Preparing the things that they would need to camp in the wild, he saw that the barracks and the supplies were enough.

After making sure that everything was ready, they left the town. Treading toward the direction that the mission gave, they began to look at the forest for clues of the forest troll.

They didn’t know what it looked like, after all, there were not many people that got an expert mission and left alive, many people died trying to advance in tier, and mos groups that did it had many people in it, at least a few dozens.

They were being a big insensate to try this kind of mission with only three people, but they had the confidence that they could do it.

They walked through the forest during the whole morning and afternoon, without finding any monsters.

The night was getting closer, and the air was getting heavier.

Seeing the approach of the darkness, they made camp and lit a bonfire.

The night was quiet, there was only the sound of the insects in the forest. They rested and fortunately didn’t suffer any attack during the night.

Walking around in the morning around the forest, they had to redouble their attention. there was a mist surrounding the forest, and the animals were lurking in there.

After a few combats against weak monsters and some animals, they finally encountered something.

“Stop” Said Bryan while analyzing with his arm.

He could sense that almost 200 meters in front of them, there was a huge vitality energy. it was so big that it looked almost like a sun.

“Let’s get ready, I think we have found our target.”

Both Samuel and Jess nodded their heads and agreed.

Bryan grabbed his spear and circulated the energy only on the inside to not alert the creature, he went forward while both Samuel and Jess went with him.

Moving for a bit, he could see the creature, it was a humanoid monster, full of green roots around its body, and it was carrying a huge wooden mace.

He stepped forward and attacked the creature with his spear on its right foot.

“Slash”

His spear only left a shallow cut on the creature's skin and made it awaken.

When the forest troll opened its eyes, it was as if the nature around them was raging.

The creature ignored the wound on its foot and swung its mace in Bryan's direction.

Seeing the attack come, Bryan activated the Cloud walker skill and stepped backward.

He barely evaded the mace, but the trees that were on its way suffered from the attack.

“BOOMMM“

It was as if the earth had crumbled. There was a ten meters gash on the direction where the troll swung its mace. The trees and the ground were devastated.

Both Bryan and Samuel made scared faces. Jess was still a distance from there to offer support and couldn’t be seen.

Even after seeing the creature’s power, Bryan concentrated his energy on his spear according to how he practiced to advance its mastery, coated it with lightning and attacked.

The troll swung its mace in Bryan direction again, He rolled on the ground and let the mace pass over him. He arrived at its foot again and this time delivered a powerful attack.

this time, the troll roared in pain, there was a huge gash on its leg, almost severing its foot away. but the monster didn’t stop and continued to fight, it swung it’s left fist to Bryan. He was surprised by its attack and couldn’t react in time.

Just as the attack was arriving, Samuel appeared in front of Bryan and received the attack in full. Samuel flexed his knees and angled his shield, the fist arrived.

Samuel successfully averted the attack and backed away with Bryan.

They looked at the monster's foot and saw that it was already regenerating at a monstrous speed.

just as the regeneration was beginning to pick up speed, an arrow came out of nowhere and frozen the wound, stopping the bleeding but also stopping the regeneration.

Picking on this way, the three continued to fight the monster. it’s power was incredible, the regeneration was out of this world, but it was alone in the end, and couldn’t fight against three people.

after 2 long hours of arduous grinding, Bryan was almost falling on the ground from exhaustion. Although he didn’t suffer any wounds due to the monster's slow speed and good teamwork, it was still a difficult target to have.

They laughed and commemorated for defeating the troll. they looked at the mission page and saw that it was completed.

They turned back toward the city direction and proceeded there.

****

Before arriving at the town, they felt something huge happening. A blue screen appeared in front of them.

The system has deemed its assistance with food, clothes and special items irrelevant. from now on, this world citizens won't receive more assistance in this way. There will also be a competition in the cities to define the leader worth of leading it.

This announcement came a lightning bolt falling from a clear sky. although changes were awaited, but everyone thought that they would take longer.

They quickly proceeded toward the city to see how the situation was going.

Arriving in front of the city hall, they saw a multitude of people there, waiting for an announcement coming from the elder council.

Soon after, the six elders arrived and elder Peter gestured with his arm to make the crowd calm down.

Bryan was surprised by the looks of the man, he was much, much younger now. he looked around 35 years instead of an old man. and the elders that were around him looked much younger as well. It seemed that the elders also received benefits for being left behind, he could feel a powerful cultivation of the mist realm coming from them.

“As you all have seen, we have received a message from the system. Now that the balance has once again been established, the system will hold some kind of competition to see who will hold the power over the city.” Said Peter calmly.

“What about our houses?” Asked someone in the crowd.

“About that, there is still no answer. All that we know is that the change is coming to everyone, no matter if you are young or old anymore. That’s it for today, we only ask our citizens to maintain order in the city and to not cause mayhem. after all, the missions to guard the city are still available.”

After saying this, Peter turned around and left the place together with the rest of the council.

Bryan found it strange that they were acting this way, Peter was acting to quietly for a man that was about to lose his power. Bryan ignored this and proceeded to his apartment together with Jess to relax after the long trip.

Arriving there, Jess took a shower with Bryan and they laid on the bed to rest.

“What do you think about all these changes Jess? It’s almost as if the system is orchestrating something and want us to play in its hands.” Asked Bryan with furrowed brows. This situation was truly worrying about him. It was almost as if the system was pushing people against each other.

“Do not worry about it, all we have to do is to get more and more powerful. we are already one of the most powerful teams in the city, if not the most powerful. Power can safeguard everything honey.” Said Jess with a powerful glint in her eyes. She understood since the day that her parents died that only personal power could keep them safe.

“You’re right. We have to get even more powerful.” Bryan kissed her and went toward the roof to train his spear.

Arriving there, he encountered Lasair training with her spear with flames around her.

“Hey, still want to train?” Asked Bryan to her.

Instead of answering, she only pointed her spear at him and said for him to come.

Bryan readied his spear and began to train with her.

*****

The days began to pass in the city, Bryan, Samuel, and Jess began to train even harder than before, even Samuel’s family was training or cultivating food around the city with the farmers. A new profession that showed necessary after the system stopped providing food.

They were getting more and more powerful, the tree of them trained, accomplished missions that were way harder than other teams and trained in the training hall with good trainers and spend many hours there per day.

The tension in the city was growing by the day, people were always speaking quietly on the streets, and many factions were forming by what they learned during the last few days.

These factions were focused on making missions to becoming stronger, they made expert ranked missions to earn more points, but because many people were doing it, the points earned were few.

Bryan and his crew proceeded with their training and missions. Eventually, Bryan invited Lasair to come to their team, but apparently, she was a high ranked person in one of the biggest factions of the city, named the “Flame Phoenix”.

Three months had now passed since the announcement from the system, and Bryan looked at his status.

Name:

Bryan Fulgur

Race:

Human

Strength:

117

Agility:

141

Intelligence:

95

Wisdom:

91

Endurance:

113

Vitality:

111

Skills

Name

Level/Tier

Spear mastery

98/Master

Lightning body

53/Expert

Cloud walker

95/Novice

Perks

Name

Description

Bright mind

You have the ability to recall and process information quickly. The informations that you see may be remembered easily.

Points

7.415.634

He now had advanced almost all of his attributes near 100 points or more. all his skills had advanced pretty well. although the element skills were harder to train, they still were progressing.

He had now amassed a huge quantity of points with the intent to buy an inheritance weapon that had only one unit on the system market.

He was now finally feeling ready to advance against what was arriving.