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Then Zarian made himself look a little smaller, a little more feeble, and a little more like his old self. He returned to the version of himself who had begged or did the most menial of labors for scraps after getting kicked out of the Marines.

Wow, it’s weird acting this way again. It doesn’t fit me anymore. But let’s see if I can pull it off for the first meeting with local humans.

“Bianca, play the party leader,” Zarian ordered. “Naomi, be yourself, but toward Bianca. Hannah, Gilbert, be naturals. And I’ll play the weakest and most sorry member.”

Hannah shot out a question ahead of the others: “What if they have the Identify trait?”

“If they do, then I’ll deal with that. If they don’t, then at least we’ll be positioned. Now, go. It’s going to be fun. I swear.”

“Okay!” Bianca chirped, going full tilt with Zarian’s dodgy plan.

Gilbert and Hannah shared a concerned look. Naomi wasn’t pleased by this whatsoever, frowning the whole time.

Bianca moved to the tunnel exit, a bulb of light shining on her features.

“Hello, hello, please don’t swing your swords or shoot your arrows! I’m just an adventurer, adventuring with my party, doing adventurous things!” Bianca sang while using her uncommon trait, Shining Trust.

The more cheerful and bright Bianca acted, the more trust she could garner from others who were unaware of the trait.

“Quiet your blabbering, woman! Being an adventurer is outlawed in the Eternal Garden Kingdom! Are you daft or are you foreign?” bellowed the male voice at the exit of the tunnel.

Zarian knew they were at a disadvantage, but he didn’t think they would start off this roughly. Then again, Bianca’s Shining Trust must’ve worked, because the speaker was trying to hush Bianca before she made more of a fool of herself.

“Ah, lo siento, I’m sorry, we’re not from around here. In fact, we’re from another world. We’re from Florida, the, eh, World of Swamps and Princesses!”

Bianca kept going, striding confidently out of the tunnel. The others followed her, prepared for a fight in case things went south.

Zarian drifted forward from the back, staying in the tunnel’s darkness, making himself a little more inconspicuous. He surveyed everything with his own eyes from under the dense darkness of his leather hood.

The confident speaker and the armed men behind him were indeed human. They all looked like the average Caucasians with brown, black, or yellow hair.

Most of the local humans had youthful features and clean-shaven faces except for the speaker and some other important-looking men. Honestly, even the speaker looked young despite the bushy mustache he was sporting.

The men were decently armored in mostly leathers with a few metal pieces such as vambraces, greaves, and a breastplate each. All of them had simple metal and leather helmets that they strapped to their hip if it wasn’t on their heads.

Each man carried on him a medium-length sword along with a bow-and-arrow set or a full-length poleaxe. There were at least two hundred of them, and as Zarian used Identify on the nearest ones, their information surprised him.

…

And so on and so forth. Many of the soldiers had the same class that looked common in quality, which meant they would only get 2 extra points per level outside of free points.

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Their alpha skills varied little outside of five to six basic buffs or strikes except for the one or two oddly unique skills that were still basic, lesser, or somewhat weak for their level.

The only bigger exception was the young man with the mustache who was addressing Bianca and two other men with higher statuses compared to the regular foot soldiers. Zarian used Identify on all three, starting with the one furthest in the back and ending with the one who was talking to Bianca.

These three were more interesting while closer to Zarian’s level. They did not feel powerful, however.

Zarian doubted their classes were rare because they each shared the same class as cadets. But he didn’t think they could be common like the foot soldiers, so he placed them as uncommon, which gave them 3 extra stat points per level.

Zarian was vastly more powerful than them. He trusted Naomi could make their heads explode with a punch each. Bianca, Hannah, and Gilbert could mop up the rest of the soldiers if the numbers were more favorable.

Fighting hundreds of humans was out of reach for them right now. There was the morality part, but Zarian wanted to think if it came down to it, they would massacre their way through at least a fourth of them while making a run for it.

Hm, oh, that’s aggressive.

Zarian wondered if the evil +1 alignment was having some influence on him. It didn’t help there was too much do-gooder energy in the army camp. Most of the soldiers seemed neutral, but the goodness in the air was still thick.

Roland and his officers were obviously good aligned, which made Zarian’s mood feel a little sour toward them.

This is why I better take a backseat on the social front and let Bianca handle that. This world might be a place where most humans prefer good alignment.

There were other details about the camp Zarian wanted to survey, but the crux of the problem was finally being addressed – Zarian himself.

Roland shifted his attention from Bianca and the others to the obvious evil-doer lurking in the shadows of the tunnel’s exit.

Zarian, not wanting to be impolite, attempted to greet Roland. Instead of lifting his hand out from the darkness of his cloak, Zarian had the Parasite Cloak raise a bone-tipped tentacle and wave as an introduction.

“And that is our amazingly friendly and nuanced party member, Zarian Darkrun!” Bianca said with a bright and enthusiastic marketer attitude she must’ve learned as a rum promoter. “He’s been such a big help for us while we’ve been lost in Corma. Goblins. Spiders. Golems. He helped us fight them all even though he’s not very strong when looked at under a bright light.”

Zarian thought Bianca was doing her best while trying not to lie too heavily. He would’ve preferred if she just called him weak and be done with it.

Maybe Naomi’s killer glare steered Bianca away from committing fully to the lie.

“Men, raise your arms!” Roland shouted.

“Wait, no, he’s not bad! He’s on our side!” Bianca waved her hands frantically.

“I’ve yet to meet an evil-doer who’s on the side of good, or he wouldn’t be evil! Humans aren’t born evil. He could’ve chosen to be good!”

Roland’s logic wasn’t exactly wrong.

Zarian could’ve chosen anything other than an evil aligned class. But nothing suited him better than the epic Black Wizard Apprentice class.

Roland didn’t seem to care about the nuances. “You can’t tell me he hasn’t infected you with his wickedness already. Just look at what he’s done to her!”

Roland readied his sword in one hand while pointing his free hand at …

…

…

… Naomi.

As the nearest men armed themselves with bows, arrows, and poleaxes, Zarian’s party fell gravely quiet.

It was as if they all collectively wondered if Roland was pointing out something that they weren’t seeing. Or if he was pointing out something that he shouldn’t point out under the current context.

Roland roared on with unfiltered boldness:

“My dear, on my name and honor as Roland of Wood, a rising Low Rose Noble, I will find you a priest to cleanse the filthy taint from your skin and make you pure once more!”

Bianca screamed. “Ah! Wait! No! That’s not right, Roland! That’s her skin color! She’s black!”

“How terrible and heinous! Did that fiend in the tunnel do that to you? Leaving your entire person blackened with no way to cure it? I shall make him undo the curse or end him rightly under witness of Purgehunt, Purehome, Lovewar, and the other good gods!”

Despite the serious threat to Zarian’s life, Gilbert broke out into a howling fit of laughter, his palm to his face. Hannah covered her own face from second-hand embarrassment.

Naomi looked like she was about to strip Roland of his own skin and force it down his throat.

“Would it be easier if I handed myself over and showed you I’m a friend?” Zarian asked smoothly, his voice resonating from the darkness of his hood.

Before Roland and his men could react grotesquely, Bianca took advantage of the idea Zarian tossed out there. She even conjured some lights and miniature flashes to pull attention back to herself, surprising the soldiers and making them fall back out of wariness.

“He said he’ll hand himself over! He’s not putting up a fight whatsoever! He may be evil aligned, but he’s not evil in heart, and I can say this without a doubt that he’s a friend. Or do you not trust me when I’m as good as you?” Bianca pointed at Roland’s chest, taking a more assertive stance.

“You are obviously foreign. You said it yourself. We know not of this world called Florida. Why would a place of swamps hold princesses if they are not witches? And the mannerism of your speech and eccentricities are odd. So how can I believe you when I see obvious evil at work–” Roland waved his hand at Naomi “–while you vouch for the evil one hiding in the tunnel!”