"I'm sorry Elder Gon dragged you into this mess with us," Aria said with an apologetic smile as she walked with Akhil, showing him around the Orc settlement with Nibo by their side.
"He's the oldest among us, and we respect him a lot because of that. He strongly believes that all of this can be resolved with communication. So he's always against violence."
"I understand, you don't have to explain anything," Akhil replied back, shrugging it off.
Actually, he still needed some time to absorb what was happening.
He still wasn't clear on a lot of things. So working with the Orcs until then didn't seem like a bad idea at all.
"We caught some of their men, so they couldn't escape with the rest... Actually, we saw the two of them fainted in front of one of the houses," Nibo said as he led them to one of the buildings in the corner.
Inside the building were two men that had been tied together.
Akhil quickly recognized the blonde-haired man and the plump man with a face that constantly looked like he had been cheated all his life.
They both flinched upon seeing him.
They were the two men whose heads he smashed together.
Knocking them out cold.
"Get us out of here! If anything happens to us, they'll come back and clear the entire Orc base!" one of the men yelled.
Nibo scoffed, posing pridefully as he looked at the man. "I don't know if you're blind... Or you simply can't tell that we have a level five mutant with us," Nibo said boastfully.
'How do I tell them that I explain to them that it's only one of my abilities that has up to five mutant points?' Akhil thought, looking at his system stats helplessly.
It was fun being the only one with more than one ability, but that seemed to cause so much confusion for him.
Since it didn't happen to anyone else...
The two men looked at each other confused. They quickly used their system appraisal to check the three figures standing in front of them.
The man flinched, visible fear on his face as he looked at Akhil.
For a moment, he struggled to find his voice.
"Don't kill us, please!" the two men shouted immediately, fear visible in their gaze.
"Kill?" Akhil raised a brow, confused. "Why would I want to do that?"
The two men looked at each other, releasing a sigh of relief.
But as their gaze turned towards Aria and Nibo, who stood beside Akhil releasing the subtle yet noticeable killing intent, the two men felt cold sweat drench their backs.
"So what are we going to do with them?" Nibo suddenly asked, his voice heavy with anger.
Akhil could clearly tell that there was bad blood between the groups.
But was it enough for any of the sides to kill the other?
Since when did killing become a norm?
"Do you really want to kill them?" Akhil asked, turning to the two.
Aria and Nibo paused for a moment. Nibo took a deep sigh.
Suppressing the anger brewing in his chest.
"We don't want to kill them. It's just that..."
"We don't trust them," Aria quickly chipped in, helping Nibo.
Nibo took a deep breath. "She's right, a lot has changed. We can't trust them," Nibo said, glancing at the two men with disdain in his eyes.
Akhil took a moment to ponder their words, and an idea snapped in his mind.
"Well, aren't we going to the human settlement?" Akhil asked.
"Yes, we are," Nibo replied bluntly, giving Akhil a quizzical look.
"If we want to get the serum from them, then we can't harm these men. We'll use them to get the resources we need, at least to help our own people," Akhil explained calmly.
Nibo and Aria turned to look at each other in surprise.
"That's a good idea, but how do we do it so they won't cheat us? These people are very crafty these days," Nibo shot a glance at the two men, making them flinch again.
He had lost some of his friends to these people.
All because they were 'scared' about the Orcs.
A lie they used to cover up the fact that they got stronger from killing other players!
It was obvious the Orcs weren't much of a threat since they were generally weaker than the humans.
But that didn't matter to them; they simply attacked regardless.
Akhil didn't know any of this, at least for now.
Nibo and Aria didn't know if it was best to tell him now.
But they didn't really know how he would take it.
"Don't worry about that, they won't cheat us... We'll keep one of them hostage and let the other go and tell the others," Akhil said, calmly observing the two.
The two of them looked at him, hope flickering in their gazes.
To them, Akhil was an angel.
{System Comrade Link}
{From the way he's talking, it doesn't seem like he knows much yet.} The blonde-haired man said to his comrade.
This was his ability that allowed him to communicate with his teammates.
It required that the person he wanted to communicate with was at least within a kilometer of range around him.
And it was a selective ability.
Only those he wanted to connect to could hear him.
{Yeah, he obviously has no idea what's going on. The others haven't told him yet, it seems.}
The two kept bright faces looking at Akhil while discussing in their minds.
{I'll try to get him to take me, then I'll go tell the boss everything. This naive bastard won't even know how we'll get him.}
The blonde-haired man said to his colleague.
They could use Akhil's naivety against him!
If he let one of them leave, then they would inform their head!
"Yes sir, please, anything! We'll do it!" the blonde-haired man said frantically, a desperate look on his face as he looked at Akhil.
Akhil paused for a moment, and a smile formed on his face.
"Alright then, we'll leave tomorrow... And you'll be the one to go with us," Akhil declared, pointing at the plump one.
"Huh? Me?" the plump man asked, rather confused.
Akhil smiled softly. "Yes, we'll take you."
The plump man wanted to decline. This wasn't what they planned.
But before he could—
{Go with them, it doesn't matter who goes. Just tell the boss,} the blonde-haired man replied, his smile breaking into a slight frown.
"A-alright, sir," plump stuttered.
With that, Akhil turned to leave with the others.
Nibo and Aria threw the two men a glare before leaving.
As they were outside the makeshift wooden house, Nibo spoke first.
"I still can't trust them. I don't know if you know this, but these people have killed a lot of Orcs for no reason."
Nibo couldn't hold himself back from telling Akhil.
"Yes, they've killed some of us. I don't think they'll easily give up now," Aria supported.
Akhil paused, turning back to look at the two.
"You said that Elder Gon believes in communication, right?" Akhil asked suddenly.
The two looked at him strangely.
"Yes," they answered, uncertain what he was getting at.
"Then let's give him the opportunity to communicate."
Akhil left the two with that as he walked away.