Chapter 44: I won

Karl is back in the hell that he escaped from not to long ago.

The city gates.

Currently, standing in the line to go outside the city. After Joseline the current guildmaster of Sabre guild accepted the bet, he ran all the way to the city gates. Something in Karl's mind tells him that he needs to win this bet at all cost.

Besides the line, there is a small group of people consisting 2 women and 3 men. One of those men steps forward and yells in loud. "We need a person capable who is experienced in close quarters. Our party consists a healer, a mage, an archer and two tankers."

Karl observes the rest of the party and they all look experienced. 'I would have joined them if I wasn't in a hurry to win the bet.'

He ignores the party and waits for his turn. Finally, his turn comes. Fortunately, the knight is different and Karl just answers some simple question then moves forward.

Karl could feel the hotness of the sand through his shoes. He takes a deep breath and begins his first solo quest. Like before he moves towards south by looking at the inbuild compass in his watch.

After walking for 20 minutes straight he finds his first prey. A lone white manned desert wolf. Without any weapon in hand Karl takes the step towards the wolf. Once close enough a purple light flashes and Karl smashes a rock straight into the wolf's head. The wolf who was caught off guard steps back and growls at Karl.

Despite this Karl is smiling. 'Come, I am not weak anymore.'

The wolf jumps at Karl. Instead of running away Karl pumps mana into his left arm, the arm increases in size. Once close enough Karl punches the wolf head off. There was no resistance. Blood splatters everywhere. Seeing the dead body of the wolf, Karl raises his hands high in the air. The feeling of absolutely crushing someone with your own strength is a drug on it's own. He collects the wolf's teeth as evidence and starts to look for another prey.

In the matter of 3 hours Karl kills 3 more wolves without much effort. He just punches their heads off before they could even react. Still moving towards the south. A thought comes in Karl's mind.

'I still haven't named this punch attack and my second spell. Hmm.' Karl uses one hundred percent of his brain to come with a name.

'I named levitating steps for legs. So, something similar to that. Levitating. Flying. Air. Pressure. Pressure Punch. Damn! That's so cool.'

Karl pumps mana to his right and it changes drastically. He punches in the air with his full power.

"PRESSURE PUNCH!"

A large amount sand is separated creating a straight path up to 4 meters. Karl smiles at his power. 'Now for my second spell.' This time his lets his creativity go wild and he comes with the word Phase.

'Hmm. It doesn't have that feel in it. Well, the ability isn't a combat ability.'

Suddenly multiple howling sounds comes from all directions. Karl notices that he has been surrounded. 7 white manned desert wolves are coming straight at Karl.

The first wolf reaches Karl and jumps at him. While the wolf in the last summons his circle and forms an ice spear. Karl quickly uses Levitating steps and appears near the spell casting wolf. He summons a rock and smashes the wolf's head and the half-formed ice sickle pierces the wolf's head killing it in an instant.

Two wolves circles around Karl and jumps to attack at the same time. Karl covers his entire body and he phases through both of the wolves. Ignoring them Karl runs forward summons a rock, he throws it to a wolf ahead. The wolf moves aside to dodge the rock but immediately Karl appears besides him and punches it in the face. Breaking it's jaw. 

Just then a wolf jumps at Karl trying to catch him off-guard. Karl turns around at the last moment and raises his hand to save his head. The wolf bites Karl's hand. The wolf gets punched in the eyeball, crushing it. Karl takes a step back as his hands bleeds excessively.

Four wolves remain. Karl smiles and takes the step. He appears near a wolf and punches it. He quickly disappears and appears near another wolf, he punches it in the upper head. Smashing it's brain out. Not wasting a second, he uses levitating steps again and appears near the next wolf. This was ready for Karl's attack and immediately moves away. 'Shit.'

A ice sickle pierces Karl's waist. Two wolves uses a combo attack to hit Karl and he felt into their trap due to his ego. But still Karl isn't worried, he uses Levitating steps again and appears in front of the wolf. It moves again but Karl isn't looking at him. He summons his circle and reveals a large pointy rock. He throws it towards the spell caster wolf and it hits on the nose, disrupting the spell. Karl smiles widely. 'Now what will you do?'

The wolf gets scared after seeing Karl's predatory gaze. It turns around starts to run. But it isn't fast enough. Karl quickly catches it's tail and pulls it back. As Karl is having difficulty breathing, he pumps mana into his arms to use pressure punch but instead punching Karl pulls the wolf's tail and moves the entire wolf like slingshot. He releases his hand and the wolf falls on hot sand. Before it could stand Karl uses levitating steps and finishes the job with a pressure punch. His hand is all bloody.

Karl turns around and sees the one eyed wolf. It is just shivering in fear. Karl walks towards it and punches it to death. Karl collects all the wolf teethes and puts it in the void storage. With this Karl completed his first quest under 3 hours.

The sun is on his peak and so is the temperature. Currently, Karl is moving in the south direction towards Laykoen forest. The second quest that he accepted requires him to bring 3 kgs of Felant grass. He searched on his watch about Felant grass. Apparently it is a very common grass that is found in the borders of the Laykoen forest. His arm stopped bleeding long ago.

After walking for 2 more hours Karl finally sees those purple trees in a distance. 'It is much easier to find this when you know where are you going.'

But something feels off. Karl is ominous feeling that he shouldn't be here.

Ignoring this feeling he moves bit deeper into the forest. It is quiet. Too quiet. The ominous feeling intensifies. Despite he keeps moving forward and luckily he didn't had to walk too far. Under large tree he found Felant grass growing. He quickly summons his magic circle and puts all of the grass into the void storage. After taking more than required Karl gets up. The sun is setting and he really doesn't want to be in the forest at night.

RUSTLE!

Karl immediately turns back. He sees nothing. 'Am I having hallucinations?'

RUSTLE!

'There!' Karl uses levitating steps to jump above a bush. In the bush he sees a small harmless squirrel. Karl comes back down. The squirrel runs away, Karl watches it run away.

SUPPP!

A white snake appeared out of nowhere and caught the squirrel. Karl summons a rock and throws at the snake. But it just bounces off the snake. The snake eats squirrel alive and runs away. 'Fate, I guess.'

He taps on his watch to check the directions. But the compass is moving constantly which is very odd. 'I just bought this shit. Did I got scammed?'

He tries to find the direction where he came from but every direction looks the same. Time is running out, sun is almost gone as darkness takes over. In a hurry, he picks a random direction and runs towards. When coming inside, he reached here in matter of minutes, but now it has been more than an hour since he started running and there is no sign of sand anywhere. The sky is now completely dark and Karl is moving on assumptions.

Suddenly, the ominous he has been feeling takes over his body. He feels that someone is in front of him. Every strand of hair on his body stands up in fear. With shaking legs he moves forward but he stops after just 6 steps.

Ahead is a cliff which means Karl is currently standing on the plateau where he and Sian fought. Karl looks down. There are trillions if not quadrillions worms moving in a single direction. The land where these worms go from becomes infertile and every sign of life is erased. Karl looks at the way worms are moving. He sees sand. The worms eats every tree in their path to clear a straight route out of this forest.

Karl immediately takes the first step and runs towards sand. His chest burns as if it's on fire. But he doesn't slow down and increases his pace. Once on sand the watch's compass started working again.

Back in the Sabre guild.

Fen is looking at the main door with hope. He looks at the clock it's 11:13 pm. The day is almost over but there is no sign of Karl.

"Do you think is he going to come?" Fen asks to Joselina who is sitting on the table near the counter.

"I would be happy if he even survived." Joselina answers.

"Why are you so rude towards him?"

"Huh? On that note, tell me why do you like him so much?"

Fen stands up and looks at Joselina. "Because he looks like uncle Tarak."

"What? That dwarf looks like uncle Tarak? Did you become blind? Should we go and see the doctor?"

Fen pouts. "Don't tease me and big brother will come. I believe in him."

BANG! The door opens with a loud noise. Karl walks in.

"Big Brother!" Fen celebrates.

Joselina immediately looks at his empty hands and smiles. "If you just say sorry and work here for 4 months, I might forgiv-"

Karl walks pass Joselina and slams his hand at the counter. A purple light flashes and 11 teethes along with a lot of Felant grass comes out of nowhere. Karl turns back and looks at Joselina in the eye.

Fen gasps loudly and Joselina's eyes open wide as blood drips on the ground. Blood is coming out of Karl's nose as well as both of his eyes. He body gives up and falls on the ground. Joselina quickly catches Karl's head and sees his bloody smile.

"I won."