Chapter 139: Chapter 139- Next Step
Chapter 139: Chapter 139- Next Step
After that, Hyun-Jae quickly prepared herself and left the tent to get some breakfast. Her back injury was still in bad shape. But, she was able to move around fairly easily.
With some estimation, Hyun-Jae was almost sure that she can make a full recovery in a few days at most. Her healing abilities had increased by leaps and bounds after the last battle and so her recovery rapidly increased.
Not only her healing abilities, but all her other stats have gone through a drastic change.
As she was walking, Hyun-Jae opened her stats to check what it looked like currently.
[Ran Hyun-Jae-
Level: 22
Dimension: Low-D (Access to other dimensions restricted. Reach level 25 to unlock.)
Class: Soul Eater (Locked)
Strength: 60 (+10)- Agility: 70 (+10)- Stamina: 59 (+10)- Health: 61 (+10)- Aetheris: 52 (+10)
Free Points: 8
Skills: Lightning Manipulation- Sword Master- Star Aura- Sharp Eye]
Reading through her stats, Hyun-Jae nodded with a satisfied look on her face. She had grown a lot ever since the integration started and seeing the result of her hard work right now was really pleasant.
'My skill arsenal is also getting better.' She thought to herself.
Her main skill 'Lightning Manipulation' was by far the most important. It had so much destructive power and could even be used to boost her speed. Hyun-Jae was certain that with time, she was going to discover more and more ways she could use it in battles.
The skill 'Sword Master' gave her swordsmanship a great boost and gave any sword she handled a percentage-based increase in strength, sharpness, and speed. As for 'Star Aura', it was a passive skill that gave her aura the ability to hide from monster senses.
It didn't work for stronger enemies, but it was perfect against weaker monsters, giving her a huge advantage even against an entire horde of enemies. Finally, 'Sharp Eye' boosted her vision and gave her the ability to subtly see silhouettes behind walls.
It was a very good arsenal of abilities that could be used for almost all situations.
'I still require a defensive ability. But, I couldn't find a good one so far.'
Sighing to herself, she reached the other side of the camp where a small tent was set. It was the location where all the planning and decisions happened. There, she found Talon, Chin-Hwa Go Young-Soon, and a few other students waiting.
"Good morning, president."
"Good morning. How is everyone doing?" She asked as she sat down on one of the chairs. On the table was a rough map of the city they were using to map their future plans.
"They're doing as best as they could," Young-Soon replied with a tired tone.
"..." Hyun-Jae nodded her head silently. "We can't really remain here for longer. Students need food and medicine."
"The weather is also too cold and it's affecting us." Another student commented.
Since the end of the expansion, the weather has been getting worse drastically. The temperature plummeted to the point where students were freezing even next to the fire.
However, since they had nowhere to hide from the cold, it affected their sleep and consequentially made working even harder.
"We should really consider starting the moving process," Chin-Hwa said. "Even with injured students. More students will fall sick because of the weather and hunger. At least, if we reach the warehouse, we're guaranteed warmth and food."
The other students listened to his words and nodded their heads. They could see the point Chin-Hwa was trying to make and they honestly agreed with it. Leaving this place was just that attractive of an idea.
'He is still stuck on that idea.' Talon squinted his eyes as he looked at Chin-Hwa silently.
Even though they had just talked about it and he made it clear how dangerous it was to move with dozens and dozens of injured students. But, Chin-Hwa didn't seem to agree with him at all.
"As I said before, that won't work. It's too much risk for too little of a return."
"Many are going to die here if we stay." Chin-Hwa retorted with a serious tone.
"Even more are going to find themselves in the jaws of monsters if we leave with almost a hundred injured students," Talon replied.
"It's not for certain. If we map our path well enough, we can avoid monsters."
"How are you going to do that with basically no knowledge of the outside world? Unless you can predict where monsters could be at any given time, then sure, we can go with your idea."
Words went back and forth between the two as the tension grew inside the tent. Because he was getting annoyed, Talon's aura was leaking and it put a huge pressure on the other students. They felt as if an invisible weight landed on their shoulders.
'The leader is pissed…' They thought with pale expressions.
However, even then, Chin-Hwa didn't back down. "President, please tell him. He doesn't seem like he's aware of how gravely dangerous it is for us to stay here even if it was for a few more days."
"I don't need to be told. I already know that it's dangerous. But, I know for certain that if we go out and end up facing a horde of monsters, most students won't be able to fight them."
What the other students weren't aware of that Talon knew was that the expansion had made monsters evolve way faster. Most students won't be able to keep up with this drastic change and will have to take some time adapting to it.
'I can't let that happen.' Talon frowned as he thought to himself. 'Too many already died. We can't let any more of them die.'
Even in their current position, Talon was devastated by the huge losses of lives they had during the battle. These were students with families and loved ones waiting for them somewhere. He didn't know how he was going to face their families if he found them.
Perhaps his past self would've taken this risk, but not now when he felt like he was carrying the burden of many dead souls. The more he thought about it, the more darkness he felt in his heart and the more his aura leaked without him being aware of it.
No one inside the tent dared to speak at that moment as they felt deep coldness fill their bodies. Even Chin-Hwa went silent when he realized that Talon wasn't acting normally.
Everyone except for one single person…
"Talon?" Hyun-Jae called his name with a noticeably softer tone than her usual one.
"Hm?" The young man looked up, shaking those thoughts away.
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. My apologies." Retracting his aura back, he sighed. "I was thinking for a moment."
Hyun-Jae looked at him confusedly for a second. She could sense the disturbance in his thoughts at that moment and it alerted her. Talon wasn't the type to worry for no reason, after all.
'Does he know something?' She asked herself. 'I should probably ask him later.'
"Ok, it seems talking won't solve this. We can't take this decision ourselves either. So, our only choice is to simply try both ideas." Hyun-Jae said after a moment of thinking.
"Both? What do you mean?" Chin-Hwa asked confusedly.
The rest of the students looked at each other, trying to understand what she meant.
"Oh, wait… Hyun-Jae, you mean…?" At that moment, Talon's eyes shone with a hint of understanding.
The girl nodded her head. "We will go out, scout the area, and see if there are any noticeably dangerous hordes of monsters roaming the place. If we find anything dangerous, we can simply wait till everyone is ready and then move. But, if we don't, we will have to start moving as soon as possible to take that opportunity. What do you think?"
Talon stared at her for a moment before he smiled slightly. He knew that she was going to resort to such a solution. "Hitting two birds with one stone… Ok, we can try that."
Even though the risks were still there, this plan could diminish the possibility of any accident happening.
"I don't mind either." Chin-Hwa nodded his head.
"What about you?" Her eyes wandered to the rest of the students.
"That sounds like a good idea."
"I'm also in."
"We can try that. Definitely a good idea."
Seeing that everyone was on the same ground, Hyun-Jae nodded her head with a satisfied look.
"Ok, this ends the meeting. Everyone, get back to work. Even if the scouting mission ends up with a failure, we still need to get ready to move any moment."
"Yes, ma'am!"
With that, the students left the tent to go back to work, leaving only Talon, Hyun-Jae, and Chin-Hwa.
"You're definitely better than me when it comes to making such decisions." Talon rubbed his head.
If it was him, he would've probably insisted on his idea and went with it. But, Hyun-Jae naturally knew how to deal with different opinions clashing against each other. She had been the student council president for three years for a reason, after all.
That reason was: She was naturally gifted when it came to convincing people.
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