Hazel continued to stare at the humans still roaming down the street. Her mind raced with questions regarding their identity and more. After taking a couple of deep breaths, the novice mage calmed her nerves before turning to Astrid.
“Can you tell if they’re really human?” Hazel asked.
Despite her excitement, she didn’t want to get her hopes up in case those people down there weren’t humans. And since Astrid possessed the [Eagle Eye] skill, she was the best person to confirm their suspicions.
“They are,” Astrid told her.
Seeing the message, Hazel expelled a sigh, relieved that those were humans. But, she knew that they weren’t out of the woods yet.
“Could they be from your world or mine?”
“I can’t tell from a glance. You humans look the same to me.”
Hazel glared at Astrid, to which the dark elf shrugged her shoulders, hardly fazed by her expression.
“Can’t you read their lips or something?”
“Do I look like a jack of all trades?”
“Please just identify them and tell me what you can know about.”
Instead of making a response in the chat room, Astrid gave a firm nod before shifting her gaze back to the mystery humans. She gazed at her targets, using this moment to likely identify them and know who they were exactly.
A moment later, Astrid’s brows creased annoyingly. Just as Hazel noticed her partner’s sour expression and attempted to ask what was wrong, the dark elf spoke first.
“I can’t tell for sure, but they could be from my world.” Astrid scowled as her eyes narrowed angrily at the group of humans.
Hazel stayed silent, not sure how to respond. She wanted to ask Astrid what the humans were like in her world, but judging from the dark elf’s darkened expression, she could tell that it wasn’t good. But she still needed answers.
“I’m assuming you have a bad history with humans?” Hazel asked, doing her best to not agitate Astrid.
“I wouldn’t say I have a bad history with them,” Astrid replied. “I mean, my people did have a bad history with humans, but that was a couple hundred years ago. And while our current relationship wasn't bad, I just can’t necessarily trust them.”
Her words stung Hazel since she was human too. Of course, the mage held back from making such a comment.
“Do you think we can trust those humans?”
Since they’re not from Hazel’s world, the mage needed to rely on Astrid’s knowledge. Even if they were a bit biased due to personal reasons.
“I don’t know,” Astrid muttered, keeping her eyes trained on the humans. “The humans from my world aren’t known for being trustworthy. Especially toward their own kind.”
“Sounds like the humans from my world,” Hazel mumbled.
“Then maybe it’s a human thing,” Astrid snarked with a small grin.
“I can’t really argue with that...”
Humans from Earth could be very secretive and deceptive when they wanted to. Hazel remembered reading about how the Cold War involved a lot of espionage. America would wiretap Russian lines to obtain information that was vital to know like weapons development, secret military advancements, and even political strategies.
And this was a cold war between humans. Hazel could only imagine what kind of suspicious things the humans from Astrid’s world did. Especially against the other species like Elves.
“Can you at least tell me what their classes and levels are? If we can’t tell that they’re trustworthy, then we should know what we’re dealing with.”
“Two are them are Warriors; one is a ranger like me, and the other is a Rogue. Even without checking with identify, their outfits give it away.”
“You’re not wrong there...”
Hazel noticed that when you choose a class, the system would give you an outfit that suits your choice. In her case, she chose The Mage Class, and as such, she received a Mage’s robe and staff. The same went for Astrid with her Ranger Class.
“As for their levels...they’re basically at our level. Except one of the warriors is level sixteen.”
“Level sixteen?! Geez...”
Hazel and Astrid had been killing plenty of monsters but were still stuck at level fourteen. The novice mage couldn’t help but feel envious of the warrior’s progress. However, she put her personal feelings aside for now and focused on the task presented before her.
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“So, if they are hostile toward us...then we would likely have a difficult time dealing with them then, right?”
Astrid grimly nodded. “I would suppose so, yes. Of course, we have a chance to take them down if we use the element of surprise.”
“So, you’re suggesting an ambush?”
“More or less,” The dark elf shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s better than exposing ourselves and getting attacked on sight.”
“Yeah, I guess so...” Hazel hesitated. “But I think we should hold off on that until we know for sure that they have ill intentions.”
While Hazel agreed with Astrid about wanting to take down the players to gain the upper hand, she felt a bit hesitant to do such a thing when she wasn’t certain of their alignments. Were these players good or bad?
The novice mage couldn’t, in good conscience, just attack the players and kill them without knowing if they were hostile or not. And for once, Hazel couldn’t trust Astrid’s words regarding the humans. Not unless she saw it for herself.
“And how do you suppose we do that?” Astrid asked with a stern tone. “Are you just going to just go down there and greet them?” She scoffed a laugh. “That’ll be something if that’s the case.”
Hearing Astrid’s sarcastic remark, an idea suddenly materialized in Hazel’s mind. Her eyes widened from her realization of what to do, much to the dark elf’s anxious expression.
“Y-you’re not seriously suggesting we actually go down there and pull such a stunt, are you? For all we know, those bastards would kill us when our guard is down!”
Astrid had a point. If the group decided to introduce themselves to the players, they could kiss their little ambush plan goodbye. Once they exposed themselves like that, there was no way for them to gain the upper hand.
Luckily, Hazel had a plan to avoid this little problem. A very dumb and risky plan, at that.
“Not us...” Hazel said. “Just me.”
Astrid spun her head to face Hazel after hearing this as she stared at her with widened eyes.
“Are you out of your mind?!” The dark elf hissed. “If you show yourselves to them, they’ll kill you!”
“She’s...right...!” Nycteris agreed, jumping into the conversation after staying quiet for so long. “They...could...kill you...!”
“That will only happen if they’re actually hostile...” Hazel insisted.
“And the possibility of that is still high!” Astrid retorted. “We can’t trust them!”
“That’s why I’m doing this. To see if we can trust them.”
Although it looked like it, even Hazel wasn’t stupid enough to reveal herself to others in such a way. Though Astrid was a fluke since she tried to save her in the heat of the moment.
If Hazel and the others introduced themselves to the human players, they would lose the element of surprise they had against them. But if Hazel approached them alone, they could see if the group could be trusted or that they needed to be taken care of.
“While I try to befriend the group, you guys will stay on the sidelines and stay hidden. If those players attempt to kill me, you two will be able to ambush them since they’ll be focused on the mage.”
“And what if they believe you’re not alone?” Astrid questioned sharply. “They could try and attack you to draw us out.”
“It’s very possible, but I still want to see if these guys can be trusted. If they can’t and attack me, then we’ll deal with them then.”
“You say that like it’s not that big of a deal.”
“Well, it’s the only plan I can think of to know if we can trust these guys or not.”
“How about we just kill them and avoid this issue altogether.”
Hazel shook her head. “I don’t want to kill them if they aren’t bad.”
“Then let me!” Astrid insisted. “I’ll deal with them. You won’t have to get your hands dirty.”
Hazel paused while staring at her dark elf partner. She could tell from the determined gaze in her eyes that she was capable of fighting those humans without a problem. Likely because she had done this before.
But that didn’t mean Hazel was going to accept that.
“We aren’t going to kill them until they are a threat to us,” She declared sternly. “Let me introduce myself to them and see what they do. I’ll deal with most of the problems that come with it. And if things go bad, you have my permission to ditch me, alright?”
Hazel knew that what she was saying was both reckless and selfish. Not only was the mage putting herself in danger, but also her partner. If those players were deemed hostile, the pair would have a difficult time fighting them.
But this was the only way that Hazel could confirm this. They could’ve just simply spied on them and learned about the group that way, but that in itself was just as risky thanks to that Rogue.
But by having Hazel join the group, she could draw their attention to her while also seeing if they were enemies or not. This was the best solution without outright killing them. And Hazel was willing to take that risk. Which was why she told Astrid to leave if or when things got out of hand for them.
Astrid stood there, baffled by Hazel’s words. She wanted to make a retort, but her words couldn’t come out. The dark elf then sighed before glaring at her mage partner.
“I can’t ditch you when you know about me, Thatcher,” She stated. “If I leave you to them, you could possibly tell them everything and put my life at risk. And I can’t have that.”
“Then just kill me,” Hazel said almost immediately, surprising the dark elf and Nightwing Bat. “I told you when we made that deal that if I betray you or look like I am, my life would be in your hands. So, since you don’t want to ditch me at the risk of being hunted down, then kill me along with everyone else when you have the chance.”
Obviously, Hazel had no desire to betray Astrid. The entire reason she made that deal with the dark elf was because she knew she wouldn’t do such a thing. While she sounded nonchalant, Hazel knew what she was doing.
The dark elf stayed silent for a few moments, possibly contemplating her words. It wasn’t until she lifted her head to stare at the mage with a firm expression that she spoke up once again.
“If you so much as think of betraying me, I will kill you, Thatcher.”
Hearing this, Nycteris growled at Astrid, opening his mouth as if attempting to rip her head off with his teeth. But Hazel stopped him by raising her hand, making the Familiar freeze in an instant.
“I know,” Hazel replied calmly while keeping Nycteris at bay. “But I have no intentions of betraying you. I simply want to know if they can be trusted or not. If they can’t, then we’ll deal with them accordingly.”
While Hazel was hesitant to kill humans, she was willing to make an exception if they were scum and attacked her first. Even so, there was still a part of her that felt hesitant to take a human life.
Thankfully, she had Astrid, who she knew would finish the job if things got out of hand. Or at least she hoped for that to be the case. Plus, there was also Nycteris who Hazel knew would certainly defend her when shit hits the fan.
It was because of Hazel’s faith in Astrid and Nycteris that she was confident to try and pull this plan off. They may have been outnumbered, but if they played their cards right, it was Hazel’s team that held the advantage.
“Now then,” Hazel said while getting up from the floor. “Let’s go see what those players are up to, huh?” She turned her gaze toward the four players still within eye-shot.