The choice

[ D day - 3 ] [ 14 H : 46 M : 23 S ] [ County city N ]

This is the first time Vikram had killed a person with his own hands.

It wasn't like he never stabbed another man, but those incidents were all part of scuffles, where it's either kill or be killed.

This is the first time he went in with the full intention of just stabbing a man from the back. If not for his thousand and one buffs, Momon would have escaped.

However, Vikram could not understand.

Why in the world was he trying to strengthen the boss and run ?

The generic purpose of causing mayhem and chaos of terrorist indeed does make sense.

But … this is really middle of nowhere, and a mayhem here does not help any …

Wait !

Wasn't he looking at this from the wrong perspective ?

A terrorist belonging to another nation is doing a mission.

Why would it be just their little city alone ?

It would be an entire region at the same time.

Vikram's mind turned.

Nah.. their little city would be just another road that is cut off.

There are two major transport hubs in south, both of them in their state.

One, a railway junction where all national railways cross each other, for it kind of exists smack in the middle of southern India.

The other is the largest port on this side of India, if not the largest port in India itself.

This is also one of the notable naval bases in the entire country.

The port handles far too many industrial and domestic exports.

In fact, these two cities are the major reasons for a stronger army presence.

Since his left arm is still growing, Vikram stayed on the boulder watching the movements of dino Bulls.

By now, almost half the herd is decimated.

All of the party that entered the portal has died.

Vikram would not mourn them.

Petty criminals are the worst sort in apocalypse. They are better off dead, he felt.

The dino bulls are digging in the remains of crushed boulders for corpses of dead men.

When they ate the men, another notification showed up in front of Vikram.

[ Domestic animal Cow acquired ]

What ?!

He could obtain animals ?

Why did it not happen till now ?

Vikram opened his status board.

The animals were listed under the latest inventory, along with all his items.

He touched the card, to see what it actually meant.

[ Unable to activate. The shelter needs to be unlocked in order to use this item. ]

That's about it.

Shelter ?

So, are there more variations in dungeon orb ?

Vikram's left hand is in the last stages of turning to normal.

Once it did, Vikram retrieved the crowbar from the inventory.

If they were normal cows, he would not have dared to do what he is about to do.

After all, they are dino bulls. They don't have insect squashing tails.

Instead, they have boulder bashing tails, which can not move upwards with the same flexibility as downwards.

Thus, he flew straight to their heads. He folded his wings at the last minute, almost making a falling motion, and stuck the crowbar straight into the eye of the bull in a single motion.

The next moment, he spread his wings to fly upwards.

The crowbar in his hands is still dripping with blood and brain matter.

The bull he put the crowbar in had fallen on it's knees.

Yet, it did not die.

Vikram did not get down.

Instead, he flew back to the tallest boulder and settled on the boulder, watching the dino bull he injured.

After about three minutes, the dino bull had become completely still.

Then, the corpse of the bull vanished into sparkles.

The companions of the dino bull did not pay any attention at all.

[ super strong muscles gene fragment 0.1 ]

On top of that, he had received the meat, skin and skeleton of the dino bull.

The skin is quite enduring and supple.

It has very short hair, shorter even compared to normal cows, yet, not like lizards.

The horns and the skin that covered them are entirely part of the skeleton.

Later, Vikram would wonder at the many subtle differences between these dino bulls and cows, but for now, he concentrated on going for the next target.

Instead of going for the healthy bulls, Vikram decided to put to rest the injured ones first.

This way, he could make some space for his own maneuvers.

Soon, there were only ten bulls left in the field.

At this point, he received a set of messages, all corresponding to items left over by the men who passed away,

Everything about them, including their underwear, appeared in Vikram's inventory

If this was not the D-day 3, If only he had not wasted as much time dilly dallying, Vikram would have relished in burning all the remaining things of these men.

As such, he was in a hurry, so he concentrated only on the bulls.

After a minute, he saw it, the path that connected five dino bulls at the periphery.

Vikram acted at once.

The crowbar in his hand flashed.

Like a swinging pendulum, or more like the steps of traditional group dances, he moved forward.

Struck the crow bar, retreated at forty five degrees angle, reversed direction to move forward, and repeated.

It was like a dandiya dance.

The tune danced in his head, and like clock work, a dino bull' eye was open when he got to the part where he struck his sticks together.

Thus, the swinging half moons shaped movements went one inside, one outside, and killed all the way.

He did not remain on the field once he finished his set target.

As long as even the dino bull's tail tip touches him, he would be mashed into a mix of minced meat that not even his 'super healing [ ex ] ' could save him from.

That's how strong these creatures were.

Their very muscles are corded and dense.

Vikram had no way but to attack the eyes.

That's how tough the skin and muscles were to cut into. Don't even think about doing any damage to the bones.

You need a diamond drill bit made with tungsten to even scratch on these bones.

That's how tough they were.

Vikram stayed on the boulder till all the Dino bulls were dead.

This time around, he received more than enough strong muscle gene fragments.

Ideally, if this were a video game, at this point, there would be a special attack with berserk effect, etc.

However, this is not a game.

The animals out there strictly followed their natural behavior.

I.e. unless a dino bull asks for help with a rumbling 'Moo' they are just going to forage for food while crushing boulders.

Thus, the swoop in and kill worked brilliantly, killing all the dino's save for the boss bull. The boss creature did not notice the difference at all.

[ Integrate super strong muscles gene fragment ? ] ( yes ) ( No )

Vikram gladly chose yes.

His stamina is about to reach rock bottom.

Moreover, it did not look like a single shot with the crow bar would be sufficient for the bull.

Thus, Vikram stashed away his crow bar.

The beast is far too agile and vigilant.

Instead, he retrieved the elephant gun he had gotten.

He still has one armor piercing bullet. He had to remove all the pellet bullets, change a few parts. In the end, this shotgun could effectively shoot dino bull's head.

Thankfully, he could fly.

Though his aim is shit, he could reach just near enough distance for the gun to work safely.

BANG !

The bullet entered the dino Bull's head at an angle, mashing brain in a single second.

The Boss bull collapsed. The ground trembled a little, shaking the boulders once more. Some of them became undone, changing the landscape of the portal.

After the expected three minutes, the prompt showed up as is.

[ strong bones gene fragment 1.0 ]

The boss bull disintegrated into thousand sparkles, at the same time, so did all the other cows and calves in the portal.

[ acquired 28 cows , 30 calves ]

Somehow, despite not spending any physical effort compared to other portals, he felt most tired after this portal was conquered.

Finally, the reality of having killed a person washed over him. When one sees TVs and movies, main characters always dissolve into great emotional strife upon killing people.

It indicates the goodness of their character.

Yet, all Vikram felt was tiredness. He did not feel guilty over lives lost.

They would have been lost anyway, and they did not particularly look like people he needed to mourn over.

Would he spare any of them if he redid this scene ?

No. He would only kill them faster, so they won't suffer. That is the extent of his kindness to the criminals.

That's about it.

No guilt.

No stomach churning.

No self blame.

Am I a serial killer type ? Vikram wondered for the first time in his life.

After all, he read somewhere in the newspaper that genetically about ten percent of people have no qualms over killing another human being. However, they turn out alright anyhow, because of proper upbringing.

Maybe he was that hidden zero emotion type.

However, that's not the point now. He needs to find that dungeon orb and get out of here. He is sure curfew in the night would be worse after 8PM.

After fifteen minutes of wandering around, Vikram spotted the green colored dungeon orb in a nook between two gigantic rock formations.

He extended his hand and carefully touched it.

[ obtained the first order dungeon orb. ]

[ Shelter orb could be used to create a safe zone of predetermined size. Usually circular, with orb as center. ]

[ Totem orb could be used to create a pack of men / animals loyal to you. Totem lets you be alpha in no uncertain terms. ]

[ chose the type of the orb] ( shelter ) ( totem )

The prompt does not go away. The orb vanishes back to its original location as long as he does not make a choice.

What should his choice be ?