Kasi City(1)

---------Razik's POV---------

I don't know where to point but his behavior is weird from the day he proposed to madam. Susan and asked me to prepare for the north tour.

He never came to college from that day. He only contacted me through the phone and agreed almost to everything I planned about the trip. He did not even attempt the semester end exams but whenever I called, he always gave me a vague excuse and panted like a pig over the phone.

If not for the money he already transferred to my account for tour budget I would have thought he is bullshitting with me all this time. We planned our tour to start on the next day of our last exam, on 13th December 2018, which is today.

Me, Raj and Jagath are waiting for him in the Railway station. All four of us are best friends from childhood. Raj, by career a programmer, silent type with minimal words, Jagath is two years older than us now training for civil services (police officers), very sincere and caring man, Suman is the schemer and the bad apple of our group. As per me, I am the lead captain of the group always cleaning after them and budgeting their overzealous expenses.

"you are thinking something rude, aren't you?" asked Raj from my back scaring the hell out of me, damn his intuition always spot on even though he speaks very little, "Wh... What are you talking about I was just wondering if Suman's going to come or not" I replied?

"Yo! Did you miss me?" called a familiar voice from the entryway, I turned around to rant my anger for his tardiness but the words stuck in my throat after seeing him.

I never would have believed a man could change this much without any plastic surgeries in just a month. Of course, he is Suman and not like I am saying that he got another dude's face or anything but his whole body is like underwent a qualitative makeover.

The juvenile fat on his face is nowhere, his hands are filled with muscle shown out from his sleeveless shirt, not the beefy and bulky muscle like the ones Jagath has from his weight training and all of his police training, but the sleek and slender muscle wanting to erupt with an explosive power hidden within.

I looked at my sides to see two identical expressions mirroring my own from Raj and Jagath and not just us, two female students standing little away from us are peaking at him. While waving towards us, he is checking out the female students peaking at his exposed muscles and winked at them flustering the two girls, who scurried away.

'haa(sigh)...how I dream to punch his laughing mug,' I thought inwardly. The first to break the silence is Jagath, "Hoh!!? I didn't know you are into bodybuilding these days" even though we are besties, only me and Suman go to same class in the same college as biochemical engineers while both Raj and Jagath pursue their own careers, so it's been a while we gathered together. Don't know how they will react if I told them that all of his changes are made from the last 30 days.

"Nah, just working out these days to pick some girls, " replied Suman with his usual mischievous smile.

I said with a stern expression, "you know you came later than the scheduled time right? " to which he replied, "Come on, everyone knows trains in India are always late by at least 10 minutes unless they are local express".

"ok, here's the deal let me punch you on that face once, " I said with a frustrated voice and Jagath mediated to calm us down," HAHA alright calm down you guys it's about time for the tr-".

chime-chime...*Sfx for train whistles*

"Alright let's move, " said Raj standing beside Suman like telling us he is also here. Suman laughed to that and ran to the slowing train with his back bag followed by us.

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-------- Suman's (MC) POV, on 17/ decrmber /2018--------

We tour for almost a week now visiting four places one after another without rest and at present on the train to Kasi city where we are about to rest for two days, after that we will reach Agra by 20th and Dehradun by 22nd and watch two more places by 26th and reach Manasarover in Himalayas on 27th where we will trek and camp on until 29th December morning and return to Delhi for new year.

A few hours later we lodged in a hotel, went on around in the city for shopping local goods and came by at night to sleep in our lodge. On the bed, my thoughts wandered to the past, even though E-day is approaching near I am in no particular hurry because I know this is going to be my last leisure trip. After this, no human can have peace or leisure if I don't complete my next mission in the Himalayas.

When I think back, Raj died on the E-day on his way to home in a car accident and Razik on the day after that killed by a mutant dog, we were ill prepared and clumsy at our own survival. Only Jagath survived for few years in guardian class(shield bearer) because of his innate gift's and his earth attribute's sync.

Right, after E-day everybody got a status window with which we can choose a class and also along with it very few people got innate talents like superpowers in X-men movie or passive talents like mine which don't help directly but advantageous in the long run and many to have an elemental attribute we can train in to control natural elements like fire, water, earth, wind etc. and many other attributes. My talent was 'sword heart' with darkness attribute, which is corrosive, hard to heal and increases my stealth ability very much.

Initially everyone gets a normal class like warrior(berserker, guardian), Knight, Mage, Ranger, Palladian, healer, and many RPG classes and for craftsmen alchemist, blacksmith, wine-maker, cook, pharmacist/herbalist and all but as we train ourselves with our attributes and skills, some triggered rare and unique classes by fulfilling certain conditions. I fulfilled a requirement for a unique class called 'shadow swordsman' in my past life and used twin swords. There are even people who are qualified for legendary classes in my colleagues in my end days, which comes with many advantages

Maybe it would have been a cool class like 'shadow reaper' or 'shadow assassin' if I had used daggers instead of swords with my darkness attribute but my innate talent is 'sword heart', a passive talent which makes me feel the sword as a part of my body like a hand, one of the reasons I survived in the earlier days after E-day and helped me comprehend dao/law of sword in my later levels.

Next day on 18th is a rest day, we can go wherever we want or rest in our rooms. this is also the day I have been waiting for. In the past when half of the north was flooded only Kasi remained safe because of a mythological artifact, it also stored all the dead souls and their anguish died on E-day in the form of death flames that can burn anything even 'the guardians'. and there is also rare class holder who qualified the requirements on the E-day itself here in Kasi that I have to meet tomorrow.