Looking at the children’s situation, “Here, have them drink this.” Again, from out of nowhere, Jem produced something that dumbstruck all the people around him. It was a big mystery to them where he took these items. Nonetheless, Miles took the medicine from him and helped the children drink them. After a couple of seconds upon drinking them, the children’s countenance turned much better than a while ago.

They continued towards the surface. Abel, on the other hand, was left to guard the captives. They could not let them disappear. Those people were more dangerous if they let them wander around.

Jem and the others have yet to know of the reason why those people summoned a Ritual Gate in such a place.

On their way, Jem broke the stones one by one. As he broke the first stone, greenish energy was released from it. But right after that, they flew toward him. Then they entered his body like it was the natural thing to happen.

Jem wasn’t surprised, though. He already expected this to happen because of the information given by the system. Every time those energies entered him, Jem could feel his ex-energy capacity growing slightly. It has the same feeling whenever his Ascendance Points rose. In the academy, Jem learned that the amount of ex-energy also affects the physical strength of the body. So, in this regard, the higher the ex-energy a person has, the stronger he/she becomes.

Jem decided to trade one of the stones. He wanted to know what it may unlock if this item was added to the Trader’s Shop. As expected, after trading it, a series of pop-up notifications appeared in his vision.

After a couple of minutes, they finally reached the surface.

“We’re here!” Miss Mona announced. Sweats were visible on everyone’s face.

“Phew! Finally!” Miles swept away the sweat on her face. “Grandfather, are you okay?” She asked her grandfather. Oldman Barn was holding his knees as he was gasping for breath. “Yes yes. Don’t mind me. Although I look old, I am stronger than ten cows,” replied Oldman Barn with a grin.

“…..”

Miles knew her grandfather was just exaggerating. She sighed in relief. At least he still had a leeway to joke around.

After saying that, Oldman Barn looked at the children and asked, “Hey, little fellas! How about you, are you okay?”

The six children were also gasping for breath. At first, these children were skeptical to follow them. Maybe because of their experience with those shady groups of people, they were wary to trust other people, which was to be expected. Even Jem had the same issue. But with Miles and Miss Mona’s counseling, they managed to persuade them.

The children just responded with a slight nod. They came out of what seemed like an old room. Among all of them, only Jem looks wasn’t gasping for breath.

“Are we inside the rampart yet?” Jem asked a question. At his question, everyone looked at Miss Mona. Noticing everyone’s eyes at her, Miss Mona took a deep breath before answering. “Yes, no doubt.” She walked over and opened the door of the room.

When everyone came out, they saw larger buildings made of mortar, bricks, and stone. The buildings here look bigger and better compared to the buildings outside the rampart which are usually made only of cheap materials. They were mostly made of a timber frame. 

Well. To put it simply, the houses outside were made only of twigs, straw, and mud. On the contrary, the houses in front of them were larger and more durable, and better in looks. It just means that those who lived inside the rampart were people with prosperous lives.

The area inside the rampart was quite large so they could not view its total width from their standpoint. Although the buildings were not contiguous, there were quite a few buildings inside.

They noticed that the building where they exited looked like an old warehouse. After coming out,

Help!

There!

Let’s go!

Noooo!

Wait!

Arrggh!

GWARRR!

RAWR!

From their vantage point, everyone could hear the commotion from somewhere. They immediately noticed human shouts and what seemed like monster growls after coming out of the warehouse.

“Miss Mona?” Oldman Barn called out.

Miss Mona immediately understood what Oldman Barn meant by his call. “Yes. Here! Follow me. I’m sure the evacuees were brought to the center. At Silva’s hall. I’m sure there is where they brought the evacuees.”

“I see. Let’s go, then. We can’t waste more time,” said Oldman Barn.

“Yes!”

As they were on their way to Miss Mona’s alleged place, three monsters landed in front of them.

Woosh woosh!

Gwarrharrhaarr!

The monsters squint their eyes, especially at the children.

“Secure the children!” Oldman Barn yelled. He clenched his teeth after that.

The children looked scared. They grabbed the hem of Miles’ one-piece dress. Miles couldn’t help in fighting at this rate. Miss Mona subconsciously takes a step back. Miles, on the other hand, was supporting the children.

Jem hastily took action. Grabbing a knife from out of nowhere, his figure was rushing forward at the enemy. Looking at him, the monsters sneered at him, but soon they squinted when they noticed his speed was no ordinary.

In an instant, Jem was immediately behind them. Even before the monsters felt what he had done, blood flowed from the large wounds on their bodies.

GAAR!??

The monsters’ eyes widened at that moment. Their sharp nails tried to catch up with Jem, but it was all too late. Their vision was darkened and their knees weakened. Before their nails could reach, they fell down and immediately lost consciousness with their eyes wide open in disbelief.

Although Jem could defeat them with his newly learned abilities, Jem preferred to reserve his energy. He spent quite a big amount of energy in his fight with the monsters and the two-level 2 guards earlier. So, he couldn’t spend them mindlessly this time.

He needs to save energy for emergency purposes. As long as he could defeat the enemy with normal means, he would rather do that. After quickly defeating the monsters, the surprised faces of the comrades can be seen immediately.

Moments later,

“Wow, lad! You become even stronger! Hehe!” Oldman Barn exclaimed.

The children were looking at Jem with wide eyes and an o-shaped mouth. It could also be seen on their faces that they seem to be moved by what Jem did. Admiration was visible on their faces. After defeating the monsters, Jem used the devil’s arm to trade the corpses. The group already got used to seeing him pulling out surprises, so didn’t question him any longer whatever he pulled out. Still, it surprised them. They wondered how strong he was compared to other ex-humans. He even defeated those two scary enemies a while ago. So they assumed that Jem wasn’t an ordinary ex-humans. But still, they could not tell as they were ordinary humans only.

As they got closer and closer to the place mentioned by Miss Mona, the noises they heard grew louder and louder. On their way, they encountered some people being attacked by monsters. So the group had to save them. Jem also helped in killing the monsters. He needed to accumulate enough experience after all. As of the moment, his Trade Points were more than enough to ascend his Exo points.

After a while, they finally arrived in front of a mansion where they could see a gate.. Inside the gate was a spacious pathway towards the mansion’s entrance.