Zeruna and Tina stand adjacent to the four Sparrow Knights; it had been one day since they all rescued the group of girls from the Transylvanian castle where Caspian lived in. Zeruna's little plan had worked to a T. They guided them out of the dungeon and virtually took credit for something they technically didn't do. Due to this, they were all ranked up to B immediately. They also got money by selling the item that was supposedly behind the problem. This left the six of them with a sizeable sum of money.

Although it was extremely brief, Zeruna enjoyed her little stint with the Sparrow Knights, Fortunate for them, Rorlau Verosi had been detained by the Sevis' authorities as she tried to sneak into the city to start a new life. Her facial tattoes hadn't been covered very well, leading to her capture. Zeruna paid her bail and practically forced her to join the Sparrow Knights. After all, they were looking for a wizard, why not a recently redeemed bandit.

"Thank you for this chance of redemption!" yells Rorlau while bowing. "I will one day repay your endless grace and generosity."

"Don't mention it," replies Zeruna. "Farewell, Sparrow Knights."

"Until we meet again, Shi, Merille," says Argon with his hand over his heart.

"Best wishes to you two," Eleana beams one of her smiles that could make the sun shine through the clouds on a rainy day.

"Don't die! When I'm old enough, I'll marry you!" yells Arin as a joke.

"Stay in your lane," retorts Zeruna after a chuckle. "I'm out of your league by a longshot."

"Oof, that cuts real deep Shi-shi," Arin says. "But seriously, I hope you do well. Especially you, Merille, us little people got to stick together."

"I'll miss you," utters Tina. "Maybe."

"No hard feelings, right John?"

The disgraced man merely mumbles under his breath in reply.

"See you around," says Zeruna.

Zeruna and Merille depart from the Adventurer Guild building, smiling widely. It seems they both enjoyed their time with the group. After taking a few turns in the streets of Sevis, Aema comes out of concealment by removing the ring and returning it to Zeruna. Despite barely knowing the group of Humans, Aema too is fond of them.

"Now what?" asks Aema.

"Aema, what exactly do you do? It's been a long time since we've been able to converse," Zeruna probes. She's been curious of this for quite a while.

"Archery, don't you remember from the time we were kids."

"Ah yes, what about your bow?"

"I'm not too sure what happened to that."

"We'll be able to fix that soon," says Zeruna, a tear unknowingly falling down her cheek. "Ah, whoops. Anyway, first, we'll buy some food as well as securing lodgings. Second, we'll be heading approximately seven miles from town to avoid being spotted summoning."

"Summon?" responds Aema.

"It's how I resurrected Tina. I'll be doing it agai–"

"Who will it be?" Tina cuts in excitedly. "Nyrilieth, Mordain, Varsarius?"

Zeruna pauses for a moment as Tina moves in closer, a light in her eyes. Aema moves in too, begging to hear which one of her background names she threw around in her book will come to life. For Aema, it more of seeing how a few brief words in her book will translate into a powerful and destructive force of nature and what their traits will be. For Zeruna, it'll probably be an emotional rollercoaster no matter who's summoned.

Zeruna smiles and walks from the alley with her companions, Zeruna makes a beeline for the nearest person who hastily gives directions when he notices the B-rank badge on her clothes. Zeruna was looking for the butchers and the bakers in order to get food. Nothing went how it was expected. Most of the meat in the butchers were rotten and reaked. It might not be a problem for the Dark Elves, but Aema could possibly be poisoned. Zeruna decided it would be easier to hunt some wild animals. Then there was the 6'9 butcher who insisted that his food was of the highest quality. He towered over Zeruna who by this world's standards, is considered the maximum height of human male. Apparently, he's a half-ogre, half-human hybrid. Zeruna didn't care enough to ask anymore questions about the man and moved on.

The baker's bread was just above the butcher's meat in terms of quality. Though it appeared normal, the bread itself was tough and drier than sand. While other parts were soggy and wet. Whatever happened to the bread is beyond Zeruna's understanding. The loafs also came in very small sizes for an egregious price considering the quality of the product. Despite this, Zeruna brought the bread because it was edible and probably wouldn't poison Aema.

They then headed out at breakneck speed, Zeruna carrying Aema while flying and Tina flying by herself. They head in no general direction, just away from Sevis where they couldn't be scene. They set themselves down in a strip mountains surrounded by a thick and choking forest.

'Oh voice from the heavens, confirm your existence to me once again! Telleth me the names of who I can summon."

[Sufficient SP gained (3426/2500), ability to summon now available. Does host wish to summon?]

'Affirmative.'

[1. Mordain, The Grand Necromancer
2. Nyrilieth, The Devourer
3. Vidir, The Greater
4. Phalanx, The Protector
5. Verille, The Shadow Master
6. Ursula, Of The Trident
7. Shogan, The Master Of The Swords
8. Hans, The Master Of Combat
9. Varsarius, The Wild]

'I want to summon Phalanx, but every cell in my body is telling me to summon Vidir. No, I don't think the words "Summon Phalanx" will even be able to come out my mouth.'

"Aema, Tina, I'm about to summon. The pillar of light that ascends does a considerable amount of damage, even to me. Please stand back," warns Zeruna.

Aema and Tina take around fifty steps backwards as Zeruna begins to float upwards and points her hands at the ground. She's learnt from her mistake of standing close to where the summon will happen. Aema and Tina are practically jumping up and down, excited to see which of the Children of Chaos will be summoned.

"Summon, Vidir," states Zeruna.

A beam of light once again plunges down from the sky. It is noticeably smaller than Tina's and doesn't have enough energy to hurt of move Zeruna. The reflection on the light can be seen in the glistening eyes of Aema and Tina who look on slightly curious. Tina has yet to meet Vidir, the Dwarf that her mistress holds dear to her heart. Aema because she never even mentioned the name Vidir in her book. She had barely begun to add to Zeruna's backstory in A Highschooler Learns To Survive In A Fantasy before she was mysteriously killed by truck-kun under shady circumstances.

[The next summon will cost 5250 SP, you have 926 SP remaining.]

The light clears revealing nothing but the green ground. A high pitch scream can suddenly be heard, drawing even one's attention.

All three girls look upwards to see a tiny black dot in the sky moving slowly down towards the ground. There is a thunderous smash as a tubby figure collides with the earth, cracking it, and most likely his back too.

The Dwarf suddenly stands to his feet and begins uncontrollably waving his hammer around as if he's fighting invisible enemies while screeching about Goblins. Zeruna studies the Dwarf, he has a fuzzy nordic-like brown beard with a streak on ginger running down the middle. His hair fed into a small ponytail He's wearing thick plate armour as expected of a Dwarf.

A smile beams from Zeruna, he's exactly the same up until the incident with the Goblins. The Dwarf then turns to Zeruna' puzzled.

"Who're you? Where am I? I need to find my companion!" he barks, still in utter confusion.

His confusion is only multiplied when the masked woman suddenly pulls him into a tight embrace and begins weeping. She effortlessly lifts him off the ground. Vidir attempts to wiggle free but finds himself unable to overpower the slender, cloak-wearing woman.

"Look, ma'am, I know I'm beautiful but this is going too far," he gasps as the woman's hug tightens restricting his breathing. "Please... let... go!"

"My... my apologies, my old friend," Zeruna mutters.

"Old? Friend?"

"Of course, you wouldn't be able to recognise me in this — maybe you won't recognise outright."

Zeruna drops Vidir to the ground. The startled Dwarf pulls out his golden hammer and aims at the crazy woman who nearly crushed him in a hug. She slowly begins undressing; first, she removes her cloak revealing a set of revealing white armour. She then lets her flowing white hair flow. Her mask is removed last, she casts it aside and lets it drop to the ground.

Vidir stands there with his mouth left agape, a Dark Elf? No, he knows this person. Zeruna once again coils around him in an even tighter hug. The little man squirms like a child being hugged by their mom in front of their friends. He's doing everything he can to escape this vice grip.

"Z-Zeruna, please... stop... I'm dying here!"

"Vidir!" yells Zeruna loudly.

"Are you crying?" sputters Vidir. "What did I do?"

"You died," declares Zeruna through her tears. "You left me alone when I was just a measly level 250 to fend for myself! You selfish, stubborn, inconsiderate, immature, little–"

"Calm down, child!" Vidir interrupts.

"Child? I'm older than you now!" states Zeruna a wide smirk on her face.

"Impossible, I'm 125 and you're only 89,"

"Ha, but you died thus didn't age for ten years. Then I technically died, I think. No, I survived for 300 years, so that makes me 399 years old."

"Okay, grandma," Vidir replies.

"You know what, I resend my statement. I wasn't alive for those 300 years. So I'm 99 then," Zeruna grumbles. "Ah, this brings back memories."

"What memories? For me, it feels like... I don't even know. This situation is most confusing. One moment, I'm swarmed by Goblins, the next moment, my companion is hugging me claiming I died."

---

---

I walk through the mountain trails, this area is dangerous for someone my level. The Drazen Conglomerate rests in the Darzeri mountains, home of Dwarves. I'm only level 22, most enemies around this area are more than double that. Stone Drakes, Mountain Trolls, Cave Goblins and there's even rumoured to be a female Arachne around here. The last thing I want to encounter is some 10ft half woman, half spider monster. Honestly, a couple of Stone Drakes are probably just as dangerous.

Just as I finish my train of thought, there is a low hissing noise, almost snake-like hissing. I pull out my iron shortsword and turn around to face whatever threat is there. My blood runs cold.

In front of me is just what I had just mentioned. Four grey-skinned lizards face me. They have pointed scaley snouts and sharp teeth. A single horn protrudes from their foreheads and curves downwards. Around their neck, are a collection of jagged and broken horns. A terrifying beast to say the least. They say they can even reach ten metres long as fully grown adults. It looks like I've been abused by a bunch of adolescents.

I take a deep breath, it could be worse. A Ground Naga or maybe even a Wyvern could've appeared, either of those would spell doom for one whose level is as low as mine. At least with Stone Drakes, victory is in grasp, right? I have the advantage, the trail is thin, only four metres in width, the left is a sheer drop and the right is a rocky cliff. That is nigh impossible to climb, hopefully.

I wish I had taken that Appraisal spell tome, then I'd be able to plan better.

One of the Drakes jumps at me, its toothy mouth meeting my shortsword. I try to hold my ground and rear its head to the cliffs, but it easily overpowers me. I try moving my left arm to claw at the Drake's eye, instead, a powerful pain shoots through it. Multiple teeth gnaw into my arm. I let go of my sword causing the Drake holding it to fall down the ledge; however, it gains footing while scrambling and manages to pull itself up to the path behind me. Now I'm surrounded, great.

I plunge my fangs through a gap and into the nearest Drake's neck, the wounds on my arms seal and the bleeding effect stops.

"Goodday, miss, you look like you're in a spot of bother!" exclaims a hearty voice from above.

Suddenly, a short man with a large sack on his back descends down from the cliff, skidding down it and slamming a hammer into the skull of a Drake. The creature hisses and retreats. The Dwarf delivers three more brutal hits to the head with his hammer, killing the animal. The Dwarf turns to the other two drakes in front of him and releases a battle cry along with some salvia as he yells.

The two Drakes scramble over each other to escape the manly roar. They run away leaving only one Stone Drake remaining. The Dwarf turns, ready to assist me. My sword slowly moves over to me and into my hands. It's about the biggest thing I can manipulate with my current levels in Psionics.

"Thanks for that," I say to the Dwarf. "Zeruna Black is my name."

"Vidir! I normally don't see many Dark Elves around these parts," replies the Dwarf. "Now let's take out this Drake, I'll let you nab the kill. I ain't bothered much by superficial stuff like level and experience. I live by the hammer."

Vidir moves first and fast, diving to the left and slamming the Drake in the head and moving its body in the perfect position. I lunge forward, driving my sword directly into the heart of the lizard. It still scrambles for a few moments as it stays skewered on my shortsword.

I rip my sword out and kick the Draconic animal off the cliff. I didn't see where it landed, the ledge seemed to descend into infinite darkness.The only conformation it hit the ground is the sound of me leveling up.

[Stone Drake killed, 12,500 EXP gained. Additional bonus 10,000 EXP for level difference granted,]

[Level Up, you are now level 23]

[Level Up, you are now level 24]

[Level Up, you are now level 25]

"Say, Dwarf, don't suppose you can point me to Ruengar," I ask while shaking the hand of the Dwarf. "I have business with the Grand Forgemaster of the city."

"May I ask what reason?" questions the Dwarf as she shakes back.

"I'm broke and need work."

"Why talk to the Grand Forgemaster when you can talk to me about work? That old coot is too stuck up his own ass to hire you. Seriously, he's a major league douchebag, a cunt of the highest order, let me assure you. I'm a Minor Forgemaster in Ruengar, you could join my blacksmiths."

"How many employees you got?" I ask, moving in closer.

"Two, including me and you," he replies. "That is if you join."

"Very well, I will join you since you saved my life. I have a life debt to you now, so I do not request pay. I only request that you let me eat your leftovers if you have any."

The Dwarf cackles loudly and slams his hand on my back. Pain spreads across my back, the only thing preventing his hands from doing any more damage is the cheap leather armour I bought.

"I can tell this is going to be the beginning of a fruitful partnership!" he yells enthusiastically as he slams me on the back again.

Note to self: Don't get patted on the back by someone who is well over you level.

---

---

Zeruna smiles as she reminisces of the times with Vidir as if they actually happened. They feel too real to be fake, the emotions, the tears, the memories, the overwhelming feeling of nostalgia. She quickly wipes her tears from her cheeks before Vidir could do it himself.

'That is something he'd do. Well, if he could reach.'

He's finally here, weighing 310lbs, the man, the myth, the legend: Vidir the Greater!

I liked writing this chapter too, not as much as Aema's introduction chapter but I enjoyed it. This is also the longest chapter so far (i think). 2500+ in words. That's quite a lot. I also recently found out that you can see the page numbers. 123 plus whatever this adds on to that. Same goes for the word count that is 33893 excluding this chapter. Updates will be slowing down a bit due to school (yay, my two brain cells are ready to rumble). I tried to do a double release but I couldn't finish the second one.

That's all folks.