Maximus watched as Seraphina introduced him to the group, then she proceeded to introduce her group to him, pointing towards a big guy, she said,
"He is Adam, an aspiring baker. Looks intimidating but is easy to talk to. He won't be mad or be petty to you unless you badmouth anything related to baking."
"Hehe hello William." Maximus awkwardly returned the greetings before turning to Seraphina who patted an arm of the spectacled lady and continued,
"She is Elsa, aspiring to join the military, to become a military weapons engineer to be accurate. Contrary to her meek appearance, she is a rather feisty woman."
"Can you not say that to everyone you meet? Hello William, ignore this bitch, she likes to get on my nerves. If you happen to have any gadget you want to fix, you can give it to me."
As before, he returned the greeting and turned to the people he wanted to know about, Seraphina pointed to the couple standing together— of which the young man was carrying the largest load in the group — and said,
"These love birds are Adrian Wolfe and Isabelle Kingsley. Adrian doesn't look like it but might be the strongest combatant of the entire 800 people, maybe even counting the private army if they don't have freaks like him. Isabelle on the other hand wants to become a lawyer and is a human right activist during free times. Even I don't know how they got together, they have nothing in common."
Then without waiting for the greetings, she introduced herself once again even though he already knew it by their talks,
"Lastly, I am Seraphina Hawthorne, a budding psychiatrist —"
"And a shut-in hacker"
Elsa butted in, with a playful mock smile on her face, to which Seraphina replied,
"Hey! That's called increasing my skill set okay, what do you mean shut-in?"
"Alright guys, can we start moving?"
Adrian, with his deep voice which Maximus hadn't expected based on his stature and looks, took control of the group and distributed the equipment to him, fairly taking in account the strength and size of everyone while doing so.
Lifting his personal backpack, Maximus held the mini camping stove in his hand as he traversed the varying terrains of landmass and occasional freshwater streams while following the group.
Seraphina lagged behind to walk alongside him while the group descended into chatter.
"So? What's your story? Anything special? Something worth listening to?"
Maximus felt it was odd that the girl was so friendly to him. Was it her inherent personality or she needed something from him? But what could it possibly be even? Someone sent from that organization to track him? Or another attempt by the killer? Maximus put himself on a higher guard against her and replied after thinking for a while,
"Well, I am a gamer you know, with lots of top ranked skins, but I guess it's nothing special. Well, another thing I can think of is that I wanted to be an archeologist. It was a secret dream but I lost hope long ago so it's alright telling you."
"What is an archeologist?"
Maximus felt baffled when she asked the sentence, as a past life budding archeologist with true passion for the work, he almost felt offended. But on the back of his mind, he also got scared,
'Did I say something wrong? Fuck, are there no archeologists present in this world? Or do they call it something else?
"Well, you know, the ones who study the ruins of past civilization and uncover the past? How the past humans lived and so and so?"
Seraphina laughed like she had heard a joke, with a hand over her mouth, she replied after she took her time,
"Where are you going to find those ruins? And what part of the missing history do you need to piece together? Like, what do you even find missing in our history? Hahahaha"
Towards the end she laughed so much she nearly slipped over a rock by a stream. Fortunately, Maximus caught her in time. Elsa looked over her shoulder and taunted,
"Maybe William is a daydreamer, not a bad combo to go with a shut-in."
While their banter went back and forth, Maximus zoned out a little. He felt no embarrassment over what happened. All he was thinking was of,
'What the fuck? I should have checked the history of this world. Not exactly my mistake, who would have the thought and time to check history when one is about to get killed? But judging from what Seraphina said, does that mean the history of this world is complete? So they don't have any need for archeologists? Or is something weird going on? A pity William never studied history properly. Growing up he was more interested in science and math, so he barely even studied history.'
It wasn't as if Maximus had gotten the complete memory of William, he inherited it sure, but he would also forget the memory William had forgotten and remember what William remembered. So he didn't exactly remember what history he learned years ago when he was small.
"— Heyyy? Hello?"
"Uh.. yes?"
"Hahahaha… he really is a daydreamer, he also dares to zone out while talking to such a beautiful lady."
Elsa laughed and snickered at the side while he awkwardly looked over at Seraphina who simply shrugged and gestured to ignore Elsa.
It was roughly ten minutes later when they found a nice big stream. On its both shores was a nice flat ground with not too many rocks. Adrian put down his luggage and advised the group to halt while he scouted the area for any potential risks.
Disregarding the open space near the river, he led them to the opening of a dense canopy of trees nearby and began with the preparations.
"This will allow us to stay safe in case the river floods or any harmful animals, while still being in the proximity of a deep enough water source for bathing and such. It's barely a meter deep so it should be alright I guess. The shade of these trees will also take the heavy brunt of rain first if it happens so it's a good spot."
Adrian explained to clear their doubts while he began making the tents. Securing the tent stakes and tent poles was an easy task with someone like Adrian around who had more than enough strength and knowledge. The rest of the group helped around with the miscellaneous things, all in all, which took nearly thirty minutes to set up a good enough base.
"So? What do we do now? Start eating?"
Adam asked, eliciting a round of laughter from everyone.
*****
"Boss, more than half of the students have already finished making their base."
A man holding binoculars reported to the fat man standing munching down on snacks. Of course, it was Sebastian. With mouthful of food, he ordered,
"Tell the patrol to release the animals."
"Alright."
Just then another voice interrupted them,
"It still feels a little over the top, Sebastian. Don't you think it's too much for the kids? They signed up for fun, not this."
A tent could be seen nearby where the three principals were gathered together playing cards. It was one of them who interjected just now. Without turning around, Sebastian replied,
"What is a trip to the wilderness without a little excitement? Don't worry these are just some badgers and wild boars, aggressive but not threatening enough. Our private army will be nearby too so they can immediately act."
*****
"I guess we won't need —"
"I guess we won't need—"
Maximus and Adrian both said at the same time, their eyes fixated on one location, before they quickly looked at each other and laughed. Instantly developing a sense of camaraderie for shared thoughts.
Men were just that simple.
Maximus pointed out the boar not too far away to the rest of the group and finished the sentence,
"I guess we won't need to use our food supplies though."