“Happy birthday Michael.” I looked up at my sister as she put down a cup of coffee in front of me (I long since stopped questioning why she was always the one making the coffee and tea… she was good at it and didn’t complain.) and I smiled and took the cup gratefully.

“Thanks… is everyone else still sleeping?” I asked as Alice sat down across from me with her own cup of coffee in her hands as she shook her head.

“No, Arthur is awake, though he looked like a zombie… he’s working pretty hard you know?” Of course I knew, I looked at her as if she was telling me the sky is blue. Of course it is.

Arthur works hard (even though he is surprisingly lazy if left unattended for too long) but he has a tendency to overwork himself if he feels it is necessary.

“Yeah, of course he is… he makes the strategies, plans our paths, recommends different stat builds and studies the dungeon and Anima’s all so that we can be a better team… he’s a good leader.” I admitted, and we all agreed (though Arthur downplayed his skills a lot)

“Yeah he is, though he should really take care of himself more… the only reason he isn’t sick is because Vitality apparently counts towards resistance to sickness.” I hadn’t known that, as my raised eyebrow indicated.

Alice just shrugged in response and took a sip of her coffee… then I felt someone sit down a bit to my side and held back from flinching as I noticed it was Arthur…

For someone with as much presence as Arthur, he could be surprisingly stealthy when he tried… or when he didn’t too. He mentioned that he had once gone through his old living room to get to his bathroom, with some family friends in said living room, and no one had known he had gone through the room.

I almost didn’t believe him until his father mentioned the story once. Arthur was really good at moving around unnoticed.

“Oh… the vitality-sickness thing… I’m the person who told her that, I was researching the stats thing, she complained that I’d get sick with how I was working, I provided statistical proof that said otherwise.” …

Arthur when he just wakes up is kind of disturbing to talk to… he gets really factual (even more than he usually is), he gets quiet and just moves around in a sort of limbo and you barely register his presence.

It wasn’t just the presence and factual stuff though, he actually increased his reaction time in this state somehow (I noticed because I lost in Call of Duty more often in the morning against him, as long as he hadn’t drank coffee or eaten anything yet)

“Oh yes and happy birthday Michael… Alice, is there any more coffee?” I didn’t mind him mentioning my birthday in such a laid back manner, especially when he was as tired as he looked (seriously, he had bags by his eyes and his hair was messier than usual… he needed that cut soon actually. Guess Alice would be busy with that another time.)

“Yeah, there is. I’ll go fix it for you.” She said as she got up (she had finished her cup while I wasn’t looking apparently) and Arthur looked to me and I looked back, noticing he was about to speak.

“So, I have a solution to our levelling up problem.” I blinked, and frowned… I had thought… we weren’t going to do that because of the danger involved in going into the Dungeon alone.

“No, not alone.” How he read my mind there, I don’t want to know. Most people got less attentive when they just woke up, Arthur seemed to be the opposite.

“I was thinking about splitting us into either groups of two or three. Less danger, more experience, and we’ll learn new tactics as a result.” I almost palmed my face at his answer… it was actually really simple…

“Why hadn’t we thought of that before?” I asked as Arthur frowned, even as the cup of coffee was placed in front of him and making that frown tug into a small smile for a moment.

“A few reasons, one of which is not thinking of meeting the problem halfway… another is that splitting our team up just doesn’t feel right, does it?” I blinked at his words and realized he had a point… our team was strong because we worked well together and understood one another, not because we were higher levelled than anyone else.

“So, the question is, teams of two, or teams of three… is what I would ask, but teams of three is kind of obvious. As for the split… you, Alice and Matt on one team, while John, Emilia and I will be on the other.” His plan made sense except for the fact that my team wouldn’t have a magic damage dealer really (beyond my fire and Alice’s occasional attacks involving shadows) but it made sense…

I needed a ‘shield’ between me and the things I fought otherwise I’d be attacked while trying to shoot. Now that, combined with the fact that Alice dealt the highest damage in the team (it was surprising but noticeable, Emilia was just short of her damage output… if magic was involved though, Arthur took that title)

So yeah, my team was designed to be kind of balanced despite the fact that we had no healer. I sighed as I waited for Arthur to finish his coffee (mine had finished while he was speaking) before I voiced my curiosity.

“Arthur… why don’t we accept more members?” I asked as he blinked, looking at me with confusion… I see he’s awake now. He sighed and pointed to the TV we had set up there.

“The Adventurer News here with reports that many would-be followers of Arthur Clive, the Strongest Adventurer in America, were turned away and the man himself refused to allow them entrance into his team.” Oh yeah… there was that exodus of followers (I think we had over 500 people applying where there wasn’t even a request)

Arthur had refused every single one and had thrown them all out with the exception of one file (which he didn’t share with me yet, but when he saw the contents and punched a few cracks into the wall, I knew it was bad) and he just complained.

“Many were concerned about the entry requirements to the young man’s Kingdom, known as Camelot after the Arthurian legends, if you get the idea.” The reporter made a small joke as Arthur frowned, apparently knowing where this was going.

“Many speculate that entry requirements include having a level higher than fifty, having a powerful Anima, or, as some speculate, agreeing to be a person singing praises of the young Strongest.”

…What? Arthur… Arthur hated people overestimating him, with a passion. It was one of the things that were sure to make him angry, and being praised beyond his abilities annoyed him… I knew for a fact he disliked the ‘Strongest Adventurer’ title as well, due to his knowledge that people capable of fighting him and possibly winning him existed and were more common than thought…

For instance, Matt could’ve defeated Arthur for a long while, at least until he got his second element of magic, because Lightning magic was amplified by Metal and Matt had figured out a way to redirect it. Arthur would win the fight now, but before the second Demon Lord, it wouldn’t have been possible.

Oh and especially Agent Shaun… Shaun was a major source of insecurity for Arthur, and while I wasn’t threatened by his existence, I could understand Arthur’s worry…

Shaun was charismatic when he tried, very tactical and powerful, and he made Arthur feel so much inferior… were it not for the fact that Shaun was actually a great guy who disliked how he and Arthur reacted to each other, I’d probably dislike him.

But… none of those ‘requirements’ existed… Arthur threw away many files without even looking at them beyond noticing the name of the head of the team. I know he took the name of Brandon James, who was level 52 and ranked within the top one hundred American’s, and tossed his right out.

Anima? There was someone who had a better version of my own Anima (mine was Long-bow, that person’s was Elvin Bow) and tossed that out as well.

“Those assholes are just talking shit. Ignore them.” Alice was quick to pat Arthur’s shoulder as he sighed and nodded, looking back to me with a contemplative tilt of the head.

“I tossed them out because I don’t need more teammates. Of course having more would be worth-while, but honestly, I can’t trust them, I don’t know them like I know you all.” He admitted and I smiled at his words causing him to look away for a moment.

Of course that was the requirement. He had to know who you were as a person, and know whether or not he could trust you before he could even consider working with you… wait…

“If trust is the requirement, why was there one file you didn’t toss?” I asked as Arthur frowned, stood, and walked out, only leaving the words of ‘I’ll be back in a moment’ before he left.

“I’ll go wake the others, we’re leaving for the Dungeon early today.” Alice said and I nodded, though before she could leave I tapped the table to get her attention.

“Tell the others Arthur and I will be out soon. He’s angry about something he read in that file, so let’s give him a quiet moment without everyone on the team breathing down his neck… though he might appreciate Emilia doing so.” I joked as Alice kept a small smile as she walked away.

It wasn’t a secret that Emilia liked Arthur in a romantic manner, and I know he wasn’t so dense as to not have noticed it either. It’s probably him being silly again.

Still, his relationship with Emilia was kind of strange… even coming from me. I mean, he didn’t even know her before college and she transferred in and became friends with him. Now they have a kind of almost-dating vibe.

She’s a good friend though, I can admit that. When Red Sky Day happened… she was there for him, from beginning to end, and I can’t even say the same for myself. I barely managed to kill one of those Centipede things (who are estimated to just slightly be stronger than Goblins… amazing eh?) with the help of Alice and we were just trying to survive…

Having to jump onto a screaming hell monster from the roof of a building to stab it a few times while it chases your younger sister is something I’m not repeating.

“Here it is… it’s an application to be taken under Team Caliburn’s wing, a mentorship deal mostly.” I blinked at Arthur’s words as I snapped back to reality, and looked at the file. I opened it and blinked… I recognized the kid…

“Drew Simmons, we met him during our outing to the beach a month or so ago. I took out his entire team in a bit of a sparring match.” Yeah, I remember this kid, Arthur seemed really impressed with him back then, said the kid had qualities of a leader…

Funny how our leader can see all the skills and amazing traits of those around him but can’t see that his own skill happens to be being able to see that… and use those skills efficiently.

“So what’s the issue? If it was just him wanting to join, and you thinking he’s a good person, why not?” I asked and Arthur frowned, flipping to the next part of the file and pointing at a section there…

“…Both parents deceased… on the same day no less.” I blinked at the notice that it happened on the day of the U.N meeting, and Arthur scowled as he crossed his arms.

“I checked with Agent Shaun for this, despite me not wanting to talk to him often, I needed some info on how both parents could die on the same day on different ends of the city…” he frowned as I heard his fist clench…

“Apparently there’s a serial killer on the loose. He’s trademarks are that he tortures his victims, but if he is up against many he only tortures the last person. If he doesn’t torture though, he does quick and clean kills.” He explained and I was starting to get the idea as I looked at a separate report that was filed along with this application form.

“The mother died from one stab wound to the neck, and the father was tortured… both fit the M.O of the serial killer.” I noticed and Arthur nodded, this time looking straight at me with his frown instead of looking at the file.

“On that day… when we came out of the U.N meeting they were already dead. And the path between the two places crosses the U.N Building. There’s a chance we even saw the killer if he moved between the two placed while we were leaving… but I don’t know, I can’t remember…” I frowned as I placed the file down and looked at him.

“Arthur, we can’t solve everything, we aren’t Gods. We aren’t perfect; no one will blame you if you can’t remember.” I looked back to the file, and back at Arthur… it seems he felt guilty…

“Yeah… I know… it’s just… I hate that someone I know had something happen to them and I didn’t know about it until now.” I saw his point, Arthur didn’t care unless he knew a person after all…

“Let’s accept it.” I said making Arthur look up at me with a raised eyebrow and I smirked at his reaction. Good, he’s not quite as angry or depressed as he was before I said that.

“The application, let’s accept it. We can’t bring back his parents, but we can help him out, and help him get stronger. We can’t be there for everyone, but let’s help who we can.” I said and Arthur smiled and took the file, nodding before he turned… absently, I noted that he was already dressed for Dungeon-work.

“Alright, you got five minutes, get done and we’re off… and thanks Michael, you’re a good friend.” Of course I’m a good friend… after all, I’m your friend.

I got back down after changing into my ‘work clothes’ (which consisted of gauntlet for my left hand and a glove missing the pointer finger and middle finger for my right, loose jeans, a jacket, sneakers and shoulder guards.) to find… weird.

“I’m just saying, cardinal is an excellent colour, I mean, I’d be fine with going by Cardinal George but that name is trademarked in some Anime, so Hokage George is more acceptable… sure the term is probably trademarked but it’s less blatant name stealing.” Yeah, it was weird. If Agent George was around, things were weird.

See, some of the people who visited during the U.N meeting were still around, including the British group and the Japanese Group (Arthur liked hanging out with the leader of the Japanese Group to discuss Anime)

“Ah, hello there, Point of View person of the day! Glad I’m finally back.” …what?

“Oh yeah, happy birthday by the way, I don’t have a present right now but I should have something available for you during the club scene.” Again, what. Nothing this guy says ever makes any sense really, and only Arthur can occasionally get some truth out of the nonsense that comes out of this guy’s mouth.

“Well it isn’t my fault that people within the confines of reality can’t appreciate a good walking spoiler alert. Though if you must know, anything I say is usually going to happen. It comes with being a Prophet and being able to literally read people’s futures.” Okay, that was kind of ominous…

“With that in mind, if ever you go to France, before leaving the airport, pick up some blue violets and hand them to the woman that greets you there.” Okay…

“Oh don’t worry if you’ll forget that, despite it being roughly an entire book away, I’ll meet up with you again just before and I’ll remind you.” Well, that’s helpful… for what, I’m not sure…

“How far ahead do you see anyway?” Arthur asked and I blinked in surprise that he followed that (or rather, with how random advice George gives, how does anyone)

“Well, like I said, it depends on how long I stay around a person. My class, Prophet, helps me retain the information longer luckily. Currently the only information I hold complete control over is my own. I live to be almost two thousand years old by the way.” …See, when he says things like that, I find it very hard to believe him. Arthur apparently has learnt to just take it at face value.

“Well, for me, how far do you see?” Arthur asked and George smiled as he looked at Arthur, before tilting his head.

“Well, that depends… the you as you are now will likely only be around for another 8 years… the you as you were has been sleeping for a while but has woken up a while back… and as for the you that you will be? I can’t tell how far that will go.” Now if that wasn’t cryptic… but there was a timeline there.

“So eight years… I will be as I am for eight years, but afterwards something changes?” he asked and George switched from his grin to a sad look.

“Oh sorry, I said that wrong. I can’t tell all the details, all I know is that for sure in ‘eight years since Red Sky Day’ will something happen… whether it’s good or bad, I don’t know.” Well, that’s worrying…

Eight years since… so that means roughly 7 years and nine months… got to worry for Arthur…

“Oh don’t worry, Arthur will be fine. Main Character’s always seem to end up just fine in fantasy novels. I’ll see you later, and Michael? The left path is the better one.” I blinked at his words as he walked away, going out of view into an alley… then I heard a feminine scream, a cat hissing and what sounds like a laser beam from a bad cartoon and George walked back out looking worse for wear and deciding to walk along the sidewalk…

“I think all the comedy in the world is focused on that man.” Emilia said and I think we all agreed.

Ignoring the force of nature that is George (that’s Hokage!) we moved to the Dungeon, and I took a moment to appreciate everyone’s armour, all made by Arthur.

I once saw how he created them by the way… he’d wear strong leather gloves, safety goggles, and actually forge a new weapon or armour piece… he had an honest to god forge in his workshop, though it was kind on an off-shoot built in later on after gaining the Smith class.

And the process was really interesting, despite being so long. The heating, shaping, bending, folding, designing, cooling, there were so much steps involved that if it weren’t for the fact that I know he got this good due to a skill, I’d think Arthur studied the art intensely… he later told me he did study it by the way, at least by way of Google.

And it was art for sure. Turning a lump of cold metal into gleaming armour that saves lives was something I found amazing, even as he began to learn how add decal to his items. Enchanting destroyed that need though.

My glove on my right hand was enchanted by Arthur to increase my fire damage done when using fire magic (as long as I focused my magic through my right hand) which is brilliant since it made my fire arrows much stronger.

Unfortunately fire was his second element meaning that despite how good the Enchantment was, it could have been even better had he been a fire element user…

Then again, I couldn’t see Arthur being the user of the ‘Element of Emotion’. Not when he worked so hard to hide his emotions due to his shy nature.

Arthur was working on categorizing each element based on the common traits of their users, such as lightning being the ‘Element of Self-deprecation’, Fire being the ‘Element of Emotion’.

Mind, as Arthur explained to me, was the Element of Understanding, which fit well with John. I’m kind of going of point here… starting to even think like Arthur with how many bits of information he has shared with our group.

“Alright, I mentioned our plan, split into two teams. At some point in the future we might have some new teammates, they might need guidance occasionally which will mean one or more of us will have to slow down our growth-rate.” Ah, even more reason to do as planned I guess…

“So before that even happens, we’re splitting up into teams of three each, and getting as much levelling up done as possible until the new recruits joins us.” Well, it was mentioned before…

We approached the Dungeon entrance after ‘signing in’ (at this point just flashing our Adventurer Cards would get us in… everyone in the country knew who we, or at least, Arthur were) and nodded to each other, splitting into the groups assigned. Arthur and the rest went first, but before he did, he turned to me.

“Michael, be careful. With less than half our usual power, we’re only going to the eleventh floor down.” Huh? Less than half… I didn’t understand, but I nodded at his advice.

His team was signed up as Pen-dragon and the three walked into the Dungeon… then I walked away to go to another Dungeon entrance so that our teams wouldn’t cross paths, it would defeat the purpose, Alice and Matt just behind me.

Two blocks away and another Dungeon Entrance found, I entered our team name as Squad One. Didn’t really matter much, we were all still members of Caliburn and Camelot.

We ended up on the eleventh floor and I prepared to fall into the usual formation… then I blinked and realized that it wouldn’t work without half our team here… so I improvised.

“Alright, Matt, you’re in the lead, Alice, you take Arthur’s usual position while I’ll be in my sniping position.” Despite the fact that I was using a bow I still preferred the term sniping.

We moved in this new formation for a while as I checked the map… then I paled… I did Geography in High School, so I could read it obviously, but… the amount of paths and crossing tunnels was insane.

And Arthur memorized it and the best paths from this mess… I really wish I had asked him for his information before…

Not five minutes and I was already realizing how helpful Arthur was, even more than I knew. At least I could see where the stairs were on my map, but the paths there… there were a few, but which one should we use?

I found a path that led straight to the stairs and looked up, connecting my current position with my position on the map and nodded.

“Alright, I got the path, we go straight here.” I said as we walked, though I caught a confused look from Alice… she shook her head and looked straight once more, holding a sword and shield as her weapons (for now, other days it would be two axes, or two daggers, she even used a spear once… she said spears were good but difficult to use in narrow spaces unless fighting defensively… I understood little of that, I’ll admit.)

I wondered why she shook her head, but we had to continue to fight, right? We soon encountered some Kobolds and I was a bit confused… because we encountered them earlier than I remember us doing after we defeated the eleventh floor… but my memory is probably vague…

There were only two, a small amount for what our team was used to, but we could handle them easily and we’d get double the normal experience.

“Alright, let’s go.” I blinked for a moment when Alice and Matt just looked at me for a second… then I realized that I hadn’t shot… I was just doing what Arthur usually did… but when he said that I was usually the one who attacked first… right. Forgot that for some reason…

After I let the arrow fly, Matt and Alice turned and went towards the Kobolds (did I imagine their eyes widening?)

The Kobold I hit was seriously damaged, the verge of death actually, and it was pushed beyond that point when Alice cut through its skull, the second one moving in an attempt to save its partner only to get stopped in place by Matt’s shield and then cut down by both Matt and Alice…

Who were now both looking at me with frowns… what did I do wrong? We fought them off just like normally… the two saw my confusion, looked to each other and sighed before they turned and we continued walking… I wonder what went wrong? Seemed like a perfect fight to me…

This continued for quite a while, at least, until we were at floor 15… then the Wisps joined in and I began to realize the issue…

To put it simply, I wasn’t actually being a leader. To make it a bit more complicated, I wasn’t giving orders, tactics, movement plans, though I was getting our resting right, the other parts I was falling short of a certain someone…

I know I’m second-in-command, but I guess this is just proof of why I’m not actually in command. Making someone like me leader… I guess it just isn’t working out.

As it was, we were tired, kind of injured, and all around annoyed. Oh we levelled up, which was why we came here this way, but we couldn’t go through with this every day… this was horrible.

First when it came to choosing paths, I was clearly choosing all the wrong paths, I mean, we kept fighting and fighting on some paths, and on others we would fight maybe only five times before reaching the next intersection.

In other words, we were either fighting too much or too little for our team. Which is the second point, my team… I’m only leading two people plus myself, not six like Arthur, and that almost cost us at one point when I expected Arthur to be there to electrocute those damn Wisps into oblivion, but he wasn’t there.

The lack of healing was also becoming an issue, as injuries, especially for Matt, were piling up, making me realize how important John was as well… and as for damage, Alice was strong and dealt the highest damage in the team, but without Emilia there to help take some of the load off, Alice was getting tired…

I guess this is what Arthur was talking about when he spoke to me a week after the Dungeon appeared, about being in command and me being second.

It’s difficult to be the one responsible for the lives of those around you, and while we knew it was difficult, we also knew Arthur could do it, and pushed him into the role.

Now I’m starting to realize just what we have been making him do all this time…

I guess I had to ask myself what Arthur would do if he was in this situation… three injured including myself (my method for close range fighting isn’t viable long term) and a long way left to get out either way…

As it was, we were all injured and would likely find it even more difficult to continue in the Dungeon, so turning around was a good choice (seeing as I couldn’t picture the three of us defeating Ignus in our state, especially not when we had no magic that was effective against him, what with fire, light and lightning all damaging Alice’s Darkness magic, my fire magic was worthless and metal magic actually had the lowest magical attack power of all the elements)

So turning around it is. I looked to my sister and cousin and saw them looking at me as I laid against the wall… they both weren’t glaring, instead waiting with expectation…

Guess I can understand why Arthur says he’s so lucky all the time… yeah, we have good friends… well, technically Alice is my sister and Matt a second-cousin but still.

“Let’s go back… and not do this again until I talk with Arthur about it.” They both smiled at my words and I knew I had made the right decision… so I stood, and we walked back, but before we did…

“Alice, do you know the path we should take to avoid fighting?” I asked, realizing very belatedly that Alice had noticed that I had picked the wrong paths from the beginning… and she had a good memory too.

“No, I don’t really know… but I can get an idea of how we’ll fight based on our first encounter on a path.” I see, so she didn’t remember the paths, but she remembered the monsters we’d encounter, we could use that to guesstimate the path we should go down.

For now, we had two paths we could go down, making a fork in the road… we came down the right… so I’ll have us go left… left… why do I… Agent George… asshole knew this was going to happen.

“…I’m going to punch that George guy the next time I see him.” I whispered under my breath as we turned and walked back…

From then it took us a bit longer to get back, considering we had to test every path, except for that first choice of left… it was the correct choice… then when we got to the eleventh floor (we had levelled up twice) and I once more had a choice of left or right, and I heard the sound of fighting on the left side, meaning some group was already there…

“Left again.” Ever since that first choice, I’ve been picking the left ones as much as possible… and it’s been working out surprisingly.

“Ah, there you three are… you guys took a while you know?” so, who was it? It was Arthur, John and Emilia… all three had levelled up thrice. Thrice I tell you…

“Of course we did… I have a lot of complaints.” I said even as I smiled, and John got to work on healing us as we went back to get out the Dungeon.

Once out of the Dungeon, I proceeded to complain wholeheartedly to Arthur about not knowing the paths, having no healing, not making correct plans, etc… all while he just smiled and gave me a knowing look…

Yeah…I get it. You set this up to show me how it felt being a leader. I could tell by how everyone but me seemed to be in on it, so it was probably during the time I was getting dressed…

“By the way, I’m the one who told George to tell you the left thing… after all, for some reason majority of the good paths are on the right side on your way there.” … when I threw the punch, it didn’t hit him squarely but it got his shoulder and I was kind of satisfied.

“So, what’s left for today?” I asked, knowing my friends they wouldn’t end the day here when it was a special occasion, and I was proved right when Arthur smiled.

“We’re going to go play Pool and Bowling, then after that go to a club…” I blinked at the words of Arthur and smiled… he hated clubs. But, he was willing to go to one because he knew I enjoyed them.

“Well, at least I know where you six will be going now…” I blinked at the words and turned my head to see Agent Shaun standing there with a lazy look (as usual) as he stared at us.

He walked up to me and stuck his hand out with a small smile. “Happy birthday Michael, hope you have many more.” He said and I smiled back as I took his hand and shook it.

“Well, I’m just here to figure out why we had reports of you six going into different entrances, but judging by your new levels… I can guess. Smart move.” He admitted as Arthur frowned at him.

“Hey, no stealing my idea.” He said as Shaun scoffed and mock glared at Arthur with a smirk.

“I don’t need to. I’ve been using it for a while. Why do you think my team’s levels are almost on par with yours despite going into the Dungeon more rarely?” I blinked at his words even as I counted down mount Arthur’s eruption… 3… 2… 1…

“What! I could have gotten that idea by talking to you! Why didn’t you say anything?” he shouted as Shaun shrugged with a clear look of superiority at Arthur’s tone.

“Why should I? You never asked and your team seemed strong already.” Well… he had a point… a point that would not work on Arthur…

“Why is it that when two sarcastic people meet they either become friends or compete like this?” I heard Emilia ask and I looked to her and shrugged.

“I don’t know… I mean, Alice is sarcastic but she gets along with both of them but they can’t stand each other… it’s something we normal people can’t understand.” I stated with a serious voice as I heard Alice, Arthur and Shaun’s cries of indignation and smirked.

“…Are you sure you aren’t included?” I faintly heard John say something but I didn’t quite catch it.

“But before that, I have something very important to tell you all… it’s about Agent Grey.” I froze at Shaun’s words and looked to him with fear on my face… is he…

“Well… we believe he isn’t dead at this point, but… he’s missing.” He explained making my eyes widen even as I heard Arthur breathe in deeply.

“…When and where did he go missing?” I heard Arthur ask as Shaun looked to Arthur with a complicated expression, before sighing and motioning for us to follow him as we moved to his car (a Ford Mustang similar to the one in the Need for Speed movie)

“…Friday last week, we received a transmission from Agent Grey coming from a secret facility headed by the government.” Okay… I really wanted to know this, but should we know this is the question…

“While I do not hold all the information of the facility; that is only because the facility wasn’t even known to us until that transmission… we’re currently looking for information on it, but the only thing we really know about it is that it was around a forested area in a different state… which state, I am not at liberty to discuss, even with you all.” I frowned at his words…

“So, he went missing around that facility? And you all don’t even know about it? What’s going on?” Arthur cut straight to the heart of the problem as Shaun sighed.

“…There’s a media blackout on this bit of knowledge, but during the weeks following Red Sky Day numerous prisons and asylums were destroyed and had their prisoners or patients run free… judging from the statistics we gathered, there are over ten thousand free.” I blinked and paled at his words… while I was confident in my strength, ten thousand people who were either mentally ill or too dangerous for society were locked up are now loose?

“That’s a lower estimate by the way… when we checked the order of the breakouts and attacks, while some confusion was held, we found that if we made the dates a circle, the centre would be in a certain forested area… we sent Agent Grey to investigate since he’s faster and harder to capture than most of us…” he looked down and clenched his fist at his own words.

“Agent Grey found a destroyed, abandoned facility there, and there were a lot of dead bodies of both patients, doctors and their guards… he was busy sending a transmission when he was attacked, and all we know is that his attacker was one person.” So, there was someone strong enough to take out Jason despite him being one of the strongest people in America?

“So we are rightfully worried and also deemed it necessary to inform your team due to your past relation with Agent Grey… we have already informed his family as well.” He said before he got into his car, leaning out for a moment as he looked to Arthur.

“Oh yeah… you’ve seen Agent George around?” he asked as I blinked while Arthur narrowed his eyes… why would Shaun be looking for George? I thought George and Shaun didn’t like each other?

“It’s nothing really important to me in the long run, but apparently he’s been AWOL for the past week, his team should have gone home then already but he keeps running around and apparently they need help finding him.”

…The same Agent George that has been visiting us once a day for the past week? Oh…

“I saw him this morning but I don’t know where he is, we’ll probably see more of him later on.” Arthur added as Shaun sighed, nodded, and leaned back into his car.

“Alright then… when you see him, tell him he’s supposed to go home… really now…” Shaun complained as he rolled up his car window and drove off (that thing has a powerful start…)

“Well, that just happened… Jason…” I said absently as John patted my shoulder with a nod.

“He’ll be fine man. Isn’t he the guy who would always go missing but pop up later? I’m sure he’s alright, and he’ll be back before we know it.” Right… he was that kind of guy after all.

“Well, let’s go then, the cars are already here.” I blinked as Emilia handed me a key that had my eyes shining as I moved towards the beautiful piece of German technology known as the BMW M3 that Emilia had parked over there. They sure know how to make me happy on my birthday.

And it was brilliant honestly. We stopped at a small game centre which had the pool and bowling sections reserved already (Arthur mentioned that being famous occasionally has its perks) as we all played a few games each (making sure not to throw too hard for bowling and we had an issue or two at the pool table involving never missing)

“I think having LEV’s ruins games in general…” Arthur complained and I kind of agreed with him there… I mean, I have to hold back on throwing something that used to be heavy but was now negligible in weight.

“Hey, what do you think will happen to the Olympics? Maybe make a separate grouping for people with LEV’s and then separate them based on level?” I heard Emilia and I think we all realized that it wouldn’t be a bad idea…

We didn’t really check today but it’s a story for another time that the concept of the Adventurer Olympics was created from a discussion involving complaining about the fragility of a bowling ball.

From there, we headed towards the club and I was told that we had a reservation there as well… as we came up to the club though-

“HEY! I’M SHOUTING LOUD ENOUGH TO BE IN ALL CAPS! YOU KNOW YOU SEE ME!” I… I will admit, the moment I saw the Mustang Boss (similar to the one from the John Wick movie… Keanu Reeves is awesome by the way) in bright orange with pink decals, I knew who it was and tried to look away.

“Hey George, I’m sure you already know, but you’re supposed to be going home right?” Arthur easily spoke to the man who stepped out of the car (which was insanely loud and seemed to have coloured flame exhaust… the flame was green… what was with this combination of colours?)

“Oh yeah, I knew since we met that I’d be doing this after all. And Michael, it’s bright and eye-catching. It’s doing its job perfectly. I’m sure you’ll appreciate my Ferrari when I appear in book three.” I really didn’t want to give a response to that.

“Okay, don’t. Oh, and Arthur, the fluffy spoof fairies tell tales of a friend in need who cannot be found except through the Death Star’s telescope. The spikey albatross has explained that the friend will be found through means of a magical bubble-gum wrapper.” …that was even more confusing than normal…

“Oh, that’s a relief, I was worried… thanks for the heads up by the way.” So apparently Arthur somehow understood that…

“Well, enough of this scene, we haven’t even entered the club yet! Insert the line that separates scenes!” Wha-

-t… huh, we’re in the club now… I’m really confused on George… it’s… it’s too much strangeness in one moment.

“Of course I’m too strange for your sensibilities, call me the Singularity! Wait… I’m not a sailor nor does my name start with an S… my hair isn’t purple either… whatever.” I didn’t get the reference though I heard Arthur mutter something about a ‘magi’ or something.

“Now, drink, drink and enjoy the sheer chaotic nature of this scene… by the way, Arthur?” I noticed the glass in my hand kind of belatedly and downed whatever it was, and then took a deep breath upon noticing that it was very potent vodka…

“Yes George, what is it?” for some reason Arthur was very accommodating for George’s eccentricities and that is a word I would never really use in a sentence…

“There was apparently an error of consistency in the creation of this chapter. Luckily it has passed, it’s good… though the spicy monkey that creates novels is worried at the length of his new chapters apparently…” I was on my third shot by now, Alice next to me sipping silently on a flavoured beer since she didn’t drink much… I think I need a lot more alcohol to deal with George…

“Well, that is all of secondary importance to my next bit of information… you see-” he was cut short by a loud bang sound as a woman walked in… from some strange doorway that I didn’t understand, Jade Ainsworth following behind looking very nervous.

The woman had long red hair, a pair of glasses and very intelligent blue eyes, wearing a buttoned up shirt and skirt which reached a bit beyond her knees and a pair of heels with long socks.

“Thank you for my character description Michael, but I’m afraid I’m here to drag a stray dog back to Britain.” I blinked at the woman knowing my name… then realized how she spoke and paled realizing the similarity to George.

“Uh, uh… um… hi, Arthur…” Jade spoke and Arthur smiled and waved at her as he looked to the woman with a confused expression, as the woman sighed at his noticing of her.

“I believe an introduction paragraph is necessary… I am Felicity Ainsworth, older sister of Jade here. My name was decided by my future husband in the world beyond by the way. I’ve been told my name brings to mind scantily dressed cat women with no decency. I possess decency for the record… as for cat women, well; I have a favourite animal after all.”

Her introduction was almost as bad as George’s… “Oh yes, I also happen to be Queen of Fairies.” Never mind, it’s just as bad. “Thank you. It’s difficult to compete with stupidity…”

“Hey, being Hokage is not stupid! Even if silly red lines appear in word documents when Hokage is spelt, I believe it should be a real word!” George stood and shouted back even as… Felicity, sighed and walked up to George.

“…So you don’t deny being a stray dog?” she asked as George stiffened… then frowned… hey, maybe he actually does have pride behind all that insanity?

“Hey, I’m at least house-trained.” Never mind, I was wrong to hope for something different, even as I noticed that I was now on my fifth shot and I wasn’t continuing for a while… though I noticed in the corner of my vision that Emilia and Arthur were sitting close to each other… Jade was a small distance away… lucky bastard.

“Oh, he doesn’t do anything with Jade, she has another meant for her, not that they can hear that conversation.” Huh… it’s difficult dealing with people who can kind of read minds.

“Well, you don’t know difficult until you witness a conversation between two people who can do that.” Oh… oh please no…

She turned to George and raised an eyebrow, he replied with a ‘so-so’ motion with his hand. She responded with a face palm and a tiny clap. George scratched his ear, pouted, then did a Michael Jackson worthy spin and raised his fist. Felicity sighed and looked back to me.

“Did you get any of that?” I struggled to not pour myself another shot as I looked at her with no change in my facial expression.

“Not at all and I don’t think I want to… especially that last bit… was the spin necessary?” I asked as George smiled brightly and I just felt a headache approaching.

“Oh that wasn’t part of the conversation… that was me celebrating having won the argument.” Okay… so the rest was a conversation.

“Yeah, we were talking about the intricacies of plot and spoilers, and whether or not warning someone is necessary, until I mentioned that the supreme biscuit has determined that it was already to be.” I turned to Alice and noted she was already gone, apparently having been unable to follow the conversation…

“Yes… we also discussed who Jade would get together with, whether or not DNA was applicable in a world made of only souls which do not have blood and if pudding was good.”

…I really missed a lot, didn’t I? “Yes you did… but it’s alright. While we go warn Arthur, why don’t you close this chapter off by witnessing what happened to your friends due to getting drunk?” I blinked at the words of Felicity as I realized that I hadn’t quite followed what was happening with the rest (and as they walked away Alice came back with a coke and some water for me)

Okay… if that’s what I’m supposed to do or something… let’s see… Matt was apparently talking to a woman with long black hair and a playful smirk as she and a few women walked with Matt away… I decided to ignore that beyond there.

As for John, he was in the same situation apparently, though with twins… lucky bastard… I felt Alice ribbing me and I agreed with the implied thought. We would remember this and try as much as we can to twist this into a way he would feel embarrassed about it.

Then I turned to Arthur and noticed George, Felicity and Jade walking away into that strange door way (that looked… like a giant bookmark actually…) and then I saw what happened with Arthur and I had to keep my jaw from dropping in surprise.

First, this girl with a revealing dressed was trying to press herself against Arthur… which was surprising since, with no offence to Arthur, he didn’t exactly give the vibe of being accepting of such a thing. And his expression clearly showed that he didn’t enjoy this.

Then came Emilia’s right hook and that situation was gone… to be replaced with Emilia grabbing Arthur and, pardon my British, snogging him senseless before she turned, and passed out.

“…You see that?” “Yeah, I saw that.” “Want to bet whether or not she’ll remember that tomorrow?” “No bet, with my best friend’s luck, she’ll remember nothing.” “Yeah… Arthur is like that.” “Let’s go home… you grab Emilia, I’ll get Arthur.” “That’s a plan.” And so the conversation between Alice and I went as we got the people we could get (not counting John and Matt) to the M3 and had Alice drive (seeing as I was still kind of drunk.)

“You know, shouldn’t your Vitality prevent being drunk?” I asked Arthur as he walked next to me with a slight wobble before sitting in the back seat.

“Nope… that falls under Constitution… though I am kind of fine, Emilia was sitting with a lot of vodka while I just took around the same amount as you in whiskey.” Oh… well, that’s alright.

The next day, at the doorstep of our home, we finally pieced together the entire story… Emilia forgot the kiss, John was apparently almost shot, and Matt owns a club now.

Looking at Emilia who tilted her head, Arthur who was notably looking away from her with a blush, Matt who was grinning and John who looked very tired, all I could say was-

“…I blame George. His mere presence probably caused this.” I said calmly as a bright orange and pink Mustang Boss drove by in the direction of the airport… and in the air, I could faintly hear:

Whatever that is, please let it be a long time from now… pretty please?