Nodding to Lily, while her information helped, it didn't really feel good to know I was rather weak in this world, although I honestly expected it; I was only level forty-nine, and Lily was like in the four thousand, nearly four hundred times my current level. However, it was a little relieving to know there shouldn't be too many strong people in Hyphen; I didn't want to accidentally piss off the wrong person and end up getting killed, at least not right now when my [Rebirth] is still on cooldown.
"That's good to know; is there anything else I should know about Hyphen or the world in general?" Asked Alexander as he looked down at Lily, who was walking right beside him.
"Hmm, not anything incredibly important off the top of my head; you'll learn most things just by living in Hyphen and meeting new people." Replied Lily with a thoughtful expression as she put a finger on her chin while looking up at the sky.
"Refrain from being too nice." Stated Marlin as he glanced back at Alexander, his words slightly confusing him, though Lily elaborated.
"What he means to say is, you're a little too nice, Alexander, and people will see your nice personality as a form of weakness, which can get you into many messy situations that could be easily avoided just by having a tough outward appearance. Though I personally don't think you need to worry about that too much, just your appearance alone should be enough to ward off troublesome people." Remarked Lily with a nod as she backed away and eyed Alexander, who had grown a little in the past year, standing at six foot six and weighing roughly two hundred and fifty pounds of lean muscle.
"Yeah, but I'm still a little small when compared to Simba." Said Alexander as he looked down at his body before gesturing to Simba at the forefront, who was the same height as Alexander but was packed with muscles.
"He's an outlier even for a lion demi-human; most of them don't get that large." Said Marlin calmly while Simba was too busy enjoying the pleasant breeze against his mane.
I wasn't entirely sure about Marlin's comment, but he didn't seem to be lying, so I just rolled with it; since this world has a variety of species that were considered mere myths back on earth, I don't think I'm actually that big. Maybe for a human, but what about Giants, Orcs, Trolls, or Demons?
'Guess I'll find out when I get to Hyphen.' Thought Alexander with a shake of his head while looking at the slightly cloudy sky.
"So, will we be walking the whole way? Cause if so, Hyphen is quite a ways away." Asked Alexander curiously as he looked at Marlin, who seemed to be the de facto leader of this bunch.
"Will you be capable of keeping up?" Asked Marlin as he turned and looked back at Alexander, who slightly smirked.
"So long as you three keep the pace relatively low, I'll hopefully be able to keep up." Replied Alexander, his confidence diminishing slightly towards the end when he noticed the whites of Marlin's teeth.
"Let's pick up the pace then; I've got some things I've got to do!" Stated Simba with a smile, and without any hesitation, he dashed up and down the hills, his figure rapidly leaving the group.
"Of all people, what does that fool have to do? He probably just wants to do something stupid." Muttered Lily with a shake of her head as she winked at Alexander and slapped his butt before following Simba's footsteps, dashing right behind him.
"Keep up sweet stuff." Added Lily as her lustful voice trailed off in the distance.
"What Lily said, minus the sweet stuff." Remarked Marlin as he gave Alexander a glance before his dark figure quickly passed Lily and appeared beside Simba.
Seeing them speedily dash off into the distance, I looked at Talis, who was perched on my shoulder.
"If you need to rest, I'll carry you." Said Alexander, prompting Talis to spread her wings and take to the skies with a mighty flap, swiftly propelling her through the air as she broke the sound barrier in merely a few seconds.
"The Queen of the Skies never needs to rest!" Yelled Talis pridefully as she chased after the three who were already a kilometer away.
Slightly chuckling, I filled my body with mana, covered my legs in a dense layer of winds, and, to top it all off, channeled lightning through my body, using both [Wind Steps] and [Lightning Cloak] to massively enhance my speed. Adding [Heroes Gaze] to the mix so I could properly react with my now enhanced speed, I sprinted right after those four, moving the fastest I'd ever run before in my life, and once I reached my top speed, I felt myself break through an invisible wall, so-to-speak, followed by a large boom.
'Did I just break through the sound barrier?' Thought Alexander with a surprised expression, which quickly morphed into a childlike grin.
Although I was moving even faster than the speed of sound, It still took me several minutes to reach Lily, Marlin, Simba, and Talis, who seemed to be purposely slowing down since the instant I arrived, they sped up, running and flying just as fast as me.
"Heh, I didn't think you could move that fast, Alexander." Remarked Lily with a smirk as she showed off her speed by casually running backward right beside Alexander, who rolled his eyes.
"Neither did I." Replied Alexander with a slight smile, one that caused Lily to smile as well.
"Though I'd like to add, this is draining my mana rather quickly; I'll be able to keep this speed activated for, at most, 20 minutes." Added Alexander as he looked at Lily, who nodded.
"Then we'll just slow down once that time arrives, and when you refill your Mana, we'll repeat the process." Said Lily as she flipped herself and started running normally.
Running this fast was a little surreal at first, but I quickly got accustomed to it, and before I knew it, my mana was utterly drained, causing me to wince in slight pain, though as I've exhausted my mana numerous times before, it wasn't that bad, and my mana started refilling on its own.
'Well, not a bad way to improve my [Mana Regen].' Thought Alexander as he was forced to slow down from the loss of his lightning, wind, and neutral mana, though he still continued running.
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For the remainder of the day, we continued running, constantly changing our pace because of my lack of mana, though I did level up my [Mana Regen], so it was completely worth it, in my opinion. Once nightfall arrived, we had just reached what looked like a dirt road, so we couldn't be too far away from some sort of settlement.
However, we camped in the plains, and the three also had this fantastic magical device that would set up their own tent in a matter of a few seconds; I didn't have any, but Lily was kind enough to share her tent with me and Talis. Just like I suspected, the first thing Lily did when I took off my armor was pull down my pants, revealing my flaccid member, which didn't get hard despite her constantly touching it, even going so far as to use her pheromones.
"Can you stop Lily? Your attempts clearly aren't working to revive my sex drive." Remarked Alexander with a slight frown as he pulled up his pants and lay beside Talis, who was already fast asleep from a long, exhausting day of constantly flying.
"S-Sorry, I was just trying to help you." Said Lily awkwardly as she sat down in the complete nude.
"Haa, it's fine, Lily. I can tell what you're trying to do, but I don't want to get over Master's death by using you as an outlet. You're also hurting, and I'm not selfish enough to do that to you." Replied Alexander with a shake of his head as he rested his head on the pillow and closed his eyes.
After that little remark, Lily went quiet before laying down and snuggling against my body, causing me to sigh, but I didn't say anything about it.
"Lavy really was lucky to have a disciple like you." Said Lily softly as she looked at Alexander's back before closing her eyes and drifting to sleep.
"I was luckier to have her as my Master." Stated Alexander before he, too, drifted to sleep.
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It was the third day, and none of us had eaten anything, well, except Talis, who had hunted a few rabbits; currently, we were walking across the dirt road, which had turned into a paved road a few kilometers back.
"Well, we arrived at Hyphen far faster than I anticipated; it only took three days." Muttered Alexander, walking down the paved road while looking up at the sky, which was just a few hours away from nighttime.
Since we were now on a regularly used road, we'd occasionally see carriages being pulled by either horses or oxen passing us, and after several minutes of walking, I finally started to see the first signs of a city. First came the city walls, then came the city gate, and finally, the line of people trying to enter the city, which thankfully wasn't too long.
'I'm honestly surprised we didn't get ambushed by bandits or something; isn't that how life back in medieval times usually goes?' Thought Alexander, though he wasn't completely sure as this world has magic.