Born in apocalypse

The last thing the monster had seen was a massive hammer blocking the ray of light coming from the sun. The reflection of the hammer appeared in its eyes before...

Boom!!

Crack!!

With a thunderous sound, the hammer finally made contact with the monster’s head. In a matter of seconds, the surrounding snow was painted in the shade of crimson as blood scattered everywhere.

All its teeth got broken, its eyes fell out of their sockets, its skull almost got divided in half, and its neck turned at a 90-degree angle, but for some strange reason, the monster was still breathing.

Before the beast could make sense of whether it should celebrate for its survival or should it curse its luck, something began to descend from the sky... once again.

The hammer that was latched onto his head began to disintegrate as a new one was about to fall. Within a second, the hammer fell and hit the bear directly on its face. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Crack!

Booooommm!

Along with the sound, blood, and brain matter scattered in the surroundings. Even before seeing the notification Dhruv was sure that there was no way the monster could survive anymore.

Removing the white goo from his face, Dhruv looked at the result of his spells. He wasn’t surprised to find that there weren’t any traces of its former head on the monster’s body.

Thump!

With a quiet thump, the monster fell to the ground. Just a moment later, a notification rang in Dhruv’s head.

[You have killed a monster, Greater Glacial Mauler.]

[You have earned 50,000 CC]

[You have earned exp.]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

Ignoring the notification, Dhruv looked at the corpse and muttered, "Azarex, go bring its core."

While the undead lord began to move toward the corpse, the very first thing he did was to cast multiple fireballs around himself. Rubbing his hand, Dhruv began to ponder over the question that was appearing in his head.

’With the coins given as a reward I can confirm that it really was a monster at tier Ⅳ ...’ Dhruv thought as he looked at Azarex who was trying to find the core.

He knew about the coins because he had kept tabs on them after killing the monsters. Tier Ⅰ can be anywhere between 300 to 1000 CC. 5,000 CC is the cap for tier Ⅱ, and for tier Ⅲ, it is 10,000 CC.

After killing a tier Ⅳ monster, one could expect anywhere from 50,000 to 70,000 CC. Of course, this doesn’t apply to unique or boss monsters.

Breathing a misty cloud out, Dhruv couldn’t help but complain, ’What the hell are you doing Cosmos? Are you trying to kill everyone before the challenge even begins? What would have happened if anyone else had entered the portal?’

Before he could think any further, Azarex brought the core and passed it to him, "Here, master."

Like the vessel, the core powering it was massive as well. The size of the core was only slightly smaller than that of a football. Looking at the core, Dhruv understood a few more things about the monster.

After evaluating the core’s mana level, Dhruv was able to conclude that the monster must have recently evolved to tier Ⅳ. Unfortunately, he couldn’t figure out how recently.

For some odd reason, Dhruv had the impression that the cosmos was conveying to him, "No need to curse me... See, it wasn’t a full-blown Tier IV monster; just a mere fragment of what it could’ve been."

’Even though it was only at the very start of its tier, it doesn’t remove the fact that the very first monster one encounters when entering the portal is a tier IV one. If this is the start, then at which tier will the boss of this dungeon be...’ Dhruv thought concerned about his plan for the dungeon.

Placing the core in his inventory, Dhruv turned around. Looking at his guardian in front of him, he asked the obvious question, "Azarex, what should we do? Should we continue or should we retreat?"

As if he were waiting for this question, Azarex instantly answered, "I mean, we can skip this dungeon, right, master? The portal is in front of us, nobody is forcing us to continue going further. I think we should skip this dungeon."

Azarex was so focused on getting him out, that he even forgot to give reasons as to why they should skip the dungeon.

Dhruv was stunned for a moment as he listened to his second guardian’s answer.

"That was fast, but anyway. What I think is quite the opposite. Think, the monsters here are at tier Ⅳ, which makes this a perfect place to level up... if we plan properly, we can kill the monsters without even giving them a chance to counterattack, right." Dhruv asked while lifting one of his eyebrows.

Even though he was complaining just a moment ago, that doesn’t stop Dhruv from trying to come up with a plan to take advantage of the situation.

Listening to his Master’s words, Azarex instantly replies once again, "I’m sorry for having a limited vision, Mater. We should totally follow your plan."

"Hmmm! I agree, but what about the cold..." Letting out a misty breath, Dhruv asked.

"That certainly could create a problem when fighting a monster." Whispering this, both master and guardian began to think of a plan to solve this freezing situation.

Suddenly, Azarex muttered in an excited voice, "Master, why don’t we transport the bear’s fur to the island and find someone to craft a makeshift coat for us."

"Hmmm! That is a good plan... we should totally do that." Thinking this, Dhruv began to walk toward the corpse.

’Being a tier IV, its meat should be a great source of essence as well, right?’ Thinking this, Dhruv summoned a massive sharp, guillotine-like construct.

After five minutes of intensive work, he was finally able to separate the corpse of the monster into two parts.

Looking at the bottom part of the monster, he whispers, "Azarex, go and give this corpse to Lyra and tell her what to do. It should take them some time to sew us something wearable... so after delivering it, you should return here, so in the meantime we can explore the area around."

Nodding his skull, Azarex replied, "Understood, master."

While Azarex was controlling his undead to lift the monster, something else was cooking in Dhruv’s head.

Looking at the top part of the corpse, he whispers, "Fusion..."