"What title did I gain before we encountered the Time Mage?" Ted asked. "What did I become?"

Aiden froze. It was a momentary thing, a harmful thing. He felt his chest seize and his hands threaten to ball into fists. It took him a moment to realize what was happening. A rare occurrence, his body genuinely thought he was in a dangerous situation. It was funny because he hadn't felt this way even when he had been fighting the [Sage] in the palace.

Shit, he thought.

He had been hoping to avoid this line of conversation as long as possible. As long as… well, forever.

How did he tell Ted that he was, in fact, the rising darkness they had been summoned to kill. Worse, the fact that Ted hadn't asked what his class had been but rather what he had become was worrying.

The Déjà vu effect, Aiden realized as his hands relaxed, the tension easing out of his body. The sense of a threat was leaving him now. He was growing relaxed—if only in body.

"What did you become?" Aiden asked, keeping his expression as confused as he could manage. Zen had always said that he couldn't act for shit.

Ted made a vague gesture, like someone trying to explain something without having the words for it.

"I was something," he said finally. "At least, I was somebody. Wasn't I?"

Aiden let his eyes wander slightly in their sockets. He had watched enough people think to know how the eyes wandered in thought.

"Important?" he tried. "You were important. Is that what you're asking?"

Ted smirked. "I wouldn't go that far, but I think that would best describe it. So, what was I?"

Aiden sighed. "No idea, Ted."

"You're kidding," Ted blurted. "Kinda hard to believe you on this one, Aida."

As was the case with any threatening situation, Aiden found his eyes going to Ted's hands and all around composure. Even in a world where people fought by calling fire out of thin air or raising the ground or firing invisible arrows from invisible bows, anger still interpreted itself in the look in their eyes and the clenching of their fists. It interpreted itself in the tensing of shoulders

Why? Because they all lived eighteen years where their only means of inflicting violence was in the swinging of fists and legs and the clamping of teeth as they scratched, hit, and clawed.

"Why the fuck do you think I'm going to hit you?" Ted said, giving him an incredulous look.

Aiden started. "What?"

"Dude, we aren't kids about to get into a fight," Ted said with a shake of his head. "If you're keeping secrets from me, it really wouldn't be nice. But I'm not going to hit you."

"You said you were?" Aiden scoffed, as if unbothered, trying to deny the accusation.

Ted shook his head as if disappointed. "Dude, you've been watching my hands. And you look like you're trying not to look like you're spoiling for a fight." He cocked a brow at Aiden. "Also, just so you know, all-powerful prodigy, you can't take me in a fight."

A rise of brotherly challenge bubbled up inside Aiden. It was as if they were back on earth and Ted had just told him that he couldn't beat him in his favorite video game. Aiden wanted to test it, wanted to prove it.

He returned his brother's cocked brow with one of his own. "All-powerful prodigy?" he asked. "Where did that come from?"

And just like that, the tension he was feeling fled, chased away like pests at the smell of pesticides—at least he thought pests would learn to flee at the smell.

Ted shrugged. "The king kinda bragged about you one too many times while we were in the palace." He moved to the tree Aiden had been resting on while speaking with Fjord and rested on it. "Kept saying how you were growing quickly and taking to the world as if it were your own. The princess said the same thing, too."

"And they called me a prodigy?"

Aiden couldn't really picture it. Brandis had devolved from the good and honorable man he'd known, but Brandis wasn't some senseless fool. Praising him and uplifting him in the presence of the others wasn't going to motivate them in the rightway.

He almost killed Valdan, so what do I know?

"Oh, not the king." Ted waved a dismissive hand as if chasing away a fly politely. "All-powerful prodigy came from Sam."

Aiden's expression tightened at the mention of Sam's name. He wondered if the boy was still alive, if the king had allowed him to continue roaming free and increasing his levels. As an [Alchemist], he wouldn't grow so powerful so quickly.

Perhaps I should check on him after getting the crystal, he mused.

Ted snorted. "You two must really hate each other."

"Why is that?" Aiden asked, looking up at him.

"Don't get me wrong," Ted said, raising his hands in a show of peace. "I get why you hate him, with all the killing and stuff. I just never understood why he hated you. He just always did. In case you haven't pieced it together, all-powerful prodigy was more of an insult than a compliment."

"I doubt it was a compliment in any way," Aiden said.

Ted seemed to think about it for a moment before shrugging. "Fair." Then he turned his head up, moving his attention to the top of the trees. "Giant's garden, huh."

Aiden looked at the trees around them, massive and big, unhealthily so. Some had trunks as wide as actual houses and grew as tall as almost ten floors.

"Why?" Ted asked. "Did giants plant the place?"

"Well…" Aiden let his words trail off. He contemplated his answer before giving it. "I have no idea. But whatever seeds sprouted these must've been very big."

"Or very small," Ted suggested. "Like mustard seeds."

"Small seeds big trees?"

"Something like that." Ted still had his head turned upwards. He was looking at something, watching it. "Do you know that it's not really considered a tree?" He looked at Aiden and clarified. "The mustard tree, I mean. It's more like an overgrown shrub."

Aiden did not, in fact, know that. "It can grow up to thirty feet in some cases."

"Still not considered a tree," Ted chuckled. "Funniest thing. The least they could've done was call it a dwarf tree or something."

Aiden made a face that said it didn't really matter but he agreed.

Ted sighed and pushed himself off the tree. "Well, I thought finding out what I became would've helped me, whether it's a few months into the future or a few years into the future."

"Level fifty?" Aiden asked.

Ted nodded. "I'm kinda stuck."

"And I'm kinda stumped," Aiden said. "I don't remember the fight that even got you to level forty-nine."

Again, Ted looked up at one of the trees. "Oh, that wasn't me."

Fjord, Aiden concluded. He's looking at Fjord.

It was the tree that Fjord had chosen to climb up. He wondered how the boy was doing. He gave it a brief glance and found the boy was high, around thirty feet if his judgement of height was not incorrect.

The boy was still going strong, even if it was a little slow, so that was a good thing.

"If it wasn't you, then how did you…" Aiden paused as realization dawned on him. "Your summons."

"Bingo." Ted snapped a finger at him.

"They are always hunting," Aiden continued, doing the math in his head. "You always have a summoned familiar active, hunting and killing things."

"Most of them die in the process," Ted pointed out. "They aren't all strong, mind you. Definitely significantly weaker than me."

Aiden gave him a doubtful look. "I know for a fact that you have summoned familiars that are stronger than you."

"Two, actually. And they take a while to summon and cost a lot to maintain." Ted shook his head as if rejecting an idea. "They also level up very slowly and eat up most of the experience points."

Aiden cocked a quizzical brow at that. "Experience points?"

"We can't measure them, but we grow for everything we kill." Ted shrugged. "Ipso facto, experience points."

"You could've just said 'ergo' like a normal person, Ted."

"Normal people say things like 'therefore' not 'ergo', Aida." Ted smiled. "Anyway, yeah. I always have two summoned familiars active and hunting at all times, the weaker ones help me get stronger a little too slowly, but they help me get stronger, nonetheless. I just have to find a way to make them strong enough to actually kill their enemies all the time. They fail most of the time except when they are killing something weaker than them."

"Which becomes something too weak for you to level up from," Aiden mused.

That explained a few things. Like how Ted had risen in level so quickly in his past life. While people rested after actual quests, he was constantly grinding. If Aiden was to go by experience points, then while people got ten experience points for every quest and then rested, Ted got his ten points and then farmed maybe five more between quests.

Ted was always grinding without actually having to grind. And by that logic, it meant that even while he was getting his ten points from an actual quest, he could still possibly be getting the passive five points from summoned grinding elsewhere—if he put his mind to it.

That explains the impossible growth.

But that required far too much mana to pull off. There was also the part where a [Summoner] always had to be giving their familiars some kind of command at all times. It was the reason they fought less by themselves. It already took a lot of concentration to have the familiars actually achieve complex tasks in battle.

The mana and mental power as well as willpower needed to do what Ted was claiming would be off the charts.

By the time Aiden had found Ted after the Demon Wars in his past life, Ted had been around double his level. And Aiden knew how difficult it was to level up after the level two hundred threshold.

"Alright then." Ted dusted his hands and gave Aiden a mock salute. "Better get back to trying to get to that famous level fifty."

"Still meditating?" Aiden asked as Ted walked off.

"Still meditating," Ted confirmed. "It's annoying but I feel like I'm almost there. Something's just missing."

"Want to fight to test it out?"

Ted paused and looked back. "Is this because I said you can't beat me in a fight?"

"Who said I was offering to be your opponent?"

Ted held his arms out to his side, somehow encompassing the entire forest in the single gesture. "Dude, there's no threat as far as the eyes can see. I don't even think this place has monsters. It's the most boring forest you've picked so far."

Aiden chuckled at that. This place had monsters, they just hadn't met them yet, and he had no intentions of leading them to those monsters. At least not during their current stay.

"There's always Valdan," he pointed out.

"Valdy's strong, Aiden, but at the risk of sounding arrogant, he's not that strong."

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Aiden laughed. "Definitely sounded arrogant. You think you can take him?"

"Not a thinking game," Ted said. He had since stopped walking away. "I know I can take him."

"He's like ten levels above you."

"And I've got enough familiars to have him believing in a god that doesn't exist in this world. Trust me, I can take him with my hands tied behind my back."

Aiden's brows furrowed at that. "You're actually serious."

"I am." Ted gave him a serious look. "Believe me, brother. You don't want to see what summoned creatures can do to an opponent when you give them complete autonomy."

Those specific words terrified Aiden as Ted finally turned and walked off into the sea of trees. The reason for his fear was simple. From everything he knew about anything, a summoner could not give their familiar actual autonomy.

Not long after Ted was gone, Aiden turned his attention to the tree Fjord was climbing. His mind was still filled with thoughts of Ted actually being capable of allowing his familiars to do whatever they wanted. Fjord had stopped climbing, or at least he had grown so slow that it looked like he had stopped.

Evening was drawing nearer now, the sun seeking a place to set and rest for the night. Fjord looked as if he was barely hanging on.

Aiden strolled over to the base of the tree as his mind wrapped itself around what Ted had said. There were places on Nastild, including the Order, that studied the concept of magic just as scientists studied on Earth.

In the Order, when speaking of the [Summoner] class, there was a theory that a reason existed for why a summoned familiar could never have autonomy. For one reason, mana was inherently tied to will and existence. Summoning a familiar was reaching into that familiar and binding them to yourself. They became an extension of yourself. Giving them autonomy was like giving your arm autonomy.

If you cut your arm off, it died. In the same way, giving true autonomy was rescinding your control over the summoned familiar. It no longer had a will of its own so it would have no other option than to die.

Aiden watched Fjord finally stop progressing. The boy hugged the tree bark now, just hanging in there. He wondered what reward the boy had been given to make him so determined to not fail.

As he wondered at that, his mind continued to pick at the pieces of what he could remember of summoned creatures. A [Summoner] in the Order had once explained summoning creatures as taking the mind of the creature and molding it until you broke it. Summoning a familiar was like kidnapping a person, turning them into a slave, and then making them accept that they were and could be nothing more than a slave. And all this was done within the short process of summoning them.

"If summoned familiars could get their senses back," the woman had said, "they would definitely kill us all."

Aiden could only imagine. If you broke a person so terribly and they suddenly regained their sense of self and will, they would definitely want revenge.

Here we go, he thought to himself, fingers interlacing as he activated [Enchanted Weave].

[You have used Class skill Enchanted Weave]

…

[You have used Weave of Lesser Strength]

…

[You have used Class skill Walking Canvas]

Aiden felt his muscles grow firmer, stronger. He felt his mana leave him like a gust of wind as [Walking Canvas] took effect. The moment it did, he weaved a new enchantment.

[You have used Enchantment of Lesser Anti-gravity]

He felt himself grow lighter as Nastild's hold on him weakened. His body felt as if it was ready to float off into the air. Without his perception stats, he would've lost sense of his cardinal points. He would've lost sense of where up was and where down was. But he didn't.

"You can let go!" he called up to Fjord.

Fjord looked down at him from high up. "WHAT?!"

"LET GO!"

"ARE YOU IN—"

Fjord's words trailed off, but Aiden knew exactly what the boy had been about to say. He couldn't blame him. It was definitely interesting to note that his respect had overridden his incredulity.

He must really want to work with me.

"I'LL CATCH YOU!" Aiden yelled back. "JUST LET GO!"

He wondered if Fjord could use the skill [Unsure Odds] multiple times. At least, if Aiden had the skill and he could, right now he would bet on whether Aiden would catch him or not.

And just like that, Fjord was falling.

"Talk about a trust fall," Aiden muttered.

From the height he was falling from, Fjord would die if he hit the ground. Aiden had no plans of letting that happen, though.

[You have used skill Leap]

Aiden scaled ten feet into the air very easily. It was as if he had simply hopped and attained that height. When Fjord fell into the reach of [Walking Canvas] Aiden was already falling back down. It told Aiden two things. The first was that the effect of the anti-gravity enchantment only applied to the sphere of [Walking Canvas] and gravity treated the sphere as an entity of its own, pulling it back down like it would with any other object.

The second thing—which he had already known—was that the enchantment only reduced the effects of gravity. It did not eliminate it.

The speed of Fjord's fall definitely reduced when he was within the reach of [Walking Canvas] but he still fell into Aiden's arms with a solid thump.

A groan slipped from Fjord's lips, worsening when Aiden hit the ground. He carried the boy like a princess.

"You good?" he asked, staring down at Fjord's face. The boy had shut his eyes tight.

Without opening them, Fjord answered. "I thought you wouldn't catch me."

Chuckling, Aiden lowered him to the ground gently. "Can you stand?"

Fjord opened his eyes but shook his head. "No."

"Did you break something?"

Again, Fjord shook his head. "My legs are just really not ready to work."

Looking at his legs, Aiden found them shaking. He looked back at Fjord.

"Never fallen from such a height before?" he asked.

"I don't think anybody has."

Aiden could argue the case, but he didn't. "Did you wet yourself? It wouldn't speak less of you if you did."

"Would it speak more of me if I didn't?"

Aiden shrugged. "I would like to think so."

"Good. Because I didn't."

"Alright, then." Aiden got up. "Did you take impact damage? You slammed into me real hard."

Fjord nodded. "Lost nine percent."

"Nine percent." Aiden echoed. It wasn't a lot in the wider scale of things. Leaning down, Aiden patted him on the head. "Walk it off. Calculate how your reward system worked and let me know. I still have questions."

"Can I just… go to sleep?" Fjord asked, instead.

Aiden gave him a puzzled look.

Fjord returned it with a defiant look. "I am not too proud to say that what just happened scared the hell out of me."

"And sleeping helps how?"

"I just feel better after I wake up," Fjord said, making no move to get up from his place on the grass. "It doesn't matter how I feel, happy or sad or terrified—I always feel normal when I wake up."

That's… interesting, Aiden thought. He wondered if it worked for him in a similar manner. He had never really thought about it, but sleep was actually something like a reset if you thought about it.

Maybe I'll put it to the test the next time I sleep.

"Fine," he said, "but that's something we'll have to work on. You can't be going to sleep every time something overwhelming happens to you."

Fjord nodded very rigidly then turned to the side, assumed a fetal position and turned motionless.

Aiden looked at him for a moment before returning to a tree and sitting down. There were plans he had to review. He knew the overall layout of how the [Crystal of Existence] worked. It always appeared in the same place so anybody who paid it any attention could get the layout of the environment.

He had seen the layout a few times, studied it a few times out of boredom. He wouldn't say that he knew it inside and out, but he knew it well enough. Once they got to the general vicinity, getting a map of the place would be easy. The problem was that the moment he purchased one, the people in power would know.

Doesn't matter, he thought. It wasn't as if kings and queens were going to suddenly move their armies just because some random guy bought a map.

No one would know what he knew.

The only problem now was that for all he knew about the place and the crystal, he had never seen it or been to the place before.

It was late evening by the time he was done thinking about the entire thing. Perhaps it was safer to say that it was early night. The sun had found its resting place and the sky was dark in its absence. The stars littered the sky like children refusing to stand in a straight line. They were minute, fewer than they would be once night fully came. A whisper of the moon hovered in the sky.

Aiden knew that this part of the forest was completely safe so he wasn't worried for Valdan or Ted. Ted had stopped in at some point, maybe to check in on him. He'd taken one confused glance at the sleeping Fjord before disappearing back into the sea of trees.

The almost nonexistent thuds that came with Valdan's swinging sword had grown into nonexistence. Aiden wondered how long the knight had swung his sword today. Five hours? Six?

He'd been swinging the weapon since before high noon.

I guess that's why he's a knight, Aiden thought.

The Order was the same, at least until you were no longer considered a student of anyone. By that time, you became an addict to training so that your body began to itch you when you were supposed to be training but were not.

Aiden waited a little in the silence before getting up from where he was seated against a tree. He dusted the butt of his cloak and stretched like a man just waking up.

"What's your life stat like, Valdan?" he asked without looking back.

Valdan walked up to him, just coming back from his long hours of training. The knight took a confused look at Fjord.

"I stopped training a while ago," the knight answered. "I'm well rested. One hundred percent in all. Why? Are we going monster hunting?"

Aiden gave him a curious look. "Do you want to go monster hunting?"

"In this forest?" Valdan looked around. "No. I'm sure your contacts must've told you but this is not a safe place to hunt. At least not if you're hunting the real monsters."

"So you know about this place."

"Everyone who wishes to reach the top knows about the Giant's Garden, Aiden." Valdan walked over to Fjord and checked on him. "Is he asleep?"

"Yes," Aiden answered.

Valdan looked around, then up at the night sky. "Isn't it a little too early for him to be sleeping?"

Fjord had been asleep for a few hours now but Aiden didn't point that out. Instead, he said, "He fell from a height that can be considered unhealthy and said sleeping helps him deal with the fear he felt."

"He will need a different way to deal with that fear if he wishes to continue following you," Valdan mused. "Anyway, where's Lord Lacheart?"

"My brother is off trying to cross the threshold."

"With meditation?" Valdan asked as if it were hard to believe.

"I think he intends to will himself into it." Aiden shrugged. "Personally, I think he can. Walk with me."

Without waiting for Valdan's response, Aiden turned and started walking. To no surprise, Valdan followed him.

The knight was dressed in a simple cotton shirt and black pants. It was dark, but not so dark that Aiden couldn't see the pants easily in the darkness. He considered the possibility that he could only see it so clearly because of his perception stats.

"This [Crystal of Existence]," Valdan began as they walked side by side. "Do you have any artifact in mind that you're trying to get?"

The crystal itself, Aiden thought but left the words unsaid. "Any useful artifact would be fine. I just want to do anything to get stronger."

"You might not know this but you're plenty strong, Aiden."

Aiden thought of the [Demon King] that Ted had become. He thought of people in the Order that had been able to wipe the floor with him in his past life. He thought of the master of the Order. He thought of the [Sage].

"Not strong enough," he muttered, more to himself than for Valdan's hearing.

"Strong enough to not be worried about the level fifty threshold, though."

Aiden looked at Valdan. "What gives you that idea?"

"Come on, Aiden," Valdan scoffed. "You've been on level forty-nine for more than a month. When we fight against monsters, you don't even bother killing them. It's as if you're just testing your mettle against stronger creatures, checking your limits."

"That does not ex—"

"You spend more time training your brother and me," Valdan interrupted him. "And don't think I don't know that you're actually training me with these monsters you send me to fight. I've noticed how they are often a perfect mismatch for me. We cannot call that a coincidence."

And you still go, Aiden thought. Unbothered by being taught by a child.

"What does that have to do with me not being bothered," Aiden asked.

"Only two kinds of people can be stuck at your level while training others without being bothered by it, Aiden. Those who don't care about level fifty and those who believe they can achieve it whenever they want. I think you're the latter, because you seek power, and power exists beyond level fifty. You know this."

"That's an interesting take," Aiden mused. "I will tell you this—I think I know how to get to level fifty."

"I knew it," Valdan chuckled, as if he'd just won a bet.

"I think, Valdan," Aiden clarified, coming to a stop. "Emphasis on the word 'think'. And I have not found myself in a position to put it to the test. But until then, I have no problems making my brother as strong as he can be."

"That's fair," Valdan said. "Normally, the older brother is the one that trains the younger brother, but I've made peace with the odd dynamic you and your brother have. So, when are we heading to Dentis?"

"In a few days," Aiden answered. "We'll get the person and be on our way to Trackback."

The frown on Valdan's face was all Aiden needed to know that the knight was still not in support of the plan, but Valdan said nothing on it.

"And this person is named Zen?"

"He is."

"And what benefit does he bring to the group?"

"He has the [Time Walker] class."

Valdan had come to a stop with Aiden. "That is not a combat class."

"Not necessarily," Aiden agreed. "But his is unique. It can be used for combat scenarios from what I have heard. But that's not why we're going for him."

Valdan's brows furrowed in confusion. "Then why are we going for him?"

"That," Aiden smiled, stepping away from Valdan, "is a secret he would not be so happy to have me sharing."

Valdan watched Aiden as he stepped away, his furrowed brows wrinkling further with each step Aiden took.

"What are you doing?"

"Answering a question you've had on your mind for at least a month now," Aiden answered.

When they were eight paces apart, he stopped.

"And what question is that?" Valdan asked.

"That's enough talking, Valdan," Aiden said, his voice now cold, firm, threatening. "Draw your sword. This has been a long time coming."

At first, confusion clouded the knight's face. Then it was replaced with a sly grin.

Valdan nodded in agreement.

"A long time coming," he repeated, drawing his sword.

The weapon hissed in the quiet night, filling the air with the anticipation of what was about to happen. Its steel gleamed as if catching the lights of the stars above.

Aiden drew his sword, allowing the quiet hiss to wash over him. Those who lived by the sword knew the sound. It was as much an enemy as it was a friend. It was a herald of the unnatural. It was the whisper of death in your ear.

He took a simple sword stance, nothing special and settled his eyes on Valdan. The knight was nothing less than ten levels above him.

"When you're ready," he said. "When you're ready."

Valdan stood before him in a sword stance of the Nastild form. Sword held in both hands, he held it out in front of him, feet properly placed apart.

"No one dies tonight," Valdan said simply.

Somehow, while it was a statement, it also came out like a question.

Aiden nodded. "No one dies tonight."

The moment the words left his mouth, Valdan ignited in a crackle of electricity. It wrapped around him in a violent embrace, sparking around as if seeking to electrocute anyone around him.

He lowered his stance in preparation to attack and Aiden braced himself.

Keep your eyes on him, Aiden, he thought. He moves quickly.

His focus tightened.

A man is only as fast as you allow hi—

Valdan vanished.

For fuck's sake.

Aiden turned, anticipating the knight from all the countless fights they'd had together. All the countless fights he'd watched the man in.

Right, he calculated and brought his sword to bear.

Valdan appeared to his left.

Aiden frowned as he tried to twist at the last second. He caught a glimpse of the knight's face as he realized he would not turn in time.

What he saw told him that the knight had been asking himself the same question for over a month: who would win in a real fight between the both of them?

Valdan's face was empty, blank save the tight veins that spoke of an overwhelming physical strength. But there was lightning in his eyes. It crackled out letting out slight whispers of smoke and aura.

Sword held in both hands high above his head, the steel crackled yellow, sending streaks of lightning scattering about. His hair scattered about him, loose from whatever had bound it, and lightning embraced it in chaos. The knight's hair was almost yellow in its streaks.

Valdan stood before him with his falling sword with lightning on his side. A god of thunder in his own right. He was what Thor would be if he wielded a sword.

Valdan had put his pride on the line tonight and Aiden understood why his words had sounded like a question.

No one dies tonight, Aiden realized a little belatedly. It had been a question on his ability.

But realization mattered very little at certain times. Realization was for the mind. Chaos stood before him and Aiden met it as a defiant sinner would meet their god.

Valdan's sword came down…

Lightning descended.

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