Chapter 20: A power in the shadows reunites with his friends

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We got a visit from Nael and his mother after they received the news that I had returned safely from my mom. Of course, both of them were kinda happy and celebrated along with us by preparing a lot of dishes and foods for us to eat.

Nael, that during these months seemed to have gone through a protagonist like transformation after a receiving time skip in his training arc, had his muscles of his body a lot more developed and resistant than almost a year ago, and although it couldn't seem so obvious at first glance, this detail couldn't escape from my sight.

"It's great that you're back Sid, I thought I could need to look for you through all seas in order to find you..."

"Hahaha, yes, It was lucky that I was rescued by the marines just before I was sold to some slave traders, who knows where could I have ended..."

"Woah! You traveled along the marines?! That's incredible, you gotta tell me more about that!"

As always, Nael protagonistic aura surrounded him, though unlike some months ago, this time he actually looked a bit more mature and serious. Probably something happened while I was away that made this protagonist go through a change that made him become even stronger... Good grief, too bad I wasn't here to play my mob act!

Maybe during these months he fought a pirate with a bounty... Shit! If that's the case then I could have done my job as a mob character and attacked the pirate first just to be defeated instantly after that, leading Nael to get angry and reveal his true power to defeat such a fearsome opponent.

I bit my lip in frustration after thinking of such a wasted opportunity to show my true mob potential!

Tch... whatever, maybe in the future there will be more opportunities for me to act.

"Oh right! We need to go and tell all the others about your return! We also need to rearrange your training for you to become stronger and defeat those pirates if you ever need to!"

"Ohh!!" I just raised my fist in an excited tone and smiled brightly towards Nael to show him my determination when I heard the word 'Training'.

Now it was time to recover my lost mob position.

And nothing could stop me...

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A few minutes later...

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What the heck is this?!

When we arrived at the park, I saw all my old friends sparing against each other fiercely while wearing serious faces during all the fight. However, what really impressed me was the fact that all my friends, including my mob companions, turned into secondary characters!

All of them exuded an aura of power and experience beyond what a normal kid was supposed to have. Even my average ex-mob companions had lost their boring expressions from their faces, and now had a new serious and determined expression on their eyes whenever they swung their sword. 

This is... Dangerous!!!

At this rate I will become the only mob character in a group full of secondary characters and a protagonist, which will also mean that I will stand out! 

Unacceptable!

But how the heck do I fix something like this...?

"Hey guys, Sid has returned!!"

"What?!"

"Seriously?!"

"Ohhhh!!"

Soon all of them showed enormous smiles on their faces and ran towards me before surrounding me completely to start asking questions without a stop.

It seems that they missed me, huh?

Tch... It seems like the impression of me being kidnapped affected them more of what I thought it could... This is a total mess!

They should instead react like: "Oh, you were actually gone? I didn't notice at all..."

Or even better: "Who are you again...?"

But that was not their reaction at all! Goddammit! 

Look! Even Arya is looking at me with sightly worried eyes! Not you too dammit!!!

Good grief... It seems I have a lot of work to do, huh?

Very well, I will show you the results of my training to become the perfect mob character during these few months away. I'll make you ignore me so hard that you won't even remember I ever existed in the first place!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

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Nael POV:

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Sid has come back. I was happy, no doubt about it...

However, this dreadful feeling didn't disappear in the slightest even after that. After all, it didn't change the fact I needed to get stronger if I didn't want the same thing to repeat.

I wasn't going to allow one of my friends to be hurt by pirates ever again, Be it Sid, Arya, Broen, Neiro, Carlo, etc... I wasn't going to allow such a thing to happen ever again, even if that meant making them as strong as I was, or making myself the strongest man on this world.

Furthermore, I didn't want to feel as helpless as I felt when Sid was kidnapped, and probably no one of my friends wanted the same, so that's why after that incident we started training to the fullest in order to become strong enough to face any danger that we had to confront eventually, and to go into the seas to look for Sid.

Of course, it seemed that he had actually come back on his own, however, this didn't reduce our determination in the slightest, and it only fueled us to improve ourselves even more and to help Sid become strong enough in the future.

Like right now.

"Huff... Huff... Hey Nael, can I rest for a bit...?" Sid that was jogging behind everyone asked while gasping for air with every step he took to follow us.

"No, resist for a bit more, we will finish in a few minutes more after all" 

"Ugh..."

It also seemed that his condition has worsened sightly after disappearing for so long, probably due to the fact that he looked a bit malnourished right now.

But, as my father always says, a bit of exercise and food is all a man needs to overcome any challenge! Besides, after defeating some pirates that tried to attack us I gained quite a lot of money.

The first time I defeated one of them I couldn't even believe the incredible amount of bellys a weak pirate like him could give me!

And after all these months, I finally managed to save the incredible amount of 150,000 Bellys!!

So taking them all to eat to some place after training wasn't a problem for me at all, as long as everyone could become strong and healthy, I was satisfied!

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And like that...

Three more years passed.

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Jarron7

Time skip finally appears! And although it isn't exactly a big time skip it will be the last one... I think...

Oops, nope it's the penultimate time skip before the canon starts finally, sorry about that.

Well, it's not like these in-between time skips arcs are going to take that many chapters, after all I only need to finish a few things more before beginning with the canon story.

Anyways, that's all for today and I hope you liked the chapter.

Sayonara.