I arrived at the surface after days of being underground, and the fresh air running through my hair made me feel better than I expected.

Humans truly are meant to live on the surface.

Luckily it was still in the middle of the day, so I wouldn't attract any unwanted attention by looking like I was sneaking in the middle of the night.

First I went to check on my house and saw that it was exactly as I left it, which was a good thing, then I went under the wooden structure to look and see if I could make a secret tunnel.

Since I was in a swamp my movements were more obstructed than usual, and unfortunately, I couldn't see a way to make a piler under my house that would not be obvious, even though nobody had a reason to be here at all.

The risk was too high, so I had to go with plan B, not the most pleasant one.

As I was preparing to get all the items I needed and empty my inventory, suddenly a voice spoke beyond the door.

"Trader, your back!"

I quickly turned and saw Catharine at the door with a shocked face.

"Oh Catharine, long time no see, yeah I just got back, anything interesting that I missed?"

"Besides the festival that is tonight nothing else. Seriously first you went missing for three days when you went mining and now a full weak? Next time should we expect you to come back in a month?"

While she seems worried, I can also tell she's amused by my situation.

But from what she just told me a few things have happened.

A week has passed and they apparently have a festival.

When did they decide to do that?

What's the occasion, do I need to bring something?

I was just too tired and lost to think about a solution so I only chuckled at her joke.

"Well with how further I have to mine to get to a new cave system, there's a high chance that would happen."

She only rolled her eyes at my response.

"Good thing you told Froggy where you went, otherwise everyone would start to panic."

"Why would they? I haven't done anything considered dangerous while I stayed here."

Except breaking their magic wall to study it and lying about my connections.

But they didn't know about that, so what was the problem?

"Says the guy who mysteriously disappeared after hunting a witch to kill an actual monster that terrorized a whole kingdom. Who knows what kind of weapon are you preparing when you disappear."

She brushed it off as a joke, but I could tell she was actually scared of me which didn't make me feel good.

I didn't have any bad intentions for this place, so I didn't want to have problems with it now.

"So you know about that as well, news travels I see. How many people know about this?"

"Everyone in the Clan. It's hard to keep a secret in here unless the Elders are involved, you'll be surprised how quickly things can spread when you have a bunch of bored people in one place."

The operation secret base got harder than anticipated now.

"Well, I only went mining and had great results. That's why I came back to the surface. For this festival do I need to bring something? Also, what is it for?"

She only chuckled at my confusion.

"It's because we managed to integrate ourselves with the Stone Kingdome, as for what to bring? Yourself is enough."

She smiled and went on with her day.

I was still sitting there in one place thinking of what my next course of action should be, settling on getting some rest before taking any other decisions.

----

I woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day.

Looking outside it was starting to get late, but the Clan was not getting ready to sleep, instead, they were ready to have some fun.

I got out and walked towards the growing noise, soon arriving at the biggest building in this place.

The Elders house.

Everywhere I looked there were witches, some of them were talking with each other, others were eating, some were singing and others were actually brewing some potions.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Everyone had fun in their own ways, but I felt a little awkward since I didn't know what to do now.

First I went to get some food, and that would be one of the best places to find someone to talk with anyway.

On the long table sat a few interesting food choices, such as fried chicken and frog, or slime pie and jelly, everyone contributed to the festival one way or another, which only made me feel worse that I didn't do anything.

"Eh Fancy pick! Good to have you back, I heard you disappeared for a whole week when you went mining, how can you even do it?"

I turned around with a frog's leg still in my mouth only to see one of the usual miner's looking at me with a smirk.

"Hello to you as well friend. I heard the preparations from the underground so I had to check out what was making all this noise. I thought another monster Lord spawned."

The man started to laugh while holding his belly.

Unfortunately, I completely forgot his name so I didn't want to continue this discussion for too long.

"So did you get something good at least?"

"Of course I did, why else would I've stayed so long underground otherwise?"

"Good, you can show us what you got after this is all over, maybe you managed to pass the old record. Twenty iron blocks and four diamonds."

Oh, I easily surpassed that goal on the first day.

"Sounds like fun."

Then he went to get some drinks while I went to see the music group.

It was an interesting thing to see since they had some handmade instruments.

Something similar to a drummer, made with cow skin placed on a composter with no bottom.

There was always something similar to a guitar made with a spider spring. This world was truly amazing.

"Trader, you're not supposed to stay in one place when music is playing you're supposed to dance!"

Catherine appeared from behind and grabbed my hand to go to the dance floor, she looked like she drank a lot which probably explains her unusual behavior.

"Oh look, Cathrined got someone again to dance with her, this is going to be fun."

From the reaction of the others, this happens pretty often, but because they looked amused by this, it made me very hesitant to join her.

"Sorry Cathrine, I'll have to refuse you I don't know how to-wha!"

With strength that I didn't know she was capable of I was flunked to the dance floor where she proceeded to throw some moves.

While she was drunk, she actually knew how to dance pretty well, she had energy and elegance to it, and it was hard for me to keep up with her.

That was until she saw me struggle to dance and decided to grab me and started a Vals.

I lost complete control after that, and she was the one leading. Everyone seemed to have a laugh except for me, and it all ended with the two of us spinning five times before I was leaning on my back while she held me.

Her eyes were looking directly at me, then she lost focus and a horrifying sound came afterward.

She started vomiting all over me.

While her mind was up for that dance, her body not so much.

Everyone laughed and I decided to take a bath and clean myself.

Cathrine was already sleeping on a bench forgetting everything that happened, wish I could've done the same.

With quick steps, I was getting home to clean myself only to bumble into Froggy together with the rest of the team.

"Trader! How are you- are you ok?"

"Hey Froggy, as you can see a small accident happened, and now I want to get myself cleaned."

Froggy seemed worried before looking at the others.

"I'll help Trader to not get in any more accidents, I'll see you all later."

They said their goodbyes and went to the party.

On the way to my house we talked about what he was doing, if he was still training and he seemed very excited to share everything with me.

In the end, I arrived at my house and Froggy decided to wait for me outside.

I got inside and prepared something that could be considered a shower and put a bucked of water on top to have running water.

Then I took off my shirt and started to clean it by hand, it would take a while.

"I'm sorry I didn't hang out with you in the past few days."

I stopped cleaning and wondering what he was talking about.

"What are you talking about man? I know you made some new friends I also know how important is to make a strong bond with them."

"Yes, but I feel like I've given them too much attention and ignored my other friend, maybe that's why you went for mining for so long. You didn't even tell me when you got back, which made me angry, but then I realized that you don't even know where I'll be with how little time we spent."

Oh boy, Froggy was more honest and courageous than 90% of people that I know on earth by speaking up before stuff got truly bad.

And honestly, I can understand his point of view, he truly did kind of ditch me recently for his new friends, which would make anyone mad. Unfortunately, I was so preoccupied with other projects that I didn't even realize that this could be a problem, and the fact that I didn't feel disappointed made me a little sad.

That means that I wasn't paying enough attention to see that this friendship was slowly growing apart.

"Don't worry Froggy, I don't blame you for anything, and I'm not even mad, it's also my fault a little that I was too busy with my projects recently to try and connect with you. And don't feel bad about making new friends, it's not like well be less friends if you hang out with other people, it's just that you now have a choice on what to do, you don't have to wait after me anymore. You can make your own choices without thinking about how I would react."

I started to realize that kept ending up alone in most of my time here, Bobby was too busy with his new job, Merry was literally the hero and now Froggy is making new friends.

But the more I thought, new revelations appeared, I could stay with Bobby if I wanted to, I'm sure the King would be more than happy to accommodate me even with our troublesome past, and with Froggy I could've tried to hang out more around him, I'm sure I coul've join his group.

But I didn't do any of those, because I was afraid of getting too close to them, It was an issue in my old world as well, but here it's worse because unconsciously I don't want to get too attached to them, I was afraid that I wouldn't want to get back to my old world anymore, to my family, to my friends.

It's not like I was dead last thing I remember, so they sill look out for me.

In the end, I could only sigh. I didn't even know if could get back, Merry didn't mention anything about when she came or spoke with the System, so why limit myself to something that I don't know would happen, I should live my life here as well, not get myself busy with work.

I finished cleaning myself and the shirt, I took a leather chest plate from the chest since I didn't have anything to wear while it was getting dried.

"Trader, I think I want to stay here, no I want to stay here with the other witches. Sorry that I broke my promise."

Once I got out Froggy spoke to me and looked directly into my eyes.

And it hurt more than I expected. Way to shut a door before it even opens.

"I understand Froggy and I'm happy that you chose this, I'm sure the others would be happy to hear about this as well."

He gave a sigh of relief and we walked back to the festival.

I wasn't mad at him, maybe a little disappointed that this happened, but I truly meant what I said, I'm happy for his new life, it's probably safer this way since I intend to get into some trouble sometime soon.

But that didn't mean that I wasn't bothered by it, maybe I should take some of that alcohol that everyone keeps telling me it's like medicine for sorrow.

Soon we were back to the party.