Reaper's Resurgence: A System Reset

The moment I step inside of the tree, I find the leader of the scythids lying almost inert at the center of the tree.

Huh?

{Scythid Hive Queen – Level 31}

I stare at the thing for a few seconds, briefly wondering why a large praying mantis bug is called a hive queen for the second time since I first saw it before eventually just shrugging and blasting it with a quantum bolt.

The thing lets out a quiet, pained screech, but doesn\'t move almost at all despite it. So I repeat the attack over and over again until I finally get the System Message about its death.

[Level 31 Scythid Hive Queen Defeated – User\'s earned EXP has been increased due to killing a being whose level is above their own.]

[Three points have been earned for killing a creature two levels above you.]

After killing it, a wave of loud screeches echo out from a few corners of the forest as I stand tensely for several seconds, just waiting for the scythids who made them to rush me. But nothing ever does. I just end up standing awkwardly in the room by myself.

I frown.

Uh… this is awkward.

I leave the large tree before heading towards the places I heard the screeches from, only to find scythids lying dead on the ground in each place without a single wound on them.

Huh.

Wait a second, could that be it? Are the scythids and their hive queen all connected, so that if the queen dies then the rest die too? Or if all of the scythids die, then so does the queen?

A rather odd setup, but convenient.

If I had to guess, the hive queen really was just very stupid. Because it should\'ve been able to tell where I was during my assassinations if they were all connected, even if it wasn\'t through a hive mind.

Although it\'s also possible that the significant number of scythids dumbed down the reaction she got from one of them dying? Or maybe it wasn\'t an instant reaction?

Either way, she\'s dead now.

I walk past her corpse before deciding to go look around the entire forest just to make absolutely sure everything here is dead.

Then I can take a bath.

Somewhere in Tutorial Block #108

Astrid grimaces as she limps back into the camp her team had set up, just slowly letting the claw wounds on her leg heal with her health. And the first thing she finds is Aidan standing in front of a campfire holding a piece of meat on a stick while glancing at her, letting the meat burn in his momentary distraction.

"Shit," he mutters after realizing he had accidentally lowered the tiger meat into the fire, the man immediately raising it back out again.

Astrid shakes her head at him as she continues limping through the camp towards the dungeon on the edge of the island.

"She still hasn\'t come out yet!" Aidan calls out, not turning his head to look at her.

Despite his words, she still continues walking over to the edge of the island looking over the small stairs on the side of it towards the dungeon, where she eventually sits with a sigh of relief, letting her legs dangle over the edge.

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Ever since the group got the System Notification with information about the Reset, they immediately turned around and went back to the Crawling Caverns dungeon since it was the most likely location for Alexia to be at. Then the group set up a base camp while occasionally going into the jungle in groups to hunt the monsters on its outskirts.

Astrid just listens to the sound of the fire as she stares at the dungeon entrance, letting her wound slowly heal in the process. But no matter how hard she stares, her sister never appears from the dungeon. So she eventually lies on her back, staring up at the two moons high in the night sky.

Still not used to seeing two moons up there…

She continues to gaze up at the moons until rustling sounds begin coming from the bushes nearby the camp, making her sit up only to find Alara and Shelly arriving with Rob trailing the girls. And all three of them are carrying tiger corpses.

Astrid feels them identifying her, but she just ignores it and identifies them back, since the group has already decided to go ahead and keep up with the others changes in levels at this point. Especially since it will get them out of the habit of not identifying other people.

{Alara Blake – Class: Flame Dancer – Level 17}

{Robert Carter – Class: Combat Healer – Level 12}

{Shelly Walker – Class: Arcane Archer – Level 14}

They all leveled up at least once.

Astrid glances at Aidan when she remembers she didn\'t identify him upon getting here.

{Aidan Ashford – Class: Combat Mage – Level 15}

Hmm.

Astrid opens her own status to look at her level.

As she\'s looking at her status though, she feels a pinpricking sensation on the back of her neck from her Danger Sense Passive Skill, making her immediately close out of it and turn her gaze to the jungle again right when a tiger jumps out of the bushes. Then she uses her Shadow Leap skill to teleport over to the shadows of the jungle as she draws her sword and swings it straight through the lower leveled tiger, cutting it clear in two. And by the time the tiger\'s corpse hits the ground, her sword is already sheathed again, the girl walking back into the camp like nothing had just happened.

"I wish I had a teleportation skill…" Aidan mutters for the umpteenth time after seeing her use her Shadow Leap skill. And just like the other times, she responds without looking his way, "It\'s not teleportation. I\'m passing through the shadows to shorten the distance to it, and it costs a significant amount of mana to do."

He just waves away her explanation, muttering that teleportation is teleportation no matter how it\'s done.

It isn\'t until Astrid makes it back to the ledge and sits down again that she realizes her wound had finished healing before the monster\'s arrival. Most likely while she was considering her status compared to the other members of the team\'s levels.

She opens her status again and looks at it for a few seconds before closing it and focusing once more on the dungeon.

Please come out of there alive, sis.