Re: Evolution Online

Just as Liam got excited about returning to Earth and reclaiming it from Crawford, he immediately remembered that he still had no way to get back. Not that he blamed the guardian. 

The world tree had already helped him more than he could ever ask for. Liam even had a feeling that it wanted to help him more for whatever reason but it couldn't because of the threads of fate it mentioned. He did not understand those things clearly yet.

And he also did not plan on worrying about them right now. From what he could tell they didn't seem to be a problem that the current him needed to face. He had a lot more immediate threats that he needed to be concerned with.

Thinking back to the issue of how to return to earth, Liam stopped meditating and stood up with a frown.

"Master?" Luna cocked her head and looked at Liam worriedly. Before she could say anything else, Eldrin rushed forward and started eying Liam from top to bottom. "Did you not get anything?"

His eyes darted here and there for a few seconds before his face became weird. "Why do I not sense any mana from you?" Eldrin squinted his expression a mix of confusion and concern. "Is everything alright? What happened inside the barrier?"

"You are nosey! Scram!" Luna immediately slapped him with her paw, sending him staggering to the side.

Eldrin looked gobsmacked. Liam saw this and broke into a smile. It looked like the little fox had picked up an adorable attitude thanks to her zealot followers. He patted her lovingly. 

"Don't treat the elf badly. He is our friend." Liam explained, sparing a glance at the elf. He needed to have a proper conversation with him.

There were a lot of things he needed to do at the moment but this was the most important of all. 

Eldrin immediately gulped. He did not even mind the way the little fox pushed him around but Liam's words made a chill run down his spine.

To make matters worse, Liam started walking toward the elf, getting up close and personal with him in a threatening manner, not bothering to hide his emotions in the least. 

"Do you remember the conversation we had before? The one where you told me that I couldn't return to my world?" He asked, his face turning cold and indifferent.

"I… I…" Eldrin stammered. His mind had been so completely on the treasure that he had forgotten what comes after the guardian's blessing. 

That's right. This lunatic never really cared about the guardian's blessing so much. What he wanted was to get back to that backwater planet. 

Why? Only the heavens know. Couldn't he just ditch the damn thing and go and unleash terror in the myriad realms with the power he held? Why is it always the hot-headed emotional nutbags who get the power and opportunities?

"I… the Ascension Tower token?" Eldrin started. 

But the elf began sweating as Liam narrowed his eyes and gave him an even stare.

This was the reply he had prepared but now he was hesitant in speaking it out. He would only be sealing his fate if he lied now.

This was all because of the damned idiots! Fucking cultists! From the look in their eyes, if they caught Eldrin uttering even the smallest of lies they would immediately give him away.

Perhaps he shot himself in the foot by being over-eager and recruiting these nutbags. Eldrin gnashed his teeth at the cultists and quickly changed his response. 

"Lord Liam, you must be remembering the conversation wrong. I indeed have a way you can return to your world."

Eldrin's heart ached as he fished out a token of sorts. "This is a teleportation ticket. If you activate this, you can teleport to any D-grade or below world of your choice. The only problem is I have only one token. So only one of us-"

As the elf was trying to point out the obvious flaw in this method as this meant that he would be left behind, Liam did not care for it and snatched the token from his hand with his eyes widened.

"Of course, you are welcome to take it," Eldrin mumbled with a bitter smile on his face. What else could he do?

Liam scoffed. He knew it. The elf wanted to leave this world too so how could he not have prepared any contingencies? He lied to him earlier but now he couldn't do the same and had coughed up the truth.

Liam stared at the token feverishly before remembering a pretty important nugget of information. "Will this work even if the world is currently in the integration process?" He asked the dreaded question. He could only hope that the elf lied about this part too.

Unfortunately, that did not seem to be the case. As if holding onto a liferaft in a storm, Eldrin's eyes sparkled as he quickly doubled back on what he said earlier.

"No, Lord Liam. The token doesn't work like that. The world has to be fully integrated into the Myriad Realms Network for it to be accessible. You can check it yourself. The world will not appear in the list of accessible teleport locations." He explained with certainty.

"Once your world is integrated, you can easily go there. At most, you just have to wait a few years. We can leave this place and wait it out in another world. I have many candidates-" Eldrin continued talking but Liam's face fell.

The guardian, Eldrin, both of them became dead ends. He looked at the zealots hoping someone might say something but none of the elves opened their mouths.

Liam sighed. He knew that it wouldn't be so easy but he refused to believe that it would be impossible. Perhaps if he contacted one of the empires here and talked to someone more experienced. There had to be a way!

"Master." Interrupting Liam's thoughts, Luna called out. "Are you talking about going back home?" The fox then cocked her head to the side, giving a cute devilish smile. "I can easily take us back, master."

"What?" Liam looked shocked.

Luna blinked. She did not understand why her master was so stressed about this small thing. Why so serious?

"I can easily take us there, master. I brought us here, didn't I? I can take us back just the same."