The Center

Seeing the approaching bird in the Sky, Silva commented, "That's a spirit bird, a wind spirit for sending messages… Let me take a guess, it's from your girlfriend isn't it?"

Emery, who was too concerned with the content of the message, absentmindedly answered. "Yes…" Realizing what he just said, Emery quickly countered, "I mean, no... not from girlfriend" He cleared his throat and said. "It's from Klea..."

Glancing towards Silva, Emery knew from her gaze, it was clear she was seething with annoyance.

Emery quickly told the content of the message "It seems there's a huge battle currently happening in the center?" he muttered while casting his gaze to the direction of the center.

Before answering the message, Emery quickly checked the symbol etched on his hand once again.

[Regular acolytes: 225/320]

[Elite acolyte: 40/50]

[Your total point: 10.000]

[Your current rank: 18]

Only an hour had passed since Emery last checked the symbol for the current number of surviving acolytes. Unexpectedly, four more elite acolytes had been defeated while only 16 regular acolytes died.

The number indicated that while weaker, the regular acolytes certainly put up a good fight against the elite counterparts. However, even though the number seemed to be in favor of the regular acolytes, Emery couldn't help but worry about the safety of his friends.

Making up his mind, Emery swiftly stood up, ready to go after his friend. However, Silva pulled his clothes and asked. "Where do you think you are going?"

"I have to go now. My friend is currently in a bind, and I have to help them."

Silva gritted her teeth and screamed. "Emery, you absolute moron!" Noticing her conduct wasn't right, Silva took a deep breath and said, "Alright, listen here, you dimwit, let me get it through your thick skull. You realised that, at a time like this, the center is the most dangerous area of them all, right?!"

The expression on Emery's face remained resolute even after he listened to Silva's words. Meanwhile, Silva seemed to be shaking with anger at his reaction.

"I understand. But this is a different case, my friends and the acolytes in the alliance are all gathered in the center. " Emery calmly said.

"You may be right, but for that, you have to be sure of whether you can trust them." Silva commented, while still holding him.

Emery was sure he could trust his four friends from Earth, as for the others, he had the soul contract they all signed to depend on. Silva saw Emery remain unshaken in his decision and she clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"Huh! Fine then, you seem to have made up your mind. Do whatever you want and go!" Silva said, as she released her grip.

Emery took a few steps forward, but right when he was about to leave, he stopped and looked back towards Silva. "You should come with me. I will vouch for you."

"I'll have to decline." Silva shook her head. "If I go to the center with you, I won't win the game."

Not really sure what Silva meant, Emery continued to say his thanks, but Silva seemed to be ignoring him. "Good luck then and thanks again Silva"

Not wanting to waste any more time, Emery quickly turned around and jumped on top of the nearest and tallest tree. He casted [Nature Sense] and [Hide in Shadow] to disguise his presence and for his own safety, before confirming his destination.

Emery scouted around the area, and found a building that was almost unseen with naked eyes. He then jumped down and dashed forward in the direction of the building, while maintaining awareness of the current situation and his surroundings.

The road towards the building was long and dangerous, and as he ran, he could sense some skirmishes and even huge fights happening all around him. Not wanting to waste time and his remaining energy with risky fights, Emery chose to evade them by taking the longer way around before continuing towards his destination.

While running as fast as he could, Emery thought about Silva's last words before ignoring him, about how she would not win if she chose to follow him. He realized Silva had wasted a ton of time helping him with the fight against Lodos and then assisting his recovery, when he was out of commission.

There were only two thirds of regular acolytes left, so it would be even harder for her now to gather points. He wondered why she would do that? Especially with her family and clan huge expectations on her shoulders.

After running for almost half an hour, Emery finally reached the outskirts of the central area. He climbed one of the tallest trees near him and looked around, before his gaze settled on a pyramid-shaped structure made with material similar to stone.

At the direction of the entrance, Emery spotted around two dozen acolytes standing guard vigilantly. From afar, he was able to recognize some of them, as they were part of the alliance for regular acolytes. However, he did not see any of his friends among those standing on guard duty.

Not wanting to take a risk on his safety, Emery decided to run around and head to the other side of the structure. According to the information he obtained from Roran, there were supposed to be two entrances to the structure.

The structure was quite big, and it took Emery five minutes of running at full speed to even see a little of the other side. Unlike the first entrance, the situation was very different here. He was able to sense and hear the distinct sound of spells being thrown around. From the [nature sense] spell he also can hear several figures spread out all over the forest. It was a battlezone.

He decided to take the safer approach and hide in the treelines, when suddenly a figure ran towards him away from the structure. It was a regular acolyte. However, as he did not realize Emery's presence there before, he stopped and stared at Emery, his eyes wide and his expression full of shock.

"You.. You.. pa..rt of them?!"

The acolyte turned into a stuttering mess when he saw Emery, while Emery was trying to assess the situation. However, it seems that the acolyte was far too high-strung. The moment Emery moved his wrist even slightly, the acolyte casted the ice element spell [Ice Bullets].

The temperature in the air seemed to drop a few notches, as multiple tiny ice shards manifested in the air before flying towards Emery. The spell started far too quickly, Emery was barely able to dodge the shards.

When he was about to cast another spell, Emery shouted. "Stop it! I mean no harm!"

The acolyte stopped casting for a moment, glanced at Emery, and replied. "No harm? You think I would fall for that?"

"Hey. Look. I just got here, and I don't want to waste much strength fighting against you. We are both regular acolytes, Just tell me what happened."

"What the fuck? Is this one of your tricks? All of you really are shameless! Fight with honor, dammit!"

Emery is still trying to find information about what happened. But right when he was about to ask again, a figure came moving fast from behind the acolyte with his weapon brandished. The acolyte was distracted thanks to Emery, and thus, he became unable to dodge the strike properly.

Right after he turned, a spear pierced through the acolyte's body right in the chest. Not willing to give up just yet, with both his arms spreading the ice element, the acolyte was about to cast a spell. However, the figure holding the spear swiftly used [Vicious Barrage] skill, as the spear blurred and pierced the poor acolyte multiple times. When the spear stopped its movements, the acolyte's body dropped to the ground, before it dispersed into multiple light particles.

Emery was shocked by the sudden attack. With the acolyte's disappearance, Emery could finally see the figure holding the spear and realized who it was, a familiar face.

"My man, Emery! What took you so long! You have missed a lot of the fights!..

The figure with brown hair and holding the spear was no other than, "Thrax!" Emery exclaimed loudly.

Looking at Emery's shocked face, Thrax laughed and said, " I thought you had already died! We have been waiting for you for hours! Oo sorry I hope I didn't just steal your point just now. ha.ha"

Emery then realized, it seems the previous ice element acolyte was running away from a fight and being chased by Thrax all the way here. Before Emery could explain the reason for his delay, Thrax continued his words, "Let's get back to the center first. It's not safe here outside."