Chapter 28: Step 28 to Greatness: Remember, Sometimes The System Chooses Others
"What was that?" Adrian asked, his head snapping to the side.
He dropped everything and rushed out of the longhouse. The women were already gathered near the fence, trying to get out with spears in hand.
Everyone was there, and Adrian let out a sigh... only to notice something.
"Where’s Sera?"
"The wanderer went to fetch some wood," Amika replied. "It must be that other tribe—"
"Huginn!" Adrian yelled, cutting her off.
The raven flew down from a nearby branch and landed on his shoulder.
"Scout the area! Find Sera!"
"Caw!" Huginn replied and shot into the air.
With his dagger in hand, Adrian chased after the bird and the five women followed right behind him without hesitation. If it was the other tribe attacking, then they needed as many people as possible.
It was a shame that Freki couldn’t join them, but Adrian didn’t pay any attention to that, his eyes fixed on Huginn above.
However, the bird didn’t fly for long before circling the sky. She had found Sera. Soon they reached the area and saw two rough-looking men were dragging Sera by her hair.
She was struggling and crying, trying to break free. A large, angry red mark covered her chin where someone had clearly slapped her hard.
From one look, Adrian knew they were players and not some other tribesmen. The women behind him realized it too, and their frowns deepened.
Fighting another tribe was one thing, but these wanderers were strange. All of them seemed to possess some strange gift and often forced their claim on others’ things.
Mika had gotten injured by them for the same reason, and it seemed Sera couldn’t escape the fate either.
"Let her go!" Adrian shouted, pointing at them with his dagger.
The two men stopped and turned around. They didn’t understand what Adrian said. They just turned because someone yelled and looked surprised to see a group coming at them, especially one with such a strong-looking young man leading armed women.
However, the moment their eyes fell on the beautiful women behind him, they smiled like predators planning to play with their prey.
"Ha! I told you to let her scream, didn’t I?" the guy with the bleached blonde hair smirked. "Now look, we got more women to play with!"
"Shut it!" the muscular guy yelled, let go of Sera’s hair, and whacked the blonde’s head. "How many times do I have to tell you? This isn’t about the women! If we fail to bring her to Juan, you know what would happen to us?"
"Relax, just look at them! You think they can hurt us with those useless spears?"
While the two were arguing, Sera hurriedly ran towards the tribeswomen. By the time the players noticed it, she was already hugging Amika, still crying.
Adrian just glanced at her swollen cheek and frowned. Sera was his servant, and even then he hadn’t hit her. Yet these two fuckers thought they had the right to lay a hand on his property?
"...they belong to the same group as me. They also hunt newbie players," Sera explained, even though Adrian hadn’t asked. "They were looking for Junito when they found me."
She continued, "They asked me what happened to him and when I told them he died, they attacked me and wanted to take me away to Juan, Junito’s brother and their leader..."
Adrian raised his hand to stop her. He had no interest in their backstory. Besides, he had a hunch that either she wasn’t telling him everything, or she didn’t know everything herself.
I’ll deal with her later, for now...
Adrian turned his gaze back to the men. They had to die at any cost. If not, they would only bring more trouble later on.
From where they captured Sera and the direction they came from, it wouldn’t be difficult for them to deduce the settlement’s location.
Once that happened, they would bring more people, and there was no saying how strong they could be.
"We already have a tribe breathing down our necks. We can’t afford any more attention on us for now," Adrian muttered under his breath.
Without wasting time, Adrian shot towards them. Even his two targets were taken aback by his ferocity.
After all, the other NPCs they had seen either ignored them or ran away on sight. They did not turn hostile until attacked.
Since they had attacked another player and not an NPC, they thought the tribals wouldn’t do a thing. That’s why they weren’t worried even though they were outnumbered.
"Fuck you, half-naked bastard!" the muscular guy cursed, taking out a massive wooden club from his inventory and swinging it, aiming for Adrian’s head.
Just then, something black descended from the sky and hit the guy’s shoulder. Just as quickly, Huginn flew back to a safe distance.
"Argh!"
The guy howled in pain, but still swung the club. However, before he could even complete the swing, Adrian crossed the distance between them in a blink and plunged the dagger right into the guy’s chest.
The guy looked down and saw that a large area of his chest had turned purplish and blood had soaked his shirt. Despite losing so much blood, the guy still raised his hand, trying to grab Adrian’s neck.
Adrian frowned and twisted the dagger, forcing the man to let out a gasp before collapsing to his knees. Adrian kicked him away to pull the dagger, and a series of familiar notifications flashed before his eyes.
[Kill confirmed!]
[Killed a level 3 Common Human.]
[Exp +40]
[Ancestor’s 10x blessing in effect. Gained Exp +400.]
"...fuck! You’ll pay for this!"
Seeing his companion killed, the remaining man was scared out of his wits. Instead of staying and fighting, he ran as fast as he could. He had barely taken three steps when Adrian got in position to chase after him.
Just then, something flew past Adrian’s head and struck the man in the back. The spear’s stone tip pierced straight through his torso and came out from the front of his chest.
Instead of falling, the head of the spear got stuck into the ground, making it seem like the man was doing Michael Jackson’s famous lean in Smooth Criminal.
Adrian turned around to see Mika still holding the position after her throw. Even with her injured shoulder, she had thrown the spear with astonishing accuracy.
[Your tribe member: Mika, killed a level 3 Common Human.]
[Exp +20]
[Ancestor’s 10x blessing in effect. Gained Exp +200.]
Wait, I can get exp even when I don’t kill someone? Even if it’s only half of the original amount, Isn’t this too broken?
As the guy bled to death, Huginn flew to Adrian’s shoulder, rubbing her head against his cheek. The sudden affection snapped him back to reality.
"Thanks for the assist," he replied, stroking the bird’s head. "If not for your interruption, I wouldn’t get the chance to test the boots."
After seeing the muscular guy’s figure and their unnerving calmness, Adrian thought he’d need an element of surprise to take them down.
That’s why he had Huginn strike the guy while he used the [Boots of Haste] card in mid-sprint to get a sudden speed boost. Though in hindsight, it was unnecessary.
They were too weak as is.
Just as he was wondering what to do with the corpses, he heard Mika’s voice behind him.
"Male... can you see this?" she mumbled, pointing at something.
Adrian didn’t even have to step close to know what it was.
A system screen.
"..."
[Oh, boy...]
