- Our Return (unedited)

After slaying the boss, we picked up our loot and cleaned up at the camp. We were back in town by early afternoon and turned in our quests as soon as we arrived. The large gain of silver put everyone in a good mood so we decided to relax for the rest of the day.

"So Corey, did you break through or not?" I asked in an annoyed expression. I was really curious on how a normal human would handle the situation. "If I'm being honest, I'm not sure. I feel like I did, but I don't feel much different, except my mana pool is larger." He said in a confused tone.

He didn't immediately learn the skills for the new rank, which in theory makes perfect sense. When I first became a mage I didn't just unlock all my skills immediately, I still had to spend skill points to unlock them. So that means normal people can learn the new rank of spells either by practice by a teacher or practice from a grimoire or skill book.

'Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And tbe higher your rank, the harder it will be to obtain a teacher or skill book that has the knowledge of the spells available to you. I wonder what the highest recorded rank of a mage had ever been.' Letting my thoughts and theories carry me away, We relaxed for the rest of the evening.

We ended up spending nearly a whole silver on expensive foods while we celebrated our first successful expedition as a party. We didn't part ways until the moon was clear in the sky, shining its graceful light down on us. Of course, I returned back to my dirty hole since I didn't want to waste money staying at the inn.

At least not yet anyways. 'I should actually get some sleep tonight since it has been a while. I'll be sure to get more over night training in after my adventures with Lily and Corey.' I thought while jumping in. The chilly wind carried my thoughts away as I relaxed.

'Did I just hear rustling or was that just the wind? Better be safe than sorry.' I thought while still pretending to sleep. I cast extreme speed and flew out of the hole as fast as possible. I searched all around my home until finding someone behind a tree around 20 feet from my hole.

'Theres no way.' I stood behind him, making sure not to alert him of my presence as extreme speed wore off.

"So why are you following me Laori?" I whispered in his ear, which scared the life out of him as he jumped in the air and turned around while also unsheathing his huge sword, preparing for a fight.

"But how did you-" He was at a loss for words on how I got out of the hole without him noticing me. 'So extreme speed is so fast compared to others around my level that I practically turn invisible, good to know.'

"I'm not the one who needs to explain anything here." I said while crossing my arms and looking at him with a suspicious look. "Ah yeah, it's a long story. Do you mind if we go inside your home and talk about it?" He asked while placing his sword against a tree.

'This guy is so hard to read. I don't have the slightest idea what he's planning to tell me.' I thought as I led the way within my home. The only thing I knew for certain was that he meant me no harm.

We both sat on the edge of the hole and let our legs hang in. Therr wasn't quite enough room for 2 people to sit comfortably so we settled for this, the night wind was blowing our hair all over the place, which made us laugh for a bit for some reason. 'That's the first time he's smiled around me, granted I have only seen him a few times, I feel like this doesn't happen too often.' I thought while he started explaining himself.

After listening for who knows how long and staring up at the stars through the trees, I summarized his situation back to him.

"So basically theres a huge war going on between devils and humans right now and since your village was on the border close between the two nations, it was naturally attacked first. You and only a few others managed to escape and you all went different ways. You joined the institute with a recommendation from the adventurers guild and working to save money to buy a house."

I continued summarizing his story. "And now that you've seen I'm in quite a similar situation, minus the whole vilage destruction part, you want to become part of my adventuring party since you feel like you can trust me and you owe me for what happened yesterday. Is that all right?" I asked, just to reassure the information was correct.

He quickly nodded and waited for my response. "Before I let you on the team, the other two will have to agree as well and I'll need to know your fighting capabilities. After we handle that, then we can discuss the whole living arrangement thing. By the way, where have you been sleeping since you arrived here?" I asked, quite curious.

"In the alleys in the city and sometimes on top of roofs, but since winter will be arriving soon, I wont be able to keep living like that." He quickly replied. 'We could use another up front fighter in the party since Lily and Corey would rather support from behind.' I thought. I pondered the situation for a while before finally coming to a decision.

"I'll introduce you two my friends properly, then we can go on a couple easy quests together. If everything works out fine, you'll become a part of our party, and a close friend." I added that last part since I felt it was necessary. However, that seemed to make him freeze for a few moments before recovering.

"Thank You." Were the only words he let out before spacing out at the ground. "You can't sleep here tonight since it will take a while to renovate my hole big enough for two people, but come back tomorrow night and I'll make sure there's enough room for two.

'For a guy, his voice is quite elegant and nice to listen to. He's definetely a ladies man. If he didn't carry around that huge sword you'd think he's just an innocent kid cosplaying.' I thought before saying our goodbyes.

'Ill change my hole tomorrow afternoon, I'll have to skip my afternoon quest with Corey and Lily but I'm sure they will understand. Now, its finally time to call it a night.' With that I finally closed my eyes and slept the night away. Anticipating our new party member and potential best friend greatly influinced my dreams.

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'Aaaahhhh~ Time for school.' I thought as I sat up. It seems every time I make a plan, more plans are put before it and I always get distracted from leveling up. 'Well I'm not in too much of a hurry, but the war between humans and demons scare me. I'm not sure how it all started or which side is winning, but all I can do is gather more information on it.'

My thoughts stayed on the same topic as I entered the city in my uniform and headed towards the institute. 'Ill have to ask Corey and Lily about it. They'll probably call me crazy for not knowing about it in the first place. It's probably a sensetive topic to talk about, which would explain why no one had braught it up until now.'

I stepped into the institute and walked to my class. I greeted Corey and Lily and class soon began like every other day.