“Why should I join you? I might as well leave right now.” Yaaro was very skeptical of the explanation Sholin gave. Unlike his claims, it wasn’t a long story at all.

“Yes, but what about food? And what if you get lost?”

As much as Yaaro was reluctant to admit, Sholin had a fair point. On Earth, he was one of the billions of people who bought their food— he didn’t know the pain of hunting or farming for food, and he didn’t want to go through the hassle.

But he was still on the fence.

“What’s so special about this place anyway?”

Eagerly, he nodded, “What’s so special? Everything! Kuln is the largest city in the Kingdom of Mehos, in fact it might be the largest in the Ermes region. The reason it’s so large and prosperous is because of the Great Dungeon of Kuln.

There’re 25 floors, isn’t that amazing! And the coolest thing is that there are monsters inside that drop things when you slay them! And the monsters come back alive after a point! The things the monsters drop in the dungeon are so amazing and don’t tell this to anyone, but I heard that the bow of the Super Kings’ guildmaster is from the dungeon. Rumor’s that it can shoot any arrow you can think of! They’re als—”

“Ok. That’s enough.”

“It’s also on the way to the Alvina mountains, so you won’t lose anything by coming.”

Yaaro sighed, “Why didn’t you just say that?”

“You’re coming? Yay!” Sholin celebrated.

Yaaro turned away and stifled a laugh, so Sholin didn’t see his expression.

“I’m going to ask you a question.”

Sholin gulped.

“Is elemental magic the only form of magic?”

“No, there’s also mana engineering, and the people of the Empire use something different. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve heard it’s not magic.”

The Empire… Ariadne mentioned it was to the west.

With that short conversation, Yaaro turned around to leave.

“Wait!”, Sholin exclaimed.

Yaaro groaned internally— this boy was like an annoying fly.

“What is it?”

“Dungeon crawling should be done in groups. Do you want me to introduce you to m—”

“Now is not the time Sholin, I’ll meet them when we depart in…”

“In 6 days.”

“6 days?” Yaaro exclaimed, “Alright. Good bye.”

Even more than the fight, that single conversation had drained all the energy from his body. With a sigh, he continued walking; this time uninterrupted.

He walked to his room— a completely automatic process. The train of thought in his head never stopped, and most of the time it was never carrying anything useful. Now that he had decided to leave in 6 days, there was nothing to do but kick back and bask in victory, maybe tinker with mana and become stronger.

All of a sudden his train of thought was interrupted by a beautiful voice from behind,

“Hello”

He turned around and froze.

“Hi.” He replied. A single gaze left him so transfixed that he forgot to be nervous.

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“Thank you for putting him in his place. We’re all very grateful to you, Yaaro Ilay.” She bowed.

Absent-mindedly he stared at her. And then he realized he should say something, lest he be seen as mesmerized., “You know my name.”

“There is no one in this University who does not.” Her beautiful silver irises were like lustrous silver medallions. How was it physically possible to have eyes as enchanting as hers? He was afraid to be seen as just another person who was infatuated with her, so he hastily cut the conversation.

“Well. Nice meeting you. I must get going.”

“Likewise.” She smiled.

And then he continued forward, mechanically controlling his limbs to move as naturally as possible. Of course, it must have looked quite silly— no attempt at manually controlling your legs looks dashing after all.

Before he knew it, he’d shut the door to his room. And unknowingly, he broke out into a wide smile. He’d finally gotten to airing out his frustrations and he’d had a conversation with the most beautiful girl he’d seen.

The days where having a conversation with a woman was a big deal were long gone. Atleast, that was what Yaaro had thought. This woman brought out a side of him that had been dead.

All this only fueled his aspirations to go home.

He couldn’t wait to see Rian’s shocked expressions as Yaaro recounted his experiences.

Back on Earth, he had the reputation for being quite the storyteller and having an interesting life. His reply to that remark would always be that he only remembered more than the average person, and he loved to tell stories.

He couldn’t wait to see Yokuttan and Lavanya’s entranced expressions as they listened.

He couldn’t wait…

The overcast skies rumbled.

And soon, the pitter patter of rain tapped on the windows, eventually morphing into the white noise of a full-on assault.

Yaaro simply stared out the window at the overcast skies.

Were his friends and family seeing the same sky as him?

----------------------------------------

Rain assaulted the enormously tall windows. The sound of white noise and the booming of thunder shook the stillness of the long hallway. Sometimes lightning flashed, illuminating the tall ceilings, walls and the marble floors. The maddening rumble of thunder followed soon after.

Darius uncomfortably sat on an elaborate sofa in the hallway. Now, 5 days after the duel and numerous healing potions later, his injuries had almost completely healed. Were he to have used high-grade healing potions, it would have taken a day at most. But his father forbade it.

His head was hung low and his hands were clammy with sweat. There was a pit in his stomach that only grew with every second. For almost an hour he had been waiting in silence.

The door to the study in front of him opened and a maid walked out with a bow.

“The Master summons you.”

Even the maid’s eyes were piercing. She was trained well enough not to show negative expressions. But there was not a shred of tenderness in those eyes.

Darius got up and walked to the door on shaky knees. His heart beat wildly in his chest. If it had a voice it would scream and yell like a wild animal trapped in a shrinking cage.

Silently, the door closed behind him, and he was welcomed into a dark room with a window at the end. An imposing silhouette sat in front of the window.

The silhouette’s head looked up, and he lowered something gently onto the table. The only light in this room came from the occasional flashes of lightning from the window behind the man.

“My son. Good evening.” The voice came from all around him and in front of him: deep and imposing.

“Good evening father.” Darius quietly replied.

“Tell me about your day. How did it go?” His father leaned back in his seat and even through the darkness, he could feel that piercing gaze. Under that gaze, Darius was silent.

“How was your day Darius.”

“It…” He meekly said, “It was good.”

The noise of the rain pierced the silence in the room. In the shadows, his father seemed to nod.

“I heard you had a duel.”

Darius gulped.

“Yes…”

“How did it go.”

“...”

The words were stuck in his throat.

“It… It went fin—”

“LIES.” A loud slam rattled the room and the room shook louder than the thunder outside. Something even came crashing down to the side

Silence.

“You let me down time and time again.” His angry voice drowned Darius.

Silence.

“If you are truly my son.” The shadowy darkness sounded, “Then you will fix this blight on our house.”

Silence.

“Understand?”

“Father…” His voice trembled, “Tomorrow is the day we depart for Kuln. I will fix this. I promise.” He murmured.

His father was silent, his silhouette moved slightly, and then his head lowered, resuming his previous task. Darius continued standing, rooted to his spot.

And then once again he felt that piercing gaze.

“Get out.”

Silently, Darius left the room, his eyes an inferno of determination.