Faust watched the people file down from the walls quickly, some glanced at him but said nothing.
The Mage Captain stopped and walked back to him, extending a hand to shake him. "Name's Kiera, but you can call me Kite. Thanks for saving me."
Faust glanced at the hand. She was a well-trained middle aged woman, her hands had callouses and her face was thin, severe and serious-looking. Based on her Schema, Faust guessed she had some experience with the army.
He shook her. "Don't worry about it. I'm Faust."
"Nice to meet you. Are you coming to the square?" She asked immediately, cutting to the point.
Faust liked that. "No. The people in charge of the strategy aren't used to the rules of this world. I will do my own thing."
"Ah." Kite sighed. "And we disappoint the youth more. No one expected the Goblin Mages. We thought we would just funnel all of them to the gates and bombard them, but…. It doesn't matter."
"I wouldn't mind talking to whoever is in charge alone though," Faust added.
Kite opened her mouth to ask why, but said instead. "Okay. But maybe not fully alone…. Old Dog, Diego, is in charge. You're Red God, right?"
Faust nodded. There was no point in hiding it.
More people would try attacking him if he did hide his strength, but they wouldn't be prepared for the ass-whooping. Beating up a prepared opponent was more fun than beating a fool.
"Let's go." Kite said, turning.
Faust hummed in agreement, glanced at the battlefield and the dead goblins.
◇◇◇
Ding!
[Event Livestream has started! Make your world proud!]
Faust glanced at the notification with a frown. He didn't like that much, but there was nothing he could do.
He was in the Novice Villages's Town hall, waiting for this Diego guy in the main offices they had turned into a war room.
It was a large room with many chairs, three long tables and maps scattered about, along with drinks and some leftover food.
At the head of the office was a floor to ceiling door overlooking the Village Square, where a sea of people were gathered in conversation. Some people were fighting, others were singing merrily. A few people just flinched at every loud sound.
But there were far too few people. The town square was huge, stretching hundreds of meters, like a small stadium. But right now it was barely half filled.
There were people watching from the village houses like they were scared of the crowd. Others moved around the city putting out fires that had started near the gate. Most just loitered around not bothering to attend the meeting.
Faust had a bad feeling about this.
Suddenly footsteps quickly approached the room. Faust turned casually. The door opened and arguing people poured in quickly.
"We need to change our strategy now! This isn't working."
"We barely survived thanks to that Red God guy…"
"We need to go to the forest Gamebreaker's group mentioned. Food rations are getting low. People are getting tired"
"What we need to do is stop feeding those bums!"
They all grew silent when they noticed Faust reclining in a chair with his feet on a table. Kite rushed ahead,
"This is him. Red God, or just Faust if you prefer that," she said quickly. "Diego get your ass out here."
A tall, well built man walked out. He wasn't as old as Faust expected. Maybe mid-fourties.
His black hair was already greying though, and his face was well lined. On his square jaw, between a scruffy beard, were a few thin scars . He wore a grey flannel shirt and black cargo shorts under a pirate's coat.
What is he cosplaying?
"Faust? Red God might be a bit less weird," the man grumbled, pushing his way to the front. He plopped into the chair beside Faust and put his legs on the table too.
But Kite pushed both of them off the table. "Have some manners."
Faust faced Diego with a wry smile. "I could say the same about you. Isn't it a bit vain to call yourself old when you aren't."
"That's what I said," Kite nodded.
"Can we jump past this?" Diego said. "What's your level, Combat Power, Skills, and Schema or System if you have either?"
"None of you have Appraise? I'll only tell you the first two because I'm nice, but the rest is off the table."
Diego muttered something about kids under his breath. "Okay."
"Level 5, 500 combat power… approximately."
The entire room had devolved into individual angry whispers, but they all paused and stared at him. Diego glanced at one of his aides—the one Faust assumed had Appraise.
"He's level 5," the aide reassured. "But his combat power shows question marks."
"And I thought Gamebreaker and that William kid were fast," Diego muttered. "I'm going to make some assumptions. You have the Fireball skill and some movement skill based on Kite's report. With how fast you level and how ridiculous your combat power is you also have both a Schema and a system."
Kite's jaw had fallen slightly. "That's 1% of us."
"So like Gamebreaker and the stupid kid," another person muttered. "Yay. More children with incomprehensible power."
"That's enough, Rin," Diego said without facing the man.
Faust immediately noticed how old everyone here was. The youngest person was the Asian woman at the end of the table, who looked about twenty seven.
"Do you know where all the top 100 players are?" Faust asked. He only skimmed them, but it was important to know.
"Mostly," Kit answered. "Top 100 is level 3. There are people like you that might have not returned to the village and some are hiding their power—"
"Because this seems to be a game to them," Rin muttered.
"— but we have met at least seventy of them," Kite continued. "Most are in strong groups so they came together."
Diego tapped the table. "The only people worth noting that we don't know their whereabouts were you, Golden Dream, Broke Gambler and Firestarter. They haven't shown up anywhere."
"Where were you?" Rin asked bluntly.
Faust faced him and the older man retreated a little. "Mind's forest. The region after Hunter's Dream. I got deep in the forest and lost track of time."
"Going out by yourself? So you're both irresponsible and dangerous?"
"Rin," Diego said tightly.
But Faust's smile just widened. Someone willing to face him in a verbal spar was a godsend. "And you're just ignorant and shortsighted?"