Mark and the circus leaders talked for a long time in the rest area inside the Star Wars The Old Republic gaming tents and not all of their talks were about business. Most of them were truly there just to relax he could understand that. They had been incredibly busy for the past few days and they would rarely have time for themselves once they set up in a city.
Especially now with the addition of the cinemas and the computer gaming attraction.
“By the way, our circus would get bigger since I’m currently conducting interviews and investigation on the people who applied to be a part of our circus,” Mosalan said.
“You do those? But when I joined the circus no one interviewed me,” Mark mentioned.
“We still talked to you and you don’t need to worry about our capability of detecting the character of the people who we’ll let in our circus. Besides, you were clearly a foreigner. You had this wide-eyed look of someone who recently got out from his father’s farm,” Linuel said then the theater director laughed.
“We were correct in a way since you just recently transferred from your world to ours and everything was new to you, am I right?” Nilfur said while smiling.
Mark found it weird to see the dwarf drinking coffee instead of ale since it didn’t fit his idea of an alcohol-drinking dwarf. He knew he should stop stereotyping the people he met on this magical planet but it was a bit difficult for him since he grew up reading about magical fantasy worlds and species in those works were steeped in stereotypes.
Solinae suddenly said that it was evening so they better go to Mark’s circle of RVs so they could talk with Donald and Robert. It was around seven in the evening when they arrived in Mark’s home area and everyone was already seated at the dining table they set up in the center of the circle of RVs. There was already a lot of food that Mark recognized since all of it was food from Earth.
“Where do those foods come from,” Mark asked while looking at the different selections.
“I had our chefs prepare them and we brought them here from the mansion on Earth where we set up the Warp Gate,” Donald said.
The dinner feast started and everyone enjoyed the food that Donald prepared for everyone. While they were eating, Mark asked Sam and the others their status.
“We’re still level 3 but we are earning lots of mana stones, at least compared to other beginners, and some of the adventurers who noticed our earning capabilities asked to join our party,” Sam said.
“Of course, we did not allow anyone to join us since most of our fighting prowess came from the items that you gave us. Did you know that a lot of newbie adventurers looked at us in disdain at first? I thought they somehow detected that we’re not from this planet and we’re receiving some sort of discrimination but I learned that it was because they considered us too old to start the life of adventurers. Us, too old! I’m only 24 years old!” Armina said outrage clearly was on her face and that outrage made Enleed and Sam laugh uproariously and even Blake smiled widely but still trying to prevent himself from laughing.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Robert, Donald, and their partners eyed Armina wryly and when she noticed them, she blushed so hard that it seemed like smoke was coming out of her head. Even Mark tried so hard to keep himself from laughing.
“What about you guys? Did you encounter any difficulties?” Mark asked Robert’s group.
“None. I think the other adventurers looked at us differently. I assumed that the new adventurers who were mostly young people thought that we were there to accompany Albert so they were respectful of us,” Robert said while smiling.
“We reached level 2 and we earned some mana stones. When I leveled up, I felt the power settling in my body and the feeling was addictive. The fact that the feeling of power is true is what makes doing that dangerous thing worthwhile,” Donald said.
Danielle and Elizabeth looked conflicted especially when Albert boasted that he killed a lot of goblins. Mark could understand their conflict because they were noble gentlewomen and living a life of violence for the sake of power was somehow contrary to what they learned to avoid while they were both growing up but the advantages of power earned through leveling up were extremely great. Not only would it prolong their lives significantly but the best part was their long lives would be in a young body.
The power to command the elements to defend themselves and attack their enemies, learning the mystery of magic that could overrule other people, and learning the secrets of the universe could be considered as a bonus but the bonus alone was so great that Danielle and Elizabeth looked like they knew and accepted that they had to learn to live their lives that way from then on.
Mark knew the advantages that he had given to his friends by inviting them to Veltun so he didn’t feel any guilt in taking advantage of their wealth on Earth and he knew that the two rich old men knew that as well and had been very accommodating.
“By the way, Donald, Robert, Hamil, and the others wanted to speak with you,” Mark said to his two rich friends after dinner.
Robert and Donald invited the circus leaders inside one of the RVs so they could talk but when they invited Mark he declined saying that he would be so busy with his business of dealing with the government that he wouldn’t be able to join their shenanigans.
“What shenanigans?” Robert asked suddenly curious what the circus leaders wanted with them.
“Ignore him,” Solinae said while she looked at Mark witheringly and he just laughed.
Albert was staring at the three elven sisters and he had to admit that the ladies were extremely gorgeous, typical of elven women that could be found in fantasy novels and animes.
Mark and the kids went inside their RV and he spent a couple of hours playing with them. He then told them that he would be gone tomorrow as well and would be back in the evening.
“Where are you going?” Isaac asked.
“I will need to go back to my planet,” Mark answered.
“Can we go with you and play in the shopping mall again?” Aaron excitedly asked and even Liriel was becoming highly energetic when she heard that they might go back to where there were thousands of toys.
“Not this time since I will be busy speaking with the leaders of my country regarding my right to visit there without any problems. Once I’ve settled all the possible problems that could occur, we can return there for a visit,” Mark told the kids.
The twins just nodded their understanding and went back to playing with their new toys which were so huge in number that their RV looked like a toy store and even Liriel ignored him and went back to playing with her toys. Mark was guessing that Milena, Nedertu, and the others hadn’t been inside the RV because of the toys that could be seen everywhere but he knew that their RVs were not any better since they did purchase a lot of things from Earth as well.