Zone Mutation

After Greg stepped inside the zone, the scenery changed again just like before.

However, it was different from last time. As he looked around he noticed that they were standing before a huge mountain, which top couldn't be seen, because it was piercing above the clouds.

"Amazing! I wonder what creatures will we fight against here.", said Emma excitedly and started to walk toward the mountain top.

As the group of four walked on the mountain, suddenly loud wing-flapping started to sound around them.

Hearing the flap, Greg and the others stopped on their tracks and looked around.

Greg listened carefully to find out where the sound came from, but the thing was so fast that he couldn't detect the direction.

Just as he was about to say something, suddenly he saw a flash appearing before Sam. However before he could warn Sam, his body petrified, deflecting the flash in an instant.

Seeing this, Greg thought with awe, "Petrification ability. It's really useful for defense."

But he couldn't look at Sam's ability more, because a flash came toward him too. Without any hesitation, using Alice's wind ability, he disappeared from his spot and appeared a few meters away in an instant, while wielding his daggers.

*Paff*

A sound came from behind him as something fell to the ground.

Sam, Emma, and Mila were shocked to see that Greg killed the creature in an instant almost without any effort.

"A-Amazing... Is he really a black Soul Stone owner?", asked Mila with shock.

Coming back to her sense, Emma walked toward where the thing fell and saw a little body lying on the ground, her body half frozen.

"It's a fairy. They are really fast and have different kinds of abilities, but the most common power they wield is wind blades. Alone they are not terrifying, but if there are more than 10, then we will be in a dire situation. At least we are in an Awakened rank zone, so we will be okay."

Greg walked next to the dead body and saw that its body was frozen and thought, "So this is blood freezing. Really useful. I should use this more frequently."

Sam crouched down and took out a small crystal from the chest of the body and gave it to Greg.

"Here. You killed it, so naturally, it's yours."

Seeing how kind Sam was, Greg smiled and after thanking him he took it. He looked at it and saw that its size was around a small finger, while it was transparent like glass.

"Let's see if my theory is right.", thought Greg and put the crystal on the dagger.

In an instant, as he did, the crystal melted into the dagger, making the cracks disappear in an instant.

"Nice! It really worked.", said Greg and confirmed on his watch too, if the damage really repaired.

After killing the fairy, the four started to continue their way toward the top.

On their way up, they met a few more fairies, but they were killed by Greg and Mila, while Sam and Emma were on the role of defense.

Mila's Guardian was in the fire system. With it, she could fire different sized fireballs, which had a really high destructive power. Also, she could make different shaped firewalls, which helped them a lot on defense and offense. Her power was almost the best for controlling the flow of the battle.

Emma's power, on the other hand, helped in healing her injured teammates. It wasn't just common healing, however. No, it was a healing type Guardian, which could even regenerate fallen body parts after reaching higher ranks, but for now, it can only heal injuries and scars.

With her and Sam's body petrification ability, their defense was top notch, while Greg and Mila made sure to kill all the fairies on their way.

After 3 hours of fighting and walking, the four got tired and decided to stop and rest a bit.

"So, Greg. I heard that you are currently in the first place in the PGF. How does it feel?", asked Emma looking at Greg curiously.

"Well, it's only the first day and also there are more amazing students than me. There is my friend Joe too. He is a genius and I'm sure he will be the first after the end of the PGF. Now I was just lucky.", answered Greg with a smile.

Hearing this, Sam laughed and said, "Oh come on. We all saw what you can do. I don't know why your Guardian so strong, while your Soul Stone is a black one, but I think it can rival even a red colored one, if not a white."

"Yeah, Sam said it right. You are really powe-", just before Emma could finish her sentence, suddenly the whole mountain started to shake madly.

*TREMBLE!!*

"W-what the hell is happening?"

The shaking continued for about 5 minutes. After five minutes, everything turned back to normal.

As the four stood up, they looked around, but everything was the same as before.

A while later Sam frowned and asked perplexedly, "Hey? Why is it so quiet all of a sudden?"

Hearing the question, Greg noticed too that something was wrong. Everything became quiet. Too quiet.

As the four looked around, suddenly Mila looked up to the sky and in an instant, her face went pale and pointed up with shaking fingers.

"G-Guys... What the hell is that?"

Hearing Mila's terrified voice, everybody looked up and all of them stiffened in an instant.

A huge black cloud was hovering above the top of the mountain. As Greg concentrated to see what that cloud was, he noticed that wasn't a cloud at all. No, it was hundreds of fairy flying toward their direction at a rapid pace.

And what is more, their aura wasn't telling him that they were in the Awakened rank at all.

"What the hell? Why is their presence so strong suddenly?", asked Greg with a confused expression.

***

[In the Soul Association]

In a big office, a man was sitting before a computer doing his business, when suddenly the door was pushed open with a bang.

"Sir! Zone mutation occurred and people are in the zone!!"

Hearing this, the man jumped up from his seat and asked in a shocked voice, "Zone mutation? And people are in it? What is the rank of the zone?"

"It's Awakened rank, but after the mutation, it became Manifester, sir! And to make things worse the creatures in the zone are fairies, while the people who are inside are only Awakened rank ones."

Listening to this, the man ran toward his jacket and said hurriedly, "Go and bring a team. We are going there now!"

"Yes Sir!"

With that, the young man ran out of the room leaving the man in the office alone.

As he was taking his jacket on, the man started to murmur to himself angrily, "And that's why I hate people, who go inside alone without permission."