Chapter 20 - Dream

Rynold was still busy collecting the loot and didn't even notice what Jack did. But, unexpectedly, Jack didn't keep it for himself and gave it to Rynold instead. Jack secretly hoped that, by doing this, he could get Rynold's trust since he acknowledged the guy's leadership.

On the other hand, Rynold didn't even notice what went on and focus on his precious loot with an enthusiastic shine on his eyes. Like a pirate looking at his precious treasure.

Regardless, the drops don't look that exciting since they're not really special equipment that would boost their power significantly. The drops were more of the ones they got from the low-leveled ghouls back then, only something of lower quality.

Some basic spells here and there that's capable of boosting a spellcaster's skill list to eleven if Mana weren't an issue. Regardless, the drops were still welcome and practical in more ways than one. Out of all the things that he got, his eyes gazed at something that made it all worth it.

[Attachment: Grapple]

Attachment Equipment

An item that needs to be attached to different equipment. This grapple can serve multiple uses such as transversing and control.

Looking at the item description, Rynold knew that this attachment can be used for nearly any sort of equipment. Although a grappling helmet would look incredibly ridiculous, Rynold had better ideas for where it would go.

He pulled the attachment from his inventory and held it in his hand. He then tried to put it on his Mana Gauntlets and hoped that it would work. He willed it to work.

Since he and his Mana Gauntlets have a Mana Bond, the connection between Rynold and his weapons was basically unbreakable. What's more is that they share a strong connection and when Rynold wanted to attach the grapple to his weapons, it was almost instantaneous.

With a loud click, the attachment fitted on top of the left gauntlet, making it look like the attachment was made for it. With that, Rynold tried to test it out but before anything else, a new window popped out.

[Weapon Information Updated!]

[New Weapon Skill Added to Weapon <Mana Gauntlets>]

Attached Active Skill: Grapple

- Shoots out a grapple to a target, movement depends on how the user would manipulate the grapple. Limited to one grapple at any given time.

'Hmm... that makes sense,' Rynold thought. The window was straightforward and the grapple just depends on how he would use it in the future. It was useful in a lot of different scenarios and it looked like there was no cooldown but it was only limited to one grapple shot at a time.

Rynold shot the grapple at one of the walls of the cave and a metal hook came out with a low-grade mana string. Instead of a typical rope, the mana string was around the same thickness as a regular rope but it was virtually made of pure mana instead, making it relatively unbreakable.

The hook sank into the wall, making an indent in the wall. Rynold tried to pull back the grapple only for him to get stumped since the grapple didn't even move at all. 'Wait a minute.'

Rynold thought of what wanted to happen instead. He tried to will the grapple to retract the mana string and it worked. The gauntlets retracted the rope and pulled Rynold to where the grapple was situated at.

Happy with how it turned out, Rynold checked the other loot meanwhile the rest of the crew wasn't doing anything to note of. They're just resting while Oliver was brandishing his dagger and cleaning off the blood from the spider drones.

The other loot was mostly just random spells here and there. There were some physical skills involved and other random blunt and useless weapons that make the Wooden Staff look like a precious artifact. Regardless, Rynold threw most of the spellbooks on the ground and told the others to take their picks.

Oliver chose some basic physical skills that would help him in close-quarters combat like Chop and Pinpoint Weakness which sounds basically what it is. Pretty straightforward. Skye, on the other hand, chose one support spell among the midst. Elle, unexpectedly, chose status debuff skills that work against opponents. Slow and Bind which only works on lower-level targets.

Jack stood at the back, unsure if he should help himself. Rynold motioned him to come onto the pile of spellbooks, or what was left of it. He chose some tracking skills that focus on targeting and perception on different targets, basically perfect for sniping and ranged attacks.

Now that the spellbooks were, for lack of a better term, distributed, the group left the cave from whence they came in and headed back into the suburban side of Ark City.

It was now dusk outside. The sun was setting and the group decided to head back to the house where they stayed the night before. The group finally settled down after a long day. Rynold was recapping what happened that day and thought about how what happened in the study. It was practically Rynold's nightly habit at this point to think of what happened during the day.

Oliver was accompanying Skye to settle back into the house only for him to be constantly distracted because of Jack. The young soldier still hadn't earned the amateur assassin's trust. Oliver practically had to keep an eye open for the entire night.

Regardless, the group was tired because of the fight that happened when they tried to leave the cave. It was natural to be tired after the whole mess and Jack settled back into the couch. Elle took to one of the rooms while Skye and Oliver took a master bedroom. Rynold also rested on another couch, his eyes heavy from fatigue.

Rynold finally managed to fall asleep from the two long days that they had.

A hand reached out to him in his sleep. The hand was unfamiliar but warm and welcoming, like a father holding a young child in his arms. The dream wasn't something that seemed to come from someone's subconscious but it felt a lot more real.

The hand reached out and called out Rynold's name. Its voice was deep and wise like — like it was an all-powerful being.

"Rynold, you are being watched. I came here to warn you for you are gaining strength at an exponential rate. We need to watch beings like you. Beings that have great potential."

The imposing voice warned Rynold but the message was clear and it sounded genuine more than anything else. When Rynold tried to reply, however, his voice couldn't come out. His mouth was moving but no words were coming out.

Rynold tried to keep asking the being about what's going on but he was stumped. He was annoyed but he kept trying. In the end, he could only look at the being before him but his face was distorted. He couldn't make out the expression that the messenger carried but its presence kept Rynold stunned at the godly being before him.

"Hmm...? Trying to make out who I am, huh? Don't worry, I'm on your side," the being said with a slightly mocking tone. "After all you found my old study. Granted, that place was the one that I had when I first started out but you were lucky to find one."

'What?' Rynold looked out in surprise.

"Ah," the being let out a laugh. "Surprised? Don't worry you can have the things I left behind, although they're not really useful since I abandoned the place when I got a lot more famous."

'This guy...' Rynold was somewhat annoyed at how the guy was so arrogant but it somehow seemed like he has every right to be. Regardless, he let the guy ramble on.

"Don't worry little man, I'm at least a part of this for the long run. You would think the other guys shared the same sentiment since we started this whole thing but these idiots are just having fun with whatever."

'Well, that makes sense,' Rynold was thinking that the only guys who were responsible for the whole New World event were because of these guys. 'This guy's a god.' The explanation confirmed his suspicions but what was this guy the god of?

"Anyway, I'm saying things I shouldn't but I can trust you, right? Otherwise, I'll kill you." Rynold let out a small expression of fear. "HAH! I'm just kidding, little man. We can't really interrupt directly, per se. Anyway, time for you to wake up now."

The being clapped his hands and jolted Rynold awake. He stood up right away from lying down on the couch and almost made Jack crap himself. It was well into the day when he woke up and the rest were mingling down in the living room.

"Finally awake, huh?" Oliver said. "We tried waking you up but you wouldn't so we just let you sleep. We were making enough noise that would wake you up normally but it wasn't enough."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm good," Rynold smiled at the eating Oliver.