The reunion of old teammates after a long and lengthy separation is but a spark of light had shone in a dark tunnel

The feeling of having to see someone that you had done unforgettable moments with could only be rivalled as that of the reunion of a family member after a war.

Be it a few weeks or a few years, the strength of longing for that feeling only grows stronger as time goes on. Happiness and nostalgia. Those are the feelings that one experiences in such a glorious reunion.

But in my case, I don't seem to have the feeling. Rather than happiness and nostalgia, I experience hatred and uneasiness instead.

The sight of my old comrades is like the sun in a long sleep. You had met the sun in the morning but left you at night and once you've closed all curtains and windows and slept, upon opening the curtains again, the sun blinds you when you greeted it.

The greatest betrayal.

My feeling is like that.

Really, why can't I experience something good for once?

"Isn't that Isaac? Hey, look its Isaac!"

Oh no...

They're coming towards me.

Moving aside those who blocked them, even after being looked on by them with a treacherous gaze, they didn't mind as their minds are locked on one thing. And that's me.

Wait, wait, wait!

I looked towards Kyle and she has this incredibly annoying expression on her face that makes me want to punch her. It's like she wants this to happen!

They're getting close...

"Hey Kyle, let's leave. Right now."

I pushed her towards the door and she moved to the side to prevent me from pushing her any further.

"But master, isn't it rude to not greet your old teammates? After all, have you not spent time with them long enough to consider them a family now? Please don't get me wrong here. I only merely want master to be kind and hospitable to others. Unlike how you treat a certain archer... It's definitely not me."

This piece of turd!!!

"It's only like a week that we've been teammates! It's not a very long time!"

"Even so, a week or a year, as long as you had a moment of cooperation and comradery, it's enough to be considered as a family."

"Once we got home, I'm going to force you to eat the mushrooms growing on the sides of the walls!"

I mean it this time! I'll show her!

"Ah...! For you master to force me to do such thing... Very well... I'm sure masters' mushrooms is not like any other men's mushrooms... But please be gentle with me..."

What the hell is this girl saying!?

Son of a ****!!!

*The following is a fit of anger full of profanities and had been hidden for the safety of the readers* (AN: it's not important. Don't worry.)

Then suddenly, while I was having a monologue that would or won't be censored, someone tapped my shoulders.

"H-hey, Isaac. What's the meaning of this? We've only left you for almost two weeks and you got yourself a sex slave? I can't decide if I should call this impressive or cruel. But considering it is you, then I'm sure you would have done it anyway."

And a soft laugh of a woman that doesn’t fit her whole get up followed afterwards.

"She is in no way my sex slave! She's more of a thorn in my butt than something as useful as a sex slave!"

Then Kyle pretending to be shocked, had managed to shed tears.

"... Is my body not good enough? B-but I thought master that you're contented with me..."

Screw you!

Screw you!!!!!!!!

"Oh? Haha! I thought you like woman with flat chest? Have you been lying to us back then?"

Don't give me that look, you worthless warrior!

（╯°□°）╯︵( .O.)

So after having to calm down. We sat found a table for me, Kyle, and these three and explained to them for 15 minutes that, in fact, Kyle is not my freaking sex slave but someone useless than that.

Although my feelings of hatred and resent towards them has been reduced by quite a sum since they didn’t beat me up when immediately when they saw me. Still, it’s nice to meet the ones who are the catalyst for me getting this darn reputation and not because of my stupid plan that didn’t work out. It’s definitely their fault, not mine.

"Is that so? Well, I doubt that Isaac can has the guts to do that but it was certainly something if that were true."

The female warrior. My ex-teammate, Sara, spoke as if she had known me for years when in reality, we've only known each other for a week.

"What makes you be so sure? I didn't tell you this but this guy over here often takes your used panties and sniffs it all night. I didn't tell you this sooner when we were comrades since it's amusing to look at how pathetic he is."

A little out of topic, I know but it's nice to see their reaction.

And like that, her face turned red in a blink of an eye. And speaking of in a blink of an eye, a certain male warrior named Troy had avoided the glare of his comrade.

Though, a certain magician here who looks more like a 10 year old than an adventurer is staring at me all this time as if I robbed a bank or something.

Let's ignore him for now until they introduced him.

Trying to change the subject, Troy spoke in an awkward way.

"So Isaac, how was your days when we... Um... Left you, so to speak?"

"Well, you may have known this but I was actually arrested."

The two made a wry smile and said apologetically.

"... We're sorry about that. You see, we were a bit mad at you for not helping all that much so we decided to report you to the police so... I hope there’s no hard feelings about that."

Truthfully, I got over that. I seem to have overestimated their trust towards me that I may have been slightly been pushing my luck.

After the Sara stopped speaking, Troy spoke in her position.

"Surely you would understand our reasoning to why we did it right? You aren't much help than we thought you would be and didn't even contribute in the last quest we did."

Understandable, have a nice day.

But joking aside, everything he said is complete garbage.

First off, I was a big help in our quests. Had they forgotten when I freezes the socks of the goblins when they were about to get hit by them? If it wasn't for me, the sticks of the goblins would've caused them a huge splinter. Or maybe a bruise? Oh wait, I remember them wearing arm guards so maybe it's just a small splinter... But nonetheless! I still save d them from an injury!

Also, the potions I have them, I didn't lie when I told them that the potion can regrow a limb. It's really true! I mean, if you have a scratch on your hand and you took a potion, it would heal that scratch and therefore, would regrow a limb!

But I'll let them pass this time since I may or may not be making fake memories in order to deny such circumstances. Though I think it's the latter.

As I was having my thoughts, Kyle elbowed me.

"... You thinking of how mistaken they were and how stupid they are to not realise your true value?"

She whispered to me.

Sometimes, she can say something that isn't an insult. How nice.

"...As expected of my current comrade. To know me so well even though we've only met just yesterday."

She lets out a sigh for some reason.

"...Knew it. And again, you had reinforced my image of you as being a pathetic degenerate."

"...Want to eat mushrooms that's growing inside the house? I'm seriously going to force you to do it if you say another insult towards me."

"...Oh? Want me to call you a rapist and how you've tricked me on becoming your slave to everyone?"

"...Quite counterproductive for you to do that. First of all, they will all think of you as some idiot who didn't read the very obvious notice. Second, you already did that and it's quite stupid for you to do it again. And third, just what you did will affect us as a party and not just me. Please think for your words first before considering it as a threat towards me. Ha!"

"... On second thought, let’s end our conversation for now."

"Aren't you two close?"

Sara said suddenly.

We are not even that close! How could she consider us as being close when we've only met just yesterday!? Which I had told her by the way.

"But considering that you managed to find a party member even though you have such a notorious reputation is, to be honest, isn't something that I've expected. Good for you. And the dragon, I thought that it already died? Looks like dragons are more resilient than I thought."

Oh, I forgot that my dragon is on my shoulder. He's sleeping so I didn't quite notice him that much.

"I'm sure you already know that Isaac here is negle—"

I shut the talking time bomb before she could've done some damage but looks like I was too slow.

"Neglected? It is quite obvious anyway from how thin it is. For an owner to be neglecting their dragon is more shunned than an owner neglecting any other animal since dragons are rare. If you want Isaac, I could give your dragon some left over steak?"

So the reason people aren’t being surprised than they should be is because they thought that I was neglecting my dragon? As if I’m neglecting my precious dragon! We’re just in such a tight spot right now so I can’t feed him all that well… But still…

…That's nice and all but why is she offering it to my dragon and not me?

But when she took it out of her bag, it looks a bit spoiled. Yeah, I'll pass.

Though from the smell of it, my dragon immediately woke up, jumped off my shoulder and swallowed the steak whole in one gulp.

"I'm not neglecting him, you know? If you two dumb heads don't know, neglecting means, absolutely not interacting nor taking care of one's pet to the point that it will be dangerous to the pet. I'm very much interacting with my dragon here if I get the chance and I only did the latter so technically, I'm only half neglecting him."

"Yeah sure. Though I'm surprised that your dragon managed to live this far considering your work ethic."

And so Kyle had spoken yet again another dangerous statement.

"Well, if his words were to be believed, Isaac had said to us that he worked in a lot of part time jobs and gave most of the earnings to some organisation that he says is very important to him. I don't know much of the full picture but that's what he basically said."

Is what Sara had answered.

I nodded at her answer to Kyle's suspicion but she asked something that I can't possibly let it pass.

"Most of his earnings? I bet it's something stupid."

She giggle afterwards...

"It's not something stupid."

Kyle flinched on my sudden statement.

I said in such a serious tone that I’m surprised myself but still, calling it stupid is something even if she doesn’t know of it is incredibly insensitive.

"Ah, Kyle, it's a sensitive topic for Isaac so please refrain from calling it stupid."

"Really? I'm still not used to Isaac being all serious. If you say it is then I won't."

I don't feel like Kyle meant it. Though I know she's just teasing me but still...

I let just let out a sigh.

To change the topic into something less heavy, Sara spoke.

"Anyway, it is nice to see you again. I was wondering how you two meet? Although I bet that it isn’t in a normal way as asking to make a party, is it?"

"Oh, I actually saved her from drowning in the nearby riv—"

"We fought each other over a piece of muffin."

"...Don't tell them you idiot."

Once they heard that, they made an uneasy smile as if they're guilty.

Yes be guilty! You two are the reason why I'm in this state and not because of my stupid decisions. Definitely not.

As if they've telepathically communicated with each other about what to say to us, Sara spoke such generous words.

"If you guys want, well treat you for today. You see, we made much more money when... Um... You see, I think our synergy with our new teammate is better than when we were teammates, Isaac so..."

"No need to sugar coat it. I get what's going on."

I raised my finger at his lips and stopped her from speaking.

Yes, I very much know what's going on here.

"It seems to me that you got yourselves some pretty rich magician here. I bet he bought one of those potions that are worth at least 2 gold coins that can heal a status effect."

This made the 10 year old looking magician tilt his head but still nonetheless, continued to glare at me.

What the heck did I do to this person?

"That’s not it Isaac. It's more of, our new magician in our party, Sam, knows a lot more efficient spells than you. Rather than relying on the combinations of basic spells which takes a lot of cast time but surely has lesser mana cost, Sam knows intermediary spells that takes only a second or two to cast. Also, he actually helps out."

Troy suddenly cuts in and said such unbelievable words which may or may not be true.

So this guy's name is Sam? An appropriate name for someone who likes to glare at other people because they feel like it.

Leaving the blunt statement of Troy which I would love to retort to, I'm more concerned about the path that this boy is going to in his career as a magician.

First off, intermediary and advance spells takes tremendously longer time to learn than a basic spell, obviously. But considering that intermediary and advance spells' strength and the method of learning it compared to a basic spell, it's not very efficient. Yeah intermediary spells takes like 2-3 basic spell combination and casts faster and is more powerful and the advance spell takes 3-9 basic spell combination and is incredibly hard to pull off and really takes a long darn time to cast while just learning a certain advance spell will reduce it to one up to five seconds of cast time only, one has to consider the mana cost.

The freaking mana cost must be the basis of things! Even if you can cast a lot of intermediary spells and some advance spells in the span of a minute, sooner or later, you would ran out of mana and possible collapse from mana exhaustion which is incredibly deadly for a magician. But if you were to just use the combination of basic spells to cast the very same spells, you can actually last longer and cast more intermediary and advance spell combinations! Although the cast time is incredibly slow and hard to pull off especially for an advance spell but it's certainly worth it to learn those combinations anyway. Meaning, a tremendously lower mana cost is extremely good.

Also! Almost 70% of the existing spells are basic spells so me, having known all of them, has a mastery of 70% of all spells! Now that's a title anyone should want!

Although I hardly remember the name of about two thirds of them but still! I've learned it and very much capable of casting it, if I just remember the name.

Of course, if one learned a spell, the recipe of that spell will forever be written, so to speak, in their mind and would be able to cast it if they know of the name of it but I digress.

Although I sort of understand why he didn't take the absolute mastery of all basic spells and just took the route of almost all of the magician now took these days, the road to mastery of all intermediary and advance spell because he doesn't have the guts or is too dumb to learn how to manipulate the flow of basic spells!

As they say, the fundamentals is the very support and is the derivation of almost all the more advanced things in this world. If one where to master the fundamentals, one has mastered all.

And with my thoughts at that, I said my retort finally.

"You've misunderstand the point that of what I'm doing. Had you forgotten that I know all of the basic spells in existence? And thus, I can conjure almost all of the spells in existence in respect, even if it will take a long time to do it. Also, I didn't do much because my leg was cramped all of the time."

"And it that's basically your very reason why you don't help too much during our quests."

Is what Troy had said to me in return.

"At least I'm consistent with my reasons."

"Alright enough of this! Isaac, I challenge you to a duel!"

Huh?

A sudden challenge to a duel by someone I've only met. And a guy that looks like a 10 year old at that?

Who the hell challenges a fellow adventurer to a duel these days? What are we, in the West?