--Three Months Later--

And here comes the magnificent Mark! Once again I laid bare my awesomeness as I extracted those wonderful money-makers out of the ground. It was a beautiful thing, really. I just pluck 'em out, boom, I make bank.

This reminds me of past video games so much. Reliving those days, except in reality, has really made me a happy man. Especially when I make a bunch of money off it. Not only that, but the precious XP! The monsters out here in the woodlands are delicious. Although they were difficult at first and I basically leached off Plouris, I eventually managed to clear them out on my own.

At the beginning, I thought this stuff was impossible. It was so difficult to harvest ores and plants correctly. I had to level up the mining and harvesting skills up to level five just to be able to get one that wasn't poor quality. I was having quite a hard time back then. But now, all that is done and past. And, let me tell you, a lot has happened.

First of all, I achieved level forty in both mining and harvesting, which allows me to extract medium quality resources. The quality goes from, lowest to highest: Poor, low, medium, high, top. It took me a while but I finally managed to get medium quality resources. Now, these things sell for way more than low quality. The price difference is about four times. The best low quality resource is about 80 stones for a bundle of ten. Medium quality would be about 320 stones. That's just for Alchemy. For Weapon vendors, oh man...even better. Mining is more difficult anyway.

I've been making close to a thousand stones per day for the past two weeks on resources alone. That does include the few extras I saved to sell for higher prices at a different vendor. Now, I eventually got the Alchemy skill and I also became Dat's real apprentice. Meaning that I learned weapon forging. Both skills are incredibly difficult but the payoff is amazing.

Alchemy increases my intelligence, because of the many different formulas and what-not, and health, which comes from continually breathing in the aromas of health and other beneficial potions. The passive increase wasn't that large but it was still appreciated. Forging increases strength and endurance, which are both obvious. I created many potions and weapons. At the beginning, almost all of them weren't sell-able unfortunately. However, I eventually leveled both skills up to 25 which was the borderline of sell-able products. I felt like these skills were a bit too difficult but, nonetheless, I still did them.

Second of all, due to farming monsters as well, my own level has risen to 63. Awesome, right? That's only because most of the monsters around my area are in the 60s to 70s level-wise. I noticed that, with each level up, the amount of XP I need increases more and more stupidly. For example, I needed about 20,000 XP to get to level 62. I needed 32,000 XP to get to level 63. Now, I only get about 300 XP from the monsters below level 70. I don't even have that much time to kill a lot when I'm harvesting resources, so the XP requirement are just getting ridiculous. What the heck would it be when I'm at level 100?

Third of all, this might be the most incredible thing of all, but I actually found people that belong to my species! The Apis species! Also, all of them have the Gamer ability! However, I'm the only one that's a Unique Apis. I discovered the usefulness of such a title when I found my first fellow Gamer. A blue window popped up signifying that he was in the vicinity, and that he was also alerted to my presence. That thing was called Leader of Gamers, which allows me to find my own kind. It's the extra thing that comes with being a Unique Apis.

Naturally, I confronted my fellow Gamer. They were just as confused as I was at the time. Finding someone else that has the Gamer ability? What kinda luck is that? However, I could tell how guarded the person was. It was a he, by the way. Anyway, the dude was practically terrified that I found him. He's one of those people that's, you know, a bit withdrawn from public? Now, I don't have that problem, primarily because I worked in a fast food restaurant before and, well, that takes good social skills. But this guy...I could tell he wasn't really all there sometimes. Either that or he likes to think rather than talk. Either way, I eventually got him to calm down.

This was like finding my children! I understood what a Unique Apis was at that moment. I was a leader to my people! Wherever they were! Hopefully not all of them are withdrawn from society!

Anyway, that's basically what that was about. I was able to invite him to my "guild"; I guess you could call it that. I'd rather call it a family instead, because the others that I found were all normal Apis while I was a Unique Apis. Of course, I used the first guy to my advantage to recruit the others. I did that to show that I wasn't some tyrant that took advantage of my people. Well, I of course did take advantage of them. But! I didn't do it in a bad way. I did my duty as the leader of a people! I needed to guide my people along...I'm getting too into character here.

Basically, I formed a group called the Family of Gamers. FOG for short. Oooo, sounds spooky, right? Well, we're all nice people that are just about helping each other out. FOG had about fourteen members by the time I reached level 63. Of course, we mainly only help fellow members out. When I reached level 50, I was capable of creating a guild. I didn't make one until I encountered the first Apis aside from me. Of course, the name of the guild is FOG. The Guild allows all the members to share XP, although it's only .5% of the total XP gained from killing a monster. Still, if everyone's killing monsters everywhere, the XP adds up. Also, only a Gamer that is within 20 levels of someone gets shared XP from that person. Unfortunately, us Gamers aren't incredibly OP.

I was busy mining some ore I found as I traveled along a path I never took before. I didn't need Plouris's help anymore because I'm able to defend myself now. Also, Dat gave me a defensive treasure he crafted which blocks one attack up to a Bronze S rank. That's pretty amazing if you ask me.

I was fully focused on extracting the fragile ore from the vague outline of rock. These higher quality materials are always so difficult to obtain. Honestly, it would so much easier if they didn't need such accurate strikes to the rock around them. It's such a nuisance.

Suddenly, I heard light footsteps approach me from behind. I turned my head just to see a giant mutant praying-mantis. It was more of a lizard-spider-mantis because of its like eight legs, four scythe-arms, and scaly skin. It was fucking terrifying. However, I've encountered these things before. This one was only level 57 so I have a bit of an advantage over it, as long as I don't mess around.

I jumped out the way of one of its arms. The scythe sliced straight into the rock, destroying the precious ore along with it.

"What the fuck, dude."

I swore out loud involuntarily, mostly because I had spent a good ten minutes on that one spot. The thing easily slid its arm out of the rock and turned toward me. It lifted two of its arms and slammed them together. A weird ringing sound spread throughout the entire area for who knows how far. I know exactly what that means.

Instantly, I could hear the sounds of tens of footsteps in the surroundings. Monster mantises started to appear everywhere; they ran over the small hills of rock and rushed past the trees to surround me. There were about twenty of them all around me, staring at me with those strange, beady eyes. It was a bit disconcerting, because I honestly didn't expect to ambushed by twenty-or-so monster mantises.

~~~

-Original POV-

Kyte and the others flew through the air with increased speed. He could see the outline of a gigantic city. It was at least fix times larger than his home city, and there was a huge woodland area to the right of it. The entire expanse which led to the Core was of course not desert plains. There were varying plains that had no vegetation aside from grass, then there were areas that had denser vegetation. The plants near the train track were, of course, kept at a distance.

They had been traveling for two entire weeks. The train was obviously much faster than Kyte's flying speed. Although he was carrying multiple people along with him, even if he was by himself he would still be slower than the train. However, it would probably only take a few more hours until they reached the city walls.

Along the way, all of the sealed Gifted had gone through the unsealing process. Unfortunately, not all of them succeeded. About a third failed at unsealing their memories, and instead of keeping them, Kyte killed them. He already had a few test subjects and carrying too many insane Gifted with him would arouse even more suspicion than he would already gather.

After resting for about an hour, Kyte lifted the others into the air once again and set off for the final stretch of the journey. He was excited about the new possibilities that would present themselves to him, as well as reuniting with the others. He also wanted to find out what Mark was up to since he left. Kyte wondered if Mark had already died somewhere without him knowing.

As Kyte flew closer to the walls, the woodlands were quite close. He was able to see the entire perimeter of the woodlands because of how high he was in the sky. The plain was about the size of a normal city itself, with several large pockets of highly dense vegetation. There was even a small lake near the largest density of plants which was most likely an oasis to someone that ran out of water.

After flying for another ten minutes, the one thing Kyte would not expect to happen, happened. A surge of Spiritual energy blasted outward, passing through Kyte and the others, though Kyte was the only one capable of detecting it. Kyte turned his head to look down at the right, inside the woodland. Kyte instantly recognized that Spiritual signature, which came from a Signal Sphere.

That...has to be Mark, right? Did he see me or something? I wonder how long it's been in the outside world...

"Everyone, I'm gonna make a detour down there. I found someone that I was acquainted with before we left on the train." Kyte stated.

The others were unable to refuse; otherwise, Kyte would probably just drop them all to the ground. None of them thought he wouldn't do that.

Kyte quickly turned and flew directly toward the source of the signal. It came from a denser area that had a small rocky hill. Kyte spread out his Spirit energy to encompass the entire area for a whole mile. He discovered Mark with a strange sword in his hands as he stood in the middle of an encirclement of monsters. Kyte was slightly confused at the lizard-spider-mantises, but he's seen other monsters. Heck, he encountered a 30,000 year old spirit thing at the bottom of lake. Those monster mantises didn't really surprise him.

What did surprise him is the fact that Mark got himself surrounded...again. Actually, it's more accurate to say that Kyte almost expected something like that to happen. He was more surprised to even find Mark in the first place.

Kyte set the others down in a safer area and kept his Spirit energy spread out. If any monsters approached the group, Kyte would know. After that, Kyte flew above the area where Mark was and stared down at him with amusement.

"Hey, why'd you get surrounded again?" Kyte said.

"...WHAT?! You actually appeared?! Wha-. how-. why?!" Mark, full of disbelief, looked up at Kyte.

"Yea, I came. You crushed the sphere, so I naturally had to come. Although I did technically arrive..."

"What was that last part-Guh!"

Kyte watched as Mark defended himself again the monsters. He would parry the scythes as they slashed toward him and then create an invisible spear that he launched toward them. Kyte instantly recognized the invisible spear to be created by world energy, which should be named universe energy now. He watched the spear pierce into the mantis's torso and fly out the other side. However, at that moment, two scythes swiped through the air toward Mark's back.

Mark twisted around and successfully parried the first one and barely blocked the second. Kyte heard a small crunch as the second scythe slammed into Mark's sword, making Mark's face contort with pain. A small vial appeared with a light green liquid inside which Mark instantly drank. The pain in his face immediately subsided and mark created two invisible spears which he threw toward the two monsters that attacked him.

"Aren't you going to help me?!" Mark yelled.

"I will if you need it. Besides, it looks like you're doing perfectly fine as you are?"

"You are such an asshole, dude."

"Not the first time I've heard that."

The remaining mantises seemed enraged by Mark killing their brethren, so they all attacked at the same time. Seeing this, Mark's face instantly paled because he knew there was no way he could block all thirteen of them at once. Kyte looked down at the scene with a faint smile upon his lips.

Awwww yis. I was planning on writing a few more chapters about the creation of FOG but that can be saved for another time. And yes, there are other Gamers. However, Mark is the only Unique Apis. Mark is also the only one that has the Absorption ability, which went along with his race as the Unique Apis. The shared XP is only for monsters by the way.

Also, don't forget to check out my new story! I released the 2nd chapter today! Here's the link: Link!

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.