“I meant short term quests,” I muttered not knowing what else to say.

[Oh…] Glim bobbed. [Yeah, those are a thing too! Here have some!]

I received three more quests.

[Nest Destroyer (Uncommon E): Nests plague the land. Clear them all! Reward: 1,500 Prime Currency. Condition: Clear five nests. (0/5).

[Primal Bounty Hunter (Rare D): In the old days, this was how it was done! Reward: Knowledge Hint, 2,000 Prime Currency. Condition: Take down five Guardian class monsters (0/5)]

[Hunter (Uncommon E): Monsters plague the wild. Reward: 50 Prime Currency. Condition: Kill monsters. (0/5) (Auto-repeatable).]

A quick scan and all I got was kill to get rewards, which were just normal within the context of The System. Though a lot of things were abnormal within it as well. The System was weird after all. I sighed, there was no point in lingering on it for too long. That said, it was getting a bit annoying, so many things were askew, now. The Championship contract was a great example, then there was the small feat from the shards of ambition. Seriously, what was that?

Glim coughed. [Allow me to reiterate, things such as I, a SGA, or other features such as Champions, and Feats to some extent were not always a thing. The System might be nearly omnipotent and omnipresent, but in the end…] Glim buzzed. [Well, you get the idea, there is a reason why most Feats have quotes and some say plain unknown. Hm… I am definitely talking too much, but my point is that it’s been twisted, your mind has been twisted that is!] It awkwardly laughed.

I shook my head. Things weren’t good to say the least. Though I guess it also made sense why the Champions feat mentioned the word champions or the DeathShot feat mentioned the word useless feats. In the end, perhaps they weren’t original to The System. Glim had sort of said it after all…

“Impossibility. Under the rule of the Implementation Number 21 ⁠— Champions.” Perhaps they were just Implementations. I opened my mouth and Glim trembled.

[Do not, ask me about Implementations! But I can try to say that, indeed! Life is great!]

And, That kind of confirmed it. Would I be able to make my own implementations in the future? I did not know. It was unlikely, but at the very least I sort of understood a lot of the issues that plagued The System, if they could even be called that. It seemed a bit ridiculous that one could just have some sort of influence over The System, then again Elasia spoke about Continental Challenges being enabled as if it was the decision of someone⁠— well, considering The System spoke of interference… A sigh left me.

For now there were other things I had to deal with, or rather experiment. That was better wording. Still inside the bedroom I opened the Settlement configuration and immediately selected Construction. I saw only two entries.

[Construction:

[Shop Terminal (Basic Furniture) ⁠— The universal shop, it connects to other universal shop terminals to create a universe wide market. Cost: 1,000.]

[Crystal Terminal (Basic Furniture) ⁠— A terminal to modify Mana Crystals and imbue them with attunements of mana. Cost: 1,000.]

I stared briefly, I had 1,100 Prime Currency, which⁠— well I didn’t know what it was exactly other than a unit of money. What did it look like? I had no idea. I only had two options, so it seemed like a no brainer to choose the Shop Terminal. I didn’t have a reason to imbue mana crystals at the moment. I didn’t even know what the point of imbuing them was. I selected the entry in my mind and soon The System projected an apparition of mana, it was a rectangular box considerably taller than me. As I moved my vision I saw it overlay on top of things, sometimes it would sort of tilt and break depending on where it was placed. Standing up, I moved it to the side of the bed and finally to a corner, where it seemed to place itself rather neatly. I inwardly agreed to place it there, and a notification came.

[Construction: -1,000 Prime.]

With a bright flash that didn’t allow me to see, I heard a weird buzz and once my vision returned, it was there. A square box that I could barely hug, it was made of some sort of black rock, and at the center aside from a gaping hole towards the bottom, it also had a white mana crystal with yellow veins on the center. Somehow, my mind just told me to put my mana on it. A quick inspection and⁠—

[Shop Terminal (Basic Furniture)]

Well that wasn’t particularly useful. The rock itself of the structure seemed to occasionally pulsate with mana as well, it was almost incorporeal like a sort of mist that always surrounded it, but in very low quantities. Now my room had a big menacing box on the faraway corner, tucked in next to other things such as a table. I was planning on hiding all the photos of the human and probably their belongings too, it felt off to live in a place that I hadn’t turned my own, that said; I wanted to try using the Shop Terminal first. I took a step forward and reached with my arm, my hand loomed over the crystal and my ears; twitched, a horrible screech resounded and buzzed on my mind. My hand stopped mid air as it continued, it was like a grinding that came and went.

A frown instantly formed on my face, my ears constantly moved with small spasms. It was a horrid sound.

[Your settlement is under attack! Barrier capacity: 93%]

There was another screech along with the notification and the capacity dropped by another 7% all the way 86%. I grabbed my bow with a mix of annoyance and wariness, it was all new to me. I slowly peeked past the doorway towards the broken glass window, but I saw nothing there, my eyes instantly turned towards the gaping hole on the wall, and next to it there was a door that I had missed ⁠— probably the entrance ⁠— as I approached closer the sounds got much clearer and less distorted, considerably closer. It didn’t take long before I peered past the gaping hole. The first thing my eyes landed on were three monsters, they were gnawing and scraping against the thin barrier, and to make it worse it was now at 65%.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

[Bloodfang. Lvl. 25]

[Bloodfang. Lvl. 27]

[Bloodfang. Lvl. 26]

I grabbed my bow and nocked a Wisteria arrow, my mana was definitely full, I pushed it towards the arrow and turned it into a burrowing shot, then with an enhanced string I pulled while aiming. Flicking and firing, the arrow streaked and went right through the barrier and pierced into the head of a Bloodfang. It squealed as it rolled on the ground, the detached and lingering mana drilled through its insides as I commanded.

Bloom.

Its insides burst as vines crawled and tore through its flesh, one of the Bloodfangs jumped away and the other had its legs caught by the thorns. I grabbed and nocked another arrow, this time it was different. Lyco Puff⁠— Overcharged and ready to go, I fired towards the Bloodfang that had jumped away, its fur was beginning to turn red and its eyes glowed. It tried to hop away, but at that moment, the arrow exploded in front of it. And that wasn’t all, with the lingering mana, I commanded the spores to bloom, and once more. It exploded.

A verdant cloud of green death enveloped all three of the Bloodfangs.

[You have killed: (E) Bloodfang. Lvl. 25]

Soon one died, and the one that had its legs caught began to cough and thrash around. Its wound began to profusely bleed, but it didn’t matter as it shrieked and gnawed against the vine. I frowned as I grabbed another arrow, and then a thought came into my mind as I looked into my mana⁠— I didn’t need to be so careful.

I grabbed two arrows and simultaneously nocked both before deciding to target the Bloodfang that was caught in the explosion of spores. I pushed mana and both became explosive shots, it stared at me seemingly waiting for it, but it didn’t matter. I simply fired, slightly adjusting for my prediction. The two arrows streaked through the air like green lightning bolts, the Bloodfang hopped but it was too late, one after the other they hit under its legs with a verdant explosion of death.

The monster flew to the side with billowing smoke and cries of anguish, blood streaked through the air raining with little drizzles. And finally, with a rip, the Bloodfang cried as it lost a large chunk of fur and the vine was torn. It limped as it snarled, its fur turned a crimson red as mist of nothing but blood enveloped it. Its eyes stared at me with hatred but I simply shook my head. It was simply one-sided. The other Bloodfang entered my vision as it crawled towards its companion with weak howls and cries, its two back legs had become nothing but bloodied stumps. Its fur was a pale red and even though it was moving at an impressive pace it was still in no position to run. And then, I saw it⁠— indecision. The one that had three functioning legs glanced for a brief second as if making a decision.

The monsters had surprising intelligence, a sense of family maybe, but the realization did not change my decision as I pulled three more arrows from my storage. In the end whether it had a sense of self or not, too much indecision and I was the one to end up dead. I pulled all three arrows, all of them full of poisonous spores from Lyco Puffs, and fired.

The Bloodfang jumped towards a bush next to the one without legs, and the arrows hit the ground and exploded into a deathly cloud of spores. At that moment, it flicked its head and a shadow passed by me and landed slightly away from the cloud. I grabbed two more arrows, the last ones of the Treant quiver and imbued them with mana, to the brim for a fantastic explosion. The Bloodfangs seemed to be trying to throw up as the pain became too much for them, in the end they were unable to do anything as the two flashes of green hit them. WIth a verdant explosion two more notifications came.

[You have killed: (E) Bloodfang. Lvl. 26]

[You have killed: (E) Bloodfang. Lvl. 27]

And then, there was silence. I snorted as my eyes wandered to the shadow that had been thrown, and then I paused. It was small and sitting down looking towards the now dead Bloodfangs, one of them was missing half of its body, being nothing but two hind legs and half a torso. And the other one was missing its entire torso and its body had been split, a chunk of it had flown far away but its head remained. It shrieked with untold pain.

[Bloodfang Cub. Lvl. 9]

I winced as I cursed to myself. I grabbed another arrow with annoyance and a hint of regret, doing mental gymnastics in the process. Memories flooded my mind as my eyes got slightly moist. Fuck, fuck⁠— inwardly cursing did nothing as my aim shaked, but with my utmost effort I forced myself to nock an arrow and pull the enhanced string, even though now it felt as if it weighed the whole world. Finally, lining it up with the sights, I saw visions of the fire and heard the horns of war.

I fired. As my feelings almost exploded within me. The arrow streaked through the air and impaled the cub, ending its life and its misery all at once. And then, there was silence as I breathed. My chest heaved up and down feeling as if I had just thrown up or been drained out of all my mana.

[You have killed: (E) Bloodfang Cub. Lvl. 9]

[Level up: You have achieved level 27. Prophecy Bonus: +1 WIS +1 VIT]

I had leveled up fast, it was due to The Illusionist’s contract, though I wasn’t particularly happy, if anything I suddenly felt depressed and at best solemn. I felt as if I had committed the atrocity of my life even though it was also a monster. I sighed as I turned and headed back into the barrier⁠—into the settlement.

[Attack has ended. Barrier will begin auto-repair, estimated time to regenerate: 3h 30m.]

It auto-repaired? I thought it was kind of nice as I headed to the bedroom, not really wanting to do anything anymore. My mental state was in simple terms, messy and unstable. I already knew it, and I constantly tried to suppress it, but seeing the cub cry made it painful. I hurt. My heart just ached, I felt a void. Somehow I just felt⁠— I felt the need to be… hugged? I didn’t know, I just felt lonely.

I lay in bed, letting its warmth fill my limbs, finding some sort of weird comfort in it. It was nice and relaxing. The bow laid next to me with its nature-like feel which made me feel slightly closer to things. I barely remembered much of the elven land, or of the Deep Dark. It was almost at the forefront of my mind, certain things and plants, certain things. But I didn’t want to remember clearly, nor did I want to forget. In a way I just felt stuck.

I missed things, but not all the things. A sigh left me as I closed my eyes.

In the end, I was still uncertain and unsure of things. I just wanted to sleep away and somehow forget my thoughts, not the things that had happened, just… not think about it. I wanted to run away from it.

In the end, I was still just… in pain… Why⁠—

[Your settlement is under attack! Barrier capacity: 58%! Reaching Critical Levels!]

My eyes shot open as my mood took a complete nose-dive into nothing but pure anger. I gritted my teeth as I reached for my bow. I was going to kill all of them.