Novel Bin Chapter 26: Encounter
Chapter 26: Encounter
The group camped out in the clearing for the night, with Lumen offering to be the lookout for the whole night. Everyone wanted to offer to do some night watch as well but Lumen ignored all of their offers and complaints and insisted that he was the one to look out for any enemies.
They relented after a short moment of persuasion by Lumen, who simply said that none of them could do a better job of looking out than him. Remembering the night prior, the others couldn't help but swallow their words and agree, giving in to his demands and entering a deep slumber in each of their own makeshift shelters.
This night turned out to be an uneventful night compared to the previous night, with nothing but wind and the rustling of the grass and distant trees being the only disturbance. When the morning sun finally came, Lumen left his lookout position as he came to the others to help pack up and depart. When he saw their faces and the eye bags they had, he doubted any of them had gotten any good sleep at all.
It seemed the previous night had still taken a toll on them.
They had soon left their makeshift camp in the clearing as they ventured out into the vast wilderness all around them once more.
However their hunting trip was cut short not even 30 minutes into their trek as their peaceful walk was interrupted when Qu Quan halted the group and signalled in a certain direction to their three o'clock direction.
The group immediately stopped and focused their eyes and ears towards the disturbance Qu Quan had pointed out.
Sure enough, when silence ensued Lumen and the rest of the group could hear some faint noises that sounded like metal scraping against metal, much like the sound Jake's armour makes when he walks.
Lumen recognised the potential threat and signalled the others to be on guard as he positioned his spear into a position most optimal for him to launch a quick offensive if they were attacked.
Soon, the sounds came closer to the five of them as the source of the sound was now in sight, revealing itself to be a large stocky and built man wearing heavy armour just like that of Jake.
Out of the bushes and tree line walked the heavy warrior and a large group of people following him, at least 10 present or maybe even more at first glance. They were mainly warriors of either the light or heavy variant, with the odd caster and archer dotted about.
Lumen was about to initiate a conversation with the new visitors when a hand was placed on his shoulder. He looked at the hand and the source of the person who placed it there, Will had put his hand on his shoulder and when Lumen turned to look at him, he nodded his head at him.
He signalled to Lumen that he should do the negotiating with this new and unexpected group of people, as although Lumen may be the uncontested strongest of their group, it was undeniable that Will had more charisma and people skills and so he took the lead in this situation.
Lumen was happy to oblige as he would rather focus his full attention on preparing for combat, if it comes to that.
The first one to speak was not Will, but the stocky warrior opposite them who seemed to be the leader of the other, larger group.
"Hey there, we mean no harm! I swear! My name is Michael," He said in a friendly tone and seemed sincere in his approach as he put down his large two handed sword and kept his hands in the air throughout the conversation. "We heard some noise and saw some smoke from a clearing a couple kilometres in the direction you came from, we decided to come and investigate and see if we could locate anymore people. There is no need to worry, we have no intention of fighting."
The large man kept up his friendly and sincere tone as Will also introduced himself.
"A friendly face at last! My name is Will and these are my friends and companions in this barbaric tutorial, we were on the same floating platform from the beginning." Will had a blooming smile on his face as he stepped forward, ahead of his group. "May I know why you have decided to come and investigate us? We have no desire for unnecessary conflicts either. We have already seen enough of the vile side of humanity, we do not wish for more."
The large man raised an eyebrow when Will said his last sentence, clearly he knew the meaning behind his words as he didn't enquire any further into it. n0ve(l)bi(n.)co/m
"It's good to know we are on the same page, after all humans should work together in a place like this if we want to survive!" The man answered with quite an exaggerated laugh, like that of some rich people back on Earth.
However his humorous laugh died down and turned more serious. "We were all like you, separated into groups of five when we first entered this 'tutorial', over the last 2 days mine and another two groups managed to group up in order to better survive this place, unfortunately even with this amount of people we still lost 2 of our own in a battle with a terrifyingly powerful beast."
The tone soon turned solemn and depressing as he discussed the death of two of his comrades, but the man took a few seconds before he brightened up again.
"Of course, we don't plan on just stopping at this small amount of 13 people. We plan on gathering as many people as we can in order to establish some sort of order in this chaotic tutorial. Not everyone wants to spend their time here risking their lives every day fighting beasts far more powerful than them. We would love for you and your people to join us."
Lumen was listening quietly from the side lines and the moment the words 'join us' came out of the man's mouth he caught onto what the man was planning. It was common sense that there was only one leader in the man's group, even after assimilating the other two groups. Michael may have worded it as a team up of sorts, but it was clear that he was just increasing the forces he wished to control.
Will listened to the man's explanations as he nodded with an admirable look on his face towards the man.
"How noble of you! I agree that we humans should stick together as much as we can in this type of situation. But how do I know to trust you? For all I know you could just be lying to us or misleading us with these flowery words of yours." Will kept up his amicable smile as he responded to Michael, and continued. "How about this, I will go back and discuss with our leader on this before we come to any big decisions."
Will turned around to his group and walked towards Lumen after saying this, but he didn't manage to notice the smile slowly turning into a frown on the man's face when he realised he wasn't even talking to the leader of Will's group yet.