A second after Britney spoke, they heard the message repeated. Another second passed and they heard the message repeated again. At first the group thought that the message repeated specifically for the den they destroyed, but Sophie mentioned that the quest for the other two dens disappeared.

Sophie accepted all three of the den quests even though she knew that they could only complete one. She had accepted them all and led the group to the den that was the closest. It was the best way to make sure they arrived at a den as quick as possible and didn’t lose it to someone else like the previous den quest.

“Looks like we did all that work for nothing,” Britney said.

“We didn’t get to boost our stats, but we still earned a lot of experience and village points,” Sam said.

“Am I the only one who’s worried about the message?” Brad asked with a frown on his face. “Because of us people will be in a lot more danger during the Upheaval.”

“Don’t blame yourself,” Zane told Brad. “If we didn’t destroy the den then someone else would have. This is something the Divine Spirits wanted to happen. Otherwise, the Messenger would have warned us about it. However, now that we know about what happens when dens are destroyed, we should avoid destroying them and make sure that other people don’t destroy them either.”

“That sounds like a lot of work,” Jason said. “I’m sure everyone already saw the message. Can’t we stand aside and let someone else handle this?”

“No,” Brad answered. “We caused this so we should take responsibility. If another den quest appears we should accept it and stand outside the den to prevent anyone from entering.”

“If we spend all our time guarding the den then we would never find time to train,” Luna stated. She didn’t bother to hide her unhappiness with Brad’s idea. “All of our focus should be on increasing our own power. The more powerful we are the better we can protect ourselves and others.”

“That’s enough,” Sophie raised her hand and interrupted Brad before he could speak. “We don’t know what will happen in the future. If, new dens appear, they will appear after three days. For now, it’s best to wait and see if anyone comes up with a plan. Jason might be right. There might be other people capable of handling protecting the dens. However, if no one volunteers then we can consider stepping forward.”

The group spent a few more minutes talking before deciding to leave the former den. By the time they finished talking, the tree that they were on had lost all of its mana and no longer gave off a strong glow. The group left the area and walked down the dark passageway. However, there was a surprise waiting for them at the end.

Once they exited the passageway, they saw a group of elves waiting for them. There were ten of them and each member had the same hatred filled eyes. The intensity of hatred varied, but each elven made sure that every human saw they held no love in their heart for the human race. The moment that the group of elves saw Zane’s group they approached them and the female at the front spoke in a hostile tone.

“Hand over your points,” she said. “This den was supposed to be destroyed by us. I’ll forgive you for stealing our experience, but that’s only if you hand over all your village points. Your only other option is death.”

The elven female released a pressure that everyone recognized as a tier one expert’s presence. Zane was annoyed by the female’s actions, but he didn’t make any reactions to the pressure she released. Less than a second after she released her pressure Jason released his own. pressure. Zane smiled as he saw the face of the arrogant elven go from menacing to surprised.

Jason’s pressure was greater than the elven female. Both of their pressures were caused by their source fields. While the elven female’s source field was basic Jason’s source field was perfect. The gap between them didn’t guarantee Jason’s victory in a fight, but the pressure he released made the elven female feel like he would.

“Sorry, I don’t think I heard you,” Britney said. “You were saying something about points and death.”

“I said you have to hand over your points.” The elven female spoke with much less hostility. “All of you caused the difficulty of the Upheaval to increase when you destroyed the den. The only fair thing to do is give up your points.”

“Hmph, since the hard method won’t work you switch to the soft,” Shane said. “Our group isn’t a piece of metal that you can beat as you like.”

“I bet you this cunt doesn’t dare to make a move on us,” Britney added. “What are you going to do if we say no? Are you going to fight us or are you going to stand there and look like an idiot?”

Shane and Britney voiced the frustrations that everyone in Zane’s group felt. The elven female threatened to kill them for their village points. Weren’t they supposed to be working together to defeat the Upheaval? It was clear that the elves didn’t see them as allies and didn’t care about their lives.

The constant look of hatred and their current disrespectful action brought Zane from feeling annoyed to feeling angry. The actions of the elves would cause resentment and disunity to appear before the Upheaval arrived. Zane was sure the elves in front of him weren’t the only ones treating humans unfairly. Although Zane felt his anger rise, he didn’t let it control him. Instead of immediately lashing out he began to plan his retaliation.

“Do you want to go against everyone in the starting village?” The elven female asked with a frustrated appearance. “Your actions harmed everyone, so you have to pay the price.”

“Will the members of your race be handing over their points as well?” Sophie asked. “I’m sure you had at least one group destroy a den.”

“We don’t know what other groups are doing. Even if we did it wouldn’t change the fact that you need to pay for the harm you caused.”

“Enough. If we must pay, then we will give our points to people in charge of planning the defenses. We won’t give our points to any random person who ask for it. We certainly won’t give our points to people threatening us for them. If your done playing this game, then you can leave or stay. Either way our discussion is over.”

Zane and the others watched as the elven female’s face go through several expressions after Sophie spoke. Eventually, the elven female calmed down and went back to her normal expression, but the hatred in her eyes seemed more intense. She turned to leave and withdrew her pressure. It was at this moment that Zane begun his retaliation.

“Now,” Zane said through mental communication.

Analyze. Zane activated his analyze skill on the elven female. He knew that the difference in their tiers would make it difficult to gather information but using the skill on her would improve the level of the skill. He would then use the skill on the rest of the elves starting with the strongest and ending with the weakest.

Normally it would be very rude for Zane to use this skill on anyone he wasn’t fighting. However, the elves were rude to Zane’s group first and he decided to use this opportunity to improve his skills. He informed the others about his decision and all of them agreed that it would be a good idea. They were confident in their strength as a group, and they knew the chances of the enemy group retaliating was low.

The first use of Analyze only gave Zane a little bit of information. There was the race and level that he knew about from identify. Also, he was able to see a percentage values for the health, stamina and mana. Zane continued to use analyze on the rest of the elves and he slowly obtained more information. When he got to the last elven, he was able to make out their name and class.

Once the group was done, they started walking away. The elven female glared at them and called them a few names, but she didn’t chase after them. The group was secretly on guard against an attack, but on the surface, they acted like they didn’t care.

Eventually, the group could no longer see or hear the elven female. The group started to discuss their gains from their retaliation. Most of them gained a few levels in the analyze skill. However, the person who provided the group with the greatest benefit was Luna. She had managed to level up her skill to the point where she was able to look at the details of their race.

Race: Elven

Description: A race born from and deeply connected with nature. Their respect and reverence for the world around them has granted them great longevity.

Rewards: +4 Dex, +5 Vit, +4 Per, and +2 to all other stats per level

“Their description is about what I expected,” Frank said. “I bet they have some kind of world tree on their world.”

“Your world has information about other races?” Zane asked

“In a few fantasy stories there are descriptions of other races, but we have no way of knowing if the information is true.”

Zane shook his head in disbelief. Even though their world didn’t have magic they were able to crate stories that described different forms of magic and how those forms of magic could be used. Their world didn’t have a system, but they were able to imagine worlds that had a system that was similar to the one on this world. Zane was sure there was some hidden mystery on Frank’s world. It was the only explanation to how they had information they shouldn’t have been able to come into contact with.

“Okay what’s our next step?” Brad asked. “Are we going to kill some monsters until we reach level fifty?”

“I’m going to the shelter to train,” Zane announced. “Once my Mana Control and Mana Manipulation skills reach their max level, I plan to begin my upgrade to the next tier.”

Everyone in the group congratulated Zane on his future success. However, Jason proposed that he go to training ground for mages. There was a lot of mana there, so he could spend less time on recovery and more time on increasing the level of his skills. Zane agreed with Jason’s suggestion and decided to leave immediately. He said goodbye to the group and started making his way to the training ground.

Approaching the mage training ground from outside of the starting village, Zane saw that the exterior was the same as the warrior training ground. The interior was the same as well. There was an entrance area and two hallways that were supposed to lead to the battleground. However, when Zane walked through one of the hallways, he reached an enclosed area littered with large mana stones.

You have entered an environment saturated with mana. This environment will cause changes to any abilities that use mana and increase an individual’s mana recovery speed.

The mana stones were blue, spherical, twice as tall as Zane and emitted a large amount of mana. Zane walked across the blue stone floor while taking note of his surroundings and the people. He quickly arrived at a blue pillar that connected to a blue roof and had a stairway leading up.

Zane walked up the stairway and saw several similar floors. Each floor had multiple large mana stones and the same amount of mana in the air. Once Zane reached the fifth floor, he was unable to climb any more. Looking at the blue ceiling Zane decided to begin his training on the fifth floor. He found a quiet place to sit down and entered Meditation. With the large amount of mana available he was confident he could reach the max level for his two skills before the night was over.