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  Moving silently through the nature preservation he had been hiding in, Eldrian returned to the city, Langaria, for the first time in months. Like most fugitives he kept himself covered, the clothes he wore he had naturally stolen since he couldn't exactly buy anything now.

  Returning to Elton Park the memories of the time with Jen and his mental breakdown returned. Eldrian smiled as he recalled that time, at how back then it had seemed like the world had come crashing down.

  Looking back, wasn't that an overreaction?

  "Situations forms and transforms……" Eldrian muttered and did the normal scan to make sure they were alone and not being followed.

  This was another bit of spirit magic they had learned to use, or maybe it could be considered more an ability. The difference between those two things was still a bit hazy.

  As with meditation, Eldrian closed his eyes and focused. But instead of looking inwards, he looked outwards. He sensed the grass under his feet, the wind from the right, lifting up his hair. He sensed the nearby trees and flowers, smelt them even.

  Sending his consciousness further he surveyed the entire park, 'no one suspicious'.

  'Two, can you maintain our surveillance?'

  'Of course,' Two quickly took over and focused on taking in everything, all the little details and all the little movements of everyone and everything.

  It went without speaking but this task was quite draining and they could only maintain it for a certain amount of time, and certainly not during a stressed situation.

  Taking a deep breath, Eldrian slowly moved toward Jen's commune. He didn't quite know what to say. Standing in the shade of a nearby tree, he looked at the place. Nothing seemed to have changed.

  'Is she inside?'

  'Yes……'

  'Alright, here goes nothing.' Closing his eyes to increase his concentration, Eldrian followed Two's guidance to find where Jen was. She was currently busy reading, no, staring at a book.

  'Jen…… Don't move, don't act strange.' Eldrian sent a simple message, the slight jerk of her hands confirmed that she had heard it.

  'Sorry about being gone for so long…… Things went South and shit hit the fan in tons. But, I'm alive.'

  Jen crumbled a few pages as tears filled her eyes, she wished to run to her brother. To say something, anything. Yet, she realized that she was likely being monitored.

  'I-I…… I just wanted to let you know that I am safe, and…… I am going to start fighting back now. We can't talk directly, and I don't want to endanger you, nor mom and dad……' Eldrian wiped the tears from his eyes, grinning like an idiot.

  The relief he had that she was alright was too great to be put into simple words. His worst nightmare was not a reality. Life could go on.

  'Please don't play the game for the next week or s- Ah, I see you destroyed the headset.' Eldrian smiled, for some reason that made him smile even more.

  'Be safe……' With that, he turned around and headed to Erik's……

  'Seems that they don't know how close you are with Erik.' Two commented as they made their way to his place.

  At Jen's, there had been two people monitoring the house and a bunch of hidden cameras. Eldrian had wanted to destroy the cameras, especially those installed in terrible places.

  He only managed to stop himself since doing something would inform Miracle that something strange was going on. While he hated the idea of leaving those cameras be, he had no other choice.

  Erik's place had no surveillance, or at least Two and Eldrian couldn't find any. Waiting for Erik to return, the two welcomed him inside his own room.

  "El-!" Grasping his chest and breathing deeply to recover from the shock, Erik looked at his dead friend who was waiting for him in his room, somehow.

  "I know, a lot happened." Eldrian smiled.

  "No kidding, since when do you have white hair and elf ears?" Erik replied while taking a seat on his bed.

  "That…… Yes, it happened over the past few months. Not sure why or how, likely something to do with me being connected to the game."

  "Connected with the game?"

  "Yeah, there's a lot I need to fill you in on." Eldrian nodded and gave Erik a quick recap of his escape and hiding for the past months.

  "If that's all true- How did you manage to avoid the army and Miracle's search?"

  "That, that isn't as easy to explain. It was first like intuition or instinct, warning me when I am nearing danger…… Over time I slowly managed to gain better control over it and I am now more or less able to control it."

  Erik nodded and fell back onto his bed and let out a long sigh. "So, magic is real and on Earth too?"

  "Yeah, but mana is different. It's lacking and unstable compared to ANW."

  "Yeah, I thought it might be. So what's your plan exactly? You wouldn't have come here if you didn't have one."

  "I'm not sure of my end goal, but for now I need to get back to ANW."

  "Right……" Erik frowned, "Have you heard what happened?"

  "What?" Eldrian got a bad preminission.

  "Around two months after you- The invasion picked up even more speed. Amrough was destroyed as were Pediades, Livadi, and Nothernian; near Kynigo. Diades and Kynigo are under siege and all in all the kingdom is barely managing to hold its ground. It feels like the most they can do is delay the inevitable."

  "Hows-"

  "It's bad, last time I talked with Ilmadia she said that all the forts surrounding Kynigo has fallen. Pyknos Fort seemed to have become the base of the undead."

  Eldrian sighed, all that work. In the end, they still lost the forest and many lives along with it. Knowing that worrying would do no good Eldrian simply hoped that his friends in the game were alright.

  "So, what's your plan?" Erik asked after giving Eldrian some time to digest the news.

  "First, I need to see if I will be able to enter the game."

  "Won't that be dangerous?"

  "Most certainly. But, I once was able to directly connect to the game. I think I should be able to again, I just need to find how the connection works."

  "Ah, so you need a headset to figure that out?" Erik smiled and gave his headset to Eldrian without questioning how. He knew better than digging into something he didn't want to be involved in more than necessary. Helping a friend when he could, that he considered necessary.

  "Thanks." Closing his eyes and entering his meditative state, Eldrian focused on the headset in his hands. Exploring every part of it.

  As expected, it had no magical parts to it. It was something made purely out of science. However, its connection to the servers was not through the internet. Eldrian knew this, of course, that was why there was a monthly connection fee. It was also how Miracle had been able to beat lag.

  Miracle had created their own infrastructure for the game, independent of the internet. It was this independent network that Eldrian needed to analyze……

  Erik waited patiently but when an hour passed he felt he should continue with his day. When he returned to his room at night, Eldrian was still busy. However, just a few minutes later he opened his eyes.

  "Did that help?" Erik asked, not understanding what exactly Eldrian had done but not going to try to understand either.

  "Yeah, I should be able to emulate this connection, but…… Nevermind. Thanks."

  Leaving the room in the dark of night, Eldrian pondered on what he had learned. Entering the game was not going to be as simple as closing his eyes.

  'Two, do you think you will be able to handle that?'

  AN: A big thank you to everyone who continues to read and support the story on WN.

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