Chapter 103
Lykan
Genocide
The goal given either directly or indirectly from the Gods was appalling, yet Lykan full understood and accepted the task before him. The alternative would be to let a cancer take root in our world. This revelation alone was enough for Lykan. Over time the steps placed before him, from his life, his upbringing, to the events of his life all led him to this moment. He knew his current and future tasks.
His current task was simple, find the apex predators first and kill them before they could escape. Then kill off every other species in this facility. From there he would need to leave and find the next Titan facility to shut down. What was worse, he already knew of another. A chill ran down his spine as he realized the next known active Titan facility was one that he was well acquainted with. The only problem was that it was currently inhabited, in habited by high wood elves.
Suddenly many of the stories of the past made sense. The first story that came to mind was how all the most powerful high wood elves would explore the lands, knowing what he now knew Lykan felt this was due to their trying to find more Titan facilities hidden deep within the ground. The second was a more chilling aspect of the Gods and why they likely cursed the high wood elves to start the fall. Lykan had two main ideas as to what could have caused the great fall of the high wood elves, the most advanced race on the planet at the time of their collapse. The first was they refused to shut down their home, thus earning the ire of the gods. The second and likely more troubling was that they tried to delve deeper into the arts of Qi and learn to use that as a weapon. A chill ran down Lykan’s spine as he thought of the second option as he knew he would likely need to get a lot stronger in Qi manipulation if he wished to stand a chance against the Titans. In the end Lykan hoped it was the latter that caused the ire of the gods, the refusal to shut down their home. That or maybe they wished to open more as training facilities around the world. The understanding was simple, one was tolerable, two was too many.
All these thoughts flashed through Lykan’s mind as he tracked down and struck at the colossal wyrms that all tried to escape their pens that had held them tight for so long. Lykan wondered what manner of safety was used to prevent the giant creatures from leaving for all these centuries. Was it some passive resonance rune that caused them to stay below a certain point and the shutting down of the facility released the rune’s hold over them?
There were so many thoughts that raced through Lykan’s mind that he didn’t know where to begin. Fortunately, all the doors and hallways seemed to have been designed with the idea of keeping the Colossal wyrms back, as he found that all were stuck. Or at the very least only able to work their skulls free of the doorway, before their larger than expected body got caught in the door frame. This made hunting and taking care of the colossal wyrms rather easy, if repetitive. He would fly over drop down and rain down [Searing Fist] strikes over and over on the beast until he managed to work his way into the cerebral cortex of the beasts and cut away brain material. He would strike until he got the familiar blessing noting him of his success, before continuing to the next one.
Blessing Bestowed: Colossal Wyrm Slayer
Colossal Wyrm Slayer (Legendary): You managed to slay one of the eight legendary colossal wyrms. Reward: All Attributes increased by +3. Note: This blessing can be received multiple times.
After the third such wyrm Lykan’s Unarmed Mastery and Qi Infusion went up another level again.
Skill Name Base Plus Increase Rating (4) Unarmed Mastery Expert + (Unknown) Sage (4) Qi Infusion Expert + (Unknown) Sage
Then by the time he killed the eighth and final Colossal Wyrm in such a way his Unarmed Mastery went up to the last and final stage, which as always, generated two new skills.
Skill Name Base Plus Increase Rating (4) Unarmed Mastery Sage + (Unknown) (Maximum) (5) Bo-Staff Mastery Novice (5) Anatomy Mastery Novice
(4) Unarmed Mastery: Sage -> (Maximum)
(5) Bo-Staff Mastery: Novice
(5) Anatomy Mastery: Novice
The two new skills made sense and at the same time caused a hint of confusion to form in Lykan’s mind. Looking back on his skills and their progressions, he realized that each new set of skills were designed to help him out in the future the gods had in store for him. With that in mind, why didn’t his Qi Infusion also increase?
Lykan thought for a moment, then realized the likely true cause for his Qi Infusion to be stopped at one step away from the Mastery or Maximum level, there were still more monsters at the heart of the Fresh Water Biome.
With his mental mapping skill in place Lykan could tell that the entire facility seemed to be a giant circular area, with the eight colossal wyrms in place at equal distances around the biome. Lykan realized the wyrms were likely kept in place to both keep the monsters in the biome in check from getting to an uncontrollable state, and to prevent any future breakouts by the creatures, like the dragons must have done so many thousands of years ago.
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Lykan had grown and done so much since he first entered this facility. He understood Qi control and manipulation to a much greater detail, there was still more for him to learn, but he realized a lot of his learning would have to come through practice. His Attributes had all increased by sixteen total. He realized he was now nearing the fifty-point threshold for Attributes, a limit that only the gods were somehow able to surpass. With the fifty-point threshold he would begin to near the ability to reach the fifth echelon of evolution, the final stage of evolution a human could have. Only the Gods managed to make it to the seventh echelon and above, the true realm of the Gods.
For his part Lykan was content with just being at the third echelon, he had far too much power for a single person, especially with the fact that he could now wield, albeit in minor portions three different forms of magic: Psychic, Mana, and Qi.
Still with all his advantages and knowing the threat of possibly leaving any of the creatures here alive caused fear to rise in Lykan. He remembered the drowning feeling he had when the tentacled shark creature dragged him and nearly pulled him under to his death. On land he had no doubt that he could take on such a creature, but in the water, where that creature was clearly an apex monster Lykan couldn’t help but feel worried. Still, he needed this, he needed to face his past failures and mistakes.
Taking a deep breath he went to the first observation deck, the one where the monster fell, giving Lykan the chance to kill it mercilessly. The reason he chose this entry point was simple, all the others had a giant colossal wyrm corpse blocking the doorway. This was a handy safety feature, and one that Lykan thought was also intentional on the part of the Titan’s. Should they lose power, the wyrms acting as shield would prevent the other monsters from escaping. Thus, mitigations could be put into place. Now Lykan saw this for the true brilliance that it was. The Titan’s had created a fool proof way to prevent a full escape of the monsters in their biome. The true brilliance of the layout and the likely planning of this biome was not lost on Lykan. Also, Lykan realized that with so many fail-safes in place the meticulous nature of the layout spoke volumes to how many other planets the Titans had likely sent similar deployments to. With that thought, a chill ran down Lykan’s mind.
That chill was also what caused Lykan to jump down one more time. This time he would make sure to kill every single creature from this biome, before breaking the runes that lay scattered about the place.
With Lykan’s Mental Mapping, Qi Sight, and Perfect Recall, Lykan was easily able to find and plot out courses to strike at every monster on the islands. The monsters on the islands themselves were not much of a problem as most looked to have at one time been far greater than their current states. But whether it was the fact that all the biggest and strongest land creatures would invariably get curious and seek ways to escape, thus causing them to venture into the realm of the colossal wyrms. Then there was also the fact that most of the land creatures seemed to be a favored target for the multiple tentacle creatures of the water, forcing the smarter land creatures to remain inland and only going out to the waters to get precious drinks of water from trusted sites.
As for the aviary portion those monsters were also easy to take care of, as most had been hunted to seeming extinction by the aggressive flock of bird-like creatures that Lykan fought when he first arrived. In the end the land animals were hunted from all sides, and any who attempted to escape or get too reckless were likely cut down by the superior predators that surrounded them.
[Burning Heel Strike]
A variant of the burning punch Lykan created was the final act Lykan needed to push his understanding of Qi Infusion to the Maximum.
Skill Name Base Plus Increase Ratig (4) Qi Infusion (Maximum) (5) Toxicology Mastery Novice (5) Pharmacy Mastery Novice
Seeing the two new skills Lykan once again wondered what the Gods had planned for him. Toxicology Mastery sort of made sense, as it likely had to deal with his new mission of either preventing the world from being completely Terraformed, or if that was inevitable stopping the final transmission to the Titan’s who would then come to conquer the planet. At that thought Lykan had a grim image of humans being forced to live in one of these biomes with no chance of escape available. Imagining that future, and the feeling of dread that would befall the entire planet, not just humans, but elves, orcs, and even dragons. By this point Lykan wondered if the dragons remembered their origins, or if they were, like most of the planet, unaware of the threat Titans posed?
That thought went through his mind but was quickly dismissed. For at this moment, he had but one course of action available to him. One course of action that he would help prevent the complete subjugation of the planet, if only for a few more years.
With that thought in mind he took one step forward, then another. Each step getting his bare feet to press against the golden sand that was not quite scorching, even though it was under direct rays of ambient Qi generated lights. Even now Lykan could see the profound effect that shutting down the facility had on this biome, as the level of Qi available was slowly dwindling. The chunks of Qi flakes that fell were smaller and smaller as the runes that collected the ambient Qi were no longer powerful enough to hold the flakes in place until they could create a full one. The cycling of Qi in this biome was over, with the birds and land animals gone Lykan was certain the creatures of the water would soon perish too. But he knew he had to be certain, just one alien species to a new biome could cause catastrophic changes. He had read about this, when explorers introduced by accident spiral-wood snakes to an area that had no natural predator to stop the spiral-wood snakes. Within a few generations the spiral-wood snakes were out of control. Efforts were made to stop the spiral-wood snakes, but they were too late, as the spiral-wood snake had taken root in the fertile region. After their integration, the lush lands of Abredovia became known as the Beast Lands, due to all the different beasts that were introduced to counteract the explosive population of the spiral-wood snakes. There were other examples throughout history as well, even the dragons, a non-native species of the great jungle basin has now made that area their home. With so many examples Lykan steeled himself and took another step forward, until his ankles felt the gentle caress of calm blue waves lapping up against him.
He took another step, and then another, until he was knee-deep into the water. Each step caused his feet to sink deep into the soft sand. Each step also hid the tell-tale movement of a giant tentacle moving in the sand. A tentacle that was even now wrapping its way around and behind Lykan. Had it not been for Lykan’s improved senses for detecting Qi, Lykan likely would have been oblivious to the movement.
As it was, Lykan was the bait of a carefully laid out trap. A trap designed to catch the shark-topus off guard. A trap that worked well, a little too well.
Ripple.
A slight ripple of a wave was the only sign of movement given by the apex predator of the deep. Had Lykan been a normal creature of the lands he likely wouldn’t have noticed. As it was, Lykan was aware and prepared for what happened. This time Lykan took in a deep breath and held it, not wanting to be caught with the immediate sensation of drowning like last time.
Snap.
A sharply barbed tentacle wrapped itself around Lykan’s leg, instantly releasing deep spikes that plunged deep into Lykan’s leg. Despite being prepared for it, the pain was still almost enough to cause Lykan to cry out in pain. Fortunately for Lykan and the precious air he held in his lungs he held tight, focusing inward, then rather than resisting the pull of the giant tentacle Lykan gave in and let the giant tentacle rip him from his standing position on the shore and pull him deep into the clear blue waters.