ALL NOVEL B1 | Chapter 5 - The Team
Somewhere else Inside of the same Tutorial Block
Astrid glares at the seemingly endless skies below them, off the edge of the floating island she and the others of her group find themselves on.
“So… does anyone have any idea where we are?” Rob asks, finally having gotten over his panic attack.
No one answers him for several seconds, the group too focused on their own surroundings to bother.
Eventually though, Alara says, “The tutorial mentioned that another dimension was made just for this reset. So I doubt this is anywhere on our old planet, or even in our old universe.”
Silence returns to the group with the only noise being that of the occasional sounds of roars or screeches coming from the jungle behind them.
At first Astrid was perfectly happy with the chance for a restart. To do everything over again, but without there being anyone at the top restricting anything. To have free reign over whatever resources she and her twin find.
But one problem instantly turned everything around for her, souring her mood.
Where the hell is Lexi?
When the team arrived at the tutorial after finishing up in the strange white cube, she was already missing. And while they first thought she was being held up in the tutorial room or something, that likelihood grew less and less likely as time passed.
“So, I don’t think she’s going to show up,” Shelly quietly says after having slowly stepped up to Astrid, and Astrid lightly nods her head in agreement.
If she had to guess, her disappearance probably has something to do with whatever happened to her back in the Dungeon.
Astrid notices Alara taking a deep breath before tightening her fists slightly and stepping up to the center of the group in the middle of the strange ruins-like formation they’re standing on. Then she says, “We don’t have the time to keep waiting, so I vote that we choose a leader for the team.”
That has Astrid frowning slightly, only to shake her head.
I don’t care who the leader is as long as we find Lexi.
Shelly and Aidan both turn to look at Alara before Aidan glances at Astrid.
“You did a good job during the dungeon dive, so I’ll go ahead and give you my vote,” Shelly tells Alara with a nod of her head, sounding more serious than normal. And after Aidan sees Astrid subtly nodding her head to him, he says the same.
When Alara glances at Astrid, Astrid voices her agreement as well.
So they all turn to look at Rob, just to find the guy still staring blankly out over the edge of the floating island as some sort of large birdlike monster flies underneath the island.
“Rob?” Alara asks, startling him from his shocked stupor. “What’s your vote?”
The healer turns around and, with a stutter, says, “Y-y-you h-have my v-vote.”
She nods her head and opens her mouth to speak, only to cut off when a loud roar echoes through the wide open space of the strange ruins platform they’re on, following which a tiger with black fur and white stripes jumps out of the trees, followed by two more.
{Jungle Prowler – Level 2}
{Jungle Prowler – Level 1}
{Jungle Prowler – Level 1}
“Shit,” Alara swears before jumping back and reaching for her sword as Astrid does the same, but both of them quickly realize their swords were replaced.
Guess it makes sense the System wouldn’t let us bring items to the reset.
She grabs her inferior sword and uses the new skill she had just received from deciding to stall her class selection, a basic body enhancement skill. And out of the corner of her eye, she finds Alara doing the same. Meanwhile Rob finally gets his act together and begins casting some sort of skill on the both of them as Aidan pushes his hand out and launches a fireball at the prowlers, clearly showing that the two chose their classes already unlike Astrid and Alara. Something that will give them power now but limit them in the future.
Shelly on the other hand pulls out her bow and draws an arrow from the quiver on her back, the equipment looking to be the bow version of the inferior sword in Astrid’s hands. The girl then uses the same skill as Astrid and Alara as her skin shines with a faint gray light.
The prowlers let out another roar as Astrid and Alara reach them, but right when they leap into the air towards them, Aidan’s fireball hits one of them dead on, sending it flying. Meanwhile an arrow from Shelly strikes another in the eye, leaving the third to continue towards Astrid and Alara, the two feeling slightly awkward in their swordplay without their swordsmanship skill but still being good enough to dodge the blow before striking at its exposed sides.
Both Astrid and Alara step forward to pierce their swords into the level 2 prowler’s head, meanwhile Aidan casts another fireball, throwing it at the prowler he’d already hit, finishing it off. But right when they’re all about to relax a little, the prowler who Shelly had shot in the eye somehow jerks upwards again and leaps at Aidan, only for it to slam into a barrier of golden light that appears out of nowhere before Shelly quickly sends another arrow into its other eye, making it fall dead.
[Level 2 Jungle Prowler Defeated – User’s earned EXP has been increased slightly due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own with assistance.]
[Level 1 Jungle Prowler Defeated – User’s earned EXP has been decreased slightly due to killing a being with assistance.]
[Level 1 Jungle Prowler Defeated – User’s earned EXP has been decreased slightly due to killing a being with assistance.]
[Two point have been earned for killing a creature one level above you personally with assistance.]
Astrid frowns at the message about points before turning her attention to Alara to find her doing the same.
“Looks like we don’t get points for anything we don’t personally assist in killing,” Alara comments, making Astrid and the others nod. Although Rob just frowns.
I wonder if he even got any points? Since he used a barrier and not an attack.
“Did you get any points, Rob?” Shelly asks the question on Astrid’s mind, and he nods, answering, “Yeah, got one.”
Guess his shielding Aidan was enough to warrant a point then.
Astrid turns back to Alara to find her frowning, so she asks, “We going hunting?”
The girl glances at her, then at the others, before answering, “Yeah.” But then she frowns again and focuses on Astrid as she asks, “Aren’t you worried about your sister?”
Astrid nods. “I am.” When she notices the confusion on the others' faces, she adds, “But I also know that she’s far more resourceful than me. So she’ll be fine as long as she isn’t dropped into the middle of a monster nest or a dungeon.”
Alara nods before wiping her sword on the prowler’s corpse and beginning to step away, only to pause and glance back at the corpse. Then at Astrid. Then the corpse again.
A few seconds pass until she eventually asks, “Any chance you know how to cook tiger meat?”
After having tiger meat which surprised Astrid with how tangy the flavor was, the group moves around the edge of the jungle, not daring to go inside when the sounds of constant monster calls echo from within it as they hunt the weak monsters on the edge of the island. And to Astrid’s further surprise, the ruins-like structure extends all the way for as far as they’ve gone.
Might even go all the way around the island.
At some point the group notices a rather unstable looking bridge connecting the island they’re on to another island, but the group ignores it and continues walking along the edge of the island. And during the walk, Astrid quickly realizes that half the group can’t figure out which twin she is. Not till she bluntly tells them.
It takes a few more minutes of walking before the third group of monsters to appear jumps out of the jungle: a pair of two large spiders.
{Lesser Taracht – Level 3}
{Lesser Taracht – Level 2}
“Watch out, this one’s stronger!” Alara calls out, and the others tense up, having identified them themselves.
Astrid sprints forward toward the large spider right as the level 3 raises one of its limbs and attempts to swipe at her, only for its limb to be shot by an arrow, sending it off course but not piercing far into it. But it gives Astrid an opening to drive her sword into its side, only for her eyes to widen as the blade only goes part of the way in, not piercing it fully.
“Strong carapace,” she calls out to the others while yanking the blade out and jumping backwards, dodging another strike of its limb thanks to her enhancement skill.
Astrid feels a cold sweat run down her neck as her mana begins to get low, making her realize she won’t be able to keep up the skill for long.
But then a fireball flies by her and strikes the higher level taracht as the other one begins moving around towards Alara. And as if the spider were covered in tar or gasoline, it alights completely with a loud and pained screech.
“They’re weak to fire!” Astrid shouts, making the others grin in pleasant surprise.
Until Aidan shouts back, “I’m out of mana!”
“Doesn’t matter!” Alara shouts back as she dodges the level 2 taracht’s strike. “You’ve already dealt with the higher leveled one. Just sit back as we do the rest!”
Astrid doesn’t bother looking at Aidan for his response, instead backing up from the taracht as it crawls closer to her while burning alive. But then her exhaustion along with a random tree stump trips her into falling backwards with a grunt, following which the taracht manages to swing its limb straight down at her, only for it to hit a golden barrier.
This time the golden barrier doesn’t manage to take the hit and shatters after just a second, letting the limb cut straight into Astrid’s leg, making her let out a pained grunt. Her previous pain resistance training keeps her from making any more noise than that though, even if the skill itself was reset.
She takes the chance the spider gives her as some of the flames flicker and burn her leg and some of the armor there to thrust her blade straight up and into the spider’s mouth, piercing through its head from the inside before she leans the blade to the side so that the creature’s corpse won’t fall on her.
[Level 3 Lesser Taracht Defeated – User’s earned EXP has been increased slightly due to killing a being whose level is higher than their own with assistance.]
[Three points have been earned for killing a creature two levels above you personally with assistance.]
[For attaining five points, you have earned your spot on the leaderboards.]
[#1 Lucas Nightshade – 25 points]
[#2 Alexia Knight – 24 points]
[#3 Aurora Frost – 20 points]
[#4 Leif Eriksson – 19 points]
[#5 Noah Kowalski – 18 points]
[#6 Leonidas Silver – 18 points]
[#7 Isabella d'Aragon – 18 points]
[#8 Damien Black – 16 points]
[#9 Alexander Frost – 15 points]
[#10 Nathan Briar – 15 points]
[…]
[#11452 Astrid Knight – 6 points]
Astrid blinks at the sight of the leaderboard, only to turn her head to look at the others. But she calms down at the sight of them finishing off the other taracht. And not giving her any EXP or points for it in the process.
Then she looks at the leaderboard again and finds her sister at the number two spot.
“Guess she’s okay after all,” she mutters, a faint smile on her face as she lightly shakes her head, trying as hard as she can to ignore the pain in her leg. But then Alara walks up to her and pulls the spider’s limb out of her leg before pouring a potion into the wound, making the wound vanish.
Astrid looks up at her for a moment in surprise before patting her own pockets and finding a potion there.
Huh. Guess the reset gave us a potion to start off with.
She then stands up and stretches, only to grab the potion and hand it to Alara, who accepts it since she had used her own on Astrid.
“You see the leaderboards?” Alara asks her, and Astrid nods her head. “Looks like we don’t have to worry about her after all.”
Astrid smirks at that.
“We do still need to find her though,” Aidan adds, interjecting his way into the conversation, and the two girls nod in agreement.
Wherever she is.