Chapter 7: Entering the Mines / A Great Gift

Written by Etnalla

Edited by Goald3n

The grenades went off blowing away the wendigos and causing the earth shield to shudder violently—in an instant the second shield looked much like the first one right before breaking. A violent pain wracked Lucky's hand before suddenly disappearing. He didn't need pain at the moment, so he turned it off.

Lucky let out a breath he didn't know he was holding at the success of his plan. He had been very calm at the moment but no one could possibly not feel anything when gambling with their life. What he was surprised with, however, was that he received no notification from the system that he had killed the wendigos. They were still alive.

Turning his head slightly he caught sight of one of the wendigos splayed out on the ground. Since he was lying down on the ground he didn't have a clear view of it, but from what he could see the wendigo's side was blown off by the grenade and its chest was a mangled mess from the shrapnel.

Hearing a low screech on the other side Lucky turned his head to look at the other wendigo. It was in just about as bad a shape as the other one, actually, maybe even a bit worse. It had lost half its face both its legs, and its organs were falling out of a large hole in its torso area.

The creatures looked just about ready to die but their amazing vitality kept them alive. The grenade's blast really only damaged the areas previously burnt by the fire. All the other parts of their body that were unburned looked only mildly scratched by the shrapnel.

He would ignore the wendigos for now. They were no harm to him as injured as they were. His real problem was the fact that the fire by the entrance was dying and he was stuck under the earth shell. Lucky had to get out quickly or he'd definitely die, so, with his uninjured hand, he punched against the earth shell—if he used his gun the bullets might ricochet off the shield.

Lucky aimed at the sections where the cracks in the shield were most clustered. After pounding away at the cracks for some time, the shield finally shattered. Getting up quickly, Lucky headed for the entrance of the mines pulling out two fire scrolls on the way—the fire was already close to burning out, and he didn't have any time to waste.

By the time he got close to the entrance the fire had already died down enough for him to see the wendigos inside. They were screeching and howling at the last dregs of the flame—waiting for it to go out. The wendigos saw Lucky and he could see that if it wasn't for their fear of the fire they would have torn him apart by now.

Peering into the cave Lucky saw that the wendigos inside were injured. The runts, while not charred black, were heavily burned by the incendiary grenade, and the warriors, despite being much better off, still looked to be quite injured by the fire. It was these injuries that reinforced their already existing fear of flames and held them back from jumping at Lucky through the flames. Those three from earlier must have been the brave ones then. Lucky thought.

Lucky stood straight in front of the entrance and glared at the wendigos. A few moments ago he was cold and calculating, now, he didn't feel anywhere close to that at all.

"You pieces of shit! Who the fuck do you think I am! My useless bro ain't here, so it's up to me to punish you freaks!" Lucky shouted while aiming a fire scroll at the entrance and pulling it open with his teeth.

The wendigos inside the mine were screeching with rage and fear, a sense of deadly crisis overtaking them. In that moment their fear of the flames was overshadowed by instinct, and all together they prepared to burst through the cave and attack Lucky.

"So you pussies have finally gotten your shit together, huh? Well, as payment for taking my arm why don't you fucks just burn in hell!!!"

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO RUNT KILLED: +100 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO WARRIOR KILLED: +1000 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO WARRIOR KILLED: +1000 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO WARRIOR KILLED: +1000 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO WARRIOR KILLED: +1000 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO WARRIOR KILLED: +1000 POINTS]

-----------------------------------

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO WARRIOR KILLED: +1000 POINTS]

"Done," Judge said while panting. The wendigos after him had been relentless, chasing him until he was deep into the storm. He wasn't tired from running, he was tired from fighting. It had been a stupid mistake. He'd gotten so focused on staying ahead of the wendigos, that he hadn't noticed when one of them split from the rest to ambush him.

Right now, his body was still reeling back from the aftereffects of entering the unlocked mode. The wendigos sudden attack had caused him to instinctively enter it, despite the danger it would pose for his body. Spitting out a mouthful of blood Judge leaned his body against a tree to steady himself. It felt like a storm was raging inside his head, each clap of thunder, each bolt of lightning sending waves of pain and dizziness running through him. All over his body, muscles were tightening around him applying a crushing force to his bones and organs. His skin was quivering at a rapid pace, and small wounds were opening up all across him like the skin was trying to tear itself free.

In his current state anyone could have killed him, wendigo, enhanced human, even a normal person. It wouldn't even take much, just touching him as he was now would be enough to cause his body to completely burst apart. Even if no one touched him it was still potentially deadly, entering the unlocked mode and moving as he did consumed insane amounts of energy as well as generated it, in the form of heat. In fact if it wasn't for the ongoing snowstorm Judge's body may have combusted the moment he exited the unlocked mode.

His body broken and near death, Judge once again cursed Clayton. It was that man's fault he was like this. If he hadn't crippled Judge in such a way then, he wouldn't have needed to resort to entering God's Dimension. But even as he cursed him and wished Clayton dead, Judge knew it was his own weakness that was the cause of everything.

He stayed like that for a long while as his body pulled itself back together. His skin rippled and writhed like a being of its own as it split apart and fused back together—each action scattering blood everywhere. Under the skin the veins squirmed about like worms as his muscles fiercely contracted around them. Aside from that, strange crystals were forming on his skin. They grew in jagged crystalline shapes and smooth glasslike patterns all across his body.

After a few moments he straightened his body and all the crystals broke off—falling on the bloodied snow in a pile. His face still looked tired and his eyes bloodshot, his entire body was covered in blood and was bared to the storm as he'd shed his clothes to cool his body. However, he wasn't cold at all; the energy generated from the first level of the genetic constraint was still present and even caused the snow on his body to melt and turn into steam the moment it touched him.

He looked around and saw that almost all the snow around him had melted and long turned into a pool of water the height of his waist. Judge also looked at the bodies of the wendigos scattered here and there. There were only two still visible—the other two were killed first and their bodies long since swallowed by the snow—and their bodies were in a horrible state.

The wendigos were completely disfigured with crystals growing out of every orifice. It grew out of their eyes, ears, mouth and torso like the branches of a crystal tree—they came in all shapes and sizes ranging from thick and jagged, thin and needlelike, coarse and flat, and everything in between.

One of them was only a few feet away from him—the crystal's coming out of its body had anchored themselves to the ground and kept it suspended in the air. He'd killed it just a few moments ago so the crystals were still growing. As they grew the faint sound of splitting flesh could be heard as well as the soft crackling of new crystals being formed. A bright sheen of fresh blood adhered to the surface of the crystals seeming almost like another layer of crystal altogether.

It was a sight that was macabre to look at, the cruel twisted faces of the wendigo mixed with the mythical and otherworldly beauty of the crystals. Judge smiled as he saw it, not for the beauty but for the points. As a newbie these four wendigos represented 4000 points, combined with the points from earlier he had a total of 5400 points, plus if he survived his newbie bonus would bring that to 7400 points and a D Rank reward. Even if he didn't kill anymore wendigos this was a huge haul of points for a newbie.

Judge took a few moments longer to catch his breath and then got out of the small pool of water. The cold didn't bother him and probably wouldn't for a few hours; the energy generated from the first level of the physical genetic constraint was nothing to laugh at. He took another moment to steady himself and began to walk back to the mine. He hoped the kid managed to do his part...or at least managed to not die.

----------------------

"Well what happened here?" Judge asked himself as he looked down at where the wendigos had been feasting. Before it had been a vision unto hell itself, now it was.....it was...cleaner.

The blood was still there, the corpses were still there yet the area had a sense of order about it that hadn't been there before. All the scattered pieces of earth and snow that had been thrown up by the explosions were now arranged into a neatly by the side of the entrance. Even the mound of flesh that had been blown apart was regathered and moved to sit beside the dirt pile.

What was stranger was that he didn't see any wendigos at all. Supposedly, that would mean that Lucky pulled of his part of the plan, but he didn't see any of the burnt wendigo corpses which he'd left behind when he ran. Maybe Lucky moved them....wait, why on earth would he move the corpses? And if he did why would he clean up the area afterward?

Judge was more confused than ever as he walked down into the small area. If Lucky was okay then, why hadn't the kid come to meet him the moment he arrived? Had the kid died from injuries? But if he did why would he spend his last moments cleaning up? Most likely Lucky was just unconscious, worst case scenario, dead. The thought that the kid might've died saddened Judge a bit but not by too much. After all, even if the kid had been calling him bro and he had been warming up to him, Judge had still only just known Lucky for a few hours and, while he trusted the kid, that wasn't enough for him to be broken hearted over his death. He was quite sure any other person would feel the same, well, any other person except for Lucky himself. I never will understand how the kid could be so willing to put his life in a stranger's hands and even go as far as one sidedly calling that stranger bro.... Sigh, even if he's a little weird the kid ain't bad at all..... I hope he's fine....

Before entering the mine to check for Lucky, Judge first walked around the perimeter of the area looking for any sign of hiding enemies or mission world clues. He also checked the pile of dirt by the side of the entrance making sure to look over everything possible. He mulled over the thought of checking the flesh pile but quickly discarded the idea—rummaging through a flesh pile of questionable origin was not something he wanted to do ever

Not finding anything else he decided it was about time to check the inside of the mine, but he had barely taken a step in before he was tackled to the ground.

"Bro!" shouted his tackler. "I've been waiting for you! You don't know how worried I was, not to say I didn't trust you, of course, I wouldn't be a good bro if I didn't trust my bro, would I. I was just wondering how long you would take 'cause I was scared your present might go bad. Oh, goodness, bro! What happened to your gear and why are you covered in blood!?"

Without having even a moment to process being tackled Judge was hit by the constant stream of words coming out of Lucky's mouth. In all honesty he wasn't all that concerned about what point the kid was trying to make, and more about how surprisingly heavy Lucky was for his size.

"Hey, Lucky, could you get off me. I'm pretty out of it right now and the extra weight on my chest is not helping."

"Oh!" Lucky got off him and looked shocked. "Sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you! I just got excited and wanted to give you my present!"

"Well, okay but-" Judge stopped. His genetic constraint was reacting to something. It wasn't a wendigo—if it was he would immediately go into the unlocked mode whether he wanted to or not. This feeling was more of a resonance, that there was another genetic constraint user present.

He turned his gaze at Lucky and immediately felt the resonance grow stronger. I don't believe it. This kid unlocked his genetic constraint!?

"Hey, kid. Anything happen while I was gone?" Judge tried to ask the question as discreetly as he could but even if he didn't Lucky probably wouldn't have noticed.

"Well, I was stupid and nearly got myself killed! It was soooo scary, bro! I thought I was gonna disappoint you by failing my job!" Lucky said with a worried tone. "I learned my lesson, always follow bro. Next time I won't make any mistake! I might be a bit dumb but this will help me remember!"

Judge had to suppress his shock at what Lucky showed him. The kid was missing nearly half his forearm and didn't even seem that bothered by it! And the fact he was happily waving it around like some kind of trophy was unsettling to say the least.

"Umm.... That's...good... So, aside from that, do you...feel strange? Like your stronger? Or more aware?"

"Hmm... Nope nothing like that, bro! Well, for a few moments while I was fighting the wendigos they moved slower for a few moments. But enough about that! Come, you need to get your gifts!" Lucky excitedly pulled Judge into the mine as he continued to talk about his gift, completely glossing over the actual question.

Slowed down... It couldn't be.... The first stage of the mental genetic constraint? What is this kid? My luck must be insane if I managed to actually meet a mental constraint user. If this kid survives long enough he'll be someone the top guilds would fight each other for... Screw those bastards, this kid has to be on my side. I was just gonna keep this kid alive and just leave him to Team 66 and the War World Guild once everything was over, but now I have to make sure he joins mine. A mental constraint user. Just wait Clayton, you're gonna regret not killing me.

"Here, bro! Here's your gift!"

Lucky's excited shout snapped Judge out of his thoughts. He hadn't noticed when Lucky brought him into the mine and gave him his gift. The 'gifts' were actually four heavily injured wendigos: two had nearly half their bodies blown off and the other two were burned to a crisp. All them were completely missing their arms and legs.

The wendigos were screeching softly like they were trying to call for help. Their bodies squirming on the floor pathetically as they tried to crawl away. They weren't predators now. They weren't even prey. What Lucky did to them was make them into ants. You didn't fear ants. You didn't hunt ants. You stepped on them.

"How do you like it! I felt bad taking all the points, so I rounded up the ones still alive to give them to you. I even made sure to cut off their arms and legs to keep them from running away or attacking. You really worried me, bro. What if they died before you arrived!? Then you wouldn't get any points at all! Heh, aren't I a good bro, you should appreciate me more. Oh, don't waste your bullets on them! Use this instead." Lucky passed him a hunting knife that completely covered in blood. "So! How do you like it!"

Judge saw Lucky differently now. Not anymore as a slightly unstable but good natured kid to protect but as an asset and potential teammate. Lucky was a possible mental constraint user, quite intelligent, easy to get along with and completely trusted him. Even better was the fact that the kid also showed the qualities of being cruel and ruthless when the occasion called for it. This kid...was perfect.

"I love it." And he really did. It was a great gift, both of them were.

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO WARRIOR KILLED: +1000 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO WARRIOR KILLED: +1000 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO WARRIOR KILLED: +1000 POINTS]

[QUEST REWARD, WENDIGO WARRIOR KILLED: +1000 POINTS]

-------------–---------------------

Author’s note

Now for a question! Can any of you guess Judge's ability? I bet you can't~

Editor’s note

Wow Author san really outdid himself this chapter I barely needed to edit anything.

So how’d you guys like the sneak peek into judge. Bet you guys are lost on how an unenhanced has powers. I am lost to don't worry.