Chapter 5

After entering the city, Kyle immediately took out the tracker that was given to him by Reiler Salts. Once out of the storage bracelet, the tracker which looked like a cuboidal box let out a small beeping sound. Kyle felt a weak force on the tracker that was attracting it towards the western side of the city. After following the direction in which the tracker was attracted, Kyle arrived at the western entrance of the city.

After thinking for some time, Kyle decided to make some preparations in case that the mission was tougher than he expected. Thinking so, Kyle put away the tracker and walked towards the market of this city. The market streets which usually were full of people appeared to be deserted and one could only see small groups of Ascenders or the soldiers of Yeselvia occasionally. Kyle felt a little strange as he walked through the empty streets in the solemn atmosphere.

Kyle pushed open the door of one of the buildings and entered inside. There was a large banner which read 'Futurecop Couriers' on the entrance of this building. After entering the building, Kyle walked towards the reception while taking out a slip of paper from his storage bracelet.

"Welcome sir! How may I help you?" The female receptionist smiled politely at Kyle as she looked at the slip of paper that Kyle had placed on the desk before her.

"I would like to withdraw one of my packages, but it has to be brought down from the second floor." Kyle said while looking at the receptionist. The receptionist had a good impression of Kyle when he entered the building due to his extremely handsome looks and calm temperament, but it all vanished when she heard that he wanted to withdraw the parcel meant for the second floor prematurely.

'Truly, all those rich kids were spoiled wastrels. Their parents had planned a proper path for them so that they could have a smooth journey in the Ascension Temple, but they would rather use these resources meant for higher floors to power their way through lower floors while completely ignoring the growth which can only be achieved by facing hardships.'

"Sir, additional charges will be deducted if you want to withdraw one of the parcels prematurely. It will cost you fifty credits if you want to withdraw the parcel meant for the second floor on the first floor. Do you want to proceed with the withdrawal?" The receptionist asked in a professional tone. Anyway, Kyle wasn't the first person that she had seen that fit the image of a second-generation wastrel in her mind that had come here for the similar purpose.

"Yes." Kyle could tell that the receptionist had misunderstood his purpose and formed a negative opinion about him, but he didn't care about the opinion that someone whom he would meet only once or twice in his life had on him.

The receptionist took a scroll from the desk and wrote something on it after putting it back.

"Sir, we have contacted our colleagues on the second floor. It will take some time, most probably an hour before your package is delivered. You can wait in the waiting room, or you can also use the portal room to return back to Earth for this duration." The receptionist said after she had completed all the procedures at her end. Kyle nodded and walked into one of the rooms.

Inside the waiting room, Kyle sat on the sofa while meditating to speed up the recovery of his MEPs. When all his mana was recovered, he took out his wrist band and began searching for any other information and developments on the matter regarding the strange meteorite and disappearance of the inhabitants that he hadn't read before.

There were many theories regarding the incident, but they were all speculations and not very useful from the point of his mission. The one thread that caught his attention was about some strange changes happening in the forest that was present on the western side of the city he was in.

Someone also commented that the western forest was the place where the meteorite was supposed to fall, but it vanished in thin air when it was about two hundred metres from the ground, but many people had searched the entire western forest for two days in hopes of triggering the mission. But all of them left with disappointed expressions when they could not find anything regarding the mission after searching through every nook and cranny of the western forest for two days.

When Kyle saw this comment, he became sure that his mission had something to do with all these strange incidents.

.....

....

"Sir, this is your parcel. Thank you and we hope to see you again." The receptionist said while she took out a brief-case with a strange expression on her face and handed it to Kyle.

Kyle was already used to seeing this expression on the faces of people whenever they saw the insignia on the briefcase and didn't mind the unwanted sympathy that the receptionist had in her eyes. Most people showed him this expression, but neither did Kyle need their sympathy nor did he bother himself with these people.

After taking the brief-case, Kyle rented a private room in the same building and opened the brief-case. The first thing that he saw upon opening the briefcase was a paper.

[Ho-Ho! So, you have already reached the second floor. Very good. You are my pride and my one true love in this life, even more than your father.]

[If I am not with you when you open this package, don't worry. I have already received the notification and am running back home along with your dad. Tonight, we will definitely be celebrating the true beginning of your journey as an ascender. Yay!]

Kyle grinned as soon as he read this note. Although the writing was hardly legible, the love was clearer than day. He could totally imagine his mother's face becoming redder than anything he had ever seen if he even mentioned this note before her, but she still dared to write this…. He was truly amused at the thought of this.

If only they hadn't met that incident...No! What was the use of regretting the past? He had to grow stronger and find a way to bring them back by himself. He had no time to wallow in self-pity.

Thinking so, Kyle neatly folded the paper and placed it in his system inventory along with his other important documents. Storage bracelets could be lost, so it was not advisable to place important things in them. Most of the people preferred the system inventory for such things.

The things in this briefcase were nearly double than those in the previous one, except that there were no life tokens. Four life tokens were already more than what most of the people, even the high ranking member of those continental level guilds would have ever seen together, so Kyle had already expected that he wouldn't receive any more of them from the packages in the future. What he wanted this time was not the life tokens anyway. After putting some things aside, Kyle finally found what he was looking for.

[Skill scroll: Prime fury.]

[Description: A beam of light is shot out of the eyes which reduces a fixed amount of HP upon hitting the target. Attack can not be blocked or evaded. The user will lose any motor ability for ten seconds after the execution of this skill.]

[Damage: 200 HP]

[MEPs consumed: 20]

[Absorb skill scroll: Prime fury?]

[Yes/No]

This scroll was one of the most sought-after skill scrolls on the lower floors of the Ascension Temple. Originating from the fourth floor of the Ascension Temple, this skill could deliver a fatal blow to even someone who was a Level 6 ascender who had an HP of 1000 on an average.

On the first, second and the third floors, it was a one hit kill skill. Kyle immediately chose to absorb the skill and a new set of information entered his brain along with a new skill under his skills tab.

After absorbing the skill, Kyle put the rest of the things back in the briefcase which was later put inside his inventory.

When all his preparations were complete, Kyle walked out of the building and directly went towards the western gate of the city. Unknown to him, a pair of eyes were watching him from afar from the moment he went inside the building to the time he came out.

Once he was outside the city gates, Kyle took out the special tracker and entered the forest. There was a creepy silence in the forest and Kyle could sense no signs of life in the area nearby and except the occasional encounters with some ascenders, Kyle did not find any other lifeforms in the forest apart from the trees. It was like all the creatures including insects had disappeared into thin air.

As he moved forward in the direction of the force, Kyle could see a layer of smog covering the surroundings which became denser as he moved forward. The force on the tracker also increased with every step that he took.

"Since you have been following me for all this while, shouldn't you at least show yourself, lest I mistake you for someone with malicious intentions and attack you?" Kyle said as he turned to look towards his back.

He knew that he was very close to the location where he would trigger his mission, and he already had his hands full with this mission. He didn't want someone to suddenly attack him while he was dealing with his mission and cause his failure in the mission at the critical juncture.

As soon as he spoke this, Kyle tightened his grip around his sword and mobilised the mana in his body so that he could attack at a moment's notice.

The other party knew that if they stayed hidden any longer, then Kyle would definitely attack. So, with a sound of grass being stepped on, the silhouette of a burly man slowly advanced towards Kyle.

As soon as Kyle saw the man clearly, he understood the reason why his mission panel only showed one mission that was to rescue Marcel Salts and the option of only scouting was absent.