Maya immediately took the chance to calm everyone down and inspire them by stating that the professors would get involved soon.
Rachael was quick minded and already identified the problem and their location. From her speculations it was obvious to her that they had entered a field.
A field is an open space that contains a large number of beasts that always respawned within twenty-four hours after it was conquered.
The specific one they were in was a peak C rank field that was titled the 'Oak's Den'. Like the name implied it was a field completely packed with oaks. Even James could never dream about winning against a single oak so he did what he thought he would never do this early.
In his hand he held a small crystal that he just cracked, and it revealed a shining light to a distant place. Meanwhile Rachael had managed to prepare a small strategy that centered around James.
Since Maya, Evan, Andrew and Rachael where present most people did not fear as they thought that these elites would lead them to safety. This was not what James's thought because his plan only had Andrew, Barry and Sandra.
He had properly made their roles and for this raid as according to his knowledge. The rest were supposed to guard the others. They went to their first raid, and it was to ambush an oak that had strayed away from the group.
The first attacker was Andrew who used fire arrows to get it on its defenses. Barry used a skeleton to create a trap that injured the oak's leg. Sandra shot an arrow in its eye and James beheaded it.
As a reward he got a single random core point and 100 points. Finding this a little easy he led the rest to dismantle more oaks, and they managed to get rid of the entire group. What they did not know where that the oaks were all D rank. This was because these were scouts and the C rank ones where yet to be discovered.
After what seemed like hours of hunting, it came to an end, and they returned to base only to almost witness an absolute disaster. Luckily, they had arrived just in time because if they were short even a second the entire group would have been ambushed by the five oak scouts.
So, before the oaks came into sight the four of them dismantled them using their gained astronomical experience. The short time they had spent hunting made them as vigilant as mercenaries or well-groomed hunters.
James then went in front of the large crowd and announced "thank you all for your obedience but something has changed when I was performing surveillance we found out that the oaks here are stronger than anticipated and if they find us, they will send their warriors, and it will be our death. I have devised a plan, but it involves three major steps."
Before he could finish Rachael interrupted a stated the problem about the healer. Healers were extremely rare and the only one among class A was Sabrina who was no longer present. Meaning they had to restrict most movements because of the unavailability of the healer.
James was not interested by the opinion but instead angered by her interruption and before he could say his counter for the first time the system acted on its own.
[Now that the host has ranked up the system has also ranked up and can now freely communicate with you. The only thing I can say is that I overheard you say your plan and has discovered that it is absolute trash.]
[Firstly, you underestimated the true power of the oaks and secondly the team you have chosen for your party is not a match with your current stats]
"..?"
"Do you have a better plan?"
[No..... but I just suggest you change it.]
What is that?
Is that an oak
"That oak why does it have an even stronger presence than the others." Sandra muttered softly trying her best to hide the fear she had.
'What is that? It's a casting circle.' " Everyone get down it's casting a spell!" Andrew shouted fully knowing that time was up.
The oak was unlike the scouts and had an even stronger than an oak warrior. It was one of the field's sub boss an oak mage.
The spell it casted sent a lot of blades of darkness towards the students and James although he knew it was a bad decision he decided to protect them.
He stood in front of the incoming blades and risked it all by using abyssal blade to block them.
Scavenger was a skill that cooled the mind and made it remain resolute and had a 5% boost to all arcane stats. Although he was not inflicted with anything like fear that did not mean he was not affected by pain.
*Spurt*
Blood came out of his mouth, and he fell to his knees. Tears almost fell from his eyes as he had never felt such pain.
. .. . . . .. . . .
The scene changed to when James was just seven years old and he was observing a fight between two his father's students beside his father. He witnessed one student obviously defeating the other but she was not giving up.
His father who was vivid in the memory said to the young boy while patting his head " From what you are seeing who do you think is going to win?"
James ansewered him by saying " It's very obviouse that brother Roy is going to defeat sister Wendy since he surpasses her in both talent and skill."
"You are right about Roy having more skill than Wendy but at the same time, Wendy has more talent than Roy especially since she has an innate bloodline."
"What is a blood line?" the young James asked in the most innocent tone. In response his father put up a smile and responded "It is believed that, the days when awakening occurred they were noble clans. Through time although their power weakened they each had a unique characteristic which we refer to as the bloodline. Lucky for you both me and your mother come from such clans and mine is the Avion Sword bloodline while your mother has the notorious Ashmire Vampire bloodline."
That moment Wendy who had regained her composure was covered by water. All her traits and aspects turned blue and she got a major boost at all stats and swiftly defeated Roy. She had the bloodline of the Saphire Water Clan.
.. . .. . . .. . . . .. . .
Back to the current time James stood holding one of his arm and in a fully bloodied state. That moment the system came in front of James and it came with traits that interested James.