Trash in the Apocalypse

The treant's branch became the hottest topic that day. The Frontier tried to control the information outflow but they failed since they were late to inform that the event would be kept as a secret from the others.

They couldn't blame anyone since news travels so fast today through the use of forums. With a few taps and a swift hand speed, anyone could share anything in just a few seconds.

Posts regarding the events attracted a lot of interested parties including Black Haven. A magic wand has appeared and it doesn't only open a new source of power but also opens a lot of room for new possibilities. Possibilities that could further branch out to even greater things.

At the moment, the faction higherups of the Frontier were gathered in the meeting room of their newly claimed building. It was not the biggest building in the town and only has four floors, but it was spacious enough to house most of the core members. Another reason for choosing the building was its positioning. The cemetery dungeon can be seen from the south while the Treant dungeon was two streets away from it. If they look out from the window, anyone could easily view the entrance of the forest dungeon.

Alday Ruan picked the treant branch from the table and started transferring energy to the item. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead and barely managed to create a small ball of light on the tip of the stick. 

Unlike the fireball with its red-orange color, Alday Ruan's energy ball was white and almost transparent in nature. Before the energy ball grew to the size of a fist, he sent it flying towards a shield warrior standing by the side. 

Gener Guevarra prepared and readied his shield. His bulky body appeared threatening equipped with full heavy armor. As the battlefield commander of the Frontier, he chose to become someone who focuses on defense and protecting his subordinates. Currently, they were doing an experiment about the Treant branch inside the meeting room.

The shield made contact with the energy ball and created a light sizzling sound. On the shield, several other scratch marks can be seen which shows this is not the first time it received such an attack.

The shield warrior returned to his previous position after determining that it was safe to move. 

Alday Ruan said. "How is it? I increased the output and the attack should penetrate through your defense, right?"

The shield warrior checked his stats, then nodded his head. "That's right, this attack finally managed to deal some damage. However, considering the charging time of the attack, the focus needed to create the spell, and the amount of energy needed to use it, I deem it unfit for battle."

An analysis coming from Gener Guevarra has a lot of weight since he had more experience in terms of battles. The seven people in the room took turns glancing at each other.

Alday Ruan stared at the wonder boy who caused all of this commotion. The self-proclaimed battle chef, Romel Cooper.

From his own words, a battle chef is a chef that provides hearty meals that also give buffs to people who consume them. An indirect supporting role that has an average attack and defensive power.

Romel looked left and right, squirming from his seat at the end of the table. This is the first time he got surrounded by influential people and received this kind of attention.

"I-I didn't really do anything special. I just tried pouring energy into it and the branch started sucking my energy. If I didn't stop the energy flow, I might have fallen unconscious due to energy depletion backslash."

Alday Ruan smiled and assured him. "I believe you and we appreciate you coming over to help us investigate the matter. You can leave for now and we'll call you if we have any other questions."

After the two thanked each other, a guard escorted Romel out of the room.

When the door closed, the people in the room suddenly became excited.

Marichu spoke. "If my observation is right, then it all boils down to elemental affinity. Not many people have an affinity with a certain element and most of us just have regular jobs. Romel was a restaurant chef before and remained as a chef later on. We can assume that that is one of the reasons why he was able to create a 'fireball'. As to why Leader only managed to create a small energy ball, that means he isn't fit to become a magician at all."

No one disagreed about the word 'magician' being brought up, but Alday felt bitter hearing that he's not qualified to become one. Although he doesn't have an interest in becoming one, getting one extra path to rely on was still better than nothing.

"If that's really the case, then I'll gather all the possible candidates we have as soon as possible. Having an army of magicians would raise our standing in the territory and we could even stand side-by-side with Black Haven." Melchor Galvez said.

As the Chief Guardian and Head Recruitment Officer of the Frontier, he always held grudges with Black Haven. All the newcomers will have to enter 'citizenship' if they want to stay and unlock the full potential when residing in Black Haven. This caused a lot of newcomers to be glued and conned by the evil schemes called benefits all around the territory.

Recently, Black Haven even disclosed the Calvary Sacred Ground, which can give free experience points as long as you have enough strength to reach the first resting area. Furthermore, they made it 'public property' under Black Haven and all citizens are welcome to enter.

Don't forget that the second resting area has a flower field that blooms and rewards anyone who reached that pit stop. Aside from the beautiful view from the top of the hill, anyone on the Calvary Hill can receive several hours of passive experience gains if someone managed to reach the top and activate the monolith.

It's impossible for people to have time every day and there are probably not enough people to activate the monolith, right?

Wrong!

The place became one of the training sites for the army! The enhanced gravity became a limit testing and physical exercise for the recruits. They would train in the early morning and leave after one of them activated the monolith. 

It was blatantly telling everyone that they can help everyone level up without fighting!

It was a new idea that became quickly unpopular for people who haven't level up since it could impede their initial growth. Gaining a profession and additional skills could spell someone's future in the apocalypse and carelessly leveling up while idling was never a good option!

Another reason that really pisses him off was the talents left after the initial citizenship registration.

There were no unique talents left! 

After the citizenship registration, all unique individuals were already poached by Black Haven. 

Melchor couldn't help but smirk. For the first time, he would be able to gather and train an advanced unit that has never been seen before!

'Just you wait old fool. Everything can't be solved with just money. I'll erase that smirk of your face and thrash you down.'

"Since this is an important matter, I won't waste any time." Melchor said and stood up. "I'll go ahead and gather every prospect we have and bring them to the empty lot outside."

Old man Melchor didn't wait for any response and went out of the room.

Though no one knew how he will pick people exactly, it wasn't their job so they won't pay much attention to it.

Gener Guevarra placed his hand gently on the table, but his heavy armor caused the table to rattle, which gathered everyone's attention. "As I've said, I think it's quite inefficient when used on the battlefield. Unless every survivor Melchor finds is someone like Romel, then it's not worth it. I recommend pouring funds into fire weaponry research. I heard the Cheif Blacksmith can embed elemental orbs in equipment, why can't we do so too?"

The most iconic equipment with an elemental orb embedded onto it was the Skull Crusher owned by the Black Haven's leader. It was a widely known weapon due to its grandiose fiery display whenever the core orb was activated. Jun would have showy effects around him every time that he swings the bone hammer.

Everyone gave the matter some brief thought and slowly, their eyes started to widen. All the people in the room except Gener had a sudden realization on what to do.

"Gener, you're a genius!" Alday Ruan exclaimed.

Gener frowned not knowing what the sudden excitement was about. Everyone suddenly turned rowdy after he said something logical?

Crisanto Simon couldn't stop his hand from trembling. "We're gonna be rich! Why have we never thought of this before?" 

Gener, "No, seriously. Someone tell me what's going on!"