Mark remembered the first time he cast the spell Dryad’s Circle. The wonder of it all was etched permanently in his mind. The mystery and romance of magic that was suddenly part of him made him feel incredibly alive and looking at the expressions of the people in the room including the scientists and military people observers behind the two-way mirror brought home the fact that he might have changed everyone’s lives in that room forever.

He could definitely understand it. One moment you were living this mundane existence, and suddenly magic was real. Of course, when he demonstrated some of his spells everyone was impressed but healing magic’s impact was different. Mark could not pinpoint exactly how it was different but it was.

When the spell was done, a veritable army of doctors entered the room and began conducting tests on the previously sick old men and women. Still, based on their movements, which became energetic, the results were nothing but positive.

Professor Aldrid and Major Dorman then led Mark to another room of sick people and this time, the people were composed of mixed ones in terms of gender and age. He cast Dryad’s Circle again and everyone in the room was healed.

After healing several rooms of people, he was then led to the demonstration room again so he could cast spells again. This time, the scientists requested him to cast a somewhat powerful offensive spell so he cast Void Bolt and Void Lighting.

Mark did the demonstration for a couple more hours after that he was asked to heal people again. He should have expected it but the government did try to milk him dry. It was as if they were saying silently that If you’re only letting us have you once every month then by god we’re going to take our money’s worth.

They only let him go around nine in the evening and that was because, Mark resolutely said that enough was enough and directly teleported outside the building, cast Fly and Invisibility, and flew out of there as fast as he could.

He returned to the mansion where the Warp Gate was located and he got back to his RV in the circus, all of his friends were still seated at the dining table in the center of the circle of RVs. Mark had to admit that their setup in the circus was cozy.

“Mark you’ve returned. How was your deal with the government?” Donald asked.

“It went well, although I somewhat felt dirty like I was prostituting myself. Soon I kept repeating a mantra in my head that it was all for the advancement of humanity. Will you please have your lawyers check this contract?” Mark retrieved the contract that the officials gave him and handed it to Donald.

“Oh, they gave you a contract? Will the government honor it?” Sam asked.

Mark saw that no one answered Sam since they all knew that the contract would be honored as long as he brought enough advantages to the government.

“What did you do for them?” Armina asked.

Mark then described all the activities that he had done. He didn’t hide anything since there wasn’t really a need and he wanted to check what his friends' reactions would be.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“So what do you all think?”

“I wouldn’t have done the same thing,” Enleed said but Mark knew that his friend Enleed was a contentious type and would have preferred to fight.

“You have already made a decision and if you think that it was the best decision since you wanted a peaceful coexistence with the government, then I advise that don’t second guess yourself,” Robert said and Mark realized that the rich British man was correct.

Mark had always been good-natured and would almost always prefer a peaceful solution to the point that almost all his friends one time or another nagged him about it since he had been taken advantage of people more than once. Even Hamil and the others told him that his behavior was a bit odd since he was incredibly generous to the point that the behavior could already be considered bordering on lunacy.

But he was what he was and Mark had decided a long time ago that he wouldn’t change because others found his behavior detestable. His goal was to live a life of happiness in magic and romance and if his life was not an exciting one filled with blood and war but boring slice-of-life events, then so be it.

“How about you guys? How’s your dungeon dive?”

“Our group reached level 2 and Donald was right. The power that was brought by leveling up was highly addictive and we can feel our bodies changing,’ Robert said.

“We earned some mana stones but decided to hoard them so we will have the funds to purchase the spells when we reach the required level,” Danielle said.

“Where’s Albert,” Mark suddenly asked when he noticed the kid wasn’t present.

“He’s already asleep. He was exhausted since he tried to kill as many monsters as he could. Did you know he was actually the highest level among us? He already reached level 3,” Elizabeth said while shaking her head.

“I actually asked advice from the elven sisters regarding allowing Albert to become powerful so young but they told me that the people in our world and this world lead very different lives. They said that people here who have the opportunity to become as powerful as they could as early as they can, would need to take advantage of that since this world was not a peaceful one but that meant that one could not advise the same thing to people from our world,” Danielle said who still looked worried.

“They did cite an example like the twin’s parent’s death because powerful monsters appeared in their village and no one was powerful enough to defeat those monsters,” Danielle added.

“I decided to allow Albert to level up since as you know, we never expected him to live long because of his sickness. He was given a second chance and I wanted him to grab the life by its neck and wring whatever he could with it.” Robert said.

Mark understood Robert. Before he cured the kid, his parents almost accepted that his life was ending back then but now, because of magic, he’s living a very fulfilling life in the middle of a fantasy story and they didn’t want to limit him. They were not afraid that Albert would become someone who would abuse his power since he was already surrounded by powerful but good people and one of them was Mark who was currently serving as the kid’s role model.

“Imagine that, Mark as a role model!” Enleed teased him and Mark threw a pillow at him.

“All of us in our group are already level 3 and we’re also hoarding the mana stones that we’re earning so we can purchase spells,” Sam simply said.

Everyone continued talking about the experiences they had inside the dungeon. Robert said that there was one accident that happened when they had to use a gun and that moment surprised the assistance that Hamil assigned to them. After that though, the dwarf who had been assigned to guide and guard them expressed a severe interest in the gun and pestered Donald and Robert about the details of the cold weapon to the amusement of Danielle and Elizabeth.

They of course didn’t explain anything to the dwarf since the women were adamant in not allowing that sort of technology to spread in this world, at least not through them.