Thank you for your support thus far. Being the 50th Chapter, I decided to make it slightly longer, 1250 words approx. Thank you all your support so far, and hoping for more support in the future.
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Max and Jack were running back to base with all their might. Completely ignoring the zombies along the way, Max was running with only his natural speed. However, Jack was just a normal human in terms of physical condition.
However, he was able to keep up with Max using fire magic. Being an engineering student, he had a lot of ideas to increase his speed. However, most of them would use too much mana, something he could not use for long distance travelling. Therefore, he decided a simple method that would greatly increase his speed.
He created a barrier of fire on his feet to prevent his body from being hurt, and then created [Fireball] spells wherever he landed. Once the fire in the shield and the fireball met, they would disrupt each other, leading to a small explosion, propelling Max dozens of meters in an instant.
This way, the two of them quickly made their way to the base. It was currently sunset, and the Colossus was finally visible in the distance. The reason Merlin had not rushed back the instant he recovered was due to two reasons. Firstly, during the vision, it was night time, which would be around 2 hours away. Secondly, he couldn't leave the dungeon even if he wanted to. Once a group enters a dungeon, everyone cannot leave unless they clear the dungeon.
In order to leave without completing the dungeon, one member must stay behind as a sacrifice and must attempt to clear the dungeon alone. This is a rule those sadistic 'gods' created. If Merlin tried to leave now, he would only be stopped at the entrance by a space formation. Such a thing was something that only those who have control over the law of space could create. Something that even Zero, or the humans at the end of the apocalypse, who were Tier 12, could not do. One can only completely comprehend and control laws once they read Tier 15, or so the system said.
As one's Tier increases, the system Arcania, also evolves, and becomes more life-like, and less of a system. It even leaks some information to the host with time.
Anyway, Merlin was trying his hardest to use the one hour boost from vampire's touch to clear the dungeon. He also learned something interesting. Absorbing normal blood only replenishes the stamina, mana and vitality. However, absorbing fresh Tier 1 blood leads to the timer to increase by 20 minutes.
Which means that as long as there were enough Tier 1 beings within the dungeon, he could in essence elongate the time to an extreme extent. However, he knew that dragging something out would only lead to the backlash increasing. But nothing could be done about it. He had only an hour left until night time, and he had almost 1/4th of the dungeon remaining, which included the final battle with the dungeon master, who would most definitely be a peak Tier 1 existence. He could not possible be a Tier 2 being, since the mana in the world would not be able to support such a being, and would instead suck the being dry of mana until it returned to Tier 1.
Back at the base, Max and Jack had returned and were discussing something with the other group leaders. Suddenly, Sean, the last group leader to leave the base in search for supplies had returned.
Seeing all the other group leaders gathering, along with the ones that had gone with Sir Merlin, Sean quickly made his way to them.
"Sir Merlin has returned?"
"No, but he told us to come back here as soon as possible, so we ran the fastest we could." Said Jack.
"Oh" replied Sean in a dejected tone.
"So there must be something big happening for Sir Merlin to be this panicked-"
Just as Max was analysing the situation, he noticed a particular person within the crowd of people Sean had brought to the base. Seeing the symbol above the person's head, all colour drained from Max's face.
Seeing the frozen Max, the first to react was Jack as he turned to look at the group. Naturally, he couldn't see anything, since he was not a player.
"What is it?" asked Jack
"R… r, r, run!"
This was all he could say in a voice of disbelief. This was the only instruction that Merlin had said in an extremely serious tone. 'If you see another person with the symbol above their heads, forget everything and run. Run as fast as you can. Run as fast as your legs can carry you. Just RUN, and tell everyone to do the same.'
But there was nowhere to run currently. They were at the base… where could they run to? Nowhere! He couldn't go anywhere! Then he remembered something. He could see the shape above Merlin's head right? And so could Merlin see his own. Which meant that this person would also be able to see the symbol above his head.
Thinking this far, Max quickly crouched down and whispered, "William and John, can you see the man in a blue T-shirt, and brown shorts wearing slippers? Go and keep an eye on him from a distance. Make sure he doesn't realise you are keeping an eye on him. The rest of you, cover me. We need to move out of the lobby, without that man seeing me."
"What?" questioned William.
"He is a player. The one that Sir Merlin told us to run away from if we meet him outside. But he has appeared at the base, and we don't have anywhere else to go. We need to buy time to form a plan. Just do this! If he sees me right now, he would realise that his cover was blown and might just start a massacre here!" whispered Max.
Hearing the words player, all the people who had heard Merlin's warnings flinched at the same time. They all had felt the severity of the warning Merlin had given them. Naturally, Merlin had not 'ordered' then to run away form a player, for cases like these where they could not run away. If he had ordered them, they would be forced to leave everything behind and just run away, else their soul would have gotten torn apart slightly.
Naturally, ordering people continuously would also but a great burden on Merlin's soul. He also didn't want robots as his subordinates, but soldiers. He wanted soldiers, who were individually different, yet were one with each other. Soldiers that could work with each other when needed, and yet could be completely opposite.
Continuously ordering people around would only cause them to lose their will to live. This had happened with the 'Brotherhood of Blood' from Eastern Russia. A cringy name, along with a leader who wanted to control everything, led to them crumbling from the inside within 2 months of its formation.
Anyway, while Max, and the group were planning on how to deal with the player, and William and Jon were covertly spying on him, Merlin himself was fighting against a monster stronger than anything created on earth. A Peak Tier 1 Sabercat. Although he had anticipated an lion or tiger as the last boss, he did not expect it to already have become a peak Tier 1 existence.