Among the humans in the city of Lindburg, only a few reached bronze-grade. A handful reached the top of bronze-grade and only a single one reached Silver-grade. The only silver-grade in the entire city is William Nguyen, 23 who got lucky in both the innate ability and the god's gift categories. He was short, standing at only 5 foot 5, he had tan brown skin and looks to be of Southeast Asian descent.

William is the protector of a large group on the northeast, his innate ability lets him send devastating shockwaves through the bodies of his foes. Ensuring that even strikes without internal energy would lead to considerable damage. It was a powerful ability that could help a lot of people greatly especially in the first few weeks of the new era, but what really puts his name on the map is his gift from the gods.

[Battering Blows] a gift that complimented his innate ability, for each consecutive hit that he lands on an opponent his strikes get stronger. Adding to this was the fact that he ranked somewhere in the top 400,000 which gave him a martial book and a good amount of internal energy pills.

Keeping an entire school's gymnasium protected was no easy feat, especially since only a few people could actually be considered combatants. William's abilities were undeniable, but he was one man and keeping the people protected was getting harder by the day.

"The snake-folk are on the run again but something's off." William sat on top of a dead Ahagin, pressing a few buttons on his system to place the item up for trade.

"I'm telling you, it's the necromancer down south. We have to get the hell out of here before that thing gets to us." A young woman wearing a lab coat walked towards him. "I've shown you the footage from my drones haven't I?"

"You see, I don't have a problem with high-tailing it out of here. But to where? We'll lose more people if we head to the forest and escaping out of the city is going to take too long. I won't be able to protect everyone." William held a sense of responsibility for the people in his college, he was someone that had a bit of a hero complex.

"It's lose now or lose later... either way we're wasting time just staying here. The Ahagin are scared of us, sure but they feared the lizardmen more and that group was wiped out by that necromancer..." The woman then walked off back to the gymnasium. "It doesn't matter where we run, what matters is that we steer clear of such a powerful foe."

"Then you're asking the elderly to just die? If the necromancer wants to come, then let him."

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There was a rift in William's group, those that wanted to leave and those that had to stay. Out of the 40 members, only 8 chose to leave. Led by Linda who had the innate ability to manipulate metallic constructs.

"Our goal is the dumpsite down south, Nertwall Street, we can also resupply at the old convenience stores in that area before heading out of this damn city." Linda, 20 years of age has a rather potent innate ability. Manipulating metal constructs was one thing but also being a robotics major? It was a match made in heaven. She was the eyes and ears of the camp that William was leading, at least before she decided to head out of the area.

While her internal energy and mana were severely lacking her ability suited her style of combat. Which is to use her constructs to do the fighting for her. Following her were 7 people, most of which were at the Elite Iron-grade while her main protector Trent was in the Basic Bronze-Grade. Together this party can take down most of the monsters that appeared in the city.

The main reason why their group was headed to the dumpsite in the first place is to get enough scrap metal to fuel Linda's ability. Linda flipped through her phone to check on the perspective of a drone. "There we go, perfect. The necromancer is in the middle of the city. It's occupied with the Ahagins, let's move!"

Their group was strong enough to travel on their own, with every member capable of pulling their weight in a scuffle. It only took them a few hours to safely reach the dumpsite. They cleared the undead in the area in a swift manner.

"As far as I can gather there's a strong woman that lives here, it's best if we steer clear of her. Getting her to join us would also be nice but our goal is the metal, the sort of garbage that she wouldn't even care for." Linda was someone that disliked the unknown, her drones already observed the area a few days ago. She knew that the woman was powerful enough to take down her whole group if she tried, which is why avoidance was the first thing she had in mind.

They entered through the main area to find a monster-less landscape.

"Thread carefully, none of my drones have seen anything ye-" She was cut off by the sudden appearance of the woman in all black.

The blonde middle-aged woman stared at the group's leader with her staff on one hand. The group quickly moved back, leaving just Linda who was now staring up at the woman. "Why, hello there... My name is Linda Bance, My friends and I mean no harm. Am I right guys?"

The group behind her nodded in unison.

"State your business, this area is under my master's jurisdiction."

'This monster serves a master? We were grossly unprepared... what do I even say here?!' Linda was buckling from where she stood. "Uh..umm we're here to gather resources. I use metal for my ability, would your master be so kind as to let me get some metal?"

The woman appears to have opened a chat tab from her system, sending out a message to this master of hers. "If not then, it's all good! We'll be happy to leave you alone!"

The blonde woman then placed her staff on the ground. "The master wishes to meet you, follow me."