Time went by and eventually, it was officially time for our group to take the night shift. By then, I had already killed eight silver wolves, Old Wu took down five while Roberto killed seven. They quickly caught up to my killing rate; they had an easier time than me as they were using blades.

On the other side of the defensive formation, Jake’s group killed a total of forty wolves. Their side faced more silver wolves and while it was more dangerous, it was also more rewarding. They quickly adopted our style of fighting, making use of the defensive formation.

I envied their position; after all, the main benefits one could obtain from this task was the mana stones and the equipment sold by Stannis. Nevertheless, I did not fight with them over such a small detail. I knew their stamina was running out. I had a short recovery nap that was enough to keep me going but they did not.

Jake approached us once again after clearing his wave of wolves. “It is time. Should you go and wake up Anjali?”

“Sure. Will you be going to rest, or will you continue to defend your side?” I asked curiously.

“I will continue to fight but I think that Marie is already exhausted. James is injured and needs your help. As for Lovin, he has become rather cold and refuses to communicate.”

“Right.” I internally rolled my eyes but chose not to comment on his team. I followed him to his side and approached James.

“Hey, I heard that you have been injured.” I saw the bite marks on his arms. Since he fought like a brawler, he was exposed to a lot more danger than others, especially since he did not have any defensive piece of equipment.

“Please.” He raised his arms and looked at me expectantly.

I paused for a moment, staring at his injured arms blankly. “I can heal you. But it will cost you one corpse.”

“What?” James froze in place, taken by surprise. Then, his expression darkened. He was not the only one as his teammates were also furious by my actions.

“Stop being an asshole! You refused to heal me earlier because I was not critically injured. That is fine but now, James is suffering!” Marie interjected furiously.

‘As I expected. Now I am being labelled as the greedy evil teammate. However, I cannot back down right now. The situation has changed, you are no longer completely broke and can use the corpses you gathered.’

I shrugged my shoulders. “Fine. Then, take good care of your injuries. I am not healing you for free. You are not expecting me to use my mana for nothing? Your group divides your loot equally among your members. In that case, am I not also helping you? Should I not be eligible to obtain a portion of the loot? I am not even asking for a lot, just one corpse. I am not moving on my decision. The choice is yours.”

I gave them an ultimatum and took a step back. Whether or not he would agree was up to him. I received their hateful stare but completely disregarded them. Only Lovin has not suffered from any harm because of his bow; the rest have all suffered from varying degrees of injuries.

“Alex. We are supposed to work as a team. Don’t take advantage of the fact that you are the only one with the Healing element.” Jake warned me cautiously. He remained calm but was clearly unhappy.

“As I said, the choice is yours.” I ignore his remark. The price of one corpse for a full heal was already being generous. According to the standards of the upper floor, it generally costs a hunter one-fifth of his harvest to be fully healed.

Without a word, I walked back to my pile of corpses and resumed dismantling them. I ignored the hostile look of Jake’s group and the hesitant gaze of my teammates. I could not care less about their thoughts; I was already being a nice person.

After a while, I heard a few footsteps. I looked up and saw Marie and James, both dragging a silver wolf corpse. I nodded silently and got to work, ignoring their grunts and resentful glare. Only Jake chose to suppress his injuries; he did not need my Heal anyway, he has only been scratched a few times.

“I’m done. Since you two are going back to rest, please wake up Anjali.”

“Hmmp. You better defend the camp properly!” Marie exclaimed angrily and left without further ado.

I turned my attention toward Jake and Lovin. “Are you two going to keep fighting?”

“Yes.”

“Then, will it be alright if we switch sides? You only have two people while we have four and this side has a lot more wolves. It is better not to take risks, right?” I said as politely as possible. Now that the opportunity presented itself, I would naturally not let go of the best side of the camp.

Jake and Lovin both hesitated. After all, even they could see how this side was more profitable but, in the end, they were forced to relinquish this position. They had no valid argument as they would be putting the whole camp at risk.

Anjali soon joined my group. She was unhappy that we left her to sleep and grumbled for a while. Her whip proved to be a deadly weapon against the silver wolves, especially as she hid behind the defensive formation. I was surprised by her fluid movements and skills. She did not look physically strong, but each swing of her whip was accompanied by a loud “woosh”. At such a speed, the whip was even sharper than Old Wu’s saber. Very quickly, she stacked up her own pile of corpses.

The night went on as wave after wave of silver wolves attacked the camp. Contrary to one’s expectations, the difficulty of each wave remained more or less the same. There was no other special monster that appeared and even as the first ray of light appeared in the distance, the last wave of silver wolves that attacked remained identical to the others.

After a long night, I have managed to collect a total of twenty-nine corpses, four of which came from me using my Heal spell. I was very happy with the outcome. Everyone in my group had collected at least twenty corpses; nobody slacked off.

As for Jake and Lovin, it seemed that they continued to share their kills and equally distributed thirty new corpses, adding their total to twenty-five corpses.

The sun rose and the merchants emerged from their tents. Everyone was exhausted, especially Jake and Lovin who have had a sleepless night.

Stannis laughed heartily. “Thank you, adventurers. We can now safely resume our journey to the capital.”

[Task 10 completed. A door will now open to guide you to the next room]

Upon hearing the voice of the tower, my teammates all let out a sigh of relief. The battle was over.

“I see that you have all collected a good number of corpses. I will gladly purchase them from you. Furthermore, I will also give you an additional mana stone for each corpse as your reward.” Stannis declared.

Jake went to the tent to wake up James and Marie. Then, one by one, we counted our corpses.

I exchanged everything for 116 low-quality mana stones. Each corpse was worth three mana stones and with the additional bonus offered by Stannis I obtained four stones for each one. Furthermore, since I already dismantled the large majority of corpses, the merchants did not charge me any additional fee.

Then, it was shopping time. Stannis naturally would not be so generous without reason; he was already planning to take back every single stone he gave us. He showcased various pieces of equipment and most of them ended up being bought by my teammates who have been wearing nothing but the starting clothes until now.

As for me, I quietly purchased leather gloves, a new pair of pants, and boots for the low cost of 36 mana stones. It was neither cheap nor expensive, and this was all I needed for now. It was best to keep the mana stones and use them to improve my mana.

I asked Stannis about magical items such as storage rings and transportation crystals. Unfortunately, the merchant did not have any in stock on him.

‘80 mana stones. It should be enough for me to increase my mana up to eight times the cost of the Heal spell’

I waited for my team to finish their purchases. Aside from Jake who kept a close eye on me and saved a good portion of his mana stones, the rest all used up most of their wealth and were now equipped from head to toe.

“Shall we move on to the next stage?” Jake took the lead and pointed at the magical door that appeared at the edge of the clearing.

“Sure.”

One by one, we walked through the door, ready to face the challenges waiting in the next room.

I smiled to myself. ‘This is where things will get interesting. It is easy to work together in small groups but when more than a hundred people are involved, conflicts are bound to happen.’