35-42

Chapter 35 - Scan Them Again

The contract came as expected and I simply signed after reading it. Everything we agreed upon was there. I had a moment of hesitation to force that girl to follow me, just like Angelica. However I refrained from doing that for now.

First I didn't know what this ace was really capable of. Despite the fact that she gave me a slight surprise out there with that dungeon key, I didn't know if she had any more surprises or not.

Secondly I wasn't sure about her curse. Having a high intelligence stat and locking up the rest wasn't something good in the long run. If she couldn't break through this curse then she would become a great liability.

So I decided to wait and see when I meet her later on. Who knew, she might turn out to be a loser, or be a real ace as in legends.

"Isabella," I didn't hurry to tell my plans to Angelica to save her friend as I ushered Isabella to come closer. "Do you know if there are any big hospitals in the distance between here and the statue of Liberty?"

My sudden question was unexpected. No one knew what I was thinking about. It was expected, after all they still lacked the right mindset to deal with things here.

The key thing to face the monsters was one of three things, either strong stat individuals like myself, the use of heat, or the use of light.

Hospitals were one of the few places out in the world to have the innate advantage early on. They had backup generators that could work for days without problems, providing light and security to hospitals.

So at the early stages of the apocalypse, hospitals were considered slightly safer places. The reason I didn't select a hospital before was simple, I was after the item hidden deeply in the central park.

But that didn't mean the angels didn't have their own ways to crush this advantage. The apocalypse didn't happen out of the blue, and those bastards were having their own time studying us before everything happened.

The presence of traitors was something out of the question. In fact if there was a big hospital out there, then aside from patients, their families would rush over at the start of the apocalypse.

So the number of humans there would be large, so their survival might be better than other places coupled with the light.

"There are few," Isabella's eyes showed her doubt but she didn't ask about the reason, "I believe that there is a good hospital I once visited before. It's called the New York health center."

"Is it close to us?" I asked as if that hospital wasn't, then it might get submerged by the ocean waters by now.

"I know where it is," Angelica cut our speech in such impatience, "but what does this have to do with saving my friend?"

"She has to go there," I said before adding in a firm tone, "let her see if this hospital is still standing or not."

"In the middle of all this… It might be hard to find it," Angelica wasn't trusting my judge, and I didn't take the trouble to explain for now.

"Let her follow the light," I said.

"The lights?!"

"Just tell her that, and eventually she'll get it," I saw this issue was over before turning around, "let's keep going."

Despite her reluctance, Angelica relayed my words. It seemed like her friend was much calmer than her as she didn't ask about the details.

"You are full of mysteries and always speaking in riddles," Angelica pouted in a displeased tone while walking side by side with me.

カップルが輸送コンテナを豪華な家に変身,中を見てみようTOPSSEEK

"Ain't I always right all the time?" I replied with a girl. Despite acting in some strange way most of the time, I always brought results in the end.

My answer managed to silence her until we finally reached the place we wanted. The museum was still ushering under darkness but the people there kept their vigilance as they surveyed the parameter.

I could see groups of ten people moving all around, looking for any monster attack. It seemed that the angels had to draw all the monsters from the museum as well to hit Angelica before.

So that meant this place might be secured. However I lacked any trust in the angels. Those bastards proved to be relentless in achieving their goals with different methods.

"Look!"

"It's the witch!"

"The witch is back!"

"Yeah, we knew she won't be easily killed, hahaha!"

All of sudden our appearance was spotted half a mile away. The people there seemed to have few with night vision skill it seemed, a weird thing to be honest.

I looked at Angelica for a moment before asking in seriousness; "Did you scan all of them before?"

"Sure, I spent a great deal of my fortune on them," she said in a tone that didn't give me any sense of confidence.

I saw how she acted before when I asked her to scan a slightly smaller group in size. She acted all bitter and seemed to not be willing to do it.

Even with my presence and request she was reluctant to do it. So how come she would do it out of her good will?

"I want you to retest them," I said while linking the dots together. In fact the presence of the hybrid monster was something that came out of the blue.

What if this was done by one of the traitors? That would also explain how some of them had the night vision skill.

I doubt anyone else in this world would be aware of the secret and very pricey way to gain skills. In addition to that, the other way to gain skills from the killed monsters was something hard to know so early.

Something was wrong here, and I wouldn't risk the presence of other traitors around me again.

"But…"

"I'll take all the cost this time," I simply shrugged, "I have tons of cores and monster materials. You can take them and sell them at the market to gather enough coins."

"Uhm, that will do," her face was covered by the helmet but I saw the corners of her mouth curving upwards. This fool… She seemed to only scan only those she selected to be with her.

During our march, Gerry was busy scanning the attributes of everyone. As I expected, there were all common grades, with few of them at special grade. There wasn't even a single one with a unique grade or above.

That proved that we already lost a good deal of goot seedlings even before the apocalypse hit us. Scary!

"Hey hey, stop it," Angelica was instantly absorbed in between the large crowd that came darting from the museum. She acted stingy and had some bad traits, but she was trusted by her group and that was a good thing.

"Let me introduce someone to you," after she controlled the situation, it was time for her to introduce me, "this is Hye. you all saw him before. He is the one who saved my life back there and from now on I've decided to follow him."

The next instant I sensed many hostile gazes falling on me. C'mon, she said she was following me, not sleeping with me or something.

"Hi everyone," I said after clearing my throat, "let's get things organized first. Stand in one line facing that way," I pointed to one side before adding, "we are going to scan you first."

"Scan? With the witch's sacred ability?" one of the large group asked and I only nodded. I turned to Angelica before saying, "I'll take things out, you store them and do as we agreed."

I couldn't use the full abilities of the system for now. So the only way to transfer items to her was by taking them out. Under the questionable gazes of everyone I moved to one side while Angelica turned and spoke a few words with them to make them listen to my orders.

"Isabella," I ushered her towards the museum, "go place our esteemed guest there. Make Allen watch Allen," I added while cracking a wide smile. I found it funny, but others seemed not to share the same idea.

"Sara, take everyone and help organize others." The number of Angelica's group was really big. Trying to control things here would prove to be challenging.

If a group of traitors were there, then things might get messy fast. Everyone heeded by my orders while I started taking things out for Angelica.

After roughly ten minutes of pouring out items like a waterfall, Angelica was ready. She took off her helmet and her face appeared with a bright smile.

"Don't think too much about this," I simply said, "any extra is given back to me."

"C'mon, you already take too much of wealth from those traitors," she seemed a bit displeased but I had plans for each penny I had.

"If not then I'd force you by the contract," I threatened and all she could do was to mumble to herself about how stingy I was.

In fact I was sure she would keep part to herself. It wasn't bad. After all, I didn't know for how long I would be separated from them. What if a new group of traitors were sent here as refugees? I had to look over for them even if I was away.

Things proceeded like I expected. There were many traitors here as well. When the first traitor was discovered and killed, Angelica looked at me and tried to give me some lousy excuse.

But when we killed the tenth traitor, her face was all dark and her eyes were filled with apologetic gazes.

I didn't say anything and I only took the responsibility to kill traitors alongside others. The same thing we did before about distributing the loot was applied here. Plus I left a few inventories for Allen to get his share as well.

We took roughly an hour and a couple of big battles when traitors started to cause a ruckus. However at the end, the remaining main core team of Angelica remained loyal and that was a good sign.

Yet they only had eight people left, with half of them having wounds.

As for the traitors, we killed two hundred, almost one fourth of the big group here.

After everything was settled, my own balance grew up with three hundred thousand coins, many monster drops, plus potions and stat points. Things looked good to me, as this was like having a free meal when one was hungry.

As I thought about it, John suddenly blurted out: "I'm hungry! Is there any food left over here?"

I suddenly realized that we were fighting for our lives all this time. Under the stress of death, no one ever thought about food or sleep.

In fact when increasing stats, one could feel less hunger and need to sleep. But we were humans after all. We needed to eat, drink, and sleep.

"We…" Angelica's face looked hesitant as she looked around at her group. It seemed they had some food and water with them.

"Sorry esteemed witch," one of her core team without any injuries said, "we have already consumed everything."

Despite him speaking to her, his eyes were fixed on me. He didn't harbor any ill intentions. He looked grateful with his eyes. After all, I gave them such a good chance to get coins, monster drops, and even potions and stat points.

I had to organize things here first. Even having such wealth, potions, and stats didn't mean they would use these things for their best uses.

"Listen up," I shouted and waited until everyone's attention was focused on me, "don't use anything for now. As for the monster drops, take half out and give them to Angelica," I turned to Angelica while my eyes warned her not to mess with this.

"What for?" Angelica noticed my warning gazes and couldn't help but ask.

"I'll tell you later," I slowly said before adding, "I want someone with a good memory to keep track of the number of drops everyone is giving to Angelica. I also want people who are chefs or are studying to be so."

"Chefs? What for?" Sara asked while her face told me she expected something bizarre from me this time.

Chapter 36 - Organizing Things

Angelica gave me such a burning gaze from the side, but I chose to ignore her. After all I was protected by my contract, but others would be easily scammed if they dealt with her.

"Just gather up all the chefs here," I said to Sara without much explanation before turning to Gerry. "You'll do like before. Anyone with unique or higher attributes will be gathered in a separate group."

"Ok," Gerry looked slightly dejected. He didn't find any good talent before and so he looked a bit down. But this time the group we had here was bigger and so the chances of finding good talents increased exponentially.

"I'll find those who have good memories," John volunteered. Anyone standing next to me would realize that Angelica was on the verge of exploding.

"Come with me," I said while moving slightly away from everyone else.

"Yeah, trying to threaten me with the contract again, ain't you?" She seemed to misunderstand my intentions. I looked up to her and didn't speak while moving towards one direction; the dorm of the guards.

"What brings us here?" she realized my intentions halfway and her tone looked a bit shaky. I knew she might have deep trauma from that place, but she needed to overcome this now.

That was why I chose her to follow me. "You'll know later," I kept going without stopping while she celebrated her steps for a few moments and then hurried after me inside the small building.

The place reeked with blood. After all that monster had a good feast before we even arrived. The dead bodies of those in her core team were moved and only the corpse of the monster laid at the end of the building.

"Are we here for its items?" she mistook my intentions again.

"You can salvage whatever you want," I said before suddenly recalling something. It was too late for now, as I already took the core of that monster.

If not, then it would be a great chance to learn a few deadly skills from it. Damn! I missed this chance amidst my worry over the core and monster materials.

"But don't mess with its flesh too much," I warned while bypassing it, "we'll need that for later."

"The meat?" she pointed at it like it was a disgusting creature. I knew what she was thinking, what every human had in their minds at these times.

However they were all wrong! One of the big mistakes humanity made at early stages was to avoid eating the monsters' meat. These monsters looked creepy and ugly, a little disgusting to be honest, but their meat was like precious medicine to our bodies.

They lived inside alien worlds, worlds filled with rich energy and good nutrients. So their bodies held such immense strength without even using any skills.

If humans didn't consume their meat early on, they would miss the chance to strengthen their bodies. Time would come when humans would step into the world of cultivation, or ascension as many preferred to say, or true evolution.

Systems were like assisting agents to us. Without good bodies their help was limited. Those who took care of their bodies found it easier to elevate their cultivation fast, strengthening both their souls and bodies.

That wasn't limited only to that. Coupled with systems, stats, and classes later on, humans would really turn into a new page of their lives.

All of this depended simply on such small steps here, like eating the meat of monsters. And I intended not to let the group under my lead to commit such a mistake.

If I had a way, then this would be one of the most valuable lessons I would love to share with all humanity. But there was no such a way to do that, at least not for now.

"What are you doing?

She seemed to lose her interest with the monster once I hinted about eating it. However I was sure, once she tasted its meat and felt the surging power inside her body; she would be addicted to it.

"I'm trying to get this thing working," I was linking to pipelines together. In fact this room wasn't in such a mess until the battle erupted here. The generator didn't take a big hit, luckily, but some of its tubes seemed broken or out of placement.

I didn't know how this thing was built. However I had some common sense inside to guide me. After all the tubes flung free and next to holes meant they should be inserted there, right?

"You want to turn this thing on?" she understood my goal before she went into momentary silence. "They came from dark and cold worlds, so this… This will be a good weapon against them."

カップルが輸送コンテナを豪華な家に変身,中を見てみようTOPSSEEK

Good girl! That was the main reason why I'd entrust my group here with you. "Do you know how to make it work?" I asked and she moved and started to help.

"I knew a thing or two about mechanics but this… let's hope it works at the end."

She was bluffing! Just like me! What a marvelous couple we were!

*Grrrr* *Grrrr* *Clang*

At first it produced strange noises like it was a monster struggling to get up. Then after five times of trying, it finally kicked into life. The next instant the entire place was lit up and we could finally see things clearly.

"Wow! It has rainbow scales!" Under the guidance of the light, Angelica noticed the color of that hybrid monster.

"Sure, it's a hybrid monster after all," I said as if it was something known, "if I were you, these scales won't be left behind. They will be fetched at the market for a high price."

"Oh, you sure know your stuff," she said while jumping around and gathering those few scales. This monster was a baby, so it didn't have its full body covered in scales. An adult would be, and I hoped not to meet such a terrifying monster this soon.

"Let's go," I said and didn't wait for her to finish.

"Wait, wait for me," she urged but I could hear her sword working and collecting these scales. There was no danger here for now, so I let her do what she was doing and went outside.

The sight changed drastically with lights. The museum had a big space, but it was covered with a good wall with big lights all over it. The inside and outside of the museum was now lit up, showing the distance around for almost half a mile.

Not a single monster would dare to approach without being noticed. Such a big distance provided a safe zone for setting up good defenses here.

We had quite a number of survivors, but I knew by looking at the size of the museum, they would face a hard time if they were hit with a large horde of monsters.

"It's looking bright here," Sara and Isabella came side by side with the rest of his team. Only Allen returned to guard Allen.

"Gather up Angelica and her team," I didn't have much time to waste here, "have you gathered the chefs?"

"Yeah, there are around twenty ones ready," Isabella said while Sara nodded.

"What about Gerry?" I looked at the distance but the poor Gerry was still checking the large number of people here.

"He still didn't find anyone worthy," Isabella adjusted her glasses before adding, "we also found ten people with good memories. But why is that all for?"

"You'll know in a minute," I said before leading them towards the museum, "gather up Angelica and her core team."

"I'm on it," John moved while the three girls followed me. Sherry acted all silent all the time, not speaking or doing anything at all but to follow my lead.

If not for the compass, I would have definitely suspected her.

The interior of the museum was vast and well lit. "Wow, it's my first time here," Sara said while the others kept watching around.

"Here is enough," I stood at the entrance and refused to step in. up till now I wasn't sure if our enemies planted anything extra in here. And I didn't have time or the power to resist more frightening monsters now.

I should save my power for my upcoming movie.

I didn't wait for long. In a few minutes everyone gathered. Eight from Angelica's team plus my four people, making us a group of sixteen youths including me and Angelica.

"Listen up," I slowly said but I tried to put my most serious face on, "I'm going to teach you some stuff that are needed to survive this sh*t. First of all, some of you know about how to extract skills from the dead monster bodies, right?"

I meant my team by that. As expected, Angelica and her team looked in loss when I said that.

I started to briefly explain the process of getting skills and the most common ones they might find. Angelica started to get a grasp about why I arranged for the monster drop to be given to her.

After all she needed coins to buy stuff, not only for those here but for everyone as well.

Night vision, dashing, and even wolves' howling and slashing skills were good for common people. Having a large army of humans without giving them weapons and skills was a waste.

I also asked Angelica to buy some weapons for each one outside based on their stats and attributes. She nodded and everyone on my old team knew how to handle this.

カップルが輸送コンテナを豪華な家に変身,中を見てみようTOPSSEEK

"Now I'm going to speak about three important things. First is food," I intentionally paused before adding, "it might seem crazy but the only food we'll get for a long time ahead will be those monsters' meat."

"What?!"

"You gotta be kidding me!"

"Holy sh*t!"

"That's groose!"

I expected their reactions but I ignored all of them. "We all have to survive. If you want to go outside and walk around big supermarkets then be my guest. Not only you'll face a lot of monsters, there won't be enough food left to eat."

"..."

My words left a big impression inside all of them. "We'll have to improvise. Chefs will help us do this, but we need some important ingredients from the market to turn this meat into something we can eat."

In fact those ingredients aimed at extracting more energy and not letting it be wasted by fire. The meat of monsters wasn't poisonous or harmful. But eating it without such ingredients would be a waste.

"Angelica, you need to buy large amounts of proder powder, gemini aura, lepas herbs…" I started to narrate ten different ingredients from my memory. They were simply the cheapest out there, each group of them would cost around ten to fifty coins.

Her complexion fell for a few seconds before I noticed a relieved expression there. As expected of the most stingy person in the group; she checked the list first to know how much this would cost.

Even if I made her pay for it, which wasn't a big deal, she would only take the loss of one thousand coins at max.

"The second part is water," I said before adding, "we are in the central park. There are no ground monsters here for now, and water monsters won't arrive anytime soon. So we have a golden window to act."

In fact getting food was much easier than getting water. Water was considered so rare that it might be exchanged later on using coins.

"There are enough lakes here," Isabella said and I nodded. It was one of the perks of being in the central park and having a new yorker with us.

"But are these lakes safe?" Angelica seemed hesitant, "I mean won't it be dirty or something? It would be bad if we caught any disease or were poisoned by it."

"That's why we need two things from the market," I said and the moment I said these words, Angelica's face changed again.

"Market market market, can't we do anything without spending coins?" she grumbled but I didn't take her words seriously.

"We need detoxifying items to clear the lakes. There's an item called the tinki horn. It has great uses if we smashed it. It's not that hard and we can use our swords or shields to do it."

"Sounds like you used one before," Angelica seemed a little sour about this.

"You can check it, it's only sold for twenty coins per patch. Each patch has ten horns. For one lake we might need ten patches."

"Oh," she felt this wasn't a big loss so her worry subsided and her face relaxed. "So we will select one lake and move the water from there then detoxify it. But how are we going to move enough water for us?"

I knew this would be more painful for her, but she had to carry some of the burden here with me. "We won't carry them. There is another item called liquor. It has the ability to store large amounts of water inside, enough to sustain us for months."

"Wow," the eyes of everyone gleamed with realization, except for Angelica. She knew such a good item must come with a hefty price.

"Holy moly! It costs five hundred coins per piece!" she screamed while looking at me, "it can carry up to thousand liters! How many are we going to buy? Ten?"

"One per person," I slowly said and her face stiffened, "and if any of us is killed, you have to get this liquor from him."

It was a special item that would fall after death. So it wouldn't be a total loss. However everyone just calculated and knew this would cost a huge sum of coins.

"I will handle half of the cost," I slowly said, "and the rest will be divided on you."

As I said these words, the painful expression over Angelica's face softened a bit. "If you say so," she said and I knew what she was planning.

"Don't think I don't know how much I gave you, and how much it should bring from the market," yet my next words turned her face ashen white.

C'mon, you didn't expect me to know all this stuff and not know how much you gained from my items, right?

Chapter 37 - Time To Get A Class

"I want a share," Angelica couldn't hold herself back anymore, "I'm the one doing all this. So I shall get some."

"I'll give you enough," I closed this topic for now before adding, "you must do this alone. Don't trust anyone. When you come back, distribute things to everyone and make sure to save extra for ourselves."

"Why do you sound like you won't be here when we come back?" Sara seemed to notice the hidden intentions of me from my words.

"Well, I'll have to leave to do something," I shrugged, "or else why will I take the trouble in telling you all that?"

They now realized why I gathered them. "Now it's time for the most important thing. I dunno when I will come back, but if the quest finished before I came, then you should do this…"

I started to explain things related to how to acquire strong and tailored skills for each stat from the market.

It wasn't hard, but it was costly. They had to buy the advanced pack from the market. There they'd get one chance to select one skill per week to purchase according to their desire.

Skills offered would be inside a list. I knew all of the skills would be basic, but there would be a myriad of skills for each stat.

Higher skills would come when they got a class. For Angelica it might be easy to do. But for others, it would require more effort.

"Two hundred thousand coins for one pack?!! Who the hell is behind this market?!!" It was John's turn to show his true color as he freaked out when he got to hear this crazy number.

"It might look a lot for you," I slowly said while trying not to punch this stingy young man in the face, "but if you made everyone gather the monster materials from all around, you can get even extra coins from it."

My words left them hesitant. C'mon, I knew you got a good harvest from the traitors you killed and looted before. Stop this act, I wouldn't be fooled by it.

"I wish we had an army of dead traitors now," even Isabella felt bitter and shook her head.

"Yeah, at least this won't require me to act like a slave merchant for all of you," Angelica added, but I only kept my smile on my face.

Electrician Reveals: 1 Simple Trick to Slash Your Electricity Bill by Up to 90%Smart Energy

"Anyway you'll know how valuable this is after purchasing the pack," I said before adding, "it doesn't only contain skills, it also has the ability to enhance stats using coins."

"C'mon, not coins again!" John blurted out in objection.

"I can't believe it! What do they think we are? Their slave workers or something?" Angelica also complained. What if they knew that advanced pack gave one stat point per five hundred coins?

My pack cost two thousand coins per single point! C'mon guys, you looked pathetic while you didn't suffer like me here.

"It's something you should consider," I said in a serious tone, "or else next quests will be far more difficult than this one to survive in. losing a few coins isn't a big deal here. Your lives are."

My words left them all silent. "As for how to get coins, you now know. These monster materials aren't anything good, not even for forging or alchemy, not even in the next quest. You should dump all the materials once this quest is over, got it?"

They didn't know this, but the prices of the monster drops of low tiers would decrease with each passing quest. If they didn't sell them now, they would suffer a big loss later on.

"Then we need to do all this? This will take an astronomical amount of coins!" John was still reluctant and slightly against the idea.

"Then stay back and don't enjoy our food and drinks. Also when time comes, don't try to shout for help; no one will come to help you walk like you."

"..."

His eyes went wide and I could even see the veins on his neck popping up. He was enraged by my direct words. However it was much better than wasting our breaths on insignificant things like this.

"Last thing," I paused before adding in serious manner, "when the first quest finish, don't accept any blessing from anyone."

"Blessing?!"

"Do you know about that as well?"

"Why?

Many comments came while I knew I couldn't just tell them the reason for now. I only wanted them to have better chances in the future. The main advantage of having a blessing would be related to the stats. And that problem was now solved.

As for the class issue, this would be a needed sacrifice for now to secure better chances in survival later on.

"No explanation for now," I said before adding in a tone that ended the discussion despite their objections, "now you know what to do. Arrange things like this: a group stays behind to rule the others while you go to get water back. As for chefs, they can start working on monster flesh right away. Part of you will lead the people here to harvest materials and when you get water, you can get extra from them if they get any."

I tried to sound reasonable, but that seemed not to help at all. "Anyway, I'll just wait for the meat to be cooked. It would take roughly half an hour for that. If you manage to get back sooner, I might get water from you guys as well. If not, then…"

I looked at Angelica who helplessly nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I'll get your things now."

"And three hundred thousand coins as well," I said and Angelica got an instant scare to even jump in fright.

"What the hell is that for?" she acted ignorant but I totally knew how much she gained from the items I gave to her.

I gave her enough to be sold for over two million coins. Cutting all her expenses and giving her one hundred thousand coins as fees for her trouble, then I got three hundred thousand coins extra.

"Do you want me to list things for you?" I calmly asked and she kept her startled expression for an entire minute before finally giving up the act.

"C'mon, don't be stingy with me like this," she pouted and I grinned.

"If you want, I can tell everyone how much you gained from this trade as well," I mischievously said while she could only look at me in amazement and wary before shaking her head.

"No need," she knew how much she gained and it was enough to make her silent about this matter. "Extend me your hand."

We exchanged the coins before everyone moved their way. She took out the liquor and the tinki horns. As I was ready, I only waited for an hour before the meat was grilled and one of the teams returned with water.

"You didn't leave," Angelica led that team. They went all the way to the reservoir at the north. It wasn't a half an hour walk to and from but she seemed to get delayed on purpose.

Yet I could spare extra half an hour to get my share of the water.

"Give me two," I plainly said and I could see her jaw twitching underneath her helmet. Yet she couldn't argue and gave me two liquors filled with water.

Each liquor was like a small bottle, yet they felt heavy when filled with water. In addition to water, there were other uses for this little thing here.

Or else why would it be sold at such a high price?

"I'll get going then," I said before suddenly remembering something, "how is your friend doing? Is she ok?"

"She went to the hospital you mentioned," she said with a tone filled with little hostility. Even bringing the topic of her friend didn't lighten up her mood.

"Alright, tell her about what I told you already. Make her ready to face the upcoming upheavals."

"Won't you go and rescue her yourself?" she shouted from behind and I only said one word: "Later."

For now I had to go there and get that item for myself. At last I got a chance to fulfill my long life dream, to achieve what I came here for, to get a class of my own.

And it wasn't just a normal class that I sat my eyes upon.

Chapter 38 - Alice In The Wonderland Statue

I came here just to get a class. So when I realized for sure about being sent back in time, the first thing I calculated was how to get a class as soon as possible.

Getting a class was something complicated. Either I would accept the blessing of the gods and wait for a class quest, or I should look for the opportunities around.

One of them would be to become a traitor. Just like what Angelica, her friend, other aces and traitors had. This path was unnegotiable for me.

I didn't know about it from the beginning and even if I knew, I wouldn't have considered it at all.

So my only option was to search my memories and look for the hidden places where one could obtain classes from. Classes had an endless list with different grades there. But the good thing was that anyone could change his/her class once he/she got a new one.

But I had a different opportunity here. According to what the old man said, there was a strong, really strong class hidden inside the central park. It was so strong that even the human who got it for himself in the old man's words was hunted mercilessly and killed a few hours after getting it.

It was so strong to even terrify the angels. I wasn't sure about its details to be honest. After all that man acted as lone wolf, and only someone who accidentally met him and watched the fight eavesdropped over the conversation between him and the angels.

If not for that, that info would be lost. I started to feel like walking in the middle of a treasure trove blinded, with no way to tell if I missed something great on the way to here or not.

But this class would be mine. According to the old man, that human was hunted down in the middle of the second quest. So he must have obtained it either at the break between quests or right after the start of the second quest.

That was one of the reasons why I wanted to go there before the end of the first quest. I had less than six hours now, enough for me to go there and have it.

As for the location of it, the old man told me exactly where it was; the conservatory water at the south part of the park.

When I thought about how someone who accidentally overheard a discussion between the previous owner of the class and angels could pinpoint the location of the class, I knew something was fishy.

According to what I recently learnt, he must have been a traitor before. Or else how could he get his hands over all this information? It didn't make any sense to hear all of this in a fight to death talk.

"Does that mean some traitors would betray the angels later on?" I couldn't help but ask myself that while walking firmly towards the south.

The path was clear from any monster. In less than an hour, I finally reached the conservatory water.

It was a big pond which filled my sight. I stood over the front where hills covered with green surrounded it's both sides.

But my aim wasn't the pond itself, but the statue lying at its front.

I took a small detour until I stopped in front of a bronze and very detailed statue; Alice in the wonderland statue.

"Finally I'm here," I looked at the statue with excitement. According to the news from the old man, the class was hidden inside this statue.

The statue represented Alice, who was sitting on top of a big mushroom and having a tea party with the March Hare, the White Rabbit, the Dormouse, the Cheshire Cat, the Caterpillar, and Dinah. It was a marvelous statue that I would appreciate looking at at different times.

The statue had few big and small mushrooms. If I was the one to hide the class, then it would be under the circular top of these mushrooms.

"Let's check the one Alice is standing on," I moved my feet towards the statue while extending my hand to search underneath the mushroom.

[Congratulations! You found the hidden dungeon key to the hidden class]

Yet even before my hands would reach the mushroom, I saw this message popping up in front of me. It was bizarre. "A dungeon gate? Wait…"

It just hit me out of the blue, yet I was too late to act. The classes scattered all around the world seemed to be obtained in the same way like the normal classes; through class quests!

Before I could move a muscle, a white ray of light extended from Alice's eyes. The next second the world all around blurred.

I was getting teleported towards the dungeon. But this wasn't the end of the messages that I got.

I only blinked thrice before the world regained its clarity again. I was inside a big arena with three paths branching out of it. The world was clear and lit with warm and bright sun-like stars. But this star had double suns, not just one.

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[Welcome to the Labyrinth dungeon]

[You are the first to discover the hidden class quest in Nala]

[Number of slots available: Five]

[You have half an hour to adjust and prepare while other slots will be filled by representatives from the other races]

"What the hell…?!!" I was taken aback when I read these messages. "Since when was it a race competition?" I didn't know what to say or do.

After all the words of the system were the absolute law of the apocalypse.

I now realized how dangerous my situation was! It wasn't until quest ten when humans would face the other races coming from other worlds.

I didn't need to say, they were strong. I was just starting to strengthen my body and them… They had absolute bodies and innate strength born and honed over years.

"I need to raise my stats," a sense of urgency rose up inside my heart before I stopped just when I saw three familiar faces appearing midair.

"You…" I furrowed my brows while looking at the three angels who were supervising over the quests of mine till now.

The look over their faces was priceless. They looked shocked and I could sense they never saw this coming.

Just that look gave me a sense of satisfaction, to some extent.

"You…" the central angel pointed at me with a shaky hand, "how did you find this place? Who exactly are you?"

I only smiled and shrugged without saying anything useful. "I just accidently saw it while I was wandering the park."

Of course they didn't buy my excuse. This was the apocalypse. Who would be in their right mind to take it as a sightseeing tour?

"Good, you are good," the central angel said while nodding. His face became slightly swollen and tainted with redness. He was furious, very enraged from my actions.

The more he became so, the more satisfied I was.

"Let's see how you'll handle this then," yet the corners of his mouth tilted up as if he was hiding a trump card.

[The guides requested an alteration in the class quest]

And just like that, a message popped up announcing what that angel decided to do. When I saw it, I couldn't help but frown.

The first quest didn't end and they still had some blessing points left? That didn't make any sense.

"You think that I lack blessing points, right?" The angel was now speaking to me like he was sure I knew everything about the apocalypse. "Bad for you. This quest isn't something easy. No one would let a mere human like you get his hands on the class hidden here. So this is a mere gift from other guides. No need to thank me, I'm just doing my job to help."

"Screw you," I blurted out but without any rage. I knew facing these despicable beings would lead me to many confrontations with them.

So I wasn't regretting or blaming myself at all. I just waited to see what they paid and prepared for me in this quest then.

In fact I felt more excitement in the heart. According to that angel's words, the class hidden here was really OP. I now wanted it, wanted it more than ever!

[The changes were set. The price was paid. The new quest is adjusted]

[Any participant here will have the chance to summon warriors from the market using blessing points]

[Detecting the first participant qualifications]

[You don't have a blessing yet. Adjustments are made]

[You can use coins to summon warriors from the market]

[All restraints from the market are removed]

'Wow! I never saw this would be your way of punishment,' I inwardly snorted while giving a light gaze up to that angel.

Using coins? C'mon, I have nothing else but coins in my inventory.

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"I urge for another adjustment," yet when the system finished listing the messages in front of my eyes, the angel hurriedly shouted in some distress.

It seemed to know that I had enough coins to compete against them. After all even those coming from the other worlds had blessing points, they wouldn't have that much considering the start of the apocalypse.

So he had to interfere. And I simply watched without showing any reaction on my face.

[The guides paid for an adjustment using blessing points]

'Yeah, consume more points. The more you pay the weaker you'll all become later on.'

[The system will determine another method for the human Hye to compete]

"We want a privilege," all of sudden that central angel shouted again. His eyes were all fixed on me, glaring with golden dark light like he was enjoying what I would suffer next.

C'mon, bring it one and let me see what you could do!

"We know you acquired stat points from our agents," the central angel didn't hurry to issue the adjustment to the system. Instead he started to speak like he was waiting to see a look of despair on my face.

Stats points? Would he select this way? Really?

[Another adjustment is paid for]

[The guides will select the way you'll compete in the dungeon]

[The guides selected the stats points as the currency of exchange for warriors from the market]

"Humph, let's see how you'll get your dirty hands on this precious class," the central angel humphed with a look of confidence on his face. Before vanishing in thin air, his mouth tilted and showed a ridiculed smile.

He was so confident in his scheme, thinking he cornered me here.

But he least knew what I really had. Stats points? Pft, I could easily obtain these without any problems using my coins.

[Considering the new adjustments, you'll have one hour to prepare]

[Time in the dungeon will be adjusted]

[The total stay here will be equal to the end of the first quest time]

[You have six hours to end this quest]

Six hours? No problem for me. I shrugged while feeling elated by the new adjustments and the frustration I would see over those angels' faces.

If it was before then I would be slightly worried. But now? Humph, after the unlocking of the market to me, I was like a fish returning to water.

"I will sell all the monster cores and materials in the market," without any hesitation, I opened the market and instantly moved patches upon patches of monster drops there.

But that wasn't all.

"Put these into auction," I selected the hybrid monster drops and sent them to the market interface and chose to auction them.

The core itself would bring at least half a million coins in base price. With the auction, I was sure I would get two millions out of this.

I had one hour to prepare, so what was wrong about waiting for the auction to finish?

[You got two hundred coins]

[You got five hundred coins]

[You got fifty coins]

[You got two thousand coins]

An endless line of messages popped up as I kept pouring out everything I had in my inventory. I gathered a lot of monster drops, either by myself or taking these from other traitors.

And now I was going to fight back using all my power, I would certainly win.

"Time to see the list of warriors available for me to purchase," As the list of messages kept raining down like a blizzard storm, I waited impatiently for them to end so I could check that list.

What kind of warriors was allowed for me to recruit? My heart kept pouncing in excitement while I was hardly waiting for the messages to end.

Chapter 39 - A Dragon, A Succubus, And A Selvator

Warriors was a term I was kind of familiar with. They were races who lost their worlds before the apocalypse, and failed to establish even a single kingdom or empire.

So they were doomed to be a failure, gathered and were presented as goods to be sold at the market.

According to the old man's words he left behind in the beads, the true goal of that time rewinding of the angels was to make us fail in establishing any kingdom.

That was scary! Just failing to establish a single kingdom meant we would be doomed. This was the cruel and real face of the apocalypse. It wasn't about personal survival, but the entire human race.

But that was an issue for tomorrow to be concerned about. For now I had to check over the market and see what good warriors I could get from there.

"Wow!" I waited for a few minutes before all the monster drops I had were sold. "Seven million coins! That's real wealth, hahaha."

I knew by this amount I could get as many stat points as I wanted to purchase the warriors. I also had the auction of the hybrid loot as well. This might bring me up to over ten millions coins.

With my current wealth, I could easily have three thousand and five hundred stat points. That looked like a big number, and it was. However compared to what I saw for the prices of warriors; they weren't enough.

"Damn! The cheapest warrior is sold by one hundred stat points! That's a steal!"

Warriors weren't of a single race. I once read a giant record about the classifications known to man about warrior origins. Each race varied in their stats and abilities, and even in their classes.

That was the good point about warriors, they got classes. And that wasn't all. Warriors wouldn't just vanish after this quest. They would turn into tokens in my inventory, allowing me to trade, sell, and summon them at any time I wished.

In addition to that, warriors were able to grow in power and levels. Unlike me, they would be able to get points from killing monsters and foes. That would allow them to level up in time, gaining points in their stats and becoming stronger.

I looked at the long list of warriors in front of me while feeling at loss. There were a lot of bad choices, but there were also good ones.

"Damn! They even allow this to be on the list!" I was shocked the moment I saw a familiar name. A Bulltor, one of those heaven defying races. Each one of them held great physical strength, fitting for them to be giants.

And on top of that, they had great mana and could unleash deadly skills like wizards and magicians. They were considered an ace race, one that proved this apocalypse wasn't fair.

If it was, then such a mighty race wouldn't just lose the fight and be sold like slaves in the market.

"Five hundred stat points… That's a cheap price indeed," I muttered to myself but I couldn't decide if I should buy him or not.

After all that would take almost one seventh of my current wealth. I still didn't know if the enemies of mine would prefer quantity over quality or what.

So I refrained from pressing that purchase point for now and decided to wait. Just as I did, I roughly took a rapid tour again at the long list of five hundred races listed in here.

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"Bulltors are the best without doubt, and the highest in price as well," I knew I needed at least one of them to be able to better survive the upcoming quests. But this quest here held the priority.

I needed to win here. I clicked over the Bulltor icon and read a short description of it.

[Bulltor: a losing Bulltor race member with level 1 basic level up system and basic 1 stats. No weapons. No skills]

"That…" I felt my back soaked in cold sweat when I read this message. This Buttlor here was like a leftover from a brutal war, a broken sword with no blade to kill.

Without stats, weapons, and even skills, this giant buddy here would be useless.

"Wait… I can do something about that," as I didn't transfer my coins yet, so I decided to take another tour at the market.

The market features were opened for me now. So I could take a stroll inside without any limitations like before.

"Hmm… If I recall it correctly, then a sledgehammer or a big spear was the perfect weapon for a Bulltor," I started the search and all I could find were slightly costly gears.

"Sledgehammer costs two million coins, and a big spear one million… That's not a good thing indeed."

I knew if I decided to go for that guy, then I would lose my chance to summon other races. Just the cost of buying him and a big spear would cost me two million coins at least. Should I do it?

"The skills can't be purchased," I knew that warriors got their skills imprinted inside their souls and genes just like the system. The only way to make them unlock more skills was by either raising their levels or stats.

And coincidentally I had a way to do one of them.

"Ok, it's not a waste to have someone like him beside me," I finally decided to go for the best. I bought the sledgehammer with a pained heart. Yet a Bulltor using a sledgehammer was ten times stronger than one holding a spear.

"Staying with those stingy guys must have affected me," I hardened my heart and then turned the rest of the coins into stat points.

Before doing anything, I started adding points to all my stats. Now they all reached the highest level, hitting forty points each.

I felt a gush of power running inside my body accompanied with a marvelous feeling. It was like I was getting liberated from the bonds that kept me human.

"This feeling… It's close to what I got before coming here," I thought to myself before taking out a piece of meat. This was one of the many meats I got from cooking the hybrid monster at the museum.

*Munch* *Munch* *Munch*

I started chewing and biting over this piece of rib with a thick layer of meat covering it. At first it felt ordinary in my mouth until I swallowed it. Then it was like a bomb, exploding in my stomach and releasing a gush of fire all over my abdomen.

"This feeling…" I never had such a precious meal before. It wasn't because it wasn't available, but the cost for having such a meal would be considered luxurious to my eyes.

The heat spread from my belly to all my body. I could feel the boost this few bites gave me, the power surging within. The heat was nothing else but pure form of a high power. It worked in a magical way and I could feel my body getting strengthened.

"I can't eat anymore," after five bites I couldn't help but store away the piece of meat inside my inventory. My body was now brimming with power I never held before. I feared something wrong would happen, so I stopped.

"Ka ka ka… I can't believe my eyes… A human? A human is here trying to get the sacred class from me? That's hilarious, ka ka ka!"

Just as I did that, I heard this hostile voice coming from the other end of the arena. I narrowed my eyes while a pillar of golden light fell from the sky. The second participant was here.

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A muscular giant body that exceeded three meters in height. He had a mustache like two long and curved whisks. In addition to the faint golden scales covering his cheeks, and that big scale over each of his eyebrows, I could recognize which race he belonged to.

A dragon! A dragon member was here for this class! What the hell was this class then to make such a mighty and greedy dragon to come here?

"Don't scare the kid," another voice came and this time it looked soft and sweet like a melody, "he is considered good to be able to find his way here. Let me offer him a chance to be my bed slave, I won't mistreat you human boy."

Another pillar light descended. It was black in color and I saw a soft skin coming out from it. I never saw such smooth and perfect skin ever in my life. A girl in her early twenties appeared while wearing a gorgeous black dress with a long cut from her neck to the middle of her belly.

Her long and slim legs appeared from the long cut down below. The dress was sparkling with small crystals, but it was nothing near the shining beauty of her.

A goddess of beauty! She had a flawless face and slim and curvy body that would enchant any man no matter how strong his heart was.

Her eyes were pitch black but I felt like I was drowning just by watching them. Her long and curved eyelashes added more to her stunning beauty.

"A succubus demoness… What luck!" I muttered in a gratified tone when I recognized this stunning beauty in front of me. She wasn't a normal monster, she was one of those classified as the deadliest monsters in the apocalypse.

Even facing a dragon would be easier than facing this sexy girl here.

"Oh, he knows me," she said in a delighted expression before tilting her body like she had no bone in her waist and winked, "I like you boy. What do you think? Want to be my bed slave?"

"Keep your hands off him," just before she could continue her words, a strong sound came like thunder while a pillar of silver light appeared.

"A Selvator…" I didn't need to wait for the light to concede and instantly recognized this mighty and arrogant race. In fact Selvators were famous for their righteousness. They were fair, not like other treacherous races in the apocalypse.

If you met a Sevlator, he would offer you a fair duel with him. Either you win and kill him, or he will kill you. Of course that race had a very strong physique, giving them the nickname of the walking halpreds. Even without a weapon, a Selvator wouldn't be killed and would kill you.

Their pride in their strength was the root of their proclaimed fairness. I rarely heard of Selvators getting slaughtered in the hands of humans before. Even in the tales of the old man, only rare cases had this heaven defying result.

Just as the light vanished, a glistering body of a two meter youth appeared. His eyes were like two pieces of silver gems, while his hair, eyebrows, and literally any place with hair there was made out of silver jade-like filaments.

He was glistering and sparkling like he was made out of crystals.

"Humph," the succubus seemed to be not happy and at this moment I saw a thin and short tail covered with fur moving upwards in displeasure. "Thinking you are handsome, but compared to me you are not!"

"Appearances don't matter here," the Selvator said in his thunderous tone.

"Yeah, strength matters," the dragon youth said while his eyes shone in brilliance.

"No, fairness and justice are the most important thing," the Salvator looked over at me in disgust, "even if an ant is allowed here, we should all treat it as an equal."

'Screw you!' I inwardly cursed without having the guts to actually say it in a loud tone.

At this moment I realized something; we were all enemies here!

They had to fight each other as they had to fight me. But compared to myself, each one of them would be considered a powerhouse in this apocalypse.

A dragon, a succubus, and a Selvator...That was three out of five. One was missing. Would it be…?!!

I felt a cold shiver deep down my heart when I thought about that race. 'No way! No f*cking way! If a member of that damned race appeared here then I'm done for!'

And the next thing I did was to hurriedly open the market and search for a specific warrior race.. The moment I saw that race, my quaking heart relaxed and now all I had to do was to wait for that last contender to appear.

Chapter 40 - Heart Shield Pendant

Despite knowing what was coming, I didn't hurry to purchase that warrior. In fact he wasn't that pricey at all, only costing one hundred stat points.

But I feared that if I took it out now, others would notice and get a clue about that race. After all, the presence of such a race wasn't expected.

"I say that we kill him first," the dragon pointed at me while two short halpreds appeared in both hands.

Even if they were short in his hands, compared to me they were enough to be equal to my length.

"No, I want him to be my slave," the succubus smiled in lewd way while curving her body. She seemed not startled at all by the presence of the other two intimidating beings nearby.

"I won't allow you to do that," the Selvator stuck to his rules, "no matter what we shall compete fairly."

"Then we shall wait for the last person to come," the dragon smirked, "what if no one came?"

"We have half an hour to wait," the dragon said, "so it won't harm us if we have less competitors. Anyway that class will fall into my hands eventually."

The famous self confidence that might exceed the threshold of arrogance appeared clearly now. The Selvators were so trusting in their abilities and the scary thing was… That wasn't an overestimation of their abilities at all.

"Humph! This is the first time for me to see someone boasting in front of a dragon race," the dragon youth scoffed before he started to walk towards me with ill intentions, "then show me how you are going to stop me, Selvator."

"Keep your feet away!" the Selvator's sound suddenly thundered all over the arena before his body started to shine more than before.

The sudden light that shone from the Selvator stopped the dragon while his face showed a frowned expression. As for myself, I started to run back towards the edge of the arena, putting that big wall on my back and I summoned three shields to cover me from the three remaining sides.

Then I started to ferventically scream in pure panic:

"I'm going to die… I'm going to die… I'm going to die…"

I was joking! I knew what was really going on here. Despite being arrogant and boastful, that dragon youth wasn't stupid. He provoked the Selvator to force him to unleash his power.

Such a way would expose not only the Selvator's level of strength, but also the others as well. So I faked the appearance of being a walking and ran as far away from the Selvator to shield myself from them.

This was the famous silver light pulse skill, an innate skill every prominent Selvator was born with. That meant the one here wasn't a mere Selvator, but was a genius.

Just as the light grew to its maximum intensity, it expanded fast covering everything around. It was like a bomb was detonated, and everyone around was caught in the middle of that explosion.

'Damn! Even with all my high stats this aura is still so domineering!'

I felt like my whole body was smashed by a giant hand from all directions. If not for the fact that I had my back covered already, I would have sustained damage without doubt.

It was one of the absolute attacks of that mighty race. But it wasn't without a price to pay. Such a strong skill had limited attempts per day. And that was one of the benefits we all got by that dragon youth's trick.

But that wasn't all. I moved my eyes slowly while sustaining the pressure exerted by that Selvator. The succubus girl who looked weak managed to sustain the pressure from such close distance using a skill of her own.

She only was pushed down on one knee, exposing the perfect skin and the amazing contour of her thigh.

As for the dragon youth, he simply met this attack with many of his own. He waved his two halpreds and launched many arcs of golden light that collided with the bright silvery light of the Selvator.

Yet in the end he was pushed a few steps backwards. I even saw a thin line of faint golden blood emerging from a corner of his mouth.

"Not bad," the dragon youth wiped the blood away as he stabilized himself. In fact I knew he also sensed the strength difference between himself and that Selvator, just like I sensed it as well.

That Selvator wasn't much stronger than me, than anyone else here. That meant we all shared the same full stats. In addition to forty points in each stat, the three of them were slightly stronger than me thanks to their innate skills and their unique body constitution.

They must have cultivation bases already. Having a class or not was questionable, but I doubted any had such a thing yet.

I moved myself up while faking being so weak and much affected by this attack.

"Hahaha, at least you know now you can't face the monsters here," the succubus girl laughed in amusement so much that even her body shook. Special parts of hers kept bouncing, adding more beauty and attraction to her.

"You should accept getting under my wing, human boy. I won't mistreat you, I promise you that," she winked again and even sent a soft kiss in the air. She looked adorable. She was deadly, but sexy and adorable in my eyes.

Damn! I had to exert more control over her innate seduction abilities.

I shifted my eyes towards the other two, ignoring her offer. The dragon youth held his eyes only over the Salvatore. He had all the right to do so. After all dragons were famous for being domineering and very strong.

So he finally met someone who could be called his equal match. How could he not see anyone else in the world but that Selvator?

But when my eyes fell on the Selvator boy, I was surprised to see a tinge of wariness inside his eyes. He was ignoring the other two around and only focused on me like I was his only opponent.

Did he see through my actions just now? That was impossible, right?

*Woosh!*

Just as I was thinking what shall I do to make this Selvator avoid me, a light from a pillar came down from the sky. Strangely enough it didn't carry any color as if it was translucent.

If not for the loud bang caused by the force carried by the pillar when it hit the ground, no one here would have noticed it. I narrowed my eyes while watching that pillar.

"Hahaha, no one came from there, hahaha," the dragon youth misunderstood this, "so it's only the four of us… Oh sorry, between the two of us."

He pointed one of his halpreds towards the Selvator, in a way that made the succubus girl furrowed her eyebrows. She turned to him and crossed her arms around her big voluptuous chest and said in cold tone:

"You need to get your eyes checked. I'm still here."

"As if you can handle one hit from me or him," the dragon boy snorted, however just as I looked at the Selvator, I was inwardly shaken that he was still gazing up at me.

And this time his eyes flickered in silver light, like he found his own match or something. Sh*t! This looked bad!

"We'll see," the succubus then moved to one side while her face didn't regain her normal state of calmness for long minutes. As for the dragon boy, he simply harrumphed and moved to another direction.

I looked at the Selvator and simply retreated towards the place I used to face his attack before. However I didn't give him my back and simply retreated while facing him. It was weird, but I wouldn't give my back to such an enemy, an enemy who was wary of me.

"Don't worry human boy," just as my back hit the edge of the arena, the succubus girl regained her usual sense of playfulness, "no one can touch you here. Oh, except for that arrogant stupid kid with scales over there."

She was already on bad terms with the dragon boy. I knew that Selvators were famous for their fairness, but what would that help me if that youth, who was still glaring at me without moving an inch, decided to kill me?

'C'mon, you shouldn't be worried about me. We have a higher class predator hiding here. You shall be concerned about him,' I thought while looking directly at his eyes. If he already made up his mind to make me his deadly enemy, then why shouldn't I do the same?

I knew there were only two ways for this competition to end. One by death, and the other was by submission.

Looking at those three, in addition to the one hiding here, I had to kill them all. I moved my eyes towards the three paths branching from this arena and pondered about this layout.

I once read in a record about this labyrinth. It was simple. We would be randomly scattered between the three paths. Given our number, we would have two paths with two of us and one with only one.

That might seem good at first, but it wasn't. The two who might end together would propose an alliance together, a temporary alliance to get others out.

After all, it was a labyrinth. It was designed so the three paths would intersect together multiple times.

So the team without that hidden race had a great chance in forming an alliance together. The team who would have that hidden race youth would end up with that youth killing his opponent.

Just like I did with the traitors, that hidden race youth would have a chance to get fifty percent of everything his opponent had, including the blessing points.

Looking at it from all angles, the only one who ended up in that third path would be the most disadvantageous one. In addition to that, as he started with a head start advantage, he was destined to cross roads fast with the other two paths before the two paths would come together.

That meant he would have to face the other teams even before the other teams would face each other. More disadvantage indeed. If it was up to me, then I would choose not to be that lone wolf.

If I had to choose a team member, then I wouldn't choose that dangerous Selvator or that arrogant dragon. I would select that sexy girl over the two boys.

It wasn't fun, but my chances in forming an alliance with her were much higher than others.

Having that hidden race kid with me wasn't also that bad. I was ready for him, to face him head one and not die. As for killing him, this would depend on the circumstances of our fight.

Thinking about these things wouldn't help. After all, I doubted we would have the chance to select our opponents inside these paths. So Instead of wasting the time on this, I started to consider my strategy against each of them.

``I have to sell some of my gears then,'' as I lacked coins for now, I started selling the big pile of base gears I had inside the market.

'To face her seductive innate skill I'll need this pendant,' I bought a simple looking pendant, but it was the cheapest and most suitable one out there to counter that annoying seduction skill.

[Heart shield pendant: grade silver. Cost: Ten thousand coins. Effect: Protecting one's heart from any outside disturbances as long as the grade of the skill used doesn't exceed the silver grade]

Well, this might work against her. If she grew her skill to a grade higher than silver grade then I would be doomed. But it was unlikely.

Without being inside an ongoing apocalypse, raising one's skills and talents would take forever. The benefits of the apocalypse were so rich that these races would have big fights against each other to enter one apocalypse from the start.

With the system support, anyone here could raise his own strength and cultivation by leaps and pounds. It wasn't just the gifts of the system, the stats, but it was mainly thanks to the blessing.

And that also meant they couldn't bring any blessing points from their homeland. No matter how talented they were, it was simply impossible to have a god supporting you without being in an ongoing apocalypse.

So the risk of them having blessing points to best my big stat points was nearly impossible.

Yet I had to take precautions against each of them, so my expenditure was, without doubt, much more than each of them.

And that was my disadvantage compared to them.

Chapter 41 - Starting The Class Quest

Dealing with the dragon kid wasn't hard either. The Bulltor I had in waiting was one that would be able to kill him. But the main problem would be that Selvator.

His most deadly attack would be that silver pulse he just displayed now. I doubted this was his last usage for today for him, or else he wouldn't have hurriedly used it and instead blocked the dragon kid using his strength.

The Selvators didn't only use strength, but something called suppressive aura. They could force their powerful energy and force any opponent to yield and not move.

An immobile enemy was like a sitting duck waiting for slaughter. To make things worse, there wasn't a single race here in the market that could stand against such pressure.

The only thing that looked optimistic for me was that that youth wasn't that much stronger than me. Our stats were equal, and with that he would only depend on his own higher form of body and cultivation to suppress me.

I could sustain one or couple more attacks. If I recall correctly, then with his current progress he could only exert up to five times of this attack.

'Wait a minute…' I suddenly thought about something. I hurriedly opened the market and looked for any gear to negate the suppressive aura on the body.

'As expected… Even a white grade gear of such caliber costs a million coins… I can't buy it until the auction ends,' I thought while watching the short list that appeared in front of me.

There was a chest plate that could negate such ability, but it would only work once per day. That meant I had one more chance to sustain his attack. But what if he had one more? Would I be doomed?

'I hope I won't end up being with him,' I silently prayed. If the two of them, the dragon and the Selvator, ended together then it would be the optimal result for myself.

As I ended my preparations at the market, I checked how many stat points I had inside my inventory. I couldn't give the system bound stat points to any warrior I would summon. Unlike that I could use these stat points inside my inventory for that.

'The price of each stat point in the market should be around ten thousand coins… Tsk, those controlling the market are really something else.'

Even with the basic growth bundle that I bought, one stat point would cost only two thousand coins. But having those transferable stat points from the market would cost at least five folds. That was like a daylight theft.

But did I have a choice here? After all the number of stat points I had inside my inventory isn't that much. Only slightly above a hundred were there, and I needed two hundred and fifty at least.

Unlike those inside the apocalypse, those warriors weren't bound by shackles in their stats. So that Bulltor coupled with many stat points, he could raise in strength and levels. Once he leveled one level he would gain a skill. Once he exceeded level five a second skill would be opened.

But the third one required me to raise him over level fifteen. Something I couldn't do for now.

To raise a single level I needed to pour ten stat points in each stat he had. So one level would cost fifty stat points, five levels would take two hundred and fifty stat points.

I looked up at my inventory and back at my balance. I now have almost five hundred thousand coins, not even enough to purchase what I needed.

'I had to do it then,' I hardened my heart and started to sell some of the potions I had. These weren't like normal gears as they were considered extremely precious items.

[This basic health recovery potion can be auctioned. Do you want to auction it?]

I knew this was a unique item, but I had no time. I selected to sell it directly with the base price and got fifty thousand coins in return for each potion.

It might seem a lot, but compared to the practical value of these potions it was cheap. If I put them into auction, and considering the early stages of the apocalypse, I would get at least double if not triple that price.

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'I need almost one hundred and fifty stat points… So I needed one more million coins… Tsk, goodbye twenty potions, I would rather use you than sell you like this.'

I sold twenty potions at one go and in return I bought back the missing stat points. Now I could raise my Bulltor to level five, unlocking two skills of his.

Coupled with that big sledgehammer I bought for him, I had already invested so much in that dude. It would be better for him to show off his worth, or else selling his body in pieces wouldn't be enough.

So far so good. Just as I finished all my preparations, only five minutes remained.

[Five minutes remains before starting the class quest]

[Please summon your warriors. Be aware that inside the labyrinth you won't be able to summon warriors freely. Cooldown time of three minutes is required]

I read the messages before feeling a bit hesitant. 'I can't summon either the Bulltor or that sneaky guy now,' I thought to myself while moving my eyes around.

If I summoned either of two, then I would alarm the others here. I should stay calm and wait until I start the quest. Then according to what would be my enemy inside I would react.

"Humph, my army is bigger than yours!" The dragon kid bloated his chest upward as his army of warriors was indeed the biggest so far.

The three in front of me summoned their warriors. As expected, they already prepared what they would summon.

But seeing this scene made my scalp numb! 'I thought they would be tough opponents, but this… daring to call a group of thirty low grade warriors a big army?' I inwardly snorted while resisting the urge to show a ridiculous smile on my face.

"Quantity doesn't matter, quality does," the Selvator responded in the same arrogance while patting on the shoulders of his seven elite warriors, "a single one of them is able to kill all of yours."

"Let's see if your actions are as capable as your words," the dragon kid got hyped up. In his eyes, there was no opponent here but that Selvator.

As for the succubus, she bought fifteen warriors. Ten of them held shields and acted like a giant wall with their big bodies in front of her.

The Succubus girl knew her weakness very well. She was like a magician, with weak defense and strong offense. So having ten of her warriors as tanks was a smart move.

The other five were all normal swordsmen and spearmen. So that meant at least three to five of those shield bearers were elites.

The cost for a single low grade warrior was around twenty to fifty stat points. The elites would cost around a hundred to five hundred points.

That meant the Selvator had roughly equal points as mine. But I could get more when I have the auctions finished.

Another one didn't summon anything, that hidden race contender. I knew he wouldn't do that stupid mistake. If he did, he would alarm others about his existence.

"Don't be hasty," the Succubus girl laughed in a sweet manner before looking in my direction, "won't you accept my offer? We all know humans didn't have any blessing yet. So why throw your life like this?"

I noticed the other two gazes fell upon me, one with ridicule and the other with an aggressive way. That Selvator, he might prove harder to kill inside the maze.

I knew this wasn't all they were able to summon. Not a sane person would get his trump cards exposed like this. So at least each one of them would summon an elite, but no one would be crazy enough like me to go directly for the Bulltor.

After all these warriors came with base stat of one point, no skills, and no gears. Just purchasing those gears would have cost them a bit of fortune.

But they were prepared, just like me.

[Get ready, the quest will start in five… Four… Three… Two… One…]

[The five participants will be moved now inside the labyrinth]

[The goal of the quest is to be the last surviving member to acquire a chance to get the class]

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[Performance assessment will be done. You won't lose anything by dying here. But even winning doesn't mean you'll get the class. According to your performance, the grade of the class the winner will get will vary, or he might not have anything at all. Good luck contenders]

I looked in a daze towards the last message. It was something I didn't expect. Even if I finished the quest, I won't be able to get the class? No way!

"What the hell… Wait, how come there are five of us here?"

Just before the dragon kid would continue his words, he was teleported in a pillar of white light. Everyone else had the same amazement on their faces, but I rapidly scanned to find that hidden foe.

"You…" Just as I looked all around, I was shocked to see him just standing next to me. Only less than a meter separated me and him. I was so shocked and under the bathing light I managed to finally see his face.

Or hers!

She was a young girl, looking very alluring and stunning. However she had a pair of wide elliptical eyes that were covered in dark cover like sunglasses. I noticed her hair which was arranged in a thin and spiky curve. It was this race as I expected, the illusionists!

This race was one of the deadliest, especially at such early stages of the apocalypse. She could simply make anyone fall under her innate skill of illusion with a snap of her fingers.

As I saw her, she was also eyeing me with her wide and weird looking eyes.

"You look interesting," her soft voice came like a melody to my ears, "I'll come for you to have a little chat. Don't die early on for me, ok?"

I felt my entire soul shudder and at this moment, I was almost so close to summoning that warrior I had in mind. However, the moment the scenery changed, I saw someone standing tens of meters away from me.

The succubus girl! My luck wasn't that bad after all.

"Oh, we got to meet again," the moment she saw me she felt much at ease, "now as we are finally together, why not submitting to me and be my slave?"

She gave me such a smile that wasn't a smile at all.

[The auctions have ended. You got five million seven hundred and sixty-two thousand coins]

"Wow, I got so much," unlike what she expected, I was totally acting cool and collected. She narrowed her eyes while I started to open my market and looked at my long list of warriors.

"What are you doing?" she said while crossing her arms in front of her chest. But her tone betrayed her and I noticed the nervousness in her tone.

"Sorry, but I submit to no one," I answered in a domineering tone before my finger pressed over the icon of the Bulltor warrior, "if you want, I won't mind having such a good asset under me."

"You…" her face flushed red out of anger but the next moment her face turned ashen white. Her eyes went all wide while her body shivered in no stop.

"This… A Bulltor… How… How come you…" she looked at the giant warrior who appeared like a small hill next to me with shock and fear.

"I see you recognized my little friend here," I casually strolled a few steps forward before adding, "but I'm not done yet."

*Woosh!* *Woosh!* *Woosh!*

With a simple wave of my hand, I took out the giant sledgehammer and all the stat points I purchased for this little fellow here and let him have them.

"Thanks master," his strong looking dull face showed a smile that gave me creep thoughts when I saw it. He instantly wielded the hammer, used the stat points before five flashes of light flashed over him.

And the instant he did all this, his vibe totally changed and emitted such a brutal and domineering air.

"This… This… Leve five Bulltor… Level five… No f*cking way!!!" the poor succubus girl had all her body soaked in sweat and shook violently while she unconsciously retreated backwards with each step I took at her.

Just before I could cross half the distance, her warriors pointed their weapons towards me.

"C'mon, don't be like this," I calmly said as if I wasn't threatened by fifteen warriors here. I even waved at the warriors like I was teasing them.

"What do you think? Wanna follow me and keep your life intact?" I smiled, a smile that wasn't a smile at all.

Chapter 42 - A Fight With The Illusionist

I knew she didn't have a chance here. I had a Bulltor. Yes it was just one warrior, but it was a level five highly elite warrior with two innate skills and a big sledgehammer.

It was an as* kicker, she wouldn't be able to face him even if she summoned double more warriors.

"You… Stay away… Stay away from me now!" she screamed in panic when I took another step. Just before she could end her words, it seemed she gave an order to her warriors to attack me.

Warriors were related to anyone summoning them with thoughts. As her warriors moved, I didn't hurry to bring mine as I leapt backwards, creating a distance between me and them.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

The five swordsmen and spearmen lost their target and only hit the ground.

"Make them stop," I calmly said. I didn't want to lose my assets. After all, I saw her mine from the moment she appeared with me.

"Or what?" she seemed to mistake my intentions and thought my retreat was out of fear. I couldn't bring myself to flick my fingers and point towards the five in the front.

"Kill them," I only gave this order and my Bulltor moved.

The Bulltor I summoned was at least five meters in height. He was a giant, a true giant with broad muscles and a dangerous vibe. He had a hole in his chest where a glistering crystal ball was supposed to be there.

However as far as I knew, all the Bulltors got their central crystals smashed before being sold in the market. Despite that it would lower their prices like this, but it was a way to weaken them.

These crystals were the main source of their power. A Bulltor with a crystal would be at least ten times stronger than one with an empty hole in his chest like mine.

But that didn't make having a crystal impossible, yet it was something to be done later one.

The real shocking scene of a Bulltor would be when he wore defensive armor and carried another weapon in his hands. Adding also a Bulltor specific helmet would make this blue eyed Bulltor stronger.

Such things would cost me a fortune. I couldn't afford to buy all of these for now. Even that sledgehammer wasn't of decent quality. And yet all it took from him was mere wavings of his arm and all of the five warriors upfront were killed.

"This is your last chance," I knew if I didn't get to an agreement with her, then I had to kill her fast before anyone else would arrive here.

*Rumble!* *Rumble!*

Just before she could say anything, two formidable energies exploded not too far from here. I raised my head and saw two big pillars of light clashing against each other; one golden and the other was silver.

"So the two ended up meeting each other," I muttered to myself before suddenly frowning. "Doesn't that mean…"

A sense of crisis rose up in my heart. The sole contender now was that frightening illusionist. I looked towards the direction of the two fiercely clashing pillars and couldn't help but feel pressured.

"They aren't far," instantly I opened the market and bought the warrior I had my eyes upon.

[Warning: You have to wait for one more minute before purchasing another warrior]

I looked at the message and couldn't help but feel helpless. The illusionists were famous for their fast speed, vicious attacks, plus their love for attacking an enemy when his guard was down.

Their illusion skill wasn't the only lethal weapon they had, invisibility was. They were born with a skill to be invisible when they wanted to. Only another illusionist or someone with a similar ability or with a special eye could detect them.

"Move," I instantly shouted in alarm, "get behind me now and sign this contract."

The succubus didn't trust my words. Of course she thought I was putting up a show. "Did you forget? We have a fifth contender who can't be seen!"

Just hearing my words made her eyes go wide. I knew she would understand the meaning of my words so I didn't care about her anymore.

I bought one of the advanced contracts in the market, filled it fast with the basic and strictest conditions I could think of and then looked up to her.

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This contract cost me five hundred thousand coins. It had the advantage of binding my soul with hers. That meant I didn't need to use the system or for her to be on my side to give her orders and speak with her.

Plus it would work over those with blessing gods, and even against people with high cultivation.

And it had the choice of editing its content later on, provided that the changes wouldn't exceed ten percent of its content.

"Are you going to follow me or wait to be killed?" I calmly asked while counting seconds.

"Do you know who he is?" she asked but she was walking, or rather running towards me.

"Sign it first," my Bulltor looked at her in vigilance, a look that turned her face unsightly.

"This…" she saw the contract and was about to say something before a loud laugh erupted not too far from me.

"I told you, you are really interesting," a soft voice came, the same I heard before being teleported here. Yet it was the first time for the succubus girl to hear it. She turned around while looking terrified.

"Here," she instantly signed it without any hesitation. I knew anyone coming here wouldn't be stupid, at least not when someone was eyeing her life like this.

The contract turned into wisps of silver smoke before half went inside my body and the other into hers. I knew there were many disadvantageous points in the basic contract we just signed for that succubus, but I had no intention on going back on these terms.

"Show yourself if you dare!" that succubus screamed in panic. Poor girl! She took the illusionist as an amateurish enemy.

"She won't do that," I firmly said while finally the countdown reached zero and I could use my summon again. Yet I didn't hurry to do that. Something was off here. "If she did, she'd lose one of her greatest weapons."

"Oh, a human boy knows my people very well… It's weird though," the soft voice came as if the girl was floating in the air and moving all around.

"A voice dispersion skill? Nice touch," I recognized this skill as it was one of the useful skill sets for any illusionist.

"Do you even know my skill? I have to admit, I'm impressed."

"What is that skill?" The succubus girl seemed to be lost.

"Not now," of course this wasn't the best time to ask questions.

"I know your race quite well," I said while not looking at any specific area. In fact, using this skill would allow her to be next to me without even realizing it.

But it was hard to come near the two of us. After that contract, the succubus made her shield bearer warriors to surround the two of us. Besides the giant Bulltor was standing next to me. If she dared to attack, I was sure the Bulltor would take back her life.

"Is it so? Then tell me, how will I kill the two of you then?" her voice carried a tinge of amusement. This race was known to be in love with playing games with their prey. But there was something missing here.

They never start a discussion with their enemies before they would cast their illusion upon them. So either we were already under the illusion, or she had another goal in mind.

We were definitely not under any illusion. She has no chance to even cast anything yet. I suspect she took roughly two minutes of running at her highest speed to find us.

Wait… How did she come to know our location this fast and in such precision?

Then it all came to me at this moment.

"Very terrified to not even speak? I know I'm a frightening person, but I also can be reasonable sometimes."

I listened and couldn't help but crack a smile over my face. "In the Illusionist race there is a race that's considered the most shameless. Do you know what race I'm speaking about?"

"You… really seem to know a lot about our people. I'm feeling more interested in you now."

I didn't show any reaction on my face. Instead I started to walk outside the protection ring of the warriors.

"Hey, where are you going?" The succubus seemed to feel panic from the mere thought of me running away or something.

"That race is very hard to come by. I heard only in each generation ten are born. Ten, can you believe that? In a race with hundreds of millions of new births each generation, only ten belong to that race."

"Stop coming closer or else…" The illusionist voice came thundering from all over but I didn't flinch. I kept moving in a calm way towards the path in front of me.

"The reason behind this scarce birth rate is that it's not really like giving birth to any newborn there, it's an evolution. Out of hundreds of millions, only ten were blessed by this evolution. It's a remarkable feat, don't you think?"

I now stopped a hundred meters away from the succubus and the warriors. I didn't even call for my Bulltor to move.

I knew who I was facing, and I knew she wouldn't be able to kill me.

I knew her secret.

"How can you know all of this?" the voice rang again from all over the place. However I knew the direction she was hiding.

"Hey Rachel," I shouted at the succubus with the name she used in the contract.

"Don't call me that! I'm Ra!" she seemed to not like her name, weird.

"Do you know what that unique race is called?"

Rachel looked at me like I was crazy or something. I was acting like there was no danger here. And frankly there wasn't. At least not for me.

"You need to stop acting tough, human kid," it seemed I enraged that illusionist, "or else I'll kill you."

"No sorry, you can't," I simply crossed my arms and even closed my eyes for a brief moment.

"Pretty much confident you are!" the next moment a gale of wind came out of nowhere and passed just inches away from me.

"Watch out!" The attack was obvious and Rachel screamed in warning. However I didn't even budge or feel any worry at all.

"You can't kill me," I said this time in a firm tone, "I know everything about you."

"Then you can say my name?" the girl scoffed as if I just said a joke.

"No, but I can grab you and force you to tell me your name," without any warning a long spear appeared in my hand. I grabbed it with both hands and inserted it into the ground.

But I didn't hit the ground in front of me, but the one behind me, the ground where it had my shadow in it.

Yes, she was a special type of illusionist, one that was known as the shadow masters. She didn't come all the way from where she was sent to, she linked herself to my shadow and came here with me.

Unlike the conditions and rules of the quest, she managed to bypass them all using her unique abilities. If I wasn't really knowledgeable in her race, I would have fallen for her tricks.

After all, as long as she was bound to my shadow, it was a double edged weapon. She could never hit me, kill me, or even let me have any harm before she got herself separated from my shadow.

And to do that, she needed another shadow to jump on, use an innate skill for that. Unluckily for her, I knew her skill cooldown would take half an hour at least.

That meant she couldn't free herself from me, or use any kind of attack. But if she killed Rachel, she would be able to jump onto her shadow and take control over her body.

It was scary, a terrifying evolution of such a scary race.

"Got you," my spear got her off guard. I felt like my spear was caught by two hands or something. But how could she resist my strength?

"Do you want to die?" my tone showed complete viciousness and cruelty while I used more force to move my spear downward.

"What are you doing?" Rachel thought I was in trouble and decided to come to help.

"I can use my skill to enchante her," she proposed however I turned to her and said in urgency:

"Do you want the two of us to die here? Go back and never come closer until I say so!"

This girl lived in the shadows. So if I started fighting her while I was next to Rachel, I would have never been able to corner her like that.

She could resist my spear, that was expected. But if there was any other shadow nearby, she would instantly use her illusion skill over its owner.

She couldn't touch me, but she could touch anyone else. What if she managed to kill the Bulltor in her illusion? A giant Bulltor with level five, two skills, and a big sledgehammer. Damn! Even my scalp went numb when I thought about it.

So I had to move far, isolated from any other shadow here. This was the only way I knew of to face such a terrifying being.

And at the tip of my spear, there was another contract. I paid a hefty five hundred thousand coins just now to purchase it.

If my spear managed to penetrate her body, she would become my follower for the rest of her life! How cool that would be!

"I would prefer to die than to be your girl!" she screamed in determination and I had a bad feeling about her intentions.

"Then you'll lose your only chance to achieve what you desire most in life," I slowly said while my face carried a firm expression.

I knew what she deeply wanted, and I had a way to help her achieve it.