Chương 16: Chase

The adventurer's guild in Dungeon City was already busy when Gaix's party arrived. Adventurers moved through the large hall in battered armor, merchants argued over prices at the counters, and guild employees hurried between desks carrying stacks of paperwork. The usual noise continued until Rook placed the damaged boss item onto the counter.

"We need to report a serious problem." The clerk looked at the battered party, then down at the item.

"Serious how?"

"This thing failed during the second boss's final phase," Rook explained.

"It was specifically designed to protect against that attack. Instead, it failed completely. We nearly lost the entire party."

"Not only that," Mira added.

"We saw a suspicious man watching us after we left the dungeon. He ran into an alley as soon as he noticed us." Gaix nodded.

"As such, we have reason to believe it was sabotage rather than a simple manufacturing defect." The clerk's face became considerably more serious before she turned toward one of the other employees.

"Get the branch manager." It took only a few minutes for a stern-looking bear woman in her forties to arrive. She was massive, even in casual outfits she looked dangerous. She examined the damaged item herself while listening to the entire story without interruption, occasionally asking precise questions about when it had failed, who had sold it to them, and exactly what they had seen after leaving the dungeon. When they finished, she folded her arms.

"This is not something I can leave for tomorrow. Until we determine whether this was deliberate, that shop is closed." Gaix raised an eyebrow.

"You can do that?"

"Of course she can. Lives of other adventurers may be in danger." Aborna tapped Gaix's shoulder.

"Indeed. I can temporarily suspend a merchant's guild license when there is a credible threat to adventurers." She turned toward an assistant.

"Send two investigators. Seal the shop and confiscate every item from the same batch. Nobody touches anything until our inspectors arrive. You guys try not to start a fight in town. I do not restrict you to look for the ones behind this, but if you find them, you better have a good proof to fight." The assistant hurried away. The manager then looked over the battered armor and equipment the party was still carrying.

"And possibly get your gear repaired while you're out of the dungeon." The party spent the next few hours getting their equipment repaired and replacing whatever could not be salvaged. Rook's new shield was still slightly uncomfortable in his hand, but at least it was intact. Aborna had his axe handles replaced, while Mira made sure her crossbow had not suffered any hidden damage. The armor pieces of course needed a day at the least to be fixed.

Gaix mostly kept quiet, still thinking about how close they had come to dying. Back in their inn they all sat down in the common room while Rubeon looked through his storage pouch. He pulled out a strange green gemstone, and held between both hands. The object was roughly shaped like an eye, its surface swirling with faint emerald light.

"This is the Green Eye of the Abyss." Rubeon said as he sat down.

"I rather hate to use it, but I guess it has its times." he cracked his neck and bit his lip "It is a rare magical object capable of sensing hostile intent directed toward its user. It could not tell him exactly what someone planned to do, but strong hatred and malicious intent were difficult to hide from it. Of course it makes you feel like shit while using""If you had such a thing, then why even go to the guild. Why not start with this?" Bastion asked. Rook shook his head.

"Its not that simple. There are rules, much more rigid ones than on the mainland. If we did not report it first and then got the guys behind it, even if we were in the right we would get into jail for a month for causing trouble."

"And reporting it means that some guild agent will already know about this and in case of a fight they can assist, with prior knowledge." Dalius joined in. Rubeon activated the gemstone and right away started to bleed from his nose, Dalius used a healing spell on him slowly, keeping the damage from accumulating. When Rubeon stopped he chugged his wineskin then wiped his mouth.

"Its that fucking dragonkin, Karatt."

"Who is Karatt?" Asked both Gaix and Bastion at the same time, but the looks the party had, made him realize there was history there.

"He was our last team leader until we all left that jerk." Aborna gritted his teeth.

"Mira fears him. Mira was hurt by him." the otherwise cheerful bat woman shrunk in her seat. - - - - - - - - - - - - While the others made a rushed camp using their abilities, Josh was almost literally slamming his head into the gravel. This whole test felt absurd. Why would this show any godly talent other than leadership skills and giving a damn about others?

He could not make a defensive bubble around the whole teleported area, and while he could surely survive easily, he could tell that even the US agents would die if they got overwhelmed.

"Man… wish I could have cool-ass skills like they have." Doyle sat down, opening a ration bar from his hip.

"That's it!" Josh slammed his claws down against the gravel.

"I cannot grant you powers… since it requires life essence, and I cannot create it here, but the monsters of this world have it. Plentiful amounts of it, in fact."

"So what? You are gonna turn bug juice into power juice?" Doyle asked, then immediately imagined it and hoped he was wrong.

"I cannot do it that way, but I have an idea." Josh turned away and willed the system to appear.

"System, allow me to grant specialized system interfaces to five mortals." he asked inside his mind. The system seemed confused for a few seconds before displaying a message.

"System privileges can be granted, but they require a soul shard of divinity. Would you like to temporarily give out soul shards?" Joshua would have said yes immediately, but he now knew just how much a shard like that meant. After a few seconds, he nodded.

"Give me a customizable version. I accept the cost." Five small windows appeared before him, and he felt his soul lose five tiny pieces of itself. The feeling was unlike anything he had ever experienced, cold and alien. Still, he pushed the five windows into a single stack and focused his will on them. After a minute, they all began to resemble character sheets, complete with an experience bar.

"Think fast!" He smirked and tossed the windows toward the others.

"Whoa!" Doyle took a step back as he suddenly saw what the dragon had been working on. The screen displayed his name, stats, an empty skill bar, and an experience bar. Before he could even compare it to a video game screen, a massive bug suddenly appeared beneath Joshua's foot.

"Shoot it. Aim under the eyes." Josh held down the struggling creature as it snapped at the air. Doyle did as he was told, raising his weapon and firing, and the bug went limp. Almost immediately, several familiar sounds rang through Doyle's mind. Four level ups dinged like this was some video game.

"You gotta be fucking kidding me." Doyle stared at the screen with a grin holding his head with both his hands.

"Now me! Me!" Warg immediately jumped out into the desert. Five minutes later, he came running back, covered from head to toe in bug goop and looking absolutely delighted.

"It fucking works! You son of a gun!" He held up his hands, staring at the glowing interface.

"You turned us into RPG characters!" The others looked at each other and all of them had that manic grin when they realized that they can go buck wild. Josh kept his mind's eye on them and was ready to pull them back with his ability if they were in trouble. As for the forest animals, he used his divine aura to put them into a deep enchanted sleep in hidden nooks. - - - - - - - - - - - Gu Zhao was not nearly as lucky as Joshua.

He had been summoned into a frozen tundra along with all seventeen of his disciples and a few unfortunate birds that had happened to be nearby. From the moment they arrived, massive monsters descended upon them, forcing Gu Zhao to fight almost immediately. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. He was powerful, but even his strength had limits. During one particularly brutal attack, one of his disciples was killed before he could reach him.

That same night, things became even worse. Another god-seed and its followers discovered their camp and launched a sudden raid. Gu Zhao managed to repel them, but not before another three disciples were lost. With no time to properly recover and more enemies closing in, the remaining disciples followed their master as he led them into a desperate retreat, relying on their movement techniques to put as much distance between themselves and the attackers as possible.

"Master Gu Zhao?" Disciple Wang asked as they raced across the frozen landscape.

"Where are we heading?"

"To a dragon I met and marked," Gu Zhao answered, his robes whipping behind him as he moved.

"He might also be a god-seed, but he was kind to me. I have a good feeling about him." The disciples exchanged uncertain glances but did not question their master's decision. And so they almost flew southward at full speed. It was the only reason they had managed to escape at all. Their Seven-Mile Stride technique worked exceptionally well outside of combat, allowing them to cover enormous distances with every movement.

The frozen tundra blurred beneath their feet as Gu Zhao pushed himself onward, his divine sense constantly searching the horizon. He could only hope that the strange silver dragon he had met in the void was in fact as nice as he sounded… otherwise, they might be running toward another death trap. - - - - - - - - - - - - - Josh had received three alerts over the last two days about another god-seed losing the trial. He did not need to be told what would likely happen to those who failed.

Considering what his friend had said, this was probably a win-or-die scenario. Still, with the cryptids having the time of their lives leveling up and getting stronger, and even Doyle receiving a skill called Owl Movement, his zone was slowly but surely getting rid of the small and medium-sized bugs. Owl Movement was a skill Josh quickly checked. The user could essentially eliminate all sounds caused by movement, no matter what they wore or where they stepped.

Even a branch breaking under Doyle's feet made no sound when the skill was active. It was impressive. As for the others? They were really going ham on the poor locals. Josh had a pretty good idea that this was not simply the joy of leveling up, but also a lot of deep-seated trauma and possible mental instability coming to the surface. The four of them essentially worked out all their pent-up anger on the bugs. Warg was having the time of his life.

Grevar had discovered that his enhanced strength allowed him to kick bugs several meters through the air, something he seemed disproportionately proud of. Raeriku, meanwhile, had become disturbingly efficient at hunting anything that wandered too close to their camp. Even Doyle, who had initially been terrified of the creatures, was becoming increasingly confident. Josh watched them for a moment as another enormous insect disappeared beneath a barrage of attacks.

"Maybe I should have given them therapy instead of a leveling system," he muttered. Then another bug crawled out of the desert. Warg immediately spotted it.

"Dibs!" shouted the wolf man jumping and using an elbow strike.

"Nevermind…." With no patron points to burn, as that part of the system was under lockdown, Josh could not really conjure up miracles. Anything he did cost him directly, and while he had plenty of divine power, there were still more than ten days left. If another god-seed showed up and started causing problems, he needed to keep as much of his strength as possible. The amount of water they had brought with them was more than enough to last the duration of the trial. Food, on the other hand, was becoming a problem.

Josh might not need to eat anymore, but the others certainly did. The nights were another issue, as the temperature dropped to dangerously low levels. Thankfully, the plants did not count toward his points, although some of the smaller animals had already died from the extreme heat during the day or the bitter cold at night. When Josh scanned the bugs, he quickly discovered that none of them were edible. That left him with only one other option: the plants they had brought with them.

His divine sense eventually found something familiar.

"I might have a food source, but it's going to be rather boring. Still, it's better than starving to death." He walked toward a patch of weak, dying plants.

"What is it?" Grevar asked.

"Wild carrots." Josh shrugged, pointing out the barely alive greens.

"I like carrots," Grevar said with a smile. Warg and Raeriku were not nearly as enthusiastic, but their stomachs were not going to be filled by tiny ration bars forever. Even the car had not contained a single MRE pack. The Howler was also grumbling as he tried to eat a bug and got sick from it.

"Don't worry. I have a plan." Josh smiled and placed his claws against two massive trees. They were alive, so he carefully drew out their excess life essence and material, converting it into something the nearby plants could use. The weak carrot plants suddenly began to swell. Roots pushed through the soil as leaves trembled and expanded. Within minutes, seven enormous carrots were unearthed, each one roughly the size of a motorbike and fat enough to feed several people.

"At least we will have no eye issues after eating so much of it." Doyle chuckled.

"I'm going to boil mine, though." It was hardly a feast, but the magically grown roots turned out to be incredibly sweet and surprisingly tasty. The four agents quickly discovered that hunger made even vegetables taste considerably better. What was not eaten was placed beneath the shade of the trees and covered with additional vegetation to protect it from the worst of the heat. Josh even tried the same idea with the hibernating animals.

Rather than using his divine power directly, he gathered dead plant matter and carefully covered the creatures with it, creating crude insulation against both the heat and the cold. It might not save them all. But if even a few more survived because of it, Josh considered the effort worthwhile. - - - - - - - - - - - - Gu Zhao had managed to get away with his remaining disciples, but the distance between them and their pursuers was not growing.

Apparently, the beast god had empowered its minions, allowing them to keep up with the fleeing cultivators. The chase continued even after two full days, and his disciples were beginning to show signs of exhaustion. Days of running at maximum speed could tire even an immortal. Gu Zhao briefly considered sending his disciples ahead while he stayed behind to fight the enemy, but he was not certain that he could kill the other god-seed.

The creature was an abomination of mismatched limbs and eyes, with extra appendages sprouting from its body at strange angles. Worse, it was far faster than its appearance suggested. Thankfully, the mark he had placed on the dragon was getting closer. By nightfall, they entered a freezing desert and were finally forced to stop so everyone could catch their breath.

"Did we lose them?" Disciple Wang asked between breaths.

"No." Gu Zhao shook his head.

"But we are close." He closed his eyes and extended his divine sense across the surrounding land. Soon, he felt the familiar presence he had been searching for. Joshua, the strange silver dragon and his group were nearby. Unfortunately, Gu Zhao also sensed something else. The pursuing god-seed would catch them in less then half an hour if they did not move. Gu Zhao opened his eyes.

"We will have to move in a few minutes." He looked at his disciples. The pain of loosing so many. At least on the way here he killed every monster that tried to get in their way, but his Qi reserves were almost one third gone and this world had none to absorb naturally. - - - - - - - - - - - - Josh was sitting beside a bonfire. The trees had died from the weather anyway, so there was no reason not to use them for firewood. Thankfully, pine burned well even if it wasn't dried out, though it produced a lot of smoke.

"So… you are an actual god?" Warg asked as he munched down on dinner-plate-sized carrot slices.

"A god-seed, but essentially… yeah." Joshua was now leaning on the ground so they could speak at eye level.

"Man, that is bonkers," Grevar said, still amazed by how much his actual strength had increased from the levels and stat-point boosts.

"So this… power comes from the life essence of the bugs we killed? How does that work?"

"I used my divine soul shards to make it happen. At the moment of death, a fraction of the slain monster's life essence can be taken. I simply made it into a rule." Josh explained it as though it were really that simple.

"Can I… like, worship you?" Warg asked, making the rest of them turn toward him.

"What? He saved our lives and even gave us a way to grow stronger. Like you weren't thinking about it." The wolfman snorted.

"Would it do anything?" Raeriku asked. To answer his question, their teammate, Ozark Howler, let out a piercing cry. Josh suddenly saw something crazy happen. His system looked like it had glitched.

"What in the…"

"System: Patron points locked. System is receiving patron points in a closed system… Error… System is blocked from opening patron point flow… Error… Overflow must be corrected. Overflow must be c…c…corrected. Patron point system unlocked." Josh stood up so quickly that the fire bent from the sudden movement of air.

"Holy shit! Howler! You lovable ball of fur. I could kiss you! You unblocked my patron system by becoming my follower!" Josh's wing opened in joy. The horned agent tilted his head and let out a happy bark.

"Then count me in, boss!" Warg slammed a fist against his chest.

"I will not let this opportunity go by either." Grevar gave Josh a thumbs-up. Doyle held up his hands.

"I wish I could, but I am a faithful follower of my own god and Jesus Christ."

"Respectable," Raeriku nodded.

"A bit dumb, considering this god is literally standing in front of you and performing miracles, but still…" He turned to Josh.

"I guess if all my teammates are in on it, why not go with them?" He knelt down, pressed his pale, clawed hands together, and prayed… literally prayed to Joshua Steel. One after another, all four of them were accepted by the system and their patron points were added to the amount Josh already had stored. Josh stared at the little increase for a moment before grinning.

"Well, I guess we have to celebrate." He focused hard on the prime ribs waiting for him back at home. Then he reached toward the nearby pile of dead wood and leaves and used their remaining material to create something far more useful. A stack of neat ribs appeared in the air thick with meat and even some fat.

"Whoo-hoo! Free meat!" Warg caught one of the floating ribs and, without even bothering to cook it, tore into it with tears streaming down his cheeks.

"It's so fucking good!"