Chapter 58: [Volume 2: Epilogue!]
[In the Park outside the Training Camp!]
A group of odd balls were collected.
A Samurai, a girl with long black hair, a white haired thin man, a cloaked blonde, a red haired muscular man with a broadsword and a guy with a Crow mask.
"With that done. I will be leaving now," the boy with the crow mask spoke as he left from there, vanishing from sight, leaving everyone to look at the area where he was with a blank expression.
"Hey Rebas. Weren't you excited to meet him?" Avida asked with a fear filled voice as she gulped before looking at the skill that she received from Adrian/Crowley right now.
"Are you kidding me? Did you see that grin behind that mask of his? Just what is he planning now to make him that happy? And what's with these absurd skills? When did our little guy become this generous?" Rebas answered Avida's question with a dozen more questions.
"You don't think he is going to start a war, right? He can't be that crazy… right?" Levi spoke turning to Boss, hoping she would deny his words but she looked in the empty space where Adrian was before speaking,
"It can't be too far off. He is pretty fair when it comes to equivalent exchange, and no matter how I look at it, these A-Grade skills and weapons aren't something that you can buy with mere 10 million points. The effects are as if they are tailored to our needs."
"Then that means, he is planning something that will make us required to use this weapon, huh? Well, I just hope we didn't bite too much. Perhaps living away from him for far too long, I forgot why he was able to survive in the back alley despite being a young child," Invar spoke as he observed his sword. There was no doubt that he liked it, in fact he loved it too much.
Just that… Adrian isn't exactly kind. If he is going out of his way to do a favor to you, he will at least make use of you in equal ways. That was his way of doing things. Even his teammates weren't given a discount.
"Sigh… Well. Whatever. As long as we can have some fun and not die, I think it's fine to take this. It's not like it's a bad thing, right?" Avida tried to cheer herself up but looking at the absurd skill in her hands, the ominous feeling resurfaced as she wondered if she should take this one or not.
Though in the end, they all accepted it as they knew that if Adrian was cooking something, it's not going to be small in anyways. Even if they don't take it, they would get involved one way or another.
They just hoped that nothing would go overboard this time… hopefully.
…
[Adrian's POV!]
As I walked away from my old group, I saw a certain girl arguing with two boys. The argument seems to have heated up as the girl slapped the boy before moving away from them.
I first laughed at the two boys for a few seconds before looking at that girl who was fast walking without any direction. In her eyes, there were some tears, but mostly rage was present all over her face.
Moving closer to that girl, I followed her for a few seconds as she stopped in her steps. She seemed to be muttering something slowly, as she wiped her tears before she clapped her cheeks(face) and then with a determined expression she observed the area in front of her.
Removing my mask and illusion, I then walked towards her before moving beside her as I heard her speaking,
"I am going to show them. I can be strong too!"
"Who said you aren't?" I spoke as I smiled at her.
-EEEEK!
She shouted as she turned to me, before she observed my face. Her eyes widened as she looked at me carefully before she spoke,"A-A-Adrian! What are you doing here?!!"
"Nothing. Just passing by," I answered her as she looked at me with a mix of emotions before she realized something,
"Wait! Did you hear that?!!"
"What?" I feigned ignorance, as she sighed in relief before she moved closer to me and asked," Nothing. Nothing at all. What about you? Where are you? Everyone was talking about you? Are you okay?"
Her eyes turned a bit sad as she looked at me. Though I smiled as I spoke,
"Yeah. I somehow survived. Been doing all sorts of things. Sorry for not being able to meet you till now."
She nodded as she spoke,"it's okay. Just you being alive is enough. Are you going to join the group now? We are staying in-"
"Ah! No. Actually, I have my own thing going on. I will meet you guys in Tutorial 4, okay?" I interrupted her, making her observe me with a sudden look. Her eyes turned sad for a moment before she cheered up and spoke,"is that so? Then we will wait for you."
I nodded before speaking," all right then. I will be taking my leave now. Say hi to Mark from me. Tell him that I will meet him in the next tutorial."
And then taking one step away, I was just about to move but I felt somebody stopping my hand. Turning around, I found Julia's hand stopping me. Her head was down as she spoke in a low voice,
"Please… don't go…"
Though feigning ignorance, I asked," what happened?"
"It's… I was wondering if you could help me find a weapon that suits my gift?" She had her head down still. Though I pondered before asking about what her gift was.
Slowly raising her head, she then looked at me with her expression changing to a bright smile as she spoke,
"Actually, forget about it. I shouldn't bother you with this. You are already busy."
"Julia," I spoke in a bit of a dominant voice, making her look at me.
"What's your gift?" I asked in the same manner, before she observed me for a few seconds and then sighed before telling me.
[Gift: Poison Nature!
Grade: Upper Mortal Grade-0
Effects:
-Increases the Grade of All Poison Skills/Artifacts used by the user by 1!
-Increases the effect of the All the Poison Skills/Artifacts used by the user by 100%!
-Increases the duration of all the Poison skills/artifacts used by the user by 100%!
-The user's Poison resistance has been maxed out!
-All the Poison created by the user has their grade increased by 2! Their effect and duration increased by 300% and their duration by 200%!]
'Nice gift,' I thought as I noted down the effects of it. Then looking at her, I spoke,
"Leave your weapon to me. For now, focus on finding an artifact that could help you store [Poisons!]. And if you can, learn how to make [Poisons!]. Once again, I will be taking care of your weapon, so leave that to me."
I spoke as she looked at me with a sudden bright look, before I smiled and patted her head.
"Don't worry about small things, you know? You are a strong girl. You don't need to show anyone anything," I smiled as I spoke before I erased my presence with an illusion and vanished from there.
She realized what I meant as she spoke,"YOU-" But then finding that I wasn't there, her eyes sank again. I looked at her observing the space in front of her, as she tried finding me for a moment before retracting her hand.
"Just… how can you be so close yet so far," she spoke in a low voice before muttering,"thank you, Adrian."
'You are welcome,' I answered her in my mind before walking away from there as I put on my mask. It does add a small burden to me, but I don't mind as long as I can have another ally that will do my work.
I was pretty much limited in the first tutorial because of lack of information. But in the next tutorial, I want things to be in my control as much as possible.
My eyes narrowed at the front, as I increased my pace before I started running even faster. Given how I have barely 20 hours left now, I wanted to increase my [Gift] beyond [Lower Mortal Grade!] first.
And then with the time left, I wanted to have at least one A-Grade skill that was created by me. Two, if possible within the time limit.
Finally, I wanted to increase the grade of all my possessions to C-Grade at the very least.
-Whoosh!
And increasing my speed, I ran even faster than before.
…
[Luke's POV!]
"AAAAAA!!!!" I shouted as loud as I could as I attacked that monster for the 1000th time.
[Basic Art: Evasive Strike has been activated!]
[You have performed the Basic Strike perfectly for 100 times!]
[Basic Art: Evasive Strike has advanced to Intermediate Art: Evasive Strike!]
Dodging his attacks at the perfect moment, I attacked him from his weak points, crushing his health to minimum within a fraction of seconds. That D-Grade giant monster turned into crystals before vanishing from there.
"Congratulations. You really are pretty tenacious. To get all the 6 basic arts to intermediate within 6 hours. It's really something," Hamilton was really impressed. But this wasn't enough… I was still too weak.
I wanted to kill a C-Grade monster without any added effects. Just with my basic strength. Just once.
"Let's go again… we need to push all my Arts to Advance now… It's still far from over," I spoke as I restarted my training again. I was too weak… I am too naive… I am too prideful. I am far from strong.
"As you say, Luke," Hamilton spoke as he then passed me another fatigue removing potion. And once again, I began training…
…
[Julia's POV!]
Returning back to the base, I saw the girls training continuously without any break. I looked at them for a few seconds before, I saw Samantha calling me out,
"Hey! Come here! Where were you gone?"
"Just needed some fresh air."
And with a smile forming on my face, I ran towards her as I joined the group in their training. Leaving my previous worries behind.
…
[Mark's POV!]
"All right. I can shoot about 15 targets now," I thought as I observed the results before I tightened my grip. The face of my best friend appeared in front of me again as I narrowed my eyes at the training area.
Setting the target at 20, I then began my training once again.
"Adrian. Brother… where are you?"
It was like a lump in my throat. Where was Adrian? What was he doing? Was he fine? All these questions were suffocating me.
But I can't do a thing about it. Except getting stronger. Strong enough that the next time something happens, I won't have anything to regret again.
Never again.
…
[Alice's POV!]
Standing in a huge hall, I faced that girl with blue eyes and blue hairs. She looked at me with a warm look as her eyes seemed a bit sad. She then moved towards me one step at a time, as I wondered why I was called here.
Reaching closer to me, she then smiled as she hugged me tightly. Holding me tightly, I heard mumbling in my ears,
"Sister. I missed you a lot."
And once again I wondered, just what exactly is going on here?
…
[Clair/Admin's POV!]
"Did you check it again?" I asked as I looked at my assistant who was equally worried as much as I was. Her eyes were shaking at the signature of energy she received from the tutorial 4.
"Are you positive it's from Tutorial 4?" I asked again and she nodded.
Closing my eyes, I felt an ominous sensation welling up from my chest. The fact that the mana in tutorial 4 has been increased by 10 times wasn't normal at all.
"This… is going to be a bit troublesome," I spoke out as I began preparing for the worst.