The Gamer's System

Zeke gave the group of elites a whole day in order to finish testing out their equipment. Since the heroes were basically only at the red areas, there was no instance of Zeke and the elites coming across them nor was he planning on crossing paths with the said humans anytime soon. 

"I already have all the members I need for my goals." Zeke thought to himself, satisfied with the statistics that projected the strength of the elites.

The testing of the equipment went successfully, with each member of the elites emerging successful in their fights. As expected, the group could handle the single and two horned beasts quite well.

However, the three horned monsters proved to show a bit of difficulty in defeating and so, from this, Zeke already had a rough estimate of the strength level of the monsters which was to be expected in every [Hive]. 

However, there was something else that was bothering him. Hence, he deployed them for two more days. This was also for the benefit of Kaguya who was still getting used to the transition from [Dark Mana] to [Chaos Energy].

Zeke looked at all the areas where he positioned the elites. He glanced at the [Minimap] on their location. No matter how he thought of it, the gamer found it odd that the number of monsters didn't seem to decrease.

"They aren't like ants so there's no way for them to propagate that fast. So, what kind of method are they using exactly?" There were a lot of thoughts running through Zeke's head and, quite frankly, he didn't have the answers to any of them yet.

The gamer made a heavy sigh. He had a solution in mind but thought about how much hassle it could give him in the long run. Yet, it was the fastest and surest way for him to arrive at a conclusion.

"This'll get the attention of those heroes but I don't plan on giving Pier more time than he already does." Zeke said as he began releasing a huge amount of mana.

The whole continent of Helios got covered by a bright color coating the ground. Everyone felt its warmth which was gentle but, for the monsters, it was a scorching infernal. 

The new heroes which were stationed on Helios felt this. They contacted the other heroes in order to confirm its range and, they discovered that it was only Helios which was affected. Not just any part of the continent however as, the skill covered it whole.

"Master? Is it you?" One of the heroes said as he recognized the warmth of the flames.

Meanwhile, Zeke was choosing the areas on the continent where the [Conjures] would appear. With his minimap function, this came easily as he could see the whole structure of Helios, the Demon Continent. Pillars of flame soon rose and out of them came the screams of the souls that sought the thrill of battle.

"Conjure."

Within the red and black areas, the summons of Zeke arose. Aside from the initial shock of seeing the enemies emerge out of nowhere, the horned monsters greeted Zeke's [Conjures] with unrelenting attacks.

The monsters found little difficulty in destroying Zeke's summons. With their numbers alone, it was easy for them to overpower the lower ranks of Zeke's [Conjures]. In fact, even the higher ranked creatures of Zeke found great difficulty in dealing with the monsters.

But this didn't matter. Zeke could sustain the [Conjures] for as long as needed. With his current mana pool that is enhanced further by his equipment, it would take a while for the [Conjures] to deplete it entirely. Even if they do, Zeke always had [Mana Potions] in hand to supply for their needs.

The [Conjures] first ran out of health, turning them to [Infernals] which were easily destroyed by the four horned monsters. Yet this wasn't the end of it all as they entered the state of [Undying Loyalty] and [Undying Fury]. This raised the powers of the lower monsters even further, driving them to a point that, they were individually enough to handle even the three horns.

Little by little, Zeke's [Conjures] began controlling the flow of battle and soon enough, the destroyed all the monsters within the yellow areas. Without a single monster being left.

"Now I need to wait and see tomorrow." Zeke said, calling back his conjures and waiting for the day to pass.

…

Zeke went back to one of the areas where the monsters were supposed to have run out. He brought Allesiah that time around just in case she would notice something from what was happening. The gamer immediately took a look at the [Minimap] and things went as he predicted. Not for the better but for the worse.

"They came back." Zeke said, looking at the red area which was, yet again, filled with monsters.

It wasn't possible for them to have come from a black area. The distance was too far off in order to travel and, the numbers to be sent would be too much that the black areas would not have enough monster son them. Yet, on the red areas, Zeke saw that their numbers were the same. In fact, they even increased compared to when Zeke first cleared them out.

"So you mean to tell me that, this area was actually emptied out yesterday?" Allesiah wanted to confirm as even she was having trouble believing from the sight of the monsters on Zeke's [Minimap].

"Yeah, I cleaned this area off entirely so, there's no way that they are reinforcements." Zeke continued, thinking of the secret behind the multiplication of the monsters.

One by one, Zeke checked the areas by deploying his [Conjures] near them. Just like the first location, the other red areas were also swarming with even more monsters. This not only left Zeke's questions unanswered but also raised even more questions for him to answer. Hence, he relied on the other option he had at the moment. Allesiah's [Chaos Sight].

The two of them went down a slope. Zeke covered the whole area where they were with [Cloud of Dreams], preventing the monsters from noticing them. This allowed the two of them to get close enough for Allesiah to properly use her skill.

She was slowly getting accustomed to using the skill. Adding to her aide was the fact that Zeke developed new contact lenses. Ones which empowered both types of [Sight Skill] that Allesiah had. Through this, Allesiah scanned the area, looking for any anomaly that may be around. This lasted for around two minutes before she finally gave an answer to Zeke.

"I've got nothing." The elf regretfully commented as, aside from [Chaos Energy] being present, nothing weird was occurring.

"That's not good. If they just multiply every day then there's no point in killing them anymore." Zeke said as he was also trying to find a way out of the predicament.

This got Zeke thinking yet again. He didn't monitor the areas for the whole day and, this was the only source of clue which he had at the moment. This was also his best shot at unraveling the mystery. Hence, to start things off, Zeke decided to clean the areas once again.

"Conjure." The gamer began, releasing the same amount of summons on all the areas where they were deployed before. And, just like their first encounter with the [Chaos Monsters], Zeke's [Conjures] were able to easily win in their fights although the level of the monsters did go up a bit from the first fight.

"Here's the plan." Zeke said to Allesiah who was still with her. 

"We're going to wait here and see ethe developments that occur within the interval of a whole day." 

"You don't expect me to activate my eye skill for the whole day right? Because we both know how impossible that is for me." Allesiah clarified even before their mission began.

"Of course not. Only for the duration when we actually see them coming back one by one." Zeke said in reply with a smile on his face.

…

Hence, the two of them proceeded to do just this. They set up an area where they could stay and made sure that they had enough food to last for the operation. Zeke also brought coffee made using modified plants which he himself created. He forced Allesiah try this out for the first time and the elf liked how strong the taste was and how aromatic it smelled.

For the first few hours nothing happened. The area was empty without any signs of the monsters coming in from any sides or even coming from the ground up. It was a silent scenery to the point that Zeke thought how unbelievable it was for these same creatures to fill the area within a single day.

More hours passed by and the two decided to take turns as caffeine kicked in on Allesiah's veins. Making her wide awake since it was her first time getting a dose of the stuff. Zeke on the other hand took the first turn of rest, fixing his [Inventory] which was still full of unused [Chaos Shards] that he was yet to refine. 

A few more hours passed by and, within the interval of Zeke's watch, there was something which finally began. He shook Allesiah who woke up immediately, activating [Chaos Sight] as soon as she fully regained consciousness.

The elf saw [Chaos Energy] swirling around the area. Although Zeke couldn't see this, he could feel it clearly. Telling him that something has begun as the aura of monsters was starting to come back. 

Allesiah on the other hand saw how the [Chaos Energy] thickened and how it masterfully formed the monsters yet again. Indeed, Zeke's questions were finally answered at that moment as, after a few more minutes passing by, all the monsters came back. Stronger and also gaining even more monsters that added to their ranks.

"Well, that answers everything." Zeke said as Allesiah deactivated her [Chaos Sight].

"It's the [Chaos Energy], it's what's summoning the monsters back to life." Allesiah told him, with Zeke's head being filled with a new problem on top of Pier and Quinn.

"Let's head back first. I need to craft something to counter this." Zeke told Allesiah as both of them teleported back to base.