by Pegaz
"Not interested in contributions, thanks." John walked away after that.
If the war breaks within the next three years’ time, I could go on a killing spree and be called a hero. I don't want to join the army, but I'm willing to fight, all the same. But until then, I’ll just carry on hunting monsters. Guess I'll have a look at the quest boards. I need to get to S Rank so I can get more information about the S Rank areas, too.
Making up his mind, John went to the Guild Hall.
Quest: Kill Demons.
Rank: S.
Quick and easy, no skinning needed and the horns are the only valuable part.
Quest: Destroy Ogre's Stronghold.
Rank: S.
Proof: Ogre's Altar
A stronghold? Better ask how many are in there. If there are thousands of them and they catch me with their altar, they’ll all come at me at once.
He picked up the quest and brought it to the counter to asked about it.
"They have tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Ogres. We sent in a Rank S team just a few weeks ago and haven’t heard anything from them since. Just yesterday, a scout saw what are believed to be their disembodied heads on display by the stronghold entrance."
John almost gasped in joy at the amount of the enemies, but held himself back.
"I'll take it, and I can guarantee success too." With that, John passed his ID card over, smiling.
"You're only A Rank, so you can't take this quest."
John's smile disappeared.
Chapter 42
King
John looked around him, and no one was close enough to hear the discussion.
"Don’t make a scene, but look at my ID card again. Bottom right corner."
The woman at the counter knitted her eyebrows, but did as asked. When she spotted the ‘Sider’ in the bottom right, her mouth gaped. John quickly put his index finger over his mouth.
"Shh!"
That managed to bring the woman back from the shock.
"I might not be S Rank, but I'm stronger than S Rank. That identity should prove it, right? I can give a guarantee that the stronghold will be entirely gone when I'm through with it, but only if you put me on this quest."
"I-I wish I could, I really do! But it's against the rules, the only one who can say yes to your request is the guild master." The woman passed John's ID card back to him, still visibly shaken.
"Then where is the guild master? I'll ask him personally."
The woman sent him upstairs, where John looked around. It was a shop that was selling armour, weapons, clothes and survival essentials just like in Newbie Town. His Analyser Eye saw, however, that the lowest rank for the equipment in here was Epic. There were no Rare or Normal items.
"Hi, I don't have an appointment, but I've got a crucial matter to ask the guild master about!” John approached the store clerk. “Could you please tell him or her I need a meeting? It will only take about two minutes. My name is John, by the way."
The sales clerk smiled and asked John to wait.
Thirty minutes passed.
A member of staff came and fetched John, guiding him to the office. It was a small room just past the shop; it held a desk, some chairs, and an assortment of filing cabinets.
The Guild Master sat at the desk, pen moving furiously across the tablet he was writing in. He was roughly 50-60 years old, slicked-back white hair, white eyebrows and a matching beard. He reminded John of the guy from the J**es B**d films. John almost exclaimed 'Hello, Mr. White!' but held it in.
"Heard you have a quick question for me?" The master stopped what he was writing and looked up.
John smiled and passed the quest slip and his ID card over.
"You're only A Rank. We can't approve the quest."
"Does no one look at the IDs other than rank? Look at the bottom right."
The Mr. White look-alike looked at the ID card again.
"Oh, you're the Sider. So what? Your rank is still too low."
"I'm stronger than any S Rank adventurer out there!” John was almost put aback by the master’s lack of response. “Give me this mission, and I can give you a 100% guarantee that it gets done!"
"100% guarantee, huh?” With an unbothered chortle, Mr. White went back to his writing. “Fine, but if you can't deliver after this, I'll demote you two ranks back to C instead. Dismissed."
With that, John picked up his ID card and the quest slip. He headed back to the counter on the first floor and told the woman of the approval. After a quick check in the system to verify, she gave John the quest.
“Good luck.”
"Thanks," John smiled.
The stronghold was west of Carnegie Town, about half a day’s travel for John. When he got close, his Life vision started picking up massive amounts of monsters. It was almost like the prison, too packed to tell the difference between monsters or an enormous blob of light. He turned Life vision off.
System, scan this area for Ogres, if possible, mark the Ogre's Altar too.
Scanning Complete:
Ogres - 102,645
Neutral Targets: 9,204
Buried Treasure: 2
Life Stones: 25
Altars: 1
John had a big smile on his face from the result. If he got to the altar, wouldn't all 102,645 Ogres come to him? He only needed to check if the Ogres are S rank or A rank by the system now.
He started walking but kept low, trying to find an Ogre to scan. A few minutes of wandering around, and he saw a small group of them. They were at least six feet tall, four feet wide, and their arms were full of bulging muscles. They were armed with big tree trunks to use as clubs, just like in the novels John used to read. Their skin colour was green, and they had grey faces like a disfigured pig. John scanned them all.
The weakest Ogre out of the group read as:
Ogre F
Attack: 1,350
Defence: 1,200
Yes! S Rank by the system! If the rest of them are just as strong, or stronger than this guy, then each of these Ogres should give me 6 hours in the Time Pool. John did a rough calculation and found that if he killed them all, he would receive about seventy-six years’ worth of time.
John also found a loophole with the Time Pool. If you had all Idlers into a skill and it came up as one day's worth of time, it took one day of time out. If you put one Idler in the same skill, and it came up with six months, it would take the full six months’ worth of time out. It was best to have all Idlers in a skill before using the Time Pool.
John tried very hard not to think about this loophole; he didn’t want the system to fix this bug.
With nothing short of excitement, John charged at the Ogres. He had nothing to worry about now. His first blow took out their footings, making them fall before he dealt any killing attacks. The only thing John needed to keep an eye on was his stamina. He wasn’t sure if it would hold up against all the Ogres rushing him at once. John was going to lower the numbers by a bit, rest back to full stamina, then lure the rest in and finish it all within 2 hours.
But then again, none of the Ogres can hurt me, I can stand there and recover stamina while they hit me.
John looked at the clubs the Ogres was carrying, it was just a tree trunk and shaved down for a handle on one side. John picked it up and weighed it.
He found another group of Ogres after two minutes of walking, then charged at them too. This time he killed the first Ogre with the club he was carrying. No time added to the Time Pool, and it was now undeniably confirmed. Any killing method other than the skills in the Idle System didn’t count.
John went further in and finally went into the stronghold. He saw the disembodied heads of the S Rank adventurers that the woman had told him about. They were raised high in the air, like a spiked trophy. When this is all was over, John made a silent oath to take them down and bury them.
After sneaking around, John finally found the Altar. That's when he discovered what looked like the King of the Ogres.
&n
bsp; ???
Attack: 2,500
Defence: 2,300
Shit, his attacks can't hurt me, but my attacks can't hurt it! This is the exact opposite situation that I'm used to! John was used to being in one-hit-kill-or-be-killed situations.
Well, if I kill that guy, then the other Ogres will be scared off. Maybe it's best to leave him for last, anyway. If I kill everything, and he's the last one standing, then I should be able to increase my attack to be above his defence.
With that plan in mind, he ran towards the altar, killing a few Ogres on the way. He was soon spotted, and Ogres in every direction came for him. He opened the system before the start of the fight and left it open.
Let the massacre begin.
During this fight, he did nothing but attack. If he got hit, it hurt like hell but did no damage. He merely gritted his teeth and he carried on killing. After ten minutes, he had to move to a different area because the bodies of the dead Ogres were creating something like a barricade around him.
John used all his Time Pool earnings as he got it. He worked on increasing Feet Damage to Level 70, then Palm Toughness to Level 100, followed by Knuckle Damage, Elbow Damage, Knee Damage and finally finishing Feet Damage's Power Levels to 100.
HP: 310
Attack: S (2,500 Points)
Defence: S (2,650 points)
Stamina: SS (2 Hours)
Now, he had the attack power to kill that King, but there were still loads of lower Ogres left.
John put all Idlers into the Flesh Strength skill, then closed the system and carried on killing.
Chapter 43
S Rank
John had to stand there and let the Ogres attack him for a hundred minutes to get his stamina back up. A hundred minutes of being battered left and right; although he sustained no injuries, he felt every blow against his body. He learned the hard way that it was 1 SP per minute in recovery.
The only good thing about this hundred minute 'hit him as much as you want' time, was that it lured all the remaining Ogres into the place. John confirmed this with Life vision and map.
The Ogres even started moving the bodies of the fallen, too, so that made it much easier for John when he started hitting back again. All the Ogres must have wanted to gang up on John, which is why they tried clearing the way, only to find themselves in the new pile.
The Ogre King did nothing but watch the whole time, and even when John was finishing up with the last few Ogres it still did not move. It looked pale when John took a quick glance at it though.
After all the lower Ogres were dead, John opened the system, turned Continue off, and used the Time Pool to raise his Flesh Strength skill to Level 30. He put all Idlers into Bone Density and used the Time Pool to get that to Level 30, too.
He put all the Idlers into Senses next, and used Time Pool to get Level 9 and 10, completing the skill.
When that finished, John put all the Idlers into the Maximum Idlers slot, and he used the Time Pool to level it up. When it did level up, he put the new Idler back into the skill with the others and then carried on using the Time Pool. He repeated this tactic over and over again.
Finally reaching Level 98, he proceeded to put all 99 Idlers into Maximum Idlers one last time, leaving them there. John had used up the entire 76 years worth in the Time Pool.
Welcome to the Idle System 1.9
Name: John
Age: 17
Idlers: 0/99
Time Pool: 0
Skill Points: 0
HP: 320
Attack: S (3,000 Points)
Defence: S (2,650 points)
Stamina: SS (2 Hours)
Defence List:
Flesh Strength - Idlers 0/99, Regeneration - 30/100
Bone Density - Idlers 0/99, Toughness - 30/100, Marrow - 25/100
Mind Strength - Idlers 0/99, Thinking Speed 34/100
Misc. List:
Maximum Idlers - Idlers 99/99, +1 Max Idlers - 98/2159, Time - 6d 3h 58m 6s
Maximum Workers - Idlers 0/99, +1 Idler Workers - 0/2061
Completed List:
Palm Toughness - Power Level.
Knuckle Damage - Power Level.
Elbow Damage - Power Level.
Knee Damage - Power Level.
Feet Damage - Power Level.
Mind Strength - Memory and Senses.
Senses - Time, Sight, Hearing, Touch, Smell, Taste, Balance, Temperature, Pressure, and Pain.
Senses - Taste Option.
It's confirmed, the two skills Flesh Strength and Bone Strength, at a certain level together, boosts the attack points somehow. It was boosted by 250 Points this time, because the attacking skills are Level 100. So each skill had helped increase it by 50 points.
Ninth Sense: Pressure. Automatically remove all pressure caused by 3rd parties.
Tenth Sense: Pain. Automatically remove all pain caused by 3rd parties.
I could have done with that tenth sense before the 100 minutes of recovery!!!
Now he was depressed. John had to go through all that pain earlier when he could have avoided it! If only he weren't so curious about the defence skills... He could have been pain-free!
They say curiosity killed the cat, but mine put me through a living hell, instead.
Sighing, he looked at the Ogre King and started walking towards it. The Ogre King didn't move. It had an impression that he was facing death itself. With a jolt, it tore itself from its frozen stupor and tried to retreat. For every step John took, the Ogre King began backing up.
John ran at it now that it was stepping back. The creature swung its club at him in a downwards motion. John stopped running and put his palm out above his head.
BOOM!
The impact of the swing and the blocking caused the 200 feet area surrounding them to start caving in, the King's club snapped in half from where John blocked. The cave floor of the area rumbled.
John then dashed forward and punched the Ogres stomach, bringing it to its knees. John stepped back and sided kicked towards its head, and the kick took its head off its shoulders.
He walked over to the Altar, put it into his bag, and picked up the Ogre King's head. He walked to the spikes that had the adventurer’s heads on them.
John took down the human heads, replacing them with the Ogre King's.
He buried the heads of the adventurers, and went off to collect the Life Stones that were in this area. There were twenty-five of them.
Half a day later, he was back in the Guild Hall. He made sure to queue up at the same counter the woman who assigned the quest to him was working at. She knew about the deal the guild master and John had made.
"Hello," John smiled, handed over his ID and his bag with the Altar inside.
"It's you! You completed it?" She was shocked, especially because only two days had passed.
John leaned on the counter to whisper the details to the woman, mentioning that he’d buried the heads of the S Rank adventurers she’d mentioned. He told her about the Ogre King as well.
"I'll go report this to the guild master immediately,” the woman’s voice shook. “But personally, thank you for burying those adventurers." With that, she went upstairs.
When she returned, she told John that the guild master wanted to see him. John thanked her and went upstairs and into his office.
"You were right about being able to do the quest,” Mr. White looked up from his desk work. “I can admit I was wrong on this matter, but it’s nice to be wrong with matters like these."
The guild master had a big smile on his face, like all worries had lifted away. He indeed was happy, that stronghold could have become a real threat to this town if left for only a few more months at most.
"Glad to help,” John returned the smile and sat down. “What about that King Ogre I reported? What's the deal with them?"
"Ogres, Goblins, and many other creatures are powerful beasts, but they have no chance of forming a core. The only thing they do is hunt humans. As you know, we use monster
cores for technology, so the four Kingdoms made a pact to never over-hunt monsters. If they went extinct, then the technology would be lost. But beasts are different. We want to wipe out the lot, but we've never managed to do it. Variants like that ogre are the beasts, evolving into stronger beings to fight back."
"So, what happens now? Get every adventurer to wipe out all beasts in every area before they evolve? Don't think that's possible." John shook his head at this thought.
"A team of scientists has come up with a new method of luring beasts to them, leaving any monsters which have a monster core formed unaffected. It needs to be field tested, though, and to do that they need adventurers as guards to kill all the beasts that get lured. The minimum Rank for this mission is, of course, Rank S."
John felt the air become heavy with anticipation. He knew where this was going.
"Since you've proven your strength,” Mr. White said slowly, “and I've just promoted you to S rank, I'm going to recommend you to this quest. If it goes according to plan, then we could very well end all beasts in this world."
This excited John. Lure the beasts to him?! It would be the Ogre Stronghold all over again, but on his own terms! In the back of his mind, he hoped it didn’t attract too many; he didn’t want to run out of stamina again.
"Very well, I like the idea of going down in history as part of the first team to ever use this technology!" John smiled and put his hand out for a handshake.
The Guild Master stood up as well and shook John's Hand.
"Great, the field test will be in three months’ time, Area 141 outside Tech Town. Take the next carriage tonight, and you'll arrive there in roughly two months."
Chapter 44
Another King?
John left in the carriage headed for Tech Town that night. Two months later, he arrived on-schedule. During the travel he encountered several S Rank monsters, racking up his earnings in the Time Pool. He managed to complete the Maximum Idlers skill after a few days into the trip, so he now had 100 Idlers.