"Why is the event still ongoing? With the defeat of the guardian, it's pretty much concluded."
Mason asked with a puzzled expression. There was no point in the sigil as it wasn't real. Leaving the kids to fight amongst themselves would only leave bitter feelings behind.
"Strength isn't enough as a hunter, you should know that. It's better to know who you're working with right now than out there.
"There's also a reward the sigil gives."
Zol explained not interested in watching the kids fight. He did, however, agree with Alex claiming the sigil. After all, he knew how the sigil was claimed.
Mason grunted. "I know that already. And there should be plenty of collected data on the student characters already, no?"
Zol didn't respond to that and Mason took the silence as acknowledgement.
"Whatever, Alex should come out already. I wanna talk to him!" He felt excited about asking Alex what he did with his mana. It could change the way hunters did things.
It was among the many reasons he came to see Alex and it was already proving to be a good decision!
Zol just glanced at his excited demeanor resembling a child about to get a new toy. Of course, he was excited to talk about the new discovery that had nothing to do with his void energy.
A small smile graced his stoic expression and was quickly wiped off when an explosion rang from the display.
......….
*BOOM!*
"Ahh…!"
The moment Kenneth touched the sigil, it exploded in his face and the shockwave sent him and everyone else flying.
Soon, groans of pain and curses rang out from the students, but Kenneth had it worse as he was right in the face of the explosion.
"What the hell…?" Kenneth muttered in dizziness.
Everything was blurry and his ears ringed with a high-pitched sound. He shook his head and then looked around at the others.
"You moron. You could have gotten us killed!"
Zen exclaimed in righteous fury, his eyes almost spewing flames at Kenneth. He was one step away from going over there and whacking him till he returned to his senses.
'The idiot reminds me of me and knowing that was how I sounded is just… pathetic.' He gritted his teeth looking at Kenneth as Philip held him back from doing anything against him.
"Just forget it. No one was seriously injured. I think the sigil did that because it wasn't for Kenneth to claim."
Alex turned around as his gaze lingered on the still dizzy Kenneth. The others turned to look at him and noticed how he appeared to be unaffected by the explosion.
They watched as Alex slowly moved towards the sigil with a serious expression. This time, they didn't dare follow behind him, fearing another explosion might happen.
Alex stopped right before the floating sigil. He raised his right hand and slowly moved it towards the sigil as the others watched on with hitched breaths, not even realizing what they were doing.
'Here goes nothing.'
The moment Alex touched the sigil, its white light grew with increasing intensity, forcing every to avert their gaze with discomforted grunts.
When the light faded, everyone was gone.
......….
Alex slowly opened his eyes in the familiar space he always saw when he entered the VR and was quickly followed by the recounts of the events that happened.
"Hmm… This is getting old." He muttered once he recalled everything. The trials he took, the actions he took and the decisions he took; all came back.
But then before him was the sigil he claimed right before he was brought in here. He tilted his head in confusion, observing the still-glistening sigil.
"Maybe the last reward?"
It was the only thing he could think of as there was no reason for the sigil to follow him here. Then he reached out for it and the moment it did, it exploded like a lucky draw box with glitters and ribbons.
"Oh… okay."
He smiled brightly looking at the large digit before his eyes. The last prize was a large sum of money. It was an amount he didn't think he would be seeing anytime soon.
"It's a welcome change though. With this, I can relieve some of the burden on my family." He muttered with a profound gaze.
After receiving the prompt of the money transfer, Alex quickly exited the VR world with a happy smile.
'Things are looking good~'
Alex's brow furrowed when he opened his eyes to the bright blue skies instead of the cold and lifeless ceiling of the combat systems. However, he quickly realized why, pushed the thought to the back of his mind and stepped out.
He didn't feel any fatigue he expected to feel after activating another weird power boost. But the weakness never came. Instead, he felt more energetic than usual.
He could feel the mana within him active, yet it wasn't flowing through his mana channels. He even attempted to channel the mana but to no avail.
'Hmm… Maybe a bit of void energy would do the trick.' He hypothesized and was about to implement that when an obvious clearing of the throat woke him from his thoughts.
He raised his head to meet the familiar face of Hunter Zol, but what greeted him instead was another figure just as famous.
"L-lord..Mason…?"
He muttered in shock and disbelief. Lord Mason was the last person he expected to see, considering he was in another region of the same sector.
"Hello there, Alexander. We finally meet."
Mason smiled with a simple wave. He made sure to appear as welcoming as possible as most people turned to freeze whenever they saw him up close and personal.
Alexander was someone he was curious about and didn't want to have a stiff relationship with. After all, with his new discovery, things were about to get rowdy.
However, there was something he wanted to test out of curiosity. It stemmed from a question he had ever since he and the others fought that 'Class S' void creature along with the visitor.
Zol would certainly not tell him, so he could only result to that.
'Sorry in advance, kid.'