Chapter 638 - Beyond Diplomacy

POV Duncan

It’s been months since I last saw Noname, and like every time I meet him, he looks even stronger now.

I watch him walk alone between groups gathered for the raid. Unlike many of them, he has no skill visibly activated, and I can’t sense any mana from him. There's even less of it than before.

He’s wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and some weird pants that I guess are from his world, not the tutorial. He has no weapon, no armor, or any item I could see. There is just a small bag slung over his back.

Like a wild animal, he seems to sense my gaze, and he turns, and when our eyes meet, I shudder.

What a terrifying expression.

But maybe it was just the play of shadows, because in the next moment it’s gone. His face has that usual blank expression. He even waves and takes a step. With it, his figure disappears, and the next second, he’s standing next to me, after finishing that step.

“Hey, Duncan. The more time passes, the deeper into the first floor I find you.”

“It’s partially thanks to you, you know. I made plenty of shards from the fishing last time, and went through some additional certifications that allowed me to take better paying jobs.”

Noname shrugs. “You worked for it, so you can thank yourself only. Are you helping the attendees with the raid?”

“Yes. A few smaller groups combined into one bigger one and hired me as well. For the pay, I offer information, contacts, and coordinate with other Locals in the expedition.”

He looks around for a bit, taking it all in. He doesn’t rush, and for a moment, a gold flicker flashes in his eyes. Then he nods slowly, like the sight has confirmed something. I follow his gaze, trying to guess what he’s seeing, but it’s impossible to tell.

Then he turns back to me. “Looks more organized than I expected.”

“It’s getting better,” I say. “Still a mess in some ways, but people are trying.”

“How many attendees?” he asks.

I take a moment to think. “Probably over 100? Out of them, probably about 5 Locals. Mostly people from the first floor, but a few helpers from the second. With these numbers, it should be doable. Based on what other Local Guides say, I expect around 10-30% will die. The rest should pass to the second floor.”

“That´s a lot. They are not going to try to kill the guardian monster?”

“It is always like that with the guardian monsters we have no information on. Some might try to kill it, but without people who can counter its skillset and work together, it usually ends badly. This one's new, too. No records, no known abilities. If they’re unlucky, everyone here could die.”

As always, I try to catch the small gestures he doesn’t realize he’s making. When I mention everyone might die, he lifts an eyebrow slightly.

His next question doesn’t surprise me. The other attendees have already asked something similar.

“You’re not going to fight?”

I shake my head. “I’m not a fighter, and I have a family to care for. It’s similar for the other guides. We will lead you to the place, but when we get too close, we will split and leave together with our guards.”

“Sounds reasonable. By the way, have you heard of attendees named Luan and Faora?” Noname asks.

These names sound familiar, and I try to recall anything I might have seen in the rankings or heard from other Locals. Nothing comes to mind.

“I don’t know them, sorry. Are they your friends?” I ask him.

And for the first time since I’ve known Noname, he smiles. It’s the most beautiful and friendly expression I’ve ever seen on his face. Not the usual cold or blank expression, but a real smile. It’s warm, honest, and somehow makes him look completely different. All the coldness in his face disappears, and for a second, he looks genuinely kind. I’m not the only one who notices. A couple of nearby female attendees glance over and do a double take, clearly unable to take eyes off him.

It slowly disappears from his face, but I can still see the remains of that smile in his eyes. It even lingers on his lips before slowly fading.

“They’re people I owe a lot to. In some ways, the bond we have feels even stronger than friendship. But don’t worry about it, Duncan. Anyway, can you tell me a bit about the leaders of this raid?”

I nod quickly but put on my best trade smile before answering. “Such information…”

“How many shards?” he interrupts without missing a beat.

“For you, just one thousand! Always a pleasure doing business with you!”

***

POV Nathaniel

I watch Duncan leave. He’s a good man. Even though he might seem a little too shard-hungry, he’s always fair, even when he could easily ask for more. The value he offers is fair, too. Like with many things, why should he share information for free, information he sometimes paid for, risked his life to get, or invested his time into?

So I reach out with my mana, and remove a tracking mark someone placed on his body, and another hidden on the huge bag on his back. The bag contains items of decent value.

Both marks also have an effect attached to them that would trigger paralysis and cause a lot of pain. A really nasty piece of work. It’s obvious they weren’t placed out of concern for Duncan’s safety, and both were really well hidden. I don't think more than a few people in this group of 100 would have been able to notice it.

I activate [Eclipse] and overpower the connection linking one of the marks to a certain person, invade it, and then follow the trail.

Passing between dozens of smaller attendee groups, I reach a group of three at the edge of the camp. Three men sit around a floating blue fireball, just like many others, waiting for the raid to begin.

They're all human, and I wonder what the plan is. Maybe they’re all part of the guard detail that will escort the guides to the safe zone once we’re close? Or is it just one of them?

“Hey,” I greet as I enter their small camp.

Aside from a few blank looks, they give no response. The man whose marks I erased hasn’t even noticed the connection’s been cut. I made sure to do it subtly, but it’s still disappointing.

I try to estimate which tutorial floor they might be on without aggressively using probes. The best clue is a dagger that reminds me of the kind some lumorans liked to use on the seventh floor.

“We’re not looking for a group member,” one of them says.

Even as he speaks, I notice all three of them raise their defenses. It’s clear in the movement of their mana and the vibration in their bodies as they tense up their muscles.

“What was that mark you placed on Duncan for?” I ask, "Attacking a Local is still considered off-limits. That much, I know."

The man who spoke flicks a glance at his companions. It’s a practiced, wordless exchange. The air tightens with tension. The kind that usually ends with blood.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says. His voice is steady, but his mana curls defensively across his chest, forming a subtle barrier. One of the others begins to slowly shift his position, widening his stance just enough to give him room to draw his weapon.

“That's a really shitty lie,” I say, stepping closer.

They attack immediately after, even surprising me with such a decisive reaction.

I step aside, and the blue fireball they had been sitting around roars into a stream of flames that explodes in my direction. The heat I sense from it is intense. The stream is focused, with white flames shifting inside it.

But it's almost too easy to take control of it with [Redistribution]. The blue flame swerves to the side, twists around me in a circle, and gradually turns golden.

It all happens in barely a second. Before the man who cast it can launch another attack, I compress the flames surrounding me. Then a single burst of golden fire shoots forward in a laser-like beam, no thicker than my finger.

Even though one of them manages to create a barrier just in time, it activates for only a moment before the flame burns through it with ease. I move in a slashing motion, and the beam pierces another barrier surrounding the man who used flame against me. It cleanly cuts off his arm and slices through the huge boulder behind him. For a moment, the stone remains still, then half of it slides away in a smooth, silent motion before thudding to the ground.

Before I focus on another attacker, I notice the fire mage´s wound closing. Steam rises around it as blue flame coats the area, forming the shape of a new arm in an instant.

Another man charges in. Mana surrounds his body, forming glowing armor. His movements are wild, like an animal’s, and impressively fast. He comes at me from the side. Even then, I don't move, and only my eyes track the trajectory of his punch.

Just before it lands, I activate [Eclipse] in a short, powerful burst that drains the color from the world. For this level of mana armor, I don't even need to activate my eyes.

His armor vanishes instantly, and his fist lands on my cheek with zero force. The kinetic energy of the attack is gone, absorbed entirely by me.

Our eyes meet.

I swing my hand in a backhand slap, redirecting the stored energy and adding a bit more of my own. I watch the swirling energy inside me with interest as my hand moves toward his face. It's likely enough to kill him on the spot. A part of me really wants to do it. What these three were likely planning reminds me too much of what happened to us not long ago. But that part of me is buried deep. What I feel now isn’t even proper anger. That’s reserved for someone else.

Even though the consequences of killing him and the trouble it might cause are minimal, I decide not to risk it.

I pull back a bit of the kinetic energy, and instead of his head bursting open, his body is flung through the air like a broken doll. As he collapses to the ground, I use Pulser Stance and move unpredictably, dodging explosions of blue flame from the fire mage.

I reach the collapsed man, who is already getting up, and deliver a kick to his chest. It breaks a few ribs and sends him flying again.

Even then, my leg is nearly torn apart by the kick. At the last second, he set up a nasty barrier that damaged it badly.

Blue flames from the fire mage halt in the air around me, but I ignore them while I glance toward the man I just kicked, and who is finally unconscious. Then I look down at my leg, now nearly stripped of flesh.

I shrug. The thermal energy I had been circulating combusts under my skin and fuels my passive. The wound heals in a few heartbeats, and I turn to the fire mage. Even now, I continue to ignore the third man, who from the start has been trying to disrupt my control over mana. He also seems to be preparing some large-scale mana-based attack.

Wraith Dance takes me to the fire mage. I grab his remaining arm to pull him off balance, but to my surprise, it tears away. His physical stats and body reinforcement are weaker than expected.

When I look at him, confused by the state of his body, he opens his mouth, and from it, a blue flame explodes toward my head. This one is much hotter than anything he's done before. Before I can properly adjust my [Redistribution], the flame strips the skin and flesh clean off my face, leaving only the skull and the barrier around my brain that I maintain constantly.

Even my eyes are gone, but I switch to tracking his heartbeat and the vibrations his body causes. I absorb the flames completely and turn to face him. I sense his heartbeat speed up as he takes a step back. Flames combust within my body, and my skin begins to regrow from the neck up, covering my face again before flames ignite beneath the surface to finish the healing.

I realize I've been careless. Still, I find it hard to worry properly. Instead of cursing myself, I begin preparing measures to prevent this from happening again.

My eyes regenerate, and I look at the fire mage still frozen in my grasp, held as I absorb the kinetic energy from his movements. Once more, I release a laser-like stream of flames and cut off both his legs before turning to the third man.

Above his head spins a pale blue halo, with an orb at its center shifting between pale blue, dark blue, and purple.

He shouts something about stopping if I don’t want all of us to die. Before he finishes his sentence, I appear in front of him and kick him away while using my mana to hold the halo and orb in place.

The frequency of the orb´s vibrations increases, and it pulses wildly in a steady rhythm. A high-pitched noise surrounds the area. Dust and debris lift into the air as even the air itself shakes.

I lean in closer to observe the orb. The halo fractures, causing the orb to spin faster and glow brighter.

Some nearby people from the expedition build a quick array around me and add barriers to contain the explosion.

My Mana Wavelength Iris activates, and I stare deep into the orb.

Just before it explodes, I reach toward it with [Eclipse] and take control. I overpower and suffocate it. The orb halts, then dissolves like a ball of sand. All the mana trapped inside falls to the ground, cascading in waterfalls of pale blue particles.

I glance at the surrounding barriers and array. I take a few steps forward and fluctuate the mana around me, passing through them as if they don’t exist. After a few more steps, I reach the man who created the orb. He’s already surrounded by others drawn here by the clash. He stares up at me from the ground, clutching the wound he got when I kicked him away.

A high-pitched sound rises around me. Two short bursts of kinetic energy pierce his defenses and explode both of his legs.

While he screams, I notice a Local Guide nearby and call out, “They placed nasty marks on Duncan. There are two on you as well, and at least one more Local Guide.”

Without saying more, I walk away.

***

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