บท 57: The Reunion
"You sure about this?"
"You already said I can right?"
Mays asked for confirmation from Hallel but he was met with a question instead.
"Well yeah. But please do remember the condition I told you previously."
"Which is?"
"Gah! Do you even listen to others?"
"When I feel like it."
This Hallel gave Mays quite the headache. Mays couldn't even imagine what this girl had been thinking. As if giving up against her thoughtlessness, Mays once again reminded her.
"Never hurt your companions. You can do anything else you wanted beside that."
"Noted."
"Really?"
"Yeh. I understand you at least that much."
"Also."
"What is it?"
"Don't sneak into other's bed at night."
"I WON'T!"
Hallel shouted as she left. It was obvious that she remembered what happened back then. Mays chuckled before he proceeded with what he planned on doing. He took out the spirit rod before activating it right away.
Inside a well decorated room somewhere in demon continent, a group of enchanting and beautiful girls were doing nothing as they waited for the time to pass by. They were the spirits of Mays and Ria. Every single one of them had a sullen look on their face.
"MASTEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!"
Almost in unison, all five spirits of Mays jumped at him the moment a spatial crack appeared. They had been worried sick over the wellbeing of their master this whole week. Mays who was not prepared for that sudden charge fell down after getting jumped by those girls. Minerva and Ria's other spirits just stood nearby with a relieved face when they saw Mays.
"Hu… hu… Master!"
"Master."
"Mira knew master will come back!"
"…"
These spirits couldn't hold themselves back any longer the moment Mays came back. Aloha sobbed right away. The others barely able to hold their tears but it was apparent how happy they were from their tone and facial expression.
"Save the idle chat for later. Ria is not here eh."
Mays nodded as he observed the whole room before he continued talking.
"Minerva, come here. You guys, tell Ria to find me."
Pointing his finger at Minerva and the rest of Ria's spirits, Mays gave out orders as usual. They followed right away without any question. Minerva ran toward the spatial crack while Ria's other spirits ran out from the room, obviously looking for their master.
Ten second passed by and the spatial crack disappeared without a trace. Mays was still inside the inn he stayed previously. Their large room for two people was now cramped with additional six people which appeared out of nowhere.
"Where did you kidnap those girls?"
Standing in front of their room's door was Hallel. Hallel who just came back was now furiously staring at Mays who was surrounded by girls. She even took out her great sword, ready to strike at moment notice.
"Hold it right there. I don't kidnap anyone. These are my spirits."
"We are master's spirits."
"Mira ain't kidnapped!"
Mays sighed before he started explaining. Both Syaitona and Mira also butted in, voicing their opinion.
"A harem eh? All men are the same."
Hallel rolled her eyes away after she observed the spirits one after another. All of them were enchanting.
"Well… urm…"
Mays was speechless. He couldn't refute what Hallel just said. It was the truth after all. Even someone like him had thought about it when he made all these spirit as girls.
It was then when Mays suddenly remembered something about Hallel. Even back in HeavensTale, she never summoned any spirit. Not even once. He asked her about it once out of curiosity but he was ignored.
"Hallel."
Mays tried to strike up a conversation. Hallel who was sitting on her bed glanced at Mays for a bit before she replied.
"What is it?"
"Do you hate spirits?"
"Not really?"
"Then why is it that I never see you summoning them even once?"
"…"
Rather than getting an answer, Mays was met with silent treatment from Hallel. He might have asked something he shouldn't. Even he got things he didn't want to talk about.
"Sorry."
"What for?"
"For asking something sensitive perhaps?"
Mays rubbed his head while smiling awkwardly. When he thought about it, he really had no reason to apologize to begin with.
"Heh, weirdo."
Hallel chuckled before she continued. Her mood was somewhat better now.
"It's not like I don't want to use them, it's because I don't have the capital to. Fortifying my own armors and weapons already costs me a fortune. That's like my utmost limit already."
With her right hand raised up as if she was trying to grab something, she continued talking.
"You know what my class is. Even someone stingy like me used three weapons. Its hell to fortify them all to perfection."
Luminary was a new class in HeavensTale which came together with maximum one hundred level cap and hidden class patch. Luminary was a wonder class where the players could build the character in any way they wanted. Hallel was a Luminary.
Luminary could be anything. A combination of several class with their skills jumbled together into one character. A combination of warrior and knights. Combination of berserker and assassin. It could even be the combination of five class such as hunter, ranger, archer, launcher and engineer.
Although it sounds like a perfect class, it also had a downside of its own. There can only be combination of skills from the same class group. Healer's skill couldn't be put together with tanker's skills and so on. The total number of skill a luminary had also lower than other class.
Hallel was the ultimate luminary, the hidden class Golden Luminary. Her hidden class was the combination of two class type which was the tank class and range attacker class. With the heavy armors of tank class for greatest defense combined with range type weapons with highest attack power, Hallel was without doubt one of the most powerful character in HeavensTale.
"Yeah. Hammer for blunt weapon, great sword for slashing and handheld cannon for projectile. You choose all them strongest weapon in all category."
"What can I do? Money is not toilet tissue, I can't just spend them on games."
"True that. Even someone like me wasted quite a bit on HeavensTale. And I only fully fortify gears for just eight spirits."
Armors was easier to fortify compared to weapons. Even when armors had a total of four parts which needed to be fortified specifically, it couldn't compare to the price of fortifying a single weapon. After all, armor parts could only be fortified ten times while weapons need to be fortified fifteen times.
"Ehhh? You spent money on it?"
With a shocked face, Hallel asked in disbelief. From the rumors about Mays which she overheard, Mays was supposed to be a player who never spent money on the game. This was quite a huge shock for her.
"Nah I don't spend money on the game directly. Let's just say I do some freelance job outside the game and got paid with in-game gold. Something like that."
"Ahh I see. There are lots of people who freelance like that. Some even use the forum to publicize their skills in drawing and such."
"Yep, yep. Like that."
There was no way in hell Mays could explain to Hallel that he actually did some behind the scene crime job as a freelancer. He just nodded and agreed to Hallel's suggestion and hoped that Hallel would never touch this topic again.
---------------------------------
"How's the preparation going?"
"Almost done. A little bit more and we are ready to go."
Jace was standing not too far from San who was busy checking the items inside his space belts. It had been quite long since last he did his routine check that meticulously.
"How about you?"
"I'm good. The elites of my guild are not that eager but I can easily scrap around two hundred of them at least."
"Maaaaaan! Even the number of people you effortlessly gather are higher than the total number of my guild member. How I envy large guilds!"
San sighed when he heard that. His guild, MisfitSociety only had a total member of one hundred and eighty four people at the moment. That was like, every single member were counted. SwordOfLight had almost one thousand members.
"Bleh you jest! Your guild are comprised of elites. There is no way my guild can top that."
"Hehe I guess. And Rose manage to gather around one hundred and fifty volunteers from her guild. Together with those HiddenMercenary guy, we have around five hundreds players who are going to Demon Continent with us."
The total number of players back when everyone got transferred into this world was around fifty thousand. They were comprised of guilds of different tier altogether. Back then, MisfitSociety led by San had around four hundred members.
EmpireKnight, SwordOfLight and DarkMonarch was the three strongest guild in HeavensTale back in the day. These guild have at least five hundred elite players, players well equipped with legendary tier gears.
EmpireKnight was the largest guild in HeavensTale with almost five thousands members seconded by SwordOfLight which only had around three thousands.
DarkMonarch was the only exception to that. They had around five hundred to six hundred members but they were all elites. They only accepted players who was rich enough to fortify legendary tier items into their guilds.
Top tier guild have around one thousand members while second tier guild have over five hundred members. Third tier guild was guilds with members lower than five hundreds. That was the normal classification throughout the game.
There were several exceptions for that though. DarkMonarch with their only elites members were acknowledged as a top tier guild even when their member counts were lacking. The same goes for MisfitSociety. Despite being a third tier guild with low member counts, they were acknowledged as one of the big shot because of the quality of their members.
Their weapon quality was in no way on par with money spender like those of DarkMonarch but they polished their skills to the utmost, making them a force not to be trifled with. Rose's EarthForce was just an average top tier guild with around one thousand members but they were still formidable regardless.
"Ugh, if only we were more careful back then."
Jace sighed regretfully. Their losses at the Great War was just too severe.
"No use crying over spilled milk. What done is done."
"I know but…"
"Let alone someone like you, even I who was trained in martial arts was impulsive. With heart thriving for adventure equipped with great power beyond comprehension, who among us can hold back?"
The both of them once again recalled the event which happened five years ago. The Great War. Over half of the players fell in that war. Almost all forces had their power weaken considerably after the war.
"If… If Mays was here that time, can he make a difference?"
"Who knows? I bet he wouldn't even if he could. He's just that kind of guy. He would only act for the sake of someone precious to him or when he feel like it."
"Heheh that's so true. He is someone like that."
"So many had perished in the war back then. If only they were more clear-headed and tolerant, they might came up with better solution during the Great War. Most of them died prematurely before they could adapt to their newfound power."
True, their ultimate sword strike could split ocean, their ultimate palm could destroy mountains. But there was one thing they were totally unaware of, they only had one life. Never before they encountered life threatening events their entire life and one day they strode out to the battlefield all of a sudden. How could their tiny little confident help them any way at all in war?
At first, the demonic army ravaged Human Continent starting from the Holy Cloud Empire. Humanity strongest forces, The Crusaders were fighting them off with all their might but they failed miserably. Then suddenly, an extremely powerful human emerged out of nowhere and started beating off those demons.
That was actually the start of the Great War. That powerful unknown human was without doubt a HeavensTale's players who couldn't hold himself any longer and decided to purge the evil. One after another, HeavensTale's player emerged, joining the battle and turning the tide of the war.
The emergence of these players was prophesied ages ago. They were hailed as godkins, humanity's ray of hope. The Great War continued for weeks before it was concluded with the death of the Demon Lord.
"Well then, let's meet up with Rose and Obelisk. We need to discuss the plan in details before we head out."
"Haha yeah."
With that, the two of them left the room.
-------------------------------------------
"Whoaaaaaaaaaa! A dragon mount is awesome!!"
Hallel shouted in amazement. She was currently on top of Flamence's head, caressing Flamence's horn while sizing up the dragon. Mays observed her action while sighing from behind. His spirits were all inside the carriage on Flamence's back, ready to go anytime.
"Hallel, you done yet?"
"No no not yet! Give me five minutes, no three minutes! This is my first time riding such a cute dragons."
Mays shook his head at Hallel's reply. He never knew that this girl could be this childish at times. Mays decided to wait until this girl was satisfied before he started moving toward the White Stone City.
This was not the first time Hallel met a dragon. She saw them numerous time back in the Great War and she fought against them a couple of time too. But this was the first time she had the chance to ride one, a tame one which wouldn't bulge even when she grabbed its whiskers.
"Master, something, space."
Drasca's sudden whisper made Mays cautious. Drasca never failed at detection. She was even better than Mays in that regard. Mays only utilized his honed battle instinct to do so but this Drasca was born with that detection skills.
"Hallel, something is coming!"
After reminding Hallel, Mays immediately readied his guard. Hallel who saw how Mays turned serious immediately summoned her great sword just in case. The both of them surveyed their surroundings, searching for something out of the norm.
It was then when a spatial crack opened not too far from them. There were several figure behind the space crack and one of them immediately leapt forward, ramming at Mays with full force.
Kuheok!
Mays who was tackled dropped from the back of Flamence onto the ground. Hallel who was still on top of Flamence's head stared at Mays without saying anything. She even had a clueless expression on her face.
"MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYSSSSSS!!!"
"MAYSS!! I KNEW IT MAYS! YOU'RE OKAY! I'M GLAD! I'M SOOOO GLAD!"
"I'm so… glad…"
The one who jumped out from the spatial crack earlier was Ria. She was hugging Mays tightly at the moment, not planning to let go. There was also another figure not too far from the area where the spatial crack appeared earlier. It was Kasimon. She came together with Ria.
"Heh, isn't it you who said that you gonna hate me forever when I left last time?"
Mays asked Ria who was hugging him tightly as he chuckled. He remembered what Ria told her before they parted ways last time. Ria glared at Mays before she retorted.
"Hell yes I am. I hate you so much that I won't release your hand forever. Where ever and whenever, I will always be by your side, period!"
Right now, Ria was not hugging Mays anymore. Instead, she was holding Mays's right hand, tightly embracing it. Mays could even feel the subtle sensation of her breast which his right arm was sandwiched in.
"Hahahaha…. Hahaha."
Without anyone knowing what happened, Mays laughed out loud. Even his spirits inside the carriage rushed out after they heard his laugh which reverberated all over the area.
"What's so funny? I'm not going back on my word!"
Ria stared at Mays with a dumbfounded look on her face. She couldn't find out the reason why Mays suddenly broke out in laughter like that. Rather than answering the question, Mays dragged Ria closer to him and hugged her. Ria had no intention of struggling at all as she let Mays do what he wanted.
"Nah its nothing. I'm just glad that you're okay. It's embarrassing for me to say this but the moment before I died, I realized how much I love you and how much I want to stay by your side."
"Really?"
Ria's face was red as she tried hard to hide her embarrassment. Mays's warm smile was a rare sight for her. She often met Mays's evil grin, not this warm and amiable smile.
"It's a pity though. I'd prefer your bright smiling face rather than your sad face. I'd make sure to leave without telling you goodbye next time OUCH!"
"There is... NO… NEXT… TIME!"
Mays couldn't finish his line properly when Ria stomped on his feet all of a sudden. An angry glare from Ria sent shivers down his spine before he apologized immediately.
"Sorry, sorry. I am just joking. Can't you tell? Hehe."
"I… DON'T … CARE!"
Pushing Mays who was hugging her aside, Ria walked to his side without glancing at Mays even once. She didn't let go of his right hand though. Kasimon who stood by the side reached out to Mays before she greeted him.
"You seemed well, Mays."
"Hehe yeah. Good work looking out for her. I knew I can count on you."
"I'm just doing my job, nothing much."
Mays was used to Kasimon addressing him with reverence. At the very least, she was not exaggerated like those spirits with their kneeling and such. She just addressed him casually.
"Yo Mays, when will we get going? I'm tired of waiting."
Standing in front of the carriage right now was Hallel, looking at Mays who was still talking with someone she didn't know. She could roughly guess that the one cladded in pink armors was Ria but she had no idea on who the other one was.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming."
With Ria holding his right hand tightly and Kasimon following closely behind him, Mays immediately entered the carriage together with them. Flamence then flew right away, toward the capital of Stoness Dukedom, White Stone City where the DarkMonarch was waiting.
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