Chapter 5

Alessandro Pacini had recently come out of the hospital where he had questioned the Adventurers in that portal that went, after all, not so bad. All of them had survived the accident without injury. Of course, they had been unconscious up to that point, but they had all now fully recovered. It could be said that this had been an accident without any accidents.

The hospital was not very far from the headquarters of the Adventurers' Association, so it did not take more than ten minutes by car to get there. He got out of the car and there it was, right in front of him.

The central headquarters of the Association was in Rome, the capital of Italy. As the name said, it was the most important headquarters, where all the other headquarters scattered throughout Italy were managed. Those who worked in this headquarters were only the best of the Association. Only in cases of extreme importance did they leave the building to carry out their work. Or, in the case of Alessandro Pacini, only if accidents happened near this headquarters.

The building was twenty storeys high. These floors were divided into sections, called Departments. Among them was the Investigation Department, the one in which he worked.

Alessandro Pacini entered the building and got into the lift. It continued to rise until he reached the top floor. He walked a few metres before finding himself in front of a door marked 'President's Office'.

He knocked politely on the door and a strong male voice came from the other side.

"Come in."

Opening the door, he found a man in his fifties looking at him with a slight smile.

"Good morning, Mr President." Alexander greeted him. It was the President of the Association himself, Sergio De Luca, the highest office of the Association and the second highest in Italy, after that of the President of the Italian Republic.

"Welcome back, Mr Pacini. How did it go?" As soon as he asked the question, the President's eyes immediately became serious. This was an important situation. It was not often that such a low-level portal caused an accident. On the contrary, it had never happened in history.

"We have no clue what could have really happened in that portal, Mr. President." He said in a professional tone. President Sergio De Luca closed his eyes for a moment and gave a very slight sigh.

"I understand. In any case, are those guys okay?"

"Yes, sir. Better than I initially thought, I admit. They didn't sustain any injuries and, now that they've all woken up, they're ready to be discharged from the hospital."

"It's better this way, then." As long as they were all safe and sound, then all was good. Of course, that wasn't the only problem, but his thoughts were interrupted by the employee in front of him.

"One more thing, sir."

"Yes?"

"The last guy I asked questions to, he answered me differently from everyone else."

"In a different way?" He squinted his eyes with a curious expression.

"Exactly. He said he had seen everyone, no one excluded, being brutally killed by the orc chief. He said he was the only survivor, so much so that he thought what he saw was real."

"Interesting. What do you think, Mr Pacini?"

"Honestly, I think it was just a nightmare. Besides, everyone came out of it without a single injury, so I doubt what he saw was real."

"Then we can end this discussion here. In any case, that's not the main problem." He expressed, then, the real problem he was thinking about a few minutes earlier.

"For twelve years now, this is the first time the System has been wrong about the portal classification. Honestly, I would like to hope that this is also the last time. Unfortunately, I am convinced it will not be."

Just as he said, it was the System itself that told them the level of the portal and, consequently, the higher or lower difficulty of the mission. So far he had never been wrong once, except this time. He was not so positive as to think that such a thing would never happen again. No, precautions had to be taken.

"If I may ask, what are you going to do about it?"

"From now on we will have to do more checks to make sure that the actual level of the portal is what the System shows us. We got lucky this time, but we can't allow more mistakes like this to lead to the death of our Adventurers."

"What kind of checks, Mr. President? We have no machines that can do such checks." At this response from him, the President smiled.

"Have you forgotten about the Gifts?"

Alexander opened his eyes wide. He had not thought about them. The Gifts were people who, thanks to the System, had obtained unique abilities. There were only a few dozen of them in the whole world and, because of that, they were treated as very important people, on a par with, or even more than, Level 90 Adventurers.

Among these Gifts was also the Association's President Sergio De Luca. It was thanks to his Gift that he had arrived where he was. Of course, much of the credit really had to be given to the man, who was able to harness that innate ability with ingenuity and cunning.

"Another Gift was born recently, right here in Italy. This person has the unique ability to control what's inside the portals without entering them." Then he gave a wry smile and continued

"Can you imagine? There are three Gifts in Italy now. We have more Gifts than level 90 Adventurers." Indeed, there were only two Adventurers in Italy who had reached level 90.

"But how are we going to harness this ability of the Gift? We can't take it to every portal that opens."

"Of course, one person cannot control every portal that opens in Italy, but this is only a temporary measure." At the confused look of his favourite employee, the president continued.

"I'll talk to the head of the Research Department today. It's just an idea at the moment, but who knows."

"I understand, Mr. President. If that's all..."

"One last thing, Mr Pacini."

"Yes?"

"Speaking of 'head of the Department', do you want to be promoted to head of the Investigation Department or will your answer still be the same?"

There was a reason he considered him his favourite employee. He had risen through the ranks of the Investigation Department, becoming the deputy chief. Now that the chief was leaving to retire, he really needed someone to replace him. There was no one more appropriate than him to take that position. In a way, he saw his younger self in him.

Alexander formed a wry smile.

"Mr President, you know better than anyone by now. I only became deputy chief as a temporary replacement." Even as he said it, he knew that that 'temporary' had only served to make him deputy chief. Then again, it had been two years since he had become one, but as long as he could do what he had always done, he didn't mind.

"I want to work in the field and, if I became chief, that would not allow me to do what I want." If he had become boss, then he would have had to sit in front of the desk all the time. And that bored him more than anything else. As deputy chief, still his duties remained the same as they had always been, with the simple addition of having to assist the head of the department with some matters once in a while.

"Believe me. If you should decide to become chief, I will allow you to give all your bureaucratic duties to the deputy." They both laughed.

It had been a few days since Samuele had discharged himself from the hospital. That morning he had been called by the Association to participate in another mission and he had accepted.

He was at the portal site. The camp was already full of Adventurers. He certainly didn't need to count them to realise that he was the last one they were waiting for.

Like the last mission, it was a group of ten Adventurers, including the leader.

Speaking of the leader...

"Boy, there you are!" Samuele turned towards the familiar voice. It was Marco Terranova. Samuele smiled and greeted him.

"Hello, Mr Terranova."

"How are you?" he asked in a sincerely curious and somewhat worried voice. After the last mission, the man had been very worried about the boys he was leading inside the portal.

And about that portal, Samuele spoke.

"Mr. Terranova, I thank you with all my heart for what you did for us. If you hadn't been there, I don't know how it could have ended." He said with an expression of respect.

"You were my responsibility, Mr Rua. It was my duty to get you all to safety. No need to thank me for doing my job." He said. Then he chuckled.

"The only thing I regret is that I did not have time to retrieve the reward the System left us." They both laughed.

Then Samuele's gaze became more serious.

"Since you are here, will you be our leader again?"

"That's right, but this time I have decided to gear up for any inconvenience." He said, pointing with his hand to the red armour and a huge sword behind him.

"Are those yours?" Said Samuel, looking at them with slightly astonished eyes.

"Yes. My class is Warrior, so my main statistic is strength. Even though it's a very low level, you can never be too sure."

The class was given by the System based on the user's fighting style once they reached level 10.

There were four basic classes: Warrior, Thief, Mage and Healer. Each of these had its own evolution, which the Adventurer would obtain as he continued to level up.

Then Marco's gaze became a little embarrassed.

"Although, among all of you, it will seem as if I'm showing off..."

Indeed, in the midst of all the others who had only been given a sword and shield, Marco Terranova in that armour would certainly attract the attention of all the monsters. Which was not necessarily a bad thing.

"In a few minutes we will enter the portal. Get the things you need and get ready."

"Alright, Mr. Terranova." Samuele nodded and they parted.

The boy approached the weapons bench and took a simple sword and shield. In general, all the weapons given by the Association were very simple and a bit weak.

If someone wanted a better weapon, then they had to go to armouries specially for Adventurers.

Unfortunately for Samuele, it was not possible for him to buy those weapons at the moment. They were too expensive, depending on the level of the weapon and its characteristics.

For the time being, he had to make do with the weapons given by the Association, which still did their job in these low-level portals.

"Hello!" A sudden female voice made him wince slightly in surprise. He turned towards the voice and saw a girl, possibly the same age as him, who gave him a big smile.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. My name is Sofia! We will be teammates during this mission. Nice to meet you!"

"Ah, yes... My name is Samuele. Nice to meet you." He introduced himself somewhat awkwardly.

Sofia had a charming face with delicate features, brown hair and dark, intense eyes. She was a few centimetres shorter than Samuele. Her clothing was very tight and comfortable, so that she could move easily during the adventure inside the portal.

"I look forward to participating in this adventure with you. Let's be friends!" Samuele raised an eyebrow, confused by her behaviour. She was too happy and sunny.

"Yes, of course." He nodded at her and the girl quickly headed towards another member of their group.

"Hi, I'm Sofia! Let's be friends!"

Samuel briefly observed the interaction from afar and a small smile formed on his lips.

'How cute.'

He was then drawn in by the voice of their leader Marco Terranova.

'Alright, guys. Everyone gather round here we're about to go in." Shouted the leader near the portal to be heard by all.

Marco again gave one of his pep talks with his usual gentle smile and proceeded to enter the portal. The others in the group, including Samuele, followed him in line.

END OF CHAPTER.

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Hi, guys! As you have seen, I currently manage to upload a maximum of three chapters per week. I am sorry, but it is not easy for me to write chapters of around 2000 words each. Sometimes it really takes me hours. At the moment I have written a total of nine chapters of this story. As soon as I accumulate a bit more, I will start uploading more chapters per week.

See you soon, guys!!