The argument finally ended when Lina stepped in and convinced Ronan.
As the sun rose up the next day, everyone was already awake and prepared, and there was also an update in his stats panel after reaching level ten in the middle of the night.
Ren took a deep breath, glancing at his stats one final time before departing.
｢Name: Ren
Level: 10
Bloodline: Heir of Oblivion
Strength:26~>30
Agility:18~>20
Vitality:14~>16
Stamina:18~>20
Mana:16~>20 — [20/20]
Spirit Power:99
Skill: Oblivion Series｣
'What's this?' Surprised, Ren focused on the skill he had received and a new prompt expanded before his eyes.
---
" OBLIVION SERIES "
Type: Inherent Skill
Progression: Chapter 1
Ash Manipulation: Grants dominion over residual remains of destruction.
Allows manipulation of ash, smoke, and lingering cinders born from combustion.
---
"Wha…?" A little confused, Ren read the skill again to make sure he wasn't seeing it wrong.
"The fuck is this?" A vein bulged on his neck as his left eye twitched with irritation. He couldn't even imagine how manipulating burnt ashes could help him. And the thing that frustrated him the most was that it was an inherent skill.
'Aren't the inherent skills supposed to be powerful in games? What the hell will I do with this shit? Build funeral decorations?'
But he knew complaining was useless. Sighing to himself, Ren shifted his focus to something else.
'My spirit power is going to reach a hundred soon.'
He was curious to see what would happen when it crossed the hundred mark, because all the spirit power ever did was give him a headache.
'Nonetheless, it shouldn't be something bad like this useless ash manipulation,' thinking to himself, Ren finally finished sharpening his axe and adjusted it in place on his back.
Then, he went to see the rest of them and found Lina already standing near the place where they set their bonfire daily in the evening.
"Fully prepared, aren't we?" Ren teased seeing how she had tightly gripped the shield and sword in each hand respectively despite being still inside the village.
Lina looked up at him, and without bothering to give any remark, spoke in a heavy tone.
"Caleb's condition is not completely fine. Even if the bleeding stops, it would be tough for him to fight. We will need to take turns protecting him in case of some danger."
Ren's playful demeanor slowly vanished as he listened to her. He nodded seriously, "Don't worry. We won't let anything happen to him."
Lina looked at him for a moment, and sighed. She knew how hard things were now due to Caleb's injury.
Not only did they lose someone who could fight, but they also gained a liability. Still, they were close friends from childhood and won't let him die here while escaping by themselves.
Lina was lost in her thoughts, while Ren was thinking about their chances of survival.
'I have reached level ten, with my strength stat increasing at double the pace of others, I should almost be equivalent to a level twenty awakener.'
The system termed them differently, the denizens of Ashenhold were termed as awakeners while Ren was referred to as a player by the system.
And he still hadn't heard any news from either Shrike or Fleshcleaver.
"I just hope they are not trapped somewhere." That was the only thing Ren was worried about because he was still able to sense their life force and knew that they weren't in any kind of mishaps or danger.
"Who are trapped?" Evan asked suddenly from behind.
Ren's eyes widened as he jumped away.
'When did he get behind me?' Ren was about to ask but stopped seeing Ronan and Caleb heading towards them.
Caleb looked a little weird with his left sleeve fluttering in the wind while his right one was normal like the others. He was now walking fine without the help of Ronan unlike yesterday.
His face bore a calm smile which showed he was fine, at least on the surface.
"Looks like he had stabilized himself, for now."
Evan nodded at Lina's remark but his gaze kept darting back to the forest. Ren noticed him and asked if there was some sort of issue.
"Oh, it's nothing." Evan dismissed it saying he was just a little worried.
Ren didn't question him further.
Whereas Caleb chatted with Evan for a bit, Ronan was standing by himself with a pained look on his face.
'He is still feeling guilty about Caleb.' Ren knew, but he didn't step forward to console him.
As the group had finally gotten together, Evan took a deep breath as if preparing for his last battle.
This confused Ren even further because he still didn't know anything about the path they had to tread and why he was worried so much.
'He's hiding something.' Ren scrutinized him with a narrow gaze but couldn't deduce anything.
He was neither a psychologist nor someone who could read behaviour just by looking at one's body language.
As the group ventured into the forest, they all kept a close distance from each other while moving forward to prevent any unfortunate situations from happening. They knew all too well about how the stronger and smarter vermins could ambush them.
Especially Caleb.
They moved further and further away from the village when a sudden streak of light shot towards the sky in multiple directions as a message appeared in front of everyone.
[Grace period over. All beginner safe zones have been removed.]
Before Ren could snap out of it, Evan suddenly alerted the group.
"There are four of them ahead."
Evan glanced back and advised Ronan to keep watch on Caleb. And with Ren and Lina's help, he finished them off efficiently.
While venturing forward, Ren asked some details about what lay ahead.
And what he heard left him speechless.
'So we have to cross a bridge, and the hordes of zombies are on this side of that bridge?'
Ren furrowed his brows, as he couldn't understand why those vermins hadn't crossed it.
Obviously, they wouldn't have been able to find any humans to feed upon in this forest so they should have already moved ahead.
"Maybe I am just too worried due to the pressure."
Shaking his head, he stopped thinking about it any further and focused his gaze on the forest.
The further they went inside, the denser the forest became. The vines were now as thick as a leg, and were long enough to touch the ground. The floor was covered with green moss spreading around in every direction as the number of trees increased.
Ren felt a bad premonition in his heart. But he wasn't the only one, everyone felt the same way.
Hesitant, Ren asked in a low voice, "Was this forest always like this?"
"No, maybe the mutation had accelerated the vines to grow further," Lina explained while moving cautiously through the vines sprawled across the ground, trying to avoid stepping on them.
As the group finally reached the deepest part of the forest, walking together had become troublesome due to the rich vegetation.
"We will have to move separately or at the very least in groups of tw—" Evan spoke but his steps and voice came to a halt the second next.
"Hmm? What happened?" Lina asked but received no reply.
Evan stood frozen, horrified to see dozens of vermins ahead. But that alone wasn't the reason he was terrified. He already knew a horde was awaiting them.
But what he didn't expect was for them to have mutated enough to hang on the vines like monkeys.
And there were many of them, hanging and swinging from one vine to another like they were born here.