Our meeting was long, and as debates go, much was said and many things were discussed.
In short, our little group was in no immediate danger, so we were in no hurry to act, but we did decide to prepare just in case.
While discussing our best course of action, I have picked up on some subtle and not-so-subtle clues about the relationships between team members. Well, Adam and Alexandra were obvious since they were married, but I did notice some tension between John and Olivia, too. She recovered a lot in those few years and leaned much more into her Widowmaker personality than at the beginning. She was a tall and muscular woman, with her skin an interesting shade of gray. Not my type, but apparently it was something John liked.
And as for our great and powerful leader, Olivia clearly liked him back. The only problem she had was the Drow constantly sticking to her idol like a clueless third wheel, so the two were forced to keep their distance, with Thalza constantly getting in the way.
It was clear that Olivia and Thalza spent a lot of time together. They talked about the human and Drow societies and how they differed, exchanging stories of their lived experience. I noticed the prolonged contact between them began changing the Drow, making her much more tolerant of human presence. She began changing for the better. Not that she had much of a choice, really. I picked her precisely because of her ability to change, to break the norms of her people. The fact she was a troublemaker even for her strict species proved that.
Onyx, on the other hand, became much more reclusive ever since I gave him the manual. He began avoiding contact with the other members, even me, furiously studying the Spirit Body, Body Cultivation technique.
I appreciated his devotion to the task, but he was taking it a bit too far. For the moment, it was not too bad, but depending on how the circumstances changed, I would maybe have to intervene.
Our good friend Thener, the research-minded old man, unfortunately, hit a roadblock in his research into mutated monsters. He was the expert, so none of us could help him without getting our hands on more specimens. The few we had, unfortunately, didn't reveal as much as he hoped they would.
We did discover new things, don't get me wrong, but it was not as groundbreaking as we thought it would be. For an unknown reason, it was really hard to reverse-engineer the biological modifications the Drow did.
For that reason, the research effort was put on hold, and Thener focused his brilliant mind on upgrading our base defenses instead. We had plenty of materials and capable hands, so we decided to fortify the place we lived in first. The plans were for the tower to be turned into a proper fortified bastion, and that's what the man promised he would do.
Everyone helped, and the tower quickly gained layers upon layers of defenses, reinforced metal plating, glyphs, and active defenses that would shoot to kill if our base was ever attacked.
In our free time, people trained. John often sparred with Bram, both men learning from each other. Bram had gained a lot of experience through his long life, including combat experience, and was helping others fix their shortcomings.
My fighting style was very different from that of others, so I was not suitable to teach it. Not everyone could survive a mortal wound and fully heal in a second. Not everyone could grow a hundred times in size in the blink of an eye, using sheer size and strength to crush the enemy.
People had to use techniques and sophisticated strategies to win, and even then, it often came down to one or two decisive moments where the victor was decided.
In terms of combat capability, Alexandra was at the bottom. While she was a soldier back on Earth, the fight between Cultivators was much more personal and violent compared to simply shooting a gun. Combined with the years of persecution and fear they had to endure, the idea of fighting did not appeal to her anymore. She served a more supporting role, buffing and assisting her teammates, distracting the enemy, and taking care of the wounded.
Above her was her husband, Adam. Despite his best intentions, after abandoning his Cultivation, he just barely had enough time to reach the Spirit Realm. Among all of us, he had the lowest Cultivation, even lower than his wife.
Then, there was Thener, our scientist. Like Alexandra, he also didn't care much about combat. He enjoyed creating weapons; however, using them was just not his thing. He preferred to keep working in the background while others did the dirty work.
And that's just how we liked it.
We had plenty of battle maniacs, and one of them was Onyx. His metal body allowed him to fight with much more aggression and vigor, not having to bother with keeping himself protected and safe.
Bram and Thalza were close in terms of power, but the Drow actually came out on top. She was quite talented, as was the man, she just had more of that innate Elf master of magic.
Then came the outliers. Beings capable of skipping levels and breaking norms. The first one was Olivia. She, if she really tried, was capable of going toe-to-toe with a Cultivator at the First Step of the Sky Realm with a good chance of winning.
It was the same with John. They were actually both at a similar power level, the only difference being that John was only Level Eight while she was at Level Nine. So, yeah, he was slightly stronger. His skills, especially his pseudo domain, were just better.
And lastly, there was the little ol' me.
What was the extent of my powers? I didn't know it then, and I don't know it now. I just knew it was more than the rest of the team. Combined.