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  Ohey were finally doh the Css Rank Up Trials, Paul and Chris had decided to veside of the territory and into farther, more dangerous areas to hunt for monsters and grow stronger, while als to gather any rare materials they could get their hands on.

  They were also going to help Jese teleport towards Obscuritas through his Special Trait, which allowed him to Teleport between Realms as long as he had a friend added from that one Realm. Paul and Chris instantly found such a power as something fantastic for the exploration of other Realms that were currently inaccessible for the public or just too hard to travel between them.

  "Okay, so are we going to summon this guy, Jese?” Chris wondered. “He hasn’t added me to his friends, though…”

  "Ah, don’t worry about that; I have him added as one of my friends already.” Paul nodded with a handsome smile through Vd’s fwless face.

  “Is that so…” Chris gave him a single, rather emotionless gre. “Ah, how does his Avatar look anyway? I want to see it… you show it to me? I wonder if it's chubby like him IRL?”

  “Uh, ah, this?” Paul showed Chris the avatar of Jese through the Friend List.

  “Oooh?” Chris g the avatar with a lot of attention, squinting his eyes.

  Jese’s Avatar, his pyable character, which he called Ermelinda, was a half-elf female avatar that, showing in her avatar description and information, had a petite build, dark red hair tied into adorable braids, blue eyes, and pale white skin, with freckles around his fad shoulders.

  “What the hell?! She’s way too cute!” Said Chris, gritting his teeth in some sort of jealous anger. “Also a female avatar… Why though? Ah, she’s wielding some weird spear… Made of wood?”

  Ermelinda seemed to be a type of magic spear knight, as she was holding a magic spear made of some type of magic spiritual wood, whose bde was also a strange, red-colored crystal. Her armor was also made of some sort of special spiritual magic wood.

  “Yeah, I’ve heard that Fantasia has different types of materials entirely. Wood is used a lot to make ons and armor, and it be as tough or sometimes tougher than some metals.”

  This only made Vd more ied ierials that could be found in Fantasia. It wasn’t as if there weren’t wood types in Obscuritas either, but they seemed like the normal type so far.

  “Really? Just wood? That’s kind of weird. I hope he doesn’t get one-shotted... At least he won’t die permaly like us, thankfully…” said Chris. “But wood… seriously?”

  “I mean, Fantasia was a whole “magic forest” type of realm, so it was obvious their trees and forests would hold special effects and abilities; armor made of wood seems iing to me, holy,” expined Vd. “Don’t you think so, Camil?”

  “I do! It sounds iing; I want to meet this new friend already! When is he ing?” wondered Camil, who was overhearing the versation while lig a Caramel-covered Blood Lollipop that Vd had bought for her.

  “He’s online right now, and I sent him a message,” said Vd. “So he should be activating his Trait by now- Ah!”

  Ding!

  [Your Friend: [Pyer: Ermelinda Clearvalley] has activated the Trait: {Love Between Realms} with you!]

  [Do you accept to bee the Gate to her Love to this Realm? This will allow the Pyer to instantly teleport to your Location, with a cooldown of 24 Hours to activate again afterwards.]

  [Yes] [No]

  “There it is,” Vd said. “The description is a bit y, but whatever…”

  He clicked [Yes] without hesitation, as a fsh of pink light engulfed Vd entirely.

  “Woah!”

  FLAAASH!

  “E-Eh? Paul?!”

  “Brother?!”

  Chris and Camil panicked as they saw a beam of pure pink light engulf Vd pletely, suddenly shaping into a massive heart in front of him.

  Space within the heart started to be ed and distorted as someone suddenly emerged through the giant portal, as if falling from the skies.

  “Uwaaahhh! I’m falling!”

  “Wait, what?!”

  Vd panicked as a cute half-elf girl fell from the heart above him; he instinctively lifted his arms, catg her before she was to hit the floor and receive unwanted damage.

  “Got you!”

  “Uwaahahah!”

  The girl kept screaming while freaking out, but as the light dissipated, she slowly calmed down, gng at the handsome vampire that mao catch her.

  She immediately blushed as she saw Vd’s face up close, just a few timeters from each other; his charming red eyes, long white hair, fair facial features, and manly aura really caught her off-guard.

  “… You’re… You’re Vd—I mean, Paul, right?”

  “Yeah! Jese, right?”

  “Y-Yes! Hi! Thanks for helpi. e here!”

  Jese didn’t hesitate to give Paul a hug while the vampire was carrying him like a princess, feeling the st of the vampire’s hair, which smelled like roses.

  “Uh? Ah, it’s fine. Gd to have you here…” Paul felt slightly nervous as he was hugged by su adorable girl, he felt the st of her hair, it was like a bunch of flowers with a bit of wet dirt smell.

  "Okay, that’s enough!” Chris quickly snapped, grabbing Jese by the arms and dragging him away from Paul, making him fall to the floor.

  “Ouch… ouch, my butt…” The half-elf girl sighed as she noticed her surroundings. “Ah, you must be Chris, right? Wow, you’re so cute aic!”

  “E-Erotic?!” Chris blushed, using his arms to cover his chest and stomach as if that would do anything. “W-What are you talking about? I knew you were kind of a pervert!”

  “I-I’m not a pervert; it’s what everyone online says, sorry…” the girl slowly stood up. “Phew! So this is Obscuritas, huh? It’s so amazing! It’s really just aernal night with three moons… Ooh?! This must be the famous Elderbridge! So gothid lugubrious! Like something straight out of Bloodborne!”

  She walked around her surroundings, sg the citizens, minding their own business. Various goblins, imps, and the occasional moon elf gred at her with strange eyes; they had never seen a girl with such a vivid skin color and an aura that clearly didn’t belong here; she reeked of wet soil, clear air, ay vegetables to the point it made some people feel sick.

  "Mama, who’s that elf girl?”

  “Don’t look at that, dear.”

  “She smells terrible! Someone should make her take a shower!”

  “Hey brat, stop walking around like that; a carriage is going to run over you!”

  People’s ents about her instantly made Emerlinda shocked, as she ran back to her friends, hiding behind Vd, who immediately made most citizens smile at him and greet him by bowing their heads. By now everyone knew of the “reborn” vampire Prince Vd and all his aplishments, so they respected him greatly and equally feared him as well.

  “T-They’re so mean… People from Fantasia are not at all like them…”

  “I know, they’re like that,” nodded Vd. “Just don’t do that again; you’re sg them. People here are more, well, reserved. They don’t really like extroverts that much. It's just the culture, I guess.”

  “I visited Fantasia in a trial, and she’s n; the people over there are very overly trusting and hey love talking and singing and shouting and everything,” said Chris, nodding.

  “Uh-huh, I suppose that’s ohing you’ll have to mind,” said Paul with a nod. “Ahing… Eh, should we refer to you as a guy irl?”

  “U-Usually when I py, I just go with my… Well, it’s ge, I guess… I-I rolepy as… my character. Jese muttered, blushing while fidgeting with his red braids. “But it’s ok; you also just call me a guy too; I don’t really mind. We know each other outside, so it’s different.”

  "Oh, okay,” nodded Paul.

  “We usually call each other with our other names as well randomly, so we’ll call you Jese sometimes and other times Emerlinda or whatever your other name is,” said Chris. “I hope you don’t mind.”

  “I don’t really mind; this is a whole new Realm for me, so nobody here knows me besides you guys!” Emerlinda said with a cute smile. “Shall we go on an adventure now? I’m excited to see what we could hunt here!”

  "Well, alright, yeah, we were about to do that,” Vd nodded. “We’re pnning to go to the Dark Forest Area farther to the southeast from here. There’s also a Poison S close by, where apparently Argentia inated from? We also go there and hunt whatever we . Chris here wants to befriend a new Spirit you see.”

  “Oh Spirits!” nodded Emerlinda. “I also have a couple; as a Half-Elf I have a Spiritual Heart. The more spirits you tract, the stronger you bee in Fantasia, but there’s always a limit to how many you have.”

  She spread her arms to reveal three adorable spirits of gold, green, and red color. They had small shapes resembling little guys with no facial features besides two dots as eyes.

  “They’re still oage of Spirit Embryo, the you form a Spirit has... It takes a while for them to evolve to the stages,” said Emerlinda. “Do you also have a spirit, Chris?”

  “I got this guy,” said Chris, showing Emerlinda his unique Demonic Harvest Spirit, which was a huge grape bunch of purple, red, and bck colors with tiny horns over every grape and tiny eyes, alongside an “evil"-looking smile.

  “Oh wow, a grape bunch?!” wondered Emerlinda, fasated. “This is so cool! And it’s so different from the rest; my spirits are terrified by it!”

  "Yeah, it’s a Demonic Harvest Spirit, kind of artificial too; Paul made it for me,” said Chris. “He always makes me all kinds of stuff; this spirit was only one of them. These clothes, my ons—he makes me all of that! He’s such a simp, seriously…”

  “U-Uh, well, I care about you, Chris, so I don’t mind making these things for you,” Paul smiled, blushing a bit.

  “W-Wha… don’t say that out of nowhere!” Chris felt embarrassed, c his face.

  “Heheh, so cute!” Emerlinda giggled. “I hope Paul could make me some stuff too! I’m willing to pay, of course.”

  “Well, just because we are friends, I guess I could make you something for free, Jese,” said Paul. “Just tell me what you need, and I’ll get it done in a day or two.”

  “O-Ohh! I’ll think about it then. Thank you!” Emerlinda nodded, feeling lucky.

  They quickly made their way outside of the city, where they were greeted by dozens of crimson-shelled humanoid beetles tending the crops, harvesting, and pnting seeds across the fields.

  “E-Eh? What’s this?” Emerlinda looked around dumbfounded.

  “Those are my summons,” expined Vd. “When you obtain a Territory you gain a lot of bes; one of those is to create troops… These came included with the Territory Hero, Ia, she’s over there.”

  BZZZTTT…!

  Ia flew through the skies, her giant i wings buzzing loudly as she desded in front of her master and his friends.

  “Master! You’re here. Are we finally having a battle?” wondered Ia.

  “Not yet; we’re going hunting,” said Vd. “Make sure to protect the city while we are not around. Mother is busy dealing with the city’s expansion and other things.”

  “Oh… uood,” Ia looked a bit disappointed, but she the end anyway.

  “Let’s go flying; walking is too slow,” said Vd. “Jese, you fly?”

  “I… don’t know,” said Emerlinda.

  “Okay, Camil lift yht?” Vd asked.

  “Sure!” Camil nodded.

  Like that, the group moved across the skies, movihe Dark Forest, a couple of kilometers away from Elderbridge.

  “This is where Dark Spirits Monsters spawn,” said Vd. “Alright… Let’s begin.”

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  Pach