Chapter 102: [Two Pitiful Souls!]

[Adrian's POV!]

"Players?! Finally… We have been traveling for so long without finding any players… thank god… we are saved!"

I spoke out in surprise and happiness as I looked at them with a bright smile on my face. The idea was to play the 'two lost players whose city was destroyed by the monsters' kind of scenario here, making shre that they let us in the city and help us out while we observe how other players are faring.

Since we would probably be taking our sweet time to check out the city in the vicinity, I already informed about our situation to Alice, Boss, Nora and the Admin. They were all doing well on their own. As for others, most of the players had begun to check out the city and the surroundings.

As for the Vampires that had survived, they began doing their own things as well. Some were working in castle while others went to their home with a tearful expression. Even though I don't think they would need it, I still gave them some directions and such through Alice which they were happily implementing in their own plans.

Another thing to notice was my GM points.

[GM Points: 231,908,190!]

The GM points stopped somewhere around the 230 Million, as Annabeth must have stopped hunting for now. Well, I guess I can't expect to hunt continuously for a long time. Instead, I should just focus on what I could do on my own.

[Skill Points: 12,910!]

Even though I shared about 4 thousand points with Mark, I still had enough to improve my skill to A-Grade for now. Not that I needed it.

I kind of wanted to help Mark have at least an A-Grade skill by the end of the journey, but even with our speed, we weren't able to get him 10,000 Skill Points. Hence when I saw the players on the map from another city, I thought it would get us a chance to gain some skill points.

"?? Are you players too?" The man was surprised to hear my words as he observed us with a narrowed gaze before I nodded and spoke,

"Yeah. Though our city was raided by strange vampire monsters all night. We two were the only one who were able to escape somehow."

I then looked at the food that I prepared for 5 people. This should be enough to camp for the people here along with us as a starter, while I cook more food. Hopefully, they shouldn't be suspicious of the fact that we were having food for 5 even though there were only 2 of us here.

"Another city?" The man spoke making a relieved expression, before asking for permission to sit. I nodded as he then called out the others who were hiding and slowly they moved in closer and sat on one of the broken tree trunks.

"I am Alan. She is Aysel. The rest are, Jean, Oliver, Leeroy. As for the kids they are-"

"Rina!" The girl spoke with slight excitement.

"Troy," the boy told his timidly.

"I am Crowley, and he is Mark," I pointed at Mark while he looked at me slightly weirdly before we explained our situation a bit more 'properly'.

We told them how Mark's and mine [Gifts] were compatible with each other, allowing us to escape the monsters while traveling the forest safely. We were searching for any other city where we can take refuge but the entire day and night we didn't find any, and they were the first ones we came across.

Understanding our situation, they seemed to pity us a bit before the man, Alan, spoke,"I know that you guys must be really happy to see us, but honestly… it would have been better if you hadn't found us. We are actually on a run against players that came in the same group as us."

"???" Mark and I looked at him with a confused expression before Alan continued explaining his story.

Supposedly the group that they came with had a couple of strong people that decided to take over the city after killing the Mayor. Since the players were stronger than the NPCs, they easily killed most of the defense force and then took control over the city before implementing their own rules and laws.

Not only to the NPCs, they even demanded the other players to give them a portion of Skill Cards and such to them in exchange for living in the city. The only option the players had was to get out of the city or follow those players. Though things got rough when 90% of the players decided to leave the city, which made those tyrants pretty angry.

So instead of letting them go, they killed all the players who were against them. Among those who were able to escape the city, were traveling through the forest, escaping from both the monsters and the players as such.

Later on, since there were more mouths to feed, the larger group decided to cut off the smaller ones. And Alan's group being a baggage were left behind to find their own path.

"Reminds me of a certain someone," I sighed as I then served them all a portion of the food that I prepared. Truly camping has its own fun, everyone has their own interesting stories to tell.

"Thank you…" Alan spoke as he was about to eat that food but then his eyes looked at that food before a notification appeared in front of him.

[Item: Grilled Fish Bowl!

Grade: C

Description: A camp food made from fish. The food contains the immense joy of the cook, and slight Energy that would replenish the consumer's vitality and mana. It will temporarily boost the Constitution and Strength of the consumer, revitalizing them to a new level. The taste has been refined and perfected to suit the consumer's taste buds, making it sure that it gets finished up till the last drop.

Effects:

-Restores 50% Health Points!

-Restroes 50% Mana Points!

-Increases the user's Strength and Agility by 10 for 5 minutes!] Sёarᴄh the NôᴠeFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"This…" he looked at the description of the food that I prepared while Mark shook his head and explained,"he bought a cooking skill because he was interested in it. Don't mind him. Also, you can have that… don't worry too much about it."

Everyone observed the food that I made as if it were a precious item. Though I believed that a food is a food no matter what it does. It should be tasty and healthy. That's all that matters.

"Thank you," in the end Alan nodded with a humble look on his face before he began eating the food.

"Tasty!"

"Mmm Good!"

"This is…!!"

"!!!"

Everyone seemed to be enjoying the food that I made, which made me really happy. I smiled at them as they ate the food before I gave them second portions. I saw Mark chuckling as he saw my idiotic smile before he sat with the group and talked about their lives and such.

I, on the other hand, sat at a distance from where I looked at all of them laughing and smiling. The previous tense atmosphere wasn't present anymore, though looking at the map, as I saw a bunch of other players coming in our direction, I knew that this won't exactly last long.

'I guess, I can let Mark deal with them. He needs to have experience in dealing with situations like this,' I pondered before the two kids moved towards me. The girl had a confident smile as usual, while the boy was shy just like before.

"Thank you! That food was the best I had eaten in a week!" She spoke as she smiled brightly, while the boy also hummed at me as he nodded at the girl's words.

"You are welcome. I didn't think there would be someone so young in the second tutorial, come sit with me, tell me what's your story," I spoke as I pointed at the empty area on the log beside me.

The kids nodded before sitting there as the girl began explaining about her and that boy's story. Supposedly they were the only survivors from the first tutorial, which happened to take place in the primary school where they were studying. While they did their best to survive, it was rather traumatic for them so they didn't go into depth about the story.

Luckily they met their parents in the safe zone, who taught them about everything that was happening. Even though their parents died early, with their children still surviving, the chances of turning the entire family's situation still remained. And hence, the young kids here were somehow burdening the responsibility of what adults should have been taking.

As for what happened in the Tutorial 4 and 5, it was pretty much the same as what Alan told me.

"Oi! Oi! Oi! What do we have here? It smells so nice! Alan… aren't you going to share some with us?" And an ugly voice disturbed us as a burly man walked into the camp with a rather unpleasant smile on his face.

Both the children froze in fear before they ran behind me, while Alan and the others stood up before taking out their weapons and pointing it at the burly man's group.

"Come on now Alan! You know that you can't defeat us. No need to make things hard for you, all right? And who are they? I don't think I have seen you before," that man continued as the others hiding in the forest began surrounding us.

"Hmmm. Forget it. Let's just take the women and the children, boss is surely gonna love this," he spoke as his eyes laid on the kids behind me, especially Rina, who seemed way more terrified than anyone else here.

I turned to look at the children for a few seconds before I patted their head. A constant smile was present on my face as I looked in their eyes and spoke,"it's all right. It will be over before you know it."

"Hah? What did you say?" That man spoke with an irritated voice as he moved closer to me. I pondered something before looking at Mark.

"Mark. Decapitate them. I would like to ask these idiots a couple of questions."

"What are you-"

-Shot x 12!

And before even he could complete the sentence, Mark shot their legs at once. And all 12 of them fell on the ground without even knowing how it happened.

It didn't just shock those intruders but Alan's group as well. I sighed as I observed his nonchalant expression, though I could see the hatred he was carrying for those men.

"This idiot… didn't I ask you to keep it moderate?" I looked at him a bit annoyed. Though he just shrugged before answering,

"They were irritating me."

I sighed as I heard his answer before looking at those men crying in pain. And I shook my head before moving towards that burly man groaning in pain as he observed me with a hateful gaze.

"Don't worry. I won't let you die that easily," I spoke ignoring all the expressions he was making, healing him fully back to peak health.

[Energy Conversion: Heal!]

Before a cold smile appeared on my face as I asked," you said something about making your boss happy, right? Let's start from there, shall we?"