"He killed it in one strike…" Phillip exclaimed in shock, his eyes shook imperceptibly.
"That guy is strong! He killed that Level 4 creature in just one swing of his sword!" James muttered with furrowed eyebrows.
Kent squinted his eyes while looking at Rendell in silence. 'He is as fast as Phillip and as strong as Sir Ralph. His Gift remains a mystery…'
While everyone was staring at him in shock, Rendell was looking at his status screen.
You have slain a [Level 4 Hairy Caterpillar]!
You leveled up!
Rendell Madrigal [Level 7]
Strength: 16 —> 17
Agility: 16 —> 17
Vitality: 19 —> 20
Stamina: 13 —> 14
Endurance: 20 —> 21
Mana: 16 —> 17
Available Attribute Points: 1
Gift: Regeneration (Epic) ⭐️
Rendell smiled after looking at his stats. "Not bad." He mumbled. He then stared at the corpse and crouched over to search for the items it dropped.
You have collected x8 Gray Tokens!
You have collected x1 Steel Dagger!
Rendell stowed the tokens and the steel dagger.
The others walked towards him and inspected the corpse up close.
"It looks ugly." Aurora puked when she laid her eyes on the creature's severed head. As someone who was sheltered by her family, she had never seen such disgusting things in her life.
"Don't look at it." Celine handed her a clean handkerchief while patting her back.
"Thank you." Aurora took the handkerchief and used it to cover her nose from the stench.
"Why are you keeping those tokens? Do you know how to use them?" Kent asked while looking at Rendell.
Hearing this, the others also turned their gazes to him.
Rendell glanced at him and shook his head. "I'm not sure yet, but we have to collect them. Perhaps the army and the government know how to use the tokens."
"I see." Kent rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "There are quite a lot of tokens in the school and also some items that we hadn't collected. Should we find them?"
Rendell nodded. "We are almost at the school. We can stop by for a while to take those items."
"Alright. Let's go, everyone."
The group headed to the school. The broken pavements and the collapsed buildings made them feel uneasy. They also occasionally heard the howls of creatures from afar. If it weren't for Rendell leading the way, they would have already collapsed from mental exhaustion.
The group encountered a couple of evolved beasts, but they decided to take another route to save more time. With the help of Aurora's Mystic Eyes, they managed to arrive safely at the school.
"We're here," James muttered while looking at the school building across the street. It was a place filled with memories and hope for their future.
The others also looked at the school building with complicated emotions.
"Stop dawdling. We need to find those items quickly!" Rendell's stern voice snapped them out of their daze.
The entrance of the school building was blocked by some broken vehicles so they moved them out of the way.
"Look! There's a lot of tokens there!" Aurora said while pointing at the spot filled with rotting corpses of the students. She retched a thin stream of vomit while looking away.
Ericka gasped in fear when she saw the corpses of the students, while Celine furrowed her eyebrows in disgust.
The men were relatively calmer, but they were still repulsed by the sight.
"I'll get them." Ralph walked towards the rotting corpses while covering his nose with his arm. He then bent over to retrieve the tokens.
While he was grabbing the tokens, something suddenly caught his eye. "Hm?"
It was a silver ring clutched in the hand of one of the corpses.
Thinking that it might be a dropped item, Ralph pried open the corpse's hand and took the ring.
Ring of Intelligence [Common]
- Increases the user's Mana by 5 points.
Ralph's eyes brightened when he saw the description of the ring on his status screen. "It's indeed a dropped item! If Kent uses this, he can use his Mana Shield for a longer duration, but James and Aurora can also use it. I'll let them decide who will take the ring." He muttered to himself while keeping the silver ring in his pocket.
"Sir, did you find something over there?"
Ralph looked over at Kent and nodded. "I'll show it to you guys later." He replied with a smile.
Meanwhile, the others scoured the entire school and it took them almost an hour to take the items. It would have been faster if Aurora didn't feel sick, but the others didn't force her to use her Mystic Eyes.
"That should be everything," James muttered while looking at the items they found.
"How many tokens are there?" Kent asked.
"Hold on. Let me count them." Ericka counted the Gray Tokens.
"There are 36 Gray Tokens here."
"What about those items? How should we distribute them?" Phillip wasn't interested in the Gray Tokens since no one knew what they were for. He was more interested in the items that can increase their stats and one particular item caught his attention.
It was a Steel Dagger similar to the one dropped by the Hairy Caterpillar.
He grabbed the dagger and inspected its description.
Steel Dagger
- A well-made sharp dagger.
Including the dagger and the silver ring found by Ralph, there were four items. One was a pair of brown leather gauntlets and the other was a blue potion.
"Kent, you should take the Ring of Intelligence," James suggested.
Kent shook his head. "No. I rarely use my Gift so I don't need to increase my mana. You should take it."
James hesitated.
Kent pushed up his glasses and added. "Just take it. We might encounter a powerful enemy so increasing your mana is our priority. Your fire is the most destructive in our group so it would be useful in battle."
James' face turned serious at his words. "Fine. I'll take it." He grabbed the ring and put it on his right middle finger.
"Oh! It increased my mana by 5 points!" He exclaimed in surprise.
"You can take the dagger," Kent said to Phillip.
The latter grinned upon hearing his words.
"Sir, you should take the gauntlets."
Ralph didn't reject him. "Alright." He also knew that the gauntlets were compatible with him.