Kai blinked at the sudden notification once he and Layla were through, and saw that the others who were suddenly visible again were now reacting as though the text box had only just appeared before them.
'So it only activated the party bonuses once we left the "beginners zone"? Also it called that masked guy our "Admin"... weird.'
That word, "Admin", left a strange feeling in him, but he could do nothing about the strange itch in his mind that he felt whenever he thought about any of the unfamiliar words he would speak.
They started walking down the long, loooong slope down the mountain, that was actually very gradual and not steep, surprising when you consider that on the other side it is a massive cliff, and sharply drops into a crevasse on another side, but towards the city and the plains it was a very gentle slope.
'It's a long walk, but an easy one... I wonder if we'll meet anyone from the city on our way there?'
Kai noticed the party that left before them was already a ways down, also heading towards the city, and their party made haste to follow.
The air was clean, a smell to it that felt strangely pure and fresh, yet Kai had no idea why clean air would smell so unfamiliar to himself.
"Anyone else find the air... tastes strange?"
Pedro raised his hand silently, but Layla and Helena shook their heads, while Xandra had a thoughtful expression. "I... think... now that you mention it, yeah." Kai looked towards Michael, who tilted his head and narrowed his shutters.
"You're asking me. ME. About how the air smells?"
'Oh. Right. He probably doesn't even breathe... it's not like he has any holes in his body which he could breathe through anyways.'
They kept moving after that, and Layla began skipping happily, energy suffusing her as she became bright and cheery, such a drastic change from her twitchy, nervous self that it made Pedro raise an eyebrow. "You're... peppier."
She slowed down, hunching a little. "Oh..." she spoke in a small voice. "Sorry..."
Pedro sweated as he felt everyone else's glares digging into his back, and hurriedly replied, "No no, it's fine!" He raised his wings and waved them frantically. "I was just curious what changed!"
"Oh!" She swung her head back up, smiling again, and began to take bouncier steps again. "I don't like crowds is all I guess! And it's so nice out! Sun is shining, grass is so green, just peaceful nature!"
Michael chuckled. "She's a sweet girl."
"Hey!" Layla turned around crossly. "I'm not a kid! I'm 16 you know!"
Kai raised an eyebrow. 'Wow. That old yet that small? And her voice too... she'll look young even when she's in her early twenties. Then again, at least she's not flat chested, else she really would look completely like a child.'
Michael chuckled. "So? I'm still older than you by a few years."
Helena turned her head curiously. "How old is that exactly?"
"I..." Michael stopped talking as he continued walking with them. "I can't remember, sorry."
"It's okay, don't push yourself too hard." Kai spoke up.
"Aaaaanyways... anyone wanna introduce me? I know you're Xandra-"she pointed to Xandra-"and you must be Layla." She pointed to Layla. "Unless one of the boys is named Layla."
"Nope! I AM Layla, nice to meet you Helena." Layla was still bouncy and happy now that she wasn't stuck with something like 30 or more people who were all total strangers.
Xandra gave a small wave as her greeting, but was otherwise silent.
Michael put a hand over his chest. "I am Michael. The parrot ranger is Pedro, and the fox summoner is Kai."
Pedro lifted his chin in a "Sup?" Kinda gesture, while Kai gave a smile over his shoulder.
"Well, I am Miss Helena of the..." Helena trailed off in the increasingly familiar way of when one of these amnesiac otherworlders hit upon something they'd forgotten.
"Well. I am Helena."
Kai nodded. "Well... if I had to guess, you were a rich girl from that intro... also the way you talk is a bit high class too."
Pedro snorted. "Says you."
Kai frowned. "Huh?"
Xandra spoke, "Yes, you sometimes gain something of a commanding tone of someone familiar with being listened to."
Kai looked down in thought. "Apologies... I did not mean to sound arrogant or anything like that."
"No-" Michael began before cutting off and sighing. "We mean like... you sound very educated. Like you were someone who mattered, not that you were self-important."
"Oh." Kai looked back up with an embarrassed expression. "Sorry for misunderstanding then."
"I think you're really nice Kai!"
"Thanks Layla." A few of them had twitching smiles as they tried not to laugh.
Perhaps this party would be good friends after all... but not all parties were doing so well, as evidenced ahead of them.
"What do you mean?! You don't have the One in a Million title?!"
They frowned as the voice carried over from the party ahead, and one of the male fire genasi could be seen shouting at the other, with the female one of the trio standing awkwardly at the side with their teammates.
'He didn't? But it should've been set up to guide him into choosing the right one?!' Kai and Michael exchanged a confused expression, while Pedro and Xandra had a pensive expression. Helena and Layla just looked pityingly at the fire genasi who's leader was shouting at them.
"If you don't have that title, our party bonus isn't as high as it should be!"
"But John, you're the one who told me to choose Cinder Greatsword as my class!"
"Yeah, cause it would be useful to have a heavy attacker! But I'd have been better off getting that Dragonborn with the Wyrm Ax class!"
Kai and Michael both looked at each other and sighed. This guy... he let someone else choose his class, so his choice was "for the good of the team", like Michael almost had done by choosing Warframe Bunker. 'Luckily Layla has given rise to a potential synergy, allowing him to choose the most "suitable" class, Warframe Artillery.'
He did his best for the team, yet now his "friend" chewed him out for not being perfect and adding to the team's buff!
"Honestly!" John stormed off, and the poor fire genasi followed with his head low. The female fire genasi lifted a hand slightly as if to reassure him, before dropping it while shaking her head, and following the leader.
The aasimar began walking towards the leader, and bent his head slightly to speak to John.
"I wonder what he's saying?" Helena wondered aloud.
"He's saying they should get rid of the guy named Lin and find a new teammate of someone who's a native or someone leftover from the others behind."
They all turned to Layla in surprise, before understanding reached everyone.
'Of course! She's got enhanced hearing!' Multiple minds thought together.
"Why choose a leftover or native? Even without the title he still helps the group right?" Pedro questioned.
"Give me a second..." Layla lifted a hand, her ears twitching as she listened.
After a few seconds passed, Layla's eyebrows raised as she said "Oh! He says it's cause a native has more experience, and a leftover would at least add to the team bonus, so it's 'only logical' he says."
"Damn, I guess the masked dickwaffle was right, aasimar are cold-ass bastards." Kai said with an angry tone, a scowl on his face."
"What?" He asked as he saw Helena looking at him appraisingly.
"Layla was right." She said simply, and Kai gave her a confused look.
"You are kind." She smiled, a beautiful look with her cherry-blossom pink hair and her clear skin, her blue eyes sparkling with gold flecks.
Kai went quiet for a second before looking away with a mild pink blush to his cheeks. "Uh... sure. Whatever."
Xandra let a smile on her face and Michael also let out a small echoey chuckle.
Layla turned to Kai with a bright smile. "Yeah! Kai is so nice, I bet he'd let Lin join us if they kicked him out!"
Kai laughed slightly. "I'm not sure I'm THAT nice..." he trailed off slightly, and a thoughtful look came over his face.
Helena rolled her eyes. "No. We don't need him weighing us down, we need to be strong to survive as adventurers remember?"
"Yeah but-"
"No!"
Kai rolled his eyes. "Would you shut up and listen?!"
Helena raised an eyebrow, and watered for Kai to speak.
Kai made an exaggerated huff of dissatisfaction. "THANK you." He turned around to continue walking, but walk backwards so he was facing the party. "Remember how the text said that we didn't suffice for that other bonus because we didn't have a dedicated melee fighter? Well he has a greatsword class right? So he would allow us to get that bonus, and held be a concentrated attack. It would be better if he were more a balance between quick light attacks-" he gestured to Layla and Pedro-"and slow heavy attacks-" this time he gestured to Xandra and Michael-"but it's better than nothing right?"
"Yes..." Michael began slowly, "but as you said, a more balanced attacker like a regular swordsman or ax wielder would be better right? And better means better chances to survive in this world, right?"
Kai sighed, looking down. "Sorry... guess you're right."
"It's okay Kai..." Layla patted his back as Kai turned to face the front again.
"He's just unlucky." Pedro and Helena both said at the same time, before looking at each other with a surprised expression that got the rest to laugh.
"Hahaha, oh that was great! Your faces!" Michael laughed loudly, a metallic echo to it, causing the party ahead to look back in confusion.
John scowled. "The hell are they laughing about?" He turned around annoyed, in a bad mood from his "brethren" being less useful than he'd thought, and stomped on the rest of the way down, near the bottom now after all this time.
They'd reached the bottom of this long slope finally, after all this time.
And now, a short rise dropped off suddenly down to the edge of the plain which extended until the forest, and the crevasse.
From the crevasse a path could be seen coming out of it, using the downward slope inside the crevasse along the stream that fell from the lake they'd come down from as a path to the beach below the cliffs.
The path led to a three-way crossroads just pass the meter or so drop at the foot of the mountain, one wide path going to the city ahead, while another went into the full plains and stretching out of current sight.
Kai's party also stopped their conversation as they focused ahead.
"How should we get down the drop?" Helena asked, looking to the others.
Kai looked at Michael and Xandra. "Well... you two are probably fine just jumping casually, orcs have a high vitality and are tough, and even if you break you can fix yourself." He addressed the later bit to Michael.
"I actually have even more vitality due to a "Mountain Troll Bloodline" apparently." Xandra mentioned in support of the idea she would be fine.
"You two..." Kai looked at Pedro and Layla. "Can you fly at all, or glide?"
Pedro raised his hand, which was really just long feathers off his wing that bent like fingers, which made no actual sense by a normal bird's body so they probably weren't actually feathers and just looked like them. "I have a talent called Glide, so I'd say yes?"
Layla shrugged helplessly. "I don't have any talent or skill for it..."
"Well... both of you try up here?"
Pedro shrugged, crouching down as he spread his wings...
And with a leap he flew at least 3 meters into the air!
"GACK?!" He screeched in shock as he went WAY higher than he thought, and some animal instinct made him fold his legs and pull them back as he spread his wings, which were too short to make someone his size fly or even glide dammit-!
A push of wind flowed under him as he felt the mana in the air. That moment... he could feel it, a boundless energy in the sky, in the ground, in the sea and the sun, in the shadow and in the sounds his own scream made still flying through the air outwards from him.
The wind attribute mana moved itself to support him, not the mana he himself had, but the environments.
Glide was a talent, not a skill, and needed no mana of ones own to use apparently.
He was silent in shock as he glided over the heads of the party in front of his own, who looked up in shock at the screaming only to see him glide over their heads and over the drop, going a bit towards the crossroads as he glided down.
He extended his legs at the last second, and gently landed easily.
The party up on the mountains foot still gaped in shock.
Every part, his massive leap and the gliding itself, was so sudden and shocking in how it unfolded!
Michael coughed, a sudden explosion of deep metallic sound. "Well... that answers that."
Kai turned to Layla. "So... you wanna try?"
She looked uncertain. "The only talent I have that has anything to do with the air is called 'Air Dodge'..."
The others had confused expressions. 'How can someone dodge in the air? Or dodge using air? But is that even a talent, sounds like a skill?'
"I'll try though?" She said once she saw everyone's faces, still doubtful herself.