Here we are again. The town of beginnings, ... Although we're not going to be here for long.

According to the official site, we can get to by heading west of town while passing behind . Instant teleportation between cities exists in [Isekai], but you can only use the portals for it when you reach another major city or town that has one. It kind of makes sense. The developers don't want every player to breeze through the travel system through portals. Especially since there's a chance they might miss out on the sights and beauty of the game's carefully constructed fantasy world.

Luckily, there's a special wagon transportation offered to the players who want to get to a bit faster, and to our delight, we are able to reserve a few seats for me and Kazu. While it only lets us pass some dangerous monsters and drop us outside the territory of the continent, it's a good head start for us, since we might be able to travel through undiscovered landmarks that we weren't able to during the initial release of the game. The only downside is that Arthur and Razul aren't in the same wagon as us. Besides the full booking, Arthur proposed a challenge to see which pair would arrive in first. Obviously, Kazu and I opted to take the scenic route while Arthur still wanted to do the challenge and dragged poor Razul with him as soon as their wagon departed from town.

Despite this, we're not exactly alone as we find a familiar face right in front of us.

"Oh, guys! I guess you two also took some time preparing for the next city," Yur1 greets.

"You could say that," I answer. "How about you? We haven't seen you in the game since the [Sign Creation Ceremony]."

"I've been logging into the game after the expansion release. Though I mostly spent my time outside testing some new [Advanced Masteries] along with the [Sign Creation Mastery]," Yur1 explains. "Thanks to trial and error, I learned a few things about the latter. What about you two?"

"I did use my first [Sign], but that's a secret!" Kazu answers. "As for Wind, he's still learning."

"Hey! If I want to learn about [Sign Creation], I would have to learn [Scribe] and unfortunately, I already used one of my slots on that [Dual Wielding Mastery]," I defended.

"Well, you'll be surprised to learn you don't need the [Scribe Mastery] to learn it."

I drop my annoyance as my eyes widen at this revelation. "Wait, seriously?!"

"Sure, you do need it to improve your writing skills in [Isekai]. But as long as you have an [Insignis] race and participated in one of those [Sign Creation Ceremonies], you can learn how to create [Signs] without the need of that [Mastery]," Yur1 explained. "I talked with my online friends who are also [Insignis] in-game and even though they don't have [Scribe] like Kazu and I, they were still able to learn [Sign Mastery] after completing their ceremonies."

I didn't know that before. "Well, I was assigned as a [Half-Insignis] thanks to my special [Hidden Quest] and I was given the right to learn it with Kazu's help," I recall. "I'll give it some thought once we reach ."

Just then, the carriage we were in started to move and we heard the wagoner's voice yell along with the horses neighing. Then, we look out the window and see the wagon passing through the gate as we watch the town we called home since the initial release of the game grows smaller and smaller in our view.

> [NOTICE]

>

> [You are now departing from .]

"I hope we can go back soon. But I'm going to miss ," Kazu said. "It's like a second home to us."

He isn't exaggerating. Despite us living in the inn for the whole gameplay, it was the place for us to hang out and socialize with other players in our shops. Despite the paparazzi, fans, and other misadventures, I am really gonna miss the beginner town that kickstarted our virtual fantasy adventures.

"Yeah... Maybe once we arrive at , we might find somewhere that we might call our real second home away from our IRL home," I suggest.

"Really?! Can you do that, Wind?"

I nod. "Yeah. If the [Force Blade] can build their own guild hall, then it might be possible for us to build our own home someday." I turn to Yur1 next. "We can, right?"

"You can in the next patch if the rumors are true. But it might cost you a [Lapi] or two thousand," he answers. "Still, having a player home might give you guys a safe spawn spot in case of [Death Penalties] and a place to store your gear to avoid losing them from it."

I hum in thought. I guess even in video games, having a house has benefits. I just hope we won't have pay rent or other bills similar to Mom and Dad's experience with owning a real one.

"Either way, let's try to save up for one once it is released in [Isekai]."

"Right!"

Looks like we now have another goal in this game. I guess the trailers are right. We have limitless possibilities in .

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The rest of the trip proves uneventful. It only takes about one and a one in half in-game hour of travel from and we’ve already passed through while Kazu has lamented about wanting to say goodbye to Bai Hu. In 30 more minutes, we will reach our checkpoint and from there, we have to travel on foot to reach . We’ve also heard there will be a few monsters that might impede our journey there, so they might be good opponents for us to test out more of our new skills and learn more about [Advanced Masteries].

Eventually, we reach a village called and we’re now allowed to leave the wagon. It's brief, but we appreciate them for transporting us near the new city.

[If you head north from here, you may see a gray and blue brick road,] the NPC wagoner explained. [It will lead you to proud city, . But be aware that monsters roam around the field. They’re not like the ones you faced back in . So stay alert if you wish for a safe journey to the kingdom.]

We nod. "Alright, we'll keep that in mind. Thank you so much for taking us here, sir."

[No problem. Good luck out there, adventurers.]

After we say our farewells, the wagon leaves the village and we head out in the direction pointed to us. Thanks to that, we managed to reach the gray and blue brick road the wagoner mentioned and follow it as he instructed. It might take us a while for us to reach our destination. Thank god we bought some camping equipment and ingredients to last us a few in-game days.

Of course, that doesn't mean we can slack off during our travels. There are still the wagoner's warnings about the monsters in the area. It's a good thing I have a [Hunting] skill to prepare ourselves for any unwanted ambushes from them.

Bzzzz...

> [NOTICE]

>

> [You heard some strange sounds coming to the east via [Sensitive Hearing].]

And it doesn't take long for us to have our first fight outside territory.

"Heads up, guys! Looks like someone's here to greet us."

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We quickly take out our weapons and prepare ourselves for the worst. Thank god we’ve managed to form a party during travel in case we encounter monsters along the way.

"Do you know where it's coming from?" Yur1 asks.

"East, not far from us," I read the notice out loud to everyone. "There are some buzzing sounds, too."

Kazu frowned and said, "So if there is buzzing, then that means..."

BZZZZZZZ!!!

Just before I can turn around, Yur1 runs in front and raises his sword to the direction I just heard from.

“Spirits of flames, show yourselves! Pierce my enemies with the burning arrows from the scorching sun!” As soon as several arrows made of flames appear behind him, Kazu and I quickly back away as we prepare to charge in. "[Fire Arrows]!"

With a swing of his sword, Yur1 tosses the arrows and as we predict, some of them hit a few large yellow bees that appeared from the meadows.

> [Meadow Stun Bees]

>

> [While they normally live in a forest, these insects leave them to collect mana and pollen from the nearby meadows. If provoked, they will release poison from their stinger that will stun the largest animal for a few seconds. It may become more potent if stung many times, so avoid a swarm at all times.]

Well, this is a first. I’ve heard some monsters are much stronger than the ones we faced, but these guys might be too much for us. By the looks of it, about five bees are coming towards us and Yur1 only hit three of them. If what the description said is true, we might be over our heads here.

"We should avoid splitting up," I suggest. "Those guys will paralyze you if you get hit by their stingers and there's a chance they might call in some backup."

Kazu gasps. "If they do, it will be the [Link Ant] chaos all over again! We can't let that happen!"

I nod. "Yep. Running away might not be an option now that Yur1 provoked it with his preemptive strike. No offense."

"None taken," Yur1 answers. "Still, I feel like something's not right here. It's as if those bees were running away from something."

Running away? Why do I have a feeling he just gave us a red flag for a powerful monster coming towards us soon?

"Let's not worry about that right now. We need to take care of these bees immediately!"

"No problem! Saphi!" A light suddenly flashes near Kazu and it transforms into his [Baby Sapphire Dragon]. "Take care of those bees with your [Fire Arrows]!"

[Rawr! Rawr!]

I watch his dragon fly around and create his own fire arrows just like Yur1's. They quickly fly as soon as he roars at the bees, causing most of the arrows to hit 4 of them. This gives me an opening to step in and finish off some of the bees who are already in red. I take out my dagger and charge in with Kazu taking care of the [Bluster Speed] buff for me.

"Soma, we're up!" I let my doppelganger jump out from my shadow with his own [Iron Dagger] in his hand. "Follow my lead and don't miss one single move from me!"

[Got it!]

Spoken like a real [Familiar] and adventurer. "Kazu, Yur1! Try to restrain them!"

"I can take care of that." Yur1 aims his sword at the bees. “Servants of Nox, heed my call! Ensnare my enemies with the shadows from below!” The shadows from below the bees started to move like tentacles. "[Tangled Shadows]!"

The shadow tentacles quickly grab most of the bees as they try to struggle out of it. Not only that, they don't seem to disappear anytime soon.

"Whoa! A [Dark] spell! That is so cool!" Kazu exclaims in awe.

"I can't say it's cool considering... You know... darkness and stuff." Yur1 turns to me next. "Is this enough, Wind?"

"Yeah! Thanks, Yur1!"

Honestly, I'm not sure if this new stunt is effective. Soma's [Mimic] has no cooldown, but cuts down the copied skills' power by half. Either way, it's better than nothing now that Yur1 increased the chances of this combo to work.

"[Super Jump]!"

I jump with most of my strength focusing on my legs and find myself in mid-air above the bees. I also notice Soma doing the same, probably using his [Mimic], although he's a few inches lower than mine. Either way, we managed to jump above the flying insects.

"[Stealth]!"

Both of us yelled as we let our bodies turn invisible. This might be a dumb move since it sealed our moves and skills in exchange for hiding our presence away from the bees. But right now, that's not my intention for this skill. Without moving an inch, we let ourselves fall towards the bees and once we're closer to them, we make our move.

STAB! STAB!

As soon as we move, we quickly find ourselves behind the bees having stabbed them from behind with our daggers. Before we knew it, the two bees buzzed and their bodies disappeared into data.

Success.

"[Hidden Ambush]!"

The final skill for this impromptu combo. It lets you ambush a target By using the moment I made from our [Super Jump] while showing no movement in mid-air when using [Stealth], we were able to

"Nice! Now time for my new upgraded skill!" Kazu spins his staff and aims it at the bees. "I call the thunderous spirit of my aura. Let it dashed through my staff with the power of the storms!"

To my surprise, the electricity gathering around his [Crystal Staff] is much bigger than normal. It then formed a large, yet familiar lightning bolt above him. Hang on, did his spell just...

"[Discharge Bolt]!"

Yur1 and I quickly dive for cover just as Kazu throws the bolt at the bees. When it hits one of them, the bolt explodes and releases several smaller bolts, shocking the insect monster until it disappears into data.

"Yes! The evolved [Lightning Bolt] is a success!" Kazu declares triumphantly.

"Could you warn us before using a new or evolved spell?!" I suggest in annoyance. I get he's excited with his progress in the game and there's no friendly fire of sorts, but he seriously needs to think before he acts!

"Oops... Sorry, guys... But should we take care of the remaining bees before you lecture me more about safety?"

He's right. Since the remaining two are still stuck with Yur1's spell, I back away and switch weapons with my bow and arrows. To be honest, Kazu isn't the only one who has new skills to show off.

"[Strafe Aim]!"

I quickly step sideways as my vision becomes clear and instinctively focused on the bees. This self-buff skill increases my accuracy by 10 seconds. However, that's the same cooldown time as using my skills, so I can't exactly use them for a full combo. But according to its description, I can aim while I move. So I can shoot some arrows without any distractions!

With that thought, I fire as many arrows as fast as I could. I doubt I can get some critical hits from my reckless shooting, but with this buff, most of them manage to hit the bees with perfect shots. Once the 10 seconds are up, one of the bees finally falls as I draw out the last two arrows for this fight.

"Thanks for being our training dummies. Hope we can buzz soon," I snark with a grin. "[Twin Arrow Shot]!"

I fire the arrows and they fly through perfectly. With that, the last bee falls and the battle ends in our favor.

"Whoo-hoo! That was awesome!" Kazu turns to his dragon. "You did awesome for your first fight, Saphi!"

[Rawr! Rawr!]

"You, too, Soma," I compliment. "You managed to mimic my skills perfectly to a T."

[Well, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be able to use my abilities like that before. I guess I have a good teacher like you, Windy.]

I can't deny the teacher part. I'm guessing teaching Kazuki with his studies really helped me with Soma's progress.

"Uh, yeah. That's nice and all, but I still have some questions," Yur1 says. "Like how the hell did you two get some super-rare [Familiars]?!"

Oh, right. Yur1 wasn't with us when we got our [Familiars]. Maybe we should have told him during our wagon ride earlier, but we forgot about it and ended up talking about other offline topics.

"If we tell you about it right now, we'll be delaying our trip for a few more hours or days," I answered.

"Riiight... I rather not press any further. I have a gut feeling it might be a lot of ups and downs to get them."

Oh, you have no idea...

"Speaking of which, what about your [Familiar], Yur1?" Kazu asks. "You didn't seem to summon yours in the battle."

"That's because I haven't summoned mine yet. I was aiming for a special [Familiar] that is rumored to be in one of the dungeons near and having the ones in as alternatives might give me less chances to get it."

"In that case, we should hurry to as soon as we can," I suggest. "Those limited items will expire if we don't act quickly, right?"

"Yeah. Let's get to it."

We immediately resume our trek to the city. But as we do, I begin to wonder about that last battle. Yur1 mentioned that the bees were running away from something. I haven’t thought that much from our fight, yet something troubles me when I wonder about the cause of their sudden appearance.

I pray this isn't a sign of more trouble coming once we arrive at the city.

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> Wind's Masteries

>

> [Archery] Level 23

>

> [Woodcrafting] Level 10

>

> [Swordsmanship] Level 25

>

> [Cooking] Level 9

>

> [Wind] Level 18

>

> [Physical Enhancement] Level 18

>

> [Hunting] Level 18

>

> [Blacksmithing] Level 18

>

> [Dagger] Level 9

>

> [Dual-Wielding] Level 1

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> Kazu's Masteries

>

> [Arcana] Level 22

>

> [Thunder] Level 20

>

> [Wind] Level 19

>

> [Alchemy] Level 18

>

> [Magecrafting] Level 18

>

> [Magical Affinity] Level 20

>

> [Scribe] Level 23

>

> [Earth] Level 11

>

> [Sign Creation] Level 2