“I'm out again...to think I was being followed or at least I thought I was...”Maria sighed as she logged off the game.

The first thing that she did was to check the lock on her door and to lock it so no one could get in. She knew what time it was and the others if they logged off could talk to her through a locked door.

The second was to get some clean clothes to change into. Even though she was in the game capsule for most of the time and didn't sweat, she did spend hours in the same clothes and would prefer to take a shower immediately to get the smell off her.

However taking a shower would make noise and that would mean the others out the game had a chance to know she was there and try to seek her if they wanted. That was something that she did not want to happen especially right now when she needed time to think for herself.

And right now, the only reason she left the game was that she didn't feel safe to sleep on the side of the street. There was someone watching her, she was completely certain of that. However she didn't have the means to seek whoever that was at all.

Looking at the time, it was a few hours till morning.

“Might as well get some sleep” she muttered not even bothering to take a shower but to simply change her clothes and lie on the bed with her eyes shut. She would log back in latter to do something. She needed something to do else she would shut down completely.

xXx

Approximately some time before Eden went to see Alexandra....

“Hello there~” said Eden waving his hand to Serena and Raven who were waiting for Shadow to come back. Both of them looked at Eden at that moment and saw him with one of his hands dragonfied and dragging a large crushed and dead creature with him which covered him in enough blood to see even though it was a bit dark.

“Eccccccccckkkkk!!!!” Serena let out a scream at the horror like elements she was seeing and went to run but Raven grabbed and stopped her.

“Raven, why are you condemning me to die?!” she screamed before grabbing and flipping Raven in turn which made Eden's jaw drop.

“Wow...Alexandra really did teach you quite a bit there...” he muttered looking and Raven who let out a small groan of pain.

“Help” said Raven pleading a bit to Eden looking him with a pitiful gaze. Raven's pride was quite hurt right now with Serena managing to flip him like that and so easily...even though he knew of her capabilities, the shame did not go away.

“Oh I've learnt a long time ago that you cannot beat girls in these kinds of matters, especially when it comes to their hair, gossip and violence” said Eden dropping what he was dragging along and turned his arm back to normal.

However in turn and since Eden looked less threatening, well he was practically a woman in appearance of the same age a bit older than Miriel and Lyndis, Serena thus glared at him for frightening her.

“What do you want?” she asked.

With an eyebrow raised, Eden said, “So you finally graduated from the shy act? Good timing since that shuttering was driving me nuts.”

“....”

Serena proceeded to step and kick Raven who was still on the ground.

“Looks like your sadist side is developing nicely and Raven's masochist side as well~”

“....” “....”

Both Serena and Raven proceeded to glare at Eden now though even so, Raven did not seem to want to stand up and allowed Serena to kick him a bit more. Eden knew Raven was somewhat kind and practically felt little pain but people shouldn't like being hit right...?

Various images of Weed and those Gemchis intentionally being hit bare chested to raise their stats popped up in his mind. Yeah..that was not what he wanted to remember right now.

“Anyway I'm here to tell you that you two should train rather than stalk Lyndis like the stalkers you are” said Eden which raised some more eyebrows though Serena was still stepping Raven right now.

Really was this some sort of play he never heard of before? One was 15...no a year passed so he was 16 now and the other was now 14 as well, wait that just made it worse since Eden could not associate with the age-innocences graph.

“Anyhow, I'm going to say this once. Don't follow Lyndis anymore.”

“Why?! She's our friend!” Serena retorted.

Eden snickered and said, “You mean how she pushed everyone and everybody away? Well if she wants that...” he looked at the thing he dragged with him and grinned thinking of something evil.

“Well I'm going to follow Lyndis no matter what! She looked so...so...”

“Lost, distressed, confused are some of the words I could have describe her. I mean she did attack me the moment she saw me” Eden pointed out to which Serena gasped a bit thinking Eden had punished her in some ways.

“Oh don't worry, I'm not that bored to punish Lyndis on that...yet.”

“Is that all you wanted to say?” asked Serena looking quite strangely at Eden again.

Oh she must have noticed the thing he dragged wasn't actually dead, bless or curse their regenerative powers. Ever since that first one that actually tried to eat him, Eden did not get along with giant rabbits and especially purple giant rabbits.

Else it might be the fact that he was about to traumatise her either way.

“More or less” said Eden snapping the neck of this 'foe' of his and took it with him disappearing.

xXx

“Yo, I just met with everyone else and you two are the last on my list to meet” said Eden popping out of nowhere. However he did not get the reaction he wanted to from both Sain and Miriel who seemed calm with only an eyebrow raised.

“What is it?” asked Sain not even frightened of him and even Miriel was like this...though Eden suspected she was considering being frighten to have an excuse to hug him even tighter. Oh misguided youth in love...Eden sometimes...often would want to escape from Alexandra but that was impossible in too many ways.

“I'm here to give you the 'talk'” he said in a grim tone though was expecting a good reaction of some kind.

“....”

But there was little to no response to them.

Seeing this, he sighed at the two wanting a better reaction, even being attacked like with Lyndis or shock with Shadow though not a high pitch scream like Serena. Well that was nothing much he talked with those four about-though he may have screwed with their minds a bit in boredom.

“You two are no fun unlike the others. I can actually toy with them a bit without Alexandra's wrath coming back on me” he sighed.

“I'll remember to report that to her that you said that then” said Miriel to which Eden expressed on horrified look at her though she added, “Unless you pay the price of course.”

“....”

Giving up a bit, Eden took out a gold coin and gave it to her to which Miriel beamed happily and whispered to herself though Eden could still hear due to his skills, “Thank god my first time doing this worked.”

“....”

Eden could not believe her first attempt to blackmail for money was on her guildmaster and furthermore on him! He wanted to punish her and with her, Sain as well for this! But he had better things to do.

But Sain and Miriel were different from the others in strange ways. Well to be precise Sain but Miriel was sticking around him rather than leave with Lyndis so Eden counted her as weird as well. But that might be just love he thought in his mind as he grinned at them who were close to each other.

“Anyway I'm here to tell you to expect a mission, well an order from me in around...6 or so months” he said to which the two did not look surprise at all.

“What? No reaction? Even Raven was more interesting than you two and that's saying something” said Eden in disappointment. At least Serena screamed and Lyndis actually dared attack him.

“Did you tell this to the others yet?” asked Sain to which Eden remembered he actually didn't. Well when they make up then those two can tell them anyway.

“What do you want?” asked Miriel to which Sain added, “And why are you here?”

“Here to talk about a few things. Namely since it had exactly been a year-well in real life that you started the game” said Eden a bit excited.

“....”

Sain thought about it and it was indeed a year since that day where the six of them had been brought to that mansion and practically forced to start to play with game, though he was thankful enough for it.

“Did you talk to the others yet?” Sain asked.

“I already told you, you two are the last two on my list though I didn't mention that other detail for the others since I kinda forgot about it and now it seems like a good excuse” answered Eden bluntly not caring that much.

“....”

“Anyway unlike Serena and Raven, and the other two, I don't need to mention you lot need to get stronger” said Eden, “And get to level 300 before the year ends and also get rid of that [Little Droplet] organisation that had been a pain for a while.”

“We know” said Miriel, “That's why we're searching for information on our off days in the game in between training.”

Eden took that moment to look around. They were literally in front of a dungeon, one that was practically harmless to him but quite a challenge for those of Sain and Miriel's level and with just the two of them.

From what he could remember...this place was a good place for level 250s to train since it had good experience though crap loot drops. The enemies...he thought it was some generic monsters like goblins, imps and so on. Not that dangerous when you are properly levelled and equipped.

But then, Eden thought it was too annoying for them to not worry so much compared to the others. Even Serena and Raven while not worried were at least shocked for one reason or another he forgot to remember.

Thus he said the following: “Hmm....just a reminder to solve the issue of Lyndis else I might have to kick her out if the worse happens” said Eden which caused both Sain and Miriel to flinch before saying, “That reminds me, I was having a talk with Park and he said that you two discuss something of learning a skill I had.”

“....”

Sain frowned and tried to remember but could not. Did this really happen or was it buried within his memories for some reason?

“Anyway this is actually a good skill to use especially for you and quite powerful if used correctly. If you wish to learn the other skills in this set, come talk to me and we can discuss it” said Eden before giving Sain a golden skill book, A rank and disappearing.

“....What just happened?” wondered Miriel looking at the skill book in Sain's hands wide eyed.

“I'm...not sure” replied Sain who was truthful.

xXx

Some time later when Serena and Raven decided to adheed to Eden's words and train for a bit.

“Raven, please endure a bit more!” said Serena gathering the remains of the mana inside of her as much as possible to use a spell and trying to encourage Raven at the same time.

Raven was in front of Serena enduring several attacks at once by armed lizardmen that counted four. Right now they were in a surprise attack battle with Raven moving to block attacks for Serena when the lizardmen attacked them.

His armour was getting battered and sometimes were bent out of shape with each hit the longer the fight went on which was a short while but at the same time it allowed Serena time to chant her spells to support him.

“Heartbeat Healing!” she chanted which was the most basic and fundamental and powerful overall healing spell she had.

Party in range has been buffed with the spell 'Heartbeat Healing'

Health will regenerate for 70 points every second for 10 minutes

Due to her 'Magic Mastery' and 'Nature Magic Mastery' skills were both at the Intermediate Level 3 point, it gave her nature spells a total of 3.4 times greater power than normal. Adding this to the health gain of 'Heartbeat Healing' which at the Intermediate Level 2 point and usually gain a total of 16 points of health a second for 10 minutes. Combined with the bonus of the first two skills, both of them would boost this skill would increase the health gain per second to 70 points. That meant a total of 42 000 health which was enough to fill his health almost three times over.

However with the rate this battle was going, Serena doubt that could completely support him. Thus she took the time to cast another healing spell on him.

“Moderate Health Regeneration!”

Moderate Health Regeneration has been applied, 2500 health will regeneration over 100 seconds

With this set up, Serena did not need to worry about Raven dying quickly without warning, at least without him being instant killed. Moderate Health Regeneration would pretty much add another 250 health points onto Raven for the next minute and two thirds. Serena could see Raven's health that went down steady was now increasing instead.

“Footwork!” said Raven moving quickly around the attacks of the lizardmen. Serena did not particularly like the fact that Raven was kinda ignoring her in favour for the battle unless he had to defend her even though it was his role and both of them knew it.

But now she started to chant a spell to attack with Raven distracting the four lizardmen at once.

“Leaf Slicer!” she chanted using the leaves around them as a catalyse for the spell itself and thus increasing it's power. Several hundred small blade like things covered in an green aura flew from Serena to the four lizardmen.

Serena made sure to avoid hitting Raven but figured that his armour that was pretty good would block most of the damage and her spells would have recover the damage even if she accidentally attacked him. But due to the scales of the lizardmen which automatically blocked weak attacks, a feature of most scaled monsters; this attack wasn't as effective as it should be causing only minor damage to them.

“Anchor Howl!” Raven shouted drawing whatever aggravation the lizardmen had to Serena to him in an instant they started to move to her.

But this was the only attacking spell Serena knew other than 'Blood Burst' which was on cool down still. With now choice Serena immediately changed her tactics and shouted, “Beast Transformation Art: Rabbit Shift!”

Two bunny ears appeared on her head as a small rabbit tail appeared on her butt and her legs transformed being covered in thick white fur in a form that resembled her wearing fur boots that reached her knees.

Rabbit Shift as been activated, Increased agility and kicking strength

With this, Serena leaped from the ground and into the air and did a drop kick much to her surprise successfully on one of the lizardmen that was attacking Raven.

BANG!

The lizardman she attacked blocked the attack and the other three lizardmen, in total four lizardmen in total as enemies stabbed their spears at Serena to attack her. However, at that moment, they were all suddenly blown away by an invisible force.

BOOM!

Raven activated 'Boost' and 'Gravity Force' to block the attack for Serena.

“Battle Aura!” he shouted activating his aura around his body and increased his stats by a little bit since the skill was still kinda weak in the Beginner Levels. He would need to use this to make the skill stronger than before.

The lizardmen knocked back immediately regained their stances growled at the two. The four immediately moved to surround the two in a quick timing.

“Fighting really got harder” muttered Serena looking at two of the lizardmen at a time.

Before there were six of them, half of them would attack and the other three supported with various things. But now there was only herself and Raven and they were really suffering from being surrounded and attacked on all sides.

Since she wasn't used to commanding others and Raven really didn't do his own thing a lot, Serena could only say, “Do what you think is right” to him to which he immediately abandoned protecting her and started to attack.

“....”

Because of that, two of the lizardmen bypass Raven and attacked her. She immediately regret this and cursed Raven for doing this to her but she had bigger problems right now!

“Eck!”

Dodging the attacks thankfully due to training from Alexandra, she was able to take only a few hits without dying. Due to her shorter height, she was unable to attack properly with kicking...or punching by any rate.

“My staff...!”

Even her staff took a few hits while she used it to defend herself as well. It took a beating when she used it to protect herself since staffs weren't to be used to defend yourself against attacks. It had cost her several hundred gold to buy and now looked a bit battered.

The thought of Miriel's face when she would find out that Serena's broke her staff in close combat of all things...she could not let whatever Lyndis suffered from come to her!

“Root bind!” Serena chanted that skill for the three seconds it took her to to which she barely dodged the second lizardman which was not bound due to her spell. Retreating back she continued to say, “Beat Transformation Art: Bear Shift!”

The rabbit features disappeared and two bear ears appeared on her head and her arms turned into bear claws.

Bear Shift as been activated, Increased strength and claw damage

Due to this, her speed decreased but in exchange her strength increased. But she was not done yet and she said, “Berserk Conversing” activating the skill turning the 600 points in both intelligence and wisdom to 200 points in both strength and agility due to the 1:3 conversion ratio of the skill.

Moving due to this, Serena dodged another stab from the free lizardman that attacked her and then shouted, “Berserk Instincts” activating the skill and letting the skill control her body to fight.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

BANG!

Immediately her right fist that was surrounded and protected by an iron claw went and crushed one of the arms of the lizardman it was followed up by a kick where Serena suddenly went back into 'Rabbit Shift' before another series of kicks that took that lizardman down to the ground in seconds.

Next was a series of hits using the staff to which she silently and internally weeped of the possibility of the staff breaking.

But in the end, she was able to kill the lizardman before the effects of her 'Root Bind' spell wore off on the other lizardman. Thus her body started to attack the bound lizardman as well going back into 'Bear Shift' for the increased damage.

After that, Serena waited for Raven to finish his battle against the two lizardmen he was facing. Upon him defeating those lizardmen, Serena said, “We need to have a talk on teamwork.”

“....”

Raven was silent but still nodded as Serena said, “Between you and me, I seem to have a better offence while you have a better defence seeing that I really can't take a hit.”

“....”

Raven nodded again.

“But it looks like your 'Gravity Force' ability doesn't really work against foes that aren't...large. Well nothing to that...umm...I mean we, well I need to fight along side you. Wasn't fun trying not to be hit and instant killed there. Your health is more than three times mine and your defence...even more” Serena started to blab seeing that between the two, only she would talk.

“A-Anyway we should find some more enemies after we both recover completely” she said while thinking on where the hell Shadow was. She was not used to commanding people at all and Raven was just too obedient to the point she almost couldn't trust him.

It was bad enough that the shuttering was coming back...

xXx

An hour later, while Serena and Raven were training and grinding some experience for their level and skills, Shadow watched the two from above, without them knowing of course. He didn't even say a single word or let a sound out of his mouth ever since Eden visited him to talk.

That talk made him think of several things he didn't want to, but in the end his decision was the same.

There was no need for other people to keep track of Lyndis since there was no point if he could do it alone. Even though he knew they were certainly worried about them, he couldn't just risk her finding out among other things he thought to himself. Other than that, Lyndis finding out that they were literally stalking her would make her lose any trust and chance they had with her coming back.

“....”

Looking down, the two were doing some basic combination attacks on a single lizardman with some of the other enemies already dead. He said basic since Serena was a complete beginner in these kinds of things and usually stayed back and supported.

“Almost done!” said Serena encouraging herself as she dodged an attack and let Raven counter attack for her. Raven's Halberd sliced down and chopped an arm off of the lizardman and it was followed up by Serena using that iron claw thing on her right arm to pierce the chest killing it.

“Haa...finally done. I'm still not used to battling like this. How do you deal with it?” asked Serena to Raven but he did not respond.

The two or rather Serena started to talk to Raven about some things. Mostly about how she could improve or what to do next. But Shadow noticed something strange.

“Critical Eyes.”

The place lit up and several things including Serena and Raven had their weak spots shown to him. But at the same time, a lizardman whose suppose to be dead also lit up for him. It was still alive.

“No choice then, might as well make it flashy” and make an impression on them.

Shadow leaped from the tree and immediately impaled the lizardman that was playing dead and caused it to let out a groan of pain before dying.

“Whose the-Shadow?” Serena blurted out seeing that she actually wished for this person to appear a few hours ago and even messaged him and only now he appeared.

“Yeah it's me...” said Shadow though his tone was still on the topic that Eden brought up. Was this really an act in the end? He badmouthed others in order to at least make a better-well worse impression on them. You don't forget the people you hate that easily.

“Okay...? Before you said you were happy to see Lyndis depressed and now you come back depressed of seeing Lyndis depressed?” asked Serena in her confusion. She really didn't know much.

Thus Shadow said, “First of all, did Eden visit you as well?”

“Yeah...why? Did he have that all, you need to train some more talk with you?” she asked.

“Uh..maybe among other things he said” he replied.

“What did he say?” she asked

“Not telling. Quite personal you see” Shadow let off a fake smile and then said, “Also, you two won't be needing to keep track of Lyndis. I can take care of that job by myself since you two are a burden.”

Serena and even Raven had an expression of shock right now. They did not or at least tried not to understand what Shadow had just said to them.

“How exactly am I and Raven a burden?” she asked irritated and annoyed right now. What on earth was he thinking?

Shadow shrugged and then said, “One is a near useless healer that can barely defend herself while the other is a lump of walking metal that can only block and rarely attacks.”

“....”

Both Serena and even Raven frowned to this comment.

“I can attack you know and bind and Raven has those throwing axes as well” said Serena.

“But you two aren't used to doing that. I was actually watching you fight you know, you rather dodge than counter-attack and Raven didn't even have a chance of using his throwing axes, well not that I actually use a bow that much. I mean we are so specialise that learning new ways to fight is actually hindering us” said Shadow in a dramatic tone.

“Of course it is, you can't do everything at once. It's about the circumstances and the chance to do so” said Serena in turn.

Shadow thought Serena was right which was why they needed to train and focus on training in order to be good at attacking and such. It was for the best in the end. With a devilish grin, Shadow decided to do that for their sake and the sake of the group that will come back together one day.

“Both of you don't have the speed nor stealth among many things to basically keep track of Lyndis and make time to train properly. So basically bug off until you get a bit stronger else if I find you two near Lyndis when I don't want you to...”

Shadow silently used a combination of skills at once but the result that he almost looked like he teleported behind them as he warned, “I won't be letting you off.”

Shadow backed away as the two flinched and looked at him with great speed and smiled saying, “Well get along you two. Hopefully you won't disappoint me when you come crying that you are unable to fight alone” with a sneer.

With that, Shadow disappeared from their sight.

xXx

A few minutes later when he was sure they were in no where in range to hear him even by chance, Shadow muttered to himself something.

“You could have told me that you wanted us to train more individually damn Guildmaster, I almost thought you wanted me to stalk Lyndis without a good reason.”

Shadow sighed and let out a chuckle that those two won't be liking him that much for a while, the way he liked it. Everything was fine and in the plan at least for now.

xXx

With Shadow's disappearing figure...well gone, Serena was quite shocked in more ways than one. She looked at Raven with an astonished looked and knew what he was thinking but still asked, “Did Shadow just inadvertently say to train and leave the hard work with Lyndis with him?”

Raven nodded as Serena put things in her mind to pieces.

“So...Shadow wants us to get stronger and not chase Lyndis who doesn't want us to be with her which is what Eden said and Shadow takes orders from Sain who takes order from Eden.

xXx

At the same time...out of the game and in an certain office that was filled with too much paperwork, three people sat looking at each other.

They had logged out seeing that they wanted to discuss something and didn't want some other people to know about certain personal details of some people they took in a while back. Unicorn had some power over them though the Goddess AI helped since it was using them either way.

“So when will you be finished with that pile of paperwork? I mean there has been a lot of complaints of certain activities between students and not the nice and fluffy kind I mean” asked Alexandra pointing to the ever growing stack of complaints he was getting as chairman.

Eden sighed and then said, “You know more than me that I was busy. All you do is guard and stare at the sky-”

“-While me and Eden work on one of the most complex magic circles in the world to use in another half a year” added Viv.

“I don't like how you two are getting the all 'I know each other thoughts' vibe” said Alexandra with a frown, “It feels like Viv is stealing away Eden from me.”

Viv went a bit red and then said, “Both of us need to be on the same mind, teleporting 5000 or so people isn't that hard. The problem is the distance-”

“-Which is a nightmare-”

“-And the fact that we need to do so without them upstairs noticing-”

“-Though they might already know and are just waiting and watching traps or not.”

Alexandra shook her head and then said, “Yeah, never do that again else I might jump off that island in the sky to get away from it all.”

“You will be shot down” Eden pointed out, “Getting there was hard enough without a bunch of giant birds trying to-well in my case they actually ate me once.”

“Before you actually went Dragon King Mode inside of them and made them go boom” pointed out Viv.

“Not exactly a pleasant slight when you are directly under the exploding one as well might I add” said Alexandra as well, “Did not like giant bird guts on me all of a sudden.”

“You literally burnt it all before it even touched you!” retorted Eden before scowling and remembering why they were here talking to begin with, “Better start with what we wanted to talk about else we will never get there.”

Viv nodded and said, “Yeah, for some reason something else always interfere with what we want to do. I mean when we took a stroll down a peaceful, a Heretic God attacked us out of nowhere.”

Alexandra sighed and said, “Don't make me remember that...to think a God like that, A God of the Sea could turn into a Heretic God of Panties....”

“That guy even mistaken me as a woman and...” Eden was pale but then realised the conversation was going off again, “Right, time to talk about those kids we took in almost a year ago now.”

“Right” Both Alexandra and Viv nodded. The two turned to Eden and Viv asked, “Since you're the one who had been keeping track of them most of the time, what are their progress?”

From the top of Eden's head through his stalk-investigations he said, “They have another year to get to level 300 and are a quarter there from level 200 now.”

“Is that good or bad? I can't remember since we kinds blast through the first 400 levels kinda quickly when we started” asked Alexandra.

“So-so progress, though impressive considering that they were locked out of the game for a month and a half and spent almost the same time trapped in a city” said Viv in slight praise answering her question.

“Either way, they have another year in game to gain 70 or so levels which isn't too much especially and since they need to complete a B rank Guild Quest which brings me to the next point. Those brats we trained are helping those kids in the Guild Quest which I say is a good thing for what it's worth” added Eden.

“True, I never expected them to get along with anyone younger so well” chuckled Alexandra, “All of them had their small issues but they are quite good as a group.”

“That may not be the case with the kids right now” said Eden in a blunt tone.

“What? What happened?” asked Alexandra who did hear with Viv about the group splitting up a bit due to a fight, “Don't tell me you did something after disappearing a bit after returning to the hideout.”

She was prepared to attack Eden right now but decided not to since these bodies of theirs, man made were quite expensive and were made when they were employed by Unicorn for some certain matters.

“Hey, after Lyndis and her mood and telling Shadow to keep an eye on her, I came back. After I disappeared, I told Serena and Raven to train some more and went to Sain and Miriel to give Sain a skill that I heard Park promise him” said Eden defensively, “There was nothing bad happening like you feared.”

An eyebrow raised by Alexandra was enough to say to him that she didn't believe it. But Viv in turn said, “Al, don't seek them out. Eden is the only one who can do so like that and both of us are needed for the current task.”

With a sigh, Alexandra had to let it go. But still she said, “There better not be any damage due to this.”

“Whether or not there are damages due to me I can't say but they were originally damaged to begin with. Every last member of our guild is in a certain way though the trial thing I gave them earlier on was to see if they were trustworthy...mostly” said Eden which caused Alexandra to slap him hard in the head.

“What about their skills?” asked Viv who was the type of person to be more interested in that.

“Due to Sain, most of them are in the Intermediate Level with the newer ones still in the Beginner Levels though it has to be noted that Shadow has the 'Stealth' skill to the Advance level already” said Eden pleased that one skill was abnormally high.

“Wasn't Shadow the kid who obtained and raised the skill to mid Beginner level in the first day? Impressive considering not even us managed to do that” said Viv.

“Though must I point out that we were kinda forced into the game” added Eden.

“So were they!” retorted Alexandra.

Viv shrugged again and said, “And so they were like us though many good and bad things came due to that. Life isn't exactly fair and in my opinion they were quite fortunate that they met those six at the same day.”

“Though I was kinda involved with giving Serena and Mel back then since she kinda fell unconscious due to me and I had to throw her somewhere” Eden pointed out.

“....”

Both Alexandra and Viv look at each other and to Eden strangely and asked, “What exactly happened back then?”

“Yeah, this is news to me you damn prat” added Alexandra.

“When have you called me a pr-” Eden then saw her glare, “Never-mind. I heard that the other five took in those other kids and didn't want her to be left out. Plus Mel is the indoors and research type person so taking someone in was good for her.”

Alexandra glanced at Eden and smirked saying, “Never knew Eden was a the Tsundere type and I'm married to him!”

“Hey!” Eden shouted.

“It's true though right? I mean you actually didn't go a way to divorce me no matter what” said Alexandra.

“That's because I didn't to!” retorted Eden.

Alexandra smirked again and said to Viv, “See, a Tsundere. He acted as if he didn't want to all the time.”

“Can we get back on topic?” asked Viv with a sigh and then gave the two a chilling feeling again. The two instinctively straightened up a bit more and did not speak when Viv did this. One must know that Viv was a Grandmaster of Torture which was already a rare skill due to it's unpopularity with other users.

“Enough of those kids” said Viv with a hardened look, “I think we have another topic we need to discuss that was unfinished.”

All three of them went silent and did not look at each other. This was a topic that they rather not talk about since it was quite sensitive and was about them. But Alexandra who worried the most about this, started speaking first.

“So what will happen after...everything is done?” asked Alexandra, “Will we continue to...exist or something else?” She did not want to say 'die'.

“Eden?” asked Viv, “Last time we had this conversation you were undecided.”

Eden closed his eyes to ponder and remembered everything that had happened over the years, decades and now century. He knew that everything had to end one day, he knew that it was very likely that he will not have a good ending if fate allowed it. But to...continue for centuries more without end?

He though of his daughters and how he and the two raised them which was some of the happiest days in his recent life.

“I think...” and he hesitated to say this, “We should end after this last journey...after everything is done we will disappear for good, death has been waiting for us for a while now.”

He would rather not see his descendent die before him since he and the two did not age or were able to permanently die without Unicorn's...the Goddess AI's help.

A bit shocked and startled at this statement, Alexandra asked quickly, “Then what about Alena and Risene? Ares, our grand-kid as well?”

Eden sighed since he was thinking of them as he made his decision.

“They will live and then die sometime, we can't interfere with their lives too much unlike those kids we took in since we are still 'players' and they are 'NPCs' no matter how close the two are. You know that we were originally dead to begin with though we have no memories before the game. And only by chance and ironic fate that all three of us were brought from the dead, lost our memories when we were alive and stayed together this long doing a number of things” said Eden.

Viv let out a sigh and then said, “I was hoping that we could something like retirement before that.”

Eden shrugged and then said, “We might if we have time but I don't think we have that option. Well I say after the stuff with the Warrior King we should go into semi-retirement. No more directly helping the Kingdom when we can.”

“Don't we do that already? I mean the Guild we set up was practically made for the end game when it comes” asked Alexandra, “So nothing will actually change that much.” She smiled thinking of this.

“Could set up a hut, a small home to relax in and not do much near enough that Alena, Risene and Ares could visit once in a while. It's going to take a while until end game truly begins” suggested Viv.

Eden and Alexandra nodded and Eden said, “Yeah, that would be nice...why do I have the feeling that something will appear and destroy that place?”

Letting out a chuckle Alexandra said, “We can always set up a place again. It's not like your bad luck outweighs our ability to handle it.”

Eden let out a groan of pain remembering all the times when his bad luck acted and they were thrown into things they weren't prepared to handle. Most of the time they got out alive, though they ran most of the time. He still remembered the time when he actually gained a 'Face-Sliding' skill which caused him to immediately delete it.

With a sigh he muttered our unintentionally, “Death is the next great adventure.”

“What was that?” asked Alexandra not sure on what he said and why.

It was only then that Eden realised what he said as well and the irony of it. He chuckled thinking of it. They met with death once though came back in a weird way, so was this their great adventure? In that case, what would happen after the great adventure?

xXx

Several more days passed in game as Lyndis or rather Maria was outside the game and in reality thinking of what to do. By the time she logged back in, she realised the state of her body which was in one word, disordered.

“I need to get myself cleaned up” she said to herself seeing that there was lots of dirt on her armour and clothes and her hair was now...fuzzy since she didn't comb or tie it in a while.

Looking around, it was the near morning and there were some players that looked at her curiously.

This thought of them looking at her in this state sickened her a bit and reminded her of the past. Therefore she immediately made her way into a inn that she couldn't find yesterday without directions. It was surprising how easy it was to find when you searched up the directions online.

Walking up, she made conversation with the receptionist and payed to use one of the rooms. Another hour passed where she finally looked the way she was before. Seeing the large differences between her disordered state and current state she sighed.

“A week or so in the wild and I ended up like this? I need some sort of beautifying skill....”

Even though she didn't care that much of make-up and such, she was still a girl in her prime and wanted to look good in all ways. However she really did not want to take an hour every time she wanted to look good each morning. Thus she decided to do what she used to do and just made sure she looked 'fine'.

Plus if Miriel saw her in her disordered state, she would never hear the end of it.

With that thought and not going to think about Sain or anyone else, she decided to leave the inn and start training.

However she did not even notice that a certain person was looking at her at a distance.

xXx

“About this she got out...almost didn't recognise that fool” muttered Shadow cursing that he had to stay like this for a good hour waiting for Lyndis to appear.

He was currently a good distance away from the inn she went into and out, to be precise he was around 400 metres away from her on a building. Due to this, he found it difficult to stalk-follow her but without this distance, she may be about to track him through that frightening instinct she has.

“I better get a skill out of this” he muttered again.

He knew repetitive actions may lead to skills. Therefore he better get a long distance vision skill out of this.

However at that moment, Shadow noticed something outside the village/town they were in. Something large and in numbers was approaching this town.

“Damn...!” he cursed again thinking of what is to come. However he had no intentions of helping at all.

xXx

At the same time as this, Sain and Miriel were currently training in a dungeon together. After some time with weaker monsters as a test, the two got used to the fact that it was only two instead of six while fighting with each other.

The reduced numbers made it much harder to attack and defend and several roles were shifted due to this.

Miriel took on mid-range attacks with her whip as well along with her support magic and long range ice magic as well. Meanwhile Sain had to cope with being the tank, main healer and main attack of the two at the same time.

However with the new skill Eden gave him, two of those two new roles he had were made much easier than it used to be.

“Haa!”

Dodging a blow from a skeleton knight with it swinging a large but slow bastard sword, Miriel moved to attack it's limbs using her whip. Following up on this, Sain shouted the name of the skill he gained due to Eden.

“Burst Strike!”

His body accelerated in extreme speed in one direction and his stab with his spear burst forth into the skeleton knight blowing it into pieces.

BANG!

You have gained experience

With that message the battle ended like that.

“I must say, that skill is really like cheating” said Miriel still amazed by the power of that A-rank skill. She guessed that that's what makes them powerful in the end.

Sain nodded and said, “It's powerful but gives a very large opening if I miss or after the skill is used which counters it's use in certain battles.”

Burst Strike Beginner Level 3

A powerful skill from a branching set of skills known as the Impaling Strike Technique. It pushes the body and weapon to it's limit as it explodes a large amount of power into a single strike with increased speeds. Due to the power of the skill, you are only able to travel in one direction with the skill currently.

Damage increase: 30%

Speed increase: 30%

Mana Cost: 100

With each level of this skill, it's power and speed increase by 10% each time which would be extremely powerful if mastered. If what Sain thought of this skill was right, it would increase his power and speed several times when mastered though the mana cost was a bit higher than he was used to though still not on the high side since his mana was quite high for his level either way.

“I have to keep on using this skills until it gets to the Intermediate Level. By then, I hope the disability to move in more than one direction with this skill active would be gone” said Sain with Miriel nodding.

“Ice Bolts!” she suddenly chanted killing and luring in some more enemies from a distance. Looking at four skeleton knights that were similar to the one they had just battled, Miriel commented, “it's good that these guys are easy to battle even though they are around level 200.”

“In that case, we should go deeper in to find some death knights to battle as well” said Sain holding up his free hand aimed at the skeleton knights.

Miriel did the same with her staff and both chanted at the same time, “Mana Bolts!”

A large number of 'Mana Bolts' were shout out from both of them hitting the four skeleton knights rapidly as they continued on using the spell on them as they charged with the distance decreasing.

There were two reasons for this. The first was to weaken and damage them if possible and the second was to slow them down. Sain stopped his attack using 'Mana Bolts' earlier than Miriel as he moved to use a different spell.

“Slow! Weaken!” she chanted and used the two skills on a single skeleton knight causing it to fall behind from the other three as the distance between him and the enemy reached 20 metres.

For a creature over level 200, this distance could be covered in no more than 3 seconds which left many who had poor reaction times to be unable to reach a higher level without fighting weaker and more importantly, slower foes.

In fact, it was rare to find a skeleton based dungeon with mostly skeleton knights at this level due to skeletons often being upgraded to death knights by level 200. However the two were only still at the beginning of the dungeon.

“Evil Rule Art: Astral Bind!” chanted Sain for a final time binding a skeleton knight in it's place before the two remaining skeleton knights attacked him at once.

“Barrier Queen Art: Guard Point Barrier!” Miriel quickly chanted using her small and yet powerful barrier to deflect one of the skeletons attacks back like a parry while the other attack still went through.

Clang!

Sain blocked the attack with his spear but was pushed back with power alone and took some damage due to that. However Miriel used her whip to attack and momentary disturb the flow of the skeleton knight's attack.

“Burst Strike!”

BANG!

Sain's attack though not picking up much speed knocked the skeleton knight back in time for Sain to dodge the attack of the skeleton knight whose attack was deflected due to Miriel's barrier. Sain saw how the fourth skeleton was coming close while the other skeleton knight was about to get out of his bindings.

“Magic Arrows!” he shouted firing on one of the skeleton knights as Miriel did the same with her 'Ice Bolts'. In an instant, that skeleton knight died leaving another three left. The two continued to fight while retreating often to attack from long range and eventually won after that.

You have gained experience

Looking at his experience bar, Sain sighed seeing that they would need another couple dozen battles like this to even level up once. With the combined effect of the group, they were able to fight stronger foes and thus level up faster even with the experience split between them all.

“Hopefully there won't be any skeleton archers or mages in the mix” muttered Sain thinking of how much worse the battle would be if they encounter those foes as well.

xXx

As Lyndis walked outside the inn and was about to leave the village itself, she felt the ground rumble.

“W-What's happening?!” one player nearby shouted in confusion. It was like a mini-earthquake was coming through. However there was no such thing as the mini-earthquake like thing was caused by a large number of enemies rushing to them.

Or to be precise, hopping to them.

“Giant Rabbits! Purple Giant Rabbits!” someone else shouted causing many people to pale at once.

Some started to run, some started to hide but only a foolish few dared at stand and no do anything.

“Hey, what's the big deal with this reaction?” asked one of the newer players in this village no knowing what was up with everyone. A NPC answer the player as Lyndis was listening in and said, “The Giant Purple Rabbit is dangerous.”

The player snorted and asked, “How so? The Giant Rabbit race is known to be friendly and harmless.”

“This is their cousin! The man eating and brutal kind that can rip you into pieces like a bear, his speed like a wolf and can leap over tall walls in one!” the NPC shouted before running away as well leaving the player confused and pale until he decided to run as well.

“....”

Looking at this, Lyndis really didn't know what was the big deal about them. Sure those Giant Purple Rabbits were powerful she must admit but they weren-

“Holy Shit on a cracker” she blurted out seeing their numbers.

“How many is that?!” she wondered, “A hundred, maybe a thousand?” counting them in estimates. Their total size was large enough that it looked more like a purple wave coming down on them then anything else.

Lyndis wanted to run...but her pride didn't allow her to though a strategic retreat was in mind. Against those numbers...even if they were only level 50s, weak, Lyndis would for sure die. If they were even a tenth as strong as her...she would still die.

The quantity of enemies of too overwhelming to the point she just blanked out.

xXx

Elsewhere...

Eden was thinking of something and was forgetting something important which could waver the lives of many many people that he was due to protect. He had just slaughtered a large number of those pesky Giant Purple Rabbits.

“Let's see...characteristics of that race include high stats everywhere, man-eater and...extremely high reproductions when mass wiped out with survivors...”

He wondered if he missed anything.

“Nope, doesn't seem like anything bad is happening at all” he said sure some poor town was (not) being attacked right now.

Onwards?PreviousExitNext

Author's Notes:

- Word Count: 8800~

- This took...so long to write. Many because I wasn't actually writing most of the last week or so in fact. I went from being more about writing in my spare time to reading...mainly since I'm going through fanfiction.net for stories I want to read. Yeah, not a good way to write when you are reading into the night and almost morning for a week with less hours of sleeping as time passes...

- As for the updates...I cannot make any promises. With Uni and my reawakened reading cravings, I might not have a chapter out for next week perhaps. Well I know that this series is going to be long and is going to take long to write but it's going to take longer to finish this series then....damn I'm turning into Ninnin with my writing speed now.