Re-Awakening: I Became a Pay To Win Boss Monster-Chapter 298: Heading To A Shrine

They passed through the streets, and as the main scenario had mentioned, the landmass had really increased.

The buildings that had stood a week ago were now either distorted or covered in moss, as if thousands of years had gone by.

Some were even destroyed, adding fuel to the already depressing atmosphere.

There were no cars anymore, and he couldn’t even spot a single monster no matter how far he walked.

But that was when he caught sight of a few people in the distance.

They were a group of six, 3 women and 3 men.

And their gear was pretty fancy, with nearly everyone having a glowing weapon, meaning it was at least Uncommon rarity.

It didn’t take long for them to spot him and wave in his direction.

Rael turned toward the siblings and Julius, gesturing for them to remain here while he went ahead.

Thankfully, they listened, so with that, Rael approached the 6 people and stood before them.

"Sup."

"Neat sword, just came out of the metro, right?" the redhead woman asked.

Rael nodded. "Yup."

"..."

"What’s with the dry talk?" the burly man with a pair of dual axes on his back asked with a chuckle. "You don’t have to worry, we won’t attack you."

"Oh, don’t worry, I’m not worried," Rael replied plainly, narrowing his eyes. "I’m just trying to understand why that redhead is cross-dressing."

A moment of silence ensued as the woman raised her hand, seemingly about to slap him.

But that was when two of their group members stepped in, pinning her down.

"Um... Natasha is not cross-dressing. She’s just very flat," the man reasoned.

A faint smile appeared on Rael’s face. "Yeah, I know. I was just messing with you."

"Pfft... hahaha! You really don’t have a filter then, huh? Name’s Todd, by the way," the man introduced himself, extending his hand.

"Aster," Rael replied, accepting the handshake.

Todd tightened his grip, almost as if he was trying to crush Rael’s arm.

But Rael didn’t even budge an inch as he stared at the man with an amused look.

"Your equipment must be pretty good. Your strength is probably double mine."

"You say that, but you didn’t even react," Todd replied with a sigh. "Anyways... are you interested in joining us for a raid?"

"A raid...?"

"Yes." Todd nodded. "We found the location of one of those shrines. It seems pretty cool, but I’m afraid of getting my group killed by only going at it with 6 people, you know?"

"So with us four, you’d have a 10-man raid group? Seems reasonable enough," Rael commented with a hum as he gestured for his group to approach.

He quickly introduced each of them, and once he did, Todd exhaled in relief.

"A healer... We really needed one. I swear I saw so many people become healers when the apocalypse first started, but now I’ve not seen a single one in over a week, except for now."

Julius shrugged off the praise. "The others are hiding because the moment we reveal ourselves, a group will snatch us up and try to force us to slave away as pocket healers."

A pocket healer was just a healer who was always there, ready to heal the injured no matter what.

Still, the only reason Rael was planning to get along with them was because strength in numbers would be a great asset.

Added to that, he also wanted to spar against these people and learn how to make use of his current powers, which, as he deduced, had something to do with the Beast-type path.

But trusting them is something I won’t do haphazardly, Rael thought. Especially not when my last few encounters resulted in people trying to kill me.

Anyways...

"Natasha, right? Sorry about earlier, I was just trying to break the ice between us," Rael apologized.

Natasha pouted as she tapped the hilt of her sword. "Call me flat again and I’m going to turn you into a eunuch."

"..."

Rael slowly turned toward Todd.

"So, a shrine, right? What’s it like?" he asked.

"Not sure. Here," Todd replied, handing Rael a piece of parchment.

It was glowing, and when Rael focused, a compass suddenly appeared, pointing north.

And following that, a single pop-up.

<Shrine of the Undead has been located!>

<Distance: 11.52 Kilometers>

"Oho..." Rael mumbled. "This is pretty neat. How’d you get it?"

"Trade secret," Natasha said flatly.

But her secrets didn’t last long as Todd spoke up again. "We have a scribe."

He pointed to the skinny, long-haired man who wore a pair of glasses.

"Timon used to be a court transcriptionist before shit went south," Todd explained. "He got a tracking Utility skill, and after the world expansion scenario concluded, he got a skill that he could use once per week. It would point him to the nearest Shrine."

Rael’s eyes widened.

"That’s overpowered... but we need to get moving fast, don’t we?"

"Mhm." Todd nodded, adjusting his gear quickly. "I’m not sure how the Shrines look, but if their name is anything to go by, I’d assume anyone can stumble into them."

He turned to his group of 5 other people. "Everyone ready?"

They replied with swift nods, then Todd turned back to Rael and his group.

"And you?"

"Of course," Rael replied, handing over the parchment.

Yet the compass pointing north still remained.

So with that, the now 10-person group made their way toward the shrine.

.

.

.

Less than an hour later...

<You’re close to a Shrine!>

No shit, Rael mused, glancing around.

It seemed like the Shrine was literally pasted into the world itself.

The grass was dead and barren, with some cracks spreading throughout.

And in the distance were four large archways surrounding a fountain.

In the middle stood a golden statue that resembled an undead skeleton.

By the sides, there were several stone statues resembling some knights, mages, and even priests, yet they were all broken or decayed.

The two groups walked closer.

With each step they took, barely noticeable blue runes began to light up the ground, paving the pathway toward the fountain.

The archways seemed larger up close than from a distance, but he realized there was a transparent blue barrier, acting as a sort of door in each of the archways.

And the moment they stepped inside, several pop-ups appeared.

<Ding!>

<You’ve entered: Shrine of the Undead>

<Difficulty: Normal>

<In order to commence the Shrine’s trial, you must destroy the Golden Statue.>

Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om