"We've only managed to gather non-specific gems that only slightly boost physical abilities," Amanda spoke up.

Jackie nodded her head, "Yeah. The monsters we've fought only contained generic gems, none of the specialized ones." Her hand rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment. "We haven't even arrived at the level where we would learn what our specialties are," She explained.

The others in her group looked at the ground, some of them tapping the floor with their foot.

Han turned to look at Hina, the only one that he was somewhat acquainted with. "What do you think?" He asked, wanting to see whether Hina would give her blessing on them joining.

"Are you the only group that'll be going topside?" Hina asked after taking a moment to gather her thoughts.

"Jade's group will be with us, considering they have experience with hostiles up there," Han shook his head and told her.

When Becky had informed him that Jade's group was going to be joining them, he was somewhat surprised. But after thinking about it, Han understood that it only made sense to have a more senior group tagging along in case something was to happen. It had been a while since he had hung out with Jade's group, so Han looked forward to experiencing what the topside had in store for them while getting to socialize.

Hina breathed a sigh of relief and then said, "If Jade's group is going to be with you, guys, I think Jackie and the others should be fine. I think it'll give them a good opportunity to see why training is so important and what we're, currently, fighting for down here."

"You hear that, Lulu?" The woman named Lacy said to the woman next to her. "I told you that you need to train more and now you'll see the reason why," Lacy snickered.

The one named Lulu didn't say anything aside from grumbling. He briefly heard the woman say words like, "If it was for the stupid..." Lulu wasn't able to finish her words before Lacy elbowed Lulu.

Han grinned, wondering what type of secrets they were hiding. Considering how they had survived the world above the facility for as long as they did, Han knew that they likely had some skills though it would be a question of how much those abilities would help them in the coming days. Seeing how the girl Jae-Hwa looked confused by the behavior of Lacy and Lulu, Han understood that Jae-Hwa wasn't a part of the secrets.

Inside of a post-apocalyptic world, it wasn't unusual for people to have secrets and group together to survive. This was one of the reasons why he enjoyed this type of genre, where people would do whatever it took to survive and commit actions they usually wouldn't in the pre-apocalyptic world.

"When are you taking off, Han?" His mother asked him from where she was sitting. Her shoulders and arms were covered in sweat, in addition to the top of her shirt. When she wasn't enjoying her time walking about the facility or in the games, his mother seemed to find going to the gym to be relaxing. Though her body didn't look like those who trained to become body-builders, there was more definition compared to when she was a housewife.

Han looked over at his mother and was still startled by how much she had changed since he knew her when growing up, which he wasn't sure how he felt. "We'll be leaving soon, so the Captain requested that we get changed into our suits and grab our usual weapons. Jade should be meeting us at the entrance with the others. They seem to be practicing outside with the other teams and keeping watch on the perimeter of the university."

Jackie and Hina's group looked excited about being included in this operation, talking amongst themselves. Each of them appeared to have a unique reaction to being involved in this small mission. Seeing how they took in this opportunity made Han feel like he was getting a little glimpse into their personalities. It was an impressive range, from Amanda looking calm and cool to Jae-Hwa looking nervous and anxious. He couldn't help but have a slight grin seeing how Jae-Hwa seemed to react to this news. The way she acted made you feel the need to protect her with how innocent she was, though this could just be because she wasn't used to this world yet.

Jae-Hwa noticed that Han was looking at her, and she asked, "Will we really be okay?"

"Based on what I know... I don't think there'll be anything that'll go outside of our expectations," Han honestly answered her. He didn't like the idea of being a stereotypical guy in light novels that would just spout how he'd protect the girl if anything happened.

"Han has got us through a lot when we were outside. If it wasn't for Han, I don't know if any of us would have made it here safely." Harmony chimed in, hearing Jae-Hwa's question. She placed a hand on Han's shoulder to indicate her trust in Han, which seemed to work. Jae-Hwa gave a tiny smile at Harmony's words and nodded her head.

Seeing that everyone was eager and talking about basic strategies, Han looked at his bracelet to check the time. Though there wasn't a set time for when they should meet up with Jade's group, Han figured that heading to the locker area to put on their suits and make their way to the entrance would take about an hour. He didn't expect to run into Jackie's group and inviting them, but considering the purpose of this mission, Han figured that the Captain would agree with bringing along this group. His group wasn't professionally trained by a military organization so they could be considered to relatively above those who have no training, but compared to those who are part of the military, Han and his group would likely not have it easy.

Jackie's group were people that were picked up, trying to escape from the Modified Humans. From what they said, they likely picked up a few skills in the training simulations, but they were just slightly above Han's group was when first entering the facility.

Seeing how Jackie's group performed in the real world would allow Becky to better coordinate with the other facilities around the Continent and potentially the world. This type of data would be valuable and considering Jade's group would be tagging along it would mean that they would in a better position.

-------------

"What took you guys so long?" Jade asked Han as his and Jackie's team reached the group level and walked out of the stadium.

Han indicated with a thumb to Jackie's group and said, "We picked up another group. It took a little bit to get them properly set up with their weapons." Seeing Jade tilt her head, he responded, "You know how it goes. They just had minor generic stones, so I had them trade in for better quality stones. And we also had to make sure that they had properly calibrated their suits."

In private chat, Jade asked, "You paid for them to upgrade their stones? That's pretty generous of you."

'I had some extra wind stones that I didn't need, so I just traded them for more mediocre non-specific stones," Han explained. He didn't mention how it was easy for him to gain stones in the Arena, considering he could make them materialize inside of the monsters for his various teammates. This gave him an unfair advantage, considering most monsters gave away non-specific stones that only gave physical boosts. It was rare for a monster to drop an element-specific stone, especially one that wasn't low in quality.

Jade chuckled at Han's words. "Only a team as rich as yours would be able to say such things."

"I don't want to hear that coming from your team. I've heard you've been getting a decent amount of stones of relatively high quality?" Han retorted, pointing an accusatory finger at Jade's weapon that had a large polished and clear emerald looking stone embedded in it. There was only a slight fog in the stone, which indicated that it was a mid-range stone, though the size was pretty impressive.

"I got it just in time, too," Jade laughed. "My previous stone was running low so I probably could have only used it in an additional game before it shattered." She pulled the weapon from her back and tenderly stroked the stone. Though she was wearing her helmet, it was apparent that Jade was grinning from her voice.

Han was grinning, but not for the same reason as Jade. To not look too suspicious of their success of finding stones, Han had made sure increase the rate of higher quality stones appearing. With each of the games being played in real-time, it was fairly easy to place various quality stones into monsters that people were fighting against. It was a simple way for him to get what he wanted, while not raising suspicions.