(William's POV):
After setting off from spawn area, I went to a single directions without stopping. My mission is to the far east of Survivor's Path...
After moving alone, I encountered a group of males training in the black zone. The black zone is a dangerous place where you can utilize no mana inside it. After coming into contact with them, I asked about the directions of a possible kidnapping group in the east. They know the name and location of the faction but asked whether I am sane or not. Of course, I was a bit angry with them teasing me. The group introduced themselves and were a group of friends that are trying to survive.
The guy with gray hair was named Malech and asked some details of why I'm doing that. After explaining the gist, their group had some sort of a short discussion and asked whether they could join. I get that these guys have been training but... Are they sure about it?
I ultimately decided to allow them to join, I had asked them in regards to their classes in which we exchanged information while heading towards the east.
"So, what's your class William?" - Malech
"I'm an Astrorift Assassin. How about you?"
"Astrorift huh? My class is Chronorift Assassin. I have abilities related to time." - Malech
"So you're also an assassin huh? How about Jerald and Vince?"
I probed in further to know more about my new allies.
"We're pretty strong ourselves, so don't worry about us." - Malech
Malech gave me enough information about their group. That included their classes, abilities, stats and everything.
After arriving to the harsh environment of the crimson volcano, we had found the enemy faction that kidnapped Flora. The faction group was called Praetorian and has no female members in it.
We executed a perfected plan and saved Flora without any casualties. After returning to spawn, Isaac and Gabriel recovered from losing some friends and became determined to become even stronger.
"I made have been unable to keep my guard up that time... But starting today..." - Isaac
"Dude..."
"I wasn't able to react fast enough in this surprise attack but... Next time, we'll plan our revenge against them." - Gabriel
"You two..."
While hearing about the determination from both of them, I shook my head from removing all the ill feelings I had a few days ago.
"Right, let's get strong enough... So we can land our revenge on them."
"Uhh guys?" - Flora
"Flora?" - Isaac
Isaac seemed puzzled about Flora thinking about something. From what I remember, one of us is currently missing and has arbitrarily left us.
"Marcus is?" - Flora
"Oh him? He escaped and started training in a good place. Let's meet him there but before that..."
I urged Malech, Jerald, and Vince to come into the room to introduce them to the entire group.
"So they helped huh?" - Isaac
"If I did it alone, I most likely wouldn't have made it. They're pretty strong themselves when I saw them fight so I think it's great enough to have them here."
"William..." - Mea
Mea was tugging the sleeve of my shirt while hiding behind me shyly.
"What is it Mea?"
Mea looked up to me like a somewhat shy but determined girl.
"I'm going to learn more about Spectorift abilities, to stay by your side." - Mea
Jeebus, she's so cute! I hugged her out of instinct which caused her to blush a bit.
"So William has some girl already huh? How nice..." - Malech
"Ahahahaha! I'm sure somebody will go for you soon Malech, just be patient!" - Jerald
As I kept hugging Mea to myself tightly, I heard Jerald laughing at Malech.
"William~! I-I'm, going to learn about it from my classmates who are in the frost village..." - Mea
While she snuggled in towards my chest, I became surprised that her classmates are also here.
"I think you should stay with them for the time being. I'll call you out as much as possible."
"Mmm!" - Mea
After talking about our plans for the future in this game, we had decided to part ways temporarily. Isaac and Gabriel went to various locations to train themselves beyond their limit. Mea went towards the north into the snow village to her classmates using my Wormhole ability. After she introduced me to all her classmates, they were separated into two groups. One side was interested on how I managed to successfully court her while the other half was dissing me down and wanted answers for why I'm leaving her to her classmates. Either way, she was safely treated and learned more about her abilities.
We often still go around together when we have nothing to do or when events arise like the tarot card tournament on the central spawn town.
It was the first month only but... I had lived with effort to do everything I can. But now, I'm going to become one strong person.
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Present time... (Denzel′s POV):
After more than a day of travel, we had finally returned to the crystal palace. The new residents who haven't seen the palace was completely astonished by my work.
"This... is the Crystal Palace..." - Lester
While everyone was astonished I opened the main door while welcoming everyone to the palace. But the first person I saw in the main room was Seymour, who is pinning down two people with combat gear.
"Leo! Miguel!" - Claire
"Claire?!" - Leo
"Seymour, what is the meaning of this?"
Seymour seems to be in a bad mood to pin down both Leo and Miguel. However, when I noticed that they're actually in combat uniform I might understand why Seymour pinned them.
"You have finally arrived Denz, these two have kidnapped your lover somewhere. Just trying to make them spill the beans." - Seymour
I start leaking out my anger which made everyone behind me shiver. When Lilith noticed, she tried to stop me. Malech and William noticed and tried to grab my arms but I had already moved in front of the two pinned men.
"You two... Where did you bring her?"
"As if we'd ever tell you!" - Miguel
I dropped my knuckle on Miguel's head and made him taste the floor. The floor caved in a bit from my power output but I didn't care. Leo was gritting his teeth and seems to not want to answer.
"Seymour... Leave this to me."
"Alright, I'll go to that room for a bit." - Seymour
Seymour goes to the mana heavy room but I didn't care about that right now. I generated a small hollow ring of ice around Leo's neck.
"I'll chop your head off if you play dumb."
"Denzel!" - Lester
Lester and Claire seemed to try and stop me from rampaging but was blocked by William and Malech from advancing.
"And don't think of staying silent because this will slowly shrink in thirty seconds to make you suffer a bit before crushing your neck completely."
"Khh! Alright! We'll tell you!" - Leo
These two will die later for treason anyway, so let's have them guide me...
I naturally kept the pressure as I followed them to the east of the palace. Inside the snowy forest was a single large igloo.
"She's in there!" - Leo
I rushed towards the entrance and kicked the door down and destroyed it. Rika! I'm coming!
"Rika!"
"Z-Zel? Zel!" - Rika
I found Rika on chains and immediately moved towards where she is. I cut off the chains and hugged her as she fell down towards me. Her face a little pale from the lack of food.
"Mom!" - Gayle
"Gayle!" - Rika
Gayle was behind me and also rushed towards Rika to hug her.
"Everything's ok now child, I'm okay now!" - Rika
Rika and Gayle are hugging while I heard Leo laughing from outside. I went outside and changed Omnitelum into a large battle hammer.
"You bastards!"
I swung the large hammer towards Leo which was blocked by Miguel. I amplified the force using a huge amount of mana and launched both Leo and Miguel towards a tree.
"The two of you bastards are hereby judged to death! Your treasonous acts against Seymour already warrants that and kidnapping adds further punishment to you! Severe public suffering is required!"
"Ahahahahahahahahaha, you really don't know what is going to happen do you? Denzel!!!" - Leo
What the fuck is this guy laughing about? He's announced to die!
While cursing in my mind, I noticed Rika who is close towards me.
"Zel!" - Rika
Rika hugged me immediately while shedding out tears from her eyes. She scornfully looks at the pair that landed by the tree with a somewhat fearing look.
"I'll kill you two myself!"
"You! You are so dumb to ever try to fight against us! We have already won and finished our part of the plan! Now, it's up to them to finish up the rest of it!" - Leo
Them? Who is he talking about? He's not alone and spilled information? Who are the enemies then? Is it an enemy faction? Hired assassins? Or maybe snipers?
While pondering which kind of enemy will show up I have finally noticed something.
"Mom no!" - Gayle
Gayle was trying to stop Rika who had stabbed me with a knife that has miasma oozing off it.