The New Journey

by Pegaz

  "Stay there. If you try to get up, and I'll put you down for good."

  The man didn’t object this time.

  Twenty minutes later, the Guild Master from Tech Town arrived with ten other people; John checked them all out, the weakest was S Rank by the system's standards.

  When the Guild Master saw a man on the ground, he asked, "Why is George on the ground?"

  "Oh, so you know him?" John turned around, facing the guild master.

  "Yeah, he's the team leader for D group, SS Rank adventurer George O'Neil."

  "Ah, okay... we argued, we didn't know each other and... well," John’s voice trailed off into a mumble, trying to downplay the scene.

  "Did you complete the quest you wanted to do before coming here?" The change of subject was nice.

  "Ah, yes I did!” John grinned in recollection. “The King was born, but wasn't fully developed yet. I got lucky."

  "Great! Now we just have to exterminate the rest of the Ants!” The Guild Master beamed down at John with excitement. “As long as another Queen doesn't get born, the race will be extinct soon enough. Did you kill enough ants to be promoted to Rank SS? We can take care of that when we get back."

  John lightly coughed. "Er, how to put this... I suppose the best way is to tell you the whole truth. Don't die of shock when I tell you though..."

  Rubbing the back of his head, John continued, "I already killed all 508,650 of the ants. That includes the queen, king, soldiers, flying and workers."

  Everyone who heard this was shocked. They didn't move, or talk, and John worried they’d stopped breathing, too.

  “WHAT!? HOW!?" The guild master was the first to break the silence.

  "I know it's a bit of a shock, but please calm down, I'll explain what happened.”

  And so, John recanted his massacre. Of course, he withheld some of the more intense parts and the parts involving the system. The group transitioned from shocked expressions to listening in awe. Once the tale was over, they got back to business.

  "Okay, we all came here early to decide on who guards where and with whom, so let's just ignore the fact that George got his ass handed to him on a silver plate. We’ve got work to do!" One of the adventurers behind the guild master said this and started laughing.

  The Guild Master spoke to the side with John. "He's getting impatient, but that's how he is. His name is Greg. He and George have been rivals for years,” straightening up and addressing the group, the Master continued, “But he's right, too. Let's sort out the business first."

  The guild master grabbed a parchment from his bag, unrolled it on the floor, and put some stones on the corners to keep it there. He started pointing at places on the map while he was explaining things.

  "The machine will be here, which is where we're standing. There are four groups, A, B, C, D. They will be on four different sides to kill any beasts that get lured in. There's also an independent group who will not act until one of the regular groups gets overwhelmed. This fifth, independent group will rush to help when needed." He took a breath here and looked around; everyone was still paying attention.

  "The scientists won't be coming. They said it would be too dangerous. I’ve been instructed on how to use the machine and how to record the results. We'll do an hour test run first. If all goes well, we'll have a small break and then do a two-hour test run. Eventually, we want to lure all beasts in this area for this experiment to be deemed a success. Even if we miss just one or two beasts, they might be able to reproduce. To confirm whether it is a success or not, we have a scanning machine inside one of the bags. Any questions?"

  Nobody had any questions.

  "There's going to be twenty-five of us total. Some haven't yet arrived, but they have already been informed. There will be five people to each team and the teams are already assigned. You’ll have to sort out your positions in the team yourselves."

  He explained a few things to watch out for and what to do in certain situations.

  This location was ideal for this test because it was an open field. Underneath it was mainly a hard rock surface, which stopped any creature below SSS Rank from travelling underground. The only beasts that lived in this area were the Silver-backed Apes, which only run above ground.

  When fully grown the Silver-backed Ape monsters stood at seven feet tall and weighed roughly 800 pounds of pure muscle. They were smart, quick, fierce, and fought as humans did. The only difference was the tools they used, as the apes here used clubs but were known to snag equipment from fallen adventurers. Some could even wear armour and wield swords; they could even use monster cores for basic attacks and uses. They were classed as S Rank, but depending on what they wore, and if they were in a group with a good leader, they could reach SS Rank.

  Groups were assigned and John wound up in Group A, which faced the southern side. It was the side that they expected the most enemies to be drawn to, to John’s delight. When the rest of the adventurers turned up a few hours later, everyone found their positions. Within his group, John volunteered to be in the outermost front.

  At noon, the guild master took out the machine and placed it down gently. It was a hefty cube with a few levers and buttons on top, standing about four feet tall and wide.

  "Everybody ready? I'm turning the machine on. Good luck, people!"

  Chapter 47

  Trouble

  When the machine was turned on, John felt the air itself start to vibrate. The device started making sharp whirring noises too. It took a few seconds to get used to it. Because of the noise and vibrations, it was hard for them to communicate with one another. This would hinder teamwork.

  After a spell of waiting, the first Ape came into sight. It headed toward the group from the west, so John and his group remained at the ready.

  The Guild Master made eye-contact with John, giving him an encouraging thumbs-up.

  It works.

  Twenty minutes later, the real battle began. It was starting to get crowded with Apes. With no reservations, John was killing as fast as possible, lashing out in a fury he’d never matched before. The sheer amount of apes was too much for him, and he wasn't able to hold off the front line on his own. Ape after ape slipped past him, where his teammates struggled to keep them at bay.

  It got to the point where the guild master decided to turn the machine off, for the safety of his men. Donning his weapon of choice, he joined in the killing.

  "So, the first experiment works! I think it took so long because of the size of the area. It takes a while for the apes to get here, and we don't know if the machine reaches the whole area yet."

  While they were resting, the Guild Master summarized the results of the experiment. Everyone agreed with his statement and knew they had to keep testing.

  "If it reaches the whole area, then the beasts furthest back will take a while to get here, but the ones travelling here when the machine stopped would be close by and in bigger groups. So if this works as we hope, in the next couple of hours we'll see many more Apes."

  John checked his stamina. It was full after some rest.

  "Okay, the second test is going to commence in one minute. Everyone, get ready!" The guild master took the machine back out and placed it down on the floor.

  The second wave of apes was three times the size of the first wave. After just an hour, the Guild Master had to turn it off so as not to lure any more of the beasts. It took nearly an hour to clean out the remaining monsters. Around John's area, there were hundreds of dead Apes with heads missing, crushed necks, or broken bodies.

  His stamina read as 30/100.He could fight for another hour before he'd have to rest.

  John was actually in the best shape of his teammates. Most of the other adventurers couldn't even stand because it was too exhausting.

  System, scan the area.

  Scanning Complete.

  Silver-Backed Ape: 6,468.

  Neutral Targets: 0

  Buried Treasure: 6

  Life Stones: 38

  I
forgot to scan the area before we started, so I don't know how many there were at the beginning, but by the estimation of the bodies, we are roughly halfway there… I hope.

  John opened the map to check, all Silver-Backed Apes were within a twenty-mile radius of the group. Anywhere beyond that was deserted. It looked like the machine worked and reached the entire area. How could John tell others the good news, though? He was going to have to feign ignorance.

  "We'll rest for an at least a few hours before carrying on,” the Guild Master put away the machine as he addressed his men. “We might have to carry on tomorrow, depending on everyone here. We need to get everyone back to peak condition."

  "If this machine works in the whole area, any Apes that are still alive will be close by. The rest of the area past those Apes would be deserted. If we leave it too long, the ones that have been drawn here might disperse from the groups. We might miss them tomorrow,” John took a breath. This was the hard part, “I recommend a few hours and do one last run." It was John's best chance to try to nudge them in the right direction.

  "You make a point, but we have to prioritise our troops. If everyone here can't even stand up, let alone fight, even luring just a hundred apes could put us all at risk,” the Guild Master looked John in the eye. “We have to see everyone's condition first. If they can fight in a few hours, so be it."

  The group went on to take their break.

  The independent team was mostly holding up. They killed a few apes when things got tricky, but were not spent at all. Thus, while everyone laid down to rest, this team began clearing up the battleground, removing bodies, weapons, and armour.

  Four hours passed, and it was starting to get dark. Everyone was now fully recovered, so the Guild Master decided to run the third test for just thirty minutes.

  This time, John kept the map open while he was fighting. He noted that all the Apes in the area were convened here, even the furthest one had made it. That's when John noticed a single red icon show up at the very edge of the area on the map. The red mark was moving fast. It was on its way here, though it would still take a while if it continued even at its quickened pace.

  An hour later, there were only a few hundred Apes left. It was dark, so the Guild Master and the independent team threw out some lights, powered by monster cores. The lights spread across the area, allowing the adventurers to see. However, their line of vision was limited to the areas that the lights shone on, beyond that was a stark and unending blackness. The battle raged on, eventually quieting down to a low scuffle.

  The last Ape died at the hands of someone in C Group, guarding the northern side. The adventurers all cheered, dropping to the ground to rest. The Guild Master packed the machine away and told the independent team to start distributing food, water, and any medical treatment needed.

  "This was half a blunder, to be honest. Those 30 minutes were only supposed to lure the surrounding few Apes, and then we'd finish the rest off tomorrow. Apparently, it lured the whole fucking lot. Who knows if there are any Apes left, but by my rough estimation puts it at about ten-thousand dead bodies here. If there are any left, it won't be many." The Guild Master paused here to look around at every adventurer that took part in this operation.

  "We'll finish off any Apes left tomorrow. Tonight, have a good rest. No alcohol but I've brought a feast for everyone to share. Plenty of water, too."

  Everyone cheered. Some men complained about the lack of alcohol afterwards, though.

  John still had the map open. All apes in the whole area were here as corpses now. But there was still a single red dot that was moving its way here. John put it at about two hours away, judging by its speed. He knew it wasn't an Ape. Was it lured by the amount of blood? The machine? Or maybe it was just passing by and curious? Either way, John couldn't warn anyone until it was much closer.

  He looked around and saw each adventurer with smiles on their faces, claiming that this would go down in the history books. It was a momentous step forward toward killing all the beasts in the world. John ate and drank with them, recovering as much stamina as possible. He wanted to be at full-stamina when the thing got here.

  An hour and forty minutes later, John stood up and looked in the direction where the red dot was. The guild master saw him staring, a troubled look on his face. He approached the Sider.

  "What's wrong?" Everyone stopped what they were doing and look over at the Guild Master, then following his line of vision and landing on John.

  "I think an enemy is coming,” John said quietly.

  The guild master knew about John being a Sider and did not doubt whether it was true or not.

  "Enemy Attack! Everyone, get into position! It's coming from the south, throw all the lights we have left in that direction!" The guild master shouted just a split-second after John's ominous warning. There were a few moments of silence, followed by the hustle-bustle of the troops as they prepared.

  ROAR!!

  It was a roar that caused the ground beneath their feet to rumble, one that you didn’t just hear, but felt in the very pit of your stomach, as well. It was a roar that forced itself into your ears, your eye sockets, your mouth—it was a roar that reached into your chest and clenched onto your heart with a stony grasp.

  It was the loudest sound that John had ever heard in his life.

  The monster came into view, and as soon as it did, a cold sweat broke out among the ever-paling troops.

  John was at the front, his back facing his comrades. From behind him, all he could hear were endless murmurs of the troops.

  "Oh, shit."

  "We're dead."

  "Why is that here?"

  “Is this the end?”

  Chapter 48

  *Spoiler*

  ???

  Attack: 7,500

  Defence: 7,500

  Shit, Rank SS by systems rating! This just might be an SSS ranked creature, by the Guild’s standards.

  "What is that thing!?"

  John shouted without turning his back on this creature. It stood at twenty-five feet tall. John couldn't see how long it was. All he could see was that it had legs and scales. It flicked its tongue out like a snake, but it was much thicker in proportion to its body. Big, yellow, murderous eyes stared straight at John.

  "It's a Komodo Dragon, rank SSS beast. In fact, it's at the very top of the food chain in this world. The only thing stronger than it is the immortals."

  When John heard this, it clicked. The Idle System went to 10,000 points, but in this world they peaked at 7,500. So, he needed 250 more points to be unkillable in this mortal world, then.

  Before the dragon moved, John quickly opened the system and used all the time he had generated from killing the Apes to level his Shoulder Joints’ skill Toughness. He managed to raise it to Level 100, completing it in a rush. He quickly checked the Defence stats.

  Defence: SS (8,000 points)

  John sighed in relief. Now, if what they said was right, and 7,500 was the max in the mortal world, he could now make things like the Komodo Dragon extinct. He wondered greedily how much time he would earn in the Time Pool. Without turning back, he shouted.

  "I've dealt with one of these things before, I just never knew its name.”

  It was a lie, but he had to keep the morale of the troops up.

  “So that’s called a Komodo Dragon, huh? You guys, run and get out of its sight, let me deal with this." John put all 100 Idlers into Elbow Joints' Toughness and closed the system. Without looking back to see if the adventurers believed him or not, John dashed forward.

  The Komodo Dragon took a deep breath and then breathed fire at John. John hadn’t been expecting that, but he was immune anyway. He kept going, storming directly into the cloud of flame. When he came out on the other side, his Mythical-grade shirt was pretty much gone; only a few rags of the cloth clung to his body.

  He quickly put what remained of the shirt inside his storage space, hoping it would somehow mend itself. John's gloves were still in perfect con
dition, whatever they made out of is heat-resistant. He made a mental note to buy new clothes like these but with ultra heat resistance.

  John landed in front of the dragons left leg and side kicked towards its knee.

  BANG!

  “ROOOOAAAAAAR!!!!”

  The dragon's knee shattered, and the creature roared out in pain. Its leg in the air, it hopped back a little, but John ran towards the other leg and kicked that too. With both knees smashed, the dragon’s head came crashing onto the floor. John jumped above the head and did an axe kick in between its eyes.

  Before it landed, the dragon looked at John in the eye. Its eyes glowed.

  ‘Ding!’

  Removed Petrify.

  BANG!

  Blood and bone went everywhere. The entirety of its head was about 15 feet wide. Now, having fallen victim to John’s axe kick, the whole thing caved in on itself.

  John checked the Time Pool. One day’s worth of time was added, just like when he killed a sinner.

  John was shaking and pale, the rush of adrenaline fading. If he didn't have the system, he would be a statue right now. The dragon would be hurt, but still alive. John would have lost the fight.

  Trying to distract his anxious mind from racing, he looked up and shouted, "THE DRAGON IS DEAD!"

  Soon enough, John was surrounded by his teammates. They cheered him on and lifted him onto their shoulders, some of them bursting into tears. A team of fifteen was assigned to skinning and dismantling the humongous beast. There was to be a feast tonight.

  The head of the beast, however, was reserved for John.

  “You’ll need it,” the Guild Master said with a proud glimmer in his eye, “as proof that you have ascended to Rank SSS.”

  The cheers and merrymaking fell silent. All eyes were on John. Throughout the whole world, there were only nine people who were currently Rank SSS. John would be the tenth person in the world, the youngest one ever.

  The East Kingdom had three Rank SSS.