“Humph… If I can get it then why am I standing here?”

“Sightseeing perhaps?” I teased him and he glared back. In fact I knew that he couldn’t get to that gate high up in the air.

The gate was really big, almost half a mile in radius. It wasn’t totally blue as it had many red and golden yellow wisps of energy dancing across its circular edge.

It was so high in the air, reaching almost one thousand metres in height. That wasn’t the only reason that prevented that dude from getting it.

In addition to its very high place, the tower below it was already covered in the protective layer it exerted.

The tower wasn’t fully finished, but at least it crossed more than half of the distance to that gate. I believed if the tower would be finished, then its tip might end up just in the centre of that epic gate.

But at least it crossed more than half of the distance to the gate. If there was no shield layer around it, then climbing that tower might give a great help to that Selvator to reach the gate.

“Look,” Fang tried to act collected, but I knew he wasn’t, “we already had a deal before. Why not help me here and get what we agreed upon?”

“That’s nonsense!” Wryly exploded the moment he heard Fang’s words. In fact I didn’t have a favoured race here. In other times I would just start an auction and reaped all the benefits to myself.

But that dude made an unforgettable mistake with me before. So I just came closer, patted him on the arm as it was the place I could reach, and said in a serious tone:

“You shouldn’t have kept that info away from me.”

“What info?” Fang acted all innocent but I was sure he knew what I was talking about.

“The fact that humans were sold in the market,” Wryly was playing on the same tone with me here. It seemed the conflict between these two was so intense that turned such a thick headed Berserker into such a quick witted guy.

“That…” Fang’s eyes widened as he faked his surprise about it, “I… truly didn’t mean any ill intentions by hiding that. I was just worried about your feelings.”

“Caring about me is nice indeed,” I said in a serious tone without changing the look on my face, “but this doesn’t relate to me only but to my entire race. Tell me, if you are the one in my place, what will you do to someone who cheated and kept such info from you?”

Fang’s silence was the perfect ending for this little dispute. I knew he did wrong, but I wasn’t willing yet to turn him into my enemy.

“Just don’t do such a thing again,” I patted his arm twice to stress over my warning, “in the apocalypse, there are no secrets that will be kept for long… Got it?”

Unwillingly he nodded and despite his unwillingness to let the epic gate go in such a way, he had no other option but to lower his head and watch in silence while I took Wryly high in the air with my chariot.

In this time and place, I was the only one able to reach that portal.

“Listen,” but that didn’t mean I was going to let my big goal slip away in such a way. Wryly was going to have his big trophy as promised, but after I got mine as well. “I’ll first get the portal ownership then you can just take it for yourself.”

“No problem bro,” it seemed I worried for nothing. That Berserker was so deeply intoxicated in his little victory over Fang in this matter.

Just look at his face… I feared his face would crack open from that wide grin he had from ear to ear!

He didn’t even ask me for the reason behind that request of mine! Anyway he agreed and I simply went high to the portal and touched it for a few seconds.

Congratulations! You gain control over an epic grade realm gate

You gained one favour point with the system creators

Congratulations! You accumulated three favour points with the system creators

You now have a reward of one Heroic Calling

You can use the Heroic Calling in anytime you want, but not exceed ten quests from now

To use the Heroic Calling, please go to your profile

This time I grinned in the same way Wryly was in the previous minutes. I finally got a second Heroic Calling and I could now use it to distribute the news about my new communication system.

But I first had to create that system. And that would be through the Bringold impact for sure.

“Your turn,” I stepped to the side while Wryly ascended the edge of my chariot. He didn’t hurry to claim the gate as he first raised his clenched fist high in the air before shouting in a loud cry:

“Ooohhhaaa!”

“Ooohhhaaa!”

And after him his forces thundered in response with his war cry. I watched him take control of the gate while stealing glances down at Fang.

That dude’s face was darkened from anger and frustration. Dude, please learn your lesson quite well this time and don’t hide anything big from me ever again!

“Thanks bro, thanks,” Wryly was so overwhelmed with getting this gate as he jumped down from the edge and hugged me with his superior strength.

“It’s nothing bro,” I hardly pushed myself away while seeing a genuine happiness on that kind hearted dude’s face.

“Let’s go down,” I descended while asking, “what are you going to do with this gate anyway?”

“My paragon wants to send a great army to my aid through it,” Wryly said before suddenly breaking out in laughter, hugged me again before adding in an immense joy:

“Thanks to you, I’m now an archlord. Hahaha! Can you believe it?”

“That gate was a quest from your paragon?” I was surprised to hear that. I never expected such a gate would hold such a great value to the Berserkers.

“Of course, I won it… Hahahaha!” he laughed again and I just kept my silence while letting him enjoy his happiness.

Even though I started this by taking Selvators to my side, it seemed that in the long run it was better to deepen the ties with those Berserkers.

After all, Wryly was now indebted to me, heavily indebted. Unlike Fang, he had a pure heart and didn’t have such big ambitions here.

But that didn’t mean I would kick Fang away from my side. More friends was much better than more enemies, right?

“I’m leaving,” Fang couldn’t handle the smiley face of Wryly.

“Keep in touch,” I said without trying to stop him, “I’m going to have a group of mega gates soon. So Don’t be far away when that happens.”

Fang gave me a glaring look before he kept walking away without even giving me any answer.

“Just leave him, Selvators are very bad at handling losses,” Wryly said with a mocking snort.

“Is he that bitter?” I pointed at the fading back of Fang and Wryly laughed in response.

“Alright, you got what you wanted and now all that remains is to fulfil our deal,” I said while waiting for him to answer.

“One sec,” he went to speak with his paragon before he returned after ten minutes, “everything is settled. Where do you want your warriors?”

I looked at the area around. This wasn’t the place where I’d continue my journey. I knew what Wryly, Fangs, and their paragons… In the upcoming quests, this place would be hit by a disaster.

Of course their situation wasn’t similar to mine. Wryly, Fang, and their likes would easily deal with such a disaster. But for me it would bring terrible damage.

“Send them up north,” I said before adding, “I’ll send the place to send them later on.”

“Are you planning to leave here?” Wryly looked at me in doubt before his eyes shone with realisation, “you told Selvator there will be more mega gates. Bro, we are friends and you know how high I value you.”

“Stop it,” I knew what he wanted to say here, “I have to give some to that dude or else he would be angry with me and he will have all the right to feel so.”

“What about me then?” Wryly pointed to himself in a funny way. I resisted the urge to laugh and only smiled back.

“I won’t forget about you,” I reassured him, “it’s just the upcoming loot will be divided among the two of you.”

“Then you promise you’ll give me more than him, right?”

“Hahaha, let’s see about that when the time comes,” I laughed but he wasn’t that satisfied with my answer.

“Bro… Please me and my paragon can even increase the price if you want that.”

“It’s not about the price,” I said before pointing to the real issue here, “it’s about who will be closer to me at that moment. The closer you are, the better chance you have of getting more gates.”

I shrugged as if this was something out of my control. In fact I was just playing with him. Yet never expected for him to fall for such an obvious trap.

“Then I won’t be far from you at any moment from now on,” he vowed as if this was a serious matter. I blinked twice before patting on his arm.

“Alright bro, I’ll let you know about my location from time to time.”

“But…”

“Just be ready to come to me once I ask,” I stressed over this point, “or else if that Selvator was closer, then…”

“I will always be close to you,” he vowed again and I couldn’t help but shake my head in helplessness from his kindness and naivety and went towards my chariot.

I sent it to all my team members. It was time to leave this place and head towards my next big target.

All this was just my attempt to survive through the apocalypse. But from now on, it will be my attempt to thrive in it.

I also gathered my warriors, summoners, and my illusionists. These cowards kept themselves away from me most of the time as they were with Wryly since I travelled here.

I didn’t think about bringing them with me. After all they were cowards and I feared they might not fight properly against their own kin.

Plus their actions weren’t that much effective in this battle anyway.

I just waited for half an hour before everyone appeared. Once we were gathered, I started to move away, heading towards Elizabeth city first.

After all, I left a few warriors there to collect shard essence for my fallen gods. It was a regret that the dude didn’t show his face after losing his second arm.

“So what are we going to do now?”

As the team gathered once again, I hugged Karoline under my arm while the jumper asked with glaring eyes at both of us.

“We are taking a detour for now,” I said before adding, “then we will go north. Tell your armies to start moving up. We will gather at Poughkeepsie city.”

“Then?” Angelica asked while she was holding Alex’s hand. It seemed the relationship between the two girls developed quite well during this time.

I also noticed that Isabella and the spearhead were standing close to each other. As for Leo, he seemed to give up on getting closer to the fiery Angelica and started to show some interest in Sara.

“We will head to the north east,” I said and paused for a second, “we will start to control Massachusetts state cities… Totally dominating it.”

“Dominate it?” Isabella asked while the spearhead added:

“Isn’t it a bit away from the centre of the continent?”

“Why are you interested in the centre of the continent?” I asked and he seemed surprised by my question.

“It’s just normal to think about that direction,” the jumper jumped in as his eyes kept glaring up at me, “after all the central zone is much better than getting surrounded by the ocean.”

“Just follow my lead,” I knew what they were thinking about seemed logical. But who said I was acting based on logic?

Or to be precise, who said what they were thinking about was the correct logic in the apocalypse? They knew nothing, and I didn’t intend to explain things to them.

Just a few weeks ahead, they’d know why I did that. So why waste my breath explaining such things that were doomed to happen anyway?