Chương 166: Chapter 171: Arrival

Adrian P. O. V.

"-that's why you have to stab them in the-""They're here!" I turned around from the lovely conversation I was having with Nikki and looked at the unassuming man entering the tavern. What was his name again? Not that it mattered, but it gave people a sense of importance when I remembered their name.

"Are you sure?" I asked. If they were here already, they were early. I wasn't expecting them before another couple of days at the least. Usually they reached here in the third week.

"Yea, big group from the north, at least fifty, and I recognized some of the people you described."

"Who?"

"The tall army guy, the kid and that Elias fellow." Fuck, he survived. This would be annoying, but I had contingencies already prepared. Actually, I could always use him to move quicker in this run… yea, I just have to play my part well. I rose from my chair, the scraping sound echoing in the now silent room. After a moment more chairs started to move, nearly everyone getting up to check on the new arrivals. People here were so incredibly excited after something that I "predicted" became true…

really, I could do what I did only because of how gullible these guys were. Not that I could fault them, if I was in their place I couldn't do much more than listen to the man who knew everything and was always right. Being extremely handsome and charismatic helped too, along with some magic.

"Perfect! Let's go meet them, they must be exhausted. People!" I shouted to everyone who could listen.

"Those who are arriving will be your new comrades! So let's give them a warm welcome and help them get situated, ok? Jill, please do the honour and get the rooms ready." I didn't wait for an answer, I was curious. Usually things didn't make me so curious anymore, after all the times I lived through these situations, the fights and the same people telling me the same things, but it was always funny when things progressed differently for some reason.

Time was a fickle thing, and the possibilities branching and twisting in front of us were endless. I learned it the hard way. I walked outside, following the guy who came to warn us of the group approaching. We had to twist between the streets of the town. It was a safe zone yes, but this was quite special. Houses made of many different kinds of materials and styles grew like living things out of the ground, some were in the ground.

I saluted a hulking mass of wet, shifting vines, who left a long trail of watery mucus in his passage. It was shaped barely like a humanoid, but without legs. A soft growl answered me back before the thing entered a mound made of similar vines, but not through a door or any kind of opening, it just merged with it, disappearing from sight.

"I would never get used to this…" I heard someone in the back whisper, Liam or Will maybe… They were wrong, you can get used to everything as long as you get exposed to it enough times. For me these elementals looked strange too before, but when you understand how they tick, their culture, and if you manage to look past the appearance, you would realize that they were just like us, people. They were greedy little fuckers like everybody else, always asking for more, they tried to take, take and take.

We rounded a corner of a mansion made entirely of crystalline ice. The thing was incredibly beautiful, but after the first time one of the ice elementals invited me in and started to promptly freeze my ass off, I decided that it was better to admire the thing from outside. As we approached the last buildings, one of the four bridges that left the island came into view. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

Another marvel of architecture, the crystal bridge was something that had no place there, connecting two patches of common, mortal ground. No, the thing reminded me of the Bifrost, the bridge described in Norse mythology that connected the realm of the gods to Earth. The crystal looked otherworldly in the light of the moon, glinting with a myriad of lights of every colour. Like I said, a waste to see it acting as a mere bridge here. But despite appearances the bridge was just that, a bridge, albeit a pretty one.

It was the same with many of the things in this new world, pretty but useless, like many people, like many skills and powers, shiny baubles placed in front of us to distract us from the important things. I saw them, they were coming toward us in formation, that was new… A Roman phalanx, complete with tower shields and long spears jutting out of it, in the middle there were clearly non-combatants, all of their faces showing a great deal of relief at seeing the safe zone no doubt.

But it wasn't those that kept my attention, but others. Quinn, the little shit's eyes were shifting back and forth, calculating. The kid was too smart for his own good, but his inexperience made it so that he could be swayed quite easily. An older man was walking not far from him, someone I didn't recognize. I looked at him, looked with my Advanced Analysis and Eyes of Truth combo. The man was strong, well, strong for someone a couple of weeks into the tutorial.

I could slay a thousand of him without breaking a sweat, but it was someone to take into consideration, reaching this kind of power by himself wasn't an easy feat. I felt something primal in his gaze, he was assessing me as I did the same to him. I would like to get him into my group, yes, I could guide him to the best skills and classes, he could become a real monster with a bit of work. My look moved from him to the centre of the formation, Tom, righteous Tom…

always acting as a beacon for the weak and the defenceless, there would always be a place for you in my crew, he always made my job so much simpler. But there was a young girl beside him I didn't recognize, I analyzed her, a kind of mage specialized in barriers? Now that was interesting… some things were not the same as before, quite a lot actually, given that I didn't see Marco, or Matthew.

Instead at the centre back of the formation I could see Alya, great berserker that one, and the big-boobed goth, alongside Elias. The goth girl was too powerful, how did she manage that? Usually it would take me some heavy investment to make use of her, but she was oozing confidence and mana, so much that it made some of my party members look lame in comparison. Finally my eyes shifted to Elias. What. The. Fuck. Was. That. I schooled my expression, not allowing the shock to show on my face.

I could see fucking aura around him, it was nearly physical as it flowed out of him, so dense and powerful and full of malignant intentions that it was starting to hurt my eyes just by looking at it. He's too powerful… did he really manage to kill the serpent? He was still far away in terms of stats from me, but not so much as I wanted… Actually how the fuck did he have so many stats?

It takes millions of points worth of stat-enhancing items to reach that level, and he didn't look like he spent it all on that alone, he was well outfitted. He was dressed in some kind of strange attire, a mix between a suit and a noble attire of old, a grey overcoat draped around his shoulders like a cape leaving ash in his wake. Did he really manage to kill that serpent? Before the stat increase? Because I couldn't think of another place where he could have gotten the fucking points otherwise.

Fuck, he wasn't even past level 25, like me, and while I doubted that he managed the same achievements, for someone that didn't have any kind of prior knowledge, his power was insane, especially because he used curses, the bastard. There was a reason why curses were so feared and whoever used them was hunted down, they were a nightmare to fight against, and even if you defeated the caster, the curse would stay, possibly ruining your life if not dispelled. I looked him over again, no weapons…

strange, just a strange book was attached to his side by a chain, a grimoire, but not one I recognized. What was wrong with his aura though? That was an incredibly piss-poor attempt at aura manipulation, you can't work with that externally man, you have to make it flow through yourself, heh, not that I would go and tell him that though. Actually, I could give him some pointers… just in the wrong direction.

But as I finished scanning him, the thing that stood out the most were his eyes, those grey orbs shone with an inner light as our gaze met, a sliver of fear made me nearly shudder. This wasn't good, someone was playing with me… who was it? An administrator? Or one of the Great Clans? This shouldn't happen, it had never happened before. I had to know who it was that introduced them to the tutorial, whoever that was, it was my enemy, and I would have to act in accordance.

The group crossed the bridge without much trouble, Elias and a couple others made their way to the head of the procession, stopping right in front of us.

"Friends!" I started, giving them my best smile.

"Welcome to Safe Zone 101! I know you must be tired, but don't fear! A place to accommodate you is going to be ready by the time we reach the tavern, allow me to introduce myself first!"

"My name is Adrian Vale, and I'm here to bring you out of this tutorial!"