Edge of the forest of Vannimei, close to the city of Leceron.

It didn’t take too long to reach the “main road”, though I was tired when I exited the forest and fully welcomed the flat earth underneath my boots.

Endoskeleton AUX power boosts empty, recharging: 1.9%

I looked left and right, seeing the wide dirt path stretching into the horizon on both ways.

Roads usually represent a civilization’s progress, I frowned. It is still a decently wide path though, and seems to be clean and maintained, so I heeded Citadel’s directions and chose the left side of the path, continuing onward.

After walking for a while (A small display on the edge of my vision said that 15 minutes passed), my sharp ears heard the sound of a carriage behind me.

Clack clack clack clack…

Unconcerned, I kept on walking, until the carriage was right beside me. I took a small glance, and the carriage seemed decent at first glance. It's not luxurious or anything, but it has a door and a wooden exterior, with a few pieces of luggage on top of the roof.

“Olleh ym gnuoy ydal! Tahw sgnirb uoy ot siht ecalp yadot?” The coachman waved, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying at all, so I kept silent.

“Gnuoy ssim? Era uoy yhgirla?” The coachman tilted his head. He seemed to want to talk to me, but since I couldn’t understand him yet, I couldn’t really answer whatever he was asking.

Clouds suddenly blocked out the bright noon sun, as the ground descended into darkness. Crackles of lightning escaped through the clouds, splitting trees nearby apart, and catching them on fire.

The coachman suddenly looked nervous, as he gestured for me to go into his carriage repeatedly. “Kciuq, teg ni! PSSSHHHHT it's dangerous outside here right now, I suggest you get into my carriage, we have adventurers onboard that can protect us!”

[You have learned a new language: Magera standard tongue]

I somewhat understood his intentions, so I heeded his advice and opened the door of the carriage, hopping into the passenger room.

“Huh, who are you? Why are you so short and skinny?” Asked a man dressed from head to toe in armor. The two other passengers, also dressed in other weird attires, looked at me with interest as well.

“What in the world… Why are you dressed up as a knight?” I asked, bamboozled by the weird armor costume.

“We are adventurers, we take contracts, hunt down monsters, and earn big!” The man boomed. I don’t think he is joking about what he does, and mentions of the word “monster” made me uneasy.

“You say you hunt monsters, but what are they?” I asked.

“Hahaha! You don’t know what a monster is? You should go back to school and relearn your basics, because I crush them every day!” He laughed, failing to answer my question, as his voice bounced off the walls.

This is pissing me off, “You ought to learn some manners, you barbarian.” I said, trying to soothe my anger.

Mr armored gorilla’s face froze, his eyes almost completely bulging out when he heard that, but the cloaked man beside him laughed before anything else could have happened. His eyes snapped towards the man with the green cloak.

“Jandel, don’t freckin’ laugh. This brat here doesn’t know that I can stop a rock lion right in its tracks!”

“Bronsted, they’re called living grotesques. Improve your manners in front of young ladies please.”

“Right, a grotesque lion.”

“Are you even listening to me anymore?” The cloaked man sighed.

As I sat on the seat, pouting, a woman wearing a robe and an oversized witch hat, patted me on the head. “Don’t worry about them,” she said. “They are just somewhat direct with how they express their feelings.”

“But they called me a brat when I’m twenty-two years old.”

The robed woman’s face looks shocked.

“Ah, uh- erhhh, sorry for touching your head, ahem. Your face just looks… um, very young.”

I contemplated whether I should just wear a mask to avoid misunderstandings like this. Although my friends from Earth completed their college degrees, my school was destroyed in a drone bombing run before I completed middle school, so I can sound naive sometimes.

Doesn’t justify them mistaking me for a child though. Running from death machines just makes you more malnourished.

Before the conversation could get any more awkward, it was interrupted by a series of howls.

The carriage stopped.

“Monster attack incoming! Protect the carriage! !” Yelled the coachman.

“On it, sir.” The cloaked man, Jandel, grabbed his bow and slung a quiver full of arrows onto his back, then hopped off the carriage.

“It's payday!!” Shouted Bronsted, as he held up a rectangular shield camouflaged on the wall of the carriage, then he too, hopped off the carriage.

The robed woman, however, stayed behind and looked at me.

“Before I go and help my friends, what is your name?” The robed woman asked.

“ Nina,” I replied.

“Well Nina, my name is Melissa, nice to meet you.” She smiled, and using her glowing wooden staff, FLEW out of the carriage.

Hostile intentions detected, enemy group numbers high.

The dull voice emanating from the endoskeleton’s node reiterated the obvious, as I peeked out from the open carriage door. Yellow glowing dots shined in the distance down the road, as they get closer and closer.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

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“[Shield Projection]!” Melissa pointed her staff toward the direction of Jandel and Bronsted, as a colorless, translucent forcefield covered them.

“Thanks, Mel!” Jandel yelled, as he pulled out an arrow from his quiver and nocked it. Bronsted pointed towards the multiple pairs of yellow glowing eyes in front of them. “Thunderwolves!” He reported immediately.

Jandel replied just as fast, “We’ve met these types of wolves before! Don’t let it zap you, do not use equipment that requires you to touch the metal parts! Destroy their lightning horns!”

“Let me aggravate them!” Shouted Bronsted, as he slammed his shield down onto the ground. “[Call of the shield]! COME AT ME!” His voice roared.

Their glowing yellow eyes were instantly attracted to him, as the darkness parted to reveal a large pack of wolves with a horn on their heads. The horns sparkled and crackled with yellow lightning.

“Attack them while they’re distracted!” Yelled Bronsted.

Jandel released his arrow, and they zipped through the air, landing a precise shot in the leading wolf’s eye.

“Awooool!!” The alpha wolf cried, as its remaining yellow eye sparkled with lightning of rage. The pack of thunderwolves charged towards them.

“Here they come!” Bronsted declared and got knocked backward from the sudden bursts of lightning that slammed into the shield.

“Draw in the mana, and make a sphere: [Mana compress].” Melissa chanted, and a gigantic ball of white formed in front of her staff.

“[Multi-blast].” She ordered, and the white ball shot out white beams, causing multiple small explosions on the ground. Many thunderwolves were blasted into little bits from the ruthless bombardment.

“I’m out of mana, I’ll be taking a short break in the sky.” She declared.

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The Alpha wolf furiously watched, as each of its brethren fell one by one.

It seethed in fury and blasted out dangerous lightning bolts through its horns. However, the armored human wall kept blocking its attack, while arrows rained from behind the man and right into the middle of its pack.

Thunder crackled, and lightning flashed across the sky. It was a side-effect of their pack’s presence.

Wait, that's right. It remembered the artifact it had found. It helped secure a victory last time. Perhaps it would help again, although its price is also very great. It took weeks for him to recover.

The alpha barked orders at one of its mates, and it acknowledged the command, sprinting off to find the artifact.

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“This is getting a little boring,” yawned Bronsted, as the thunderwolves stopped throwing themselves in front of his shield, deflecting them with his [Shield Knockback] skill and crushing them with a slam while they were disoriented. Now they stood far away, dodging the rain of arrows sent by Jandel and only occasionally shooting out a small bolt of lightning, which Bronsted easily blocked.

“Where did the wolf go?” Jandel asked Bronsted. “Why would I know?? I’m just mushing up whatever wolf that got close!” He replied as he used his [Shield Knockback] once more, sending a thunderwolf flying into a tree.

“ROAARRR!!” The alpha wolf appeared again in their sight.

The deafening sound shook both Bronsted and Jamel to their core. The alpha emerged tall and proud as if it were undefeatable. This deviated from the usual habits of the wolves.

“So here you are, you little shit. Where did you sneak off to?” Jandel grinned, as he pulled back his arrow, aiming for the alpha thunderwolf.

“Is that a metal rod in its mouth?” Bronsted said.

The thunderwolf did not waver, and stared at the arrow pointed at him. Jandel frowned at the sight but released his arrow anyway.

Crack! Boom!

The arrow shot right into the alpha’s face. But before it could penetrate, a ball of lightning engulfed it, turning the arrow into ashes.

The alpha thunderwolf, body glowing with electricity, stood perfectly fine. Its eye has regrown, and its fur glows bright yellow.

“Charged thunderwolf?! Man, these types are strong..” Jandel groaned.

“I’ll prepare a concentrated blast, just wait for a moment.” Said Melissa, as she started chanting with her staff.

Crack! Crack! Boom!

The wolf glowed brighter and larger.

Crack! Boom!

It emitted an aura of yellow electricity.

Crack!

It looks just like a monster from the myths! “Impossible…” Jandel whispered.

Melissa stopped chanting, as her confusion turned into horror.

The beast absorbed several more lightning blasts, becoming a glowing beacon of light. It has also increased its size and now stands at the height of a tree.

The golden alpha thunderwolf threw the rod to the side. “Grrr…” It looked at them proudly, as if knowing that nothing could defeat it.

“...and let the mana release! [Concentrated blast]!” Melissa shouted, and a ball of light slammed into the gigantic beast.

The concentrated blast of Mana hit square into the shining coat of the wolf and dispersed into small glowing balls of light. The body of the alpha was left untouched, leaving behind no injuries, not even a scratch.

“Um, we might need to run,” Jandel commented as he took a step back. “Uh oh,” Bronsted whispered, peeking from behind his shield.

The alpha thunderwolf opened its mouth, pulses of lightning escaping into the air in bright sparks of electricity.

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The leading wolf looked especially dangerous, as it appeared from the pack of horned wolves shooting out lightning bolts from their horns.

Warning: Direct lightning strikes may cause damage to the integrated nanites.

Ignoring the alert from my nodes, I hopped out of the carriage.

“Get back into the carriage! It's not safe out there!” The coachman yelled, as he desperately controlled his horses to not succumb to fear and run away.

“Don’t worry about me! I’m just checking on them!!” I replied as I ran towards the battle scene.

This is bad. A lightning had struck it and it started glowing yellow.

Followed by another lightning strike

And another.

Oh my world, it’s huge now.

Is that a lightning rod in its jaws? It definitely used the rod to power itself with lightning. That thing looks smart, but what is a lightning rod doing all the way here in the forest? Even if the civilization’s advancement

Warning: Area positively charged. Possible incoming electrical projectiles.

Countermeasure: Launch x1 shock-absorption tanking harpoon towards source.

The beast roared, as its mouth opened, revealing a bright pulse of electricity within.

I have to do something, but I don’t think punching a beast made of lightning is a good idea. How do I make this “shock-absorption tanking harpoon”?

The three “adventurers”, as they called themselves, started to retreat towards me, with Melissa flying down onto the ground, her staff no longer glowing, sprinting towards me in a panic.

The basic algorithms in my nodes answered my desperately needed question, showing me a photo of the weapon and its history as well as a blueprint, and I understand it all now. It was once used as a penetration weapon for forcefields, and now I am going to use it to stop this rampaging monster in front of me.

I willed the nanites to come out from my body, manifesting in the skill [Nanite Control]. They gathered into a sleek, grey harpoon in my right hand.

It needs to be launched through a specialized firing tube. I stared at the harpoon. The blueprints told me that it needed to reach a certain velocity to activate its energy dispersion field, which is what allowed it to break the experimental forcefields in the first corporate war, which was powered with electricity. How do I shoot this thing without a barrel??

Directive: Use maximum motor output and launch the harpoon.

Motor output?

Explanation: Throw the harpoon as hard as you can.

I hesitated, can I really throw that hard?

A ball of lightning crackled brightly in front of the shining wolf’s mouth. It glowed bigger and brighter, about to be released from its constraints.

No time to worry about the trivial.

I threw the harpoon with all of my might.