Trinkets of Vitality

Remley Mitt broke the tripod beside him in anger.

"Are you going to let those actions slide? We could easily take down the four of them right now and no one will know who killed them. Even the Haley's can't trouble us without evidence." He complained in anger as he glared at the backs of the four who were walking down the hallway in a relaxed manner. Completely different from how they were just moments ago.

At the words of murder, Julianne Romero's expression immediately darkened. "How many times have I told you not to bother him. We really need him and his family for our plan. Even with the arrival of the system we can't just ignore the Haley's. You don't know what they are capable of, so don't speak without using that tiny piece of meat up there."

"But still, there are only four of them, wouldn't this be the chance to take them out. Ren Haley has been getting on your nerves ever since he was admitted here, wasn't he? Why do want to protect him? Even that girl, Willis, is with him. We could take them down at once." He said, slightly mellowed compared to his previous outburst.

"Four, you say. Have you seen that boy in the front fight just now?" She asked, as he slightly shook his head and said, "No, I couldn't see him fighting, but wasn't he in a terrible state? We took down the monsters so easily and he was struggling against them. Even if he is a little strong individually, he can't fight against all of us, especially against you and me, who have special skills. We were trained for this from before, so aren't we stronger?" He whispered the last part so that only the two of them could hear it, but Julianne still cast an icy glare at him wishing that he had never mentioned the last part.

"You are not supposed to ever mention it outside." She said as the temperature slightly dropped.

"I am sorry, I won't repeat it." He immediately lowered himself knowing that they couldn't fight because of the rules laid down by THOSE PEOPLE.

"Even though the Haleys don't know about this information, they can't be taken lightly. Especially, Ren. He is considered to be the most brilliant of them till date. But that isn't the only concern. That boy with Ren is strong. It wouldn't be good to fight them now." She replied after quickly controlling the matter.

"How strong can he be?" Remley snorted.

"He defeated more monsters than all of us combined before we arrived. His level should be high. He could have reached Level 10 as well." She spoke.

Julianne Romero had already observed the number of monsters that were on the top floor before they made their way to kill them. Rescue wasn't their top priority, they just wanted to take down as many monsters as they could to improve their levels. The gymnasium and the grounds were too dangerous for them and so they had no choice but to pick the monsters off in the buildings.

Moving in a large group was very disadvantageous in terms of efficiency but based on the orders received and her own observation, she believed that the only way to clear the zone would be by gaining the support of as many talented people as possible and also maximising her level.

However, what she noticed when she reached the top floor was very different from her estimation. The horde was reduced to nearly half its size and the boy that was trapped in the middle was still swinging his weapon, taking down one monster after another.

He wouldn't have lasted if he was left alone but she couldn't let go of such a talent. So, she immediately ordered everyone to start clearing the monsters.

She was even more surprised later when she found Ren Haley to be among the group of people trapped in the top floor.

They were four people who seemed to be moving together, and considering the presence of Ren, she assumed that he was the leader and brought together his lackeys, and that girl. She was really annoyed at having lost such a talent to the Haleys for a while before she was shocked once again by the sight of Ren agreeing the man to take the lead. It would be right to say that the last fact was the most shocking sight she has seen on the day.

"Interesting!" She remarked as the image of the boy with Ren popped into her head.

_____________________________________________

We continued to walk forward, after Mr. Haley's sarcastic well-wishing, heading towards the stairs at the far end of the hallway. All of us had a smile on our faces. I could already imagine the expression of the members of the student council turning into multiple shades of rage with Remley Mitt showing the best out of them all. We, however, had to hurry in our actions.

While gathering players with good skills to form a raid team did sound like a good idea to clear the zone, the benefits that the four of us could reap would be greatly diminished if we follow the council.

I recalled the message that I received while fighting the horde.

You are the first in your zone to reach the level 10.

Just considering that the student council members cleared the third years' building would be enough to grant them high levels but the fact still remained that I was the first to reach Level 10 despite losing a few hours to sleep.

This proved the ineffectiveness of the hunting method employed by the members and the massive disparity in required experience to level up to level 10 made it such that they would take even longer to cross the boundary.

I was currently at level 15. Having killed a larger number of abominations than I imagined, I could observe a massive rise in my strength stat which was the stat that I received all my level up points during the struggle.

LVL. 15

Daniel H Martinez

HP: 100%

MP: 100%

Stats

Strength (STR) – 37

Agility (AGI) – 34

Intelligence (INT) – 83

Mana – 4

Skills +

Equipment +

Inventory (!)+

I would find no trouble in killing the monsters with the stats I currently possessed and judging from the composition of the council members and the minor possibility of another small party, I estimated that moving in the current party of four would be the best course of action for us.

However, we had to hurry. The world and its organisations would undergo a massive restructuring with the introduction of mana and we would need to grow as strong as possible while we can. When the zones are opened, the strong and the rich will once again band together to suppress the weak. That was how the world always worked and will work in the future as well. Humans were greedy and they would go to the wildest lengths to satisfy their greed.

So, we had to grow stronger and to do that we would need to monopolise the kills before someone else takes them. Working under Julianne Romero wasn't an option to me from the start. Also, it didn't seem like I was the only one that I had an aversion to her proposal. It felt like Mr. Haley hated the idea even more than I did.

We were slowly getting accustomed to our little group and I didn't want to disturb the balance and get thrown into unfamiliar circumstances once more. However, all of the action would have to wait. We now needed to rest for a while and form a strategy to get as many kills as possible.

I lead the group to a normal classroom in the second floor that didn't fall under the sight of any locations that we could be attacked from.

"We'll rest here for a while. Distribute your stats while I think of a plan. We need to secure as many kills as possible before the zone is cleared. We mostly won't be resting for quite a while after this as we'll be going on a levelling spree." I said as I moved to a corner and took a seat.

Abigail seemed to be explaining want I meant to Ben who was most likely protesting against the idea of actively searching for more monsters. Mr. Haley was already doing his own thing as he took up a seat a bit of a distance from me.

I returned to my interface as I stared at the contents. While I was checking the inventory on our way here, I noticed that my inventory was glowing to indicate that my rewards were deposited into it. I clicked on it to check my new rewards. The previous reward I received was for an S-rank performance, 'Lightning Steps'. So, I had a very high expectation for the new rewards I was going to receive.

As soon as I opened my inventory, I could see the image of an ear-ring glowing in green placed in one of the slots. There wasn't much of a design to it, but it seemed to be surrounding by an abundance of green coloured aura which indicated its tendency. It was the first equipment that I received.

I expanded the slot to check the information of the item that I was rewarded.

My eyes immediately widened at the item information. Was it usually like this?

Even though the system said that the reward would be an equivalent for my S+ rank performance, I wasn't expecting anything like this. This was the exact item that I was lacking. With this, we could take down more monsters than I previously estimated.

I suddenly felt that all the stats that I placed into Strength just moments ago was not in vain. With the addition of this item and my high strength stat, I could find a way for the four of us to obtain maximum benefits in this zone.

A new plan was already forming in my head as our battle prowess increased by multiple fold with just that one addition.

'Trinkets of Vitality' (Equipable)

I immediately equipped it to experience the effects of it. Doing my best to hold back my laughter to avoid startling the rest, I broke into a huge grin that contained all my excitement.

Now, I could easily get the rest up to level 10 making us far stronger than the whole student council combined!