Chapter 14: Skill Advancement Quest?

In the Shanghai province of China, 2 vaults were compromised. Despite the enormous effort in reclaiming the vaults, they were abandoned in the end. Prime Minister Zhong was concerned about its devastating effects on the country's stability, since those two vaults played a crucial role in the country's defenses. They had numerous training facilities for the huntsmen and a storage area for the weapons.

"As of now, I can't get back at them with our full might for their unruly attack."

'Perhaps, we need a quick response team to investigate the matters any further.'

Mr. Zhong thought to himself. He was very prideful, but he didn't let his emotions affect his course of actions. He remained calm and was trying to use swift methods to tackle the situation at hand.

"Assemble a small team of huntsmen for the Thailand operation."

He was talking to his assistant.

In china, most of the clans were small and the top huntsmen were from the Defense itself. In terms of raw military power China was on par with United American Territory.

"Yes, sir"

The assistant gave a swift reply.

'It would be the first joint operation after 3 long years. We temporarily lost the only backing we had.'

He was thinking about the meeting which happened in Moscow.

'To think other legions are targeting us when we are already so weak.'

Three years ago, when the apocalypse started. Humanity was saved by an alliance which was never made public up to this date. They helped in making plasma-based equipment as well as manufacturing the wristwatch which is issued by the Huntsmen association. But due to recent course of incidents, the only supporters were gone for good.

Elsewhere,

Saransh was hunting mansters and dismantling them at alarming pace. But he was a little disappointed after losing his favorite dismantle time. After casually using the 'Dismantle Time' skill a couple of times, he was caught off guard by the new notification which he just received.

*['Dismantle Time' is at max level. Would you like to take the skill advancement quest for 'Dismantle Time'?]*

He immediately opened the skill set to check it for himself.

['Dismantle Time (Lv99)']

"No way"

After pausing for second.

"I accept… I accept… I accept"

Saransh started shouting like crazy.

*[Uff…. I heard you the first time itself]*

*[Skill Advance quest is generated for the skill 'Dismantle Time'.]*

"Yay… and what is this quest?"

Saransh was very excited.

<Advancement quest for 'Dismantle time'>

Requirement: Dismantle 50,000 manster corpses in 9 days.

Remaining Time: 9 days. Current count: 0

"No… way"

The excitement which was build up until this point was vaporized.

'It is not just 100 or 1000, it is a totally absurd number'

"Do you really expect me to kill 50,000 mansters in just 9 days. Where do these quests come from anyway?"

*[Quests…? They are exclusive to the 'Creator's Disciple']*

"What the…, then how do others do their skill advancements?"

*[They just don't. Without the creator's guidance, skills will never evolve]*

Saransh's excitement came back up right away.

'To think that I have achieved something that even high-level huntsmen can't even dream of'

He was grinning.

'Come to think of it, it doesn't say kill the mansters. It says dismantle the mansters.'

"Time to head to the vault in Jaipur"

"Haha…"

Now he was laughing with excitement at this point.

"Creator's gateway"

*[Skill is activated]*

*ZYUUM*

"Creator's gateway"

*[Skill is activated]*

*ZYUUM*

…..

After using the skill countless times, the Stem gate was finally visible to the naked eye. The skill had also reached level 4. He was able to cover a distance of 300 meters with just the Lv4 Creator's Gateway, but the activation time didn't reduce this time.

"Wouldn't this skill be crazy when it hits the max level?"

He was grinning again.

He reached the gate and got into one of the compartments, only to notice something very important.

'Stem had already used all the energy for today'

'Dammit'

He checked the remaining time on the compartment's system before the Stem is recharged.

'22 hours?'

"I don't have that much time!"

"Hunting mansters for the next 22 hours might be a viable option but I think it would still be bad option considering the ludicrous amount of mansters he had to kill and dismantle."

*[Yeah… hunting mansters is the only option now. So get to it]*

Saransh was in a bind.

"Come to think of it… Can't I use the Creator's Gateway to get down the stem?"

*[That is an option but the stem is a lot longer than 800m. It would have been possible if the skill was at a higher level]*

Saransh was smirking.

"You are underestimating the power of an engineer"

*[What do you mean?]*

"Do you have any idea? I had to go through hell to get into my college. This is just like a physics question from my entrance exam"

*[(´･ω･`)?]*

"Creator's Gateway"

Plasma started wrapping around his whole body.

*[Skill is activated]*

And the next second he was free falling through the stem. Since he was standing inside the compartment, he imagined a location just beneath his feet.

"Creator's Gateway"

He started counting backwards for the skill activation time.

"7…6…5…4...3…2…1"

*[Skill is activated]*

He was once again teleported to a location 300 meters beneath his foot and he was free falling again after pausing in mid-air where he was teleported.

After using the skill for a couple of times, he could see the floor of the stem.

'Creator's Gateway'

*[Skill is activated]*

He landed safely on the platform where the compartments usually land.

"Based on the height of the stem and when I choose to activate my skill, I could still be activating my skill when I reach the floor and would have fallen to death. But I had already calculated everything up here"

He was pointing his fingers to the brain.

*[To be intelligent. That's so unlike you!]*

"Oh… Shut up!"

Saransh was annoyed since he didn't receive any praise. He passed through the tunnel which connected to the vault from the stem. As soon as he entered the vault, he could see a whole lot of surprised faces.

'Where did he come from?'

After a moment of silence, one of lady who boards huntsmen in to the stem gate approached him.

"Wasn't the stem gate closed for today? How… just how did you use the stem gate?"

After an awkward pause, Saransh opened his mouth.

"Oh… I fell asleep on the platform after landing 2 hours earlier"

The lady who had now understood what's going on, explained Saransh to be careful and asked him not to do anything dangerous that could possibly harm the stem gate operations.

'She is convinced… Let's leave for now'

Saransh thought to himself.

"Sorry, haha… I won't repeat it."

He started walking towards the exit. He just want to escape the gazes of all these people.

*[Such a lame excuse]*

"It's not like I could tell them about my crazy skill"

Saransh had a plan in his head for carrying out the quest.

*[What are you scheming anyway?]*

"Scheming…? It is my full proof plan"

He started smirking.

After a couple of minutes.

"We have reached."

*[No way…]*

"Yes way…"

Saransh was standing in front of Dismantler Union building.

"Jaipur vault was one of the few vaults which wasn't attacked in the country and that means all the manster corpses from those unlucky vaults will be piled up here"

"I don't think anyone would have dismantled anything here"

Saransh entered the building and requested for a pass from the counter. Dismantlers are usually allotted a room where they are free to dismantle the corpses and then return back all the life stones. The quality of life stones retrieved is hugely dependent on the dismantler. Even a small mistake can severely damage the life stone and make them unusable. Since Jaipur vault didn't have many dismantlers, he was given a room relatively fast without much waiting time.

'Room 122… So it is on the first floor'

Saransh's full proof plan was to take advantage of the attack of Shadow mansters.

"Finally, time for my plan"

There was a huge platform in the center of the room and a large pipe connected to ceiling which dumped the manster corpse on to the platform.

Saransh pushed one of the buttons beside the platform and instantly a manster corpse was dumped. The stench of the corpse was awful but he was used to it at this point.

*[Would you like to activate the passive skill 'Smell Resistance']*

"What…?"

Saransh had already clicked yes at this point.

"Can't you do something about these skill related questions, like accepting them on your own?"

*[Should I enable auto-accept for all skill related questions?]*

"Nice… just do that!'

*[Done!]*

"I'm grateful Mira"

*[Are you being sarcastic?]*

Saransh ignored Mira and went ahead with dismantling the corpse.

"Dismantle Time"

Corpse was dismantled in an instant and he put the life stone into the basket from his hands. He pushed a different button this time. The platform opened and the manster corpse was pulled down.

Saransh didn't move an inch from where he was standing and started repeating the same course of actions again and again.

Elsewhere, inside one of the abandoned vaults in Thailand.

A group of high level mansters bowed their head in shame. They were terrified by the existence in front of them. Tension in the atmosphere was very high. A being with an unimaginable amount of plasma was planning to kill all its subordinated mercilessly for failing their mission.

From the fear of annihilation, leader of the subordinates spoke up.

"We didn't expect the humans to free Aldar Olvado. He was…"

*SLAAASH*

By just lifting his fingers, the manster had expeditiously killed the subordinate and not even its corpse remained.

"I don't want excuses."

"Zalmir rise"

From all the subordinates gathered there, Zalmir was different. He already had thought of a counter plan and was waiting for his master to call his name.

"I will kill all the Creator's Disciples at once, master"

Zalmir gave a firm response without faltering from the pressure.

"You already know what happens if you fail"

Zalmir flinched for a second and spoke up.

"It will be different this time, master"

The master receded the pressure and atmosphere had become normal again. It would be weird to call it normal at this point. The place which was once inhabited my humans was overrun by mansters. It was menacing sight to behold and the most unimaginable part was the huge gate at the center of the vault.

A gate which led to somewhere far away.

Countless mansters were flooding in from the gate, from nothingness. The number and level of mansters was incomparable to mansters that appeared 3 years ago. And all these mansters were being commanded by just one manster, who was also controlling the huge gate.

Meanwhile,

Saransh was trying his best to complete his quest unaware of the dangers awaiting him.

After a couple of hours, he had got an unexpected notification.

*['Smell Resistance' is at max level. Advancement quest for 'Smell Resistance' was auto accepted. Please look the quests tab for more details]*

Saransh was caught off-guard again.

"No way…"

*[Yes way….]*