Chương 91: (B2 Chapter 42)

About time! I raced up the stairs towards the fourth floor, where Marcus had been placed since he became unconscious. I pushed open the door to the apartment he was in and found him sitting on the bed staring in space. No, not staring, his eyes were moving. He's probably looking at a system screen. Normally, I waited till a person is done with their system screens before speaking, but I didn't bother waiting this time. Being alone with him right now was a prime opportunity I didn't want to miss.

"You sure took your time waking up. Probably wanted us all to do the hard work while you slept away… isn't that right?" I smirked. I admit, I had worried about him a lot over the past three days he had stayed unconscious, but now that he was awake, he was fair game. He gave a slight jolt in surprise and turned to look at me, "Alex! Didn't hear you come in."

"Yeah, well, I kind of am known for moving silently…" I was suddenly reminded of Alexandra as I said this, but put the thought out of my mind for now.

"Just like you'll now be known as the guy who sleeps through all the important issues and lets others handle everything." He laughed at that, but then went quiet for a moment, before asking in a serious voice, "How long was I out?" I realized that the tone of the conversation had shifted, and sighed before answering, "About three days." He took a deep breath at that, "Wow, I didn't think it would be this bad…"

"What exactly did you do?" I asked curiously. It was a question on everyone's mind the past few days, and the longer Marcus had stayed unconscious the more the question grew in intensity. He thought for a few seconds before answering, "I used my ability. There's a bit more to my ability then I have told you guys… but let's wait till everyone's here before I answer in detail."

"Sure," I shrugged, trying to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal. I could tell Marcus was being much more serious than he usually was, so it must be something he considers very important.

"Meanwhile, what's up with all these system announcements?" he asked, forcing a subject change which I was happy to allow.

"As I said, you really did leave us to do everything. The past few days have been nothing short of crazy, and we are honestly running ourselves into the ground right now…" I proceeded to tell him everything that had happened after the system announcements. About the appearance of the 'unfit' users, the panic, the monster attacks and deaths, and the fact that we were spread too thin and running out of everything at a rapid pace.

"None of us apart from me have even left the base since all these people the system deemed 'unfit' arrived, there simply isn't enough time," I finished. Marcus had been listening intently all this while, and he looked understandably worried as well, "That's a lot to take in. Just the health care alone of so many children, elderly, and the disabled needs an entire hospital staff…" he trailed off at the end and went deep in thought.

"Oh! That reminds me, I have something for you," I took out the regeneration scroll from my inventory and handed it to him. I could've waited, but I wanted to take his mind off the serious topics and instead focus on something positive for a while.

"What's this?" he asked as he took hold of the scroll. I saw his eyes widen as he saw the system prompt come up.

"It's your reward from the dungeon. All of us got one thing each," I explained what each of us got, and I had just finished when the door burst open and Lucas barged in, followed closely by Mason. I let them speak with each other as I just hung back, glad that my friend was okay and the group was finally whole again. In fact, we had delayed testing out the new party function, or group function as the system called it, till Marcus had woken up. It just hadn't felt right making a party without him present.

Soon, Omar and Madelline had also joined us in the room, followed closely by Sam and Hannah, who in fact stayed outside the room whispering amongst themselves whether they should head inside or let the 'original group' speak with each other. I had heard them whispering, and had wordlessly opened the door and ushered them in. They were as much a part of our group as anyone else was as far as I was concerned. Besides, there really wasn't any hidden or private conversations happening here.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Oh! Actually, Marcus wanted to explain about his ability. Maybe I should have asked him whether he was comfortable sharing it with them or not… I didn't have to wonder about that for long though. As soon as the door shut behind Sam and Hannah and they had also thanked him for saving them with his ability, Marcus took a deep breath, "Now that everyone is here, I need to tell you guys something about my ability."

His words immediately quietened the room. All the laughter and the teasing at Marcus's expense died down and everyone focused on what Marcus was about to say next. I, too, paid attention to what Marcus was about to say, but an errant thought was running through my mind at the same time. Everyone but me thanked him for using his ability. Did I honestly forget to thank him but just focused on teasing him instead?!

"Well, go on. Don't leave us hanging in suspense, it's already been three days!" exclaimed the ever-impatient Omar as Marcus had been silent for a few seconds too long for his liking. His words cut through the tension that had been rising in the room and everyone let out a chuckle. I also focused back on the conversation instead of thinking how to thank Marcus now without making it seem awkward.

I still can't understand whether Omar does this consciously to put everyone at ease or if this is just his real personality…? Either way, he really was amazing at putting others at ease. Maybe he just had a natural knack of understanding when some laughter was needed, and he didn't mind it if the laughter happened at his expense.

"Okay, okay. Well, the thing is, my ability doesn't just allow me to heal, but also allows me to recover stamina and mana as well, which is what I did in the dungeon," Marcus explained, looking at us each in turn. Yeah… we figured that. What I don't understand is why he hid this fact from us…? Lucas must have had the exact same thought, "That much is clear to us now. But why the need to hide it?"

Marcus let out a long sigh and stayed silent for a few seconds before speaking up, "because I didn't want you guys to know the real cost of my ability. It's called sacrifice for a reason… it doesn't only cause me to go unconscious with one mana, health, and stamina, but it also makes me lose a stat point for each resource I recover," he was still continuing to look at us all in turn, as if afraid we would lash out at him for hiding something so important from us. Which, to be fair, is exactly what happened.

"What? How could you keep something so important from us? We would have never asked you to use your ability if we knew about how it harms you permanently!" exclaimed Lucas, shocked at what Marcus had revealed. The others also seemed to agree with Lucas. Exasperatedly, Marcus spoke up, "This is exactly why I didn't tell you guys earlier. I've not been using my ability willy-nilly all the time like you guys do, isn't that right?

I've only used it twice, and both times tell me honestly if any of you believe there was another way to come out unscathed if I hadn't used the ability?" The room quietened down at his outburst, and I had to admit he made a good point. His ability gave a second wind to everyone, including the buffaloes, in the tutorial. And the fact that we are still alive and were able to beat the dungeon only due to him using the ability is unquestionable.

"That's a good point, but Marcus, you need to understand that if we knew it was causing you a permanent setback then we would not have considered it an option in our planning, but would have instead tried to find a way in which you didn't ever need to use it. Using it in the dungeon was unavoidable and came as a surprise for all of us, I get that, but we could have planned something else in the tutorial, couldn't we?" asked Lucas in the voice he used to make others calm down.

As usual, Lucas's calm voice worked at easing the tension in the room. I still had a question though that I needed to ask… Let's hope it doesn't raise the tension again…

"I still don't understand why you didn't tell us that you could also recover mana and stamina… the thing you were hiding was just the stat loss of one each, right?" I asked, and I saw Marcus wince slightly at the question.

"Honestly, it's because I'm comfortable losing vitality, and to an extent endurance as well. I lose vitality when recovering health, endurance with stamina, and intelligence with mana. I just didn't imagine we would ever be in a desperate situation where stamina was needed, so I didn't mention it.

But the main reason was that I wasn't comfortable with losing intelligence, and if I had mentioned I could recover stamina as well, it would make sense for the ability to recover mana as well," Marcus explained his thought process clearly and openly, and to be honest, I understood his point of view.

"… and… well… it isn't exactly one each all the time…" Marcus said in a lower voice this time.

"What do you mean?" I asked. He then went on to explain how the loss of stats increased with every resource he recovered, losing one stat with one resource, two stat points each for a total of four when recovering two resources, and three stat points each for a total loss of nine stats when recovering three resources. Which meant Marcus had just lost nine stat points back at the dungeon…

The revelation shocked everyone once again, and the room delved back into silence for a while before Mason said something that sounded amazing.

"Don't cha' worry bud, I'll get the alchemists to brew something that can increase stat points. We'll recover your loss back in no time!" he exclaimed. Right! Elixirs! There could very well be something similar an alchemist could make! Why didn't I think of that? Marcus, however, didn't respond to Mason's words. He had been staring straight ahead for a while now, and his next words meant that he had been busy going through system messages while we had all been silent.

"Guys, I just got offered a class upgrade, and it's for a rare class!" What?! Rare? But he only had a common class…