When the sun vanished from his sight, Ethan made his way toward the teleportation gates with steady steps. After getting his priorities straight, he was feeling much better, but in order to get rid of his gloomy mood completely, he thought that it'd be best to hang out with his friends. Though, he wasn’t planning to tell them his discoveries yet because it’d do nothing but worry them. That was why he'd decided to inform them only after he got a better understanding of the higher realms.

When he returned to Niamaris, he bought a bunch of exotic foods along with a dozen bottles of expensive wine and directly went to Abraham’s room. The room was still a mess, but the ones to blame were just chilling on a couch like nothing happened, accompanied by a song that was coming from a small artifact.

‘’You two. To the backyard, now,’’ he said, amused by the scene, and pointed to the artifact. ‘’Bring that as well.’’

A [Blink] carried him to Rachel's lab, and he saw that she was reading an old scroll on her desk. ‘’Hey. You hungry?’’

Rachel almost fell from her chair. ‘’What da hell, Ethan! You can’t just teleport to people's rooms. Have you heard of something called privacy?’’

Ethan smiled cheekily. ‘’Sorry. My [Mana Sense] told me you’re sitting and not moving at all. I thought you fell asleep. If you were doing something indecent, I’d have left you to keep doing it to your heart's content. I promise.’’

‘’Maybe I should make my master beat you, I’m sure I'd enjoy the sight, and I’m definitely getting one of Abraham’s runes now,’’ she murmured, glaring at him. ‘’Yes. I’m hungry, I was planning to leave and return to my place to eat.’’

‘’No need. Come to the backyard.’’

Once again he disappeared and reappeared next to Pete. The crowd was already dispersed but a few people were still with Pete, debating about their Mirasatra plans. Even though the new captain looked quite tired, he was still speaking with passion.

‘’You know, you need to learn how to shoo people away. Unless you want to work yourself to death,’’ Ethan said. ‘’Anyway, come to the backyard now. Bring Michelle as well. I think she is in the kitchen.’’

When Pete opened his mouth, Ethan was already in an empty room looting the tables and the chairs into his ring. No, he was borrowing. Once he borrowed enough of them, he went for the lamps. Not the ones fixed to the ceiling but the small portable ones. These artifacts were able to turn the ambient mana into the light. They were glowing rather dimly but still did the job well.

Just as he was about to switch to the backyard, he noticed that someone was sitting on the roof alone. It was a bit unusual since it was dark already, but he had a guess who that might be.

Ethan appeared on the roof like a ghost and started to think that this was getting weird. He wondered if there were skills or artifacts to send group messages. ‘’You hungry?’’

‘’W-What?’’ Rafael asked back, startled.

From the original core team of Leo, half was dead, and a quarter left the group. Somehow Rafael belonged to the part that stayed, but apparently, he wasn’t in a good mood.

‘’If you’re hungry, come to the backyard,’’ he said and finally teleported to the backyard, starting to make his preparations.

First, he picked a nice place and arranged the long table with the chairs before taking out all his food to put on the table. Then, he placed three of the lamps on the table and casually tossed the rest of the lamps around the ground. As he was filling the glasses with wine, Abraham and Beet arrived.

‘’You got any happy tune in your Memory Recorder?’’ Ethan asked.

Abraham glanced at the table, unimpressed. ‘’Sure. I have an epic song, sung in a high contralto by a female bard. It’s about an adventurer who knocked up the princess and started a war against her father since he didn’t want to take responsibility.’’

Ethan’s hand shook a little but he managed to not spill the wine. ‘’Perfect. Exactly what’s on my mind. Open it up.’’

Abraham picked a seat and sat before taking out his Memory Recorder to find the song. When he placed the recorder on the table, the others also started to appear whereas Beet directly jumped to the table and went for the seafood.

‘’Dear god! Is that a mantis?’’ Pete exclaimed from afar.

‘’Right, you guys never met,’’ Ethan said, filling the last glass. ‘’His name is Beet.’’

‘’Oh, I saw this little one before. Is it your beast companion, Ethan?’’ Rachel asked, getting closer to Beet, curiously but slowly, while Michelle quietly picked a seat far away from Beet.

‘’Sorta. I prefer calling him a friend, though.’’

‘’I prefer calling him a nightmare,’’ Abraham muttered.

‘’So? What is this about?’’ Pete asked Ethan after sitting down.

‘’To celebrate, of course,’’ he said, lifting his wine cup and looking at everyone with a smile. ‘’To the Stardust and to its fierce leader Butcher Pete!’’

The others joined immediately. ‘’To stardust and to Butcher Pete!’’

‘’Hold on! Why the butcher?’’ Michelle said. ‘’He is a spearman, it should be Lancer Pete!’’

‘’That sounds like a regular soldier. How about Thunder Walker?’’ Rachel offered.

Abraham shook his head. ‘’Shiny Pike Pete is more catchy.’’

‘’Oh, I like that one!’’ Ethan exclaimed, pointing at Abraham with a finger.

As everyone was in a heated debate, the leader was gulping wine after wine with a defeated expression. Not much later, Rafael also showed up, walking to the table hesitantly.

Everyone got a bit quiet until Ethan called for him. ‘’Hurry up! You have to try the octopus before Beet finished them all.’’

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

When Rafael sat on his chair, Beet started eating hurriedly while staring at him suspiciously. Everyone laughed aloud and the scene became lively once again. For more than two hours, they kept eating, drinking, and joking with each other. As the small celebration continued, a few more people joined and at some point, everyone was singing the song of the unreasonable adventurer. Even Rafael was humming quietly with red cheeks.

After the small event, Ethan left the mansion and strolled empty streets as he went to his hotel, already feeling much better. This week was perhaps the worst week of his life; The sudden departure of Evelyn, the incidents with Travis and Leo, and finally the shocking news he'd learned, did take a big toll on him. But there was nothing more therapeutic than close friends having fun without thinking about anything else.

In his mind, he had many plans for the incoming future, but to focus on them more efficiently, he needed to take care of his mental health. That’s why he dismissed his desire to grind more levels right away and chose to stay in the Niamaris for another four days. The fourth day was the day of the tournament, and he wanted to see if witnessing a variety of skills would have any effect on Ani to create VR simulations.

With three rank-2 skills —one of them being a mana skill—, the data needed for the simulations rose up to 40%. It seemed like a few more rank-2 and one or two rank-3 skills would be enough, but that was a long time that Ethan wanted to shorten. And so, he did the best he could to get some information and went to the library of the Stardust Mercenaries first thing the next morning.

The library was pretty spacious, but the books Pete mentioned were only in the number of a few dozen, causing Ethan to absorb the content quickly with Ani’s help.

Thanks to Evelyn and Saruman, he’d already known most of the information, but he still learned a surprising fact and some useful techniques.

The fact was about the weird wisps of light his cloak absorbed right after he got it, the ones which came from the shadows of the statues as the last test of Inane Cultus. Turned out they were called Void Wisps and they were extremely rare. The elemental wisps were a semi-intelligent species, and finding so many of the same element was an impossible task. Yet, many looked for them relentlessly, because these creatures were one of the few things that could help one to increase their talent.

However, rather than the elixir that was recommended in the book, Ethan’s cloak just absorbed them. He had no idea if he could still use those wisps or the cloak itself to permanently increase his talent, but this information increased his opinion of the cloak, especially after learning about the legend about the giftless guy who became an elemental talent.

Other than this info, the most important thing he got was the exercises for the mana skills. Not only were there ones for advancing [Mana Sense], but there were even tricks to unlock some rare mana skills like [Mana Armament]. A skill that could shape and solidify mana to create long-lasting weapons. Although the book said that it was nothing good at rank 1, many legends about the superb weapons created by rank 4 of the skill also existed.

Ethan planned to make a habit of these exercises. Even if he practiced in his free time as entertainment, it’d still be beneficial. And perhaps, he could’ve learned about different approaches to advance his own skills through them.

‘’I've been doing those for more than a month now, and there is nothing to speak of yet.’’

‘’A month is like a weekend to cultivators, you know,’’ Ethan said with a smile and closed the book.

‘’Still, a month is a month to me.’’ Michelle came from behind and sat at the table, looking at him. ‘’You were a bit off yesterday. After your return from Ehrendil.’’

‘’Yeah. I… I learned some truths that are hard to accept,’’ he said and added with an apologetic smile, ‘’I’ll eventually share it with you guys, but I think it’s best to keep it to myself for now.’’

Michelle raised an eyebrow. ‘’We can handle some truths.’’

‘’Sure. But you can’t do a thing to change them. Not yet. So, it’s rather pointless for you to know so soon.’’

‘’I don’t give a shit about changing them. I meant that we can share whatever is troubling you. You don’t need to hold it to yourself.’’

‘’Thank you. I think I’ll be okay,’’ he said and smiled sincerely, putting his hand on her knee. ‘’You’ve buttered me up nicely. Now is a good time to ask for a spar again.’’

Michelle’s eyes shone. ‘’All you needed was some butter? I was planning to go for a ‘best way to relieve stress is a good fight’ thing next.’’

‘’Why do I feel like you have other plans as well?’’

‘’Don’t mention it, nothing useful so far. Abraham said he can’t trap you with your [Blink] yet, but he promised to keep working. Pete was the worst, he dismissed my idea of a training program immediately. He said you’d say ‘it’s a chore,’ and walk away.’’

‘’The moment I met you, I was already in the spider’s web, wasn’t I?’’

Michelle jumped from the table happily and grabbed Ethan’s sleeve before pulling him toward the door. ‘’Come. First, we’ll get a bracelet for you. Nicholas should know where they keep those.’’

After a short trip inside the mansion, they ended up in the training room. Michelle already changed into her tight fighting outfits, her eyes brimming with anticipation. Ethan was holding a yellow bracelet and inspecting the place with mild curiosity.

They were on the ground floor of the mansion and the room was even bigger than the one they used for meetings. There were all kinds of equipment including humanoid targets for the skills and spells. Though, the place didn’t seem much popular because it was a bit dusty and currently there was no one else but them.

Ethan wore the bracelet to his wrist and tried sending mana when nothing happened. Suddenly, he felt like his balance was off and his domain started shrinking at a rapid pace. ‘’Whoa. How did it do that?’’

‘’Not a clue. It’s arranged for tier-3, so everything you’ve gained after your advancement to tier-3 is temporarily lost to you,’’ Michelle said, stretching her body. ‘’But the inner workings of it is a mystery to me. Maybe you can ask Abraham.’’

‘’How do I remove it? And even though it limited my stats, it also fucked my balance up. I think I need some time to adjust.’’

‘’The mana you sent is still inside the artifact, just calling it back nullifies the bracelet, and all you need is a minute to adjust. I used that thing many times before, don’t worry about it.’’

As she’d said, Ethan slowly gained his steadiness, especially after moving his body. Once he felt ready he called for his daggers and gave a nod to Michelle who was waiting eagerly.

Michelle licked her lips and dashed toward him with a pair of thin swords in her hand. The moment she got close, she slashed both her swords horizontally, pushing Ethan back.

The opening told him what to expect; a wild fight.

Ethan was a strategic fighter. Everything he did serve a purpose, whether it was small or big. However, Michelle was fighting to her heart's content, she did what she felt like. This was both good and bad for Ethan. He'd fought similar fights before and he knew how to take advantage of it, but the problem was her unusual style.

The spontaneous moves of Michelle were nothing like he’d seen before. It was like she just picked two swords and started swinging them until she became damn good at it. There was no technique whatsoever, but somehow it worked.

Ethan focused on his footwork and took control of the battle. He was deciding the direction and she was following him relentlessly. The clangs of the clashing weapons increased rapidly, echoing in the training room like a piece of thrilling music. Finally finding an opening, he redirected the swords outside and sent a powerful kick to her chest. She slightly moved and spun around herself, barely avoiding the kick. When Ethan struck with his elbow, she ducked low quickly and even slashed her sword at his leg.

He almost used [Blink] out of habit before remembering the rules and making a backflip at the last moment. Damn, when was the last time someone cornered me to do a backflip? Either I became too reliant on my new skills and got rusty, or she’s really good.

Their clash continued for a few minutes more and Ethan eventually took the first blood, but it was nothing lethal. Much to his annoyance, it only made her more excited. Using her newfound joy, he made a bait and parried both of the swords when she was hooked. But didn’t attack. Instead, he turned his head toward the door in surprise. ‘’Jasmine?’’

Michelle’s head slightly turned over and that was when Ethan’s knee hit her abdomen without holding anything back.

She collapsed to her knees with wide eyes, holding her belly and breathing heavily. ‘’That… was… low.’’

Ethan watched her with a merry smile. ‘’It was.’’