Chapter 39: [Bonus Chapter] Step 39 to Greatness: Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy!

Adrian didn’t want to start a fight. Not with so many of them there. There was no telling if a player had a blessing, and who knew what strange abilities they might have had.

Even if they didn’t have any abilities, he still didn’t want to fight with the alliance. He already had enough enemies.

Yeah... I don’t have a reason to fight.

Besides, he had already secured the valuable potato eyes in his inventory. Losing a few tubers wasn’t worth risking everything he had built in the settlement.

So, Adrian raised his hands in surrender and slowly stepped back to join Sera. But before they could get away, the tall man with the crude spear called him out.

"Hold it right there. I only told you to leave, not the girl. Leave her behind. We can’t have savages like you ordering around players like her, can we now?"

As he said that, the group began laughing. However, Adrian didn’t find it funny. He sighed and turned around with a smile. They thought he was giving up, only for him to flip the bird.

"You should not have given me a reason to fight."

The tall guy didn’t understand what Adrian said, but his smile froze on his lips. Given the clothes Adrian was wearing and that he didn’t talk in English, they thought he was an NPC.

As for Sera, she looked nothing like the tribal women they had seen, so they assumed she was a player who had joined a tribe.

Unfortunately, the man wasn’t a tribal. If he was, he wouldn’t have given them the finger.

"Oh! It is my mistake!" he exclaimed, suddenly sounding overly cheerful. "I didn’t realize you were a fellow player! My bad, brother! You should’ve said something earlier!"

He waited for Adrian to say something, but continued when he didn’t.

"I’m Vance, by the way. Just Vance, not Lance... you have no idea how many times I’ve been called weird names, hehe..."

He took a step closer, still smiling like a cheap car salesman trying to close a deal. At the same time, the rest of them lowered their weapons.

"Like I said before, we’re from the alliance. You might have already seen what we do on the chat channel," He said, kicking a few of the purple potatoes toward Adrian. "Take some potatoes as a gift! No hard feelings."

As he said that, his eyes flicked over Adrian’s unusually muscular physique, then to Sera. Most players they came across were malnourished and hungry to join.

However, looking at them, they didn’t look hungry. Instead, they looked stronger than even the tribals.

They must have discovered a sustainable food source. I have to get my hands on it. It’s only a matter of time before people figure out that I have nothing to do with the alliance.

He had already fooled seventeen of them and taken their resources away. Now, he wanted to do the same to the fool in front.

He had no other choice. His followers were already demanding ’returns’ from the alliance, and if he didn’t get something from the two in front, his cover would blow up.

With that thought, Vance cleared his throat and continued.

"How about you bring the girl over and join us? I’ll make sure you’re treated well! Hell, I can even put in a good word for you with the higher-ups."

Vance’s smile never faltered. He knew recruiting them was the smarter play. However, after hearing his offer, Adrian simply rolled his eyes and turned to leave.

After noticing the lack of interest, Vance’s friendly mask cracked at once. He wasn’t letting him go. Even if he had to enslave the guy.

"Oi," he snapped at one of his men. "Jax, go ’convince’ our new friend here. Make him understand that the Alliance really does not like to be ignored."

"You got it, boss," A burly guy with a scar on the face grinned.

He walked up to Adrian and casually threw an arm around his shoulder like they were old friends.

"Hey man, don’t be stupid," he said, side-eyeing Sera. "That girl with you is pretty hot. You can keep her for a while, but trust me, you can’t protect her—"

Before he could finish the sentence, Adrian swapped his spear for the honed bone dagger in his inventory and pressed it against the man’s throat.

Sera understood what Adrian was doing and quickly took out her own spear and rushed to his side.

"Leave now, or he dies!" she yelled, pointing her spear at Vance.

For a moment, the smiles on their faces froze before they burst into laughter.

"You think the two of you can take on all of us?" one of the women sneered. "Seventeen of us against you two?"

"Even if by some miracle you kill a few, the Alliance won’t let this slide," someone else chimed in. "We’ll hunt you down like dogs. You don’t want that, do you?"

Since the jig was up, Vance dropped his smile and told everyone to step aside before stepping up.

"Tell you what, Tarzan. Give me that dagger and hand over the girl nicely. If you do, I might make you my right-hand man," he shrugged.

The group once again began laughing. However, a sudden sound of gurgling interrupted their laughs.

They looked back at Adrian to see Jax clutching his neck as blood gushed out of the open wound.

The burly man collapsed to his knees, then fell face first into the mud. Adrian watched as his blood flowed into the stream, coloring it red.

"So this is the bloody river..." he mumbled. "Rixxa’s divination wasn’t wrong after all."

[Kill confirmed!]

[Killed a level 2 Common Human.]

[Exp +30]

[Ancestor’s 10x blessing in effect. Gained Exp +300.]

"Heh, just level two, and you were barking so much?" Adrian scoffed, flicking the blood off his dagger.

Seventeen against two.

Although they said that, after seeing how Adrian killed Jax without hesitation, none of them dared to step forward.

It was a natural response. Just because they had the numbers did not mean they had the guts to kill someone. Adrian would have it either way, if not for the advantages of his class.

It was why Adrian killed the guy so decisively. The second reason was their lack of proper weapons. Most of them were carrying sticks and stone tools.

For an influential alliance, they seemed to be running low on even basic gear.

That’s when it hit Adrian.

Either the alliance was weaker than they made it out to be, or the group before him wasn’t related to the alliance in the first place.

"Jax... died just like that?" the woman from before couldn’t believe her eyes.

While they were stunned, Adrian lunged at them. It was better to take as many of them down as possible why they were shocked. Thanks to the boots of haste, he moved faster than they could react and began hacking away.

In less than a minute, two more joined Jax’s side. Vance was the first to snap out of his stunned state and tried to run, only to get hit by something that fell from the sky and struck his face.

"ARGH! My eyes! I can’t see!" he yelled as Huginn’s talons scratched his eyes.

He wasn’t the only one. Huginn had been waiting for her owner to strike first so she could show off her moves. Now that he had, she began diving at anyone who tried to regroup, forcing them to cover their faces while Adrian struck them down.

At the same time, a war cry erupted from behind Adrian. He turned around to see the women of the tribe were rushing to his side with spears drawn.

But before Adrian could celebrate their arrival, a notification appeared before him. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

[You have reached the qualifications to attempt an advancement.]

[Please complete the specific quests to advance to a tier-2 human.]

[You cannot gain exp rewards until the advancement quests are completed.]

[Any gained exp will be stored and added after successful completion of the advancement quest.]