Assassination and collection

Hiro’s POV:

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We could have taken up elimination quests before leaving, but we didn’t want to do it now. At first, we wanted to make new weapons and more potent pills. We’ve used up almost all of our reserves in the dungeon, so we didn’t have many pills left and those weren’t powerful enough to satisfy our needs either.

After we left the building, we went back to our room and cultivated till the next morning, which wasn't as short as on the Earth. Time wasn't flowing more quickly or more slowly. The only difference was that it took four times as much time for these planets to turn around as the planets in the mortal realms. Or sixteen times as much in the case of the third realm.

This meant that one day here wasn't twenty-four but three hundred and eighty-four hours! We left the inn and went towards the information building. We didn’t care about Charles for now because probably he was probably still ‘resting’.

We weren’t the kind of people who would go easy on our enemies or spare them. We had problems with that Tracy bitch as well. She dared to advise such things for Charles... Once we grow stronger, I'll be sure to kill her. No one can threaten my Alice!

We soon reached the information building where, upon touching the memory crystal, knowledge about this sector flooded into our minds. It indeed contained a lot of things. Mayor organizations, ores, herbs of this realm and where to get them, monsters, everything! Afterward, we left the city and went towards a dungeon on foot. This was the third realm and dungeons became more usual. One per planet was the minimum. Of course, there were planets which had even more.

This was one such planet. The Earth in my past life which had a circumference of forty thousand and thirty kilometers at the Equator. The dungeon which we wanted to go to was twenty thousand kilometers away, which clearly showed how many times bigger these planets could be! This simple range was half the size of the Earth’s equator!

Since the planets were four times as big as in the realm before, a planet here was sixteen times bigger than the Jupiter! The equator of this planet, which was called Sypno, was more than seven million kilometers! And this was only the third realm!

While running in the forests, we realized how small we were. We were the size of an ant compared to the trees found on this planet. But it was good like that because we could cause enormous destruction just by using our punching strength. If we destroy a ‘boulder’ here, that would be almost equal to a hill or a smaller mountain on the Earth. The dungeon we were running towards was called the Metal Pit.

Our other destination was called The Herbal Garden, but that was on planet Cyder, which was mostly under the control of beastmen. They are going to visit that place as well, but we had to get our hands on metals while being here. From the information we had gained, we knew that there were many metal monsters in this dungeon and the whole interior of the dungeon was made out of metal as well.

When a boss gets killed, it would always transform into some kind of rare metal and because of that reason, this dungeon wasn't very popular since there weren't many cultivators who spent their time with learning to smith. Everyone was trying to enhance their strength, so there weren’t a lot of people who would learn blacksmithing. In half a day of time, we reached the entrance of the dungeon.

It had a huge metal entrance which looked like the doorway of a factory. The place was actually covered by metal looking grass and trees! It’s likely to be some kind of flexible metal. There weren’t any people outside, but with a population of five hundred billion cultivators through this whole sector, it was very likely, that there were people inside. Now that we were at the third stage, we could stay alive, without feeling even the slightest bit of hunger or thirst, for about a week. Such being the case, we entered without caring about things like food or drink.

The interior was indeed covered in smooth and shiny looking gray metal. I used my fist, trying to smash the walls, but before I could reach it, a blue barrier defended it. Since dungeons were the subjects of the creator, they were protected by him as well. No one could smash the walls of a dungeon! We walked only for a short time before meeting a monster.

We quickly turned back into our monster forms. Although it wasn’t too spacious inside, but it was still enough for two twelve meters tall and fifty meters long monsters to walk alongside each other. This was indeed huge compared to the mortal's norms, but such a place was nothing for us, cultivators, who could jump such a range through in a moment.

Our body sizes would grow to four times as big as before, after each half of a level. This means that while we were twelve meters tall and fifty meters long, but after the fifth stage, our bodies would grow to be thirty-six meters tall and a hundred and fifty meters long. At the highest levels, we would look like monsters from a fantasy movie, who were invading planets... Naturally, big size came with many back draws and since our race was the mightiest one, it wouldn't allow such a weak point. After the fifth level, we could decrease our sizes even to the size of humans!

The first monster looked like an iron golem, but it wasn’t made up of iron. That was for mortals only... It was made up of orichalcum! It was a legendary metal for the mortals and it was 'common' metal in the second realm, but it was still a bit rare, yet it was found here so easily as if it would be trash. It was indeed that because this monster was only at the first stage of Domain Space Realm.

After smashing my tail against its chest, crushing its core in the process, it turned into a stream of energy and went back into the ground. If a monster didn’t drop anything then it would simply turn back into energy for the dungeon to use.

This dungeon was already fully explored by other cultivators because it wasn’t a hard one. People at the fifth stage could complete it in a group of five, while people at the seventh stage could solo it through. The difference in strength was much bigger after each stage at this level, thanks to the domains, so two stages were like heaven and earth.

We went through five floors easily and killed every boss we found, but none of those dropped anything noteworthy. But unlike the ones before, the boss at the fifth floor was at the third stage of Domain Space Realm, which transformed into a metal called Trinatimuz after dying. This was a relatively common metal, but it was still rare to find it outside of dungeons. Probably, it would be a legendary metal in the second realm.

This dungeon wasn’t as colorful as the one we were in before. Its interior didn’t change ever since we came inside. We were getting bored of this place... We went on like this until reaching the tenth floor. We’ve collected about a ton of Trinatimuz because even the normal monsters started dropping it after a while.

[Now that I think about it, the city nearby was mostly made up of this metal. I guess it wasn’t without reason...] I thought while I was getting more and more bored.

Alice barely listened to what I was saying and answered only with a small 'Uhn' because we had a problem in front of us. [So my.little.Alice. What should we do with this thing?] I questioned her, hoping that she has got an idea after thinking.

[Your hammer would come in handy... though you'd have less strength than in your monster form. I guess you should use your tail to smash the monster.] Alice advised and I couldn't help but misunderstand her words, such as 'tail'. She chuckled upon seeing my thoughts, but she couldn't do anything other than rubbing her head against mine. How sad... in my human form, I'd have gotten a kiss now!

I wasn't the kind of person who would be satisfied after trying out a single weapon. I wanted to try out everything! Spears, axes, hammers, staffs, and so much more! I had a burly body anyway, so I thought that I might as well use a hammer! For now.

[Fufu~ You want to be the big, bad, burly guy?] Alice picked up on my perverted thoughts from before as she turned her head towards me.

[Yes! Imagine as I’m going to push your ‘fragile’ body down to the ground with my ‘big, muscular’ body and force myself on you.] I started joking with my dear girlfriend and naturally, her reaction was just as perverted as I imagined it to be.

[Hmm~ What can I say? It seems to be a good idea to me. Though not here and not in this form. Fufufu~] She answered while she was projecting an image into my mind where she was whispering into my ear and then licked the tip of it. I felt hot in my body... She is seducing me! Since this wasn't the time for it, I focused back on the problem in front of us. We didn't know what to do because we found a Metal Turtle, which was at the early fifth stage. Probably, it didn't have a high attack power, but its defense? That was our problem!

If I were to have my hammer or a spear, then I could use those to penetrate or smash the monster, but I didn't have any of those. Luckily for us, my tail didn't have the shape of an axe, like Alice's but the shape of a bludgeon! Using my tail, I could smash this Metal Turtle in front of me. Hopefully... The only problem was that its domain would decrease my strength to two hundred and twenty, while it had three hundred and twenty golems of strength.

I wouldn't have to fear its slow attacks, but I would have to fight seriously to damage it. Since we had a powerful mind attack, called Hydro Mind, I decided to use it. When we use a mind attack, our enemies have to clear out our mind powers from their bodies or else they would quickly turn into vegetables in their heads...

I used Hydro Mind, which stunned this monster for long enough for me to reach it and smash my tail into its side. Since its domain wasn't activated, I was able to attack it with my full strength of four hundred and twenty golems! Adding sixty to that, in the form of my ability, called Hydra's tail, a gaping hole appeared on the monster's side as it flew through the air and smashed into the dungeon's wall. It landed on the ground with a loud thud, while the wall gave out a booming sound.

Since we were in the dungeon, I had to destroy its core, which was very unfortunate with this monster as our enemy. While it slowly stood up, Alice rushed over and bit on its neck, making it impossible for the turtle to move. It activated its domain, but it didn’t matter anymore. I just had to hit another one like before at the same spot and its core would be destroyed.

My beautiful Alice held it in its place. It was hard for her because after activating its domain, the monster was much stronger than Alice, but she jumped on its back, making it hard for the turtle to do anything. It tried to smash its back into the wall, hitting Alice in the process, but it also left its side opened widely for me to attack by doing so. I swung my tail once again, with as much strength as I was able to exert, which was enough for me to crush its core.

The stupid monster collapsed to the ground lifeless and then it turned into our drop. We looked at the black colored metal, which was on the ground and our eyes bulged out in surprise. The dungeon probably rewarded us for killing a monster which was so much stronger than us. The metal in front of us was called Uridium and it was the size of five cubic meters! Such a huge amount would be more than enough to create numerous armors and weapons!

I growled happily in my monster form as I stored it away. This metal was a legendary one in this realm, which meant that we wouldn't have to bother with looking for better material in the future. After storing it away, we left the dungeon. There was no reason for us to stay any longer. We wouldn’t be able to kill monsters at the higher levels anyway, so we might as well leave. Why would we waste our time here when we could leave and get some herbs for Alice to concoct pills. It would come with much more benefit.

We took out the spaceship from Alice's storage space as we came out of the dungeon and flew towards Cyder. While we were in the spaceship, I remembered something. "Hey, now that I think about it, what about that little image you've sent into my mind?" I questioned Alice, expecting her to do something with my problem in my pant.

"Fufu~ Would you like me to do something about" - she grabbed onto the right place, which caused a shudder to run through my body as she finished her sentence while looking up into my eyes seductively - "this?" She gave a kiss on my lips, which blew my mind away. The travel to Cyder took two hours, so we spent that time wisely by having lots of sex. After landing, we entered the city and went towards an information building since they held different information.

An information on a Human Planet probably had more information about human organizations, clans, etc... while it was the same here, but with beastmen. We learned the exact place of the Herb Garden dungeon and we also learned that the leader of the Warlord Tribe was called Pat Cooley, while the leader of the Rising Sun Sect was called Chic Wilhelm.

When we reached the Herb Garden, we found a forest which was way lusher than usual. We found a wet mossy passage, which was leading underground. After descending through it, we found a world inside, which was full of greenery; underground! The ceiling was a composition of crystals which lit up the whole world in a blue light. Everything would have been dark if not for the luminescent plant life.

The leaves were shining with beautiful colors. Green, yellow, purple, blue, there were all kinds of colors with different shades. Seeing such a beautiful place made me remember about the forests in the movie called Avatar. When I get back to the Earth, I should watch a few movies... It's been a while. *Chuckle* I chuckled in my mind upon thinking about those movies being fantasies, yet here were they, in front of me!

Thanks to the memory crystal, we learned that the whole planet was like this when night descended upon it. We also learned, that up till now, no one was able to complete this dungeon and the monsters and beasts on this planet were found in huge numbers! Firstly, we learned that there were fifty floors in this dungeon because cultivators can read the number of floors from the dungeon’s aura. It’s somewhat similar to how cultivators at higher stages can tell our exact age after reading our auras.

Some people said that it was likely that this dungeon was reaching into the fourth realm! They said that because once Pat Cooley tried out this dungeon and she had to turn back after thirty floors where she found monsters, which were at the first stage of the fourth level! There were still twenty floors left which, made everyone think that this dungeon was really reaching into another realm.

This was indeed possible from what we knew from our inherent memories. Although the entrance of the dungeon was in the third realm, in cases like these where the dungeon was way too powerful, it could open an entrance into the next realm. If people at the fourth realm knew about this, then they could easily descend through these two realms by going through the dungeon!

Dungeons were the servants of the creator so naturally, they had many mysterious powers. Secondly, beasts outside were the ruling force. The monsters could spread infinitely in these large and infinite jungles and the beastmen weren't able to suppress them completely. They were able to make a few towns or smaller cities, but nothing big. On our way here from the closest town, we were attacked as well, three times...

After wandering around for a bit and enjoying the scene we got to work. The monsters in this dungeon were mostly plant-types. There were of course beasts too like a yellow skinned rhinoceros looking thing that was aiming for us at the moment...

“I bet that it wants to ‘pierce’ you Alice...” I joked with Alice with a smile on my face as I gave a kiss on the left side of her head.

“I’d rather not let it,” She answered as she responded with a kiss on my lips. Thanks to our lovemaking, she was in a very good mood, along with me.

“Nor would I! Let’s destroy its soul!” I shouted as I looked at the monster in front fo us. I released my bloodlust, which made the monster tremble for a moment and upon seeing us transforming into our monster forms, it felt even more threatened. It was at the third stage, so we didn't have any problem dealing with it. I ran towards it, while it did the same. Our bodies collided, but my scales and defense system was much tougher than a dungeon's monsters'.

Even though it was stronger, but I held my ground. While it stopped in place, Alice bit into its side and tore out a huge chunk of meat, which bloodied her scales, she looked really ferocious. The monster didn't scream out since it didn't have feelings, which made it less dramatic... I used my heads to bite on its horn, which was protruding from the tip of its nose. It wanted to move, but I used my other five heads to bite into its legs.

Both of our poisons invaded its body, reaching its core, making the movements of this monster slow down. I moved my neck away to make place for Alice. She bit on the rhinoceros' neck, tearing it off with a strong pulling movement. She turned around and swung her tail vertically. The core of the monster was cut into two halves as the monster evaporated, along with its blood. Although it had blood, but it was only its core was in one piece.

This was only the first floor yet even the weakest monsters we found were already at the third stage. We went through five floors and found many herbs before stopping. The monsters were already at the fifth stage from then on, so we didn't go further. For now, we had more than enough herbs for our stage and wasting our time on fighting against much more powerful monsters would be meaningless, so we left.

When we came to the surface, it was nighttime. We turned back into our human forms as we started wondering about this beautiful place. “Hiro, I want to live here! Let’s use that Trinatimuz metal to build a nice house on top a tree. These trees are so huge anyway! -" Alice said as she spread her arms out and smiled happily. Her long, blonde hair was fluttering in the wind and I felt mesmerized by her.

“- We could make a stable foundation out of metal and then build a little and comfy house for ourselves. Traveling is good and all, but sometimes standing back and resting a bit is necessary as well. It would be really nice if we could get back here at every nighttime to rest and sleep! We could cultivate through the whole night and then do our things while it’s daytime!” Her eyes were shining brightly while she kept spouting nice ideas. Her voice was slowly fading away in my ears while I kept looking at her face. All I saw was her happiness. Her smile meant more to me than anything else. I could kill to see her smile. Ah~ I love this girl so much.

“Are you even listening?” Alice suddenly stopped with her ideas as she looked at me with her brows raised with a questioning look on her face. I shook my head to return as I answered her.

“A-Ah, sorry. I was lost in you. Hehe~ you sure are sweet. Now come here for a big hug. I really feel like it,” I said with a big and happy smile on my face as I spread my arms widely. She checked out through our bond what has happened with me while she was explaining. Upon seeing it, a smile slipped onto her face as she moved close to my body and hugged me. We had a similar taste, so she didn't have to worry about me, not liking her ideas. I would have thought of similar things anyway.

I hugged her body strongly to mine as I gave a kiss on the top of her head. I loved her so much, that I would die without her. It's good that I don't have to live without her. I sat down as I felt the gentle wind blowing on my face, while Alice sat between my legs. I embraced her from behind as she put her arms on mine. We sat there silently, in this beautiful luminescent night world. I felt more peaceful than ever before.

I started kissing the top of her head, which soon turned into her ears, her neck, her lips, her body and then we couldn't stop ourselves from making love... till morning. We weren't doing it wildly this time. I was slow and loving with her. This didn't cause so much pleasure for her body, but it came with much more pleasure for her heart. The next day we woke up in each other's embrace and wearing our cleaning our bodies and wearing our clothes, we went back to planet Sypno.

We straight went towards the guild to look at what kinds of quests there were. In the information building, we also learned about a piece of information, we haven't heard of before... Damned Tracy... It was the credit points! The credit points were good for identifying how trustable a member was.

Although there were cultivators at higher stages in the guild with a higher rank, but what did it matter if they couldn’t be trusted? We would gain credit points after every completed quest. If we failed a quest, then the guild would deduct it from a number of credits we had. If we had zero credits yet we fail? Then we would be removed from the guild if we can’t correct it in a week. We also had to take on at least one quest in each month.

We didn't count the months or name them, but at least we knew when thirty days passed by, which meant a month. We were also close to not passing that deadline... Bitch. As we entered the building, we went towards the bulletin board where we found piles of quests about exterminating monsters. We looked for an easy one because we didn't wish to spend our time by such a thing at the moment. We're going to complete quests in bulks when we advance further. One such quest was like this.

Exterminate a pack of Shade Tooth Wolves.

Credit: 3000

Recommended minimum rank: Junior

Time limit: One week.

This amount of credit alone wasn't that much, but if we were to do many such quests, it would quickly pile up! These credit points were not only good showing how much the guild could trust you. It also provided you with fame and showed your strength. If you have a high rank and a lot of credits, then you’re naturally going to be acknowledged by the other cultivators. But this wasn't why we wanted to join, this was just a bonus. We didn't care about being famous among the humans...

It was because these credits could be spent to buy powerful armors, pills or weapons! This didn’t mean that our credit points would be forgotten if we were to spend it all. When we would complete a quest it'd gave us credit points. The amount of credit we'd gain would be added to a total credit counter, which would be updated each time after completing a quest.

We can spend that amount to buy the things we wished for, but the total amount of credit we have gained would never change. If we spend some of it? It would be written on our badges in a format like for example... fifty-five thousand/a hundred thousand. This'd mean that we have gained a total amount of a hundred thousand credits and that we have spent forty-five thousand of it. We had zero of such points, which was ridiculous, so we hid our badges instead... it'd be so shameful to walk around like that.

After updating the credit points on our badges, they would be sealed with a formation only the guild receptionists knew. If someone tried to modify his or her points, then it would come with consequences...

There were always extermination quests because there were cities or villages, which didn't have powerful cultivators defending them, or because they didn't have time, or didn't care about killing the monsters. Such being the case, the guild took upon itself to take care of such cases.

The guild knew that if they want people who would fight against those Harbingers in the future, then they had to unknowingly discipline these prideful cultivators and these quests were perfect for such a reason. High-level cultivators could die as well. Once they die, who would fight against the Harbingers? Those who were able to look into the future and see things which weren't in front of them knew it that taking care of the new generations was one of the most important things!

We took up the quest. This time Tracy was nowhere to be seen and a professional, middle-aged receptionist was the one working. She quickly took care of everything and she didn't put on faces like Tracy. Much better, indeed. We left the city and killed a few groups of these monsters and then returned with the necessary proofs. Any body part of the monster would be alright as a proof because any cultivator using his or her mind power could easily identify even a dead monster.

The receptionist nodded upon seeing our proof and then transferred our points. As we turned around, we noticed Tracy sitting in that bar section. I felt like going over and killing her, but that would be impossible in our human forms and if we were to transform here, then we would be killed by the other humans. Not bothering with her, we left the building and left the city.

We entered the jungle and thanks to our poisons, we were able to sense Charles' position. After following his tracks for an hour, we finally reached him. We slowed down carefully, to look out for his surroundings, not knowing his exact situation.

We are evil you think? What reasons do we need if we are more powerful than the others? Are we annoyed by someone? Then we are going to kill him! If we can bear the consequences then we can do whatever we want to! What does it differ from my past life? People used their ‘powers’ which was called money in there as well. Just in a different way. They used it to create backdoors, buy their truth. Money was almost the same there as strength was here.

All that was different was that if I would have killed a human, then I'd have won a jail for myself. But here? Who would close me in? If I would be annoying someone, then I'd be killed as well! Though... after thinking about it carefully. If people had enough money, then escaping even after killing was possible. Just because the kind of 'power' is different, the mortal humans on the Earth and we, cultivators, here were the same! I guess this was fairer.

That’s how it worked in the jungle. Only strength mattered. Usually, we weren’t the kind of people to use our strength like that, but now, we were going to do exactly that!

We sensed that Charles wasn’t moving, which meant that he was probably resting. We both turned into our monster forms and Alice flew up into the air, while I ran on the ground towards our targets to distract their attention. There was someone at the fifth stage and three more at the fourth stage, consisting Charles.

-------------------- Charles Shaw's POV: -----------------------

Those two damned brats. Somehow I’ll surely take revenge for this! These last days were really painful for me. I can sense that there is still some of that poison lingering in my body, which is going to take at least a week to expel! Ever since that day, I’ve been thinking about how to take revenge and I realized that they are only that strong in their monster forms. Most likely they aren’t as powerful in their human forms so if I could confront them in their human forms in the middle of the town then they would surely die by my hands!

If they would dare to transform, then others would come to my help to kill the monsters so it would be a win-win to me anyway. The only problem with this was that I couldn’t find them in these past days! But it doesn’t matter, I still have enough time. Unfortunately, I had to go on a quest because my clan master said so.

My clan is called the Shrill Moguls. There are four of us and three of us are at the fourth stage, while the captain who is the son of the clan leader is at the fifth stage. He is called Frank Orchard, while the clan leader is called Cale Orchard. On this quest, I had to accompany Captain Frank on his way back to the clan because he was taking some kind of treasure. I'm really curious about what is that thing, but unfortunately, I'm never going to find out, probably.

We were resting at the moment, thanks to me because I was still in a bad shape. I don't even understand why'd the clan master ask me to accompany his son in such a shape... I looked at Captain Frank and I couldn't help but voice my question with my brows raised. Naturally, I had to be very polite. "Captain Frank! Could you please tell me the reason of my presence? I mean, I'm only slowing you down!"

He looked at me and crossed his arms in front of his chest as he said. "Well... it's because as we have heard it, you've shamed our clan by losing so miserably to some brats. Originally, I wanted to use a spaceship and quickly travel back, but on this way, I'm going to decide on your fate as well. If I find you to be unworthy, then I'm going 'dismiss' you..." He answered with an evil smile, which made me feel despair.

Dismissing a clan member in this evil clan was equal to killing that person, which in this case, was me! I was about to protest and beg for forgiveness when I felt that the ground started trembling under our feet. I didn't have a powerful enough mind to sense the exact shape, strength, and range of our enemy and I wasn't in the best shape either... The captain used his mind power and then named our enemy.

"It seems like a Hydra! Be careful and prepare for battle! Frank! You can prove yourself now!” He shouted as he took up a defensive position.

A-A Hydra!? Could it be by any chance!? No, it couldn’t be. My luck would be too good. With the captain here we should be able to kill it- I didn’t have time to think any longer because I saw as it ran out of the jungle and jumped straight at me! I almost crapped my pants upon seeing that it was indeed the same monster, which caused me so much pain. I don't know why, but after going through what I went through in their mouths once, I started fearing them very much.

N- No! What should I do? If I stand back, then Frank is going to kill me, but if I fight, then I'm sure that I'm going to be killed by this damned hydra! I thought as I felt the feeling of despair creeping up on my back, reaching my brain.

“Fuck! A dragon is coming from above!?” Frank shouted with a surprised face as he turned to look upwards. The same dragon which chewed on my legs was there. I felt terrible fear. At first, I was happy that I could take revenge upon them, but that feeling was nowhere to be seen. Especially after realizing that something was wrong. I could barely move!! That poison which was simply lingering around in my body this whole time flared up and made me paralyzed for a moment.

Captain Frank flew into the air to take on the dragon, while the others attacked the Hydra, but it used its other heads to block the incoming attacks. As I was still standing there frozen, unmoving I felt as death was closing its jaws in on me. The head in the middle came for me in a straight line while the other two-two heads were blocking my partners. I was finally able to move because I was able to suppress this damned poison in my body with my Space Energy, but it was for naught.

A ridiculing smile crept onto my face as I realized that I'm going to die in such a way. I didn't try to evade my fate anymore. I've done so many evil things. I guess this is my punishment. Maybe I should have been a better human? Haha~ It doesn't matter anymore. If I get another chance, I'll be sure to be a good human! I felt the monster's jaws closed, crushing my head, my bones, and whole body. It felt strangely peaceful and cold...

Colder than anything I’ve ever felt before.... Haha~ So this is how it ends.