Chapter 16: The Quota and the Duo

Chapter 16: Chapter 16: The Quota and the Duo

The early morning sun cast long, sharp shadows across the cobblestones of Riverdale as Eric laced up his scuffed boots in the attic.

"Let’s go, buddy. Time to earn our keep."

*Caw!*

Coal fluttered down from the open window ledge, landing firmly on Eric’s shoulder with his talons tucked close to avoid piercing the fabric of his jacket.

Downstairs, Eric wolfed down a quick bowl of warm oat porridge, bid Emily and the children a swift farewell, and headed out into the crisp morning air.

Before heading to the dimensional outpost, he made a brief stop at the blacksmith’s stall in the commercial quarter. Handing over three hundred credits, he picked up a fresh Common-rank wooden-core round buckler to replace the one the Fleshcrawler had splintered. With his blade sharpened, his shield strapped tight, and his left arm completely restored by his Level 1 breakthrough, he felt physically primed.

Eric bypassed the morning crowd in the Association concourse, swiped his bronze tamer badge through the automated terminal, and walked through the reinforced airlock toward Gate 3.

He stepped directly into the swirling violet tear.

*VUUUM.*

A fleeting pulse of weightlessness pulled at his senses before the sterile air of the outpost vanished. The familiar scent of damp earth, crushed wild herbs, and dense ambient mana flooded his lungs as the Tyra Grasslands opened up beneath a pale amber sky.

Without waiting for a verbal command, Coal kicked off Eric’s shoulder with a powerful flap of his wings, climbing rapidly into the open sky to establish high-altitude reconnaissance.

*DING.*

A sharp crimson window fractured the air before Eric’s retinas:

│ [DYNAMIC QUEST ENGINE TRIGGERED]

│

│ Quest: The Hunt

│ Objective: Slay 5 Rift Monsters within 24 Hours.

│ Progress: 0/5

│

│ Rewards: [Basic Gacha Ticket x1], [Level Up x1]

│ Failure Penalty: 50% Cultivation Experience Drain

Eric scanned the glowing parameters, his dark eyes narrowing with intense focus.

*A guaranteed Level Up and another Gacha ticket.*

The reward was massive, but the failure penalty was lethal to his timeline. A 50% cultivation drain would instantly erase his recent breakthrough, dragging his Level 1 baseline straight back down to Level 0.

*No room for hesitation. Five confirmed kills before sunset.*

Eric dropped into a low, forward-leaning stance, advancing through the waist-high emerald grass with silent, measured strides.

Within ten minutes of sweeping the western ridge, a sharp double-pulse resonated across the soul tether in his chest. Through their shared mental connection, Coal transmitted an overhead snapshot: two Riftspawns resting together near the bleached ribcage of an ancient beast, roughly forty meters ahead in a sunbaked depression.

*Two targets at once,* Eric calculated, his fingers tightening around the grooved leather grip of his shortsword. *Both should be Rank F. Coal is sitting at Level 4, and my own physical strength, balance, and reaction speed scaled upward with Level 1. We hold the initiative.*

Eric crept along the downwind flank of the tall grass, masking his scent and silhouette until the two demonic reptiles came into view.

They were basking on a wide slab of weathered shale. Their charcoal chitin plates were dull under the morning light, their jagged orange ember veins pulsing with sluggish, rhythmic intervals.

*Strike on my mark.*

Through the mental link, Eric signaled the kill command.

Coal folded his glossy black wings and plummeted like a guided missile.

*WHOOSH.*

Before the first Riftspawn could even register the sudden drop in air pressure, Coal slammed his bone-white beak straight through the back of its neck. The enhanced Level 4 kinetic impact drove the monster’s skull violently into the shale, snapping its spinal column with a wet, echoing crack.

*SCREEECH!*

The second Riftspawn hissed in wild panic, scrambling backward as its throat pouch instantly swelled into a blistering orange sphere, preparing to spray a point-blank blast of molten bile at the bird.

"Not happening!"

Eric burst from the brush, closing the gap in two explosive strides.

With the physical amplification granted by his Level 1 baseline, his sprint carried twice the acceleration of his previous hunt. He drove his round buckler forward, angling the steel-rimmed face to cut off the beast’s line of sight.

*HISS!*

The searing glob of molten bile splashed violently against the angled wood, skating harmlessly off the curved edge and sizzling out in the dirt.

Before the monster could draw breath for a second volley, Eric stepped smoothly past the shield, pivoted his hips, and brought his iron shortsword down in a clean, diagonal cleave across the monster’s exposed neck.

*SHLICK.*

The honed steel bit deep, slicing cleanly through alien cartilage and windpipe. The demonic beast let out a choked, bubbling hiss, collapsing onto the stone as its thick legs twitched once and went completely still.

Beside it, the first Riftspawn had already ceased all movement beneath Coal’s iron grip.

The entire skirmish had taken less than eight seconds. No fractured bones, no desperate scrambles, just cold, synchronized execution.

Eric drew a steady breath, wiping the dark ichor from his blade against a clump of wild grass.

A sharp grin touched his face as he looked over at Coal, who was already hopping onto the first carcass, cocking his head toward the monster’s chest plate.

*DING.*

│ [QUEST PROGRESS: 2/5 Monsters Slain]

│ Current Status: Active

"Clean kill, buddy," Eric murmured, kneeling beside the fallen beasts and pulling his extraction knife from his belt. "Two down. Three more to go."