CHAPTER 37: REGENERATION

[Regeneration Complete!]

[Forcing user up from unconsciousness.]

The sharp, acrid smell of burnt earth and ozone filled his nose. A low, dull ringing echoed in his ears while he could feel the rough and gritty texture of dirt against his cheek.

He groaned, his body feeling heavy and strange. He pushed himself up with his arms shaking a little from the lingering shock.

He got to his hands and knees, his head pounding with a throbbing pain. A sort of headache that feels like someone’s drilling a hole through your head.

"What the fuck...?" he muttered, his voice hoarse.

He looked around and saw that he was at the edge of a massive, glassy crater that wasn’t there before, and the ground was blackened and smoking.

He remembered the blinding light and the wall of heat along with the feeling of being thrown through the air.

He remembered the pain. The searing and unimaginable pain of being burned alive.

His eyes shot down to his hands and then his arms. He frantically patted himself down.

Nothing.

His clothes were a wreck, sure. His sweatshirt was torn and full of holes while being blackened at the edges.

But his skin underneath was perfectly fine. It was like it had never taken any damage at all. In fact, in some ways, it looked even better than before.

His eyes then fell on the translucent screen hanging in front of his eyes.

[Regeneration Complete!] it said.

Then all of a sudden, everything made sense.

Open the ongoing quest, he commanded the system.

[-----Ongoing quest-----]

[OBJECTIVE: Assist the Perseverance knights to eliminate all the hostiles.]

[REWARD: +2000 EXP, +500 CP, +20 additional EXP per kill.]

[LIMITED TIME PERKS: +20% STAM, +10% SPEED, +1% REGEN.]

His eyes narrowed at the down-corner of the screen that had just appeared.

I see. So it’s the limited time buff from the ongoing quest.

He thought to himself. Still, that was close, if it wasn’t for that I would most likely be dead right now. I guess I was not being careful enough.

But still. What the fuck was I even supposed to do against that blast? At this level, I do not have any way to counter it. Maybe if I had an energy shield or the ability to instantly surround myself with a bunker something would be possible.

Sigh. No use wondering about what’s not possible right now though. I have to somehow deal with this with the cards I’ve been dealt.

System, give me the report on the situation. The drone should still be in the air, right?

[Understood.]

[Compiling information to generate a summary.]

[Completed!]

[During the time of fifteen minutes in which you were knocked out an unknown hostile seemed to have entered the battlefield. The explosion which injured you was also the result of the hostile descending.]

[Your companions are currently engaged in a fight with the unknown hostile however things do not seem to be going in their favor, and they are getting overpowered.]

[If things continued as they are, then based on the limited information I have I predict they will lose.]

I see. That’s certainly a wild shift from how things were going. Can you show me the footage of what happened while I was out?

[Certainly.]

A new window appeared before Allen’s eyes, forcing the previous ones to slide to the left and out of his direct focus.

It then played a video, a recording from the drone above in the air doing recon.

It started off normal, there wasn’t anything unusual and it was only Eunice fighting the half-dead knights. However, a few seconds later a man appeared in the air.

He had long blonde hair and was clad in a beautiful silver armor.

Then not even a second after he appeared an explosion occurred, blurring the camera’s feed and throwing the drone away in the air.

Allen saw the feed in front of him tumble and rotate rapidly into multiple directions before it stabilized and refocused on the man.

Things now were the exact same as he could see right now.

A black glassy crater on the ground and most if not all the people having been wiped out and killed, humans and half-deads alike.

That’s... well, that’s a lot. Do you have any information about this guy? He seems a lot more powerful than anyone I’ve seen.

[Request Unsuccessful.]

[I apologize, but since I currently do not have the access to perform a field analysis I can only process and make conclusions based on the video footage coming from the recon drone.]

"Sigh, of course!" Allen mumbled in frustration.

Allen diverted his mind and began to think up solutions of how he would be able to kill this guy. After all, it was certain that he wasn’t friendly.

But Allen had no shortage of problems stopping him right now.

The biggest one of them being the fact that he only had a few bullets left with him and didn’t have any CP to buy more of them.

Right then an explosion occurred far off in the distance, coming from the area where the man was supposed to be.

It wasn’t as big as the previous ones, but Allen was still able to feel its shockwaves.

Right then his system pinged with a noise that was slightly different from the one he was supposed to get when a new message appeared.

However, this time no message awaited him.

Although a second later a new screen opened before him with text on it.

[By accessing confidential information I have assessed that the REDACTED is a severe threat to you at this moment. Therefore, I have used field analysis in an emergency protocol to access the number of enemy soldiers on the battlefield.]

[Conclusion: Most of the enemy soldiers have either been killed or retreated completing the objective of your quest. However, one single soldier, the one that is beside you, still remains.]

[You are advised to kill the last soldier to complete the quest and get its rewards. Once you do this, a new quest will be awarded with buffs meant to protect you from the REDACTED.]