The Gamer's System

[2:00 am]

Zeke began the fifth day on Yaeger's realm early. He woke up before everyone did. He looked at the time on the [Gamer's System] and saw that it's still 2:00 in the morning. He slowly adjusted his eyes to the light and, made a few stretched of his muscles before getting up.

"This is going to be one busy day." He thought to himself, getting a [Portal Scroll] and proceeding immediately to the forest. 

The whole area is still dark. There is not much that Zeke can see with his human eyes. But this is not a problem anymore as he has the [Night Vision] function which came from the [System Update]. Zeke could see the monsters, the terrain, and everything else clearly. Giving him an upper hand against other monsters who do not have something similar to this function.

However, Zeke does not plan to go on another monster killing spree. His target is rather specific this time and, the unlucky pick are the sturdy [Earth Golems]. This area is already cleared with Heron coming as the boss monster in the area. Zeke does not intend to raise the creature again as there isn't enough time for that. What Zeke intends is to collect as many [Earth Golem Cores] as he can. 

"Conjure." Zeke raised his trusted summons and, with this, he began grinding for materials.

[4:00 am]

"One hundred all in all." Zeke said to himself as he finished getting the cores he needed. 

The [Winged Monkeys] helped greatly in t Zeke's goal. After all, they are his nimblest and fastest units. Adding to the fact that they can just stay in the air, far away from the reach of the golems. 

With every [Earth Golem] that dies, the [Winged Monkeys] will swoop down to gather the materials left. The other conjures of Zeke helps in making sure that, the [Winged Monkeys] do not get harmed in the process. Zeke himself did his part and continued shooting at the [Earth Golems].

The [Earth Golem Core] is a common item as all golems would have one automatically. After all, the core serves as the heart of the [Earth Golems] pumping the mana needed by the creature.

"It's still a bit early so I've got time to do other stuff." He added, going through the areas where the next monsters will come out. He planted many [Detonations] on both areas, filling them with the usual [Poison Cloud]. Zeke made sure that there are enough layers of this to both cover a large area and to make a significant damage. 

"All right. I think that's all for now." He said, seeing the morning sun begin to rise. With all the sweat and dirt that built up, Zeke wanted to take a bath and eat before continuing on with the tiring day ahead.

At this, Zeke took out a [Teleportation Scroll], immediately heading back to the Cabin.

[6:00 am]

"You're up early." Yaeger remarked as he saw Zeke coming back from the forest. The human is drenched in sweat and has dirt sticking to his clothes. Zeke didn't even bother fixing his bed hair as all he needed to face are monsters.

"Yeah well, I've got a big day ahead." He replied, passing by the goddess and entering trough the front door.

Yaeger smiled at the human. She knows that Zeke is making a lot of plans again. She's also excited about the outcome of the upcoming fight between Zeke and the final monster which the mortals would face in her realm.

"Don't die on me." She thought, thinking of Zeke as she glanced at the sky.

Inside the cabin, Zeke saw Keith performing a sword stance. The small half-elf bent his knees in a solid posture. Then, his hand is placed to the side of his waist where a sword should be. Keith doesn't have any real sword of course as he is too young to wield one. However, Hark has given the boy some secret training sessions, permitting the child to hold a sword whenever Sylvia was not around. 

Zeke didn't have any formal training in swordsmanship. Neither does he plan to use one as his primary weapon. After all, Zeke believes that a sword is too limited in the functions it can perform. Yet, he admired the little boy as he saw Keith make a slashing motion.

"He must've learned that from Gallio." Zeke though to himself, removing the idea of Hark still existing altogether. Whatever happens, even if by some sort of miracle Hark comes out during the fight; Zeke has steeled himself to killing the person. This is the only option he has because, he can't take any chances.

This left a bitter taste to Zeke. He feels guilty even though he hasn't performed the act yet. He has continued lying to Sylvia and Keith after all, giving them the false hope of Hark coming back to them. 

Zeke clenched his fist and avoided the child; immediately going inside his room. He proceeded to picking up a new set of clothes and going to the bath inside the forest. He used a [Portal Scroll] again, knowing that there are a bunch of things which he still needs to do.

[6:20 am]

"Right then." Zeke said, summoning Cull and Lupus. He gave both the order to guard him as he takes a bath because, Zeke plans to get a bit of a shut eye as he dips into the warm water. 

This function would not have been possible earlier on. But, with the level spike of Zeke, [Conjure III] gave the option of retaining [Commander] units even if the owner loses consciousness. Zeke would've preferred if this included all his conjures but, that would probably be something added on the next patches.

"Ahh… that feels heavenly." Zeke said out loud, enjoying the water that began relaxing his muscles. During the past days, Zeke felt a rejuvenating effect that is added to the hot spring. Although there is no mention of this through his [Analysis] skill, he still felt it working through his body.

Soon after, he fell to sleep. As soon as he did, Zeke began crafting the new item he needed for the upcoming fight. With the current state of things, Zeke cannot hope to beat two boss monsters without being properly prepared.

With a hundred [Earth Golem Cores] being available, Zeke knew that there is a high chance of success to the crafting he will perform. And, the goal for this time is to create a weapon that has the same destructive power as a nuclear bomb.

[Crafting succeeded!]

[Crafting failed.]

[Crafting succeeded!]

[Crafting succeeded!]

[Crafting succeeded!]

[Crafting failed.]

[Crafting succeeded!]

As Zeke went on with the crafting, the grade of materials made also continued going up. As such, the percentage of successfully crafting a material goes down every time an item is crafted of higher rarity and value. However, with the [Lucky Gambler] skill in effect, the percentage is raised by a considerable amount. This made it easier for Zeke to breeze past the initial crafts.

[Refined Mana Core has been created!]

Zeke was able to create four of these without much difficulty. There were failures of course. But then, Zeke still has a lot which he can use. Zeke then advanced from this point, trying to create a core of a higher rank.

[Crafting failed.]

[Crafting succeeded!]

[Crystal Mana Core has been created!]

[Item Grade: B+]

[Durability: 100/100]

"That's one down." Zeke said, not thinking about the wasted [Refined Mana Cores] that shattered when the first attempt failed. This left Zeke with exactly [50 Earth Golem Cores] left.

Zeke continued performing the same crafting procedure. He made use of the fact that time moves slowly when he is in his subconscious state. And, as he woke up, two of the same items has already been made.

"Luckily, I succeeded in making that." Zeke said, holding on to the cores on his hands. He felt the water do its magic, loosening his stiffened muscles and, although he wanted to enjoy the bath a little while longer, time does not permit hi to do so. Thus, he got out of the bath, dried himself and wore the clean set of clothes which he brought, then teleported back to the cabin.

[6:45 am]

Sebastian and Harun were already preparing the table for breakfast when Zeke came. The two servants greeted Zeke who also bowed at them; a sort of greeting which is also used in Elysium.

"What's for breakfast?" He asked, getting near the table and wishing that his guess is wrong.

"It's scrambled eggs, sliced slug flesh and, noodles that were fighting back when I cooked them." Harun replied, allowing a sigh of relief to escape from Zeke's lips. If there's one thing that will ruin his appetite, it's the cooked flesh of Heron the dragon.

"Okay, just call me when everything is set." Zeke replied, going to his room and finishing the final part of the crafting process.

He took out his twin pistols [Death's Symphony]. As was mentioned, this weapon has already been tweaked once, removing the effect of harming the user and reducing the firing time to the speed of a pistol which is, as fast a you can pull the trigger.

On the side of both weapons is a small circular spot that is left empty. Zeke designed this to be such because, this is where he will place the cores he crafted. Unlike the previous crafting, this one has no chance of failure as, all that needs to be done is to place the core into the gun – without any revisions to the model nor shaping of it to something else. 

Zeke already prepared the area – designing the metal that holds the gun together in such a way that, it will not blow up no matter how much mana you store into them. 

"Well, it'll probably blow up if normal mana levels are exceeded." Zeke thought to himself, making the calculation based on the amount of mana he has seen and experienced thus far. The strongest of which is Sylvia's during the moment after her evolution.

[Insert Core into the Weapon?]

The system notification came up. Zeke answered 'Yes' with nothing much to think about the choices. At this, the cores disappeared from his inventory and, his pistols glowed a light blue color and, before Zeke could even blink…the next version of his pistols have been made.

[Weapon Name: Death's Symphony II]

[Added Feature: The user can now store a skill into the bullets used. This requires the shells to be made from materials that are both empty and capable of storing mana. The user can also store mana and, use it to create stronger damage output.]

[Warning: Since the cores used are of higher grade than the materials used in making the pistols, the weapon would break once the levels exceed the capacity of the pistol.]

"Ahh I knew this would happen. Though I probably don't need to exceed those levels." Zeke thought.

At this, someone knocked on his door. Making him get up and proceed to eating breakfast.

[7:45 am]

Zeke did a bunch of things aside from eating breakfast. One was the discussion of the plan for the day and, second is what needs to be done right after he finishes defeating the two bosses.

The information given by Yaeger states that, the last opponent will be summoned as soon as all the four boss monsters have been defeated. As such, they need to be ready once that happens. 

Yaeger won't help them out because, that's part of the deal Zeke made with her. One which involves Zeke finding out more details about Heron and the Ruined City. This time, Zeke became stricter with the elves, telling them that he will confiscate their weapons once they disobey his orders.

The servant elves made sounds of anguish as Zeke said this. They love their new weapons after all. So much so that they'd probably sell half of their remaining life just to keep them. As such, they nodded in agreement to Zeke, knowing that this is the only logical choice.

"Okay, everything is set." Zeke said, proceeding to the middle of the forest. He then summoned Lupus and Erio with each monster going to a different part of the forest – finding the last monster required to summon the boss.

This didn't take long and, Zeke gave the order to kill the monsters immediately – a command which both Lupus and Erio obeyed.

"Detonate." Zeke began, covering half of the forest in [Poison Cloud] and killing off the remaining monsters within both areas.

"Conjure." He continued, summoning all his monsters and, positioning them at strategically planned spots. 

"Conjure." He added, successfully reanimating a lot of monsters that died due to the [Poison Cloud] and, with all this happening, the summoning crystals finally glowed red.

Zeke wore a smile on his face as he saw the beacons of light rise to the sky as he said:

"Let's get this going."