Pete hadn't meant to intentionally say it as loudly as he had. Silence followed as all heads turned towards the duo. They were both wearing simple, thread clothes without armour or weapons, and now apparently one of them had died…

Stanis turned to look at Pete. His eyes were dull and easily distracted, obviously drunk, but beneath the dullness was a glint as sharp as a blade's. Pete had revealed a part of his true personality a while back and there was no way Stanis could forget that; right now, Pete had drunk enough for a normal man to be tipsy but not for him to be.

In the end, Stanis sighed instead of calling him out. It looked like the walk back wasn't going to be as quiet as he had initially hoped.

"Yeah, she fucked me good,"

"You didn't even get a single one?" Pete asked.

"Naa. Well, technically I got all of them, but I didn't manage to do it with my own hands. I'll make sure to pay each of them back what they deserve when I see them,"

"Especially Jen?"

"Especially Jen."

"You probably won't meet them though,"

Stanis smirked and ignored Pete's comment. As the enemies got stronger, the territory humanity held would keep decreasing. Considering the top ten's strength, they obviously wouldn't be killed during the period. Perhaps not tomorrow but they were all destined to meet again someday. And for some of them, Stanis was intent on making it their last day.

Sensing the drop in temperature, Pete knew he had reached the threshold. If he pushed his luck anymore, he would discover who was now stronger but that was also something he wasn't so eager to find out in such a fair situation like this. Instead, he went towards a topic that was soon going to become reality.

"When do you think the stronger ones are coming?"

Stanis thought back in time for a second before answering. "What did they say? 1 week or something?"

"I think so," replied Pete, taking another gulp and draining the whole canteen.

The woman walking behind them must have been debating with herself whether she should talk as when she did, she started with a stutter.

"W-wwh," She cleared her throat before trying again. "What do you mean by stronger ones?"

Skint lifted his head up as he heard her ask the question. He was just as interested in their conversation as the woman was.

"Enemies around level adroite Mosyte will be allowed on Earth soon," Pete said lazily.

"Adroite Mosyte? But that's way too quick. There's no chance we can contest them," she responded.

Straight afterwards, she blushed and Pete loudly smirked.

"There's no fairness to any of it. We aren't really meant to win in the first place," Stanis finally said.

After a brief silence, the woman restarted the conversation.

"Where are you guys from?"

"Yora," Stanis said.

"Us three are from Haven," Pete said.

The woman instantly moved her hands closer to her daggers after she heard this. But before she could add her own comments, the two at the front, much to her relief, stole back the spotlight.

"You're from Haven? I thought they were meant to be strong there," Stanis said.

A thunder-like chuckle rumbled from Bear and Skint choked on his own laughter. It was only Pete who kept a straight face.

"We are strong," he said.

"Ha, I don't mean it that way. I meant I heard that there were tons of strong people there so why was it just you guys who actually came all this way to advance?"

"Ha-ha. Why would they want to lift their arses at all when they have everything they want there?" Pete said.

…

It took a second for Stanis to see the full picture. From how strong Pete had been in the past, he had most likely been one of the higher people at Haven. But considering his character, it made sense that many people wouldn't follow him there. And so to test his luck, he had followed the mana-trail to advance to tier-four.

Suddenly, Stanis remembered the woman with them. "What about you, where you from?"

The spotlight was back on her. She tightened her fingers around her dagger handles as she answered. "Silvermoon village,"

"Hey, ain't that one of those ones?" Pete asked.

"Ya," Skint answered. "I think the second strongest one."

Stanis turned his head with a puzzled expression on his face.

Skint instantly answered. "There were a few villages fighting Haven back at the time when we were there, I think Yora village was one of the weaker ones at the time. Silvermoon was basically one not too far away from Haven, but one with elite warriors basically,"

"Oh," Stanis replied. "So are you the strongest from there. Umm, what's your name?"

"Sofia," the woman answered. "Yes, I was the strongest there." She loosened the grip over her daggers as she saw how relaxed and apathetic the group were to each other's allegiances.

It was at this time that the group saw the hint of light at the end of the tunnel.

"So, what are you guys going to do?" Stanis asked. All four of the people here were strong enough to provide valuable support; it was ideal that they didn't go too far away from him so that he could easily hunt them down if needed.

While it was true that none of them were actually allied, instead the opposite, Stanis couldn't see any reason why that couldn't be the case.

"What are we going to do boys?" Pete asked, scratching his own face with the canteen as he spoke. It was clear that he didn't really care about their destination.

"Don't really care baws," Skint replied.

"Haven. I have payback to give," Bear said.

"Haven it is then," Pete said to Stanis.

"I'm going to Silvermoon," Sofia said.

They exited the tunnel as she said this. They were currently on a grass-covered hill. The sun was shining bright and a cool wind was breezing past.

"Right then," Stanis said. "I'll chase you guys down if anything comes up. Find me in Yora if you need to,"

Following that, the five of them split ways. Perhaps still wary of Pete's trio and Haven's reputation, Sofia followed Stanis back to Yora before parting ways.

...

(Sorry for the short chapter guys. It's a few hundred words less than the usual.)

(Sidenote: I kinda enjoyed writing dialogue. It comes easier to me than action or descriptive bits come. On the other hand, what do you guys think of the dialogue? Does it feel forced and unrealistic or is it fine?)