The Ancients World

[I want to let everyone know that I have a p-a-t-r-e-o-n with two new exclusive stories on it. One is The Aeternus Universe, and I've also started up a new VRMMORPG called the Libertas Dive. If you wish to read that as it develops, head to my p-a-t-r-e-o-n. I won't be uploading The Libertas Dive on webnovel until I've reached 30 pages on it. So get it while it's young and cheap. I hope you guys will give it a chance. The link is /easyread. Remove the dashes. Webnovel censors the word.]

I watch Victor walk into the area, which means his group is the last to join us. There were three groups, and the second one to arrive after we did has been waiting for an hour for the remaining team with us, which is Victors. He walks over to the groups and sees that more survived than he'd hoped. Our group is the one that lost the most people in it. Not to any fault of mine. "Looks like we have pretty good chances of beating this dungeon. The next boss is going to be tough. It has an invincible state once enraged." That is a rare find.

Emerald is still in my backpack, and I feel her shuffle around now and then. I was worried about bringing her along with me, but she's doing just fine. "We'll have to defeat the boss before it becomes enraged. That gives us three minutes. Everyone equip your best damaging gear. The only creature we're fighting is the boss in the next room. So we don't have to worry about mob control." This isn't even the final boss. It's the second to last boss. The Witch Queen is after this boss fight, but none of these players will be here to see it.

Everyone stands up and prepares for the next fight. Jasmine stands next to me and stands out slightly since she doesn't have an inventory. No one notices except me. "You new people are so weird..." She whispers to me and is adamant that no one hears us. "How is it you have an exclusive dimension that you can access anytime you want whenever you want? The sheer illogical nature of this makes me wonder what other strange things you can all do..." Our conversation can't be heard over the other ones happening around the group.

I chuckle, and I keep my current weapon equipped. I use my best gear all the time. It's who I am and what I do. "There is much you don't know about us, Jasmine... It'd take too much time to explain to you in a single setting." She sighs and decides to drop it. I honestly don't know how to broach the subject with her. The truth about us players is pretty unbelievable. I plan on telling her, but I don't know how to explain it. It isn't something that I'm good at. Explaining the actual science to her is impossible cause I don't know it.

While Hailey and Jasmine enter the next boss room with the rest of the dungeon party, Cera and Sally are currently having a nice hot meal in their room. It's the early morning where Cera and Sally are, and it's still dark where Hailey and Jasmine are. Cera and Sally are eating a huge breakfast that's loaded with protein. While it isn't the amazing player food that Sally has come to love, it's still plenty good to satisfy the hunger growing in both of them. Cera and Sally have decided to pass the time on some more fun activities while waiting for Hailey and Jasmine.

There is a festival coming to the town tonight and the whole day tomorrow. I watch as Sally devours the food on her plate, and I try my best to keep up. She's got some serious appetite. I don't blame her though, the last time we had an actual meal was when we were in the City of James. "I want a meal like this every day... I'm so tired of having to eat rations and dried meat..." She talks as she eats, and I can't help myself from chuckling. The saying that you get to a man's heart through his stomach can be applied to women too.

We finish our food, and I have to bring up the festival. I want her to have the opportunity to wear another dress. The red one at Jackson's wedding isn't something I want her to wear to the festival. It's more of a subtle thing, and the red dress in my inventory is more of a show. "You know... There's a festival happening tonight and all of tomorrow." My words immediately grab her attention. "Do you want to go with me? I'll even buy you a dress for the event." She's a little speechless. I know enough about her to know she's never been to a festival before.

She stops eating and puts her eating utensils down. "I'd love to go to the festival with you, Cera... I'm just a little scared that people will recognize you without your hood on when we're walking around..." Damn, I didn't even think of that. The elves have been looking for me, and I have a feeling they're looking for Sally too. If they know, I'm right at the border. It could ruin all the plans we have. I groan as I lean back in my chair. "You didn't consider that, did you..." I nod my head, and now I feel bad. It sucks that she won't be able to dress up, but we can still go to the festival.

I look back at her, and I find the right words. "We can still go, but we'll have to wear our hoods and gear. I was hoping you'd get the chance to wear another dress. I don't really know how you feel about wearing a dress, but I know women like to feel beautiful, and dressing up can help that... I wanted to help you feel that way..." Sally is self-conscious about her past, and I understand her feeling like that after everything she's been through. I like to see her happy, though, and when she was wearing that red dress, she was glowing.

She looks at me with love and is on the verge of crying. This isn't something that I wanted. "You can't just say things like that without letting me prepare... Idiot..." She whips the tears from her eyes. "Saying things like that makes me want to cry... No one ever says things so nice and caring for me... The amount of consideration you give me sometimes makes me want to ball my eyes out..." I'm giving the consideration that any person should given their significant other. She doesn't know this is how you normally treat a person.

As this is happening in the border city to the Elven Kingdom, the church is meeting to discuss many problems in the war. The main thing being all the infighting on the human's side. Many conflicts shouldn't be happening. All of this is causing the monster hordes to gain more and more ground in the war. Since the war started between Zenith and Bellvia, the monsters have taken multiple cities and have captured more women to replenish their forces. Saintess Lucy is leading this meeting and is discussing what needs to be done next.

I look at the holograms of the leaders around the room. Many are looking more and more exhausted as the days go by. The war that's happening between Zenith and Ballvia proves that we're still not united in our efforts to defeat the monster hordes. "There are reports that more towns and cities have been taken. We all know what this means, and I don't like the thought. I suggest we use the new weapons that some of the new people have designed for us." The new people have become an invaluable resource.

Especially the ones that can create weapons that can annihilate mountains. That amount of power requires a lot of responsibility, and we can't just go around using it whenever we want. "The power these weapons can produce is both dangerous and unstoppable. I suggest we take this new push from the monster hordes and test the weapon. To see how viable it really is." I continue to make my case to the rulers still aligned with the church. The Coalition isn't here. They're struggling to hold it together as it is. Ever since Jackson up and left, many have been wanting to do the same.

Zenith is the first kingdom to have independence from the church or the Coalition. It no longer has to answer to a higher governing body. The Pope is here too, but he's quiet. Ever since he's announced his retirement, he hasn't been that active in the discussions. All the leaders and kings in the room nod their heads in agreement, and that marks the first test of the weapon designed by the scientists of the new people population. The meeting ends, and I make my way to my chambers. It's time that I take a break. I need it after all the shit that's happening.