Nowhere and Somewhere

Even Dhvani felt that reply was bad. It was good considering it made the girl furious and confused. Did he think she wanted to ask him a game recommendation here? Wow, his love life would be seriously affected if he had this attitude.

["Host, you could date that girl."]

"Why? I have enough troubles to deal with. Dating will just add to it."

He was right but he could at least gently tell her that instead of making her puzzled.

["You could tell her that, host."]

"System, you don't know humans. Telling gently would only increase their competitive spirit. I'm not some kind of trophy. There are many girls here and honestly, their stares are scaring me. If they wanted to be my friend, I can agree. But dating and relationships are a big no from me."

["But your answer was weird."]

That seemed to flick a switch.

"It was a game I really made. I thought some would use fate, destiny, or sam hobbies to initiate conversation. And my information is well known. I play games and have a study app-based company. But very few know that I also own a gaming company. It was easy to make games. So easy publicity, right? These people including the lady will check if I made up that game and boom instant publicity. And they would label me as some kind of weird or innocent boy who hadn't adapted to rich life. This would make rumors about me easy to deceive people and I can just take them by surprise when they underestimate me later in business deals. Awesome, right? This would also solve people wanting their daughters to marry me. And they would again focus on the other heirs. I call this a three-way approach."

Dhvani felt her mind was short-circuited. This kind of in-depth analysis really stumped her. While she was still thinking, he continued his speech.

"And I think what rich and excellent people like is people like them. They like smart people. And a person like me who doesn't understand social cues, would not be able to cause a wave in their circle. That would take me off their radar. If I was as excellent as they had thought, they would pile up a godly image. But if I'm not good even slightly, it would shatter their expectations. It's how the human mind works. We tend to imagine without knowing completely. That's why stars and idols don't reveal their real persona. I believe that high expectations would lead to an even higher fall."

Is that weird that it made some sense to her? She thought that she would influence not the other way around. Anyway, his marital status wouldn't affect the mission. But in a way, it is good that he was alone. That way he wouldn't have to think about reasons for hiding her existence.

So she quietly reminded him about the recent task.

["Host, you have an unfinished task."]

"What task? You never told me?"

He forgot the task. She thought waking him up from sleep would definitely make him remember it. She did not mind reminding him again.

[System Task: Make a new spell]

[Reward: Breath-holding pill]

"What? Spell? I could try this."He nodded.

While he was thinking, he reached a corner and found a hidden wooden door which was hidden by beautiful creepers. He went in and found three guys sitting on the bench. He momentarily wanted to leave but considering it was his home, he didn't have to. They didn't give him that choice, though.

One of the guys stood up and stretched his hand for a handshake. Ajay, the ever-polite person, shook hands with him.

Then the guy started talking. Sometimes the quiet-looking ones are the most talkative. This was proven when the three were introduced.

The first guy had standard black hair, and brown eyes, with a smile on his face. He was the son of a large conglomerate that dealt in the medical industry.

"I am Vihar, these two are Akash and Garv."

Akash was the tallest among them all. He had silver hair and green eyes and these features were the signature of the Pawan Group family who dealt with aviation. Garv was the stoic guy in its group with kind blue eyes and silver hair. Only the members of the Pawan group who could have air magic had silver hair. Also, Garv and Akash were cousins. Akash's dad was Garv's uncle. And Garv's family was in the shipbuilding industry. His father was a water magic user but sadly his sons did not inherit his ability.

Though Garv had a one-year-old niece so he pinned his hopes on her. Although she also had silver hair, without testing her magical abilities, the old man did not give up. Dhvani felt he was waiting for disappointment.

Ajay felt this trio was good because they complimented his games. Ajay had developed RPG games set in a magical world where you could upgrade by making your own spells. The difference between the game and his real life was that common people did not know the existence of the magic element. He also did not know and neither did his adoptive father. But when he was tested and was found with sky ability. It had the ability to manipulate matter. He then enrolled in the magic institute and then joined the supernatural organization. But he only recently had obtained the core missions with the status of his family. Apparently, he inherited his family's sky magic while his sister had water magic. Magic sometimes complements the character and sometimes it shapes the character.

But from what he learned from the system's mall, a person can study every magic at the same time. He does not specialize in one branch. Maybe as days went on, only single-line specialization was promoted. He wanted to make this public but he had no such authority. Maybe this was what the system wanted him to do.

So he discussed many magic-related things with them. And they invited I'm o join their group called The Magic Warriors. They went to many remote places to survey the existence of any magical items and destroy the ones causing harm.

"Last time, we went to the seaside. There was a hundred-year-old ghost waiting for her dead husband to come back. Telling her the truth was the worst thing I had to do. All these guys gave me the job because I was the youngest." Garv ranted about how many times he was pulled out as a scapegoat.

"But now you are the youngest so I can boss you," He grinned.

"Ignore him," His cousin Akash told Ajay.

"This time we are going into the forests for a hike. If you want, you can come with us." Vihar told him the details. There were five members before. He had not the other two who were Manav and Hiten.

Having not seen them but read about them, Ajay was excited to see the Golden Boys appear all at once.

So they all decided to meet at the trail after two days.

Dhvani was not interested in this as much as she was interested in researching new spells. So with her guidance or precisely nagging, Ajay world on spells. But he would be stuck right at the end. A spell had to incorporate more than one kind of magic and that way, it was hard to make. For example, the simple cleaning spell used water, air, and sky magic. The water magic was cleaned, air magic collected and sky magic disposed of the dirt.

And Ajay despite having many weird spell ideas couldn't make even one work. Her excitement vanished as reality gave her a slap in the face. She imagined getting tasks done one by one, then she would be free. But each task means learning, both for her and Ajay. And her existence was to help him. So she also started learning about magic. Though she could not perform any kind of it, she stoked up on theory. She understood that sometimes elements attracted and repelled each other. And a spell had to wrap each element in a layer so that it wouldn't be influenced by the other.

So the day arrived for them to meet the Golden Boys. She was pleasantly surprised to meet Hien who was an international superstar called Jeet. And Manav was a world-renowned painter. Hiten had fire magic and Manav was a water magic user, They used their magical elements well in their careers.

Not even their magic or IQ stopped them from being lost. Manav and Hiten were very friendly people. Hiten who was a movie star was really drop-dead gorgeous. While Ajay's features made someone stop walking, Hiten made people just want to keep him watching. He had a charm that Ajay lacked. That's why Ajay would never consider acting. Hiten was the shortest among them but considering every one of them was above six feet, he was also considered tall. He had short spiky black hair, the new hairstyle for a movie, he said. And he always used contacts so his eye color was up for debate. But the other guys reckoned that his eyes could change colors. He had a healthy tan while the others were pale with Manav being the palest of them all. Vihar had a dark complexion and he was called the exotic one.

Manav on the other hand looked so pale that Dhvani doubted that he was a vampire. Because of his water ability, he never got a tan and he could control his body temperature according to his will. She thought that fire and water users should be monsters when they got fevers. Their parents would get so stressed by sudden temperature changes because of their magic.

"Why are we lost? Who was to bring a compass this time?" Vihar asked.

Garv who was already sweating pointed at Hiten.

Hiten who was pointed seemed to realize that he was the one responsible for their predicament and stopped for a moment.

He in turn pointed at Akash, "You being the oldest should bring a backup compass."

Dhvani was baffled at this childish act.

Akash rolled his eyes and stopped looking at him. He sensed the airflow and took them toward where there was water. Manav followed him without a doubt or question. Ajay being new took no sides and honestly kept up with them.

They arrived at a little stream and settled there for the night. Each one of them pitched up tents, ate the packaged food, and started telling ghost stories.

Dhvani imagined their surprised and frightened expression if they ever heard a real ghost story from Tarsh. That guy had seen all kinds of spirits. The next morning they moved forward with all their might and stumbled across a hidden mechanism. They attributed this to the addition of a new member of their team because they had never found anything interesting in their past endeavors.

After passing through the secret gate the secret mechanism provided, they entered an underground tunnel. The tunnel had natural lighting reflecting from the crystals placed on the ceilings. As they moved further, the walls of the tunnels started having paintings. From abstract to vivid scenes, each was breathtakingly beautiful. Finally, they reached the end where there was a huge painting that depicted a school and the students working on their chores.

Manav, a painting maniac was stunned and he took several pictures from many angles before touching a part of the painting which was painted in silver color, and then he vanished. Taken aback everyone touched but nothing happened. Ajay got an idea so he asked Vihar to touch the green color, Hiten to touch the red color, Akash and Garv to touch the blue color and he himself touched the white color the same time. He felt a deep pull and then he was moving at a fast speed. He almost fell when he opened his eyes and stopped. The place was a very green place with tall trees and animals wandering close to him. But that place was nowhere like the underground passage because it was open with nothing surrounding him. So the question that circled in his and Dhvani's minds was, where were they?