Chương 188: The Training Starts

"That was awful…" Quinn said, then promptly burped. With my enhanced senses I could smell it from meters away, it was indeed awful.

"Please don't vomit on the floor, I can provide a bucket if needed." said Miflin in a chipper voice. She returned to playing the merry shopkeeper in Quinn's presence.

"No, no, I can keep it down, but geez, I shouldn't have gone for so many pancakes this morning…"

"How do you feel? Did you get it?"

"I got the Enhanced Being one, but I'm still a tad away from reaching a thousand in all stats, but I surpassed that by a mile with agility and dexterity, intelligence is close too." he said with a strained voice.

"Good, very good, do you think you can take more?"

"I can, I couldn't get it before, but now after the boost I can easily tell that I can take more, I think another session like this, maybe less though, and less pancakes…" That was impressive actually. I managed basically three times what he did, but I still had some room to spare, while Alya could empower herself much less than Quinn, she was near her limit already.

"Less pancakes would be a good idea. Now, I didn't bring you here only to boost you, Quinn."

"Yeah, about Melissa." Not fucking Melissa, you horny dog. I would have to explain the situation properly, he was a smart kid, but sometimes he really couldn't see what was in front of him.

"Not only that, I would get to that in a minute, first, I need to know something, can I trust you, Quinn?" The question seemed to hit him like a truck, he physically recoiled.

"What do you mean if you can trust me? Of course you can! Didn't I deserve some trust after everything we went through together? I-I thought-""Quinn, stop." I said in a serious tone. The kid looked at me, hurt clear in his eyes.

"This is a matter of life and death I'm talking about, and while the tutorial has thrown us against a lot of monsters, I believe this is the most dangerous thing we would go through, so I need to know if you are with me one hundred percent. This is not a joke, Quinn, I didn't trust anybody else with this information, not even Rhea." That gave him pause, yes, I wanted him to feel special, like I could only trust him and so he would only trust me in turn. I needed him to take this seriously.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Ok, yeah man, I'm with you all the way, I swear." He made a small cross on his heart with his thumb. I smiled at him and patted his shoulder.

"I knew I could count on you." I hope…

"Quinn, I discovered a great many things thanks to Miflin here, and I need your help, I can't do it on my own this time, this is not only for me and you, but for all the group, for even more."

"What is it?"

"It's about Adrian, he has reset the tutorial eighty-seven times already."

"EIGHTY-SEVEN!!"

"Yeah, that's not all, he is going to do it again, I'm sure you know what that means." This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. He fell silent for a moment, then his eyes hardened, yes… that's the look I needed.

"Our memories are going to be wiped again."

"Exactly."

"But he said this was the last time…"

"Quinn, if you wanted to reset the tutorial would you go around telling everyone? Who knows how many times he said it in the past, and we are still here, so you can see how much his words mean. He is a charismatic leader, and can easily get people to do what he wants with a couple of words, you need to remember it when you interact with him, he probably has a side focus on the charisma stat."

I actually didn't know that, maybe he had a high stat but used items instead of skills, or maybe I was right, I didn't know, but you could feel the pull of his words when he spoke, they were magically enhanced to appeal to you, and people without enough willpower would have a lot of trouble resisting it.

"Yeah, I would keep it hush hush too… is he really that good? I mean yesterday after dinner me and Melissa went upstairs to do, well, you know…" He started repeatedly inserting his pointer finger into his closed fist, giving me a smug look while doing it.

"Yes, Quinn, I understand." I said in a deadpan tone.

"Yeah, well, so what I meant was that I wasn't there to listen to him that much, so what is the plan, and how is this going to help me with Melissa?"

"There are a couple more considerations to take into account, for example, the fact that Adrian sent someone trying to spy on us, for once, did you notice?"

"Fuck, no, when?"

"I felt it yesterday evening, after dinner I came here and someone was following me all the way, the same happened when we came here this morning, and that person is accidentally our neighbor in the tavern, I'm sure they're spying on us even when we are in our rooms."

"I don't mean to brag, but if someone was following us I should have noticed."

"That means that whoever that is, is good. Very good, and probably Adrian equipped them with some nice skills or items for improving their capabilities even more."

"Damn, so you want me to get that person? I can take them out of the picture if you need, and nobody would be the wiser, capishe?" In the end he was just a boy, this wouldn't work, not only that, it would only create more problems.

"No, if we eliminate them they would suspect us first, no, what I need you to do is spy on them too."

"Oh yeah! Now we are talking about some serious 007 stuff!"

"Quinn, focus. This could be very dangerous, I mean it."

"I can totally spy on them, like a ninja!"

"I don't doubt it, actually though, I need you to be both a ninja and 007, can you do it?"

"What do you mean?" He sat up with a groan, his belly still distended from all the fruits he ate.

"I need you to publicly become friends with Adrian and his party, slowly complaining about us, the guild, me in particular. I need you to be discreet and gather information about them, about the tutorial, achievements, the best skills, the best resources… I especially need the location of the Kings, that is paramount information to gather."

"Yeah, ok I can totally do that, actually if we were friends in the past runs, he would trust me I'm sure!" His enthusiasm was nearly palpable.

"I hope. Then I need you to spy on them like they are doing to us, covertly, when they think nobody is around, but never Adrian himself, you won't be able to hide from him, of that I'm sure. Instead, go for his team members, they won't know everything, but I'm sure we can gather a lot of useful intel this way."

"I understand, I would be a ghost, you'll see! Or not, but I would get that intel, and about Melissa?"

"That's the point, Quinn, this mission would take most of your time, we still would have to go out on expeditions, hunt, and manage the guild, your day would be filled, this way it would create a bit of breathing room for you and Melissa would jump at you only in the night, best of both worlds right?" I was trying to sell this as best as I could, in truth it was something that would benefit mostly me, but he seemed excited enough by the prospect of being a spy so I hoped he took the bait.

"Ahg, fleshy beings are so disgusting, how can you mate just for fun?" Miflin's quip reminded me that she was still with us. We both looked at her, then at each other, a look of understanding passing between us. We were men in the end, and like they said: a man can't live on bread alone.

"She can't possibly understand right, mate?! Anyway, yeah that would be great! I'm so excited, I would have to plan a proper strategy of approach, maybe I should get a new skill too… this is so cool. I would start right away!" He got up and made to go out.

"I would see if something useful comes up in the shop, can you remove any curse if I find something in that category?" he asked me.

"Of course, just bring it to me after lunch, for now, I have some matters to attend to with our lovely shopkeeper here, I'd come by the tavern later."

"Will do, have fun!" And with that he was gone, leaving the door open. I remember when my brother did that to annoy me, leaving the door ajar just to make me get up to close it, now I could use aura to do everything I needed… well not everything.

"Finally, Elias, we wasted enough time already, and we don't have much of that, so prepare, I'm going to push you hard so you improve at the fastest speed possible." I took a breath.

"I'm ready, tell me what to do."

"Just relax for a moment…" What? She appeared in front of me, a ghostly finger touching me between my eyes, then everything went dark.