Chapter 202 - A Base at the Crater

"Damn it."

Rynold cursed under his breath which caught the attention of Neana, who was walking close by. She swiftly turned to him and asked what was wrong.

"It's nothing major," Rynold answered as his frustrations were his alone to bear. But, as he didn't want her to worry, he explained what dilemma he was facing.

"Well," Neana expressed her thoughts, "Don't overthink it. I, for one, spent all of my points and distributed most of them to Intelligence and Agility. Of course, I sprinkled some of them to round out the other Attributes."

Hearing that, Rynold was actually quite surprised.

He didn't expect Neana to give such simple yet sensible advice. Not only that, but Rynold also didn't know that she never saved her points. The revelation wasn't something he expected to hear.

"I know it's important to save and stuff," Neana added, "But, back then, I didn't have any other choice. You know what I mean, right?"

Nodding in silence, Rynold didn't know that about Neana. It seemed as though a near-death experience brought a bunch of things into a new light. And, for the most part, Neana seemed more open about her past experiences, unlike ever before.

"Well," Rynold turned back to his Attribute window while he spoke to Neana. "Thanks for making things simple. Who knows how long I would've wasted figuring this out, huh?"

To which, Neana lightly chuckled then replied, "It's a good thing I'm here, then. First, I saved your life. Now, I'm solving your problems. Guess you need me more than you're willing to admit, huh?"

"Yeah, yeah," Rynold answered with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "But, seriously, thanks. For everything. I'd probably be dead right now if you didn't come for me. If you ever need anything, just let me know. It's the least I can do."

"I'll hold you to that."

Taking a few extra steps forward, Neana left Rynold alone to his thoughts. Although she didn't really want to leave just yet, Neana could understand Rynold's need to be left alone.

Despite knowing that, though, Neana couldn't help but feel disappointed that Rynold didn't say anything more. Maybe it was a bit of a stretch to expect something more definitive, but Neana truthfully thought he would've made a move by now. Considering what they've been through together, Neana thought Rynold would have at least said something about their relationship.

Or whatever it is that they had.

Anyway, Rynold had other thoughts in mind. There was something he needed to resolve that took precedence before anything else. As he raised his hand, Rynold sharply inhaled a mouthful of air.

'Here goes nothing,'

Rynold tapped his finger lightly on his Attribute window. The translucent floating screen responded with what Rynold had intended to do. He continued tapping on the window until he was satisfied with the outcome.

'And... that should do it.'

The final outcome was, well, everything that Rynold expected them to be. He hesitated to place these points down at first, but Rynold soon felt relieved of that worry. With the new Attribute distribution now in place, Rynold felt a strange sense of power.

Despite being reluctant, Rynold eventually got his Attributes to where they should be. There was no point in getting in his own way and holding himself back. Which, quite literally, was what he was doing before now. Even though the distribution wasn't ideal, it was more than enough.

Starting with his Intelligence Attribute, Rynold knew he couldn't skimp out on it at all.

Intelligence was his main Attribute, after all. And shying away from investing in it was a stupid thing to do. So, with that in mind, Rynold didn't hold back at all and placed a total of thirty-five points into it, pushing the total number to 130. It was the first Attribute Rynold ever got to over the 100 mark and, with it, came a reward.

[Heightened Erudition Unlocked!]

===

[Heightened Erudition]

Passive Skill

Your ability to comprehend and understand information is significantly increased.

===

A new passive skill popped up as soon as his Intelligence Attribute reached 100. Even though it wasn't anything particularly unique, Rynold still appreciated it regardless. After all, one can never have too many skills in their belt.

After receiving that, Rynold proceeded to distribute the rest of the available points to the other Attributes. He did so with a somewhat anxious feeling in his mind but eventually managed to come up with a more than acceptable result.

Following Intelligence, Rynold placed his points on Perception. It was by far his weakest Attribute, but Rynold raised it to an acceptable forty. It wasn't much, but the investment would prove wonders in his shooting skills.

Then, with the remaining eighty points, Rynold was on the fence. He wasn't sure which among the four remaining Attributes he should invest.

Each one served a purpose. So, Rynold didn't want to come to regret his decision later.

'Okay...'

Tap. Tap.

Rynold placed the remaining points in the following: 40 in Strength, 20 in Agility, and the rest in Stamina. For the most part, that was the best that Rynold could think of right now.

Investing in these Attributes was more than enough to make him stronger. And, now that he allocated all of these points, Rynold felt his strength rise. Not only that, but he somehow felt an increase in his recovery speed. It was as if putting points into Stamina increased it.

Regardless, the remaining number of available points dwindled down to zero.

"Hey," Neana suddenly called out in a whisper a few moments after Rynold finished. "The kid says we're getting close, but I don't really see anything from here. Do you think he's lying?"

With Rynold looking down at his Attribute window all this time, he didn't notice where they were going. It wasn't until now that he had looked up and found themselves in the middle of the suburbs. There was nothing but buildings all around, which explained Neana's doubt.

"I'm sure he's not," Rynold reassured as he kept walking, "Besides, once we get there and there's nothing, we don't really lose anything. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?"

But, even with Rynold's reassurance, Neana couldn't help but doubt the entirety of it altogether. Because, judging by the path they've gone through so far, there weren't any other people around. The absence of people was far from convincing.

"It's just around the corner of that," the kid stopped and pointed at a nearby house. It wasn't any different from the other houses in the neighborhood, which made Rynold wonder how the kid remembered it was this specific one.

"Well, go ahead, kid," Rynold quickly encouraged, "We've gotten this far, might as well go all the way."

Responding with a quick nod, the kid walked forward and led the way once more. His hands were slightly trembling as if afraid of what was there. Rynold didn't notice the kid's reluctance to follow through as he seemed to walk forward regardless.

Following from behind the kid, Rynold and Neana walked side by side. Soon, the kid stopped just a the corner of the back of the house.

"Something wrong, kid?" Rynold asked as he caught up to the kid and peeked the corner. There was nobody there, at least from what Rynold saw.

"Yeah," the child answered as he walked towards the backyard, "The place I talked about is right over there. I..."

"What are you afraid of?" Rynold asked as he walked a few steps forward and stood at the child's side. As soon as Rynold got there, though, an entirely different view opened up.

Walking a few paces managed to change the perspective of what they saw. To which, Rynold muttered underneath his breath, "So that's why."

To put things into perspective, the house that the child had pointed out wasn't what it appeared. That's because, behind it, there was a large crater. And, this backyard actually overlooked the entirety of it. So much so that one can see every part of it just by looking around.

"Okay," Rynold nodded and patted the kid on the head, "It's a good thing you didn't go anywhere further than this. Because that, right there, is no joke."

Pointing at the military base situated at the very center of the crater, Rynold was in shock. Just by looking at it, there was no way of telling how bad of an idea this was.

The base was armed to the absolute teeth. Rynold saw anti-air cannons that covered the immediate airspace. He also spotted a bunch of attack helicopters for some reason. And, if that weren't enough, there was an absurd amount of weapon caches that seemed to litter almost every inch of the place.

With the amount of weapons all over the place, Rynold nearly mistook the base for some storage facility. That is, if not for the soldiers stationed there.

Rynold could see why the child was afraid to approach this place. With the threatening look of the place, Rynold wouldn't question the child's fear. At this point, Rynold became even more reluctant in approaching the soldiers stationed there as the whole base screamed hostility.

"Huh. The kid was right," Neana seemed stumped as she entered the same view as the other two. "We might want to get a move on if we want to get there before dark."

Turning to Neana, Rynold looked at her with a surprised expression on his face. He found it rather unexpected that she would be okay to go there, despite how the place seemed. But, at the same time, Rynold knew she was right. Going to that military encampment was the most efficient way of achieving their goals: gathering information and having a safe night.

"O-okay," Rynold unintentionally stuttered, "There should be a safe path to get down there. We just have to find it."

That said, doing so wasn't so simple as Rynold made it out to be.

There was no safe way down. The walls of the crater were too steep to climb. And, there didn't seem to be a path that actually led to the place. Neither was there anything that Rynold could think of using to get down there.

So, how the hell did they get to build a base like that in the middle of the crater then? Getting the equipment down there without using any roads seemed like more trouble than it's worth. Unless that is, they moved them using helicopters. But, that seemed unlikely as well.

"Well," Neana pointed out, "There's a hole that leads to the center of the crater on that side. Maybe they traveled underground to get there."

"Finding the entrance to that tunnel seemed more work than I'd care for. We can play this smart and find another way in," Rynold disagreed.

"I assume you have a way to do that without getting their attention?" Neana asked with a hint of sarcasm. To which, Rynold became silent as he had no answer.

"Then," Neana continued, "that settles it. We're going to find the entrance to the tunnel. Come on. Let's go."

With an exasperated sigh, Rynold followed after Neana, who had left first. The direction in which she headed was around the same area as the exit. It was as good a lead as any, really, Rynold just didn't want to deal with the extra effort.

Walking behind the other two, Rynold let his thoughts wander as he continued walking at his standard pace.

'This is going to suck.'

Rynold already knew it. He was sure that the soldiers down there weren't going to be nice. Approaching them with friendly intentions seemed so much of a bad idea. So much so that Rynold was currently thinking of countermeasures if things were to go south.

'Maybe I can take down the entire camp. No, that doesn't seem likely.'

He was still injured, and, realistically, there wasn't anything he could do against an entire army. If Oliver were here with him, they'd probably be able to sneak into the place undetected.

But, alas, Rynold would need to think of something on his own.