Excursion Squadron Five took down an unprecedented 57 Giant Rats—Nils wasn't the most math-savvy guy ever.
Brutus—though the MVP of the battle for keeping the dam from bursting—had the least killed with 5.
Jiri had 13, providing critical support with her ice magic.
Mark killed 15 Giant Rats, all with the same simple thrust. Though it wasn't so simple—Calm Mind allowed him to be accurate with proper timing.
Without the Calm Mind Skill and the Soul Sword Item in tandem, Mark would've been easily overrun or at least seriously injured using fists. Fate had seriously thrown him a bone.
Nils topped the battle leaderboard with 24 kills. Upon their collective counting, he smirked with pride, shoving the number down everyone's throats.
Which was quite odd considering that he was currently riding on top of Brutus, forced to carry Nils due to exhaustion.
It was also odd that he took zero responsibility for attracting the rat horde—adamantly denying being the sole reason and citing that it was a 'group effort.'
After collecting themselves, the Squad left the church and began retracing their steps.
Mark led them once more as the most able-bodied. Since adding 6 Intelligence, he felt a certain fog in his mind be repelled.
His memory had cleared, and could also paint more vivid images. On top of improved memory, Intelligence also gave great boosts to actively learning new things.
This was especially helpful for Mark, who needed all the help he could get when it came to learning swordsmanship.
Speaking of swordsmanship, with his improved memory, Mark was sad to confirm that he knew of no Four or Five-Star Art that was ripe for the taking.
William's Five-Star Art allowed him to slice through anything. Unfortunately, it was locked behind the Raymond family's vaults.
But if Mark's guess was correct, he likely would have just teleported and grabbed it—since William also knew about his own future.
The only reason Mark had been able to get the Soul Sword was because William had obtained a much better sword later on, which he probably went for in this 'run.'
The Art had been gifted to him after he saved both Lucas Raymond and his sister Celina Raymond.
'Totally ridiculous. They would never give up one of their greatest treasures, especially to a nobody noble like William.'
Unless Mark did some insane deed or managed to raid the vaults of Kings from other Realms, he would have to settle for purchasing a wildly expensive 3 or 4-star art from either the Guild of the Underground.
This phenomenon of locking up high-tier objects seemed constant as he wracked his mind. Only scraps akin to the Soul Sword remained.
Which he could suffice on, but it wasn't all that productive. There was a limited amount of Items, Skills, and Arts one could have at a time. The limit depended on the item's grade along with the user's level.
At his low level, Mark could only have a maximum of two C-tier Skills or below. Anything above that, and he could only have one Skill.
The thought of perusing the early-game scraps gave way to other thoughts.
What stopped Mark from forging his own path? It wasn't like he was required to follow in William's footsteps.
The appearance of the Calm Mind Skill was proof of that. This world was massive, and it was reality—not some shallow novel. Other things not stated in the novel did exist.
Mark was never one to wander without a plan, but taking the plunge may be required. Not just for his power but for the person he wanted to be.
With little trouble, the Squad returned to the wall, with the elevator barely in sight at the wall's apex.
Jiri signaled with her watch, and the elevator smoothly descended to pick them up.
The mission was complete—much better than Mark could have hoped.
***
On the carriage ride back to the Luikots Guild building, Ember City, Mark had a little itch that needed scratching.
'Status.'
┌─────═━┈┈━═─────┐
Name: Mark di Abbott
Age: 18
Race: Human
Class: Shredder of Weave
Title: End's Apostle
[Level: 27] Intermediate
◄ Strength: 6 - ◆─◆─◇─◇─◇ ► +1
◄ Vigor: 3 - ◆─◆─◆─◆─◇ ► +2
◄ Insight: 4 - ◇─◇─◇─◇─◇ ► +8
◄ Dexterity: 4 - ◆─◇─◇─◇─◇ ► +3
◄ Intelligence: 6 - ◇─◇─◇─◇─◇ ► +30
◄ Arcane: 0 - ◇─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►
◄ Faith: 0 - ◇─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►
◄ Charisma: 3 - ◆─◆─◆─◆─◇ ► +1
◄ Luck: 1 - ◆─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►+1
➥Unallocated Shards: 0
◃───***Skills***───▹
Skill: Hidden Hand → Grade: F
Skill: Calm Mind → Grade: D
◃───***Arts***───▹
✩ Academy Longsword: Defensive Style
➥Mastery: Beginner (15/100) +10
◃───***Affinities***───▹
◃───***Items***───▹
Power Item: Soul Sword → Grade: C
Normal Items: Inventory (16/20)
└─────═━┈┈━═─────┘
Mark was happy that his Stats were filling out nicely—and quite pleased with his rapid growth overall.
Without End's Quests, he would be a normal Level 17, to be fair. After missing out on the Bolstered Core, he would need any and all help from End.
'Sucks to rely on that piece of shit. Could be by design. Always a pawn in a bigger game.'
His Insight had rocketed up one entire Stat point—a result of pushing his eyes to their limits.
'Remember that tidbit of end-game information I shared a while back? Earning Stat points through pushing yourself to the limits for a beast kill? That's what ended up happening for my Insight.'
More like pushing his brain to the limits, but the System disagreed. The proof was in the pudding.
…
Upon arriving at the Luikots Guild, Mark parted ways with Excursion Squad Five.
Jiri said her goodbyes, Brutus waved goodbye, and Nils said nothing—which was preferable to being cursed out on the lobby floor.
Despite Nils, Mark was glad to have them accompany him in hindsight. He severely underestimated the difficulty of an Excursion—though obviously a lot of said difficulty was inflicted by Nils.
On the other side of the lobby was an escalator that led down to a floor below—Mark's destination.
With a full inventory of beast remains it was time for Mark to get paid the big bucks.
His overall net gain for the trip was in the hundreds of Gold pieces—mostly all carried by the potential value of selling his C-tier Item and D-tier Skill.
Upon reaching the basement, he approached the clerk and informed her about the transaction. Embedded into the counter was a peculiar blue box.
When he touched the blue box, it allowed him to safely transfer his Inventory without plopping 16 dead carcasses on the counter.
'No cliche Adventurer's Guild bullcrap, this is straight business.'
No one was really around to stroke his ego anyway—the clerk would've just been traumatized.
Tier 1 Beast Remains with Pristine quality went for 2 Gold while Tier 2 Beast Remains with Pristine quality went for 10 Gold.
The Calm Mind Skill was so effective that even at his low Dexterity, it allowed him to be pinpoint with his attacks, leading to the highest-quality kills.
Mark sold one Tier 1 and fifteen Tier 2 Beast Remains—and with the Luikots Guild taking a 50% cut from him as a Part-time Member—he was left with 76 Gold pieces.
He asked for one Gold to be split into 3 Silver and 40 Copper. In total—with the leftover from the crook's money—Mark had 75 Gold, 4 Silver, and 49 Coppers.
'7,629 USD, very nice. Guild work is the most lucrative business, after all.'
With all this hard-earned money, it was finally time to go on a shopping spree.