Chapter 62: 61. A Journey To the West

This creature might be the one who destroyed the place.

The humanoid monster’s shape was similar to a human being’s; it had defined muscles around its body, but its face was blank.

It walked toward the city, but I estimated that it was still standing in the sea based on the splashing sound that was made by its stomps.

Such a large monster stays underwater during the day, and comes out at night, huh?

This creature was an enigma; I’d never heard of something like it in my past life. I examined it and bought its system description. The information cost me around three hundred shop points; it was unusually expensive.

It had a level of one hundred and twenty-three, and a system screen containing its description appeared.

[Prober]

(Uncommon)

Too many faults; nothing is perfect… Mortals suck at designing structured buildings, but they don’t know it. Probers are creatures of curiosity and art, but they can’t express themselves using sensory communication methods. These creatures can repair all the faults within an object, as long as the process was within their means. They test the durability of structures that they find interesting, but that goes wrong most of the time. Well, some people claim that they do it just for fun!

 

Their lack of sensory organs must’ve been the reason for their inability to communicate, but there was something that I didn’t understand.

Did it ruin Japan just because its buildings were interesting?

The description also said that creatures like this could repair faults, but that could have various interpretations.

I shook off the thoughts and watched the creature advance. Its movements were sluggish, and they reminded me of how robots were portrayed in Pre-System media.

When the Prober was within the city’s vicinity, something strange happened.

It clasped its hands together, and their color changed from black into pale blue. A translucent sphere emerged from its fists, and it expanded till its radius became larger than thirty meters. The Prober was at the center, and he stood unmoving.

The debris that was within the sphere’s range rose in the air, then it got separated into many chunks.

Each chunk went back to the ground and assembled into a building in pristine condition.

Oh…

Then, the Prober raised his clasped fists in front of him. He separated them for one moment before clapping with great force.

Its action generated a strong shockwave in front of it, and the pale blue color of its fists invaded the air of the city. The wreckage around me had a bluish tint when I looked at it, but the color disappeared soon after.

Suddenly, all the debris within my line of sight rose in the air, including the bunch that I was standing on.

I jumped out of the way and watched the miracle happen. The levitating debris got separated once more, and each chunk got converted into a building.

In ten minutes, the whole city looked as good as new. I didn’t know what Osaka looked like before, but all the buildings around me seemed perfect. There was even an area that had a small park; it even had trees.

The Prober can even regenerate trees?

Suddenly, the communication crystal that I held in my left hand flashed brightly; Ratska was calling. I injected some mana inside it, and the hologram of the Gnome appeared.

“I am sorry, Jason. I was inside an obligatory meeting; the tribe elders needed my assistance with the delegation of administrative duties in the underworld,” he spoke with his high-pitched voice, “They were unhappy when I told them about our journey and it took me a lot of time to convince them, that’s why I didn’t pick up. Oh, wait, where the hell are you? I can see some intact buildings behind you.”

“It’s fine; I suspected that you got ambushed by someone else. Currently, I am on top of the sewers where we first met,” I spoke, “You might not believe this if I tell you, so take a look.”

I turned the crystal around so that Ratska’s hologram faced the mysterious creature. The buildings were still being auto-assembled, and the speed of their construction was phenomenal.

“Woah, what’s going on?” Ratska gasped, “How could that creature even do it?”

“Keep watching,” I spoke, “The real action will happen soon.”

After about a minute, the Prober finished all the buildings within the city, then it started moving once more. It walked slowly at first, then its pace increased gradually till its movements started causing sonic booms.

It wrecked everything in its way; It used kicks, punches, and headbutts too. Occasionally, it unleashed beams of lightning out of its palms, and they burned the targets that they touched to a crisp.

So, the burning marks that I saw earlier today were caused by this monster…

The creature was getting closer to my location, so I moved to another area that was already destroyed.

“I’ve never seen a creature like this,” said Ratska, “I am sorry, Jason, but I am not coming out of the underground until that guy disappears into the ocean.”

“I understand your concern; use the extra time that you have to pack more tools and materials,” I suggested, “The more the merrier, and don’t worry about the number of bags, as we’ll shove everything into my spatial ring.”

“That’s true. You never know when a potion might be needed,” he spoke.

“All right then, I have some urgent tasks that I need to accomplish. I’ll call you when I’m done,” I said, then I hung up by halting the injection of mana.

I felt an urge to attack this creature using my full strength, but I stopped after thinking more about the endeavor. The Prober had a unique ability, and I didn’t know about its limits.

It could potentially be used to repair all the damage that the arrival of monsters would cause on our planet.

I wonder if a beast tamer could take control of this creature, and use it for beneficial purposes?

Besides, Osaka was mostly ruined; I’d have to wait for the next time the Prober fixed the city before I defeated it.

The Prober was still running around, then it disappeared into another city and I could no longer track it.

I was amazed by this new creature. There were no rumors about something like this in my past life, and I wasn’t sure whether the Prober disappeared or got killed by some big shots.

No matter, I’ll just focus on making more friends and scouting for talented individuals. I can’t let Stella’s group get away lightly after that ambush…

I remembered vaguely that Stella’s guild hired a certain group of talented Lizardmen one year after the system integration, and that they used to live in the Sahara before joining her guild; the Way of The Champion.

The individuals weren’t as distinguished as Ratska was, but they left an impression on the public as a group. My goal was to scout them for my guild before Stella got a chance to do so.

Now, I have to think of a way to find the village where those people are gathered…

I knew that the group brought large quantities of Mythril with them when they joined Stella’s guild, and they gave it all to Stella as a gift.

Mythril was a metal that appeared on Earth after the system integration; It was Iron that got infused with ambient mana. More importantly, it wasn’t common on the planets that had the system for a while, as it was valuable and people extracted it quickly.

This means that they spent a long time in a place that was located in the Sahara, and which had a progressive Mythril reserve close by…

I pulled Earth’s Observational Shard and commanded it to show me the locations of all the Mythril reserves in the Sahara.

Three possible locations came up, and I eliminated one of them as the quantity of the metal wasn’t big at all.

The remaining two locations had similar quantities of Mythril reserved, and they were far away from each other.

Sigh; I’ll have to check them one by one… Too bad I don’t even know the names of those people or what they looked like to search for them using the System Shop.

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I’ve never visited this place on Earth; I was just a random person, and I didn’t visit dangerous places like the Sahara if I could help it.

I held the observational shard in my left hand and commanded the system to show me the way to the closest of the two Mythril reserves, and an arrow appeared in front of me.

I hid the Shard inside my storage ring and shouted, “[Plasmic Torch]!”

I was interested in finding out how this skill of mine interacted with my thermal suit.

My body’s opacity decreased quickly, and I turned into a translucent gas that had an orange hue.

I could dissipate my body around the air, but I chose to keep it contained inside the thermal suit. The storage ring didn’t fall off the suit; it was floating inside the plasma that took the position of my hand.

I looked like a flame that was sculpted to look like a human, and I could control my limbs even better than before. Everything around me moved slower than before; I still wasn’t used to the heightened senses of this form.

I flew up in the air until I reached the Stratosphere, then I started following the arrow that guided me to the location of the Mythril reserve.

I took off in the direction as fast as I could, and I estimated my speed to be way greater than the speed of sound as my movement in the air created sonic booms.

I might arrive in around an hour…

The sights below me weren’t as attention-grabbing as I thought they’d be, asides from some cities in China that had skyscrapers that reached my current height.

I zoned out and kept going ahead until a notification appeared, and pulled me out of my trance.

I’ve reached my location already, huh? Less than half an hour passed after my departure according to my system clock.

I descended to a height that was closer to Earth and checked the area under me. I made sure to detract my plasma inside the thermal suit and activate its camouflage feature so that I kept myself from standing out.

The area under me was supposed to have a large reserve of Mythril, but I didn’t see any movement. It was still midday in this area, yet I couldn’t see any Lizardmen.

There were thick dunes of sand under me, and nothing indicated the presence of a mine here.

Just in case, I descended to the ground and turned off my skill. I investigated the area on my own, but I couldn’t find a single proof of living beings in this area.

It seems like no one has discovered this Mythril reserve yet; I’ll keep this in mind.

I took five minutes of rest, as using [Plasmic Torch] gave me some negative ideas. As soon as I felt better, I took off once more, my destination being the other Mythril reserve.

It was around five hundred kilometers away from me, but I reached it in two minutes.

This skill is like having a free private jet, but better!

I was flying a fair distance above the ground, as the area underneath me was crowded. There was a large hole in the ground, and many Lizardmen could be seen there. Many of them entered the hole with empty bags, and they came out with ones filled with an azure metal that shined brighter than silver; I could even spot it from afar.

Gotcha! Now, I’ll tail some Lizardmen to find their village.

The city that I looked for wasn’t that far away; its distance from the mine was less than a kilometer. It looked much better than I expected; I could see buildings that were at least a hundred meters tall, and they were all adorned with various gems.

I couldn’t see the details from my current location, but that didn’t matter as I would enter it later on with Ratska.

I descended to an obscure area that was a kilometer away from the town in the other direction; it would be our destination for the [Party Zoom].

As soon as I was satisfied with my preparations, I used [Zoom] to teleport next to the System Trading Station in Osaka.

I bought a [Party Zoom] scroll from there with two thousand tutorial points, then I set my body on fire and started running toward the area where I’d meet Ratska.

I found him already waiting, and many Gnomes were behind him. There were at least two hundred of them, and all of them were as tall as the brewer or even shorter.

I extinguished my flames and resumed walking toward Ratska slowly. There were around thirty bags next to him, and all of them were filled to the brim.

“What the hell, man?” I shouted, “I told you we’re going on a journey to the Sahara, not to Valhalla.”

The Gnome blushed, but his eyes regained their composure quickly.

“I am a potion brewer, but I still am a researcher too! These bags contain rare materials, useful tools, and some recipes and books,” he noted, “Your storage ring can handle all of this anyway, and we might need an obscure potion at any moment. Besides, you’re the one who told me to get everything that might be useful!”

This is the excuse that hoarders use to keep saving up items and carrying them around.

I shook my head and sighed.

“All right, whatever suits you,” I said as I pulled a scroll from my storage ring, “Say goodbye to your friends; it’s time to go.”

Ratska quickly turned toward the other Gnomes and hugged each one of them. The whole process took around ten minutes, but I spent the time thinking of a way to enter the Lizardmen Village when we get there.

Lizardmen were people that hated hot-blooded creatures like humans and looked at them with disdain, but they didn’t show any of that when they were in human cities.

However, we were about to enter a Lizardmen exclusive settlement. They might prohibit us from entering the city at all, or even use violence against us.

I might have to sneak into the city and meet their leader secretly… Depending on the situation, I’ll either threaten him or bribe him to let me enter.

It wasn’t the perfect solution, but I didn’t have much time. I had to move quickly to create a guild that could overtake Stella’s.

“All right, Mr. Jason. You can put the bags inside your ring,” said Ratska before turning to his comrades, “I’ll miss you everyone, but I am doing this for you! I’ll get rich, then I’ll come back.”

The other Gnomes waved at him; some were smiling but many others had tears in their eyes. I looked for Frevel the guard to give him a farewell, but he was nowhere to be seen.

I am not sure how he’d feel about Ratska’s journey…

I put everything inside the ring, then told Ratska to hold the scroll with his hand.

“Now, inject some of your mana inside it,” I said.

I imagined the area of the Sahara that I wanted to teleport to, and the scroll disintegrated. A system screen appeared in front of me, and it said that the teleportation will be successful.

I closed my eyes to decrease the dizziness and opened them when I felt my bare feet touching the sand.

Ratska seemed unaffected by the teleportation, he was smiling and staring at the surroundings with wide eyes.

Suddenly, I heard a shriek, and the voice seemed higher-pitched than regular Lizardmen.

It’s a female! And a young one at that!

I wasn’t sure about its meaning, but my limited knowledge of the Lizardian language told me that the person was asking for help.

#

Special shoutout to:

chris

GenericKane

Water Dragon

Bladesunder

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