The once peaceful encampment filled with hope was now in a state of confusion and despair. For the first time since the walls and gates were built, there were casualties. Dying in this world wasn’t a foreign concept, nor was it foreign on the earth as well, but the way some of the so-called builders of this settlement reacted to death was… alarming, if Reghan had to put it nicely.

Had he been too nice and made it too easy for them? Surely, everyone knew the gravity of the situation at hand. This world was just so different, after all.

Those who had faced the horrors outside barely showed much of a response when they heard about the deaths. Most of them, especially those in the Vanguard, had lost a friend or a party member before. They turned out to be the ones that he could rely on the most.

Reghan stood on the podium with the other vanguards, his face grim and somewhat irate about the failures of their defenses. While there was a silver lining to all of this, mainly, the rapid rate of level gains, it was obvious that if nothing changed, they would all perish by midnight.

All of them, hell, even some of those from the defense squad broke through level 10 today.

The rest of the population stood below the podium, waiting for some sort of good news from their leader.

“We need to change up our tactics. There are no doubts that the wave will be stronger tonight.”, He explained the situation once more to the squad. “We need to be more offensive. Our strategy prioritized the defense of the walls, but that cost us too much.”

Reghan spotted the red-haired woman amongst those who were on the podium. She had been instrumental to their defense, her fire spells were second to none in terms of offensive prowess.

“Screw the walls.” She said, walking up towards Reghan. “The lvl 11 wolves could destroy a tree with a single horn strike, so if they showed up today, the walls would be pointless to defend. The walls are supposed to protect us, not the other way around.”

“But… then they’re just going to attack us! We can’t defend ourselves!” A random person from the crowd shouted.

Julie clicked her tongue, she absolutely despised the ones who only screamed and yelled for help without fighting on their own. That sort of mentality might have worked on the earth, but in this world?

“It’s a mistake to let those in.”, Julie spoke under her breath. Unfortunately, the decision to let everyone co-exist was made by Reghan. She understood his desire to help them, but why help those who were unwilling to help themselves? And it wasn’t like she could just up and leave, the damned gate was everyone’s responsibility.

Reghan watched the exchange happening with a downtrodden glare. The moment had come, as predicted by Zane, that those who were unwilling to fight were forced to face the nightmares that awaited outside.

He admitted that he had let his own ego take over. The praises of his strength and the admiration of his character has given him some sense of pride that he’d never gotten back in the earth. But ego wouldn’t bring everyone out of this sector alive.

Unless the system had other ways to empower their buildings with a class or a skill, the best wall they could’ve gotten was a wall of capable fighters. Wood and stone wouldn’t stop those monsters at all.

“Everyone… will pick up their weapons and fight.”, Reghan declared the news which so many of the people below never wanted to hear.

In an instant, the hundreds of people screamed and moaned, filling the once somber scene with a wave of pure, unbridled anger. Some of them even resorted to throwing rocks and twigs at them, saying that they owed them the comfort from their contributions.

A rock hit Reghan straight in the head, which bounced off cleanly as it landed on the podium. At his constitution, that rock didn’t even budge his health points.

“I told you it’s a mistake.” Julie stated. This wasn’t the first time she has warned him about his complacency, and now, everyone’s paying the price. “Well, it’s not like any of those idiots are of any use in a real fight anyway.”

Reghan’s stance never changed even amidst all of the random objects flying about on the podium. He faced the music with a sense of melancholy in his eyes; his meticulously built persona had just been ripped apart by the cold hard truth.

He had thought that building the walls would be enough. Hence, he worked so hard to build them.

He had thought that everyone would be willing to fight when the time comes. Hence, he organized a schedule where everyone would get a chance to level up.

But what he was seeing now was the complete opposite.

“To those who refuse to fight. You will leave.” With a stern voice, he spoke against the raging people. On the front row of the crowd, Reghan noticed Paul’s face amongst those who were wailing at him.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

He thought he’d be upset, but no, all he could muster was a sad smile.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

There was no boss extraction message that was given by the system this time. Perhaps it was due to the boss not being Tzatch himself, or was the spear the supposed loot from the boss? Either way, it didn’t matter. I stepped on the portal after that.

The portal teleported me back to the entrance of the dungeon. But instead of the empty room that was here previously, it was now filled with 2 treasure chests and in - between them, a strange, glowing object with the shape of a key was floating.

[Key to the Gate of Beginnings#1]

Even when I knew beforehand that clearing this dungeon would net me a key, I was still way too happy when I saw the system’s message. What I felt was a mix of elation and relief, ecstatic that the first key was found, and relieved that I was alive after all of the shit that has happened.

But before that…

There were two chests that must be opened.

To the left, a large, red chest laid still, waiting for someone to open it. On the other side lays a golden, but tinier chest, almost the size of the width of my arm.

Shuffling towards the red chest, I heaved the lid open, and inside was a collection of armor pieces and - thank goodness - red bottles that looked similar to potions.

The first thing I picked up was a chestpiece that I sorely needed to replace my worn-down shirt. It was mostly dark in color, with metallic parts where the vitals were supposed to be. In a glance, it felt like a medium-light ish armor, allowing decent movement while also providing solid defense.

[Nightblade Chestpiece - Rare : Provides 10% physical and magical resistance when worn. Adds + 5 constitution. Self-repairing]

Not bad.

The next item was a belt. It had the same sort of color and aesthetics as the chestpiece, so they should fit well when equipped together. The skill that was provided by the belt, however, was something else.

[Nightblade’s secret belt - Rare : When equipped, allows the user to store one weapon into this belt, which can be called upon and stored at any time. Self-repairing]

What? You’re telling me I don’t have to carry this spear every time of the day?

I equipped both armor pieces without waiting. The chestpiece fit my body almost too perfectly while also blending with the cloak. The belt was there too, almost invisible under the newly worn chestpiece.

Testing the belt’s skill, I watched tzatch’s spear dissolving into the belt when I willed it to. And, to no one’s surprise, it immediately reappeared when I thought about holding it.

That’s so handy.

I also picked up the bottles of potions that were inside. Overall, I acquired 5 more health potions, but these were of the higher tier.

[Medium healing potions - F rank : Heals 150 Hp upon use.]

Unlike the ones that The Administrator gave me, the potions in the chest were differently described by the system. 150 hp wasn’t that big of a deal at my level, but it was better than nothing.

Storing the potions in my backpack, I skipped the key and headed to the Golden chest.

I have to be honest, The tiny size did bother me a little. The golden color indicated that the rewards inside were of a higher tier, but the size meant that this couldn’t be a piece of armor or a weapon. My first guess of the thing inside was the key to the golden obelisk not too far from here, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up like that.

The golden chest didn’t take much effort at all to open. A radiant glow emanated as the lid reached the other end, blinding the contents of what was inside.

Eventually, the light faded, revealing a necklace with silver straps. It held a circular object, somewhat dark in color, with a circle made of silver on the edges of the sphere.

[Necklace of unshaken will : Once per an hour, when a spell or skill triggers a willpower check, you will gain +30 temporary willpower during that check. Wearing this necklace will provide + 5 willpower.]

Wow… This is… amazing. The first, and only, willpower check that I failed nearly killed me. This… solved that problem, although not completely. Mages should have high intelligence if they focused purely on their mind state, but they had to be at least at level 40 or 50 to be successful at breaking through my willpower with this necklace.

I grabbed the necklace and hung it over my neck. It throbbed with a strange power as I touched the dark sphere on my chest, which felt eerie at first, but I quickly got used to it.

The only item left was the key to the dungeon. As I approached it, the system gave me more information about the key, and, well, it was a lot to take in.

[Key to the Gate of Beginnings #1]

[Upon taking this key, it will be bound to you. Only you can use this key in conjunction with the owners of the other keys at the same time to open the gate. If you own all 4 keys, a special reward awaits at the end. This key can be used once a day to point you in the direction where the second key lies. This key cannot be stolen, and will be stored in a separate dimension until you decide to use it.]

That’s a good way to ensure harmony and peace between players. What kind of a cruel joke is this?

Does the system want us to survive in the first place? Nothing it did up until this moment points towards that direction. At times, it almost felt like the system wanted us to fight each other. From the merits of the gate defense, to how vague it was about how levels were gained, to the chase for one time achievements, and now this…

Well, I guess the system’s nice enough to make it easier for us to find the consequent keys.

[You acquired Key to the Gate of Beginnings #1]

[Task updated!]

[Task #1 : Find the 4 keys to open the gate leading to the exit, located in the safe zone (1/4). 79 days left.]

[Owner of the 1st key : Zane Black]

It even tells you the owners of the ke-

Wait. Does this mean… everybody else knows?