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nI looked at the golden bone in my hand and felt little hesitation for a moment.

"I'll give you one to try, but not this one,

" I switched the bone and took out a torso bone that brimmed in white light.

"You can take it.

"

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"Thanks master,

" unlike what I expected, that dragon didn't look disturbed by my decision. It felt like any bone would help him greatly no matter the quality.

nAs I had no way to use the bones for now, I stood in silence watching him. He took the bone and strangely enough, he swallowed it.

nI could hear the sound of crunching the bone inside his mouth. Damn, did he treat it as a food or what?

nJust as I was taken aback by what that dragon did to my precious bone, the next thing that happened made me realize something.

nAt some area at his back, an area broadened for half a meter square began to shine in strange white light. The light was the same as that bone and I could see the location of that light was also the same.

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"So you can use the bones in a different way than me? Interesting…

" I muttered while that dragon closed his big eyes and kept himself motionless for the entire five minutes. I calmly stood there and didn't say anything to not disturb him. After all this was the first time seeing my precious bones being used.

nAnd I held much anticipation towards these bones.

n*Roar!*

nThe five minutes were gone then the dragon opened his eyes. A flash of pure purple light appeared in his eyes, giving me goosebumps.

nThat dragon… despite nothing changed on his body, yet the air he emitted began to look more dangerous than others.

nI had to say that these dragons were my strongest force by far. Each had one hundred levels and five different skills by far.

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"What do you feel?

" I asked with impatience, praying that something good would come from that bone.

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"Master, I broke through the first bottleneck in my cultivation,

" the dragon said in a happy tone,

"now I can be considered closer than my three brothers to a true dragon.

"

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"Only this?

" despite this being something big, yet it didn't reach my expectations for that bone. Only the first bottleneck? I knew what that meant.

nTo cultivate the body and soul, one had to first cross the first bottleneck. It was like tempering the body and strengthening the soul. That might seem a big step, but compared to the long road ahead it was just the first.

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"I also inherited a skill from the bone,

" the dragon said finally something worthy,

"before this I had five skills only, but now I had another one. And this skill is much better than other skills.

"

n

"What does it do?

"

n

"It's a fusion skill, using it I will fuse all my other five skills and create an attack that goes beyond my abilities.

"

n

"Fusion skill… Impressive! Can I see it?

" my eyes shone in brilliance as I wanted to see this strong skill.

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"I can only use it once per day,

" but as anything in the apocalypse, a mighty skill would come with its own restrictions,

"plus after using it I have to go and sleep.

"

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"No rush then,

" I knew a stage would come soon where this dragon would shine.

"Come take one each and fuse with it.

"

nAs I confirmed the great effects of the bones, I took three more white bones and gave them to the other three dragons. For a moment there I noticed a gaze of regret over the face of the first dragon, and much intense light of excitement in the eyes of the others.

nI didn't say anything to that dragon. After all they were all my strength and they lived to work for me. If not for that fusion ability, I would never have given the others any bones.

nJust like the first dragon, the other three took roughly five minutes to absorb that bone. Then the skills they got was also a fusion skill.

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"Go back now,

" I waved my hand as I pointed at the four dragons. For now I didn't need such an eye catchy entourage to be with me.

nI preferred to keep them hidden and act low profile for now.

nIn the next half an hour, the warriors all came one by one and gave me the loot they gathered. A loot from seventy-thousand monsters was something big. My inventory swelled up again by over a hundred thousand items gathered from the monsters.

nWithout any hesitation I put them all for sale. Luckily I did not get a few of them to be auctioned at the market. That meant my gains would soar higher than expected.

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"Go back as well,

" as I finished wrapping things here, I also took away my warriors. After all this, I felt the entire world growing deathly and eerie silent all around.

n

"Time to go south then,

" I started to move. I planned to run towards that hospital as I had a few hours left before the next quest. But after getting the time extended, I didn't hurry there.

nAny news yet? I sent asking and as expected, Angelica instantly answered.

nNot yet

nI thought for a second. The next quest was something that needed quiet preparation from the angels. If I guessed it right, then this quest might contain some hidden change that I wasn't aware of.

nTo make things easier for me and my people, I sent a warning to Angelica and asked her to relay it to others.

nAre you sure? Angelica didn't even take a second to think, We might get in trouble this way

nJust do as I said I didn't give her any room to argue and I didn't explain myself. Be ready, when the quest starts, no matter how grave the situation is, you all need to be on high alert and wait for my instructions

nWhat if we couldn't reach you? Angelica seemed to think deeply about this or she might have asked others for opinions.

nI hope nothing like this will ever happen I didn't refute her worries. After all, I knew about many dirty tricks the angels could use to make things hard for me and them. If things reach this point, then you aren't allowed to move outside the museum. I'll come for you no matter what

nOk

nTell me, what was the name of that hospital your friend is at? And what's the name of your friend?

nAfter all this time, I forgot about such trivial knowledge. I could easily look for her name through the contract between the two of us, but I was too lazy to do so.

nThe hospital is a New York health center. And her name is Alex

nAlright, I'll keep you updated I closed the chat with her and started to pick up the pace. Something about that ace didn't seem quite right.

nI knew her fatal weakness. Having only intelligence stat wasn't a good thing. After the end of the first quest, many people would enjoy the baptism of the new power given by stats.

nNot to mention the blessing of gods as well. The survivors here wouldn't be like the start of the apocalypse. Everyone living till now was someone strong and cunning, not confused and frightened by the apocalypse like before.

nJust as I got myself out of the central park, I found the look of the bustling streets with prosperity and civilization had already gone. What I had in front of me right now was simply the familiar scene of destruction and devastation.

nThe streets were filled with burning cars, broken buildings, and many corpses or what was left out from them. Most of the dead around were humans, with few monsters seen every now and then.

nAs I walked through this deadly silent world, I took out a piece of meat and ate it. Then I ended my short meal by drinking a little water from one of my liquor bottles before feeling more refreshed.

nI fought for a long time already without eating or drinking, so I was slightly exhausted. After eating and drinking, I started to pay more attention to the surroundings.

nThere wasn't a single building without harm. I even saw buildings with big holes that took more than half of its surface. Tongues of fire kept dancing wildly while I moved in between the rubbles everywhere.

n*Howl!*

nJust as I walked in extreme silence for twenty minutes, a loud howl suddenly rang from a side street. I was almost half a mile away from the hospital.

nBut hearing that familiar howl made me stop in my tracks.

"Wolves are still raging havoc here? Weird,

" I muttered without any speck of worry.

nWhat surprised me was the fact that these wolves were still alive. At the end of the first quest, most of the monsters were either killed by humans, or were busy eating the killed humans for food.

nBut I never heard of wolves roaming the streets at this stage of the apocalypse. But that didn't matter. Without any hesitation I called out a group of twenty Bulltors, twenty shield warriors, and ten archers.

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"Go, kill everything that stands in my way,

" I simply waved my sword towards the street I heard the howl coming from,

"don't forget to get my things back.

"

nEven if I met these monsters by luck, how could I let their materials be lost? In an instance, my warriors left and vanished inside the nearby twist of the road. Then the sounds of brutal fighting and painful howls came from there.

nAs I moved casually towards that street, I frowned once I saw the scenery there.

nWolves were known creatures to me. They moved in great numbers under the leadership of one alpha. Each group might range between a couple hundred up to five or six hundred.

nBut seeing the scene in front of me I couldn't help but frown. There weren't only a few hundreds, but till the end of this vast street wolves appeared with no end.

nTheir number was in thousands, or even more. That meant one thing; there was more than one alpha here.

nAnd that made things weirder.

n

"Come out,

" at this point, I didn't want to waste more time here. So I took the rest of my warriors out, arranged them like usual before releasing the frontline warriors to hit the wolves with deadly force.

nAs for my four dragons, I kept them for later. Who knew what really was going on here.

nMy warriors were nothing these wolves could face or endure. Even with the obvious disparity in numbers, they were simply unstoppable.

nIn front of pure strength, what numbers could do?

nI watched as the brutal charge of my Bulltors crushed any resistance up front. When the shield warriors released their combined skill, the wolves simply fell into such a messy state while almost half of that vast street was engulfed under the craters they created.

nThe archers kept launching their arrows, killing any wolf that survived so far. As for my magicians… well they found no room to display their might and walked silently by my side.

n*Howl!* *How!* *Howl!*

nJust as I got inside the street, a repetitive howl came from behind. Without any worry I turned while giving the orders in calm tone:

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"Rain that area with your skills.

"

nMy magicians who had nothing else to do turned and made that part of the street into a living hell for wolves.

nI wasn't worried, but with the incoming wolves I realized something.

nMonsters never crowd in such a manner except for two things. One was to be part of an ongoing quest and the second… if something appeared to attract monsters, something like a treasure.

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"A treasure appeared just next door… How can I let it slip away from me?

"

nI knew the first condition was out of question for many reasons. The angels already consumed a lot of their blessing points in the past encounters with me.

nSo issuing special quests like that was out of the question. And if someone found some hidden quests here, then it wouldn't attract all these wolves around.

nThere was a treasure, and I had to get my hands on it first.

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