Chapter 28 - Journey's End

The rays of sunshine woke Rynold up from his slumber. He fully healed up while X was still keeping watch. Looking around, Jack managed to fall asleep sitting up.

It was understandable since that night was a long one and, judging by the position of the sun and the moon the night before, Rynold slept for about six hours. It was enough for him to get through the day.

Rynold let out a yawn as he got down from the trunk of the pickup truck. He went to where X was standing perfectly still and finally got down to doing what he held off doing. He pulled the gear from his inventory and used it on his Mech Knight, showing off a familiar process.

The magic array that appeared a few times now made X stronger once more. Or, at least, that was what Rynold thought would happen.

Once the magic array disappeared, X was no different when it started. There were no noticeable changes on the Mech Knight's massive metal body. Just to be safe, Rynold pulled up X's status window only to find out that he was right. There weren't any changes.

Dismissing the negative thoughts that popped into this mind, Rynold pulled up his window that showed all of his skills. The [Summon: Mech Knight] skill managed to grow to the next level but the information and cost didn't change either.

Rynold was stumped. He couldn't figure out what was going on with the upgrade as his mind slowly filled with a bad mood.

He was frustrated.

His mind threw into a fit of rage as he tried to justify what went wrong with the upgrade. The system managed to register the skill leveling up but how come the skill didn't get any stronger? Rynold pulled up the Mech Knight's information window once more and, this time, properly read what the content was.

[X]

Mech Knight Lvl. 10

Health: 300/300

Attributes:

Strength: 50 Endurance: 30

Agility: 15

A Mech Knight summoned by Rynold.

The Mech Knight contains Basic Intelligence and can now think for itself.

Rynold was divided on what he felt at the moment he actually read the description that X had. The information stated that X now had "Basic Intelligence" but as to what that meant exactly was rather vague.

Regardless, Rynold looked up to his towering Mech Knight only to realize that this time, X looked back. Its eyes weren't simple anymore as it contained some sort of sharpness that only meant that it had a will.

'It might be too early to think of you having a soul, right?' Rynold thought as he held out his hand and placed it on the Mech Knight's chest. It was a weird feeling but something felt right when he was around X.

Suddenly, the car door opened.

"You okay, man?" Oliver asked as he got off the car and proceeded to wake up his wolf.

Rynold realized he was doing something odd to other people and coughed, "yeah. You ready to go?"

Strider stirred awake from Oliver's actions and proceeded to stretch its legs. "Yeah, hand me the keys," Oliver said, holding his hand out.

Rynold pulled the keys out from his inventory before turning back to X, saying, "talk to you later, buddy," in a hushed tone.

He dispelled the summoning and went to the trunk of the car to wake up Jack. Oliver, on the other hand, woke Skye up from her sleep.

"Time to go," Rynold said while he kicked Jack to the side. He didn't have to kick the guy but it's nice to have once in a while.

Before Jack even registered what happened, Rynold hopped off the truck and got in his seat inside the car. Skye managed to wake up as well and Oliver proceeded to let Strider sit on the truck. The wolf can't get into Oliver's inventory after all.

After everything was settled, the group finally left that part of the woods and proceeded to go to Rynold's home.

The rest of the journey was quiet and rather peaceful. The drivers switched between Rynold and Oliver as they took turns driving during both day and night.

During the first shift when Oliver was driving, Rynold got to checking what the Rabid Alpha Wolf dropped. He had nothing better to do, after all.

Despite his high hopes of good drops to appear when he checked, it was nothing more but materials such as some pieces of fur and claws. There was only one usable thing right away which was another small dagger.

[Wolf's Fang]

Bladed Weapon

Durability: 120/120

Attack Power +25

Weapon Requirements: Agility 20

A one-sided dagger that is made from a wolf's fang. This particular dagger was infused with an Alpha's pride.

Additional Active Skill: Wolf's Frenzy

- Upon activation, three consecutive attacks will strike the target within 1s, dealing 40% Physical Damage per hit. Can critically strike.

- Cooldown: 20 seconds

Additional Active Skill: Wolf's Pride

- Calling upon the wolf's pride, the user will increase their Strength and Agility by 20% for the next 5 minutes.

- Cooldown: 30 minutes

'Well, isn't that nice.'

Rynold was somewhat torn between giving this dagger to Oliver since it had a scaling stat in Wolf's Frenzy and a boost-type skill in Wolf's Pride. Not only was he the most injured during the fight, but also he was the one who was thrown off the wolf's body and ingested all that blood. If the wolf's corpse hadn't disappeared, Rynold probably would've kicked the dead wolf for mocking him.

He let out a lone sigh and gave the dagger to Oliver who was driving the car. It was unfortunate, but it was the most sensible thing to do. Besides, Rynold wasn't the type to go with a flashy style of attack.

"Thanks," Oliver acknowledged the dagger with a smile on his face before throwing it into his inventory.

"Switch?" Rynold asked as he offered to drive.

"Sure," Oliver pulled the car to the side and got down while Rynold did the same.

Rynold pulled a can of gas and refilled the fuel tank before driving once more on their journey. They were fairly close to the coast where Rynold's family stayed in so the drive shouldn't be that long anymore.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Oliver pulled up his status window to finally get down to what he had put off doing.

He checked the advancements that were available to him and decided to check each and every one. He had time to do that since they didn't have anything better to do.

Apart from some of the normal classes that didn't pique his interest, there was one that stood out. He checked thoroughly just to make sure and came across the rare class that was available to him.

[Class Advancement: Shadow Assassin]

With your stealth and skill in blending with the shadows, the path of the Shadow Assassin beckons to you. Your enemies won't know what hit them and dead before they figure it out.

Agility +20, Stamina +10, Dark Affinity +15

Learn Active Skill [Backstab]

Learn Active Skill [Shadow Strike]

Learn Active Skill [Blinding Darkness]

A cheeky smile formed on Oliver's face that made Rynold look at him with an eyebrow raised. It was weird but Oliver looked really excited with whatever he was doing.

As far as he could tell, the active skill [Backstab] was standard for every Assassin-type class but the other two were exclusive to this class.

[Shadow Strike] was extremely similar to [Backstab] but there was one key difference. The skill deals bonus Dark damage when the user is shrouded in darkness when cast. [Blinding Darkness], on the other hand, was a debuff skill on enemies. It acts like a shroud that limits the enemy's vision but they had to be lower level to work.

Although the class has a few cons, the overall positive outlook that Oliver was feeling when he read the class details was genuinely a perfect fit for him.

'It's perfect!' he thought as he chose that particular class to serve as his main class for now. It's the most useful thing that he's gotten so far during this journey that came from his own efforts.

As Oliver settled down, Rynold kept driving straight until he saw what looked like an outcropping that used to be a landscape that meant that they were getting near. There used to be a statue there, in fact, but now it was nowhere to be seen. Which meant one thing.

Something's wrong.

Rynold kicked up the gear and drove even faster until the road reached a dead end that signified the end of their journey. There used to be a space big enough for a car to pass through the tall grass but the mutation from the Red Rain managed to block them off. It was an unfortunate impasse that seemed like there was no other way but through.

Regardless, the group woke up from their sleepy stupor as they faced what was up ahead.