Birth Of The Crafts-God

Amer city was the city in Alleva district closest to Garena town. After the destruction of the latter, the former entered a state of high security alert with some of the citizens even relocating elsewhere. However, the city was still greatly populated as the military had released a statement, informing the civilians to not be worried by the beast tide close by.

Just like the rest of the cities in Alleva district, Amer city was controlled by the city lord who belonged to a major faction in the district. The various gangs and organisations of said faction thrived within the city, thanks to the support of the city lord.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

One of the leaders of an underground organisation here happened to be the human Ramirez had previously met a couple of times. The man was currently overseeing a shipment of new drugs in his underground warehouse.

Drug trafficking was one of the biggest businesses in Alleva district, but the drugs trafficked weren't simply hallucinogens, psychedelics, or euphorics. Some of them had special effects that could boost one's strength albeit with intense side effects. However, there was a particularly new drug that had entered the market, but it wasn't being supplied yet. It was precisely this new drug that the man came over to inspect.

*Ding* *Ding*

The man's communicator rang.

With a laid-back attitude, the man tapped the communicator on his wrist, following which an image was projected into midair.

A figure appeared in the projection; a human just like the man. It was Ardeen, the man with a blue moustache that met with Lucas on his arrival at Alleva district's Sunrise City.

"What's the problem?" The man asked right as the call connected.

"The desolate beasts tide has begun moving, and it would reach Amer city within six hours without intervention." Ardeen replied.

"Also, the young man is on the move."

The man raised an eyebrow before revealing a slight smile on his face.

"So I'm guessing Ramirez already knows about that."

"That's right. I've made sure he did, and I also left a bug on him. His movements are within my grasp." Ardeen said.

"Wonderful." The man clapped with a cherry expression.

"Now, I need you to do something for me. Keep an eye on the two of them and make sure they never come back."

The man's eyes glistened as he gave out his orders.

"There's a small shipment of Xalox tubes coming this way. I'll have them redirect over to your location and hand you a few. Those should be enough to help you display fourth level Apertures Opening stage power. Take advantage of the situation and make sure that both sides die, especially Ramirez. It would be best if you make it look like they both killed each other. The Red Fangs have no confirmation about that young human's strength, so they might not find it unbelievable."

Ardeen was surprised as he knew that Ramirez was a partner of his boss, but he didn't ask any questions. As a lackey, asking questions was the last thing to do when given an order.

Your journey continues at empire

As for killing his targets, Ramirez is a fifth level Apertures Opening stage stellar practitioner and Lucas' strength was unidentifiable. Even though he had met the latter and sensed no trace of stellar energy from him, the past investigations had stated that Lucas had once taken care of a second level stellar practitioner. As such, his abilities would be somewhere around the third or fourth level despite being human.

With fourth level strength, Ardeen was confident that he could defeat the two, especially since he would be attacking from the dark and taking advantage of the situation.

"Alright." Ardeen nodded before cutting the call.

The man smiled as he stared at his shipment. In his hand appeared a game piece which he played around with. The piece was a knight from the game, Ruler's Chess.

'Ramirez, oh Ramirez. You actually believed that the higher-ups would let you leave after that foolish mistake? What a fool you are. They simply wanted to extract as much use from you as possible, and now, you have nothing to offer any longer.

'The Red Fangs are already on to you, and with their suspicions that the beast tide is our doing, having you close is like showing an opening, and we can't have that. You actually thought you'd be safe in Alleva? They already know you are here, but are merely occupied with the beast tide. Once that is settled with, they would begin looking for you and your tracks, which might cause some problems for us.'

The man crushed the chess piece into dust, but he didn't throw away the remnants.

'However, as long as you die at this opportune time, everything will be done and end here. If you're unlucky, your corpse might be taken care of by the desolate beasts, but that might actually be for the best. Hehe.

'Take this bullet for the cause. Your sacrifices won't be forgotten.'

He then glanced at his fist that held the remnant particles that were once the knight chess piece. Opening his hand, a new chess piece had appeared, formed out of the dust of the knight chess piece. It was the pawn chess piece of the Ruler's Chess game.

"For the cause."

. . .

Unbeknownst to Lucas, undercurrents were forming with him at the centre of it all.

At the moment, Lucas carried the little girl on his back and made his way back to the outpost. He wasn't in a rush, so as to conserve his energy, so they hadn't gone quite far. It was at this moment Lucas' communicator beeped with a strange rhythm; one which he found unfamiliar.

For some reason, Lucas felt stressed out. He quickly took out his communicator to see what was up, and spotted a notification from the Alleva District Defence Force.

The notification read:

"Warning! All individuals within the range of this message, please evacuate to a safe place. The desolate beasts tide is on the move. All military personnel, immediately make it to your designated stations and prepare for combat.'

The notification was a ranged message targeted at every communicator within the range of the message; in this case, that was every communicator between the border perimeter and the black box perimeter. It was used by the Alleva District Defence Force to notify everyone on duty or in the area about the approaching danger.

Reading the notification, the first thought that crossed Lucas' head was that he was in danger. At the moment, he was less than nine kilometres (5.59 miles) away from the black box perimeter. The black box perimeter was only two kilometres (1.24 miles) away from Garena town. This meant that Lucas was less than eleven kilometres (6.83 miles) from Garena town. For a desolate beast, this distance could easily be covered in a few minutes. The avian desolate beasts could even cover it faster, and the time dropped the stronger the desolate beast got.

Delaying even just a few seconds was the same as relinquishing the right to live.

'Run.'