Walking past the charred wooden gate, I took another look back at the encampment. So much has happened since last night that I couldn’t even begin to explain it, but at the very least, we’ve made progress towards improving our defenses.

Reghan gathered the other players and told them about the pylon’s functions. Their eyes were lit with excitement from the prospect of classes and equipments, but that sentiment wasn't shared by everyone.

The majority of the population in the camp were those who selected Paul as their leader, and we all knew what their opinions about fighting were. Despite their obvious dislike of the current state of the camp, none of those guys wanted to retaliate, not even after they watched their walls crumble last night, and especially not after Reghan cleaved Paul’s head in one swing.

Regardless, I could safely say that we had more tools to deal with the wolf-mother now. The craziness that happened a few hours ago would have to wait until the wave was over.

I had to promise the others to come back as soon as I could. Their faces when I told them about leaving were… unpleasant, to say it nicely. I guess I tend to go missing when they needed me the most, which I fully understood. But I’ve made it clear that I also had no plans to stick with them forever once the defense was over, which they all understood.

Julie was insistent that Amanda followed me outside, in case I went unconscious again like the time I got into in Tzatch’s dungeon. They stopped once I said that I only wanted to pick something up, and perhaps, due to the gift I handed over to Julie, she stopped forcing me to go along with her idea.

Reghan was worried too, naturally. But the recent murder he committed seemed to have burdened his mind greatly and he was preoccupied with it even after I left. I wished I could help him, but I was never good at these sort of stuff, so whatever I said would just do more harm than good.

The forest was quiet. Since the wolf population had been culled, there were none of them to be seen as I passed through the forest with little to no interruptions. Frankly, none of the enemies in this zone were a threat to me anymore. Perhaps, once the waves were over, I could venture further outside and find the other dungeons on my own.

I seemed to have forgotten one thing, though… There was this bear that nearly shredded Julie’s party apart a few days back. It should be around here somewhere…

After minutes of searching, I couldn’t find any trace of it anywhere. Perhaps it had moved to another spot; there were no rules about the elites having to stay in the same place the entire time.

My brisk pace eventually led me to the small patch of water where the plant was.

At first, I didn’t notice much of a difference when I approached the pool of water. The flower remained the same, and the haze that it emanated was, too. The only difference? Well, I didn’t smell the painfully sweet scent anymore. At least, not they way that it was before. It was just like all the other aromas that permeated the forest.

According to the description from the Deathborne, it gave me the immunity towards Death haze. Was it due to the immunity that I wasn’t so enticed by the smell anymore? That was the most likely assumption that I could make.

[Onyx Hyacinth - Consume to acquire the possibility of gaining Shadow or Death affinity. However, failure to do so comes with the risk of death. Only attempt to gain an affinity if you believed that you are compatible to it.]

Possibility of death? And why did the system display the description now instead of before?

Was it even possible to fail in acquiring the affinity once I consumed it?

I picked up the flower by dragging the head from the roots below. It wasn’t as big as I thought it was, as the roots were only about half the size of the head of the flower.

Storing it in my backpack, I turned around and headed back to the encampment. Consuming the flower itself was a risk, so I’d only do it once the wave was over. I wouldn’t make the same mistake of being absent again.

And well, that was when I saw the bear’s fur amongst the treeline to my left, lazily pacing around the forest, looking for easy prey.

[Lvl 30. Elite Prime Colossal Bear]

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Ideally, I should only face the colossal bear during the night, since I’ll be fighting it with the [Ally of Darkness] bonus, and also, that thing had grown 4 levels since I last saw it. Its name had changed too, it was only colossal bear before, but there was the prime tag on its name now.

Yeah… Not taking the risk. At least, not now.

I skipped the bear by snaking around its perimeter, gawking at its sheer size as I gained more and more distance.

With an upgraded weapon and a higher level, I’d have more of a realistic chance of killing that thing, and hey, from the elites that I’ve killed in the past, perhaps it’d drop another beast gem to upgrade or craft new things with.

The encampment came back into view, and I could see the results from the effort of building another set of wall closer towards the gate. Scattered on the ground around the walls, there were more than a few spiked structures that faced the opposite direction from the walls, in hopes of getting the wolves damaged from them.

As I entered the camp, I saw a familiar face amongst those who were busy building the walls. It was Edward. He flashed a smile towards me with a massive log of wood on his shoulders before we parted ways.

Surprisingly, those who I presumed to have chosen Paul didn’t cause anymore fuss once he was dead. They were scared of the difference of strength between us, and from their faces that were filled with dread, it didn’t feel like they had much of a choice but to follow his lead again. I wondered what would happen if Reghan didn’t finish Paul off… It wasn’t like being the leader of this sector gave you any invulnerability or anything, in fact, all it did was put a huge target on your back.

Did Paul believe none of us had enough balls to simply rip his head out of his neck? If so, that was quite foolish of him. Everyone here, especially those who had fought a lot, were accustomed to killing other creatures.

“You’re back… That was quick.” I saw Reghan amongst those who were busy cutting the wood into usable planks. “Did you get your flower thing?” The distraction from the event that transpired before had helped his complexion a tiny bit, but I could tell that it was still weighing on him.

My eyes scanned the camp, “I’m surprised that they’re so willing to follow your lead again after what happened. Did you do something to them?”

Reghan sighed, “I said a few things, let’s just leave it at that. I’ve given them classes of their own with my own contribution points if they didn’t have any, so they should be at least somewhat useful.”

From their expressions, I could tell that them being useful was a long shot from reality. But at least Reghan had tried.

“Can I help? I don’t have much else to do after this.”

“Sure… You could go with Richard to cut some more trees for us, speaking of which…” He gestured towards Richard was dragging more than a few pieces of lumber towards the camp.

“You’re helping me?” Richard’s eyes popped open when I said that I’ll be going with him. “Well, sure, but I feel like your strength could be used somewhere else…”

I gave Reghan another nod as I left.

Richard and I continued chatting until we reached the spot where he was gathering the trees from. Most of the trees in here were already cut, and there were only a few trunks big enough for us to use that remained standing.

“Out of all the crazy shit that has happened, Paul’s death was the one I was surprised with the most.” Richard said in between his swings, chopping down the lower part of the trunk by more than half in a couple of strikes. “It takes guts to do something like that without wasting a second of thought, or, he may have done the same thing to someone else before.”

I watched his expression grew solemn, “Despite my size, I was born in a family where violence are heavily frowned upon. So it took me a long time before I got used to killing things over here.”

“That’s the same for everyone, no?” Following his lead, I summoned a sword and began chopping as well. “Everyone starts from somewhere.”

“Yeah… I suppose you’re right. I’ve made so many mistakes and I owed my own party a great deal. No matter how hard I tried, I won’t be able to match Julie or Amanda, they’re just… a step above the rest.” He muttered while sidestepping the falling tree. “I sensed that you were like them too.”

“Like them?”

“Yeah… You had the mettle and guts to go and do shit on your own. None of use would ever think of clearing a dungeon on our own, not even Julie.”

“That’s… more due to the lack of a choice than me having the courage to do it. Trust me.”

Richard picked up the massive log like it was cotton and hauled it over his shoulders. “You know, I saw how strong you and the others were, but my expectations were shattered when none of you were even in the top 10. How insane was that?”

The top 10… He was right. I expected to see my name up there too.

“I get what you mean.” I spoke as I watched the tree I was cutting finally fell. Hauling the trunk that was surprisingly light on my shoulder, we walked back towards the encampment with the thought running over our heads.

“What do you think would happen if we cleared this tutorial, Zane? Will we end up being the common fodders like the others?” Richard’s sentence brought another moment of silence between us.

“We’ll just deal with it when the time comes. None of that matters if we die here.”

The encampment wasn’t that far away from the where we were. A few minutes of walking, and we were back once more, only to see Julie tinkering about beside the pylon. The pylon shone as we approached it, and on Julie’s hand, A new, reddish staff that contained a gem towards its end was made.

She made a staff from the gem I gave her. From the way it looked, I could guess that it held some type of skill that was related to the prime ape.

Julie shot me an appreciative grin as she inspected the newly made staff in her hand, “This thing costs 10 000 points, and well, I guess its effects matched its price…”