Rose and Sarah weren’t fast on their feet, so, they accepted to stay on Silver’s back without any fuss. Besides, Silver didn’t have much space to run with so many skeletons around, and because of it, they could use their skills and offer support without any problems. Before I could even search for the mutant lizards, the kids’ toys began to attack the skeletons. Those bag of bones started to fell on the ground in pieces each time a projectile hit them and explode.

‘It seems they also changed their ammo while I wasn’t looking, or perhaps Claire made them change the ammo with the skeletons in mind.’

Although their firepower and precision were great, their teamwork was lacking without Claire or me giving orders to the kids. They couldn’t hear me, and Claire was probably meditating, so things wouldn’t be so simple. But I signalized using my hands to make them hit different targets, giving priority to skeleton wizards and archers.

To my surprise, after I signalized to the kids, things got a lot easier. Harry and Silver were fighting the normal skeletons, while Rose, Sarah, and the kids’ toys were attacking the other skeletons. I thought that I would have to offer them some support, but Sarah water balls were quickly hitting the skeletons wizards and the skeletons archers making them unable to attack. She didn’t cause any damage, but she was giving more than enough time to the others.

To destroy the skeletons, Rose modified her glaives and made them thicker. She now could control five objects, and each second one was skeleton was being destroyed thanks to her. While Silver could smash the skeletons with his weight, Harry was blocking the skeletons which ignored Silver. He couldn’t exactly kill the skeletons fast like Rose and the kids, but he was able to stop the Skeletons quickly. If one monster tried to ignore him, Harry used the weight of his shield to stop the monsters’ advance and even knock them down. Even without a skill, he could make the monsters ignore his allies and focus on him in an instant.

Looking at that battlefield, I realized that I wasn’t needed there, I was just obtaining orbs and coins without doing anything. Then I remembered Ann’s words.

“You are pathetic compared to them.”

Although she wasn’t wrong, I wasn’t relying on them. Little by little, I was obtaining the strength that I wanted. After a month or two, I was sure that I would destroy these skeletons without having to worry about my MP. I got rid of those thoughts because some guest had arrived: mutant hyenas.

Although those creatures seemed to be monsters which would just attack without thinking, they tried to surround us while using the skill dark mist to make us unable to see them or the other monsters attacks. They only tried, because as soon as I saw the dark mist leaving their bodies, I decided to go all out. I teleported near each one of them and killed them using the vampire hunter’s crossbow, I spent a lot of MP, but I didn’t have much choice, they were fast, and I couldn’t give them time to expand that dark mist. I would be okay with my senses and the radar, but the others would be unable to attack.

While I was teleporting to kill the hyenas, I felt the presence of a single mutant lizard nearby. And to avoid any problems, I decided to kill it using one ice arrow; it was easy to aim with the magic arrows after all. The creature fell on the floor without doing anything.

“Man, I wish I could learn that skill,” Harry said, stopping the advance of the skeletons and giving Silver the chance to smash them easily. “It’s amazing to be able to move around instantly.”

“Then, use the statue and learn the skill.”

“I wish I had the evolution coins to do it,” Harry said. “That skill costs five million evolution coins.”

That surprised me a lot; it seemed that I had been luckier than I thought. To learn that skill, a person had to pay the price, which was enough to revive five people. I thought the crazier thing we would be able to do would be to revive the dead. But I was wrong, the things we could do using evolution coins were endless.

Harry’s words made me understand how narrow-minded I had been. In the beginning, I tried to be more creative to learn useful skills, but my way of thinking was just too simplistic. I had to be crazy creative to learn even more crazy skills. For example, while I could teleport around to put myself in a good position to attack, there had to be another way to do something similar with a less expensive skill, like flying in the skies. And I knew a person who could do something similar.

“What is it?” Rose asked after she noticed that I was looking at her.

“Can you fly?”

“I can…” Rose answered.

“You can!?” Harry asked, astonished.

“For a few minutes,” Rose added.

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Harry asked. “This is amazing!”

“Because you are noisy and I knew you would make a fuss,” Rose sighed. “Stay focused on the monsters.”

Rose probably didn’t make this information public because it wasn’t all that efficient. She could move around any object and even her own body, but to move heavier things, she would have to spend more MP. That was why she could only fly for a few minutes, even though that by itself was already amazing. In any case, we could probably learn the skill to fly, and that skill would be more efficient. Something like that would be great in Claire’s or Rose’s hands.

For now, I couldn’t think of any skill more amazing the teleport and the elemental magic arrow, but that didn’t mean that I had to give up. I had to keep using my brain to think of new interesting skills, and I also had to fight more, the monsters were natural fighters, and they could give me some inspiration.

After a few hours destroying many skeletons and a few monsters around the hotel, we decided to return. I was satisfied with the result of that hunt, all of us had broken our limits one time, and I also broke my mental limit for the first time, although I didn’t notice any changes. Besides, it was already late, and the kids had to sleep. I could hunt with Silver, but I decided to leave him hunting alone. I had to meditate and increase my MP; it was too unpleasant to ignore the skeletons only because I would run out of MP fast.

It seemed that I wasn’t the only one who understood the potential the things we could learn using the statue, as soon as we returned to the hotel, Harry run toward the statue. He looked pretty serious for a few moments, but then he grinned.

“What’s wrong with you all of a sudden?” Rose asked a bit annoyed by Harry’s behavior.

“It’s nothing,” Harry answered. “It’s just that I confirmed that I can learn a certain skill.”

“Which skill?” Sarah asked.

“When I learn, I will show you guys.” Harry smiled. “You guys will be astonished, although it will take some time until I can obtain the evolution coins.”

I was a bit curious since Harry was a creative guy, but since he didn’t tell what that skill was, I just left them behind and went to my room. Although it was very late, it seemed the kids didn’t have enough fun exploding skeletons. They wanted more, but Claire put them to sleep in just ten minutes, even without using her iron fists. Without wasting time with small talk, she resumed her meditation. I thought that I was focused guy, but I was light-years behind Claire in that aspect. She rarely left the kids’ side, and she used every single moment of her spare time to get stronger.

I wanted to meditate too, but I decided to do that later when I noticed the leaf of the spiritual plant that I put in a vase had grown and now was identical of the other spiritual plant. It was good news, but that was just the beginning because that new plant already had a new leaf ready to be used.

I headed toward the lobby and created twenty vases, and I planted a new leaf one each one of them. Thanks to my search in the last few days, I had ten red spiritual plants, four blue spiritual plants, and six green spiritual plants, which could recover my STA. I could create more of them, but we didn’t have much free space to put so many vases. Besides, once I share that information with the other survivors, they would also cultivate their own plants.

‘We have to expand our base if we want to take advantage of this.’

That was our best option, but we didn’t know if we would have time to expand our base. Something would happen in less than fifty days, and we had no idea what would that be. However, we wouldn’t lose anything by cultivating those plants; it wasn’t like all the survivors would spend all day hunting.

After I shared that information with the other survivors, they began to cultivate their own plants. For those who didn’t have enough evolution coins to learn the skill meditation, the plants were the best option. So, for the next two days, the survivors hunted and shared all the space available to cultivate those plants.

Then finally the day we would challenge the tower again arrived, Sandra to be back to normal. But she was much less talkative than usual.

“Today only the special team and twenty survivors will go to the tower,” Sandra declared. “Only our best front liners and our best magic attackers will participate, the rest of you should take turns using the truck. Don’t try to use the jeeps when the mutant lizards can explode them before they could even be seen.”

She didn’t look much motivated, but her brain was working like always, if we take fewer survivors, we won’t suffer many losses, although we didn’t know if that number would be enough to complete the second challenge. Anyway, the truck was powerful enough to destroy the mutant lizards and the skeletons. The ants wouldn’t be able to destroy the trucks’ armor, and the evolved mutant worm wouldn’t be able to eat the whole vehicle. The survivors wouldn’t be able to obtain real combat experience, but you can’t always have what you want.

The survivors who Sandra chose also participated in the first challenge; those were physically and mentally stronger. They didn’t hesitate while moving toward the skeletons and they didn’t panic when the mutant ants appeared right below them. Although those survivors didn’t have useful skills like the members of the special team, they wouldn’t be shaken by the challenges. At least that was what Rose said.

I only agreed with that opinion when we finally found the second evolved mutant worm. Thanks to the skill earth manipulation, the fucking beast could move around without making any sound. When I noticed the presence of the creature, it was already too late.

Suddenly, the earth trembled a hole appeared right below two members of our front line. They didn’t have time to react, and they got swallowed by the colossal earthworm. The monster broke our formation, but soon the other tanks surrounded the beast and began to attack.

“Ethan!” Rose shouted, using her telekinesis to keep the monster's mouth open.

I nodded, and then I teleported to above the beast's mouth. Fortunately, I had been fast enough, and I could see the two survivors slowly slipping down the beast’s throat. I couldn’t attack because they were blocking the path, so I just touched them.

“Wow, this place stinks.”

I teleported back, and then I felt that familiar wave of dizziness, but soon I recovered and began to attack the beast too. After just ten seconds, the creature died. But that didn’t surprise me; those thirty were our most powerful survivors, after all.

Those two survivors thanked me, but they showed big smiles when they thanked Rose. Well, that was to be expected, she used a lot of her MP to stop that thing's mouth. She used so much that we had to stop because she couldn’t walk thanks to the dizziness.

After ten minutes we reached the tower, and without saying any word, Sandra nodded, giving us the signal to enter the tower. Again, everyone disappeared, and I saw myself in an empty dark place. My MP and STA weren't regenerating, but I felt like I was inside the hotel.

‘No team battles again, huh. Well, that works better for me.’

“Welcome survivors, to the doomsday tower's second challenge.”

“What is the second challenge?”

“To complete the second challenge, you have to defeat yourself three times. Do you wish to start the second challenge?”

What?”

Another crazy event was about to start, and I had a bad feeling about it.