The School main building was devastated. As classes had already ended, most students were outside when the fight between Samsy and Nathyn broke out. Some were still in here, as well as teachers, but luckily nobody died. They all managed to get out of the building before it falls completely.

Everyone was wondering around the rumbles, shocked by what happened. Nathyn, the well-known powerless shrimp of the school beat down his bullies and engaged in a full fight with the transfer student. A 15-years old psychic capable of lifting and restraining another human would be considered a genius, so how should we call him after that?

The most affected was without a doubt Nathaly. She was taking care of Nathan, who has just started to get his breath back. She was overwhelmed. Her new boyfriend appeared to be a dimension traveller and her weak childhood friend revealed himself as the most powerful psychic she had ever seen.

Medical assistance had arrived on the scene, few ambulances were already departing, and the police was about to come.

That’s when he came back.

Naly saw him descending towards her. He wasn’t alone, behind him was Samsy, floating unconscious. He gently landed in front of her.

He didn’t say anything, he tried to look directly at her, but was way too embarrassed. So he kept looking at his feet. She could clearly see from his eyes and cheeks that he cried, a lot.

“You didn’t kill him...right?”

“No… I… I am sorry. I misunderstood and overreacted...”

“No kidding? What happened to Sam?! And look at the school!”

He raised his head, to look at the what-used-to-be the school building, and diverted his eyes in embarrassment and shame.

“Sigh… Tell me what happened.”

“...Someone told me about Sam’s background, about how he wants to leave this place as soon as possible. So when those guys came to beat me up again… I kind of snapped.

“Someone?”

“She just came after Sam lost consciousness. She healed him and told me to make him pass his next door.”

“What? That doesn’t tell me who she is. And what door are you talking about?”

The police have arrived the scene, and they started asking questions to the student. Nathyn looked anxiously towards them and was clearly indicating his will to leave.

“She had long white hair, like Sam, and her name is Eve. About the door… I don’t really know either, but I have the coordinate.”

“Wait! Do you plan to obey her?”

“Yes.”

“But she just deceived you!”

“She told me that was for the greater good...”

“What?”

“I saw it with my own eyes Nathaly. She is a goddess.”

Struggle#10

Objective: Reunite with your friend

Sub-objective: none

Naomi finally arrived at the 10th stage.

The scenery was peaceful. Once again, she was inside a forest. To be more accurate, she was in a little clearing, where seven camping tent were disposed in a circle around a campfire. The night was already down, and the fire was the only source of light, and she slowly approached it.

She asked her guide, Clarence, a lot about the “Reunion Struggle”. It’s supposed to be the first platform where the seven people in a session can meet.

In fact, she wasn’t the first to arrive. Someone else was already here, sit on the other side of the fire. Tall, muscular, short blond hair and sharp blue eyes, he was the caricature of a trustworthy and reliable leader.

“Delighted to finally reconvene with you Xavier.”

“Haha, you didn’t change at all Naomi, always so formal.”

Xavier Xen was the fastest to complete his first 10 struggle. The truth is Naomi wasn’t surprised at all, nobody in the group would have been. He was undeniably the strongest. Smart, charismatic, and most of all, his simple yet over effective i-talent. Xavier was blessed with strength, speed, agility and reflex beyond human limit. Even on earth, he was able to throw cars and easily outrun wild wolves.

It wasn’t that much different here. When you use the flux to improve the body, it’s like applying a multiplicative factor to your stats. Needless to say, Xavier is like a war god with flux enhancement, even though his control is not that much better than Sam’s.

Naomi was genuinely happy to see him again, and sat down near the campfire.

“As expected, you preceded me.”

“Don’t flatter me, I arrived here just a few hours ago.”

“Do you have some news about the others?”

“Not really, Jules says that everybody is fine, but that’s it. Oh! He did tell me that Samsy had bad luck because his guide is an ass...”

“Jules ought to be your guide, I presume. And I have been briefed on this issue…”

“Don’t worry too much, he is a tough guy. Back on Earth, he was able to keep up with us, that’s not nothing.”

The attempt to cheer her up worked pretty well. So they continued to chit-chat about their adventure until now, and laughing around the campfire. Their experience is nothing like Sam’s, they passed each struggle without much difficulty. It’s not like it was easy, but they never encountered life-threatening situations, with the notable exception of the very first struggle for Naomi, and, oddly enough, the 6th for the both of them.

“Really? You can throw magma balls? And that didn’t work on that guy?”

“Not only was it ineffective, he absorbed it in a gigantic magmatic torrent.”

“Shit! How did you manage to survive that?”

“I am uncertain myself. I believe he was going easy on me, and didn’t try to mortally wound me.”

“Yeah, I got the same feeling from my duel too. He invaded my minds many times, and I’m sure he could have killed me easily. It’s like he wanted me to overcome him...”

“For certain, this adventure had been filled with odd events.”

“Tell me about it. It’s even messier than our Earth life.”

“Agreed. Sigh, I miss everyone...”

And like that, the night passed.

As the sun started rising, a third person arrived. Another guy passed through his 10th door, he was even taller than Xavier, almost 2 meters, but way thinner, with black hair and dark eyes. He was wearing a typical leather rogue armour with two daggers on his hips. As expected from this “adventure”, originality is once again nowhere to be seen, he is the most cliché fantasy rogue/assassin character you could think of: dark and mysterious.

“Kyle! Good to see you man!”

“Good morning Kyle.”

Xavier and Naomi waved at him. In response, Kyle nodded and walked towards them.

All the others arrived later during the day. As the sun was about to be replaced by the moon, the group was reunited. Cheers and laugh were filling the air.

Well, everyone was here, except for one person.

I woke up in panic. I am alive? Yes! I am alive!

Slowly, I started to remember what happened. I had finished the struggle, and that displayed to me the sub-objective. Seeing that one of them was to save Nathyn, I decided to stay a bit longer to help him. And 4 days later, out of the blue, everybody is trying to kill me.

I guess that’s it for gratitude… I don’t know how to react. I definitely want to kick this little ass in the head, but I still don’t hate him… Fuck! He tried to kill me! What’s wrong with me!

...Maybe I am used to getting close to death too much now. If so, that’s worrying.

By the way, where am I? I was sleeping on a grassy land, and before me is a huge wooden building, it looks like a dojo.

I may be wrong, but when someone wants to treat someone’s else wound, he would go to a hospital right? Or at least put him into bed. Why the hell am I in front of a dojo?

Not only this, apart from that, there is nothing to be seen around, except for grass and the cloudy sky.

Wait… don’t tell me.

I quickly reached into my pocket.

Struggle#05

Objective: Befriend Nath

Sub-objective: Date Nathaly – Learn Nathan’s Secret – Save Nathyn

Struggle#06

Objective: Defeat Master Kunan

Sub-objective: none

They made me passed the door?

What? How? Why? Who?

I… This quest is making me crazy.