It was a new day and I wasn't looking forward to it. Why? Because I got a job of making star shaped gems that will float and become light sources for a celebration for the construction of the new town. Making the stars wasn't too hard, but when I showed my work to the mayor's secretary, she said the number was fine but I had to make them bigger.

Not a problem for me, right? Growing a gem, no problem. Growing six gems at the same rate while being really delicate with their growth because if you don't, they'll break each other, yes, it is a problem. I had to make fire energy and air energy in parallel, then I had to supply the fire energy to the fire gem and the air energy into the five separate air gems at the same time.

Right now, I was taking a break for growing one star 'nineteen more to go', the star went from smaller than my palm to about the same size as my outstretched hand 'if she isn't happy with that, I'll snap'. The trick for growing them was energy threads. For the sake of efficiency, it is better to have direct contact with the gem since the energy thread may lose some energy along the way.

My soul energy was already full, it had been full a minute after growing the first star, but this type of work is actually stretching my limits, not the energy limit, but the mental limit. 'If someone were to break my concentration there would be a 100% chance of the stars breaking…' when that thought crossed my mind, I used the trap spell [Surveillance trap] to warn me if someone gets near me and not surprise me like yesterday.

Done with my break, I picked up the second star and put it on my inscription table, then I connected six threads into it, one of fire energy and five of air energy and I started filling them slowly but surely. Making sure to not grow the part connecting the air gems to the fire gem, I grew in parallel, while having the inscriptions in mind to not destroy them. I scanned the gem constantly so that no imperfection 'or one very noticeable' was made and that the wind gems still looked natural while connected to the fire gem and that was my second star completed.

When I completed the star my [Surveillance trap] broke. I looked at the direction from where the trap was broken and found Lenova waving her hand in front of her like she had found an invisible wall.

"You triggered a trap that was made to inform me if someone was close to me, so you can stop waving your hand like that."

"Is that what it was?"

"Yes."

"Why did you do that?"

"Because I am doing a rather delicate work and having my concentration broken while doing it would be quite disastrous."

"What are you doing?"

"Stars."

She got frozen on the spot for a second, then "Oh, you meant that you are shaping gems into stars like with the tree gem. Is that it?"

"Yes."

"Can I see it?"

I picked a small star and showed her.

"Is this it?"

"What?"

"I mean, it does not look like anything impressive."

My eye twitched at her words, so I turned the star on and made it float, then I activated its light, her mouth dropped on the sight.

"Do close your mouth, it is unsightly."

That seemed to break her out of her stupor "My mouth is not unsightly!" 'Ah, this is healing my tired mind'

"Anyway, what did come here for?"

"You said that I could come to you if I wanted to keep feeding the gems."

"I did, didn't I. I will give you the gems on one condition."

She backed away and looked at me warily.

"Why are looking at me like that?" I asked

"I was told that people that give stuff with conditions attached to little girls will abuse them."

"What? Who said that?"

"Uncle Zane." 'Who?'

"Do I look like someone who abuses little girls?"

"Yes."

"…" 'I may have gone too far with my teasing'

I clapped my hands once to break this weird atmosphere and said "First, I will not abuse you 'in the sexual way, I will still tease the hell out of you for fun though'. Second, my condition is that you be careful while feeding the gems because I will not be able to supervise you while I am working on these stars."

Relief appeared on her face "I can do that ~!"

"I am counting on you to be careful with how much soul energy or life energy you give the gems, because in the worst-case scenario you may die." I used my cold expression while looking at her in the eyes

The effect was rather strong as she started actually trembling in fear and she nodded many times in affirmation. 'This is something serious so I care not if she sees me with fear'

I broke my expression and ignored her sigh of relief and took the two gems she was working and gave it her. Afterwards, I created a seat out of earth and just in case passed a wave of fire energy to dry any leftover water from the storm 2 days ago and blew away the steam with an air spell. I patted the seat to signal to Lenova that she could seat.

"For here on out you are on your own. I will be focusing on the stars so I will not be able to help you if needed. Do remember to take a break and do not overdo it, ok?"

"Yes."

"Then you can start."

She took the life energy infused gem and started the filling it with her own. I focused on my own work.

Time had flown by fast while we were focused on the gems. It was when I was done with my fourth star that I decided to finally to take a long break and eat something. I was tired of sandwiches and my supply had dwindled to just a few so I pondered where should I go to eat some warm food. I glanced at Lenova and she was doing good, there were no signs of soul energy or life energy exhaustion and the gems were now 50% bigger than before.

I put my hand on top of her head and she looked up then at me and I said "Let's take a lunch break, shall we."

She looked at the sky and asked "How long have we been here?"

"Maybe a couple of hours and seeing that you did not drop dead when I touched you means that you've taken my condition quite seriously."

She glared at me "When you look like that who wouldn't!? You looked scarier than when my mom when she found her dress after I drew on it!"

I chuckled "Why did you do that?"

"… I was six and I thought it would look good on the dress…"

I chuckled and shook my head "Let's go." I started walking in the direction of the town

"Wait for me!"

"You're too slow."

"You're just too fast!"

"Do you want me to carry you?"

"No!!" 'Ah, I feel myself getting invigorated~'

I changed the subject "Do you know where to get good food? I still haven't eaten in the town."

"They make food in the inn and everybody goes there to pick it up."

"So, the inn it is."

'Wait, everybody?'

My question was answered when we arrived nearby the inn. There was a crowd of people, so big that it looked like there was everyone in it, all in a line getting food from tables and the line was moving alongside the tables. It was like a cafeteria. Furthermore, they were all talking and for one to be heard, he had to raise his voice higher than the others, so it was a really loud place.

'Now that I think about it, sandwiches aren't that bad' While I was thinking about that I saw Lenova moving from the corner of my eye. She was trying to go to the end of the line but she had to evade everyone that was in her path therefore she wasn't moving that much.

I sighed and picked her up, princess style once more, and carried her to the end of the line.

"Why are you not putting me down?"

"Why?"

"What do you mean "Why?" !?"

"Because I do not understand why you want to put your feet on the earth. It is dirty, you know. That is why you should just tolerate this position like I am."

"Aren't you being unreasonable!? And aren't you also touching the earth!?"

"No, I am floating."

"You're lying."

"I'm not."

"You are."

I activated the buff, [Feather fall] and kicked the earth lightly so that I float just a meter of the surface.

"See." 'but I would fall back to the earth'

She was surprised and did not looked like to know what to say.

"That is why you should give up."

She rebooted "Put me down!"

"I don't want to."

"Good day, Craven." Saluted Trevor. He held a bowl with food and a fork/spoon utensil

"Good day to you as well, Trevor."

"What's up with the kid?"

"Don't call me a kid!"

"She enjoys being in this position for some reason."

"I do not!"

"And she is really shy. Truly a troublesome kid."

"I am not shy nor a kid!"

"Ok…" Trevor said uncertainly

"By the way Trevor, when do you think you may be free? Or rather freer than now?"

"Right now, I do not know. Why are you asking?"

"Because I've got a job from the mayor's secretary, I do not know her name, and as a recompense I can have a house built wherever and however I want if it is on the outer ridge of town."

"The mayor's secretary name, I believe it is Evelyn. So, thanks to this job you can buy a land plot wherever you want and build a house however you want, huh. That is not a bad deal" 'really?'

"If it is in the outer ridge of town, I can. You're the only Crafter specialized in buildings that I know, so I wanted to pay for your services."

"I do more than buildings. Although shouldn't you have asked for something else, like money perhaps?"

"I do not need more money than I already have."

"A house is expensive. A custom house even more so."

"How much?"

"A typical house should cost at a minimum 100'000 crystals, just the base structure itself."

"I can more than afford it, so the budget will not be a problem."

"What type of house are looking to build?"

"Something like a large two-story house, maybe with a cellar and/or basement, surrounded by a garden, maybe a fake lake too. That is my overall idea for now, but I would like to contact an architect for the plot and the design of house itself."

"I can recommend some of my acquaintances for this work. Although, right now we are busy"

"That was what I was hoping for. I will not be able to say how much your pay will be without contacting the architect first, so you'll only have my word that I will pay you well."

"That's good enough for me, but you'll have to wait until we are freer."

"Just take your time. I too need to finish my job so I can be recompensed."

"Then when we are free, I will contact you… maybe here? Yes, here should be good then we'll discuss the details later. So, goodbye."

"Goodbye."

I would wave at Trevor but I did not have my hands free. 'Now that I notice, Lenova has been really quiet.'

"What's with the silence?"

"You were talking about important things, so I did not want to interrupt."

"Oh, such a good girl. I would pat your head but I cannot do it from this position."

"Then put me down."

"No."

"Why!?"

"Because I don't want to."

"Why!?"

"To make you mad."

"Why!?"

"Because I enjoy it."

She couldn't keep up with my unreasonableness so she turned her head away in silent anger 'that's good for me as well because I was running out of answers'. The line kept moving quicker than I thought it would be and we arrived at the tables. I put Lenova down.

Thanks to the farms we were able to have more food variety and not just meat and shrooms. I took a bowl and cutlery from a table. What I chose was some vegetables that I do not know and a piece of meat from an unknown beast, all covered in a mysterious sauce. It should be quite delicious 'at least the smell is'. I had to help Lenova with choosing the food because she couldn't reach it.

With the food on our inventories, I slowly walked to let Lenova easily follow me while moving further away from the crowd until we were outside of town. I created seats and table from the earth and I sat on one of them. I took the food from the inventory and started eating it. Lenova did the same.

We ate in silence. After all, we had the food occupying our mouths most of the time. It's not like we ate fast, we took our time savoring the food.

When I was done, I placed the cutlery inside the bowl and asked "Do we give the stuff back them?"

She finished munching what she had in her mouth and swallowed it before responding "Yes. They'll wash it later."

"Ok." I used earth energy to change my seat into a lounging chair and I just laid into it and looked up at the sky 'thankfully there hasn't been any rain since last time'.

I spent time like that, just looking at the sky and feeling the wind move, carrying with the smell of the earth combined with dust. I kept blowing the dust with air discharge, so it did not stick with me.

"How are you doing that?" Lenova asked

"Doing what exactly?"

"Using spells left and right. Sometimes different elements at the same time too."

"A whole lot of training 'and a cheat'."

"I haven't seen anyone use different elements at the same time before…"

"Do you remember the mayor speech from yesterday? How did he propagate his voice like that?"

"With the kinetic element, I think?"

"What is the kinetic element composed of?"

"Composed? Is it not kinetic energy…?"

"Do you really think there is a natural kinetic energy?"

"If you know the answer, why don't you tell me." she pouted 'I'm quite full so I will not bother her too much'

"The kinetic element is composed of air and earth energy fused together. Therefore, the mayor was using two elements at the same time."

"He was?"

"Yup. Apart from the basic four: air, earth, fire and water; any other element derived from soul energy is a combined element."

"So, I'll be able to make other elements just by being able to do those four." Her eyes were filled with expectation

"In a way, yes."

"In a way?" 'she picked that up? I noticed before but she is smarter than she lets on'

"The more you specialize, the less you'll be able to do other stuff."

"I don't get it."

"Someone who has been using fire energy most of his life will have a hard time to make water energy. That's it."

"I still don't get it."

"You don't."

"No."

I thought for a moment and said "How about this. Have you wielded any weapon in your life?"

"Everyone starts training with weapons at 10 years old." 'They do?'

"What weapon did you use?"

"A bow."

"Why did you start using a bow?"

"Just because…" 'she is hiding something'

"I see. Anyway, if I told you to wield a sword right now would you be able to do it reliably?"

"… No."

"That's it."

Silenced filled the space once the conversation trailed of.

"What element combination is the hurricane element?" she asked

"It is called storm element; it is a dual-elemental combination. Water and air. I may not have mentioned it but the more elements you combine into a spell, the harder it is."

"…"

"Why storm?"

"Because it is cool…"

"You've been evading some of my questions for a while now. Do you want to tell me something?"

"No."

"Ok."

"Eh…"

"If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to. I don't really care."

She looked disappointed, but it was she who decided to not to say anything, so I won't move in any way until she does.

"Are you done with your meal?"

"…Yes."

"Then let's return to the inn."

We walked back to the inn and delivered the bowl and the cutlery.

"So, what do you want to do?"

She tilted her head while looking at me.

"Do you want to get back to working on the gems or will you return back?"

"I think I will keep feeding the gems."

"Ok."

I started walking to the usual place with the girl following me.

"What's your name?"

"I've never told you?"

"No."

"It's Craven."

"That is an odd name."

"Yup, but it is my name."

"Craven, are you strong?"

I froze on the spot and turned to her "I would consider me to be quite strong. Why are you asking?"

"Because I want to be strong!" she said with passion, but that passion made me narrow my eyes

"… And why do you want to be strong?"

"Because I want to…"

"Well, good luck."

"Wait! Can't you teach me?"

"Teach you what?"

"How to become strong."

"I won't teach someone who does not tell why he or she wants strength."

She deliberated for a second "I want to avenge my parents!" 'so that is why she is so focused on energy, not because she is just interested, but because she wants vengeance'

Obsidian was game with many, many conflicts. One could say that there are only conflicts in the game. Quite normal for an MMO, but Creo did not let that go. In real life, rather, back on Earth, conflicts created disasters like famine, killed a lot of people and left families and friends broken. Creo did just that, each time NPCs died. Many ignored it, some people got disheartened and some made their objective to bring salvation to these disasters. However broken families cannot be fixed…

"Then, you're on your own."

"Wait! Why!?"

"Because vengeance is bad and I don't want to teach someone with that kind of mindset."

"What would you do if you suddenly lost your parents!?"

"I did, but I'll live on. It's not like I will forget them because who I am is because of them." 'I did come to another world, but I will not forget my roots.'

She did not seem to understand my point of view.

"Why do you want you want vengeance in the first place?"

"Because my parents were killed!"

"That is not the only reason."

"… What do you mean?"

"Killing your target of vengeance will not bring your parents back. Furthermore, there is no spell that can bring the dead back to life."

"I'm doing it for that! I'm doing because they died for nothing!"

"… Can you elaborate?"

"… One day, soldiers came to our town for the sake of bringing an army together to fight some kind of monster… Nobody came back…" she is crying by this point

"There are no monsters. Beast and people, yes, but no monsters. Can you tell me who was the one who ordered the army?"

"I do not know what his name was but I know that he was a warlord." 'Bingo'

"If your target is that warlord then give it up, for he or she is already dead."

In one of the last expansions of the game, there were warlords who wished to conquer their continent. They had gotten used to expanding their territory, because before there were no borders yet, then they hit others territory and they could no longer expand. So, they gathered military strength to conquer their surrounding and continuing the expansion. They were called warlords and none of them lives today for they were dealt with by various means…

"I know that."

"Then who's your target?"

"The monster."

"I told you that monsters do not exist."

"Then what killed them!?"

"Me." She froze at my words

According to the lore, a few warlords created armies and to showcase their power they were send to kill the most powerful beings on the continents, the Game Masters 'what are we called in the lore again?'. Many years had passed since the beginning of the game and each Game Master had found their way to be strong by that time and haven't been defeated for some time. So, players also joined the NPC army because to them, it was a big chance to defeat us.

In the end, the Game Masters won, whereas the armies were decimated to the last soldier. The armies were divided, there were many different players parties clustered together and the NPCs could not coordinate with the players, by consequence that flaw was exploited by the Game Masters.

That was also the last time NPCs were killed in such a great quantity. There is an unspoken rule among players to never use NPCs in battle, if possible, because of the consequences 'we don't want to feel bad for our actions, after all'.

"Are you… lying?" She asked, her voice with uncertain

"No. If you're talking about the army that a warlord put together to kill me, then yes, I killed them all."

"…" 'I guess neither she expected this situation'

"… I guess that does makes things different…" I tilted my head "You want to avenge your parents. In other words, kill me." I stared at her with the intention to kill "That makes you my enemy."

The gears in her head turned, her expression changed from disbelief to pure terror. She turned her back towards me and tried to run, 'tried' being the keyword, because I instantly caught her and buried her face into my bosom so that she cannot scream or show her expression to anyone. In this position, I can also block the use of pulses to alert, but I didn't believe she had the calm and experience to think of such a solution.

I started walking away from the town, into the forest. Lenova did not stay quiet in her position as I wished. She tried to kick me or bite me but such attacks did not have any effect on me with the shield on, rather she hurt herself more than me.

Once I felt we were far enough from the town, I used a short-range pulse. Not finding anyone, I brought her tears and snot smeared face up from my chest and asked: "How does it feel to find your target of revenge faster than you expected?"

"…" she did not spoke. She was biting her lip and looking at me with terror and defiance.

"It was also quite unexpected to me. A child asking me to teach her to enact revenge against myself later."

"… Why did you do it?"

"What exactly? Can you clarify?"

"Why did you kill my parents?" she croaked

"Because of the same reason why we are in this situation, they were my enemy so I killed them."

"… Just because of that. They did not want to join that army!"

"That does not matter. They tried to kill me so I did the same, except I was able to do it while they couldn't."

"… How did they die?"

"I don't remember the faces of those I've killed, not that I ever bothered too."

"… Are you going to kill me?"

"I wonder what the next step will be. Oh, I know."

I put her down and picked a throwing dagger and gave it to her. She did not know what to do and did not understand the situation.

"Well, I'll compliment you to not have ran away the moment you had your feet on the earth."

"I wouldn't be able to outrun you anyway…" she said with a self-decrepitating

I opened my jacket and raised my shirt. I deactivated my shield afterwards.

"Why are you undressing yourself!?"

"You don't have to shout, you know. In the first place there is nobody nearby and I am not undressing. I will teach you how revenge feels."

"What?"

I kneeled in front of her and said "Use that dagger so stab me. Don't worry, that is a throwing dagger so it was made with the purpose of penetration."

"Why!?"

"Like I said, to teach you about revenge."

I grabbed her hand, the one with the dagger and pressed the tip against my chest.

"Go ahead, stab me. Don't forget that I killed your parents."

She was confused at first but hearing my last sentence gave her new found determination. She grabbed the dagger with the other hand too and started putting strength into it. The dagger had a hard time penetrating my skin 'is my body stronger in a general sense?', but she was able to finally draw blood after some effort.

The knife went deeper and deeper inside me, I stared right into her eyes while she did it. The deeper the dagger went the shakier Lenova was. When the knife approached close enough to my heart that she was able to feel its heat beat through the knife she dropped to the ground and started bawling her eyes out.

I got up and asked "How did it feel?"

She stopped crying for a moment and angrily shouted "Are you crazy!?"

"Maybe." I changed my voice to a much colder one "But I asked you a question and I expect an answer. Did it feel good stabbing me?"

She froze and said "No…" before hugging her legs and resuming crying

I smiled at that "Then, it seems that there is some hope for you."

I used my soul energy to expel the dagger from my chest and healed my wound with life energy spell, [Self-Healing]. I grabbed the dagger and used soul energy to expel any biological matter that was clinging into it before saving it. I wore my clothes back.

Lenova was looking at me uncomprehending what was going on.

"I will not kill you, for now." I declared

"… Why? Did I not tried to kill you right now? Am I not your enemy…? Like my parents once were…"

"Yes, but you are a child. A rough gem that can be shaped. Adults, on the other hand, have already been shaped and will not change their ways easily."

She seemed to have not understand me or maybe she just hit her limit "… Why did my parents had to die?"

"Like I told you before, they were my enemy."

"But it wasn't their choice to be your enemy!"

"Then, why did they join the army?"

"They did not have a choice!"

"Kid, they did have their choice. Certainly, they would not be able to live in the warlord territory anymore but that just means they could have moved to another. There is always another choice, this is truth in most cases."

She did not respond. I approached her and hugged her to my chest, unlike last time, to grant her much needed comfort. She did not bother to fight back anymore and just continued crying. I kept hugging her.

'This event confirmed that I am not a cold-blooded killer that destroys all threats. I won't kill a kid if I can, especially one that I know. Although I may have a problem with my head for thinking of such a solution.

Furthermore, pain is much stronger in reality than in game, who knew. I had to control myself to keep my expression the same and to not attack Lenova while doing it.

But hopefully this ordeal makes her give up on seeking revenge and choose a more peaceful path. Stories on Earth have shown me what to expect out of vengeance and I don't want that to happen to this girl.'

Time kept flowing. We stood there with me hugging her while seated on the ground. She had run out of tears to shed and was just looking into nothing. Noticing that night time was approaching, I flicked her head.

"Ow! Why did you do that!?"

"You've spent enough time mopping around, it is time to move on."

She pretended to not have heard me and got back to her depressed mood. Sighing, I picked her up in princess style to take a reaction out of her, but she did not any will to do as I wished.

I started walking back to town with her in my arms.

"I see that you will not talk for a while, but can at least point in the direction of the orphanage or where it is residing now."

She complied with my demand and pointed in a direction.

'Life has made some unexpected turns recently: the game became reality; we were transported to another world; now I met a child who I have orphaned and wished to seek revenge on me. All I can say to that is that 'Life is weird''