บท 39: ch39- Shattered Calm
As Alex and Olivia woke up, Charlie and the rest of the group gradually followed suit. After spending a week together, they had all adapted to Alex and Olivia's early morning routine, and a strong sense of teamwork had developed among them.
Suddenly, without warning, a loud explosion and a violent tremor shook the ground. Everyone's expressions shifted dramatically as the ground quaked beneath them, lasting nearly a full minute. The reinforced concrete structure of the school building began to collapse under the strain of the shaking.
Thankfully, the massive output of nearly 8,000 awakening stones over the past week had allowed about 70% of the school's population to awaken their powers. Most people managed to react quickly enough to escape the crumbling buildings, and despite the destruction, injuries and casualties were minimal.
When the tremors finally subsided, the entire school had been reduced to rubble. What remained were just remnants of walls and debris. Everyone was left in stunned silence, unsure of what had just occurred.
"Look over there! There's a mountain!" someone shouted.
"Whoa! A massive tree just appeared!" another exclaimed.
As they looked around in confusion, they noticed the entire landscape had drastically changed. About three kilometers from the school, where a residential area had once stood, a towering brown mountain had suddenly appeared, rising over 100 meters tall. On the opposite side, further away, a colossal tree stretched into the sky, its canopy resembling a giant umbrella, similar to the mythical "World Tree" from legend, now an impossibly real feature of their world.
Before anyone could make sense of the changes, Quinn, the guide, flew into the air and addressed the crowd with a booming voice, "Everyone! New resource points have emerged! You must move quickly to capture them! If we can secure five resource points, we'll be able to establish the Starter City!"
Quinn's voice then took on a more serious tone. "But beware! The Belos monsters will also target these resource points. If they manage to take control, they will form monstrous nests. These nests will increase the monsters' reproduction rate and give rise to even more powerful creatures. You must stop the Belos monsters from capturing the resource points at all costs!"
Realizing what was happening, Alex and the others understood that the newly emerged colossal structures were the resource points mentioned in the main mission. Since the prologue had ended, the task scroll had lost its special effects, but it still provided map functionality. According to the map, aside from the white base points, there were now new green points on the map. Judging by the distance and direction, the closest green point was likely the towering hill nearby.
Looking at the map again, they saw that within a five-kilometer radius, there were no other green points, suggesting that these resource points were few and far between—likely scarce and valuable.
With the situation clearer now, Alex and the group felt a bit disheartened. Though resting in the classroom hadn't been ideal, the complete collapse of the school buildings meant they had no shelter left. However, with a new goal in sight, Olivia and the others resolved to capture the five resource points quickly so they could establish the "Starter City." The promise of a proper city, as the task described it, gave hope for new housing and perhaps some semblance of normalcy.
As they prepared amidst the chaotic noise, the group found Quinn to buy some food. Over the past week, Quinn, acting as a "super supplier," had kept most of the base's population from starving. Regular food no longer satisfied the hunger of those who had awakened their powers, and the area around the school had long been stripped of all resources. Quinn's endless stock of replenishing food, stamina potions, energy potions, and healing items had become essential for survival.
After breakfast, Alex and the group prepared to head to the resource point located at the newly formed hill. As they moved out, a crowd of followers trailed behind them, though, having learned from their previous experiences, they kept a safe distance. They knew they couldn't compete with Alex and his group for monsters, so they had begun forming teams to clear out other wild zones.
The reason for following Alex's group was mostly psychological—perhaps a sense of security, knowing they could call for help if needed. Alex's team had gotten used to being followed by now, as long as the others didn't interfere with their hunts.
Around the base, there were more than 20 red wild zones, but over the past four days, Alex's group had thoroughly cleared most of them multiple times. In reality, the number of monsters had decreased considerably. Without this, it would have been much harder to kill 1,000 monsters daily.
Now, with the main mission to capture resource points, and with the Belos monsters also targeting them, Alex and the group decided to clear the remaining wild zones. Previously, they had intentionally left the Belos crystals intact to keep respawning monsters for extra experience. But with the new task at hand, they no longer needed to farm monsters, so the crystals could now be destroyed.
This plan seemed solid, but as soon as they arrived at the first wild zone, a small, unexpected problem arose.
Due to Alex's high attribute levels, killing monsters barely yielded him any experience anymore. Blue monsters gave him no experience, and even the purple ones only rewarded 2% per kill. As a result, Alex had taken more of a supportive role recently, allowing Charlie and the others to take the lead in battles. Normally, wild zones had about 100 monsters, which could be cleared in three or four waves by drawing them out.
However, this time, the wild zone contained only 30 blue scythe monsters, with no purple ones in sight. This was surprising, as the purples usually provided a decent amount of experience for Olivia and the rest.
The group decided not to split the monsters into waves since there were so few. All 20 of them charged in, expecting an easy fight. But to their shock, as soon as the monsters started moving, their speed had doubled!
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