Reality Check, Return

Upon waking up, Joe continued to sit down. He slept while sitting, so he felt a little uncomfortable.

After a few minutes, he soon realized that Amelia was still sleeping on the table. He had an uncontrollable urge to do something unspeakable; Think about when his life went wrong.

'Did my life ever go wrong? Well, it obviously did since I'm sitting in a chair with an injured thigh with a woman I only knew for a day.'

Joe made a thoughtful expression at that.

'Oh right, I gotta stay a virgin or I lose my powers...'

His face fell slightly upon this thought, even though he wouldn't have the courage to do anything anyways.

'I'm meeting more beauties that I ever have before, and yet I can't do any of them! Not that I have any chance though... Maybe if I become a strong cultivator...'

Joe's face fell. He soon remembered what he read in the second volume.

'Wizard cultivation is fundamentally different than regular cultivation, in the fact that regular cultivation requires much greater physical talent.'

He knew, with his average physique, he would probably be limited to a Core Formation cultivator.

These thoughts continued to flash by his mind for several minutes, before he began to question the course of events that happened recently.

'Why would the System self-destruct instead of just escaping? Why did I need to root out the System? Why didn't Jack bring me to see the Immoral Wizards?'

Thinking them over for what seemed to be hours, but was actually a few minutes, he came to several conclusions.

'The System self-destructed because it saw me as a threat to the Ancient Invaders. Or maybe it didn't really self-destruct and only escaped. It might still even be in my head! I shouldn't just blindly trust Jack! I never would have sensed it if it didn't reach out to me first!'

Joe came to conclusions that were slowly escalating in terms of craziness, before choosing to accept that the System may still be inside him, lying in wait.

Several minutes passed with no sign of Amelia waking up yet, so Joe continued to contemplate his life. After several more minutes, he came to a few more conclusions.

'I had to root out the System because Ancient Invaders would find me because of it. Jack didn't take me to see the Immoral Wizards because he thought I was just a regular System Holder.'

After coming to the most plausible conclusions he could think of, he decided to go back to sleep after using so much brain power.

Just as Joe was about to go to sleep, he heard a slight creaking noise. It was Amelia getting off of her table. Joe opened his eyes, only to make eye contact with Amelia. They stared at each other in silence. Joe made the first move.

"So, where are we?"

He felt it was about time to figure out where he was.

"We're in the bookstore. This is the backroom."

"I see... So do you wanna come to the Wizard continent now or...?"

"I mean, whenever you're ready..."

This back and forth continued for a while, before Joe finally realized something.

'Wait, would anything change if I tried to take two people at once? Could the handkerchief take it?'

Upon this thought, Joe decided not to take any chances.

"Alright, we should go right now in case anything happens, but let me do something first."

Amelia agreed, and so she sat on the table while watching him.

"Are you just going to watch me...?"

"I don't see why I shouldn't."

Joe coughed awkwardly before taking out the handkerchief from his space ring. Amelia's eyes seemed to glow at the magically appearing handkerchief.

He took some space elements out of his heart magnet before trying his best to stuff them inside the handkerchief. They flowed inside without a problem.

When Joe felt that the handkerchief was full, he turned to Amelia.

"Alright, let's get going now. Here, hold onto the handkerchief."

He held onto one side of the handkerchief while passing her the other side. Upon feeling her grip the handkerchief, he activated the device.

The handkerchief began to darken in color, turning void black. Their hands were touching the handkerchief, and so they began to shuttle through the void instantly.

This time, Joe decided to do things a bit differently. He consciously activated his heart magnet, so as to absorb more elements. Purplish black dots began to gather around him.

To stop Amelia from possibly appearing somewhere away from him, he grabbed her hand in the vortex. Her face showed her nausea from the rollercoaster ride that was spatial teleportation. Things were much more turbulent than before, probably because of his lacking experience.

What seemed to be a few minutes later, Joe and Amelia arrived at the plaza Joe first arrived at.

'I guess it's destination locked.'

He walked around since he could walk now, albeit with a slight limp, while holding Amelia's hand to look for the Tower he was previously in. He retraced his steps to the alleyway where the battle broke out.

He put a hand on his chin, stroking his imaginary beard, while looking up at the sky. He estimated the distance of the Towers he could see. Each one was about a kilometer tall and about three hundred in radius.

He looked to the east, before finding the closest tower. Dragging Amelia along the way, he walked over to the nearest Tower.

Looking inside and seeing the familiar surroundings, he looked at the people. There was a different receptionist, but maybe it just wasn't his shift yet.

He walked up to the receptionist, and asked for Arkan.

"Hello. Can I see Arkan?"

Joe didn't quite know what tone to speak in with this receptionist, so he just spoke politely.

The receptionist nodded, before taking out some kind of horn shaped device and speaking in it.

"Hello, can we get Arkan down to the lobby?"

Joe didn't quite hear what the horn replied with, but the receptionist gave him an affirmative answer that Arkan was coming down.

He brought Amelia with him to sit down, who had no objections since she was basically a fish out of water around here.

Upon waiting several minutes, Arkan came down to meet them. He walked in front of them before talking.

"Hey! You're back! You took that round trip pretty fast. You could've stayed longer you know? Anyways, you brought a friend! What for?"

Arkan was smiling brightly at them, waiting for Joe's response.

"Well, you see, this lady here wants to become a Wizard. I was hoping that she could find somebody to learn from..."

"Why not teach her yourself? It'll probably help your mental fortitude, as you're a new Wizard."

"I don't think I could be a good teacher though. I don't really think I can help her with anything..."

Joe put on a self-deprecating expression before Arkan spoke again.

"Wizard teachers don't really have to do anything really. All you need to do is suppress mental bottlenecks. They occur when the will of the absorbed greatly differs from the absorber's. Like, if a pacifist were to absorb the memories of a bloodthirsty killer. These things can happen right under one's nose, so, it's good to have a stronger friend who can suppress these loose wills."

Arkan smiled at them. He spoke again before they had a chance to reply.

"So, do you need separate rooms, or are you going to be living together? Living together is a more conducive environment for teaching after all, since it would be easier to share Scriptures that way. And, it would probably be better to temper your will."

Arkan directed the last sentence at Joe, who seemed slightly restless.

"T- Together it is. It should be easier to teach that way."

Amelia silently consented before Arkan spoke to the receptionist again. He spoke some words before telling them to follow him.

As Joe and Amelia followed Arkan, they walked back into the elevator.

"Hey, can you teach me how to use the elevator? You did a really complicated thing back then."

Arkan looked at Joe with a surprised look.

"That? I just pressed random buttons. The buttons don't really do anything. They're just there for decoration. You just input where you want to go with a mental command. I was just messing with you."

"Oh... Well what floor am I on?"

"Floor 32."

Joe silently memorized that number before following Arkan out of the elevator. Once getting out, Arkan began to socialize with Amelia. They seemed to get along rather well, but their conversation seemed cut short when they reached the room. It was the same one as before.

The two of them waved their goodbyes to Arkan, before walking inside. The place was untouched, or so it seemed. Joe asked her to find a chair to sit down on before seating himself at a table.

When she sat down, Joe began to speak.

"Alright, I'll start teaching now."

Joe pulled out a thick, old book while speaking.

"This, is the first volume of the Virginity Scripture, and this is where you begin your cultivation journey..."