Novaris. Septer. 905. AGC.

  Nodel. Last Quarter ??. Days 23-24.

  As the training continued for the party and Arelion regained full consciousness, the party began to hear rumors around the city. These rumors were, of course, about a certain expedition and the Adventurers Guild's participation in said expedition. The rumors ranged from having the Adventurers Guild bring in adventurers from outside the city to possible dates for the expedition's start. Granted, none of the rumors seemed to be true, but they did begin to spark conversation among the adventurers of Wildwood. In particular, one conversation sparked by the rumors was between a set of twins.

  Like they had done plenty of times before, but this time with Jasmine sitting comfortably inside their tree, as she and her brother had a conversation. Their argument was sparked by the latest rumors, and had them questioning whether they should reveal themselves to the rest of their party. Not just bringing in Tesilim and Lili into the fold, but showing Alyx and Rose what they called their mini-avatar states during a full and new moon. Furthermore, they wondered whether it was prudent to tell Alyx about the World Crystal, given how involved the gnome was becoming in their lives and their issues.

  Previously, they had dismissed the argument because the expedition was rather far away. However, with the latest rumors, it was inevitable that the party talked about their plans for the expedition. These talks then led Alyx and Rose to exchange glances with them, and eventually, the two siblings couldn’t ignore the subject, which led to their current discussion.

  “We still have time,” Arelion mentally told his sister. He had warmed up to the idea of revealing themselves as of late, finding that it wasn’t such a bad thing. The problem was that he was still skeptical about trusting people, and his worries about getting exposed were rather valid.

  “Sure, we do have some time, but there are other problems with our situation. Must I remind you about our dual identity in the guild? What if they start asking why someone who isn't registered for the expedition is on it? Not to mention that we won’t be able to hide ourselves during a full or new moon. More importantly, what if Lili and Tesilim don’t like that we hid this for so long or don’t want to deal with our problem once they realize it's on a bigger scale than some wacky magic!?” Jasmine finished, almost yelling, as she became slightly irritated.

  “Alright, alright, you have made a good few points. Still, I feel like we are really exposing ourselves here, with no guarantee of safety. I mean, we know them, but we haven’t been with them for long. What if Lili or Tesilim decides to sell us out? I don’t think they will, but still,” Arelion told his sister calmly, trying to calm her down, but also attempting to get her to see his point of view.

  Hearing her brother's words, Jasmine sighed, knowing he had a point, a rather shaky point, but one nonetheless. “Alright, what if we ask them to sign a contract?”

  “We can ask, but it doesn’t mean they have to do it; it is a stretch. Though not a big stretch since we won’t be asking them to do anything but keep things a secret. Of course, there is the dangerous side of things when dealing with the two churches, but I think Tesilim will see it as a fair trade, considering he has and will continue to place us in danger.”

  “What about Lili?” Jasmine asked, noticing Arelion had left her out.

  “She, I can’t say much about. An elf doesn’t live that long without getting some baggage and plenty of experience, and considering we know less about her than anyone else, I am not sure how she will react. However, something I can say with confidence is that if Tesilim is on board, she will likely follow.”

  “Hmm, you have a point. We know some things about her, but considering she has lived that long, we don’t really know much of anything. Do you think she knows? After all, she must have sensed the power in our magic, unless she rarely encounters divine mana?”

  “I think she is aware of our partial divinity, but considering she wants to keep her own secrets, she isn’t keen on putting us in the spotlight. Of course, it is possible we are simply descendants of celestials, and considering magic can create many things, our existence might be dismissible.”

  “True, by the way, Ar, now that we are on the topic, did you notice we don’t know her name, or at least her full name?” Jasmine said, trying out a nickname for her brother.

  “Yeah, now that you mention it, Jas, I do wonder if Lili is her full and only name. I doubt it, but it could be,” Arelion replied, Jasmine feeling the amusement as he also tested a nickname.

  “Ugh! We derailed our conversation. So, what are we going to do about our situation? Are you finally going to agree that it's best we tell them or what?” Jasmine told him, annoyed that she had lost track of things.

  “Maybe, give me a little more time, maybe if they agree about a contract, I will be more open-minded about it,” Arelion told her, and considering how far he had already come from outright denial, she decided to wait a little bit longer.

  ***

  During their week of training, something had been building up, and it was finally time to release it. That's right, Tesilim's Chaos Mana had reached near full capacity once again, and on the 23rd, they knew it was time to unleash some more chaos into the world.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Not needing to spend as much time convincing Jasmine and Rose, it didn't take long for the party to arrive at the designated spot. Of course, they were all fully geared up and ready to battle something of reasonable strength, as well as ready to turn around and run at the slightest sign of anything insane happening. However, according to their chaotic elf, he would keep things simple. The hope was to minimize the dangers they would have to face, even though they knew it was all rather random. That said, many of them, excluding Tesilim, were hoping their elf would be turned into some random household object. Meanwhile, Tesilim had the complete opposite hope, and he dearly wished that his friends were the ones who turned into something he could abuse.

  The time finally came, and Tesilim chanted yet another illusion spell, this time looking to create a simple wooden chair. Naturally, jokes had been made that the chair would be a mimic and possibly chase the elf around. Yet the chair slowly came to be, and once it was complete, the message popped up as Tesilim waited for whatever was going to happen.

  ?? Crystal Notice ??

  Warning! Chaos Event Imminent, prepare yourself.

  Rolling d20. Overridden.

  ??

  A few seconds turned into a few dozen, which turned into a few minutes as the party continued to wait for something to happen. However, as they looked around for something to occur, from a chicken falling from the sky to Tesilim turning into a toad, they found nothing. Now, many would think that nothing happening would be better than something happening, and those people would be wrong.

  See if something did happen, then the party could have relaxed sooner, as they would have known what Tesilim had caused. However, they could only stay still and tense as they waited—waited—for something—anything. The waiting was torture because they didn't know if something had happened, and they just couldn't see it, which made things much worse. This led the entire party to change clothes and, essentially, undergo a full investigation of themselves and their surroundings. Then, once they had found that nothing was different between them, there was no singing, no body part shrinking, no random transformations into smoke or dirt; they bolted.

  The natural conclusion was that if they were ok and the nearby surroundings were ok, then the only worry was the city. As they ran at full sprint, their Body Enhancements at their max, it didn't take long for them to arrive at Wildwood. Yet as they arrived, they couldn’t see anything wrong with it. The guards seemed rather calm, staring at them and then at the forest as if expecting a monster to appear. However, when a minute passed without incident, they looked at them with strange expressions.

  “I mean, it's still there,” Tesilim pointed out, having expected the city to disappear.

  “True, and there isn’t a mountain on it or smoke and general chaos,” Lili added.

  “What if everyone were turned into frogs or goats, and the guards out here are fine because they were outside the walls?” Jasmine said mostly jokingly.

  “I don’t think that’s possible, is it? I mean, that would be huge magic at play. Oh gods! They are definitely all frogs! I need to see this!” Alyx shouted once he realized that was the scale they were working with, and he sprinted towards the gate.

  “Tesilim, I have to say, your magic would be amazing for pranks,” Rose told him, placing her gauntleted golden hand on his shoulder before they all walked after Alyx.

  No one had believed Tom when he had told them that his wonderful ale barrel had come from the sky. That had annoyed him because he had shared his ale out of eventual kindness, yet they had called him a madman. Because, sure, even though people could throw fire, lightning, and summon things out of nowhere using magic, suddenly, a barrel falling out of the sky was simply out of the question. Did they realize that their entire empire was focused on this, and that if he had gone to a researcher, they would likely have looked into it? Of course, they would have first put him through various truth tests, among other mental trials, but eventually they would have.

  The thing was, Tom was too lazy to go to one of the large towns to speak with a researcher. This was especially so when his delicious ale finally ran out. It also helped that the other guards and village folk stopped calling him crazy, and things returned to normal. Of course, that had taken a few months, and naturally, right as things had finally calmed down, another thing came out of nowhere.

  Tom had been on patrol, doing a round on the outer edge of the village, when a slight glint of metal caught his eye. Going towards the glint, Tom carefully approached the area and was surprised to find a small bluish metal box. Although Tom's Presence wasn't the strongest, given that he wasn't the most trained individual, he could tell with a probe that this box was a magical item. The fact that it was instantly made Tom weary, as magical items weren't left in the woods for lowly guards to find. And yet here was this magical item, seemingly left alone, with no owner in sight.

  No, Tom wasn't being disingenuous when he said there were no owners nearby. He had looked around the forested area, and there were no signs of any travelers that might have passed by. At that point, it was tempting to take the item for himself right then, but even as a poor guard, Tom was an honest man and not the type to go around stealing. That said, he wasn't an idiot either, and if he showed up in town with a magical item claiming it had no owners, people would begin to lie out their teeth to get their hands on it.

  At the same time, if a guard showed up with the magical item that he claimed he had found in the forest, people would start asking questions. After all, no one would believe that he had actually found the item, and people would assume he had taken it from someone. Of course, there would be no proof of this someone, which would just lead him into a deeper hole of problems.

  Eventually, after finally getting the nerve to grab the small box, the knowledge of the item entered his mind. Apparently, the item was called a Shifter Tiger Four Two Zero, whatever that meant, and he innately knew it was a weapon of some kind.

  With the new information, Tom learned how to use the item, and he quickly shifted it between its four forms. From what Tom could tell, this weapon wasn’t particularly strong, but more importantly, he had never seen anything like it. He had seen weapons that could shift shapes and become other weapons, but none of them looked and worked like the one he held. Honestly, Tom felt the weapon had to come from another world.

  Another world.

  Those words echoed in his mind, and Tom’s eyes went wide. Tom might be an honest man, but he also had some greed in him, like everyone else, and at that moment, Tom knew he could get plenty of drinks if he played his cards right. So, Tom took the cube with plans to visit a researcher, hoping the item wouldn’t bring him too much trouble.