The Exp Of Others Is Free Real Estate!

In the dark land covered in grass, rocks, and that single road leading onwards to a human corpse, orange-red sunlight seeped from above a distant building. The sun was rising to spread natural light on every blade of grass, forming a warm environment that contrasted greatly to the cold stone covered parking lot.

The kids were reminded of the place they lived in before they died.

If one looked very closely, they could find a boy hiding behind a tree with a red fog shrouding him, but everybody subconsciously always glanced over that spot, like some they had some sort of hidden fear in their collective memories of this exact scene of a boy behind a tree.

The boy, Ajax, had his hand against the tree, leaning against it, as he looked down. In front of him was a small ball of yellow light. Spikes occasionally pushed the skin of the yellow light, but the elasticity of the ball always pulled them back.

An ethereal nervous voice came from it. "Y-yes."

Ajax currently had some sort of red flame covering his body as he held a domineering pose and voice. "Now what are your powers?"

The yellow ball of light clearly hesitated as it softly spoke with the frequency of spikes pushing out of it increasing.

Ajax released more of the red flame that slowly approached the yellow light.

It quickly answered every question with no hesitation in its state of fear.

Ajax revealed a creepy smile after the yellow light finished. "That's what I like to hear."

The red flame quickly expanded to an excessive amount as it drowned out the ball of light in its cries for help, pulling it into Ajax's body like the ball didn't have a physical form.

Ajax revealed a smile as he glanced around.

Noticing that nobody was especially paying attention, he opened a palm upwards as a beam of yellow light shot up to a star form that hovered above him.

Wherever Ajax moved, it remained lit up like a moving flashlight.

This was one of the abilities of a Priest.

He tested all of his abilities and made sure he understood them thoroughly. A little mistake could result in a compromise of his disguise as a Priest.

Only three minutes passed since he disappeared from the group Jordan was in, so he quickly walked back over.

Again, once Ajax entered a certain range, Jordan looked over with more suspicion than before despite recognizing him.

This was a small problem for the smooth talker, Ajax. He quickly dealt with their questions of where he was by explaining that he was doing a quick number 2.

Coupled with Ajax's embarrassed expression, it was fully believable.

Slowly they accepted Ajax and the two parties became closer with Ajax officially joining "The Origin Team".

"No." Ajax said flatly.

One of the team members furrowed his brows. "What do you mean 'no'? It's not even that bad!"

Ajax paused for a moment with his hand caressing his chin. Then he raised his index finger in enlightenment. "How about just 'Origin'? Eh? It is fairly smooth, I have to say."

Then it was the others' turn to reply, "No."

They all laughed for a while with a light argument in which the original name was decided upon.

One of the other team members continued, "Come on, Ajax. Give it up. Our numbers overwhelm you. The name will be 'The Origin Team' whether you like it or not!"

Ajax turned his head to the side as he jokingly pouted. "No way, 'Origin' is much slicker!"

Jordan then stepped in, "The majority wins this vote; 'The Origin Team' is our official name."

Ajax wasn't sure where Jordan got it from, but Jordan blew a whistle to finalize the results.

Ajax visibly frowned as a result. Bored, he looked at the accessories of every person with some envy. After all, it wasn't because he couldn't afford such expensive things, but that he was reminded of certain weapons like chains from seeing something like a necklace.

Reminded of weapons, Ajax went over to the stacked crates.

Remembering the act he was putting on, he glanced over to Jordan to tacitly ask for his permission. He knew people who vied for leadership positions so much had to be people that wanted to be in control.

So, ultimately, if he just took those weapons without asking, Jordan would obviously be disturbed.

He planned on keeping this in mind for future situations similar to this.

As Jordan nodded, he looked through the crates before almost yelping in surprise.

Assault rifles, explosives, rocket launchers, drones… This is some seriously heavy equipment!

Ajax drew a sharp breath and peeked at the kids behind him who all had joyous expressions which yelled 'reckless' in his head.

He slowly retreated his gaze and stared at the weapons, not being able to help his thoughts from wandering. 'Can I get this 'exp' from killing these people?'

He seriously considered it for a moment but shook his head afterward. It was best to first understand where he was, then later consider these risky ideas.

If he was going to kill a person, he'd have to do it right. That was what the old man taught him, anyway. His personal experience backed that up.

Jordan noticed how long it took for Ajax to look at the weapons and chuckled. He patted Ajax's shoulder. "Yea, it might seem a bit excessive, but again, we really have no idea what's out there."

Ajax stood there leaning with both hands against an open crate. He took a deep breath and sighed, "I understand that, but it's just-"

He paused and gestured to the others, himself, and Jordan. "It's just that I think we might be a little too young for this. Better yet, we don't even know how to use these things, right?"

'Better yet, just hand these to me and I'll take good care of them.' Ajax inwardly added with a hint of sadness.

Jordan chuckled after hearing and when he tried opening his mouth to reply, he stopped before laughing.

The others stopped their independent conversations in confusion and moved their gaze over.

Jordan rationalized his actions with difficulty from his laughs, "H-he said we don't know how to use these things."

The others started laughing in response after hearing that.

Ajax could only raise an eyebrow. "Even if you all received personal military training in the past, this can't be enough to make a person laugh so much?"

One of the few people who wasn't laughing explained, "You forgot that we have these Jobs. For example, my Job is a Soldier and I could easily wield any of those weapons."

Another person who seemed to be close with the other nudged him, "Oy, you said 'easily'?"

The other sighed with resignation. He mocked the other and elaborated, "Oh, I'm sorry, I have preliminary understanding of weapon-wielding. Satisfied?"

The two continued joking with each other as Ajax looked to Jordan, who started talking with the others as well.

It looked like these people were a lost hope, talking and laughing every moment even though the situation required otherwise.

"Jordan, your people need to get a plan ready. I'm in on this for real."

Jordan let out in surprise, "Oh, yeah."

The others he was talking with stopped before the others slowly followed. Jordan rubbed his nose and sniffed. "Alright, let's set up a temporary command center here. John and Albert, watch the surroundings and don't let others interfere or see what we're doing."

As those two nodded, Jordan gestured at Ajax and a few others to follow.

They reached near a large and thick tree, stepping behind it.

A few minutes later, the tree was cut cleanly by some blue flame with Jordan nodding. "Yeah, that's all for now."

Jordan was testing their abilities where Ajax showed his weak offensive but strong supportive abilties as a Priest.

The last cut of the tree was by the last tested person who had the strange Job of a Sorceror Spawn.

As everyone knew each others' capabilities, they decided to try stepping out of the barrier with a plan they prepared beforehand.

This undoubtedly attracted the attention of many who were wasting their time sitting on rocks, dazing into blank space.

Many who knew some of the people part of The Origin Team couldn't help but want to step up to talk to them.

Before the people could step up, they were interrupted halfway through their greeting by some of the team members, restricting them from stepping any farther.

This was one of the many things they made a point of before: never to allow outsiders to interfere with official Origin business.

Another one of those points was to have Ajax and another fellow Priest cast a round of protection buffs on them before they went into any danger.

So Ajax controlled the Priest soul with great familiarity. He lifted his hands and clasped them together while muttering a few words.

Everyone received an orange glow surrounding them as they allowed Ajax to stay behind them.

Ajax was really very tempted seeing everyone's backs towards him, but he held back and formed a tighter grip on his weapon.

The exploration started.