The Author's POV

"Woahhh."

Taking a step out of the portal, Emma looked at the scene presented before her with amazement.

Wearing a white baseball hat along with a simple shirt and shorts, Emma's curiosity piqued as she looked around the place with an excited gaze.

"Curb your excitement."

Exiting the portal after her was Melissa. Squinting her eyes and taking out her glasses, she glared in the direction of the sun.

"If only that damned bastard didn't force me to come here…"

She muttered out loud, obviously not hiding the displeasure in her voice.

Overhearing Melissa's comments, Emma turned around and asked, "What's wrong about coming here?"

"I would've much rather spent my time finishing my project.

"And what's fun about that? You never go out. Just look at you, you remind me of a vampire."

Pausing, Emma pointed at the sun.

"The first thing you did as soon as you got out was glare at the sun!"

"Shut up."

Rolling her eyes, Melissa put her glasses back on.

As the two of them were bickering, not far from them, the other group members were slowly coming out of the portal.

It wasn't long before eight more people exited the portal. Once the last person came out, an elf came to greet them and led them to an area outside of the portal where there were others waiting.

As they were headed towards the larger group, Emma was instantly able to spot Amanda.

"Amanda, you're already here."

This part wasn't hard since she stood out quite a bit.

The fact that most of the males' gazes were directed at her also didn't help since it only made it easier for Emma to spot her.

Walking up to her, Emma tried to hug her, but Amanda swiftly dodged, prompting Emma to pout.

"Hey!"

"Save that stuff for Kevin."

"Hey!"

Emma shouted even louder as her cheeks turned rosy.

"How long have you been waiting here?" Emma asked, in hopes of trying to switch the topic.

Fortunately for her, Amanda had tact. Pretending to have not seen anything, she casually answered, "It's been about three hours since we arrived."

Lifting her head and staring into the distance, toward the direction of where Emma came from, Amanda continued.

"Besides you, we should be waiting for one more group before they will bring us to the city."

"Another group?"

Emma turned her head and stared in the same direction as Amanda.

"Any idea who it is?"

"They are from another city."

"Oh? Which one?"

not too sure

already here." Melissa said from the side, gazing into the distance where another

of the group was a young man with black hair and blue eyes. He may have been the youngest of the group, but his demeanour was

"Aaron… so it's him."

rare of solemnity appeared on everyone's faces

of him when he had been a thorn

strides, Aaron's eyes soon paused on their group, and a surprised look flashed across his face. It

since I've seen

Aaron's eyes soon stopped on Amanda. His brows knit for

we maybe briefly met during your first year.

short and indifferent

smile froze

Miss Stern isn't too keen on

Aaron

Emma turned to look in

to treat him like that? His guild is pretty powerful. You

"No."

shook her head as she

of the most powerful guild in Lutwig city, one of the four great cities in the human

guild was not as great as hers, but in terms of influence, it was very powerful. They were not someone that the

and staring at Emma, Amanda softly said, "The reason I'm doing this is because he is already

"He is?"

flashed in Emma's

out for

"Because they are greedy."

coldly replied, her voice

wide, and not just the guilds in Ashton city, but even the other guilds from outside wanted to have

by this, but she was

all of the

her thoughts was a crisp and melodious voice that came from the

an elf standing

them, he seemed to be very

the long wait. Now that everyone has gathered, I will escort you to the main city. So,

elf started to walked along a pathway that led to

by one, the other people present slowly started

"Let's go."

the three girls was Emma who quickly lined up and followed the

flashed across

"Here, take this."

about to follow Emma, grabbing her shoulder, Melissa handed her a couple of

be displaying your talent to everyone, you might as well be useful and

Melissa also lined

her head, Amanda stared at her hand where several different cards of various

couple of times, her lips tugged upwards

***

Clank—!

a small room as a

the point of contact between the blades as the two individuals

from the distance, the individual holding onto the broadsword lowered

"You've improved a lot."

"You too."

two individuals were none other than Kevin and

domain and meeting up together, they decided to spend most of their time sparring

Lock, both of them were quite familiar with

quite familiar with each other's styles. Hence, they were able to make the most

thing that was different about the two, it was that Jin was

Jin had been training harder than ever. The reason for his current rank was that he had acquired a five-star dagger technique not long

improving his dagger art, the time he spent on improving his rank

this that he lagged behind Kevin,

that had accumulated on his forehead, Kevin put

be enough for today, the

"Okay."