Somewhere in Tutorial Block #108
Astrid watches the new group for a few seconds, paying attention to each member of them as they watch the rest of their team exit the jungle.
Of the group, half of them are women with the other half being men. And if there’s one thing Astrid notices, it’s that they are all nobles from pre-Reset, with Alara’s friend being the Third Princess of the Kingdom.
While their attention is off of Astrid, she slips away before jumping into a tree to keep an eye on the group. But as she does so, she notices one of the new people’s attention remaining locked on her.
Interesting.
The girl who’s looking at her has a bow draped over her shoulder and is wearing leather armor, which Astrid is dying to know where she got. She has long brown hair with golden eyes clearly marking her as a member of the Dawn household of Nobles. A Duchess’s household.
But to Astrid’s surprise, all the girl does is keep an eye on her without actually doing anything about her or saying anything. And she doesn’t talk to the others in the group, instead staying at the back as the rest talk.
After a few more seconds, Astrid returns her attention to the others of the group as everyone introduces themselves.
The Third Princess is a tall girl with long silver hair and eyes, marking the namesake of their Kingdom that now no longer exists. She has a full figure that her fiancé keeps eyeing, to both the Third Princess’s and Alara’s shared disgust. And if Astrid is being honest, she feels disgusted by it as well.
She also can’t help but wonder why the Third Princess still bothers with the guy since it’s clear their engagement won’t matter anymore seeing as there isn’t a Kingdom anymore. But that’s not her business to pry into.
The fiancé in question she recognizes as the other Duke of the Kingdom’s son, Reginald Kingsley. He has a very sharp looking face, one that kind of makes her want to punch him, and gray eyes that make it likely that he’s distantly related to the royal family but not directly related.
Of the other members of their group, none of them really stand out to Astrid beyond their noble ranking. And of the group of six people, only the Princess, her fiancé, and the girl from the Dawn household – who by identify is Cassandra Dawn – have rare classes. Meanwhile the other three all have uncommon classes.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Although I guess our team has even fewer rare classes amongst us. But our levels are on average higher than theirs still.
Overall, from what Astrid can hear of their conversation down there, the other team is mostly nice despite being nobles. The only snob on their team is the Princess’s fiancé, who Astrid still thinks should be ditched.
She glances at Cassandra again, only to stiffen up when she hears movement near her, making her turn to find that very girl in the tree next to hers.
“Hello,” she says, and Astrid blinks for a moment in confusion before answering, “Hi?”
“I heard you all are making a base here to wait for your friend to come out of the dungeon? Does that mean she has a Legendary Feat?” the girl asks while leaning forward a bit on the tree branch, making Astrid briefly wonder if she’s going to fall or not.
Someone blabbed? Actually, never mind. Alara seems rather close to that Princess, so she probably is trusting her far more than she should. Or at least, trusting that fiancé of hers more than she should.
“It’s possible she may have gotten one before the Reset, but we’re not certain,” Astrid answers. “And she’s my sister.”
Cassandra’s eyes widen at that, and she smiles as she asks, “Sister, eh? I had one once.”
Once?
“Anyways, call me Cass!” she says while moving further up the branch and reaching an arm out, seemingly not caring the slightest bit about her safety. But Astrid can’t help but notice the fact that she isn’t falling down despite how she’s hanging on, so she reaches over and accepts the offered hand.
“Astrid,” she states clearly, and Cass’s smile grows wider.
“I think I like you,” Cass states, surprising Astrid, “let’s be friends! It looks like we’re going to be merging groups anyways, so it would be nice to have someone who isn’t a stuff-shirt noble to talk to!”
This is not how I saw this going.
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Alexia Knight
After waking up and checking the timer to find that I was asleep for about eight hours, I stand up and stretch. Then I look around the Safe Zone for a moment, following which I turn around and leave.
I hope I find another one soon.
Or wait, wouldn’t it just be better to stay here in this Safe Zone and kill any spiders that get nearby? It would make a good staging location.
I frown at the thought before shrugging and deciding to go along with that plan.
It will be nice to have a place to relax. Although I’m still surprised there was a Safe Zone in the first place inside of a boss room. Since I don’t think that was possible before the Reset.
That aside, I should be getting the Exploration General Skill soon. Especially if I keep going through this damned maze of a tunnel system.
I’m also kind of surprised none of the other lesser arachnids that were likely following me down that pit ever ended up down here though. Maybe I was wrong about them following me down here?
It’s definitely a possibility.
Not that I’m complaining.
It doesn’t take long for me to run into another spider, which I deal with through a couple quantum bolts in the tunnel, making its body glitch out before half of its head explodes. Something that I have to admit is rather disturbing to watch.
If there’s one thing this place doesn’t lack, it’s monsters to give me EXP. So there’s that at least.
Hopefully I can get to level fifty by the time I run out of spiders. Assuming I do.
I continue through the tunnel, ignoring the corpse as I do so.