The day eventually came to an end. Everyone dispersed. This was definitely an insightful event for the noobs. It would help raise their awareness of what's possible.
*************************
At the Black Cranes HQ.
Division Black meetup section.
"I know you all enjoyed yesterday. Well, it goes without saying, but those cheers were not for you," Shom said.
"Don't fall behind and you may, in fact, get ranked there someday. In six months? Unlikely, but let me work my magic and we'll see," Shom concluded.
"We were supposed to do an assessment of the event. However, a gate popped up in our jurisdiction. The assessment will come later. Grab your extensions, let's move out," Shom ended.
The whole team finished packing. They headed outside and were met with a bus. Its back already looked loose, the colors faded.
"What is this piece of scrap? There's no way that bus is making it to the location," Miles said.
Everyone laughed, but Michael.
"You can laugh all you want. Just know this is going to be our means of transportation until the president deems the team productive enough to enjoy better luxuries."
"Get in," Shom ended.
Everyone got in begrudgingly, some more than others.
The ride would be no longer than 10 minutes. However little that seemed, Rean was occupied with something else. He almost didn't seem present.
'I don't get it. Tylan ranks that high and he didn't tell me. What's going on? Not just that, he didn't even come home last night. That means he spent the night out with friends,' Rean thought.
'Does that mean he'd rather hang out with those friends than me? Woah, woah,' Rean thought, shaking his head.
'I shouldn't be thinking like this. Tylan's efforts were recognized. Rather than fixating on this, I should work on myself,' Rean thought.
Rean was really just trying to convince himself and keep his head straight. After all, this was going to be his first official raid.
They arrived just in time.
"Ok, time for briefing."
"I want you all to go wild. This is a B-rank dungeon gate. If you don't do your best, you may not survive," Shom stated.
"Since this is your first dungeon raid of any class, please know you should be aiming to max out as much reward points as possible to upgrade your talents and get more skill points," Shom continued.
"You're all source awakeners. This means you're all capable of leveling up. Don't waste that. As of today, take the conscious decision to be your very best self," Shom continued.
"It goes without saying that any of you I have to save may get cut from the team and even off the guild as a whole," Shom said.
"I won't be taking questions, understood?"
They all responded with one loud, "Yessir."
All 9 hunters of Division Black went on into the gate.
The scenery was barely different from the D-rank dungeon Rean had experienced previously. It was cave-like. If there was going to be any difference, maybe that would be from the kind of monsters present and, of course, the strength of the beasts.
Everyone began taking note of their surroundings, looking left and right. Environmental awareness in gates was a must.
The corners were being monitored.
Rean was the first to look up, and immediately he did, he noticed eyes and eggs standing atop the roof.
"Look up, everyone!" he shouted.
As if in response to what Rean said, the monsters jumped down in hordes.
Michael grabbed his extension and immediately slashed through six of the monsters.
"Come," Rean said.
Immediately he disappeared.
'Where did Rean go?' Porter thought.
An egg monster was just about to slash Lin before it immediately fell to the ground.
"What the—" she said.
It was Rean. He had stabbed it.
"Rean, how did you get way over there almost in an instant?" Porter said.
"Thank you, Rean," Lin said with tears in her eyes.
They had been training all this time, but she fumbled hard. If she didn't prove she could handle the real thing, then there's no doubt Lin would be dropped off the team.
She looked properly at Rean and noticed he was listening.
"Rean, I said thank you," she said, walking up to him.
Rean just walked away.
'It seems when it comes to evolving talents, I can pretty much insta-kill the savages. At least the fodder,' Rean thought.
A panel popped up.
Talent Assimilated - Multi Main.
Description - ability to duplicate the wielder.
Talent count - 2.
'It just states duplicate the user. If I am guessing right, then my duplicates will probably not have access to my system or skill set,' Rean thought.
'That means the horde of monsters that fell from the sky just now was one single organism,' Rean continued.
"There's just too much of these things," Miles said as he slashed through six egg monsters.
"Yuh, well that just means that much opportunities to gain reward points," Charles said, slashing through a bunch of them.
"Come," Michael said.
His mana skin emerged. It covered his entire arm, from his biceps all the way to his hands.
'That's the most amount of synchronization I have ever seen,' Rean thought.
"Earth talent, the forty fourth instant drop," Michael chanted.
Immediately all the egg monsters got swallowed up by the ground below them.
"What the hell? How did he do that?" Charles inquired.
'There's no way he put an end to that seemingly endless horde just now, and all by himself no less,' Rean thought.
Shom, after observing all that was happening, decided to call everyone together.
"I have completed the first stage of my analysis. Michael will prove to be problematic, so I'll be splitting you all in groups of two," Shom said.
"I don't have time to do any in-depth explanation for my reasons."
"Michael and Miles, you two are a pair. Zeta and Lin. Charles and Rose another pair, and lastly Rean and Porter," Shom said.
"It goes without saying, but should anything happen, I'll try my best to come to your aid. However, should anything happen to more than one party, I'll prioritize the pair with more promise," Shom confessed ruthlessly.