-Vanguards Stronghold's Inn-

We arrived at the inn to hear some rumors going on around the Vanguards Stronghold.

"Hello there! Vanguard's Savior," We heard a familiar voice. It's Warden.

"Hello there, Warden. What are you doing here?" I asked him.

"Well, just drinking some booze. It's a good thing we get high in the game and it doesn't affect our real-life body. How about you guys?" It's a drunkard's dream.

"We came here to hear some rumors. We are clueless on what to do next,"

"Sir Warden, if you don't mind me asking, what are the Thirteen Gods about?" Elou asked him. That surprised me. Thirteen Gods?

"Oh, how long are you guys playing the game? You should have known about it by now. They're the top thirteen players in the game and most of them are guild Leaders. The only way to be on top thirteen is to challenge them one on one in a fair fight though it rarely happens. They were ranked by their guild's overall power and they're the representative of each guild. The competitions don't count because most of the thirteen Gods were not interested in joining the tournaments. Sieg is at number nine and Zeth is currently at number two. The number one person is the strongest but so far only the Gods know who's at number one," Wow, I never thought that there's a ranking system on who are the strongest players in this world.

"Well, to be honest, we just started playing the game a week ago so basically, we are clueless most of the times," Elou answered back. Nice job asking an important question Elou.

"Hahaha! That's a really funny joke. Even my grandma would really laugh at you. Haha," He laughed really heard.

"Sir, but we are telling you the truth. We're at the Green Leaf village when goblins raided the village but they failed. Scy here died from the Boss and we're only beginners that time," You don't have to explain that much Elou.

Warden stopped laughing and only looked at us with a serious face. I know what you're thinking. The right word is "unbelievable".

"That's unbelievable! How did you become so strong in just a short time?! Even Scythus here can be compared to one of the Gods with the power of his Soul Stone," He was surprised by what he learned. And he also got the right word.

"Oh, Soul Stone. You mean this?" I showed him the two Soul stones I have, the black one and the yellow one.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"What the heck?! Not only one but two of them?! Do you know, what's the meaning of this?" He asked while awed and surprised. Are they that rare?

"Hmmm. That I have two shiny stones?" I know that they provide power. But I can only use one of them so I'm not really aware of how to use the other one.

"When you acquired a Soul stone which is by defeating Bosses, you can consume a gemstone to absorb its power completely. If you don't consume it but only use it, it won't give you stats and just mastery skills. Also, it provides you better control of your soul stone spells and it doesn't tire you up after the power up expires," He explained. Wow, that's some good news.

"How do I consume it again?" I asked curiously.

"You need to focus your mana on the Soul stone and absorb the mana you gave to it. This will attract the Soul from the soul stone and fuse on your body. Don't worry, there are no side effects but Sieg said that for some reason, the soul will talk to you. But I really don't care because I don't have one yet." For the second hand of a guild leader, that sucks.

"Thanks a lot, Sir Warden, do you have any problems we might be able to help with?" I asked. We really need to get stronger so asking for a job is a way to go.

"There are no signs of abnormalities for now but I heard that some of our scouts found the camp of the Orcs who attacked us. They still haven't retreated yet but there are hundreds of them. Some of them are the survivors. There's still no movement from them so, for now, there's no problem. Anyways you can check it out or defeat them if you have time," Hmm. That would be a bad plan because tomorrow we need to go somewhere.

"We'll think about it. Thanks for the info sir," I said and we bid our farewell.

-North of Vanguards Stronghold-

We decided to just train for the whole day. We traveled a bit far to the north where it's cold. This will slow us down but make our body adapt to this climate is a good choice. Our usual training, Akko, and Elou will hit me with all they've got and Lili will protect and heal them at the same time. I, on the other hand, will also attack them back. It's like three of them versus me. Unlike our first training, this one would be a serious training. We bet that whoever loses first, he or she will be the one who will pay for our meals for tomorrow when we meet up. And because they are somewhat a family, they decided to gang up on me.

We trained the whole daytime and it's already getting dark but none of us surrendered. We decided to stop the training for a bit to take lunch earlier. They forbade me to use my soul stone which I haven't consumed yet.

We are all exhausted and catching our breaths. That's a hell of a hardcore training. I suffered minor injuries but Lili never healed me. Burns and arrow scratches are mostly my injuries, kind of sting a little. They just want to eat free meals. That's why they're motivated to defeat me. I can say that the saying "free food is the best" is true.

"I think it's time for us to stop the training guys. We are all exhausted and we still haven't eaten our dinner yet," I suggested.

"You're right. But we will continue this training later to settle the bet," Elou said.

Before we logged out a bright light caught our eyes behind us. The ground broke and the light beams below the ground.

"What in the world is that?" Elou was surprised by it.

We decided to go near and take a look at it. The ground shook and started to open and for some reason, an entrance opened up!

"Hey, guys! It is a cave!" I was awed by it because it was beautiful inside. But the ground started to shake again. It is starting to close up!

We panicked and entered the cave before it closed down.