Lucian continued to muse quietly to himself, as he tagged along, following till he made it to the first floor with everyone else meeting up. The quest had been completed with the information that the enforcers had gathered during their searches fit the requirements. Something big was going to happen, So the quest was more of a warning then anything else. A warning and a test maybe?

Lucian chose to remain silent, finally feeling that they had reached a safe enough location to apply his level up, he did so. Afterwards, he couldn't help but notice the minor squabblings of Mike, Ren, and Keiichi, over going to school, and decided that he couldn't remain silent on the issue, "You are seriously going to get annoyed at someone deciding to skip school, at a time and place like this? Really?" Lucian cocked a brow, "There is more important things, and by the sounds of it, we are in deep, and we need to get stronger faster." He then turned to the enforcer who had the files, and while pushing up his own glasses spoke to him, "So, what was the current information on our powers anyway? What did they know about us?"

"What?" Sasha replied in an annoyed tone. "We earned it."

She grabbed two more staves for good measure, after she ascertained that no one else was interested in the loot. They were finally done with pillaging the man's base. However, Ren came back empty-handed from the only unexplored room. What did the Void Wizard want us to find out? Almost feels like he wanted us to die here.

The group proceeded to leave the building, which was now eerily quiet and empty. At the ground floor, the Enforcers happened to be coming up from the basement staircase. After a brief conversation, Henry revealed that the hunters had been tracking them and other ability users for some unknown goal. Right after told the gamers to go home, a window notified Sasha that the quest had been completed. It was handy the system was telling them that they had just heard what they needed to know. It almost seemed too easy, actually.

Sasha took a deep breath. She was relieved that she managed to survive the night, despite the powerful enemies they faced. She was also looking forward to training her skills more. If there was anything tonight had taught her, it would be that they were still too weak in the Abyss. A mere lowly summon had killed Erica, who was also a Gamer.

She also remembered the sensation when her blade pierced through Taichi's flesh. Never in her life had she harmed another human being, let alone take their life. Yet, it all felt so distant. As if it was only natural for her to do so.

"Hey, Silas..." Sasha began, voice unusually quiet. "Did you feel anything? When you attacked the Mage, I mean."

"I guess I just don't feel to good about someone spiting at a privilege that a little more then a week ago, I didn't have, that I wanted so badly" Mike answered "you think normal school is bad? Then try out homeschooling. Having to be locked away in your own home while you learn. Just because something's wrong with you...because your broken" Mike's tone was unnaturally somber. "When...when my parents told me that I had been enrolled in school, a real school...I was so excited. Finally, I was going to get to experience something that I had wanted for so long, something that had felt like an impossible dream to me. So yeah, I guess I'm more then a little upset that someone I know is wasting something like that"

Ren sighed heavily, and Keiichi somewhat agreed with Lucian. As much as he wanted to convince Ren to go to school and that it wasn't bad, this was neither the time nor the place for such things, and Ren was glad that the lecturing seemed to stop, until Mike gave some sob story. Well, it was hard to make any comeback to that, so Ren didn't. Instead, he turned his attention to Henry, who spoke up to answer Lucian's question and put the whole school squabble to an end since they had things to do here, and Keiichi decided to let it be put to an end instead of dragging it out. There would be plenty of time to discuss it later.

"Hmm... they seem to know about the fact that you have voice activated Skills and can grow stronger from fighting monsters and gaining XP. They also seem to know about your bodies and how they can't be injured, what else..." Henry looked over the file. "Ah yes. They know that all of your abilities use Mana, regardless of what they are. Its from this that they also know that Gaia is personally involved with your Ability, which is probably a reason why they would have been eager to get their hands on you. They also figure that four people getting the ability the same day, after it had already been in someone else for a month, is no mere coincidence, and neither is your close location to one another, that being this city". Henry closed his eyes, shaking his head a little and giving a small sigh.

"They certainly did their homework. Probably paid alot of money for this info as well, the real question is what they wanted to do with it... probably research most likely..." Henry closed the file now. "Anyway, you all should get home. We'll call you if we find out anything else or you can call us if you have any questions, but its late. We're going to seal this place off and investigate more thoroughly tomorrow. So if there's anything else you want to take care of here, finish it now, but after that you all need to go home".

So unless there would be anything that the Gamers still wanted to do or discuss, it would indeed be time to leave.

Ren was sort of ignoring Mike now, and would ignore him if he tried to talk to him again, so the only way Mike would be able to get in another word to Ren is if he actively stopped Ren, cause Ren looked like he was done discussing this crap about school. It was late, he was tired, and so was everyone else.

So it would be time to go home and go to bed, since after all of that rough fighting, they would all need their rest.

Silas silently accept the card containing the phone number of the other group. He had no idea why they gave it to him. Out of everyone here he probably has the lowest level and is the most distanced from the group. He slid the piece of paper into his pocket anyways. Suddenly the group had begun a conversation about school, and the fact that Ren wasn't going to it. Silas was kinda annoyed by the kids. Sure he had a point that Ren should go to school, but it is Ren's life after all and if he doesn't want to graduate it is up to him. Not knowing if Ren does good at school in the first place. For all he knew Ren could have high grades, but just doesn't bother to come to school if he already knows this stuff and is sure he will get a good grade.

Silas then was approached by Sasha once again. She mentioned that she felt a weird sensation or something similar when she stabbed the Blank Mage, and asked if he felt something when he attacked the Blank Mage. "I don't know what you're talking about. But I just aimed to kill him. I it regret that you're feeling? He was trying to kill us, so why show any mercy or regret? For all I know he could have been a father of three, I really wouldn't care. I just to make sure that no lives get lost that are precious to me." he said. He thought that Sasha meant that feeling, and else she knew his stand on killing other people.

"Anyways. I think I'm heading home. I'll catch you guys later, PM me or something when another thing is going on." Silas said. He turned away from the rest and left the others. Ren would probably do the same, as he seemed to be very irritated at the moment by others. Silas exited the pseudo space of the school grounds and hopped on his bike, making his way home. There were almost no people on the streets so at the same time he would apply his stat points that he got when he leveled up. "Level 13... still a long way to go." he thought. "I need to get stronger. Maybe Genji can schedule some private training with me, and otherwise I'll have to look for a stronger person."

With everything here done, all that was left was to go back home to get some sleep. 'My next priority should be to get ID create to level 10. That way I can make my own Hyperbolic Time Chamber. With that, I'll be able to grind my skills twice as fast. Lets see...after that I think I should get Spirit Channel to level 10, and Spirit Harness to level 5. That way I can get the stat bonuses from them. Next, I'm going to have to grind Spirit Blade. That's my primary weapon, so I need to make sure that I can sustain it in a fight. Hopefully the mana cost goes down every 10 levels.' He mused to himself. "Later everyone" he said goodbye before leaving. On his way home, he spammed ID Create and Escape, hoping to get some levels for them

After hearing the small amount of intell that had been leaked about the gamers, Lucian let out a sigh in his mind. It was good to know that they didn't have specific details about them yet, knowing which ones are taking which routes, it would have made the fight much harder, also the fact that they only seem to know about active skills, and not passive ones, aside from the Gamer body. "Well, I'm going to head out as well, I have some things to attend to tomorrow." Lucian gave everyone that was still there a wave, then walked away.

On his travels home, he couldn't help but feel a tad lonely, one thing was certain, in the morning, he would try to get his elementals back again. He also had aquired a new skill, and ideas had been bouncing around his head since the moment it popped up. He would need to message Ren the next day to run some tests...Why did it have to be Ren again? Lucian scrambled his hair with his hand and he tried to change the direction of his thoughts. By the time he made it home, his hair looked like he just got out of bed.

Silas's words reflected her own thoughts. A person's true nature is revealed at times of the greatest adversity. Sasha was sure a life and death battle was positively a "time of greatest adversity", but was this their true nature? She wasn't so certain she was a person that didn't blink an eye before killing another person.

There was little she could do about feelings she didn't have. Sasha let the topic drop, especially since Silas didn't seem interested in talking. He quickly said his farewells and went home on his bike. "Alright. I guess I'll head home too. You guys stay safe."

Taking the opportunity to get some training, Sasha jogged back home using the foot technique. Instead of staying up, she decided she would hit the haystack early today. It had been a long night.

Sasha would jog back home, hoping to train the Foot Technique a bit on her way home, since it was a rather useful Skill. A little bit of XP was gained in it, but not really a whole lot since it was just a light jog. Still, some was better than none, that was for certain.

Mike, on the other hand, decided to do a much more exhausting training on the way home. While ID Create and Escape used no MP, they still were quite exhausting if used again and again.

---

Stamina: 29 - 20 VIT = 9

---

Still, he was able to get some alright XP in both Skill for his short walk home, enough to get 1 level in ID Escape by around the time he got to his house, managing to sustain his actions through the exhaustion of this process of repeatedly using these skills. By the time he got home though he would be a bit tired to do much else, unless he really wanted to, but whether or not he could was definitely leaning towards the 'not', especially since Leveling Up didn't heal fatigue, and Mike had been through alot tonight, especially with his body being permanently damaged. That wasn't exactly something that didn't make one tired.

Ren did no training on the way home, just deciding to walk home normally. Well, normally for Ren being with his PFP in hand as he often played games when going from place to place. Instead of reading that book he got, he decided that he could do that during class at school, since Ren felt like he had skipped long enough. Last thing he needed was his uncle getting mad at him. Even if the man was barely home, Ren didn't need him sniffing around his personal life if it was discovered that he was skipping school and hanging out with a bunch of college kids, as Ren figured that all of them were in college except for Mike, and thus a good four or five years older than her.

---

The day would soon come to a close, or it already did about two hours ago. Since school started early, Ren only got a few hours of sleep, but felt fully energized anyway thanks to the Gamer Power. It truly was nice, but he felt like he would have been better rested with more sleep, as would the other Gamers if they only slept a few hours. "It sure is finicky about what it wants to restore..." Ren gave a small yawn as he got out of bed and got ready for school, making sure to put that Black Arts book into his school bag instead of his inventory. Last thing he needed was Gaia offing him because he pulled a book out of thin air.

When Mike would arrive at class, he would see a seat that had been empty for the past week was filled up, the seat in the back, closest to the window had Ren sitting in it, reading a book with no title on its cover. There was idle conversation from other students that was going on, a few people giving Mike either a nod, wave, or a hello when he entered. Ren seemed to not have any regards for his surroundings at all as he just sat there and read, and Mike could either go up to him, or just go to his own seat as there was just a few minutes before class would start.

Well this was a surprise. Mike never expected Ren to be in his class. Still, while it was interesting, it wasn't really much else. If he got up to go talk to him, it would just make people wonder why the two of them knew each other. Plus, if what he had seen so far was any indication; Ren was extremely antisocial. So that really got rid of any reason to interact with him in this kind of setting. Deciding to to something productive with the time before class started, Mike grinded for Observation EXP by using it on everyone in the room, and then anything worth noting if he still had time afterward

Mike would have to be really subtle about using 'Observe' in class, since it was a voice activated Skill and it wasn't exactly something you could whisper inaudibly. So he would not be able to use it as quickly. Luckily most people were involved in their own conversations. Unfortunately Mike's observe spree would end a bit early, as the teacher walked into the room to start class. After the greeting and roll call, which Mike would have had to remain quiet for, class and the school day itself would start. Their next break would be lunch, and if Mike checked, the Skill had barely gained any XP at all from those usages of it on all of the students, mainly because he had used it on them before the first day he was here, and the only XP he did get was probably from whatever new information that appeared, which wasn't all that much.

Ren, even during class, didn't take notes. He just kept reading that same book the entire time. Even during lunch, as people went to eat with their friends or talk, Ren just did nothing except read and eat from his own bento in solitude. A few students, who were interested in the new kid and wanted to be friends, would ask Mike if he wanted to eat lunch with them as Mike was friendly and sociable enough to actually get such offers. Mike could either try to make new friends with these three random students, or do something else with his lunch period, which wasn't that long for anything big, but for just visiting or conversations it would do well enough.

After all, despite having this power, it was important to try and live normal lives as students as well, something which Keiichi had stressed was very important several times, and was one of the main reasons why he wanted Ren to go to school instead of skip.

People were actually asking to have lunch with him now...this was just so surreal. It was just so strange for Mike; finally going to school like a normal kid, and now having lunch with other students. It felt like a dream to the once deathly ill boy. Having nothing else to do with his time (and not willing to pass up this kind of opportunity) , Mike accepted the offer of the other students. It was so strange; despite having video game character powers, he felt more normal then he ever had before in his life

Lucian slept in, it felt great, and he felt well vitalized. The joys of university life, classes didn't always start first thing in the morning. He got up, his hair almost looking neater getting out of bed than it did going in, and got himself together. Cleaning himself up well, and having an apple on his way to his first class of the day. He would need to borrow his friends notes, or more correctly decipher them as best as he could between his doodles and stick men fighting, but it would surely help Lucian know what the teacher went on about in the last class. He thought of talking his scenic route by the ocean again, but decided against it this time, he would attend first two classes, and then get to work on reviving his elementals, and only after that, then he would go play around with nature.

Other than mike making friends during lunch, the rest of the day went uneventful. Ren remained as antisocial and quiet as ever during the entire day, and soon after the day ended Mike could go home since there was no Kendo practice today. Although he could still go meet with Keiichi since the Kendo Team Captain did say that Mike could come meet with him when there wasn't practice for personal instruction.

Ren, on the other hand, grabbed his stuff right after class and pretty much was prepared to go home. He figured if the Enforcers had anything, they would contact them and Ren wasn't interested in talking to anyone at school. He tried his best not to stand out and went every day quietly.

---

Class would also go by for Lucian. If Lucian chose to, he could attempt the Ritual of Elemental Healing on just his Air Elemental, since he lacked Lightning and Earth essence for reviving the other two elementals with, or he could just go do something else since that ritual took a bit of time to set up and perform. If he went to play with nature, the abandoned park where they met Ren before or the pier would be good options since not too many people went to either of those.

With classes over and no Kendo Club meeting today, Mike made his way back home, making sure he had Zandaka on. While he did want to learn more Seishin no Ken skills, he had other priorities right now, like getting his MP regeneration up. Once he got back home, he started to grind ID Create and Escape, at least until he got Create up to level 10 'I will learn to make my own Hyperbolic Time Chamber!' he thought to himself as he spammed the skills, with Zandaka still on to get EXP for that skill as well.

As Mike spent the entire day with Zandaka on as well as training ID Escape and Create, he would notice that his stamina would decrease, as would his MP. Naturally he wasn't able to keep Zandaka on indefinitely, even with the Wisdom boost that the Skill gave. Its MP Cost was nearly double his MP Regeneration, so every now and again he would need to wait for his MP to regenerate during his day of Skill grinding in order to keep it on. Keeping Zandaka active as well as training ID Create and Escape would be incredibly draining on his stamina as well since Zandaka was a skill that actively drained Mana, and using Mana was stamina draining.

---

Stamina: 34 - 20 VIT = 14

---

Mike would be exhausted by the end of the day, hopefully having found a private place to do this since it would look strange if he was in his backyard (as I am assuming his parents would question him standing out there for hours at a time), but by the end of the day his basic goal would barely be achieved. That last ID Create that he had in him would be enough to get him to that 10th level, but after that mustering anymore stamina or energy would be pushing it way past normal fatigue. Essentially Mike would probably start taking HP Damage if he started to push the boundaries of his stamina anymore.

Zandaka, during the rest of the day whenever he had it on, would only gain 1 Level. It was leveling at a snails pace at this point using the method of just leaving the Skill on. If Mike wanted to level it faster, he would have to use the other methods of leveling, otherwise it was going to remain Level 11 for a very long while. But still, despite how drop dead exhausted Mike would be, his main goal of getting ID Create to Level 10, ID Escape only getting to Level 9, would be cleared. Clicking on the 'Time Compression ID' in the ID Create's Skill Window would reveal the following.



It seemed like the space was useful, but also incredibly dangerous as well, especially with the Time Compression Stress factor. Whether Mike would risk this and take advantage of this new space, or if he would play it safe and wait would be the question here.

Lucian let out a sigh, classes just haven't been the same since he became a gamer. It just felt less important now. You needed to get an education to get money, but what was the point of getting a well paying job when he could just slay monsters and get paid a ton more in just a single day? He looked up at the sky as he started to walk off of the university campus. At first it seemed pretty aimless, but in the end he found himself at the Pier, and with no one in sight, he thought it would be as good a place as any to run some tests, but first...

"Hey, I am doing some training over on the Pier and I have some things I wish to test out," Lucian finished speaking his PM and sent it to Ren. "Well, lets see if he is willing to help me test that other skill, and lets see what I can do about brining Sylph back now." He did a double take around the area and checked his map prior to creating an empty pseudospace, then setting up the ritual.

Sasha almost jumped out of her bed at the first light of the day, with only one thing on her mind. Let's get to that skill experimentation straight away, shall we?

There are Arcane Magic and her Enchantments to practice. First, she would try out the new Mana Focus ability- something that sounded very useful. Her energy spells were powerful, but she had always found them to be very rigid. Perhaps with mana focus, she could do more things with it.

Lucian, unfortunately, didn't have everything he needed for the ritual. Candles, chalk, and some other certain magical odds and ends were needed. Nothing really special, but he did have one thing that would allow him to perform the ritual without said things. The Instant Magic Circle that he possessed would be enough. Granted it would make the ritual a slight bit harder without the necessary components, but Lucian figured he could just wing the rest and replace it with more chanting and focus.

---

Ritual of Elemental Healing: 49 - 35 Ritual Wind Magic = 14

---

Lucian nearly screwed up the ritual by an incredible amount. He nearly messed up a bit of chanting and would have changed the ritual into something much more catastrophic. Luckily, he managed to catch himself just in time and fixed his mistake. Granted it caused the Instant Magic Circle to be torn and damaged in the process, it at least prevented an incredible catastrophe.

As he invoked the ritual, a link to the Elemental Plain would be established, and from there he would use his contract with sylph as a link and send the Essence of the Crystal through it to Sylph, who was currently replenishing her being. It was all a surreal experience as during the ritual he would feel his consciousness become disconnected from this world as a pulse of force went from him to his contracted Elemental.

When it returned, Sylph would be standing before him as the ritual ended, a smile on her face before she vanished, Lucian able to summon her again though if he wanted to now that she was revived and that he was down an Air Crystal. The Instant Magic Circle that he would have had to use was also damaged in the process, and was now completely worthless and unusable, the mess up in the ritual having torn it to pieces as he would have had to sacrifice it to protect the contract from the magical backlash that came from his foolish mistake.

Windows telling of a new Skill would appear after Lucian completed the ritual, it having taken an hour to perform and alot of MP.





By the time that he was done, Ren was walking up, holding a book in hand instead of a game console, which was a change of pace. He closed the book as he arrived on the scene just in time to see Lucian having completed his ritual.

"If you're gonna do rituals... get a Basic Ritual Kit from the Auction..." Ren placed the book back in his inventory as he looked at Lucian. "Glad you are in the testing mood... as there's something I want to test as well, ill let you go first though".

Ren sat there and waited, looking up at Lucian as he waited for the nature user to start whatever it is that he wanted to test.

"Thanks for the tip, but sometimes we do things the hard way, just to see if we can." Lucian stood up, as he was sitting down while doing the last ritual, which seemed to be a good thing, as he wasn't really here when he performed it. He felt the elemental plain, such a wonderful place. He smiled and walked over to Ren, "Thanks for coming, I'm going to test to see If I can pull some support moves out. If we fight someone who magic is useless against, I might as well be of some use." He held his hand out towards Ren, mostly for dramatic effect, as he doubted he needed to. "Mana Link."

Lucian would try a few things to see how well this worked. Firstly, he would see if he was able to force Ren to move through the connection, then he would try to give him some of his own mana, and lastly trying to use the connection to activate Mana whirlwind shield on Ren.