"All right, everyone," A dark-haired man wearing a green uniform with dark stripes stepped forward and then said while looking at a small army of people armed with pistols and grenades. "The mission is relatively simple, and you all are only carrying those weapons to use in case of emergency. The front line has plenty of experience dealing with the monsters, and the death rate is extremely small. Just make sure to keep yourselves under control and only act when I give the order."
A large group of people was standing in front of one of the many spatial distortions that had appeared thirty years ago in that city. All of them had seen that many times, but only now they had gotten close like that, close enough to feel an ominous aura coming from it. The distortion looked like a giant Mercury sphere that could reflect the surroundings completely, and some people even called it a wormhole. It seemed insane, but they were going to cross that without wearing any special gear.
Among the people there, there was a certain youth who had just recently turned eighteen and enlisted to participate in one of those pre-emptive missions. He enlisted in many expeditions, but only now was he called.
While the people around him were sweating bullets, he was calm and composed. His eyes weren't wavering due to the fear. He didn't take the words of the leader of the operation at face value because he had lost his parents years ago in a situation like that. In fact, he was really looking forward to having the chance to fight in order to decrease the number of enemies. He was itching to kill as many of them as possible… even though his current goal was to use that mission to awaken his trait.
That young man's name was Terry, he had short dark hair brushed to the back of his head, and his eyes were deep green. It was a combination that truly made him stand out with his fierce glare. Aside from the weapons that everyone else also had, he was also wearing a bulletproof vest and some protectors on his limbs. He wanted to fight the enemies even without his awakened trait, but that didn't mean that he wanted to die so soon.
"Follow me," The leader of the operation said when ten other men and women approached him.
The leader and his allies jumped into the distortion, and the others followed him despite their hesitation. Terry was on the second line, so soon his turn came, and then he felt his body being enveloped by a sensation hard to describe while he was crossing it. It felt like something was licking him… it was quite an unnerving feeling…
Soon enough, Terry forgot about that when he reached the other side. He already knew that, but seeing with his eyes alone, Terry confirmed that the distortion truly was a door to another world. He saw alongside many others a small camp five hundred meters away. A camp of beasts that was preparing to invade Earth once they had enough numbers to create another base on Earth… regardless, they were in the middle of some massive plain lands that stretched toward the horizon in all directions. If it weren't for the situation, most people would think that such a world would be pretty peaceful and relaxing…
"Don't break the formation. They already know that we are here," The leader of the mission said. "Only attack if they split and try a pincer attack."
The leader took two knives from his waist and then readied himself when some movements were seen coming from the enemy camp. Despite that, neither side made the first move… the enemies waited for their allies and leader to show up, and just as everyone had heard about it, a larger monster showed up and took the lead of the monster's army.
The largest monster started its charge, and the others quickly followed. Everyone knew what they were, and some of those had even been seen on Earth. Tall and bulky green creatures that were tremendously vicious and could even use weapons and fight like humans… They were goblins. They were at least two times stronger than ordinary humans and could even take bullets in their heads as long as they hit the skull. Such was their endurance. However, their most prominent feature was the fact that a single goblin could give birth to three others after three months, and they could become adults after a single year. While facing such creatures, the people couldn't help but flinch.
Most of the humans only relaxed a little when they saw the leader of the operation and his allies charging as well. The leader of the operation aimed his knives at the head of the hobgoblin leading the others, but the creature made an ax appears and then blocked the attack. The other goblins tried to surround them, but they were attacked by the guards of the leader of the operation. Fireballs, magic arrows, extremely heavy punches… the small fries took those directly and had a hard time enduring them.
"It seems that after doing this for years, they truly know what they are doing," Terry thought while he saw the goblins being killed one after the other.
Unfortunately, instead of facing enemies that they could defeat, they decided to aim at the weaklings on the backline. The leader of the operation saw that when he jumped backward to escape one of the enemy's horizontal swings.
"First line! Grenades!"
After hearing those orders, the first line split into two and then readied their grenades. As if they were mirroring each other, both groups took out the pins and threw the grenades at the same time.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The impacts stopped the charges of the monsters, but after the first line retreated, the second line saw the monsters still standing. They were heavily injured, but not a single one of them died.
"Second line! Grenades!"
Terry, alongside the others, readied themselves and then threw the grenades. This time, some of the goblins were killed, and others fell on the ground, heavily injured. Thanks to that, some of them felt a wave of power passing through them. The requirements to awaken their traits were simple. People had to either participate in a battle where the leader of a group of monsters was defeated or kill a lot of monsters. The first method was almost a sure way to make the awakening take place, and the second was a bit more difficult. Maybe it was because of that, but Terry didn't feel anything changing inside him.
That was a bit disappointing, but that wasn't the end of the world. In any case, the second line stepped down since the third line advanced. The goblins that weren't wounded by those attacks began to pass by the others, so they had to keep at it as well, at least until the front lines dealt with their boss. However, Terry could see the leader of the operation struggling against the hobgoblin…
"I knew that this was a small guild, but I didn't think that even them would have a hard time dealing with a boss of that level…" Terry thought.
The leader of the operation was playing by the ear and focusing on dodging instead of attacking. Thanks to that, the enemy was able to swing its ax wildly without a care. One of its attacks hit the ground and made some cracks appear on it, so perhaps its strength was above its usual level.
No one knew how that was possible, but the strength of the boss of a monster camp varied more than a little bit. The factors involved in that were unknown. All that was known was the fact that a random hobgoblin would be chosen as the new leader, and its body would mutate until it became much stronger than the others…
Terry had to forget about that when his line had to work again. They only had two grenades each and around fifty goblins that charged at them. Only twenty or so had fallen… bullets were less effective against those creatures. Still, soon they would have to use that against them… it looked like some people were going to die in that operation…
The second and third line used their grenades, and then they proceeded to equip their pistols as well. In that short window of time, the goblins got ten meters away from his group, but soon they slowed down again when a barrage of bullets began to hit them.
Despite the fact that their hands were trembling, the group shots hit all of the enemies. The goblins grunted in annoyance when they were hit, but they only showed that much pain… and they kept charging.
On the first barrage of bullets, only two goblins were killed, and one of them was killed by Terry. He fired two precise shots in the eye of his target, and the beast died… he had trained hard to improve all of the aspects of his body in order to maximize the power of his trait since it was impossible to tell what kind of trait one would awaken and that training paid off.
In a matter of five seconds, he unloaded his gun and killed five goblins by himself. He quickly tried to reload it, but then the beasts got too close. While protecting their faces, the enemies avoided most of the damage and then suddenly charged and swung their weapons. Instantly, the formation of the group was broken when they saw two of their allies being hit in their necks and falling on the ground while massive amounts of blood were gushing out from the wound.
"Arrrrgghhhhh!"
"Get away from me!"
Panic quickly spread, but Terry ignored that and just took a few steps backward to reload his weapon without being bothered. Thanks to that, he soon fired another round of bullets at the enemies that were hacking and slashing the bodies of his allies. The beasts fell dead even though Terry didn't hit them in the eyes… it seemed that the range helped him. Unfortunately, that made him the focus of several goblins.
Before the creatures could reach him, Terry took the pistol of one of the fallen humans and then aimed both of them at the enemies and proceeded to unload them. The goblins used their arms and weapons to protect their heads again, but Terry aimed at their hearts this time and soon obtained the same result… five more goblins added to his count.
Around the same time, the others recovered their will to fight upon realizing that the enemies could be dealt with like that and used their guns to kill the remaining goblins. Also, around the same time, the Frontline dealt with the hobgoblin and his guards. As if something had recognized their victory, a lot of the humans felt a wave of power passing through their bodies… but Terry felt nothing.
"Are you serious…" Terry thought while biting his lips.
"We are retreating now!" The leader of the operation declared.
That was bad news… Terry didn't feel his trait awakening, so his only hope was to keep killing as many enemies as possible. However, he didn't have time for that… the Frontline quickly approached, and the whole group began to retreat. In the end, Terry didn't achieve his goal.
"Good work, everyone," The leader of the operation said. "Someone will check your traits and tell you what it can do. Wait here for a bit longer."
As expected of soldiers who have been fighting for years, they sure knew how to change their mood after seeing people die. Out of the thirty recruits, five of them died, but from the survivors, 23 out of 25 awakened to their traits. Terry and a girl were the only ones that didn't obtain a trait. That wasn't the end of the world. Everyone could obtain the traits by fighting and defeating more camps like that. Still, the traits would be severely weaker if compared to the others, and it would turn them into slightly stronger human beings. It was for the same reason that his parents died… they kept fighting without being nearly as strong as the others.
"You two did a good job out there, and you didn't even suffer any scratches. Unfortunately, we can't afford to take you on our group," the leader of the operation said. "We are a small guild with limited resources."
Just like that, Terry and the girl were dismissed. They couldn't blame the man for choosing that if it was only logical to do it, they were warriors, and they couldn't take those that couldn't keep up with them or offer a real boost in strength to their guild. In the end, Terry left the area while hiding his frustration…
"It is fine… I can still fight, I won't be able to kill as many of them as I originally planned, but I can make it work using my head," Terry thought. "It will be harder, but it isn't like I was expecting that my life would become easier after awakening to my trait…"
Terry lived in one of the parts of his hometown that had been most devastated when the first monsters arrived. All of the city had been freed from their clutches, but only the area around the bases of the guilds had been recovered. As such, his home was surrounded by piles of burned-down buildings and craters. Few people lived there, so the road to his home had been a silent one…
Most of his home had been destroyed during the attack thirty years ago, and repairs couldn't have been made that much over those years. So, Terry basically lived inside a single room that had only been half destroyed. It only had enough room for his bed, the kitchen, and the bathroom… Terry let out a long sigh and bit his lips again. Getting angry and lashing out wouldn't help him in any way, but Terry really felt like punching something…
"That would be a waste of time… I should just eat something, rest, and then train until the next time," Terry thought after he closed his eyes.
Terry didn't have much, to begin with, but he decided to cook some salamander meat. He would need energy and protein in order to become stronger, if even a little.
After opening his fridge, Terry only saw a small piece of meat and some veggies. That kind of wasn't that rare to find, but people like him couldn't afford it since all the jobs that he could do were basically non-essential. Anyone could do it, and since anyone could do it, the demand for it wasn't high.
Regardless, Terry decided to forget such a problem for the time being and cut the meat. Making some soup was probably the most efficient way of cooking that much meat. In any case, Terry looked for his kitchen knife to cut it into small pieces, but then he dropped it when he saw something weird on it.
Kitchen Knife - Lv 0 (0/10 EXP) (Common)
Attack Power: 01
Durability: 02/02
"What the hell…"