Hikari: Rise Of The Weapons Master

'Fck.'

Zack was currently running on the sand as though he had an entire nation chasing him. However, it was actually true but in his case, he was being chased by a nation of ants.

It had been three days since he had been inside the desert and the real quest had started. And as the days progressed, the desert became even more of a nightmare.

Beasts started to appear all around him and Zack couldn't even use his inspection skill on them. All he could do was spam the hydro pump skill in hopes of killing the beasts.

It turned out that the more he used the skill, the more beasts he would attract.

In the desert, even the beasts required water which made Zack a prime target for them.

For example, whenever he would use his hydro pump skill, the beasts would open their mouths and try to drink the water.

However, the force and pressure of the water would blow their heads off and Zack would be able to escape. Unfortunately, he didn't receive any exp from killing the beasts, or else he would have already leveled up a lot.

Suddenly, two ants the size of a car appeared in front of Zack which forced him to use his skill.

"Water pump!" Zack then sucked in as much air as his lungs would allow before opening his mouth and shooting a powerful water hydro cannon at the two ants.

They opened their tiny mouths, which had two pincers coming out at the sides, and tried to drink the water. However, their heads were blown away as their bodies disintegrated into the desert.

Zack then turned his mouth towards the ground as the water pressure lifted him off the ground. While carefully directing the water, he managed to put some distance between himself and the ants.

'I should be safe now.' Zack thought with a sigh as he was currently sitting on a dune. He still had four days left to survive and the night was slowly approaching.

Some of the beasts in the desert would go to sleep but the night beasts would wake up and come to hunt Zack.

After all, if they managed to capture him, they would be able to get water from him whenever they wanted.

'If only they knew that their heads would be blown away before they would be able to swallow the water.' Zack didn't dare speak in the middle of the desert since there were beasts with very high levels of hearing.

Suddenly, the ground below his feet started shaking as he sighed and stood up.

'Here they come.' In front of him, the ground tore open as ten overgrown moles appeared in front of him. Zack didn't know their exact names so he branded them as overgrown moles.

After all, they lived underground and could dig at an unimaginable pace. Fighting them was also a huge pain in the ass since they could not only use earth attacks but could also go below the ground before coming back up and attacking Zack.

The black-haired boy was getting tired of them so he decided it was better for him to try and fight them head-on if he could.

'I wonder how long they will keep respawning.' No matter how many beasts he had killed in the past two days, more and more of them would keep appearing.

So now, Zack just killed all of them upfront without bothering to escape unless he had a giant horde behind him.

"Water pump." Zack moved his head from left to right as he killed all ten moles in a matter of seconds.

However, his words had made an even more feared creature appear near him and the creature was none other than a special viper.

Unlike every other beast in the desert, the viper was hell-bent on biting Zack and eating him. On the first day, he had almost been taken by surprise at night and the viper had dragged him away.

The previous night, he had been able to realize that the viper could hear him and track him every time he spoke the skill name.

And it was a beast that he wanted to avoid at all costs.

***

Slowly, three more days passed by as Zack arrived at the last day and this time, he was running from every single beast in the forest.

The reason?

They had entered the berserk state. They no longer cared about anything and were throwing their lives to capture Zack.

The one-minute cooldown no longer looked very short as the beasts were able to kill very easily. If he didn't know better, he might have been captured on the sixth day.

"Fck!" Zack cursed as the black viper shot towards his right leg with the intent of biting it off. "Hydro Pump!"

Sadly, it got blasted in the face with incoming water and was pushed back because of it. Zack immediately used the remaining water to propel him forward before opening the quest.

[ Phase One: Thirst

- Survive the desert of mirage for a week(10 minutes remaining). Can only use a skill loaned by the system.

- Loaned Skill: Hydro Pump

Rewards: 10 bronze coins

Time Limit: None (Survival) ]

He only had to survive for ten minutes so he decided that it was time to break loose.

As soon as his skill recharged, Zack turned back and shot water at every single beast. Shockingly, they froze at their spots and opened their mouths wide open.

One by one, they drank the water despite the force and pressure, and this time, their heads didn't get blown away.

'Thank you for your help.' A telepathic voice entered his mind as Zack turned to look at the black viper lying motionless in front of the beasts. 'Let them drink as much water as all of them want. I will take on all of the damage.'

In front of Zack's eyes, the viper started disintegrating as every single beast started crying.

The only reason they had been chasing Zack separately was to bring him to a spot where all of them could gather together with their ruler, the viper.

And in front of them, their leader was slowly dying.

Zack couldn't stop the skill even if he wanted to so he kept feeding the beasts until all of them had drunk enough water.

At that moment, the viper body's completely vanished but he left one last message before completely disappearing.

'Thank you for your help and may all of you live good lives.' Roars emerged in the entire desert as the beasts started mourning the death of their leader.

A leader who had sacrificed its entire body to take all of their damage just so that they wouldn't die due to thirst.

Zack had no idea what was happening and he didn't care much either. He just looked at the beasts crying before the timer in the quest hit zero.

He had successfully managed to survive a week in the desert.

[ First Phase of the trial has been completed.

You may leave for another place and continue the trial later. ]

With one final look at the beasts, Zack exited the trial place and went inside Hikari.

He had to do a few things before taking the second phase.