Here's the result of painkillers and 16 hours of sleep.

Sitting on the bed, Allen was deep in thought while waiting for the water he left in the kitchen to boil.

’Was it really a good idea?’

He was referring to the fact that he let Lyka play Hazard Frontier Online and even allowed her to join the same base as him, Base 19. Among the bases in the game, it was well known that Base 19 was the hardest base to start in, if not impossible.

’She can manage herself… she’s pretty good with a gun.’

Indeed, Lyka was excellent at shooting games. It was the only type of game she had played and had experienced on Virtual Reality after all. Her ability was enough to put her at the top 100 leaderboard if only she played on a daily basis and joined competitions and events.

That was hardly the issue, though. The problem was he had just decided to lay low for now because of the recent uproar in forums.

“Why did I have to lay low anyway?”

He murmured as he walked to the kitchen after hearing the kettle’s high-pitched whistling. As he poured the hot water to the cup of instant noodles, he remembered the girl who he wanted to fight against.

“That’s right… I’m avoiding gathering attention because I don’t want to meet up with her prematurely or let her know that I’ve joined the game after declining her…”

His choice of starting in Base 19 because of its lack of player population came back to bite him. It seemed like a logical choice at that moment, but on hindsight, it appeared to be a foolish choice.

It was too late to change it now as he had already somewhat decided to keep on conquering the challenges that Base 19 had to offer. Letting Lyka join in may also be a form of challenge.

While eating instant noodles, Allen received a message on his phone. It was from Lyka and the contents made him laugh a little.

I juz made my char n fnishd d tut!

ign is Kyla :D

d monstrs wr scary :o

Allen quickly finished his unsatisfying dinner and logged in to the game. As soon as he woke up in his workshop, he registered Kyla into his communicator and sent her a message to meet up in front of . He planned to let her experience the harshness of this base as soon as possible. Since her character is newly created, she could still delete it and create a new one in a different base without any sense of loss.

Along the way he coincidently encountered the Assistant Trainer.

“Soldier.”

Allen stopped in front of her and acknowledged her call. He didn’t know her actual Class and Rank but she’s definitely higher than him as she had been a member of the Base Establishment Group.

“There’s a new recruit with 100% assimilation, just like you. Have you heard?”

“I might have some idea…”

The dinner last night came into Allen’s mind. Nothing much happened. It was just a regular dinner and they only talked about things regarding the base. It was more of Allen leaching information from her, and she didn’t mind.

“This is off the record, but I’m not too pleasant with her. She doesn’t have the same fire you have in your eyes.”

“Haha… That should be right…”

He could only laugh awkwardly at her remark. It was true that Lyka joined the game because of him.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if she left as soon as she encountered the beasts outside just like the others before you… But as a member of Base 19, I still hope that she stays to enforce the strength of the base. Another able soldier is always welcome within the ranks.”

“Yes. As a fellow newcomer, I’ll make sure that she would be a benefit to the base.”

“Good. Proceed, soldier. Don’t let me keep you.”

After performing some salutes, they parted ways. Allen breathed a sigh. Natalie Myers was still an Ice Queen when it came to things related to the base.

’I just said that I would make Lyka an asset… It seems like letting her pick another base isn’t much of an option anymore.’

Steeling his resolve, he walked to while thinking of ways to make Lyka stay while at the same time make sure that she won’t become a hindrance.

When he arrived, he saw a short girl wearing the same combat uniform as he did when he first started. She had short red hair, and familiar facial features. Just like Allen, she didn’t modify her physical appearance too much, and just changed her hair and eye color to red. Even her in-game name, Kyla, was the result of switching two letters in her name.

“Yo.”

“A-allen!”

“How is it?”

“It looks interesting… and the NPCs are very human-like!”

“That’s right. Everything is very detailed, too.”

Lyka nodded her head in agreement.

“So, what weapon did you receive?”

“A Long gun…”

“That’s good. Then, are you ready to do some quests?”

“S-sure!”

“You look nervous.”

She just kept quiet. With a small laugh, Allen entered and was followed by Lyka. He unhurriedly walked toward Karen to receive a quest.

“Oh! It seems like you two are already acquainted!”

“Sort of… any mission we can take? Preferably one which can yield a lot of materials.”

“Hmm… Let me see…”

Karen busily typed on her console as she searched for Allen’s request. Lyka behind Allen kept on peaking over his shoulder to see what she was doing. She could just move and stand beside him, so why she would remain and do this, Allen did not know.

“There aren’t many requests right now, but it seems like one matches with your conditions perfectly. The Bar Chef had just requested for Elezzoth meat a few hours ago, and luckily we detected one wandering within our scouting area. Would you like to accept this?”

“Okay.”

New Quest received!

The Chef’s Request

The Bar kitchen had run out of high quality meat and requested for an Elezzoth hunt. One Elezzoth was spotted near the base. Hunt it down and the kitchen will dispatch a harvesting team.

“Will you do this as a party or individually? Take note that as individual missions, you will have to compete against each other. As you may have also noticed, the rewards for individuals in a party are lesser than solo missions.”

“Party.”

’I didn’t notice that. Soloing actually gives more rewards…”

Allen looked back at Lyka and entertained the idea of just leaving her alone but immediately dropped the thought.

’I’m not that cruel, and besides, I kind of gave my word to the assistant trainer…’

“That’s great. Developing teamwork is essential for everyone. I have to inform you that the kitchen harvesting team will only harvest the meat. Anything else left behind can be taken by your party.”

“Thanks. We’ll set out now.”

“Good luck!”

As the two left the room, Lyka peeked at Allen and said something in a barely audible voice.

“You seemed close with her…”

“She’s just a NPC. A realistic one at that, though…”

“Do you like that sort of thing? I heard Carl talking about wanting to date virtual girls…”

“Haha. As you’d expect from him.”

Allen laughed it off, but at that time, he remembered the dinner date he had last night. To him, it was just a simple invitation he accepted because of the words ‘It’s my treat’. To the eyes of outsiders, however, it might appear that he was into some sort of strange inclination.

He shook his head and focused on the mission ahead. He already knew what an Elezzoth looked like and its other characteristics.

“An Elezzoth has the appearance of a mammoth, but instead of being covered in fur, its entire body is shrouded with crystals instead. For a mutated crystal beast, it is appears to be docile in nature, and only attacks anything that approaches it within 10 meters. Theories were that it had poor vision and was near-sighted. What do you think we should do?”

Allen explained to Lyka while they made their way to the . He also wanted her to develop strategies based on the information he gave so that she wouldn’t rely too much on him.

“Uhm… use long distance attacks?”

“Good, but just doing that isn’t enough. When it’s attacked from a distance and unable to see its attackers, an Elezzoth will run away. Despite its huge size, it actually can run very fast.”

“Hmm… since it’s just us two… so you will distract it in close range then I’ll shoot it from a distance…”

“That’s right. That’s actually the only tactic we can use. You have to make sure that you don’t close in too much and stay outside of its ten meter perception range. Also, keep an open eye to your surroundings at all times. There may be other beasts prowling about waiting for an ambush.”

Elezzoth were normall Class III beasts, but in Base 19’s region, they were at least Class V in strength. This didn’t scare Allen the slightest, and he didn’t mention it to Lyka to avoid her from developing any sort of discouragement even before setting out.

They arrived at the and was greeted by a pierced blond man, Jake.

“Looks like I’ll be your transport for today again.”

“Yeah. You don’t want to join in the fun today?”

“What fun?! More like going on another suicide mission!”

“How’s Alexia?”

Allen steered the discussion from the mission’s difficulty because Lyka was listening in.

“Oh… Man, that girl’s as crazy as you. She’s been on hardcore training mode all day. The other medic trainees were so scared of her. She was more of a killer than a medic if you ask me.”

Even though he was saying impolite things about her, his eyes were strangely filled with passion. He was definitely head over heels for her. Lyka was chuckling by the side while watching him.

“She’ll catch up to your level soon.”

“Yeah, I’m afraid that’s very likely to happen.”

After that discussion, Allen introduced Lyka to Jake. They then checked their equipments with the terminals in the and he then gave them a ride to the place near where the Elezzoth was spotted.

It was almost 9 pm. Unlike the previous nights, the sky was shrouded with clouds reducing the visibility of the surroundings. This was hardly a hindrance for CrySols as they had improved vision, letting them see through the dark. Dark was still dark, and the clarity of their vision was not enough to make them see the night as day.

Lyka, with her Long gun ready, was quite nervous as her eyes flitted about, chasing shadows and sounds. In front of her was Allen, moving steadily and coolly as usual. He had noticed that his vision was better than before. It may have been the result of his class up or the unique passive skill Bestial Nature, or both.

When he got the three new skills, they were automatically placed in the skill slots and could not be removed. This was the result of their property as Locked skills. It was a good idea that he allotted points to his Ability stat, or he would quickly run out of skill slots. He didn’t have any other skills yet, though, so it didn’t really seem like that much of a problem.

He was more worried about Lyka. He had not asked her how she distributed her points or what she took for her back story. Although Lyka trusts him, he still didn’t want to break the gaming etiquette of not asking a player’s stats. He could only hope that whatever configuration she chose, it wouldn’t hinder her character development.

Soon, they arrived at a wide clearing with a small lake in the middle. Beside the lake, a huge figure could be seen. It was bigger than a single-storey house. A massive trunk was between its huge tusks, and its body was covered with crystals. Whenever it moved, the crystals on its skin undulated like a wave, as if they weren’t solid. It was a beautiful sight to behold.

“It’s quite cute…”

That offside comment from Lyka almost made Allen stumble. For her to find something like that cute was quite bizarre. Allen attributed that to how girls think differently from guys.

“Are you ready?”

Lyka only replied with a nod. She had already stocked up on ammunition as Allen instructed. She also had trust in her aiming skills. That was the only skill that she had that Allen recognized.

“I’ll leave my back to you!”

As Allen said that, he activated Predation Instincts, emptying his Stamina bar. He felt a wild surge of energy inside his body and a strange thirst for blood. With his high Rejuvenation, his Stamina quickly refilled within three seconds. He sprinted toward the Elezzoth, his Novo Vulpia in 1st Form ready to draw blood. In fact, Allen felt like he could hear the sword in his hand growling in anticipation.

The Elezzoth noticed his approach. It quickly turned to face him and swung its huge trunk at him. If something that huge hit him, he’d surely turn into minced meat! That is if this was reality.

Without fear, Allen jumped up to dodge the massive trunk, twisting his body around and landing on his feet. He then dashed forward and swung his sword toward the place on the Elezzoth’s face where the trunk was connected.

The beast was indeed fast on its feet as it swiftly dodged backward. Its quick movements belied its huge body. Allen had already expected this as he made another dash forward, managing to easily catch up to the beast. Using that momentum, he swung his sword to the same location.

The Elezzoth did not retreat this time but clashed against the sword with one of its tusk. It twisted its head as it parried the attack, followed by another swing of its trunk to retaliate. Allen, caught off balance, barely dodged the trunk as he stumbled a few steps back.

’This is harder than I thought.’

He exhaled a breath as he steadied himself and increased his focus.

Lyka watched the previous exchange and left her in awe. The high-speed battle was very interesting to watch, but she had not let down her guard for even a second. Allen had trusted her to watch over his back, and she did so with vigilance. She kept part of her attention to her surroundings, ready to warn Allen if she detected a beast that would interfere and ambush them.

She had not fired a single shot because Allen had told her before to wait for a weak spot on the enemy’s defense to appear. If this was the game she previously played, the reasoning for this was that as a person taking the sniper position, the shot she fired should deal a heavy blow to the opponent at the cost of risking her position. She should not make a careless shot.

At this moment, her focus and concentration had increased, a bit similar to that of Allen’s condition. She was now just waiting for the opportune moment to land a critical shot at the opponent when it reveals a weakness in its defenses.

The battle proceeded without much improvement. The Elezzoth was very quick and prioritized dodging instead of tanking blows, quite contrary to its appearance. Despite that, Allen persevered and made full use of Novo Vulpia’s changing forms to deal unpredictable attacks to the opponent.

With Novo Vulpia in 2nd Form, he finally managed to land a heavy blow to one of the Elezzoth’s hind legs causing shards of crystal to chip off and reveal the flesh underneath. The impact had also caused the beast to teeter and lose its balance, falling down. In this defenseless moment, Allen had switch to 4th Form and pierced the massive leg as deep as he could with Enhance activated. With a Gun shot, the blade was pulled out with the impact.

-200 -300 -160

-80 -80 -80 -80 -80

-30 Bleed

The first three damages were all caused by Allen, and the next five were rapid shots done by Lyka on the same spot were he just attacked. Her accuracy and precision were astounding as always.

While praising her in his mind, Allen quickly retreated. The Elezzoth madly stood up, swinging its huge trunk around. It had lost a third of its Vitality in a moment of carelessness. It was unable to cover the wounds with the crystals, and Allen finally realized that this beast was actually unable to control the crystals that covered its body, unlike the Vulpia. In fact, the crystals served as a substitute to its fur just like how mammoths were covered entirely in it.

Allen now started aiming for the other legs. The Elezzoth warily dodged those attacks, seeing his intent. It didn’t want the same thing to happen again, so it payed full attention to its legs.

This was just how Allen wanted it.

With its attention to its feet, Allen made a feint to one of its front legs, then quickly retracted his attack. With a dodge to the massive swinging trunk, he landed on one of the tusks. Switching Novo Vulpia to 3rd Form, he aimed the pair of blade’s tips to the the beast’s eyes, one on each.

On impulse, the Elezzoth quickly lifted its tusks and threw Allen into the air. It then prepared to swing its trunk at him on his way down.

“Shoot the leg!”

The Elezzoth was now stationary while waiting him fall down. This was the chance that Lyka was waiting for, so even without Allen’s call, she would still have done so. With rapid fires, she shot the open wound on the Elezzoth’s hind leg. Her precise concentrated fire actually broke its leg and bone. With a painful cry, the huge beast lost one of its support and fell.

-80 -80 -80 -80

-160 Critical!

Allen once again used the 2nd Form and swung down on the Elezzoth’s exposed back. With a crunching sound, the crystals covering its flesh broke apart, and the flesh beneath were also crushed.

-500 Brutal!

With 3rd Form he repeatedly stabbed and shot the exposed broken flesh with the twin swords.

-50 -40 -50 -40

-100 Critical!

-40 -50

-80 Critical!

-100 Critical!

-10 Bleed

It was a pitiful sight to behold. The Elezzoth could only cry in pain as it was pierced and shot continuously. Before long, the beast finally cried its last and exhausted its life.

Allen jumped down from the beast’s corpse and looked at it. Lyka walked to his side, her face was slightly ugly as she looked at the results of their battle.

“It’s quite sad, isn’t it?”

She asked as she stroked the crystal covered head of the Elezzoth. Allen remembered that she saw the beast as ‘cute’, and killing it off was quite harsh for her.

“I wonder if the meat will taste bad with all that damage…”

Her next statement threw all of Allen’s worries away.