The System’s Harvester

Mid Evening - Unknown Season : Leviathan | Class: ERROR

-----

*TH-TH-TH-TH-THUMP* *WOOOOOSH* Bouncing between trees, I raced out of the forest as fast as I could, chipping bark from every tree I leapt off.

But even though I was moving far past the speed of sound, I was being trailed...

And I wasn't outrunning them...

*ruuuustle-VWOOM* Feeling a shockwave in the ambient mana around me, I glanced back to see one of the massive, six-hundred-meter tall trees I just jumped off get completely obliterated, showering the surrounding forest in splinters of chocolate wood before the talons and beak of a colossal bird ripped through the cloud of dust. -He's gaining...-

Realizing it missed me, it immediately flapped its wings to return to the sky above the canopy. *WOOOOSH* But the flap was so strong it turned the cloud of splinters into pellets of a detonating claymore. *CR-R-R-RACKLE*

-UH OH!- *FWIP-CRACK* Throwing my head back as a hypersonic shard of wood zipped just under my chin, I flipped backward and lost my footing, forcing me to dart to the ground. *Thump-PUFF* Kicking up a cloud of dirt and rock as the ground shattered, I tightened the grip on my axe and focused on the image my aura painted in my mind. -What a pain...-

I couldn't run anymore. -But this might be an opportunity...-

*WHAAAAMMM* As the ground shook, and the tree I stood beneath was effortlessly eviscerated, I found a path through the cloud of massive splinters and leapt into the air with everything I had.

*CRACK* The sound barrier ripped with a snap as I pierced through the cloud of debris, bouncing off several huge chunks of wood before coming up to a wall of feathers and raring back my axe with some pent-up anger. -PERSISTENT BASTARD!- "HYAH!" Swinging with every ounce of strength I had, my axe seemed to disappear in the falcon's neck, with the handle smashing through its metallic feathers while the blade ripped through its flesh.

But as my axe, glazed with the orange blood of the bird, came out the other side of its neck, a brutal shear appeared in its flesh, nearly completely separating its head from its body. *CrAcKLLE* The sound of its neck breaking instantly filled the air.

But as the echoes of shattering bones dissipated, the forest fell silent. *Pitter-Patter* *Thump* Hearing the gentle patter of rainfall as I landed, I looked up to see rust-colored droplets of blood showering the area like rain before my eyes drifted to the huge, blue and silver bird hanging by its foot, caught in the splintered tree trunk, still faintly twitching.

"I told you not to follow me, and now look at you." I spoke bitterly. Nearly half an hour prior, I had dashed past and thumped a tree that contained its nest. -Because it had eggs, it was all protective.. but to chase me for over a thousand kilometers is ridiculous...- "You acted like I stole one of your eggs to make an omelet, but now that you chased me this far, I'm tempted to go back and do exactly that." I spoke with a mix of annoyance and anger before my system finally sounded.

*Ding!* Finally looking down at the panel, I let out a disappointed breath and tossed my axe in my inventory. *Vwoop*

Quickly tapping expand on the items, I hastily skimmed through them, not expecting much. -A damaged sword, some half-digested monster parts, and.. 'Madam's threads'?- I tilted my head as I read it, before pulling a tiny portion of what I got out of my inventory. *plop* -Ew...-

It was moist and plopped down in my hand like slime, still completely coated in the falcon's stomach acid. -Ah...- I recognized it instantly. -How many spiders did this big ass bird eat to accumulate nearly forty tons of silk?- It was woven spider silk, likely from something not normally in its diet. -Considering the silk isn't getting digested, it must be fairly strong...-

Gently pulling out a single thread from the clump, I wrapped it around my fingers before pulling on it. *Snap* As expected it broke almost instantly, but it put up more of a fight than I expected. "Hoh?" -That's actually.. not bad...-

Staring at it while my thoughts raced, I glanced up at my inventory, looking at the handful of other materials I had gathered before having a grin creep across my face. -Yeah.. that might work...-

*Vwoop* Tossing it back in my inventory, I skimmed through the rest of my materials before opening the smithing table, and working my way back up to speed.

As things were, it had been about five hours since I arrived in the world, and while I could have easily made it to the wyvern in that time, I was still about five hundred kilometers away, trying to come up with a course of action, gather resources, and refine my understanding and control of my aura.

But to be frank, I hadn't made much progress in the latter. All four hours of practice did was show me the endless mountainside I was going to have to climb. -But I have at least gotten a little better at reading it...-

To my understanding, the image being 'projected' in my head was the image of everything the mana I emitted, my aura, touched, something akin to a displacement map, where I could essentially feel everywhere my aura wasn't, as long as it was within scope. This meant I could see things behind cover, whether I was looking that way or not, sometimes with excruciating detail. -It made running from that 'sky king' really easy...-

However, the level of detail would get worse the farther things were from me, and while I could 'feel' things that were well over two hundred kilometers away from me, and could naturally feel my aura's scope, the limit of what I could view with any detail was about twenty or thirty kilometers.

But at the end of it all, that was still extremely far. -It's like I opened another set of eyes...- It was something the word 'blessing' could not describe, being so potent that it could have been considered a weapon in and of itself, to the point I had to question my past self. -I wonder if all those monsters that would react and follow me from far beyond the horizon had this...-

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like I was handicapped in the past.

But it's not like I wasn't going to abuse the shit out of it now that I had it. -I need to grasp at every thread of hope I have at this point...-

For the most part, the monsters I was running into were still manageable, but everything I had let myself fight were considered the lower-rung at best. -Even the wyvern will only be one step up...- Compared to what lurked in that world, I was hunting the equivalent of a rabbit, with the bird I just slaughtered being barely middle-of-the-road compared to rodents.

But it's not like I wasn't used to this situation.

In the hundreds of years I bounced between worlds, clearing missions like a slave, I had been abruptly sent to on many missions well over my pay grade, yet managed to survive every single one.

And that was because of a single, very important skill.

Sneaking.

After eons of having to avoid the eyes of monsters that could kill me on a whim, I got pretty good at it. -And now that I can see everything from miles away, it's just that much easier...-

But, unfortunately, the wyvern was something I couldn't beat with something like stealth. -A part of me is a little anxious about it, but...- Sensing the edge of the forest followed by the jagged texture of a rocky mountainside, I smiled. -When was the last time I had a challenge?-

*WOOOSH* Picking up my pace, I covered hundreds of kilometers in a matter of minutes before ramping up the side of the rocky, grey mountain, keeping my eye out for any useful minerals like iron, tungsten, and more specifically, mythril. -Given how much tungsten there is here, I might be able to get some really good tungsten-based mythril around here...-

With mythril being regular metals that were heavily mana-infused, the stronger the base metal, the stronger the mythril regardless of grade.

But my luck wasn't great. While I did get a decent amount of iron and tungsten ore, there wasn't much of any mythril. -But the small amount I still have leftover should be plenty...-

Eventually making it to the mountaintop, I looked out over the dark, shadowed land only lit by the dim glow of distant stars before setting my eyes on a glowing speck in the sky about two hundred kilometers away, right on the edge of my aura. -He's a big boy...-

Although he was so far away it was a little hard to see, my opponent was a giant sand-colored wyvern that was almost three hundred meters long from head to tail. -He must be at least a dozen millennia old... But he's smaller than I expected...-

Looking closer to an amphiptere, he was extremely skinny, with his body coated in thorns and a feral, hunger-driven twitchiness in his movements. -It looks like he's starving to death...-

Although most creatures of this class were like me, and were able to live without rest, food, or water, it seemed like the wyvern was fighting a battle with itself just to stay alive. -The way he's flying too...- It was almost like it had lost its mind.. reminiscent of a dog with rabies. -But that should work in my favor...-

Looking down over the valley, I tried to survey the terrain for anywhere with favorable features before finding a deep, dried-up water basin filled with sand not far from where the wyvern was. -Hm...- It was the only place I could guarantee a stable footing. -But sand isn't great for what I want to try...-

With wyverns being air-dominant creatures, they would never bring a fight to the ground, and maintain their air advantage no matter the situation.

However, that was only if I gave them that choice...

Reaching out my hand, a dark gate quickly sucked in several materials from my inventory before suddenly dropping out a white and chocolate-colored lance at least four times my height, with a handle nearly half a meter in diameter.

It looked like something made for giants.

However, while it was technically a lance, I was going to treat it as something closer to a harpoon. *tink-tink*

Fiddling with the large, expanding metal barbs on the back of the lance, I gave it a momentary strength test before tossing it in my inventory and starting another craft. *Vwoop*

This time, it was a rope made from the silk I had gotten from the bird. It was about four kilometers long, and about as thick as my arm, while still remaining somewhat elastic. -Four kilometers should be alright.. but...- Looking up at the wyvern, almost eight kilometers off the ground, I smirked. -I might have to draw him in some first though...-

*Vwoop* Tossing the rope into my inventory, I gave the valley one last look over before making my way down to the basin, carefully staying out of the wyvern's sight while directing my aura away from it before hopping down into the deep pit, and preparing everything.

As things were, the basin was about a dozen kilometers from the wyvern, but with the altitude he was flying, I was essentially right under him. "Hooh..." -Alright...- *Creak* Tightly tying the rope to the lance, I stood up and walked out from under the cliff of the basin to get another look at the wyvern.

Thankfully he still hadn't noticed me. -But.. how am I going to get him down...-

Being so high off the ground posed its own challenge. I was out of range for him, and he was out of range for me. -But given his size, his range is still probably farther than mine...-

I didn't have too many options in all honesty. -Hm... What if I aim my aura at him...-

Considering I couldn't feel his aura or presence at all, even though I was essentially right under him, and given his starved look, he was likely extremely low on mana. -I wonder if he'll come after me...-

*VWOOOM* Releasing my aura, the mana in the air almost seemed to yelp before the image in my mind expanded, engulfing the wyvern and revealing its tiny, barely half kilometer wide bubble of aura in an instant. -He really is low on mana...-

And just as I thought, the moment it felt my aura, its feral gaze locked on me, and it's frantic movements stiffened.

But it didn't mindlessly charge at me like I expected.. rather.. it seemed cautious, and hesitant...

Even in its feral state, it felt fear.

But at the time, I couldn't understand why... -What is it doing?-

Quickly coming up with a plan B, a black sphere appeared next to me to craft another lance, but almost immediately, the wyvern darted to the ground and ran, gliding just over the ground where I couldn't see him. -OH YOU LITTLE FUCKER!-

Hastily throwing everything in my inventory and pulling out my axe, I hopped up out of the hole and darted after the wyvern with everything I had, following him with my aura while navigating through the rocky valley.

However, after just a moment, I abruptly stopped, skidding to a halt as my eyes shot open. *RRRRRRUMBLEEE* The ground shook violently as if there was an earthquake before the wyvern I was following was suddenly completely engulfed in something. -W..what the fuck...-

Looking up at the horizon, I immediately found myself staring into a colossal plume of magma at least eighty kilometers tall.

The wyvern I was following died in an instant...

But the quest didn't end...

-Uh oh...- Feeling the rumbling in the ground grow stronger and stronger, my senses heightened and I bolted backward.

But it wasn't fast enough to avoid the huge plume of molten rock that would instantly engulf me, and hurl me into the atmosphere. *WOOM* The thick, viscous liquid rock was like a cage, but as I quickly clapped my arms together and threw myself out of it, nearly fifty kilometers off the ground, my gaze landed on the violent series of explosions tracing its way up through the plume of molten rock before suddenly stopping where I was and blasting out into the air.

It was a wyvern many times the size of the one I was previously chasing, with dark crimson scales reminiscent of a proper dragon, and a mouth full of magma aimed straight at me. -Oh you have to be fucking,- *CRACK* My thoughts were immediately cut short as the magma in its mouth shot out and expanded, breaking my line of sight like a smoke screen.

But my aura still saw everything.

I was about to be eaten.

And being fifty kilometers off the ground, there was nothing I could do to dodge...

Or.. was there...

*Vwoop* Pulling out the spare lance I made in the nick of time, I rared it back and hurled it up into the air as hard as I could. "HYAH!" *CRRRRACK* The recoil launched me through the sound barrier instantly, but it was only barely fast enough to dodge the massive maw that blew through the wall of magma and closed on the space I just occupied.

-And here I thought I was getting off easy with this mission...- My emotions drained as I continued toward the ground and watched the wyvern slowly tilt its head to look down at me with its thin, vibrant crimson pupils. -This is gonna be a real pain in the ass...-

-----

---

Read up to 5 weeks ahead of schedule, and get early access to artwork on My Patreon!

(In case Embedded Link doesn't work: https://www.patreon.com/TDOD )

-------------

Also, please feel free to check out our discord for all updates related to TSH releases! https://discord.gg/Dv7G5bQD4v

All are welcome!