Preparation

In an underground cave, with barely any illumination, a dark figure could be seen moving its enormous body in the sea of bones scattered all over the surroundings. The figure approached a rock that resembled an altar with many unrecognizable inscriptions on it. After standing in front of it, a black tar-like substance flowed out from one of the limbs of the dark figure. The black viscous liquid swirled and entered the center of the altar.

When all the black liquid vanished in the altar, the inscriptions lit up and illuminated the surroundings. A blue halo could be seen coming out of a crack that was above the altar. It was as if space was being torn open.

" The infant has been killed." The dark figure spoke for the first time in a heavy jarring voice.

" I've felt that. My connection to the beasts in that area also severed." A neutral voice spoke from the space crack above the altar.

" This will slow down the process, but we have enough infants in other regions too. Still, we need to investigate who killed the infant. As I recall the strongest among humans are called SSS rank users. But they are only a handful in the entire world. As of now no such user was seen near the glades. This creates an unknown variable."

" Indeed. We have to prepare for the upcoming Astral convergence. The other factions are also making their move. In the meantime, investigate the unknown variable and take care of it. I have other matters to deal with, so I can't spend more of my essence here."

" Understood."

The blue light disappeared and the space crack closed itself. The cave turned dark again. The dark figure who was talking to the blue light turned around, his red eyes piercing the darkness. His body vibrated and the huge figure slowly turned smaller until it resembled a humanoid figure.

******

The next day August came to the guild office, Daisy and fatty both were standing at the entrance waiting for him.

" let's talk inside," August spoke as he walked past them. Seeing him enter the guild office they followed him inside. They came to a quiet room that was for meetings and sat down across the table.

" Do you know the DoA designated red zones?" August asked fatty abruptly.

" Yeah. They are heavily populated beast colonies that have several A-rank and even S-rank beasts. They are designated as red zones because no average guild can raid there. Before this, many guilds attempted to raid those red zones but they were wiped out. A special team was created for future hunts in the red zones. This team consists of several top S-rank and SS-rank users from different guilds. Due to the dispute between guilds and rights of ownership of the red zones, the special team is more divided than unified. They usually keep the hunts secret and no information is released outside DoA headquarters in Marvian city." Fatty answered everything he knew about that.

" So it is illegal to enter there ?"

" Not sure, but DoA heavily suppresses those who want to go there."

" Alright, we will be going to hunt the red zones from now. Our goal is to finish every red zone in our country within a month."

" Are you serious? Do you even know many A-rank and S-rank beasts are there in the red zones? No matter how powerful you are, we can't take them down. Besides the sheer number of B and A-rank beasts are enormous, we can't even hunt all of them in a year let alone a month." Daisy retorted to his idea.

" And that will be your training regimen. Any questions?" August pretended not to hear her.

" Are you trying to kill us? You have the teleportation skill, you can escape at any time but we can't. This is a suicide mission. We should better go to the glades or western isles."

" Aren't you supposed to be a newbie? How do you know this much ?" August had a vague guess but he asked her anyway.

" I... I am actually from the capital, I came here because the competition there for A rank users is very high. Eclipse city was relatively far from other cities in the east. There was no cutthroat competition for hunting. So I came here." She lied through her teeth.

August detected her fluctuations in her facial expression even though she was hiding it quite well. He didn't know why she was lying, but he didn't think further, as it mattered very little to him.

" We've already finished hunting in the beast glades. Technically it is my territory now."

" … " Daisy was speechless. She couldn't wrap her head around all this information. Never in the history of this country, one guild has taken over a whole region to hunt for themselves. It was impossible. And now, she was hearing a man saying that they cleared an entire region with just two party members. How was that possible?

" Now, I want you to compile all the data and give me the locations of all the red zones," August instructed fatty.

" Right away." Fatty stood up and went to get the complete data."

" And you kiddo, bring me a cup of coffee with no sugar."

" Ugh.." She was fuming inwardly, but she couldn't do anything. If she didn't do what he said, she will be fired from the guild, and she won't have the chance to witness his strength.

She got up from her seat and strode across the room, and slammed the door as she went outside the room.

" Still a lot of work to do " August casually said as he saw her behavior.

' System, calculate the probability of system override of fatty and this kid.'

[ Running Simulation….1%]

[ Running Simulation….2%]

..

..

[ Simulation Complete ]

[ Probability of success : 91.6%]

[ Resource usage : 66%]

[ Stats needed : Resonance => 1]

' Initiate override'

[ Initiating system override ]

[ Progress..1% ]

..

..

[ Override complete ]

[ System Acquisition : Success ]

[ Current Systems under control : 3 ]

[ 1. Jinny Roana Grey ]

[ 2. Nile Brooks ]

[ 3. Daisy Kertyn ]

' Good. I just need to hunt more quantum beasts to increase my resonance. The problem is, where can I find them ?'

Quantum life forms have their own quantum field that shields them from any form of detection, unless another quantum life form is in close proximity, it can not be detected easily.

" Bro.. here is all the info about the red zones I can find." Fatty handed him a file.

August quickly scanned through all the information. He already searched the web for information, but due to the strict rules of the DoA to not let the general public know the dangers, they banned all information on the web. They don't even save the information on the web. Due to data breach concerns, All the important and crucial information regarding awakened beasts is kept in hard copies.

They are only given to the officially registered guilds. If they violate the rule and spread the information and cause public unrest, then that guild will be denied access to future information and hunting permission. Usually, this never happens because users never interfere with the public. And the most important information doesn't fall into low level guilds anyway. So the leaked info that the general public knows is common knowledge.

August saved all the locations on the map and prepared to start his net hunting session. He needed to find more quantum life forms to increase his resonance and make these two stronger so that they can help him manage small fries. He wanted them to manage the guild and recruit more users. Since he will be busy searching for quantum life forms, he needs some loyal subordinates, who could take care of the guild and grow it while he is away.

As he was thinking about this Daisy came in and handed him the coffee.

" Here you go." After handing him the cup, she sat on her chair.

" I mapped all the red zones. We will leave tomorrow to hunt beasts in the red zones starting right here." August pointed to a red dot in the south of Marvian territory.

" The Ashpheran mountain range," Daisy spoke softly.

" We will be going for about a month. Get all your equipment and artifacts ready."

" Do you want me to recruit more users for this hunt?" Fatty asked August if they needed more manpower.

" No, only the three of us will go for now."

Daisy was reluctant to go there with just the three of them but she complied with him after seeing fatty's unwavering eyes. He didn't seem nervous at all even after knowing the dangers that lurked in the red zones.

' Does he believe in him that much?'

She wanted to find out the secrets August was hiding and to do that she needed to go with them.

While she was contemplating all this, she heard August's voice.

" I want you two to reach S rank in one month."

" What ?"

Daisy abruptly got up from her seat.