After defeating Dumya, I managed to escape the swarm of practicionners from the dojo asking for tips and went straight to my favourite hiding spot: the rooftop.
Even though it was a reputable private highschool, Yeong Highschool remained a school. There were students getting bullied, and the Doomsmiths had a presence here too. They were mainly trying to recruit fresh blood. In any good structure, the onboarding and recruitment was of paramount importance to continue growing, and this was something that was well implemented thanks to Doc Juan, the middle-aged netrunner. Though it was his idea, it was actually George in charge of doing it, and he did it with the help of a few scholarships to 'troublesome' yet influential students.
The rooftop was their hiding spot, one that was led by someone that I had a little too many interactions with.
"Winning against the District champion in such a brutal spar", a voice chuckled behind me, sending me goosebumps all over my body, "Are you not afraid of blowing your cover up?"
[Laylah - Lv. 20 Witch [D-rank]]
It was this damn witch Laylah.
"My identity has nothing to do with you, and it does not interfere with my 'activities' from the Doomsmiths. Why are you even at school?", I sighed in annoyance
Perceptive, she immediately stepped back, giving me my vital space back. What I disliked about her was her social skills, and her ability to see through people like open books. Plus, as a dark mage, her potential was boundless, even more than mine, despite the level difference. After all, an A-rank mage had so much more value than an A-rank warrior. No matter the civilization, no matter the century, it was a fact that had held true for centuries, and for a reason.
Warriors were unable to use mana like mages were, beyond a few exceptions that is. Spells were not only very versatile, they boasted extreme range and destructive power, that was difficult to match as a warrior. If not for their vulnerability, mages would have long since conquered the world back.
Large gates usually possessed a boss monster, for C-rank gates and above, which was why I never attempted to clear one in the past. Even as a strong warrior, boss monsters were a little bit too much, their size and defence being too much for regular warriors. Without explosives, the only alternative was hiring a mercenary mage to join the expedition, and even then, the success would heavily depend on the skills of the said mage.
"Me? Why am I at school? You might not know, but the school is actually a wonderful place to get information! People repeat what their parents say and do without a care of the world! Do you see the football player on the field?", she said with pride, taking her information tasks with absolute rigour.
The witch had many defects, but she was definitely an asset for the Doomsmiths.
"What about him?", I asked in a bored manner
"His father is a police officer. I heard that he was on a big operation, and immediately notified the rats. Moving a certain 'sensitive' stocks prevented Acteon from entering a veryyyyyy bad mood, you see", she said, as if police men could potentially harm the business.
"Even if they find our workshops, it would not even be that much of an issue. Did Doc Juan never teach you the scale of our business? We are no longer at a level where the local police can threaten us, even if they dismantle our warehouses one by one", I spat
"Mmmh...Easy to say when all you do is cut down monsters from within gates. You sure have it easy with your 'Doom Legion'...", she pouted
However, before we could continue our debate, the alarm of the school went on.
*WRRRRIIIIING*
"ALERT! All students are to confine themselves to the nearest room as per the standard protocol. This is not an exercise. I repeat, this is not an-"
*SPLASH*
The guardian, protecting the gates of the school and a proud E-rank warrior who retired from the military, stopped talking altogether.
From the rooftop, we rushed to see the situation.
[Murloc - Lv. 16 Monster (E)]
[Murloc - Lv. 18 Monster (E)]
[Murloc - Lv. 26 Monster (D)]
[Murloc - Lv. 14 Monster (E)]
This was something that all inhabitants from the district feared.
A [Gate Overflow].
Gates were basically tunnels to pocket dimensions, in which monsters lived and hunted freely. Some were stable, and could be raided before they actually caused damage, which was the most of them. Of course, they would still grow unstable if left untreated, but thanks to the technology, it was easy to spot those massive chaotic sources of energy with the correct instruments. Once cleared, a gate could be exploited for its resources from within, and corpses of monsters sold for especially lucrative amount of money, as a single core of an E-rank monster could power a household for months.
The stronger the monsters, the more energy their cores usually held.
However, not all gates were stable. Some exploded right after spawning, causing monsters to appear inside the walls of Etherum. No matter how strong the arrays on the walls, gates were natural phenomenon that had caused the world to become a gigantic wasteland. It was a force of nature that could neither be predicted or stopped besides the regular method: that is clearing it.
This was bad.
In two years, I had only come accross three gate overflows.
Once because I was too weak at the time to attempt to clear a D-rank gate, and the [Dawn] guild had failed miserably to do so. A second time because a gate went undetected for quite some time. It was fortunately an E-rank gate.
And the third gate was the one unfolding before my eyes.
It was still uknown whether it was a D-rank or a C-rank gate, but judging by the damage, it seemed to be the former, fortunately.
Still, each time there was a gate overflow, there would be deaths.
I had long since grown accustomed to death. Especially since the people around me were from a game, mere NPCs...
But...
There was a part of me that thought that maybe...just maybe...they were more than NPCs...