Fighting as a part of the group was different than fighting alone. It had some challenges, like more monsters targeting the larger group. That was a disadvantage, but not a huge one — especially since the bonfire was still burning bright, holding the attention of most of the flying monsters, leaving us to contend with the land-based variety.

But I had to admit, the advantages were impressive. The biggest one, I didn't need to deal with all the monsters myself. I walked behind the group, not contributing much at the beginning, to get a sense of their fighting prowess. My first impression … not bad.

Jertann and Silas stood at the center, fighting against the monsters with smooth coordination that I hadn't seen displayed by most of the other groups I had watched earlier. They took turns dealing the first blow, sometimes Jertann, delivering a huge blow with his hammer, it was Silas delivering a deadly swing from her axe.

Their weapons might not be as well-made as my dagger, but the momentum of their heavy weapons helped immensely, especially when backed up by their supernatural Strength. Together, they functioned excellently as the core of their little group.

However, the smoothness of their operation didn't mean that Karak was useless, or just as hanger on. He had yet to use his bow, and his spear skills were subpar at best, but neither mattered much, considering his most important contribution was to observe the environment, dealing with snakes and other beasts that might be dangerous, destroying any sneaky beast that might have delivered a blow — maybe not a strong one, but with everything going on, small attacks would build up.

That, and acting as a babysitter to Terma, who was not missing any opportunity to dash forward and kill a small beast, ignoring whenever his brother left him to deliver the last blow to a larger beast, even when he explicitly offered.

It was good to see teenagers still acting like teenagers. It helped me to feel at home.

"What's that mark?" I suddenly asked as I noticed Karak using a dagger to draw some kind of symbol on the back of the beasts that they killed. Not all of them, but the stronger ones — the ones that likely granted experience in mid-double-digits or more, as I learned from my own experience.

"That's how the contribution system works," Jertann answered despite Karak working — who was not a man of many words. "The workers will pick those and bring them to the butchers and record the kill to our group, who then separate the useful parts and…"

"And send them to the camp in the middle, so that they can use them to forge weapons and create medicines that they could sell us back at inflated prices," Silas growled in response, showing her distaste toward the new order she found herself in. "That would have never happened back in the village. Those beasts are worth much more."

Jertann shook his head, but no one commented on that.

"I can see why they use that method, it's useful," I commented. It was easy to cheat, especially since there was no verification, but it would be acceptable as long as they didn't act exaggeratedly. Most of the time, a little dishonesty was easier to handle than excessive bureaucracy.

And if that little dishonesty became too much dishonesty … well, that was where my old line of work, one that I occasionally dipped in when I was a young man, showed its benefits.

"Speaking of useful, when are you going to start fighting," Terma interrupted, with the belief of his statement only a teenager could exude.

"Brother," Jertann growled in warning, but I waved my hand to cut him off.

"Don't worry, he's right," I said. "Why don't I hold the rear, so you guys could focus on hunting even more."

"I don't know, maybe —" Silas started, her distrust obvious by her first word, but Jertann interrupted her before she could even complete her sentence.

"Excellent idea," he said.

Silas was surprised by his interruption. She grabbed his arm and dragged him away a bit. "Are you sure?" she whispered, her voice soft enough that I wouldn't have been able to hear without Perception, but I acted like I wasn't able to, not wanting to reveal that my Perception was even stronger than Karak's. "Why are you trusting the rear to an unknown? What if he makes a mistake?"

"Trust me, he's good enough, I tested him myself," he answered confidently, which earned a suspicious — rightfully so — glance from his friend, but against his confidence, she just nodded.

He was even worse at keeping secrets than I expected. He tried, but he did really badly.

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"Alright, you can take the rear since the big oaf here is confident in you," Silas said, interrupted by an exaggerated gasp from Jertann, and mirrored chuckles from Karak and Terma, showing that it was more of their habits.

"I appreciate it, milady," I said, the exaggerated respect once again making her blush and avoid my gaze. I had a feeling Jertann would have reacted jealously to that statement if I was closer to their age, but he just chuckled with the rest instead.

I was smiling as I fell behind. It was always fun to mess with young people.

I stayed about fifteen yards away from them, close enough that they could help me in an emergency, distant enough that our paths wouldn't cross by a reflexive lunge.

They walked at the front, while I followed. At first, they were walking even slower than their usual pattern, Silas, in particular, keeping her attention on me to make sure I could actually handle myself. I kept my dagger moving, my actions smooth enough to assure her without revealing the true extent of my Agility.

But, as we walked forward, I realized that she was ignoring Jertann's clues — starting silent and growing to be not-so-silent — that they could move much faster with no problem.

I decided to give them a reason to do so. When the next beast attacked me — a rodent that was as big as a dog — rather than taking it down with another swing of my dagger, I raised my foot.

I noticed their wince, even as Silas made a gesture to Terma, asking him to help me — as he was the fastest. Yet, before he could even cover halfway, I smashed my foot down, breaking its neck easily. As it struggled to recover, I delivered a final blow to its head.

[+16 Experience]

"Wow, you're strong," Terma gasped in shock as he froze, to the point of ignoring a monster attacking him, forcing Karak to react.

I smiled at him, amused by just how quickly his earlier frustration was replaced by fascination, and then I turned my gaze to Silas. "So, are you confident that I can handle myself, or should I show off a bit more,?" I said.

"You noticed that," she said, ducking her head down. I just looked at her blankly, not even deigning to answer that. "Yeah … we can move faster," she admitted, which frustrated her if the angry manner she hacked the next beast was any indicator.

"Good," I said as I prepared to walk.

"Wait," she suddenly said as she removed her red armband and cut it into two height-wise, creating two bands, and threw one to me. "Making sure you look the part," she admitted.

I nodded, making sure not to smile in case she misunderstood my amusement as mocking her, rather than being entertained by the honesty of the gesture. It reminded me of my old days when I first started dipping my feet into illegal businesses. And while what was going on here was not illegal, it was even more violent to compensate for it.

An amusing bout of nostalgia…

Pity, it was interrupted by another bird diving down.

[+8 Experience]

The number of monsters that filled this world, and their determination to kill people, was incredibly annoying. Luckily, with the excess skills I had, I could work significantly more than the four-person team that was in front of me, giving me ample opportunity to observe my surroundings.

We moved much faster once they trusted me enough to keep their attention fully on their front, allowing me to handle the beasts that avoided their initial instincts enough to make a large circle, or the occasional bird that decided to dive-bomb us.

Soon, we came to a stop, a little more than two-thirds of a mile, which finally answered my questions about the distance an elatriss represented.

And, obviously, we weren't the only group that was tasked to open a path. Soon, seventeen other groups joined us at the same distance — each group separated about fifty yards — and only two of those groups didn't wear any kind of armband. Other fifteen groups — including us — were each split between one of the three colors, Green, Black, and Red, though the groups lined mostly together.

Blacks were at the center, while Greens took the left side. Reds were on the right, but we were just at the edge of the Reds, so the group on our left belonged to Blacks.

I might have assumed that to be an accident, but the number of people in each group dissuaded me from that. Blacks were the most crowded ones, even their smallest group consisting of ten people, and the one at their center had twenty-four, quite a few of them armed with bows.

Reds had fewer people, the biggest group had only with twelve people, which was not at the center but at the edge, but after us, even the smallest groups had eight people. I might have ignored that, but the nearest Red group stayed away from us, even farther than the Black group.

At first glance, it looked like the group farthest to the right had the biggest problem, but I would have preferred to deal with monsters rather than a rival gang — and I didn't doubt for a second that whoever was responsible for the formation was unaware of that fact.

"It seems that we're very loved," I said with a chuckle as I finished glancing at the show.

"You can tell," Silas said even as she swung her axe to take down another beast, looking a bit guilty, but Karak just nodded, once again a man of few words.

"That's the fault of that idiot, Gert," Terma growled vindictively. "He's still holding a grudge that my brother didn't join his little clique."

A flash of guilt invaded Jertann's face. "Maybe you should find a different group before it's too late. I'm sure one of the other groups would accept you if you leave right now," he said.

I looked at the rest of the group, each looking guilty in varying degrees, even Karak with his impassive expression.

"Don't worry about that, I can handle myself against a bunch of upstarts," I said with a wave of my hand.

"Really," Terma said, looking shocked.

"Sure, I didn't live this long to get scared by a bunch of bullies," I said. I tried to look like it was a brave, impulsive decision, which put a smile on their faces.

Admittedly, that was only a small facet of the truth. I stayed there because I had already got a good handle on their group, earnest and competent, yet just naive enough to miss the fact that I would be subtly interrogating them about the world I found myself in.

Was that a nice thing to do? Certainly not, but a little beneficial deception was hardly the worst sin I committed. And, I would owe them one even if they didn't know that.

I paid my debts … always.

Before I could say anything, someone blew a horn from the camp. "It's the signal to start moving," Jertann said, and we started to move…