While Robin and her friends were engaged in a jovial reunion, Leo and Amber were sitting at their makeshift dinner table in the middle of the clearing.
"What's your plan for Robin's friends? Are you going to help them the way that you helped Robin and I?" Amber asked.
Leo looked at her for a second before replying, "No. They are on their own. We will provide them with a safe place to live but nothing more.
If Robin or you would like to help them, then of course I will not stop you, but as I've explained to them multiple times already, they need to start taking care of themselves."
"You talk about this space like it's some kind of sanctuary even though it's just a clearing in the middle of the desert. Why is that? Was there something special about this place in your previous 'lives'?"
"I guess there is no harm in telling you now since it's only a matter of time before it happens.
In my past life we referred to an upcoming event as Earth's Rebirth.
The world as we know it hasn't changed all that much, aside from the animals becoming stronger and more aggressive, correct?"
Amber nodded her head and continued to listen intently.
"Well.. in a few days or weeks..." Leo continued.
"LEO! This is where you went! Oh, if it isn't Amber! How are you doing Amber?! I'm happy to see you well!" came a voice from a short distance away.
Leo glanced over his shoulder to see Lilly happily skipping over to their table.
Almost out of reflex Leo started to rub his forehead as if he had had a sudden onset of a migraine.
Amber chuckled when she saw Leo's exasperated look. Before this moment, she had yet to see anything that broke Leo's calm and confident exterior.
"Hey Lilly! How are you doing? I am glad to see you well." Amber replied as Lilly took a seat at the table with them.
"How am I doing? Fantastic! This is like a real adventure! Camping in the wilderness, enemies lurking in the surroundings, and Leo here is quite the hunter! I was barely able to catch his movements as we traveled through the desert but when I did, ooo boy were they quite the show!"
Ah, I'm sorry, did I interrupt something? Should I go?"
"Oh no, don't worry about it Lilly, Leo here was just about to explain why this place of all places was where he wanted to set up camp.
Knowing your adventurous mind, you might find this quite the story so please, feel free to stay."
"Really? Is that true Leo? But how can you know? Can you tell the future?" Lilly asked as she beamed with excitement.
Since Leo wasn't keen on too many people knowing the specifics of his class and the fact that he had lived a million lives by this point, he responded with a vague, "My class gives me hints on things to come. It's related to time manipulation after-all."
Before Lilly could launch into another torrent of questions, Amber spoke first, "Alright, so you were saying something about Earth's Rebirth in the future and...?"
Putting up a mental wall to block out the overly energetic Lilly, Leo looked at Amber directly and continued, "Right, as I was saying, not much has changed right?
You've probably heard me refer to this situation as apocalyptic before despite the lack of what most would claim an apocalypse should be, yes?"
"I would agree it doesn't feel like we're in an apocalypse." Amber replied.
"Right, considering the definition of an apocalypse is complete and utter destruction on a large scale, the current world doesn't quite qualify and I would agree with that.
However, after the Earth's Rebirth, things will change instantaneously and the world as we know it will cease to exist.
An announcement.."
[Greetings residents of Earth.
Tonight marks six full days since the beginning of the end for your race.
Have you trained your body?
Your mind?
Many of you have probably questioned the words which were spoken when we first made contact with you.
To what am I referring?
'This game was modelled after popular entertainments of your world!'
Well, as some of you may have noticed, besides the system that assists and quantitates your progression, nothing much has changed!
That all changes tonight.
Since all Unique and Legendary classes have been chosen, it is time for the rest of you to either get on board or die out.
You lot have had plenty of time to learn to fend for yourself and it's time for things to progress.
And so, the real game will begin in two hours!
Best of luck to you! Try to survive a little longer this time..]
"It was that voice we heard on the first day! Woahhh. Is that god speaking to us?! What does he mean the real game starts now? And what was with that timing Leo?! Did you know the announcement was going to come at that moment?!" Lilly fired off question after question.
Despite the ominous undertones of the message, Lilly seemed relaxed and unperturbed by the whole situation.
"Lilly, shut up for a second, I need to think." Leo responded to her torrent of questions.
Without waiting for her reply, Leo got up from his seat and ran over to where Robin and her friends were currently discussing in frantic voices.
When Robin saw Leo approaching, she ran up to him, "Leo! What was that? What's happening? Are we going to be okay."
"We'll be fine Robin. I'll answer all your questions in a few minutes. You and your friends should go join Amber and Lilly at the table for now.
Luminara, I need to talk to you privately."
Luminara nodded her tiny head and floated onto Leo's shoulder.
The two of them moved to the side while Robin and her friends made their way over to the dinner table.
"How can I help you, Leo?" asked Luminara when everyone else was out of ear shot.
"This is early, right? I thought we had more time..." he asked.
"It is early, yes, but not the earliest. From what I can recall the earliest Rebirth was around 3 days after the Reckoning." she replied before continuing, "Are you concerned about something in particular?"
Leo was deep in thought for a few minutes before finally replying, "No, not really, but I have this nagging feeling that I somehow missed something.
You know far more than I do at this point.
Is there anything that you can recall that we have yet to accomplish that would be beneficial to us in the long run?"
Luminara crossed her arms and looked towards the sky with a scrunched face, doing her best to recall anything of importance that Leo had not already taken care of.
The fact that Luminara retained all her memories from the hundreds of thousands of attempts, was a blessing and a curse.
The biggest moments hung vividly in her mind, but to sift through all that information and try to remember finer details was not so easy.
After fifteen minutes and a few interruptions from Robin and Amber who were concerned about what the two were up too, Luminara suddenly screamed, "AH! I remembered!"
"What, what is it? Tell me! We're running out of time!" Leo urged.
"Just kidding! You got everything important. Hehe"
*Smack*
"HEY! How dare you hit me?! Master! Leo hit me!" Luminara cried out as she struggled to regain her balance in the air a few dozen meters away from where she was originally floating.
"I'm going to beat some sense into you, you stupid little fairy! Get your ass over here!" Leo said as he charged towards Luminara who by now had realized that she had fucked up and was quickly flying towards where Robin and the rest of them were.
"AHHHHHH!!! MASSSTEERRRR!!!! SAVE MEEEEE!!!!" She screamed when she glanced over her shoulder and saw Leo closing the distance between them with each passing second.