Samuele had just arrived at the Association's camp. He tried to find the leader of this quest and, as soon as he saw him, smiled.
Marco Terranova, again in his red armor, stood as usual checking that everyone was carrying the essentials. As soon as the man saw Samuele he gave him a nod of greeting to which the boy gladly responded with another nod.
Samuele headed to the weapons counter and this time he decided to take a shield that would be attached in his forearm so that his hand would be free.
He was now a magician. Although he had no real magic to use at the moment, he wanted to see if he could comfortably fight with the shield in that position and possibly get used to it so that he would be prepared in the future.
He headed to the spot in front of the portal where all the other Adventurers had gathered.
A few meters away from them, Marco Terranova was talking to a man with a gruff face. The latter, in Samuele's eyes, seemed to be posturing contemptuously while talking about something. The conversation between the two did not even last a minute, and Marco approached the rest of the group, putting himself in front of everyone. He cleared his throat and spoke.
"So, guys. After talking it over with my colleague, it has been decided that I will be the leader for this quest. For anything, count on me, okay?" He said with a smile that encapsulated the word "confidence." Confidence that everything would go well together with him.
All the Adventurers in the group responded very positively with smiling expressions. Seeing this scene, Samuele realized that he was not the only one who admired Marco Terranova.
In fact, now that he thought about it, all the Adventurers in his group were about the same level as he was. It would not have been impossible to think that Marco Terranova, at some point, had been a leader, some more and some less, to pretty much all of them. In fact, it was very likely that he had been, just because of the kind of person that man is. Someone who could always be relied upon, a selfless person who would put the safety of others first instead of his own. For Samuele, the man had become a guide, someone he would like to be like.
While he was still wrapped up in his thoughts, a female voice beside him made itself heard, jolting him slightly. This gave him a feeling of déjà vu.
He turned toward the voice and saw a girl who was in some ways familiar.
"Do you remember me?" The girl asked with a huge smile.
Samuele looked at her carefully. Her pretty face, brown hair and dark eyes he had seen before. Then a look of realization formed on his face.
"You are ... Sofia, right?"
"That's right! We went on a quest together. I'm glad you're here today!"
"Yes, the same goes for me."
Before they could continue their conversation, the two youths' attention went to Marco Terranova, who decided it was time to enter the portal.
Samuele and Sofia's gazes became serious and they walked behind the rest of the group, passing through the portal.
As soon as they entered, the familiar sound of the System was heard inside their heads.
[QUEST!]
KILL THE CAVE BOSS!
Looking around, Samuele sighed slightly disappointed. This was the fourth time he had entered a cave. He hoped that the portal would lead to a more open place, but there was nothing he could do about it.
"What is that dejected expression?" Sofia asked with curious eyes beside him.
"Nothing much, I was just hoping we would be transported to another place. I'm starting to get sick of caves."
"I don't know, I'm happy about it. It means it will be an easier quest! Easy quest, easy money!" She exclaimed excitedly.
"Tch. We're not here to become 'besties'... we're here to kill monsters!" A man spoke in an annoyed voice. He was in his early 30s and a messy beard covered his face. Samuele recognized him as the man who had been talking to Marco Terranova a few minutes before entering the portal.
His eyes looked judiciously at the two young men. Then he turned his back to them and continued talking before walking out in front of the group with Marco.
"Adventurers like you make me sick to my stomach!"
Samuele looked over his shoulder with a frown and whispered to the girl next to him.
"But who is that guy?"
"Don't you know him? His name is Claudio Conti and, like Marco Terranova, he's a level 20 upper limit." Sofia informed him under her breath.
"How do you know that?" Samuele asked curiously.
"In the last quest I did he was the leader. I'll spare you all the details, but I heard from others that he is known for his bloodlust against portal monsters. I saw him in action with my own eyes, and I'll just tell you that I felt sorry for those creatures."
"He's a very violent guy, so."
"Yeah. The only positive note is that when he's there, it's a guaranteed easy paycheck."
"You only think about money, do you?" Samuele said, with a raised eyebrow and a comical drop of sweat running down his forehead.
The group started walking, trying to find the boss mentioned in the quest. Along the straight path of the cave they encountered creatures, different from those Samuele had seen so far.
Their appearance was cadaverous white, their flesh putrefied, and they wore armor now almost in very poor condition. Even their swords, now mostly blunt, matched the style of these creatures perfectly.
"Zombies?"
"It seems so. There are various undead creatures, but these really look like zombies."
"So it will be a piece of cake to level up!"
They all smiled with fighting eyes and prepared to attack, until someone from their group launched himself with extreme speed toward those creatures, killing them quite easily.
"What the hell-?!"
"Claudio, get a grip! The others have to fight too!" Marco Terranova spoke to the man who had been identified as Claudio Conti.
Samuele looked on in amazement. He understood how he was a guy who wanted to kill as many monsters as possible just for the sake of it, but he did not think to that extent.
"And how do we level up!" One of the group complained, with the others joining him.
Claudio Conti turned to them and with a furious look spoke up, causing all those who were protesting his course of action to back away.
"If you want to kill them, you just have to be faster. If you think that just because I am on a higher level than you, I will stand aside, then you are very wrong. In this world only those who have the balls to outclass others get ahead! I will continue to kill them all. You guys can stand there and watch, as far as I'm concerned."
Samuele saw those eyes. If you left out the color detail, they were no different from those of any portal beast. Thirsty for blood. Hungry to kill whatever creature was in front of him. He only hoped he was wrong, but its behavior did not bode well for him. At that moment, it was as if an icy chill ran down his entire spine. Not from fear, but from the dread that this man could really kill people in cold blood in the same way he did with those creatures.
"See, what did I tell you? He did the same thing on my last quest, too. Because of him, I only went up one level."
"Wasn't it enough for you to make easy money?"
"Sure, but if I don't level up, I can do all the quests possible and imaginable ... the salary will always remain low!"
The higher the Adventurer's level, the more he could participate in quests in higher level portals. It could, in fact, be said that the level of the Awakened One very often corresponded to the level of the portal.
If the Adventurer was a level 12 then he participated in a level 15 portal, as was the case with Samuele. The higher the level of the portal in which an Adventurer participated, the higher his salary would be.
"Then we just have to be faster than that guy, right?" Said Samuele with a small, reassuring smile that caught Sofia's attention. "As he said, it's about outclassing others. So let's outclass him."
Sofia looked at him for a few seconds with wide eyes before returning the smile and nodding.
"You're right! Let's do it!"
Moving forward in the cave, the Adventurers encountered more zombies. Of course, the first to come forward was Claudio Conti himself. The Adventurers looked annoyed at the figure of the man who was taking on all monsters.
"What the hell is wrong with that guy!"
"He wouldn't even need to kill them, since he can't level up anymore!"
It didn't even make sense for them to step forward and try to kill one of them. That Adventurer was killing them all very easily. They all gave up fighting and put down their swords, waiting for this quest to end to get their treasure, hoping that at least they would share that.
All but two Adventurers.
YOU HAVE ACTIVATED "ACTIVE SKILL: TIMELY BLESSING"!
Samuele became faster because of his skill and ran toward the zombies that had not yet been targeted by Claudio Conti and lowered his sword toward them, killing some of them in no time.
Like him, Sofia also went to the attack of those monsters, intent on killing as many of them. Her only disadvantage was that she had no skill that improved her stats unlike Samuele. Nevertheless, she still managed to make her way through the heads of some of the zombies.
The Adventurers who had just resigned themselves looked with wonder at the two braves who, despite Claudio Conti's show of strength, had not surrendered and figuratively bowed before him, quite the contrary. In their eyes, it was as if those two were responding "Then let's see who is the best!" with their actions to his speech earlier.
At this scene, their eyes blazed with renewed motivation to continue fighting. They drew their swords again and, with a charge that was lacking before, threw themselves at their enemies.
"Let's go, boys!!!"
"Let's kick those zombies' asses and show those three who really is the best!!!"
Marco, who saw the scene unfold before his eyes, was stunned at how morale changed in a matter of seconds without even the need to say a single word. In that moment, all it took was the actions of two young men to completely turn around the situation that had arisen shortly before because of his colleague Claudio Conti.
An amused smile escaped his lips. At that moment, Marco realized, not only their morale had changed, but also his own. He kept a strong grip on his sword and threw himself into the fray as well, ready to kill some zombies.
END OF CHAPTER.
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Here is finally the tenth chapter. Honestly, I thought I'd be able to get this read to you by December, but... I ran into a period of total boredom. Not in the writing, though. In fact, I finished writing chapter 20, yay!!! You know, my native language is Italian (I bet you haven't figured that out yet, have you? xD) and so I write the chapters initially in Italian. You don't know how tedious the translation process is. For goodness sake, I use DeepL for general translation, but I have to be careful that the words and subjects used are correct. And yet there are still grammatical errors. Now enough of me, before these notes become longer than the chapter itself xD.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter. If so, comment, review, leave some power stones... in short, let me know that this story doesn't suck so much xD.
See you at the next chapter (supposedly due out later this month). Bye!
P.S. Happy New Year to you all and may it bring you joy and serenity!