I was getting the chills before even entering the ruins… Or better, let’s call it a monster’s den. Cause there’s lots of monsters around. Presence Detection gave me that much.

Different from the normal Presence Detection though, mine was unique, if I can say. Instead of feeling like someone’s around, they appear at my visor. Or better, red arrows, appear on my visor, pointing downwards. That looked like it was saying: ‘Enemy. Here.’

It was surprising too, since when I saw the first monster, it wasn’t a normal one. Think about it, would you seriously believe on a giant red crab, which is an ocean/river monster, appearing on a desert? Unless this place has some kind of connection to the ocean or a river, I’m fine with it. Till there? I’m confused.

After taking some strange monsters out, I kept following the pathways. Yeah, lots of paths for me to choose. The monsters? Well… Okay, I’ll tell.

After the red crab, I faced a purple horse, with a horn(no, it was not a unicorn). Then, a 4-group of different scorpions. They had their carapaces made out of blue crystals(were made of sapphire by the way), quite resistant, too.

Then! Out of nowhere, after facing some of those(which I considered ‘normal’), a ghost appeared. It had a black mist-like tunic, with a hood, and both its face and arms, were purple. I could see a skull looking right at me below the hood. Curious, I scanned the thing, and surprise!

“Contracted Reaper Ghost?”

It was a contracted monster. I avoided a sweep of its claws, and loaded a couple of shots. Satz bullets simply passed through it, doing no damage. On the other hand, Schicksal energy bullets did a massive damage.

“So? The monsters here are all contracted?”

Some of them, yes.

Oh, and I ended up remembering about my new weapon, Verdammnis. You see, the material I needed to finish it, were Royal Basilisk scales. But I still was able to make Verdammnis with no trouble at all. Which wasn’t true, though.

You see, Royal Basilisk scales are tough, and sharp. Why put on Verdammnis bullets then? To pierce easily. Which would prove to be a good idea.

After defeating more Reaper Ghosts, Red Crabs, Horned Ghost Horses(what a cringe name!), and more Sapphire Scorpions, I arrived at a very large room. Well, not a room, but an arena of some sorts.

There were some seats around the arena itself. Reaching a few steps away from the center, the entrance I used, closed with a gate of spikes, and a gate on the opposite opened, giving way to an 8 legged creature, with purple scales and spikes all around its body.

Its lizard eyes were staring at me. While it had lizard-like eyes, its mouth was some kind of beak. It had sharp teeth behind that. And well, its size WAS that of a wild horse.

HISSSSSSSS!

With some kind of hiss, 2 smaller gates, besides each side of the one this giant thing came out, opened, giving way to smaller lizards. They all crowded besides the bigger one.

“Wait a second. Purple scales. Big. It’s a Royal Basilisk, isn’t it?” Scan showed me. “Yep! And the ones on the sides, are normal Basilisks. Okay then! Time to test Verdammnis out!”

Activating [Agility Mode], the Royal Basilisk roared, and the smaller ones started rushing towards me. Without a second thought, I brought Verdammnis out, aiming at a big line of Basilisks coming towards me. I don’t know how many it had on the line, but one bullet of it, made its way through all of them, reaching the wall of the other side of the arena.

KAPOW!

The Royal Basilisk and I glanced at the wall, and to each other. He growled to me, while I smiled from behind my mask. Then, it launched its spikes on me, and blobs of acid too. I jumped backwards, while shooting through the other Basilisks.

I used an entire clip to mow down a good part of them. Taking the clip out, storing it, and put a new one, and I cocked the weapon. No, I didn’t need to do that over and over, that was just to load the weapon after putting a new clip.

Storing Verdammnis, after seeing its capabilities, I grabbed Ravager, and activated its energy bullets, destroying all of the remaining Basilisks, easily.

The Royal one got a tad pissed at its servants dying, and roared. It launched once again spikes at me, with blobs of acid, and even tried to use its Petrifying stare, and breath. How can a monster has both Breath and Stare that can petrify you?

Why I wasn’t petrified? Cause of the Visor and mask. Why this works? Hm? Oh! I got the Petrifying Resistance skill! Alas, some of my clothes were starting to become stone, so I took some distance.

“Please work. Please WORK!”

What I wanted to work? My Shockwave. You see, that bracelet I got from the Pyramid, didn’t had only the grappling hook, and the overloading of bodies beam. It also could launch a Shockwave too. Well, it wasn’t fuel efficiency, since it consumed a lot of mana just to charge it.

BUT! The usefulness wasn’t there. It was on the Overcharging. The bracelet could Overcharge the Shockwave beyond the normal, AND nullify the backlash from doing so. And, I made something alike on my two gauntlets. And a new function. Instead of extending my hands ahead of me, I would clap them together, causing a bigger wave to happen.

Overcharging both, the Basilisk rushed towards me, and jumped. That was my chance, so I clapped my 2 hands ahead, and a wave of energy formed a tube in front of me. The Basilisk that jumped, simply was tossed backwards without much of a resistance, crashing at the wall.

“OUCH! It still hurts. But at least doesn’t break my bones.”

Approaching the Basilisk, the thing was still alive. Breath was ragged, and Scan shown me that most of its bones were broke. Another surprise, was that at least 80% of its scales were intact. The ones that broke, were the ones right around its neck. Well, this was the place with big impact.

Activating my blade, I pierced its neck, and stored its body. I didn’t had time to deal with dismantling right now.

What blast is this place… No seriously. From like, all the monsters I fought, only 30% of them were not contracted to someone. I passed through 2 more arenas too. The first was kinda easy, but the second wasn’t so much.

The second arena, if you count the Royal Basilisk as the first, had a giant armor with a mace. It was a Golem, to be exact. It simply moved towards me, and tried to swing its giant mace.

Of course, defeating it, wasn’t easy. No bullet worked, and I didn’t wanted to waste Verdammnis rounds on it.

What was the solution? I used the waves, and some Zerstörer charges. Even then, the Golem wasn’t damaged much. So, I just kept using the waves. Even made something I never used up until now. I overcharged my Shockwave, and punched the Golem, sending it to the wall.

“Tch! You’re resilient, huh?”

Seeing the Golem getting off of the rubble, I glanced at its mace right at my feet. I smiled, and grabbed the mace, sweeping from the left, from the right, hitting the Golem. To finish it off, I spun around, hitting it 2 more times, and jumped, smashing the Golem to the ground.

Just after that, it stopped moving. Looking through the armor gaps, I found broken pieces of something that might have been its core. The armor stayed there though, which made me believe it was an artifact too. So I stored that, and the mace.

The third arena though… Yeah, it was a complete different monster.

“A Minotaur?” But Scan blinked red, and shown me what the monster really was.

► Minotaur Evolution – Khnum ◄

One of the last on the Minotaur’s Evolution lines.

This monster, different from the mindless and strong Minotaur, has a higher Intelligence, and is able to use magic.

It’s thick skin, and quick regenerative capabilities are its strong point. With a high resilience, no normal sword will be able to even scratch its hide.

Due to its Regenerative capabilities, some small monsters, reverence to this monster, considering them godly beings. Which they aren’t. They are simply stronger, resilient, and can regenerate.

Danger Rank – S

“Okay.” I grabbed Satz and Schicksal, shooting at it, but both the energy bullets and FMJ bullets simply broke to nothingness and pieces. “You gotta a thick skin?”

The monster had a ram like head, with sharp teeth. His body was full of muscles, and had red eyes. It had the hooves of a bull, but the hands of a human(with 4 fingers only).

What is it doing? The Khnum lifted its right hand to its eye level, and a yellow light formed in its hand. Then, when he focused mana enough, it sweep the ball of energy towards me. 3 fire balls appeared from it, and they almost hit me.

“Uou! Okay! What should I use?”

Moving across the room, the monster did try to follow me, but it was slower, so I used that to my favor. I turned around, and tossed 2 charges of Zerstörer on it, the monster stopped moving, amused with the charges on its chest. It even tried to pull it off. But before it could do that…

“Hehe! It’s been some time. NOW!”

The 2 charges exploded, making the monster stagger a little bit. So it works. When the cloud of dust that arose vanished, it revealed the Khnum enraged. He roared, and charged the same fire balls on its 2 hands this time, and kept tossing at me.

Avoiding them, I rushed through the room, and kept looking to its HP. It did received a good hit, falling from 120K(yeah, it had THAT much) to 80K! Zerstörer did a good damage, huh? What if it swallow the charges? That’ll be nasty.

I smiled, and pulled my hood on, vanishing from the Khnum’s eye sight. Albeit the room was full of dust, I did that just to be sure. When the dust settled, he looked around, and roared loudly, probably thinking he succeeded on his task. Now’s my chance!

When he roared, I jumped on its shoulders, and tossed 3 charges of Zerstörer in its mouth. He coughed, and held its neck. When he concentrated on me again, I was grinning and arching my brows. The Khnum growled, and extended its hands towards me. Just then I pressed the transmitter’s button.

The results were gruesome. 90% of the neck of the Khnum got destroyed, and its head was being held by only a strand of flesh. But soon, that same strand of flesh got broken, and its body fell on the ground. Breathing in relief, I stored its body and head, rested a little bit, and then kept moving ahead.

But something strange was happening. [Intuition] wasn’t whispering anymore. It was literally screaming. Like it was saying: ‘Stop. You WILL die if you face this next opponent.’

“I don’t have much of an option right now, so…”

Even with Intuition warning me, I moved on, reaching a corridor. Strangely enough, there was no presence on the rooms. In short, all the rooms adjacent to this corridor, were empty. No treasure chests, no boxes, just emptiness.

After walking through the corridor, without even finding any sign of life, I came to another arena. This time, however, this arena really gave me the creeps.

Why? Simple. In the center of this huge arena, was a big monster. I could hear him chewing on something. From the bodies around him, you could tell it wasn’t just one or two, but several monsters. Swallowing hard, I activated Scan, to find out exactly what this thing is.

► Discharging Mandrill ◄

A type of primate monster.

This monster, is one many of a Mandrill’s evolution line. This one, however, has one of the strongest capabilities over other Evolved Mandrills.

Albeit called Mandrill, this one looks more like a gorilla. Its capability, is a Lightning sphere, that it creates on its back. When the Sphere is fully charged, another part of its body, right above where the sphere is created, will snap close, producing a surge of lightning, capable of knocking enemies out. For stronger opponents, this capability might not take them down, but it’ll stun them for a short period of time.

This is one of the worst lines of monster for you to face it, Kenji-kun. Be double careful.

Danger Rank – A ~ S

A lightning sphere? And then it snaps? Creating a surge of lightning? Isn’t that basically an EMP? Gulping, I pull my hood on, and avoid this thing. I knew I couldn’t face this thing right now. In fact, not never. Unless I have immunity towards EMP, that will be impossible to defeat.

I made my way through the gate, letting the giant Mandrill behind. I kept going, with my hood on all the time. Just when I felt like the Mandrill was really far away, I pulled off the hood.

Yet another surprise! After the Mandrill, no other monster appeared! No, seriously. No monster appeared. My way to the depths of this ruin was really easy to reach.

At the end of the path, I found a door. The door had 3 different holes on it. Strangely enough, there was a passageway on the left corner up of the door. It was really small though. A small rodent, like mice, would be able to pass through.

Each hole, had different shapes. The middle one, was a pentagon. The left hole, was a triangle shaped one. And the one to the right, was a complete round one. Taking the 3 keys, they all fit on the holes. I put each key on each hole, and with a rambling sound, the 3 keys entered the door, giving way to a flat surface. Then, the door slightly opened.

“Please don’t have a giant monster. Please don’t have a giant monster.”

I pushed the 2 doors even more, giving way to a wide room, with… lots of treasures to say the least. The artifacts/relics were littering the ground. Just glancing through them, made scan go wild. It were so many, that I seriously thought of taking them all. Wait. I can get them all.

But soon I stopped. And just then glanced at the far end of the room. Seriously? A lady on the end of some ruins? What is this? A game?I was pretty far away from the woman, but Scan already gave me some peculiar things about her.

First of all, the horns on her forehead, already revealed that she was from the Oni Tribe. But what Scan showed? Heh! Let’s just say it was really interesting.

-STATUS-

Name: Ayla le Gant Species: Oni-Vampire Hybrid Age: 379 Years Old Rank: Unknown LVL: 99 / 1900 SP: ??? HP: 80’650 / 80’650 MP: 9’870 / 72’360 STR: 56’320 INT: 49’210 CON: 20’920 AGI: 37’980 DEX: 42’640 LUK: 650

Yep! The woman was a hybrid between 2 completely opposite races. She had skills related to sword or blades, mainly. She’s pretty much a better version of Suzuki, to say the least.

“Suzuki did say that they were in battle a long time ago. Hrmmm… Maybe some kind of forbidden love?”

The more I approached the woman, the more I felt… in danger.

The woman was quite the beauty though. She had a very long lustrous black hair. I bet her hair is even bigger than her own body. The horns on her forehead had a white color to it, while the tip of them, had a tinge of red on the tips. Well, from half the horns to the tip was red. The tips of her hair were also red too.

The moment I reached, I think 5 steps away from her, she lifted her head, and started watching me. She also opened her mouth, revealing 2 large canine teeth to the pattern I'm used to.

“Hi. For both of you.”

Activating [Agility Mode], I Flash Stepped backwards, avoiding a big guy, who just punched the floor. He had red hair, in a pony tail, with lots of muscles on his body. He was wearing, what looked to be a leather black jacket, with no sleeves.

“Tch! You noticed.”

“I mean, when you shown so much will to fight, and hide so poorly, it gets easy to find you.”

“Ya gonna regret saying that.”

“Oh, will I?”

The guy, rushed towards me again. He wasn’t that fast, though. I avoided another one of its punches, ducking, and hitting a kick on its back. Of course, that wasn’t enough to even make him step away. He simply swung his left arm towards me, which I avoided by jumping backwards again.

“What’s a matter?! Ya can’t punch like a man?!”

Avoiding a flurry of punches, I charged the Shockwave, Flash Stepped away, and then closed the distance, punching him in the face, releasing the overcharged Shockwave on his face.

The punch sent the guy backwards, not to the wall, but it did made him stagger. Not wanting to play his game, since he had both CON and STR stats way higher than mine, I jumped backwards once again, taking Satz and Schicksal, and released a shower of bullets on him.

He used a rock as shield, and charged at me. I stored both my pistols on their respective holsters, and when the guy was very close to me, I activated the shield, and the guy punched with all of his might. The punch did made me slide a bit, so I side-stepped, getting out of his way.

He passed right beside me, and when he stopped and turned around, I sweep the shield towards him, sending a wave of concussive energy on his body, which in turn sent him towards the ceiling.

“Not so tough now, is it?”

He fell from the ceiling, grunting while getting up.

“Tch! Da hell was that?”

“Something I made.” The shield was stored back.

“Ha! Ya can’t use that shield many times, can’t ya?”

“Dunno. Want to find out?”

“Heh! Nah. I really would want ta fight ya, but I can’t. So I’ll get this over with already. Boss wants ya alive.”

And then the guy started swelling, and got a bit bigger. The same size of that Mandrill I just faced. He was a bit taller than me, but now? The guy had a little bit more than 2 meters, with much more muscles on its body. Great. More strength to deal with.

The guy had now a more bat-like appearance, with 2 wings on its back too.

“HEHEHE! WHAT’S THE MATTER? SCARED? HUH?”

He looked towards the door, and my Intuition was screaming again: Dangerous Enemy. That could only mean one thing.

“The Mandrill.”

Turning around, a giant Mandrill rushed through the room, towards the guy I was just about to face. I jumped out of the way, and the Vampire started a push fight with the Mandrill.

“DON’T GET IN MY WAY! YOU STUPID THING!”

The two started pushing each other from one side to another, while I Flash Stepped away, towards the cage where the woman was.

“Phew. Let monsters face each other.”

“Get me out of here! I’ll help!”

“Hm? Why would I do that? I don’t even know you.”

The woman simply stated something, which I simply ignored.

“That thing will kill you! If you get me out, I’ll-”

“I can take care of myself, thank you.”

After that, I glanced at the 2 fighting, which was really bad. The vampire got pushed onto the wall, even digging the wall with the amount of force he put on that. If this vampire loses, I’ll be blasted too.

“Oh shock.”

The Mandrill’s back started forming a lightning on its back. The Mandrill pushed the vampire on the wall even more, and when the vampire was about to break free, the back of the Mandrill snapped, popping the sphere, causing a series of energy surges to form, and scatter through the room.

The Vampire convulsed, and when his eyes rolled backwards, I thought he was dead. And me? I activated my shield, trying to defend myself from the wave, which, didn’t worked.

The waves passed through the shield, and-

“Guh! GAAAAA! AAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

I fell on the ground. I could feel my entire body trembling, and thrashing on the floor. I couldn’t control my body at all. I don’t even know how to explain the pain.

Sharp needles piercing each part of my body? My bones being snapped, crushed, or ground? My flesh being ripped apart? An electrical surge just hit me, and I am(albeit I don’t know how) a [Half-Machine]. How am supposed to explain the pain I’m feeling?

You know what? I think I know how to explain. Imagine your computer getting on and off all the time. Now think of the Computer as your brain and body, doing that all the time. My vision got black, my body convulsing. It’s different from anything I can or could have imagined.

“Tur-! Tur-! Turn! T-! The! Sy-! Sy-! Systems! Dow-! Do-! Down!”

It was the first thing that came to mind. Would it work? Dunno? My vision got simply blurred, and I felt my body moving quite fast. Like spinning, and crashed on the ground. Huh? Why so much pain?

I shook my head, and got up. My field of vision was back to one side only. My left eye was closed, and I felt my entire body aching. When I concentrated better, I looked ahead of me, seeing a giant monkey, or whatever, trying to… free the woman?

“Get away from me! Stop!”

The monkey was touching the woman’s body. Awkward. Hm? Just then, I heard a voice, that I didn’t heard in a long time.

◙ CONDITIONS HAVE BEEN MET! SKILL, DISCORD, HAS BEEN ACQUIRED! DUE TO THE SKILL ANARCHY REACHING TIER 5 ALREADY, THE SKILL, DISCORD, IS NOW TIER 5 AS WELL! ◙

“I don’t have a shocking clue what the skill does, but activate it or whatever already! Cause I felt that…”

My body started to… feel less heavy. The pain was subsiding, and I felt… stronger.

“Okay.”

I tried bringing Verdammnis out, but couldn’t. And even any other weapon wasn’t coming out. Okay… Maybe the System Off isn’t that simple.

“Hey! Stupid monkey!”

Yeah, my swears were very simple. Whatever. The Mandrill stopped his… actions, and turned around.

HUAAAAAAAA!

He roared, lifting his arms up, and glared fiercely at me. Before, I had the feeling that I couldn’t beat this guy, but now? I felt free. Yeah, those are the words.

The Mandrill came at me, rushing, and sweep its right arm at me. I ducked, letting him pass right by my side, pushing him a bit, and jumped on his back. Why? To take his little organ out, of course.

“KILL HIM! END HIS LIFE!”

The woman shouted while I was trying to pull this monster’s organ out. I wasn’t able to, and activated my right blade, cutting the organ out, and tossed on the back of the room.

Jumping from its back, the Mandrill turned to me in anger, giving me a bear hug, he rocked me from side to side, and putting even more strength in his arms, when he spun around, and tossed me to the back of the room.

I crashed at some tools, feeling a much stronger pain on my back, AND entire body. Not giving in to that, I rolled on the ground, getting up, and held my hands on the floor.

With yet another roar, the Mandrill rushed at me again. I cracked my neck to the sides, and charged my left hand’s fire wave. I can at least charge them. Nice! When the Mandrill got closer, I jumped, and smashed his head on the floor.

It didn’t killed him, but it did made him stagger a bit. I grabbed the top of his head, with my left hand, and started powering my Shockwave up. Not that much though. I simply made it more stronger than normal. Just a bit. After 4 punches, the Mandrill got wobbly, and then I charged the Shockwave fully.

“You’ll like this!”

Punching him with the wave fully charged, the monster fell on its back. It shook its head, and when I tried to get closer to him, it swing something on me. I fell, too, grabbing 2 different artifacts, that looked like some small boxes, and smashed them at the Mandrill’s face.

“Pick this call up!”

With him staggered, I smashed the 2 boxes at each side of his face, doing an ear slap on him. He wasn’t that fazed though, and roared right at my face. So, I simply smashed one of the boxes(what remained of it) on its mouth.

It lowered its head, and I think he chewed the traces. I took some distance, used the wall for support, jumping over the Mandrill, and hitting the back of his head with a medium Shockwave. The wave smashed its head on the broken artifacts, and since I was getting tired, I simply charged both Waves on my arms at maximum, and did a H**k smash on the Mandrill’s head.

“HAAAAAH!”

The Mandrill’s right hand got up a bit, and fell limp on the floor. Just to be sure, I grabbed Schicksal, and charged to the maximum I could, and shot.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

“Aaahh… Aaaah… This should… Do it…”

“I don’t think those last magic beams were necessary.”

“Shut up… It wasn’t… you… who almost died…”

“If you had freed me-”

“I won’t! Aaaah… Trust! Anyone that I just met! No matter what the situation be! Aaah… I won’t do that!”

The woman simply ‘Hmph’ and looked away. DON’T YOU ‘HMPH’ ME! I walked close to her giant, dunno, cage, and sit right besides it.

“Blast… Activate… Systems…”

With that said, my left eye was back, and I was a tad curious about myself now.

“What the shock… Am I?”