Chapter 31: A Beautiful World.
Geri hopped over on his remaining right leg while propping up himself with the butt of a rifle. His forty-year-old-looking self was covered in blood and the metallic remnants of his armor from head to toe. Apart from his missing left leg that the Earthflame Rat King had for its last meal though, all of his injuries only amounted to mere flesh wounds.
Xiu Xiu Xiu
The surviving mercenaries came rushing over, covered in dirt and grime with dark and depressed expressions on their faces. Of the total thirty-four mercenaries that participated in the final hunt, only eight remained. Oh right, of the surviving eight; two were missing.
'Seems like the beast dragged another two to death with it...' John thought, upon seeing the seven newcomers.
He flew over and poked the Rat King a few times with his halberd.
'The vitality of beasts are just way too strong' he clicked his tongue.
From as low as a stage 3 Savage beast, the vitality of animals becomes excessively strong. If anyone killed a beast and dropped their guard thinking that they were safe, injuries would be the least of their worries. If they were slightly unlucky, death would be their only solace.
Bang! Rumble!
The headless body twitched one final time before falling silent and stiff for good.
John retrieved a new cryogenic bottle and waved his right hand, collecting the remaining contaminated blood and storing it away.
'I'll have to purify this later.'
Cough!
He sat down on the edge of a newly created ravine, coughing up a mouthful of blood and suppressing his internal injuries.
After making himself comfortable, he began releasing his aura wantonly.
Whether they are intelligent or not, beasts are very territorial. While they are alive, the heavy pressure they unconsciously release will deter other beasts of lower strength from approaching. But upon death? Not only will they not deter anything. But rather, the carcass of a beast at or above the King realm is a very tempting and useful tonic for beast's, that could cause beast tides if they were allowed to gather. Naturally, these low-level beasts can't possibly pose a threat to John. But nobody wants to waste time on small fries when they were trying to recover.
Roar!
Rawr!
Ao!
Houu-...
Silence!
Upon feeling John's wantonly oppressive and violent aura, all the beasts within a 300km range that were preparing themselves to storm onto the base of Mount Anansi instantly fell silent and went into hiding.
As a level 3 neutral zone, the strongest beasts present would generally be at the peak of stage 4. These stage 4 Violent beasts at the peak of rank 7 are usually placed on a wanted list and made the objectives of the Adventurer Guild's various bounty missions to be harvested once they are detected via long-range surveillance equipment.
If these beasts were allowed to rank up and become stage 5 King beasts, they would develop intelligence through soul sublimation and become a menace to the nearby cities, towns and manors.
It's through such systematic management that a mere early Void realm like Geri could be stationed at Elincia as the highest commander. Of course, this is assuming that random and freak occurrences like the Earthflame Rat King of today don't magically pop out of thin air.
...
The command center began bustling as orders were issued and messages relayed.
Apart from reassuring and managing the eighty-plus million residents of Elincia city due to the recently issued code black, they also had to send vehicles and a relief party to retrieve the injured survivors and the corpse of the Calamity beast to proceed with the following investigations.
Alfred exited the command center and watched the bustle around him. As soon as John had confirmed the beast's death, the hologram's video feed was immediately terminated. Naturally, the useless Alfred had been kicked out of the small command center to make room for the army personnel.
'Such a beautiful world I've been transported to...'
He looked at the two relatively small mountains that had peaks jutting into the clouds on both sides of the valley in front of him.
'Sigh...'
He felt excitement, terror, anticipation, apprehension, and appreciation for this new reality of a world before him.
'I want a smoke...' he thought.
'But...'
What a joke!
He would be butchered if John caught him smoking a cigar at his young age.
"Hehe" he couldn't help laughing to himself.
'I want to start my adventure right away!'
***
"Go out and have a look around the city. You came here three years ago, but you were probably too young to remember anything" John said while walking into his private room in the residential building of the Elincia army base.
"What about my training? Shouldn't we be heading to the southwest border sooner?" Alfred asked.
He felt flustered. His time was ticking, but it looks like John was planning on delaying time by staying here for god knows how long.
"Hm?"
John cocked his head.
"It's hard training, hard training! So why have you been in such a rush lately!? What are you planning to do?" John looked at Alfred suspiciously.
If you returned from work one day and saw the twenty years long couch-potato twisting and turning, doing yoga, how could you not be shocked and suspicious? What sort of good stuff were they on?
"..."
"Do you have to act that way?"
Alfred was speechless. To think his own father would treat him like a criminal, suspecting him at every turn...
'It's not like I was lazing around and waiting for death to claim me...' Alfred complained inwardly.
...
[You were... 100%]
[If I didn't awaken, you would probably laze around and waste away your life for the next ten years]
...
"..."
Alfred naturally chose to ignore the system in his head, racking his brain for an excuse.
"After watching your battle, I felt the urgency. This world is too dangerous, and the faster and more I train, the safer my little life will be in the future" Alfred forced a smile.
"It's good that I don't have to hammer it into your head" John nodded lightly, slightly reducing his suspicions. "But, we can't leave yet. Your uncle Geri just lost his left leg and is still injured. It will take him at least three days to regenerate his limb, and another two days of observation for him to be discharged and ready to resume command of the army. Until then, by army protocol, I need to be on standby here in case another King beast shows up." John patiently explained.
'Five fucking days!'
Alfred's fat face scrunched up like a dried prune.
'Do I really have to stay here for five entire days doing nothing?'
Alfred was unwilling. But what could he do? Who could he complain to? And even if he did, who would bother with the complaints of a 6-year-old kid?
...
[...]
...
Thinking of having nothing to do, Alfred checked his (Missions) screen.
...
[Mission Name: Physiography]
[Mission Type: Chain]
[Description: You were transported to this world by unknown powers for unknown reasons. Most of the geographical knowledge from your past has been rendered obsolete. To live a safe and tranquil life, knowledge of one's surroundings cannot be lacking]
[Objective: Educate yourself about your current landmass]
[Requirements: Geographical knowledge 0/1, Political knowledge 0/1]
[Reward: 8,000 EXP, 50 attribute points, 5 gold, 1 D-grade item voucher, next link of chain mission]
[Remark: You don't even know common knowledge?]
...
'I don't think five days are enough to complete this. But, at the very least I should make substantial progress.'
Alfred made his decision.