Nightly Hunt

The wereshark had become enraged after taking a combination of punches and dashed forward once again, with nothing but killing intent on its mind.

"RRRAAAHHH"

Alonso simply revealed his hot dagger and sliced at its open neck. The beast didn't even take another step and fell right to its knees, crashing against the windward, flattened dune wall.

It whimpered and groaned while flailing around in agony, only to totally stop.

"There we go." Alonso said under his breath, as his dagger gracefully disintegrated and reformed his usual mech.

Michael had not been faring well against the wereshark, sustaining numerous injuries. However, his above-average repair system meant that these wounds were not of much concern to him.

Once the wereshark came close enough to him, he shot out both of his hands that slammed onto its chest.

BOOM!

Releasing a muon blast at point blank range, the mindless beast's torso had been blown up from the explosion. Blood sprayed out from its back and even Michael was stunned by the gory sight. Its body flopped to the floor and the students were quick to harvest its crystals.

The sun had become orange in the sky, and they managed to acquire an additional 15 crystals from the likes of scoundrel djinn and weak poison wolves.

They traversed the dark desert, under the darkening sky. There were several white stars that illuminated it, but there wasn't a moon. Soon, their view became obstructed by the towering structures of the military base, and they made their way back to the main dormitory that housed the students and soldiers.

The elevators seemed to be in constant use and its lower facade was always covered by crowds of people using the mammoth-size elevators.

The cube-like building they had entered before was filled with students, counting their crystals. Some had expressions of glee as they watched the workers progress through their collections, while others had looks of dissatisfaction and sadness.

Alonso predicted that the same thing had happened to the other students too. They likely had been raided by stronger squads too.

'That's just how the game is, isn't it? If I have to play it that way, then I will.' Alonso declared, as they arrived at an open station.

They couldn't see the electromagnetic waves that were being used to identify them but their faces had been mapped and matched to their identities in less than a second.

Michael revealed a single pouch of 18 crystals with various hues.

These crystals consisted of 3 dune weresharks, 8 scoundrel djinn, and 7 golden poison wolves.

'Take all of the crystals I have in my inventory out.'

He made this demand with his right hand open and ready. Just as he wished, the 9 crystals revealed themselves from the collection of blue light, and he placed them on the tray for the workers to analyse also.

"12 scoundrel djinn crystals, each worth a point. 11 golden poison wolf crystals, each worth a point. 4 dune wereshark crystals, each worth 2 points. Total: 31 points." One helper announced to them, before seamlessly and monotonously moving onto the team that was behind them in the queue.

Entering the system provided by their school, they soon found out that they were merely 3 places from last place out of more than 30 teams.

"How did we place so low? We devastated those weresharks at the end!" Luciano said, surprised.

Alonso felt the same way, but he was currently thinking of something else. His system allowed him to keep crystals within his inventory, and immediately sell them on the MechMod Market.

He currently had an idea on his mind. What if he snuck his way out of the military station and spent his time taking down beasts, immediately placing their crystals on the market?

He could make significant amounts of money in almost no time, but the main thing that prevented him from just doing this was the suspicions. It would look incredibly suspicious for a sole seller to be selling crystals for alarmingly low prices.

Most crystal providers that managed to sell them for low prices were organisations that were using the advantages of size to decrease overall costs. He was just on his own, and users could see the sellers of items so if they saw his username for all of the cheapest crystals on the market, it would be fishy.

'It can't hurt if I do it for just a while, right? I could rack up more than 10,000 credits doing this!'

"Where did you get those crystals from?" Luciano asked, with an inquisitive look.

"I just hid it under my mech in places. The crystals aren't that big." Alonso fibbed, tapping on his mech.

Luciano raised his eyebrow, since his mech wasn't of the bruiser-type and wasn't clunky. However, he didn't think much of it and all mechs weren't totally skin-thick.

Soon enough, the students were returning to the dormitory. They were met by hot, delectable meals in the canteen, but Alonso was not finished.

As the area darkened, the lighting of the military station's streets started to become less illuminated. The crystal counting station remained active as other soldiers would also be tasked with harvesting crystals.

This was an active task that was happening across pretty much all pocket realms, even if they had harsh terrains or not.

Activating his helmet, he was surprised to see that the temperature of the desert had already dropped below freezing. It was now steadily approaching a cripplingly cold temperature and his mech would have to work the other way.

Since mechs generated considerable amounts of heat when active, this wasn't much of an issue.

There were some soldiers still on the outskirts of the station and they continued to patrol the streets, but they looked unbothered by his venture out into the desert. The lighting was too poor for security systems to work properly, and the other soldiers didn't know that he was a student entering the desert.

The dunes had a totally different appearance under the dark night sky. The city of Acnei glowed with its golden lanterns and lights, and the starlight gleamed over the large city's golden towers.

Alonso ran across the dunes and continued to reach further and further from both settlements. He had already crossed miles in mere minutes, and he was met by a horde of scoundrel djinn.

Their hypnotisation was only effective when they were in groups, so he decided to slaughter them as quickly as possible. Single attacks were enough to kill these beasts, and he decapitated the final one with his heat slash.

'Open stats and mech details.'

[User: Alonso Del Valle]

[User Level: 3]

[XP: 0/300]

[XP Boosts: 1]

[Mech Level: 2]

[Skills] [expand]

[Traits] [expand]

[Mech Details] [expand]

[Type: N/A]

[Strength: 3]

[Speed: 2]

[Amorphousness: 2]

[Durability: 3]

[Power: 47%]

[Efficiency: 28%]

[Damage Status: None]

[Temperature: 39°C]

[Modules] [expand]

There wasn't much of his power left and he could tell that his mech was already moving past its battery source and supplying itself from his fat stores too.

He wasn't bothered -since it was a simple way to make him more lean- but he had to be more selective when using his skills. His energy shield required relatively low energy, but his heat slash required vast amounts of energy for the time that it was being used for.

With 6 scoundrel djinn crystals within his palm, he was quick to enter the MechMod Market. Luckily, there was a market connection between the main universe and this pocket realm. This meant that one-day inter-realm delivery was a possibility and so, he'd have a larger supply of buyers to sell to.

Voop!

The crystals disappeared after he listed them on the market for a simple 30 credits.

Acquiring 150 credits, Alonso quickly moved on to find new targets.

3 golden poison wolves charged at him as he slid down a dune, but he utilised his heat slash to make quick work of them. In one slash, he killed two of the wolves and as the final one leaped to deal a deadly bite, he savagely stabbed it right in its neck.

The crystals of the golden poison wolf went for slightly higher, as they could make stronger mechs. Selling them for 40 credits, they vanished from his palm and the money was added to his account with immediate effect.

He continued eliminating any threats that he had found, and was lucky to have only been attacked by weak beasts that he had seen before. The money he acquired quickly rose past 1,000 credits, and he continued on his hunt with an insatiable desire for more.

*critter*

*critter*

Alonso became alert from the quick, sudden steps of something behind him. He wondered what it was, only to turn to see a scorpion-like beast of colossal size. At 6'4, it stood up on its hind legs, with large pincers, glowing green eyes, and a large sting.

Its flesh was of an orangey-brown colour, resembling the mud of Earth

ZOOM!

In an instant, the beast was already speedily charging in his direction.