Chapter 331 - Channeler (Patreon)

I decide not to fly further and after landing I just walk uphill towards where I saw a few buildings when I flew up. Tacita seemes to be amazed by my ability to fly and even claps for me when I land.

As we walk, she seems to become a bit more comfortable, neither of us talking at all. That makes me realize that I found my kindred spirit, an introvert. Both of us just enjoy the nice weather and the pretty forest we pass by. Even the sound of the birds is calming, reminding me of Earth. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this floor was made specifically to remind one of Earth.

Checking the status, I also noticed an interesting thing.

Participants in the tournament:

Easy difficulty - 1290

Normal difficulty - 802

Hard Difficulty - 231

Hell difficulty - 31

Beyond - 6

When I compare it to the numbers I saw the last time, I come to the conclusion that everyone from Hell difficulty is here, a few tens of people from Easy and Normal difficulty are missing, and from Beyond only one person is missing. Me, Tess, Lily, and Tacita are here and Savant and Gareth will most likely join. So the 1st Beyonder probably decided not to join.

I find that interesting and wonder what could be the reason.

Tacita catches my attention and gestures something in sign language and then points in one direction.

When I send my senses there, I notice the presence of two people with weak-feeling signatures.

Unfortunately, it looks like I will meet more people before I group with others to have them take care of it.

Still, I'm curious, so I head there, followed by a thin young woman.

I notice that she moves extremely quietly. Not a single sound as she walks and there is no mana at all. Even the heat signature is hidden and I can't sense her heartbeat. It's as if she is not there. It fascinates me.

“Hello!” a blonde man with gentle brown eyes waves at us with a smile and he and another man rush to join us. “The tournament seems promising, doesn't it'?” he notes.

Seeing that neither Tacita nor I say anything, he giggles somewhat awkwardly.

The young man is extremely handsome. By that, I mean top model kind of handsome. Like damn, isn't it illegal for a man to have such a face? He could easily work as a model or an actor.

Good for him.

It pisses me off. Should I bully him?

“I'm Channeler from Easy difficulty and this is Oren from Normal difficulty!”

Oh… damn.

“I'm Noname from Hell and this is Tacita, also from Hell.”

“Noname!” his eyes widen and he takes a few steps closer and his bearing changes a bit. Like a chameleon, he adapts to his surroundings and his behavior changes to fit for dealing with me.

Channeler is the man I talked to the most from Easy difficulty, someone who also goes for as much mana as possible. Of course, not to the level I do, but even that little makes me rate him multiple spots higher than most of the others.

In a calmer voice, he continues, “Such a coincidence to meet you here. I want to thank you for all the advice you gave me. I appreciate it and I'm happy to meet a kindred spirit,” he smirks and reaches out to me with his right hand.

I grab it and shake it, “It's fine.”

“As you say! But damn, you two from Hell difficulty are really good at hiding your mana, I can't sense it at all!”

I decide to stay quiet and not complain about his awkward attempts as he sends his mana senses at us. It's not smooth at all, a feeling akin to hitting someone with a wet towel instead of a short, barely noticeable probing.

"Ignore Tacita, she doesn't like to talk," I tell him when I see he is looking toward her.

Quickly understanding, he nods, "I will do so. But Noname, you are close to what I was imagining. I just expected more missing pieces from how much Grumpy trashed your passive skill in the Community."

"Grumpy likes to joke." For now, I decide not to pry information from him. I want to ask for his level, skill levels, and a lot of other things like the rarity of gear and such. But I kind of like the guy from the Community, and it would be rude to ask such personal questions about his power level.

Later, I will find some other guy to ask. There is no need to hurry with a whole free day before the events start. And Channeler seems useful, really useful. He seems to be extroverted, but the type that quickly reads people and modifies his behavior.

A high-level extrovert class similar to Tess.

He could be useful in the future. Additionally, there is his face. People will trust plenty of things if someone says it confidently and while being handsome. I will have to mention him to Tess.

As we walk, he keeps up the conversation, but never too much, just a simple sentence here and there. Even Tacita seems comfortable, and the other guy whose name I already forgot is trailing behind.

"I wonder what events will be there. For sure the duels. Surely someone from Hell is going to win. Or maybe they will be separated by difficulties?"

"There will most likely be some events for each difficulty, it wouldn't be fair if the system put Easy and Hell difficulty against each other."

He nods, "That's true. I wonder how many Easy difficulty people you would need to beat one of you from Hell."

Then he asks about mana, and I find myself talking a bit more, it's a subject I also like. I give him advice and explain some things. Partially, it feels like explaining it to Vega once again, and in a good mood, I also give him a small mana stone with inscriptions for training. Something I got used to do with my cute minion.

"But that's a rare grade mana stone, are you sure you want to give it to me?" Channeler asks carefully.

"Just take it, I would sell it for a few shards only at most. It's almost not worth it."

"What do you mean not worth it? Do you know how rare the rare graded items are in Easy?" He pauses, seeing my expression, "I guess you do not. I can tell you that I saw them only a few times, and I don't think anyone from Easy has a rare grade weapon or armor."

"But it's only 200 shards to buy in the system shop," I note.

"Noname, I have 150 shards I was able to save up ever since the start of the tutorial."

I check my shards.

Shards: 64,725

Am I rich?

"Okay, let's make a deal. If we meet people, you will make sure they won't annoy me, and I will buy you rare gear before the tournament ends. You can even pick upper rare grade."

He stays quiet for a while and then quietly asks, "There are more grades within the rare grade?"

That poor guy. "Yes, there are low, mid, and upper grades within each grade. No matter if it's rare, epic, or arcane."

"A-arcane? Epic?"

Oh boy.

"Ignore that for now. I will give you a rare grade item if you tell me what level..."

"I'm level 43! My highest level skill is level 8, one of the highest in my group! I have three active skills and two passive ones!" He seems to be proud, even happy at the level he reached.

I stop him before he can continue. If he continues, I will only pity him more. "Okay, that's enough. Here, take this," out of my bag I take a low rare amulet that creates a barrier around the user.

Channeler just stares at it as he holds it in his hand. It's as if he can't believe I actually did it, and his eyes move as he keeps reading the description.

Under his nose, he smiles weakly, "Of course, the economy is different for people from Hell. Thank you," he says when he lifts his eyes up.

This time his voice is calmer and even his expression changes, "Noname, I wonder, are you looking for a colleague? For the time we get out of the tutorial."

Oh? Interesting character, is he not?

"I will introduce you to Sset; she deals with this kind of thing," I decide to ditch the annoying things on others. It might add her a bit of work, but I will make sure to pay her back. I always do.

"Thank you." Channeler smiles, and I look away. It should be illegal for men to be so handsome. I don't consider myself bad-looking, but this?

I glance at him again, and he still has a small smile on his lips. His blonde hair is messy, but with his face, even this looks good. The lighting is perfect as well as if he is framed in time, waiting for someone to take a photo to put on a model magazine.

It pisses me off. Should I take the amulet I gave him?

"Let's go," I order.

Then I walk first, with Channeler right behind and the other guy from Normal difficulty nearby. Tacita follows at the tail, sometimes stopping to enjoy the breeze with closed eyes and then with a few nimble steps rejoining us.

A Dexterity build? Maybe assassin type judging by how covert she is. I just hope she doesn't have an invisibility skill; that would be too much. The plan of declaring invisibility type of skills to be illegal is still here. Everyone who uses them will be punished, and monsters with Phantom in their name will be killed on sight.

As we move closer, more people join our group, every time welcomed by Channeler, who seems to have great social skills and never-ending energy when it comes to it. He is friendly, but not too nosy, and sometimes even mentions that I'm from Hell difficulty, which takes care of some people that are about to become annoying.

Yup, I need to tell Tess to hire him; the guy will be a great shield… great face of… Well, of whatever will be needed. Maybe Tess will want to create a guild after coming to Earth. Maybe she will want to take over a country or two. Channeler, as of now, seems like the perfect public face. Handsome people sure have it easy.

That's also when we meet the first people from Hard difficulty. Two guys in decent-looking armors.

When Channeler talks to them, they laugh at him and push him away before he mentions this growing group of people has members from Hell.

"Nice picnic you guys have here. But aren't you too friendly, all walking while holding hands?" one of them laughs. "This is a tournament, for fuck’s sake, so fucking behave like it!"

His other friend smirks like someone who is used to such situations. Coincidentally they stop near Tacita, who has her eyes closed, enjoying the warm sunrays on her face.

When they enter her reach, she opens her eyes and tilts her head curiously.

"What are you looking at, scrawny? Want to get punched in the face?" he steps closer, reaching his hand to put it on her shoulder. "People with weak presence like you shoul..."

Before he says anything else, Tacita's hand moves like a flash; only I can follow it, and even then barely so.

The surprised man staggers back and opens his mouth to shout something. Instead of words, bloody foam escapes his mouth, and he just now realizes there is a dagger stabbed into his neck and grabs it. In sheer horror, his eyes expand.

The other that's there with him shouts and moves to attack, but Tacita's hand flashes again, and he falls to the ground.

Surprised, he looks behind where his legs severed right under the knee are.

As they start screaming, Tacita turns to me and shrugs her shoulders. Then she takes a swift step and pulls out the dagger from the man's neck. While the man twitches and thrashes around, she wipes most of the blood from the blade on his clothes before putting it away.

With interest, I watch as the wound starts healing at a high speed. The wound on his neck closes in a matter of seconds, and he quickly regains color to his face. The man keeps holding his neck, looking at Tacita with a terrified expression and gasping for breath.

So it seems like there is something to saying that it's impossible to die here, but is it really? It seems like you can wound people. So what if you cut off a head or explode the entire body?

The other man watches as his cut-off legs turn to dust, leaving part of his pants and his shoes on the ground. From his wounds, a new pair of legs grows also in a matter of seconds.

When I look at people from Easy and Normal difficulty, they seem to be even more scared than the two men from Hard difficulty.

I turn to Channeler, "Let's continue. I want to rejoin my group in the common area."

***

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