《Grim Reaper in the Apocalypse: Reaping Immortals》


 Chapter 1: Draft

    Altan calmed his beating heart. There was no need to worry. He reminded himself that he could ovee this if he just took one breath at a time.


    Everyone here was also 18 years old like him, they were all feeling nervous too, probably. Nothing bad happened to the previous ones who went ahead of him.


    They were fine.


    The rest of the youths who hadn''t had their chance yet were all gathered sitting on the floor of a gymnasium, feeling the safety of the solid wooden deck underneath them.


    They felt awkward; they were used to the cold and damp ground.


    Aside from a few murmurs, everyone was as silent as they could be. They tried not to let the excitement disturb their visitor from anothernd.


    "An of the Unimed Lands, step forward." The woman in front of them said.


    She had long curly hair and wore a ck suit that covered her entire body in protective pads. She was the only one there with clothing that wasn''t tattered and dirtied.


    An looked up at her and he couldn''t help but admire her beautiful face up on the podium.Even in the expanse of the gymnasium behind her, she kept everyone''s eyes on her.


    Her skin was as smooth as pearls and she emanated a sweet vani scent. Meanwhile, every youth looking at her smelled of soil and grime.


    Even though she didn''t look a few years older than them, she confessed that she was a hundred years old!


    That was the difference between people who lived in a God''s Territory and those who lived in the Unimed Lands.


    They lived in a ce protected by a god. They were given health, safety, and abundance.


    They were given immortality.


    While people like An and the rest of these youths could only fend for themselves in the wilds.


    However, with this Draft, they could change their destiny. They can break out of the Unimed Lands and live on a God''s Territory!


    Altan walked up to the podium.


    There was arge pill-looking contraption that the woman stood next to. It was as tall as her, about less than two meters. It was made of metal, yet there was wood and vines wrapped around the patches of the machine.


    "Ever since Gods descended into our reality and settled on theirnds, they have given us humans everything we ever wanted.


    We are no longer a species struggling to find food or suffering from disease.


    However, it hasn''t been easy for Them. They have been gued by these wicked Canzers, and They need soldiers to fight them." she roared.


    Some youths winced and cowered at the mention of Canzers.


    While some''s eyes gleamed in excitement when they heard the word ''soldier''.


    "Only humans can defeat these Canzers. They are called Saviors!


    This is your chance to be a Savior and hopefully be drafted by a God to join them in their territory."


    The woman''s words started a fire within everyone''s souls. They yearned for that paradise.


    "Saviors who live in a God''s Territory will be given power, wealth, and fame. They will give you an eternal life."


    These youths never even knew life past the age of twenty. Yet, there were those who lived for a thousand years in luxury.


    "As long as you help kill Canzers that threaten the sanctity of Gods, then you will be rewarded with anything you want."


    Now that the rest of the youths were fired up, the woman then looked at An.


    "Let me inform you again of what would happen to you when you enter the Draft. Your mind will be transported to the Remedium, the dimension where the Gods reside. In this ce, you will encounter monsters and beasts that you must vanquish."


    The woman pushed some buttons on her tablet, makingst-minute preparations before another one entered the Draft.


    "The monsterse in batches. They will be more and more stronger with each batch.


    If you survive 5 batches of enemies, you can get an F-ss LifeSkill. If you defeat 10 batches, you can get a D-ss LifeSkill, and so on."


    LifeSkills were the powers that the Saviors used to kill Canzers.


    "The better ss LifeSkill you have, the better chance you have of being drafted by a Town, or a City even."


    The bigger the ce, the stronger the god, and the more prosperous it was for their citizens.


    Everyone hoped to be in a City, but they were more than satisfied with a Town.


    This time, she addressed everyone.


    "If you performed above normal and showed your talent, then you may be personally drafted by a God or maybe even multiple ones. They will personally visit you in the Draft," she added.


    "If that happens, don''t panic. They will be offering you lots of rewards including a unique Genus so that you can evolve your bloodline.


    If you''re feeling overwhelmed, just think about where you want to live. If you fear the water, then don''t ept the offer of the Seven Seas god."


    Realistically, there was no chance that these kids would perform above average.


    The poor lifestyle in the Unimed Lands did not cultivate talent.


    However, she still liked to inform these unfortunate juveniles about the intricacies of the Draft.


    Who knew, maybe there would be one transcendent talent here.


    "An, was it? Are you ready to enter the Pre-Remedium chamber?"


    An gulped, hoping to swallow his fear.


    "Yes, I think."


    The woman looked at An and felt that there was something unusual about him. He wasn''t arrogant, nor was he frightful. Even though his demeanor showed fear, she could see a sense of steadiness and calm in his eyes. This was something she only saw with veteran Saviors.


    "What type of Savior do you want to be? There are two types: the ones in the front line and the ones in the back." the woman asked.


    An answered without any hesitation. "The one in the backline."


    "Really?" The woman was surprised. Usually, most youths liked to be on the front lines and be in the thick of it all.


    Saviors who fought on the front lines were awarded the most. They were also the most renowned and celebrated in thends.


    If they were going to fight, why not fight up front? There was no harm in it.


    After all, no one could die in God''s Territory.


    "Yes. I don''t like to see suffering. I hate blood. I''m a pacifist." An said, calming his nerves.


    It was unusual to find such a youth. She looked over to the rest of the group and they all nodded their heads. An was known for being a pacifist. He didn''t even eat worms and forced himself to live by eating grass.


    "No worries. Some Saviors can kill Canzers while staying in their homes," assured the woman.


    "Step inside." Therge water tank-like contraption opened by itself.


    The Pre-Remedium Chamber was simply an emptypartment with nozzles ced in the cardinal directions: up, down, left, right, front, and back.


    An stepped inside and faced the door.


    There was no ss window, leaving only darkness for him when the woman closed the chamber. And despite the confinement, An felt safer. It reminded him of countless nights spent living underground.


    "Get ready. The Draft is about to start," warned the woman, her voice muffled.


    "Oh, and don''t worry about your injuries. This is just a simtion," she added before activating the chamber.


    TSHHHHHH


    The nozzles sprayed An''s entire body with a strange violet mist that glowed even in total darkness.


    Even when he tried not to breathe it in, the mist seeped into his skin and mixed into his blood, intoxicating him into a hallucination.


    An''s body went stiff, but his brain went into a deep sleep psychosis and forced his eyelids shut.


    When he opened his eyes again, the only thing he saw was an endless white space. He was standing, yet he could not see the ground. He was still wearing his tattered white shirt and old, ragged jogging pants.


    The horizon blended with the foreground, everything was white.


    ZINGG


    An suddenly saw a holographic banner in front of him saying;


    [1st Batch of Monsters appearing in 3¡­2¡­1]


    After the countdown, a small ant suddenly materialized a few meters away from him.


    An ant. A literal red ant. It was so small.


    He wouldn''t have even noticed it if it weren''t for the holographic effect of the summoning.


    [Defeat the first batch of monsters to reach the next stage]


    The beauty''s words echoed back in his mind.


    ''If you survive 5 batches of enemies, you can get an F-ss LifeSkill.''


    An F-ss LifeSkill was the most basic power that anyone could have. At most, it would only give you extra resistance against elements. Even a fur coat could give you more protection than an F-ss LifeSkill.


    All An had to do was crush this ant and he''d move on to the next stage.


    It wasn''t even moving. It didn''t even try to attack him.


    Yet, An couldn''t bring himself to do it.


    He bent down and brought the red ant closer to his face.


    How could he kill such an adorable creature? Its little mandibles were tapping in happiness as it looked back at him.


    "No. I refuse," he dered. He put the ant back down. "I don''t like to see suffering. I hate blood. I''m a pacifist."


    The moment he did, the whole scenery changed.


    The world of vast whiteness was tainted by crimson red waves, propagating and conquering the purity of the white background.


    He now stood upon a cracked road, with boilingva spurting out its crevices. A wall of hellfire covered the horizon, inducing fear and damnation.


    "You human¡­why have you not killed this pesky little animal?"


    An heard a dark, low, growling voice behind him.


    But instead of answering the question, An looked back to the demon that was waiting for him behind.


    He looked at it dead in its 666 eyes, with no fear, no trepidation, and no terror.


    He was deathly calm.


    "Are you a God?"


    The demon was arge worm-like creature ten times bigger than An.


    Its mouth covered more than half of its face, with millions upon millions ofyered hair-like teeth that circled its ''lips''.


    Beyond the mouth,plete darkness.


    Looking inside the mouth of the demon was akin to looking at an abyss that led directly down to the deepest depths of space.


    I am the God of Death, it said telepathically, its teeth cking upon each other.


    Its 666 eyes looked like beads of blood above its mouth. The induced trypophobia gave difort to anyone who dared toy its eyes upon the God.


    Each one of those eyes looked down at An.


    Yet instead of cowering upon this gigantic creature, An stood tall in defiance.


    The God of Death, Grim Reaper himself, was stupefied by An''sck of fear.His hideous appearance should have scared An''s very soul into fright, unable to even utter a single word.


    Yet he did, mutinous gaze and all.


    And before the God of Death could try and threaten An that he would suffer a fate worse than death¡­


    And jumped inside its sinister and dusky mouth.


    "YOU DARE!!!!"

 Chapter 2: Essence

    The Grim Reaper didn''t think that the human would be so insane as to voluntarily jump into its mouth.


    Was he suicidal?


    But An had a different thought. After all, this was an opportunity unlike anything he would ever get.


    The woman''s words echoed back in his mind.


    ''If you showed your talent, then Gods may personally visit you in the Draft. They will be offering you rewards including a unique Genus to evolve your bloodline.''


    He knew that this was his chance to gain powers that he wouldn''t have gotten from the Draft. And as for the dangers¡­An simply took the woman''s words to heart.


    She said, ''Oh, and don''t worry about your injuries. This is just a simtion.''


    So, he dived right in without any hesitation. He didn''t know why he felt this urge, but it was the first thing on his mind when he saw the worm.


    He jumped head-first into the most dangerous ce in hell.


    As soon as he was inside, he was enveloped by the absence of light. It felt like he entered an abyss.


    An felt weightlessness in the darkness. He looked back yet he could not see where he came from. He was at the belly of the beast; there was no going back.


    "Insolent human! You know not where you are. Only death and suffering await you inside¡­"


    Yet he kept going.


    An floated forward with nothing but confidence in his eyes.


    The chasm of darkness would have left most humans disoriented, confused as to which was up or down, seconds from hours, and end from the beginning. It would have made them insane, especially after floating with nothing but the deafening silence of shadows beside him.


    But An persisted.


    The God of Death couldn''t believe it. He thought this human was nothing more than a coward afraid of death. After all, he couldn''t even get past the first batch of the Draft. Even the weakest of humans get past the 3rd batch.


    He should have been cowering in fear.


    Yet he still pushed himself deeper into the chasm.


    After an unknown amount of time, An finally saw a red ant floating right in front of him.


    It was glowing with a white transcendence.


    "You have passed the test," lied the God of Death. "You have saved the ant from me."


    The Grim Reaper thought An would finally stop his journey now that the ant was alive again. It must have been the reason why he braved the Grim Reaper''s jaws of death.


    But he didn''t.


    An continued forward until he saw a bright white light in the distance.


    He moved closer until he was an ever-changing object.


    In one instance, it was a cube emitting neon blue lights from its edges. Then it changed into a golden eye. And next, it quickly morphed into a non-geometrical blob of meaty muscle.


    It was as if the 3rd dimension couldn''t fully manifest the majesty of this object.


    An raised his hand, about to touch it when the God of Death roared at him.


    "STOP RIGHT THERE. Don''t move closer if you don''t want the ant to die."


    The red ant suddenly materialized beside the ever-changing object. Above it was the rotting hand of a demon, ready to squish it into nothing but smithereens.


    "You are a pacifist. Stop now or the ant dies along with you."


    For someone who touted himself as a pacifist, An was paradoxically indifferent to the Grim Reaper''s threats. It was as if he didn''t care about the ant in the first ce.


    An raised his hand and continued to reach for the mysterious object.


    "CURSE YOU! If you touch that, billions would die and suffer!"


    But even with the God of Death''s guttural roar that shook the very fabric of space, An persisted.


    When his hands finally touched the object, it changed into its final shape;


    A red apple.


    It was only then that the God of Death realized who he was dealing with. An''s tranquil yet menacing demeanor in the face of the Almighty Divine God of Death was not something a coward could do.


    This human was not a lowly being whose weakness led him to fail the Draft. He was a wolf in sheep''s clothing!


    He was someone who gave the God of Death a taste of his own medicine, fear.


    "THE IMPUDENCE! You have reached far beyond your authority, human!"


    An felt the bones in his body shake. But he didn''t care.


    He opened his mouth and said;


    "I don''t like to see suffering."


    He put the red apple between his teeth and took his first bite.


    A spray of misty red blood followed the crunch, enveloping the whole darkness.


    It was a bloodbath.


    The whiteness of his eyes and his teeth contrasted with the pure red blood dripping out of his face.


    Yet even with blood dripping down to his tongue, letting him taste the metalless of it all, An stayed uncaring.


    "I hate blood," he said as he took his second bite.


    As his front teeth reached the core of the apple, the whole thing disintegrated into a cloud of grayish-ck smoke.


    The ckness of everything turned into tendrils that spiraled toward An''s skin.


    The darkness spread towards his body like roots, reaching far away and digging deep into his flesh.


    "What have you done?! This is irreparable!"


    An, knowing or not, consumed the God of Death''s very essence.


    All of His powers, His authority over death passed over to a human¡ªan insignificant little human.


    This was an unprecedented tragedy in the history of the universe. The Grim Reaper was helpless to undo this walking disaster.


    The ck tendrils wrapped around An''s body glowed a bright golden aura as it pumped divine magic in An''s veins.


    The God of Death felt his powers weakening by the second, slowly transferring to the pesky little human.


    A God was beginning to perish.


    In his veryst moments, the God of Death wondered how a human could be so brazen.


    Who would be so bold as to consume a God''s power?


    He wanted to know more about An.


    He peeked through An''s memories. And what he saw¡­amused him.


    "HAHAHAHAHA


    You are no fool after all. That woman told you that the Draft was merely a simtion.


    Your injuries¨Ceverything would be nothing but a dream in the Remedium.


    You used that to your advantage. You braved through hell knowing that you''d survive no matter what.


    You saw the opportunity as soon as I materialized my real body in this space.


    KUKUKUHAHAHAHAHA!"


    The God of Death couldn''t help butugh at the absurdity of the situation. He underestimated An.


    He was going to suffer an ironic fate of death, yet He couldn''t help but be charmed.


    After all, with His powers transferred over to this human, the world would soon turn upside down.


    An apocalypse would doom the world.


    When he thought about the implications this had for the other gods, he was filled with satisfaction and euphoria.


    "YES! Take my power!


    Only a killer masquerading as a pacifist could take those gods off guard."


    The God of deathughed once again.


    "Seed where I have failed! Bring death and destruction to those wretched gods!


    Bring back the fear of death in their eyes!


    Kill them. Kill all the gods!


    And show those who have only lived with immortality that they, too, shall not escape from the clutches of death!


    Show them who you are.


    Who are you, An of the Unimed Lands?"


    An, with his entire body merging into the darkness, muttered under his breath.


    "I''m a pacifist."


    [10-star rarity God of Death Genus acquired]


    [Your bloodline has evolved to Grim Reaper of Souls]


    [Your soul has mutated to amodate the consumption of souls]


    [You can now reap any death]


    [You have gained SSS ss LifeSkill Death Physique]

 Chapter 3: Physique

    TSHHHHH


    The chamber opened just as An regained his senses.


    With his eyes blurry, the first thing he saw was the long curly hair draped over the beautiful face of the woman. Behind her were the rest of the teens sitting in the gym looking on at him curiously.


    An awkwardly got out of the chamber, stumbling as he did so. His leg muscles moved too fast than what he was used to.


    The first thing he noticed was the view. He seemed to have grown a few inches taller, matching the woman face-to-face.


    "How are you feeling?" she asked, simultaneously looking at him and the tablet in her hands.


    The technology allowed her to see the physical qualities of his body, but unfortunately, it couldn''t gauge his mental status. Many get exhausted fighting monsters nonstop, but most get traumatized from experiencing death.


    An was different.


    Everyone got out of the Draft by dying; they failed to advance to the next batch. He got out by doing the exact opposite; he killed a god.


    "I''m fine?" He didn''t know the right response.


    How could he even exin the feeling of gaining dominion over all aspects of Death? He didn''t even remember much of what happened. Everything felt like a distant dream.


    "I''m guessing you did well. You were there for 30 minutes."


    Most candidates from the Unimed Landssted for only 10 minutes. Maximum.Bysting longer, he must have defeated more batches of monsters. In her experience, those whosted that long gained C ss LifeSkills.


    That would be mighty impressive. He could get epted by a Vige with that LifeSkill.


    "I didn''t do well. I didn''t even get past the first batch."


    The woman chuckled. It was a funny joke.


    DING


    The tablet finally finished its assessment of An''s Draft.


    She expected to see the usual scores. F ss to D ss obscure LifeSkills that didn''t stand out. However, when she looked at her tablet, her eyes visibly widened.


    The measurements of his durability, physical strength, and muscture were off the charts!


    She couldn''t believe it.


    She expected to see this amazing score with talented kids in the Inner City trained by their Savior parents. But not of a kid like An.


    She looked at it again, thinking that she saw it wrong, but it still disyed the same result.


    "This¡­this says that you have a B ss LifeSkill!"


    An frowned. Even in a half-asleep state, he seemed to have remembered his LifeSkill being more than B ss¡­


    Meanwhile, the rest of the teens in the gymnasium all gasped. They all looked at An with eyes of amazement. Nobody expected that a gem would emerge from this ragtag group of teens from the Unimed Lands.


    A B ss LifeSkill was enough to get drafted into a Town!


    He''d get to live in his own house! He''d get to eat delicious meals every day for free! And most of all¡­


    He''d finally shake off his mortality!


    "Woah¡­I can''t believe An''s going to get Drafted."


    "I want to get drafted too!"


    "Keep dreaming. Even all the other kids from before only got D ss LifeSkills at the most."


    The rest of the teens were excited for An. This was the best thing that could have happened for him.


    The woman, however, thought differently.


    They were underestimating his results! She knew that An''s powers were more amazing than what they were giving him credit for.


    She faced him directly, matching eye to eye with him.


    "Close your eyes and focus on the burning feeling inside your heart.


    It''s hard for beginners to sense their Soul System, but you just have to concentrate¨C"


    "I feel it," answered An.


    This surprised her. Usually, new Saviors were too weak to even feel their Soul System. They''d need a few days for their natural strength to umte.


    "That''s unusual," shemented. His Soul seemed to disy an early strength equivalent to those with A-ss LifeSkills.


    "Whatever. It must be different for Porters. The Soul System is a visual representation of your powers. Can you tell me what you see?"


    [An]


    [Bloodline: Grim Reaper of Souls]


    [Genus]


    ¡ª1x (3-star) Human


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Grim Reaper


    [Mutation]


    ¡ª (10-star) Gluttonous Soul


    [LifeSkills]


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    "I see my name, my bloodline, my genus¨C"


    The woman interrupted him.


    "That''s good. Let me exin to you quickly what those are.


    What is a Genus?


    It''s the DNA of a species, it''s the very blueprint of your body. Right now you''re seeing one genus, the human genus. And because of that one genus, your Bloodline is a human.


    I said before, if a God deems you worthy, then they will give you an extra Genus.


    For example, if you were given a Mermaid Genus, you could evolve your bloodline from a human to a Merman.


    And once you have a different bloodline, you''ll have a chance of getting a Mutation."


    The woman thought her exnation was tooplicated for a beginner like An. So she didn''t expect him to understand it immediately. But surprisingly¡­


    "The Genus changes your Bloodline and the Bloodline dictates your mutation," An muttered.


    This greatly impressed her.


    An looked over at his Soul system. He not only had the Human genus, but an extra one as well. He must have gained it when he ate that ''apple''.


    Since he got the God of Death''s Genus, his bloodline changed into the Grim Reaper of Souls. And because of his bloodline, he gained the mutation Gluttonous Soul.


    "What are the star ratings on the Genus?" he asked her while eyeing the 10-star Grim Reaper genus on his Soul System.


    "That''s the rarity of the genus. The human genus has a base 3-star rating; it''s one of the weakest out there.


    The higher the star rating, the rarer the genus.


    The rarer the genus, the stronger the mutation you can get.


    The mutation follows your genus ratings, so if you have a 4-star genus, you''ll get an equivalent 4-star mutation."


    An nodded. "Hmm¡­so the rating system goes from 1 star to 10 star rating?"


    The woman giggled. "No, silly. It only goes up to 9 stars.


    You''ll only get a genus after you''ve proven yourself worthy of it. Usually, a God would give you a new low-rated Genus after 3 years of missions.


    You''ll only be given 6 stars and above genus from a God if you''re a proven hero with hundreds of years of experience in the field. So work hard and be patient, okay? Of course, it doesn''t hurt if you curry favor with the God first."


    He looked back at his Soul System and saw 10 stars depicted on it. He wasn''t wrong.


    An stayed quiet about his true bloodline. Even if he told her the truth, she wouldn''t believe that he got a 10-star genus from a God.


    "Next, let''s talk about your LifeSkill. Does it say Physique on it?"


    An nodded. Not only that, but it confirmed his suspicions that the estimation of his powers was wrong!


    It was SSS ss!


    "Just as I guessed. You have a very good and very rare B-ss Physique LifeSkill.


    Ordinarily, a B ss LifeSkill will only get you drafted by a Town. However¡­because of your Physique LifeSkill, you have a unique job.


    You are a porter!"


    From her excited voice, An guessed that this was somehow a good thing. But he was clueless as to what this exactly meant.


    "What''s a porter?"


    She saw his confusion and quickly exined.


    "I asked you earlier if you wanted to fight in the frontlines or the backlines, right?"


    An nodded.


    "Well, those that fight in the frontlines need specialized equipment to fight different Canzers.


    Having Saviors carrying heavy equipment while journeying through the Remedium is simply too risky.


    That''s why we need Porters!


    They have Physique LifeSkills that allow them to have superhuman strength. With their powers, they can carry the heavy loads for the Saviors. They are essential in the sess of a mission!"


    Despite her enthusiasm, An didn''t see how good his job was supposed to be.


    "You''ll learn more about itter, but the thing that you need to know right now is¡­


    You can be recruited directly by a City!


    Porters are rare, especially high-ss ones like yours. You can pick any City in the world and they''d be happy to draft you in their territory!"


    That was a big upgrade. Usually, only A ss LifeSkills tempted Cities into action.They wouldn''t draft anyone from the Unimed Lands for any less.


    Only now did the rest of them understand the hype and eagerness in her voice.


    They couldn''t believe it.


    An was a transcendent talent that would soar to the high heavens.


    They never thought that he''d get a B ss LifeSkill, much less a rare and in-demand job like a Porter.


    His iparable prowess squashed their envious looks. His powers weren''t something they could even try to replicate. In their minds, he must have defeated batch after batch of monsters with ease.


    They didn''t know An never even killed a single monster.


    Well¡­maybe one.


    Not only that, they were making a big deal about his LifeSkill being only B ss.


    It was actually SSS ss!


    The woman knew that the tablet analysis only went as high as B ss, but she never even considered the possibility that he went above and beyond that.


    It was too unbelievable.

 Chapter 4: The Fall

    She then exined more about what made Porters special.


    "I remember you saying that you don''t like to see suffering. That''s not going to be too much of a problem. After all, you''ll be standing far away from the fighting. The only thing you have to do is haul their equipment.


    After that, you can just stand back and watch as the Saviors massacre the Canzers. It''s as easy as that!"


    One of the teens from the group raised his hand and asked a question.


    "Miss¡­if I have a different job, can I also be a porter? I don''t want to fight Canzers. I don''t want to die!"


    Some of the teens expressed the same fear. After all, they didn''t want to die just after they got drafted into a territory.


    The woman chuckled. She forgot she was dealing with clueless kids from the Unimed Lands.


    "First of all, you can''t. Porters are rare for that very reason.


    They have specialized powers that allow them to move quickly even while carrying tons of weight on their shoulders. Second of all, you don''t have to worry about dying, silly kids.


    In a God''s Territory, no one can die, even in the Remedium."


    They became even more confused. The concept of immortality was so foreign to them. Even An wanted to know how immortality worked in a God''s Territory.


    She couldn''t me them. They didn''t attend 3rd-grade history lessons like she did.


    "After the 4th order dimension crashed into Earth, Gods and Myths descended upon the world.


    These Gods, because of their power and majesty, could only manifest themselves as spirits who watch over and protect a territory.


    One of their spirits is called ANGELS. They are the species¨C"


    TING! BANG! DUG!


    Just as she was about to exin how immortality worked, loud banging sounds erupted from the ceiling above.


    It sounded like thousands of rocks hitting the roof.


    The gymnasium roof was an oval shape made out of metal, amplifying the ruckus from outside.


    The woman found this strange. There wasn''t supposed to be anything in the Unimed Lands. There was no rain, no hail, and no sandstorm.


    Her intuition told her to go out and investigate.


    "Urgh! Loud sounds!"


    "I can''t dig down to safety! I hate this wooden floor!"


    "Miss, what''s that noise?"


    She ignored the questions from the teens and walked over to the backdoor. The banging sounds got louder and louder the closer she got to the door.


    She hesitated as she grabbed the doorknob. She was used to bizarre events happening in the Remedium. But not in the real world.


    She didn''t even have the safety of a God protecting her in the Unimed Lands. This whole thing waspletely unusual.


    Finally, she reminded herself that nothing bad could happen to her. She was immortal.


    She finally got the courage to open it.


    And just as she did, An suddenly saw holographic words appear in front of him.


    [There is death near you]


    [You can reap the souls of the dead]


    His eyes widened.


    He and everyone else watched as the woman opened the door and walked outside.


    The light from outside shone through the backdoor, leaving a diagonal pir of light inside the gymnasium.


    Her pace was measured as if she was treading on thin ice.


    The banging on the roof hadn''t stopped; it only got louder as she walked outside.


    From the open door, they saw the bleak gray sands outside in the Unimed Lands. It wasn''t anything different from what they were used to.


    As the woman took a good look at her surroundings, themotion led her head to turn upwards.


    She followed whatever she saw towards the roof of the gymnasium.


    She was now facing towards the door¨Cher face clearly seen.


    Everyone saw her face change. Her calm and serene expression brought by her natural beauty was nowhere to be seen.


    Her eyes widened, her jaw dropped, and her eyebrows furrowed.


    She couldn''t take her eyes off what was happening in the sky.


    What could make her react like that?


    If it was something dangerous, she would have evacuated the rest of the teens immediately. But she didn''t. She stayed there stunned in silence.


    That meant that the disturbance was harmless.


    It must be mentioned that she was an inhabitant of a City. She was a bona fide Savior in her own right with a hundred years of experience. Yet even she didn''t know what was happening in front of her.


    The rest of the teens couldn''t take it anymore and dared to go outside too. Their curiosity got the better of them.


    An was one of those people.


    He was intrigued by the words thaty floating in front of him.


    [There is death near you]


    The rest of the teens walked out of the gymnasium and onto the Unimed Lands.


    The familiar gray, colorless skies entered their eyes.


    However, just out of the corner of their eyes, they saw a glint of golden lighte out of the sky.


    TIK! DUG! BANG!


    The knocking loud sounds from the roof led their eyes behind them.


    And what they saw¡­made them exhibit surprise not dissimr to the woman''s expression.


    They were speechless.


    The deste and empty skies of the Unimed Lands were reced by white clouds, with golden rays of sunshine seeping out from the edges.


    These golden cumulonimbus clouds littered the horizon.


    And every second, thousands of miniature cavities appeared on the clouds as something fell from the heavens.


    They didn''t know what it was. She didn''t know what it was.


    But these things looked like humanoid specters with a golden aura surrounding them.


    If one looked closely enough, they''d see a halo on their heads.


    These ''things'' fell through the skies andnded everywhere. Theynded on the gray sands and theynded on the gymnasium roof, creating those banging sounds.


    As it crashed into Earth, it disintegrated into golden particles that dispersed into the air. They couldn''t see what it was before it disappeared.


    The clouds moved closer to them.


    The falling objectsnded near the woman just enough for her to see what it was.


    Her eyes, for a split second, glinted in recognition.


    That can''t be, she thought to herself.


    The woman''s mouth quivered. She tried to mutter out something, afraid that if she said it out loud, it would be true.


    She seemed familiar with whatever she saw. But she couldn''t believe it. She didn''t want to.


    "Angels¡­"


    An heard her mutter those words.


    "What are Angels?"


    She kept looking up, but she answered his question.


    "Angels¡­angels are the invisible spirits that protect everyone inside God''s Territory.


    They are the hands of a God. Through them, they give life and blessings to Their citizens.


    They follow every citizen like a shadow. They save them from harm, from disease¡­from death.


    No matter where you are, no matter how severe your injuries are, an angel is there to inject you with life.


    Even in the Remedium¡­"


    She paused for a second, gulping her voice. She didn''t want toplete the thought.


    "Even in the Remedium, they prevent Saviors from taking theirst breath."


    She kept looking up, her eyes trying to discern the things that were falling out of the sky.


    "They make everyone immortal?" An tried to confirm.


    She nodded. "Yes."


    An paused for a second. "What happens if Angels die?"


    She looked at him as if he was crazy. His words were incredulous. There was absolutely no possibility of angels dying. After all, angels are intimately connected to their God. They were immortality itself.


    "That''s not possible." She shook her head fervently as if she also wanted to convince herself.


    An looked at her dead in the eyes. "But what if they do?"


    She didn''t answer.


    The implications of that possibility were more than what she could take. She didn''t want to imagine a world where angels died.


    After all, if angels died¡­


    What would happen to their immortality?


    "Don''t worry. Angels will never die," she assured herself.


    And just as she said that, the bright golden rays on the clouds became duller. The pure white clouds dispersed into the dull and bleak sky.


    Those things stopped falling from the sky.


    Everything finally went back to normal. The woman smiled. This was good news.


    "See, I told you. Angels can''t die."


    She looked back at An, but his eyes were unfocused. He was clutching his chest in pain.


    An felt a strange pressure near his heart as if it was about to burst. His eyes got blurry. The call of unconsciousness got louder. Thest thing he saw was a new set of words in front of his eyes.


    [You have witnessed the extinction of Angels]


    [10-star rarity Angelic Genus acquired!]


    [Your Bloodline has evolved to Angelic Reaper of Gods]


    [You have reaped the deaths of 10,000 Angels]


    [You have gained 1,000,000 Upgrade points]


    [You have gained 10,000 experience]


    [Lightspeed Angel Wings body mutation acquired!]


    [You have gained SSS ss LifeSkill Cherubic Retribution]


    Unbeknownst to him, An''s soul reaped all of the thousands of angel souls inside his very own.


    But this was far too much for him to take in one go. His body shut down to amodate his new powers.

 Chapter 5: Specialty

    An felt the shaking of the ground as he opened his eyes.


    When he came to his senses, he saw that he was in the back of a moving vehicle. It was the same truck that the woman came in when she visited them for the Draft.


    It was shaking as it traversed the mounds of gray sands in the Unimed Lands.


    Any on the horizontal seats alone, with just the woman on the other side. She was looking far out the window, observing the desteness of the Unimed Lands. Her long curly hair obscured her emotions.


    An massaged his head.


    Receiving those messages felt like being hit in the head by a giant rock the size of his fist.


    The only thing he remembered was seeing the apparent extinction of angels. After that, he passed out.


    "What happened?" he asked out loud.


    She turned towards him and her expression turned into relief. She seemed to show genuine care for him after seeing him fall suddenly into unconsciousness.


    "It''s really good that you''re feeling better now. I thought you wouldn''t wake up till you''re in the hospital."


    "Where am I?"


    She showed a smile that brought out the natural beauty of her lips.


    "This is a military convoy on the way to Genesis City. It''s the ce where I''m from and¡­It''s the ce where you''ll live!"


    An looked confused. Why was he suddenly going to this Genesis City after passing out?


    "Congrattions!" she pped. "You have officially been Drafted by Genesis City!"


    She congratted him and he smiled at her awkwardly in return.


    "Oh¡­hehe¡­cool."


    The woman chuckled to herself. Most teens who got this incredible news would either weep from joy or shout in excitement. She never saw someone only say ''cool'' after being drafted by a City.


    But although An might seem indifferent, he was celebrating on the inside. He got Drafted! By a City, no less.


    He was living the dream of most of the inhabitants of the Unimed Lands. He was living the dream of those who wanted to live forever.


    But how could An celebrate?


    He was still too shocked at seeing the angels die off and fall from the sky. He was still filled with questions in his mind.


    What happened to the Draft after he passed out? What happened to the extinction of angels?


    And why did she look okay even after that bizarre rainfall of dead angels? She was acting as if it never even happened.


    "Now that you''ve been Drafted, you''ll live in Genesis City where food and wealth are abundant."


    He interrupted her. "What happened to the draft?"


    "I immediately ordered a trip back to the City the moment you passed out. I can''t have our star recruit getting ill now, can I?"


    She looked at him like a diamond in the rough, like a treasure she found in the woods.


    I can''t wait to brag about drafting a B ss Porter to my friends, she thought.


    She couldn''t risk losing such an amazing prospect in the Unimed Lands.


    She made the decision to return to Genesis City where Altan could receive the proper healing he needed. After all, he was officially a citizen of the City.


    He was entitled to immortality.


    "What happened to you?" she asked him.


    An wanted to know that too. "I don''t know."


    He closed his eyes and recalled the feeling of the burning sensation near his heart. He tried to locate where his Soul resided.


    [An]


    [Bloodline: Angelic Reaper of Souls]


    [Genus]


    ¡ª1x (3-star) Human


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Grim Reaper


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Angel


    [Mutation]


    ¡ª (10-star) Gluttonous Soul


    ¡ª (10-star) Lightspeed Angel Wings


    [LifeSkills]


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(0 / 1000)


    Specialty: Vanguard


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(0 / 1000)


    He did see the extinction of angels. This proved it.


    He also noticed that he got another 10-star genus. Not only that, his bloodline changed because of it. He was now an ''Angelic Reaper of Souls''


    As for what that meant, he didn''t know.


    "Miss?"


    She looked back at him fondly. He wasn''t a kid from the Unimed Lands anymore, he was a futurerade.


    "Call me Lizzie."


    "Lizzie¡­can you tell me more about LifeSkills?"


    She nodded. They were still about a few hours away from Genesis City, so now would be a good time to get him up to speed with Savior lingo.


    She raised her hand and showed two fingers. "There are two kinds of Saviors in this world."


    An answered, "The ones in the front line and the ones in the back."


    She smiled and nodded. She appreciated the fact that he was so attentive.


    "Yes. The ones in the front lines have a specialty called Vanguards. They are the ones who fight the Canzers in the Remedium¨Cthe dimension where the Gods body resided."


    An looked at his Soul System and saw that one of his LifeSkill had a specialty of a Vanguard.


    "Under that specialty, you''ll see your job. For Vanguards, the usual jobs would be the Tanks, the DPS, the Mages, the Scouts, and even the rare Porter job like yours!"


    Specialty: Vanguard


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    An looked at his Soul System. Unlike most people, he had two different LifeSkills.


    From what he knew, Saviors only get one. He didn''t know if that was good or bad. After all, he''d have two realms to advance.


    He didn''t even know how he got another LifeSkill.


    People only acquired LifeSkills through the Draft. However, he inadvertently acquired this second LifeSkill after he witnessed the extinction of angels.


    His powers seemed to derive from reaping deaths, or more exactly, Souls.


    That begged the question.Will he get more LifeSkills in the future if he reaped more deaths? He didn''t know the exact criteria for acquiring powers.


    Did he only get LifeSkills after witnessing an extinction?Or was it because he reaped 10,000 souls of the same species that he was able to acquire a genus and a LifeSkill?


    He didn''t know.


    An looked back at Lizzie. He wanted to know more about LifeSkills.


    "You said there''s another specialty besides the Vanguards¡­Lizzie," An added awkwardly.


    "Yes. The second specialty is called Operators. They are the ones that stay behind in the real world while the Vanguards fight in the Remedium. They are the ones in the backline"


    An was confused. "They don''t enter the Remedium to fight Canzers?"


    "No. Their job is different. They kill Canzers using machines or concoctions specially made to exterminate Canzers.


    Exterminating Canzers doesn''t just mean killing all of them. Sometimes, you have to purge their veryir so that they don''t respawn.


    That''s the job of Operators.


    I can''t really go into detail because it''s not my specialty.I''m sure they''d want to brag about themselves, so just ask anyone you meetter."


    This was very informative for An. However, it didn''t fully unveil the mystery of his Soul System. After all, there was a third Specialty for him.


    "There are only two specialties? Vanguards and Operators? That''s it?"


    "Yup. Those are the only ones."


    An looked at his first LifeSkill.


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    This was a new speciality. GLOBAL.


    How am I supposed to know what this is when I don''t even know the first two basic specialties?


    Not only that, it had a new job. A God.


    How could that even be considered a job?


    But no matter how curious he was about his LifeSkill, he couldn''t ask Lizzie. He would have to find out more about this LifeSkill on his own.


    "I see you''re wondering about your Power Realm," she misunderstood the confusion on his face.


    "Everyone starts out in the 1st stage Student Realm at first. Then, as you kill more Canzers, you get more experience.


    With 1000 experience, you can advance to the 2nd stage of the Student Realm, and so on until the 9th stage.


    After that, you can advance to the Pre-Internship Realm.


    But that''s too far into the future. You''ll have to umte experience by going on missions in the Remedium."


    Lizzie looked at An and saw that he was even more confused than he was before.


    "Is there something you don''t understand?"


    An kept his focus on his Soul System, but he forced out a response. "No."


    "Then what is it?"


    An looked at the words in front of him.


    "It''s nothing," he lied.


    [Avable Experience: 10,000]

 Chapter 6: Grass

    "Is there any other way I can gain experience?"


    Lizzie gave him a warm smile. "I appreciate you wanting to be stronger.


    But unfortunately, there''s no other way to get experience other than to do missions in the Remedium, killing Canzers and all that."


    This made An even more surprised to see that he already had 10,000 experience even though he hadn''t done anything yet. From what Lizzie said, Saviors only gained exp from defeating Canzers in a mission to the Remedium.


    How do I have this? I don''t even know what the Remedium is! I haven''t even seen a Canzer yet¡­


    The only exnation would be the powers he gained from the God of Death. A faint memory resurfaced in his mind.


    This was what he saw before he exited the Draft.


    [Your soul has mutated to amodate the consumption of souls]


    [You can now reap any death]


    It made sense. After all, he did see an extinction-level event, with thousands of angels dying and falling from the heavens. He reaped their deaths and gained experience from it. That''s the power of his mutated soul.


    An looked at the Soul System and saw a ck expanse with thousands of blue wisps that gathered into one giant ball akin to a sun. They vibrated like atoms, reorganizing themselves so fast that they looked like they were teleporting.


    This was the physical manifestation of Experience in his Soul System.


    Off to the side, there were two empty-sized transparent spheres that orbited each other. They looked like ss balls with nothing but darkness inside.


    The first had barely visible designs of horrified skulls, melting into each other.


    The second had a pattern of wings and a halo stamped all over the sphere.


    He didn''t have to guess to know that these twos were his LifeSkills.


    He remembered what Lizzie said to him earlier.


    Using experience, you can advance to the 2nd stage of the Student Realm, so on and so forth until the 9th stage.


    Could he advance his LifeSkills now? He had enough experience¡­


    With this thought, An decided to test it out.


    Using the innate knowledge and instincts in his mind, An ordered the thousands of blue wisps to swarm his twos.


    And with just a thought, the blue spirits flew through the darkness and entered the empty spheres, filling it up as the wisps coagted at the core.


    [LifeSkills]


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(1000 / 1000)


    Specialty: Vanguard


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(1000 / 1000)


    [Avable Experience: 8000]


    But even though he still had a ton of experience left, the wisps refused to enter thes anymore. The LifeSkill created an invisible barrier that prevented An from advancing it to the second level.


    Why can''t I advance? How do I break through?


    If she found out that he advanced through to the peak 1st stage of the Student Realm in just a few seconds, she would implode from shock.


    Everyone sane would.


    Even talented A ss LifeSkill Saviors took at least a month to advance that fast. And that''s if they rushed through mission after mission to umte experience.


    Not only that, he advanced through two SSS ss LifeSkills!


    He couldn''t directly ask Lizzie if there was a reason he couldn''t advance to the 2nd stage. She would be suspicious as to how a kid like him knew about this ''barrier'' when he hadn''t even gone through one Remedium mission yet.


    "Um¡­so as long as I get enough experience, I can advance through to the 9th stage in one fell swoop?"


    Lizzie looked at him and thought for a second.


    She was deciding whether it would be wise to tell all of this to a new Savior and burden them with things they didn''t need to know till monthster.


    However, she decided to reveal it to him.


    "You aren''t supposed to know this yet, but to advance in the next stage¡ª"


    BEEP BEEP


    Her words were interrupted by an rm from the truck. A green overhead light rotated on the roof like a lighthouse.


    An didn''t know what was happening, so he looked towards Lizzie. He wanted to know if this was an emergency.


    But on the contrary, Lizzie seemed happy and excited. She opened the blinds on her window as she searched for something in the distance.


    In the wide region of gray sands of the Unimed Lands, there was a small patch of green on the horizon. Her eyes glinted when she saw the city in the distance.


    She looked over towards An and pointed in the horizon.


    "That''s Genesis City! We''re finally here!"


    She seemed even more excited than An, who was supposed to be jumping in joy from finally breaking free from the dangers of the Unimed Lands.


    She looked at him and said, "Are you ready to be an immortal?"


    Her words were casual and full of enthusiasm. Seeing a curly-haired beauty with a full smile on her face would have made most men unable to resist smiling.


    An would have smiled too, if it weren''t for what she said.


    Are you ready to be an IMMORTAL?


    If it was back then, he would feel like he could walk on air from joy. He would no longer have to worry about death each and every day.


    But she seemed to be forgetting something.


    "What happened before I passed out," he asked her curiously.


    "Why aren''t you more excited about this?"


    But he kept her eyes on her with all seriousness. So, she relented and answered his question.


    "Nothing much happened after you passed out. I postponed the Draft for the other kids and quickly ordered the truck to take us back to the City."


    But that wasn''t the answer he was looking for. An asked her again.


    "Why?" he asked, subtly prodding for more information.


    She looked at him confused.


    "Why what?"


    "Why did you go outside? What happened before I passed out? Why did you show that worried look on your face?"


    An wanted her to recall the moment when they all saw the angels fall from the sky.


    He wanted her to acknowledge the fact that the Angels died. They were extinct.


    And ording to her, Angels were the very reason why humanity was blessed with immortality. And if they were gone, so was everyone''s eternal life.


    If so, then why did she say that he was going to be an immortal?


    But she didn''t seem to get his words.


    If his subtle wording didn''t work, then he decided to ask her straight up. Point nk.


    "What happened to the Angels?"


    It was only then that she finally understood An''s strange behavior. She smiled and waved off the seriousness in his tone.


    "I thought you forgot about that. But it''s nothing to worry about, really.


    That was my fault. I said something that wasn''t true. I thought those were angels too, so I blurted it out without thinking.


    But after you passed out and I carried you to the truck, I contacted Savior HeadQuarters back in the City and they said that it''s nothing more than a misunderstanding.


    Those things were just a result of an unexpected sr activity from the Sun. They said it was something about maic storms and sr res, but I didn''t understand it.


    It''s kind of like the Aurora Borealis."


    An''s jaws dropped. He couldn''t believe what she said.


    Unexpected sr activity?


    She seemed to believe it wholeheartedly, and An would have believed it too¡­


    Except for the fact that he gained a Genus from the extinction of the Angels!


    That was enough evidence for An to know that the excuse was bogus!


    He looked at Lizzie, but she didn''t seem like she lied to him. She was clueless.


    It finally made sense why her behavior made a quick turn. It made sense why she didn''t mention anything about ''that'' incident.


    It was because she dismissed it as nothing more than a bizarre weather event.


    She didn''t know that it was the actual extinction of Angels. And for all An knew, he was the only who knew this fact¡­


    "Don''t worry about that stuff anymore. We''re finally here!" She looked eager to return home.


    An looked out the window and saw that the city was inside a giant transparent blue dome that epassed the whole territory. And on the outeryer, before reaching the ten meter walls of the City, there was a field of grass and meadows.


    The military truck rolled towards the dome, leaving the Unimed Lands. This transparent barrier prevented dust and gray sands from entering inside.


    An opened his windows and smelled, for the first time, the air of fresh greenery.


    "You don''t have to worry about Angels. They''re still present, giving life to every living thing and being in this territory."


    An put his head over the window and looked down on the supposed eternalnds.


    In the midst of healthy, green grass, he saw brown des sparsely scattered through the ins. They looked dead.


    "Everything here is immortal!" she proimed. "Trees, nts, flowers, and even all individual des of grass live in perpetuity."


    An looked at the words in front of him.


    [You have reaped the deaths of simple life forms: grass] x62


    [You have gained 6.2 experience]

 Chapter 7: Entry

    Well, that was false¡­


    Even though Genesis City was supposed to be a ce where even simple life could live forever, An witnessed the death of grass.


    A simple life form it may be, but it was still a life nheless.


    Inside this dome of protection of Genesis City, there wasn''t supposed to be any kind of death. Lizzie even said so. This was another form of evidence to the theory that Angels really did go extinct.


    However, the people of Genesis City either refused to believe it''s true and continued their ignorance.


    Or¡­


    They could have purposefully kept this information under wraps. Who knew the chaos that could unfold once people found out that their bubble of safety already popped like a balloon.


    For now, An was the only one sure of this fact.


    Should I be happy? An wondered. After all, he did get more powerful with more deaths¡­No. I don''t like suffering. I hate blood. I am a pacifist, he reminded himself.


    The truck continued its journey through the (decaying) meadows and towards the reinforced steel walls of Genesis City.


    An saw towering buildings made out of metal and y popping up out of the walls, with varying architectures. He also saw ck spires throughout the City, going up to a sharp point.


    The truck stopped just a few meters away from the giant wooden door that was almost as tall as the wall itself.


    An found it weird that the entrance to the City itself was made out of wood instead of steel like the rest of the walls.


    "This wall is made by an Operator, you remember what they are, right?"


    He nodded. "The Saviors in the backline."


    She chuckled. "Yeah, some of them don''t only fight Canzers, they can also contribute to the City itself.


    A group of Operators constructed this entrance that can literally root intruders into ce. They wouldn''t even be able to take a step inside the city."


    "There''s intruders?"


    "Of course, there are." She looked proud of that fact. "This is a magnificent City! Anyone would want to live in this paradise.


    There are some citizens from smaller Towns and Viges who try their luck to get inside. But, most of our intruders are those from the Unimed Lands."


    An went silent when he heard that. Even though he had never done that, nor seen anyone do it, he wasn''t surprised. There were a lot of desperate people wanting immortality.


    "Now, let''s go inside and you''ll finally see the beauty of a City!"


    She took out her high-tech tablet and inputted the proper protocol when returning from the Unimed Lands. It was basically just a formality to confirm her identity as a citizen.


    Usually, it would only take a few seconds and the verification would go through.


    Lizzie frowned. "Why isn''t the entrance open yet?"


    The tablet in her hands kept showing her an error, saying that the system was unable to verify her identity.


    This is weird, she thought.


    Just then, a smaller door to the side of the main entrance opened. Two men came and approached the truck.


    The two soldiers wore the same skin-tight ck uniform as Lizzie. Except, they had more padding all over their bodies.


    Lizzie got out of the truck and walked towards them. "What''s the problem?"


    One of the two soldiers, the skinnier and taller one, saluted towards her by bumping his chest with his fist two times.


    "I''m sorry, Miss Lizzie. The Entrance System''s been having an error ever since that sr storm hit.


    No one''s been able to properly enter the City ever since.


    The merchants have been giving us a hard time about it, but what can we do? We''re not Operators¡­and you know how they get when we try to rush them."


    The soldier was exasperated, with his eyes sunken in and his hair disheveled.


    Lizzie thought that this was unusual, but an expected oue from that freak weather event. However, An, who knew the truth about this sr event, thought differently.


    Is their entrance system rted to Angels? It was possible¡­


    An did remember Lizzie saying that Angels followed every citizen like a shadow, never leaving them alone.


    Is that their way of verifying their identity? Through the invisible angels that followed them?


    Although it was just a guess, An felt that it was close to the truth.


    "Is there an E.T.A. on the hotfix? It''s already sunset and I really need to get our new recruit to his dorm.


    He''s a B ss prospect as a Porter."


    The two soldiers never even spared a nce at An before. He was a kid from the Unimed Lands. How talented could he be?


    They even thought he was part of a charity work, like adopting unfortunate kids from the Unimed Lands.


    But when Lizzie mentioned his ss. Their eyes changed into one of amazement.


    It was rare to find someone with a B ss talent, but it was even rarer to see that he had a job as a Porter!


    Their temperament changed.


    "It''s estimated that the error will be fixed in a few hours, but if you really need to enter, then we can bypass the system to open the door."


    "That would be ideal," she thanked them.


    And with that, the two soldiers went back to their post and used their authority to bypass the main entrance. They manually pushed the door from the inside and the giant door opened with ease.


    Of course, this wasn''t advisable to do when the visitor was an unknown and unverified person like a foreign merchant. That would get them court-martialed.


    But since it''s only Lizzie and the genius prospect, they decided to let them pass.


    Soon enough the two giant wooden doors swung open, creaking from the friction in the ground. It only opened just enough for the truck to be able to pass properly.


    "Thanks, guys!" Lizzie copied their salute and bumped her fist in her chest two times as she passed the guards.


    When the truck finally passed through the gate and onto the main City, a whole new world opened up to An.

 Chapter 8: Mutation

    He was used to the bleak and gray sands of the Unimed Lands. He was used to mounds of nothing but dust and an endless horizon in front of him.


    Now, he saw buildings that towered the skies in the distance, he saw homely houses built by happy people, and he saw structures and constructs made for the sole reason of empowering culture.


    "Genesis City is structured like ayered circle so that each street, each subdivision, and each house will be essible to everyone.


    Do you see that white pce in the distance?"


    Down the road, which led straight to the center of the very city itself, was a giant white pce made of marble and limestone.


    It was majestic.


    "Each main road, like the one we''re on, leads directly to the center of the City, the Savior HeadQuarters!"


    As the truck moved forward, An noticed that the main road had threenes on each side. However, the truck was only on the very outskirts of the road.


    The vehicles that took the majority ofnes in the road weren''t vehicles at all.


    They were horses!


    These horses had great, silky manes and had unnaturally different colors. Some had horns, some had six legs, and some were abnormallyrge.


    "Oh, those are mounts," exined Lizzie. "Our preferred method of transportation here is mutated horses like those. I''ll show you mer."


    If she could, Lizzie would have used her horse to traverse the Unimed Lands instead of this lifeless vehicle.


    It was at this point that An noticed that as they got closer and closer to the center, there were more and more humans with vastly different features.


    There were some with pointy ears and pointy noses and some had tentacles for hands.


    Those people were living their daily lives, tending to their houses or working their jobs, with strange body parts as if it were normal.


    Are those mutations?


    "You''ll get used to seeing those. I told you before that a different bloodline will get you a mutation, right?"


    He nodded.


    "See that guy over there with that strange thing over his forehead?"


    On the side of the street was a man in his thirties directing traffic. Everything about him looked normal except for a dangling brown ball attached to his forehead.


    "He has a mutation of a 2-star Anglerfish. That thing on his head lights up in the dark so it''s easier to see in the night.


    He must have worked 10 years to get that mutation.


    But it all worked out now because he''s the main traffic enforcer of this district.


    Mutation serves as an integral part of this City. With better work, you''ll get the chance to have a mutation. And with a mutation, you''ll get a better job and the cycle continues."


    An looked at his Soul System, specifically, his mutations.


    [Mutation]


    ¡ª (10-star) Gluttonous Soul


    ¡ª (10-star) Lightspeed Angel Wings


    He had two 10-star mutations, which was considered an anomaly because Lizzie, and presumably the rest of the world, only recognized 9-star rarity as the peak.


    And unlike the rest of the citizens he saw brandishing their mutations with pride, he saw no indication of wings in his back.


    I understand not having a physical manifestation of my mutated soul, but why don''t I have my angel wings?


    He had to ask this to her in a very subtle way.


    "If I get a mutation, will my body also change?"


    "That depends. If you have a 4-star mutation and below, you can''t hide your mutation. But if the rarity is high enough, you can hide the mutation but still get the benefit of its effects.


    If you touch a seemingly normal woman and it feels like you touched a hot kettle, then she probably has theva skin mutation. But that has a 6-star rarity, so you probably won''t find them in the crowd."


    An subtly put his hands over his back, trying to feel if there was any kind of bump in it. But he didn''t find any.


    "This is a bit embarrassing, but I have a confession to make," Lizzie said as she brushed her curly hair away from her face.


    "I''m a half-feline."


    The moment she said that, cat ears suddenly flopped up from her curly hair. It was bright red on the outside and white on the inside of her ''ears''.


    A red tail shyly came out of her back.


    "Oh¡­"


    "Yeah, I was fortunate enough to get a 5-star Feline Genus a while back. And now, I got these lil things," she said as her ears wiggled alternately.


    "Can I ask why? What''s the use of a mutation?"


    Lizzie smiled. "I''ll show you."


    Her pupils turned vertical as she looked outside the truck. She then pointed to a woman out in the street carrying a paper bag filled with bread and vegetables.


    "Look at her. She''ll fall on the street in three¡­two¡­one¡­"


    And just as she said, the woman suddenly tripped because of a small rubber ball that rolled towards her.


    "My feline mutations allow me to hear and see things better with an enhanced reaction time.


    I heard those kids in the street arguing and being careless with their rubber ball. Then, I saw the slight decline in the streets and judged that the ball would roll towards the woman.


    I saw all of those in a split second."


    An noticed that she still had her cat eyes. He wondered whether her observation powers got stronger because she showed her mutations.


    "Is there a reason why Saviors would even want to show their mutations? Shouldn''t they keep it hidden?"


    "Manifesting mutations in reality boosts the power they give.


    Because I manifested my mutations, my senses are extremely enhanced to the point where I can hear and see everything within a 100-meter radius around me.


    If I don''t show my mutation, the radius lowers down to about 10 meters.


    Mutations are like an extra muscle¨Cjust like a bicep. Your muscles will be stronger if you flex rather than if you don''t. The downside is: you''ll get tired easily if you keep flexing."

 Chapter 9: House

    If she has the powers of a cat because of her mutation, then what would my Angel Wings give me?


    Because he was limited in what he knew about Angels, he couldn''t figure out what kind of powers it could give him.


    Is it empowering me right now?


    Just like Lizzie''s feline mutations, An should have a diminished power inside him constantly active. Even if he didn''t bring out his Angel Wings, he should be under a boosting effect.


    As for what that was, he was clueless.


    "But what about those who have 4-star mutations? You said that they always have their mutations active and they can''t retract it like¡­you¡­?"


    "Low rarity mutations are different. The powers they have are much weaker.


    They suffer the side effects of always having an active mutation."


    The truck finally stopped when they reached their intended destination.


    An didn''t notice it but they were currently at the center of the City, full of the hustle and bustle of thousands of people both mutated and not, going about their days.


    "Everyone''s hurrying home, with the sun setting and all."


    Lizzie got out of the truck and stretched her body. At this point, she already hid away her feline mutations, but her stretching looked strangely familiar to a cat.


    She looked back at An and asked teasingly, "Are you not going out?"


    He awkwardly scooted through the backseats until he finally reached the door. Before he took his first step outside, he realized this momentous asion.


    He took a deep breath and finally took that step.


    "How are you feeling?"


    He looked around.


    The first thing he noticed was that he was surrounded by healthy people. They didn''t suffer from malnutrition. They didn''t have that sunken look on their face.


    The buildings around him were made of all kinds of metals with creative architecture.


    It was better than seeing nothing but gray sands.


    But that wasn''t the most striking thing he saw.


    In front of him was the full majesty of the Savior HeadQuarters. It had elevated footsteps, and he saw hundreds of people walking in and out of the pce.


    Most of those were wearing either blue or green skin-tight suits with protective padding.


    The whole ce was painted white, with gold embellishments on the edges, giving it a pure and holy feel around it.


    He was amazed at its enormity. Even the main gate wasrger than anything he had ever seen.


    And even though the total area of the HeadQuarters was insignificantpared to the vastness of the Unimed Lands, An felt as if this building was even more immense than the deste gray desert.


    "I remember when I was a child and finally got to visit this ce. How nostalgic. It''s something else, isn''t it?"


    "Yes¡­it''s amazing."


    Lizzie smiled. "Well don''t miss it too much. You''ll be spending hundreds of years in that ce, you''ll end up sick of it."


    "Are we going there?"


    "We''ll go there tomorrow. It''s toote in the day and no one will be there to attend to your official registration.


    I''ll show you to your apartment first!"


    Lizzie guided An through the streets of the City Center. On the way, An was able to see mutations close up. He was amazed at how integrated those alien body parts were to everybody.


    "Your apartment house is provided to you by the City itself as part of your signing bonus. Since you''re a B ss Porter, you''ll have a better bonus than others."


    Lizzie walked while simultaneously exining stuff to An. She skillfully navigated her way through the crowd even when she was looking backward. Benefits of having feline instincts, I guess.


    No matter how much he tried to listen to her, An couldn''t help but let his eyes wander.


    There were food stalls selling all kinds of food. "Try our hot chip challenge! It''s to die for!"


    Kids were running around everywhere, ying and fighting at the same time with no supervision. "Hahaha, I''ll cut you with this knife if I catch you!"


    Everyone he saw was acting with no thoughts behind their actions. They were taking risks with no regard for their safety.


    Why would they?


    They had the security of God''s grace behind them. They all thought they were immortal.


    Should I tell them? He pondered before shaking off the thought.


    "Keep up! We''re almost there," shouted Lizzie a little bit further up ahead of the road.


    An then walked a little bit faster to catch up to her.


    "Are you that excited? You didn''t have to run."


    Was I running? I was just walking¡­


    Soon enough, the two of them walked to the end of the busy street and onto the residential area reserved for Saviors.


    "Are they always like that?" asked An as he looked back at the children poking each other with dangerous knives.


    "Oh, yeah," she said proudly. "There''s a lot of foot traffic on that street because it''s in the City Center. People go there to have fun and rx, including some Saviors.


    You should see them when it''s festival time. It gets crazy."


    A bunch of super-powered humans getting crazy with no regard for safety? Sounds¡­crazy.


    "We''re here. This is your house."


    An saw a single-floor modern houseplete with a backyard and a white picket fence. It was in the midst of a full neighborhood of houses simr to each other.


    They walked inside the unlocked house and Lizzie gave him the full tour.


    It had a decent-sized living roomplete with a couch facing the TV, a separate bedroom all to himself, a bathroom equipped with a shower, and a kitchen.


    It was everything he needed to live by himself for a thousand years if needed.


    But An didn''t know what to do. He lived in the Unimed Lands where everything was made out of gray sand. He didn''t even know how to flush a toilet.


    Lizzie saw how overwhelmed he was and exined the uses of every machine in the house, including how to turn on the lights.


    It took less than half an hour for An to get the gist of everything.


    "That''s about it. You better take a sleep now and prepare yourself for tomorrow morning.


    You''ll have to show off your skills in the training center in front of everyone, so reserve your energy, okay?"


    An nodded. "Thank you."


    She smiled. "No problem."


    And just as she was about to close the door behind her, she finally remembered what she was trying to say before she got interrupted.


    "Oh, I forgot to answer your question."


    "What?"


    "You asked me earlier if you can advance through the LifeSkill stages continuously with enough experience."


    "Ah¡­yes. Can you borate?"


    Lizzie nodded. "If you have enough experience, you can''t simply advance to the next stage.


    You need to head over to the Remedium so that you can advance. Only in those ces can you get the power to break through to the next stage.


    After that, you''ll need a consolidation period where your power realm will start to settle into the next stage."


    An took her words and etched them in his mind. He wanted to ask more, but he refrained.


    "Thank you again."


    She smiled and waved him goodbye before leaving his house.


    A few minutes after she left, Any on the wooden floor and closed his eyes.


    He contemted. It turned out that the reason why he couldn''t advance to the next stage was because he wasn''t in the proper ce.


    The Remedium is a ce where the God resides¡­is there something special in that ce?


    Since he didn''t know where that was, An couldn''t do anything about it. He would just have to be patient and wait till Lizzie told him more about the Remedium.


    He closed his eyes and focused on his Soul System. And as he did so¡­


    [You have sessfully advanced through the 1st Stage Student Realm of your SSS ss LifeSkill Cherubic Retribution]


    [Consolidation period: 12 hrs: 59 mins: 50secs]


    His consciousness slowly faded into the darkness as he slept on the floor.

 Chapter 10: Battle suit

    An awoke and immediately sat up. He looked around, trying to feel the safety of the soft gray sands underground the Unimed Lands.


    Shit! Did I sleep on the surface?!


    But when he realized that he wasn''t in the Unimed Lands, he heaved a sigh of relief.


    He looked around and saw bright rays of sunshine seep through the window sills in his new house. He still wasn''tfortable with anything, so he ended up sleeping on the floor.


    The bed felt too soft; it was toofortable.


    He then remembered about his advancement to the next stage of his LifeSkill.


    [LifeSkills]


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(1000 / 1000)


    Specialty: Vanguard


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    ¡ª¡ª¡ªConsolidating the 2nd Stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª2hrs : 30 mins : 12 secs


    Surprisingly, he was able to advance to the next stage of his LifeSkill.


    I thought I could only advance in the Remedium.


    ording to Lizzie, Saviors could only advance their powers in the Remedium.


    Is this because my skills are SSS ss-rated? Or is it because of my 10-star genus? But then why couldn''t I advance back in the Unimed Lands?


    An already tried to advance back then, but nothing happened. He only advanced once he entered Genesis City, a God''s Territory.


    But why did only my Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill advance? Why didn''t my Physique LifeSkill advance with it? It has enough experience¡­


    An could only guess that it had something to do with the mysterious specialty it had. There should only be two specialties: Vanguard and Operator. There wasn''t supposed to be a third one called GLOBAL, with a job such as a God.


    He then looked at the consolidation period and saw that he still had a few hours left till he fully advanced to the 2nd stage.


    Should I test out my skills?


    DING DONG


    A bell rang inside the house followed by a knock on the door.


    "Good morning, An. Are you ready for today?"


    Lizzie opened the door and walked inside. She was wearing a green version of her skin-tight suit with padding.


    "Why are you sitting on the floor? Whatever, you better hurry up and take a shower."


    "Are we going to the HeadQuarters?" he asked her as he got up off the floor.


    "Yes, you''ll be tested on your physical capabilities. After that, you''ll be able to take on missions ording to your skill level. Now go and put this on."


    Lizzie handed him a suitcase. "This is your battle suit."


    An opened it and saw the same green skin-tight suit with paddings that she was wearing, neatly folded into the case.


    He quickly went over to the bathroom and took a shower. After ten minutes, he came out with steaming out of the bathroom.


    He was wearing his first battle suit.


    She was surprised to see how natural he looked with it. The green skin-tight suit fitted well with An''s body, making him look like a full-fledged Savior.


    He slowly stretched his body, feeling the suit expand and retract along with his movements. It felt veryfortable, like a second skin.


    "It''s nice," hemented.


    "Good. You''ll be wearing that for most of the time, so tell me if you''re ufortable and we can change it. Are you ready?"


    An took a deep breath and nodded. "I''m ready."


    The two of them walked out of the house and onto the streets. They followed the road back to the way they came yesterday, moving past the busy morning streets of the City Center.


    As they walked, An noticed that people were looking at them with lingering eyes.


    When he looked back at them, they nodded at him with a very thankful smile.


    "It''s because of your battle suit," Lizzie exined. "The people here are very thankful to Saviors like us. We keep the peace in the City and make it afortable ce to live in."


    Only now did he feel the responsibility of wearing the suit. He thought it was just another piece of clothing. He didn''t know it was a symbol that people looked up to.


    As they got closer to the Savior HeadQuarters, he saw more and more people wearing battle suits like him.


    But they didn''t all wear green ones like him; some of them were blue.


    "The color of your battle suit distinguishes your LifeSkill specialty.


    Green battle suits are worn by Vanguards. They have more defensive paddings for more protection in the Remedium. It''s a little heavier, but Vanguards generally have better strength than their counterparts.


    Blue battle suits are worn by Operators. Theirs might look simple but don''t underestimate it. They haveplex circuitry and mechanisms embedded deep into the fabric. It''s kind of like their toolbelt to help with their work."


    An''s green battle suit looked simple and crudepared to some of the ones he saw others wearing.


    The older Saviors he saw were on their mounts, with strange weapons slung on their backs. He also noticed that their battle suits had symbols on their shoulders.


    Lizzie tapped his back. "Don''t worry. You''ll get your epaulet once you advance."


    An and Lizzie walked up the stairs and reached the main lobby of the Savior HeadQuarters.


    As soon as he stepped foot inside, he immediately saw arge electronic map of Genesis City just behind the reception area. Some specific parts of the map had disturbances, like a rock dropping on a still pond.


    "Good morning," Lizzie said to the receptionist. She wore a blue battlesuit, which meant that she was an Operator.


    "Good morning. What can I help you with?"


    Lizzie pointed towards An and said, "I''m here to register him. I already recorded it yesterday, so it should be in the system by now."


    The receptionist looked through herputer and saw that An only had a B ss LifeSkill. But when she saw his job, her facepletely changed.


    "Wow! You''re a B ss Porter! That''s great news. Your registration isplete, you only need to finish your assessment today and you''re all good!


    Just follow Miss Lizzie over to the testing center. Good luck, Savior!"


    The receptionist bumped her fist on her chest two times, and An awkwardly returned the salute.

 Chapter 11: Training hall

    Lizzie led An through the elevators to the side of the reception and picked the 2nd floor underground.


    DING


    Once the elevator door opened, An saw a strange swirling ck barrier in front of him. It looked like a viscous water dyed with a very potent ink, but the chaos in its waves defied every physicalw.


    "Come follow me," Lizzie said as she walked towards the barrier and disappeared to the other side.


    Her entrance disturbed the swirls and emanated through the barrier.


    An raised his hand and touched the ck barrier and felt no different than if he was touching air.


    His finger created a small wave that slowly dissipated.


    Once he knew that nothing bad happened to him, he got the courage to step through to the other side.


    And when he stepped over, his jaw dropped.


    He was back on the reception floor!


    In front of him was the same reception desk where he registered his identity. Opposite that was therge entrance of the main lobby of HeadQuarters.


    He even saw the crooked chairs and potted nts decorated around the room. Everything looked the same, down to the minute details.


    It was devoid of any people, but nothing changed¨Cexcept for one thing: the color.


    The original lobby was made out of pure white marble, exuding a sense of righteousness that perfectly encapsted the responsibility of Saviors.


    However, the flooring, the ceiling, and the magnificent white walls of the room were changed into a ck color, with the marbling turning into white.


    Everything changed into its opposite color.


    White turned into ck. ck turned into white.


    The natural green color of the potted fern nt on the corner turned into a bright purple color. The blinking red light on top of the elevator turned into a baby blue color.


    Everything was in their negative color.


    "Wee to the Remedium!" Lizzie said.


    Lizzie was the only one who maintained her original color, wearing her green battle suit.


    He looked down at his body and was relieved to see that he looked normal and wasn''t affected by this weird, reality-bending effect of the Remedium.


    "This is the Remedium?"


    "Technically, yes. But this is just a recreation of the Remedium so that we Saviors have the chance to hone our skills while outside of missions."


    "Why are we back at the reception area?"


    Lizzie spread her hands. "The Remedium is the dimension where the Gods reside. This whole city, Genesis City, is under the protection of one God named Genesis.


    By going to the Remedium, we can enter His body and His body is the City itself, so it mirrors reality."


    An frowned. He looked at his surroundings and felt ufortable. This is his body?


    "Canzers are the sickness in a God''s body and they manifest as monsters inside the Remedium.


    It is our job as Saviors to kill these Canzers and keep Him healthy."


    Lizzie then walked over to the main entrance of the lobby and walked outside. An followed suit, with his steps filled with carefulness.


    Once she opened the door, An saw the majesty of Genesis City once again. The dense buildings of different architecture remained, but their colors changed into something unfamiliar.


    The whole sky turned reddish brown.


    There were other Saviors down the steps, talking and rxing as they conversed with each other.


    Beyond them were the wide threene streets, except there wasn''t any mount or vehicles running around.


    Instead, there were Saviors using swords and spears to strike at straw human targets.


    "Oh, it''s been a while, Lizzie!"


    A few of the veteran Saviors greeted Lizzie as she went down the steps. Everyone was familiar with each other, given that most of them were hundreds of years old.


    "How''ve you guys been?" She greeted them back.


    One of them was bald and had an epaulet on his shoulders that indicated: 4th stage Student.


    "Who do we have here?" the man sized up An. "My name is Neuman the eighth, what''s yours?"


    Neuman VIII held out his hands to An and he epted it. The two men met hands, and for a moment, An felt a slight increase in pressure with the handshake.


    "An."


    He didn''t think much of it and simply returned the effort.


    The bald man''s eyes went wide. "Strong! Looks like we got a tiger over here."


    Lizzie chuckled when she realized Neumann''s little test. "He''s a B ss Porter. Of course his physical strength would be good."


    Neumann''s eyebrows raised. But he still didn''t understand how such a small kid could show such power. "But you don''t understand how strong¨C"


    "PORTER? Finally!"


    A young man who looked just a few years older than An, interrupted Neuman''s words.


    "You don''t know how long we''ve been waiting for a new porter. The other one was recruited by a different City and thest one''s already too powerful to join beginner missions."


    "Don''t overwhelm the newbie, Wemby." Neumann reigned in his friend.


    "Is my job really that rare?"


    Wemby nodded his head fervently.


    "Yes! You''ll definitely feel the differenceter. You''ll be drowning in Mission requests.


    You''re practically the only one that we low-level Students rely on to be our Porter."


    An didn''t know how to feel knowing that. More missions meant more deaths. More deaths meant getting more powerful, but it also meant seeing more suffering.


    Neumann saw the expression on An''s face. "I know you''re from the Unimed Lands, but don''t worry.


    Let us handle all the killing and all you have to do is watch how we massacre those Canzers.


    And you don''t have to worry about death. Angels will always keep you and everyone else safe and sound."


    ¡­that wasn''tforting¡­


    "What are we waiting for? Let''s go on a mission now!" Wemby said, running up the stairs. Lizzie got a hold of his arm and stopped him in his tracks.


    "Wait, An still hasn''t finished his test."


    "Aww¡­"


    Suddenly, Neumann got an idea in his head. "You know, we were just about to have a littlepetition within everyone here. Why don''t An join us?"


    Wemby immediately protested. "Are you crazy? Most of us are in the 2nd stage and even some in the 3rd stage! It''s unfair for someone who barely just got his LifeSkill.


    He won''t stand a chance! Do you want him to fail his test?!"

 Chapter 12: Flag competition

    "I think he''ll surprise us,"mented Neumann, but Wemby remained unconvinced.


    The gap between 1st and 3rd stage was massive, not to mention the fact that An gained his LifeSkill only a day ago. It''s the difference between a newborn child and a walking, talking toddler.


    But Neumann VIII, with his 150 years of wisdom on this Earth, thought it would be a good idea to go ahead with it.


    Lizzie thought it would be an interesting sight, but she still asked An if he was okay with it. After all, thispetition would decide whether he got higher-ss missions or not.


    The more high-ssed missions An participated in, the faster he''d gain experience, literally and figuratively.


    "What do you think? Do you want to join theirpetition?"


    An didn''t even think for a second before he agreed. "Yes. I want to see what I''m capable of."


    "That''s the spirit!" Neumann was overjoyed. Ever since he felt the strength of this new kid, he felt like he was more capable than he seemed. My fist still hurts after that handshake.


    Wemby shrugged. "Whatever. Just because you''re a beginner doesn''t mean I''ll go easy on you. I n on dominating thepetition.


    But since you''re Porter, I''ll help you out if you need it. Good luck, man!"


    Wemby walked towards the streets where other Saviors were practicing their skills. He started to stretch and warm up his body for thepetition.


    "Each week, we Saviors in the Student Realm have a littlepetition between us to decide who is more capable.


    This isn''t just some ytime for us. The results of thispetition are sent directly to HeadQuarters, where they can judge if we have what it takes to take on harder missions."


    Neumann guided An down the steps, exining why the Saviors all around them looked serious.


    "We''ve been missing a proper Porter for years, so a lot of other Saviors took it upon themselves to pick up the ck.


    Wemby over there has a job of a Scout, but he sometimes moonlights as a Porter when needed since he has the speed to keep up.


    That oval-headed guy with a shield and a spear has the job of an infantryman. He hates being a Porter, but we force him to since he''s pretty fast."


    Neumann introduced An to the rest of the Saviors who he was supposed to bepeting against. They all had varying jobs on their LifeSkills, but they were allpetent in their speed.


    From the symbol on their shoulders, An saw that most of them were in the 2nd stage, with some like Wemby and the oval-headed guy being in the 3rd stage.


    In total, there were about 25 Saviors that An waspeting against, all much more experienced than him.


    "Feeling nervous?" Lizzie asked.


    He shook his head. "I''m looking forward to it."


    "Good!"


    Neumann then pointed to the horizon of the City, towards the towering walls in the distance.


    "Your goal is that wall. At the start of thepetition, you''ll see shining red gs pop up around the street. They''ll either be at the top of houses or in a hidden and secluded street somewhere.


    Your job is to get to those gs before the others get to them first and bring them to the finish line.


    The Savior with the most gs at the finish line will win thispetition and be given a gracious reward from the HeadQuarters."


    An gulped and looked at hispetitors. Unlike them, he was aplete stranger in the City. He didn''t know the streets by their name like them.


    I just have to look for the shining gs. It doesn''t matter if I don''t know my way around the City.


    "Once you''re ready, join yourpetitors in the street."


    An walked down the steps and blended himself into the group. He positioned himself at the very back of the pack.


    This would be disadvantageous in a race, but An wanted to see his seniors'' tactics and try to incorporate them with his own.


    They''re all facing in different directions? The first thing he noticed was that each Savior positioned themselves to run towards different parts of the City.


    The oval-headed guy faced back toward the HeadQuarters, which seemedpletely counterproductive.


    Some faced slightly away from the wall and aimed toward the houses and buildings along the street.


    An was the only one facing directly towards the road up the wall.


    Isn''t the fastest way towards the gs is by going straight?


    Wemby walked back and positioned himself beside An. "A little advice for you, my friend. You better take height first."


    "Why?"


    But before Wemby could reply, Neumann shouted to the group from above the stairs. "Thepetitions will start on 3¡­2¡­"


    Wemby then looked towards An and said, "You need to take advantage of gravity or else you''llg behind."


    "...1! GO!"


    An had no chance to ask more questions from Wemby. Thepetition already started and the rest of the Saviors already elerated towards their paths.


    Out in the distance, An saw a column of glowing red gs that led straight toward the wall.


    In the midst of the white roads and ck buildings, the bright red waving gs in the middle of the street immediately caught his attention.


    He immediately started running towards them.


    These gs looked the easiest to capture, yet none of the other Saviors chose to run in a straight line like An. They all chose to jump to the top of the buildings and get the gs up there.


    I have no time to contemte. I just have to get those gs!


    After just a few seconds of running in the middle of the street, An finally grasped his first red g.


    Back at the top of the stairs, Lizzie asked Neumann why none of the otherpetitors copied An''s strategy. It seemed like it was the easiest route.


    Neumann saw An pick up his first g and slow down. "He must be noticing by now."


    "What is it?"


    "Those aren''t normal gs. They each weigh about 100 kilos each. Just that one g will slow all of them down by almost half their original speed."


    An observed the g in his hands and slowed down his pace on purpose. Neumann thought it was because of the weight. On the contrary¡­


    I got the g just like that? It''s this easy? Why aren''t they capturing the gs like me?


    An barely even felt anything from the g.

 Chapter 13: Speed

    The rest of thepetitors didn''t follow An''s strategy. They quickly climbed to the roofs of the buildings to get some height.


    It didn''t take them long after climbing to get their first gs ced at the chimneys and roofs.


    Their speeds got visibly slower, with the gs on their belt weighing them down significantly.


    They struggled with their jumps from building to building as they chased that bright red g in the distance.


    Some of them kept themselves on top of the buildings even with the equivalent of three hundred kilograms weighing them down. These Saviors were either at the 3rd stage or near the peak of the 2nd stage.


    Most of thepetitors, after getting two gs and having 200 kilos weigh them down, felt their speed slow down to the point where they couldn''t bridge the gap between the buildings.


    They were forced to jump down.


    But this was still part of their strategy. They used the weight of the gs as an elerator to speed them diagonally down the streets, giving them a boost in speed.


    Soon enough, there were some already running towards An''s tail.


    But, surprisingly, they couldn''t catch up to An, a newbie who was only at the first stage. They wanted to pass him by so they immediately used their LifeSkills.


    Their entire bodies glowed in different colors.


    One of the men raised his hand and thrust it forward shouting, "Wind-cutting Spear Thrust!"


    His body surged forward, his hand spearing through the air and creating a frictionless running space for him. He was able to catch up just behind An.


    The rest of them used their LifeSkills to keep their momentum while carrying hundreds of kilograms worth of gs.


    An, at this point, already picked up his third g and was on his way to pick up the fourth.


    He had no trouble picking them up because everything was lined up for him nicely in the middle of the road.


    Fourth g picked up!


    It was at this point that the Saviors behind An were sweating andboring hard with each stride. They pushed their bodies and powers to the limit.


    Yet they couldn''t surpass An. He kept running at the top of the pack, picking up gs along the way.


    Why isn''t he slowing down? He''s got five gs! That''s five hundred kilograms!


    Is he really at the first stage? No way, man!


    I''m only at two gs and I can''t even keep up. How''s that possible? I''m near the peak of the 1st stage!


    They couldn''t believe that they were losing to a kid who was only at the beginning of the 1st stage Student Realm.


    Even if he was a Porter, they should still have the advantage in strength. They should be able to keep up with him at the least!


    Then, just as An picked up his sixth g, someonended beside him from one of the buildings above.


    "Wow! Six gs. That''s impressive!" Wemby praised An when he saw him leading the pack.


    "With that much, you''ll be able to secure third ce easily! Good luck, man!" Wemby then used his B ss Scout LifeSkill ''Rope Gain''.


    A brown string made out of fiber and hemp shot out of his palms and tied itself to amppost in the distance. With one pull, Wemby was able to propel himself forward, taking the lead from An.


    But his reign wasn''t long.


    Another guy from the top of the buildings finallynded down. It was the oval-faced guy, whose natural speed coupled with gravity allowed him to surpass An.


    He then raised his arm as if he was wielding a shield. He activated his B ss Infantryman LifeSkill called ''Shield Thrust''.


    His stationary pose of holding a shield suddenly moved forward, as if he was gliding down the street. The only thing left behind was a blurry image of his pose.


    Soon enough, he was able to overtake Wemby.


    The two of them were head to head, bumping shoulders with each other in a bid to take the lead from one another.


    The rest of thepetitors knew this would happen. Those two were at the 3rd stage of the Student Realm; it was natural for either of them to be the winner.


    Although An was impressive, the difference between 1st stage and 3rd stage was far toorge.


    An already had six gs under his belt. It was enough to get third ce, a very admirable show of talent and prowess.


    At least, that''s what they thought.


    He must be running out of steam by now¡­


    But An wasn''t going down without a fight. He saw that both Wemby and the oval-faced guy had 8 gs each, and they were going to get more soon enough.


    I want to win.


    An stopped jogging. He started to run with all his might. For the first time since he acquired his powers, An let go of the beast hidden inside his body.


    He pushed his leg muscles even harder, letting it burn and strain.


    The rest of thepetitors were stunned and awestruck when they saw An elerate at much higher speeds. He was leaving them all in the dust!


    They all thought it was already impressive for An to keep up with them. But they didn''t think that he''d be able to speed up and try to outrace the two 3rd stagepetitors.


    An didn''t have to worry about getting gs, so he ran as fast as he could to catch up to the two leaders of the pack.


    Meanwhile, the two at the top of the pack weren''t paying attention to what was happening behind them. They thought they only had to worry about each other.


    Wemby jostled the oval-faced guy, as they both went for their ninth g.


    Everything was normal until they suddenly felt a slight vibration from behind. They wanted to look back and see what was happening, but they couldn''t take their eyes off the g.


    The two of them extended their hands to try and reach for the g first.


    Their hands pushed each other as they reached for the staff. Wemby was about to take the lead, but then he saw something incredulous.


    He saw a third hand suddenly snatch the g right under their noses!


    Both of their jaws dropped as they suddenly saw An run forward ahead of them with the g in his hands!


    They couldn''t believe what they were seeing! They thought he would be exhausted and weighed down by now. But instead, An sped up even more! That wasn''t his fastest speed?!


    An quickly took another g in the distance, making his total the same as them. They all held the same eight gs, with the same weights.


    Wemby didn''t want to do this, but he couldn''t let a 1st stage novice beat someone like him at the 3rd stage. He had his pride to protect.


    He activated his frog legs mutation, turning his thighs thicker but his foot thinner. On his next stride, he squatted down and gathered the power in his legs.


    With one burst of motion, he soared through the air andnded just beside An.


    The oval-faced guy didn''t want to be left behind either and also used his Minotaur mutation. His extremities, his arms and legs, turnedrger and hairier like that of a horse''s legs.


    With four legs running in total, he sped up and ran beside An.


    The three front runners saw the final g in the distance.


    At this point, the two of them were gasping for air, their thighs burning and their strength on theirst leg. They used all their energy just to keep up with An.


    Yet unbelievably, they saw An gaining distance from them.


    HE WAS STILL ACCELERATING!


    Wemby and the oval-faced guy were helpless as they watched An effortlessly speed past them and take thest g for himself.


    An crossed the finish line.

 Chapter 14: Impressive

    All of them were gasping for air, with Wembyying on the ground and letting his legs cool off. He couldn''t believe what he saw.


    How was it possible that a 1st stage Student was able to speed past two Saviors who were in the 3rd stage? That was absurd!


    Sure, An had a Physique LifeSkill perfect for running while carrying heavy weights. But that still wasn''t enough exnation as to how An overpowered thebination of a speed LifeSkill and a mutation working together.


    Were Porters that impressive? Or was it just An''s innate talent?


    "Ha¡­ha¡­.that was amazing. You¡­you''re so much faster than me. I almost can''t believe it." Wemby forced himself up and congratted An.


    How embarrassing would it be for him if he stayed lying on the ground while An stood tall barely even catching his breath?


    "Thanks. That''s the first time I''ve ever run that fast. It''s¡­freeing."


    The oval-faced guy walked over to An and held out his hand. "Oliver. Congrats."


    An shook hands with the guy and was happy to finally know his name.


    "Looks like he''s really impressed with you. He even gave you his name!" Lizzie and Neumann both walked over to An and congratted him on his very unexpected win.


    Lizzie was very proud of An. She was the one who recruited him, and she felt a fraction of his achievements as her achievements.


    Neumann, on the other hand, was speechless. He knew that An was strong, evidenced by his strong grip, but Neumann didn''t think that An would be able to beat two of the fastest 3rd stage Saviors head to head.


    "You won thispetition fair and square."


    An finally let go of the gs in his belt, and a slight earthquake emanated from the crash. After a moment, the gs disintegrated into particles and disappeared.


    "Looks like we have a very reliable Porter in our midst. We''ll be relying on you for most of our missions, and I hope you show that amazing power of yours in our adventures."


    The rest of thepetitors all approached An and congratted him.


    They introduced themselves to him, in the hopes that he would be the Porter in their missions. If they had a teammate like An, they could be sure that their missions would go smoothly.


    Everyone returned to the HeadQuarters and they rxed on the steps and conversed with each other.


    An learned that most of them were older than 100 years old.


    "Believe it or not, I only started this Savior business 25 years ago. At that time, I never thought I had the talent to fight Canzers.


    So, I postponed my Draft. I never bothered with it because I was content with my life.


    But everything changed because of my daughter. She participated in the Draft as soon as she could and it turned out that she had an A ss LifeSkill!


    She rose through the ranks, and I felt alienated from her. In an attempt to understand her better, I did my Draft to be a Savior and the rest was history."


    Neumann had a very noble reason as to why he became a Savior.


    An found it interesting that even at more than a hundred years old, Neumann was still able to make life-changing decisions like a kid trying to find his way.


    Meanwhile, people in the Unimed Lands barely even live past the age of 20¡­


    Must be the effect of immortality, An thought.


    "I''m not like old Neumann the eighth over here," Wemby teased. "I didn''t start my Savior journey till I was only a hundred years old. I was a regr old noodle shop owner but after 80 years, I got tired of it."


    Wemby and Neumann both startedte in their years. But it still took them a significant amount of time to advance through the stages.


    20 years might seem like a blink to them, but to An, it was a whole lifespan.


    "Does it take that long to advance through the stages?"


    Neumann and Wemby had a shared self-deprecatingugh. "If you''re like us plebs, then yeah it''ll take you tens of years to advance.


    One of the reasons why we''re stuck in this stage is because there are a lot of Saviors with the same job as us. We''re a bit overpopted. And there are barely any missions that are suitable for low-level Saviors like us.


    We only get about 3 missions a month in a good year. So, it''ll take us years to umte experience."


    Wemby patted An on the back. "But you have talent. You''ll be getting more and more missions in the future.


    Andst I heard, there''s been a surge of missions ever since the Sr Event. So, it''ll be easier to get experience now more than ever."


    "Oh yeah, have you guys heard about that Sr Storm? I heard it''s been messing up some of the systems in the City," one of the Saviorsmented.


    "Oliver, you''re the oldest out of all of us. Has this ever happened before?"


    The infamous oval-faced guy who was sitting on the railing of the stairs all by himself spoke only one word. "No."


    "Either way, I know it''s bad to say this, but I''m d there are more missions. More experience for us. Who knows. Maybe after this, there''ll be a drought."


    "And lucky for you, newbie! I think that you''ll be able to advance to the second stage in just a month!"


    An remained silent as they talked about the ''fortunate'' Sr Event. Knowing the ominous reason behind it, he couldn''t celebrate quite as well as those guys.


    Should I tell them? Would they even believe me?


    Lizzie saw the worried expression on An''s face and felt partially responsible.


    She was the one who put those thoughts of Angels and extinction in An''s head. She regretted ever saying those words aloud when it wasn''t even true.


    Those things that fell from the sky weren''t angels. It was a weird sr event, nothing more.


    So, she subtly changed the conversation.


    "You did quite well in thepetition," she praised him. "But I suggest that you don''t activate your LifeSkill all the time. You get tired easily, right?


    An''s mouth opened in shock.


    "It''s like a muscle. You have to deactivate it to recover from the strain," Lizzie added but An wasn''t listening.


    Wait. I have to activate my LifeSkill?

 Chapter 15: Activate?

    An didn''t know that he had to activate his LifeSkill in order to use it. He always thought it was a passive power, something that was always active.


    But now that he thought about it, those Saviors hepeted against all used their LifeSkill. Their bodies glowed in a different light as they activated their powers.


    This meant that he won against all of them only by his sheer physical prowess.


    His muscles were the only factor in his speed.


    If he was already that fast in his base form, what would happen if he used his LifeSkill?


    He couldn''t even imagine it.


    The problem was¨Che didn''t even know how to activate his LifeSkill.


    He couldn''t even ask his question out loud. How would they react if they found out that An never used his LifeSkill at all during the race where he defeated two Saviors in the 3rd stage Student Realm?


    They would freak out. They wouldn''t believe it.


    And if An showed them the truth, then they would wonder and doubt if his skill was only B ss.


    "Lizzie. I had a little bit of trouble activating my LifeSkill a couple of times during the race. Is there a reason for that?"


    Lizzie nodded. "It''s normal for beginners like you to feel difficulty in using your LifeSkill for the first time.


    I''m surprised that you were able to use it in the first ce.


    Thatst sprint of yours when you activated your Physique LifeSkill to overtake both Oliver and Wemby was a sight to behold.


    Porters truly are a different breed. It looked like you were just running harder."


    I didn''t use my LifeSkill¡­I was just running¡­


    "Is there a way to master that?"


    "Yes. You just need to reach deep down your Soul System and¡­um¡­I don''t know the right words for it, but it''s sort of like turning on a switch in the dark.


    At first, you''ll stumble and miss the switch. But if you do it enough times, you''ll hit it and know the general direction of the switch.


    Do it more, and you''ll be able to navigate through the darkness and turn the switch on anytime you like."


    An looked at his hands and frowned. "I just have to practice and hope that I''ll activate it?"


    "Yeah. it''ll be easier for you the next time since you already got a feel for the switch during thepetition."


    "...yeah¡­"


    BEEP BEEP BEEP


    Suddenly Lizzie''s wrist started to blink in a red light. She looked at it and saw that she was being summoned.


    "What is it?"


    "It''s HeadQuarters. I have been selected for a mission."


    "Already?"mented Neumann. "You justpleted a missionst week and just came back from the Unimed Lands."


    Lizzie helplessly smiled. "It can''t be helped. That Sr Event upped the frequency of missions."


    She looked towards An and apologized. "Sorry, I''m going to have to leave you in their care while I finish this mission."


    "You don''t have to feel sorry for him. We''ll take good care of him," Wemby said as he held An by the shoulders.


    "Should I go home?"


    "No. It''ll be beneficial for you to stay here and watch morepetitions among other Saviors."


    "Yes. You''ll get to see your very first Canzer. Some of our damage dealers are having a littlepetition to see who can defeat the most Canzers," Neumann added.


    Canzers? I''ll finally get to see what they are?


    BZZ BZZ


    Lizzie''s wrist buzzed again as it warned her to prepare for her uing mission. "I have to go now. Congrats again, An!"


    She walked up the stairs and back towards the elevator that led back to the real world. She waved everyone goodbye before entering the door of the HeadQuarters.


    "Want to spar?" Wemby asked An.


    "Stop it, Wemby. Let the newbie rest."


    "Can you tell me more about Canzers?"


    "Oh, what''s this? Is our newbie getting excited to see those sweet, sweet experiences? You want to go on a mission that badly?" Wemby poked his ribs and teased him.


    An waved his hands trying to solve the misunderstanding. "No, no. I''m just a little bit curious."


    "Don''t worry, kid. All of us have felt the same way before. It''s fine. I''ll teach you everything you need to know on how to kill a Canzer."


    Neumann lightly punched Wemby''s head. "He''s a Porter. It''s not his job to kill Canzers. That''s ours."


    "Hehe, but the newbie seemed like he wanted to know."


    "I don''t need to know how to kill Canzers. I want to know if there are different kinds of Canzers and all that. Are they all the same?"


    Wemby raised his chin all proudly. "If you want to know that, then I can tell you."


    Neumann had to intervene quickly before Wemby spread more misinformation. "Wemby, you don''t know anything about Canzers."


    "You don''t?" An asked. How can they kill Canzers if they don''t even know anything about them?


    "Others don''t like to admit this, but in truth, we Vanguards don''t have to know anything about Canzers. All we have to do is kill them.


    As for knowing what kind of Canzers we''re facing and how to deal with them, that''s the Operators'' job.


    Lizzie told you about the two different specialties, right?"


    An nodded. Vanguards fought in the Remedium, on the frontlines. Operators stayed in the real world.


    "Well, the Operator''s job is to find the Canzer''s location, find out what type of Canzer they are, and know how to deal with them.


    Then, once they figure all that out, they send out an order in the HeadQuarters and they find suitable Saviors to finish the job.


    You saw Lizzie get a mission, right? That means that a group of Operators found her unique set of skills suitable to defeat the Canzers.


    It''s a well-oiled machine where every Savior, whether they are Operators or Vanguards, contributes equally to keeping the City safe."


    Wemby felt that Neumann''s exnation was a little bit too unbiased.


    "The only thing you have to know about Operators is that they''re standoffish, arrogant, and think they''re better than everyone else."

 Chapter 16: Competition

    "Don''t mind him."


    "It''s true though. Those Quills don''t do anything but order us around. If you even try to talk to them about mission cements, they''ll ignore you like a ghost."


    Neumann felt helpless as Wemby let out his frustrations. Although he didn''t necessarily deny the words of Wemby, it still wasn''t right to bash the other party in front of a newbie.


    "Quills?"


    "It''s what we call them, those Operators. They''re called that because the only thing they do is stay in their offices and write, hence Quill."


    An didn''t know that there was a sense of friction between the two specialties. And by the looks of it, there was a deep-seated frustration pent up from one side rather than the other.


    "They call us something too," Neumann added. "They call us Vanguards as Knives. After all, ording to them, that''s all we''re good for¨Cas des.


    They diagnose the Canzers we''re fighting, they are the ones who think up a solution, and they''re the ones who decide which Savior fights the Canzers¨C"


    Wemby couldn''t help himself and finished the thought. "We''re just mindless tools that cut wherever they want us to cut. We''re just the knives of a ''magnificent'' surgeon."


    I didn''t know the dynamic between the two was so strained. But if what they said was true, I can see how they would feel underappreciated.


    "Let''s stop the talk here," Neumann saw that Wemby was getting worked up again.


    Just then, the doors at the top of the HeadQuarters opened wide.


    "Looks like the stars of the show have arrived."


    Neumann was d that they arrived so early. If they didn''t, then Wemby could get so worked up he''d start a fight with the Quills again.


    "Who are they?" asked An.


    They all wore green battle suits, which meant that they were all Vanguards¨Cor Knives as others liked to call it.


    He also noticed that they had weapons slung behind their backs. Wemby, Neumann, and the rest didn''t have any weapons on them. But this new group had it.


    "They''re here to see who can kill the most Canzers under a time limit in an intensepetition.


    And unlike us old folks, these are real talents. Even though they''re so young, they''ve already surpassed us at the 3rd stage and above.


    And to answer your question, this particr group of Saviors are the Damage Dealers, they are the ones that actually fight the Canzer head-on with their LifeSkills."


    "You guys don''t fight Canzers?"


    "We do. We can fight Canzers in a pinch, but that''s not our job. Wemby''s a Scout, which means he''s running around and distracting the enemy.


    I''m a Tank, so I just soak up the damage and protect my team.


    Oliver is an infantryman, which means he can deal and take damage. But that means he won''t be good at both."


    Wemby then pointed to one guy whose green battle suit was altered to have a hoodie. The hood obscured his eyes.


    "That guy''s already at the 3rd stage but he''s only been doing this for 10 years. He''s a mage, which means he can deal AOE (area of effect) damage to arge group of Canzers.


    I think he''ll win this week''spetition because mages have an inherent advantage at dealing with lots of Canzers."


    There were a lot of jobs within the group. There was a sniper, a rogue, an assassin, and other jobs whose main responsibility was to damage the Canzer in lots of different ways.


    The group of ''geniuses'' walked down the steps and had an aura of seriousness around them. Even though they were part of the same group, there was a sense ofpetition between them.


    As they all walked past An and the group, everyone''s eyes subconsciously went toward the young woman at the very back of the line.


    Even within the group of geniuses, she had an air of superiority that could not be ignored. In the Remedium where ck is white, and white is ck, her straight golden hair seemed to have an inherent glow that further attracted everyone who had eyes.


    "Woah¡­I didn''t think she''d join thepetition. An, forget what I said about them being talented. She is the real talent.


    She''s a recruit from overseas. Our City snatched her away from a Metropolis by offering her more benefits, the most important of which is a rare Genus.


    She joined us just a few days ago, and she''s already causing quite a ruckus.


    She''s the real deal. She has an S ss LifeSkill with a DPS job!"


    An watched as the girl walked down without ncing at anyone. She looks young. She looked to be the same age as him.


    One representative of the group walked over to Neumann and greeted him by saluting.


    They both bumped their fist on their chest two times as a sign of respect.


    "Sir Neumann. How''ve you been?" The man had a great head full of brown hair down to his waist.


    "Been doing good, Zonald. It''s surprising you got her to join thepetition."


    Zonald sighed. "You don''t know how much I had to pester her. That kid doesn''t listen to anyone¨Ctypical golden child and all that.


    The only way I was able to convince her was when I said that the prize for thepetition would be a mission to the Remedium. The kid''s enthusiastic, I''ll give her that."


    Even though Zonald was exasperated from dealing with an aloof girl like her, there was a hint of pride on his face.


    After all, it wasn''t every day that he got to mentor an S ss talent.


    Wemby couldn''t take it anymore and dragged An to face Zonald. "Have you met our newest recruit? He''s a B ss Porter!"


    Zonald and the rest of his group stopped and looked at An. Even they knew the importance of a Porter, especially since there was ack of one in the Student Realm.


    The only one who didn''t bother to look was the girl.


    "Not only that, he was able to beat all of us in ourpetition! He''s able to beat two 3rd stage Students in a fair race, with mutations and all that while just being in the 1st stage!"


    Everyone''s eyes were filled with amazement and awe when they heard that.


    Meanwhile, the girl and An finally saw eye to eye.


    Apetitive fire lit up in her eyes.

 Chapter 17: Damage dealers

    After a moment, she retracted her gaze. She flicked her hair away from him and continued to practice her sword stance.


    "That''s amazing! He''s able to do that at just the 1st stage? How long¨C"


    "He just got drafted yesterday."


    Znd''s jaws dropped, and so did everyone in the group who considered themselves geniuses.


    Even they didn''t think they could aplish that feat when they just started out. The innate talent it took to do that was out of their grasp.


    And if they found out that An hadn''t even used his LifeSkill to do it, they''d probably fall from shock.


    "Hear that Yasmine? We have a transcendental talent over here," Znd said out loud, purposefully egging her on. He knew that she was apetitive one who wanted to outshine everybody.


    Swish swish


    Just like he predicted, Yasmine increased the intensity of her sword stances.


    "We gotta go now and start thepetition or else she''ll be having a fit." Zonald said goodbye to Neumann and the rest before going down the steps and onto the streets.


    When Zonald left, An asked Neumann what kind ofpetition they were going to have.


    "It''s just like the Draft. They have batches of Canzersing at them. The more Canzers they kill, the better."


    Wemby butted in. "You know the drill. You must have killed dozens of monsters in your draft, mister B ss"


    An simplyughed and didn''t answer.


    Once everyone was gathered, Zonald faced the street and exined the rules of thepetition.


    "Okay. Each of you is assigned an area you''re going to protect. Canzers are going to be swarming you. Most kills win, got it?"


    Once everyone nodded their heads, Zonald signaled to everyone, "3¡­2¡­1¡­GO!"


    Once the countdown ended, thepetitors all took their spots. Some stayed on the streets and some took spots atop the buildings. They chose whichever ce they could leverage their skills.


    Soon enough,rge insect arthropods the size of a human torso came crawling out of the sewers on the curb.


    Itsyered chitinous exoskeleton gleamed an azure blue color. Under its torso were three pairs of thin, spiky legs that allowed it to traverse any terrain.


    The few ones stopped and waved their two antennae around, trying to sense their target.


    Then, tens of these monsters spread around and chose their prey evenly. All 20petitors faced 5 Canzers each, giving them the same difficulty.


    "Those are Canzers?"


    Neumann nodded. "Yes. Technically. These are the watered-down versions of the real thing. It''s not that we can''t capture a live specimen of Canzer, it''s more that we don''t want to.


    It''s way too dangerous to y around with. Some Operators tried to do it, but it always ended in disaster."


    An looked at the monsters that crawled towards thepetitors like a tsunami.


    "Don''t underestimate them. They can still do real damage, that''s why a lot of Saviors use them as practice.


    Of course, it''s way better to fight real Canzers, but like I said, a mission is hard toe by. Well¡­was hard toe by."


    Despite being overwhelmed by these monsters, thepetitors didn''t panic. They all had their tactics to deal with the assault.


    The hooded mage chose the perfect spot for his LifeSkill. He positioned himself at a choke point in the street. The monsters had to squish themselves at a very thin gap between the buildings to get to him.


    With one chant: "Cone of Fiery Rage!"


    A tornado made out of mes erupted from his palms and toward the group of arthropod monsters.


    In just mere seconds, he was able to burn their shells ck, heating their innards till death.


    [You have reaped the death of simple creatures: Pseudo Canzers]x5


    [You have gained 25 experience]


    An was surprised to see that he was able to reap the deaths of these monsters.


    This Gluttonous Soul mutation is like a cheat!


    It wasn''t that An was ungrateful, but it seemed unfair of him to benefit from their hard work.


    The otherpetitors continued to defeat those monsters batch by batch, and An gained experience from all of them.


    [You have reaped the death of simple creatures: Pseudo Canzers]x20


    [You have gained 100 experience]


    Out of all thepetitors, there was one of them who moved with grace and strength. She skillfully used her sword to cut any Canzers she sawing towards her.


    For her, this wasn''t apetition. This was practice.


    She let some monsterse near her, only for her to use her reflexes and skills to dodge them at the veryst second before she used the tip of her sword to skewer her prey.


    As thepetition went underway and batch after batch of Pseudo Canzers were killed, the difficulty slowly rose.


    The monsters grew wings that allowed them to lunge towards thepetitors at surprising speeds. Not only that, their heads grew a sharp beetle''s horn that could cut through concrete.


    The sniper who used a gun to kill the monsters started having difficulty as the monsters learned how to fly. He lost his high ground.


    Soon enough, he was enveloped by the monsters who threatened to skewer his body.


    "I give up!" he shouted just as he was about to get hit in his stomach.


    Just then, the Pseudo Canzers around him stopped in their tracks and stopped moving. The sniper was safe.


    "Unlike what Wemby tried to tell you, Operators aren''t that bad. Without them, we wouldn''t be able to have this safe training ground.


    They are the ones that created this and programmed all its functions," exined Neumann.


    Wemby indignantly crossed his arms. "Hmph. Maybe just a little bit."


    As thepetition continued, more and more Saviors dropped out. Soon enough, it was just the mage and Yasmine leftpeting.


    The arthropod monsters continued evolving each batch, with their exoskeletons getting harder and harder to prate.


    The mage''s weakness was soon discovered. They were great at dealing damage with a lot of enemies at once, but they couldn''t concentrate that on a single enemy.


    Unable to kill the monsters with just one casting of his skill, the mage was soon overwhelmed with angry monsters.


    The smoke emitted from their burning exoskeletons sent a very frightening image to the mage.


    "I quit!" he said.


    The only one left standing, as expected, was the transcendent talent with the S ss DPS LifeSkill.


    She had no trouble piercing through the exoskeletons that the mage had trouble with.


    Everyone watched with amazement as she handled these monsters with ease. Her talent in the sword was truly a sight to behold.


    "What an insane talent!" praised Neumann. He looked at An and said, "Do you know that she''s the same age as you?"


    "Really?" No wonder she looked as young as me.


    "From what I heard, she was able to reach the 2nd stage of the Student Realm just two weeks after her Draft! Can you believe it?"


    Just then, An saw a few words pop out in front of him.


    [Consolidation period over]


    [You have sessfully advanced your SSS ss Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill to the 2nd stage of the Student Realm]


    "I can''t believe it¡­"

 Chapter 18: Solid

    "How many batches have there been? Wait! She''s already fighting Canzers at the 3rd stage Student difficulty when she''s only at the 2nd stage?"


    The swarm of monstersing her way was designed only for those in the 3rd stage Student Realm. She wasn''t supposed to be able to stand a chance against these!


    A one-stage difference in the Canzer''s difficulty was a chasm that almost none of the other Saviors could surpass.


    Yet she was able to do it.


    The fact that she was still able to survive was impressive enough, but the fact that she was still striving on without quitting meant that she was trying to go to the next batch.


    She wanted to try and reach the 4th stage difficulty!


    Unfortunately, the difference in the Canzer''s hard shells and her thrusting prowess was too hard to ovee.


    Not to mention the Canzers getting smarter as the other monsters learned from the deaths of theirrades, she was getting too overwhelmed.


    Her graceful movements turned sloppy and forced as she tried to exert more power. This led to gaps in her sword stances that the Canzers were able to exploit.


    The weaknesses in DPS were seen in her battle. She might be good at dealing tons of damage to one enemy, but she''s vulnerable to a swarm of theming her way.


    She tried as hard as she could, but she still fell short of defeating the final batch of monsters that came her way. She wasn''t able to even touch the feet of the 4th stage Student difficulty.


    "I¡­lost¡­"


    She knelt on the street, devastated at herck of power.


    But for the rest of the spectators and thepetitors who knew how difficult the feat she showed, they all pped at her with amazement.


    She truly showed the difference in having an S ss LifeSkill. She was able to defeat Canzers a whole stage above her strength!


    But that wasn''t enough for her.


    As soon as she heard that there was another beginner who was able to beat Saviors two stages higher than his own, she vowed to break his record.


    Unfortunately, she underestimated the difficulty in doing that.


    "Why are you so down? You won!" Znd went over to Yasmine andforted her.


    "But I didn''t get to the 4th stage¡­" she muttered.


    Znd looked back at An and realized that she waspeting with him. He underestimated howpetitive she was.


    "Haaa," he sighed. "You kids are so impatient. Don''t worry. You''ll get your chance to outshine him some other time. You''re an S ss talent, you''ll get better much faster and much further."


    Meanwhile, An looked at his Soul System and saw his new advancement.


    [An]


    [Bloodline: Angelic Reaper of Souls]


    [Genus]


    ¡ª1x (3-star) Human


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Grim Reaper


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Angel


    [Mutation]


    ¡ª (10-star) Gluttonous Soul


    ¡ª (10-star) Lightspeed Angel Wings


    [LifeSkills]


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(1000 / 1000)


    Specialty: Vanguard


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª2nd stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(0 / 2000)


    [Avable Experience: 12,131.2]


    An saw the in his Soul System that corresponded to his Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill.


    The blue wisps that gathered at the very core of the were nowpletely solid. It had stabilized into a firm and well-grounded foundation for his LifeSkill.


    Inparison, his Physique LifeSkill was still filled with vibrating wisps, with no sign of it ever congealing into one solid piece.


    He also noticed that he could advance his Vanguard LifeSkill to the 3rd stage of the Student Realm immediately.


    I have enough experience, so why not?


    He gained a total of 4000 extra experience just from reaping the deaths of the Pseudo Canzers in thepetition.


    With just a thought, he was able tomand 2000 wisps by the side of his Soul System and flood the secondyer of the until it couldn''t take any more wisps.


    An invisible barrier prevented the wisps from overpopting the secondyer.


    And as soon as the core filled up, another set of words popped up in front of him.


    [You have sessfully advanced through the 2nd Stage Student Realm of your SSS ss LifeSkill Cherubic Retribution]


    [Consolidation period: 47 hrs: 59 mins: 50secs]


    An only had to wait for 2 days until he fully consolidated his power to the 3rd stage Student Realm.


    If anyone found out that he was advancing through the stages like this, they would lose their minds and curse the gods for their unfairness.


    An''s way of getting experience by just reaping the souls of the dead was nothing more than an overpowered cheat.


    As amazing as it sounded, An didn''t like that he had to see the death and suffering of a lot of living beings just to get stronger.


    Just as he said that, he suddenly saw something out of the corner of his eye.


    It was a little twitch, a very minute movement from one of the Pseudo Canzers thaty frozen on the streets. One of its thin cockroach legs moved by a quarter inch.


    He didn''t know if it was because of his enhanced physique or because of his attentiveness, but he saw it as clear as day.


    "Okay, this week''spetition is over and I think we saw two of the best performances ever. And it was done by two beginners at that! Let''s give them a round of apuse!"


    Znd faced all the Saviors in the Remedium and started pping, and all of them followed in turn.


    All of them were rejoicing for the recruits. They were more than happy to wee these overwhelming transcendent talents in their midst, especially a capable Porter like An.


    CLAP CLAP CLAP


    An secretly turned towards Neumann and whispered to him.


    "What happens to those monsters?"


    When the contestants couldn''t handle the monsters anymore, they quit thepetition, and the monsters were forced to stay still through some sort of invisible mechanism.


    "Oh, are you talking about the twitching? Those Canzers are still alive, but they are being forced by the Remedium itself to stay locked in ce."


    "What happens to them?"


    "They stay there till they die. Don''t worry about them. They won''t be able to move again. They''ll rot in ce."


    An looked at the frozen Canzers and felt¡­pity. Those poor monsters were suffering.


    He didn''t like suffering. He didn''t like blood. He was a pacifist.


    I need to kill them, he thought.

 Chapter 19: It鈥檚 mercy

    An couldn''t bear to live with the thought that those monsters lived the rest of their pitiful lives suffering in ce without being able to do anything.


    While the rest of the Saviors were congratting both him and Yasmine, An ignored all of their apuse and headed down the steps toward the battlefield.


    Everyone wondered where he was going.


    "An?" Neumann shouted towards him, but he didn''t seem to hear it. "Where are you going?"


    He walked the streets filled with the corpses of the fallen Pseudo Canzers. Some were burned to crisps, some had been decapitated, and most died from cuts and pierces from des.


    He ignored all of them; he already reaped their souls.


    He walked towards where Yasmine positioned herself in thepetition.


    He saw a group of blue monstrous arthropods about the same size as his torso, all facing the same direction. They encircled the spot where Yasmine stood in ce.


    Green blood was sttered everywhere. Her de was like a paintbrush that used the corpses of monsters as her canvas.


    But these groups of Pseudo Canzers were different from the corpses around. These had their mandibles spread wide open and ready to bite their prey.


    Some even had their wings open and ready to fly.


    These Pseudo Canzers were still full of life, yet theyy there frozen in time. Even though they didn''t move, he saw them struggle to find freedom¨Cto find life.


    He had to free them. He had to relieve their suffering. It was his responsibility.


    He saw a wooden sword in the ground. It was one of those practice swords that the Saviors used to practice their skills on straw dummies.


    He picked it up and used both of his hands to grip it on its handle. He raised it above his head and explosively brought it down towards the monster below him.


    CRACK


    The monster''s carapace cracked into pieces from the force, but unfortunately, it wasn''t enough to kill the creature.


    An continued to bash the sword to the Pseudo Canzer''s head, with green blood sttering on his face. But he didn''t care. He didn''t stop until he saw the words in front of him;


    [You have assisted in killing a Pseudo Canzer]


    [You have reaped the death of a simple creature: Pseudo Canzers]


    [You have gained 15 experience]


    Wemby shouted towards him. "An, you don''t have to do that. You won thepetition! Let the loser do all the dirty work!"


    "He''s right. Let Wemby do it!" Znd shouted back.


    "Hey! I''m in second ce!"


    Znd shrugged.


    The burden of cleaning up the Pseudo Canzers usually ended up being the responsibility of those who lost thepetition.


    This wasn''t a hard rule, but an unwritten one that they all followed. It''s also one of the reasons why the rest of them were sopetitive.


    It''s fine if they didn''t win, but they couldn''t best ce.


    Nobody wanted to do it because it was a tiresome job that couldst hours upon hours of hard work. It would take time away from their break and their training.


    And the fact that they didn''t get any experience from it gave them even less incentive to do it.


    It was also tradition for the beginners to have their first day involve cleaning up the Canzers.


    However, when they saw how talented and capable their new Porter was, they all unanimously decided to let An free from this responsibility.


    It was the reason why they didn''t mention anything about cleaning up the Canzers to him.


    But despite that, An voluntarily did the dirty work nobody wanted to do, seemingly out of nowhere. It was a very noble and respectable sacrifice that the veteran Saviors appreciated.


    Their impression of An improved drastically.


    They were pleased to know that even though he was a transcendent talent, he was still humble enough to show respect to his seniors. They appreciated the fact that An didn''t feel that it was beneath him to do this dirty work.


    "What a kid! Our new Porter is truly someone to behold."


    "He''ll be popr among the veterans. I''m sure he''ll be invited to missions all the time."


    "See that? I taught him that," Wemby lied. Of course, the others quickly saw through it and berated him. Unlike An, Wemby was one of the guys who always wanted to shirk away from the dirty work.


    An continued to find more poor Canzers that needed the release of death.


    [You have assisted in killing a Pseudo Canzer]


    [You have reaped the death of simple creatures: Pseudo Canzers] x3


    [You have gained 45 experience]


    But on hisst kill, the wooden sword suddenly snapped in half. It didn''t shatter into a thousand splinters. It split in half.


    This was because An had no experience holding a sword at all.


    Nobody even noticed that he was holding onto it wrong. Instead of using the sharp edges of the sword, An was instead using the t part of the de to smash the head of the monsters!


    Not only that, the Pseudo Canzers he was killing were from Yasmine''sst failed batch. It was close to the 4th stage difficulty.


    This meant that he was able to kill a Pseudo Canzer at almost the 4th stage difficulty with just his brute strength. If he used the de, he''d be able to easily kill it in one strike.


    An felt a sudden tap behind him.


    He was surprised to see a brand new wooden sword held out towards him. He was even more surprised to see that it was Yasmine who gave it to him.


    "Congrats," she said while looking away from him. "I''ll win next time."


    And before she left, she gave him one piece of advice.


    "Try to pierce through the boundary between its carapace and its wings. It''s their weak point."


    She didn''t notice that An''s grip on the sword waspletely wrong.


    After that, she quickly left and walked back up the stairs of the HeadQuarters.


    An appreciated her gesture and kept it in his mind, but he didn''t know what she was talking about. I''ll win next time? We didn''tpete in the samepetition¡­


    But since she already left, he couldn''t ask her about it. He took his attention back to the matter at hand.


    He looked at one of the Pseudo Canzers in front of him and coincidentally, it had its wings spread open, ready to fly and pierce its prey. Unfortunately, it was frozen in time.


    He followed her advice and used the tip of his sword to pierce through the small gap between the monster''s hard shell and underbelly.


    His eyes widened as he felt it easily slip through the defenses and stab its innards, instantly killing it.


    [You have killed a Pseudo Canzer]


    [You have reaped the death of a simple creature: Pseudo Canzers]


    [You have gained 20 experience]


    [You have gained a 1-star Genus Pseudo Canzer]


    [You have gained an F ss LifeSkill Mucus Spray]

 Chapter 20: More?

    An couldn''t believe what he saw. He not only gained another Genus, but he also got another LifeSkill.


    [An]


    [Bloodline: Angelic Reaper of Souls]


    [Genus]


    ¡ª1x (1-star) Pseudo Canzer


    ¡ª1x (3-star) Human


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Grim Reaper


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Angel


    [Mutation]


    ¡ª (10-star) Gluttonous Soul


    ¡ª (10-star) Lightspeed Angel Wings


    [LifeSkills]


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(1000 / 1000)


    Specialty: Vanguard


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    ¡ª¡ª¡ªConsolidating to 3rd Stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 47 hrs : 40 mins: 32 s


    ¡ªMage: (F) Mucus Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(0 / 1000)


    [Avable Experience: 10,191.2]


    Does any death give me Genus and LifeSkills? It''s not just because of extinctions and killing a God?


    The only Genus and LifeSkills he acquired were from those two very dramatic and once-in-a-lifetime events. He thought he''d only get Genus and LifeSkills from those kinds of circumstances.


    He didn''t think he''d get it from just killing one monster.


    Sure, the Genus only had a 1-star rarity while the LifeSkill was only F ss, but the fact that he was able to acquire them was groundbreaking in and of itself.


    He was already an anomaly because he had two LifeSkills, one of which had a specialty that wasn''t supposed to exist at all.


    Now, he had two jobs in the Vanguard Specialty. A DPS and a Mage.


    Can I get more?


    An knew he was being greedy, but he couldn''t help but think of the possibilities.


    He walked towards the next poor soul who was just waiting to be released from their eternal suffering. I''m not killing them, I''m freeing them, he reminded himself.


    He kept doing the dirty work, killing the blue monstrous arthropods that were frozen in ce.


    He had trouble wielding the sword properly at the start, but he got better and used the edge of the de now.


    He kept Yasmine''s words to heart. He kept targeting their weak point.


    Pseudo Canzers who had their wings open were easy to kill. He only had to ce the tip of the de in the right position and push with minimal strength.


    [You have assisted in killing a Pseudo Canzer]


    [You have reaped the death of simple creatures: Pseudo Canzers] x13


    [You have gained 195 experience]


    However, not all of them had their weak points exposed quite easily. Some were frozen in their defensive positions, defending from the attacks of the Saviors that tried to kill them.


    They were harder to kill.


    His novice way with the sword hindered his killing¨Cno, the liberation of the monsters trapped in their suffering.


    He had to spend minutes trying to wedge his sword in the weak points. Most of the time, he missed and nicked the carapace of the monster.


    He remembered how Yasmine skillfully pierced through the monsters with ease and grace, with each strike as precise as her steps to avoid the other monsters trying to hit her.


    He was far from her skill. Very far.


    But he couldn''t help it. He had never held any kind of weapon before, much less a sword.


    Am I just that bad? Or maybe I just need a different weapon¡­


    As he dealt with the rest of the Pseudo Canzers, he was disappointed to see that it didn''t give him any additional genus or LifeSkills.


    He didn''t know if that monster was just different, or if the acquisition of the Genus and the LifeSkill depended on some type of luck.


    "Hey, An. Are you finished over there?" Neumann called out to him. "You''ve been doing that for hours, kid."


    An finally looked back and saw that most of the Saviors had already left the Remedium. The only ones left were him, Neumann, Wemby, and Oliver.


    He didn''t even notice that the time passed.


    "Sorry. I got too absorbed."


    "Newbie, it''s good that you''re so enthusiastic, but it''s good to rx too man," Wemby said and Oliver agreed.


    "We should go soon. Those Quills are going to get ticked off when they see the Remedium still open thiste," Wemby added.


    "It''s bad if we stay in the Remedium?"


    "It''s not bad that we stay in the Remedium. It''s bad that the Remedium stays open because we''re here too long.


    If we stay here for another day or so, there''s going to be some adverse effects in the real world. We''re gonna get more than a reprimand if that happens."


    An didn''t know that keeping the Training Hall open would be so bad. He was nning on staying here and killing more monsters, but that''s not possible.


    He then noticed that there was just one more Pseudo Canzer left still standing.


    He was going to kill it and then leave.


    "Can Ie back here tomorrow?"


    "Look at our newbie, all excited," Wembymented.


    Neumann nodded. "Yes. you can¨Cit''s highly encouraged especially since you''re going to receive your reward in a week."


    Reward?


    Wemby saw An''s head tilt andughed. "You won thepetition, man. Of course, you''re going to get a reward, kukuku."


    "I don''t know if you will consider this a reward, but this is something that all of us envy and want.


    Next week, you''re going to be assigned to a mission in the Remedium¨Cyour very first."


    An didn''t know how to feel about that.


    "Don''t get worried, newbie. Your first mission is going to be very easy, just in the 1st stage Student difficulty.


    And you don''t have to fight the Canzers. Your teammates are going to be the ones to do that. The only thing you need to do is be a Porter.


    If something bad does happen, the worst thing that could happen is just a little bit of injury.


    Never fear. The Angels are always there to save your life."


    ¡­that wasn''tforting at all.


    An subconsciously raised his sword and stabbed the final Pseudo Canzer that was still left alive. It easily slipped past its carapace and pierced through its innards, killing it instantly.


    [You have killed a Pseudo Canzer]


    [You have reaped the death of a simple creature: Pseudo Canzers]


    [You have gained 20 experience]


    [You have gained an F ss LifeSkill Mucus Spray]


    [You have two of the same LifeSkills. Do you want to fuse them?]


    [Upgrade Points required: 1,000]

 Chapter 21: Porter

    "An, youing?" Neumann and the rest of them walked up the stairs of the HeadQuarters. An stayed at the bottom of the stairs, still looking at the words in front of him.


    He slowly caught up to them as he tried to understand everything.


    [You have the two same LifeSkills. Do you want to fuse?]


    [Upgrade Points required: 1,000]


    First of all, he unexpectedly gained another LifeSkill from killing the Pseudo Canzer. This proved that getting that kind of benefit was luck-based.


    Is a Genus rarer than a LifeSkill?


    It must have also been the reason why he didn''t get a Genus this time.


    He also gained the exact same LifeSkill as before. When he looked at his Soul System, he saw the same two brown, transparents beside each other.


    ¡ªMage: (F) Mucus Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(0 / 1000)


    ¡ªMage: (F) Mucus Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(0 / 1000)


    ording to the words, he was able to merge these two LifeSkills into one. As for what the effect would be, he didn''t know.


    The only way he was going to know was to find out. And even if fusing the two LifeSkills were somehow adverse to his progress, then he wouldn''t feel that regretful.


    These two LifeSkills were only F ss. He wouldn''t be wasting much.


    The problem was that merging these two required something called Upgrade Points.


    Wait a minute¡­


    An massaged his head and tried to recall his memories from the day before.


    Aside from getting 10,000 Experience from reaping the extinction of the Angels, An seemed to have remembered gaining something else.


    Because he passed out before seeing the words, his memory had been all messed up since.


    It was only now that he remembered it.


    [You have gained 1,000,000 Upgrade Points]


    All this time, he obtained a million Upgrade Points from reaping the extinction of Angels! He just forgot about it.


    He looked down at his Soul System and saw geometrical objects: triangles, squares, and polygons gathered together into a giant fuzzy ball.


    The blue wisps represented his current Experience Points.


    The red geometrical objects represented his Upgrade Points.


    And even though his Experience points were much fewer than his Upgrade points, both of them had roughly the same volume sphere like an asteroid.


    This was only possible because the red shapes of his Upgrade Points were much smaller than the blue wisps, almost microscopical.


    When he decided to fuse the two F ss LifeSkills, a thousand of the red shapes suddenly shot out into a string towards the two LifeSkills.


    The string of Upgrade Points then wove the twos together tightly. The mysterious force from the glowing red shapes pushed the two LifeSkills together until they ovepped.


    And as thes got pushed further into each other, an opposite force from thes tried to resist the union of the LifeSkills.


    Fortunately, the strength of the red shapes was enough to finally push the two together.


    The union resulted in arge shockwave that destroyed the string of red shapes. It disintegrated into nothing afterpleting its job.


    [You have fused the two LifeSkills]


    ¡ªMage: (D) Mucus Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(0 / 1000)


    The result ended up changing the LifeSkill''s ss from (F) ss to (D) ss!


    This was a feat that would leave the entire world in an uproar if they found out.


    As far as An knew, there was no way for a Savior to change their LifeSkill''s ss. If someone got drafted with a (C) ss LifeSkill, then that would be their ss forever.


    The ss of a LifeSkill either made or broke a person''s dream of entering a God''s Territory.


    Those in the Unimed Lands who got drafted with an (F) ss LifeSkill had no chance to ever step foot into a City or a Town.


    They would die in the Unimed Lands.


    But somehow, An could do it. He sessfully turned a worthless LifeSkill into something that could get epted into a small vige. That could be the difference between living for ten years or living a hundred.


    The implications of this burned a fire in An''s imagination.


    Can I keep upgrading LifeSkills till they all turn into S ss? SS ss? Or maybe even SSS ss?


    "Woah! That was close!" Neumann grabbed An''s shoulders before he bumped into someone who was in a hurry.


    An looked around and noticed he was back at the reception area of the HeadQuarters. Not only that, his surroundings returned to their normal color. The walls and flooring turned back into the pure white marble that he saw the first time.


    Unknowingly, he already left the Remedium and was back in the real world.


    He was so absorbed in looking at the Soul System that he didn''t notice it at all!


    And he almost bumped into someone by the looks of it.


    "Sorry." He quickly apologized.


    He looked up and saw that the man he almost bumped into looked a little bit older than a middle-aged man, with side-shaven gray and pepper hair.


    The man also wore the same green battle suit that An was wearing, but it had more modifications as well as medals and ribbons adorned around his chest.


    "It''s fine, hahaha! The young man was clearly too absorbed in his Soul System. I was like you once. What''s your name, young''un?"


    "An¡­sir."


    "My name is Garuun. I hope to see you defending the City in the future. But for now, I''ll have to carry the burden. So, you''ll have to excuse me as I go do my job."


    Garuun, without a second word, left the HeadQuarters with the rest of his team.


    As they opened the doors, An was able to see a glimpse of the City and its outskirts. Arge billowing cloud of smoke enveloped one of the districts in the distance.


    Garuun and his team all mounted their horses and took off in that direction.


    "Hmmm¡­the symptoms must be serious. They''re bringing out the big guns,"mented Wemby.


    "Who was that?"


    "That''s Garuun and his team. They''re all in the Specialist Realm. That''s three realms above us.


    He''s also like you. He''s a Porter."

 Chapter 22: Smoke

    "He''s a porter?" An didn''t think he would run into the guy with the same job as him.


    "Yes. Since he''s already in the Specialist Realm, he can''t be bothered to be our Porter in missions with only a Student Realm difficulty.


    That''s why we''ve been moring for the City to recruit a new beginner Porter. Thankfully, Lizzie found a gem like you among the gray sands."


    Neumann still remembered the hard times of giving less-than-ster performances in missions because they didn''t have a proper Porter.


    "Where are they going?"


    Neumann walked outside the reception and An followed him. Once they were outside, Neumann pointed at the dark smoke cloud in the distance.


    "See that? That''s what happens if there''s an outbreak of Canzers in the city"


    The whole thing enveloped an entire chunk of the city, swallowing a lot of the residential buildings.


    Even from a distance, An could see peopleing out of the smoke in a hurry to seek safety. Some soldiers tried to calm them down, but they couldn''t contain the chaos.


    "There''s Canzers in there?"


    "No. There are Canzers in the Remedium. Think of this City as God''s body and Canzers are the disease inside Him.


    The disease is not on His skin. It''s inside His body.


    In this case, the inside of God''s body is the Remedium. To get rid of those diseases, we have to enter inside his body, the Remedium, and destroy it from there."


    An nodded as he quickly understood the concept. "Those Canzers wreak havoc inside the God''s body, or in the Remedium?"


    Neumann nodded. "Yes. And as they continue to destroy the sanctity of His body, it would show up in our reality as a disturbance in reality, just like that plume of smoke.


    That is called a Symptom."


    An finally understood why the citizens of Genesis City were so grateful to the Saviors.


    If it weren''t for them, the Canzers would continue to destroy the Remedium, which converted to more destruction in the City.


    "That''s how we detect where Canzers are. If there''s a symptom, then there''s a Canzer present."


    Neumann then pointed back to the giant Genesis City map behind the reception desk of the HeadQuarters lobby.


    "Every time there''s a symptom, it shows up in that map so that everyone knows that there''s a problem to be solved."


    An looked back at the smoke in the distance. "Is that always the symptom? A giant cloud of smoke enveloping the city?"


    Neumann shook his head. "The symptoms vary depending on the type of Canzer.


    Us Vanguards don''t know what kind of symptoms correspond to which Canzer.


    There are so many things it could be based on. Things like location, frequency, side effect, and other kinds of criteria to narrow down which Canzers we are dealing with."


    "Only those nerdy Quills know that," added Wemby.


    "Call them Operators out in public," Neumann reprimanded him.


    Looks like the Operators have a harder job than I thought. They had to know all of those things to know which Canzer they were dealing with.


    An wished that Garuun and those Saviors were able to deal with the Canzers quickly before more destruction appeared in the City.


    After all, he was the only one who knew the Angels were already extinct. They weren''t immortal anymore.


    "Don''t burden yourself with these things yet," Neumann patted him on the back. "Just go home and rx for now. It''s been a long day for you."


    "I guess¡­"


    "You can keep training in the Remedium every day starting tomorrow if you want. We''ll be there to help you out."


    "I''ll teach you all my cool moves," Wemby winked.


    Oliver simply gave An a thumbs up.


    Since Neumann and the rest had actual families to attend to, they couldn''t stay in the HeadQuarters for long.


    They all fetched their mounts from the parking lot and went on their way back home.


    As expected of Wemby, his horse had a great red mane that was very gaudy. He teased Neumann about his normal-looking horse. Meanwhile, Oliver had an unexpected white horse.


    An walked home since he didn''t have any, and his house was rtively close to the HeadQuarters.


    He was surprised to see that people were still lounging and walking the streets even though there was a disaster not far from here.


    But he couldn''t do anything about it. They were all confident that they''d survive anything¡ªa side effect of thinking they had immortality.


    Once he got home, he forced himself to lie on his bed. Even though it was ufortable, he needed to get used to living in luxury.


    He took a look at his Soul System and decided to upgrade his Mage LifeSkill to the 2nd stage since he had enough experience anyway.


    [An]


    [Bloodline: Angelic Reaper of Souls]


    [Genus]


    ¡ª1x (1-star) Pseudo Canzer


    ¡ª1x (3-star) Human


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Grim Reaper


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Angel


    [Mutation]


    ¡ª (10-star) Gluttonous Soul


    ¡ª (10-star) Lightspeed Angel Wings


    [LifeSkills]


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(1000 / 1000)


    Specialty: Vanguard


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating to 3rd stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 46 hrs : 25 mins: 01 s


    ¡ªMage: (D) Mucus Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating to 2nd stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 12 hrs: 59 mins: 50 s


    [Experience: 9,231.2]


    [Upgrade Points: 999,000]


    Once he did, An had nothing else to do so he decided to sleep it off.


    #####


    When he woke up the next morning, he was surprised to see that the consolidation period for his Mage LifeSkill was already over.


    [Consolidation period over]


    [You have sessfully advanced your D ss Mucus Spray LifeSkill to the 2nd stage of the Student Realm]


    It turned out that he slept for more than twelve hours yesterday, which was surprising given that he always slept for only four to six hours in the Unimed Lands.


    He slept very soundly.


    Maybe this soft bed isn''t all that bad after all¡­


    He was also surprised to see that his closet was filled with new green battle suits to wear.


    It must have been Miss Lizzie.


    He quickly took a shower and put on a new battle suit.


    And once he was ready, he made his way back towards the HeadQuarters.


    Among the sea of green and blue battlesuits walking up the steps, An saw Wemby, Neumann, and Oliver all waiting for him near the steps.


    As he walked towards them, he suddenly got the urge to look back.


    And when he did, he saw the same ck smoke still present in the distance. Did it get bigger?

 Chapter 23: Quinto

    "Good morning, newbie!" Wemby was the first one to see him.


    "Good morning," An replied.


    "Did you sleep wellst night?" asked Neumann.


    "I did¡­"


    He nodded in satisfaction. "That''s good. My daughter made sure to keep her health in good shape, and that''s what allowed her to be a better Savior.


    You should follow her lead so that you can be stronger and advance through the stages in a breeze."


    "But don''t advance too fast or else we''ll have no Porter again." teased Wemby.


    "He''s kidding¡­partially."


    "Um.."


    "What is it?"


    "Why is that still here? I thought those Saviors already took care of it?" He pointed at the bigger cloud of smoke enveloping almost two districts at this point.


    Neumann and the others didn''t look concerned. "That''s normal. Sometimes, it takes a day or two topletely purge the Canzers."


    "Don''t worry. The rest of the soldiers already evacuated all of the residents affected. Come on, let''s go back to the Training Hall!" Wemby raced up the stairs to be the first one to enter the Remedium.


    The rest of them quickly followed suit. An took onest look towards the clouds before he entered the HeadQuarters.


    Soon after that, they were back in the strange negative-color Remedium Training Hall where they could practice killing as many Canzers as they could.


    There were already a lot of Saviors inside, practicing their skills separately or with groups.


    "Look at them practicing team drills. That''s very important to us Vanguards especially since each mission is team-based.


    The tanks will protect the support and the DPS, the scouts will distract the Canzers, and so on."


    They put themselves through different scenarios inside the Remedium City. They tried to fight in a secluded street with little to no space to use the AOE of mages.


    They also tried out some formations in case they had to fight out in the open with no natural defenses around them.


    And finally, some of the Saviors got permission from HeadQuarters to summon Pseudo Canzers so that they''d be able to practice their skills on a real enemy.


    After they quit the drill, An woulde up and finish the frozen monsters for them, and they happily let him do so.


    Since they were the ones who requested the drill, they were responsible for disposing of them. But since An volunteered, the burden on them lessened.


    It was a win-win scenario for all parties.


    They all thought An was just a naturally good guy who wanted to help everybody free of charge, but they didn''t know that he was earning lots of experience from doing it.


    [You have reaped the death of a simple creature: Pseudo Canzers] x149


    [You have gained 2,235 experience]


    He gained a respectable amount of experience throughout his whole day of mercy killing the Pseudo Canzers.


    And in all that time, he was only able to get one LifeSkill copy.


    [You have gained an F ss LifeSkill Mucus Spray]


    [Since you already have the same LifeSkill in a higher ss, this LifeSkill will turn into a fragment]


    [You cannot level up a fragment]


    [Needs one (1) more F ss Mucus LifeSkill fragment for fusion]


    He also advanced his Mage LifeSkill to the third stage just before he started the grind for more LifeSkills. At the end of the day, he had 35 hours left.


    [LifeSkills]


    ¡ªMage: (D) Mucus Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 3rd stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 35 hrs : 58 mins: 30 s


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 1x F ss fragment


    He needed another F ss fragment to turn both of them into a D ss LifeSkill.


    If he was able to do that, then he could merge the two D ss LifeSkills and turn them into a C ss LifeSkill!


    However, the allotted time for the Training Hall already passed. They weren''t allowed to stay anymore because they were going to close the Remedium for safety reasons.


    "Why didn''t we see Garuun and the other Saviors in the Remedium?" asked An as they waited in the elevator back up to the real world.


    "Because that''s a different dimension. Each Canzer that pops up inhabits a different dimension.


    It''s hard to exin and understand because it involves the 4th dimension, and we humans simply can''t get a grasp of that naturally.


    Just think of it as each Canzer and symptom being a different space in the Remedium."


    "I''m starving! Let''s go eat something at the cafeteria." Wemby massaged his stomach and begged for the others to join him.


    Oliver and Neumann would have rejected the invitation, but since they hadn''t had a proper meal with An yet, they decided to join.


    "You''re gonna love the food here, newbie. They have everything you can think of!" Wemby couldn''t praise the food in the cafeteria any higher.


    An remembered that he hadn''t eaten anything for at least two days now.


    Fasting for long periods was normal in the Unimed Lands, but this was the first time that An didn''t feel hungry.


    He felt full. He felt satiated.


    Neumann guided them through therge campus of the Savior HeadQuarters and An felt like he entered another city.


    It had a dedicated building for a full garden and forest, it had buildings only for Saviors to rx and unwind, and it even had luxurious housings for those who wanted to sleep inside.


    Each person he saw wore their respective battle suits, either green or blue.


    However, in the countless number of groups they encountered, An never saw a green battlesuit talking to one who wore a blue battlesuit.


    The Quills and Knives kept to themselves.


    The Operators and Vanguards didn''t interact much with each other.


    ¡ª------


    While they were walking, An saw something out of the corner of his eye. There was a discreet hallway that exuded prestige and exclusivity.


    It had a red velvet walkway and intimate lighting. But judging from the barrier that blocked anyone from entering, this wasn''t a ce where anyone could just enter.


    "What''s that?" An asked.


    "That''s the Hall of Heroes. It showcases the best Saviors in the history of Genesis City."


    They all took a slight detour and let An take a look at the Hall of Heroes.


    On the very end of the hall, there was arge picture of a robust man who looked to be the very embodiment of strength and confidence.


    "That''s the legendary Quinto Kindle. The First Savior¡­"

 Chapter 24: Cafeteria

    "The First Savior¡­"


    The old man had messy,id-back white hair like that of a lion''s mane. His aggressive smile could not be hidden by the bushy white hair on his jaws.


    Just by looking at this painting, An felt as if he was being stared down by the real thing himself.


    "He was there when the first gods descended on Earth. He was there when the first humans interacted with the Mythical Beings. He was there when they struck the ord.


    Ever since that agreement, humans were given immortality and power in exchange for the extermination of Canzers."


    An couldn''t fathom how ancient those times were. It was hard to imagine people still alive today who witnessed that monumental pivot in human history.


    Back then, the Unimed Lands were still habitable¡­


    "He must be an amazing guy." His image was ced in the very middle of the hall with golden lights shining down on it.


    He must have been an amazing guy to get that sort of treatment.


    "Yes, he was¡­" Neumann''s tone seemed to be one of sadness and mncholy.


    An wasn''t expecting that sort of emotion from all of them, especially since Quinto seemed like such an amazing guy.


    Did he die or something? Why did it feel like he had a tragic fate?


    "What happened to him?"


    Wemby sighed. He was the one most disappointed with what happened to the First Savior. He grew up idolizing the guy.


    "Nothing happened to him. It''s just¡­the thousands upon thousands of years of living an immortal life must have taken arge toll on him¨Cmentally."


    "He became insane," Neumann rified.


    "Insane? How? Aren''t there supposed to be no disease or illness in a God''s Territory?"


    "It''s not that simple. He was born in an ordinary world and only grew up in the now, immortal world. His brain developed differently, I guess."


    An looked at the image of Quinn''s exploits sketched at the bottom of his name.


    It showed great feats of strength, killing Canzers left and right with his bare hands. It showed him giving hope and peace to the citizens, symbolically bing the First Savior.


    It was hard to believe that such a guy would sumb to mental illness.


    "Where is he now?"


    They all look dejected. "He''s out there in the streets, living the life of a derelict hobo.


    He''s been spouting all kinds of stuff¨C theories that don''t make any sense at all and have no basis for truth.


    Everyone tries to ignore him now, choosing to ignore his current form to preserve the awe-inspiring image they had of him years ago."


    "What was he saying?"


    Wemby shrugged. "You know, the usual conspiracy theories.


    He thinks that aliens are among us and that the other overseas gods take surveince on him. He even thinks everything is just a simtion."


    Neumann shook his head. "He''s been much more vocal now ever since that sr storm hit, saying all kinds of incredulous stuff. It''s best to ignore him when youe across him."


    "Come on, let''s get going to the cafeteria before I lose my appetite talking about this."


    Wemby led them back towards the cafeteria, and An took onest look at the Hall of Heroes before he followed them.


    #####


    The cafeteria was a big room filled with long tables and seats perfect for eating and socializing at the same time.


    An and the others had to wait in line to get their chance to pick out whatever dish they wanted to eat.


    "Ooh! Try the beef wellington, An. You''ll love it."


    "Um¡­which?"


    Wemby picked up the food for An and put it on hisrge tray.


    An was from the Unimed Lands. The choice for meals there was either worms or mold and if they were lucky, some mushrooms.


    He didn''t know any of the foods in the selection, so he just copied whatever they picked.


    Once they filled their trays with colorful foods that just looked like a mash of ingredients, Wemby led them to an empty table.


    An noticed that both Quills and Knives were dining in the same hall, but not together. He hadn''t seen a blue battle suit mingle with a green one yet.


    "Oh, look An. It''s that blonde S ss genius."


    Wemby pointed towards a beautiful blonde-haired girl sitting in the middle of a table filled with other girls.


    Even when she was mingling with women who were much stronger than her, she still had an air of superiority that she did not lose.


    "She''s quite popr, eh?"


    Even though she had barely been in Genesis City for a few days, she already integrated herself quite well.


    "That''s Barbara, a mage in the 5th stage Student Realm. Looks like she wants to mentor the blonde genius.


    Hmmm¡­and that''s Petra the sixth. Her family has a long line of Saviors, and she''s considered to have a good future like her mother. Looks like she wants to have the genius as her friend."


    Wemby quickly analyzed the situation.


    The women around Yasmine were either her seniors or elite girls from prestigious families her age.


    They knew that Yasmine would someday be a bigshot in the future, so they were trying to ally themselves with her early.


    "Oh, look at those boys. They''re trying to hit on her, but they keep getting rejected back and forth!"


    Yasmine was popr among the novice Saviors her age. But of course, she didn''t even spare a nce at them. Her friends quickly shooed her suitors away like an imprable fortress.


    "Yasmine, don''t entertain those boys till you''re at least 50. By that point, you''ll see which one is talented enough to be worthy of you."


    The other girls agreed.


    "But if you were to choose, who would you pick? Would you pick the cute guy, the famous guy, or the talented guy?"


    "Ohe on. No one here''s worthy of her, right?"


    Yasmine kept silent and whipped her blonde hair away from her hair.


    From the corner of her eye, she saw a normal-looking youth sitting at a table on the other side of the room.


    He was awkwardly trying to eat his food with his friendsughing at the side. He was holding a fork in his whole hand and stabbing the peas on his te.


    She wouldn''t forget that ck hair and dark eyes¨Cthe one who transcended thepetition with his talent, the one who she couldn''t ovee.


    "I have to go practice." She left the cafeteria, leaving her friends speechless.

 Chapter 25: Target

    After they finished eating food, they all went their separate ways and went home. An immediately went to sleep and looked forward to the next day. He hoped that he would get another fragment.


    ####


    Just like yesterday, after taking a shower and putting on a new battlesuit, An quickly made his way back to the Savior HeadQuarters.


    Just like before, his three friends and mentors were there waiting for him.


    An didn''t dislike the monotony of his daily life, but there was something that bothered him still.


    When he walked up the stairs of the HeadQuarters, he still saw the plume of smoke in the distance overwhelming a huge chunk of the City.


    It had grown evenrger this time.


    He was even starting to wonder if his residential district would get affected at this point.


    Even after two days, the Symptoms still haven''t cleared. This meant that the Saviors still hadn''t finished off the Canzers that were wreaking havoc in the Remedium.


    When he mentioned this to Neumann, he also found this weird. They all thought that it would be over in just one day.


    But despite the abnormality of the situation, they didn''t panic. Nobody did. In their eyes, the situation would soon resolve itself given more time.


    Everyone went into their same life without knowing that the Angels they relied on to be immortal had long gone extinct.


    An was the only one who knew that fact. But he couldn''t do anything to change it. The only thing he could do was to make himself stronger bit by bit.


    For his first goal, he wanted to turn his F ss Mage LifeSkill to an S ss one.


    However, that would take a lot of LifeSkill fragments to aplish.


    When he went to the Training Hall Remedium and continued to ''clean up'' their messes of Pseudo Canzers, all of them wondered how he could keep doing the same things over and over again without getting bored.


    But for An, doing this for an eternity was infinitely better than doing nothing and dying in the Unimed Lands.


    And by killing the same monster over and over, An was getting used to locating their weak points much more easily now.


    Even his sword skills were improving at a very fast rate.


    Unlike before, he wasn''t stumbling and missing his sword thrusts anymore. As long as he knew where he wanted the sword tip to go, he could urately hit it without a problem.


    Of course, he also earned a lot of experience from reaping all the deaths.


    [You have reaped the death of a simple creature: Pseudo Canzers] x169


    [You have gained 2,535 experience]


    However, he failed to gain a single LifeSkill fragment this time.


    Thankfully though, his Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill finished its consolidation period and finally advanced to the 3rd stage.


    Specialty: Vanguard


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª 3rd stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª (0 / 3000)


    And since he had enough experience anyway, he decided to upgrade it to the 4th stage immediately.


    Specialty: Vanguard


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating to 4th stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 6 days : 23 hrs


    With everything settled, he went back home.


    As hey in his bed, he closed his eyes and tried to feel the LifeSkills in his Soul System.


    During his spare time throughout the day, he kept trying to activate his LifeSkill by ''reaching out'' to it and to try and harness its powers.


    But, it was easier said than done.


    It felt like he was trying to materialize a giant hand that could hold the LifeSkillfortably in the palm.


    Whenever he tried to visualize it, he would barely be able to make a handrge enough to grasp thes. And when he did, the moment he tried to move it, it would disintegrate into nothing but smoke.


    It was a process of trial and error as he tried to find out the best way to activate his LifeSkill.


    He didn''t lose hope, though. He was willing to work hard and find a way to finally activate his LifeSkills.


    He closed his eyes and readied himself for another hard day tomorrow.


    ####


    The next day, An was d to see that the cloud of smoke that ravaged a huge chunk of the City was gone!


    It seemed that the Saviors finally triumphed against those Canzers.


    He remembered Garuun, the Savior with the same job as him. He wondered what kind of contributions he made to the sess of their mission.


    When he walked up the steps with Neumann and the others, he noticed that they looked a little bit concerned.


    "HeadQuarters have been weird since this morning," Wemby muttered.


    "I agree. They''ve been really silent." Even Oliver, the man of few words, couldn''t help but agree with him.


    "Why?" An wanted to know what happened.


    "Usually, once a mission this severe ispleted, the HeadQuarters would immediately send out a weing parade for the Saviors.


    It gave a chance for the Saviors to feel appreciated for their hard work, and it also showed the normal citizens that the heroes would always be there to protect them.


    But now¡­radio silence. Nobody has even seen anyone from the triumphant team ever since."


    Did something happen during that mission?


    But since An couldn''t do anything about it, he tried to put it to the back of his mind.


    They all entered the Training Hall again, with their minds heavy with thoughts.


    An sat on the steps of the Training Hall Remedium, watching all of the other Saviors practice their LifeSkills on straw dummies.


    His mind was filled with questions as he tried to juggle his thoughts about the weird situation with the HeadQuarters and his problem with activating his LifeSkills.


    As he was subconsciously watching a mage Savior create a bullet made of vines and thorns, he suddenly saw something that made him wake up from his stupor.


    He thought the mage missed his shot, but then the bullet suddenly curved and hit the dummy on the side of the head.


    Wait¡­what if my SSS ss Cherubic Retribution needs a target to activate?

 Chapter 26: Mucus spray

    An went over to Wemby and asked him a simple question.


    "Why did that mage''s attack suddenly curve towards its target?"


    "Oh, that''s because his skill probably has a tracking mechanism, so even if his opponent is wildly moving, his attack will still hit them."


    "So if it doesn''t have a target, then he wouldn''t be able to activate his LifeSkill?"


    Wemby shook his head. "Not necessarily. He can still shoot out his magical projectiles anytime he wants, even if it''s towards nothing but air."


    He then raised his hand in the air and demonstrated it to the newbie. "See? I don''t have a target in my mind right now."


    Just then, his hands glowed a royal blueish color until hemp rope burst out of his palms and shot towards the red sky of the Remedium.


    It went straight up, slowed down, and fell back to the white ground.


    "I can still activate my LifeSkill without a target. But if I try to target thatmp post¡­" Wemby raised his right hand, guided by his left, and aimed at the stop light in the intersection of the street.


    He promptly activated his LifeSkill again and this time, the rope shot towards the post and wrapped itself into a knot.


    With one tug, Wemby shot towards the stop light until he was able to squat just over the top of the pole.


    "If I have a target in mind, I can also do that," he shouted back towards An.


    Wemby used his powers again and maneuvered through the air back beside An without much problem.


    "Any more questions?"


    "...Do you know if there''s a LifeSkill that can''t activate without a target?"


    This time, Neumann was the one to answer. "Yes. My tank LifeSkill allows me to imbue protection to the teammates I target.


    Without anyone to target, my LifeSkill can''t activate."


    Neumann raised his hands, which suddenly glowed in a reddish maroon glow. He aimed his hands at Wemby and suddenly, a spherical bubble materialized to cover Wemby''s entire body.


    And without a warning, Neumann punched the bubble, surprising both Wemby and An.


    His punch was so strong that it sounded like arge elephant stomping on the ground.


    "Woah! Uncalled for,"ined Wemby in the transparent bubble.


    But even with Nuemann''s full-powered punch, the bubble barely even wobbled. An guessed that it could withstand the force of a couple more punches before it started to crack.


    But with this demonstration, An finally found the reason why he couldn''t activate his LifeSkill. It was because he wasn''t thinking of a target!


    He always tried to use his Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill, just for the sake of activating it. He just wanted to see if he could manifest it, so he wasn''t thinking about actually trying to hit anything with it.


    This led him to be unable to activate it at all.


    He desperately wanted to try and activate it now that he knew the root of the problem.


    First, he tried to activate his Mucus Spray.


    He closed his eyes and concentrated on the brown in the distance. Ever since he upgraded it to D ss, the pattern on its surface changed to be moreplex, having streaks of ck everywhere.


    A giant hand materialized in the dark space of the Soul System. He took great care to make sure that it didn''t dissipate likest time.


    Thankfully, all those practice sessions paid off as he was able to keep the integrity of the giant hand.


    He maneuvered the hand to go over to his Mage LifeSkill. And now, the moment of truth came as the hand slowly grasped the in its palm.


    And the moment the giant hand closed and enveloped the whole, An suddenly felt a strange power flow from his veins and towards his hand.


    He opened his eyes and saw that his hands were glowing a slight brown hue.


    If he continued to hold the, the LifeSkill would activate!


    He quickly stopped himself when he realized where he was. Neumann and the others were still talking beside him.


    They would definitely notice it.


    As he let go of his grip on the LifeSkill, his hands stopped glowing and he felt the strange power retract back to his veins.


    He wasn''t sure that this Remedium was safe.


    Neumann said that this Remedium was built by the Operators from the HeadQuarters. This could mean that they''re surveilling the whole ce at all times.


    Even though that possibility wasn''t that realistic, An still didn''t want to risk it. He couldn''t show his other LifeSkills here.


    And even in the real world, he had to be careful.


    This was a ce that lied to everyone and kept the extinction of the Angels a secret. What would happen if they suddenly saw An disy angelic powers?


    An could practice his Mucus spray, but he couldn''t show any hint that he had angelic powers.


    "I want to go to the bathroom," An said. "I don''t think I''ll make it up back to the real world."


    Wemby, of course, made fun of the newbie. "Kukuku¡­as long as your poop isn''t nuclear, you can drop it anywhere you like. Don''t worry, I''ve done it a hundred times before."


    An quickly went down the steps and jogged to the very edge of the city in a discreet corner just in the middle of two houses.


    When he was sure no one was looking, he activated his mucus LifeSkill and sessfully replicated his previous attempt.


    His hands glowed until he felt it be filled with power.


    After a second, a spray of ck goo flowed out of the palm of his hands like an intertwined spider''s web. The spray spread out as it traveled out his hands, enveloping arge conical shape in front of him.


    The Mucus Spray mmed on the walls and stayed there. It enveloped the whole wall about 4 meters tall and 4 meters wide.


    When he touched the ck goo, he found that it wasn''t as sticky as he thought. However, when he tried to pry it off the wall, it took him a tremendous amount of effort to take it off.

 Chapter 27: Genus

    After a few more tests, An was able to figure out that his D ss Mage LifeSkill was a power that could entrap enemies using an inherently strong adhesion.


    After activating his Mucus Spray a couple more times, he was able to familiarize himself with activating the LifeSkill.


    It took him two seconds in total to use it: one second for preparation and materialization of the giant hand in his Soul System, and one second for the wind up of powers in his hands.


    Even though it was slow now, he saw that with more practice, he could cut down that time to maybe less than a second.


    After a few minutes, he returned. Wemby didn''t forget to tease him about doing his first ''business'' in the Remedium. Apparently, it was quite normal during long missions.


    The whole day unfolded just like any other. Saviors summoned Pseudo Canzers, and An cleaned up the kills for them.


    [You have reaped the death of a simple creature: Pseudo Canzers] x 87


    [You have gained 1,305 experience]


    It was a slow day and not a lot of Saviors practiced their skills, which was why An only got 87 reaps.


    It was also unfortunate that he was unable to get another fragment to upgrade his Mucus LifeSkill.


    But on the other hand, his swordy got better, which wasmended by the other Saviors who watched him kill the Pseudo Canzers for hours.


    On the other hand, the consolidation period for his Mucus LifeSkill finally ended.


    ¡ªMage: (D) Mucus Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª 3rd stage Student


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª (0/3000)


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 1x F ss fragment


    [Avable Experience: 8,766.2]


    He quickly advanced it to the 4th stage,


    [You have sessfully advanced through the 3rd Stage Student Realm of your D ss LifeSkill Mucus Spray]


    [Consolidation period: 6 days : 23 hrs]


    He went home and slept. He hoped that he would get better luck tomorrow and finally advance his Mucus LifeSkill to the C ss, if that was even possible.


    ###


    His day started like any other. He went over to the Training Hall Remedium and helped the other Saviors clean up their kills.


    However, on his very first kill, he suddenly saw a set of words pop up in front of his eyes.


    [You have reaped the death of a simple creature: Pseudo Canzers]


    [You have gained 15 experience]


    [You have gained 1-star Genus Pseudo Canzers]


    After a long drought, he finally got another Genus! At this point, he wasn''t even hoping to get another one of these.


    He had killed hundreds of Pseudo Canzers over the span of a few days, yet he never got another Genus. He gave up on it thinking that it was just a one-time thing, unlike the LifeSkills.


    But as it turned out, he could get another Genus!


    [An]


    [Bloodline: Angelic Reaper of Souls]


    [Genus]


    ¡ª1x (1-star) Pseudo Canzer


    ¡ª1x (1-star) Pseudo Canzer


    ¡ª1x (3-star) Human


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Grim Reaper


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Angel


    [You have two of the same Genus with the same rarity. Do you want to fuse the two Genus?]


    [Upgrade Points required: 1000]


    [Avable Upgrade Points: 999,000]


    He was surprised to see that he could also fuse Genuses! If merging two LifeSkills resulted in advancing its ss, then what would result in the fusion of two Genus?


    Will it be a 2-star rarity genus?


    An looked at his Soul System and saw two spiraling helixes representing his two 1-star Genuses.


    The two helixes were made up of a structure that looked like a twisteddder made up of strange dark blue blobs that resembled the color of the Pseudo Canzers.


    Once he ordered the fusion of the two helixes, the fuzzy sphere made out of red geometrical objects spurt out a straight line of squares, triangles, and polygons toward the Genuses.


    These were his Upgrade Points, and they wrapped themselves around the two double-stranded helixes and squeezed them closer together.


    It forced the two together until the two helixdders merged and fused into one single structure, with moreplex colors and more defined patterns on the very helix itself.


    [You have sessfully merged the two Genus]


    [You have obtained 2-star Genus Pseudo Canzers]


    When An looked at his Soul System, he saw that his bloodline remained as the ''Angelic Reaper of Souls.''


    ording to Lizzie, the Genus dictated what kind of bloodline a person had.


    When he obtained the Grim Reaper Genus, his bloodline changed to the Grim Reaper of Souls.


    When he obtained the Angel Genus, his bloodline once again changed into the Angelic Reaper of Souls, which incorporated the two essences of his Genus.


    However, when he obtained the 1-star Pseudo Canzer genus, the bloodline remained the same. Even when he upgraded it to 2-star, it still didn''t have an effect on his bloodline.


    He turned towards Neumann and asked him.


    "Can I ask what mutation you have?"


    "Sure. I obtained the 4-star Armadillo Mutation.


    You can''t see it because I''m wearing my battle suit, but the entirety of my back and chest has changed into an Armadillo shell."


    Neumann stretched the cor of his green battle suit and showed An that his entire chest up to the corbone had changed into a hard cogen material with a dark brown color.


    "That means that your bloodline has changed into an Armadillo?"


    "Kukuku, armadillo man!" Wemby teased.


    "Yes. My bloodline has fully changed into an Armadillian."


    "What if you get a 1-star Genus? Will that change your bloodline?"


    He shook his head. "A lesser or inferior Genus won''t change your bloodline."


    An paused for a second. "What if you have the same genus rarity?"


    "Your bloodline will change into which one is the more dominant. Not all the Genus in the same star rating are equal. Some are better than others."


    "They won''t change your bloodline into a mix of both genes?"


    Neumannughed and shook his head. "I wish, but no. If you have a Genus of a whale and a bull, you''re going to be the whale."


    Then why did my 10-star Genus mix in my bloodline?

 Chapter 28: (Bonus chap) Old man

    Is it because they''re 10-star?


    Unfortunately, he wouldn''t be able to ask anyone about it.


    An was a little bit disappointed to know that his bloodline wouldn''t change until he had better Genus.


    Until he was able to make the 2-star Pseudo Canzer genus into a 10-star rarity genus, it wouldn''t be able to affect his bloodline for now. This also meant that he wouldn''t be able to get a mutation from them.


    Thankfully though, he was already satisfied with two 10-star genus making his bloodline into somethingpletely unique.


    The day continued with the usual and the god of luck must have been watching over An because near the end of today''s session, he was able to get another fragment!


    [You have reaped the death of a simple creature: Pseudo Canzers] x77


    [You have gained 1,155 experience]


    [You have gained F ss Mucus Spray LifeSkill fragment]


    [You have two of the same fragments with the same ss. Do you want to fuse them?]


    [Upgrade Points required: 1000]


    An immediately used the points to fuse the two fragments, and it resulted in an equivalent D ss fragment.


    ¡ªMage: (D) Mucus Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 3rd stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 6 days : 01 hrs


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 1x D ss fragment


    [You have an equivalent ss fragment of LifeSkill. Do you want to fuse the two?]


    [Upgrade Points required: 3000]


    An used the Upgrade Points in his Soul System to fuse the two LifeSkills until it resulted in a new and better ss.


    He looked at his Soul System and was satisfied with what he saw.


    [An]


    [Bloodline: Angelic Reaper of Souls]


    [Genus]


    ¡ª1x (2-star) Pseudo Canzer


    ¡ª1x (3-star) Human


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Grim Reaper


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Angel


    [Mutation]


    ¡ª (10-star) Gluttonous Soul


    ¡ª (10-star) Lightspeed Angel Wings


    [LifeSkills]


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(1000 / 1000)


    Specialty: Vanguard


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating to 4th stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 5 days : 23 hrs


    ¡ªMage: (C) Mucus Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 4th stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 6 days : 01 hrs


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 1x F ss fragment


    [Avable Experience: 6,766.2]


    [Upgrade Points: 993,000]


    He went home that day and went to sleep. He preferred his life to be very monotonous because it gave him enough time to be stronger.


    If he could stay in this ce for a thousand years and only kill Pseudo Canzers, then he would be satisfied with that life.


    He would be as patient as he could be and turn his Mage LifeSkill Mucus Spray into a very respectable S ss power.


    He also hoped that he would be fortunate again to gain another genus from the Pseudo Canzers and turn them into 10-star rated genuses. He was curious to know if it would change his bloodline just like the other two.


    However, he had to go on his very first mission in the Remedium, which was due in a week. He only had 4 days left to get as strong as possible.


    ###


    The next day, An walked out of his house with a little bit of a pep in his step. He was starting to get used to this kind of life.


    He had a house and a bed he could sleep on, he had all the kinds of food that he could eat every day in the cafeteria, and he had friends who would help him and give him advice on everything.


    He got familiar with the optimistic and happy faces of everyone he met on the streets.


    However, when he walked towards the usually busy streets in the City Center, he noticed that fewer people were walking by than normal.


    And when he reached the busiest street in the district, he couldn''t see any sign of people anywhere he looked.


    He saw a lot of unattended stalls with the grill still burning chicken skewers, he saw a jewelry store open with no guards, and he even saw half-eaten lunches on benches.


    What happened?


    An continued walking the path toward the Savior HeadQuarters until he finally saw other people.


    He saw them at the end of the street, all looking towards something in the front of the HeadQuarters itself. Hundreds if not thousands of people were squeezing themselves as they tried to go to the front of the crowd.


    He walked faster, wanting to know what themotion was all about.


    When he finally reached the main road that led to the HeadQuarters, he was surprised to see that almost the whole City was packed closer to this scene.


    The roads were filled with people. Mounts had nowhere to go. Barely anyone could move.


    He walked closer and put himself at the very back of the crowd. He raised his feet to try and see above the tall heads in front of him, but he couldn''t see past them.


    With no other choice, An pushed himself between the gaps.


    He had to see what was happening.


    With his enhanced strength, he was able to jostle his way further up the crowd. If his physique wasn''t so sturdy, he would have been crushed by the sheer amount of people around him.


    As he got closer, he was able to hear the jeering of the crowds.


    And amongst those noises, he was able to hear a passionate plea within them.


    "Please, please! Please listen to me!" The voice seemed toe from an old man. He was hoarse, yet he still tried to shout at the top of his lungs towards the crowd.


    But no one was receptive to his words. They ridiculed him.


    "Ha! Why would we listen to you? Your words don''t mean anything."


    "The lies you spout are worth less than the clothes you wear."


    "My ear hurts from hearing all your bare-faced lies."


    But despite the negative reaction from the crowd, the old man persisted in convincing them of his words.


    An finally pushed through the crowd close enough to finally see who this old man was.


    The first thing he noticed was the man was balding, with white hair sparsely attached to his head in small patches. He didn''t seem to wash it as it was filled with grime and oil, dirtying its original white color.


    Surprisingly, the man still had a white beard on his jaws, but it was so long that it reached the bottom of his feet!


    The old man wore tattered brown pants, with holes and stains all over the hems.


    He didn''t wear any shirt, and it showed how malnourished and decrepit he was.


    His stomach was caved in, his ribcage showed in his torso, and his eyes and cheeks were so sunken that it almost showed the full shape of his skull.


    I feel like I''ve seen him before¡­


    The old man didn''t stop his struggle to make the citizens of Genesis City heed his words.


    "We should prepare¡­ prepare¡­ PREPARE! The Apocalypse¡­it''sing!...Death is Coming!"

 Chapter 29: Warnings

    !!!


    An was surprised to hear the old man mention an apocalypse.


    All this time, the citizens of Genesis were unaware of the precarious situation they were in. None of them knew that their immortality disappeared the moment the angels fell from the heavens.


    They still believed that it was just a simple sr event from the sun.


    He always refrained from telling everybody this because he knew that no one would believe him. They wouldbel him as nothing more than a liar.


    He was surprised that this old man knew about the apocalypse and was actually trying to warn the rest of the citizens. And as he guessed, they were treating his words as nothing more than fiction.


    They were berating and insulting him all because he dared them to open their eyes to the truth.


    "Please! Don''t you see?! Immortality is an illusion!" The old man, in his desperation, grabbed ahold of one of the citizens in his cor.


    He didn''t like that. He pushed the old man to the ground with such force that the old man crashed his head on the pavement.


    Ptooh, the man spit. "Don''t grab me with your dirty hands, you decrepit old fool!"


    The old man held his head as he felt red blood trickling out of his forehead.


    There seemed to be a moment of rity in his head, where his eyes turned clear and his expression turned serious. But it soon melted away after a few seconds.


    An looked at the crowd and saw that none of them were helping the old guy. Even though he was hurt, no one was moving to give him aid.


    Everyone was just watching this scene unfold with an indifferent expression.


    Why are they all just watching? An wondered. It was even more weird that almost all of the citizens of the City were there to watch all of this.


    Is the old man someone important?


    "Excuse me, do you know who that is?"


    An asked someone beside him but instead of answering, the man just shook his head in disappointment. "It''s best if you don''t know, kid."


    The old man picked himself back up and pointed at the sky.


    "Don''t you see? The smoke¡­where''s there''s smoke¡­there''s fire¡­"


    However, when everyone looked at where he was pointing, they saw that there was nothing there but the sky and the buildings beneath it.


    "You''ve gone senile. There''s nothing there!"


    Everyone ridiculed him, but when An looked at where the old man was pointing, he noticed that it was the ce where the huge plume of smoke appeared a few days ago.


    Is the old man talking about that?


    ording to Neumann, it was a result of a Symptom because Canzers were causing destruction in the Remedium.


    It persisted for three days, but it was soon solved by Garuun and his team of Saviors in the Specialist Realm.


    "What more lies are you spouting? Alien conspiracies? t earth? Ha! This is the reason why no one takes you seriously."


    The old man didn''t seem to hear the insults fired towards him. He didn''t even seem to register anything around him. He looked like a deranged man who was spouting nonsense.


    Perhaps, it was the reason why no one was taking his words seriously, even if it was the truth.


    "They fell¡­they''re dead! They''re dead, I tell you!"


    The old man went on his knees and put his hands together into a praying position. Then, he looked up and wept at the tragedy he remembered.


    He''s talking about the fall of angels¡­


    As An heard more about the old man''s lies, the more An was convinced that he wasn''t insane. He was probably even more sane and lucid than most of the people who ridiculed him.


    "Why is no one taking him back to the care center?"


    "It''s such a shame to see him like this."


    "What a tragedy¡­"


    An continued to squeeze himself towards the crowd until finally, he was able to shove himself at the very front of the crowd.


    And as soon as he did, the old man looked in his direction.


    They made eye contact.


    An finally got a good look at his features and a glint of recognition shed in his eyes. He recognized this old man!


    Meanwhile, the old man was surprised when he looked at An. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He looked at An from his feet to his head, and even further beyond his stature.


    No one was seeing things like him. He saw the truth of the world. And what he saw from An¡­frightening.


    ck tendrils made out of the very darkness of space itself were spreading out of An''s body like roots.


    The ckness branched away from An and connected to each and every person near him. Nobody was safe.


    No one saw it but him. Nobody knew that they were in the proximity of the maws of death.


    And when the old man looked up above An, he saw a melting pot of deranged skulls and horrified deaths flowing out of his head.


    This seemingly normal youth was the personification of his very fear; he was death itself.


    The old man''s heartbeat sped up to a thousand times per second as he started to palpitate. He was experiencing a nightmare that he could not wake up from.


    His heart pumped faster and faster, much more than what his fragile body could take.


    Terror and trepidation forced his heart to beat until, finally, it stopped.


    His heart no longer worked.


    And in hisst moments, he uttered the words;


    "Death hathe¡­"


    The old man flopped on the ground, his body quickly turning cold.


    An stayed frozen in ce until someone grabbed him by his shoulders and broke him out of his stupor.


    He looked back and saw a familiar face. He recognized that long curly hair anywhere.


    It was Lizzie. She gave him a concerned look.


    "Are you okay?"


    An paused for a second and couldn''t utter the words at the tip of his tongue.


    He was distracted by the words in front of him. It gave him mixed feelings.


    [You have assisted in the death of Quinto Kindle]


    [You have reaped the death of the ''First Savior'']


    [You have gained 10,000 experience]


    [10x Booster trait acquired!]


    [SSS ss Apocalyptic Hellfire acquired]

 Chapter 30: Quinto

    I can''t believe it¡­


    [An]


    [Bloodline: Angelic Reaper of Souls]


    [Genus]


    ¡ª1x (2-star) Pseudo Canzer


    ¡ª1x (3-star) Human


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Grim Reaper


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Angel


    [Mutation]


    ¡ª (10-star) Gluttonous Soul


    ¡ª (10-star) Lightspeed Angel Wings


    [Trait]


    ¡ª 10x level booster


    [LifeSkills]


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(1000 / 1000)


    Specialty: Vanguard


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating to 4th stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 4 days : 23 hrs


    ¡ªMage: (C) Mucus Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 4th stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 5 days : 22 hrs


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 1x F ss fragment


    ¡ªSniper: (SSS) Apocalyptic Hellfire


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª 1st stage Student


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª (0 / 1000)


    [Avable Experience: 17,921.2]


    [Upgrade Points: 993,000]


    He couldn''t believe that the emaciated old man who was spouting about the apocalypse was Quinto Kindle, the First Savior.


    Those words that shed in front of him confirmed his suspicions.


    From the first time he saw the old man, he felt that he was familiar; An felt like he had seen him before.


    But because he was so far away from the man, he couldn''t remember it. Only when he pushed himself deeper within the crowd and finally reached the very front of themotion did he finally get a good look at the old man.


    Gone was the luscious lion''s mane white hair on his head.


    Gone were the fierce and unrelenting expressions in his eyes.


    Gone was the arrogant and aggressive smile on his face that intimidated everyone who looked his way.


    What''s left of him was just skin and bones. He was nothing but a husk of his old self, with his face barely resembling his glorious days.


    "Ohe on, old man. Stop pretending."


    "He''s so dramatic."


    "Will someone wake him up please?"


    They didn''t know he was dead.


    Why would they? Immortality was still embedded in their brains and the concept of death was so foreign to them that they hadn''t even thought about it all.


    Coupled with the fact that they distrusted everything Quinto did, they simply believed that he was faking his ''illness''.


    After a few minutes, some of the people in the front of the crowd walked over to Quinto''s body and shook him to try and wake him up.


    They noticed that he was cold to the touch. They found this weird.


    And just as they were about to voice out their doubts about the whole situation, a few of the soldiers standing by forced themselves through the crowd.


    They then prevented anyone froming near him anymore as they transported his body elsewhere.


    "Okay, folks. The show''s over. He needs to be taken care of."


    Most of the crowds dispersed when the soldiers intervened. However, the few people who touched the cold corpse of Quinto lingered for a few seconds, with doubts shing in their eyes.


    However, they quickly shook their heads and threw away the thought forming in their mind.


    Quinto passed out, nothing more.


    "Hey, are you okay?" Lizzi looked at An with a worried expression. She saw the absent-minded look on his face.


    "Yeah¡­it''s just¡­that was the First Savior. That was the Quinto Kindle."


    She sighed. Just like everybody who watched everything unfold, she was also disappointed with what happened to him. She still remembered the days when she idolized the legends told about his exploits.


    "It''s such a shame what happened to him. He''s be a crazed old fool. He used to be the symbol of hope and strength in this City and the whole world, but now¡­"


    She didn''t want to speak about it anymore because the more she thought about it, the more she regretted the circumstances.


    "He must''ve been so powerful¡­" An muttered.


    He looked at his Soul System and the powers he gained from reaping the very First Savior¡ªthe man who lived for thousands of years umting strength.


    He gained another LifeSkill, which had the job of a sniper. Surprisingly, it was SSS ss rated.


    This was the first time he had ever heard of someone else having a SSS ss rated LifeSkill.


    The best one he had ever seen was Yasmine, but she was already considered to be a transcendent talent with a very bright future.


    But the fact that Quinto had this LifeSkill meant that there were others with SSS ss LifeSkills out there.


    An immediately upgraded this LifeSkill to the 2nd stage.


    [You have sessfully advanced through the 1st Stage Student Realm of your SSS ss LifeSkill Apocalyptic Hellfire]


    [Consolidation period: 12 hrs: 59 mins: 50secs]


    Getting the SSS ss LifeSkill was already a tremendous reward in and of itself, but that wasn''t the only thing he received when he reaped the death of Quinto.


    He looked at his Soul System and saw that he gained a Trait.


    [Trait]


    ¡ª 10x level booster


    What''s this?


    "Lizzie, do you know something called Trait?"


    Lizzie tilted her head and thought for a second. But, in her hundred years of life, she hadn''t heard of something called Trait.


    "Sorry, I don''t know. Why do you ask?"


    An waved his hands. "It''s fine. I just thought I heard someone talk about it. I must have misheard them."


    Lizzie didn''t question it any further. After a few seconds of silence, Lizzie suddenly jolted as she remembered something that she was supposed to say.


    "Oh right! I forgot to tell you why I''ve been looking for you."


    "What''s wrong?"


    "It''s something that''s going to rid your mind of what happened."


    Lizzie guided An up the steps of the HeadQuarters. When she opened the door, the first thing he saw was a few Saviors with green battle suits gathered around the reception area.


    They all had youthful faces, and he didn''t recognize any of them¨Cexcept for one.


    For some reason, Neumann was among the youthful group of Saviors.


    Once Neumann saw An walking with Lizzie towards him, he waved his hands.


    "What are we doing in the HeadQuarters?" An asked Lizzie.


    She smiled. "You remember your prize for thepetition, right?"


    "Yes. My reward is a mission in the Remedium in a week."


    "Well, good news. Something happened and your schedule has moved up!"


    "When?"


    "Now!"

 Chapter 31: Preparation

    An couldn''t hide the surprise from his face.


    "Are you happy? Your first mission is only at a 1st stage Student difficulty."


    Happy is not the right word.


    When he first found out about his mission in the Remedium, he wasn''t that surprised. He knew that he would eventually have to do his job and go to his first mission.


    He was given a very gracious one-week period where he could prepare for the mission.


    An took full advantage of this and killed as many Pseudo Canzers as he could. By doing so, he was able to advance his Mage LifeSkill to C ss. And he was even able to get another Genus and advance it to 2-star.


    It had only been 4 days since then, and he thought he''d have 3 more days to practice. Turns out he didn''t.


    Fortunately, though, he was able to acquire another SSS ss LifeSkill from the unfortunate tragedy earlier.


    If people found out that his SSS ss and his C ss LifeSkill were at the 3rd stage Student Realm, they would feel that he was overqualified.


    This mission was only intended for beginners at the 1st stage Student realm. Yet An had two LifeSkills, which is already a cheat itself, in the 3rd stage difficulty.


    And the fact that he was a Porter made this extremely interesting. He wasn''t even going to be fighting the Canzers!


    "Your teammates are right there." She pointed at the youthful group in the reception area. "They are also beginners like you."


    When An and Lizzie finally arrived at the reception area, Neumann introduced An to the rest of the group.


    "This here is our star porter, An."


    Everyone''s eyes gleamed when they finally put a face to the man they had heard so much about.


    "I can''t believe you''re only in the first stage like us!"


    "You were able to defeat two 3rd stage Students in a race! How did you do that?"


    "Even though we''re the same age, you''re so much better than us already."


    "I''m d someone as capable as you is our porter."


    Everyone greeted him with praises andpliments. Even though all of them were roughly the same age, they all looked at An as if he was a senior they deeply respected.


    An was a little bit overwhelmed with their enthusiasm. He didn''t know how to respond to them, so he looked towards Neumann for help.


    However, Neumann just winked at him and nodded his head. He hyped up An to the rest of the team so that they''d quickly integrate him into the group.


    The best part was that Neumann didn''t have to lie. All of An''s achievements were true and weren''t embellished at all.


    His n worked as they all got along well.


    "Hello¡­I''m An," he greeted them.


    They then introduced themselves one by one and told him about their respective jobs.


    The oldest out of all of them was a man who was 20 years old, and he had a C ss Pugilist LifeSkill.


    The others were younger than him, about 18 and 19 years old.


    One boy had a D ss Archer LifeSkill, the other had a C ss Tank LifeSkill, and thest boy had a D ss Scout LifeSkill.


    The only girl in the group had a C ss Stun Wizard LifeSkill.


    An noticed that all of them had LifeSkills lower than A ss. This meant that these groups of youths were natives of Genesis City; they were born here.


    If they weren''t, then they wouldn''t have been able to enter Genesis City in the first ce.


    "This time, there''s seven of us that are going on this mission," said Neumann, taking the lead.


    "You''re joining us?" An was surprised because Neumann was at the 4th stage of the Student realm.


    "Yes. In beginner missions like these, there is always a veteran present to help the newbies.


    Don''t worry, I won''t interfere with your first mission. I''m only going to act if it bes dangerous."


    The other newbies were relieved to hear that Neumann was going to be their guardian angel for their first mission. It was reassuring to know that a veteran would be there to cover for their mistakes.


    "Sir Neumann," greeted the receptionist from behind him.


    Neumann turned around and replied to her. "Is the Canzer Report ready?"


    The receptionist smiled. "Yes. The report just came down from HeadQuarters."


    She handed him a thin stone tablet about 8 inches wide and 12 inches long. An got a glimpse of the stone tablet and saw letter carvings etched into the very stone.


    Neumann saw An''s curious look and exined. "This is a Canzer Report. This ispiled by the Operators who monitored the Symptoms manifested in the City.


    It details where the Symptom is, what type of Canzer we''re dealing with, and the equipment needed to defeat them."


    "Why a stone tablet?"


    Neumann chuckled and the receptionist answered it for him. "It''s supposed to symbolize that the Canzer Report is final. It''s etched in stone.


    There are a lot of Vanguards who second-guess the orders of the Operators.


    Hmph. Knives should stay knives. They shouldn''t have foul mouths."


    Looks like the two specialties really don''t get along¡­


    Neumann awkwardly let out a forcedugh. He understood both sides and knew that both Knives and Quills had their ws. Some people understood that, but there were also a lot of people who hated the other side regardless.


    Wemby and the receptionist were two sides of the same coin.


    "Ahem," the receptionist coughed. "Anyway, we have already packed up the special equipment for the mission. Please pick them up."


    Neumann walked over to the receptionist''s office and took out a colossal backpack that could easily fit three people together.


    It must have been extremely heavy because he had trouble with the weight and had to drag it out of the reception area.


    "This is your job, An. You''ll have to carry this into the Remedium."


    The rest of the youths in their team gasped when they heard that. They knew the strength of a Savior in the 4th stage Student realm.


    And if Neumann had trouble picking that up, then it would be unbelievable for a 1st stage youth like An to carry it through the Remedium.


    "Are you kidding sir? An''s impressive but that''s impossible¡ª"


    Theirints were quickly silenced.


    An walked over to the backpack, casually picked it up with just one hand, and slung it over his back. He secured the straps to his chest and looked at everyone expectantly.


    "So, when are we going?"


    Their mouths went agape.

 Chapter 32: 2nd Street

    They were all surprised at seeing An pick up the tons of weight on his shoulders like it was as light as a feather. He didn''t even look like he was struggling at all.


    "Woah¡­"


    "As expected of a Porter¡­"


    Neumann and Lizzie chuckled to themselves because they found the youth''s reactions amusing. They reacted the same way that they did when they first saw An show his strength.


    "Okay, now that we''re ready, let''s depart," said Neumann as he led the group out of the HeadQuarters.


    "Where are we going," asked An.


    Neumann showed him the stone tablet with the engraved Canzer Report. "This says that the Symptom appeared in the SpringField District, specifically the 2nd street."


    Lizzie added, "They''ll get there by their mounts. But because the equipment you''re carrying is too heavy, we''ll go there by truck."


    An saw that the youths, along with Neumann, all mounted their horses parked by the side of the street.


    "Those are presents from their parents. Usually, a beginner like them can''t get ess to those mounts as of yet," Lizzie said.


    An someday wanted a mount of his own. But it seemed that it was unnecessary since he was a Porter carrying hundreds of kilograms on his back.


    Unless his horse was a colossal monster, then it wouldn''t be able to hold his weight.


    They all departed and went through the streets of the City, getting away from the City Center and towards the middleyer. The mounts were at the front, and the truck was following them from behind.


    "You aren''t nervous about your first mission?" asked Lizzie.


    "Not that much."


    She smiled. "That''s good. This mission has a 1st stage Student difficulty, which means that it can bepleted by a group of novices in the 1st stage.


    And with Neumann with you to assist, there''s nothing to worry about."


    An smiled and didn''t say anything further.


    He watched as the truck traversed through the streets of the City and through a small bridge that separated the inner and middleyers of the City.


    Along the way, he saw a sign on the street that said,


    <SpringField District>


    <Main street>


    That''s the location of the symptom¡­we''re close.


    SpringField District was made out of tightly packed residential apartments that were all about two or three floors high.


    Some were abandoned and some had living residents, but all of the apartments looked to have aged a lot. There were chipped paints, broken windows, and leaking sewers all around. These houses weren''t as good as the houses near the City Center.


    The roads also got thinner, just enough for the truck to pass by.


    As they got closer, An saw soldiers guiding residents out of their houses, whether they wanted to or not.


    Finally, the group of horses at the front of the truck stopped as they finally reached their location. Neumann and the youths dismounted and walked forward.


    Lizzie and An followed suit after he put the massive bag on his back.


    A group of soldiers barricaded the whole 2nd street of the district, preventing anyone froming in or out.


    In the very middle, there was arge circr construct that was as tall as two humans. Inside the circle was a portal made out of ck swirling liquid, just like what An saw at the elevator in the HeadQuarters.


    This must be the portal to the Remedium, thought An.


    Suddenly, An felt a shaking on the ground. It was an earthquake.


    He thought something was wrong, but when he looked around and noticed that none of them were panicking, he calmed down.


    "Let''s keep this brief. As you all felt just now, the Symptoms are getting worse." Neumann turned around and faced the youths.


    "We are facing a Destruction Canzer called the Deiztruphia." Neumann then gave specific instructions to the youths to help them in their fight.


    Meanwhile, An whispered to Lizzie. "Destruction Canzer?"


    "They''re one of the two types of Canzers. Destruction Canzer specializes in durability and ruination. This means that their symptoms usually involve some kind of destruction around the City."


    An looked ahead beyond the portal and saw a glimpse of the apartment houses on the other side.


    He was surprised to see that most of the buildings were leaning on one side or the other.


    Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the walls of the buildings were melting like hot wax!


    The balconies on the second floor were drooping down. The ss windows, instead of breaking from collision, deformed like wet y.


    Bricks, cement, and stone buildings lost all their toughness and melted like hotva.


    And because those walls were starting to lose their integrity, the apartments leaned to one side and crashed. And since the buildings were so packed, the destruction created a domino effect that toppled every building in the street.


    "That''s the symptom?"


    She nodded. "Yes, and if the Canzer isn''t killed, it could get worse or spread to other ces."


    "If we kill the Canzer, will those houses return to normal?"


    "Unfortunately, no. The damage is already done. But don''t worry, we have Operators who can rebuild houses in a matter of hours."


    At this point, Neumann finished his orientation with the youths. They already knew the theory behind teamwork and all that, but he made sure to remind them to stick to what they learned.


    Then, he walked over to An and told him what he needed to do.


    "An, your job is simple. You stay behind the backline carrying that equipment.


    And once we defeat the Canzer, I''m gonna order you to take out the bag and put it down on the ground. After that, you don''t have to worry as the equipment activates on its own.


    Once everything''s over, you pack up the equipment back into the bag and we go home. Easy."


    An nodded and took all of Neumann''s words to heart. His job was very easy.


    "Okay, let''s go and finish your very first mission!"


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM

 Chapter 33: Beat

    An felt a slight thumping rhythm in the ground, as if there was a drum that beat beneath the ground he stood on. He looked forward and had the feeling that the thumping wasing from the 2nd street, where the symptoms were.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM


    He felt it again. "Do you feel that?"


    "Feel what? It''s probably just an effect of the symptoms." Lizzie didn''t feel what An felt.


    "Okay, are you all ready?" asked Neumann. The five youths all raised their weapons in the air and cheered on this momentous asion. This was their first mission.


    "Hey kiddo, don''t get too worried. You got this. Good luck." Lizzie patted his back and smiled at him.


    "Thanks."


    "Now go and beat some Canzers!" she shouted to get him hyped up.


    An awkwardly raised his hand and uttered, "woOooOh!"


    Lizzie couldn''t help butugh at seeing An''s awkward war cry. An was very intelligent and capable most of the time, but Lizzie found it endearing that he had a very awkward side to him sometimes.


    Neumann led the rest of the youths and entered the ck portal in front of them. They quickly disappeared into the Remedium as soon as they stepped foot over the portal construct.


    An was the only one left behind.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM


    Strengthening his resolve, An stepped forward and entered the Remedium.


    As soon as he walked inside, he immediately saw the strange inverted colors of the Remedium.


    The sky was orange, the cement on the ground turned white, and the reddish brown apartment houses all turned sky blue. He wasn''t that surprised when he saw this scene; this wasn''t different from the Training Hall Remedium.


    However, there was one thingpletely different this time.


    The texture of everything turned into fibers as small as strings intertwined along one direction. Everything was made up of these threads: the roof, the railings, and even the graffiti painted along the walls.


    And each of these fibers twitched and squirmed sporadically within five seconds. It gave An the impression that he was inside the muscle of a living being.


    "Be careful," warned Neumann to the team. He led the way and was the first one to see the problem.


    There were neon green puddles of goo all around the street. An and the others watched as the slime from atop the roof dripped down onto the sidewalk below.


    The mysterious green goo seeped into the small gaps of the intertwined fibers and as soon as the fibers twitched, they suddenly snapped in half as if the force from its normal spasm was suddenly too much to bear.


    The fibers soon lost all its luster and no longer squirmed.


    "The Deiztruphia will continue producing these green biles if we don''t kill it soon. More destroyed fibers mean more destruction in the real world."


    "How will we find it?" asked An.


    Neumann looked back at him and said, "We''ll know when it''s near."


    The group continued to walk through the streets cautiously. The youths were already in their positions, with the C ss Tank at the front of the C ss Stun Wizard, the D ss Archer, and the C ss pugilist.


    The D ss scout positioned himself away from the main group and walked a little bit further by himself.


    Neumann was at the very front guiding everyone while An was at the very back.


    Finally, after walking for a few minutes, the group came across a secluded back alley of two apartment buildings that were destroyed by green goo all around it.


    The fibers that made up the walls and the fire exit that led up to the 4th floor of the apartment building were all destroyed and frayed.


    This ce no longer spasmed and twitched like the rest of the street. It looked lifeless.


    "This is the ce. This is itsir," whispered Neumann. He signaled everybody to watch their steps as they traversed through the narrow pathway leading to the Canzer''s den.


    Neumann peeked out from the corner and saw their target.


    He carefully signaled for the others to take a look as well.


    The Deiztruphia Canzer was a creature that walked on all of its four legs, covered with short ck fur. Its hind legs were much bigger and more muscr than its front legs.


    On its back was a hard shell or carapace made out of green honeb chitin that protected its torso and its shoulders.


    The weirdest part of its body was its head. It resembled the shape of a human, yet there were no eyes, no nose, and no ears. There was only a mouth in the middle of its face.


    Its long and wide tonguey out of its mouth, dribbling green goo on the ground.


    The Canzer hadn''t noticed them yet. It sprawled its legs on the floor like a dog rxing on a hot day.


    But it didn''t know that there was a group of Saviors positioning themselves to attack its peaceful slumber.


    "Attack!" Neumann shouted.


    The D ss Archer was the first to move as he activated his LifeSkill, empowering the tip of his arrow to have billowing mes.


    The arrow flew through the air andnded directly on the Canzer''s head, sinking till the tip was fully embedded into the Canzer''s skin.


    KYAWWOOOOO, it screamed.


    The pugilist took this chance to close the distance. He jumped on the garbage bin to the side and used it as a jumping pad up to a balcony.


    With his pugilist LifeSkill, his arms twisted like screws as he jumped down towards the Canzer, drilling through its forearms. Violet blood spurted everywhere.


    The Canzer roared and iled itsrge tongue everywhere, flinging green goo everywhere.


    The tank proved his worth as he raised his shield and created a 2-meter by 2-meter holographic shield. The green goo sttered out the shield, protecting the wizard.


    With the Canzer active and conscious of its attackers, it stood on its two hind legs and iled its front arms and tongue in a defensive move.


    The scout looked at the stun wizard and saw that she was casting her spell. He quickly activated his LifeSkill to distract the Canzer.


    He shouted, and the visible sound waves traveled toward the Canzer, getting its attention.


    While it wasn''t paying attention to her, the Stun Wizard used her LifeSkill and a ball of ice appeared on her palm. She grasped it in her hands and flung it towards the Canzer.


    Itnded on its hind legs as the ice spread through its thick fur. No matter how much it tried to, it couldn''t move it anymore!


    The five youths moved with perfect teamwork as they sessfully ambushed the Canzer and did as much damage as they could at the start of the battle.


    Violet blood oozed out of its body and pooled underneath.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM

 Chapter 34: Heal

    The scout tried to attack the Canzer while it was in its frozen state. However, sharp ws suddenly came thrashing down towards him.


    "Argh!" He didn''t expect to see the Canzer recover from the ice in its body so fast.


    Three gashes appeared on his torso, staining his green battle suit bloody red.


    The pugilist was caught off guard too. He tried to use his twisting tornado punch again and dealt a heavy blow to the head, but the Canzer suddenly spat out green goo toward him.


    He thought he''d be able to duck away from it, but he didn''t ount for the green goo''s unpredictable ssh pattern.


    The acidic liquid splotched on his left shoulder and a little bit on his neck. Smoke came out as the acid burned away his battle suit and skin.


    The tank panicked when he saw this. He quickly rushed over to their side and put up his shield. "Are you okay?"


    The tank tried to save the scout and the pugilist, but that was a mistake. He forgot that he was the only one standing in the way between the Canzer and the Stun Wizard.


    GYAOOO


    The Deiztruphia Canzer noticed the lone woman in front of it. It roared and got on all fours. It dug its feet into the fibers on the ground and used them to charge toward the Stun Wizard at fast speeds¨Cmuch faster than what they could all react to.


    The Stun Wizard was dazed as she saw the Canzer rush towards her. In her panic, she closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable to happen.


    SHINGGG


    Just when she thought that she''d have a thousand kilograms of force mming on her body at top speeds, a holographic bubble suddenly appeared around her body.


    The Canzer collided head-first into the bubble and was repelled away, unable to break through.


    The collision disoriented the Canzer as it stumbled and crashed into the trash bin.


    "Stop panicking," Neumann shouted to the youths. "Just do what you all practiced. You don''t have to worry about your injuries."


    Neumann''s reminders broke them out of their stupor. In the midst of all the excitement and nervousness, the group forgot their respective roles in the fight.


    They got too impatient and that led to mistakes and injuries that could have been easily avoided.


    "Let''s group up!" shouted the tank.


    They all nodded as they slowly backed away from the stunned Canzer and used this time to recenter themselves.


    "I''ll protect the stun wizard and the archer." The tank reminded himself to protect the most vulnerable. Because of his mistake, the stun wizard was almost knocked out.


    "I''ll have to aim for its legs now." The archer tried to save both the scout and the pugilist, but because he aimed for the head, his shots missed. He got too ambitious.


    The pugilist took a deep breath and forced himself to be patient. His injuries reminded him of what would happen if he tried to attack at an inopportune moment.


    The stun wizard remained silent and forced herself to calm her nerves. Yet, her hands still shook from that terrifying experience.


    "Scout! Are you okay? Can you continue?" asked the tank.


    The scout held his bleeding torso and forced himself up. He gave his team a smile and a thumbs up.


    Now that they knew the consequences of their carelessness, the group became more careful.


    The Canzer got up from the trash bin and roared at the teens. They steeled themselves and got into their respective positions, just like they practiced.


    An watched as the group started to work like a well-oiled machine. They stopped acting by themselves and started tomunicate their moves to one another.


    This led them to cover for each other''s downtime.


    The scout, the tank, and the stun wizard all worked together for defense and distraction. Whenever the Canzer tried to attack their group, they would stun or distract it enough for the others to escape.


    Meanwhile, the archer and the pugilist took that time to deal as much damage to the Canzer when they found an opening.


    Slowly but surely, their gears got going and they settled on a safe rhythm in their battle against the Canzer.


    After half an hour of fighting, the Canzer couldn''t keep itself standing anymore. It limped as it tried to use its front legs to move closer to its attackers.


    Thebined attacks from the archer and the pugilist injured the Canzer''s extremities to the point of crippling them.


    An thought that the battle would soon be over.


    "It''s not over yet," muttered Neumann beside him.


    "What do you mean?"


    Neumann pointed at the Canzer. "All Destruction Canzers have a special ability¡­like that."


    Just then, he saw the arrows embedded in its four legs start to fall out till the wounds closed. The twisted fur and skin it suffered from the pugilist''s Tornado Punch LifeSkill turned back to normal.


    The injuries on the Canzer''s body started to heal!


    It was at this point that the Canzer fell on the floor and covered its body with itsrge shell. The youths had no way of prating through it.


    Therge tongue on its head peeked out of the shell and shot out green goo up the air like a fountain. No one could approach it unless they wanted to burn their bodies in acid.


    In just a few more minutes, the Canzer would return to normal and their hard work would all be for naught.


    Why aren''t they panicking? Is this normal?


    "An. It''s time!" Neumann patted him on the back. "Put down the bag on the floor."


    An had more questions, but he knew that this wasn''t the time for it. He immediately took out therge boulder-like bag on his back and put it on the floor.


    He undid the straps on the bag and let the whole thing unravel.


    Layers uponyers of fabricid down on the floor like a carpet until a shiny metallic cube showed itself.


    This cube was twice as tall as a normal person, and it had intricate wavy and curvy lettering etched onto the very material. As soon as it finished unraveling, its edges suddenly glowed a bright yellow light.


    "Step back," said Neumann. "It will activate by itself."


    Just then, the cube suddenly floated up in the air until it was towering over them 10 feet in the air.


    KUSHHH


    A grid-like pattern emerged on its surface, separating the whole thing into 27 smaller cubes. And after a few moments, it all flew away in different directions in the sky. It didn''t stop until it epassed the whole Remedium in a dome.


    The cubes glowed and shot out glowing lines that connected each cube. A small shockwave emanated from the ''dome'', signaling itspletion.


    Nothing physically changed, but An looked around and felt the difference. It felt like the air got heavier.


    Why does this feel familiar?


    GYAOOOO


    The Deiztruphia Canzer suddenly trembled the same moment An felt the air change. Its whole body spasmed as if it were being electrocuted by lightning.


    It couldn''t help but extend its arms and head out of its shell.


    An noticed something then. The Canzer stopped healing! The bruises in its body returned and the cuts on its body let out violet blood again.


    "Destruction Canzers can keep regenerating as much as they need. That construct prevents them from healing." Neumann muttered.


    "How?"


    He shrugged. "I heard it''s something about their weakness. It has something to do with Angels."


    An was surprised. Canzers have a weakness against Angels?

 Chapter 35: Back

    An finally figured out why that feeling was so familiar. When he felt the air change, he felt a part of himself resonate with it.


    After all, An''s bloodline was part Angel. He was the Angelic Reaper of Souls. And if that construct was somehow part Angel, then it would make sense why he could feel it.


    He found it interesting that Canzers seemed to have a weakness with Angelic powers.


    Will my SSS ss Cherubic Retribution work on them? he wondered.


    Fortunately and unfortunately, he wouldn''t get a chance to use it.


    But he found it fascinating to know that Operators could somehow harness a power simr to Angels.


    This made him intensely curious about how constructs were made. How were they able to use an angel''s power? Was it a replication?


    Operators are much moreplex than I thought.


    He didn''t have much knowledge about what Operators did and what made them so special. However, his encounter with this construct left him more curious to know about this second specialty LifeSkill.


    "Operators make constructs that specifically target and weaken Canzers. You bring that construct with us. And that helps us Vanguards kill the Canzers and purge them from the Remedium.


    Do you see how important your job is now? You are the link between the two specialties."


    An nodded. Without that Construct, he could see them eventually getting dead tired from constantly fighting a regenerating Canzer.


    "Usually, we set up the construct early in the fight, but I wanted to teach the youngsters a valuable lesson."


    An looked at the youths and saw them heave a sigh of relief when they saw the weakening Canzer. It had no more energy to even fling green goo towards them.


    "Don''t getcent," warned Neumann. "Kill it now or will I have to deprive you of that honor?"


    They all gathered and watched as the archer notched a ming arrow in his bow. He took a deep breath and shot it urately in the Canzer''s forehead.


    THUMPP


    The Canzer finally stopped moving. Its long tonguey lifeless on the pavement.


    And for good measure, the pugilist punched the arrow deeper into the Canzer''s head till it came out the other side.


    The Destruction Canzer was dead. Missionpleted.


    "We did it!" They cheered. The scout and the tank jumped in celebration while the rest slumped on the ground, exhausted from the fight.


    After half an hour of hard fighting, they finally vanquished the Canzer. They didn''te out of it unscathed though, as they all gained numerous injuries on their body.


    But it was all worth it in the end. They would gain experience from this fight.


    [You have reaped the death of a Canzer: Deiztruphia]


    [Due to your Trait, you have multiplied your experience by 10]


    [You have gained 2000 experience]


    An didn''t think he''d get that much experience just from this mission. He didn''t even do anything; he just stayed in the backline and watched everything unfold.


    His mysterious trait, the one he gained from reaping the death of the First Savior, turned out to be a tremendous gift of luck. It was able to multiply his experience by 10!


    He was already getting a ton of experience just by reaping any deaths he came across.


    He only got a small amount of experience from that, but this trait would make him have an excess of it. He didn''t hate it though.


    "Congrattions onpleting your first mission," Neumann pped. "I know it''s been hard, but Imend you all for finishing it in just half an hour."


    They all celebrated this win by giving each other a round of apuse.


    The youths thanked Neumann for his protection and his much-needed advice during the fight. If it wasn''t for him, they weren''t even sure if they could have defeated the Canzer.


    They also thanked An for his part, which made him feel awkward. He did the least out of all of them, but they still appreciated him nheless.


    "What happens now?" asked An.


    Neumann looked up at the sky and said, "Now, the god will send down his rewards for our mission. He''ll give all of us experience points equally."


    The youths rejoiced when they heard that. The reason why they worked so hard for this mission was because they needed the experience.


    They all waited patiently for something to happen, but nothing did. Ten minutes psed, yet there was no sign that the god would send down the rewards.


    "Why haven''t we gotten the experience yet?"


    "Isn''t there supposed to be a pir of light thates down and blesses us with rewards?"


    "It''s supposed toe down immediately after we defeat the Canzer though¡­"


    They all looked towards Neumann and gauged his expression. He had a steady face to prevent further fear from the youths, but on the inside, he was panicking.


    In all the years of his experience in the Remedium, he never saw a dy this long.


    Something''s wrong, Neumann thought.


    He looked back at the stone tablet and rechecked the Canzer Report. It said that there was only one Deiztriphia Canzer present in the Remedium. The mission should be over.


    Yet it didn''t.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM


    An heard it again. This time, it was getting louder and more intense.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM


    It''s getting closer! An panicked. "I think we should leave."


    The rest of the youths were a little bit reluctant with this as they wanted to get those experience points. They already killed the Canzer; they deserved the rewards. And if they left now, this would put a stain on their records.


    But, they all agreed that it was better to retreat now. If there was something they knew, then it was better to be safe than sorry. The Remedium was always unpredictable.


    The youths all got to their battle stances and walked back from where they came.


    This time, Neumann was on his toes. He stayed close to the youths.


    After a few minutes, they could see the ck portal swirling in the distance at the end of the street. They were close home.


    The youths rxed a bit, feeling the safety of seeing the portal.


    But then An noticed something.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM


    The thumping wasing from the direction of the portal!


    "Run!" warned An. But it was toote.


    The ground quaked until the fibers on the ground came loose. They felt helpless as the ground that they stood on caved in and they felt the weightlessness of free fall.

 Chapter 36: Tunnels

    An faintly remembered the figures of Neumann and the rest of the teens iling around as they fell into the same chasm as him.


    When he opened his eyes again, he seemed to be in a different space. No one was here with him.


    He stumbled on the wall beside him and felt the texture of wet, slimy, brick in his hands. Moss seemed to grow on this wall.


    Judging from the fibers he felt from the wall, he knew that he was still in the Remedium. He felt it strange that he could feel the texture of moss on bricks even though the walls were made up of fibers intertwined with each other.


    He noticed that everything in this ce looked white. This meant that the real-world equivalent of this ce must be dark and dim, the exact opposite of the tint he was seeing right now.


    He pinched his nose. The acrid and pungent smell of decay hit his senses. He didn''t think he''d smell this scent again after he left the Unimed Lands.


    From the distance, he heard the faint sounds of water dripping and echoing around the walls.


    When he looked to the side, he saw that there were running water-like fibers on the channel down a step below. On the other side, he saw a wall simr to the one he was on now.


    And spaced out evenly along the wall were small alcoves where torches gave out a small blue me.


    He looked around and saw that he could either only go forward or backward. This ce seemed like a winding narrow tunnel underground. He wasn''t familiar with this ce.


    When he looked backward, he faintly saw a dead end with iron grates preventing him from going back.


    With no other choice, An decided to walk forward.


    He needed to find the exit. He needed to reunite with Neumann and the others. He wanted to know if they were safe.


    Since they all fell from the same ce, An guessed that they were also in the same narrow winding tunnels as him. If he kept walking forward, he would eventually run into them.


    He walked for minutes on end, with his steps faintly echoing in the tunnels.


    Eventually, he heard scurrying in the distance. His eyes lit up when he thought he was hearing the footsteps of his team, but his expression soon turned grim when he heard four sets of stomps in the distance.


    This wasn''t from a human. This was a creature who walked on all fours.


    Is it¡­


    An''s guess, unfortunately, turned out right as he soon saw a figure in the distance, frolicking on the liquid-like flowing fibers down steps.


    It had short ck fur, walked on all fours, had thicker and muscr hind legs than the front legs, a hard shell on its torso, and a human-like head with nothing but a mouth and arge tongue that dripped green goo.


    It was a Deiztruphia Canzer.


    It hadn''t noticed him yet, but it was walking towards him slowly. If he didn''t do anything, it would eventually notice him and attack him.


    He quickly decided to turn around and try to escape from the Canzer.


    However, when he looked back, he suddenly saw a different tunnel than the one he walked away from!


    There was now an intersection that led to the left and right tunnels. The worst part was that he heard two other sets of hooves clopping from the intersection.


    His guess turned out correct too as two other Deiztruphia Canzers meandered their way towards him.


    He was surrounded by a ce that didn''t follow the rules of physics.


    I have no other choice. I have to fight.


    An knew the difficulty that his team went through just to fight one Canzer. It took five 1st stage Students just to kill one of them in half an hour. And they had a lot of trouble killing it too. They came out of the fight exhausted and injured, barely beating the Canzer.


    They also needed the protection of a 4th stage Student like Neumann.


    Fighting one Deiztruphia Canzer was a hard task for a lone man like An. It seemed impossible to fight all three at once.


    However, he reminded himself that he wasn''t just like any other Savior. He had unique powers that could help him ovee this difficult task.


    He had four LifeSkills in his repertoire.


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    Specialty: Vanguard


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating to 4th stage


    ¡ªMage: (C) Mucus Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 4th stage


    ¡ªSniper: (SSS) Apocalyptic Hellfire


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 2nd stage


    Two of them were at the 3rd Stage Student Realm, and he had three SSS ss LifeSkills.


    He watched his team''s fight with the Canzer and knew of its attack tendencies. He knew that it liked to spout green acid goo on its enemies or charge at them if they were at a distance.


    If he got surrounded by a spray of green goo from both sides, he wouldn''t be able to escape it.


    So, he decided to disable the two Canzers behind him first.


    Thankfully, he had his Mage LifeSkill: Mucus Spray, which was a sticky substance that could immobilize the two of them and give him a chance to fight one of them head-on.


    GYAOOOOO


    The two Canzers behind finally took notice of his presence. They screamed to the top of their lungs and it echoed through the tunnels and reached the Canzer in front of An.


    This alerted it of his presence.


    I have no other choice.


    The two Canzers used their muscr legs to charge towards him at fast speeds. Fibers from the ground burst as the Canzers ran through them.


    One of them jumped up to the curved ceiling and used its ws to run upside down!


    This left An no chance to escape.


    GRAOOOO


    The lone Canzer in front of him growled, and An could hear the gurgling sound of green acidic goo on its throat.


    It was nning to attack.

 Chapter 37: (Bonus) Plan

    An kept his eyes on the Canzer in front of him. He tried his best to calm his nerves as he heard the other two Canzers stomping at the ground and running towards him at top speeds.


    Those two were still ways away from him. But the immediate threat to his life right now was the gurgling Canzer preparing to spout acid towards his face.


    TSHHOOO


    Just as he thought, the Canzer pointed itsrge red tongue towards him, and a straight line of green goo shot towards him at fast speeds.


    An saw the gooing towards him with crystal clear rity. He knew where it was going and he knew when it was going to hit him.


    After that, dodging was easy.


    He bent his back and let the green goo fly past him. He was d that the Canzer decided to spray it out in such a perfect flow that it came out like a straight line.


    An felt his heart beating. Unbeknownst to him, there was a slight smile on his face.


    When he moved his body like that, he felt very free. It felt like he had full control over his body and he could move it any way he wished as long as he could think of it.


    Why couldn''t they dodge such an easy attack?


    An wondered why his team wasn''t able to duck away from the slow attack. They had to rely on the Tank''s shielding LifeSkill to defend themselves from the acid.


    DUG DUG DUG


    But this was no time to ponder. An looked back and saw the two Canzers from the ground and from up the ceiling lunging at him with their sharp ws.


    He looked around and saw the recess on the wall, where the torch glowed a bright blue me.


    He quickly ran towards it and used the alcove to jump sideways, perfectly dodging the two wsing for his throat.


    The two Canzers tumbled and sshed on the free-flowing fibers on the bottom step, unable to keep their bnce after their attack failed.


    An rolled to the side andnded perfectly. He was a natural at this.


    But the Canzers didn''t let him have a second of reprieve. The lone Canzer charged towards him the moment hended on the brick flooring.


    The Canzer pounced toward him, but it didn''t use its sharp front ws to attack. Instead, it gurgled its throat again, preparing to spit out acid at An in point-nk range!


    An didn''t want to smell the scent of his own burning flesh, so he quickly scooped up the liquid-like fibers flowing from down below and threw them toward the Canzer''s head.


    The Canzer spat out a mist of green goo towards An, but it was stopped by a swathe of fibrils.


    TSHHH


    These fibers had the same consistency as water, and An''s quick thinking allowed him to create a nket of water to shield him away from the misty spray of green goo.


    An crawled back away from the Canzer to give himself space.


    This barrage of attacks from the Canzers led An to realize that it wasn''t ideal to fight three Canzers at the same time.


    Even though he could dodge their attacks, it would only be a matter of time till they were able to take advantage of their numbers.


    An decided to use his C ss Mucus Spray to disable the Canzer''s movements.


    He looked at his opponents and saw that all three of them were getting ready for a full frontal attack.


    He reached down his Soul System and created a giant hand that grasped the brown LifeSkill. Because he practiced it so much, he was able to manifest it quite quickly.


    His hands glowed a brown light as the magic filled his veins. He felt his palms getting hotter as the Mucus Spray manifested in reality.


    Now, he just waited for the perfect time. He wanted to catch all three at the same time and immobilize them all.


    Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. Two of the Canzers lunged at him from both sides of the wall, using it as their springboard to strike at An and mince his body into pieces.


    An quickly rolled forward and let himself fall to the shallow water-like fibers down below. This saved him from their dangerous ws, but the third Canzer already shot out its acid towards where hended.


    He copied his tactics from before and stomped his feet on the ground, creating a wall of water as a barrier to protect from the acid.


    After that, he looked back and saw the two Canzers in a line towards him. It was the perfect chance he was waiting for!


    A spray of ck web-like strings shot out from his hands and spread out in a cone until it epassed both Canzers into a bind.


    The two Deiztruphia Canzers fell on the floor struggling and iling their bodies as they tried to get rid of the ck web-like strings that stuck to their bodies. His n worked!


    However, it wasn''t a permanent solution. He saw that slowly, the Canzers were able to tear through the webs with their brute strength.


    I need to use this opportunity to deal with the one remaining first.


    An faced the lone Canzer and saw that it was preparing another straight line of acidic goo towards him. It didn''t learn its lesson that An was too fast for the attack to hit him.


    As the shot of neon green acid came towards his face, An ducked down and immediately lunged towards the Canzer at his top speed. The Canzer was left stupefied when it saw An suddenly appear in front of it.


    An had a two-step n. First, he was finally going to activate his SSS ss Physique LifeSkill to push the Canzer on the wall and disorient it.


    Then, at longst, he would activate his SSS ss Cherubic Retribution to finally kill it.


    After all, he learned that Canzers, at least the Deiztruphia Canzer, had a weakness against Angel power. He had a feeling that his LifeSkill would be able to kill it.


    As he reached an arm''s length away from the Canzer, An activated his Physique LifeSkill. He easily manifested a giant hand that covered the ck, skull-filled LifeSkill.


    ck shadows emerged from his whole body and enveloped him with mes of total and utter darkness. He looked like a being who emerged from the emptiness of space.


    But despite it, An didn''t feel much different.


    He closed his fist and punched the Canzer''s torso protected by its hard chitinous shell.


    He was going to punch it and cause the Canzer to m on the wall and disorient it.


    However¡­


    CRACK


    An''s eyes went wide when he saw the Canzer''s shell crumble into a million pieces as his hand pierced through it, turning its inside into mush.

 Chapter 38: (Bonus) How strong?

    An felt the warm violet blood flow down from his arms. He was stunned in silence.


    He retracted his hands as the Deiztruphia Canzer fell lifelessly on the ground. It had arge hole in its chest, with broken pieces of its shell everywhere.


    He looked at his hands and saw the ck mes surrounding the outline of his arms.


    This is my Physique LifeSkill?


    When he first activated his LifeSkill, he found himself no different than he was before. He didn''t feel powerful and he didn''t feel protected; he just felt as if there was a slight change in his skin that was barely noticeable.


    But since it was a Physique LifeSkill, he knew that it would somehow empower his physical strength to the point of being able to lift thousands of kilograms of weight while running without any problem.


    Since he could already do that without the help of his LifeSkill, he was already much stronger than normal Porters.


    His original n was to use this Physique LifeSkill to disorient the Canzer. This would allow him to use its weakness against Angel powers by activating his Cherubic Retribution.


    However, he didn''t think that he''d be able to kill the Canzer with it in just one strike.


    [You have killed a Canzer: Deiztruphia]


    [You have reaped the death of aplex creature]


    [Due to your Trait, you have multiplied your experience by 10]


    [You have gained 5000 experience]


    He looked down at the corpse of the Canzer and saw its violet blood pooling beneath his feet.


    A full team of 5 Saviors at the 1st stage student realm took them half an hour to kill a Canzer like this. And they must have spent years training to perfect their teamwork to take down this Canzer in their fastest time.


    He saw them struggle and suffer injuries trying to kill an ambushed Canzer.


    Yet An killed the same Canzer with just one move. Not to mention the fact that he was fighting 3 Canzers at the same time before he performed the killing move.


    So this is the power of a SSS ss LifeSkill.


    What''s surprising about this fact was that his Physique LifeSkill stayed at the 1st stage Student realm.


    This meant that An could solo a mission meant for a team of 1st stage Saviors with just a 1st Stage LifeSkill.


    That was absurd.


    Does this mean that my other SSS ss LifeSkills are just as overpowered?


    It was a possibility that its SSS ss was a huge factor in this impossible feat of strength, but it could also be because of its mysterious specialty and job.


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    GYAAOOO!


    One of the Canzers trapped in his Mucus Spray finally shook itself loose. It charged towards An and leaped up, trying to use its two ws to slice An''s body into two.


    If this was back then, An would have immediately dodged away from the attack.


    But he realized he didn''t need to.


    These Canzers didn''t seem to be too intelligent. If it was, then it would have noticed that one of itsrades already had a fatal gashing wound on its chest. It would have noticed the terrifying aura around An and immediately ran away.


    His whole body was engulfed in a tame ck me that contrasted with the white walls of the Remedium.


    The Canzer didn''t care as it tried to pierce through An''s body with its ws.


    He raised his hand and met the Canzer''s ded paws. And for a brief second, his entire body was engulfed in a billowing, raging ck me.


    The two collided. And An felt no resistance at all as he destroyed the Canzer''s front limb with sheer brute force. The ws couldn''tpete and were cracked into pieces, unable to prate through An''s tough physique.


    But An didn''t stop there. He continued to follow through with his punch until he reached the Canzer''s head. And in one fell swoop, he thwacked it back into its shell forcibly, destroying its neck and skull.


    The Canzer toppled over the ground, with one of its arms broken and mangled while its head was smashed back into its shell. Ity there, dead.


    [You have killed a Canzer: Deiztruphia]


    [You have reaped the death of aplex creature]


    [Due to your Trait, you have multiplied your experience by 10]


    [You have gained 5000 experience]


    Just like that, he killed another Canzer in one move. He couldn''t believe the kind of strength that his Physique could give him.


    He was d that he didn''t show his real skills in the real world because this feat of strength would definitely catch their attention. This was no mere B ss Physique LifeSkill, it was SSS ss!


    He didn''t want anybody to know about his true strength.


    Thankfully, everybody already thought that he had already used his Physique LifeSkill. They didn''t know that it was just his natural strength.


    Just then, An heard a gurgling sound from the only remaining Canzer. It couldn''t free itself from the Mucus Spray no matter how much it tried, so it decided to use its green acid goo to kill An.


    A single line of green bile came towards An. This time, he didn''t dodge. He let it hit his chest.


    And as soon as it did, the acid simply disintegrated into a mist. The ck mes around his body created a protectiveyer that prevented any of the green goo from dissolving his battle suit.


    The Canzer was surprised that its greatest strength was ineffective against a human. Just then, it saw An walk forward.


    It tried to scurry away from him, but the adhesive from An''s Mucus Spray prevented it from getting far.


    As ast resort, the Canzer spat out a fountain mist of green acid towards him. But it didn''t work.


    An squatted beside the Deiztruphia Canzer and muttered;


    "Let me free you from your suffering."


    An raised his hand and brought it down the terrified Canzer''s head, squashing it into nothing but a mushy mix of violet blood, skull fragments, and flesh.


    [You have killed a Canzer: Deiztruphia]


    [You have reaped the death of aplex creature]


    [Due to your Trait, you have multiplied your experience by 10]


    [You have gained 5000 experience]


    An was satisfied with knowing the strength of his Physique LifeSkill but he couldn''t help but wonder how strong his angel powers were.


    How strong was his 3rd stage SSS ss Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill?

 Chapter 39: One more?

    Neumann opened his eyes and saw the white brick walls beside him. He looked to the side and saw water-like fibers flowing on the channel below.


    The sewers? But that''s impossible¡­


    He looked around and knew that he was still in the Remedium, yet the locationpletely changed. They were supposed to only be in the 2nd Street of the SpringField district. Yet, now he found himself at the bottom of the very city itself.


    This was unheard of. In all the years of experience he had with being a Savior, he never had an anomaly like this.


    The worst part about this was that he knew that he wasn''t the only one trapped in this ce. Those newbies weren''t equipped to handle this kind of trouble.


    And he was especially worried for their porter.


    An was the only one in the group that wasn''t trained in any kind of self-defense. The others trained for years and years to have a basic capacity to keep themselves safe from the dangers of the Remedium, but not An.


    I me myself. Neumann knew that he should have hurried the group out of the Remedium as soon as the rewards from the mission got dyed.


    But things escted far too quickly. He didn''t expect the floor to suddenly copse like that.


    I need to find them.


    It was his responsibility as the veteran of the group to make sure that all of them came back safely to the real world.


    During times like these, Neumann was trained to keep his head cool at all times. He was supposed to remind himself that Angels were there to save anyone from death. Yet why do I feel uneasy?


    Neumann walked the winding tunnels of the sewers, following the flow of the water.


    It took him a few minutes till he suddenly heard the sounds of water sshing and echoing in the distance.


    "Kyaaa!"


    He heard a girl scream and Neumann immediately sprinted towards the sound. That sounded like their Stun Wizard.


    He didn''t care if his footsteps echoed through the tunnels as he quickly turned the corner.


    Shock crossed his face as he saw two of the youths slowly crawling away from a Deiztruphia Canzer with its tongue dripping green goo on the ground.


    Another one? That''s impossible! The Canzer Report indicated only one!


    Those reports were supposed to bepletely urate, yet Neumann was looking at another monstrous Canzer right in front of him.


    The Stun Wizard and the Scout both had horrified faces as they saw the Canzer slowly walking towards them.


    The scout held his injured chest tightly. When he tried to run away from this new Canzer, his wound reopened and blood seeped out of the bandage.


    The stun wizard was fairly better off, but her whole body was frozen in fear. Terror took hold of her thoughts of running away.


    GYYAOOOOO


    The Canzer screamed and raised its ws to finally kill those two humans.


    But just as it was about to hit them, a bubble of safety suddenly appeared and protected them at thest second. The Canzer''s ws bounced off and it was thrown back from the repulsive force.


    "Are you guys okay?"


    Neumann put his hands on both of their shoulders and felt their cold shaking bodies. They were scared witless.


    "Help us!" screamed the stun wizard with dried tears on her cheeks.


    Neumann nodded. "Let''s go! It won''t be long until the Canzer catches up."


    He took the scout''s arms and put it over his shoulder as he helped the guy up. Then, without looking back, they quickly ran away from the Canzer.


    The two youths felt a little safer when Neumann found them. They thought they were saved.


    But they didn''t know that Neumann himself was panicking. This group of novices was only capable of defeating one Canzer. They were far too exhausted and injured to fight another one, especially since fear took hold of their hearts.


    Not to mention the fact that the team was separated from each other with no certainty of finding each other.


    In the worst-case scenario, Neumann and these two youths would have to fight the Canzer by themselves. This was bad because they didn''t have any damage dealers.


    With the Canzer hot on their tails, the three of them ran as fast as they could through the tunnels.


    They ran and ran until they saw something in the distance.


    The stun wizard was overjoyed when she saw the other three people in their group! It was the tank, the archer, and the pugilist.


    "Hey! We''re over here¨C"


    It was then that Neumann saw the terrified look on their faces. He saw bloody cuts around their battle suits, he saw arrows lodged around the walls, and he saw violet blood on the floor. This was a sign that a battle took ce.


    No way¡­another Canzer?!


    And just as Neumann feared, on the other side of the three youths was another Deiztruphia Canzer. It had cuts and bruises along its body, but it was still as vigorous as it was before.


    It looked even more aggressive now.


    The Canzer was about to attack again, targeting the archer. However, Neumann noticed that the tank was heavily panting and could barely keep himself standing.


    The tank was too exhausted to use his LifeSkill! He couldn''t protect the archer anymore.


    Neumann knew that this was a critical situation, so he ran ahead. A bubble appeared on his feet as he used it as aunching pad to save the archer.


    Just as the Canzer lunged its arms towards the archer, Neumann arrived just in time as he put himself between the two.


    With swift and technical movement, he grabbed the Canzer''s arms and used them to put the Canzer on his back. Using its weight, Neumann threw the Canzer backward.


    It flew through the air, with its shell scraping the curved ceiling of the sewers.


    Itnded a long way back and hit the other original Canzer running towards them. It gave them enough time to help the injured and run away together.


    "Run!" he shouted at them.


    ####


    Meanwhile, arge figure was looking down and watching the puny humans run away from the two Canzers.


    It had a sinister smile on its face.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM

 Chapter 40: Ecstatic

    Neumann and the five youths ran as hard as they could, blood oozing out of their injuries and exasperated breathsing out of their mouths.


    The feeling of having two Deiztruphia Canzers running on all fours and charging toward them was something that could make the bravest of souls feel a tingling on their spines.


    But despite how fast they were going, the Canzer''s top speeds were far too fast for them to run away.


    Neumann had to stay on the backline and protect the newbies from the Canzer''s dangerous ws. He would send out protective bubbles to the team whenever the Canzer was about to attack them.


    Thankfully, his LifeSkill was enough to repel the attacks just enough for them to stay safe for a short time.


    "Look! It''s the exit!"


    All of them looked forward and finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. At the end of the sewers, there was a rectangr door that glowed a bright white light.


    The newbies immediately thought they found the exit from this maze. They thought that this exit led back to the surface.


    Neumann, however, was more skeptical. He had a feeling that this was a trap.


    His gut told him to stay away from this door.


    However, they didn''t have any choice. It was either go back and fight the two Canzers or go towards the light. Even if it led to another tunnel in the sewers, it was much better than having to face 2 Canzers all at once.


    The youths used thest spurt of their energy to run through the end of the tunnel. They gasped for their breath as they stumbled through the entrance.


    Their eyes were full of hope.


    But instead of seeing the sky, they looked around and saw arge dome-like area withrge pipes hanging out near the top of the ceiling. Water-like fibrils fell from these pipes and filled a small pool in the middle of the room.


    Their expectant looks were soon crushed when they realized that they were still in the sewers.


    They were mortified. Their bodies refused to move. They were still in this hellhole!


    Neumann cautiously looked around the room and surveyed it for any enemies. He kept his eyes peeled and his ears open.


    Fortunately, the only thing he heard was the dripping sound of water falling from the pipes echoing in the dome-like chamber. He was d he didn''t hear any gurgling sounds anywhere in this ce.


    The next thing he looked for was any exit. Unfortunately, unless they could fly and reach those pipes at the ceiling, there weren''t any doors around.


    When he looked back, he was surprised to find that he was staring at a nk exposed brick wall. The rectangr opening they came from disappeared!


    This is bad.


    Even though they were safe from the two Canzers, Neumann had a feeling that they got themselves into a much more dangerous ce.


    "Haahaaa¡­I want to go home!"


    "Sir Neumann. Isn''t there a rescue partying to save us?!"


    "GUuuAaaa" The stun wizard vomited.


    Neumann had no answer for them. He didn''t even know if HeadQuarters knew that something wrong happened with this mission. It hadn''t even been two hours since they started.


    Nobody would think anything was wrong till the missionsted for half a day.


    "Don''t worry. They must have sent out a rescue party by now."


    Telling the truth now would only affect the morale of the group. He needed them to shape up.


    Just then, they suddenly felt the whole ce rumble. Each of the fibers that made up the whole Remedium vibrated with mad intensity.


    Neumann remembered this feeling.


    The same thing happened when they all fell through to the sewers!


    He braced himself, thinking that he''d fall through another chasm. But that didn''t happen.


    Instead, therge pool in the middle suddenly opened up, leaving the water-like fibers falling through the dark chasm.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM


    Neumann''s heart palpitated when he saw a figure suddenly float up from the dark chasm in the middle of the dome.


    This creature stood upright. Its entire body was covered with a light brownyered armor with thousands of spikes covering its body.


    Behind it were two edged wings that looked like it was ripped straight out of a giant cockroach.


    Its bodily features had an eerie simrity to a human. It had five fingers on each hand and it had toes on its feet. It wasplete with ball joints as its knees and shoulders.


    It had a broad and robust head, with pure small white eyes and a prominent snout as its nose.


    Perhaps the strangest simrity it had to a human was the uncanny arrogant smile on its face. It looked down at Neumann and the others like they were mere inferior fodders.


    Neumann''s hairs stood on end. This was a Canzer. And not a normal one at that.


    What''s happening?! Multiple Deiztruphia Canzers and now a new one emerges from out of nowhere?!


    This was beyond an anomaly. This was a disaster.


    Before Neumann could even react, he suddenly saw the strange Canzer disappear from up in the air and appear right in front of him.


    His eyes widened and he immediately covered himself with his LifeSkill tank protective bubble.


    However, the Canzer just smiled at him. It raised its fist and punched through the bubble.


    CRACKKK


    With just one punch, Neumann''s Tank LifeSkill burst into millions of pieces. His eyes widened as he realized something.


    That can''t be!


    Even the Deiztruphia Canzer couldn''t make a dent in his bubble. Yet somehow, this mysterious monster was able to destroy it with just one punch.


    Neumann was left speechless when his only source of defense was treated like paper.


    The worst part about it was the Canzer''s face.


    It smiled. It understood the fear in Neumann''s eyes. It enjoyed it.


    Neumann could barely keep himself standing.


    The Canzer then looked back and saw the terrified faces of the youths. Their hearts were gripped with fear.


    It walked towards them. The archer felt his stomach churn. The dread led him to relieve himself, creating a pool of urine under him.


    The Canzer saw this and its face turned into an even twisted expression. It was ecstatic!

 Chapter 41: Anticipation

    "*#!%*@_($#(>@)(&#{}|{?<"


    The Canzer muttered out unintelligible sounds. It was abination of gurgling and knocking sounds,pletely different from the standard humannguage.


    Neumann''s eyes went wide when he heard this. This Canzer was sapient!


    If it had the mental capacity to talk, then it couldmunicate with other Canzers. This was arge leap of intelligencepared to the Deiztruphia Canzer. It was likeparing a monkey to a human.


    Before Neumann could even react, the Canzer appeared right in front of the Scout and kicked him into the wall. Everyone heard his back break.


    The scout vomited blood before falling into unconsciousness.


    The pugilist, rmed, immediately activated his LifeSkill, twisting his fist into a drill toward the monster.


    Yet the Canzer simply tilted its head to the side and dodged the attack, leaving the pugilist very vulnerable.


    The tank wanted to protect the pugilist. But he was too exhausted to activate his LifeSkill.


    He had to save his teammate. He put himself between the Canzer and the pugilist, holding his shield in both hands.


    Suddenly, the tank felt tremendous force and his metal shield suddenly deformed with a fist-shaped hole piercing through the middle.


    The force was too much for him to bear as he fell back, taking the pugilist with him to the other side of the wall. They couldn''t keep their consciousness.


    With three down, the Canzer looked towards its next victim.


    The Archer''s hands trembled as he failed to notch an arrow in his bow. He was helpless as the Canzer took the bow right from his very hands.


    The Canzer used the bow to p the Archer down. The wooden bow splintered into a million pieces, some lodged directly into the Archer''s chest. His ribs shattered, blood dripping down his battle suit.


    It was clear. This was not a Canzer that no 1st stage Student team could ever hope to beat.


    Neumann couldn''t believe the situation they were in. They had no hope of ever oveing this ordeal. It was an impossible situation.


    "(\\*%?>@&|}"


    The sapient Canzer kept talking to the scout, berating him with a smile on its face.


    The Canzer knew it was the strongest out of everyone here. It knew that it was superior to everyone.


    It approached the stun wizard and she fell into a fetal position.


    "{#{#{#{#{#" the Canzerughed. It found the stun wizard''s cowardice amusing.


    Neumann gritted his teeth and shouted towards the Canzer.


    "Begone you monster!"


    Even if his words and actions were ineffective against the Canzer, he still had a responsibility to these youths. If he had to sacrifice himself to save them, then he would.


    But instead of getting angry at him, the Canzer simply looked at him with indifference. It knew that Neumann could do nothing to it.


    Neumann was only a tank and he was far too weak to stand a chance against the Canzer. But that didn''t mean that he wasn''t going to do anything about it.


    He raised his arm and created a concentrated bubble around his fist. He concentrated it to the point that his bubble turned opaque.


    The Canzer stayed still and let him prepare his strongest attack.


    Neumann knew that he was being underestimated, but he didn''t care. His whole fist was now covered in a white pearly bubble made out of the strongest material he could muster.


    He punched the Canzer, putting all of his weight on his fist. He didn''t care if he was vulnerable to a counter-attack. He only wanted to induce the strongest attack possible.


    The Canzer smiled and let the punch hit its chest.


    The bubbled fist hit the strong light brown bio armor of the Canzer. But nothing happened.


    Neumann''s face twisted when he realized that his strongest attack didn''t even make a dent in the spikes on its armor. His strength was wholly inadequate to save themselves from this new threat.


    The Canzer then showed its back on Neumann and continued to walk towards the newbies.


    He couldn''t let that happen. Neumann wanted the Canzer''s attention all to himself. He couldn''t let those newbies suffer.


    "You ugly beast! Torment me instead!"


    "Bastard! Stop ignoring me or are you too weak to even destroy my defenses?"


    "Just wait, you monstrosity! The strongest Saviors are just minutes away from bursting into this ce and killing you into smithereens!"


    Neumann was throwing all kinds of insults towards the Canzer in the hopes of getting its fury directed towards him. And surprisingly, thatst one seemed to garner a reaction from the Canzer.


    It looked back at him with a curious expression.


    "That''s right!" bluffed Neumann. "Saviors areing! And they''ll kill you with no mercy!"


    For a second, the Canzer seemed to recognize the word ''Savior''.


    Neumann thought that the Canzer would get angry. But then it started tough out loud, with its wings pping in excitement.


    "{#{#{#{#{#"


    The Canzer looked at the humans in front of it. It looked up beyond them, but no matter how much it tried to find what it was looking for, it simply could not find it.


    The Canzer could not see the winged creatures with halos on their head.


    Those beings used to stand behind each human that came to the Remedium and protect them from harm.


    Those beings were the only things that prevented humans from meeting their dooms. They were the only things that prevented total Canzer domination.


    But now, they''re gone. These humans no longer had those ''Angels'' protecting them. They were finally vulnerable.


    Without those angels, Canzers were finally free to do whatever they wanted. This excited the Canzer so much that it couldn''t hide its euphoria.


    The Canzer''s wings pped in a rhythmic pattern, creating soundwaves that reverberated through the ground.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM


    Neumann didn''t know what was happening. He didn''t know how he evoked this kind of reaction from the Canzer. He wanted to infuriate it, but instead, it looked exhrated!


    He then watched as the Canzer showed its hands toward him.


    It opened its fists, showing all five fingers on its left hand. Then, it showed two fingers on the other.


    Neumann was confused.


    The Canzer suddenly pointed towards Neumann, then it folded one of its fingers.


    It pointed at the Stun Wizard, and it folded the next finger.


    It pointed at the Archer and folded the next.


    This continued until the Canzer counted down to all six of them in the room.


    The Canzer only had one finger left still standing.


    Neumann furrowed his brows trying to understand what the Canzer was trying to say to him.


    Wait¡­


    It was then that he realized something. There was still one more person missing from their group. An was still somewhere out there!


    The Canzer saw Neumann realize this fact. It smiled and finally folded itsst finger.


    It knew that Neumann was trying to protect the newbies. And it wanted to see the suffering in his eyes as he killed all of them one by one.


    Its goal was clear. It was going to kill An.


    Neumann rushed towards the Canzer in his anger. An was the only person in their group who couldn''t protect himself. He stood no chance to fight against this sapient Canzer who could even destroy his protective bubble.


    Unfortunately, the Canzer was far too fast for Neumann to react.


    A hand suddenly pierced through his stomach.


    "Guhhh" Neumann spat out blood as his knees weakened and he fell to the ground.


    He was helpless. He watched with hazy eyes as the Canzer floated in the air and went back down the well it came from.


    The smile on its face indicated its anticipation of torturing another helpless human.

 Chapter 42: Horrified

    An walked through the winding tunnels for minutes on end, yet he hadn''t seen anyone yet. It was as deste as the Unimed Lands. At this point, he wouldn''t mind a visit from a few more Deiztruphia Canzers.


    Now that he knew how powerful his Physique LifeSkill was, he was more inclined to fight Canzers.


    He closed his eyes and saw therge LifeSkill with melting horrified skulls stered all over the surface. It didn''t take him long to manifest a giant hand to grasp this in one hand.


    Practicing his C ss Mage LifeSkill Mucus Spray turned out to be a very good use of his time as he was able to transfer the knowledge of activating that LifeSkill to his other LifeSkills.


    As long as he knew how to create that giant hand, he could activate any of his LifeSkills any time he wanted.


    However, he was still limited by his inexperience as he still took a second to activate his powers.


    Just then, he suddenly heard a very familiar sound.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM


    The ground trembled subtly, yet An could feel it reverberate in his bones.


    He had been hearing this sound since the beginning. He heard it outside the Remedium, he heard it inside, and he heard it again just as they fell through the chasm.


    He kept his eyes peeled and his center of mass low. He already manifested a giant hand in his Soul System, ready to activate his Physique LifeSkill at any second.


    He knew that whatever produced this sound was something even greater than the Deiztruphia Canzer.


    An stopped in his tracks. He felt the air get heavy.


    He looked back and suddenly saw a strange new creature leaning casually on the walls. It had a smug smile on its face, with its snout turned up. This monster waspletely different from the animalistic Deiztruphia Canzer he faced before.


    Immediately, An knew he was facing his greatest enemy as of yet.


    This Canzer or whatever it was, looked like aplete monster yet it acted strangely human. It was uncanny. It then pushed itself off the wall and walked towards An with an arrogant stride.


    Their eyes met.


    It was looking intently at An''s face, observing the expressions on his face. It wanted to see the despair and terror that those humans disyed back then. It wanted to see him suffering from fright.


    Yet, somehow, An kept his expression neutral. He was looking back at the Canzer right in its bright pupil-less eyes with no fear at all.


    The Canzer frowned. How dare this puny human look at him dead in the eyes? He was but a mere ant in front of a god-like power like the Canzer. An should be looking down and crying in fear!


    It suddenly spread its wings, making it look muchrger than before. It pped its wings once, and it suddenly disappeared from its original position.


    Its fast speed made it seem like it suddenly teleported behind An.


    The Canzer wanted to see the despair in An''s face the moment he realized that he couldn''t even see the Canzer''s movements. The Canzer wanted to see An''s face morph into one of horror as he finally understood their difference in strength.


    Yet, An kept his face cool.


    The Canzer finally understood why. It was because An was too terrified to even show his fear. An must be imagining the horrors that he would face against the Canzer.


    It smiled. It wanted to break An until he finally showed that delicious emotion called fear.


    It suddenly took out something from its back. Then, it showed it to An with a devious grin on its face.


    An''s eyes widened when he saw it.


    It was a torn piece of green battle suit. Wet blood dripped out of the fabric, still fresh from wherever it took.


    The Canzer provoked him. It wanted to show what happened to the rest of his team. It wanted to show what would eventually happen to An. There was no escaping.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM


    Its excitement led it to p its wings into a rhythm. It flew through the tunnels, showing off its tremendous speeds and strength.


    Each time it reached a wall, it would kick it off and induce a shockwave in the tunnel. It bounced everywhere, showing its strength and speed that was unmatched. It wasn''t long before the fibrils in the walls and floor were destroyed by brute force.


    Meanwhile, An had his head down. He muttered to himself.


    "I hate blood. I''m a pacifist¡­"


    The Canzer didn''t know what An was saying. Itughed to itself, thinking that An must have been begging for mercy.


    "You cause suffering¡­I hate suffering."


    An kept muttering things to himself that the Canzer couldn''t understand. Finally, the Canzer couldn''t take it anymore and wanted to see bloode out of the puny human''s mouth.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM


    Its wings pped and it bounced from the curved ceiling and surged towards An at its fastest speed. It had its arms and fingers extended forward, intending to skewer An''s stomach.


    The Canzer''s smile grew wider when he realized that An wasn''t even paying attention. He kept his head down.


    It saw this as a sign of surrender.


    Sharp nails were about to pierce An''s stomach. The Canzer prepared itself to be bathed in a spray of blood and meat.


    Yet just as its attack was about to hit, An''s body suddenly disappeared right in front of the Canzer''s eyes.


    The Canzer''s eyes widened. It didn''t know what happened. From its perspective, it looked like An disappeared out of thin air.


    Then, it felt the air turn heavy. It felt an invisible pressure envelop its body. It felt a tingling sensation on the back of its neck as if a horrifying monster was about to catch its tail.


    The Canzer looked back and saw An.


    Its hands immediately shook. The spikes along its armored body started to vibrate. This only happened when the Canzer felt like it was facing a predator much stronger than itself. When it looked at An, it was horrified to its very core.

 Chapter 43: Chase

    But before it could even react, An disappeared. The Canzer suddenly felt an intense force on its chest, something it had never felt before.


    Its strongest defense, its multiyered chitinous chest armor with thousands of spikes around it, easily cracked into a million pieces from An''s punch. It was too much for the Canzer''s armor to bear.


    Violet blood spurted out of the cracks, and the Canzer was propelled back at fast speeds, with its body skipping through the water-like fibers like a t stone. Its body crashed through multiple ledges, with the Canzer unable to control itself due to the sheer force of An''s punch.


    Finally, after hundreds of meters, it crashed into the wall. The smug look on its face was nowhere to be seen. Violet blood flowed out of its forehead.


    "!@$">$(*"


    It couldn''t believe what happened. Wasn''t this puny human supposed to be a weak creature it could kill with just a flick of a finger? He looked as weak as those humans he met before. So, how was he able to muster terrifying power that could even crack the defenses of a Canzer like itself?


    The Canzer looked down and saw its chest caved in, violet blood still spraying out into a mist. It winced in pain.


    Step¡­step¡­step¡­


    The Canzer had no chance for reprieve as it suddenly heard footstepsing towards itself. It wasn''t fast, yet it caused the Canzer''s face to contort into panic and fear.


    An''s strength was unlike anything it had ever seen but that wasn''t the most frightening thing about him.


    From the distance, it could see An walking through the winding tunnels of the sewers.


    Behind him were a pair of white wings, with thousands of ethereal feathersyered upon each other. Even in the white brick walls of the reverse-colored Remedium, these wings seemed to glow and shine as if the heavens itself shone a ray of light over them.


    The Canzer''s mouth quivered as it struggled to say the words;


    "@^&[-\\"


    It recognized it as Angel Wings. Its face turned into a mix of confusion and fear. Angels were supposed to be dead. They were supposed to be extinct. Yet, why did this human suddenly have the wings of an Angel? It was impossible.


    An looked back and felt the Angel Wings on his back. It was connected to him physically, with extra bones connecting his shoulder des and his wings. He could feel his veins pumping blood into the wings, bringing it to life.


    He didn''t know how he was able to activate his mutation but now that it was, he felt the world turn slow.


    The air around him felt like water. He could move up or down and move forward or backward without much effort at all. He was the master of his own space.


    He pped his wings, and they followed hismand as if it were truly part of his body.


    It feels like controlling a third arm. The moment the mutation manifested in reality, I feel as if the wings had always been a part of me.


    Although he could control it with basic functions, he knew that he couldn''t exert fine control over it just yet.


    It was like a numb arm. He could still feel it and close his fist like normal, but he just couldn''t exert as much strength as he could.


    Meanwhile, the Canzer stood up, with its cockroach wings pping awkwardly. In its panic at seeing An slowly walk toward itself, it flew back and crashed into the walls.


    It wanted to leave. It was scared witless once it saw those angel wings behind An.


    The very reason why the Canzer infiltrated this ce was because it was so sure that Angels were gone. They no longer protected the humans. Yet, somehow one was able to return and give its wings to a mere human.


    The Canzer pped its wings and flew through the winding tunnels of the sewers at top speeds. It zoomed through the different tunnels, making sure to keep moving in different directions to escape from that human.


    The Canzer''s chest slowly healed and mended itself back into its original shape. The cracks patched themselves quickly, preventing any more violet blood from flowing out. In just a matter of a few seconds, the Canzer''s injuries werepletely healed.


    This was one of the innate powers of a Destruction Canzer.


    Yet, the Canzer still tried to escape away from An. It didn''t want to feel that awful pain from one of his punches. And even though its body was fully healed, its chest twitched in pain whenever it remembered that moment of An, with his wings fully open, punching its chest.


    It had to return home. It had to tell everybody that the Angels returned!


    Only that way, he would gather reinforcements and kill this anomalous human. He had to be killed. Otherwise, theplete domination of Canzers could never be fulfilled.


    The Canzer resolved to escape. However, it suddenly felt a tingling sensation at the back of its neck. And before it knew it, an extreme force punched it on the back, cracking its spine.


    "$(@\\_#" The Canzer spat out violet blood. It couldn''t understand how An was able to keep up. The Remedium was supposed to be a maze for humans. He wasn''t supposed to find his way here!


    The Canzer pushed on with escaping, even with its back bent and its body beaten. Within a minute, the Canzer''s body healed and it finally thought it got rid of An''s tail.


    Yet, without fail, An would suddenlye behind the Canzer and beat it bloody.


    This cycle continued, with the Canzer unable to get rid of the pesky human.


    At this point, the Canzer found itself at the very end of the tunnels that led to an open space filled withrge open pipes, leaking out water-like fibers everywhere.


    But before it could getfortable, An suddenly came from behind and ripped the Canzer''s wings right out of its back.


    "!(#U%)" It couldn''t understand how An was able to do it. How did he find the Canzer? He should be lost in the sewers!


    An looked at therge cockroach wings in his hands. It vibrated subtly, slowly losing its powers.


    dum¡­dum dum¡­dum


    Unbeknownst to the Canzer, the signature beating pattern of its wings was the very reason how An could locate it in the Remedium.

 Chapter 44: Begone

    The Canzer''s pained cries echoed through the chamber. It scurried away from An, with its back dripping violet blood after its wings were brutally ripped out in one smooth move.


    It couldn''t escape anymore. It would take at least 10 minutes for the Canzer to regenerate new wings.


    It crawled away until it had its back against one of therge open pipes intersecting in the middle of the room. It was finally cornered, with no way to escape.


    If it knew that An had Angel wings, the Canzer would never have tried to attack him. It would have finished off the other humans and escaped away before An could find the exit.


    However, how could it have known that An was a freak of nature who had tremendous powers that could even destroy its armor?


    "@($!&%" It shouted at An, baring its fangs towards him. But no matter how hard the Canzer tried to intimidate the young man, An continued to walk towards his prey with casual steps.


    The Canzer red at him, gathering its anger into energy. It reminded itself that An had no way of killing it.


    "{#{#{#{#{#" the Canzerughed.


    An had none of the strange equipment that Saviors used to kill Canzers. Without those, he wouldn''t be able to kill the Canzer; it could continue to regenerate its injuries infinitely. The puny human would eventually lose energy and show his weakness after a few more hours of fighting.


    At that point, the Canzer could kill An. It was a battle of attrition, and it was something that the Canzer would win.


    "(@%*$&" The Canzer pointed towards the healing cracked armor in its chest. It was telling An that his attacks would be useless against a Destruction Canzer''s regenerative properties.


    The more it thought about it, the better it felt. So what if the human had Angel wings? It didn''t mean that he had the powers to kill a Canzer. He would need that strange cube they came with, and that was lost in the Remedium the moment they fell into its trap.


    It got cocky. The Canzer walked over to An, thinking that the human realized the futility of his efforts.


    Unfortunately, he didn''t.


    An punched the Canzer in the throat, and the Canzer immediately spat out violet blood. It tumbled back, coughing and heaving for air.


    But An didn''t let the Canzer free. The moment itnded on the floor, An straddled it and started to give it a barrage of punches directly on its face.


    His face was painted violet from the carnage.


    The Canzer tried its hardest to put up its arms and defend itself from the rain of intense jabs on its head. This didn''t seem to work out all that well as violet blood continued to spurt out of its injuries. Its snout was continuously mangled and broken.


    An''s whole body was filled with dark mes. His SSS Grim Reaper Physique was going on overdrive as he squeezed the in his Soul System as hard as he could.


    He wanted to kill the Canzer once and for all.


    Since he was able to kill those Deiztruphia Canzer by gutting its innards and smashing its head into smithereens, then An guessed that he just needed to kill the Canzer faster than it could regenerate.


    However, his 1st stage Power realm showed itsck of strength. He wasn''t able to deal enough destruction on the Canzer for it to die fast enough.


    He could see the Canzer''s cracked skin start to glow and close up before he could truly mangle its body beyond belief.


    The Canzer finally regenerated enough of its energy to kick An from the back and free itself from the straddle. It quickly dashed away from him and jumped up the pipes.


    But before it could get away, An flew up with his Angel wings and kicked it back down the floor.


    The Canzer coughed up violet blood. "@(%*^"


    It couldn''t believe that An was still as powerful as before! He wasn''t tired at all. Other Saviors would be exhausted from using their LifeSkills by now. But not An. The dark mes on his body never wavered from his skin.


    With no other choice left, the Canzer chose to fight.


    The Canzer raised its hands in the air as its whole body faintly glowed a red tint. Power came from its stomach and flowed like roots from its armor to the tips of its human-like fingers. Everyst energy reserve on its body was being used for this one attack.


    Its body stopped regenerating. The Canzer''s body started to deteriorate quickly as it sacrificed its own body to fill up the power in its fingers.


    This was its final resort.


    It wanted to kill the puny human now, even if it meant injuring itself to this extent.


    The Canzer taunted An. This would be hisst day. The Canzer could keep regenerating and keep using this final attack as many times as it could.


    "(#*@&)" I am unkible, it implied. An would be stuck in this ce, unable to kill the Canzer. Itughed maniacally, feeling that in the end, it would eventually kill this human.


    An looked at the Canzer. With a calm voice, he said;


    "Are we using our trump cards? Because I''ve been waiting to use mine."


    He looked down deep within his Soul System and released his grip on the Physique LifeSkill. He looked at the beside it, the one colored gold and white with wings and halos stamped all around.


    Finally, with his target stationary, not even moving a single inch, An could finally grip the with his hands.


    With his mind focused on the Canzer, An finally felt the power flow through his veins.


    His whole body glowed a golden light.


    The Canzer felt as if it was gripped by the holy lighting out of An''s body. It couldn''t believe it. The Angels have once again descended. That was impossible! How could a human have the powers of an angel?!


    An had to die.


    The Canzer was resolved to sacrifice its own life to destroy this walking cmity. The tips of its fingers glowed magma hot.


    But before it could muster up enough energy, An moved.


    He raised his hand and pointed at the Canzer as if he was a God.


    "Begone."


    A pure white cloud materialized out of nowhere. And not a secondter, golden lightning struck the Canzer apanied by a blinding light.


    After a moment, the light dimmed and showed the frozen body of the Canzer. Its whole body was ashen gray.


    It soon disintegrated into dust.

 Chapter 45: Rewards

    [You have killed a sapient Canzer]


    [You have reaped the death of aplex creature]


    [Due to your Trait, you have multiplied your experience by 10]


    [You have gained 10,000 experience]


    [You have gained C ss Mage LifeSkill Chitinous Spikes]


    An fell on his knees,pletely exhausted. His Angel wings folded behind him and disappeared into nothingness. He couldn''t keep using his mutation even though he wanted to.


    Throughout that whole fight, his adrenaline was working overtime and keeping his whole body afloat. His whole body was screaming at him, but the dangerous situation he was in prevented him from taking even a small break.


    If the fightsted longer than that, then he didn''t know what would have happened.


    The giant hand he created in his Soul System was already starting to disappear before he used thest spurt of his strength to activate his Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill.


    Hey on the ground and looked at his hand. He couldn''t believe the power he mustered from that SSS ss LifeSkill. With just one move, he was able to disintegrate the Canzer without any problem at all.


    Is it because my LifeSkill is rted to Angels?


    From what he knew, Canzers seemed to have an inherent weakness against Angels. The cube he carried into the Remedium resonated with his Angel genus, which gave him the idea to use his Cherubic LifeSkill as his trump card.


    Luck yed a part in his win. After all, if the Canzer hadn''t used its final resort, then it wouldn''t have stood still. Only then was An able to target the Canzer with his LifeSkill.


    Because of his inexperience, he needed at least two seconds to hone in his focus on his target.


    He would have used his angel LifeSkill earlier if his opponents weren''t such speed demons. They were all aggressive and pounced toward him, leaving him no room to focus and target the LifeSkill on them.


    Although his LifeSkill had a massive weakness in that he needed a static and stationary target to use it, he still felt assured knowing that it could kill a monstrous Canzer like that.


    [You have two LifeSkills for the same job. Do you want to fuse the two?]


    [Upgrade points required: 12,000]


    [Experience points required: 20,000]


    An couldn''t believe his eyes. He quickly looked at his Soul System.


    [LifeSkills]


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    Specialty: Vanguard


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating to 4th stage


    ¡ªMage: (C) Mucus Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 4th stage


    ¡ªMage: (C) Chitinous Spikes


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª 1st stage Student


    ¡ªSniper: (SSS) Apocalyptic Hellfire


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 2nd stage


    [Avable Experience: 43,921.2]


    [Upgrade Points: 993,000]


    An didn''t even notice it, but he had two LifeSkills with the same job! And from the looks of it, by sacrificing a few upgrade points and a few experiences, he could merge the two LifeSkills.


    Was this possible? An wanted to know if other people could do this.


    However, he quickly realized that he was the only person who experienced this unique situation. He was probably the only one with multiple LifeSkills in his Soul System with the same job.


    It cost him 12,000 Upgrade points and 20,000 experience points to merge the two.


    An thought the price was too steep, especially in the experience department, but when he thought about it, it became a little bit more tolerable.


    He could earn as many experience points as he could just by reaping the deaths of everything around him. And with his mysterious trait that was somehow able to multiply his rewards by 10, he would earn back that exp in a small amount of time.


    The upgrade points, however, were a different story.


    Although he had almost a million of these points, he didn''t know a way to replenish them. He would have to wait until he witnessed another extinction-level event with his eyes before he got another batch of Upgrade points.


    So, he was d that it only cost him a small amount of Upgrade points.


    With his decision set in stone, An fused the two LifeSkills.


    The red geometrical objects and the blue wisps in his Soul System immediately encircled the two Mage LifeSkills. A string of blue and red lines orbited the twos and slowly forced the two to crash into one another.


    The Chitinous LifeSkill was an empty devoid of anyyers, while the Mucus Spray had threeyers with solidified blue cores.


    This represented the difference in power realms between the two.


    An finally figured out why the fusion also required experience points. It was because the Chitinous Spikes LifeSkill needed to have an equal power realm with the Mucus Spray LifeSkill.


    Did it double the cost of experience points because it skipped through the consolidation period?


    The cost of upgrading a LifeSkill from the first stage to the 4th stage cost about 10,000 exp. But the cost for it now took 20,000 exp.


    Can I skip the consolidation period of a LifeSkill if I just pay twice the amount of experience points?


    An quickly shook off the thought. Whenever he upgraded a LifeSkill to the maximum experience points it could take, an invisible barrier would always appear and prevent the blue wisps from entering the LifeSkill.


    DUGGSHHH


    The two LifeSkills finally crashed into each other and crumbled intorge chunks. But it didn''t stop there. The strings continued to push the two together until chunks from one united with each other.


    The pressure from the strings was so strong that the chunks glowed a bright red and turned intova.


    And because the chunks finally turned into a liquid form, they easily merged into the other. With the guidance of the strings, it quickly formed into one giant.


    [The two Mage LifeSkills have sessfullybined into one]


    ¡ªMage: (C) Spiked Chitin Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 4th stage


    An was satisfied to know that he could merge two LifeSkills andbine the powers of both into one skill.


    But it seemed that it wasn''t the end of that.


    [Due to your trait, you have multiplied your LifeSkill fragments by 10]


    [You have received 10x F ss Spiked Chitin Spray fragments]


    [Due to your trait, you have multiplied your Genus by 10]


    [You have received 10x 1-star Sapient Canzer Genus]

 Chapter 46: 10x rewards

    An was bbergasted when he saw this. It could already be considered a lucky oue for him to receive a LifeSkill and especially a Genus with just one kill. But it seemed he underestimated how good his mysterious trait was.


    It took him three whole days of spending at least 8 hours in Training Hall Remedium killing off hundreds of frozen Pseudo Canzers just to get 2 LifeSkill fragments and one Genus.


    It took him a long grind. However, his 10x booster trait seemed to have multiplied his rewards ten times, giving him ten of each.


    He was so surprised that he couldn''t even move.


    Just like that? I get 10 LifeSkill fragments and 10 Genuses?


    [You have 10 of the same LifeSkill fragments. Do you want to fuse them?]


    [Upgrade points required: 5000]


    [F-ss fragments required: 4]


    An paid the cost and used the Upgrade points to gather the ten asteroids that rotated around his Spiked Chitin Spray.


    ¡ªMage: (C) Spiked Chitin Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 4th stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 5 days : 09 hrs


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 10x F ss fragment


    The mix of red geometrical shapes that represented his Upgrade points suddenly came out in a line out of their fuzzy ball. It rounded up four asteroids and forced them together into an amalgamation of all four. And like asso, the string of upgrade points threw therge asteroid into the LifeSkill.


    The asteroid burned up in the''s atmosphere until it crashed into the surface.


    The shockwave from the crash reverberated throughout the and fundamentally changed its surface. A cloud of smoke made from the particles of the fragments suddenly spread out and enveloped the whole.


    In a few moments, the fog settled down and created new,plex patterns on the surface of the LifeSkill. The surface was now inundated with ck vines with sharp spikes all wrapping around its stem.


    ¡ªMage: (B) Spiked Chitin Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 4th stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 5 days : 09 hrs


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 6 x F ss fragment


    B ss¡­


    An couldn''t believe that he was able to upgrade his new Mage LifeSkill to B ss so easily. He thought he would have to grind more missions and kill more Canzers to get more fragments, but who knew that his Trait would save him a lot of time?


    If he had two more F ss fragments, then he couldbine all eight and get a B-ss fragment, which he could use to upgrade the LifeSkill to A ss!


    In just one mission, he was able to obtain a power that anyone would be jealous of. A (B) ss LifeSkill was considered to be above average and had a bright future ahead of them.


    An immediately wanted to test out his new skill.


    It''s a shame that there''s no more Deiztruphia Canzers lying around. I want to see how effective this LifeSkill is in binding them.


    If others heard him say that, they would vomit out blood. They already thought that facing one Deiztruphia, let alone two, was already a disastrous situation.


    But for An, they were nothing more than fodder. His SSS ss Physique allowed him to kill them with just one hit.


    The C ss version of the Mucus Spray could only contain the Deiztruphia Canzers in 10 seconds at most. But what about this B ss LifeSkill? What will be the effects of mixing the two Mage LifeSkills into one?


    An closed his eyes and concentrated on manifesting a giant hand. He was still exhausted beyond belief, but he was able to briefly create a hand to grasp the with spiked ck vines surrounding it.


    If he was in a real fight, he doubted whether he would be able to activate his LifeSkill.


    But thankfully, he had all the time he wanted to focus.


    His hands glowed a brown light until he felt the power flow through his veins.


    Now!


    ck vines exploded out of his hands and spread in a cone in front of him. The vines flew through the air but couldn''t find any target. They soon fell to the floor due to gravity.


    Surprisingly, An saw that some of the vines stuck to the walls on the side.


    He walked forward and touched one of the vines. It was as thick as a finger and was as tough as steel. He touched the spikes and felt it prick his fingers. If his Physique wasn''t so strong, then he would bleed from touching these spikes.


    He tried to pry it off the wall and found that he needed a lot of strength to do so. It was much stronger than his Mucus Spray.


    Overall, he found the improvement in his LifeSkill to be satisfactory. He reckoned it would be able to trap a 1st stage difficulty Deiztruphia Canzer for more than 20 seconds.


    Not only that, it would receive further damage from the spikes as it tried to free itself from the trap.


    This is superb! With this binding LifeSkill, I could have enough time to focus on a target and activate my Cherubic Retribution.


    The biggest drawback of his SSS angel-based LifeSkill was its hard activation. He needed a lot of time to focus on the target and they needed to be staying in one ce all the time. He wouldn''t be able to use it on a Canzer that was running around all the time.


    But with this LifeSkill, he could trap them in one ce and allow him to kill them with a taste of angel power.


    The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to get more fragments.


    Can I use the Mucus Spray fragments to upgrade this new LifeSkill? After all, it is a product of thebination of the Mucus Spray and the Chitinous Spikes¡­


    An would have to find out about it more after he got more fragments. For now, he put his focus on the next bout of rewards.


    [You have 10 of the same Genus. Do you want to fuse them?]


    [Upgrade points required: 11,000]


    [8x 1-star Sapient Canzer Genus]


    SOUL SYSTEM:


    [An]


    [Bloodline: Angelic Reaper of Souls]


    [Genus]


    ¡ª10x (1-star) Sapient Canzer


    ¡ª1x (2-star) Pseudo Canzer


    ¡ª1x (3-star) Human


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Grim Reaper


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Angel


    [Mutation]


    ¡ª (10-star) Gluttonous Soul


    ¡ª (10-star) Lightspeed Angel Wings


    [Trait]


    ¡ª 10x level booster


    [LifeSkills]


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª1st stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(1000 / 1000)


    Specialty: Vanguard


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating to 4th stage


    ¡ªMage: (B) Spiked Chitin Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 4th stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 6x F ss fragment


    ¡ªSniper: (SSS) Apocalyptic Hellfire


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 2nd stage


    [Avable Experience: 43,921.2]


    [Upgrade Points: 976,000]

 Chapter 47: Savior has come

    An quickly paid the price and fused the 10 Genuses he acquired.


    He saw the Upgrade points once again pull themselves in a line out of the giant fuzzy ball made out of mixed geometrical shapes.


    The red string wrapped itself to the eight helixes. Then, the Upgrade points tightened their grip on the Genuses until they copsed under the pressure.


    What was left of the Genus were listless threads.


    But then, due to the innate magic found in the Upgrade points, the threads suddenly found themselves vibrating and getting attracted to each other. It didn''t take long until one fiber smacked into the other, and it continued until it all gathered into a vertical stack of strings.


    The red geometrical shapes then covered the stack of genus fibers, twisting and turning it into a familiar shape. The listless fibers then wrapped with each other and formed a rope.


    It didn''t take long until it was morphed into its final shape. It was now a full-fledged helix.


    [Genus]


    ¡ª2x (1-star) Sapient Canzer


    ¡ª1x (2-star) Pseudo Canzer


    ¡ª1x (3-star) Human


    ¡ª1x (4-star) Sapient Canzer


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Grim Reaper


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Angel


    Hmmm¡­I got a 4-star genus now but it''ll be useless until I could upgrade it to 10-star and have it change my bloodline.


    And just as he said that;


    [Canzer Mother Tongue mutation acquired!]


    He got a new mutation! From what An heard, this was a very rare urrence that only happened once every ten years. Usually, people would receive a mutation as a blessing from the god, but rarely, people get mutations naturally.


    [Mutation]


    ¡ª (4-star) Canzer Mother Tongue


    ¡ª (10-star) Gluttonous Soul


    ¡ª (10-star) Lightspeed Angel Wings


    An suddenly remembered something.


    Wait, a tongue mutation? Didn''t Lizzie say that 4-star mutations manifest in reality and can''t be hidden?!


    He quickly put his tongue out as far as he could and tried to see if something changed.


    But from the tip of his tongue, he couldn''t see anything different from before. He breathed a sigh of relief. He didn''t know what he would do if he suddenly got an erged tongue that dripped out green goo everywhere.


    I wouldn''t be able to exin my way out of that one.


    An decided to keep his mouth shut for the time being before he got home. Only once he saw himself in the mirror and saw nothing wrong with his tongue would he start talking again. For now, he zipped it.


    With everything settled, An started to walk. He needed to find the exit.


    It didn''t take a few steps until;


    DRRRRGGGGGG


    Suddenly, he felt the whole ce shake. He had to put his hands on the wall to bnce himself. This new development forced him to remember;


    I''m still in the Remedium. I can''t get careless.


    After a few seconds, the rumbling stopped and An could finally breathe again. He didn''t know if another Sapient Canzer would suddenly appear again and fight him. He didn''t know if he had the energy for another gruesome fight.


    But when he looked forward, he suddenly saw that the entire room changed.


    He fought the Sapient Canzer in arge room withrge pipes intersecting one another. However, once the earthquake stopped, he suddenly saw himself back in the winding tunnels he was originally in.


    He didn''t even notice it change!


    Not only that, he saw that the tunnel in front of him led to two very different paths.


    On the right was a staircase that led up to a ce where sunlight beamed down. On the left was a staircase that led further down, with the darkness shrouding it in mystery.


    An walked over to the right path and looked up. About a hundred steps forward, he could see an opening that led to a ce with orange skies and fresh air. After being trapped in the winding tunnels for what seemed like a whole day, An would recognize that scenery anywhere. This was the path that led outside!


    If he walked up that path, then he would finally escape this ce. He could go find the portal and go back to the real world.


    However¡­


    An thought back to the torn piece of battle suit that the Sapient Canzer showed him. It was bloodied.


    And if the Canzer could escape and get that, then it wasn''t hard to guess that Neumann and the others encountered the Sapient Canzer before him.


    Are they still alive?


    He had a choice. He could escape now and return to the real world. Or, he could go down the other path and search for his team, who could all be dead by now.


    He had no guarantee that he''d be able to escape this ce after he went to the path that led down. These tunnels changed randomly, and he didn''t know if he''d get the chance to leave again.


    An kept his head down.


    I¡­I don''t like to see suffering. I hate blood. I''m a pacifist.


    An walked down the path enshrouded in darkness.


    He walked down step by step, with no hesitation in his feet even though he couldn''t see anything. His footsteps echoed through the nothingness, reminding him that he was getting further and further away from the exit.


    ###


    The Stun Wizardy in the fetal position, with tears running down her already dried cheeks. She closed her eyes, hoping that she''d soon wake up from this horrible dream. Yet she didn''t.


    She still heard the horrible groaning from her teammates. They screamed in pain.


    That¡­that strange Canzer¡­the monster who assaulted their team out of nowhere¡­was gone. It left.


    Ironically, she wished that the Canzer didn''t leave at all. The torment of having the seconds pass by and expecting that monster to return and torture them was a different kind of hell she didn''t want to experience.


    But after minutes passed by, it didn''t return.


    Get a hold of yourself! This¡­this is your dream¡­you need to get up!


    She forced herself to open her eyes. She had to find a way out of this ce.


    She forced herself up, with her eyes hazy from tears. She tried to walk, but her weak knees trembled and forced her to stumble forward.


    She fell on the floor and felt something wet on her hands. She looked at it and saw blood dripping down her hands.


    She finally saw who was lying on the ground in front of her.


    It was their guardian, the one who was supposed to be their safety.


    Mister Neumanny on his back, bleeding with a hole in his stomach. His eyes were hazy and staring out to the ceiling.


    BLUERGHH


    She vomited again. Seeing blood and guts firsthand from a live source was different from seeing it in videos and on cadavers. They didn''t teach her about the smell.


    Step¡­step¡­step¡­


    Just then, she heard footsteps ringing out of the dome.


    She immediately thought of the worst. That monster returned. She closed her eyes and waited for the pain.


    But it didn''te. Instead, a warm hand touched her shoulders.


    When she opened her eyes, she saw the blurry figure of a man reaching out his hand to help her.


    There was only one thing in her mind.


    A savior hase.

 Chapter 48: Return

    The soldier almost got the highest score in his cellphone''s racing game. His face showed his determination, moving his whole body left and right as he dodged meteorsing towards his car.


    Guarding an ongoing mission in the Remedium was a fairly boring job. The only thing he had to do was stand near the portal and wait until the Saviors finished their jobs. Then, he would assist them with whatever they needed.


    "Ohe on!" Unfortunately, thatst level was just too hard to ovee.


    He wanted to get another game in, but his watch suddenly beeped. It''s already been an hour since the Saviors went inside the Remedium and judging from previous missions, he judged that the mission was almost finished.


    After all, it was only a 1st stage Student difficulty mission. It usually only took one hour.


    However, time passed by and no one came outside. It''s now two hours since they entered.


    Then, three. Then, four.


    At this point, the soldier was very worried. He wondered if something had gone wrong with the mission.


    But that can''t be¡­it''s only a beginner mission¡­


    He would have reported this to the HeadQuarters but when he looked around towards the affected area, he saw that the symptoms already stopped. The walls no longer melted like wax and no more buildings were toppling like melted ice cream.


    This meant that the Saviors already killed the Canzer.


    However, they still didn''t leave.


    Just for safety, he was going to request for backup. I don''t care if I get scolded for a false report. This is getting weird.


    But just as he was about to call, he suddenly heard the sound of water rippling. Somebody went out of the portal!


    He looked back and saw a youth with ck hair and ck eyese out of the Remedium. The soldier recognized him to be the Porter of the group.


    The soldier looked down and his eyes widened. The youthful Porter was holding a bleeding man in his arms!


    It was Sir Neumann, the veteran Savior who apanied the novices. His green battle suit was soaked in blood and his eyes were cloudy and unresponsive. Most of all, his guts and intestines wereing out of arge hole in his stomach!


    "What happened?!" the soldier screamed but the porter didn''t answer. He simply put Neumann on the floor.


    Just then, another person came out of the portal. It was the Stun Wizard. She held her shoulders, shivering from the cold and trauma she experienced.


    She saw the soldier and begged, "Call for help! Please!"


    The soldier was overwhelmed. He couldn''t take his eyes off Neumann, who was still bleeding on the floor. "O¡­okay¡­I''ll¡­I''ll call!"


    He quickly dialed on his phone and issued an emergency. In just a few moments, reinforcements woulde.


    "What happened?"


    The stun wizard muttered under her breath. "The Canzers¡­there''s more¡­the report was wrong! There was another one¡­a different monster!"


    The soldier gasped. From what he could piece together from her words, it seemed like the mission was wrongly estimated. There were more Canzers than what was reported. And what''s worse, there''s another type of Canzer inside that they didn''t prepare for.


    "This is a disaster. Okay, I''ve already reported this to HeadQuarters. Wait here and they''lle and save the others¡ªHey! Where are you going?!"


    The soldier was surprised when he suddenly saw An walk back to the Remedium.


    What is he doing?! Doesn''t he know that there are stronger Canzers inside?


    "Miss, don''t you dare go too."


    Thankfully, the stun wizard didn''t seem to have any thoughts of going back inside.


    The soldier bit his lips as he paced back and forth. After the stun wizard exined to him what happened inside, he couldn''t help but worry for the porter. After all, things were much worse than he thought possible.


    The appearance of a new Canzer, one that showed intelligence, was far too much than what a 1st stage student team could face.


    Even if the team could fight the new Canzer, without the proper equipment from the Operators, the Canzer would continue to regenerate its injuries. It would be an unwinnable situation.


    Just then, An came out of the portal with two bodies slung over his shoulders. This time, it''s the Scout and the Archer! They were bleeding and groaning in pain.


    After putting them down on the floor, An came back to the Remedium to get the others.


    The soldier couldn''t believe it. Even after knowing that there were dangerous Canzers in the Remedium, An still braved the unknown and went to save his teammates. It was a very noble and heroic action. His impression of this youth skyrocketed as the soldier respected his bravery.


    The stun wizard watched An re-enter the Remedium with a calm look on his face. Even after she warned him that the monster was aiming to kill him, An still went back without any fear in his eyes.


    None of them knew that the Sapient Canzer was already done and dusted. It was already killed. There were no more monsters he had to worry about in the Remedium.


    But that didn''t mean that it was safe. After all, An had no idea if the Remedium could suddenly change itsyout randomly and trap him inside forever.


    Back then, when he went down the shrouded path, he saw himself in arge space with a domed ceiling. He saw his teammates sprawled all around, either unconscious or groaning in pain.


    He helped the stun wizard and Neumann and they walked back from where he came. Luckily, theyout didn''t change and he was able to go up the stairs back to the surface. The exit was coincidentally just a few steps away from the portal.


    Now, he had the tank and the pugilist on his shoulders. He walked back up to the surface and suddenly saw something out of the corner of his eyes.


    It was the backpack he carried at the start of the mission.

 Chapter 49: Ludicrous

    Finally, the reinforcements were dispatched. They were all 3rd stage students who were hastily put together for this emergency. Their job was simple: they just had to go and save the beginner Saviors from the Remedium, and nothing else. They were expressly told not to meander off or try to fight the Canzer.


    They were told nothing about the situation.


    When they arrived at the scene, they were surprised to see that there were a lot of soldiers crowded around the portal.


    Once they dismounted from their horses and went forward did they finally see the gruesome sight of a pool of blood. The soldiers were stuffing white gauze around Neumann''s stomach, but the blood still kept gushing out.


    The leader then saw the Stun Wizard sitting in the corner with a nket over her shoulders. She was the only one still conscious.


    "What happened?" the leader asked her. "How did you all fail a simple beginner mission?"


    The 3rd stage Student reinforcements were told nothing about what happened during this mission. They only assumed that something went wrong due to human error. Although it wasn''t normal, there were instances of novices failing their first missions. They simply thought this was also the case.


    The Stun Wizard looked up at the reinforcements, and they all saw the dried tears on her cheeks and her sunken eyes. It looked like she had gone through hell.


    The original soldier who witnessed everything firsthand answered for the Stun Wizard.


    "They didn''t tell you?"


    "Tell us what?"


    "ording to her, their mission went just as nned. They killed the Deiztruphia Canzer in just under half an hour."


    The reinforcements were surprised. Killing a Canzer in 30 minutes was an impressive feat, even by their standards.


    "Then why didn''t you all leave?"


    This time, the Stun Wizard answered hoarsely. "We¡­we tried to. But then¡­the floor fell and we ended up in the sewers!"


    "The sewers?! That''s impossible!"


    She didn''t argue.


    "We encountered two more¡­two more Canzers¡­"


    They all sucked in a cold breath. It turned out they went through a disastrous situation. No one expects a group of 1st stage Saviors to defeat two Canzers at the same time!


    "But that''s not even the worst part¡­we saw a monster¡­a new Canzer¡­one that could talk."


    Everyone gasped. A Sapient Canzer.


    Even though the reinforcements were 3rd stage students, they didn''t dare think they could defeat a monster thatplex, especially without specialized equipment from the Operators that could disable its regeneration.


    Their hearts pumped with anxiousness once they realized they had to go to the Remedium with the threat of a Sapient Canzer looming over their heads.


    These novices had to fight a Sapient Canzer? They can''t even make a scratch on its armor. And even if they can make it bleed, it''ll just regenerate to full health in a few seconds¡­


    Just the thought of it was terrifying.


    "We''re here to help. We''ll save your teammates. There are four of them inside, right?"


    "Umm¡­" the soldier said awkwardly.


    "What is it?"


    "There used to be four that came out, but the porter came back in."


    "What?! That''s dangerous! Why would hee back?"


    The Stun Wizard replied, "Because he''s a savior! He saved me and he''ll save the rest."


    When they heard this, they couldn''t believe it. The person with the least experience in fighting, the person with no abilities to fight against Canzer, was the one who braved the Remedium to save the others.


    This wasn''t a porter''s responsibility. Yet, he still took it upon himself to do so.


    "Even when I told him that¡­the monster¡­was targeting him, he still went ahead."


    Now, they couldn''t attribute his actions to ignorance. He didn''t do this because he didn''t know the dangers, he braved it despite the dangers.


    The reinforcements couldn''t admit to themselves that they would still enter the Remedium if they knew that a dangerous Sapient Canzer was targeting them. They especially wouldn''t being back multiple times to save other people.


    And An did it despite being only a Porter!


    "There''s no way, right?"


    "Are you sure you are all seeing it right?"


    "Why would a porter do that?"


    The whole situation was so ludicrous that they couldn''t believe it. They thought that she was suffering from delusion caused by trauma. She must have imagined a fictional heroic porter so that she''d be able to feel good about their horrible situation.


    "It''s true!" the stun wizard insisted.


    However, it was hard to believe. Without anyone to corroborate her story, they were disinclined to take her words as fact.


    "Don''t worry, miss. We will do our best to save your teammates."


    Just then, the portal rippled once again. Everyone watched as An came out of the Remedium carrying two more people, the Tank and the Pugilist on his shoulders.


    Not only that, he carried a gigantic bag on his back!


    An casually put the two unconscious guys down near the other soldiers so that they''d be given the help they needed. Then, he put down his equipment bag and the whole ground shook from the sheer weight of the baggage.


    The 3rd stage student reinforcements all looked at An with their jaws dropped.


    They couldn''t believe that this youthful porter was the heroic Savior that the stun wizard imed him to be! Not only that, he did it while carrying a thousand kilograms behind his back!


    An took one big breath. "First missionplete!"


    Then, he raised his hand and shouted a war cry. "WOOOO!"


    Now that he was safe, all the adrenaline in his body finally ran out. An passed out on the floor,pletely exhausted.


    "Help him!"


    The soldiers and the reinforcements quickly went over An and made sure that he was safe.


    They treated him with respect and admiration. After all, he was the heroic porter who went above and beyond what he was asked to do, all because he wanted to save his teammates.


    He garnered everyone''s respect.


    If they knew that An killed three Deiztruphia Canzers all at once, then they''d feel their hearts stop for a moment.


    And if they knew that he killed the Sapient Canzer, then they''d simply drop on the floor from shock and disbelief.

 Chapter 50: Blue

    After a few hours, An finally woke up.


    He opened his eyes and immediately saw an intricate painting of heaven on the ceiling. It depicted a serene view of humans wearing pure white robes and calm smiles on their faces. It induced calmness in anyone who saw it.


    Judging from the correct colors on the painting, An judged this to be the real world. Thankfully, he wasn''t in the Remedium.


    He sat up and saw that he was in a small room with tall, vaulted ceilings. Off to the side, he saw sunshine gleaming down from stained ss windows with designs of a maidenly woman praying with both hands.


    Unlike the modern architecture he saw in the City, this ce seemed to be made from ancient Gothic materials and designs. The pirs on the corners were made out of stone and lime, with intricate carvings of men and women fighting monstrous creatures.


    Where am I?


    Just as he thought that, the door suddenly opened and in came a woman that An immediately recognized. It was Lizzie.


    Her eyes widened with relief once she saw An awake. She immediately lunged towards him and gave him a big, warm hug.


    An was speechless. He didn''t know what to do with his hands. He was going to put his hands and hug her back when she muttered something in his ears.


    "Thank god you''re alright."


    An didn''t know what god had to do with it, but he didn''t say anything else.


    Then after a few moments, she immediately pulled away from the hug and grabbed his shoulders with a stern look. She seemed pissed, which left An utterly confused. First, she hugged him very tightly and then she was angry. I didn''t even do anything.


    "Do you know what you''ve done?"


    "Uh¡­"


    "That was a very dangerous stunt you''ve pulled during your mission. If I was there, I would have knocked some sense into your head."


    Ah. Lizzie was talking about the very heroic and very stupid action of An going back to the Remedium and saving his teammates.


    "I had to help. I didn''t want them to suffer."


    Lizzie put her hands on her hips and took a deep breath. She was ready to give him a big lecture on not risking his life in the Remedium, but how could she reprimand him for such an admirable reason? Even she was impressed with his valiant efforts.


    Yet, it was still an unnecessary risk for him. There were other Saviors tasked with the retrieval of the survivors in the mission, and An didn''t have to put that burden on his shoulders. He shouldn''t have.


    "Even so. You broke protocol."


    "I didn''t know anything about that."


    She massaged her head. "And that''s my fault. I should have taught you better. Anyway, it''s especially important for you to not risk your life."


    "Why?"


    "It''s because you''re the only low-ss Porter we have. What if you get trapped in the Remedium and we can''t find you?"


    An raised his eyebrows. "We can get trapped in the Remedium?"


    She sighed. "Yes. It''s rare, but it happens. Thest time it happened was 300 hundred years ago, and the Savior was trapped for 5 years."


    Judging from the way the tunnels in the Remedium changed without warning, An guessed that being lost in the Remedium was possible. However, he didn''t think that it had already happened.


    He re-evaluated the risks of the Remedium in his mind. If things could change in the Remedium at the drop of a hat, then it was much more dangerous than he thought.


    Their mission was only supposed to be a simple one. They only had to kill a Deiztruphia Canzer and go home. Yet, things happened so fast that none of them could react quickly enough.


    "What about Neumann? What about my team?"


    She gave him a terse smile. "They''re fine. Neumann took a lot longer to recover, but he''s already up and running. Your other teammates have recovered well too. The Scout is the only one still unconscious and stuck in his bed."


    An heaved a sigh of relief.


    "You did a good job. If you hadn''t acted so quickly, their condition would have been much more critical."


    They all did their jobs. They killed the Canzer. But, who could have expected that things would go so wrong?


    "What happened?" he asked her.


    Lizzie sat beside him in the bed and shook her head. "Nobody knows. HeadQuarters have been working overtime to try and figure out how, what, and why things escted to such difficulty. As of now, they''vee up with nothing."


    "This hasn''t happened before?"


    "No. In the entire history of Genesis City, a Canzer Report has never been so thoroughly wrong."


    Even though no one knew what happened, An had a guess.


    It probably has something to do with the extinction of Angels. Weird things have been happening ever since they fell from the heavens, but nobody ever corrtes it with the Angels. After all, they don''t even believe it happened.


    An looked at Lizzie and saw that she had no idea about it at all. Even though she was there to witness them falling to the ground first-hand, she still believed the City''s words over her own eyes.


    "Have you heard what happened to them?" she asked him.


    An slightly nodded his head. When he rescued the Stun Wizard, she told him all the things they went through in the sewers. She told him about the two Deiztruphia Canzers as well as the dangerous Sapient Canzer. She warned him that it wasing for him.


    "That was really dangerous. You''re lucky that the Sapient Canzer didn''t find you. I''m getting chills just thinking about it."


    Of course, nobody knew that An already felled that monster. Nobody thought he''d have the power to even hurt the Sapient Canzer, much less actually kill it without disabling its healing factors.


    "What happened to you after you fell?" asked Lizzie.


    But just as he was about to answer, the door suddenly opened.


    A woman suddenly came in without warning. An looked at her body and was surprised to see the color of her garment.


    She was wearing a blue battle suit. She was an Operator!

 Chapter 51: Questions

    This was the first time that An saw an Operator up close and personal. He observed her battle suit and saw that her garments had small lights weaved along the threads, making it look cybeic.


    The woman had straight ck hair down to her waist and thin eyes that were entuated by her narrow sses. She walked over to An with a tablet in her hands.


    "Good morning, An the Porter," she said as she walked over opposite him.


    He looked at her and said, "Good morning. Are you a Quill?"


    Lizzie immediately felt embarrassed when she heard him say that. "What is Wemby teaching you?! You shouldn''t say that out loud."


    The Operator waved it off. "It''s fine. I don''t feel offended by it. It depends on the person whether Knives and Quills are both terms of endearment or insults. I see no hate in his eyes, only curiosity."


    She then walked over to An and gave him her hand. "My name is Pterina Pterodinus and I am an Operator, or as you call it, a Quill."


    An shook her hand and after, she took a chair and sat down in front of him.


    "I''m here to ask you some questions about what happened to the mission."


    He looked towards Lizzie and saw that she nodded her head. "Just tell her what happened. Neumann and the others were already questioned the moment they woke up."


    With how disastrous the mission could have been, the Savior HeadQuarters were doing everything they could to learn more about what happened. An imagined that the Quills got the brunt of the me; they were the ones in charge of surveying the symptoms and figuring out the parameters of the mission. They should have known better.


    "Can you recount what happened when you all stepped foot in the Remedium?"


    An quickly told the truth about what happened during that time. He told her about them finding the Deiztruphia Canzer''sir, and he even told her in great detail how they defeated it.


    However, he didn''t tell her about the weird thumping pattern he heard during the mission. After all, it turned out that it came from the Sapient Canzer itself, and he wasn''t supposed to know anything about that.


    Pterina took notes and nodded at An''s answer once she cross-referenced it to the other''s answer. They all generally told the same thing, which meant that it was the truth.


    "Then, we waited for ten minutes for something. Neumann said that a ''blessing'' was supposed toe."


    Lizzie and Pterina nodded. "Yes. After a sessful mission, the god would give out the rewards forpleting the job."


    "The fact that ten minutes psed and it still hadn''t appeared meant that the mission still wasn''tpleted. The veteran Savior should have escorted you all out sooner. Go on."


    An then recounted the moment when they decided to go back. "We were just a hundred meters away from the portal when all of a sudden, the floor caved in and we fell into an abyss."


    Pterina''s eyes then got narrower as she listened intently to his words. This was the very crux of the problem. This shouldn''t have happened at all.


    "When I opened my eyes, I suddenly saw that I was in a winding tunnel."


    "And what happened after that? Did you walk forward, or did you walk back? Did you encounter anything?"


    The truth of the matter was that An did encounter three Deiztruphia Canzers all at once. However, he couldn''t tell her that. Nobody would believe that a 1st stage student porter like him could survive an onught from three different Canzers all at once. Even a team of 1st stage students had trouble fighting against just one.


    They would surely get suspicious if they knew he defeated all three.


    So, An lied.


    "At first, I stayed still. I didn''t know where I was, so I didn''t move that much. But when I knew that I had to move to find the exit. So, I walked forward, making sure not to make any noise."


    At that moment, An suddenly saw something sh in his eyes.


    [Unauthorized probe detected]


    [Lie detection denied.]


    So this is an Operator''s LifeSkill¡­


    Pterina''s blue battle suit glimmered a faint violet light as she activated her LifeSkill. The edges of her pupils glowed white as she tried to discern truth from fiction with An''s words.


    She had a job as an ''Inquisitor'', with the LifeSkill Truth Detection. She was able to see through a person''s blood flow, perspiration, heartbeats, and breathing which helped her judge the authenticity of their words.


    She could even see how much of a person''s words were lies. She would know if they were subtly putting lies in their truthful words.


    There were a lot of suspicious instances in An''s story. ording to what they knew, the sewers were teeming with Canzers. It was unlikely that An didn''t encounter at least one Canzer.


    And all of his other teammates found each other in the tunnels. He was the only one they didn''t see at all.


    No one knew what he did. No one could corroborate his story. But since her LifeSkill didn''t notice any lies in his words, she continued the questioning.


    "And they all said that the Sapient Canzer left the room to search for you. Did you encounter it?"


    An shook his head. "No. Thankfully, I didn''t see it."


    When Pterina looked at An, she only saw tranquility in his body. There was no turbulence in his breathing, no increased palpitations in his heart, and there was no nervousness in his voice. He wasn''t lying.


    This did not surprise the Inquisitor. After all, if An did encounter other Canzers, then his body would be brought back to the real world mangled into different pieces.


    "That''s all the questions I have for today. Thank you."


    Once she got what she needed, she inputted everything she heard on the tablet to record it. She then thanked An and Lizzie for their time and she turned to leave.


    Before she closed the door behind her, she looked at An with a determined face.


    "Don''t worry. We''ll get to the bottom of this. We will make sure that this doesn''t happen again."

 Chapter 52: Nuns

    An wiped the cold sweat off his eyebrows. That was close¡­


    He was a little bit caught off guard by this interrogation which didn''t seem like an interrogation at all. Perhaps, that was intentional. Pterina was able to make him feelfortable with her as if he was just conversing with an old friend.


    He didn''t think that she''d use her LifeSkill to try and see through his lies.


    I should have known better, he thought to himself.


    After all, it was not hard to guess that a disaster asrge as that one would garner the attention of the HeadQuarters. They''d stop at nothing to find out the truth about what happened.


    Thankfully, his powers pulled through. Pterina didn''t see through his lie because An had full control over his own body¨Ca side effect of having SSS ss Physique LifeSkill.


    He didn''t show any perturbations in his body as if he was telling the truth, which she believed.


    He didn''t know what he would have done if they found out he lied. Would I try to exin the truth? Would I try to bury my lies with more? He shook his head. He didn''t have to burden himself with these things.


    "Are you okay?" Lizzie asked him.


    He nodded his head. "I''m fine."


    "She might have jogged up bad memories to you, but it''s all for a good cause. Once they find out the reason why that anomaly happened, then they could prevent it in the future."


    An guessed why it happened. And he knew that they wouldn''t be able to solve it. Things would continue to escte until they''re all forced to realize that Angels died, and so did their immortality.


    "If you''re not feeling fine, we can postpone the ceremony."


    He looked at her, confused. "What ceremony?"


    "Well, even though you all technically failed the mission, HeadQuarters recognized all of your efforts and have deemed that the mission be considered a sess!


    You guys did kill a Canzer. And with a sessful missiones a reward. Since you guys weren''t able to get it in the Remedium, it will be given to you guys here, in this church."


    An looked around the room and finally realized why this room was full of designs depicting heaven.


    "So this is a church¡­"


    Churches were the heart of any God''s Territory. This was where the citizens gave their thanks and worship to the God for Their blessings.


    "Yes, this also the ce where Saviors get their injuries taken care of. Nuns and priests call upon the Genesis God to give blessings to those who have suffered. Neumann needed a lot of blessings; his injury was quite severe.


    Thankfully, you didn''t have any. You just passed out due to exhaustion."


    An remembered the gruesome sight of Neumann bleeding out, with his innards out in the open. He wondered how they were able to heal such grisly injuries.


    "Are you ready to go?"


    An thought for a second and then nodded his head. He wanted to know what this ''blessing'' was supposed to be.


    "Let''s go," she said as she led the way out the door.


    When An came out, he saw a hallway with rooms lined up simr to the one he was in. When he looked up, he saw a tall ceiling with more intricate paintings drawn in.


    He saw women walking around with elegant steps. They wore simple white tunics down to their ankles and a veil on their heads that covered their hair.


    Nuns, An guessed.


    As they walked past an open door, An took a peak and saw a nun sitting on the bed and praying to an unconscious man. Suddenly, a white light beamed down from the ceiling and immersed the man in a holy light. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and showed a serene expression.


    He saw first hand how a nun ''healed'' an unconscious man. Did they do the same to me?


    And even though most of them were busy doing their jobs, they couldn''t help but take a sneak peek at An when he walked by. Their eyes showed amazement as they whispered to one another.


    "It''s that porter¡­"


    "He''s so young!"


    "How blessed is he¡­"


    Lizzie saw the confused look on An''s face and she couldn''t help but chuckle. After such heroic acts, didn''t he expect such praise from other people?


    "Your name has spread far and wide, Star Porter. I don''t think I''ve evere across anyone who didn''t hear about the courageous porter who risked his life to save his teammates.


    You''ve made a ssh with your first mission."


    An didn''t think that they''d react this way. He just simply did what he thought should be done. He hated suffering, and he couldn''t bear to live with the thought that he didn''t help his teammates when he could.


    "Was it that impressive?"


    "Of course!" she screamed and her voice echoed through the walls. She gave the nuns a silent apology once she realized she had broken the silence and serenity of the church.


    "You went back even though multiple Deiztruphia Canzers were roaming through the Remedium. Nobody would have done that, not even Saviors stronger than you.


    After some investigation, it was deemed that the mission was actually in the 3rd stage Student difficulty! You braved through the Remedium, saved other Saviors, and survived through it all¨Cwhile you were only a 1st stage Student!"


    That''s a 3rd stage student difficulty?


    An awkwardly let out augh. Even though she apologized for raising her voice, Lizzie couldn''t help but praise An with a booming voice.


    He wondered how surprised she''d be if she knew that he soloed a 3rd stage Student difficulty mission.


    "HeadQuarters have been telling everybody about your story. They want you to be the silver lining in this terrible situation.


    They''re hailing you as an extraordinary talent with a bright future. You''d definitely be given more missionster."


    Knowing that missions could suddenly escte for the worse, An didn''t know if this was a good thing or not.


    They finally stopped walking when they came across grand entry double doors that led directly to the main church.


    Lizzie opened the door.

 Chapter 53: Blessings in church

    The doors opened and the first thing he saw was a golden statue of a man with two faces, each facing in different directions. This man had a thick beard and stern eyes, wearing nothing but a leaf in his crotch.


    On his right hand was a key that had a long shaft and two bits of different sizes at the end¨Ca key reminiscent of ancient times. And on the other end of this key was a circr clock that kept ticking without any mechanisms powering it.


    Is that the Genesis God?


    An and Lizzie walked down the path and he saw rows of pews on the left and right side of the church.


    He looked up and saw more paintings of heaven in the ceiling, this time with the two faced man in the center of it all. Even the stained ss windows to the side showed a depiction of this man in different ethereal poses.


    "The Savior appears!"


    A few people stood up from the top right pew and greeted An. He was surprised to see that it was Neumann and the rest of his team, all looking at him with smiling eyes.


    He expected to see them barely standing from the injuries they sustained. But instead, they all stood with no bandages, no crutches, and no sign of scratches on their bodies. They looked as healthy as ever.


    How is this possible?


    "It took you long enough, An. We''ve been waiting here for a long time." Neumann walked over to him and grasped his shoulders. An felt power from him, power he didn''t expect from a man recovering from a fatal wound in his stomach.


    "You''re fine?"


    "Of course I am!"


    The tank couldn''t help himself anymore and gave An a bear hug. "Thank you! Thank you, man. Without you, we would have been stuck there in pain."


    An was still confused, so he wasn''t able to react.


    "You''re smothering him." The pugilist pulled the tank away from An. "I''m just so thankful to him," the tank said.


    "You''re a real one." The archer patted him on the shoulders and gave him an approving nod.


    The Stun Wizard slowly approached him with her head down. She had her hands behind her back, concealing something that she was embarrassed about.


    "This¡­this is just a thanks¡­thanks¡­" The Stun Wizard pulled out a red box with a neatly wrapped white ribbon on top of it. Her face was tomato red as she gave it to him, avoiding eye contact with him.


    Is this box something to be embarrassed about? Why did she give it to me then?


    "It''s just some cheap chocte I found somewhere. It''s nothing special¡­"


    An had no idea about the ways of women. He didn''t notice the passion and care she put into conveying her feelings for him in the form of the gift.


    And if he had Pterina''s LifeSkill, he would have known that she was lying about it being ''nothing special''. He would have seen her heartbeat increase the moment she caught a whiff of his scent.


    "Thanks," An said as he put away the box.


    Everyone seemed very thankful for An. Without him, they would have been waiting in agony for hours on end in the Remedium. After all, HeadQuarters didn''t even know something was wrong until he came out of the portal with an injured veteran in his hands.


    "Are you all ready to be blessed?"


    Someone from the other side of the altar spoke out. Altan saw a bespectacled man wearing an ankle-length white garment with long sleeves walk towards the group. He noticed that the man had a narrow strip of cloth around his neck that hung down on the front, with the design of the god''s two faces on each side.


    "This is Reverend Fifty Seventh. He''s the main priest of the church." Lizzie introduced the holy-looking man.


    "Please, call me Fifty-seventh." The priest then walked over to the center of the altar and addressed everyone. "I''m d that I''m the one able to give out the blessings to such wonderful people. Are you all ready?"


    An was the only one who didn''t know anything, so he quickly raised the question. "What are we supposed to do?"


    The priest gave him a small smile. "The Genesis God will beam down his rewards onto all of you. You''ll gain more life and more experience."


    "If you have any questions about how to use your experience, you can ask me," Lizzie whispered to him.


    "Do not worry. I will guide all of you through this magical experience. The only thing you need to do is to stand and ept the grace from God."


    The rest of his teammates gleamed with happiness once they heard that. This was the first time they''d ever get experience, so their excitement was palpable. They thought they''d failed their mission, so getting rewarded like this was a blessing for them.


    "I''m so excited to get stronger!"


    "Yes! This is my first step to greatness!"


    "Aren''t you excited¡­An?" the Stun Wizard asked him with a slight blush on her face.


    "I''m excited too," he lied.


    Neumann gave him a slight nudge. "I''m sure you''ll be given lots of experience this time. You''ve done a great job."


    "We get different Experiences?"


    "Usually, everybody gets the same experience. But, sometimes, the God gives out extra to those he deems have done a great service¨Clike you. Oh, look. The priest''s starting."


    An saw Reverend Fifty-seventh take out a golden key from his pocket, the same one that the statue on the altar had, but a bit smaller. He then raised it to the ceiling and closed his eyes.


    The priest muttered something under his breath, but An couldn''t hear it.


    Suddenly, a beam of light came down from the ceiling towards them. An noticed that the beam coincided with the center of the Genesis God''s painting.


    An''s eyes widened as he saw blue wispse from out of nowhere and descend towards the group. This was Experience, manifested in reality.


    Soon enough, those wisps separated into smaller wisps and came down andnded on their foreheads.


    [You have received 10 experience]


    Once everything settled down, the beam of light disappeared.


    "Yes! 10 experience!"


    "Woohoo!"


    "I didn''t think I''d get this much from our first mission!"


    The youths celebrated their rewards, and the Stun Wizard turned towards An to celebrate with him. However, she was surprised to see that he was glowing white!


    [You have sessfully advanced your SSS ss Grim Reaper Physique LifeSkill to the 2nd stage of the Student Realm]

 Chapter 54: SoulTime

    His SSS Physique LifeSkill finally advanced to the 2nd stage! However, he didn''t expect his whole body to suddenly radiate a dim light. Practically everybody''s eyes were on him.


    "No way¡­"


    "That fast?! I can''t believe it."


    Lizzie walked up to him with amazed eyes. "You advanced to 2nd stage Student¡­after just one mission. Wow¡­"


    The reason why she and everyone else were surprised was because Saviors usually took months if not years to get to the 2nd stage Student realm. Only the most talented could do it earlier.


    For example, Yasmine with her S ss DPS LifeSkill, achieved this feat only one week after she was drafted!


    And from what Lizzie could remember, An was also drafted exactly one week earlier. This meant that An was equally as talented as an S ss genius hailed to be the next great Savior in the City.


    It could even be argued that An was much more talented than her. After all, Yasmine achieved this after two missions in the Remedium, all in one week. While An achieved it in just one mission.


    CLAP CLAP CLAP


    Reverend Fifty-seventh pped his hands in wonderment. "Amazing! God has deemed you worthy enough to give 1000 experience points just from that one mission. As expected. Your heroism has been rewarded."


    Everyone''s reaction was a mix of amazement and disbelief. They never thought that he would be blessed this much. The Genesis God must have been really impressed with An.


    However, An knew that that wasn''t the case.


    He only received 10 Experience!


    The God wasn''t the reason why he advanced; he already had enough experience to fill it up multiple times. The problem before was that it didn''t advance even if it was filled up with 1000 experience.


    Is being ''blessed'' by a God a requirement for me to advance my Physique LifeSkill?


    This guess wasn''t without merit. After all, his LifeSkill had the job of a God.


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ªConsolidating the 2nd stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 12 hrs : 59 mins : 27 s


    But the most rming thing about this was that his whole body glowed a white light when he advanced! Everyone saw it with their own eyes.


    "Why did my body glow?"


    Lizzie answered him. "That''s normal. Everybody glows like that when they advance to the next stage."


    An was relieved to know that his case wasn''t abnormal. However, he wondered why his previous advancements showed no physical manifestations.


    When he advanced his SSS ss Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill, it didn''t show anything on his body. The same was with his other LifeSkills.


    Is it because of my Physique? Does it hide the other advancements?


    But no matter what, he wished that it would stay the same. It would be weird if they suddenly saw his body glowing every time he advanced one of his LifeSkills.


    "Congrattions!" Lizzie gave him another big hug.


    Soon after that, Neumann and the rest of his teammates gave their praises to him. They weren''t envious at all, because An proved himself to be amendable Savior.


    "I can''t call you Newbie now. You are a full-fledged Savior!" Neumann saluted him by bumping his fist two times in his chest.


    An awkwardly returned the salute. "Thanks¡­"


    TICK¡­TOCK¡­TICK¡­


    Just then, An suddenly saw something change in his Soul System. He closed his eyes and focused on it.


    In the dark expanse of his Soul System filled withrges, asteroids, blue wisps, and red geometric objects, he suddenly saw something new to the side.


    Just beside his LifeSkills, he saw arge constructpletely made out of ss. This object was made out of two triangr bulbs connected vertically by a narrow neck. And inside this thing were cascading grains of sand, slowly pouring from the top to the bottom.


    This was an hourss.


    [SoulTime]


    ¡ª40 yrs : 110 d : 20 hrs : 09 min : 01 s


    "What''s SoulTime?" he asked out loud.


    Lizzie,pletely expecting his question, answered immediately. "Simply put, it''s your lifespan."


    But this left An confused. He thought everyone was ''immortal''. And If everyone was considered immortal, then they shouldn''t have lifespans to begin with.


    "I don''t understand."


    This time, the priest answered. "Well, child. Being immortal doesn''t mean that your lifespan is extended infinitely. It only means that you can''t die.


    For example, I have a SoulTime of more than 500 years. Even if that is a long time, it is still a finite amount of time. If I don''t do anything and God doesn''t intervene, then I will die in 500 years.


    However, people like us who live in God''s embrace are given extra time, or SoulTime, to extend our lives.


    Saviors not only get Experience from doing missions, they also get SoulTime. Normal citizens get blessed with SoulTime for their services towards the City."


    An was still hazy about the whole thing. "But what about Angels? I thought they were the beings that made everyone immortal."


    Neumann exined. "If people live a normal life, then their SoulTime ticks normally. However, idents happen and we Saviors risk our bodies and lives in the Remedium.


    Each hit, and each injury that we sustain corresponds to arge chunk of decrease in our SoulTime.


    A simple cut could correspond to a 1-hour decrease in SoulTime. And a critical injury in your heart could decrease your SoulTime to less than 10 percent of what it was originally.


    When I got mutted, my SoulTime decreased to dangerously low levels. They estimated my SoulTime was only 30 minutes left."


    "What if your SoulTime turns to zero?"


    "That''s where the Angelse in. They follow every person in this City like a shadow, and during times when a person has only a few minutes left in their SoulTime, the Angel injects them with more life, more SoulTime, making them virtually immortal."


    The priest nodded, feeling that Neumann''s exnation was urate.


    An finally figured out the reason how Angels and immortality worked. It turned out that Angels were more like emergency medical officers, rather than immortal beings who gave out immortality to everyone.


    He then looked at his Soul System. He only had 40 years left, which was a significant improvement to the 20-year-old expected lifespan of those in the Unimed Lands.


    But when he inspected his SoulTime, he noticed something extremely weird.


    ¡ª40 yrs : 110 d : 20 hrs : 09 min : 01 s


    ¡ª40 yrs : 110 d : 20 hrs : 09 min : 02 s


    ¡ª40 yrs : 110 d : 20 hrs : 09 min : 03 s


    It was ticking up!

 Chapter 55: Invited

    Instead of ticking down like normal people, An''s SoulTime was instead going up! This meant that he was getting more life as time passed by instead of losing it.


    This is definitely not normal. Is it because of my Physique LifeSkill? Is it because of my bloodline?


    Either way, he wasn''t mad at this power.


    He was an actual immortal. If he did nothing and lived a normal life, then he would live forever, and even extend his lifespan as he got older!


    Neumann also told him that each injury corresponded to a decrease in SoulTime. His increasing SoulTime meant that An had the equivalent of regeneration powers! This was especially helpful in missions to the Remedium.


    He dared not tell this to other people. And even if he did, would they believe him? The women would envy him because he had the ability to get younger as he got older.


    "Do you understand SoulTime now?" Lizzie asked.


    An nodded yes.


    "Saviors only see their SoulTime after they advance to the 2nd stage, so they only find out about this factter," Lizzie exined.


    "It''s also the reason why veterans, usually tanks like me, are needed in beginner missions. Newbies don''t know how much SoulTime they lose when they get injured, so they get a bit reckless thinking they have more," Neumann added.


    Lizzie looked at her watch and saw the time. "Oh, we should continue our conversation outside. Mass is going to start soon, right Reverend Fifty-seventh?"


    The priest nodded. "Don''t worry, you can take your time."


    Then, he turned towards An and sped his hands.


    "Once again, I congratte all of you, especially our star porter. Unfortunately, I won''t be able to join the celebrations as I have a lot of stuff to attend to. If only I could delegate praying, hahaha." The priest congratted them before saying his goodbye and going back to the side door.


    "You see your SoulTime now? What does it look like?"


    "How much time do you have?"


    The excited youths couldn''t help but crowd over An and ask all sorts of questions. Neumann had to reign them back in.


    "Guys, don''t be rude. You can''t expect someone to give you sensitive information when he doesn''t even know your names."


    They all felt embarrassed and quickly introduced themselves.


    "I''m Semi," the tank said, grasping An''s hand with both hands.


    "Call me Pacman," said the pugilist.


    "Robin''s the name." the archer introduced himself.


    Thest one was the Stun Wizard, and An felt like he saw steame out of her ears, but he must have just imagined it.


    "...Tryna," she tried to shake An''s hands, but she wasn''t looking at him so she missed quite a few times. It took Semi''s help for her to shake hands with him.


    An finally knew everyone''s name¡ªexcept for one. Someone was missing from the group. The Scout was nowhere to be seen.


    "What happened to our scout?"


    They all gave him a sad but optimistic smile. "He''s still recuperating from his injuries. They said that he got dangerously close to emptying his SoulTime," Pacman said.


    An was confused. "Can''t the priest bless him with more SoulTime?"


    Neumann sighed. "They are¨Cthey did¨Cbut he''s still unconscious as of now."


    Suddenly, An had a bad feeling. What if¡­


    What if his SoulTime went to zero? Without the Angles, the scout''s SoulTime wouldn''t be injected with more life as it ticked down to zero. He''d be dead.


    "Where is he?"


    "He''s in intensive care in the church, which prohibits any visitors. We''ll just have to wait until he wakes up. He''ll be really jealous once he learns that we got our Experiences before him," Semi joked to lighten the mood.


    An wasn''t sure that he was dead. If he was dead, I would have sensed it.


    "Anyway, let''s change the subject. We''re having a small party tomorrow evening to celebrate. It''ll be a big gathering of all of us in the Student Realm. You should join us, An."


    "No offense to sir Neumann, but you really shouldn''t be hanging out with old people like him. All the people there will be our age."


    Neumann grunted, but he didn''t argue. He agreed with them that An needed to socialize with people his age.


    "You''ll get to see a lot of new faces there. Everyone will be there! Geniuses, Young masters, and most importantly, some chicks!"


    Tryna, the Stun Wizard, elbowed Pacman once he mentioned other girls to An. She could be quite aggressive when she needed to.


    "I''ve never been to a party before."


    Pacman put his shoulders over An and whispered. "That''s fine. With your talent, I''m sure there''ll be some beautiful girls lining up over you¨COW!"


    "You should¡­join us¡­," Tryna said shyly, her arms still embedded in Pacman''s ribs.


    Since they were inviting him with open arms, An decided to join them. Of course, he had no idea what to do at a ''party''. From the stories he heard, he was supposed to get ''wasted'' or whatever that meant. He''d have to ask Wembyter.


    "Sounds interesting. I''ll join."


    The youths, especially Tryna, shouted in happiness when they heard that.


    "Okay, n your party some other time. It''s time for all of you to return home," Neumann said, herding the youths out of the church.


    "See, An. Old men like Sir Neumann hate seeing us young folks having fun," Pacman said jokingly.


    "Ahem¡­under 200 years old is still very young."


    Soon, all of them were on their respective mounts out near the entrance of the church. The youths all said goodbyes to An and reminded him of the time and ce for the party.


    They all went on their own ways escorted by Neumann, who gave An a small wave goodbye.


    An and Lizzie entered her truck as she escorted him back to his house. While inside, An asked her a question.


    "Will you be at the party?"


    She chuckled. "That''s only for young''uns like you. I''m old," she said as she tucked her curly hair in her ear.


    An muttered under his breath. "You look young though¡­"

 Chapter 56: Altercation

    The truck moved through the streets of Genesis City at a steady pace. An looked through the windows and noticed that they passed by the 2nd street of the SpringField district, the same ce where the mission took ce.


    He was surprised to see that the houses were already fixed and upright. There was no debris on the streets, the houses had fully refurbished paint, and people were walking out of their houses as if nothing happened.


    He was surprised to see how fast everything was cleaned.


    Lizzie said that the City had Operators who could rebuild houses within hours. What more can they do?


    It seemed like the Operator specialty was more diverse than he thought. They could see through lies, create massive structures instantly, and even target the weaknesses of Canzers.


    Soon enough, the truck parked just in front of An''s house. Lizzie bid him goodbye and congratted him again for his aplishments. In just a few days, she saw him soar through the heavens with his talent. She was very proud.


    An walked back to his house after Lizzie departed.


    Just as he slumped on hisfortable bed, he suddenly saw new words pop up in front of him.


    [Consolidation period over]


    [You have sessfully advanced your SSS ss Apocalyptic Hellfire LifeSkill to the 2nd stage of the Student Realm]


    ¡ªSniper: (SSS) Apocalyptic Hellfire


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª 2nd stage Student


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª (0/2000)


    An tried to activate this LifeSkill back in the Remedium, but he saw that he couldn''t do it. Since it had the job of a Sniper, An guessed that he needed a gun or something with a projectile to activate it.


    He remembered that time when he was practicing in the Training Hall Remedium and saw a Savior with a sniper job. He had this strange elongated tube with many attachments on it, and with just one flick of his finger, a powerful explosion shot out of the barrel and hit the Pseudo Canzer.


    Just like his Cherubic Retribution which needed a target to be able to activate, his Apocalyptic Hellfire needed a medium to be used.


    However, he didn''t know how he was going to get a gun. Heck, he didn''t even know how people get their weapons. They never told him this because he had no need for them; he was a porter.


    Maybe I could ask Wemby and the otherster. I could just make the excuse that I want to get a sword for self-defense.


    An quickly put the required experience in his LifeSkill and advanced it to the 3rd stage.


    [You have sessfully advanced through the 2nd Stage Student Realm of your SSS ss LifeSkill Apocalyptic Hellfire]


    [Consolidation period: 47 hrs: 59 mins: 50 secs]


    He looked down at his body and didn''t see the glowing light seep out of his body likest time. This proved his guess that he''d only show his advancement if his Physique LifeSkill was the one that advanced. This was beneficial to An because he didn''t want others to know about his myriad of LifeSkills in his Soul System.


    And before going to sleep, An snacked on the strange thing called ''chocte''. He quite liked the mixture of sweet and bitter vors he tasted.


    With everything settled, An closed his eyes and went to sleep.


    ###


    The next day, An woke up to another advancement.


    [Consolidation period over]


    [You have sessfully advanced your SSS ss Grim Reaper Physique LifeSkill to the 2nd stage of the Student Realm]


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª 2nd stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(2000 / 2000)


    An tried to put more experience into this LifeSkill, however, just like before, a strange invisible barrier prevented him from overfilling it.


    And even though he filled it with blue wisps, the LifeSkill refused to coagte into another solidyer. He couldn''t advance to the 3rd stage.


    Do I need to get blessed with experience from a God to advance it again?


    An found this a bit disappointing because it meant that he would have to finish missions and get ''blessed'' with experience before he could advance it to the next stage. Can''t I just advance it with my regr experience? I''d even be willing to pay twice the cost¡­


    If other people heard his thoughts, they''d go green with envy. He wasining about his ''slow'' advancement even though it took other Saviors months or even years to umte enough experience points to advance to their next stage.


    But since he couldn''t do anything about it, he would just have to wait until he got another mission.


    He got out of his house and walked towards the Savior HeadQuarters.


    The party wasn''t until this evening, so he had a lot of free time this morning. His first order of business was to get some advice from Wemby and the others about what to do at a ''party''. They''d probably have a lot of experience with mingling and socializing with others.


    As for the rest of the day, he''d pass the time by killing some more Pseudo Canzers in the Training Hall Remedium.


    When he turned the corner and saw the magnificent building of the HeadQuarters, he saw that fewer Saviors were walking up and down the steps. He didn''t even see Neumann and the others anywhere.


    They''re probably inside, An thought.


    But just as he was about to walk up the steps, he suddenly heard amotion to the side. There was shouting. Aggressive shouting. He turned his head and saw three people arguing near a secluded corner.


    He was going to ignore them, but his enhanced eyesight caught a familiar face.


    Wemby?


    One of the guys arguing was Wemby. An got curious and walked over towards them.


    As he did, he noticed that Wemby and another person he didn''t know were arguing with another person wearing a blue battle suit!


    Wemby and his acquaintance were having some disagreements with an Operator. All three parties were angry. Wemby stayed on the sidelines, but the Vanguard and the Operator were having an intense argument, with their faces beet red.


    These two looked like they were just about to throw hands.


    An couldn''t help but approach the group. "What''s happening?"


    Wemby saw An and immediately wanted him to back out. He knew that a fight was about to break out and he didn''t want the newbie to get hurt.


    The Operator with the blue suit saw An approach and immediately hissed at him. "Stay out of this, you Knife."


    The other person, the Vanguard with the green suit, also frowned when he saw An approach.


    "Don''t interfere in other people''s business, kid. Or else this Quill''s not the only one who''s going to know the strength of a 2nd stage Student like me."


    An ignored their words. The only thing in his mind was;


    They look like they''re about to hurt each other¡­I hate suffering¡­

 Chapter 57: Knives V Quills

    "Don''t call me a Quill, you Knife!" the Operator grumbled.


    The ''Knife'' snickered. He wanted to anger the ''Quill'' and make him do the first move so that he''d have the excuse to retaliate. The Vanguard was just waiting so that he''d be able to teach the pretentious Operator a lesson.


    He didn''t want a nobody like An to interfere with this.


    The Operator couldn''t help but be angry at the Vanguard. Knives were always arrogant and disrespected the Quills any time something happened. And if things did go well, then they wouldn''t get the recognition they deserved.


    So, the Operator wanted to show them that ''Quills'' were just as equal in strength as the ''Knives''.


    While the Vanguard wasughing to himself, the Operator lunged towards him with a straight right jab right down to his face. He was surprisingly agile with his movements, leaving the Vanguard surprised at the attack.


    However, the Knife''s experience in the Remedium taught him to react well. He quickly raised his left hand, guarding against the attack. And without a secondter, he arced his right hand and counter-attacked with a right hook straight to the Quill''s ribs.


    The Vanguard smiled. He saw the panic in the Operator''s eyes. Quills were not good with hand-to-handbat like the Knives. They were mere pampered office workers.


    But unexpectedly, the Quill''s left hand suddenly and skillfully tucked itself on his side, protecting the Operator from the hook.


    "What?!"


    The Operator smiled. "Hmph. Haven''t you seen Cybeics installed in a battle suit before?" He then performed a perfect roundhouse kick straight to the Knife''s face.


    The Vanguard backed away with confusion in his face.


    "The A.I. chip in my battle suit has learned from the best Martial Artists in the City. With just one thought in my brain, I can be a ck belt in ancient Taekwondo!"


    The Knife frowned. He hated Quills even more. As expected, they cheated their way into bing strong and just reaped the rewards from the hard-working Vanguards who risk their SoulTime in the Remedium. He couldn''t lose this fight.


    He rushed towards the Quill. Fighting against regenerating Canzers taught the Vanguard to never let his opponents even have a moment to rx.


    The Knife ran around the Quill, using the tight space around them to jump from wall to wall.


    The Operator couldn''t keep up with his movements.


    With each step on the wall, the Knife got higher and higher. He had no fear of falling and even had his eyes focused on the clueless Quill. The Operator couldn''t keep up with the Knife''s movements, leaving him disoriented. It was a moment of weakness. The knife took advantage of this and jumped down with his hands sped together, intending to smash the Quill''s arrogant head.


    The Operator had no idea what was happening, but his blue battle suit suddenly emitted a white color as his AI chip recognized the threat.


    His body performed a near-straight back kick, shing with the Vanguard''s sped hands.


    The two stumbled back from the force. The Quill''s cybeic battle suit made up for the guy''sck of fighting skills.


    "Tch." But the Vanguard didn''t give up. He looked around and used the environment to his advantage.


    The Quill was breathing heavily when, all of a sudden, he saw a pot of nting towards his face. Hisputer chip reacted for him, performing a roundhouse kick to sweep the pot and its soil away from his face.


    But when he looked around, he didn''t see the Knife anywhere.


    His body automatically turned to the side and saw the Knife''s fisting toward his face. The Quill''s battle suit had no control over his face, so he couldn''t react to the attack.


    The punch rocked the Quill''s entire head to the side.


    The Vanguard thought he won, but he was caught off guard when he felt a crushing pain in his ribs. He looked down and saw the Quill''s leg kicking him just below the armpit.


    The Operator''s battle suit automatically kicked the Vanguard''s ribs.


    "Kuh!"


    Both of them spat out blood. They looked at their Soul System and saw that they lost about 10 days'' worth of SoulTime from that attack. Their anger for each other burned even harder. They couldn''t believe that they let themselves be injured by a Knife/Quill.


    They should be the superior!


    To prove that, both of them decided to use their real powers. The Knife''s body glowed a red tint as four meteors suddenly appeared and rotated around his fists. This was his DPS LifeSkill, Crashing Meteor Punch.


    Meanwhile, the Quill''s entire battle suit suddenly vibrated and buzzed as streaks of electricity erupted from his entire body.


    Even though the use of LifeSkills out in the public was forbidden, their desire to satiate their anger overcame their reasoning.


    "Darn it! They''ve gone insane!" Wemby bit his lips. "An, let''s report this so that it doesn''t escte¨C"


    But he was talking to no one. An wasn''t there. Wemby was horrified to see An standing in the middle of the two fighters with no regards for his safety.


    What is he doing?! He could get hurt!


    The Vanguard and the Operator both saw An stand between them.


    The Knife scoffed. He couldn''t believe that a youth like An was arrogant enough to think that he could stop a high ss Savior like him. Didn''t An know that he was a talented A ss DPS talent that advanced to the 2nd stage in just two months?


    "Your loss, kid! I''ll beat both of you into a pulp!" he said as his meteors rotated faster around his fist. He charged towards An and the Quill.


    Meanwhile, the Operator charged up his electricity into the maximum voltage. "Ha, You filthy Knives! Know your ce!"


    The Quill rushed towards An and the Knife.


    An, with two Saviorsing right towards him with their most powerful attacks, simply raised his head. He didn''t look worried at all as they both charged at him with intense hatred.


    "Why can''t everybody be a pacifist like me?" hemented.


    The Knife raised his fist high up in the air, ready to pummel both An and the Quill in the ground. He thought he''d finally see fear and regret in An''s eyes.


    Instead, An turned around and faced the opposite direction!


    He didn''t even spare a nce at the Vanguard and treated him as if he was nothing but air.


    He couldn''t believe this! He was getting disrespected by both the Quill and this youngster! This was uneptable!


    His meteors rotated even faster around his fist, increasing the force of his punch.


    You don''t even turn around to face me? We''ll see how you feel when I smack the back of your skull!


    He jabbed his right fist towards An''s face, with his meteors increasing the speed and force of his punch. But just as his attack was about to hit the naive youth, An suddenly tilted his head and dodged the Vanguard''s attack.


    !!!!


    The Knife couldn''t believe it.


    And without even turning his face, An raised his right hand and caught the Knife''s attack, stopping it in its tracks.


    An looked back to the horrified Knife and said;


    "I''ll deal with youter."

 Chapter 58: Spreading pacifism

    The Vanguard couldn''t understand what happened.


    He looked at his right hand and saw that the original four meteors that were rotating around his wrist now became only three. He used up one of the meteors in his attack, which meant that his punch should have destroyed any defense it came across.


    So then how did An catch his fist?


    Did I misfire my LifeSkill?!


    He quickly withdrew away from An, jumping back until he could feel the walls against his back. He reached down deep in his Soul System and tried to figure out why his Crashing Meteor Punch didn''t pack as much power as he thought. An shouldn''t have been able to catch his attack.


    Meanwhile, the Quill looked at An, who was walking towards him with an indecipherable look on his face.


    The Quill took the initiative and rushed towards An. His blue battle suit buzzed with high-voltage electricity arcing through the air.


    With the momentum he had, the Quill jumped up and did a side-kick aimed directly at An''s chest.


    But surprisingly, the unknown youth simply turned his whole body away at the veryst second. The Operator didn''t think that An had the reaction skills to even see through his attack. But he did.


    How? That''s a kick from a taekwondo master!


    With his back to An, the Operator was vulnerable to any attack. An raised his hand and positioned it to grab the Operator''s shoulders.


    Ha! The Quill''s battle suit was charged with enough voltage to incapacitate 2nd stage Students and even some in the 3rd stage. It was an imprable defense that deterred any attackers.


    The Operator smiled when he saw An grab his shoulders. He couldn''t wait to see An''s entire body shuddering from a thousand volts coursing through his body.


    But the smile on the Operator''s face faded once he felt An tighten his grip on his shoulders.


    Huh?! How''s he able to touch me?


    He looked at An''s eyes and saw that it was filled with rity, as if the electricity coursing through his body didn''t affect him.


    That''s impossible!


    An''s entire body should be fried inside out by now, with his muscles seizing and unable to move. The Operator thought that his battle suit malfunctioned, but then he saw electricity arcing through An''s body, and one even streaked through his eyes. He was getting electrocuted! Yet, why did it seem like he wasn''t affected at all?


    "Hurting will only cause further suffering," An said.


    "??? What are you talking¨C"


    The Operator didn''t know what An was talking about. But then, he suddenly felt a sharp, cramping pain in his stomach that took all the breath out of his lungs. An gave him a swift punch in the gut that made his brain feel hazy.


    As a man who hadn''t been through a lot of physical training, this was the first time he felt true pain. It was excruciating. The Quill fell on his knees and passed out in a fetal position.


    If he didn''t know what suffering was, then he certainly felt it then.


    Meanwhile, the Vanguard looked at An with confusion with a tinge of fear in his eyes. He started to wonder who he was facing. Was this unassuming youth actually an S ss Tank talent?


    An then turned towards him, and fear gripped his heart.


    The Knife shook his head and tried to focus. He reactivated his LifeSkill again, with four meteors floating around his fists. This time, he''d make sure to keep his grip on his LifeSkill so that it wouldn''t misfire again.


    He rushed towards An with both hands in front of him. With double the power of his LifeSkill, there was less chance of An getting lucky and avoiding the full brunt of his meteoric punch.


    This was a punch that could disorient a 1st stage difficulty Canzer! He used this power to deal tremendous amounts of damage to a Canzer and kill it with his team in just under half an hour!


    An should be feeling the heat by now. As the attack came towards him, he should have been trying to find a way to escape.


    But instead of running away, An stood still and only muttered a few words.


    "I''m only spreading pacifism," An reminded himself. He wasn''t causing violence, he was stopping it.


    And with that resolution, the Vanguard''s double meteoric punch whistled through the air, leaving only a trail of embers behind his fists. And instead of slowing down, his attack seemed to get faster and faster as it reached An''s chest.


    This was thest moment to escape. But instead, An closed his eyes!


    He tried to remember how the Operator moved his body. He recalled how his waist moved to efficiently muster as much power as he could to his legs.


    And as he visualized it, An moved his body in turn. He raised his left leg and left it bent, until at thest moment, he flicked his foot directly at the Knife''s ribs.


    "GUAAHH!"


    The Vanguard felt a few of his ribs crack, leaving him gasping for air. His whole body was cast aside till he crashed onto the wall, unconscious.


    He didn''t even know what happened.


    He didn''t see An''s swift kick because it was covered by his own two fists!


    With just a few moves, An knocked both the Operator and the Vanguard unconscious.


    Wemby''s mouth was wide agape. He was left speechless.


    Is this how powerful a Porter really is?


    Wemby knew the Vanguard personally, and he knew that the guy was an experienced fighter in the 2nd stage Student realm. That meteoric punch of his could take out 1 year off a person''s SoulTime! Yet An tanked that punch like it was nothing.


    Not only that, he knew that the Quill''s electric battle suit was used to paralyze some criminal Saviors. It wasn''t something that anyone could just shrug off.


    Yet An did.


    Here he was worried that An would get identally injured, not knowing that he should have been worried for the other two!


    An walked back to Wemby.


    "Wow! You beat those guys bloody."


    An tilted his head and looked confused. "I''m a pacifist¡­"


    Wemby was speechless. Is he serious?

 Chapter 59: Go to market?

    "Woah! Did you guys see that? Who is that?"


    "Wait! I think it''s that famous Porter!"


    "You mean he''s that one? He''s heroic and he''s also good at self-defense? What a package!"


    A small crowd gathered near the corner where the fight took ce. They all saw An dismantle both of those Saviors with just a few moves. Almost all of them knew about the hot story of the Porter''s brave actions of saving his fellow teammates. However, only a sparse few recognized who An was.


    And by now, people also found out that An was part of an elite group of geniuses who were able to advance to the 2nd stage Student realm in just one week! That was a kind of talent that could not be replicated just by anyone!


    They were all surprised to find out that An was also good at Martial Arts. Even though his moves were crude, his insane reaction speeds and robust physique allowed him to ovee those ws.


    They knew that a Physique LifeSkill was good, but they didn''t know that it was that good. He took that electrical charge like it was nothing!


    "Excuse me." Someone pushed themselves through the crowd and walked towards An and Wemby.


    She had her hands on her waist and a stern look on her face. "What do you all think you''re doing?"


    An was surprised to see that a crowd had gathered around him. Not only that, Miss Lizzie was also there with an angry look on her face. What did I do this time?!


    Lizzie red at both of them, but she especially scowled at Wemby.


    "Are you fighting with the Operators again? Wemby, I can''t believe you! And now, you even influenced An in your schemes!"


    Wemby raised his hands innocently. "I didn''t! Even though I wanted to fight, I held myself back! And the newbie is the one who acted by himself, don''t me me!"


    He quickly threw An under the bus.


    "What do you have to say for yourself?" Lizzie had her hands on her waist and scrutinized An.


    But he just shrugged. "I was advocating for pacifism!"


    Lizzie looked back and saw the unconscious bodies of the Vanguard and the Operator. That was being a pacifist?


    She sighed. "I know that you wanted to stop them from fighting, but you didn''t have to do it by yourself. You could have reported to the HeadQuarters and they''d be stopped by other Saviors.


    Once again, you put yourself in danger. Even though it seemed like you took that without wincing in pain, I know that you lost a lot of SoulTime from that."


    Lizzie, Wemby, and everyone else who witnessed An fight against the two Saviors all saw him take electric damage from the Operator''s battle suit. That would have been enough to incapacitate 2nd stage Students.


    They all thought that An used his Physique LifeSkill to resist the paralyzing effect of the electricity. But even so, they all believed that An must have lost a lot of SoulTime from that attack. It only looked like it didn''t affect him because he was brave and lionhearted.


    But in truth, An didn''t have to do anything. His SSS ss Physique LifeSkill just advanced to the 2nd stage, and it enhanced his natural body defenses by arge margin. He truly felt nothing from the electricity that tried to fry his body.


    When he looked at his SoulTime, he didn''t lose any time at all.


    [SoulTime]


    ¡ª40 yrs : 111 d : 04 hrs : 16 min : 49 s


    He even gained a day in his SoulTime because a day has psed from when he gained his SoulTime.


    But they didn''t know that. If he told everybody the truth, they would quickly wonder how he was able to defend against two Saviors who were both in the 2nd stage Student realm.


    After all, he was only a Porter. He wasn''t a tank who had tremendous defenses around their body.


    "You must have lost about a month from that, right?" Lizzie asked, disappointed.


    An nodded his head and didn''t say anything else.


    "I can see how he was able to return to the Remedium to save his teammates. He doesn''t care about his SoulTime!"


    "I wish I had that courage. I don''t even get into sparring sessions because I don''t want to waste SoulTime."


    "He''s the star porter. He''s going to get a lot more missions and get rewarded with a lot more SoulTime. He''ll probably get blessed with more than a year from his next mission."


    "Ahem!" Lizzie looked at all the onlookers. "Why don''t you guys make yourselves useful and bring those guys to the church, will you?"


    The crowd quickly dispersed and some carried the Operator and the Vanguard away into their mounts. They need the help of the nuns to wake up from their unconsciousness.


    "Sorry Lizzie. I just get so angry at those Quills, especially after that debacle with the newbie''s mission. How could they not know that there''s a Sapient Canzer there? Neumann lost a lot of SoulTime from that."


    Wemby sighed and shook his head. He med the Operators for this disaster that affected An and Neumann, two of his friends. If the Quills did their job properly, then An and Neumann wouldn''t have had to suffer during a routine mission. How could he not get angry?


    "Why were those two arguing?" An asked.


    "Well, he''s actually my teammate for my next mission and we were given a Canzer Report from the Operators. But how could we trust that report? Who knows if they made a mistake again?


    So, we both tracked down the Operator and asked him if he double-checked the symptoms. Of course, typical Quill, he immediately scoffed at us and ignored us. And that''s when the argument started."


    Lizzie shook her head in disappointment. The Operators have been in hot water ever since that disaster with the newbie mission happened. This created further distrust and disrespect from both specialties. She wouldn''t be surprised if this wasn''t the first fight that happened this morning.


    "Anyway, I have to go and prepare for my mission and just hope that everything goes well. Ugh. Those Quills have one job. One job!"


    Wemby tried to put his anger behind him.


    "Oh, and I forgot to congratte you, newbie. I knew you were going to be a transcendent talent." Wemby gave him a smile and a pat on the back. "Just keep doing what you''re doing, newbie. Oh, and I''m gonna still keep calling you that even if you surpass me, okay?"


    With that, Wemby called his mount and left the HeadQuarters.


    Ah! I forgot to ask him how to ''party''.


    Just as he was about to shout towards Wemby, Lizzie suddenly took his hands and dragged him to her truck. "An,e with me."


    "Where are we going?"


    "We''re going to the armory market." She poked his chest. "I''m going to get you some good armor. You can''t just waste your SoulTime like that."


    Armory market¡­a ce to buy armor, swords, and¡­guns.

 Chapter 60: Meeting a blacksmith

    "What can I get from there?"


    "There''s lots of armor, weapons, and misceneous gadgets in the Armory Market."


    An was intrigued. Ever since he obtained the SSS ss Apocalyptic Hellfire LifeSkill, he couldn''t wait to try it out. Unfortunately, unless he had a weapon that could fire projectiles, his LifeSkill wouldn''t activate no matter how hard he tried. But if he could buy a gun¡­


    "Come on! It''s not like you have anywhere to go anyway. The Training Hall Remedium is closed for the time being."


    "Closed? Why?"


    "HeadQuarters shut it down until they find out the reason why things went so wrong during your mission.


    The Vanguards didn''t want to enter knowing there was a risk, and the Operators didn''t want to get med if something bad does happen. So, they closed it.


    In fact, all non-essential Remedium portals are banned right now. People can''t go to the Remedium unless it''s for a mission."


    An was nning on killing a few Pseudo Canzers in the Training Hall, but it seemed his ns would have to be scrapped. And unless the Angels returned and things went back to normal, it looked like An wouldn''t be able to farm more Pseudo Canzers for now.


    "Where do we go?" With nothing else to do, he relented and joined Lizzie to the market.


    The truck strolled through the streets and away from the City Center down South. On the way, An saw a lot of new architecture andrge buildings unlike anything he''d ever seen. It didn''t look like these structures were meant for humans to live in as smoke and steam billowed out of multiple chimneys on the roof.


    "This is Masamune District, the industrial heart of Genesis City."


    An''s eyes widened as he saw a hill in the distance with arge crater on the top. Smoke and bits of magma spurted out of the opening every few seconds. It wasn''t just a regr mountain, it was a volcano!


    This volcanic mountain was surrounded byrge, blocky buildings, withrge pipes interconnected with each other and eventually all leading back to the volcano.


    "Mount Infernal looksrger than life, doesn''t it? Without that volcano, we won''t have the power to light our homes, we won''t have water to pump from underground, and we won''t be able to produce food to sustain us.


    That is where the City''s energy is mostly generated. It is a vital part of the City and we cannot let the Canzers destroy it. That''s why this District has its own Specialist Saviors on standby, ready to go whenever a Symptom appears."


    Specialist Saviors were three realms above those in the Student Realm like An.


    It goes from Student, to Pre-Intern, to Intern, and then to Specialist.


    An saw that almost every house, every building, every street, and even TVs had small pipes that connected to the main pipe and back to the volcano. She wasn''t lying when she said that this volcano powered everything in this City.


    No wonder they need Specialist Saviors to protect this district.


    After a few more minutes, they reached the armory marketce. The truck turned a corner and therge buildings of this street blocked his view from Mount Infernal. When he looked around, he saw an abundance of people walking and inspecting the wares of stalls and stores on the side of the street.


    Even in the truck, he could still hear the passionate bargains from buyer to seller.


    The sellers would brandish polished swords and throwing knives to a group of interested buyers, and the customer would throw out a counteroffer of some kind.


    When he looked at the people buying, he noticed that most of them had distinctly foreign faces, with some being taller, more slender, and had a more bulbous nose than the people he saw in Genesis City.


    But the buyers weren''t the only special humans he saw in the street. In all the stalls that they passed, almost all of them were managed by dwarfs¨Chumans with a short and stocky stature.


    They all have the same dwarf mutation? In every district he visited, he always saw a mix of mutations around. Even if people had the same cat mutation, not everyone would have cat ears or tails¡ªsome just had whiskers on their faces. But in this district, the dwarves all had identical mutations.


    "We''re here," Lizzie said as the truck came to a stop. She then pointed at the building where armor sets and swords were disyed in ss cases on the front.


    "You''ll have arge selection of armor you can pick out from his store. I''ve been loyal to this ce ever since the owner gave me personalized katars and daggers."


    Lizzie parked the truck in one of the designated spaces beside the building.


    An noticed that this store was one of the few buildings with parking spaces for both mounts and vehicles. This ce must be special.


    Lizzie entered the shop ahead of him while An looked up at the carved wooden sign at the front.


    <Custodire''s Armors. (Indirect Descendant)>


    Indirect descendant? What does that mean?


    An walked inside the shop and immediately, the smell of oil and charcoal hit his nose. And even though it was muffled, the sound of banging metal resounded through the walls and filled his ears.


    Don''t they get deaf from that? he wondered.


    CHIME


    A single dwarf tinkering on his workbench turned to look at who entered his store. And when he saw Lizzie, he immediately dropped what he was working on and greeted her.


    "Oh, puell Lizzie! It''s been a while."


    The owner had curly ck hair and a long bushy beard. He was wearing dirty overalls and a white t-shirt underneath with multiple greasy hand marks near his pockets.


    "What brings you here? Have my ws done you well? I hope you''re not going to tell me that you lost them in the Remedium again."


    "I''m doing good, Custodire. It''s been doing me well but I''ve been having trouble with grip on my ws¨Cah! That''s not why I''m here.


    I''m here for another business. I''m hoping that you''d be able to give this new guy better protection. He''s quite careless with his SoulTime."


    She gestured at An toe and she introduced the dwarf to him. "This is Miss Custodire. She''s my trusted cksmith."


    She?


    An was caught off guard. He would have never thought that the bearded dwarf was a woman. Granted her beard covered half of her face, he didn''t see any hint of femininity on her. She was even more muscr than most men he saw in the City.


    "What? Never seen a beautiful dwarf like me before?" she said, but An didn''t react. Custodire looked at Lizzie. "What''s wrong with him?"


    "He''s never seen a dwarf before," she exined. "He''s from the Unimed Lands."


    "I see. Well, nice to meet you kid. I''m Custodire. You''ll never see a more beautiful dwarf like me, so be thankful."


    She offered her greeting and An, after finally shaking off his surprise, shook hands with her.


    "I''m An."


    His eyes widened when he felt a strong pressure crushing his hands.

 Chapter 61: Custodire

    This was the first time that An actually felt pain in his hands. Even when he crushed the hard outer shell of the Canzers he fought in his first mission, he never felt even a tinge of pressure from it.


    But now, he felt like his bones would break if he didn''t stiffen his grip.


    An had to use his real strength, with no reservations, just to survive the monstrously strong grip of this unassuming dwarf. Little by little, he felt like he was getting the upper hand in this tussle.


    Custodire''s eyebrows raised as she felt an equal pressure sping her hands. She was just testing this little cub to see how he''d react, but she didn''t think that he''d be able to withstand her strength. She quickly changed her evaluation of this youth.


    "Strong body¡­" she said with a smile.


    "Okay, that''s enough, Miss Custodire. You can''t bully newbies like this anymore. You''re in the Specialist Realm!"


    Custodire let go of her grip on An and crossed her hands on her chest. "I was just ying around. And it looks like this little cub right here is no newbie at all. He''s pretty strong."


    An took a deep breath as he took back his hand. She''s a Specialist? That''s three realms above me! No wonder she could crush my bones.


    "You''re a Specialist?" he asked her.


    Custodire smiled and raised her bushy chin. "That''s right. I''m an Operator in the Specialist Realm. That means I can create decent weapons and armor that Specialists can use. But I can create even more magnificent armor for newbies like you."


    An was misled by her attire. She wasn''t wearing the blue battle suit that Operators usually wore, so he thought that she was just an ordinary human.


    He didn''t think that anyone would ever guess that she was a Savior, much less an elite one in the Specialist realm.


    Just how strong is she? He couldn''t even fathom the strength of someone three realms above his own.


    "So, An. What stage are you in right now? 7th? 8th?"


    "2nd stage," he muttered.


    "2nd stage Pre-intern? Not bad."


    Lizzie chuckled. "No, Miss Custodire. He''s only in the 2nd stage Student Realm."


    "What?!"


    She couldn''t believe that a mere 2nd stage Student was able to withstand her grip. At that stage, Saviors were barely even superhuman. Yet, the strength he disyed was far above the level she expected.


    Lizzie saw the look of surprise on her face and she couldn''t help but chuckle. This was also the reason why she wanted to introduce An to her¨Cshe wanted to see the old dwarf get tongue-tied.


    "And that''s not all. He only advanced to the 2nd stage yesterday. One week after he got drafted. After one mission." Lizzie''s words of praise were filled with pride.


    Custodire had to lean on the full metal armor next to her as she processed this information.


    She was a well-sought-after cksmith with a high-ss clientele filled with young masters and geniuses from prestigious families. However, this was the first time she saw someone as talented as this youth. In her opinion, he even surpassed those arrogant youths with S ss talents!


    "What''s your job?"


    "Porter."


    She sucked in a big breath. Although being a porter was a good job, she couldn''t help but feel that An''s talents were being wasted. If he had a DPS or Tank LifeSkill, he could easily be one of the premier talents of the City that could evenpare to big Metropolises overseas.


    But she didn''t dare overlook a porter''s importance. They braved the Remedium with no fighting skills to protect themselves, which was why protective gear was so important for porters like An.


    Custodire finally understood why Lizzie brought him here.


    She sized up An''s body and got his measurements just from one look.


    "Well, why don''t you take a look around my wares and tell me if you have anything you like." She pulled a lever on the wall and the sword disys on the side suddenly made way for shiny, metallic armor disyed in stands.


    "What do you like?" Lizzie said as she surveyed the armors with him.


    An was a little bit overwhelmed. There were different kinds of armor, and all were different from one another. Some protected only his chest, some wereplete down to the shoulders, and there was even one that looked like it was made of ss.


    He didn''t know if shiny metallic armor was better than those that had a matte finish with a leathery texture. Should I go big and bulky? Or is minimalistic better?


    "Which one do you think I should choose?" he asked Custodire. As the expert in all things armor, she''d have the best eye for these things.


    The dwarf nodded and quickly chose the armor at the very front of the selection. It was made out of a ck, shiny material, with prominent shoulder guards and gilled designs on the torso. It looked the mostplicated out of all the armor.


    "This is the Eclipse Bayou, an indirect Masamune original."


    What''s that? Custodire saw An''s confusion and quickly exined.


    "An indirect Masamune original means that it is made by a cksmith with an indirect lineage to the Masamune Family. I am one such cksmith, so anything I make is an indirect Masamune original."


    "Masamune Family? Isn''t this district also called the Masamune District?"


    The dwarf nodded. "Yes. This district got its name because almost all of our residents are a part of the Masamune Family."


    "Are all of you part of one big family?"


    "Yes. Didn''t you notice that almost all of our cksmiths and vendors in this ce are dwarves? That''s because we all have a bloodline that is part dwarf due to our lineage.


    Some of us are more connected to the main lineage, and some are further removed.


    Since I am from a side branch of the main Masamune family, all of my cksmith works arebeled as an indirect Masamune original.


    Those that are 2nd removed from the main family can only call their works as 2nd removed originals, and so on."


    An was surprised to find out that an entire district was dedicated to just one family. He also didn''t know why being further removed from a family was considered bad.


    But the fact that only one family had a monopoly on an entire cksmithing district meant that they must be really good at it.


    He looked at the Eclipse Bayou armor in front of him and knew that it was technically a good armor. An even estimated that it could withstand the ws of the Deiztruphia Canzer for a few attacks at the least.


    However, it just didn''t feel right for him.


    Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something.


    It was a simple chest armor made out of iron. It had dents and scratches all around, and it was even rusted in most ces. However, a strange feeling in his gutpelled him to get it.

 Chapter 62: Plain chestplate

    An walked towards the rusted chest te that was buried under scrap metal.


    Lizzie and Custodire both thought that An would be impressed by the Eclipse Bayou, but instead, they saw him walk toward the junk box. Then, he dug through some scrap metal until he saw the dented and rusty chest te.


    "That''spletely worn down. Don''t you want the Eclipse Bayou? It''s the best you''ll find here," Lizzie added.


    Custodire''s eyebrows raised as she realized what An had his eyes on. "I suggest you pick something else, kid. That piece of thing is picky with its owner."


    Lizzie was surprised "Wait, that piece of junk is semi-sentient?"


    The dwarf nodded, but she didn''t borate any further. Semi-sentient equipment were weapons that had enough consciousness to choose their own wielders. If a cksmith had a high enough power realm, then they''d have the power to imbue such intelligence on their work.


    As an Operator in the Specialist Realm, Custodire had the power to create semi-sentient equipment¨Cbut only with Specialist level weapons with high-ss Canzer materials. She couldn''t do that to lower-leveled equipment, like that rusted chest te that An was looking at.


    This meant that it was probably created by a cksmith that was above the Specialist realm, making it extremely rare and high-quality.


    This equipment was passed down through her family, and through the generations, many have tried and failed to subdue the armor. Even geniuses hailed as once in a millennia talent couldn''t woo the stubborn old chest te.


    It ended up being nothing more than junk in Custodire''s smithy.


    But now, it seemed that An wanted to try his luck. Custodire considered An as an impressive talent, but she didn''t think he''d be enough for the picky old armor.


    If An wanted to try his luck, then she wouldn''t stop him.


    An bent down and reached for the armor. But just as he was about to pick it up, someone suddenly shouted behind him.


    "Wait a minute young man. I saw this first!"


    A man with a tall, slender build and a bulbous nose rushed in front of An and prevented him from picking up the armor. Judging from the I.D. strapped on his neck detailing his name and original residence, everyone immediately guessed that this man was a tourist.


    He was just a window shopper in this smithy when, all of a sudden, he heard from Custodire herself that the junk rusting in the corner was a semi-sentient weapon! He wanted it for himself.


    Lizzie frowned and shouted at the man. "Hey!"


    But the tourist didn''t even spare her a nce. His eyes were only locked into the rusted chestte in front of him. He frowned for a second, feeling as if the chestte was nothing more than junk. But, he trusted the dwarf''s words more than his eyes. So, he knew that this piece of junk was more valuable than it seemed.


    "I''ll get this, dwarf."


    Custodire didn''t respond and simply crossed her arms.


    "You can''t just take it. An got to it first," Lizzie erupted.


    The tourist harrumphed. "Ha! Do you know how much trouble I went through just to enter this forsaken trashy City? Your useless soldiers prevented me from entering for three days!


    It was horrifying! I could see the Unimed Lands just outside the bubble. Who knows what could have happened to me? And the only thing that your useless City told me was that your ''system'' was down due to some sr interruption. Bah! Trash City, I tell you.


    I''ve been to better Cities and even some better Viges."


    The tourist couldn''t help but spill out his grievances to them. He felt like he deservedpensation for all the suffering he felt from that ordeal. He should at least get a semi-sentient armor from this City before he departed.


    But just then, he saw An move to the side and pick up the rusted chest te.


    How dare this kid?!


    "Get your dirty hands off that! That''s mine!" The foreigner quickly tried to pry the chestte away from An''s hands, but his eyes widened when he felt like he was trying to move a mountain.


    What? Is he a statue or something?!


    He couldn''t even make the chestte budge. He tried to grab the wall for better leverage, but he still couldn''t even make it move an inch. His face contorted hideously as he tried to exert as much force as possible.


    An looked to the side and saw the foreigner. Huh? When did he get here?


    He was so focused on the chest te calling to him that he didn''t even notice the foreigner at all. Only when he saw the suffering on the guy''s face did he finally notice him.


    He wants it? Then he can have it.


    An let go of his grip, and the foreigner fell to the ground with the chestte in his hands. At first, he was extremely happy that he finally got the semi-sentient armor in his hands.


    But then, he suddenly felt as if a thousand elephants were pushing down in his chest. Kughhh! His lungs deted from the force making his ribs smaller and smaller until they cracked. He couldn''t breathe!


    With a horrified face, he looked at them with a plea for help.


    "Haa¡­he¡­lp¡­."


    Custodire sighed and went over to the foreigner and kicked the rusted armor away from his chest.


    The foreigner heaved breath after breath, feeling a sharp pain in his chest with every inhale. He was injured!


    Anger welled up. He med them for intentionally harming him. He readied his mouth to spit out insult after insult to everyone in this city, but before he could even spit out the words, Custodire grabbed him by the cor and dragged him out of the smithy. With one smooth movement, she quickly threw the foreigner out into the street and closed the door behind her.


    "Hmph. You can''t even carry the chestte. And you think it''ll ept you? Darned foreigners¡­"


    She rubbed her hands on her overalls, walked over to An, and saw him trying to pick up the armor. She wanted to warn him. Those that the armor rejected would get injured at the very least.


    "I''ll tell you what, kid. I''ll custom-make an armor for you instead of that¡­"


    Her words trailed off as she saw the rusted chest te in An''s hands suddenly split from the sides and envelope An''s whole torso.


    It epted him?!

 Chapter 63: Free

    She couldn''t believe that the rusted chestte epted him. After thousands of years doing nothing but rejecting Saviors left and right, this mysterious chest te chose a 2nd stage Student Porter like An.


    It had the chance to go for geniuses and young masters who are now powerful beings in their own right, but instead, it chose this unassuming youth.


    "See, even that semi-sentient armor recognizes talent when it sees one." Lizzie beamed in joy.


    An looked down and saw that the rusted chestte fit him perfectly.


    Then, he suddenly felt his green battle suit vibrate and squirm as it suddenly turned into a liquid-like substance that enveloped the rusted chest te like a new coat of paint.


    He looked at the mirror to the side and saw that the chest te waspletely under the battle suit, showing only the edges and the general shape of the armor.


    "The armor is nowpletely integrated into your battle suit¡­" Custodire exined half-heartedly, still trying to process what happened.


    An moved his arms and twisted his body, feelingpletely flexible even through his armor. He even jumped up and down to test how it would fare.


    The dwarf couldn''t help butugh at the absurdity of it all. That rusted iron chestte was supposed to be at least a thousand kilograms yet An was moving like it was just a simple leather armor.


    With everything moving smoothly, An nodded in satisfaction. Even though he had the SSS ss Physique LifeSkill to protect his body from most injuries, he knew that he couldn''t activate it in front of other people for fear of them finding out about his secret. So, it would be better to have extra protection for his body during times when he''s with other people.


    "How do I pay for it?"


    Lizzie chuckled. "You don''t have to pay for anything, silly."


    "What?"


    "Yeah. Did you forget where you are? This is a God''s Territory. We are given food, water, and everything else in abundance for free. We don''t have to do anything else. The City gives us everything we need to live in eternity."


    "Even this armor?" An could understand getting food, water, and housing for free in a God''s Territory. But he didn''t think that he would get armor and weapons for free without paying for it at all.


    "You''re a 2nd stage Student, right?" Custodire then pointed at the rows of swords on disy near the entrance. "That means that every weapon, armor, and equipment that is rated in the 2nd stage Student is free for you to take!"


    An was stunned. "You just create your works and then somebody could just take your wares for free?"


    Custodire nodded. "Yes. That is the magic of God''s Territory. Everything is free for everyone to take. Of course, if you want extra, then you could barter other items or other services to them for a fair price."


    "But how do you earn anything?"


    Custodire smiled. "Since you''re a 2nd stage Student, then I presume that you already know about SoulTime, right?


    In exchange for giving our services to the City and its people, the Genesis God himself would bless us with rewards. For normal people, they''d get SoulTime. For Saviors like us, we get experience and SoulTime both. And if any of us does the City an incredible service, then the God could give us extra Genus to evolve our bloodline."


    So that''s how immortality works in a God''s Territory. In exchange for their services, the God would give His citizens more SoulTime so that they''d live forever.


    "But what if you don''t do anything? What if you justid in bed for the rest of your life?"


    Lizzie answered. "Well, you''ll eventually run out of SoulTime."


    "...and they die?"


    "Nobody runs out of SoulTime," Custodire said. "If you just performed even a small thing like watering nts or sweeping the streets, then you can get years of SoulTime. And there''s a program in the City that gives odd jobs to those who need SoulTime."


    "Remember when we talked about Angels and how they inject SoulTime into a person whenever their SoulTime gets dangerously low? Well, that''s not for free. Those that get saved by Angels need to work off those SoulTime that they were given."


    An contemted for a second. "What if after they get saved from death, they don''t do anything to pay it back?"


    Does the City leave them to die?


    Both Custodire and Lizzie went silent for a second, their faces solemn as if they remembered something tragic. They thought of the same person.


    "Usually, delinquents who refuse to give service to the City are kicked out. They''re given onest blessing of SoulTime, enough to live for 50 years, and sent them out to live in the Unimed Lands. However, there was one exception.


    Do you remember that old man from before? Quinto Kindle, the First Savior?"


    An scratched his chest as remembered that day. He died. And An gained another SSS ss LifeSkill and a mysterious thing called ''trait'' after he reaped his death.


    "Well, he hasn''t done anything for the City for a long time now. He''s been wandering the streets, refusing to contribute to society and just spouting nonsense.


    But since he''s the First Savior, the citizens couldn''t just kick him out to the Unimed Lands. Even though he''s just a decrepit old man now, he used to be the symbol of hope and peace in the entire world."


    An went silent for a few seconds to process all that information. It turned out that immortality in God''s Territory had to be earned through service and work. Everyone worked hard to get blessed with more SoulTime from God. And if they didn''t, then they''d get kicked out to the Unimed Lands.


    Is that what happened to my parents? Were they delinquents who got kicked out of a God''s Territory?


    An could barely remember anything from his time in the Unimed Lands. In that ce, he''d have to live day by day, wondering if it would be hisst. There were no memories to remember, only suffering.


    "Are you alright?" Lizzie walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulders. "Don''t worry. You''ll get more SoulTime as you perform more missions. You don''t have to worry about getting kicked out back to the Unimed Lands."


    He was very thankful for Lizzie. She was the one who weed him into this world.


    "Thanks."


    Lizzie smiled. "Are you ready to go? We can''t bother Miss Custodire any more than this. She has a lot of orders to fulfill."


    An faced the dwarf. "Thank you for the time."


    Custodire waved it off, but there was a smile on her face. "It''s nothing, kid."


    After saying his thanks, An and Lizzie walked out of the smithy. And just as he was about to leave the door, he suddenly remembered something. An ran back to Custodire.


    "What is it kid? Do you need something else?"


    An nodded. "Can I have a gun?"

 Chapter 64: Gears and spice

    An looked at the slingshot in his hands. The Y-shaped frame was made out of wood while the stic band tied around the top edges was made out of natural rubber.


    Unfortunately, he couldn''t get a sniper from Custodire. She said that those kinds of weapons needed a permit from the Savior HeadQuarters to prevent not just anybody from getting ess to such dangerous weapons. Unless he had a LifeSkill that needed guns or projectile weapons, he wouldn''t be able to obtain a gun anytime soon, much less a high-caliber sniper.


    They said that a gun could take out 90-95% of a person''s SoulTime with a well-ced shot. Letting some normal person buy a gun would just be too irresponsible.


    But since An made some excuse about wanting some kind of protection for himself, Custodire made an exception and forged for him a new slingshot that he could use while on missions.


    Although a lot less powerful than a gun, the slingshot''s rubber was made out of some special material that could withstand even An''s greatest physical strength. And with more power he put in, the faster the projectile shot out.


    Another good thing about this slingshot was that he could use any ammo he could find. It could be a rock, a pellet, or even a pencil. As long as it fits in his slingshot, he could turn it into a high-speed projectile.


    Although a gun does highly explosive damage, they were limited to the amount of ammo they bring during missions. Once they run out, then they''d be as useless as sitting ducks.


    "Did you like Miss Custodire''s gift?" asked Lizzie.


    An nodded. Even though it was made out of wood, An saw that it could withstand a lot more pressure than what was normally possible.


    Is it because she''s a cksmith in the Specialist Realm? She must have imbued this slingshot with some magic that allowed it to have stronger tension in the bands.


    "You must have made a good impression on the old dwarf. She doesn''t just custom-make weapons for anyone. Even her high-ss clients have to wait for months or even years before they can request something from her. Experience the journey with m_vl_em_p_yr


    How does it feel to have an Indirect Masamune Original in your hands?"


    "It''s good. I think." Because Custodire was from a side branch of the Masamune Family, any weapons or armor that she made herself were immediatelybeled as an Indirect Masamune Original. Although he didn''t know what that meant, ording to Lizzie, any weapon with thatbel was considered a treasure.


    The truck continued to stroll through the Masamune district, with Lizzie showing An the different stalls and buildings with a lot of enthusiasm.


    "Since we still have a lot of time till your party, I''ll show you some of the good food spots in Masamune district."


    Lizzie and An toured through the malls of the Masamune District on foot.


    At noon, they went to arge establishment made out of intertwined gears. The smell of spices and hot steam emanated from the building even before they entered.


    There were a lot of people inside, eating hot soups out of bowls fashioned from curved gears. The restaurant''s name ''Gears and Such'' proved to be true as even the spoons, forks, and utensils were made out of gears. Even the table was a giant gear.


    Lizzie ordered for him because he didn''t know anything about it. She asked him if he liked spicy or not, and An said whatever.


    That turned out to be the wrong answer because when An tasted the noodle soup and felt the spice hit his nose, he almost did a spit take. Lizzie almost tumbled out of her chairughing.


    After recovering from the spice and drinking lots of water, they left the restaurant and she led him to the park where there were a lot of people basking in pics under the shade of the trees. Dwarf children yed, standing on each other''s shoulders and pretending to be a tall human.


    Next, they went back on the truck and it led them towards the Infernal Mountain.


    It turned out that the volcanic mountain wasn''t just a ce where energy was harvested, it was also a popr visitor spot. There was a slow railcar installed in the mountain where people could enter and see a view of the City from one of the highest vantage points. It was quite popr as An and Lizzie had to wait almost an hour in line to finally get their turn.


    When the car finally moved up, An immediately saw the wide expanse of the City. He could barely even see the people down below and even the buildings looked small. He always wondered how birds felt like seeing things from up above, and now he knew.


    It gave him perspective. There was a lot more of the City he hadn''t explored yet, and he couldn''t wait to see everything.


    Now, he understood why people craved immortality. He wanted to live for a long time and see more of the City. There were lots of other Districts with vastly different architectures and cultures he was excited to see. It made him wonder about the other Cities and the whole world; what would they look like?


    "It''s amazing, isn''t it?"


    "It is."


    Once the railcar did ap around the volcano, the ride was over. By now, the sun was setting and the street lights were starting to light up, courtesy of the energy generated from the volcano.


    The two went back to the truck and made their way to the City Center.


    An requested to be dropped off near the ce where the party took ce.


    "Have fun with your party!"


    "Thank you¡­for today¡­"


    She smiled. "You''re wee. I had fun too. Don''t get too crazy over there, alright?"


    An nodded. As the truck moved through the streets, Lizzie put her head over the windows and waved at An. He reciprocated and smiled at her.


    He was very thankful for her because he wouldn''t have been able to experience today if it weren''t for her. Even though she wasn''t getting anything from helping him all this time, she still took her time to make him feel amodated.


    "Oh! An! It''s me, Pacman!"


    An saw the pugilist leaning on the light pole. He waved at An and walked over to him.


    Even though it was supposed to be a party, An didn''t see any sign of everyone. Even the whole neighborhood was very quiet. "Where''s everybody?"


    "They''re already inside." Pacman led An through the streets and to one secluded corner where a single door was installed on the other side.


    The pugilist knocked on the door with a distinct pattern and waited for a few seconds. Then, the door opened.


    An and Pacman walked forward until they saw two men in ck suits guarding a circr construct in the middle of an empty room. Inside this circle was a ck shimmering liquid suspended inside.


    "Where is the party again?" An asked.


    Pacman smiled. "It''s in the Remedium!"

 Chapter 65: Party entry

    An was surprised to find out that the party was inside the Remedium. He didn''t even know how that was possible. However, he was looking at the ck shimmering liquid inside the portal in front of his very eyes. It was real. That was the same portal that led to the Remedium.


    "I thought that the Remedium is only open during missions?"


    Pacman shook his head. "This is kind of like the Training Hall. That''s in the Remedium too, but it doesn''t have any dangerous Canzers running amok. We can go in and out of there without a mission. That is what we call a Pocket Remedium.


    The Training Hall is a public Pocket Remedium, which means that anybody can ess it if they want to.


    However, there are also private Pocket Remediums. These ces are rewarded by the Genesis God to a certain family or a person if they have proved themselves worthy of it. Usually, only heroes are given private Pocket Remediums, which in turn benefits their descendants and continues their good lineage.


    People can practice their LifeSkills there safely. For us, we can only practice in the private Pocket Remedium like the Training Hall. But those Saviors from elite families have their own Pocket Remedium where they can practice in secret.


    Usually, they have private tutors guiding them even while they are very young. This gives them an advantage during their Draft because they can kill more monsters in the simtion and get better ss LifeSkills.


    Ugh¡­it is quite unfair. If you''re born into a good family, getting an A ss LifeSkill is all but guaranteed.


    Anyway, the party we''re going to is arranged by one such lucky young master. He has opened up their private Pocket Remedium where we can party to our heart''s content."


    How prestigious does a family have to be to have their own Pocket Remedium?


    An was quite jealous. If he had his own Pocket Remedium, then he could practice using his LifeSkills anytime without having to worry about other people finding out. He could also kill as many Pseudo Canzers as he could and farm experience points that way.


    "Are you ready? Let''s go!" Pacman held An''s shoulders and dragged him towards the portal.


    But before they could step in, the two bodyguards with ck suits prevented them from going in.


    "I''m sorry. We can''t just allow anyone to go to the party. Young master''s orders."


    Pacman frowned. "What do you mean? My name is on the invite list and I just came out of the Remedium to bring a friend."


    "You are fine." The bodyguard pointed at Pacman. Then, he pointed at An and said, "But you are not. You''re not invited."


    As the one who invited An, Pacman was very embarrassed. "Why not? They said we could bring a plus one! There''s five of us and we only brought one guest."


    "Sorry. This party is called ''The Gathering of the Stars''. If you''re not one, then you''re not wee." Find adventures at m v lem|p-yr


    Pacman scoffed and looked at the two bodyguards with derision on his face. "Don''t you know who this guy is? He''s An. The Porter."


    And once they heard that, the two bodyguard''s eyes immediately widened. Of course, they knew about the story of the porter who braved back to the Remedium to save his teammates. Not only that, but it turned out that this porter was extremely talented too. He advanced to the 2nd stage in just one week!


    A third bodyguard immediately came and smacked the other two. "We''re sorry we didn''t recognize you. Please, go inside. The party will be pleased if you grace them with your presence."


    They bowed their heads toward An and apologized. Pacman held his head up high as he guided An to the portal.


    "Ha! Look at how they changed their attitudes."


    An didn''t care much as they both stepped into the portal. The ck swirling liquid trembled as both of them entered the Remedium.


    When An opened his eyes, he saw the familiar negative color of the Remedium. White turned to ck, blue turned to orange, and green turned to red.


    Immediately, An heard the sounds of talking,ughing, and giggling. When he looked around, he was surprised to see at least hundreds of youths, all about the same age as him, mingling and talking with one another.


    This was arge mansion that could house a hundred people just in the living room by itself. In the front, just below the 115-inch t-screen TV, there was arge group of people sitting in a circle. They looked on in anticipation as the bottle spun in the middle.


    Off to the side was an infinity pool that looked out into the City. Both men and women were swimming and ying around with a ball that seemed to be made out of a coconut husk. The women were wearing two-piece bikinis to show off the curves in their bodies while the men only wore shorts to show off their muscles.


    Further back was the kitchen where food and drinks were served. People there munched on food while talking to each other about their respective first missions.


    So this is a party¡­


    An didn''t know anybody from this ce, so he felt extremely out of ce. He didn''t even know why they found spinning bottles and swimming in water fun. However, from the looks on their faces, they seemed to be having the time of their life.


    "I''ll go look for the others. Stay here," said Pacman. Soon, he left and walked up the stairs to the 2nd floor where more people were lounging around.


    An stood by the entrance, awkwardly waiting by himself. He didn''t know what to do. He regretted not asking Wemby about what to do at the party.


    Should I try talking to other people?


    An walked through the crowd, with everybody ignoring him. They didn''t know him, and he didn''t know them.


    And then, in the chaos of the talking andughing around the room, he suddenly heard someone muttering beside him.


    "Humans¡­like¡­pain¡­"


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 66: Understanding gibberish

    An looked around but he couldn''t find the source of that muttering. Everyone was eitherughing or talking loudly about some gossip. He found it weird that he still heard that small whisper even with the rest of the party drowning out any sound that wasn''t bellowed out.


    "Humans¡­like¡­pain¡­"


    It wasing from the side. He immediately looked at where the sound came from and saw a few people lounging on the couch with smiles stered on their faces. They seemed very rxed. Too rxed, even.


    And unlike the rest of the groups here, these people weren''t talking with each other. They were all either looking at nothing but the air or had their eyes closed with a smile on their faces. They seemed extremely happy, but An didn''t know why.


    He walked over towards them and saw strange ck isopods attached to their hands. And as he got closer, An noticed that these isopods were moving! They were wiggling around while firmly attached to the back of their hands.


    There were also ck veins rooting outwards from the ''infected'' area where the isopod resided.


    One of the guys saw An approaching and immediately weed him with a smile on his face. An noticed that the guy''s eyes were red, as if he hadn''t slept in two days.


    "Yo! Wee to the party, man. Want a hit?"


    The guy took out an isopod from his pocket and gave it to An. When he looked at the underside of the creature, he found it was still alive! It had about a hundred small legs and had a very hairy underbelly, with millions of small ''fur'' spiking out.


    Is this a Pseudo Canzer?


    Now that he got a closer look, he was pretty sure that this was a Pseudo Canzer. It was a little bit different than the one he saw in the Training Hall, but he guessed that it was a different species. To test this out, An took the isopod in his hands and crushed it with his bare hands.


    KRUUKKKK


    [You have killed a Venunum]


    [You have reaped the death of a simple creature: Pseudo Canzers]


    [Due to your Trait, you have multiplied your experience by 10]


    [You have gained 50 experience]


    Just like he thought, the isopod was a Pseudo Canzer. However, the guy was horrified to see An waste such a perfectly good Venunum.


    "Aw, man. Why''d you waste my hit?"


    An was confused. "Am I not supposed to kill it?"


    The man shook his head vehemently. "Are you kidding me? This thing''s hard to catch. You don''t kill it, you just put the Venunum on top of your hand and let those stingers sting you.


    And once ittches onto you, it will pump poison into your veins."


    An was horrified. "What?! Why? If you get hit by that stinger, don''t you lose your SoulTime because you get injured?"


    The man smiled. "That''s the point, my guy!"


    He looked around and noticed that almost everybody in the party had at least one Venunum attached to the back of their hands. There were even some that had it on their chest and their backs. He was the only one who didn''t have any.


    And while they were being stung by those Pseudo Canzers, everyone had smiles on their faces. They were having fun!


    But how could they like this? They''re getting injured and losing their SoulTime!


    "Why?"


    "Because it feels so good! That feeling of having your veins burning gives me such a euphoric feeling. Ummm! It really gets me going, you know."


    "Aren''t you worried about your SoulTime?"


    The man waved off An''s concern. He didn''t seem to be bothered at all. "It''s fine, man. We''re just having fun. We''re only spending the SoulTime that we got from our missions, so we aren''t losing any SoulTime.


    And SoulTime isn''t that hard to get. You get a year minimum frompleting just one mission, so sacrificing a few days for a little bit of fun for a few hours is a small price to pay."


    An still couldn''t understand it. "What if your SoulTime runs out?"


    "I''m only losing about a minute every second like most of the people here. But, some hardcore guys put so much Venunum on their bodies that they lose an hour every second, but I don''t do that. They probably have a lot of SoulTime they inherited from their lineage, but I don''t have that.


    If I had a thousand years of SoulTime, I would put so much Venunum in my body that you won''t even see my skin!"


    An was horrified once he learned that. Is he telling me that every single person in here is losing a minute of their SoulTime every second? That means they''re losing two and a half days every hour!


    And for those hardcore guys who are losing an hour every second, that means that they''re losing about 150 days of SoulTime every hour! Almost half a year! Insane!


    "Humans¡­like¡­pain¡­"


    Then, he heard the isopod in the guy''s arm suddenly talk! An''s eyes widened and he looked at the guy to see if he heard that. But it looked like he didn''t. An was the only one who heard the little isopod talking.


    Wait a minute¡­that''s not humannguage.


    When he looked at the Venunum, he saw that its little mouth was moving and scratching against its mandibles, creating a squeaking sound. It wasn''t any humannguage.


    Yet somehow, An was able to understand it.


    I remember now! I obtained a mutation.


    An looked down on his Soul System.


    [Mutation]


    ¡ª (4-star) Canzer Mother Tongue


    ¡ª (10-star) Gluttonous Soul


    ¡ª (10-star) Lightspeed Angel Wings


    And just as he remembered, he got a mutation when he defeated that Sapient Canzer. He didn''t understand it back then, but now, it seemed that a tongue mutation meant that he would be able to understand thenguage of that species.


    I can understand Canzers?


    This meant that in every mission from here on out, An would be able to hear what the Canzers were saying.

 Chapter 67: Funny guy

    "Are you okay?"


    An spoke to the Venunum, but it didn''t react to anything he said. It continued to squirm like normal.


    Looks like I can''t talk to it.


    He thought that he''d be able tomunicate with the Canzer, but it seemed like his mutation was only limited to understanding theirnguage for now. Unless he''d suddenly grow mandibles and mimic the squeaky sounds that the Venunum made, then they wouldn''t understand anything he said.


    "So? Do you want a hit or not?"


    The guy offered him a new Venunum, but An shook his head and refused. He didn''t want to waste his SoulTime. Even though he was regenerating SoulTime by the second, he opted to save those instead because he knew that the Angels wouldn''t be there to save him when it nears zero.


    All the people here at the party thought that the Angels would still save them from death, but that was a faulty assumption. If they truly knew that they weren''t immortal anymore, he wondered if they would still be so carefree about their SoulTime.


    I would have warned them, but they wouldbel me as a liar and a lunatic.


    "You''re missing out, man. But if you don''t want one, then there''s more for me!"


    The guy took the isopod back to him and quickly attached it to his chest. And once it did, venom quickly spread through his veins. It hurt just enough for it to turn into pleasure.


    Even though they''re hurting, they''re not suffering. That''s weird¡­


    An quickly walked away from them and walked through the party. Pacman and the others still weren''t there, so An decided to walk around the mansion some more. He wanted to see what other people did at a party and try to see if he could make friends with them.


    But as he walked around, he was disappointed to find out that most of what they talked about were things he didn''t understand. They all grew up here in Genesis City, meaning they all had the same experiences that they could all rte to. They talked about their training before they got drafted, and how they were forced to eat only broli and chicken breast every day.


    If An told them about how he''d be lucky if he found any mushrooms in three days of digging and scavenging for food in the Unimed Lands, then he''d surely bring down the party.


    With nowhere else to go, An went out to a secluded balcony near the stairs. He was finally alone and the sounds of the party were muffled behind him.


    He looked out into the white night sky and the ck moon up above.


    If the Remedium wasn''t so dangerous, An would have liked to spend his time alone here because of the serenity.


    "Oh, sorry. I thought nobody was here."


    The balcony door opened and someone came in. An was surprised to see that familiar golden haire inside.


    It was Yasmine, the S ss DPS genius. This time, she had her blonde hair tied up in a bun.


    "Can I stay here? Every other room is upied and I really want some peace and quiet."


    An nodded. She walked up to him and leaned on the railing beside him. An caught a whiff of her floral and sweet perfume. It was subtle, but with his enhanced senses, he smelled it clearly.


    Both of them stared out into the distance, with the view of the deste Genesis City around them. They stayed silent and just enjoyed the moment.


    Yasmine took a big breath and rxed. After being bombarded by girls wanting to talk to her about some girly stuff and boys wanting to be ''friends'' with her, An''s silence and indifference towards her was a wee change. He didn''t try to hit on her like every other guy in the party.


    There were even some guys who tried to give her Venunum to try and get her defenses lowered, but she refused them. Canzers were supposed to be their eternal enemy, yet here they were letting it inject venom right into their veins. She would never let herself be injured by a Canzer, even if it was just a scratch; her pride wouldn''t let her.


    She was probably the only one in this ce who wasn''t intoxicated with losing their SoulTime.


    But when she peeked at An, she was surprised to see none on his body.


    "You don''t have any Venunum?"


    An looked at her and shook his head. "No. I don''t want to lose my SoulTime. It seems like a waste."


    "I agree one hundred percent." Yasmine faced him. It was only now that she noticed how tall he was. He was a head taller than her! And his body was well-builtpared to others, with his muscles clearly showing in his green battle suit. Must be because of his Physique LifeSkill, she thought.


    "Honestly, I wonder why I even went to this party. Even though I''m surrounded by other people, I don''t feel like I belong." Yasmine sighed.


    "I feel you. Unless they''re mushrooms or worms, I don''t feel like I belong too."


    Yasmine stifled augh. "Ah, I remember now. You''re from the Unimed Lands."


    "Yup. And you''re from a Metropolis overseas, right?"


    Yasmine nodded. "My culture is very different from here. We prioritize strength over anything, so instead of partying, we had royal rumbles where everyone fought till exhaustion or unconsciousness to practice their skills.


    It''s a ce where strength ruled supreme and everything could be settled with a fight."


    "Hmmm¡­sounds like a miserable ce full of suffering. I think I''m grateful to the Unimed Lands now."


    She smiled. "That ce honed my skills and sharpened my sword. Now, I''m determined to be the best Savior in the whole world and prove to them that I can be strong even without their training."


    Yasmine then looked An in the eyes. "But it seems I''ve moved away from them far toote. Their teachings have seeped into my very bones. I feel like I could understand someone better if they attacked me rather than if they had a conversation with me."


    "True! I feel like I could understand Canzers better than people."


    Yasmine covered her hand andughed. I didn''t know he''s such a funny guy.

 Chapter 68: Poisoned thoughts

    The two spent the next few minutes chatting about how different Genesis City waspared to their original ces.


    Yasmine talked about her home, called Leontopolis. It wasrger than a City, which meant that it was more abundant than Genesis City. But it also meant thatpetition was fiercer. She talked about how she was trained with the sword as soon she could walk, which was considered quitete in their culture. She was a diator whether she liked to or not.


    An didn''t have much to talk about because all he remembered from that hazy time in the Unimed Lands was digging through an endless tunnel underground. All he remembered was that there was a lot of sand, gray hot sand.


    "Sounds like you had it rough¡­sorry, that was an insensitive joke."


    An waved off her concern. "Yeah. It was a real battle."


    Both of themughed at their bad attempt at humor. If anyone heard them make jokes about their traumatizing past, they would feel that it was inappropriate. However, for them, it was therapy. It wasn''t every day that they could talk with someone that they could rte to.


    "Now, I''m considered a genius." Yasmine sighed. "I proved my worth, but at what cost? Everyone whoes up to me talks about how great and talented I am."


    An understood that feeling. Even though everyone was nice to him and praised him for his aplishments, they never really talked about anything else. They put him on a pedestal, separating him from everybody else. He thought he was the only one who felt that way, but he was surprised to know that Yasmine was feeling the same.


    "Everyone talks about how great you are¡ª"


    "--But not how you are." An finished her thought.


    Yasmine looked at An and realized that An was probably the only one who understood her. Every other genius that she met were arrogant young masters who inherited their strength from their family. But now, she met someone else who could share her experiences ining up from the bottom.


    Unlike the others, Yasmine came from a family with no Saviors. But through hard work, she was able to show off her strength in the Draft and earn an S ss LifeSkill.


    She looked at An and felt her defenses lowering.


    It was at that point that she realized that she had been talking with a boy alone for 20 minutes! She didn''t even notice the time pass. Never in her life did she think that she would enjoy talking to someone she didn''t know at all.


    It made her think. Maybe, she could finally have a real friend. Maybe she could finally open up to somebody and have a real connection with them.


    She opened her mouth, about to say;


    Let''s be friends


    But she stopped herself. She moved millions of miles away from her home to be the best Savior this world had ever seen. She promised herself that she''d stop at nothing to achieve that. Her only focus should be on getting strong and defeating her rivals and enemies.


    Pull yourself together, she reminded herself.


    Yasmine quickly turned to leave without saying anything else.


    Atan was surprised to see her suddenly turn cold. They were both enjoying the conversation, so he didn''t understand why she would suddenly want to leave.


    He grabbed her hand and refused to let her go.


    Yasmine stopped in her tracks but she didn''t turn to face him.


    "I don''t have time for friends¡­for boys¡­" she muttered.


    An kept her grip on her wrist. "If not friends, then how about apanion?" He then grabbed her shoulders and turned her towards him. "How about a ymate? A buddy? A pal?"


    Yasmine''s face was turned away from An. And if one looked closely, one could see a slight blush on her cheeks.


    "Hmph. Smooth talker. I bet you say that to your other friends," she said with a bit of a smile creeping on her face.


    An smiled back when he saw that she was starting to warm up to him again.


    She noticed that An''s hands were warm. It was a cold night, and his grip on her shoulders was warm enough to keep her whole body hot. Hmm? Why is my face feeling hot too?


    Suddenly, images of training and swordsing towards her shed through her mind. It was a wet nket that forced her whole body to turn cold. The smile disappeared on her face. She turned rigid.


    Her training taught her that attachment to anybody was poison. It would spread through her body, making her moves slow and her reactions sluggish. It was killer.


    And An seemed like the kind of person that could poison her whole thoughts. He could make her hesitate. She already decided that she would someday leave Genesis City once she advanced to the next power realm. She couldn''t get attached to anyone here¨Cnot even friends, and especially not An. She was sure that if she became friends with An, it could turn into¡­


    "I''m sorry. But I¡­I don''t know¡­" She shook off An''s grip and turned away. She grabbed the door and quickly left the balcony.


    An was stunned. First, she was friendly and nice. Then, she suddenly turned cold without any warning. She turned to warm, cold, hot, and then icy cold the next.


    I don''t understand women¡­


    He walked out of the balcony and back into the party but he couldn''t see any sign of her anywhere. She must have already left.


    An put his hands on his waist and sighed. I failed to make another friend. Hahh¡­What am I doing wrong?


    The boy was oblivious to everything the girl was feeling. If he didn''t charm her so much, then he could have probably been just friends with her. However, Yasmine judged him to be a man who could someday be more than friends. That thought terrified her so much that she quickly left to prevent An from breaking her walls any further.


    An was the hunter and she was the prey. And if the prey couldn''t find any way to defeat the hunter, then the best way to prevent being hunted was to run away.

 Chapter 69: Just?

    "Woah! Where did you get that?"


    "That''s the genuine deal, right?"


    In the middle of the mansion was a man with long golden hair down to his shoulders. He was standing on the table in the living room so that everyone could see what he was holding.


    Everyone watched as he brandished a ck short sword with intricate designs of dragons carved onto the very de itself. Even from afar, everyone could see the quality and value of this weapon. It must have been created by a maestro of the smith, with hands that could turn coal into diamonds.


    But this wasn''t the only treasure that the young master had. His whole battle suit was d in different armor and essories that others would have considered excessive. Even his ears were protected by custom-made earrings.


    An, with his enhanced eyesight, saw a familiar mark of a hammer on the hilt of the short sword.


    It was the mark of the Masamune family.


    "Of course, this is real. Who do you think I am? Don''t you know who threw this party?"


    The young master then turned and looked An in the eyes. Both of them made eye contact.


    This wasn''t a coincidence. The young master focused his gaze on An, who was on the outskirts of the crowd gathering around him. He could have noticed somebody else, but he didn''t.


    "Hey you!" he gestured at An. "Do you think just anybody can have this? This is a 2nd removed Masamune Original!"


    "I wish I had that!"


    "I heard that there''s a 500-year waitlist to get a weapon like that."


    Everyone was awed when they heard that. A 5th removed Masamune Original was already considered quite a treasure. But the young master had a 2nd removed Masamune Original! This meant that the cksmith who forged that weapon was a dwarf who was rted to the main Masamune family by only two degrees!


    The further removed a dwarf was from the main family, the more diluted their skills were. Being only two degrees away from the main family meant that the famous Masamune cksmith skills were preserved.


    The young master must have had a good connection with the Masamune family to be able to request a custom-made weapon from a 2nd-degree Masamune dwarf.


    An tilted his head. Do I know him?


    He didn''t know why the blond-haired guy was targeting him when they didn''t even know each other. He was starting to think he was really bad at first impressions. First Yasmine bolted away from him, and now he was being targeted by some guy he didn''t even talk to.


    In truth, the young master saw Yasminee out of the balcony with An. He even saw that the two of them were bonding and flirting away with each other for a few minutes. This was infuriating for the young master.


    He tried to court Yasmine, the most beautiful girl by far, but she only ended up ignoring him. When he tried to talk to her, she would only answer with one-line responses and a face full of indifference.


    He epted that she simply didn''t want to be bothered. That would have been fine. However, imagine his surprise when she suddenly saw him talking andughing with an unknown guy at his party!


    Why did she choose a random, run-of-the-mill, second-rate guy instead of a genius young master like him? He was born into a good family that could give her all the benefits that she''d need to nurture her talents, yet she instead chose to spend her time with a nobody.


    It didn''t make sense.


    "Who are you even? Why are you at this party?" asked the Young Master.


    An pointed at himself. "Me? I''m a porter."


    The young master snickered. "You''re just a porter?" He shook his head. "Ugh. What are those guards doing? Why did they let a mere Porter into this ce? I told them not to let just anybody in.


    This was supposed to be an exclusive party for geniuses and stars like me, not some insignificant ant like you."


    He looked at everybody and saw that they were all looking at An. "What do you think, everyone? He''s bringing down the party, right? I think we should throw¨C"


    Before he could finish his sentence, some of the people erupted towards An.


    "Oh my god! You''re that porter?"


    "Dude! I thought they were all just kidding about you. But you''re real?!"


    "You were so brave and heroic! Weren''t you afraid about that Sapient Canzer hunting you down?"


    Everyone started to crowd An. The Young Master was stupefied to see that everyone turned away from him and now crowded An like he was the star of the party.


    Almost everybody at the party heard the stories about the new heroic porter. And those that didn''t know, were quickly thrown into the loop.


    When they heard about this story, they were all horrified to learn that the beginner mission had multiple Deiztruphia Canzers and even a dangerous Sapient Canzer. The difficulty jumped from a 1st stage to a 3rd stage student difficulty.


    If they were in the same position, they didn''t know what they would have done. They definitely wouldn''t have returned to the Remedium to save their teammates. The fact that An was only a Porter with no fighting ability made this story even more impressive.


    "Why did you go back to save them?"


    An was overwhelmed with everyone''s eyes on him, but they were all anticipating his answer. So, he just told the truth.


    "I didn''t want my team to suffer."


    Everyone was silent for a moment to take it all in.


    "Woah¡­"


    "You''re so brave. Do you have a girlfriend?"


    "Hey! You think that he''s going to go for you? I saw him first!"


    The Young Master couldn''t believe what he was seeing. Everybody was throwing themselves to that nobody, to that Porter.


    He didn''t know why everyone seemed to think that the guy was so impressive. He was only a porter! He didn''t kill any Canzers and was only a burden to the rest of the team.


    "I don''t see why he''s so impressive," the Young Master clicked his tongue.


    One of the guys looked back at him and answered. "He''s also a genius, you know. He advanced to the 2nd stage Student after that one mission! They said that it had only been a week since he was drafted!"


    The Young Master''s jaws dropped.

 Chapter 70: Who are you?

    He''s that talented? That''s absurd! He''s only a porter! What a waste of experience. The Genesis God could have given all of that experience to someone who would actually use it to kill Canzer. Now, it''ll just be stuck to a guy who was only good as a baggage carrier!


    But somehow, it looked like he was the only one who thought that. All of the other people here praised anduded An as if he was equal only to Yasmine with her S ss DPS talent. He shouldn''t even be discussed with the likes of her!


    "Hmph. I would have advanced that fast too if I was given that same mission! So what if they had to fight multiple Destruction Canzers? So what if they had to fight a Sapient Canzer? I''m sure that I would have been able to kill all of them with my skill!"


    No matter how much he tried to shout towards the crowd, they only had eyes for An. They didn''t even notice him anymore.


    He couldn''t believe this! He was the one who invited everyone and let them into his family''s Pocket Remedium, and now they were ignoring him for some porter. They should have all been giving their thanks to him instead of embellishing An''s overhyped achievements.


    The Young Master consoled himself by reminding himself that no matter how much An was praised, he would never be able to get a 2nd-degree Masamune Original like him. The Young Master was only able to get his short sword because his family had a long line of Saviors that contributed greatly to the safety of the entire City.


    An didn''t have that. And from what he heard from everyone, An was only a poor kid from the Unimed Lands.


    "Wait, aren''t you a porter? Why do you have a slingshot in your belt?"


    A few of the people who were near An noticed the wooden slingshot in his toolbelt. As far as they knew, porters only needed armor for missions because they didn''t have the fighting capacity that most Saviors had.


    "It''s for self-defense," An exined.


    Everyone epted his reason. "Makes sense. I would want a way to protect myself too, in case those Quills messed up their Canzer Report again."


    They would have dropped the subject there, but a few sharp-eyed people noticed that the quality of the slingshot exceeded that of what they expected.


    It was made out of dark wood, and polished to have no holes or imperfections. And the bands on the top looked like it was even imported from overseas.


    But most of all, they all noticed the ''hammer'' symbol on the handle of the slingshot.


    "No¡­is that¡­is that an¡­an INDIRECT MASAMUNE ORIGINAL?!"


    An scratched his head. "Yeah, I guess."


    Once someone noticed, everyone went into an uproar. They had never even seen an Indirect Masamune Original before. But somehow, An was able to have a custom-made treasure just hanging on his toolbelt as if it were a normal thing.


    "No way!"


    "How did you get that?!"


    "There''s no mistaking it. That emblem cannot be faked. It''s a real Indirect Masamune Original!"


    Even the Young Master couldn''t help but want to take a look at this weapon. He refused to believe it. His father wasn''t able to get an Indirect Masamune Original even after 500 years of service in the City! And now, he was being led to believe that a nobody porter who came in from the Unimed Lands somehow got it after just a week! That was absurd!


    "Who would give this to you?"


    An didn''t expect everyone to be surprised that he got an Indirect Masamune Original. He thought it was just a normal piece of equipment made from a normal cksmith.


    But judging from their reaction, it seemed that he was underestimating Custodire and her skills.


    "I don''t know if you guys know her, but her name is Custodire."


    "CUSTODIRE? No way! She''s one of the premier cksmiths in the Specialist Realm! How did you get a powerful Savior like that to create a Student level weapon? And a slingshot at that?!"


    An didn''t know what to answer. Although she was in the Specialist Realm, he didn''t think that Custodire was anything specialpared to the other cksmiths. But now, it seemed that she was more revered and respected than he thought.


    It made him think. If Lizzie was able to introduce him to someone as famous as Custodire, then he might have been underestimating her as well.


    Come to think of it, I don''t know what realm Lizzie is in¡­is she even more powerful than I thought?


    He decided to ask Lizzieter.


    Meanwhile, the Young Master finally jostled his way through the crowd and was able to face An. He looked at the guy and saw that An was much taller and well-built than he looked from afar. It made him intimidated. But he shook his head and cursed at An.


    How dare this porter steal my spotlight! This is supposed to be my night, and yet he suddenlyes out of nowhere and hogs everyone''s attention. Doesn''t he know who I am? Practically everyone here knows who my family is! We own an entire street!


    And just as he was about to speak up, An spoke up first.


    "I''m sorry, who are you again?"


    The Young Master was tongue-tied. He didn''t think that An would target his greatest insecurity. It felt like his psyche shattered into a million pieces. The Young Master heard everyoneughing and jeering at him, making fun of the fact that all of his achievements and aplishments were nothing more than a side-effect of his family''s prestige.


    He looked around and saw everybody''s eyes on him. This was what he wanted in the first ce, but now, he hated it to the core. It felt like everyone was looking at him while he was naked.


    "Kugh!"


    Unable to take the embarrassment, the Young Master quickly left the crowd and bolted.


    Meanwhile, An stood there not knowing what happened. He wasn''t trying to embarrass the guy, he just really didn''t know his name.

 Chapter 71: Olympus

    "Who was that?" An asked the person near him.


    "That''s Obek, from the Orioness family. He''s the one who organized this whole party. This Pocket Dimension is usually only reserved for family members, but he made an exception for this party."


    An was right. He didn''t know who that guy was. So why is he so mad at me? he pondered.


    He shrugged and let the matter fall to the back of his mind.


    ###


    Meanwhile, Obek sulked on the corner of his own mansion. He couldn''t believe the shame and embarrassment he suffered because of that porter. And everyone still liked An instead of him!


    Is everyone still high from the Venunum? Otherwise, they wouldn''t think a porter was more important than a normal Savior, right?


    However, no matter how much he tried to tell everyone the truth, they still clung to the idea that porters were unsung heroes who deserved all the praise and attention that they were getting.


    But how can I show them that porters are useless?


    Just then, he suddenly heard the portal shimmer from behind the main entrance of the door.


    Ah! Did they finallye?!


    And just as he hoped, the door opened and nine new people came inside the party. As soon as they stepped foot in the Remedium, it felt as if the air changed. They brought with them the air and bravado of champions¨Cof geniuses with no equal.


    Everyone looked at the neers with curiosity in their eyes. It was quickly apparent to An that these were not local people. Just from their attire and their strangely chiseled faces alone, An already painted them as foreigners from anothernd.


    These people all wore long white tunics fastened at the shoulder and a green sash over their shoulders signaling their specialty as a Vanguard.


    Obek quickly got off his feet and greeted the neers.


    "Wee, wee, to my humble abode! I know it''s not like the Parthenons back in Olympus, but I hope you guys make yourselvesfortable."


    Once they heard Obek''s greeting, the rest of the party whispered amongst themselves.


    "Olympus? Does he mean the Olympus Mountain Ranges? Is he talking about the biggest Metropolis in the entire world?!"


    "No way! I can''t believe they came all the way here."


    Olympus? What''s that?


    His question was soon answered as Obek immediately faced the crowd and introduced his guests.


    "Ladies and Gentlemen, as you all have guessed, these wonderful people here are from the great mountain ranges of Olympus!


    If you don''t know what that is, then you must be living under a rock. Worry not, I will tell you.


    Olympus is a God''s Territory ruled by the Almighty Zeus and has several other subgods under his territory. All the citizens of this territory have been given the grace of multiple gods! Mutations galore!


    And these people are not just anybody. They''re one of the top geniuses as well! They visited Genesis City to socialize and exchange pointers with some of us.


    If you want to see what a true genius looks like, then you don''t need to look further than these nine people right here."


    Of course, he didn''t forget to take a dig at An, implying that he wasn''t a true genius like these foreigners. Even though it wasn''t patriotic, Obek would rather take the side of a foreigner than a lowly porter.


    "And most of all, I wee the venerable S ss genius in the 4th stage Student realm blessed by Zeus himself, Razer Wrekton!"


    A man with a blocky face and a double chin walked forward and shook hands with Obek. "Pleasure to be here, my friend. I hope you wee me and my brethren here in your abode. We aim to be stronger by learning more about the world. This is the 5th City we''ve visited and I think that you guys could put up a challenge against us. I hope we can exchange pointers."


    Obek maintained a straight face, but on the inside, his hands were getting crushed from Razer''s handshake. He forgot. Razer was infamous for being a man who did not hold back his strength no matter the opponent he faced.


    "Haha! It''s my pleasure!" Obek quickly pulled away his hand before he broke his bone. I still need him to humiliate that porter and teach him what a real genius looks like!


    "There''s been a lot of talk here about talent and whatnot, but I think it''s better if you show them what real power looks like, Razer!"


    The double-chinned manughed. "I''m a bit embarrassed when you put me on the spot, but I will oblige only to introduce myself properly to the party."


    Razer then raised his hand and closed his eyes. All of a sudden, the girls saw a few strands of their hair stand up as if a thunderstorm was about to strike. And if they listened carefully, they could hear the air sizzle.


    BBBZZZTTTT!


    Lightning enveloped his right arm until it turned into a giant halberd!


    The air cracked and rumbled as the lightning halberd roared at everyone watching Razer.


    "This is one of the blessings bestowed upon me by my God¨Ca mutation called Righteous Halberd of the Skies!"


    An was surprised. That''s a mutation? I thought mutations just change body parts to look like other species, but they can also be weapons?


    The people at the party finally understood the majesty and genius that was Razer Wrekton.


    "That''s so powerful¡­his mutation is already as strong as some LifeSkills!"


    "He practically has two LifeSkills under his belt! That''s unfair!"


    Obek was overjoyed to see that everyone finally realized the difference between a fraud genius like An and a real prodigy of the heavens like Razer. And the best part about it was that that wasn''t Razer''s only mutation!


    "If you think that''s impressive, then you should wait until Razer shows you his next mutation!"


    Even though Razer had no intention of showing his second mutation to others, Obek''s words sent out a curious frenzy among everyone around him. As a visitor from anothernd, he simply couldn''t refuse the request.


    "If you insist, then I hope that you all brace yourselves."


    Razer took a big breath and simply opened his mouth and silently mouthed a few words.


    It wasn''t until a secondter that everyone heard a resounding voice echoing through their skulls.


    Submit


    That word sunk into their brain and upied their every thought. Try as they might, everyone felt their bodies defying their instinct. Soon, they felt their heads fill with pressure, making them feel the worst headaches of their lives.


    "See?! That''s the power of a tongue mutation! Word of the All-Father!"


    Almost everyone held their heads in pain.


    [Unauthorized domination detected]


    [Word of the All-Father denied]


    Find adventures at m v lem|p-yr


    "Now that''s a real genius! How does it feel being oppressed?"

 Chapter 72: Gathering competition

    Obek looked at An and noticed that he wasn''t reacting the way he was supposed to. He still stood there silently, as if he wasn''t affected by Razer''s tyrannical mutation.


    Pretending to be strong, are you? Hmph. Soon, you''ll see the difference.


    He thought that An was simply making it look like he wasn''t affected by Razer''s words.


    The thought that An somehow resisted the oppressive words of Razer never even showed up in his mind. After all, Obek knew that the ''Word of the All-Father'' mutation was nothing less than a 7-star mutation! That meant that Razer also had a 7-star genus that changed his bloodline into a demigod under Zeus'' lineage.


    And he was not the only one who thought that. Even the nine geniuses from Mount Olympus saw An''s stoic face as nothing more than a mask to hide the pain and suffering in his mind. Not even they could stand there unfazed by Razer''s mutated attack.


    Razer was also a 4th stage Student, and from what they knew, he was the person with the highest power realm in this entire party. So, An couldn''t have possibly resisted the attack.


    Stay updated with m-v le-mpyr


    They didn''t even know that An was a porter. If they knew, then they would be more convinced that he just pretended to be unaffected by it.


    Of course, An''s Physique was able to counteract Razer''s oppression quite easily. He wasn''t even thinking about it anymore.


    An was more curious about the fact that Mutations could be so different. Just like what other people said, they were more like LifeSkills than normal body part mutations.


    "We can''t just let them be the only ones to show off their strengths, right? It is only appropriate that we return their kind gesture and show off how strong we Genesians are! I''m happy to announce that the ''Gathering of the Stars'' will soonmence!"


    As soon as Obek said that, the whole party erupted in an excited frenzy. They seemed to know what that entailed, while An remained clueless.


    "I can''t wait to see who wins!"


    "That Razer guy is pretty strong. I think he''ll win. And even the boys and girls next to him all look like strong contenders."


    "Hey now. You can''t discount our resident genius. Yasmine is also an S ss genius that can hold up her own against someone like him."


    "Either way, I''m excited to see what''ll happen!"


    Judging from the reactions beside him, An guessed that there was going to be some kind ofpetition between the Olympians and the Genesians. Razer did say that he visited this City to exchange pointers. Does that mean that in the other Cities they''ve visited, they also had some sort ofpetition with the others?


    "Since they have nine of them representing the Olympus Mountain Range, I have also picked out the nine geniuses in our City topete."


    Obek then took out a list from his pocket and started to say the names of the people he enlisted topete against the foreigners.


    "First of all, we have Yasmine Sayed! She is an S ss DPS at the 3rd stage Student realm!"


    Everyone''s eyes were pulled to the side as Yasmine walked down the stairs with a cold expression. She didn''t greet anybody and simply stood opposite Razer, ring at him with apetitive spirit. Competing against such geniuses was the only reason she agreed to join the party.


    But try as she might, she couldn''t help but sneak a nce at the unassuming boy at the edge of the crowd. Focus! she reminded herself.


    "Next, of course, is me: Obek Orioness! As I am a Pdin with the Genesis'' God''s grace, it is only natural that I be one of his representatives in thispetition."


    Even though nobody in the party considered Obek as a viable candidate, they couldn''t very well argue with him. After all, he was the one who arranged this whole thing.


    "Next¡­"


    Obek continued to bring out the names of other people in the party.


    Once they heard the names, everyone was relieved to see that they were actual geniuses who could stand a chance against the Olympians. They joined the list not because of their family name, but because they were talented in their own right.


    "I think we stand a chance here¡­"


    "Yeah, but it all depends if we can ovee Razer¡­"


    It was a mixed bag of Saviors, all of whom were in the 3rd stage. Obek was the only one in the 2nd stage.


    There were two berserkers, one DPS (Yasmine), two rangers (an archer and a gunslinger), a pdin (Obek), a warrior, and a monk.


    There was just one spot left. One of the men with a one-handed sword stepped up, expecting Obek to say his name.


    However, everyone was suddenly surprised to hear that Obek changed thest participant.


    "There''s been a change of ns. I didn''t think he woulde, but now that he''s here, I think we should give him a chance.


    Let''s give it up for that Porter over there!"


    Obek pointed directly at An with a devious smile on his face.


    This was the only way he could think of to finally put that porter back in his ce.


    In thispetition, An would undoubtedly be crushed and left behind by much greater geniuses than himself. Obek imagined him stumbling cluelessly in thepetition, bingpletely useless.


    And because of An''s horrible performance, the Olympians would break away and win thepetition. Everyone would be humiliated and they would finally put the me on the useless porter who couldn''t do anything.


    Everyone waited in silence for An''s response. Of course, he could refuse to participate in thepetition, but that was also in Obek''s n. He would simply berate An for being a coward andbel him as a false hero.


    "Wait, he''s only a porter? I don''t think it''s appropriate for him to join. No offense to the guy, but thispetition is a high-stakes battle between damage-dealing Saviors.


    We won''t hold ourselves back and use the full extent of our LifeSkills. We can''t endanger the SoulTime of such an essential Savior."


    One of the women with brown hair on the Olympian side spoke up.

 Chapter 73: Cheers

    "We''ll be tussling with stronger Pseudo Canzers in thispetition. We can adjust our strength, but those monsters are programmed to attack anyone theye across," she added.


    Once she said that, everyone in the room silently agreed. Even though An could be considered a genius in terms of advancing his power realm, that did not mean that he could fight Canzers. That was simply not the skill set of porters.


    At least, that''s what they thought.


    But then, nobody expected An to suddenly speak up.


    "Hmm¡­I''d like to join."


    Good! I can''t believe he joined, Obek rejoiced. "Great, thene here and meet your opponents!"


    The Olympian girl simply shrugged when she heard that the porter would join. She already warned him about the dangers, and it was his decision if he still wanted to participate. She, and the rest of her team, would not be holding back their power just because they were going against a porter.


    "Let''s move to the arena!"


    Obek guided the contestants outside the mansion and An was surprised to see arge structure made out of stone and concrete right in the middle of the City.


    An was sure that he never saw a structure this big back in the real world.


    "As you can see, my family enlisted the help of some architect Operators to make this colosseum into our pocket Remedium! Amazing, isn''t it? It''s the perfect ce for ourpetitors topete to their heart''s content!"


    It turned out that Pocket Remediums didn''t have topletely mirror the outside world. Operators could create anything they wanted in the Pocket Remedium, especially arge structure like this.


    "I can''t wait to see who''s better: Yasmine or Razer!"


    "Seeing the fight in this ce pumps up my blood!"


    The Colosseum had an intimidating ck color in the Remedium that only served to intensify the uingpetition.


    "Spectators, please find your seats while wepetitors enter the arena!"


    It looked like this was not the first time people went inside the Colosseum as they had no trouble finding their way up the stairs and into the balconies that oversaw therge oval arena below. There were about a thousand spectators in the crowd, all eager and waiting for thepetition to start.


    An followed the others onto the tunnel just below the arena.


    "Ourpetition is divided into two stages," Obek exined. "First, we will have to show off our skills to subdue these Pseudo Canzers."


    Obek pulled down a lever and a few indentations in the wall of the arena suddenly submerged into the floor. After a few seconds, An heard the sound of hoofbeats crashing on the floor. Dust rose from the soil as the footsteps intensified until four-legged monstrous creatures suddenly emerged from the sides.


    They all charged out of their dark prisons with anger and fury. But try as they might, they couldn''t leap past the bars around the arena.


    These Pseudo Canzers all had a simr torso and legs to horses, but their heads were apletely different variety.


    An saw a gori''s upper body connected to the horse''s torso, a dolphin in a horse''s body, and one just had a chicken''s head. There were lots of different animals, but there were plenty more monstrous creatures that didn''t resemble any animal that An knew.


    There was one thing inmon with all of them: their chitinous armor. Every horse Pseudo Canzer was protected by some sort of armor. Some had it on their whole body, some on just their chest and head, while some just had it on the legs.


    "Hmm¡­they look fast," one of the Olympiansmented.


    "Yes! Precisely. These Pseudo Canzers are specifically designed to mimic mounts. For the first part of thepetition, each of us is going to subdue one of the monsters. Careful not to kill it though, as you will need them for the next stage.


    After you have all gotten your respective mounts, then you will attach them to your chariots. Now,es the real challenge.


    With your mounts and your chariots, we will race around the City walls and do onep. The first to cross the finish line is the winner!"


    Everyone looked confident. Yasmine and the other Genesians already practiced for this event a few days ago. The Olympians had experience with thispetition too as theypeted and won against other Cities before they arrived in Genesis City.


    An was the only one still clueless about everything. And unlike most of them, he didn''t even know how to ride a mount.


    Of course, Obek didn''t give him a chance for any practice at all. He already felt that it was generous to tell An the rules of thepetition.


    "There will be no fighting during the first stage of thepetition."


    "Agreed," Razer said. "It''s already too risky to fight against other Saviors while fighting monsters, even if they are only Pseudo Canzers."


    Obek then smiled. "But for the second stage, it''s no holds barred. You can fight against others, you can kill their mounts, you can destroy their chariots, and you can even injure them to the point that Angels have to save them. Everything is allowed."


    Just you wait, you porter. Joining thispetition will be a mistake that you will never forget. I''ll bleed your SoulTime.


    An took a deep breath and readied himself. Unlike everybody here, he couldn''t just use all of his powers. He would be limited to only using his physical strength.


    That was a major handicap. But An wasn''tpletely without any weapon.


    He looked at the slingshot in his hands with anticipation. As long as he put all of his strength into winding up the slingshot, he reckoned that he could create serious damage.


    "Are you guys ready?" Obek''s question proved to be useless as he saw the intense look on everyone''s faces. Yasmine, in particr, had her eyes on the prize. She was already considering which mount was the fastest.


    "On my count¡­3¡­2¡­1¡­GO!"


    Everyone rushed out of the tunnel and into the arena.


    An ran with them but quickly halted his steps once he was in the arena.


    While hearing the cheers and the shouts around the arena, An heard a cacophony of wordsing to his ears.


    "Humans¡­run¡­"


    "Eat¡­humans¡­"


    "Weak¡­."

 Chapter 74: Blinders

    An observed all the Canzers in the arena and he could see their eyes start to register the humans. With every bark, every purr, and every roar, these Canzers spoke out their inner thoughts without reserve. And without a doubt, all Canzers disyed hostility to everyone.


    ''Attack¡­human¡­''


    An heard the snort of one of the Canzers with a bull''s head and a horse''s torso. And just as it said, it charged toward the brown-haired Olympian girl with its horns ready to pierce through her.


    "You look fast enough. You''ll serve me well," the brown-haired Olympian muttered as she backflipped just before the bull-horse Canzernded its horns on her chest.


    ''Where¡­human¡­''


    The bull-horse skidded on the ground, creating dust underneath. It looked around, when it should have looked up. If it did, it would have seen the brown-haired girl glow a bright white light on her palms.


    "Oh! I know her! She''s S! I heard that she''s an A ss blessed by Apollo himself! I think she could go for the top 3!"


    S ignored all the cheers towards her and focused on the Canzer below her.


    "Brightest Day!" she shouted as she activated her LifeSkill.


    Soon enough, a bright light beamed down and targeted the bull-horse''s eyes. It tried to close its eyes, but it couldn''t escape from the blinding effect of S''s LifeSkill.


    ''Gah!...hate¡­humans¡­kill!''


    It iled its horns around as it jumped up and down and rotated in a circle. This would have deterred most attackers from approaching, but not S.


    Shended on the side and quickly used her acrobatic skills to jump and somersault, twisting her body two times in the air. Surprisingly, this skill allowed her to swiftly dodge the bull''s wild horns.


    Snded on the bull''s torso and straddled it with her legs locked in its underbelly.


    The Canzer exaggeratedly jumped its body to the side in an attempt to get rid of its attacker, but her grip allowed her to keep still.


    At least, for a little while.


    So, she activated her LifeSkill again, manifesting burning hot light from her palms. Then, she started a flurry of ps toward the bull''s head. With each hit, the bull''s skin got seared and burned from the hotness of the light produced from her palms.


    The bull-horse roared in pain.


    ''Hot!...no¡­human¡­kill!''


    With no regard for its safety, the Canzer rushed towards the edge of the arena. It ran at top speeds, intending to crash into the wall and squish the puny human riding its body.


    But before it could even reach the wall, S took out something from her pockets made out of thin strips of leather and two rectangr cups.


    It was horse blinders!


    But this didn''t seem to be ordinary blinders as it had cybeic lines glowing from the two cups.


    S quickly and skillfully attached the blinders on the bull-horse''s head.


    ''No¡­human¡­no¡­envement¡­''


    And as soon as it clicked in ce, the Canzer suddenly stopped running and skidded in ce. It stood eerily still. It no longer had its wild and ferocious temperament that hated humans to the core.


    ''...''


    An was surprised to hear nothing but silence from the Canzer. Those blinders can control the minds of Canzers?


    Those horse blinders were an integral part of thepetition. ording to Obek, they were specifically made by Operators to control those Centaur Canzers into being a steed for a chariot. Without it, the contestants can''t expect them to run in the race.


    An was once again impressed by the handiwork of Operators. They always created equipment that made the impossible possible.


    "Wow! Even if I don''t want to root for her, S''s really impressive! She''s the first one to subdue a Canzer."


    "As expected from someone in Mount Olympus. They truly are a different breed."


    S pulled the reins on the blinders and guided her new mount towards the exit. The walls suddenly submerged underground, letting her exit the arena.


    Everyone watched as she picked the first chariot in line.


    Being the first one to subdue a Canzer had its perks as she was able to choose the golden chariot with the best durability out of everything in line. The next one would choose the silver chariot and the next would choose the bronze. The worst one was only made out of wood.


    She fixed the reins before quickly whipping the Canzer''s back. The bull-horse pulled the chariot out of the arena and onto the race track that led to the outskirts of the City. With a big lead, she has a chance to cross the finish line first.


    "Come on, Genesians! What are you doing?!"


    "You guys can do it!"


    "I wonder which of them will be the first to join S. Our only hope is Yasmine¡­"


    The rest of thepetitors, mostly the Saviors from Genesis City, had bad luck when it came to subduing the Canzers. There were a lot of skittish ones escaping the moment a Savior approached them. But some stronger and more resilient Canzers were too wild to put the blinders on properly.


    The Olympians on the other hand showed their training and skill as they were able to struggle against their targets with much more sess. If a Canzer was too wild, then they would use their LifeSkills to injure them and hinder their escape. And if it tried to attack them, they would dodge at the veryst second with graceful movements that could only be attained through years of practice.


    "Yes! Go, Yasmine! She''s finally showing off her LifeSkill!"


    The rest of the Genesians in the crowd cheered once they saw Yasmine unsheathe her sword.


    She put the sword in front of her and closed her eyes for a second. And with a big breath, she muttered;


    "Draconic Inferno of Swords, heed my will."


    Her sword erupted into a billowing fire that soon morphed into a swirling fire dragon that embraced her sword.


    She then faced her target, a Canzerous Horse that was made out of nothing but white bones. With one sh, the dragon roared out of her sword and flew towards the Canzer.


    ''Strange power¡­human¡­dangerous''


    The Canzer leaped forward to dodge her attack, with the dragon''s mes barely grazing its bony tail.


    But how could it have expected ten more dragonsing towards it?


    Yasmine didn''t hold back her LifeSkill powers anymore as she assailed her target with a myriad of sword shes, eachunching a ming dragon that left embers behind its wake.

 Chapter 75: Bet a thousand

    The Bone Canzer Horse had no way left to escape. It was soon engulfed in angry dragons, burning its wild and arrogant temper.


    What''s left of the Canzer was nothing but charred bones. Ity on the ground with its legs bent, too tired to even pose in a defensive position. It suffered too much from Yasmine''s attack and it needed a lot of time to regenerate from its injuries.


    But Yasmine didn''t have any time for that. She quickly took out the blinders from her tool belt and attached them to the bone horse''s head.


    And with it, the Canzer was forced to stop recuperating and stand up to obey hermands.


    Yasmine didn''t care if the Canzer still hadn''t recovered. She was going to push it till it died from its wounds if it meant winning thispetition.


    She pulled on the reins and quickly left the arena.


    "Tsk." She was disappointed to find the golden chariot already taken away. This meant that someone was already on the track with arge lead behind them.


    But since she was second, she got the silver chariot which was the second best out of everything in the lineup.


    Before she left the arena, she looked back towards the arena, her eyes quickly ncing around to find someone in the crowd of Canzers and Saviors. She didn''t want to admit it, but she was looking for him.


    I''m only looking¡­but she quickly pped herself. What are you doing? Get on the track, now!


    She quickly whipped the Canzer and it raced out of the Colosseum at top speeds. She reminded herself to always look forward, not back. She had a goal to aplish, and no one could get in her way.


    Meanwhile, at the arena, the rest of the spectators all went silent in awe and disbelief.


    Everyone''s eyes went towards one man in the middle of the arena. Razer Wrekton, arguably the strongest and most talented one out of everyone in this room, was standing still with one monstrous Horse Canzer in front of him.


    He wasn''t doing anything. He was just standing still.


    But that wasn''t the strangest part about this. The Canzer in front of him, instead of charging and attacking the human in front of it, was actually kneeling towards Razer!


    It had its front legs bent on the ground, and its head was bowing towards him in deference.


    This was unbelievable. Every Canzer in the arena had a wild and arrogant attitude against the humans. They attacked humans they considered inferior to them, or they fled away from those they considered superior.


    However, this particr Canzer was kneeling in front of Razer! Find adventures at m v lem|p-yr


    It was offering its head for him to take¨Cfor him to take control. Nobody ever thought that this was possible. This could only be exined through Razer''s domineering mutation that could even make other humans want to submit to him.


    "I can''t believe this¡­"


    "He subdued a Canzer without even using his LifeSkill¡­"


    "There''s just no hope. He''s going to win thispetition¡­Wait! Look at that!"


    Just when they thought that Razer was going to subdue the kneeling Canzer in front of him, they all suddenly saw a new Canzer, a horse with a gori''s upper body,e rushing toward him.


    "He''s not looking at the Canzer!"


    "Is he going to get hit?!"


    But their guesses turned outpletely wrong. The Gori-Horse Canzer rushed past Razer and charged toward the kneeling Canzer instead!


    Banging its chest like a drum, the gori-horse then grabbed the kneeling Canzer and threw it towards the crowd!


    The unfortunate spectators were horrified to see a monstrous Canzering right towards them. Even though they were Saviors in their own right, they were caught off guard and could only disperse away before they were buried under this monster.


    Thankfully, the Pocket Remedium''s safety mechanism froze the Pseudo Canzer in the air right before it went over the arena.


    "Whew! That was close!"


    "I thought I''d lose twenty years of SoulTime from that."


    "Wait, what happened with Razer?!"


    Once the chaos from the ident subsided, everyone looked over to Razer. Surprisingly, the Gori-Horse Canzer was now kneeling in front of Razer!


    It turned out that this Canzer wasn''t trying to attack Razer. Instead, it only wanted to be the one to have the honor to be Razer''s steed!


    It was unbelievable. Canzers were lining up andpeting against each other to offer themselves to be subservient to Razer! Who else had the transcendent talent to do that?


    Without any more dy, Razer attached the blinders on the winning Canzer and chose it as its mount. With calm and unhurried steps, he went over to the exit and picked the bronze chariot for his vehicle. It didn''t take him long to fix the reins.


    "Chase them," hemanded.


    His Canzer answered by drumming its fists on its chest and roaring towards the track. With the strength of its legs, it started elerating at speeds unlike anyone had ever seen. It was much faster than Yasmine or S''s mounts.


    "There he goes! I reckon he''ll easily take the lead from S."


    "No doubt about it. I''ll even bet you 20 Venunum for it."


    "Stop cheering for the enemies. What about our Genesians? I''ll take that bet and put 50 Venunum for Yasmine to take home the win."


    Finally, after adjusting their strengths and strategies, more and morepetitors subdued their Canzers. The Olympians had it easier, but the Genesians didn''t let them have the lead for long.


    Slowly, more and morepetitors raced through the streets with their chariots.


    The spectators could only watch the race through therge screen floating at the top of the arena. They all saw LifeSkills thrown around everywhere as they all tried to sabotage each other.


    Meanwhile, there were only 2 people left in the arena: Obek and An. They were the only two people in the 2nd stage Student realm, so everyone already expected them to be at the bottom of the pack.


    "Hmm¡­who do you think will be inst ce?"


    "Listen, as much as I respect our Star Porter, he simply just doesn''t have the power to contest with the otherpetitors."


    "Are you willing to bet on that?"


    "Yeah. I''ll give you 1000 Venunum if the Star Porter finishes even in the 2nd tost ce."

 Chapter 76: Giraffe-Horse

    An observed everything with sharp eyes. He saw how the Olympians used their agility to skillfully maneuver their target into a position where they could leverage their strengths.


    But that wasn''t the only thing he saw. He was able to familiarize himself with everyone''s LifeSkills. He was especially curious about those Olympians because they had powers he never even thought possible. They used their mutations in tandem with their LifeSkills with such smooth coordination that An was able to find new ideas on how he would use his multiple LifeSkills in the future.


    He was so honed in on absorbing all of that information that when he finally got a hold of himself, there were only two of them left in the arena.


    Realizing this, An immediately went back to the entrance of the arena and took out one of the blinders in the chest. Without this, he wouldn''t be able to control a Canzer andmand it to drive the chariot.


    And once he was ready, he looked around the arena to find a suitable Canzer.


    Which one should I choose? That skinny Grasshopper-Horse looks fast, but it doesn''t seem as durable. That Armadillo-Horse has a lot of protection, but it''s really slow.


    When he looked up and saw the racing chariots on the screen, he saw a lot of sabotaging and fighting among thepetitors. It was quickly apparent that targeting an opponent''s Canzer mount was the most effective way of advancing through the cements.


    It didn''t matter if your mount was slow, it only mattered that others were slower than you.


    An would have gone for the Armadillo-Horse because of its defense, but he was already at the bottom of the pack. Defense wouldn''t matter if he couldn''t even catch up to the others.


    The ideal mounts were a good bnce of speed and defense. However, the good ones were already taken by other people. His only choice was to find the speedy ones and simply defend it himself.


    And just as he walked around the arena, he noticed a peculiar Canzer in the middle of the pack.


    Every Canzer in the arena was a little bit tamerpared to when thepetition started because there were only two people left with them. But, when he listened to their grunts and barks, he figured out that they were still cautious.


    ''Human¡­defense¡­''


    ''Move away¡­shadow¡­disappear¡­''


    ''Kill¡­approach¡­''


    Everything he heard was in line with those sentiments¡ªexcept for one.


    ''There''s still humans here¡­the two of them look weak¡­''


    Surprisingly, this one had more coherentnguage than the rest of the Canzers! All of the Canzers he heard only spoke about one to two words, but this specific Canzer was somehow able to constructplete sentences!


    He honed in on the Canzer and saw it lounging in the middle of a pack of Canzers. This one had a very long neck, with irregr brown spots among whiter skin. This one had a giraffe''s head!


    Then, An noticed that one Cow-Horse Canzer got a little bit too close to the intelligent Canzer''s space.


    The Giraffe-Horse grunted, ''Stay away from me¡­I won''t repeat it twice¡­''


    Usually, an altercation like this would result in a fight between the two monsters. But instead, the Cow-Horse bowed its head and quickly retreated away from the intelligent Canzer. Once it realized its mistake, it begged for forgiveness.


    ''Apologies!....no kill¡­please¡­.''


    This was extremely weird because the Cow-Horse was much bigger and looked much stronger than the Giraffe-Horse. An reckoned that if a fight between the two broke out, most people would assume that the Cow-Horse woulde out on top.


    But judging from its reaction, it looked like An was wrong. This Canzer was different from the rest. It was special.


    Could it also be faster than the rest?


    With no other alternative, An decided on his steed.


    ###


    Meanwhile, Obek Orioness kept his eyes peeled as he looked for a specific Canzer amongst the crowd of monsters. He was getting antsy. The longer he waited, the further away the others would be.


    The only thing consoling him was the fact that the porter was still in the arena with him.


    Kugh! I have to find it quick or else they''ll think that a mere porter is better than me. Come on! Where are you?


    He was looking for a Canzer with a giant fly as a head. It would have greenpound eyes and little wings on the back of the horse''s torso. He was the only one who knew that this particr Canzer was specifically altered to be faster than normal and have a mild and submissive temperament.


    He knew that he wouldn''t be able to subdue fast Canzers like the Olympians, so he cheated. Tampering with the Canzed''s programming was the only way he could find a mount that he could easily subdue but still be fast enough topete with the rest.


    "Aha! There you are!" Obek rejoiced.


    Now that there were fewer Canzers on the field, he was finally able to spot that perfect mount. All he had to do now was subdue it with his pdin LifeSkills.


    "Gatekeeper''s Authority," he shouted. His whole body glowed golden as he channeled the LifeSkill given to him by the Genesis God himself.


    He took out the 2nd removed Masamune Original short sword from his toolbelt and used it to stab at the ground.


    With his powers, magic traveled from the ground toward the inattentive Fly-Horse Canzer. It looked around, confused, as the ground trembled underneath it.


    The Canzer was like a deer in headlights as a smooth wall made out of soil suddenly emerged around it. And as it tried to jump over the obstacle, it found that the wall was constructed just enough for it to be insurmountable for the Canzer.


    "You can''t run away from me," Obek smiled.


    He ran towards the encirclement, and the walls magically parted ways for his body to pass through easily. Soon enough, he was inside with the Canzer.


    With one swift move, he saddled the Fly-Horse with no resistance whatsoever. It didn''t even utter a single cry as Obek put the blinders on its head.


    And just like that, Obek gained his mount.


    The walls submerged back into the ground as he made his way to the exit with a proud smile on his face. He looked back at An and shook his head in derision.


    Is he an idiot or what? Why would he go after that Giraffe-Horse? It''s lethargic and barely even moves! Whatever. It''s not like he could subdue stronger Canzers anyway.

 Chapter 77: How did human know?

    An carefully approached the Giraffe-Horse Canzer. It was sitting down in the soil, with its eyes closed and its defenses lowered. But once An took one step closer to it, it suddenly opened its eyes and observed An.


    It took the Canzer one second to analyze him.


    Read thetest novel on M-VL-em|p,yr


    ''Weak¡­''


    With no perceived threat, the Canzer closed its eyes and went back to its nap.


    An used this opportunity to finally test out his slingshot. This was the first time he would ever use this kind of weapon, but he knew the basics of how it worked. He simply needed to put ammo in the bands and stretch it before letting it go.


    But without any prior experience, An didn''t know if he''d be able to do it.


    He looked at the ground and saw a small pebble the size of a fingernail. He quickly put it in the middle of the band and pinched it before stretching it back.


    With the Canzer''s body as his target, An released his grip on the bands and the stone flew towards his target.


    However, the pebble soon lost its power in the air and failed to even reach the foot of the Canzer.


    The Canzer still kept its eyes closed.


    Hmmm¡­so that''s how the trajectory works, An thought.


    If he wanted more power, then he could have simply stretched the bands in the slingshot further. The bands had a lot more to stretch and he had a lot more strength to show, but he chose not to. His first shot was only a test for him to find out how the trajectory of his bullet curved in the air.


    He only used the lightest of his powers. And because of that, he was able to figure out the base parameters of the slingshot. He was able to guess exactly how much power he needed for his next shot tond properly.


    He picked up another pebble and shot it out with a lot more strength than before. This time, the pebble sted off towards the Canzer at fast speeds. The trajectory this time was almost in a straight line.


    In just a moment, the pebble hit the Canzer''s body. However, its chitinous armor protected it from any harm.


    I was aiming for the head but itnded on its body¡­I need to put the ammo directly in the center of the pouch or else it will deviate from what I''m aiming at.


    Now that he got a handle on how the slingshot worked, An felt confident that he''d be able to use it in a fight.


    He just needed proper ammo now. Pebbles wouldn''t do much damage even if An used all of his strength to wind it up in the slingshot. It would simply explode upon impact and have no piercing power.


    An then looked down at the ground and saw the thinyer of sand and dust over the solid ground and got an idea.


    If there was one thing he learned from spending years underground in the Unimed Lands, it was that the ground became much harder as they went further below the surface. He learned early on that the pressure exerted at those bottom depths condensed the ground to such degrees that the sand became as hard as stone.


    With enough pressure, grains of sand can be rock solid.


    An kneeled on the floor and used his full strength to punch the ground, creating a crater below. The whole arena trembled for a slight moment, surprising even the intelligent Canzer.


    With his fist submerged, he then pulled out as much chunk of the ground as possible.


    He now held a handful of soil in both hands. And using all of his physical strength, he pushed the two chunks together into a ball. Small chunks crumbled out of his hands, but the majority of the soil was retained in his hands.


    He then cupped his hands and pushed it even harder. Slowly, his hands deted and deted until he felt a solid ball in his palms. An opened his fists and saw an uneven brown pellet that was a hundred times smaller than the chunk it was originally.


    But one was not enough. An continued to create more pellets from the ground until he created ten ammo that he could use to fight the Canzer. Each one was faster to make and rounder than the previous ones.


    With everything ready, he put the first ammo in the slingshot and aimed at the Canzer.


    His left arm was outstretched and his right hand pulled the band back to his shoulders. With one eye closed, he targeted the Canzer''s body.


    THWATT


    The pellet whistled through the air at dangerous speeds. The Giraffe-Horse didn''t even have the time to open its eyes as it spurred out of its sitting position and dodged out of the dangerous pellet. However, it couldn''t get away from the attack fast enough as the pellet grazed past its long cheeks and took away the chitinous armor with it.


    Violet blood pooled out of the injury. The Canzer now stood on its toes, with its back arched, and its body red. It was rmed. It almost saw its life sh past its eyes with An''s attack.


    ''This human''s dangerous¡­really dangerous¡­really dangerous¡­''


    An took out another pellet and readied it in his slingshot. This time, the Canzer regarded him with full alert. It couldn''t be careless, especially with that strange pellet An used. After all, it was able to crush its chitinous armor with ease.


    If An hit the Canzer with that pellet, it would surely pierce through the other side.


    ''I''ll attack him close¡­it''s humans weakness''


    The Canzer didn''t want to let An have the time to shoot out another one of those pellets, so it charged toward An with dizzying eleration. A cloud of dust erupted behind it.


    But just before the Canzer could evene close to An, it suddenly felt danger as it heard that terrifying whistling sounde from his slingshot again.


    The Giraffe-Horse was forced to jump to the side and abandon its attack to dodge from another pellet.


    The ground from where the Canzer dodged suddenly exploded into dust and debris as An''s attacknded on the ground.


    ''The human''s fast, but me is faster¡­dodge to the left and right to confuse the human¡­''


    It used its fast legs to run towards An from the left. The Canzer saw the human stretch his slingshot for another shot. Once it was sure that An was going to release his grip, it suddenly decelerated and dashed in the opposite direction.


    It thought that it could finally approach An with this trick. Unfortunately, a sharp pain suddenly emerged from its hind leg as An''s pellet pierced through its body and out near its tail.


    ''Pain!...How did the human know?!''

 Chapter 78: Cloud of dust

    The Giraffe-Horse was frustrated to no end. The Canzer observed the human''s eyes and saw that it was very slow in capturing fast movements. This meant that it was faster than what the human could even process. Yet somehow, he seemed to be able to hear its thoughts on what it was going to do!


    Not only that, but his strange weapon was somehow able to prate through its armor like it was nothing! As far as it knew, the human simply used the ground as his weapon. ''Human only used dusty soil¡­no way it''s strong¡­''


    The Canzer used all of its intelligence to find a way to defeat this human. The best way was to get up close and personal to his frail and weak body, but his weapon prevented the Canzer from even getting close.


    So, it decided to ask for some help.


    ''Hey you!¡­Attack the human¡­''


    The Giraffe-Horse grunted and stomped the ground to get the other Canzers to his attention. The Ant-Horse felt horrified when it realized that the Giraffe-Horse was talking to it. There was no hesitation in its moves as it quickly sneaked behind An and readied its sharp mandibles to cut the human in front of it into two.


    This would have been the perfect sneak attack.


    If only it got rid of its habit of speaking its mind, then An wouldn''t have been able to anticipate its attacks too easily.


    Just as therge upper body of the Ant Canzer brought down its mandibles towards An''s neck, he suddenly ducked and moved to the side.


    The Ant-Horse was already surprised that An was even able to dodge its attacks. So, it was even more shocked to suddenly see him grab its head with one hand, using its mandibles as his handle.


    With a proper grip, An suddenly twisted his waist and whipped his left leg towards the Ant-Horse''s front leg. Experience the magic at m-vl-em-pyr


    ''PAIN!'' it squeaked.


    But that wasn''t the end. As soon as An''s footnded on the floor, he didn''t hesitate tounch another kick right into the exact spot where his attacknded.


    ''KAGGH!'' The Canzer couldn''t help but tremble and lose its footing. It couldn''t believe the power the human generated from his feet. Just one of his kicks broke its chitinous armor into multiple pieces and bruised its flesh instantly. That would have been enough to disable the Cnazer''s movements. But An wasn''t done.


    He continued to unleash a fury of kicks toward the Canzer at the same location with precision and uracy. He targeted the horse''s front leg, specifically its elbow and forearm. The frightening thing about this was that An''s kicks were getting more and more powerful as if he was getting better and better with each kick.


    ''Feet shoulder-width apart. Pivot back foot. Maintain bnce. Bend the knee. Snap the kick.''


    An only saw taekwondo from one fight. Yet, he''s somehow able topletely absorb the essence of the martial art. His observation skills could not be topped. But his SSS Physique Skill also contributed to this because he was able topletely transfer his theoretical knowledge into his physical body. His body coordination allowed him to do whatever he wanted to do with perfect control.


    At this point, the Ant-Horse could no longer stand by itself. It whimpered in pain. It was suffering.


    He had to kill it.


    He stomped the ground, creating a dust cloud that obscured himself and the Canzer. With one swift move, he grabbed its head and twisted it in one clean motion.


    Nobody knew what happened. Almost all of the spectators were looking up at the screen and watching the exciting race instead of the arena. They didn''t even know that there was still someone inside. And if anybody was still watching An, they wouldn''t have seen anything because of the dust and chaos all around the arena.


    [You have reaped the death of a simple creature: Pseudo Canzers]


    [Due to your Trait, you have multiplied your experience by 10]


    [You have gained 100 experience]


    Once the dust settled, the Ant-Horsey on the ground, not moving a single inch. The Canzer didn''t have a pool of blood underneath it, so it was easy to mistake it as simply rxing and trying to recuperate. After all, how easy was it to kill a Canzer in just one move like An? Almost impossible.


    However, the Canzers knew that their brethren died.


    No one was more surprised than the Giraffe-Horse. It couldn''t believe that the weak human was able to kill a Canzer as easily as that.


    ''Impossible¡­how''s human so strong?''


    But it didn''t have time to wonder as it saw An prepare another bullet in his slingshot. A shiver ran down its spine. The Canzer thought that it would be able to defeat An once it was able to close the distance. But that couldn''t be more wrong. It looked like the human was even more dangerous up close!


    It immediately backed down, creating arge space between it and the human. But it was terrified to see An calmly aiming his slingshot at wherever the Canzer fled. He wasn''t even moving! He just stood there, menacingly.


    ''All of you!...attack the human!'' the Giraffe-Horse bellowed.


    Unfortunately, every Canzer in the arena witnessed the Ant-Canzer suddenly die in front of the human. Even if they weren''t that intelligent, they still had a sense of self-preservation. If they tried to attack the human, then it was easy to guess what would happen to the rest of them.


    The Giraffe-Horse clicked its mouth in dissatisfaction. ''All of you!...human can''t kill all!....kill the human!''


    Even though the Canzers didn''t want to attack An, the Giraffe-Horse''s wordspelled them to do so. It was as if they couldn''t defy its orders.


    Soon enough, the rest of the Canzers pawed the ground like a bull waiting to charge. None of them wanted to act first. So, they kept charging up their legs to try and build up speed and momentum before they attacked the human.


    The whole arena shook as all the Canzers stomped the ground.


    And as every Canzer did so, a plume of dust and smoke started to cover the entire arena.


    It was at this point that the Canzer realized its mistake. It couldn''t see anything in the cloud of dust!

 Chapter 79: Subdued

    "Woah! What''s happening in the arena?"


    "Wait. There''s someone still in there?"


    "Yeah, the Star Porter still hasn''t subdued any Canzer yet."


    "Hmm? Then where is he?"


    The cloud of dust obscured vision from the spectator stand. Nobody could see anything. The only thing they heard were hooves beating on the ground, rushing and charging towards something. But where that was, nobody had any idea.


    In any other case, this would have beenpletely in the Canzer''s favor. The cloud of smoke would have prevented the human from knowing where the Canzers woulde from next.


    However, the Giraffe-Horse couldn''t forget that human''s sharp eyes. It was the kind of gaze that could somehow pierce through even the deepest of armor, as if he could see through any of its vulnerabilities. The Canzer believed that the human could somehow see it even in the cloud of dust.


    ''No! That human is human¡­he no see in the dark¡­''


    But the Giraffe-Horse wasn''t the only one who was panicking. The rest of the Canzers in the arena didn''t have the mental capacity to think further than what they saw. Dread began to set in. What if the human was going to kill them?


    One such frightened Canzer couldn''t help but charge towards the unknown. It thought that the terrifying human was behind it. So, it tried to run away from him as fast as possible.


    But it didn''t know that this would start a chain reaction that would further spread fear and chaos to others. Once the other Canzers heard hooves stomping in terrified undertones, they all started panicking even more. And when faced with a do-or-die situation, these horse-like Canzers chose to flee instead of fight.


    The cloud of dust obscured everything even further as the Canzers started to run around everywhere. Canzers were bumping into each other and bumping into the walls.


    The whole arena was in an earthquake.


    The Giraffe-Horse looked around, but it couldn''t see anything. It calmed itself down. There was no way that the human would be able to find it in all of this chaos.


    Just then, it suddenly saw somethinging towards itself at fast speeds! It quickly moved to the side. Terror set in its bones as it thought that the human was somehow able to target it amid this smoke. Experience the best from m|v|l|e|mp|y|r


    But then it realized something. This was no projectile. This was a Canzer''s bodying towards the Giraffe-Horse at fast speeds, cutting through the smoke until it crashed into the wall behind.


    The Giraffe-Horse looked at the Horse Canzer and saw a single injury in the middle of its torso: an imprint of a human''s knuckles.


    ''Not possible!...''


    But then, the Canzer heard more and more bodies crash through the walls in a simr manner. The whole arena shook from the collisions.


    ''No way!...that human is a monster¡­must run away¡­must run away!''


    It ran along the walls, hoping to find an exit out of this arena. It finally realized that there was no way it was going to defeat the human. His punch sent a Buffalo-Horse from one side of the arena to the other!


    But then, amid the dust, it suddenly saw a silhouette of a human in front of it.


    No, this was no silhouette. It was the human exactly! But now, there was a strange ck fire that surrounded his whole body.


    This was the first time that the Canzer fully understood the strength of this human. Death hase for it. The Giraffe-Horse immediately used its long head to hit the ground and cause more dust to obscure the human''s sight. And then, it immediately turned around.


    But when it looked up, it suddenly saw something impossible.


    For a brief second, it saw holy wings appear on the human''s back.


    ''Impossible!...Angel wings¡­''


    But in the next moment, the human disappeared from the Canzer''s sight. It made the monster doubt its own eyes. It even wondered if it was starting to hallucinate because of all the chaos that was happening in the arena.


    This Canzer was so stunned and shocked from having a brief encounter with Angel Wings that it didn''t even notice that An was already straddling it on its back.


    With one swift movement, An attached the blinders on the Canzer with a satisfying click.


    Soon enough, the rest of the other Canzers stopped their rumbling. They were either too injured to stand due to crashing against other Canzers and the walls too much, or they simply realized that the human was no longer there to threaten them.


    After a few moments, the dust finally settled and everyone could finally see what happened.


    "I hope the Star Porter is alright."


    "Don''t worry. If things get too dangerous, the Pocket Remedium has a safety mechanism that freezes all the Pseudo Canzers in ce, remember?"


    "Wait a minute, it''s him!"


    More and more people soon saw the image of An guiding the Giraffe-Horse through the arena. They were all surprised to see that the Canzer had blinders on, meaning that An finally subdued a Canzer!


    "I can''t believe it!"


    "How did he even subdue a Canzer? A porter''s LifeSkill is only supposed to give him the ability to carry heavy weights, right?"


    "I heard from others that our Star Porter has another talent. He''s a fighting genius!"


    But even with that exnation, the rest of the spectators still couldn''t believe it. If An was able to subdue a Canzer with just his physical strength and his martial arts prowess, then he was even more impressive than people were giving him credit for.


    An finally exited the arena and went over to thest chariot left. Unlike the others that were made out of strong metals, thisst chariot was only made out of wood. It was as brittle as a rundown carriage.


    "Impressive as it may be, he probably can''t catch up to the others with that shoddy chariot."


    "It''s unfortunate, but yeah, his mount doesn''t seem to be as fast either."


    "But let''s p for his efforts. It''s mad impressive that he''s even able to do this as a porter¡ªWAIT WHAT THE F¡ª"


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 80 : Tight corner

    As soon as An fixed the reins on the chariot, he immediately whipped the Canzer forward.


    They watched as An''s chariot raced out of the Colosseum and onto the racing streets at zing speeds. His wooden wheels barely even touched the ground as the Giraffe-Horse Canzer rocketed through the air.


    "Holy! How is he so fast?!"


    "That''s twice as fast as all the other mounts! How did no one discover this Pseudo Canzer?"


    "That doesn''t matter now. I just can''t believe how lucky our Star Porter is! I think he has a chance to pass the others!"


    It was so fast that even the invisible camera that fed the video to the screen in the Colosseum was left in the dust. It took a few seconds before it was able to calibrate An''s speed and finally focus the camera onto him.


    When the rest of the spectators looked at the Giraffe-Horse Canzer, they didn''t see any speedy qualities about it. It didn''t even have as much chitinous armor as the other Canzers still in the arena. So, when they saw that An subdued this one, they all thought that it was one of the weakest Canzers out of everything.


    They thought that An was forced to use this steed because it was the only one that he could catch.


    But they couldn''t be more wrong.


    It turned out that this Giraffe-Horse was the fastest out of every Pseudo Canzer in thepetition! It was so fast that if An had subdued this monster earlier, then they wouldn''t have any doubts whether he would win thepetition. They were sure that if An got to the race first, then he would be able to do ap before the others could even get onto the track.


    And even though he started sote, some still believed that he had a chance to win the whole thing!


    "Go Porter! Look, he''s not going to best. He''s already catching up to thest in the pack!"


    The one who bet 1000 Venunum on An cingst went silent. He was upset that he would lose the bet, but if he saw An finish first, then he wouldn''t even be mad at that point.


    He watched as An got ready to overtake a chariot.


    The guy in second tost ce was a Genesian with a B ss Monk LifeSkill. He was dealt a bad hand and subdued a very slow Canzer. So, he knew that he didn''t have any chance topete for a podium finish. He consoled himself that he wasn''t going to finishst.


    However, it looked like he celebrated a little too early.


    He suddenly heard intense hoof beats behind him, even making his chariot tremble and wobble. When he looked back, he was surprised to see someone suddenly hot on his tail.


    That was impossible! From what he saw just a few moments earlier, there wasn''t anybody behind him. He even thought that thest guy couldn''t subdue a Canzer and just gave up in the arena. But then, he suddenly saw An piercing through the air like a rocket to catch up to him.


    He was rmed. Not to mention the fact that An looked like he teleported behind him, he found that An and his Giraffe-Horse mount were only moments away from overtaking him!


    The Giraffe''s upper body had its long neck outstretched forward like ance. It speared through the air and created less air resistance for the chariot, allowing it to go to speeds he didn''t even think possible.


    The man was so shocked that he forgot to do anything. He just stood there, holding onto the reins of his steed, letting An go past him.


    Now, An was in 17th ce. But he didn''t stop there.


    The Canzer zoomed through the track, speeding past district after district. He was fast during the straight part of the race, but the next part had a sharp turn to the right which already imed two chariots. If he didn''t slow down for this part, then his chariot would surely crash through the apartment building like the unlucky two from before.


    His chariot was made out of wood. With just one crash, his whole chariot could splinter into a million pieces, giving him no chance to continue the race.


    "What is he doing?! Why is he not slowing down?"


    "You''ll crash into pure steel, my man! Slow down!"


    But instead of slowing down like the rest of thepetitors, An kept going towards the corner at the Canzer''s top speed!


    They all thought that An lost control of his steed, but then, they saw him suddenly climb out of his chariot and jump towards the Giraffe-Horse Canzer! He stood upright as he grabbed the Giraffe''s mane and pulled its head up.


    Then, with one hand on the Giraffe''s head and the other on its torso for stability, An bent its neck to the side just at the moment when the road turned a 90-degree angle.


    "There''s no way he''s going to¡ª"


    Everyone in the arena watched with their jaws dropped as the Giraffe''s head suddenly caught onto one of themp posts on the side of the street.


    As their momentum pushed them forward, the chariot suddenly rotated about themppost while floating one meter in the air. The Giraffe''s head was caught onto the pole!


    With their speed almostpletely preserved, An''s chariot turned the corner and bounced on the streets.


    Everyone watching this couldn''t believe the guts and ingenuity behind this move. Who would have thought to use a Giraffe''s long head as a way to pivot through a sharp turn? Nobody.


    An then jumped back down to his wooden chariot and continued directing the Canzer around the obstacles in the street.


    Some of the otherpetitors could never pull a stunt like An did, so they were forced to slow down their chariot to a crawl and safely turn to the right. However, this cost them a lot of speed¨Cspeed that was hard to recover because of their Canzer''s slow eleration.


    So, they were simply dumbfounded when An''s squeaking chariot rocketed past them with no warning whatsoever.


    With just that one move, An was now in 12th ce.

 Chapter 81 : Paladin pauper

    Obek felt confident that he could get to the top 5 if he just continued this route. He didn''t need topete against the top geniuses like Razer and Yasmine because he knew that he would never be able to contend against them.


    The best part about this was that he didn''t need to attack otherpetitors to gain the lead. His Canzer was already fast enough for him to overtake a lot of the otherpetitors. Of course, no one knew that this mount was a cheat he procured specifically for thispetition. It was the perfect blend of speed and defense.


    But there was still a weakness that Obek could not ovee. His chariot was only made out of stic.


    He wasn''t that worried because if they tried to attack him, then he would simply use his LifeSkill to defend himself.


    Case in point, Obek just passed an Olympian in 10th ce, and the guy wasn''t happy with that. He immediately used his eye mutation called Medusa''s Gaze'' and aimed it at Obek. His eyes turned vertical as a beam of gray, stony light came towards the chariot''s wheels. If this attack hit, then the wheels would turn into stone and quickly slow him down.


    However, Obek was prepared. He used his LifeSkill ''Gatekeeper''s Authority'' to summon a detachable stic barrier that protected his wheels.


    Haha! See youter, loser!


    Obek continued to create distance between him and the others. He could already see the 9th cer in the distance and in just a few moments, he''d be able to overtake him too.


    But then, he suddenly heard a scream behind him.


    "Kagh! How?! My chariot!"


    He recognized it to be the voice of the Olympian man he just passed.


    What''s happening?


    Obek was tempted to look back, but he stopped himself. He didn''t have to worry himself about losers like them. He just needed to keep his eyes on the road.


    But then, he suddenly heard hooves beating on the ground. He felt the trembling in the chariot. This was unusual. Not only that, the vibrations were getting stronger and stronger as if someone was catching up from behind him.


    Did that Olympian somehow get faster?


    He was about to look back, when all of a sudden, he saw a chariot run in parallel with his own. The chariot then crashed into his side with paint scratching against paint.


    Whose this insolent little¡ª


    His eyes suddenly widened when he saw who was riding the chariot. He couldn''t believe it.


    It was the porter!


    An, even after starting the race sote, was somehow able to catch up to him after all this time. Obek thought he was dreaming. His brain tried to immediately think of a logical reason for how this was possible.


    Did he find a secret shortcut? No, if there was, I would have known about it. Maybe this isn''t that porter¡­


    But no matter how much he tried to deny it, the real thing was right in front of him.


    It shouldn''t even be possible. All the fast Canzers were supposed to be already taken by the otherpetitors. So, even if An was somehow able to subdue a Canzer, then he should have only gotten the slowest of the bunch. Yet somehow, An''s steed was able to match his speed perfectly!


    Obek was sure that the Giraffe-Horse wasn''t supposed to be this fast.


    And even if Obek epted the fact that An somehow found a fast steed, that still didn''t exin the fact how he was able to go past the otherpetitors. Even he, a pdin with a defensive LifeSkill, had trouble passing those mutation-freak Olympians!


    "How?!" Obek screamed. He couldn''t believe that even now, a mere porter was stealing his spotlight.


    Feeling the rage and anger finally explode inside him, Obek took out his short sword. This piece of weapon was a 2nd removed Masamune Original that could cut through steel with ease. Even with a porter''s enhanced physique, he wouldn''t be able to defend against it.


    He climbed out of his chariot and charged towards An. His ck short sword aimed directly toward An''s carotid artery with precise aim. He was trained with the short sword all his life; dealing with an unarmed and inexperienced civilian like An should be a piece of cake.


    But somehow, the porter''s reaction proved to be fast enough to defend.


    An moved his head away and used his left hand to swat Obek''s hand away. However, Obek was no pushover. He kept pushing his short sword towards An''s neck.


    But that wasn''t enough. Obek then punched An''s liver to disorient him and weaken his defense. Even if An had armor to protect him, Obek''s martial art allowed him to transfer the force to the inside and rattle the very organ instead.


    An used his other hand to defend, which Obek expected.


    Obek found an opening and repositioned his short sword towards An''s legs in an attempt to cripple him.


    In response, An slid his legs away just in time. But this led him to have an awkward position in his own chariot, which Obek was ready to exploit. An''s legs were outside the chariot, with Obek upying the majority of the space.


    He was in the perfect distance between An, making his short sword still effective but giving no chance for An to defend with his arms. If he did, then Obek would simply sh it instead.


    With every sh, An was forced to move his body in awkward positions. He maneuvered his body through the small space in the chariot, even dangling off to the side at one point. It was quickly apparent that Obek''s skills and techniques with the sword were miles better than An''s. The porter''s skills were almost non-existent.


    But no matter how much Obek tried, he couldn''t even make a scratch An''s body. Somehow, he was always able to move his body at the veryst second.


    If it weren''t for his reflexes, then Obek was sure that An would be filled with cuts by now.


    No more! I''ll show you how to properly mix martial arts with LifeSkills!


    Obek lunged at An again as he tried to sh his legs. This time, An was forced to use his fists to guard against Obek''s hands and prevent the de from reaching his skin.


    "Gatekeeper''s Authority!" Obek screamed.


    His shortsword suddenly pierced through the air and his de disappeared into nothingness. The next thing An saw was a de suddenly appearing from out of nowhere and aiming directly towards his chest.


    This is the difference between elites like me and paupers like you!

 Chapter 82: Knocked back

    Obek smiled when he saw his short sworde toward An''s chest. Even though An''s reaction speeds were impressive, he couldn''t react to the point-nk de that ''teleported'' directly to his body.


    This was one of the secret abilities of his LifeSkill powers. As a direct descendant of the Orioness family, he had the honor to be bestowed upon one of the powers of the Genesis God himself. As long as he was blessed by God, then his pdin powers would allow him to create passageways that could teleport his de from one ce to another.


    Since he was only in the 2nd stage Student realm, he could only create passageways that were extremely near his body. Fortunately for him, he didn''t have any trouble approaching An.


    With his short sword piercing through An''s chest, Obek was sure that he would finally beat the porter. Surely, he could finally prove their uselessness.


    However, he felt an insurmountable resistance before he could even pierce through An''s battle suit.


    TINGGG


    "WHAT?!"


    His short sword simply couldn''t prate through An''s simple armor. That was unbelievable. His weapon was supposed to have a quality that couldn''t bepared! It was made by a 2nd removed Masamune cksmith!


    Both An and Obek were supposed to be in the 2nd student Stage. This meant that the weapons and armor that they could get were made for their power level only. Unless An had a chest te even better than a 2nd removed Masamune Original, then there was no way it could have repelled his short sword!


    Unfortunately for Obek, An did have something better than that. He would probably jump away from his chariot if he knew that An had a semi-sentient armor.


    "That''s not possible!" Obek shouted.


    He retrieved his sword and attacked An again. But this time, An skillfully dodged away from his stab, just barely letting it skid against his chestte.


    This made Obek even more confused. Just a few seconds earlier, An couldn''t even move properly from his attacks. He had to contort his body in inefficient ways that were full of holes and vulnerabilities. This showed An''s inexperience in martial arts.


    However, his dodge showcased somethingpletely polished. He didn''t move much of his body from the attack and he made sure to cover any vulnerabilities in his stance. This dodge was taught to Obek as a perfect counter to the Orioness swordsmanship. And somehow, An learned it.


    "I learned a lot from your moves," An muttered.


    What? Obek couldn''t understand anything anymore.


    If he had been paying attention to An''s eyes, then he would have seen how the ''useless'' porter observed his every movement with an intense gaze.


    An wasn''t just dodging. He was analyzing all of Obek''s sword moves. An observed how he carried it with his hands, how he positioned his legs to attack, and even how he breathed in tandem with the sword. His observant eyes caught all of those and quickly found a way to perfectly dodge his attacks.


    An found it quite easy since Obek only used the most basic of moves, partially because he thought that he was dealing with an inexperienced guy like An and because he was fighting inside a bumping chariot.


    Of course, Obek didn''t know any of that. So, he tried to go back to his foundation and performed a simple sword art that consisted of abination of sweeping the sword towards the ribs and then ending with a chop from the head down to the torso.


    But with just the first sh, An twisted his body to the side and immediately lunged towards Obek. with one swift move, An punched him in the face.


    THWACK


    Obek''s head felt his whole world turn as the punch stunned him into near unconsciousness. His SoulTime immediately lost an entire month! Even a huge gash on his chest would only cost about 15 days at most.


    He couldn''t believe how heavy that punch was. And if he knew An was still holding back, then he would have vomited out blood.


    Why? Well, Obek was about to find out.


    An raised his right hand and stretched it out. If Obek was fully conscious right now, then he would recognize that An was trying to copy his sword stance! And instead of using a short sword, he was using his hands!


    An wanted a practice buddy to y with! That''s why he didn''t knock him out.


    With his eyes closed, An remembered in perfect detail how Obek positioned his body. And in his imagination, he was able to put himself in Obek''s body as he tried to attack An.


    When he was finally ready to attack, he did the simplest of moves. An shed his hand towards Obek''s ribs. Yet Obek only saw a blur in his vision before he felt his ribs break. He lost 10 days of SoulTime from that.


    The pain made Obek conscious for a second as he tried to protect himself. His training proved its worth as he was able to raise his sword, trying to parry An''s attack.


    However, a bump in the road caused the chariot to jump in the air andnd back down, disorienting Obek even more. He couldn''t keep his defensive stance as he stumbled back.


    The disturbance should have disrupted both fighters. But instead, An was able tond awkwardly on the chariot, with one leg on the ledge and one leg on the seat. He was able to keep his bnce!


    An didn''t waste any more time as he used his hand and stabbed Obek right in his shoulders, effectively crippling his arm and forcing him to let go of his precious short sword. 8 days of SoulTime lost.


    And with onest move, An kicked Obek right in the chest, caving it in and crushing his ribs into his lungs. He lost 20% of his SoulTime because of this internal injury.


    The forceunched Obek out and right back into his own chariot. Not only that, the momentum from his crash finally separated the two chariots.


    Obek thought that he finally got a second of reprieve.


    But instead, An took out a pellet and aimed his slingshot at the chariot. He pre-aimed his shot forward, expecting it to curve back.


    After taking a breath, An let go of the pellet as it shot out towards the Fly-Horse Canzer carrying Obek''s chariot.


    Surprisingly, it hit the Canzer''srge body, causing it to whip its head to the right.


    And due to the force, the blinders were knocked off its head.

 Chapter 83: Trapped

    The Fly-Horse skidded to a stop as it finally regained its autonomy. It cked its mandibles in happiness, finally feeling freedom after those horrid blinders took away its independence. It looked around and saw the chariot it was bound to and quickly cut it off.


    Then, it saw Obek, the culprit responsible for its very.


    Meanwhile, Obeky on the chariot with blood pouring down his face. The pain he felt from his body aching from the inside and out couldn''t bepared to the mental damage he got from fighting An.


    His lost SoulTime could always be recovered, but his psyche and pride werepletely destroyed. That can''t be fixed.


    It was only now that he realized how strong that porter was.


    That immense strength couldn''t be exined just by his physique LifeSkill. It was simply too domineering, as if all the strength he had paled inparison to An''s power. Their power should only be equal to each other given that they were both in the 2nd stage Student realm. Yet, Obek''s severe injuries proved thatparing power realms was useless.


    And that wasn''t even the worst part. He found out the hard way that just because someone had no damage-dealing LifeSkill, didn''t mean that they couldn''t fight.


    An was a genius. There was no other way to exin it. In just a minute of fighting, he was able to dismantle Obek''s whole fighting style as if it were a Jenga tower. After exchanging just a few moves, An was able to calcte what moves he was going to make next and dodge ordingly.


    Not only that, An was able topletely copy his fighting style too! It was truly absurd.


    Obek waspletely and utterly defeated, outssed in every way.


    He watched An''s fading figure in the distance.


    With how fast he was going, Obek was now certain of it. An purposefully fought him to show him the difference in power between them.


    His Giraffe-Horse was the fastest Canzer Obek had ever seen. And with how easily he overtook the others, Obek was sure that An could have easily just slipped past him and avoided the whole fight.


    But instead, he purposely slowed down and engaged in a fight with Obek.


    For what reason, Obek didn''t know. Did he want to show me how foolish I was in thinking I was better than him? Or did he simply want to fight someone to further learn more fighting styles? Maybe even both¡­


    "I''m useless," Obek muttered to himself.


    Just then, he suddenly heard mandibles clicking in front of him. He saw the Fly-Horse Canzer looking at him with menacing eyes. It wanted revenge, and it wanted it now.


    Obek had no energy left topete in thispetition anymore. He didn''t care if he lost, he just wanted to go home and recuperate from his injuries.


    "I give up," he said.


    It was at this point that the Pseudo Canzer should have frozen in ce. It should have stopped moving entirely.


    But, then Obek was surprised to see the Canzer still moving towards him. Its mandibles were clicking even faster than before as if it was excited to finally enact its revenge.


    "I give up! Stand down!" he shouted.


    But nothing happened. He was horrified to find out that the Canzer somehow resisted the Pocket Remedium''s rules. It shouldn''t be able to move!


    "Stay away!" Obek crawled away from the Canzer. The fear was making him forget about the aching pain of his injuries.


    He found his back against the chariot. He was cornered. He tried to grab his short sword but was rmed to realize that the sword had fallen when he was fighting An.


    He quickly forced his body to ignore the pain and vault over the chariot.


    But the Canzer was like a shark that smelled blood. It followed his blood trails, with its steps getting faster and faster as it got near him.


    Obek got up to his feet and started to run away. He limped as he tried to separate himself from the anomaly as far as possible. But it didn''t work. He heard its hooves go from a trot to a sprint until he could feel its breath on his neck. Terror took hold of his heart as he thought he was going to get mauled by this Canzer.


    But just as its mandibles were about to chomp down on Obek''s head, a gray, stony beam of light suddenly shined towards the Canzer. The Fly-Horse was hit directly in its face, with it immediately turning into stone and spreading all over its body.


    "Are you alright?" The Olympian from before saved Obek just in time.


    Obek ran towards him. "What''s happening?!" It was at this point that he realized that the Olympian was holding his arm in pain. The man was injured, and not from racing the chariots.


    The Olympian shook his head. "I don''t know. The moment those blinders came off, all of our mounts suddenly lost control. And they can''t be frozen. Somehow, the safety mechanism in the Pocket Dimension malfunctioned."


    "Is that even possible?" As far as Obek knew, this never happened. Pseudo Canzers always froze whenever they were about to cause fatal damage to anyone in the Remedium.


    "As it turns out, it is."


    "What are we going to do?"


    The Olympian looked forward and still saw the other chariots still racing ahead. They were all too focused on the race to even notice that something was wrong.


    "We should cancel thepetition and warn Razer about this. It''s getting weird."


    Obek immediately agreed. But there was just one single problem. "How?"


    The Olympian went silent. They didn''t know how they were going to convey this to the otherpetitors. They were too far away. And since they were all inst ce, they had no chance of catching up to the others to try and warn them.


    "Let''s leave the Remedium first and report this to the authorities."


    Just then, they heard rumblinge from the Colosseum.


    Both of their eyes went wide when they suddenly saw about a thousand more Horse Canzers running towards them at top speeds. They were trapped.

 Chapter 84: String bound

    [There is death near you]


    [There is death near you]


    [There is death near you]


    An lost his focus on the race as he saw the words in front of him. It didn''t stop. It just kept popping up in his eyes like an endless scroll.


    His intuition told him to look back toward the Colosseum. However, he couldn''t see past the skyline. The tall buildings in the City obstructed his view from the Colosseum.


    Despite seeing nothing but a peaceful and serene street behind him, he knew that there was something wrong. He was sure of it. And if he closed his eyes and tried to block out the sounds of chariots rumbling and rattling as they rolled on the street, he would hear a faint thunderous mix of roars behind him.


    A part of him wanted to go back and reap all of those souls. But upon further thinking, An shook his head.


    If something is wrong, then I should warn the others. Judging from how many ''deaths'' I''m sensing, then whatever''sing at us is in numbers even I can''t count. And since I can''t use my LifeSkills out in the open, I''d need the others to fight with me.


    And the only way to do that was to go forward and warn them of whatever wasing towards them. He could hear it. And it was getting closer and closer to them.


    He whipped his mount to go faster.


    Out in the distance, he saw arge group ofpetitors in the street, about seven of them. From his enhanced vision, he saw that there were 5 Olympians and 2 Genesians.


    What was weird about the five Olympians was that they weren''t trying to race against each other. Instead, they upied the whole length of the street and blocked anyone from passing them.


    This was one of their tactics to prevent the other Genesians froming close to their top racers.


    I''m in tenth ce right now. If I pass them, there will only be three people left to surpass¡ªNO. I''m here to warn them about the crisis.


    With his Giraffe-Horse running at full speed, it didn''t take long until he was able to catch up to the group.


    Meanwhile, the two Genesians became more and more frustrated at the Olympians. Even though their horses were faster than them, they couldn''t go forward because they were using dirty tactics to block the road.


    Trying to squeeze past the Olympians was no easy task. Their seamless coordination allowed them to put as little space between each chariot without risking crashing between them. Not only that, their LifeSkills threatened to destroy anyoneing close to them.


    The two Genesians were just about to give up, when all of a sudden, they heard an intense rumbling behind them.


    And before they could even turn around, they suddenly saw a new chariot arrive in the middle of them. When they saw that his uniform corresponded with the Genesians, they were relieved. And when they looked at who was able to catch up to them, their eyes widened when they realized that it was the porter!


    They didn''t expect him to be able to keep up in the top 10. Heck, they didn''t even expect him to subdue a Canzer at all.


    Not only that, they realized that his chariot was the wooden chariot reserved for thest one to subdue a Canzer!


    This meant that An worked his way up fromst ce to 10th ce! They considered their mounts to be fast, but even they didn''t think that they could have ovee that gap in such a short amount of time.


    How fast is his steed?!


    Even the five Olympians up front couldn''t help but look back at the neer. When they saw his face, they didn''t recognize him. He wasn''t one of the geniuses that they knew from Genesis City.


    One of them finally recognized him.


    "Hey! It''s that porter!"


    The rest of the Olympians couldn''t help but take a good look at An once they heard that. They simply couldn''t believe that a porter was able to subdue a Canzer by himself without any damage-dealing LifeSkill to help him. If he had a higher realm, then it would have been more believable. But from what they knew, the porter was only in the 2nd stage Student realm.


    They respected An for his efforts. However, their eyes turned unfriendly once they saw his chariot advance towards them as if he wanted to overtake them.


    An opened his mouth, about to say something to them, when all of a sudden, he saw an Olympian''s body glow a faint green.


    "Avian Conjuration!" he shouted. White liquid flowed out of his hands and floated in the air. Using some hand signs, the white liquid slowly turned into two sharp-taloned doves.


    These doves flew up in the air in a helix until they reached the apex of their flight. Then, they slowed to a stop. And as gravity pulled them down, they sped up towards An like a rocket. They had their sharp talons armed and ready to maim their target.


    "Slow down your chariot to avoid it!" screamed one of the Genesians towards An. They almost lost their chariots from that attack.


    Unfortunately, one of the Olympians already moved. She stretched her arms toward An''s wooden chariot and shouted;


    "Adriane''s String!"


    A golden rope sprung out of her left hand and attached itself to An''s chariot. And with her Olympian strength, she tied the rope to her chariot, preventing An from retreating his chariot to safety.


    At this point, he would surely get hit in the chest.


    They all thought An would defend himself, but he didn''t even try to do that!


    An simply looked over the railings and grabbed the golden rope from the woman''s LifeSkill.


    The Olympianughed to herself when she saw that.


    "You won''t be able to destroy a manifestation of my LifeSkill. Didn''t they teach you about Savior basics? I''m a 3rd stage Student while you''re only at the 2nd stage which means that you won''t be able to overpower me. So unless you''re in the 4th¡ª"


    But before she could say anything further, she saw An snap the rope with his bare hands.


    Her frayed golden rope lost all its luster. She looked at him. He was holding the two ends of her rope with a casual indifference.

 Chapter 85: Warnings

    Exhaustion hit her as she fell to her knees. She had never seen her rope break like that before, especially not from someone a stage below her. Anpletely threw her basic knowledge about power realms and LifeSkills out of the water.


    The only way that she could rationalize this situation was if An had a LifeSkill greater than S ss.


    But if he had, then he would have been hailed all across the globe as an apex genius. She guessed that An couldn''t have a Physique LifeSkill more than B ss.


    This made her even more confused. She had an A ss LifeSkill, which meant that her LifeSkill should have resisted the strength of someone like An.


    Who is he? she wondered.


    The two Genesians behind An were also amazed at his incredible feat of strength. However, they didn''t have the time to question it. The two missile doves were still homing towards his body at whistling speeds. And it looked like An didn''t even have any intention of dodging it at all.


    "Look up! It''s going to hit you!"


    The Olympians finally thought An would be out of the race. At this point, the two doves rotated in a helix mere inches away from his chest.


    But instead of dodging, he just stayed still and let it hit his armor.


    And the most incredulous thing happened. The sharp-taloned doves made by a 3rd stage Student Olympian with an A ss talent suddenly burst into nothing but feathers as soon as they hit An''s chestte.


    "WHAT?!" The Olympian couldn''t help but express his disbelief in a shout.


    They all looked at An and saw that his chest te had no scratches or dents anywhere. It was as if his doves were nothing more than air. Even his green battle suit was as pristine as it was before with no holes.


    What is his chestte made out of?! Did he steal that from Hephaestus'' armory?!


    The Olympians would have never thought that a mere porter would have armor with such quality.


    But now that he knew this, then he wouldn''t make that same mistake again. The Olympian conjured another pair of doves in his hands and threw them in the air.


    And just like before, the two doves reached the apex of their flight until finally plunging towards their target, talons first. But this time, the man ordered his doves to target An''s face. That was the only part of his body that was not protected by any defensive equipment.


    An looked up at the two doves in the air. And with his imagination, he was able to put the image of the previous attack with the attack now.


    He found that their trajectory, speed, and momentum were exactly the same as before.


    With a n in mind, An took out his slingshot and used his condensed rock pellet to shoot toward the birds in the sky.


    Unfortunately, the pellet went wide to the left and was a little bit short from the bird''s position.


    4 pellets left¡­I need to adjust my strength and ount for the wind resistance¡­thankfully, I know where the birds are going¡­


    He put another pellet in the pouch and stretched the rubber to his shoulders. An then waited and took a deep breath.


    The timing needs to be perfect¡­3¡­2¡­1¡­


    The Olympian thought that An''s attempt to shoot his birds was a fruitless endeavor. After all, his birds were made out of his 3rd stage Student powers. Only an equivalent power from a 3rd stage student could destroy them.


    THWACK


    An let go of the slingshot and it rocketed towards the doves at a strangely equivalent speed.


    The Olympians were startled to find out that the rock pellet was going straight towards the doves in perfect alignment.


    Somehow, the porter was able to aim perfectly straight!


    How?! Tsk. It doesn''t matter. There''s a reason why my LifeSkill has two doves. It''s fine if he takes out one of my doves, he won''t be able to reload for a second time to try and hit thest dove.


    PTOOOO


    An explosion of white feathers filled the air, and nothing more.


    Unfortunately for the Olympian, it seemed that An wouldn''t need another pellet. Both of the doves were taken out with An''s well-timed shot.


    He was able to thread the needle at that moment where the two doves perfectly coincided with each other in An''s view.


    An hit two birds with one stone.


    Both the Olympians and the Genesians were dumbfounded with this ''lucky'' shot. Even though An was a porter with no LifeSkill to help him with sharp shooting, he was able to somehow beat the odds at the perfect time to defend himself from the doves.


    And before anyone could even process this, An picked up the frayed rope from the girl''s LifeSkill.


    With all of his strength, An pulled the girl''s chariot towards himself, surprising her and everyone watching him.


    Even the Canzer pulling her chariot could not ovee the pulling force from An''s grip.


    She was rmed. She didn''t expect to suddenly be in close contact with An, especially after he showed his explosive physical strength. Her LifeSkill offered her no help with close-contact fights, so she was helpless as An moved closer toward her.


    "Listen to me, something ising!"


    However, she didn''t understand what he was saying. She was expecting him to fight her, but instead, he simply shook her shoulders to get her attention.


    "What?"


    "There''s something wrong in the Colosseum. And it''sing towards us."


    However, when the woman looked back, she couldn''t see anything out of the ordinary. Why would she? She didn''t have An''s acuity to feel the slight reverberations in the ground.


    "Let her go!" One of the Olympians thought that An was trying to hurt her.


    He took out the gigantic spike maul hammer from his back.


    "Hammer Cycle!" he shouted out his LifeSkill and struck the air with his weapon.


    His hammer hit an invisible wall that glowed a faint golden glow. But he didn''t stop there. He continued to pound this invisible wall with his hammer, and the wall glowed brighter and brighter until it manifested as a golden cone.


    And with thisst strike, he would catapult this cone towards An.


    However, an unexpected bump in the road forced him to misce his shot. He hit the hammer to the side and it deviated from his original target, An.


    Surprisingly, the golden cone shot toward the girl''s mount. The attack grazed the top of its torso.


    The cone passed by her steed, but unfortunately, it somehow took the Canzer''s blinders with it.

 Chapter 86: Continue the track

    As soon as the blinders got taken off, the Canzer mount immediately shook its head and roared continuously, as if it was letting out all of its frustrations from being enved.


    For other people, they could only hear a simple howl like that of an animal, but for An, he heard apletely different thing.


    ''We long¡­to belong....We long¡­to belong...We long¡­to belong¡­''


    For some reason, the Canzer was repeating those words with zealous intensity. He thought that it would get angry and try to kill the human who tried to enve it, but instead, it was repeating this strange phrase without any regard for the humans around it. It didn''t even try to get out of the reins constraining it to the chariot.


    An could understand the words, but he didn''t know what they were saying. Without any context, he wouldn''t be able to understand what it meant.


    Does this have anything to do with the strange disturbance behind us?


    If he understood what they were saying, perhaps he''d know what these Canzers were nning.


    "Look out! It''s a curve!" One of the Olympians looked ahead and saw that there was a sharp bend in front of them.


    If they missed this curve, then they would plummet down a cliff with only concrete roof tiles to slow down their fall. This wasn''t as easy as the curves from before and had nomp posts to pivot around.


    All of thepetitorsmanded their mounts to slow down and follow the curve. Unfortunately for the girl, she didn''t have any control of her steed because it didn''t have its blinders on.


    "I can''t control it!" she shouted in panic.


    Her monstrous Horse Canzer was neighing and shaking its head vigorously as if there was something wrong with its brain. It couldn''t see that they were heading straight for the steel railing!


    "Quit thepetition!" one of the Olympians warned her.


    The only way to save her from this predicament was to forfeit thepetition. That way, the Canzer would be frozen in ce and the chariot wouldn''t have to crash tens of meters down the cliff.


    No matter how much she still wanted topete, the girl knew that without the blinders, she wouldn''t be able to control her steed. She would have to leave it up to her other teammates to make sure that the Olympians won thispetition.


    "I quit!" she shouted.


    But unfortunately for her, the Pocket Remedium didn''t seem to hear her.


    "I forfeit! I quit!...why isn''t it stopping?!?!"


    No one could exin why the Pseudo Canzer wasn''t freezing. This was supposed to be the foundational safety mechanism of a Pocket Remedium. This was what assured the Saviors that they would be able to practice fighting against Pseudo Canzers safely without having to worry about things going too far.


    The implications of this were nothing more than disastrous. The Pseudo Canzer wouldn''t stop even if the Savior practicing with it was fatally wounded. It would continue to fight the Savior, whittling down his SoulTime near zero.


    But they couldn''t think about the long-term implications of this. They had to worry about it right now.


    The girl''s chaotic Canzer pulled her chariot towards the right¨Ctowards the cliff!


    And since An''s chariot was right next to hers, his was also pulled towards the railing.


    Their chariots rumbled, with her steel frame rubbing against his wooden chariot. His wheels splintered bit by bit.


    If this continued, then they would both tumble over the railing and fall into the cliff. And with An''s wooden chariot, it would surely break into pieces upon crashing.


    "Gahh! Don''t worry Porter! We''ll help you!"


    Thankfully, the two Genesians pulled up right beside An and pushed his chariot back to the left, guiding them into the curve and preventing them from falling off the cliff.


    An nodded towards the two to signal his thanks.


    Then, he turned towards the girl Olympian. She was in distress. She kept trying to shout towards her Pseudo Canzer, but no matter what, it wouldn''t freeze in ce.


    An had no choice but to go over to her chariot and shake her out of her stupor.


    "Get a hold of yourself!" He then picked her up from her legs and threw her over to her Olympian teammates. "Catch!"


    The Olympians were rmed when they suddenly saw their teammates being thrown towards them while their chariots were running at full speed. Thankfully, one of them was able to catch her safely.


    "Now do you guys see the problem?!" An said.


    They witnessed first-hand how the Canzer defied thews of the Pocket Remedium. It wasn''t hard to guess that their mounts would also lose control and refuse to freeze once its blinders were taken off.


    At this point, they were no longer thinking about thepetition. This problem was far too disconcerting. They finally made way for An and the other two Genesians to advance and move closer to them.


    "What are we going to do?" the guy with the hammer said.


    "We should go back and report this to HeadQuarters," answered one of the Genesians.


    "Then I think we should go back to the colosseum immediately."


    "Yeah. I don''t like this."


    Most of the group decided that it would be better to turn back immediately. But An disagreed. He still felt the subtle rumbling from behind. He had a feeling that there was troubleing towards them and it wasing towards them fast. And if they went back now, then they would only go head to head with whatever was running after them.


    "No. We should continue running the track."


    "Why? It''s better if we return now and escape the Pocket Remedium."


    An didn''t know how to exin the feeling he was getting from behind them.


    But just then, they all finally felt the ground beneath their chariots trembling. This wasn''t an earthquake, it felt like there was a stampede behind them.


    Fortunately and unfortunately, An didn''t have to exin to them why going back was a bad idea.


    They all looked back and were horrified to see thousands of rabid Horse Pseudo Canzers running towards them at full speed.

 Chapter 87: Warn the others

    "What is that?!?!"


    "Horse Pseudo Canzers? But why are theying towards us?!"


    "I don''t remember there being that many!"


    The horde of Pseudo Canzers were numbering in the thousands. Their collective hoofbeats were making thunderous rumbling that could make even the bravest of Saviors weak in the knees.


    The Olympians and the Genesians who participated in thispetition were no mere Saviors. They were the cream of the crop, geniuses with the potential to be the top Saviors of their field. They were powerful enough to kill Pseudo Canzers with ease but even they couldn''t help but break a cold sweat when they saw how much they were dealing with.


    They would have to fight a thousand Pseudo Canzers each to defeat the horde.


    And the fact that these Canzers were immune to the ''freeze'' made this even more bone-chilling. They could imagine being torn to pieces by the Canzers and watching their SoulTime get shed instantly in half, and even then, they wouldn''t stop. They would keep mauling the humans to no end.


    The hammer-wielding Olympian raised his weapon and used his LifeSkill again. He continuously hit the air ten times until the invisible wall turned into a golden cone. With onest hit, heunched it towards the horde of Canzers.


    It crashed into one of the Dog-Horse centaurs, destroying its headpletely andunching it to the back of the horde. However, even with his strength, he only killed one out of thousands of other Canzers. A new one emerged from behind and quickly replenished the front line.


    [You have reaped the death of a simple creature: Pseudo Canzer]


    [Due to your Trait, you have multiplied your experience by 10]


    [You have gained 50 experience]


    An saw that and knew that even he would have trouble dealing with this horde of monsters alone.


    "What are we going to do?!" Panic and fear emanated from those words. They didn''t know what to do.


    Thankfully, someone spoke up.


    "We go forward," An said. "We continue running this track. This whole path circles the whole City and the finish line will take us back to the Colosseum."


    An then looked back at the horse Canzers running towards them. Slowly but surely, they were shortening the distance between them.


    "By that point, we''ll have hopefully lured the Canzers away from the Colosseum and we can go back to the portal."


    The Olympians and the Genesians listened to An''s words intently. They didn''t discount his words because he was a porter. He already showed them that he could stand his ground amongst all of them and evene out on top.


    "I agree. That''s the best n we''ll ever make," one of the Olympians agreed.


    "As expected of An, our Star Porter!" Hope filled the eyes of one of the Genesians. "If only you had a damage-dealing LifeSkill, then you would be the undisputed genius of our City!"


    The Olympians silently agreed. If An had an offensive LifeSkill, then they could even imagine himing head-to-head with Razer Wrekton.


    Of course, they didn''t know that An had other LifeSkills, he just couldn''t show them to others. He also had an Angel Wing mutation, which gave him a fraction of a speed boost even when it wasn''t manifested in real life. This was what allowed him to dodge attacks, seemingly at the veryst moment.


    "An," the Olympians would never forget that name from here on out. "Since you have the fastest mount out of all of us, you should go ahead and warn the others."


    "Yes. You need to warn Yasmine too!"


    "Razer, Yasmine, and S. We need the strengths of all three of them. They''re the only ones that can kill these hordes of Canzers. Especially Razer. You must warn him that we are all in trouble."


    An nodded his head and agreed.


    And before he left, the Olympians expressed their thanks.


    "Thank you, An. You''re the only one that can do this."


    "I''m sorry for attacking you earlier."


    Then, the girl Olympian opened her mouth to try and say something to An, but she stopped herself.


    In her heart, she wanted to summon her rope and attach it to An''s chariot. She felt that out of everyone in thispetition including Razer, An was the only one who could make her safe. But she couldn''t. That would be selfish. So she just said her thanks to his fading figure instead.


    "...thank you¡­"


    An was already ahead of them, with his Giraffe-Horse Canzer rocketing through the track. He was so fast that he already left them all in the dust, surprising them even more.


    ###


    Yasmine was in 2nd ce, with her Bone Horse Canzer running at full speed towards one goal: S.


    The Olympian blessed by Apollo''s light was in first ce throughout this wholepetition. Her steed was rtively fast, but her greatest advantage was her golden chariot. The vehicle was a marvelous work of art that not only boasted form but also function. This chariot barely even creaked as it rounded tight corners.


    Its suspension also allowed it to remain steadfast as it ran over bumps and small obstacles that would have otherwise slowed down other chariots.


    Yasmine knew that she wouldn''t be able to beat her in speed, so she instead opted to slow her down.


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    She raised her sword and the de suddenly erupted in a billowing me. With her LifeSkill activated, she thrusted her sword forward, releasing a soaring dragon with a body made out of pure fire. With its wings outstretched, it glided easily toward S''s chariot.


    But the Olympian wasn''t going down without a fight. She activated her LifeSkill too, with her palms glowing a bright white light.


    She put both hands together and aimed towards the ming dragon. With her target in perfect view, she released a tremendous amount of energy in her palms, recoiling her body to the edge of her chariot.


    The beam of light hit the dragon in mid-air. What resulted in this collision was a shockwave explosion that knocked both women back to their seats.


    Since they were both in the 3rd stage Student realm, their powers werepletely equal and canceled each other out.

 Chapter 88: Sola V Yasmine

    "You''re very good. Probably even better than me," S admitted. Even though Yasmine was younger than her by a few years, she was already at the same level as her.


    S knew that Yasmine had an S ss LifeSkill, but she still thought that her experience and wisdom would be able to ovee the difference in LifeSkill ss. As it turned out, it only evened the odds.


    "You''re not so bad yourself," Yasmine said, her eyes still full of fire.


    S sighed. "It''s such a shame. Why did you reject our offer? You could have been drafted in our Olympus. Hera would have been more than happy to bestow upon you powers and mutations never before given to anybody else.


    Instead, you refused. You chose this City in the outskirts of the world. Genesis City is far too small for the likes of you."


    Yasmine was so talented, which was why S found it even more of a waste for her to reject Olympus'' offer. S simply couldn''t understand why she would let go of the chance that others risk their lives for.


    "I have my reasons."


    "Whatever they are, it''s not enough. I''ll show you what you missed by rejecting us. I''ll show you the superiority of Mount Olympus!"


    S activated her mutation and manifested it in the real world. Her lower body immediately ballooned into thrice her waist, even morphing her white tunic into the striped colors of ck and yellow.


    Not only that, two bulbous masses grew out of her forehead that soon turned ck and reced her eyes. Two antennae covered with tiny hair spurted under her newpound eyes.


    S turned into an apian mutation, turning her into part human, part bee.


    "Because of my talent, Apollo has deemed me worthy to be given a 7-star Apian Genus, turning my bloodline into a 7-star Apian Woman. I received two mutations: mypound bee eyes and my Queen Bee abdomen!"


    Because her genus had a 7-star rarity, then her mutations would also be in the 7-star rarity.


    Suddenly, S''s ck and yellow striped bulbous abdomen trembled as she produced something in her stomach. She then opened her mouth and regurgitated a golden liquid substance.


    "Honey shower!" she shouted as she sprayed the unknown liquid toward Yasmine.


    Even without knowing the properties of this ''honey'', Yasmine knew that it would be dangerous to let it hit her. So, she turned her de and used the t part of her sword. With her swordsmanship, she ''fanned'' the air using her t de by swinging it continuously in a circr pattern.


    This created a strong wind current that burst forward, diverting the honey spray away from her and her chariot.


    Yasmine decided not to use her ming dragon LifeSkill because she didn''t know if the honey was mmable. She didn''t want to risk it exploding towards her and slowing her down.


    Unfortunately, this led a few drops of the honey to rain down on her and her chariot.


    As soon as it hit her battle suit, the honey started to eat away at the fabric and threatened to spread to her skin. Yasmine immediately cut the infected fabric with her sword, saving her from further harm.


    When the sword interacted with the infected torn battle suit, it quickly slid away without much traction. Itnded on the edge of her chariot and glided away.


    It was at that point that Yasmine realized that the ''honey'' was more than an acidic liquid. It was also a lubricant, making things incredibly slippery.


    Yasmine immediately realized the threat that this ''honey'' possessed.


    "That''s right," S smiled. "My honey has a special property that makes things that it affects have almost zero friction!"


    In any other context, this ability would be considered a little bit less useful than an acid; it didn''t have that much of a damage-dealing capacity. However, thispetition wasn''t just about inflicting damage, it was also a race.


    And if this ''honey'' somehow got onto her chariot''s wheels, then it would virtually kill her chances of ever winning thepetition.


    With zero friction, the wheels would have no traction on the ground. The wheels would continue to spin in ce instead of rolling on the ground.


    This would have been fine on a straight track because the mount would simply push the cart forward but thest segment of this race had a lot of curves and turns that needed a lot of brakes. And with a slippery wheel, that would be impossible.


    "Get ready to be covered in honey, honey!"


    S then spat out a few hexagonal cubes made out of beeswax. It wasn''t hard to guess that these ''bombs'' were filled with honey that would explode out the moment it hit something hard. Explore more at m,v l''e-NovelBin


    She threw out two honey bombs down on the ground¨Cone on the left and one on the right side of the street. As soon as the bombs hit the ground, the hexagonal wax suddenly split open and bled out, creating puddles of honey in the street.


    If Yasmine continued to charge forward, then her chariot would run over the honey, effectively infecting her chariot with lubricant. She had to do something.


    "Don''t underestimate Genesis City. There''s a reason why I chose this ce."


    Yasmine finally used her mutation. The Genesis God gave her a Door Genus, which turned her bloodline into a Gatekeeper. Even though it was only a 5-star Genus, Yasmine epted it because of the mutation that came with it.


    Her mutation was a 5-star Feet mutation called ''Stepping Stone.''


    The soles of Yasmine''s feet suddenly turned as ck as the expanse of space, with specks of white stars littering around it.


    "Just because you have a rarer Mutation than me doesn''t mean you''re better. It''s about how we use it."


    Yasmine then stepped into the air and was surprisingly able to take a foothold as if there was something solid in the air. But she didn''t stop there. She kept running up in the air until she was looking down on the surprised face of S.

 Chapter 89: Slow down

    Even though Yasmine could have gotten much better mutations from the offerings of better Gods, she knew that all she needed was her sword and her LifeSkill. She didn''t need anything else; it would only detract from her training with the sword.


    So, she chose a mutation that would push her swordsmanship to the next level without interference.


    She would finally show the fruits of her training.


    Yasmine jumped one final time in the sky, with her swording from the bottom and rising to the top.


    Her de erupted in a red me and gave her the boost she needed to perform a somersault twenty feet in the air.


    As she did, the me in her sword created a circle around her body. S could see the formation of the dragon in Yasmine''s sword, slowly gaining its wings and scales with great quality.


    Yasmine''s dragon could only be contained to her de while swinging her weapon. So she would be forced to throw out the ming dragon because she reached the limit of her swing.


    The longer her swing, the more powerful the ming dragon became. Her swing was very brief on the ground, which limited the development of her dragon, and subsequently, its intensity.


    But she didn''t have that limitation up in the air. She could perform a continuous swing by rotating in the air and extending her swing with each twirl.


    She rotated her body two times, creating a long bodied snake-dragon that rotated around her sword. This attack was much more powerful than what she could contain. Any longer and the fire could seriously burn her skin.


    Finally, she stopped turning andnded in the air, with her sword swinging down with fury.


    ROAAARRR


    The ming dragon had enough time to develop vocal nodes. It growled like a newborn crying after their birth. It had a long torso like that of a snake with scales that glinted gold red even with mes all over its body.


    It slithered across the air and finallynded on the street, burning the puddles of honey asunder. Unfortunately for S, pure honey was very much mmable, and with the intense fire from the dragon, it quickly disintegrated into nothing but a brown spot in the street.


    It didn''t end there. Even after turning the honey into mist, the ming snake-dragon was still intact. Its matured development allowed it to continue soaring towards its next target: S.


    The Olympian woman was caught off guard. She underestimated the mutation from the Genesis God, thinking it had no use on the battlefield. She couldn''t be more wrong.


    She quickly rubbed her hands on herrge, bulbous abdomen. Slowly, a strange darkish-yellow substance came out of her nds. When she wiped this strange substance in the air, it quickly hardened and stayed in ce! This was a magical beeswax!


    With frantic movements, she created a hexagonal cube around her body to protect her from the iing ming dragon. It was a testament to her skills and training that she was able to create a defense in such a short amount of time.


    However, it seemed she still underestimated Yasmine''s strength.


    As the ming dragon hit the defensive wax, it immediately started to catch on fire. It wasn''t long before it started to char and melt, creating holes in S''s protective encasing.


    It wasn''t long until S''s entire chariot was engulfed in a fire that rose to ten feet in the air.


    She was forced to slow down, finally giving Yasmine the chance to go into first ce.


    Yasmine stepped into the air and redirected her body to fall perfectly back into her chariot. She didn''t waste a second as she took control of the reins and whipped her Bone Horse Canzer.


    She watched her chariot pull beside S''s burning chariot. But that wasn''t enough. Yasmine continued to push her mount to the limit until she started to pull away.


    "Finally¡­first ce!" she shouted. Joy and happiness filled her face, with thepetitive frown nowhere to be seen.


    But it seemed that she wouldn''t be able to celebrate for long.


    She suddenly heard an intense beating of drums and hooves behind her. She didn''t have to look back to know that Razer Wrekton, the genius of Olympus, was hot behind her tail.


    His Gori-Horse had both speed and power, using its strangely long arms to run on the ground and increase its speed. It used all four horse legs and the Gori''s arms to slowly take first ce.


    Yasmine frustratedly took out her sword and shed it towards him. A familiar ming dragon erupted from her sword, with this incarnation being a lot smaller and with a less intense fire.


    Razer didn''t even mind this attack. He simply used his hand to p away the dragon as if it was a measly fly.


    Yasmine bit her lips. The ming dragon created from this sh was far from the majesty of the one she created earlier, but it still wasn''t something that could be handled using their bare hands. Yet, Razer did. He proved her efforts to be futile under immense strength and talent like his.


    Yasmine kept her head down. She knew that she would eventually lose out to him because the difference in their power level was too far away. She dreaded it.


    Even though they both had S ss LifeSkills, Razer was at the 4th stage Student realm while Yasmine was only at the 3rd.


    But she thought she''d at least have a chance to beat him and win first ce. However, his casual attitude towards her attack proved that her dream was mere folly.


    Then, Razer opened his mouth.


    Slow


    Yasmine felt her head spin as that word echoed in her mind. And despite her head feeling like it would slip, she still tried to wrestle control of her own chariot.


    Unfortunately, even though the Canzer had its blinders on, Razer''s ''Word of the All-Father'' mutation still overpowered it andmanded her mount to slow down.


    Yasmine was helpless as she watched her chariot decelerate. All that effort to gain the slightest bit of lead was gone in an instant all because of one word.


    "Nothing personal, Yasmine. But we must prove the superiority of Olympus with thispetition. I will win, no matter what it takes."


    To ensure their victory, Razer raised his fist and punched the air.


    The airpressed at his knuckles and created a shockwave that traveled towards Yasmine at the speed of sound.


    The st knocked off the blinders in her Canzer.

 Chapter 90: Hot to the touch

    Yasmine was surprised by this sudden attack. She thought that Razer would try to attack her, not her mount.


    She was just winding up her ming dragon in her sword but the shockwave already knocked off the blinders in her steed. It was too fast for her. She finally realized the gap between them even if it was only a one-stage difference in power realms. Even though it looked like the gap was close, Yasmine felt like she was looking at a deep abyss that she could never cross.


    The blinders! Yasmine broke herself out of her stupor and realized that the blinders got sted out of her mount.


    Now that Razer took care of his onlypetitor, he quickly pulled forward and took first ce. Yasmine didn''t want to let him go that easily, but she reminded herself that without those blinders, she wouldn''t be able to control her Canzer.


    The moment that she couldn''t catch it out of the air was the moment that she lost the race.


    She would be forced to watch others pass by her as her mount refused to pull the chariot forward.


    She couldn''t let that happen.


    Even though the chariot was still going forward at fast speeds due to the momentum, Yasmine jumped and tried to reach for the blinders passing by her.


    She slowly inched forward with her outstretched hand. But then she realized that at the rate the blinders were going away from her, she wouldn''t be able to catch it unless she jumped out of the chariot.


    Yasmine didn''t hesitate to push herself out of her chariot, when all of a sudden, she saw another hand reach for the blinders and catch it in mid-air before she could even grab it!


    Their hands touched.


    She looked up and her heart skipped a beat. How is he here?


    Riding his chariot, with his short ck hair flowing freely in the air, An grabbed the blinders and smiled at her.


    "Excuse me, miss. I think you dropped this."


    An grabbed the reins and moved his wooden chariot closer to her silver chariot. He moved it close just enough for their wheels to barely graze past each other.


    Yasmine felt the reverberations in her chariot and it broke her out of her dazedness. She almost thought she was dreaming. How else would she see An, a porter, up in 3rd ce right next to her? This would have meant that he was able to fight through the other geniuses from Mount Olympus ande out on top.


    But that''s impossible, right? After all, a porter didn''t have any fighting capabilities.


    "Hey Mine. Make sure to not lose this again. The Canzers are malfunctioning and they can''t be controlled. There''s already a horde of thousands of Canzers running behind us. Just make sure to run the track and go back to the Colosseum as fast as possible."


    An''s mouth was saying a lot of words, but Yasmine didn''t understand anything he said after he called her ''Mine.''


    People always called her Yasmine, or maybe Yas, but never Mine.


    It was just a name, but somehow, the way An said it made her heart skip a beat. It made her feel as if her name was much more special than it was. Her body turned hot but it wasn''t caused by the manifestation of her ming dragon. She even looked at her sword to confirm. So why do I feel so feverish? Is something wrong with me?


    "Are you alright?" An moved closer to her.


    And there it was again. Yasmine felt her heart skip a beat.


    Anger welled up inside her. The warrior inside her was furious at An. He was so much more talented than what she thought, threateningly so. She was even more intimidated by his talent than Razer! Perhaps it was because he was a porter who was able to transcend his limitations that made her feel that he was so much better than her.


    That couldn''t happen. Thepetitive side within her couldn''t let herself admit that someone was better than her.


    She wanted nothing more than to strangle him. But at the same time, there was a part of her that felt like she would overheat just from the fact that she was touching him.


    There was a part of her that thought that maybe¡­


    No!


    Yasmine snatched the blinders off his hands and turned her head away from him. She didn''t want him to see how beet red her face looked..


    "Thank you. Now, get out," she said coldly.


    She must still be upset that she lost against Razer.


    An didn''t think that she was mad at him. After all, he didn''t even do anything wrong. He even helped her stay in this race by giving her the blinders.


    But now that she knew about the looming threat of the Canzers, she would stoppeting and start worrying about how to get out of this Pocket Remedium.


    He didn''t know that she didn''t listen to anything he said. And it was all because he suddenly thought up a nickname for her.


    With nothing left to say, An whipped the reins and ordered his Canzer to run forward. There was just one more person left he had to warn, and it was the person that everybody thought was the strongest person in this Pocket Dimension.


    Yasmine watched his chariot rocket out ahead of her with no trouble whatsoever. She couldn''t even catch up to him even if she controlled her mount again.


    Just then, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw S and her golden chariot race next to her.


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    She had her eyes on An and it looked like she was going to chase after him.


    Yasmine immediately raised her sword and created a ming dragon. This time, the dragon seemed to show an angry expression.


    It soared through the air towards the unsuspecting S.


    The Olympian woman quickly used her mutation and created a protective wax around her to protect her from the fire.


    "Calm down. I''m not here to continue the race. Didn''t he tell you what''s happening?"


    Yasmine was about to say something else when she heard the sounds of thousands of hoofbeats running through the streets. She looked back and finally saw the horde.

 Chapter 91: Better to show

    An''s chariot raced forward, wasting no time to catch up to the lead.


    "Razer. There''s something wrong," An said as he pulled up his chariot beside him.


    The man blessed by Zeus looked at An with a strange expression. He studied him for a few seconds before replying.


    "There is: a porter is able to catch up to me."


    And before An could say anything else, Razer suddenly punched his right fist forward and tucked his left hand, creating a powerful twisting force in his body that produced a stronger punch.


    A powerful shockwave boomed through the air and reached An at the speed of sound. Most Saviors like Yasmine wouldn''t even be able to react to this, but somehow, Razer saw An''s eyes recognize the threat and follow its trajectory as if he was seeing it with rity.


    The shockwave hit An''s chestte, which dispersed some of the force. However, there was still enough power from that punch that transferred over to An''s body and pushed him away from his wooden chariot.


    An quickly turned rigid and lowered his center of mass. His feet slid against the wooden floor until his ankles hit the small ledge of the chariot door. Somehow, he was able to keep himself steady.


    Razer''s eyes went wide. He was a 4th stage Student while the porter was only at the 2nd stage. The two stage difference was supposed to be an insurmountable wall like heaven and earth¡ªespecially with Razer''s S ss LifeSkill.


    An should have been easily thrown out of his chariot. His Physique LifeSkill shouldn''t have been enough to save him from Razer''s attack. It was too heavy.


    This shouldn''t be possible, thought Razer.


    He didn''t know that An''s Physique LifeSkill was actually SSS ss rated. Of course, even though An had a better ss LifeSkill than Razer, that two stage difference between them should have put Razer above him in strength.


    However, An didn''t only have his Physique LifeSkill. He also had two other LifeSkills also in the SSS ss, and one in the B ss.


    An''s other LifeSkills gave him a slight boost in his physical strength even if he wasn''t actively using them. It was a passive buff that pushed An''s physical strength above that of Razer despite their two stage difference in power realm.


    It also helped that An had a semi-sentient armor that could withstand Razer''s power. He also had the Angel Wing mutation, which helped him resist being pushed off the chariot. It didn''t just give him a speed buff, it also gave him a slight resistance in being knocked back.


    Razer had no knowledge of any of those, so the only exnation he coulde up with was that An was just lucky.


    So, he decided to push An''s luck to the limit.


    He punched the air multiple times, creating multiple shockwaves that came towards An continuously without any break.


    If one punch wouldn''t knock him off, then how about a hundred?


    But instead of trying to defend against the hundreds of attacks, An instead chose to pull the reins and charge forwards!


    It was a sensible decision that saved his chariot from getting obliterated. An knew that his wooden chariot was very brittle. He knew that one punch from Razer would destroy it into a million splinters.


    With the threat of the hordeing towards them, An couldn''t risk his chariot getting sted into pieces.


    Razer stopped attacking once he saw An elerate even further. He was dumbfounded. He didn''t think that An''s mount could speed up any further, but it turned out that it was still holding back!


    He didn''t know how to process the fact that An had to slow down his mount just so that he could go face to face with him. It was an insult to his face.


    How did he subdue this beast?


    Razer looked at An''s Giraffe-Horse centaur and couldn''t help but admire its beauty. It was the perfectbination of speed and defense, which was excellent in both aspects without any discernible weaknesses.


    He looked at his own Gori-Horse.


    During the first phase of thispetition, he used his tongue 7-star mutation ''Word of the All-Father'' to summon the strongest and fastest Canzer in all of the arena. They werepelled to do so. And the one that heeded his call was none other than the Gori-Horse that he used now.


    It turned out that his steed wasn''t the best one he could have gotten. It was the Giraffe.


    But for some reason, it didn''t get summoned by his ''Word of the All-Father''. The only way to exin this was that the Canzer was probably strong enough to resist his authority.


    The strangest part about this was that the superior Giraffe-Horse was somehow subdued by An¨Ca 2nd stage novice porter. He wasn''t supposed to even be fighting against Canzers. His job was more of a support rather than a damage-dealer.


    How did he do it?


    This made Razer intensely curious about An. He felt something he hadn''t felt in a long time:petitiveness. He wanted to fight An with all of his strength!


    Unfortunately for him, it seemed that An had no intention of fighting with him, especially since he knew that the horde wasing to kill all of them indiscriminately.


    An took out a pellet from his pockets and aimed his slingshot towards Razer''s bronze chariot. He took his time and properly adjusted his aim. At this point, he got enough experience from using this weapon that he was confident that he would hit his target, especially since Razer had no intention of dodging.


    "It''s better to show you," An said as he stretched the band to his shoulders.


    Razer knew what An was trying to do. So, he opened his mouth and activated his mutation ''Word of the All-Father''.


    Stop.


    An would feel that word invade his brain and make him subconsciously agree to the order. And even if he was able to resist, he would still feel an intense headache that would make his aim as shaky as a ship on sea.


    However, even after two seconds passed, An showed no sign of feeling a headache.


    An fired his slingshot and the condensed soil pellet urately hit the Gori-Horse''s head and knocked off its blinders.

 Chapter 92: Repeat the words

    The Gori-Horse shook its head as it felt its autonomy return to its body. It beat its giant hands on its head trying to wake itself up from its stupor.


    Razer witnessed as his loyal mount swayed back and forth, taking his chariot with it.


    But he couldn''t even think about his Canzer going wild because all he could focus on was An''s defiance.


    An wasn''t affected even though he used his ''Word of the All-Father''. That was impossible. After all, it was a mutation with a 7-star rarity¡ªit was supposed to have authority and dominion over all humans with a lower bloodline than him.


    Is he just that good of a shot? Razer shook his head. An was a porter. He didn''t have a sharpshooter LifeSkill that helped him shoot with insane uracy even in the face of a disturbance.


    He started to list out the exnations for how An did it.


    Does he have a greater power realm than me? But as far as Razer knew, the Genesian porter was only a 2nd stage Student. And for An to resist the ''Word of the All-Father'', he would have to be two stages higher than Razer, which was the 6th stage. An wasn''t that strong.


    The only other exnation Razer could think of was¡­


    Does he have a better bloodline than me?


    That was the only way that someone could perfectly resist a mutation that was given to him by the All-Father, Zeus.


    Only those with a Genus greater than 7-star rarity could have the authority and superiority to ignore his words. That was the one weakness of this mutation. Even if Razer was one realm higher than someone, as long as they had a higher rarity bloodline, then they would be able to resist the ''Word of the All-Father.''


    The only problem with this theory was that Razer would have to believe that a mere porter had an 8-star rarity Genus.


    Even he, a genius S ss talent from the Metropolis full of Gods and Goddesses willing to give out powers, was only given a 7-star Genus in his Draft. They said that he would have to prove that he was a True Hero or perform the 12bors for him to gain a better Genus from Zeus himself.


    So, it was hard to believe that a Porter was able to prove himself as a hero so early in his career.


    Wait¡­there''s one other possibility.


    "Are you from the Unimed Lands?" Razer asked.


    An looked at him and didn''t know why he was asking. But, he still answered truthfully.


    "I am."


    I knew it! Since he''s from the Unimed Lands, he probably stumbled upon an Abandoned Territory. That''s where he got the 8-star Genus!


    An Abandoned Territory was a ce that was once inhabited by a God but was abandoned due to some circumstance. Usually, it was because a God subordinated themselves towards a more powerful God and moved to their Territory.


    Usually, the remnants of this abandoned territory were filled with powerful treasures and relics that were abandoned by their citizens. But, the gods themselves could also leave behind an inheritance for others to take.


    Hephaestus once had his own territory but moved back to Olympus thousands of years ago. I heard that some scavengers found an 8-star Genus from the Abandoned Territory!


    "What did you find there? Whose did you find?" Razer asked An.


    But An just tilted his head. "I don''t know what you''re talking about."


    Razer scoffed. He expected An to lie because most scavengers who found an Abandoned Territory tend to keep it a secret so that they could get all of the treasures for themselves.


    "Don''t worry, I won''t steal it."


    "What are you talking about?" An was truly clueless, but Razer still thought that he was bluffing.


    "Whatever. I''ve never faced someone like you before. Star Porter, how apt. Fighting you is more exciting than fighting those other geniuses who im they''re superior."


    Despite Razer putting all of his attention towards An, An was instead focusing on Razer''s Gori-Horse that was going out of control.


    It was hitting its chest out of frustration, howling at nothing but the air.


    ''Close!...Close!....Long to Belong!....''


    It was spouting the same nonsense as the horde of Canzers behind. An was starting to piece together that these monsters wanted to get somewhere together. However, he didn''t know where that was or why they were doing it.


    He wanted to talk to the Gori-Horse and interrogate it for information, unfortunately, his ''Canzer Tongue Mutation'' only allowed him to understand them, not speak with them.


    ''AWU AWU!''


    The Gori-Horse ran towards the buildings on the sidewalk to try and crash Razer''s bronze chariot. But even in the face of danger, the Olympian man didn''t seem to worry about it.


    "I can''t wait to exchange punches with you!" screamed Razer.


    It was only then that he finally looked towards his chaotic mount. He opened his mouth and used his ''Word of the All-Father''.


    Submit to the reins


    As soon as the Canzer heard those words in its mind, it suddenly stopped shaking its head and returned to being a loyal steed.


    An heard its repeated cries turn silent as if it no longer had the capacity to think.


    It was impressive that Razer could still control his mount even though all Pseudo Canzers were malfunctioning. It was a testament to how powerful he was.


    Of course, using that many words put a strain on Razer''s mouth and shut him up for a few minutes.


    If he could speak, then he would challenge An to a duel. So, Razer simply started the duel rather than ask it.


    Razer took the reins and steered it towards An. His Canzer obediently followed the reins and crashed itself towards An''s Giraffe-Horse.


    The bronze and wooden chariots crashed into each other, with the wheels scratching each other and slowing the chariots down.


    An moved the chariot aside to cushion the blow.


    It was clear that Razer wanted a showdown between the two of them, but An knew that this wasn''t the best idea especially since they were getting chased by thousands of manic Pseudo Canzers that couldn''t be frozen. They needed to conserve their strength to fight the Canzers, not fight each other.


    Razer knew that An wanted to avoid a confrontation, so he strained his tongue further by secretlymanding his Gori-Horse to attack the Giraffe-Horse and prevent it from speeding away.


    Since the ''Word of the All-Father'' emitted no sound, this would have gone unnoticed by An.


    Unfortunately for Razer¡­


    ''Attack¡­Giraffe¡­"


    His own mount repeated his words.

 Chapter 93: Defend yourself

    An quickly took the reins and controlled his mount. The Gori-Horse lunged its two long, muscr arms toward the Giraffe''s long neck and tried to strangle it. But before it could even get close, the Giraffe suddenly whipped its long neck towards the Gori and smacked it away.


    "Tsk!" Razer''s chariot almost toppled over.


    An''s reaction was far too fast to even be called a reaction. It was as if An knew what would happen before it even happened! An read his moves like a book!


    Now that his n failed, Razer had no other way to close the distance between them.


    If he couldn''t get close to An, there would be no way for him to attack him. If he used his shockwave punch, An would simply rush forward and dodge the attack easily. That Giraffe-Horse''s eleration was no joke!


    It frustrated the Olympian that he couldn''t simply have a straight-forward duel with the porter. His burning curiosity for An''s strange powers made him want to forgo the race entirely and simply attack the guy after the whole thing was over.


    Of course, he couldn''t. He had to win this race so that Olympus would be happy with his deeds and hopefully give him a better Genus.


    Meanwhile, An tried to warn Razer about the oing horde behind them, but the guy couldn''t stop for a second and kept trying to attack him.


    He ordered his Gori-Horse to pester the Giraffe-Horse to no end, even flinging street dirt to try and distract them. But any time they got too close, An would use the Giraffe''s long neck to push them away. His Canzer''s chitinous armor proved to be superior between the two of them as the Giraffe suffered no injuries in its head even as the Gori tried to punch it back.


    They continued at a stalemate until they finally came to thest segment of the race.


    This part had a lot of curves and zigzags, so they had to focus on the track or else they''d find themselves crashing into the railing and falling off into the cliff below.


    But just as An concentrated on the curve in front of him, he suddenly saw a familiar string of words appear in his eyes.


    [There is death near you]


    [There is death near you]


    [There is death near you]


    An immediately looked behind him. Did the horde already catch up to us?!


    But when he looked back, he couldn''t see any sign of frantic Horse Canzers running towards them. He only saw the small figures of Yasmine and the others trying hard to catch up to them.


    If I didn''t sense the horde, then what did I sense?...Don''t tell me¡­


    As their chariots turned the corner, An was able to see a glimpse of the Colosseum atop the buildings.


    Everything looked normal at first, with the Colosseum''s columns and arches visible even in the distance. However, An saw multiple figures darting back and forth through the windows as if they were shadows in the dark.


    Those were Canzers! He could even see some horse-like figures climbing atop the Colosseum and falling to their deaths.


    Damn¡­it looks like even the Colosseum is filled with Canzers. I thought we all lured them out of there¡­things are much worse than I thought.


    "Razer! Look at the Colosseum. There are wild Pseudo Canzers out there already! And there are thousands more behind us! This is no time to fight against each other!"


    But despite An''s words, the Olympian man was too battle-hungry to even believe his words.


    "Why are you chickening out in our fight? Don''t worry, I won''t beat you too bad."


    An turned furious.


    "I''ll destroy your egoter. There are even more important things to do."


    The hairs on Razer''s arm stood up as soon as he heard An''s provoking words. This was the first time the Olympian genius ever felt disrespected like this. It made him angry and amused. He would haveughed it off if he heard it from some other genius, but instead, he heard it from the one person he didn''t expect to have the courage to say that: a porter.


    Razer wouldn''t have thought that An could spit out such poisonous words.


    Even though Razer started the whole thing, he was the one provoked instead. His hunger for blood grumbled even harder.


    The Genus he received from prideful Zeus couldn''t sit still once it heard An''s arrogance.


    "Then show me! Show how you''ll destroy my ego!" Razer roared.


    An thought for a second and realized that he wouldn''t be able to knock some sense into Razer until he literally knocked some sense into him. Liked it or not, he would have to fight him and show him what he wanted to see.


    "Fine. I''ll hit you one time. Do your best not to get sted away."


    Razer almost scoffed at An''s joke. But once he saw his serious face, he realized that An was not joking. He, a porter, was confident that the man two stages higher than him and had an S ss LifeSkill wouldn''t be able to handle a single punch.


    It stoked Razer''spetitiveness even further.


    "Fine! Do your worst."


    Razermanded his steed to run alongside An. The two of them were now in melee range, just enough for them to fight fists to fists.


    "Defend yourself well. I don''t want to see you suffering."


    Razer gritted his teeth and held in his anger. He didn''t have to say anything. Only when An felt his own hands breaking as he tried to punch him would he finally learn the difference between the two of them.


    "I''m punching in three¡­two¨C"


    "Just punch me already!"


    And just as he requested, An brought his right hand from his hips and up towards Razer''s gut, twisting his hips for maximum force. It was the simplest attack, with no other effect on his body.


    An''s punch was a little bit faster than Razer thought, but there was nothing special with his attack.


    Just as Razer thought, An would only hurt himself if he thought that his punch would even injure a single hair on his body.

 Chapter 94: Satisfied?

    The punch was normal at first. Razer felt that it was no different from a normal punch he''d expect from a porter. For a millisecond, he was disappointed. He anticipated a lot from An but it turned out that he was expecting the impossible from him.


    But just as he was gettingfortable with the punch, he suddenly felt it elerate at an insane speed in its follow-through. An''s fist already hit Razer''s gut, but instead of slowing down, it suddenly generated an intense power in such a short amount of time.


    Razer felt a sharp pain in his abs. The suddenness of this change shocked him so much that he forgot to breathe as he tried to analyze what happened. For the first time in a long time, he felt the wind knocked out of his body.


    His body flung backward and hended back on his seat, with the momentum pushing his bronze carriage away from the wooden chariot to the opposite side of the street.


    Cough. Shock filled Razer''s face as he spit in his mouth and saw his own blood. His hands shook. He never thought that he would get injured from a single punch, much less someone from a porter! He looked down at his Soul System and saw that the hourss that symbolized his SoulTime suddenly poured out tons of sand.


    He lost 50 days from that punch!


    Razer looked back at An and saw him still in his punching position. There was nothing special in his fists.


    How is that possible?!


    The Olympian couldn''t understand how An''s seemingly normal body generated a power that could delete 50 days of his lifespan in one attack.


    He didn''t know that An secretly used his SSS Physique LifeSkill at the veryst second of that punch.


    An knew that he couldn''t show his LifeSkill so openly, so he decided to activate it at the veryst second¡ªjust at the moment when his punch wouldnd.


    To do this, An generated the giant hand and hovered it around his skull-filled LifeSkill.


    He found out that activating his LifeSkill for only a fraction of a second was easier than he thought. It was simple. He just had to imagine a weaker hand that was phasing in and out of existence so that it would only have enough power to touch the for a moment.


    However, he messed up the timing and only activated the LifeSkill when the punch alreadynded. This diminished the punch''s power as its momentum weakened when it hit Razer''s stomach. That meant that the attack Razer felt was only a weakened version of An''s real LifeSkill punch.


    Given that Razer didn''t specialize in defense, he was still in the 4th stage Student realm. He wasn''t supposed to get injured by someone in the 2nd stage.


    This was only made possible because of An''s mysterious SSS ss Physique LifeSkill as well as the strength buff of the other LifeSkills.


    Ptooh. "I feel like I''ve been hit by a truck," Razer said, holding his stomach as the pain still lingered in his mind. "What did you do? Do you have relics on your body? Do you use any special weapons or armor?"


    The Olympian man simply could not believe how An did it. Even if An and he were fighting normally, Razer would have to be wary of that punch.


    "Are you satisfied now?" An asked.


    Razer wiped the blood off his mouth. "Are you kidding? This is just the beginning. It''s my turn now!"


    Just then, their chariots finally turned thest corner and they were finally onwards to thest straight track back towards the Colosseum.


    There were supposed to be banners and spectators cheering them on after their arduous and grueling race in thispetition. There was supposed to be a finish line that led back to the Colosseum itself.


    But instead, they only saw another horde of Horse Canzers waiting for them.


    Even the Colosseum itself was crawling with Canzers. As soon as the first ones saw the chariots racing in the distance, they immediately got into a frenzy and ran toward An and Razer at fast speeds. Find your next read at m_v l|e-NovelBin


    This time, An didn''t have to say anything as Razer finally noticed them.


    "What''s this?"


    "It''s what I''ve been trying to tell you. The Canzers have gone rogue."


    Both of them slowed their chariots to a stop.


    Razer couldn''t help but curse his bad luck. This disaster happened just at the right moment when he was about to fight someone he found to be of equal strength to himself. This was a rare asion. All of the people he had ever fought were people much older and had stronger power realms than him.


    He had never felt challenged by his peers, especially someone much younger than him: he was usually too powerful for them.


    But An was the exception. Razer felt like the porter was the only one who could challenge him and push him to the limits. The thought of An beating him excited him even more than him winning!


    He wanted to go all out and fight An right here and right now, but his sensible responsibilities stopped him from doing such idiotic actions.


    The looming threat of the rogue Pseudo Canzers prevailed over his desire for a fight.


    Then, they suddenly heard the sounds of multiple chariotsing towards them from the corner. It was Yasmine, S, and the others.


    They finally caught up to the two leaders of the race and were surprised to find them stopped in the middle of the track. They still worried about the horde of Canzers behind them so they wondered why the two stopped running towards the portal.


    Only when they passed the two of them did they finally understand. There was another horde in front of them.


    Their shoulders slumped as they realized that there was no escaping this disaster. The rabid Pseudo Canzers encircled them with no way out.


    They''d have to kill for their freedom.

 Chapter 95: Aren鈥檛 you joining?

    "By the Gods! Why are there so many Pseudo Canzers?!"


    "I thought we could leave if we went back to the Colosseum! There''s even more monsters there!"


    "Why is this happening?!"


    They had no answer. None of them had ever experienced this kind of disaster before. The only one who went through a different but simr situation was An. He also experienced an anomaly in his very first mission.


    S didn''t know much, but she offered her guess. "The Pocket Remedium itself is malfunctioning. It spawned more Pseudo Canzers than what was programmed."


    "Can a Pocket Remedium break like that? I''ve never heard of any situation where thousands upon thousands of Pseudo Canzers are spawned out of nowhere with no way to freeze them."


    The Olympian woman went silent. Just because she knew how they spawned, didn''t mean that she knew why. She was just as clueless as the rest of them.


    This time, Yasmine was the one to speak up. She could see that everyone was starting to lose hope, which would only detract from their ability to fight. Experience more tales on m v|l e''-NovelBin


    "Either way, we have to work together to kill them all if we want to get to the portal."


    This gave them a bit of hope now that they had a clear objective to follow. If they worked together and fought their way towards the Colosseum, then they could have the chance to go back to the portal. It wouldn''t be easy, but it was still better than to stay here and do nothing.


    "Isn''t it better to stay here and wait for reinforcements?" S asked. "The concentration of Pseudo Canzers isrger there. We might not even make it inside the Colosseum before thousands of them swarm us. Surely your HeadQuarters have already noticed that something is wrong."


    The Olympians trusted S, so they were more inclined to follow her suggestion. Meanwhile, the Genesians had no confidence that reinforcements woulde before they exhausted themselves fighting an endless horde of monsters.


    After all, they heard that the reinforcements didn''te until hourster when An was in a simr situation. He had to be the one to rescue his teammates himself.


    But before everybody could argue on what to do, they all suddenly felt the ground tremble and shake. They knew what this meant.


    They all looked back in horror as the horde of Horse Canzers finally caught up to them. Their hooves chaotically stomped on the ground with such ferocity and intensity that they were sure that they would lose 90% of their SoulTime if they got trampled by them.


    "Draconic Inferno of Swords!" Yasmine shouted. She didn''t waste any more time as she jumped up the steps in the air until she was more than 15 feet in the air.


    And just like before, she somersaulted forward, creating momentum and time for her dragon to develop in her sword. Her swing turned into two full turns, giving enough time for her dragon to grow longer and burn more intensely.


    Just as she was about to hit the ground, sheunched her dragon towards the horde.


    GROOAAAA, the dragon screamed.


    It slithered through the air and finally hit the first line of Pseudo Canzers. The unlucky Horse monster suddenly burst into mes upon contact, turning even its bones into a liquid.


    But the ming dragon wasn''t satisfied with just one Canzer. It continued to pierce through the horde until it killed 10 Canzers that stood in its way.


    It was an impressive feat for her to kill 10 of them in just one attack. If this was any other situation, the rest of them would cheer and congratte her for her strength. Unfortunately, they soon saw that the horde had many other monsters that could rece the ones it lost. After a few seconds, it seemed as if Yasmine didn''t kill any Canzers at all.


    "Let the monsters witness your glory, Divine Apollo!" S raised her hands and pointed her palms at the horde. "Brightest Day!"


    Two pirs of light beamed down from her hands towards the chaotic Canzers. Those hit by this light felt as if they looked at a thousand suns, leaving them blinded. The heat from this attack was so hot that their eyes melted to the back of their skulls and incinerated their meat down to the bones.


    With those two pirs, S killed 12 Canzers easily.


    Seeing the two women destroy those Canzers gave hope to them all. The Genesians and the Olympians settled their differences and started to bring down all of their powers towards the horde.


    Beams of power, lightning, fire, wood, water, and all other kinds of elements rained down upon the horde, killing themyer byyer.


    They didn''t have to care about tactics or strategy, they simply unloaded all their LifeSkills into the Canzers indiscriminately. It was freeing for them, as this was the first time that they could really go all out without having to worry about nning their moves.


    Soon, a cacophony of groans came out of the horde. Canzers were dying at a faster rate than what they could replenish. This prevented the horde from advancing towards the group, even pushing them back inch by inch.


    "Don''t worry guys! I''ll handle the front."


    While everyone was handling the horde from the back, Razer took it upon himself to handle the monstersing from the Colosseum.


    With just a simplemand from his ''Word of the All-Father'', the Canzers in the front all slowed to a crawl. This created a stampede behind, with Canzers getting killed and trampled by their ownrades.


    Razer couldn''t wait any longer and rushed to the front of the line. With a huge smile on his face, he raised his fist and brought it down towards the Canzer in front.


    BOOOGHHH


    The concrete below exploded, pushing tens of Canzers up in the air. But that wasn''t the end. He readied both his fists and unloaded multiple fast jabs that created shockwaves that killed any Canzers unfortunate enough to be near him.


    "HAHAHAHA! Witness how a Berserker goes berserk!"


    Razer then looked back. "Aren''t you going in on this? You''re missing out on all the fun, porter!"


    An was the only one who stood still. He looked at the ground with an incredulous face.


    [You have reaped the death of Simple Creatures] x481

 Chapter 96: Reaping while standing

    [Due to your trait, you have multiplied your rewards by 10]


    [You have received 24,050 experience]


    [You have gained D ss Scout Skill: Thermal Vision]


    [You have gained 20 F ss Thermal Vision LifeSkill fragments]


    [You have gained 10 (1-star) Pseudo Canzer Genus]


    An felt his own body heat up as he reaped the deaths of all the Pseudo Canzers around him. As they all unleashed their LifeSkills and decimated the horde, An gained more and more experience from the carnage that ensued. Bits and pieces of Pseudo Canzer flesh flew everywhere.


    And from that, he seemed to have gained another LifeSkill! He knew he''d get a lot of experience, but he didn''t know that he''d also get LifeSkills and Genuses.


    From what he experienced in the Training Hall Remedium, he thought gaining those rewards was very rare. After all, he only got 2 LifeSkills after assisting hundreds of Pseudo Canzer kills. But it looked like he was wrong.


    It turned out that the probability of gaining Genuses and LifeSkills was just too small if he just reaped a death without doing anything. The sheer number of deaths he reaped this time was simply too much that he still gained something even if the odds were extremely small.


    He looked at the LifeSkill and saw that the job was a Scout. Although it was only in the D-ss, An had no problem with it because the LifeSkill came with multiple other fragments!


    An got the Thermal Vision LifeSkill multiple times and all of the extras quickly turned into fragments that he could use to upgrade its ss.


    He also gained another Genus from the Pseudo Canzers. As expected, he only gained 10 (1-star) Genuses from it. These were rarer to get than LifeSkills, so An only got one out of them from all those Canzer deaths.


    With how much he gotpared to how little he did, An was tempted to get into trouble in the Remedium more often. All he had to do was stand in the middle of the chaos and watch as the reaping counter went up. He had more experience than he knew what to do with!


    [An]


    [Bloodline: Angelic Reaper of Souls]


    [Genus]


    ¡ª2x (1-star) Sapient Canzer


    ¡ª10x (1-star) Pseudo Canzer


    ¡ª1x (2-star) Pseudo Canzer


    ¡ª1x (3-star) Human


    ¡ª1x (4-star) Sapient Canzer


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Grim Reaper


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Angel


    [LifeSkills]


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª 2nd stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(2000 / 2000)


    Specialty: Vanguard


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating to 4th stage


    ¡ªMage: (B) Spiked Chitin Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 4th stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 6x F ss fragments


    ¡ªSniper: (SSS) Apocalyptic Hellfire


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 3rd stage


    ¡ªScout: (D) Thermal Vision


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª 1st stage Student


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª (0 / 1000)


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 20x F ss fragments


    [Avable Experience: 66,181.2]


    [Upgrade Points: 965,000]


    And just as he expected, he was given a chance to merge all of those fragments and upgrade the ss of his new LifeSkill.


    [Do you want to merge all of your fragments?]


    [Upgrade Points required: 36,000]


    [Fragments required: 16]


    An quickly saw the geometrical shapes of the Upgrade Points do their job and string the meteor fragments towards the LifeSkill.


    It wasn''t long until he finally saw the result.


    ¡ªScout: (A) Thermal Vision


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª 1st stage Student


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª (0 / 1000)


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 4x F ss fragments


    Testing it out, An grabbed this newly formed with a giant hand and he immediately saw the world around him turn into a different color.


    The humans all emitted a bright yellow light inside their bodies, indicating their internal body temperature. The harder they used their LifeSkills, the brighter they burned in his eyes. The Pseudo Canzers on the other hand waspletely the opposite. The core of their bodies all emitted a dark blue color, meaning that their bodies were extremely cold.


    No matter if hot or cold, An could distinguish a Canzer from miles away just from the dark blue spot in his vision. And if the walls were thin enough, he could see through the walls and know if there was someone there.


    He understood why this was a good LifeSkill for Scouts. They were usually the ones ahead of the group, so they would be the first one to see the Canzers, giving them the initiative advantage.


    Next up was his Genus.


    [Do you want to merge all of your 1-star) Pseudo Canzer Genus?]


    [Upgrade Points required: 10,000]


    An watched as the Upgrade points once again pulled themselves into a string and wrapped the helix structures into one small group. It soon demolished them and reformed them into a much more refined helix form.


    [Genus]


    ¡ª1x (4-star) Pseudo Canzer


    An wanted to immediately test out his new LifeSkill, and unfortunately, he would soon have that chance.


    The Saviors had now all been throwing their LifeSkills for at least ten minutes without any break at all. Exhaustion was painted on their faces. An could see with his Thermal Vision LifeSkill that their bodies were starting to cool down, meaning they didn''t have enough energy left to keep using their powers.


    It was now quickly apparent that their jobposition was less than ideal. Their most talented fighters were not suited for this kind of battle.


    Yasmine and S both had the DPS job. Razer had the Berserker job.


    Both of those jobs were really good at focusing their damage for overall better power and destruction. If they were fighting a single Destruction Canzer that was a thousand times stronger than these Pseudo Canzers, then they could easily dispatch it with their LifeSkills.


    Unfortunately, they were dealing with a horde. These Pseudo Canzers were easy to kill, however, there were just too many of them. Yasmine and S''s LifeSkills were extremely inefficient when dealing with arge group like this.


    Being a berserker was better, but Razer wasn''t enough to fight off every single Canzer.


    They needed a Mage. They had overall less power than the DPS and the Berserker, but they could target arge group like these Pseudo Canzers.


    Unfortunately, none of them was a mage.


    Because of that, they were exhausted just minutes after the fight started. It wasn''t long before the horde was closing in on them from both sides.

 Chapter 97: Being bait

    An knew what to do.


    "Run as fast as you can," An said to everyone.


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    "Where are we running to? They have us surrounded!"


    Just then, An suddenly jumped up towards the railing and used it to boost himself up one of the houses.


    Then, he pped.


    CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP


    "Come get me, you monsters!"


    An''s shout reverberated through the buildings and reached the rabid Canzers. The monsters whipped their heads towards the sound of his voice and immediately ran towards him. They were even crazier than they were before as if they found him to be better prey than the rest of these humans.


    He stayed on top of the roof, waiting for the Cancers to gather below him. He even let some of them climb up towards him, letting them think that they would soon be able to feast on him.


    But at the veryst second, An jumped back and created space between him and the Canzers. This led the monsters to be even more deranged as they chased An not knowing that this was all a part of his n. And as more Canzers chased him, the more Canzers followed behind thinking there was another group of humans there.


    Soon enough, the rest of the Saviors visibly saw the horde of Canzers lessen to the point that they could finally see the road beneath them.


    "What is he doing? Why is he sacrificing himself for us?"


    "Does he have another way out?"


    "Why?"


    The rest of the Olympians couldn''t understand why An would put himself at risk for all of them. They would understand if An did it to protect his family or his friends, but they all barely even knew each other.


    "He''s our Star Porter¡­"


    "That is a true hero¡­"


    The Genesians shouldn''t be surprised; this wasn''t the first time that An did this. They already heard about An''s heroic deeds, but it was another thing to witness it firsthand and be the recipient of his bravery. Some of them even thought that his story was exaggerated by others. Only when they saw him do it again did they finally understand. He was a hero.


    He didn''t even hesitate. As soon as everyone was on their ropes and the Canzers were about to overwhelm them, An immediately acted as if there was no debate in his mind.


    It was even more confusing once they all realized that An was only a porter with no skills to protect himself.


    Does he have no care for his SoulTime?


    They could all guess what would happen to him once those Canzers caught up to him. He would get wrangled into bits and pieces of flesh until there was nothing left of him but blood and bones. He would lose 99% of his SoulTime and get saved by the Angels until reinforcements arrived and brought back his blood to the church for healing.


    Then, he would experience an arduous recovery period where he would regenerate from a single blood cell taking years upon years until he finally returned to his old self.


    By then, he would be more than 100 years in debt to the City, meaning any missions that he did from then on would be halved as it automatically paid off his debt.


    Of course, they didn''t know that Angels were already extinct. No one would be saved if their SoulTime went to zero.


    If they knew that An was risking death by doing this, then they would owe him more than their lives.


    Yasmine, on the other hand, felt a prick in her heart when she looked at An''s fading figure. She didn''t know what to feel. She was angry at him for doing this, but she couldn''t help but worry for him.


    She wanted to run after him, but by doing that, she would invalidate all of his efforts. The rest of the people stuck here wouldn''t be able to go to the Colosseum without her help.


    I''ll get you back for this, Yasmine said in her heart.


    "Let''s go! I''ll lead you all out of the Remedium even if I have to incinerate the whole ce myself!"


    The rest of them were still dumbfounded by An''s heroic sacrifice. It was the kind of thing that the Olympians only heard about in legends like Hercules and Achilles.


    But once Yasmine shouted at them, they realized that they were still being surrounded by Canzers. This was the only chance they''d get to finally go back to the Colosseum and out the portal. They had to go.


    They all mounted their chariots and raced forth, with Yasmine and S leading the way. They had to kill the Canzers before they could even approach their chariots because they needed to protect the blinders. Without that, their mounts would turn into rabid Canzers and try to attack them.


    It was at this point that S noticed that Razer didn''te with them.


    "Razer! What are you doing?"


    But instead of looking at her, Razer looked to where An disappeared.


    "You think you can have all the fun to yourself, porter?"


    Razer jumped to the opposite side from where An disappeared.


    "The one with the most kills wins, got it?!" Razer shouted at the top of his lungs, making sure that An heard it even in the distance.


    His booming voice attracted a lot of Canzers that soon converged on his location. Just like An, he led them away from the main group and helped clear the way.


    ###


    An darted from street to street, with the Canzers running towards him at top speeds.


    They stumbled and trampled on each other just trying to catch this one human, but he seemed to always be one step ahead of them.


    An looked to the side and saw arge building with a closed roof.


    <Mall of Genesis>


    This was where he wanted to go. He led the hundreds of Canzers toward the shopping center.


    He smiled. This was the ce where he could finally go all out.

 Chapter 98: Warehouse

    Others might have thought that An was doing them a favor, but in truth, he simply wanted to have time for himself to practice his own LifeSkills. He wanted to test his mettle against such arge horde of Canzers where he didn''t have to worry about others finding out his secret.


    Don''t get it wrong, An wanted to save them from suffering by ''sacrificing'' himself, but he also wanted to practice at the same time.


    It was killing two birds with one stone.


    Once he was inside the shopping center, he looked around and saw different mall outlets open with mannequins disying thetest trendy outfits.


    He went through the fast food section, the outfits section, department stores, and even a pet store.


    Just then, he ran past onerge outlet to the side with the name;


    <Beta''s Hardware>


    He was going to run past this store, but something caught his eye. Just further up inside the store was a single aisle that sold industrial hardware such asthes, milling machines, and presses. And one of the things they were selling was these ball bearings of all sizes.


    They were selling steel balls.


    Perfect! An thought. He quickly took a turn to the right and entered the store.


    Once inside, he opened up his Soul System and manifested a giant hand that grasped one of his LifeSkills with a muddy surface with ck streaks. This was his Mage LifeSkill.


    ¡ªMage: (B) Spiked Chitin Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 4th stage


    Once it was grasped in the giant hand, An felt the power coursing through his veins. He quickly looked behind him and saw the horde of Canzers about to catch up to him.


    A ck cone of webby strings shot out of his palms and spread out in front of him until it covered the double-door entrance of the hardware store. This spray of ck webs was as thick as a finger with multiple thorns around it.


    An estimated that it could hold a single Pseudo Canzer for about 20 seconds to break through. But a horde of them? Probably 2 seconds at most.


    So, he grasped his LifeSkill again and shot out another burst of webs that reinforced the blockage at the entrance.


    That wasn''t enough, so An shot out another one in session.


    He wanted to continue doing it more, but he found that the giant hand he manifested couldn''t grasp his LifeSkill anymore. The nt turned translucent and was imperceptible to touch.


    An saw that the was slowly but surely gaining its color back, but it would take at least three seconds for it toe back fully opaque.


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    It turned out that he couldn''t perpetually use his LifeSkill. It would need a cooldown after it was used three times continuously.


    But he didn''t have time to wait.


    The first line of Pseudo Canzers ran towards the chitin spray headfirst, bulging the webbing but stopping thempletely.


    ''Hurt!....pain¡­,'' the Canzers screamed.


    They wanted to push forward, but the spikes along the webs cut through their armor like it was cheese. And the further they pushed themselves forward, the further the spikes embedded themselves onto their bodies. They would have stopped there and recuperated for a few seconds, but the Canzers behind them had no care for their well-being.


    The horde pushed forward, trampling those that got stuck in the chitin spray.


    An knew that he didn''t have enough time, so he quickly grabbed a handful of steel balls and pocketed them in his toolbelt.


    It was at this point that the horde finally broke through the webbing and ran towards him at full speed, heartlessly stepping on theirrades till they died.


    [You have reaped the death of a simple creature: Pseudo Canzers] x8


    [Due to your trait, you have multiplied your experience by 10]


    [You have gained 400 experience]


    An looked to the side and saw an ''employees only'' door to the side. He quickly ran towards it, with the Pseudo Canzers hot on his tail. Some of them couldn''t stop their momentum because of the slippery tiles of the store, so they crashed onto the aisles of the store.


    This gave An enough time to go out and run through the thin hallway that led to another room.


    Once the Canzers reached the door, they were soon caught in a jam. The hallway was only wide enough for two Canzers at most and these monsters weren''t exactly the most patient of beasts. They tried to squeeze through the tight passage, which further caused traffic behind them.


    An went out the other side and saw that he was in arge open space with tons of boxes and wooden pallets around. This seemed to be the warehouse of the Hardware store where they stored their inventory.


    He activated his new LifeSkill, Thermal Vision, and saw the dark blue spots beyond the door. The Canzers were still having trouble passing through the hallway.


    This gave him enough time to prepare.


    He took out the steel balls in his toolbelt and squeezed fifty of them together into his palms. His whole body was engulfed in a ck me as he activated his Physique LifeSkill. It gave him the strength to easily condense the steel balls into one single pellet.


    He continued to create pellet after pellet, with a total of 5 super-condensed metal balls. This was much stronger than his condensed soil pellet, which withstood much greater strength for his slingshot.


    Now that he could activate his Physique LifeSkill, his slingshot power increased multiple times!


    Just then, the door suddenly burst open as the first batch of Canzers finally reached the warehouse. They looked around the room, smelling that human''s distinct smell. They all looked up and saw him standing atop a tower of boxes and crates.


    More and more Canzers continued to run out the door, slowly filling the room like a tide.


    It wasn''t long before there were hundreds of hungry, rabid, Pseudo Canzers beneath the tower of boxes that An stood on.


    They trampled on each other trying to reach up towards him.


    An activated his Spiked Chitin Spray and shot it toward the only exit in the room.


    He didn''t want them to run away.


    He set his eyes on the fiery in his Soul System and finally grasped it with his giant hand.


    ¡ªSniper: (SSS) Apocalyptic Hellfire


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 3rd stage

 Chapter 99: Sniper

    An raised his slingshot and aimed it down. He stretched the bands to his shoulders and beyond, using all the strength he had with his Physique LifeSkill. The rubber bands trembled. It glowed a slight green tint as it transformed An''s power into potential energy, storing all of his strength in the bands.


    Now that he used the maximum strength he had to prime the slingshot, An let go of his Physique LifeSkill.


    An finally grasped the Apocalyptic Hellfire LifeSkill in his giant hand.


    The super-condensed steel ball suddenly erupted in a bluish-green fire. He could feel the power in his hands transfer to the steel ball in his slingshot, imbuing it with more magic.


    An took a deep breath, exhaled, and finally released the slingshot.


    THWATTT


    A single thin line of bluish-green fire instantaneously appeared from An''s slingshot and diagonally down to the floor.


    The Canzers didn''t even notice anything different.


    The pellet disappeared into the ground, leaving nothing but a pellet-sized scorching hole in the tiles.


    That''s it?


    An thought that there would be more to a SSS ss LifeSkill. He didn''t know if the condensed metal pellet got destroyed or not because he couldn''t see where itnded.


    He had to use his Thermal Vision LifeSkill to follow the heat dissipated by the shot.


    As he did, a clean bright yellow line that led down to the ground caught his attention. And once he followed where it went, his eyes went wide.


    Deep underground, there was a billowing yellow bulge erupting from the bottom to the top with an insane thermal energy!


    It wasn''t long before it reached the surface and burst out in an explosive manner, killing about a hundred Pseudo Canzers from the discharge alone. The eruption further sent out tiles and concrete rubble outwards apanied by a furious bluish-green fire that brought out an intense heat around it.


    The Canzers that got lucky and avoided the explosion were soon overwhelmed by a fire that made their violet blood boil from the inside. It wasn''t long before their skin and chitinous armor burned and liquified, leaving nothing but a charred corpse below.


    Not only that, small embers fell like ash from the air. Those that underestimated this wisp of bluish-green me ended up having their whole bodies engulfed in a fire that consumed all of their flesh and blood.


    Strangely enough, the heat wave caused by the pir of bluish-green fire killed more Canzers than the original explosion.


    If An didn''t have his Physique LifeSkill, even he would feel the scorching hot air.


    He watched as more and more Canzers fell victim to his ''sniper'' attack. With just one move, he killed almost half of the Canzers in the warehouse.


    It turned out that he used too much power in his slingshot. Because he used his Physique LifeSkill to leverage more power, the pellet ended up prating through tens of meters underground until it finally exploded into a fire that led back to the surface. If he used less power, then the condensed metal pellet would have exploded upon impact with the ground, killing more Canzers from the get go.


    ''Human¡­dangerous¡­.must kill¡­''


    ''Must kill¡­.human¡­''


    ''Kill¡­together!''


    The surviving Canzers felt threatened by An''s power. If they were fighting him alone, then they wouldn''t have the courage to attack him right after he showed such destructive abilities. But they knew that they still held the advantage with their numbers.


    And they were smart enough to know that they couldn''t let An stayfy atop his box of towers shooting down his Apocalyptic Hellfire LifeSkill. Another shot would decimate them and they''d lose the advantage. They couldn''t let that happen.


    They frantically climbed up the wooden boxes. The Canzers no longer trampled on each other, but helped each other up. The threat of the single human forced them to cooperate.


    Those that were strong like the Panda-Horse or the Bear-Horse offered themselves to be at the bottom and be the foundation for their climb. Those that were nimbler like the Monkey-Horse and the Spider-Horse climbed atop and tried to reach for An''s feet.


    With their coordination, it wasn''t long before some of them finally had the chance to bring the human down for them to feast on.


    The Octopus-Horse was the first one to finally reach the top. It used its tentacles to sliver sneakily towards An''s ankles. If it was able to get near him, then its suction cup would cling onto him and never let go.


    But just as it was about to grab his ankles, the tower of boxes suddenly swayed back and forth. The climbing Canzers caused the whole structure to be unbnced until it leaned to the side.


    The tower of boxes slowly fell, with the Canzers falling with it.


    The Canzers weren''t entirely unhappy with this. If the tower of boxes fell, then so did the human!


    Yet none of them saw that happen. The Canzers expected him to fall right into their maws, ready to be devoured, but as they closed their mouths in anticipation, they chomped on nothing but air.


    Suddenly, the air got heavier. It was as if the wind itself was choking them, preventing them from breathing. It squeezed their ribs and pushed it into their lungs.


    The Pseudo Canzers felt a chill in their horse spines. There was a horrifying creature above them that emanated danger down to their very bones.


    They saw a blinding white light from up above.


    And once they looked closer, they saw that it was only the human hovering in the air.


    But behind him was something they never thought possible.


    It was Angel Wings.


    The power emanated from those feathery wings was something that threatened the very being¡ªthe very core of the Pseudo Canzers. They were in the presence of their natural predator.


    The centaurs directly below An froze in fear. They couldn''t even breathe.


    Those at the outskirts of the monster wave felt a weakened effect of the Angel Wings, so they were able to retain their senses. They slowly backed away. And once they did, they started a chain reaction that caused further panic and fear amongst the Pseudo Canzers.


    The monsters ran away from An with dread written all over their faces. They kicked those behind them, they bit those around them, and they bulled their way forward with no regards for camaraderie and solidarity. Chaos reigned in their minds.


    ''NO!...ANGELS¡­FEAR!''


    In their panic, they ran towards the wall to try and burst through it. But they couldn''t. And in their desperation, they tried to climb the walls of the warehouse, not realizing there was no way out except from where they came.


    And those lucky ones that figured out the door was stuck from the webbed Spiked Chitin Spray.

 Chapter 100: Do you understand me?

    An hovered above the terrified Pseudo Canzers. They trampled and ran over each other as they tried to get as far away as they could from his Angel Wings. They were scared to death.


    He moved forward, and the Canzers pushed themselves into a corner opposite him. He was like a dog herding sheep. He carefully guided the lost and horrified Canzers toward the corner of the warehouse. Those at the back quickly jumped over those in the front in a bid to be the one farthest away from him.


    They didn''t know that it didn''t matter. They would all die anyway.


    An raised his slingshot and aimed it at the mass of monsters. This time, he didn''t use his Physique LifeSkill to store energy in the bands.


    He manifested a giant hand to grasp his Apocalyptic Hellfire LifeSkill once again. And just like before, a bluish-green fire erupted in the super condensed steel ball, growingrger as the magic flowed out of his body and into the slingshot.


    He knew from experience that his uracy improved if he released his shot while he exhaled.


    A line of fire appeared as soon as he let go of the slingshot. And almost instantaneously, the ground from where he aimed exploded into a great big ball of bluish-green apocalyptic fire. In less than a second, all the groans and terrified cries of the Pseudo Canzers turned into the sounds of burning chitin and flesh.


    Smoke and ash filled the air as the fire consumed all the bodies of the monsters instantly, turning all of them into ckened carcasses that turned into ash with one gentle breeze from the air.


    [You have killed a simple creature: Pseudo Canzers] x392


    [Due to your trait, you have multiplied your rewards by 10]


    [You have gained 50 F ss Thermal Vision LifeSkill fragments]


    [You have gained 30 (1-star) Pseudo Canzer Genus]


    [You have gained 39,200 experience]


    Just like he guessed, he got more LifeSkill fragments and Genus from killing Canzers instead of just reaping their deaths.


    He gained more experience and rewards even though he killed less than the deaths he reaped earlier.


    An took a deep breath and lowered himself back down the rubble-filled floor of the warehouse. He retracted his Angel Wings immediately. He was a little bit tired.


    Using his mutation felt like he was performing push-ups with his ''wings muscle'' every second he pped his wings to move and fly. It was exhausting.


    Lizzie wasn''t lying when she said that mutations were akin to extra body parts.


    He could do 100 pushups with his ''angel wing muscle'' which corresponded to about 100 seconds of continuous exertion of his angel wings. If he was flying at full speed, then he would onlyst 100 seconds. But if he took his time and barely hovered in the air, then he couldst much longer.


    An also felt that his ''angel wing muscle'' got stronger every time he used it, just like a real muscle. He was incentivized to keep using his mutation as much as possible, but he was limited to where he could show off his strange mutation.


    [Do you want to merge all of your fragments?]


    [Upgrade Points required: 140,000]


    [Fragments required: 48]


    An let the Soul System handle all of the upgrades and witnessed the Upgrade Points do their magic. It wasn''t long until the Thermal Vision LifeSkill was upgraded into a new ss.


    ¡ªScout: (SR) Thermal Vision


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª 1st stage Student


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª (0 / 1000)


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 6x F ss fragments


    An was surprised to see that his Scout LifeSkill was now in the SR ss! He never heard of anyone having a LifeSkill greater than S ss, but now he surpassed it just by upgrading it through all of the LifeSkill fragments he got from reaping the Pseudo Canzer''s death.


    An quickly upgraded this LifeSkill to the 2nd stage.


    [You have sessfully advanced through the 1st Stage Student Realm of your SR ss LifeSkill Thermal Vision]


    [Consolidation period: 12 hrs: 59 mins: 50secs]


    Now, he was given the chance to merge all of his newly acquired Genus.


    [Do you want to merge all of your (1-star) Pseudo Canzer Genus?]


    [Upgrade Points required: 46,000]


    Nothing changed this time as the Upgrade points created another helix structure that was much more intricate than the one before.


    [Genus]


    ¡ª1x (6-star) Pseudo Canzer


    [You have gained the (6-star) mutation Pseudo Canzer whisperer]


    An gained a new mutation from this new Genus. He wasn''t surprised. Now that his Pseudo Canzer genus was in the 6-star rarity, it had a higher chance of spawning a mutation.


    Whisperer? Does it mean that I can whisper to Pseudo Canzers?


    He immediately wanted to try it out. Fortunately, there were still a few ones still left alive that got stuck in his Spiked Chitin Spray near the door. Their bodies were full of scratches and cuts as they got entangled deeper and deeper into the thorned web. They struggled, but it was useless.


    An approached them. These Pseudo Canzers just witnessed their brethren get incinerated into ash and dust with just one shot. Not only that, they couldn''t forget that time when they saw this human suddenly sprout Angel Wings on his back. Suffice it to say, they were petrified to see him approach.


    He closed his eyes and concentrated on his tongue. He tried to bring out his new mutation.


    To be honest, An didn''t know how to bring out a mutation. He was only able to use his Angel Wings because he already identally activated it during his first mission. After that incident, he was able to feel his new ''angel wing muscle'' in his back and he could summon it whenever he wanted.


    However, he didn''t know how to do that with his new mutation. It was like trying to move your sixth finger when you only have five. It was like trying to open your third eye when all you''ve ever had was two.


    He tried to replicate the sensations he felt when he activated his Angel Wings. He remembered it clearly. First, his shoulder des turned numb and a prickly feeling appeared on his skin before the Angel Wings sprouted out of his body.


    Trying to transfer that feeling to his mouth, he suddenly felt the same numb and prickly sensation in his throat. He focused on it and tried to push it even further.


    After a few failures, An finally produced a sound in his throat that didn''t sound human. It sounded Canzerous.


    ''Do you understand me?''


    The Pseudo Canzer in front of him seized. It couldn''t believe that the human was speaking theirnguage.


    It couldn''t handle the stress and died from the shock.


    [You have killed a simple creature]


    [You have gained 100 experience]

 Chapter 101: Melt

    The Canzers felt their artificial hearts sieze when they understood An''s words. It was unsettling. They didn''t expect the human to suddenly produce a sound that only Canzers could make. They couldn''t even understand how that was possible.


    An didn''t automatically know theirnguage. He was still thinking in terms of humannguage, but using his new mutation, it got tranted to something that a Pseudo Canzer could understand.


    ''I assume you all understand me.''


    Now that they all saw him speak the samenguage again, they finally believed that a human could speak theirnguage.


    ''How human¡­.''


    ''Not¡­possible¡­''


    They tried to squirm out of the sticky web they were stuck in. They didn''t even care that their bodies were getting mangled and cut from the thorns on the webs. They only wanted to get away from the human abomination as far away as possible.


    He had Angel Wings, he had untold power that could kill hundreds of Canzers in one shot, and now he could speak like one of them. He was more of a monster than the Canzers.


    ''Why did you all go crazy and attack humans? How did you all spawn without permission? How did you resist the power of the Pocket Dimension?''


    An unloaded all sorts of questions on the Canzers. Those questions weighed on his mind for a long time but he had no way to find out the answers. Now, he had the chance. Who better to answer his questions than the culprit themselves?


    ''Don''t¡­understand¡­.'' the Deer-Horse replied.


    An forgot that these Pseudo Canzers were not all that intelligent. They had the IQ equivalent of a regr monkey who had noplex conscious thoughts, only their instincts. If they were afraid, then their groans and cries would show their fear. But they wouldn''t understand why they were afraid.


    ''What do you know about Angels?''


    And as soon as An mentioned that seemingly taboo word with Canzers, they suddenly jerked away from him as if their mere name was enough to strike fear in their hearts.


    An had a guess that everything wrong that had been happening in the City had something to do with the extinction of Angels. But he couldn''t prove it.


    ''Angels¡­scary¡­''


    ''Fear!....No angels¡­no more¡­.''


    Judging from the reactions he garnered from the Canzers that saw his Angel Wings, he guessed that Canzers were deathly afraid of Angels. They were even more afraid of Angels than humans.


    An tried to process his thoughts. If they were afraid of Angels, does that mean that Angels were fighting the Canzers before they went extinct? Or is it because Angels were the beings that revive humans and make them immortal?


    The fact that the Canzers knew about Angels meant that they saw them. Humans couldn''t. Angels were invisible beings that hovered above the humans at all times and injected them with SoulTime whenever their life was in danger.


    ''Did the angels fight you?''


    Unfortunately, the Pseudo Canzers had no other thoughts other than fear whenever An mentioned the Angels. It was possible that they truly knew nothing about Angels other than they were dangerous, or they simply couldn''t talk about them because they were too afraid.


    Since the conversation wasn''t going anywhere, An decided to ask a different question.


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    ''We long to belong¡­what do you mean by that?''


    The Canzers looked at An and his words seemed to evoke a forgotten feeling within them. He saw the quick change in their expression from deathly fear to fearless zealousness.


    ''We long¡­.to belong¡­''


    ''We long¡­.to belong¡­''


    ''We long¡­.to belong¡­''


    It was as if he awakened them by saying those words. They couldn''t stop the ritualistic repetition of those words even if he tried to intimidate them. They kept repeating those words to no end.


    Something will happen. I''m sure of it, An thought. It had something to do with the words ''we long to belong.''


    But he couldn''t ask anything to the Pseudo Canzers because they continued to recite those words mindlessly.


    With no other choice left, An closed his eyes and focused on his shoulder des until he felt that familiar numb and prickly feeling on his back. It wasn''t long before pure white wings unfolded behind him apanied by a heavenly glow.


    As soon as it appeared, the air got heavier and the Canzers woke up from their stupor. The fear of the angels brought them back from those crazy thoughts.


    ''What does that mean?!'' An shouted to them.


    He didn''t know if intimidation worked on the Pseudo Canzers. They could very well be too afraid of the angels to even speak, but An hoped that they would be threatened enough to tell the truth.


    Almost all of the Pseudo Canzers felt their throats tighten as the pressure prevented them from even taking a single breath. This left them unable to talk or even think about anything.


    An thought that he failed.


    Fortunately, there was one Pseudo Canzer with a strong willpower who was able to ovee the suffocating pressure of An''s Angel Wings. It was the Chimpanzee-Horse.


    It opened its mouth, with its jaws still shaking and stuttering from fear, and uttered a high-pitched screech.


    As soon as An heard it, his Canzer Mother Tongue mutation immediately tranted it into his mind.


    ''It''s¡­it''s¡­it''sing!''


    An took a deep breath and asked,


    ''What''sing?''


    The Chimpanzee-Horse kept shaking its head, as if it was struggling inside. There was a mental barrier inside its brain that prevented it from saying anything about ''that'', but at the same time, the threat of Angel power intimidated it into telling the truth.


    It took the Canzer a solid minute of mental struggle, shaking and knocking its head with its fists, before it finally spoke up.


    ''Wer¨C''


    The Chimpanzee''s head exploded into a mix of violet blood, brain matter, and skull pieces. An''s face was painted with blood, but his expression didn''t change. He kept his eyes open and stared at the headless body of the Canzer, hoping that it would continue what it said.


    Unfortunately, it was dead. It couldn''t say anything else.


    And before An could question the other Canzers, he was surprised to see that the rest of the Canzers trapped in his Spiked Chitin Spray exploded into violet blood.


    But it didn''t just end there. He felt the air change. He looked around and saw the burned corpses on the floor suddenly melt into a strange brown liquid that flooded the whole warehouse.

 Chapter 102: Coagulate

    An was speechless. He unfolded his Angels Wings and hovered above the shallow flood of brown liquid flowing everywhere. He didn''t know if this strange fluid was toxic or not, so he went with precaution andnded on a tall box to the side.


    He squatted down and observed the liquid. And as soon as he took a whiff of its smell, a musky and earthy scent hit his nose. He could only attribute this odor to smelly dogs he saw loitering the streets in Genesis City.


    He was worried that the flooding would get higher and trap him inside, but it seemed he worried for nothing. He looked down and saw the flood recede at a rtively faster pace than when it arrived. This was strange. The only exit to this warehouse was the exit door in front of An, which would not exin how it was able to leak out at such a fast pace.


    The flooding receded to the point where An could see the tilings on the floor. It surprised him to see that the liquid was flowing out of the tiny, almost microscopic gaps in the walls.


    And the liquid wasn''t flowing, it was moving! If it behaved like a normal liquid, it would flow out in all directions. But this fluid wasn''t normal. It leaked out only to the north-facing wall. It was as if it was attracted by something out in the distance.


    An activated his SR ss Thermal Vision LifeSkill and saw the brown liquid turn into a cool blue color. This meant that the liquid was cold, ice cold, which was very typical of Canzers.


    As he looked around, he was surprised to find that he was able to see through walls with his Thermal Vision much further than he thought. He could even see the other Pseudo Canzers out of the shopping mall with much more rity and variation in their body temperature.


    So this is the difference between A ss and SR ss¡­


    Back then, he couldn''t see past thick walls and far distances. But because he upgraded it to SR ss, it was as if he gained a vision that could see through everything.


    He followed the direction of the flowing liquid as he flew with his Angel Wings out of the warehouse. He made sure to just barely hover above the liquid to make sure that no one saw him. And using his Thermal Vision, he was sure that there were no witnesses to his secret power.


    With his enhanced vision, he saw the cool-blue liquid flowing from all over the ce. The warehouse wasn''t the only outflow of the brown liquid. He saw streams of liquid flowing out from houses, gutters, and the streets as it all pooled towards the north.


    He returned to the main track and saw all the corpses that Yasmine and the others killed. It all turned into a brown liquid as well.


    SPLAT!...BOOM!....SPATUNK!


    The sounds of fleshy explosions caught his attention. Behind two buildings on the other side of the street, he saw multiple Pseudo Canzers blow up into a brown mist that soon pooled together and flowed towards one ce.


    The liquid all converged towards the Colosseum!


    He squinted his eyes. He faintly saw a convergence of heat signatures near the base of the Colosseum. He recognized them. Yasmine and the others were already near the entrance of the Colosseum but they didn''t enter it.


    No, more like they couldn''t.


    He moved forward and saw that the liquid moved faster and faster as they got closer to their destination. An retracted his Angel Wings and used his legs to keep up with their speed. If he used his mutation, he would risk getting seen by the others.


    Running through the streets as fast as he could, he finally came close enough to see everyone''s expressions. Razer, Yasmine, S, and the rest of thepetitors stood frozen as they looked in front of them¨Ctowards where the brown liquid was converging.


    Everyone watched as the strange fluid pooled into two stumps that grew upwards. It wasn''t long before everyone realized that these weren''t stumps, they were legs! Rudimentary toes formed outwards, simr to humans, but the nails had sharp ws at the ends.


    The liquid flowed up the legs, slowly filling in the gaps and creating more volume as it grew bigger.


    They had to look up. Even though it was already the size of a human, it still wasn''t finished forming the legs. They dreaded the eventual size that this monstrosity would turn into.


    It wasn''t long before the torso and two arms formed, which was as long as the legs.


    Its back was hunched and had strangely human muscles, with pecs, abs, and delts featured prominently on its body. But as the strange brown liquid covered more and more of its body, it started to develop thick and prickly fur that covered every inch of its bare skin.


    As the liquid flowed up to its stump of a head, it grew more and more fur around its neck like a mane.


    Its head grew more and moreplex, gaining a prominent snout like that of a dog''s, but with sharp fangs on the front that were almost as long as a human''s torso.


    It formed pointy ears on the top of its head, like that of an alert canine. More and more liquid flowed up from its body and covered its entire head in the same ck fur that contrasted the vastly white color of the Remedium.


    Finally, the brown liquid molded into two drops that settled atop its prominent snout, creating eyes that slowly gained rity and consciousness. Everyone held their breaths as its ck eyes suddenly turned red as if it finally awoke from its long slumber.


    Its scarlet eyes looked down at the humans below.


    Even though they were Saviors in their own right, they couldn''t help but get weak in the knees when this towering monster as tall as a two-story building looked down at them as if they were puny ants.


    It opened itsrge snout and looked up at the sky, towards the ck full moon up above.


    ''AWOOOOOO!''

 Chapter 103: Herculean punch

    The surviving Genesians and Olympians looked at the wolf-like monster with trepidation in their hearts. They thought that fighting against thousands of Pseudo Canzers was already bad enough, but it turned out they underestimated the severity of this disaster.


    "What is that?!"


    "No way¡­no way¡­"


    "I can''t fight anymore!"


    Most of them were already dead tired after fighting through the horde of Canzers on their way to the Colosseum. They weren''t like Yasmine or Razer who were talented enough to still have the energy to fight. They were talented, but they weren''t special. They could barely even activate their LifeSkills anymore.


    Yasmine didn''t waste any time as she unsheathed her sword andunched another ming dragon at the wolf-like monster. It immediately hit its torso and burst through the other side, creating a scorched and burned hole.


    The others regained their strength when they saw that. It looked like this monster was weaker than they thought. They didn''t hesitate any longer. They used thest of their strengths to bring out their LifeSkill powers and kill the wolf-like Canzer.


    A myriad of attacksnded on the Canzer''s body, with each hit pushing the monster back. Theirbined attacks tookrge chunks out of the wolf monster''s body until it waspletely mangled beyond recognition.


    It couldn''t even do anything as it fell on its knees and crashed to the ground. But strangely enough, it didn''t bleed violet blood like typical Canzers. It simply died as if its body waspletely empty.


    "Yes!" they screamed in exhaustion. "We can go back home."


    But despite celebrating, they didn''t move forward. They all realized that Yasmine, Razer, and S, the three most talented and strongest people in their group, still held their battle stances as they faced the Canzer. A sense of dread filled their hearts.


    And just as they feared, they suddenly saw more brown liquide out from the corner. The sewers and gutters overflowed with brown liquid and flowed toward the mangled body of the wolf monster.


    The brown liquid trickled up towards the monster''s burns and injuries, filling it up with new meat. It wasn''t long before the Canzer regained its energy and used its long arms to prop itself up, leaving only w marks on the ground.


    But before it could even recuperate for a second, S glowed a bright light as she concentrated her power on her palms. A solid beam of scorching hot lightnded on the Canzer''s body at the speed of light. Her attack was like a spotlight as it used the concentrated heat of the sun. Its fur immediately caught on fire and easily spread out towards its whole body.


    The standing wolf-like monster iled its arms around trying to extinguish the fire, but S kept her palms facing the monster, not letting it escape away from her beam of light.


    All its fur burned, leaving nothing but its naked skin in contact with the fire. It wouldn''t be long until its innards were cooked and charred.


    Everyone thought that the Canzer would finally die now that its entire body was zing in a billowing fire. But it didn''t. They were horrified to see brown liquid flowing out of the walls and onto the monster''s feet. The liquid crawled up and extinguished the fire, making its fur as good as new.


    ''AWOOOOO!''


    The howl sent a shiver down their spines.


    A thought crept into their minds. What if we can''t kill this monster? What if we can''t go home?


    And in their darkest moment, the man who they considered to be the strongest person in the group finally moved.


    Razer Wrekton was a genius from the Olympus mountain ranges. They all saw him kill hundreds of Pseudo Canzers all by himself! If there was anyone that could kill this wolf-like monster, then it would be him. He was their Savior!


    Kneel


    He opened his mouth and used his ''Word of the All-Father'' mutation tomand this Canzer to submit to him.


    A sense of hope glimmered in everyone''s eyes as they saw the Canzer fall to its knees, unable to resist Razer''s words. It struggled, but it could not break through from the dominating words that came from Zeus the All-Father.


    BZZZZTTTTT


    Golden lightning and electricity enveloped Razer''s hand, slowly forming a tip at the end of his hand. This was his second mutation called ''Righteous Halberd of the Skies''. He barely used this mutation in the race because he needed to fight at close range for it to be effective.


    Lightning streaked out of his arm as if it couldn''t wait until it devoured its next prey.


    Razer didn''t make it wait long as he jumped up and struck his halberd right in the middle of its chest.


    ''AWOOO'' it cried in pain.


    Electricity coursed through every part of its body, invading the veins and using it to deliver its electricity. Razer intended to boil its body until all the liquid in its body turned into nothing but mist.


    He hoped that this would prevent it from recovering from its injuries, but he was surprised to find out that he couldn''t burn the liquid.


    It was much stronger than him.


    Then I''ll divide and conquer, Razer thought.


    He retracted his electric halberd as he fell to the monster''s feet. Wasting no time, he went for its legs and shed it with his mutation. He targeted the joints and he dismembered it with ease. And he didn''t stop there. He jumped up and with each thrust, he crippled the monster till it separated into its limbs.


    The arms fell, followed by its torso, then its head.


    He knew that the brown liquid would soon piece the Canzer''s body back together, so he finally used his 4th stage Student LifeSkill to destroy the monster beyond what it could regenerate.


    His arms grew twice their size, with his biceps ballooning in volume.


    "Herculean Punch!" he shouted.


    He struck down on the Canzer''s separated leg. A shockwave exploded around them as soon as his enormous fists hit the monster''s fur. Everyone steadied themselves as a huge gust of wind followed Razer''s punch, sending street rubble flying everywhere.


    When they regained their senses, they saw arge crater from where Razer stood. The leg was nowhere to be seen.


    But he didn''t stop there. Razer jumped up above the rest of the Canzer''s body parts.


    He smiled as he stretched both of his arms behind him like wings.


    Then, he unleashed ten more full-powered punches that created increasingly intense shockwaves that sent everything flying away.

 Chapter 104: No use

    Dust and debris filled the air as Razer''s barrage of punches destroyed everything around him, leaving only arge crater where the street used to be. The entire intersection was destroyed, with the edges of the buildings crumbling and turning into rubble.


    All the other Saviors braced themselves from the shockwave alone. If the aftereffect was already that destructive, then they couldn''t imagine being the recipient of his furious fists.


    The Olympians praised their genius.


    "Wow! As expected of the man blessed by Zeus! His fury hath no bounds!"


    "I knew he''d be able to pull through! That''s our genius!"


    "I must admit as a Genesian, he''s very impressive!"


    Once everything settled, Razer stood in the middle of the crater with his arms turning back to normal. He unleashed his strongest attack onto the Canzer hoping that he would destroy it beyond molecr level.


    SLOSH


    Unfortunately, the sound of a very viscous liquid dripped from the walls and caused their hopes to fall with it.


    Their faces full of triumph were soon reced by despair. Some couldn''t help themselves and fell on their knees.


    "No way¡­it''s a lie, right?"


    They saw the strange brown liquid gather into the center and molded into the strangely humanoid body of the wolf-like Canzer. It kept piling up upon one another. It didn''t stop. It was as if the liquid wasing from an endless pool that appeared out of nowhere.


    Seeing the Canzer reform its own body multiple times like this sucked out the life of everybody.


    "How Is it¡­."


    "No way¡­.how?!"


    They couldn''t help but hold their breaths when they saw the toe stubs forming on the legs of the Canzer. It was humongous! Just the big toe itself was already towering over a human!


    The monster was growing bigger!


    It already developed at the height it was before, but now, it wasn''t even half done with the legs! It wouldn''t be an exaggeration to say that the full form of this beast would be more than thrice as tall as the one before.


    The full form of the Canzer towered over every building in the streets. It must be mentioned that this district was only a few blocks away from the City Center. The buildings here were towering skyscrapers with some of them reaching almost a hundred floors! Yet the wolf-like Canzer still towered over all of these buildings like it was a miniature copy.


    ''AWOOO!'' Discover hidden content at m,v l''e-NovelBin


    Once the wolf got back to its form, it howled at the moon and caused a shockwave that escted into an earthquake. Razer raised both of his arms and protected his head from the wind.


    The smile on his face disappeared. He looked up and felt his own body begging him to leave. His instinct wanted to escape!


    Just from the sheer size of this Canzer alone, he knew that it was not something that he could defeat so easily. It wasn''t just because of its colossal size, but also the fact that even if they somehow defeated this monster again, it would probably grow stronger andrger than it was before.


    It was only now that all of them were certain. This was a real Canzer. This wasn''t a Pseudo Canzer created by humans for practice. This was the genuine thing that threatened even the Gods.


    S looked up. "It''s a Destruction Canzer. it will keep regenerating with no limit."


    Destruction Canzers were one of two types of Canzer and they have the unique ability to regenerate their injuries endlessly. Human Saviors would only feel exhaustion if they tried to fight a Destruction Canzer with no breaks.


    That was the reason why Operators were needed in tandem with Vanguards.


    An Operators'' construct was specifically made to counter a Destruction Canzer''s regenerative ability. Only then would the Vanguards be able to kill the Canzers.


    Unfortunately for Razer and the others, they had no such construct. After all, this wasn''t a mission. They didn''t n to fight against a Destruction Canzer when they entered this Pocket Remedium; nobody did.


    Just as they were all realizing the magnitude of this disaster, the Wolf-like Canzer moved. It raised one of its arms, showing its sharp ws that protruded out of its thick fur.


    The ws were asrge as a semi-trailer truck. A single strike could obliterate a mountain¡ª-they dreaded to imagine what it would do to a human.


    "Run!" S and Yasmine shouted at the same time.


    The rest of the Saviors were too stunned to move and only started to back away once they saw S and Yasmine backing away.


    Then, it happened. It was almost instantaneous as it brought its ws down towards Razer.


    The Olympian genius already manifested his ''Righteous Halberd of the Skies'' as soon as he saw the Canzer move. But he was still too slow. He was caught off guard when the giant w ''arrived'' just in front of him with no warning at all. He couldn''t even see what happened, not even a blur.


    Razer''s body flew outwards like a rocket, crashing through multiple buildings. His momentum didn''t stop until he went through an entire district of skyscrapers.


    Everyone went pale. S and the rest of the Olympians couldn''t believe their eyes when they looked at the bloodied and bruised body of Razer. He had ss shards, rubble, and blood all over his body as he crashed onto the wall. He had a moment of strength as he looked around, but lost consciousness soon after that.


    S''s entire world tumbled. Razer was the strongest one out of everyone, yet he was taken out with just one hit.


    "Get a hold of yourself!" Yasmine pushed S forward as an entire top chunk of the buildings plummeted towards them. Small rubble fell like rain. The Canzer''s ws sliced through the buildings like it was cheese.


    "It''s no use¡­" S muttered.


    "What are you talking about? We just have to work together and kill it!"


    "No¡­that''s not something we can kill¡­its difficulty is beyond us."


    "How difficult?" Yasmine asked.


    S took a deep breath and looked her in the eyes.


    "The Specialist realm¡­"

 Chapter 105: Why destroy?

    An looked at the colossal Canzer in the distance. He witnessed how it got bigger and stronger with each death it experienced. He saw a constant flow of brown liquid flowing towards the Canzer even though it hadn''t experienced any injury as of yet.


    Everyone was already too terrified to look at the Canzer. They didn''t notice that it was still getting bigger and bigger through the constant flow of brown liquid that flowed from the buildings. Perhaps, it was for the best. If they knew it was still getting stronger, their will to survive would disappear.


    An was the only one who witnessed everything and still felt a sense of calm.


    Even though he saw how easily Razer got disposed of, he never lost hope. Even if it was apparent that this was not an enemy that they could defeat. It was far too strong and it was still getting stronger each second.


    He could see himself injuring the colossal Canzer with his SSS ss LifeSkills. Using abination of his sniping ability ''Apocalyptic Hellfire'' and his ''Grim Reaper Physique'', he could at least hurt the Canzer from afar. And if it got close, An would use his ''Angel Wings'' mutation to run away.


    He couldn''t get caught by those ws. Even with his enhanced durability, he knew that he wouldn''tst a second if he was shed by those ws.


    But as much as he tried to think up of a way to hurt tbe Canzer, he would only end up dying the inevitable. It could regenerate all of its injuries endlessly, while he would be exhausted just an hour into the fight.


    I can''t fight it. I need to find a way to survive.


    Thankfully, he still had a trump card under his sleeve for when things truly got too dire.


    His 3rd stage Student DPS LifeSkill: Cherubic Retribution was derived from Angel Power, and from his brief experience in dealing with Canzers, they all seemed to have an aversion to everything Angel rted. This LifeSkill could perhaps be the solution he would need to survive that colossal monster.


    Just then, he suddenly saw the colossal humanoid wolf disappear into a blur. He immediately activated his Thermal Vision and saw the cold blue streak left behind by the Canzer, leading his eyes to where it went.


    He followed the streaks and it headed straight towards two Saviors trying to run away. They stumbled through the streets, hoping that they would run far enough into safety.


    He saw their body heat signatures and immediately knew that these two were inadequate to deal with a threat like the colossal Canzer. The inside of their bodies were a dim yellow, meaning that they were already too exhausted to use their LifeSkills to defend themselves.


    And within a split second, An suddenly saw their heat signatures disappear. It was reced by a gigantic foot as cold as ice.


    An barely even saw a blur.


    Just like that they turned into a pool of blood and mush.


    [You have reaped the death of a Sentient Being: Human] x2


    [Due to your trait, you have multiplied your experience by 10]


    [You have received 1,000 experience]


    This was not the first time An saw human death; there was plenty of it back in the Unimed Lands. But this was the first time he saw something so bloody. Most deaths he saw were from malnutrition and dehydration; they looked like they just went to sleep.


    Strangely enough, An didn''t feel sorry for them.


    They died so fast¡ªtoo quick for them to even register the fact that they died.


    They didn''t suffer.


    "Oh Gods! Look what they turned into!"


    "I don''t want to be like that! I don''t want to lose my SoulTime!"


    "It''s fine¡­it''s fine¡­Angels will save them. We just need to return their blood back to the church and they can recuperate! In fact, I think they have it easy, they don''t have to suffer in this hell¡­"


    An didn''t let go of his gaze at the Canzer. He was the only one who knew that death meant death. There was no going back.


    ###


    Yasmine gritted her teeth and looked at S. "We can''t let it go rampant. We''ll have to work together to kill it."


    "Didn''t you hear me? We can''t!"


    "Are you giving up?! I''m not! I will fight till the end of my SoulTime."


    And just like she said, Yasmineunched ming dragons after ming dragons. These physical manifestations of her LifeSkill soared through the air and hit the colossal Canzer''s legs, barely burning one of its furs.


    But she didn''t care. She kept swinging her sword endlessly without a break. Her sword glowed bright red from the constant heat that the dragons emanated. Even when her right hand turned too exhausted to even lift her sword, she simply used her left and continuedunching attack after attack.


    She was relentless, yet no matter how much she tried, the colossal monster treated her as nothing more than air.


    This frustrated herpetitive blood to no end.


    ###


    An surveyed the whole surroundings with his SR ss Thermal Vision.


    It was easy to keep an eye on the Colossal canzer as its dark blue internal body temperature contrasted well with the white background of the Remedium. His Angel Wings was ready to spring out as soon as he saw the Canzer run towards him.


    But just then, out of the corner of his eyes, he saw something he shouldn''t have.


    Out in the distance, he saw a couple of blue heat signatures. They weren''t human.


    And upon closer inspection, An noticed that these were Pseudo Canzers!


    I thought they all died and merged into the giant Humanoid Wolf?


    Not only that, these Pseudo Canzers seemed to be pushing something away from the fight. An ran atop the buildings from roof to roof until hended on a building directly on top of the Centaur monsters. They didn''t notice anything strange and kept hauling something behind them.


    An squinted his eyes and recognized what they were pushing. It was a chariot!


    Not only that, it was Yasmine''s chariot.


    Why are they doing this?


    Through his enhanced senses, he realized that these unintelligent Pseudo Canzers were reciting something under their breaths. He closed his eyes and ignored all the sounds of ss breaking and concrete turning into rubble all around the Pocket Remedium.


    ''Destroy¡­chariot¡­.destroy¡­''


    An didn''t know why they chose to destroy chariots right in the middle of all the chaos. Back then, they kept repeating, ''they long to belong'', which An found out to mean that they wanted to be part of the colossal Humanoid Wolf. But these words didn''t make any sense.


    Why do they want to destroy Yasmine''s silver chariot?

 Chapter 106: Weakness

    An didn''t know why these Canzers would choose to destroy a silver chariot of all things.


    He looked around the Pocket Remedium and saw no sign of other Pseudo Canzers present in the Pocket Remedium. Everything had been turned into that brown liquid and joined their brethren in the colossal humanoid wolf.


    It was as if they existed solely for the purpose of destroying this one single chariot. It was way too suspicious.


    An jumped off the ledge of the building andnded directly on the front of the Pseudo Canzers. There were three of them, one was Owl-Horse, the other had a chameleon''s upper half, and the other an Opossum centaur.


    They all jumped in surprise when they saw a human suddenly appear in the middle of their route.


    ''Human!...fear¡­''


    ''Leave¡­camouge¡­.''


    ''.....''


    The three Pseudo Canzers all had different reactions. The Owl-Horse turned its head 180 degrees away from An in fear and slowly backed away. The Chameleon-Horse tried to camouge its whole body to the surrounding, but only its top half turned translucent. And the Opossum-Horse simply tried to y dead in front of him. Its horse legs tapped its backfoot in nervousness.


    An eyebrows turned uneven when he saw these three weird Pseudo Canzers. They weren''t the smartest out of the bunch, and they especially weren''t the most aggressive ones.


    He was ready for a physical confrontation between them, but they didn''t even try to fight him. They already feared him even though he hadn''t even used his Angel Wings to intimidate them yet.


    ''Why are you trying to destroy the silver chariot?'' An asked in theirnguage.


    The Owl-Horse''s eyes dted in surprise. None of them expected to suddenly hear a human speaking theirnguage! This made them extremely confused as to whether An was arade or an enemy.


    ''You¡­is¡­me?''


    ''Part¡­of¡­us¡­.''


    An didn''t know what to say. ''Yes?''


    As soon as he said that, he saw them heave a sigh of relief. He could see them lower their defenses to him as if he was truly a part of them now. The Opossum-Horse finally stopped ying dead and weed their neer.


    ''You¡­scare¡­I''


    ''Sorry about that,'' replied An. He still felt incredibly weirded out that he was having a full-blown conversation with Pseudo Canzers as if he were friends with them. They moved closer to him, and An had to resist the defensive urge to hit them all in the throat and knock them out in one go.


    He restrained himself. He still needed to know what they were trying to do.


    ''Why do you want to destroy this chariot?''


    His words sent out a jolt of fear in their eyes. They immediately walked and pulled the chariot forward without saying another word. An noticed that as they moved forward, they were getting further and further away from the colossal Humanoid Wolf.


    Is this rted to that monster, An thought.


    ''Weakness¡­silver¡­must¡­destroy¡­''


    Weakness? An''s eyes widened. Do they mean that Pseudo Canzers like them are weak against silver? No, that doesn''t make sense. If they were weak against it, then they wouldn''t go anywhere near it.


    It was then that a thought popped up in his mind. He pieced together the facts he observed throughout this whole ordeal.


    The appearance of these Pseudo Canzers was the first clue. They were the only ones left alive. Judging from their zealousness towards bing part of the colossal monster, An guessed that the Humanoid Wolf was their leader. It couldmand them to sacrifice themselves to heal its wounds or reform its body to be as tall as a mountain.


    This meant that the Canzer had full control over all the Pseudo Canzers.


    Then it must mean that the appearance of these three Pseudo Canzers was no mere coincidence. They were summoned here for a very specific reason. And that reason was to dispose of Yasmine''s silver chariot.


    Next, An thought about why they would specifically target Yasmine''s chariot and not the others. If they simply wanted to get rid of the best chariot, then they should have gotten S''s golden chariot which had a much better durability than the silver chariot by a long shot.


    And they didn''t choose it because it was Yasmine''s. It was a coincidence. After all, she only rode this chariot because she was the second one to subdue a Pseudo Canzer.


    Then it must be because it was made out of pure silver.


    And if these Pseudo Canzers were summoned to get rid of the silver chariot away from the colossal Canzer, then there was only one conclusion that he coulde up with.


    ''Is the giant humanoid wolf weak against silver?'' he asked them.


    When they said that, they nodded their heads fervently and tried to get rid of the silver chariot even faster than before. The quicker they finished the mission, the faster they could go back into the colossal Canzer. And by doing a great service, then it would give them more benefits than the others.


    An finally understood why the Humanoid Wolf chose to use these Pseudo Canzers.


    If it wanted the fastest one to get rid of the Canzer, then it could have summoned a Cheetah-Horse to do its bidding. But it knew that by doing so, it would garner the attention of the humans. Like An, they would find it suspicious. It chose these three centaurs because they were the sneakiest out of the bunch.


    ''Faster¡­faster¡­faster¡­''


    ''Strange¡­.why no¡­fast?''


    ''Push!....push!''


    The three Pseudo Canzers used their hind legs to push the chariot away even faster, but they soon found it to be as heavy as a mountain. They couldn''t even move it an inch!


    "Thanks for the information," An said in his humannguage.


    The three of them didn''t even know what happened. They were decapitated in an instant.


    An couldn''t let them get rid of such an advantage. Now that he knew that the gigantic Humanoid Wolf had a weakness against silver, then this chariot woulde extremely handy in his survival.


    BOOM!


    Just then, everyone''s eyes were suddenly pulled towards the entrance of the Colosseum.


    Everyone''s exhausted expressions slowly turned into one of relief once they realized who finally arrived.

 Chapter 107: Helpers come

    An heard an explosion near the Colosseum. He immediately jumped up the balconies of the high-rise apartmentplex beside him, slowly making his way toward the top of the building.


    Once he was up, he saw the Colosseum up in the distance. Arge plume of smoke bloomed near the entrance and obscured the reason why it exploded in the first ce.


    He activated his SR ss Thermal Vision and saw the world change color depending on their internal body heat. He squinted his eyes and saw seven figures walking forward. Judging from their internal body heat, they were human!


    However, these people had brighter and hotter bodies than normal. They were practically glowing. Hepared them with the other saviors below and saw that they were like a dimmppared to the brightness of the sun. These people were on apletely different level.


    Even the colossal Humanoid Wolf couldn''t help but turn its gigantic head towards these neers. And if An saw it right, the wolf''s fur suddenly stood up as if it was alerted of a threat.


    ''AWOOOO!'' it howled.


    The dust and smoke settled. These seven new figures showed themselves in the Pocket Remedium.


    They all wore a green battle suit like the rest of them, but they had more distinct badges and pins on their chests. Just from their stature alone, one could see the confidence and strength they exuded like a light.


    S fell on her knees. She could finally breathe.


    "They''re finally here! The reinforcements!"


    Yasmine, on the other hand, was conflicted. She was relieved that they were finally saved from this hell, but this meant that she could not get rid of the source of her insecurity. Even with her strongest attack, the colossal monster treated her as nothing more than an ant. She barely even burned its fur!


    She looked at the reinforcements and recognized them.


    "Specialist realm Saviors¡­when will I get as strong as them?"


    Even though Specialists were three realms above her, she couldn''t help butpare herself to them. As much as peopleuded her as a genius, she knew that she couldn''t hold a candle to these people.


    "We''re saved!"


    "Praise the gods!"


    "I want to leave!"


    The rest of the Saviors trapped in this Pocket Remedium finally peeked out of their hiding spot.


    In truth, the hundreds of spectators in the Colosseum all had to find their hiding spots in the Pocket Remedium. And even though they couldn''t kill any of the Pseudo Canzers by themselves, they were all Saviors in their own right. They were able to barricade themselves into safety. They barely even uttered a single breath to prevent the Canzers from sensing them.


    "Delinquents! Fear no more. I havee to kill this giant Destruction Canzer and stop its rampage of symptoms in the City."


    At the center of these seven new figures was one woman who exuded energy and vigor unlike anyone else. She took control of the situation in an instant and put hope into the eyes of all these suffering victims of this disaster.


    Even in the midst of these Specialist Saviors, her aura towered over everyone else. An almost had to avert his eyes from how bright she looked in his Thermal Vision.


    ''AWOOOOO!''


    The Humanoid Wolf got on all fours and charged towards the Specialists. The entire Pocket Remedium shook, with some of the damaged high-rise buildings plummeting to the ground from the vibrations alone.


    It then opened its giant maws and chomped into a tall clock tower, separating it from its metal foundation like it was nothing. Its sharp canine teeth tore through it like it was butter, with no obvious bending or destruction from the cut. It was as if a giant knife sliced through it.


    With the top of the clock tower in its jaws, it whipped its head back and threw the sharp-tipped tower towards the Specialist Saviors.


    Even with the entire top half of a building hurling towards them, the Specialists didn''t utter a single cry. The woman in the front simply took out her giant one-handed sword and put it in between them and the tower.


    An thought that she would use her immense strength and skill to slice the tower into nothing but dust, but surprisingly, she didn''t even move her de. She kept it in front of her as the tower''s sharp tip came towards her and her team.


    Ten meters before it could evene close, An was surprised to see the tower suddenly split cleanly into two, with the two halves diverging away from the Saviors.


    An didn''t even see anything happen with his Thermal Vision! It was as if the tower just naturally split in half.


    The tower exploded into metal wreckage and debris as they crashed into the Colosseum behind the Saviors.


    But it seemed that the tower was merely a distraction from the Canzer as it suddenly appeared in front of the Saviors with its two furry hands ready to slice everything in its path into a mince.


    An barely saw a blur as the Canzer brought down both of its hands towards the Specialist Saviors. With how fast and how big the monster''s ws were, An doubted whether he would be able to dodge away from this attack even if he used his Angel Wings mutation.


    But then, its two hands suddenly stopped in mid-air. And if one squinted their eyes, they would see two small figures hovering in mid-air as they caught the ws with their weapons.


    What An saw next were blurry figures darting back and forth in the air, shing metal with chitin ws. It looked as if the giant Humanoid Wolf was fighting a high-speed fly.


    Everyone was watching this fight with admiration and surprise. For some of them, this would be the first time they saw Specialist Saviors use their immense powers to fight a Canzer.


    However, An''s eyes moved towards the entrance of the Colosseum.


    Only three people were fighting the colossal Canzer. The other four were left behind!


    It wasn''t hard to guess why they weren''t fighting alongside the others. The four of them propped up arge bullet-like object on their shoulders. Judging from the strained expressions on their faces, An guessed that the object they were carrying was extremely heavy.


    So heavy, in fact, that it took four Specialist realm Saviors to carry it!


    But that wasn''t the most surprising part. An looked at the luster of this object andpared it with the chariot.


    They were the exact same thing! Thisrge bullet was made out of pure silver!

 Chapter 108 : Heavy construct

    This was not a coincidence. There was no way that these Specialist Saviors brought a gigantic silver bullet into the Remedium just for nothing. They were going to use it to kill the colossal Canzer!


    Did they know that this gigantic Humanoid Wolf was weak against silver? That''s the only exnation.


    And as he observed thisrge bullet, he was surprised to feel a faint resonance with it. It was as if there was a part of himself in that object!


    His shoulder des turned numb and prickly as the Angel Wings inside him squirmed. It also felt that brief resonance with the object, and it wanted to reunite with that feeling.


    There was no mistaking it; there was a tinge of Angel power in that bullet!


    That object was made out of silver and had Angel power within it. Those were good reasons to believe that therge silver bullet they were carrying was an Operator''s construct.


    These objects were specifically made by Operators to disable and counteract a Destruction Canzer''s regeneration ability. That object was the reason why Saviors were able to defeat a Canzer that healed their injuries infinitely.


    Does this mean that all Canzers are weak against silver?


    I know that Canzers are weak against Angel power. Of all the monsters I came across, all of them had an adverse reaction when they saw my Angel Wings. But now it''s clear that silver also ys a part in killing this colossal monster.


    But if all Canzers are weak against silver, then shouldn''t all weapons used by Saviors be made out of silver?


    Does it mean that only this particr Canzer is weak against silver?


    If that was true, then An found the work of Operators a lot more interesting. If Canzers all had different kinds of weaknesses, then that meant that an Operator''s job entailed them finding out the Canzer''s weakness.


    An wanted to know how they knew that silver was effective against this colossal Humanoid Wolf.


    Did they encounter this specific Canzer before? And if they did, then how did they know about its weaknesses? Did they go through trial and error?


    He only found out about that monster''s silver weakness because he understood the Pseudo Canzer''snguage. Do they also understand Pseudo Canzers? After all, they were the ones who designed this Pocket Remedium and created them¡­


    No matter how much An wanted his questions answered, he wouldn''t be able to figure out the truth until he questioned the Operators themselves.


    ''AWOOOOO!''


    The colossal Humanoid Wolf howled at the ck moon and thrashed its ws around its body, slicing skyscrapers beside it and sending rubble and ss shards everywhere. But no matter how much it tried, it couldn''t get rid of the pesky humans flying around its body.


    Three Specialist Saviors worked in tandem as they attacked the humongous Canzer with great coordination and synergy. An barely saw their moves, but he was able to see the remnants of their powers through his Thermal Vision.


    One of the Saviors attacked the body, and the other two defended against the ws. Even in the air, they moved with swift fluidity, creating depth in their attack formations.


    The only reason why the others were able to see the Specialist Saviors fighting the Canzer was because of the huge gashes and burns that appeared all over the Canzer''s body. There were times when huge chunks of the Humanoid Wolf''s body got taken out without any sign of a cut at all.


    Their impressive show of power raised the hopes of the survivors witnessing the fight.


    However, try as they might, they couldn''t ovee the Canzer''s regenerative ability. With each injury and wound it sustained, brown liquid flowed from the streets and replenished the Canzer''s growing body endlessly.


    It was clear that they needed the help of other Specialist Saviors if they wanted to kill this Canzer. After all, there were only three of them attacking the Canzer! Usually, a group of five or six Saviors was needed to fight a Canzer like this.


    However, the other four people were stuck carrying therge silver bullet through the streets.


    Usually, an Operator''s construct was carried by a porter like An. After all, it weighed hundreds or thousands of kilograms at a minimum. If a normal Savior were to carry this in the Remedium, then they would be too burdened to traverse the dangerous terrain. That was why porters were needed. They had the proper LifeSkill to still be agile even if they had tons of weight on their shoulders.


    Those four Saviors weren''t porters. As far as An knew, porters were very rare in the City, which was why he was warmly weed when he was drafted here. The only other person he knew who was a porter was Garuun, who was also in the Specialist realm.


    Why isn''t he here to help them? An pondered.


    Because there was no porter, four Saviors were needed just to haul the very heavy silver bullet into the Pocket Remedium. And because of that, they couldn''t contribute to the fight.


    "Is it ready?" the leader of the Specialist Saviors flew towards the four Saviors carrying the bullet.


    "Yes. We''ll install it ASAP."


    Once they saw that the Canzer was in the construct''s effective range, they put down the silver bullet in the ground.


    The construct crashed onto the street, destroying the concrete on the ground and creating a small crater below it.


    They didn''t have to do anything else. The construct activated itself as strange curvy lines appeared on the surface of the silver bullet. It glowed a golden light that An recognized to have the same ethereal glow as his Angel Wings.


    The rounded end of the silver bullet suddenly floated up and aimed itself at the rampaging Humanoid Wolf in the distance. The Canzer was still too preupied with dealing with the two Specialist Saviors flying around its face to notice that a bullet was aimed directly at its chest.


    "Good. I''m getting tired of this. Once its regeneration is disabled, we can finally get serious," the leader of the Specialist Saviors stretched her body.


    Even though they were slicing buildings in half and crushing steel structures like it was nothing, it turned out that they were still holding themselves back!


    Why would they waste energy if the Canzer was going to regenerate anyway?

 Chapter 109 : Bullet chance

    An watched therge bullet intently. He was drawn in by the emanating Angel power within it. The resonance between his bloodline and this silver bullet was getting more and more intense with each second as the construct finished its preparation.


    It wasn''t long before An felt the power peaking outside the bullet which was almost bursting at the seams.


    After a few seconds, the t end of the bullet erupted in an invisible power thatunched it toward its intended destination within the Canzer''s body. The power was so strong that a shockwave exploded behind it, causing dust and smoke to litter the air.


    The colossal Humanoid Wolf was fast, but it couldn''t evade such a surprise attack. It looked down towards the source of the explosion and immediately felt the instinct to dodge. But it was already toote. The silver bullet lodged itself in the Canzer''s chest before it could even think about trying to escape.


    ''AWOOOO!'' it cried in pain. It tried to w the silver bullet out of its chest, but it only served to push the bullet deeper into its body.


    The Canzer felt weak. Its canine-like knees trembled as it felt the poison spreading inside its body. The cuts andcerations all over its skin were no longer regenerating as fast as it wanted.


    It tried to cling to the skyscrapers to prevent itself from falling, but its strength proved far too powerful as the buildings crumbled upon contact and soon fell with the Canzer.


    DUGSHHH


    It thrashed around and wed its way back up. It knew that it couldn''t let the humans have the advantage in this fight. If it was going to survive, then it would have to kill those pesky humans.


    "This is where you die, filthy Canzer." The leader of the Specialist Saviors raised her one-handed sword and aimed it at the colossal Humanoid Wolf.


    ''AWOOO!''


    The Canzer got on all fours and mimicked an actual wolf. It ran through the skyscrapers, shrugging off metal and ss shards around its body. It opened its jaws prematurely and a strange red ball of energy suddenly appeared on top of its tongue.


    The Student realm Saviors watching the whole fight unfold couldn''t help but shudder at the pressure that the ball of energy emanated on the ground. Just from the vibrations and the ''heaviness'' of the attack alone, they knew that it could destroy an entire district into nothing but a crater.


    If this was aimed at An, his only escape would be to use his Angel Wings and soar up in the skies. But even then, he didn''t know if he would survive the explosion afterward.


    The leader of the Specialist Saviors kept a cool expression on her face even though the red ball of energy was aimed straight at her face.


    She raised her sword.


    An''s eyes widened as he saw a manifestation of a giant sword taller than the colossal Canzer appear above her. It was the same one-handed sword that she used, down to the dings and scratches sustained from years and years of use. And with his Thermal Vision, he saw that this giant sword was glowing hot red!


    He had to avert his eyes and deactivate his Thermal Vision before his eyes turned blind.


    "Judgment," she uttered.


    At the same time, the colossal Canzer opened its jaws wide and let out a beam of ckish-red ball that sped through the air. It headed straight for the Specialist Saviors.


    This red ball was apanied by ck lightning that streaked through the air and burned everything in its path. A building was grazed by this red ball and it immediately got enveloped by ck lightning that disintegrated everything into mere dust.


    Everyone held their breaths as this ball of destruction headed straight for the Specialist Saviors.


    With a casual move, the leader of the Saviors simply brought down her one-handed sword towards the ball.


    The giant manifestation of her sword hovered in the air and copied her actions. With one simple swing, her de met the red ball of destruction.


    The two powers, one emanating an intense heat like the sun and the other exuding the coldness of the depths of space, battled against each other in a bid for supremacy.


    ck lightning tried to invade the sword, but its intense heat and glowing power burned any attempt it made.


    However, it wasn''t long until the sword started to cleave through the red ball of energy. It bulged as the pressure and sharpness of the de forced it to split in half.


    "You can never overpower me, Canzer."


    The ball let out its concentrated energy outwards like a popped balloon. It lost out any power it had to try and contest against the giant sword. Its ck lightning gradually became tamer until it dissipated in the air.


    The sword, instead of slowing down after slicing the ball of destruction, sped up and increased the power in its strike!


    A blue crescent made out of water and ice suddenly appeared on the tip of the giant sword.


    The Canzer was thoroughly unprepared for this moment. It never thought that the human would be able to destroy its attack in half so cleanly. Not only that, the sword still had enough energy tounch a counter-attack towards the Canzer!


    The colossal Humanoid Wolf skidded through the streets and immediately ran back the way it came. However, the giant water and ice crescentunched out of the de and soared through the air.


    The Canzer wasn''t fast enough to outrun this attack. The crescent hit its back, sending the Canzer flying through the air kilometers away from its original location.


    The powerful sh created a two-meter deep gash on the streets from the center of the City all the way toward the walls where the Canzer crashed.


    The attack was so powerful that it sent out a gust of wind akin to a tornado. Some of the spectators of the fight felt their feet leave the ground just from the wind alone. They hung onto buildings andmp posts to keep themselves anchored.


    An covered his eyes as the gust of wind washed over him.


    He couldn''t believe how powerful Specialists were. A single attack caused untold destruction around the city.


    But even with that power, An gazed at the Canzer out in the distance and was surprised that it was still alive.


    There was arge gash on its back showing bone and flesh but it still wed the walls trying to prop itself up. However, its injuries were far too severe for it to stand up.


    The other Saviors would weep in despair once they saw that the Canzer was still alive. But not An.


    It''s still alive¡­this is my chance!


    An jumped down the building andnded right next to the silver chariot.

 Chapter 110: Condensed silver

    From his previous experiences, he knew that he''d get more experience and better odds of getting LifeSkills and Genuses if he participated in the death of a creature. It was better if he killed or assisted in a kill than simply reap the death of a creature without doing anything.


    And this Canzer was no simple creature. It was a monster that was probably realms higher than the Student Realm, judging alone from the fact that Yasmine couldn''t even burn its fur. Not only that, the Saviors that came in to rescue them were exuding strength that An couldn''t even fathom.


    Reaping the death of this creature would surely bring untold rewards to An.


    But wouldn''t it be better if he got more? If he could make it bleed a single drop, he guessed that his rewards would increase even more. The only problem with this was how he would do it.


    An knew that if he used just his strength, he might not even pierce through the colossal Canzer''s skin. At that point, he didn''t know that it would count as participation.


    But he had something up his sleeve; he knew its weakness. If he used it against the Canzer, then he had a chance.


    Silver would be its downfall. An was sure it would work. He saw it firsthand when the silver bullet pierced through the Humanoid Wolf''s chest.


    He looked around with Thermal Vision and saw no one near him to witness this. He activated his Physique. ck mes erupted out of his skin and surrounded him with the ckness of space itself.


    He felt his power multiply at least twice his original strength. He grabbed the ledge of the chariot and saw it bend to the shape of his fingers. Without much pressure, An tore out a piece of the silver chariot and held it in his hands.


    He knew that this wouldn''t be enough so he kept on plucking chunks out of the silver chariot and onto his hand.


    Once it had turned into a small mound, An began thepression process.


    With his other hand, he started to squeeze all of the silver chunks together with ease. Some of them bulged out, so he used his body to prevent them from turning into a t shape. He needed a small pellet that could fit in his slingshot.


    The silver shape got smaller and smaller as he increased the pressure, to the point that it almost fit the size of his palms. He used all of his strength to squeeze the element tighter until he couldn''t push it any further. He cupped it in his hands and rolled it in his palms to smoothen out any hard edges.


    He learned early on that pellets flew further, faster, and more urately if they were made out of a uniform shape. The more spherical it was, the better he could control where it would hit.


    Soon enough, he made a solid ball of silver smaller than an egg that fit perfectly in the palm of his hands.


    An jumped up the balconies and used it to climb up to the roof of the apartment building.


    Up in the distance, he saw the edges of the walls of the city. The colossal Canzer used the top of the walls to try and prop itself up, but its back muscles and joints were much too damaged to gather strength in its body.


    He put the silver pellet in his slingshot and aimed it up and toward the Canzer. His target was too far for him to gauge how to aim his pellet urately. There were a lot of things he needed to consider: curve, power, and most importantly, wind resistance.


    Taking a deep breath, An stretched the bands to his shoulders and aimed them at the colossal Humanoid Wolf. He activated his Physique LifeSkill, allowing him to stretch the bands even further.


    The bands glowed green as the power from his Physique transferred into potential energy.


    An wanted to use his Sniper LifeSkill, but it would be too obvious. Everyone would want to know where that explosion of bluish-green projectile came from, and it would be easy to trace it back to his location. But if he just used physical strength tounch this silver pellet, it would go unnoticed.


    He let go of his grip and the silver pelletunched out of his slingshot instantly. It soared through the air, gaining height above the ck clouds of the Remedium until finallying back down at an even faster speed.


    However, it didn''t hit the Canzer as An hoped. It went wide to the left and needed a little bit more power for it to reach its target.


    The wind blows from the right¡­more power¡­.curvature¡­.speed


    An knew that he wouldn''t be able to hit this shot from the start so he wasn''t disappointed. Instead, he observed everything he saw about how it deviated from his original trajectory and figured out why that happened.


    With all of those parameters in his head, An knew that he had to counteract the wind by aiming toward the right and increasing more of his power by a little bit.


    He knew how to hit his target.


    An jumped back down and immediately took more chunks out of the silver chariot. It didn''t take long for him to create another silver pellet that was even more condensed than the previous one. He spent more time polishing it and making it more spherical to make sure that it wouldn''t deviate like it did before.


    But just as he finished his pellet, he suddenly heard screaming from all around him.


    "Oh no! Run away before they catch you!"


    He immediately used his Thermal Vision and saw that the surviving Saviors were suddenly running away from the Colosseum.


    He looked at where they were running away from and noticed that more people entered the Pocket Remedium without him noticing. There were at least a hundred of these people, and they all had the heat signatures of normal humans.


    From their uniform, An figured out that they were regr soldiers, not Saviors.


    The uniformed men ran through the streets with their batons ready. They tried to catch those who were running away.


    "Stop now, delinquents. You are all in vition of the Genesis City code. No one is allowed to go inside the Remedium unless sanctioned by the HeadQuarters.


    You are all under arrest."

 Chapter 111: Catch em

    At first, An didn''t know why they were running away. Didn''t they want to be saved?


    But when he heard the soldier''s voice, he finally understood why. It turned out that they didn''t want to get caught and thrown into jail.


    Lizzie told him that all non-essential Remedium travel was forbidden as long as the HeadQuarters still hadn''t figured out why anomalies kept happening in the Remedium.


    However, Obek Orioness didn''t care about that and continued to host a party in their Pocket Remedium. He thought that the possibility of an anomaly happening was slim to none, that''s why they didn''t care about stepping into the Pocket Remedium.


    But as it turned out, they should have heeded the HeadQuarter''s warning. Something bad did happen. And now, there were people dead. Pseudo Canzers rampaged through the streets until a colossal Humanoid Wolf appeared and caused even more mayhem.


    All of the surviving spectators that hid around the city for safety as well as thepetitors both Genesians and Olympians, all ran away from the soldiers like they were Canzers. They knew that if they were caught, they''d be punished with an insufferable fate.


    The Olympians may get a p on the wrist, but the Genesians would get the full brunt of the consequences.


    The soldiers ran in threes as they cornered the delinquents. Their batons buzzed as electricity flowed and streaked out in the air.


    Everyone ran away from those batons, but one unfortunate man tripped from the rubble in the streets. He was already injured trying to run away from the Pseudo Canzers, so he couldn''t escape fast enough.


    The soldiers mercilessly hit their batons on the injured man. Electricity coursed through their veins and disabled his autonomy. He couldn''t move. He couldn''t even gather any energy in his Soul System to try and use his LifeSkill.


    Not that he would. Fighting back would get him deeper into trouble.


    The soldiers tied him up and carried him back towards the Colosseum.


    An looked around and saw at least twenty delinquents already imprisoned. The Olympians, on the other hand, turned themselves in and the soldiers made sure not to use any force towards them. They were given express instructions to noty a finger on these visitors.


    More and more soldiers flooded the streets in search of more delinquents to catch.


    Experience tales at m v|l e''-NovelBin


    Meanwhile, An looked at the silver pellet in his hands. He knew that this would be hisst chance to hit the colossal Canzer. He didn''t hesitate.


    He put the pellet in his slingshot and aimed up at the sky. He kept the parameters of the environment in his mind, making sure to ount for the distance, the air resistance, the wind, and also the curvature of the pellet''s trajectory.


    This time, he wouldn''t miss.


    He let go of the pellet in his slingshot and it soared through the air and pierced through the ck clouds. An didn''t even look at where it was going. He looked away. He knew that all of his calctions were correct.


    Just then, he suddenly heard footstepsing towards him.


    "Hey you! Surrender now and we won''t have to electrocute you. Trust me, it''s better if you give up now."


    Three soldiers appeared from the side of the street and slowly approached him.


    Not only that, he also noticed three more pairs of footsteps behind him in stealth. They had him surrounded.


    An didn''t move and kept his hands down. It didn''t seem like he was going to resist arrest.


    This made the soldiers feel at ease. They were going to catch him. Even if he tried to run, he would only find another three soldiers behind him.


    An didn''t feel that worried. But just then, he felt a warm touch grasp his hands apanied by a floral scent that filled his nose.


    He looked back and was surprised to see a familiar golden-haired girl holding his hands.


    "Yasmine?"


    But her only reply to him was;


    "Run."


    With only that warning, she dragged An towards the buildings in front of them. She used the sword in her other hand and sliced the door into multiple pieces, allowing them to pass through the building and onto the other street.


    "Stop! You''ll only make this worse for yourselves!" The soldiers tried to catch up to the two, but how could theypare to the speed of the S ss genius Yasmine and the Star Porter An?


    With their full speed, Yasmine dragged An through the buildings as they evaded capture by the soldiers.


    An felt the warm touch of her hands. She didn''t let him go even as they ran.


    "Why were you just standing there? Don''t you know that if they catch you, they''ll still taser you and bring you in?"


    An didn''t know anything about it.


    "The punishment for a crime like this is a cklist. You won''t be considered for a mission for months or even years! And with no Training Hall Remedium, you''ll stagnate in your training."


    She looked back at him with cute annoyance in her expression. She was going to reprimand him for such indifference towards a punishment. But when she looked back at him, she only saw a smile on his face.


    "Were you worried about me?"


    A red tint appeared on her cheeks. She immediately looked forward and let go of his hands; she didn''t want him to feel her body heat up when she looked at him.


    "N¡ªno, I wasn¡ªI was not!"


    She wanted to strangle him for thinking such things, but that would only put them face to face. She couldn''t handle being so close to a rascal like him. It was too¡­intimate.


    But just then, An grabbed her shoulders and stopped her in her tracks. He pulled her closer to him and she could feel his body on her back and the warmth he exuded. Her entire face turned tomato red. She wanted to scream at him for moving too fast, but he simply put his hand on her mouth and held her even closer.

 Chapter 112: Lacking construct

    An pointed towards the corner where two more soldiers came with their batons ready to electrocute delinquents. They almost got caught. Thankfully, An saw them with his Thermal Vision and stopped Yasmine from showing herself in the street.


    Yasmine held her breath as An held her mouth. They stayed in close proximity until the two soldiers turned the corner and disappeared.


    "That was close," An muttered. He looked at her with a worried expression.


    "Are you okay?" An could practically see her heart beating out of her chest. He didn''t think that she would be this nervous about almost getting caught by the soldiers. The punishment for this crime must be harsher than I thought.


    Of course, the reason why she was nervous was because of him. This was not the first time she had someone close to her body because she frequently practiced wrestling and other sports. But this was the first time it felt too close. Their sweat was practically mixing!


    She quickly pulled herself away from him. She ran forward without even looking back, leaving An confused as to what he did wrong.


    ###


    The Specialist Saviors all floated over the body of the colossal Humanoid Wolf. It struggled to get up and crawl away from the humans.


    Now that the other four were unburdened by the weight of the construct, they finally joined the fight. But it seemed that the fight was already over before they could even have the chance to show their strength.


    "I was all worked up for nothing!"


    "Just when the soldiers finally herded the delinquent kids, I thought we''d finally get the opportunity to practice."


    "I almost want these kids to start another party again so that we cane and kill some Canzers. Having a ban on Pocket Remediums is making me itch!"


    They all looked over to their leader and saw that she was looking down at the colossal Canzer with a serious expression. They thought that she''d be celebrating this easy win by now. Instead, she kept a hard grip on her one-handed sword with an intensity she only reserved for missions.


    "Ninth? Is something wrong?"


    Ninth, the leader of the Specialist Saviors, didn''t take her eyes off the Canzer as she replied to her team.


    "Look at its shoulders."


    The colossal Canzer had a gaping wound on its back from its right shoulder down to its waist. Theceration was so deep that they could see the creature''s spine from up above. They didn''t see anything wrong with it.


    "Are we supposed to see something?"


    But Ninth saw something. "That wound was longer."


    It was only when they floated down and got a closer look did they finally see the problem.


    There was a small stream of brown liquid flowing from the ground and trickling up the shoulders of the giant Canzer. These droplets got absorbed by the Humanoid Wolf''s injuries and slowly replenished its destroyed flesh.


    It was slow and it wasn''t enough for the Canzer to recover to its full strength any time soon, but the fact that it was still regenerating was very disconcerting for all of them.


    This wasn''t their first time dealing with Destruction Canzers. They knew that once the Operator''s construct wasunched, then the monster''s regeneration capabilities werepletely disabled.


    But this particr colossal Humanoid Wolf was still clearly healing its injuries! This shouldn''t happen at all!


    "But how?!"


    "The construct is still embedded into its chest. It shouldn''t be regenerating!"


    "Ninth, what''s happening?"


    The leader of the Specialist Saviors took a deep breath.


    "The Operators made a mistake. The construct is missing something."


    "Oh my gods!"


    "What''s been happening with the Quillstely? They seem to be messing up more often than not."


    Ninth held her hand up and stopped the nder. She knew that the Operators had no malicious intent with their mistakes. Weird things had been happening ever since that sr event, and even the top Operators had no idea why this was happening. And ming them for their shorings won''t stop the problems.


    "They didn''t have time to prepare properly," Ninth exined. "HeadQuarters rushed this mission because there are kids trapped here that need our help."


    "But still¡­how are we going to kill this Canzer if it keeps regenerating?"


    Ninth took a deep breath and answered. "We keep killing it. Tell the soldiers that they need to inform HeadQuarters about this. We need the Operators to solve this fast."


    Just then, they suddenly saw the buildings around them shake.


    ''AWOOO!''


    Surprisingly enough, the colossal Canzer regained enough strength to finally stand up by itself. It buried its ws onto the walls and used it to prop itself up. Its entire body was shaking as it forced itself to keep its back straight and howl at the ck moon.


    "Damn. It recovered."


    "Ninth, permission to go all out?"


    The leader shook her head. She could feel that there were still some kids hiding around the buildings trying to evade capture. Unleashing all of their powers would surely destroy the city even more and bury the unfortunate kids under tons and tons of rubble.


    They can''t use their real strength.


    Using a fraction of their power was already a disadvantage by itself but it seemed that the Canzer gave itself an even bigger advantage to top it all off.


    "Umm¡­guys? You have to look at this."


    Slowly but surely, they all saw the Canzer growrger as more and more brown liquid flowed up its body.


    It was gaining more and more strength as the time passed.


    "We have to kill it now before it gets any bigger!"


    "Let''s just go all out! Those kids are delinquents anyway. They deserve to lose their SoulTime."


    Ninth held on to her sword as she tried to think up a solution to stop this Canzer from getting any bigger. She could feel it. It was getting stronger and stronger by the second, slowly catching up to their collective strength.


    She had no choice. She had to break protocol andmand her team to let loose before things got too dangerous.


    But just then, out of the corner of everyone''s eyes, they suddenly saw a thin line appear in the sky and headed straight towards the Canzer. Ninth enhanced her eyes and looked at what it was.


    Her eyes widened. It was a silver projectile.

 Chapter 113: Hubris

    This silver projectile was almost microscopicpared to the sheer size of the colossal Humanoid Wolf. It was almost imperceptible. But the sharp eyes and instincts of the Canzer allowed it to see the oing projectile with ease.


    It looked at the puny humans below and saw that it came from none of them. If it was, then it wouldn''t have been this weak. The Canzer followed the trajectory of the silver bullet as it arced through the air and knew that it was headed straight for its head.


    Even though it was fast, for Canzers and Saviors of this level, it was as slow as a snail. The power behind it was almost non-existent as it lost most of its power just traveling at such great distances. There was no magic or special power bestowed on the projectile, just pure brute strength.


    The Canzer almost couldn''t believe that the humans thought that this pathetic attack would even scratch its majestic body. It wouldn''t even get past a single fur.


    Distraction, the Humanoid Wolf thought. This was a mere parlor trick from the humans to draw its attention away from them.


    The Canzer kept its focus on the Specialist Saviors below. They might be puny, but they packed quite a punch. However, when it looked at the humans, it saw that they were also looking at the projectileing towards the Wolf''s head.


    It wasn''t even going to pay attention to such trivial matters. But then, as the projectile rocketed towards its head, the Canzer realized that this projectile was no mere rock. It was made out of silver!


    As small as it might be, silver was the bane of its existence. Its fur shot up in panic as the Canzer tried to dodge away from the projectile. But it seemed to have forgotten the weakness of having a gigantic body. It may possess untold strength, but thates at the cost of agility and speed.


    The silver pellet shot through the gap between its eyes and its skin, embedding itself deep inside its skull.


    The Humanoid Wolf froze in ce. It had its arms up in the air, stuck in the moment where it tried to swipe away the silver projectile from its face.


    Everyone watched as the Canzer''s colossal body fell backward like a statue that was pushed over. The monster could do nothing as it fell on its back right on top of the walls.


    The ground shook as its gigantic body crashed on the ground, sending rubble flying everywhere.


    But in the midst of all the metal crashing and concrete exploding, a single crack resounded throughout the Pocket Remedium.


    The Specialist Saviors all had their jaws wide open as they looked at the listless body of the Canzer.


    There was no mistaking it. The monster was dead. It''s spine was split in half!


    They couldn''t believe what happened. The energy and pressure they were feeling from the Canzer were gone entirely as if they never existed in the first ce. It wasn''t recovering nor was it regenerating. It was dead.


    "What just happened?!"


    "I don''t know¡­"


    "Ninth, did you do something?"


    She shook her head. Everyone looked at each other and none of them admitted that they used their powers. But somehow, the Canzer was dead. It made no sense.


    "That means that it''s the silver projectile that killed it," Ninth muttered in the silence.


    "Ey, ey, no way!"


    "That''s simply not possible."


    "We all saw what it was. Even if it was made out of silver, it didn''t have enough power to kill a Canzer of that level. That was a Specialist-level Canzer, you know!"


    But Ninth was sure that it was the silver pellet that dealt the final blow to the monster. It somehow did enough damage to the Canzer and caused it to fall to its back and break its spine in half, killing it instantly.


    "We injured it to the point of near-death, but it was the silver projectile that caused its death.


    It used the brown liquid to make itself bigger and stronger instead of healing its injuries thinking that it can kill us first before we can kill it. What a stupid move."


    Everyone epted Ninth''s exnation, but it still didn''t exin how that silver projectile could cause the Canzer to stumble in the first ce. Its fur and hide were too thick for such a weak projectile to prate through, even if it was through the vulnerable gaps in its body.


    Just then, one of the soldiers called out to the Saviors above.


    "An Operator is here to see you," he said.


    Ninth looked back and saw a bespectacled ck-haired woman wearing a blue battle suit flying towards them. Unlike the Specialist Saviors, she used the rockets on her feet to fly.


    "It''s an honor to meet the Inquisitor, Miss Pterina," Ninth greeted her.


    Pterina Pterodinus was the Operator who questioned An when he awoke in the church.


    "The honor is all mine, Ninth, but we don''t have time to chit-chat. I''m here to deliver the new Canzer Report. However, the new construct is dyed and will be delivered a short whileter. You will have to fight the Canzer for a little while longer."


    Pterina handed the stone tablet to Ninth. It was only then that she noticed that all seven of them were looking at her with a weird expression.


    "Why is no one fighting the Canzer?" she asked.


    "Because it''s dead."


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    "Dead?! How?"


    "That''s what I''m trying to find out," Ninth said as she looked at the stone tablet in her hands.


    The Canzer Report indicated that they were fighting against a Destruction Canzer with a species of a Werewolf.


    This was what they received from the previous Canzer Report, but that was clearly missing something.


    The previous report didn''t ount for the Canzer to be a subspecies of a giant.


    The way to disable a Werewolf''s regeneration was through a silver bullet to the chest. However, this was no normal Werewolf Canzer. This was a Giant Werewolf Canzer.


    And the weakness of a Giant was their hubris.


    This meant that in order to defeat a Giant Werewolf Canzer, then they would have to fire the silver bullet to its chest while it underestimated them¨Cwhile it was arrogant and prideful.


    Her thoughts pulled back to the silver projectile and pieced together the truth.


    The Canzer died because it underestimated the silver projectile!

 Chapter 114: Ninth name

    Ninth couldn''t believe it.


    Was it pure luck? Or did whoever fire that projectile know about the Giant Werewolf''s weakness? They must have known that it was weak against silver since they used it as ammo.


    She followed the projectile''s trajectory and saw that it came from the City Center. It was fired from an incredibly long distance! No kid at the low Student stage could ever have the strength to pull that off. The only ones that could even have the strength to do that were either that kid Razer from Olympus or Yasmine. However, none of them had LifeSkills that rted to projectiles.


    She didn''t even sense any power from the silver pellet at all. Whoever fired it off used only their pure brute strength! She couldn''t believe that anyone would be that urate without the use of a LifeSkill. But they did.


    She wanted to know who this person was.


    "Ninth, did you find anything about how it died?"


    She shook her head. "Not yet."


    Pterina fixed her eyesses. "This is incredibly strange. We hadn''t even finished procuring the construct, yet the Canzer is already dead. The Werewolf should have continued to be immortal."


    None of them could bring out a satisfying answer for the Inquisitor. She was an Operator, so she knew best about how Canzers were dealt with. No amount of pure power could ovee a Destruction Canzer''s regenerative ability. It was the reason why Operators were crucial in missions.


    This was the first time this happened.


    The weird thing about this was that no one admitted to doing it. If they brought themselves forward, then they would have been rewarded by HeadQuarters for such an amazing feat.


    "Could it be an Operator? How else would they have known to use silver?"


    Pterina shook her head at the guess. She was the only Operator sanctioned to enter the Remedium during this circumstance. She wouldn''t even be allowed to step foot near the portal if she didn''t have to deliver the new Canzer Report to the Saviors.


    "I''ll have to investigate this thoroughly. HeadQuarters is going to want some answers. And since you''re already here, why don''t we start with all of you."


    Ninth shrugged. Interrogation was normal protocol during anomalies like this, so she wasn''t surprised. Sooner orter, Pterina would havee knocking on their doors anyway.


    "Tell me your basic information: your name, power realm, and your mission."


    "My name is Neumann the Ninth. I am at the 3rd stage of the Specialist Realm and my mission is to lead my team and extinguish the dangerous Canzer in this Pocket Remedium¡­"


    ###


    Yasmine and An kept their bodies low as they sprinted from street to street, making sure to avoid any soldiers patrolling the area. Continue reading on m|v-l''e -NovelBin


    To leave this Pocket Remedium, they would have to find their way back to the mansion where the portal was located. However, the only way to get back to the mansion was to go through hundreds of soldiers stationed all around the perimeter.


    The nearer they got to the Orioness mansion, the harder it was to evade the soldiers.


    Yasmine was the one leading An through the secluded alleyways, but she only relied on her senses to hear the footsteps of the soldiers. She couldn''t sense the soldiers standing in ce.


    An took charge of their escape once she realized that he could sense soldiers even better than her. She looked at him in surprise once he was able to sense five guards standing behind the wall to surprise the other delinquents. It was as if he could see through walls!


    With his urate senses, they were able to advance through the streets and avoid the soldiers lurking to catch them.


    Once they caught sight of the mansion, they saw tens of soldiers guarding the gates and the doors with their electric batons activated.


    They had to stop for a minute and think up a solution.


    "Let''s see if there''s a gap in their security," whispered Yasmine.


    While they observed guards, they saw three individual Saviors try to run past the security. They sessfully caught the guards off guard and got past the gate, but they failed to take ount of the other soldiers inside the mansion. They ended up getting tased as soon as they stepped foot past the door.


    "Looks like we can''t run inside," whispered An.


    Yasmine looked around the mansion and calcted that the best way to get in was through the roof or the top floors. However, the buildings close to the mansion were tightly guarded to prevent delinquents from infiltrating in.


    The only ce with no guards was the third floor facing south. It was clear why. There were no buildings near it for an easy jump. If someone wanted to infiltrate the third floor, they would have to jump from a roof 50 meters away! Normal Student realm Saviors had no way of jumping that gap.


    Of course, Yasmine and An were no mere Saviors.


    She led An towards the next-door building and made their way up to the roof.


    Now that they were here, fifty meters looked far. Yasmine had no confidence in jumping that far, so she had to use her mutation called ''Stepping Stone'' which allowed her to step on air.


    Yasmine looked away from An and muttered something under her breath. "Ho¡ªhold¡­my hand and¡­I''ll take you where we need to go¡­"


    I''m only doing this because we can''t jump that far. I''m not doing this just because I want to hold his hand¡ªnot that I want to!


    When she didn''t feel the warmth of his hand, Yasmine whipped her head to the side and was surprised to see no one there. She looked forward and saw An on the third floor, waving at her with an annoying smile on his face.


    He already jumped and made it all the way there!


    Yasmine kept her head down as she stepped into the air and slowly made her way to the third floor.


    An tilted his head. "Why do you look mad?"


    "Nothing!"

 Chapter 115: Kill assist

    An didn''t know why she was so mad all of a sudden. He thought she''d be happy that they finally got to the mansion.


    Yasmine had no intention of ever telling An why she was mad. She herself didn''t even know why she was angry. Perhaps, she just didn''t want to admit it.


    Instead of thinking about it further, she opened the door to the 3rd floor and went inside the mansion. An followed behind her, still clueless.


    The third floor was full ofrge rooms and an expansive hallway full of paintings worshiping the Genesis God. Readtest chapters at m_v-l''e|-NovelBin


    This floor didn''t have any guards at all. After all, no one thought that the kids would ever be able to get through from the 3rd floor.


    When they reached the staircase that led down to the 1st floor, they immediately heard the sounds and murmurs of soldiers guarding the portal. They carefully put their heads over the railings and peaked at the situation below.


    Just as they expected, they stationed the most soldiers near the portal entrance. There were two on each side of the entrance, with five other guards standing near them for support.


    Yasmine bit her lips. She didn''t know how they were going to get to the portal without having to fight the guards. With her strength and skill, fighting five guards at the same time was no problem at all. However, resisting arrest and harming soldiers warranted an ever bigger punishment if caught.


    "We need a distraction," An said. He took out his slingshot and armed it with his condensed soil pellet. He aimed at the priceless vase encased in ss opposite the portal entrance.


    The soldiers would be forced to investigate the crashing sound if he hit the vase.


    Yasmine wanted to stop him. She never saw An use his slingshot throughout thepetition and thought that he was a bad shot. After all, he was a porter with no sniping LifeSkill to help him aim. If he missed and hit a soldier, then he could get in even bigger trouble.


    But before she could even utter a single word, An let go of the slingshot and it urately shot the vase with no deviation at all.


    She was left speechless. She saw the pellet thread the needle through a small gap between the soldier''s left arm and his body without him even knowing about it.


    An acted like this was extremely easy, but Yasmine knew how difficult that was to replicate.


    He can subdue Canzers. He can sense soldiers beyond walls. He can use a slingshot like a pro¡­what more can this guy do?!


    The more she spent time with An, the more she was opened up to his talents. It was as if he was good at everything he did! She even felt like the title of ''genius'' should be given to him instead.


    Her newfound perspective on An was conflicting for her heart. On one hand, she was impressed with his talent and admired him even more for it. However, thepetitive blood within her wanted to fight him and prove who was better between them.


    Is he a friend or a rival?


    "Mine, what are you doing? Let''s go!" An took the opportunity and went down the stairs while the soldiers investigated the crashing sound. But when he looked back, Yasmine was still on the third floor.


    It took a moment for Yasmine to shake off her thoughts and follow An to the first floor.


    The two guards near the portal walked forward, but they didn''t take more than a few meters away from the portal.


    Yasmine took out her sword andunched a miniature ming dragon that crashed through the door near the investigating soldiers. The disturbance immediately left them rattled as they took out their batons.


    "Is it a Pseudo Canzer?!"


    "Keep your eyes peeled!"


    "We need reinforcements!"


    The two soldiers finally went past their station, which allowed An and Yasmine to sneak past behind them.


    However, one of the soldiers thought he heard something from behind him. He immediately whipped his head back, but he saw nothing out of the ordinary.


    Meanwhile, Yasmine and An had their bodies incredibly close as they forced themselves inside a locker near the portal.


    They had their bodies sped together. Yasmine could feel An slowing down his breath to stay silent.


    The locker got incredibly hot all of a sudden as Yasmine''s face turned beet red. She looked up at him and saw that he was also a bit embarrassed.


    This was the first time An was so close to a girl before. He could feel it on his chest, her¡ª


    Why do I feel it even through armor? Don''t think about that right now. I have to focus¡­


    They kept silent, with only their chests heaving up and down. Their breaths exchanged because their heads were so close together, with their noses almost touching.


    Outside, one of the soldiers shouted. "What are you doing? They need reinforcements!"


    The soldier lingered his eyes on the locker for a second, before turning forward and going towards the other soldiers.


    "I''ming," he said.


    After a few seconds, An and Yasmine both walked out of the locker and made their way to the portal.


    They stepped foot over the shimmering ck liquid portal and finally got back to the real world. They walked out of the Pocket Remedium and into the room where the portal was based.


    Thankfully, there were no soldiers here. They safely went out the door and onto the streets.


    And just as An was going to rx, he suddenly saw a few words pop up in front of him.


    [You have assisted in killing a Destruction Canzer: Giant Werewolf]


    [Due to your trait, your rewards have been multiplied by 10]


    [You have gained 20,000 experience]


    [You have gained D ss Bloodline Transformation LifeSkill]


    [You have gained 10x F ss fragments]


    An looked at his Soul System and couldn''t keep his calm.


    ¡ªBerserker: (D) Bloodline Transformation


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª 1st stage Pre-Intern


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 10x F ss fragments


    This new LifeSkill was in the Pre-Intern realm!

 Chapter 116: Do you?

    An couldn''t even believe that his silver pellet helped kill the colossal Canzer. He knew that it was going to hit the Humanoid Wolf, but he wasn''t sure if his strength would be enough to prate its tough skin.


    As it turned out, it did. He assisted in killing the monster and got rewarded for his contribution.


    The only thing he thought he''d get was a lot of experience, which was true. He got 20,000 experience just from that one Canzer because it was at a higher difficulty than An''s stage. He was only in the Student realm while he guessed that the Canzer was even beyond that.


    However, he hadn''t expected that he would get a LifeSkill from it too! And it wasn''t just any LifeSkill, it was a berserker LifeSkill at the Pre-Intern realm!


    It was the realm above the Student stage.


    He didn''t even think that it was possible.


    All the LifeSkills I got started at the 1st stage Student. It must be because all the Canzers I killed are also at the Student stage difficulty.


    But this Canzer is above that. It''s probably the reason why it started in the Pre-Intern realm.


    Now that he knew that this was a possibility, he was tempted to fight stronger and stronger Canzers. If he fought another Canzer like that colossal Humanoid Wolf, then it was more than possible to get a LifeSkill at the Intern realm or even at the Specialist realm!


    Stop. It''s already lucky for me to havee out alive from that incident. If reinforcements didn''te, then that Canzer could have killed all of us¡­


    Your adventure continues at m v|l-e''-NovelBin


    An had to remind himself that huge rewards always came with huge risks.


    Even if he only wanted to go to Pocket Remediums and kill tons and tons of Pseudo Canzers, there was no telling whether an anomaly like this incident would happen again. It was likely that another colossal Canzer could appear if he kept on summoning Pseudo Canzers endlessly.


    Although he would get a lot of LifeSkills, Genuses, and experience from killing a lot of Pseudo Canzers, it wasn''t worth risking his life for.


    I don''t even know if people will still open their Pocket Remediums once this incident bes widespread.


    It was only a matter of time till they found out that there were people killed inside the Pocket Remedium.


    "Are you listening to me?" Yasmine faced An with a serious look on her face.


    An was too focused on his Soul System that he didn''t hear anything Yasmine said.


    "It was nice spending time with you," Yasmine said. "But I can''t be your friend. I can''t be anyone''s. I will always prioritize my progression over building rtionships with others."


    An stayed silent. He was thankful to Yasmine for helping him evade capture. He also enjoyed those brief moments when she showed her true self and talked with him like a normal person. However, she always seemed to put on a cold face soon after.


    "You are my rival. I am yours. Don''t you dare have others, okay?" Yasmine leaned and poked his chest to make sure he remembered.


    Competing with him was the only way she could rationalize her obsession with him.


    Without saying anything else, Yasmine turned around and slowly walked away.


    An would have wanted to be friends with Yasmine, but she respected her decision. He was d that she considered him as someone to beat.


    "Girl''s hearts are fickle, aren''t they?"


    Two people suddenly came out from the room where the portal was located. They wore white tunics with green sashes over their shoulders¡ªa Vanguard battle suit from the great Olympus mountain rangers.


    An was surprised to see two familiar faces: Razer and S.


    "I hope you''re not here to continue our fight. I''m not in the mood."


    Razer innocently raised both of his hands. "Don''t worry, Star Porter. I''m not here to settle our differences."


    Their previous fight left Razer coughing up blood with an internal injury. It burned hispetitive spirit. He would have wanted to brawl it out with An right in the Pocket Remedium, but the horde of Pseudo Canzers stopped him from trying to fight seriously.


    Razer and An chatted to themselves.


    S, on the other hand, kept her eyes on An. She couldn''t believe what she heard from Razer. He said that the Genesian porter had the capacity to fight on equal grounds against him, even while using all of his mutations and LifeSkill.


    She simply couldn''t believe it. There was a two-stage difference between them; they shouldn''t be equal at all.


    Yet, Razer swore on the All-Father that An had a 50% percent chance of defeating him in a duel. Even the other Olympians who saw An''s strength first-hand endorsed him as someone who could rival the genius Razer.


    She knew that they wouldn''t lie about it, but the picture they painted was still too much of an exaggeration for her to believe.


    The two of them didn''t fight in the race, so she didn''t know anything about his capabilities.


    "Have you recovered from your injuries?" asked An.


    Razer nodded his head. "Yes. I was knocked out by that colossal Canzer but the body bestowed upon me by the Almighty Zeus allowed me to recover quite quickly.


    Gah! That was one monster. I heard it''s a Specialist-level Canzer at that. No wonder I lost an entire year of my SoulTime from just one of its attacks."


    So it was a Specialist-level Canzer. No wonder I got a Pre-Intern LifeSkill.


    "How about you? Did you tussle with the beast?"


    "I ran away from the Canzer," An answered.


    "Hoh! A sensible action. Don''t worry. We''ll have plenty of time to get stronger and kill Specialist level Canzers with the flick of our fingers!"


    S couldn''t believe that Razer was talking about killing Canzers with An. He was a porter; they weren''t supposed to kill Canzers.


    "By the way. I speak on behalf of all our Gods when I say that you are one of the bravest heroes the world has ever seen.


    Do you want to join Olympus?"

 Chapter 117: Greek prize

    "We could use a guy like you in our Metropolis. You''ll give our geniuses a run for their money."


    An was speechless at the offer. He didn''t think that he would get recruited by one of the best Metropolises in the entire world!


    Their Territory consisted of multiple mountains, each bigger than Genesis City itself. And the bigger the territory was, the more prosperous it was for their citizens.


    This was a tremendous honor for someone like An. He was only from the Unimed Lands, but he was already getting offers from a Metropolis even though he had only been in Genesis City for less than a month!


    "If you join Olympus, then you will be under the tutge of a sub-god under Zeus called Ares, the God of War."


    S''s eyes widened. "Wait! He''s getting recruited by Ares?"


    She knew that An was getting recruited by an Olympian god, but she didn''t think it would be one of the major Olympian Gods, Ares! She thought it would only be a minor god without much power and territory.


    For him to get recruited by Ares meant that even Gods recognized his courage and valor on the battlefield. After all, he had already shown two great acts of heroism in his career as a porter, all in less than a month!


    Razer ignored S''s surprise and continued to exin.


    "He will bestow upon you a 7-star Genus upon your eptance and an equivalent 7-star mutation that will help you shore up your weakness of having no damage-dealing LifeSkill.


    And as a drafting bonus, he will be giving you 500 years of SoulTime immediately.


    That''s not all. Since Ares is one of the major Olympian Gods, he is willing to let you have the opportunity to choose a treasure in Hephaesteus'' armory!"


    S''s heart almost stopped from her shock. Even she didn''t wasn''t allowed to choose her weapon from the divine armory. Yet, An was given that honor just for epting the offer to join Olympus. Getting drafted by such a prestigious Metropolis should have been enough of a reward by itself!


    "And if you don''t want to join his faction, you can also join Athena''s side. She''ll also offer you 7-star Genuses and mutations and bonus Soul Time.


    And you will have ess to her library of wisdom. You can learn everything there is to know about warfare and how to defeat Canzers."


    This time, S''s knees went weak and she fell on the floor. Even though she was happy with Apollo as her god, she once wished that she was under the Goddess of wisdom and warfare. She couldn''t believe that the Goddess offered her hand to An.


    Two of the major Olympian Gods wanted to recruit An to their camps! This was an unbelievable situation reserved only for those truly talented individuals who came once in a thousand years.


    "I don''t know what to say¡­" An never prepared for such a situation.


    "Easy. ept it."


    But An wasn''t sure if he wanted to leave Genesis City so fast. He hadn''t even explored the whole Territory yet. It hadn''t even been a month since he moved here and he was just starting to get settled down. He would have to start all over again if he moved to Olympus.


    "I''m not sure."


    "What''s there to think about? You''ll be getting a lot of benefits if you move out of Genesis City. You''ll be trained in Olympus and be given more responsibilities rather than be stuck as a porter." Discover hidden content at m,v l''e-NovelBin


    The benefits posed by the Gods truly tempted An to say yes. After all, by publicly obtaining a 7-star bloodline and mutation, he wouldn''t have to hide his powers anymore. He could join missions and kill Canzers in a team rather than be a porter.


    "What''s there to think about? If you join Olympus, I''ll finally have a sparring partner with me!"


    An kept silent as he thought about his decision. There was just one thing he was concerned about if he were to join Olympus.


    "Can you tell me exactly what would happen if I joined?"


    Razer crossed his arms on his chest and answered. "You''ll join us on our journey back to Olympus. It''ll take a while since it''s a long distance from here.


    Once we''re there, you''ll be assessed by Athena''s camp and be sorted into depending on your strength. Don''t worry, the test is very urate. It''s overseen by the Gods to make sure to ount for other factors other than physical strength.


    Sometimes, people like you are weak on the outside, but strong on other aspects like your speed, your intellect, and your bravery. The assessment makes sure to not discount those factors."


    That was a deal breaker for An. He didn''t want others to find out about his Grim Reaper powers.


    He knew that he would get assessed for his strength because that was what happened when he got drafted by Genesis City. That assessment was very informal, but it turned out great for An because they didn''t find any anomaly with his powers.


    But if the Olympian Gods personally searched his whole body, they would undoubtedly find something wrong with him. That would be the worst-case scenario.


    I''m not going to join them, he decided.


    Even though those rewards were tempting, it wasn''t anything he couldn''t get by himself. He could continue reaping deaths and slowly work his way up to getting a 7-star Genus and mutation and more.


    It wasn''t worth risking his secret to get those benefits.


    "I''m sorry, but I don''t have any intention of leaving Genesis City for now."


    S''s jaws dropped when she heard that. It was one thing to get drafted by the Goddess of Wisdom, but it was another thing to reject Her! She couldn''t believe anyone would let go of such a lucrative opportunity.


    "Are you sure?" Razer asked him.


    An took a deep breath and nodded his head. "I''m sure."


    Razer nodded his head in understanding. "I had a feeling you''d refuse."


    "Tell the Gods that I appreciate the offer, but I''m content with where I am now."


    "I''ll pray to them," Razer said. "Oh, and I forgot something. This is your prize for winning thepetition. You have beaten me fair and square."

 Chapter 118: Black dye

    An was surprised. Razer wanted to give him a prize. But perhaps no one was more surprised than S who knew that Razer was not the type of guy to admit defeat.


    "He won? Didn''t thepetition get canceled before anyone could reach the finish line?"


    Razer shook his head. "I wasn''t talking about that. We had a new agreement where the guy who kills the most Pseudo Canzers wins the whole thing."


    An seemed to have remembered hearing Razer shout something from a distance, but he didn''t think that he was serious about that.


    S, on the other hand, was even more confused. "Are you telling me that he killed more Pseudo Canzers than you? I''m sorry, but he''s only a porter! He shouldn''t even have the capacity to kill one Canzer!"


    She simply couldn''t believe that a Berserker lost against a Porter in a killing-Pseudo-Canzerspetition. The main advantage of a Berserker was that they could kill as many enemies as possible in a short amount of time. Razer should have won thispetition by virtue of his job alone. Find exclusive stories on mvl


    "Did you see him kill all of those Pseudo Canzers with your own eyes?"


    Razer shook his head. "I didn''t have to see it. Didn''t you wonder what happened to him once he sacrificed himself and led the majority of the horde away from us?"


    Once he said that, S cupped her mouth in shock. She forgot about it. Because of An''s heroic deeds, they were able to push their way forward and reach the Colosseum. They would have reached the portal if that colossal Humanoid Wolf hadn''t blocked their way.


    The appearance of such a monster made them forget about An. If Razer hadn''t made her remember, then she wouldn''t have wondered how An was able to survive such a massive horde of Canzers.


    She seemed to have remembered hundreds and hundreds of monsters hot on An''s tail.


    How did he survive? Don''t tell me¡­he really did kill all of those Pseudo Canzers?! That''s absurd! I have a DPS job but even I can''t kill that much.


    Razer smiled and put his hands on An''s shoulders. "I was only able to kill about 150 Pseudo Canzers before I had to go and support S and the others on their way to the Colosseum.


    Since you survived much longer than I did, then I suppose you killed much more than that. Tell me, how many did you kill? 180? 190? Or maybe even 200?"


    An killed a total of 392 Pseudo Canzers in the span of a few minutes, with only two moves.


    Of course, he would never say that out loud. If he told them the truth, Razer would probably believe it but S would start to get suspicious. It could reveal his secret.


    So, An simply shrugged and didn''t say anything further.


    Razerughed when he saw this. He knew that An probably killed a lot of Pseudo Canzers but simply didn''t want to tell the truth.


    He could still feel that punch in the gut that he suffered after he underestimated An. And if he punched those Pseudo Canzers with the same strength, then he did not doubt that An killed hundreds of monsters with his strength.


    "How many did you kill?!" S was unsatisfied with An''s answer. He could have simply said that he killed about 50 monsters, and she would still be impressed. But the fact that he didn''t say anything made her think that he killed much more than that.


    "Argh. It''s such a shame that you won''t being with us to Olympus. Who else would challenge me this much? It doesn''t matter. We''ll probably meet again once we have advanced further up our realms. I''m looking forward to that time."


    Razer took out something from his pocket. "Here. I hope it fits you."


    He gave An a neatly folded white tunic. It had the same fabric and make as the uniforms that the Olympians wore.


    "I thought I told you I won''t be joining Olympus."


    "Haha! Don''t worry. That''s not a battle suit like ours. It''s more of an¡­essory¡­"


    An unfolded the tunic to find that it was much longer than he thought. It was too oversized. The hems of the tunic would drag across the floor if he wore this.


    "Thanks¡­?"


    "Don''t think too much of this gift. It''s just one of our essential essories whenever we travel outside Olympus.


    Sometimes, when we travel to new territories, we want to keep our identities a secret for a few days to observe how the City operates. That essory keeps us low-key."


    An observed the tunic, but he couldn''t understand how an oversized white robe would keep them low-key. It looked like it would catch everyone''s attention.


    "Just put it on."


    He looked at the tunic with his Thermal Vision and saw that there was a slight unnatural warmth permeating the tunic.


    It looks like one of those blue Operator battle suits. Is there a hidden mechanism embedded in this?


    He checked with his Physique LifeSkill and sensed nothing malicious with the robe. He finally put it on.


    Once he put it over his green battle suit, the white tunic started to shrink and slowly fit to his size. He now felt as if he was wearing a white battle suit made out of the tunic.


    "That is called a Stealth Tunic. It can change to any color, any fabric, or any design you can think of. If you want to blend in with the crowd, you can make your outfit fit with the current fashion trend. If you want to seem buffed, you can make it seem like you have armor all over your body. The possibilities are endless."


    An looked down at his white battle suit andmanded it to change into a new color.


    Soon enough, ck dye permeated from the top of his shoulders down to the bottom of his feet. His battle suit was now colored in sleek ck.

 Chapter 119: Hot or cold?

    An walked through the calm streets of Genesis City back to his house. He looked down at his new ck battle suit and found that it fit him quite well.


    ck suits me.


    Once Razer gave him his ''prize'' for winning theirpetition, the Olympians soon said their goodbyes.


    They said that they still had to fill out a lot of paperwork with Genesis City because of this incident. Since they were only visitors, they were only given a p on the wrist instead of a total cklist on missions like the other Genesians that were caught.


    He heard from Razer that the lightest punishment for the delinquents was 1 year of prison time.


    For An, that wasn''t that harsh of a punishment because he already had enough experience from reaping all the deaths. He just needed time to consolidate his advancements to other stages.


    Of course, he would rather go on missions and kill Canzers on his own.


    His new Pre-Intern stage Berserk LifeSkill taught him that there were a lot more rewards for him if he fought stronger and stronger Canzers. It was risky, but if An survived, then he would only get stronger and stronger, which would allow him to fight stronger opponents and continue the cycle.


    What am I thinking¡­did I forget that there''s no immortality to protect me?


    From this incident alone, An witnessed two people die from the colossal Humanoid Wolf. They didn''t even know what hit them. They died instantly.


    The worst part about it was that he was probably the only person who knew that they died. The Olympians and the Genesians all thought that those who ''died'' could still be revived in the church. They still thought that the Angels preserved their lives. Readtest chapters at mvl


    Because of that, nobody mourned their deaths.


    When he asked Razer and S about what they were going to do with the ''corpses'', they replied that they were going to send them back to Olympus to receive blessing from the gods.


    An didn''t even know if he could call them corpses at this point. They were more like a mushy soup of blood and flesh which they scraped off the streets in the Remedium.


    Of course, An didn''t say anything to them.


    He simply waved them goodbye and said nothing further. If they went back to Olympus and saw that the dead bodies weren''t getting resurrected, then they would know it by then.


    After a few minutes, An stopped walking. He didn''t notice it but he was finally at his doorstep. He was so preupied with thinking about that stuff that he didn''t notice that he was already home.


    All he wanted to do now was toy in hisfortable bed and fall asleep after a long day, but he couldn''t. He still had to check something.


    ¡ªBerserker: (D) Bloodline Transformation


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª 1st stage Pre-Intern


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª ( 0/100,000 )


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 10x F ss fragments


    An immediately used up his extra fragments to upgrade its ss.


    ¡ªBerserker: (B) Bloodline Transformation


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª 1st stage Pre-Intern


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª ( 0/100,000 )


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 4x F ss fragments


    He was tempted to immediately upgrade it to the 2nd stage Pre-Intern realm. However, the required experience made him doublethink his decision. Although he could afford it, he wondered whether it was worth it or not.


    [Avable Experience: 127,281.2]


    Should I see how this LifeSkill works first?


    An looked down at his Soul System and saw a new orbiting the sr system made up of his LifeSkills. He was surprised to see that the design stered all over the surface of the was the helix structure of his Genuses! And it didn''t just copy his multiple Genuses, it copied the two 10-star rarity Genuses he had: the Angel genus and the Grim Reaper genus.


    The LifeSkill name is called Bloodline Transformation. And those two 10-star genuses are what made my bloodline into what it is now. Does that mean that I will transform into those two Genuses?


    An took a quick look around his house with his Thermal Vision. When he saw that there was no one spying on him, Anmanded his giant hand to hover around his new LifeSkill.


    With bated breaths, the giant hand slowly gripped the LifeSkill. An was surprised to see that it could touch the, which meant that he could activate the LifeSkill right away!


    It wasn''t like the Apocalyptic Hellfire LifeSkill that needed a projectile to activate. It also wasn''t like the Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill that needed a stationary target to grip the LifeSkill. He could use it right now!


    Excitement filled his body. He never thought he''d be able to activate a Pre-Intern LifeSkill so soon.


    He didn''t know what to expect. After all, he didn''t even know the difference between a Student and a Pre-Intern. He didn''t know how big the power difference was between the two.


    As he gripped the LifeSkill with his giant hand, a hot and cold sensation flowed through his veins. On the left side of his body, hot liquid flowed alongside his blood and boiled his flesh. On the right side, cold liquid froze all his blood and his organs into submission.


    The two forces were fighting inside his body, waging wars and destroying his innards.


    Kugh!


    This was the first time that An felt pain and suffering from activating his LifeSkill. He fell on his knees. Even his SSS ss Physique couldn''t ovee the tyrannical rule of both sides.


    [SoulTime]


    ¡ª40 yrs : 111 d : 01 hrs : 09 min : 23 s


    ¡ª40 yrs : 111 d : 01 hrs : 08 min : 23 s


    ¡ª40 yrs : 111 d : 01 hrs : 07 min : 23 s


    He was losing a minute of his SoulTime every second!


    There must be something wrong with this LifeSkill¡­Kagh!...Is it because it''s in the Pre-Intern realm and my body can''t take it yet?


    But as An thought about it, he figured out that it wasn''t his body that couldn''t take it. It was the LifeSkill itself! Two types of energies flowed from his LifeSkill and those two were fighting trying to dominate each other. They couldn''t co-exist within the same space! One of them had to go.


    An had to choose. Hot or Cold?

 Chapter 120: Horrifying face

    With each second he struggled to decide which one to win the battle, their war raged on with much more intensity and carnage. He was horrified to see his SoulTime losing one day for each second it kept going.


    He had to choose.


    He closed off his brain and emptied his mind. He finally intervened and let one of the two energies win and permeate through his veins. The other one receded back to his Soul System and stayed dormant knowing that it lost this battle.


    As the one energy monopolized his body, his very DNA began to change, down to the very molecule.


    Even though his bloodline was that of an ''Angelic Reaper of Souls'', his appearance remained that of a human. However, this LifeSkill allowed him to unlock that secret power that was hidden within him.


    Slowly, his skin turned darker and darker as if it was rotting. An felt no pain from this, onlyfort. The energy that circted throughout his body no longer acted like a wild bull. It became an obedient horse that guided his transformation into something beyond a human.


    His rotting skin seemed to have thinned as his bones became more visible from under it. But that wasn''t urate. It was more like his bones grew until it seemed as if his flesh disappeared.


    Even though his muscles receded under his bones, it seemed as if An was filled with more power than he ever thought possible. He felt like he could lift a mountain! His physical strength exceeds that of his Physique LifeSkill by at least five times!


    His skin continued to rot and decay, spreading from his toes and up towards his torso. His stomach emptied as if he was emaciated and hadn''t eaten in an entire year. His rib cage became even more prominent in his chest.


    The decay spread even to his battle suit, treating it as if it were part of An''s body itself.


    It wasn''t long until the decay spread up to his head. He couldn''t see himself, but it was easy to imagine what would happen to his face.


    The temperature in the room plummeted. His whole body was emitting a cold that could freeze water with just a touch. Smoke came out of his rotten skin as the room-temperature air hit his icy cold skin.


    CRACK


    Ice spread from his feet down to the tiles under him. It couldn''t handle the pressure and cracked.


    After the rot spread to every inch of his body, An felt a sense ofpletion. He knew his transformation was finished. His entire mass radiated with cold, dark power.


    Is this the power of a Pre-Intern?


    An felt as if he was filled with boundless energy. He was so full of it that he was almost bursting at the seams, manifesting as cold and frost outside his decaying body.


    But even though he had a boundless energy sourceing from his Soul System itself, An had no way of converting that to useful power. He felt like he could create ming dragons out of his hands or create tornadoes the size of a building, but An had no idea how to.


    The only way he could use this energy was to reinforce his body and increase his physical strength. It was crude and basic, but it was the only way he could harness this energy.


    What do I look like?


    An slowly made his way towards the bathroom where he could see himself in therge mirror. He kept his steps delicate and soundless.


    Once he was inside, he closed his eyes and readied himself to see his bloodline transformation.


    3¡­2¡­1¡­


    A skull with empty eye sockets stared back at him as soon as he opened his eyes. There were bits and pieces of rotting skin still stuck onto his bones, making the image that much more macabre.


    "Argh!"


    He stumbled back. He wasn''t ready to see such a horrible image of himself staring right back at him. It was as if he was looking at his own decaying corpse. It made him remember the memories down in the Unimed Lands.


    Back in his homnd, all he ever did was dig through an endless tunnel of gray, hot sand underground. And there were times when he would unearth a corpse that died from starvation or dehydration. They looked exactly like he did right now.


    With his new life, he thought he wouldn''t end up like that anymore.


    Horrifying¡­


    An was so spooked that he subconsciouslymanded the Stealth Tunic to create a ck robe that covered his entire body. That wasn''t enough to hide his frightening face. He created a hood that covered half his head.


    He took a deep breath and looked at the mirror again. This time, he saw a mysterious figure of a man wearing a ck robe with his face obscured by the darkness under his hood.


    "That''s better¡­"


    He didn''t think he''d appreciate the Stealth Tunic as much as he did right now. This ck robe made him seem like a normal man who was simply enshrouded in mystery. He wasn''t a rotting corpse anymore.


    An took a couple of deep breaths and centered himself.


    Once he looked past his horrifying appearance, this LifeSkill was even better than he thought. Not only did he gain tremendous power that would rival those in the Pre-Intern realm, but he also transformed into somethingpletely different from who he was.


    If he didn''t even recognize himself, then nobody would. If he wanted to keep his identity a secret, this would be a useful trump card to have in his arsenal of LifeSkills.


    If more anomalies happened during his missions in the Remedium, a power equivalent to the Pre-Intern realm would save his life in case of emergencies. And with this transformation, he wouldn''t have to worry about others finding out about his secrets.


    The only problem with this was that he couldn''t use his other LifeSkills at the same time as he was maintaining the transformation. He could only create one giant hand to grasp one LifeSkill.


    If he could somehow create another giant hand, then he could use his other LifeSkills in tandem with his transformation. Unfortunately, it seemed his willpower wasn''t the only criterion to create a giant hand.

 Chapter 121: What happened to him?

    An''s body regained its natural color once he let go of his LifeSkill. His face returned to the youthful appearance as it was before, with no trace of rotting flesh in his skin.


    Despite its horrifying appearance, his new Berserk LifeSkill was a trump card that he appreciated dearly.


    Just as he thought, the bloodline transformation was like a mutation, except this one transformed his whole body.


    Now that he knew its usefulness, An decided to upgrade it to the 2nd stage. It was better to invest in it now because that one-stage difference could mean the difference between life and death. He could always reap more deaths in the future and with his trait, all of it would be multiplied by 10, making it quite easy to gain a lot in a short amount of time.


    [You have sessfully advanced through the 1st Stage Student Realm of your B ss Berserk LifeSkill Bloodline Transformation]


    [Consolidation period: 364 days]


    A whole year?!


    An didn''t expect the consolidation period to be so long. If the Pre-Intern realm already took this long to consolidate, then how about the Specialist Realm? Do they have to wait an entire century to advance to the next stage?


    Perhaps it was because he was raised from the Unimed Lands, but his time perception waspletely different than those that lived their whole lives in a God''s Territory.


    For them, a century might seem as short as one year, but for An, it was enough to live a full life.


    If he was them, then he couldn''t wait that long to advance his LifeSkills. Who knew what would happen in the meantime? An anomaly could ur at any moment, with each one getting worse and worse than the previous one.


    An was lucky that he got a head start to consolidate his Pre-Intern LifeSkill. He was d that he paid for the 100,000 experience now. He could gain ten times that much in an entire year.


    He slumped down on the bed and slept soundly. Hisfortable bed and pillow constantly reminded him that he was far away from the hot gray sands of the Unimed Lands.


    ###


    The next morning, An woke up seeing that one of his LifeSkills reached the next stage.


    [You have sessfully advanced your SR ss Scout LifeSkill Thermal Vision to the 2nd stage of the Student Realm]


    And without missing a beat, he spent another 2000 experience to upgrade it to the next stage. In about 2 days, it would level up to the 3rd stage.


    Even though this LifeSkill had no damage-dealing capacity, it gave him vision throughout the battlefield. Because he upgraded it to SR ss, he could now see through walls and see the temperature difference between a human and a Canzer with great detail.


    And just as he activated his Thermal Vision, he saw that there was a horse mount parked right on the curb in front of his house.


    The owner of this mount walked up to his porch and elegantly knocked on his door.


    Even though he couldn''t see her face, he recognized the general outline of her body. She had straight hair with sses on her face. Not only that, her battle suit had different intersecting lines that glowed red hot around her body. This was not a Vanguard. This was an Operator.


    Why is she here?


    An opened the door and saw Pterina Pterodinus standing opposite him. It hadn''t even been a few days since they first met in the church, but she already looked quite haggard and stressed out.


    She nudged up her sses and put away her tablet as she greeted An with a bright smile.


    "Good morning, An."


    "Good morning¡­what are you doing here?"


    "May I?"


    An gestured for her to enter. They went over towards the kitchen where he poured her a ss of water.


    "Thank you." She took a sip. "Ahh¡­it''s been a while since I''ve had cold water."


    She took her time drinking the water as if this was the first sip she''d ever had in an entire week.


    "Are you here to arrest me?" An asked.


    It wasn''t hard to guess that HeadQuarters already knew that he was at that partyst night. They probably questioned all of the participants and his name must havee up in the conversation. After all, he was the onlypetitor who was able to go fromst ce to first ce.


    Thankfully Pterina didn''t seem to be here for that. She quickly shook her head to ease An''s worries.


    "Don''t worry. I''m not here to arrest you for your participation in that illegal party. If you were caught yesterday, then we would have punished you the same as the others. But the fact that you were able to circumvent our security means that you have a good ability to think on your feet. We need that nowadays."


    An was relieved that he wasn''t going to get punished with a one-year cklist in missions.


    "What are you here for?"


    "As you know, I am an Inquisitor. My job is to find out everything there is to know about the incidentst night. If you didn''t know, that monster you all faced was at the 1st stage Specialist difficulty.


    You were lucky you preserved your SoulTime. Others weren''t so fortunate. There were about 3 Olympians and 20 Genesians that lost their SoulTimest night. It was tragic. They''ll need about two or three years of recuperation in the church to regenerate from a single blood cell back to their original bodies."


    An kept silent. No matter how much they tried, those blood will die. They won''t regenerate back into life.


    "Because of this, the regtions on Pocket Remediums have be stricter. Tsk. tsk. Tsk. The Orioness family is quite in a delicate situation right now. They are responsible for opening up their Pocket Remedium in such a turbulent time.


    By the way, I heard from a lot of people that you shed with the youngest Orioness, Obek. Did you happen to know what happened to him after you defeated him in the race?"


    An felt the air change.


    He saw Pterina''s entire body glow brighter as she used her Inquisitor LifeSkill to inspect An''s next words.

 Chapter 122: I wouldn鈥檛 know

    [Unauthorized probe detected]


    [Lie detection denied.]


    An expected that she would start interrogating him, but he didn''t think that her first question would rte to Obek.


    "No. I don''t know what happened to him."


    He didn''t even have to lie. He truly had no idea what happened to the arrogant young master after the race.


    An thought that the guy was able to escape the Pocket Remedium because he was the one who knew the ins and outs of their Pocket Remedium the most. But from her questioning, it seemed that he ultimately got caught by the horde of Pseudo Canzers.


    "Why? What happened to him?"


    Pterina looked at An''s body and saw no obvious change in his breathing and blood flow. He wasn''t lying.


    Sigh. "He lost most of his SoulTime. He probably got caught by the monsters and couldn''t escape their onught."


    An took a deep breath. Even though he had no favorable impression of Obek. he still didn''t like the idea of someone dying so easily. An only hoped that his death was instant.


    "Anyway, let''s change the subject. I would like you to talk about your experience in the Pocket Remedium. Did you find anything strange when you entered? Did you feel anything weird when the horde of Pseudo Canzers malfunctioned?"


    An told her everything that he did during the party while omitting some private details about his powers. He even told her about how he made connections with Yasmine.


    "It''s been brought to my attention that you joined the race between our Genesians and the Olympians. Not only that, you were somehow able to go fromst ce to the top spot.


    How did that happen?"


    Of course, An couldn''t tell her about his mutation that allowed him to listen to the Pseudo Canzer''snguage. If he hadn''t listened to their talk, he wouldn''t have noticed that the Giraffe-Horse was different from the rest.


    "I just got lucky, I guess."


    [Unauthorized probe detected]


    [Lie detection denied.]


    "Mhmm¡­And you were able to speed past the otherpetitors using that horse, correct?"


    "Yup¡­"


    It was hard to believe that An picked the fastest steed in the arena when Yasmine or Razer didn''t even know that there was a speed freak monster among the Pseudo Canzers.


    But she didn''t sense him lying, so he must have gotten lucky.


    "And during that race, you didn''t sense that something was amiss?"


    "No, I didn''t feel anything wrong."


    [Lie detection denied.]


    Pterina knew that it was at that point where the Pseudo Canzers started to malfunction.


    Soon after An left the arena to join the race, more and more of those horse centaur monsters spawned inside the arena, surprising the spectators in the stands. They tried to run to the portal, but more Pseudo Canzers blocked their way.


    So, they ran away. That was when the horde stampede happened.


    "So you all continued the race without knowing there was a horde behind you. It fits what the others said as well.


    Let''s talk about you. How did you fight against those Olympians? They are not the type to let anybody pass them so easily."


    An then pointed at his chest and his slingshot. "These helped me a lot."


    Pterina''s eyes widened as she observed the quality of both of these equipment. The armor didn''t look all that impressive but her discerning eyes were able to peer past the inner strength of the chestte.


    "Who gave you that?"


    "Miss Custodire."


    She gasped. "No wonder it looks like a treasure¡ªit''s even better than an indirect Masamune original! And that slingshot too. I can''t believe you got an esteemed cksmith like Miss Custodire to give you that armor and custom-make a slingshot as well. Your luck knows no bounds, it seems."


    "I guess so."


    "But why is your battle suit ck?"


    An liked the ck battle suit so much that he decided to wear it all the time.


    "Oh, Razer gave me this as a prize. I think it''s called a Stealth¨C"


    "A Stealth Tunic?! The Olympians gave you one of their treasures?!"


    An didn''t think she would be that surprised. He thought that it was only a normal piece of clothing. Razer said so himself.


    "I thought everybody had this?"


    "Only Olympians. They don''t give it away to other people. They don''t even trade it no matter how much people try to offer them."


    Turns out this thing is much more precious than I thought.


    An should have known that the Stealth Tunic was more valuable than he estimated. After all, it could change to any kind of fabric, color, and style that the wearer wanted with just a snap of his fingers. If he thought that anyone could easily get it, then he was living in a fantasy.


    "Why would he give you this?"


    "Oh, it''s nothing. Razer gave it to me because I won in our littlepetition."


    Pterina jaws dropped. As an Inquisitor, she was in charge of knowing everything there was to know about the people caught in the Pocket Remedium. Of course, she knew about Razer Wrekton, the genius of Mount Olympus.


    And from what she gathered from various anecdotes, stories, and interviews about Razer, there was one word that described him: overbearing.


    The man only cared about himself and his strength. It was a trait that he gained from the Almighty Zeus himself.


    One of the stories about Razer was that he even stood against Zeus and tried to attack Him while he was being recruited during his draft! He was unwilling to submit defeat against a god like Zeus.


    Now, An was telling her that the same man admitted defeat against him. That was absurd!


    The only way that a man like Razer would acknowledge another person was if they fought against each other.


    Pterina knew that An was able to reach the top spot of the race because of his fast steed. But she didn''t think that he actually fought against Razer himself. In her opinion, there was only one oue from that sh, and that was An getting pushed back tost ce.


    But it turned out that she was wrong. An was able to stand his ground and gain Razer''s respect.


    "What did you do when you fought against him? Did you outsmart him in the race? Did you target one of his weaknesses? How did it feel to spar against such an overbearing talent?"


    An shrugged. "I wouldn''t know. I only punched him one time."

 Chapter 123: Golden ticket

    "One punch¡­" She was at a loss for words.


    She heard from the other people she interrogated that An''s strength was far above that of a normal Savior, and especially above that of a porter. The fact that he was able to reach the top spot of the race consisting of geniuses from both Territories was evidence enough of his strength.


    However, this still be attributed to his natural talent and luck. She even guessed that An''s Physique LifeSkill was incorrectly assessed.


    She guessed that An had an A ss LifeSkill!


    But this didn''t exin how he was able toe to blows against Razer. Even if An had an S ss LifeSkill, he shouldn''t be able to ovee the two-stage difference between them.


    Razer acknowledged An''s powers after only one punch. This meant that he must have felt challenged by it. He must have felt that his punch could even injure him!


    Not only that, it finally made sense how An was able to survive the horde. It was no secret that An performed another heroic deed by offering himself as bait for others to leave.


    An must have used his tremendous physical strength to barely survive the Canzers that followed him!


    It was only now that Pterina realized that Genesis City got extremely lucky that they were able to recruit An before the other Gods got to him first. If they knew the kind of talent that this kid had, then they would undoubtedly do anything to get him into their camps.


    Wait a minute, Pterina thought. If Razer can recognize his talent, then They would too¡­don''t tell me¡­


    "Did They invite you to join Mount Olympus?"


    He nodded.


    "Darn those Greeks!" she shouted and surprised An with her outburst. "How dare they."


    It was extremely inappropriate for Razer to recruit An to Mount Olympus. There should have been a formal request to HeadQuarters in which the Gods themselves would negotiate about the possible trade or transfer of a Savior.


    This usually took months of back and forth between the two Gods and their correspondents as they tried to negotiate a deal that was favorable for their territory. Sometimes, years would pass and the negotiations woulde to nothing. Sometimes, it only took a few weeks for a sessful deal.


    However, the Olympian Gods circumvented this rule by having Razer recruit An instead. It was legal butpletely unprofessional.


    Once proven that this recruitment happened, the Genesis God could use it as leverage to get a better deal with the Olympian Gods in the future. Experience more on mvl


    Their assessment of An must have been really good for them to try and skip through all of the lines just to get him to their camp as soon as possible.


    Pterina knew that they couldn''t let such a valuable asset be taken away by the other Gods.


    She had to treat An as if he was an S ss talent who was even above Yasmine in importance. The fact that he was a porter made his presence in Genesis City even more significant.


    "Did you ept?"


    "I was thinking about it¡ª"


    Pterina immediately took out something from her tool belt and gave it to An. "This is a ticket to the Vineyard. From the authority bestowed upon me by Genesis City, I now transfer possession of this ticket to you."


    An was given a shiny golden ticket with an embossed decoration of a tree with a lot of roots and branches. On the bottom right of the ticket was an underline where An''s name slowly got printed out of nowhere.


    "What''s the Vineyard?"


    Pterina exined. "The Vineyard is a special ce in Genesis City where the Genus are stored."


    He locked eyes with her, his face full of surprise. "Are you serious?"


    "Yes. Genesis City values your presence here in our Territory. I am giving you that ticket in hopes that you will appreciate all that we have to offer. We may not be bigger than the Olympus mountain ranges, but we have plentiful powers that they don''t have."


    "Are you saying what I think you''re saying?"


    "Yes. You will have one opportunity to pick a single Genus from the Vineyard for you to upgrade your bloodline. This is an honor that no Student had ever earned before. You are the first one."


    An didn''t think that he would be given a new Genus from the City just like that. From what he heard from Neumann and the others, people would have to wait until they got to the Intern realm or Specialist realm before they earned a chance to change their bloodline.


    He looked at the golden ticket with anticipation. If he obtained a good enough Genus from the Vineyard, then he could show more of his powers without them getting suspicious!


    "And I advise you to visit the church soon. You are now eligible to gain 600 years of SoulTime aspensation for the idents that happened during your mission and this incident as well.


    I hope this shows you our sincerity in having you stay here in our City."


    An nodded. Pterina was giving him the same benefits that the Olympian Gods gave him when they wanted to recruit him. But now, he didn''t have to undergo a thorough assessment from the gods to receive these rewards.


    "Thank you."


    "It''s our pleasure. Oh, and about your battle suit. Usually, students aren''t allowed to alter their uniform, but you are given that exception. You can keep wearing that ck battle suit. You look good in it."


    Pterina stood up and shook hands with An.


    "I know that both of your experiences in the Remedium turned out to be total disasters, but I hope you don''t lose hope in us Operators. We are trying our hardest to find out why these disasters keep happening."


    An didn''t me them at all. In fact, he wanted to know more about their work instead. He wanted to know how they knew that the colossal Humanoid Wolf was weak against silver and angel power.


    Just before Pterina left for the door, An asked her a question.


    "Do you know where I can ask more about Operators?"

 Chapter 124: What鈥檚 a school?

    "You want to learn more about what Operators do? What a breath of fresh air. Most Vanguards, scratch that, all Vanguards don''t think it''s worth their time to know about their counterpart at all."


    "I''m just curious about how those constructs work. From what I saw, they always seem to be made of different materials and shapes."


    Pterina was very impressed that their Star Porter appreciated the work of the Operators. Most people just ignore Quills and focus on killing Canzers because they think that it''s much more honorable than diagnosing symptoms from thefort of their own homes.


    They didn''t know the hard work the Operators did behind the scenes.


    "Although I am an Operator, my knowledge on the subject of Canzers is very shallow¡ªonly on the surface level. But if you want an in-depth exnation of how constructs work, then I suggest you sit in one of the sses in our University."


    "University?" An didn''t even know that word.


    "Oh, I forgot you''re from the Unimed Lands. Operators like us pride ourselves on our knowledge. We believe that what we learn is our best bet in eradicating Canzers once and for all.


    ''The Quill is mightier than the sword,'' as they say.


    So, after we get drafted and get our LifeSkills, we don''t stop learning. We graduate from our school and onto a University where we can learn more about jobs. For me, I learned journalism and other Inquisitor-rted subjects but all of us are required to take at least one Canzer-rted ss.


    Even Specialist Operators still go to sses, learn, and research as much as they can to further their knowledge."


    An never knew that Operators went through this ''school'' even during their adolescence.


    Find more to read at mvl


    "What''s this ''school'' like?"


    "It''s a nice institution where you can learn and socialize at the same time. They teach you not just book knowledge, but also how to be a person. It''s where rtionships and friendships are born."


    All the knowledge that An learned throughout his life was through absorbing everything he heard from others. No one taught him anything. Nobody could. After all, the Unimed Lands were not that forgiving.


    "It''s quite different for Vanguards like you. Knives go through fighting schools and dojos to learn the basics. But after they get drafted and earn their LifeSkills, they graduate and stop going to school. They start their training in the Remedium and get better from there."


    That''s why I haven''t seen this ''school'' before. Turns out everybody had already ''graduated''.


    "Can I go to this University?"


    "Yes¡­wait." Pterina thought for a second and changed her mind. "Maybe it''s not such a good idea right now. As you might not know, tensions are high between the two specialties because of these incidents, so they might not wee a Knife in their ss.


    But if you want to go, then you can. Just make sure to bring someone with you so that they can vouch for you."


    An wanted to go to this University and learn more about Canzers. He looked at Pterina and asked,


    "Can you go with me?"


    Pterina smiled and nodded. "Of course I can, but not right now. I have a lot on my te. I haven''t even interrogated half of all the delinquents in our custody."


    "That''s fine with me."


    With nothing else, Pterina said goodbye to An and nned their visit to the University at ater date.


    An stood by the door and looked out into the distant Savior HeadQuarters.


    It was time to visit the Vineyard.


    ######


    Out in the gray, hot sands of the Unimed Lands, there was a group of people standing and looking out into the distance. They were wearing white tunics with green sashes pinned from their shoulders down to their waists.


    On the horizon, they saw a long carriage driving with ease through the mounds of gray sand.


    Razer, S, and the rest of the surviving Olympians were waiting for their escort back to their home, Mount Olympus. They were forced to cancel their visit to the other parts of the world after that disaster with the Pocket Dimension.


    A whileter, the carriage finally stopped right next to the Olympians.


    Their vehicle was arge white and gold chariot that was modified to make the travel through the Unimed Lands asfortable as possible for its passengers. It was big enough for them to all have their sleeping quarters inside.


    The door opened and a man with the same white tunic and green sash came outside. This man had a very pale skin tone and he wore dark round sses that covered his eyes and eyebrowspletely.


    "Greetings, senior brother."


    "Greetings, senior brother."


    The Olympians greeted the older man with respect.


    S held her head down and kept quiet. She was ashamed. They were supposed to win the wholepetition and show everyone the superiority of the Olympians, but instead, they woulde home with three vials of blood from their fallenrades.


    She dreaded it, but she knew that she had to say something. She readied herself to be berated and lectured for their pathetic performances. At this point, one year of training in Tartarus would be a merciful punishment.


    "Senior brother Thssios. I''m embarrassed to report to you that we have failed to bring home victory."


    S jumped when she felt a hand grip her shoulders.


    "Whatever."


    Whatever?


    S looked up to see a carefree expression on his face. It was as if he didn''t care about the result of their failure at all. It was uncharacteristic of him to be so nonchnt.


    Thssios ignored S and went over to Razer. "Did he join?"


    Razer expected to hear the disappointment in his voice but heard nothing but hopeful optimism.


    This question perplexed not only him but everybody else too.


    Thssios shook his head. "Tsk. I''m asking if you seeded in recruiting that porter."


    S couldn''t hide her shock when she heard that. Instead of worrying about the damaged pride of Mount Olympus, Thssios was concerned about whether they recruited An or not.


    "You recruited him, right?"

 Chapter 125: ICU

    Razer shook his head. "It''s unfortunate, but he declined. I finally found a rival of my own, but he didn''t want to move out of Genesis City."


    "WHAT?!"


    Thssios'' exaggerated shock gave S a scare.


    "Did you tell him that Athena and Ares were both willing to sponsor him?"


    Your journey continues on mvl


    "Yeah, I told him. But he still didn''t cave."


    Thssios paced back and forth, kicking gray sand with each stride. He couldn''t help but bite his lips as he tried to think.


    "Did you tell him that they would be willing to both bestow him with powers?"


    This time, everyone else couldn''t hide their shock. They knew firsthand how territorial and greedy the Olympian Gods were. One time, they blew up a whole mountain because those two gods were having a dispute about who owned that piece of territory. Instead of sharing, they destroyed it instead so that none of them would get it.


    If they didn''t want to share a mountain, they especially wouldn''t want to share a hero.


    The fact that they offered a joint sponsorship on An meant that they truly valued his talent.


    Thssios paced back and forth, biting his lips till it bled.


    If those stories about An were true, then he''s the perfect porter. We can''t let Genesis City hog him, Thssios thought to himself.


    "...we need him¡­" In his desperation, he let out a mutter.


    S seemed to be the only one who sensed the distress in his voice. She didn''t understand it. Sure, they didn''t have student-level porters back in Olympus City, but they still made do by having other speedy Saviors take on the job.


    Was An really that impressive?


    What she didn''t know was that Mount Olympus wasn''t the only one eyeing the Star Porter of Genesis City.


    There had been a lot of talk and gossip between the HeadQuarters of each Territory, and An''s name seemed toe up more often than not. Once they found out about his aplishment as a porter, they wanted him all to themselves.


    They regretted the fact that they passed up on the opportunity of recruiting him to their Territory when he first got drafted.


    Mount Olympus was one of them. They thought that they didn''t need to lower their standards by epting only a B ss talent from the Unimed Lands.


    But as it turned out, they couldn''t be more wrong. Judging from all of his aplishments in the recent events, everyone was sure that their first assessment of him was wrong. He probably had an A ss talent, or maybe even S ss.


    Every Territory near Genesis City was already making contact with their HeadQuarters about the possible trade or transfer of the Star Porter. Of course, their request was quickly denied.


    They would have tried to subtly recruit An like how Olympus did with Razer, but they didn''t have somebody on the inside. Now, Genesis City became even stricter on their internal policies about spies, giving them no chance to underhandedly recruit An.


    "I don''t even know why he''s still a porter. He can be a damage-dealing Savior if he wants to," Razer said. The fact that An could make him bleed meant that he could stand toe to toe against other ''geniuses''.


    "If I battled him, maybe he''ll realize that fighting is more fun than being a porter."


    Thssios looked back at the dome of Genesis City out in the distance. "Don''t worry. We''ll return here soon enough. For now, we need to go back to Mount Olympus."


    He wasn''t giving up on the Star Porter. He was going to give Genesis City an offer they couldn''t refuse. Of course, he would use the fact that three Olympians died on Genesis City grounds as a bargaining chip to ease the deal.


    #####


    Genesis City Church. This was a ce where citizens praised and worshiped the God who gave them everything they wanted. You needed nothing but faith and piety to pray to the two-headed God.


    The interior and exterior decorations were full of Gothic inspiration. And anywhere one looked, they would see images of peace and tranquility that gave the impression that this was a ce of healing.


    After all, this was a sanctuary where Saviors and normal people alike recovered their lost SoulTime to extend their lives.


    Usually, a blessing from a nun or a priest would do the trick. But there were times when an injury was so severe that they needed more than a blessing.


    Sometimes, they needed to regenerate from a single blood cell.


    These unfortunate souls were moved to the Intensive Care Unit or the ICU.


    And outside of this ICU, a group of people were moring in front of a group of soldiers. They tried to get past the barricade of guards, but their electric batons prevented the group from advancing any further.


    "Why can''t we see our sons? This is an outrage!"


    "Don''t you feel sorry for us? We just found out that our kids lost all of their SoulTime from an ident, and now you''re preventing us from seeing them!"


    "I visited the ICU before! Why are you blocking us now?"


    These were the angry parents of the youthful Saviors who lost their lives because of the onught from the horse of Pseudo Canzers. All they wanted was to see their children, but the soldiers prevented them from even taking a peek at the windows. They blocked it from the inside.


    "I''m sorry. We can''t. Orders from higher up."


    The soldiers had no other response to the angry mob other than those words, which further incited outrage in the crowd. But the soldiers couldn''t tell them anything even if they wanted to. They were told to barricade the ICU and nothing else.


    Why?


    That was because, inside the ICU, they wouldn''t see the regenerating bodies of their children. They would only see rows and columns of mangled corpses propped up by hospital beds with no signs of life in their body. They were dead. Fully dead.


    Nobody should see this. If they did, then they would know that their immortality was gone. Perhaps, that would incite a disaster worse than losing immortality itself.


    Among these corpses was the Scout from An''s first mission. He didn''t survive his injuries. They only told everyone that he was still recuperating from his injuries.


    And further down the line, to the very back, there was one particr dead body that was alone.


    If An saw his face, he would recognize him.


    It was Garuun, the Specialist Porter. He was dead.


    This meant that An was the only porter left in Genesis City.

 Chapter 126: Obyron

    A man sat on his desk, with his hands over his mouth as he was mulling over his problems. He had a few white strays in his hair, but he looked like a spry thirty-year-old man with well-groomed hair.


    Behind him was an expansive ss view of Genesis City from a hundred floors up one of the tallest skyscrapers in the city.


    He sat at his desk waiting, tapping his foot on the floor with nervousness. Enjoy more content from mvl


    Suddenly, the door to his office opened and a man with a butler suit came inside. The butler bowed toward the man and said;


    "My apologies sir. They couldn''t find the young master."


    The man took a deep sigh. This was Obyron Orioness, the father of Obek Orioness. When he heard of what happened in the Pocket Remedium, he instructed his butler to inform him of any news.


    And what he dreaded, came to be true. Obek was dead. He was just one of the unfortunate casualties of the disasters that kept on happening in the City. He closed his eyes and med himself for letting his youngest son run amok.


    "I should have been more strict with him."


    "The young master has¡ªhad always been reckless on his own. His death is my responsibility. I should have kept a closer eye on his activities," the butler said solemnly.


    The two of them were silent for a moment.


    "Did they find any trace of him?"


    The butler shook his head. "They couldn''t even find a blood stter, master. It was as if Obek had vanished from the Pocket Remedium itself."


    They hired the best investigators in the entire City, but they still couldn''t find the young master''s body anywhere.


    This was extremely weird. After all, even those that got ttened into a mush of blood, flesh, and bones, by the Giant Werewolf could be recovered by scraping their remains off the streets.


    ording to the investigations, after Obek was out of the race, he was suddenly overwhelmed by the horde of Pseudo Canzers. And unfortunately, he wasn''t able to protect himself from the onught.


    The best a father could hope for was that Obek died while being trampled by thousands of centaur monsters. At worst, Obek died while he was being mauled and dismantled by those angry, rabid, Pseudo Canzers hungry for human flesh.


    Even then, they should have at least seen evidence of the carnage. But they couldn''t even find a single drop of blood from him.


    This gave false hope for Obyron Orioness. Maybe, Obek survived and was hiding out somewhere alone and afraid. But as a man who knew the true nature of Canzers, he knew that it was unlikely.


    "How do we proceed, sir?"


    The current patriarch of the Orioness family thought long and hard about the consequences of his decisions. He had to think about what to do as a father, and what to do as a member of Genesis City. Those two werepletely different.


    But as much as he wanted to grieve, Obyron knew that his responsibilities came first. They were a priority.


    "We will tell no one about this. Inform those that are inquiring that Obek lost all his SoulTime and will take years to recover his body."


    The butler nodded. "Understood sir. But there''s just one more thing that is concerning."


    "What is it?"


    "The recent incident has put a lot of bodies in the church. Their families came and demanded to see their children in the ICU. The soldiers are doing their best to handle the situation, but the dissent among them will only grow as time passes. They could start a riot and forcefully intrude into the ICU."


    Obyron took another deep breath. Problems just kept on piling up for the new patriarch. It hadn''t been long since his father passed the mantle onto him, but he was already dealing with disastrous incidents left and right.


    "Double the guards. Triple them. I don''t care. They must never be able to enter that ICU. They can''t know that it''s a morgue."


    Obyron Orioness knew the truth. He was among those who were given the knowledge about the Angel''s extinction. He knew that the days of immortality were long gone, and the whole world was going into an apocalypse.


    It was inevitable. The best thing he could do was to prepare. However, that wasn''t as easy as it seemed.


    Just then, the door suddenly burst wide open as a short blonde-haired man with a youthful face entered Obyron''s office.


    "Father. Is it true? Did my little brother lose his SoulTime?"


    "Otis, calm down."


    "Tell me!"


    Obyron knew that he couldn''t control his eldest son''s outrage over this incident.


    "Yes. He did."


    Otis gasped. He heard rumors, but he didn''t think it was true. Now that he heard it from his father made the realization even more heartbreaking. He felt his knees weaken as he buckled down on the floor.


    He treasured his little brother. They were two peas in a pod.


    Tears fell from his eyes. "Where is he? I want to see his body. Did the priest tell us when he can fully recover?"


    Obyron and the butler shared a look. As much as they wanted to tell Otis the truth about the world, their confidentiality agreement with the City prevented them from doing so.


    The butler answered for Obyron. "No, young master. They only told us that it would take a couple of years till he recovers."


    Otis couldn''t help but m his fist on the wall. His anger reverberated throughout the building.


    His little brother didn''t deserve to suffer like this. Those freeloaders who took advantage of his brother and used him for his keys to the Pocket Dimension should be the ones to suffer all the consequences.


    He nned to give them a little bit of suffering to teach them a lesson.


    Obyron saw the gears turning in Otis'' mind. He knew his eldest son was short-tempered and had the tendency to be vindictive. They couldn''t afford that¡ªnot in the uing apocalypse. He had to nip the bud of the problem before it got toote.


    "I''m telling you now. Don''t."


    "But father! Those Olympians and those traitors should be punished! I don''t care if they''re Razer or Yasmine, I will show them the pain that my brother suffered!"

 Chapter 127: White cave

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    Otis couldn''t understand why his father still sat on his hands. Why isn''t he livid?! Doesn''t he want to explode and me everyone involved in that party?


    "But¡ª"


    Before Otis could say anything further, he suddenly saw his father disappear from his seat and reappear right in front of him.


    "I''m not going to repeat myself. Leave them alone. It is not their fault that the Pseudo Canzers malfunctioned. It''s Obek''s fault. I warned him not to do anything foolish, and he went behind my back and disobeyed my direct orders. Losing his SoulTime is a deserving punishment.


    If you want to me someone, me the Quills. Their inability to solve this endemic of disasters is a testament to their uselessness."


    Even though Otis was at the 8th stage of the Student realm, he felt his breath leave his body as Obyron exerted his power outwards.


    As much as he wanted to protest, his father was too strong for him to defy.


    "Do I make myself clear?"


    Otis felt his own head forcefully nod. Even his instincts were telling him that standing up to Obyron was a foolish decision.


    "Yes¡­father."


    "Good. Now leave. I have things to do."


    Otis was forced out of the room gritting his teeth. Even though he was going to inherit the mantle of patriarch in the future, his father never acted like he wanted to give the reins to him. He was treated like an outsider.


    If I can''t put those traitors back in their ce, they''ll think that the Orioness name is just for show.


    But as much as he wanted to do it himself, he knew that his father had surveince on him at all times.


    That doesn''t mean that I can''t ask someone else to do it for me¡­


    #####


    Somewhere, there was a ce that was full of white space. The ground, the ceiling, the walls¡ªeverything was bleached with a snowy white tint.


    Stgmites grew from the ground and pierced through to the top. There were also stctites from up the ceiling and pointed down their spikes to the bottom.


    The sound of water dripping echoed through the walls.


    If not for the color of the environment, this ce would have an eerie simrity to caves and underground chambers back on Earth.


    Footsteps and hoofbeats reverberated through the floor as tens of horse Pseudo Canzers strutted through the white cave.


    And on the very front of the small horde, there was a group of four Gori-Horse Pseudo Canzers that were carrying something covered by a ck cloth on their shoulders. Their steps were measured and careful as if they were afraid of stepping on something that would offend the owner of the cave.


    They continued to walk forward until they saw arge stgmite with a base asrge as the floor and pierced through the top and onto the ceiling.


    Strangely enough, there were steps carved onto the base that led up to a throne filled with spikes of stgmites.


    Sitting on this throne was a figure shrouded in a white light. The Pseudo Canzers felt that they would turn blind if they looked directly at the figure above them.


    The four Gori-Horse centaurs slowly approached the steps of the throne and let down the object covered in ck cloth as an offering to the figure above.


    They slowly backed away with their heads bowed down in reverence. Then, they waited.


    Suddenly, they felt the whole ce tremble as the figure on the throne finally got up from its seat and walked down the steps.


    With each stride, the Pseudo Canzers felt as if their entire bodies trembled. They felt the invisible pressureing off the figure''s body as it got closer to them. They backed out even further to give it space.


    And on the final step, the figure stopped and looked down at the ''present'' it was given.


    It raised its hands in the air and magically, the ck cloth floated away from the object below.


    It was only then that the figure finally saw the gift that it was given.


    Laying down on the white, stony, floor of the cave was the body of Obek Orioness.


    And even though it was faint, his heart was still beating! He slowly opened his eyes as it slowly adjusted to the white environment around him.


    Where am I, he thought groggily.


    He couldn''t remember anything. Everything felt like it was a fever dream.


    shes and images of his memory started to resurface. It was the image of him running at full speed.


    But why?


    It was only then that the images of the horde of Pseudo Canzers finally came to him. He remembered losing strength as the monsters slowly caught up to him. He was helpless as the stampede of horse centaurs pounded his head to the ground until he lost consciousness.


    After that, he woke up here in this strange white ce.


    He looked down at his SoulTime and saw that he had less than half an hour left to live! He had to get out. He used what''s left of his strength to try and crawl out.


    But just then, he felt a suffocating pressure on his entire body. It squeezed his chest till more of his ribs broke, halving his SoulTime immediately. He vomited blood.


    Amidst the ringing in his ears, he suddenly heard footstepsing towards him. He thought it was another person, but his eyes widened when he saw chitinous spikes growing out of its chest and shoulders.


    This was no human. This was a Canzer.


    Panic overridded his brain. It let him ignore all the pain in his body as he tried to run away from this monster as far away as he could.


    But he couldn''t get far.


    The bipedal Canzer suddenly appeared in front of the crawling Obek and pierced its hand on his chest. And without missing a beat, it ripped the heart out of his body.


    The Canzer looked at the bloody heart in its hands and couldn''t help but express its happiness and excitement.


    "(#&!^$%@"


    Its wings unfolded behind and fluttered into a familiar pattern.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM¡­

 Chapter 128: Manly discussions

    An walked through the steps of HeadQuarters. It was livelier than he thought given that the Training Hall Remedium was closed for the time being. The steps were so crowded he had to zigzag through the crowd.


    He heard their conversations as he passed them. There was anxiousness in their voice, along with panic and uneasiness.


    It only took one day for the incident with the Pocket Dimension to be spread far and wide in Genesis City. It was like a wildfire; the more it spread, the faster and more intense the after effects became.


    "God¡­that''s two incidents in less than a week. What''s happening?"


    "The Quills have started sabotaging us, that''s what!"


    "Now that''s a lie."


    "Wait, he might be onto something. After all, who created the Pseudo Canzers? The Operators! They could make it do whatever they want, including spawning a horde and going rampage in a Pocket Remedium!"


    There was a group of Vanguards sitting and lounging right next to the wide doors of the Savior HeadQuarters. They didn''t care if everybody heard their conversation. In fact, they made their voices even bigger to make sure that the Quills inside the HeadQuarters heard them loud and clear.


    The dissent among Vanguards and Operators, Knives and Quills, became more and more intense. A few gibes and snide remarks was normal for the two factions, but they never used each other of being traitors!


    And while the Vanguards were ming the Operators for all the disasters that kept happening in the City, the Operators med the Vanguards for their ignorance and stupidity. They couldn''t sabotage the Pocket Remedium as easily as the Vanguards were suggesting!


    The fact that the Knives thought that the Quills could do that showed their shallow knowledge on the intricacies of creating a Pocket Remedium.


    An had a more unbiased view of the whole situation. He knew that the Operators were not to me for the incidents. Even though he was the recipient of both disastrous events, he knew that it was the absence of Angels that threw the bnce of power askew toward the Canzers.


    Without anyone to keep them in check, the Canzers would keep invading Remedium and the Operators had no way to deal with it yet.


    Instead ofining, An focused on getting stronger. Getting another Genus would bump his power to another level.


    He approached the group hoping that they would point him to the direction of the Vineyard.


    "Excuse me."


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    An raised his voice to the group of men, but they ignored him. They kept talking to themselves as if he didn''t even exist.


    He looked at the epaulet in their shoulders and saw that they were all in the 4th stage Student realm!


    "I say we fight the Quills once and for all. Show them how much a punch in the liver hurts, and I''m sure they''ll fall in line."


    "As much as it''s amusing to think about, we can''t do that. They''ll justbel us as mere brutes!"


    "They can''t get away with this. My cousin lost all his SoulTime from that party. He''s recuperating in the ICU now, but we can''t even give him a visit. My hands are itching to do something."


    The men turned solemn when they heard that. Losing SoulTime was tragic. Even if they hadn''t experienced it themselves, they couldn''t even imagine the pain regenerating from a single blood cell.


    "He''s not the only one. The Quills'' mistake cost the SoulTime of twenty of our finest youths in the City. And I heard that even those geniuses from Mount Olympus got killed."


    "Why were they even here?"


    "They had a friendlypetition with our geniuses. And guess what I heard. You know Razer Wrekton, right?"


    They nodded their heads. Of course they knew the genius favored by the All-Father Zeus Himself.


    "I heard that someone went toe to toe against him and triumphed! And he came from our City!"


    "No way. I don''t believe that."


    "He? It''s not Yasmine?"


    An coughed and tapped the shoulders of one of the guys in front of him.


    The man looked annoyed as he turned around and red at An.


    His eyes were filled with judgment and prejudice, and from what he saw, An wasn''t that much. The youth had no overbearing pressure around him, and if it weren''t for his battle suit, the man would have thought that the youth was a civilian.


    The man didn''t think that An deserved his attention. His focus was much better served to contribute to the important conversation they having about the current troubling situation in the City.


    He was going to ignore him, but he noticed that An wasn''t wearing a proper battle suit. Instead of a verdant green, it was a sleek ck color.


    "Hey kid. Don''t you know that modifying your battle suit before you''ve advanced a realm is punishable with a cklist?"


    The rest of the men stopped their conversation and looked at An. They clicked their tongues thinking that he was just another hooligan who didn''t care about the rules.


    One of them waved at the soldier stationed inside the HeadQuarters.


    "Sir, please lecture the young man about proper uniforms. We can''t have novice Students going around customizing their battle suits. It''s unprofessional."


    The soldier saw An''s ck battle suit and walked over toward him. He took out a tablet from his toolbelt and questioned the youth.


    "ording to Article 2 section III of Genesis City standards, uwful dyeing of the green battle suit can be punishable with 1 to 5 weeks of cklist and 1 month of probation.


    Tell me your name, your job, and your power realm."


    The group of men took their focus out of An and continued their discussion. But one of them suddenly made the connection between An''s face and the rumors that he''d been hearing everywhere.


    "Wait¡­isn''t he¡­"


    An didn''t feel worried at all as he answered the soldier''s questions.


    "My name is An, and I am a porter in the 2nd stage Student realm."


    The rambunctious conversation soon turned silent. The group of men slowly turned their head towards An with shock written all over their faces. Even some of the passersby couldn''t help but stop in their tracks as they heard his name and his job.


    "...Star Porter¡­"

 Chapter 129: For your sake

    The soldier stopped typing on his tablet. He recognized the name. They were informed earlier this morning that the Star Porter of Genesis City was allowed to have a ck battle suit. They were expressly told to make his stay in the City as smooth as possible.


    HeadQuarters found it fitting that he wore the only ck battle suit in the entire City. It made his stature easy to distinguish among the crowds and gave more credence to his talents. Who else in the Student realm could get away with this? No one.


    "No way¡­you''re An?"


    He nodded. He found no reason to lie to them.


    But soon after he said his name, the group of men that ignored him quickly changed their attitudes and bombarded him with questions and praises left and right.


    "Dude! I heard you would have won the racingpetition if it didn''t get canceled. How did you get a mount that fast?!"


    "Wait, is that true? But how did he get past the otherpetitors? They were Olympians, you know."


    "That''s what''s amazing about the Star Porter! Somehow, he beat all those geniuses from the Metropolis and showed them who''s the boss!"


    An was overwhelmed with their over enthusiastic questions. They didn''t even deem him worthy to talk to just seconds earlier. But once they knew who he was, they suddenly couldn''t speak out their questions fast enough.


    "Uh¡­I had good equipment," An replied.


    It was only then that they noticed his slingshot.


    "Oh my gods! Is that an Indirect Masamune Original?!"


    "Is that how you defeated those Olympians? How did you do it? Were you always good at using the slingshot?"


    "Tell me if it''s true. I heard that you went toe to toe against one of the strongest talents in Mount Olympus."


    Once he said that, the rest of the men looked back at him in disbelief.


    "Ey! No way that''s true. Razer''s at the 4th stage Student realm. That''s the same as us! There''s no way that the Star Porter could bridge a gap that wide."


    "Yeah. Even if he is a genius, talent simply can''t equalize the difference between a 2nd stage and a 4th stage."


    They all looked at An to see what he would say. Only he would be able to dispel the doubts in their words.


    "We had a littlepetition, yes. I punched him, he couldn''t punch me. I don''t even consider it a win.


    But even though they heard it from the man himself, they still couldn''t believe the truth. One of them even thought that he was simply exaggerating to brag about his aplishments.


    Why is he lying? Doesn''t he know the difference between a 2nd stage and a 4th stage like us?


    One of the guys, the one that An approached in the beginning, couldn''t help but want to test out the supposed strength of this ''Star Porter''.


    He looked at An''s body and couldn''t imagine him defeating someone just like him, especially a genius like Razer.


    Even though they heard that it wasn''t an actual battle, but a simple exchange of fists, it was still too much of an exaggeration to say that Razer conceded a loss just because of that one punch; it was no secret that Razer was a prideful man.


    Is he underestimating 4th stage students like us?


    The man slowly approached An. "How about we have thatpetition again? I''ll take your punch and we''ll see if what you said is true."


    An immediately activated his Thermal Vision and looked at the guy''s physique.


    Hmm¡­his muscle density is quite poor¡­he doesn''t have any defensive LifeSkills as well¡­


    "I refuse." An didn''t say anything further than that. He didn''t want to insult the man by saying that he wouldn''t be able to take a single punch from him.


    "Why not? Come on, Star Porter. It''s just a little friendlypetition. I won''t me you if I lose 12 hours worth of SoulTime."


    But no matter what he said, An shook his head. He was an advocate for peace, so he didn''t want weak people like these to suffer from one of his punches.


    Now that he gained a Pre-Intern LifeSkill, his strength got boosted by a veryrge margin. The passive boost in physical strength from this berserk LifeSkill was enough to double his physical strength from before.


    Continue your journey with §Þ??


    Razer, with his enganced defenses, lost an entire day from one of his punches. This guy couldn''t evenpare to him. And now that An improved his physical strength again, there was no telling how much he would lose.


    Unfortunately, the man knew nothing about An''s true powers. He thought that An wanted to back out from his challenge because that would prove that his ims were nothing but exaggerations.


    The man slowly approached An and grabbed his hand.


    "Come on!"


    The man tried to use his physical strength to dominate An. His eyes widened when he realized that he couldn''t even move An''s arm at all. It felt like he was trying to grip a mountain!


    He was caught off guard when he felt An''s other hand grip his forearms.


    "Don''t touch me, please, for your sake."


    The man felt an intense squeezing pressure in his forearms that painfully shattered his bones. His eyes widened. He looked at his Soul System and saw that he was lost an entire day just from the pressure alone.


    And before he could utter a single cry, An exerted a little bit of force and twisted the man''s arms until, crack, his elbow twisted in the wrong direction.


    "AHHHHHH! THAT HURTS!!!"


    The man fell on the floor and held his broken arm with tears of pain flowing down his cheeks.


    He iled his arms on the ground trying to lessen the pain, but it only served to exacerbate it.


    An felt sorry for the man, but this was the best oue that could have happened for him. He''d suffer a worse fate if he wanted An to punch him like he did Razer.


    "Agh!" The man stumbled up off the ground and ran towards the church in search of healing.


    The rest of the men were in awe of An''s show of power. They didn''t even care that their friend''s arm was broken.


    An''s show of strength destroyed the lingering doubts in their minds.


    "Ahem¡­can any one of you please point me in the direction of the Vineyard?"


    But instead of answering his question, they pestered him with even more questions. It wasn''t long until more and more people crowded An as they realized that the rumors about the Star Porter had a tinge of truth.

 Chapter 130: Hey judo

    An had to sneak his way through the crowd that gathered around him. It took twenty minutes for the curious bystanders to let An pass and go into the HeadQuarters.


    He was finally given peace and sce inside the government office. Causing a scene in the HeadQuarters was considered a taboo. The crowd immediately dispersed before the guards had to intervene.


    Even though he asked them multiple times, nobody answered his question about where the Vineyard was located. Perhaps it was because they''d never been there too, or maybe it was because it was located in a secret location. Either way, An had to find his way there by himself.


    He walked inside the HeadQuarters and saw the same Hall of Heroes he visited back then. Quinto Kindle''s dominating image was still emanating an immovable strength


    An scratched his chest. He found it tragic. Nobody knew he was dead. They probably thought that it was a good riddance that the senile old man no longer roamed the streets spouting conspiracy theories and the like.


    He walked through the halls and atriums not knowing where to go. However, he saw a lot of Vanguards walking in the same direction. These were youths like him, somewhere between the 1st and 4th stage Student realm¡ªtheir internal body temperature indicated so. Discover exclusive tales on §Þ??


    He continued following the group until they led him to a bustling event in the grass fields adjacent to the main building of the HeadQuarters.


    <Genesis Club Fair: Find your passion!>


    The event was filled with hundreds upon hundreds of Vanguards walking around the green grass, all wearing their respective green battle suits. Most of them walked along one pathway filled with rows of tables and booths that were decorated with banners, posters, and flyers.


    It showcased the different activities that Vanguards could do together.


    An strolled through the event, looking left and right with each step. The sounds of enthusiastic pitches and conversations entered his ears as the club members tried their hardest to attract new applicants.


    There were a lot of interesting booths that caught his eye.


    One of them was a booth for a fishing club for Vanguards. Their banner was filled with pictures of the club members visiting the Seven Seas and catching a giant tentacled monster. Surprisingly, they had a lot of curious applicants. He heard them talk about the different monsters they could catch and the equipment needed to catch them.


    He looked at the main recruiter of the fishing club and was surprised to see that the epaulet on his shoulders indicated that he was in the Pre-Intern realm!


    I guess you need to be that strong to tussle with monsters of the sea.


    He walked more and saw that there were also a lot of cooking clubs that offered food and drinks for people to try out.


    They were quite popr as multiple long lines extended far back to the end to the opposite end of the event.


    This event wasn''t just a way for clubs to get new members, but it was also a way for other Vanguards to interact and socialize with each other.


    The atmosphere was quite lively, withughs echoing now and again.


    He found it quite weird. Nobody was talking about the disaster that happened in the Pocket Remedium yesterday. The joyful atmosphere of the club fair made everyone temporarily forget about the horrible situations guing the City.


    It wasn''t a coincidence that the club fair started today. The HeadQuarters wanted the conversation to steer away from the disasters by distracting them with their favorite pastime.


    Clubs were quite popr because it was the only ce where people could explore other interests aside from killing Canzers. People get bored sometimes, especially if they lived for thousands of years in perpetuity. They needed to spend their time on other hobbies.


    He looked to the opposite side and saw apletely different booth. This one was for a Judo club that focused onpeting with the Globalpetition that happened once every four years.


    A very serious man stood next to the signup sheet. He red at everyone who showed interest as if he didn''t want them to join his club.


    One of the passersby looked intrigued with the cool and hard style of the Judo club. He wanted to join.


    Unfortunately, the recruiter didn''t want him.


    "Get lost."


    The man was offended. "Why not?! I just advanced to the 4th stage yesterday. Am I still not eligible to join your club?!"


    This wasn''t the first time that the guy tried to enlist with the Judo Club. And every time he tried, he always got rejected because the recruiter thought he was ''weak''. But how could he be weak when he was at the 4th stage Student realm?


    An was going to walk past this club but the recruiter suddenly came up to him.


    "Hey, you."


    He stopped and looked at the man dead in the eyes. "What is it?"


    "You should join the Judo club."


    "WHAT?! You''re recruiting him instead of me?"


    The other guy couldn''t believe his ears. The Judo club recruiter chose to invite a random guy from the street instead of a talented guy like him. The worst part about it was that the random guy wasn''t even interested in joining in the first ce.


    The guy immediately put himself between An and the recruiter.


    "Why him?! I''ve been practicing my Judo and I know that I''m a better fit than this rando."


    In response, the recruiter pointed at An. "Don''t you know this guy?"


    The man had no idea. "Who is he?"


    "He''s An, the Star Porter. His reputation precedes him. And judging from his posture and the way he walks, I can see that he has the talent to be a Judo master."


    The man was flustered for a second after he learned of An''s identity. But he quickly doubled down to save face.


    "I don''t care about who he is. No one here is a better fit for the Judo club than me."


    He looked at An and challenged him with his eyes. "If you want him to join the Judo club, then you''ll only lower your standards. At that point, I wouldn''t even want to join your stupid club!"

 Chapter 131: Screaming match

    "So what if you''re the Star Porter? I don''t even believe half the stories that people are telling about you.


    And I''m not the only one! If you asked everyone in this club fair if they know about the Star Porter, then they would answer yes. But not for the reasons you think!


    Most of us don''t believe the propaganda that the HeadQuarters have been spouting about you!"


    And to prove his point, the man shouted at the top of his lungs to get everyone''s attention.


    "Hey everyone! Look! Who believes the lies that''s been circting about the supposed Star Porter?"


    Everyone in the club fair stopped what they were doing and looked over to the Judo club booth.


    They heard his question, but a majority of them didn''t raise their hands.


    "See? No one believes it. It''s all lies."


    Of course, that was a biased conclusion. After all, not everyone heard his questions and was too preupied with their own thing to understand what he said. There were also a lot of them who just didn''t want to participate in his stunt.


    Although there were a few who raised their hands in support of An, the guy simply chose to ignore them.


    "Wait, is he the Star Porter?"


    "Oh yeah! He is!"


    "Hey man! No offense, but did you really do all that or was it just an exaggeration?"


    A small crowd gathered around An once again, much to his dismay.


    The stories about him and his heroic actions always had divided opinions. Some fully believed in the story, but there was also arge group of skeptics who refused to believe it even when presented with evidence.


    In his first mission where An first gained prominence for his actions, others criticized the story for exaggerating the risks in the Remedium. They didn''t think they were in such a dangerous situation as they depicted. If a Sapient Canzer truly appeared as they said, then they wouldn''t havee out in a whole piece.


    They diminished how brave he had to be to go back and save his teammates in the Remedium. Even when the HeadQuarters themselvesmended An''s action, they refused to acknowledge it.


    But just yesterday, stories of the Star Porter yet again surfaced in tabloids, forums, and bar discussions in the City. This time, the stories of his deeds looked even more exaggerated than before.


    First, they were supposed to believe that An was able to hold his ground against the geniuses of Olympus City. It sounded like it came straight from a fantasy story. He was an underdog that startedte but through sheer luck, found a mount so fast that it could speed past the otherpetitors easily.


    "How did you know the Giraffe-Horse is fast?"


    "Some say you nted that Pseudo Canzer there for yourself."


    "I can believe that he got lucky in choosing the fastest mount. But I just can''t believe the fact that he went fromst ce and caught up to the lead! He only had a wooden chariot for god''s sake!"


    "I would have believed it if we got footage from the race itself. But the video got corrupted when the Pocket Remedium malfunctioned!"


    None could believe his exploits in the Pocket Remedium.


    They still respected his work as a Porter because they knew how important his job was, but they simply couldn''t believe that he was able to perform above his expected skillset.


    "You guys won''t believe this, but I also heard that the Olympians were so impressed with him that they wanted to recruit him to Mount Olympus!"


    Everyone gasped when they heard that. That information wasn''t that widespread, so this was the first time most of them heard about this.


    It only served to push them further into believing that all of it was a lie. How could they believe that such a prestigious Metropolis would open their doors to a novice Savior like An? It would have been more believable if he was at the Pre-Intern realm or the peak of 9th stage Student realm at the minimum. But he was only at the 2nd stage!


    "Now, you have got to be lying. Where did you hear that?"


    "I heard it too. And it seems like he was recruited by two Gods from there as well!"


    "Hpmh. Even if he was, it was probably an insincere offer from one of the lower sub-gods that have no real authority."


    And the ''lies'' didn''t end there. As more and more people gathered, they talked more about what they heard through different gossip.


    "I think it''s true!" It was one of the people who raised their hand in support of An.


    "I work as a guard in the City gates and I saw multiple representatives from other Cities and Territoriese to our doors early in the morning. They wouldn''te here in such a hurry if it wasn''t so urgent.


    So I asked them, and guess what I heard. They said that they were here to recruit someone called the Star Porter!"


    The situation became even more chaotic as they used the man of lying through his teeth. They felt like he was just spreading propaganda that the HeadQuarters wanted everyone to believe.


    Of course, some tried to defend An and provide evidence to convince others of the truth. But it all devolved into a screaming match until no one could understand anything anymore.


    The man who started it all smiled. "See? All of the things you''ve heard about him are all lies. He shouldn''t join the Judo club! You''ll only be tarnishing your name if you do so!"


    An couldn''t care less about joining the Judo club or not. He didn''t care if people believed the stories about him or not.


    Continue your adventure with §Þ??


    However, he started to get pissed off. All he wanted to do was to go to the HeadQuarters and find the Vineyard so he could im his free Genus, but he was forced to listen to skeptics everywhere he went.


    An was tempted. He was tempted to show a bit of his power to finally shut the rumors once and for all.

 Chapter 132: True gossip

    And it looked like An wasn''t the only one raring to go.


    Even though the guy didn''t act like he would do anything, An saw his body light up in a bright yellow light using his Thermal Vision.


    The guy was using his LifeSkill!


    The first important trait to be a judo master is to be prepared for anything, the guy thought. He won''t expect this.


    An saw his left arm turn even brighter as he concentrated his strength to try and grab An''s shoulders. The guy practiced this throw multiple times before, and most novices fail to notice the sweeping leg underneath because they were too preupied with dodging the tackle.


    "Look, they''re fighting!"


    "That guy''s in the 4th stage Student realm! We''ll finally see proof that the Star Porter is a fraud!"


    But even if An didn''t have his Thermal Vision, his moves were too slow for him.


    An simply moved away and countered the sweeping leg with his own special kick.


    ck mes enveloped his whole leg as he finally activated his Physique LifeSkill in front of hundreds of people.


    He would have had to reveal it sooner orter anyway. He was going to get recruited for more difficult missions in the future, which meant that he couldn''t just use his physical strength to get by during those times. He''d have to eventually reveal his Physique LifeSkill.


    An''s legs blurred as he kicked the man in his shins. It was easy to guess what happened next once his steel leg shed with the man''s ''fragile'' bones.


    Crack


    "Ah! My legs!"


    If he knew that he wasn''t the first victim that An had to put to church, then he wouldn''t have been so eager to show off his mediocre skills.


    "What just happened?!"


    "Woah! Did you guys see that?!"


    "But how can this be? He''s only in the 2nd stage and the other guy is in the 4th stage! That''s just impossible!"


    Everyone who witnessed this simple disy of strength covered their mouths in shock. It was one thing to hear about the Star Porter''s unbelievable physical prowess, but it was another thing to hear him break a bone from a guy two stages higher than him!


    An''s legs kicked too fast for the majority of the people to see what happened. They only saw a ck blur.


    But those with a more keen eye noticed An''s pressure spiked up to at least thrice his normal aura when those ck mes appeared on his legs. Subsequently, the people who saw this were the most skeptical about An''s stories.


    After all, they had a good estimation of power realms. They knew that it was impossible for a porter to defeat someone two stages above his own.


    But now that they saw it from their own eyes, they were left awestruck.


    As soon as they felt the power emanating from those ck mes, they knew that the stories they told about An were true.


    It was domineering, to say the least.


    "That LifeSkill¡­those mes¡­that''s no mere B ss¡­"


    "I see¡­we''ve been operating under false conclusions¡­he has an S ss LifeSkill talent!"


    The rest of the crowd heard those words and erupted in disbelief.


    "No way!"


    "So that''s how he''s able to pull off those moves! He''s an S ss talent. Now it makes more sense!"


    The majority were now inclined to believe An''s story once they found out about his true ss. But of course, there would always be haters who wanted to hate just for the sake of it.


    "Hmph. So what? That doesn''t mean everything they''re telling is true! How can you exin that he''s recruited by Mount Olympus? Do you think that a Metropolis just hands out invites to whoever has an S ss talent?"


    "And look at him. Just because he''s an S ss talent doesn''t mean that he can wear any battle suit he wants. Why are you wearing a ck battle suit, lil bro?"


    An sighed andmanded his Stealth Tunic to turn into a zippered jacket. Everyone gasped. They watched him zip down and show the original green battle suit underneath.


    "Happy?" The windbreaker turned back into An''s preferred ck battle suit with just one snap of a finger.


    "That¡ªthat¡­that''s a Stealth Tunic!"


    "Only those Olympians have that! Why does he have it?"


    There was only one possibility: An received it from the Olympians. But why? The only answer to that questiony in the theory that An was recruited by Mount Olympus and was given the Stealth Tunic as a present.


    As much as the skeptics wanted to rebuke the thought, even they couldn''t think of a reason as to how else he obtained that Stealth Tunic. Even the Orioness family couldn''t procure one if they wanted.


    It was then that everybody started to wonder. Was everything they heard about the porter true?


    "See I told you all but you wouldn''t listen to me! He''s the real deal!"


    Those who supported An beamed with pride once the crowd understood the Star Porter''s true brilliance.


    "Attention! Please back away and don''t crowd the club fair."


    The soldiers finally intervened and dispersed everyone from bothering An anymore. They returned to their booths, but they couldn''t help but sneak a look at the Star Porter standing by himself. The discussions around him didn''t stop and only continued to spread even further around the City.


    Meanwhile, the Judo club recruiter was left speechless. He heard rumors about the Star Porter''s unnatural strength, but this was the first time he saw such a dominant disy of strength.


    He wanted to recruit An because he thought that the Star Porter could use Judo skills to defend himself in the Remedium, but it now seemed unnecessary.


    As much as he didn''t want to admit it, the other guy was good at Judo. He had pretty good form. But it was all for naught against an opponent like An who could break bones like it was nothing.


    Who needed technique when brute strength could do the trick?


    "I can''t believe it. You do know that he''s two stages above you, right?"


    "Yeah."


    An answered as if it was extremely normal to defeat someone two levels above him.


    "Anyway. I''ve been asking a lot of people but no one''s been answering my questions. I hope you can.


    Do you know a ce called the Vineyard?"

 Chapter 133: Unsolicited advice

    "Is that the guy?"


    Three shady figures watched the ruckus at the Club Fair from a distance. Their eyes focused on the very center of the crowd, the man with the only ck battle suit in a sea of green around him.


    "Finding him is easier than I thought."


    The scene quickly escted as the guy next to the Star Porter attacked him using a LifeSkill.


    These shady figures immediately noticed his strength and correctly estimated that he was at the 4th stage Student realm.


    They expected an easy win for the guy, but they were soon stunned to see An break the guy''s leg with one swift kick. Their discerning eyes saw the brief moment when the ck mes emerged from out of nowhere.


    Even they felt the change in pressure from a distance. It was like the Star Porter turned from a simple cat to a vicious tiger in a millisecond. His roar sent shivers down their spines.


    "Tsk. He''s stronger than we thought. What should we tell the young master O?"


    "We tell him nothing. He has one job for us, and that''s to teach this guy a lesson he won''t forget."


    "Agreed. The three of us are in the 5th stage. It''ll be easy pickings for us to catch a single 2nd stage novice, even if he has an S ss talent."


    The three shady figures dispersed. They''d pounce once the perfect opportunity arrived.


    ####


    An looked around and saw multiple heat signatures light up in the distance.


    Some of the stronger Vanguards in the buildings sensed the powers he emanated even from far away. Some were curious to see the ruckus. Either way, he gained their attention.


    He ignored them. He gained enough of that today.


    "Vineyard? Yeah, I know where that is."


    Finally. After asking about a hundred people and hearing no response, someone finally answered his question.


    "I visited that ce about two years ago when I advanced to the Pre-Intern realm. I was allowed to get a 6-star Genus from it, and luckily, that led to my beloved mutation called Bear Hug."


    "You couldn''t get a higher rarity Genus?"


    The recruiter shook his head. "I wasn''t allowed to. My ticket only permitted me to enter the 6th row of the Vineyard, which limited my choice to those 6-star Genus and below."


    An didn''t know that there were different tickets with different permissions. What about my ticket? Does it only allow me to get 6-star rarity Genuses?


    "Why do you ask?"


    "I was given a ticket."


    The Judo recruiter didn''t think he''d be surprised after what he saw today, but it looked like he underestimated the Star Porter even more.


    "Really? They gave you a ticket when you''re only at the 2nd stage Student realm?"


    He nodded and took out the golden ticket for him to see.


    The man was shocked! The luster on that ticket almost blinded him. He had never even seen this kind of ticket before because the one he had before was only made out of normal paper.


    "I didn''t think that existed¡­but that''s an All-Exclusive Pass to the entire Vineyard!"


    The man would have advised An not to show his ticket to anyone for fear of them stealing it, but that would be useless.


    The golden ticket had An''s name written on the bottom of the page. It was his. Nobody could im the ticket even if they stole it from him.


    "Does that mean I can get a 9-star Genus?"


    The man almost salivated when he heard that. "Yes!"


    As much as he wanted to congratte An, he couldn''t help but wonder why HeadQuarters gave An such a precious gift so early in the youth''s career. He was only at the 2nd stage Student realm!


    But once he thought about the theory that An was invited by Mount Olympus, things finally made sense. Genesis City wanted to keep An in their Territory so they opted to bribe him early so that he''d feel indebted to the City.


    The man quickly told An where to find the Vineyard. If he was An, then he would sprint as hard as he could to im that 9-star Genus right now.


    An thanked the man and left the Club Fair. There were still some lingering eyes on him, but they didn''t follow him back to the main building of the HeadQuarters.


    He followed the Judo recruiter''s directions.


    He must have walked all the way to the opposite side of the HeadQuarters because he walked for 10 minutes at least before he came across a shrubbery hedge almost that was at least 10 meters tall.


    Even from the outside, he smelled the fresh and earthy scent emanating from the greenery beyond the walls.


    He walked along the shrubs until he saw a steel gate that led inside.


    <Genesis Garden Club>


    Another club? I didn''t see any Garden club in the fair¡­


    The gate was quite rusted. He peeked inside and saw nothing but overgrown greenery, with vines and leaves strewn around the pathway. The Garden Club looked abandoned.


    Is no one here?


    The Garden Club was located on the very outskirts of the HeadQuarters, away from the natural path that led to the other buildings on the campus. An had to go through tight passageways and deserted gates before he arrived here.


    He said that the Vineyard is in the Garden Club, but why can''t I see anyone?


    For such a prestigious ce full of highly sought-after Genus, there was a distinctck of guards and soldiers. It was as if they weren''t worried that someone would steal the Genus inside.


    "Hello? Is there anyone inside?" An shouted. No response. His voice only echoed back to him with a diminished tone.


    Just then, he heard a faint footstep behind him. He immediately activated his Thermal Vision and saw one person leaning on a pole.


    "Hey there, Star Porter."


    "Who are you?" An looked at his internal body heat and estimated that he was in the 4th stage Student realm or higher.


    "I''m just here to give you some advice."


    An shook his head. "Don''t need it."


    The man casually walked over toward him. "Now, now, don''t be too cold. I know that you''ve been given a golden ticket to get a new ''Genus''."


    "So?"


    "I''m advising you now. Don''t. You''ll ruin your perfect human body."

 Chapter 134: Join us

    "What are you talking about?" An kept his guard up. The giant hand in his Soul System was up and ready to grasp his LifeSkill as soon as the guy did anything weird. If he needed to escape, his Angel Wings were just one thought away from being summoned.


    "I''m talking about the disgusting muttion that most of the people here do! It''s repulsing. Don''t they know that by sullying their human bloodline, they''re straying away from perfection?"


    "Again, I don''t know what you''re talking about."


    The man sighed. "The Genus! The mutations! The hybrid bloodlines!"


    An''s eyebrows turned uneven. "Genus sullies human perfection?"


    "YES!" he screamed. "Some people want the Genus of dragons, lions, elves, or even dwarves! They think that the more exotic the Genus, the better the bloodline they''ll get."


    "Isn''t it?" An was taught that the rarer the Genus, the stronger you could be. A 9-star Dragon Genus was miles better than a 4-star Lizard Genus. That was why Saviors bent over backward to serve the City better so that they could get rewarded by better Genus from their God.


    It was also one of the main benefits of transferring over to another Territory. The Olympians offered him 7-star Genuses and Mutations because it was one of the incentives that Saviors yearned to receive.


    The rarer the bloodline, the stronger the human. He thought everybody agreed with that. Apparently not.


    "NO!" he screamed again more passionately. "The human bloodline is already perfect as it is! We don''t need to add monsters to our DNA. We have already evolved to have the capacity to be the perfect beings, but by changing our bloodlines, we only serve to limit our potential."


    An couldn''t believe that. He looked at his Soul System and saw his 3-star Human Genus. It was what he had before he received the God of Death''s powers.


    If it weren''t for receiving the 10-star Genus and changing his bloodline to the Grim Reaper of Souls, he would still be stuck in the Unimed Lands and he would have died within a few years.


    "I know that the 3-star Human Genus looks weak right now, but that''s because it''s only at the early stages of its evolution!"


    The man looked around the ce and lowered his voice. He didn''t want others to hear this part.


    "Since you''re the Star Porter, I''ll reveal something to you that most people don''t know."


    It intrigued An. "What is it?"


    "The Human Genus can break through its limits and turn into 4-star, 5-star, and up to the 9-star rarity!"


    An gasped. As far as he knew, there was no possible way for Saviors to upgrade their Genus other than obtaining a better one.


    Of course, An was different. He figured out that he could upgrade his Genus by reaping the deaths of different beings. He was able to turn his 1-star Pseudo Canzer Genus into a 6-star rarity Genus because of how many deaths he reaped in the Pocket Remedium.


    He thought he was the only one who could do that.


    "How?" he asked the mysterious man.


    The man smiled as he saw An''s interest perk up when he mentioned the secret. But of course, he wasn''t going to reveal the secret so easily.


    "I can''t tell you that. You don''t know me, I don''t know you. We can''t trust each other. Yet. But that can be changed."


    "...."


    "Let me introduce myself. I am Adam, and I am part of a secret society called the Prime Humans.


    What are we? Well, we are the only ones in this world who refuse to sully our pure human bloodline. We have no other Genus or mutation, just pure humanity.


    Our goal in this life is to restore the superiority of us prime humans and bring back the glory days when we reigned supreme.


    You, Star Porter. We have deemed you as a worthy candidate to join our cause. Take our hands and we can show you the powers of a prime human!


    All you have to do to join is tear the golden ticket you have and show us your sincerity. Only then can we ept you into our ranks."


    Adam bowed after his monologue.


    An was intrigued to know more about the prime humans, but his curiosity wasn''t enough to join their shady organization. He didn''t even know if Adam was telling the truth or not. For all he knew, this was just an borate scam to get something from him. What that was, he didn''t know.


    And even if what he''s said was true, An wasn''t interested. He found no reason to forgo getting a 9-star Genus.


    "I see you''re still hesitating. I can''t tell you how we advance the rarity of the Human Genus, but I can tell you the benefits.


    Those hybrids have their mutations, but we have our traits!"


    An stiffened. If it weren''t for his Physique LifeSkill giving him perfect control of his body, his face would show shock.


    He had to show a neutral face. He wasn''t supposed to be familiar with that word.


    Trait¡­I have that¡­it''s what gave me the 10x reward system that multiplied all my experiences, Genus, and LifeSkill fragments!


    He always wondered what traits were and thought that he''d have to learn about them through books of old. He never expected to hear that word didn''te out from Adam.


    "Trait?" An feigned naivety.


    "Yes! Trait. It''s what gives us our infinite potential! Those mutations and those Genus would only get you so far. It may be strong in the beginning, but as you go further up your Power Realms, you''ll soon see that they be severelycking.


    But not our Traits! It''s only in theter stages of the Power Realm does it truly show the benefits of being a Prime Human!"


    An would have thought that Adam was just making things up, but his talk about the Trait made sense. After all, it''s what enabled him to grow so fast.


    "Join us, Star Porter. It is your destiny."

 Chapter 135: You were destined

    An went silent for a few moments to digest what Adam revealed to him.


    He would''ve never thought that there would be a faction of humans against changing their bloodlines. From what he heard, every single human in the world was striving to get a better Genus because they knew it would lead them to a better future.


    If they heard that there was a secret faction that stayed as a pure human, they would have thought that they were stupid. An thought so too.


    But that was until Adam revealed to him that Prime Humans gained Traits for staying as a pure human with no other bloodline.


    How powerful was a trait? An didn''t have to guess.


    It was only because of that trait that he gained the ability to multiply all of his rewards by 10. If it weren''t for his trait, he would''ve needed to kill thousands upon thousands of Pseudo Canzers just to upgrade his LifeSkills to the ss they were now. It made his life ten times easier. Literally.


    "Can you exin more about this ''trait''?"


    Adam nodded. "Traits are the invisible characteristics of humans. Let me ask you a question. Why do you think some people can train their bodies till their bones break down, while others can''t even handle a simple marathon?


    It''s because of the hidden characteristics in their DNA. Some have been endowed with the indomitable human spirit that allows them to ovee tough obstacles, some have been endowed with an affinity for knowledge and creativity.


    You can call this their talent. Every normal human has their own talent from the moment that they are born. If someone is bad at something, it only means that their talent is notpatible with it.


    At any point, a human can find their hidden talent and finally excel in their field. It can take days, years, or even a century. There are no expirations. But The moment they gain another Genus and change their bloodline, that hidden talent gets washed away never to be seen again.


    But if you persist with keeping your pure humanity like us, then you will be rewarded enormously. Your hidden talent will finally bloom into a power that can rival those hybrids with their mutations. It will be a Trait!


    The Trait we Prime Humans have is a beefed-up version of that characteristic. A talent for knowledge and learning can be a Trait that enhances your brain and IQ to superhuman levels. An affinity to water and swimming can be a Trait that allows a human tomand water as if he were a god!


    The possibilities are endless. You don''t have to infect your body with other species. Your body is already perfect as it is!"


    An was certainly impressed with what the Prime Humans achieved by themselves. They were able to find a way to gain equal footing with those who had other bloodlines in their bodies.


    And from what he experienced with his trait, it was certainly something that could rival a mutation.


    He wondered how Prime Humans achieved a Trait for themselves. Then, he suddenly realized something.


    Wait¡­I only gained my trait because I reaped the death of¡­


    "Most people don''t know this, but the strongest member of our faction is none other than Quinto Kindle, the First Savior!"


    An would have regarded it as nothing more than a lie, but the fact that An gained his Trait by reaping the death of Quinto made him believe Adam''s words.


    If Quinto didn''t have a Trait, then An wouldn''t have been able to reap it.


    The First Savior is part of the Prime Humans.


    That was hard to believe. In the thousands of years that he''d been alive, Quinto never got another Genus in his body. He kept himself as a pure human.


    "Do you believe me?"


    An took a deep breath. "Strangely enough, yes."


    Adam smiled. "Of course you do. It''s your destiny to join us Prime Humans. After all, it has chosen you."


    An furrowed his brows. "What do you mean?"


    The Prime Human pointed at An''s chest. "That semi-sentient armor¨Cdo you know who owned that?"


    An hid his surprise. Not everyone knew about the true quality of his mysterious chestte. Only Custodire and Lizzie knew that his seemingly normal chestte was a semi-sentient armor that chose its own wearer.


    "Who?" An already had a hunch on who it was.


    "It''s Quinto!"


    He looked at the chestte embedded deep into his battle suit with mixed feelings. He knew from the start that his armor wasn''t normal. After all, it went for thousands of years rejecting wearers left and right, that''s why it was stuck in the junk box of Custodire''s workshop.


    But he would''ve never imagined that this armor was previously owned by the very first Savior in the history of the entire world. Just from the scratches and dents alone, he knew it was old. But he didn''t think it was that old.


    Is this a coincidence?


    An didn''t think so. He was drawn to this chestte the moment he set his eyes on it. He didn''t know what prompted him to pick this armor up, but his instincts told him that he had to have it.


    Was I influenced by Quinto? But how is that possible?


    When I reaped his death, I reaped his LifeSkill and his Trait. Is it possible that I also inherited some of his inherent instincts?


    Quinto must have felt an intense emotion about his old chestte. Somehow, it transferred over to An and elicited the same reaction to him.


    He scratched the chestte as if he was ying with a dog.


    Did this guy sense Quinto in me? After all, I got his LifeSkill and Trait in my Soul System. It''s possible.


    "If you join us, then you can continue his legacy. You were destined to be a Prime Human. ept it."


    Adam extended his hand to An, but An kept him hanging.


    Even though he was intrigued by the idea of Traits, he wasn''t willing to join a secret organization from it alone.


    And even if he reaped Quinto''s death, he had no attachment to the guy. Just because Quinto was a Prime Human didn''t mean that An wanted to be one as well.


    He also had two 10-star Genus in his Soul System already. He was far from a ''pure human'', as Adam called it. He even had a Genus and a mutation from Canzers themselves, which would probably make the Prime Humans extremely mad since Canzers were considered the enemy of humanity.

 Chapter 136: Overgrown garden

    "I won''t join."


    Adam was silent for a second as he looked at An. The Prime Human thought that he said enough good things about Prime Humans to convince him. Other people jumped at the chance when they found out the truth about humans. But not An


    "You are missing out. We can make you so much stronger than you are now. You would even be able to surpass Razer!"


    "No need."


    Adam thought that An had no desire for strength, but he was wrong. In truth, An didn''t need their help. He was already getting stronger just by reaping the deaths of everything around him. He didn''t even need to join their secret organization to gain ess to a Trait. He could probably gain more Traits in the future even if he didn''t be a Prime Human.


    Sigh. "I thought you would join us, Star Porter. You are one of the best prospects we have ever seen in recent years. Are you sure?"


    "Yes."


    Adam took out something from his pocket and gave it to An. "I can''t force you to be a Prime Human, but you''re young. There''s time for change. If you ever feel like you want to unlock the hidden potential in your body, then find the Eden bar and give this to the bartender."


    An received a ck medallion with an embossed emblem of a naked man spreading his legs and arms to the side.


    An activated his Thermal Vision and looked at the medallion. Aside from being made with a mysterious material that could perfectly inste the medallion from the heat and cold, there wasn''t anything suspicious inside. Even his SSS ss Physique LifeSkill found no evidence of foul y with this medallion.


    "Think about it," Adam''s voice floated in the air, but he was already long gone when An looked up. It was as if he never existed.


    An decided to keep the medallion. He was still curious about Traits and knew that the only ones who knew about how they worked were the Prime Humans. He also felt like he could use the medallion someday, but he didn''t know what.


    With no other thing to distract him, An set his sights on the Garden Club.


    He noticed that there was a door inside the steel gate that was slightly open. Even if there was no one to wee him, An helped himself and entered the Garden Club. Even if he was trespassing, An didn''t care. There wasn''t anyone to catch him anyway.


    Once inside, he felt like he was in a jungle.


    The entire garden was overgrown. The cobblestone paths were barely visible in front of him as they had carpet-thick moss and slithering vines covering it. On the sidewalk were grasses almost as tall as him swaying in the wind.


    He looked around and saw all kinds of trees with thick, heavy branches that had entangling vines around them. Some grew stout but thick, and some grew tall but thin. It was a mix of tropical and winter trees that didn''t seem to wither even in the wrong conditions.


    As he followed the overgrown cobblestone pathway, he came across forgotten statues filled with cracks that the vines and moss grew a home into. Even in its damaged state, An recognized the figure.


    The man had two faces on one head and had a giant key in his hand. This was the Genesis God.


    If it weren''t for these statues guiding the way, An would''ve gotten lost from all the foliage blocking the cobblestone path.


    After a few minutes of walking, he finally came across a man in a white coat watering the lotus nts in his pond.


    He immediately activated his Thermal Vision and inspected the man. And surprisingly, he didn''t have a very bright inner body temperature. It was as if he was a normal human who didn''t have any LifeSkill at all.


    An walked forward, with his steps crunching vines and dried leaves. But even then, the man seemed too focused on watering his lotus nts to even notice that An was already behind him.


    "Excuse me."


    "GAHH!" The man was so startled that he fell onto the pond and resurfaced with a lotus nt on his head.


    "Sorry."


    The man didn''t even mind the fact that his white coat was soaked in the mossy pond water, he was more stunned at the fact that there was somebody actually inside the Garden Club.


    "Are you okay?" An asked.


    "Are you real? Am I hallucinating again? That''s weird. I haven''t eaten any mushrooms today."


    An coughed. "I''m real."


    The man didn''t expect to hear a human response from An.


    He looked like a man stranded on an alien who finally found someone after years and years of istion.


    "By God! There''s someone that''s actually here in the Garden Club!"


    An wasn''t so surprised with that. The Garden Club looked so neglected that he even thought that it was abandoned with no one tending to it anymore.


    "Are you the only person here?"


    "Unfortunately, yes. Gardening isn''t exactly the most popr club in the City right now. You should have seen us in our heyday! Everyone had nts in their homes and even on their mounts. Sigh¡­."


    The man turned silent as he reminisced about old times. "Oh sorry about that. I always get too carried away daydreaming. Usually, it doesn''t matter since I''m alone anyway, but now I''ve got someone to talk to. My name is Geminus."


    "I''m An."


    The man didn''t recognize him, which was a wee breath of fresh air. It looked like he wasn''t caught up to date with the current gossip in the City.


    Geminus then looked at An with pleading eyes. "Hey, since you''re here can you help me with a little something?"


    An was hesitant, but he still heard the guy out. "What is it?"


    "I''m a bit short on hands right now, as you can see." Geminus pointed at the overgrown vines and moss all around the Garden.


    "I can''t take care of these nts all by myself and it leads to a lot of nts being neglected.


    These poor nts. Without someone to take care of them, they all turn dead without a chance of blossoming.


    Will you join the Garden Club and help me?"


    An wanted to refuse. However, he suddenly saw the familiar words pop up in his vision.


    [You have reaped the deaths of simple beings] x3524

 Chapter 137: Garden paradise

    [Due to your Trait, you have multiplied your rewards by 10]


    [You have received 35,240 experience]


    [You have received (1-star) Flora Genus] x130


    [You have received D ss Bard LifeSkill: Modify Memory Spore]


    [You have received F ss Modify Memory Spore fragments] x130


    An couldn''t believe he didn''t think of going to the garden before. He had reaped more deaths here than in the entire time he''d been risking his life in the Remedium.


    Rejecting Geminus'' request for him to join the Garden Club was no longer an option. If he reaped this much death every day, then he wouldn''t mind if he stayed here overnight. It was a much safer and more profitable option than going to Pocket Remediums and killing Pseudo Canzers.


    An didn''t waste any time and upgraded all his new LifeSkill and Genus.


    He paid a whopping 343,000 upgrade points and 128 LifeSkill fragments to turn his Modify Memory Spore into another SR ss LifeSkill!


    Although it halved his current supply of upgrade points, An considered it worth it. If the Modify Memory Spore worked as he thought, then it was even more important to upgrade it to the strongest ss possible.


    Even with how careful he was, there coulde a time when he''d be forced to use his real powers and LifeSkills among other people. They certainly wouldn''t keep that a secret and spread it to the entire City.


    But with his new Modify Memory Spore, he could alter their memories so that they''d forget that they witnessed An have Angel Wings on his back or have three LifeSkills in his repertoire.


    This LifeSkill was a lifesaver.


    He also paid 1000 experience to upgrade it to the 2nd stage.


    ¡ªBard: (SR) Modify Memory Spore


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 2nd stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 4x F ss fragments


    An was also surprised that he got a total of 130 Genuses. Usually, Genus was harder to get than LifeSkills because the probability was low but this time, he got lucky. He obtained the same amount of Genus and LifeSkill fragments!


    He paid 37,000 points and 126 Genus to upgrade his Flora Genus.


    [Genus]


    ¡ª1x (7-star) Flora


    [You have gained a 7-star mutation: Photosynthesis]


    And unsurprisingly, he got another mutation from his new Genus.


    He suddenly got a tingly feeling all over his body, reminiscent of when his Angel Wings appeared behind his back. His Photosynthesis mutation opened up automatically!


    He suddenly felt hot as if he was sunbathing while the sun was at its zenith. He felt every crevice of his skin yearn for the light as if it was being nourished with every second it spent being bathed in the sun''s rays.


    The garden was constructed in such a way that the sun wasn''t blocked by any roof or ceiling. It allowed every nt life inside to flourish in the sunlight without any obstacles.


    An was in the middle of the sun''s intense rays.


    He felt refreshed. It was as if all his life, he lived in an ice tundra with no sunlight, and only now did he finally feel the warmth that his body needed to survive. He spread his arms wide and epted the heat.


    [SoulTime]


    ¡ª40 yrs : 112 d : 12 hrs : 54 min : 34 s


    ¡ª41 yrs : 112 d : 12 hrs : 54 min : 34 s


    ¡ª42 yrs : 112 d : 12 hrs : 54 min : 34 s


    An gained an entire year for every second that he was bathed in the light.


    This was the power of a 7-star mutation!


    If he was able to gain an entire year for every second he activated his Photosynthesis mutation, then he would be able to regenerate life-threatening injuries in just a few minutes! Even if he lost an entire arm, An estimated that it would only take 3 minutes for his arm to grow back as good as new!


    Of course, there were a few caveats. Since this was a mutation, he was limited on time. He could keep regenerating a year of SoulTime for as long as he wasn''t exhausted with using his mutation.


    Activating a mutation felt like he was doing push-ups every second. The moment he couldn''t do another rep was the moment his mutation would stop.


    Location was also a factor in his mutation. An felt the warmth of the sun and knew from instinct that it was what allowed him to regenerate so much SoulTime. He was like a nt. He needed the sun to survive.


    An guessed that in ces without the sun, he wouldn''t be able to regenerate his SoulTime even if he activated his new mutation.


    "Are you okay?" Geminus scratched his head.


    An let go of his mutation and opened his eyes. "Yeah. I''m fine."


    "Sure¡­anyway. Why don''t you think about my offer? I can''t give you good benefits like the other Clubs, but I assure you that you will enjoy your time here. What do you think?"


    An already decided to join, but there was one thing he needed to take care of first.


    "I''ll join if you tell me where the Vineyard is."


    Geminus perked up when he heard the good news. "Sure! The Vineyard? I''ll dly take you there."


    He didn''t waste another second. He put his fingers in his mouth and whistled a high-pitched tone.


    Suddenly, An saw a giant vine slither from atop a thick branch of the biggest tree in the garden. An was rmed. That vine moved like it was a snake.


    But when he used his Thermal Vision, it only had the same body heat as the other vines and nts in the garden. He didn''t see hot blood pumping through its body and he didn''t see any organs radiating heat. It wasn''t an animal.


    "What is that?"


    "Oh, this here''s my little mount," Geminus said as he rubbed the giant leaf at the end of the vine. "This guy lets me reach the tallest trees and it lets me go from one end of the garden to the other in just a few minutes."


    An was surprised. Geminus treated the vine as if it were his pet, and the vine acted like a loyal and obedient puppy.


    "Get in," Geminus said and An carefully followed him atop the leaf.


    Suddenly, the vine moved at a rtively fast speed like that of a horse, weaving and dodging the trees and nts blocking their way.


    "I never knew nts could be like this."


    "Sigh¡­Unfortunately, most people forget about how useful nts are. Back then, people used nts instead of horses. They also used vines and tree bark to create their houses. It was a paradise for vegetation!


    But now, all the funding for research and development has gone over to the Pseudo Canzer division. They would rather breed Pseudo Canzers than breed nts. It''s the future, they say.


    You know Venunum, right? People used to use poisonous ivy for it. Now, they would rather use Pseudo Canzers to satiate their high."

 Chapter 138: Bunker

    An and Geminus soared through the jungle-like garden atop the vine. It didn''t take long for them to reach a ce overgrown with weeds. If it weren''t for An''s Thermal Vision, he wouldn''t have noticed that there was a metal contraption underneath all those wild overgrowths.


    "This is it," Geminus said as hemanded the vine to put them down.


    "This is the Vineyard?" An would have thought to look for an actual vineyard, but instead, he was peering down at a bunker that led deep underground.


    Geminus nodded. "Yes, this is the Vineyard. Mister Vine, would you mind clearing the way for us?"


    Another vine connected to the main one swooped down at extremely fast speeds and before they knew it, the weeds were already cut down till they were nothing but green sprinkles in the air.


    "Thank you."


    The Vineyard was a bunker that was overgrown with moss and vines wrapping through the degraded concrete structure. But strangely enough, the double doors that led inside were perfectly preserved. The metal didn''t seem to rust and remained structurally stable.


    "I assume you have a ticket?"


    An took out his golden ticket and Geminus couldn''t hide his surprise. He didn''t think that such a young man would be given a golden ticket.


    "Wow¡­.Remind me, what''s your job again?"


    "Porter."


    "...porter¡­" Even though Geminus knew of a porter''s importance during missions, he didn''t understand how that would be enough for him to be rewarded with a golden ticket.


    "Can I go in?"


    "Oh, yes. You can go in. Just put your golden ticket in the middle of the doors." Even though he wanted to ask, Geminus knew that it wasn''t appropriate to inquire about such personal matters.


    "I won''t be able to go in, but I hope you find what you''re looking for. It''s been a while since somebody came in here, so I hope it hasn''t degraded like the garden haha."


    An slid the golden ticket in between the doors and a mysterious force sucked it in. It wasn''t long before the sounds of gears turning and metal nging resounded inside the bunker.


    DUGSSHH


    The double doors parted ways to reveal a staircase that led down to the depths underground. Other people might get a little frightened by the darkness, but An spent all his life underground in the Unimed Lands. This was familiar.


    Of course, he also had his Thermal Vision to help him navigate to where he wanted to go.


    An stepped inside and the door behind him immediately started to close.


    "Oh, a little advice for you. I suggest you take your time and explore all your options before you pick the Genus that you want. It will kick you out the moment you pick a Genus from the vine," Geminus said as he waved goodbye at An. "See youter!"


    Then, the door closed. An was all alone in the darkness.


    With his Thermal Vision, he saw the whole bunker turn into a shade of blue. He easily distinguished the declining steps as he walked down.


    Even though his LifeSkill was SR ss, he wasn''t able to see past the bunker.


    Are the walls thick or do they have a mechanism that prevents my Thermal Vision from seeing through it?


    An walked down more steps until he finally came across a door with the number ''1'' ingrained into the very metal itself.


    Seeing no other way to go, An pushed the door open.


    Immediately, fresh air from a gentle gust of natural wind hit his face.


    Wow¡­


    Now that he was inside, he finally figured out why it was called the Vineyard.


    There was an endless row of trellises lined up in a neat and orderly fashion over andscape in the ins. Vines grew on these trellises which bore strange fruits that glowed even in the sunlight.


    But that wasn''t the weirdest part.


    He looked around and was stunned to see blue skies overhead. He couldn''t understand how that was possible; they were tens of meters underground!


    He was immediately blinded when he looked up at the ''sun'' in the middle of the clouds. It was as if it was the real thing! Even when he used his new Photosynthesis mutation, he was surprised to find that he was still gaining 1 year for every second that psed, meaning that the ''sun'' here was the real thing. It wasn''t an illusion.


    He walked forward and saw the first row of fruits that grew on the vineyard.


    These ''fruits'' had strange shapes and colors. Some had a uniform color, like a blue spherical peach-like fruit, or a velvety red banana. Some even had shapes that looked like 2D versions of animals! There was one indigo-colored fish-shaped fruit and one that looked like a roaring bear.


    He was tempted to pick out one of these strange fruits, but he knew that he only had one chance to get what he wanted. If he picked one, then that''s all he would get.


    With his Thermal Vision, he saw the varying degrees of the fruits'' internal body temperature. Some were burning like a raging me, and some barely had a flicker of fire inside.


    Does that mean that the fruits are weaker if they have less heat?


    An walked through the seemingly endless rows of fruits in the vineyard, but none of them caught his eye. Judging from the fact that this was the 1st floor, he guessed that every fruit in this ce corresponded to a 1-star rarity Genus. He didn''t need those.


    He walked for what seemed like hours until he finally saw another bunker in the distance. He walked towards it and saw that the doors were wide open. It led even further down.


    An entered the bunker and walked down the steps.


    He didn''t stop until he found another door with the number ''2'' inscribed on the very metal itself.


    He opened the door and was greeted with the same blue skies and vineyard, except the ins were now slightly inclined.


    An didn''t stop walking and continued to search for the next bunker.


    He unfolded his Angel Wings to breeze past the vineyard until he finally saw the bunker.


    An continued to go deeper and deeper underground, passing through an increasingly inclining vineyard and going through the same bunkers until he finally came across a door underground with the number ''9'' written on it.


    This was the ce where 9-star Genuses were stored.

 Chapter 139: Peak of the vineyard

    An opened the door with the number ''9'' embossed on the metal. 9-star rarity Genus was the best anyone could ever hope for. But for An, that was only second to the best. He had two 10-star Genus for himself that dictated his bloodline. Because of those two Genus, he became the Angelic Reaper of Souls.


    He obtained the 10-star Grim Reaper Genus by stealing the God of Death''s powers during his Pre-Remedium Draft while he got the 10-star Angel Genus by witnessing their global extinction from the face of the Earth.


    If he obtained a 9-star Genus now, he didn''t know if that would result in him changing his bloodline a third time. As far as he knew, only the strongest Genus could change his bloodline.


    It doesn''t matter. I''ll probably gain another mutation from this Genus, and not a weak one at that.


    An stepped inside and saw the same trellises lined up in a row. But these didn''t seem endless. By his estimation, there were only about a hundred fruits hanging on the few fences.


    This wasn''t that surprising. When he went through the 8 levels of bunkers, he noticed fewer and fewer Genus fruits with each level he went down.


    The higher the rarity, the lesser there are¡­


    He looked around and noticed that the blue skies were gone and instead reced by a misty white fog that enveloped the whole in.


    He also noticed that the ins were no longer on an incline. Each bunker he went through showed a in that was increasingly getting steeper. It was as if he was climbing a mountain.


    Did I reach the top? Then this fog isn''t a fog at all; these are clouds!¡­Is this peak even higher than the clouds?


    An looked up and was surprised to see the ckness of space staring at him from the gaps in the clouds. This ce was so far up the heavens that the sky turned ck!


    If the peak was this high, then the Genus it contained must be otherworldly.


    The fruits hanging on vines were ethereal, to say the least. The first row of Genus all had miniature stars orbiting the fruits as if it was the center of a gxy! And if An wasn''t looking at it directly, it would change shapes. It was a normal apple at first, but then it changed into a five-sided star the next time he looked at it.


    He saw fruits wiggling like an egg about to hatch. They seemed alluring. If An hadn''t reminded himself to be careful and picky with his choice, then he would have chosen the first Genus fruit he saw.


    Since there were only about a hundred Genus fruits in the entire vineyard, An decided to look at them all before he decided on which one he wanted. He only had one chance at this.


    But that was easier said than done. With each row he passed, he seemed to get better and better fruits. He didn''t know why it was better, but it was in his instinctive human nature to know that he was in the presence of something godlike.


    And before he knew it, his hands disobeyed his mind and reached out to pluck the nearest Genus fruit.


    [Unauthorized temptation detected]


    [Forceful enticement denied]


    An stopped himself just before he touched the Jupiter-colored Genus fruit.


    If it weren''t for his SSS ss Physique LifeSkill and his 10-star Genus studded bloodline, he would have been tempted to pick out the Genus. It was close. If it were any other human, they wouldn''t have been able to cross the first row and would have been tempted to get the first fruit they came across.


    I underestimated these Genus fruits.


    He thought he was the one lucky to receive such a Genus, but it turned out that these Genus were the ones lucky to have him instead! Why else would they want to tempt him to pick out their fruit? The Genus fruits should have repelled him instead.


    With each fruit he passed, he felt an increasinglypelling feeling to pick one out. They wanted to be picked.


    Does the Genus get something from me if I pick them?


    He wouldn''t have pondered this question if the Prime Humans hadn''t nted the seed of doubt in his mind. Maybe they had a point. Maybe there was something wrong with adding another Genus to a human bloodline.


    This would have made him second-guess his decision to obtain another Genus, but he shook his head. He shouldn''t blindly believe someone he didn''t know.


    It''d be a waste to miss this opportunity. And even if there was something malicious happening, then his SSS ss LifeSkill and his 10-star Genuses could easily overpower a mere 9-star Genus trying to do something to his body.


    He continued to stroll through the trellises, making sure to keep his distance from each of them.


    But as he reached thest one, he found nothing that suited his taste. There were no more fruits beyond the row, just a descending in shrouded in fog. He had a feeling that he''d end up getting kicked out the moment he passed the fog.


    Perhaps it was because he was too careful in choosing, but there was nothing that prompted his instinct.


    Don''t get it wrong, each of those fruits was powerful in its own right. These were Genuses that would make even Razer mad with envy. However, none of them felt like the right fit for him.


    Should I just pick out the strongest one I see?


    An activated his Thermal Vision and was immediately blinded by the fruits. It was as if he looked directly at the sun at its peak! He immediately averted his eyes to protect his retina from being damaged.


    He was going to deactivate his Thermal Vision, but then he saw something out of the corner of his eyes.


    There was a dim yellow light blinking deep underground. He wouldn''t have even seen it if he hadn''t tried to avert his eyes from the bright Genus fruits.


    But now that he saw it, he knew that this was something special. It was calling to him.


    That was a Genus fruit! And strangely enough, it had the same shape as a rectangle with a knob on the side.

 Chapter 140: The chase

    This was the one he wanted but it seemed that the Genus fruit knew it too. It immediately swam away underground to avoid his piercing eyes.


    He smiled. He always liked the chase.


    His shoulder des turned numb and prickly as his Angel Wings unfolded behind him. With one p of his wings, he caught up to the escaping Genus fruit.


    It changed directions in an attempt to disorient him, but An''s Lightspeed Angel Wings weren''t just for show. For as long as he could keep it up, it was almost invincible in the air. He could have gone even faster, but he knew that he wouldn''t be able to keep it up.


    If he continued to only match the pace of the fruit, he knew that he could keep up with it for a decent amount of time.


    He also needed to be careful with the vineyard. He would have used his Apocalyptic Hellfire to destroy the fields andpletely turn it over but he was afraid that once the fruits got detached from their stems, the bunker would think that An picked his Genus fruit and it would kick him out.


    He couldn''t let that happen. He wanted this fleeing Genus.


    Thankfully, the underground fruit didn''t seem all that smart. Once it saw that An was able to keep up with its speed, it suddenly panicked and shot straight up!


    It was his chance! An pped his Angel Wings even harder, elerating to speeds he had never achieved before to try and intercept the fruit just as it passed the trellises.


    An was just an arm''s length away from the fruit.


    Now that he saw it clearly, he was surprised to see that it only looked like an ordinary wooden doorplete with the hinges and the knob.


    A door?


    Just as An was about to catch the door-fruit in his hand, the doors suddenly opened and disappearedpletely in mid-air!


    An stopped. He hovered around where it disappeared and couldn''t believe its eyes. He saw no heat remnant with his Thermal Vision, which meant that it didn''t speed away from An, it disappeared!


    He looked around the foggy outskirts of the vineyard and saw no sign of the door-fruit anywhere.


    He lowered himself and let his Angel Wings rest for a bit.


    He made it seem like he gave up as he closed his eyes.


    But just a momentter, his Angel Wings suddenly burst open and he elerated to where the door-fruit was hiding! It thought that it could hide within the trellises and mask its energy with the other Genus fruits, but it failed to pay attention to the fact that it was the only one that was moving erratically. It was too panicked from An for it to sit still.


    His Thermal Vision still worked even if his eyes were closed, although a bit diminished. But this turned out to be an advantage as he was able to avoid the blinding lights from the fruits and focus on the door.


    An reached its hiding spot within a moment. He pushed himself even faster to try and catch the slippery little fruit.


    But just before he could grasp it in his hands, it opened its doors once again and disappeared into the void.


    An looked up and was surprised to see the door-fruit hovering above the clouds, among the stars.


    Even with his current fastest speed with his Angel Wings, he still couldn''t keep up with it. No matter how fast he went, it kept teleporting away from him at the veryst second. There was no way for him to catch it.


    But of course, he wasn''t going to give up.


    The good thing about mutations was that he could use it in tandem with his LifeSkill.


    He manifested a giant hand in his Soul System and activated his Spiked Chitin Spray. He raised his hand in the air and shot out his LifeSkill.


    The thorned ck webs spread out in a cone pattern to try and enclose the slippery door-fruit, but it simply teleported away at the veryst second.


    He shot another Spiked Chitin Spray towards it, this time, he sped to the opposite side. He hoped that it would trap the door-fruit and he could catch it with his own hands.


    But he underestimated how fast those doors opened. The moment it saw the ck webs spray towards itself, it suddenly opened its doors and teleported away, giving no time for An to catch it even with his fastest speed.


    I can''t catch it like this. It''s fruitless. It will keep teleporting while I use my Angel Wings till exhaustion. I have to find another way.


    He sped towards the door-fruit standing atop one of the trellises. He made sure to keep his speed at a minimum to preserve his energy.


    This time, the fruit took its time and waited at the veryst second before teleporting away.


    An looked around and saw the fruit behind him.


    Hmm¡­


    An continued to test out the fruit''s teleporting ability.


    He found that it could do this with seemingly no limit at all. He kept a close eye on its internal body temperature and saw no difference from when it started to when it used its teleport ten times in a row. That was bad news.


    But the good news was that its usage was quite basic. It didn''t have anyplex sentient thinking or it wouldn''t have simply teleported behind An without any deviation.


    It didn''t try to get clever and teleport away randomly¡ªit didn''t need to.


    Another important thing he found out was the need for its doors to be opened for it to activate its teleport ability. If he could get to it before it opened its doors, then he''d be able to catch it.


    But even if he knew that, it was still a hard task.


    Chapter Stay:


    It could teleport within a fraction of a second. For An to grab the door-fruit that fast, he''d need to be exactly a meter away for him to grab it before it could open its door.


    With his Angel Wings, he could move fast enough to reach the door. But, he needed to move before the door teleported and he needed to arrive exactly where the door wouldnd.


    To do that, he''d need to know the future. That was impossible.


    He needed to know where it wouldnd. It wasn''t enough to know that it wouldnd behind him, he needed to know the direction.


    Wait¡­I have another LifeSkill that can help me target it!

 Chapter 141: Gatekeeper

    His Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill could lock on to any target he could see!


    Can I lock on to the door-fruit?


    An immediately tested it out. He turned around and chased the Genus fruit half-heartedly and as soon as he saw it teleport, he immediately turned around and held the Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill in his giant hand. Chapter Your:


    It was too frantic for him to lock onto and activate his LifeSkill, but he wasn''t nning to. He grasped the in his Soul System with no intention of gripping it tightly¡ªhe knew it wouldn''t work anyway.


    However, the moment he made contact with his LifeSkill, it immediately started to look for a target in his vicinity. It didn''t take long for his LifeSkill to lock onto an empty space on the right side.


    As fast as that moment came, it vanished just as easily. The LifeSkill failed to activate just as he predicted.


    But it already did its job. An knew where the Genus fruit wouldnd!


    After a fraction of a second, the door-fruit manifested in reality just a few meters away from where An thought it wouldnd!


    It worked! He finally knew how to catch it.


    He spent the next few minutes testing out the parameters of the teleportation and was able to shorten the estimated distance to only a few inches.


    And despite being a pseudo sentient being, the Genus fruit seemed to be getting overconfident with its abilities. It didn''t immediately teleport whenever An got close. It floated away from him and tried to bait him into chasing it even further. And once he got too close, it would teleport and bob up and down in happiness.


    An kept chucking out his Spiked Chitin Spray towards the Genus fruit, but they always missed.


    Okay¡­preparations areplete. This is my chance.


    He looked back at his own Angel Wings and knew that it was nearing exhaustion. Testing out the door-fruit''s abilities necessitated using his Angel Wings to keep up with it, which made him almost dead tired. And fortunately, it turned out to bepletely worth it.


    An shot out one more Spike Chitin Spray towards the floating Genus fruit.


    But this time, he didn''t let it spread outwards. As soon as it spurted out of his hands, he immediately grabbed it with his fingers and pulled it towards himself.


    The Genus fruit''s ''brain'' or whatever it used to think, was too simple for it to understand what was happening.


    After all, the ck web didn''t even get near it.


    It didn''t notice that the new web connected to the other string of webs on the ground.


    An didn''t miss the previous LifeSkill attacks! He didn''t intend to hit the Genus fruit with it, but instead used it to set up a trap for the unsuspecting Door-fruit.


    He pulled the web that was connected to the other webs on the ground. These intertwined Spiked Chitin Spray were wrapped around the trellises and created a that suddenly sprung up and intended to catch the Genus fruit from mid-air!


    The Door-fruit jumped up but realized that it was already toote. The covered any chance of escape it could try to do. And the gaps between the were too tight for it to fit through.


    With no other choice, the Genus fruit opened its door and vanished from existence.


    And when it reappeared back in reality, it was suddenly greeted with the image of An''s hands grabbing its wooden frame.


    The Genus fruit was still clueless as An held his precious prize in his hand. It tried to wriggle its way out of his grip, but how could itpare to his SSS ss Physique LifeSkill? It tried to open its doors to teleport away from him, but An was too careful for that. He made sure the doors would never open.


    He smiled. His n worked.


    He was already alert and ready when he sprung his on the Genus fruit. The moment he saw it open its doors to try and escape, An immediately activated his Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill to sense the general direction of where it would appear next.


    And with his Angel Wings pushed to its very limits, An almost teleported right next to the Genus fruit, catching it off guard. With one swift move, he grabbed the door-fruit in his hands and imed his prize.


    His Angel Wings forcefully folded back into his back, but it was fine. It did its job. Hended on the ground and inspected his prize.


    Now that he looked at it closely, he noticed that the wooden door was emanating a new but familiar feeling.


    He tried to remember when he first felt this strange sensation.


    Ah! I remember now. It has the same feeling as when I first entered Genesis City!


    He would never forget that moment. And when he held the door-fruit in his hands, he felt those memories resurfacing in his mind.


    Does this fruit have something inmon with the City? Does it have something to do with the Genesis God?


    Either way, An knew that this Genus was something that he needed. It was special. Out of all the 9-star Genus in the Vineyard, it was the only one that tried to evade his capture. Every single fruit in the trellises presented themselves as alluring as possible to try and entice him to pick it instead of the other ones. And if it weren''t for his Physique LifeSkill, he would''ve fallen for it.


    The Door-fruit was the only one that stayed underground and hid itself from being picked.


    But now that it was in his hands, An was sure that it was the most valuable thing inside the Vineyard.


    He didn''t hesitate any longer.


    He opened his mouth and took a bite out of the door-fruit. The sensation he felt was akin to biting onto a cloud. It wasn''t solid. He only felt mist around his mouth as the door-fruit suddenly disintegrated into multi-colored particles that phased in and out of existence.


    These particles enveloped An''s entire body, turning him into a being with multi-colored skin as he phased in and out of existence.


    [You have obtained a 9-star Genus: Gatekeeper]


    [You have obtained a new mutation: 9-star Dimensional Wings]


    [You already have a Wing mutation. Would you like to merge them?]

 Chapter 142: Thank the lucky stars

    10,000 Upgrade points flew out of An''s Soul System and merged his new mutations.


    The ethereal Angel Wings floated in the ckness of his Soul System and were suddenly enveloped by those multi-colored particles that phased in and out of existence. Due to the very nature of the Angel Wings, it couldn''t let itself be sullied by anything other than Angel power.


    But the line of red geometrical shapes encircled around the Angel Wings. After a few seconds, the one in the front of the Upgrade points pierced through the Angel Wings and ''sewed'' the multi-colored particles into the very feathers of the wings.


    It wasn''t long until the pure white feathers were shimmering like twinkling stars.


    After the transformation was over, the Angel Wings returned to their pure white form.


    An looked at his Soul System.


    [An]


    [Bloodline: Angelic Reaper of Souls]


    [Genus]


    ¡ª2x (1-star) Sapient Canzer


    ¡ª2x (1-star) Flora


    ¡ª10x (1-star) Pseudo Canzer


    ¡ª1x (3-star) Human


    ¡ª1x (4-star) Sapient Canzer


    ¡ª1x (6-star) Pseudo Canzer


    ¡ª1x (7-star) Flora


    ¡ª1x (9-star) Gatekeeper


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Grim Reaper


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Angel


    [Mutation]


    ¡ª (4-star) Canzer Mother Tongue


    ¡ª (6-star) Pseudo Canzer Whisperer


    ¡ª (7-star) Photosynthesis


    ¡ª (10-star) Gluttonous Soul


    ¡ª (10-star) Dimensional Lightspeed Angel Wings


    [Trait]


    ¡ª 10x level booster


    [LifeSkills]


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª 2nd stage Student Realm


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª(2000 / 2000)


    Specialty: Vanguard


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating to 4th stage


    ¡ªMage: (B) Spiked Chitin Spray


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 4th stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 6x F ss fragments


    ¡ªSniper: (SSS) Apocalyptic Hellfire


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª 2nd stage Student


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 3rd stage


    ¡ªScout: (SR) Thermal Vision


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 3rd stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 6x F ss fragments


    ¡ªBerserker: (B) Bloodline Transformation


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 2nd stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 4x F ss fragments


    ¡ªBard: (SR) Modify Memory Spore


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 2nd stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 4x F ss fragments


    [Experience: 60,521.2]


    [Upgrade Points: 328,000]


    [SoulTime]


    ¡ª50 yrs : 112 d : 12 hrs : 54 min : 34 s


    His Lightspeed Angel Wings turned into Dimensional Lightspeed Angel Wings!


    An was surprised because his new Gatekeeper Genus was only a 9-star rarity, which meant that the Dimensional Wings mutation he received was also only at the 9-star rarity.


    But it somehow merged with his Lightspeed Angel Wings at the 10-star rarity.


    Although they were both Wing mutations, he didn''t think that they''d be able to merge because of the rarity difference.


    Does that mean that as long as they''re the same mutation, I can merge them even if they have arge gap in rarity?


    An wouldn''t have believed that, but he was looking at his newly transformed Wing mutation in his Soul System with his very own eyes. From time to time, his pure white Angel Wings would sparkle and shimmer like a star in the night sky.


    Because the 10-star Lightspeed Angel Wings has a higher rarity than the 9-star Dimensional Wings, it will stay as the dominant mutation¡­


    An wasn''t mad at this new change. His new Wings only got stronger because of it. Although he didn''t know the exact capabilities of his new mutation, he knew that it had something to do with dimensions.


    Can I travel between dimensions? Or maybe I can create a new dimension for me to store my stuff?


    An wanted to test it out, so he opened his eyes.


    He expected to see the foggy ins filled with trellises of Genus fruits, but when he opened his eyes, he only saw dark steel doors in front of him.


    This is the entrance for the bunker.


    He looked behind him but couldn''t see the stairs that led down to the next Genus ins.


    Looks like I''ve been kicked out.


    He was warned that this would happen, but he didn''t think that the change would be so unnoticeable. He took his focus away from his surroundings as he observed his Soul System and the next thing he knew, he was already back at the bunker.


    With no other choice, An pushed the door open and was greeted with the same overgrown garden that he came from.


    "I''m finally back."


    He looked around but didn''t see Geminus anywhere.


    I must have been in there a long time.


    Just then, he suddenly heard a branch break from a distance. With his enhanced hearing, he was able to hear three distinct footstepsing toward him at an unhurried pace.


    "Are you sure you saw him here?"


    "Yes. I''m sure. The Star Porter is around here somewhere."


    "What are we going to tell Young Master Otis if we don''t teach this guy a lesson?"


    The three shady men didn''t even try to hide themselves. They were too busy detangling themselves from the overgrown vines to worry about their conversation echoing in the jungle-like garden.


    And just as they finally weaved themselves away from the tall bamboo-like grass on the ground, they came across a bald spot in the garden with nothing but a degrading bunker and a man staring right back at them.


    They stopped in their tracks as they recognized him.


    "What a tremendous amount of good luck! We found him."


    "I told you he''s here somewhere."


    "Good. We''ll curry favor with the Young Master O with this."


    Lucky (Unlucky) for them, the Star Porter had no intention of running away from them. He seemed oblivious with the hostile eyes directed at him.


    "Hey, Trash Porter! Come over here. We have something to give you."


    "Kukuku¡­it''s quite heavy too. It''s a real knocker of a present!"


    "It''s a congrattory gift from a very special person. He congrattes you for surviving that disaster in the Pocket Remedium."


    But despite their very ''alluring'' offer, An kept still. He looked at them as he crossed his arms around his ck battle suit.


    Seeing him that way, the three shady figures knew that the jig was up.


    "Tsk. Come on now! We won''t hurt you that badly. We''re only at the 5th stage!"


    "We''re just here to teach you a few moves."


    The three of them cracked their knuckles with an easygoing attitude. This wasn''t their first time beating down a lesser Savior. Novices were too green behind the ears to even pose a threat to any of them even if they were fighting a horde.


    They wouldn''t even hurt An that badly. After all, he was the Star Porter.


    They''ll only need an arm and a leg.

 Chapter 143: For chasing

    An calmly faced the three. He then used his Thermal Vision and looked around the garden.


    Aside from the cold bodies of the overgrown nt life, he saw no one around him.


    "Where are you looking?"


    "Don''t worry, no one will hear you even if you scream."


    "That gardener is gone. What a gullible guy he was. He believed us when we said we''d join the Garden Club if he ran ap around the entire City!"


    An took a deep breath and nodded to himself.


    "Good. There''s no one here to see this."


    The other threeughed to themselves when they heard that. An acted like it was good that there was no one here to save him.


    "Good for you? Good for us! We can take our time with you and teach you a little something about survivor''s guilt!"


    Otis Orioness wanted revenge on those Saviors who survived the Pocket Remedium disaster. An was one of them. He survived with barely any injuries while Obek, Otis'' younger brother, lost all his SoulTime and couldn''t even be visited in the church! It waspletely unfair when they were the ones who opened their private Pocket Remedium for others to enjoy their party.


    These three were hisckeys and their job was to bring down justice to those that got ''lucky''.


    But An didn''t know any of that. He didn''t care.


    He stretched his hands and prepared himself. Truth be told, he was a little bit excited. This was the first time he''d be going all out in front of other people.


    "I can finally practice my skills," he uttered.


    Theckeys sneered at him again. With their strength and their numerical advantage, there would be no time for him to practice. He''d only feel pain.


    "Look at this guy," they mocked him. "Even if you triple your power, you won''t even be able to harm a single hair on our bodies!"


    But no matter how much they tried to tell An about the apparent difference in their strength, he didn''t seem to care.


    He raised his hand and gestured for them toe to him.


    It was so simple yet so arrogant at the same time that theckeys couldn''t help but turn red in the ears. They couldn''t believe that a mere porter dared to taunt them. Where did he get the confidence to think that he''d be able to defeat three of them at the same time? They had a three-stage difference between them!


    Did the fame go to his head?


    They thought that An must have felt confident about himself because of all the good things they''d been telling about him recently. It made him overestimate himself.


    But even then, his overconfidence had no basis of evidence at all. He could defeat a single man in the 4th stage, but that was a single exchange of kicks. It wasn''t a real fight. If it was, then An would surely lose because of the difference in experience.


    Now, he was fighting against three people in the 5th stage Student realm. All at the same time. He''d be delusional to think that he''d wind this battle.


    "Let''s show him the difference, shall we?"


    The threeckeys took out the scimitars from their backs and brandished them to the arrogant Star Porter.


    "RAHH!" they screamed. And in an instant, they elerated toward An at intense speeds, even carving a path for themselves through the soil.


    Their scimitars were positioned to slice An''s body in three different levels. One of them aimed for his arms, one aimed for his torso, and one aimed to cut his ankles. This would be the trophies they''d bring back to Otis and prove that they had done their jobs properly.


    "That''s useless," An uttered under his breath.


    And before they could even make contact, his body suddenly disappeared from their view.


    Their scimitars sliced through nothing but vines and moss on the ground.


    "What?! Where did he go?"


    "Tsk. Find him! I can''t believe he knows a movement technique!"


    "He was so arrogant saying that he''ll be enough to defeat us. Turns out it''s just a ruse to help him escape!"


    They were going to move out, but they suddenly noticed a shadow cast directly over their heads. That shadow was moving, beating, as if it were a bird pping its wings.


    "Look up," a voice said above them.


    The threeckeys had a bad feeling as they heard his voice. They slowly raised their heads.


    And what they saw shut them up.


    Above them was the silhouette of a man with wings behind him spreading to almost twice that of an average human''s height. And even with the brightness of the sun at its zenith, the pure white Angel Wings still glimmered below them.


    They couldn''t believe what they were seeing.


    "What the?!"


    "Wings?! That''s not possible¡­that''s only a 7-star mutation!"


    The leader of theckeys immediately knew the mission spiked up in difficulty the moment An brought out his wings. Everyone underestimated the Star Porter, if that was even possible. The leader would have been more confident if he had five more 5th stage Students helping him subdue An.


    By speed alone, they knew that they couldn''t keep up with him.


    "How are we going to catch him now?"


    "We can''t let him get away."


    They still thought that An would run away with his Angel Wings. That was only the most logical course of action.


    But even with his wings, An didn''t move a single inch. He hovered above theckeys.


    "Ha! Is he stupid? Why isn''t he running away?"


    "Maybe he can''t control his wings all that well. It''s our chance!"


    The other two rejoiced when they saw An kept still. The only one who kept quiet was their leader; he was deep in thought.


    A thought popped up in his head. What if he didn''t leave because he doesn''t want to?


    And just as he thought that, An spoke up from above them.


    "These wings aren''t for escaping. It''s for chasing."


    The leader''s survival instincts kicked in and he immediately darted away from An.


    He didn''t know which was more terrifying: the fact that An could catch up to him, or the fact that he wasn''t?

 Chapter 144: Multiple powers

    An took out his slingshot.


    He plucked a single red cherry from the tree right next to him and put it in his slingshot.


    The other twockeys didn''t understand why their leader ran away, but it made them much more suspicious of the porter floating right above them. Maybe, he was much more dangerous than they thought. Why else would their senior leader run away?


    But then, they saw An pluck out a cherry from a tree and use it as ammunition for his slingshot. It almost made themugh.


    Does the porter really think that the puny little cherry would do damage to our armor?


    Their eyes suddenly widened when they felt the air change. The pressure made them sweat and instinctively worry for their lives. They looked up at An''s slingshot and saw a bluish-green fire covering the hot red cherry.


    "That''s¡­.no¡­.that can''t be¡­"


    "How¡­"


    An was emanating a pressure that only those in the 3rd stage Student realm could exert!


    They were 5th stage Students. They were more sensitive to LifeSkill powers and knew how to estimate them just from the pressure alone. They couldn''t mistake a 3rd stage Student for a 2nd stage Student.


    But now, they wished they made a mistake. They wished that what they were feeling wasn''t a power from the 3rd stage Student realm. They wished they were wrong.


    No matter how much they tried to deny it, the evidence was right in front of their eyes.


    They couldn''t understand how that was possible. Everyone knew that An was a star, but a porter nheless. He was only supposed to have a Physique LifeSkill that gave him the physical strength to carry thousands of kilograms without any problem.


    They saw him use it. Although surprising, the ck mes that spread to his body were the manifestation of his Physique LifeSkill. And from their estimation, his Physique LifeSkill was only in the 2nd stage. That was public knowledge.


    And even though he could break the bones of a man in the 4th stage, it was still believable.


    But as they looked at the bluish-green me in his slingshot, they realized that they''d been fooled. That dangerous pressure it emitted was not something that could be faked. It was another LifeSkill!


    How is that possible, they thought. It was simply inconceivable to think that someone had two different LifeSkills, much more one of them being in the 3rd stage Student already!


    It took them at least 8 years to go from 1st stage to 5th stage.


    And from their investigations, they knew that the Star Porter was only drafted not even a month ago! Him having a LifeSkill in the 4th stage was impossible! He shouldn''t have that much experience in the first ce! He''d only gone on one mission!


    An released the slingshot in his hands, and it created a single bluish-green line of fire that led straight toward the back of the fleeingckey.


    The moment it hit, BOOM, an explosion of bluish-green fire erupted and sent a shockwave that sted the other twockeys off their feet.


    Once the smoke cleared, they saw a crater filled with nothing but burned nts, vines, and moss.


    The leader of theckeysid face down with his battle suit burned and tattered into pieces. His protective armor was shattered into pieces, but it did its job. He may have lost half his SoulTime, but he wasn''t killed. He''s just unconscious.


    The other two covered their mouths in horror.


    An''s attack was not unfamiliar to them. It was reminiscent of a sniper''s attack, though this one was a lot more tame and less destructive.


    "That''s not possible¡­how do you have that¡­"


    "How¡­you''re a monster!"


    The two of them recognized that bluish-green me. How could they not? Practically everyone in the entire City, if not the entire world, knew about that iconic bluish-green hellfire that could incinerate anything it touched.


    That was Quinto Kindle''s LifeSkill. It was what the First Savior used to kill millions upon millions of Canzers in his lifetime.


    Even though they didn''t understand it, there was one thing they were sure about. An was a monster. Not only could he have two LifeSkills, but one of them was already at the 3rd stage in less than two weeks!


    "RUN!"


    The two of them immediately made a run for it. Just from his Sniper LifeSkill alone, they knew that they had no chance of beating him. And that was when he used a single cherry as his ammo! What more if he used something with a little more punch?


    But then they heard something incredulous.


    "Spiked Chitin Spray," uttered An as a ck web suddenly burst out of his palms.


    One of theckeys was too slow. He got caught by the cone of ck webs, trapping him on the mossy cobblestone below.


    "Argh!" he screamed. The ck webs were as thick as branches and were heavy enough to pin him down.


    Not only that, there were sharp thorns all around the webbing that slowlycerated his skin. He couldn''t even gather enough power to rip the sticky web away from his skin.


    The harder he struggled, the more the barbed spikes poked his skin.


    The best thing for him to do was to stay still and slowly rip the ck web away from his skin, but his panicked fear of An''s shadowy figure above him made him more erratic. He entangled himself further in the web.


    With two down, there was only one of them left.


    The man''s body lit up in a red glow as he activated his 5th stage LifeSkill: Water Crescent.


    He waved his scimitar behind him, creating crescent-shaped water toward An.


    As expected of a 5th-stage student, these Water Crescents sliced through steel fences quite easily.


    His attack curved in the air and rotated up, intending to hit An from below.


    But no matter how powerful those Water Crescents were, they were useless if they didn''t hit their target.


    An pped his wings even harder and immediately caught up with thestckey.


    He grabbed onto the man''s shoulders, pinning him in ce.


    But then, An''s Angel Wings suddenly glimmered like the stars in the night sky.


    A new power suddenly emanated from the wings. The shining particles suddenly shot out from his Angel Wings and pierced through 5 meters in front of them.


    An''s eyes widened as he saw the particles tear through the very reality itself, creating an oval-shaped hole in the air.

 Chapter 145: How to alter a memory

    The hole in reality was quickly enveloped by a ck liquid that seemed strangely familiar.


    An couldn''t stop his momentum as he and theckey went through the ck shimmering portal.


    And when they crossed it, An''s eyes adjusted to the strange colors of everything around him.


    The sky that used to be so bright and blue has now turned into a dark orange. The luscious vegetation that colored everything in a green hue turned into a purple tint.


    The two of them slowly stood up as they realized where they were.


    "What the hell are you? How can you create a portal to the Remedium?!"


    Theckey looked at An as if he was a monster. But even the ''monster'' didn''t know how this happened.


    "Take me back!" Theckey couldn''t hide his panic. He had heard all the stories about the Remedium incidents and waspletely terrified of Canzers suddenly appearing out of nowhere.


    Not only that, An was always at the center of any incidents. It made him think that the porter was the reason as to why those things kept happening in the City. It may have just been his bad luck, but it could have also been intentional. The fact that An could create a portal to the Remedium further led theckey to believe that An was the enemy of humanity.


    An ignored him and looked around.


    It''s aplete copy of the real world¡­except with negative colors¡­


    There was no mistaking it. This was the Remedium.


    Somehow, his new Angel Wings mutation could traverse through the Remedium without the normal portal constructs that the Operators used.


    So that''s what ''dimensional'' meant in my Dimensional Lightspeed Angel Wings.


    Despite the horrible news that he somehow ended up in another Remedium, An was overjoyed with the fact that he obtained this power from his 9-star Gatekeeper genus.


    If he could go in, then he could also get out!


    Even though he hadn''t figured out how to do that yet, the fact that it was possible was enough to make him feel a lot safer when doing missions.


    If things escted again and another ''incident'' happened with his missions, then he had a trump card that could save his life.


    If another Specialist-level Canzer appeared in his beginner mission, An could simply exit out of the Remedium at any point without having to search for the portal.


    The reason why a lot of people died during the Pocket Remedium incident was that everyone was trapped inside with no way to exit. The portal back to the real world was blocked by a horde of Pseudo Canzers, so everyone was forced to run away to save their lives.


    But An didn''t have that problem anymore. He could get out of the Remedium even if the portal was miles away from him.


    This was entirely good news!


    For theckey, things got a little more terrifying. He saw An smile out of nowhere.


    "Don''t worry," An assured him. "You''ll forget about this soon enough."


    Before the guy could even speak, An swiped the air with his hands and created orange spores that slowly fell on the ground.


    Even as theckey tried to avoid the spores, a few microscopical particles sunk deep in between his skin and infected his whole body.


    The spores followed the veins in his body until they reached the top of his head.


    "It''s time to see how good my SR Modify Memory Spore LifeSkill is¡­"


    It didn''t take a full minute before theckey''s eyes turned from intense fear to simple absentmindedness. His eyes turned muddy. He was still conscious, but there wasn''t any active thinking in his brain.


    Can I modify all his memories? Or can I only alter recent memories? Can I make him forget his name? If I can''t, then that''s fine. The only thing that I need him to forget is the memory of me using all my powers, including my Wings'' ability to create portals to the Remedium. That one, I have to make sure no one else knows.


    But it seemed that An contemted for far too long as the guy''s eyes started to clear. He was waking up.


    "Huh¡­what¡­right¡­Remedium¡­"


    Before he could wake up any further, An used his Spores to make his memories vague and malleable.


    "You forgot your name. You don''t know how you got here." Anmanded.


    After a few moments, the guy shook his head and looked around the Remedium with confusion written all over his face. He recognized where this ce was, but he didn''t remember how he ended up in this situation.


    "Who are you? How did you get here?" An asked.


    "Who¡­am I¡­.I¡­I''m¡­.I''m Cera¡­I don''t¡­.I don''t know why I''m here."


    I can''t make him forget his name. I guess that memory is too ingrained in his brain for me to make him forget who he is¡­but I made him forget how he ended up in the Remedium. That''s good.


    An continued to test out the limits of his new LifeSkill.


    He found that a target''s memory could be altered or modified for as long as the memory was made within 24 hours. During this period, he could make them believe that they spent the whole day lounging in their beds and doing nothing.


    He could erase memories longer than a day, but he had a harder time convincing them to believe the lie.


    As long as the memory he altered was something insignificant to their lives, then he could alter it or delete it entirely from their minds. But if it was a memory that was integral to their personality, like their name or their knowledge of how to use their weapons, then he couldn''t erase it from their memory no matter how hard he tried.


    Also, if the memory he imnted was too unbelievable, then they would start to question their false memories.


    Knowing the parameters of his Modify Memory Spore was important because he''d be relying on it to keep his secret from this point onward.


    Truth be told, he should have tested out his LifeSkill before he showed them his true powers.


    But if his LifeSkill didn''t work as he intended, then there was just one simple thing he would do.


    He''d kill them.

 Chapter 146: Forget me

    He was probably not the first person they harassed. He wouldn''t be killing them, no. He''d only be lessening the sufferings in the world and the City.


    The only reason why he didn''t kill them right now was because he knew that it could backfire on him.


    "You want to tell me why you targeted me," Anmanded.


    And just like that, the guy spilled the whole truth. Someone named Otis Orionessmanded them to teach him a lesson.


    Orioness. Obek is also from the Orioness family¡­are they rted? Probably¡­they want revenge for his death.


    It was no secret that An and Obek shed heads during the race. Not only that, An was the very reason why Obek was overwhelmed by the horde of Pseudo Canzers. If An hadn''t shot off the blinders in Obek''s mount, he could have escaped with his mount.


    Otis targeted him for that.


    If An killed his threeckeys, he would reveal that he had the power to kill three 5th stage Students simultaneously. The guy would be more careful and send out stronger opponents.


    But by changing their memories, he could make them think they forgot to attack him. He could convince them their ambush was a failure because of an unexpected witness.


    "You didn''t meet me today. You didn''t fight me. You didn''t see me use my powers. You''ll forget everything you see or feel about me."


    The spores in his brain invaded the firing neurons that rted to his memory. His mind deleted the memories he had of An, including the image of him flying with Angel Wings behind his back. He voluntarily forgot the fact that An was a monster who used three different LifeSkills.


    His entire interaction with An was flushed down the drain.


    Before he could gain consciousness, An activated his Physique LifeSkill and punched him in the chin, knocking him outpletely.


    An''s Angel Wings unfolded behind him. He closed his eyes and recalled the feeling when he created the portal to the Remedium.


    Slowly, the pure white feathers in his wings started to glimmer with twinkling stars. But after a few seconds, it slowly faded back into his wings.


    It took An a few tries before he was able to consistently keep the feeling solid in his wings. Hemanded his Angel Wings to p.


    He iled his Angel Wings harder and harder, with fury.


    And finally, the ck and white particles suddenly pierced outwards and created a hole in the middle of the air.


    An saw the familiar ck shimmering portal that led back to the real world. The only difference between his portal and a man-made construct from the Operators was that theirs was made out of a perfect circle while An''s portal was uneven and shaky.


    He didn''t care. As long as he could travel between the Remedium and the real world, then he was satisfied.


    He threw the unconscious body of theckey into the portal and followed behind it.


    As soon as he stepped foot in the portal, the smell of the earth and freshly cut grass his senses.


    He heaved a sigh of relief. He was back.


    This was enough evidence for him to be confident with his Angel Wings'' new power.


    "You! Where did you guys go?! And what happened to him?"


    The only one left still conscious was theckey trapped in his Spiked Chitin Spray. He struggled under a pool of his blood as the thorns cut his skin mercilessly.


    An went forward and gathered the three of them into one ce.


    "What..what are you going to do? Are you going to bleed us of our SoulTime?!"


    An kept silent and looked down on them with a calm demeanor.


    "Don''t you know who we work for? If he finds out that you hurt us, he''ll give you a beating you can''t ever forget!


    And don''t think you''re gonna get away with this! The whole City will soon know about your secrets! You''re conspiring with the Canzers! They must have given you all those powers."


    But An didn''t utter a single word. Instead, he waited for the other guy to wake up.


    "Cera! It''s good you''re awake."


    "What¡­what''s happening?"


    "Come on! We have to get out."


    "Wh¨Cwhy?"


    "What do you mean?! It''s that porter! He''s a monster!"


    Cera looked up at An, but his face was foreign to him as if he had never met An before.


    "What¡­am I doing here? I was just at home¡­"


    It was only then that thest survivingckey realized that there was something wrong going on.


    "What happened?!"


    "I made him forget," answered An. "I relieved him of the suffering he felt when he saw my true powers. I freed him."


    Cera acted like a zombie. He didn''t know where he was and he didn''t know what happened. It was as if he''d been in aa that erased his entire memory of today!


    An slowly lowered himself towards the threeckeys.


    The man tried even harder to struggle away from the thorned ck webs, but it was futile.


    No matter how much he tried, he wouldn''t be able to escape the fate that Cera suffered.


    "No! Please!"


    But An didn''t care. He raised his hand and gathered spores in the air.


    And with one flick of the hand, the three of them were enveloped in a cloud of spores that quickly invaded their bodies and infected their brains.


    Their eyes turned cloudy.


    "You fought against each other because of a disagreement. You didn''t find me. You never saw me. You never went into the garden."


    ###


    After a few hours, the threeckeys found themselves tied up in a dark basement with no windows.


    Ahead of them was a blonde-haired man sitting in a chair.


    "Tell me what happened," Otismanded.


    Cera slowly came to and the false memories flowed in his mind. His imagination made up a vivid memory of him beating up the otherckeys until they were all knocked out.


    "We¡­we fought¡­"


    "I won¡­against him. I destroyed his armor."


    "I tried to run away from them¡­but they caught me¡­"


    CRASH


    Otis threw down the ss of wine in his hands.


    "Useless bastards. I''ll have to do this myself. This time, I''ll make sure he meets a gruesome fate in the Remedium the way my little brother suffered!"

 Chapter 147: First task of the garden club

    An slumped on his bed after a very interesting day. He met quite a few odd individuals today.


    First, he met Adam, who was supposedly part of a secret organization operating in the undergrounds of the City to bring back the glory of humans. Their faction was called the Prime Humans.


    Although he didn''t know if Adam was telling the truth or not, there was one thing for sure: Prime Humans had a Trait.


    An gained a Trait after he reaped the death of Quinto Kindle, the First Savior, which meant that he was also a part of the Prime Humans.


    Then, he met Geminus, the leader of the declining Garden Club. He invited An to join the club, which An was going to decline, but then the deaths he reaped from the garden made him reconsider.


    And after he got his 9-star Genus from the Vineyard, a fewckeys suddenly ambushed him.


    They were all in the 5th stage Student realm. An would have had a lot more trouble dealing with them if his LifeSkills hadn''t finished their consolidation period just at the right time.


    [You have sessfully advanced your SSS ss Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill to the 4th stage of the Student Realm]


    [You have sessfully advanced your SSS ss Apocalyptic Hellfire LifeSkill to the 3rd stage of the Student Realm]


    Since his two SSS ss LifeSkills advanced to the next level, his physical strength was also boosted to such an extent that he was able to stand toe to toe against the threeckeys.


    He would have advanced them to the next level if he had the time, but he was busy fighting and trying to figure out how his Modify Memory Spore worked.


    But now that he was at home, he upgraded them to the next level.


    ¡ªDPS: (SSS) Cherubic Retribution


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating to 5th stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 14 days


    ¡ªSniper: (SSS) Apocalyptic Hellfire


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating to 4th stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 7 days


    The Cherubic Retribution cost 4000 experience points to upgrade to the 5th stage while the Apocalyptic Hellfire cost 3000 experience to advance to the 4th stage, which brought his total experience down to 53,521.2.


    With everything settled, An closed his eyes and went to sleep.


    ###


    The next day, he was greeted with the notification that his Modify Memory Spore sessfully advanced to the 2nd stage Student realm.


    He used 2000 experience points to upgrade it to the 3rd stage.


    [You have sessfully advanced through the 2nd stage Student Realm of your SR ss LifeSkill Modify Memory Spore]


    [Consolidation period: 47 hrs: 59 mins: 50secs]


    With nothing else left to do, he walked to the City Center and entered the HeadQuarters. He still garnered some looks of recognition and amazement, but they didn''t try to stop him or anything.


    An continued to walk to the end of the HeadQuarters until he finally came across the empty Garden Club.


    He looked around and couldn''t even see anyone near this ce. It waspletely abandoned. This was the only ce in the HeadQuarters that wasn''t teeming with people.


    ording to Geminus, people used to treat nts as if they were pets. They were used for construction, for apaniment, and even for entertainment.


    But when the advent of Pseudo Canzers hit the City, everyone stopped caring about nts. They would rather breed new and exciting Pseudo Canzers to fill the responsibility that the nts once had.


    Subsequently, all the funding went over to the Pseudo Canzer research in the Operator division. Hence, the garden club''s decline. No one even wanted to join the club, except for An.


    He was the only one who could benefit from taking care of the dying nts. He reaped more than 3500 deaths just yesterday!


    Since entry to Pocket Remediums like the public Training Hall was still prohibited, An had no other way of gaining more experience other than through the garden club. In fact, this was much safer than killing Pseudo Canzers in the Pocket Remedium; they could always malfunction and summon another Specialist level Canzer.


    As he went over the rusting steel gate, he saw a note pasted on the side door. He ripped it from the gate and read its contents.


    <Hello, An. It''s me, Geminus. I''m sorry I won''t be able to guide you on your first day working in the Garden Club, but I''m sure you''ll do fine.


    I have just one job for you, and it''s quite important. I want you to take care of one nt and make sure that it doesn''t die. It''s quite easy.


    You should whistle to our resident Big Vine and he''ll take you to where you''re in charge.


    I''m counting on you!>


    That''s what I have to do? I have to take care of a single nt?


    An was a bit frustrated that he wasn''t given more instructions on how to take care of this nt. He didn''t know the basics! He lived in a ce devoid of any nt life, so he never even knew how to take care of a single de of grass.


    That''s it?


    He had no choice but to improvise. He pushed the side door and entered the Garden Club.


    As expected, the whole ce was surrounded by overgrown nts and weeds.


    It looks like nts will continue to grow even if I don''t take care of them.


    He looked up at thergest tree in the distance. He remembered how Geminus used his hands to fold his tongue on the inside to create a whistling sound.


    Did he do it like this?


    An blew at his hands, but there was no sounding out.


    He continued to change the position of his hands until he finally produced a high-pitched whistling sound that reverberated through the Garden.


    The ground trembled a little bit as the giant vine that was wrapped around the trunk of the biggest tree, suddenly moved and uncoiled itself.


    It slithered in the air as it located where the sound came from. Like a sentient being, it looked in An''s direction and moved towards him.


    It bent down and offered its giant leaf for him to sit in.


    Once he was on top of the vine, it lifted him and waded through the jungle-like garden without any instruction from An. It knew what to do and where to go.


    Just then, An suddenly saw a fluttering paper stuck on the leaf. He looked at its contents.


    <Oops, silly me. I forgot to tell you


    that the nt you''ll be taking care of is called the Chronobloom.


    It''s the only one left in the entire world.>

 Chapter 148: Chronobloom

    What?! It''s near extinction?!


    An couldn''t believe that a beginner gardener like him was in charge of such an important piece of nt.


    There''s only one of them left in the entire world? Does that mean that if I mess up, then it will go extinct?


    He couldn''t understand why Geminus would give him such a heavy responsibility.


    He only knew about watering nts yesterday! He even thought that nts needed meat to live like humans. He was thoroughly unprepared to carry the burden of making sure that the Chronobloom nt survived.


    Oh, there''s more to the note.


    An turned the paper on its back and saw more scribbles.


    <Now, you''re probably wondering what a Chronobloom nt is.


    It''s a nt that is a special ingredient needed to create an object that can see through a person''s SoulTime.


    Back in the old days, nuns and priests used to carry these sses to find out how much SoulTime a person had left. They attach the ss to the person''s wrist, and it''ll show them how many years they have left.


    But because it wasn''t urate down to the day, it was soon reced by a new invention from the Pseudo Canzer division.


    Chronoblooms became trash. And because it needs a lot of resources to keep alive, a lot of the other Chronoblooms died off as our budget dwindled.


    But even so, I hope that you''ll be able to keep a part of our history alive by preserving the Chronobloom>


    An crumpled the piece of paper and threw it down the garden.


    Even though he found out about the history and uses of the Chronobloom, Geminus didn''t say anything about how to take care of it!


    He didn''t say how much water he needed to put on the roots. He didn''t say how much sunlight it needed throughout the day.


    How can I keep it alive when you don''t tell me how?!


    An wanted toin to Geminus, but the guy was conveniently away from the Garden Club.


    It frustrated him.


    He didn''t know that the Chronobloom had such a history in the City. He didn''t even know that there were objects that could see through a person''s SoulTime.


    ording to Geminus, people now use a Pseudo Canzer variant to know a person''s SoulTime. Although he didn''t know what that was, he knew that it could malfunction. It was inevitable. And if that happened, the City would eventually go back to using the Chronobloom.


    As he ruminated on what he would do, the Big Vine finally reached their destination. It brought him to a ce in the Garden that was closed off by a structure made out of opaque fiberss with steel frames supporting the triangr roof.


    It was called the ''Greenhouse''.


    He thanked the Big Vine by rubbing its leaf.


    The entrance to the greenhouse was only made out of a strip curtain made out of ovepping strips of stic. It allowed easy ess inside while maintaining the airflow and temperature of the greenhouse.


    He parted the strips and entered.


    Immediately, he felt that the air inside was much purer than the one outside. The Garden smelled earthy and natural, while the greenhouse smelled like pure air dispelled of any odors, good or bad.


    He stepped inside and felt his footsteps indent on the soil below. It was much different from the brownish and dry soil outside. This was darker and filled with moisture.


    And despite the good conditions inside, An only saw one nt in the middle of the greenhouse.


    It was unlike any vegetation he''d ever seen. He didn''t know if it was a fruit, a statue, or a nt. It was more like abination of all three.


    The main body of the Chronobloom was a perfect circle with a solid golden color. And inside this circle were straight red veins that pointed outwards, like the minute marks of a clock.


    As he observed the nt more, he was surprised to hear a slight ticking in the room.


    TIK¡­TOK¡­TIK¡­TOK¡­


    It''s as if it was a real clock! Each ticking corresponded to one second.


    He went around the nt and observed its roots. The circr body of the Chronobloom was supported by a single thick stem that was buried deep underground.


    An would have wanted to observe the nt a little closer, but he didn''t know if that would negatively impact the nt''s health. He wouldn''t know if he stepped onto a root or not.


    Maybe I don''t have to do anything with the Chronobloom. It looks healthy right now.


    But then, he suddenly saw something move in the corner of his eye.


    He looked to the edge of the greenhouse and saw a single de of grass swaying in the wind.


    I didn''t see that before.


    He would have ignored it, but then he suddenly saw another de pop out from the ground!


    What the?! Why is grass growing in the greenhouse? Is that bad?


    An looked around the edges of the greenhouse and saw more and more des of grass popping out from under the ground.


    These des of grass are growing closer and closer to the Chronobloom. I think I should do something¡­


    Although he didn''t know if it was good or bad, An decided to nip the problem in the bud before it became too troublesome. Geminus isted the Chronobloom for a reason; the grass wasn''t supposed to grow here.


    He looked to the back of the greenhouse and saw a locker with one of its doors slightly ajar.


    He walked over to the locker and opened it.


    There, he saw a single brown notebook and a pen. It was titled;


    <Chronobloom diary>


    An opened the diary and saw multiple entries on different days written down in the notebook. It detailed how this person took care of the Chronobloom during a specific day.


    On the very first page of the book, An saw a note.


    <If you see grass growing in the Greenhouse, kill it. You''ll find the equipment on the top of the locker.>


    Even though An wanted to read more about the diary, he had to kill the grass first.


    He raised his hand and grabbed the equipment handle on top of the locker.


    He brought it down in front of him.


    It had a long handle almost as tall as him made out of dark wood and had a long curved de attached to the top. Inscribed on the handle was the name of this equipment.


    It was a scythe.

 Chapter 149: Farming equipment

    An held the rusting handle of the scythe. It fit well on his hands and he didn''t have to exert any extra effort trying to keep a grip on this strange farming equipment.


    He looked at the de of the scythe and was surprised at how light it was despite it being almost as long as the handle itself.


    It wasn''t too heavy nor was it too light. It was just perfect.


    He swung and felt it cleave through the air with little to no resistance. If the handle was made out of better materials and its de was a little sharper, he felt like it could have cleaved through the horde of Pseudo Canzers like they were cheese.


    It would have been perfect. The problem with the Pseudo Canzers from the incident before was that there were too many for them to deal with. They were weak, but there were too many of them.


    This scythe would have been the perfect weapon.


    This was the first time he''d ever wielded this equipment, but it feltpletely natural in his hands. He found it extremely strange that he had such a strong affinity for this farming equipment.


    Focus. I need to get rid of the grass surrounding the Chronobloom.


    An took his focus away from the strange equipment and looked at the grass growing on the edges of the walls. They were much more numerous than before.


    He walked over to the first batch of the green weeds and swung his scythe, creating a crescent shape that plowed through the grass, uprooting them from the shallow ground.


    [You have killed a simple creature: Invasive Weeds] x24


    [Due to your Trait, your experience has multiplied by 10]


    [You have gained 720 experience]


    He looked at the scythe with satisfaction. He didn''t know why, but carving through arge group of living beings with the scythe feltfortable. He didn''t know why this scythe was considered only as farming equipment when it looked like it would fare well with fighting Canzers.


    With a sword, he''d have to perform multiple shes and practice movement arts to defeat multiple enemies. With a spear, he''d be limited on the amount of thrusts he could produce to kill lots of Pseudo Canzers.


    But with a scythe like this, he''d have no trouble fighting multiple enemies at once. It could also be used to fight a single tough enemy like that colossal Specialist Canzer.


    With each swing of his scythe, hundreds of des of grass were minced into mere particles. An''s speedy but heavy swings were enough to take out the grassroots and prevent them from spreading any further.


    It didn''t take long before Anpletely got rid of the grass in the greenhouse.


    The Chronobloom was safe and sound.


    The minced grass des were soon absorbed into the soil and were used to nourish the Chronobloom''s massive nutrient intakes.


    [You have killed a simple creature: Invasive Weeds] x89


    [Due to your Trait, your experience has multiplied by 10]


    [You have gained 2670 experience]


    There were no more grass des to kill, but An couldn''t seem to let go of the scythe in his hands. It felt too natural in his palms to simply use it only once.


    If he was given a chance, he would rather choose a scythe as his main weapon.


    However, he was a porter. He wasn''t supposed to carry a big weapon like the scythe. His only job was to carry the construct and nothing else. They''d think that carrying such a big weapon would only take away from his ability to carry the construct through the Remedium''s dangerous terrain.


    Maybe I can ask Custodire to make me a scythe¡­


    If other people heard his thoughts, they would reprimand him for his shamelessness.


    Custodire was no simple cksmith. She was one of the premier dwarfs that carried an indirect lineage to the Masamune family.


    She was also a Specialist Operator! Her main job was to create weapons for Specialist Vanguards. She didn''t have the time to create Student level weapons.


    But even so, An felt like she would be more than happy to make him a new weapon.


    For now, I guess this scythe will remain as a farming tool.


    An returned the scythe to the top of the locker.


    Now that there wasn''t any pressing concern for the Chronobloom, An finally had the time to look at the notebook stored in the locker.


    From what he saw earlier, it seemed to be written by someone who took care of the Chronobloom with passion and care. If it weren''t for their warnings, An wouldn''t have known to get rid of the grass invading the greenhouse.


    He opened up the ''diary'' and looked at the first entry.


    <First day


    My dream came true. I''m now the proud caretaker of the legendary Chronobloom. Thank you, Geminus.


    Most people think that a Chronobloom is only good as an ingredient to create SoulTime sses, but I think that they are overlooking its obvious beauty. It''s the most beautiful flower I''ve seen, and it''s not even bloomed yet. I''ll have to take care of it properly to see that day.


    I made sure that the invasive grass was taken care of. They won''t be spawning for the next two days, which is good¡­>


    The diary entry continued to list out what the ''caretaker'' did to keep the Chronobloom at its peak state. They made sure to keep the moisture in the room at a high level, but not too high. The stem could get too wet and the main body could plop down on the ground.


    Geminus didn''t write this. Someone else did.


    An thought that he was the only one in the Garden Club, but it seemed that there was someone else too. Who could it be?


    He continued to parse through the diary detailing the daily maintenance for the Chronobloom.


    This is very detailed, An thought.


    He looked at the date on the notebook and noticed that the oldest entry was only a month ago and the earliest one was only three days ago.


    An picked up a pen and wrote on the nk page next to thetest entry.


    <Greetings! I made sure to uproot the grass as you said. Thanks for the advice. I wouldn''t have known what to do if it weren''t for your entries. I had fun reading them>

 Chapter 150: Peaceful day

    An watered the Chronobloom as instructed in the diary. He made sure to only water the stem that connected to the body, and not its clock-like body. They said that the Chronobloom didn''t like having its main body wet and would wilt for a day as it sulked.


    With everything taken care of, An walked out of the greenhouse and whistled for the Big Vine to take him back to the entrance.


    ording to the diary, the invasive grass won''t grow back for two days, so he didn''t have to worry about it spreading throughout the night.


    As he soared through the air on top of the big leaf, he soaked in all the death inside the overgrown garden.


    [You have reaped the deaths of simple beings] x1230


    [Due to your Trait, you have multiplied your rewards by 10]


    [You have received 12,300 experience]


    Just by spending the whole day in the garden, he was able to umte a tremendous amount of experience that would even make the veterans jealous.


    An was probably the only Savior in the entire world with a surplus of experience. If there hadn''t been any consolidation period, An could have made all of his LifeSkills upgraded into the peak 9th-stage Student realm. He had more experience than he knew what to do with.


    This time, he didn''t get lucky. He got no LifeSkill fragments or Genus from all the deaths.


    It made sense. The probability of gaining those rewards was much lower if he only reaped the deaths. If he actively participated in killing the nts, then he would gain more experience and have a better chance of getting those rewards.


    I was just lucky back then that I got so many fragments and genuses¡­


    The Big Vine dropped him off next to the gate and An walked back to his house.


    And even though the sun already set and the moon was high up in the air, An barely felt sleepy. And he wasn''t the only one who felt that way. Without any ess to the Training Hall, most of the Saviors who didn''t have any active missions ended up spending their idle time in their homes.


    They usually practiced killing Pseudo Canzers every day to keep their des sharp, so spending days without killing a single one made them feel extremely bored.


    An closed his eyes and waited until he fell asleep.


    ###


    The next day, he was greeted with two of his LifeSkills finishing their consolidation period.


    [Consolidation period over] x2


    [You have sessfully advanced your B ss Spiked Chitin Spray LifeSkill to the 4th stage of the Student Realm]


    [You have sessfully advanced your SR ss Thermal Vision LifeSkill to the 3rd stage of the Student Realm]


    He spent a total of 7000 experience to upgrade both to the next stage.


    After taking a shower, he immediately went over to the HeadQuarters and had his morning breakfast in the cafeteria. This was the first time since a few days ago that he''d had a meal. For some reason, he didn''t feel hungry at all even when he went through such a harrowing experience in the Pocket Remedium.


    Reaping souls gives me nourishment¡­that''s grim.


    But An didn''t feel guilty at all. It assured him that he''d be able to survive even in the harsh conditions of the Unimed Lands with no food or water to see anywhere.


    After having his fill, An immediately headed over to the Garden Club.


    While walking there, he saw the recruits of clubs having fun during their orientation. There were some fun activities like a friendly wrestling match or a movie marathon right on the grass fields of the HeadQuarters.


    Even though it looked interesting, An would rather stay in the garden and soak up as much experience as he could.


    Once he was there, he saw another note posted at the gate.


    <Sorry! I''m going to be absent today too!>


    What is he doing?


    An walked inside and whistled for the Big Vine to take him back to the greenhouse. It didn''t take long before he arrived there.


    Once inside, he was pleased to find out that the Chornobloom didn''t die during the night.


    He quickly went over to the locker and looked at the notebook.


    He flipped over to thetest page and was surprised to see another entry right next to the one he wrote yesterday.


    <Hey! I didn''t know Geminus recruited another member of the Garden Club. He''s finally doing his job as a club president.


    He didn''t tell you anything about taking care of the Chronobloom, did he? Typical Geminus. When I got the job, he didn''t tell me anything and left me to figure it out for myself.


    So if you have any questions, you can ask me here.


    By the way, it''s nice to have someone else interested in keeping nts alive. It''s quite rare these days. They would rather use Pseudo Canzers¡ªhow disgusting.


    Anyway, can I ask why you joined the Garden Club? I joined because it gives me peace to see the flowers and vegetation live happily in the sun without any worries in the world. I wish I was like that :) How about you?>


    An read the contents of the diary and felt a connection with his co-caretaker. As a self-proimed pacifist, he had a liking for nts because they didn''t cause any suffering to other beings. They didn''t kill to survive like the humans did.


    He would have probably joined the Garden club even if he wasn''t incentivized with reaping all the deaths inside.


    They replied fast. Did they go to the garden club during the night?


    An wrote in the notebook about being a pacifist and liking nts. He felt a kindred spirit with the other caretaker, so he knew that they would understand his inclination towards peace.


    After that, he took care of the Chronobloom as instructed in the diary. He made sure to open the blinds and let out an hour of sunlight for the nt, and no more.


    Then, he went home and slept. It was a very peaceful day.

 Chapter 151: Ballistic lotus

    The next day, An woke up to his Modify Memory Spore LifeSkill advancing to the 3rd stage Student realm.


    He spent the 3000 required experience to advance it to the next stage. After its 7 days of consolidation period, it would be a 4th stage LifeSkill.


    ¡ªBard: (SR) Modify Memory Spore


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 4th stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 4x F ss fragments


    As usual, he went directly to the Garden Club after finishing his morning duties. He didn''t mind walking 10 minutes every day because it gave him a good look at the happenings around the HeadQuarters.


    As he reached the rusted gates, he saw no paper posted near the door.


    Is he here today?


    And as he opened the door, he saw Geminus with his white coat and signature haggard look on his face. As usual, he was watering his lilies in the pond and didn''t notice An approaching.


    "You''re here today."


    "OH! You scared me there."


    An walked next to him. "You didn''t tell me there was someone else in the club other than us two."


    Geminus looked confused at first but suddenly remembered who he was talking about. "Ah! Yes. I forgot. She joined the club about a month ago and I seem to recall her begging me to let her take care of the Chronobloom. I haven''t seen her all that much so I forgot she even existed."


    So it''s a she¡­


    "Does she onlye at night?"


    Geminus nodded. "Yes. She''s quite the shy little thing. I guess she''s busy with a lot of things other than the garden club, so she can''te during the day. But now that you''re here, you can be the one to take care of the Chronobloom while the sun''s up."


    An was fine with that arrangement. It was assuring to know that there was someone else taking care of the Chronobloom while he wasn''t in the garden.


    So that''s why she was able to respond to my entry so fast. She''s only active at night. Speaking of which, I wonder if she wrote something in the notebook.


    An put his hands on his mouth and whistled for the Big Vine toe get him. But when he looked around, he couldn''t see the vine anywhere; it wasn''t wrapped around the giant tree nor was it slithering through the bushes.


    "Our resident Big Vine is sleeping right now. It usually does this once every week, so you''ll be able to summon it tomorrow. But for now, we''ll have to walk to the greenhouse."


    Geminus walked away from the cobblestone paths and onto the grassfields.


    "Come on! You won''t be able to get to the greenhouse without my help."


    An followed Geminus through the thick and lush vegetation of the garden. Perhaps, that wasn''t the right word. It was more like a wild jungle than a garden in the middle of a City. It was as if he was transported to a different.


    Every step he took, he felt different kinds of tangled mass and undergrowth in the soil. The dried leaves and roots almost made him trip a couple of times with how uneven they made the terrain.


    The air was thick and humid. With the dense canopy aboveposed of the leaves and crowns of giant trees, the temperature dropped quite a bit, bringing with it a cool wind that bombarded An and Geminus.


    He was even surprised to see waterfalls and cave systems as they journeyed through the overgrown garden.


    He wondered why he hadn''t seen a single animal despite how big the ecosystem was. He half-expected to see monkeys swinging through vines the first time he saw the forest.


    An followed behind Geminus as they waded through thick and colorful ferns. And after they passed through the maze-like tall grasses, they came across an open field.


    "Wait. Don''t move."


    Geminus''s warnings stopped An in his tracks. He looked ahead and saw ck lotus flowers growing from the ground.


    "This is the Ballistic Lotus. Be careful. Don''t get near any of them."


    But that was easier said than done. They were in a field of these Ballistic Lotuses with no other way forward. The space in between the lotuses was just barely enough for one leg to pass through.


    "Oops." Even though Geminus was the one who warned An to be careful, his leg identally brushed past the ck Lotus stem.


    "Take cover!" Geminus screamed as he ducked and covered his head.


    BOOOOOMM


    The Ballistic Lotus exploded with a magnitude equivalent to a small dynamite, creating a small crater from where it was.


    Its petals flew out and carved through tree bark like it was nothing.


    In the aftermath of the explosion, small seeds rained down on the field of ck lotuses, which sprouted more Ballistic Lotuses in a matter of seconds.


    Geminus peeked out from his cover and heaved a sigh of relief.


    "We got really lucky there. It could have started a chain explosion¡ª"


    And just as he said that, ten more ck Lotuses exploded in session. An dodged the ck petals raining down on him by weaving his upper body away from their trajectory.


    If it weren''t for his enhanced physical strength and senses, those petals would have pierced through his body.


    After a few seconds, more ck seeds rained down on the floor and created more Ballistic Lotuses instantly, further overpopting the field with these dangerous nts.


    I could use my Angel Wings¡­I''ll just have to erase Geminus'' memory about it.


    But before he could manifest his Angel Wings, Geminus spoke up.


    "I''ll teach you how to deal with these nts in case you have to traverse through the ins without me."


    Geminus ducked down and observed the roots of the Ballistic Lotus.


    "The thing with nts like these that seemingly multiply endlessly is that they hide a big secret."


    Geminus slowly walked over to the thick crowd of Ballistic Lotuses in the distance. The ground was barely visible with how many ck lotuses there were. There must have been hundreds of them in that bush.


    If just one of these Ballistic Lotuses exploded, it would create a chain reaction that could potentially destroy the whole field and everything in it, including them.


    "The more there are, the harder they''re trying to protect something," Geminus muttered under his breath.


    He ducked down and wed the brown soil underneath the first row of Ballistic Lotuses. He dug until he saw the connection of roots underneath the ground.


    With one swift move, he took out a potato-like object with thousands of roots connected to it underground.


    Using both his hands, he crushed the ''potato'' into mush.


    And in an instant, thousands of Ballistic Lotuses turned limp and white. In just a few seconds, it lost all its moisture and dried out.


    "And that''s how you deal with those!" Geminus said with a smile.

 Chapter 152: Fertilizer

    [You have reaped the death of a simple creature: Ballistic Lotus]


    [Due to your trait, your experience has multiplied by 10]


    [You have gained 1200 experience]


    "Once you locate the main root, then you can disable all the replicates," Geminus said.


    I didn''t know nts could be so dangerous¡­and since I only reaped one death, that means that all the ck lotus in the fields were all part of one entity¡ªthat main root.


    "Are all nts here dangerous?"


    "Yeah, most. But don''t worry about that," Geminus waved off his concerns. "Come on! Let''s go. I can see the greenhouse from here."


    Geminus walked forward while An stayed behind and observed the wilted ck lotus. It already lost all its color and became as thin as a stick. Even when he touched it a second time, it didn''t explode anymore.


    An was intrigued by the different nts in the garden, but perhaps the most interesting one was the Chronobloom.


    The fact that it was the only one in existence multiplied its importance.


    As they walked over to the greenhouse, An asked Geminus about the nearly extinct nt.


    "Hmm¡­we used to export Chronobloom to other territories because it can only be nted here. Everyone needed SoulTime sses."


    "Do you have one?"


    Geminus took out a rectangr transparent ss about the size of a wrist. It was decorated with a golden encasing with symbols of clocks and hoursses. He handed it over to An.


    It looked like an ordinary piece of ss.


    "Put it on your wrist and it will show your current SoulTime."


    An did as Geminus said and attached the SoulTime sses to his wrist.


    <SoulTime: 50 years : 115 days>


    Unlike the one he saw in his Soul System, the sses only showed the years and days he had left. It wasn''t urate down to the hour.


    "That is a relic of the olden times. Back then, the Genesis God wasn''t so generous with His allowance of SoulTime, so people used to check their lifespan every day for fear that it would run out.


    It''s different now. As more people immigrated to the City, the more powerful He became. Because of that, most people are given SoulTime even if they did the bare minimum. People rarely even check their SoulTime nowadays because they know they still have hundreds of years left before they have to worry about it."


    An was the same. He didn''t have to worry about his SoulTime because he knew that he gained time instead of losing it. The more time passed, the more he became ''alive''.


    He returned the SoulTime sses as they finally reached the greenhouse.


    They passed through the strip curtain doors andid eyes on the majestic Chronobloom.


    It looked the same as An left it yesterday, if not for the soil being a little bit wetter than he remembered.


    She must have watered itst night.


    "Now that you''re here, can you tell me how to take care of the Chronobloom?" An asked Geminus.


    Geminus scratched his head guiltily. "Sorry about that. You didn''t have much trouble yesterday, did you?"


    "It would have been if not for the notebook that my co-caretaker left me."


    Geminus felt remorseful for forgetting to teach An about how to take care of the Chronobloom. "Well, now that I''m here, I''ll tell you how."


    Geminus walked over to the locker. "First and foremost, we must¡ªhmm¡­it''s not here."


    He looked over at An with a sorry look. "Looks like we''ve run out of fertilizer. Do you mind if I ask you to go and fetch a sack for me?"


    Although An would rather stay in the garden and continue to soak up the deaths inside, he knew that he couldn''t deny Geminus'' request. He was a club member after all. He shouldn''t be selfish and contribute to the garden.


    It was also for the health and well-being of the Chronobloom, so it would be worth it.


    "What kind of fertilizer?"


    Geminus sped his hands in thankfulness for An''s help. "You see, our Chronobloom thrives on extremely hot soil and sustenance. If it doesn''t get its monthly supply of magma, it will turn cold and freeze."


    "Magma?"


    The club leader nodded. "Yes. Magma. That''s the preferred fertilizer of the Chronobloom."


    "Where am I¡ª" An remembered that time when Lizzie brought him to the Masamune district. He still remembered the expansive cityscape he saw from the only volcano in Genesis City. "Is it in Mount Infernal?"


    Geminus nodded. "Yes! Don''t worry, we already have an arrangement with the Masamune family. They will give you the magma, you just have to pick it up and bring it back to the garden."


    What a coincidence. I was just nning on visiting the Masamune district to ask Custodire if she could make me a scythe!


    An nned on taking a detour to Custodire''s workshop before he picked up the magma from Mount Infernal.


    He looked at the rusting scythe on top of the locker. "Can I bring that with me?"


    Geminus looked at the old rusting scythe on top of the locker and wondered why An would want a weapon that was only used to kill weeds.


    "I don''t know why you would want a farming tool like that, but fine. Just make sure you return with the magma by midnight."


    An took the scythe and attached it to the toolbelt on his back. He looked extremely weird with his ck battle suit and the protruding curved de of the scythe behind his back.


    He said goodbye to Geminus and went back to the entrance of the garden.


    Since he didn''t have his own mount, he had to use the public transportation bus that stopped in every district.


    Even though he had the scythe on his back, nobody on the bus questioned it. As soon as they saw his battle suit, they already assumed that he was a Vanguard on his way to a mission. They even gave him thankful looks for his service to the City.


    It took two hours before the bus finallynded in the Masamune district.


    He followed the route he and Lizzie took when he first visited the district.


    As usual, there were tons of people looking at the freshly made tools and weapons disyed on numerous stalls. He heard bargains and offers thrown around, and some got heated enough for a screaming match.


    As he walked through the streets, he suddenly felt sweat flow from his forehead.


    I''m feeling hot¡­


    He didn''t think that was possible. After he obtained his Physique LifeSkill, he barely felt cold or hot because of his internal defenses.


    But now, sweat flowed out of his skin.


    "AARGHHH! IT BURNS!!!"


    "HELP! AHHH!"


    Screams of helpless citizens filled his ears as he saw their skin melting in the sun.

 Chapter 153: Burns

    The Masamun district was no stranger to hot days. After all, they were in the direct vicinity of an active volcano. The temperature in this district was a lot hotter than the ces away from the mountain spewingva from its crater.


    The district was also popted with dwarven cksmiths where temperatures could reach thousands of degrees Celcius. The heat sometimes leaked out into the streets and increased the overall temperature of the Masamune district.


    However, this was no normal heatwave.


    The cool blue skies turned bright orange, infecting everything under the sun. The clouds above instantly evaporated, dissipating into a mist.


    The heat in the air distorted An''s vision so much that everything seemed blurry.


    This was the first time that he was ufortable in his battle suit. It stuck to his skin with sweat.


    Thankfully, he had his SSS ss Physique that helped him weather the intense heat wave all around the Masamune district.


    Even the dwarves who had an inherent resistance against heat couldn''t help but scream as they felt their skin turn bright red. Their entire bodies swelled and created blisters even inside their clothes.


    But even they could be considered lucky. The ordinary people caught in the heat wave instantly had their skin turn ck from third-degree burns. They couldn''t even feel the pain as their nerves immediately burned out.


    The unsettling sounds of skin sizzling made An''s hair turn up.


    This was the first time he''d seen such suffering.


    The surviving dwarves immediately entered their homes to find refuge. But they didn''t know that it was much hotter inside.


    The heat wasn''t caused by the sun. It didn''te from underground. It was from the very space itself. Wherever they were, as long as they were inside Masamune district, they would feel the temperatures inside a burning cauldron.


    "Ahh! Ahhh!....help¡­"


    One of the unfortunate souls caught in the heat wave crawled and reached for An''s feet.


    The man''s hair was melted into his very skull. His face was burned from any identifying feature, with only a charred and ckened skin that clung to his very skull.


    In his veryst moments, the man clung to An''s legs.


    His face was full of suffering, but there was a tinge of hope in his eyes.


    The guy couldn''t even speak. He couldn''t even think of anything, but his survival instinct as a long-time citizen of Genesis City was to seek the help of a Savior.


    An was one of those. He wore a Savior''s battle suit. Only they could save them from disasters like this.


    Unfortunately, his time soon ran out. There were no Angels to save him this time.


    [You have reaped the death of a Sentient Creature: Human]


    [Due to your Trait, your experience has multiplied by 10]


    [You have gained 500 experience]


    The man''s head plopped on the ground, lifeless, but his grip remained stuck on An''s leg. Even as he moved it away, some of the guy''s melted skin stuck onto his battle suit.


    And this wasn''t the only casualty. An watched as the words passed by his eyes nonstop.


    [You have reaped the death of a Sentient Creature: Human] x38


    [Due to your Trait, your experience has multiplied by 10]


    [You have gained 19,000 experience]


    "What are you doing kid? We have to get out!"


    One of the surviving dwarves shouted at An. He held two of his family members in his arms as he dragged them away into a rickshaw carriage.


    The dwarf unhooked the dead mount connected to the wooden rickshaw and pulled it using his strength. Even though his skin was red and filled with blisters, he mustered up all his strength to make sure that his family survived this disaster.


    He looked at An. "Hop in!"


    An saw the trembling hands of the dwarf and knew that he was on hisst legs. With each push, his burned skin pulsed with more and more pain. He tried to ignore it, but An knew that he wouldn''t be able to add another burden to his carriage.


    Despite being in such a dire situation, the dwarf still had the goodwill to help another person.


    Suddenly, An felt the air change. He felt pressure building up from the cobblestone building behind the dwarf''s rickshaw carriage.


    BOOM


    A fiery explosion erupted from the building and consumed the cksmith workshops around it. Molten metal andva spewed out from chimneys and rained down on the streets, further increasing the ambient temperatures in the sir.


    Smoke filled the entire area.


    The dwarf thought that would be the end of his life, but he still felt his body move. Once the smoke cleared, he saw that he was in the back of the carriage with his two brothers safe and sound.


    He looked forward and saw the youth carrying the rickshaw and pushing it forward.


    "Hey kid! Are you alright?!"


    An looked back and gave him a thumbs up.


    The dwarf couldn''t believe that such a young human was still able to move in such temperatures. Even as an experienced dwarf who had his skin hardened from years in the workshop, he didn''t think he couldst long in this heat wave.


    But the youth still looked pristine. His skin barely turned red.


    Who is this guy?


    An instinctively knew that he had to get out. He had to leave Masamune district and search for refuge.


    The entire street was filled with smoke and ash that obscured the cobblestone road, but An relied on his memory to lead the way out of the district.


    On the way, he used his Thermal Vision and searched for any survivors. He couldn''t, in good conscience, ignore the moans and screams from the survivors suffering in the streets.


    Even as the load got heavier, he picked any survivor and tossed them on the rickshaw. They screamed in pain as their burned skin crashed onto the carriage, but at least they were still alive.


    BOOM!


    As if the increasingly hot temperatures weren''t enough, some of the buildings spontaneously erupted with no rhyme or reason.


    An had to avoid the direct explosion of the buildings and escape from the cobblestone and metal raining from above.


    Each of the dwarfs could barely open their eyes from the third-degree burns all over their skin, but somehow, the youth was still able to push the rickshaw with no trouble whatsoever.


    Thankfully, after pushing the carriage street after street, he finally saw a few soldiers in puffy heat-resistant white suits guiding burned victims out of the district.


    He saw a clear distinction between one street from the next.


    One burned hot and orange with humans crying and moaning from the heat, but the next street was a cool blue, with people walking safe and sound.

 Chapter 154: Burned victims

    An pushed the rickshaw forward. The soldiers on the other side gestured for him toe faster, but An couldn''t. There were burnt human remains all over the street preventing him from going as fast as he wanted.


    As they got closer to the soldiers, more corpses filled the cobblestone road. They died with outstretched hands towards the exit. They tried to crawl to safety, but their burns were far too severe.


    It was tragic. An couldn''t help them anymore. The only sce that consoled him was the fact that their suffering stopped.


    [You have reaped the death of a Sentient Creature: Human] x52


    [Due to your Trait, your experience has multiplied by 10]


    [You have gained 26,000 experience]


    An had to avert the rickshaw away from the corpses. He could have run over them, but he respected the dead too much for him to sully their corpses.


    And after avoiding a few more spontaneous explosions in the streets, they finally reached the end of the line.


    The intersection in front of them was the difference between the Masamune district and the residential district.


    As soon as they passed through Masamune 25th Street and onto the Homely district, it was as if a bucket of cold water washed over them. The heat was gone and reced by the cool ambient air of the City.


    The surviving dwarfs rxed their bodies as they felt the cooling air wash over their bodies. The cold breeze soothed the aching blisters that formed on every crevice of their skin.


    Unfortunately, that onlysted for a moment. Their bodies went into overdrive as they felt a stinging pain ovee their every thought. They had third-degree burns.


    "Give way! Give way!" the soldiers shouted as they approached the rickshaw. There were a lot of curious citizens who wanted to take a closer look at the victims, but the soldiers quickly dispersed them away.


    They created a barricade that prevented civilians from interfering with their work.


    The soldiers removed gauze from their medicine kits and applied it to the burned dwarves.


    The dwarves, as prideful as they were, tried to bear the pain and not utter a single cry, but the pain was too much. It enveloped their whole body.


    They winced and groaned, but the soldiers kept applying gauze and healing salves on their burned skin.


    One of the soldiers immediately went over to An and tried to apply gauze on his skin, but was quickly surprised when they saw no blisters on his skin.


    "You''re¡­not hurt?"


    An shook his head. "No. Just heal the others. I''m fine."


    The soldier looked at An''s epaulet and saw that he was only at the 2nd stage Student realm! That was unbelievable. It wasn''t long ago since they healed a 4th stage Student Tank for their third-degree burns. So, a 2nd stage Student shouldn''t be this¡­fine!


    Upon closer inspection, the soldier noticed that An''s skin was turning whiter and whiter until it returned to his normalplexion!


    When An exited the Masamune district, his skin was still reddish from the heat. But just a few secondster, his skin already fought off the swelling.


    "Are you really okay?!" The soldier wanted to check inside An''s battle suit, but An waved him off.


    With his Physique LifeSkill, he was able to regenerate his SoulTime every second. Not to mention the fact that he could gain years of lifespan with his Photosynthesis mutation, he wasn''t going to get injured any time soon.


    "The priests are here!" one of the soldiers shouted.


    The crowd parted ways as a group of nuns and priests walked over to the recovering dwarves.


    The nuns immediately went to work and kneeled right next to the bandaged dwarves saved by the soldiers. They sped their hands and muttered under their breaths as they prayed for the Genesis God''s blessing.


    After a few seconds, a pir of light beamed down from the heavens and enveloped the recovering dwarf.


    The nun took out an oval crystal from her pockets.


    An''s eyes widened when saw the crystal suddenly sprout tiny legs that wiggled like it was alive! Even if it didn''t have the typical monstrous head that he was familiar with, An would recognize that chitinous armor anywhere. That oval crystal was a Pseudo Canzer!


    ''Time¡­how much¡­.''


    The Pseudo Canzer spoke out a soundless screech that only An could understand.


    Then, the nun ced the crystal Pseudo Canzer onto the patient''s chest.


    After a few seconds, the crystal reflected numbers that An was very familiar with. He saw it in his Soul System. It was the dwarf''s SoulTime!


    <SoulTime>


    <Burned: 95% deduction>


    < 0y : 28d : 23h : 12s >


    The crystal Pseudo Canzer showed exactly how much time the dwarf had left before he died. His burns weakened his body so much that he only had 28 days left before his SoulTime turned zero.


    But that wasn''t for long. After the nun prayed to the Genesis God and summoned a beam of light from the sky, the dwarf''s SoulTime miraculously started to tick up at a fast rate!


    <SoulTime>


    <Burned: 10% deduction>


    < 1y : 139d : 23h : 12s >


    The dwarf''s pained expression soon turned to relief as most of his SoulTime returned to its normal state. His charred and king scars peeled off and were reced by new pink skin.


    As more and more nuns arrived at the scene, they took control of the situation and started to triage the survivors.


    The ones who were near death and only had hours or even minutes left in their SoulTime were treated first. Priests had more healing power, so they were in charge of these victims. The nuns treated those who only had minor injuries and weren''t close to death.


    But as they healed one, two more took their ce. Soldiers returned from the Masamune district carrying burned victims on their shoulders. They recovered more and more burned bodies.


    An used his Thermal Vision and looked back at the hellish Masamune district.


    Even though everything was colored in a dark red, he still saw breathing survivors stuck inside copsed buildings. They still clung on to their lives, but they wouldn''tst long.


    Without any hesitation, An walked back into the Masamune district.


    "Hey! What are you doing?!"

 Chapter 155: Strict soldier

    The soldiers couldn''t stop the reckless youth. They thought that he was an idiotic young man trying to act tough and pretending to be a hero, but after a few minutes, the ck battle-suited youth came back.


    Their eyes widened when they realized that he had two dwarves on his shoulders.


    "That''s¡­that''s my cousin! He''s alive!" cried one of the bandaged dwarves. Tears fell on his cheeks.


    None of these dwarves thought that a human would have thepassion to help a dwarf like them. Even the soldiers thought that it was too risky to go back inside because even their heat-resistant suits were melting from the hellish temperatures inside.


    An noticed it too. The heat intensified so much that even his inherent regeneration of SoulTime stopped when he walked back inside the Masamune district. He would have lost a second of his life with every second he stayed inside.


    One of the soldiers walked over to An with anger on his face. "That was reckless! You''re a Savior. Don''t you know the protocols for things like these?"


    "No. I don''t." An couldn''t sit still¡ªnot when he could see people still suffering inside the scorching buildings.


    The soldier poked An''s chest. "No one is supposed to go back inside a Symptom aside from authorized soldiers like us. You are endangering yourself, and everyone else by doing so."


    One of the dwarves couldn''t help but stand up when he heard the soldier''s words. "So what about our brethren inside? Are you telling us that we should let them die a gruesome death?!"


    The dwarf''s voice was hoarse, but he embodied the thoughts of every dwarf that survived. Although their connections were shallow, they were all still part of the Masamune family. They were brothers. It was in their inherent blood to want salvation for the others.


    The soldier was apathetic to their pleas. "I don''t care. There are rules for a reason. If you don''t want to follow them, then you''re wee to get out of Genesis City for good."


    He walked over to An and gave him a strict warning. "Young man, I see you''re only a novice Savior, so I can forgive you for breaking protocol once. But if you don''t follow my orders a second time, then I won''t be merciful and use justifiable force to sit you down."


    The soldier took out an electrical baton from his tool belt and brandished it in front of An. Blue electricity streaked through the air and almost hit him in the face, but he didn''t even flinch.


    One of the dwarves sat back down, knowing that they couldn''t oppose the soldiers. "Sigh¡­thank you, young man. But we can''t do anything."


    Those electrical batons were specially designed to temporarily disable a Savior''s LifeSkill, so it was useless to disobey the soldier.


    An looked down at the soldier. The blue tint from the electric baton reflected off An''s calm ck eyes.


    "You want to let them die?"


    The soldier turned up the knob on his baton and increased the voltage. "They won''t. They''ll be saved by the Angels before they lose their SoulTime. After the proper Saviorse and kill the Canzer causing this symptom, then we can go and retrieve the bodies. That is the protocol."


    An sneered at the soldier''s exnation.


    So that''s the reason why he doesn''t want me to go inside?


    He thought that the soldier had some sort of strategy that would save the dwarves and survivors in the Masamune district. He didn''t. He wanted to wait and take the easy way out.


    The soldiers still clung to the idea that the Angels would save them from death.


    "That''s toote," An muttered under his breath.


    He didn''t even bother exining to the soldier about the death of the Angels. He wouldn''t believe it anyway.


    An turned around and walked towards Masamune district. He ignored the soldier''s angry snarl.


    The full-powered blue electric baton was rated for Saviors in the 5th stage Saviors and above. It was overkill to use it on a 2nd stage Savior like An, but the soldier didn''t care. Losing a bit of his Soultime was only a just punishment for interfering with the work of the soldiers.


    "Kid! Watch out!" the dwarves tried to warn him, but An didn''t even turn around. He let the electric baton hit him in the neck.


    Electricity buzzed in the air as the baton''s special properties tried to disable An''s LifeSkill from activating. It invaded his Soul System, entrapping the whole dark space with an electric that would prevent a giant hand from forming.


    The dwarves winced when they saw this hit the young Savior. They imagined that the pain from that baton was equivalent to the burning pain they felt from the heat wave.


    But after one, two, three seconds, An still stood proudly.


    The soldier''s eyes went wide in panic when he saw An turn his head back towards him.


    What?! How is he able to move?! His whole body should be spazzing out. He should have copsed by now!


    Normal Saviors hit by this electric baton would feel their muscles contract. They would get paralyzed. But the worst part would be the indescribable pain in their Soul System as if their very being was twisted and burned into shreds.


    An didn''t look affected in the slightest.


    He turned back and held the baton in his hands, with its electricity still delivering volts into his body.


    The soldier couldn''t even utter a single word.


    "Wha¡ªwhat¡­"


    "I''ll give you a taste of the sentence you imposed." A dark me enveloped An''s right hand, increasing his physical prowess by multiple magnitudes.


    DUGG


    With one swift punch in the gut, An sent the soldier kneeling on the ground with bubbles forming in his mouth.


    The dwarves were shocked in silence when they witnessed this.


    An whistled and caught the attention of one of the nuns.


    "Heal him, please."


    The nun was rmed when she saw the soldier knocked out cold on the ground.


    She put the crystal Pseudo Canzer on his chest and was shocked to see his SoulTime. He lost 95% of his original lifespan!


    She looked up, but An was nowhere to be seen.


    He was already inside the scorching hot Masamune district with his distorted figure disappearing in the distance.

 Chapter 156: Tarish鈥檚 mission

    The dwarves watched as An carried body after body into safety. Even though the temperature inside was getting hotter and hotter by the minute, he didn''t stop and searched for survivors anywhere he could.


    "Damn the protocol!" one of the soldiers said. He put on his heat-resistant suit and walked inside the Masamune district one more time in search of survivors. He was inspired watching An walk through the fire without anyints.


    "Can I borrow your suits?" Even the dwarves couldn''t sit still and were tempted to walk into the scorching heat wave. Even though their bodies were wrapped up in bandages, they considered themselves healthy enough to traverse through the Masamune district.


    They didn''t walk as far inside as An. They only pulled the burned corpses to safety, thinking that they could still be saved.


    An finally walked back into safety after a few more trips.


    He looked back and saw no signs of life anywhere he searched. Everyone was either dead or saved.


    Just in time, he heard a few horses'' hooves striking asphalt out in the distance. The crowd voluntarily moved away as the Saviors finally arrived with their colorful mounts. They stopped at the barricade and walked slowly towards the boundary between the symptom and the unaffectednd.


    Their green battle suitsmanded respect and admiration from the crowd. Their murmurs turned into silence as they watched the professionals do their job.


    An looked at the epaulets on their shoulders. 6th stage Student realm.


    I guessed right. If my SSS ss Physique couldn''t take the heat, that means that the Canzers causing it are stronger than I estimated.


    There were about seven of them, and An noticed that three of them had big shields on their backs.


    Three tanks?


    The leader of the 6th stage Saviors was a woman with straight red hair tied up in double buns. She was a tank, judging by the big fiery shield on her back.


    "Can I get your attention, please? My name is Tarish, I am a 6th-stage Student. My team and I will make sure that the Masamune district will return to the safe and cool ce it''s always been. Do not worry."


    Her words echoed to the soldiers and dwarves with barely any hope in their eyes. Her confident voice gave them confidence in her ability.


    "While the soldiers are installing the Remedium portal, I will ask a few questions to those who witnessed the Symptom with their own hands."


    A truck rolled in behind them with new soldiers carrying disjointed metal parts on their shoulders. They quickly walked in line and installed the portal right at the edge of the infected Masamune District.


    Slowly, a circr construct made out of metal was being built block by block.


    Meanwhile, Tarish, the leader of the 6th stage Saviors took out a stone tablet from her toolbelt. An recognized it as a Canzer Report. It contained all the details Vanguards needed to defeat the Canzers causing the Symptom.


    She inspected it onest time before looking up and searching for any survivors to talk to.


    She immediately looked for the soldier in charge of the scene but was shocked to see him unconscious on one of the stretchers to the side.


    It looks like the lights have been punched out of his eyes. I can''t believe someone stood up to that strict guy. He would have made up any excuse to use his baton.


    With no one else to talk to, Tarish put her attention to the surviving dwarves.


    "Hello? Can I talk to you?"


    But no matter how much she tried to get their attention, the dwarves never looked away from one particr person in the crowd.


    They all looked at this person with admiration and fealty in their eyes. It''s as if they owed him their lives.


    She looked to the side and saw a youth in a strange ck battle suit. He was surrounded by dwarves who sped his hands while thanking him to no end.


    Someone actually earned the respect of these dwarves?


    They were infamous for being stubborn and hard-headed. If you offended them in some way, groveling in their shoes wouldn''t be enough to earn their respect.


    But now, they were surrounding a human as if he was their savior.


    Who is he?


    Just as she thought that, her eyes glinted in recognition.


    But before she could walk up to him, one of her teammates approached the ck battle-suited youth.


    "Excuse me, I don''t know who you are, but you cannot poach our mission. You should go back to HeadQuarters and make sure that you find your own mission. Our team is already filled up!"


    Tarish put herself in between the two before things got too heated.


    "Leader?"


    "Are you An?"


    The moment her teammates heard his name, they immediately recognized it. How could they not? It was practically the only topic circting news articles.


    "No way! The Star Porter?"


    "What''s he doing here?"


    "There were rumors that he''s allowed to have a ck battle suit, but I didn''t think it was true!"


    An replied, "Yes."


    But even if he didn''t, they already recognized his face and his battle suit.


    "But even if you are the Star Porter, you can''t steal our mission. Our names are registered in the HeadQuarters."


    "I think it''s best if you leave now. HeadQuarters doesn''t like it when there are unauthorized Saviors in an ongoing mission."


    The other 6th stage Saviors in Tarish''s team weren''t all that weing towards An. It couldn''t be helped. There were protocols in ce for these kinds of things and they didn''t want to get punished because of him.


    Tarish was the only one who had a smile on her face.


    "The Reputable Star Porter¡­" Tarish muttered. "What are you doing here?"


    The dwarves answered that for him.


    "My skin would have ckened and turned to char if he hadn''t found me stuck under my anvil!"


    "He''s an honorary dwarf! We recognize him as one of our own."


    The dwarves couldn''t stop defending An from the Saviors.


    "Hmph! You guys dare unt yourselves as Saviors when we have our Savior right here! Did you brave the heat wave and save dozens of dwarves from certain doom? No? Then, stop talking!"

 Chapter 157: Inappropriate request

    The moment they ndered the good name of their Savior, was the moment they got on the dwarves'' bad side. Their expressive faces clearly showed their intense dislike of the new Saviors.


    Tarish immediately apologized to An and the dwarves for her team''s behavior. She gestured for her team to go away and do something else.


    "Sorry. They''ve been on edge ever since stories about the anomalies in the mission popped up around the City.


    We are never sure if the Quills messed up again and prescribed us the wrong Canzer Report.


    We don''t know if there is going to be a different Canzer popping up in our mission. We don''t know if a Specialist behemoth would appear like in that Pocket Remedium disaster. We''ll never know if we end up returning alive from the mission or be recovered as a vial of blood.


    That''s the reason why I wanted to ask questions about the symptoms from the witnesses themselves.


    It''s necessary to know if the symptom is urate down to the exact details to make sure that the Canzer Report we have is urate."


    An understood their concerns. In every case that An entered the Remedium, things always went wrong.


    That''s why An was curious about how Operators worked. He wanted to know how they knew which Canzer was guing the Remedium. He wanted to know which symptom referred to which Canzer. He wanted to know everything there was to know about Canzers so that he wouldn''t get caught unprepared ever again.


    "I understand. I''ll tell you everything I saw."


    Tarish was extremely grateful to An. And because he deemed it okay, the dwarves decided to share what they saw too.


    "It was extremely hot inside. It''s like the whole thing turned into an oven with the heat turned up to the maximum!" one of the dwarves recalled.


    "Yes. It was instant, not gradual," the other dwarf said.


    Tarish looked at the Canzer Report and referenced it with the dwarves'' experience. For now, everything was as indicated in the stone tablet.


    "Was the heat uniform? Or were there hot spots?" she asked.


    "Everything was hot! No amount of hiding from the sun stopped the air from burning my skin. And my skin is hard enough to touchva!"


    Tarish nodded while double-checking the stone tablet.


    She looked at the boundary between the infected Masamune district and the residential district.


    "The infected ce hasn''t spread, right?"


    This time, the soldiers answered. "No, it hasn''t spread. We''ve been monitoring it, and thankfully, it stayed locked in the Masamune district."


    When An looked back, it was as if he stared at a sepia screen that turned everything into an orangish tint. There was a clear distinction between the normal air of the unaffected region and the hot scorching space in the Masamune district.


    It divided the street perfectly in half. An would have thought that powerful phenomena such as a symptom wouldn''t follow district boundaries, but it did¡ªperfectly.


    "Lastly, did any of you see explosions that seeminglye out of nowhere?"


    Most of the dwarves already passed out when An saved them, so they didn''t see any explosions.


    But An did.


    "Yes. Buildings spontaneously blew up without any reason. Is that part of the symptom?"


    Tarish nodded. "Yes. It''s written in the Canzer Report as the main symptom. Heat Wave with random structural detonation. If you didn''t see any explosions, then that would mean that the Canzer is different from what we expected, so it''s good that you saw it."


    Tarishpiled everything she heard from the witnesses.


    "So it''s localized¡­and since this is the first time this symptom appears, we can assume that it''s acute¡­" Tarish muttered under her breath.


    So far, everything looked the same as indicated in the Canzer Report. Even though the Operators assured them that this was correct, she couldn''t help but doubt their words. There had been too many incidents these past few weeks where too many Saviors lost their SoulTime.


    "Miss Tarish! The portal is finished." One of the soldiers reported to her.


    She gestured for her teammates toe near her as they finished their final preparations.


    "It''s time, boys. Carry her in." She pointed towards the truck where the Operator construct was stored in a ck box. The container was big enough to fit 3 people insidefortably.


    Three of the buffest men in her team, along with a couple of soldiers, worked together to carry the ck box near the finished portal.


    Tarish opened the locks on the ck box and revealed an ornately golden oilmp with a bulbous body and a gradually tapered narrow spout. Its surface was inundated with curvy lines that seemed random and useless to the naked eye.


    But An was different. As soon as the ck box opened, he knew that whatever was inside it was filled with Angel power. There was something else mixed into it, but he couldn''t deny the Angel power seeped into the very object itself.


    "We can handle this," one of the men said to Tarish.


    Even though the oilmp was small and fit snugly into one palm, it took three 6th stage Students to barely lift the construct up and out of the box. Their faces were contorted and their cheeks flushed as they used their mutations to the fullest.


    They hadn''t even entered the Remedium, but they were already dead tired from carrying the construct.


    Tarish looked at her teammates and knew she had to make a decision.


    Even though the construct would be used immediately when they entered the Remedium, missions were always full of surprises. Trouble could wee them as soon as they stepped foot inside the portal. At that point, the three people carrying the construct would be left vulnerable to any attacks.


    They need a porter.


    She looked at An and had an insane idea.


    "Star Porter. We need your help. Can you be our porter?"


    The rest of her teammates immediatelyined.


    "Are you crazy?! We''re dealing with a 6th stage Student difficulty Canzer. We can''t have a 2nd stage Student burden us with our mission!"


    "This is inappropriate. He''s only going to hurt himself."


    "He''ll lose our SoulTime!"

 Chapter 158: Job accepted

    An didn''t think that he would be offered to join them. There was a 4-stage difference between them, after all.


    Of course, An had multiple LifeSkills in the 4th stage or below. It was enough to add up the strength that equaled that of 6th-stage Saviors. But they didn''t know that.


    Even though they were rude, her teammates only told the truth. In normal circumstances, inviting a Savior four stages below the epted difficulty level was far from what would be considered safe. Not to mention the fact An had only been in one mission, he waspletely unqualified to even go to a mission one stage above his level, much more four.


    "Don''t sell yourself short, Star Porter. You''ve already faced stronger opponents than us and lived to tell the tale."


    Tarish talked about the fact that An survived the colossal Canzer that was rated at the Specialist difficulty. If she or any one of her teammates was put in the same situation, she wasn''t confident she''d survive the way he did.


    Technically speaking, An was stronger than them. As soon as he used his 1st stage Pre-Intern Bloodline Transformation LifeSkill, he could even defeat Canzers rated above that of the Student level. But the risk was still there.


    And before he could answer Tarish''s request, some of the dwarves approached him with pleading eyes.


    "Young man, I beg you, please! You have to join the mission."


    "Only you can make sure that the heat wave disappears from our homes."


    "Without your help, they can''t do it!"


    The 6th stage Saviors couldn''t believe their ears. The dwarves trusted a 2nd stage Student like An better than them!


    Their thinking waspletely backward. They don''t believe that the people who were assigned to the mission could finish off the Canzer. They believed that a 2nd stage Student porter was the only one who could help them deal with the symptom! Porters don''t even kill Canzers!


    Before deciding, An asked some questions about the mission.


    "Can you tell me more about the Canzer?"


    Tarish nodded and took out her stone tablet.


    "ording to the Canzer Report, we''ll be fighting an Infection Canzer called the Gastros Enterifrits, colloquially known as the Ifrit."


    "Infection Canzer? Is that different from a Destruction Canzer?"


    Every Canzer that An encountered in the Remedium had been a Destruction Canzer. They were the Canzers that could regenerate their injuries endlessly.


    The Deiztruphia was a destruction Canzer, as well as the colossal Humanoid Wolf that he encountered in Pocket Dimension.


    He witnessed first-hand how troublesome they were to deal with. Unless they had an Operator''s construct ready and deployed, fighting a Destruction Canzer was a losing battle, no matter how weak they seemed.


    "Oh my gods! He doesn''t even know what an Infection Canzer is!"


    "Tarish. It''s irresponsible for you to think he''s qualified to join us."


    But despite their pleas, Tarish ignored them and spoke only to An.


    "There are two types of Canzers. The first one is a Destruction Canzer, which I''m sure you''re all too familiar with¡ªendless regeneration and all that.


    The other type is called the Infection Canzer. If a Destruction Canzer''s strength is their durable chitin and their fast healing factor, an Infection Canzer''s threates from their ability to clone themselves endlessly and at a fast rate."


    They can clone themselves, An pondered her words. It gave him shbacks to when he ran away from the horde of Pseudo Canzers in the Pocket Remedium.


    "Is it simr to the stampede that I experienced?"


    "Yes and no. A Pseudo Canzer is different from a real Canzer. Real Infection Canzers are much more dangerous. They have powers and abilities that can bring destruction equivalent to hundreds of Pseudo Canzers. And worse, they don''t die, they duplicate. But the good thing is that the clones are easy to kill."


    An thought for a second. If I want to learn more about Canzers, then I have to fight more of them. I can''t shy away from this opportunity.


    "I''ll do it."


    Tarish rejoiced while her teammates were dismayed.


    An joined the mission because this was his chance to reap the death of a high-level Canzer. The stronger the opponent, the higher the rewards.


    Those that cause suffering need to taste their own medicine, An thought to himself.


    Whichever Canzer caused this symptom was responsible for all the deaths he reaped in the Masamune district.


    He had to kill it.


    ording to his estimation, it was exactly the kind of opponent that he could defeat using his powers.


    Of course, he couldn''t show his real strength to the 6th stage Saviors so easily. He didn''t know if his Modify Memory Spore would work on such high-level Students like them. He''d have to reserve his real strength until things get too dire.


    "This is not good."


    "I can''t believe this is happening."


    "Tarish. Even if he is the Star Porter, he can''t just¡ª-WHAT?!"


    Before they could continue theirints, An walked over to the three men holding the extremely heavy golden oilmp and picked it up with just one hand.


    The three men had their jaws on the floor. Seeing An pick the oilmp like it was nothing made them feel they were as feeble as newborns.


    Who were they? They were tanks with strengths of that of a 6th stage Student. But now, they felt like a kid whose parents suddenly came and took their favorite toy they''d been struggling to carry.


    He''s only a 2nd stage Student?!


    Even though he was a porter, and his LifeSkill was tailor-made for carrying heavy things, they didn''t think that he''d have the strength equivalent to three 6th stage Students!


    Tarish smiled and looked back at her teammates. "Still think he''s a burden?"


    An held the oilmp as if it wasn''t an Operator construct weighing thousands of kilograms. He''d have no trouble running, walking, or jumping even while holding that construct. He was the perfect Porter.


    The rest of her team finally shut up theirints. Seeing why they called him the Star Porter first-hand made them realize that the rumors about him weren''t exaggerations at all. He''s strong¡ªvery strong.


    With him carrying the construct, the Saviors didn''t have to worry about it missing in the Remedium. No one was better than An as a porter.


    "We shouldn''t have underestimated you."


    "I feel honored if you be our porter."


    "You''ll save us a lot of trouble."


    Each one of them offered their sincere apologies to An, which An epted. Now that they were going to be teammates, they needed to settle all differences now rather than inside the Remedium.


    They needed to get acquainted with each other before embarking on this dangerous mission.


    "I''ll introduce the team. We have three tanks with us and four mages."

 Chapter 159: Balls of fire

    "Why?"


    An''s first mission had more variety in their team''sposition. They had one tank, one archer, one pugilist, a stun wizard, and a scout. He would have thought that a high-ranking team like them would be like that too.


    "It''s because we''re fighting an Infection Canzer. Our main challenge in this mission is not to get overwhelmed by the number of Ifrit Canzers thate towards us.


    A DPS is extremely unsuited for this kind of job. That''s why none of them joined this mission. They can do tremendous amounts of damage, but only to a single target or a small group of them. They''ll be useless against an Ifrit.


    What we do need are Tanks and Mages. Mages might not have the greatest destruction power, but they can spread it out to arge area. That would work extremely well against Infection Canzers who are weak, but numerous. Tanks, on the other hand, can absorb the damage the Ifrits inflict on us and protect the backline.


    Of course, we could have gotten stun wizards or other useful jobs, but HeadQuarters deemed ourposition sufficient. All we needed was a proper Porter, and that is you."


    An didn''t know jobposition was so important. In hindsight, if they had any mage Saviors in the Pocket Remedium, they could have defeated a lot of Pseudo Canzers and saved a lot of people from death.


    An had a Mage LifeSkill, but its main use wasn''t for dealing damage. It was for trapping and slowing down enemies while inflicting thorn damage.


    "Are you all ready?"


    They took deep breaths and responded with a resounding, "Yes!"


    The soldiers activated the portal construct and a ck shimmering liquid appeared from the edges. It infected the area enclosed in the circr construct, creating a Remedium portal.


    "Hey boy! Thank you!"


    "May Vulcan shine upon you and give you strength!"


    The dwarves saluted him by closing their fists and tapping them on their chests two times. An reciprocated the salute as he and the rest of Tarish''s team stepped foot on the Remedium.


    An held the golden oilmp with both hands. Even though he could handle it with only one, he didn''t want to get careless.


    His precaution turned out to be correct as they suddenly saw a huge ball of fireing right towards them at extremely fast speeds.


    They haven''t even spent a second inside the Remedium yet there was already something trying to kill them.


    Without even saying anything, Tarish and her team skillfully jumped to the top of a one-story house. They practiced this move countless times and saved them from missions even more.


    DAGUSSHHHH


    The ball of fire, the same size as a truck, exploded from where they once stood. It sent embers and molten cement flying everywhere.


    Oh no. The porter!


    They forgot that An was part of their team now. He wouldn''t know their team''s evading procedure because they didn''t have the time to teach him. Not to mention the fact that he was only in the 2nd stage, they should have helped him jump up to safety.


    But when they looked back, they were surprised to see him standing right behind them.


    He kept up with us?


    They didn''t have much time to ponder as more balls of fire, bigger and faster than the one before, rocketed towards their location and gave them no time to rest.


    Tarish took the lead and jumped from roof to roof of the Masamune district. She used therge chimneys and oval workshops among the dwarven homes and used it as their shield for the iing balls of fire.


    The 6th stage Saviors barely had any time to think about other things, much more worry about the 2nd stage porter following behind them.


    But they couldn''t help but look back at An. They worried that he''d be too far away from them if he tripped while jumping from roof to roof.


    Imagine their surprise when they saw him right on their tails. And with every jump, An surpassed thest one in their group.


    He had to slow down to make sure he was behind them at all times, like a good porter!


    They barely even dodged the fast balls of fire, but An somehow evaded it while carrying thousands of kilograms in his hands. If they didn''t know any better, they would have thought he reced the Operator construct with a normal oilmp.


    The three men thanked An in their hearts. If it weren''t for him, they would have been the ones tasked to carry the oilmp into the Remedium.


    They won''t be able to dodge those iing fireballs, that''s for sure.


    While An followed the group, he couldn''t help but let his eyes wander around the Remedium. It was much different from the ones he''d been in, including his first mission.


    The whole sky was reced by a domed or tunnel ceiling lined with slick, mucous membranes. The whole Remedium was colored in a shade of green, making the membrane in the high ceiling even more nauseating.


    Instead of seeing a horizon beyond the Masamune district, An only saw enclosed walls simr to that of the ceiling.


    These fleshy materials that enclosed the whole Remedium were subtly moving, spasming, contracting, and convulsing every second.


    The buildings of the Masamune looked normal aside from being in a different shade of green.


    However, these buildings weren''t attached to the ground with their foundations. An looked down and saw a slightly orangish substance that flooded the whole ground up to the first floor of every building!


    And the worst part was that the orange liquid moved like a river and took the buildings with it forward!


    Some buildings crashed into each other, causing one or both of them to submergepletely into the orange liquid.


    This was bad news.


    The fact that the buildings moved constantly meant that they could be put in a situation where they wouldn''t be able to jump from one roof to another.


    And just as An thought that, Tarish stopped in ce as she noticed that there was no building right next to them. They all drifted away, leaving them stranded like an ind in the middle of an ocean.


    A huge ball of fire curved out from the distance and headed straight for them at fast speeds.

 Chapter 160: Ifrit

    Tarish pulled out the human-sized fiery shield on her back and shouted, "Tanks! Bring ''em out!"


    The other two tanks copied their leader and activated the Tank LifeSkills in their Soul System.


    Each one of them glowed a bright colorful tint as they manifested their powers onto reality.


    Tarish''s LifeSkill called ''Burning Wall'' created a 5 by 10 meter wall of fire in front of her that perfectly protected the entire roof they stood on.


    But they knew that wasn''t enough.


    The other tank had a LifeSkill called ''Sludge Fest''. This was a target-based power, so he had to concentrate on the giant fireball that threatened to consume the whole building.


    With his experience and skill, he was able to lock on to his target within a fraction of a second.


    A made out of slimy liquid manifested outwards from his body and onto the fireball, bypassing the wall of fire made by Tarish.


    It crashed into the fireball, with the liquid weakening its target''s mes enough to slow it down.


    But that wasn''t enough. The fireball crashed onto Tarish''s Burning Wall, fighting fire with fire.


    "Mountain of Support!" screamed the other tank. He raised his shield and it expanded into a size dwarfing only that of Tarish''s burning wall. The man nted his foot firmly on the roof and pushed his shield forward, supporting the Burning Wall from copsing.


    TSHHH


    Therge fireball dissipated in the air, unable to pierce through the Tarish''s Burning Wall.


    "Wow¡­"


    An was amazed at their coordination. They supported each other with their LifeSkills, multiplying their defensive capabilities instead of simply adding them up. If they used their LifeSkills independently, the fireball would have torn through their defenses quite easily.


    So this is high-level Savior teamwork.


    It waspletely different from his first mission. They didn''t make mistakes. They moved with fluidity and coordination that couldn''t be built without years and years of experience.


    And even though An had strength equal to them, the difference in experience between them was obvious. He wouldn''t have been able to lock on to his target as fast as that tank. He would have needed at least a few seconds just to concentrate.


    "Iing!"


    The fireballs didn''t let them take a moment''s rest as three more ming meteors honed in towards their roof, each the same size as thest one.


    "Can''t we jump down?"


    "No," Tarish replied. "The liquid is not acidic, but it will slow us down. We''ll be like sitting ducks if we get bogged down from that slime."


    An looked down at the orange liquid flowing through the streets and onto the buildings. It had a consistency even more viscous than honey. Swimming in it would be akin to swimming in mushy soil.


    The liquid was so thick that it could carry entire buildings and disce them far away from their original foundation with just a single wave.


    "It''s here," Tarish warned.


    Once the three ming meteors were close enough to observe, An realized that they weren''t meteors at all. They were demonic beings made entirely of fire and magma!


    It had no lower body, just a ming mix of gas and fire like a spirit.


    It had two horns on its forehead that curved upwards. Unsurprisingly, it was made out of ovepping chitinous armor with a ck tip. This was the only evidence that tied it back to the Canzer lineage. If it weren''t for its chitinous horns, An would have mistaken it for some other monstrous creature.


    "Behold, the Gastros Enterifrits. Be careful of those horns."


    "Is it something special?" An asked.


    "No. It''s just a hook. It will use its horns to hang onto its victims long enough for it to¡ª"


    And before Tarish could exin, one of the Ifrits rocketed down towards them at even faster speeds than the ming balls. Its spirit-like lower body erupted like a volcano and increased its eleration, easily breaking through Tarish''s Burning Wall.


    "Mages!" Tarish''s warnings were not needed.


    The four Saviors behind the tanks quickly held out their hands as they chanted their spells.


    Mages and Wizards used chants to facilitate the activation of their LifeSkills faster. It allowed them to bypass the creation of a giant hand in their Soul System and summon their powers in a fraction of a second.


    It took them years to practice, but their hard work paid off in this current instance. Their magical LifeSkills manifested just in time to counteract the rocketing igneous body of the Ifrit.


    One of the Mages created a giant sphere of water that revolved around itself.


    The other Mage thrust his wand forward. Ice and frost spread from his arms and onto the air. Within seconds, a giant hammer with a face as big as the water sphere manifested in the air.


    "Potential Tempest," a Mage screamed.


    Green wind burst forth from her feet and created a whirling tornado that grew ten times its original size in a second. With her impressive control of magic, shemanded the tempest to surround the Ice Hammer, imbuing with it a twisting force that multiplied the hammer''s potential energy.


    Thest Mage conjured a magic circle with glowing symbols of the sun and the stars. He focused on the Ifrit''s eyes and released a burst of magic that created a mini sun directly on its iris.


    It blinded the Canzer, disorienting it for a one and a half second.


    His distraction bought enough time for the three mages'' powers toe together. The swirling tempest powered up the ice hammer. The ice hammer then pounded the water sphere with tremendous force and cooled its temperatures to sub-zero while maintaining its liquid form!


    The water sphere, powered with the two LifeSkills, charged towards the ifrit at an equally fast pace.


    The two met together in the air.


    Fire and water dueled for superiority, spewing steam and mist tens of meters outwards.


    In the end, the LifeSkills triumphed over the infernal Canzer. Its entire body, made out of glowing igneous rocks and magma, cooled down as ice-cold water extinguished the fire in its entirety.


    And as it died in the air, it suddenly released the hidden bomb inside its body.


    BOOM


    A fireless explosion rang outwards and sent a booming shockwave everywhere.


    Tarish, knowing this would happen, put forth her giant shield and protected her whole team.


    An would havemended them for their efforts, but it seemed in vain. Out from the embers in the aftermath of its self-destruction, three more Ifrits spawned in its ashes.


    "That''s an Ifrit for ya," Tarish said to An. "They self-destruct and spawn more clones. Before you know it, thousands of them are already on your tail. It''s a vicious cycle."

 Chapter 161: Chain reaction

    There were now 6 Ifrits surrounding the group. Each of them had the capacity to blow up and spawn more clones. It was a losing battle.


    One could argue that they were even more dangerous than Destruction Canzers. With them, Saviors was incentivized to kill a Destruction Canzer even if they knew it would regenerate its injuries. This would give them enough time to set up the Operator Construct.


    But for Infection Canzers like the Ifrit, the Saviors were forced to stay their hand. If they killed a hundred Ifrits, three hundred more would spawn in their ce. It was much better to keep defending rather than attacking.


    Is that why there are three tanks and four mages?


    Mages didn''t have the best destructive power out of all jobs. But they werepletely suited to fight Infection Canzers. The Mages could spread out an attack to thousands of enemies, which weakened their damage output just enough to cripple the Canzers without killing them.


    Fighting an Infection Canzer is a lot harder than I thought. I would rather fight a Destruction Canzer two levels higher.


    "Let''s do as we practiced!"manded Tarish.


    The three tanks positioned themselves near the ledges of the roof, making a triangle.


    The four mages created a squareyer behind that of the tanks, with each one of them facing a different direction.


    An stood in the middle of the formation, protected by the tanks and the mages.


    "Here ites!"


    The six Ifrits simultaneously attacked the roof. Their chitinous horns were headed straight for the human bodies, hoping to hook into them and self-destruct in point-nk range.


    But of course, the tanks weren''t going to let that happen. They activated their LifeSkills again, creating protective barriers around their area.


    This created a defensive triangle whose three sides had different elements from their various LifeSkills. One was made out of a wall of fire, the other was made out of solid rock, and the other was made out of a slimy liquid.


    The Ifrits'' horns stuck on the floating triangr barrier surrounding the roof. Even when their lower bodies sted off like a rocket to give them more prating power, they couldn''t pierce through the defense. It was airtight.


    "We have to weaken them." And with Tarish''s instructions, the mages activated their LifeSkills and targeted the Ifrits.


    Each of their LifeSkills had weaker power than theirbined attack earlier, but that was on purpose. They didn''t want to kill the Ifrits, only injure them.


    The whole roof lit up in different colors as they manifested different elements into the Remedium. One of them used the water element, the other used ice, the next one used wind, and thest one used light.


    These were the elements that had the best effect against fire.


    Just like they practiced, their LifeSkills crashed onto the igneous and magma physique of the Ifrits and extinguished the fire in their bodies, sending mist and smoke rising out of their heads.


    They made sure not to use too much power.


    The Ifrits still had a slight smolder between the cracks. They were still alive.


    However, a sizzle resounded in the Remedium.


    "No! I used too much!" One of the magespletely drenched the Ifrit''s body with water,pletely quenching the fire in its body.


    The dying Ifrit''s body trembled and swelled up in just a fraction of a second until;


    BOOM


    A fireless explosion spread out from its cold dead body.


    Unfortunately, one of the Ifrits was caught in the st radius and simultaneously exploded right next to it.


    And because this Ifrit died with the fire still in its body, it sent out a zing explosion everywhere.


    The tanks braced themselves from the shockwave. They were forced inward, destabilizing their triangr defensive formation. But after a second, their experience kicked in and they immediately repositioned themselves to recover.


    The triangr defense came alive just in time as 6 more Ifrits were born from the ashes of the dead. It didn''t take them more than 3 seconds to grow igneous rocks from the ashes.


    "Sorry!" the water mage apologized.


    "It''s fine," Tarish assured him. "It was bound to happen."


    She knew that they couldn''t keep the Ifrits at only 6 clones.


    No matter how much theysted, exhaustion would soon creep up on them. They weren''t robots. The Water Mage, specifically, had the hardest job because water was the main weakness of the Ifrit. He had to activate his LifeSkill to the perfect middle zone to weaken the Ifrit just enough not to kill it.


    Now that there were 9 Ifrits, the tanks'' jobs were much harder than before. But they persevered.


    The fightsted for more than ten minutes until thingspletely escted.


    It only took one mistake to snowball into a much bigger problem.


    One of the tanks got too exhausted, which allowed one of the Ifrits to bypass their defenses.


    Tarish made the snap decision tomand her team to kill the Ifrit and blow it away from their defensive position.


    This saved them from the Canzer''s self-destruction, but it led to more Ifrits blowing up and spawning more and more clones.


    It didn''t help that the mages got too frazzled and ended up killing more Ifrits with their LifeSkills.


    It wasn''t long until there were hundreds of Ifrits staring down at them.


    The more Ifrits pressured the triangr defensive position of the tanks, the harder it was to control. This led to more and more Ifrits bypassing their defenses, which forced the mages to kill the Canzer.


    Just a few minutes earlier, there were only 9 Ifrits.


    Now, there were 500.


    "Haaa¡­Haaa¡­.."


    Everyone was starting to get exhausted.


    Unfortunately, just one more self-destruction from the Ifrits caused a chain reaction that escted into a gigantic explosion that consumed everything around it.


    CRASH


    The tank''s triangr defense cracked under the explosion, leaving their battle suits burned and tattered.


    And when they looked up, they were horrified to see that thest explosion killed every single Ifrit in the air.


    "Damn! Quick. This may be our only chance."


    Tarish looked over at An andmanded him to use the Operator construct. "Put it down!"


    An put down the oilmp in the middle of the roof. And as he did, he saw a light bathe the whole roof with a reddish tint.


    He looked up and saw thousands of Ifrits surrounding them from all sides. It colored everything into a hellish red.

 Chapter 162: Impulsive

    Things happened way too fast. Before they knew it, they were facing thousands of Ifrits. Each of them had the potential to self-destruct and cause another chain reaction that would create an explosion even bigger than thest one. The worst part about it was that it would only triple the clones present above them.


    "This is our chance," Tarish took a deep breath and put all her hopes onto the golden oilmp.


    The Operator construct lit up, with golden light seeping out of the narrow spout, with mist-like particles.


    An''s shoulder des turned numb and prickly. His Angel Wings were acting up again. It only did this when it was in proximity to Angel Power.


    Just as I thought. All Operator constructs have Angel Power inside them. This confirms my guess that all Canzers have an inherent weakness against Angels.


    It also had another element he wasn''t sure about. It was present in everyone''s life. It was¡­


    It''s water! The construct has both Angel and Water power!


    The colossal Humanoid Wolf was weak against silver and Angel power. This time, the Ifrit''s weakness seemed to be water and Angel power!


    This made sense because it''s already been established that water was very effective against the Ifrit Canzer. It was so effective, in fact, that the mage identally killed one of the Ifrits and started a chain reaction that escted the cloning of the Canzers into numbers by the thousands.


    "The oilmp will need at least 10 seconds to activate!"


    "We don''t have that much!"


    The Ifrits seemed to have been roused by the appearance of the oilmp. They roared and belted out fire through the cracks in their bodies. Something about the construct made them extremely angry.


    The first thousand Ifrit Canzers powered up their lower bodies into a controlled explosion that rocketed them down toward the group of Saviors. Their red eyes couldn''t be taken away from the golden oilmp that was slowly brightening in a gold light.


    "We need to kill these monsters before they destroy the construct," Tarish warned.


    An thought that the construct would activate in only a second. It needed 10.


    "Why didn''t we activate it earlier?"


    "The construct can only be used once. We weren''t sure if there were Ifrits hiding in the outskirts of the Remedium.


    But now that there are thousands of them gathered here, the other Ifrits hiding in the corners will show themselves and gather with the group.


    It''s dangerous, but this is the only way to be sure that we''ll get rid of the Ifrits once and for all."


    If they used the construct minutes earlier when they were only facing tens of Ifrits at the same time, then they''d only be getting rid of those ten. There were hundreds more hiding in the outskirts of the Masamune district Remedium.


    "Gah! I can''t! I can''t activate my LifeSkill!"


    One of the mages used up too much of his energy. He needed more time to recover his stamina¡ªtime that they didn''t have.


    Thousands of Ifrits were only moments away from piercing through their roof and destroying the construct with it.


    Tarish gritted her teeth as she tried to think of a solution to solve this problem, but she couldn''t think of one.


    Should we retreat, Tarish pondered.


    It wasn''t unheard of for a party to fail their mission. It was quite normal. Most parties fail one out of ten missions, and that was already considered a good record.


    Although it was disappointing, it was much better than losing all their SoulTime.


    If they tried to fight till their end, then they would only make the rescue team have a harder job. It was considered protocol for parties to retreat when they deemed that the mission was too hard to aplish.


    But even so, their pride as a team was on the line.


    "Let''s¡ª"


    And just as she was about to say those words, she suddenly saw something jump out of the corner of her eyes.


    When everyone looked up, they suddenly saw a ck battle-suited youth up in the air with his fist twisted back to his shoulders, as if he was about to punch the thousands of Ifrits with their horns reared right towards his face.


    "What are you doing, porter?!"


    "Is he crazy?!"


    "Tarish! We need to pull him back!"


    The 6th stage Saviors couldn''t believe that a porter had the insane idea to try and face Ifrits all by himself.


    The tanks already readied themselves to create a barrier between An and the Ifrits to draw him back to safety.


    Even Tarish was ready to jump up and catch him in mid-air.


    She regretted the fact that she invited a 2nd-stage Porter to their mission. He was too naive and impulsive to know when to retreat and when to attack.


    If An lost his SoulTime in this mission, then she''d be the one responsible for his life.


    Just as they were about to move, they suddenly felt a ck pressure that stopped them in their tracks.


    This pressure enveloped their whole bodies and made them feel as if they were in the presence of a God.


    It activated their fight-or-flight instincts.


    They thought that they were fighting against another Canzer, but when they looked at the source of this strange pressure, they were stupefied to see that it wasing from the Star Porter himself!


    An''s whole body was d in a ck inferno. Even his ck battle suit could notpare to the ckness of these mes. It was as if the Star Porter was enveloped with the darkness and desteness of space itself! It absorbed all the light, not letting any color reflect off it.


    "Is that¡­is that his Physique LifeSkill?"


    They''ve heard about his strange Physique LifeSkill from rumors and gossip around the City. They thought they were mere lies, but they witnessed that strange ck fire right in front of their very eyes.


    That strength cannot be faked. And from what they felt from the pressure he emanated, they even thought that they underestimated his power!

 Chapter 163: Oil lamp

    An squared his shoulders and twisted his waist as he converted all the forces from his body into his fist. With his Physique LifeSkill activated, his physical prowess multiplied by several magnitudes!


    And that wasn''t the extent of his SSS ss LifeSkill. The ck mes also allowed him to have extreme control over his own body. He could make a single fiber in his muscle twitch. He could expand his veins to carry more blood and energy to his body. He could do anything.


    His mind called back to the image of Razer Wrekton using his erged arms to pound parts of the colossal Humanoid Wolf into mere particles.


    He observed which muscles he used, he observed how he mixed power and finesse to deliver more powerful punches in a small amount of time.


    He consolidated everything he learned from one of the geniuses of Mount Olympus.


    And with his enhanced control of his own body, he was able to transfer all that theoretical knowledge into his own body. His body-mind coordination couldn''t be more in sync!


    As the first Ifrit came crashing down towards his fist, his entire body twisted in perfect synchronicity and transferred all of his strength into his punch.


    SPLATCHHH


    The Ifrit''s chitinous horns disintegrated before they could even reach An''s fist. It got destroyed by the pressure alone!


    But An''s punch didn''t stop there.


    His mid-air jab followed through and destroyed the Ifrit from head to toe. His punch destroyed its igneous and magma-filled body down to its very molecules.


    The first Ifrit didn''t even have any time to self-destruct. It was destroyed into mere particles.


    "WHAT?! HOW IS HE SO STRONG?"


    They were told that his Physique LifeSkill was something out of this world, but they didn''t think that it was powerful enough to disintegrate a Canzer rated at the 6th stage difficulty so easily.


    They had to keep in mind that it was only a Physique LifeSkill. It was only supposed to help porters carry heavy weights.


    But somehow, An''s Physique LifeSkill was powerful enough to be used to kill Canzers! That was beyondprehension.


    However, no matter how strong he was, he only dealt with a single Canzer. A thousand more Ifrits wereing towards him with revenge in their eyes.


    The 6th stage Saviors below worried for An''s safety. Even if he could injure and kill the tens of Ifritsing his way, he''d still be in the st zone of their self-destruction.


    However, their worries turned out to be for naught.


    BUGSHHH BAGSHHH


    As the hundreds of Canzers honed in on An, he unleashed a fury of punches, each one having the same power as the first one.


    His insane barrage of strikes destroyed tens of Ifrits with each swing. He didn''t even leave them with a body to self-destruct in!


    If they were present in the Pocket Dimension incident, they would have recognized An''s moveset as being the exact same thing that Razer pulled off against the Giant Werewolf!


    They thought they were dreaming. After all, how could anyone exin a 2nd-stage Student porter disintegrating hundreds of Ifrits in mere seconds?


    After the initial shock, they turned genuinely confused.


    "His Physique LifeSkill¡­it''s too powerful."


    "Are they sure it''s only S ss?"


    "I think it''s equivalent to a Berserker LifeSkill. But his¡­doesn''t seem to have any time limit."


    An continued his barrage of punches, destroying hundreds upon hundreds of Ifrits with each second.


    He looked at his Soul System and saw that his SSS ss Physique LifeSkill still supplied him with tons of energy. It seemed endless. He felt like he could theoretically continue this barrage of punches for a very long time.


    The problem was his Giant Hand. It started to lose its tangibility, fading in and out of existence.


    This was due to his inexperience. He''d only been drafted for two weeks, which was not enough to develop the ''muscles'' to keep up his manifestation of a Giant Hand.


    The 6th stage Saviors could manifest a Giant Hand in their Soul System for a long time because of their experience, but their low-ss LifeSkill was the reason why they couldn''tst long.


    It was theplete opposite for An. His SSS ss LifeSkill had enough power inside, but his Giant Hand couldn''t handle the power.


    Time was the only factor.


    His barrage of punches held back the thousands of Ifritsing towards them. But he didn''t kill them. Even if he blew them outwards into mere particles, they still found a way to regenerate into their full form once they were away from An''s attacks.


    Suddenly, a golden light erupted from the oilmp. An felt the Angel power below him finally saturate into its final form.


    He looked down and saw Tarish kneeling at the golden oilmp.


    "It''s time!"


    Tarish rubbed the side of themp and muttered under her breath. It was an incantation taught to her in the Canzer Report for the oilmp to activate.


    As soon as she finished the words, a magic circle appeared around the narrow spout of the oilmp and created a huge suction force inside.


    Even though the vacuum wasn''t meant for humans, Tarish and the other Saviors still felt a strong pressure pulling them inside the spout.


    An invisible tornado erupted from the spout and affected all the Ifrits in the air. Howls of anguish and roars of defiance rang out from these monstrous Canzers.


    They tried to resist the suction force from the tiny little oilmp, but the Angel power seeped into the invisible tornado weakening their bodies to the point that the magma in their physique turned into rock.


    The suction force extinguished their fire, and subsequently their life.


    But instead of self-destructing like before, they simply turned into lifeless rocks and were eventually crushed into a fine powder as they entered the oilmp.


    Annded back on the roof as he watched thousands upon thousands of Ifrits try and fail to escape the grasp of the oilmp.


    In just a few seconds, the Ifrits finally sumbed to the Operator''s construct, ending their vicious cycle.

 Chapter 164: Reaping an Ifrit

    [You have assisted in killing aplex creature: Gastros Enterifrits]


    [Due to your Trait, you have multiplied your rewards by 10]


    [You have gained 20,000 experience]


    [You have gained a C ss Mage LifeSkill: zing Wave]


    [You have gained 10x LifeSkill fragments]


    [You have two LifeSkills with the same job. Do you want to merge the two?]


    [Experience required: 20,000]


    [Upgrade points required: 22,000]


    [Fragments required: 4]


    An manipted his Soul System andmanded all the required ingredients to merge his two Mage LifeSkills into one.


    The blue wisps of Experience points surrounded the new LifeSkill and forcefully transcended it to the consolidation period between the 4th stage and 5th stage Student realm like the original Spiked Chitin Spray.


    The meteor fragments crashed into the LifeSkill and upgraded it from C ss to B ss, costing 5000 upgrade points.


    Then, 17000 Upgrade points made up of small red geometric shapes lined up and surrounded the twos, forcing them to collide.


    It didn''t take long before the twos crashed, sending chunks of each other flying into each other before eventually crashing down onto the surface.


    The collision was so powerful that the twos were destroyedpletely, turning them into meteors and asteroids that tried to leave their respective gravities. However, the Upgrade points created a protective barrier that forced all parts to stay in one ce.


    It wasn''t long before small chunks crashed into each other and formed a bigger chunk, creating a bigger gravity that further attracted more chunks from space.


    An watched everything unfold as if he were a God who watched his own creation. If it was like true life, then it would have needed thousands of years to form, but in the Soul System, everything was sped up so much that it only took a few seconds before a new Mage LifeSkill formed in his Sr System of LifeSkills.


    ¡ªMage: (A) Exploding Thorns of Chitinous Webs.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 5th stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 12x F ss fragments


    Exploding? I''m guessing this ability is born from the Ifrit''s self-destruction powers. That''s interesting¡­


    Not only could he trap enemies inside his thorned web of chitins, but he could also make them explode and cause further damage.


    The possibilities were endless.


    My Mage LifeSkill is starting to get good. Now that it''s been merged with two different LifeSkills, its repertoire of powers makes it useful in a lot of situations.


    "It''s done¡­" Tarish muttered under her breath.


    The Masamune district Remedium turned eerily quiet as the final Ifrit disintegrated into mere dust and was absorbed by the golden oilmp.


    An took his focus out of his Soul System and observed the construct.


    The Angel power inside it slowly powered down, dispersing into the air until there was nothing left.


    I see why it''s only one use. There''s no more power inside that oilmp. It''s just a normal object now.


    "That was close¡­"


    Tarish and the rest of the 6th stage Saviors fell on their knees and released the tension in their shoulders. They thought it was the end for them. The Ifrit''s cloning got too much out of control, and they couldn''t havested much longer.


    The only reason why they finished this mission was because of the ck battle-suited youth in front of them.


    They couldn''t help but stare at him. Even after executing a barrage of punches that killed Ifrits much faster than they could clone themselves, he didn''t even seem tired. He never dropped a single sweat.


    "Porter¡­how did you do that?"


    Tarish confronted An. She couldn''t believe that his Physique LifeSkill was that powerful. It was only a porter LifeSkill and it was only in the 2nd stage of the Student realm!


    Even if it was an S ss talent, they didn''t think that it would be enough to kill Ifrits rated at the 6th stage difficulty. Granted, Infection Canzers were very easy to defeat individually, but that still didn''t take away from the fact that An could disintegrate them into mere atoms with just one single punch.


    An activated his LifeSkill. The oppressing ck mes enveloped his whole body.


    "This is my Physique LifeSkill. It''s rated higher than the S ss."


    He revealed this information because he knew that it would have leaked out in some way or another. It was much better to tell the truth now and control the narrative.


    "Gasp¡­Even better than S ss?!"


    "I didn''t even think that was possible."


    "I''ve heard rumors of other Metropolises having talents greater than S ss, but I thought they were just rumors."


    Having a LifeSkill greater than S ss was so rare that they didn''t have a proper grasp on how powerful it was, but the tyrannical aura around his ck mes made them believe his words. If they didn''t experience how powerful it was with their own eyes, they wouldn''t have believed it.


    "Don''t worry, Star Porter. We won''t tell just anybody about this," Tarish assured An. "However, we can''t promise you that HeadQuarters won''t know about it. If we were subjected to Pterina''s questioning, we wouldn''t be able to hide the truth."


    An nodded. "That''s fine."


    "I can''t believe we almost denied you. Imagine if we did. We probably would have lost all our SoulTime from this mission."


    "Tarish, you were right. He''s the Star Porter for a reason."


    Now that the threat of the Canzers had been neutralized, the atmosphere around the Saviors was celebratory. It was a close one, but they eked out a victory in the end, all thanks to the 2nd stage porter.


    "What''s wrong, An? Why aren''t you celebrating?"


    The Ifrit was dead. An was sure of it. If not, he wouldn''t have reaped its soul.


    But by now, they should have gotten their rewards from the Genesis God for finishing the mission. A ray of light should have beamed down from the skies and bathed them with His rewards.


    It''s only been two minutes since the mission ''finished'', yet An couldn''t help but be cautious.


    Just then, he heard an all-too-familiar sound in the distance.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM¡­

 Chapter 165: Falling up

    The whole Remedium rumbled. The folds and wrinkles of the strange meat-like dome covering the entire Masamune district started churning.


    "What''s happening?!"


    Everyone felt the roof they were standing on bob up and down, destabilizing their footing.


    Tarish looked down and was horrified to see that the strange orange liquid flooding the streets gushed forward with much more speed and volume than before.


    "Why is it flooding?!"


    It was as if a dam had opened. The orange liquid dispersed the buildings even more, breaking them off from their firm foundations underground. Other buildings much better constructed and stayed on the ground were destroyed by the mere force of the gush.


    "Brace yourselves!"


    The one-story roof tilted as it floated above the rapid gush of the orange liquid.


    They were safe from being engulfed by the tsunami of orange liquid but they weren''t safe yet. The wave led them in a direct collision course with a high-story skyscraper!


    If they collided with the skyscraper, they''d be crushed under the thousands of tons of weight just from the rubble that would fall on top of them.


    "Should we abandon ship?!"


    One of the mages suggested falling off the roof to avoid the skyscraper. But that was a stupid idea.


    "No. We''ll get taken away by the wave. We need to stick together!" Tarish shouted to her team.


    Even though the skyscraper was falling on them right at this very second, she was not focused on it at all. Instead, she looked around the Remedium and tried to find a circr construct in the middle of all the floating buildings and rubbles in the orange flood.


    Damn! The portal''s lost!


    Tarish didn''t say those words out loud because she didn''t want to cause further panic.


    They could always search for the portalter. But if they panicked and split up, they might get lost in the Remedium for hundreds of years!


    "It''s falling on us!" the mage screamed.


    Tarish and the other tanks used their LifeSkills and created a defensive shield around them.


    However, it couldn''tst long under the weight of the metal beams of the skyscraper. Their defenses were great against elemental attacks like the Ifrits, but it wasn''t that effective against physical attacks.


    Their shields cracked like ss, but it was able to deflect the skyscraper away from a direct collision with their one-story roof.


    For good measure, An jumped up and used his Physique LifeSkill to punch one of the main columns supporting the skyscraper.


    CRASH-SPLASH


    The skyscraper crashed onto more buildings drifting in the orange flood, sending orange mist and negative colored rubble flying in the air.


    Tarish and her team were safe from being crushed to death by the high-rise building, but they were not safe from the aftermath.


    Arge wave emanated from the skyscraper''s crash site. It created a rippling effect that increased the speed and height of the flooding towards them.


    "Let''s hope our building''s buoyant!"


    They held onto any railing, pir, or wall they could grab onto as the wave came towards their roof.


    WOOSHH


    Thankfully, the building they stood on had an air pocket underneath the flood, and allowed it to stay on top of the wave. The Saviors held onto the roof as it followed the stream onto a narrowing tunnel that led to a dark chasm underneath.


    "Where is this going?!"


    Tarish didn''t know. "Just stay together!"


    The whole wave surged towards an opening on the meaty wall surrounding the Masamune district.


    Buildings, rubble, streetmps, steel beams¡ªeverything was swallowed inside this dark chasm.


    Even in the distance, they heard the torrent of orange liquid falling into the opening.


    Tarish and the rest of her team had no choice but to stay on the roof and hold on to each other for safety. They couldn''t swim away from the gush of orange liquid leading them to the unknown even if they tried.


    "Don''t let go!" Tarish warned as they were enveloped by a shimmering curtain of orange liquid made from small droplets falling onto the darkness.


    As they fell, everything turned dark.


    The Saviors held each other''s hands as they felt the weightlessness of free fall.


    An held hands with the mage beside him.


    He was going to stay with his team until things got too dire. If things proved to be too dangerous, An would use his Angel Wings and burst through the dimensional walls of the Remedium and return to the real world.


    That was hisst contingency n.


    But for now, he wasn''t going to leave his team to deal with the looming threat of the darkness all by themselves.


    They didn''t know what they were fighting with. But An did.


    He couldn''t forget the rhythmic wing patterns of the Sapient Canzer.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM¡­


    Even in the nothingness of freefall, he still heard those excited pping wings echo in the chamber. He didn''t have to hear it speak to know that it was excited. It couldn''t wait to see the tormented expressions on the humans again.


    An used his Thermal Vision and saw the cylindrical chamber they were falling under.


    He looked around and saw the terrified expressions of Tarish and the rest of her team. He felt the desperation in their grip. They were deathly afraid because their worst fears came true. They encountered an anomaly.


    But for An, this wasn''t an anomaly. This was an opportunity.


    ####


    THUD-BOOM


    The ground underneath them exploded as they reached the end of the tunnel, creating a blinding burst of light that stunned all of them into confusion.


    As they fell through the hole, they saw nothing but white skies and dark stars under their feet.


    After falling for about two seconds, they suddenly slowed down.


    They stopped in mid-air for a moment before they started elerating upwards!


    An looked up and couldn''t believe his eyes. They were falling upwards into a grass field!


    Itpletely defied thews of physics.


    BLUGHH


    They felt their heads crash onto soft but firm soil.


    Their reality-defying experience left them stumbling for a second as they gathered their senses.


    What happened? Did wee out from underground andnd on a grass field?


    An was the first one to gather himself. He slowly stood up and looked at his surroundings.


    Behind him were the tall steel walls of Genesis City and in front of him was the wide expanse of the Unimed Lands.

 Chapter 166: Out the walls

    "Where¡­where are we?!"


    "No¡­that''s¡ªthat''s impossible!"


    Tarish couldn''t believe what she saw.


    Somehow, falling into that dark chasm led them out of the walls of Genesis City! This was supposed to be impossible.


    Every mission in the Remedium took ce inside the walls of a God''s Territory. It didn''t matter if it was as small as a Vige or as big as a Country. All portals led to a ce inside the walls of that area. No exceptions.


    But now, they found themselves at the outer grassfields surrounding the walls of Genesis City.


    They couldn''t even me the Quills for another anomaly happening in this mission. No one would have ever anticipated this happening because it was supposed to be impossible.


    "We need to go back¡­we need to go back¡­"


    One of the mages frantically dug on the grassfields trying to find the hole they ''fell'' in.


    "It''s fine. As long as we''re together, we can get through this!" Tarish said, with her voice quivering.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM¡­


    An whipped his head to the source of that rhythmic pattern. He immediately activated his Thermal Vision.


    On the horizon of warm yellow grassfields, there were small dark blue spots that littered sparsely above the grass. They sauntered over closer to the humans with arrogance in their stride.


    Their dark blue internal body temperature was much more intense than the heat of the 6th stage Saviors beside him. It was clear. These Sapient Canzers were much stronger than the unprepared 6th-stage Saviors. Not to mention the fact that they werepletely out of their territory and out of breath from fighting the Ifrits, they were in no shape to fight these Canzers.


    A couple of secondster, Tarish and the rest of the exhausted Saviors finally noticed the synchronized footsteps in the distance. The Sapient Canzers had no intention to hide themselves.


    Fear gripped their hearts. Tarish couldn''t even speak.


    "$&#^(!#)$"


    "NO!" Her shout was apanied by a gasp that was filled with horror and disbelief. Those unintelligible words were the subject of every Savior''s nightmare. The mere mention of their name sent shivers down everyone''s spine, veteran or not.


    "Sapient¡­Canzers¡­"


    The Sapient Canzer stood on two legs and had two arms on its side. Their entire body was d in chitinous armors with spikes protruding in a uniform pattern. They had a prominent snout like that of a bear and a mouth like that of a human.


    Their stature carried an uncanny resemnce to humans.


    Any person who saw a Canzer walking and talking like a human was enough to send them into aa. It was a terrifying image that should only be reserved for science fiction, yet they were witnessing it right in front of their very eyes.


    The worst part about it was that the whole horizon was filled with these Chitinous-armored creatures, numbering in the hundreds if not thousands.


    All of them were identical, clones even.


    "$@*&%)%"


    ")%($&@@("


    For normal humans like Tarish, they could only hear unintelligible sounds that couldn''t even be produced by the human body.


    But for An, their conversation was loud and clear. His 4-star Canzer Mother Tongue mutation allowed him to understand all Canzers, including Pseudo Canzers and Sapient Canzers.


    ''Look at these humans¡­how pathetic¡­''


    ''I told you¡­they shiver at the thought of facing us¡­''


    They weren''t speaking like the Pseudo Canzers with disjointed words and only the most basic of grammar. These Sapient Canzers were different. They sounded like humans speaking a differentnguage.


    "%#)@*!)$*#"


    All the Sapient Canzers stopped at the same time, letting only one of them walk forward and face the humans.


    The disparity between the humans and the Sapient Canzers was huge. The humans had terrified expressions on their faces with their bodies frozen from fear even if they wanted to run.


    Meanwhile, the Sapient Canzers stood tall with pride and superiority in their eyes.


    "$@!)*#@)"


    ''Entertain me, humans.''


    The Sapient Canzer held out his hands in a weing manner as if the humans were his guests in his kingdom.


    Tarish put herself in the front and raised her shield. She was at the forefront, protecting her terrified and exhausted teammates. Even if she was tired too, she wasn''t going to let that monster terrorize her friends.


    "Please. We don''t want to fight. Let us go," Tarish said softly.


    Even if they couldn''t understand each other, the Sapient Canzer was intelligent enough to pick up on her tone.


    "&!&!&!&!&!, )@($&#)!($*#"


    ''Hahahaha! It''s begging for its life! Not that brave without the Angels protecting you now, huh?!"


    The rest of the Sapient Canzers behind the leaderughed and pointed at the pathetic human lowering her head to them. Their monstrous faces clearly showed the human expression of disdain and mockery.


    "$*@$&@)!)(%*#@)(*)(*@$#*)(@"


    ''Come on! I didn''te out here for nothing. Fight me!''


    The Sapient Canzer unfolded its two pairs of wings behind its back. The outer wing was made out of tough leathery material, while the wing on the forefront was thin and membranous, which gave it flexibility in its flight.


    It flew to the humans with no warning.


    Tarish was caught off guard and pulled her shield upte, causing her to get blown away as the Sapient Canzer punched forward. She got sted away even if she caught the attack with her shield. She couldn''t imagine taking that attack head-on.


    She tumbled through the air. She saw the world turn multiple times. And with the speed she was blown away, she thought she''d get sent tens of meters out. But then, she felt a warm hand supporting her back and stopping her in the air.


    It was An. He caught her and helped her stand on her own.


    He still had a confident smile on his face even as they faced the dangerous Sapient Canzer.


    Somehow, his confidence gave her the strength she needed to pull herself back up. Even if they were going to lose their SoulTime today, that didn''t mean they couldn''t fight till the end.


    "Guys," Tarish walked back up to the front of her team. "If it''s looking for a fight, then a fight it''s going to get!"


    With the rallying shout of their leader, the 6th stage Saviors found the energy to use all their powers to survive.


    They activated their LifeSkills, with the magesbining all their powers into one attack. A wind and light-powered ice hammer striking a water sphere manifested into reality.


    The tanks used their defensive LifeSkill in a creative offense by reinforcing the water sphere''s defenses, making it harder and faster than what was possible.

 Chapter 167: Boredom satiated

    The Water Sphere turned into a ball made up of different elements, reinforcing it into something that could destroy an entire building into mere rubble.


    The 6th stage Saviors used up all the energy inside their Soul System to construct this one attack. They aimed to intimidate the Sapient Canzers from attacking them by showing theirbined powers.


    Having 7 Saviors working together in perfect coordination was no easy task. One wrong move and all their hard work manifesting the water sphere would dissipate into nothingness.


    Despite the exhaustion and the pressure they faced from the Sapient Canzers, the 6th-stage Students found the focus and concentration they needed by following their trusted leader. She never wavered even once. She kept her back straight and faced the Sapient Canzers with full trust in her teammates.


    "Don''t underestimate humans!" screamed Tarish as she guided the Super Powered Water Sphere towards the lone Sapient Canzer.


    ")$(@*!&$)$"


    ''Good! This is a worthy opponent!''


    The monstrous Canzer, with its dual wings pping in excitement, faced the Water Sphere with bare hands. It flew through the air and intercepted the Water Sphere. It faced it head-on.


    Steam and mist spurted out from the middle of the collision.


    The Sapient Canzer pushed back against the power of the Water Sphere, but its chitinous fingers chipped away with every second it tried to grasp and control the Water Sphere.


    Its wings pped harder to try and gather enough force to push back against the humans''bined powers.


    But in the end, it couldn''t resist against thebined might of the 6th stage Saviors.


    The Sapient Canzer waspletely torn into shreds as the Water Sphere enveloped it entirely. The ball of power continued on its original course and crashnded on the first line of Sapient Canzers waiting in the distance.


    BOUUUGH


    The Water Sphere exploded, sending hot slices of water that tore through the chitinous armors of hundreds of Sapient Canzers.


    "Haaa¡­.Haaaa¡­."


    Tarish and the rest of her team couldn''t help but smile when they saw their powerpletely demolish the arrogant Sapient Canzer.


    But An couldn''t celebrate just yet. He crossed his arms with a serious expression on his face as he looked at the aftermath of the explosion.


    Out from the torn shreds of the first Sapient Canzer, grew five more clones that looked the same as the one that ''died''.


    And those that got destroyed by the Water Sphere''s explosion spawned even more clones than before.


    These new Sapient Canzers emerged with devious smiles on their faces. They derived pleasure from seeing the smile fade away from the humans as they realized that their strongest attacks were useless against them.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM¡­


    Their wings pped in a rhythmic pattern as they saw the terror creep into the humans'' faces. It made them euphoric!


    "$(#*@&*$%&@)($(@)#)($*%)"


    ''Oh how I''ve missed that face¡­humans truly make the best expressions¡­I can''t wait to see their faces as they die.''


    The clones of the Sapient Canzers walked forward in synchronicity, like a well-trained army.


    Tarish''s bravery melted as she realized the kind of monster they faced.


    "Infection Sapient Canzers¡­"


    She didn''t know what to do. There was nothing she could do.


    It was apletely hopeless situation.


    If they faced a Sapient Destruction Canzer, they could hold on long enough by killing it over and over again. Even if it could regenerate its injuries, it still gave them hope that if theysted long enough, there was a chance they could get rescued.


    But with a Sapient Infection Canzer, the more they try to fight them, the harder it will be to survive.


    If they don''t fight Infection Canzers, they die. If they fight them, they''ll multiply endlessly and get killed faster.


    And unlike normal Infection Canzers, these Sapient monsters were d with Chitinous armor from head to toe. They were as hard to kill as Destruction Canzers.


    "$(@**%&"


    ''Scream! I want to hear your screams!''


    A few Sapient Canzers unfolded their wings and flew towards the 6th stage Saviors.


    The mages activated their LifeSkills and defended themselves, but the monsters were too fast. Before their powers manifested in reality, the Canzers skewered their bodies with thousands of spikes in its fist.


    "AAGHH!" the Water mage screamed. He felt his SoulTime draining by the years!


    There was poison in those spikes.


    But that wasn''t the end of their torment. The Canzer raised the water mage up and mmed him back down on the ground, pushing its spikes deeper in its body and causing further internal damage.


    "KAGHH!" The water mage coughed up blood.


    The Canzer seemed to get aroused each time it heard the human scream. It continued harassing the water mage until he could no longer scream.


    The Water mage barely clung onto life. He was mere hours away from losing his entire SoulTime.


    "%#(@*!)$"


    ''No more fun.''


    Now that it felt satisfied, the Sapient Canzer tossed the water mage''s body to the side like trash. It didn''t even deem him worthy to be killed.


    He wasn''t the only one.


    Tarish, and the rest of her team were brutalized by the Sapient Canzers. The tankssted longer, but the Sapient Canzers used their superior speed and strength to wear down their defenses.


    It wasn''t long till their shields were deformed like scrap metal.


    The violet grasnds were stained with dark red pools of blood. The 6th stage Saviors had cuts andcerations all over their bodies, bleeding them of their SoulTime. They had less than a day left till they died.


    Tarish was the only one left standing in her team. She used her giant shield to keep herself up no matter how much her body wanted to lie down.


    From her hazy eyesight, she saw one Sapient Canzer approach a ck battle suited youth on the back.


    After finishing them off, the Sapient Canzer now wanted to deal with thest person in their group, An.


    An stood tall against the approaching Sapient Canzer. He looked at it eye to eye.


    "$*#)*!)($*%&)@_%&@!_!_$$(*(*#@"


    ''This human dare to look at me this way¡­tsk. No matter. The terror in his face will be much more delicious.''


    But before the Sapient Canzer could approach An, it suddenly felt something grab its legs.


    It looked down and saw Tarish holding onto its feet.


    "Please! Spare him!"


    Tarish wanted to protect the Star Porter. He was a transcendent talent that she needed to preserve.


    She knew that Sapient Canzers were a prideful bunch. So, she catered to its need for superiority.


    She pulled herself closer to the Canzer''s feet and kissed it in reverence.


    "Spare him! Oh, great Sapient Canzer!"


    The monster''s smile couldn''t have gotten any wider.


    "%(#*)$)@)(%)$)@)%"


    ''Fine. I will spare you humans. My boredom has been satiated.''

 Chapter 168: Left behind

    With a flick of its chitinous fingers, arge hole in the violet grass fields opened up and created a powerful suction force that swallowed the unconscious 6th-stage Saviors.


    Tarish heaved a sigh of relief as she saw her teammates get sent back to where they came from. She didn''t think the Sapient Canzer would let them go so easily, but surprisingly, it did.


    She didn''t want to know why it was suddenly merciful, she just wanted to escape.


    An, her friends, and herself can leave with their SoulTime intact.


    She didn''t resist the suction force from the dark chasm in the ground and let herself fall into it.


    It could have been a trap, but she knew that the Sapient Canzer had no need for such things. It could have destroyed them right then and there if it wanted.


    She fell through the hole and a deep darkness epassed her whole body. She couldn''t see anything. It was the same as the hole they fell from.


    Her speed elerated, with an unknown force pushing her further and further into the hole until she saw a bright light in the distance.


    SPATUNNGG


    She burst forth from the dark chasm opening and saw herself falling towards the fallen rubble and chaos of the remaining Masamune district. There was no more thick orange liquid flooding the streets and gutting the skyscrapers¡ªonly crumbled walls and overturned buildings.


    She used her shield and braced herself for impact as she crashed onto the roof of a building.


    CRASH


    She looked up and saw her teammates shoot out from the dark chasm the same way as her.


    Ignoring her injuries, she got up and caught each of her unconscious teammates. Sheid them down gently onto the roof, with her face full of worry once she saw the horrible state of their bodies.


    The call of unconsciousness got stronger and stronger, but she still performed emergency medical attention to her team. She wasn''t going to leave them falling without protection.


    Once they were all safe and sound, shey on the floor right next to their unconscious bodies. She was exhausted.


    She was about to close her eyes when she suddenly realized something.


    Someone was missing.


    She got up and frantically looked everywhere but couldn''t find that ck battle-suited youth anywhere. She scoured the littered remains of the once beautiful Masamune district but found no trace of the Star Porter.


    Panic began to set in. What if¡­


    What if he''s still there?


    #####


    "$(@*%)#($&^)$#%*)@($@(*&@)"


    ''Such pathetic creatures. Seeing their horrified faces gives me such joy, but it onlysts for a second. I need more.''


    The Sapient Canzer found no satisfaction in killing the humans. The horrified look frozen on their dead faces wasn''t delicious to look at. It was much better to see them contort into horror live.


    That''s why they spared the humans. By doing so, more humans woulde and entertain the bored Infection Sapient Canzers.


    They knew that if they killed the humans, it would take a long time before the other humans found out about it. But if they survived to tell the tale, humans woulde in a matter of minutes.


    But just as the Sapient Canzer turned around, he felt a small wind breeze past its neck.


    It looked behind and was surprised to see one human still alive. It didn''t leave.


    "$@($*%)!($(#$*)(*^)(*#)$*()(*#@"


    ''Look at this stupid human. I spared you so that you can carry your friends out of here. Yet you stayed¡­how idiotic.''


    The rest of the clones behind itughed and jeered at An. They were merciful enough to let the humans live, but they didn''t think someone was stupid enough not to take it.


    The lead Sapient Canzer walked over to An and put its hands on his shoulders.


    "$(@*$)(*#%@#*"


    ''You still think Angels will save you? Why don''t I teach you what it means to die?''


    "You''ll find out," answered An.


    The Sapient Canzer couldn''t understand An''s words, but they knew that tone in his voice. It was impertinence.


    Just as the Canzer was about to say something, a ck me suddenly erupted all over An''s skin. It covered him with a tyrannical aura that burned the Sapient Canzer''s arm.


    The Canzer pulled his arm away subconsciously.


    It looked at its burnt chitinous armor, and back at An with its pure white eyes full of disbelief.


    "%(@*%&@)$(*%(#*@)(*#"


    ''I didn''t think this was possible. There was a monster hidden among the humans.''


    "A monster? You haven''t seen it yet," An said coldly.


    His 6-star Pseudo Canzer Whisperer


    mutation only allowed him to speak with Pseudo Canzers, which was why the Sapient Canzer couldn''t understand him, no matter how much An wanted it to.


    An used all the strength he had to punch the Sapient Canzer''s chitinous chest.


    Even with its protective spikes strewn around its armor, it was no use against An''s SSS ss Physique LifeSkill. His power cracked and shattered the monster''s chest, showing its violet blood and flesh inside.


    The rest of the clones stoppedughing and looked at An with a serious eye.


    The lead Canzer held its broken chest and red at An.


    "%)(*@)(*$)(%&#$)(%()$#)(*"


    ''You''ll regret that, stupid boy. I''ll kill you before the other humanse and save you.''


    The numerous clones behind it unfolded their wings at the same time and rose in the air.


    DUM¡­DUM DUM¡­DUM


    The violet grass fields trembled as thousands of dangerous Sapient Infection Canzers fluttered their wings in a rhythmic pattern.


    The lead Sapient Canzer with a cracked chest smiled as its clones surrounded the lone human.


    "$(*@)(*$)(*"


    ''Attack him.''


    Even though it was impressive that a human youth like An could crack a Sapient Canzer''s chitinous armor, it was still inconsequential in front of thousands of clones.


    If the human couldn''t even kill a single clone using his full strength, then he had no hope of ever surviving against them.


    The Sapient Canzerughed. The human severely overestimated his strength.


    It turned around and left everything to the clones. It didn''t need to watch to know the result of such carnage.


    The thousands of Sapient Canzer clones converged on An, but then¡­


    BOOUUGGGSHHHH


    Arge fire-less explosion reverberated through the violet grassfields.


    The Sapient Canzer''s eyes went wide with disbelief as it felt hundreds of its clones die in the explosion.


    The Sapient Canzer turned and looked back at the human. Slowly, its chitinous armor rattled with increasing intensity. The pressure and aura emanating from the human was enough to send fear and dread running down its back.

 Chapter 169 Cold feet

    In the middle of the violet grass fields, surrounded by remains of shattered chitinous armor, stood a creature with ck rotting skin.


    It looked like a decaying corpse, but the power pouring out from its erged bones was anything but dead. It was the kind of pressure that even made the Sapient Canzers'' chitinous armor rattle from horror and panic.


    The rotting creature had nothing but bones in its body, with decaying ck skin barely clinging to its skeleton.


    But the most terrifying thing about the creature was its head.


    It was nothing but a skull, with frost and ice creeping onto its crevices, but somehow, the Sapient Canzer felt like it was looking at a creature that could send anyone down to the deepest abyss of hell.


    The skull slowly turned towards the Sapient Canzer in the distance, with its head swiveling unlike that of a human.


    Even though the skull creature had no eyes, the ckness of its eye socket made the Sapient Canzer feel as if its entire view had darkened and only the creature remained in its sight.


    "$()@#*()($*$(*&%(#*&(*#&$"


    ''What the hell are you?! You''re not human!" the Sapient Canzer screamed.


    But the creature didn''t answer. It kept its head turned towards the lone Sapient Canzer.


    The Sapient Canzer grabbed its own chest and stopped it from rattling. It didn''t want to admit that it was afraid of a single human.


    SHIIRRA SHIIRRA


    The fallen Sapient Canzers made out of nothing but shredded chitinous particles slowly formed back into more clones. Five more spawned out of each corpse.


    "($*@)(*$)(*##)(*)@(#*)$*(&("


    ''So¨Cso what?! We''ll multiply till we kill you!''


    Five thousand Sapient Infection Canzers rose in the air. They surrounded the skull creature at all sides, like a cloud enveloping a single ant.


    With perfect synchronicity, they charged towards the lone human¡ªor whatever it was.


    But instead of worrying about the increasing number of clones attacking him with no room to escape, An looked at his own disfigured body.


    He felt power, unlike anything he''d ever felt before.


    He was brimming with energy, with some of it leaking out of his bones and manifesting as frost and ice around his body.


    He looked at his own hands and he knew: just one wave of his hand was enough to destroy thousands of these Sapient Canzers.


    KLIK KLAK


    An raised his foot and stomped it on the ground at the same moment hundreds of clones reached out their hands to rip his skeleton transformation into shreds.


    He forcefully pushed out the intense energy inside him until it leaked out into his bones.


    An intense cold flowed out from his foot and spread outwards.


    Therge circr patch of violet grass surrounding his skeletal foot turned solid and shattered into a million pieces.


    The temperature in the grass fields plummeted so far down that the water particles in the air slowly condensed into snowkes that slowly drifted in the wind.


    The frost infected everything in an instant. The mystical cold rose from the ground and froze the clones from their chitinous feet up to the fervent expressions on their faces.


    The blood inside the Canzer''s bodies instantly turned into ice, their fleshy bodies turned solid. Everything was frozen.


    The five thousand clones fell on the ground, with some shattering into different pieces. Their maniacal desire to kill the lone human was still frozen on their faces. The frozen wings on their back fractured into millions of pieces with just a slight breeze in the air.


    The only one still left was the lone Sapient Canzer in the distance.


    Its human-like mouth couldn''t convey the shock it got from seeing thousands of its clones frozen with just one move.


    And the worst part about it was that the skull creature never took its dark eyes away from it.


    It was as if it wanted the lone Sapient Canzer to witness this.


    "$)(@(#($*&(#*&$%" Experience more tales on empire


    ''Kugh! It doesn''t matter. We are still alive!''


    Even though the clones were frozen into mere ice statues, their incredibly resilient bodies allowed them to still cling to the bit of life in their constitution.


    "Yes. I want you alive," replied An.


    Just then, An spread his skeletal arms.


    Even though he couldn''t use other LifeSkills with his BloodLine Transformation, he still had one more source of power that was avable.


    A numb and prickly sensation covered his shoulder des. A smile appeared on his skull as he felt that familiar power envelop his entire body.


    The Sapient Canzer already thought that fighting this monstrous human was a nightmare enough. But as it turned out, it barely just started.


    Its knees went weak as it felt the warm light emanating from the skeletal creature''s back.


    It was the kind of warmth that would have been ideal in such a cold environment. But for the Sapient Canzer, it felt its entire body turn even colder than before.


    That familiar aura was something they thought was already gone. It should have been extinct. Yet there it was, exuding out of the pure white Wings that emerged behind the skeletal creature in all its glory.


    Angel power.


    Just the mere presence of such holy and angelic wings was enough to extinguish thest dredges of life inside the frozen clones.


    The thousands of Sapient Canzers exploded into millions of frozen pieces as An fluttered his Angel Wings in ce.


    "@&&&&&&&&&&&"


    ''GAGHHHHHHH!'' The only surviving Sapient Canzer in the distance screamed in pain.


    The pain of five thousand clones dying at the same time from a smudge of Angel Power was transmitted to the only surviving clone of the Sapient Canzer.


    It banged its head on the frozen grass trying to relieve the pain in its mind, but it was far too much.


    "@***********"


    It experienced a pain worse than death¡ªfive thousand deaths. The tiny tinge of Angel Power that killed the clones transferred over to the surviving clone, which umted enough to a near-fatal dosage.


    "Experience the suffering. This is your punishment for treating death as nothing more than a joke," An''s voice resounded out of his skeletal transformation.

 Chapter 170 Shouldn鈥檛 speak

    The cycle of suffering continued for the Sapient Infection Canzer.


    Each time it cloned itself into thousands and thousands more, An''s skeletal body with the strength of a Pre-Intern Savior emanated an intense frost that froze everything that came into contact with him.


    With the thousands of clones frozen and unable to move their bodies, An unleashed the aura of an Angel with his pure white wings.


    The added pressure from the Canzer''s weakness was enough to push them over to their death. Their minds chose to destroy their bodies rather than stay even one second in close proximity to the holiness of An''s Angel Wings.


    As the tens of thousands of clones shattered into chitinous particles, the lone Sapient Canzer watching everything unfold from a distance felt the pain that all the clones experienced.


    It wailed on the ground, thrashing and iling its whole body to try and free itself from the torment in its mind.


    The worst part of it was that it couldn''t die. It didn''t physically get harmed by the deaths of the clones, it only got affected mentally.


    Its once greatest strength, its mind, had now be a curse that doomed it to an intense suffering that would never end.


    "($*@)(*@)(*$"


    ''Stop¡­please¡­I give up¡­.''


    Its voice was hoarse and weak. It couldn''t take the hellish punishment from the skeletal creature any longer. It would rather beg on a human''s knees rather than experience another cycle of pain in its mind.


    The clones increased by 5 times each time An killed them. Because of that, the pain that the lone Sapient Canzer felt was five times greater than it was before. It put an increasingly greater hell on its mind.


    The only way for this to stop was to beg for forgiveness from the human. His powers were far too strong for even millions of clones to be enough to kill him.


    The frost he emanated didn''t discriminate with numbers. As long as it had something to spread to, it would continue to bring a freezing winter to anything thates close to those infected.


    The lone Sapient Canzer crawled toward An''s skeletal figure. Even though its body didn''t permit it to bend like that of a human, the Canzer disfigured itself to prostrate itself to him.


    "$(*@)(@*$)(%&"


    ''Please! I beg of you! Stop this madness.''


    Even if An hadn''t understood the Canzer''s words, the symbol of surrender and deference was universal.


    An raised his hand and brought down the fury of a Pre-Intern strength onto the lone Sapient Canzer.


    BOOMSHHH


    The lone Canzer disintegrated into mere atoms as An destroyed its very being with a single punch.


    His strike created a tremendous force that reverberated around the violet grassfields. A shockwave followed through that shattered the tens of thousands of frozen clones around them.


    An stood on the crater by himself.


    He looked up and saw the clones repairing themselves into their full chitinous bodies.


    But instead of attacking him, they quickly jumped back and prevented the cold from spreading to them again.


    The lone Sapient Canzer reformed its body and bowed in front of An for his mercy.


    It raised its chitinous arm and snapped.


    Behind An, another hole manifested in the ground that led back to the Masamune District Remedium where he could reunite with his teammates.


    The thousands of clones bowed their heads to him, showing him respect after this loss.


    With the battle finally over, An let go of his transformation.


    The rotting skin in his skeletal body slowly shed off as muscles, veins, and organs grew alongside his bones to form his human body.


    The flesh in his head slowly grew back as his face returned to its normal human look.


    The cold, oppressing aura that he emanated slowly vanished as if it were all an illusion. He was back to looking like a fragile human whose body looked like something the Sapient Canzers could break like a twig.


    However, they knew better. This human hid a power that could kill thousands of their clones in mere seconds. And it didn''t even take much effort. He just stood there and killed all the Sapient Infection Canzers that dared to get close.


    An turned around and looked down the hole back to the Masamune District Remedium.


    "(#*$&@)(*@)(*$(*%&#(*&(&$#$#((*&(*&@#)#@($"


    ''We will let you go this time, human. But we will be back stronger and better. When wee and wage a war with the humans, you will be thest one we kill. You will watch as we desecrate them as you have desecrated us.''


    The lone Sapient Canzer muttered their ns under his breath.


    Although they were forced to back off against An today, that didn''t mean that they lost this fight.


    They considered it a draw.


    They couldn''t kill him, and he couldn''t kill them.


    It was so confident that they would be able to kill An next time that it even dared to say its ns to kill him just seconds after they begged for him to spare them.


    An stopped in his tracks and sighed. Enjoy exclusive content from empire


    "Canzers shouldn''t be able to speak," An muttered under his breath.


    He looked back at the thousands of Sapient Infection Canzers.


    The lone Canzer never would have thought that An understood its words. If it did, then it would have known that it signed its own death certificate.


    An used his Thermal Vision as he surveyed his surroundings. There were tens of thousands of clones in front of him, some of them hovering in the air, and some of them stayed on the ground.


    He focused his vision at the very back of the pack.


    There was a veryrge number of clones closely grouped together¡ªtoo close. There was an endless space behind them in the expanse of the violet grass fields, yet they chose to stay so grouped up together that they were standing shoulder to shoulder with practically no space in between them.


    He looked down at the group and saw that deep underground, there was a small object glowing dark blue¡ªthe same coldness as the Sapient Canzers.


    The clones watched as An raised his hand and pointed at a random space in the distance.


    It was only a couple of momentster that they realized where he was pointing at.


    An took a deep breath and uttered, "Begone."


    His Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill activated and locked onto the object underground.

 Chapter 171 Scattered ashes

    The lone Sapient Infection Canzer felt a shiver run down its spine as it watched the human point directly at its ''root''.


    It was the source of all their power and an equivalent to the heart of a human.


    The Sapient Canzers never thought that An would be able to pinpoint their very weakness so casually. His finger felt like it was the touch of Death itself.


    "$)(*@)($"


    The hundreds of thousands of clones all charged at An in a panic. Even though they didn''t know what he was going to do, the mere fact that he knew where their weakness was located was enough to send them into a frenzy.


    "Begone," he uttered.


    Above therge group of clones protecting their root, a white cloud manifested in reality.


    This cloud had a golden glow on its edges and frightened the clones below. It emanated an Angel aura that was a thousand times more intense than the human''s Angel Wings.


    If An''s Angel Wings was a solid cube made out of Angel power, then this cloud was like a knife pointed directly down at the source of the Sapient Canzers'' very being. It threatened to destroy their very existence!


    Half of the hundred thousand clones converged on An to try and stop his ''Finger of Death'', while the other half tried to disperse the cloud frompleting its condensation.


    However, they were far toote.


    They would have stood a much better chance of stopping An if they tried to attack him before he was able to lock onto the object underground.


    The moment that cloud manifested in reality was the moment the death of the Sapient Infection Canzers was certain.


    The cloud''s blonde-yellow light intensified, followed by a thunderous rumbling that reverberated along the violet grass fields.


    The clones reached up with their spiked chitinous fists to try and tear through the cloud, but they were far too slow.


    Thick golden lightning struck down into the ground with a furious intensity, sending an earthquake that shook the entire Remedium.


    The clones unlucky enough to be in the golden lightning''s way were immediately burned and disintegrated into mere ashes, with their cloning ability nullified forever.


    Hundreds of Sapient Canzers jumped and created a small mound that tried to protect the underground object, but they were inconsequential in the face of a SSS ss 4th stage Student Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill!


    It passed through them and targeted the buried object tens of meters underground with perfect uracy.


    The golden lightning''s spear-like end pierced through the root of the Sapient Infection Canzers.


    The object turned out to be a fetus. It was what Sapient Infection Canzers would have looked like if they were a newborn, with their chitinous armor barely formed around their bodies.


    As soon as it was hit with the golden lightning, it stopped squirming in the soil and froze in ce.


    It slowly turned pasty white, with its ashes slowly disintegrating into mere particles that turned into nothingness.


    The clones above wailed in pain as they slowly disintegrated into mere ashes scattered in the wind. This was their permanent death. They could no longer clone themselves when their original body was dead.


    The lone Sapient Canzer watched its own hands slowly disintegrate into ashes.


    It looked at An with disbelief in its eyes. It didn''t think that he would be the one to cause their permanent death.


    In its stubbornness and anger, it tried to w at An''s face, but its legs gave way as the weakness soon spread to the rest of its body.


    An was hit with nothing but ashes.


    He looked around the violet grass fields and saw peace. The ashes of the fallen Sapient Infection Canzers scattered in the wind.


    With nothing else to do, An turned back and fell into the hole behind him.


    ####


    Tarish mmed her fist on the ground. She couldn''t believe that she was careless enough to let those Sapient Canzers get their hands on their Star Porter.


    She was responsible for his life. She didn''t think she''d be able to live with herself if she found out that An lost all his SoulTime because of her mistake. He''d be held back for years as he regenerated from a single blood cell. She would effectively ruin his career.


    "Damn!...I should have been the one!"


    "If it weren''t for him we wouldn''t have even killed the Ifrit!"


    "I can''t believe we''re still stuck here! We have to ask for help so that they can rescue An!"


    After they recovered enough strength, Tarish and her team scoured the destroyed skyscrapers and overturned buildings of Masamune district, but they couldn''t find the portal anywhere.


    They felt useless. The longer they were stuck unable to call for reinforcements from the HeadQuarters, the longer An would be subjected to the Canzer''s tortuous hobbies.


    "Let''s check again! We have to find that portal!"


    But just as they were about to disperse, they suddenly heard an explosion in the distance.


    BOOM


    Their eyes went wide when they saw a ck battle-suited youth flying in the air after being shot out from the hole they came from.


    An braced himself as he crashed onto the streets, sending rubble and concrete everywhere.


    Tarish and the rest of her team slowly approached An.


    They expected to see him return with multiple broken bones and a bloodied mess, but they were pleasantly surprised to see An stand with virtually no injuries on his body. There wasn''t even a scratch on his ck battle suit.


    "An¡­you''re¡ªyou''re fine?!"


    "Thank the Gods!"


    "What happened to you?"


    Even though An spent much more time with the Sapient Canzers, he was in much better shape than the 6th-stage Saviors.


    But before An could say anything, everyone was suddenly blinded by a bright light up in the air.


    Out from the meaty domed ceiling of the Remedium, arge ray of white light suddenly beamed down directly on An and the rest of the 6th-stage Saviors.


    "But¡­how''s that possible¡­"


    Tarish couldn''t believe that they were being rewarded by the Genesis God forpleting their mission!

 Chapter 172 Mission complete?

    A resplendent white beam of light shone down on the eight people below. They looked up with shocked faces at this unexpected turn of events.


    As 6th stage Saviors, they understood what this meant.


    The ray of light from the heavens was something that all Saviors cherished. It was the cool ice water after working on a hot summer''s day. It was afortable bed after an exhausting day at work.


    This was a Savior''s reward after risking their lives fighting Canzers in the Remedium.


    The Genesis God extended his hand to them and rewarded them for their service to the City.


    No one wanted this to happen more than Tarish. However, she couldn''t help but be perplexed as to why they were getting rewarded in the Remedium.


    This type of thing only happened if a team of Saviors finished their mission and killed off all the Canzers terrorizing the God''s body.


    Even though they defeated the Ifrit, they were far frompletely eradicating the Canzers inside the Remedium.


    Anomaly or not, the fact that Sapient Canzers appeared in the Remedium meant that they were now a part of the mission.


    They shouldn''t have been rewarded for this mission because they were forced to retreat to the real world and ask for reinforcements from HeadQuarters to deal with the Sapient Infection Canzer.


    Was this a mistake or an illusion, Traish pondered. But the facts were right in front of her face. The beam of light had the Genesis God''s signature warmth that they were all familiar with.


    The only way this is possible is if¡­the Sapient Canzers are dead?!


    She fervently shook her head. No matter how much she tried to think about it, there was no way for Sapient Canzers to die without any reason other than being killed by Saviors.


    Her mind went through all kinds of scenarios until an idea popped up in her head.


    She slowly looked over to the ck battle-suited youth right next to her.


    Even though his youth and his gentle features painted a kind and novice Savior who needed coddling, she quickly learned that there was a vicious tiger hidden within him.


    Unbelievable as it may have sounded, there was enough evidence to believe that his Physique LifeSkill was rated greater than S ss. He couldn''t have killed hundreds of Ifrits if it wasn''t.


    She estimated that his strength was equivalent to around the 4th or 5th stage Student realm just because of his physical strength alone.


    There were rumors about him defeating 5th-stage Students, which wasn''t that hard to believe once Tarish learned of his true strength.


    An was also considered a genius who was able to advance from the 1st stage to the 2nd stage in just one week after his draft.


    All the feats and rumors surrounding An painted him as a transcendent genius who could punch two or three stages above his level.


    But¡­can he defeat a Sapient Infection Canzer by himself?


    The only conclusion she coulde to was an impossible thought. An killed the Sapient Canzers and finished the mission all by himself.


    It was much easier to believe that the Sapient Canzers killed themselves rather than believe that a Porter solo-ed a mission meant for a team of veteran Saviors.


    She observed An''s face a little closer. There was a sense of confidence and assurance in his eyes¡ªthe kind that only the truly strong and proven heroes wore on their faces. Meanwhile, her and her team''s eyes were still full of precaution because of the looming threat of the Sapient Canzers. They didn''t know if the Canzers would change their mind and finish the job.


    What if he''s not afraid because there''s no more Canzers to be afraid of?


    The more she thought about it, the more it made sense.


    Does that mean he''s even more powerful than we thought? Is he hiding a bigger secret other than his LifeSkill being greater than S ss?


    She could no longer look at An as a novice beginner who''d only been in two missions. She looked at him as a wild card who could pull miracles out of the back of his hand.


    The ''conspiracy'' in her mind consumed her thoughts until she finally shook herself out of it.


    He might be powerful enough to survive against the Sapient Infection Canzers, but he couldn''t have possibly killed them. He''d need a specialized Operator construct.


    She calmed down once she reached that train of thought.


    But I still don''t know why we''re rewarded with thepletion of a mission¡­


    Everyone looked up and saw grains of glistening sand drop down on them like rainfall. It was apanied by blue wisps that floated like feathers.


    "We''re blessed¡­those are SoulTime and experience points!"


    "The Genesis God saw our suffering and decided to reward us¡­"


    They spread their arms and weed the rewards floating inside the beam of white light.


    An watched as blue wisps and grains of sparkling sand seeped into his skin and went directly onto his Soul System.


    The grains of sand flowed over to the giant hourss floating in the darkness of his Soul System just beside his LifeSkill sr system.


    [SoulTime]


    ¡ª55 yrs : 150 d : 04 hrs : 59 min : 51 s


    An gained 5 years and a couple of days as his reward from the Genesis God. For him, this wasn''t that big of a deal. He could gain double this amount by using his Photosynthesis mutation for a couple of seconds under the intense heat of the sun.


    But for others, it was a literal godsend.


    "Yes! An extra 5 years!"


    The injuries in their bodies slowly closed up as the sands of SoulTime entered their body. They felt rejuvenated as if they were reborn anew.


    From what An learned, the Genesis God gave back the SoulTime that a Savior lost in the Remedium, plus a little extra for their efforts.


    If their original SoulTime was about 25 years and they lost 24 years during a mission, then the Genesis God would give a total of 30 years of SoulTime to them, which consisted of the lost 24 years and an extra 5 years.


    "Finally! It''s been a while since I''ve seen the glory of those blue wisps!"


    The 6th stage Saviors rejoiced as a thousand blue wisps entered their Soul System and filled up their LifeSkills.


    Since they were in the 6th stage, they needed thousands more experience points to level up to the next stage, but they were satisfied with this result.


    But then, their joy was quickly reced with shock as they saw a bright light in the corner of their eyes.


    They looked at the Star Porter and saw him glowing a bright white light by the edges of his skin!


    He was advancing to the next stage!

 Chapter 173 Next stage already?!

    Tarish and the 6th stage Saviors were gobsmacked. They covered their mouths in shock.


    As unbelievable as it sounded, An was advancing to the next stage of the Student realm at this very second! They wouldn''t mistake that glow for anything else.


    If there was a word that transcended a genius, then even that wouldn''t be enough to describe An in his current state.


    After all, it hadn''t even been a month since he was drafted into Genesis City and he was already consolidating his power realm to the 3rd stage of the Student realm!


    It took him one week to go from 1st to 2nd. Now, it took him another week to go from 2nd to 3rd!


    That was insanely fast.


    Tarish and the others finally understood why there were a lot of skeptics who didn''t believe all of An''s feats.


    It would have been more believable if An performed a mission every day during those two weeks. But he didn''t! He only had two missions during those times!


    And even though both of those trips to the Remedium ended up having an anomaly happen, it was still unbelievable to think that he was deemed critical to thepletion of the mission by the Genesis God Himself. He wouldn''t have given An that much experience if that wasn''t true.


    But when they considered the facts, it wasn''t all that absurd to think about. After all, he participated in this 6th stage Student difficulty mission while only being in the 2nd stage.


    He proved crucial in killing off the Ifrits. If he hadn''t used his Physique LifeSkill to prevent the Ifrit clones from destroying the construct, then they wouldn''t havepleted the mission in the first ce.


    And if Tarish considered the thought that An killed the Sapient Infection Canzers by himself, then it made even more sense. Of course, she quickly removed the thought from her brain because An had no way of disabling their cloning ability.


    What she didn''t know was that An didn''t need an Operator construct at all. He only needed to activate the Angel Power in his bloodline and use the even greater Angel LifeSkill in his repertoire.


    It was a proven weakness of any Canzer.


    But of course, if An hadn''t found the ''root'' of the Sapient Infection Canzers, then he wouldn''t have been able to kill all of thempletely.


    His Cherubic Retribution could kill a clone and prevent it from multiplying itself in its death, but he''d need to activate it a couple of thousands of times topletely eradicate the Canzers.


    If he didn''t think of Geminus'' words at that very moment, then he wouldn''t have been able topletely kill the Sapient Canzers at all.


    Their cloning ability reminded him of the Ballistic Lotus, which also had the ability to spawn multiple clones after its death.


    ording to Geminus, the way to defeat those kinds of opponents was to find their ''root'' and destroy it.


    Coincidentally, An saw their ''root'' buried deep underground and protected by arge group of clones. He just needed to lock onto it with his Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill andpletely eradicate the clones in one go.


    "An¡­congrattions. You are now just days away from bing a 3rd stage Student."


    Tarish walked up to An and congratted him. After their initial shock, the rest of her team also came to shake An''s hands for his amazing achievement.


    "You were blessed by the Genesis God!"


    "Even He considers you as a Star Porter!"


    An smiled and thanked them for their congrattions, but he didn''t dispel their assumptions.


    They thought that it was the Genesis God who gave him the experience needed to advance to the next stage. That wasn''t true.


    An had 103,911.2 experience points in his Soul System just waiting to fill up his LifeSkills. He wasn''tcking in experience. He just needed time to consolidate his LifeSkills.


    Explore stories on empire


    The only reason why he wasn''t able to advance his Physique LifeSkill as opposed to his other LifeSkills was because it had a mysterious job attached to it.


    [LifeSkills]


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ording to his experience, he would only be able to advance this LifeSkill if another God blessed him with experience.


    Even though it was filled up with blue wisps of experience, it wouldn''t consolidate into a solidyer in his LifeSkill.


    But only after he got rewarded by the God again, did it finally consolidate into a solidyer.


    [LifeSkills]


    Specialty: GLOBAL


    ¡ªGod: (SSS) Grim Reaper Physique


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating to 3rd stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª 47 hrs : 59 mins : 40 s


    The bright white glow in his body slowly subsided.


    Now that he finally had the time to evaluate his rewards, he looked at what he reaped from killing the Sapient Infection Canzer.


    [You have killed aplex creature]


    [You have reaped the death of a Sapient Infection Canzer]


    [Due to your trait, you have multiplied your rewards by 10]


    [You have gained 50,000 experience]


    [You have gained 110 F ss Mage LifeSkill Spiked Chitin fragments]


    [You have gained 120 (1-star) Sapient Canzer Genus]


    While the others were celebrating the rewards given to them by the Genesis God, An visited his Soul System and immediately merged all of his new fragments and Genus and used it to upgrade his current powers.


    He used up 128 F ss Spiked Chitin fragments to upgrade his current Mage LifeSkill: Exploding Thorns of Chitinous Webs.


    Since his LifeSkill was merged from the Spiked Chitin LifeSkill, he was able to use its fragments to upgrade his current one.


    He didn''t know how his LifeSkill would be upgraded, but he guessed that it would lean more towards being a mage LifeSkill with a power made up of Chitin.


    Maybe the webs will be as hard as chitin. Or maybe the spikes will get even sharper.


    Although it took a total of 301,000 Upgrade points, An found it worth it since his Mage LifeSkill would now be another SR ss LifeSkill.


    With how useful his Thermal Vision became after bing an SR ss, he was sure that his Mage LifeSkill would also experience a tremendous bump in power.


    ¡ªMage: (SR) Bane of Infections: Exploding Chitinous Webs


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª Consolidating the 5th stage


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª 4x F ss fragments

 Chapter 174 Polyglot

    Bane of Infections? Does that mean that my new Mage LifeSkill is effective against Infection Canzers?


    An wanted to check out his new LifeSkill, but he knew that he couldn''t. Tarish and the others wouldn''t be able to take another shot of surprise from An. Their psyches would break once they learned that An had other LifeSkills in his Soul System, with some already consolidating the 5th stage.


    He put his focus next to the Genuses he obtained.


    It took 126 1-star Sapient Canzer Genuses and 33,000 Upgrade Points to upgrade it all to a 7-star Genus.


    [An]


    [Bloodline: Angelic Reaper of Souls]


    [Genus]


    ¡ª4x (1-star) Sapient Canzer


    ¡ª2x (1-star) Flora


    ¡ª10x (1-star) Pseudo Canzer


    ¡ª1x (3-star) Human


    ¡ª1x (6-star) Pseudo Canzer


    ¡ª1x (7-star) Sapient Canzer


    ¡ª1x (7-star) Flora


    ¡ª1x (9-star) Gatekeeper


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Grim Reaper


    ¡ª1x (10-star) Angel


    [You have obtained a new (7-star) mutation: Sapient Canzer Polyglot]


    [Mutation]


    ¡ª (4-star) Canzer Mother Tongue


    ¡ª (6-star) Pseudo Canzer Whisperer


    ¡ª (7-star) Photosynthesis


    ¡ª (7-star) Sapient Canzer Polyglot


    ¡ª (10-star) Gluttonous Soul


    ¡ª (10-star) Dimensional Lightspeed Angel Wings


    An weed his new mutation with open arms.


    By the name itself, he knew that it was an ability that allowed him to converse with Sapient Canzers.


    With all of his mutations, he could now understand and talk to any kind of Canzer he came across.


    If he had this mutation before, then he would have been able to talk to the Sapient Infection Canzers and warn them not to make him angry.


    Of course, the fact that he could speak theirnguage would make them extremely shocked and furious. They would consider it as a transgression that would ultimately lead to them attacking. Either way, An would have liked to see their shocked faces once they realized that he could talk to them.


    This was an extremely important skill to have in missions. Understanding Canzers already proved to be a life-saving measure that could help him figure out a Canzer''s weakness, just like his time in the Pocket Remedium.


    By now, he was sure that every Remedium he entered would be gued with anomalies. He expected to see Sapient Canzers appear rather than a mission preceding as normal.


    And during those times, he and his team would be caught with no way to defeat their enemies. They''d be helpless with no suitable Operator construct in their hands.


    However, if he was able to talk and understand the Canzers, he could figure out what kind of weakness they had. Even if they won''t give it out voluntarily, everything would get easier with a little bit of violence.


    It wasn''t guaranteed that every Sapient Canzer he came across would die from his Cherubic Retribution.


    Although all Canzers were weak against Angel power, he came to know that some Canzers had different weaknesses too. The Giant Werewolf Canzer was weak against Silver and Angel Power, while the Ifrit was weak against Water and Angel Power.


    He got lucky this time. The Sapient Infection Canzer''s weakness was only its hidden root.


    If he wasn''t able to figure out that it had that kind of weakness or if he wasn''t able to find it underground, then he wouldn''t be able to defeat them with just his Cherubic LifeSkill. He''d be too exhausted activating it tens of thousands of times in a short amount of time.


    I need to know how Operators know about a Canzer''s weakness.


    Encountering another anomaly strengthened his resolve to learn more about Operators and their jobs.


    Although most Vanguards med the ''Quills'' for always misjudging the difficulty of a mission, An knew that it wasn''t their fault.


    Even the anomaly in this mission couldn''t be attributed to their mistake. No one knew that it was possible to be ced in a Remedium outside the City walls.


    Only by learning what the Operators do, will he be able to anticipate these kinds of anomalies or even prevent them from happening altogether.


    He could only do that by going to the University where he could immerse himself in everything Operator rted.


    He would have gone by himself, but with the tensions between the ''Quills'' and the ''Knives'' being so high right now, he was advised not to go there without an escort.


    He hoped that Pterina would be finished with her job and take him there.


    However, with another anomaly like this, Pterina''s job was most likely even more congested than before. She''d have to question him and the rest of Tarish''s team about what happened.


    "Look! There''s another ray of light over there!"


    One of the mages pointed out another beam that rained down at a specific ce in the ruins of Masamune district. It pointed at a ce that was buried by two skyscrapers that crashed into each other.


    Tarish and her team slowly walked over to the beam of light and unearthed the wreckage of cement rubble and bent steel beams.


    After a few minutes, they finally came across a ruined cksmith workshop. And surrounded by metal debris in the middle was an unbroken circr construct that they were all too familiar with.


    Their shoulders eased up when they saw a dark shimmering liquid inside the area, signaling that the portal still worked!


    "Yes¡­thank you, Genesis God!"


    "Sob..sob¡­I thought we''d get stuck here for years!"


    The 6th stage Saviors couldn''t hold back their emotions as they finally saw the light at the end of their arduous tunnel.


    They didn''t waste another second as they ran through the portal and stepped back into thefort of the real world.


    An followed them soon after.


    Once he went over the portal, a clear and cool breeze of fresh air hit their faces.


    They slumped on the ground out of exhaustion. Even though their bodies were rid of any injuries, their minds were still too traumatized from the Sapient Canzers'' torments.


    The soldiers on the other side of the portal immediately stopped what they were doing when they saw the Saviorse back out of the portal.


    They would have thought that they retreated from a failed mission, but once everyone was out of the portal, the ck shimmering liquid on the circr construct dissipated in the air.


    This signaled the mission''spletion! Somehow, they killed the Canzers inside even with an anomaly!


    "How did you guys finish the mission?" The reinforcement Saviors tasked to save them stopped their preparations. Explore stories on empire

 Chapter 175 Spread to the world

    While Tarish and her team were in the Remedium, the HeadQuarters already noticed something wrong inside.


    They didn''t stop monitoring the symptoms in the Masamune district. They knew that there was a chance that an anomaly would show up.


    Even though the Operators had no idea when it would happen, they would know once they appeared.


    The ''Quills'' resolved to prove to everyone that they werepetent in their jobs. They needed to assure the ''Knives'' or Vanguards that even in the case of an anomaly, the Operators were ready to resolve the situation as fast as possible.


    So, soldiers were already posted near the Masamune district that closely observed the situation inside the infected area.


    A Gastros Enterifrits, also known as the Ifrit Infection Canzer, was only supposed to show a symptom of a heat wave and an asional random explosion around the infected area. However, the soldiers noticed that the explosions stopped bing random. It started to arrive at a set amount of time.


    To the untrained eye, this wouldn''t seem all that strange. However, the Operators knew that symptoms don''t arbitrarily change out of nowhere.


    Uniformity almost always signaled intelligence.


    This meant that they were dealing with Sapient Canzers.


    The Operators quickly prepared a new construct tailor-made to search for the Sapient Infection Canzer''s root and armed with the ability to kill it with a tinge of Angel power.


    HeadQuarters also recruited a new team and briefed them on the situation.


    Within 20 minutes, their preparations werepleted.


    Even though they didn''t have any porters avable, they opted to use three Saviors with Martial Artist jobs to carry the heavy construct to the Remedium.


    Your journey continues at empire


    The new team of 7 Saviors was just a few preparations away from entering the Remedium in the Masamune district when, all of a sudden, the original team came back andpleted the mission by themselves.


    None of them could believe it.


    The fact that the Remedium portal closed by itself meant that the God Himself considered the mission a sess


    But how is that possible?! They are fighting against an Infection Sapient Canzer! They are not even equipped with the right construct!


    The soldiers and a few representatives of the HeadQuarters quickly interviewed Tarish, the leader of the group, to learn more about what happened to them inside the Remedium.


    ording to her, everything went smoothly until they were suddenly flushed down and transported outside the walls of the City.


    That alone was absurd to hear. Even the representatives of the HeadQuarters stopped writing for a second and tried to understand her words.


    "Outside¡­what do you mean exactly?"


    "Outside the walls. We were at the grass fields outside the walls."


    Gasps and murmurs resounded throughout the spectating crowd. There were a lot of curious civilians who couldn''t help but doubt Tarish''s words.


    "Ahem," the representative coughed and silenced the crowd. "We''ll know the truth once the Inquisitor Pterinaes and questions the team."


    Tarish wasn''t worried. As much as she wanted that anomaly to be nothing more than a lie, she and her team were forced to remember it as the truth.


    "Now, aside from that. Are you aware that bringing an unauthorized novice along with you on the mission is prohibited?"


    She knew she''d get punished for it, but she didn''t regret it. If it weren''t for An, they wouldn''t havee out with their SoulTime intact.


    "Gosh! A 2nd stage novice in a 6th stage mission¡­what are they thinking?"


    "Did he sneak inside with them?"


    Once Tarish''s team heard that, they quickly sprung to their feet and defended the Star Porter.


    "You guys don''t know anything! We wouldn''t have defeated the Ifrit if it weren''t for him!"


    "He killed hundreds of them with his barrage of punches!"


    Now, everybody looked at the Star Porter. They''d heard about his absurd feats of strength, but it was unbelievable to think that it was enough to fight against a 6th stage Student-rated Canzer.


    "You expect us to believe that?"


    "That''s absurd!"


    "Hmph!" The mage went over to An and put his hands over his shoulders. "Doubting him means sphemy! The Genesis God Himself has deemed our Star Porter to be a once-in-a-lifetime genius!"


    The mage didn''t even wait for the doubtful words of the crowd and immediately revealed the truth.


    "He rewarded us forpleting the mission and the Star Porter was given enough experience to advance to the 3rd stage of the Student Realm!"


    The representative of HeadQuarters immediately turned towards the mage.


    "Is that true?!" He didn''t know which one to question first: the fact that they were rewarded for a mission with an anomaly, or the fact that An advanced to the 3rd stage.


    "Yes!"


    "But how''s that possible?! How did you kill the Sapient Infection Canzers without a construct? Tell me, now!"


    But of course, Tarish and the rest of her team had no answer for that. When they told the representative the truth that they were spared and allowed to leave, he massaged his head. He had a splitting headache trying to decipher what happened to this mission.


    Somehow, even though they didn''t kill the Sapient Canzer, they were given a reward from the Genesis God Himself, which should have only happened after all Canzers were killed in the Remedium.


    It was aplete paradox.


    "Sorry, but can we reserve all questions for tomorrow?" Tarish pleaded. "My team and I are exhausted, and we have no energy left to convince all of you about the truth."


    The representative acquiesced. Tomorrow, things would get cleared once Pterina questioned them.


    Meanwhile, the crowd still hadn''t gotten over the fact that An achieved the 3rd stage Student realm in such a short amount of time. They talked amongst themselves.


    "Ey! No way. It''s got to be an exaggeration."


    "But why would they lie about that? And look at his aura. Don''t you think he''s gotten a little bit stronger?"


    "Now that you say that, I think so too."


    Either way, the word already spread out to the rest of the City about the transcendent genius of the Star Porter.


    But the gossips were no match against the spies. The other Cities and Territories in the whole world would soon learn about the fact that a Porter was able to go from undrafted to 3rd stage Student in just two weeks.


    That speed was unprecedented. The offers for his transfer spiked up to even higher levels.

 Chapter 176 Accumulating favors

    Once the interrogation from the representative was over, he assigned some soldiers to escort Tarish and the rest of their team back to their homes.


    Before An entered the truck, some of the dwarves he saved personally thanked him for his service.


    "You have the dwarves'' hands and arms. If you need anything, we will make sure you get it."


    The rest of the bandaged dwarves nodded their heads and showed off their muscles to An.


    Even though the official story was that the anomaly resolved itself without anyone killing the Sapient Infection Canzer, the dwarves had a feeling in their guts that the Star Porter had a big hand in killing those Canzers that caused the suffering of thousands of dwarves in the Masamune district.


    An boarded the truck and it set off back to the City Center where his house was located.


    After everything was resolved, the soldiers and the Operators went on their way to restore the Masamune district to the industrial heart of the City it once was.


    Some of the soldiers in charge of picking up rubble and litter around the streets saw a peculiar piece of equipment lying on the ground.


    It had a long wooden handle and arge rusted curved de.


    It was An''s scythe.


    In the chaos and rush of saving the dwarves out of the Heat Wave, An''s scythe fell out of his back.


    Probably just some trash from a workshop, thought the soldier.


    He was going to put it in the bin to recycle the metal, but some of the dwarves saw the scythe in his hands.


    This was the first dwarf that An saved when the Symptom appeared in the district. He was also one of the dwarves who promised to help An with anything he needed.


    He quickly recognized the scythe as something that belonged to the Star Porter.


    Explore more adventures at empire


    "Hey! Give me that!"


    The soldier was intimidated and quickly gave him the scythe. "What are you going to do with that piece of junk?"


    The dwarf smiled. "I''m going to repay a favor."


    ######


    An stepped off the truck, with Tarish and her team looking over him with moist eyes.


    "Thank you again, Star Porter."


    "I hope we can meet again. Hopefully in a better situation."


    "If you have anything you need, anything at all, you can talk to us and we can help you with it. We may not be the strongest out there, but we do have valuable experience we can share."


    An sincerely thanked them for their offer. He''d need it. As 6th stage Saviors, they embarked on tens or hundreds of missions to get where they were now. He''d be remiss to ignore their advice just because he was physically stronger than them.


    He might breeze past stages like it was nothing, but there were also a lot of things he couldn''t skip past with his Grim Reaper cheat.


    For example, he still needed time to learn and practice the manifestation of his Giant Hand in his Soul System. He couldn''t cheat his way out of slowly learning how to activate it within a fraction of a second.


    Perhaps the hardest skill to learn was how to lock on to a target with his Cherubic LifeSkill.


    He was extremely lucky that the Sapient Infection Canzer''s root was located deep underground where it could not move around freely.


    If the root moved even an inch away from its original position, then An would have needed a few seconds to refocus his target.


    It was a vulnerability in his skillset that he needed to shore up quickly. However, there was no way to speed it up other than to practice it as much as possible.


    But as much as he wanted to, he had no feasible way to do it. For him to activate his Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill, he needed a target. And to find a target, he needed to be on a mission to the Remedium.


    That was a dangerous ce in and of itself.


    And even on missions, he couldn''t just activate his other LifeSkills in front of his teammates. Even if he had a Modify Memory Spore LifeSkill to change their memories, he didn''t want to rely on it when he didn''t need to.


    If only I had my own Pocket Remedium where I could summon my own Pseudo Canzers, it would solve all my problems. It''d be like shooting two birds with one stone. I get to practice my LifeSkills and I get to farm some experience points, fragments, and Genuses.


    As far as he knew, only those who performed great deeds and services for the City were awarded their own Pocket Remediums. The families with deep roots in Genesis City were the only ones who umted enough merit to have it. An would probably need a hundred years before he was eligible to get one himself.


    That''s too long. Maybe if I keep showing my talent, they''ll eventually give me a Pocket Remedium¡­


    But of course, he knew it wasn''t that easy.


    An shook the thought off his mind and focused on what he could do now. And the only thing that was on his to-do list was to go to sleep.


    He waved back at Tarish and the others at the truck.


    Once they were gone, An went directly to his bed and went to sleep.


    He expected another visit from Pterina tomorrow morning. That would surely entail a lot of questions about the mission and his alleged Physique LifeSkill that was greater than S ss.


    If he was questioned about it, then he could lie to her and say that the LifeSkill in his Soul System only had a question mark in its ss.


    That answer would be vague enough so that she''d believe that he had no idea that his LifeSkill was above B ss.


    No matter what, An wasn''t worried about her interrogation. His Grim Reaper Physique would deny any attempts at peering through his lies.


    An closed his eyes and went to sleep.


    #####


    The next day, An was greeted with a knock on his door.

 Chapter 177 Hugs

    An opened the door and a smile crept on his face. He thought he''d be greeted with a visit from Pterina and start his day with an interrogation, but imagine his surprise when he saw a curly-haired woman instead.


    Lizzie stood in front of his house with a relieved expression on her face.


    She couldn''t hold back her emotions as she hugged An.


    "Thank the gods you''re fine. I heard about the anomaly and quickly rushed here."


    An reciprocated her gesture of affection and hugged her tightly.


    In the Unimed Lands, everyone kept to themselves and avoided close contact with each other. It increased a person''s internal body temperature and caused them to sweat. In a ce deste of anyrge water source, they needed every drop of liquid inside their bodies.


    An felt awkward during their first hug, but as things progressed, he slowly got used to it. He slowly yearned for it.


    Lizzie felt warm. Even when warmth was equivalent to death in the Unimed Lands, somehow, whenever he felt Lizzie''s soft arms around his neck and her body close to his, he felt more alive than he was before. Explore new worlds at empire


    He even thought that hugging her gave him SoulTime, but that was just an illusion.


    "I can''t believe those guys. What are they thinking of letting you go on a 6th stage Student mission? And just as I feared, an anomaly urred during your second unofficial mission. Urgh!"


    Lizzie, in her anger, moved away from An and stomped the ground.


    Her words didn''t even register in An''s mind because he was still focused on the fact that he wanted the hug tost just a little bit longer.


    "And you!" Lizzie pointed at his face. "Just because you''re the Star Porter doesn''t mean you should go on missions higher than your level. It''s dangerous!"


    An shrugged his shoulders innocently.


    "If I weren''t so busy, I would stay by your side and make sure you don''t put yourself in such dangerous situations ever again."


    For some reason, An didn''t mind that.


    "Haaaa¡­" Lizzie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "What''s done is done. I''m just thankful you didn''t lose your SoulTime."


    She looked up at him with a curious look. "By the way, did you really advance to the 3rd stage Student yesterday?"


    An smiled and proudly said, "Yes."


    Lizzie couldn''t hide the smile on her face. Even though she wanted to reprimand him for his dangerous stunts, she couldn''t help but be proud of what he''d be in such a short amount of time.


    "Are you happy for me?"


    "No! I''m still mad at you for joining a mission 4 stages above your own!" Lizzie moved her head away from him in embarrassment.


    If she had her cat mutation manifested in reality, her tail would wag left and right, while her whiskered cheeks would be bright red.


    Lizzie took out something from her tool belt and forcefully pushed it into An''s chest. "Here. You should wear this."


    An took the blow and acted like it hurt him.


    In his hands were a pair of epaulets made from the same material as his battle suits. The symbol ''III - S'' was inscribed onto the very material itself.


    "What''s this?"


    "It''s official. HeadQuarters acknowledges your advancement to the third stage. Even if other people won''t believe the rumors, they''ll believe the epaulet on your shoulders."


    An looked at the epaulet in his hands.


    "They''re giving it to me just like that? I thought they needed to confirm my power realm first."


    "That''s the protocol, but you''re a special case. For some reason, HeadQuarters quickly approved your epaulets as soon as they heard what happened."


    An looked at the epaulets on his hands. He didn''t even know how to put it on.


    "Here," Lizzie said as she took the epaulet in his hands. "It''s hard to put it on by yourself."


    Lizzie stretched and reached for his tall shoulders. They were near enough to feel each other''s breath.


    An stood still as he observed her face. Even when he was so close to her, he never felt any difort.


    He didn''t even know it, but he found himself moving his head closer to hers.


    "There. It looks good on you."


    Lizzie walked back to look at An''s new attire. The green epaulets snuggly fit on his shoulders. It didn''t take long before they were quickly dyed ck as his Stealth Tunic recognized it as part of his battle suit.


    "Yes. Fits me just right,"mented An, with his gaze not on his epaulets.


    An and Lizzie stood there staring at each other for a few seconds before;


    DING


    A notification rang on Lizzie''s watch and reminded her of why she visited An so early in the morning.


    "I forgot. Pterina wants to talk to you."


    The mention of the Inquisitor made An immediately focus and rid himself of silly thoughts.


    "I''m guessing she wants to hear my side of the story."


    "Yeah, but don''t worry. I''ll be there with you."


    An wasn''t worried that Pterina''s Operator LifeSkill figured out his lies. He was more worried that he would contradict himself.


    He needed to be careful with his words. If he told a lie, which Pterina knew was false, and it didn''t trigger her LifeSkill, then she would figure out that he had some way to circumvent her lie detection skill.


    I just need to give vague answers. The shorter the better.


    "Come on. She''s waiting for us at the Genesis Church. We''ll take my truck."


    An followed her back to her vehicle and they quickly went on their way to the only ce of worship in the entire City.


    "Why the church?"


    "I don''t know. From what I heard, you were eligible to get some kind of SoulTimepensation, am I right?"


    An remembered. Along with the golden ticket that allowed him a visit to the Vineyard, Pterina also gave him 600 years of SoulTime. He only needed to visit the Church to im his gift, but he never found the time to do so.


    Just then, their smooth ride on the truck was suddenly interrupted when it stopped in the middle of the road out of nowhere.

 Chapter 178 Trying to go to church

    Lizzie opened the blinds on her truck and saw a traffic jam up ahead. There were Saviors and civilians alike stuck on their horse mounts unable to proceed further. One by one, they had to take a U-turn and take another route.


    "I wonder what''s wrong,"mented Lizzie.


    After a few more minutes, the traffic jam cleared up enough for the truck to have its chance to take a U-turn.


    As they pivoted out, they saw the barricades and barriers blocking the road. They were apanied by soldiers stationed around the entrance of the road, preventing any curious civilian from entering the area.


    There were military trucks parked aside hiding more soldiers ready toe out with weapons in case anyone tried to forcefully enter the blockade.


    "Why is this road closed off?" An asked, but Lizzie had no idea as well.


    She would have stopped the truck and asked the soldiers for the reason why they barricaded this road, but they were in the middle of the road and there were other vehicles behind them waiting for their time to make a U-turn.


    "This would have led directly to the church. Whatever. We''ll take the next route."


    Lizzie imputed some directions on the tablet installed on the truck''s dashboard. Experience new stories with empire


    After a few seconds, the truck made its U-turn and headed in the other direction.


    Meanwhile, Lizzie scoured the reports on her tablet. She looked at articles and postings about the blockade, but she couldn''t find anything.


    Funnily enough, all the articles were about the Star Porter and his transcendent talent. There was a lot of discourse talking about his new achievement of advancing to the 3rd stage within just a few weeks.


    "Why are you so popr?!" sheined.


    An had no excuse. He didn''t think that he''d advance his Physique LifeSkill to the 3rd stage after his unofficial second mission.


    Should I not put experience in my LifeSkill for now?


    An pondered whether he should postpone his advancement to the next stage to stay more low-key, but he decided against it. He needed all the strength he could get.


    The truck continued on its route until they were stopped once again by a traffic jam further up ahead.


    "Another one?! What is happening?"


    Thankfully, this road was not a dead-end. Vehicles and mounts could simply turn left or right to change their routes. They didn''t have to make a U-turn like the blockadest time.


    Lizzie maneuvered the truck to park beside the blockade. A soldier quickly walked up next to the window and saluted Lizzie and An.


    "Why can''t we go on this road?" Lizzie asked, annoyed.


    This was not the first angry citizen the soldier had to talk to, so he knew how to handle it.


    "We apologize for any inconvenience, Miss Lizzie. HeadQuarters itself issued a blockade on this street. They don''t want anyone going in."


    An looked ahead and saw soldiers inside the blockade escorting citizens away from their homes.


    Lizzie noticed it too.


    There was only one possibility as to why there was a blockade here.


    "Is it a Symptom?"


    The soldier nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. We''ve been told that this road has been affected by the Canzers'' rampage."


    A Symptom usually entailed some kind of obvious destruction around the affected area.


    For An''s first mission, the walls started melting like wax and turned everything into a very viscous liquid. For his second mission, there was a sudden onset heatwave that turned the Masamune district into an oven that could melt even metal.


    However, when he looked ahead at the blockade, he didn''t see any sort of destruction that he expected when he thought of a Symptom. Even the civilians being escorted out of their homes looked fine and healthy.


    There was no difference between this road and the other roads beside it.


    "A Symptom¡­why isn''t it in the reports?"


    Lizzie looked at her tablet again, but couldn''t find any ongoing mission listed on it. And for two major roads to be affected, then the Symptom was considered to be quiterge. A mission like this should be the headline of any news.


    "It can''t be helped. We''ll have to go to the other side of the City to get to the Church."


    But as it turned out, they couldn''t even do that.


    "Oh, I''m sorry Miss Lizzie. The four major roads connecting to the Church are all blockaded right now."


    That revtion sent a wave of shock to Lizzie''s face. It finally made sense to her why such a big operation was hidden from the public view.


    "With the major roads blocked, there could only be one reason."


    "What is it?" An asked.


    "It''s the Church. The main Symptom must be located there."


    There was a sense of gravity and anxiousness in her voice. An didn''t know why. He found no reason to worry about it as much as she did. From what he knew, Symptoms always appeared in the City and were quickly dealt with by Saviors.


    "Why is it bad that a Symptom appeared in the Church?"


    Lizzie looked over to the soldier and knew that this wasn''t the right ce to talk about it.


    "I''ll tell youter. We''ll have to get off the truck for now and walk to the Church. It''s cool if we park my truck here, right?"


    The soldier nodded and guided the truck away from traffic.


    "Anyway, thanks for telling us. Good luck with your job." Lizzie saluted to the soldier, and the soldier saluted to her back.


    She then led An to a discreet pathway outside the main roads that led directly to the City.


    Once they were out of earshot with no one around them, Lizzie walked right next to An and whispered.


    "You aren''t supposed to know this yet, but I''m going to tell you now."


    "Is it something to do with the Symptom at the Church?"


    "Yes," she answered. "ces around Genesis City all have different levels of priority for HeadQuarters.


    They are called Critical Points."

 Chapter 179 Critical points

    "Let me give you an example. Let''s say that there are two Symptoms ongoing at the same time in the entire City, one at the Springfield Residential District, and one at the City Center, specifically at the HeadQuarters.


    You and your entire team are the only ones avable toplete the mission. You can only save one and abandon the other.


    Which are you choosing: the Residential district where there are tens of thousands of lives at stake or the HeadQuarters?"


    An thought for a second. "Is there a difference?"


    "Yes. The wrong decision could result in the total and utter destruction of the entire City."


    That surprised him. He didn''t think it was that serious.


    "In such a situation, the right answer is to save the HeadQuarters. It is themand center of the entire City. It''s where we monitor what happens in every cell or block in the district. If something happens to the HeadQuarters, we will get a total ckout to whatever happens in the different districts. We won''t know if they''re getting destroyed by a Symptom or not.


    HeadQuarters is also where we Saviorsmunicate with each other. It helps us create a chain ofmand that keeps everything neat and tidy. A disruption in ourmunication would mean total chaos and disrupt the coordination between Vanguards and Operators.


    And probably the worst part that could happen is the destruction of our intelligence. HeadQuarters houses all our data about Canzers and their weaknesses. Without that resource, we won''t be able to finish any mission at all. We''ll get overrun by Symptoms."


    An finally understood the concern in her voice. If such a hypothetical scenario did happen, then it was much more logical to deal with the Symptom at the HeadQuarters first and foremost, even if it meant sacrificing a district.


    "That is the reason why HeadQuarters is considered to be a Critical Point. It''s a ce that needs extra protection."


    "If you''re telling me all this, then that means the Church is also a Critical Point?"


    She nodded. "Yes."


    But An couldn''t figure out the reason why the Church was considered to be crucial in maintaining the health of the City.


    "Is it because it''s rted to the Genesis God?"


    "All of Genesis City is rted to the Genesis God. The Church is important because it is a symbol for the citizens."


    "A symbol?"


    An imagined a scenario in which the gothic church was in ruins.


    The majestic pirs carved with symbols of the Genesis God turned into nothing but charred debris. The intricate paintings of the God on the ceiling were buried under a pile of rubble. The stained ss windows lie shattered and full of soot and ash on the ground.


    Around the ruined church were the grieving citizens of Genesis City. They kneeled on the ground, crying, with their eyes devoid of any hope.


    "The Church is a symbol of the City''s strength. It''s what keeps them strong even in the face of arduous Symptoms guing the City. As long as the Church still stands, so do the people inside it."


    And just as she said that, they finally turned a corner and reached the Genesis Church.


    There used to be a crowd of people walking in and out of the church at all times. People took time out of their day to worship and say their thanks to the Genesis God.


    There was a sense of warmth andmunity around it.


    But now, there was nothing but barricades and blockades preventing anyone from entering the Church.


    There was arge steel wall covering the entire area of the church, obscuring the view from inside. They could only see the top of the gothic spires on the Church''s ceiling.


    There were soldiers and military trucks posted all over the steel wall, with their electric batons ready to incapacitate anyone who dared to go inside the Church.


    And if that wasn''t enough, there were also Saviors stationed alongside the soldiers. Their green battle suits shined in the day and intimated anyone who had any intention of sneaking inside the barricades.


    "Those are 6th stage Saviors," An noticed.


    He couldn''t believe that Saviors at their level were only delegated as guards in this mission. Judging from that alone, An knew that the mission was probably rated above that of the Student realm.


    There was arge group of civilians that were surrounded by soldiers at the side. These were the people who were caught inside while the Symptom appeared in the Church. Usually, they would be allowed to leave, but for some reason, HeadQuarters didn''t want the news to spread publicly, so they kept them here until the situation got resolved.


    Off to the side, he saw nuns and priests gathered together and praying towards the Church. They kneeled even on the rocky pavement to show their sincerity.


    Meanwhile, Reverend 57th talked with a few Saviors to the side.


    "Let''s ask him." Lizzie took An''s hand and pulled him towards the Reverend who quickly noticed the ck battle-suited youth.


    "Ahh¡­the Star Porter. I am now more assured that this mission will be sessful. You are blessed by the Genesis God. The fact that you are here means that He is guiding the Saviors in the mission!"


    Reverend Fifty Seventh looked up to the sky and murmured some kind of prayer before turning to the nuns and priests behind him. They, in turn, copied his actions and prayed even harder.


    "An¡­you''re here." Continue reading on empire


    It turned out that the Reverend Fifty-Seventh was talking with an unexpectedly familiar face. It was Neumann.


    The bald man gave An a big ''ol hug. Even with their age difference, they treated each other as friends. It had been a long time since they saw each other.


    "How have you been?" asked An.


    "Not better than you, that''s for sure! You''re only one stage away from being at my level. You wouldn''t believe the face Wemby made when he learned about your advancement."


    An smiled and thought back to the days he spent in peace with Wemby, Neumann, and Oliver at the Training Hall. All they did was kill Pseudo Canzers with no worry about an anomaly happening.


    "Neumann. Why are you here?" Lizzie gave him a cordial hug.


    "I''m here for support. I''ve got to be a good father and support my daughter on her mission."

 Chapter 180 Daughter

    "Your daughter?"


    Neumann smiled and scratched his head. "Yeah. The reason why I became a Savior in the first ce was so that I would have the authority to support her from the sidelines. If I was an ordinary citizen, I wouldn''t have been able to stay here."


    An remembered Neumann mentioning that he had a daughter, but he''d never met her before.


    "Oh, Ninth is in charge of this mission?" Lizzie said. "Then, I''m sure this mission would be finished in just under a minute"


    "Ninth?"


    Neumann nodded. "Yes, that''s her nickname. She doesn''t like it when people call her Neumann, so she adopted her nickname. I''m Neumann the Eighth, and she''s Neumann the Ninth, hence Ninth."


    Lizzie looked like she knew Ninth, making An the only person in their group to not know about her.


    I wonder what she''s like.


    An assumed that being assigned to a Critical Point was only reserved for those who proved themselves as capable Saviors. The fact that she was assigned to a mission in the Church meant that she was a person who was well-trusted by the HeadQuarters.


    He looked up beyond the steel walls and saw the climbing ck spires of the gothic church.


    No matter how much he looked¨Ceven with his Thermal Vision¨Che couldn''t see any evidence of a Symptom rampaging through the Church. It wasn''t terribly hot like the Masamune district. The walls weren''t melting like hot wax. There were no tremors in the ground. There was nothing.


    "Why can''t I see any sort of Symptom in the Church?"


    Even the blockades on the four major roads showed no signs of any destructive manifestations in the City. It was as if there weren''t any Canzers rampaging through the Remedium at all.


    It made him wonder how they knew there was a symptom in the first ce. If there was no evidence of any destruction, then how did they know there was a Canzer there?


    Neumann arrived just a little bit sooner than them, so he also saw no evidence of a Symptom.


    "I don''t know, but this isn''t the first time that I saw a mission with no discernible Symptoms."


    Lizzie supplemented that with her experience. "There are some symptoms that are really subtle. Sometimes, a crack in the ground or a slight breeze in the air is considered to be a Symptom.


    We Vanguards don''t have the theoretical knowledge or foundation to discern what a Symptom looks like. For us, things might look normal, but for Operators, it could look like a red herring that immediately lets them know that there''s a Symptom." Explore more at empire


    He knew nothing about ''Quills'' and how they operated, but it wasn''t hard to guess that there were probably a lot of rms and security measures installed in the Church that let them know immediately that it was gued by Canzers. It''s a Critical Point, after all.


    Maybe there are Operators permanently stationed in the church. Maybe they''re using some sort of technology to monitor the area too.


    He looked to the side and saw the group of civilians surrounded by soldiers. If he wanted to know what kind of Symptom urred, then he''d have to question the people who were inside the Church when it happened.


    He slowly approached them, and a few civilians recognized the ck battle suit he wore.


    "Are you the Star Porter?"


    "The one all over the news?"


    An used his reputation to his advantage. "Yes. Can you tell me what happened at the church?"


    The civilians all looked at the soldiers who were yawning and looking outwards. They told them that they weren''t allowed to talk to others about what they saw, but the Star Porter was different. They thought he was sent by the HeadQuarters.


    "We were in the middle of a mass. Most of us were sitting on our pews listening to the Reverend talk about the generosity and magnanimity of the Genesis God, when all of a sudden, we heard a popping sound."


    "It''s not just a popping sound, it sounded like fireworks! It''s like a small explosion."


    "Yeah. That''s what I heard too."


    An let them ry their story without interrupting them.


    "I was offering my thanks when I suddenly saw the candles flickering!"


    "And they were getting hot! They burned through the wax within minutes."


    "If I could recall, the whole room started getting hotter too. I was sweating through my shirt."


    Their exnations of the Symptoms they saw sounded oddly familiar to An.


    He didn''t know why, but it sounded a bit simr to his experience in the Masamune district. The main event that happened in both scenarios was a sudden onset of a heat wave.


    The difference between the two was the increase in temperature. The one in the Masamune district was enough to give everyone who stayed for a minute inside the affected area, third-degree burns all over their bodies. The church symptom didn''t look that intense, given that the survivors looked fine.


    "That''s everything you saw? It didn''t get unbearably hot?"


    The survivors all looked at each other and shook their heads. "No, we''re fine. The Reverend escorted us out the moment he sensed something wrong. That''s it."


    "We don''t even know why we''re still detained here. We didn''t lose any SoulTime from that, but the soldiers insisted that we stay here so that we can bepensated with a few years of Lifespan after everything is settled."


    The survivors all had the same sentiment. They wanted to go home, but the soldiers didn''t want them to go out.


    An thought for a second as he tried to assess what he heard from them.


    Are there a lot of Canzers that cause heat wave-like Symptoms?


    When he looked at the church with his Thermal Vision, he didn''t see any sign of a temperature increase. It was actually a little bit colderpared to the other buildings.


    Did they already kill the Canzer?


    "Did you find out anything from the survivors?" asked Lizzie.


    But just as he was about to answer, Pterina suddenly walked up to them.


    "I can tell you what Canzer they''re fighting."

 Chapter 181 Rogue clones

    The Inquisitor''s intimidating footsteps immediately silenced all the chatter from the civilians. The soldiers suddenly stood up straight and saluted Pterina as she walked past them.


    "It''s good to see you, Pterina." Lizzie hugged her and greeted the bespectacled woman.


    Pterina looked over to An and greeted him as well.


    "How''ve you been, Star Porter? You''re rising faster than we can keep up with."


    "It seems so," he replied.


    Pterina looked at the civilians next to him and immediately knew what he was up to. "I''m guessing you were curious about the mission in the church."


    An nodded.


    She looked at the soldiers and survivors curious to know what she would reveal. She pulled An and Lizzie away from the crowd for some privacy.


    "First of all, it looks like we''ll have to postpone your SoulTime bonus for now, An. I invited you to the church so that you can im it, but an expected Symptom changed that."


    "Do you know what it is?"


    She nodded. "Yes. It''s a Canzer that you''re familiar with and ran into quite recently. It''s the Gastros Enterifrits."


    An was surprised. "The Ifrit?!"


    He didn''t think that another Ifrit would coincidentally spawn just the very next day they defeated them at the Masamune district.


    "Are Ifrits thatmon?" he asked.


    "No. You know about Infection Canzers, correct? Well sometimes, as they multiply by the thousands, a few rogue clones travel through the Remedium and spread to the other ces in the City.


    Yesterday, a few clones of the Ifrit made their way from the Masamune district all the way to the Genesis Church."


    An didn''t know that was possible. He knew that Symptoms could spread outwards and infect the neighboring spaces, but he didn''t know that they could travel through to the other side of the City without infecting the nearby ces first.


    The Symptoms described by the survivors finally made sense. If only a few clones of the Ifrit made their way to the Church, then the subsequent temperature increase would only be enough to turn it up by a few degrees.


    If it''s the same Ifrit as the one we faced in the Masamune district, then it''s easy to kill.


    An killed hundreds of clones just using a barrage of punches powered by his Physique LifeSkill. Killing a few rogue clones should be easy.


    However, when he looked at the church and the barricade set up to protect it, the danger level of the mission waspletely unequal.


    There was an entire steel wall about 10 feet tall installed in the perimeter around the Church. With howrge it was, and how fast they installed it, it must have taken a lot of resources to set up.


    By his count, there must have been a thousand soldiers on stand-by next to the wall, and even more stationed around the buildings surrounding the Church.


    Even in the carnage and destruction in the Masamune district that took the lives of hundreds of humans and dwarves, HeadQuarters didn''t station as many soldiers and guards during that mission.


    There were also 6th stage Saviors on guard duty, preventing anyone from entering the Church.


    It didn''t make sense. Ifrits could be killed by 6th stage Saviors, but they were only delegated as guards in this mission.


    The Church is a Critical Point, but isn''t this too much? They''re only facing a few Ifrits. By using the oilmp, they could be dealt with in just a few minutes.


    "Can I ask why they had to have all these guards? Why is there a huge steel wall covering the Church? Why are the four major roads leading to the church blocked?"


    Pterina saw the curiosity in An''s eyes and couldn''t help but be impressed. If he didn''t be a Vanguard, then she was sure that he would have made a great Operator.


    He was asking questions that no Vanguard ever took the time to ask.


    "The four major roads are blocked because they are part of the Church. I''m sure you noticed that the Heat Wave yesterday was only contained in the Masamune district. That''s because each district, each part of the City corresponds to a different Remedium.


    A Remedium in the Church ispletely different from a Remedium in the Masamune district. They''re two different dimensions, so you can''t ess one by going through the other.


    The Church''s Remedium can be essed by opening a portal inside the Church itself as well as the four major roads leading to it.


    If some insane and bored person tried to enter the Remedium through the roads, then they could end up going to the church and interfering in the current mission.


    That would be even more dangerous than a Canzer.


    We can prepare for a Canzer and we know how to defeat it, but if we get sabotaged while on a mission, it could cause the entire team to be wiped out."


    With how integral the Church was to the City, it made sense why HeadQuarters allocated so much manpower around it.


    "I understand why there is so much protection outside, but why is it taking too long? Isn''t it only an Ifrit?"


    If another 3rd stage Savior said those words, they would getughed at for being ignorant of an Ifrit''s threat. But An already proved that he had what it took to defeat Ifrits while being at a low level.


    "We have to be careful. Unlike the other Remediums, we have to make sure that we keep the destruction to a minimum. It could result in an unexpected Symptom. That''s why we dispatched a reliable team to finish the mission."


    "Who?" he asked.


    "Specialists."


    An was shocked. Specialists dispatched to take care of a 6th-stage Student difficulty Canzer? That was overkill. A Specialist was three stages above a Student!


    "Ninth and her team have proven themselves to have a good sess rate. It''s a good choice," Lizziemented.


    Neumann''s daughter is a Specialist?! I didn''t know the daughter he talked about was such a big shot! Whenever he talks about her, I always think of her as a young student like me.


    With a Specialist in charge of such an easy mission, HeadQuarters was assured that the Church would be safe from any harm. Even if it was overkill, they would rather waste resources than fail a mission in a Critical Point.


    BUUUGSHHHHH


    Just then, an explosion disintegrated the Church''s ck spires, sending rubble flying all over the air.

 Chapter 182 Church鈥檚 spire

    Everyone looked up at the fiery explosion in the Church. The soldiers and Saviors stationed around the walls quickly moved and intercepted the giant rubble flying down on the civilians.


    But even when the dangerous debris threatened to crush them from above, the civilians couldn''t take their eyes off the plume of smoke rising from the church''s burst-open spires.


    It seemed to signal the start of an ominous air.


    "Oh God¡­what''s happening?!"


    "What about the mission?"


    Chaos and panic spread through the civilians.


    Even the once ignorant City was now alerted of a problem once they saw the dark plume of smokeing from the Church.


    People stopped their horses in the middle of the road, they dropped their food in the ground, and they walked in the middle of a busy street as they looked towards the Church. They slowly walked over to the blockade on the four major roads leading to the Church.


    "Let us in!"


    "What''s happening at the Church?"


    Thankfully, the soldiers were well-equipped to deal with a bunch of angry and curious mobs that tried to enter the premises.


    "Please! HeadQuarters is dealing with the situation. Don''t cause further panic!" shouted the soldier.


    But that wasn''t enough to stop the civilians worried for their beloved Church. Even if they couldn''t get past the soldiers, they opted to annoy them and hope that they changed their minds to let civilians enter the four major roads.


    Meanwhile, the situation near the Church was even more disastrous. The nuns and priests witnessing their ce of worship blow up in front of their eyes was nothing more than a traumatic experience. They stuttered in their prayers, with their belief wavering for a moment.


    "Let me in!"


    "We need to show our piety to the Genesis God for us to receive his blessing!"


    The soldiers were overwhelmed by the holy men and women. They were given express instruction from the HeadQuarters to not touch the nuns and priests, but that made their job even harder because they were the ones more insistent on getting inside the Church.


    "Believe in our Saviors!" shouted Reverend Fifty-Seventh. Hismanding voice settled down the priests and nuns.


    "Entering the Church will only exacerbate the situation!" Pterina shouted to the civilians. "The Church will be fine!"


    Lizzie helped Pterina calm down the rousey crowd.


    The Saviors stationed around the wall were forced to show their LifeSkills to intimidate anyone who darede close to the Church.


    This seemed to be the most effective way to calm them down. Once the civilians saw the power and pressure of a LifeSkill, they were forced to remember a Savior''s power. They were reminded that there were professionals armed and ready to resolve the situation.


    After a few minutes, the mob finally died down.


    An looked at the Church with his Thermal Vision and saw that the temperature inside the church increased! It was a lot hotter inside, with the same temperature as when the Symptom appeared in the Masamune district.


    The Specialists must be fighting with the Ifrits now. Did that explosion mean that one of the Ifrits self-destructed?


    If An''s guess was true, then he may have touched upon one of the ways to learn how a specific Symptom equated to a specific Canzer.


    BURBLE


    Just then, they all heard the glimmering of a portal inside the Church.


    The civilians were none the wiser, but the Saviors recognized that sound. It was the effect when someone entered or exited a portal construct.


    The mission is finished?


    After a few seconds, footsteps resounded inside the Church. They were heavy. Whoever they were, carried with them something weighty.


    The double doors creaked as they opened it and went outside of the Church.


    With a rhythmic knock they agreed upon beforehand, the soldiers on the other side of the wall pulled the lever and split the wall to let the Saviors exit the Church.


    Finally, An saw the Specialist Saviors in charge of the mission.


    His eyes shined with a hint of recognition as he looked at the ck-haired woman in the middle of the group.


    She wore a green battle suit inundated with medals and pins that showed her achievements as a Savior. On her back was a giant one-handed sword that seemed like it could cut through a skyscraper with ease.


    Behind her were six more Saviors with fewer achievements than her, but were impressive nheless.


    An recognized them. They were the team that rescued them in the Pocket Remedium! He didn''t think they''d be the ones assigned to this mission.


    The ck-haired woman, presumably their leader, walked over towards their group.


    He thought she would walk over to Pterina and report to her about the mission, but instead, she walked over to Neumann and hugged him.


    Is she Ninth? Neumann''s daughter?


    Neumann looked down at his daughter and saw her expression. She would usually don a proud, if not a little arrogant expression on her face whenever she finished the mission.


    The fact that she was somber meant something different.


    "We failed," she uttered.


    An simply couldn''t believe her words. He couldn''t understand how a Specialist-level team couldn''t deal with a simple Ifrit. The power level disparity between the two should be like the difference between heaven and earth.


    Did the Operator construct malfunction? Or perhaps, there was an anomaly?


    An wasn''t the only one with questions in his mind. Pterina walked over to Ninth and questioned her. Even when she didn''t mean it, her battle suit glowed as she subconsciously activated her Inquisitor LifeSkill.


    "What happened? Was there a Sapient Canzer that ambushed your team?"


    Ninth shook her head. "No. It''s just as the Operators estimated. There were only 4 Ifrits in the mission."


    Surprisingly, Pterina saw no lies in her words. She only told the truth. But that made things even more perplexing! She couldn''t understand how they failed to defeat a simple Student-level Canzer.


    "We found three of the Ifrits roaming around the Church. It was easy enough to kill them. The problem was with thest one. It''s at the Door."


    Pterina''s face turned ghastly white. Lizzie couldn''t help but gasp in horror.


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