For Alex, Tanya, and Chris, the N-level Awakening Stones were essentially useless at this point. The best they could do with them was awaken an R-level potential, but since they had already surpassed that, there was no benefit.
After thinking it over, Tanya suggested, "Why don't we sell the extra stones to others in the school?"
Alex considered the idea and agreed. Not only would this boost the strength of the entire school, but it would also help them recover more points—a win-win situation. He turned to Lily and asked, "Lily, why don't you take charge of selling them? You could ask Quinn to help manage the crowd and coordinate with the teachers. Set the price at 2,000 points per stone, and sell them near the playground."
At 2,000 points per stone, the price was a bargain compared to Quinn's 3,000 points per stone. It was cheaper by a third but still slightly higher than what Alex had sold to their own classmates, making it an attractive yet reasonable offer.
Lily rolled her eyes, clearly exasperated. "Fine, fine, everything always falls to me."
Matt and the others laughed as they turned to the other girls who hadn't been part of the previous battle. "You can all help her out too," Matt suggested.
With Alex providing an overwhelming sense of security, the group's mood stayed upbeat. Although contact with their families had been cut off, the safe environment of the school created a comforting illusion that things weren't as dire as they seemed.
After setting up the plan to sell the extra stones, Tanya and Lily went to meet with the school administration. With their support, they would avoid unnecessary complications in the process.
Meanwhile, Matt and the others had around ten extra stones each. They were torn between selling them for points or gambling on a second awakening, hoping to unlock R-level potential.
Predictably, Dean, ever the gambler, was the first to try "multi-awakening," as they called it. Once someone had already awakened a power, it took at least 10 stones to try awakening again, so the group had nicknamed the process.
Unfortunately, the ten stones didn't boost Dean's luck. After a brief flicker of light, all ten N-level stones turned to dust, and Dean's potential remained stubbornly at N-level.
Seeing this disheartening outcome, Matt and the others hesitated to try again and ultimately decided to sell their stones for points. They figured it would be better to buy a **War God's Glory** pendant from Quinn and level up quickly in the afternoon.
Dean, however, was left devastated. Not only had he failed to upgrade to R-level potential, but now he couldn't attempt another awakening for an entire month. Worse, he had just wasted 10 stones, worth a staggering 20,000 points, leaving him empty-handed.
Word about Alex's class having over 200 Awakening Stones quickly spread through the school, though it was unclear who had leaked the news. Soon, people from all over the school were approaching Alex's class to try and buy stones.
Facing a crowd of adults, the students felt overwhelmed. Even Matt, usually sharp-tongued and quick to retort, found it difficult to hold back the flood of people.
In the end, it was Tanya who resolved the situation by using the school's public announcement system to order everyone to leave Alex's classroom immediately. She then directed them to the playground, where the stones would be sold in an organized manner.
Within ten minutes, all 200 stones had sold out, even with the chaos at the sales point. Had it not been for the disorder, the stones would've been gone in two or three minutes.
Those who missed out began to grow restless, and the situation looked like it might spiral out of control. Fortunately, both the school administration and Quinn stepped in to quell the unrest and restore order.
The chaos left Alex and his group feeling a bit annoyed, but they couldn't help but sympathize with the desperation of those who had missed out.
After this hectic experience, Tanya and the other girls decided to avoid getting involved in selling stones in the future. From now on, with Quinn's help, the stones they obtained would be sold through the school at a set price of 2,000 points per stone. Thanks to the game contract, the proceeds would automatically be transferred to Alex and his friends' accounts. The school would then resell the stones for 2,200 points each, but Alex and the others didn't concern themselves with that.
With the headache of selling stones behind them, Alex checked his account and saw an additional 160,000 points had been credited. Including the miscellaneous materials they had sold to Quinn and the points left over from yesterday, Alex now had 200,000 points to his name!
Tanya and the others had each earned an extra 20,000 points. Combined with yesterday's rewards, they now had 50,000 or 60,000 points, more than enough to purchase the **War God's Glory** pendant.
However, to their dismay, Quinn gave them a sheepish look and said, "I'm afraid that pendant was a one-of-a-kind item. I only had the one."
Alex's lucky purchase had snagged the only **War God's Glory** pendant in the entire settlement.
Although its effects only lasted for 72 hours, it was more than enough to give Alex a massive boost in power.
Disappointed they couldn't get their hands on the pendant, Matt and the others reluctantly set out in the afternoon to hunt monsters. After wandering for a while without encountering any, Matt finally voiced the obvious. "We already cleared out all the nearby monsters this morning. Should we try hitting one of the monster nests?"
Dean and the others were eager to level up, but Alex was slightly hesitant. "The monster nests are full of creatures. With only 20 of us, it might be dangerous."
Based on their experience from yesterday, a monster nest would contain at least 30 creatures, and after a day, that number could have doubled.
Though Alex's damage output was insane, he couldn't protect everyone if they were swarmed by monsters.
Tanya and the others understood the risks but were driven by their desire to level up. In the end, they decided to head to the nearest monster nest.
Alex led the group toward a spring water shop about a kilometer away. The nest hadn't been marked on the map yesterday, so it must have appeared sometime overnight or early that morning.
The location was close, and with only 20 of them, they moved quickly through the deserted streets, reaching the nest in just a few minutes.
When they arrived, they found the number of creatures there both "satisfactory" and alarming—over 30 monsters were in plain sight. A good challenge awaited them.