Chapter 208 - Crystalite

"Well that was quick," Von said the moment Venedette asked them to leave the room so she could talk to the three leaders by herself.

"I still don't understand, why do we need to team up with them? I thought this was a competition…" Gem said while clinging onto Fily.

"Well, you're obviously new here so we don't expect you to understand. But I suggest watching the previous game's records, particularly the gameplays, you'll get a very good reason why we need to collaborate with other teams," Von said before going on his own way.

"Do you know where I can find those records?" Gem asked Fily, who was looking at Petunia walk away from them.

"Huh? Oh, sure. You can find it on the internet," Fily said and then removed Gem's cling to her arms, "I'll just deal with something real quick. Good luck with your research!" she added and ran off to the direction where Petunia went, leaving Gem to fend for herself.

"Okay then," Gem said and pouted while parting ways with the communication room's door.

She did not even notice Lei leaving the room discreetly while in the middle of the meeting.

"Did something happen?" she asked herself while thinking about how Lei and Petunia were acting towards each other and Fily's unusually silent demeanor today.

***

"Dekadalaw tournament," Gem said and pressed enter in her search bar which led her into a sea of articles about the winners of the latest tournament.

"Yumeki, Behemoth, Yumeki, Behemoth… Is she the only member of this team? Why is her name the only one visible in these articles?" Gem muttered to herself and sighed before typing something else to the search bar.

"Dekadalaw tournament gameplays," she said and then pressed enter.

This time, instead of the articles praising Yumeki and her Team Behemoth of the Heixilian Empire, Gem was bombarded with footage of Behemoth fighting monsters alongside other teams.

"In the article, it says they only have five members so this must be the other teams. But why are they helping them? I don't understand. Isn't this supposed to be a competition?" Gem muttered to herself before clicking the first footage that appeared on her screen.

"All while Behemoth was leading the game with 9,665 points, the teams Ysak and Rubidium who were in an obvious deal with them seem to have been lagging behind with 5,000 points each respectively. Is this going to be the end of their teamwork or will the two teams continue to let Behemoth get the last hit for every kill they decided to go for?" the announcer said while showing footage of the three teams ganging up against a very big dragon inside an enclosed space with lava as their only source of light coming from the ground.

Not long after, the video's perspective changed from being focused on a very wide-angle to just two individuals seemingly pushing each other to the edge of the dragon's head which they were both trying so hard to stay balanced on.

"And it looks like this partnership has gone for the worse! Look at those two fighting over who will get to blow the last hit!"

"It seems like your prediction was correct, brother! Teams Ysak and Rubidiums are both walking on the sharp edge of the knife and one of them must secure the kill in order to move on to the next level."

"And Team Behemoth was just letting them fight over that last kill-"

"But wait! Team Behemoth's now on the move! Are they coming to mediate between the two groups or are they going to steal the last kill from them?"

"I don't think Behemoth has enough patience to watch these two groups fight over who will get the last kill anymore. Especially with the time points on the line."

"Right! Behemoth is known for being time-efficient and if their partners don't do their best to catch up to them, they'll take the last kill for sure even if this means elimination for their last remaining partners!"

"Behemoth had other partners besides these two? But where are they now? Were they eliminated? What round is this anyway?" Gem said and checked the video's description for more information.

"Round 5, Behemoth letting go of their chains." Gem read the title.

"Letting go of their chains? Chains as in, their partners?" she pondered deeply while shifting her position into a more comfortable one in her bed.

"I should watch the whole video first," Gem said to herself and pressed the play button, continuing on with the footage of Yumeki suddenly popping behind those two people fighting on the head of the dragon and cutting them off without mercy using her chain whip.

"What!? That's allowed!?" Gem shouted, her emotions overflowing with anger and fear after seeing Yumeki's emotionless face covered in blood from those two people that she just killed before kneeling down and wrapping her silver chain against the dragon's neck with dark scales.

"She's such a traitor! What's the use of a partnership if she's going to be the one who ends up killing them anyway?!" Gem growled and grabbed her hair from the frustration before the clip finally ends up with Yumeki dismantling the dragon's head from its body with a congratulatory text of 10,665 points in front of her.

And instead of watching another clip, Gem just threw her glass tablet to her pillows and buried her face in one of them before shouting.

"Aaaaaargh! I don't understand this game at all!! What's the point of a partnership if they'll get betrayed in the end anyway?! And why is no one mentioning this among the articles that praised Behemoth for winning the tournament?!" Gem said and continued on letting out her anger to the soft bed and pillows beside her.

"This won't do, please bring me to Solitude, Mr. Gemini," Gem said and closed her eyes.

[Roger that, master.]

***

"Should I tell Venedette I don't want to team up with those unfriendly-looking groups? But they're teaming up with us because they need me. What if I can't give them what they want? Does that mean we'll get betrayed by them too? Or should we just go ahead and betray them first? Prevention is better than cure anyways…" Gem muttered to herself while walking around Solitude on her own.

[Should I release the calming mist, master?] Mr. Gemini said which Gem immediately shook her head onto.

"No, I got this," Gem said and bit her fingernails while thinking deeply about that team collaboration pros and cons again.

"I should stop thinking about this. Didn't Fily just tell me to don't mind it and just focus on my own growth?" she said after recalling what Fily just said.

"That's right. I should focus on making myself strong enough to protect my team if those groups decide to betray us first. That way we won't end up like those two groups who got killed by their own partners in the end. This is a tournament after all and there's only one spot for a winner," Gem said and nodded to convince herself more about the conclusion she just arrived into.

"Speaking of my own growth,  weren't I supposed to be studying the next phases of my Astral training right now?" Gem said and fixed her posture.

"Please show me the next skill I'll be learning with the Astral training system, Mr. Gemini."

[Roger that, master,] Mr. Gemini said and immediately turned on the Astral recording to its system.

[Astral Training Lesson 2: Crystalite]

"There we go!" Gem said and raised the stat-hut board in front of her so she could read the description of this new skill along with her updated status.

[Name: Crystal Gem Lorestifa [Title: None

[Race: Superhuman  [Blood: Unknown

[Class: Student  [Rank: None

[Party: Leviathan

[Role: Support

[Level: None

[Super Attributes:]

[Sense: 18/30 [Hearing: 8 [Vision: 6  [Smell: 4

[Agility: 12/20 [Strength: 5 [Speed: 5 [Resistance: 2

[Stamina: 6/20 [Discipline: 4/10 [Mana: 2/10

[Fighter Skillset: None]

[Astral Skillset: Heal Lvl.1, Liquity Lvl.0, Solitude Lvl.1, Crystalite Lvl.0]

[Crystalite Lvl.0 - Allows users to change the matter of Energy slime induced items from liquid to solid and vice versa.]

"I can change the matter of this blob from liquid to solid?!" Gem said while holding a ball of water-like Energy slimes in her hand.

"How?" Gem said and was immediately bombarded with screeching sounds that made her cover her ears with the energy slimes by instinct.

"Wait!! Please make it stop Mr. Gemini!" Gem shouted which Mr. Gemini immediately followed.

"Thank you," Gem said and pulled the energy slimes-made earplugs out of her ears.

"Maybe I should just do this in another day," Gem said and asked Mr. Gemini to bring her out of Solitude for now.

[Roger that, Master,] Mr. Gemini said and brought her out of Solitude immediately.

"There you are," Fily said which surprised Gem the moment she just came back to the real world.

"Fily! What are you doing here?" Gem said and smiled nervously at Fily as if she just did something wrong.

"Petunia's pet is missing, please help us find him," Fily said in a hurry which made Gem give up her sleep even though that was the main reason why she left Solitude in the first place.

"Okay."