Chương 122: Chapter 127: Traitors

By the end of the day, I crashed into bed. Everyone who needed to change bloodline was already in the process. Everything was set. I managed to talk with Rhea, Quinn, and Vix about my skills, magic, and aura. Apparently, evolving my trait was a good choice, because even Rhea, after studying the magical books, was finding spellcasting exceedingly difficult. And she was good.

Vix laughed in our faces, saying that we were just experiencing a fraction of the difficulty everyone else would face when starting to become a mage.

"Imagine having to manage to cast a spell at level 1, with no trait and little to no skills, just to hope to receive the mage class as an option. You got it served to you on a silver platter without even knowing the gift you're receiving." He went on mocking us some more, but it made the point clear. The System outside the tutorial was a nightmare.

I had wondered at the beginning how easy it was, but the scaling difficulty of progression, the lack of the shop, and the strong powers in the multiverse monopolizing resources and information made it almost impossible for the average person to progress after a certain point. Despite many efforts, finding people over level 50 was not that easy, and over level 100 even less.

Most people stopped at 25 after years of work, and if they managed to unlock the right criteria for evolving their class, they would slowly reach the next milestone just to get stopped there by another threshold. While I lay in the bunk bed, I thought about all of this. Humanity was in for a rude awakening when we exited the tutorial, but I refused to get stuck in mediocrity or be bogged down by my curse. I had to move faster. I felt like I was losing ground.

The more I got dragged down by the people around me, the more distant my freedom seemed. I took a calming breath. I had to rest now. Tomorrow, as soon as everyone's status changed to not human-only, I would enact my plan. For now, sleep. I closed my eyes and controlled my breathing, emptying my mind of any thought. It felt like I slept for a couple of seconds, but the light coming in from the windows told another story. I groaned as I got up. I took a quick shower, then went to talk with everyone.

"The last person to confirm the change was Lorein. For some reason she was one of the first to take the elven bloodline potion, but she was one of the last to have her status reflect it. But now everyone is set and ready. Whenever you want to proceed, just tell us. And Elias… thank you, really. I have no idea what our lives would have become without your help, and I don't really want to know," Cole said with a warm smile on his face. His eyes were lucid.

I thought that if he went on a bit more, he would start crying. Understandable, really. But I didn't want to see a grown man cry. A big grown man. He was one of those who got a lesser giant bloodline. He had grown taller during the night, not extremely, but a couple of inches for sure. Now he was way bigger than me, especially in width. He was thick with muscle, much more than before. Apparently that didn't change his personality. He was still soft. Like most of these people.

But I had to admit that the elven bloodline did miracles for both men and women. Even the most average girl who took the bloodline could now easily pass for a top model. It made me wonder how real elves looked if a pale imitation was this good. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Anyway…

"Don't sweat it, Cole. I only did what I could, and we are still not out of the contract. But if everyone is ready, we will proceed."

"We are all ready. I checked and rechecked."

"Good. Then assemble everyone in the common room again. Give the fliers to everyone. They need to say exactly what we wrote yesterday, and they need to do it when I say so, not before. It's important."

"I know. They know too. There are still people who are skeptical, but they are willing to do anything to not become some corpo drone."

"Good. Then let's get ready. I have a last-second preparation to complete. I'll join you as soon as everyone is in the common room." He nodded, then went around to talk with everyone. Like I said, I had something else to do. Something delicate.

"Hey, Chloe!" I shouted at her. She had a stack of papers in her hand and was going somewhere.

"Did you see those three who didn't agree to the plan? I got told they are trying to stir up trouble." She looked at me, and her expression went from pensive to pissed very quickly.

"I knew those were up to no good, dumb bastards. I saw them going out just a minute ago. They were together, but I don't really know where."

"It's fine, thank you," I said quickly before heading out.

"Anytime, boss!" I exited and went around the town in search of them. The town was so small they couldn't be far, and they were too weak to even think about roaming the forest. It took me just a couple of minutes of strolling to bump into them. Well, actually, I sensed a trio behind one of the buildings, talking in hushed tones.

"-it too!"

"Hush! It's impossible now. They are about to do something stupid, you'll see. There's no way they can break the contract, but we could manage to gain from their defiance." A third voice shout-whispered, "No, Garret, I won't stoop so low as to shit on our companions. We may differ in opinion, but that's not a good reason to actively sabotage them."

"They won't be successful anyway, but maybe we could gain a better position or conditions if we show loyalty!" said one. Hah. I lied to Chloe about them wanting to do something, but it appeared that in the end it was true. How could you stoop so low, selling your own people to gain some benefit? I could understand now how the slave system had existed for most of the time humans had civilization. That very system was upheld by the slaves themselves. But this was actually really good for me.

Usually I wouldn't be able to do this because of the curse, but in this case it was for the good of the many. I nearly chuckled out loud at that thought. I didn't even approach them to say anything. I just planted an idea. Marionette of Regret. The trio's discussion started to become more animated, until they were shouting over each other. Apparently they managed to convince themselves to go and alert the aliens of our plan. All three of them. Such terrible people. My job done, I went back into the common room.

Basically everyone was there already, a few stragglers still coming in. Alya was the last to return. She was sweaty and breathing hard.

"Another sparring session?" I asked her. There was nothing else to do but wait, and it wouldn't take long for sure.

"Yeah. That blue bastard is a monster, and he's not even using extra arms. But I improved a lot. He's a great teacher, and my skills went up like crazy with his help, though it cost a pretty penny," she said while still breathing heavily.

"Good to know. We should spar together one of these days, maybe with everyone, see where we stand now after the shop and everything."

"We already did, multiple times," she said with a wry smile.

"It's just that you were too occupied with all this contract thing to do much else. It's noble of you, really. I… I didn't even think of doing something. I just took their situation for granted and thought about moving on. I feel a bit like shit, actually."

"Nah, you shouldn't feel bad. It just reminded me of my work before the tutorial. I couldn't pass on the chance to show off my skills a bit," I chuckled at my own lame joke. It was better than telling her the truth. As she was about to respond, there was a clamor outside the door. After a moment, they swung open and a handful of guards stepped inside, making way for the trio of traitors and the Chief in person. He had to duck to enter. He was probably nearly ten feet tall.

The room seemed to shake with every step, and his presence strangled any kind of conversation. He scanned the surroundings and apparently found what he saw unpleasant. A heavy scowl appeared on his stony face, then his voice rumbled into our ears.

"What is the meaning of this?" The game was on. It was time to play.