"Finally I arrived!" the mage gear dressed Celes exclaimed after she arrived at the dojo, but as soon as she saw the very tired and battered trio of Eddie, Jane, and Elise, she sighed and shook her head, "I guess I still didn't make it in time huh?"
"Oh! Celes! You arrived!" Nex smiled and turned to three that still sluggishly continued to train, "Okay guys you can take a break now!"
"Finally you bastard!"
"To only call break now... Teacher, you're a bad person!"
"Big Bro… I think I actually prefer to not grow stronger…"
"Sheesh so childish," Nex shook his head and turned to Celes, "You already finished everything? It was much quicker than I thought."
"That's because I didn't do First Awakening yet," Celes sighed and then smiled wryly, "I know you like to train people, but can you tone it down a bit or at least give them a bit more breaks? We are playing this game to enjoy."
"Yeah, it does make sense," Nex scratched the back of his head awkwardly before suddenly turning his face to a smirk, "But more importantly, I need to know what do you think of this game? Good, right?"
"More like unbelievable," Celes sighed, "The realism of everything here is accurate to the extreme and the similarity of the energies here to those of Perias is just ridiculous! But what that is nothing compared to a certain detail they managed to replicate."
"The souls right?" Nex continued her words with a smile.
"It's like there is no difference between the natives here and normal peoples," Celes murmured in amazement, "Not only that, even the players' avatars have souls that are actually copies of its hosts' real-life souls with only their strength and purity being fixed to the avatar power! If didn't sense how my soul connects to this virtual place, I would have thought that this a real world!"
"And you said what could be so amazing in my world if we don't rely on mana," Nex gave her a teasing look, "Ready to take back your words?"
"You sure like to act cocky in these situations huh?" Celes blushed slightly and glared at him, "Fine! I am sorry I looked down on the capabilities of Earth, happy?"
"Very," Nex smirked and took as many pictures of her embarrassed face as he could without caring her noticing this and gnashing her teeth at him, except when they are having "adult-only fun" there weren't many opportunities to catch her being embarrassed and flustered like that, so he always made sure to record them when he got the chance.
"Enjoy it as you can," Celes grunted before turning to two people she didn't meet before that stared at her curiously, a young, azure-haired kid, and a tall old man, "So this is Roland and Louis you told me about?"
"H-hello miss!" upon meeting the woman's gaze, Roland felt like he was standing in front of a mighty being, but since he knew she was someone close to Nex he still took a deep breath and stepped forward and awkwardly introduced himself, "I-I am Roland! N-nice to meet you!"
Celes stared at him in silence before crouching and smiling warmly at him, causing Roland to feel like he was hugged by comfortable sunlight.
"Nice to meet you too Roland! I am Celes!" she smiled at him gently and pinched his cheek fondly, "Such a sweet and well-behaved child, I can clearly see why Nex is so fond of you!"
While Roland sighed in relief that he didn't get "assaulted" like he expected to, Celes stood up and turned to Louis and stared at him with a smile before turning to Nex, "So he's the one who did a number on you huh? What was the power difference between you two?
"I was at the peak of the current stage with base power multiplied by a bit less than four," Nex then pointed at Louis, "While he was at the peak of the current stage as well but with the power of Blue Star."
"Is that so?" Celes stared at Louis for another moment before staring at Roland again and turning to Nex with a smiling face, "You sure are a softy to get so hurt just in order to get the best result."
"I wouldn't get anything if I went all out," Nex shook his head as he understood the meaning of her words, "It wasn't a fight for the death, we were just having a chat did we Louis?"
"Damn it you bastard!" Louis who stared at Celes until now with wary gaze yelled at Nex, "Not even two days have passed and here you are bringing another one like you here! Do you get joy from putting stress on me that you do it so much!?"
"Haha! You sure are a joker!" Nex laughed without caring about the angry old man, "Celes and I aren't harmful! We won't do anything bad unless we are provoked first!"
"The just problem you two could do when someone provokes you are more than enough to make me worry!"
"There, there, we will go past it when it happens," Nex consoled him and turn to Celes who couldn't hide the laugh on her face, "I see that you chose a Magician as your class, I thought you will choose the more balanced Explorer class as I did."
"Nah," Celes shrugged, "I am going to play the role of Magician in the party so I better have a class that maximized my abilities as one as aside from the extra bit of mana I get at the start as an Explorer there won't be more benefits for me. And more importantly, using this class, I will have an easier time to see the development of Magic of this place. Seeing that the energies here are the same Perias and yet the place developed somewhat differently, I can't wait to see what this place has to offer!" she finished with shining eyes.
"That's the spirit!" Nex encouraged her with a smile before giving her his hand, "Now that you say it like that it is intriguing, so what do you say, shall we go to the Magician Guild here to say what they have to offer along with doing your awakening quest?"
"We shall," Celes giggled and took his hand before pointing at the tired trio, "But what about them?"
"You reminded me!" Nex nodded and went to where the three rested before giving them each a set of gear he looted from his previous battles, "I forgot to give it to you guys earlier, sorry about that."
"This…" Jane, who got the gear first had her eyes widening in shock upon seeing the quality of the equipment, "It's all Superior ranked there are even some Higher here!"
"Here too!" Eddie exclaimed in excitement.
"Teacher!" Elise raised her head with a delighted expression as she held a Unique accessory, "Did you got all of this from fighting!?"
"Yes," Nex nodded simply, "Before I met you I had to fight quite a few bosses so even after throwing away most of the things I still gathered quite an amount."
"Amazing…" she murmured as she stared at her new gear that would sell for a fortune even using real money, and to think that all three of them got equipment of this level, just how much Bosses did he hunt to even say he threw most of it away!?
"Teacher… you really are awesome!"
"Nah it's nothing big," Nex waved his hand in dismissal, "In the future, we will get together much better things."
"But putting that aside," a familiar smirk rose on his lips, "Since you are so excited it must mean you got your energy back right? And since you have new gear to get used to there is no better way to do it other than some good old training or am I wrong?"
"...You no-good brute."
"Big Bro… you gave us the equipment only now on purpose right?"
"You love to bully when you are training aren't you Teacher?"
♦♦♦
"These artifacts sure are amazing considering where they came from," Celes muttered as she played around with her new staff while walking on the street on the way to the Magician Guild, "What will take in Perias weeks of gathering materials and dedicated handwork, can be gotten here just by killing a simple creature, I can see more and more why you treat this game as a place for leisure."
"It's more like enjoyable adventuring, but yeah you right," Nex corrected her before sighing in relief after seeing that she is satisfied, it was a good thing she already picked up some good gear in the Beginners Village and that he kept some equipment that is suitable for mages in case he will have a need for them. If he wouldn't have done it, he would probably have to deal with Celes acting like a pouting kid for a while.
"Aside from that," Celes changed the subject while turning her attention to the many people around them that kept staring at them with wonder, "I am able to guess why I would attract attention, but what's the deal with you? Usually, only those who got their attention on you are those you want to do so."
"Well, that's what I also planned to be," Nex scratched his head and explained what happen earlier with Elise fiance and his group while countless people pointed at him and whispered among themselves.
"Look, it's the one who defeated the Guild Leader of the Divine Army Guild and his party on his own in the City Square!"
"I heard that not only he got away with it, he also got the Guild Leader and his Party to enter the city jail and be sentenced to stay there for a week!"
"Those are old news you two are talking about! See that divine beauty next to him? She is the Absolute Empress that appeared out of nowhere!"
"The Absolute Empress!? I heard that she hunted all of the high ranked Bosses in her beginner village on her own using epic skills and reached level 10 in only a few hours!"
"Yes, the only one who is said to have a chance to be comparable to her when it comes to capabilities one has before the First Class advancement is the one who got first kill and solo on the bosses starting from Rare all the way to Royal!"
"Absolute Empress?" Nex lifted an eyebrow and stared at the girl next to him with a smirk, "So that I should call you now when we in the game?"
"Shut up!" she barked at him with a flustered gaze, "Just so you know, this isn't my character name! It's just a stupid nickname I got!"
"Now that you reminded me, we didn't Friend each other yet," Nex suddenly remembered and sent a request to her, "So let's see what you chose to name yourself…"
"Hmmm?" Celes didn't seem to notice how Nex's voice died down and instead saw the latter details through the Friends panel, "So you called yourself in your name? How bland! Hey? why are you not answering?"
"Celes," Nex sighed dryly, "I suddenly realized I forgot how bad was your naming sense is."
"What do you mean?" Celes tilted her head.
"Nothing, MommyGoddess."
♦♦♦
"Welcome to the Magician Guild!" a young girl dressed in robes greeted them at the counter, "How may I help you?"
"I am here to do my First Awakening," Celes responded with a smile that made the receptionist a little dazed.
"Yes… ah!" the young girl nodded blankly before suddenly waking up, "Yes! Yes! Right away! I just need you to show me your recommendation letter!"
"Here you go," Celes handed her a fancy looking letter that made the young girl's eyes widen.
"This…!" the girl took the letter and carefully read it before letting out a small gasp and bow to Celes in apology, "I am sorry to make you wait but I have to call for the Guild Master for this!"
And just like that, she ran away like an anxious rabbit.
"So aside from hunting all the strong monsters in the village," Nex opened his mouth with a dry smile, "Did you do anything special that would have got you this letter?"
"Well," Celes rubbed her chin as she remembered the not at all distant memories, "When I came to get the recommendation letter from the village chief, she was in a middle of studying a broken magic array of what seems to be about Green Star level so after looking at it a bit I casually said a few ideas I had to fix it and from the excitement the village chief had she gave me the letter along with saying, "You have to be part of the Magician Guild!". Quite a nice lady."
"Quite," Nex agreed with her while sighing on the inside, 'You actually helped her restore a Higher Legend rank array that was probably of a high level! Of course, she would be excited!'
And not more than a few moments passed and a rushed footstep was heard as an old man with a very long beard ran toward them followed by the receptionist.
"Are you the one who solved that old woman magic array?" he asked with zealous eyes before he even arrived.
"Yes," Celes nodded simply, "Is there something wrong?"
"No! No! Not at all!" the old man hurriedly shook his head, "I only wanted to make sure! Not everyday an amazing genius such as you come to this place and I was just excited!" he then began to come closer and closer to her, "Especially since I heard you are a-"
"Hold it Gandalf the Perv," Nex stretched his hand and blocked the old man from getting into the half meter radius of Celes, "Keep your distance away if you don't want to choke from your own beard."
"Oh, ahem!" realizing his mistake, the old man coughed awkwardly and stepped away with a blush, "I'm sorry about that, it was just that it's been a really long time since a talent of your degree came here and we never expected it to be a Traveler. Anyway came here to do your First Awakening right? I am more than happy to say to you that the recommendation letter you got not only allow you to Awaken any of the ten Specializations(NPC name for Classes) we normally offer here with barely any trials if any, but also allow you to try the trial to Awaken one of the best Specializations there were since the foundation of the kingdom!"
From all of the excitement, his voice was loud enough for everyone in the place to here, so by the time he finished his words everyone in the guild stared at them in silence.
"One of the best Specializations you say?" Celes instantly became curious, "How long will this trial take? I have other things to do as well."
"Not long at all!" the Guild Master anxiously answered, "It will not take more than two hours as the trial has a time limit, So you don't have to worry to be too late for your business!"
"Is that so?" Celes said and turned her expectant gaze to Nex, she knew he didn't like it when people around him get attention from random people, and her getting this class will attract more than enough.
"Sure go ahead," Nex smiled and nodded, "Jane and the rest probably need a bit more time to finish their training anyway."
'And besides you already got more than enough attention with this Absolute Empress thing,' he muttered internally.
"Yay!" she cheered like a child and gave Nex a peck on the cheek, "You're the best!"
And immediately after she turned to the Guild Master with an eager face, "Quickly! Quickly! Let's do this trial! I can't wait to see what kind of Class it is!"
'She got addicted to the game rather quickly,' Nex sighed and followed along with her after the Guild Master.
I noticed a mistake when I read an earlier chapter, Nex have 5 Profession Slots and not 4 as was written. anyway I fixed it and now it's correct.
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