Elevator (Edit #1)

Yep. The realms reset at midnight at the end of each month. Local time too. During the reset, all the explorers would be teleported out. All the dead monsters would respawn.

Pretty magical if you asked Jake about it.

Since it's the 21st of the month, this realm was much safer than the 1st. A large quantity of monsters had been removed already.

If Jake applied for a tourist license, he wouldn't need to come to this 'final exam.'

On the 30th or the 31st of the month, experienced and friendly explorers would take up duties as tour guides. At that point, majority of the areas would be cleared out already. The tour would be no different from a camping and hiking trip.

"Hey, Detector." After a moment of waiting in line, Reaper, the big guy turned around.

"Hey." Jake nodded.

"There isn't much load in your backpack right? As someone who can't fight, you wouldn't mind carrying some weight for me right?"

Jake stared back with a careless expression...

"You sure about that?"

"Never mind." Reaper changed his mind. Jake didn't look reliable at all.

Inside the realms, supplies were the lifelines of explorers. Losing the supplies in combat could lead to fatal consequences.

Jake carelessly shrugged. Either way, he was going to refuse.

'However...' Jake's eyes lit up. 'If this guy keeps up with that attitude, he could trigger a taunt quest for me.' (EDIT)

'Taunt Quest NPC #2?'

Trigger a taunt quest. Get a load of Click Points. Leave this unfriendly group.

If things got physical... Jake rotated his wrists. Jake didn't mind teaching these guys a... Erhm. Jake didn't mind exercising his rights of self-defense either.

He would never see these irrelevant people ever again after two days, Why hold back?

Jake nodded at this crude plan. Couldn't see any significant drawbacks so far...

After handing over the document papers to the officer inside, Jake's group passed the station without any trouble.

It was a small courtyard inside. Jake's group was the only ones here now. On the walls were red electronic timers.

[ 1:00 ]

[ 0:59 ]

Standing by the base of the pillar of green light, Jake looked up. The pillar seemed to extend forever into the sky.

"Before entering, you will have one last minute to check over your supplies." Without further hesitation, Beetle placed his backpack onto the ground. His expression became even more grim.

Even though the explorers should have checked over everything many times before, one last check was still good.

Plenty of explorers had found empty or leaking water bottles in their backpacks before. Noticing this before entering the realm might have saved their lives. After all, just one mouth-full of water in harsh conditions could mean life or death.

Just like his teammates, Jake also checked over his gear. Water. Clothing. Ground coffee. Filters. A propane burner...

'All set...'

'Time to go!'

Putting the backpacks back on, the group was ready to go.

Taking a quick look around, Beetle looked even grimmer. Pacing his breathing, his gaze became more focused than ever. By the looks of it, he had already turned his surrounding alertness to the max.

Reaper, the big dude, started taking deep breaths. Using his sleeve, he lightly wiped the sweat off his forehead.

Mage just bit his lips. The slightly shy dude looked like he didn't know where to put his hands.

Jake picked up his coffee cup from the ground.

Lightly nodding at the newbies, Beetle stepped into the pillar of light.

Following the group, Jake took a deep breath and stepped into the light.

The experience was nothing spectacular. Jake just felt like stepping through a curtain of light.

Looking down, all four of them were standing on a green disk now. Without any warning, Jake suddenly felt as if he was being lifted up.

Yep. This was partially why some explorers call these entrances 'elevators.'

But then again, 'portal', 'gate', 'entrance', 'pillar', were commonly used to refer to these pillars of light as well.

Going up, Beetle unsheathed his short sword. Crouching down a little, this seemed to be his battle stance.

In a quick moment, a layer of teal mana covered this explorer like armor.

The mana was rather dense. It didn't take a detector to see it.

Following their group leader, Mage shyly smiled and nodded, indicating he understood the situation. A brown mana armor formed on Mage's body. This guy's armor seemed even thicker and sturdier.

Reaper put his hands onto the ground. He seemed to have entered into some form of sprint stance. Either way, the big dude did not like an athlete.

Jake took a sip of his hot coffee. As a detector, spells and mana armor were not applicable to him.

Nevertheless, as long as he didn't enter the boss room, he should be pretty much invincible in this realm. It would take a miracle for the monsters inside to even make a scratch on him.

Regarding people... Why would bronze tiers come to a small place like this?

Jake felt rather relaxed about this trip.

Casually looking up, there still didn't seem to be an end to the walls of light.

'Huh. How magical...'

On the outside...

Samantha Hudson stood by the realm entrance. Standing on her toes, the girl looked for Jake.

"Why are they still not here yet..."

Sending another text to Jake... No response.

Even though she didn't like uncle Chad's intentions, as the day neared, Samantha still changed her mind in the end.

After negotiating with her teammates for a while, Samantha opened up a spot in her squad. Just for this one time though. And this was partially due to it's the 21st. It should be much safer inside the realms already.

Nobody would take their lives lightly. Over the years, the five of them had built up fluid collaboration with each other. They knew each other's capabilities and limits well. With an exchange of eye contact, they could understand each other's intent.

Take out a critical member of the team and switch in an 'useless detector'? Permanently? No sane member would agree.

"Looks like your childhood friend might have forgotten about the final exam today." A girl in mage outfit teased Samantha.

"Perhaps he changed his mind. A show of cowardice. But understandable." A girl in knight outfit made her remark.

"Or... Do you have a crush on your detector friend?" A loli-figure blew a bubble with her chewing gum.

Pa!

Samantha punched her palm.

Pop!

The chewing gum bubble popped.

"Don't worry. Your detector friend's team-lead is the Beetle after all." Seeing that their boss was in a bad mood, the mage girl quickly changed her attitude.

"The Beetle is indeed... very strong." The knight girl nodded in confirmation.

Clenching her fists, the knight girl seemed determined. "But someday..."

"He's the third strongest in the guild right? Almost on par with you. So what's there to worry?" The loli blew another bubble.

Looking at the pillar of green light, Samantha did not look any less worried though.

Looking around, the groups of explorers were getting more and more sparse. It's clear to her that she came too late.

Lightly shaking her head, Samantha powerlessly sighed.

Too many factors to consider. Too many interests entangled together. A little too complicated. A perfect solution didn't seem to exist.

'Hopefully I'm just over-worrying about the situation...'