Like this we do what we need to do and come back to Parallel, Juran seems excited because he is going to taste the legendary teleportation himself.
Kagito asks us to get close to him and the next moment we are already back at Hellish Village. We feel a bit of vertigo due to the sudden movement, but we rapidly shrug it off.
Someone jumps a bit when he sees us suddenly appearing, but he recognized us shortly and says hurriedly.
"Guild Master, he-hello!" He stutters a bit while stealing glances at us.
"Hello, is Eroda in the main house?" Asks Kagito while waving his hand to greet him amiably.
"Yes!" Seemingly more relaxed, the young man says energetically.
"Thanks, tell the others that we have arrived along the way please"
"As you wish" Says the man in a respectful manner and goes away rapidly.
That's some discipline there, like that we go towards the main house
Along the way we see many people working. The previously grim atmosphere because of the soldiers of Arapi Kingdom seems to have vanished a bit.
When we get to the house, we see Eroda sit on a chair in front of a desk as he looks somewhat focused in something. Noticing our presence, he looks at our direction and greets us with a smile.
"You are back! That was a really short trip, how did it go?" He asks, and then his gaze stops at Juran. He frowns a little then asks a bit surprised
"You… are you Girvan's son?"
Juran, a bit startled at the sudden question, nods and asks doubtfully "Yes, but how did you know?" A little frown showing on his face.
"Haha, well I met your father a long time ago, and you look a lot like him back then… seeing you here must mean things went really well" Says Eroda with a smile that contained some nostalgia on it as he watched nowhere specifically.
I notice that Juran's frown eased as he heard that answer "Yes, they did. The King handed me these" I take out the royal emblem and the scroll. I give them to Eroda for him to read.
He took them in a cheerful manner and starts reading.
As he finishes with a surprised face, he looks at us and says "This is beyond good, the village will be able to grow quite a bit" a smile from ear to ear forms on his face.
We grin and then we ask Juran to help Eroda in some things as we will be busy with handling the Guild and the Village. We also want to build our houses but for that we will need to ask an architect to help us out.
Juran nods and becomes a secretary to internal affairs in the village as a royal vassal of the Kingdom.
Everyone comes to greet us when we get out and we talk for a bit. Zenith and Peko are advancing really fast on their house, Aren with his platoon waited for us before departing and he tells me before going
"Let's have another spar when you come to visit"
"Of course, but next time I will go all out from the beginning" I grin mischievously at him as I see a small shudder going through his body, "and say hello from us to Mayor Azalea"
Smiling and nodding with a fierce look, the Barbarians depart.
Like this, our days go on until it is already Saturday, the day we would meet up in real life.
I fix myself and go out to the meeting place on time.
At noon that Saturday, we finally meet each other at the train station even when we have to be at 7 pm at the Tv Station. We wanted to have some fun before going.
Isa, Eliana and Nicolas are already there as I greet them.
Eliana says, "My name is Ana, but please, just call me Eliana" She has a slightly formal attire, her appearance is the same as Parallel with long blonde hair and green eyes. The only difference would be the ears because of her elven race in the game.
"Okay, my name is Ezequiel" I answer her with a smile, and we start talking for a bit until I notice two people that seems to be looking around.
It is Vladi and Kagito, I call to them while waving my hand and they notice me.
While coming towards us I see that Kagito is totally the same, too. Short black hair and azure eyes, he is using normal clothes to go outside with a jacket in hand. His height is about Nicolas', who is about 1.77 meters.
Vladi, no, Viviana is using a white blouse with a somewhat short skirt, her build is smaller than Isa's and Eliana's as she seems to be a bit below 1.6 meters. Slightly overwhelmed by her appearance, I cough a little to feign it.
We introduce each other and we go grab something to eat first as I know a place near the train station.
In there we start talking and tell about ourselves trying to know more about each other. We also ended up talking about Zenith and Peko, and their current relationship as we are quite glad about it.
I knew from day zero how Zenith felt about Peko, so I am happy for my friend.
After eating, we go to an event that is going on in the central square.
The girls go around buying things and we pick some things too as we have quite a sum of money.
Kagito seems to tremble when spending money, it looks like he really cherishes it.
Seeing him, we start valuing it more, spending it carefully.
Then we stop at a shooting game that seemed to be going on. I enter along with Viviana; my aim is a bit bad because I normally don't play these games, but I start adapting soon enough.
Using the toy gun, I start shooting, sometimes I hit spot on as I get used to the game.
When we finished ending with first place everyone looks at us amazed, as we nonchalantly go down, but for a reason I feel Viviana's amazed gaze at me.
Our day continues on like this, peacefully.
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After the game I feel a bit uneasy, my aim was good, but Ezequiel's kept improving effortlessly. It seems that's what you call natural talent, even if I have the upper hand for now, if he trains, he might surpass me in almost no time at all.
"He looks bigger now, right?" Suddenly I feel a voice behind me, when I see who it is, I reply.
"What do you mean, Nicolas?" Nicolas is Arksen, this aloof man who is almost never serious has a smiling face now but even so, I feel the grimace in his face.
"You don't have to hide it, even I felt like that once before, but as his friend, I would like to ask you to not treat him differently, he has already gone through a lot because of his 'talent'" He tells me frankly.
When seeing his serious look, I nod a bit stunned. This man is almost never serious. I turn to look at Ezequiel and a smile blooms on my face.
Brushing that uneasy feeling of before, like everyone else, he is just standing there talking like any normal person, laughing with a silly expression and scratching his head whenever he seems troubled, stroking his chin whenever he is thinking hard…
I know him, even if he is a genius beyond any other person I have ever seen, he is still like any other person, suddenly, before noticing, I am already approaching him.
I just say to him "Hey Ezequiel, your aim is pretty good, but I won't let you surpass me~"
At this, he gets a bit surprised and smiles back saying "Heh~ well I am just a swordsman"
While saying that, we start talking more in a comfortable manner, as the sun is going down and we decide to go to his house
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While going inside my apartment, I tell them while moving my hands grandiosely.
"Welcome to my house"
"Show off" Says Nicolas, a smirk visible on his face.
Kagito, whose real name is Kai, whistle and says "It sure is nice"
"This is quite a place for someone of your age to live in" Says Eliana amazed, and Viviana is speechless
"Well, I saved money before, so I used it to buy an apartment now as I have a more stable income because of the advertisement of the Guild" I say while smiling broadly.
"What would you like to drink before I prepare some things to eat?" I ask them beforehand, they told me they didn't have any problem with high calories food, so I am making hamburgers.
"Juice" Everyone respond almost simultaneously
Like that I bring the glasses out along with juices I have in the fridge. I ask them which juices they want, and I start pouring them in.
They are really straightforward, all of them.
As I start making hamburgers and prepare the other ingredients, Eliana also comes to help me out and the others start fixing the table in order to eat
Finishing preparing the hamburgers I ask them to help me put them on the table
We start eating and talk about the procedures of the interview, when we finish eating the hamburgers the girls go take a bath while we go outside to talk only men
When they finish everything, we go inside, and we take turns to bathe ourselves with a quick shower each.
Feeling refreshed we go to the Tv station with the staff waiting for us.
As they greet us, and we enter inside, we are given formal attire while they separate us to put us make up.
Even if I tried to refuse, I couldn't escape.
As we meet again, everyone in formal attire, my heart skips a beat because of the girls, one specifically. It looks like I got enchanted…
Like this we go on stage and the interview starts, many questions are done and mainly about what we did to become the top players
We tell them about our adventures and I even say that I would give them the footage of our battles, as many already should know about my abilities in combat, there is no reason to keep the secrets, but I will still omit some parts
The interviewers seem amazed at our answers as she hears us taking on level 250+ monsters singlehandedly.
Then she asks me.
"Mr. Ardha, we are curious about who the other man is, the one who is shown to be sparring with you in the new video uploaded in your Guild homepage"
At the question I knew would come I answer "He is a citizen of Parallel, I've known him since I started in the game, in terms of combat ability he is on par with me"
"An NPC? He really is strong, but you sure surprise us with how powerful you currently are, after all, not even Mr. Kagito here could even graze you. Would you mind telling us a bit of your class?" She asks me curiously.
Kai sighs a bit but nods approvingly with a smile at the remark of the interviewer.
I think for a bit and I answer "My class is called Elemental Warrior. After training for a month, my master in Parallel conceded it to me. I can't tell you much about its qualities, but I can tell that I don't have the bonuses in the base stats and skills that a normal warrior receives, and neither can I learn any warrior like skill, only 'self-buffing'. I can't learn magic skills too, so every time I make a magic skill it just receives the bonus of the Magic Mastery I have" I omitted the Elemental Mastery.
She looks surprised for a moment with due reason, as not being able to learn skills means when executing abilities, they won't have the bonuses of the skills and because of that, it will be weaker than 'normal'
And even when hearing that I don't really receive the base stats bonus, like 5% strength, vitality between others, I am still plenty strong. Though, that's mostly because of my Elemental enhancing
After a while passes the pretty female interviewer asks us.
"What do you think about Brazen who got the Blue Mountains area quest and managed to complete it?"
Kai is the one to answer the question saying "That man is strong, his guild is by no means weak either. At the rift in the Blue Mountains area, an army of demons and two middle level demons appeared, and he managed to handle them, obtaining victory… though I am a bit incredulous as the end of his quest isn't shown"
I have to admit it too, that man has quite an influence, he would be at the level of Tyrfing in terms of dangerousness if we are to face him someday.
The interviewer, satisfied with the answer, ends up the interview shortly after some more questions.
As it finishes, the staff thank us and see us off. They are really friendly people.
Outside we walk for a bit and we say goodbye to each other. Viviana would go to Isa's house for the night, but Kai said he would return home.
Our meeting ends today, but we made sure to fix another date to meet up.
Next day, we see off Viviana
Seeing her silhouette go away, I am now sure of what I feel.
We face straight away to what waits for us as we connect again to that place that permitted us to meet each other.
To the place where those two and many more are waiting for us.
Parallel.