Level 10

Green aura spread from the 'Trinkets of Vitality'. The effects were very evident as my previous tiredness was replaced by a refreshing energy that felt like it would last for an eternity.

Trinkets Of Vitality (Equipment)

Blessed by Udea, the goddess of vitality, this equipment holds the ability to increase the user's vitality by 100% when equipped. When equipped, vitality regeneration is boosted by 150% during battle and 200% when resting.

Another set of notifications bombarded my inbox as soon as I equipped the trinkets.

Hidden Requirements are met!

Congratulations to being the first to obtain a Blessed Equipment!

Hidden Information about the Trinkets of Vitality has been made open to you for meeting the hidden requirements.

I immediately opened the information tab of my new equipment to check on the hidden information that wasn't available before. The contents on the equipment didn't change much except for the addition of a new paragraph at the end.

Trinkets of Vitality (Equipment)

Being the bearer of the only equipment to be blessed by the goddess of vitality, unlocks the vitality stat.

Requirement: Possess an active skill that heavily consumes energy belonging to an A- grade or above.

'A new stat unlocked?' Along with the massive boost in my energy reserves, the trinkets also unlocked the vitality stat for me. Now, I can increase my vitality stat to gain more time on 'Lightning Steps' without having to go through tedious processes to increase my stamina.

I went back to my interface to check up on the new stat. I had to find out how many points were in the stat and also if it was a stat that I could increase using stat points.

I didn't want a repeat of my mana stat. Even after obtaining such amazing skills and the low amount of mana not affecting me in any manner whatsoever, I still hated the fact that my mana stat was so ridiculously low.

Perhaps, the reason I got an energy-based stat was also due to this limitation of my body. If what I observed was correct, the system had a wide criterion on deciding the type of skill or equipment to reward, excluding the grade of the reward, all the rewards seem to somehow agree with the person it was given to.

A lot of research can be done about the system but that was a story for later. As of now, we had two goals.

Safely make it out of the barrier stage and try to maximise the benefits by levelling up as much as we could in this stage. Once the barriers open up, we would be facing more than just abominations and immature brats, so we had to get ourselves prepared for it.

I checked my interface to study the alignment of my stats.

LVL. 15

Daniel H Martinez

HP: 100%

MP: 100%

Stats

Strength (STR) – 37

Agility (AGI) – 34

Intelligence (INT) – 83

Mana – 4

Vitality – 40 (-> 80)

Skills +

Equipment +

Inventory +

I was very satisfied with my vitality stat, the number of points in it was fairly high and I don't think I would have to worry too much about it as long as I equip the 'Trinkets of Vitality', which placed my vitality at a whopping 80 points.

Even though I still couldn't get a proper measure of all the stats and the corresponding values, I could deduce that the average cap for the physical stats was around 30 for the human race. And my vitality was far higher than the norm coming second only to my intelligence stat. The intelligence stat was probably the most eluding stat for me as of this moment. I had no clue as to its identity nor its application.

It was the end of our resting time. I looked at the others who were sitting in their own positions, leaning back and relaxed.

"Time's up!" I announced, getting up. "We're going to start levelling up from now on."

The four of us gathered near one of the doors to discuss our plans.

"What are we going to do now? Are we going to join the student council in the third year's building?" Ben asked, with a hint of disinclination to the act in question.

"No." Mr. Haley immediately rejected the thought as soon as the question was thrown out.

He seemed to have some story with the student council, the president, to be precise, but it was the exact decision I had come to, so I didn't bother asking him about his situation.

"Do we really have to find those things voluntarily? Isn't it enough that we are safe now?" Ben asked, probably imagining a situation like the horde, but all he got was a sharp "Yes!" from me.

"So, where are we going to go? Isn't it safer to gather a few more people like they suggested?" Abigail asked, bobbing her head to the right, with confusion visible in her eyes.

"To the ground. That's the best place for us to level-up." Mr. Haley was quite quick on the uptake.

He seemed to have realised the importance of gaining levels at this moment and already found the best place for it.

"R-Right." I said, stuttering at the sudden abbreviation of my plans.

"We're going to the grounds to level-up. We will be picking the smaller groups of abominations to deal with them as fast as possible. It's going to be important to level-up fast now, and moving in larger groups will take us a lot of time to gain levels." I spoke.

This was the time for me to inform them of one of the main reasons to level up in a hurry.

"At level 10, we will get another reward. I am not sure if it depends on speed or the performance, but we will need all of us to get there as soon as possible to get better rewards, and we will have to do it before the student council."

The three had mixed faces at the mention of the rewards obtained at level 10. Mr. Haley was looking at me with a questioning and intrigued look. Ben was clearly excited about the rewards and Abigail was nervous about her performance after hearing the importance of the opportunity.

"We'll do fine as long as we don't attract a lot of them. It's going to be easy for us now." I said, throwing a small glare at Mr. Haley for his previous battle conduct. "Let's head out then. Ben, we'll move with you in the lead and me and Mr. Haley at the rear."

They nodded as they moved out of the room through the door. Just as Mr. Haley was leaving, I caught his hand, and whispered in a serious tone, "Remember, we're going for a fight. It's not a stage for you to take your time. Do your best and do it fast."

He looked me in the eyes for a moment before freeing his arm and exiting through the door. I don't know how much of it he would listen to, but I hoped that this would be enough for now.

________ ________

The sun was slowly setting. The four of us were filled with scrapes and bruises. It had been more than 4 hours since we started to hunt these monsters.

In the beginning, we were able to find isolated groups with less than 5 monsters pretty easily, but as time went on and their numbers reduced, they slowly started to group together.

We weren't the only ones who were fighting in the grounds though, we encountered two other parties along with a few members from the student council as well.

However, all of them went back to their safe hideouts to rest and take shelter for the night. They didn't bother us during our fights and we didn't intervene in theirs. We were under observation for the first few minutes every time a new party set its eyes on us but they left after watching the fight for a few minutes.

The main party of the student council seemed to have found another hunting ground as I couldn't find them anywhere close to our location. Can't say that I didn't expect this, but it was surprising to see them leave us alone. A perk of banding with Mr. Haley, obviously, but it was surprising nonetheless.

I've heard of several rumours surrounding Mr. Haley and his gang of bullies but I couldn't see any of them in sight while their head was fighting on the front lines.

The fights were slowly getting tougher. The abominations were getting more stable and stronger. Abigail said that this was because the mana in our surroundings was slowly getting accumulated as a part of our natural environment.

This was thanks to her new reward, 'Eye of Mana'.

It was a locket in the shape of an eye, that increased her control and sense over mana to perform more detailed applications of her spell, 'HEAL'.

I have to say that in the four of us, Abigail was the one who achieved the most in these four hours of hunting. She seemed to have a natural gift towards mana control which was further enhanced by her skill, HEAL, and her equipment, 'Eye of Mana'.

She was now able to perform more detailed variants of her spell and she was getting better at it after every use. She was also the first of the three to reach level 10, due to her constant use of her skill, I presume, as should be by her role as a healer. It was quite the shock for me as I expected Mr. Haley to be the one to reach level 10 after me due to his high number of kills, but he only reached level 10 a few monsters after Abigail.

Abigail reached level 10 after she discovered a more efficient way to heal a target by minimalizing the amount of mana required. She was the second in our zone to reach level 10 and received a very enticing reward for her performance.

Mr. Haley was fifth in the zone and Ben took quite a bit of time adjusting to his new role but reached level 10 an hour before now.

We were now completely in the ten's and with renewed vigor, had just finished one of the biggest groups of abominations left in the grounds.

Now, there were only 3 groups of abominations left, but they were slowly getting closer to each other and it would be a little too much for us to handle in the night.

With the stabilisation of mana, the abominations would only get stronger, and we didn't know what would happen when the night arrives.

Because the night was usually an ally of the monsters!