Savage Awakening 429. Farming Credits (II)

He decided he’d head off right after he had one last lunch.

So he sat there stuffing in some of his new Dreamsteel on a beach, just enjoying the weather. A few seagulls looked at him funny.

He kept munching.

He saw himself getting that Stone pretty soon for sure. And after that, three Shards seemed quite doable—especially as things ramped up.

But that 10-Million-Year-Bone would be quite a leap.

Those last few Events would have to drop a ton of credits.

The tingling in his gut grew stronger.

Then—

Level up!

Asura Titan’s Body, Second Form V -> VI

Neat.

But there was another notification too this time, just underneath—

Loading…

Friend of the System I [Unique] — 83%

Was that what the tingling was about?

He looked at the Dreamsteel in his hand, shrugged, and kept munching.

He supposed he’d see soon enough.

***

Island of Gaia

Gaia was a man-made island smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It served as home base for Earth’s defense—all Earth’s teleporters were stationed there, making a horseshoe. Then there was the Mission Control building, studded with dishes, where Reina put some of her most trusted scryers. She’d made it all herself.

The first teleporter was marked out just for Zane.

***

“And they’re off!” said Tyler. “There’s Kano—Japan’s #2—heading out to the southeast sector. They’ve seen  some of the fiercest fighting yet. It shares a border with Zane’s prime sector, where we’re expecting the bulk of the action…”

A swell of noise from the crowd.

“There's the man himself!” said Becca.

Zane made his way down the steel street.

“He might look calm as ever,” chuckled Tyler. “But longtime Zane-watchers will know that look in his eye. He’s raring to go. And now that he’s a Minor God, he just feels different, doesn’t he?”

“There’s definitely a new level of intensity,” said Becca, a little breathless. “Even next to the other Minor Gods… you can just tell it’s him.”

“This is it, folks.” Tyler shook his head. “Two years of build-up—all those breakthroughs, all those watch-towers and teleport networks and wards put up—not to mention all that training—really, everything since Integration—it’s all led up to this…”

It all seemed to be getting to the two anchors.

They watched Zane go by quietly.

“Those guards by the portal,” added Becca. “They aren’t just any guards. They’re the Earth Knights—all the World Rankers, just below the cream of the crop. They won’t be heading out to space, but they’ll take on the greatest threats here on Earth.”

One by one, they saluted as he went by.

The skies were lit up with wards. “Right now, on guard towers all over Earth, sentries, and archers, and battle-mages—they’re all giving that same salute,” said Tyler. He was getting a tad emotional; he sniffed and saluted too. “Zane—I hope you know you’ve got all Earth’s hopes on your back… Go take care of business, big guy!”

***

A few teleports later, he landed smack-dab in the middle of the Frontier belt. Above and below, distant stars twinkled—and already he could tell this wasn't normal space. He could see—feel—explosions of essence as distant planets went to war. He got a very vague sense of clouds of Monstrous aura descending—and bright lights holding against them, fighting back…

Distant planets, much like Earth, defending their own territories.

The war was well and truly underway.

He turned his eyes to his own.   

He felt them just up ahead. A storm of bleak auras.

Time to see what this Minor God body was all about.

He stomped a Solar Flare step, blasted off an asteroid—and the stars blurred into lines of light.

Then he barreled through a string of asteroids, shattering them to smithereens—flipped twice, and landed in a crouch.

He looked down at his body. At the new essence pumping through him…

He grinned.

He could get used to this. He stomped again—and his body was a white-gold meteor. Explosions thudded through space.

He had the mini-map in a back pocket. But he didn’t need it right now.

He could sense his enemy just up ahead. It was hard to miss.

Two more blasts and he was there.

Just a great mass of bleak grays and purples and inky blacks… If they’d descended on Earth, they’d take out half the sky.

Here they were just a wall of pulsing, looming, squirming inky tendrils. Crimson eyeballs lolled at him. Their domains were stacked so thick it seemed a great marsh oozing through space, dissolving all in its path.

Voidspawn Kraken (Monster Prince)

Essence Level 596

Voidspawn Kraken (Monster Prince)

Essence Level 591

Taken together, maybe seventy or eighty peak Minor Gods in just this cluster. There were some half-step True Gods in the mix, too; at the heart of that heaving mass he sensed Pseudo-Distortion Fields.

He took out his Chains, and shot them through with Minor God essence.

His hammers roared to life.

Solar Flare wrapped them—a Flare that’d gone blinding. The heat of it alone stopped that herd dead in its tracks—made them squint, hiss, as a massive power rared into the world… 

Then he roared, and struck.  

His hammers blasted out so fast the squids barely had time to widen their eyes. 

BOOM-BOOM!

An explosion feasted on Monstrous flesh, shattering thousands of bones in an instant, unmaking all manner of matter it found in a rage of violent heat.

An explosion rocked the whole space-sector, that made reality wobble as though struck by an earthquake… searing gold torched into deep-space….

His Asura Body was barely warmed up.

There Zane felt the difference.

The power in those blasts was a touch stronger than the peak effort of his previous Limit-Broken form.

It carved out a great swathe of space. Yawning before him lay a great chunk of nothing; no asteroids, no particles, no ashes.

He’d just erased a chunk of the world—and wiped out every Minor God inside.

 Engagement Complete

Calculating….

+0.016 Credits

He considered the destruction.

The thing was—he was pretty sure he could’ve wrecked that crew without much trouble before he achieved godhood.

Neat—but it wasn’t enough.

He went hunting for greater prey. Something that could bring out what his body was capable of.

The first few hours, he didn’t have much luck.

He racked up a solid 172 Minor God kills. A few more Kraken, some centipedes, a swarm of Bog Monsters here and there. He stomped around blasting—but none of the beasts he found could take more than one shot.

If he wanted to start stacking Credits he’d have to get that ball rolling.

Then again, he only just got here. He figured he’d just have to be a little patient. Things would pick up soon enough.

Sure enough, before long—

Zane perked up.

“That aura…”

He checked his mini-map, heart pounding.

On the far end—a solid wall of red dots had crossed the northern border.

It had to be… 300 Minor Gods, at the least.

He grinned. “There we go.”

But at the same time, his radio charm blew up.

“Code red!” someone shouted. “This is Rank #58, Geralt Vin—requesting backup! Orc horde crossing the border—it’s six—no, seven-to-one—”

There came a roar, a huge crashing sound. “Hells!”

At the same time—“Rank #71, Sylvia Lamb—hostiles incoming—two hundred, maybe three hundred Gargoyles… It’s just me and a few necromancers holding the pass. We’ll have to fall back, unless—”

“Rank #44, Gunnar Beck,” said a gruff voice in a tight calm. “We’re here with the French and the Korean legions— these Minor God goblins came out of nowhere. We need reinforcements, now, or—”

He was cut off by a shattering sound.

***

“Can’t… hold… much longer—”

Gunnar heaved up his shield—the Great Wall bracer, which made a barrier like a castle’s face.

That face was quickly cracking under the onslaught. Goblin laughter shrieked through the cracks.

Behind him stood World Rank #27, Jin Seo—firing off volley after volley, seven, eight arrows at a time, each a shaft of pure sunlight.

Seo was one of Earth’s newly-minted elite Minor Gods. Just one arrow could mortally wound some Minor God Monsters. And he had two top-ranked swordsmen, one of lightning, one water, backing him up.

But their enemy was just too much.

The Monsters numbered in the hundreds.

Every time they cleared a dozen, twice as many poured through…

“Come on!” cried World Rank #98, Celeste Bertone. Her staff burst with holy light; she was boosting her party with as many buffs as she could hold—Giant’s Bane, Blessing of the Iron Golem…

Even still—Gunnar collapsed to a knee, spitting blood.

The shield was cracking open.

Not far off, scrying rods were picking up all the action—relaying the action to the tens of millions on Earth. They watched on, breaths in their throats, as their heroes set themselves, faces brave, for one final stand—

Then a voice broke the radio silence.

“Rank #1. Zane Walker,” it said calmly. “I’m on it.”

***

Zane took out that lure Reina had given him—a treasure shaped like a signal flare. And filled it with his fighting spirit.

That burning feeling in his heart poured into the lure, distilled—enough to make his message loud and clear.

Then he lit the lure.

It blazed into the dark—and exploded.

Zane’s challenge roared deep into space…

Silence.

A heartbeat. Two. Three…

Then in every direction, stretching horizon to horizon, the void began to tremble.