Chapter 102 True World And Old Friend

True World And Old Friend.

[Ace POV],

Branches creaking, leaves rustling, birds singing, and ancient trees taller than skyscrapers appear to be abundant in places as far as the eye can see and beyond.

Sounds a little poetic, but this was the scene that unfolded before my eyes.

After looking behind me to see whether the gateway portal was still there and realizing it wasn't, I shifted my attention back to my environment and took in my surroundings.

We were still in the forest, but comparing this forest to the one we had previously stayed in was like comparing a tree and a plant.

That's right; there is no comparison.

Aside from the tall trees, I could see some mountains in a distance from where I was. It appears like a mountain range is not far away.

"The mana in the air here.....is too dense compared to where we came from," Emma murmured beside me, and she was right.

I'm not as sensitive to mana as Emma, but even I could sense the quantity of mana in this place.

If we were to compare mana using features, the mana in the place we just left could be likened to a lake full of water, while the mana here could be compared to a sea.

It sounds excessive, but it wasn't.

"Let's check the surroundings," I said as I began to move forward. I didn't ask Anna to send a crow out to scout as this was a new and unfamiliar place for me, and I also wanted to explore it myself and examine the surroundings.

As I continued moving among the towering woods, a series of thoughts and concerns arose in my mind.

The most important ones were the most concerning.

'What exactly is this place? Where is this place? And what exactly is the true world? How different is this world from the one we've just left? And, given that this 'world' is still on the same planet, what makes it different from where we just came from?'

These were the thoughts racing through my mind as I walked forward.

Even though the guardian stated that as long as I reach a certain level here, these difficult questions will be gradually exposed to me, I couldn't stop thinking about them. It was primarily due to my curiosity, as well as the fact that I didn't want to be caught off guard by anything due to ignorance.

The scene we saw the most as we slowly moved forward was still the same towering trees and the mountain range that appeared to be quite a distance away from us.

Though I don't know where we are now, I could tell that the area we appeared in in the forest was pretty deep, and glancing at the sunrise with a hand over my eyes to hide the weak sun rays that beamed on me, it seemed to be early dawn.

It's a new day, and it's the eighth day since I awoke from the transparent crystal.

As I was contemplating these thoughts, I felt my hand shake as Anna's faint voice softly called my name.

"Ace," she continued as I turned to face her, wondering why she had called me.

"My hand," she whispered weakly, adding, "you're still holding my hand," she said as I realized I hadn't released my grip on Anna's hand after we crossed the gateway portal.

When I noticed this, I subconsciously squeezed my left hand, which was still holding Anna's hand in a handhold style with our fingers intertwined.

I chose this style when holding Anna's hand before crossing the gateway portal because I didn't want the reason for us to be separated was because our physical contact was strong enough for the gateway to identify us as one.

I also held Chris' hand like this while he held Emma's hand and Anna held Mia with her other free hand. This is how we passed through the gateway portal, and it seemed that even though I let go of Chris' hand, I still grabbed onto Anna's.

Perhaps I was distracted.

"Eh?!" When I subconsciously squeezed Anna's hand, she gave a small shout, which puzzled me as I was confused by her reaction.

Seeing this, I lightly squeezed her hand again out of curiosity, only for her to emit another short shout as she forcefully removed my grip on her hand and flashed me a resentful look at me as she muttered something.

"Pervert," she murmured as she ignored me and quickly left my side. When I saw this, I was perplexed once more, and I turned to Emma and Chris for help, only to discover that their attention wasn't even on me in the first place, as they were busy observing their surroundings.

Seeing this, I decided to disregard the minor event and focus on the surroundings.

'I'll tell Anna to send a clone out to scout later,' I thought as I continued moving with the team after observing the surroundings for a moment.

Though everything looks to be fine now, I am certain it was only temporary.

Because of the area where the portal dropped us, we started with certain disadvantages right away.

There was the part about there being little to cover for us in this place, and the part about it being an unfamiliar territory didn't help.

It was because of the unfamiliar terrain, I classified this location as dangerous.

As I reflected on this and other things, I decided to check my status I hadn't viewed in a while.

........

[Status],

[Name: Ace Blaze [Yet to evolve]],

[Age: 17],

[Race: Human [Homo sapiens]],

[Level: 25[26][+]],

[Job: [Alchemist lord[55.8%]],

[Store],

[Title: None],

.......

I had already done half of my job quest criteria, which was the easiest of them all, so I needed to focus on the difficult ones.

.....

[Kill Unranked Monsters using Magic: [100/100]✔

[Kill Rank 1 Monster using magic: [0/50]],

[Kill Rank 1 Monster with the aid of Alchemy: [0/30]],

[Kill Rank 1 Monster with a single hit with the aid of Alchemy: [0/1]],

[Time Limit: 47 Days: 15 Hours: 27 Minutes: 44 Seconds],

....

Now I had to deal with monsters of rank 1.

'It would be good if I could start with a very weak one,' I thought, even though I knew it was unrealistic.

After viewing the changes in my status, I decided to submit my still-active quest and collect the rewards.

'I wonder what the reward will be,' I thought, but as I was ready to finish my quest, a loud screech above my head interrupted me.

As our gazes connected, I realized the creature making the noise was an old friend.

[Rank 1 Fire Eagle level 27],

'I wonder if it's fate but you're perfect', I thought as I started to coat my hands with blue fire.

.....

If you want to support me, use your golden tickets and powerstones.

Do you like it? Leave a review and add it to the library!