Devon continued to listen to the overseers, a sense of absolute dread coursing through his body. He was thankful his body was turned away from the overseer's camp, otherwise they might have noticed the change in his expression he couldn't control.
"True, the cursed weaponry poses a slight problem, but it isn't anything we can't manage. Especially once the elders arrive, these pathetic humans will be helpless. There's absolutely no way a species dependent on cursed tools will be able to thrive in the Infinite Realms. If anything, we're doing them a favor by killing them off early. Imagine if the poor souls had to live through their planet's third phase of initiation. They'd be so lost." A round of laughter went around the campfire.
"Besides, the fact that some of them had cursed weapons at all means it'll be more likely for a cursed being to be among them, if not several."
"Yeah, but do you think they'll even be able to survive past the 30 day limit? I wouldn't be confident in my own ability to survive an initiation while cursed, let alone if I was a pathetic human."
The lizardmen started bickering back and forth, and Devon started to tune out the conversation. Not only did the overseers care less about their lives than the food they ate, they were actually planning on exterminating them once the tutorial ended. The information was just too much.
This is fucked up. Is every other tutorial like this? What about the first phase initiates, what happened to them?
Devon had thought that his sister would thrive in an environment like the tutorial, but that confidence was shattered upon the realization that the ones overseeing the tutorial actually planned on the death of all the initiates.
Once again he felt the burning desire to buy the datalog with information on the initiation of new planets, and once again he had to fight down that urge. But it was hard, so much harder than before.
Relax, it's possible that not every set of overseers are like these. It's entirely possible, no it's more likely than not that there are other motivations for becoming an overseer.
The conversation fizzled out and the overseers started moving around. Devon's heart initially raced when he heard the movement, but it settled down once he realized what was happening. The lizardmen seemed to have drank their fill of the strange alien liquor, as they started getting up one by one and retiring to tents.
Devon waited another hour before daring to move. The only thing he had to fill the time was watching the slow and gentle movement of the moon, and hearing the soft breeze that played tricks upon his ears. And all the while he was tortured by a need to move, to act, to learn. It was perhaps the most painfully slow hour he'd ever experienced.
When he did move, he did so while keeping the facade he'd created. He shook and turned, before jolting upright and looking about in confusion. He mumbled to himself, pretending to have awoken from some terrible dream before looking over at the camp of lizardmen and making an expression of fear at them all being asleep. They wouldn't have protected him, but the weak would grasp onto any straw, no matter how flimsy.
He looked back towards the plains, then to the forest before making his way towards the dense trees. His pace quickened as he stepped over the tangled mess of roots and underbrush, the light of the moon quickly being lost under the canopy of trees.
Once he felt he was far enough in he ducked into the cover of a hollowed out tree trunk and waited. He didn't have to wait long. Only a minute after he'd tucked himself away he heard the soft rustle of leaves to indicate his follower.
He'd first gotten the notion from the overseer's conversation. He wondered what exactly what the other overseers could be taking shifts doing.
The first thought he'd had was that they were surveying. If the land was new to them it would make sense to send out parties dedicated to getting a lay of the land and establishing some cartography of the area. But after the last piece of discussion, Devon was almost certain what the true purpose of the workers was.
His suspicions had been confirmed as he lay out in that clearing beside the overseer's camp. Amid the sound of the breeze was the soft sound of rustling leaves, and an almost imperceptible sigh of impatience from the forest.
They've been spying on us the entire time. Keeping tabs to make sure they stay informed on all of our movements. I guess it makes sense, you wouldn't leave the prize animals out unsupervised. Not when they could disappear and return as monsters in a month.
Devon slowly reached under his shirt, drawing his gun without making a sound. He was thankful he carried with one in the chamber, otherwise he'd give himself away racking the slide.
The lizardman, or lizardwoman in this case, stalked into view, looking for Devon. He didn't know how long the overseer had been observing him, but Devon was determined to get some answers out of the thing.
Devon leveled his gun at the creature before stepping out of the hollow. The overseer's head snapped to him as his movement rustled some leaves.
"Move and you die," Devon said with omniversal language still turned on. He didn't know how much of his tone the overseer could recognize, but he knew it wouldn't mistake the deathly serious look in his eyes. He could see the look of fear in the lizard's eyes, after all.
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[Overseer Khan Yuk - Level 35]
The lizardwoman froze, not daring to move. This confirmed Devon's suspicion that their guns were in fact a dangerous threat to the overseers.
Devon narrowed his eyes, looking the overseer over. He wasn't sure, but he was pretty confident she hadn't been in the camp at the start of the tutorial.
So they had people in place even before we arrived. Their show of force in the camp wasn't their true number, but I'd be surprised if they had many more.
Devon estimated the overseers should number somewhere between 50 and 70 in total, while the group of humans had been at least 1000 strong. He also assumed based on this scout's level that the lizard society worked on a hierarchy of power. This woman was only level 35 while the overseer that had been lounging around in camp had been level 63.
"How many of you are there, and what levels are you all?" Devon asked. It was important to obtain accurate information if he was to form any kind of plan.
The overseer gave no response, only darting her eyes around nervously.
"Tell me! How many of you are there, and what levels are the members of your group?" Devon repeated, anger building in his voice. That anger died in the next second as he realized what was going on.
The overseer seemed to be staring off into space, but Devon had realized by now that when somebody did that, it usually meant they were looking at their system's display.
The woman seemed to notice the recognition in Devon's eye a moment too late, as she panicked and said, "Wait, I'll tell-" Her voice was cut off by a flash and the crack of a gunshot.
The bullet pierced the overseer's head, and they dropped like a rock.
How could I have been so stupid?
The basic functions available in the terminal. If they were cheap enough that the human initiates, at their bottom line levels could afford them, there was no way the more powerful overseers wouldn't have acquired them all already.
And one of them allowed sending messages to someone else directly through the system.
Devon looked down at the overseer and noticed she was still alive, even with a hole in her head. She reached an arm out on the ground, and her tile appeared in front of her hand.
Before she had the chance to pull anything out of her inventory, Devon put another two rounds in her skull before he finally got the kill notification.
Executed - [Overseer Khan Yuk - Level 35] - 0 Talons
New title obtained: [Callous]
New quest started: [Rebellion]
New profession available: [Schemer]
You have murdered an Overseer while unprovoked. Distributing penalty.
Title [Protected] has been lost.
Applying Mark of Karmic Disdain… Done.
Adjusting title [Despised].
[Despised] has become [Cursed].
Quest [Absolution] failed!
New quest started: [The Path of Retribution]
New quest started: [The Path of Repentance]
Profession [Schemer] no longer available due to misaligned Karma.
New profession available: [Cursed Schemer]
Devon ignored each and every one of the many notifications that popped up in front of him as his mind raced. He needed to move, now.
The problem was that if he just left he would only create complications. He looked down at the gun in his hand and grimaced. He had no doubt that this would spark tension between the overseers and the initiates. Even if he escaped, they'd hunt him. And the gun in his hand would be a dead giveaway that he was a prime suspect if they started to conduct searches of the initiates.
Even if he ditched the gun somewhere to get later, that wouldn't cleanse the humans of suspicion. In the worst-case scenario, the overseers would become oppressive and start making examples of the people if the one with the gun didn't come forward. It would be a disaster.
He unloaded the mag and cleared the chamber, catching the bullet as it jumped up into the air. He put both into his jacket pocket, then let the gun fall to the ground. It hurt to have to do it, but the gun would be the overseer's primary lead in any investigation they might perform. If he removed the object of their search from the pool of leads, it was possible that the heat would die down a bit. At least, that's what Devon hoped.
Still, he didn't want to leave any ammo within the weapon on the off chance they decided to use it against the humans, hence why he took the extra precious seconds to clear the weapon.
It made him feel a bit like a character from a mob movie, doing a hit and then leaving the gun behind.
He spared a glance for the fallen tile of the overseer, but left it also as he started running. Taking it or any of the items in its inventory would lead to the same issue as the gun, giving the overseers something to look for.
Devon cursed. This might all be pointless if the overseers managed to identify him, but on the chance they didn't he couldn't take the risk. He simply wasn't willing to wager the safety of every remaining human within the tutorial on such a possibility, yet he also wasn't willing to risk his own well-being by purposefully putting a target on his back.
What a shitty situation.
He made it maybe 50 meters before he had to duck behind a rock as a lizardman darted through the shadows ahead of him. Thankfully, it didn't see him and passed by like a shadow.
Devon waited only 20 seconds before continuing his sprint. He didn't know the forest, but he knew his directions enough that he was able to navigate in the general direction of the divide between the forest and the plains.
When he finally broke out of the dense canopy of the trees he noticed that the forest was actually up a slope, and overlooked some of the plains. In the distance he could see two orange lights, no doubt campfires of the initiates. He may even have been able to see more scattered across the plains earlier in the night, but by now most would probably have turned in to get what rest they could.
He looked toward the light that seemed most likely to be the camp Eve and Trey were at, then cursed under his breath as he saw a dark figure moving swiftly between the tall prairie grasses from that exact direction.
Devon jumped into a bush, and the overseer passed him by as easily as the first. He waited almost a minute this time, making sure there were no other fast moving figures in the plains before he stepped out and made for the camp at a dead sprint.