Chapter 35: Invitation

Morning arrived, the buzz on the chat channels having quieted down as most people sought to rest. Yet, the awe still lingered, both on local and global chats because of what happened during the night; even now, those who were familiar with the chat ID of celestialGoddess were still raving about having a big shot amongst them and failing to recognize him.

Damon awoke to this buzz, having slept through the whole announcement or the explosion through the windows. All he could recall was being in a dream, a dream that felt so real he confused it with what was actually reality.

Harvey filled Damon in on what had transpired; Damon recalled seeing someone with the handle celestialGoddess being active in the chats. It came to mind that he should bring in people like this to join his side. Seeing as that explosion correlates with the announcement, it was most probable that this person was either in the same city as them or in a close bordering city not far away.

Still, that could wait, as his class skill hadn’t begun to show its prowess. Mildred brought what’s left of the edible consumables to Damon, and he feasted inside the guest room, while other now awake as well in the living room, helped themselves to what’s left. Things would be different now; they all knew this; there would be no more edible consumables, and hunting these mutants would be the way.

Curious to see just how many monsters there were out there at the moment, and who was taking this trial by the horns, Damon called up the trial leaderboard. He had gone through it in passing yesterday, seeing no need to concern himself with it much, but if he were going to recruit talents, he needed to know the strong ones.

The leaderboard section seems to tally the activities of those in every nation. It is a combination of all rankers in the world. This leaderboard claims to award trialists in the top ten with corresponding rewards at the end of each trial, which lasts exactly thirty days. For now, less than a day has passed, and people are already topping the charts, recognized globally.

How this chart is tallied exactly was still unclear; all that was known was that these people were the new monsters birthed by this Apocalypse.

[Global Leaderboard Rankings]

1. Solgarde

2. AllFather

3. NaxinTheVixen

4. RainbowJubilee

5. AbyssWhisper

6. AdamWright

7. Xander

8. Newdawn

9. Katarina

10. DoubleStandard

11. Dani Wu

These were the names currently topping the charts. The lower names below the top ten change all the time, but these ones barely do at the moment, and when they do, it would be one or two stages different.

The interesting part was that neither the persons with the id’s of shybutterfly or celesstialgoddess were on this ranking. No one was sure what these rankings were based on, but the current best hypothesis was that these people were currently the strongest in the world,

There were also rumors that, apart from RainbowJubilee, who is globally recognized as a citizen of Blackridge, there were also two others in the top ten who were from Blackridge. This is an incredible achievement, since there are so many countries in the world, placing Blackridge as the second country with the most number of people in the rankings.

Damon’s wounds, though not as bad as they could have gotten, were steadily worsening, as he found it difficult to make his way to the penthouse living room even with Mildred assisting. He was paler than usual, and Harvey looked even worse. Though his left arm was bandaged after some first aid, it didn’t look like it was doing much, and since Harvey, unlike Damon, wasn’t even an awakened, the deterioration of his wounds was most severe—

Yet, he stood, never uttering a word of discomfort, and had even taken shifts with Mildred through the night, guarding him. It wouldn’t take a genius to see that he wasn’t doing well; he was almost as pale as Damon at this point.

It was only around 11 a.m.; there were still several hours before he got the returns on his investment, and Damon was hoping the time would tick by faster.

In the living room, Damon met up with Hazel, Sage, Nick, and Kora. They exchanged greetings and began to discuss their plans for the day, while Kora’s gaze was fixed on Leo, who was resting safely in Mildred’s arms.

She pouted in indignation, muttering something about Leo being unfair because of the difference in their sizes. Damon wasn’t paying much attention; he had to make up the time he had slept in for. While for the rest, the normal time to wake up was much earlier, for Damon, 11 a.m. was still much too early.

The plan they came up with was simple. Since they can’t remain in the uppermost floors of the penthouse for two reasons: one because of the danger Brad poses, and two, and most importantly, because they were too far off and cut off from the current source of resources, which were mutants.

They needed to descend the lower floors and claim cleared rooms progressively as they descended lower in a systematic manner, gathering origin crystals for sustenance and growing stronger as they progressed lower.

The plan was to eventually settle into one of the lowest floors’ apartments; in case this entire building one day becomes an inescapable tomb surrounded by mutants, they should be closer to the exit. This also applies in case any much more surprising threats occur.

The goal of their group was to eventually make it to one of the least infested areas in neighboring cities or states, but at the moment, they would have to make do with securing this building and also securing a most advantageous position which is not so high up that they can’t escape and are cut off from mutants to hunt, and not so low on the ground that they are in danger from said mutants.

With the plans set and the students mustering all the courage they can, they just needed to wait until the evening to make their move, since Damon told the group that they would be in better shape by then.... Which was confusing to them, but none bothered to ask.

A few extra hours passed with everyone making preparations, including Nick, who, though he was the most afraid, was also the only awakener in their group as far as they knew.

All of a sudden, Damon received a most concerning notification, as did every other person in the penthouse—

[Orcula has sent an invite to join the group, ’The Grand Residents’.....]

[Accept ?]