Parallel – A Virtual Reality. - Chapter 47

While Kagito speaks I ask Grudell “And how about you guys, how many are you?”

“Ha! We are a lot, if we take together our whole race, we should amount to at least 50000 thousand… but our race is quite divided” Grudell says it while having a self-mocking face, the others have a sour expression on their faces too.

“What do you mean?” Asks Isa with an intrigued face.

With a thoughtful look Grudell says “Well, if we convince the nearby tribes we can amount to… 8000 thousand at most”

“Oh… where are the others then?” Asks Vladi

“Well, they are in other regions of the Plains of Gauder and some are in other parts of the Continent” Answers Grudell.

“Oh…”

“Well, with 8000 it shouldn’t be that impossible to win if he attacks us…” Says Juran with a grim face as he knew what was coming.

As expected, Hein shakes his head and says “Dorek’s power and army are still growing he will obliterate us by the time he decides to attack us”

“How is his power growing?” Zenith asks while frowning

“When he fought against Gardan he ended up heavily injured and a part of his powers sealed, his recovery took a long time and the seal slowly faded away but there is one more thing… we don’t exactly know what it is, but it is slowly giving Dorek more power” Answers Grudell grimly.

“This place is almost as chaotic as my homeland…” Says Zenith while sighing bitterly.

Grudell looks curiously at Zenith, but before he could ask anything I say “Well, the food is ready and I have cooked a lot, so let’s dig in!”

Everyone cheers and start eating as I fill their plates

While eating we start talking about other stuff, we decided to camp here as the other have to go, and I say.

“I’ll stay, I want to practice something”

They nod and Vladi, Isa, Arksen and Kagito log out

The Scardi group looked curiously at us and I realize that they haven’t met a foreigner yet, so I tell them.

“Oh, forgot to tell you, we are foreigners”

As if lightbulbs appeared on their heads they say “Ohhhh”

Jun who hasn’t talked much ask curiously at my friends here “How is it to live with a foreigner?”

‘Huh? What am I, an animal?’ I retort internally, amused at the question I look at Zenith curiously.

Zenith shrugs, and says “Well, they have different times than us, after observing Ardha for a few years Peko and I reached an understanding on him. At first he would go on nights after nights with small breaks and then he would go off for 30-40 hours normally… but he seems to say a code word before going on those big breaks that is ‘I am going to rest’”

‘He has a point I always say that whenever I am going to rest for the day’ I stroke my chin as I think of my past actions and behavior. Amusing, indeed.

All the Scardi people were looking curiously while taking glances at me, even Isca was paying attention while feigning indifference.

Aren joins the conversation and says, “There are also their eating habits it seems they have something as a ‘satiety bar’ and if they eat more than that they start getting sluggish… but it does seem that Ardha’s satiety bar is bigger”

Then Juran jumped in “Oh yeah, I still remember when you guys got into an eating contest…” then the other group of Barbarians jumped in, talking about how that was some epic battle.

I feigned ignorance looking elsewhere while whistling. I know I have more appetite than most people, you don’t have to rub it in, guys…

Then I stand up and say “Well, I’m going over there to practice”

Everyone nod and keep on talking as if I wasn’t there in the first place… I sigh to myself sourly.

As I recluse myself like an outcast I start practicing the fourth elemental enhancing before the feeling goes away.

I try slowly the combinations but always fail when I am on the third elemental enhancing… but the starter is Wind, at least I know that.

‘Hmmm, but using wind has a limit and if I try to enhance it with fire or lightning it start getting out of control… maybe instead of slowly I should do it explosively?’

As I start getting an idea, I use Wind and Lightning, but the speed was too much to handle, then Wind and Fire it is.

‘Elemental Blending, Elemental Enhancing: Wind-Fire, Max output’

As I did it recklessly, I felt the world distorting a bit and a headache came, thus I stop the process because I knew it was doomed to fail.

I start growling in dissatisfaction with a bitter expression and I realized everyone was looking at me and I shout, “What happened?”

Zenith is the one to answer with an amused expression “Well, it seems we all felt something oppressive and it came from your direction”

“Oh… Don’t worry I am just trying something”

The Scardinians, as I chose to call them, are looking at me as if I am a rare animal and Aren was just shaking his head with half a smile.

But then Zenith said something interesting “If you are trying to use four elements then try doing one at a time… and use Overflow”

I look at him surprised and he continues while shrugging “Hey, I might not know much about your skill, but I have been hanging out with you for over 3 years, I can catch one thing or another”

Realization comes to me and I smile while nodding enthusiastically.

‘That does seem like a good idea’

Everyone starts looking curiously because Juran said they would be able to watch something interesting.

I shake my head and enter in a state of concentration.

“Razer Body”

I feel my body changing and my resistance going up.

“Overflow”

Then I feel a wave of energy and power surging while my mind clears up, I smile at this feeling.

Then I think for a second how to do it and start figuring out a way.

‘Elemental Enhancing: Wind, Max output’

As I feel my senses sharpening and getting an otherworldly feeling I concentrate until I feel that I am going to hit a wall.

Then I use the element that would help break that wall with raw power.

‘Elemental Blending, Adding Element: Fire, Middle-Low output’

Then, something quite amazing happened, I felt like I could overview everything… well, until a range but I couldn’t dwell on the feeling as the fire element accomplished its role.

And now ‘Elemental Blending, Adding Element: Lightning, High output’

Then I felt that range increasing, I felt my body was as light as a feather and every sense blending, I could feel the flow of the elements intertwining and increasing by themselves, but at the same time they were getting erratic.

‘Compress’

Then that huge range of overview that I felt compressed at the same speed it got larger, a huge energy was storing in me at a lightning fast pace and the elements were compacting themselves and organizing.

Then the fourth element was coming up, but…

But then I felt something screaming at me, a full sense of danger and the only thing I could think of was

‘I screwed up’

My body starts breaking apart rapidly.

“Annulment!”

Everything broke apart for a second, my mind shuts down and everything was complete darkness.

Then everything started coming back slowly, a warm feeling swimming throughout my consciousness and my being.

Then a blurry vision started appearing and I felt a distant sound getting nearer and nearer.

I could vaguely feel my body now and little by little the pain that was waiting for me.

Then I could hear someone growling in pain, and I realized it was me.

‘Holy xxxx’ As I was about to log off, I suddenly felt I shouldn’t, for a reason I stayed logged in and endured the sharp pain coming from everywhere in my body.

Gritting my teeth, clenching my fists, time passed and the image in front of my eyes finally was clear enough to guess.

Juran was in front of me while extending both of his hands-on top of my body while light was appearing in front of them.

Zenith is spreading quite an ominous feeling and it felt that the remains were dispersed by him.

After a minute that felt like an eternity my body calmed down, with some sequels of the pain and Juran sighs.

“What the hell were you trying to do? When we felt something was going wrong you suddenly shouted ‘Annulment!’ and created a mini explosion! Then your body fell on the ground like a corpse, if it wasn’t for Zenith dispersing the remains of the power and I trying to repair your body while at the same time supplying your vitality you would have broken in pieces!” Juran shouts at me, clearly agitated by what happened.

Then Zenith’s eyes opened and sighed in relief while seeing me, and then he says, “You screwed up?”

“Yep, I screwed up” My voice sounds a bit hoarse, I look toward Juran apologetically and say “Sorry for worrying you”

Juran looks at me sternly and sighs “Don’t be so reckless”. I could only nod helplessly at those words.

The Scardinians and the Barbarians looked at me curiously and Aren sighed when he saw that I finally could talk and says.

“You really don’t cease to surprise me”

I smile wryly and try to sit down, while doing so I feel that my body is numb from the pain, so it is a bit uncomfortable to move.

But my head hurts the most, this headache is quite something, I use the water element to relax and repair my body.

Then Juran says “It seems you are fine now, it took us quite a long time to finally get you back, and this is why Isa always says that you are the reckless of the group”

Everyone chuckles at that comment and I smile

I open the notifications and a bunch of stuff appears

Endurance, Perseverance and Fighting spirit gone up but one caught my attention

– System Notification

You have bypassed the systems control of pain. A report has been sent along with a video of the event to the central operation system. Please contact the nearest Insanity Corporation building with your name and ID for more information.

Parallel.

‘Haaah, I screwed up’