Chapter 28 (1/2)

It was early dawn, yet the Neutral Zone's plaza on the first floor was still packed with lots of people. Ever since everyone's cla.s.ses had 'awakened', missions became that much more doable. Likewise, the survival rate had improved greatly as well.

Before the Awakening, not many dared to attempt 'Normal' difficulty missions. But now, as long as the party's composition was well thought out, such missions could be cleared without taking too much risks. One could even hear rumours floating around that a party had managed to successfully clear a 'Hard' mission.

There were three motivating factors that forced the survivors to become more proactive.

And those were 'succeed in more missions, earn more Survival points, and then, purchase better abilities or equipment'. Everyone could see that they were visibly getting stronger through spending their SP. Which led the survivors to be completely immersed in doing the missions.

One could say that this was like the famed Möbius strip; Cinzia had hit the bulls-eye on this one.

”Yaaaawn~.”

A man sitting inside the first floor's lounge area opened his mouth wide open to swallow whole an elephant and yawned loudly. He licked his lips and surveyed his surroundings, as if he was waiting for someone.

He lifted his head slightly when he heard the steady footsteps walking closer. His eyes grew a bit larger in antic.i.p.ation as he looked up the staircase. But his curiosity lasted only for a brief second. He rested his chin on his elbow and disinterestedly studied the person who climbed down the staircase.

It was a young man holding a spear. Everyone knew who this guy was. The survivor sitting on the first spot, who also hogged all the spotlight after solo clearing a 'Hard' mission.

Of course, that was in the past. Two months had pa.s.sed by since then, and now, people no longer thought of him as someone special.

The spear-wielding youth's actions barely made any sense. He didn't perform any actual missions whatsoever. He only repeated the same basic training missions that yielded no rewards at all. It was only natural for everyone else to find his behaviour rather odd.

Lots of rumour swirled around the youth and his unexplainable ways, but even that lasted only for a little while before dying down completely. As he wasn't getting in anyone's way, people lost interest. And the fact that he had plenty of Survival points to begin with, there was seemingly no reason for him to do anything, anyway.

The thoughts of the man in the lounge arrived here, and he withdrew his attention completely.

'What's so fun about running all the time, anyways? ….Huh?'

The man in the lounge suddenly realised there was a small change in the way the youth behaved today.

Now normally, he'd rip the mission parchment for the track running as soon as he got to the plaza and disappear from sight. However, for some reason, he was standing around in front of the noticeboard for a while now. Even where he stood was slightly different from the norm, too.

He finally selected a parchment and cautiously ripped it in half. He was gone the next second.

'The running mission isn't found on that part of the board, though?'

Could it be?

The man in the lounge got up. His eyes didn't leave the exact spot the youth was standing just now and ran there as if he'd grown a pair of wings.

'He took this one, here.'

The second row from the bottom, at the far right - the man took the mission parchment and took a look.

[Survive the a.s.sault of the Ape Dogs! (remaining number of attempts: 2/30)]

Fight three Ape Dogs in the jungle and survive!

Difficulty: Slightly easy

When successful: +40 SP

When unsuccessful: Death

*Cooperation possible (up to 2 people)

The man's brows creased up as he read the mission details.

The place Seol ended up in was a jungle full of twisting vines and large, sprawling trees that blocked the heavens above.

He pulled out a small pouch from his bag. He lifted it above his head and shook it, causing pinkish powder to spill forth and disperse in the air.

The name of the pouch was 'smell of meat'. Sold in the stores of Neutral Zone, it had an effect of attracting monsters. It was one of the things Agnes said he should buy.

The thing was, in missions where one was asked to 'Survive in the wild', it was actually faster to kill every beast and monster found in the mission area, instead of trying to avoid them for the next two hours or whatever the time limit may be.

Excluding missions that didn't feature any combat, such as 'Find the correct path' or 'Escape the maze', Seol was planning to at least try every single one available on the board. So, this 'smell of meat' was an indispensable item if he wanted to speed up the clearing process.

While waiting, Seol emptied a vial of Competence down his throat. The ones he bought from the VIP store were already finished, so he bought a new batch from the regular store. He thought that four times the training efficiency was certainly better than not having any.

The Ape Dogs had highly developed olfactory senses, so they should arrive at Seol's location pretty soon. Sure enough, sounds of rustling bushes began tickling his ears not too long afterwards.

The direction was to his side; Seol discarded the vial and held his spear tightly. The thicket rustled softly a few times before two Ape Dogs slowly emerged from the vegetation.

Covered entirely in black fur, the monsters possessed quite a large, hulking frame. Not only its four limbs, but the monster's entire frame was bulging with rippling muscles. They reminded Seol of a gorilla, but slightly smaller; its canine-like snout being the major difference.

One of the two Ape Dogs positioned itself in front of Seol's view. The other one slowly circled around to his side in an anti-clockwise direction, as if he was tempting Seol to look at it.

Seol swallowed his saliva while continuously glancing at the monsters. His throat was getting clammy, and thick sweat drops formed on his forehead. He hadn't felt fear when facing dozens of skeletons, yet he was now getting unbearably tense while facing only two dog-like monsters. It was a noticeable change in mindset compared to how he was like two months ago.

Even though he was feeling the heart-tightening anxiety, his brain never stopped working. The Magic Power circulating through his body at the same time transmitted into the spear as well, and the weapon began to hum ever so softly in his hands.

'Do I need to wait for them to make a move?' (Seol)

No, I must not.

If left alone, these two creatures would soon face each other, and that meant he'd have to contend with enemies in front and back at the same time. In that case, he might as well….

'The first to strike, wins the battle.' (Seol)

When he took aim with the spear, the leisurely-walking Ape Dog stopped in its tracks.

Just before he moved, Seol regulated his breathing.

Was it this difficult to take the very first step? He was inwardly astonished.

Seol wasn't even thinking of having a spectacular battle, like the ones he witnessed countless times in his dream. No, he only wished to fight accordingly to the training he received up until now.

'Let's do this.' (Seol)

He already got into the correct posture. His eyes gained renewed focus.

The moment he made up his mind, his left leg pushed off the ground hard while he thrust his arms out. The Ape Dog quickly dodged to the side and then, savagely pounced forward. The monster was keeping a close eye on the spear as well.

The spear would miss at this trajectory, without a doubt. But Seol wasn't waiting around doing nothing, either. As soon as he saw the monster dodge to the side, he s.h.i.+fted the grip he had on the spear.

The attack changed from 'Thrust' into 'Cut'.

The thrusting spear tip suddenly drew a sharp arc and sliced past the Ape Dog's throat. It felt like he was cutting through a hardened block of tofu. Seeing the blood spurt out from the wound, he swiftly jumped to his back; claws that tried to ambush him barely missed his waist and brushed past.

The Ape Dog's sneak attack failed by a hair's breadth; the monster slid across the ground before spinning its body around as if it was a drifting master, leaving behind claw trails on the dirt. Too bad, by the time it tried to look at the human, a sharp object was already digging into its head. The spear embedded itself deep into the monster's brain. The Ape Dog's body shook as it collapsed.

Seol had taken care of two Ape Dogs in the blink of an eye, but it was not over yet. He retracted the spear, now dripping with blood, and spun around like a cartwheel and slashed out.

'Strike!'

Slam!

The open maw of the remaining Ape Dog aimed at his back spew blood like a fountain in the air. The creature spun in the air couple of times before landing head first on the ground with a heavy thud. It wiggled around like a dying worm, before eventually going completely limp. Seol looked at the dead monster with a dumbfounded expression on his face.

He did guess that the third Ape Dog must be in hiding. Since it was written on the mission parchment that there were three of them, he suspected as much.

What really took him by surprise, though, was his unexpectedly high attacking power.

For a battle that psyched him up so much, it ended in such a whimper. At the moment, he couldn't help but find it quite funny, thinking back to how he had to continuously encourage himself to take the first step.

'And they didn't even look that weak either.' (Seol)

Before he knew it, the surroundings changed.

It was a victory worthy to be called 'perfect', yet Seol wasn't happy about it at all.

'Was there a need for me to step back and then thrust forward?' (Seol)

He replayed the battle in his head, step by step.

'When I was switching from Thrust to Cut…. I could have taken care of both of them at the same time.'

Agnes said that these missions were also a form of training. Basic technique training alone could not fill a certain gap, she said. It was now time to go through various types of combat situations and earn valuable experience, she also said. The Survival points earned would only be an icing on the cake, she added.

'One more time.' (Seol)

Seol picked up the last remaining mission parchment with an excited face and ripped it in half.

Finally, the ignition was turned on.

Currently, the survivor wielding the most influence within the Neutral Zone was, without a doubt, Odelette Delphine. Not only was she a much fancied holder of the 'Sorcerer' cla.s.s, her initial starting SP of 7500 had given her a figurative pair of wings to soar highly as well.

She proceeded to purchase several abilities and equipment as soon as her Awakening was completed. Soon, she found herself being elevated to the status of the most talked-about in the Neutral Zone. Perhaps befitting her personality, though, she then chose to form her own party rather than enter someone else's.

The survivor from the same area as her, Leorda Salvatore and the area 7's Hao Win entered her party. Which meant that calling her group the top of the pile within the Neutral Zone wasn't an exaggeration. It was simply a fact.

”Who?” (Odelette Delphine)

”That man. The top ranked.” (Leorda)

Odelette Delphine was looking at the unusually-excited Leorda with an intrigued face. Just what could agitate the normally-taciturn holder of the Archer cla.s.s like this?

”Ah~. Was it since yesterday? I did hear that he began doing the missions again.” (Odelette Delphine)

”But, that is…” (Leorda)

”Isn't it a good thing, though?” (Odelette Delphine)

”….Pardon?” (Leorda)

”I was expecting him to start making his move soon, anyways…. In any case, I will personally go and talk to him. That man…. Honestly, he was the number one person I wanted to recruit, you see.” (Odelette Delphine)

Leorda could only feel a sense of frustration as he listened to the blueprint of a bright future coming from this still-naive teenage girl who hadn't figured out what was going on.

”That's not the issue here.” (Leorda)

”? Then, what is?” (Odelette Delphine)

”Two days ago, every single 'Easy' and 'Slightly easy' mission on the board disappeared. Gone. That man cleared them all. Alone.” (Leorda)

”Hmm… Those two difficulties weren't much to begin with, though?” (Hao Win)

Hao Win muttered in between his cigarette smokes while leaning back on his chair, both feet on the table. He seemed to imply that there was no need to fuss about things.

There were total of 9 different difficulty levels found on the board.

'Basic.'

'Very Easy', 'Easy', and 'Slightly Easy.'

'Normal.'

'Slightly Hard', 'Hard', and 'Very Hard'.

And finally, 'Impossible.'

The remaining attempts available for missions rated 'Very Easy', 'Easy' and 'Slightly Easy' were almost all finished by now, due to the survivors flocking to clear them during the first month of their stay in the Neutral Zone. Not to forget, the number of attempts was low to begin with, so them disappearing completely was bound to happen sooner or later.

After their Jobs were awakened, survivors were now flocking to 'Normal' and 'Slightly Hard' missions. However, it was still fine because their number of attempts had increased rather dramatically to coincide the Awakening.

The number of attempts available for the next tier of difficulty was far lower in comparison. Of course, parties attempting 'Hard' difficulty were pretty low in number as well.

No, the real problem was….

”See, one-third of the remaining 'Normal' missions have disappeared since last night, too.” (Leorda)

”….What?” (Odelette Delphine)

Both eyes of Odelette Delphine shot up. If it was last night, she was in the middle of attempting to clear a 'Hard' mission with her party.

”It's not only that. I personally went there and confirmed it…. Even the 'Slightly Hard' missions are decreasing at a frightening pace.” (Leorda)

”What did you say?!” (Hao Win)

Hao Win had to lower his feet and sit upright.

”Didn't I tell you this already? The whole plaza is in an uproar.” (Leorda)

”Let's go.” (Hao Win)

”Let's go and take a look!” (Odelette Delphine)

The man and the girl stood up from their respective seats simultaneously.

Odelette Delphine hurried to the first floor, only to run into a spectacle she failed to understand right away.

Dozens of survivors were surrounding one man while whispering to each other. In the middle of that crowd, Seol was busy ripping a piece of paper in half.

”What is going on….?” (Odelette Delphine)

Odelette Delphine became fl.u.s.tered as she saw Seol disappear. She was about to push the blocking bodies away and rush towards the noticeboard, only to stop dead in her tracks.

”What….?!” (Odelette Delphine)

The teenage girl couldn't help but exclaim out in shock as Seol reappeared in the plaza.