Mathew hurled yet another [Mana Bolt] at the corrupted looking beasts. Given how much effort it took to kill the things, Mathew guessed the creatures were all Beginner rank. No more than level twelve or thirteen.

With everyone’s efforts, they’ve done well to survive the first hour. Nobody had suffered any major injuries thus far.

At this point, Mathew has the exact mana needed to slay a single monster with his spell. He didn’t dare use anymore, nor infuse any Axioms.

He wasn’t at full from doing the panther challenge dungeon earlier the same day. Mathew only relied upon his Apprentice ranked spell. The entire time he would throw a bolt over the heads of two of the warriors and arc it down to help thin out the hoard around him.

And a hoard it was. The constant sounds of wimps and wines of the beasts being slain filled the air endlessly. The smell of blood was the only thing that kept the smell of unwashed bodies from being the main smell.

Already Mathew was thankful for his lumination ritual. He couldn’t fathom fighting the creatures in the dark. Then again, if he was alone, he would be wanting the darkness to help hide him.

Every few seconds, Mathew would kill another creature. He did note that none of them gave any Universal Currency.

“Anyone here getting any UC from these things?” Mathew asked the group.

A few ‘no’s filled the air in response. Kris shouted back, “Why are you even looking at your menu in the first place?”

“Because I wanted to see how much UC I was going to get from this. That’s when I noticed I was getting none. It’s extremely odd. Why would everything else thus far in this World Dungeon, but not these specific creatures?”

Kris didn’t respond for a moment, cleaving through two panthers and a wolf all at once. “I agree it’s odd. Yet the boxes did say there were no rewards other than surviving.”

“That’s a fair point. Also, you do know it’s not just boxes. The System isn’t a box.” Mathew said, and threw another bolt, killing a boar at the edge of his ritual’s light.

“Are you really going to lecture us now? Of all times? Get your head in the fight, Valrix!”

Mathew huffed, but put his entire focus on the battle. The horde was seemingly unending. Mathew found themselves lucky. There were never too many attacking at once to overwhelm them. At least, thus far.

Around the two hour mark, Jeffery had his moment to shine. Two of the fighters were tired, and swapped to let Jeffery tank the entire lane by himself with Agnox.

Neither of them had any problems. Jeffery spent his time jumping infront of enemies, while Agnox swooped downward to slice open the beasts. Other times he threw a simple bolt of fire. Either way, nothing survived more than an attack from both of them.

Mathew didn’t need to help them out very often. Once people started to get tired, Mathew realized he wasn’t, nor was Kirs. At this point Mathew offered to hold one of the lines alone.

“Are you crazy? A mage can’t defend against that many enemies.”

“There’s never been more than five at a time for any side. I can kill that many before they get too close. The downside is I can only do it for half an hour, maybe a full hour, we will see.”

Kris just looked at Mathew. “If you can hold a line by yourself for an hour, then I owe you a drink afterwards.”

Mathew gave him a smirk. “If that’s only one hour, what do I get for the entire night?”

Kris laughed at that before turning back to the next wave of enemies. He continued to cleave through bodies with his giant sword.

Mathew found himself slightly jealous of Kris’s technique. Kris moved as if he fought with a sword his entire life. Such a huge weapon is the prime reason Kris was full of muscles.

Compared to himself, Mathew’s own body was toned, but not muscular. Both thanks to his life the past few months, and just how he lived before The System. Yet he no longer had fat on his body. Ranking up one's body, also removed imperfections such as fat. Sadly, his scars remained.

A spear appeared in Mathew’s hands. “No better time than the present to work on this damn Skill. I’m so killing that shadow Goddess for taking away what would have been an Apprentice ranked Skill from me.”

The first beast was a boar. Mathew thrusted forward, and impaled it through its side. Continuing the fluid movement, Mathew pulled the spear back as he stepped forward, and thrusted again.

A Panther fell with a graze across its hind legs, but still alive. Mathew threw a [Mana Bolt] to finish it off, while using his other hand to pull the spear back and ready a third attack.

This process continued. Occasionally, Mathew created a mana blade to attack a creature that got too close. Only once or twice did he have to block an attack with [Resistance]. Yet that was short lived, before he grew tired of using the mental energy.

He was forced to simply endure.

Time continued to tick. Jeffery and Agnox swapped back out by the time Mathew was at his lane for an hour, yet he continued to fight. He was tired, but could keep fighting. Blood covered him, and he had more wounds than not.

There was a reason for his seeming madness.

Ability Quest

Defend against 100 attacks: 87/100

Reward: Mana Shield

Kill 500 enemies: 277/500

Reward: Upgrade Conjure Weapon

“Almost there, just a few more attacks.” Mathew told himself mentally. He was determined to finish the quest here and now. This was the perfect time to do so.

Mathew didn’t let attacks hit him without reason. That was stupid and deadly. Instead he worked on fighting. His weeks practicing with Henderson, or rather Susan as she wanted him to call her were showing results.

Either way, she and the others helped him learn to fight, and he wasn’t going to leave here without becoming stronger. Mathew thrusted his spear again, blood flying from the impalement.

A wolf, smaller than Jeffery was back when he was Novice ranked, fell to the ground. A panther lunged toward his legs, thinking it could take him out, yet it was instantly killed by a giant ball of mana from Wispy.

Mathew smiled down at the corpse. “Going to need to be quicker than that to take me out.”

In total, four hours went back for the night before Mathew stepped back. He had given the two he replaced two hours to recover. Mathew slumped to the ground and popped a healing pill. The recovering energies flowed through him, increasing the rate at which he healed.

“Damn would I kill to have Garcia here.” He muttered to himself. He opened his newest ability and read it over as he rested.

Mana Shield | Novice 1

A barrier of mana appears to block incoming attacks.

Mathew found the use of the ability was an echo of his own ability to create mana weapons using the [Conjure Weapons] ability and the [Mana Bolt] spell. He hasn't tried to use it yet. That would come later when he had recovered. He then pulled out one of his staves and started to drain the mana for himself.

Kris left his post, also having held it for an entire hour by himself. Jeffery filled the spot he left.

“You fight strong. Valrix, you honestly impressed me. I had you figured to be a lazy nobody who would use others to defend yourself. Your spearmanship is sloppy, yet you held out for two whole hours.”

“Thanks. It wasn’t easy.” Mathew wasn’t lying. He had taken several pills during his two hours to keep him going. If he was fighting alone, with no aids, he would have bailed out around the fourty minute mark.

“Rest for now. My men with your two summons can hold for at least two hours. We will continue rotations as normal unless anything strange appears.”

“You just had to say it didn’t you?” Mathew chided. “Now, an Apprentice ranked boss monster is going to appear around the eleventh hour.”

“You read too many books and watch too many movies, Valrix.”

“Nah. Just a friend of mine rubbed off on me a little bit. Just, becareful of what you say. I feel like this is far from over. The System didn’t spring this upon everyone for no reason.” Kris nodded in agreement, and went back to his post.

Mathew rested for over an hour before he continued his job as a ranged support. Both him and the bowman with the help of Wispy kept the hoards thin enough that nobody fought more than a single beast alone.

Four hours soon turned to six, then eight. By this point, everyone was exhausted. So much so, they now had three people for each lane. Mathew, Agnox, and Jeffery had split up to help.

Mathew struggled to not lean against one of his staves to ease up the pain in his legs. It was nearly daytime as the begging rays of light were seen on the horizon. However, they astill had four hours left.

By the tenth hour, Mathew had to use one of his cheats. A special pill used to help keep people awake. The downside was he would need to sleep twice as long. He had dismissed Agnox at this point so he could rest now. Whis has joined them now, and with the twin mana wisps Mathew could focus a little bit less on his own.

The eleventh hour came and went with no problems. The sun was now above the horizon. And once the twelveth hour reached and the blue screen appeared, everyone collapsed.

They had survived the horrid night of suffering. Mathew almost passed out then and there. Yet he stayed awake. There was no blue box, no update to the area quest, nothing. Actually the quest had disappeared altogether.

“Is that it? Are we done?” Mathew asked.

Nobody had an answer, so nobody dropped their guard. Now that the sun was up, Mathew noticed a significant lack of bodies. Specifically, that there were no bodies.

Halfway through the night, this was noticed, but they assumed the bodies were being dragged away by the other beasts.

Mathew recalled the lack of UC and came to a significant conclusion. “I don’t think they were real. Some sort of illusion, or copy of beasts. They were real enough to count for other things, but for UC? They were as fake as they come.”

“Real enough to kill us, so it was real enough for me.” Kris responded. Mathew had to agree.

“I’ll take the first watch. Everyone sleeps. Valrix, I know if you don’t trust me enough to sleep, but I promise you, tonight you have earned my friendship.”

Mathew just gave the Swedish man a thumbs up and summoned his familiar. Agnox was tired, but rested enough. “You are right, I don’t trust you enough. However, I think a friendship is the right place to start.” He finished the statement with a yawn, and fell asleep.

The survivors for Blue Oaks gathered around. It was a gurling night for them all. Henderson did a headcount. To her disappointment, six people had died. Then again, three of them were only level twelve.

She turned to Brown. “Keep the guard rotations on. We are going to rest for today. Nobody needs to go out and scout or complete challenges.”

Henderson went to every group, ensuring she talked to them. Before last night, there were nearly a hundred people in the camp. Now, there were maybe thirty.

People had fled in fear. In hindsight, she is glad most of those people left. A majority of them were newly Beginner ranked individuals. A few Novice ranked people entered, and they all shot up in level. With no Hearth Crystal to rank up, they decided to take their progress from the past six days, and leave.

She found Zack sitting with Damien and decided to join them. Zack was running repairs on everyone’s gear.

“Captain gets priority if your sword or armor is that busted up.” Zack said with a smile.

“I’m fine. It wasn’t that difficult for me. Take care of the worst. We need people back in top shape by night fall.”

Damien pulled out a bit of food and started to eat. “That was hell. I’m so tired.”

“Agreed.” Henderson said. “Yet, we were lucky to have numbers and an established camp. Imagine those who were out alone.”

“You mean like Mathew?” Zack asked. “He’s fine.”

Henderson scoffed. “That asshat probably never even entered.

“He didn’t miss it. Agnox ensured they were ready. That little imp is clever. Had three whole bags ready to roll.”

“You think that statue let him drag Mathew out? You are crazy.” Henderson countered. “Nobody could go up there except Agnox. Makes you wonder what he was doing up there.”

Zack continued to bang on metal. “My money is he got a new Axiom.”

“Another one? The man already had one.” Damien said with a bit of shock.

“Two actually.” Henderson corrected. “That’s what I figured out during our training bouts. Something defensive and offensive.”

Zack pursed his lips. “I expected something related to magic from that guy. A shame. The Manhwa’s woulda had him with like ten Axioms then fuse them all into a super Axiom.”

“You can fuse them?” Damien asked.

Henderson glared at Zack. That wasn’t exactly public knowledge, kept for those who had an Axiom. Zack was filled in due to a unique ability he had. “Yes, try to keep information about Axioms fusion quiet. We want people to acquire Axiom’s the correct way. If they hear just slapping two together makes them strong in an instant, that will cripple their cultivation.”

Zack nodded to back her up. “Sorry, but she’s right Damien. Fusing Axiom’s is a way to do things, but only if done properly.”

“I wish I had one…”

Henderson sighed. “You will. Just keep pondering upon what interests you. Or get in deadly encounters and acquire insight through conflict.”

Zack chuckled. “Sorry, just something you said reminded me of a story. In it the main character, actually uses conflict to-”

“Captain! We have survivors with heavy injuries! They were nearby the entire night apparently. What do you want us to do with them?”

Henderson stood up. “Sorry boys, I have work to do.” She walked with her soldier. “Let’s vet them. Worst case they are assholes we kick to the curb. Best case we have new friends to help kill that floor boss.”