Chapter 3 - Dorm

The first-floor reception area of the girls' dorm.

X was leading the way into the reception area where they can accept guests of those who are living in the girls' dorm. For today, however, instead of typical guests of family and friends; it was filled with ghouls and some corpses of the staff instead.

'I guess they didn't react fast enough.'

Rynold was looking around while X was initiating the battle. The reception area appeared very dreary but it was time to focus on the battle at hand, anyway.

As Rynold approached and swung the Wooden Staff against one of the ghouls that X was tanking, a door in the background opened slightly and someone was peeking on the battle happening outside but the party was too busy with the fight to notice.

When the battle reached the critical point and were roughly two to three ghouls left, X blocked a hit that was directed to Oliver at a split-second interval. Only for the block to fail because all of a sudden X just disappeared into thin air and Oliver got a massive whack into his face.

Critically, Rynold never noticed that as they battled his Mana got absolutely depleted and failed to sustain X for just a few seconds left. It was roughly 30 seconds when the battle started and X acted as both the tanker and main damage dealer, capable of dealing with ghouls with large swings and dealing critical damage to them with two to three. As the ghouls reached critical HP, it was up to both Rynold and Oliver to finish them off.

It was the strategy they've been using for a long time now and, objectively, it was a good one. Only for X to lose its existence when the battle reached the climax.

They were never hit when they were reaching the girls' dorm but it was just a matter of time for one of them to get hurt and lose HP. Thankfully, due to Oliver's stats, the hit didn't deal significant damage only shaving off 7 HP from Oliver.

Rynold swung back at the ghoul that was targeting Oliver and managed to push it back. Due to X's help with dealing with the ghouls prior to his disappearance, the ghouls before them were in critical condition. It didn't take much for both Oliver's and Rynold's combined efforts to deal with the enemies around them. Rynold pushed them back with every swing of the Wooden Staff, staggering the ghouls' movements while Oliver dealt slashing and stabbing attacks. Thus, the battle was concluded.

There was only one thing in their mind as they rested and that was the loot that the ghouls managed to drop. Although at the beginning of the battle there were six ghouls that attacked them, the loot was somewhat lacking compared to the enemies that they dealt with.

Understandably, the only loot that managed to drop was the Dull Shortsword that Oliver was still using now. This time the loot that they managed to gain was a new skill book.

[Broken Wing Slash]

Physical Skill Book

Inflict 200% weapon damage on the target. Consumes 10 Mana on activation.

Requirements: Bladed Weapon

Rynold decided to throw this directly into Oliver's way seeing as how he was the only one capable of using it.

In the New World, stamina wasn't necessarily an attribute that can be directly used, it was an attribute that had a subtle effect on the user. The more stamina they have, the less they get tired. Moreover, the more they push their bodies to use the skills that they had, the more their bodies will get easily worn out.

Oliver was a prime example of this, even if his agility and strength surpass what they originally were, his stamina usage was also heavily affected. As such, Oliver was on the verge of actually collapsing, and choosing to rest in the reception area where it was clear of any presence was the best decision. Or so they thought….

A door that they weren't paying attention to suddenly burst open and out came a girl. Her appearance was short and adorable, like a cute kitten that you can randomly see around campus. But her personality was the direct opposite of it. Rynold knew she was unusually mean, consistently using people around her to get ahead, and was a classic bitch who didn't care who they hurt.

How did Rynold know this? It was simple that Oliver knew the girl too.

It was Rynold's ex.

As she approached the resting party, Rynold's thoughts were racing through his mind. Some thoughts remembered the love he had for her, while some thoughts were full of hatred and resentment. A thousand images and memories appeared inside Rynold's head making him stunned to see his ex survive. Why? Because it would be so much easier to never see this bitch's face again.

Oliver, on the other hand, decided to look away and tried to act normal as he approached the stairs leading to the girls' rooms.

'This guy…' Rynold thought as the girl kept her eerily slow pace towards Rynold with a sense of arrogance in her steps. It seemed that she still hasn't realized that the world has changed.

The moment that the girl was within 5 meters of Rynold, he suddenly stood up and tried to open his mouth, but words failed to come out.

Rynold tried again only to say what was on his mind instead of properly thinking of how to deal with this situation.

"What the hell are you doing here, Elle?"

It was beyond stupid, this was the girls' dorm and she had more reason to be here than either Oliver or himself. Meanwhile, Oliver was still trying to act normal even if he had noticed the room's atmosphere got twice as awkward.

"Tsk. How are you alive? You're useless anyway."

'What a bitch…'

Instead of asking for help with surviving, she'd rather act like a spoiled brat instead. This was the New World, Rynold realized it sooner than anyone else that most of the societal developments have changed. From money to political power, the fundamentals of modern society were gone.

"Sigh…," Rynold turned to Oliver and asked, "you good to go?"

Ten minutes passed since they defeated the last ghoul while Elle managed to show up just as soon as the tenth minute passed. It was impeccable timing as a result of Elle not being patient enough for Rynold to leave instead.

Oliver nodded in response to Rynold's question and headed straight up the stairs. Perhaps it was because he missed Skye more than anything else. But no, Rynold knew that it was because of the insufferable atmosphere that he was still suffering.

Rynold slowly moved toward the stairs and the moment that he reached the base heading towards the second floor, he said in a calm but threatening voice, "don't get in my way," and started going up.

He didn't care about his ex and decided that some things are more important.

'She won't live long, anyway.' Rynold thought as he reached the second floor and saw Oliver foolishly tackling three ghouls at once.

Rynold immediately summoned X, even though he only managed to recover 10 Mana, and ordered it to tank.

The moment X entered the fight, the burden of dealing with three at once was lifted on Oliver. He suffered significant damage as a result of acting foolishly and had less than half of his HP remaining.

The three of them cleared the ghouls like they originally did. They took care of the ghoul while Elle was watching from behind. A clear glimpse of her face was a face filled with impatience.

They didn't have a lot of time to stall for a clean fight with minimum casualties and instead fought rashly. Oliver attacked violently on the ghouls as they progressed through the hallway that led to Skye's room and he kept taking consistent damage.

At one point, the damage was so rough that he started to cough up blood from the ghouls' attacks. Meanwhile, Rynold was trying his best to support him only to get in his way and accidentally hit him.

This obvious turn of events was an obvious cling to the need of seeing his beloved. The moment he turned a corner leading to the hallway Skye's room was in there appeared another Enhanced Ghoul.

Although its movements are constrained, the Enhanced Ghoul is still hard to deal with and X was the only one who can safely tank it. But common sense was gone…

Oliver has gone berserk from the amount of sheer pain he was feeling and charged straight to the Enhanced Ghoul only to be knocked back and hit a distant wall and coughed up blood. His HP was now in the 10s and it was obvious he couldn't take anymore.

X kept the Enhanced Ghoul preoccupied while Rynold was supporting from behind. He hoped that Oliver would get up but it didn't make sense if he could. But then he did.

Oliver was struggling to move but sheer willpower was enough to make it happen. Rynold knew that Oliver was gonna charge again and ordered X to make an opening for Oliver to deal a massive blow.

X pushed the Enhanced Ghoul back and kneeled to attack its lower legs and soon knocked it off balance. Oliver used X as a springboard and decidedly jumped from the Mech Knight and one could audibly hear…

"Broken Wing Slash."

The decree wasn't loud but it looked awesome like the main character of an action movie. The attack dealt massive damage to the Enhanced Ghoul, effectively killing it but at the same time, it pushed Oliver's stamina to the brink causing him to pass out.

'What's wrong with him today?'

Rynold dispelled the summoning of X and hurriedly ran up to Oliver but a door where Oliver was lying opened all of a sudden. A woman instinctively ran up to Oliver and held him in her arms. It was Skye, Oliver's significant other.

Rynold soon approached the lying Oliver only to realize he was in bad shape. He suddenly remembered the Recover skill book that he had and unhesitantly gave it to Skye.

"Use this," Rynold said solemnly.

Skye nodded and immediately learned the magic skill Recover. Chants of a different language soon appeared inside Skye's head and without a moment's delay, she used the chant that activated the skill Recover.

A bright light soon appeared in Skye's palms and Oliver's wounds instantaneously got better and some even vanished.

But Oliver still didn't wake up.