I decide to land rather than fly any further, and once I have I proceed to walk uphill towards some buildings I saw when I was flying earlier. Tacita seems to be amazed by my ability to fly and even claps for me when I land.

As we walk, she seems to become a bit more comfortable, neither of us making any attempt to speak. That makes me realize that I may have found a kindred spirit, a fellow introvert.

We take the time to enjoy the nice weather and the pretty forest as we pass by. Even the sound of the birds is calming, It reminds me of Earth. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this floor was made specifically to resemble Earth.

As I’ve been checking the tournament status, I’ve noticed something interesting.

Participants in the tournament:

Easy difficulty - 1290

Normal difficulty - 802

Hard Difficulty - 231

Hell difficulty - 31

Beyond - 6

When I compare it to the numbers I saw the last time, I come to the conclusion that a few people from Hell difficulty are missing, a few scores of people from Easy and Normal difficulty are not here, and only one person is missing from Beyond. Tess, Lily, Tacita, and I are here and Savant and Gareth aren’t likely to skip out. So the 1st Beyonder probably decided not to join.

I find that interesting and wonder what kind of reason he could have.

Tacita catches my attention and gestures to me in sign language, then points in a direction.

When I search the area with my senses, I notice a presence belonging to a couple of people who seem to have mana signatures on the weaker end of the scale. Unfortunately, it seems like I’ll be meeting more people before I can regroup with the others and let them deal with it.

Still, I'm curious, so I head in their direction, followed by the thin young woman.

I take notice as she moves extremely quietly. She makes not a single sound as she walks, releasing no mana at all. She’s even suppressing her heat signature and I can't sense her heartbeat either. It's as if she is not there. And that fascinates me.

“Hello!” Shouts a blonde man with gentle brown eyes, waving at us with a smile as he rushes to meet us as another man follows behind him. “ What do you think of the tournament? Seems promising, doesn't it?” he inquires.

I don’t respond and Tacita doesn’t seem to be any more forthcoming than I, and upon seeing this he chuckles nervously. The young man is extremely handsome. By that, I mean supermodel level handsome. Like damn, isn't it illegal for a man to look like that? He could easily work as a model or an actor.

Good for him.

It pisses me off. Should I bully him?

“I'm Channeler from Easy difficulty and this is Oren from Normal difficulty!”

Oh… damn.

“I'm Noname from Hell and this is Tacita, also from Hell.”

“Noname!” his eyes widen and he takes a few steps closer and his bearing changes a bit. Like a chameleon, he adapts to his surroundings and he almost seems to shift his behavior specifically to deal with me.

I’ve spoken to Channeler the most out of anyone else from Easy difficulty, and from what he’s said, he’s been putting as many points of mana as he can get away with. Of course, not to the same extent as me, but even that small fact serves to raise my esteem for him by multiple degrees over the majority of the others.

In a calmer voice, he continues, “It’s such a coincidence to meet you here. I want to thank you for all the advice you’ve given me. I appreciate it and I'm happy to meet a kindred spirit,” he smirks and reaches out to me with his right hand.

I grab and shake the offered hand, “It's fine.”

“As you say! But damn, you two from Hell difficulty are really good at hiding your mana, I can't sense it at all!”

I decide not to complain about his awkward attempts at probing our mana. It's not smooth at all, and the feeling is more reminiscent of a lash from a wet towel than a subtle probe.

"Don’t mind Tacita, she doesn't like to talk," I tell him when I see he is looking toward her.

Quickly understanding, he nods, "Noted. Though Noname, you’re fairly close to what I was imagining. Though I did expect you to be missing more pieces from the way Grumpy trashed your passive in the Community."

"Grumpy likes to joke." For the moment, I’ve decided to avoid pushing for any more information. I want to ask for his level, skill levels, and a lot of other things like the rarity of gear and such. But I kind of like the guy, though I only really know him from the Community, and it would be rude to ask such personal questions about his power level.

I’ll find someone to ask later. There is no need to hurry with a whole free day before the events start. And Channeler seems useful, really useful. He seems to be extroverted, but he seems to have a knack for reading people and adjusting his behavior.

A high-level extrovert class like Tess.

He could be useful in the future. Especially with his face. People tend to be more trusting of a person with spades of confidence and a pretty face. I will have to point him out to Tess.If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

As we walk, he continues the conversation, never too much, just a simple sentence here and there. Even Tacita seems comfortable, and the other guy whose name I’ve already forgotten is trailing behind.

"I wonder what the events will be like. There’ll be duels for sure. Surely someone from Hell is going to win. Or maybe we’ll be separated by difficulty."

"There’ll probably be events for each difficulty as well, it wouldn't be fair if the system put someone from Easy difficulty against someone from Hell."

He nods, "That's true. I wonder how many Easy difficulty people you would need to beat one of you from Hell."

Then he asks about mana, and I find myself talking a bit more, it's certainly a subject that I enjoy. So I give him advice and explain some things. Honestly, it feels almost like explaining things to Vega all over again, and in honor of my good mood, I also give him a small mana stone with inscriptions for training.

"But that's a rare grade mana stone, are you sure you want to give it to me?" Channeler asks carefully.

"Just take it, It would sell for a few shards at most. It's almost not worth it."

"What do you mean it’s not worth it? Do you know how rare items like this are in Easy?" He pauses, seeing my expression, "I can only guess you don’t. I can tell you that I’ve only ever seen one a few times, and I don't think anyone from Easy has a rare grade weapon or armor."

"But it's only 200 shards to buy in the system shop," I note.

"Noname, I have 150 shards and I’ve been saving up ever since we started the tutorial."

I check my shards.

Shards: 64,725

Am I rich?

"Okay, let's make a deal. If we meet people, you make sure they don’t annoy me, and I’ll buy you some rare gear before the tournament ends. You can even pick something in upper rare grade."

He stays quiet for a while and then quietly asks, "There are more grades within the rare grade?"

That poor guy. "Yes, there are low, mid, and upper grades within each grade. It doesn’t matter if it's rare, epic, or arcane."

"A-arcane? Epic?"

Oh boy.

"Ignore that for now. I will give you a rare grade item if you tell me what level..."

"I'm level 43! My highest level skill is level 8, It’s one of the highest in my group! I have three active skills and two passives!" He seems to be proud, even happy at the level he reached.

I stop him before he can continue. If he continues, I will only pity him more. "Okay, that's enough. Here, take this," out of my bag I take a low rare amulet that creates a barrier around the user.

Channeler just stares at it as he holds it in his hand. It's as if he can't believe I actually did it, and his eyes move as he keeps reading the description.

Under his nose, he smiles weakly, "Of course, the economy is different for people from Hell. Thank you," he says when he lifts his eyes up.

This time his voice is calmer and even his expression changes, "Noname, I wonder, are you looking for a colleague? Once we get out of the tutorial."

Oh? Interesting character, is he not?

"I will introduce you to Sset; she deals with things like this," I say, deciding to dump him on Tess. It might add a bit of work to her plate, but I will make sure to pay her back. I always do.

"Thank you." Channeler smiles, and I look away. It should be illegal for men to be so handsome. I don't consider myself bad-looking, but this?

I glance at him again, and he still has a small smile on his lips. His blonde hair is messy, but with his face, even that looks good. The lighting is perfect as well as if he were framed in time, waiting for someone to take a photo to put on a fashion magazine.

It pisses me off. Should I take the amulet I gave him?

"Let's go," I order.

Then I take the lead, with Channeler right behind and the other guy from Normal difficulty nearby. Tacita follows at the tail, stopping from time to time, to enjoy the breeze with closed eyes, only to rejoin us with a few nimble steps.

A Dexterity build? Maybe some kind of assassin judging by how subdued her presence is. I just hope she doesn't have an invisibility skill; that would be too much. My plan to declare invisibility illegal is still in effect. Anyone who uses one will be punished, and monsters with Phantom in their name will be killed on sight.

As we move closer, more people join our group, each welcomed in turn by Channeler, who seems to have great social skills and a never-ending well of energy. He is friendly, but not too nosy, and sometimes even mentions that I'm from Hell difficulty, which seems to take care of anyone who might become a problem.

Yup, I need to tell Tess to hire him; this guy will make a great shield… face of… Well, of whatever we need. Maybe Tess will decide to found a guild when we return to Earth. Maybe she’ll even take over a country or two. Channeler, as of now, seems like the perfect person to be our public face. Handsome people sure have it easy.

That's also when we meet the first people from Hard difficulty. Two guys in decent-looking armor.

When Channeler talks to them, they laugh at him and push him away before he mentions this growing group of people has members from Hell.

"Nice picnic you guys have here. But aren't you too friendly, walking around and holding hands?" one of them laughs. "This is a tournament, for fuck’s sake, so fucking act like it!"

His other friend smirks like a man who’s used to throwing his weight around. Coincidentally they stop near Tacita, who has her eyes closed, enjoying the sun's warmth on her face. When they enter her reach, she opens her eyes and tilts her head curiously.

"What are you looking at, scrawny? Want to get punched in the face?" he steps closer, reaching his hand to put it on her shoulder. "People with weak presence like you should..."

Before he says anything else, Tacita's hand moves like a flash; only I seem to be able to follow the motion, and even then barely so.

The surprised man staggers back and opens his mouth to shout something. Instead of words, bloody foam escapes his mouth, and he just now realizes there is a dagger embedded in his neck and grabs it. In sheer horror, his eyes expand.

The guy with him shouts and moves to attack, but Tacita's hand flashes again, and he falls to the ground. Surprised, he looks behind himself to find his legs severed right below the knee.

As they start screaming, Tacita turns to me and shrugs. Then she takes a swift step and pulls the dagger from the man's neck. While the man twitches and thrashes around, she wipes most of the blood from the blade on his clothes before putting it away.

With interest, I watch as the wound starts healing at a high speed. The wound on his neck closes in a matter of seconds, and he quickly regains color in his face. The man keeps holding his neck, looking at Tacita with a terrified expression and gasping for breath.

So it looks like there is something to the statement that it's impossible to die here, but is it really? It seems like you can wound people. So what if you cut off a head or explode their entire body?

The other man watches as his severed legs crumble to dust, leaving part of his pants and his shoes on the ground. From his wounds, a new pair of legs start to grow in a matter of seconds.

When I look at people from Easy and Normal difficulty, they seem to be even more scared than the two men from Hard difficulty.

I turn to Channeler, "Let's continue. I want to rejoin my group in the common area."