The Earth Online

41 Preparations for the Next World Part 11

While Kedrick was healing Thaleos’ injuries, their team could hear all the other attendees whispering to one another,

“Wow, how the f**k did he do that? I think that’s the first ever mutant we’ve experienced, for real.”

“Did you see the way he jumped between the golden gorilla’s shoulders, damn, I want me some of that. Jump on me instead, doll.”

“The way he used his beasts and then his skills. The man, himself, is a beast, I tell ya’.”

Ygritte looked around the crowd to see that everyone was staring at the beast tamer. Then, suddenly, Ryan busted through the crowd and worriedly muttered,

“Thaleos, what the hell, dude? Are you okay? Those were some killer skills, but you just about died.”

“This ain’t the first time.” Haya muttered while giving the bearded man a disappointed look. Thaleos knew that the younger man was just upset with him for taking on those golden gorillas alone.

The beast tamer gave the younger man an apologetic look, and the other man merely shook his head in response and just gave a no—signaling that he understood the beast tamer.

“f**k, we need to be as strong as Thaleos. If we can’t survive this early on, how will we survive in the second world?” One of the men asked, he had dark green hair and pale skin.

“Yeah, if we don’t get stronger, we’ll most likely become beast chow. We need to get stronger.” Another one responded. The second statement riled up the crowd more as they muttered their own agreements.

“I don’t want to be an NPC! I want to be me. I’m going to fight to be me.” A woman shouted in anger, as she stared up the sky and gave the gods a finger.

Everyone shouted up the sky and expressed their eagerness to survive.

Up in the Ziggurats, the gods were terribly excited with how pumped up the humans were. They sipped and gulped their golden liquid, as they were eager to see how everyone survives in the second world.

“It’s adorable how humans think that will power is enough to change fate. Darling, we are fate.” Irkalla muttered in a sultry voice through her cup. Enki and Nirah chuckled at the underworld god’s remark.

Innana merely rolled her eyes and watch the group of humans cheering each other on. The goddess has learned to stop getting attached to the players.

She’s learned twice or thrice about her siblings’ needless cruelty. She abhorred the game, but she had no choice but to follow.

Their father, Anu, merely read through his scriptures and chose to ignore their remarks. He was carefully planning everything now.

“An exciting game, instead.”

Back down on the earth, Ryan was doing his best to calm down the riled-up group. Everyone was now fueled up to fight back.

When he saw that that passion was there to stay, he was encouraged to speak up about his plan. He could saw the fire in everyone’s eyes, so, he decided to stand up on one of the lobby’s high table.

“Hainely Uni, this is the stage where we make it or break it.” The knight shouted, his voice bouncing off the walls. Thaleos’ group all stared at him with proud eyes.

They knew that the knight was made to be a leader, as his commanding voice made everyone stop talking.

They were all now paying close attention to his words.

“We only have a couple of weeks left, until the second world’s gates open up. We need to work together as one big fraternity group, save for the hazing, to strategically move past the NPC status. We need to collect thousands of blood souls!”

Everyone was now hanging on to every word he was saying. From there, Ryan laid down his plan to train together for the next two weeks and hunt down stronger beasts into smaller groups.

“Our fraternity will be named The Antum Gudea. Long live, the human race!” Ryan cheered out loud, making all the other team members cheer in unison with him.

Thaleos and Ygritte cheered along with them, as Haya and Kedrick hollered and whistled.

“We can do this.” Thaleos muttered under his breath with a smile.

~ ~ ~

For the next few days, a large number of the Antum Gudea team members stayed in the Melam Military Base,

They planned to finish off all the monsters in Mount Uruk and get all the blood souls they can.

Everyone was hard at work, as they trained every single day—from sword fights to magical fights. Each single one of them were doing their best to train their skills and get a better of understanding of it.

They saw how Thaleos was able to use his skills and powers simultaneously. The beast tamer did his best to train them on the mana centers, the Ea Mist, and blood souls cultivation.

“You think we should tell them about James’ journal?” Kedrick gave the beast tamer and berserker a look.

The three of them were currently in one of the bunkers, training on their mana concentration.

“I don’t think that’s a smart idea, we don’t know if we can trust them.” Haya cautiously responded. Thaleos felt like he was at crossroads, as well.

The Antum Gudea team members were his closest friends in college, but he knew he can’t just blindly trust anyone during the apocalypse.

“I want to inform them, trust me, but I know how desperate people can get during mentally and emotionally shocking situations. You can already see it. As the days are coming to a close, you can see the franticness and anxiety in people’s eyes.” Thaleos tried to explain as carefully as he could, since he knew that the two men were also anxious about the whole thing.

“We can never be too careful. We can help them by training them as much as possible, and informing them about all we know, without informing them about the journal itself.” He continued as he directly gazed at them and crossed his arms.

The priest and berserker could see how serious Thaleos was about the issue, so they both agreed with the decision.

“Hey, guys! How do we tell them about the sirens?” Ygritte busted through the door and saw the three crouched on the floor. After staring at them with a weirded out look, she just shook her head and sat between them.

“We got this, guys. The second world’s as good as ours.” The druid said with a confident smirk.

~ ~ ~

“Ladies and gentlemen! Join now to win your very own legendary sword! Just for 10 shekels, get the chance to become The Red Panther’s owner! Just for 10 shekels.” A lizard-man shouted, as he saw the Antum Gudea passing through his stand.

They were all currently in the Lagash Interpoint, looking to sell dozens of their own blood souls to the highest bidders available. Some of them wanted to buy new weapons, instead of using it on their own skills.

The Lagash Interpoint was noisier than usual, as the town center was filled with game booths and different stages. It looked like there was a festival.

When Thaleos asked one of the store vendors, they nodded their head eagerly and responded, “It’s the first day in Anu’s Twelfth Battle Festival. Following how he fought the very first primordial gods ruling over Lagash for 12 days, we celebrate for 12 days straight.”

“Unlimited drinks and food provided by the gods.” Another panther-like human piped in in a cheery mood.

“Wow, that sounds pretty awesome. Still hate ‘em though.” Kedrick excitedly responded, while whispering the last few words to himself.

The two beast-like folks nodded their heads in eager agreement.

“Just two participants more! Two more and we’ll start the draw!” The lizard-man shouted around the booth. The beast tamer tried his luck and decided to buy the two spots.

The lizard-man chirped when he saw the 20 shekels and eagerly took the gems from the bearded man.

Similar to how lotteries work on earth, the lizard-man started showing different number combinations through the virtual blue screen above him.

Just when Thaleos was about to ask where his number was, he saw the glowing numbers temporarily written on his arm stating,

13, 843, 145

11, 841, 105

“Huh, interesting numbers,” The beast tamer muttered to himself. Haya and Kedrick were frantically shouting for their number combinations to be called, and Ygritte was having a blast just listening to the bustling crowd.

“…105.” Thaleos was brought out of his reverie, as he felt the druid shaking him excitedly.

He looked around the crowd and saw that everyone was staring at him in amazement and jealousy.

“Thaloes, you won! You won the Red Panther! You get the legendary sword!” Ygritted shouted and saw the lizard-man going down the stage and heading towards their direction.

As soon as the creature approached them, it spoke, “This sword is yours. Crafted by Anu’s bastard son, Mil, the Red Panther can cut through creatures at level 25. You can easily survive the second world.”

“I don’t care much for it. Who wants it? Highest bidder gets the Red Panther!” Thaleos shouted at the crowd, making everyone shocked—even his closest friends.