Chapter 172 - Vol. 3 - Chapter 37

***

Mathias was preparing all his luggage that he came in from Bucharest, along with some extra, the food package prepared by Cristina to keep Mathias going on for some months without worrying about what to eat.

Everyone in the family takes this chance to say goodbye to Mathias, from the mother to the younger brothers, two youngsters that will for sure have a bright future, and to part things, on a comical side since he wasn't so keen on melodramatic separations.

"You two better continue training according to the small workout plan. Warm up properly, and go slowly. You need patience when it comes to this, so don't expect instant benefits from one session. No, this will be a long-term plan where the benefits will show slowly."

"Hahaha, the brat once again started nagging around. Cristina, he is a splitting image of you when you were younger."

"... On the contrary father, he takes a lot after you."

"Maybe. That's the Dumitrescu line for you." chuckled Augustine, who noticed Mathias glare at him with a bit of annoyance, making the old man continue laughing while moving toward him.

Patting his head with a smile, he tells Mathias in a casual tone. "We'll keep in touch anyway, so no need for some drama. I had enough of Turkish dramas in only one day. Remember the card I gave you is only for the car expenses. If I see that you withdraw from it or spent it on something else besides the requirements for the car, I will freeze the card."

"Sure, sure. As if I would go spend your money, that's your money, gramps. I will not take chances with them. Besides, I appreciate the gesture of helping a small fish having to take care of a little whale."

"Good. Then I don't have much to tell you besides that. Be careful on your way to Bucharest and we'll wear each other soon in Satisfy."

"Indeed. Then I will no longer hold you here standing at the door like sardines. Take care and I will call once I am returned to my apartment."

"Take care sweetheart. Don't drive at high speed, only the legal speed. Understood?" said Cristina who went to give Mathias another hug, while the young man could only approve his mother, later on being accompanied by her to the car that was ready for the journey.

Waving his hand at his family with a smile on his face, he starts his journey to Bucharest, but first required to make fill the car.

The price to fill in a car like the one his grandfather used was too much for the unemployed youngster, which to have mercy on his pockets, old Augustine give him a bank card which he told him he will assist him with money for the fills he might need and also some money to keep the Mustang in good conditions.

"Don't look at the prince ... nooo I will not look at all." commented Mathias who tried to focus his eyes only on the quantity instead of the price.

While he was doing the fill, Mathias thought about how the old man showed mercy on him, since he came to his support with regard to keeping the car in good condition. When it came to his car, the old man wasn't stingy whatsoever.

It took him 4 hours to get back to Bucharest, and he was surprised to find out how smoothly he got inside the city, without encountering any traffic jams. It was News Year's Eve, where most people by now were drinking and eating themselves to death.

Parking the car to a private parking lot as per old Augustine's instructions who didn't trust that the gypsies from Bucharest or those thieves would have been conscious of Mathias and the Mustang, and making himself a subscription to this leveled parking lot, all coming from the "Car Maintenance Funds.", he was required to carry his luggage and the heavy bag filled with food.

Passing by without turning to look at himself, he arrived at his small apartment room, and placing all the bags in his hand, he threw himself on the couch inside the living room.

"Ahh, I am quite tired, but it is good to be home in one piece."

Saying that, while taking off his black coat, he glanced at his Capsule, however, he didn't rush himself to jump back into action, as he had other things to do, some housekeeping work from arranging the food inside his fridge, and placing the clothes in his luggage back on the single cabinet he owned in his home.

Done with them, then from nowhere his phone rang with a message notification, coming from Alexandra who gave him a short message, asking if he arrived safely in Bucharest.

"Sigh, I guess it wouldn't hurt me talking a bit with her, before I get inside Satisfy."

Responding to her message, which led to another couple of messages from her, sounding with some worry in her mind.

Being patient with her, made it feel as if he was talking with a new woman and placing her worries aside, when he was about to step inside the capsule now that he finished his small side activities, his phone rang with a surprising call.

"What now? I told you I will get a little bit busy ... you weren't so clingy back then."

Picking up the phone, he could see that it was someone who he didn't expect to call, even thought there was a closer approach between one another, especially since she would tag along the Gym on her Fridays.

[Leonor H.]

'What happen for her to calling me? It's usually me who did the calling to make sure she was fine after training.'

"Good evening, Matei. Do I cause any disturbance?"

"Ohh, hello Leonor. What to disturb, I just got home, trying to chill a little bit before entering in Satisfy. Do you want to talk about something? You found again some strange information that you need help in the game?"

"... You just returned home? My bad, I will call at another hour if that's the case."

"Leonor, there's no problem. How can I help?"

"Mmm, okay ... Do you have any plans for tonight?"

"Not really, I'll probably play Satisfy until in the early morning. Why do you ask? Something is clearly on your mind."

"... Well, I saw some publicity about the Celebration in the City Center for the New Years, I was wondering if you would want to join me ... But I understand you must be tired, so ... Happy New Years."

Mathias initially got confused by what Leonor tried to say since he could hear her voice getting awkward and having breaks as if thinking about what to say, all signs that she was nervous, and in the end, she even tried to close the call.

"Wait, wait, there's no need to be nervous about this Leonor. I don't mind joining you to this Celebration Festivities since I would probably remain inside my home, and just take a glass of wine when the new day arrives, and return back to Satisfy. But ... there's none of your department colleagues that are available?"

It didn't take long for him to decide on accepting Leonor's invitation, and while he was doing that, he could hear a sound of relief from the other side of the line, which immediately reminded him of an old fart's words.

Old Vinisan threw some bait at him, and even though he didn't care about the News Year's Eve celebration staged by the Mayor of the City, he could also get Vlad and spend their time and talk about various things.

"I see, then ... do you also have Vlad's phone number, have him come too since it would be a great team-building experience." remarked Leonor, who on her side of the phone line was having an embarrassed expression, with her heart-rate beating high from this awkward moment.

"Uhh, team-building with that guy? Bad choice, but I am done with it, no problem. Mind if I also bring his little brother?"

"Ahh, of course, no problem at all."

Leonor didn't mind this at all, especially since it would make it easier for her if there were more people around, instead of just Mathias and herself.

"Great, then ... Do you mind telling me your address? I will come to pick you up before we would go to the Festival."

"Wait, m-my address?" asked Leonor with a surprised tone, slowly lowering down.

"Yeah, instead of buying an expensive taxi ride, I'll take you on another expensive ride. But, you know Matei, there's no need for you to pick me up. We'll meet close to the Metro Station."

"Sure, but why refuse a free ride? Here I am the selfless driver, and still I get refused. The traversty of this situation."

"Fine, I will not be a bad passenger to decline your offer.

Agreeing to Mathias's offer she told him her address, also mentioning that he didn't have to pick her up, but she got refused by Mathias and settled down in an hour, the two decided for 10:25 PM to be the right hour to arrive at the avenue.

Sorting it out with Leonor, not long after Mathias calls Vlad and as he expected this guy was stuck inside Satisfy and keeping it for a bit more, someone picked up his phone, the voice of his younger brother being heard, asking with a happy voice, hearing Mathias.

Mathias asks the little brother Gabriel how he has been doing, and after doing some warm-up with the boy, he asks him about Vlad, and the young man tells him that he was playing Satisfy like some possessed person from the ghost movies.

Sighing, he tells the kid to not worry, before throwing the big question "If he wants to go to the festival staged by the Mayor for News Year's Eve".

It wasn't even a question, since Grabriel was all for it, remarking how he didn't have anything else to do, and how his friend that Mathias met couldn't go out because he had to spend the News Year Eve with his family.

Finishing his conversation with the boy, only after that he jumps back inside Satisfy's Capsule, being welcomed by Morpheus.

「Welcome back to Satisfy!」

「You have 2 unread messages in your mailbox」

Various notifications got into his eyes, but he cleared them out, except for the unread messages, for which he left for another time, and as he started getting ajusted to the Avatar, Haycien greeted him like a lost friend who he never seen in a while.

{Lad, I thought you would return earlier. What's with the long delay? You return and later on leave me to rot in that space.}

'Sorry, sorry, but I couldn't help it. That wasn't my own Gate, and could only use it temporary to return. Now I am back for real, and will begin our push in this mountain.'

After listening to Mathias telling him he couldn't use the new gate he found to step inside the world, things calmed down between the two.

Looking around himself, he hears some activities of the monsters inside Gravelmark, and still having something to do, he jumps on a broad tree that he scales to its peak, the point where he started looking for the Ranking Ledger where things progressed in the two days he wasn't online.

Kraugel reached was closer and closer to reaching level 90, being currently level 88 while Red for some magical reason was also level 88 as if he broke some curse, but ironically he was still 2nd ranked, clearly a sign that Kraugel was closer to leveling up to 89, what other name that surprised him was his buddy, Malakai who was level 87 and a crazy leap of 8 levels since two days ago.

The rest of the players in the Top Ranking had levels spanning from 85 to 79, things looking rather stable with the High Rankers Echelons, there wasn't a big difference yet in levels between the groups of high players, but as he was scrolling the long list, he figured out in his mind that the average level of the Satisfy Players was currently level 45-54, point where he stopped looking at the lost list of players.

Done with that, he opened his friend lists, and before ever talking to Malakai, he saw an unread message from Fayrene, and when he opened that, he saw an extensive message where the girl poured out her heart and mind, akin to a journal where she told him about her own adventure.

She was telling Mathias about how her days went by, inside the Silverpine Forest and this village she was protecting Amphail Village along with Vek and Maryden, an interesting minstrel that tagged along in her adventures.

Fayrene started detailing to Mathias about the backstory and the troubles this village was suffering and the other villages from Comeo, and the frustration she had in not being able to find out who the enemy was.

She had the three brave warriors who gave her help in finding out the culprit of the monster's wave this village was suffering but to no avail.

Still, the frequency of the attacks lessened, which made the villagers more confident that they will survive this winter and morbid situation, but she had a weird feeling she couldn't explain, about a danger that was lurking in the shadows.

When Mathias finished reading those notes coming from Fayrene where she was telling her mind to him, he opened up to her in a serene manner, telling her that she did great to protect those people, and being strong minded to take the lead of the defenses along with those villagers leaders, Baric and Halric.

In an instant, Fayrene responded to him, pleased to hear him, and from nowhere she opened up the calling feature of Satisfy, and instead of sending messages to one another, it became more intimate by hearing each other's voice.

Fayrene tells Mathias that she misses him dearly and with an apologetic tone tells him that she will not be able to return to Titan anytime soon, to which Mathias also tells her that he become busy which makes her chuckle, guessing that he went on an adventure of himself with the intent of achieving his first dream, becoming a Red Knight.

They had a lover's conversation, and after they smooth out one another, Mathias goes a bit serious and asks Fayrene about what her instincts were telling her.

Fayrene mentions some weird sensation that she would have when she would fight the monsters as if someone was staring back at her, and tells again what news the 3 warriors, Draevyn, Renwick, and Rainhud brought back to her.

@Fayrene: It seems those monsters are coming from Silverpine Forest

'Silverpine Forest, from what information I managed to gather in Titan, that forest doesn't hold any dangerous beasts, only wild beasts that don't even go to the Royal Road …' thought Mathias as he was listening to this interesting story Fayrene was experiencing.

'What do you say, old Hay? Does Fayrene's story ring some familiar information to you? Let's see if we can give her some help indirectly."

{Well from what information your girl gathered, on how those monsters look, their behavior and so on, they easily controlled from distance by someone. And I believe it should be one of those old, evil spirits.}

'Old, evil spirit? Does sound dangerous.'

{Well, it's not some ancient spirit, so she should be fine. The one giving your woman a hard time is a Green Hag. Evil beings lurking in dark forests, that Silverpine must have a section where it can house such ugly beings.}

'I see, thanks old Hay.'

{For nothing. It's nice to talk with someone, so don't hold back if you want to know something. The Great Emperor knows a lot and still has to share so much of his knowledge.}

'Aye, I will try my best.'

Once Mathias relates back to Fayrene what he heard from Haycien, she is all confused, until Mathias starts reminding her about the knowledge he gathered from reading the Great Mage's books with regard to monsters.

.

「Green Hag: - Usually users of witchcraft who were mutated by the evil nature of their magic, slowly losing over their humanity and turning into nasty menaces for the people.

Observation: Their personality and characters are always centered on the chaos they want to inflict on the world.

Their habitat is usually Bogs, Swamps, and Dark Forests places containing a lot of evil energies from the dead spirits gathering in those locations.

Approfunded studies are required to gather more data on Green Hags.」

.

He suggests to her that because Silverpine Forest and the Weeping Forest were in a way connected by one another as if it was a different realm, the eyes of the young woman went all big, and started conforming to what Mathias was saying.

@Fayrene: A Swamp? How couldn't I think about it? This explains everything now. How those monsters had some mud and also frog silks covering their bodies, as if those monsters didn't encounter any snow, but instead lurked inside swamps or bogs."

@Fayrene: "This explains why I couldn't find anything in the SIlverpine Forest, but there was still this somber feeling I was getting. Thank you, my love. You are the best!"

@Mathias: "Heh, you think so?"

@Fayrene: "Yes, how could someone who isn't the best, figure out what I was struggling to figure out for about almost a month? Now that I think about it, maybe I should also read those books that you focused on reading from the collection."

*Chuckle*

@Mathias: "You sure do need to read them. It's all fine to learn more about magic, but you also need to know what enemies you might encounter in the world. The Monster Bestiary is an interesting work done by the Great Mage himself when he was still sane, so you shouldn't scoff and forget to focus on those supporting books."

@Fayrene: "Mhm, I will make sure to do this."

@Mathias: "Mhm, indeed."

The couple moved on from some silly conversations, enjoying each other's voices, especially Mathias who could now forget about the external things he had to deal with.

And when the lovers got closer to their conversation, as if they knew they couldn't handle this since both had to deal with different tasks, like a mature couple wrapped things up. In the end, Mathias tells her to be extra careful since he knew Fayrene wouldn't back down from this challenge in front of her.

"Don't worry, Mat. Fighting those monsters and experiencing some hard moments, I've grown a lot as an adventurer and Arcanist."

"Apprentice" completed Mathias teasing her a bit.

"Yeah sure. You are the Apprentice, you newbie. Just you wait until I teach you some of my new spells. Ufufufu, You'll regret messing with the Beautiful Archmage, Fayrene."

"Aye! You made me really proud in these moments. Knowing that my little Fairy grew so much while I was away. Jokes aside, be careful and don't forget what I told you about the Green Hags. They like to fight nasty."

"I also can fight nasty. Bye, darling. We'll talk after I am done with this annoyance that hurts so many innocent people."

Finishing their conversation, Mathias hears Haycien, seemingly curious to watch how Fayrene turned out in this month she was separated from Mathias.

"You know, lad. Pressure makes diamonds. I've told you many times. That little doll of yours, she must have grown immensely."

"Hmm, you are right." commented Mathias who was staring at Fayrene's name which was over her right, it showed what level she was standing currently.

[Fayrene - Lv. 90]

'That scared little cat is slowly becoming a lioness. Maybe I should encourage her to take on such adventures with this new friend of hers Maryden. Who would have thought she would find such a perfect match that can give her support where she was hurt the most, her Mana consumption.'

.

Moving toward Malakai's name, instead of talking by messages, he directly called him using the unique interface only available to Satisfy from the rest of the games.

Taking some long seconds for the call to be picked up, Malakai picked up the call, and responded in a quiet voice, seeming to not want to sound loud.

He asks what Mathias wants, and the two then go into a comic back and forth, where Mathias jokes about how Malakai sounds like he is about to get fucked if he raises his voice sounded, to which Malakai fully rages with him, making it even more amusing for Mathias.

"Don't laugh, you fucker. I am in a serious situation and have to keep my appearance professional. So, say quickly what you want?"

"Ehh, why so serious? There's something breathing at your neck?"

"Hah? That's too much out of a horror movie. Fine, I will tell you what I am up to right now."

Malakai tells him that he can't talk too much with him since he is still inside the Underground City of Moroiz, together with Irenaeus and the other leaders of the Black Spades Syndicate, and he would be required to follow along with them it was stuff that made Mathias to humm, interested to know more info about this changes that enveloped Malakai.

"That's why it's not a great time to talk. Maybe later."

Malakai says that it wasn't a great time to talk about this since it would attract the attention of his new employer, but what he told Mathias was that Irenaeus was truly a person with a strong personality, from what he could interact with him.

He even gave him some interesting quests to complete which didn't take too long for him as an Assassin.

"Sure, just call me when you are available."

Understanding the circumstances his friend was in, he just tells him to contact him when he could speak, since he wanted to propose something to him. This makes Malakai to be curious and not care about being heard by others, he asks Mathias for more details.

When Mathias told him he wanted to go to the News Year's Eve festival, in doing so inviting him, Malakai had a funny reaction where he was "So-so."

Not feeling like going on since he was focusing on Satisfy, which made Mathias call him an addict.

@Mathias: My man, you have to touch some grass since you've been fired. Life is not all about Satisfy, as much as we like it.

@Malakai: Yea sure, tells the guy who already has two Waifus waiting with his bed already warm.

@Mathias: What's stopping you from reaching this stage? Your social skills?

They go back and forth for a little bit before Malakai agrees, but tells him he didn't have a car to go to the location the event was staged, nor did he feel like going with a Taxi.

Mathias simply tells him that he will take care of it, he just needs to be ready at 22:00, he will pick him up.

The latter is all confused, but they end the conversation there.

After his talk Mathias begins his hunt, jumping and landing on the ground while he impaled a Great Bear that was passing by, a level 95 monster.

If other players would be there to see Mathias who was only level 50 faced against the monsters out-leveling him with 45 levels, they would think he was an idiot in attempting to face such dangerous beasts.

Yet Mathias was in his element, he didn't fear the monsters at all, already knowing the attack pattern these monsters could have from watching Cain and his Stoned guild.

Mathias took his time in slaying the Giant Bear, but because of this, after getting out of the fight, he was left with a claw mark on his shoulder that slowly regenerated.