133 Fire In The Hole!
In front of me was a big hole, one that didn't have smooth edges or the same width of the holes I entered so far.
This one was crudely made by the attacks from the Berserkers. The place was already filled with lots of berserkers fighting with their allied races against minions.
Of course their number wasn't that much, only limited to a few hundred at most. That was the force that remained after that deadly sneak attack from the angels.
"It's my friend human Hye," as I stood on top of that all black hole, I heard the familiar harsh voice of the berserker leader. "Did you come to kill that heart? We just killed it!"
I looked at him and his men, no one had any black colour on their hands or the exposed parts of their bodies.
"Great job," I said in fake praise, "I'll let my dragons help in suppressing the minions here. You can lead your forces and search for another heart."
"Are there more hearts?" I didn't know why but at this moment I felt that berserker was really dumb.
"There are many," I nodded, "go and kill more. I'll hold this useless place here for now."
"Does it happen that you know of a heart location?" he asked and I just picked a spot randomly and said:
"There."
"Thanks," he seemed happy. Dude, I just picked any spot to make you go away from here.
"Ooohhhaaa!"
"Ooohhhaaa!"
He shouted the usual war cry before others responded with the same. He led them towards the direction I randomly selected. And as he and others were gone, it was time to make sure of my realisation.
"Let's go in," I said to my dragon, "the rest be here and keep those minions away. Be ready to help me at any moment."
"Roar!"
The dragons were already fighting so I just went down while holding my breath out of excitement.
The hole the berserkers created was irregular and narrow. It didn't even go directly to the bottom and midway I found a narrow juncture where the tunnel twisted to the left abruptly.
"Let go out," I said, "then shower it with your breath."
I found it hard to cross such a narrow tunnel with my dragon. I wasn't crazy enough to go alone inside. Who knew what might happen.
*Swoosh!*
The dragon opened his mouth and sprayed fire like it was a fountain. I could see thick black fog coming out from the hole for five minutes before my dragon stopped releasing his breath.
"Let's go," I waited until all the fog was cleared before getting in again. This time it wasn't dark or black, but there were parts lightened up like pieces of embers.
The tunnel got larger and at that abrupt turn it was replaced with a new hole. I just passed through and found myself entering a wide place where it extended for almost a hundred metres.
At one side I saw the tunnel opening that was created by the berserkers. It seemed they took a long path to reach here, just appearing next to the heart.
The heart didn't look any different that the ones I killed before. The only difference here was the intense black layers of flesh that were near the place of the heart.
"So that was all caused by that strange black ball?" I was sure now that these black balls were the source of the protective energy shield around the neck.
"Get down," I didn't waste any time and went directly to the smashed heart. Like before, I gathered all the black fluid, the smashed armour-like pieces of the heart, and finally grabbed that black ball like I used to.
Yet for some reason, this ball seemed more aggressive than the others. Grabbing it alone ignited the black colour on my right hand and expanded its area slightly above my elbow.
"So the more they are left, the more aggressive they become," I muttered while noticing the fading motion of all blackness in this place.
"Let's go," as I got it, I exited this place. As I reached the surface, the first thing I checked was the long black trail that I followed from the neck to here.
"It's gone!" I expected it to take time to fade away. But it didn't. It simply vanished like it was never there to begin with.
"Let's move," I said to my dragons while beginning a wide search for other killed hearts.
Just like that heart killed by berserkers, I found four more hearts killed by others. I did the same and got everything out of these hearts.
Each smashed heart had the same black trail linking it to the still standing neck. So far I managed to get nine out of eleven possible hearts here, leaving the twelve hearts hidden inside the standing neck.
"So there are still two hearts left," as I completed a grand tour around the entire belly, I collected all the heart materials and there were still two missing.
During this tour, I found out that all the races that came here had severe losses. The minions weren't that strong, but they compensated for their lack of strength by numbers.
"It was a nice idea to replace my warriors with theirs," I muttered while seeing my chariot coming to rain down fire again over the entire monster.
The jumper never stopped attacking the monster. After all, he and that Curasee called Bins had a death feud. From what I knew about the jumper's attitude, he wasn't the type to let his grudges slip away like that.
Yet the monster's body was really colossal! I needed around twenty minutes of constant flying on my dragon's back to just cover the belly alone.
More than an hour has already passed since I came down here. But it looked like I might need more than one hour to complete the task in hand.
"Should I use another curse?" I pondered about that. The monster was already standing still and didn't show any movement for long minutes now.
As for that Curasee, he kept his mouth shut and never even spoke since I killed the first heart.
What was going on? What was he trying to do here?
The first heart discovered next was by the Fang gang. He found it and I just aided in widening the hole they created using a strange pickaxe.
That pickaxe was in the hand of Fang, but when he waved it, a giant phantom of the same pickaxe appeared and landed over the ground, creating a hole in less than ten strikes.
Then with the help of my dragon breaths, that hole turned into a wide tunnel.
"Thanks," Fang said, "do you want to have the honour?"
"Nah, it's all yours," I shrugged. I wasn't caring about the final count of the smashed hearts.
"We'll kill it and then head to the last one," he said while turning towards the direction of the remaining neck, looking like a gigantic pillar even from this distance.
"There is still one heart remaining," I said.
"The dragons," Fang paused for a second, "they found it, in that direction."
He pointed towards the opposite side of here. When I first met him during my hunt for hearts, he asked me about the general situation. He also asked about what I was doing here.
But I just kept silent about this. He was smart enough to know that I wouldn't come here without something good as a target.
And he was smarter to not ask further about that. Once he mentioned the dragons, I recalled the last encounter with their dirty leader.
That dude had a dark heart. Even after all I did, he ordered his men to stand with me all the time when I tried to get to the heart. However when they were faced with my dragons and warriors, they couldn't help but remain outside.
I had a feeling that the last heart wouldn't have much left after the dragons finished. That leader of them wasn't dumped to not realise what I was after. But he was just digging his own grave if he wanted to compete with me over the hearts.
Anyway I decided, the first one to fall from these races here would be the dragons.
Fang's men moved fast to the heart thanks to the help he gained from my dragons. In less than five minutes, the beating heart was smashed with a loud rumble.
And when that dark trail appeared, Fang also came outside. "It's all yours," he said without any greed, "we'll meet at the neck."
"Gather the others," I said, "it's not worth it fighting those minions."
"I know," he nodded before leading his men away. My dragons took control of the situation after they left, and I collected the heart materials and that black orb like before.
Now out of the twelve hearts, I got ten. One would end up in the dragons for sure, and the last one would fall into my hands.
"Let's go," even if I was sure of the greedy nature of the dragons, I moved towards the location Fang pointed towards.
Just midway there, I met the group of the dragon forces led by that jerk.
"Hahaha, you came a little too late, hahaha!"
His distasteful voice came even before I saw him.
"Go, it's in that direction," he pointed towards the direction of the killed heart, "I hope you can find scraps to collect, hahaha!"
I ignored what he said and kept flying towards the hole. As expected, he cleared every single piece of that heart.
"Idiot," I shook my head when I saw that black glistering ball in the ground, "he took everything and missed the most valuable one."
He even collected the black fluid from the smashed heart, yet he missed to notice that black ball embedded in the central small hole here. I collected it before I got outside.
"It's time to kill the bastard," I pointed towards the gigantic pillar in the distance, and my dragons flew directly towards it.
After almost two hours of fighting, the number of minions decreased by more than two thirds. Yet the remaining third was large enough to cause trouble to the forces gathered at the neck.
All the races were fighting. At this moment I finally saw the succubus girl, standing in the middle of her girls and a large bodied race stood on her side.
They looked like their bodies were made out of pure brown rocks. They had such a big head, short necks that gave me the impression they didn't have any, short long arms and legs. As for their trunk, it was strangely small, almost double the size of their heads.
"You finally came," the leader of the succubi forces noticed me and instantly shouted, "they are fighting inside."
I looked and saw three holes in the main body of that neck. It seemed that taking out all the black balls left the neck unprotected.
"Stay here," I left five small dragons to help the forces fend off the minions before entering through the central hole.
Why would I bother with creating a new hole while there were three of them here?
And the moment I flew for almost fifty metres down, I found myself in a big hall like always.
But there was something wrong here.
"They…" I looked around and all I could see was the big bodies of all the three races standing erect without moving an inch. "Keep flying and don't land for now," I said to my dragon while using my hawk eye skill to see closer.
They all closed their eyes as if they were sleeping, breathing slowly and regularly like they were sleeping.
But how come they sleep here? That held the fingerprints of that dirty Curasee race Bins.
"Take a tour," I didn't hurry to descend. I felt if I did, I'd end up just like them. The dragons with me kept flying around, accompanying the one I was on his back.
And in less than five minutes, I finally figured out what caused all this.
"Sigh, you should have just given up," I muttered while taking out one grenade from my inventory, "this dirty trick of yours won't stop me here… Fire in the hole!"
134 Sealing The Fate Of The Dragons
*Rumble!*
The grenade of death found its way in that small and insignificant opening that I found after scanning the place.
It wasn't any hole, it was the one where I used to find the black balls inside after killing the heart.
What did that mean? It meant this hall wasn't the place of the heart, but only a decoy. A trap laid out from the Curasee Bins, and it seemed that everyone here had fallen for it.
If I was with them, and didn't see such weird scene, then it wouldn't be strange for me to fall for it too.
After all, this place was a typical copy of all the heart locations I saw before. Even that beating heart in the middle also looked real.
But the moment the grenade detonated, the ground cracked as if it was made out of glass. A bright light came from below, engulfing all of the races as they fell to the lower level, the level where the real heart was.
"I hope they won't die of this," I knew I was bound by the contract with the Selvator to not kill any of them. Luckily they didn't take the full charge of the grenade, or else their safety would be under question.
*Fwoosh!*
A gush of hot air came out amidst the explosion. It was hot enough to burn the tips of my hair.
And with it, a loud scream came as that Curasee race was hit unguarded by my grenade.
"You won't live long… My race will take revenge for me!" he roared and then his voice turned hoarse without any meaningful words coming out. He was dying, and even in his death he still held such deep resentment against me.
Dude… You already caused me a lot of sh*t that no one ever did to me before you! And you still feel unsatisfied with that? Humph, you should curse your luck to be born in such a cursed race, not to curse me!
And what was with those kinds of threats anyway? Every time I killed someone from a race, he would go ramping up about how their race would get their revenge against me.
What? Were all these races so poor to have no talent but the ones I killed? Or did they have such free time to spare and come to avenge a nameless dude that fell in the apocalypse?
That was bullshit! Total bullshit! This was the apocalypse guys, not a field trip or something!
"Get down," as the hot air ended and the rumbling all over calmed down, I let my dragon take me to the lower level.
It was the real hall of the last heart, but the heart was already gone. All I saw was scattered armour-like pieces and a large amount of black fluid, more than any black fluid I found before.
With a simple look, I saw all the races not moving a finger yet. They seemed to be lost in their sleep, and so I started collecting my loot, not waiting for them to wake up.
I gathered everything, even that black ball. Yet unlike all the balls I gathered, this one didn't add anymore blackness to my already black arms.
"Damn!"
"Watch out!"
"Ooohhhaaa!"
Just as I did so, the races woke up all of sudden while many shouts appeared led by those three ones. I looked at them and they looked at me like they were eyeing a thief.
"You are awake already?" it seemed they woke up while continuing the last thing they were doing before sleeping. It was a funny situation, more so from the dragon leader who jumped, looking around, while his moustache kept shaking up and down.
"Where is it?" he roared while glaring at me as if I took something I shouldn't.
"It's already gone," I snorted, "now as we killed the monster, it's time for you to go and evacuate the city."
I looked around while giving them a serious look, "you have one hour since I slain the monster. Five minutes have already passed, so you have fifty-five minutes."
"I won't move without taking my share from that heart!" the dragon roared in challenge.
"Did you kill it?" Fang moved and stood by my side.
"Don't be outrageous, the human race Hye was the one to kill the last heart, not any of us," the berserker leader stood by my side as well.
"You two… humph," the dragon leader's face was all red out of anger, "let's see how you'll deal with him after this. Listen kid, we are enemies once we get out of the city. Let's go boys! We have a human to kill soon."
"Anytime dude," I welcomed such hostility and rage with an echoing laugh of mine.
"Sorry my friend," the berserker leader patted my shoulder before noticing the black covering up both arms, "are you ok?" he asked in a sincere tone and I simply shrugged.
"It's a small price to pay to kill such a beast," I said before adding, "if I was you, I'd select the west and go away from here."
"West?" the berserker eye flashed, "there is a river to the west of it…" he paused and Fang patted on his shoulders as he said:
"It's called Hackensack river, and if brother Hye said so then you shall follow his advice."
He even winked to the berserker leader who understood at last what was going on here.
"If you needed any help," he patted his bare chest firmly with his right fist, "we owe you a debt and we will fight along your side."
To be honest, I had a very good impression about that dude. He was rash and vulgar at many times, but he was sincere and had a pure heart.
And he loved to fight. In fact if I ever had the chance, I'd gather up warriors from this race. They would make a hell of a melee army, even better than the arrogant dragons or the rightful Selvators.
I was tempted to lure him to my side. But I knew this might be impossible. The deal I had with Fang couldn't have one more boss in it. Or else our total gains wouldn't make any difference by that deal.
"Add me as a friend," I said before adding, "I won't miss any chance to call you if an opportunity arrives."
"Isn't that a good one?" he said while patting my shoulder and I got a message of him adding me as his friend.
His name was Wrayly, a strange name if you asked me. "I got everything under control," I calmly smiled, "let's not meet as enemies, ok?"
"That's something I can promise," he said before adding, "sigh. I know you had something to do with brother Fang here. If not for the strict orders of my kin to spread over and fight like crazy, I'd abandon everything and follow the two of you."
"A chance will come soon," Fang said before Wrayly waved and left with his men. "My race lives by the code of honour, and Berserkers live by the code of war," Fang explained, "they grow stronger the more fights they survive. So he and others of his race won't be free to play lord games in the apocalypse."
"Oh," I said in understanding, "what about her?"
As two races went outside, that succubus girl came. Fang gave her a cold glance before saying:
"Their race can be considered the closest thing to that parasite."
"Don't call us like that," she seemed to hear his words, and he seemed to be speaking it out loud deliberately.
"You don't fight by yourselves, only gain strength by cursing the hearts of men of any race and turn him into your love slaves," Fang seemed to hold a deep grudge against her, and yet her face didn't show any sign of getting annoyed by what he said.
"If you are envious of our beauty, just say it," she waved her hair as if what he said was a praise and not an insult.
"Just keep your hands off me," his eyes flashed in a dangerous light. For some reason, he seemed to hold a grudge against her.
"Anyway," she ignored him as she seemed like she came here from the start for me, "what are we going to do now? That dragon left while roaring out flames! Hahaha! He looked funny, hahaha!"
"There is no we here," Fang said in an aggressive tone, "by the rules of the contract, you should be evacuating your forces."
"Aren't you also part of that contract or what?" she placed both hands on her waist, before turning to me. "Besides, I'm here for Hye, not for some rude guy like you."
"Humph, you know already he has that pendant, so stop wasting your breaths and screaming," Fang said while crossing his arms over his chest.
"Hye," she ignored him again and gave me such a mesmerising smile from her swollen purple lips, "won't you need someone to caress your shoulders? I can do it for you."
She moved without invitation to do that! Damn! I instantly retreated while placing a gap of three metres between the two of us.
"No thanks, I'm fine like this," I said and she instantly turned to Fang.
"Don't look at me," he shrugged.
"You told him about that?" her tone changed as if she was a totally different ruthless person. She tried to touch my body to strengthen her enchantment and turn me into her puppet.
"You got less than forty minutes," I suddenly said, "if I were you, I should get away now."
"Humph," she turned and her hair danced in pink heart sparks, "we'll meet again, soon," she said before leading her girls back to the surface.
"Sigh, that was close," Fang strangely showed a nervous look over his face when she vanished from my sight. He didn't look like the all tough and strong Fang, but a weak and exhausted one.
"Are you alright?" I asked while he took something out and started to chew it.
"She tried her best to enchant me, damn! I really hate that race!"
For a reason I started to understand the root of such enmity. The all mighty Fang was so weak towards the succubi race's sexual abilities.
And I couldn't blame him. If not thanks to my pendant, I'd also face the same struggle.
"You can buy that pendant from the market," I said while pointing to the heart pendant on my chest.
"I have five of them," he tiredly said, "but for unknown reasons they aren't working that good!"
Five! And not working?!! Dude… You seriously got a real problem here with that race!
"What will we do now?" he asked while returning to the old Fang, "what will you do?"
I knew he was asking about that dragon shitty leader. I shrugged as if that dragon's fate wasn't related to me.
"You shall leave the city for now," I said before adding, "take the west route and wait for me to come."
"And him?" he asked while motioning with his head towards the empty air as if he was referring to someone here, "what will you do with him?"
"I'm not such a bloodthirsty human," I said with a smile that wasn't one.
"Yeah, I can tell that," and he said with a tone that didn't reflect the meaning of his words.
The two of us just looked at each other for a few seconds before he shook his head. "It's a good thing we didn't end up enemies," he turned and waved his hand, "good luck… Peace lover human Hye. See you later."
As he vanished, the first thing I did was to open my channel feed. A familiar face attracted my attention and I instantly clicked on the screen with that face.
[Be ready] I said before adding, [A dragon race force is coming towards your direction. I'll send out all my warriors to help]
[Can we kill them? How many are there?]
I looked at the familiar face of Sara and the forces she led all the way from New York city to here.
They arrived and camped at once in a castle just a mile away from the border of Jersey city.
[They have less than one hundred left] I said , [and they are tired, exhausted, and wounded]
[They won't live anymore, I give you my word] she smiled and I knew she wasn't overestimating her abilities.
After all, the total number of forces she led was in thousands! If they couldn't kill one hundred and fifty, then they wouldn't deserve to survive this apocalypse.
[My warriors will come to your aid] I said, [Get ready, they will arrive in half an hour maximally one hour]
[I'll spread my scouts then] she then turned to her men before shouting in a loud tone, [Attention boys, we have a delicious meal coming our way]
And all I heard next was a loud shout coming from the army she brought. It seemed during the past travels and fights, the bonds between her and all of them strengthened.
"Come out," and as I closed the feed with her, I summoned my brave soulers, "go after the dragons… don't engage until my army attacks."
And like this the fate of the remaining dragon forces was sealed by a few words of mine.
"Let's see what I'll get from this behemoth."
135 [Bonus chapter] New Subquest
This colossal behemoth was part of my desire to deal the last attack on it. I wanted to get all the bones I could from this one.
My past record was golden grade bones as the highest grade bone I ever got! And now I was dreaming about breaking that record.
[Do you want to use the separation skill?]
"Use it," I simply touched the dead body of that monster before I saw a scene that I'd never forget for the rest of my life.
The entire behemoth shone brightly in many places, giving me the impression that its body was literally lightened up.
And the next messages that popped up were a feast to my eyes.
[You gained dark gold grade bone]
[You gained black grade bone]
[You gained red grade bone]
[You gaine dark gold grade bone]
The messages didn't stop until I got fifteen of such messages. And what came next made me shout in excitement.
[Per the evolution of your class and skill, the number of your gained bones are doubled]
Damn! I nearly forgot about that! Thanks Anubis god, I'd never forget such generous treatment.
As I got the bones, it was now time to claim another treasure.
"Come out," I called, and the rest of my warriors appeared. "Cut this bastard into pieces, don't leave a single inch untouched."
"Roar!"
My warriors complied as they went to devastate this behemoth. Come on, just the hearts seemed to be a treasure in their own accord. Then what about everything else?
I claimed the mysterious bones, but that didn't mean that treasure trove was emptied. There were still muscles, tendons, the neck, the head, the sharp teeth, the deadly claws, the tail, the organs… there was still a long list of items that would prove to be worthy.
How could I leave such a treasure trove behind?
As I scattered my warriors, I got nothing else to do here but wait. So I got myself outside by my dragon, and once I reached my chariot, I left my dragon to go back and cut that bastard into pieces.
"Done already?" The jumper came to my side. That dude… just looking at him made me recall unintentionally that weird moment. "What's wrong?" He seemed to feel my strange gazes towards him.
"Sigh, it's nothing," I shook my head, "I'll leave my boys here to claim that bastard's materials. Let's head towards the castles and gates to conquer it."
*Fwoosh!*
Just before he could say anything, and as I removed him from the leadership of the chariot, the three distasteful angels appeared all of sudden.
Their faces told me everything about what they were feeling at the moment. Yes bitches, cry bitterly over your disastrous loss here.
"Esteemed humans, we came to deliver the subquest related to the main second quest," the central angel said in a fake respectful tone, a tone that his glaring eyes betrayed its meaning.
[Subquest of the main quest two is issued]
[Subquest details: In every corner of the world, many emblems appeared inside mighty castles. You are asked to control as many emblems as you can]
[Quest time limit: Four hours]
[Quest rewards: each activated emblem will give you a boost to your stats]
[Special reward is given to those who control most of emblems in one city]
[Quest failure: You'll have a bad time in the main second quest]
I looked up at the rows of messages before giving the angels a meaningful glance. Those bastards… if I didn't know all about this quest from the start, then it would be too late to stop them.
And they didn't even give any hint about the brutal nature of the upcoming quest. What? Did they have a counter to what I broadcasted? Did they think they could win against us? Or did they just give up?
"See you later… Human Hye," the leader of the three angels said in a voice that carried a lot of hatred. Then they all vanished as they appeared.
"F*ck them," the jumper cursed and I couldn't help but nod.
"They got what they deserved in this quest," I said, "let's go and clear the city off the emblems, gates, and castles."
"What about the races?" the jumper asked, "I saw them all hurrying deep inside the city."
I realised that I did all this while he was asleep. It took me ten minutes to explain what he missed.
"Damn! You played them well this time," he seemed quite delighted, "those Selvators are good, but the Berserkers… couldn't you just add them to the deal?"
"They won't get away from me," I evilly grinned, "if you want to catch a whale, you need to be patient and wait for the right moment."
"They are hard to deal with," he nodded in agreement, "but if Selvators had their honour, they still have their ambition to rule the new world. But Berserkers don't have such a great goal. They just love to fight and see in wars their purpose in life."
"If they wanted wars, then many chances will pop up in the future," I wasn't just boasting. I knew the next stages of the apocalypse would have more deadly fights like the one we just won here today.
"Let's go," as I controlled the chariot, it started to glide on the ground. The first thing I did was to shift its running mode into the intermediate mode.
The staggering fuel reserve inside it was slightly above eighty millions. We consumed almost twenty-five million stat points during the past fight alone.
But I didn't feel any pain in this. After all this enormous amount didn't come from me but the other races. Having such a wealthy amount of fuel made me more confident in the upcoming quests.
I didn't run first at the gates. I had to wait for the one hour period to pass before going there. So I went around and started to claim all the empty castles with normal emblems inside the city.
The devastation here was beyond imagination. I never expected this battle to leave such a deep wound in the face of this city.
It wasn't a city anymore, but a giant gathering of rubbles and ruins stretched all over the city.
Not a single building escaped intact, not a single human survived. I didn't know how many were here, but I was sure there were thousands if not tens of thousands surviving the first quest inside the city.
I recalled that human army my dragons spotted before. Sigh, I gained a city but in my overall strength I gained nothing.
"This city can't be lived in for a long time," the jumper seemed to share the same heavy mood, "if we wanted to rebuild it, we'd need more resources… A frightening number of wealth, manpower, and resources."
"We can't build anything here," I firmly said.
"Are you planning to take New York city as your base?"
"Not even close," I shook my head while taking another empty castle with its emblem. I didn't need to leave anyone to defend, after all there were no surviving monsters or enemies inside the city to threaten my belongings.
"Then?" the jumper asked and I looked at him before realising something.
This dude didn't live past quest fifteen. So he didn't know.
"This part of the continent will be submerged later under water," I said as I recalled the events related to such a terrifying event.
Of course it wasn't something that was far from happening. If the upcoming quest was our loss, the human world Earth would cease to exist as all the other worlds would start to violently merge with it.
And during that merge, many unfortunate things would happen. Deadly earthquakes, violent massive floods, world wide tsunamis, terrain changes, and many other frightening faces of nature.
Even I wouldn't survive this! New York city and the area around it in a range of fifty miles would be engulfed in a series of mighty tsunamis that would change the entire region.
So I needed to go to the north, where things would become more stable and much safer. Not to mention my other plans I had in mind for that place at Massachusetts.
"Then…" he looked at me and I shrugged.
"I did everything I could to stop this, so let's pray things will go as we planned," I said before returning to get more castles and emblems.
Just before the one hour limit would pass, I got a message from Sara.
[There is something strange happening] she sent before another message came, [The dragon army isn't few hundreds, but few thousands. And they are standing on the border of the city, not taking a single step forward]
Oh! Did they bring reinforcements through the gate?
I had to admit, this was a smart move indeed. But who said the dragons would have the power to stop me even if they called reinforcements?
They lost big, lost most of their elites and most of their good fighters during this battle. The ones coming to their aid wouldn't be on the same level as the ones who died here.
"What's wrong?" The jumper noticed the slight change in my face when I read Sara's messages.
"The dragons are preparing to invade the city," I sighed before sending a reply back to her. [Go as near as possible from them, I'll watch the feed from your perspective]
[I'm already there]
Good girl! I opened my channel interface at once and opened her feed. The scene that appeared in front of me was much different from what I expected.
"Aren't those… the Succubus race?" I couldn't help but wonder in surprise. There were many giant bodies belonging to dragons, but they had many girls in their ranks.
There was no other race that would dress in such a revealing sexy manner except for succubi. Alright, you decided to join them, so don't blame me for being ruthless.
[Stay put for now] I sent, [I'll come and hit them first then you follow]
[I got it]
"Tell me," I turned to the jumper as I added, "do you like dragons?"
"Only if you barbecued well," he said and I smiled.
"Let's go, we will eat roasted dragon tendons at night."
I didn't want to do it, but I had no other choice but to recall all my warriors back. I left only the illusionists to keep cutting down the colossal behemoth. After all that race was as cowardly as the succubi.
And for the next fight, I already had my best weapon deployed already.
"Are we going to hit them head on?" The jumper noticed that I moved my chariot directly towards the north.
"Are you afraid?" I asked and he rolled his eyes in return.
He took out two spears and wore a new set of armour. He even wore a helmet, one that added more mystery to his masked face.
"Is this enough?" he asked while looking like a broom ready to get married.
"We don't need all of that," I sighed.
"Don't underestimate the dragons," he warned, "even if they weren't much stronger than us, they are so filthy rich. They will use treasures like running water."
"Damn!"
"What's wrong?!" he looked around but I couldn't help but bitterly laugh.
"Nothing," I looked back at the stretched ruins of the city. I totally forgot about the killed ones by the blades of my warriors before. Their bodies must have been covered with the falling pieces of the destroyed buildings.
But how could I forget about them? Damn! I almost missed a great deal of loot!
"Get ready," I said while I didn't even bother to channel the chariot onto the fully powered version, "give them a greeting," I said to my Gollems while throwing a grenade over to them.
"Careful with that," the jumper nearly jumped off his feet when he saw what I did, "these things aren't toys to be thrown like that!"
"I always use them in such a way," I laughed and he couldn't help but shake his head.
"Let's light the beacon," I said before adding, "next I'll trouble you to get down there and help Sara."
"Sara?"
"She is here with thousands of our forces," I said before adding, "you just need to handle the deadliest foes with my warriors. Leave the flies for them to handle."
"Cool."
136 The World Is Too Small To Run Away From Me
Just as the jumper said it, the Gollems unleashed the grenade of death using the deadly arrow. The arrow sent by the ballista could travel a large distance in no time.
And the moment it vanished from my eyesight, a massive explosion occurred the next moment.
*Rumble!*
I started my attack using such a deadly welcome. A big rounded bubble of white light engulfed many of the enemy forces at their heart.
And before ten seconds passed, I launched many attacks of the chariot as I turned it into the fully powered version.
"Assemble!"
"Enemy attack!"
"The dirty human is attacking us!"
"Get in formation!"
Many shouts instantly arrived as many started to run down there and get into rounded formations.
Each formation had at least one hundred dragon race fighters alongside hundreds of other races, including the succubi.
The succubus girls stood in the centre. I didn't need to use my hawk skill to know how scared they were.
Bitches! You double crossed me and joined the enemy, so don't blame me and blame yourselves instead.
"Watch out!" the jumper suddenly pointed at one formation, "they got the deadly heart of dragon machine!"
It was the first time I heard about such an item. I used my hawk skill to see a strange thing that was like a small trebuchet with a strange wedge shaped steel made item instead of the elastic belt.
And at that wedge shaped item, I spotted many rounded flaring with orange fire objects.
"They are deadly," the jumper warned, "taking a single hit head on will kill you."
"I have my shield," I shrugged as I simply activated the full power of my chariot, "and I have you."
"Are you planning to use me as a shield? No way! No f*cking way!"
I knew he was joking, even when he jumped a few steps to the back. Dude, you knew what I meant, right?
"Get ready," just to make sure he got me right I added, "I'll shield whatever they send, and you have to jump during the chaos."
"Tsk, always leaving the hard tasks for me, that's quite unfair, tsk!"
I rolled up my eyes and instead of wasting my breath over him, I scanned the area.
Every rounded formation had one of those war weapons. I felt the urge to obtain them, at least a dozen of them were waiting down below.
"Make sure to not hurt those babies," I warned.
"You can't trust your lust for girls, y'know that, right?"
"Dude, I was talking about the other babies, those whatever called weapons."
"Ah, I mistook what you said then," I heard a short laugh that ignited my old desire to hit him in the face.
Stop fooling around when I was seriously speaking dude!"
*Rumble!* *Rumbl!* *Rumble!*
"See you later."
These weapons unleashed hell over my head before that jumper vanished with that short farewell notice. I looked up and all I could see was the shield of my pretty girl here was trembling under such vicious attack.
"Fascinating!" I was inwardly amazed and shocked by such a weapon. A single one wasn't enough to threaten my shield, but in the span of one minute, I counted over one hundred of these darts exploding massively at my shield.
With such numbers, they exerted enough pressure to take out one million stat points from my chariot reserve. Damn! Even with a direct hit from the angelic star weapon my chariot never consumed such an amount!
I wanted it, I badly wanted all of them!
But the drawback of such a weapon appeared once the one minute passed. I saw half of the dragon fighters moving to replace the remains of these darts from the steel wedges with the help of other races.
Such a procedure required a large number of hands to get done. Even with hundreds working at the same time, it seemed these weapons would take roughly ten minutes to be fired up again.
Well… In an intense battle with such low numbers, such weapons would become a liability and not weapons.
The mistake that the arrogant dragon leader committed here was to bring forth such a large number of them at the same time.
With the lack of personnel, and fighting someone like me with various weapons in his arsenal, it was a deadly mistake indeed.
"If I was you, I would have only used three of them and left the rest hidden for later," I shook my head in disappointment. "Even using five minutes against me is deadly, not to mention you needed ten!"
Just as the first wave ended, and as the troops scattered at a large distance below were preoccupied with the replacement procedure, my attack finally started officially.
The first to hit was no one else by my brave soulers. After them came my lone wolf, the jumper.
The two were enough to disturb the actions of four groups at the same time. But I wasn't content with that.
"Get down there to help," I summoned my warriors, "don't harm those machines… I want them. Bring them to me," I gave such order to the dragons while the rest roared.
Then they started to disembark from my chariot as I led it to fly closer to the ground.
I watched them run in a strong momentum towards the enemy. The first to arrive, of course, were my brave dragons. They simply unleashed hell over two groups, killing a lot in a few breaths.
"Damn! I told you not to harm my babies!!" Just as I feared, the small dragons couldn't control themselves and overdid it somehow.
And now one precious doll of mine was damaged.
Damn!
"Don't harm babies!!" I couldn't help but scream in panic, trying to stop those idiots from smashing anymore gears.
I didn't know if they heard me or not, but starting from this moment they didn't touch those weapons.
[Attack, but pay attention to not harm the big weapons in the centre of each formation] I feared Sara and her army would be dumber than my dragons and would smash the rest amidst the heat of battle.
[Got it] a simple answer was followed with a loud war cry coming from the distance. Then thousands of humans wearing armour and wielding weapons swarmed the place.
I had to admit, they showed much more progress than the last time I met them indeed. This was the right way to raise a herde of killers, spread them all across the battlefield and let them grow by fighting.
As things ended in such a way, I started to look for my main enemy; that dragon leader.
"Where did you hide? Under a rock or what?" but after carefully scanning the entire battlefield thrice, I couldn't find him.
Wait… did he run away? Damn! He was a coward, more cowardly than I originally thought!
The battlefield was already chaotic, so I had to triple check before reaching such a conclusion. As he was gone, I had to narrow down his escaping options.
He couldn't hide in the city, and he didn't go south or else I would have met him. Also he wouldn't move north as Sara with her army already blocked the way.
"So you either ran east or west… If I had to gamble, then it will be west," without waiting for any second here, I moved my chariot with her top speed, flashing in the sky and creating a series of afterimages.
[The crazy cold dude with the mask is asking where you are going] just a few minutes later, Sara sent this weird message to me.
[Can't he send it to me directly instead?] I sent it back.
[He is killing lots of enemies, jumping like a dancer. Damn! If not for his harsh attitude and that mask and muscles, I'd mistake him for a girl for his outstanding agility!]
I looked at this message and couldn't help but helplessly smile. [The leader of this army is gone, I'm searching for him]
[He wouldn't go our way, we already surrounded the area long time ago]
[I know, just keep things there under control and store the weapons and bodies until I come back] I paused in thinking before adding, [If I took longer than expected, go around the city and salvage dead bodies of the races]
[Alright]
It was good to have such capable aidees. For a second I missed Angelica and others.
Wait… why didn't they come with her?
[Did you meet Angelica, Isabella, and others while coming here?]
[No, were they nearby?]
That was weird. I hurriedly checked the channel and saw their feed. And what I saw made me smile.
[You are tagging across that crazy dude?] I said to Angelica as I was opening her feed.
[Damn! Can you see us?] she wasn't the only one shocked when I spoke, but others as well.
The four girls were crawling under a rock in the middle of ruins. In the front, almost five hundred metres away, there was a group taking their rest of the long strenuous travel.
And that group had faces that I recognised, faces I was trying to hunt at the moment; that dragon leader with the succubus girl and their elite warriors.
[Where are you now?] I asked, [I'm trying to hunt down those guys]
[Speak in the chat better] I heard the low and whispering voice of Isabella as she seemed more excited than nervous.
[Alright, we can speak here… Tell me what happened?] I opened a chat with Angelica and the latter sent back:
[We were bored when you were gone, so we started to roam around and claim castles in the area]
[And?]
[We met a suspicious group, that one. At first we tried to not follow them, but when we heard them mentioning you and how bad you will feel when you'll find them gone, we decided to trail them]
[Good girls] I sent.
[Hey, I was also with them and I was the one who proposed the idea to track these guys in the first place!]
This message came from the spearhead, making me shake my head in helplessness. That dude was trying to score anything good to make his image in front of Isabella better.
Well, you were trying your best dude, I gave this to you.
[So where are you now?] I sent before asking, [Don't tell me you are on New York city]
[No, they crossed the river and ended up west] she sent, [we are almost five miles away from the river. Those bastards ran like they got nothing left behind to care about]
[We are good, boss, leave them to us. We can handle them]
The last message came from the spearhead, making me want to slap him on the face.
[Tell that idiot next to you to shut his mouth and hold his breath tight. This group is formed from the leader of a strong dragon force and his elites. Not to mention those elite succubi. A single look from one of those girls is enough to dominate his heart and make him forget his love]
I was still opening the feed over. Angelica was relaying in low tone what I was sending to her. The moment I sent her this message, she fought hard to not laugh in a loud voice before saying what I sent over.
And that dude's face turned really ugly before he sent a message to me.
[Boss, my love is as hard as iron and impregnable like a steel fortress!]
I couldn't help but laugh when I saw his words. [Dude, these girls' temptation is hot, hot enough to melt down your proclaimed iron and fragile steel] I sent to Angelica before adding:
[Just stay put and don't do anything reckless. Those guys are far more dangerous than you think. Don't let them discover you. Give me something I can start from to get to you]
Despite the ugly face of the spearhead, the other girls were resisting the urge to fall on the ground and laugh.
[We moved slightly to the north from the castle you left us at. Keep moving in the north west direction for twenty minutes. We are beside a small destroyed town with a big stadium in its heart]
[Ok] As I got such vague instructions, I started to recall the place of that castle I left them at.
"Trying to run away from me? Humph, I'll teach you now how small the world is!"
137 Santa Claus
I had to admit, trying to find them proved to be harder than I expected!
Everywhere ruins dominated this world. The scene of ruins extending for the horizon started from Jersey city and continued to the areas I flew over.
"They said there is a big stadium near them," this was the only clue I could find. Yet trying to find it was like trying to look for a needle in an enormous haystack!
It took me roughly an hour before finally finding that stadium. Strangely enough, it stood erect in the middle of ruins like it got spared by some bizarre mercy or something.
This was good news. But the bad news came as that group started to move during that hour.
They seemed restless, as if their head up start wasn't enough to secure their escape. I kept tracking them using the feed coming from my team's camera. They were heading in a straight line as if they knew where they were going.
[Do you know what lies in that direction?] as they kept running in the same direction for almost half an hour straight, I sent for the girls to ask.
[No one knows] the answer that Angelica delivered wasn't a surprise.
[Keep yourselves well hidden, I'm not far behind]
I was already passing over places I recognised from the feed. I estimated it took roughly ten minutes to reach there.
I shifted my chariot's speed to the medium. After all, I was lost before and wasting my precious fuel here wasn't wise.
Just as I ended the chat with the girls, something new happened.
"Humans?!!" In front of my eyes, a large group of well equipped humans started to pour from every angle!
The enemy group was walking through deep ground in the middle of two artificially made hills of ruins. It seemed like a nice spot to ambush someone, and it was nice to see humans using their minds at last.
"So they created such a terrain for this… Interesting," I watched the movements of those humans through the feed. They looked experienced with this terrain as if they memorised it by heart.
My team was crawling silently for half a mile behind. The scenes coming weren't clear, but this was a safe distance to keep tracking such a group.
[Boss, should we help?] the spearhead sent and I was really tempted to ask them to join the fight.
[Wait and watch for now] but as I was still ten minutes away, I couldn't risk them exposing their presence. Or else this rich prey might get scared and scatter all over earth.
"Time to go faster," as things escalated to such a degree, I didn't reserve any fuel for now. Travelling such a distance in the fully powered version of my chariot was enough to cross it in three up to four minutes tops.
But during these minutes, things started to get ugly for the attacking humans.
The group of humans seemed to be in hundreds. From such a far distance it seemed they had good gears and also vast fighting experience.
Their movement looked neat and their attacks were organised. I even saw many using basic AOE skills like fireball skill and howlin tornado skill famous for magicians.
But after the first minute that passed in chaos, the difference between the two sides glared even from such a far distance.
The first thing that appeared was three of the precious dolls that I faced before. They appeared and instantly launched their deadly explosive darts all over the two hills.
*Boom!* *Boom!*
Even from my far away place, I could hear two muffled explosive bookings coming from their direction. Damn! These babies were really hot! I wanted them! I wanted them!
On the screen I saw large clouds of dust filling the entire area accompanied with muffled screams of pain and agony. The human group took it hard while they weren't prepared for it.
And when the clouds cleared a few seconds later, I saw the two hills being flattened with the ground. Out of the initial hundreds, only scattered groups of tens survived this brutality.
[Damn! If we were there…] Angelica sent it to me, and I knew she was just expressing her appreciation for my last call.
Girl, it was just a cautious decision, not too much to be thanked for.
"For the land!"
"For lord!"
"Kill them all!"
Just as things looked this bad for humans, I saw many holes opening up from the ground. Humans poured out from these openings like locusts.
Damn! There were thousands of them at least! That was a terrifying force, one that wasn't easy to gather or train during the early stages of the apocalypse.
As I watched the fighting getting heated up, I started to grow curious towards their leaders. He or she must be someone special, or else how could such a large number survive?
[Boss… I'm itching to join] the spearhead again and this time I didn't hold him back.
[Go, use your ability against the enemy forces, and try to boost the humans]
[Got it]
As I was already in range, I wasn't worried anymore about them. Even if those dragons had any trick to use, I was confident to reach them and crush whatever they used.
"Who are you?!!!"
Just as my team appeared, it became obvious they weren't part of that group. A thin youth came to their side out of nowhere and asked in shock.
My team just handled two of the personal guards of that dragon leader. With spearhead presence, facing such enemies wasn't that hard at all.
But these two were just like the elites in the enemy group, they were strong. They managed to slay more than fifty humans in the past seconds like cutting weeds off the ground.
And in return no one ever managed to lay a single hit over their bodies. So it was a shocking scene when four girls came with my spearhead and simply killed these two.
"Our boss is coming now," I saw the spearhead laughing and pointing back to the air towards the direction I was coming from.
"Is he coming in that strange flying thing?" The youth seemed to be not over sixteen, yet he was strong without doubt.
Every inch of his body was covered by a piece of gear, even his hands were gauntlets. He pointed in my direction while adding in his young voice, "is he Santa Claus?"
Santa what?!! Damn! Who did you think I was? Or what did you take my beautiful chariot for?
"Yeah," I heard the voice of Isabella, "he is like Santa for us."
Damn girl! Did you really consider me like that? An old man with a big white beard travelling the world and giving gifts to kids?
F*ck!
"Santa? That's a nice title," Karoline's voice came amidst her enchanting laughter. "Have you heard that? From now on, you are our Santa, hahaha!"
Girl! Drop that joke at once!!
"To whom are you speaking to?" The youth seemed puzzled yet in the next moments, my chariot drew closer fast and stopped just ten metres above their heads.
"If anyone calls me that name again, I won't let him or her board my beautiful chariot!" I said in a tone filled with anger, but all that I got was a loud wave of laughter.
And then curses came.
"Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! F*ck it! He is here!"
"I'll kill you motherf*cker!"
"Run!"
The ones to curse were the dragons, the one to curse my mother was that bastard, their leader. As for the one who shouted in a panicked and shaky voice to others was that succubus.
"Sorry," I said, "I'll catch up with all of you later. I've got a foul mouthed dragon to kill."
Without even saying anything back to those bastards, I simply operated my chariot and moved directly towards them.
You dare to curse and swear like that? Then it was a waste to spend any fuel over you! I'd just let my chariot smash all of you against the ground. Let's see how you'd survive that!
Humph! Taking my beautiful chariot as that dirty, small and so weak Santa Claus' chariot… How brazen of you to think even about that?!!
*Bang!*
Look! My big assed chariot was just OP!
The chariot smashed the ground and flattened many of the enemy forces. Just as the chariot landed in such a brutal way, all the humans around were shocked and jumped away in an obvious panic.
I killed almost half of the enemy forces, but the two leaders got to escape by a hair breadth.
"Want to run from me? Hahaha, let's see if you have the ability to do that!"
"F*ck you!"
Just as he stood up, he didn't run as expected. He turned around and a large machine appeared out of nowhere, coming from his inventory.
Damn! Damn! Damn! That baby was much hotter than all the other toys he brought up so far! Man, what did you have inside your inventory? Were you a real Santa Claus for me or what?
That machine wasn't that unfamiliar. It was as big as one of my Gollems in size. It stood on the ground with three heavy looking legs that were all made out of special scarlet ore.
Then a long cylindrical metallic tube extended from its main body. I could see a long trail of bulging strips that seemed to contain a large number of explosive darts.
So if the previous weapons were like guns, this big adorable baby was like a machine gun!
Damn! I wanted it! But how could I get it without any damage? How could I kill him without touching this baby?
No way! I wouldn't even touch him until he stopped firing! I had to endure, I must! For the sake of my hot baby!
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
"Die you motherf*cker… Die!!"
Just as I decided to endure and not do anything, that dragon started his ramping attack.
That weapon showered me literally with those explosive darts. One thing to notice here was these darts seemed more advanced than the ones used in the smaller version.
They consumed my fuel like it was dirt or something. In a span of one minute, five million stat points were deducted and that long track of explosive darts wasn't past its midpoint yet!
Wow! I loved this baby! Darling, I wouldn't let any harm come to you, I promise you that!
For three consecutive minutes and almost fifteen million stat points consumed, that dragon kept attacking without pause.
But as three minutes ended, that long barrel revolver without releasing anything, while its opening was bright hot orange in colour.
"My turn now," as he couldn't threaten me anymore, I simply snapped my fingers and all of sudden a group of soulers appeared and plunged at him without warning.
I thought about how to safely kill him without touching my precious baby. The only way to do that was to use my soulers. So I called back a dozen of them, then silently summoned and deployed them to flank him from the rear away from his deadly explosions.
I didn't risk sending out only one or two. Who knew what this rich dude had to save his neck at such deadly moments?
*Flash!* *Flash!* *Boom!* *Bang!* *Thud!*
A series of flashing lights came as my doubts proved to be right. The first soulers to pass through his body failed to touch even a single hair of him.
But then instead of those flashes, loud explosions started to occur as he used other risky things to defend his life.
Dude… I sent a dozen of my soulers. You wouldn't get away from here alive, I could guarantee you that!
Just as the eight souler passed through his body, the dragon's face twitched and his long moustache moved up and down for a few seconds. His body froze in place while all colours of life sept away from him.
The remaining soulers passed through his body, giving him shock after another. Even the ones who failed before, they returned to attack him, even when his face became ashen white, just the same as his eyes.
Then a loud thud came as he fell motionless, dying without any suspense.
"And you come to me, darling," I didn't even spare him a glance until I acquired that big weapon and stored it into my inventory.
"Time to get more gifts from you, my Santa Claus!" I evilly grinned while placing my hand over his body and claiming half of his rich inventory.
138 A Pro Gamer
It rained wealth! Damn! Just taking half of that dude's inventory took almost an entire minute! That never happened before.
Each time I took half of anyone's inventory, it only lasted for a few seconds. Yet this time it lasted for an entire minute! Whole minute! Damn dude, did you come here carrying your entire family's treasure volt or what?
"Run!"
Just as I was fixed to my place, the few surviving dragons all came to take revenge. And in the middle of all this, I saw that whore running away and trying to push her girls as far away as possible from here.
"Kill them," I said without the need to raise even a single eyebrow, "then go and kill those bitches and bring back their bodies."
*Fwoosh!*
My soulers weren't that far from me. The moment I gave the order, they moved like a flash and ended up passing through the big bodies of those dragons, killing them.
Then they started to run, leaving a long trail of black smoke behind. Their target was the running bunch of those succubi.
If a dragon leader had such wealth, then I expected something nice from the soft body of the succubus leader.
Of course succubus race couldn't be compared with dragons, but she was a leader just like this dude here.
"May I ask what you are doing?"
As I just finished gathering my loot from this dude, and before I could even scan my inventory for what I got, I heard this familiar voice from behind.
It was that youth who seemed to be the leader of the people here.
"It's not polite to ask someone about his stuff without introducing yourself at least," I simply shrugged while moving after another dead body of a dragon elite and started to claim his belongings.
Unlike the leader, the rest were simply ordinary. They took only a few seconds to get half of their inventories, making me not expect something big.
"Sorry about that," the youth didn't get my signal to f*ck off and leave me alone, "I'm Leonardo, everyone calls me Leo, the fiery Leo," he said as if he was inside one of those silly reality shows of this time or something.
"Hi Leo," I said without any speck of excitement while continuing what I was doing.
"May I ask what you are doing?" He was quite persistent.
"Why should I answer such a question?" I coldly said before jumping to one of those smashed under my chariot.
"Well…" he seemed to be startled by my answer, "aren't we humans? Shouldn't we help each other?"
"Sorry pal," I finished collecting the loot from one body and jumped to another, "I only taught my secrets to my gang."
"Them?" He looked at the girls and the spearhead as he said that in a tone that I didn't like. One single glance from me made this kid tremble slightly. "S… Sorry, didn't mean any disrespect."
"Nothing happened," I returned to my business while coldly adding, "if you really made me feel disrespect, then your head won't be still attached to your body. Go away pal, this isn't a game."
"But I'm a gamer," he patted his chest strongly with his closed fist as if this was enough to leave me in wonder, "I'm a pro! Before all this I was famous."
"Never heard about you pal," I shrugged, "no disrespect meant."
"…"
He stood there without moving an inch except to follow me.
"So I shall put my hand over…"
*Fwoosh!*
Without warning, my sword was fast, so fast it suddenly appeared in front of his face, stopping a few inches away from his eyes.
"Gulp… S… Sorry, I just wanted to try it!"
"Told you this is only for my gang," I motioned with my head to the side, "scram and don't disturb me again."
"B… But…" he stood up slowly while my sword followed.
"If you are so tired from life, then keep nagging me!"
Helplessly he walked away. I didn't mind telling him some advice, on condition that he would join my forces.
But to make someone like him, a leader of such a big and organised force, put down his ego and accept to join me, I had to create a need and a ladder of superiority with him.
He had to feel the lack in our abilities. Not only in regard to wealth or gears or things like my chariot, but in skills, knowledge, and experience.
Just like now, he wasn't interested that much by my chariot or by the way I killed the dragons with. He never asked me about my soulers or that big baby that I claimed from the dragon leader.
He was interested in what I was doing. Why? Because he was a gamer, someone who was driven by desire to be the best, nothing more.
His competitive spirit and his desire for power forced him to come and ask, even sticking around while I was intentionally giving him a cold shoulder.
I knew he wouldn't give up. If he did, then he wouldn't be a gamer. A gamer in the apocalypse was simply like a shark in water; deadly and his progress would be phenomenal in later stages.
Those guys lived their entire lives playing games just like the apocalypse itself. So when the apocalypse happened, everyone struggled except for them. And when everyone got a chance to survive, they were making great names for themselves.
I didn't recall his name or nickname to be honest. Gamers were known by their nicknames prior to the apocalypse. Despite his name didn't ring any bells, I still wanted him to join my forces.
His force was decent indeed. Few thousand humans with good equipment and enough experience to be second only to my own force. But I wouldn't crave him for that.
I wanted him for the same reasons I worked to add the jumper, the spearhead, and other girls to my team; his scary growth potential.
So it wasn't a surprise to see my team coming back after they settled everything and that dude was with them.
"Boss," the spearhead spoke first, "are we going to hit anyone else?"
"We are done here," I shrugged, "once I'm done, we can leave."
"Santa Claus," just as I was standing from one dead succubus from the group my soulers brought over minutes ago, Karoline said in a joking tone while taking shelter with a spearhead from me.
"Don't ever say that to me again!" I glared at her while she gave me a tempting apologetic look. "Speak, what do you want?"
"Our little brother here wants to ask you about something," Karoline pushed that dude towards my vision and I simply turned my glaring look over to him.
"Didn't I tell you to scream?"
"Boss, can you be a bit gentler with him?" Angelica jumped and literally grabbed my arm while giving me a petition look from her sexy eyes.
"I won't help anyone who isn't part of our team," I freed myself and made my stance clearer as I added, "if you wanted to know, you'll have to take me as your boss, just like everyone else here."
I motioned my head to the four girls and the spearhead before leaning over another dead body of a succubus girl, "or else you can just leave and not come here again."
I heard them chatting in low tone as they worked as a team to convince this dude to join my crew.
Of course every single one of them knew about my plans. After all, I sent a brief message to Angelica and explained things over to her. She got what I wanted and the team was working brilliantly to lure this dude in.
"Alright boss," Isabella's happy tone came, "he agreed to join us."
"Is this right?" I stopped what I was doing and examined him from head to tail.
Aside from his long smooth yellow hair, he was your average type of a guy. He had not a single special mark or feature at all! A common dude who happened to be a game geek before the apocalypse.
"I do," perhaps only his black eyes that had a strange lustre about them gave me a good impression about him. Of course in addition to him being a gamer.
"Cool," I took something out, "sign it and you'll be part of the team then."
"What is that?!" He grabbed the contract which I filled out quickly and signed it already. It seems I wrote many contracts so far to get accustomed to these.
"It's your admission test," I returned to what I was doing before adding, "sign it and you are part of us. Refuse and you won't get any chance like that again."
"But.." he seemed a bit hesitant. Dude, just sign the f*cking thing over! You wasted a lot of my time and my team's effort to make you join.
"But what?" the spearhead asked while he was showing a slightly aggressive tone in his voice.
"It's just…" I could hear his rejection coming, "I gathered those people around and they trusted me. I can't just simply leave them behind."
Oh, it was that! A cool hearted dude then, amazing!
"Boss…" It was Isabella's voice, and I answered her without even turning my back to her.
"They can join," I said, "but after passing the traitor test."
"Traitor what?"
Innocent dude… I swear your group was a locust of traitors judged by that good heart of yours.
"Take this," I bought one compass fast from the market and threw it over to Isabella, "like usual. I can't summon my warriors over. So you can use my Gollems and their ballista."
I motioned to my gigantic chariot and Isabella nodded in understanding. As for that poor Leo, he kept that puzzled look over his face which turned fast into a look of disgust and soon anger when he heard what that compass should do.
Of course he signed the contract first and became one of my people. As for claiming ten percent of the loot here, it was left after scanning his people.
As I finished taking up my loot, I stood on the side watching in silence while my soulers were acting like executioners, killing anyone daring to run away.
It happened like usual, people lined up with puzzlement at first before they started to get what was happening here. In a span of a few minutes, many groups of people started to run, trying to escape their death here.
Of course my soulers weren't enough to kill them all. But who said my Gollems weren't there to hunt them down?
As for me, I jumped over my chariot and kept playing chasing games with those miserable traitors until my team scanned all of them.
"Now let me teach you my trick," I said without feeling the same loss feeling or despair he had on his face. He had all the right to feel so. After all, slightly over half of his forces were traitors!
But when he got to learn about the trick of gathering the loot from them, he didn't feel any loss at all. In fact he felt some regret for not killing a group of them by his own hands.
In one way he would vent out his anger and feeling of betrayal, and from another he would gain much more than ten percent.
"Don't look this sad," I patted him on the shoulder when he knew about the fifty percent loot rule, "the big fish is still lying in wait over there. As a token of celebration for your joining, go and claim the ten percent from that dude."
Of course I was giving him a share at the expense of someone from my team. We had now six in my team, and only five could claim their loot from the rich dead dragon.
But I had to show him a bone to ignite his desire to excel and do better. Of course he was a gamer, he had a soul of a warrior deep within him.
As for the person who wouldn't get his share, it didn't even take a second of my time. I already selected him. Indeed he was my dear spearhead!
139 [Bonus chapter] Special Grenades!
Of course the spearhead didn't like this but what could he do about it?
"We are ready."
We took almost one hour before they all took their shares from here.
"Bring everyone on board," I pointed at my chariot as I gave permission for everyone here to board it, "we'll go back to Jersey city for now."
"Is it under our control?" Alex asked while she was trying to get rid of her shadow, Angelica, using me as a barrier between the two.
"It is," I nodded while moving in wide strides towards the chariot, "but it's not like New York. the damage there is simply terrifying."
"Is New York still standing?" Leo came to my side while asking in a weird tone.
"Indeed it is, why? Did you hear anything else about it?" I looked at him but he gave me a deep gaze before suddenly shouting while pointing at me:
"Oh, you… It's you…"
"It's me… What?!" I looked at the four girls and the spearhead while the people on the ground were heading towards my chariot.
"It's you… that dude who sent me a broadcast before," he shouted as if he found some kind of earth shattering secret, "damn me! It's really you! F*ck!!"
Oh you were speaking about that! I almost forgot about my earlier broadcast.
"Damn! I heard you mention New York but never thought we'd meet like this!" he was acting weird! Looking around, as if he was looking for the same reaction from my team or something… he even screams without any reason.
"Calm down buddie," the spearhead interfered, "it's something normal for our boss. Just get used to it."
"It's… amazing!!" he didn't cool down so I had to ask about something regarding this point.
"Did you get my message? I mean after listening to it, did you consider what I said?"
"Of course!" he shouted and even went to the edge of the chariot as he screamed at the people down there, "he is the one! The one who sent us the message! He is the man we are following! F*ck!!!"
Dude, please chill out or else you might rupture something in your vocals…
"Man, can you calm down a bit?" I said while trying to get him back to his cool self.
"This is totally unbelievable! Do you know that you are the one who ignited that idea in our heads in the first place?!"
"What idea?" he spoke like I knew what he was speaking about.
"That sh*t from before man… That ambush thing! Damn! You didn't know… the man didn't know!"
That last sentence he shouted towards the people below like it was some kind of revelation. Well dude, could you just calm down for a second and explain?
Angelica stepped in and with Alex the two managed to get something useful from him. It seemed that after I broadcast my video, he agreed with everyone here to start a rebellious move against the monsters and other races in this world.
So they picked a nice place and gathered up the two hills of ruins. They set a good ambush and they killed two other groups before the last one.
"So you have a gamer class?" I asked in doubt, "and this class isn't unique and others have it?"
"Yes, we are already linked together in some sort of a big game thing!" he kept shouting and it seemed I had to get used to his flippering nature.
For a second there he was acting docile and the next he was a lion roaring all over the place.
"So you have a link with other gamers?" This was something important, far more important than just having him.
He nodded then suddenly shook his head.
"There is such a link but to use the chat I have to upgrade my class level."
"And?" I didn't find it weird. Such a unique ability must come at a price.
"I need to acquire skills from places other than the market," he bitterly said while his face showed a lost expression as he returned to the calm version of Leo.
"You can get skills like we taught you," Angelica said as if this was something simple.
"This…" yet he hesitated and I slightly got a rough idea about his class conditions.
"You need to acquire it like you are playing a game?" I asked and he nodded to confirm my guess. "So you can only have them from dungeons, correct?"
"And special quests called silver graded quests or higher," he added, "but till now I didn't get any skill or even get close to see a glimpse of a dungeon or a quest of that grade."
"The silver quests…" this wasn't an alien term for my ears. Silver graded quests or godly quests were quests issued by gods when a group of survivors got the blessing from the same god.
After knowing that secret about god pantheons, I could say that such quests would be issued when we have many people getting blessings from gods of the same pantheon.
Anyway that was far from a topic. But thinking about that reminded me of all the silent gods in my channel and the two pantheons I was dealing with.
The war pantheon should have seen my battles so far. I did a remarkable performance back there and even slain a dark realm monster as a bonus.
Don't tell me that wasn't enough to gain their support!
As for the death pantheon, I wouldn't hang my hopes on it. This one had many internal conflicts and scary gods. After watching how god wrath was deadly, I didn't want to get in such a mess, not if I had another choice to consider.
"Golden quests can do, right?" Angelica said while looking at me and Alex as if she was asking for our support.
Alex frowned while I simply nodded.
"Golden quests would appear every five quests, so we still have a long time to have one," I said before adding, "but regarding dungeons, I have a way to get into them."
"Really?" Leo flipped the button and instantly reacted intensely to my words. He jumped and grabbed my arm as if he was begging me for his life. "You know how to find dungeons? F*ck! I searched wide and far and tried to get info from everyone but failed!"
"I have a way, I just told you that," I freed my arm before adding, "we'll just have to wait until the second quest is finished."
"We can't go right now?" like an impatient kid he reacted.
"Of course not!" I rolled my eyes, "any dungeon will take at least one day to complete. Not to mention I have access to two and not one."
"Two… That's…!!!" he was shocked to speak properly and I had to thank god for that.
"Just hang tight and wait for the second quest to be over," I ended this discussion as I looked over to the last batch of people getting into my chariot, "and pray the next rest period will be long enough to get into one dungeon at least."
Strangely enough he landed on his knees, raised both hands in the air as if he was really praying. Dude, gods really existed but they were just watching our performance from their high up shrines and not giving a damn about us!
"Let's go," as everyone boarded my chariot, I started to move it using the intermediate version of power. It took us almost an hour to cross that river back to the Jersey city location, but we didn't have anything urgent to rush up.
During this hour I started to look into the rich gains I got this time. Aside from the astronomical fifty million coins, my gains mostly were in stat points and gears.
It seemed that the dragon dude was obsessed with gears. There were enough gears inside my inventory to arm up an entire army of fifty thousand to the brim!
Of course I had many followers now, but my total force didn't even cross the twenty thousand mark yet.
And who said I should waste these precious gears over them? I should start considering building up my elite force, not just common survivors with some skill.
Then bizarre items were found inside my inventory. For example I found dozens of similar small statues that belonged to different six groups.
Whenever I took one out and tried to examine it, I got the same message over and over again.
[You don't have permission to view it]
[You need to get the least conditions to be able to gain permission]
Again I didn't have enough permission to view the details of these statues. Now I had seven different statues in my inventory without being able to access any of them.
Of course I'd be able to get the permission once I raised my stats, raised my level, gained new skills, gained a god blessing, and of course raised my class level.
That was what I had in mind about the conditions for unlocking such statues' information windows.
They were access keys to impacts, like the Bringold impact. But would they be like the Bringold impact? A black market impact? Or would they be a forging association? Or something else?
Well… I had to wait to know the answer for that.
Putting these statues aside for now, I found strange weapons like the one used before against me. That dude didn't use all of his special small versioned babies, as I found twenty of them lying calmly inside my inventory.
In addition to these and their ammunition, I also found a few other weapons. Even some grenades were there.
They weren't like the grenades of death that I acquired from my jumper. There were three groups of such grenades, called by order: the grenades of life, the grenades of time, the grenades of darkness.
[Grenade of life: special item. Used when your team of more than one hundred have less than ten percent of their stamina. The grenade will explode and shower particles from the tree of life. Any damage gained will be repulsed and returned to all of your team as health particles. These particles will help in healing any wound or block any deadly attack]
Damn! This grenade would be a game changed in any large fight! The first question that popped in my mind was why that jerk didn't use this when I was fighting him?
But the answer came when I reread the description. The number of his team wasn't close to a hundred from the start. Not to mention the succubus team wasn't part of his group.
Phew! If he used the stock of this grenade, killing him wouldn't be this easy or fast.
[Grenade of time: special item. Throwing it at an area will make the time pause for one minute. You need to not be injured to use it. Applied only on one person]
Damn! Another heaven defying grenade! Were all grenades this shocking or what?
Of course I knew why he didn't use it when I attacked him. He was injured during his fight with Leo's crew. Thanks to Leo and his men, that dragon leader lost his chance to use this grenade.
[Grenade of darkness: Special item. When used, it explodes and creates a large sphere of darkness spanning across a hundred metres in radius. You and your team will only have the vision inside that sphere, and anyone else will be blind. Must not be under attack or in the middle of attacking before using it. Duration: twenty seconds]
Sh*t! Sh*t! These grenades were simply heaven defying!
I sucked in a deep breath before calming down my thoughts.
I got almost fifty of each grenade, making me able to turn any battle in the upcoming few quests to my favour.
But that also highlighted another thing, or ignited a deep desire inside me.
I wanted to have more, much more of these things. Buying them wasn't that impossible. Even if the Bringold impact might not have these, one of the impacts that I had their statues with me would definitely sell them.
But they would come at astronomical prices for sure. Even such a wealthy dragon youth didn't have that much of these items.
So the best solution wasn't to buy them, but to seek to try and manufacture them. Once I succeeded in doing so, I'd unlock a totally new path for me.
Not only a path for power, but also a path for higher authority in this universe, gaining more relations and formidable allies, plus gaining more wealth in an easy way.
I must find a way to make these and other heaven defying items that I always read about. Without noticing it, my vision turned into a certain direction, the direction of Massachusetts state.
Just wait there baby, I'd come to you once I finish here.
140 Returning To Jersey City
As I finished checking these grenades, we were on the outskirts of Jersey city.
I had to admit, this city looked really ugly at this moment. Unlike the bustling city with life from before, this city was more like a graveyard.
Everything on the stretch of my eyes was filled with scattered ruins. At many spots there were still many long tongues of smoke rising from the ground.
In brief… it wasn't a city but one of those deep scars which the apocalypse left on Earth.
"What happened here?" The girls gathered around me and looked in surprise towards the city.
"It's the natural thing after any fight in the apocalypse," I simply shrugged before turning my attention towards four places.
Five big gates hovered hundred metres above the ground in four different places. The fifth was already mine, so I first went towards the other four to claim them.
"What are these?" Leo asked while his eyes were glimmering in bright light. He was curious, of course, like any human.
"It's a gate," I stopped the chariot only a few metres away from the gate. I jumped over the edge of the chariot while adding, "it links our world with worlds beyond ours."
"Alien worlds?" he asked, "like those in movies?"
"Dude," I rolled my eyes while the message of acquiring control over the gate flashed in front of my eyes, "from where did you think all these monsters came from?"
"…"
He didn't answer and I wasn't looking for any. As I got control easily over this one, I moved towards the other three.
Until I gained control over the last gate, I didn't lower my guard. The first gate I conquered wasn't an easy task at all.
But for some reason, not a single sound came from the other side of the gate. I didn't know why and I didn't care.
"Let's check the monster," as I completed this task, I looked towards the fallen mountain that was at the south part of the city.
"Let us go and control the castles here," Isabella said in a fighting spirit.
"Don't get overheated about this," I started to land my chariot on the ground before adding, "there is no enemy or a single monster remaining here."
"We have to conquer them anyway," the spearhead stood as usual on Isabella's side and I only nodded.
"Can I also go?" Leo said while stealing sneaky gazes towards Angelica.
"Go with him," I said to the two girls. After all, I didn't need their help in the upcoming process.
"Why us?" Angelica seemed annoyed, but Alex jumped to stand with Leo. it seemed she found in Leo a way to annoy Angelica, leaving a faint smile over my face.
"What about me?" Karoline, who kept standing silent during this journey, asked.
"You'll remain with me," I said in a decisive tone. Of course there was little chance the angels of this city would pose a threat over her. But I didn't like the idea of her moving away after things calmed down here at last.
"Alright," and as an obedient girl she nodded, making my heart palpitate for no obvious reason.
"I'll take my men with me," Leo's sound came from down below.
"Give the others half of them," but my answer was swift and held a hidden message. Dude, they weren't your men the moment you joined my forces.
I saw a flash of disappointment over his face but before he could answer, Angelica nudged him by her arm. "We will do that, boss, right?"
"Y… Yes," I dunno why but in front of Angelica he looked a bit nervous.
The few thousands inside my chariot evacuated and distributed over the ground. As I rose up again, I could see the earlier army that was led by Sara working all over the city to claim castles.
"They can control everything before the next quest starts," I said in content before turning my full attention towards that dead behemoth.
It was a treasure trove in my eyes. Once I reached there, I didn't find only the jumper but also another figure.
"Hi," I said to Fang, "Did you wait for so long?"
"I just came half an hour ago," he said.
"Where did you go?" the jumper asked in an impatient tone, "we are pinned here without knowing what to do. I hate standing idle!"
"You have to get accustomed to that," I ignored the two for a second before summoning the rest of my warriors, "go," I pointed at the enormous behemoth and they all flashed towards it.
"Do you plan to mine this thing?" Fang asked in a surprised tone.
"Do you want a piece?" I asked, "I can trade some with you in exchange for good things like these."
I took out the big weapon I claimed from the leader of the dragons. Just by taking it out, Fang realised what I did.
"You managed to kill him? Hahaha!" He laughed as if he was surprised to see proof of me killing that dragon.
"He tried to run away, but how can I let him do that?" I smiled while the jumper nodded in praise while examining that weapon in interest.
"Keep your hands off," I said in warning, "this is mine," I took it back before turning to Fang, "so can we make such a deal?"
"Sorry pal," he shrugged, "my items are only mine. But you gained something nice here."
"Stingy Selvator," I murmured while turning my eyes towards the giant behemoth, "don't tell me this thing is a common cabbage in your eyes."
"It's not that," he shook his head before adding in a bitter tone, "if it was up to me, I'd rather take a big chunk of it. But my things were given to me by my family, and I need them to survive the upcoming fights."
"As if you are weak to feel threatened," I sighed, "aside from that dude, the girl of that succubus race didn't have such nice things."
"That's expected," Fang said as if it was something granted, "both aren't archlords. But dragons are dragons after all. Even such a regent had such weapons in his inventory."
"Regent?" I asked, "what does that mean?"
"It's our pyramid of leadership," he explained, "any race coming here will have such a pyramid of ranks. On the high top are the mighty and heaven-selected paragons. Way down the ladder the regent stands and archlords are just one rank above them."
"Ah," at this moment I recalled what the angels addressed him with from before, "so you are an archlord? Damn! Now I feel more regretful for not killing you!"
"Hahaha, if you had the ability to do that why didn't you do it?" The one to answer wasn't Fang but the jumper.
Dude… stop bricking me at every corner!
"Anyway I need to leave the city soon and go north," Fang said before adding in a serious tone, "mentioning the archlords, you need to watch out from the dragon's archlord… that dude is really ruthless."
"As strong as you?" I asked, trying to get an assessment about that dragon.
"No, I can't even compare to him," but unlike what I imagined, Fang shook his head. Damn! Even such an archlord of Selvators admitted that dude's superiority. "He is scary!"
Before I could ask more, a system message popped up in front of me.
And I wasn't the only one to get such a message.
[The main second quest is now officially starts]
[Quest details: for the next week, you are asked to take control of as many emblems and castles in your city as possible]
[According to the final number of the controlled emblems and castles in the city, the rewards will be assigned accordingly]
"This…" I stood in daze while looking around, "where did those angels go? Aren't they supposed to give us the quest?"
"You scared them away," the jumper said while shaking his head as if this was something funny in his eyes.
"What did you get?" Unlike the two of us, Fang kept standing still for five minutes. Once he waved his hand in the air closing the window that he could only see, I asked.
"I got a quest as you did," he said before noticing something was wrong, "what? Didn't you get the quest details as well?"
"It was just two sentences only," the jumper looked at me like I was a criminal or something, "thanks to certain someone, the angels seemed to be so pissed off."
"Hahaha, that's funny, hahaha," Fang laughed and the jumper joined him. These two… why did I feel the urge to slap them on the face at this moment?
"What did you get?" I asked, "a quest to control cities and try to open gates to our world?"
I already knew about the real content of this quest. Of course I didn't have anything to do with that short quest. It was already settled before that humans would have only such a lacking explanation regarding this quest.
"You ask as if you know," Fang gave me a weird gaze, and he wasn't the only one to look at me like this.
"Don't tell me you got a different quest than me," the jumper showed more doubt than Fang. After all that dude remained by my side for so long and he knew more about my mysterious things.
"I got the same short quest," the all standing silent Karoline finally spoke up, "it was only two brief messages with not much explanation."
"Then…" the jumper's eyes flashed in bright light but I simply ignored him.
"Did you get that quest to open a gate to our world?" I asked Fang again, and this time he simply nodded in agreement.
"This quest isn't going to be simple," he said, "after all there are many stages and levels of difficulty in it. The largest reward is regarding merging our worlds with yours… why do I have the feeling that you already know about that?"
"I just had a tip from my god," I gave such lame excuse that didn't even convince my girl.
"Sorry pal," Fang turned over this page as he added, "in this quest I'll have to attack humans and control as many cities as I can."
"It's not that bad," I smiled mysteriously, "you do what you have to do, and I'll do my task towards my race as well."
"You…" he gave me a deeper gaze before sighing, "anyway you should be quite busy in this city and its surroundings. So I'll retreat away from here and go up north. But… that dragon archlord… he will be a nuisance for you… and me…"
"What do you know about him?" I asked but before I could hear his answer, I heard a bustling sound coming from one direction. It was a group of my force walking towards a nearby castle.
"You already freed your people, that's good. I was worried you would miss them."
"Feed my people?!" it suddenly hit me, "damn! Don't tell me there are humans trapped in cages in the gate castles!"
"Not only these castles," he shook his head before adding, "it's all the castles in this city and many castles in ten miles around it."
"You!!!" The jumper suddenly jumped and grabbed Fang by the collar. That dude was emitting dangerous air, but the next instant Fang released a far more dangerous air pulse wave that even pushed me a few steps backwards.
And the jumper didn't fare too well against him.
"Sorry man, but this was something I had to do," Fang said in a neutral tone, "we were enemies before, don't forget about that. I just came to alert you about these people. After all, the destruction here would mask any of their presence."
"Damn!" The jumper didn't stand a single moment as he darted towards one direction. He was such an impatient dude to move alone.
Instead of being controlled by anger like him, I simply opened my chat and sent the order to all of my girls, Leo, and the spearhead about this info.
"Thanks," I said in an honest tone, "I almost missed that."
"No problem pal," Fang shrugged.
"What about that dragon archlord then?" I asked, "what do you know about him?"
And instantly his facial features changed to show how serious this topic was.