[Julia's POV!]
"How many points have you secured?" Emily asked Samantha, who was barely on her two feets.
"20,000," Samantha smiled with her hands raised in the air as she was dragged by the white haired girl, Olivia, back into the building before another of those flying monsters ended up appearing.
"This should help us last the tutorial, I guess," I mumbled, as I too entered the building before Flare, the red haired girl, closed the door.
It took us about 12 hours of planning, preparation and fighting to kill a single monster. Though those 20,000 Points were worth it. With this we could move into the next tutorial.
"Didn't I tell ya that it's fine? We can easily cross the tutorial without depending on that bastard Luke and his friends. Seriously, the way they were ogling us! It made me want to kill him so bad back then," Samantha was angry. Even though she was the most tired, she was still the most energetic.
"If only he didn't get that weapon. Fucking piece of shit," Flare cursed while my blood boiled as well. I had seen what kind of person he was after all. Though remembering him made me recall some ugly memories… and some nice memories.
"There you go blushing again. Tell me Julia, this crush of yours. Did he really save you from a mind controlling shape shifting monster? You aren't exgaretting, right?" Olivia smirked a little, annoying me a little. I glared at her before speaking,
"Hey! He is my savior! Don't talk bad about him! And it's not love… it's more of an idolship. YES! That's what it is!"
"Yeah. Yeah. We believe you. Hopefully he can at least be helpful in killing a pelikan and is not a piece of shit like Luke, or else he won't be joining our group," Flare spoke as she looked at me while I just lowered my gaze a little.
'It's fine. He was strong before… surely he must have gotten much stronger enough to kill those monsters as well,' I consoled myself as I somehow had a firm belief that he was way strong than he let out to be.
…
[Adrian's POV!]
.
Standing at the small pile of 15 [Pelikans], I looked around to see the area where a couple of players were present. It was kind of in between the safe zone and this place, which made me wonder if they were trapped or something?
Between the water monsters and those in the air, they were probably juggling for their lives there. Or maybe they could be killing those monsters? Who knows how much growth each of them had in the 4 days.
Anyways, it seemed I needed to go there if I wanted to confirm what was actually happening. I could see the apartment using [Perception!], but I couldn't find any person standing at the top of the 7 storied apartment.
[GM Points: 8750!]
I looked at the GM points, before I wondered what kind of skill I should make that would help me not only in this situation, but also in multiple scenarios.
'A passive skill that makes traveling easy? Something not superhuman but still near the limit of human capability? Walking on water would be a bit overpowered but won't help me in conditions where there is no water. Super jump? Double jump? It's good but if I get a flying type skill later then it becomes pretty useless,' I thought of a couple of things before I set on something far simpler.
[Parkour (Passive)
Grade: E
Effect: Allows the user to go to the limits of humans and perform meticulous tricks with ease. Jumping, maneuver, and body control will be maxed to the human limits, making it easier for the user to reach various destinations with ease.]
[Would you like to create the skill for 15000 Points?]
'Even 'human limits' is overdoing it, huh?' I thought before changing 'maxed to the human limits' -> 'increased exponentially within the human limits'
[Would you like to create the skill for 5000 Points?]
As soon as I clicked yes, I found my body control increased quite a lot. I could feel the tense muscles of my body, and control the contraction and relaxation of the muscles to quite a limit. It was a bit of a strange feeling, but it wasn't that hard to get used to.
"All right. Let's go," I stretched a bit before looking at the roof of the next apartment that was one storey above this one. Then finding the gaps between the walls, I began climbing the wall at a rapid speed.
It came all too naturally, as if my body was way too familiar with the wall pattern, like a spider I climbed the wall within seconds, before reaching the next building and began running towards the next one.
With the increased agility and strength, jumping down a floor was easy, and pushing my body a little, I could jump at least 15 meters ahead without any hindrance, crossing the gaps in between wherever necessary.
-Bang!
[You have killed a D-Grade Monster: Pelikan!]
[+500 GM Points!]
[+20000 Points!]
-Bang!
[You have killed a D-Grade Monster: Pelikan!]
[+500 GM Points!]
[+20000 Points!]
Killing the monsters present on the way, I then looked at the distance where the building was. Using the map, and correlating the place I found it about a kilometer ahead. And given it took me 30 minutes to cross the last 2 kilometers, it should take another 15 minutes.
Though rather than hurrying as fast as I could, I decided to be cautious and move a little more slowly. Observing the surroundings and making sure there were no traps in between would be the best way to ensure my survival for now.
And thus for the next 60 minutes, I spent half the time looking at the water where the water goblins were swimming around, and the sky where the number of pelikans were a little lesser than usual.
Reaching 200 meters away from the building, I then slowly circled around the area, but there was nothing peculiar about that building that would put me up on my guard. Still, I decided to drink a couple of stealth potions as I walked closer to the building.
10 minutes later, I was about a dozen meters away from the building, standing at the roof of the apartment adjacent to it. This was the only apartment with its roof barely above the water, while the other houses, shops were submerged.
"All right," I then walked back towards the other edge, preparing a short run for the leap that I was about to make. Even though there were water goblins in the water down there, I believe my stealth was enough to evade their senses.
And preparing my mind in the next few seconds, I focused on the balcony on the second floor and immediately began running with the most powerful dash I could muster. Reaching the edge of the railing less roof, I then jumped with all my might.
-Thump!
I reached the balcony easily, but didn't waste even a single moment standing there as I started moving up the balcony. It was a necessary move given the goblins could have heard me down the water. I must secure a higher ground if I want to avoid an unfair fight here.
-Splash! Rwar!
And just like a predator waiting for a prey, one of the goblins jumped at me instantly. Though by the time it reached me, I was already on the third floor. And before they could comprehend what I was doing, I reached the fourth and fifth floor.
I could still hear them growling, but I stopped climbing only when I reached the roof of the seven floored apartment. Even then I was vigilant about the surroundings, as I kept checking around the area. Both for the goblins and the pelikans.
Though forget about the monsters, there wasn't even a single player on the roof. In the map, I could see some players, a total of 7 exactly where I was standing. I gave it a thought and came to the conclusion that they might be on the lower floors probably?
With that in mind, I slowly walked towards the gate of the roof. I tried opening it, but it seemed to be blocked from the other side, which made me ponder if I should break it. But then I looked around and decided to take the window outside the building, near the stairway. I think it was a glass window, and was big enough for a human to enter.
Moving around the locked stairway, I checked the distance first, and then parkoured towards the closed but broken window with ease. Opening the broken window through the hole in the shattered glass, I stepped inside the building.
"?" I tilted my head at the locked gate at the rooftop where 5-6 chairs were placed against it, as if trying to block anything that comes through it. Were they running from a Pelikan? Or was there something else outside there that I did not know of?
My thoughts ran a little, while I stepped down the stairs. Since I knew the place where the players were, I had to check only one room each floor, the last room on the right corner. I thought I might be needing to check for a couple of floors before finding anything but opening the door to the room on the 7th floor, I found the players that I was looking for.
When I opened the door, they all looked in my direction with a panicked but weakened expression.
I could see the confused look on their faces as they tried to see beyond the door. Perhaps they were too weak to even see through my stealth? Given their condition right now, it does make sense. But how did this happen? Even if Luke was dumb, Mark and Alice weren't the type of people to leave others to die. They were self centered and strong, but they were kind and humble as well.
'Seems like things are more complicated than I was anticipating.'
I then removed the stealth cloak, making them widen their eyes at me. Looking at one of the familiar face, I asked the first question that appeared in my mind,
"Julia. What is going on here?"