0.4 Rescue (Full)

[ Ascension Realm - Fortress 45, Time Elapsed ( 11 minutes ) ]

A purple vortex once again appeared on the barren waste land of the Ascension Realm. Upon its dissipation, 5 people appeared. Currently they were all piled on top of a woman that was trying to break free of the other four's restraints.

This group of people were obviously the rest of Kai's AP Studio Art class that went with him to New York City for a field trip.

Once Jack saw that his surroundings had changed he immediately let go of the group of girls and started to look around.

'Now where are Kai, Sia and Sammi?'

He scanned around his surroundings and saw that around 8-900 meters away from him were a few figures. Though he could not see who they were, Jack could guess it was probably Kai's group. Still facing that group, he turned to his right and saw the massive wall.

As he was getting his bearings, the four women on the ground finally noticed their change of scenery.

"Huh, what is this? Where are…"

The girl with the green shirt, Sarah Jackson, started asking a series of questions. But before Sarah could finish her sentence a transparent panel appeared in front of each of them and once again that dreadful voice came into their minds.

[ Welcome to the Ascension Trial - Fortress 45 ]

[ Task 1 ]

┎ 

In 30 seconds wild monsters will spawn around you and your team. Defeat them and absorb their life essence.

Life essence will go the team that dealt the last blow to the monster

Life essence will be distributed evenly throughout the team at the end of each wave

Either survive 100 waves or reach the city at the center of the Fortress Island.

Each wave will occur every 6 minutes.

The number of monsters will depend on the number of people in your team and will increase with every successive wave.

For Teams with less than 10 members, 2 will spawn per member. 1 additional monster per wave.

For Teams with 10 to 99 members, 4 will spawn per member. 2 additional monsters per wave.

For Teams with 100 or more, 10 will spawn per member. 5 additional monsters per wave.

Monsters will continue to spawn for dead team members

You may bring up your task details by thinking about Task 1 with the intent to see this information.

  ┛

[ Time Left ( 30 seconds ) ]

It was the same message that Kai, Sia, and Sammi saw when they first got into the trial.

All of the girls got overwhelmed from the amount of information given straight to their brain. Shirayuki Sasaki, the girl with long black hair and a black dress with a gold buckle belt, started to once again have a panic attack.

That voice had tormented her over the past few minutes, giving her a considerable amount of trauma. She couldn't help but break down.

First of all, without warning, she and her classmate had all been transported to a wasteland after having just been in the safety of New York City mere seconds ago. 

Now there was a panel in front of her telling her that monsters were going to appear. Not only that, but it seemed like they were going to have to kill them to survive. She didn't want to believe that all these things were real, she just didn't want to accept it.

Yet, such a reality was thrust upon a young woman who just entered adulthood. She was about to face the terror of the supernatural and kill monsters as if this was some sort of fantasy. No, Shirayuki was not ready for this.

'No no no no no no! Why are we here? Why did I have to go on this field trip? I should have just stayed home…'

Not only her but the 2 other teenage girls also began to panic. Sarah gripped onto the sweater around her waist. Tanya who had been holding onto Ms. Anderson had now let go of her and was looking around, stunned.

Speaking of Ms. Anderson, she had regained her senses and was just as confused as the others. But instead of panicking she chose to reassess her current situation. She looked at the blue panels and tried to comprehend the information.

'Ascension Realm? Ascension Trial? How did we get here?'

[ Time Left ( 27 seconds ) ]

The timer was ticking down, it looked like the trial wasn't going to wait for them to acclimate to their new environment. Jack had to make a decision quickly. Any sense of hesitation could lead their group into greater danger.

He looked back at the group of figures in the distance, then turned to the group. Jack had made up his mind and spoke up.

"Guys let's go over there. I saw some people there, maybe we can help each other. Come on, before the monsters spawn and start attacking us."

[ Time Left ( 20 seconds ) ]

He took a glance at the timer, while giving Tanya and Sarah a hand. After they got up he started to pull them in the direction of the other group.

With their hand in Jack's, Tanya and Sarah felt his strong grip and couldn't help but blush. His large warm hands enveloped their dainty hands, giving them a sensation they rarely felt.

"Yuki! Ms. Anderson! Hurry, we don't have much time. The monsters are gonna start spawning soon."

[ Time Left ( 17 seconds ) ]

"We need to get to those people over there. They might be able to help us when the monsters spawn."

Jack motioned to Shirayuki and Ms. Anderson to follow. His calm but authoritative voice made them unconsciously comply and follow him.

Seeing that they were following, he urged the group to pick up the pace. They all started to run. The timer quickly ticked down, soon it was almost time for the monsters to spawn.

"What should we do when the monsters appear?" Sarah nervously asked.

"All of you keep running, and get those people's attention. I'll try and distract them all." Jack replied. "Does anyone have anything I can use as a weapon? Or something I can defend myself with."

Although Jack was willing to face the monsters by himself because he dragged them into the Ascension Trial without their consent, he wasn't going to throw away his life so easily. He wanted to survive too.

Upon hearing this, Tanya started to slow down while reaching into her pocket to get something out.

"I have a Swiss army knife."

Jack's face lit up when he heard this. He finally let go of Tanya and Sarah's hands as he received the knife from Tanya.

By the time the timer hit 3 seconds, they barely made it past 120 meters from their original position, they were still quite a long distance from the people.

[ Time Left ( 3 seconds ) ]

[ Time Left ( 2 seconds ) ]

[ Time Left ( 1 seconds ) ]

[ Time Left ( 0 seconds ) ]

The ethereal forms of the corrupted goblins started to appear in front of the group. They all started to slow down when they spotted the monsters' figures, but a voice stopped them from doing so, and urged them to keep running.

"Run past them, they don't seem to be moving yet... They haven't been fully spawned yet."

Surprisingly it wasn't Jack, who had taken the lead since Ms. Anderson had gone insane. In fact, that art teacher who had gone crazy mere minutes ago started to take control of the situation.

Having had the brief moment of clarity, she pieced together what had happened.

'Jack had not panicked about Sia, Kai, and Sammi disappearing. He didn't even seem surprised that a vortex consumed them, he was too calm.'

'Now when we were transported to this unknown place, he quickly made the decision to go towards the noise, sure of himself that there were people there.'

'He couldn't have known that there were others here, unless…'

'Unless he knew that people were here. Jack knew that Sia, Kai, and Sammi were here. They must have planned this.'

Having made her own conclusions, Angelica Anderson has awoken from her crazed state of mind and was now thinking clearly. Since Angelica had deduced that this was planned by her four students, she decided to put her trust in them.

Furthermore, Sia, Kai, and Sammi were among the most capable and dependable people, not just students, that she had met, so Angelica had a degree of trust in them. Still she was worried about them.

Now that she had come back to her senses and was now taking the lead, the three girls became more confident in Jack's words. They ran past the monsters seconds before they fully materialized. As they did so, Jack kept an eye out to see if they were going to follow them. He readied the swiss army knife.

When they were about 20 or so meters away, the monsters fully materialized. The moment they did, they were confused that there were no opponents in front of them, so they scanned their surroundings. Their ears twitched, hearing something behind them.

It only took a second for them to realize that there were people running behind them. They growled and turned around. Once they spotted the group running away, they launched themselves off the ground.

[ Time Left ( 353 Seconds ) ]

By now Jack and the girls were 40 meters aways, but with that one leap, the goblins crossed 10 meters. It seemed like they would catch up with them in less than 10 seconds.

At most they would only be 200 meters from their original location before goblins reached them, they were still about 6-700 meters away from the group of people.

Jack knew that they wouldn't be able to get away from them so he had to think of a way to get the other group's attention.

"Guys start yelling, we need them to get their attention."

Sarah and Tanya nervously nodded their heads, a bit unsure if what Jack was saying would actually work. Shirayuki was still too shell shocked to process his words and continued running. Angelica hearing this, took a look behind her and saw that Jack was preparing himself to face the approaching monsters.

Seeing this, she instantly made up her mind and started to scream.

"Help! SAMMI, SIA, KAI!!! HELP!!!"

When the rest of the girls heard this they couldn't help but feel stunned. 

'Is Ms. Anderson still going crazy?'

'Noooo, she's lost it again.'

Both Sarah and Shirayuki thought back to how they had to hold back their teacher a few minutes ago. They didn't want to deal with her insanity alongside the goblins that would inevitably attack them.

'Why is she screaming for them? They didn't come with us… wait could they be…"

Tanya turned to look at Jack who didn't seem fazed.

'Jack planned this… Are Sia, Sammi, and Kai here too? Are they also part of his plan or did Jack send them to their…'

As she remembered things, Tanya began to jump to assumptions and start suspecting Jack's actions. She even started to distance herself from him as she ran.

"C'mon guys help me."

Angelica said to her class.

Even though Sarah, Tanya, and Sirayuki hadn't fully grasped what their current situation was, they were still inclined to listen to their teacher. And so they followed her lead and started screaming from the top of their lungs, well at least as loud as they could without affecting their running too much.

In spite of their efforts, it seemed like the group of people were too engrossed in a conversation to hear their commotions.

[ Time Left ( 344 Seconds ) ]

By this point the Goblin were only a couple meters away from the group. A single leap would get them within striking distance of the person closest to the back. Which was obviously Jack.

And so, it proceeded as such. The voracious little gremlins pounced all at once, targeting different parts of Jack's Body. He was prepared for this. In the same instant that they left the ground, Jack sidestepped to the left while turning his body.

His heart was beating the fastest it had ever been. If he made one wrong move now his life would be in danger. Using the force of his turning body he jammed the knife towards the closest corrupted goblin.

The tip made contact with the purple skin of the monster, it punctured it, letting the blood leak out. Feeling it, Jack couldn't help but smile.

Alas, he celebrated too soon. A searing pain came from his side. One of the other goblins had slashed at him while he was preoccupied attacking its companion. 

"AHRGHR!"

Jack started to feel sluggish, but before the poison could take full effect, he kicked away the one who had injured him as he pulled the knife across the stomach of the goblin. Its guts spilled out. The goblin clutched its stomach in a vain attempt at keeping its life. 

Then Jack backed up while gripping his left rib cage. The goblin's attack had gotten dangerously close to piercing his lungs and heart. Thankfully he avoided it.

"Awwhhh."

Jack gritted his teeth. He had only taken care of 1 out of the 10 monsters. There were still 9 monsters left. 

Catching the attention of the group of goblins, Jack was able to buy some time for the others to get away. But that was only for a few seconds. Seeing that their kin had this under control, 3 of the goblins decided to head towards the other group as they would only hinder the movement of the others.

Currently, 5 goblins were surrounding him including the one that he had severely injured. Further away was the sole goblin he had sent flying with a kick.

He had to think of a way to deal with the ones around him before heading towards the ones chasing his class. But his vision had gotten hazy and his body started to feel lethargic.

'Poison? … No matter… gotta take down…'

As he thought that, Jack sent out a somewhat weakened punch towards the next closest goblin towards him. Even though it seemed weak, Jack was using all his power to throw it. It landed cleanly on one of the goblins leaping onto him.

It crashed into the ground a bit dazed. Yet, Jack couldn't take advantage of this as he had to dodge the other 3.

Luckily enough, Jack was able to muster up his strength to evade their attacks in time. However, in his current condition this only bought him a couple seconds.

[ Time Left ( 336 Seconds ) ]

BOOM! 

A resounding explosion resounded from the direction they were heading towards. Dust formed into a small billowing mushroom cloud.

Everyone was momentarily stunned, even the goblins stopped their assault to figure out what had happened. They turned their heads towards the direction of the sound.

Only one person took advantage of this opportunity and slipped out of the goblins' line of sight.

However, this was only temporary. Within a few seconds goblins regained their senses and continued attacking Jack as well as chasing after the other humans.

Although it seemed like one had gone missing.

Facing the barrage of attacks from the purple goblins, Jack was barely able to dodge their constant bombardment of slashes. He could not relax in the slightest as he would once again be poisoned. At that point his death would be guaranteed.

'Luckily the poison wore off.'

Jack was thankful that the poison was temporary and had regained some of his strength, but he was pushed into a passive position. He was only capable of evading as he didn't have enough stamina to counterattack.

[ Time Left ( 321 Seconds ) ]

At the same time, the other goblins had caught up with the rest of the group. In front of the goblins were the 3 girls; Shirayuki, Tanya, and Sarah. Angelica was nowhere to be seen, but the goblins didn't know that.

Shirayuki, who had noticed Angelica's absence, let out a shrill shriek.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

'Where's Ms. Anderson? Did the Goblin's already get her?'

'Oh my god. OH My god. OH MY God. OH MY GOD!'

'This can't be happening. Where is she?'

' Wait. Where is Jack? Did the goblins already… no no no no no No NO. Don't think like that. Jack is fine. He's gonna kill these goblins.'

'He'll come save us. He's…'

Shirayuki turned to face the goblins so she could defend herself. The first thing that came into view were not the goblins in front of her but Jack being slashed at by 3 goblins. 

Her heart sank. Despair crept up on Shirayuki's face. Upon seeing her expression, the goblins bared their teeth with devious intention.

…

[ Time Left ( 320 Seconds ) ]

Sia and the other two quickly turned their heads towards the direction of the sound. Kai's eyes instantly locked onto a group of people being attacked by a group of goblins.

As he focused his vision on the facial features of the people being attacked. It only took him a few milliseconds to realize who they were.

His body acted on his own, he began to sprint towards them. Sia and Sammi were no slower as they too rushed forward, in fact Sia had even over taken him. 

After being awakened, not only have their physical abilities been enhanced, their mental capabilities have also reached a whole new level. It only took them a fraction of a second to deduce what was happening.

All three came to the same conclusion. Jack had finally arrived in the Ascension Realm alongside the rest of their class and were now in danger. They couldn't think of any other option other than to go and save them.

Even though the three of them had gotten significantly stronger, it would still take a couple seconds to cross the 6-700 meter distance between them and the group.

At their fastest it would take about 10 or so seconds. Within this short span of time, their class would have to rely on themselves to survive.

'Jack, hold on bud… shit, Yuki!'

"Sia, Imma grab one of the goblins attacking Yuki, you and Sammi take the other 3. Here's the stand."

Kai thought fast and handed over the stand to her like a baton. Sia, without looking, grabbed the stand and shot forward at an even greater speed. A faint white light shone around her legs.

Along the way, Sammi stomped on the ground, shattering the rocky surface into stars. She picked up one, to use a weapon for the ensuing fight, without slowing down.

It seemed like her previous experience had already made her mentally shift to a more combat ready mindset.

…

[ Time Left ( 315 Seconds ) ]

Two goblins had pounced on Shirayuki causing her to fall flat on the ground. The two corrupted goblins had pinned her to the ground while cackling.

"Kekr kekr kekr kekr kekr kekr…"

"Kekr kekr kekr kekr kekr kekr…"

They had sinister expressions as they looked at the girl. When they heard her shriek before, they had already decided to ravage her and enjoy her body as they relished in the pleasure of torturing her.

Her sunken expression of despair only heightened their desire. Shirayuki was terrified of their evil smiles. Their eyes conveyed their undisguised intentions causing her to shiver.

"No no no no, get away!"

She wanted to push them off her, but before she could do so, a sharp pain short out from her leg. Shirayuki could feel the goblin's cold claws pierce her skin as it dug into her thigh.

The teen tried her best to push the other goblin off her to no avail as she felt her strength fading. Seeing the poison take effect the goblin grabbed hold of one of her wrists, attempting to restrain her.

With only one weakened arm she was unable to push off one of the goblins let alone two. Her situation was dire.

Tanya and Sarah were faring a bit better, but not by much. They only had to deal with one goblin, however they had not turned to face the goblins in time and as such their backs were slashed.

They were now poisoned. Tanya had fallen to the ground. Sarah, on the other hand, was able to endure the pain and counter attack before the poison could take full effect.

She grabbed the arm of the goblin who had impaled its claws into her back and slammed it onto the hard surface of the ground. It was now dazed, but the poison finally kicked in. Sarah became dizzy and fell to her knees.

"Aurgh."

'Where's Ms. Anderson? If she were here, we could've…'

Beside her Tanya had rolled over and was now wrestling with the goblin.

"Get off me… get off, get off, get off, get off."

She was barely holding on. Fortunately she was not as dainty as Shirayuki, otherwise she would have already been overwhelmed.

Jack who had been constantly backing up and evading had actually tripped over a rock falling on his ass.

"You gotta be kidding me…"

The three uninjured goblins pounced once more at the young man. They were going for the kill, targeting his vital points. However, Jack was not just going to give them his life that easily.

He rolled to his right into a kneeling position. Seeing this, one of the goblins tried to change its trajectory and slashed at him. It's claw ripped through his slim black jeans and scraped Jack's leg.

Although it was only a scratch, some of the poison had already slipped into his body. When he tried to stand up, he lost his balance and fell once more. He caught himself by using his arms to prop himself up.

That tiny moment gave the 3 gremlins just enough time to turn and attack him again. This time Jack could not react fast enough to dodge.

Feeling the sharp claws impale his flesh, Jack stabbed at the closest goblin as a last ditch effort. It couldn't dodge as it was still in the air, the swiss army knife was run through the little monster's neck.

"DIE!"

With one forceful tug the goblin's windpipe was ripped out and it fell to the ground, left to bleed out. The other 2 goblins growled with anger.

One wrapped its arms around his waist intending to crush him with its large forearms. Its claws pierced into Jack's skin, the goblin was making sure that this slippery human wouldn't be able to weasel its way out of its grasp.

While the other sets eyes on Jack's neck, fully intending to rip out his windpipe. It wanted to give the same treatment the human had given its kin.

Despite being poisoned again Jack was able to put up his arms to guard his neck. Nevertheless he couldn't avoid their attacks.

Having killed 2 of the original 6 there were still 4 goblins to deal with. Yet only 2 were currently attacking him. Jack couldn't help but wonder where the other 2 went, but goblin grabbing onto him didn't give him time to think. It began to squeeze and crush his waist. 

…

[ Time Left ( 310 Seconds ) ]

Sia at this point had almost reached the group only about 80 or so meters away and would only need a second to reach Shirayuki. Originally she was going to follow Kai's plan but as Jack's miserable state came into view she decided to switch roles with Kai.

"Kai go to Yuki!"

When he heard this Kai instantly knew what Sia was getting at.

'Shit Jack can't hold on.'

Kai came to the conclusion that Jack must have fallen into grave danger and could not hold on for much longer. Since Sia would arrive faster than him, it was a better choice for her to head straight for Jack and deal with the situation. 

He could only place his trust in his girlfriend to save his friend. As such he focused his gaze at the 2 goblins on top of Shirayuki. 

Woosh!

A gale of strong wind blew past the group of girls and goblins as Sia arrived in front of Jack. She stabbed through the head of the goblin currently aiming for Jack's neck.

Splurt!

The glowing metallic tip easily pierced through the goblins skull as if it was nothing more than butter. Then with a flick of her wrist Sia flung the goblin into the distance. It was nothing more than a pebble compared to Sia's new found strength.

She then stabbed the stand into the ground as she grabbed the other goblins forearm and pried it off Jack's body. Afterwards Sia slammed the goblin into the ground with great strength and control. Its head cracked the ground as its body turned into a pile of mushy flesh.

[ Time Left ( 307 Seconds ) ]

At the same time as the goblin's corpse flew into the distance, Kai and Sammi arrived. Sammi instantly shot towards the goblin wrestling Tanya while throwing the rock she was holding at the goblin Sarah had dazed. It crashed into its head, killing it instantly.

Grabbing onto the tough skin of the goblin's back with one hand, Sammi ruthlessly threw it onto the ground. Its breath was literally knocked out of it. However, that wasn't the end of it as Sammi slammed the goblins head into the ground repeatedly.

Under the control of the redhead it couldn't even fight back. Sammi had been completely enraged seeing her friends being injured by the little goblins.

Still she wasn't consumed by her rage, when she noticed that the goblin's life had ended, she tossed the corpse over like a rag doll.

Both Tanya and Sarah, who had recovered from the poison, stared at her blankly. The monster they had struggled with was easily dealt with in a couple of seconds.

"Are you guys alright?"

Sammi began to ask worriedly, but they had become speechless at what they had just seen, so they could only nod their heads wordlessly.

Kai on the other hand rushed to the goblins that were about to violate Shirayuki. He grabbed onto the arm of the goblin holding Shirayuki's wrists in place, then yanked it off her. 

In that same motion, he used his remaining momentum to swing its head towards the head of the other goblin. Their necks snapped from the force as their skulls caved in and cracked.

Thud! Thud!

They fell lifeless onto the ground. It was an instant kill.

Kai couldn't help but sigh in relief as he had gotten to Shirayuki before the goblins had done something truly damning. He turned his head to face Shirayuki to check if she had any grave injuries.

What he saw was the girl shivering in fear as her tattered clothes were waving in the wind he had brought with him. The sharp claws of the goblins had torn her dress apart making her slightly unsightly. 

A slight blush came over his face as he scanned her body. Thankfully there wasn't anything fatal. After making sure of it, Kai took off his hoodie and reached out to give it to her.

"Here Yuki, you can use my hoodie for now."

Shirayuki was still in a daze. She had been injected with the greatest amount of poison among the group, so its effect had lasted the longest. It was to the point that her vision had gone blurry and her hearing was muffled. 

She just stared blankly at the blurry figure clearly not knowing what had just occurred. A moment ago, Shirayuki was trapped in the grasps of two monsters and was about to be…

'No no no no, don't think like that…'

Clearing the dark thoughts in her head, she looked at the person in front of her as her vision became clear.

"Uh, Kai, why are you here?"

Shirayuki was surprised at the sight of her classmate. To her knowledge Kai, Sia, and Sammi had not entered the Ascension Trial with them. So how could Kai be here, let alone save her from the goblins.

Not noticing the state of her clothes she tried to stand up, but since Shirayuki hadn't recovered fully she lost her balance, stumbled back and fell on her butt. As such she caught a glimpse of her clothes.

Her face flush, but before she could cover up, Kai had tossed over his hoodie while saying, "We'll talk later…"

"Huh?"

With that Kai shot off towards Jack and Sia's Direction. Shirayuki was stunned, the hoodie softly landed on her knees as she watched Kai run at blistering speeds. 

At this point Sia had already disposed of the goblin threats. Now she was stabilizing Jack's critical condition.

However, he wasn't planning on going over there to see what had happened, he had faith Sia would be able to stabilize Jack. Something had caught Kai's eye about 20 meters to the left of Sia and Jack. It was Angelica.

She was fighting with a goblin, her clothes were also in a sorry state. It was obvious that the art teacher had been entangled with this goblin for quite a while.

In fact, as the 6 goblins lept towards Jack previously, she had decided to go over and help him deal with them. She slipped past the 4 that had been chasing the girls and waited for an opening  to strike.

While Jack had been busy with the 3 goblins attacking him, Angelica took the opportunity to go over and kill the 2 that were temporarily incapacitated. She started with the one that was dazed.

Angelica directly sent out her most powerful kick at it as it was regaining its barings. It had to be known that she had been taking kickboxing classes since she was 20. With 4 years of sparring experience, she knew how to efficiently generate force in a split second. 

Bang!

The goblins head was driven into the ground. Immediately, Angelica knelt down on one knee, grabbed the goblins head, and used her elbow to break its neck.

Snap!

It was dead. As she got up from her position, the goblin that had been kicked away lunged at her. She fell on her back, trying to avoid the incoming attack. 

Swish!

The goblin's slash barely missed her head. She rolled away and tried to get up, but the goblin had been fast to react. Within a second it was on Angelica's heel again, preparing to grab her with its poison infused hands.

Trying her best to not get injured by its claws she tried catching the goblin's forearms. She was only able to get hold of the right arm with her left hand while the other bore into its shoulder.

"Arrgh!"

Holding in her pain, she gritted her teeth as she used her right hand to pry the claws that were now dug into her. With the poison seeping into her veins, she struggled to push the goblin's arm off her.

"Huhf huf hu…"

Angelica's breathing was becoming more ragged as the goblin continued to inject her with poison, but thankfully her efforts bore fruit. Finally after a few seconds of desperate struggling she was finally able to get the poisoned claws off her.

Still her strength had been spent. She couldn't make any meaningful attacks towards the goblins especially with her injured shoulder. The only thing she could do was hold it at bay and wait for someone to come help her.

But for how long? That was the question in her mind. Her arm was beginning to fail her. Too much blood was leaking out of her shoulder.

Also, there wasn't any guarantee that anyone would come to help her. It was more likely that the others were in a similar situation.

"Aker aker rah ahaha!"

The cackling snarls of the wretched creature were the only things keeping her barely focused on defending herself. She couldn't help but laugh at herself.

'I was supposed to be the one saving Jack, now I'm the one needing to be saved. How…'

Before she could finish that self deprecating thought, a foot slammed directly on the head of the monster. It pierced through the goblin and dragged the rest of its body with it as it crashed into the ground.

Angelica turned to face where the goblin had gone. A few meters to the side of her stood a young man.

"Kai!"

A sense of relief and happiness bursted out of the art teacher. Her conjectures and guesses were right, Jack and the other 3 had planned this out and were safe.

'Thank goodness. They're safe, they…'

But as she stared at the figure of her student, something obscured her vision.

[ Ascension Realm - Fortress 45, Time Elapsed ( 12 minutes ) ]

[ Wave 1 ( Complete ) ] 

┎ 

Your team has completed Wave 1 of Task 1.

As a reward your team will receive an [ Awakening ].

Your physique will reach the [ Awakened ] level and a [ Bronze ] grade mana core will form inside your body.

For every [ Low-Grade Corrupted Goblin ] killed by the team, each person will receive 1 unit of mana.

  ┛

[ Time Left ( 295 Seconds ) ]

[ Awakening will proceed in ( 10 seconds ) ]

It was exactly the blue panel informing her of her awakening. Her train of thought was completely derailed as the announcement flooded her brain with information.

'Awakening?... Wait so this was a dream!? No, it's that same voice, it can't be right… Was I just imagining all of this or was it all real?... Ah! This is all so confusing, but if this is a dream, why am I…'

With her mind racing to try and figure out what the awakening was, Angelica got confused. Kai, who was unaware of what Angelica was thinking, looked around the area to see if there were any goblins left to deal with.

"Ms. Anderson, you're safe now. I think that was the last one. You should prepare yourself for the Awakening."

Angelica was thrown deeper into confusion by his words, but before she could make sense of everything, the timer had reached zero. And as expected, a torrent of pain shot out into her bones.

"AHHH!!!"

Her scream heralded the beginning of this group's awakening. Similarly the others had also started to convulse with spasmed pains. A mixture of tears and blood covered their bodies as they endured.

Kai could only helplessly give a wry smile to all of this.

'It can't be helped, they already killed a goblin…'

Miraculously, the injuries they had sustained from the wave had begun to heal. This was especially so for Jack, whose body had been riddled with the most grievous wounds.

The puncture wounds on his stomach and waist began to close rapidly. His life was no longer in danger. If Shirayuki had not fainted from the pain, she would have felt the wounds on her thighs heal. Alas with her relatively weak will, she had passed out, unable to handle the torment.

Kai saw the sorry state of his fellow classmate and sighed. He had gone through the exact same experience no more than 10 minutes ago. The goblins' corpses became translucent and formed small white orbs of light that entered their bodies. The corpse Kai's foot went through was not any different.

Seeing as though they were undergoing their awakening, Kai knew that they were no longer in immediate danger. Only now could he relax a little. He walked towards Sia who was checking on Jack's condition.

After checking that the awakening had saved him from his critical condition, Sia let out a relieved expression.

When she had reached Jack, the poison had already caused some of his abdominal organs to deteriorate. If Sia had arrived a few seconds later, the poison would have reached his heart and made him go into cardiac arrest.

At that point Jack would not have been able to endure the pain of the awakening and die from shock. His fragile state would have been the end of him.

"Sia."

Kai spoke up to get her attention. In turn Sia looked towards his direction and sat up from her crouching position.

Smiling, he continued to speak.

"We should bring them to the others."

He gestured to Angelica with a tilt of his head. When Sia met Kai's eyes, she immediately knew what Kai really meant.

"Alright."

Giving her boyfriend a slight smirk, Sia walked over to their teacher.

"Thanks…"

Kai felt awkward having to carry someone of the opposite sex, especially his teacher. He didn't want to accidentally touch her inappropriately and cause misunderstandings. Kai had to avoid that at all costs.

Not only would it cause rumors and blemish his reputation, it might also cause his relationship with Sia to be strained. That was the thing he feared most.

Kai had spent quite the effort just to start dating her, he didn't want to ruin it. As such it was much more suitable for Kai to carry Jack to the group while Sia brought Angelica over.

He grabbed onto Jack's left arm and draped it over his shoulders, picking him up from the ground and brought him to Sammi and the group of girls. Sia did the same with the art teacher.

They gently laid them on the hard surface of the ground. All the while, the two were convulsing with intense unbearable pain, completely unaware of what was happening around them.

It would take some time for them to complete their awakenings. Kai, Sia, and Sammi's awakening had taken around 2 minutes, so it should take them around the same amount of time. 

The trio now only needed to wait, but knowing the next wave was going to arrive soon, the began to discuss their plan to deal with it.

"So… what should we do now?"

Sammi was the first to speak. Ever since arriving in the ascension realm, Sammi had deferred leadership to the other two, mainly Kai as he seemed to know what was going on.

"Ugh, um, I think we should read this book…"

Kai reached into his bag and brought out the book titled "Manual to the Apocalypse" written by Leonardo Choi.

"... we need to find out to deal with the upcoming waves. They might be weak now, but who knows if there will be stronger ones later."

As Sammi had not overheard Sia and Kai's previous conversation, she had a puzzled expression on her face. Seeing her confusion Sia explained what Kai had told him beforehand.

"... Long story short, that book was written by a streamer who seems to know the future, and that streamer is also why Kai had brought us into the Ascension Realm."

"Oh, okay…"

Sammi seemed to understand a bit of what was said but she needed time to digest the information. She sent a questioning glance at Kai. It was as if she was saying "Why would you do that? You stupid or  something?"

Awkwardly, Kai scratched the back of his head and shifted his gaze to the book. It was obvious that he wanted to move on from the topic and focus on creating a plan.

"Now that you're caught up we should focus on what the book has to say. It might help us."

"Right…"

Although Sammi was still skeptical at the prospect of a time traveler coming back in time to warn people of an impending apocalypse, she still continued to listen. 

Whether or not Sammi believed him, Kai knew that this book would prove it. He placed his hope in the streamer telling the truth. 

'This can't all be all coincidences right? Please, please be true.'

Kai tried to ignore her stare and opened the book to the table of contents.