The group keeps their weapons at the ready, and Sen notices that Julie's sword is shaking from nerves. The footsteps approach, and when they come into the group's vision, they all relax. It's the group from Team Cloud. Sen notices as he lowers his weapon that everyone on Team Cloud has their weapons at the ready, and wonders if they've run into bandits as well.
Once they've confirmed their identities, the groups take back their weapons from their ready positions.
"It's nice to see familiar faces," LostMind starts up. "And please call me Jake, I'm no longer playing for an audience, so I've stopped going by my tag."
"Hmm, It is nice to see some familiar people. How has your group been doing Jake?" Lynna asks.
Jake winces. "It's a lot harder without the support of the guild. Plus, once anyone finds out where we're from they completely look down on us. It's like they think we're beneath them for being from Alpha."
Sen tilts his head. He hasn't noticed that, but then again, he hasn't shared where he is from with anyone, simply sticking to his own group. The only people he knows at all are the ones who work at the crystal store, and he doesn't exactly have riveting conversations with them.
Looking over, he sees Lynna wincing a bit. "Yeah, apparently being from Alpha is grounds to get you laughed at," she says.
"Is it really that bad?" Sen chimes in.
He's greeted by nods from everyone except Xue, who seems to be as clueless about this as he is. He knows the other girls would occasionally go out to shop or get meals on their own, which Sen appreciates as it give him extra time with just Xue, but he doesn't know that they've been dealing with crap for being from Alpha.
"Why would they look down upon us just for being from Alpha?"
"It's not just that, they look down upon anyone who gets in through doing well in the game Fifth Dimension. They see us as poor people who only happened to make it to this place filled with self titled 'elites'," Jake explains.
"How did people get here in the first place then? Is there really any difference?"
"The first people who started to enhance themselves with crystals were the elite of the elite, they wanted to solidify their rule. The only reason they allow other hunters is so they can get more crystals. Where did you think the taxes go?" Julie is the one to explain this time.
"I assumed the government."
"They're the ones that control the government Sen," Lynna looks at him like he's stupid.
Looking around, he's met by wry smiles and frowns from everyone else. He shakes his head. He'd heard those who can't come to the fifth dimension are treated horribly, he didn't expect it to carry over to those who managed to get here through merit in the game Fifth Dimension.
The two groups chat for a while before splitting up. Team Cloud is going to be staying in the forest overnight after setting up an array. Sen feels a bit guilty at that. His group hasn't been hunting nearly so assiduously, sleeping in their apartment every night.
"Do you think we should start staying out occasionally and hunting more?" He decides to get the opinions of the group.
Jennifer and Lynna both object in a severe manner, and Sen drops the topic, not wanting to face the wrath of women. The group slowly makes their way to their vehicle, the webs thinning out the closer they get to the road, and while there are a couple of the acid spiders that they run into, they're easily handled by the group, not even needing to use their superior numbers.
They arrive at the vehicle, all of them glad they didn't run into another group like the one from Alliance, and are soon on their way back to the city which Sen hasn't bothered remembering the name of.
They arrive, and chat for a while, as all of them have gotten their body enhancement skills to the point where they won't be able to upgrade them until their stats reach rank D, which should be happening soon.
Before bed, When Xue comes by to give Sen his hug and kiss on the cheek, he very nervously says her name, then reaches his head in for a short kiss on the lips, feeling terribly awkward. Sen can feel the softness on his own lips for a short time before he pulls away, to see Xue's face burning a very bright shade of red, and feels that his own face must be matching it.
A quiet, but still audible "Took you long enough." sounds out from Lynna's room, and he looks over to see not only Lynna, but Jennifer and Julie are also poking their heads out of their rooms. Their heads quickly pop back behind the door frames, and Sen can feel his already embarrassed face burn even more.
Xue gives him a short hug, before returning a kiss of her own, and then they split up and go to bed. As he lays in bed, he can hear Lynna excitedly talking with Xue, who seems to be remaining quite quiet. The sound doesn't carry well enough to know what they're talking about, though he's sure he can guess the general topic.
The next few months follow the same pattern, Sen occasionally getting messages from his family. Sen's father tries to refuse the crystals Sen and Lynna have been sending home, but they continue to send them anyway.
What Sen learns from his family is not good news. Many of the politicians, and even some of the larger business owners on Alpha have been taken over by people from the United Federation of Humanity. While it isn't explicitly mentioned, Sen can read between the lines. The only ones who seem to be holding their positions are those that are related to people who've gone into the fifth dimension.
Even those people aren't in such a stable state, the people from the UFoH seemingly just waiting on their relatives to either die off or simply do poorly in the fifth dimension. His parents don't explicitly state this, but he can tell well enough. The group starts throwing themselves into hunting in a more frenzied manner after finding out what's happening on Alpha, and even Jennifer and Lynna agree to stay out for a few days at a time to hunt, to save the hour drive to get out to the hunting grounds.
They usually end up sleeping in the vehicle, setting up an illusion array outside to have a place to use the restroom. After doing some research, Sen learns that most of the off road vehicles for rent in this dimension actually come with an included bathroom, but the group isn't to the point where they can comfortably afford them yet. They'll have to wait until they start hunting C rank monsters before they don't lose most of their crystals just to rent one.They're nothing like the cheap vehicles they could buy on Alpha, as they're created to be able to stand up to anything below B rank.
They vary their hunting targets daily, and soon manage to get all of their stats up to C rank, but they're not willing to try hunting anything at C rank, even if they were comfortable hunting above their rank before this. The tests for the different stat levels are mind numbingly simple. Hop in a capsule, wait for around half an hour doing absolutely nothing, and get a shiny readout with all of your stats. Sen wonders what they do with the data, but considering they need to get their stats to a certain point to practice their body enhancement skills, they're forced to use them. The reason for the group not going straight to C rank monsters is simple: if what is in game holds true, C rank is going to be massively different, and the group doesn't want to risk their lives on simply trying to rush ahead.
The group starts to learn that the purpose of clans such as Alliance is partly for protection and support, and also because they have specialized skills. While all of the skills that are available in game are able to be accessed on their tablets, anything else they'll have to join a clan to learn.
Even after joining a clan, without becoming a core member, you won't be able to learn anything particularly good, as each group is headed by some power, and they want as much of an advantage over the other groups as possible.
The group decides together that they're not going to join any power for now, as they have no clue about the political landscape. It's around this time that information about the fifth dimension is released to the public on Alpha, and the few people in power who hadn't managed to get into the fifth dimension with any of their connections spend astronomical sums of money and any favors they have to get themselves into it.
The group's families even come to visit occasionally at this point, though the only reason they're allowed entrance to the fifth dimension is because they're relatives of Sen's group. The first time they arrive, Sen greets his parents with a warm hug, Lynna doing the same, a pattern that would repeat itself each visit.
Sens mother shifts awkwardly for a moment, seemingly unsure how to start a conversation about the dangerous work her children are doing. Eventually, she starts on a more innocuous topic.
"Are the two of you staying healthy? I don't want you eating junk food every day."
Sen and Lynna both smile at the mild topic rather than the fact that they're hunting monsters each day.
"We're eating well. Lynna, Jennifer and I have been the cooks for the group."
Jiu nods, before working up the courage to ask about her main worry for her children.
"Are you staying safe while hunting?"
Lynna takes this question, as she's far more tactful. "We're doing everything we can to stay safe, you don't have to worry about us."
Their mother nods, but clearly doesn't believe her all that much, giving the siblings a worried look.
Sen's father is much more straightforward. "Stay safe."
Sen and Lynna both nod, before telling their family some of the more harmless tales of their hunting, pointedly avoiding the altercation they'd had with Alliance.
Most of the visits go in a similar manner, and the only ones who don't visit are Julie's parents, but she doesn't seem to be all that bothered about it, which makes Sen wonder for a while.
With how often the group has started to stay out, they climbed through rank D nearly as fast as they'd climbed up to rank D. While they vary up the monsters they're hunting in order to vary the stat increases from the crystals, they're still forced to trade for some of the rank D energy crystals, as there aren't any monsters whose crystals raise that stat nearby the city.
Even their parents get up to rank D from all of the crystals they've been sending back. Before they're willing to hunt rank C monsters, they make sure that they have all of their body enhancement skills up to rank C as well, but once they've reached that point, they have a short discussion before they decide to hunt some rank C monsters. While their stats may be at the lower end of rank C, there are a few areas which only contain weaker rank C monsters as well, and the group agrees to go to one of them.
The only issue is that the areas are a long way away from the city, and while they've been mapped out by aerial drones, and all of the different monsters in the area have been catalogued, they can't be sure there isn't anything that the drones have missed.
If they tried to get their stats up by grinding D rank monsters however, it would take them at the very minimum a few years to reach rank B. While they would love to continue to safely hunt, their parents positions, even with their current rank, is still in a very questionable state. The only way to help their parents is to hit rank A, where you start getting preferential treatment from the government.
None of them say anything about it, but Sen sees it as no better than the system of nobility from his old life. The "nobles" get preferential treatment in pretty much everything. The United Federation of Humanity seems to only be getting worse and worse in Sen's eyes the more he learns about it. Even if he can make it up to A rank, and get his parents preferential treatment, it's simply not a fair system.
Having grown up on Alpha, which espouses equality, it just seems to be a degraded system. He can't do anything about it though. He can only make the best of it. As for the people who end up on the bottom of the pile, he can't do anything for them, no matter if they end up downtrodden.
He shakes off the lingering thoughts, ignoring his memories of the harsh life that peasants had lived under nobles, and hops into the flying gravity vehicle they'd rented to get out to the area they'll be farming in.
Interestingly, they'll likely be the only ones in the area. This particular city has only been built up recently, and most people would only farm up their stats in a relaxed manner. They see it as no rush because lifespans of even someone who only eats enough crystals to go from G rank to F rank will live for a good two hundred years, and the aging process only happens at the last forty or so of it.
Sen and the group are some of the few in the city who are grinding up as quickly as they can, as they need to secure a better life for themselves and their parents. While their parents are simply hoping for a good life for their children, the group also wants a good life for their parents, and the only way to get that is to get up to A rank, and become one of these new "nobles".
Even with the gravity car traveling at speed comparable to an airplane, it's a good hours flight away from the city. They're soon landing in a flat area in the middle of a series of steep hills, and the first thing they do when they get out is have Julie set up an array around the gravity car to make sure it won't be bothered by monsters while they are out hunting.
Once they've finished with that, they head out, it's time to fight some C ranked monsters. The first one they run into isn't one their familiar with. It looks similar to a wolf, except it's a good two meters tall, and its body is elongated to make room for an extra pair of legs.
The group carefully approaches, and the wolf thing starts the fight with an extremely fast charge towards Sen, the largest one in the group. Sen quickly gale steps to the side, and slashes out with his sword towards the monsters flank. The monster easily pushes itself to the side, and Sen only cuts a few strands of fur off of it.
Lynna is on the other side though, and slashes towards it, her blade lengthened by a water looking whip of energy. She hits it quite hard, but it only leaves a shallow wound on it. The wolf thing twists far faster than expected, the extra pair of legs apparently making it much more mobile. It slashes towards Lynna with one of its front paws, the claws on it being blocked by her hastily erected shield.
The rest of the group all takes advantage of the slight pause when it's blocked by Lynna to get in some more hits. It's left with a few shallow wounds, and a slightly deeper one where Sen strikes it. The wolf howls, and the group is reminded of the wind bear's roar as their ears are ringing.
It isn't quite as bad as that though, and Xue quickly blocks the next strike from the monster with her shield, cutting into its leg as she does so, though she's slightly off balance from the howl, and is forced to take a few staggering steps backwards.
At this point, images of Julie join in on the fight, and the pressure on the group lightens significantly. The wolf spends its time in between the images and the real members of the group, and Sen laughs a little as it tries to bite through one of the images, only to have the image stab it in the eye with its sword of energy.
They slowly start to wear through the monster. Sen uses Weight of the Mountain whenever he feels he can get a solid strike off, each blow of which leaves a ragged wound in the wolf's hide. Eventually, the wolf starts to slow down from the myriad wounds, and Sen is the one to finish it off with a Weight of the Mountain onto its neck, shattering its spine.
Everyone has a little blood on them, but none of them seem to be bothered by it, simply wiping off their weapons. The group only rests for a short while before heading deeper into the steep rocky hills. They slowly head out in a spiral pattern from their gravity car, eliminating the monsters as quickly as they can. While they don't manage to hunt as many monsters as they will have if they are hunting groups of D ranked monsters, considering that the difference in crystals is even more exaggerated in this reality, a single C rank core being equal to a good fifty D ranked ones, it's still a much better hunting rate.
The only trouble they have is with an annoying thing that's similar to a praying mantis in that it's insectoid and has a pair of long blades on its two larger arms.
Their first encounter goes not as well as expected. Sen slashes his sword forward, but the monster blocks the slash with its blades, Sen noticing that his fancy blade only leaves a small chip in them. The monster retaliates with its own slashes from each of his arms, while the rest of the group is smashing their weapons down on its carapace, only cracking it a bit more with each blow.
The monster seems to have an unhealthy obsession with Sen, possibly seeing his larger sword as a challenge to its own blades, and chases him around as Sen keeps Gale Stepping, occasionally having to use it in conjunction with Earth Step in order to move quickly enough to avoid the blows. Its blows whistle by within a hair's breadth at times, but he manages to not take more than a couple small scratches. Eventually, Sen hears a loud cracking sound, and sees that Lynna has used her icicle like strike to pierce through the body of it, and the monster quickly turns to her, ripping the hole in its carapace a bit wider as it slashes towards her.
Xue is in position to attack the hole in its body though, and stabs her sword into the hole, before yanking down on its handle, cutting through any organs that it has. The monster lets out a pitiful chittering sound, but keeps fighting. Its blows each knock the girl who blocks back a good few meters, but they're almost instantly able to get back in the fight with how quickly they can move.
It continues its attack, and eventually draws blood. Julie has gotten a bit too close with her real body, and lacking a shield, she's forced to block with her sword when it slashes at her. The blow goes through her guard a bit before its stopped, and she ends up with a cut on her shoulder. She backs off after that with a pained look, but it quickly morphs to anger, and she starts running in a circle around the monster, throwing down a throwing knife every so often.
She soon shouts for everyone to back off as the ground beneath the monster starts to glow, and a pillar of fire erupts from under the mantis. The monster lets out its chittering sound again before collapsing to the ground, and the group relaxes a bit before going in to remove its crystal.
They continue to hunt for a time after that, Julie only putting some healing salve on her shoulder. It isn't long after the fight however before they start to head back towards the gravity car.