Chapter 8: Chapter 7- Tasks (3)

A whole day has passed, and the sun was once again about to set. Luckily, I was right on time and stepped into yet another clearing in the forest. The tower has arranged this forest to have several small stages for me to confront the monsters.

I spent the day running around, killing monsters, foraging edible plants and improving my mana. I got lost a couple of times but eventually reached my destinations. I was quite disappointed by the forest; there was nothing out of the ordinary even though I stepped out of the arranged path.

I found no treasure or hidden perks. The only things I found were large groups of goblins and kobolds that I avoided. Levi did not help much either; he continued to be the annoying companion constantly trying to sell me information.

On the plus side, I collected quite a few mana stones from the monsters I encountered. After consuming dozens of mana stones, my mana now allowed me to cast Heal 4.7 times.

[Task 9 completed. A new task will be issued soon. Warning: This will be the last task of this room.]

‘Finally, I have reached the end of the room. Roaming around the forest was starting to be a little bit boring.’

I turned my attention to the centre of the clearing where a small group of people stood around a cart, discussing among themselves.

A similar scene flashed in front of my eyes as I recalled the events of my past life. I smiled to myself. I knew exactly what the last task was going to be.

‘So this is the part where I get to meet other people…’

I approached the men in front of the cart and spoke hesitantly, “Hello? Do you need any help?”

“Oh?” They were all surprised by my appearance but luckily, did not feel threatened by me.

“Hello young adventurer. Apologies for blocking the path. We had a small accident, but we should be able to take care of it ourselves.” A long-bearded man answered while stroking his white beard. With just one look, I could tell this beard was well groomed; the clothes he was wearing also indicated that he was not without background. He was polite and tactful.

I nodded and moved away. ‘A merchant… I don’t remember his name, but he is a merchant and the center piece of the next task. He is on his guard right now and won’t let me approach his group, but things will change after the task starts.’

I turned my attention to one particular man standing at a reasonable distance from the merchant group. Judging from his attire and current appearance, I knew he was a human and an Earthling. Everyone was given the same white shirt and blue pants to wear as a newcomer.

‘Middle-aged man… Asian and most likely a labourer or sailor… He chose a heavy saber as his weapon… As for his element, I can only guess which one he chose.’

“Hey!” I greeted him politely as I approached.

He raised his head, staying on his guard. He was nervous and on the edge. “Hello. Do you come from Earth too?”

I stopped at a reasonable distance. The Asian man did not look very stable; his tasks should not have been a smooth sailing like mine. “I am. My name is Alex, from England.”

The man immediately seemed to relax. “I am Wu Chi Feng. You can call me Old Wu. I am Chinese.”

I had no trouble speaking to Old Wu; thanks to the tower, the language barrier between humans has disappeared.

In the corner of my eyes, I noticed two tiny dots disappearing into the foliage. ‘Levi and Old Wu’s fairy? Looks like they also have things to discuss.’

“Alex, do you know where we are exactly and what we have to do next? My ninth task brought me here and then stopped giving me instructions. Even my guide does not know what the upcoming task is going to be.”

I shook my head, unwilling to explain the situation properly. “I am not sure, but my guess will be that there will be other Earthlings who will appear and join us. Our next task is very likely to be a team task, rather than a solo one.”

“A team task?” Old Wu muttered in deep thoughts.

“Yes. How long have you been waiting here?”

“For about five minutes.”

“Then, we just have to wait five minutes and see if someone else appears.”

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We exchanged a few words, sharing our experience without revealing important information such as the element we chose.

Time went by and just like I predicted, a woman soon walked out of the forest, seeming lost and confused. She approached us and joined our group. Her name was Anjali, an Indian. The weapon she chose was the whip. Compared to me and Old Wu, her body was covered with bruises. She has had a hard time in the forest but although I had the ability to heal her, I did not take the initiative to do so.

A few moments later, another person appeared. It was a tall and muscular man whose body was covered with tattoos. He introduced himself as Roberto, a Mexican who chose two weapons; a spear and a shield.

Then, a short but firm looking young man appeared, wearing thick brawling gloves. He called himself James and said he was Australian.

Two more people appeared in quick succession. The first one was an obese Caucasian woman from France, Marie. She was holding a shield and a bludgeon. The other was an American man, Jake, carrying a shield and a long sword, the very weapon combination I chose in my first life.

‘This should be it… Seven people in total and everyone aside from James seems exhausted.’

We did not speak much after introducing ourselves and stayed on our guards. Everyone was suspicious of everyone else as the last task has yet to be revealed.

Five minutes later, to my surprise, another person showed up. This time, it was a tall African man, holding a stretched bow and a quiver full of arrows. He smiled politely and introduced himself as Lovin.

I sized up everyone else. This was going to be my team for the last task. I could not determine which element they chose but in terms of weapon, it was a well-balanced team. Three people had shields, one person with a bow, one with brawling gloves for close combat and the rest all had medium range weapons.

Having not received any signals yet, we continued to wait and after five minutes have passed, this time, instead of a person appearing, all we heard was a loud savage howl reverberating across the entire forest.

I narrowed my eyes slightly. I did not remember which monsters I faced during the last tutorial but this howl revealed this information. ‘Wolves… Very likely to be silver wolves.’

Everyone became nervous and it was especially true for the merchant group. They discussed among themselves and by stretching my ears I was barely able to pick up a few words.

“Change of plan… Camping for the night… Asking for help…”

The long-bearded man from earlier approached our group. “Excuse me. You are all adventurers, am I right? As you know, we have been having some issues and considering the situation, we believe it would be safest for us to set up a camp and wait for tomorrow. We would like to hire you to protect us during the night. What do you think?”

[Task 10: Protect Merchant Stannis and his group during the night]

The tower spoke as soon as Stannis made his request. Evidently, we did not have the option to refuse. My teammates stared at Merchant Stannis dumbfounded and the latter misunderstood their expression.

“Of course, we won’t hire you for free. You will be rewarded for your efforts. To begin, we will offer you a warm meal and on the next day, you shall be rewarded for each monster you slay. What do you think?”

We looked at each other in silence, trying to determine each other’s stance. We were not a team but rather a group of individuals who banded together due to circumstances. We did not trust each other, and nobody could speak for the group as a whole.

Although we all knew it was an offer we could not refuse, no one wanted to be the one to step up.

Facing the inquisitive stares of the other humans, I nodded lightly to give my approval. I was not planning on leading this group. This time, I was a healer, not someone who could fight on the frontlines. Furthermore, I already knew that I was not suitable to lead a group; my friends and teammates made it very clear. Being strong did not necessarily mean having leadership skills.

After a rather long and awkward silence, Jake finally decided to step forward. He had already more or less confirmed that everyone wanted to agree.

“We will gladly take you on this offer.”

“Great! In that case, we will start setting up the camp right now and will also place a defensive formation. It will be able to protect us to some extent. You will just need to keep the monsters away from the formation.”

Stannis did not stay any longer. He returned to his group and as he mentioned, started setting up the camp.

Left to ourselves, we observed each other and Jake once again took the lead. “Since we are going to have to work together, how about we make an appropriate plan? Having us all stay up all night won’t be very efficient.”

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