Jason returned back to the metal factory and the sight that greeted him was rather interesting. He grinned seeing Hakeem and Esther taking on against a single Iron-Bristle pig. It was all alone and not without its team. Probably strayed off from its team. Jason didn’t enter the fight as he just watched by the sideline.

Hakeem was doing his role pretty well as he took all of the attacks of the pig. The tactical shield he used was at the brink destruction as the dents on its surface were becoming worse.

I should have looted the kobold’s shield.

He didn’t know at that time that Hakeem would take on the role of a tanker. Even his skill was pretty good, a lightning element based attack, smashing the ground would erupt bluish static electricity frying the enemy. Jason saw Hakeem unleashed it as the sole pig was electrocuted, it paralyzed a bit but compared to the stun-howl of the kobold, Hakeem’s Shock Smash paled in comparison.

Then his sister came into the fray attacking from the sides with her combat knives. Those knives are sharp and deadly, as Esther drew blood over the thick flesh of the pig. Her attempt in slicing the pig left a feeble flesh wound that barely bled. The cutaneous fat layer of this pig was indeed thick, the only way to truly injured it was stabbing the heck out of it.

Hakeem slammed the iron mace head at the pig’s head. The attack shook it a bit but it still did the reckless charge. Hakeem stepped to the side as he Euro Step the big fella dodging the charge by a hairbreadth.

Jason couldn’t help but be impressed by that move. A movement ability was rather precious considering its effects on how one dodge and fight in a battle. Jason didn’t have one right now and that made him think.

Should I ask him to teach me? Having a movement-type skill doesn’t sound so bad.

“Esther! Stab it! Your cuts are to shallow!” Hakeem shouted as he made a sound over his shield gaining the attention of the pig.

Esther gritted her teeth as her breath was ragged. This prolonged fight was definitely not her style. She too had the terrible notion of distributing most of her points to agility and strength. Jason did advise her to put some points to stamina but she digressed and only a few points to it.

Rather than hollering back at Hakeem, she stayed focus concentrating at the enemy in front of her.

The pig turned around as it recklessly charged at Hakeem. He blocked it and endured the heavyweight behind the charge, his right hand wasn’t idle as he kept on smashing its face with his iron mace.

“Esther!” to Hakeem’s queue, Esther leaped above the pig as she whispered.

“Metamorphosis.”

Her eyes turned slit yellow as her nails sharpened like a claw of a feline. Her incisor teeth turned sharp and pointed like the fangs of a wild beast. The baritone growl coming from her throat was like a threat for an attack.

Jason was amazed at seeing his sister’s ability. Another thing that he envied since that metamorphosis skill that she has was like turning into beast mode. He was told from her that the ability heightened her strength, stamina, and agility as well as gaining animal-like characteristics. In a way, it was a buff type of ability.

Esther who turned her beast mode on stabbed the heck out of the pig with her two combat knives. Her continuous growl was having an effect on the poor metal-eating beast. Blood spurted out from the holes of its body as it grew weaker. Hakeem didn’t remain idle as he kept on smashing his iron mace damaging the pig even further.

Soon, a heavy thud filled in the air. The pig was finally dead as Esther dropped down from its back and dropping immediately on the ground. Her ability ended as she returned to normal, she was panting for her breath as the fatigue kicked in.

Hakeem was tired but he remained calm and stayed vigilant. He had his fair share of gaming experience and with Jason’s advise he didn’t forget his stamina.

Then he turned around hearing a clapping sound. Jason emerged from underneath his invisibility.

“Don’t scare us man,” said Hakeem as he lightly smiled at this man. “is she safe?”

“She might be if she starts running,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Hakeem was surprised.

“Jason, stop crapping on us and tell the truth,” said Esther as she got on her feet with the fatigue still plastered across her face.

“She’s fine, I left her at the highway. There’s no monster there so she’s safe,” he said.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

“Good,” Hakeem as his head tilted down as Hakeem was deep in his own thought.

“You’ve never told us the whole thing,” said Hakeem.

Esther glanced at Jason as she too was hoping to hear the worst side that Jason experienced in New York City.

“Let’s do that later,” Jason said as he turned walking towards pig hoping to find some loot.

“You guys fought well but with that shield looking like that, let’s postponed your attempt in fighting alone,” said Jason as he turned back to them.

The trio scoured through the metal refinement factory as they killed off all remaining monsters. They returned to their usual formation. The iron-bristle pig isn’t a problem but at times they would stumble upon the steel-tusk boar. Jason handled the boar not letting the two joining in.

Soon, the whole premise was cleared from monsters.

Hakeem and Esther raised up to level twelve and eleven while Jason remained stagnant at his current level of twenty-one. But he didn't come out empty-handed as he obtained another loot from the last Steel-Tusk boar he killed.

Steel Dirk

Category : Dagger

Grade : Normal

Normal dirk made out of common steel. A common weapon used by the mountain lander in the kingdom surrounded by mountains, the Gunung Kingdom.

Attack : +26

He kept it for himself as he ignored the plea coming from Esther’s eyes. She was amazed seeing something coming out from a dead corpse and seeing it was a dagger she was hoping to have it but sadly this was her brother. It was his first and not hers and considering how he was the one who killed it, she had no words to refute its ownership.

They left the metal factory and jogged on the ground going through a couple of abandoned buildings. Under the night sky, they were like an ops team as they find themselves behind the huge and wide building of another metal refinement company. Their scale was completely bigger than the previous one and with that many mineral ores in deposit, there was bound to be more pigs.

Behind the company building the whole vast area was similar to two football fields and it was filled with pigs and boars roaming around while eating their fill to the hills of unattended iron ores.

“How are we going to handle this?” asked Hakeem as he could saw the strength behind their numbers.

Esther too felt worried seeing this scene. She didn’t mind fighting against one or two of them but two whole fields of them were a lot.

“Relax, I think you two can handle one or two on your own. Your levels are getting closer to them,” said Jason, but he too felt the numbers are too overwhelming.

There was a way through separating a few of them and killing them first before handling the rest but that would take too much time. He then opened up one of his skills.

Shadow Sneak

It allows you to hide in the shadow for a short time. An ambush attack will add 15% more damage. Able to bring other people into the shadow(Max:2)

Lv.3 : EP cost 1

Duration : 13 minutes

I really should pay attention to my skill description.

Jason had a habit of forgetting things and one of them was to read things carefully. He came up with a simple plan as he told these two about it.

“We can do that?” asked Hakeem.

“Stop talking and let’s start,” said Jason as he grabbed on he held on to both Hakeem and Esther by the shoulder.

Both of them felt their world changed as everything around them turned black and white. At times, they could saw shadows flickering and times they felt dizzy just by standing. Jason didn’t realize it as he didn’t feel any changes besides being invisible. It seemed they are unknown side effects for those who were brought into the Shadow Sneak.

“Run,” he said as the trio ran in unison towards the first pig.

The moment they stood right in front of the pig’s head two people emerged out of nowhere as knives and mace were hurling on the face of the pig.

“Squ-” the pig was about to squeal by the sudden ambush but then behind these two another person emerged baring the steel dirk in his hand as he muttered.

“Blood Edge Strike.”

The blade of the dirk covered in a crimson hue. It looked ominous and let out a bad vibe. The pointed edge of the dirk pierced the pig’s head right in the middle as it went in smoothly with no sound of the bone being crack. Jason pushed down the hilt of the dirk as he pierced it deeper into its brain. To end it off he twisted the blade to the side delivering the fatal blow.

The pig flopped on the ground turning lifeless as the three that ambushed it was no longer in sight. Jason activated shadow sneak bringing along these two under a perfect disguise. Two of them were dumbfounded of how easy it was to kill that pig. They looked at Jason in amazement as within their mind Jason’s set of abilities was too cheat-like.

Hakeem wanted to ask if Jason had a cheat-like ability but he restrained himself knowing that this guy probably wouldn’t let him know about such a thing.

Frankly speaking, both of them were wrong. It wasn’t because of the skill that made Jason did it look too easy but it was because of his titles. A title that neither Hakeem nor Esther had to obtain yet.

“Come on. There're a lot more pigs to slaughter,” he said as the two gulped down out of nervousness.

Meanwhile, not far from the trio’s hunting ground. Ten men were crouching while going through the empty buildings. Their black attire, as well as their high-tech military equipment, put them far better than a normal soldier. They were a squad from CANSOFCOM.

The leading man lay down on the ground as he reached the perimeter of a familiar building back area. His hand signal brought the other nine to lay beside him. One at each side maintained their sight at the side for any hostile while those who were beside them maintained their sight behind them for any incoming hostile. Those at the middle focused themselves on the task in hand.

“Fox Trot-1, what is your position,” the intercom on their squad leader rang.

“We are two klicks away from the landing position. The current situation, most of the area are swarming with UC, over.” said the squad leader.

“Good, proceed with the mission,” the call ended.

The squad leader was displeased over the lacked info about their current mission. The higher brass sent them the special force to do a recon mission with a rather vague objective.

Aid the Awaken and retrieve unknown artifacts appraise by her.

The squad leader glanced at the only Awaken in this squad. A new recruit from just a week ago, the woman barely had training but those up in the ladder told him it was necessary to bring her along. He wanted to refuse to have an untrained individual in a mission, and unlike the armed force who didn’t mind putting these Awaken into action, the special force was still skeptical about it.

“Captain, you’ve got to see this,” the man beside the squad leader passed over the binoculars.

The squad leader didn’t question the man and grabbed on to it. He believed in his comrade and everything had a reason.

“Look there at the herd, something is happening,” he said while pointing at the iron-bristle pigs on the field.

The squad leader looked through the binoculars and saw those gigantic pigs laid dead on the ground. He never saw these UC dead, those monsters can’t be killed with their modern weaponry and now some of them were dead.

He heard that Awaken could kill those UC but the operation done at Kawartha Park was a disaster, even with the aid of those Awaken every last company was wiped out. Thus he had his own reservation about those so-called humanity hopes.

Then a voice lingered beside him.

“Oh, they’re dead. I didn’t expect to see a level fourteen dead that easily.”

The squad leader glanced to his side and saw the stranger in his squad. She too was looking through the binoculars.

“What do you mean?” the squad leader asked.

The woman turned to the squad leader as she removed the binocular away. Her plain face with her plain black hair was like the most normal you could see in everyday life. Yet underneath that facade, no one knew what laid inside.

“It’s either there’s a predator on the loose or…” she fell silent a bit.

“Or what?” asked the squad leader.

“Or we might not be alone.”