Alexia

By the time I get within sight of smoke I’m assuming is the base, there’s only four more hours left on the timer. So I slow down at that point, relaxing a little bit and walking at a more lethargic pace. Which is more than I can say I’ve relaxed since this whole Reset thing began.

But I’d say things are going pretty well.

I’ve reached the level cap of Tier 1, cemented my place at the top of the leaderboards, saved Astrid, beat my dungeon before anyone else could beat theirs, and managed to get rid of the level capped monster of this island. A rather good progress.

Maybe too good. Kinda makes me nervous that things could be going too well, even if I did fight tooth and nail for everything.

Either way though, I put one of my hands in a pocket as I look towards the base from a ways away. But after narrowing my eyes for a second, I notice that it’s not actually the base. In fact, it’s a small clearing with a lake and a small hill with a building under construction some ways into the jungle. And everyone from the base seems to be working on it with some going back through the jungle in the direction of the base.

Huh.

A rather poorly built building, but a building, nonetheless.

Then again, none of these people are carpenters. All of them are students, with about half being children of nobles and the other half children of more important people in the kingdom pre-Reset.

But… why are they building something so far from their base and in the middle of the jungle on a hill? They even selected such a secluded location for it... although I wouldn’t mind living there. With the exception of how poor the construction job is.

It is a nice clearing and lake after all.

I continue walking towards the clearing until I just about reach it, at which point some of the people notice me. And of the six survivors from the two teams joined into one, four from my original team and two are from the princess’s, all six are here at this building. But only two of them notice me, one being Astrid and the other the princess’s fiancé, who doesn’t look happy about being here.

Astrid puts down a rather roughly carved plank of wood before suddenly moving between shadows until she reaches me several seconds later, proving her teleportation radius to be rather lacking in comparison to mine. Meanwhile the fiancé guy just pauses to tell the others we’re here.

Then I feel a wave of identifies hitting me. First a single one from Astrid, then five more after the fiancé guy returns his attention to me after notifying the others of my arrival.

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“You did it,” Astrid says with a smile after stopping in front of me. And I quickly notice the others’ shock from behind her. Likely due to the fact that I leveled up eleven times in the time they leveled up just once or twice each.

“Yep,” I answer with a smile of my own before glancing at the… building…. and asking, “So whatcha building?”

Astrid opens her mouth to answer, only to pause, glance at the building, and look at me again while scratching the back of her neck. And none of the others answer because there is an entire lake between us. Albeit a small lake.

So they probably can’t hear what we’re saying.

After several seconds of silence, the others begin to walk over towards where we are, following which Astrid finally answers with a slightly awkward smile, “A house. For you.”

I blink at that. Then I stare at the building. Then at her again. And finally at the building.

A few seconds pass in silence again and I focus on Astrid and tell her, “Thank you.”

I’ll be getting it rebuilt whenever this base has competent craftsmen, of course. But it’ll be nice to have a roof over my head to call my own.

Astrid smiles at that before regaining her stoic composure again after the others get here, something she generally only drops when alone with me or when she’s nervous. Which doesn’t happen often.

She must’ve been nervous about my absence while I was hunting. That or it was just left over from when I was stuck in the dungeon.

Alara is the first to speak the moment she gets within earshot of me, “Once we get a real base built here and manage to find someone who can build something-” she pauses to cough seemingly on purpose “-better than this, we’ll have them build you a new one.”

I nod my head at her in thanks before glancing at the others and finding half of them acting rather awkward.

Aidan seems to be looking back and forth between all of us as if waiting for something to break the awkwardness. Meanwhile the princess is just fiddling with her thumbs with her fiancé standing right next to her practically almost touching her.

That guy… the only things I’ve heard about him are rather… bad. That the guy has an obsession towards the princess. A rather unhealthy one.

At least I’ve also heard that he knows how to control himself, so hopefully there won’t be any problems.

I also can’t see him doing anything in front of me. Not when he seems to both dislike and fear me considering the very miniscule quaking of his hands that I can see from here.

And Shelly… she seems to still be upset about Rob’s death.

So in that case, I call out, “Shelly,” making her head immediately shoot up to look at me as she stutters, “Y-yes?”

“You should remember that the people killed by other people in this Tutorial are just in stasis somewhere right now,” I remind her, making her eyes widen in surprise. “So he isn’t dead.”

And the princess seems surprised by it as well. Although no one else is.

“I-I forgot about that…” Shelly mutters before falling to her knees and beginning to cry with a smile on her face. Clearly happy beyond relief at the reminder.

Meanwhile the princess just stands frozen, seemingly unsure of what to say or do.

So I focus on the princess as I ask, “With that in mind, is killing that crown prince still off the table? Astrid could use some points and he deserves a punishment for his actions.”

The princess stands numbly in place, unmoving for several seconds. It isn’t until Alara moves up and shakes her shoulder a little, to the apparent displeasure of her fiancé, that she finally snaps out of it and stutters, “Y-yes, he does.” Then she focuses on my twin and says, “You… can do it.”

I turn towards Astrid with a smile and nod my head. And she nods back with a smile of her own.

Good. The guy gets punished, and Astrid gets more points.