Chapter 334 - Whitewing (Patreon)

“So, the events are Battle Royale, Tower Defense, Raid Bosses, Duels, and whatever the last event is,” Dennis declares confidently.

“You and your theories. Just wait a few hours, and the event will start,” Maya stretches, and we continue to walk between the buildings and the camps people have set up.

We have already found a house with a nice view for us, and there most of our things stay together with Aaron, Sophie, and Izzy. The rest of us have decided to look around and maybe get more information.

I secretly hope to meet BenDover and Sami, the guy from the Hell difficulty and Easy difficulty Community. Finding them among so many people could be challenging, but I can hope, right?

At some point, Tacita joins us as well. Out of nowhere, she is walking with our group, scaring a few of the members when they notice her.

After I tell Lily who she is, Lily rushes to her and stops an arm's reach away, “I'm Grumpy! I can heal you! Na… Noname said you can't talk, and I'm a healer; I should be able to do it easily.”

To that, Tacita shakes her head.

“I don’t want anything for it; it’s really simple, and it doesn’t even hurt,” Lily then reaches her hand to touch the slim girl and stops, a dagger held at her neck.

Quickly the mood changes, and the smile disappears from Lily’s face. “Take that dagger away before I tear your arm off,” our healer says calmly.

For a moment, she and Tacita look at each other before the mute girl smiles brightly and takes the dagger away.

To that, Lily calms down and says, “Sorry for wanting to heal you without your consent.”

Tacita lifts her hands in the air, seemingly gesturing that it's okay, and she gives a single short pat on Lily’s shoulder. Her mood improves even more when Lily gives her a piece of candy from my yesterday's hunt.

Watching this exchange, I'm once more validated that I'm the most normal here.

Also, as we walk, I'm validated that Biscuit is the most handsome boy in this round of the tutorial. We see some animals, and some of them even feel somewhat strong. A white cat, a crow following a man from Hard difficulty, a big pitbull. We even see some monsters. A horse with six legs. A bird with a wingspan more than twice my length. A pack of six weasel-like creatures.

Every time Biscuit curiously goes to them, and then the animals or monsters start screeching out of pure fear. They tremble and don’t even try to run; instead, they step back and cower, growling quietly.

Each time, Biscuit just looks at them and then leaves.

It seems to disturb some of Group 4 members, but I'm only proud. His greatness is showing even now.

“Did you notice that field?” I ask Sophie.

“Yes, and to be honest, it's trash,” she says. “I can sense that multiple people worked on it, probably all from Hell difficulty.”

And I agree with her. A field that is all over the clearing is a weird one. It’s nothing like Veil and not even like the barrier that the Bastion had. This field is just some sort of detection, meant to detect the usage of mana over a certain level and send a signal and location to the creators.

“It’s probably Gareth,” Tess joins. “He said he will talk with Samuel and that he agrees with him partially. So they are probably using it to police this place.”

When we look at her curiously, she sighs, “Gareth told me before, as I said, he was really talkative.”

“Well, it's not like it is hard for them to take care of a few people. From what I've seen, I could deal with tens, maybe hundreds of Easy or Normal difficulty people easily, and probably a good amount of people from Hard,” Maya says.

Such underestimating of her powers feels weird. I myself am sure that I could wipe out everyone from Hard difficulty even if all 200 or something of them joined against me.

Following Tess, we reach a spot where a bigger group of stronger people are gathered. I can feel that much from their mana signatures. As I used to do, I switch to Sneaky Mode and observe.

The central part of this clearing is a huge white spacious tent with multiple open entrances. The inside has a lot of light inside but is shielded from stronger light. It seems cozy, and the tent is big enough to fit a hundred or so people.

“Sset, my friend. I’m glad you made it,” a man comes out, the strongest feeling out of the group.

He seems to be around 40 years old, but muscular and fit. There is a friendly smile on his face, and his jaw is probably sharp enough to cut things.

What I notice next is the beautiful silver armor he is wearing. The armor seems like it weighs a lot, made of thick plates of metal, yet the man moves naturally, and the armor itself looks expensive. 

“Hello Gareth, these are Noname, Grumpy, Knight, TheStrongestOne, and NotAaron.”

The eyes of the man turn to me as he examines me for a while, and then he smiles. “I’m happy to meet you as well, Noname and Grumpy. It’s always nice to see my fellow Beyond explorers. I also welcome you, Knight, TheStrongestOne, and NotAaron. Jakub and Maximillian did talk with you a lot, and you can meet with them when they return.”

I once again have to remind myself that Jakub and Maximillian are Lootenant and Brainiac from the community. Gareth surely loves to continue to doxx everyone he meets. What a guy.

When he stops in front of me, I observe him and the hand he is offering me to shake. He is doing it all so naturally and with a big smile on his face. I already feel his extrovert passive leeching off my reserves of social energy.

“I would like us all to be friends, Noname,” he says, pushing his hand even closer.

To make it stop, I just shake hands with him, and he turns his attention to other members of group 4. He shortly greets everyone, gives out compliments, and asks about their experiences. And he does it all as if it's the simplest thing in the world.

What a monster.

When he moves to Biscuit, I expect our future animal overlord to growl at the man. Biscuit is really good when it comes to judging characters, and Gareth seems like a clear-cut B-movie villain pretending to be a paladin of justice. All this, only so he can later be revealed as the villain pulling all the strings in the final act.

But to my surprise, Biscuit woofs at him shortly and even lets the man pet him once.

I… I don’t understand. As I’m about to use black mana to power [Focus] and think about it, Gareth turns to us all, “In past hours, the system unlocked multiple buildings near the center of the common area.”

“Anything interesting?” Tess, similarly comfortably, sits opposite Gareth, and the rest of us plop down as well.

At this point, it's our extrovert against theirs, and I focus on listening.

“There are some living quarters with multiple rooms. They seem to be more luxurious than the ones on the edge, but they require payment in shards per night spent. The expensive ones come up to multiple hundred shards per night. Some houses come with facilities like enchanting, smithing, or other basic ones. You can also rent more specialized facilities independently, without the house.”

Good, as it should be. A few hundred shards per night? I was worried the system lost its way. Being reassured once in a while that the system is a scammer and an asshole is nice. Later, I will fly there and check the buildings and prices. It might be worth it to put off a bit of shards if the view is nice.

Gareth continues, “There are also some facilities that can be unlocked. In these facilities, you can also buy some basic metals and other materials that are being sold at a better price than through the system shop. People from Hell or Hard difficulty have already made deals and combined shards to unlock facilities, as well as to purchase materials.”

“You can put your shards together?” Min-Jae asks, surprised.

“Oh, sorry for the confusion! It’s more like one person will pay for one day, another one for another day, and a third one might buy materials while they try to all spend a similar amount of shards.”

“That’s all good. So the system is allowing for some crafting or smithing items for the tournament, maybe even fixing them or creating some to leave the tournament with?”

“Yes,” Gareth agrees. Even sitting in the chair in his silver armor, he looks somewhat majestic. “There is also a tournament variation of the system shop that only allows items created here and only from materials from local shops to be bid on and sold to people that participate in the tournament.”

“How big a cut does the system take for the item sold?” I ask.

“How did you know the system takes a cut?” Gareth turns to me, surprised. “Did you know about this ready?”

Knew it! System, you greedy little shit. Is it because the Ruler of Greed has something to do with you, or are you just set like that?

“I guessed from my experience with the system,” I answer.

“That makes sense, but nice catch. As you said, the system takes a 10% cut, which isn’t that bad considering the lower price of the materials.”

I detect two presences moving closer, and two men enter the tent. One of them is slim and shorter with messy brown hair, seemingly around the twins' age. Another one maybe a bit older than me but with a smile on his face.

The smiling red-haired man turns to us. “Group 4, the biggest Hell difficulty maniacs!” he declares.

“Maximillian, please, be nicer to our guests,” Gareth says softly.

“Don't worry, Gary, they’ve heard worse from me! I’m Brainiac, and this must be the best doggo of the… what is it now? The best doggo of the tournament floor? That’s what you guys tend to call him, right?” he moves and squats in front of Biscuit, offering him a hand that Biscuit sniffs at.

Then I sense an exchange between them, and Brainiac, with the real name Maximillian, stands up, “He really talks!”

“Hello,” a boy with brown messy hair also moves in and smiles friendly.

“Which one is Noname? I wanna see the legendary mana maniac.” Brainiac looks around, then following the looks of others, he stops at me.

He takes a few steps, “So, all the things I said many times before, I was joking, you know it, right? No hard feelings.” When he offers me his hand, I can't sense any ill intent or dishonesty in it.

Taking another damage that removes a bigger part of my social energy, I stand up and shake his hand. “It’s fine.”

“So, how much is your mana?” he asks curiously. “Six, seven hundred?”

I check it.

Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 1015 + 1015

So I nod, “Something like that.”

“Max, it’s rude to ask that,” with a sigh, Lootenant moves closer and pulls his red-haired friend away, “I apologize for Max. He's a good guy but annoying sometimes.”

“That’s okay.” Tess stands up, a smile on her lips, “I’m Sset, it's nice to see you in real, Brainiac and Lootenant, or would you prefer Maximillian and Jakub?”

It’s amusing to see how two young men react to pretty, tall, blonde Tess. Lootenant seems to even blush, and Brainiac is taken aback, his eyes moving up and down Tess's figure.

With interest, I wait to see how long Tess will let it pass before she zaps him, but unfortunately, it doesn't get to that.

Tess introduces Lily, Min-Jae, Dennis, and Maya.

Unsurprisingly, the young men are happy to meet our boys as they communicated a lot in the Community, and they get into conversation as if they are old friends.

“Tsk, I wanted to see Tess zap him,” Maya moves her chair next to me.

“Me too,” I agree with her.

“Want to get out and check the houses they mentioned? Tess can take care of the rest,” she offers.

“You want to find a nice house and have me pay for it.”

“Yes,” Maya agrees shamelessly. “You are rich, and it might make you look better in my eyes. Don't you want to look reliable and capable in the eyes of a pretty young woman?”

Well, Maya used to be a professional trainer, and after time in the tutorial, her body is even more athletic and as she said, she is someone to be considered pretty with her dark skin, wavy black hair, and dark brown eyes, but.

“The axe is now 55 thousand shards.”

“Fuck, why! You said 49 thousand before.”

“I need to make more money to seem more capable, apparently.” I stand up. “Take Dennis, and we will head there. He can connect to Aaron and tell others to move in.”

Before I can change my mind, she quickly exchanges a few words with Tess and then pulls Dennis away from the group, and we head outside and deeper into the center of the common area.

The deeper we go, the nicer the houses are. The common area isn't exactly flat; there are some small hills with houses at the top. Some houses are even built into those smaller hills. The common area is massive.

Walking on the roads made of cobblestone and passing by beautiful houses, we reach the center of the place where I look around.

Finding the house that I like, I head there; it's a smaller one with a workshop near it. The house is at the top of a hill that is from one side shielded by a forest, with only the front of the house facing the rest of the place. Being at the top of the highest hill nearby, it offers a nice view of the place.

When we move close, something akin to a barrier stops us, and a message pops up.

Would you like to rent Forest Edge Retreat together with its facility?

500 shards / day

Well, it looks like Gareth didn’t joke.

“Yes, I want to pay for the entire length of the tournament.”

Would you like to pay 3000 shards for the rent of Forest Edge Retreat and its facility?

Yes/No

I confirm, and the shards disappear. After that, the barrier disappears, and Dennis sends a message to the others to move in.

“How much?” Maya asks curiously.

“Three thousand for the entire duration of the tournament.”

“Damn,” she gasps.

Unlike her, I don't mind. Opening the tournament system shop and checking items and their prices there, I already know I will get my shards back with plenty of extra.

Ten or so hours remain until the start of the 1st event, so that's plenty of time to cook up something nice.

***

Next Chapter