AFTER FEW DAYS

  The reward of subjugating the monster got transferred to Nishant's account.

  "Hmm... Only the Landfill one is left. Let's give it a try." Nishant went to the landfills. The landfill was now an elevated land with mountains of garbage visible from several kilometres away.

  "Mr. Nishant?" a man in blue PPE approached Nishant who was standing at the entrance of the landfill.

  "Mr. Rajkumar?" Nishant guessed considering his PPE was the cleanest.

  "Yes, let's go to my cabin for further discussions." Rajkumar led Nishant to a small cabin made out of a freight container.

  "So what kind of monster are we dealing with?" Nishant asked. Although, he knew the mission was about one eyed rats but usually people put half-information for less payment.

  "What else? Those pesky rats." Rajkumar said in a hateful tone. One can easily guess that rats are giving great headaches to Rajkumar.

  "I see, I will be using Fire Element. Would there be any problem?" Nishant asked. The landfill is filled with mountains of flammable trash, one mistake and it will be a sea of fire.

  "Not really, we have a Wind Formation system to deal with most of the smoke but I do request you to keep the damage minimum otherwise citizens will complain about smoke." Rajkumar replied.

  "Any idea about their numbers?" Nishant asked. The landfill was very big and rats are sneaky monsters, guessing their numbers right is very hard unless they mark them while counting.

  "Around 16 I guess." Rajkumar replied in a somewhat doubtful tone. Obviously he is not sure about numbers. No sane non-mage person will dare to chase after monsters to count them.

  "Hmm... I will start work at night. They will be active at that time." Nishant said. Nishant started thinking of some plans to deal with the monsters. He can either just kill 16 rats and declare the mission successful but he very well knows if people got hurt here his reputation will go downstream, not to mention bird type monsters will also target the area due to the presence of rats.

  "Please take care of them as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the landfill will get overloaded." Rajkumar requested. Nishant meditated in Rajkumar's cabin until the sunset.

  Nishant came out of the cabin. He looked around for civilians and monsters. He has already requested Rajkumar to dismiss the night shift manpower until the monsters are dealt with.

  "Ki Armour!" Nishant covered himself in silver armour and went to the highest place in the landfill. The landfill was covering the area of several hectares. Founding the rats will be insanely tough. Nishant used Binoculars with night vision to keep watch on the rats.

  "1... 2... 3... 23!" Nishant counted the rats. Nishant pulled out his phone and started listening to music on bluetooth which agitated the monsters. The monsters rushed towards him.

  "Scatter!" Nishant lured the monsters in an area with a dead end and less trash. Nishant dropped his bluetooth on the ground.

  "Scatter!" Nishant jumped into the air and landed behind the monsters which were fighting over the bluetooth device.

  "Fiery Fist: Exploding Heavens!" Nishant casted and killed 5 monsters in an instant. Monsters came to their senses and tried to escape.

  "Telekinesis: Void Claw!" Nishant grabbed the monsters one by one and crushed their neck. Then he stacked them together and burned them to some degree to hide the way of killing them.

  YEAR-0018

  "This cultivation thing is a lot more nerve wrecking than I thought." Nishant said as he finished meditating. He liked it in the beginning but after achieving Mid Tier he has become a little impatient with his Space Element. Whenever he cultivates it feels like Space Stardust is about to break barriers but always fails. The closer he is to breakthrough the more impatient he feels.

  Nishant did some stretching and went to the training grounds. It was 5 a.m. Only sweepers and few students can be seen around.

  "Haa~ Fire Burst: Rupture!" Nishant casted at the target. Then Nishant started casting spells while jogging.

  "Fire Burst: Rupture! Fire Burst: Rupture!... Fire:Burst Rupture!" Nishant casted the Novice Spell while running.

  "*Pant* *pant*... Haa~ Fiery Fist: Exploding Heavens!" Nishant started practicing with Intermediate Spells.

  "Fiery Fist: Exploding Heavens! Fiery Fist Exploding Heavens!... Fiery Fist: Exploding Heavens!" Nishant casted 5 times and then his mana depleted. He returned to his dorm and rested till the classes started.

  AFTER FEW DAYS

  Monthly challenges are taking place for the distribution of the cultivation resources. With Space Element alone, Nishant can defeat anyone in his class but decides to use Fire Element for some challenge.

  "Nishant will be fighting against Bikas!" Teacher announced. Bikas wasn't happy with the pairing as everyone knew Nishant was a Mid Tier mage and merciless one on top of it. Bikas clenched his jaw and went to the arena.

  "Fire Burst-"

  "Fire Burst: Rupture!" Nishant casted the spell much faster even when he started the casting late.

  "Bone Shield!" Bikas put up his defence.

  "Fire Burst: Rupture! Fire Burst: Rupture!" Nishant casted 2 more times and the shield got broken Bikas got wounded.

  "The winner is Nishant!" teacher announced.

  "Next! Rahul vs Rohit!" teacher announced. Both students came to the arena.

  "Fire Burst: Rupture" Rahul started with a basic spell.

  "Magic Shoes!" Rohit dodged the spell. His shoes were imbued with Earth magic, it was as if he was skating on the ground.

  "Fire Burst: Rupture!" Rahul casted again but Rohit dodged it as well.

  "Fire Burst: Rupture!" Rohit casted and spell missed but its shockwave sent Rahul flying.

  The matches continued and ended with Nishant as the winner who got Spirit Grade Stardust Tool for 1 week. He will only be able to get it again in the next monthly challenges.

  AFTER 1 WEEK

  Nishant did his best to not waste the time and used Spirit Grade Stardust Tool for maximum possible time. After passing the item to 2nd ranker Nishant went to Hunters Association.

  '10 Venom Sacks of Red Scorpions 200k... Claws of Sand Wolves 10k per claw... Armadillo Scales 1k for 1 scale... what a drag? Let's wait until my Space Element reaches Intermediate Level otherwise going out there alone is no different than feeding myself to the monsters.' Nishant made the decision. Although he is tempted to fight monsters, but wilderness is very unpredictable and merciless. So, it is always better to be cautious.

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  AFTER 1 MONTH

  "Finally, my Space Element is at Mid Tier now. Phew, it was really frustrating." Nishant immediately started controlling Space Nebula stars.

  AFTER 1 MONTH

  "Ki Armour" Nishant casted. A silver veil covered Nishant to protect him from any danger can be caused by a servant and if a warrior happened to sneak upon him, he can only blame his luck.

  Nishant followed the map given by the Hunters Union to locate the Red Scorpions. Soon enough Nishant found them.

  "Two of them, how should I approach?" Nishant thought, if he used Fiery Fist then they will be blasted into pieces.

  "Telekinesis: Void Claw!" Nishant lifted 2 big rocks and let go of it on the heads of the scorpions. The corpses were mostly intact except their heads.

  "That was easy" Nishant pulled out a dagger and cut out the glands. The glands were as big as a cricket ball.

  "Two done... Eight more to go." Nishant searched the area and soon found 4 more of them.

  "Telekinesis: Void Claw!" Nishant lifted two rocks and took them towards the scorpions.

  "WTF!" Nishant was thrown away by sudden impact. Nishant looked towards the direction where the hit came and saw a big Red Scorpion hissing at him.

  "This must be a Great Servant." Nishant muttered to himself. Nishant found other scorpions making their way towards him.

  "Scatter!" Nishant retreated in time and escaped the encirclement. Now scorpions were rushing towards Nishant in a group.

  "Fiery Fist: Exploding Heavens" Nishant targeted the ground before the monsters and explosions sent them flying. The big scorpion quickly regained its senses and shot a spray of venom on Nishant but nothing happened as Nishan was covered in 'Ki Armour'.

  "Telekinesis: Void Claw!" Nishant lifted two big rocks and hurled them onto scorpions. The first rock hit a scorpion and sent it backwards crashing in the ground while the second rock was stopped by the big scorpion.

  "I have wasted enough time on you... Fiery Fist: Exploding Heavens" Nishant burned the big scorpion to crisp.

  "A Soul Essences!" Nishant was on the 7th layer of heaven. This was his first soul essence after killing so many monsters.

  Then he crushed the abdomen of other scorpions using rocks and cut out their Venom Sacks.

  "Now I no longer need to give rent of 10 Lakhs (24K dollars) for Servant Soul Container every damn month." Nishant was overjoyed when he thought of saving the renting money.

  After that he collected remaining Venom Sacks with relative ease.

  AFTER FEW WEEKS

  After getting his own Soul Container, Nishant fiercely hunts down monsters. He no longer cared about their feeble precious body parts and focused on their soul remnants and soul essences. Thanks to his 3X mana recovery rate he was able to hunt daily with all this strength.

  "Fiery Fist: Exploding Heavens!" Nishant killed 5 one-eyed wolves in a single attack.

  '*Pant* *pant* I'm still far away from my weekly goal of 1 soul essence. I need to get Nebula Tier Cultivation Tool only then I see myself taking down 30-35 servants on a daily basis. It might take this entire semester, on top of that I will be facing Intermediate Fire Mages of 1st year who failed to pass. Haa~ if not for Space Element, I would have been spending money on buying defensive equipment.' Nishant thought while returning to the Safe zone.

  AFTER 2 MONTHS

  Nishant aced all the monthly challenges and reached Second Tier of Fire Nebula thanks to the Nebula Tier Cultivation Tool.

  "Now I can go into orange zones." Nishant said to himself. Until now he was only hunting on the edge of the orange zone.

  AFTER 2 WEEKS

  "Next! Shruti vs Nishant!" Teacher announced. Both students made their way to the Arena.

  "Hahaha... another one will be kneeling before Shruti." a girl said in amusement. She seemed to be a sly type.

  "Don't underestimate him, he is also unbeatable so far." a girl said in displeasure.

  The 1st year has 64 Fire Element Students and the students are divided into 4 groups. Each group competes within and resources are allocated according to ranking. The students of the groups are transferred every month so that everyone has a fair chance of competing. Today, Nishant will be fighting invincible of another group.

  "Fiery Fist: Exploding-" Nishant tried to cast the spell but a wave of discomfort hit him.

  "Mist of Fear!" Shruti casted before Nishant could complete his spell. Nishant froze in place. Shruti smiled confidently and started casting Mid Tier Fire spell.

  "Fiery Fist: Exploding-" a ball of fire disrupted Shruti's casting and forced her to dodge.

  "Fire Burst: Rupture! Fiery Fist: Exploding Heavens!" Nishant casted one after another. First spell disrupted Shruti's spell and second for eliminating her.

  "Light Blessing: Holy Shield" Teacher had to intervene which disqualified Shruti by default. Shruti could have avoided the disqualification by using her equipment but she was too shocked to do that.

  "The winner is Nishant." Teacher announced.

  "Why did my spell not work on him?" Shruti muttered to herself. Until now she has won many matches just by using the Basic Tier spell and now when she was even 'serious', she lost in such a short time.

  The teacher proceeded to give Nishant his reward Spirit Grade Stardust Tool. Nishant was about to take the tool then he suddenly stopped midway.

  "What happened?" Teacher asked in confusion when Nishant didn't take the Spirit Grade Stardust Tool.

  "I forgot that both of my elements are at Intermediate, so I don't really need this." Nishant replied. The effect of Spirit Grade Stardust Tool on Nebula was only 2%, it will be wasteful to use it instead of giving it to the one who really needs it.

  "I see, you may return to your seat then." Teacher instructed and signalled the 2nd ranker to come to the front.

  Students returned to their dorms after the challenges were over.

  ...

  "Yawn~ my mental strength isn't as strong as I thought." Nishant muttered to himself while laying in his bed

  "Hmm... that waterfall from the Alps institute wasn't strong but it was its unbearably loud sound which made it hard to cross it... Right..." Nishant stood up and wore a headset and played loud music with rubbish lyrics. Then he used Telekinesis Claw for copying notes into his notebook from the internet.

  "Wow! Even a toddler can do better than this. But it seems I'm on the right track." Nishant looked at his writing in amusement and hold back his laughter.

  AFTER FEW DAYS

  Ring Ring~

  "Father?... *picks up call* Hello... I'm good, how are you and mother. Yes, I'm doing good at studies. Nooo... you know your son well. Our neighbour's niece huh? Asha?... kidnapped? shouldn't police search for her why drag mages in this... mountains of Sohna Tehsil! *shivers*... Ahem, no no I'm not afraid to go there. I will try to investigate... *hangs up*" Nishant gulped.

  'What are you afraid of huh? Those false urban legends? You are a mage now. No ghost should be able to harm you.' Nishant said to himself.

  NEXT DAY

  'Damn, who can say these mountains are part of Sohna Tehsil? So isolated and barren. What's with that old man?' Nishant wandered on the road to and fro. Soon the sun was no longer visible on the horizon.

  "Hey old man. You should go home. Although this is a safe zone but few sneaky monsters might still make their way here." Nishant said to an old man, his clothes were worn off and his cheek bones were visible.

  "You don't need to worry young man. No monster will dare to come to this mountain. At least not at night." old man said confidently.

  "Why is that?" Nishant asked out of curiosity.

  "You don't need to know otherwise you will not be able to sleep." old man said in a plain tone. He was neither mocking now concerned.

  "Pftt... I'm a mage, old man. I have dealt with quite a few scary monsters myself." Nishant snorted at old man's claim.

  "Oh, then what brings you here?" old man asked.

  "You see, a girl the same age as me disappeared here in mountains. She was with his father. They were going from here at night. Her father stopped the car to pee and when he returned. His daughter was missing. There was no screaming, no gore or any other clue. It is quite mysterious. You should also leave, it is dangerous here." Nishant explained.

  "Young girl huh? It must be Kala Kutta (Black Dog). He is the most unruly one here." old man said in an angry tone.

  "Are you saying a dog kidnapped her?" Nishant was confused now.

  "No no... Kala Kutta is a Zind. There is a village of Zinds here. That girl is most probably here, they are here for a few hundred years but live peacefully most of the time." old man said and Nishant found his heart beating wildly.

  "Zind... are you sure it is those Zinds." Nishant was sweating now. Zinds are kind of undead with intelligence on par with humans. Similar to vampires their intelligence has nothing to do with their power.

  "Yes, those Zinds from your childhood horror stories. But don't worry as I said they are peaceful. But they will not like any human entering their home. I can arrange for you to enter that village if you want." old man said.

  "Do you think of me as a fool? Why would I enter that place full of Zinds?" Nishant refused.

  "Tsk tsk... Youngsters these days are utterly coward. In my time a non-mage man entered that place to save his wife and here are you, a strong young mage full of vigour but still a coward." old man degraded Nishant to provoke him but Nishant was too petty for such tricks. Nishant turned around to the left.

  "Wait... youngsters these days. Sigh~" old man went to Nishant while shaking his head.

  "You don't need to be afraid. The Village head is a reasonable Zind, you should talk to him. He will ensure your safety." old man assured.

  "And why should I trust you?" Nishant asked.

  "Haa~ you should leave then. You don't have an ounce of dedication to protect civilians as a mage. Why did you even become a mage in the first place? You should be ashamed of your cowardice. Stop wasting already scarce resources and let someone have them who knows his dharma (duty) as mage..." old man lectured Nishant who is only hearing him while staring at the ground.

  "Stop it already old man, just tell me where is the way? And if I happened to die. I will haunt you forever." Nishant lashed at the old man. Nishant was petty but not ungrateful and the last sentence hit him hard.

  "Follow me." old man led Nishant into a narrow gap in mountains. Nishant cautiously followed after him. He has already covered himself in Ki Armour.

  "Compressed Space!" Nishant's eyes widened. He has only read about them and heard they were very hard to find but to find something like this so close to the safe zone is beyond imagination.

  "Of course it is, otherwise this place would have been raided long ago by mages." old man said as it was an obvious thing.

  "Bhoora Bhoora..." old man whispered into rock and soon a humanoid figure came out of the crack in the rock. It was tall and muscular, there were scars on its human-like face and its clothes were battered.

  "What is the meaning of this brat? You are now leaking our secrets." Bhoora said in displeasure to the old man. Bhoora's hostile intent towards Nishant was as clear as a day.

  "Calm down Bhoora, if I was doing that this place would have been filled with mages. And it is not like that you can't change the coordinates." old man tried to calm Bhoora.

  "Only Village head can change the coordinates and I will be beaten shitless for telling you about this place." Bhoora lashed at old man.

  "Here, now let's not be hot headed." old man gave a bottle of whisky to Bhoora who soon calmed down.

  "So what's the deal?" Bhoora asked.

  "Kala kutta kidnapped a girl." old man said with certainty. Bhoora's eyes widened in shock.

  "That fool will doom us all." Bhoora's face contorted in anger.

  "Then you should keep him under control." Nishant said in displeasure.

  "Young man, Zinds are unruly by nature. Only those in safe zones tend to be peaceful but when given a chance they will not step back and Zinds will not fight each other for right and wrongs. Bhoora and a few others are exceptions." old man explained to Nishant.

  "Right and I hope you don't leak the location of this place. We might be troublesome but we also play a role here by keeping monsters of the main Aravali mountains." Bhoora added. Bhoora wants to avoid trouble at any cost. Zinds might be stronger than humans on average but they aren't used to living among monsters. They can only live peacefully on the edges of safe zones. Just the disappearance of a single girl has brought a mage at their door steps and if things worsen it will be a slaughter.

  "Then you better keep your people in check." Nishant repeated in an annoyed tone.

  "I know, let's go. We need to hurry. Kala kutta must be planning to leave the village if he has done something so daring." Bhoora said in urgency.

  "Here, put these on." Bhoora threw some rags at Nishant. Nishant gave him a pleading look but decided to wear the rags when Bhoora gave him an annoyed look. Old man remained out as he is just a normal human with a few unusual connections.

  Nishant and Bhoora entered the compressed Space. The space was filled with mountains which made an encirclement with a village at the centre. Village was devoid of any technology. Only fire was lightening the village.

  "Most of you are only at the servant level." Nishant said in plain tone. Nishant felt like a fool. He has heard stories of Zind in his previous life and was afraid of them but he was a mage now.

  "Basic Tier, we are not monsters. We are just... unfortunate beings who have their souls trapped in this world." Bhoora said with a scowl.

  "And we are just a small tribal village. Big ones have several Mid Tier ones and one Advance Tier as their head." Bhoora said.

  "What do you usually do?" Nishant asked out of curiosity.

  "If anything, we are closest to humans in nature so are our needs. We trade monster corpses with ignorant humans and get resources." Bhoora replied reluctantly, he just wants to show that they are peaceful.

  "How do you make this Compressed Space?" Nishant asked.

  "We didn't, you humans did, this place is 1300 years old. Humans never accepted us, mostly non-mages. So, this place was built so that we can stay here but out of humans' sight." Bhoora said in plain tone. The duo walked past the village and brought Nishant at a small settlement.

  "There are the exiled ones. That girl should be there. You can do whatever you want here no one will interfere from the village as long as they don't know of a human being here. I will be waiting for you. I can't fight against my own kind for an outsider. I hope you understand." Bhoora said. Nishant sneakily neared the settlement.