“Derek, are you sure you’re alright?” Konohora asked me. 

“Sure, why wouldn’t I be?” 

Konohora gave me a deadpan look while Riary took the chance to answer. 

“Because you were covered in blood, in a blood-soaked arena, looking like a rabid monster that needed to be put down.” 

Tyler scratched his cheek, his retelling of his training put on pause. And wasn’t that interesting. Grant, descendent of the legendary general, could apparently do resonating force punches. I wonder how on earth that worked. It could have been an Ability but… it sounded more like something else. The world of power and magic is apparently more varied than I could ever have imagined. 

I took a seat on the couch, immediately going for laying down. My body still felt a bit sore. It was good to just lay back and relax for a moment. Sadly, the whole team was looking at me. 

“Well… don’t just leave it all up to me and Tyler, what were your training sessions like over the past month?” 

“What do you mean leave to you? You haven’t told us anything about your training session at all.” Riary glared at me. 

“Huh? Didn’t Xilvia tell you guys?” 

“No. She said nothing beyond that you were fine.” Konohora answered. 

“Well, I guess there’s not much to say. I walked in, she attacked me after barely any words. And then we fought.” 

“What did you do after that?” Tyler asked. 

“No. I don’t think you understand. I’m saying we fought. And that was it. I had the luxury of waking up a single time for her to give me a speech about power and how fucked I personally was without it… and then it was just fighting till I passed out. Waking up in a pool of blood, to being cut open. More fighting, pass out, more fighting, and that was it. For the whole month, I just fought to exhaustion and beyond. It was the most tiring thing I’ve experienced.” 

I shuddered slightly. I didn’t even know a person could feel that tired. 

Tyler, Konohora, and Riary were gaping at me. 

“What?” I said.

Riary glared. “That’s impossible. You’re saying you didn’t do anything but fight?” 

I nodded. “No sleep, well, no real sleep, no food, no water. She used some really expensive stuff to keep me going the whole way without any problems. Silvia Extract.” 

Konohora’s reaction was the most telling, as I don’t think I’d ever seen her mouth drop open before. 

“What?” 

“Uh, yeah. I figured it was pretty expensive but-” 

“Expensive?! Derek, Silvia Extract can only be gotten from the World Tree, fiercely guarded by the elves. Even A Rank’s can’t just demand some. How on Ero…” 

Riary frowned. “I’ve never heard of it.” 

Konohora seemed to come back to herself. “It is a legendary stabilizing force. While it won’t heal you fully or completely… Its ability to stabilize a person is incredible. It’s said that if one were to rest in the World Tree’s sap for one hundred years, one would become immortal, no longer needing to eat, drink, sleep, and become nearly invincible. Silvia Extract is rumored to be the dried sap. No matter how close someone gets to death… it’ll prevent it, the rumors say.” 

“Sounds about right. Pretty sure I don’t have a swimming pool worth of blood I can lose normally. Anyway, that’s it. It was… exhausting.” 

“What do you mean that’s it?! Derek, that’s incredible!” Tyler said, looking at me with awe in his eyes. That made me uncomfortable immediately. 

“Hey, did you forget I can sense power levels?! You think I can’t see how much stronger you three became?! Trying to praise me… I should make you carry my sword or something for that insanity. You could probably beat three of your old self at once from just a month ago Tyler…” 

I looked at Riary. The other two had grown but Riary… Riary had grown a lot. Possibly even more than Tyler had. Truly… she wasn’t called a genius for nothing. 

Speaking of, she squinted at me. 

“And just how much stronger have you become then?” she asked. 

“Me, the person who had never fought a day in his life before a few months ago, and never once received training before? Who’s only claim to power before reaching the city was via my natural race and being ‘born’ strong? A lot. Don’t compare us, I’m making up for lost ground. I was just ‘born’ with a diamond spoon in my mouth. Though… I am really interested in your training.” 

Having said that, Riary only smiled. I was used to that smile, I remembered it well. It was from the time Riary played nothing but mean ‘pranks’ on me all the time. A part of me shivered, reminded of that. Another part shivered, realizing I was suddenly freezing. 

I blinked, realizing I was currently covered in icy blue fire, nearly clear. Frost was growing on my body. The flames in Riary’s eyes turned an icy blue. 

But the real change came afterwards. I felt it before I saw it. My whole body was suddenly hot. Burning. These flames were familiar, they were the kind I once was nearly turned into a corpse by. The deep blue flames of heat. The flames seemed to travel across where I’d been frozen, seeming to keep the properties of ice. I felt like I was melting but also slow and frozen. The flame changed color again, becoming a mix of red and blue, seemingly shifting with ease. It was awe inspiring and reminded me of why I loved magic so much. It was more than a painting, it was almost like the most beautiful parts of a soul come to life, leaping out to tell a story. A story of change. 

These flames, hot or cold, were the same flames. Always. They only followed one path of intensity, one concept. 

Retribution. 

These were the flames Riary would destroy her enemies with. No, more than that. She would take anything thrown at her and return it a hundred hold, with interest. A punishment, a vengeance towards all that would go against her. 

It was so… 

“Beautiful…” 

The flames disappeared and I blinked at that. I had been lost in the colors but looked over to Riary, who had an embarrassed and angry expression on her face. She was currently mumbling under her breath. I think I heard the words ‘Damn Demon’ a few times. 

I also noticed the couch hadn’t even been damaged. That level of control… truly, Riary was simply beyond me. I snapped out of it, focusing on the one I hadn’t heard from yet. 

“And how was your training Konohora?” 

She smiled while looking slightly at Riary. 

“It was wonderful. I was able to get up to a thousand pound weights by the end of it.” 

I blinked. What? No, what? Huh? I know we’re super human but what? A thousand pounds? 

“That’s… amazing.” 

Konohora only shook her head. 

“There is still more room for growth. Speaking of, I believe we’ve trained for long enough, at least for now. Are we ready to go into the Dungeon?” 

Tyler had a serious look on his face, but that paled next to Riary’s. She looked more than ready to burn some motherfuckers to the ground. 

“Uh, actually…” I said, before launching into what Xilvia had told me. 

We were in this together and they should know just how much danger we were in. I hadn’t even seen Konohora bring up the political ramifications yet, which meant something had really gone wrong. Sure enough, by the time I finished outlining, Konohora had a few words to say. 

“I hadn’t expected this much of an issue…” She said, while frowning. 

“Couldn’t she just be wrong? It seems pretty insane for everyone to care so much about us. Sure, some people might come or some assassins but we expected that much.” Riary said. 

“We did?!” Tyler said, eyes wide at the threat I’d laid out. 

For once, I had to be the voice of knowledge. 

“No. It makes perfect sense. Politics… this isn’t a single action. It’s not like a single building breaking due to negligence or a single scandal, it’s more like a constant stain on the kingdom and all of humanity. Normal people will only hate it or forget about it but kings and nobles… the longer we’re together and the stronger we get, the more they’re going to hate us. Well, me, and by extension all of you.” 

Riary was silent for a moment. 

“Can’t we just separate then? Go our own way?” 

“Riary!” Tyler said, anger in his eyes. 

“What? It’s safer for all of us. This isn’t emotional, it’s just the logical thing to do.” 

“You’re right, we could, it’s the smart thing to do…” I cut in. “But no.” 

Riary blinked. 

“No?” 

“Nope. Smart, logic… who cares? If people come, we fuck them up.” 

All three of them looked at me. 

“Derek?” Konohora called out, unsure. 

“I realized something in that pit of exhaustion. My thoughts became simple. All I want ultimately… is freedom. The specifics of it matter, extremely, but I’ve been pulled around for what feels like months. And I have been.” 

I sat up on the couch, looking at them all. 

“Enough of that. I promised to help you find the gems and Happy, to help Tyler get home, and you promised to help me find a way to change my body. Even if it’s kingdoms, we just need to get strong enough, fast enough, that no one can try and get in the way of that. And if we meet someone too strong… we’ll figure something out. I’m not going to make all my decisions based on ‘it might be too dangerous’. Danger seems to be inevitable.” 

“Even if we have to kill and destroy and fight every person in this city who wants a piece of us and the next and the one after that, fine. Even if more weird random bullshit happens, so what? Even if we’re all teleported into the nude again, it doesn’t matter. We’re a team.”

“So, No.” 

My teammates seem surprised for a moment, but then smiles and grins appeared on all their faces. 

“It really is that simple.” Konohora smiled, nodding. 

“Let’s burn them.” Riary said with a wide grin, flames dancing in her eyes. 

“To friendship!” Tyler said, causing me to cringe internally, with a wide happy smile on his face.

“Well, sure. Now come on, let’s prepare. I wasn’t that excited earlier but now my blood is starting to pump. We’ve got a dungeon to run through and a Rank barrier to break. Let’s make sure we’re prepared.” 

“It’s time to enter the Dungeon.”