After training in his swordsmanship and fire magic, Lucas decided to check on his guild.
He walked into Leah's office and asked how everything was going.
Leah responded.
"Hello Lucas. Things are going quite well in Zurich compared to other cities."
"I just heard that Sarah, Chima and Ruben have cleared the last new F-rank gate and are returning."
Lucas replied with a smile.
"That is good news."
"Yes it is. And apparently the association and other awakend are doing surprisingly well with the E-rank gates."
"They have cleared most of them now. Just like with the F-rank gates, they plan to leave 2 for research and hunting."
"Now only the D and C-rank gates are the remaining threats."
"Are you confident you can clear the remaining D-rank gates before they break?"
"Yes I am. I am much stronger now thanks to the rewards from clearing gates."
'Plus I have Ghost who has incredible stats.'
Leah interrupted his thoughts.
"By the way. Even though many awakend have started to fight in Switzerland, most aren't strong enough in the other cities."
"The association is expecting a lot of casualties and the cities with less and weaker awakend who can't handle the gates are starting to evacuate."
"People from our neighboring cities are already evacuating to Zurich. That also means that the monsters from their gates will soon become our problem."
Lucas thought for a moment before replying.
"Sounds troublesome, but this is also an opportunity to strengthen our guild."
"Yes I thought the same thing."
Leah was surprised by his words but didn't show it.
"Most people would fake empathy in his position, but he is very direct about what he wants and thinks. I like that about him."
Lucas could sense how Leah started to look at him.
He then spoke.
"Make sure that every possible awakend who wants to join the Helios guild is here by tomorrow. I want to check them out myself after dealing with the gates."
"Understood Guildmaster."
"Since when do you call me that?"
"I think it's better to call you that, so that everyone understands your authority."
"Hm alright."
'I like it.'
After talking for a little longer, Lucas departed.
***
Lucas was finally entering the monster desert gate.
When he walked in he spawned in a wide desert.
'It's so hot!'
'It's good that I brought enough supplies.'
Lucas summoned Ghost and he used Odin's Eye to see if any monsters were hiding nearby.
He couldn't see any monster's info, but he could sense different mana signals all around.
"We will move as a group this time. Let's move forward."
"Yes master."
After a couple minutes of walking in the scorching heat, they finally encountered a few monsters.
They were over a meter tall and looked like scorpions.
Lucas used Odin's Eye.
Red Desert Scorpion
Rank: E
Level: 5
Strength: 20
Agility: 14
Stamina: 22
Senses: 10
Intelligence: 1
There were 5 of them and all had similar levels and stats.
'Easy.'
"I will take care of them."
His avatars responded.
"Understood master."
Lucas focused on one of the scorpions and released a fireball.
The fireball was the size of a baseball but much more compact than before.
It moved at incredible speed and pierced through the scorpion's body, killing it instantly.
The others reacted, but Lucas quickly shot another fireball and killed a second scorpion.
After that he unsheathed his sword and charged at the remaining three scorpions.
Lucas killed all three in what looked like one smooth motion.
'Amazing.'
'My skills have truly improved by a great margin.'
'Although they gave practically no experience points, it felt good.'
Lucas stored their corpses and moved on.
They kept encountering these scorpions, but this time they all killed them as quickly as possible and moved on.
Soon they encountered a new monster.
It tried to ambush them from the ground, but Lucas easily sensed it and killed the monster in one big swing with his sword.
Sand Worm
Rank: D
Level: 12
Stats:
Strength: 41
Agility: 35
Stamina: 24
Senses: 20
Intelligence: 7
Skills: Acid Spitting (D), Enhanced Stamina (E), Camouflage (E)
'To think that a D-rank monster is nothing to me anymore. Though it has a dangerous looking skill. Acid spitting.'
"Even though they have weak stats compared to ours, don't let your guard down."
"Yes master!"
They kept moving forward and encountered more scorpions and sand worms, but still couldn't find the boss.
"Okay this is taking too long. Let's split up and search for the boss monster and gate core."
They all started moving in different directions.
***
After almost an hour of searching and killing monsters.
Lucas found the boss monster.
Sand Golem
Rank: C
Level: 23
Stats:
Strength: 61
Agility: 44
Stamina: 63
Senses: 51
Intelligence: 65
Skills: Enhanced Strength (D), Sand Spear (C), Mana Shield (C), Camouflage (D), Limb Growth (D)
'This one might give me some trouble.'
'Except for my superior agility, our stats are pretty even.'
Lucas his avatars were too far away for him to unsummon them and summon again.
He also couldn't telepathically communicate with them. He could just roughly sense them.
'I guess my talent isn't overpowered after all.'
Lucas shot a fireball at the golem, but it didn't do any damage due to its mana shield and sturdy body.
'Fuck.'
The sand golem charged at Lucas.
'Although it's slow compared to me, there is no doubt that its fists will hurt like hell.'
When Lucas dodged its fists, a sand spear suddenly came from the sand beneath his feet.
Lucas barely managed to dodge thanks to his sixth sense and agility.
'Shit! That was a close call.'
'I don't think I have ever faced such a challenge.'
Lucas decided to go on the attack with his sword.
'I need to aim at its joints.'
Lucas took on a stance and suddenly leaped forward when the golem was close enough.
With one smooth upward swing of his sword, the golem's right arm was cut off.
'Why did that feel so easy?'