“Are you guys going to break through now?” Myra asked the two, clearly excited as shown by her fluttering glowing red wings.

She didn’t like how her newly acquired wings reacted to her emotions, but it still made Zeke inwardly chuckle as they clearly showed her excitement. Apparently Mikella agreed as they kept quiet about her wings.

“There’s no better time than now,” Mikella said, her fists tightening. “I wanna see my sub race choices already! I’m also looking forward to how my Class evolves too.”

“Same here,” Zeke nodded. “Where’s everybody else? We wanna tell them the good news first.”

“Follow me,” Myra winked. “I had a feeling you two would finally catch up with us, so I went ahead. Apparently the rest of Eve Glade agreed too.”

Myra laughed gleefully as she led the two over to the training area of the town. Their town had grown bigger, though not entirely in size. Since the biodome was considered Eve Glade’s property now, they expanded the area to encompass a training area larger than their usual field.

It became an outdoor facility, the ground custom-made with Zeke and Cloud’s runes to ensure it’s kept evenly paced and cleaned from any sort of human grime put there while training. There was also a building, a hub of sorts for all the tired fighters to meditate and rest up after they had their training. It was built with a homey-sense of style, just like the Lord’s home, made entirely out of well-carved wood and blackened slate stone.

Though that was the only thing Zeke could see before he noticed the entire crowd of soldiers making a lot of noise, each grunting with effort as they swung their weapons, unleashed their skills, and groaned in pain from their intensive training.

There were plenty of new soldiers that came in as well, each one a recognized citizen of Eve Glade after they updated their entry policies via the kingdom’s influence. There were new faces Zeke hadn't gotten used to yet, but apparently they recognized them as the soldiers stopped what they were doing and looked back at the three coming in, Myra cupping her hand to the side of her face as she shouted.

“Make way for the new Journeymen! They made it, guys!”

As though they were waiting for it, the soldiers shouted in jubilation, raising their weapons and roaring in approval to the new Journeymen coming soon. Zeke had only just gotten through this, and now he found himself right back in the extrovert’s zone. All he wanted to do was just go home already.

However, he forged through. No matter how much of an introvert he was, he knew that everyone of them were there with the two as they improved their skills. They deserved to know about their accomplishments. That’s when he spotted someone who was just as eagerly waiting for them to advance.

Piker, the sub-leader of Zacharia’s retinue and his own adopted son, also reached Journeyman alongside Myra. It was actually around the same time as well, which didn’t help at all with the rumors about the two becoming closer as the year passed.

Piker certainly changed after that. He grew big–not as big as Zacharia, but noticeably a few inches taller than before. There were hints of icey blue tendrils of pure frost, almost like scales, covering his entire body, as proven by his exposed face and bulging arms that might as well be tree trunks.

And who could forget about how his once blond hair is now entirely icey-blue? His sub-race was known as Ice Giant, another particularly interesting race that were just as incredible as the Fire Fairies, except that they lived in the coldest regions of the world. Some even say that these giants were often confused with giant ice mountains.

Though contrary to how Myra changed, Piker didn’t change much in terms of size, despite that the Ice Giants themselves were literally thrice as big as Piker according to the texts. Apparently Humans can only change a little, taking on the more important aspects of the race rather than the entirety of their looks. Myra, for instance, had her wings because the Fire Fairies were known for their flight ability.

But despite his hulking frame now, Zeke walked up to the man and offered a fist. In return, Piker grinned and punched Zeke’s fist, creating a satisfying smack of knuckles for celebration.

“Congratulations, Zeke, Mikella,” Piker said, his normally rough tone now transformed into a smooth and rich voice thanks to his advancement. “Looks like Myra was right on the money.”

“I told you I had a good feeling today,” Myra grinned, looking at the otherworlders. “They plan on breaking through today, apparently.”

“That’s so?” Piker nodded. “There’s nothing else going on today, so you might as well. Do you have any plans on what sort of race you’re choosing? It may be random at times, but it’s better to plan this out before anything else. It’s a decision you’ll stay with for the rest of your life.”

“Trust me, I’ve been going through all sorts of books for that,” Zeke said, feeling a little proud of that. Though he didn’t know that Mikella rolled her eyes behind his back. “I got a few good options to raise my Spirit stat even further.”

“Really? No race to improve your fighting?” Myra asked in surprise. “I figured you would take on a fighting type of race, like a beastkin or tribal.”

The names she stated were simple ways of categorizing the races, such as the fairies belonging to the fae, and giants belonging to the tribal category.

“My fighting is meant only as a ‘just-in-case’. It’s honestly more of a hobby, if anything. In the end, it’s all about magic for me,” Zeke said. “I’m a runist and a healer, so I gotta pick something that further improves my magic capabilities.”

“Wise,” Piker nodded. “And you’re already terrifying enough as a fighter built on magic. With a race boosting that, it’ll only become more potent. Mikella, I can guess you’re going to pick a fighting type of race?”

“Nah, I wanna pick something that boosts my magic too,” Mikella disagreed, surprising both Piker and even Myra. “Zeke can go all out with magic, but I already got pretty much everything down on fighting. Right now, I wanna make sure I can keep fighting with my lightning.”

“Seriously, you two always keep confusing me,” Myra shook her head ruefully. “Ah well, in the end we’ll know what you picked once you broke through. Just try and not start any explosions or something. Trust me, it’s hard to clean up after that.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Myra said, though she did clear her throat a little afterwards, still not entirely cool with how she started fires from the way her cheeks blushed from her own words.

While Mikella scoffed at that, another voice pierced through the joyful mood around them. A familiar high-pitched voice that made the otherworlders turn back with a smile.

“Bobo! Sissy! Did you guys make it?”

Even now, despite seeing her every day since they were sucked into this world, Zeke couldn’t believe how much Clara, Mikella’s little sister, had grown up.

Certainly, she was only a bit taller than how he first saw her, but compared to her demure introverted self almost two years ago, now there was a girl vibrant with life and energy, her black hair now long enough to reach the small of her back. Her smile was wider, her brown eyes were bright, and she was becoming slowly, albeit differently, more like her sister every day.

Seeing her grow up like that filled Zeke with a sense of joy he can’t really explain. He also knew that someday, she’ll grow up enough to reach initialization, and then go off on her own journey. He can’t imagine such a thing yet, so for now, he smiled as she approached, awaiting good news.

“Yep! We finally got the skills necessary to reach Journeyman,” Mikella said, her smile softening and becoming more sister-like when it came to Clara. Clara herself smiled back the same way, grinning with brimming excitement.

“Awesome! That means you’ll get to transform, right? Into something else?”

“Well, transform might not be the right word to use… or is it?” Zeke said, actually curious whether they transform or not.

“I think it’s morphing, isn’t it? Not like we can transform whenever we want,” Mikella said, tilting her head as she also wondered.

“No, it’s definitely transforming. It sounds cooler! Morphing sounds gross, Sissy,” Clara frowned at her older sister, which made Mikella scoff at her.

“Look at this small child, thinking she knows better than her older sister,” Mikella said with such a smug attitude that it got Clara to furrow her brows at her. She even laughed like a smug woman which only made Clara growl at her.

“It’s true! Right, Bobo?”

“Well…” Zeke grimaced, not really knowing where this conversation was going, but then another voice came into the picture.

“It is an evolution, not a transformation, nor any kind of morphing. It says so within the system itself.”

The pristine, cool voice that also belonged to a little girl, but was clearly not reached their ears. While Clara looked back at her with delight, Mikella on the other hand didn’t share the same sentiment. Neither did Zeke.

Because the one who spoke was Zoan, the angel that became their onlooker, and the reason for the time limit to begin with.

Or at least, only her silver hair and impassive face proved it was Zoan. Everything else on the other hand was just like Clara in every way. Down to her height, weight, skin color, and even the kind of dress she would wear, though recently she started to enjoy wearing shorter-hemmed dresses and having shorts underneath them now.

Yet those eyes still seem to pierce right through him, causing his insides to tingle as though her very presence hadn’t changed at all, not even diminished despite her current form.

As for how Zoan got herself a physical form that looked exactly like Clara, it was all because of Zeke, or rather, because of his attunement–The World.

Once she came to this world, via Zeke in his own bed as she appeared into, she revealed that during Zeke’s ‘giant mode’, his attunement swallowed her up when she was still inside of Clara’s soul.

Due to her current situation, Zoan had no chance of countering the ever unique and powerful attunement Zeke landed himself with, and before her being could disappear entirely, she used the last vestiges of her energy to copy Clara’s form into physical matter, the only way she had any connection to any livable thing that wasn’t connected to the system yet.

All of it sounded rather complicated for the mortals who listened to her story, but the short answer was that she found a loophole to survive her current predicament, thus landing herself into a role playing as Clara’s long-lost twin sister that has finally found her family again after almost a full year.

At least that’s what the story would be to explain why all of a sudden, the usually likable and popular Clara suddenly had a twin that looked eerily similar to her.

Since then, they have been living together as for one, Zoan’s energy was completely absorbed into Zeke’s second rank up for The World, forcing her to try and recover it back no matter how long it took. The second was that it was still her duty to watch over her charges, even at her form, so at the very least she was dutiful of her work.

Unfortunately, despite finally having a physical body, Zoan refused to share any further information regarding the gods, and their supposed trial that they were training for. The only thing they knew so far from her is that there are no current towers, and that they still had less than a year to become Journeymen, so with that hanging over their heads, the otherworlders worked their asses off to train.

Looking at Zoan now, there was a hint of… satisfaction, though Zeke was not very good at reading faces–especially Zoan’s as her own face was like a statue, a complete opposite of the ever expressional Clara.

“It’s good that you two have reached the requirements. Though it was of course only a matter of time,” Zoan said, walking up to the trio family with Mikella crossing her arms, her earlier visage twisting into a frown.

“You make it sound like this is something easy to do,” Mikella snapped, her eyes thinning. “We worked every single day and only just now got it. Why don’t you give us a break?”

“There is no break for you two,” Zoan said, dismissing Mikella’s words entirely. “If there was, you would’ve been killed by now.”

That got a growl from Mikella, but Zeke put a hand over her shoulder–a practiced motion that they have been doing for a whole year now.

“Mikky, there’s no point. Zoan’s always like this. At least we finally got this over with.”

It wasn’t as though Zeke wanted Mikella and Zoan to get along. In fact, he fully shared her sentiments. However, even Zeke could tell that Zoan wasn’t the type to be friendly. Not just to her charges–to anyone, for that matter. Whether it would be due to her attitude as an angel, or because she was constantly in a bad mood because, well, she was stuck in a little girl’s body–in the end, Zoan’s behavior always get a rise out of Mikella, and of course, she couldn't help but get a rise when Zoan looks exactly like Clara and acts completely different from her.

Though Zeke knew the real kicker was how Clara held onto Mikella’s wrist, a pleading look in her eyes.

“Sissy, please try to get along. Zoan’s really nice–you know that!”

“Ugh, Clara…”

A faint trace of pain and disbelief flashed across Mikella’s face before she changed into a solemn look. After a moment, she nodded in understanding.

Clara really liked Zoan, and for better or worse, Zoan pretty much went along with anything Clara does, playing her role perfectly as her twin sister. Zeke knew that Zoan didn’t like being treated as a little girl, but despite that, she never–not once–treated Clara worse than how she did the others. Sure, she was always grouchy, but Clara always seems to get Zoan to join whatever it was she was into, which also included Ana, who also shared Mikella’s distrust of her ever since Zoan forced Clara to head into the biodome alone.

It was taxing to think about, considering their history at the moment, so Zeke decided to move it along, putting a forced smile on his face.

“Come on, let’s go and give the lords the good news, yeah?”

“...Yeah,” Mikella nodded, a smile of her own popping up. “Let’s go tell the good news. Clara, wanna tell them for us?”

“Aaaah!” Clara gasped, her eyes beaming. “Hell yeah I do! Let’s go!”