Ascension: Online

"Actually, I'm about 324 years old."

Everyone fell silent.

"… Come again?"

"I'm 224," Monica repeated once more. "So no, I am not younger than Elder Zhang."

"Elves have different lifespans compared to humans," Mei'Er explained in her stead. "I'm surprised you didn't know, but in human years… she's approximately 22."

"So it's a roughly 10:1 ratio," I muttered in thought. "I see."

"Huh… it's just that, you seemed so young, I thought…" Ming Yi trailed off, scratching his head awkwardly.

"I AM young," Monica replied with a chuckle. "For an elf, anyway."

After we finished eating, we all went to bed in preparation for the next day.

*****

When we woke up, Hina-nee, Furuwa, Monica, and I set out to do some hunting, since the other four went yesterday. Because we had 8 people, we were going on rotation — 4 people go out to hunt Magic Beasts and Monsters to rack up as many points as possible, and 4 people stay behind to guard the Zone.

I was quite close to reaching Level 50 and hitting the Core Foundation Realm. Once there, I would be able to physically manifest my Essence and wield it as a weapon, which was quite powerful. Naturally, I would also gain an increase to all my stats, but the ones put into LUC would probably all be lost again sooner or later, which was unfortunate.

Most of the Monsters and Magic Beasts we came across that morning were easy to defeat, but that also meant they didn't grant all that much XP. I went from Level 44 to Level 46, gaining 20 SP and 10 AP, but on the bright side, I did get to test out some of my new skills I got yesterday.

Okay, well… not completely. I didn't get to use Blade Barrage or Lotus of a Thousand Cuts yet, since I never encountered any hordes of enemies to use them on.

When it was lunchtime, we returned back to Zone A to grab lunch, then set out once more to do some more hunting. We had the option of going to a different Zone and seeing if we could capture it, but by now, all four Zones were definitely occupied and had their own forces inside. If we tried challenging them, we would only be asking to get third partied, especially given how infamous we were now.

In all honesty, I was quite surprised the other three still-alive groups, one in each of the Zones, hadn't ganged up and came at us together yet. Though to be honest, I had a good idea why they haven't yet — they thought we couldn't catch up with them in terms of mere hunting alone.

This was true, to an extent. They had more people to help one another with, but that help can also turn into stealing kills from one another real quick. Though they are banded together as one allied group, the distinction between teams was still there. Our group, on the other hand, was essentially one massive team.

Ming Yi and Koroth essentially abandoned theirs to join my crusade against Elder Zhang, while Monica was the same. Mei'Er's team was annihilated anyway, so it didn't really matter, but we did take care to let her get plenty of final blows on our hunting excursions. I told everyone else to do that so she could still make it into the sect, but deep down, I knew she would even if all of us just sat back and did nothing.

If we could expose Elder Zhang, the patriarch, who stood behind him, would have no choice but to back down — and the next person in power would be Elder Ning, who was our direct master. She could easily let Mei'Er, Monica, Koroth, and Ming Yi into the sect, so long as the patriarch couldn't veto us.

But still, in order to not miss out on XP and passive stat leveling, I decided to still play along with this exam anyway and hunt down the free EXP roaming around.

"And… dead," Monica said, lowering her bow as she finished the last Cryptospider off who tried to jump at me from behind.

"Good work," I said as all the corpses I killed were converted into XP for me, as did Hina-nee's and Furuwa's.

"Mhm. You're welcome for that, but… why are these corpses disappearing like that?" She asked, confused.

"Uh, that's just a special artifact we all have," I replied. "Basically, it automatically stores anything we kill into a dimensional space of sorts, then neatly organizes them into different components. For example…"

I opened up my Inventory and took out [Cryptospider Legs x1].

"Here."

I lifted the arachnoid leg that just appeared in my hand randomly, and held it up to Monica's face. Her eyes widened in shock before hurriedly backing away a few meters.

"Gah… what is wrong with you…?"

"Oh, sorry… thought you wanted to see," I replied with a chuckle, before storing it back in my inventory.

"Sorry about that, Monica," Hina-nee giggled. "You see, Kaze-kun here doesn't really know much about girls~"

"Huh? Uh… I guess that's true, but I do know some things-"

BOOM!

Suddenly, a loud explosion rang out in the distance, and it seemed to be not too far away.

"What was that?" Furuwa asked, furrowing her brows in caution.

"Not sure… let's go see," Monica said, turning around and heading in the direction of the explosion.

"Well," I sighed. "I feel like there's been a lot of incidences recently where I hear a loud noise, then chase after it."

*****

Soon after, we arrived at the source of the explosion. Two teams of four were currently facing one another, neither of which seem to be winning.

"What's going on here…?" Monica murmured in thought.

"Stay back," I warned, wanting to observe the situation further.

She fell silent and did as told, hiding behind me as the four of us crouched a short distance away to see what would happen next.

"You bastards… this is Zone C hunting grounds!" A boy in the group on the right yelled in anger as an orb of light appeared in his hand, sword in other. He had royal blond hair and striking blue eyes — overall, kind of like the Prince Charmings from a fairytale or whatnot. I wanted to say just your average prettyboy, but he had some spine and seemed to be genuinely fighting for his team, which I could appreciate.

The only thing was, if his strength didn't match what he was trying to do, it was just pure stupidity.

On the other side, a disciple with large, bulging bloodshot eyes and deep black hair similar to my own stood, cackling like a psychopath.

"Zone C hunting grounds? I don't see a sign anywhere that says that."

But then, to our surprise, he suddenly turned in our direction.

"Hey, do you?"

Immediately, the three girls all whipped out their weapons, ready for combat, but I alone stood up calmly and faced him.

"Interesting… how did you know we were here?"

"Heehee! A magician never reveals his secrets," the disciple replied, grinning like a joker.

"Wha… Hina… is that you?" The blond boy from earlier said, turning to us with widened eyes.

Hina-nee heard this and cringed away, not wanting to interact with him. I noticed this and decided to step up in her stead.

"Who are you?"

"I should be asking you that question… why is Hina with you?" He shot right back, clearly agitated. "Hina, why did you just run off forward that day? I kept searching for you but couldn't find anything… I thought you… I thought you died…"

"Hey," I cut in coldly. "Who gave you permission to call her by that name so intimately?"

Hina-nee glanced at me in surprise, as if shocked I would interrupt like this.

The boy glared at me and clenched his sword tightly. "Do I need your permission to call her that?"

I shrugged. "No, but you need hers."

"She told me her name was Sakura Hina-"

"That's not the same as giving permission for you to call me that," Hina-nee finally stepped in. "I merely introduced myself as a formality since everyone else present had done so as well — nothing more, nothing less."

"A-Ah, I see. I apologize, then… what should I call you instead?"

"Nothing," I replied for her. "She wants nothing to do with you, do you understand?"

"Tch… and who are you to decide that for her?!" The boy yelled, directing his anger all at me as he grit his teeth in frustration.

I scoffed. "I'm her brother. Sorry about the cockblock, but I'm not about to hand over my sister to someone like you."

"Kaze-kun…" Hina-nee smiled and giggled softly, throwing her arms around my neck and hugging me from behind. "Thank you~"

This scene only made the boy even more frustrated, but there was nothing he could do except stand there in fury.

"Oh ho ho!" The 'magician' disciple, who had been spectating this display all this time, clapped his hands together. "Well, well, well! A battle between two men over a woman… how marvelous! Hey, Mr. Zone C, why don't you challenge that boy over there? If you can beat him, I think that will prove you worthy enough of his sister."

… Damn you, trying to stir up shit.

The blond boy 'Mr. Zone C', however, seemed to actually buy it, and pointed his sword at me.

"He's right… what's your name?"

I sighed, not wanting to do this. But it was already at this point, so there was no turning back now. If I just turned tail and ran here, it would only invite more trouble further down the line.

Besides… both the magician there and this boy needed a good beating.

I smiled and stepped forward, prying Hina-nee's arms off of me.

"Kaze. Igarashi Kaze."