He turned around and saw a girl about his age. She had long platinum blond hair and looked like she was Scandinavian. She had a rapier strapped to her back and was fitted in good quality armor.
She was very pretty, but Jaycee saw enemies in anyone. People don't really approach each other unless they recognize each other. "Can I help you?" Jaycee asked. He raised a suspicious eyebrow.
She paused, "I saw that incredible skill." She said.
Jaycee nodded. "Cool." He said as he turned to leave.
"Hey wait! I was just going to ask if you could help me. My class has started becoming magically entwined and I feel like I'm falling behind." She said her eyes glistened slightly.
'People don't actually ask strangers for help right?' Jaycee thought to himself while he shook his head. "I'm not teaching you anything." Jaycee said.
She seemed taken aback and said, "What? How about I just travel with you so I can learn. Because that was really advanced magic you were performing."
Jaycee raised a suspicious eyebrow. He scanned her up and down. She didn't give off dangerous or bad vibes. She was a few levels below him at 23. There were a lot of questions but he didn't wanna be bothered with asking them and getting potentially truthful answers. So because he was bored, and because she was pretty, he let her hang around at least 10 meters away at all times.
She was slightly taller than Jaycee and had a serene thin look. Jaycee felt quite ugly walking in her proximity. They were making constant progress into the forest by walking. Whatever wanted to fight him could. He would push as far in until he reached the castle or couldn't defeat beasts anymore in which he would take a break and make decisions from there.
He could walk it. Right now his only goal for the whole tutorial was to get stronger and make sure the people he cared about finish the tutorial safely. Otherwise, he had nothing else he wanted to do. This little period was his time to get strong before everything goes to hell. Jaycee and the girl, who he found out is named Dahlia, talked while they walked.
Although most of it was her asking a question and him answering as simply as he could. At the end he had just started saying single word responses to questions that deserved a sentence long answer. Pretty quickly Dahlia realized a lot of what Jaycee did was just trolling.
He would make up words like skibidi and ligma. He had given her instructions that if she wanted to travel with him she would not enter combat and only defend herself. Jaycee was only enforcing that rule because he frankly wasn't interested in whatever she had to offer. Her behavior was beyond fishy but whatever. All of the enemies around here were levels 28-31 and every time even when in groups Jaycee would shred through these enemies.
His charge toward the castle was making a decent headway, and by the end of the day he was about 10 percent of the way there. The temple was in between where they had started on the outskirts of the circle arena, and the castle. Jaycee eventually set up a campfire where he unfortunately allowed Dahlia to sit opposite of him.
He chewed on jerky while he watched the girl twirl her rapier. "So who's group are you associated with?" Jaycee asked. She looked up, almost surprised he initiated conversation but quickly found herself under a critical eye. He watched to see every change in her expression.
"I'm not associated with the groups." She said simply.
Jaycee nodded, "Then where's the rest of your third party group?" He asked. If people were not associated with a group they had to travel with a large enough group of people to fight off threats. These were people who didn't get along well under the leaders and found more safety in not gathering.
"I don't have one. I've been traveling alone." She said pretty convincingly. But from the way she acted he knew this girl didn't travel alone. She wasn't nearly alert enough.
And also, "You're too weak to be traveling by yourself." Jaycee said as he finished his jerky. He stood, brushed his hands off and shot forward flames exploding from his heels and back. Immediately, before Dahlia could even register what was happening her rapier was blasted out of her hand and a leather boot was pressed on her shoulder as she was pinned to the ground. Jaycee held a ball of intensely condensed fire mana in his hand.
He aimed his palm at the petrified girl, "Who sent you here." He asked.
Tears began to rise to her eyes as she began to shake. "No one, I'm here by m-myself." She stuttered.
Jaycee smiled. "Oh good. Means no one will know where you went." He flexed his fingers as if he was releasing the spell and she broke out into screams and pleas.
"No no no okay okay! Percy sent me here! Please don't kill me!" She cried out. Jaycee shot the ball of fire mana to the side blasting a hole into a giant tree trunk. He furrowed his eyebrows while stepping off of her. She sobbed quietly to herself as Jaycee retrieved her rapier.
"Sorry about that. That was the only way you'd admit and I was getting tired of the act. You need a better backstory." Jaycee said as she slowly got up and wiped her eyes.
"So you're not going to kill me?" She asked.
Jaycee shook his head. "Nope. But hey, let's go pay Percy a visit." As Jaycee said that her expression changed from relief to deep horror. She had ruined the whole mission the leader had set for her on the first day. She had finally broken through the ranks and had gotten the attention of Farrah the vice leader. Her talent was beginning to show.
Her head fell. "Okay." She said solemnly as she walked behind Jaycee. It was dark now, but they were only a 20 minute sprint from the temple. And Jaycee was interested in what this spying stuff is about. He took off into the forest running quickly.
His agility was increasing as he leveled up his profession and actually was quite high for his level. Dahlia was able to follow quickly as her light warrior class gave her more agility. Jaycee would say her agility stat was decently higher than his. 23 minutes later Jaycee stood in front of the two guards who stood in front of the leader's office. "Let me in." He said.
The guards stood strong and instead began threatening him. Jaycee looked like he was a little pissed, because he was, but they were not going to let this kid through. Inside the room Farrah turned her head abruptly. "Jaycees outside." She said as she stared at the door.
Her and Percy had been talking about their next push into the forest. "How do you know?" Percy asked.
"I told you. He's like a blip in my radar. It's like suddenly I can't see what could happen anymore at the door. It's bizarre." She said.
Percy stood and began moving to the door as he noticed the room began feeling just a little warmer. His eyes widened as he dashed to the door and opened it. There the guards had their weapons drawn and seemed on the verge of attacking Jaycee. They were decently strong but Jaycee glowed with an orange energy as he became less patient. "Woah woah." Percy said as he ran out the door to deescalate the situation. "Guys he's always permitted to enter. Don't stop him next time." Dahlia stood shrunken behind Jaycee and Percy cursed into himself.
He should've just said no to Farrah and remained away from Jaycee. "Jaycee, come in." He said. Jaycee brought Dahlia into the room with him. "So what brings you here." Percy said. Jaycee looked at the man blankly before Percy nodded. Percy sighed deeply and said, "Yeah."
Dahlia's face was deeply red as she tried to shrink more. "Why." Jaycee said simply.
"We were just concerned about what you were doing. I mean you know how strong you are. We just wanted someone to update us on how you were." Percy said.
Jaycee's eyes narrowed and Percy's heart constricted. "Should I not treat you as friendlies? Are you potential enemies? I haven't thought of you all like that yet." Jaycee said, almost into himself. Like this was the first time he had considered Percy having ill intent.
Percy could see the connections being made in his head and hurried to stop it. "No no. We also sent a talented but inexperienced individual so they could learn from you." Percy said.
Jaycee was suspicious but ultimately chilled out. Their reason made enough sense but he was certain they could have just asked him. He realized it was a little misunderstanding. They believed him to be less casual than he was and were interested in finding out what he was doing.
Honestly any person who he had worked with so far in terms of beast fighting, could have just asked to tag along with him. As long as they didn't get in his way he was happy. But now his view on their relationship has changed and he realized he was naive. He had remained separate from any entity and found himself vulnerable to potential enemies.
He had no true allies except Lady and Olaf. It was at this moment he understood the value of allies. Who better to start with then this Dahlia. "She can keep traveling with me. Though I think I traumatized her a little. If she wishes to come then she should be at my camp by sunrise." Jaycee said.
It was almost 1 am when most people went to sleep and the sun would rise in 5 hours. He abruptly turned and left the room where he flipped the guards off while walking away. Percy sighed as he scratched his head. Jaycee was a little odd. "Are you okay Dahlia? I shouldn't have even bothered sending someone unless they're an actor. You don't have to go back with him. What'd he do?" Percy said.
Dahlia quietly described how he had asked some questions when he had gotten tired of the charade. How his speed was too much for her to see despite being a fast person already. His skill was clearly working very well.
"Jesus. I didn't think he would do something like that. Actually… I could see it happen at some point. Your acting had to have been pretty bad for him to be so certain." Percy said. And Jaycee was very confused. Under no circumstance do you ask a random man if you can travel with him because he has powerful magic.
If he's stronger, he could decide to kill them or do whatever he wanted at any moment. And so he thought there's no way this was a real lady. Dahlia shook her head embarrassed. "I would still like to travel with him. If he's that strong I need to chase it." She said.