The Gamer's System

"Just gonna say that I'm halfway through on my end." Kaguya triumphantly said. Shocking everyone; moist especially Jake who voiced out his disbelief.

"What? Already? No way that's true. You must've cheated or something?"

"Uhmmm how can I cheat exactly? I know that we're making use of Mister Zeke's [Gamer System] but there are no cheat codes in this world."

"Tsk fine. I'm going to catch up to you in no time. You won't even notice how I'm suddenly going to finish first."

Amare decided to finally join in on this. Since it was Jake that started this stupid competition, she might as well piss him off.

"Come on Jake how are you even losing? You have the least amount of monsters on your area."

"Hey why are you even ganging up on me!" Jake simply said as everyone else focused on the task at hand. Not wanting to lose too much to Kaguya. 

Just as expected, the ones who had combat type job classes were finishing faster than everyone else. The support types were also able to hold their own but, not as quickly as the former mentioned were. 

With all of this going on, it would only be a matter of time before they were done with. It was a much speedier clear time than on their earlier runs. Particularly because all of them either gained a new ability or utilized their skills in a different way.

Eerie in particular was masterfully making use of her [Secondary Job Class] as [Gambler] in order to increase her dodge and hit rate. With her level going up, she was also able to obtain the skill [High Risk] which allowed all percentages of dodging, hitting, and making critical hits increase the higher the danger level was. This move worked in two ways, lowering all the said things whenever she tried to play safe.

The only downside to this was the fact that it was a passive skill. Meaning Eerie had no choice but to put herself in harm's way each and every time.

"I need more! Hit me you dumbasses!" Eerie demanded, sounding like a masochist as she wanted to make the most of the passive.

Her archer counterpart, Gawain, was not too shabby himself. Although he wanted to snipe down his opponents one by one, there were too many of them. He'd be cornered in no time at all and, that was when he realized that, he could aim for another weak spot. 

"There its is." 

The archer fired at an area on the ground. As soon as his arrow hit this spot, a blast of [Chaos Wind] came. Hitting every monster in sight and leaving the [Sniper] enough of an opening to follow through. 

"Man this sure is handy. I should've thought of this earlier on." He said to himself, finding more critical spots on the terrain where he could affect the most amount of units.

Tanking for both of them were Zeke's [Conjures]. This helped a lot in mowing down the enemies while also keeping them in check. Creating more openings for the long-range elites to fight; something which even their mages enjoyed.

"Sub Zero!" Zane began his fight by freezing the whole field.

This skill was in no way easy for him to cast. Even as an elementalist, the concept and the casting of [Sub-Zero] was so complicated that he still hasn't gotten the full hang of it. But this didn't stop him from trying on the first day of the mission and, on that second day of the operation.

"Crap I'm still missing by a large margin on the effects." He observed the monsters being able to break free. Something which should not have bene possible if he casted a perfected [Sub-Zero].

"Okay let's just burn you all down then." He furthered, casting another ultimate level spell – [Hell Blaze].

In an instant all the ice melted and evaporated, leaving a steam that rose up in the sky. This effectively killed many of the monsters while those remaining were still trying to get a grip on what was happening. 

"Flash Strike!" This was another Ultimate Level spell. Making Zane activate three in rapid succession. 

Thunder came down from the sky, electrocuting the monsters and killing of most of those that remained. The ice was melted with his fire, creating water which amplified the electric strike. With this, only the four horned beasts remained on the field with a few two and three horned beasts.

Although unable to perfect any of the three which he casted, it was also only Zane who could consecutively fire three [Ultimate Level] spells. Every other elite member could do two at the very least yet, this couldn't even be done as quickly as Zane did. And with such an amazing ability, there was also a price to pay.

His whole body generated steam like it was an overheated machine and, it probably was. Because after the said combination Zane needed to wait a few minutes before being able to cast spells again. He was half paralyzed and could only perform minimal movements. Making him vulnerable for possible attacks. Or at least that would be the case if not for Zeke's [Conjures].

"I'm leaving it to you guys." He told the [Conjures] which had the job of stalling for time as he waited for the cooldown to finish. Meanwhile, he took a quick glance at all the other elites. Finding his mage counterpart, Merlin who was doing just as good as him.

"Ice shards." 

Unlike Zane, Merlin was being conservative with his use of mana. By generating an [Illusion Field] on the area, there was no way for his enemies to come at him or rather, they would have a hard time even coming near him. In fact, there were even explosive fire spells planted all around the area just outside his perimeter.

"It looks like Zane is on his cooldown period again." The illusionist mage commented as he continued thinning out the number of enemies. 

"Well it's not like that's a bad thing. He does destroy a bunch of monsters all at once." The mage furthered, focusing on his own task at hand while and thinking if he should join in on the race.

"Nah. Even Mordred would beat me to it so I'd rather not try." The mage continued, firing another barrage of [Ice Shards] that took down the two horned monsters nearby.

The person he mentioned was doing just as good as he expected. With Mordred's [Brawler] secondary job class, she was able to continuously beat up the monster that came close. She didn't even focus on her defense anymore because she was naturally sturdy. Ensuring that there was a thick barrier around her that would not be taken down that easily.

"OOORYA!" She shouted, punching another monster with her pile bunker that released a burst of [Chaos Energy] at the back of the monster. Dispersing like a shotgun bullet and affecting those nearby.

"Come on is that all you got?" She taunted, wanting them to condense on one area so she could lessen the amount of attacks she needed to make.

…

Everything was going as Zeke expected. The elites we reperforming within their top conditions and once again growing rapidly as the [Chaos Monsters] provided a bountiful supply of experience points. Indeed, things would've ended the same way it did on the first day. With the elites successfully fulfilling their missions. That is, if Pier did not interfere.

"What the hell is that." Jake commented as he saw an object flying towards his area. Crashing down and leaving a crater along the way.

This same object dropped on every battlefield. Even the yellow areas which were handled by the newer heroes had the same predicament. 

The object glowed and beated like it was alive and, for a moment, every elite didn't know what to do. That is, until it suddenly grew vines.

"What the hell?" Jake commented as he sliced a few of these that net for him. He thought that it was another monster. One which didn't seem all that powerful and, he was right. It wasn't powerful nor was it a monster. It was a living plant from Gaia, one which mutated anything that it pierced. 

With its priority being any living being that possessed [Chaos Energy]. Specifically, the monsters.

The loud battle cries of the monsters were heard around the whole continent as they could not escape from the grasp of this plant. They mutated immediately, gaining one more horn on their head which meant that, their rank and power increased. They also grew in size and had a strange glow to their eyes. Like they were already dead.

"This isn't good. I need to take care of tat thing quick." Jake thought as he targeted the plant. Yet it was too late as the thing blossomed and grew. Enclosing itself in a kind of armor that even Jake's spear couldn't pierce through.

"There should be weak point here somewhere." He thought, trying to analyze the whole structure but, even before he could look at the whole thing, a monster came up. Slamming Jake to the ground without the javelin user even able to respond. This instantly drained [10%] of Jake's health in the process.

He wasn't the only one having troubles. Every member of the elite was stuck on the same predicament as the plants went into full bloom. This wasn't the end of the problems as the plant also dispersed pollens into the air. Thickening the amount of [Chaos Energy] all around the area.

"Hey so do you have a strange plant on your side?" Jake asked the whole group including the Windsprites and Zeke's two other allies.

"Yeah what's up with this thing? It just came up out of nowhere." Curio said in reply. Irritated by the gigantic target which he couldn't even come close to.

"I'm trying to find it's weak point as we speak. Amare should do the same and while were at it, be weary of those things which it plugged its vines to. I'm sensing their [Chaos Energy] spike exponentially so they should at least be twice as strong now." Allesiah commented as her [Chaos Sight] began doing its work.

"So should we call mister Zeke yet?" Julia suggested. Thinking that things may get out of hand real soon.

"No. We can handle this. Let him continue the search operation." Kaguya said in reply. Wanting the gamer to rely on them and to know that his trust has not been misplaced.

Yet even without Kaguya voicing this out, everyone wished the same. They didn't want to be a hindrance to Zeke nor a roadblock to finishing the missions. They wanted to be of assistance and, to prove that they were worth the alliance which Zeke formed with them. Hence, they all took it to themselves to challenge the strange new foe – with Jake ever more eager to take down a challenging foe.

"It's time to kill some weeds."