Chương 84: (B2 Chapter 35)

I need to find Lucas! The conclusion I had drawn was that the system had somehow enhanced our natural abilities. It had improved my pattern recognition ability, something that I had always been good at, and it had made Lucas even better at conflict management and just being an effective leader in general. And now, it was even seemingly doing the same with the children that had arrived. However, I wasn't completely sure that my conclusion was accurate. My sample size was just too small.

I only knew Lucas, apart from myself, from before the tutorial, so I didn't know if the others had had aspects of themselves improved as well. Had Omar always been this impulsive and excitable? Did Madelline like silently observing others even before the system arrived? Would Marcus be willing to sacrifice himself to heal someone else he had just met before the tutorial as well? I wasn't sure, but I had a hunch that it was true. But what I needed to do was speak to Lucas about this theory.

If he is able to see hints of system improvement in other children as well, then my theory would be more credible. And that means we would be able to make better-informed decisions moving forward. The system store had a bunch of skills available now, and sure they weren't the greatest, but they would be amazingly helpful if applied correctly.

The obvious strengths people had, like someone having archery experience before the system, or someone like Marcus choosing a class based on his profession as a doctor, weren't what I was excited about. My attention was grabbed by the more subtle skills, something that people are so used to about themselves that they don't even notice it anymore. Something basic like enjoying puzzles could make a person possibly great at solving dungeon mysteries or traps, like what we had just faced.

Or living a long time with pain and learning to push past it would make a person have a higher chance of surviving the constant life-and-death struggles here. The little girl still moving ahead of me could potentially grow up to become an even better assassin than me, just because she had a habit of moving silently.

If we could identify and nurture such small natural abilities and choose classes based off our core competencies, we could give ourselves a much higher chance of surviving through this system integration. Obviously, picking classes based on natural abilities would be for the children, as all of us had already picked our classes, but we could still try and identify something we're good at and pick skills from the store based on that.

For that, I needed to speak to Lucas and get the message across to the rest of the people here. We had repeatedly tried to get people become more active and involved in levelling up, but so far had had minimal success. With so many dependents suddenly thrust on us, it was no longer an option to sit back and do nothing, and I was hoping my idea would get a bit of a spark lit under the people who were content to remain passive. For now though, I wanted to make sure Alexandra got a place to sleep.

She reached the ground floor and continued towards the large entrance hall, which still had a few people in it. Mason soon caught sight of the little girl and immediately headed towards her.

"Hey there, little one, why aren't you in bed?" he asked, crouching down low in front of her and speaking with a soothing voice. Alexandra though, was still as direct and blunt as ever, "Are you Lucas?" she demanded to know. Mason was a bit taken aback by her question as I stifled a chuckle, nevertheless, he answered, "No, I'm Mason. Why are you searching for Lucas? Do you need something?"

"Alex said to search for Lucas, so I'm going to go talk to him, just tell me where he is" she demanded, and when a bewildered Mason pointed Lucas out to her, she headed straight past him and towards Lucas. I let out another chuckle and followed after her. She reached Lucas and tugged on his leg, making him jump in shock. She really was good at getting close to someone while they remained unaware. He looked down in confusion as Alexandra stared right back.

"Alex asked me to come see you," she told him, increasing his confusion by another notch. This is so entertaining!

"Okay… did he say why you should come see me?" Lucas finally seemed to have collected his thoughts somewhat.

"To find a place to sleep," she answered. Understanding and a hint of relief spread over Lucas's face at the completely normal answer he received. I'm sure he was expecting something random or outrageous, but Alexandra, not being one to disappoint, spoke again, "I don't think you should be the leader!" I almost let out a bark of laughter at Lucas's incredulous expression, but managed to control myself just in time. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Um… why is that?" he managed to question"Your name. It's not a name fit for leaders," she nodded, agreeing with herself. Another chuckle escaped me, but luckily no one heard me. The 'conversation' between them continued, with Lucas getting thoroughly defeated by the six-year-old girl before finally admitting defeat and pawning her off to Mason to take her to bed. Lucas stood there shaking his head, but the large entrance was now almost devoid of people.

The few who had stuck around watching the debate of Lucas and Alexandra were also now heading off upstairs, and I looked around to make sure Lucas and I were alone before undoing concealed presence.

"I heard you have a peasant's name," I said, making him jump for the second time in a short while, this time at my sudden appearance.

"You bastard, you're the one who told her to say that about my name, didn't you? And who even is she?"

"Nah, that was all her, I didn't have to say a thing," I grinned.

"And no idea who she is, but she is definitely interesting."

"Yeah, no kidding," agreed Lucas.

"No, you don't understand. Remember how, just now, she was able to get right next to you without…" I then proceeded to explain what my conversation with Alexandra had made me think, and we delved into a discussion straight away. He hadn't had a chance to go through the system store yet either, and I told him about that too. We spent some time going over the store and coming up with ways through which we could take advantage of my theory.

Some time later, I thought we settled on a plan that had a great chance of working out.

Jonah's POV The constant crying of the children was getting on my nerves. The four of us had suddenly found ourselves surrounded by seven really old people, a couple of useless vegetables in wheelchairs, and a bunch of kids. Abandoning the useless ancient ones and the ones in the wheelchairs was a no-brainer and the first thing that we did, but abandoning the kids was a massive problem. Apparently, my three companions had a soft spot for the young ones.

I could somehow understand where they were coming from, as I had harmed a lot of people, a lot of people, over the years, but harming children wasn't something that ever crossed my mind. Hell, I had even let a few delicious prime targets go a few times, only due to them having babies with them. So, I get them not wanting to harm them. But that didn't change the fact that the kids were annoying! And loud!

We had already been attacked by a few monsters due to the sounds of their crying, but no matter what we did they didn't stop crying, and the monsters kept coming. I really wanted to throw the kids to the spiders surrounding us, but instead just focused on killing the eight-legged freaks and getting out of here. Soon, we found a nice room in a well-built building that didn't let much sound escape from within the apartment. We had also climbed up to the seventh floor to stay out of the monsters' hearing range.

But this wasn't a feasible solution for the long-term.

"We need to get rid of them," I told the others, ignoring the fact that the two older kids would be able to understand what I was saying.

"We are not going to get rid of them," replied Emily, who had a surprisingly motherly side to her. I scoffed. Figures… I really shouldn't have let a woman join us.

"We can drop them off where the others are staying," said Chris, offering a very reasonable idea. We had obviously found out where the larger group from our tutorial had taken up residence. Following one of their 'patrols' had been simple enough, and I had gotten a decent idea about their numbers. I almost wanted to satisfy my itch by killing one of them, but I had held back for now. I needed to build up my strength before I took them out.

"Good idea, but who'll take them? I'm not going near them again," said Emily in a firm tone that brooked no arguments, while at the same time gently swaying a baby trying to calm it down.

"I can take them, I don't mind if it is just to get these kids to safe place," shrugged Chris. Thor, as usual, offered no opinion. He liked to focus on his magic, seldom saying anything. Though even he had a smile as he entertained a couple kids by bouncing lightning off his fingers. I need to get rid of these little devils quickly! Can't risk them making these guys go soft! It was quickly decided that we would take the kids and dump them on the others first thing in the morning, and we then went to sleep.

Morning mercifully arrived soon, and we immediately headed out after breakfast. The sooner we got rid of them, the better off we'd be after all. I was cranky enough as it is due to repeatedly waking up during the night from the crying babies. Our progress was slow, as we were attacked a lot of times. The monsters seemed to have multiplied overnight, and we constantly had to fight them off.

We even lost one of the kids to an ambush by a large cat-like monster, which I wasn't too bothered by as it actually made our progress faster. But the others found newfound determination after that and sped up, another thing that I had no complaints against as it made us reach our destination quicker. The sun was close to its zenith by the time we reached their base. Emily and Thor stayed back, hidden within a building, while Chris went ahead with the children and I followed them in stealth.

We soon reached the building, and I momentarily turned speechless. We had just been given a few people by the system, but it had dumped hundreds on these people. Everywhere I saw when I explored under stealth, I just saw more and more children, aged people, and the disabled ones. I was shocked at the scale of their problem. Because these people were just that… problems. Oh! Isn't this a good thing…? I felt a smile grow on my face. These 'problems' were amazing for me now that I think about it.

Lucas, Alex, and the others would be busy trying to protect them and provide for them, while I would just be able to continue levelling freely along with Chris, Thor, and Emily. In fact, I should have brought those old bastards that had been dumped on us here as well. I couldn't really do anything about that though, as we had already dumped them earlier and they would all be dead by now, I'm sure of it. But there could be others, who were alive and trying desperately to survive…

I think I should help the poor, helpless people around and bring them here to 'save' them… I grinned.