The location was a section of their private school that contained the indoor tennis courts. At the center of the indoor facility was a sparkling tear in space, but it was constrained to an orb that hovered above an altar.
A Godsfall Skills Hub.
They came in two forms: Permanent Hubs and Temporary Hubs. The former could even be moved assuming the right conditions, while the latter could only be used a limited number of times.
Though Temporary Hubs could likewise be moved, it was usually not worth it unless it was a truly high-class skill or resource involved. In this case, the scouting skill that Zarek was aiming for was excellent in the early game, but come four to six months from now, everyone would have a version.
Zarek didn't plan on building a team in the short term, so the effort of finding the resource he would need to move it wasn't worth it.
But while Zarek was looking at this Godsfall Skills Hub as though it was a casual piece of meat on a chopping block, there was another group that saw its existence as a matter of life and death.
They didn't have Zarek's foreknowledge. All they knew was that this hub was special and just might give them a chance to turn the situation completely around.
…
"We need to move. We're wasting too much time."
"We're already the second team they've sent. What do you think happened to the first? Do you want to end up like them?"
"It's almost night, dammit. How much time do you want to waste? What if the last team got wiped because they were stupid enough to get caught beneath the blood moon?"
A silence fell after this was said, hesitation hanging in the air.
The team was a group of six. They had rifles strapped to their backs and a pair of guns on their hips—not to mention a number of bullets in their packs they didn't even bother to count.
If Zarek had seen such a thing, he would have certainly shaken his head. This was the sort of wastefulness you could expect in the first few days of the Godsfall.
Sending a team ahead with this many resources, after having already lost one in similar fashion, could cost you all of that and more.
"What do you think, Malik?"
Five of them turned to one man with a pair of stone-cold blue eyes. There was an odd frizziness to his almost orange hair, one made weirder by the fact he had certainly not dyed it. Yet, it had been a few decades since the last time someone dared make fun of his hair color.
Had that landed him in juvy on more than one occasion? Sure.
But now those violent tendencies were more of a feature than a bug given the change in the world and the line of work he had been in even before all of this.
"Brass is right." Malik eventually said in a gruff voice, taking a long swig of a cigarette. "We'll follow the original plan. A-team rig the north wing door. B-team, with me. We'll enter from the south."
"Gotcha."
Brass took the A-team, pulling out a string of grenades while Malik split off with the other half of the group. The A-team was just formed of two, while Malik had four including himself. Their job would likely be harder depending on how things went.
**
Zarek didn't hurry to enter the compound. In fact, while they were all scared of the so-called "blood moon," he was actually waiting for it while using the school grounds as a place to both gather Godsfall Droplets and help Priya train.
The blood moon once used to be a rare phenomenon that occurred when the Earth blocked the rays of the sun from directly reaching the Moon. But these days, the moon was always red.
Under the effects of this blood moon, Godsfall became agitated and the Turned were about 20% or so stronger than normal. There was also a higher chance of a mutation triggering within them, so running into Turned that could threaten him was much easier as well.
However, under the blood moon, the Turned were also far more aggressive and far more easily fooled as well. What humanity and intelligence they had left was already limited, but they truly became akin to feral beasts under its effects.
That could be easily taken advantage of.
The real reason Zarek was waiting for it, though, was because of the second of the three Godsfall Circulation Methods in his possession.
[Godsfall Eclipse Resonance].
[Tearing Gut] allowed him to digest high concentrations of Godsfall from meat, accelerating his progress. [Godsfall Eclipse Resonance] at just the first tier allowed him to double his strength beneath the moon, but more importantly than that, it would increase his Godsfall Tolerance exponentially with every night he activated it.
Right now, Zarek's Tolerance was poor. Priya could take three drops of Godsfall from the blood rain, but he couldn't withstand even one. After this first night, he should be able to withstand at least one. That would allow him the true breakthrough he was looking for.
—
Name: [Zarek Ashford]
Role: [N/A]
Core Stats:
>[Strength: E-] <A->
>[Dexterity: F+] <B>
>[Intelligence: F+] <C->
>[Endurance: F+] <B+>
>[Charisma: F] <C>
Talents:
>[Temp Duplicate: F-] <B->
[Abilities: Mirror]
[The subtleties of a moment are clear to you]
>[Empty]
>[Empty]
—
Technically speaking, he was an E Warrior right now. But Zarek knew that this was a miscalculation.
His Strength was actually still in the F+ range, he had just broken through the shackles. That difference wouldn't be properly reflected until he got a higher-tier scouting skill.
Tonight, though, he would be able to complete the perfect breakthrough by relying on the third and last of his Godsfall Circulation Methods.
[Limit Break].
Getting his hands on this method was what cost him his life during his Second Rebirth. Because of that, he knew that there was one other bastard that had his hands on it.
A bastard that he would be killing soon enough.
But not today. Today turned out that it would be more interesting than he thought.
He had been leading Priya around the outskirts, keeping an eye on the indoor tennis compound when he spotted Malik and Brass leading their teams in across opposite sides.
Zarek recognized Malik immediately.
This was the first time he had spent so many days near his school. He had no idea that that gang had actually started here.
'If they started here, then that means that that Hub should also be nearby…'
Zarek's eyes narrowed, his thoughts spinning. Originally, after leaving here, he planned to go straight to the location of his second Talent. But this…
'No. I don't think I should miss out on this opportunity.'
The question was how would he deal with those guns. He couldn't even dodge an arrow right now, let alone a bullet.
His amber eyes glowed as a plan settled in.