Alex and Alice headed toward the temple, having to leave the city.
As said before, this is an open-world game, meaning that if you felt like it, you could walk in a straight line for hours and maybe end up in a level 500+ zone, though you would probably die before from the monsters roaming the land.
For Alex though, this wasn't a problem.
"Make sure to check the map," he informed Alice, and she opened up the panel, noticing the now massive map in front of her.
"What the hell, how did you even unlock this?!" she was quite shocked.
"Just be grateful haha..."
When unlocking the [World Map], or any map to be honest, you could activate a setting which allowed all party members to have access to it, a true overpowered feature!
"You see the pinpoint with the word 'Undead Temple' above?" Alex asked, and Alice nodded, "That's where we go."
"Okay!" Alice beamed.
It didn't take them more than ten minutes to arrive at their locations following the map, meeting some players along the way who received intel from some of the city NPCs to go there.
The 'Undead Temple' was a level 20-40 area though, meaning that every single one of them would die except if they had an SS or SSS talent to support them.
It was the area you were supposed to visit as a new player, but prepare to die if you're not ready!
The 'Undead Temple' is a beginner level dungeon which contained 3 levels, along with a secret zone containing the Undead King, a boss Alex couldn't take right now as it was level 50.
The weakest of the monsters were the 'Temple Zombies' and 'Undead Skeletons' both in the first floor and level 20-25 at least.
But Alex wasn't scared, he quickly went down the stairs that led to the first floor of the temple, just to see dozens of players getting slain.
"THAT THING CAN INFECT YOU, RUN!"
"The skeletons are too strong!"
"Retreat, members, retreat!!!"
The shouts and panic were all too familiar to Alex.
He'd seen it countless times before: players who thought they could brute force their way through everything.
But the Undead Temple wasn't forgiving to players.
None of them were even putting a dent on these things.
No one... except for one person.
He was a burly man, using his bare hands to smash the zombies' and skeletons' heads.
"Dave..." Alex mumbled extremely quietly as he recognized the player.
But between smashing the heads of two zombies, the man turned around, looking at Alex.
'Did someone call me?' Dave thought, narrowing his eyes in Alex's direction, eventually he shook his head and returned to the gruesome task at hand.
His S-Level talent, "Super Human," gave him incredible physical prowess and unmatched sensory abilities, including one of his abilities being [Super Hearing].
Dave was one of the companions Alex had made in his previous life, and he was a beacon of strength.
Though, he had died from the hands of the 'Hatred Demon', a strange being that would appear and cause havoc if you didn't stop the ritual of the 'Hatred Sect'.
Dave also came from a rich family, and even the armor and 'gauntlets' he was currently wearing were bought by his family money.
'Lucky bastards,' Alex though as he sighed, all these people were granted money to buy anything they wanted, and here he was, struggling.
Alice noticed Alex staring and tilted her head, "Alex? You okay? You've been staring at that guy for a while."
Dave's ears twitched as he heard that with his super hearing: that guy was definitely staring at him.
Alex forced a grin. "Oh, I was just looking at the monsters," he said, waving it off, "Let's go."
They pushed forward, and Alex raised his staff.
A Grand Fireball formed at the tip, its heat pulsing with raw power before it launched towards a nearby zombie.
The explosion of flames engulfed the creature, turning its decayed form into ash in an instant.
-2367!
[Temple Zombie]
[Level: 25]
[HP: 2000]
The zombies weren't hard to kill for someone like Alex, but their [Infection] talent made them dangerous.
Every hit carried the risk of turning a careless player into one of the mindless undead, and even though he didn't want to admit it, this happened to him once in his past life.
Still, that didn't bother him, he was in control, and this area was well within his skill level.
Ding!
A familiar prompt popped up.
[Choose something to extract!]
[Rotten Flesh (Below Common)]
[+6 Vitality Stat]
[Zombie Claws (Common)]
Not the most exciting rewards, but the vitality boost was always useful.
He selected the vitality stat, and the notification faded.
[You have slain "Temple Zombie," gained 54 experience points!]
Next to him, Alice was holding her own, firing arrows into a group of skeletons.
Each shot was precise, though her damage output wasn't as high as Alex's.
-731!
Her arrows pierced through bone, shattering the skull of one of the skeletal warriors.
Alice was still in the early stages of her progression, 'Earth-Level Archer' as her advancement profession.
But soon, with enough experience, she'd advance to the 'Moon-Level' and possibly the 'Star-Level' even?
She had never gone past the earth-level title before since, well, she died, but maybe it could be different this time with him around.
Together, they fought their way through the first floor, dispatching zombies and skeletons with ruthless efficiency.
These monsters wouldn't be enough to allow Alex to level up since he needed 11000 experience point, but as said before, getting materials and [Extraction Points] was more important, as well as helping Alice to level up because of the experience sharing.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Grand Fireball! Red Crystal! Rock Throw!
He didn't use [Fire Storm] because of Dave, but using it would have made everything much easier.
Dave on the other hand kept glancing at the player that was killing monsters faster than he did.
A surprise as he thought he was much stronger, able to deal more than 2000 health with his bare hands even though he was only level 13.
After about twenty minutes, the floor was littered with undead corpses, and Alex's vitality had increased by 66 points, while his strength had gone up by 47.
However, he had also extracted an [Undead Skeleton Bow (Rare)], which Alex handed to Alice.
"This should help you out," he said with a grin.
Alice's eyes lit up as she took the bow, inspecting its stats, "+75 strength points per attack?!" she exclaimed, practically bouncing with excitement, "This is amazing! Thanks!"
She threw her arms around Alex in a quick hug, planting a kiss on his cheek.
But just as they were about to descend to the second floor, taking the worn stone steps deeper into the temple, a shadow loomed behind them.
"Hey, you," a voice called out, deep and commanding.
Alex turned to find Dave standing there, pointing at him with an outstretched finger.
"Hm?" Alex raised his eyebrows.
"I've been watching you kill all those monsters," Dave spoke, glancing around at the carnage Alex and Alice had left in their wake, "I am… impressed!"
"???" Alice was confused, how could a man go from serious to friendly so easily.
"Continue the good work," Dave was on the verge of turning around to continue his journey.
But suddenly, Alex lifted his staff, conjuring a [Grand Fireball] and throwing it toward Dave.
Fwish! Boom!
Dave rolled to the side, fury in his eyes as he was ready to attack the mage that tried to kill him.
But once he looked at his previous position, he realized that two [Temple Zombies] had been behind him, on the verge of hitting him with their claws.
Two attacks at the same time from these things pretty much guaranteed an infection!
"…" He coughed, "Good work!" and then he ran away.
The prompt appeared and this time he decided to extract two [Zombie Claws].