12 Rank 11

"You took your damn time waking up." Dirk said in his stern voice, a hint of playfulness bouncing behind his eyes.

"Sorry for the wait. I was a bit..." Rank gestured down to his heavily bandaged body. "Incapacitated."

"We're going to need an explanation on how that came to be the case, but for now, since all team leaders are present, the meeting can begin." Fae interjected.

"First things first. Are there any casualties or significant injuries among the team?" Hora shot Rank an accusing look.

"What, it's not that serious om injury." Rank flinched as he sat down on the open stump.

"Just take it slow, bud. Other than Rank there were no significant injuries to report. Although, Zane's team was looking a bit worse for wear after their return." Axel weighed in.

"Yeah, we went on a bit if a slaughter fest when we found a few more lizard nests." Zane defended himself. "We all raised our level by one."

"Since Rank seems to be the only injury, we can move on to any new information we've acquired." Fae overtook the conversation again. "Zane, I believe you had a discovery you wanted to share."

"Sure did. So all of you see that asterisk next to your skills? Apparently if you focus on it you can aquire or upgrade your skills."

"Huh. How did you manage to figure that out?" Hora spoke up.

"Well, it wasn't actually me. It was one of my team members."

"I managed to figure it out too." Rank coughed.

"If that's all, my team had already made that discovery shortly after you all left for your individual explorations." Fae sneered.

"About that. What exactly was your team doing. I thought the plan was for us all to explore." Dirk interjected.

"We were gathering wood and studying the new class system we've been given." Fae countered. "Good thing too, or else we'd have had now way of cooking dinner or building defenses."

"Well, did you figure anything else out about the system?" Rank broke in.

"Well, aside from the skill improvement and acquisition, we only managed to learn a few things." Fae answered. "Firstly, the skills we got to start seem to be of random level, ranging from 'F' to 'S', with a special mystery class beyond that. Secondly, the skills available to us in the future seem to be related to this 'class' we've been assigned. And lastly, most of us seem to have a unique skill. We couldn't manage to get any information from this unique skill. All attempts to make use of it have failed and we couldn't manage to get a description of it like we could for the others.

"Interesting." Gryf mused.

"Okay, on to the elephant in the room." Dirk looked rank in the eye. "What went wrong."

"Well, to put it plainly, we were outmatched. We were surrounded by boar like creatures, but they were chased away by a far stronger creature." Rank began to explain. "It was like a tiger, but smaller, and faster, and magic."

"And you sent your team back to get help? Why didn't you just connect with Kat? The communication line was your idea." Gryf pressed.

"The situation seemed hopeless. I figured my team wouldn't rum unless they felt that there was a way to help." Rank felt his wounds flare up. "I figured I could keep the tiger occupied while they escaped."

"So you were planning on sacrificing yourself." Fae looked at Rank with kinder eyes than he was used to. "I don't agree with your methods, but everyone came back safely, so I can certainly agree with your results."

"Moving on, we should review the results of each team, and the team system as a whole." Fae announced.

"My team ran through a nearby cave. We found a few odd creatures, but the weren't hostile. It might make for a good base of operations." Gryf looked dejected. "That's about it."

"My team gathered various plants and vegetation in hopes of securing a food source." Hora said with great pride. "We also managed to find a water source in a nearby river."

"My team joined with Axel's in a hunting expedition." Dirk smiled. "We managed to get several docile creatures closely resembling rams for us to ration over the next few days"

"After our killing spree, our team went around and cleared the area surrounding our camp of all hostile creatures." Zane smiled.

"All my team managed to do was scout out the forrest a bit." Rank shared im Gryf's self disappointment.

"I've already mentioned my team's accomplishments, but I should add that Rank's team may also be attributed with building the defenses, identifying the gathered vegetation that is safe for consumption, and aiding Zane's team in locating the nearby hostile creatures for extermination." Fae smiled at Rank. "But I'll let your team tell you about that. Lastly, did anyone spot anything interesting on their explorations?"

Rank remembered the rock bridge that seemed to be made by intelligent life. He decided to keep that to himself for now.

"If there's nothing else, I think it's about time for the big question." Dirk took control. "We need to hold a vote on wether or not to stick with Rank's seven team plan."

Rank sat in silence while everyone discussed the effectiveness of his plan. Once the vote was held, the decision was unanimous.