After escaping the Vorrak beast that no human had ever run into before, the group had some time to wind down after that fight and time to collect their reward. The last time they had gotten a Triple ??? reward was against Darius. Yet there was a big difference with Darius—they had to take off 5% of his health, while for the Vorrak beast, they needed to kill one of them. And if it wasn't for the system space, most likely they would not have killed any of them and would've abandoned the quest altogether. But thanks to it, and thanks to Leo's newfound transformation, they were able to complete the quest.
They sent Emmett back to his dorm room, wanting him to not be there when they were claiming rewards.
[System: You have once again shown that you can do something that the system calculates as impossible. These are your new rewards.]
Instant Level Up +20.
Everyone then started to feel a change in their bodies.
⸻
Joe Cross (Level 31 ➝ 51)
• Strength: 49 ➝ 69
• Speed: 53 ➝ 73
• Durability: 47 ➝ 67
⸻
Riven (Level 36 ➝ 56)
• Strength: 53 ➝ 73
• Speed: 53 ➝ 73
• Durability: 66 ➝ 86
⸻
Jordan (Level 34 ➝ 54)
• Strength: 45 ➝ 65
• Speed: 52 ➝ 72
• Durability: 49 ➝ 69
⸻
Leo (Level 32 ➝ 52)
• Strength: 48 ➝ 68
• Speed: 46 ➝ 66
• Durability: 52 ➝ 72
⸻
Harkel (Level 32 ➝ 52)
• Strength: 54 ➝ 74
• Speed: 54 ➝ 74
• Durability: 47 ➝ 67
⸻
Tessa (Level 31 ➝ 51)
• Strength: 44 ➝ 64
• Speed: 55 ➝ 75
• Durability: 45 ➝ 65
⸻
Wren (Level 32 ➝ 52)
• Strength: 44 ➝ 64
• Speed: 53 ➝ 73
• Durability: 47 ➝ 67
⸻
Nico Grey (Level 24 ➝ 44)
• Strength: 26 ➝ 46
• Speed: 30 ➝ 50
• Durability: 43 ➝ 63
⸻
Kira Thomas (Level 16 ➝ 36)
• Strength: 24 ➝ 44
• Speed: 23 ➝ 43
• Durability: 33 ➝ 53
⸻
Luka Thomas (Level 20 ➝ 40)
• Strength: 27 ➝ 47
• Speed: 26 ➝ 46
• Durability: 25 ➝ 45
⸻
Jude Walker (Level 22 ➝ 42)
• Strength: 31 ➝ 51
• Speed: 25 ➝ 45
• Durability: 35 ➝ 55
⸻
Skye Vank (Level 17 ➝ 37)
• Strength: 20 ➝ 40
• Speed: 23 ➝ 43
• Durability: 17 ➝ 37
⸻
Riven was in amazement after all of the uncontributed stat points.
[240 uncontributed stat points in total]
"I could get that ultimate light form with this amount of points," Riven thought to himself, with no one hearing since he turned off the link. But he quickly shut down those thoughts himself.
"No, I can't spend all of this on myself. I need to spend on the others so they can build their own strength up with me. Isn't that the whole point of a party?"
[Party tab has been upgraded. New skill unlocked: Bonded Vision. This skill allows the main user to see through your bonded party member's vision.]
"That can be really helpful," Luka commented, with everyone agreeing with the boy.
[Shop tab has been upgraded. New items and potions have been added.]
They would check that out later.
[System: You are the first people of the human race to slay a Vorrak beast, and because of that, you have received special rewards.]
[Special Reward: Weapon tab upgrade. You can now put gemstones in the system, and the weapons tab will come up with an assortment of different weapons that the gemstone can be made out of.]
Everyone's eyes widened when they saw this. It meant the weapons tab could be improved even without a system reward or an awakening.
"Hey, wait a minute," Wren called out as she got the gemstone from their first outing. She kept it in a little storage spot in one of the corners of the training room. She then gave it to Riven, and then he put it into the system. When he did that, they looked through the weapons tab. There they saw—
Each weapon had something to do with the bull-like beast, with the name of the beast being an Auroklas.
The beast tier only reached up to level four and something else . They had more passive and active abilities than their usual weapons and armor sets. They then all looked for the Vorrak—it also ranged from level four to level eight, with it being that most likely, the higher the better the passive and active effects are.
Riven was going to buy a level 6 Vorrak gauntlet but realized they were almost out of system points. They only had 500 more system points, so Riven just gave up on buying the new armor for right now and just decided to look at the other new reward.
[You did not only kill a Vorrak beast, but that beast had immense hatred toward you and your newfound power. Note: Not all Vorrak hate, but after this title, they will.]
[New Title: The Vorrak's Bane. This title gives the user a 10% boost when facing a Vorrak beast, but all Vorraks in the area will have their aggro toward you and your party members.]
"Do you think you'll be able to take on a Vorrak beast now?" Harkel questioned.
"No… those things—it seemed like they were holding back, like they wanted someone or to know something…" Riven whispered the last part after looking at what the system said about the Vorrak hating his power. Or a better word is—they hated Joey's power.
After seeing that this was the last system prompt, they decided to go to the café to get lunch. While all being seated, each eating their plain lunch, a boy walked up to them. The afternoon was still a bit fresh, so it wasn't a surprise someone would be out, but the group knew who the boy was, with most of them being freshly acquainted with him.
It was Emmett. The boy looked around in nervousness, making sure no one was looking at them since a few students were still walking around and eating.
"Here," Emmett said quietly, handing Riven what looked to be a phone.
Riven took the phone.
"How do you have this? The academy takes all of our mobile devices that allow us to connect with our parents or any type of family," Tessa questioned.
"Phineas has his ways. Just take it, please," Emmett said, looking around vigorously, still trying to make sure nobody was focused on him and their group. Riven took the phone, and Emmett quickly walked away.
⸻
Four hours later, the group was in the training room, with most of them sparring with each other—mainly Leo, Harkel, Jordan, and Joey—all wanting to test out Leo's new werewolf form and what it could do.
Riven was taking a good look at the phone, looking at its black sleek design, until it suddenly started ringing out of nowhere. Riven knew that whoever was on the other line was most likely connected to the Storm Guild. The black curly-haired boy then answered the call. Everyone in the room was focused on Riven and his call instead of training.
"Hel—hello?" Riven hesitatingly asked.
"'Hello'? That's all you have to say? 'Hello'? You basically abandoned my team," a voice yelled across the phone. Not everyone knew who that voice belonged to, but some of them did.
"Phineas," Tessa called out.
"That's Guild Master Phineas to you," the yellow-haired man replied back. He seemed to be injured, recovering from a previous battle.
"I hope you don't think we really did abandon you. If we didn't leave, we would've died ourselves. Didn't Rowan tell you?"
"Yes, I know. Just pulling your chain. But hey, when do you think you can give me some of those armors and those potions?" Phineas questioned, getting right to business.
"Depends. How much units can you give me?" Riven asked back.
"Come on, I gave you a spot in the Storm Guild, and you're still asking for a price?"
"It's not about that. Everything has a cost. I need units to get the potions, armor, and weapons."
"Fine. I'll have an associate come meet you. They'll give you some units, and you better deliver with those weapons and potions."
Riven could hear the annoyance in Phineas's voice. He wondered what happened, but he didn't want to get on the bad side of a guild master. And by what Phineas had said, he had more than one spy in the academy.
"Okay. We got you," Riven replied back.
"Good," Phineas quickly said as he immediately hung up.
"He's definitely pissed at something," Riven commented. He then relayed what Phineas told him, which made everyone stop and wait for the mystery person to come. Riven told Phineas where this person could find them.
They then heard a knock at the door. Riven tried to open it but was stopped by Wren.
"Wait," Wren shouted. She pulled up her wristwatch, and they could see the outside of the training room—where a woman was just standing there, looking impatient. But by her outfit, anyone could tell she was a teacher.
"How in the world does Phineas have a teacher under his belt?" Leo said.
As Riven opened the training room door, he looked the woman in the eyes with an awkward silence, then looked around the area.
Riven didn't know what to do as the woman just stared into his eyes.
With a groan, the woman then grabbed Riven's wrist and then swiped hers above his. He then saw 200,000 units in his balance.
"Now give me the weapons and whatever," the woman asked nonchalantly.
"Give me a second." Riven quickly closed the door and started buying items. He was saddened to see the 200,000 system points go down, but he knew if he were to hold back on Phineas, the man would probably know somehow. So Riven bought tons of 2x Awakening Points and a variety of armor and weapons. The armor itself wasn't too high in level, but it was the new Vorrak armor, which had a lot of effects that Riven couldn't even read all of unless he wanted to waste the woman's time. He then also bought a new item that he saw in the system:
[Ring of Storage: This ring has an effect that allows the person to store items. It has a bigger storage space than the cloak. Press the ring on a certain item if you want it to be stored in the ring. When you tap on the ring, a list of items that is stored in the ring will show up, and when you select an item, it will bring the selected item out of the ring.]
The ring itself cost 10,000 system points, but it was a worthy cost. Riven then put all the potions, weapons, and armor that he just bought inside of this ring. When he opened the door again, the woman was confused, thinking she would have a ton of items to carry with her, having a type of small carriage in the back. But all Riven gave her was a ring. Before she could ask any questions, Riven then tapped on the top of the ring, which showed what was inside of it. The woman was shocked, not knowing anything like this even existed. She then took the ring and went away.
When Riven looked, he realized the sun was about to go down, realizing how much time truly had passed while they were inside of the training room.
"We should probably put our stuff back in our rooms now that we're back," Jude said. After seeing the sun almost down as well, everyone agreed with the girl, and they all started to get their stuff and left back to their dorm rooms.
⸻
In the Storm Guild base
Phineas was sitting at his desk. The man had what seemed to be bandages around his body, yet they were see-through and seemed to be sparkling with a type of energy. Phineas had an annoyed look on his face.
"That thing was too powerful for my group. If it wasn't for more than half of them sacrificing their lives to let us escape, we would've died back there. Is this the extent that they will take it so we won't be a part of the big families?" Phineas thought to himself. "More than half of those people were all at the third awakening, yet that dragon was able to take all of them out like we were children hitting their father. I was overconfident just because of that armor."
Phineas was disappointed in himself. Because of his overconfidence, he lost some of his people. He knew something like this would happen, which is exactly why he didn't bring most of the guild—but he did bring a small portion of the guild's strongest people, and yet they still lost.
Phineas then heard a noise. He knew this noise by heart—it was the sound of someone walking through a teleporter. When he turned, he could see the blonde-haired woman standing there with the ring in the palm of her hand.
"Why did you use the teleporter that directly linked to here? Did you already put up the weapons?" Phineas questioned.
The woman then shook her head as she tapped on the ring, which showed them an interface of weapons, armors, and potions.
"Good," Phineas said with a smile. But that same smile quickly disappeared, and then he thought to himself:
"Why is it only level five equipment?" Phineas asked himself. "They could make level six equipment as well—so why level five? Maybe the cost of level six equipment is too great for them on a mass scale, which is why there's so much level five equipment. And speaking of the equipment—I've never seen these types of beast armor and weapons. What did they come from?"
But Phineas shook his head.
"No. What The Storm Guild needs now is not for the strong to get stronger, but for the weak to get strong. And with this many awakening potions, my guild should be able to get up to the families in no time."
Phineas had a big smile on his face when he said those words.