The Difficulty of Being a Leader
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Leader Bonus:
20,000,000 VIS
Bathala's Primordial Flame - The very first and strongest flame created by Bathala himself. However, while he could retract the primordial flames, even he could not extinguish them completely.
It has formed a spirit over the countless years of it's existence, that will adapt itself to the user's current strength as a precaution.
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The only existing egg remaining of the legendary Bakunawa. Leave it in the
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Large Territory Bonus:
Adamantium Walls to surround your territory!
First
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A cradle created by the roots of at least four
Legendary class eggs can only be hatched by placing it within the cradle.
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Luna was pretty happy about these new gains they just received, but only for a moment. When he remembered the cost of such gains, he had a solemn look on his face. When the soldiers noticed his demeanor, they too shared a moment of silence.
"Let's head back for now. We need to bury our dead." As he gave out the command, they all headed back to base. Everybody knew that from this point on, the previous minimum requirement of level 10, will now be raised to at least level 20, even then one could only run away from ETZs, and pray they don't get seen by EHZs.
It was quite bittersweet for everybody. They gained a lot and they appreciated that they had a leader that cared for them, but at the same time, they lost their comrades, along with the fact that those who had a family, would now be left without a father or mother.
Apple saw how heavily it weighed on Luna's shoulders, as she put her hand on his shoulders. "If you'd like I can take care of it. You have a lot of things to worry about as it is, Luna."
He showed a smile filled with appreciation towards Apple's thoughtfulness. "Thank you, Apple, but I have to do this."
She could only nod as she watched him walk forward while all she could do was stare at his back before Mabini patted her on the shoulder and walked back to the base with her.
As soon as they all got back to the base, the corpses of the men and women who died were all lined up on the ground. Wives, Husbands, Children, all were mourning the death of their loved ones.
Luna had a heavy expression on his face as he spread his gaze towards every single crying family member and towards every single corpse, committing all of it to memory. Vowing even more so than before, that he would do everything he can to strengthen his people. To stay ahead in terms of evolution.
Even when he knew that there was no way he could protect them all. Such were the hardships of being a leader. You always wanted the best for your people, but that wasn't always possible. How could it be that easy, after all? Especially in this new world where the theme is to be pushed to the limits in order to evolve further?
"Lord Luna, why did you let my father die?"
"Lord Luna, why did you let my husband die?"
"Lord Luna, why did you let my wife die?"
In their grief, some lost sight of reason and threw the blame solely on him. Some of the soldiers wanted to reprimand them, but Luna stopped them.
When they saw Luna walking up to them, they were scared. They realized that they had spoken out of turn.
Kneeling down on one knee, he said. "My fault was that I didn't push your loved ones to be more stronger than they were. Had they been a second faster, had they been faster to react, they would still be alive, but I made the mistake of thinking that hovering around the minimum requirements to survive was enough for a regular soldier."
After saying that, the rest could only contemplate on the meaning behind those words. Luna stood back up, his gaze commanding everyone's attention.
"Everyone. Tonight we all saw how sudden these monsters can evolve. How easily we can be caught by surprise, how fragile our lives are! Our people have ALWAYS adapted to any circumstance! No matter what form of adversity, we have always smiled through it and trudged on. In this new world, it isn't any different. Especially in OUR City! Whether you're Filipino, American, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, or Indian. Once you live in the City of Smiles, that very way of life has been infused in you." pointing towards the corpses, he continued. "Commit these very men and women to memory. For they sacrificed their lives to remind us all of a valuable lesson."
Just as he said that, one of the little boys who were grieving grabbed his father's Itak Tagalogs. In between sobs, he forced himself to speak. "Lord Luna, I may be young, but I know that this new world doesn't care about that. I would like to grow stronger. Stronger than my Mother, so I can avenge her by reaping the lives of these zombies with a smile on my face."
The rest of the people who were mourning stood up and pledged similar oaths as well. No one would have ever guessed, that the death of these men and women, would ignite an inextinguishable fire within everyone else who survived.
The very next day….
With the 100,000,000 VIS that the
From the inside, everything was transparent, so it didn't affect their vision, but on the outside, it was a mask that could be modified to change it's appearance. They were all modified by their respective owners to have the appearances resemble the different smiling masks, reminiscient of the Masskarra Festival. Even Hana, Elise, Yu-jin, Sang-hwa, and the rest modified their masks to have smiles on them, but designed uniquely to fit their style based on their own culture as well.
All of this didn't take much time, as the customization on the masks themselves only had to be willed by their users to form the design they wanted.
Not long after, they all moved out. Their goal was simple: If the minimum requirement to survive was 20, theirs would be 40. If it was 30, theirs would be at least 50. Thus, the army that would later on become famous as "The Smiling Immortals" began their path to greater evolution.