———Orrel———

  <4: 11 pm>

  “Do we really not have that much else to talk about? Surely that’s not the case.” Malk said, finding the idea of… running out of ideas to be ludicrous in the present day. Indeed, there is still a lot to talk about, it’s just that…

  “Most of the topics we can talk about are disconnected from our daily lives, or too morbid to discuss.” Gregori answered before I could, then went back to stuffing himself full of fries. “But if all of you are a bit too disturbed by the silence, here’s something to talk about. What conspiracy theories were actually true, now that we know magic is real, and some people know and hide that information.”

  …That is a rather infmmatory subject. I doubt any of us have super strong and votile feelings towards those. Hopefully no fanatic is eavesdropping and stirring things up.

  “Umm… The Ice Swo-

  “No.” Qyunda quickly shot Jeff down for bringing that back up. “What about the massive earthquake a year back? It was said to affect literally the entire globe.”

  “Ah. That massive nonsense? I thought it was weird that something so grand happened, yet it felt like the effect was retively muted.” Gregori remarked. “Something of that scale doesn’t happen on a whim. In fact, there are a lot of reasons to believe it couldn’t happen naturally.”

  “If I remember right, there were a lot of nut cases saying it’s the sign of an apocalypse or something of that nature.” Malk recounted. “Certainly fuels a lot of conspiracies of its own, but what would be the case for something like that? Magic?”

  “What else could it be?” Gregori quickly replied. “Earthquakes don’t happen just anywhere, let alone at any time. For something that devastating to happen, something must’ve happened to the Earth itself, something with enough force to shake the Earth itself. Do you realize how absurd that truly is?”

  “The kind of energy needed for that would’ve crushed all of us into paste with no way to resist it. Lest we forget, we are but the tiniest of specks from the Earth’s perspective.” I pointed out. “With hindsight, it must’ve been either a powerful individual, or maybe some sort of aftermath of an experiment gone wrong? The tiny subset of people already aware of magic… No, it’s the Ahdeids, they would have more firepower to cause something like that, accidentally or otherwise.”

  “You want to know how absurd it is that one or two people can do that? It’s like an ant holding a bucket-wheel excavator by its lonesome.” Gregori helped crify the scope.

  “A what?” Jeff muttered, not knowing what he was talking about.

  “Just look it up.” Gregori said, not bothering to expin it himself.

  “Well… Hm. I wonder what the perpetrators are after at this point then.” Qyunda wondered. “Actually. I’m surprised we’re not seeing supervilins at all, be it before or after the Eclipse.”

  “Certainly a tired talking point by now.” Useph chimed in. That is indeed something people have been talking about. The situation is primed for it more than a ‘modern world with dungeon’ kind of story seen in those eastern webnovels, yet it doesn’t happen.

  “If it doesn’t happen before most of the world gets it, then I doubt it will happen now.” I remarked. There was no better time than the centuries of drought without mana being accessible. I think it is fair to say that the concern over hidden tyrants is simply not worth thinking over. We don’t even have an inkling about what they might even do if they try to take over. With the shadow leader over our school… Huh.

  “Now that I think about it. What are these Ahdeids even doing nowadays? No doubt they have had a lot of epic adventures in the past, but what about now?” I asked, just putting the question out there. Perhaps one of the conspiracies or urban legends someone has heard about can be expined away by one of those just screwing around?

  “Hmm…” Gregori mumbled to himself, trying to figure something out.

  “From the way we’re talking about it, it just sounds like they are dicking around, not doing anything important with their power.” Jeff remarked. “Kind of a shame. If I had the power to move continents… Huh. What would I do?”

  “Ah. I see…” Gregori muttered to himself. “Since they are described as long-lived, the expnation is quite simple. A century or two for them doesn’t feel as significant. Perhaps they think they can just wait for a more opportune moment to conquer or spread influence. Jeff’s theory is also pusible. These beings are probably living leisurely, and they have a lot of time at their disposal. They don’t feel the need to prove anything, at least not to us.”

  “Is the school part of that then? A pet project?” Useph asked. “No, sorry. That was obvious from the start, wasn't it? No one but them could’ve renovated the school overnight.”

  “I won’t be surprised if some people forget about it. It wasn’t an event that had a rge spectacle attached to it.” Malk pointed out. Indeed, it happened in a short timeframe with basically no way to realize what was happening until it was over. The result is shocking, but it feels very momentary and therefore fleeting, easy to forget, and just assume it has always been there, maybe a secret project hidden by some unknown underground people, and not something that literally happened overnight.

  “Yeah. I don’t think people realize how ridiculous that truly was…” Useph muttered. “Still, at least it looks like they have our interest at heart. I mean, they didn’t even… you know.”

  “I don’t think their intentions were ever in question… Aside from that one time. Wasn’t it you who questioned it in the first pce?” Gregori called out. Indeed, it was him who started that conversation. Perhaps my conversation with him earlier sparked it, but I never want to actually voice those thoughts out loud.

  Useph didn’t comment and simply stared at us awkwardly. I wonder if he feels guilty about such an accusation, even if he didn’t put much thought into it. They showed us with special treatments, and the assignments are all trivially easy, so trying to accuse them does sound mighty ungrateful.

  “...So why is our neighborhood retively peaceful anyhow? It’s a bit jarring.” Qyunda asked. That does create a weird sense of alienation with the rest of the world with many reports of violence and incidents. For all we know it’s not actually that bad, but since we live in a town without much conflict going on, it’s just hard to comprehend and gauge accurately with words and hearsay. Only way to tell is to go and see it for yourself.

  “Territory, we’ve been over this.” Gregori answered. The concept of a powerful figure already being in control of a nd and managing it with extreme force aimed at those who would threaten their property. “Just be gd we don’t have to actually worry about fending for ourselves. It’s clear someone is going to solve all of those troubles for us while we build up power and techniques so we can actually defend ourselves when the time comes. As for the others who are not as fortunate… I don’t want to imagine what that’s like.

  ———Lerim———

  <4: 16 pm>

  *Swing* *Csh*

  This guy just doesn’t seem to quit. Why am I stuck with all sorts of weirdos? Did I not give all of those a good enough trashing so they won’t bother me anymore?

  “Hahaha! You are still like a beast, beautiful on the outside, yet so ferocious on the inside.” This lunatic said despite the scar I gave him st time still being visible on his face and not fully healed. No sane person would’ve opted for a rematch against someone who did something like that, let alone without it fully healed. “One could say you are the thorniest of roses!”

  “Just get out my way, you creep.” Pretty much the only reason I’m not opting to do something to permanently damage him is because he has only been bothering me, but I have my limits.

  *Dash*

  I choose to run away and get towards the next floor of the dungeon. It would serve as a good way of shaking him off.

  Now this floor is… Right. The mini-boss floor. This looks like if those fucked up short-legged dogs were bigger in sizes with big fangs and ferocious-looking face.

  *Leap* *Bounce*

  I quickly aimed for the side of the room and bounced off the wall to gain enough momentum to get past the boss and went down to the next stairway. The boss won’t pursue me past it, so that should be enough.

  Now whether or not that guy can take this thing on is another question. I could do it no problem and he isn’t weak, so he shouldn’t die from that…

  ———Orrel———

  <4: 19 pm>

  “Now that I think about it, what is stopping people from just… pretending to be normal and only strike when the time is right? It’s not like these Ahdeids can have their eyes everywhere.” Jeff pointed out. Indeed, that is unlikely. Perhaps some of them have special abilities for it, but there is no basis for it, so it’s better to not bring that up.

  “Well considering there hasn’t really been any talk of crimes, it’s fair to say the crooks here aren’t very smart.” Qyunda remarked. Wouldn’t that be nice to know for certain. It is still a fact that the crime rate has been going down instead of up like in a lot of pces.

  “You’d be surprised by how many idiots get away by sheer dumb luck.” Gregori chimed in. “Though who knows how long that’ll st in this day and age where actual fighting power can hold quite a lot of value.”

  “Speaking of that, I wonder if there have been any reports of any crazy acts outside of what we’ve seen for ourselves.” I said, feeling a bit curious. I know there are many blurry videos out there, but those are also unreliable. It’s pretty much impossible to record something that happens at such a fast pace. You need to be there in person to comprehend it. It is hard to comprehend something without a point of comparison, and the best way to compare is to have experience witnessing the two things you are comparing. Then again, even if you have seen both but one is through a screen, it can skewer your perception. I would like to think of myself as someone who knows to keep it in mind, but most wouldn’t…

  “Well, I doubt those guys would let it be caught on camera, whatever outndish thing they’re doing.” Gregori offered his opinion on the matter. One can only wonder what they are all doing at this moment, if they’re even doing anything at all.

  ———Walsuna———

  <4: 20 pm>

  **Punch**

  Both of us hit each other with a punch at the same time, knocking each of us back a little bit.

  *Dash* *Spin* *Block*

  She is the first to make a move once both of us regain our bance, doing a spin kick with an intention to knock my head clean off, but I blocked it with my right arm in time.

  *Grab* *Swing* *Crash*

  I quickly make a maneuver that ends with me grabbing that leg and swinging it and her entire body into the wall, causing it to crack slightly.

  *Grab* *Scrape*

  I then grabbed her by the head and scraped it against the hard wall, digging into it and keeping dragging her into the wall, not giving her enough time to recover and react.

  *Kick* *Crash*

  I then let go and quickly kicked her up into the ceiling, causing it to crack slightly.

  *Bst* *Parry*

  She quickly regains bance and shoots two purple beams of light from her two eyes, keeping herself in the air. I parried it since it’s a weak and unconcentrated mass of energy, meant for distraction more than anything.

  “You think it’s the best idea to ruin a room in your school like this?” She mockingly said as she nded back to the ground.

  “It’s an easy fix, just like your soon-to-be mangled body.” I said with a grin.

  “Hmph.” She didn’t muster any real words, simply smirking.

  *Dash* *Grapple*

  Quickly closing the distance between us but not enough for me to not notice, causing me to react and results in us locking hands, pushing into each other, struggling to overpower the opposition, gripping them tightly and trying to dig into each other’s skin.

  “Looks like your reaction time didn’t slow down with age.” She said with a grin, slowly gaining ground as I can feel my body being pushed back, despite my feet digging into the floor and starting to shatter it.

  “As if I want to hear that from you!” Obviously, I won’t just let myself get overpowered like that, so I am going to resist this the best I can.

  “Huh? You’re actually getting agitated from that? Here I thought the only thing that pisses you off anymore are those mommy issues of yours.” She said, still mocking that part of my life even though it was resolved by this point.

  “Cut the crap. Unlike your puppy love for that devil incarnate, at least I got a good resolution in the end!” I said, mocking how she didn’t even get that much of a closure for all the pains and maniputions she went through.

  *Crack* *Shatter*

  The area around us started to crack and disintegrated from the struggle, as if reflecting how we start to push each other’s buttons. I sure as hell won’t give in so easily!

  *Smash* *Strike*

  “Argh!” She headbutted me during the struggle, causing me to loosen my grip enough for her to retract her arms and swung her fist towards the side of my head.

  *Dim* *Wrap*

  Wrapping me in those shadow tentacles of hers. Get that shit off me!*Shine* *Sptter*

  I let out a good deal of power and broke through it, even pushing her back a few feet in the process.

  Both of us then quickly formed a bunch of magical projectiles aiming at each other. Hmph. How often are we going to mirror each other’s approach?

  ———Orrel———

  <4: 24 pm>

  “Can’t imagine something like that happening in our town at the moment.” Jeff said. Hmm… I suppose that makes sense. If there was a big conflict I feel like we would’ve felt it by now. Then again, maybe they have a good way to conceal it? But we probably would’ve at least heard a commotion or something?