*[Regeneration started successfully.]*

*[You have a new skill ‘Faint Resistance’.]*

‘Is this a joke?’

Saransh was finally awake but he had actually acquired the skill ‘Faint Resistance’. It was not even 10 seconds since he passed out but he was already conscious and could open his eyes.

“What happened?”

Saransh looked around to see a humanoid manster standing right beside him. It was a black figure without an arm and Saransh was quite familiar with the manster in front of him.

‘The shadow manster.’

However, its size was similar to the one, which he saw inside the vault that was demolished.

‘But something really feels off this time!’

Saransh thought to himself.

The next instant the shadow manster pulled out a long sword from thin air and started aiming it towards Saransh. However, before it could complete the swing, the legs of the shadow manster started freezing as if it in a blizzard.

‘What is happening?’

Even though there was no magic cast on the manster by him, its legs were frozen and it stopped attacking.

Saransh knew what that meant, this was his chance and he had to be quick. However, to his surprise, suddenly the long sword appeared in his hands without even him using the creator’s gateway.

“Blood Reaper”

Saransh shouted with all his might and smashed his sword into the manster’s right arm. He remember it being one of the sword related skills available for him. It was a devastating skill; it ripped apart the manster’s only arm and sent it flying to the sky.

“Nani?”

Even Saransh was surprised at the strength of the skill.

*GRRORR*

The manster cried.

Nevertheless, the next instant, regeneration stepped in and the arm started growing back to his former state.

On the other side, Rahul’s party was completely surprised at the series of events. At the first, their clan chief froze the entire lake, even freezing the enemy’s legs. Soon after, they saw the manster’s arm flying though the sky and the manster crying in pain.

After seeing the regeneration in place, Rahul did not think twice before casting a pinpoint freeze spell on the manster’s right arm and stopped it from regenerating.

‘Someone unknown is aiding us in the battle.’

Rahul and Saransh though the same thing.

One the other hand, Saransh was very exhausted from his previous attack and fell to the ground. However, after seeing the regeneration stopped, he felt a little happier inside.

*[‘Blood Reaper’ is a last resort skill and it drains all the plasma for a last attack.]*

“You could have atleast told me that beforehand.”

The manster, which was arrogant at the beginning, was now in a panicked state after losing both of its arm.

“Attack!”

Rahul shouted and everyone in his team started barraging the enemy with devastating skills one after another.

At this point, the manster could not attack or even flee.

“Ice Spear”

Rahul used his ultimate skill. The ice spear, which targeted the enemy’s head, froze everything in its way until it hit the manster piercing its forehead. Surprisingly, the wound was not deep enough due to mansters’ high defence. Regardless, after taking heaving damage one after the other, the manster died and fell to the ground.

‘It would have been a completely different story if the manster hadn’t lost its arm. My best attack couldn’t even make a deep wound, what force of nature sent its arm flying.’

Rahul was very happy since there were no casualties and the fight ended quickly. However, he was very confused.

“Job well done chief!”

It was one of rank ‘A’ team member, who was congratulating the clan chief. For everyone else it looked like everything went according to plan and the clan master defeated the manster with ease.

“Rahul… the manster’s body had disappeared!”

Shilpa noticed it first.

To everyone’s surprise, the manster that died vanished in front of their eyes.

One the other side,

*[Faint resistance has gone up by one level!]*

Saransh did not lose his consciousness this time. He could see the manster taking intense damage and finally falling to the ground.

‘What just happened?’

Saransh was surprised and confused.

After cutting its arm off, Saransh wasn’t sure what to do next since he had drained all his plasma. However, to his surprise, the manster fell without him doing anything.

Saransh and manster were both on the ground and he could see the manster’s face transforming. The black substance that surrounded the manster also started vanishing.

After a minute or so, Saransh could see an old man in front of him wearing a very weird attire.

“Good to see you again, Vlad!”

The person spoke in a feeble voice.

“I’m not Vlad…”

Saransh replied.

*[Is that what concerns you now…] *

“Yes it does, since I’m not Vlad… and“

“Wow! The manster just talked.”

*[Seriously…]*

“I’m not a manster. I’m Aldar Olvato, the creator of mirages.”

The person replied to clear the misunderstanding.

“Did you just say creator?”

“Yes, I was a creator before I was turned into a manster by them. But regardless, thanks for freeing me from this curse.”

Aldar stood up and thanked Saransh. Soon after, Saransh saw both the arms of the old man growing back from the cut.

“Wow!”

As for Saransh, his ‘Replenish’ had reached level 3 after trying to replenish plasma from rock bottom a couple of times and he finally get back on his feet.

“If you are not Vlad, then tell me how come you carry his sword.”

“I got this sword from a manster the other day.”

“Are you sure, it was a manster?”

“Yes it was.”

“What has the world come to for even Vlad to succumb to this cursed spell?”

“I can’t remain in my original form in the human realm for any longer.”

A white light started enveloping Aldar from all sides.

“I will have to leave for now friend. May I know your name, Vlad’s disciple?”

“Saransh.”

Saransh replied.

“We will soon meet, Saransh and take care of him for me Mira”

“Creator’s Gateway”

The next instant, Aldar had already vanished from the sight.

“So, there are more than one creator?”

*[Yes, there are.]*

*[You have unlocked a new skill ‘Illusion master’. Would you like to activate...]*

Even before Mira had completed saying it. Saransh had already hit the ‘Yes’ button.

“Wow… that was unexpected.”

*[I think Aldar just made you his disciple]*

“What… Alder did?”

*[Yes, he did. To think that you would become the disciple of two creators.]*

“Ain’t I a genius?”

Saransh was grinning like always.

“I think it’s time to test out my new skills in battle.”

‘If I go back now, I can take out some golems with my sword.’

Since the sword-based quest was complete, Saransh could use the sword from now on.

“Time to check my new skills.”

Skills:

(Weapon dependent skills)

Swift blade (Lv1) Sword Mimic (Lv1) Blood Reaper (Lv1)

“Wait… why are all these Level 1?”

*[Previously it was Lv99, because Vlad had shared his insight with you for clearing the quest. Since the quest is cleared, you are back to level 1.]*

“Sigh… It better than nothing anyway”

“Let’s go kill some golems.”

Elsewhere,

Rahul was explaining the whole situation to officials and the other clans who had gathered to defeat the manster. It was hard for anyone to believe that such a small clan was able to defeat such a strong manster with ease without any prominent clan’s help. Mr. Nara Lokesh was also present at the site to have look at manster that wreaked havoc throughout the country.

To everyone’s surprise, there was no corpse.

‘It’s just like the previous time.’

The Defence Minister thought.

“When we arrived in the storage vault, we didn’t find the corpse of the manster which supposedly killed all the huntsmen.”

Nara said to Rahul.

“These shadow mansters will remain a mystery, atleast for now.”

Rahul nodded to Nara’s comment.

“We are sending some men to Thailand to investigate on the same.”

“Your team’s first-hand experience with the shadow manster will help solving the issue.”

“I would want some members of your clan including yourself to be part of this venture.”

Rahul thought for a second and said.

“Yeah sure, Sir”

“But sir, I felt like towards the end of the battle, the manster willing gave up the fight, this time.”

After hearing Rahul saying that, It put Nara into little bit of a thinking.

“When are we leaving sir?”

“In 2 weeks Rahul, get your team ready by then.”

Rahul nodded.

On the other hand,

Saransh was having his favourite ‘dismantle’ time after figuring out how to defeat the golem.

Golems are very peculiar mansters. They are resistant to all physical attacks. However, they are not invincible. They can be killed once their heart is destroyed. A golem heart is different from its life stone. These hearts are gems, which are very hard to destroy.

“Astro Sound, Snipe and then Swift blade. This is what it takes to kill a golem.”

“Of course, Astro sound is not necessary, but it protects me from being targeted by other golems.”

A fully powered snipe will pave path towards golem’s heart and then the Swift blade will break its heart.

“It is that simple.”

HAHAH.

Saransh was absorbing the life stone of the first golem he just killed and then suddenly.

*[You have dismantled and absorbed the all the base attributes of life stones.]*

*[You have unlocked the passive skill ‘Dismatle’. Would you like to…]*

Saransh accepted the skill instantly.

*[Atleast, let me complete idiot.]*

*[Next time onwards, there is no ‘Dismantle Time’; you can directly use the ‘Dismantle’ Skill to obtain the life stone in an instant.]*

“What?”

It was a huge shock for Saransh.

“I have lost my dismantle time?”

*[No, actually you gained a skill.]*

“There were times in my life when I thought should give up stuff. I gave up singing because I lost a bet… I gave up painting because I wasn’t good at it… I gave up engineering because of the apocalypse… Now its time for my ‘Dismantle Time’.

*[Why are you being so dramatic?]*

*[You can rename the skill to ‘Dismantle Time’, if you want]*

“I can do that?”

*[Yes, you can!]*

“I guess there’s no choice. Please do that Mira.”

*[Done!]*

*[Dismantle is now ‘Dismantle Time’]*

“Thank God, I haven’t lost my dismantle time yet. Even when I had to ….”

After 5 minutes of Saransh’s dramatic speech.

“Okay, let’s continue with golem hunting.”

After a few hours of hunting golems and absorbing their life stones. Saransh finally received a notification.

*[‘Dismantle Time’ is at max level. Would you like to take the skill advancement quest for ‘Dismantle Time’?]*

“What?”

Saransh was again shocked.

He immediately opened the skill set to check it for himself.

[‘Dismantle Time (Lv99)’]