Efy was now venturing in a circle around the forest without actually moving forward, if he met even stronger opponents without amassing his arsenal, he felt that his survival would be short-lived. He had already diced the gorilla-lion monster, Gertrude, into slabs of equal sizes. He had a lot of food at the moment. However, he was a bit distraught, as the tamer was nowhere to be seen, he was not dead underneath the tree, but rather missing.

I guess in the end, he abandoned his pet. How sad.

As Efy made his way around the outer edges of the forest, a loud voice began to speak from the sky.

“Contestants, it has been a great time observing you, your techniques and your strategies. Hearing this message means you have survived until noon and as a result, we have a splendorous gift for you. There have been 100 reward zones created as I speak. Reward zones are random small patches of flat plains found randomly inside the forest area. When found, there will be a chest placed in the middle of the area. Those who loot that chest will receive amazing loot, including but not limited to, food. There are 4,500 survivors currently, do your best! Toodaloo!”

That voice, was it Miss Zeon? Oh well. In any case, I have a significant advantage right now. I should be able to find a reward zone quickly if I just continue to run around this area.

Just as Efy finished that thought, he saw a beam of light cutting through the darkness of the gigantic trees. He figured that must be what he was looking for and headed straight towards it.

“Wow.” he exclaimed to himself. He had stepped out of the depressing forest into a beautiful flatland with a garden of flowers decorating the grass, adding a splash of blue paint to the green. There was a chest in the middle, standing upon two stone slabs.

Well, that was easy to find. Efy wasted no time and dashed towards the glorified chest. When he opened it up, his eyes increased to the size of dinner plates.

Potions!

His eyes instantly locked on to the flasks, glimmering in the sunlight. There were 3, each being different colours of red, green and yellow. Luckily, Efy had not slept through his Xor Theorem classes. Colours of potions are up to personal preference, as each and every potion is created through the usage of Xor. Even if it’s to be established that a red potion can mean strength enhancement, anyone can easily create a potion with a red hue and it be poison. As a result, it is important to only purchase potions from reputable alchemists. Potions are a way to input the alchemist’s Xor ability into the body of another, for a variable period of time. The duration and enhancement both depend on the level of expertise of the Xor alchemist. Efy examined the potions carefully, he found that there were name tags attached to them.

The red one displayed “Strength Enhancement 1: 5 minutes”

The yellow stated “Speed Enhancement 1: 10 minutes”

And as Efy held the green potion in his hand, he almost dropped the bottle in astonishment.

“Healing: 1 minute”

Healing potions were much different than any other potion. These potions were not only drunk but could be used to drop on any wound. The rate of 1 minute meant that any injury would be healed within that allotted time. This means that you did not have to use the whole bottle at once, as is the case of the other potions. Instead, you were able to drop the contents on the various injuries depending on the size. Most importantly, when you drank this potion, you would receive a full body heal of all injuries.

These potions were rare, as it either took someone who was both a Medicinal Xor and Alchemical Xor expert, or at least two persons who were individually skilled in at least one of them. Even then, these potions would have a healing rate of at least one minute and beyond, being one of the bad outcomes. The phoenix feathers were healing potions which could heal people under 30 seconds time. Even if the potion Efy discovered was defective, it was still an incredible find.

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He quickly pocketed these beauties into his orb and checked the other items. Compared to the potions, they were worse, but by no means bad. He found 20 arrows, 4 human sized shields and 1 medium sized bottle of poison. Efy suddenly felt that he had a winning chance in this contest. Just as he was about to leave, a sudden burst of 50 arrows soared towards him from every direction.

An ambush? Efy thought to himself. He speculated that, when more people arrived to the zone, they had all spotted him enjoying the spoils of the chest. They probably came to a unanimous decision to form an alliance, anyone eliminating him deserving of the loot he had.

How can they be so sure they wouldn’t just switch targets and kill you after killing me? Jeez, these idiots.

Efy was a bit worried about the situation he was in, but felt that he could escape. Wasting no time, he slowly moved the four shields to cover himself from the barrage of arrows. When he uncovered himself, he found that the people had already changed plans and were running towards him to engage in melee. Specialisation in a certain class, did not mean uselessness in another. In fact, being a good swordsman whilst being similarly skilled in another aspect was common. What made the difference in skill was how well they could use Xor. So the various melee type classes were decent at archery and had the basics of elemental conjuration down, and vice-versa.

I guess they aren’t that idiotic.

They were closing in on Efy, who had little options available to him. “You guys would be tougher to deal with 4 days ago.” Efy let out a genuine smile. He was grateful for his new teacher, pushing him to further heights. He threw up 50 arrows into the air, each of them ready to pulverise anything in their paths. He then took some of the poison liquid that he had just gotten and swirled it around the air, touching the tips of the arrows, thus creating a more lethal attack. In doing so, he barely wasted any of the poison and returned the liquid back towards its container.

By the time the army recognised their fatal error, it had been too late. Who could predict that one person was capable of mass launching arrows? To them, it was an obvious victory, it was only one person. Furthermore he was the rumoured dark-rat who had ranked at the bottom of the ladder. This should’ve been a piece of cake.

But the only one receiving a portion of dessert was Efy himself. He launched the poison coated arrows straight back towards their original places. As the massacre took place, Efy ran through the crowd, quickly looting whatever he could. Everyone was too busy trying to survive the death rain to focus on taking the boy’s head. Efy on the other hand, had a massive shield covering his body from above and behind.

Efy had collected so much loot, that he had to create another Xor orb to hold everything. The aftermath was devastating. There were few survivors remaining, who had not dared to even show themselves. If he could launch that many so effortlessly, what could they do?

Efy was content with his rewards. He had garnered 21 long-swords, 102 more arrows, 4 axes and 8 greatswords. He left the daggers, short-swords and other weapons and armoury as he felt he did not need them. He was able to swiftly control 20 long-swords at a time, far more useful than the daggers and shorter swords in close combat. As for sending long ranged attacks, he could utilise up to 90 arrows now, which were more effective as well. These were his main combat weapons.

Efy felt on top of the world.

Surely Audrin could not be that much stronger than I am as of now, right? I must duel him again!

Efy smiled excitedly, thinking about the legendary duel he could have with Audrin this time, as well as the fame he could achieve when beating him.