The Guardian System: The strongest Summoner's quest to save his family-Chapter 382: Ruins Picked Clean

Two weeks had passed since Reidar had escaped the industrial ruins of the first city, and in that time, he had traveled through the remnants of three other cities. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

The landscape of this world didn't change much as he moved north; it was a repetitive stretch of ash-covered badlands, jagged rock spires, and deep fissures that belched toxic gas.

This world was, without a shred of doubt, a graveyard, as it was filled with the remains of a civilization that hadn't survived its own apocalypse.

The ruins' size suggested that the people who lived there were more advanced than humanity was when the System first arrived on Earth.

The first settlement Reidar reached was some kind of industrial complex, though its name had been gibberish until the System translated it. The place was picked clean, which made Reidar think Mara had been there. He found her boot prints in the ash near a collapsed warehouse, where she'd searched the same shelves and opened the same crates he did, coming up empty just as he had.

The second city was a residential sprawl. The Ignis who'd lived there built towers that spiraled into the sky, but the towers were hollow now, and most of them collapsed under the effects of time or monsters.

It also looked like there had been some sort of battle here at some point, but of course, Reidar had no way to know what exactly happened.

The third city was larger, and in the basement of a government building, Reidar found a half-finished portal circle. Mara had drawn the conductor lines before stopping, leaving chalk marks smudged where she'd scuffed them with her boot, which suggested she'd been interrupted—maybe by a monster, or maybe by the realization that she didn't have the right materials.

Reidar found many signs that Mara had passed through before him. He saw her footprints in the ash of city centers and inside empty buildings that looked like they used to be science labs or workshops.

However, based on the incomplete magic circles he found in the different locations, she wasn't having much luck. Most of the materials she had tried to use were too ruined, devoid of the amounts of mana needed to power up the portal.

Reidar also found proof that Mara was getting stronger. In the second city he reached, he found the bodies of several scavenging monsters and a couple of very low-level Ignis that had been killed by magic. Of course, they were still high-level compared to any creature from Earth.

They hadn't been torn apart by other monsters; they had been burned or pierced by different spells, which was a clear sign Mara was responsible, which meant her level was increasing.

She still wasn't as strong as the average Ignis warrior, but she was getting close.

Since she was a mutated human and no longer connected to the System, she was absorbing the dense ambient mana of this planet, and that meant that by doing nothing, she was reaching Reidar.

As for Reidar, the third city was where he finally caught up in levels himself. The Ignis and the other monsters here were more aggressive, hunting in tighter packs. Reidar couldn't avoid them all as he had until that point and had been forced to fight far too many times.

He picked his battles as best he could. He used the terrain the same way he had with the Behemoth. He lured single Ignis away from their groups with his Sky-Hunters and led them into narrow places where his entire summoned army could focus fire on one target. It was slow and dangerous, and a single mistake meant drawing a dozen level 480 creatures down on his head.

But it worked, and in the span of the two weeks he spent traveling, he killed five of them.

The C.L.A.S.P. points he gained had been enough to make him level up several times. The loot was useful, too. He took their blade arms, their armored carapace, and the strange, crystal-like organs they all had and placed everything in his inventory.

Most of what he got, Reidar wanted to sell once he came back to Earth, as most of it was materials, but he also got new equipment, and five Ignis had been enough for him to get all the pieces he needed.

That was both because of the level difference, which increased the rewards, and also because of a quest he got that actually asked him to hunt at least 3 Ignis.

That was why he risked it.

Reidar's gains over the last two weeks had been high, though they were hard-earned, as he had reached Level 480 by hunting the five Ignis—sixteen levels in fourteen days.

While the fighting was unavoidable, Reidar had spent most of his time traveling and crafting. Because the cities were far apart and the badlands were dangerous to walk through, he spent hours every day on the back of his mounts.

The traveling was the boring part. He moved between cities on the back of a raven, skimming low over the ash-blown wastes. His Sky-Hunters scouted, spotting threats miles out so he could go around them.

Since he used his Overmind Consciousness to link with his summons, the Sky-Hunters and Ravens did most of the work of navigating and avoiding monster packs.

This left Reidar with nothing to do during the long hours of travel but focus on his professions. He used the materials he'd looted from the various monsters he killed until that point to get better at crafting.

He pulled out his tailoring kit, his woodworking tools, and his enchanting inks. His first few attempts at armor were terrible since what he was trying to do required higher levels, and his professions didn't have enough, yet he tried. He made a vest that was too stiff, then a pair of pants that tore at the seams when he moved. He salvaged them, learned, and tried again.

He did the same with the various wood he found. He carved it, shaped it, and tried to fit it into wands, staves, and other tools. He failed more than he succeeded. His woodworking skills still crept up as he worked.

The real progress came with enchanting. The Ignis core fragments were packed with fire-aligned mana. He ground them into powder, mixed them with his inks, and tried the enchantments he had in mind on everything he tried to make.