Chapter 293 - To pay you back (Patreon)

Taking a few steps, I reach the open circular iron door that leads to the facility, and from where I stand, I look towards the city that is in a half-spherical cave.

As I noticed before, there are plenty of buildings that seem much older than the others. They are most likely the original buildings of the cave. Yet even they show the passage of time. There are scratches, and there is rust on the surface.

There are even a few cracks on some taller ones. The newer buildings are made of wood mostly, with some clay-like material added. The city isn't perfectly clean, no matter how people try, there just isn't enough water to do so.

People are even wearing clothes that are made from old cloth or leather. Plenty of them are thin and scarred. Everyone seems to have something to do, trying to be useful to keep the Sanctuary going.

And plenty of them are cannibals without even knowing, eating the meat they think is from the animals hunted outside.

(Why such a change of mind?) I finally ask the granny, (You seemed of a different opinion before.)

I'm honestly curious.

(Will you do it?) she asks me instead.

I then think about it for a bit longer and answer, (I will free him and give him the chance to kill himself. The decision will be on him.)

(Ha! Even if it means he might kill himself and most of the people will die of hunger sooner or later?)

(Weird thing to say after what you asked of me. So, is that much fine to pay you back?)

(I guess I will have to live with that much. Yes, consider your debt repaid.)

After that, the connection turns off, and I break the transmitter in my hand and watch as pieces of it fall to the ground.

I send my mana ahead, and in front of me, a thermal orb forms that I start filling with golden thermal energy.

The quest to find out what's happening in the Sanctuary is completed, and I already got 1 thousand shards. I also filled more tanks with water and filtered it, but that didn't complete the other one asking me to help survivors. I plan to try one more thing, but with 10 days being left until the end of my 3 weeks with the disciple, it's time to head north.

"Minion, stay here for a bit, okay?" Even as I say so, she doesn't react, totally focused on her training to the point where she isn't even checking her surroundings.

I would be a bit more annoyed if it wasn't something I do very often.

Instead of trying to talk to her again, I just create a barrier in front of the door to the facility and then use the anchor I left on the surface.

With a push of kinetic energy, I send myself high into the air and then deeper towards the forest.

[Perception] fires off as I start looking for animals. Even they are quite abnormal. In such a place where veil shriekers are everywhere, only the stronger ones survived. Well, they or the ones that learned to avoid them.

With the speed I'm flying at, it doesn't take that long, and I locate the first one.

[Berserk boar - lvl 190]

The boar detects me while I hover in the air. Its eyes turn blood red. There is no mana, and I detect it as an animal with a close to full physical build.

I create an anchor near its eye and send a sharp explosion of kinetic energy through, obliterating half of its face. The monster sways, and for a moment, it looks like it will fall down, but then the wound starts healing, restoring fully. I send three more piercing attacks through the monster, each burrowing deeper into its head. There it reaches the skull that disperses and reflects the attack.

While still healing and with a bloody skull instead of a head, the boar jumps into the air, using its sheer strength to reach me. A single red eye glowing maniacally.

I avoid with ease, and when the boar falls back on the ground, I quickly create and compress a mana arrow. I boost it with kinetic energy, and it pierces through the animal's skull. For a while, I tried to avoid damaging the body too much; there is no way I won't show the beauty of a full mana build to someone focused on physical stats.

The boar wobbles, healing even that wound. The feeling I get from its body becomes even more dangerous.

With a sigh I let myself land on the ground and my mana radiates into the area.

[Redistribution] grabs and holds the monster, even though the strength it uses isn't something to scoff at.

I take a few steps and touching its head I release the kinetic energy I collected, exploding most of its head and the entirety of its brain.

[You have defeated Berserk Boar - lvl 190]

Then I touch its body and send it through [Tether] towards the anchor I left at the main entrance to the sanctuary.

I check the side quest and it's still not completed. Collecting more kinetic energy I lift off again and [Perception] sends a pulse into the area. I reduce the amount of details it collects and focus more on extending the range. Sensing multiple presences, I fly towards them for half a minute and land on top of one of the bigger trees.

Down in the clearing, there is a group of animals.

[Lightning Bison - lvl 122]

[Lightning Bison - lvl 180]

[Lightning Bison - lvl 165]

[Lightning Bison - lvl 198]

[Lightning Bison - lvl 201]

[Lightning Bison - lvl 200]

They detect me nearly immediately but don't seem to be too bothered. Only two of them that are over 200 look at me. Lightning arrow–like projectiles form over their bodies and shoot toward me.

Before the projectiles even reach me I disrupt them in the air in front of me and continue to observe the animals.

They are all probably twice or thrice as big as bison on the earth. Their fur is brown with streaks of lighter brown that look like lightning. Their horns are also bigger than the horns the ones on earth have. The horns are transparent and it looks as if the lightning is trapped inside of them.

Testingly I return fire with a mana arrow.

It meets with the barrier of lightning one of them creates and they all now turn to me. The lightning attacks at my position intensify, bombarding me with a barrage of attacks that I still continue to disrupt.

For a second I activate my trait and observe the attack and change the disrupting I'm using a bit, lowering the expenditure of mana.

At one point they destroy the tree I'm standing on and while it falls down I stay floating in the air.

Behind me six javelins form and I start compressing them, making them heavier and stronger. It's not to the point of the javelin I used to attack the Veil guardian, but I wouldn't call them weak either.

The group of Bison senses that, but they don't seem to be too bothered. Even their attacks seem to be as if they are trying to send an annoying fly away.

It might be caused by me hiding most of my mana or by them not having to deal with stronger enemies too often. Hell, they may be dumb as heck for what I know or waiting for me to drop my guard.

When I feel like all six javelins are strong enough, I turn to them.

Finally sensing anything, they form a cupola-like barrier around their group, all six of them working in unison.

Not hesitating, I release all the kinetic energy I was collecting and boost all of the javelins right after sending a disrupting wave through the anchor I left near the Bisons.

The disrupting wave weakens the barrier and the heavy and extremely boosted javelins pierce through the rest.

Each of the mana javelins pierces through the head of one of the monsters.

[You have defeated Lightning Bison - lvl 122]

[You have defeated Lightning Bison - lvl 165]

[You have defeated Lightning Bison - lvl 180]

Half of them die immediately and only the stronger ones survive the wound. They roar and start collecting mana, lightning flickering around their bodies.

I use the anchor I left near them and teleport there, [Regalia] forming armor around me while I take out the Voidsteel slicer. [Resonance] flows through the blade, synchronizing with it and making it even sharper and giving it disrupting properties. Before they even react, I slice the head off one of them.

[You have defeated Lightning Bison - lvl 201]

From its body, lightning tries to jump to the blade and towards me, but it gets disrupted the moment it touches the metal.

The remaining two move at surprising speed, their horns elongating and the front of their heads getting a shield-like barrier full of lightning.

I boost my body, dodging the attack and matching the speed of the monster. The blade slashes again, cutting off another head.

[You have defeated Lightning Bison - lvl 198]

A lightning attack from the remaining one disperses on my armor and I let its charge hit my body.

As the attack lands, I absorb the kinetic energy of the charge and my body doesn't even move from the spot. More lightning explodes all around us, tearing the ground apart and exploding the trees. I feel hair on my scalp lift as I get goosebumps.

I transfer absorbed kinetic energy into strengthening my body and move to the side and slash again.

The Bison tries to block the attack, but the blade ignores all the defenses.

[You have defeated Lightning Bison - lvl 200]

I calm down my mana and continue to search for any danger while I step closer towards the monster. For a while, I examine its body.

The skin isn't as tough as I thought it could be and the only part that interests me is the horns. So I take some time to cut off the horns from all of them before using [Tether] to send them towards the Sanctuary.

This time a big chunk of my mana disappears. The expenditure isn't as big as if the Bisons were alive or if I had to deal with a natural barrier to even send them somewhere. I tried it before but using an anchor on someone who isn't much weaker than me is extremely difficult. Well, it's not like I don't have enough mana to do so.

When they are gone, I check the side quest again. And there is nothing.

With a sigh, I lift off and head towards another group of animals.

***

After sending through a few dozen more animals, the quest finally completed and I finally receive 1000 shards. The entire time, I made sure I was hunting them far enough at places where the survivors would never go. I did it to not scare off the animals they usually hunt.

When I use the anchor and reappear in front of the Sanctuary, the giant doors are wide open, and it looks like the entire city is there, skinning or moving the animals inside. They are carefully taking the skins, bones, organs, everything actually. Nothing seems to go to waste.

Hundreds of people move around, children laughing, adults smiling. Every one of the unknowing cannibals seems to be happy. Some of them start to notice me and rush towards me with big smiles on their faces.

I quickly use another anchor and reappear near Vega. When she doesn't react to my presence, too focused on her training, I grab one of her small horns and shake her head.

She doesn't even try to push my hand away, just giving up on her fate, knowing that her best option is to hope for me to get bored. That amuses me even more, and I continue to wobble and gently shake her head for an entire minute. The way she tries to hide how annoyed she is makes it even more fun. To frustrate her even more, I stop only when she is about to reach for my hand to push it away.

“Minion, your awareness sucks,” I tell her, “Anyway, get ready and pack your things, we will be leaving. I will be back soon after dealing with one more thing.”

My senses flow into the Sanctuary and I quickly find Darren and Nina. Teleporting outside of the facility where Vega is packing our stuff, I move towards them.

***

Next Chapter