The cafeteria was surprisingly packed for being so early, but it became obvious why when everyone cheered as Diana came walking into the room behind her younger siblings’ party.

  As Diana started talking to the starstruck crowd, Ivy stuck her head between Ian and Claire.

  “We should probably take this opportunity to grab some food,” she said quietly, catching their attention. “She’s used to dealing with everyone, and she’ll have everything calmed down in a few minutes.”

  Ian just looked at Claire with his shadowy face.

  “You know I can’t see your expression when you have that thing on,” she said with a bemused expression. “She’s right, though, and I’m starving since I had to skip lunch.”

  “Oh really?” Ian said as he followed behind her to the serving line.

  “Yes, really,” she said with a sigh as she started piling food up on her tray. “Peerless is using all sorts of channels to attempt to send you messages. With all the other clans that are also inquiring about meeting with you, I’m worried one will slip through while I try to set up a schedule for you. I need to make sure you have as many options available to you as possible.”

  Ian stopped and looked over at Claire. She was focused on getting the right ratio of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, chicken, and cheese for her salad, but he could see the hints of dark bags under her eyes.

  “Eh, just turn them all down,” Ian said.

  He smirked as she dropped a cherry tomato on the floor. Her face was glued to his shadowy hood. After a few seconds, she leaned in.

  “You can’t be serious, Zero,” she whispered. “Even if you hate Peerless, there are clans from all over the world vying for you right now. You can almost name your price, and you know your true potential is far greater than most can even fathom at this point. You’ve done more in the past few days than most do in years—and that isn’t any exaggeration.”

  “But most clans would need to know who I am, right?” Ian whispered back.

  Claire opened her mouth to reply before closing it. She just nodded and gave him a small smile before saying, “You got me there.”

  Ian chuckled as he finished grabbing his own food and a drink.

  As he sat down next to Claire, he saw the members of Worg’s Fang still getting their own food. Seeing as he had a moment, he turned back to Claire.

  “Besides, Claire, I have the feeling that you don’t want to join a clan.”

  She quickly finished chewing before answering, “I don’t think I would, no.”

  “Would you be willing to tell me why?”

  Claire looked over at their dinner companions gathering their drinks before she turned back to him.

  “Sure, it isn’t anything big,” she said before taking a sip of her beer. “The AO was good to my parents, and they have been good to me. A big part of it is that the AO exists for adventurers. The people who work here care about them, and they come to work every day knowing that the adventurers are making a better world for tomorrow.

  “Clans are different, though,” giving him a sad look. “While there are some that care about their members, like Diana’s clan that was created specifically for her party, most of the others are only about the money or fame. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with chasing either of those things, but there is always the threat of it going too far. Take what Peerless did to you, for example. Things like that help me realize that the AO is where I belong.”

  Ian just nodded and smiled under his conceal skill. Her reasoning resonated with him, and he knew he had made up his mind.

  “Then tell them all that I’m not interested,” Ian said, repeating his earlier sentiment.

  “Ian, I already told you that you need to keep your options open.”

  “Don’t need to. As long as you are willing to be my keeper, I am willing to stay. I trust you, and we both know I’m not really capable of trusting anyone else.

  “Besides, I’ll make a statement during my next dungeon run, so hopefully they will leave you alone. It’s obvious you are spending too much time working.”

  Claire snorted, “Says the man who would spend all day in a dungeon if he didn’t have to meet me for dinner.”

  “Yeah, but that’s fun for m—”

  Ian cut off as Earnest and Liam sat down a few seats away.

  “The food here always smells so good!” Liam said as he started digging into some cheesy potatoes.

  “Don’t mind him,” Ivy said as she came up to sit down next to her brother, leaving a seat between her and Ian. “He’s like a cat. He always acts like he hasn’t eaten in days, even when he has a half-eaten bowl of something in front of him.”

  Liam tried to speak with his mouth full, but the words came out completely incomprehensible.

  “Lamb-Lamb,” came Diana’s voice as she walked up to sit in the seat next to Ian, “Don’t speak with your mouth full.”

  Ian chuckled as Liam’s face flushed in embarrassment. He quickly finished chewing before putting his fork back on his plate and turning to his older sister.

  “Diana! Don’t call me names like that anymore,” he whispered, obviously embarrassed. “I’m not a little kid—I’m even old enough to drink now!”

  Liam grabbed his mug and took a sip before pointing at it.

  Diana just shook her head as she rolled her eyes.

  “The only reason you can drink is because you are an adventurer, and even then, it is only allowed on an AO campus. You’re still only 18, and even if you weren’t, the chance of you ever being able to do anything about me calling you ‘lamb-lamb’ is almost non-existent.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You and your stupid Easy Mode Awakening Challenge make it hard for us normal folk to catch up.” Liam said with a smirk before digging back into his food.

  “Awakening Challenge?” Ian asked.

  Diana shifted her gaze to Ian as she brought her mug to her lips. He saw the mirth in her eyes as she let the seconds drag on before answering him.

  “Are you going to pretend that you don’t know what an Awakening Challenge is?” Diana asked as she put her mug on the table.

  “I have never heard of an ‘Easy Mode Awakening Challenge’, but I’ve seen the results of completing a different one.”

  Diana’s eyes lit up with interest as she leaned towards him, “So your challenge was higher than the easy tier? That had to have been insane! Mine was simple in that I wasn’t allowed to kill anything myself as I leveled to 100, which resulted in an inherent skill that reduced the cost to purchase healing-based spells by 20%. I am told that type of effect, along with a boosted inherent skill, is pretty common.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Ian looked around to see if anyone was listening and was surprised everyone was keeping their distance from his table. Diana giggled as she caught him glancing around the room instead of answering her.

  “No need to worry about everyone else,” she said with a nonchalant wave. “I come here often enough with these goobers that everyone tends to give us privacy while we eat.”

  “That’s fair,” Ian replied. “Is it common for people to have Awakening Challenges?”

  “Common? No. Easy challenges happen to only a single adventurer out of about 10,000, and most people fail the conditions. Mine was easy in that I couldn’t kill monsters myself. There are others that say they have a set time frame or that they can only use certain weapons. That type of thing.”

  Diana looked over at him expectantly. When he didn’t instantly tell her his, she gave him a pout and sad puppy eyes.

  Ian groaned as he began to chuckle, “Fine, fine. Mine was that I gained experience much slower than normal.”

  “I knew it!” Diana said. “You are just like us…wait. Gain experience more slowly? But you are leveling incredibly fast.”

  Ian shook his head and looked over at Claire.

  “It’s up to you,” she said with a smirk. “But I think you can trust Diana not to tell anyone. I’ve known her for years.”

  Diana looked over at Claire and gave her a smirk and a thumbs up.

  “Alright, I can’t give you all the details of my story, because there are people who could probably deduce my identity from it.” He said, getting an understanding nod from Diana.

  He grabbed his mug and took a drink before staring into it. “But I can tell you it was a Hard Mode Awakening Challenge, and it didn’t let me know I had it until I hit level 100 and completed it. Then I received an inherent skill that let me reset my level to start over again without the experience penalty.”

  Ian looked up to find Diana completely frozen, with her wide eyes glued to his shadowy face.

  “Ha-Hard mode?” she managed to get out after a moment.

  When he nodded, she downed the rest of her ale in one go. Placing her mug down, she began quickly talking through her thoughts.

  “Nobody has ever seen, much less completed a Hard Mode Awakening Challenge that I know of…though if they don’t show up like normal ones, how would anyone know if they even had one? Or even if they failed one? Oh, there are so many questions here!”

  “The AO doesn’t have any records of it either,” Claire chimed in. “It was one of the first things I checked when we started working together. Our records show that about one in 10,000 adventurers start with an easy mode awakening challenge, but most fail to complete it and do not get any bonuses. The most common are time based, but we aren’t really advanced enough in terms of gear to help people complete them. Not to mention, Earth’s focus on training doesn’t exist outside of extracurricular activities in school. So, the total number of successful challenge attempts has been very small.

  “There have also only been a few hundred Standard Awakening Challenges recorded, though fewer than a dozen adventurers have ever successfully completed one. Our systems currently indicate that about one in every 1,000 individuals selected for a challenge is given a standard one instead of an easy one. We’ve petitioned the curator for more information, but it told us that it’s different for every planet as the ambient mana skews the odds as it increases.”

  Diana gave Claire a big smile, “I always wished you had been willing to come work for me, though I understand why you won’t. Does that also mean that Zero here is also going to stick with the AO?”

  Diana then glanced sideways at Ian without turning her head away from Claire, causing him to chuckle. She was not subtle, but her humor and straightforwardness were refreshing.

  “I trust Claire,” Ian said, the unseen smile evident in his voice. “Besides, I appreciate what the AO does for adventurers. Claire and I were talking about it earlier, and I agree with why she stays here. Without going into detail, this place is the first home I’ve had in a long time, and the people here are the first actual friends I’ve had in…probably even longer. I’ll do what I can to give back.”

  Diana gave a long, dramatic sigh before giving them both a grin and a wink.

  “Fine, fine,” she said after a moment. “Seriously, though, I’m glad you are. The main reason I had to move on was that there wasn’t anyone for me to group with after I hit level 550 or so. The camaraderie is there at the lower levels, but it gets pretty mercenary in the higher tiers. Quite a few people stop running after their party deals with its first loss, and everyone who tries to progress quickly eventually loses a party member. Those who continue tend to stop making close connections to protect themselves from the inevitable pain.

  “So, you need to be extra careful so we can hunt together when you get high enough. You gotta understand that I am the youngest member of my party, and it isn’t just a couple of years' gap. Some of these folks were around when Vision and the Prophet were still running, and they weren’t young then.”

  Ian’s eyebrows rose. “But they stopped running decades ago.”

  Diana just sighed and shook her head, “They may have stopped decades ago, but they ran for over fifty years. The effect of aging slows down when you break into the mid and high tiers. It’s also normally the point when your body has absorbed enough mana from the dungeon to maintain some of the bolstering effects your stats give you when you leave the dungeon’s high mana atmosphere.

  “Sure, your body refines itself as you progress through the novice and low tiers, but it doesn’t make you considerably stronger than anyone who doesn’t fight in the dungeons. Once you hit ultra tier…well, we haven’t been running the dungeons long enough to see how long it really extends our lives or how strong we will ultimately become.”

  “Yeah, yeah. You are going to live forever,” Ivy said, placing her head on her sister’s shoulder. “We’ll be right there with you. We just need to be more careful—“

  A cheer went up around the room, pulling everyone’s attention. Ian started to look from group to group as he realized they were watching the displays hung for each table group. Turning to the one in front of him, his breath caught as he saw it was playing a rerun of him from earlier.

  As he watched, he saw his daily ‘highlights,’ which almost seemed unreal. While fighting, he didn’t realize how different his movements had become. His spear flashed like lightning, closing gaps and claiming lives before the goblins could react. He closed distances in half the time he thought it had taken him in the moment, letting him dispatch enemies before they could defend themselves.

  His sword skills weren’t polished, but they were much faster than they should be for his level. As he watched, his sword repeatedly flashed out, removing arms and legs. Fights that had felt like they took minutes during the action only took seconds on the screen.

  “What sword are you using?” Liam asked after one of the replays showed Zero bisecting a goblin at the waist. “It cuts straight through those monsters like butter. My sword has a hard time cutting deep enough on the goblin brutes to cause fatal damage.”

  “You are both using the same model of sword,” Diana answered her brother without tearing her eyes from the screen. “It is basic Magisteel, made by infusing low-quality essence stones with high-quality steel. It allows the blade to absorb some of the wielder’s stats to strengthen itself. It only works up to a certain threshold, though. We’ll need to upgrade your weapon and armor when they can no longer gain additional bonuses, Lamb-Lamb.”

  She looked over and gave Laim a smile before turning to Ian. “To anyone in the know, this video makes it very obvious that your stats have already surpassed the capabilities of that sword, which maxes out around a strength, endurance, and agility level of 2500-ish, which is usually hit by adventurers between level 400 and 800—depending on how much of their SP they place into the Enhanced Body skill.”

  Ivy and Liam looked past their sister to stare at Ian with wide eyes. With his level being publicly stated on the leader boards, Ian could understand their surprise.

  “Here it comes!” Ernest shouted from his seat, pulling all eyes back to the screen.

  Ian saw himself shooting up the stairs, two at a time. He heard Diana take a sharp intake as the scene of her sister lying unconscious on the cave’s floor with her brother being pushed back played out. As the spear tore into the goblin getting ready to attack Ivy, a loud cheer erupted from the other tables.

  Details he hadn’t caught before now were obvious as he watched the display in front of him. The goblin Tish had been fighting had staggered her, but before its weapon could smash into the poor woman, Ian’s sword had lashed out as he ran past, removing the creature’s head. As the rest of the scene played, he just watched. It looked more heroic on screen than it felt in the moment, though he probably had the curator to thank for selecting the best angles and clips.

  He’d been ignoring the social media aspect of his career so far and planned to do so for as long as possible. However, the video clip in front of him rivaled those made with a full professional production team, just like the big streaming stars always put out. It felt surreal.

  “ZERO! ZERO! ZERO!” rose a chant from the other tables.

  Ian looked around as the attention became solely focused on him. Unable to respond, Diana and Claire started giggling.

  “Just wave,” Claire whispered.

  Holding his arm up and waving, the crowd began cheering from their tables.

  “Most groups don’t get saved,” Diana said just loud enough for Ian to hear. “Having a double spawn is one of the biggest fears of a small group. Guilds tend to send multiple parties to nearby areas so they can help each other in emergencies, but these groups don’t have that safety net. Right now, to everyone here, you are a hero.”

  It was a sobering thought to Ian, but it was one that he didn’t get much time to dwell on as Liam handed him a fresh mug of ale.

  “Sit down and drink with us for a bit,” Ivy pleaded. “We have so much to celebrate tonight!”

  Diana stood up and pushed Liam down into her vacated seat, “Take the chance to enjoy the evening. I’ll set up a meeting with Claire so we can get together in a less public setting sometime soon.”

  Nodding, Diana said goodbye to the adventurers in the room, hugged her brother and sister, and left the group there to celebrate their day.