[Quest: System’s Hand]

  [A group of unfortunates failed to be reached by the System. Instead, it was decided that an impromptu first-stage tutorial shall be enacted inside Planet D-389. You have been tasked to carry the Golden Seed and plant it. The seed shall birth the System Tree, which shall grow fruit capable of offering a class to those who were never touched by the System—the System then summons one rift to be the obstacle of the new Integrator. You are not allowed to enter the Rift under any circumstances. Your job is to oversee them and protect them from Blight Rat attacks. By no means are you allowed to fight the System’s call monster.]

  [Guide them, teach them, and protect them from the Blight Rat]

  [Reward: 1000CP for every surviving Integrator]

  [Note: Only the Integrator who has eaten the System fruit which was born from the System seed’s tree shall be counted]

  [Quest]

  [The Guard’s Duty]

  [Protect helpless ones from certain death (0/100)]

  [Reward: Frontier Guard Plate]

  [Quest]

  [Slay Five Foes with sword (0/5)]

  [Reward: Basic Long Sword]

  Rue rushed onward. Arming Sword swept onto one of the Blight Rats’ flesh, who had been too busy eating a poor man to recognize Rue’s strike. Its fur was dark, gleaming with a greenish glow that looked awfully familiar to the sludge Rue had spotted among the high-rise buildings. His sword carved straight down the Blight Rat’s back, and red blood spurted as his sword dragged across its body.

  A greenish sheen of sticky substance also jumped out with the blood.

  The creature slackened, falling off the man's body, which was already a mess of gore and blood. Tumbling off the man, the rat died silently. Rue tried to take advantage of that, but then twelve jade eyes peered at him.

  His heart jumped in his chest. Sudden fear bloomed across his body as the gory remnants of the man might be the mirror of his fate.

  The rats squeaked, even the one that almost mauled the girl. In a second, they decided to halt their feast and focus on Rue.

  More were coming, veering into the stairs and rushing at him. Rue stepped backward, ascending upward, and kept his sword steady in front of him.

  The nearest Blight Rat jumped, blitzing across the stairs’ railing—the rat's mobility briefly took Rue aback—he had his sword on straight point, then quickly bashed sideways, knocking the rat straight toward the bottom part of the stairs. He stepped forward. One step, and his sword impaled another rat’s head, killing it, and he withdrew to welcome the others.

  These monsters could jump like that? They were bulky, and their legs were small, but clearly, they were more than they met the eye.

  He could not even strategize properly. Two rats soared straight at him and managed to reach his eyes despite Rue having had the high-ground advantage.

  His body moved before his mind did. Rue stabbed toward the left rat, and the other one managed to latch onto his right-hand gauntlet. The rat tried to bite, but instead its teeth broke apart, and it fell with a shrill cry.

  As it rolled backward, Rue noticed the sharp claws on all of its legs.

  Gotta watch out for those…

  Growling at him, five Blight Rats this time decided to try him together. Another came in. Now six.

  They kept waiting, and Rue did not intend to let them. He whipped out his Ashwood Wand from his hip pocket. His Casting Bracelet gleamed with bluish gloss around his left wrist. They glowed together, the bracelet and the Wand’s tip. Rue’s mana wailed in euphoria, and they rushed into the bracelet, then let themselves form into Eight Frost Shrapnels.

  Chill convulsed around him as four Frost Shrapnels were summoned at his left and right.

  Eight Frost Shrapnels. Rue’s mouth curved into a grin beneath his bandaged helmet.

  He had expected the rats to escape, but they did not. Instead, they puffed their cheeks and rose on two legs.

  Seeing this, Rue released his spell. A burst of cold split the air. His spell soared downward. At the same time, the Rats shot out acidic green sludge, but the Frost Shrapnels' momentum was too much, and they gored straight into all of the rats’ chests, piercing and crashing them into the wall behind them with a loud squeak of flesh.

  [You Have Slain…]

  Rue ignored the prompt. He descended and turned to face the first floor, wincing at the sight: Four bodies mixed in a platter of blood and organs, strewn all over the stairs. The only survivors of the six were the two behind him, the girl and a middle-aged woman who stayed huddled at the corner.

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  The girl suddenly closed her eyes and let her body tumble to the old woman.

  “Penelope! Come on, girl. Answer me.”

  Rue fumbled to his pocket, about to take out his Health Potion, but then that damn squeak sounded again.

  “Watch out!” The woman screamed. In a surprising feat of strength, the woman threw the girl and herself to cover under the stair-turn safety. Rue responded properly and rolled. Three green slimy substances shot out and melted the window just behind him, where he had stood. That sludge touched the wall and window; they burned too.

  “How many are there?” Rue half-shouted at the woman, pushing his head to see another three ready to fire another round of sludge.

  “You need to kill the canister carrier! They will lose their minds if you do so.”

  “Canister carrier?”

  “A big damn elephant-rat whose job is to carry a huge canister filled with green acid, you saw marring their skin. Those are the source of their power. But, they’re far away.”

  Rue acknowledged the information; it sounded simple enough.

  “Got it,” he muttered, and weaved his wand. Another eight Frost Shrapnels appeared. Yes, he could get used to this.

  Running with it would be heavy, so Rue stood. Before the rat could react, he pointed his wand first, and his Shrapnel burst forward, leaving a trail of cold like small crystalline winking stars. The spell crashed down and absolutely obliterated the three Blight Rats.

  [Level Up]

  “Any chance I could get a guide? Actually, do you guys even know where these canisters are?” Rue asked as he stood tall, towering over the wide-eyed old woman who was holding the girl behind her like he was about to harm her.

  Her hand fumbled around her handgun; Rue tightened his grip around his wand.

  Should it come to it, then he would not hesitate.

  Right, I have killed a human before.

  “We do know the location, and we will greatly appreciate it if you destroy them for us,” another voice sounded upstairs.

  Rue glanced at the man, maybe in his mid-twenties. He was the one who was so worried about the girl and appeared to be the leader of this group.

  “In fact,” the man said. He knelt by the old woman and softly grazed his finger on Penelope’s cheek. “I will accompany you.”

  “Ein! You can’t! Look, Penelope got the poison. You need to be by her side,” the old woman attempted to whisper, and she did badly. “Besides, did you see what he did? Summoning… those?”

  “All the more reason I go, Edna,” the man—Ein at least could whisper—said. He locked eyes with Rue; Ein’s eyes were both half-covered by his thick bowl-cut bangs, but Rue still could make out those lifeless deadfish eyes beneath. “Take care of her, please. We’re in the hospital. Get Anna anything she needs to look over her.”

  The woman opened her mouth to argue, but closed it. “Alright,” she said, carrying the grip up with both hands. “Just make sure you—”

  “Wait,” Rue cut her off. He looked up to see strangers’ gazes staring down at him. He did not doubt that in their hands were guns ready to fire down at him. “Here,” he threw one Health vial to Ein, who caught it and inspected it.

  “What is this?” he asked.

  “That will make her better.”

  “It will?”

  “Probably,” Rue added.

  “I see,” Ein said slowly, doubting, then tucking it into Edna’s hip pocket. The man kissed Penelope’s head and wished them well on their way.

  Rue was about to descend the rest of the stairs, only to pause when he noticed the lack of footsteps following him. “I heard the rats coming,” Rue reminded the military man.

  “Sorry,” Ein muttered, beholding the dead humans.

  As Rue finally touched the base floor, memory entered his mind. He still remembered that day. The day when thousands crammed these wide halls, welcoming him with applause and cries of adoration. Those cries were real, not fake, which perhaps made it all the more—

  The squeaking and whining of the rats rose. He turned to see a dozen of them running at him through the hospital-wide glass door.

  “We’re retreating,” Ein stated behind him, clutching Rue’s shoulder, trying to pull him. “Come on, we could hold the high ground and—”

  “If this is all of them. Then, no need to run,” Rue shrugged his shoulder off and strode forward. “Their level is low. Just bring me to this canister carrier.”

  “Level? What kind of madness…” he vexed.

  Rue spun his wand, and another eight Frost Shrapnels manifested around him.

  Ein, who had been calm and collected, let his mouth open in a sliver. Then his eyes narrowed, fist clenched, it was as if…

  “Are you angry at me?” Rue asked, ignoring the charging rats for a brief moment.

  “Angry?” Ein repeated nervously, shifting his eyes between the charging rats and Rue. “No. It's just we can’t do anything against those… rats. All we could do is blow them to smithereens, and there is only so much explosive left. And if we met a stronger variant, then we’re doomed.”

  Ah, so he was angry at his helplessness. That Rue could understand, he spent almost all of his life that way.

  Whipping his wand forward, the great power followed. Eight Frost Shrapnels zoomed through the space between him and the rats and exploded as the rats, this time, slashed upward with their claws. Still, most of them got through. Some Shrapnels turned into dancing puffs of cold frost.

  Rue waded in with his Arming Sword. His sword split through the dancing puff and carried on to one rat’s head, splitting it apart, and he weaved into a stance immediately. The other rats noticed him. But too late. He wheeled his sword and carved through a rat's throat. The other three lunged at him, but Rue already kept his eyes on them. He retreated backward into a receptionist's desk area. Then he brought his entire body down with his sword on top of him.

  By the time all three rats were soaring above him, he rose and, with his sword’s flat, slammed them into the receptionist area, which was caged by a single entrance.

  Rue jumped inside.

  One rat tried to rise, but he slammed his leg up and sent it flying into the desk behind, its head cracked against the wood’s edge, not dead yet.

  The other two barely got up. Rue had already swung, parting one brain. The other managed to jump at him, but Rue already swung his sword again, tearing the creature into two with a downward arc. He shielded his eyes, careful so no acid got on them.

  The last rat was barely able to open its eyes.

  The moment it did, Rue jabbed straight into its neck and twisted. The rat croaked, and the light in its eyes went out.

  [Level Up]

  [Quest Complete]

  [Slay Five Foe with sword (5/5)]

  [Reward: Basic Long Sword]

  A long steel sword came into being above Rue. Its hilt was tall enough that it could and should only be held with two hands. Its cross guard was a boring thing with only a straight bar jutting out. However, its narrow and heavy steel blade was indeed nice to swing. Rue could feel its power as he tried to swing it around with one hand.

  Roh had recommended getting this one so he could practice with both short and long swords. The Long Sword existed for practicing, because Roh and Rue had concluded that his best fighting style would be a wand in one hand and a short or medium-length sword in the other. He might switch wands with staff in the future, but for now, using the wand was much easier.

  “You can do that too? Summon a sword?” Ein asked, as the man inspected the dead Blightrats, a dozen of them.

  He shook his head, removing his brown tactical glove with his mouth.

  “My name is Ein Ruslen.”

  Rue blinked at the outstretched hand. He let go of his Long Sword, letting it clang loudly against the floor, and took Ein’s hand.

  Better not to tell them my real name.

  “It’s James Jack.”

  “You’re Rue Hazard, are you?”

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