Chapter 21: The Wilderness

"Allen, get off me! I'm gonna be late for work," Eisha retorted as she tried to push Allen off her, though it ended in failure due to Allen's superior strength.

Her face showed a rosy hint, a mix of anger and pleasure. She had not expected Allen's thirst to be unquenched; it almost seemed that his stamina was unending.

Ever since they had woken up, Allen had never allowed her to rest for one bit, always shoving his rod into her, much to her displeasure. She also enjoyed it, but now it seemed like he wasn't planning on stopping anytime soon.

With her mana almost depleted trying to keep his seed out, it really seemed she wouldn't be able to avoid pregnancy if he continued, which was something she wasn't ready for.

"Ok, fine," Allen grumbled a bit before letting go of her as she hurriedly ran to the shower. Allen, now feeling exhausted despite his superhuman status, collapsed on the bed, his eyes closing as he fell asleep.

Before long, Allen finally began to awaken from his nap, his exhaustion mysteriously washed away. Opening his eyes, he caught sight of Eisha dressing in a hurry, so as not to get late for work. After all, the morning was one of the times the restaurant got a large number of customers.

With Eisha not noticing that Allen was awake, she ran out of the apartment heading to work, not even bothering to check the important messages on her phone.

"Argh~, what a night," he sighed, glancing upward at the ceiling, a victorious smile appearing on his lips.

"Shouldn't I also get ready for..." he stopped, halting his thoughts, remembering when Jackie had told him about the two-day break students were given to recuperate from possible injuries or trauma they might have experienced in the dungeon.

With one more day remaining, Allen could only sigh, resting his head on the bed before the pungent smell of semen bombarded his senses, forcing him to remember the soaked sheets.

After some minutes of planning for the day, he suddenly remembered the new program recently opened by the academy for newly awakened system holders.

The program involved taking on missions that involved leaving the safety of the city walls and barriers and venturing out into the outside world known as the wilderness.

The wilderness is a place known for its unpredictable dangers, with the world beyond the walls of the cities untouched by the authorities of system holders. It had become overrun by the constant unmonitored dungeon breaks, which made the dangers of the wilderness even more apparent.

With the monsters of the wilderness constantly growing in numbers, the unpredictability was at an all-time high, a place turned into an execution zone for murderers who would be banished into the wilderness, left to die a painful and unavoidable death at the hands of hungry monsters.

But eventually, the guardians saw it as a rising problem. Not only did it endanger resource transportation, but it also increased the chances of a beast tide. Because of this, they soon dispatched weekly forces to bring down the population of the monsters, bringing it to an appropriate level.

What followed after was the development of the mission program, which was created to further increase the leveling speed of students. Though most were still reluctant and dared not venture out.

"Looks like my plan for today is set," Allen confirmed, standing from the bed and taking the sheets off before laying it in what he supposed to be the laundry room. After this, he went to take his shower, wearing his clothes and putting on the storage watch.

Just when he left the apartment, he caught sight of Eisha walking back to her apartment with a puzzled expression, lost in thought to even notice Allen.

"Why are you back already?" Allen asked out of the blue, immediately drawing Eisha's attention.

"The restaurant is closed for today because Paul had not arrived. He also wasn't picking up his cellphone, so Amunet could only close the restaurant in defeat," Eisha explained.

Allen, puzzled by Paul's lack of appearance, could only furrow his gaze slightly, but since he wasn't particularly close with him, he shrugged it off. "He might have gotten sick or something," Allen tried to comfort.

"Or should I stay with you for the day?" Allen suggested with a slight smile, which immediately made Eisha remember his beastly side, almost about to slam her door closed in reaction.

Noticing Eisha's reaction, he chuckled internally before he spoke. "But that will have to wait; I have an errand to run. See you later," before he walked off, which made Eisha sigh in relief.

Allen soon boarded a cab, which took off into the distance, unaware of Eisha's lingering gaze full of worried thoughts.

"Are we a thing?" she questioned in hope of an answer, but it seemed she wasn't going to receive any until she steeled her courage to ask Allen.

Arriving at the academy and paying the fees, he felt like he had lost a huge chunk of himself with the amount of money that was just deducted from his account. "I need to make money fast," he muttered, adding to his plans. Luckily, one could make money from missions by earning mission points or selling extra monster parts left from the missions.

Just then, as he walked into the academy, he noticed the substantial amount of students in it. Some were busy in the large E-library, having access to information about monsters that wouldn't normally be on the Internet.

While others were busy in the training arena, constantly training, sparring with one another, aiming to increase their chance of survival in the next dungeon raid.

Whether it was the studying mages in the library or the fighters in the arena, it was clear that they all feared death. They had witnessed the bodies retrieved from the dungeons.

Witnessing this, they had truly come to grasp that their lives would be in danger at all times in a dungeon. Even the mighty diamond-ranked system holder was no exception after all they had gotten news of what had happened.

Learning this, none of the students rested. They all began to train day and night as they realized monsters were their enemies. They couldn't afford to lag behind and become prey to the monsters.

They knew they had to train their hardest even if their bones had to break, even if their muscles would tear apart. They only had one goal in mind: eradicate the enemies of humanity, monsters.

Allen's mood immediately changed as he witnessed their conviction and will to grow strong enough to survive, and that was when he saw that he had been acting too carefreely. He knew he possessed the talent to become strong, but was that truly all he wanted?

His goal was to become the strongest, and yet he was the least hardworking. Now, seeing their will to train hard enough to survive the cruel world they had found themselves in sparked a light within him. He didn't know why, but he felt like it was his responsibility to save humanity from the clutches of eventual death.

However, he knew he was far too weak to meet such standards. He firmed his fists unconsciously, setting his one and only goal to become as strong as possible as fast as possible.

"To save them, you must first conquer them," a voice sparked from within him, but Allen, far too ignorant, mistook it as one of his uncontrolled thoughts before walking into the mission facility.

It was almost empty, except for a blond-haired woman standing behind the counter, distracted from tapping and pressing her phone to notice Allen's arrival.

"I am here to take a mission. Is this the place?" Allen questioned, gaining the attention of the blonde woman who immediately hid her phone away to attend to the student.

"Oh yeah, this is the place. What do you need?" she asked in confirmation, a bit surprised since no other students had come for a mission out of fear.

Allen, slightly irritated by her question, replied calmly, "I am here to take a mission," much to his dislike of repeating his words.

"Oh, your name, please," she inquired, handling the situation professionally as she began to follow the procedures.

"Allen Barthon," he replied, prompting the woman to quickly type in his name, showcasing his information as a hologram rose into the air.

"Allen Bartholomew," she confirmed the surname, sparking a memory. "The Barthon couple?!" she exclaimed internally. "I need to report this to Madam," she thought subconsciously. However, as her eyes went lower, she suddenly caught sight of the system he possessed.

"Lizard system? How disgraceful. I almost thought he could possibly be something of a threat to Madam if he ever found out about that. I was worried for no reason," she thought with a bit of disdain showing on her face as she glanced at Allen.

"There are a couple of missions available. Choose one," she suggested, suppressing her disgust for the boy before her, tapping on some buttons which showed a myriad of missions available on the newly appeared hologram.

"Quite a lot," Allen thought, noticing the number of unclaimed missions displayed on the holographic screen. "Is it possible to choose more than one mission?" he questioned hopefully.

"Yes, you can choose more than one," she replied coldly, unwilling to shelter his presence.

Allen indeed noticed the shift in her attitude the moment she discovered his identity. However, he simply ignored it, unable to give her attitude any importance.

"I will take these two," he said, selecting the two missions for further information, swiping the appeared description of the mission, and confirming his choice.

The first mission required him to get ten Red Hound fangs, while the other one required him to get ten BatSnake fangs, though he had not yet realized the difficulty of choosing the two irrationally.

"Okay, place your hand on here," she instructed. After he did so, his hand was scanned, and then from a machine behind the counter, a paper full of various information was printed before she handed it to Allen. "Give it to the guards when you reach the wall gates."

Allen, receiving the paper, walked out almost hurriedly, planning on finishing the task as soon as possible, his sight set on the gains he could make.

The blonde-haired woman, seeing Allen exit the mission facility, decided to take precautions, grabbing her smartphone and dialing a number.

After much anticipation, a voice resounded from the other side. "What is it, Tes?" asked nonchalantly.

"Madam, it's the Bartholomew couple's son. He just came here to receive a mission," she quickly relayed, knowing well that her madam doesn't like to beat around the bush.

"Oh, so those idiots really left behind an offspring," the mysterious woman chuckled a bit. "Anything special about him?" she asked, clearly interested before Tes continued, "No, there's nothing special about him. He awakened an Iron-ranked system," she replied immediately, killing the little bit of interest she had.

"Really, if so he does not pose a threat to me," she mocked with a grin on her face, while holding what looked like a plastic bag with a bloody knife in it.

Feeling no need to continue the conversation, she cut the call, a smile forming on her face as flames appeared in her hands, slowly before rapidly burning away the evidence, even the very metal burning to ashes as they faded away.