Creeeaak!
The big gate of the safe zone slowly opened as Reign and the others patiently waited outside, finally seeing the gate open, they entered inside where they saw the guard observing them with a weird expression on his face.
"Damn guys, I really thought you died this time, what took you so long, you don't look injured or anything." The guard observed them from head to toe, trying to check for any injuries.
"Come on man, we were only gone for a day, what do you mean took us so long?" Shadow complained to the guard as he walked towards him.
"A day, what do you mean a day, you were gone for three days you brats!" Jack shouted at them from the wall. Jumping down he landed right in front of the group and gave them an angry stare. "What the hell were you doing for so long, do you know how dangerous the forest can be for you bunch, what happens if you die huh, do you know how much harder that would be for us, the promotions and bonuses gone and… god, I don't wanna think about it."
"So you were just concerned for yourself huh," Wolf told him with an annoyed face.
"Of course I was, it's not like you and I are friends or anything you brats, first you gotta become a lot stronger for anything like that, anyway, come on in and tell me what happened," Jack told them while waving his hand for them to come forward.
"We went in a dungeon, but there's no way it took so long, I'm certain it took me less than a day, and we only waited for Shadow and Beast for a couple of hours." Reign put his hand to his chin and thought about everything that happened.
"Ummm, guys actually – " Beast spoke up and tried to say something but was cut short by the system.
{The waiting room is a special place where time is accelerated, it took the player codenamed 'Beast' three days to finish the dungeon.}
"What?!" Everyone exclaimed in unison and looked at Beast.
"I thought everyone knew, I didn't think that the waiting room was a place like that." Beast put his hands up in the air and gave an apologetic face.
"It's alright Beastie, it's not your fault." Shadow comes closer and comforts the downed Beast.
"Alright, so we were gone for three days, well vice-captain, what did we miss?" Wolf walked towards Jack and asked him.
"Not much honestly, the map still isn't finished, but we're nearly there, the only thing different is that we let the others out to hunt as well, they're not as good as you guys, we already had some deaths," Jack told them while they walked toward the castle, along the way, Reign and the others could see students and professors moving about, some were bringing corpses of monsters they hunted while others brought back corpses of their fallen comrades, there were even some that were simply kneeling on the floor as they wept.
"So you have already started with that huh?" Reign looked around them, noticing that everyone was giving weird glances at the party, some were excited to see them, some didn't care and others were angry. Reign weirdly didn't think too much of it, he and the others were quite a drawn-back group, they didn't really have friends in the university, only some acquaintances.
"How many are dead so far?" Wolf asked in a cold tone.
"About 20, considering the number of people it's a small number, but it's still concerning, these guys have no experience in true life and death battles, we need to find a way for them to become a bit more brave, and don't look at me like that, you know it best, this world you are in now is governed by the law of the jungle, only the strong have a chance to survive, the weak have no other choice then to struggle or perish." Jack gave everyone a stern glare as he spoke the words out.
Reign and everyone else put their heads down, they knew he was right, the safe zone wasn't a place where you could just live in, you have to pay after a month passed, if people didn't try to fight now they will never be able to survive the hellish world.
{World announcement!}
{To all the players in the world, it has been 5 days since the start of the game, please be warned that the tutorial phase will only last for 5 more days, after that the rules and benefits the system has given will be changed, give it your best and use the remaining time wisely.}
"Tutorial phase?" Shadow looked at others with a dumb expression on his face.
"This probably has something to do with the party system not dividing the exp earned right now, I'm pretty sure that after 5 days all of us will be gaining far less exp compared to now, we need to at least get to lvl 10 and do the hidden dungeon before it happens." Reign turned around and told everyone, they already knew about the exp not being divided and that it will not last for a long time, but they never expected the time would arrive so soon.
"Yeah, I'm not far away from level 9 right now, what about everyone else?" Wolf asked the others.
"Half" Shadow answers.
"Same" Tank says.
"M-me too." Beast gives a timid answer.
Wolf looks at Reign who answered with a small smirk "I just need 60 more points." Wolf's face flinched a bit when he heard that, but continued on as if nothing happened. "Alright, we should rest a bit first and then go hunting a bit, we'll just continue with that until we finally get to level 10 and get our classes, then we do the dungeon."
"That probably won't work for you guys." Suddenly from the side, Captain Eldar showed up and told them.
"What, why?" Reign asked him.
"It's simple really, to get a class is easy yes, but there is a trial you must face, depending on how far you go in it will show your potential and unlock more class advancements for you later on, the better you do then the better chance you have in the future, that of course doesn't mean that if you don't do well now you're screwed, it's merely a probability issue, I've seen many that sucked at the first trial but managed to either get lucky or just power through with sheer effort and become incredibly strong, but I would advise you to do your best straight away, and that means the trial might go on for a couple of days."
"So there's even something like that, do we gain anything else from doing well?" Tank asked with sparkling eyes.
"Nope, that's why a lot of people don't try too hard and regret it later on, remember, the system only rewards hard work, so I advise you to give it your all in the trials, you lot have a lot of potential, I would hate to see you waste it." Eldar gave off a friendly smile as he told them that.
"And you probably will get a better promotion and bonuses if we become stronger huh?" Wolf asked with a small smile on his face.
"Well of cour-" Eldar says before shutting his mouth, knowing he was caught he let's out a fake cough and says: "Just remember this, my ambitions and wants are closely connected to yours, that's why I will try to help you guys out whenever I can."