Chương 57: (B2 Chapter 8)

The realization hit me with the force of a truck. I picked up the pace again, still intent on putting as much distance as possible between me and the two scorpions. However, my mind kept circling back to the same thought. We are under-levelled! By how much, I wasn't sure. I was level 15 now, while Omar was the next highest levelled at 13. The others in our group ranged from levels 10 to 12, while most of the people within the tutorial had barely begun levelling.

This probably meant that not only would monsters here be generally tougher for us, but also that once the tutorials ended for everyone else, the ones who arrived back here would also be of a higher general level. Not to mention that there would probably be other races that arrived here apart from humans. I reached the intersection and turned around, seeing that both the scorpions were back guarding the entrance of the building. Luckily, they hadn't heard Sam and Omar running away.

I turned around the corner and found both of them hiding within an entrance of a building. I stepped inside the building and undid concealed presence, making the two jump a bit.

"I hate when you do that!" said Omar. I chuckled and shrugged, but didn't say anything. My mind was still preoccupied with the levelling debacle. There were so many things to keep track of that it was honestly overwhelming. Just yesterday I had promised myself to focus back on learning about the system, but I hadn't done anything yet, figuring that I would do it once everyone was back together. I still had a lot of experimenting left to do with magic, and now I also had to focus on levelling up.

Not to mention numerous other smaller things. I sighed, but got up and followed Sam outside, as we needed to put more distance between the scorpions and us. The day passed with us exploring while my mind stayed largely preoccupied. We ran into five other people about an hour after our escape from the scorpions. Marcus was also within the five, and I was glad to have found him.

"Wow, you're in one piece. Not badly injured or barely alive. Everything okay?" asked Marcus in mock concern.

"Look at you, walking around by yourself. Need me to hold you up?" I countered. Soon, we met up with three others, and as time passed, our group kept growing. Hannah, Nathan, and Kate were all together when we ran into them. So were Mason and Madelline. We hadn't found Lucas yet, but I was hopeful in finding him soon. However, the larger our group became, the harder it was to stay unnoticed. There were about forty of us now, and we started facing attacks regularly.

Spiders were the most numerous, but also the easiest to handle. Foxes using fire magic also kept attacking us, but luckily, they appeared alone and we had a few healers with us now, including Marcus. I wasn't sure if we were just making a lot of noise, or if it was smell that the monsters were attracted to, or if we were simply harder to miss. But moving unseen was becoming close to impossible, and I was afraid that we would soon attract something that we couldn't beat.

We stopped for lunch, where people pulled out an assortment of canned foods and dried rations that they had found from different stores. I played around with mana absentmindedly as I ate, trying to repeat what I had seen from Omar, Madelline, and the foxes. I wanted to see if I could try something different, something other than the wind bullet I had been using so far. I didn't manage to make a spell, but did make some progress before we set off once more. Every monster that attacked now felt a bit different.

During the tutorial, monsters were a means to survival. Kill them, learn from the fight, and get stronger. Now, each monster that appeared reminded me that we were behind, and that time was running out. During lunch, it had been decided to find a base we could start settling down in. We had also figured out that we were in Toronto… maybe. There were a few signs that mentioned areas of Toronto, like Thorncliffe Park and Fountainhead Road, but other names were completely foreign.

Also, it wasn't anything like Toronto had been. Neighborhoods that were supposed to be far away from each other were suddenly mashed up right next to one another, intermixed with places that no one living in Toronto had ever seen before. These places were definitely from Earth and made by and for humans, just not from Toronto, or even Canada for that matter. Just like there was no rhyme nor reason as to how people had appeared within the tutorial, the same had happened to Earth.

It felt like we were in some weird place with similar sized buildings from all over the world, that the system had decided were supposed to be close to one another during the 'terraforming' it had done. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. We had just killed off a few large wasps that were quite tricky to put down. It was our first fight with flying monsters, and the lack of experience shown through.

Luckily, Omar's homing spells managed to save us, and we urgently left the area. It was becoming more and more urgent for us to find a safe place to hole up in. Soon, we found a place that could work. At the boundary of a park there was a long building that felt like it had been used for some administrative work, with two floors of apartments at the top. It was only five stories tall, but was relatively isolated.

There was an empty area of about 500 meters all around before the closest buildings appeared, and at the front of a building across from a small street was the entrance to a large park. The large, empty area all around gave us clear visibility, but I was worried that it would also stand out.

In my opinion, a random building hidden in a cluster of others would be smarter, but my concern was overshadowed by the vast majority of the people who were of the opinion that we could be cornered and surrounded inside a building much more easily than in the building they had settled on. Fair enough. They weren't wrong, as having visibility would make sneaking up on us much harder. I just wasn't comfortable being so openly exposed. Must be the assassin within me wanting to keep out of sight speaking up…

With the new base decided, Mason sprang to action in making it more defensible and livable, with different voices pitching in, each having their own ideas. I chose the opportunity to slip away from the group, intending to keep searching around for Lucas, while also taking the opportunity to level up if something suitable came up. I thought I had made a clean getaway, but I heard someone calling my name when I was just a few feet away from the point where the buildings began.

Turning around, I saw Hannah running towards me, followed surprisingly by Kate and Nathan, the two I had rescued from the goblin base.

"What's up?" I asked, wondering what they wanted from me. They shared a glance with each other before Hannah stepped forward, "We would like to go with you."

"Um… what do you mean?"

"You always go out alone to do something, and we would like to come with you," replied Hannah.

"Yeah, you rescued us and we owe you our life, so we wanted to look out for you in whatever way we can. Kate and I even took rogue as our classes!" answered Nathan enthusiastically. That's a first… I had never had someone want to follow me around to look out for me. It was… confusing. I had no idea what to say.

"You won't even know we're here!" said Hannah, with Nathan and Kate nodding in the background. I thought about it for a few seconds. Hannah and I had fought together in the final goblin battle, and she had seemed reliable. But Nathan and Kate had spent the tutorial locked up, and they still looked malnourished. They were probably still at level 0, or 1, at best, and had no combat experience. Besides, I wasn't sure how they had even overcome their mental trauma so quickly, that they were eager to start fighting.

Is it something to do with healing? Does healing heal mental trauma as well? I'll have to ask Marcus…

"Maybe next time. I need to move quickly and move unseen, as there are still a lot of people we haven't found yet," I said, keeping my actual thoughts to myself. The three started protesting, and I had a sudden feeling of being surrounded by children throwing a tantrum when they don't get their way. I sighed.

"Look, I need to find Lucas, and I'm not letting anyone slow me down," this finally caused their protests to die down, and I took the opportunity to end the conversation.

"I need to hurry, but I'll be sure to take you guys with me next time." They perked up a little at that, even though I had no real intention at following through with the promise I had just made. Taking advantage of their acceptance, I quickly excused myself and turned around, not stopping till I had reached the buildings and had activated concealed presence when I was out of their sight. Once the skill was in place, I paused, thinking about what had just happened. Should I be more open from now…?

In the tutorial I had spent time being largely alone and taking whatever decisions felt right to me. However, I had since learned that there was simply too much to do. Perhaps it was time for me to start sharing some of my thoughts with people other than Lucas. Having different perspectives could help after all.

I continued thinking as I started my exploring, mentally keeping track of where I was moving, and placing a few identifying marks on the corners of intersections to make it easier for me to find my way back. Over the next few hours, I ran across three more groups ranging from 3 to 8 people, all of whom I directed towards our new base. I pointed the identifying markers to them and sent them on their way, while I continued my search of Lucas. Where is he?

The longer I failed at finding him, the more I imagined that something terrible must have happened to him. Maybe some tough monster got to him, like those scorpions or those centipedes. Or perhaps another race also ended their tutorial early and captured him for some reason. Or, he could simply be hiding alone, keeping a look out for anyone familiar, and my sneaking around under concealed presence had caused him to miss seeing me.

Thoughts continued to run through my mind, and I tried to distract myself by playing around with mana. I was focusing on changing the property of my mana towards having a fire aspect, when I turned a corner and found Lucas. Relief flooded through me as I saw his familiar face. He was standing in the middle of the road, staring at something in an alley with complete focus and high intensity. I crept up to him, intending on scaring him by poking him lightly with my dagger.

I reached near him, but paused and turned around towards the alley, to make sure it wasn't a monster he was staring at that would be attracted to his shout if I made him jump. What was in the alley was definitely not a monster, but it sure did make me forget anything about playing a prank on Lucas. Mirroring what he had been doing, I stared slack-jawed at something truly otherworldly. It was a swirling, perfectly circular, void, surrounded by a pulsing violet edge. Is that a portal…?