《All Or Nothing》


 Prolouge

    Life was a bitch. Or at least that''s what he told himself every day. Jack was an ordinary guy, more or less. And this ordinary guy stood outside a coffee shop holding a cup of cappuccino in hand.


    The man, Jack Hoff, sighed. Looking up at the sky, he thought about it. That''s what he had been telling himself about life since he was a kid. As he lost himself in thought.


    Ever since he was a kid, life''s been a bitch to him. His own mom tried to sell him off due to being unable to pay off the gambling debt she acquired. If it wasn''t for his grandpa, even he had no idea where he would be.


    Jack looked up to his grandpa a lot; he was the smartest man Jack knew and the wisest one. He was the one Jack always relied on and saw as his family. So his grandfather''s death when he graduated was indeed a bad memory that still lingered in his mind.


    But that has been a few years; as of now, at least he landed a good job. Although his love life was drier than the Sahara desert. Well, he wouldn''t exactly blame himself for that even when it totally was his own fault.


    Talking to women was a hard thing, okay, and even at the times at which he could, his poor social skills messed up stuff. He either ended up scaring them away or seeming too uninterested or stoic for their liking. Women were hard to understand, it seemed.


    Well, life was a bitch, as he said. He finally snapped back to reality when he noticed something. He had a hot cappuccino in one hand as his eyes seemed more tense than usual.


    He was a tall man with 185 cm of height backing him up, but his height wasn''t even his most striking feature. No, that had to be his eyes. He didn''t know if it was genetic or he inherited it from somewhere. His eyes were almost a golden color that stood out a lot; it was probably a genetic mutation. People often said that they were jealous of how cool they were, but he himself knew what he faced as a child due to them. He would wear contacts, but the safety was questionable without an actual reason, honestly.


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    As he looked up at the blue sky, for some reason, he just felt extra tired today; however, he won''t be getting a chance to relax.


    Back to what he noticed that made him snap out of his daze. Jack''s eyes noticed something in the sky, or rather something near a building''s rooftop. It seemed like a person was about to jump off the roof. There might have been a hint of jealousy in Jack''s eyes at that moment. He was too much of a coward to try anything like that. Should he help? Probably. Would he? Not really. Let the man who wants to be free be free.


    But Jack felt something was wrong. The man''s face turned to him, and every single fiber in Jack''s body told him to run away as far as he could, but to no avail. His body won''t even move the moment his eyes fell on Jack. He felt like killing himself might be the best choice. Alas, panic was not the best friend of those in tense situations.


    The man stared down at Jack, but he was far away so Jack wasn''t sure of the expression on that man''s face¡­ if that was even a man to begin with. Jack felt terrified in the moment. There were not a lot of times he would say he had found himself helpless, but locking eyes with that man felt like one of those moments.


    He found his whole body''s weight suddenly fell down on his lungs. He couldn''t breathe as if the air was refusing to enter his lungs at that moment. He clutched his chest tightly or rather the fabric of his shirt.


    To any passerby, it would look like he was having a panic attack or a heart attack even in the middle of the street. However, no one came to help him. It wasn¡¯t because everyone was an asshole. I mean, they were, but everyone was busy staring at the sky. More specifically, the orb of flaming gases they called the sun as it turned red.


    Jack was trying his best to keep himself from passing out. He was already on his knees gasping for air as he heard loud thuds all around him. He was conscious enough to realize they all were falling unconscious. Even he himself was having a hard time holding onto it.


    His mind wasn''t working properly. So there was no way for him to help them let alone himself as he took breaths gasping for air until ultimately he also, like everybody else, fell down.


    But just before his eyes would close, he heard a ting sound and a screen materialized in front of him. He didn''t have the time nor the mental capacity to see what it was but all he was able to read was


    [THE TUTORIAL HAS BEGUN]

 Greed

    There was no concept of time when one was unconscious. One could only dream in the time they had lost their ability to stay in control of their own body. And dream Jack did. He dreamt of many things: a loving girlfriend, a better job, some friends with whom he spent his childhood, his grandpa''s words, and even his mother. No matter how much he tried, he couldn''t hate her. In the end, she was someone important to him after all. It all felt rushed and mixed. It was a dream in the end.


    One moment he was enjoying it with all his friends; the next moment, he was at the dinner table with his grandpa. But suddenly, his grandpa spoke up.


    "Do you know why you lost, Jack?"


    The Jack who was in the body of his child self remembered these events. ''It was after my class lost that tug of war game at school¡­ I remember I was upset,'' he thought to himself, looking at Gramps as the child Jack spoke nothing.


    Grandpa smiled and placed his hand on Jack''s head, ruffling his hair. "You lost when you stopped trying. Listen, kiddo, life is hard, and you already have seen it. The moment your team started getting pulled in, you guys started losing hope. That was where you lost."


    Grandpa smiled, looking down at him, picking up a cup of green tea from the dinner table, taking a sip, and sighing. "It''s okay to feel hopeless. But it''s never okay to lose hope and give up. You know what''s the one thing about humans, Jack? Why are humans able to stay atop the food chain? We are not the strongest. We are definitely not the smartest. It''s because humans are stubborn. Because humans are greedy."


    After speaking that sentence, he got quite a look from the little kid who thought the world was more black and white. "Being greedy isn''t a bad thing. If humans were not greedy, we wouldn''t survive. We are greedy for things, and we never give up. Humans have the hunger to achieve things and the will to make it happen. So listen to me. From now on, be greedy and never give up until you achieve what you want, son. Life''s not gonna be easy; it''s hell out there for all of us. And the only way you will survive is being greedy and not giving up. Now go."


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    The last words caught Jack off guard as if grandpa wasn''t talking to the kid but the adult Jack directly. Just then, the man felt his dream crumble around him as his consciousness drifted back to reality¡­


    The man slowly opened his eyes to find himself lying on the ground; the ground, however, was softer, unlike the concrete street he passed out on. As Jack opened his eyes, he would finally realize why that was so.


    He found himself in a savannah-like place. The giant grassland stretched as far as the eye could see in front of him, and right behind him were trees. Giant trees, ones that would make a two-story building look like a cardboard box. Whatever was going on definitely wasn''t normal, and Jack was going to learn this the hard way.


    He wasn''t in the city anymore, that was certain. Maybe this was another dream, but a red cheek soon made him realize it wasn''t. This was real; everything that''s happening was real. Surprisingly, he didn''t feel as scared as he thought he would.


    Jack looked around, trying to see if there was anyone else there except him. But even after looking around the grassy area, he found no one. He didn''t dare go closer to the forest at first. But in the end, he was left with no other choice as his feet moved towards the giant trees.


    Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he noticed something. From under one of the tree roots, two blood-red eyes stared out, not leaving Jack''s face even for a second. He realized this might have not been a very good idea as he took a step back. That was a worse idea as whatever it was saw Jack trying to retreat and jumped out at him.


    Finally coming out into the light, Jack was able to see the full body of the creature. It had red eyes, and it was as big as an adult human dog. Yet it wasn''t normal. Its shape was pointed towards the front, and two fang-like teeth protruded out from the front. It was some kind of giant rat.


    As it jumped at Jack, he was taken by surprise, but he jumped away just in time to avoid getting mauled. As the rat landed on the other side and turned back, looking at Jack, growling. Just then another screen popped up with a ting:


    [QUALIFICATION GAME HAS STARTED


    TIME: 10 MINUTES


    REWARD: tutorial pass


    OBJECTIVE: kill]

 Qualification Game

    "What the fuck?" was all Jack was given the chance to say before the rat dashed right at him again. This came as no surprise, but Jack was an ordinary person. He wasn''t the most athletic, but that doesn''t mean his body wasn''t able to react. The man tried to dodge to the side by jumping again, but the rat was no idiot either. It also jumped in the same direction and ended up headbutting Jack hard enough to send him flying backward into a tree. Despite the size of the rat, its strength was no joke. Jack felt as if multiple bones inside his body had been cracked by that single headbutt as he let out a scream loud enough to echo through the forest. It hurted.


    The rat, seeing this as an opportunity to kill its prey, wasted no time. It lunged towards Jack, whose back was lumped against the tree, with a sound that sounded more like a growl. Jack tried to get up, but his legs wouldn''t move. Was he scared? Right now, of all times? Well, no one could blame him. He was just having his coffee a few minutes ago during his lunch break, and now he was here fighting this creature for his life. His bones had been broken, and the pain was making the fear worse.


    For a normal person, this was a hopeless situation, and Jack was losing hope. As he saw the rat in the air coming down at him, he almost felt as if time had stopped. Everything felt slower, and having no way out, the man accepted his end.


    He could see his whole life flash before his eyes at that moment. ''And I thought that shit only happened in movies'' but just as the rat''s teeth dug into Jack''s shoulder, he heard a voice. One of those so-called memories of his life.


    "It''s okay to feel hopeless, but don''t you dare give up."


    Jack, whose shoulder the rats had dug deep into, yelled and realized he was really an idiot. Against all odds, his hands moved. He wrapped both his arms around the rat''s neck, using whatever strength he had to squeeze the motherfucker as he screamed with every fucking fiber of his being.


    "I AM NOT FUCKING DEAD YET."


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    It would sound crazy for a man to be screaming at a rat who wouldn''t even understand him. But in that moment, Jack was screaming at himself more than anyone else, reminding his own conscience of his grandpa''s words. As long as he is alive, he will keep trying. He was greedy; he wanted to live, and a fucking rat was not going to take it away from him.


    As the rat whose neck was being squeezed between Jack''s arms squealed, it finally started to sound like an actual rat. It dug its teeth much deeper into Jack''s shoulder because of the pain it was experiencing. In response, Jack tightened his grip on the neck as well. It was a battle of endurance, and who would give up first? And for the rat, it was an unlucky day,as the man he was facing was not going to give up anytime soon.


    Before long, the rat''s teeth stopped digging into Jack''s shoulder as the red in its eyes faded. Ultimately, its body stopped struggling as well, leaving behind a jack who was bleeding out and hugging the dead body of a rat.


    He panted, gasping for air, trying to breathe in whatever he could after that encounter. His shoulder hurt like hell, and he couldn''t even feel his left arm properly anymore. As it went limp, the rat''s dead body was released from his arms and fell to the ground. Its neck had been cracked, and blood was spewing out of its mouth, but there was no comparison. Jack, even if he was alive, was in greater pain, and the injury was worse as he tried to use his handkerchief that he had to tie up the wound on his shoulder.


    He never realized how hard a job just breathing could be. But due to the blood loss, he felt weak. He felt like he could pass out any second from just exhaustion. But every time his eyes closed, he forced them open again. Slapping, pinching, and biting himself. Whatever he needed to do to stay awake, he did.


    Finally, after exactly ten minutes from the second screen''s appearance, a new screen appeared in front of Jack, soon followed by another.


    [Congratulations! You have cleared the qualification game.]


    [Received 1x tutorial pass]


    [Tutorial pass: you would be healed back to full health and would start the tutorial. Denying the tutorial will disqualify you, and your life will be forfeited.


    Start tutorial


    Y/N]


    "Why do you ask... as if there is an option?" he said while trying to breathe. One good thing was that his injuries would be healed, but if this was just the qualification game, one could only question how bad the tutorial was going to be. But with no real option, Jack lifted his right hand and touched the Y option on the screen.


    [The tutorial will now begin for Jack Hoff.]


    [Tutorial: Survival


    Time: 31 days


    Reward: ownership of the forest of giants and the ability to leave the forest


    Objective: Survive 30 days in the forest of giants.


    Note: If you leave your designated area before the 31st day, you will be considered disqualified and your life will be forfeited.]


    "Give me a break."

 Rats Nest

    "Give me a break."


    Jack said as he sighed. But his body still hurts like hell. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a beam of white light fell down on him, piercing the skies. There was a feeling of warmth flowing through him, a sensation of ease that encompassed his body. Only for him to open his eyes and realize his shoulder or any other part of his body did not hurt anymore. Even the broken bones felt better. He felt as good as new.


    After the white light vanished, Jack was left standing there alone. He wondered how he was meant to survive in that forest for 30 days. Food was going to be one hell of an issue. He just had lunch so he could go the next 24 hours without losing efficiency, but what after that?


    He needed a plan, but before everything. If he was going to survive here, he needed a safe place or shelter. A place that was not normally visible. Just then, he looked at the gap between the giant tree roots that the rat had jumped out of. He knew it was a bad idea, but there wasn''t much of an option. Generally, in those fantasy novels, the characters are given some abilities or at least a weapon. But he was stuck there without any skill or weapon. Just a human in a forest full of monsters.


    He picked up a stick that seemed durable enough to use for self-defense and walked towards the gap, jumping down it. Where he ended up was rather surprising. He thought of rats as creatures that would live in colonies or in multiples. But there were none. There was, however, food, and a lot of it. Different kinds of fruits and animal carcasses the rat had hunted and collected for meals. He did not think rats were the gatherer kind, but I guess you learn something new every day. There was also a tunnel leading somewhere. Jack decided to follow the tunnel as it started moving up in a spiral like a set of stairs, and finally, when he saw light coming from the end of it, He ran towards the light, finally coming out in a more open room-like area inside the tree. The giant tree was probably the rat''s home, but that did not make sense. Just then, he saw it, and it made sense. He had been ignoring the claw marks around the place, assuming them to be the rats. But the dead giant squirrel in front of him said otherwise.


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    It was a red-colored squirrel whose tail was very fluffy. But its inside had been torn out by the rat, and it was killed in a fight, it seemed. It looks like the rat found the squirrels and took her by surprise. That would explain the gathered food. But since both the squirrels were dead now, would it be first come, first served, or would it be survival of the fittest in this case? Regardless, he would be using this tree as his home base now. It''s not deep within the jungle, so he shouldn''t face anything too dangerous.


    "Home sweet home, I guess," he said in a very unenthusiastic tone. He saw a little tunnel inside the wooden wall leading to one of the branches and decided to check it out for the better or worse. He needed to see what the area looked like, at least if he was going to survive. As he stepped out onto the branch, he finally got a view of the forest. He could see the dead body of the rat down where he killed it. He should bring it inside now that he thinks about it. He also saw some giant birds a few trees away from him in a nest; they didn''t look hostile but were defensive enough, so he did not look at them. He also saw some fruits in a spring-like shape hanging from the tree. The fruits were blue in color, and honestly, he had no idea if they were good to eat. But if they were their size, he could survive a good week on one fruit alone if he was smart about it.


    Just then, he suddenly felt the tree branch shaking as he looked at the birds on the other tree. They hid themselves with branches and leaves to make it seem like there was no nest there at all. He took the hint and ran to hide inside the tunnel leading to the branch, as well as peek out to see what was going on. In that moment, his eyes finally landed on them. And he realized why the rat and everything else were so big. It didn''t take a genius to figure it out, but he never paid attention to the name. It was the forest of the giants.


    Two giant men, about 20 meters in height, each walked by. Each of them had a beard and long hair, along with a cloth around their waist. They were not holding any weapons exactly but carrying the dead body of a dead deer tied to a log by its feet. Every time they took a step, the ground shook as Jack realized this was going to be one hell of a month.

 First Kill

    About 3 days after that, Jack had finally settled in with the life and way of survival inside the forest. It was, in no way, an easy path to walk. Honestly, it was much harder than he had anticipated. Humans had it too easy, as he understood that day. First of all,the food that was collected had to be burned because it was either rotting or the smell was attracting animals.


    As for the squirrel, it had to be burned because the blood in its body had soaked up all the edible meat and formed clots, making it uneatable. He kept the pelt, though, along with the squirrel''s fur. He used the tail to create a blanket-like thing, as the nights were so much fucking worse than he had thought. His whole night has been spent shivering if it weren''t for that squirrel tail and the skin to form blankets. He was able to make knives out of teeth¡ªdaggers, rather. But not all was lost. He had shelter, and the giant nuts stored by the squirrel would last him at least a week. But he needed to either get to the fruits by then or he would be done for


    Over the next day, he tried to use the teeth dagger as support to climb the tree from the branch upwards. To reach those fresh fruits, but as he was climbing, he heard the sound of rustling. Suddenly, looking up, he saw a green snake, 20 meters in size, being a giant, sliding down the trunk towards him. He tried to move down, but he was slow. But before the snake''s open mouth could get him, something came flying in at great speeds and grabbed the snake, which was flying away with its dinner. It was a hawk, and so on that day, he found out that trying to climb the tree wasn''t a good option for him by any means.


    But as a human, food was a necessity, and something had to be done before he starved to death. He knew everything; even the rats in this forest were stronger and faster than him. But none of them were humans. Well, do giants count as humans? Whatever that was, that was, that was not the point. The point was that no one was as clever as a human in this forest, and humans were scheming beings. That''s how they hunted mammoths. Not because they were strong, but because they were smart.


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    Over the next few days, he spent his time collecting the grass and stuff to create a tight rope that could be used. Normally, grass would have been a bad idea, but in the place where flower stems were as strong as a steel chain and as big as an actual rope, that was the easier part. He would use the tooth daggers to cut and connect the rope together to make what he needed. He wasn''t making a weapon; of course he was a human; he was making a trap.


    Now back to the present. Exactly 3 days after his scenario started, Jack was once again on the run from a giant rat, only this one a bit slower than the last. As Jack ran, he ran towards a particular flower he had used as a marking point and jumped over a particular section of the ground. The rat, however, did not realize what was going on, and when it did, it was too late. Its leg was caught up in a rope trap that pulled as soon as the rat stepped on it, causing the rodent to end up hanging upside down.


    Jack wasted no time and took his dagger and stabbed the rat, which couldn''t move properly no matter how much it tried, right in its neck, then dragging the knife to the other side all the way, drawing blood from the creature''s neck as it lost the light in its eyes over time.


    "Human: 2, Rats: 0"


    As soon as Jack confirmed the creature was dead, he ripped the body through the middle to drain all the blood and protect the internal organs from developing clots like last time. Suddenly, as Jack did that, a screen appeared in front of him.


    [First inferior kill]


    +10 merits


    1¡Á inferior loot box]


    He had no idea what the merits even meant. As for the random loot box, it appeared right in front of him as he sighed. Of course it had to be a luck-based system. He hated gambling. But well, it was not like he had any other option. He didn''t know what would come out of the box, but seeing as it was a reward, it wouldn''t be anything bad, right? He just thought about it for a second, looking at the box. After a while, he finally decided to open it. He won''t be losing anything and only gaining more, so it''s not a bad deal in any way. And so he used the box and spun the wheel.

 Aquamarine Fangs

    "Here goes nothing."


    [An inferior random loot box has been used.


    Generating inferior weapons


    An intermediate weapon has been generated.


    Congratulations]


    [Heavenly Aquamarine Fangs, II


    Two short swords with the blessing of the ruler of the seas and skies.


    Passive effects: slow falling when equipped. Increased damage in a moist area]


    Just then, as Jack was reading the screen, two short swords sheathed inside aquamarine covers, each having a wing on its opposite side, materialized in front of him. He was more confused than anything, as he caught the swords before they hit the ground. But they were gliding down like paper rather than falling like steel.


    Holding them, he felt light as if he were holding a stick, but they weren''t weak by any means as he unsheathed the blades, their edge sharper than any blade he had seen himself,not that he had seen many. He tried to test the blade on the dead rat''s body as he swung and ended up accidentally slicing the rodent in half as its upper portion fell to the ground. The lower leg is still tied by the legs hanging upside down.


    "There is no way these are considered inferior." He read the screen. Yup, they were stated to be intermediate. His only question was, How did they even end up inside the inferior random loot?


    He face-palmed himself, realizing something. Even if it was inferior, it was still a random loot box, and of course there was a chance of getting good sh*t. It seems like these weren''t cursed or anything. Which was one of the reasons he was skeptical about getting them. Intermediate seems slightly better than inferior. Or at least that''s what the two written in roman numerals next to the name told him. He assumed inferiority to be 1 that way.


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    Just as he was thinking all that, he placed his swords on his waist with the help of the sheath holster. Just to make it easier for him to draw the blades when he would need them, he forgot about the rat''s corpse all this time.


    And something definitely followed the smell of the blood as a snake even bigger than the one he had seen last time came slithering towards him. Of course, he was unaware of this feeling of being overconfident after his kill. But the rustling of grass made his ears perk up.


    He realized something was coming towards him, and in that situation, the best bet would have been to just run away and leave the rat''s corpse behind. But he had just gotten an actual weapon for once and had just finished his first successful hunt. There was no way he was letting someone else steal his game.


    "This is getting annoying. I ain''t giving this up, so come at me with everything you have. You scaly motherfucker."


    He yelled at the snake, holding one sword in each hand, as everything went silent for a bit. There was no more rustling sound, almost as if the snake had gone invisible, but of course that was not the case. He kept his eyes everywhere, and suddenly the snake''s body lunged out of the tall grass at him, but he was prepared. He had been caught by surprise too many times.


    He dove under the snake''s head and held up his sword blade above his head, supporting the blade with his other arm. As the snake ended up throwing itself at the sharp blade and getting cut right through the middle, its head was split in two as the blood spilled onto Jack. He felt disgusted by it, wanting to throw up, but held himself together. He was pretty sure he accidentally ingested some blood in surprise, and that made him more disgusted as he helplessly threw up in the end.


    [The second inferior creature has been killed.


    +10 merits]


    This time he wasn''t given any special loot boxes or rewards, but as he stopped puking, he smiled, wiping his mouth.


    "FUCK YOU, GIANT FOREST."


    Was it anger? Probably. Was it the adrenaline flowing through his veins? Maybe, but today he had won, and there was no denying that. Today he had not only achieved his first hunt but successfully defended himself against a stronger opponent without being hurt. He felt proud, and the adrenaline only further pushed his emotions.


    That night, he slept peacefully and on a full stomach. And so the third day ended.

 Decorations

    Through the tall grass ran a little rabbit. Well, by normal standards, it wasn''t anything normal; it was as big as a cow, but right now it ran because something was following it. The creature was unaware, as he wasn''t able to see properly what or who it was. So the white bunny ran through the grass and around the trees to maybe loosen its chaser.


    But suddenly, while running, the bunny stepped on something, and before it knew it,it found itself hanging upside down from a giant bush. It was trapped inside a net made out of plant fibers. He heard the sound of laughter in the distance, and a man appeared out of the tall grass.


    "Was it always that fucking easy?"


    The man spoke. The rabbit noticed the man''s size was almost the same as his. The man was tiny, and the rabbit tried its best to chew through or get out of the net, but unfortunately that didn''t work at all. As the rabbit looked at the man again, he saw that the man had two blades on his waist and was wearing armor crafted from snake scales. His chest, shoulders, legs, knees, forearms, and such were covered by the armor while still allowing him proper movement. The man drew out one of his blades, which made the rabbit shriek out in fear. As the shrieks of a dying rabbit resounded through the forest,.


    [Inferior creature has been killed


    +10 merits]


    "Do they have to be that loud?" he asked himself as he dragged back the rabbit''s corpse to his home base. He had made a few changes to his base. He had made a gate using wooden sticks and plant fiber from the flowers. And a bed frame using the same, which now had rabbit-pelt bedsheets and a squirrel-tail blanket and pillows. He honestly had no idea what to do with the snake''s body, so he turned the scales into armor for himself since they would be good defense against normal stuff. And finally, the head of the snake was put up on the wall as decoration, for it was the first real enemy he killed in a battle. He wanted to keep it, but it was missing teeth, which he also used for something else. He had also realized just how much fucking better intermediate-grade weapons were.


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    If there are two inferior creatures fighting and both are on the same level, no one knows who''ll win. But if the weakest inferior creature holding an intermediate weapon and the strongest inferior creature fight, The strongest would struggle a lot. That was the fucking difference, and for him, getting an intermediate weapon meant the tutorial was going to be smooth sailing from here on out.


    But that doesn''t mean it would be the same after that as well. Who knows what hell he would be facing after going back to his home? If this was the supposed tutorial, then it meant the game would only get worse from here on out. And for that, he needed to somehow get stronger. He was still not sure what was going on in general or if anyone else except him had survived. Because if he were the only survivor, He''d rather not think about that right now.


    He walked out towards the branch through the tunnel after he finished his lunch and looked up. The blue spring fruits¡ªyeah, that''s what he called them¡ªwere calling out to him. Well, not actually, but he felt like he needed to challenge himself because if he wasn''t going to get stronger, he would die sooner or later.


    After waving towards his bird friends a few trees away, he pulled out his blades and started climbing, using them as support, digging them into the tree trunk and pulling himself up, then pulling out the sword and stabbing it higher up over and over again, climbing the tree, aiming for that fruit. As he got closer and closer, his heartbeat started getting faster, anticipating getting attacked from any direction at any point. But it went much smoother.


    No snakes jumping out of the tree to wrap around him and make him fall to his death or choke him out; no hawks diving in and tearing him apart with their sharp claws and beaks. Everything went too smoothly, honestly, making him even more paranoid.


    As he finally reached the branch, he pulled himself onto the branch and started walking towards the fruit. And then, sitting down on the branch, he cut a piece of the fruit with the help of the blades. Upon eating it, his face almost melted. This was the sweetest thing he had eaten in the last few days. He couldn''t help it. But the feeling of fulfillment was short-lived, as he heard a tingling sound and, upon opening his eyes, saw a screen that made his face change.


    "What the fuck?"

 Second Lootbox?

    "What the fuck?"


    He would stare at the screen in front of him, not sure if he was scared, confused, happy, or all at the same time. Honestly, whatever it was at this point, he didn''t care; what did matter was what he had just found out.


    [Poison within the body has been cured due to the effects of the Bulaba fruit.]


    [The status condition has been lifted.]


    He didn''t even know he was poisoned. When did he even¡­ohh yea, he literally ingested some of that snake''s blood. Of course, he had poison running through his body. The real question was: why did he not even feel it much less than anything? Maybe it was a silent killer poison, but even then he should have felt some kind of effect or loss in efficiency, but he felt normal¡ªeven better than normal, honestly. How did that even work? He was a bit confused still, but the night would be fast approaching soon. He had no time to wonder over this. He just took the bag he had created using rat skin and filled it with as much fruit as he could have taken with him. Now the harder part was getting down. But that was already taken care of as he put the bag on his shoulder, grabbed his swords in his hands, and jumped off the branch.


    Under normal circumstances, this would be counted as a suicide attempt, but nothing was normal anymore, was it? As soon as he jumped off, instead of falling down, he glided down towards the ground like a flying squirrel. He glided for quite a bit until it was completely dark. He spotted something in a nearby tree, or rather, inside it. He noticed a source of light shining brightly in the dark. It was easily seen. He finally reached his branch, where the tunnel leading to his home was.


    "Well, that''s a job for tomorrow, me. I guess I am not doing that today."


    And so the fifth day finally ended with him being able to gather some of the fruit he was aiming for from the start. And boy, was it worth it to finally have something sweet? That night, he slept especially happily¡ªmore than ever.


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    The next morning was an unwelcoming one. He almost felt like a kid who wanted to take 5 minutes more from his mom to sleep, and honestly, he had enough food to last a few days, so honestly, he had no real need to check what was in that other tree today. But if he was lazy, even one day, his laziness could be the difference between life and death for him. That thought alone was enough to jerk him awake from the bed without any more effort needed as he sighed and put on his armor and gear along with his weapons. He went out to check on whatever he saw shining last night.


    But there was no tunnel or stairs leading up to the hole in the tree trunk. Well, back to climbing, it seemed like. He really was getting the hang of it. He thought, chuckling to himself. He kept climbing up until he was near the hole in the tree trunk. He was smart enough not to directly look inside. As he peeped in, he saw another random item box like the one he had received earlier after killing the rat. But this time it was a naturally occurring one, which was weird enough on its own. But what probably made it more weird for him was that the box was not alone.


    There was a green-skinned humanoid creature standing in front of the box with a spear in his hands. The creature had pointy ears and a bald head. It was what many fantasy stories back then referred to as a goblin. Gremlin-like small creatures, which caused chaos. Unfortunately, this one was neither small, standing at 5 feet 11 inches in height, nor gremlin-like. The creature stood in front of the box as if his life depended on it.


    He was probably defending it, and he didn''t look weak by any means. Now Jack had to make a decision here. Either he could go and try fighting the goblin, who honestly looked like a better fighter than Jack in every single way possible. Or he could just go back and prepare for this battle and make some tricks or weapons with which he could actually survive this encounter.


    Honestly, any sane man would have picked the latter option, and so did Jack, deciding not to mess with the goblin right now, but as Jack turned around to leave, the piece of wood he was standing on crumbled inwards, causing him to end up falling inside the tree trunk. Well, he didn''t take any damage due to his swords, but he was annoyed nonetheless.


    "Oh, for fucks sake."

 First Battle

    " Oh, for fucks sake."


    He repeated this to himself while landing down inside the giant room inside the hollow tree,where the goblin warrior stood protecting the chest. It looked at Jack landing in front of him on the other side of the room and gripped its spear tightly. The warrior was definitely not happy with his arrival. Just then, a screen popped up in front of Jack.


    [The Day 10 special event has been activated earlier.]


    [Rewards would be diminished.]


    [Trial of paths:


    Time: 1 hour


    Reward: Gene skill ,inferior weapon (removed), inferior armor (removed), full recovery


    Objective: defeat or kill the goblin warrior within the time limit.]


    "Of fucking course," honestly, he was just annoyed. Not only did he end up triggering something that he normally should not have, meaning it would be fucking harder than him for everyone else, but to top things off, he won''t even get half the rewards he was meant to. All because he was paranoid and clumsy. Next time, he would just be lazy and die fucking later.


    Right now, he was pissed at anything as he held each of his short swords in each hand. He rushed towards the goblin, slashing at him with his sword. But the goblin was an actual warrior. Not someone who just picked up a weapon a few days ago for the first time. As Jack slashed towards him, the goblin sneered at the amateur technique of swordsmanship. The goblin used its spear tip to parry the blade and push it away from his own body while using its free hand to punch Jack in the guts, making him get pushed back as he coughed, gasping for breath.


    "Well, fuck you too."


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    Jack said before getting up in a much angrier tone and rushing towards the goblin all over again, this time learning from his past mistake. He did not directly swing his sword but instead used his straight hand to swing a feint attack, only to follow up with his left hand in an upper slash.


    But the goblin was not stupid either, as it avoided the first feint attack and then used the tip of his spear to parry against the sword once again. But as he swung his fist towards the man again, Jack used his sword''s sharp edge, causing the goblin to punch his own hand and cut it through the middle. Jack had used the same trick he did with the snake, using the opponent''s momentum against them to gain.


    This time, the goblin ended up being the one screaming in pain after having cut its hand in two. This was the perfect opportunity for a follow-up attack with his other blade due to the goblin having lost its focus in the moment. Jack used the blade to stab forward with all his strength as his blade pierced through the goblin''s chest. The green warrior''s eyes turned red as if he had been enraged. Rather than pain, there was anger on its face as it grabbed Jack by his neck and then smashed him into the ground so hard that Jack could feel every bone in his body being crushed.


    He let out a bloody scream, quite literally, as blood spilled out of his mouth while he did so. His body refused to move as the goblin sighed and walked towards his spear, where he had dropped it, grabbing it to finish off the human.


    The goblin walked to the human who had challenged him, as he was going to end this trial once and for all. It roared and stabbed its spear down towards the man''s head. But against all odds, Jack moved his body to the side just in time to have the goblin''s spear just stab into the ground as he threw something at its head with all the strength that was left in his body. His weapon pierced the goblin''s eye as it screamed.


    The snake''s teeth, which he had turned into poisoned throwing weapons, finally came to be used, as he assumed they would. Using his one chance, he grabbed his sword and stood up while the goblin tried to pull the blade out of his eye. Jack came from behind, and with every bit of energy left in his body, he slashed at the creature''s neck from behind, decapitating it. Jack fell to the ground, as did the head of the goblin, who used to be his enemy.


    [You have killed an inferior creature


    +10 merits]


    As Jack was struggling hard to breathe in the moment, suddenly a white light shot down from the skies directly at him, and the warm feeling encompassed his body again. Everything felt fine for now as he closed his eyes and enjoyed the warm feeling both of victory and of full recovery.

 Game Master

    Jack lay on the ground, trying to catch his breath after whatever he had just fought. The warm feeling rejuvenated his body back to its peak condition. The white light vanished, as did the pain and blood. Leaving a jack behind who was in his best health but visibly annoyed. He didn''t even plan on doing this whole stupid test right now, but life was indeed such a bitch.


    "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, huh?" he repeated to himself, thinking that if he had been more careful and made some emergency plans for such situations, maybe he wouldn''t have faced such a hard time as he did right now. But what was in the past is in the past. It''s better to learn from that and not make the same mistake again.


    He finally got up after collecting his will to live and looked at the box, which he had done so much for. He walked towards it as the box shone brightly in a golden color that honestly matched his eyes. He knew the rewards would have been really good. He lost the inferior weapon, which he didn''t mind all that much since he still had his intermediate-grade blade, but that inferior armor would have been really useful considering how fragile his own body is. But there is nothing he can do about it now as he places his hand on the box.


    [Congratulations! You have finished the trial of paths.


    1¡Á gene skill received


    +100 merits]


    [You have unlocked the skill tree.]


    [You have unlocked the merit shop.]


    [Your gene trait has been recognized.]


    He had no idea what the fuck even the gene skill, trait, or whatever that bullshit was. It all went over his head as he looked at the merit shop notification, though his face did light up. It was a shop where he could spend merits, so it was still possible to buy some armor. He was in desperate need of some actual armor; the snake scales he was wearing right now hardly did any more than aesthetics. He sighed, but just at that moment, the screens disappeared, unlike last time when the box disappeared. This time, the box started spinning as a blue light projected upwards from it.


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    From that light, a projection was produced midair, right in front of him. It was an old man wearing a blue robe and a hat too big for his own good as he looked around at himself and then at Jack. The hologram spoke.


    "Ah, so you have cleared the path of trials. I congratulate you, you one."


    Jack wasted no time and grabbed the goblin''s spear, throwing it towards the old man''s head as it passed right through him. In response to which, the hologram of the old man only clicked his tongue.


    "Tch,tch, tch, you can''t harm me, kid. Give up on that. I''m not even a real person. I''m just what you humans call a program. Left behind to guide you and give you some much-needed information."


    "Information, huh? Then start speaking for fucks sake, you old fart. I have spent the last seven days in hell, so you better start saying what the fuck is going on here," Jack said with a certain anger resonating from his voice. Maybe it was the frustration from the goblin incident, but he was not happy.


    "Seven days, huh? Explains the shitty attitude, sigh. Then listen, kid. The phenomenon you are experiencing right now is called a tutorial. It takes place when a game master chooses a planet as their candidate. And-"


    "What the fucks a game master? And candidate for what?" He cuts off the old man, more visibly confused. The old man looked a bit annoyed at the invention but continued nonetheless.


    "Game masters are beings with absolute powers. Some may call them gods; others look at them as demons. But the only fact is that they are the strongest beings. As for what, it''s complicated."


    "Wait, wait, so you''re telling me an absolute god did this because?" Jack asked, Every passing moment, his anger was somehow getting worse.


    "Tell me, Jack, have you ever thought about what will happen when two gods fight? It''s not pretty, I''d tell you that."


    Jack''s face changed expression from anger to fear as he slightly understood what the old man was hinting at. Then the old man''s hologram held his hand up, and a hologram, or rather, a map of a weird wave-like structure, appeared. The waves were bright and filled with color and light. They were enclosed within a ball, and one corner of the ball was absolutely pitch black, as if nothing existed there.


    "This is our universe, and that black part is where the last war among the game masters happened; no life or even light can exist there anymore. It is called the abyss. Do you understand now?"

 Meritocracy

    Jack nodded quietly, scared and mesmerized at the same time by the scale of the destruction and its beauty.


    "And so to make sure an event like that doesn''t happen again, a new rule was made. Or, rather, a new game. Game masters would choose a certain planet they find fit and cultivate the people of the planet into warriors. And then whenever two game masters have a conflict, their planets will be forced to fight in different games or even wars directly, whatever is decided by the game master. Except for providing resources, which is also very restricted, the game master can never interfere directly with the world or the people, and to make sure they do not, the system was created. And so what you are facing right now is a trial made by your game master to eliminate those who won''t be useful to him. Leaving behind only the strong who have cleared the tutorial. Everyone who clears the tutorial gains ownership of a certain part of the planet. As for you, yours will be the forest of the giants."


    "Wait, wait, you mean I''m on earth right now?" Jack asked in a more worried tone. This hell hole was fucking earth?


    "Precisely well, for the most part, new earth. After all of you passed out, the game master changed a few things and added some new creatures to the system. But yeah, it''s the same planet. Except that the creatures you will face from here on out are divided into tiers, inferior are the weakest, as you know. Ah, about merits; they are the currency you can use in the shop or in the post-tutorial world. As to why they are called merits, they basically decide how much value the game master puts in you as a player. If you collect enough, you may even end up with an influential rank for the game master. The more valuable you are, the more stuff you get. It''s a meritocracy."


    Jack just listened quietly at this point. It was too much information to process at a time, but he was trying his best to keep calm. "So we are the pawns in a very big chess game among gods who can change entire planets as to how they wish just to make us better or train us."


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    "Indeed, if those are the words that help you understand your situation better." The old man said this before waving his hand as a screen appeared in front of Jack.


    [+300 merits received]


    "Wait, what?" Jack was left bamboozled by the sudden notification. Even clearing the trial gave him only 100, let alone killing so much stuff. How did he just receive $300 without doing anything?


    "As you already know, you finished the test 3 days before you were meant to, so extra points. You lose physical rewards for rushing it, but since you won, who cares about your methods? You get extra rewards."


    "Ah," he said, sighing as he looked down and thought about it all for a bit. This was a messed-up situation, no matter how he looked at it. He was going to either be dead or a pawn under a god who couldn''t care less about his life. Either way, his life from here on out would be more hellish. What the fuck kind of fate was that? Either become a puppet or die for fucks sake. As Jack tightened his fists, thinking about it all, the old hologram sighed. This was not the first time he had seen someone angry about their fate. Jack was no different.


    "Listen, kid, it may seem bad right now, but it is not slavery. You still have your own will, and being chosen is generally considered a great honor. You''re not a slave; you''re a champion, the chosen one meant to represent a god. A champion of gods thinks about it."


    Suddenly, a sword passed through the head of the hologram, clearly thrown by Jack. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" he yelled in a pretty mad tone before stepping towards the man. "I am not a fucking kid to not realize what''s going on or to be swayed by your sweet talk. I don''t care about you or your god, so shove this talk about being a champion up your god''s ass because I don''t fucking care."


    The man sighed and spoke "well, I tried. It''s your choice, kid; you either accept or die. Take your time; there''s no need to rush it. Such decisions aren''t made in a day. Let''s talk about something else. The more important reason as to why I am here." The old hologram''s face changed into a weird smile as it finally spoke in an enthusiastic tone, "It''s time to get your skill"

 Skill Tree

    "My what?" Jack asked that, since the start of this whole stupid convo, this man had not once mentioned these skills. He did remember getting something called a skill tree and gene skill from the box, but exactly what it was, he had no idea. He just waited for the old man to explain.


    "So your skills. Well, I''ll explain this in the most basic way: Skills are magic powers you get that are based on your DNA."


    Those words ended up confusing Jack even more instead of helping in any way, as the old man rubbed his temples and explained.


    "Okay, so you know every human has a different DNA." Jack nodded. "So your DNA is used as a map to create a magic skill for you that you can use to survive, fight, or whatever. You didn''t think the game master was dumb enough to throw a few humans with weapons in the face of other supernatural beings. You develop your own abilities that you can use. And since it''s based on your DNA, it''s both related to you and randomized."


    Jack nodded, trying to understand that whole system as he thought about the screens once more and then asked, "What about traits?"


    The old man was surprised as he spoke. "Oh, you have a trait? Well, that''s an extremely rare boy. Traits are considered winning a lottery. Well, traits are special passive abilities some people possess. They are extremely rare and extremely valuable. Ah, to check your skills and stuff, just say the words skill tree out loud."


    "Skill tree?" Jack said this as a tree-shaped screen appeared in front of him with many words on it.


    [Skill tree: Jack Hoff


    Rank: inferior


    Inventory: Aquamarine fangs


    GENE SKILL:


    Devil''s deck (inferior): the user is able to shuffle a deck of cards, excluding the king, queen, and jack for now. Whatever card the user lands on will grant him a certain effect.


    Heart heals any injury or status condition the user may have received.


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    Diamond creates a protective barrier around the user.


    Club provides users with a physical boost in all their physical capabilities.


    Spade: anything the user has killed can be summoned to aid them in battle.


    The number on the card drawn determines the strength of the ability or its effectiveness. The spade summons will be automatically assigned a number based on their rank between 1 and 10. New summons can be exchanged with old ones, but the numbers will always be decided via strength.


    There is a cooldown between drawing cards, and when the next card is drawn, the effects of the old card are replaced.


    GENE TRAIT


    Devil''s Hand: The user has increased luck while gambling, but their luck is reduced while doing anything else.


    Merits: 460]


    "Interesting," the old man said as he read Jack''s skill tree. He was rather intrigued by the skill and how variable it was compared to the singular ability granted by normal skills, but what caught his attention more was the trait. In the system where everything was randomized, having the ability to influence the odds was no less than a cheat code.


    Jack, however, was silent as he looked at the screen. He wasn''t mad or annoyed anymore. He was pretty sure this was all a big fucking joke when he started laughing. He laughed and laughed harder, and he finally stopped and looked at the old man. "Can this be changed?"


    "I am afraid not, but this is honestly a very good skill. What''s wrong with it?"


    Jack looked the man dead in the eye and spoke. "I''m just not a big fan of gambling," he said, remembering the time when his mom ended up making a deal to even sell him off due to her gambling addiction. Gambling has only ruined his life for the worse, and ever since he was a kid, he hated that, but now? His only hope of survival was more gambling.


    He was pretty sure someone was playing a very big joke on him as he sat down and just looked up at the old man. "So what am I supposed to do now? Start killing the giants."


    "God, no, you''ll be squished before you can get near them. For now, go back home and get some rest if you really need it. But I would give you one suggestion."


    "And what is it?" Jack wasn''t even annoyed anymore; he was just too tired to care about all this shit anymore.


    "I suggest saving your merits. They may be more useful than you think. Don''t spend them before the tutorial ends."


    After saying so, the box finally stopped spinning as the light out of it stopped, and the box vanished. He was too tired and annoyed right now. He needed a good sleep to clear his mind from all this shit. The skills and all were fine, but in all honesty, he couldn''t care less about a god or magic right now. He was mentally exhausted from so much information, his fate, and the memories resurfacing like that. The best idea for him was to just get some sleep. He jumped off the hollow trunk, holding his swords, as he glided down, landing right outside his own door. He went inside and hit the bed, covering himself in the blanket, not even wanting to wake up anymore after all this. He just wanted to avoid all his problems by sleeping right now, and that''s exactly what he did.

 Giant Wolf 1

    On the 9th day of the tutorial, the man who had been hiding under a tree in his home for the past 9 days to ensure his safety wasn''t there anymore. He had long realized that, inside his home, he wouldn''t ever be able to truly grow stronger if he stayed curled up in a hole. No matter if he survives, if he cannot be strong, he will be rendered useless by the game master, at which point his life will be the same as gone. If the only way to survive was this, then so be it. Jack has spent enough time complaining about something he cannot change, so he will work on what he can change now. As he stood on the branch of a tree, much further deep inside the forest


    He looked down on the prey he was aiming for this time. Killing simple snakes and rats won''t bring him anything. It was either go big or go home, and he was going to go big this time. Under the tree was a giant canine. A giant wolf was probably resting. It was a stupid decision to rest in the open, as the wolf was open prey for whatever was going to be out there hunting, and this time it was a human as big as its paw at best. As he looked down, he knew it would be a hard fight even if he was smart about it, but there were only so many ways for him to gain strength, and with his summoning ability, if he was able to kill this beast, he would get a powerhouse on his own side. But, surprisingly, there was no fear in his heart anymore. At worst, he would die, but that wasn''t an option, so he would win anyway.


    He sighed and activated his skill. Oh, yeah, about his skill. He had spent the last day just researching how his skills worked, and there were some really shocking results. His healing and shield skills were pretty normal, but the physical enhancement on the 10 cards was so strong that he was able to uproot a giant tree while only using one arm. But the chances of getting them weren''t normal. This worked like a very random slot machine, but his trait only made it work in his favor, so he didn''t mind. He hated gambling in the first place, but if that''s what it takes for him to survive, then he will only survive using it. What matters is that he lives, no matter how.


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    [The Devil''s deck has been shuffled.]


    A deck of cards appeared in front of him. Each card flew around him in a circle until only one remained in front of him. It was seven spades. It automatically meant that the strongest creature he had killed so far would be summoned. The card turned into white light particles that moved into a swirling tornado from the ground as the particles faded. Left standing behind was the goblin warrior holding a spear in its hand as he nodded towards Jack, and Jack sighed, knowing what was going to happen now as he didn''t think, and jumped down from the branch, the goblin following him.


    He landed right on the wolf''s neck, alerting him, and the goblin landed right on its forehead, stabbing its spear right through the creature''s eye without wasting a minute. The warrior was disciplined and efficient in his work. No matter how much that guy annoyed him before, he had to say that at least he was a good partner to have. With that, Jack took his opportunity while the wolf shook its head uncontrollably to shake off the goblin.


    Jack climbed onto the wolf''s neck, using its fur to grab onto it, and used his blade to stab forward into the wolf''s neck while Jack slit through it as the warm blood rained down on him once again. What was this the second time? Even for them, it was as disgusting as the first. As the wolf growled in pain, it stopped trying to save itself and slammed its head against the tree trunk, which ended up squishing and killing the goblin warrior. Well, he can be summoned again tomorrow, so that''s not an issue. What was an issue was that he lost his footing and was thrown onto the ground as he went, crashing away onto the ground, but this time he rolled so as not to break any bones again. Been there, done that more than once.


    As the bleeding wolf finally looked at him, the little critter, which had climbed onto its fur and slit its throat, tried to kill him like that. Even if it was losing blood, there was no way it was going to die without taking out what dared attack him, at least.

 Giant Wolf 2

    As the beast growled and ran towards him, Jack gripped his blade and found himself smiling as the wolf ran towards him at full speed. That was a rather strange reaction. He never thought he would be smiling in a life-or-death situation, but the world shows you many wonders. He just shrugged it off for now and gripped his blades tighter as the wolf ran towards him.


    He activated his skill once more as a deck of cards appeared in front of him and spun around him, only to land on the nine hearts. His luck in gambling was indeed nice, but what was healing meant to do in this moment?


    He thought up an idea somehow, but it was going to hurt. Well, that was the least he would expect. He ran towards the wolf that was running towards him, and as it opened its maw to crunch him to mince meat, he only smiled as he leaned to the left and tossed the sword in his right hand in the air, letting the wolf bite his arm off. He gritted his teeth as a new arm regenerated where the old one used to be, and he caught the sword that he tossed earlier, using the opportunity he had to channel all his pain into his next attack, stabbing both his blades into the side of the wolf''s maw as more blood spilled out. He pulled the blades forward with all his strength, cutting off the jaw of the wolf. He knew making a distance between him and the wolf was a stupid idea because he couldn''t run that fast and the wolf would get to him faster due to his size. So the best plan was to take advantage of the wolf''s state right now.


    The wolf growled and howled in pure pain as it raised its paw to slam down on the tiny bug, but it jumped out of its way again. The bug was not just annoying but a danger to his life, and it took the wolf too long to understand that. He had realized he was going to die from blood loss, but it did not know the bug would give him much more injuries than a simple cut under the neck. Half its jaw was hanging as of right now, with multiple cuts on his jaws as it tried to crush the bug under its paw.


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    Taking the opportunity he had, he jumped to the wolf''s leg and started climbing it, knowing the creature couldn''t bite him and had no real way to get him off his leg. He kept climbing until he had reached the beast''s belly and cut into it with his blades, ripping open the beast''s stomach as blood and guts spilled out. While the beast struggled and ran into trees and growled until it finally fell down, its voice weakened. Ultimately, its voice stopped as a man covered in blood atop its body smiled with a satisfied look on his face.


    "Haaa, I won..." He said, taking a deep breath, and smiled, letting out a chuckle before he yelled, "I FUCKING WON. YOU SAW THAT YOU SON OF A BITCH." Even he was not sure who he was yelling at. But at this point, he was letting all his anger and the nihilism that had carried him so far into the tutorial behind him. He was smiling because he was neither angry nor frustrated right now. All he felt was the adrenaline running through his veins as he laughed.


    [You have killed a higher inferior creature.]


    [+50 merits]


    "Still inferior, huh... I got a long way, I guess," he told him, getting off the corpse of the body wolf. He knew at this point he could summon this guy to aid him in battle whenever he would get a spin above 7 for now and with his enhanced luck in gambling. That was only a matter of a few spins. He was honestly more than satisfied with today''s results. As he decided to walk home and rest for the night, something else caught his attention. Right where the wolf was resting, he noticed something rather weird.


    He noticed a hole in the ground, and upon getting closer to it, he saw it was completely dark inside. And it was not a normal kind of dark, as when he tried to get too close to the hole, a barrier appeared over it and a screen appeared in front of Jack.


    [Dungeons are locked until day 10].


    "A dungeon?" He was rather surprised. It was so obvious that there would be dungeons in this thing, but the thought never crossed his mind. It seemed like at least he had a plan for what to do next. For mow, he went back home. As the 9th day came to an end, he was left with a new summon and a new mission to finish.

 Forge of Rhurtas 1

    The next day, he returned to the same hole. Although a bit more careful this time,because of its giant size, the wolf''s body was something he could not move just on his own. Setting fire to it would literally be calling attention to him, so the only option was to leave it there. At best, some wild animals find it and drag it away from the place.


    At worst, the giant finds it and starts looking at what caused the death of the wolf and investigating it. But it seemed to be the former when he came back. There was a trail of blood where the body of the wolf used to be. He was sure it was dragged away, so he had no need to worry, and so he made his way towards the hole. As soon as he got close to it and placed his hand on the ground, a screen came up in front of him.


    [The Dungeon Forge of Rhurtas has been found. Would you like to challenge the dungeon?


    Y/N


    Warning: The player cannot leave until the dungeon has been completed.]


    "So once I''m in, I''m in, huh? Well, I assumed so; that''s how the dungeons go generally." He was glad he packed some meat and fruit while leaving. He then took a deep breath as he clicked on Y, and the hole lit up, the darkness within it vanishing as if it were opening up.


    "Well, I took out that giant wolf. How bad can this dungeon be?" He said to himself before thinking about it, "Yeah, I should not say that." He wasn''t going to end up jinxing himself like that if he hadn''t already, as he sighed and jumped down into the hole.


    He went down the hole for quite a bit. It was honestly like a slide without the sliding part, but his back was not taking it well, and he kept going down, falling through the tunnel for who knows how long. Ultimately, he saw an opening after a while, and as he fell through it, he found himself right above a lake. A lake with water so clear that he could see the bottom of the lake from the top of it. As he fell into the water


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    Good for him; he knew how to swim, at least as he swam back to the top and caught his breath before looking around. He seemed to be inside a lake, inside a giant underwater cave of sorts. This was not what he was expecting when he heard the words forge. Honestly, he expected a volcano or something. He swam to the shore of the lake, climbed onto the ground, and finally looked around himself.


    There was not much to see in the cave, though. It was mostly a simple cavern with crystals growing from the top, which illuminated the entire cavern, and in front of him was a giant door. The door had the pattern of a snake on it, and next to it was a stone statue of a giant snake, but it looked different than a normal snake. He was not well versed in races of fantasy, because if he was, he would know exactly what it was.


    He sighed and walked closer to the door, seeing the images and engraving on it, perhaps trying to tell a story. He looked at them closely and recognized the figures of the snake being struck by a person holding a hammer. Wait, wasn''t that the story of Thor and that huge snake? What was it called again?


    "Ragnar?k"


    He said it out loud as his mind finally remembered where he had seen this exact story before¡ªthe story in which the son Odin fought the giant snake and was killed by it. Or did he survive? He wasn''t the best at mythology, so even he could hardly remember that. but as soon as he muttered these words, the whole room started moving. Maybe he had triggered a trap of sorts, or maybe not, as a screen popped up in front of him.


    [Dungeon Trial: 1


    Time limit: 10 minutes


    Reward: access to the next room


    Objective: Defeat the stone basilisk.


    Note: Your weapons will be confiscated during this trial. You may fight using the hammer this forge offers.]


    Before he even finished reading, his aquamarine fangs vanished from their sheaths. A black hammer with a golden dragon twirling around its handle appeared right in front of him. It was not a giant hammer made for war. It was a hammer made for smithing.


    "Hey, that''s cheating."


    Before he could even finish his sentence, the snake statue that was right next to the door moved. Its eyes glowed red, and suddenly it jumped from its place, the stone moving as naturally as a real snake lunging at him.


    "Shit"

 Forge of Rhurtas 2

    "Shit"


    He said to himself before activating his gene skill at the last moment as it spun. And a card appeared right in front of him. The nine of diamonds. Just then, as he looked at the card, a smile came up on his face.


    The basilisk, which was lunging towards him, suddenly stopped mid-air as if crashing into an invisible wall. As it crashed, multiple cracks formed in the head of the stone basilisk before it was sent flying in the direction it came from with double the force. This caused the creature to be sent flying with so much force that he crashed into a wall, and multiple pieces of the rock basilisk broke and fell off while its whole body was embedded inside the wall quite frankly from the rebound.


    "Didn''t see that coming, did you?" Jack said, chuckling to himself as he picked up the hammer from the ground.


    [Hammer of Rhurtas - II


    A copy of the hammer rhurtas used while learning smithing. Can be used as a blunt-force weapon.


    Effects: locked


    Note: Due to the hammer being a utility-type object, when used as a weapon, it will only be as good as an inferior weapon.]


    He was not meant to get any effects, it seemed, but it was an intermediate-ranked tool. Still, it was no better than an inferior weapon. Fuck it, beggars can be choosers, and in this case, he was definitely the beggar. He sighed as he looked at the cracked and broken snake with red eyes that almost looked angry slither out from the wall and then take a deep breath before releasing a cloud of purple mist from its mouth.


    It didn''t take a genius to realize a snake breathing out something was going to be poison, but he was not stupid as he ran towards the snake right through the poison, which also blocked the snake''s field of vision. So he was able to use it to sneak in a surprise attack from right under the snake as he jumped up, holding the hammer in his hand, and struck the snake from right under his chin. Hitting as hard as he could on the snake''s chin, the already damaged snake''s head was broken into a thousand pieces while the rest of its body fell to the ground.


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    [You have killed an inferior creature.]


    [+50 merits]


    "Thank the gods, there wasn''t any blood this time." As he was speaking, suddenly blood came out of his mouth as he coughed, and the same from his nose. He saw a screen pop up in front of him.


    [You have inhaled the basilisk''s poison. Your blood vessels will shut down in 30 seconds.]


    Upon reading the notification, he more or less expected it, but instead of panicking, he smiled, as he was not afraid in the least. He reached out for the pouch he was carrying, and with all the strength in his body, he pulled out a blue cube from it, swallowing it.


    [Poison within the body has been cured due to the effects of the Bulaba fruit.]


    [The status condition has been lifted.]


    He finally took a deep breath and laughed. "Totally not doing that shit again. Also give me back my swords, you fuckers!" he yelled out at the door in front of him. Almost, as if offended by his words, opened the door, and his two blades came flying from the other room, which he barely avoided getting sliced by his own swords. It would have been a rather ironic death, now that you think about it.


    With the doors finally open, he could move forward, but before that, he went to wash his face in the lake. That poison really did a number on him, and he had no intention of letting himself stay like that. After washing his face, he put his weapons back, grabbed his bag, and took the hammer with him. All the things he thought he should do, so before moving on, he walked through the door, which seemed to lead into some kind of tunnel or path, probably leading to the next room or trial.


    As he saw the door to the next room, he was more confused than anything, as there was no door. There was a simple push to open the wooden door at the end of the tunnel. He was a bit skeptical at first but ended up pushing it either way as the door opened up. It finally revealed to him what was inside the next room.


    As he walked inside, the room looked nothing like what you would expect a forge to look like. There was an altar right in the middle of the room with symbols on it. On one corner of the room were multiple crystals of different colors. And in another corner, there were multiple pieces of coal, it seemed. But except for everything else, in the middle of the room was an orb with a blue top that started floating above the ground and spinning. As a white light was emitted upwards by the orb, the light turned blue as a hologram was formed.


    "Welcome to the forge of Ruthras, young challenger."

 Forge of Rhurtas 3

    The hologram, which was created from the light coming from the orb, The hologram looked no older than 40, with a majestic beard that would put most guys to shame. The man had long hair going down to his shoulders, which he soon tied up into a bun. He was 6 feet or taller in height, and his body seemed to be what can only be described as a peak male body. If Jack had to describe the man standing beside him, he looked like a.


    "Viking"


    The first words Jack spoke out loud again. He had gotten used to speaking his thoughts out loud in the past few days, and due to him being by himself, there wasn''t an issue if someone heard what he was going to say anyway. That wasn''t the case anymore, as the man sighed and spoke.


    "Uh, I have no idea what that is, young one. Regardless, let me welcome you to the forge of Ruthras. I am Nahdiv, one of the students of Ruthras, the god of blacksmithing. Well, he liked to call himself a god; he''s a game master, so he''s pretty close in all honesty. Anyway, more importantly, you have cleared the first trial of the Dungeon of Ruthras. Well, that stone basilisk must have been a real headache to deal with for an inferior-ranked being. So congratulations on that kid."


    The hologram spoke with a much more proud smile while looking at Jack, who was taken back a bit. He wasn''t used to this kind of niceness, Anymore, as he nodded and then looked around the room. Honestly, there was a lot of interesting stuff here. The hologram saw his curiosity and smirked.


    "It seems like you''re interested in the workings of a blacksmith. Kid, I assume you don''t have any classes yet."


    "What''s a class?" Jack asked honestly, confused. The old man''s hologram never told him about anything related to classes.


    "Well, it looks like the guide didn''t do a good job. Okay listen. You know what gene skills are, right?" Jack nodded. He was aware that at least "good, so there are three kinds of skills one can acquire. Firstly, gene skills, which are naturally obtained by getting stronger, and your skill tree. Then come your class skills. Upon completing a dungeon, you can accept its class as a reward if you don''t already have one. That''s why dungeons are only found in the tutorial. Upon mastering your class and increasing your experience in said class, you can gain skills related to that class."


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    Jack nodded taking in everything that was said. That old man must have been a horrible guide to let out such an important part just like that. "What about the third kind?" Jack asked.


    "The third kind are extra skills gained from completing quests, which can be bought using merits or even some items like tomes. Extra classes are the only ones you can acquire as you wish because the other two are dependent on your genes and class. As for this dungeon, you''ll have to finish it either way, choosing to take the class or not. After that, that will be your choice."


    Jack nodded. So this was going to be a trial to teach him a skill, and then it was his choice whether he would make the skill his class or not. It seemed simple enough as he held the hammer in his hand, giving it a twirl. "So, where do I start?"


    "No, no, no, you don''t start with a hammer. Your body is frankly horrible. It''s not fit for the art of blacksmithing. So your first trial is fixing that. Don''t worry, time works differently in a dungeon, so you won''t lose many days. Now get down on the ground and begin. I need 100 pushups from you in an hour. No skills, only work."


    The man who had shown no fear in the face of certain death was unsure if he could do this. Being stubborn can only take you so far. Adrenaline wasn''t going to help him out on this one, as he got on the ground and started doing pushups one at a time.


    Meanwhile, Jack was doing pushups in the underground dungeon. Much above the ground, very far away from where he was still within the forests. The giants had gathered together for what they deemed a very important meeting. Among the giants were various heads of different clans, which all sat at a very long table. The atmosphere wasn''t very good as each giant was arguing with the other in an angry tone, shouting stuff that can only be considered slurs in the giant language. Suddenly everything went silent, though as a single giant entered the room, there was no more arguing as all of them sat down in their seats. The ruler had arrived.

 Meeting of Giants

    As the ruler of the giants entered the room, all the swearing, yelling, and even anger in the room vanished, leaving behind a disciplined group of giants sitting on their respective seats while the ruler walked from the door to his own throne right at the end of the hall. The biggest seat and the most fancy one, no doubt. As the grand ruler of the forest sat down, one of the younger female giants came holding a glass of wine they had created from using the berries and fermenting them.


    The ruler didn''t break eye contact with the other people in their seats, even for a second. He still, without breaking eye contact, quietly picked up the glass with his left hand and took a sip before speaking.


    "So what exactly is the reason for every giant in this room acting no better than cattle before I entered?"


    Everyone in the room looked more nervous than scared. Most of them chose to look down at the table instead of making actual eye contact with the ruler, except for one person. That person was none other than the leader of the hunters. The only group of giants allowed to leave their village. The Giants were a very intrinsic race. They preferred to stay within their own territory as much as possible. And things would have stayed that way if it weren''t for the current leader of the giant hunters.


    Ever since he was a kid, he saw something more. He seeked more than he had a feature not seen among giants. He was curious, and he had a heart for adventure and expansion. He wanted to see beyond the walls of the village. He wanted to explore as far as he could. And that was the reason he and his father grew further apart. His mom was killed in an attack by the wolves one night, and his father lost one eye that night protecting him from them. He understood the fear his father had of the unknown, but he also knew that staying closed forever would not let the giants as a race do anything more than just survive. He wanted to live his life, not just survive, and so after a huge argument with his father, he was made the leader of the hunters. It wasn''t any better, but it was a start for him at least. He was a dreamer among people who ate by code; his ways, as weird as they might seem, were something that could help them in the long run.


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    "It is because of the recent events that have been happening around the forest chief. Multiple trees were found uprooted, and a wolf''s corpse was found on the outer edges of the village. And the weirdest one, however, that we have noticed occurs twice. A weird white ray of light was seen piercing down from the sky three to 10 days ago. So far, none of us have any idea what it could have been, but we are investigating it."


    This so-called dreamer''s name was, ironically, Carus. The ruler of the giants looked at the young man with a bit of a tired look and sighed before speaking.


    "Carus, don''t tell me you guys were arguing over such little things. I thought there was an actual issue here, but it seemed like it was a waste of time." The chief spoke, looking arrogant as if hinting at something other than the topic.


    "I can assure you, chief, it''s a bigger problem than you might think. The first light appeared on the exact day and time when that timer in the middle of our village appeared. Those two events are probably connected; however, we have no idea what the second light was for. And as for the trees and the wolf, it may not seem like a big issue now, but something with such capabilities is potentially dangerous to multiple giants, chief, no father."


    The giant chief, with an eye patch over one of its eyes and a claw mark going under it, sighed. No matter what he did, his son was always different than the rest, and his attitude was something he did not like. He sincerely wanted his son to inherit the title of chief after he died, but that didn''t even seem viable with how he was right now.


    "Carus, we have had enough of your stories, and as far as that weird box in the air above our village goes, it has done no harm to anyone, and it does not seem like it will. The only thing that our village needs protection from is your ideas."


    "But father-"


    "ENOUGH," the old giant said in a voice loud enough to even cause Carus to fall to his knees as the chief stood up from his seat and walked towards him. "You know, ever since you were a kid, I was worried about your curious nature. We are giant carus; we are not meant to explore and be greedy. Our nature is to preserve, and I have tried to teach you that ever since you were a kid. But I lost hope long ago that even I could make anything out of you. So I''ll give you one more chance, my son. Either forget about the outside world and become my heir, or leave this village until you find something to show that should make me believe in your idea. So make your choice Son."

 Betrayal 1

    "I choose to leave. I can''t make anyone else believe in my words if I don''t believe in them myself. And I fully believe we as a race are capable of more than just hurdling together chief" he said with a straight face into the eyes of his father who had a look of disappointment on his face. He hoped just this time maybe his son would come back to his senses. Just this time his son would choose the right thing. Just this time he would choose his old man over his dream. But maybe that was not meant to be.


    "Very well then you may go tomorrow. Tonight we feast in the name of my son" the chief spoke, raising his wine high up as everyone cheered. Everyone except three people. The girl who had been serving the king his wine. A much bulky and buff looking man who was sitting one seat away from the chief and Carus himself.


    During the same night the whole village set up a giant campfire at the center of the village right under the box that had appeared a few days ago. The smoke moved right through the box going up as the numbers on it kept changing. Everyone laughed and danced around the fire. There was music and the sound of drums around the village center. People drinking beer together and laughing. Even the normally tense village chief laughed with everyone else. It was a time everyone enjoyed.


    Everyone except a few. The buff man named Radus. He was the next in line to become the chief of the giants. He was the current leader of the town guards and after Carus he was the one closest to the chief. Albeit he had no interest in the development of the giants and their people, he only seeked power for himself and why won''t he. Being an orphan as a kid he was left to fend off for himself. The village did not have an orphanage so those who were left without parents were either taken in by someone or had to survive on their own.


    They stole and worked and anything they could honestly to survive. As a kid he stole many times as many times he was caught and punished. His back still had countless marks from those torchers. Why did he have to go through all that? He was just a fucking kid who wanted to not die to starvation. Was being alive too much to ask for? Radus thought as the old memories flooded his mind he washed them down with a whole jug of beer as he sighed.


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    Carus that bastard always had everything ever since he was a kid and he was idiot enough to reject it all. But Radus would be better, he wasn''t someone who would throw away stuff. He would take everything and make sure that he would be the only one who gets it all in the end.


    Suddenly the village chief who was drinking out of a cup given to him by his own son started coughing. He coughed uncontrollably until he ended up coughing blood meanwhile a small smirk appeared on Radus''s face.


    Meanwhile Much further away on the edge of a waterfall outside the village, Carus and the girl who had served his father the wine during the meeting. She was someone who he had known since childhood. Even though as kids they weren''t the closest aa he grew up and took the position of leader of hunters the two grew close together, very close one can say. As right now he sat near the cliff of the waterfall watching the moon with her


    "Rena im..not sure. I am not even sure if what I am doing is the right thing. Ever since I was a kid I have been trying to follow my dream but am not sure even if it''s gonna work out. What if i fail what if i dad is right what if in the end i-"


    She placed her finger on his lips to quiet him down and calm him from all the stress that had been building in his mind. "You have done everything you could for your dream. Ever since a kid you went against everyone just for the sake of your dream and your ideas gave us a new way of thinking. Listen to me carus you are different, different from the rest of us. You are made for bigger things and i think you are the only one who can guide us to something more. Make us giants more than just us. Yes you are different, your ideas are different but it''s a good different. And don''t lose hope in yourself. If there are days where you think you cant believe in yourself remember that i always believe in you. So believe in me who believes in you okay?"


    She consoled him as her voice almost worked like a bandage on every tension that had been cracking carus apart. Her words knew just how to fix him so he just smiled and nodded. But suddenly he heard noises coming from the village¡­panicked noises. He grew worried as he was not sure what was going on. He got up instantly letting go of rena''s hand


    "Somethings wrong in the village we nee-" just then he felt a sharp pain in his back but before he could turn around to see what it was. He saw Radus walking towards the cliff where he and Rena sat at. "Goodbye carus" he heard in Rena''s voice from behind him as his body with a hole in his back from Rena''s knife was thrown down the waterfall to his inevitable end.

 Betrayal 2

    As the body of Carus fell down the waterfall, his hands reached out towards the cliff from where he was falling, hoping to grab onto something. But alas, there was nothing; he felt stupid; he couldn''t believe it as he was still in the first stage of grieving, that being denial. As the hero fell to his death,


    The villain, with a smile, approached the cliff where the girl, who had betrayed the guy who loved her the most, The woman simply smiled and looked at the man. "Well, that''s my end of the deal, so you better not forget about yours."


    The man only sighed, looking at the woman. "Who do you take me for? I know better than to leave loose ends." The statement made her raise her brow, but before she could even blink, she felt something around her neck. Being unable to breathe. His hand was around her neck, gripping it and lifting her off the ground. As she tried to free herself from his grip on her neck, she clawed at him, hit him, and did everything she could do. Yet he stood there, looking at her right in the eye as he smiled and spoke, "Seriously, how big of an idiot you''d take me for? You think I''d let the one person who knows I was behind everything live? And not anyone else but the one who betrayed the singular person who chose to trust her the most."


    Her breathing slowly became shallow as she looked at him with pure disgust and anger, which soon turned into fear. Her eyes were begging just to live as he laughed. "No, no, no, darling, don''t give me that look. You don''t understand. I am not Carus, who will melt over your sweet words and looks."


    He said, as in a last-ditch effort, she spat on his face, fuming with all the rage in her body but unable to say anything. "Yes, there it is. The ugly face you always keep under that mask of Mrs. Nice, Mrs. Good, Mrs. Kind..spare me the crap."


    He said in a rather annoyed tone before taking a deep breath and continuing, "Oh well, it never worked on me. When you grow up fending off yourself, it becomes easy to understand who''s really nice and who''s not. Anyway, I''ve wasted enough time here; I have a village to rule, so go ahead and die for me, please."


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    He said as the pupils in her eyes finally rolled to the back of her head and she passed out, after which he simply smashed her head into the ground a few times to make sure the bitch was dead before throwing her off the cliff as well. "Stupid girl," he said, washing his own face. He sighed, and before going back, he pulled out a knife and cut himself in the shoulder with a smile, letting the blood draw out. He looked back into the water and spoke. "Alright, now it''s time to claim what''s mine, though I do hate having to put up a performance. Well, it''s necessary. Well, chief, seat here; I come," he told himself before running back to the village, holding his shoulder with a panicked face.


    Meanwhile, the giant village was going through a power struggle, and Jack was going through a struggle of his own. It has been around six months inside the dungeon, as each day outside was a month inside this place. Jack had spent the past six months doing nothing but a physical workout. He didn''t need to eat or sleep like normal inside this dungeon¡ªsomething to do with the flow of time. He really did not understand that part; honestly, he couldn''t care less. His own body as well had changed a lot, along with his physical combat skills. During these six months, he was supposed to do nothing but physically train, but he was able to convince the dungeon master that hand-to-hand combat and weapons training would also help develop his body in rather different ways. Oh yea Nhadiv who was the dungeon master of this dungeon had one job, to make jack a good blacksmith and seeing how he did not let jack pick up the hammer even once jack doubted that was gonna happen anytime soon. As the dungeon master watched Jack from the hologram, he sighed and said, "Stop."


    "Huh, what now? I still have a few hours on my daily quote, and you legally can''t add any more punishment training. If you try to, I swear I''ll sue you." Jack said in an annoyed tone, but he has gotten pretty chill with the dungeon master after spending six months with him.


    "No. But I think you are ready now to do actual blacksmithing." Hearing this, Jack''s face lit up instantly.

 Blacksmithing 1

    "For real? Like actually? With the hammer? God, I almost forgot about the whole blacksmithing part," he said in a sarcastic tone as he smiled, seemingly excited. When you spend six months looking forward to and working for something, you will really feel the excitement when you finally get to it. The DM only sighed.


    "Yea, yea, calm down, first kid." The man was centuries old; he had every right to call Jack a kid. Jack only nodded, taking a deep breath before he picked up the black hammer with the golden handle he had been given six months ago and looked at the DM so they could finally start.


    "Okay, so listen first. Go pick up one of the small crystals from that pile and place it on the altar in the middle of the room." Jack nodded and picked up one of the crystals and placed it on the altar. "Now what?"


    "Patience, now use your mana and make it flow into the crystal; just a tiny bit is enough."


    Jack nodded. He had also learned about mana and its workings during the past six months. To say it simply, everything in this world has a certain level of mana. Even humans who naturally couldn''t control it still had a certain amount of mana.


    Once you start using skills, your body becomes more used to the mana flowing through it, after which meditation can be used to absorb the mana from the air. It feels like you are breathing through your skin; it''s a really weird sensation when you start absorbing mana. You also have to be careful not to absorb more than your body can flow and handle, or you will throw up. His teacher didn''t mention it, so he had to find it the hard way.


    Regardless, once you get used to absorbing mana, you can easily feel it flowing through your body. Releasing your mana is similar to breathing out. At first, when learning this, he would end up letting out too much mana from his body, making him pass out multiple times. It took a bit of time for him to learn how to release without passing out and how to stop at the right amount. He could also tell what the right amount was now, so that was also a plus point.


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    He also learned how to release mana from a certain part of his body and absorb it from certain parts only after that. Which brings him back to the current moment as he walked up to the crystal on the altar, placed his finger on it, and released some mana into it. The crystal started glowing brightly in that second, and as it did, the crystal shattered and a few items were left on the altar. There were a few black ingots of some material he was not familiar with, some gems of different colors that were emanating mana, and a pile of scales. "Uh, what are these?"


    "Well, I was getting to it. Firstly, the crystal you just used is called a Hollow gem. It can store a certain amount of items inside a pocket dimension, which are brought out when the crystal is given a person''s mana. Of course they are one-time use; there are multi-use ones as well, but buying those will make you have to sell off your bloodline." The hologram said it in a sarcastic tone, which he had learned from the man he had been stuck with for the past six months.


    "I see. So back to the actual question I asked: What are these?" He pointed towards the materials. He understood what the gems were; he did not wonder about them, but what he was curious about were the materials that were on the altar.


    "These are the materials you will use to craft armor. That black ingot is Adamantite. It is one of the most durable materials in the universe that every blacksmith uses, so you better get used to using it. The gems¡ªwell, I''ll get to them later. And those are basilisk scales¡ªyeah, like an actual basilisk, not just a stone statue. Let''s start with the basics. Grab an ingot and think about a chestplate. Form the image in your mind as best as you can. The quality of your imagination will form the quality of your armor. And then, charging up that hammer with all your mana, smash it down on the ingot with all your strength."


    He nodded as he grabbed an ingot, placed it on the altar, and closed his eyes while channeling his mana into the hammer, charging it up. As he charged it, blue sparks of lightning formed around it while he kept his eyes closed and imagined a design. What would he want his armor to look like after finalizing the design? He used all his strength, bringing the hammer down on the ingot. As soon as the two clashed, a giant white light illuminated the ingot as it changed shape.

 Blacksmithing 2

    As the light went away after a second what was left on the table was a chestplate with multiple sections on the waist and shoulder pads with actual arms going down just to the elbow. The armor was a purplish black like obsidian bringing a more shiny look to the chestplate as jack smiled looking at it he heard something he never thought he''d hear from his teacher


    "I''ll be damned. Great job "Jack almost looked at the teacher whose face almost denied what he had just said. He was as shocked as jack. "I mean you have an aptitude for crafting it seems or at least your imagination does." The reason there were multiple ingots was because most people fail more than once in this step but jack had not only cleared it one ho he had fucking aced the test without effort. It seemed like of all things he had a talent for crafting.


    "Well since we have already cleared this step let''s move onto the next" dm told the jack who was still appreciating how good his creation honestly looked. He finally focused back from his creation and nodded "okay so next step is harder than the last. You have to take the the basilisk scale and place it on the armor and smash it with the hammer with all your strength and mana and be ready"


    "For what?" Jack asked but its not like he was gonna receive an answer so he only sighed and nodded, placing a basilisk shell on the armor and striking it down with his armor as he did everything around him went dark for a second. Then suddenly he saw the image of a giant basilisk made out of blue lines almost as if it was another hologram but there was nothing projecting it. "W-What the fuck is that"


    "And that is the will of the beast or monster whatever. When you use items to empower the durability or grant your items certain qualities you have to tame the will of the monster whose part you are using."


    "So you just mean I have to kill that thing? Easy enough" Jack smiled as he held his hammer and jumped forward without waiting even for a second. His teacher only sighed as he facepalmed himself but didn''t stop him, mistakes were the greatest teacher to a person.


    As jack ran towards the will of the basilisk it spat out purple liquid but Jack jumped to the side using his leg to push the ground the opposite direction from the direction he wanted to jump in. Before closing in and getting right under the basilisk as it tried to bite and crush jack in its fangs but he smiled twirling his body mid air to move out of the way. As soon as the basilisk missed, Jack had his opportunity as he used all his strength to slam his hammer into the basilisk''s head, sending it slamming into the ground. He dived right behind it and smashed on top of his head again much harder causing it to cough out blood.


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    The basilisk, who was annoyed by Jack by now, grabbed Jack by his leg using its tail and threw him away, sending him flying into a nearby wall. Instead of crashing into the wall as he normally would though he used his legs to bounce right back at the basilisk and the big snake swung its tail at the incoming jack. Jack smiled as he lowered his body and grabbed the basilisk''s tail using it like a support to launch himself upward as he hit the creature under its chin knocking two teeths outside its mouth.


    "Like that you slithery bastard?" The basilisk only grew angrier from the man''s mocking. Even if the creature did not understand him completely it did understand the tone of the man and what it implied which only made the situation worse when Jack landed on the tail of the beast and jumped towards its belly again smashing his hammer into it. The basilisk was knocked back by the attack to which jack followed up with another attack right to the creature''s jaw knocking it back.


    Giving it no chance to recover, Jack smiled while dealing the finishing blow to the creature''s head, crushing it for good as the basilisk stopped moving. Soon its body started turning into white light particles before vanishing as he smiled and looked back at his teacher, he looked proud of himself. "See i did i-"


    Before could finish his sentence he would find himself standing right at the altar along with the hammer in his hand and the scale losing all its color before blowing up in his face. The explosion was not a real explosion to do him damage but a lot of soot and ash was blown right into his face as he coughed due to the amount that he breathed in.


    After he finally stopped coughing he looked at the scale which had turned into a black piece of coal. That explains all the so many pieces of coals in that corner of the room he always assumed they would be for fire or something since it was blacksmithing for fucks sake.


    "What the hell happened?" He asked if he was still not sure what caused that explosion. He was pretty sure he defeated that basilisk without even taking any real damage due to all his training but he had no idea what caused that explosion.


    "Well you destroyed the will of the beast that pretty much made the thing what it was. So it stopped being what it was and turned into this piece of coal."


    "B-but you told me to kill it-" he tried to retort but was cut off midway


    "I told you to tame it so it will make it submit to you, not destroy it. You can''t just hit your way out of everything you dumbass. You have to make the will submit to you so you can transfer its properties to the armor."


    He realized it was his own mistake for not listening properly and he sighed, bowing down slightly as he apologized "I am sorry for not listening properly and paying attention. But you could have told me man"


    "Was just making sure you don''t forget again" the dm smiled looking at jack he was so enjoying it.

 Blacksmithing 3

    And that''s how Jack ended up spending the next month. The process of taming the will of a creature and making it submit without killing it was the hard part. He had to intimidate it enough so that it listened, but he had to make sure he didn''t overdo it either. He had to learn just the right amount of beating some sense into the wills to make them submit. The worst part was that he couldn''t use anything except his hammer and himself. There are no items to help or support him. In the end, it took him over a month, but he finally understood the process.


    After a month''s practice, he had one of the last basilisk scales in hand, holding it above the chest plate he had created weeks ago. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, the air entering and escaping his lungs as he channeled his mana into the hammer and then slamming it down on the scale that was on top of the armor. Doing so caused everything around him to turn dark, as in that moment he had entered the mindscape of the creature combined with his own. Yes, the creature was dead, but its will was alive, and he had to overpower the creature''s will and make it submit.


    He smiled as the will of the basilisk materialized in front of him again, baring its fangs at him. He had a basic idea of how to make them submit as he walked towards the will, holding his hammer. After getting close enough, the basilisk swung its tail at him, which he dove under and grabbed so that when the basilisk pulled its tail back, he could use the momentum to accelerate himself upwards.


    By doing so, he found himself right above the creature''s head, and with one strong swing of his hammer into the head, the creature was smashed into the ground. he landed right on top of its head pushing it into the ground as he stood atop it ¡°stay down¡± he said but the will did not listen as it tried to raise its head he punched the creatures head back into the ground causing small cracks ¡°I said stay the fuck down.¡±


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    His voice was the only thing that resounded in the mindscape as of right now. The basilisk did not give up trying to get up, but every time it did, it was punched back and deeper into the ground, as it ultimately gave up and submitted, keeping its head on the ground. Seeing this jack smile as he jumped off its head, ¡°Get up,¡± he said, testing if he had been successful or not. As he ordered, the basilisk raised its head, but instead of attacking Jack, he just lowered his head in front of Jack. Seeing this made the man smile out of joy as he placed his hand on the created head before it turned to white light particles and vanished, leaving the mindscape empty. Seeing this made Jack worried, wondering if somehow he had done too much damage again or if he had failed. He just braced himself for an explosion to the face, but then the expected explosion never came.


    He finally left the mindscape, opening his eyes to see that the scale of the basilisk was no longer on the table, and more interestingly, his armor had scale-like patterns all over it, as if it were made of multiple scales. Seeing this made Jack''s face light up with joy. It took a month of hard work.


    ¡°Congratulations are in order, I suppose. You took longer than I expected to tame the will, but the results are as impressive as your armor,¡± the hologram of the DM said while looking at the armor up close while inspecting it. During this time, Jack sighed and sat down for a bit, calming his nerves. The DM gave him his much-deserved rest, after which they would move onto the next part.


    ¡°Now the more complicated part of blacksmithing; this is more of a hit-or-miss thing, but I''ll be teaching you nonetheless. Remember the gems that I said we''d talk about later? Yes, later is now. It''s about time you learn infusion.¡±


    ¡°Infusion?¡± Jack asked with a rather confused look. Honestly he had forgotten all about the gems. He assumed his blacksmithing training would be ending there along with the dungeon but seems like that wasn''t the case. The hit or miss statement did make him raise an eyebrow.


    ¡°Well yes infusion but before that let me give you a crash course on the best power source that everyone in the cosmos uses. Mana crystals¡±

 Blacksmithing 4 Infusions

    "Mana crystals are solid mana, right?" he asked as he looked at the gems, wondering if they were the crystals the teacher was talking about.


    "Uh, yeah, how do you know?" He was honestly a bit surprised that this was not common knowledge or even knowledge for humans.


    "weird guess. Those stones have been emanating mana since you took them out, but the mana feels weird," he said, saying the mana was different from the one in the atmosphere or within his own body, almost like the mana had its own nature.


    "Ah, so you noticed. Indeed, mana crystals are formed when mana is concentrated in an area in dense amounts over a very long period of time. Depending on the area, the mana crystal formed may also absorb nature or property along with the mana. And that''s how we get these. These are called infusion gems since they are used for infusion," he said, pointing to the table where the five gems that were inside the hollow gem were. They were of five colors: red, yellow, blue, white, and purple.


    "Each color of the gem represents what kind of infusion you can perform with it. Infusion means, as the name states, infusing the object you have created with a certain mana. There are a lot of mana natures out there; you''ll learn them over time, but as an inferior rank, only these 5 are the ones you''ll use. red for fire, yellow for lightning, blue for water, white for light infusion, and purple for poison infusion."


    "So what exactly does an infusion do?" Does it increase durability? defensive capability? offensive capability? give the item its skills? what exactly?" He asked with a confused look as he picked up the yellow gem in his hand.


    "Well, the answer would be all of the above." upon saying that he got just the face he would have expected from Jack. As he sighed and spoke, "You''re currently of inferior rank, so you can only apply one of those things to the armor, and that too is randomized. While using an infusion gem, it''s more or less a gamble what the effect of the infusion will be, but it''s generally one of those that you mentioned. Skills are the rarest, and durability increase or electronic resistance is the most common. As your own rank increases, you will be able to apply multiple effects, but as an inferior rank, only one can be done." Jack was smiling as a chuckle left his lips upon hearing the word gamble. almost as if this was made for him. "One more important detail is that only nature can be infused with any object at once. So don''t try to fuse two or kaboom." Jack nodded, understanding and knowing better than to rush things anymore.


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    He nodded as he had to choose what infusion to fix on his armor. While fire and electricity seemed like the obvious good choices, he also had to think about the rest of the tutorial being in the jungle. He also had to make sure he didn''t burn down anything, but fire resistance seemed like a great thing to have. Honestly, he couldn''t decide, so he didn''t. He put all five gems in his pocket and mixed them before picking one.


    "Fire¡ªthat''s the easiest to infuse. I would have suggested that personally for the first time."


    He sighed. Now that one had been chosen, his mind was thinking about the others, but it was a lost cause. He only sighed, and the hologram flew over to the other side of the altar.


    "Now use the opposite side of the hammer to make a singular hole in the armor no bigger than a millimeter," he nodded, and instead of slamming down his hammer on the armor, he lightly pulled it on and started tapping on the back of it until he felt it had gone deep enough.


    "Good, now plate the tip of the gem you want to infuse at the hole and crush it while, channeling your mana into the armor through it." He nodded as he placed the tip on the hole he had created and pulled his hammer back while channeling his mana through the gem into the armor. The hammer was brought down on the gem as it was shattered to pieces, embers flying in every direction. Suddenly, a very hot feeling engulfed his hands as if they were burning, but he didn''t move until all the mana was transferred. After the infusion, a red dot appeared where the hole used to be. It was hot to touch, but he could tell it worked.


    [Congratulations on crafting an intermediate-grade item.]


    [+100 merits have been awarded.]


    [The item has a tamed will.]


    [+50 merits have been awarded.]


    [The item has a skill.]


    [+50 merits have been awarded.]


    [Obsidian Flaming Armor, II


    Armor crafted from the will and hard work of a prodigy blacksmith. The color is dark as strong flames are infused into the armor.


    Abilities:


    Solar flare: The user can release an attack of flames that will burn anything and everything within a 10-meter radius. The flames are hot enough to melt steel.


    Poison resistance: made from the scales of a basilisk and hosting its spirit, this armor resists 80% of all types of poison damage.]

 Blacksmithing 5 Talent

    As he finished reading the information about the armor, he was confused. But more confused than even him was his teacher. The DM had seen a lot of things in his long life, but seeing an inferior creature craft an intermediate-grade armor on his first try without struggling was something completely new even for him, and he was in shock for a solid second.


    "Uh, your reaction says this is not normal. So on a scale of 1 to 10, how talented am I?" He said it with a smug grin on his face as he picked up the piece of armor. He put it on without thinking, and the effects were seen simply as wearing it. The armor, despite its toughness, felt like he wasn''t even wearing anything. It was super flexible, despite being metal armor. He was more than happy with everything about his new armor.


    "This is... some really insane talent. You have no strategic intelligence when it comes down to it or even patience, but this luck is¡­insane¡­unless." He looked at Jack with a doubt in his eyes as he said, "Kid, do you have a trait that makes you lucky?"


    "Yeah, something like that also makes me unlucky, though," Jack joked, deciding to keep the anonymity of his trait. The confusion on the face of the DM was visible. There were a million questions he would want to ask Jack at that moment, but seeing how Jack kept the secret about his trait, he decided not to push further. His job was to teach this kid, and with the amount of talent he possessed, he would be a failure if he didn''t make this young man a fine blacksmith.


    "Alright, now back to smithing. Your training as an inferior rank is almost done, but I''ll teach you one more trick that will be helpful."


    Jack understood the meaning behind those words. This was something people were not generally taught, but he was being taught, which only meant that his teacher thought he was worthy of learning it. He did a slight bow as a sign of respect, making even the DM feel awkward.


    "Okay, okay, stop now and listen carefully to what I am going to teach you. This technique is only for intermediate and higher-level blacksmiths, but I''ll teach it nonetheless. However, if you can do it, don''t force it. I''ll teach you how to bind that armor to yourself so only you can use it. It''s a relatively simple process: you release mana from your whole body at once directly into the armor until the infusion gem on the armor forms two circles around itself. That''s your cue to stop."


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    Jack understood and began the process, instantly releasing mana from every part of his body, which flowed directly into his armor. Slowly, a line started forming around the gem, forming a circle. By the time the first circle was finished, Jack was already sweating and having a hard time breathing, yet he couldn''t stop. He was meant to be greedy, and he was being greedy right now as he kept pushing himself beyond what should be considered his limit until ultimately the second circle was formed and he fell back on the ground, passing out.


    That time Jack finally had a good sleep after 7 months since he had no reason or need to sleep in the dungeon; he didn''t. But that didn''t help him a lot as the human mind was used to the sleep cycle, so now that Jack passed out, he ended up sleeping for a whole week without realizing it, and the doctor didn''t wake him up as he thought Jack deserved this one.


    After exactly one week, Jack found himself right next to the altar, where he passed out. He felt fresh, even though his back hurt from sleeping in his armor. As soon as he woke up, he checked his armor and found the two circles there. Which made him take a breath of relief.


    "Good morning, Mr. Sleepy. You''ve been out for a good week," the DM said as his hologram was sipping tea while sitting cross-legged in mid-air. Which made Jack realize how long it had been. He panicked a bit before getting up. As he got up, the DM put his tea away and stood up properly.


    "Jack, you have surpassed most of my expectations and finally completed the dungeon forge of Rhurtas. As your reward, you have finally gained the obsidian hammer as your own. It''s already bound to you by now, so don''t worry about binding it." The DM said with a smile on his face, a proud smile. A screen popped up in front of the jack.


    [Hammer of Rhurtas, II


    A copy of the hammer Rhurtas used while learning smithing. Can be used as a blunt-force weapon.


    BOUND TO JACK HOFF


    Effects:


    Mana channel: the user can directly channel his mana through this hammer into materials without wasting any extra mana.


    Forge: The mana in itself has all the abilities needed for crafting. It can be used without a forge or altar, as long as the mana and materials are available.


    Note: Due to the hammer being a utility-type object, when used as a weapon, it will only be as good as an inferior weapon.]


    "Ha, it''s been a long while," Jack said to himself as he took a deep breath, thinking about the past months he had spent in this place. Feeling a bit emotional about leaving it.


    "It really has been; you were one of the better students I''ve had. Well, the only one I have had so far; regardless, now''s the time for the important decision, Jack. Will you accept the class?"


    [Congratulations on clearing the forge of Rhurtas.]


    [+5000 merits have been awarded]


    [Will you accept the class "Blacksmith"?


    Y/N]

 New Class

    Jack thought about it for a moment; this was a rather important decision, and he had no reason to rush it. While blacksmithing seems to be able to provide him with a stable income from the stuff he will create while also boosting his own battle prowess, there might be a chance he gets a unique class or a rare class from a better dungeon. He was never able to make decisions like these.


    Suddenly realizing his own idiocy, he facepalmed hard, making his teacher raise a brow. "It''s okay, you don''t need to rush this." Before his teacher could even finish, Jack pulled out a coin from his pocket. He smiled before speaking, "heads for yes and tails for no." He knew that if he gambled, his trait would automatically decide what''s better for him, so he tossed the coin before his teacher could even say anything in objection.


    The piece of metal made a clinging sound as it spun in the air,its metallic sound ringing in Jack''s ear as his eyes stayed fixed on the coin. Even his teacher was surprised, holding his breath while the coin started falling back down and landing on Jack''s hand.


    As Jack and his teacher both saw what it was, the teacher sighed in relief, and Jack smiled as he clicked the Y option on the screen. Suddenly, his skill tree popped up in front of him. With a few new things


    [Skill tree: Jack Hoff]


    Rank: inferior II (higher)


    Class: Blacksmith


    Inventory: Aquamarine fangs, Obsidian Flaming Armor, Rhuthras Hammer


    GENE SKILL:


    Devil''s deck (inferior): the user is able to shuffle a deck of cards, excluding the king, queen, and jack for now. Whatever card the user lands on will grant him a certain effect.


    The heart heals any injury or status condition the user may have received.


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    Diamond creates a protective barrier around the user.


    Club provides users with a physical boost in all their physical capabilities.


    Spade: anything the user has killed can be summoned to aid them in battle.


    The number on the card drawn determines the strength of the ability or its effectiveness. The spade summons will be automatically assigned a number based on their rank between 1 and 10. New summons can be exchanged with old ones, but the numbers will always be decided via strength.


    There is a cooldown between drawing cards, and when the next card is drawn, the effects of the old card are replaced.


    Class Skills:


    Identification: the ability allows the user to identify the nature of any material and its natural compatibilities, its rank, its average price, etc. This ability can be used on other creatures to see their skill page if they have any, and if they don''t, it can be used to see their rank and skills if they have any.


    GENE TRAIT


    Devil''s Hand: The user has increased luck while gambling, but their luck is reduced while doing anything else.


    Merits: 5760]


    "Congratulations, Jack, and thank you," the old teacher smiled as the hologram slowly started disappearing while Jack was busy reading the skill tree. noticing the voice, he realized it was really over. He smiled as he bid his friend and teacher a final farewell. "Why are you thanking me? I should be the one thanking you. Thank you so much," Jack said, feeling even his eyes grow a bit moist due to him having spent the last 8 months with this man.


    "Don''t worry, we''ll meet again eventually if you survive. Best of luck, Jack," the hologram said as it finally turned into white light particles and the orb projecting it fell to the ground.


    The wall in front of Jack shook suddenly before he had time to deal with his emotions as it crumbled, revealing a door behind as it swung open into what can be described as a very bright white light into the unknown. Jack sighed, knowing he had to walk forward, and so he did.


    As he escaped the dungeon, stepping into the light, the world around him shifted. Everything went white as Jack found himself where the entrance to the dungeon used to be. And he wasn''t alone; standing right behind him was the creature who dragged away the wolf''s corpse that he had killed. It was a giant bear, as Jack looked at it. The creature growled at the tiny man in front of him.


    "Bad timing, dude," Jack said as he drew out his aquamarine fangs, his breath steady unlike before, when he would panic or let his anger get the better of him. He had learned to be better, but not kind. "I am in a really bad mood right now."

 Anger and Revenge

    A few days later, Carus was betrayed by Rena, and Rena was double-crossed by Radus, who ended up killing her and throwing her off the cliff as well. For her, it was a certain death.


    After returning to the village Radus put on his best performance and told everyone that when he went to find carus, as he told everyone he would as soon as the current chief started coughing blood he went to find carus. But instead, he was met with the scene of Carus smashing Rena''s head against the floor multiple times before tossing her down the waterfall, which, of course, was confirmed when Rena¡¯s body was found.


    He also said he had fought Carus and ultimately had to push him off the cliff. He made it extra emotional while shedding a tear or two, even though his voice was shaky, adding words like ¡°he was like the brother I never had¡± and ¡°him and the chief were my only family¡± here and there. Everyone knew Radus didn''t have anyone growing up, which made them sympathize with him. Emotions are weird as to how they block one''s sense of perceiving logic, but they worked nonetheless. After the chief was said to be in a comatose state, Radus was crowned as the next chief of the village two days later.


    After which, he made sure to send a search party to find Carus''s body, but unfortunately, they came back empty-handed and had nothing to show. It was like Radus had a heart attack when he heard their report. ¡°There were signs of something bloody being dragged; even when we tried following the blood, it stopped after a bit. The trail was no more, and any clues were gone too. We searched all the nearby areas, but except for a very angry bear residing in its cave, we found nothing. At best, I think the traitor has been eaten by the bear.¡±


    Radus took a sigh of relief; that was possibly the best option for him. Even if Carus somehow ended up surviving, there was no way he would try coming back to the village, and even if he did, no one was going to believe him. Radus consoled himself that everything was going to be fine as he ordered to cease all activity beyond the village grounds and doubled the number of guards in the name of security, and no one could really object to it. The ideas of expansion were something that belonged to a traitor, so conservative methods were seen as better by everyone.


    During the last 8 days, all this has been going on inside the giant village, while on the other side, inside the forest. Inside a certain cave, a man was taking breaths, trying to stay alive. When he woke up at the waterfall basin, he saw Rena''s corpse right next to him, and remembering who was the last person he saw coming toward them, he understood what happened. Radus was someone Carus almost thought of as his older brother. There were moments when he felt something was off, but he dusted it off as paranoia. He felt fucking stupid about how wrong he was.


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    He had dressed his wounds and washed them using pieces of his shirt, and when he was finally able to walk again, he started to try to go back to the village, but the hunters had come looking for him and Rena. Upon finding Rena''s'' body, they quickly started looking for him, realizing that the village was probably being manipulated by that bitch Rudas; he knew he couldn''t go back.


    Not until he was back in good shape. If there was one emotion going through his mind right now, it was anger and frustration. To escape the hunters, he had to take shelter in this cave, but from the looks of it, it seemed to be the home of some beast, and he was in no condition to fight right now. At worst, he gets eaten, but he won''t go down without a fight.


    Just then he heard something approaching the cave; from the sound of whatever creature it was, it was running fast. The rhythm of its footsteps seemed uneven, almost as if it were in a rush. Carus, having no other choice, drew out the iron dagger that was hidden in his pocket. With his back against the wall and many of his wounds bleeding, he looked towards the entrance. By every definition, he should have been dead by now, but he had hung onto it. He had hung onto life; what''s driving him right now wasn''t justice or his will to live. It was anger and frustration. anger over being stupid and frustration over the betrayal. He was hungry; he was greedy for revenge; he wanted to bash Radu''s skull into the ground as hard as he could until it broke, and that''s what kept him alive; that''s what kept him going.


    Finally, the bear appeared at the entrance of the cave as Carus gritted his teeth. ¡°Come at me, bastard,¡± he said, his heartbeat rising up. But just then he noticed the bear was panting; multiple parts of its body were bloody, and so many small cuts were all over its body, as if it had been fighting for a while. It seemed like it almost came back running. It wasn''t hunting; it was running away from something or someone.


    Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, Carus noticed a little creature jump above the bear''s head and punch it so hard that its head was broken off the rest of its body and crashed into the ground while a fountain of blood emerged from its neck, covering the little man. As Carus stared at him, the man stared back, both their eyes maintaining eye contact. Carus wasn''t scared of the bear, but this man made him feel uneasy. Suddenly, the man turned to him and spoke in a confused tone. ¡°What the fuck happened to you?¡±

 Sympathy

    ¡°What the fuck are you?¡± Jack spoke, looking at the giant holding a dagger and bleeding unhealthy amounts with his back to the wall. The guy seemed severely injured; maybe he and the bear got into a fight, or that''s the best he assumed.


    "No, no, no. What the fuck are you?¡± Carus asked the little monster, who once shot a beard head off its body. It wasn''t even proper to call this thing a person. It was tiny, which meant it wasn''t part of the forest, and more importantly, it was much stronger than anything Carus had seen.


    ¡°Look first. I asked first, and second, look at yourself. What makes you think you are in any situation to ask questions?¡± He said this, cracking his knuckles with a smile as he walked towards Carus. Meanwhile, the giant, who had understood the last thing he would want was to get killed by this monster right now, sighed and started speaking.


    ¡°I belong to a village of giants." Carus began to tell his story to the tiny person, maybe hoping to find some sort of closure when opening up about it all. It was not like he had a choice anymore. He started being honest, not just with the person but with himself as well. It was a weird feeling to show vulnerability to anyone other than Rena. His eyes lit up with a certain flame when he talked about her. He was mad, and Jack noticed that, no doubt, but even the guy who never gave a fuck about others didn''t ask him about it. Not because he was being sympathetic; hell no. He just had no intention of extending this sob story more than it needed to. So he just quietly listened.


    When Carus was finally done narrating his tale, he felt nervous. He didn''t want the other person to take pity on him or feel bad for him; that would only make him hate himself and his stupidity more. He didn''t want to be told it''s not your fault or everything will be fine if the person said anything like that. It would be like stabbing a knife into an open wound and twisting it for Carus, but the words he was afraid of, like that, never came. Instead, it was the sound of laughter. First it was a small sigh, then he could almost feel the man trying to hold it in before it finally exploded. Uncontrollable laughter as the man fell back on his ass while Carus could only stare at him. Did this guy not feel bad at all? Had he no sympathy? Or did the whole situation just amuse him? Carus could feel his blood boiling.


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    ¡°HAHAHAHA DUDE You''re such an idiot,¡± Jack said, rolling on his back while holding his stomach. It was honestly starting to hurt because of how much he laughed before finally stopping as he lay on the ground, chuckling. ¡°How big of an idiot are you not to see such an obvious trap? The girl who never talked to you before suddenly started talking to you as soon as you got power, and the guy who had every reason to betray you for the throne, you treated him like your older brother, trusting him blindly. What are you, a child? What is this rom-com where sh*t ends happily ever after? It''s fucking life, dude. And life''s a bitch. If you''re expecting any sympathy from me, forget about it. You did it to yourself; you have no one to blame but yourself.¡±


    Carus opened his mouth angrily, as if wanting to retort against what Jack said, but he couldn''t find words in his own mouth. He didn''t disagree with any of what Jack said, and this monster''s certain lack of empathy had helped Carus tighten his resolve further. Was he angry? Yes, was he sad? Yes, but will he give up in this certain situation? Fuck no. He still had his revenge, even if nothing else was left in the world. He''ll do it simply for that.


    As he looked at Jack standing back up, the image of him shooting a bear was still fresh in his mind. He knew if he was able to get this monster on his side somehow, maybe he would be able to overpower his brother and take back the village.


    ¡°Thank you, but I have a favor to ask. Please help me reclaim my village. I would bow down to you, but I am afraid if I try to do that right now, I''ll bleed out more than I can afford. Please, I be-¡± Before he could even start begging, Jack spoke.


    ¡°Fuck off. The only reason I see not wanting to kill you is that you fixed my bad mood. I have no reason to be mixed up in your mess. You and your village could go to hell for all I care,¡± he said, firm and loud with his words, making Carus realize that wasn''t going to be an option. Then he''ll do it alone, but can he really do it alone?


    Jack did not care as he turned around to leave. A screen popped up in front of him after he read it. Jack''s facepalm was so hard that a mark was left on his face. ¡°For fucks sake,¡± he muttered to himself before turning back and looking at the giant. ¡°On second thought¡±

 Cursed

    The giant was taken aback by Jack¡¯s sudden change in mood , but since it was in his own interest, he did not question it nor did he want Jack to change his mind. As he sighed in relief, Jack walked towards him. He then looked at him and said,


    ¡°Thank you.. thank you so much. Really.¡±


    ¡°Hah. Cut the crap. I never said I''ll do it for free.¡± The giant made an understanding face, as he knew he was on the bad end of the deal, however, he had no other option. That, coupled with the fact that Jack helped him out, he wasn''t in an a position to deny him a reward. ¡°Okay, so what is it that you wish for? Us giants, are not rich in ores or magic like the elves or dwarves. We can provide physical labor, but that''s it.¡±


    ¡°Don''t worry, I don''t need anything like that. What I want is a favor.¡±


    ¡°A favor?¡± The giant seemed rather confused. He did not understand what exactly the man meant, but he felt like this was gonna be worse than anything he could have even given.


    He almost felt like he had walked into the jaw of a tiger himself as he sighed.


    ¡°Indeed I want a favor. In the future I will call this favor whenever I need it, and you won''t say no to it, no matter what. In exchange, I will promise you will that you will definitely achieve your revenge ."Jack spoke with a smirk, almost like he already had a plan for this. He had seen enough movies to know how exactly they were gonna do it but more important things first.


    He activated his card skill as it landed on the 8 of hearts, as he simply used that to heal the giant. Meanwhile, Carus was left in a shocked state as he looked at his wounds being closed, and body being fixed. ¡°Y-You know magic?¡± Jack looked up at him with a confused look before realizing that he had never explained that yet. ¡°Oh, yeah, I do know some magic, so don''t worry.¡± He chuckled. Well, if the opportunity was presenting itself like that, Jack would of course increase his value in the giant''s eye so he doesn''t try to betray him. One doesn''t upset those who are stronger or more useful, atleast usually. The giant seemed smart enough to know that.


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    ¡°I am Carus, and you have my word. Help me achieve what I want, and I''ll fulfil your favor¡±. the Giant said, offering his finger for Jack to shake, and so he did with his hand. ¡°Jack. Looking forward to this partnership.¡±


    Carus nodded, but now was the hard part. How were they gonna get back inside the village, without getting found out? Even if they did, and managed to somehow kill Radus, what next? They wouldn''t be able to convince anyone in the village about the truth. He was honestly worried what would happen as he started thinking of a plan.


    Just then, Jack spoke up. ¡°So, here''s the plan.¡± Carus was surprised, as he had literally just told Jack his whole story 14 minutes ago, and he was already ready with a plan. This little human surprised him more and more, it seemed. ¡°So for the plan. You.. might need to die.¡±


    Meanwhile back in the village of the giant,  a few days later. The man who was the current chief was sleeping in his giant mansion by himself. In his sleep, he seemed to be muttering something. Sweat rolled off his forehead, as he was probably having a nightmare.


    At first everything was going fine, as he sat down on his throne, drinking wine. But suddenly, something reached out and grabbed his shoulders from behind the throne. It was a dead rena, with her head bashed in, and hollow eyes like the void, crying tears of blood as she grabbed his shoulders¡­. and spoke in a voice that sent shivers down the giants spine. ¡°You killed me¡­¡±


    Just then, as he would try to get up, a similar undead version of Carus appeared in front of him, grabbing both of his legs. ¡°Pay for your sins¡­¡± the phantom version of Carus said, as its bleeding eyes started sinking into the ground, skeletal hands dug out from the ground grabbing Radus. No matter how much he struggled, or tried to break free, he couldn''t do it, as they kept pulling him. Finally, pulling him under the ground, into Hell itself.


    Suddenly, Radus woke up, and tried to catch his breathe. It was just a nightmare.. He was sweating profusely and scared, but atleast he was still alive¡­


    ¡°For fuck''s sakes..¡±


    Upon being woken up, Radus got up and went to the bathroom to wash his face, as he turned on the water and splashed it on himself. He wiped his face with a towel, and looked into the mirror, only to see something horrifying. He stumbled back falling down, as he stared at the mirror.


    On the mirror, written with blood were the words, ¡°You will pay.¡± as the blood droplets rolled down the mirror surface, so did the sweat from Radus''s forehead.

 Distraction

    Currently, Radus sat in his throne room with a very old giant. He seemed to be one of the elders of the village, and as Radus sighed,  he had no idea what had happened to him last night. But if his gut feeling was true.. It was either someone playing a prank on him, or Carus and Rena had really cursed him when they died. ¡°Can dead people curse someone in their last breath?¡± He asked the elder, who looked at him a bit confused before thinking.  ¡°It certainly is possible, as spirits and souls exist in this universe. So, the idea of ghosts isn''t that far fetched, and if there is a ghost, manifesting that curse on its dying breath seems plausible, but only for someone they''d hate with all their heart. Why do you ask, young chief?¡±


    ¡°No reason, and you can just call me chief, you can be dismissed now,¡± he said. He still didn''t like how people called him young chief, even when he had all the power. He despised them looking down on him like that. He was the chief, the one with everything, the one that made the rules as he sighed. He knew the real reason behind that is because they still had hope.


    He should have done it long ago. He should have gotten rid of that hope and so he decided to do just that. He walked towards the cabin that had the old chief in. He was in a comatose state, but he wasn''t dead¡­ not yet but soon will be, atleast. As he told the guards near the cabin to leave him and the chief alone because he wanted to have a heart to heart talk with him¡­


    The guards understood and did so. When he entered the room, he saw how bland it was. It was the house the old chief lived in, and he wasn''t someone who really liked to change stuff around him, which was reflected in his leadership. He never even threw away the books he had that were half burnt from the attack of the wolves and the great fire years ago. Even just remembering that incident made Radus mad. Why couldn''t the chief just protect everyone, and do his job properly. If that day, the chief wouldn''t have failed, he wouldn''t have had to grow up an orphan. He heard a lot about his parents from others, and how great they were, but he never got to see it first hand. He sometimes really wondered what his life could have been like if they didn''t die that day.


    ¡°You ruined my life. I fucking hate you and even when you''re hanging on deaths door, you wont let me have the little bit of respect I have earned and worked so hard for. I fucking hate you, you old coot.  You failed me, you failed your son, you failed my parents and you failed your wife. Just die already. I''ll be sending you to hell myself. Tell the devil I said hi.¡± He said in an angry tone, as his hands started moving towards the old man''s neck to make a decision right then and take what was his once and for all.


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    But as he was about to choke the old man, the lights in the room started flickering. All the candles were blown away by a strong gust of wind that came out of nowhere. The room was dark, and suddenly it started getting cold out of nowhere. Radus had a feeling whatever was going on was not normal, as he tried to grab his axe but he was not carrying it. Why would he bring a weapon into the cabin of the person that was defenseless to fight back?


    Regardless, something was wrong right now as he looked around the room with a panicked look.


    The smell of rotting corpses filled the room, as he covered his nose with a disgusted look on his face. He looked around as he saw the room getting filled by white fog all around him. It made him panic worse, because this all seemed like a supernatural curse or something. He ran towards the door trying to open it, but it was locked. No matter how much he banged against it or how much force he exerted, it didn''t even budge, as if it was a wall.


    He was scared, and he felt that something was constantly looking at him, keeping an eye on him. He wanted to break through the door, but he felt so weak. He was scared beyond reason right now.


    As soon as he turned around, his worst fear came to pass. As he turned his face, he saw Carus''s corpse hanging from the ceiling right in front of him. His face half gone, his eyes bleeding tears and his whole color white as snow. His hair messy and half his body rotten as he hung upside down from the ceiling right in front of him suddenly yelling. ¡°YOU WILL PAY!¡±


    Carus''s ghost grabbed both of Radus''s shoulders with his hands and squeezed them tightly. Radus in a panic punched the ghost, as he was sent flying back. The ghosts nose was broken as he bled. Radus felt the warm blood on his fist and finally came back to his senses. It didn''t take a genius to realize this was all a trick and the motherfucker had survived this entire time. He still had no idea why he tried to do this bullshit, but the only thing that this did was make Radus mad. ¡°I''ll make sure to finish the job myself this time, you fucking bastard!¡±


    Meanwhile, Jack, who was sitting atop a lantern on a nearby wall, was watching all this. His plan worked flawlessly and the distraction did its job. Now, it was his turn to sweep in and save the day. ¡°Well, that went as good as planned.¡± he said, before jumping down from the lamp and getting ready to do his part.

 Denial

    Radus was mad, after finding out he has been getting gaslighted and made to believe that he was cursed and being haunted like that anyone would be mad. He ran towards carus who had already broken his nose and grabbed him by his waist turning his head to the ground as he jumped down on the ground hitting carus with a piledriver straight to the neck.


    After that he grabbed carus by his shoulder as the half unconscious Carus tried to punch him back but missed. Radus grabbed his hand and bend it sideways before throwing him into the ground and stomping on his head over and over again. ¡°IT¡¯S ALL YOUR FUCKING FAULT. YOU AND THAT OLD BASTARD IS THE REASON MY LIFE WAS HELL AND I HAD NOTHING WHILE YOU REJECTED EVERYTHING YOU BASTARD. I SHOULD HAVE JUST KILLED YOU AND THAT OLD COOT INSTEAD OF POISONING HIM. I SPENT YEARS PLANNING THIS. YOU AREN''T GONNA RUINING MY LIFE AGIAIN.¡± Radus yelled in an angry tone as he kept stomping his foot on Carus''s head driving it much much deeper into the ground. ¡°I wish I could have killed you both before, when I had the chance to do so. But I will finish my job now.¡±


    Carus was coughing heavily trying to breathe as he locked the fingers of both his hands together creating a fist while he planned to slam it down on Carus''s head to crush it and end the bastard for good, although before he could hit him he noticed Carus''s face, this bastard why was he smiling.


    As his hand was coming down suddenly Radus felt something hit his chest as he was sent flying back into a nearby wall. Radus almost felt all the air in his lungs collapse from that hit as he collected himself and looked up to see what it was. Upon seeing it his face turned pale. ¡°no ... .No¡­..NO NO NO NO NO¡± he fell back down. One dead person had already risen from his grave and now he saw the second one standing just fine. As the chief who he had surely sent into a coma helped carus get back up. Radus''s mind was a mess and only one question remained


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    ¡°How¡­.?¡±


    A few minutes ago-


    While Radus was mercilessly beating the shit out of Carus, Jack jumped down from the lantern and glided towards the old chief. He used his class skill identification on him, as a panel showed up showing his name rank, which was one above himself. The chief was an intermediate rank creature. And his status which was


    [poison of deep sleep current dosage : 92%]


    He assumed this much as he sighed. He pulled out the blue fruit cube pouch he had brought with him and dumped all of it into the chief''s mouth. Slowly the chief''s consciousness returned as he was able to hear everything that Radus said and understand everything that was going on. And so he woke up and hit that man in the chest sending him flying.


    Back to the present two dead men were standing in front of Radus right now. As Carus wiped the make up off his face that was done by yours truly, Radus also noticed a little man sitting on the shoulder of Carus smiling. ¡°Well that''s my end of the deal. Your dads back up so the village will believe you, as for what to do with him ask your father¡± he told carus while sitting on his shoulder


    ¡°I assume you helped my son plan all this out. While I am thankful we do not allow non-giants in our village, so you''ll have to leave after this.¡± The chief spoke with a firm tone as carus looked at him with the ¡®Really dad?¡¯ Expression.


    After hearing his words Jack said nothing but jumped from Carus''s shoulder to the chiefs as he sat down. The chief felt uncomfortable being used as a show seat but didn''t say anything. As both and Jack said at the same time. ¡°He''s all yours¡±


    Carus smiled upon hearing that. He had taken all that beating because Jack had told him not to fight back until he was done and so he did not fight back taking hit after hit but now that wasn''t the case anymore. Hearing that Carus ran towards Radus who was still in denial having a mental breakdown grabbed him by his waist and ran him through the wall, Then another, Then another. He ran that man through everything that came in his way until they were at the village center.


    The village chief and Jack both sighed realizing someone would have to fix this. Meanwhile in the village center a crowd formed to watch the beating of a lifetime.

 Devil

    In the center of the village, people started gathering to watch two giants fight. Well, one was fighting, and the other was being beat up. All the guards from the gates and outside came rushing when they saw the young chief being attacked by a traitor, but before any of them could do anything, the real chief appeared and stopped them. He said he would explain everything later and let them fight right now. Meanwhile, many of the giants questioned the little man sitting on the chief''s shoulder; one even pointed it out to the chief in response, to which he only replied. ¡°And?¡± Which meant it was fine and no one pushed it further.


    Meanwhile, in the center of the village, Carus grabbed Radus by the face and slammed him into the ground. Turning him over and grabbing him by his neck and legs, slamming him down on his knee by the back, which almost made a cracking noise. He grabbed Radus and punched him in the guts, and before Radus color fell down, he grabbed the man by the face and hit him with the knee in the head as blood spilled from Radus''s face. Giving the fucker no time to collect himself, Carus uppercutted him, then while he was knocked back, he grabbed his hand, pulled him in, and punched him directly in the face, making his teeth go flying.


    He punched his face with a right jab and left uppercut, thinking about everything Radus and Rena did. He punched him down into the ground so hard that Jack can swear he saw the man bounce back up from solid ground. Jack was so enjoying the show as Carus grabbed Radus''s head, dragged him through the ground, and then slammed him down. Before getting on top of him and starting to punch down his face over and over and over again until he couldn''t even bleed anymore. Carus''s own hands were bloody, but it was nothing compared to the condition Radus was in right now. This beatdown went on for several hours until Radus finally stopped breathing.


    As he finally did, Jack just threw a dagger made from the poisoned snake tooth towards the man just before he died, wondering if that would work. Finally, the giant stopped breathing, and a panel popped up.


    [You have killed an inferior III creature.]


    [100 merits have been awarded.]


    [You have completed the quest Revenge and Blood].


    [3000 merits have been awarded.]


    This was the sole reason why Jack changed his mind to help out Carus in the first place. Only an idiot would avoid that many points, and Jack was really no idiot as he finally jumped off the chief''s shoulder, gliding down with his Aquamarine Fangs.


    Carus, who had finally stopped beating down the body of the dead Radus, sighed and looked up towards the sky. He had taken another life, yet he didn''t feel bad. He thought he would feel bad or hollow after getting revenge, but what a buttload of bullshit! He had never felt this good in his life, as he chuckled. Seeing this, the chief was almost worried for a second, seeing the tiny man walk towards Carus, who was laughing after killing someone. It felt like the devil itself had placed its hand on his child, but then again, he couldn''t say anything since that man was also the person who saved his life. ¡°What a day to see,¡± he said to himself while sighing.


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    ¡°Feel better?¡± Carus nodded to Jack''s question. "A lot," Jack smiled, but before he could say anything else, the chief spoke. ¡°I am afraid you''ll have to leave now. We cannot allow outsiders in our village; I am forever indebted to you, but I cannot allow you to stay here, little one.¡±


    Carus was angered by his father''s words. After all that the man did for them, was he going to kick him out? He wanted to say something, but he felt the words get stuck in his throat upon seeing the glare of his dad.


    "Hey Carus, remember the favor? I''ll call it in." Carus looked at Jack, suddenly a bit confused as to what he meant but it didn''t take him long to realize.


    Carus was almost shocked  as he did realize. But he understood better than anyone that Jack wasn''t one for jokes, if anything, which meant he was completely serious. But thinking about it, Carus can''t be living under his dad''s shadow and following his dad''s orders all his life. He needed to stand up for himself at some point; maybe this was the time it was meant to happen. "No, dad, he isn''t leaving. He is going to stay, and he''s my guest."


    ¡°Did you not?¡±


    ¡°I heard it. I have been hearing it my whole life. This time, you need to understand what I am saying, dad. He saved my, your, and everyone here in the village''s life, probably, and you are not treating him like an outsider.¡±


    "Fine, then, not as your dad. As your chief, I order you to: ¡±


    ¡°I refuse. If you are going to order me as the chief, then I''ll do what I must. I''ll fight you right here for the position of chief. Come at me, father.¡±


    The chief was silent. Looking at the young boy, who was all grown up now, He had a broken nose and multiple injuries on his face, yet he stood for what he believed in. His conviction was admirable. He truly believed in what he stood for, it seemed. Even more than the chief himself did. He always thought keeping the village closed up was a good way to keep themselves safe, but the danger came from within the village in this case. He was a stubborn man, but one who could understand his own mistakes. Maybe it was the right time to change things in the end. As he looked at his son, he didn''t see the man with bloody hands standing in front of him right now; he saw the little child who wanted to sit on his dad''s shoulder to see the stars. Oh, how the time passes. ¡°I yield.¡±


    The chief spoke one word, which made everyone except Jack almost faint in surprise. He understood what the giant''s emotional state was right now, but he could care less about this melodrama.


    ¡°I NAME MY SON AS THE NEXT CHIEF OF THE GIANT VILLAGE.¡±


    The chief announced without wasting a breath as Jack smiled seeing the panel that popped up in front of him.


    [You have gained the favor of the chief of the dominant race of the forest of giants.]


    [+1000 merits have been awarded.]


    [Extra-skill gigantification has been awarded.]


    ¡°It''s a great day today. But i really want some sleep now.¡± Jack spoke with a smile as he looked up at the timer in the middle of the village center, finally hitting 0.


    [THE TUTORIAL HAS ENDED]

 Ruler

    [The tutorial has ended.]


    ¡®Finally¡¯ he had been waiting for the tutorial to be over forever now. He sighed as he looked at Carus, who was hugging his father in an emotional moment. He didn''t want to get involved in all that, so he just checked all the notifications he was getting.


    [+10,000 merits have been awarded for surviving the tutorial.]


    [You have gained authority over the Forest of Giants.]


    Just as all the giants were celebrating the crowning of the new village chief, the forest was also planning to celebrate the crowning of the new ruler. Suddenly the ground shook, catching everyone by surprise. As it stopped shaking after a bit, one of the guards came running from outside the gates. While trying to breathe, he said.


    ¡°BB Beasts¡­Monsters¡­ surrounded¡±


    The poor guy was having a hard time even breathing. He must have seen something horrifying as Jack was picked up by Carus. While the elder chief ran towards the gate, he only saw something that made his eyes widen in fear and shock.


    Every single animal in the forest had come together; no one was hurting each other, but all of them had surrounded the giant village as if they were waiting for someone. Suddenly, a bird¡ªthe same bird that lived on the tree next to where Jack first made his base¡ªcame flying towards Carus. The elder chief and Carus, along with the guards, thought this to be an act of aggression, but Jack spoke up.


    "Stop.¡± They all looked at the tiny man on Carus''s shoulder as he jumped onto the bird''s back, who flew over to the middle, right in front of all the animals who were looking at Jack. He stepped onto the bird''s head, looking down at all the creatures as he smiled. ¡®I can get used to this,¡¯ he thought while speaking.


    ¡°Down¡±


    His voice was firm, and the singular word responded among the forest as every single animal present there bowed its head. From the proud lion to the sly fox,the giants, who had been confused by then, found their bodies moving on their own as all of them also got on their knees, bowing.


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    "Ah, chief, I feel like we never had a proper introduction. My apologies for that.¡±


    He sat as he smiled, and slowly the wind started blowing as white particles danced around him and the bird. The forest was welcoming its new ruler, and the commemoration ceremony was going on. As white light particles spun around him in a circle, slowly forming a crown on his head, the crown was pure golden in color with a green gem in the middle.


    ¡°I am Jack, and this forest, along with everything in it, is my property. The one true ruler you can say. Also, you may lift your heads now.¡±


    He chuckled while giving the last command. It felt so dramatic, but it was fun, and there was no way he was going to lose on the presentation part now, was he? As soon as the introduction was over, everyone was able to move again. Well,  the giants and the animals merely raised their heads as he ordered. It was at this moment that the elder chief realized how badly he had messed up; if it hadn''t been for his son, he would have ended up angering the one who has authority over the whole forest. That won''t be a pretty sight to see for anyone. He wanted to apologize, but he didn''t find the strength in him to do so. Just then, he found Carus bowing down to the ground as he spoke.


    ¡°We are sorry for the way we treated you, Your Majesty, on behalf of the whole giant race, and as the chief, I apologize.¡±


    "Hmm, an apology won''t do; I want your head,¡± Jack said as everyone''s face turned pale, including Carus, but he was willing to make the sacrifice. That was until he heard the sudden burst of laughter. ¡°Chill out, dude; it is whatever. I couldn''t care less for the whole your majesty charade; I just wanted to look cool. Anyway, the forest comes under me now, so no beast is going to attack the village, you guys understand?¡±


    All the beasts nodded their heads in submission before returning back to their own territories in the forest as he sighed. "Well, as your ruler, I would like to give my first decree. Prepare a bed. I want to sleep, man, and when I wake up, let''s party for fucks sake.¡±


    He told everyone in a nonchalant tone while smiling. As the bird carried him back into the village while they prepared a bed and room for his size, he checked some other stuff, giving Carus and the old chief some time with the people that they needed.


    [You have been given the title ¡°Devil¡¯s Ace.]


    [The player leaderboards have been released.]


    "Oh, so we have a leaderboard system, huh? Well, it makes sense, but how is it even decided who ranks where?¡± He wasn''t sure how that would even work, but he decided to check it out anyway, only to find out the whole thing was blank right as another screen popped up.


    [Rankings will be decided after the test match.]


    [Time until the test match: 48 hours]


    ¡°Interesting¡­¡±

 Lord Protector of the forest

    That night, Jack had a good sleep, finally getting a chance to rest up. The last time he slept was inside the dungeon when he passed out, which had been a few days ago, but now that the whole tutorial was over, he had enough time to rest. Meanwhile, he slept. The giants were preparing for a festival in their town commemorating not only the new chief but the new ruler as well. After around 18 hours, Jack had finally woken up from his sweet sleep. This was the first time he truly felt relaxed after the tutorial had started, and right now he was more fresh than ever.


    After getting up, a female giant assistant that was assigned to him came to greet him as he sighed. "Did Carus learn nothing?" he said, pinching his temples. He told her to go send Carus here. Meanwhile, he washed his face and freshened up before putting on his armor.


    Of course he did not sleep with the armor on; it was an intermediate-grade weapon, and he had no way of getting it ruined by any means. Ah, speaking of rank, he also thought he should check something.


    [Skill tree: Jack Hoff


    Rank: inferior III


    Class: Blacksmith


    Inventory: Aquamarine fangs, Obsidian Flaming Armor, Rhuthras Hammer


    GENE SKILL:


    Devil''s deck (inferior): the user is able to shuffle a deck of cards, excluding the king, queen, and jack for now. Whatever card the user lands on will grant him a certain effect.


    The heart heals any injury or status condition the user may have received.


    Diamond creates a protective barrier around the user.


    Club provides users with a physical boost in all their physical capabilities.


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    Spade: anything the user has killed can be summoned to aid them in battle.


    The number on the card drawn determines the strength of the ability or its effectiveness. The spade summons will be automatically assigned a number based on their rank between 1 and 10. New summons can be exchanged with old ones, but the numbers will always be decided via strength.


    There is a cooldown between drawing cards, and when the next card is drawn, the effects of the old card are replaced.


    Class Skills:


    Identification: this ability allows the user to identify the nature of any material and its natural compatibility, its rank, its average price, etc. This ability can be used on other creatures to see their skill page if they have any, and if they don''t, it can be used to see their rank and skills if they have any.


    Extra skill:


    Gigantification: the skill can be activated to turn the user into a giant, their size growing by several times. However, the duration of use is only 5 minutes, and the cooldown is longer. Any magic the user uses as a giant will be more destructive, but it will also consume more mana. The user''s items will also increase in size upon activating the skill and decrease when it ends.


    GENE TRAIT


    Devil''s Hand: The user has increased luck while gambling, but their luck is reduced while doing anything else. The user can also use this skill for longer by just increasing the size of one part of the body instead of the whole body.


    Merits: 19,860]


    The new skill is rather useful for direct confrontation. Jack only imagined what a 10 of clubs in giant form would hit, like, yeah, nevermind, that would probably kill whoever he used it on. He only hoped he would never have to use it, but the other thing his eyes checked was the merits. That''s a lot of money to spend, he thought. He wanted to get some materials to create equipment for himself before the test match would start. "Ah, the test match, I almost forgot."


    He said this as he checked the time. There were a good 24 hours left, so he had time. He wasn''t that worried, but he would still like to prepare. Just as he was thinking all that, Carus entered the cabin wearing similar clothes to the chief. Honestly, Jack was a bit surprised at first, confusing him for the chief; they really do look alike, he sighed.


    "The chief of giants Greets the Lord, protector of the forest." Carus said, bowing his head slightly, which made Jack''s face cringe back in reaction. What the hell was that title? Who even came up with that level of bullshit? "Please stop before I die of cringe."


    Carus instantly stopped, as he asked. "What happened to your health? Is it a curse?" For a giant, the word cringe made no sense, and seeing how negative of a reaction Jack gave and how long he slept, Carus had fair worries.


    "Forget about it. I have something important to say." Carus was all ears as Jack grabbed his stuff and jumped onto Carus shoulder. "Let the party begin!!!"

 Merit Shop

    After Carus''s ears recovered from having Jack yell directly into them, he smiled and carried their lord outside. As soon as they exited the room, Jack was shocked to see the scene outside. The whole village was lit up with lanterns and small flag lines hosted across the town, all meeting up right in the middle of the town. Right where they all met, a singular lantern sat. Right under it, a tower with a seat had been constructed, especially for Jack, from which he could see everyone in the whole village.


    This was the first time Jack got excited like that. He didn''t waste any time and jumped off of Carus''s shoulder before climbing onto the top of the tower with a smile so wide that it made everyone else smile as well. What he saw from the top was simply beautiful; the sunset and the whole village looked like one perfect scene, and he was happy.


    "Do you like it, Lord Protector?" Jack was instantly brought back to how bad it can be as soon as he hears that title. All his excitement was killed in a second as he looked down to see the elder chief staring up at him. "Just call me Jack from now on, and yeah, it''s great."


    "Okay, then, as Lord Jack wishes. Since our Lord has woken up, Let the festival begin," the elder chief announced as Jack stood there dumbfounded, looking at what was going on. "Festival?"


    He only expected to have a simple party, but these idiots had set up a whole festival for him. Not that it did not warm his stone heart, but he did feel a bit bad for making them do all this out of nowhere. Well, whatever they chose to do on their own, they might as well enjoy it for their sake.


    Something else also caught his eye. The villagers did not set this all up by themselves; he could see the animals around the area also among the crowd, and it did not take a genius to realize what it meant. It seems like everyone wanted to welcome their new lord to the forest. As he sat down in his seat, two birds came flying, carrying plates of food and drinks on a table between their beaks. He was so enjoying this as he took the plates, and the birds flew away to get more. He laid back down, relaxing as he ate and watched the show that was about to start down there. It seemed to be a kind of traditional dance, but he wasn''t really interested in watching it, so he turned his attention to something else instead. The merits and the merit shop, he was told to wait until after the tutorial to use.


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    [Welcome to the merit shop.


    Current merits: 19, 860]


    A screen with a shop UI opened up much like what you would see while opening any shopping site back on earth before all this started. At first, when this started, he was only mad and frustrated; honestly, he would have died on day 0 if it weren''t for his grandpa''s advice and that dream. Speaking of that dream, he still felt like his grandpa was talking to him directly during that time.


    Regardless of all that, he went back to checking the merit shop. There was a lot of stuff: weapons, tools, armor, herbs, ingredients, minerals, mana crystals, and even hollow gems. Jack thought he should get something before the test match started, but what was he even going to get? He couldn''t buy beast parts from the merit shop, and he would need something to infuse with the will of a beast. He actually wanted to make a new pair of shoes for himself, and he planned on using a little bit of adamantite mixed with a beast part, preferably with a wind infusion gem, to create his new shoes, but that plan was out of the shop now. Only if there was a way to get good beast parts.


    He kept checking around the merit shop until he finally came across a certain feature. A trade button that could be used to trade with other humans on his planet. This was really helpful; if any of them had hunted a beast, or preferably a bird-type monster, he would have used it to make boots. As he scrolled through the page, he started losing hope again. He only saw inferior-grade beast material, and that was not going to cut it; of course, no one would have hunted anything of intermediate grade yet. If he wasn''t provided with his basilisk shells, he would have been in heavy trouble, but what now?


    That was until his eyes caught a certain item.


    [Feather of Stormhawk


    Intermediate: II


    It is the feather of a hawk who soars above the storms and commands the wind while flapping its wings. A creature of wild tendencies.


    Note: I got this from a random loot box and got excited about the rank. It can only be used for crafting, though. ;-;


    Price: 5000


    Seller: Anabell Listz]


    "That''s kind of convenient," he said as he bought everything he would need to craft the shoes. Some leather, an adamantite ingot, a wind infusion gem, and the feather total cost him 8,000 merits.

 Storm 1

    As the festival came to an end, all the giants went to sleep while the guards changed shifts. Carus approached Jack to ask if he needed anything, and Jack just asked to be left alone and that no one come into his room no matter what for the next 12 hours. He then went back into his cottage and pulled out his blacksmithing hammer; thanks to it, he did not have to worry about needing a whole forge for this process.


    He placed all the ingredients on a table in front of him¡ªthe adamantite ingot, the wind infusion gem, and the stormhawk feather¡ªand thought of what needed to be done. First on the agenda was to make a design. The rest of the process was pretty much like the book thing, but that didn''t mean he didn''t enjoy it. But if anyone at all asked him, which part of blacksmithing did he enjoy the most? It was the first step in making a design. After a while of thinking, he settled on a design he thought looked good.


    He put the adamantite ingot down on the table and took a deep breath, channeling his mana into the hammer as sparks of blue lightning appeared around it, and as he smashed it down, white light emanated from the ingot, lighting up the room completely for a second before it faded away.


    As the light did fade away, it left behind a pair of dark blue shoes with purple highlights that matched his flaming armor. He was completely satisfied with the shape and design, so he moved on to the next step, the much harder one. The feather, along with the other items, had just popped out in front of him when he clicked buy. But there was only one feather, meaning he cannot afford to fuck up by any means. So he put the stuff down for a second, put on his armor, and took deep breaths. "Don''t fuck this up, don''t fuck this up," he kept repeating to himself as he put on his armor for good measure. He placed the feather on top of the boots and channeled his mana into the hammer before striking it down.


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    Suddenly everything went dark as he found himself in the familiar mindscape. White light particles flew around him and then collected in front of him as they formed the image of a hawk. The hawk was no bigger than a normal human hawk, honestly, so he thought to be a bit more gentle with it.


    "Down, boy, let''s not hurt each other now," he said, slowly approaching the creature. At first, the creature only ignored him, but as soon as he started getting closer, the creature formed immediate eye contact with Jack. Jack, knowing he backed down would be considered submitting, walked forward towards the bird, not breaking eye contact.


    Meanwhile, the bird considered it an act of aggression and let out a loud shriek; the battle just got real. Jack was up against the will of an intermediate-rank beast; he had no idea what rank that basilisk was, but this hawk was no joke.


    The bird flapped its wings as he suddenly took off and flew upwards. Jack had no real way to follow it up there, and following the bird there would leave him defenseless. He was not sure if he should use his skills already, and while he was sure Gigantification could fix the range issue, he had to remember that if he killed that thing, it was over. He hated situations like this, but his teacher was right; he couldn''t hit his way out of everything it seemed.


    Before Jack could even have a chance to think up a plan, the creature flapped its wings together, forming a tornado from just flapping his wings. The tornado moved towards Jack as he tried to get out of its way but was caught up in it, causing him to be spun around like he was in a washing machine before being thrown into a nearby wall, making him cough blood. This was the first time since getting his armor that he had been injured. It seemed he was really starting to get cocky here, but he was still as killable as ever.


    "Great, so it can go all out and try to kill me, but if I kill it, I''m on the losing end. If I die, I lose. If it dies, I lose. Sigh. Why do things have to be so hard?" He thought to himself before simply gripping his hammer tightly as he started running towards that bird. It was about time to teach that bitch that those who fly high fall harder.

 Storm 2

    As he rushed towards the bird again, it flapped its wings again, but knowing better, this time Jack activated his card skill. Cards formed and floated all around him until one stopped in front of him. As he got a diamond of 6, a protective barrier formed around him. The tornado crossed over the barrier, with minor cracks being formed in it. Jack canceled it and moved closer. The bird realized Jack was able to deal with its storms, so there was not much of an option for the avian either.


    It dove down right towards Jack as the human swung his hammer at the hawk. It raised its talons forward as the two clashed, and both of them came to a standstill as wind and electric sparks circled around the two of them while they clashed. Jack found himself being pushed back slightly as he gritted his teeth, and the hawk swung its opportunity, flapping its wings point blank in Jack''s face.


    ¡°Oh fu.¡± Before Jack could even finish the sentence, he was sent flying in a tornado that spun him around like crazy, and the bird joined in to dive inside the tornado and strike at Jack, clawing half his face with its talons, making the man bleed out and gasp in pain.


    "Okay, fuck this.¡± It was about time he got serious over this fight. It was better to kill the thing than to die while holding back. As the creature started flying away from his jack, he activated his gigantification skill just on his hand. As his hand started growing bigger and bigger, he grabbed the bird by its leg and slammed it down into the ground. Although the bird wasn''t dead, it had certainly taken damage from the hit as Jack jumped, walked up to the will, and placed his hammer on the bird''s head. ¡°I''ll repeat myself once. Down boy,¡± the bird was a smarter creature than the basilisk, and seeing its life in the hands of the human, he chose to submit them to die. Avians weren''t known for being proud creatures to begin with.


    The bird got up and lowered its neck while looking at Jack, which made the man sigh in relief, and he placed his hand on its head. The birds will then turn into white light particles as Jack comes back to reality in his room. Although there were a few minor differences, firstly, he had blood all over his clothes, and secondly, half of his face was clawed. After fixing that, he went back to check on the shoes as the feather withered and a white light escaped from it, taking the shape of the storm hawk flying around Jack before flying into the shoes as they gained two pairs of wings on the ankles.


    After that, Jack took a much-needed break, healed his injuries, washed his face, and ate something before getting to the next part, perhaps the only one he wasn''t worried about. He could mess up the design; he could mess up the will submission; but he couldn''t mess up when it came to gambling. It was physically impossible for him to do that.


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    And so he created a tiny, two-millimeter hole in both shoes, placed the wind infusion gems in them, and started supplying them with mana through his hammer this time. He realized that if he used his hammer, no mana was wasted while transferring. The circles started forming while it was still exhausting. It was much better than last time. He didn''t feel like he was straight up going to pass out from this, which was a great thing as he finally finished with the second circle, and that was the time he started sweating. Which happened during the first circle of his armor last time.


    [Congratulations on creating an intermediate-grade item.]


    [+100 merits have been awarded.]


    [The item has a tamed will.]


    [+50 merits have been awarded.]


    [The item has a skill.]


    [+50 merits have been awarded.]


    [Storm-Boots, II


    Boots crafted with luck, passion, and a certain goal in mind. The wings of a hawk who chose to control the storm rather than avoid it are embedded in it.


    Abilities:


    Wind burst: the user can create a burst of wind under their feet to push themselves higher, increasing their jumping capabilities. It can also be used to increase movement speed and kick attack power.


    Breeze Step: the user''s speed is increased by 30%, including their reflexes.]


    ¡°Now this I like,¡± he said, looking at the new boots as he instantly put them on to check them out. He jumped off the giant table he was on and gilded using his aquamarine fangs. While mid-air, he used the wind burst to launch himself further; he wasn''t just falling in style anymore; he was flying with these on. As he landed, he decided to check out his speed and how fast he was. He started running, as it took him 10 seconds to complete a lap around the giant room. While it took 15 before, it was indeed faster. Regardless, he knew these would come clutch in the test match. For now, he took off all his stuff and went to rest before the test match.


    As the next day came, he was standing, wearing his full armor and boots, while standing on the table. He had already informed Carus that he would be gone for a day or maybe even more. He wasn''t sure what this test match was or how long it would even last. While he still had ten minutes left, he thought maybe staying anonymous was a better idea. He opened the merit shop and bought a mask for 1k merits that he can use to hide his face. It also let him see a little bit further than normal while letting him keep a poker face. Although funny enough, the only mask they had was that of a joker, so it seemed he was going to get a lot of attention.


    He could only sigh now as he prepared himself for the event while the timer clocked in at 0.


    [The test match is going to begin.]


    [All players are required to participate.]


    [Current number of players: 10,000]


    [The 1000 players on the lowest rank would have their kingdom absorbed by the top 10 players.]


    [Welcome to the test match]


    And with those words appearing in front of him, Jack vanished from the table he was standing on. Leaving the giant village for the first time after the start of the apocalypse was also his first time meeting other people who were humans.

 Interactions

    As soon as Jack opened his eyes, he found himself at the end of a giant hallway. As soon as he came to his senses, his ears were attacked by the loud sound of the crowd, as the whole hall was filled to the brim with players. He noticed a symbol in the middle, saying S4. He assumed that was the hall number. He then chose to look around. With so many people here, he should have felt at ease compared to before, but he felt nervous, if anything, and why do they have to be so damn loud?


    Sighs ¡°There goes my peace,¡± he says as he starts walking forward in the hallway, trying to locate where he was meant to go. He tried to walk through the huge crowd in the hallway somehow without bumping into anyone. Just when he thought he made it, someone else walked past him and bumped into him as he looked at that person.


    The man was no older than 20; he had spiky hair, almost like someone had taken a paintbrush and made it a hairstyle; his eyes were crimson red; and he somehow emanated an aura of authority. ¡°Watch where you are going, fuckin donkey,¡± the man said as he looked down on Jack and walked away.


    Before Jack could even recover from that, he suddenly heard a sound. In the middle of the hallway, a giant screen appeared. As a voice started speaking,.


    ¡°I congratulate you all for completing the tutorial. I am one of the administrators responsible for your planet, but for now, I am the one responsible for these test matches. Don''t consider yourself special just because you are the bare minimum to be alive. You may all refer to me as Z. Now the important part.¡± The voice spoke as the screen showed what appeared to be a giant colosseum. ¡°You all will make teams of 4, and matches will begin according to brackets until we are down to our last 1000. After which, the matches will be individual. All your actions, strength, defense, utility, leadership, and teamwork will determine how many points you get per match. Those with the highest points will become the 10 selected players to be in the game master''s deck; the others will go through another training session. Best of luck! You have 30 minutes to make a group of four." As soon as the voice was done speaking, the screen turned off, and suddenly a panic ensued. Everyone wanted the best teammates, but nobody knew what was good or bad as of right now.


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    Way too many people approached him due to his shiny armor, which no one else in his hall seems to have, but he slipped away somehow. Why? Well, he was the only one who could read people''s skill trees. So he kind of knew who he would want to team up with. That being said, he realized how fucking desperate people are; it almost made him feel bad. Almost.


    He simply sighed and kept looking until his eyes finally landed on a certain group. There seemed to be only three of them, so he had a good chance. As to why he chose them, their skills were far better than those of most other people he had read about as he walked towards them.


    ¡°Uh, do you need a member?¡±


    "No" and "yes,¡± two of the group''s members spoke at the same time, making him sigh. Finally, the third member was a man of tall stature. His face could be considered rather handsome, honestly, and, of course, not more than Jack. Anyway, that man spoke up. "Yes, we do need another player. I am the current team leader, and I hope you don''t have a problem with that.¡±


    ¡°Nah, it''s fine, so can I squeeze in your team?¡± He asked with as friendly of a smile as he could have pulled off without starting to look creepy as the man nodded. "Sure, we need another member, and your armor seems cool. My name is Dustin, by the way, and these two are my teammates. Toki and Hana¡±


    He finally turned his eyes to the other two. One of them seemed to be a man in his early twenties with aqua-blue eyes and long black hair. He had a cheeky smile on his face. ¡°Nice to meetchya,¡± he said, only somehow annoying Jack further.


    As for Hana, she was very reserved. She was not shyly reserved but rather annoyedly reserved, as there was a certain hint of annoyance on her face. He then looked at Toki and realized why. The woman was a bit taller than Toki and was smoking a cigarette. Her most differentiating character was her hair. It was a shade of green that was mostly seen among the plants as he nodded towards her, deciding not to speak more than necessary.


    They thought about discussing their skills but realized everyone was still near them. So in the end, they only ended up waiting for the matches to begin.

 Teammates

    As they all waited, Jack was getting a bit impatient. Honestly, this was very boring. He would rather just sleep right now, but he wouldn''t want to be rusty or half asleep when the matches begin. Suddenly, a voice hit his ears.


    ¡°So what''s up with the mask? not like I am judging. Well, honestly, I am." Jack turned around to see the blue-eyed teammate of his, as he could only sigh. "Uh, well, it comes with the armor, you see,¡± he tried to lie, making it so obvious that even Toki''s eyes twitched. ¡°Uh, that''s a weird design choice. Well, as I said, I don''t judge. So what do you used to do before this whole mess started?" Toki asked to satisfy his curiosity. It''s not like he was actually interested, but it was better than being bored.


    ¡°I was working in the stock market,¡± Jack said as he sighed, thinking about the good old days when times weren''t this hard.


    ¡°So you were a gambler? Listen, dude, it''s not a bad thing if you like to play with odd, but isn''t that an unstable career?¡± Toki asked, almost making a pitiful face and making Jack mad if anything.


    ¡°Do you even know how the stock market works?¡± He asked Toki, not expecting much of an answer.


    ¡°It goes up and down, right?¡± Toki said it with the most oblivious and honest face, making Jack feel bad for him honestly. ¡°Yeah, I expected much,¡± he sighed as he left Toki alone since he can put up with beasts, but idiots were much harder. He looked at Hana, who was smoking her fourth cigarette. That girl is not going to have a long life at this rate. He wondered if he should try and go talk to her, but the annoyance on her face and the stupid smile on Tokis explained that she had enough human interaction for today.


    Meanwhile, Dustin seemed to be nowhere; he wondered where he could have gone, as sooner or later the 30 minutes passed by and all teams were formed. Dustin also came back after a bit with a tired look on his face. ¡°Where did you go even?¡± Before Justin could answer, a screen popped up in front of all of them.


    [Game selection will now begin.]


    They all found themselves being teleported, and before they knew it, everyone was gone. The four of them were teleported into a room with a screen and a button in the middle of the room.


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    [Pressing the button will generate a random game, and the team matching that game will play against you. Anyone can press the button.]


    [10 minutes left before auto-selection]


    This was rather convenient. Jack grabbed Toki''s collar as he tried to walk forward and sighed. ¡°Don''t even think about it.¡± Toki looked almost a bit sad, but he realized it would be rather unfair if he just went ahead and pressed it.


    ¡°I think I should press any objections.¡± Hana couldn''t care less. Toki''s vote didn''t count, so it was up to Jack.


    "Actually, do you mind if I do? I have a trait that makes randomized things be in my favor more,¡± he realized, realizing speaking about his abilities might do him more good than bad, but right now they were teammates, so there was no issue in revealing his hand.


    "Yoo, what is a trait, though?¡± Jack just gave Toki. Are you serious? While he left Toki for Dustin so that he could explain it to him, He walked towards the button and took a breath before pressing it.


    [A random game is being selected.]


    Everyone was holding their breath as the wheel spun, finally stopping at...


    [Congratulations! The flag has been selected.]


    ¡°That''s... not bad, I guess." Dustin was the one who spoke this time as he looked around at everyone in the room. Hana only sighed, while Toki was somehow excited. I swear to God that idiot will not live long at this rate. That made Jack wonder how he even survived until now. Well, that was a mystery for another day, it seemed.


    Dustin looked at everyone and, seeing that they were finally alone, asked them. "Okay, so let''s share our skills so that I can decide who will attack and who will defend.¡±


    Hana nodded, as she was the one to speak first. ¡°I can turn my body to smoke and control it for a limited amount of time; during this time, I am invulnerable to physical damage but can still touch stuff. My class skills are useless right now, that''s all.¡± She explained and did not speak more as Justin nodded and sighed with Toki next.


    "Ugh, I can turn an entire area dark for a limited amount of time and rain down light pillars from the sky that will make whoever gets hit by them unable to move. Oh, I can also manipulate blood to a certain extent.¡±


    Dustin nodded and looked at Jack before Jack explained his skills, keeping his blacksmithing and extra skills a secret and saying he didn''t have a class. Just because he decided to be nice and share doesn''t mean he had to share everything.


    Dustin nodded, thinking about it. "Alright, I can change my face and body to make it look like anyone else I have touched. No classes, but my extra skill lets me turn invisible for exactly 1 minute. That being said, here''s the plan." Everyone nodded as the plan was set and the first match would soon begin.

 First Match

    The timer soon came to an end, turning to 0 as a bright flash occurred once again, and all of them were teleported. They found themselves in the middle of a giant arena, open on both sides. It was just plain ground. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a circular, rotating sphere appeared in the middle. A hologram was created right in the middle of the letter Z as it spoke. "Uh, match number 87, S499 vs. G645. Game: capture the flag. I''ll assume you know the rules. Now the arena will shift into a new landscape soon, so prepare yourself. Again, best of luck.¡±


    Suddenly, the ground started shaking as giant buildings started emerging from the ground, and the ground itself started moving and stretching. The buildings rose and then crumbled down, leaving behind a post-apocalyptic wasteland with rubble and flames across the whole arena. Jack sighed, knowing this would get hard.


    Suddenly, a light shot down from the sky behind them, taking the shape of the flag, and the same happened on the other side. He knew where the flag was now, at least. He looked at Hana and Justin. Toki also put on a serious face as he stood with the flag while the three of them ran forward.


    While they were running through the streets, from the corner of his eye, Jack saw something coming towards him. He dove just in time as a fireball flew above his head. He had no headgear; he would have been toast the moment it touched him.


    ¡®Note to self: make headgear¡¯ he thought as he saw where the fireball came from. Three dudes, one of whom had his hands covered in flames, stood across the street. It seems like they had the same strategy. Suddenly, before he had a chance to move, something grabbed him.


    Chains made out of pure mana emerged from under the ground as he looked at his partners. Hana was also caught, and Justin was nowhere to be seen. ¡°Great,¡± he said to himself as he sighed.


    ¡°You guys are idiots.¡± One of the guys with red hair spoke, ¡°Give them a break; no one is used to magic and all this bullshit.¡± The third guy, who hadn''t shown his skill yet, spoke.


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    Jack sighed, looked at Hana, and nodded, as did she in response. Suddenly, Hana''s body turned to smoke as she passed through the chains, the smoke extending in a straight line forward. Out of nowhere, the guy who threw a fireball was hit by a Hana''s smoke punch to the face, knocking him back.


    The third guy, who hadn''t shown his skill, panicked and put up a barrier around himself and the chain guy. "Haha, you can''t get inside this green-haired bitch; my barrier reflects all at-¡±


    Before the man could even have a chance to finish his monologue, he was punched right in the face out of nowhere, knocking him and the barrier out. Dustin appeared right next to the unconscious man, becoming visible after a minute. He shook his hand after punching and sighed. ¡°You speak too much.¡±


    Finally, the one left was the chain guy, who was still holding Jack down. Jack sighed and activated his card. He got one of his hearts. He wasn''t even sure how that was supposed to help. Wasn''t he supposed to have good luck while gambling?. I guess you can never really trust luck.


    Regardless, the third guy was beaten to sh*t by Hana and Dustin as he couldn''t move while he was holding down someone with his chains. So the three moved towards the flag, which was being protected by the last guy, who was the weakest of the three. That man had no intention of getting beat up, so he just gave up the flag. At least someone here had a brain.


    Dustin grabbed the flag as they just walked back home to their base.


    [The 87th match of round 1 has concluded.


    Winner: S499]


    And before they knew it, all of them were teleported back to their own rooms with the button.


    [3 hours until the next match, please ask if you have any questions or requests].


    Dustin was going to say something, but Toki spoke first: ¡°Where''s the bathroom?¡± The room door opened, letting Toki go to his emergency room while Dustin spoke. ¡°Can you rate our performance compared to others?¡±


    [Not possible as of now.]


    Jack was the one who spoke up instead. ¡°Can we watch other people''s matches? If we can show me the match of the guy with the paintbrush-like hair,


    The system had no idea who Jack was talking about but somehow showed him the right person. What they saw wasn''t a match; it was a single-sided ass whoopin. The other teammates were just sitting back and watching as the king took his stage and singlehandedly put all the others down, bringing back the flag without anyone''s help.


    ¡°Sheesh¡­¡± Jack was a bit scared of that guy. It was better not to make an enemy out of him, at least not yet. Not like he wasn''t confident in his own chances at victory against him, but it''s better to have stronger people on your side.

 Smoker

    As they had 3 hours, and since he had done nothing at all, Jack just decided to look at other people''s matches. At first, Dustin was watching too, but he left soon, saying he had to use the bathroom, leaving Jack and Hana in the room. Oh yeah, Toki hasn''t come back yet.


    He wondered what that idiot was doing. At first, Hana wasn''t interested in watching the other fights, but sooner or later she started watching too. He only had one issue: just how much did this woman smoke? How did she even get that many cigarettes? He sighed. It''s not like he never smoked, but this was too much even for him.


    He focused back on the fights; most of them were boring, but there were some he was actually interested in. There was a guy who raised skeletons from the ground. Perhaps a necromancer; there was a guy using actual guns. That was just unfair against normal people without armor. There was also a dude just straight up throwing hands without using any weapon; he reminded Jack of a monk class from D&D. Too bad he couldn''t use his identification skills through the screen.


    Just as he and Hana were watching, there was too much smoke in the room, and as he sighed and spoke, ¡°Do you mind?¡± She looked at him, confused for a second, then realized she was looking at the room. "Sorry, I didn''t realize,¡± she said, taking out the cigarette and crushing it as he sighed.


    ¡°It''s fine,¡± he said, feeling a bit awkward as he used the toki way. ¡°So what did you used to do before this mess?¡±


    ¡°I was a chef and a waiter before that,¡± she said, feeling a bit weirded out by Jack trying to talk out of nowhere. She just kept her guard up.


    "Oh, I see,that''s nice,¡± he said, thinking back to it. He mostly just ordered take-out or instant noodles. He wasn''t a great cook to begin with.


    ¡°Not really. I had to earn a living for me and my two brothers, so I just did whatever job was available,¡± she said, retaliating to Jack and calling it nice; her life had been anything but nice before that. This almost felt relaxing.


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    "Oh,¡± he said, realizing the situation with her brothers. They were mostly dead by now, so he had accidentally stepped on a bad nerve. ¡°Sorry about your brothers.¡±


    ¡°It''s fine. We were all adopted either way,¡± she said without even realizing she took out another cigarette and lit it, but Jack spoke nothing now. ¡°My parents died in a car crash when I was 10. I lived in an orphanage until my two brothers and I were adopted by an elderly couple. After they passed away, my little brother''s responsibility is on me, or was it, i guess,¡± she said, blowing a puff of smoke.


    ¡°I see,¡± he could honestly understand as he sighed and spoke. ¡°I never knew my dad, for better or worse. My mom? I wish I didn''t know her. She tried to sell me off in order to make up for her loss in gambling. If it wasn''t for my grandpa, I was done. He gave me everything . I am who I am because of him.¡±


    Hana listened quietly, understanding his situation, and they both sighed. Suddenly, he heard Hana chuckle¡ªsomething he did not expect he''d ever see. He looked at her with a confused look. She realized this and spoke back.


    ¡°Sorry, I just realized... there is a whole race being ruled by Toki.¡± He looked at her with a horrified face.


    "Oh, poor guys,¡± he said as he chuckled as well. They both laughed for a bit, but then it went silent. They didn''t talk but looked at the screen. It was quiet¡ªtoo quiet.


    Suddenly, they could hear noises from the hallway. Both of them just thought it was probably some idiot.


    ¡°Toki!! ¡±They both said it at the same time as they rushed out at the same time. Seeing toki all up in the face of another guy who had toki grabbed by his collar.


    "Hey, come on, dude, it wasn''t that big of a deal,¡± Toki said to the man holding him.


    ¡°You bumped into me on purpose, you shithead,¡± the man retorted back as he clenched his fist.


    Both Jack and Hana rushed towards the man and Toki. Before Jack could say anything, Hana grabbed Toki away from that guy holding him by his collar. As he was hanging mid-air, he looked at them. "Oh, hey guys, what are you doing here? The bathroom''s that way, by the way.¡±


    Jack honestly thought they really had to save this guy, but there was not much of an option here, as he sighed.


    ¡°Are you shidiots, his teammates?¡± The man asked. The man had somewhat of a bulky body and seemed more fit than even Jack, who spent six months honing his body. ¡°That guy bumped into me, which caused me discomfort. So either you can pay up with 2000 merits or I''ll beat the shit out of him.¡±

 Planning

    ¡°That sounds painful,¡± Toki said, still hanging in midair as Hana sighed. Jack spoke instead: ¡°Listen, dude, I don''t know what happened, but I won''t give a fuckin shit for an assface like you, so fuck off.¡± The man was pissed, ready to pop a vein as he reeled back his punch to hit Jack, but a notification popped up.


    [Violence in the general area is banned.]


    The man sighed in a frustrated tone. Just then, Toki said, ¡°Oh, hey captain," and Dustin came walking back with both hands in his pockets. After they explained it all to him, ¡°Alright then. Let''s do this. I''ll challenge your team for the next round; if you win, you can get 3k merits from each of us. If we win, you give us 2,000 merits and say sorry to Toki.¡± The man looked at them as if he had gotten the best deal of his life.


    "Deal,¡± he said, shaking Dustin''s hand before he walked away.


    ¡°What an asshole!¡± Hana said this time, finally letting Toki down. Dustin sighed and looked at Jack. ¡°You can heal people, right?¡±


    Jack was a bit confused but nodded.


    "Good, because I think my hand is broken from that handshake,¡± he said, making Jack realize what a mess they had gotten into.


    After that, they went back to their room, where Toki was hit by Hana. They got into this whole mess because of him, while Jack did feel bad for Toki. That idiot deserved it. Dustin only sighed as he looked at the screen.


    ¡°System showed us that man''s first round match," and the screen changed instantly to the match between that man''s team and his opponent. Watching it was surprising. The match was more or less one-sided from the start; the man seemed to have some kind of super strength while his team member was able to turn any object he touched into ashes. That was a fucking op, but whatever he needed, he just needed to make sure he didn''t let him touch his items. He wanted to keep his special abilities for when single matches finally started.


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    But at least they had some idea. ¡°Great so we don''t even know what 2 of them can do¡± hana siad shooting toki an angry look, toki who was hiding behind dustin right now didn''t dare look back.


    ¡°At least we know what two of them can do." Dustin said, looking at the footage, and then he looked at Jack and said, ¡°And they don''t know what one of us can do.¡±


    ¡°In all honesty, even I don''t know what I will end up doing,"  he said, smiling behind that joker mask. He almost forgot he was wearing that as he sighed and then looked at Dustin. ¡°Any plan?¡±


    "Well, even if I do make one, we need to select a game first,¡± he said, looking at the screen. "Z, are you there?¡±


    He asked if the screen suddenly went black and the letter Z showed up on it. ¡°What do you need?¡±


    ¡°We would like to challenge that guys group who tried to attack Jack,¡± Dustin said, as that was the only system-related interaction they had with him.


    "Alright, challenge request sent... and they accepted it. Well, whatever, I''ll randomize a game for you guys,¡± Z said before the screen started shuffling through so many games they could hardly keep up before ultimately stopping on...


    [Congratulations, King of the Hill has been selected.].


    [You have 10 minutes to prepare.]


    ¡°All right, best of luck,¡± Z said from the screen before it turned black and vanished.


    Toki, who was hiding behind Dustin, spoke up to him. ¡°Uh, what''s the king of the hill?¡±


    Dustin sighed.. "Basically, there is a zone on the top of the hill; whoever stays in that zone longer wins. Each team''s goal is to stay longer than the other team, it seems.¡±


    Honestly, even Jack didn''t know what that game was, so he nodded as well before waiting for Dustin to make a plan. Meanwhile, he knew he was going to be used as a main weapon since he brought in the factor of surprise, and he didn''t mind that at all. But the factor of surprise was such a surprise, even though he didn''t know what it was going to be. While he agreed with Dustin that this was a great plan, he didn''t know what he would do if he rolled a 1 again. He didn''t want to reveal all his cards yet. ¡°I hate gambling,¡± he said to himself.


    ¡°But didn''t you gamble as a career?¡± Toki said as the Joker-masked man looked at Toki. Toki was hit twice at that time¡ªonce by Hana and once by Jack now. Anyway, the match was about to start, and Dustin only sighed deep in thought.

 Duke of throwing Hands

    As the timer ran to zero, they all were teleported with a bright flash onto a sandy beach. It seemed to be an island of sorts with a jungle as deep as they could see. There was a mountain right in the middle of it, though a golden light was seen coming down from the sky onto the top of the mountain. Even an idiot like Toki could tell that was where they were meant to go.


    ¡°Should I secure the place, captain?¡± Jack was the one who spoke up first, drawing everyone''s attention towards him.


    "Uh, yeah, sure, go for it,¡± he smiled as he ran much faster than everyone present there.


    ¡°He''s¡­fast,¡± Dustin said, as Hana nodded. Toki was left with dazzling eyes, thinking that was cool, but Jack knew that was more or less because of his new shoes. He really liked his shoes, as when he was sure no one followed him or was watching him, he jumped up using an air burst and pulled out his aquamarine fangs.


    ¡°Is this considered flying?I guess it''s more falling with style,¡± he said as he used the fangs to glide and launch himself up using air bursts. Around 10 minutes later, he was the first one at the top of the mountain.


    As he reached the peak, he saw a circular area of radius 20 meters. He stepped in it without thinking much as the color changed to red simultaneously as an announcement happened.


    [Team Red has occupied the hill.]


    [Current time: 00:01]


    [Time before the game ends: 119:59]


    ¡°Oh man, this is going to be a long day,¡± he sighed as he looked in the direction he came from, marking it as his team, and in the direction directly opposite it, marking it as the opponent. But before Jack had the time to relax, he saw something flying towards him from the opponent''s side.


    He dodged back, but it wasn''t an object. It was four people all tied up using a rope, and they all landed right in front of him.


    ¡°Next time, tell us when you''re going to throw us,¡± one of the guys said, looking at the man who was the one Toki had gotten into a confrontation with.


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    ¡°Shut up, dude, you''re making us look bad,¡± another guy said as the rope they were tied together by was absorbed back into this guy''s hand. Jack wasn''t slow this time, as he used his identification skills on Duke and was left speechless.


    [SKILL TREE: mcallagan


    Rank: inferior III


    Class: Brawler


    Inventory: none


    Gene Skills: None


    CLASS SKILLS: NONE


    Extra Skills: None


    TRAIT:


    Skill less: the user cannot gain any skills, but every skill the user cannot gain gives him a boost to all his physical capabilities instead.


    Merits: 12,000


    Title: Duke of Throwing Hands]


    ¡°What the fuck?¡± Jack said. That was even possible? This motherfucker was an anomaly through and through, as Jack could only sigh. There was no way he could clutch up a 1v4 without revealing all his cards, which he honestly didn''t want to.


    Whatever, it''s not like he has an option now. As he sighed and prepared to fight, just then the duke spoke. ¡°Beat me one-on-one, and we won''t fight you until your team arrives. What do you say?¡± Any normal person would have jumped up for the offer, but he realized this might cause him to go all out, which he didn''t want to. Ah, whatever could be done now, at least that way he could buy some time until his team gets here.


    ¡°Alright deal,¡± he said as the duke smiled and all the other members of his squad giggled before stepping back a bit. Duke cracked his knuckles while stepping forward as Jack activated his card skill.


    Suddenly, seven spades formed in front of him as he chuckled. He had already won this fight when white particles started dancing around him. The duke saw this as a sign of him activating his skill as he jumped forward at insane speed, trying to punch Jack, but it was too bad for him.


    He would feel a sharp pain in his hands, as he couldn''t feel it anymore. Looking at his hand, he saw his whole forearm, which had been cut off. He had no idea what happened as the white particles vanished, revealing a giant wolf forming behind Jack with its maw blood while it spat out the arm of the man who tried to hunt his master.


    Seeing this fear form in the eyes of the duke and his team members, the giant canine eyes almost emanated intimidation as they found themselves panicking. Before anything could happen, one of the teammates tried to speak up.


    ¡°T''s cheating.¡± Before he could finish the sentence, the giant wolf growled, taking a step forward and quieting the guy. They realized they were not made for this as they all turned around and tried to run away.


    ¡°Hunt. And I want them alive,¡± he told the wolf as he jumped off the edge of the mountain, following them. As for the duke of hands, Jack simply drew out his hammer.


    ¡°You motherfucker, you''ll realize how stupid you are for letting the monster go.¡±


    He sighed Perhaps it would be stupid normally. He smiled as he ran towards the duke, who came at him also. But before any confrontation, Jack activated the solar flare skill of his armor, burning the duke to a crisp.


    ¡°Who said I was playing fair?¡± Jack said, smacking the duke in the face with his hammer as he was knocked out. ¡°And you''re confused, my friend. Humans are the real monsters.¡±

 Tokis Bet

    Dustin had been slightly worried about sending Jack all alone. Although he was sure Jack was capable, the fact he might have to face a 1v4 alone, which could go either way depending entirely on Jack''s luck, made things worse. He had been walking faster than he needed to.


    While Toki was just trying his best to keep up,he looked at Hana and asked. ¡°Why is the captain in such a rush? Jack probably got it covered.¡±


    Hana sighed while running. She spoke. ¡°Probably because Jack is out there fighting a guy with superstrength that can uproot trees. Let alone the fact that he might be fighting the whole squad.¡±


    Toki was still confused as he ran behind them. ¡°I still don''t understand; he probably got it covered.¡± Hana looked at Toki for a second, then realizing he was just being Toki, sighed.


    Toki realized she wasn''t taking him seriously and spoke. ¡°I am willing to bet 5,000 merits; Jack has it covered.¡±


    Hana sighed, but it was free money, so "alright, bet.¡± She knew there was no way Jack could defeat all of them in a 1v4. With what she knew about his skill, his chances of winning were rather nonexistent.


    Dustin sighed, saying they could have this banter later, as they all rushed forward. Around 45 minutes after Jack''s duel with Duke, his team finally reached the top of the mountain.


    As they all did, they saw Jack lying down, yawning, and all the team members of the Dukes Party unconscious and tied up. They seemed to have no injuries, or at least none that were left visible after Jack healed them, to make sure no one found out about his skills. Even Duke was looking not burned while Jack yawned.


    ¡°I told you,¡± Toki said, much to Hana''s annoyance. She wanted to smack Jack this time for making her lose this much. But at least he had secured the spot, which showed over 45 minutes now.


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    "Oh, hey guys,¡± he said as he waved at them while yawning. ¡°It took you all long enough... I''m going to take a nap,¡± he said as he stepped into a more comfortable area before laying down and going to sleep. He was tired, and he had no interest in doing more than he needed to.


    Dustin was almost speechless, but he remembered that Jack''s trait is luck, so it wasn''t that surprising to him either. Toki was left to stay in the circle while Hana and Justin looked at the prisoner''s jack.


    Around 35 minutes after that, the match was finally over.


    The red team has won.


    Victory: [S499]


    [2000 has been deducted from team F734 and transferred to each member of S499 as per the conditions.]


    Honestly, he thought this was stupid, but looking at the 8,000 merits delivered into his account was a great time. As soon as they were teleported back to their room, another timer showed them they could start their next match instantly. Since the last match was a challenge match, they didn''t have to wait for 3 hours to do it again. Since everyone was still fresh, they all thought it was a good idea.


    And so Jack pressed the button. Due to his trait, something interesting was going to pop up as always, and what popped up this time surprised even him.


    [SHIP TAKEOVER has been selected]


    [10 minutes to prepare]


    You are on the takeover side.


    ¡°What even is that?¡± Dustin was the one who said it this time, as everyone was clueless. Just then, Z appeared on the screen and spoke.


    ¡°There are two teams. Defense and takeover, defense has the job to defend the spaceship and takeovers job is to infiltrate it and set off a bomb. If the bomb goes off, you win; if the defense finds it or defuses it, you lose.¡±


    Z said before the screen vanished again as Toki looked at Jack and Hana, and they all looked at each other as well. Hana was the first one to say, ¡°Isn''t this just...¡±


    Dustin nodded before she could even finish, ¡°Yeah, it is.¡±


    Toki also spoke up. ¡°So we are just playing.¡±


    ¡°This is counter attack, for fucks sake,¡± Jack said as he looked up. Was this a case of plagiarism? I mean, the concept wasn''t that far off that someone couldn''t think of it, and then again, it was blatant copying, which almost made Jack facepalm himself.

 Counter Attack

    When exactly 10 minutes had passed, they were teleported with a bright flash once again. Jack finally opened his eyes to find himself in a corridor. It looked like anything. The lights flickering on the walls and floor, along with the whole corridor being made out of pure steel, and the roof, which was completely made out of a material that was illuminating light, like mana crystals do,.


    As Jack saw all this, he heard Toki speak up, ¡°So what''s the plan again?¡± Dustin sighed before he spoke. ¡°I''ll need to touch one of the enemies, so toki, you are coming with me. Hana and Jack, Jack, you''ll carry the bomb since you can run away the fastest. Hana, you''ll be his backup; if things look bad, leave Hana and run.¡± Hana was a bit reluctant to be a throwaway, but they couldn''t expect Toki to do that. as she sighed and nodded along with everyone else. And so the teams were formed.


    Jack and Hana headed for the engine room. There was a blueprint in the hallway they spawned, telling them the location of the engine room. Meanwhile, Toki and Dustin headed straight for the closest bridge where they could meet their opponents. No one knew about Dustin''s or Toki''s skills yet, so it was fine with them holding the surprise factor.


    As Dustin and Toki made their way towards the bridge, they came across multiple rooms. There was even a huge observatory from where Toki could see the stars. He almost cried watching them. They were so pretty; he was initially an astronomer, not as a job but as a hobby. A stargazer, the stars and beyond always interested him somehow, and seeing them in person was much cooler.


    Dustin was somehow able to drag toki out of the room but toki really wanted to come back and watch this. Meanwhile on the other side of the ship Hana and Jack have been making their way down the stairs into the engine room. ¡°They should have given us actual laser guns; it would have set the mood right,¡± Jack said, sighing.


    Hana looked at him and said, "Next, you''ll want a lightsaber. Get your head in the game.¡±


    ¡°A lightsaber would be pretty sick, though." He said this as he sighed and looked at what was inside the doors. Most of it was random shit, so he didn''t bother checking all of them as he kept walking.


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    After a bit, they finally arrived at the engine room with the bridge. There was a fall so deep that Jack couldn''t even see the end of it. The engine core was right in the middle of the room, and there was a bridge connecting the engine and the hallway. Jack looked inside the room, but he saw nothing, so he and Hana walked to the engine core to set up the bomb.


    Just as they were walking, Jack felt a sharp pain in his shoulder, only to see that he had been shot by an arrow. Hana was set up on high alert due to this, as both he and Jack hid behind the engine reactor core. This time Jack heard as another arrow came his way and pushed her down, avoiding it.


    Hana and Jack both noticed this time where the arrows came from. It was coming from the ceiling, where the man was standing upside down on the ceiling without any issue.


    Jack didn''t have much time, so he activated his card skill and watched it spin as it stopped on seven of the diamonds. He smiled as a barrier formed around them, and he slouched back. Hana was a bit confused but sighed, realizing what had happened.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡± She asked him as he nodded and pulled out the arrow. This much was nothing; he just had to stop the blood loss. Jack thought he should just plant the bomb right now, but that won''t be good. Just as he was thinking, he heard a familiar voice crying.


    They all looked at the door as three people walked in carrying toki all tied up. ¡°HELP ME, I AM TOO YOUNG AND TOO HANDSOME TO DIE.¡± Both Jack and Hana were tempted to shoot that fucker themselves right then, but they kept their cool.


    ¡°You got them, captain?¡± The man on the roof said this as he jumped down onto the bridge as well. "Well, I got one; the other is dead. Motherfucker didn''t know when to give up.¡± The men only chuckled while the captain with blue hair turned to them and asked.


    ¡°You have two choices: either give me the bomb or I''ll let this guy go. Or we kill him, then you both. There''s an obvious answer here.¡±


    Meanwhile, Toki kept shedding tears. "PLEASE, I AM TOO VIRGIN TO DIE ALSO.¡±


    Jack nodded, and the answer was very obvious: let them kill Toki till his card time is recharged, then hit them as a giant. It won''t be that big of an issue. But before he could speak, Hana was the one to speak up. ¡°We give up.¡±


    Jack looked at her with a surprised face. ¡°We do?¡±


    Toki, who was tied up and hanging mid-air, was more surprised. ¡°You do?¡±

 Ice Cream

    "Yes, we do," Hana said as she sighed, pinching her temples, which almost made Toki''s eyes watery. She looked at Jack, who honestly didn''t want to do it; he had no intention of throwing away his own victory for someone else. Why the hell would he do that? He was not some kind of superhero, for fucks sake.


    "That''s a dumb choice," the blue-haired captain said as he put the toki down and loaded his revolver. Before looking at Jack and Hana and winking.


    Suddenly, the captain turned around and shot his two men in the head, and Toki used his skill to freeze the last one in his place. Jack turned off his barrier and took a sigh of relief. The blue-haired captain was suddenly engulfed in a yellowish color before turning into Dustin.


    Dustin united Toki while Jack set up the bomb.


    Hana really wished Toki would have actually died now, given the look he was giving her. "So you do care about me."


    Jack sighed as he prayed that Toki''s soul rest in peace while Hana beat the shit out of him. Meanwhile, Dustin walked up to Jack, who was setting up the bomb. "How did you know it was me?" To be frank, Jack had no idea it was him, but he went along with it.


    "Luck," he said without refusing to explain further. Dustin only took it as a note in his own mind, thinking Jack could find him even if he was disguised. Which jack probably could with the identification skill only if he started using it more?


    After a while, they left the engine room after throwing down the last member of the other team into the dark depths to see how deep it was. Unfortunately, they didn''t hear any crashing sounds as both Jack and Toki sighed. Hana sighed, while Dustin just laughed.


    They went back to the observatory so Toki could see the stars one final time after a bit of a notification popped up.


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    [The ship takeover has finished.


    Team takeover (S499) has won.]


    And with that, they were teleported back into their normal rooms. Toki was wearing a proud look on his face as he looked at everyone who was fooled by his acting skills. Of course, he knew he wasn''t going to die. He was too handsome to die¡ªaccording to him, at least.


    Meanwhile, Jack and Dustin both felt tired enough by now. Jack healed his injuries, and Dustin just slouched in a corner of the room. Meanwhile, Toki looked at the screen and spoke.


    "Can we get something to eat?"


    The screen made no response for a bit before asking what they would like to eat.


    Toki went on to describe every meal known to man at that very moment.


    Hana just ordered a steak.


    Dustin ordered some drinks and a light snack for himself.


    As for Jack, he thought about it before he ordered. "Get me a coffee, some chocolate ice cream, and, uh, ramen, I guess?"


    With that, a bright light appeared in the room as a table and chairs were teleported in with the food they requested. Jack was honestly happy to have the normal stuff again as everyone took their seats and began to eat.


    With all the apocalypse shit that had been happening recently, Jack had almost forgotten how good the simple life was. When he didn''t have to worry about surviving every day, when life was simple, after finishing his noodles, Jack took a bite from the ice cream.


    The sweet taste had always been somehow comforting. That sweet taste reminded him of a memory he had almost forgotten. He remembered his mom, his grandpa, and his dad. When he was 3 or maybe even younger, but he remembers. When all of them would go out together to eat ice cream on the weekends, laughing and playing together, everyone was so happy; everything was so okay. Mom was¡­nice. Dad was¡­real. Grandpa was¡­alive. We were all happy. How did life come down to this? Why does it have to be like this, for fucks sake? Why does everything always go to sh*t?


    Jack was suddenly woken out of his internal thoughts by a worried toki shaking him. "HEY JACK COME BACK TO US," he was almost shocked as he looked around. Everyone was looking at him, worried.


    "Wh-what happened? I was eating ice cream." He looked down at his ice cream just to realize it was half-melted. How long was he in thought for?


    "Are you okay?" Hana asked with a rather worried tone as Jack looked at her, his vision blurry for some reason.


    Dustin sighed and told him, "You are crying.". Jack placed his hand on his face as he felt the mask. He took it off in front of everyone without even realizing he was touching his face. There were indeed tears rolling down his cheeks, but he didn''t even feel them for some reason. "Why am I crying?"

 Scared

    Toki attacked Jack with 100 questions, feeling worried. But Dustin was smart enough to realize the best thing to do right now was give him some space. He took Toki and Hana out as Jack sat down in the room alone for a bit. Why did he end up crying? He didn''t even realize how long he had been lost in his thoughts and memories. Honestly, thinking about the past had never affected him this much. Maybe it was due to the sudden mess of the world that his mental state wasn''t doing well.


    He put his head on the table as he closed his eyes and just tried to get some rest. As he did drift off into his thoughts, he found himself in one of the memories, which he didn''t like to think about at all. After his dad left, his mom just turned to alcohol and gambling, trying to cope with the loss in that way. Of course it didn''t work; she wouldn''t feel the pain in her heart. Jack understands that now, but back then? He was mad. He was mad at his dad for leaving, and he was mad at his mom for becoming like this. He often blamed himself feeling as if only if he wasn''t born everything would be better for everyone. Thoughts that normal kids should not go through at that age.


    Sometimes his mom would be so drunk, she''d grab the belt and just start beating him. He tried to hide, run, or do whatever he could. It hurt a lot when she did; she often, if not every day, told him it was his fault, and maybe at some point he ended up accepting that. Maybe it was his fault, and maybe he was the reason everything fell apart.


    The current jack, who was standing in the same corridor, saw the little jack sobbing in the corner of the room while his mom was passed out on the bed, the bottle she was drinking from still near her. The old jack sighed and looked at the picture on the wall.


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    He was a kid and didn''t know any better; he remembered making the smallest mistakes and being beaten. He remembered that time.


    The scene in front of Jack''s eyes shifted to a different one. Jack,  while coming back home, found a little puppy. He really wanted to keep it, but his mom wouldn''t let him. The puppy was alone; it was scared and lonely. It was just like him.


    His mom didn''t let him keep it, and a few days later, the puppy died of the cold living in the streets. Jack still remembered seeing its dead body as his mom made a disgusted face looking at it, almost the same face she made looking at him. The older Jack just looked at the scene of the little Jack crying and sighed. At that point, he blamed himself; he didn''t know any better, but he knew now it wasn''t his fault. He didn''t blame himself anymore.


    ¡°Are you sure?¡± He heard a voice, and as he looked in the direction, he saw little Jack holding the dead puppy in his arms. ¡°You know you still blame yourself.¡±


    Old Jack sighed and only nodded. ¡°Yeah, I would at least like to deny it, though. Accepting it makes me feel weaker,¡± older Jack said with a light chuckle as he got on his knees and patted little Jack on the head. ¡°I know you''re scared¡ªscared to be attached to stuff or scared to even fail since failing means it will hurt again. That''s why we don''t give up. No matter how much trying and struggling hurts, It will always hurt less than when we fail. And we won''t fail as long as we keep trying. Gramps was right; humans should be greedy, and if being greedy keeps us safe, that''s fine. Never get attached to something because when you do lose, it will hurt a lot, just like failing. As long as we avoid it,¡± he said as he looked at the little man who finished his sentence. ¡°Will we be safe?¡± Jack nodded as he patted the head of the little kid. ¡°It doesn''t matter if it was our fault or not; just make sure it doesn''t happen again.¡± Little Jack nodded as Old Jack sighed, and the world around him crumbled while he was woken up.

 Fourth Match

    "Jack, it''s time for the match.¡± Dustin was the one who woke Jack up this time as he put his mask back on. He nodded without saying anything. He was more quiet than before. But no one talked to him, giving him some space unless he chose to open up about it himself. No one except¡­


    ¡°Are you okay, dude?¡± Toki asked him as Jack sighed and nodded before walking towards the center. He looked at the button that had appeared. He still had to press it, and as he did, the screen started showing multiple games and cycling between them like normal. Until it finally stopped on


    [Congratulations! The scavenger hunt has been selected.]


    [You have 10 minutes to prepare for the game.]


    ¡°I see, that''s not that hard,¡± he said as he thought about the best way to increase efficiency for this match. While Toki explained to Hana what a scavenger hunt was. Surprisingly, she was the one who didn''t know about it this time. And more surprising was that Toki did know, but he seemed like the kind of guy who''d know about this.


    He sighed as he stretched a bit and warmed up for the next ten minutes, as his teacher during the dungeon had taught him to. After making sure he wouldn''t be rusty due to having just woken up, he looked at his team and thought about it. Was he getting attached to them? Nah, there was no way they were just like colleagues. People he had to work with.


    Ten minutes passed before he even realized it, and they were all teleported with a bright flash again. They found themselves on a platform on the edge of a forest.


    [The scavenger hunt will begin.]


    [There are 10 sun stones inside the forest. The team that collects more will win. Killing or stealing is allowed.]


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    ¡°Ah damn, that messes things up a bit, but we can manage,¡± Dustin said as they discussed the plan once again. Toki and Dustin will be team 1, and Hana and Jack will be team 2. Both will go in different directions and try to find the stones.


    It was a simple enough plan, as both teams left on their respective paths. Jack kept waiting for something to happen. He was waiting for something particular while walking with Hana. Ultimately, he stopped and looked at Hana.


    "Hana, we are in a forest.¡± Hana looked a bit nervous and kept walking without looking at him.


    ¡°So what?¡± She asked without looking back as he sighed.


    ¡°I can read people''s skill trees.¡± Hana was frozen in her place as she looked back at him and sighed, seeming more annoyed than anything.


    ¡°So much for privacy, huh?¡± she said, admitting defeat.


    ¡°Yeah, do it; it''ll make life easier,¡± Jack said in a more cold and distant tone, almost treating her like a stranger rather than a friend. That''s what she was¡ªa stranger.


    ¡°Fine,¡± she said as she closed her eyes and activated her class skill. Her green hair started floating as all the trees and vines around her responded to her call as if she were talking to the entire forest at once, because that was exactly what was happening.


    She was in a druid class, but she never told anyone about it. Nonetheless, Jack knew. After a bit, some vines came carrying some stones, four of them. That was so much simpler, for fucks sake. But as she touched the stones, Hana made a horrified face, worrying Jack.


    ¡°The fuck happened,¡± Jack asked her as she looked at him with the same face. She was having a hard time trying to find the right words to express what she had just witnessed through the vines right now. The message that had been delivered to her was that she could only sigh. "Well, for starters, I think we won.¡±


    ¡°what..¡± Jack was taken by surprise by her words as she sighed, knowing that her reaction was more normal than anything. But before he could ask any more questions, a screen popped up in front of him.


    [Congratulations, the scavenger hunt has ended.]


    [Team S499 has won the scavenger hunt.]


    Jack didn''t even get the chance to properly question anything from Hana. Something probably happened with Toki''s group; maybe they just found the other group and took all the stones from them, but even then, it shouldn''t instantly end like that unless... he realized what happened, which was honestly surprising.


    On the other side of the forest stood a man surrounded by corpses, holding the dead body of his teammate. His fists were covered in the blood of his opponents, and his eyes were full of tears as he looked at the corpse in his hands.

 Blood

    A few minutes ago, in Toki¡¯s group, Toki and Dustin were making their way through the forest when Dustin noticed something. Through the trees, he saw the other team. Since they hadn''t seen him but he did, they had a clear advantage as he shushed Toki and showed him.


    Toki nodded as he saw them and asked if he could deal with them. Mostly Hana or Jack were the ones fighting while Dustin controlled everything like a good leader, but Toki? He was always standing behind, being late, or being caught. He had done nothing to prove his own value, and despite the smile on his face, it did get to him in the end.


    Dustin knew toki just wanted a chance to prove himself as there were only two people he didn''t think that toki couldn''t do anything. With the element of surprise they had, Dustin sighed, ultimately letting Toki go.


    Toki smiled as he prepared to attack. Meanwhile, the two members of the other group had no idea what was coming for them. Suddenly and out of nowhere, everything turned dark around them as if they were in the void. A pillar of light shot down from the sky onto the two, freezing them in their place as Toki drew out his dagger and stabbed both of them in the neck.


    Dustin walked out, sighing, as he was going to say, Great work, Toki, but he felt a sharp pain out of nowhere. Breathing became a very hard task as he raised his hand to touch his chest, where the pain came from, only to feel nothing. A whole part of his chest had been missing. He looked down and found a hole in his chest. Toki''s smile turned into a horrific expression as he saw Dustin''s body with a hole right in front of him.


    Through the hole on the other side of Dustin stood two men, one holding a gun that looked more futuristic than it should, and the other sighing. ¡°Finish the other too, dude,¡± he said in an annoyed tone while the one holding the gun spoke. ¡°It''s on recharge.¡±


    For Dustin, the next few seconds felt like hours. He saw his whole life flash before him within seconds, ultimately stopping at Toki in front of him with a horrified face. He felt guilty, kind of knowing he should have been more careful as the leader. As he fell to his knees, Toki finally moved, grabbing him before he hit the ground. His throat was sore. He couldn''t speak right now, but Dustin understood that. Dustin didn''t blame Toki, and it was not his fault. These were the words he wished he could tell Toki right now. He wishes he could tell him it''s not his fault.


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    ¡°I am sorry,¡± Toki said, his voice breaking as tears ran through his eyes. ¡°I am sorry, I didn''t mean to; I wanted to be useful. I am sorry, this is all my fault. Toki cried, and Dustin, whose body didn''t even have enough energy to speak right now, mustered up all his courage and placed his hand on Toki''s back. ¡°It''s not your fault.¡±


    Meanwhile, the two other people watched them and almost felt bad. ¡°What''s with the melodrama?¡± the one with the gun said as the other smacked him in the back of the head. ¡°Just finish the other one off as well. I feel bad.¡± The one with the gun sighed and nodded. ¡°Fine whatever,¡± he said, aiming his gun at Toki.


    Toki was distraught. He was mixed between emotions, torn up among his feelings as he cried and heard the two people talk. Toki was mad.


    The guy aimed his gun and toki and fired an explosion when the bullets collided. As the smoke settles down, they see an empty burnt ground but no toki or dustin''s body. A bit away, Toki put down Dustin''s body, resting against a tree, as he turned to them.


    The one with the gun found himself unable to move his own body as the gun fell from his hands onto the ground. Toki pointed his hand at him and lifted it upward as the man started floating. In a rage-filled state, Toki screamed at him. ¡°DIIEEEE!¡± The sound was so strong it created sonic waves; the man''s body was decimated as his blood was sent flying everywhere while his body exploded like a balloon. All the blood then collected in Toki''s hand as he formed a sword out of it. His blue eyes turned red as his teeth grew into fangs. It was more or less related to the race Toki ruled over. He was the ruler of the vampire race after all.


    "Oh, fuck this shit,¡± the other guy tried to turn away and run, but Toki was there before him even. Toki stabbed his sword forward and into the guy''s heart. But something weird happened. The guy''s body was dead, but an afterimage was created right behind him as the image turned into the real body. That was the guy''s skill¡ªperfect clones.


    The guy cloned himself into 20 or more people, all attacking Toki, but that was rather not a good plan. He used the blood from one to create a spear and throw it at another''s head, bursting it like a balloon. He collected the blood from the second clone in his hands to create spiky balls, launching them in every direction as every clone''s head was blown off before he could make more.


    The whole opposing team was dead, which means they had won by default. But Toki did not like the taste of victory this time, as he held the body of his friend in his arms when he was teleported back.

 Death

    Soon as the white light faded, Jack, Toki, and Hana were teleported back into their room. Toki was still holding Dustin''s body in his arms. Hana looked at him and walked up to him. Jack took the body of Dustin, laying it down and closing his eyes, while Hana consoled a toki whose tears had even dried up. Hana was trying her best not to cry either while consoling Toki.


    Jack just stood there watching this happen as he sighed while relaxing, almost relieved about his decisions. It was good that he never got attached to anyone on this team. Shutting himself off from everyone was a great way of avoiding pain, or so he thought.


    He looked at Dustin''s body as a sharp pain hit him in the chest. He thought he was fine, but placing his hand on his own chest did kind of hurt. Everyone was silent, and the room''s atmosphere was not good at all. A burden rested on everyone''s shoulders as the death of their teammate Toki and Hana chose to blame themselves, but Jack knew better than to do that. As they were all mourning, suddenly Dustin''s body turned into white light as he vanished. Toki and Hana panicked, but a screen with the letter Z appeared.


    ¡°Contestant Dustin''s honor has been eliminated, and his body has been removed like the others. You have my condolences.¡±


    Jack almost chuckled at the last line. Sure,  a god-like being was sympathizing with mortals and talking about death. That seemed funny to him, at least while Toki was losing his sh*t. Hana kept him from doing anything stupid.


    "However, the competition is not over, and the final game in groups is supposed to be a 1v1 for all four players. And then a fifth match between the captains. Since your team has lost a player, you''d be down one, and since he was your captain, you''d be down another. So the only way to win is to win all three matches. You have 10 minutes, so prepare yourself,¡± and with that, the screen vanishes, leaving behind a frustrated Toki, a sad Hana, and a tired Jack.


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    ¡°These guys are monsters.¡± Toki said, gritting his teeth, to which Jack could only sigh.


    ¡°I thought the looks gave that away.¡± Both Hana and Toki looked at Jack as he said that, directing their anger toward him instead.


    ¡°How can you still joke around? Dustin just died.¡± Hana said as Jack only rubbed his eyes and spoke. ¡°How many people have we killed so far? If he could see you guys right now, he would be more than just mad. He did not die, so you guys could sulk and waste the chance he gave us. He was neither the first nor the last. Wake up; that''s our life now. If he died, that just means he wasn''t strong enough.¡±


    Jack was hit with a slap in the face as Hana stood in front of him, holding her tears. ¡°Shut the fuck up, you monster,¡± Jack said, but he did not hit her back. He knew better than to.


    ¡°It''s fine, you''re grieving and all, but don''t try that again. I will hit back.¡± He was confident he could burn her to crisps whenever he wanted, as she was about to do it again, but he looked at the mask hiding Jack''s face and just stopped. She turned around, leaving him behind as she sat down next to Toki.


    The next 10 minutes were the most awkward and longest 10 minutes of Jack''s entire life. He avoided talking to his teammates at all. After exactly  10 minutes, all of them were teleported into a square arena, and in front of them stood their opponent team. They had four members, much like every other team, and most of them were ready to fight except one girl who sat in the back. She would be the leader he assumed.


    [TEAM DUELS WILL NOW BEGIN]


    [DUELS WILL BE RANDOMISED]


    And random they were. Jack was put up against some guy with an eye patch. Hana was against a guy wearing some kind of school uniform. And Toki was against a big, muscular guy. The three matches would take place simultaneously, and if they lost even one, it was over for them.


    And so the team finals began.

 Monster

    As soon as the team finals began, each of them felt the ground under their feet shake as if they had just experienced an earthquake. The ground under their feet began moving as four giant walls were formed around each pair of people who were supposed to fight.


    Each pair of matches was enclosed inside the walls that created a room and isolated each person from their opponent.


    The first match was Toki against a big, muscular guy. He seemed to have some kind of super durability, where hammers and objects would mostly just bounce off his skin. Blades didn''t scratch him, let alone kill him, and so Toki''s'' dagger was rendered useless.


    As Toki got in close and tried to stab him for the first time, he ended up breaking his dagger, which he had been using for a while. Before he could process that, the man grabbed him by his throat and slammed him into a nearby wall, crashing him through the wall and dragging him on it. After which, he tossed the Toki to the other side.


    Toki ended up breaking more bones than he''d like to admit, honestly. He was still not over Dustin''s death and had been blaming himself for it, but Jack''s words rang clear in his ears. Dustin didn''t die, so Toki could just throw his own life away like this. He would live, if not for himself, to value Dustin''s sacrifice.


    Just as Toki thought this, he looked at the man in front of him, knowing his weapons would never get through his steel skin normally. Toki activated his skill as a white light pillar shot down from the sky, freezing the muscular man in his place.


    Just then he ran with his broken ribs and jumped onto the man''s face, making sure he was close to him before using his hypersonic scream in the man''s face, screaming with all the anger and letting out all he was holding in his ears and nose. In normal situations, someone would have simply exploded, but due to his extreme durability, the man only started bleeding from the ears and nose, as Toki wanted. A smile crept up on the vampire''s face as he manipulated the blood into tiny spears, launching them inward as they pierced the man''s brain, and he fell on his back with Toki standing over his dead body, breathing heavily.


    ¡°I¡­am¡­not gonna¡­fucking¡­.die,¡± he said while breathing heavily as he fell down on his back as well.


    Meanwhile, in another box, Hana was fighting a high schooler with the ability to control the earth up to a certain extent. Rocks and boulders were his playing field as he pulled up a rock from the ground and threw it at Hana.


    Hana had all this time held back most of her powers just for the sake of creating an element of surprise in the singles matches. But due to her selfishness, someone had died, and she had no intention of holding back anymore.


    Her green hair started growing longer as she sighed. Her hair rose up and caught the boulder coming towards her while she simply walked forward. The boy, seeing this, panicked as he then conjured multiple boulders to crash down on her, but her green hair caught every single one of those boulders and crushed them.


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    As she got close enough, her hair tied itself around the boy''s neck, lifting him off the ground. She looked at him with frustrated eyes, but she saw the kid crying, trying to free himself. He didn''t want to die like this. For a second, she saw a glimpse of her own brothers while looking at the boy. ¡°Please¡­.¡± The kid begged for his life with whatever strength he had left as she unwrapped her hair from around his neck while he fell to the ground. Jack''s words rang clear in her ears, which frustrated her the most. She really didn''t remember how many people she had killed. She called Jack a monster, but she wasn''t any better either. She pulled out a cigarette as she lit it and started smoking again.


    As for Jack''s match, perhaps he had been paired with the worst enemy. The person with the eyepatch had one of the most bullshit powers he had ever seen. Anyone that man saw with his covered eye could be set on fire. It only worked on living things as well. So as the man started to lift his blindfold, Jack did what he could and rolled his cards. Ending up on a 9 of hearts.


    As Jack''s whole body was set ablaze, he screamed. He screamed as hard as he could, as it hurt like hell. His whole body was on fire, goddammit, and his skin kept healing and burning at the same time. It hurts so much that he wasn''t sure he could even move. The man with the eyepatch laughed maniacally while watching Jack burn.


    Jack gritted his teeth and suddenly heard a familiar voice that brought him warmth even among the sea of flames. ¡°Be greedy, Jack, '''' his grandpa''s voice told him. He almost forgot that humans are strong not just because they are strong but because they never give up. It might hurt like hell right now, but if he doesn''t keep trying, he will fail. He cannot afford to fail.


    He couldn''t move, so he forced his body to move forward as he took a step forward. The man in the suit simply watched in horror as the man, who was completely on fire, walked towards him one step at a time. He stepped back, sweating. He was scared because whatever that thing was, it wasn''t something he could deal with. "WW, whwta the fuck are you?¡± The man yelled at Jack, throwing whatever weapons and knives he had at him as they stabbed him. Instead of avoiding, he simply stepped forward while pulling out the knives and daggers from his body as the wounds closed within seconds. The man looking at the scene fell down, fearing for his life. ¡°What kind of monster are you?¡±


    "Human,¡± Jack said as he looked the man in the eye. Jack''s whole body burned and healed at the same time; his whole body was covered in flames, so what the man was seeing right now was a walking flame in the shape of a human with two red eyes piercing through the flames looking at him.


    Jack didn''t waste any time and used all his strength to kick the man in that moment. The man was sent flying through the walls as he crashed through into the next room with Hana and onto a wall inside.


    Hana, who was surprised by this turn of events, looked at the man and suddenly heard the boy scream. She turned her attention towards the hole in the wall as a flame of human shape with red eyes walked out towards the man, grabbed him by the head, and smashed his head into the ground so hard that the only thing that was left were parts of his brain around the ground. As the man died, his skill ended, and the flames slowly went away, revealing Jack in his normal form as he sighed.


    Hana, who had been looking at this all while sweating, made one thing clear in her mind. ¡®No, he definitely is the monster..¡¯

 Farewell

    After the matches were over, the results were an overwhelming victory for Jack''s team. The captain of the other team was the girl sitting behind, but she could do nothing due to half her team being dead now. Even if she challenged them and won one, she wasn''t confident in beating all three. She was only accepting her defeat.


    [Congratulations, team matches have ended.]


    [S499 has made it to single battles. All members will be placed in a block for the single match.]


    [You will be teleported in 04:59.]


    The timer started running down. Jack sighed, feeling the mask that he had put on his face having gotten burned off. Leaving just his normal face armor and boots behind. He knew this was more or less a goodbye for Toki and Hana. He didn''t care if they made it or not anymore; they weren''t on good terms either way. They served their purpose and took him to the singles, a means to an end, or at least that''s what he told the little jack; he didn''t care if they lived or died.


    Meanwhile, Hana found herself at a crossroads,while she hated Jack for his attitude towards the death of Dustin. Leaving on a note like this, which would potentially be the last time they were talking, probably also means that this was the last time she saw him. She was happy, but then again, not really. She walked over to Toki, who was just healed up by Jack, as he walked away to let the two talk.


    She told him not to trust others easily and to be more mindful of others. Toki had a good heart, but he was too much of an idiot to survive in the long run. But hey, he''s survived so far; what''s a bit more? He still listened to Hana''s advice seriously; he wasn''t the same toki he would have been a few hours ago. A lot of things had happened that took their toll on Toki''s consciousness and mental state. He knew better than to be himself again.


    Hana might not have, but Jack did notice this as he sighed and ended up speaking even when he wasn''t going to. ¡°It wasn''t your fault. Keep thinking like that and make Dustin feel guilty even after dying.¡±


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    Hana wanted to smack the shit out of Jack right now, but deep down she knew these were the words Toki needed to hear right now. Hana ended up not saying anything to Jack, and neither did he. But Toki did speak. He didn''t say anything complex but made a simple request.


    ¡°Please don''t die,¡± he told both of them as he turned into white light particles and was teleported to Jack. Hana wanted to tell him they wouldn''t, but they didn''t get a chance.


    ¡°Yeah, don''t die,¡± Hana said before she as well turned to white light particles being teleported to somewhere, and Jack was left. Before he knew it, he was teleported as well, turning into white light and going away,never to see his friends again, probably.


    Soon, Jack found himself standing inside a room. It was much like the room his team had been in earlier, but there was no button in the middle. There was a giant symbol on the ground. Probably that was his block, as the announcement said. Before Jack had time to take a breather, another screen popped up.


    [You have received the extra skill of greed.]


    [will of greed]: ¡°be a greedy jack." The skill allows the user to go past their limits and force their body to work in conditions it should be able to. As long as the user isn''t technically dead, they can move and fight as much as they wish; however, the pain will only be up to ten times worse.


    He was honestly surprised to see that skill. He could see how he had gotten the skill, but what surprised him more was the first line of the skill. That''s what Grandpa told him... So did he receive this skill, or was it manifested? Or was it created just for him? He did not understand how this worked, but he just hoped it would be useful.


    [The single matches will soon begin.]


    His attention soon shifted to another screen as he prepared himself for the single matches, but honestly, he would like to get some rest first.


    [12 hours till the single matches begin]


    [The single match will take place at a free-for-all. The last one standing will be declared the victor. Best of luck.]


    ¡°This is going to be messy,¡± he said as he asked for a bed to rest before the match and threw himself on the bed, closing his eyes and not wanting to think about anything else.

 Mystery Jackpot?

    Jack got the sleep he needed and deserved at that point. Only waking up an hour later was free for all. He got fresh, ate a bit, and did the regular stuff. Even a light workout will make sure you don''t get stiff when fighting in the arena. Or so he had assumed, at least.


    Just when ten minutes were left, he checked all his weapons, making sure they were of good quality. It would take only half an hour to fix them, and he would rather spend money than have them break mid-battle. His swords were good, and so were his shoes. His hammer, he wasn''t sure honestly. It wasn''t made out of adamantite, but whatever it was made out of didn''t even scratch, so he bothered wondering.


    He has $20,000 in merits as of now; he could spend some if he wanted to, but what would he even buy? But since he had some time left, it never hurt to check out the merit shop. As he was scrolling by, his eyes locked onto something. On the top of the shop was a surprise mystery gift box for $5,000. But what attracted him was not the price or the name of the mystery box, but rather its name.


    [JACKPOT ROULETTE


    chance to win anything between an inferior grade and an advanced grade item.]


    Jack has spent around a month or two inside this system by now, but he was still unaware of how these item rankings worked. He''d only ever seen inferior or intermediate, so seeing an ascended one brought his curiosity forward, but back to the name. Not only did it have his name on it, but it was also related to gambling, so why the hell not?


    He bought it without thinking anymore. It did hurt to see his balance drop from 20 to 15k, but it was going to be worth it. It was so going to be worth it, he thought to himself as the mystery box appeared in front of him. He sighed and touched the box as it unwrapped and turned into a white ball of light before taking shape. It took the shape of a coin with a Jokers face on one side, and on the other side was a J. He tried to use his skill identification on it, but was met with a surprise.


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    [The target is multiple ranks beyond the user''s skill level.]


    He did not know his skill came with this kind of condition, but he assumed there had to be some drawback at least. It seems like this was the drawback. But multiple ranks above him means it was higher than intermediate; I mean, that was just a given with his trait as he looked at the coin and tossed it, putting it in his pocket. He had no idea what it did for now, but he''ll find out sooner or later.


    Anyway, the time for single matches to begin was running out, so he held onto his swords and took a deep breath.


    [Single matches for Batch J will now begin.]


    [The leaderboard rankings will be disclosed after the match ends. Your rank depends on the number of opponents defeated, use of skill, and overall evaluation so far.]


    [Do your best].


    Those were the last words Jack heard as he found himself being teleported suddenly. He didn''t resist; he knew he just had to get it over with, but since this was going to be the final, there was no need to hold back anymore. After this, they are going to reveal the real rankings either way, so why bother holding back anymore? He looked around himself and saw where he had been teleported.


    . He opened his eyes inside an invisible barrier, which no matter what he did, he couldn''t even scratch. Eventually, he just gave up and looked around. He found himself standing inside a square arena, which was completely flat. It was hovering in the air, completely unbothered by everything else. As he looked around himself, he saw an audience sitting around the arena. Who the fuck were these people? Just then he spotted Duke of Hands something? Whatever his name was, the guy was sitting in the audience. After recognizing a few more faces, he realized these were the people who didn''t make it in. That almost made him chuckle a bit. Was he really going to be that heartless and make all the people he beat up so far watch he was holding back?


    "Absolutely," he said to himself as a smile widened on his face as he looked around. There were 9 more people in the arena except him, so each bqtch had 10 people, it seemed. Only one would come out on top in this battle, and there was no way he was going to lose now as he took a deep breath. Suddenly, all the barriers around him and his opponents dropped, and a loud voice roared through everywhere at once.


    [Begin]

 Free for All 1

    As the words echoed, hell ran loose. The arena was about 500 meters on each side, give or take, so space wasn''t an issue even if Jack decided to go giant, but he only doubted he would need to go that far.


    The guy next to Jack wasted no time and took a deep breath, using his skill while looking at Jack, and let out a giant flame wall towards Jack. Honestly, he thought that was pretty impressive, no joke; it was almost 15 meters high, unfortunately for him. Jack wasn''t playing around anymore; he jumped up in the air and proceeded to use his wind burst from his boots to double jump mid-air and get over the flame wall. To the guy''s shock, Jack came down, flying on the other side, holding his hammer as he slammed the hammer right into the guy''s head while landing down. The guy''s head crashed into the ground with insane force as he was knocked out and technically out of the match. Everyone saw this and decided to either stay aware of Jack or get rid of him first.


    Jack saw a person running towards him as he sighed. People really do never learn anything. The person suddenly speeded up out of nowhere as electric sparks formed around his body. He moved much faster than humanly possible as Jack tried to hit him. He dodged and dove under Jack''s hammer. He thought this would be a chance to get a good hit, but he couldn''t be more wrong. He wasn''t the only one who could go fast; as Jack''s boots had the passive ability to make him faster, he was able to react in due time. He kneed the guy straight in the face as he tried to duck under his hammer. The knee hit him so hard that his nose was dented in as he started bleeding from his mouth and nose before falling down. This was counted as a disqualification, maybe?


    He had just taken one out, but these bastards never learned their lesson as another one walked towards him. "It looks like the joker forgot to wear his mask."


    Jack smirked as he looked at the guy and spoke. "Sorry with your face, I couldn''t tell you weren''t," Jack apologized, as Duke sitting in the crowd chuckled. He was honestly cheering for Jack a bit at this point. Not for Jack''s sake, of course, but to validate himself that he lost to the strongest at least.


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    Anyway, Jack''s statement made the other person furious as they covered their bodies in solid crystals, which soothed Jack. These weren''t mana crystals, though since they emanated no mana, it was only crystals, yet such a skill seemed rather useful to Jack. The person slammed his crustal fist into the ground as crystal spikes formed and moved towards Jack. He also thought it was about time to start using skills. And so the devil''s deck was shuffled.


    And it stopped on nine of spades. Well, that''s an overfucking kill, but good, Jack thought to himself as light particles started dancing around him as everyone looked at him.


    "THERE IT IS, HE IS USING IT, HES SUMMONING THE WOLF," the Duke and his teammates cried out in encouragement while pointing at Jack and standing up at their seats. Even others heard this and were both annoyed and confused. However, what came out wasn''t a wolf. Oh no, it was much worse. A giant hand appeared in front of Jack, blocking the crystals. As soon as it was revealed who the hand belonged to, it was Radus standing behind Jack. The giant captain of the city guards and one of the best warriors the village had to offer, since Jack had a part in killing him, he still counted as Jack''s kill. Anyway, the giant warrior stood behind him, holding his giant axe. Where did he even get that from? Jack didn''t question it and just told Radus to get rid of the people.


    Meanwhile, the one who attacked Jack was almost shitting himself, seeing the giant demon with an axe appear behind him out of nowhere. But much to the man''s credit, he hadn''t given up, as he formed a giant crystal as big as a bug a bug he could have had in the shape of a drill pointing towards the giant. The crystal drill started spinning as fast as it could and shot towards the giant with insane speed. He was sure this would kill the giant.


    Which would have been true if it were anyone but Carus, Ruddas, and the ex-chief. Radus swung his axe forward and cut right through the middle of that crystal drill, making it go flying two different ways. The man had given up hope as he loomed over the giant, walking towards him holding the axe. He fell to his knees as he spoke. "I give up." He had no intention of dying; if he lived, he could always get stronger, but death meant the end. He gave up as he was teleported away, and a confused Radus looked at Jack, who just shrugged.

 Free For All 2

    Meanwhile, the duke was not having the best time of his life; he didn''t even lose to Jack''s strongest summons. He felt irritated by that fact as he looked at the palm of his own hands with anger.


    "I swear I''ll get stronger," he told himself, trying to stay calm while Jack''s match continued. There were a few other eliminations except for the three jacks, as there were four total players left in the arena by now. Jack had the giant Radus standing behind him, but it looked to others as if a god was looking down on the battlefield. Jack had not realized, surviving in a forest full of giants, how much fear a giant could bring to everyone. The remaining three contestants looked at each other before nodding. It was decided that the best way was to take Jack out and deal with it among themselves after that.


    One of the contestants ran towards the giant as his body started glowing and expanding. Scales appeared on his body as his arms grew shorter and his jaw grew bigger. A tail appeared while his size grew up to the giant''s stomach. Jack was almost amused to watch all this; he was impressed by their abilities.


    The man had turned into a T-rex as he rushed at Radus. In retaliation, Radus tried to swing his axe at the creature, but instead of slicing the overgrown lizard, the axe was caught by the T-rex in its jaw, making Radus annoyed. He couldn''t pull the axe out or even move it as the t-rex held onto it. As Radus tried to let go of the axe and beat the t-rex hand-to-hand, another man jumped up. He had pink hair as he swung onto the t-rexes head using a pink rope-like substance. It was stretchy yet sticky, and he shot out that substance all over Radus''s hands, making sure he wouldn''t be able to move, which annoyed Radus more. Just then, the third person who was pulled up by the bubblegum guy came and ran towards Radus on his head and jumped off. His hands glowed brightly as white light particles from all around the arena surrounded him and created a light blade in his hand. The man holding the blade yelled with all his strength as the blade grew bigger and bigger until it was so big that it pierced right through Radus''s heart as he was turned back to white light particles. The giant was defeated as the t-rex, bubblegum boy, and light guy fell down. The bubblegum guy created a landing area so they wouldn''t get hurt.


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    Jack simply watched. Why didn''t he do anything? Honestly, he actually wanted to see how that would play out, and it did kind of play out as he would have expected. But they all seemed too exhausted after that battle, so Jack shuffled his deck again to see what he''d get. It landed on 10 of Club. He just felt bad for these guys at this point. But today seemed to be his lucky day, if anything. Before they all could catch a breath, Jack moved at speeds impossible to even see as he hit them on the neck and knocked them out. As to why not kill them? Well, he didn''t need to, and even he thought they had earned a living, at least. He had respect for those who deserved it; this was one such case. Anyway, that should be the end of it, he thought.


    [Batch J is the third batch to finish its matches. Your performance will be evaluated accordingly.]


    [You have earned the title ''Blackjack'']


    [Your Devils Deck skill has been upgraded to intermediate grade. New functions have been unlocked.]


    [You have won the single free for all]


    [15,000 merits have been awarded.]


    "Sheesh, that''s a lot. I didn''t even get to use gigantification." He wanted to check his new skill first, but he thought he could do that after the leaderboard ranking was revealed. He pushed it back for now and waited for the leaderboards to be revealed. He didn''t have to wait too long, though.


    Suddenly, instead of the usual screen, this time a hologram was shown to all the players in the arena. The hologram showed a green-skinned person with two orange eyes and two empty sockets in its forehead. Except that the facial structure was very human, the creature in the hologram was wearing a blue robe and a green belt, with a pair of metallic white braces on his wrists. As he sighed and spoke with a voice everyone knew, "You all may refer to me as Z. Since I have been responsible for everything so far, I will also be the one announcing the leaderboards. The top 10 players will continue to rule as they would like, but for those of you who failed? Hell, training awaits. Well, you also have another option, but it''s better to talk about that after I''m done with leaderboards, so open your eyes and watch closely," and so the leaderboards were revealed.

 LeaderBoard

    . The empty leaderboard screen appeared in front of everyone. Jack was much more familiar with this screen; he had looked at it more than just once as he sighed and waited. Suddenly, the number 10 on the list started glitching, and letters started appearing next to the number.


    At the same time, on a giant screen in the middle of the arena, everyone could see the image of another arena. The arena had the bodies of five players, but more than that,it had vines coming out of the ground. Thorny vines almost made the arena look like a jungle, and the ruler of that jungle stood in the middle of the arena with multiple wounds and burn marks.


    [10. Hana Fumie]


    A smile crept up on Jack''s face without even realizing it. He felt relieved, almost like a very heavy burden had been lifted off his shoulders. Just as he felt relieved, the number 9 started glitching as letters started appearing next to it as well. The scene on the screen also changed from the jungle arena to another. The arena was filled with all kinds of colors, almost as if it had been a palette for the most artistic person to have ever been born. It didn''t even seem like a fight had occurred there. It almost seemed like someone had painted the most beautiful scenery with the blood of their enemies, the burgundy standing out.


    [9. Lucien Fei]


    He honestly had no idea who this guy was, but the painting was indeed mesmerizing. It was not like Jack was a big art appreciator, but even then, it caught his eye. Just then, the number 8 began glitching as a letter appeared next to the name again. The screen changed, and as it did, Jack was more confused than shocked, as the arena was much simpler than his own, but the bodies lying in the arena had huge bites taken out of them by something. As the screen finally focused on the winner, everyone saw what was bitten off from all the dead bodies. It was a singular person riding on top of what seemed to be his pet. That man was riding a fucking alligator, and while solving the reason behind bite marks, he only confused everyone more. Who was that guy, and why was he riding a fucking alligator?


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    [8. Mort Sarella]


    Jack saw this, and at least one of his questions was answered. The second one was probably more important as it went unanswered and Jack could only sigh, and so the cycle continued as the 7th number glitched and showed the next person. He honestly wondered what his rank would be. The scene shifted again, and the arena this time was rather okay. It was not damaged much, but all nine people in it had been killed. The nine lifeless bodies were scattered all over the arena as a singular man stood in the middle of it all. A man Jack knew very well.


    [7. Toki]


    "Toki?" he said as he noticed those blue eyes and black hair. His hands were covered in blood, as was the floor all around him. It seems like he went on a killing spree, honestly. He honestly felt happy that guy survived; he was glad they all kept their promise, at least. None of them ended up dying, but if they were 10th and 7th, what was even his own rank? he wondered.


    Just then, the sixth number glitched, and the screen changed again. It now showed an arena that seemed rather peaceful. As soon as the screen did change, everyone''s ears were intruded by a melody so sweet it felt like the heavens themselves were singing down to them. In the middle of the arena stood a man playing the flute. The man had blonde hair but didn''t seem to have faced any injuries during the battle, as he was clean. The music mesmerized everyone.


    [6. Remiel Wisteria Urion]


    Well, that guy was interesting. For some reason, Hack got a rather offsetting vibe, almost as if his just being there was making it worse for Jack. Regardless, the counting moved on to the next, making Jack actually wonder how high he had even made it. But that misunderstanding was cleared up very soon. As the screen shifted to his arena, He was the only one standing without a drop of blood on him, while the whole arena was damaged by different things.


    [5. Blackjack]


    "Huh¡­." Jack looked at the screen, confused. That was not his name, but the title he had earned. He was not sure what the titles even did, so he wasn''t sure what happened, but he couldn''t do anything about it. So the screen shifted again, and the number 4 glitched, so Jack paid attention to the next screen.

 Rulers

    The next screen showed a singular man standing in the middle of the arena, unscathed. But different from everyone so far, he did not possess any weapons, nor did he have any wounds on his body, which made Jack even more skeptical of this guy. It was almost like he had won the matches without even fighting, which only made things more confusing.


    [4. Jordan Yuki]


    Jack didn''t feel the same offsetting feeling as he did from that music guy; rather, it was a feeling of danger. It was a creepy feeling that if he wasn''t careful enough, he would die before he knew it, and looking into the man''s eyes, Jack didn''t doubt it even for a second. Just then, the top 3 were started as the 3rd number glitched and the name appeared.


    The screen changed yet again, showing a whole different battlefield. The mood felt more grim, as if death itself had taken control of that field. In the middle of it stood a singular man with red eyes and white hair, while 20 to 30 skeleton soldiers holding bone weapons surrounded him. He was the exact necromancer Jack remembered seeing with Hana. Jack wasn''t surprised; numbers do lead to a great difference, it seems, and his abilities were much stronger than Jack''s.


    [3. Daizo]


    He did not have a surname. That felt weird to Jack, honestly, but he just didn''t choose to question it. Why, you may ask? Since the next name was already being revealed, Jack was a bit excited to see who the idiot in second place was. The second number glitched as it started showing letters, and the screen changed.


    But what they saw probably blew everyone''s mind. A singular man stood in the middle of the arena, surrounded by multiple rows of turrets and missile launchers around him, forming a line of defense. Jack had no question left as to how this guy was the number two; he was carrying fucking firepower and more than anyone, it seemed. No matter how lucky Jack was, he wasn''t sure he would win against that guy. He sighed. He felt a bit disappointed.


    [2. HAJIN]


    He would remember that name for sure, but it came down to the number one now as everyone''s eyes were fixed on the screen. Out of nowhere, the screen changed; the number didn''t even glitch, but the name was directly revealed.


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    The screen changed, and what they all saw was rather shocking, if anything. The last person was sitting in the middle of the arena on a throne made for him as all the other nine contestants bowed down to him. Whether it was from fear or genuine respect, the audience couldn''t tell as his name was finally revealed to everyone.


    [1. Akuto]


    The man sitting on the throne stood up. That''s when Jack noticed the man was wearing a blindfold for some reason. As he put his legs on the ground, black lines started spreading all over the arena as if it were being infested. Those black lines increased as he walked forward, and upon reaching the edge of the arena, the black lines stopped. Before anyone could know what happened, the whole arena broke down, crumbling into little pieces as Akuto, with a smile, was teleported away. His steps destroyed the arena; none of them could harm him. This guy was indeed the number one as of now. And so the leaderboard was finalized.


    [Leaderboard


    Akuto


    Hajin


    Daizo


    Jordan


    Jack


    Remiel


    Toki


    Mort


    Lucien


    Hana]


    Honestly, Jack was not at all mad with the results as Z started speaking again.


    "So the people you just saw are the only ones deemed useful out of your lot, which means the rest of you would go through a hell of training. If you die during it, no one will care. You all are useless, so being dead might be better." Z''s words felt a bit harsh, but Jack knew the guy was right.


    "But of course there''s another way. The top ten on the leaderboards will become the ten rulers of your planet from here on out. Ruling over the 10 great continents, the rulers have the choice to choose any 10 people and either make them their slaves or add them to their workforce. It''s a choice for them, not for you. You will not be able to refuse the order from a ruler, especially when in their land. The rulers have a day after the tournament to decide who they choose. If you choose no one, 10 people will be randomized for you. Regardless, I declare the test match over. All the rulers, you did great. All of the rest of you hope you get selected as a slave at least."


    Z said before the hologram vanished, leaving behind a very worried public. Soon after that, everyone was being teleported back home to wherever they came from. As for Jack, he would be going back to the village of giants, having a good party, and sleeping. He already had a few people in mind who he might choose. But as for now, he had earned a good rest.

 Slav-....Workers 1

    Jack was teleported back, right in the same spot in his room where he had vanished. The room was empty, so the little man in the village of giants decided to check what was going on outside. What he saw was rather interesting.


    The whole village was lit up with kerosene lamps. It seems like it''s been a while since he was gone. He looked around, looking for Carus or the old elder; honestly, anyone was; he just wanted to make sure nothing went wrong while he was gone. He tried walking for a bit, but walking around in the giant village was annoying, honestly. He just then realized this as he smacked his own head and whistled out. For a while, nothing happened, but out of nowhere, a bird came flying in; it was black in color. The same bird next to where Jack used to live jumped on its back, and it took off. Not that he couldn''t walk, but he had done more than enough for some time, and with all the stuff that happened in the test matches, he deserved some rest.


    As he flew over the village on the back of his birdy friend, he thought he might as well think of a name for this guy, but he was never good at naming stuff. If he were honest, he would just end up calling it blacky or something that sounded pitifully honest. He just sighed as soon as he found Caruz, who had just come out of a meeting with other elders. He seemed tired but seemed to be handling all the responsibilities of the village well. Jack was happy for the guy, honestly.


    As Carus noticed a bird flying towards it,he raised his guard but soon noticed it had something on its back. As it got closer, Carus finally noticed what or who it was. Without wasting time, the giant bowed down to one knee, looking down.


    "The village chief welcomes the lord of the forest back. How was your trip, Lord Jack?" The man asked without raising his head as Jack sighed. Honestly, he did not like that name, but he was too tired to be dealing with it again.


    "It was fine; how''s the village been?"


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    The giant nodded, just explaining how everything was going well. There were no beast attacks anymore ever since Jack declared the village his own property. Jack simply nodded, listening to everything. Stuff seemed to be fine, so he did not have to feel much worried, as he just decided it would be best if he got a good night''s sleep.


    "Alright, I''ll go to sleep. When I wake up, we will have a party. Oh, also prepare 10 houses for accommodation for people my size; there will be new people joining our village."


    Carus started sweating, hearing that having Jack among them was a good thing because his presence simply kept the village safe, and he trusted Jack, but others, if they were anywhere as strong as Jack, could cause problems. Jack noticed the change in Carus''s expression as he only sighed and spoke.


    "They are my subordinates, just like you guys are. Treat them with respect." Carus relaxed a bit as he nodded, as instantly the village workers and kids started making the houses since the adults were too big to build that stuff properly. Jack felt bad, but the better they learn how society works, the better.


    "Now to the current issue," Jack said as he looked at the blue screen in front of him.


    [Please select 10 people to serve under you.]


    [Please choose a name for your country.]


    "Well, one at a time. I am not good at naming either way," he said as he decided to put the name aside for now and clicked the option about selecting people. Honestly, there were a few people who caught his attention; at least he had two selected for now, but the rest he had to choose.


    As the list opened, a screen opened with a list of all people in alphabetical order and a search bar at the top. There were filters or specific searches based on skills. This is actually so useful. I wondered if he had to scroll through or just choose without knowing, but fortunately he didn''t have to. The first person was actually interested in him from the second he met him. More muscles and less brains, he chose the duke. Simply because he understood the potential that trait had, how rare a trait is in general, and more importantly, He was curious about the duke''s trait and how it worked.


    The second person he chose was rather someone he didn''t know a lot about but was sure he could make use of in the future. He chose the person with the crystal abilities he faced during the battle inside the rings, free for all. He was sure he could make use of that ability. That left 8 more spots.

 Sla-.....Workers 2

    There were 8 spots left, and while the randomizer function was indeed an option, he wanted to get some important roles filled in. From what he was told, he was going to develop the land and country, so first of all, he needed strong people¡ªabout four should do it. If he counted Duke as one, that still meant he needed three more. He just turned the strength filter up to maximum and saw so many brawler-type fighters with such skills. That wasn''t going to help him in the long run, though; he had a lot of brawn in the form of giants. Should he look for smarter people then?


    Just as he was thinking about all this, a profile caught his eye¡ªit was supposedly a swordsman. Hmm, the skills were above average, but the person had a trait. Well, how did he know? His identification skill worked through this screen for some reason, but not others. Was it for fairness purposes or a glitch? Who cares. The trait was one he wasn''t going to give up on, even though it was a good one,so he ended up picking the Tumo guy, who seemed rather useful.


    He stopped scrolling in the power tab as he felt there was nothing more than bulky big men in that section, and honestly, he didn''t mind that. Yea, no, he definitely did, as he shifted over to the powers and abilities tab to see who the top people were. Surprisingly, some of the people were already chosen; it seemed like he was a bit late. He kept scrolling until his eyes fell on a woman with blue eyes and white hair. She didn''t have any particular strength, but her abilities and traits almost made his jaw drop. How the hell did she not win? Losing her would be the most stupid mistake of his fucking life. He selected her instantly, leaving one more person who he would need in the power category. A good ruler needs a strong army, and they would be that to him.


    After choosing Ikami (the woman''s name), he kept scrolling. Sincerely, the power section was more interesting than he thought, but overall, in the end, there were too many options that overwhelmed him. It was so hard to just choose one, and as he sighed, all of them were at best above average. He sighed as he leaned back on his bed. Oh, yeah, he had traveled back to his room on the bird by now. Honestly, he just wanted to get this over with before he hit the bed, so he didn''t have to stress about it while he slept.


    After looking for a bit more, he gave up and just chose a healer. I mean, there was no one actually stronger than he wanted, and having a healer was always crucial for someone who didn''t have a first aid box in their house. If the person heard him call them a first aid box, they would definitely feel bad. That being said, Jack Gad finally chose five people, of whom four were strong enough to be his blade. Next, he was going to choose 2 smart people and 3 utility people; he thought he might be just considering his tools at this point. But was he really wrong for doing that? They were more or less toys with no free will of their own anymore, so he didn''t feel bad.


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    He thought he might as well scroll again, but he had grown tired of doing that. As he was thinking about what to do, he didn''t realize when his hand ended up in his pocket as he felt the coin he had won from that mystery gift box and smiled.


    [randomizing 5 people]


    All he had to do was gamble, and his trait would do the work. Honestly, he felt a little bad for not realizing this earlier, but he was happy with those picks except the healer, so why not? As it did, it stopped on a picture of five people he had never seen before, so he decided to closely examine each one by one.


    The first candidate was a man in a lab coat with scars under his eyes. Wait, were those eye bags? Sheesh Someone, get this fucker to bed, please. He was the very definition of a crazy scientist, as he felt bad for thinking that, but that was the best way to describe the guy. And after reading his skills, Jack was sure this guy was crazy but smart and workable, so he just ended up choosing him.


    The next guy had a wooden mask on his face and was wearing a green hoodie over it, as if he were hiding his identity. His name was only written as hunter, so no one knew who he was, and honestly, Jack could care less. The guy had the ranger class and skills related to those that Jack found useful in the long run, so he was admitted under utility, leaving two more spots.


    Jack knew two more things his kingdom would need: minerals and farms. Now, while trading might not be a good idea, the jungle didn''t offer much to trade with the outside world. So he had to choose people who could help him do both, so he chose one person with a farmer job class, which left one utility and one brain. Honestly, utility was the easier one to choose since his skill didn''t tell him how smart someone was. As he randomized again, he saw someone he would rather have


    It was a person with a runesmith class that was so fucking useful. From what he knew, runesmithing was a very wide subject, and having someone in that class meant extra encouragement for whatever he made. So he instantly chose the person, leaving one brain slot open.


    At that point, he just randomized it, selected whoever came up, and called it a day. He was tired, and the bed was calling. Meanwhile, seeing the person he needed in his kingdom being taken before him, made a certain mechanic curse Jack''s name.

 Liar

    After all that, he just pushed away the topic of choosing a name for his kingdom. He was bad at naming, so he wasn''t going to waste his time like that. I''m probably going to make Carus do that, like all the rest of his work. Sometimes he felt bad for that guy. Maybe he should make a weapon for him. He sighed as he just laid down. He pushed all his thoughts away, hoping to think about them later as he went to bed. He wanted to get some sleep before the festival and the arrival of his new workers. It was weird calling them workers; they were slaves more or less. They had no free will and had to put up with whatever order he gave, which honestly made it a whole lot easier than arguing or having to always watch his back.


    "If respect is the only thing protecting a ruler from the knife in the back, that''s already a dead man walking," he said to himself as he closed his eyes and drifted to sleep finally. Deep in his slumber, his brain ignored more or less everything that was going on in the giant village at the moment as he slept peacefully.


    But he witnessed a rather peculiar dream. He saw a little girl crying in his dream. She was no older than 10, maybe 11? He knew this was a dream because there was no way a kid would survive this hell. She sobbed alone in a dark room, holding onto the last memorabilia of her family¡ªa small bunny that her brother had bought for her. He did not know who this girl was, ever since he could remember that he was an only child.


    "Brother, why did you?" she sobs, trying to control her breath. "Where are you? You said you would be back. Why did you not come back? You Liar" she said, hugging the bunny tighter as he looked at the girl. Maybe even Mr. . Stoneheart felt his heart melt a bit. He felt bad, but pity was all he could do for her. It''s all a stupid dream anyway, or so he thought.


    "Please help her," he heard a very familiar voice, but as he turned around, he saw no one. He hoped to see someone or get some answer to what he was even seeing in this dream, but there was no one. Yet when he turned around, the girl was still there, crying alone, as he sighed and walked towards her, kneeling down next to her. She kept crying by herself as Jack, who wasn''t the best at handling kids, sighed. What was he supposed to do again?


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    Should he ask her if she wants candy? It did not take him more than a moment to realize how creepy that would look to the girl. Ugh, why did he have to fucking deal with this shit? He thought about it for a bit. What did grandpa used to do?


    "Ah," he realized as he sighed and placed his head on the crying child''s head, caressing her head gently. "Everything''s going to be fine. Okay, you''re not alone. You are going to be okay," he told her, as the sobbing didn''t stop much. His voice wasn''t as comforting as his grandpa''s, nor was his tone or expression. But he really did mean it. After a bit, the child stopped crying on their own. She wiped her tears and looked up at him.


    "You''re a really strong kid. What''s your name?" He said he was trying to smile, but he failed horribly. Even the child''s expression was somewhat pitiful at his try.


    "Izen." As soon as he heard the last word, he realized what all this bullshit was. It wasn''t just a dream; even when he was dead, that guy was still making him do stuff. Thank you so much for being a captain. He sighed, simply chuckling. "You fu-" he stopped realizing he was in front of a kid. Izen looked up at him curiously, almost with teary eyes. "I am a friend of your brothers, and I promise you''ll be fine, okay?" She nodded, trying to wipe away her tears. He sighed, but suddenly he felt as if he were pulled back with so much force that his eyes would pop out.


    As he woke up in his bed, looking around, he was really getting tired of these nightmares now. But that didn''t seem like just a nightmare. But how was he supposed to find out if the girl existed or not? He could not access the player list anymore, and he had already chosen 10 slaves. He would not be able to choose anymore.


    "System, is there a way to choose more than 10 workers?" he asked while getting out of bed.


    [No]


    "Well, sh*t." He thought about it for a bit; there must be some way. One way at least, as he thought for a bit, he finally figured it out.


    "Is it possible to switch slaves with another ruler?"


    [It is possible if both parties agree.]


    "Well, that''s done now; I just need to contact another ruler. My best options are Toki and Hana. but I can''t really ask her, and toki, yeah, he might be the best option. System, can you contact ruler Toki?"


    [The call would cost 1000 credits per 20 minutes, are you sure?]

 Call

    "That''s... so much for just a dream?" He asked himself, but so far, his crazy dreams have only been helpful or true. He always felt weird in those dreams, like someone was watching him. But this time he heard someone talk, so it was definitely a development, and 1000 coins is not a bad tradeoff.


    [Calling Toki]


    He sighed as a screen popped up in front of him. After a bit, the screen finally showed an image¡ªan eye looking right at him as Jack sighed. "Toki, you don''t need to be on the screen; I can see you. Step back a bit."


    "Oh, okay," the man said, taking a step back as he stumbled over something and fell down on his face as the screen shifted down, only leaving Toki''s hand showing a thumbs up, meaning he was okay. After that, he got up and dusted himself off. "Hey Jack, what''s going on? Oh, your match was so cool¡ªthe way the giant popped up out of nowhere and it literally became one-sided."


    "Yea, yea, all that''s fine, Toki. Listen, I don''t have time, so I''ll explain what I need. Firstly, have you selected 10 slaves yet?"


    For the first time he could say after Dustin''s death, Jack saw a serious expression on Toki''s face. "I have no intention of keeping slaves; I wouldn''t choose anyone, and people who are randomized will be free to do what they want in my nation. I have no intention of having slaves."


    Jack honestly felt a bit moved. This idiot having a moral compass was something he would not have expected in a hundred years, but still, somehow, it did not feel surprising.


    "Alright, but I still need your help. I need you to search for a girl. She''s ten years old, and her name is Izen. You need to choose her as a person, and I''ll trade you one of my workers for her." Toki looked at Jack''s face seriously for a second before sighing and looking through the list. "You must have a really good reason, Jack." Toki said in a solemn tone as he selected her.


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    "Won''t you ask?" Jack asked Toki as if he wasn''t even questioning why Jack wanted that person so much.


    "Not really. We all have our secrets, and you are a man with many. I know I can trust you," Toki said with a smile that did not fit him at all; it felt almost mature.


    [Ruler Toki wishes to trade slaves with you. Do you accept?]


    Jack accepted, as he gave him the ranger with the wooden mask in exchange for the girl. He was the most dispensable person he could think of, so he traded him away. Anyway, after that, Jack felt a bit relieved; now he had to plan what to do to make the girl feel safer and more welcomed. Just as he was thinking, he saw Toki holding onto a blanket with something inside it. "What''s that?"


    Toki looked at Jack and smiled. "That''s my daughter," he said, showing a purple egg as the call ended. The timer had run out as Jack was left flabbergasted, bamboozled, and simply lost.


    "HIS WHAT?"


    Meanwhile, Jack was having a panic attack from what he just heard Toki say. In a place beyond even the reach of the game masters stood a man, a ghost of the past, as he sighed and looked down at the flame burning inside the fireplace. He stood inside what could only be described as a winter home. He looked at the flames and the way they cackled.


    "Do you regret your decision?" A voice of a man sitting in a comfortable, luxurious, relaxing chair spoke as he let the heat from the fire warm himself up. In his one hand was a glass of wine as he twirled it between his fingers.


    "No, I don''t," the man with black hair said. Dustin truly did not regret anything. When he was given the choice, he was really unsure about it, but either way, he wanted to make sure Jack got his message. He wanted to make sure that his sister could be saved, and when he achieved that, the ghost of a long-dead man felt at peace.


    "Very well, then deal a deal," the man sitting in the chair said as he raised his glass of wine as if making a toast. Dustin simply smiled as the wind started blowing, and slowly Dustin''s body started turning to dust particles as he was erased for good.


    "Humans are interesting..." Meanwhile, the man finally drank the wine from his glass, only to spit it out the next second. It tasted disgusting to him, at least as he sighed and spoke. "How do they even drink this sh*t?"

 Stars 1

    After finally recovering from the initial shock given by Toki, he thought it would be best not to call him back right now¡ªnot that he was not fucking tempted to. He was confused as shit. When did that idiot have a daughter? Did he always have one? An egg? A fucking egg?? Some things were better left unanswered, Jack thought as he sighed and fell back on the bed. Soon he got the notification confirming the change of the workers, as he had done with Toki. He ended up reading up on the page about the girl and what skills she had, and what he saw was surprising.


    "She''s somehow more useful than I thought," but everything else was already within his expectations as he sighed and ended up reading her name out loud. "Izen honor," he wondered if it was really dustin he heard in his dream, but honestly, who else could it even have been? His dreams had been mostly guiding him so far, and it was going well so far, so he might as well trust this. She''s a slave, and either way worse gets worse, he kills her. Hell feels bad for doing so honestly; well, she was Dustin''s sister after all, and he would end up lacking manpower.


    As he was lost in thought, the other notification still kept bothering him. He needed a name for his nation. He had forgotten to ask Carus to do that, and honestly, he didn''t think this place had it. It was a place where giants lived, so he did think about going into pure Norse mythology, but things didn''t work that way here. A place wasn''t defined by its people but rather by the one who ruled it, and also, the Norwegian names were lowkey, boring, and cringeworthy. He wanted something interesting that would fit well with him, but he was not in luck, ironically.


    He sighed as suddenly the same female giant entered his room. He looked at her with an annoyed and disappointed look. Of course, it was not her fault; rather, it was the issues at hand, but that did make the giantess flinched as she stepped back and bowed.


    "I apologize for the intrusion, Lord Jack, but the chief is saying that all preparations for the party are done."


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    She said she was keeping her head low as she looked at the ground out of respect¡ªwell, mostly out of fear, but respect was there too¡ªsomewhere, probably. Jack simply sighed at her reaction and waved his hand, telling her to go away. As she did, he got up and got ready.


    After he did, he whistled, calling his ride out as his bird friend came flying in yet again. He had gotten used to riding on this guy''s back by now. So much so, he was thinking of a name for this guy as he leaned back.


    "Your name is Ra," he told the bird as it nodded its head in appreciation for the name and flew out of the room. As they did, Jack noticed the decorated village, and today he was going to make a huge announcement that would probably turn these guys lives upside down. He felt a bit bad for doing so, but he had to take control and unify his nation. He was the ruler after all, the one who had absolute power within the place. The idea was as terrifying as it was exciting, but he still tried his best not to get too drunk on power. Power was like a drug. It felt good, but it was addicting. It was always flowing from one person to another, and there was hardly ever a way to keep it in your hand. The only way was through effort, and that was Jack''s plan.


    As the bird took him to the top of the tower that was made for him, he stood there and smiled, looking down on the whole village under him. There were glasses of wine on his tower''s tables, which he appreciated a lot, honestly. He didn''t remember the last time he had a good drink. At least he can get wasted today without any stress.


    Just as he was drooling over the drinks, he heard Carus''s voice from below him as he looked down.


    "Do you like the preparations, Lord Jack?"


    Carus asked, with a proud smile, if there were dark circles under that man''s eyes. He was really working hard, trying to manage everything by himself. Jack felt a little bad for the big guy. He was doing his best, which was admirable, honestly, but then again, that''s the whole reason Jack was here, so he didn''t have to do all the work.


    "It''s good"


    Carus smiled widener upon hearing that as he looked up at Jack brightly before asking.


    "When will your subordinates arrive, my lord?"


    Just as Carus made the statement, a bright white light showed down from the skies, much like what happened when Jack was first teleported here. The light landed right in front of Jack''s tower as he jumped down on Carus'' shoulder, sliding down his hand.


    "The stars are here."

 Stars 2

    As he slid down Carus''s arm, he finally landed in front of the white beam of light that was shot down from the sky. He smiled, putting his hands in his pocket, as the tower of white light finally vanished, leaving behind ten humanoid figures. They all had different heights, body shapes, and even different statures, but they were all humans nonetheless. It wouldn''t be an overstatement to say Jack had honestly forgotten what staying with humans was like before the test match. But now he felt more confident than ever, looking at his new work force and arriving with a smile on his face and hands in his pocket.


    The person who caught his eye first was none other than the one he almost killed during the games. It was the duke; honestly, he was interested in the trait the guy had and just how much potential it held. Duke was a wild card in this game, and if Jack used him properly, he might as well be able to turn his position from 5 to 1. Not that he needed that much power, but someone else being ranked higher than him was rather concerning; he was both selfish and greedy when it came to that.


    The next person to catch his eye was the woman wearing blue-tinted glasses and long white hair walking behind him. He didn''t notice before, but she was damn tall, and her face was no joke either. To put it simply, he doubted she would have any problem debuting as a model if she already wasn''t. But the way she carried herself, she had pride. Not that he hated it, but he would rather not have that in people working under him. Her name was Ikami.


    Next was, oh her... His gaze shifted down to a little girl hiding behind Ikami''s legs. The tall woman seemed annoyed for a second by this, but just sighed as he noticed the girl. She was the one who caused him so much trouble out of nowhere. He didn''t know whether it was really Dustin or not making the request to take care of his sister, but it didn''t matter. She was indeed his sister, and it was not a bad deal since she had some abilities he found useful.


    Right behind Izen was a man in a lab coat. It was a long coat going to his feet, well buttoned down at that. At first glance, anyone would consider this man a distinguished scientist, but Jack knew better. As soon as you looked at the face of the man, you realized. The dark circles covering his eyes only made the non-expressive look on his face look more psychotic, like that of a mad scientist who had gone crazy over his research in the past few days. His name was Pyotr.


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    The next person who walked out was rather young compared to the rest. A young boy in his early twenties, he was rather tall for his age, honestly, and he seemed to carry a sword on his back and two on his belt. He was a swordsman through and through, and honestly, Jack could respect that. He was someone who was passionate about something, even in the apocalypse. It was refreshing. Anyhow, what made him stand out more was the fact that while everyone else just walked past the scared Izen, he stopped and kneeled next to her. He talked to her, and he made sure she wasn''t scared or crying. He was compassionate, a quality Jack severely lacked, according to others at least, as Jack thought that the image of Hana did appear in his mind, which was weird. Regardless, he could use at least one person who was compassionate; having just emotionless monsters might make things go south. He needed someone who''s sympathetic to the public image, you know. His name was Tumo.


    There were the remaining people in the group as well, but the important ones were these. These were the people Jack was going to use in order to make sure his kingdom flourished, and he would make sure to stand at the top in the end.


    As they all stopped in front of him, Jack simply sighed and looked at Izen, who was hiding behind Tumo. He walked towards her as Tumo moved his hand over to the hilt of his sword. Jack was honestly surprised, not sure if by the heroism or the stupidity. ''You''re in my kingdom, dude. If I say kill yourself, you will have to do that. No choice. What are you trying to prove here?'' Jack thought, but decided it was better to ignore him for now. As he stood next to Tumo, he squatted down on his knees and looked at Izen, who was still hiding behind Tumo. He sighed as his hand slowly moved over to the top of her head as he caressed her hair and spoke.


    "Your brother wasn''t a liar. He tried his best to come back; he didn''t abandon you. He was a very great brother."


    The look in her eyes changed just within a second as soon as her brother was mentioned. All the emotions the little kid was holding in came flooding out as she looked up at him with teary eyes as she asked.


    "You knew my brother?"


    He smiled and spoke, "Yeah, he was... a huge pain in the ass."

 Stars 3

    He noticed Izen''s gaze softened after he said that, as tears began to rush out of her eyes. He let her cry it out; she was still a kid after all. As he sighed, not being of much help, she cried for a bit before she quieted down. Meanwhile, Tumos'' gaze also softened looking at Jack, as if a lot of burden had been lifted off the shoulders of that man. What was that burden, who knows.


    Meanwhile, Pyotr and Duke were staring at Carus and all the other giants around them with greedy smiles on their faces. It could almost be considered lustful, and the way they looked at them made even Carus a bit uncomfortable, but they didn''t say anything to the guests of the Lord of the Forest. Duke simply smiled because he finally found opponents he could consider strong and fight against. He wanted to fight and grow as strong as possible, but Pyotr''s smile was for a whole different reason.


    ''I wonder how their bodies work? Is it similar to ours? Do they just have the same organs but bigger? How do they breathe so much to sustain such bodies? What is their lung capacity? Do they experience time differently than us?'' The mad scientist was going crazy over the hundreds of questions arising in his mind. Meanwhile, Ikami only sighed, looking at everyone else, feeling somewhat disappointed for some reason.


    As Jack was finally done helping Izen calm down, she smiled a bit. And at that moment, the jack who wouldn''t give two shits for the death of his closest friend would have chosen to burn the world down if anyone hurt this kid. Honestly, even he wondered why he felt like that. He wasn''t someone with a lot of compassion, so why did he even feel attached to this child? It doesn''t make sense. Maybe his paranoia was taking over as he stood up and looked at the rest of them to distract himself.


    ''They have been here for a while, but no one bothered to greet me properly... This won''t do.'' He thought as he sighed, walked up to the front, and spoke.


    "All of you except Izen on your knees right now." As he spoke, everyone felt a pressure on their body they had not experienced before. As if they had to move, as if there was no choice. It was not an order; it was a command that they must obey, and so they did, as even the giants and Carus got on their knees.


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    "Look, I don''t know how you lived life till now, but from now on, there are three things I need you to remember. First, you are below me," he said with a stern look, looking at all of them in the eyes while he said that. "The one who holds all the power here is me, and the one who decides whether you live or die is me. If you think you''d rather die than be a slave, then know this. As you are right now, you are powerless. You cannot even die without my permission, so I hope you understand that."


    Jack heard many angry grunts from the people on their knees bowing their heads to him, but frankly, he did not care enough. Oh, you feel bad for being a slave? Should have won. He couldn''t care less.


    "Second, your value and the value of your life only depend on one thing. How much does your existence profit me? If you fail to show your value, I won''t think twice before getting rid of you. So if you really want to be someone in this kingdom, you will have to work hard for it. Your value is decided by what you bring me, so do your best."


    He said it with a smile, as if encouraging them while he spoke. Izen, who was still free, looked at everyone with a bit of worry in her eyes. A child''s heart truly is the purest.


    "Third and last. Have pride in me. You work for me from now on, so no one except me should be able to push you around. I don''t care if it costs you your life, but if someone belittles me or you take care of it, You represent me and my nation, and I need you to have pride in that and protect that pride."


    He said as he sighed before finally letting them all get back up again. "You may refer to me as Lord or Lord Jack. For now, enjoy the party. Tomorrow, I will reveal my plan for the future of our kingdom. But for now, enjoy the party and eat and drink as much as you like," he told everyone, as even though some of them felt humiliated, there was little they could even do about it, so they just accepted their fates and went to their respective seats made by the giant carpenters for small people. That night, everybody enjoyed drinks and snacks while still feeling frustrated. Duke and Pyotr got wasted enough to let all their frustration out in the form of swears, but others don''t. Ikami was smart enough to know what she had to do; Izen was too young, and Tumo wasn''t the type to hold grudges. All in all, everyone ended up celebrating that night at least.


    Meanwhile, Jack sat in his tower, looking down at everyone, knowing the storm he was going to cause tomorrow. "Well, it''s about time."

 Night

    Ikami was obviously annoyed by the fact that she was the one who had to share a room with the kid because she''s the only normal-sized girl. But honestly, even though she knew it was better than to leave a little girl to sleep alone at night in an unknown place, as she looked at the little shit next to her curled up like a ball while she slept, she sighed. It did bring back memories she would rather not think about. Her life had come down to this somehow, and she was really not that happy.


    She thought about what was going on with her right now. First, the world turned to shit out of nowhere, and then she had to survive by herself for what a whole ass month while avoiding wild creatures and monsters that would kill her on sight. Now she was practically a slave to some motherfucker who considered himself a god. She did not have that bad of an of an impression of him since he was ranked number 5. He was exactly average in the top ten. But the way he made everyone bow just to satisfy his ego pissed her off, and then, saying that they couldn''t even kill themselves without his permission, "Who does that bastard think he is?" she ended up saying out loud, causing Izen to mumble in her sleep as he turned around while still asleep. Ikami froze the second the little girl moved. She had no intention of waking the kid up and causing an uproar. Once she made sure the kid was asleep, she sighed and just went to sleep as well. The idiot had also said he would be making some important announcements regarding the future, no matter how much she hated this. It was her life now, as she sighed and just tried to sleep so she did not end up with black circles.


    Meanwhile, in the boys rooms, most of them were asleep except Tumo. Tumo was sitting in his bed, looking at his sword, wondering about what happened today. At first, he was cautious of the man, but the way he treated the kid didn''t seem bad. But him causing everyone to kneel like that was a bit bad. He believed respect should be earned, not forced, but he understood that one needed to show power to earn respect as well, but the execution for that could have been so much better than just making everyone kneel. He just sighed and decided to sleep while hugging his sword, which was rather a strange habit as he drifted to sleep.


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    But Tumo wasn''t the only one awake. In the corner of the room, a man was quietly studying his book. His face was mostly covered by a purple robe over his face, but his eyes were clearly visible. His eyes were glowing in the dark, especially inside his dark cloak. The vibrant purple iris was visible reading through the book. He was the runesmith that was chosen by Jack, who honestly didn''t care who he was working with as long as he got to do his studies about runes. During his dungeon, he had gotten one of the most rare classes, or so he was told. He was simply intrigued by the runes. But looking at the people around him, maybe he did mind who he was stuck with.


    One of his teammates was hanging half off the bed while sleeping; one was sleeping like a fucking vampire; one was hugging swords to sleep. "I''m surrounded by idiots," he said to himself as he decided to close his book and sleep to save himself the headache.


    Meanwhile, as all the other people were sleeping, Jack sat in his room while sighing. "Well, first of all, I need a plan, or a map." He opened the shop menu and searched for a world map because, honestly, that was all he truly needed. Looking at the map, he started marking the points and areas accordingly. After he had gotten enough information, he had his map finished. "Well this will do.." he said, storing the map away, but he realized he was slowly running out of money. That can cause him a huge issue in the future, he really needs to start making money.


    "Sigh so much to do I have hardly taken over.." *he said to himself as he looked at his hammer and armor he has been using for a while. His current rank was still inferior, he was still not intermediate and at that rate the task at hand would become more hard than it needed to be. Even though all his armor was intermediate rank that didn''t help a bit and the only item he had that was any higher was a useless coin that didnt do anything. His trait really was taking effect as good as it was, it was as bad sometimes too. As he decided to check his skill tree.


    "Skill tree"

 New Start

    [Skill tree: Jack Hoff


    Rank: inferior V


    Class: Blacksmith


    Title: Blackjack


    Inventory: Aquamarine fangs, Obsidian Flaming Armor, Rhuthras Hammer, Storm Boots, coin of ???.


    GENE SKILL:


    Devil''s deck (intermediate): the user is able to shuffle a deck of cards, excluding the king, queen, and jack for now. Whatever card the user lands on will grant him a certain effect.


    The heart heals any injury or status condition the user may have received.


    Diamond creates a protective barrier around the user.


    Club provides users with a physical boost in all their physical capabilities.


    Spade: anything the user has killed can be summoned to aid them in battle.


    The number on the card drawn determines the strength of the ability or its effectiveness. The spade summons will be automatically assigned a number based on their rank between 1 and 10. New summons can be exchanged with old ones, but the numbers will always be decided via strength.


    There is a cooldown between drawing cards, and when the next card is drawn, the effects of the old card are replaced.


    The queen is now available. The queen''s effect varies per card


    Class Skills:


    Identification: this ability allows the user to identify the nature of any material and its natural compatibility, its rank, its average price, etc. This ability can be used on other creatures to see their skill page if they have any, and if they don''t, it can be used to see their rank and skills if they have any.


    Extra skill:


    Gigantification: the skill can be activated to turn the user into a giant, their size growing by several times. However, the duration of use is only 5 minutes, and the cooldown is longer. Any magic the user uses as a giant will be more destructive, but it will also consume more mana. The user''s items will also increase in size upon activating the skill and decrease when it ends.


    will of greed: "be a greedy jack." The skill allows the user to go past their limits and force their body to work in conditions it should be able to. As long as the user isn''t technically dead, they can move and fight as much as they wish; however, the pain will only be up to ten times worse.


    GENE TRAIT


    Devil''s Hand: The user has increased luck while gambling, but their luck is reduced while doing anything else. The user can also use this skill for longer by just increasing the size of one part of the body instead of the whole body.


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    Merits: 27,450]


    "I am really poor," he said shamelessly. He also noticed the queen being available finally, which was actually a pretty good thing. He had gotten some kind of upgrade on one of his skills, but the rest were still inferior. He also noticed the new skill being there, and honestly, he was still curious how that worked.


    "Oh, I almost forgot about that," he said, checking his pockets as he finally pulled out the coin from his pocket, which had a joker''s mask that was smiling on one side, and on the other, it was simply J. He wondered if fate was actually a thing for it to end up in his hands; well, he could think about that later. Tomorrow was a big day, as he just went to sleep for now.


    The next morning was pretty bright, and in the middle of the village, Jack was standing on his tower, which now had a throne on it, wondering whose idea that was as Carus walked by, whistling. Regardless, it was an important day¡ªvery important, he would even say¡ªas today he was going to do what he promised Carus long ago. It was about time they changed the ways of the giant village.


    Soon, even the 10 humans came out of their respective houses. Ikami looked stunning as always, and she was holding Izen''s hand and guiding her. He never took her for the type to be good with kids. As he looked at her, she glared right back at him with a look that said, ''Don''t you dare say anything''. He might be the Lord, but there are some boundaries that he wouldn''t cross, so he didn''t. His eyes also drifted over to Pyotr, who had even worse eye bags under his eyes. How the fuck? That''s not how humans are supposed to work, but honestly, he didn''t even care anymore. The duke and tumo also walked behind them, with the runemaster joining as well. The healer and the last members quietly stood at the end of the gang without saying anything, for they were still cautious of Jack.


    Anyway, since all the giants and people were here, it was about time, as he took a deep breath and stood up from his throne, looking down at everyone. He wondered if his voice would even reach everyone properly, and just then he saw the runesmith throwing something towards him. They couldn''t possibly attack him due to the rules, so he brushed that off. Maybe he wanted Jack to catch it. As Jack did, he noticed strange symbols on a smooth rock; it seemed like, "What is..." Before Jack could even finish, a loud and booming noise echoed throughout the whole village from the rock, and the runesmith sighed quietly.


    Jack simply thought that guy needed a raise as he nodded to the guy who nodded back. Anyway, this made Jack''s life a whole lot easier.


    "I don''t think I need to introduce myself, so I''ll get to the point. When I first came here, I saw in Carus a flame to expand the giant village beyond just the forests and to explore the world. It would be a lie to say I don''t share such enthusiasm, and frankly, for me, this place is too small. I want more because only that would suit one of the ten rulers of the world, right? So here''s the plan: "


    A giant map of the whole world, which Jack had bought last night, was hanging from the tower behind him.


    "This is the map of the current world. As you can see, we are in the corner. Well, not really the corner since it''s the world, but you get it. The important part is this." Jack pointed to an island on the corner of the map and the forest in the middle of it, which was not that big as compared to some other forests on the same island. What was big, though, was the volcano, which was not too far away and was twice the size of the forest anyway.


    "As you can see, the current area we live in is not even 1% of the whole island, and so on. I will now announce what I have been making you wait for, if you have not realized. This continent is my property, and so I am going to take over the rest of the island. Those who will join our nation will be spared, and those who will oppose it will die trying. It''s time to take what is mine and what I want. The island will be ruled by a single nation, and that will be ours."


    He said that as a flag stood up behind him, being held up by two flying crows holding it by their beaks, the flag had a poker chip surrounded by a deck of cards in a circle. The poker chip simply had a J on it. He got an idea from the coin that he had and smiled as he spoke. And he typed in the name of their nation into the screen, which had been bugging him forever.


    [Ichor-ljzer]


    It was a rather complicated name, but Jack was satisfied with the meaning behind it. Ichor generally referred to the blood of the gods, which was golden in color and fit well with Jack''s eye color, and ljzer means iron, which means he was a blacksmith. Not everyone was happy with the name, but Jack couldn''t care less as he smiled and announced with greed in his ey


    "Let there be war."

 Conquest

    As soon as his last words were announced, he watched the chaos unfold among both the giants and the humans. Giants because they had spent their whole lives inside the village, and expansion was an idea they were not sure how they felt about. Humans realized they would have to probably fight off a full-scale war, while some, like the duke, were excited and others, like the little girl, got scared of the word war.


    He expected them to react more or less, so he didn''t mind the looks; more than anything, he was currently busy admiring the piece of rock in his hand with the rune that the runesmith had created. It worked as a microphone somehow. On closer inspection, he realized it wasn''t just a rock and laughed. He was very familiar with what this material was, and of course it was adamantite. He was thinking of mass producing these, but his face curled up when he actually thought about the price. ¡®Man being broke sucks,¡¯ he thought to himself.


    The old chief and the father of Carus, meanwhile, looked at him from a corner in the crowd. While he had told Carus he was willing to let the new generation take over, expand, and explore, no way in hell would he have ever thought that the lord of the forest would be so greedy. Was it even right to call him the Lord of the Forest at that point? He thought about it and gasped. Maybe that was the reason he just told them to call him Lord Jack. Does that mean he was planning all this from the start? While Carus''s father made up his own theories about Jack, who just wanted to avoid embarrassment, the current chief found himself in a dilemma.


    While he did want to expand and explore the village, he never wanted to thrust the village into a full-blown war, which was not something he wanted. While he was sure he could trust Jack, imagining his whole village being shoved into war was not something he could accept, as he spoke up.


    ¡°I am afraid, as the current chief of giants, I cannot allow my village to take part in a full-blown war.¡± He, with a firm face, looked up at the man who could kill him with one word, but being the chief, he couldn''t bitch out either. Especially when it came down to his people.


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    The elder chief, meanwhile, looked surprised by Carus''s actions. At that moment, he could have said that his son had grown into a fine leader, but which father is able to tell their child they are proud of them? No matter how proud they are, it''s always difficult for a father to talk his heart out to his son, but in that moment, he did feel proud.


    Jack, on the other hand, looked down with a confused look before bringing the phone to his mouth and speaking.


    ¡°Uh okay? I never said your whole village was going to fight anyway.¡±


    It was now everyone else''s turn to be confused as Jack smiled, and Ikami, who had already realized what was going on, face palmed herself. ¡°Oh god,¡± she said to herself while she sighed, and Jack continued.


    ¡°I will only be taking 10 people with me to conquer the rest of the island; that is enough.¡±


    This caused a bigger uproar in the crowd, and some were relieved. Some were confused, others were just unsure. But as soon as Jack said ten people, all eyes were on the ten humans who joined the village under Jack the last day.


    Meanwhile, as Jack caused chaos in his village, much far away from earth, sitting on a chair was someone Jack had seen not long ago. The current administrator and manager of earth is one of the strongest people under the game master, who took over earth himself. It was none other than the announcer of the kings, Z. As Z watched the live feed of Jack''s announcement, he didn''t say anything at first. ¡°Rather ambitious. He''s the second person to announce that. It seems humans are greedy by nature. But it won''t be a bad idea to use that. Since they want to do it so badly,¡± as hands worked inside the dark room and on earth, a new chaos ensued due to Jack''s foolishness. Suddenly, with the final press of a button, a screen was displayed in front of every ruler on earth. What Jack saw was.


    [A great trial has been issued.]


    [Great Trial: CONQUEST


    Time: 6 months


    Reward: 50,000 credits; rank upgrade.


    Objective: Conquer all the sentient races and villages in your designated area.


    Your area: an island of giants.


    You may directly challenge the chief of each village or assure a war as you wish.


    Penalty: loss of one''s current nation]


    "Well, it''s not like there''s an option left now. So I''ll announce the people I''ll be taking with me,¡± Jack said as he was smiling, but at that moment, everyone just assumed it would be the ten humans¡ªmaybe not the child, though. But Jack surely had plans.

 history 1

    "Well, let''s get the obvious ones out first. I am going.¡± He chuckled, saying that as he continued, ¡°Now the rest ten would be, Ikami,¡± she knew she was going to be one of them as she sighed, knowing all too well as she just walked away to pack her bags.


    ¡°Tumo, Pyotr, Duke, Izen, Carus..." As Jack continued naming them one at a time, the more names were announced, the more people were confused. They assumed Jack would just take the 10 humans and leave, but he was taking Carus with him for some reason. But that also means he was leaving behind one person¡ªthat person being the runesmith. For two reasons: first,  he needed the guy to study his runes more, and second, he had a job that only he could do.


    As Jack finished, Carus and the old chief looked at Jack with a rather uncertain look. Carus was more than happy to go, honestly, but what about the village while he was gone? But before Carus himself could speak up, the old chief spoke up first. ¡°I suggest you leave Carus here, Lord Jack. I speak as an old chief, not as his father.¡±


    ¡°And why is that?¡± Jack was intrigued, knowing full well that the old man was one with experience, so he probably had a reason why he was saying what he was.


    The old chief simply sighed at Jack''s question. He honestly didn''t want to talk about this, but there was not a lot of choice left anymore. ¡°I would like to talk about this in private then, with the Lord and Carus.¡±


    "Hmm, very well then,¡± he said. Since everyone was busy packing already, he declared the meeting over. He then followed the chief, along with Carus, to the nearby building where the village meetings used to be held. As they all sat down, the chief ordered one of the maids to bring them lunch and wine as he sighed. ¡°I suggest you make yourself comfortable, my lord; it''s a long story.¡±


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    Carus grew more worried after hearing his father''s words, but Jack just nodded and sat in his own tiny seat, which he had custom-made for himself. As the food came, the old chief took the bottle of wine and gulped the whole thing down without speaking. ¡°I apologize, but it''s hard to let the truth out normally sometimes.¡±


    ¡°I get it.¡± Jack simply said this as he waited for the chief to start. And so the old man finally began talking.


    ¡°The reason I have always told Carus not to leave the village goes far beyond just the forest itself. But first, I must confess to something.¡±


    The old chief, not being the strong man he always was, spoke in a weak tone, his voice almost crumbling. ¡°Son, there was no wolf attack on the village years ago; your mother did not die from a wolf. She was killed.¡±


    Carus'' face dropped as soon as he heard his father''s words. There was anger on his face and a tinge of sadness too, maybe from the fact that his father had lied to him all these years. Meanwhile, Jack had no interest in getting involved in this family melodrama, so he stayed quiet.


    Carus also remained silent, not knowing how to react as the old man spoke. ¡°I am sorry for lying to you all these years, but I wanted to protect you. I know better than to make you go for revenge... Blood for blood won''t end a war. I learned the hard way,¡± the old man said, pinching in the middle of his eyes.


    ¡°There used to be three kinds of giants that occupied this island. The ice giants, the forest giants, and the fire giants. The races lived peacefully among themselves until one day¡ª"he was cut off by Jack.


    ¡°The fire nation attacked?¡± Jack asked, knowing this was not a good time to make jokes, but he couldn''t let this opportunity go.


    ¡°I am afraid, not my lord,¡± the old chief responded in a serious tone, not knowing what Jack meant but just taking it as a guess.


    ¡°There used to be a balance of respect and power among the three giants. This island is almost in the shape of a triangle, with the three corners each being occupied by one giant race. The north by ice, east by forest and west by fire.


    The ice giants could be considered the more intellectual ones out of all three races; they almost always avoided conflict. The forest giants were known for their relation to nature and their ability to preserve things, and the fire giants were known for their innate talent for blacksmithing.


    At the center of the island, there used to be a temple atop Mount Ruthras, where the three giant races prayed to the god they worshiped, that being Ruthras, the god of giants and blacksmithing.¡±


    Upon hearing those words, Jack''s ears perked up. He already knew who Ruthras was¡ªbetter than anyone. He had spent six months with one of the direct disciples of the guy, but he decided not to point it out and just kept listening quietly.

 History 2

    So the old chief continued the story of the giants that Jack never knew, nor did Carus honestly.


    ¡°I told you the giants lived peacefully, right? That changed when our god chose the fire giants due to their innate talent and aptitude for blacksmithing and gave them his blessing.¡±


    Carus was surprised by the fact, but Jack simply nodded. It wasn''t a surprising decision, and honestly, it was very reasonable.


    ¡°That''s when things changed. The fire giants were put on a pedestal by the very god we worshiped; they were chosen over the other giants, which made us... unhappy. The ice giants simply accepted whatever the god chose and even sent some special ores as gifts for the fire giants, but the forest giants were consumed by jealousy.


    They prohibited entry of the fire giants into the forest by saying fire was naturally dangerous to the forests and they could bring harm to nature. The forest giants at that time owned the biggest area on the island, so they had an ego behind their actions, and while the fire giants were not egotistical, they had pride.


    So when the forests were closed off for them, they closed their land to us. The ice giants tried to decrease the hostility and talk the two out of it, but ultimately failed due to the forest giants egos and the fire giants aggression.


    Things started getting really bad real soon. These acts of hostility slowly turned into pure hostility, and before they knew it, the fire and forest giants were at war.¡±


    Jack quietly listened to the foolishness of the giants, letting their pride get in the way of peace. Nevermind that, actually.


    ¡°And so the war escalated, and blood was spilled. The forest giants had huge numbers and physical strength to overpower the fire giants, while the fire giants were able to create weapons that were far more effective. Due to the mass production of weapons, the heat rose in the northern area of the island, causing more trouble for the ice giants.


    When they raised this issue with the fire giants, they were met with no reasonable answer, saying the fire giants wouldn''t concede and they should talk to the forest giants. When they tried, the result was the same, causing anger among the ice giants. They knew better than to start a war, but they were not happy.


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    Which only got worse in the future when the forest and fire giants ended up fighting in one of the ice giants'' areas, causing the destruction of a small village. The ice giants were now pissed, as it became a three-way war. Honestly, the fire giants were the ones who were losing due to being pushed by both forest and ice giants at the same time. Their defeat was almost certain, but one thing. One simple appearance changed the whole tide of war forever¡ªsomething that caused the extinction of forest giants. The reason I try to preserve and protect us is because this village has all the forest giants left. There are no more forest giants except us. They all died, and it all happened because they appeared.¡±


    Jack was somehow holding back his curiosity. He understood the old man was having a hard time mentioning who ¡°they¡± were, so he didn''t push it. Carus, however, didn''t know any better.


    ¡°Who were they? Who caused all this? The extinction of our whole race? Who?¡±


    The old giant sighed and spoke with a sorrowful voice. ¡°Something we never considered; they were a wild card. As the war was progressing,. The Viking Giants landed on the western shore.¡±


    Jack was speechless. He was almost expecting water giants or something. but Vikings?   That, of all things, was something he was just not expecting. Vikings seemed as wild as they were, but imagining Viking giants felt... yeah, he''d rather not think about that right now.


    ¡°The Vikings are brawlers; the forest giants, whose strongest suit was their physical strength, felt as if they were being pushed back by them. When they landed, the forest giants were busy in the war, so they were easily able to set up camp and a city.


    Soon the forest giants found out about this and tried to drive them away, which was, in all honesty, stupid. If we had asked them to join our side, maybe things would be different. But when they were pushed back, they retaliated tenfold.


    Unfortunately, the forest giants were pushed back on all three sides, and that soon led to their defeat. The ice giants retreated from the war with the arrival of the Vikings. The ice giants refused to accept them as a part of the island but did not bother to declare war as enough blood had already been shed.


    The fire giants and Vikings hit it off great since the Vikings needed weapons and equipment, and the fire giants were the blacksmiths. It became an alliance and a partnership. Due to losing the war, the forest giants were mostly hunted down and killed. We used to occupy the largest land on the island, but now this forest is all we have. The ice giants knew they would be the next target; they saw what happened to forest giants and went into hibernation. And so the Vikings rule the west now; the ice giants have the north; and the fire giants have the east. And this forest is all we have left.¡±

 Authority

    Carus was silent, the chief was silent, and Jack simply sighed, thinking about the whole thing. If he was going to bring the whole island together under one nation, these internal conflicts among races could lead to chaos within the island. At that point, the only thing holding the nation together would be his strength and iron fist, which, while not a bad thing, isn''t ideal for Jack either.


    "Well, I can''t stop either way since the trial has been issued, but I assume this is why you didn''t want your son, who is a forest giant, to go with me." Jack asked with his arms crossed, but Carus, meanwhile, was still not sure how he should feel. Should he be mad? Sorrowful? Guilty? Disappointed? Annoyed? It just didn''t make sense in the moment as he stood up. ¡°I need some time with my father, my lord, if you don''t mind.¡±


    Jack looked at the giant and just got up and whistled as Ra came flying into the room, and he jumped onto its back. ¡°You don''t need to go if you want to; it might complicate things, but if you do, we will be leaving tomorrow at sunrise.¡±


    Jack said as he left the two and flew away on his bird back outside, where everyone seemed to be busy with their everyday lives by now. He simply sighed as he soon noticed the runesmith sitting on one of the rooftops of a shop, simply reading his book as Jack landed with his crow there. The runesmith noticed him and stood up. ¡°I am not weak, you know?¡± The guy was maybe a bit offended by the fact that he was the only human left behind in the village while everyone else was going with Jack.


    ¡°Yeah, I know you''re not. You proved how useful you are with this thing.¡± Jack said, tossing back the rune microphone to him. The runesmith simply caught it and looked at it before putting it away in one of his hidden pockets.


    ¡°Then that probably means there''s a job only I can do here.¡± The runesmith asked, and Jack simply smiled. He indeed had a job for that guy, specifically. Seeing the creepy smile on Jack''s face after his response, the runesmith was filled with regret for even saying anything; sometimes he just wished he kept his mouth shut.


    Meanwhile, as all this was going on in the south-eastern part of the world, way up on the northern continent, a lone man wearing a cloak with a hoodie that covered his entire body was walking through a snowstorm so dense that one couldn''t even see what was in front of them. But this man, who was simply wearing a blindfold over his eyes, walked through the terrain without misstepping once. Ultimately, he ended up in front of a giant mountain, and upon entering a cave, there were two giant doors, each bearing the pattern of a giant reptilian creature with wings sitting atop a throne as the hooded figure sighed looking at it.


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    Seeing the man approaching the gate, a certain shadow moved from a corner of the cavern to in between the gate and the man. As it stood up, its yellow snake-like eyes looked down at the man as the majestic dragon spoke in a tone that would make anyone feel scared.


    ¡°Stop right there, humans. The land beyond these gates belongs to the Black Dragon Kingdom. If you have misstepped here, go back at once. There will be no more warnings.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­ Is that so?¡± The man simply asked as he took off his hoodie, revealing black hair and a face that one would have known if they had watched the tournament. ¡°Tell your rulers someone has come to issue a challenge to them on behalf of the red dragons.¡±


    The dragon looked down at the man and simply laughed, thinking of him as an ignorant fool who had overestimated himself. "Haha, sure, kid, the red lizards have stooped so low they had to send a human to fight us.¡±


    The dragon said as he finished laughing and took in a deep breath, using one of the racial skills of all dragons, dragon fear. The dragon roared with all its might, causing the whole cave to shake, but not the humans. He stood unbiased, looking up at the dragon guard in his way.


    ¡°Who am I, you ask?¡± He said as he pulled down his blindfold and looked at the dragon as a purple mana surrounded it, lifting it up the ground. Meanwhile, the person did not move; his eyes simply looked at the dragon as the dragon''s body was crushed in the grip of mana surrounding his body. The man''s purple eyes were the same color as the mana.


    The dragon panicked, tried to free itself, and did everything he could, but ended up unable to even speak properly as a single word left his mouth. ¡°...w.ho¡±


    The man simply smiled as he looked to the side, and the dragon, who had been suspended mid-air till now, was slammed into the nearby wall so hard that the entire wall cracked as the dragon fell to the ground.


    The bleeding and bruised dragon looked up at the man who was still standing in his place as he walked towards the fallen creature and closer to him. With each step he took, the dragon felt something so primal and raw that he had never even experienced such an emotion in front of the Black Dragon King.


    The man kept walking forward and sighed as he placed one foot on the dragon''s maw, pushing it down and telling the creature to stay down on the ground in front of him. The fear overpowered pride in the moment as the dragon obliged, and then Akuto spoke.


    ¡°Let me ask you something... Who are you to question the authority of The King?¡±

 responsibility

    On the next day, at the entrance of the village of giants, a huge crowd, including almost every giant in the village, came to bid farewell to the people leaving the village, including the lord. The current team included all ten people Jack chose, except the runesmith, while everyone was ready with a bag on their shoulders, including Jack. The only exception from the original team was that Carus was nowhere to be seen.


    The old chief was there, but even he didn''t know about Carus''s decision yet. Jack knew better than to ask about what the chief and Carus discussed; he did not care about their personal matters. They will leave in a few minutes if he does not show up. They will leave without him; he won''t waste more time than he had to.


    Suddenly, Jack was approached by the runesmith. "Here, take these; it might be helpful,¡± he said, handing Jack three oval-shaped amulets made out of adamantite with runes ingrained in them.


    ¡°This is?...¡± Jack asked as he examined the three amulets, still unsure how they worked as he touched one of the runes on one of the amulets, and another amulet''s right rune lit up. ¡°Wait, are these?¡±


    ¡°Communication amulets,¡± the runesmith said, as the three amulets were interconnected via runes. Jack smiled, checking them out properly.


    Each rune connected one amulet to another, letting their voice travel through the runes somehow. Jack didn''t understand how that worked but was grateful nonetheless. So far, only the runesmith has proved useful to Jack. Honestly, this guy knew how to get the work done if you could leave him alone with his books, and Jack preferred those kinds of people.


    As time came, Jack and his group finally prepared to leave. Jack whistled, and five different giant birds came flying down from the sky along with Ra. These birds were to be their traveling companions to the edges of the forest giants territory, or rather, what was left of it.


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    As all the humans were getting aboard the birds, Jack stopped and looked behind at the crowd one last time, with the elder chief standing there and the runesmith sitting on his shoulder. Jack sighed, realizing that Carus wasn''t coming in the end, or so he thought. As he got onto the back of Ra, someone came through the crowd. It was the much-expected arrival of the green giant Jack had first met, but now cladded in green armor and holding a spear with the forest giants symbol on it.


    Carus looked at his father, who just sighed, knowing that the young spirit of his son couldn''t be held back and just hoping he would come back alive. Carus bowed to his father as a sign of respect. Carus was a man who was supposed to be a leader and the chief of the forest giants, but he was mad at what happened to his own people and his mother. He understood that blood for blood would leave the whole world bleeding. He knew what revenge felt like, but that was a personal matter. As a leader, he had to look past personal feelings. He would try his best to make amends for the past and for the people who died. The war needed to end, and Jack was going to conquer the other giants either way. He believed in him. So his going with Jack was completely necessary to fix the relationship with the other giants before they all came under one nation. He had to go as he walked up to Jack''s team.


    The man simply smiled as Ra flapped his wings and flew upwards while Carus walked behind them while the rest of the people were just riding atop the flying birds. It was dangerous to take the birds past the forest since Jack''s authority only went as far as the forest of the giants. Outside that, predators and monsters will become a threat, and it is better to travel on foot for that.


    Jack and his companions traveled via the air while Carus walked on foot, still keeping up with them. Izen, who was with Ikami for some reason, smiled, looking down on the scenery below and in front of them, as she was still a child and enjoying such little things might be fun for her.


    But Jack sighed upon watching the same reaction from Tumo and some others. Maybe in the whole apocalypse and the world going to shit, the little things could be the best part, if one can enjoy them at least. Jack didn''t realize it, but a smile also crept up on his face while watching them.

 resolve

    After they had been flying for two whole hours, the edge of the forest finally came into view. Jack raised his hand, telling all of them to hold on tight as they would begin descending soon. As he did, everyone grabbed onto the bird, and Izen was practically hugging its neck. The birds descended down onto the land as they did. Jack realized something and laughed while everyone else was confused by his reaction, but he laughed.


    ¡®Life really is a bitch¡¯ he thought to himself as he jumped down from Ra''s back and picked up what he saw earlier. It was the same cappuccino cup he had been holding when he was first transported or teleported, which makes more sense; honestly, he wouldn''t even know he was unconscious. Which did remind him... who was the man that he saw before being transported? He still gets chills thinking about that gaze; honestly, he would rather not think about that. ¡°Are you okay?¡±


    As Jack heard the voice, he looked back at Ikami, who was holding Izen''s hand, and sighed. ¡°Yeah, I am fine. I just remembered old stuff,¡± he said, tossing the cup away as he found everyone looking at him. He pulled out the map of the island that he had, which he had gotten marked by the elder for the territories. He spread the map out and spoke.


    ¡°So there are three races, and we have six months. We can either go everywhere together one by one or,¡± he said, pulling out the three amulets as he tossed one to Ikami and the other to Pyotr, honestly the only two guys with brains.


    ¡°We will be separating from here. Team Ikami will consist of Ikamu, Tumo, Elio (the healer), and Hyeon (the last dude who was randomized). The next team, Pyotr, would consist of Pyotr, Duke, Amir (light powers), and Yves (crystal powers). Lastly, Carus and Izen will be going with me.¡±


    Duke and Pyotr didn''t mind; the two had already bonded over beer and talked over the last few days. Ikami was somehow surprised that he chose not to send Izen with them. ¡°Wouldn''t it be better to send the girl with me?¡±


    Jack looked at her and then at Izen before he sighed. ¡°I might need her help in case things go wrong.". After that statement, everyone had many more questions, but Jack simply dismissed them. Team Ikami was going to go for the Vikings, Team Pyotr was going to the Ice Giants, and Jack, naturally, along with Carus, went to discuss things with the Fire Giants. Honestly, Izen was still on her guard when it came to others; she hardly trusted Tumo or Ikami, so when she was told to go with Jack, she was a bit reluctant and scared.


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    Jack, seeing her expression, sighed and spoke. ¡°It''s fine if you don''t want to go; I''ll tell Ra to take you back to the village,¡± Jack said as he was about to whistle. The girl spoke up.


    ¡°I will go.¡± Her voice was timid and barely noticeable, but she did say that. Jack smiled, teasing her. ¡°What was that? Sorry, I couldn''t hear you.¡±


    Tumo and Ikami both sighed at Jack''s antics as he teased the little girl, who yelled louder. ¡°I WILL GO TOO.¡± Her voice was much louder as Jack chuckled. "Alright, fine, you don''t have to if you don''t want to. Don''t force yourself.¡±


    "No, I need to go,¡± she said, looking down slightly embarrassed because she was yelling¡ªmaybe or was there something else?


    ¡°And why is that?¡± Jack, who was rather perplexed by now, along with everyone else, waited for an answer from the girl.


    ¡°Brother would have gone,¡± she said, looking up at Jack. Everyone else was left confused, but he understood the meaning of her words and smiled, patting her head like a kid.


    ¡°Alright, let''s get going then,¡± he told her and everyone as they all parted ways in different directions: the Pyotrs group to the north, the Ikamis group to the south, and Jack''s group straight forward to the east.


    While the other two groups started walking, Jack and Izen climbed atop the giant carus''s shoulders as he walked. It was easier, and it didn''t trouble him in any way due to the size difference, so why not take advantage of it? Jack chuckled, looking down, while telling Izen to hold on tight as Carus walked.


    As she smiled, watching the giant mountains not too far away from them, Jack spoke something he normally wouldn''t have. ¡°He would have been proud.¡±


    Izen looked at him, slightly confused, as he sighed and repeated himself. ¡°Your brother sure would have been proud of you.¡± Hearing that, Izen''s expression changed. Tears filled her eyes, but she hid her face in order to not look like a child right now, but Jack just chuckled.

 The Kind,The Brave and the Depressed

    The journey of each group in a different direction began at this point in the trial. Ikami''s group was quite a mess, to say the least, but honestly, she was grateful for her luck. The last thing she wanted was to be stuck with the dickhead or have to deal with the two idiots, naturally Duke and Pyotr. The group she had been given was at least sensible; the Tumo guy was alright. The healer was mostly quiet and got the job done. She saw him talking to the children in the giant village more than once, playing with them and helping out others while he could. He was a nice guy, which somehow pissed her off and made her feel at ease at the same time. Fuck if she knew how that worked now.


    Lastly, for the last guy, she had not spoken to him once. Honestly, she hadn''t even seen him speak yet. She could consider him just mute, but in the current magical world, she doubted that would be too hard to fix. Whatever it was, he didn''t try to act nice to everyone and was not an idiot. He kept to himself and got whatever was told to him done. She honestly preferred people like Hyeon.


    Tumo was the first one to break the silence after almost 5 hours of walking, since no one bothered to even try to communicate with each other. "Since we would be working together, wouldn''t it be better to introduce ourselves to each other and our skill sets?"


    Ikami stopped and looked back at Tumo for a second, who looked genuinely worried he might have offended her somehow, but she nodded. "Alright everyone, well, take a short break here then. We can talk and have lunch before continuing," she told the other two, who just agreed without saying much. They decided to sit down under a giant tree, which was surprisingly normal-sized for a giant forest being not too far. As they all sat down, everyone waited for the other to say something.


    Again, poor Tumo was the one to break the silence first as he spoke. "My name is Tumo Kamisato, and my rank is inferior (III). My class is swordsman as of now; it''s one of the only classes without a class skill, I think. And I have two skills and a trait. I think my trait was the reason I was picked, honestly, because my skills are pretty underwhelming. I can create and coat my blades in mana, making them sharper and stronger, and I can mentally control up to three swords," he said as the two swords on his waist and one in his hand started flying around him before going back in their sheaths. "My trait is, well, honestly, I''d like to keep it private. I hope you guys understand."


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    "It''s fine," Ikami said in a rather uncaring tone. His skills were rather mediocre indeed, so she had no idea how convincing his trait would be, nor would she care as long as he could make himself useful. "Elio, you''re next," she said, shifting her gaze to him and taking control of the situation before they knew it.


    "Ah, alright," the healer said in an intimidated tone. "My name is Elio. I used to be a doctor before this whole mess started. My current rank is inferior II, and my class is Well-a-Shaman. I have three skills, no traits; my main skill is, of course, healing; my class skill allows me to identify injuries, poisons, or any such stuff in people. It''s like an X-ray in my eyes." Ikami raised a brow upon hearing that, but the healer soon cleared it up. "I can only see injuries, toxins, and such. Not a literal x-ray... And lastly, my third skill allows me to buff my allies; it was an extra skill I earned."


    Ikami nodded after having her doubts cleared, as the last guy who was left was the quiet guy. She had nothing against him, but he always wore a kind of dejected or tired look on his face. The eye bags under his eyes did not help that at all. "Your turn," he said as he looked up at her, his eyes looking exhausted.


    "Ah right," his voice was rather monotonous as he sighed again before looking up. "My name is Hyeon. My rank is, uh," he stopped for a moment before he opened his skill tree to check. "Inferior III, and my class is... I am a hex mage. I can curse opponents and give them nightmares and such," he said in a very unenthusiastic tone while looking at his hands. "Ah, I have a trait; it''s not worth it to call it a trait, though. It''s the biggest curse I have ever seen," he said with a sigh, upon which no questions were asked. The poor guy looked depressed enough.


    Now all eyes were on Ikami, as they were all expecting her to tell them about herself. But she just looked confused for a second before speaking. "I''m not going to. As a leader, it''s necessary for me to have information about you guys; I see no reason why I should tell you." This left both Tumo and Elio flabbergasted, to say the least.


    "Uh guys..." suddenly, as they heard the monotonous voice, they looked to where Hyeon had been sitting, only to find him missing. "Up here," he said as they all looked up. The vines hanging from the tree had been holding the leg of Hyeon, who was hanging upside down right now. "You guys should run; it''s too late for me," he simply said in the same tone as he accepted the end and closed his eyes welcoming the warm embrace of death.

 game is game

    Meanwhile, as Ikami''s party started fighting the tree and its vines to free their teammate, in the very opposite direction, the idiot squadron made their way towards the ice giants. The team was led by the man with eye bags and a lab coat; he also wore black rubber gloves for some reason. Duke just yawned while walking behind him; he was bored, more or less.


    ¡°Why couldn¡¯t I be on the pretty lady''s team?¡± Amir spoke while walking with both his hands behind the back of his head. He was seemingly bored being stuck with a bunch of dudes.


    ¡°At least the road so far has been safe; be thankful, man,¡± the other guy said, who seemed to be on his guard all the time. Whether it was situational awareness, PTSD, or anxiety, no one was sure. Maybe it all combined together.


    ¡°I''d rather fight a hundred monsters to stay in her group, man. Maybe she will fall for me." Amir said with a cheeky smirk on his face as Yves simply sighed.


    ¡°You''re either stupid or delusional,¡± he commented without missing a beat, continuing forward.


    Before Amir could retort, their team leader spoke up instead. ¡°Both,¡± he said with a smile that seemed creepy if anything, causing both Amir and Yves to shut up in the moment. Meanwhile, the duke sulked in depression.


    ¡°We have been walking for five hours; why has nothing attacked yet?¡± He said, his face a mixture of annoyed and disappointed.


    ¡°Isn''t that a good thing?¡± Yves spoke slightly confused; they had already spent a month and a few weeks fighting for their lives. A few hours of peace weren''t going to kill anyone.


    ¡°Not really, I want to fight something; there is no way I am catching up to Jack like this,¡± the Duke said in a firm tone, making Yeves and Amir sigh while Pyotr looked confused. Since he was the only one who hadn''t fought Jack,.


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    ¡°I doubt that''s going to happen anytime soon,¡± Amir spoke up, remembering how during the free for all, out of fucking now, that giant was summoned.


    Yves felt goosebumps emerging on his body thinking about that; honestly, he would rather not fight Jack ever again. Suddenly, the duke stopped and looked at Amir closely.


    "Look, I know I''m handsome, but come on, personal spa-¡± Before he could finish his sentence, Duke spoke up as well.


    ¡°You were the one who killed the giant, the guy with the giant light sword.¡± Even Pyotr''s eyes turned on those words; unfortunately, he was not in that stadium, so he had no idea, but the crazy scientist listened anyway.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Amir asked, but instead of a reply, the next thing he saw was the duke''s fist flying towards his face, which he dodged just in the nick of time. ¡°WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?¡±


    ¡°You''re strong, so fight me,¡± Duke said as he put up his hands in a boxing pose, but before things could escalate, a familiar voice was heard.


    ¡°I swear to God, I leave you guys alone for a few hours and you start trying to kill each other.¡± As everyone looked at the source of the voice, they found Pyotr holding the communication amulet, with Jack''s voice coming from it. ¡°Duke, if you try anything else, I will prohibit you from fighting at all and send you to the fields for good. We can always use more farmers. Now get back to work,¡± Jack said from the other side as the rune on the amulet stopped glowing.


    Duke looked more dejected than ever and just slouched while walking, and Amir took a sigh of relief as he spoke. ¡°Crazy fucker..¡±


    Yves, who had been watching from the corner, was so glad it was not him in Amir''s place as the duke walked, depressed. Pyotr spoke up, trying to cheer him up. ¡°You can fight the ice giants when we get there.¡±


    Instantly, all the depression vanished as the man''s eyes were now filled with excitement and hope. ¡°I hope they are strong.¡±


    ¡°I hope we don''t have to fight,¡± Yves said without missing a beat as he walked along with the rest of his party.


    ¡°I hope there''s a female giant." Amir spoke nonchalantly, and as the words left his mouth, all the boys stopped and looked at him. ¡°What? Game is game.¡±


    At that point, the rest three just nodded their heads, giving him a look of both disappointment and respect at the same time, as they couldn''t disagree that game is game. Even if the game is to climb a giant ice mountain.

 Incompetent

    As the three shidiots made their way towards the icy mountains in the north, Jack''s party kept walking towards the eastern part of the continent. As of now, they were in a mountainous area, which, in all honesty, was pretty barren and rocky. They had taken a small break so Jack could help Izen master her skills. She had quite a unique trait and skill set, which Jack noticed while choosing her. It genuinely interested him, but in all honesty, she was... in terms of using her skills... well.


    "Shit,¡± he said out loud as Izen, who had been trying her best, looked back at him. He sighed and rubbed his temples. While all of them could simply use their skills by thinking about them only, that didn''t seem to work for her. He honestly didn''t know how to help her out, and at this point, he was more irritated than anything.


    ¡°Why can''t you do it properly? For fucks sake, it''s not even that hard.¡± Jack told the little girl, who seemed to be on the verge of tears. Carus simply looked at this and decided he should step in to stop Jack before he scars her for good. But before Carus could step into Jack''s communication Amulet lit up as he excused himself to go talk to Pyotr.


    As soon as Jack left, Izen couldn''t hold it together anymore as she started crying. Carus simply sighed as he used his finger to rub her back, due to how small she was compared to him. Izen sobbed as she spoke in between tears. ¡°I did try my best... I really am trying. Why am I like this? What am I so useless at? If I were a bit useful, my brother wouldn''t have-¡± She couldn''t even complete her sentence as a stream of tears flowed down her cheeks.


    Carus simply let her cry as he sighed before she calmed down a bit. He handed her some water as he spoke. "Look, I don''t know what happened with your brother, nor am I in any position to say if it was your fault or not.


    But I doubt he would have considered you useless. Sure, you''re not the strongest of us by any means, but I would say you''re far from useless. Besides, I doubt it would make your brother happy if you treated yourself like that, taking blame for his death.


    You''re still young; you will grow stronger, maybe stronger than all of us, so don''t blame yourself and let your past hold you down. What happened is something no one can change. So simply learn from the past work in the present and focus on the future.¡±


    Izen simply nodded, drinking the water and wiping away her tears as she looked up at the giant, who looked at him with a more friendly smile, if anything. She decided to keep trying as she got up and began practicing, while Jack came back from the forest with an annoyed look on his face.


    He gives people one job, and no one can do that properly. He sighed while holding his forehead as Carus looked down at him. ¡°It''s tough being a leader,¡± said Carus, looking down at Jack.


    ¡°It is, especially when everyone is so incompetent,¡± Jack said in a begrudging tone, making Carus look at him with some pity.


    ¡°Maybe this might sound arrogant coming from me, but the capability of one is drawn out by the person leading them.¡± Carus spoke, looking down at Jack.


    Jack looked up at him with a look that said, ¡®The fuck you said to me just now?¡¯ before he spoke. ¡°It''s not my fault; I''ve been given useless tools.¡±


    Carus sighed in disappointment upon hearing those words. ¡°People aren''t tools. They have feelings, wishes, and dreams.


    As long as a person exists, those things will exist with them. A leader is someone who gathers people''s dreams into the ambitions of the group. I''m sorry to say, but if you are only going to look at them as tools, then the incompetent one isn''t the people but the leader,¡± Carus said with a stern face. This was the first time he had seen this man act like this, making him realize maybe he was in the wrong this time.


    ¡°Maybe you''re right. Sorry for that,¡± Jack said to Carus, to which the giant simply smiled as they both watched Izen try to use her skill. She was too focused right now to listen to what they were talking about.


    As she kept her eyes closed and thought about her skill concentrating mana between her hands, Jack watched, realizing how hard she must have been working¡ªfor a kid no less. As he was going to get up to stop her before she overworked herself, a black orb formed between her hands as she looked down and looked back at Jack.


    ¡°I did it,¡± she said with a look that said nothing more than how happy she was right now, while also trying her best not to break her focus.


    Meanwhile, Jack couldn''t help but realize something. ¡°Shit. Maybe I was actually the incompetent one all along.¡±

 Curse

    Meanwhile, as Jack was praising Izen for a job well done in another part of the continent, his group was busy hanging off the edge of a certain mountain.


    Ikami spoke loudly in a very annoyed tone while hanging onto Elio. ¡°Can someone explain to me, HOW THE FUCK DID WE ENDED UP HERE?¡±


    Tumo sighed as his two swords were dug into the mountain, literally holding them up all by himself. "Well, while you were busy looking from the cliff to find the village, me and Elio were talking to each other about how to go about fighting when suddenly... Honestly, what even happened? I just remember being pushed with a very strong force,¡± Tumo said, trying to climb up while holding everyone''s weight.


    ¡°As far as I saw, it was a giant eagle chasing Hyeon, which crashed into all of us,¡± Elio explained while Hyeon, who was holding onto Kamis legs, sighed, speaking in a depressed tone as usual.


    ¡°I am sorry; it is probably because of my trait again. I should just die.¡±


    Ikami, who was annoyed by this point, said, ¡°Trust me, I would have made that decision long ago if it were on me. What even if your fucking trait at this point?¡±


    Elio, who was holding onto Tumos legs as he pulled them all up, also nodded, wanting to know.


    "Well, I looked at the bird, and it got pissed off. I was happy thinking it would kill me, but¡± Hyeon spoke, which made everyone freeze for a second before he continued. ¡°But my trait activated¡­it''s called fate plaything. To put it in simple terms, I can''t die.¡±


    Yea, that was enough of a shock to even make Tumo freeze, who was trying to climb up to the top and looked down at Hyeon with a confused look.


    ¡°I have been unlucky my whole life, so at the end, I tried to kill myself by jumping off a building, and just then the tutorial started. I tried everything I could to kill myself, but I ended up always surviving. No matter what I do, I can''t fucking die; it''s the worst.¡±


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    Ikami wanted to kick that fucker so badly right now, but she held herself back before she realized something. She swung her leg with all her force into Hyeon''s face, making him fall down. Which made Tumo and Elio panic.


    Meanwhile, Hyeon smiled in his eyes, thanking Ikami, as he fell down with a smile on his face, feeling at peace.


    ¡°He will be fine." She spoke before any of them had a chance to say anything. ¡°Now pull us up.¡± Tumo nodded as he used his whole upper-body strength to pull the three of them up. He laid down on the ground, trying to catch his breath.


    ¡°What if he''s actually dead?¡± Elio asked Ikami as he peaked down the cliffside, seeing how deep the fall actually was, making him gulp his dry saliva.


    ¡°He seemed happy enough,¡± she said as she was preparing to move towards the village she saw in the distance. But before they could start moving, the sound of a certain crow was heard flying up the mountain with something in its claws.


    Before it could do anything, a giant eagle dived in and grabbed the crow between its own claws, which made the avian drop what was in its claws, which landed right in front of Ikami, Elio, and Tumo.


    ¡°I told you it''s a curse,¡± Hyeon said as he got up and dusted off his clothes while his whole team looked at him with a look that was somewhere between confusion and fear based on the absurdity of the situation. Ikami decided to call Jack first.


    Surprisingly, he knew about the trait, and he told Ikami to ¡°use him well.¡± She knew what he meant, which only added to her ever-growing headache.


    And so, ignoring the zombieman topic, she decides to lead her group towards the village she had spotted through the next few days. Tumo and Elio, meanwhile, barraged Hyeon with questions and some ethically questionable experiments, mostly done by Elio. Not that Hyeon would say no; if he didn''t die, then his team would get information; if he did die honestly, that sounds like a dream if anything by now.


    As they arrived near the giant gates, they saw two Viking guards wearing fully metal-plated armor and holding a spear and a shield in each hand, standing on each side of the door. As soon as the guards noticed the little people, they put up their shields and aimed their spears at them. ¡°This is the territory of the Vikings. Go away if you have wandered here by mistake. Guests are not welcome.¡±


    One of the guards said this as Ikami sighed, knowing these people were going to make it harder than it needed to be at this point. ¡°Good thing we are not guests. Tell your ruler that the representatives of the forest giants have challenged them to a battle of conquest,¡± she said with her hands crossed and a mean look in her eyes. She had spent the last 2 weeks getting annoyed by Hyeon Shenanigand, and she had every intention of taking it out of these giants.

 Ikamis Gene Skill

    ¡°Representative of the forest tribe? The one that was exterminated? Nice try, kid. I''m saying you go away while I''m still asking nicely,¡± the guard said, removing his spear from her direction as he chuckled at her words.


    ¡°Then if I beat you guys up, will you call your rulers?¡± Ikami asked in a serious tone, while Hyeon, Elio, and Tumo prayed for the souls of the guards to rest in peace; they had no intention or need to get involved. Everyone knew what she was capable of.


    "Sure, kid, if you can beat even one of us, we would sur-¡± The guard didn''t even have the chance to finish his sentence as the girl, who had been standing on the ground, suddenly went flying at the guard''s face with the speed of a flying bullet. Ikami clenched her wrist as a red aura ignited around it, and with all her strength, she hit the guard in the face as sparks of red lightning flew around the area from the hit.


    As for the guard, he was sent flying from the hit, breaking through the very wall guarding the village and getting sent crashing through at least three different houses in a row as the unconscious guard with broken teeth lay on the ground with a broken face.


    "Now, will you get the rulers?¡± Ikami asked very nicely with a kind smile that spelled out you''re next to the other guard as he nodded and went to report this to the king.


    Meanwhile, Hyeon, who still had no idea what her ability was, asked for tumo. "Well, I thought it was simple from the looks of it; her gene skill is called black hole. She can control gravity in her surrounding area and her own body without being affected.¡± How did Tumo know all this? Ikami had ended up explaining her skill to them once while Hyeon was kidnapped by a monster.


    Elio looked at the broken wall with a bit of a sad face. ¡°I feel kind of bad for the guy,¡± he said, looking at the hole in the wall as Hyeon wondered if that hit would have killed him. Well, he can always ask her to hit him later. Something told him she wouldn''t say no.


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    Meanwhile, the rulers of the Viking tribe received the news and were on their way already. The current chief of the tribe was on his way as they came face-to-face with the person responsible for the damage. ¡±I assume the one who issued the challenge would be you,¡± the female giant with blue skin and metal armor asked Ikami.


    ¡°Indeed, are you the one running this place?¡± She asked back to the female chieftain of the tribe as the giant woman nodded. "Well, on behalf of my lord, I am here to issue the challenge of conquest to the ruler and take you back to join our nation.¡±


    The female giant nodded in understanding before speaking. "Alright, but the challenge will be decided by us. If you people can clear the challenge, we will join your nation. Until then, you are our guests. I swear in the name of Ruthras, no harm will come to you as long as you don''t harm anyone here,¡± she explained.


    Ikami thought the terms were reasonable and agreed. She had no intention of fighting a challenge after having just traveled for several weeks, and except for all that, she could really use a shower right now.


    ¡°All right, it''s nice to meet you. I am Ikami, an.... executive of the Ichor-Ijze nation.¡± She had to find the right word because calling herself a slave would not make a good impression.


    ¡°Very well, I am Athena, the current chieftain of the Viking tribe. Enjoy your stay here.¡±


    Meanwhile, as the Ikamis team made their way into the village, the Pyotr team also made their way into the Ice Giants territory. They ended up on mountains covered in snow as they kept walking.


    Duke took off his shirt for what he referred to as endurance training. The crazy guy even went as far as to suggest others do it.


    ¡°Yeah, no, I prefer to live.¡± Yves was pretty upfront with his answer to that question, as he was wearing a duke''s shirt on top of his own to help with the cold.


    ¡°The only time I''ll be taking off my shirt is if a lady asks me to,¡± Amir also said as he walked more or less unaffected by the snow. Why? Well, he had a light cover around his body, keeping it warm, which also made it seem like he was glowing.


    ¡°I cant¡± Pyotr¡¯s answer was short and simple: no one bothered asking why not to that guy? For some reason, everyone was creeped out by him.


    Eventually, after walking for hours, the group found themselves in front of a giant cavern, and when they entered it, what they saw more than just shocked them.

 I want to live

    As the shidiots entered the cavern, they saw giant blue ice crystals all around the room. The cavern itself was nothing more than a simple cave, or so it seemed. As Pyotr decided to get close to these crystals, he realized something. ¡°DO NOT TOUCH THEM,¡± he yelled out before anyone had the chance to.


    As he yelled, everyone took a step back. Amir used his light powers to create a small orb of light, sending it flying close to the crystal as they found out these were not simply crystals. They were the ice giants. Pyotr was told by Jack that these giants would be in a hibernating state, but how long have they been hibernating for? For them to freeze up in one place like that.


    Amir was the first one to question. ¡°So what do we do now?¡±


    Duke was surprisingly the first one to reply, even after having such limited intellect. ¡°What else breaks the crystals? Wake them up, fight them, beat them, and take the leader.¡±


    Yves didn''t miss a breath to retort back that idea of a duke. ¡°Or we can go home and tell Jack that all the ice giants are no good since they are frozen either way,¡± he said while holding both jackets over his shoulders.


    ¡°Let me think for a moment." Pyotr thought, wondering which choice would be easy. Generally, it would be easy to ask Jack, but the last time he called the guy... Yea, no, it was better for him to deal with this himself at this point. ¡°I think it''s best that we break them free and try to talk to them.¡±


    Pyotr said to Yves''s fear and dukes joy as Amir simply shrugged. Duke was way too excited, as he used all his strength to punch the crystal as a cracking sound was heard.


    Unfortunately, the crystal was unscratched, but Duke''s hand wasn''t, as he was pretty sure he broke a bone. He seemed disappointed in himself by now. He thought he had gotten stronger.


    Then it was Yves''s turn; even if he didn''t want to, an order was an order. And so he created a giant crystal hammer and swung it at the ice, but the hammer ended up shattering upon colliding with the ice. Amir sighed simply as he concentrated all the light between his hands and shot out a beam hot enough to melt rocks as it passed through the ice without even scratching it.


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    ¡°What the fuck is wrong with this thing?¡± all three of them said in unison after trying their best to break it. Soon, all four of them heard a voice in their minds speaking to them.


    (¡°It won''t break that easily.¡±)


    ¡°What?¡± Pyotr questioned it, and so did everyone else.


    "Ah, sorry, I just saw you kids wasting time. I''m just an old man stuck inside one of these pods as well. We made them considering one''s safety, so for them to be this durable is normal, and since I am frozen, I can''t talk directly to you. Besides, what are you kids doing here?"


    The voice in all their heads asked as Pyotr decided to reply. ¡°We are here on behalf of the lord of the forest and the forest giants to issue a challenge of conquest.¡±


    ("Well, that would certainly be difficult in the current situation.¡±)


    The voice said this, chuckling in a lighthearted tone. Amir felt a bit annoyed by it, mocking them. ¡°Then do you know a way to melt this ice, old man?¡±


    (¡°I most certainly do, but it won''t be easy.¡±)


    ¡°Sounds fun,¡± Duke said, speaking up this time as the voice audibly laughed and continued.


    "Alright, then keep traveling north; you will come across a certain island filled with giant wyverns. You will need the flames of a wyvern to destroy this ice. So best of luck taming it."


    Pyotr was actually thankful to Duke for once getting them useful information. ¡°Thank you; we will be back shortly.¡±


    Meanwhile, Yves was in too much shock to speak so far, but he finally spoke out now. ¡°Guys, are you really going to trust a random voice? What if it''s a trap? And we can''t fight wyverns. You know he means the dragon kind of wyverns.¡±


    Amir spoke up before the duke could get a chance to speak this time. ¡°Sounds fun, honestly.¡±


    Seeing that there was no hope, Yves gave up as he sighed. ¡°All right, best of luck to you guys. I''ll be waiting for you all. If you don''t come back in a month, I''ll report you dead.¡±


    Pyotr, Duke, and Amir shared a look for a second before sighing as they grabbed Yves by his collar, dragging him along with them as they walked away.


    "NO, PLEASE LET ME GO. I WANT TO LIVE. I WANT TO LIVE!¡± His begs for mercy fell on deaf ears as the group of shidiots made their way to Wyvern Island.

 Red giants

    Meanwhile, as Ikami and Pyotr¡¯s group were doing their part to convince the tribes, Jack''s group had also made their way across the mountain range. As for what they found on the other side, it was rather hard to describe¡ªa whole city made out of rocks and minerals.


    In the middle of the city stood a giant castle that was in the shape of an upside-down hammer. After looking at the castle from afar for a bit, Jack realized that his hammer looked eerily similar to the hammer that the castle''s design was based on. He could more or less guess it was based on their god, Ruthras''s own hammer.


    After a bit, Carus descended down from the mountains. Jack and Izen, who were sitting on his shoulder, held on tight. After a bit, they came face to face with the giant gates of the city, which made Carus look small in comparison.


    As soon as they made it to the gates, Jack and Carus felt something coming as Carus jumped back. Suddenly, something crashed right in front of them, and when the dust settled, standing in front of them was a giant. He was a bit taller than Carus, with flaming red skin and two giant battle axes on his back.


    ¡°I thought we ended your kind long ago... Sigh, but nevermind that, I''ll finish the job right now.¡±


    Jack knew this would get out of hand soon, so he grabbed Izen and jumped off of Carus shoulder while holding aquamarine fangs. The both of them slowly glided down from the giant.


    Meanwhile, Carus was directly attacked by the red giant, who tried to punch him in the face, but Carus was no rookie either, as he dodged to the side and grabbed the arm coming for his face, pulling the red giant over his own shoulder as he smashed him into the ground so hard that the ground below them cracked.


    Jack, who watched this, believed that Carus was a bit more ferocious than normal. Maybe it was his past or what happened to his mother, but since that guy attacked them first, Jack didn''t mind what Carus did.


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    As Carus and the red giant started fighting, the doors to the city of red giants opened as multiple soldiers came out to help their leader¡­.Jack knew this could be troublesome, so he sighed and decided it was about time he got some action too.


    He activated the devil''s deck, summoning his aquamarine fangs as he stared down at all the giant soldiers in front of him. This reminded him of a certain anime he used to watch as he ran towards them, holding a sword in each hand.


    As the devil''s deck showed him the card he drew, he sighed. He wanted to fight but looked like he didn''t need to as he put away aquamarine fans, and white light particles swirled around him like a tornado. What was being summoned was Jack''s brand new and strongest summon.


    All the red giant guards rushed towards Jack, who wasn''t worried in the slightest as the white particles moved forward like a giant wave, taking shape and form, stopping right in front of the guards and spinning in a circle using its tail like a whip to send tens of guards flying into the mountain.


    As the dust settled and the creature was finally seen, its huge and magnificent body revealed itself, blue scales covering each and every corner as its yellow snake-like eyes stared down at every single one of the red giants, who dwarfed in size compared to the creature. Evey red giant looking up to it currently has a certain fear in their eyes as to why. Because they were standing face-to-face with a giant dragon, which could kill them any time he wanted.


    ¡°I thought the chief got rid of that thing,¡± one of the giants said before falling onto his back and looking up at the drake with eyes filled with fear.


    At this point, both Carus and the red giant with battle axes stopped fighting and looked at the giant creature with an astonished and a fearful look at the same time.


    The red giant was sure he had seen his father get rid of that drake, but that only meant one thing: since this person was able to summon someone who was dead, he was probably a necromancer. Which meant if he decided to attack the village, the whole red giants could be eradicated by a single person. He looked at the green giant with disgust, thinking he had made a deal with the devil to get revenge.


    The red giant with battle axes instantly changed his priorities from the green giant to the small man who was standing behind the drake as he rushed at him with insane speeds, hoping to chop his head off.

 Rank up?

    Around a day before Jack and his group made it all the way to the Red Giants village, they were traversing a certain mountain path that would have led them directly to the village in under an hour. Then what took them a whole day?


    It was simply because while they were walking around the mountain, Izen heard a certain something groaning in pain, and so Carus and Jack decided to check it out. Carus was mostly keeping Izen safe, as she still wasn''t the best at controlling her own skills and abilities. Anyhow,  that''s rather not important right now.


    As Jack traversed down a crack in the ground, trying to find out the source of the noise, he soon came face to face with it in a dimly lit cavern. The sunlight leaked into its body as it breathed heavily. The poor creature was near death already, and he kind of felt bad for it. Even if Jack felt bad, that wouldn''t change the fact that he was scared sh*tless. The creature had scales all over his body and eyes much like a snake. Of course, if only it had wings, it could have been considered a whole dragon.


    Yea, it was a drake, a drake that had been seemingly ¡°killed¡± by the red giant chief, and its dead body was thrown into this cavern. Well, what they didn''t know was that Jack would find the guy here, and even worse for them, the dragon had no energy to protect itself. And that''s how the giant creature was added to Jack''s army. Of course, he also made sure to take the dragon''s scales, as they can be used to make some great stuff.


    [You have killed an intermediate V creature.]


    [+2000 merits]


    [A rank-up trial has been allotted.]


    [Please complete the following trial to rank up within one week.]


    Back in the present, Jack was enjoying just standing with his arms crossed and watching. In all honesty, he was missing out on a lot of equipment as of now, as he sighed and spoke while enjoying the view of his drake destroying the army of the red giants.


    ¡°Skill tree¡±


    [Skill tree: Jack Hoff


    Rank: inferior V (ready for rank change)


    Class: Blacksmith


    Title: Blackjack


    Inventory: Aquamarine fangs, Obsidian Flaming Armor, Rhuthras Hammer, Storm Boots, coin of ???.


    GENE SKILL:


    Devil''s deck (intermediate): the user is able to shuffle a deck of cards, excluding the king, queen, and jack for now. Whatever card the user lands on will grant him a certain effect.


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    The heart heals any injury or status condition the user may have received.


    Diamond creates a protective barrier around the user.


    Club provides users with a physical boost in all their physical capabilities.


    Spade: anything the user has killed can be summoned to aid them in battle.


    The number on the card drawn determines the strength of the ability or its effectiveness. The spade summons will be automatically assigned a number based on their rank between 1 and 10. New summons can be exchanged with old ones, but the numbers will always be decided via strength.


    There is a cooldown between drawing cards, and when the next card is drawn, the effects of the old card are replaced.


    The queen is now available. The queen''s effect varies per card.


    Class Skills:


    Identification: this ability allows the user to identify the nature of any material and its natural compatibility, its rank, its average price, etc. This ability can be used on other creatures to see their skill page if they have any, and if they don''t, it can be used to see their rank and skills if they have any.


    Extra skill:


    Gigantification: the skill can be activated to turn the user into a giant, their size growing by several times. However, the duration of use is only 5 minutes, and the cooldown is longer. Any magic the user uses as a giant will be more destructive, but it will also consume more mana. The user''s items will also increase in size upon activating the skill and decrease when it ends.


    will of greed: ¡°Be greedy jack." The skill allows the user to go past their limits and force their body to work in conditions it should be able to. As long as the user isn''t technically dead, they can move and fight as much as they wish; however, the pain will only be up to ten times worse.


    GENE TRAIT


    Devil''s Hand: The user has increased luck while gambling, but their luck is reduced while doing anything else. The user can also use this skill for longer by just increasing the size of one part of the body instead of the whole body.


    Merits: 33,750]


    In all honesty, nothing much has changed except the glowing, ready-for-rank-up part next to his rank; he, by any means, did not see that coming. He had to complete a whole ass mission to reach the next rank, which was annoying as it was, but there were other rulers who had probably done it already, which pissed him off. As for what his mission was, well, won''t you know it?


    [Rank-up Trial: Blacksmith''s Heart


    Time: one week


    Reward: rank upgrade to intermediate grade


    Description: forge a great-grade or above item. A unique grade counts.


    Penalty: unable to rank up for a month]


    Well, it looked simple enough, right? Except it was not, and in no way was it even possible for him. Great grade was one grade above intermediate, and they were asking him to forge a weapon two grades above him. Well, it didn''t need to be a weapon, but still, that was not a joke.


    From what he learned in his time in the dungeon, being able to craft one grade above you was considered pretty good already. But two grades?? That was some prodigy sh*t, and unfortunately, he wasn''t one. He didn''t pay any mind to this either, as he was going to try if he got home in time. Otherwise, he can just wait a month.


    Meanwhile, as Jack was having his whole internal monologue, the red giant with the battle axe tried to rush him. Unfortunately for him, Carus wasn''t letting him go. As soon as the red giant changed his attention to Jack, Carus took the opportunity and grabbed him by his waist, giving the giant a giant suplex into the ground, creating a crater under them as the whole ground shook. Jack simply sighed, looking at Carus. and spoke


    ¡°Show off..¡±

 The challenge

    As Jack watched Carus suplex the giant into the ground without any hesitation, he could only sigh while the soul drake dealt with the rest of the giants heading their way. Technically it was an intermediate V before it died, so no shit it was overpowered, but wasn''t he supposed to be laced with bad luck in general¡­ Finding that Drake could be considered considerably lucky; well, it''s not like he was the one who found it. It still felt a bit too convenient to him.


    The situation seemed in control for his group at least; he could see the drake dig its teeth directly into the arm of a red giant and tear it off completely. He covered Izen''s eyes as he watched, knowing this much bloodshed wasn''t good for a little girl her age. As Jack was about to move forward to finish off the injured giants to add to his own army, he suddenly felt the ground shaking¡­


    He hardly it, a battle cry coming from high above as he turned his eyes to look up at a giant red blazing man with literal flames erupting from his body falling towards the ground. He had a belt made out of skulls; his face had a dense beard along with a burn mark all over his face. The mark made him look more fierce as he roared, falling down with a giant hammer in his arms. He swung the hammer directly at the soul drake as he crashed down.


    As soon as the man made contact with the drake, the impact blew dust in every direction, and before Jack could even understand what happened, the drake was gone, dissipated into white light particles. Along with the drake, some of the red giant fighters under him were also squished to mush, but the giant''s face showed no regret as he stood back up holding his hammer, putting it over his shoulder as his gaze turned to Carus, who had finished fighting the red giant with the axe.


    Carus put his hands up, ready for battle, but the man put down the hammer and then looked in Jack''s direction, ignoring Carus completely as he spoke, his voice grumpy yet booming through the rather quiet battlefield now¡­


    "Little human, who are you, and tell me how you dare attack the red giant''s village? Do you not even fear the gods?"


    While speaking the last part, the man made sure to take a glance towards Carus as if reminding him that the red giants were the ones chosen by Radus, so by doing this they were just disrespecting their own god and going against his words. Carus couldn''t help but look away.


    "The fuck you mean attack? We just got here, and that idiot and his men jumped at us. This was self-defense."


    Jack said in a rather annoyed tone as he pointed towards the guy with an axe who was being held down by Carus.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Still, Jack sighed and told Carus to let the man go. As he did so, the red giant let out an annoyed grunt before walking towards the flaming red giant''s side. The old giant sighed and spoke.


    "I see¡­but my son cannot be blamed for his acts. The greens were long ago exiled from this area, and it has to stay that way. You have trespassed into our territory, so his decision was not wrong," said the old giant with a look in his eyes that said he was ready to kill.


    "Except that we didn''t trespass into shit; I swear to God none of you can listen," Jack said, holding his head for a second before he took a deep breath and walked towards the flaming red giant.


    "I am here to issue a challenge for the battle of conquest from the nation of Ichor."


    Suddenly the already tense moment got somehow more tense than before. While all other giants looked at each other, the old red giant stayed quiet; his emotions, however, weren''t as quiet as well, because of the flames around his body blazing to heights that made Jack''s face turn into a small smile as he drew out his sword.


    "YOU DARE!" The younger red giant with the axe was about to retort, but the old giant raised his hand and stopped him. The young, hot-blooded giant could only press his own lips together, doing his best to stay quiet for now as he looked away. "Sorry."


    With that dealt with, Carus walked over to behind Jack and picked up little Elen, putting her on his shoulder; meanwhile, Jack stood his own ground in front of the blazing red giant as both stood in a standstill for a while, neither speaking at all.


    Meanwhile, as this was taking place in the red hammer mountain, near the southern seaside, the situation was rather different. Ikami currently sat in a seat inside a giant house; her seat had to be placed on the table since she was much smaller compared to everyone and represented the forest giants, so they had to put her in an equal place.


    She had shown her strength already at the gates, and the Viking giants only respected strength; that''s why respect naturally came for the team of Ichor now. Ikami sat in her chair; meanwhile, Tumo and Hyeon stood on either side of her. Tumo looked rather nervous; he was one who was not used to these kinds of situations or the pressure of diplomacy, while Hyeon only looked sad, which was rather normal for him.


    The only one missing would be Elio; where was he, you might ask? Well, he was actually outside near the giant hospital helping heal people. He asked for nothing in return; he already felt bad for what happened at the gate. Ikami did not regret it at all, but he was a person with a rather soft heart; he was currently using his skills to heal the giants inside the hospital, which they were rather grateful for.


    On the opposite side sat Athena, the current ruler of the Viking giants; she was what you would expect a Viking to be. Her blue skin was covered in a metal plate of armor, and two guards were standing behind her holding spears while her helmet, which was as big as Ikami, sat on the table in front of her.


    "Since you have issued the challenge, you must know how this works. We will issue the conditions for the challenge, and if you can fulfill it, we will submit and join your nation. If you cannot, you will be executed on the spot," Athena spoke, her tone heavily making the risks of what they were doing very clear. There was a bit of light in Hyeon''s eyes when the execution part was mentioned, but Ikami quietly nodded.


    "Alright then, here is our challenge. We need you to conquer the cyclops, Athena said without batting an eye.


    "Conquer What!?" Tumo said with a rather confused voice while Ikami chuckled, looking at Athena as the two women maintained eye contact.

 The challenge 2

    Ikami''s face showed no conflict as she expected a rather difficult condition, but they had been told nothing about even the existence of the cyclops race by both their king and the old green giant elder, so they were all caught by surprise by this new information. Yet she could not reveal those expressions on her face in front of the Vikings; it would put their nation''s image in a rather compromising position.


    Tumo, meanwhile, showed no such calmness; he wasn''t the one to scheme much; he was a kind and straightforward person, so his reaction was much different than Ikami''s, causing the Vikings to assume that he did not have much authority in the nation and was simply a bodyguard. His image simply dropped in the image of the Vikings due to this. Hyeon meanwhile couldn''t care less. Athena gave them a bit to process the information before she continued on to explain.


    "I suppose you people would already know that us Vikings originally did not reside on this subcontinent. We originally lived on an island south of here." Ikami, Tumo, and Hyeon all three nodded together; meanwhile, around this time, a Viking lady came into the room holding Elio in her hand before putting him down on the table. Elio politely greeted everyone before standing next to Tumo as Athena continued.


    "We are a warrior race who lived on the southern island and prospered in peace. That was until the day Radus chose the Red Giants as their successor race. However, at that point we had no information about this. During the war among the giants, we did not bother to join originally, but we had to leave our island and move to their island; it was not because we wished to conquer. It was because we were driven out of our own homes," she spoke with a hint of regret and embarrassment in her own voice.


    It must have been humiliating remembering those memories and times when they, who were a proud warrior race, were kicked out of their own homes and had to come to this continent where they joined hands with the red giants. They had thought after the war they could ask their allies for help, or maybe with the new weapons they could go back and reclaim their homeland. However, every attempt at trying to regain their homeland failed miserably to the point that even the red giants refused to help them anymore¡­


    Ikami listened to this quietly; she was a prideful person herself, so seeing the Vikings, who took pride in their ruthless nature, being humbled over and over again by an enemy that drove them out of their own home should have brought overwhelming shame¡­ She could only sigh with slight pity on the warriors, but she had to consider the situation more carefully. She couldn''t go running blindly when a whole nation''s force was unable to take down the cyclops. What chances did she and three idiots have¡­This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    "You guys have ample strength. I do not see how you did not even succeed once." At this point, Elio, who had spent the most time with the warriors of the race inside the hospital, knew these were not necessarily weak people, but then how were they defeated? "It''s true... if it was simply a battle of strength or a fair fight between two races, we could have won... no, we would have won." She said, slamming her fists onto the table as Tumo fell back down from the impact and small cracks formed on her side of the table.


    "But the cyclops are not like us; the giant race is blessed by Radus for their talent in blacksmithing, and with his blessings gone to the red giants, whose bodies are natural forges. While giants are dependent on their blacksmithing ability as their main skill, the cyclops are more lenient towards taming. They tame creatures and use those to fight, while the Vikings were good at fighting; being overwhelmed by beast tides always was our downfall. But we still could have won, but the cyclops had gotten their hands on the great grade sea serpent. It basically guards the island at all times, so it''s almost impossible to defeat them anymore" Athena spoke in a saddened and defeated tone.


    "To defeat a great-grade beast, you need at least a great-grade weapon or item¡­." Hyeon muttered to himself; even the generally negative person was at a loss for words.


    Not many great-grade weapons existed in the current world due to the setting by the GameMaster; while the red giant elder could probably create great-grade weapons, it was also a matter of luck and not dependable. Currently the red giants only had three great-grade items, and they were not willing to even give those to their allies, leaving the Vikings in a rather awkward state.


    "So just to be clear, your challenge for us is to go conquer the whole of the cyclops island and¡ª" Before Ikami could complete her sentence, she was interrupted. "No. We might have lost for several years, but we still have our pride; we do not wish for you to do all the work. Our simple request is for you to get rid of the great grade sea serpent guarding the shores of the southern island so we can claim it ourselves."


    Athena spoke in a stubborn tone,Ikamis expression had turned ugly from being interrupted in the middle of her sentence¡­It was clearly something she did not like. "Okay, so as long as we get rid of the serpent, you will join our nation willingly and submit to our king?" Ikami questioned, making sure they were on the same page right now.


    "Indeed that is so; we might have our pride, but we are not dumb. Compromises need to be made to gain victory in the end," Athena spoke as she sighed, knowing she might get backlash from the elders for this decision of hers, but she was willing.


    Ikami considered it for a bit; in the end, it was not that hard, and she was sure she could just deal with the serpent somehow. Even if she couldn''t, she could get Jack''s help... there was no time limit, so agreeing would be best. That being said, she made up her mind, but before she could say anything, the communication rune in Tumo''s hand spoke up.


    "I''d like to add a condition."

 Greedy king

    Just as everyone thought it was a done deal, Jack''s voice boomed from the communication amulet inside Tumo''s hands as everyone''s attention turned to the device. The Viking guards raised their guard, looking suspiciously at Tumo; meanwhile, Athena realized what it was and spoke.


    "I suppose it''s the king of Ichor speaking. What''s your condition?" She cut straight to the topic; she was probably the only one not startled at all, even though Ikami was not expecting Jack to speak up in the scenario.


    "It''s simple actually... you''re not allowed to kill all of the cyclopes; I want some of them to join my nation. Creatures who can take giant animals would no doubt be a great asset, now wouldn''t they?" His voice has a snazzy remark as the condition he set up caused the room to go silent.


    Even Athena found herself at a loss for words; the two races of the giants and cyclops have been at each other''s throats for years, and so suddenly to just be asked to forgive her enemies who drove her out of their own homes was a rather¡­difficult promise to make. Every Viking craved their blood and the death of them, but being asked to spare them... sigh, this was going to make things difficult.


    "That might be a bit difficult... The scars of history and the shame we suffered lie deep. We are prideful warriors; leaving them alive would be... against what we take pride in," she said, trying her best to sound a bit more convincing since she no doubt needed their help.


    "You will have to make compromises somewhere. My nation can complete your challenge, and you can take your revenge, but I need some of them alive; this is absolutely negotiable for me¡­" Jack''s voice was rather firm as he refused to step back down from his stand as the Vikings found themselves at a loss for words¡­The room went into silence for a good few minutes.


    From everyone''s perspective, Jack was simply being too greedy right now and only thinking about his personal best interest instead of the situation of the Vikings. But frankly he couldn''t care less if they thought he was greedy; not like he found anything wrong with it. He was a greedy person, and he didn''t have time to give a shit about their revenge or feelings; he didn''t want all profits to go to waste. Earn where you can. It was a simple philosophy, yet one might ask why not just spare all the Cyclopes. He knew better than to push his luck. While revenge was a factor he didn''t care for, it wasn''t a factor he could simply just ignore while considering the bigger picture.


    The only reason Vikings were willing to submit was for their revenge; it was a necessary thing for them; only a few cyclops will do for him. Greed was good, but blind greed was stupidity. Athena could only sigh in the end, and as all the other Vikings looked at her, waiting for an answer, she spoke. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "Okay¡­we will spare 100 of them." The helplessness on her face was clear to the point every human in the room could notice, but what was more visible was the anger on every other giant''s face, as Jack smiled on the other side of the amulet.


    "Alright, great dealing with you," he said as the light on the communication amulet dimmed, notifying them that the connection had been cut while Ikami could already feel herself getting a headache coming for her current and future self due to her greedy king.


    Soon they were guided to their resting quarters; two days later they would board a ship, and three days later reach the region of the great, great giant sea serpent to get rid of it. While Ikami had already started planning, Tumo felt nervous; he was confident in his own skills, but he didn''t know if the four of them combined could take down a great grade beast. If Jack was here, they would probably be able to take it down; he had watched some of Jack''s matches during the free-for-all of the Rulers tournament. He was strong, and his skill was straight-up busted, but Tumo didn''t know if he could do the same¡­ It was a rather difficult scenario, but all he could do was be positive; after all, no one else looked worried¡­ He just closed his eyes and tried to drift off to sleep in order to avoid these useless thoughts roaming his mind.


    As Tumo slept peacefully on the opposite side of the globe, rather different events were taking place. A man who seemed to be in his 30s or so was currently holding a wrench in his hand; his waist had a toolbelt around it. His hair was slicked back, and with a pair of glasses in front of his eyes, he wiped the sweat off his forehead as he looked at what stood in front of him. To any normal-looking person, this would only seem like a mess created if you give a child hundreds of gears, levers, and machinery and tell them to build a machine.


    The man simply sighed as he put the wrench in his belt and then fixed his glasses, adjusting them before a blue projection appeared in front of one of his eyes. The projection was in the form of a circle as multiple layers formed on the circle, with each layer becoming smaller like a magnifying scope. The man''s eyes scanned the machinery for every bit he could possibly have... After making sure everything was set right, the man walked up to the machine and pressed a button as a section of the machine opened up, showing a chamber that seemed to be empty; he then opened his inventory and pulled out something that would make even Jack spit out blood if he saw it.


    Jack was a blacksmith, so he was obviously familiar with the concept of mana crystals, which were explained to him by his smithing master. The mana crystals often came in different colors depending on their affinity, but the density of a crystal also varied depending on its grade; Jack generally used inferior-grade crystals to create his items.


    What this man held in his hand right now was an electric affinity legendary-grade crystal¡­ Legendary was two grades above great even¡­It was not normal for someone at the current development stage of the word to have their hands on such a thing. The man slowly inserted the crystal into the chamber and set it straight before closing the chamber, his hands slightly shaky as cold sweat rolled down his forehead.


    He stepped away from the machine and then pressed a button as suddenly all the gears of the machine began moving at the same time¡­. The whole ground shook suddenly as the man who had been working so hard fell back down¡­a smile on his face. The smile was ecstatic to the very core as he laughed looking at the gears... he... he had done it.


    He walked up to the front door and took a step outside as he watched the world around himself moving¡­The entire world seemed to be moving, or was that really the case? He stepped on the roads outside the giant castle holding the machinery and took a fresh breath.


    A breath of relief as well as accomplishment... he had done it. Hajin smiled as the very land stood on, his island was currently flying in the sky high above the sea surface in the sky as the island soon vanished into the sky.

 Boss cheeze

    About 5 days later, Ikami and her crew found themselves aboard the ship heading south. The ship was giant by every standard. It was currently being led by a blue Viking giant named Yhorm; he was the commander in chief of the naval battalion of the Vikings. He was officially chosen by Athena to lead the human group along with a small troop directly in the territory of the sea serpent; after that, the humans would be on their own, and it would be their job to deal with the serpent¡­


    Honestly speaking, Yhorm did not have even a bit of trust for any of these humans. He had an obvious look on humans; they were inferior both in terms of size and every other physical capability. So it was only obvious he looked down on the tiny creatures, but whether they passed or failed was not his problem. Honestly, he would have preferred if they failed, since that would give him a good reason to convince the elders to have Athena be replaced as the chief.


    Originally he was going to be chief; he was the son of the last chief, but he did not inherit the position from his father directly. His father was a true Viking at heart, and so he simply set up a competition to make the strongest take the throne, and against everyone''s expectations, Athena, who used her brains along with her brawn in a good balance, swept off the title from under all their noses.So the current generation wasn''t exactly happy with her; they believed using such tactics was unfair in battle; brute strength seemed to be their only mindset. Ikami simply found this disgusting, but it was nothing she hadn''t seen before.


    Even during the normal times, the strong chose to oppress the weak, and the only way the weak could stand up was by using their wits. That''s why those who used their brains and such were both feared and hated the most in ancient times.


    As the team stood on the boat, Tumo seemed to be cleaning his blade, fidgeting nervously, while Elio was helping Hyeon, who had seasickness¡­ this guy¡­He couldn''t be useful in any scenario, it seemed. That''s probably not true, but it was truly what was going through Ikami''s mind at the moment. Tumo was a good head-on fighter, and Elio could provide great support, but Hyeon? He had been nothing but trouble the entire time¡­ When she got back, she was surely going to talk to Jack about getting rid of that guy or changing him for someone better; at least, for now, she could only sigh and try to think up a good strategy.


    While she had a plan in her mind, she could probably execute it as long as she got proper support. She had already briefed Tumo and Elio on their plan while Hyeon had no reason to be told. His part in the plan was rather simple¡­ Soon the currents in the sea became fierce to the point that if they continued forward, the boat itself would drown; they had no choice but to stop right here, but that was no issue since they had already reached into the territory of the great grade sea serpent. Ikami, Tumo, and Elio soon gathered near the front deck of the ship, watching the water further ahead.


    Seeing everyone has gathered up soon, Hyeon follows after trying to balance himself on the ship''s floor¡­so he doesn''t fall down. It was hard to maintain balance for him even normally on ships, but with the intensity of the waves, he could hardly find a footing¡­ While stumbling towards the group, he ended up falling onto Ikami, trying to hold himself up as he stood up with a slightly dazed expression. Everyone except himself seemed to know what to do, which confused him.


    He looked at Ikami, his voice rather weak due to constantly throwing up from seasickness. "So what''s the plan? What am I meant to do?" Ikami''s gaze looked down at him sharply while both Elio and Tumo looked away as Ikami picked him up by his collar. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    He suddenly felt as light as a feather as Ikami used her gene skill black hole on him, reducing his gravity to a minimum before throwing him as hard as she could and then constantly increasing his gravity, causing Hyeon to be sent flying into the ocean directly into the sea serpent''s territory.


    Hyeon panicked, as before he could even understand what was going on, he was drowning in the middle of the sea. He held his breath and tried to swim upwards, flopping his hands and legs in the water, but to no avail. Tumo and Elio knew he had the zombieman trait, so he wouldn''t die, but still the two of them actually felt pity for the poor guy, but Ikami showed no regret or even a feeling of satisfaction on her face. Even the giants who were watching were dumbfounded at this; they thought the humans were weak and inferior creatures, but to be so ruthless¡­ To throw one of their own into death without any regret is something they were not sure even they themselves could do, or was there some internal conflict?


    As they were theorizing, Hyeon found himself drowning deeper and deeper. The ocean and the water were dark, so much so he could hardly see even a meter ahead of him or even tell if there was any distance. It was as if he was lost in an infinite void. He stopped trying to move or resist; he knew soon he would run out of breath and die, but he showed no panic; if anything, there was a grateful expression on his face; for a man who seemed nothing more than his own death, this was a godsend opportunity.


    Suddenly he felt the water around him shifting, in the darkness far away a set of two red serpentine eyes appeared behind Hyeon. He had not yet spotted these eyes, yet he felt a chill run down his spine; he felt paralyzed by fear and the sheer intensity of the strength of the creature he was up against. But that was good, right? Fate''s plaything might be a strong trait, but it doesn''t make him immortal¡­ A great gray creature could surely kill him.


    As Hyeon relaxed himself and his body and let himself be freed¡­ The serpent itself swam towards the one who had intruded on his territory with maximum speed, its serpentine body swimming through the currents of the ocean with high efficiency. It got closer and closer to the man in the water; it opened its huge jaw, its razor-sharp teeth inches away from Hyeon, but before it could even graze the man, it was sent flying up into the sky directly out of the ocean as it wriggled helplessly in the sky, unable to move.


    The confused Hyeon, who had perfectly played the role of the bait, was grabbed by Elio and taken out of the water back to the ship against the suicidal boy''s wish. He could only curse his trait, while Ikami emerged from the ocean, her hair was tied up in a ponytail behind her head as her hand was covered in a purple aura. She had used her skill to turn the serpent''s body''s gravity completely off, creating a zero-gravity condition, after which she simply had to punch it from underneath to push it out of the water.


    The serpent was rather fast, though being a great grade, so she couldn''t have pulled it off normally, but this was not normal conditions; it was being distracted by their zombie long enough to the point they could successfully pull this off. Even if it was a great grade, a creature outside the ocean was simply a fish on land; it could breathe or move, so it would die naturally sooner or later. As Elio healed Hyeon, Tumo activated his sword master skill, causing three blades to begin flying around him as he jumped up and landed on top of one of them, flying up towards the serpent in the sky.


    While keeping a considerable distance from the creature, Tumo used two of his blades to attack the creature without having to go near it. Extra injuries would only hasten the process of its death.


    Everything was going according to plan; meanwhile, the giants watched dumbfounded, not sure whether to be impressed or outright offended at such a shameless way of fighting such a great creature. It was this day the giants became familiar with the term


    "boss cheeze.".