By the time we reach the common area, our group consists of a hundred or so people. Channeler, meanwhile, proves himself to be even more reliable than I expected and manages to keep anyone from bothering me. He’s either seen through my personality or he's scared of somebody pissing off Tacita and I.
At one point, I hear a weird noise from above, and when I look up, I see a drone flying by.
The heck?
Without thinking, I push myself up and fly towards it, and stop to observe it.
It's a drone from Earth, that much I can tell. It’s on the larger side and probably represents an investment of a few thousand dollars. As it floats there, making its unmistakable noise, its camera moves and looks right at me. The drone then moves up and down as if I’ve startled the operator, and then the camera looks down under my feet and then back up at me.
I am willing to bet 10,000 shards that the owner is someone from Easy difficulty. Those guys seem to have the easiest time. What's next? A helicopter? A yacht? I wouldn't be surprised.
So, I snatch the drone, land, and turn it upside down, which causes the propellers to stop spinning. The camera continues to move and look around.
“You can fly?” Channeler asks, welcoming me with a shocked expression on his face.
“A bit. Can you carry this? I will give you an uncommon item,” I offer.
“Will do, boss!” the handsome man says, immediately taking the drone with a big smile.
As we pass through the tree line and enter the clearing on top of the mountain, the view opens up to reveal hundreds of people already moving around.
The clearing is massive, encompassing a few dozen grassy hills, both small and large. There are plenty of buildings. Some are small, and others are a bit bigger, and not unlike towers in their construction. Perhaps they’re meant to be a place for us to sleep between events?
There are more things of note, but just seeing the sheer amount of people having conversations around us is starting to tire me out. They talk, and some even proceed to fight, flashes of mana erupting into the air. Someone screams, and I hear a baby crying nearby. Did a baby somehow find their way into the tutorial, or did somebody give birth in the tutorial?
It's all weird. Even though they are all real people from Earth right now, they don't feel all that different from the natives.
I examine that feeling a bit more but have to stop when I notice a car in the distance.
A goddamn jeep with solar panels on its roof. And next to it are two more off road vehicles with solar panels plastered over the body. They are worn and slightly damaged, but they still seem to be fully operational.
What the actual fuck. How did they even get here with those hills?
As I probe the area with my senses and head toward the signatures representing my group, only Channeler and Tacita follow.
Passing through the people, I hear music playing nearby, either from a smartphone or a stereo. It all makes sense given that the other difficulties seem to be much safer. Some people probably made it into the tutorial while they were camping and got to keep all their gear. Some probably even got teleported while they were in a shop and took a big chunk of it with them.
It's just that for us from Hell, we have nothing left from Earth. No clothes, no phones, not even rings. All of it was either damaged, destroyed, lost, or had to be left behind. Yet there are people with cars, drones, solar panels, and smartphones.
I even notice an older guy moving around with a camera and recording everything. He is wearing clothes similar to the ones I saw on the second floor, and there is a sword on his hip. But he’s holding a goddamn modern camera.
Deciding I've had enough, I push further, but after a few steps, I stop and backtrack. My head slowly turns to the right, and there I see a young woman holding a chocolate bar and carefully opening it while talking to the people around her, all of them seemingly from the same group.
I take a few steps and enter their camp, which immediately gets their interest, and a few of them stand up, mana rushing through their bodies.
They are so weak.
"What do you…"
"I will trade a rare item for that chocolate," I say straight away.
"What?"
"Two rare items, and even more if you have anything else I want."
Channeler stares at me with an expression that is almost funny, but I put my attention on the woman. "So?" I ask.
"Are you serious?" the older man with a beard answers instead of her and moves closer. I identify their group as either Normal difficulty or Easy. Hmm, maybe I could go up to an epic item for trade. I'm totally willing to do that. I still have a few smaller epic items I didn't sell to the shop, so I wouldn't be losing much. I can sell these items for 1500-2000 shards each at most.
In answer to his question, I nod, and their group quickly puts their heads together, and a passionate conversation ensues. It takes a minute, and slowly they become louder, arguing.
When the man turns back to me, he says, "We can trade you three bars. One of them has melted, another is past its expiration date, and the last one has a small hole in the package. We also have a pack of marshmallows, two bottles of soda, and a package of crackers. Those are in perfect state."
Sounds good for a start, but I will get more; let's just flash some of my riches, "Okay, what do you want?"
He seems to be thinking for a while, but before he can say anything, shouting erupts behind us, "That's my drone! Can you…"
Without turning, I use [Redistribution] to grab hold of the man shouting about the drone along with the rest of his group. Each of them freezes mid-movement, unable to talk or move, though I allow them to blink and breathe.
"So?" I say, nudging the man.
He looks between the newcomers and me and gulps, "At least a few rare items. I don't think you will find that many of them…" he tries to apologize for the high price.
But I’ve already stopped listening, and I take five rare items from my bag. One pendant, two mana stones with interesting defensive inscriptions. Then a dagger I’ve been researching and a ring that provides the wearer with a weak disruptive attack.
"Here," I say, handing him the items.
His group moves closer, all of them excitedly reading the descriptions. They barely hide how happy they are with the items and hand me all the promised items, even adding an extra package of gummy bears.
Saying goodbye, I turn to the drone man and release him from my skill’s hold, causing him to stagger.
After a bit of silence, he just asks, "Can I have my drone back? Please."
I gesture to Channeler, who hands him the drone, and after exchanging a glance with Channeler, he asks instead of me, "Now that you have your drone back, I wonder, do you have any more items from Earth? Sweets, other technology, drinks, foods. My boss over here is willing to trade. He pays in rare items and might offer even more if what you have is worth it!"
With fascination, I watch as Channeler quickly assesses the situation and slips into his new role. Under his social skills and innocent handsome face, the nervous drone owner quickly calms down, and his eyes start glowing with greed as he thinks about what he could trade.
Group 4 can wait. Baller Nat is going to buy some stuff.
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It takes a few hours longer. During that time, Channeler finds two of his friends from Easy difficulty and sends them to scout with the promise of rare items as payment.
While they go through the place, I stand off to the side and observe the people there. There are hundreds of them scattered about. People from every difficulty from Hell to Easy.
There are small fights, there are celebrations, and a number of them just take advantage of the opportunity to speak with each other, no one’s gotten too aggressive yet. I also notice groups of people from higher difficulties moving about, to break up the fights in an attempt to establish some degree of order.
It's all fascinating to watch.
Channeler, walking next to me, stops anyone who tries to engage me in conversation, and even Tacita seems content to follow us, enjoying the shield that is the man from Easy difficulty.
I do not talk to her, and that seems to make her more comfortable, and I don't mind. I do keep a tentative eye on her though, I’m still curious about her skills and levels. She’s made it into Beyond as well, and her short clash with those men only provided me with more questions.
So, we move from place to place, and I use my bag full of valuables to buy a few more things. A smartphone with a number of songs on it and a small solar panel I can use to charge it, the most expensive of them all. Then there are the sodas, processed foods, and sweets from Earth.
Someone offered to sell me a Jeep as well, but I have no need for it. At the moment, I'm sure most of group 4 can move at speeds higher than that car.
There is also a short conflict when a few guys from Normal difficulty attempt to make similar trades and try to interfere with mine.
Wanting to test them, I only use mana to strengthen my body a bit, and after a short clash, they find themselves on the ground, with broken legs. Their wounds heal quickly, and I learn nothing of note from them.
So, I take over and lead us to my companions, and gradually we reach a nice spot on the edge of the common area. There below a set of nice trees in comfy-looking grass, sit the members of Group 4.
“You’re late, Noname,” Tess welcomes me.
“I come bearing gifts,” I gesture at the things being carried by the guys from Easy difficulty.
They set them on the grass and stand there awkwardly. The poor guys are too shy to ask for their promised rewards! Either that or they are too scared.
“Good job, boys.” I take two rare items from my bag and present them with them.
They look at it for a moment and rush away while thanking me.
When I turn to Channeler, I notice that he is looking at group 4. Oh, I guess I haven’t introduced them yet.
“Sset, this is Channeler, he is super useful. We have to hire him sometime in the future if we have the opportunity.” As I say this, I gesture for Biscuit to come closer.
“Is he a model or something?” Maya asks, staring at the guy.
“I wanted to ask that too! Noname didn’t tell me the girls from group 4 were so beautiful!”
Half expecting the girls to react with annoyance, I look up. Instead, most of them seem to have an interesting expression on their face, happy for the compliment.
If anybody less handsome said that, it would be extremely cheesy. Yet from this guy, it's been taken at face value.
The world is indeed, not fair.
“Biscuit, look what I bought.” While he sniffs near the bags, I take out a small package with a can of high-quality dog food. Just looking at it, I can guess that it's probably more expensive than what most people usually eat on Earth.
At first, I'm worried he won't like it, but to my surprise, he sniffs a few times and then starts nibbling on it, letting out cute wet noises as he devours the ground meat paste.
I sit there for a few seconds, listen to those noises, and enjoy a great ASMR experience. Then I pet him and stand up, heading over to the pair of blonde boys sitting nearby.
Aaron and Dennis have old clothes that are dirty and filled with holes, hell, they can barely be called rags. Dozens of wounds, burns, cuts, and bruises cover their bodies. The kind of things that would usually get taken care of by their natural healing.
I notice a mark on their forearms that seems to affect their natural regeneration, and the system doesn't heal the wounds caused before entering the tournament.
“Is there a reason why Lily didn’t heal you?” I ask them.
Aaron answers, “If we return with healed wounds, they will punish us even more and start asking who healed us and how we removed the mark,” he shrugs.
“They?”
“Black Tower. The vice guild master didn’t like that we tried to escape a few times and likes to… to do this. His mark stops natural healing, and he will notice if we remove it.”
“I see.”
“I wanted to heal them, but Tess said it would cause more problems. I hate it, but we still don’t know where they are on the 6th floor.” Lily says as she approaches.
“We also asked her not to heal us, so don’t blame her,” Dennis looks at me, his blue eyes smiling even with the wounds covering his body.
Dennis' disciple died. Aaron followed him to the 6th floor so that he wouldn’t be there alone, and then they got treated like this by a piece of sentient trash. Looks like I’m going to be busy after the tournament and someone will be very dead.
“I’m glad you two are otherwise ok. When we return to the 6th floor, we will find you. So just hold on until then.”
The two of them exchange a glance.
“We already have a plan, but we won’t mind the chance to fuck the guy up a little bit more with your help,” Dennis smiles brightly.
“Just that guy? The entire Black Tower is going in the trash,” I say.
“Even better! Maybe we can try to blow it up,” Aaron laughs as if he thinks I'm joking. So silly.
But anyway, “Have a welcoming gift.” I say, handing a snack to each of them. “I’m glad you are safe and… I’m sorry about your disciple, Dennis.”
After spending time with Vega, I have a hard time imagining how I would feel if she died, so the poor boy must have felt terrible.
He thanks me, somewhat taken aback, and then I move around Group 4, giving time to everyone in the group.
Biscuit, done with his food, floats over to me and boops my nose with his front paw. Isabella hugs me, and some of the other members are already stuffing their faces by the time I return to Tess.
“For you,” I tell Tess, handing her chocolate. “You like milk chocolate, right?”
“I would hug you for that, but Lily would get mad,” she says, accepting my offering and putting it away.
“I would not!” Lily protests, sulking nearby.
“In that case,” Tess says, swiftly moving closer and throwing her arms around me for a short hug, with a mischievous look on her face the entire time as she looks at Lily.
She quickly takes a step back after a second. “Anyway, Channeler left to find his group, so you had better pay him back later and throw in some extra. I would like to keep him around.”
“Planning to take over the world when we get back to Earth?”
“Just a few places with nice weather where our group can go on holidays. Will you help me with that?”
“If it's not too annoying. Just point me at anyone you need to be beaten,” I answer, I even mean it.
“Sounds good! Anyway, was that girl following you who I think she is?”
“Yes, that was Tacita.”
To my answer, Tess nods, and Lily becomes curious, looking for the girl who’s already snuck off somewhere.
“I met Gareth, and Lily here bumped into Savant.”
Right away, I turn to Lily, who is looking up at me with a smile. “I healed his right arm in exchange for this.” The petite healer shows me a mana stone with an extreme amount of data inscribed inside, “It’s from the 2nd floor. Research notes on the use of regeneration-class skills, made by Champion Tristan and his disciple Hella, who was a healer.”
Oh, the guy who, according to the Floor quest, destroyed the world with the Sword of Aeons, the strongest mana battery in the world, and his unique skill [Dawn]. But how did Savant get his hands on it?
Lily smiles brightly yet somewhat shyly, “It’s useless to me; I'm already a good healer! But I got it for you; I know you have been trying to get an active healing skill or something similar. Savant asked me to regenerate his arm in exchange for this and I refused at first. Then he said I should agree and give the mana stone to you. He must have seen me complaining about your weak passive in the Community.”
Damn, has she been scammed by that guy already?
Still thankful, I take the stone and decide to pay her back later.
“But Nat, if you fight him, be a bit careful. We fought, and I lost. Of course, it was only because I wasn't fully serious; I didn’t want to kill him!” she says defending herself and gesturing wildly, before slumping down and sighing, “But I got angry during the fight and used [Disintegration] on a reflex. He let it hit him and…”
That’s where I stop her, “No need to say more. I don’t want to know.” Even this is a big hint, and learning more would take some fun out of it. I would be able to prepare, and I might become able to win just because of that fact. But I don’t want to.
That guy has been someone I’ve wanted to fight for a long time, I’m always wondering which of us is stronger. And now, hearing that he resisted [Disintegration], I feel my hopes rising even further. This tournament will be fun.