Ashley

The group – and it is a group – consists of four people, each of whom is armed with a single weapon. But that weapon varies amongst them, with two having swords, one a bow, and one a spear.

All of the weapons look rather basic. And they don’t look like anything created by an ability. Or, rather, skill.

I stay here kneeling at the corner for a bit before furrowing my brows slightly. Actually regretting that I didn’t get the Enhanced Hearing skill for a moment.

But since all that would save me from is having to talk, and not actually from a life or death battle… it’s still best I didn’t get that one.

The group looks to be talking without actually moving through the maze right now. But after a few seconds, they start to move.

In my direction.

I quickly duck my head back behind the corner while still crouching, wondering what I should do.

Monsters are so much easier to deal with than people.

I stare at the ground for several seconds before letting out a very light breath of air and standing up. Then I step around the corner and begin walking over towards the group.

They all look surprised at the sight of me before immediately smiling for some reason as they look me over. At which point I remember that I can identify people.

So I do.

♢ Level 2 Adrian Scott – 26 Potential Skills – X ♢

♢ Level 1 Alexia Davis – 21 Potential Skills – X ♢

♢ Level 2 Rodrick Graves – 10 Potential Skills – X ♢

♢ Level 1 Lisbeth Carter – 20 Potential Skills – X ♢

Okay, there are a few reasons they could be smiling.

My level is level 2. I currently have 61 potential skills. Or they may realize from the red orb in my identify result that I’m a Successor.

The last option isn’t that likely since that was never explained. What the orb means. I only know about it myself because I’m the only one with the dot while everyone else just has a black cross there. And I know that successors aren’t exactly common judging from what Chaos’s clone said.

The first option would at least imply I’ve killed monsters and am not a pushover, and the second would imply potential in the future.

I doubt it’s the second one either, since potential doesn’t matter right now.

Maybe the level 2 thing then?

“Hey! You wanna join us, cutie?” The guy who I identified as Adrian shouts from across the hall while waving his hand. He is dressed in what looks like expensive casual clothes, with a cap on his head and one hand holding a sword.

Wait, please tell me those smiles weren’t because of my looks… no, probably my level. I doubt someone would be… no someone probably would be that stupid as to care about looks in a situation like this.

When I don’t respond, he seems to grow a little confused and shares a glance with the other three.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

One of the girls amongst them – Alexia by her identify result – looks at me and asks, “Hey? You gonna respond?”

She’s also wearing rather fancy clothes, just like the first guy. Although the other two aren’t wearing fancy clothes like them. They’re wearing some sort of work uniform for a café or something. With aprons and all. And all of these four look to be around my age, at the start of college. A few years older than the kids from the second phase.

Instead of saying anything, I just shake my head, making the four look disappointed. Then they grow more wary of me and begin searching my person with their eyes again. But this time focused on my hands, waist, and any other place that might hold weapons.

When they notice I don’t have a weapon visibly on me, one of them – the one named Rodrick – asks, “What happened to your starter weapon?”

I keep my face perfectly straight at that as I continue walking towards them, the lot of us practically shouting across the hall at each other.

“You know, the weapon you got for killing your first monster in the phase?” He expands what he means when he sees me not saying anything. Only to glance at the others and ask, “Does she even understand us?”

There we go. Got the intel.

Also, I shook my head before and answered, so why is he asking that?

Anyways, looks like everyone was given a weapon for killing their first monster. Was it done in a similar way to how I got my stuff from the Primordial? Or no?

Either way, I give them a brief nod of my head as we get close enough not to need to shout anymore. Then I just continue on past them.

“Just leave her alone,” the last one of the group – Lisbeth based on identify – says right after I pass. “It’s clear she doesn’t want anything to do with us.”

Right on the money.

And with that interaction done with, our groups both continue on our separate ways.

Glad they realized I didn’t want to join them or talk. Also, with the trail they’ve left for me, I can go in a different direction from the one they came from.

Just requires me to go down a path where I don’t smell their scent.

Since I highly doubt they found one of those rooms if they’re coming this way. Best not to travel down the same path they went.

So I continue walking down the corridors of the maze, occasionally running into a monster along the way. And after assimilating the Skill Trees of a few more monsters, I find that these gargoyles and stone serpents aren’t giving me any new skills added onto the Skill Trees.

No point wasting Chaos Energy to Assimilate their skills in that case.

As I walk, I think about everything that’s happened to me so far since waking up.

If I had to guess, I have a pretty decent idea about why Chaos made me his successor. It’s most likely due to one of two reasons. If not both.

The fact that I have Chaos Energy, and my Skill Tree.

I haven’t seen a single other person with a skill anything like my own, and from what Chaos’s clone mentioned during the tutorial about the Skill Trees, I doubt I will. Not to mention that I’m one of the only people in the history of Val to ‘not have an ability’.

That’s because everyone is always born with the instinctive understanding of how to use their ability. And abilities weren’t something that had any sort of requirement.

So no one ever assumed that there could be an ability like mine that needed something else to happen in addition to my using the ability.

Then again, I don’t remember anything outside of the fact that I knew I ‘didn’t have an ability’, so I don’t know what happened with me. For all I know, I could’ve known how to activate whatever ability I had but assumed it didn’t do anything. Or I could’ve just not known I had an ability.

Doesn’t matter anyways. Not like I need to know why I thought I had no ability in the past.

Just another one of the things I’ll never figure out without remembering. So I’ll never figure out. Period.

During the course of the first day – according to the countdown ticking in the bottom left corner of my interface – I end up passing over a dozen more groups of people. None of whom I stop to chat with. Half of whom try to chat with me but give up, and the other half ignore me entirely. With a couple muttering something about not wanting a teenage girl to join their group. Especially an unarmed one.

One group actually tries to get friendly with me, attempting to get me to join their group.

I also level up to level four from killing monsters along the way. Which gives me some higher stats. Enough that I’m finally noticing a difference in when I fight against the stone serpents.

And I stop at one of those bathrooms mentioned in the notice a few times. Not really needing to go since I’m not having anything to drink in here. Instead I use them to take a short break where the stupid broadcast can’t follow me, since it’s getting more and more irritating to see those numbers continue growing. Or to take a look at an injury in the mirror inside of the mostly-stone bathroom.

Overall, the process has grown repetitive and boring.

I let out a sigh as I continue walking through the halls of the maze, trying to figure out where one of those rooms are for the mini bosses. While also briefly pondering to myself over why I’m not getting hungry at all. Or thirsty. Or even sleepy.

Then, at last, a smell reaches my nose. One of fresher air and a lot more steel than just the weapons I’ve seen those people of the tutorial – some of whom were by themselves others in groups – walking around carrying.

But most importantly, I smell something akin to fire and water.

At least, I think it’s fire and water. I don’t particularly remember what they smell like. Just that they’re what comes to mind when I smell it.

As I quickly make my way towards the origin of the smell, I pass around one turn after another, surprisingly not finding a single monster.

Then I find what I’m looking for after passing one last turn in the maze.

It’s about time.