Red Book

An armored truck, cut across the sandy wasteland, leading more than a dozen similar vehicles.

Adam sat in the back seat, looking out at the Dead Lands with a bored look. Every time he heard about the Dead Lands in stories or from someone, he got goosebumps, but now he didn't feel that way, at all.

For some reason, he felt calm, overly peaceful, and even cozy, despite the Dead Lands being a dangerous place, even for Phantoms.

'What a strange feeling... Yesterday, facing a monster was my worst nightmare. Today the worst and the best happened at the same time, now I look at them as pack animals...' Adam internally muttered, looking at the group of monsters in the distance.

They were tearing apart the body of the Electric Eel - what was left of it after Lisa and her squad had put the most valuable things in the vaults - like teeth or scales.

Adam wasn't arrogant, he was just being honest with himself. He didn't know if he could handle these monsters or not, but he was pretty sure that the Silver Weaver was on a whole other level.

"Hey! Stop making such a stern face! Come on, have a drink with me!" Lisa exclaimed, holding out a bottle of strong drink to Adam, her cheeks already flushed. 

"Nah, that's impossible. I'm seventeen, you know?" Adam waved his hand.

Lisa raised an eyebrow, "Hmm, so what! There are no limits in the Citadel! If you have the opportunity you should drink!"

After trying a few more times, Lisa gave up and tossed a can of soda to Adam.

"Well, that's another matter." Adam opened the soda can, savoring the drink.

In fact, Adam did his best not to shriek with joy and smile broadly, for this was the second time he had tasted soda. The flavor was excellent, sweet, and carbonated, it was like a celebration for a slum resident.

"Seventeen years? That said, you hunted alone and killed an anomalous monster without getting hurt, at all. I'll be honest, I don't like you, you're one hell of a suspicious type." Jacob uttered, keeping his eyes on the road.

Adam shrugged, tossing the already empty soda can out the window.

"That's your right. I'm not going to become friends with you, I've only joined you until the moment I return, then we'll never see each other again." Adam said calmly.

"Tsk. I wish I could end all of this right now, but we have one more Nest to clear before we return." Jacob snorted before turning the wheel sharply, checking the data with the map.

'Nest... right? Adam wondered.

The monsters were different, each different from the other, and in some ways, they were even similar to humans. Among them, there were strong and weak, leaders and loners, as well as their own social order. Some monsters preferred to act alone, but others gathered in packs and formed Nests.

"Who is our target?" Adam asked aloofly.

"Lizards!" Lisa exclaimed happily, the alcohol had clearly taken its toll on her. However, getting anything more out of her was difficult.

Jacob realized this too, so he tossed Adam a tablet, where a 3D image of their victim was open.

[Thick-headed Desert Lizard - White Book, White Threat Level.

Features:

-An extremely tough forehead, unlikely to be pierced by even the sharpest sword.

-Protective scales absorb most of the energy of blast or crushing attacks.

-Good resistance to fire.

-Slow, clumsy, and possesses low intelligence. Strongly relies on the pack leader].

Adam was slightly surprised, for this information was only available on a special database, OpenEye, which only the high-ranking residents and, of course, the Phantoms had access to. 

This was only the first page, the rest of the pages contained monster descriptions, loot, and even approximate habitat points, everything there was to know about these monsters, and even more.

'Wait, they don't know I just became a Phantom, so... it wouldn't be weird if I checked something out, would it?' Adam pondered before clicking the buttons.

As he had anticipated Jacob showed no reaction. Phantoms could spend hours exploring OpenEye, after all, there was constantly something being updated and added.

Adam quickly opened the White Book directory and typed in - Silver Weaver.

[Nothing was found for your request.].

The simple message immediately answered all of Adam's questions.

'Hah, Lisa called me lucky, but then even I didn't realize Silver Weaver was a Red Book monster... Fuck, that's crazy...' Adam inwardly muttered with a happy smile, then his face froze when he realized he could check something else.

'Red Book...'

Adam typed, going into the directory. The first page out of many did not have Silver Weaver on it, so he decided to type the monster's name into the search as he had done with the White Book.

TTTRRRRRRRRSSSSSSSKKKKKKK!!!

The truck came to an abrupt stop, knocking the tablet out of Adam's hands and causing him to hit his forehead on the front seat.

Before he could realize anything, Lisa snatched the clipboard out of his hands, checked the location of the Lizards, and exited the truck, slamming the door.

"Alright! Our target is fifteen Lizards! Mostly we've just been asked to clean out the Nest, but one of the Observatories is willing to pay well for each fang!" Lisa exclaimed vigorously before picking up a massive black box from the truck roof.

She quickly opened it and equipped her weapon - two dark metal gauntlets covered in thick, heavy plates with multiple vents.

"YES!!!"

The rest of the Phantoms exclaimed with equal intensity before bursting into action.

Adam wanted to take the tablet in hand, but Jacob stepped ahead of him.

"Hey, you can look through the directory later, right now, we have a task to complete. The sooner we deal with these lizards, the sooner we can get back to the Citadel." Jacob said coldly, picking up his sword.

Adam shook his head and followed him.

Looking around, Adam saw that only a third of the men had gone to fight the Lizards, the rest stayed by the trucks. They looked tense and held guns in their hands, some rifles, some shotguns, and some pistols.

"What are you stopped for? Is this your first time seeing the Harvesters? Come on, kill the monsters, rest while they butcher them, and go home. Stop wasting time!" Jacob waved his hand, rushing into the fight.

Adam raised an eyebrow.

'So they're not Phantoms then? Well, it makes sense, someone has to do the dirty work.' Adam thought for a moment.

Whoooooooooooooosh.

At the same moment, the Lizard, who had been hiding nearby under the sand all this time, stealthily approached him.

The lizard's long tail swept toward Adam like a whip. The sharp tip could easily pierce his head.

Adam didn't notice the monster, or rather too late, so he didn't have time to react to the attack.

Then, Adam's eyes flashed as electric shocks ran through his body, and his head jerked reflexively.

The tail swept right next to his neck, leaving a light cut, trickles of blood streaming down.

Adam turned around, destroying the lizard with his disdainful gaze.

In a heartbeat, white threads wrapped around his arm, and he leaped at the lizard, plunging a long needle into the back of its head that wasn't protected by a sturdy forehead.

Swinging the needle to the left, Adam sliced through the monster's neck, cutting a massive chunk of flesh.

"Fuck... That was dangerous..." Adam muttered, touching the neck and summoning Revolve.

[The Thick-headed Desert Lizard's gene has been placed in the Vault!]

Then, Adam looked at the battlefield.

The Lizards were not strong opponents, so gradually the Phantoms were winning. Lisa was particularly effective, she was simply turning the Lizards into chops with her fists.

'Hmm... The directory said that they rely heavily on their leader, but in that case, where is it? Where is their leader?'

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

The ground shook, sand tumbled from the tops of the dunes in waves, and before anyone could realize it, a huge head emerged.

The giant jaw, like a world-eater, swallowed tons of sand along with several trucks and dozens of people. The harvesters were unable to defend themselves, so when the jaw collapsed, streams of their fresh blood poured outward, flooding the surface of the desert.

The excited Lisa instantly turned pale, and every Phantom had goosebumps running down their bodies.