Ignoring the discussion, Alex finally opened his direct messages.
He activated Battle Instinct to full power, causing his concentration to sharpen as he quickly sorted through dozens of unread messages.
Most of them were useless offers or questions, so he dismissed them after only a glance.
One familiar sender appeared again. The CIA Special Service agent was still trying to recruit him, explaining that they discovered a dangerous dungeon whose monsters were too powerful. If these monsters left the dungeon, the danger to the city would be devastating.
Alex quietly noted the information, deciding he might contact them after rescuing his family if he still needed more Origin Energy for the Return Skill, though joining their organization was never part of his plans. He would only help with dungeon. It would let him level up, after all.
He continued scrolling until he finally found the message he had been searching for. It came from someone named Ben, and Alex opened it immediately.
[Ben: I have the Mana Circuit Spell. It works by...]
A few lines explaining the spell partially followed beneath it. Most people probably wouldn’t understand the theory, but Alex knew enough about the Mana Circuit Spell to know that the explanation was genuine. It was more than enough to prove Ben actually possessed the spell.
[Ben: I also have a Mana Fruit. I’ll attach a picture.]
[Ben: (Image.jpg)]
The attached image showed a fruit that resembled an apple, except its crimson skin was covered with thin silver veins that glowed faintly, while several crystal-like strands twisted together at the stem, giving it an unusual appearance.
[Ben: This fruit is an S-Rank item that permanently increases Mana by 10.]
A permanent increase of ten Mana was quite tempting, especially for Alex who favored the Mana Stat. The offer was good. A bit too good.
If Ben possessed both the Mana Circuit Spell and an S-Rank Mana Fruit, then whatever he wanted in exchange was unlikely just the Body Reinforcement Spell.
Alex typed out a short reply before sending it.
[Me: What do you want? I doubt you just want the Body Reinforcement Spell.]
Alex didn’t even have to wait twenty seconds before a reply appeared. It was almost as if the other person had been staring at the chat window, waiting for him to respond. The speed of the reply made Alex pay a little more attention.
[Ben: I want to join your faction.]
Another message followed almost immediately.
[Ben: Me and several other people are trapped inside Jaelo Supermart. There are several monsters roaming inside, and there’s a giant monster outside that keeps us from escaping. If you rescue us, I’ll give you both the Mana Circuit Spell and the Mana Fruit. After that, I hope you’ll let us join your faction. I’m on Easy Difficulty, so I can establish contact with natives from the Land of Origin. I believe I can be useful.]
Alex raised an eyebrow after reading the messages. Ben wasn’t trying to hide his situation or make it sound better than it was. Instead, he admitted outright that he was trapped and needed someone stronger to rescue him, which honestly made Alex like the approach more.
It also made sense if Ben was an Easy Difficulty Ascendant. Someone like him would struggle against powerful monsters such as a Wild Orc—which Alex believed was the giant monster Ben was talking about—or even creatures like the Doom Bull Alex had encountered earlier.
The location also caught Alex’s attention. Jaelo Supermart happened to be along the route he already planned to take toward his destination. Rescuing them wouldn’t require making a large detour, which immediately made the proposal more appealing.
Even so, something didn’t sit right with him. Ben claimed to possess an S-Rank item, yet he still hadn’t used it on himself. That was quite suspicious.
There was a possibility that this was nothing more than a trap. Maybe Ben’s group wanted Alex’s Fire Wand and planned to ambush him for it, or perhaps they simply assumed someone from Hell Difficulty would be carrying rare equipment worth stealing.
Neither possibility could be ignored.
Instead of replying immediately, Alex continued checking the rest of his inbox. Most of the remaining messages turned out to be exactly what he expected.
Several people claimed they possessed the Mana Circuit Spell, but after Alex asked each of them a few simple questions about how the spell functioned, every one of them gave completely incorrect answers.
It quickly became obvious that they were lying.
One message, however, stood out from the others. Like Ben, the sender included a short explanation of the spell before making any offers, and the explanation was accurate enough to catch Alex’s attention. He opened the profile and noticed the sender wasn’t even from San Francisco.
The man was located in San Jose, which surprised Alex for a moment. Dwitter worked internationally, but its algorithm mostly recommended posts from one’s city and local communities.
If someone from another major city had found his post, then it meant the video was spreading much farther than he expected.
Alex sent him a message, asking about the trade. There was no reply. Alex read the messages sent by the man earlier, and it looked like the man wanted to complete the exchange online rather than meeting in person. That made things much simpler.
While waiting for the man to come online, Alex reopened Ben’s chat. A few more unread messages appeared while he was checking the others.
[Ben: We aren’t trying to lure you into a trap. I’ll attach some pictures of where we are and the people with me.]
[Ben: (Image.jpg)]
[Ben: (Image.jpg)]
[Ben: (Image.jpg)]
Alex opened each image one after another. The first few showed Ben himself, a man with brown hair, brown eyes, and a sturdy build that suggested he stayed in decent shape even before the apocalypse.
..
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