The next morning, with the group, a few people had bravely gone with Kimsung to find supplies in shops near the Metropolitan Museum so everyone could eat. After all, they surely must've been hungry the whole night, cooped up in the building. They arrived at Lexington Avenue and began raiding shops along the Avenue together, placing most of the food items in Kimsung's inventory while he kept watch. They moved a few blocks downtown and then a few uptown before heading back to the museum, with lots of food in store.
Once back at the main camp in the museum, Kimsung meets with the siblings to speak.
"Hey, how long do you two plan on staying here?"
He asked. Keido thought for a while. It was true they didn't want to stay forever, but he could wait here for all these people, especially the younger ones, to become strong enough to protect themselves. They'd have to leave soon, or else they might never find Achilles in this confusing city.
"I guess… We'll leave after a couple of days. By then, if monsters keep coming our way, we could get to F-rank, and maybe E-rank by the time we're headed to Chicago."
"That sounds like a good idea. We can go with that, if that's alright, Kimsung."
Heidi agrees, not being able to help how annoyed she felt, thinking about having to stay for an extended period of time with people like this, when there were more important matters to attend to, especially for the good of the world and humanity. If it were up to her, she'd leave immediately, even if she left these people helpless. For some reason, the thought of abandoning all these people in favor of their own plans didn't make her feel bad at all.
"Alright. Three days is how long we'll be here. After all, we have more important things to do. In the meantime, we'll hunt whatever comes near the museum and try to keep these people safe."
After Kimsung finished speaking, one of the survivors of the museum came up to them, a dark-skinned man with brown eyes and short brown tapered hair. He was one of the people who joined Kimsung on the explorations to the food markets for the people, and was near the museum when the dungeons began to open. The man named Jacob was lucky enough to get inside the building before anything happened to him; he had also left his friends, who were with him behind, in the open.
"Um, Kimsung, right? How do we use our skills? When I try to use mine, it only says I don't have something called mana. Do you know what that is?"
Kimsung took a few seconds before answering, not wanting to disappoint the man.
"Well, mana is an energy you need to do anything with your skill. But it can only be gained by killing monsters. Since I killed most of the wolves among other things, I have almost twenty EXP, or rather, mana points."
He told the man. Jacob swallowed hard and brought a hand to his face, covering his mouth as he thought. While he did want to use his skill, he, however, had no real training when it came to fighting. Sure, there were many weapons in the museum, enough for a small force, but he had no idea how to use them. Kimsung also remembered that they could explore the dungeon from yesterday that hadn't been cleared, simply left right outside the museum, unentered.
If it was not cleared within ten days, the dungeon would simply burst open, allowing the dungeon boss to enter the real world. The reason this posed a great threat to the survivors who had no choice but to stay here was that it would most certainly be an E-ranked monster. Dungeon Bosses were always a rank higher than their dungeon, meant to be proof that you deserve your victory over it. It was also one of the few ways to rank up without having to kill monsters consistently. Clearing twenty F-ranked dungeons as an unranked would set you to F-rank. It was the same for any other dungeon as well, making it both the safest and most difficult way to rank up.
The second method was what Kimsung had been doing, simply by hunting monsters and gaining EXP from them. The third method, the most dangerous but quickest, was to kill a Disaster Boss. Disaster bosses, like Dungeon bosses, were always a rank higher to ensure anyone who fights them proves their strength. If killed, those who did the most would rank up. However, it also resulted in the most casualties in the novel, since the challengers who could survive, much less win, were too few compared to those with greed and died uselessly.
So even if it took a long time, Kimsung was more than fine with gaining EXP slowly.
"However, the more monsters you kill, the larger your mana reserves would become, which is why I wanted you guys to kill monsters on your own, or at least deliver the killing blow. Which means you need to come on more scouting missions to be able to use your skill. What does it do anyway?"
Jacob opened his own system and read its description. He was silent for a moment before responding.
"It lets me move my arms faster."
'Oh wow, not that bad of a skill. That'd be good as a fighter, honestly.'
"Ok, have you tried to use your skill yet?"
The man shakes his head.
"No, I always run out of mana too quickly. I have only two EXP."
Well, that was probably the reason why Kimsung had never seen him use his skill before. It was simply a matter of mana. Honestly, he thought the man might've had something preventing him from using his skill, and he wasn't wrong, which was good, because it could be fixed. All they had to do was enter the dungeon and clear it with other people. That'd at least give something to Jacob, as well as anyone else trying to use their skills.
Wait. Didn't he just think about how risky going into a dungeon… He paused. What was he thinking about just now? Kimsung didn't know, but it mustn't have been important. He shook his head a bit and rubbed his eyes. Kimsung felt tired, especially after having come back from that expedition earlier. Maybe he should take a rest before he talks with the Song siblings about the dungeon.