Birth Of The Crafts-God

With the Jaburian taken down and stored in his inventory, Lucas made his way back to the outpost. While Garena town was closer to Lucas and there was a landing strip there with a small outstation, going over there was quite risky. Apart from the risk involved, Lucas would have to answer a bunch of questions from what he was doing there, how he made it over despite being a human, and why he was with a little girl. He might end up holed inside the outstation while being grilled by the men on duty.

As such, heading back to the outpost, even though it was farther away, became the best option for Lucas. The outpost was already familiar with him and had him on their record, so even if Lucas were to return after quite a few days, he would merely be subjected to some standard checks before being let off. From there, Lucas could charter a ride back to the boundary perimeter.

Staring at the little girl who walked half a step behind, Lucas sighed.

After a bit of questioning, Lucas had surmised that the girl had acute amnesia. All she knew of was that her parents had died. As for her name, their name, or even the settlement they came from, Lucas had no idea. There was also no hint or clue on her that could help Lucas figure out her identity. Even a scan with his communicator revealed that she wasn't registered in the city-state's database.

At first, he presumed that she was from Southvale village or the surrounding villages that had recently gotten attacked when he just arrived in the region, but he quickly cancelled the thought. Southvale village was over twenty-two (22) kilometres away from where he found her. It was illogical to believe that a girl this little had walked so far without any food or water all the while.

What's more, while there weren't so many desolate beasts on the run, there were still a few that had escaped the black box perimeter. For the little girl to not have encountered any during a more than twenty kilometres journey was nothing short of a miraculous and unbelievable amount of luck; something which Lucas fathomed to be impossible.

As such, Lucas instead deduced that she was probably a survivor of some close by village or settlement that got destroyed by a wandering desolate beast.

Something about the girl struck him, which was why Lucas cared for her. Just like his little self in his first life, Lucas was in a similar situation. With no parents or guardians, his eleven year old self had to survive in a forbidden forest filled with magic creatures and ferocious entities for three years before his master found him. During that time, it was no exaggeration to say that Lucas had experienced far too many life-and-death crises that stuck with him.

In the end, he had developed a soft spot for orphans as Lucas felt that they were the only ones to truly be able to understand what he has been.

During his time on Earth, despite having made millions from his research, Lucas was known to be frugal with his spending unless it came to research. He had instead spent most of his earnings sponsoring a few orphanages and supporting broken homes. This had caused him to have a new nickname apart from "Father of Material Science", which was "Father of the Fatherless". It was a title he didn't boast about nor felt proud of, but Lucas had taken it upon himself to act as a father for the orphans he took care of.

Seeing the little game reminded him of the oath he swore as well as his past self, so there was no way Lucas would just let her be.

'Best to find an orphanage to keep her safe.' Lucas thought.

As for adopting the little girl, he didn't consider it. Lucas felt he was too busy to be raising kids.

"Something's wrong." Find your next read at empire

Lucas said before suddenly picking the little girl up and giving her a piggyback ride.

"Ah." The little girl let out a soft shout.

"I can't let a little kid like yourself walk the way back. That would make me look irresponsible."

"System never expected host to have a soft spot." The system's voice, which had been quiet since the incident at the rescue mission, sounded.

"Oh shut up." Lucas responded.

The little girl was confused seeing him speak out loud and almost mistook Lucas for a mad man.

The duo, appearing like an elder brother and a little sister, made their way to the outpost, but unbeknownst to them, trouble was brewing close by.

. . .

Garena town, black box perimeter.

Garena town was a very large town, comparable to a city. Most of the large towns were the same as cities, but the lack of official recognition made them unable to take on the title of 'city'. The reason for this was due to a lot of political struggles by the ruling powers of Alleva district and Baylands City's Central Prefecture district.

More cities would mean more city lords, which would then bring about another struggle for power and dilute the influence of the current city lords. To prevent that, all sides had agreed on a fixed number of existing cities, unless otherwise simultaneously decided upon. This led to most of the developing towns which had experienced population and economical boom to still remain classified as a town.

Although called a town, Garena town was very well developed. In its heyday, it was a city filled with hovercars, neon screens, holographic displays and many more. The economy was very healthy, and since it was located in the grey zone known as Alleva district, there was a lot of money-exchange going on. Gambling dens existed everywhere, racing tracks for hovercar races were located in one area, and so on. But gambling wasn't the only speciality of the town.

Due to its unique geographical location, being right at the centre of Alleva district, it was a good channel for commerce and trading. Some companies had even set up shop here, selling hover cars, communicators, electronics and more. There were even security companies here who would provide guaranteed safety to their clients. Also, being in the grey zone, there were naturally outlets to hire underground assassins here.

One could say that Garena town was a thriving town in every sense of the word. However, that was all in the past. The current Garena town couldn't even be described as a shell of its old self. The skyscrapers that once stood side by side with the clouds were nothing more than rubble. The hover cars and technological devices that gave the city its vine were littered all across the streets as scrap metal.

Garena town had become an unrecognisable location with the only inhabitants being a large number of desolate beasts of various shapes and sizes. Some of these monsters appeared like dragons while others like basilisks, rhinos, apes and so on. They rampaged around the area and caused damage all over again. There would be occasional fights amongst themselves, but it was sorted out quickly. This was a mystery of desolate beast waves; one which zoologists had yet to figure out.

Most desolate beasts were apex predators or even archenemies on the food chain. When they sight each other on the wild, they would clash in a heated battle until one was dead. However, when they were in a wave, the monsters' instincts would strangely be toned down greatly. So much so that they wouldn't engage in life-or-death fights anymore, at best having a small scuffle. No one knew why this was so and no one could explain it, but it was believed to be a strange deviation in their genetic makeup.

At the moment, the desolate beasts that formed the tide, which numbered up to a five thousand or more, suddenly stopped wherever they were. Whether roaming the streets, playing with the broken buildings and metal scraps, facing off against the other, or even having some alone time, they all froze on the spot for a second.

In the very next moment, all the desolate beasts unanimously turned towards one direction and began to advance.

The desolate beasts tide that had kept silent for over a week now, had begun to make their move again.