"Now come and take a look at this map." Bruno motioned to the map.

The others turned their focus to the map stretched out before Bruno.

"So out of our group, we were the second to Arrive, technically third if you count Emily and Akane." Bruno began.

"Okay, then excluding Emily and Akane, who came before us, and when did they Arrive." Elena probed with some remaining degree of impatience.

"David," Bruno responded to her sense of restlessness with a single name.

Silence once more descended into silence, but they soon released a collective sigh of relief.

"Well, it is a bit of a risk for one of us to Arrive alone, but if it had to happen, it's a good thing it was him. He'll be equipped to handle most situations with his capabilities, probably while making some new friends along the way." Justin was the first to speak.

"That does sound like him."

"True enough."

Natalia and Elena replied respectively.

"So, when did he Arrive?" Natalia asked with a tone of anticipation.

"Almost 7 years ago. Well to be more exact, 6 years 11 months, and 9 days ago. As for who Summoned him, it was Emily and Akane. But in the process, his Soul underwent a transformation and some power that lay dormant within him was Awakened. It combined with both the transformative power of his Kibo and the high-quality Dungeon Cores the girls used to conduct his Summoning; and as a result, he gained powers that I am incapable of fully understanding at the moment. In addition, the World itself seems to be protecting him, stripping me of the ability to pry into the reason for this change. As, such I believe we're going to have to ask him directly if we want to find out what is really going on."

His words caused conflicted expressions to surface on their faces before, Justin eventually asked, " So where are they now; David and the girls I mean."

"The girls had originally conducted his Summoning at the center of The Dividing Mountain Range on the Eastern Continent; this being due to the intersection of certain ley lines. But the three of them separated the same night of his Summoning. The girls went back to the North Continent in order to continue making their final preparations for War. Also, before you ask; I ran into a similar situation as with David’s newfound powers and I am unable to decipher their reasons for starting this war."

"As of now the girls are still on the Northern Continent and have pretty much stayed within Normandy’s borders. On the other hand, David has been traveling all over the Eastern Continent and even made some trips to others. He often goes into the depths of high-ranking Dungeons and other such Danger Zones, later coming out with new followers. He’s also had a few run-ins with some of the more aggressive powers, and at one point some of them even placed bounties on his head through The Adventures' Guild and a few others. The Guild labeled it as a SSS ranked request, with some of those involved feeling that ranking was insufficient and requesting he be designated Ancient or Higher. It was eventually elevated to Legendary where it has remained for some time."

"On David’s side he of course accepted all challengers, defeating them resoundingly while refraining from causing any unnecessary deaths."

"That definitely sounds like him." Justin thought aloud as he nodded in affirmation.

"Yeah, and it sounds like he might have some type of objective in mind since he is choosing not to go up North and join the girls. Though I'm not sure what that could be." Natalia spoke up as well.

"You really have no idea what he could be doing?" Elena pondered briefly before asking Bruno.

Bruno hesitated for less than a fraction of a second before he shook his head and responded; "None, but I suggest we leave him to his own devices for now and instead strengthen ourselves before meeting up with the others when they Arrive before joining up with him later on."

The others nodded in agreement trusting that David could take care of himself. And additionally, based upon their current understanding of Cornith's Ranking System, with their current level of strength they wouldn't be of much help to him at the moment anyway.

"That sounds reasonable. Will they all be arriving at similar times in varying locations, as a singular group, or various locations at vastly different times?" Elena asked.

"That's the bright side of this whole thing, the others will all Arrive together in 3 years' time, which will give us time to both gather strength and travel to their Arrival location," Bruno gave a wry smile as he spoke, yet a serious expression covered his face soon after as he continued on, "But, their Arrival location itself will definitely make linking up with them and formulating future plans more complicated than we necessarily desire."

"Why?" Elena was the first to ask with a slightly confused and anxious expression.

Bruno possessed an expression of difficulty as he explained; "Because of who Summoned them. It was the Yverian Empire, and because of the Empire’s past experience with Summoning, they will undoubtedly place the others under heavy surveillance while also sending their high-ranking experts to ‘guide’ and ‘protect’ them."

At his words, the others’ gazes were overcome with difficulty just as he was and looked down at the map where his finger indicated the capital city of the Yverian Empire.

"The Yverian Empire is not only one of the nations with the greatest military might on the Central Continent it also possesses an inseparable bond with The War God's Temple. The Temple worships the God of War Neo and has members and Sub-Temples across all five continents. The relationship between both The Temple and Empire is symbiotic in nature, in fact, the first Emperor was also one of the Temple's Founders. It is common for members of the Imperial Family to hold integral positions within the Temple. As such it is imperative that we keep the situation from devolving to an irrecoverable state once we take action." As Bruno spoke the others nodded in agreement.

Justin indicated the other markings Bruno had made on the map and asked, "Are these your suggested routes for travel?"

"Yes," Bruno nodded in affirmation before explaining further; "These routes cut through many potential obstacles; while also offering ample Dungeons for us to train within, as well as enough well-developed cities for us to rest in relative comfort when necessary. My earlier research was very useful in planning out these potential routes."

"Good. Which of these routes is around 2 years long while also allowing for the best optimization of training and resting time?" Justin asked.

"What are you thinking?" Natalia asked him, but he indicated for her to wait until Bruno responded before he (Justin) answered her.

Bruno took a moment to trace out the routes marked down on the map and performed some mental calculations.

Soon he lifted up his head and indicated a route that marked their final destination within the Southern Continent as a port city on the northern tip of the Continent called, Azaria. 

Many other routes ended in the same port city, but this one possessed little to no deviation when cutting across the continent from its current position near the center of the Sakarian Desert, which in itself covered almost a third of the Southern Continent. The desert was situated at the Continent's center and was surrounded by various mountain chains and even massive forests to the south.

From the port city, the route took a beeline across an ocean known as the Sea of Tranquility with them making landfall at the Yverian port city, Stonehaven, which also functioned as a marine dock for the Empire's Naval Warships and always maintained a standing guard of several tens of thousands of troops.

The route then ran through several Fortress and Expansion-type Dungeons, it also intersected with quite a few cities.

After he traced it out for them to see he spoke, "This is the one. It's one of the more dangerous ones that cut through many Danger Zones I would like to avoid at our current level, but it would only take one and a half years to traverse. 4 months of which would be spent waiting on a boat and then traversing the Sea of Tranquility."

"If that is the case it's perfect for what I would suggest we do," Justin responded.

"What do you want to suggest?” Bruno asked as he and the girls looked at Justin questioningly.

"Well, I suggest we purposefully put off our departure and instead remain in the Sakarian Desert for a while and train ourselves in the Danger Zones located here. It would actually be a very good place for Natalia to gain more control over her recently evolved Earth Magic. And as we saw before, the city does in fact have a great many resources available for our development." Justin explained what he believed to be a viable option.

"Doing this would make future travel easier when we do set off. Also, we can't just up and disappear on Delilah and the rest of the church. They exhausted a lot of resources to Summon us and have placed a large amount of faith in us as well. This way we would be able to inform them of our plans ahead of time and they may even be in support of us joining up with the rest of our friends. No matter what we should make it part of our training goal to destroy a few of the surrounding S and SS-ranked Dungeons as a form of compensation." Elena was the first to speak in support of Justin's suggestion.

"Yes, I also support such a plan of action. But I think that the three of us..." Natalia indicated to Justin, Elena, and herself before continuing on, "Should devote some of our time to understanding this world’s, geography, history, and conventions as well."

"Agreed."

"Sounds reasonable."

Justin and Elena responded respectively.

All three of them then turned to Bruno.

He nodded his head in affirmation as he spoke, "Then we are decided. We’ll stay here until we feel confident enough in our own strengths to begin our journey and meet up with others after their Arrival. I will go and debrief both Delilah and Luna on our current plans tomorrow and seek their support. After that, we should place most, if not all, of our focus into improving ourselves."

Both Luna and Delilah had previously been informed that they had other friends who had been summoned alongside them, only to arrive at different locations. They had also been informed that Bruno possessed a method to find them and had shown support in him doing this.

At his mention of both women, the others exchanged secret glances and gave wry smiles before excusing themselves from the library.