Previous Chapter


Important Author's Note:

I'm sorry to announce this but I no longer have time to write. My exams are on my nose  and I hadn't been preparing for them at all. Simply doing schoolwork isn't going to cut it. That's why I'm abandoning all the unnecessary activies and going to focus on my studies. My ielts exam is next week! 

So for now this story will go on hiatus and hopefully one day I'll have enough time to finish it. Sadly it's nowhere close by.

****

The cave shook making people fall, unable to stay up any longer. Sounds of fighting reached their ears from up ahead. Steel clashed against steel and another tremor ran through the ground.

"What is happening there?" Monthu muttered holding onto a wall with one hand and keeping Par up with another. Scythe was lying by his feet.

"We should go and see!" Rover said standing up and ready to go ahead.

"Wait for the kid. He already went to scout" Monthu said sitting down. There was no point in trying to stay up risking falling when he didn't need it at all.

"What if he died? We will never know it!"

"He's still online..."

Some ten minutes or so later Ace rounded a corner looking haggard and distraught. His clothes had become dust collectors and he looked like a mound of dirt with dark blue eyes shining from somewhere deep within.

"What did you find there?" leader Achilles asked and Ace glared at him. He shook his head to get the dust off his face at least. "That you're a god damn liar. You've never faced the warrior ghosts and almost died from the weak ones flying around. I doubt you've even had a healer to begin with."

Ace walked a bit further ahead before casting [Gust] to get as much dust off himself as possible. All of it flew towards the group.

Leader tried to look dignified under the accusation but a bout of coughs and sneezes prevented him from achieving that. "Are you too scared to go on?" he asked none the less.

"Scared?" Ace asked with a chuckle. "Have you at least seen them? You wouldn't be talking that way if you had."

"You said you were so much higher than this dungeon! Do you take back your words now? Unable to face a few bosses?"

"We are but those bosses don't belong here. If I were to guess, they would be around level two hundred. One hundred and fifty at best. And there are six of them. I like a challenge but that's a bit too much even for my standards."

"Just because they might be large in size doesn't mean they'll be so high levelled!"

"Who said they were gigantic..? They're humans with strength rivalling that of titans."

"How do you know that?"

"The ground shaking?" Ace said as another tremor passed. He held himself up somehow and continued his answer. "That's them fighting. They're trying out their skills against each other, causing tons of dust to raise and ground to shake. I'm not returning back there for sure."

"Chicken!" Rover shouted and tried to jump on Ace when the strongest of the earthquakes came. Even walls vibrated and small rocks started to fall from the ceiling.

No one could keep their balance but sitting wasn't an option. Larger rocks were getting loose and rolling around once they fell. The hits weren't deadly even on head but it hurt and ate health points. If it was going to continue, many were going to die.

Ace used [Gust] to protect himself from smaller stones and made his way back in the dungeon. The closer to the exit the better. Further away the shaking wasn't as bad so he could run and did just that. He could hear someone coming behind him but he didn't really care. He had to get away from this madness sooner rather than later.

Something hit the back of his head and he winced in pain. Ground started to shake even more and another rock hit him. It pushed him forward and he wasn't able to right himself on time. He gave mother earth a heartfelt hug and lay there stunned until a sharp pain in the back brought his senses back.

There was no time to waste and with a slightly dizzy head he stood up. That is until another rock fell him over. It was the size of a human's head and rolled at him from somewhere up ahead crashing into his legs.

Ace cursed, picking himself up. And cursed again when he noticed an army of stones rolling his way. He was going to be buried in them if he did nothing.

"Par use Stone Prison!" Monthu shouted out and Ace could hear the kid starting to murmur something.

The stones were almost on him so Ace used vines to delay them at least that second more. Gust was added too. He hoped that whatever Par was doing, it was going to help in some way.

"Ace come to us!" Monthu said and Ace jumped back to the brothers.

At that time Par finished his spell and someone else smashed into their group. They all fell to the ground but the spell was cast and high walls rose around them. Ace could hear stones hitting it right beside his head and he rose quickly.

They had been closed in some kind of a cage so no light was there. Ace called upon [Flare] and it showed that there were more people than he expected to see. The bad mouthed guy with his girlfriend was here too.

"What are you doing here?" he asked them keeping [Flare] right over their heads. It's light was like that of a matchstick but it still allowed to see their faces.

The duo didn't seem to be too happy to be on the spotlight but Rover didn't lose his nature to disagree with everything that was being said. Even if it was a question. "That's not your problem! We're here to prevent you from escaping! You won't leave unscathed after entering our territory!"

Ace rolled his eyes. "And how do you plan to do that? You couldn’t defeat me before and now there's three of us."

"I'll just..."

"We'll keep you busy until others come! You won't be able to fight everyone off!" Dawn said putting her staff right before Ace as if challenging him. The kid just shook his head in mild annoyance and activated [All Ears].

This ability was made to listen in on people's conversations but it could be used to hear things from far away too. He listened to the stones falling, rolling, crashing and noticed a pattern among the chaos. It was one strong hit and three weak ones. It lasted for around three minutes more before stopping. Rocks moved a minute or two more until coming to a halt too.

"I think it's safe now. You can remove the spell Par" he said and watched how the stone walls around him crumbled and turned to dust.

The torches were gone, lost in the chaos so Ace made [Flare] go around the room and light up each wall some. "Am I hallucinating or have the walls changed sides?" 

The place where he remembered the exit being was a solid wall just like the place where he had run from while where walls had been two paths going opposite directions had opened up. On top of that not a single stone was lying out of place. 

"What are you talking about?" Rover asked, looking around in the darkness.

In that time Par had called out a fire elemental and it lit up the whole place.

There was nothing unusual about the well-cut out walls and ceiling but that was what it made the place eerie. No sign of a recent earthquake could be seen anywhere. There were no loose rocks lying around or walls missing parts that had fallen off. 

"What is this place?" Dawn asked looking around in wonder. "We surely hadn't been here..."

"Agreed" Ace said and softly hit the surface of one wall. The sound was dull and not shallow at all. "I think the rock fall has somehow opened up a secret passageway while closing our way."

"You mean we're stuck here now?"

"Depends on what you mean. I'm pretty sure there's a way out in one of these paths, but they're more than likely to contain monsters of higher level."

"You sure there's no other way?" Monthu asked, finally saying a few words.

Ace walked around the place knocking on every wall but the sound never changed. "Nope. Even if there is a way, I don't know about it. I'm not exactly a trap master."

Monthu gave him a look that didn't believe a word being said. "So you want us to go ahead?"

The kid shrugged. "We can do that or stay here and hope that someone's coming to save us. I don't really mind either way."

"And who is going to do that?" Rover asked mockingly. "I can't get any answer from my guild mates. I wouldn't be surprised if they had all died."

"Or we're in a place that blocks all chat, not only personal messages." Ace suggested scratching his head. "I just remembered I had an appointment this evening... Just my luck."

"Are you going to scout again?" Monthu asked while looking for something in his bag.

"Sure. I'll be right back."

He walked a bit away where shadows were deeper and put on his veil. [Flare] was told to go ahead of him and light the way or attract attention depending on what was necessary. One could never be too careful.

No more than twenty steps behind the first turn he ran into an undead enemy that had a sword in one hand and his own head in another; it was named Dullahan.

Deciding to try it out Ace sneaked right behind him and used [Backstab] with [Cut-throat] right after. To his surprise it did little damage. 'What level is it?' he wondered jumping away as his enemy took a swing at him. It was swift and deadly but luckily not on target.

Ace took out another dagger and blocked the second swing. His daggers groaned but held. That wasn't going to last long so he kicked the monster in the leg throwing him off-balance and threw a few poisoned daggers while he was down. No message that the enemy was poisoned showed up.

'Since when it doesn't work?' he wondered waiting for his opponent to stand up. He would have jumped on anyone else to finish them off, but this guy was brushing off too many of his attacks for Ace to risk it.

He watched how the monster carefully held his head and wondered what it would do if he lost it. That thought was cut short as another Dullahan rounded the corner and swung its sword at him.

Ace rolled to avoid it slashing at his opponent’s legs and stood up right after it. Deciding to test out his previous theory he attacked the first monster making him raise his sword in a blocking motion. At that moment Ace used [Gust] towards the monster's head and it fell out.

The other Dullahan used that time to get close and slash at Ace's back. The kid hissed in pain and used [Shadow Dash] to create some distance between himself and the enemies. He took notice of one crawling on the ground having dropped his weapon and looking for his head.

He rushed to it stabbing its back as many times as he could before the other came closer. Ace didn't feel like making the same mistake twice and got away before he could be hit. On his way he kicked at the fallen head so it would roll further away too.

"Hey you! That's inhumane!" the head said in a raspy voice startling Ace and he stopped mid-stride. "Since when can you talk?" "Are you questioning my intelligence?" it asked in outrage rolling slightly to face him.

Before Ace could think of an appropriate reply the other Dullahan picked the head up and gave its body to carry. Then they both turned to face Ace and rushed at him with their swords raised.

'That doesn't look too good’ Ace thought waiting for the last moment before rolling away. On his way he remembered one of his spells. "Flame Step!"

A burst of fire escaped from his feet and he started to run. He remembered well how burnt skin felt and didn't want to repeat it. Dullahans cried out in surprise as flames licked at them and stepped away immediately. "That thing hurts!" one of them said as if it was some new knowledge.

Ace rolled his eyes and feeling daring slid right under one of their feet leaving a trail of flames behind himself. He stopped right before the second monster and rethought his plan. Or the part that he hadn't considered about how it was going to end.

He cursed and tried rolling away. Sword missed him by a hair's breadth and he crawled away as fast as he could, daggers making clicking sounds against the stones.

"If we kill him the red hurting thing will disappear, right?" one of them asked and Ace saw the other head being lifted up and down a little

"Great! I'll make short work of this elf kid and we can go look for some real challenge! It's been ages since anyone fought with us!"

The second Dullahan lifted its head some again.

Then the two of them attacked together even though just a second ago they mentioned that he didn't even count as an opponent. 'Stupid creatures. How much more health do they have if they're not even slightly worried?'

He evaded their attacks and slashed at their backs but no poison attacks succeeded again. 'Does that mean undead aren't able to be poisoned at all?' He ran a bit farther away from them and while they caught up took out a pair of knives and jumping sideways poured some acid on them. It was going to eat them quite quickly but would deal some significant damage in the meantime.

He used his knives to redirect a sword; a few drops of acid fell on it, dulling the blade. He kicked at the other Dullahan's head and it hissed in pain, jumping off the hands. "My eyes! My eyes! They hurt!"

Ace rushed to the fallen head kicking it with all his strength and ignoring the screaming did it again so it smashed against the wall. Then he jumped on it a few times before using [Shadow Dash] to get as far away as possible. The head didn't seem to have appreciated the treatment and its face had twisted into a mask of hatred. 

The other Dullahan fearing the same fate seemed ready to kill. Well, more than previously. Then he was a bug to be squashed, but now he had become an abuser, a weakling who goes for his enemy's weakest points and exploits them. He was the lowest of the low.

A smile appeared on the kid's face. He didn't care what opponents thought of him. Anything that helped to win was excusable. No rules existed in a battle.

He ran up on one wall and used it as a support to jump on one of his enemies. The twin knives embedded themselves into soft flesh and Ace left them there, instantly jumping away. It was dangerous to stick close.

He could hear one head shouting orders to her own body but it didn't seem to be capable of hearing, just crawling around miles from it while the other was hissing in pain not daring to release a sword and take out the knives. Acid had to be eating it from the inside and quite painfully too but no emotions were present. But the aesthetic look had been absolutely ruined even for Ace. 'I should really get rid of it now... Just how am I supposed to do some damage to them? Or is their health pool just that large?'

Shrugging he used vines to hinder the Dullahan's movements and still having [Flame Step] on started to kick it with all his might while slashing with a new pair of daggers. He had more of them stored in his bag than he could ever count.

It lasted for a few moments until the creature broke the vine hold and Ace had to get away again. Too lazy to think up of another battle plan he repeated this one numerous times.

He had almost given up on it when the Dullahan started to scream like a banshee after a flame infused kick. Before Ace's eyes its skin started to rot, nauseating smell overrunning his nostrils. And then in a second it was all gone, only a pile of dust lying in front of him.

The kid stared at it for some time. Then came closer and crouching down carefully touched it.





The last message took Ace's attention and looking down he noticed a blade sticking out from his chest. He didn't have to look at his health bar to know that it had dropped down to less than half in an instant. Attacks on a being's weak points tended to do that. That's why even some magician's wore armour and without having any strength. It was better to move slower but be alive.

Luckily, this was a game and he didn't start coughing blood although his vision grew cloudier. He felt himself being lifted with the blade and then thrown sideways like a discarded rag.

Ace smashed against the wall losing more than half of his leftover health points. He was unsure whether he still had enough to stay alive. Ten percent was a damn high mark under which the body could no longer regenerate.

Through blurry eyes he saw a dark silhouette coming his way. It held a blade of red and was coming closer.

Ace was pretty sure of who it was and desperately tried to move away but his body wasn't listening. With an effort that could make a mountain move... his finger twitched.

"That's not promising..." he wheezed out. It was a broken unintelligible sound and made even Ace himself wince. 'Yet I still don't want to die' he thought, reverting to that instead of speaking. His muscles contracted as he desperately tried to move but not gained an inch. 

There was just no power left in his artificial body and in a game will power accounted to almost nothing. Tenacity was great but the human will to survive dulled a bit. Computers didn't allow for those miraculous staying alive when pushing forth through the human limit. He was sure he would have been able to achieve that if only someone gave him a chance.

But the game was closer to life than Ace thought. It wasn't giving chances to anyone. No deity was coming for a save.

But humans might.

After all he had made a few right choices in his life.

Warrior clad in dark with a pole for a weapon blocked Ace's view. Something like a ray of hope flashed by, exploding.

Ace could barely keep his eyes open to see that hazy view which gave the smallest amounts of useful information. He could guess who was protecting him but besides that he knew nothing and that bugged him. He wanted to know what was happening!

People shouted and he tried to understand but the sound was muffled. 'Is there blood in my ears? How in the goddess' name could it have gotten there?'

He felt his life energy draining away every time he tried to focus on his senses. Each drop of blood that left his body took something away with it. Something that he so desperately needed to live on.

Burning hot liquid ran down his throat. It created a trail of fire in his insides, not leaving a single space out of harm's way. He rolled into a tight ball, hissing in pain. "Who tried to poison me to death?" he shouted out in anger, still feeling as if he was on fire.

"If you're healthy enough to blame, you should be good enough to answer what the hell where you doing too?"

Ace shook his head and held himself tighter. The pain was blazing up; it felt like lead was flowing through his veins. Unable to stop the scream escaping his throat, he silenced it by biting into his own hand. 'I never knew my teeth were so sharp… ' he wondered but it was cut short by another spasm. A tear ran down his cheek and he held his head even closer to his legs. It had to stop at some point.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

No potion gave results which would last forever.

Or logic went that way while his body was screaming and cared nothing for it. Elements were having a party inside him and didn't seem to plan of taking a break any time soon.

And then it was over.

In an instant all pain was gone as if it hadn't been there in the first place.

Ace lay motionless muffled by the change. It was too sudden for his brain to get around it.

Sound slowly returned to the senses he was receiving and he heard people talking about him. Monthu was explaining something to Rover and Dawn. Right beside him Par was breathing.

"Do you feel better?" he asked carefully. There was worry in his voice, and steps came closer.

"Has he woken up?" Monthu asked and Ace whined softly.

He brushed his face to his leg to make sure there were no signs of anything left and slowly released his body. Muscles retracted and a wave of relief washed over him. It was truly over.

"I'll live..." he murmured and tried to stand up. His legs were shaky but held. "But what the hell did you do to me?"

"That was your own potion. One of the leftover from the last fight. So the question is why did you ever give it to us? Had you wanted to lose?"

Ace thought for a moment before he remembered something. "That wasn't me! I know better than to confuse a health potion for friends with one for enemies!"

"There is a difference?" Par asked and Ace rolled his eyes. "Of course!"

"I don't think we need to know any more. Hopefully, you'll learn something from this exper-"

"Yeah. Never trust anything done by people acting as you. They tend to get things wrong" Ace said with a knowing nod.

"You're a lost cause" Monthu said shaking his head. "Better explain what had happened here."

"I miscalculated a thing or too. And then it went downhill after a single mistake. Nothing much to say, really."

"What was the screaming we heard?"

That reminded Ace of the other Dullahan. He looked around for it and noticed a pile of dust. "I see you dealt with the other guy. Didn't he scream when dying? Or was mine just a coward afraid of death?"

"He laughed" Dawn supplied helpfully.

"Poor fellow, he actually embraced it. So what are you doing here? I thought scouting meant that I go see things and then return to report it before you march out."

"That would be so if you actually did that instead of fighting random opponents, especially when they outnumber you."

"That was a child's play! I had it all under control!"

"Yeah we noticed once we came. You look really good splattered on the wall."

Ace allowed his eyes to wander some before returning to the conversation. "I would have survived."

"I'm sure of it" Monthu agreed with his eyes raised up. "Have you learnt anything before abandoning your post?"

"I'm going to do it now."

"And you expect me to believe you won't do the same?"

Ace shrugged. "You can't hope to go ahead and be able to just deal with everything” he said pointedly looking at everyone. "And from what I can see I'm the only one with sneaking capabilities here."

"That may be so but you're as trustworthy as him" Monthu said pointing at Rover. "And I don't trust him farther than his silence goes. So we're going to do it my way this time. You go and lure a few enemies while we deal with them. Then you go to find some more. Is that simple enough for you?"

"But that's not fun! I can kill everyone myself!"

"We all saw that already. Now listen and for once do as told, okay?"

"Yeah just listen to him little kid! I knew you were nothing but a daddy's boy!" Rover said with a laugh and Monthu sighed. Now he had even more kids on his hands than usually.

Ace glared at him but Monthu was faster to answer. "If you have time to spit nonsense, start working on a map. We don't need to get lost here on top of everything. And you don't have a choice. Do it or we leave you behind. Your call."

"Who are you to order me around?"  Rover asked angrily.

"One who gives you orders. And unlike that kid I have no qualms about leaving people behind. I'm not going to have you if you don't work for it."

Ace threw Rover a winner's smile and skipped out starting to sneak behind the corner.

The guy threw daggers with his eyes but that was all he could do. He had to concede and pick up a piece of paper and start recording the path. Especially since Dawn was looking at him with pleading eyes.

"I don't trust them" he whispered to her while drawing once she came closer.

"Neither do I but we can't survive alone" she said extremely aware of their situation.

"We don't really know that without trying first."

"We're both fifty fifth level. We could barely deal with two banshees and these monsters are higher than those. Have you noticed how the guy fought against one? He wasn't having a hard time but no longer playing like with those banshees back then. We need to pretend to accept them and wait for our moment."

Rover smiled. "They think they're oh so smart! But we'll show them! They shouldn't underestimate us even if we're not as high levelled as them!"

Dawn nodded and watched how he drew. He really had a hand for it. All the lines were straight and could be easily identified. Then he picked another paper and started to draw the cave as he saw it.

A special skill of adventurers was 3-D map making. They put what they saw on paper and then whoever used it could open up the thing like a hologram. This required double the work so not too many adventurers did it but Rover liked to have at least a slight advantage against others and his guild needed all the help it could get. This was their last dungeon and if they didn't finish the quest even it would be stolen.

"Incoming!" Ace shouted out rounding a corner at full speed. "Four Dullahans!"

"Four? Are you mad?" Rover shouted out right back at him. "How are you going to fight them all?"

"You two are going to help us" Monthu said calmly. "Take out your axe and help me hold the front. Mage girl go and assist Par in ranged attack. Ace..."

"I'll do what I always do, create distractions" the kid said with a smile. "Just so you know my damage against them doesn't really work."

"That's obvious" Dawn said in a condescending manner. "Undead don't have working blood system or organs so you can't critical hit them."

Ace looked at her for a moment. "Dammit. She's right. I need some other way to fight!"

"You..! Kid where did you go! I wanted to squash you!"

"I wanted that too!"

"No, he's mine!"

"I saw him first!"

"But I swung at him first!"

Monthu entered a stance to block the upcoming monsters. "Think of new moves later on. Not now."

"Maybe" Ace said with an innocent smile which Monthu associated with trouble making. But there was no more time to argue as four undead came in with their large swords held high, ready to slice someone up.

He used the range of his scythe to attack first. It's double edged blade cut rotten flesh and the creatures brought their attention to him. "I want to kill him!"

"Me too! Let's get him before the kid!"

"Agreed!"

"Well, I want a girl" the last one said surprising everyone. Once all attention was on him, he shrugged. "It's been too long since I could have one. If I kill her, I might at least have her skeleton."

Dawn turned white as a paper sheet. Unable to utter a word as the undead rushed to her.

Ace jumped right on its back slashing with his acid dripping weapons. "I can't hold him forever Rover!  Are you fine with your girl dating him now?"

That snapped Rover out of his surprise of the events and with a giant axe materializing in his hands attacked the undead. Ace by then had jumped away and since no one was looking at him hidden under [Shadow Veil].

When Rover had attacked, others did too and Monthu went to single handedly face three Dullahans. Being used to be the tank he blocked attacks and waited for Par to cast some spell while sneaking a few attacks in if a chance showed up.

Ace used vines on one of them to get it immobilized and slashed as fast as he could. It was a really boring way to fight but for the moment he didn't have a better plan.

Sneak attacks and poison where his main damage sources and if they didn't work, well, he was useless. And he didn't like being that. He had acid but sooner or later daggers would run out. Every fight ate at least two of them. There was magic too but he didn't really have any spells that could deal any significant magic. All he had bothered to learn were spells which disrupted enemies' movements.

Not that he had a lot of points in intelligence which gave spell power. It meant even if he learnt any attacking spells, they weren't going to deal a lot unless he made it to master level but even then it wouldn't be anywhere close to that of a real mage.

There had to be another way which he wasn't seeing.

A snake slid past him and rounded itself against one of the Dullahans' legs. It bit and once again red liquid left its fangs, burning through the flesh. 'Is that lava?' Ace wondered getting a better look at it.

A fireball flashed past, burning the back of his head. He fell down to evade any other that might be coming and crawled away.

"Fire Sphere!" Dawn said and a glowing orb of fire flew towards the three Dullahans. It didn't explode but dealt damage over time. For the fun of it Ace threw some alcohol on the creatures and they caught on fire too.

Monthu wasn't sleeping either. Noticing his enemies' distraction he went on the offensive swinging his scythe in wide arcs. One Dullahan was limping and had acid wounds so he severed him in half, his weapons favourite move after decapitation.

Then together with everyone fell on the two left who didn't last long under the pressure of three melee attackers and three mages, fire elemental could be counted as one, and a pet of a sort.

"Woah! This much experience!" Rover said in surprise having gotten the last hit on one of the Dullahans. "That's almost half a level!"

Ace looked at his bar and noticed a little increase from the two Monthu had killed and one of Par's. Party members shared experience points or else clerics would never rise in level, casters would be having a hard time too, not even talking about special classes like rogues, enchanters and the like.

"Shouldn't it be a good idea to join the same group?" he asked Monthu quietly. "It would be more useful as we could see if anyone's low on health or mana but I doubt they will agree. We're monsters in their eyes" he said looking pointedly at Ace. The kid showed his tongue. "Then we should let them and Par to last hit. They need levels to be of any real help and Par, well, it's self-explanatory."

"I have a feeling that they're not the only ones under-levelled. What is yours?"

Ace opened his status menu. He had checked it ages ago and had not the slightest idea what had happened since. The only thing he was sure was that he had to have levelled up past one hundred. He had been missing only a few levels last time.

"One hundred twenty one" he said with surprise in his own voice. "When did that happen..."

"So how did you get almost killed by the two Dullahans again?"

Ace rolled his eyes. "It was an accident. I think I still have a mark from it." He looked where buffs and debuffs were showed and saw a little pictogram. "Yeah, I'm still rotting. I hope Aurora is getting here soon?"

"We're lost here and I can't contact them until we leave the dungeon. Had you forgotten it?"

"Damn." Ace said. 

"I'm off to find more opponents!" he said loudly so everyone heard and left wondering whether he was going to turn into a walking zombie any time soon.

This time he brought only two Dullahans and once Monthu caught their attention he made his leave. He was high enough level not to care about experience points and each time he had to run further to get some enemies. At first it was not too much but with each time the gap between him and new opponents became more tiresome. 

When he had to run for twenty minutes, he finally stopped doing it. "Now you either move closer or go and get your opponents yourself. I'm tired of running back and forth without a second to take a break."

When he had said that everyone's eyes went to Monthu, even the distrustful duos. 'What did I miss?'

"We should have a meal first. Stamina and Hunger should be at at a low now.”

Ace looked at his and saw them both flashing red. He took some herbs out and started to munch on them. They were neither tasty nor fulfilling but he had forgotten to buy dried meat and didn't feel like eating barley bread. Slowly his bars started to fill up. Stamina reached around ten percent and stopped while hunger one continued to go up.

"Do you mind sharing?" Dawn asked him and Ace looked up in surprise. "You sure you want it?" he asked noticing others looking at him too. "Doesn't any of you carry anything edible?" Four head-shakes was his answer. "Pathetic." He murmured and from his bag took out ten pieces of barley bread. Dawn and Par grimaced but took it none the less.

"Is there anything you don't have?" Rover asked and Ace smiled. "It's a habit from the past, I was a soloer not that long ago."

"So hoew ded yao end op hare?" he asked with a full mouth and Ace had to concentrate really hard to understand him.

"They needed someone to show them the way of life" Ace said with a laugh, munching on some more herbs. "But what's with the friendliness? What happened while I was running around?"

The guy shrugged. "Nothing. I just decided that it is important that we stick together if we want to survive and find the others."

Ace looked at him sceptically but didn't say anything. It was hard to believe that someone could change so quickly.

They finished their food and then stood up to leave. Rover took out his notebook in which he was drawing the map and prepared a pencil.

Ace went off first allowing [Flare] to show way even though the fire elemental shone ten times brighter. Or that was before he disappeared from existence followed by the snake. Ace looked at Par's mana bar and it was absolutely empty.

"Why didn't you recall them earlier?" he asked coming to his friend but letting the little flame lead the way with its hardly visible light.

"I like them" he answered genuinely.

"But you don't have infinite mana..."

Par looked sad to hear that, not that it seemed to be news to him. Ace thought for a moment and started to rummage through his backpack.

"How can you see anything with this thing?" Rover hissed massaging his hurt forehead. 

"I try to look where I walk instead of checking it with my head first" he said to him before turning back to Par while holding something between his hands. "I have something more for you. I planned to give it to you by the end of the day but maybe this is a better time."

"Something more?" Par asked surprised.

"Yes!" Ace said with a nod revealing what was inside his hands.

It was a little brown bird with a lighter coloured chest. He released a soft sound before flying to Par's outstretched hands. It chirped, flew around the kid's head and once again returned to his hands.

"Wow! He's amazing! Thanks Ace!"

"You haven't seen everything yet! Tell him to pretend dead or circle!"

"Okay... Does it have a name?"

"Uhm... I don't think so...  It means you can give him one!"

"I don't know..."

"So how did you come up with your own then?"

"Monthu gave me..."

Ace looked at him with his eyes slit and then at his brother. "You really want to tell me that it's truth?"

Monthu just shrugged while Par let his head fall slightly. "Well, then you have to give your new pet a name yourself! Promise me!"

"But I don't know how to create names..."

"There's no knowing it! You just give a name and what you give signifies others what you are, meaning of the word rarely has anything to do with it. So you can name it Oliver or Sparrow and nobody can say a word about it! It's your pet! And don't you dare to make your brother name it! You can't push all the important work on him!"

"But I don't know how to name..."

"You don't have to give it a name instantly! You can play around with it and maybe the name will show itself in the way it acts or something" Ace suggested with a smile and Par nodded gently brushing the bird's feathers.

Then he noticed that everyone was standing around them, following their exchange.

"What's the gift for?" Dawn asked looking at Ace and he answered simply. "It's his birthday today."

"How old is he now?" Rover asked and it was Ace's time to shrug. "Who cares anyway? Important stuff should be left to the real world while we care only for the fun things here."

The two seemed to agree with the answer and both took out a thing from their bags. "If it's such an occasion, I would like to give something too" Dawn said presenting Par a small pendant. "It's not the best but gives some extra mana which is always a nice thing."

"Thank you." Par said trying to pick it up. Once he moved one of his hands the bird spread its wings and flew to his shoulder. Then Par could easily pick his gift and put it around his neck.

Rover gave him two paintings: one was depicting a castle, which you could explore by touching on doors as if you were walking, while the other showed a beautiful field full of flowers and animals. Once touched everything started to move - flowers letting petals fly, animals yawning or jumping around. Par watched it in wonder under the [Flare]'s light.

Monthu stood away with a strange expression. It was clearly not joy but neither could be called anger or annoyance. "What do you find so wrong with this picture?" Ace asked him quietly so the others couldn't overhear.

"Hm? Oh, it's nothing."

"You remember that I'm not as blindly trustful as your brother, right?"

Monthu smiled slightly. "I'm well aware of the fact. Otherwise I would have a few moments to myself without you trying to decipher my every emotion."

"So?"

"What's with that so?"

"So what is wrong?" Ace asked elaborating some.

"As I told before nothing. I just wanted to have a moment for myself."

Ace looked at him from the corner of his eyes, not believing a single word. "Fine, you can stay quiet. But in exchange say when your birthday is."

"Oh no! You don't need to know that."

"Oh yes I do! And you know Par is going to tell me that anyway so be nice and save us both the trouble. What do you think?"

"Not a chance. And he won't tell if I tell him to."

Ace smiled crookedly before shouting out. "Hey Par! When is your brother's birthday?"

"Par do-!"

"February fifth. Why?" The kid answered without a second thought.  "Oh it's nothing! Thanks!"

"Little traitor" Monthu muttered under his breath and Ace chuckled. "I told you I'm going to find it out anyway." "And what are you planning to do with that knowledge?"

"That depends on many random factors"  Ace said with a crooked smile and motioned for everyone to get going. 


Next Chapter