On a snowy mountain in between Safe Zones 52 and 53

Luke Adler, along with half of the members of The Council – including Lucia Adler, Aidan, Blake, Manfred, Jessica, and Erik – stand on the peak of the snowy mountain marking the border between the territories of safe zone 52 and safe zone 53 as they look at the approaching group climbing the mountain towards them.

One of the members of the group – an old, but fit man with a bit of grey scruff on his chin – waves at The Council members on the peak as he shouts, “It’s nice to see you again, Manfred!”

Manfred steps in front of the other council members with a nod as he returns the greeting with a shout of his own, “And you as well, Frank!”

A younger man in his mid-thirties leads the approaching group to The Council before stopping in front of them and giving Luke a polite nod.

The young man looks just like a younger version of the man named Frank as he stands there with his arms crossed in the snow with the grey clouds completely blocking any sight of the blue sun.

“Since you aren’t satisfied with the reason we gave for helping you, we might as well come clean,” the young man suddenly says, causing the group from safe zone 52 to tense up.

“We are helping you because of your son,” he says while looking directly at Luke.

The Council relaxes before a wave of confusion sweeps through most of them until the man continues, “There are a couple of reasons for this. For one, I have my doubts that he would be happy if we just abandoned you to the wolves, which – in the case that he does clear the Administrator Dungeon – would not be a very good thing for us. And as for the other reason?”

The man pauses with a shrug before continuing, “I was hoping that he could put in a good word for us to some of those big-shots from outside of our Galaxy before any of them reach Aegis.”

Luke raises an eyebrow in amusement before shaking his head and saying, “Alright, I will tell Wolf about you and the help that you are giving us, Liam.”

Liam claps his hands once before moving on, “The next subject for us to discuss is how you are planning on dealing with the upcoming visitors from other Galaxies?”

“From what we have been able to discover,” Manfred answers instead of Luke, “safe zones do not work for people who are not inhabitants of the initiated Galaxy. Meaning that, if one of them tries to enter the safe zone, then monsters may enter it, but they will only be able to harm the visitor, and not one of the inhabitants of the initiated Galaxy. Which means that the visitors aren’t likely to target us for our safe zones.”

Liam nods his head in agreement before Frank asks, “And if they decide that they want the land anyways? Or that they want something that you have already claimed?”

Manfred turns to Luke and nods before Luke crosses his arms and states, “Then we will defend what we have.”

Wolf

One and a half days later

“Stupid raptors,” I mutter as I freeze another of the raptors currently rushing at me from inside of their den.

Why did these stupid things have to have such good senses of smell anyways?!

It makes it incredibly difficult to sneak up on the things!

A notification suddenly pops up on the side of my interface as I stab my sword straight through the mouth of one of the raptors before yanking my sword back out and raising my other clawed hand to grab one of them by the throat and throw them at another raptor.

“Not the time,” I mutter to myself while ignoring the notification as I sense another raptor come around to my flank before I swipe my clawed hand behind me, sending a wave of icy water straight into the raptor and freezing it before it can even jump at me.

Three raptors all attempt to jump at me at the same time before I duck under them and surround myself with a dome of ice before shooting spikes out of the dome right as they strike it, piercing through them in the process.

“I really need some damn AOE attacks!” I shout in anger before raising the dome, throwing it on top of one of the remaining raptors, and freezing it to the ground to trap it under the dome as I move on to take down the other two remaining dinosaurs.

After I finish off the raptors, I glance to the side of my screen to read the notification.

A message?

Right as I start to read the message, a green plume of smoke raises from the center of the largest cavern of the den.

System Notification

You have received a message from player: Luke Adler

“I know that you are likely busy right now, but I wanted to keep you up to date on the happenings back here.

First, thanks to the help of Safe Zone 53, we barely managed to avoid a second clash with Safe Zone 51.

If you wouldn’t mind, they asked if you could put in a good word for them to some of the bigshots from outside of the Milky Way that you have come into contact with.

Aside from that, we are currently trying to improve our defenses while also raising the overall strength of our fighters through the various nearby dungeons.

This is partially because of the other safe zones, but also because of the impending arrival of the ‘visitors;’ which is what we have decided to call the players who are arriving from other Galaxies to take advantage of the new resources on Aegis.”

I frown after reading through the message.

They are already going to start arriving soon? I knew that they would eventually come to Aegis, but from what I have been able to find on the forums, it usually takes years for them to find the correct coordinates to portal to!

Which raises the question of how they already either know the coordinates, or almost know them.

The only thoughts that come to mind are that either a different Galaxy already had someone stationed in the Milky Way, or someone from the Initialization gained an ability related to spatial magic and was able to figure out what the coordinates of Aegis are and sold them to someone.

Either way, things aren’t looking very good for dad and the others, so maybe I should ask Diane to help protect them?

Although I will have to convince her to do it without agreeing to the requests that she has already made.

Anyways, I approach the green chest before touching it.

I read the description floating above the green chest before exclaiming, “Finally! Something good again!”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Item | Coat of the Night | Tier 4

This coat grants 20% extra resistance to the elements and 10% resistance to physical damage.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I take off my starter jacket as a long black coat appears over the chest.

It’s about time that I got something to replace this jacket!

The stupid thing has literally been falling apart!

I reach out and grab the coat before putting it on while rolling the sleeves up past my vambraces.

The coat itself is a long black coat that reaches down to about midway down my thighs in length, and instead of a zipper, it has a few black buttons. It also has a few pockets, both inside and outside of the coat, along with a flared collar.

A light smile emerges on my face as I look down at my new coat before I start towards the entrance to the den.

Now all I need is a new shirt! That or some type of armor that covers my torso but can still be worn under my new coat.

I haven’t really seen any armor like that in the times that I have looked through the store, but I probably just missed it.

Especially considering the massive number of items in the shop.

Right as I exit the den, an incredibly loud mixture of a roar and a screech comes from behind me.

I turn to look before finding a large cliff beyond the immediate area of trees.

“Is that…” I mutter before hearing the noise again.

I glance at my level before taking off at a sprint towards the cliff.

Level 122 should be high enough.

After a few minutes of running, a large life force enters my senses before I reach the outskirts of a clearing surrounding the cliff. The life force itself appears to be inside of the large cave that opens up on the side of the cliff, and judging by the noise it made, and the half dozen raptors that I can see from my position, it is probably their mini boss.

Which means that there is likely going to be an exit in this cave!

Right as I am about to attempt to freeze the raptors from here, a notification appears in the corner of my interface.

System Notification

Congratulations! Your skill Stealth has reached Tier 3 - Level 3!

The skill Stealth decreases the sound of your breathing and footsteps by an extra 3%.

My eyes widen in surprise before I shake my head and focus on the raptors as I snake a few streams of ice element through the clearing towards them.

Before they can reach them, the wind within the jungle suddenly shifts and begins to blow towards them from my position.

Seriously?!

All of the raptors at the edge of the cave raise their heads and begin to sniff before turning straight towards me while screeching.

“Damn it!” I curse before forcing the ice element streams to bolt as quickly as possible towards the raptors to shut them up, but it’s too late as over a dozen more raptors begin to spill out of the cave towards me.

The streams all freeze several of the raptors solid before I jump out of the foliage and draw my sword while spreading the claws on my other hand as over a dozen raptors quickly sprint across the clearing towards me.

I swipe my claw in front of me, sending out five thin blades of ice in the form of arcs at the raptors, cutting two of them up a little bit before the first raptor reaches me and I roll out of the way to dodge its leap.

Before the raptor can regain its balance, I allow my ice element to begin spilling out of me again as it begins to frost over everything in my immediate area before I raise my hand and push part of the icy mist towards the raptor to freeze it in a thin layer of ice as I sense another raptor approach me from behind.

I duck right as the raptor flies straight past me, just narrowly missing pinning me to the ground before I reach forwards and grab its leg with my own claw while leaking ice element directly onto it as I try to crush its leg.

The thing cries out in pain just before another two raptors arrive, only for everything to suddenly pause as another loud roar echoes from the cave.

And here comes the mini boss.