Bright starts flying toward the sky of the Inner Realm, when they get closer to the sky, Noah's whole "body" starts hurting
-*huff* *huff* UGH! What... the hell... is this*huff*... pain? asks Noah with difficulty while grabbing his chest
- We haven't even reached the barrier but you're already feeling the pain from getting too close to it. says Bright. Do you still want to continue? It's only gonna get worse.
- I *huff* *huff* need to UGH! see...*huff* it. says Noah with difficulty
- Alright I am gonna up the speed a level!
- Do*huff* it!
Bright dashes toward the sky and when they reach the sky, what they see is a white dome-like barrier covering above the sky of the Inner Realm
- *huff* *huff* *huff*
- That's enough. We are going down, Noah. says Bright. You can barely breathe!
- UGH! *huff* *huff* Let's... UGH! Let's go down.
Bright dashes back toward the ground and lands. When he lands his wings made of prana dissipate. Bright looks at Noah who is trying to catch his breath.
{Bright}
" I am surprised. I thought that he would have passed out before we reached the wall but he actually made it there."
- You are amazing, Noah! says, Bright
Noah looks at Bright with a perplexed expression
- What are you talking about? asks Noah
- Nothing. Don't worry about it. It would be best if you left now, getting too close to the wall exhausted your mental strength.
- You're right.
Noah's body dissipates out of the Inner Realm and he falls asleep
[30 minutes later]
Noah opens his eyes and gets up from his bed. He notices that Juliana and the others are not in the room anymore.
{Noah}
" Did they leave?"
The door of the infirmary opens and the trio enters
- Boss! Did we wake you up? asks Abel
- No. I woke up before you came. says Noah
Noah looks at them and notices that they are both wearing casts
- Will you be ok at school? asks Noah
Gancelot and Abel nod
- We will be healed up before the pointers exchange with the upperclassmen. says Abel
- That's really good. Missing the pointers exchange would be too much of a waste. says Noah while getting up from the bed he was sleeping on
- The pointers exchange is not the only time you get to spar against upperclassmen. says Juliana. If you two don't feel good when the time comes, don't participate. Do you understand
- We'll be fine, sis. says Gancelot
- He's right. Plus being on TV will skyrocket our squad's reputation! says Abel
- Now that I think about it, our squad doesn't even have a name nor do we have an item with a crest or logo that represents us. says Gancelot
- Don't worry about that. says Noah. It's something that I have already thought of and dealt with.
{Noah}
" Since I am keeping it the same as the one from my life before my regression. There is no need to change it since the reason why I am creating the squad hasn't changed."
- Squad Zxero. says, Noah
[Flashback to Noah's past life]
- This squad was only created for one reason. says Noah. The eradication of demonkind. Until there are zero demons left in this realm and all others. This is the reason why this squad exists. This is squad Zxero reason for existence.
[End Of Flashback]
- Squad Zxero? asks Gancelot. What does it stand for, Master?
- Nothing important. answers Noah. It's just the first thing that came to my mind when I thought of a squad name.
- What about our crest/logo? asks Abel
- I'll leave it up to you guys since I decided the name. says Noah
{Noah}
" After all, we never had one."
- I am gonna call Roan so that he can come to pick us up. says Noah.
- I already sent him a message as soon as you got up. says Juliana. He's on his way.
Abel, Juliana, and Gancelot all look at Noah
- What is it? asks Noah
- Do you intend to tell them about the monsters? asks Juliana
- It's not something that we can hide anyways. answers Noah. Monsters that can talk, are intelligent, and have a king. No matter how you look at it, I don't think they have the intention to become friends with us. To be honest, what they want is probably war.
- Noah! says, Juliana. You can say stuff like that when people might hear us. Are you trying to create panic!?
- I guess you learned this back at the royal palace? asks Noah
- Yes, I did. and I realize how important it is now! answers Juliana
- You and everybody that thinks like that are wrong! says Noah with an intimidating and angry tone. Keeping people in the dark won't allow them to prepare for what's to come. The panic they will feel when the day where everything will start will be much stronger than the one they will feel if they were to know now.
- I... I... I didn't think of that.
Noah sighs
{Noah}
" Why am I taking it out on her? When the first Rift opened, she was probably mourning after the death of Gancelot that died a few months before."
*DING*
Juliana takes out her phone to look at the notification
- Roan is here. she says
Noah takes his sword and his sword strap and put them on
- Let's go. says Noah
The group leaves the infirmary and walks into the guild hall where many are giving them stares. They leave the guild and when they open the door, a limousine with the Arcadios crest stops before them. Roan walks out of the car and opens the doors for them. The group enters the car and they depart
[Arcadios duchy]
The car enters the Arcadios duchy and stops in front of the doorsteps. The group gets down from the car and in front of the door, Duke Luke Arcadios is waiting.
- Why did you guys take so long? asks Luke
- Did we? asks Noah
Roan approaches Noah
- Young master, you left the house at 8 in the morning and it is now 4 pm, in other words, 16:00. You were gone for 8 hours.
{Noah}
" We were gone for 8 hours? Damn, I didn't know we were gone for that long."
- Father, we need to talk. says Noah
Luke stares at Noah, he then turns around and opens the door
- Seems like it's something really important. says Luke
- It is. answers Noah while walking up the stairs.
Noah turns around, walks down the stairs, takes off his sword strap with his sword and hands it to Roan
- Can you bring this up to my room?
- Consider it done young master. answers Roan
Noah walks into the house and takes the elevator to the second floor where Luke's study is located. They walk into the study and Luke sits down on his chair behind his desk and Noah sits down in front of him
- What happened? asks Luke. Are you alright?
- I am fine. says Noah. We all are fine.
- What happened to you guys? asks Luke
- First, it wouldn't make any sense if I didn't show you this. says Noah while taking out his adventurer card and handing it to his father
Luke takes his adventurer card and looks at it
- You received a BB-rank. That's impressive but as expected of you. says Luke with a smile while giving the adventurer card back to Noah. What does that have to do with what happened to you?
- There was a quest. says Noah. Nobody knows who put it on the quest board and nobody knew who sent the quest to the adventurer guild.'
- They didn't know which receptionist received and put the quest on the board? asks Luke. That's impossible. Quests are received by the receptionist at the guild or by the Branch Head himself or, depending on who sent the quest, sometimes by the guild master himself. They then grade the quest, verify the quest by sending a scout, and after all that is done, they put it on the quest board.
- Yeah. That's the normal procedure but nobody knows who accepted the quest. Even after checking the security cameras, nothing showed up.
- That's weird. says Luke. What was the quest?
- To raid and destroy a goblin settlement.
- Hmmmm.... That seems like it was graded right. It should be a B to BB-rank quest. What went wrong?
- Since the scouting wasn't done and the scout wasn't available, we took the scouting mission
- A lot of things could go wrong in a scouting mission, Noah. What were you thinking!?
- I already know that. says Noah. Goblins are threat-level 10 monsters and even in monsters settlements, it is rare to see an evolved monster. In normal, conditions it was supposed to be an easy mission.
Luke sighs
- What do you mean by normal conditions?
- The settlement was built within the Eucerin Plains.
- Within a plain? That's weird. It's definitely a good place to build a settlement due to the lack of things that a person can use to hide. says Luke with a pensive expression
Luke realize something
- You caught on? asks Noah
- It's not something that a monster would normally do. In fact, it's not something that is doable for a monster without intelligence. says Luke
- In the settlement, there was a goblin general.
- WHAT! A GOBLIN GENERAL IS A THREAT-LEVEL 7! yells Luke while getting up from his chair
Noah looks at his father with an expression of utter shock
{Noah}
" This is... my first time seeing father yell."
Luke sits back down on his chair after taking a deep breath
- What's wrong? Luke asks Noah after seeing his facial expression
- It's just that... it's my first time seeing you yell. says Noah
- I am also human. says Luke. I yell when I get really angry or shocked. I simply am better at holding it in than most. At the end of the day, you are my son, it's harder to hold things in when it concerns you.
{Noah}
" What is this warmth that I am feeling? Is this happiness? Am I feeling an "emotion"? That's impossible... I killed off all of my emotions and only kept anger and hatred. Yet what is this warmth that I am feeling? Last time too, I cried in Leyah's arms. What is happening to me?
{Bright}
- Perhaps, you've started to recover these emotions that you killed off or maybe since you regressed to a time when you still had them, they are still here. Just buried deep within.
- What about the intelligent monster? asks Luke
- It was the goblin general. says Noah
{Luke}
" A goblin general with intelligence.... That would make it a threat-level 6."
- Who defeated it? asks Luke
- That's where it gets problematic, father. says, Noah
- What do you mean? asks Luke
- He isn't dead. says Noah
- What!?
- He was killed but I don't know who did it. adds Noah
- Then why are you saying that he isn't dead? asks Luke
- Because he isn't. When the Branch Head came to pick us up with Fenrax, another intelligent monster appeared. He had a flask containing a liquid that ended up on the mouth of the goblin's general body. That liquid not only brought him back to life but it also made the goblin general evolve into a humanoid form.
- Humanoid form?
- Yeah. The goblin general looked like a human. Same thing for that other monster, he had feathers for hair, the physiology of a human and he said his name was Karasu
- Two intelligent monsters? Together? That's something that never happened before. says Luke with a pensive expression
- I don't think that there are only two of them. says Noah. In fact, they confirmed that there were more than two of them.
- What did they say? asks Luke
- Karasu said that he was the leader of a squad called Paragon that served the Monster King.