 2202, 12/25 - 3:00 AM | Dandi Forest | Blue Planet }
*rustle... whish...*
A cold wind was blowing in the forest that carried the raunchy smell of raw flesh and blood. Vikram got up, his eyes still closed, and scanned the environment.
*prattle... prattle*
Hundreds of bug-like parasites crawled out of his body and created a layer around him. As if he was covered in an ayurvedic paste for treatment, not a single inch of his skin was visible to the naked eye.
*grrr... huff... grrr... huff*
*****
{ 6:00 AM | Dandi Forest }
*blast...*
Vikram woke up to the sound of rustling leaves and a horrifyingly loud blast. It was as loud as a four-horse chariot crashing into a large building.
'WHAT-!?'
As he balanced his body to not fall down from the large tree, his eyes went wide in shock as he realized the depth of the fall. He was standing high-up on the coconut-like tree like a monkey.
'How did I reach here? Wait. What was that blast?'
He searched his surroundings but couldn't find any traces of humans, monsters, or any kind of explosion. Quickly, he put forth some energy in his legs and ran. He jumped from trees and trees towards his last known location, the clearing in the forest.
**
'*gasp*... What happened here?'
He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw 10s of mutilated dead monster corpses on the ground. With a tip-toe motion, he quickly hid behind the leaves.
'Did someone save me? How did I not wake up when so many monsters were fighting?'
Fear rising in his heart, he said, "Did someone use a sleep-smoke?"
*grrrr*'
Right then, a large hyena-like monster that was a mixture of both a wolf and a lion suddenly came out of the darkness of the forest. It looked hungry and its leg also had a cut that looked like a sword injury.
'Did it encounter other candidates and get separated from its pack?', Vikram thought before asking Akashvani for more information.
'AV, give me information on Hylio(s)'
[ A.N: If you are confused about the mutation levels, Shika license, and mutation rank. Please read the second chapter from the auxiliary volume. ]
---
[ Hylio - Body (high) ]
Weakness - skull
Mutated offspring of a hybrid between a lion and a wolf-type monster. Hylios are known for their swift and precise action, as well as their incredible smelling capabilities.
They are pack animals and are generally difficult to hunt because of their high numbers.
---
Vikram wasn't surprised by the extra information. Akashvani's update was something he had already verified last night before going to sleep.
However, even though the first system update was inevitably going to happen with the appearance of ROOT, it had happened way sooner than the original timeline.
"Even the MC will accidentally stumble upon VANI during his exploration of the Root domain at the end of 2023, so how did the association get its hand on it so soon...", Vikram remembered the parts of the novel.
"How did VANI appear outside the Root domain and that too in a completely backward zone Y instead of zone D?", Vikram asked a question to the air.
"...I will have to rethink my whole plan, I thought I had enough time to prepare before the entrance ceremony. Sh*t-!!", Vikram was annoyed with constantly having to alter his plans, as a General that had fought countless wars, Vikram didn't like uncertainty in life.
The word "Diaspora" in the title of KRM's novel didn't only mean the human population migrating to different places. It referred to various races that existed throughout multiple domains.
According to the plot's setting, every world had a "System". Even Akashvani and VANI were sibling "systems" that used to be a single "system" millenniums ago before a world-altering event in the common super-world split it into two parts, namely the Blue Planet and the Root domain.
"Ugh!...", he pulled his hair with a weird expression at the thought of all the annoying things.
Vikram's face was so distorted that it looked like mashed potatoes. He was already under much duress due to Akashik Parasites and Avi's memories, but now he would have to make haste in reaching D-rank (Spirit level) so that he can be close to the main storyline of Diaspora.
'sir KRM, you really got offended because I said some tough words to you, huh?', a dry smile appeared on his face.
**
As Vikram was going through another bout of self-reflection atop the trees, a single Hylio was making its way towards various mutilated corpses of E-rank monsters lying on the ground.
"This isolated Hylio couldn't have killed all these monsters for sure, so who was it?", he had no answer to the question he was asking.
All of the dead monsters' bodies were bludgeoned as if they were struck by a hammer multiple times or quite possibly thrown around like rag dolls by someone extremely strong. Red, green, and black blood from various monsters had completely overturned the terrain and it looked like an artist's color pallet.
'I won't get a good chance like this again!', Vikram thought while looking at the Hylio enjoying the flesh of those mutilated monsters. He waited for a few minutes before he decided that it was time. It wasn't every day that a Shika would get a chance to hunt a 'pack' monster this easily.
"I can possibly kill it in one hit", Vikram planned to one-shot the monster as he got into the position to plunge over the busy Hylio.
*whoosh... khwap... squirt* With one swift motion of jumping, falling down, and lodging the sword through Hylio's head, he killed the monster that required multiple Shika parties to execute in one single hit. The very hungry and wounded Hylio was too engrossed in eating the flesh of another E- rank monster to even realize that his soul had become the food of Yama.
[ Killed Hylio (E+) ]
A sweet sound of the system with Vikram's achievement landed in his ears, 'I like this system better, now at least it feels like I'm in a sci-fi world'.
"Can I use these monsters for my first task? It doesn't look like they were killed by a human?"
He ran around the pool of blood and flesh to check whether a specific part of the monster was taken as proof, but to his luck, it didn't look like someone had defiled these dead monsters' bodies.
He quickly cut off the ears and the eyeballs of multiple monsters and ran as fast as possible from the area.
"I only need one more E+ rank monster and I can move on to the next task. I got really lucky this time and it makes me nervous for some reason..."
After traveling for 10 minutes while changing directions every few hundred meters, Vikram found himself opposite a hill. While traveling, he had been looking for the signs of other monsters and candidates, but he hadn't found anyone.
"I think this is good enough... *hup*"
Vikram started climbing one of the tallest trees in the vicinity like a ninja and jumped towards the hill after he had reached the top. He was aiming for one of the rocks pointing out of the hill for using it as a spot to fire up the flare gun once he had his final monster ready.
But he had made a huge mistake in estimating the distance between the tree and the cliff, as well as his control over his own body. Although the jump was only 7' in distance, Vikram forgot that he wasn't in complete control of his body yet.
"Sh*t", Vikram shouted as his body stopped mid-air, short of the pointed rock by only one foot. *shwoon...* His body started to sink straight down from the 100-foot tree like the coyote from the road-runner.
*shing...* He quickly brandished his sword mid-air and swung it with all the force he could muster onto the cliff.
*bam... ting...* however, to his misfortune, the sword couldn't penetrate the rocks and his whole body was pushed back by the reflected force.
"Sh*t... I won't be able to survive this without a serious inju-... *prattle... prattle*"
Just as he was falling, the old sensation from the first test was back, immediately his whole skin was crawling with bug-like creatures and an ephemeral hand made up of the parasites appeared atop a falling Vikram's head.
*crutch... tud-tud-tud-tud...* The parasites penetrated the wall very easily but they couldn't hold themselves due to Vikram's weight and were dragged downwards creating a meter-wide crevice on the wall.
"Ugh! Huh-?", Vikram opened his eyes and found himself hanging on the side of the cliff like a mountain climber, but instead of rock-climbing ax and ropes, it was the parasites that were holding his weight and keeping him attached to the hill.
"I guess the Akashik Parasites aren't really hostile to me, so that's a plus..", he took a deep breath as his muscle relaxed a little bit from the fear of death, "... but how do I go down from here"
Vikram was currently 100 feet up in the air with no support except a supernatural hand that wouldn't listen to his command.