[Overload Flux (1st Tier passive skill): When your mana pool becomes empty, your five senses are significantly heightened, and all your physical stats are increased by 10% of your current stats + 20 for 1 minute. During this time, you won't be able to recover mana via any means. Note: To trigger this passive again, you must recover your mana pool to full first.]
"Wow, this is great," Erix was surprised. He felt that this passive skill was the best he got so far and immediately learned it.
"It's really good," Rin nodded and opened her scroll. "Let's see what I got."
[ Fire Aura: Increase your fire-attributed damage by 10% and your flame resistance by 15% + 20. ]
"Eh… This is more useful, Bella-sis," Rin ruefully smiled.
"Indeed," Isabella nodded and opened her scroll. "Let's see what's mine. If you want it, we can exchange it."
The scroll opened, and the trio inspected it.
[ Precise Hits (1st Tier passive skill): Attacking the same spot with your melee weapon on a target will deal 20% extra damage. ]
"Great! Let's exchange."
"Yep."
"Let's not open the material crate for now," Erix suggested. "We won't be using them anyway."
"True," Rin nodded.
"As for the Guild Creation Slate," Erix took out the slate and inspected it. "Let's see..."
[Guild Creation Slate]
_Guild Name: ______
_Members: _______ (Maximum ten members for level 1 guild.)
_Use: Fill in the details above after infusing mana and put it on the ground where you want to build your guild. The guild's area is fixed to 500 square meters at level 1, and you get a random structure-type dungeon gate in your guild area after using the slate.
_Note: You can only add structure models you got from Structure-Type dungeons in the guild areas.
"It looks like we also won't be using this Guild Creation Slate now," Erix said after reading the details.
"Yep. We should use it in Phoenix City," Rin nodded. "Preferably near that Labyrinth Tower."
Erix nodded and put away the slate.
"Then off we go to the forest now?" Isabella spoke, slightly tilting her head.
"Humu," Rin smilingly nodded. "Time to resume our hunt to complete your class tasks."
Everyone went out, and then Erix called Bloodwood Eagle as it flew down from the top of the watchtower.
After a couple of minutes, they arrived at the west periphery of the forest and could even hear the sounds of fighting.
"Don't tell me those two we met are fighting against the plant monster with their team…" Rin muttered.
"Probably," Erix nodded. "Because the planet monster is indeed there."
They arrived at the location and saw nine people surrounding a huge plant monster. It was a white flower with dark green spots, bowl-like leaves covered around it, and several big vines with spikes on them.
"They got good teamwork," Erix said upon seeing how four people were purely dedicated to defending using their defense skills and parrying the attacks while the rest attacked and controlled the monster.
"What do we do?" Rin turned to Erix.
Erix shrugged. "Of course, this monster is their prey now."
"Yes. Let's go find another," Isabella nodded. "We also wouldn't like it if someone stole our prey and loot, so I don't want to do that to them and create needless conflict."
"Alright," Rin smilingly nodded and saw that the monster was on the verge of death. "It's dead, anyway."
Someone released a dark red bolt akin to a fireball, but with lightning and dealt the finishing blow.
"Let's go," Erix commanded the Bloodwood Eagle to continue as they went deeper in search of monsters.
On the other hand, the muscular middle-aged group leader looked up and saw a monster eagle flying deeper into the forest.
"A flying eagle and people are riding on it. It looks like they are the people Senator and General talked about."
"Leader Kaflan, I feel like General Tark and Senetor are plotting something," Ronaldo frankly said with a snort. "I don't think those people are bad. At least, not like the bunch we encountered who were greedy fucks and wanted to steal our loot."
Kaflan laughed and nodded.
"They probably want to use us to drive them out, so they can regain their authority over the military base. Those old fogeys. They should have started fighting outside to get strong instead."
"Yeah, it's not like their aged bodies will hinder them after getting stat points," a man in his late twenties chimed in.
"That group has means of flying, so I don't think they will stay here. Leader Kaflan, when are we leaving for Phoenix City?" Barkha asked.
Ronaldo nodded while grinning.
"Yes! We have to go there and enter the so-called Labyrinth Tower. I am too much curious and excited about it."
Of course, the sentiments of Ronaldo and Barkha were shared by others in their group, but they were not as excited or curious because they had lost their family yesterday, but the time and place didn't allow them to mourn or pause in their tracks.
It's just… they survived, got stronger, got saved, and joined the group.
The original group consisted of Barkha and Ronaldo, whom Kaflan saved and led them. Then the rest joined separately after getting saved by the trio.
"Since we have a military base to rest, then we'll stay here and explore the forest to kill monsters for our class tasks and until we find a proper transportation," Kaflan said. "We'll depart for Phoenix City after getting transportation."
"There's also that dungeon in the base. Let's quickly reach level 51 and enter there," Ronaldo enthusiastically said.
"Eh... leader! This treasure chest spewed only two orbs, b-but there's a vehicle inside one orb! It's a frigging chopper! A green chopper with leaf-like rotor blades! Wtf?"
"Are you serious?!"
Everyone was dumbfounded.
…
While Rin, Erix, and Isabella were exploring the forest, the famous Phoenix City was bustling with people in various bases led by powerful and influential people.
Although the city was filled with zombies, the living population still numbered roughly thirty thousand.
But some people who survived still lost their lives due to recklessness and carelessness, so having powerful groups to lead, guide, and help them relieved many normal civilians.
Some still just wanted to live safely, while some wanted to fight and get stronger. Some were depressed because of losing their family members, while some had gone insane. Some had given in to their bare desires and evil, while some were trying to fight for others and help. Some had various plots in their mind, while some were manipulative.
There were all sorts of people among those who survived, and only those whose performance was good and were getting stronger had gotten quests similar to one acquired by Erix's team. Although many groups got quests, not all had a Dungeon Gate in their reward pool.
Moreover, the downside was that whoever or whatever was responsible for giving the quests was indifferent to lives and human morals. So, the lot that had bases and groups under them was a mix of good, bad, and gray, but mostly gray because, without laws and regulations, it was hard for people to survive alone.
...
The city's most famous spot was the Labyrinth Tower, situated three kilometers away from the city's periphery on a vast open meadow.
However, the meadow, the mountain range to its north, and the forest to its east were filled with approximately ten thousand people. Many had also gotten means to fly with wing-type items, but most were still on foot.
A portion of the ten thousand people was hunting monsters in the mountains, another portion was in the forest, and a tiny portion was resting on the meadow in beautiful named structures that looked like open courtyards with various types of buildings inside!
Guilds!
More precisely, nine guilds had situated themselves in the meadow using Guild Creations Slates, and one of them belonged to no other than Rin's parents!
Most people and groups actively hunting in cities, towns, mountains, and forests aimed to get a quest with a dungeon gate as a reward or find dungeon gates that had automatically spawned to acquire Guild Creation Slates while getting stronger.
But in a matter of days, a storm would soon descend to add more colors to this changing world and put it on a solid moving track with multiple pathways.
A storm in which only those with sufficiently solid resolve and hunger would rise!