The pink pearl didn’t seem to bother about the bad weather, as the customers just kept coming from the main entrance with wet hair and big smiles. Some of them directly went upstairs, but many of them asked for their favorites -the dishes or otherwise- and enjoyed themselves in the lobby with a drink. Everybody was having a merry time, except for one table. There, a grimacing Ethan, a flustered Pete, and a frowning Rafael were sitting.

‘’I-I mean, he kind o-of chose himself as a leader,’’ Pete said.

‘’And he is doing a damn fine job,’’ Rafael stated, visibly offended by Ethan’s remark.

Shaking his head, ‘’It’s your business. I don’t even plan to stay in Niamaris or in any free city for too long. But that guy would just take whatever he could from your community and screw you over with a smile at the first opportunity. So just a friendly reminder, make some backup plans and don’t get too attached to him,’’ Ethan advised, sincerely.

Leo Kovacic was the golden boy of the VR, in his late twenties, an ex-kickboxing instructor with a chiseled jawline and rippling muscles. He was all smiles and jokes in public, but Ethan knew the guy a bit more personally than the masses.

At one of the parties Vince had organized, he almost got in a fight with Leo. There was a kid who happened to be a hard-core fan of Leo and tried to get close to him with pure adoration and respect. From start to end, Leo kept insulting the kid with an increasing amount. And not for the crowd or anything, but for his own amusement.

Toward the end of the party, the kid was both awkward and excited about the whole situation. Ethan couldn’t hold up anymore and snapped at Leo. If not for their friends who got involved, it could’ve ended up pretty bad. Bad for Ethan, that was sure. After all, assassins weren’t the perfect materials for brawls.

A year later, there was a story about a girl from the countryside. According to her story, Leo promised to date her if she agreed to a gangbang with his friends. True or false, that story went pretty awful. Although Ethan didn’t comment to anybody, he knew that was something exactly like Leo would do.

‘’For the months that we were here, Leo had worked as much as anyone. He started a mercenary band with our entourage, and now we even expanded it to locals. Once we have enough people at tier 3 and higher, he plans to go to the Mirasatra Kingdom and find more of our people. Even if you don’t plan to join us, you shouldn’t slander his name,’’ Rafael seethed, trying to keep his composure.

Another fanboy? I bet he would’ve punched me for blasphemy if not for his early tier-1 cultivation, Ethan thought, not sure whether to feel amusement or pity. In the end, he told what he felt was right. There was no need to push it. ‘’I’m sorry. I might say too much, but that was my honest opinion. Anyway, what were you guys up to? You are at the late tier-1, Pete. I bet you have many stories,’’ he said, passing a crab-like dish to Pete.

He took some with an ashamed smile, ‘’Well, I have many, but not the ones you are expecting. I was an anthropologist before all this, and now I’m working at a butchery in the slums of a magic world. If I write a story about it, I bet it would become a bestseller,’’ he expressed, happy that the subject had changed. ‘’But I never had to kill a single monster. I found myself near Niamaris and met with a party of four. They were so kind as to bring me to the city, and even lent me some money, so I could buy a cultivation manual. Turned out I was rather talented and advanced quite fast ever since,’’ he finished with a silly smile.

The corner of Ethan’s eye started to twitch toward the end of the speech. ‘’So, you just cultivate and become almost tier 2 in what? Half a year? What was your talent?’’ he asked with a dry smile.

‘’It’s high grade in lightning. They said it’s very close to top grade and that all the powerful families would want to recruit me,’’ Pete explained as he started to peek at the ladies, likely the effect of alcohol that started to kick in. ‘’But I just don’t see myself as fighting with my life on the line. I saw that party of four fighting with kobold-like creatures. Even watching from afar, I got frozen and almost pissed my pants. Hence the butchery, I hoped that I would slowly get used to the gore and blood.’’

Ethan chuckled wryly, ‘’Why even bother? You’ll be at tier-9 in a decade. Just get some money to buy skills and hole yourself somewhere to cultivate till you feel ready.’’

‘’Oh, it doesn’t work like that. I heard that many geniuses get stuck at bottlenecks and need life and death experiences to advance,’’ Pete said while blushing by calling himself a genius. ‘’They said that there were even top-grade talents who died from old age. And the old age here is damn centuries!’’ he added with frustration and gulped his drink.

Rafael got up suddenly, looking at Ethan, ‘’We already informed you about pretty much everything,’’ he said. ‘’Whether you come to Niamaris or not is your choice. I have some jobs with the gang tonight, so excuse me,’’ he nodded and turned to leave.

‘’What an uptight guy,’’ Ethan said to Pete after Rafael left. ‘’Trash talent, I assume?’’

‘’Below average. He is not that bad usually. You somehow made him even more serious.’’ Pete said with a giggle before getting up and switching to Rafael’s seat to see the stage more clearly. ‘’Ah, and he was also a player from the God’s Fist. And, you know, the God in that game was Leo.’’

‘’Yeah, I know,’’ Ethan agreed with a mocking smile. ‘’To the mighty God of douchebags.’’ He raised his glass, which Pete clinked to his before they drank it.

They chatted for more than an hour, and Ethan started to like the big guy. After a few drinks, he completely stopped stuttering and started to make jokes that would crack the musician ladies, who were now sitting with them.

‘’[Mana Connection], to send your emotions through mana and so everybody near will sense with [Mana Sense],’’ Ethan repeated what the musician Leyla said. ‘’Marvelous! Is there any other use for it? Like in a combat?’’ he asked curiously.

‘’It also works the other way,’’ Leyla answered. ‘’I can roughly sense others’ feelings through their mana. Not an immediate use, but I can say it saved my life twice already.’’

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

‘’That’s really impressive, but too bad I don’t play any instrument. Do you think other arts also would be helpful to awaken it?’’ Ethan asked.

‘’I think so… Anything involves emotions and mana should–’’

Thump!

They both turned their head to the sound and found that Pete had just headbanged to the table and started to sleep. Ethan looked at the spooked elf girl Alesha, who was a colleague of Leyla, and chuckled wryly, ‘’I should’ve guessed. He drank more than twice as much as I did in an hour. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him.’’

‘’...Umm, okay then,’’ Alesha said hesitantly before looking at Leyla and Ethan meaningfully. ‘’Leyla, we should go back. Unless you want to stay more?’’

Leyla glared at her friend for the teasing before shaking her head, ‘’No, it's getting late. Nice to meet you, Ethan. We play here three days a week; I’ll see you around,’’ she said, pulling Alesha with her to leave hastily.

Ethan didn’t delay much and asked for the bill. He sighed with relief when Xena only requested 3 silver.

‘’How about a room for my friend? I don’t think he needs company,’’ he asked, looking at Pete.

‘’A silver would be enough then,’’ Xena replied. ‘’How about you? You look like you need company,’’ she suggested with a sultry look.

‘’Maybe another time,’’ he said, giving 5 silver to her. ‘’Take care of him, and when he wakes up, tell him that I would be around Ehrendil for a while.’’

After leaving the brothel, Ethan looked for a place to stay. Twenty minutes of dizzy walking, brought him to a decent-looking inn. The cost of a single room was only 4 copper. Even though the prices for skills, equipment, and potions were sky-high, food, drinks, and accommodation were quite reasonable.

Entering the room, he sent his armor to his ring and jumped for the bed. Right, I need to get some extra clothes. I can’t live with only leather armor, he thought. His thoughts wandered around everywhere, and he couldn’t sleep for another hour. It was very odd to rest in a safe and quiet place after months of battles. The civilization he yearned for had already become foreign to him. It didn’t help that his only friends were Ani, who obeys, and Beet, who stares. I wonder where that lad is. He could get into trouble in the city if I’m not around, he thought, staring at the ceiling. Perhaps I should’ve taken Xena’s offer. The worst thing about being alone is the annoying thoughts that keep bothering you.

Another thing that was bothering him was his missing friends, or more like his purpose of finding them. Before coming to this world, he had no idea what to expect, which led him to not make any plans and observe the conditions first. But the journey didn’t even start as he found himself separated from his friends against his will. It was this helplessness that made him forge his purpose and use it as a fuel to push himself. Deep inside, he always knew it would be like chasing the wind.

He didn’t even know if he would stay with his old friends after finding them and making sure they were okay. The realization irked him, but not more than his lack of purpose. His anger was toward himself for being at the mercy of others, and his real goal should’ve been to get strong enough to not repeat the same crisis. After all, this world was offering such an option.

Organizing his priorities somewhat helped, but he still felt like something else was lacking. After tossing in the bed for another half an hour, he got up and sat on the floor to meditate as he did in the wild. When the sun shined through the window, he took a quick shower and ate breakfast before venturing toward the library.

Coincidently, it was right across the adventurer’s guild, another place he would visit to get an identity badge. When the librarian said that it was a silver for a day to outsiders, he also remembered to get citizenship as soon as possible.

For the rest of the day, Ethan swam in the sea of knowledge. ‘The most poisonous herbs’, ‘Foundation of the Union’, ‘Rebellion of the vampires’, ‘Beasts and their favored elements’, ‘A journey to the Hell’s Pass’, he took one book after another and flipped the pages like a wind. Once he got about a dozen, he asked Ani to transfer them to him. His time was spent more pondering about what he learned than actually reading the books.

‘’Do you know someone named Martha?’’ The librarian questioned abruptly, looking weirdly at Ethan.

‘’Huh?’’ Ethan was startled and saw the middle-aged elf man staring at him with crossed arms. ‘’No, who is that?’’

‘’A weirdo like you, she had read half of the books I have in a few days and even memorized every content in it.’’

Now, that kind of loose mouth would get you a ticket to the basement of a noble, he scowled at Martha before answering, ‘’No way! That’s ridiculous. I’m trying to get a mana skill. My friend said he got a skill called [Mana Read], which allowed him to read writings with his mana,’’ he lied with an annoyed and frustrated expression.

The librarian relaxed, ‘’Young man, you shouldn’t believe everything you hear. If there was a skill like that, I would have gotten or at least heard of it,’’ he said, looking at Ethan with pity. ‘’Your friends must’ve made a prank.’’

Ethan's eyes got wide, ‘’But, he read the signs with his eyes closed!’’ he shook his head, ‘’No! I don’t believe you. I’m gonna try anyway.’’

‘’Well, it's your time to waste,’’ the librarian snorted and turned back.

‘’It’s more believable than your super memorizing ability!’’ he retorted behind his back before turning to his own business with a slight smile.

All this time, he only left the library to get some food and stretch his legs. As it was open 24 hours, he planned to stay for 2 days and got all the info he needed. Though, some of the knowledge was easy to understand but hard to process.

One of the things that made him confused was that no nation on Azora had the technology or magic for an interstellar journey. Then, how did they visit Earth? There were some legends about the Ascended like they could travel from realm to realm, but that kind of feat was impossible for Azora or even the whole lower realm, Elisium.

As for the ascension, it was another mystery. All they knew was at tier 10, the realm was kicking out the individual, and they were ascending to a higher realm. But to what kind of realm or what happened to them after that were just guesses and assumptions.

Another thing was the skills. Apparently, the skills made it easier to comprehend the profoundness of the elements and even the laws of the world. But they weren’t necessary to advance in tiers. As long as one had enough understanding, they could just gather energy, expand their soul, refine their body, and eventually ascend like the others.

Ethan thought that was a topic for top-grade talents. If he couldn’t even improve a skill to rank 2, what kind of understanding could he have? Fortunately, he also discovered the location of the dying pocket world, the one that the old man at the skill shop had mentioned.

It was called The Primordial Realm. Once upon a time, it was a home for the beasts of prehistoric times. But the pocket world had long become a barren land without any life. In this last century, it even started to distort with space tears and was left alone for its irrepressible extinction.

It was in the northeast direction and a month of a journey if Ethan kept his pace fast. I need to wait for the citizenship for a month either way. Better to go check this place out. Once I left for Niamaris, it would be years, perhaps decades, before I came back for Ivory Woodlands.