System Awakening Era: I Have 10x Skill Effects-Chapter 13: Party and Contribution

"What the—"

"Now go and show your ability!" Nana ordered firmly.

No wonder they hadn’t bothered to retrieve the bodies of the five elite members who died yesterday.

Aamon narrowed his eyes and glanced to the side where the female soldier signaled for him to leave. The young man nodded in agreement.

Commander Nana’s order was simple. Aamon only needed to assist the elite members or soldiers stationed in the northern district. That was all.

Maybe after helping enough over there, he could talk to Nana and learn about the situation in other cities.

"It’s very dangerous to go alone without a squad. Wait up front. Usually there are squads returning while carrying injured teammates," the female soldier explained.

The two of them stood on the asphalt road in front of the army headquarters building.

In front of them was a wide grassy field used to place artillery, along with military medical tents for soldiers and elite members.

Aamon nodded.

Even though he was capable of fighting monsters alone, it was still far more efficient to do it with a squad.

It would save his stamina.

"I have to go back. I need to check on some elderly people," the female soldier added.

Aamon turned and gave a short nod, letting her leave. Now only Aamon remained, staring straight toward the front yard.

A few minutes later, several people wearing elite member uniforms arrived at the military medical tent.

Aamon froze. He immediately recognized them.

They were the people from his tent last night. However, their squad only had five members now.

That afternoon they arrived at the medical tent carrying one of their injured teammates. He had been stabbed.

Aamon narrowed his eyes and walked toward them.

One of them turned and met Aamon’s gaze, raising a hand to greet him.

"Aamon?"

"What happened?" Aamon asked.

"Nath. One of our members. She was hit by a grasshopper monster’s attack," the man explained while sitting on the grass.

Aamon glanced toward the medical tent, but he couldn’t see what was happening inside. He shifted his gaze forward again.

"Where were you assigned?" Aamon asked.

"Northern district."

"How are things over there?"

The man, John, explained everything in detail.

He told Aamon that three squads had been sent to the northern district.

Two veteran squads and John’s squad as the newcomers.

Unfortunately, something bad had happened to John’s squad.

Not only that, the number of monsters had increased significantly for unknown reasons.

The chaos in the southern district had already calmed down, but the peak of the attacks was now happening in the north.

"If Captain Lucas hadn’t deployed his troops to the north, a lot of people would’ve died," John explained.

Aamon nodded.

He summoned his sword into his hand. The moment immediately caught John’s attention and the other squad members.

"Can you help me?" Aamon asked.

John glanced at each of his teammates. Then he shook his head.

He explained that he couldn’t fight alongside Aamon right now.

His stamina had been drained completely. If he went, he was afraid he would only become a burden.

The others also refused.

This was their first mission, and unfortunately they had immediately been thrown into a battle against a massive wave of monsters.

Commander Nana really was a crazy woman.

"I... will help you."

A woman raised her hand, holding a priest staff in her grip.

Aamon turned and gave a small smile. John and the others looked in the same direction.

Aamon walked toward the woman holding the priest staff. She looked shy, her cheeks slightly red.

"Can you use healing skills?" Aamon asked.

"I can. I can even use advanced healing."

That was good.

Aamon nodded.

He knew her name was Tissa.

If no other squad members were going to join him, then he and Tissa would go together—just the two of them.

"Looks like that’s everyone," Aamon said, turning his head. "Are you ready, Tissa?"

Tissa nodded.

Her face clearly showed fear, but she believed Aamon would protect her well.

Aamon traced the letter S in front of his face. The system panel appeared along with several menus.

He raised his hand and selected the party menu, displaying a palm identification panel.

[Party Formation]

[Party Name: Aamon’s Party]

[Party Leader: Aamon Viremont]

[Members:]

[Please identify party members using palm identification]

Tissa raised her hand and placed her palm against the blue identification panel that appeared in front of her.

[Identification successful.]

Tissa was registered as Aamon’s first party member.

[Members:]

[1. Tissa Reene || Survivor || Lv. 1]

"What is... a party?" Tissa asked.

"A party is a small group. Usually two to five people. EXP and loot are shared based on contribution."

"Is a squad also a party?" Tissa asked.

Aamon shook his head.

"Commander Nana assigned you through administrative squad divisions, not through a party system. So if John kills two monsters and gains 50 EXP, the reward will belong entirely to John. It won’t be shared."

"I... still don’t understand."

Aamon didn’t blame Tissa.

It was natural for her to be confused by his explanation. But slowly, he believed she would understand over time.

Tissa nodded.

After gathering her courage, she and Aamon left the area. John and the others remained on the field, waiting for their injured teammate to recover.

Aamon and Tissa ran quickly and soon reached the front line.

They turned to the right and saw a battle taking place there.

"What skills do you have?" Aamon asked.

"Only basic healing and advanced healing."

"Any attribute enhancement skills?" Aamon asked curiously.

Tissa shook her head.

"I... don’t have any."

"What’s the range of your healing skills?" Aamon asked.

"The Basic Healing skill has a 25-meter radius, while Advanced Healing works within a 50-meter radius."

Tissa squinted slightly.

"Why do you know about the range of my skills?"

"I need it. Prepare your Basic Healing skill. Use it when I tell you!" Aamon said firmly.

The woman nodded.

Aamon clearly ordered her to stay behind the concrete barricade. He forbade Tissa from entering the battlefield because she was a support type.

Even so, Aamon noticed the two squads in the northern district making that exact mistake.

They brought their priests and mages to the front lines without any proper defense.

They were practically offering them as easy targets.

Before long, both squads began to struggle against the waves of grasshopper and cockroach monsters.

All of them were level 1 monsters—easy to defeat.

Several squad members were injured and immediately retreated.

The monster attacks became increasingly savage and brutal.

One of the squads still holding the northern district was starting to be overwhelmed.

[Assassin Skill: Death Sigil 10x]

A powerful purple aura burst from Aamon’s body, shocking everyone nearby.

In a flash of purple light, he charged forward and slaughtered the insect monsters that were pressing the squad ahead of him.

He leaped high into the air, summoning purple iron needles and swinging his arm forward.

The needles pierced ten monsters, slowing their movement.

Aamon took advantage of the debuff.

He moved swiftly, dodging stabbing attacks and sprays of acidic liquid, then slashed through the bodies of the ten marked monsters.

Gradually, Aamon began adapting his body to the skill.

His movements became more efficient when avoiding monster attacks and launching counterattacks.

Every monster marked with the sigil that died significantly reduced his skill cooldown thanks to the 10x Skill Effect.

That allowed Aamon to repeatedly use his skill without worrying about cooldown.

Tissa looked ahead.

On her dashboard panel, she could see Aamon’s HP in the corner beneath her own HP bar.

"He’s in the middle of a monster swarm... but for some reason I don’t see his HP decreasing."

Not long after, Aamon leaped away from the swarm of monsters when the notification panel warned that the 10x Skill Effect was about to end.

Aamon landed in front of the concrete barricade.

His uniform was covered in green liquid—the blood of monsters.

"Are you—"

COUGH!

Aamon suddenly coughed and vomited blood.

Tissa panicked and immediately activated Advanced Healing. She directed the skill toward Aamon as golden light shone from his body.

The green liquid evaporated and disappeared from Aamon’s uniform.

He began to feel the effectiveness of Tissa’s healing skill, which eased the violent pain in his chest caused by the 10x Skill Effect.

In less than ten minutes, Aamon recovered.

He stood upright and wiped the blood from the corner of his lips.

Tissa smiled.

"Thank you, Tissa."

"Of course, Aamon."

I can’t use the 10x Skill Effect again right now. My only choice is to fight them with everything I have.

[Congratulations! You obtained drop items:]

[+297 EXP || +170 Contribution Points || +170 Coins || 17x Monster Core || 3x Low Skill Scroll]

Tissa stepped beside Aamon, surprised as she showed the EXP panel she had received.

"Look, Aamon! I got much more EXP than before."

"Seventeen monsters, each worth 25 EXP. If you received 128 EXP, then the party system calculated your contribution at around 30%," Aamon explained.

He turned and looked at Tissa’s enthusiastic face.

"You helped me a lot with your healing."

He took out the three Low Skill Scroll items and handed them to Tissa.

"Open them and hope you get an Attribute Support skill. With that skill, your contribution percentage can increase."

Tissa smiled and nodded, "I’ll do it!"