Inside the Field

After choosing his weapon, Vince were supposed to be guided out but he refused. The overly accomodating attitude made him uncomfortable.

He just walked out of the elevator when he saw a familiar figure. "Jade!" he shouted with glee.

Jade who was busy looking though the missions, flinched when he heard someone call his name. The voice was familiar and he stopped on his tracks to turned his gaze towards Vince.

He watched the youth's smiling face grew near as the other run towards his direction.

"You only finished signing your contract now?" he glanced at his wristwatch. It's already been an hour after they separated from each other.

He was only here because he knew an alchemist in here. He bought a few potions and pills. He already have a weapon after all, so he only need some consumables.

Vince awkwardly laughed. "Well... some things happened..." he explained vaguely before deciding to ask. "How about you? Why are you still here?"

"I visited an alchemist from here that I know to buy some consumables."

They started walking out of the building togethee.

"Right, Jade. Do you want to partner up with me?" he casually asked. He was hoping that Jade would agree but with the other's personality, he felt like the possibility of him agreeing was low.

"Sure."

"I see. It's fine if you don't want to—" he suddenly frozed when he realized that Jade just agreed. "Eh? Are you serious?!"

Jade covered his mouth as some people was looking towards them. "Well, you're a priest that can fight. I got to have a partner that can heal me and won't dragged me down. It's a win for me," he shrugged his shoulders as if it wasn't a big deal.

Also, with their pitifully low levels, it's better to stick around with someone he knew than fight with people who might stabbed him in the back at any moment. It's hard to find someone strong and have a good character. Especially with his level, he would just be a prey if he joined some random mercenary group.

"I see... Hehe," Vince couldn't help but smile like a fool. The other actually thought he's useful enough to keep around. He felt like their bond just deepened.

Jade pretended that he didn't noticed the other's happiness and averted his gaze.

"Then, give me your contact number! We should be able to communicate with each other," Vince suggested.

"No need. We can just used the badge—" he wanted to say that there's no need to share personal contacts with each other but he noticed the gloomy face of Vince.

His head was hung low and the tip of his lips were arc down. He sighed before clicking his tongue and showing his QR code.

"Scan it immediately."

Vince brightened when he saw it and hurriedly scanned it. If he was a dog, his tail would be wagging.

"There! All done."

It's still early so after leaving the building, he decided to invite Jade over to their house.

"Did you already have a mission in mind?"

Jade shook his head. "I want to enter a dungeon but with only the two of us, we wouldn't be able to. So I'll be looking through the list again."

Vince nodded his head, then brought the matter about going to his house. "How about you go visit our house then? Let's searched together."

The other immediately shut down his suggestion. "I still need to look around the stalls around here. You can go first."

He waved his hand. "No, no! Let's look together. Besides, I also planned to do that."

Actually, he didn't really need to go around anymore because he already have some protective gear and weapons. Although, he would still need to try it out.

But he felt like there might be something he can buy in the stall that might be useful to him. He shouldn't miss this opportunity as he might not be able to come here later. He had read some novels before when the main character picked up sone trash-looking item but it's actually a mystical artifact that will save the world.

Jade reluctantly agreed.

So the two of them went into the a lot of stalls. He used his skill Analysis non-stop, trying to find something good. But reality prove to be different.

After all, he's not the only one who can appraise artifacts, it's actually a basic skill that almost every player have.

And the fact that they weren't sold, meant that they weren't really good. Then he tried to invite his new partner to their house again but he mercilessly refused without hesitation.

In the end, Vince parted ways with Jade, with a broken heart.

-

After two days, they were finally meeting together. The two of them had chosen a new mission to take.

[The God of Death was excited for your new mission.]

This one's also back. It had been missing for a couple of days but he's now back. He didn't even bother asking where it was before.

"Are you almost here?" he asked with his phone near his ear.

[Wait for me. I'm almost there.] Jade's deep voice rang in his ears. They were currently in a call.

"I'll wait for you."

It only took ten minutes of waiting before Jade arrived. "Did you wait long?"

He shook his head with a smile. "Nope. I just got here."

Jade just nodded. "Let's go then."

-

In the first few years after the numerous dungeon breaks, there wasn't enough people to take care of all of the monsters that got out and some areas in the outer and inner layer were already conquered by the monsters.

The humans tried to get rid of them but there were too many and they already have their hands full with newly discovered dungeons.

So they decided to just sealed these areas filled with monsters. These areas evolved and the energy released by the monsters were contained inside the barrier. This turned these areas a treasure trove.

And now, these area were called Fields.

Vince and Jade were currently lining up to get inside one of these Fields. They couldn't get inside a dungeon so they went for another alternative way where they can fight monsters.

The mission they took was to retrieved some poisonous plants in here. It's not a simple plant, but a man-eating one called Zombie Plant.

As the name suggested, it's a harmless looking grass that sucked living being's blood and energy before eating their flesh and bones after they died. One couldn't almost tell it apart from other plants.

A herbalist wanted to researched this plant but it's hard to get for ssomeone like him who's a specialist. So he put it on the mission list. Both of them chose this mission because of the high reward and to increased their level as well. It's killing two birds with one stone.

Vince and Jade had already signed up for entry. They waited for ten minutes until they were finally given a go signal to enter.

When they stepped inside the barrier, players fighting monsters could instantly be seen near the entrance. This is where the weakest monsters reside so low level players grind here to increase their level.

"Let's go deeper," Jade suggested as they ignored the players in front of them.

Vince looked around curiously. But as they walked deeper, less and less players could be seen and he was already getting bored so he initiated a conversation.

"Do you know where we can find it?"

Jade who was checking the virtual map from his badge nodded his head. "Around northwest. We're almost there."

The virtual map was provided by herbalist himself. He seemed to be rich just looking at the reward and the price of a single virtual map.

Vince already researched on how to capture Zombie Plants. As a plant, they were obviously afraid of fire and anything that can burned them. So obviously, his Lightning Manipulation skill would be the perfect counter for it.

However, he had to stopped when he caught sight of what seemed to be a shed snake's skin. He didn't find it weird as they are a various monsters in here.

"Is that a snake's?" Jade also stopped walking to looked at the skin. They can only see a size of a palm and the rest seemed to be buried in the ground.

But when Vince curiously pulled it, his eyes widened in disbelief. There was a defeaning silence.

The skin that was barely covered by the soil was encircling their position like a snake trapping it's prey.The head of the snake was pointed on their left.

They gulped while staring at the ground as their eyes followed where the skin is. It finally stopped and the snake's skin was completely revealed.

It was atleast 25 meters long and as wide as a normal-sized door.

A shadow cast over them and when they lifted their heads up.

Staring at them was a gigantic snake. It's ruby eyes stared unblinking at them while it's toungue flickered, hissing at them.

There's only one thing that's going through their head the moment their eyes interlocked with the snake monter's.

Ah... we're dead.

-