Young Master in the Apocalypse

[You received a new Quest]

[Congratulations, you have reached the peak of mortal strength, the Sky Realm. The time has come to weigh your worth to take the reins to your fate]

[Objective 1: Reach peak Sky Realm level]

[Objective 2: Forge your core of Anvil to Stage 8]

[You have 364 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes]

[Quest reward: one Battle art - Rank A and enhancement to Saint realm]

[Penalty of failure: The removal of the Djinn power]

Viktor read the quest details. After he was sure there was nothing sketchy, Viktor took a deep breath and exhaled in relief.

He has no idea how hard it is to reach Saint Realm or stage 8 Core of Anvil, but seeing that he has 3 digit days' worth of time was reassuring.

"So, that's it? Nothing to worry about," Viktor said to himself

However, the Djinn replied with a challenging tone. <Oh, are you sure about that?>

"I mean, look at how much we managed to achieve after one month. How hard could this be? Besides, we do need to get stronger, anyways."

<Kekeke, you sure are confident! Very good, then.>

Hearing the Djinn suddenly agree with him, of course Viktor became concerned. Reluctantly, he asked.

"So… tell me how hard this whole quest is?"

<kekeke… so, to reach Sky Realm, you'll need 100 points of spirit force, for saint realm you'll need 500 points.>

"What the fuck?! 500?"

Viktor may be late when it comes to knowing things about the apocalypse, but he's smart enough to realize that the higher he climbs in power, the harder it would be to receive spirit force. It would be a reasonable assumption that now most mutated animals would not give him any spirit force except for the higher level ones.

He imagined how he would spend the next one year. Would he have to stay in pillars or in the abyss pit for the entire time? That would ruin his plans to enjoy his days being lavished in riches.

Not only that, he has to increase his core by 3 levels. That would not just mean he needs a lot of metal, but also a lot of spirit stones.

Last but not least, he was concerned about the penalty. "End of contract? What does that actually mean, Djinn?"

<To put it simply, failure means our contract ends here. I will return to the lamp until fate told me otherwise… That would also mean all the power given by the lamp will have to be taken back.>

"Fuck!" Viktor gritted his teeth and remembered all the power he had obtained. Of course, he would want to avoid such a situation.

Viktor took deep breaths and tried to look at the situation objectively.

He decided to think about the quest, and what it wanted to tell him. Basically, the quest's objective can be boiled down to "work harder, get stronger, and get richer."

Wouldn't that also be what he wanted, as well?

Viktor decided to not question it too much. It would just be one year of hard work, and when he ascended into Saint Realm, no one else would ever bother him again.

"Hahaha, there are only 8 of those stupid saints in this country, after all."

When he made his decision, he saw that Jessie was still in the process of ascending inside the light circle.

As he happened to be in a training hall with so many spirit stone credits at hand, Viktor decided to approach the cube and check on the.

[Skill Library]

[Metal Element Sky Realm Spirit Energy Detected]

[Customizing Suitable Skills to Learn…]

[List of Skills Available to Learn]

[Elemental Art - Metal Element]

[Battle Art]

[Utility Art]

[Advance Metal Spirit Core Discovered]

[Skill Library Access Renewed]

[You can access up to tier 3 spells]

Viktor had thought that as he was already a sky realm magus, he would maybe get to learn some good tier 4 spells. Apparently, that was not the case.

Realizing how important spells could be in a battlefield, and having 40.000 spirit credits at hand, Viktor decided to quickly buy all the available metal spells.

[Tier 3]

[Metal Wall - 1000 spirit stone]

Creates an elemental barrier made of metal to withstand enemy attacks.

[Metal Bullets - 2000 spirit stones]

Shoot metallic bullets made of spirit energy

[Golden Body - 4000 spirit stones]

Increases the body resistance, and helps augment allies' attack power with the power of metal elements.

Viktor was also excited to find a different spell. It was as Jessie said, soem pillars have different spells to choose from. He might need to visit a few other pillars to find more spells

[Metal minions - 6000 spirit stones]

Summon metal creatures that would abide by your will

Seeing the spells made Viktor so excited that he bought all 4 spells without thinking too much.

[13,000 spirit stones credit deducted]

After receiving all the spells, Viktor looked at the [Store] to see what everyone else was doing.

Viktor saw that both Kosta and Barry were swinging some swords, while Torri and Boris were busy testing a few different kinds of energy weapons. As much as melee weapons were much usefull, the two of them still much prefer firearms.

Apparently, there were also something similar to Jessie's lightning balls

[Electric orbs tier 2]

[Crete lightning blast that could stun low to mid level opponent for a few seconds]

[300 spirit stones]

There are different versions sorted by elements, and some carried other functions such as emitting healing smoke, poisonous smoke, or hypnotizing smoke. The orbs seem to be a standard one-use magic item in the pillars.

Then, Viktor glanced at the corner and saw that Eva was busy looking up things in the outfit corner and buying armor for Liza.

He decided to take a closer look, but then he realized they weren't going armor shopping at all.

"Liza.. you look so cute in white… no no the blue one is better"

[2314 - Silk dress - Tier 2]

[Weight: 2.5 kilograms]

[Elemental resistance]

[3000 spirit stones]

"This one could be worn for the cold and kind of matched with the pants, what do you think?"

[2214 - Jacket - Tier 2]

[Leather jacket, light armor - weight 1.1 kilograms]

[Extra cold protection]

[2500 spirit stones]

The two were acting as if they were in a mall spending some pocket money, and Viktor was suddenly worried that they would spend all their hard-earned spirit stones carelessly. Hence, he decided to announce.

"Save some spirit stones to buy new skills and for your realm enhancement. They would cost a lot, I need you all to buy them yourself with the reward"

They looked at each other and smiled sheepishly at Viktor, before going away to buy what each of them needed.

[1311 - Axe - Tier 2]

[Length 70 centimeters, width 16 centimeters, weight 13.5 kilograms.]

[Increase speed]

[1500 spirit stones]

[1312 - Axe - Tier 2]

[Length 70 centimeters, width 16 centimeters, weight 13.5 kilograms.]

[Increase strength]

[1500 spirit stones]

This time, Viktor decided to buy a two-piece axe that could increase agility and increase strength.

[Energy gun - tier 2]

[Length : 35 centimeters, Weight : 5 kilograms]

[Small. requires spirit stones as ammunition]

[5000 spirit stones]

After giving a few shooting ties, Viktor also bought an energy handgun to replace his desert eagle and to make sure he wouldn't need to stop and reload. Finally, he also bought a larger storage ring.

[Storage ring - Tier 2]

[Storage space: 10 cubic meters]

[3000 spirit stones]

Next, he pass through the one he has been putting his eye on

[Stone golem - Tier 2]

[Height : 330 centimeters , Weight : 310 kilograms]

[The stone golem can be controlled by telepathy, and requires spirit stones to function.]

He looked at the stone golem's details and saw that the tier 2 ones were apparently much more powerful than the tier 1 counterparts. That made Viktor even more tempted to buy them, however, now he has the [Metal Minion] spell, and he would prefer to try and depend on the spell first.

Right as he had finished buying everything he needed, he decided to walk towards the hall. Suddenly, someone jumped from behind and hugged him.

"Thank you, Viktor, now I have reached Sky Realm, thank you very much!"

Before Viktor could answer, another alarm-like sound came from the panel. Viktor looked at the panel with a pissed-off expression,

"Seriously, do they not have anything better to do?! Why can't they stop calling!"

Jessie calmed him down and said, "I guess there should be a way to block all communication, let me try."

As Jessie accessed the panel, she read the message from the last communication, and she couldn't hide her shock.

"What happened Jessie?"

"Ah, this…" Jessie shook her head, "No, you need to see this by yourself."

Viktor checked the message and saw that it only has one sentence. However, the desperation from the simple message was clear.

[Alex, is that you? Please, tell me if it's you.]

Viktor looked at Jessie incredulously and asked, "Who is this Alex?"