Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
Ding, ding,ding ding ding.....
’What the hell is it now?’ Cashel skidded to a stop behind the collapsed remains of an arcade, boiling hot with annoyance. He peeked over the broken wall. Gerald was still on the same path Andeen followed. Then he lowered himself and crouched.
He summoned the system screen that had been ringing for over a minute now.
"What could it possibly be now?"
[Andeen Altar has slain a horde of Eight-foot Jelly Bees]
[Andeen Altar has subdued a headless crimson bull]
[Andeen Altar has slain a...]
Cashel frowned, his forehead wrinkling from the gesture. "What am I supposed to do with this information and what is a cow..." He pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled deeply. He dismissed the screen and summoned his credit screen instead.
[Total Points/Credits: 12,001,760]
[Incoming Rewards: +100]
[Corrected Total: 13, 001,760]
Cashel tilted his head. "Is that it?" She killed a horde of beasts and a headless cow? It was not supposed to be that little, or were the beasts weaker than they were called.
The sounds of crashes, shouts and blasts rose, filling the once silent city with chaos. He still had the artefact to retrieve and Gerald to watch, but he was curious about why the man was following Andeen.
Especially when the General said he and his commander did not like Andeen.
Then again, one thing bothered him. He straightened up, dismissed the screen and climbed up to the top of the building until he could spot the First Division and a few members of the Second.
"They are not attacking according to the formation," Cashel muttered, instantly sensing something was strange. The hunters were fighting in random spots and General Rain was no were to be found.
Without thinking, he pulled the case in front of him, scanned his fingers and took out a dagger and gun before returning the case to its place.
Then he jumped off the building and began running opposite his original path but a path that had a higher and better view of the original path.
The artefact was still hidden, and he had to retrieve a beast. He carefully called up the mission details again while he moved.
[Trial Contract – Active]
Objective 1: Recover one relic (Location signal weak – estimated northernsector)
Objective 2: Capture one C-ranked beast (Alive preferred)
No civilian casualties
Objective 3: Assassinate Marked Target.
Name: Gerald Jones (S Rank)
Deadline: 72 hours remaining
The system windows kept stacking. vvery few seconds another notification appeared, each one tied to Andeen’s progress deeper in the city.
[Andeen Altar has eliminated a pack of Shadow Hounds – +80 base points]
[Multiplier ×10,000 applied]
[Final award: 800,000]
[Andeen Altar has frozen and shattered a Steel-Shell Beetle Nest – +15 base points]
[Multiplier ×10,000 applied]
[Final award: 150, 000]
Cashel’s running steps faltered for half a second. The numbers climbed so fast the total balance flickered like a broken display.
[Updated Total Points/Credits: 13,951,760]
He forced himself to keep moving.
The eastern path Gerald had taken curved around a cluster of collapsed high-rises. Cashel stayed low, using the broken concrete blocks for cover, but his mind stayed half on the system.
A new window appeared.
[Inflow Threshold Reached]
[Card Pack Available – Invest Option Unlocked]
[Recommendation: Convert excess Return Points into permanent or semi-permanent cards for player or contractor.]
[Current convertible balance: 13,951,760]
Cashel skidded behind a half-fallen billboard and opened the full interface.
[Invest Menu]
Basic Combat Card Pack – 500,000 points (1 random common-to-rare skill card)
Intermediate Combat Card Pack – 2,000,000 points (1 rare-to-epic skill card)
Advanced Combat Card Pack – 5,000,000 points (1 epic-to-legendary skill card + chance of upgrade material)
Custom Attribute Boost – variable cost
Linked Contractor Support Pack – 1,000,000 points (temporary enhancement for Andeen Altar)
With Gerald still moving and the divisions clearly out of formation, he needed something that lasted longer than a two-hour potion.
He selected three Intermediate Combat Card Packs and one Advanced pack, and the points deducted in a clean flash.
[Total Spent – 11,000,000]
[Points remaining: 2,951,760]
Four glowing cards materialised in his inventory window beside the Cowbell Bell, each spinning once before settling face-up.
[Card Obtained: Shadow Step (Rare)]
Duration: 30 minutes per use
Effect: Short-range teleportation through shadows. Cooldown 15 seconds.
[Card Obtained: Kinetic Reinforcement (Rare)]
Duration: 25 minutes
Effect: Physical strikes carry additional force equal to 150% of base strength. Stacks with existing weapons.
[Card Obtained: Mana Thread Sensing (Epic)]
Duration: 45 minutes
Effect: Detect residual mana signatures of living beings within 200 metres. Distinguishes friend from hostiles.
[Card Obtained: Adaptive Barrier (Legendary)]
Duration: 20 minutes
Effect: Automatic shield that absorbs one high-tier attack and converts 30% of the damage into temporary stamina. Single use per activation.
Cashel’s whistle. ’That’s quite a lucky draw.’ he thought as he equipped Shadow Step and Mana Thread Sensing immediately. The two cards locked into active slots with a clock sound.
The city below was growing louder. Explosions of ice and fire lit the fog in distant flashes.
Andeen’s Second Division was pushing hard through the center, while the First Division had scattered into smaller groups that no longer matched the planned eastern sweep.
Gerald’s red hair remained visible on the ridge, still tracking Andeen’s path with single-minded focus.
Cashel activated Mana Thread Sensing.
Faint coloured threads appeared in his vision, each one a residual trail of mana left by living beings.
Most of the First Division glowed steady blue-white. Andeen’s team, a cold silver.
Gerald’s signature, however, carried a thin, ugly red line that pulsed like a heart beat irregularly, as if something inside him was not entirely human or not entirely stable.
Cashel narrowed his eyes.
He used Shadow Step for the first time. The world folded in half instantly and he reappeared twenty metres farther along the ridge, still behind Gerald, still unseen.
The card’s cooldown timer appeared in the corner of his eyes.
Fifteen seconds.
He waited, then stepped again, closing the distance carefully.
Gerald stopped at the edge of a broken overpass that looked down onto a wide intersection. Below, Andeen’s team had engaged a fresh wave of beasts, long-limbed creatures with translucent bodies that reflected the dim light like living glass.
The Jelly Bees, according to the earlier notifications, only larger and more aggressive.
Andeen stood at the centre of the formation with her staff between her legs. Ice threads shot outward in a perfect circle, freezing the first rank of creatures solid before they could close.
Kinsey Liam’s four arms moved in literal blurs, with her shields and blades working together. The rest of the Second Division kept fighting joyously.
Gerald’s hand rested on the railing of the overpass.
Cashel crouched behind a collapsed traffic light and activated Kinetic Reinforcement as well. The weight of the dagger in his hand suddenly felt lighter and heavier at the same time and the gun felt empty somehow.
He still did not understand Gerald’s goal.
The man was still not attacking.
He was only watching. Yet every few seconds his red-threaded mana signature flared brighter whenever Andeen’s ice magic lit the street below in a soft sky blue.
Then a new system alert appeared over the previous ones.
[Warning: Linked Contractor’s mana output exceeding safe range.]
[Condition: Unstable – prolonged high-output combat detected]
[Suggestion: Use Linked Contractor Support Pack or intervene directly]
Cashel’s eyes narrowed. Andeen’s profile had listed her condition as Healthy (Unstable) even before the mission started. The 224-day disconnection, the locked skills, the way she avoided using her full power, everything pointed to something she was still hiding.
But he couldn’t just step in, he wasn’t sure he was strong enough to withstand that level of power given the fact he still had no idea what his rank was.
And with what happened last time, he certainly didn’t want one of those needles in his body.
Therefore, he spent the million points on the Linked Contractor Support Pack without hesitation.
[One time support Pack Used]
[Temporary effect applied to Andeen Altar: Mana Stability +15% for 30 minutes]
[Points remaining: 1,951,760]
Far below, Andeen’s next wave of ice threads had a cleaner hue and were less strained. She did not seem to notice the change, but Cashel felt the change of the energy in thenaur
Gerald’s head tilted slightly, as if he too had sensed it.
Then the bastard moved.
He dropped from the overpass with a leap. He landed on a lower rooftop that gave him a clearer line of sight to Andeen’s back. His hands reached into a pouch beside him and he took out a small black device that gave off a similar ugly red mana as his.
It made Cashel frown deeply.
He shadow stepped again, appearing on the same rooftop only few meters behind Gerald, with the adaptive barrier card set and ready to use. Then he clenched the weapons in his hands.
Gerald raised the device toward Andeen’s position.
Cashel however, didn’t want to learn what it did, he closed the last distance and drove the dagger toward Gerald’s exposed side just as the device began to glow.
The tip of the blade was less than an inch from the man’s ribs when Gerald’s head snapped around, eyes wide and filled with unadulterated rage and the rooftop beneath both of them suddenly cracked open.