“This is weird” I said, a few hours after everyone left for new york. They told me they would text me when they landed, but that would be a few hours from now. The flight itself was around 2 hours, so it was going to be a while from now.

 

I was just at home, messing around. I played a few video games on the living room tv, watched tv, made myself breakfast, but it was all just a little weird without anyone else here.

 

I was thinking of going out and hunting for a little when I received a text on my phone.

 

Opening it up, I saw it was from Nyx, whom I haven't seen in a few days. We still spend some time together, it's just been awhile.

 

‘Hey, are you busy today?’ was what her message said.

 

‘Nope, what is up?’ I responded to her.

 

‘Nothing important. Just want to hang out and have nothing going on myself’

 

‘Yeah, sure, what do you want to do? My family is out of town right now so I will have to walk wherever’

 

‘...’

 

After my last text she starts typing a few times but never sends a message. Then a few minutes later she asked a question.

 

‘Hey, what's your address?’

 

✾

 

About an hour later, Nyx was outside my door.

 

“Hi, may I come in” She asks me, not really meaning it as she pushes past me.

 

“Um, what are you doing here, I assume you asked for my address to know where we can go?” I asked her. I sent her my address with that assumption, only for her to just show up at my house.

 

“Nope, I thought since your family isn’t home, it would be fun to spend time here. To see your house” she said.

 

“Well, its a normal house, nothing too special” I tell her, not sure about why she wanted to come here.

 

“You say that, but this place is really cool to me. And you are one to talk, you were nervous to walk me home”

 

“That is different. You are famous”

 

“And so is your family”

 

And then I remembered that Nyx is a Aria superfan.

 

“I don’t think Aria would like it if you go through her stuff” I tell her.

 

“Haha, that was not the plan” she says. “I think its just cool to see where she lives”

 

“I stand by it. The only person she lets into her room is me”

 

“Oh, a little bit of jealousy isn't it” she says under her breath. “So, what is it you normally do when you are home alone, or with friends”

 

“Um, I don’t know. I am normally never home alone, and I don’t really have friends.” I said. “I mean, I have a few now, but those are all related to dungeons and being a hunter”

 

“Do you do nothing else but hunt?” she asks me.

 

“No, I also play video games, or read, or watch tv. Just not things I normally need other people for. And if I do I always have Aria or Anthem”

 

“Well then, lets see how good you are at video games”

 

✾

 

“ANd I am just bad at this” I say, after my 20th straight loss. “ANd you are really good”

 

“Ha, yeah, I used to play a lot while working on music” she tells me.

 

“Man, you are a strong hunter, a famous singer, and a expert at every video game I have that has multiple players” I said, not really meaning anything by it.

 

“Hmm, praise me more” she said as a joke.

 

I laugh for a second, but then my phone goes off. I had already gotten a call telling me that my family had landed in New York, so I wasn’t sure what it was.

 

Checking it, I see that Jesica was calling me. Telling Nyx that I had to take this, I answered the phone.

 

“Umm, hello?” I say into the phone.

 

“Excuses me, but is this Zenith?” Jessica says through the phone.

 

“Yes, Jessica, what do you need?” I ask her.

 

“Oh, well I was wondering if you were free?” she asked me.

 

“Uhh, kinda? What's going on?” I ask her, just in case this is something serious.

 

“Oh, Ryan, Mechal, Mia and I were wondering if you could help us train today.” She tells me.

 

“Oh, um one second” I say, moving the phone off my ear. “Hey, Nyx. I actually agreed to help a few friends train for hunting, and they just asked if I could meet up”

 

“Ooo, can I come?” She asks.

 

“Um, maybe? One second” I say, going back to my phone. “Hey, Jessica, can I bring another friend with?”

 

“Um, sure, I don’t see why not” Jessica says from the other side of the phone.

 

“Great, ok, I am going to send you a dungeon location, let's meet there” I say to her.

 

“Great! I'll see you then”

 

✾

 

“So, Nyx, this is Micheal, Ryan, Jessica, and Mia” I said, introducing the group to each other. “And you four this is…”

 

“That’s Nyx…” Micheal said, in shock.

 

“She's famous” Ryan said.

 

“Yes, she is the same Nyx as the singer” I said. “Now, about hunting” I bring up trying to get them back on topic.

 

“Yes” Jessica said, “That is why we are here”.

 

“Ok, so first, the best option for gaining strength is dedication” I say. “Even without combat skills, you are capable of fighting with a weapon. You just have to learn it on your own. Then when you have a chance you can gain a skill using SP” I tell them.

 

THis gets Mia to raise her hand.

 

“Yes, Mia?” I say, getting her to ask the question.

 

“What if you are not a front line fighter?” she asks.

 

“Even then, learning to fight even just for defense is helpful. As a healer, you probably won't be dealing much damage, but you should never fully be reliant on others for your defense. Just think, what if the front line falls?”

 

“Oh, that makes sense” she says.

 

“Then, the best thing is to just learn by doing. BUt first, what kind of weapon do each of you think would be best?”

 

“What?” all of them ask.

 

✾

 

Wooden Sword of Swordsmanship - MP:100 - EXP 100 - Strength +1, Grants level 1 wordsmanship(Weapon Mastery)

 

Wooden Daggers of Knife Skills - MP:100 - EXP 100 - Strength +1, Grants level 1 Knife Skills(Weapon Mastery)

 

Wooden Staff of Water Magic - MP:100 - EXP 100 - Intelligence +1, Grants Level 1 Water Magic(Omni-Elemental Magic)

 

Wooden Bow of Marksmanship - MP:100 - EXP 100 - Strength +1, Grants Level 1 Marksmanship(Weapon Mastery)

 

These were the weapon they had asked for, the sword of Michel, the daggers for Ryan, the staff for Mia and the Bow for Jessica.

 

This gave them a solid build for a party, just without a defender. Since Mia was pretty interested in Magic, I made a staff that would lower her to use water magic. She would still need to learn the skill, which I made clear to her.

 

But once they all had weapons, I had them enter the dungeon.

 

“Allright, so this dungeon is a slime cave, just like the one under the association building. Just with a larger spawn rate” I explain to them. “The goal is to have you guys just gain a few levels”

 

“Got it” they said.

 

In truth, I was going to force them to get a little extra training in hoard fights. Like I learned with the horn from the goblin dungeon, if I blow it in another dungeon, it causes a hoard to spawn.

 

As they moved deeper into the dungeon, Nyx and I watched over the group. I had made a set of the aparsail glasses to monitor how they were doing.

 

Name:Micheal

Level:9

 

Name:Ryan

Level:8

 

Name:Mia

Level:16

 

Name:Jessica

Level:5

 

Mia was the highest level thanks to the work she did with the party she used to be a member of, but the rest of them were under level 10. That would be the immediate goal, because after that they could probably move on to a harder dungeon, even if they are alone.

 

“So… how do you know Nyx” Jessica asked me since I was staying behind the group.

 

“Oh, we met at the association's new years party… Before the terrorist attack” I tell her.

 

“Interesting… and you just happened to be with her when I called you?”

 

“Yeah, we were hanging out when you called, and she asked to come with” I told her.

 

But before she could say anything else, Mia came over. “What are you talking about?”

 

“How I know Nyx..”

 

ANd then Nyx walks up to the three of us.

 

“Oh, talking about me, huh” she said.

 

“Um, we should probably focus on the dungeon” I say to them, since this seems to be spreading, and Micheal and Ryan are a few feet ahead of us now.

 

After a while, we were deep enough into the dungeon to where I was able to do this. Opening my item box, I pull the horn out. And I blow into it, causing a large number of slimes to attack them.

 

And I watch them attack the group as I and Nyx sit back and watch.