Faust fell face first into the ground once he escaped the gate. Dust filled his nose the moment he finally got to breathe.

Coughing lightly, he stood and searched the battle field. It was home sweet home. If warzones counted as a home. Regardless, the flattened and, in some places, burnt field leading to the massive walled city of Novice Village #1 was a beautiful sight.

Anything was beautiful when there wasn’t some eldritch monstrosity behind you.

He had forgotten about their little bet until he saw Juliette looming triumphantly in the distance.

"You won?" Faust said with widened eyes.

Juliette clenched her jaw, speaking through her teeth, "Yes. Me. I guess i’m not as impressive as you and Gamebreaker. I just charmed my way to the Gate Generator and escaped. We didn’t even have to kill any Goblins. They killed themselves."

Faust shuddered at the calm words. He felt pity for those goblins. Your own mind becoming an enemy was a deplorable thing.

He reached out and scanned her Schema to see if there would be anything he wanted.

[Schema: Mighty Pen]

[Rank: Supreme]

[Details: Words are not weaker than actions. At least your words aren’t. You are innately able to converse in any language your target speaks.]

[Schema Abilities: Logical Conclusion, Trading Barbs]

[Logical Conclusion(Platinum): As long as your arguments lead to logical conclusions, you can persuade a target to perform any action you ask.]

[Trading Barbs(Supreme): Any insult or threat levied against is a weapon. If you respond, your words will deal physical damage based on how true they are to the target.]

That’s pretty good. It’s very conditional, but I can only see that making it even deadlier.

As far as Faust knew grades went like this: Bronze, Iron, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Supreme, Epic, Legendary.

His thoughts on the ranks were interrupted by the return of Jason’s team.

They walked out of the gate bloody and limping, but mostly alive. One of them was carried, a massive injury on the man’s belly had been wrapped up.

Juliette raised her chin at them, a faint look of disgust on her face. "I expected recklessness, but not foolishness."

James, her brother, marched forward with a furious look on his face. He raised his broken sword at her, but she didn’t even flinch. Her team moved in front of her naturally, hands on their weapons.

"Watch your tongue," James sneered. "While you fought green monkey and half dogs, we fought trolls."

Faust hummed. "They have a point. Even you would have a problem with a troll."

Roden leaned in and whispered. "I saw her convince a troll to small its skull in with its battle ram."

Faust cringed. "Yeah, just forget about me."

[Comgratulation! The third wave has been completed!]

[The hidden quest: Temple Raiders, has been completed! Additional rewards will be distributed!]

[The patrons of the stream are impressed. Gifts will be given to their favored Players!]

[The Fourth wave comes in ten hours. Rewards will be distributed in one due to patron interest.]

A collective whoop went up among the three teams. High-fives and hugs went around as the Players thanked the system in murmurs. Nirvana reached him and they shared a hug that lasted a bit too long.

Seemingly uncaring, Jason walked past them all, completely unscathed from the deadly battle. His shield was slightly dented, but that was it. He brushed back his black hair as he passed James.

"Leave it. Let’s get back."

James strangely broke his glare with hisnsister and followed Jason. Faust watched both of them cautiously. It seemed Gamebreaker had gotten a good lap dog. Interested, he checked if James had a Schema.

He does.... Both brother and sister are Schema users.

[Schema: Poisonous Swamp]

[Rank: Gold]

[Details: You are a great well of poison that erodes everything around you.]

[Schema Abilities: Swamp Dipped, Smog]

[Swamp Dipped(Gold): All of your attacks are laced with weak poison.]

[Smog(Iron): Create a fog of poison in the air that disorients anything that breathes it in.]

James’s Schema wasn’t as dangerous as Juliette’s, but it was still something that could tip a fight in his favor. Trying to prepare yourself against all the Schemas you could face was a waste of time. But Faust couldn’t help but think of how he would beat James.

With Jason at the head of the group, everyone walked back to the Novice village. A rumbling roar came from the city. People crammed onto the walls, cheering for them.

"Did anyone check the stream while we were in there?" Greg asked randomly. He shrunk under all this attention, trying to hide behind Thalia comically.

She flicked his head and shooed him away, muttering, "It was on Gamebreaker’s fight for most of the Infiltration. I saw some glimpses of Juliette’s team when they made the Goblins fight each other. We barely featured at all."

"Were you so free you could watch the stream?" Roden asked with a teasing smile.

Spider kicked him in the back. "Shut up."

Faust was more caught on the fact that they had barely been on the stream. Was the system playing favourites? Could it even do that?

The cheering crowd met them at the gates. Faust received so many pats on the back that he considered using Shadow Step. His mana was low. But this was a bit annoying. Someone just punched him.

People began clearing up the crowd to give them a road to the Town hall. They had a bagde on their chests that read: Steward. They worked for the leadership of the Novice village it seemed.

"There’s going to be a celebration in the Town Hall," One of the Stewards said.

"I think we deserve a celebration," Zen said, rubbing his hands devillishly.

"You didn’t want to even come," Faust reminded.

Spider grabbed Zen’s shoulder and softly drove her knee into his back. Soft in the sense that Zen groaned but wasn’t injured by it.

"I don’t do well at parties," Thalia hummed, sighing dejectedly.

Faust raised an eyebrow. "You don’t like crowds?"

"No. I should rephrase. I love parties, other people don’t do well when I’m at parties."

Nirvana leaned against Faust due to the bustling crowd and the narrow path the Stewards provided.

I would think that if I was blind.

"Sorry," she said shyly. "Do you think we’ll have songs at the party and like dancing? Do you know how to dance?"

Faust shrugged at her question and turned back to Thalia, asking about the Gap Generator. He had many questions about that. But more importantly was the dark look in Nirvana’s eyes when he turned away from her.

This party could be it. He would finally get Nirvana to break.