The true outlands was forever the true home of every adventurer.
They were drawn to it like moths to flame.
Most of their adventurer life was spent in there.
In that dreary place that had no true life in it.
There was no choice.
The weak had no business being adventurers.
And adventurers had no business being weak.
The true outlands was their home.
The foundation of their strength.
The team was once again back in the true outlands.
Their break could only last for so long.
Essence cultivation was no cheap endeavor.
Resources, pills, and all that was needed to gain even a slight increase in their essence.
All that required contribution points and money.
The true outlands was their only source of wealth, and they were here to gain more of that wealth.
Gain wealth to cultivate, cultivate to gain more wealth.
It was a cycle that fed into itself.
Whether you were stuck in the F-Rank forever, or you rank up and go higher.
All of it was determined by how much wealth you had, and how much you were willing to spend.
The more wealth, the better.
And wealth wasn’t gained by idling.
It had taken them a lot of time to complete just half of the missions they accepted this time.
Even with them going all out.
The missions were simply too many.
This didn’t stop Neo from going on his private hunts, though.
He increased the frequency.
The rate at which they were encountering demons had increased by a lot.
The team had just finished another fight.
They decided to rest a bit before their next encounter with demons.
They had chosen a good spot.
One with a clear view of the land around them.
It was far from any of the trees that aggressively populated the true outlands these days.
“My fingers are going to fall off.” Derek complained.
He winced as he rubbed his fingers.
The team hadn’t had a true moment of rest for weeks now.
Since they entered the true outlands, it had been one fight after another.
Killing the demons that seemed to pop out of everywhere.
“Pathetic.” Sofia snorted.
“You are not the one shooting arrows.
What do you know?” Derek snapped at her.
“I know I have been throwing daggers.
And Neo here, has been swinging his sword tirelessly.”
She sat beside Neo.
She moved even closer to him as she said that.
“Neither of us are complaining.” She told Derek.
She then brought her lips close to Neo’s ear.
“Do you want me to massage your shoulders.”
Neo sighed.
“No.” He was truly tired of her antics.
He should have stopped all this from the beginning.
Now, it had become the norm.
Sofia didn’t seem to care that he wasn’t so keen on whatever she was doing.
She laid her head on his shoulder.
“Let me just rest my head on your shoulders then.” Her voice was soft as she said this.
“They are very strong.” She chuckled.
Neo resigned himself.
He chose to bear whatever she did, as long as she didn’t go beyond certain boundaries.
He thought she would take the hint, but she seemed not to notice or care.
He should have stopped it when it was the best time to have done so.
Doing anything too harsh now might cause some resentment.
“You are hopeless.” Derek felt he had to say this again.
For the umpteenth time.
Sofia didn’t bother replying him this time.
“Anyone ever told you, you look like an old man when you do that?”
Seeing Sofia wasn’t bothered, Derek turned to Lancelot, who looked to have been in deep thoughts.
“You are the only one who ever says that.”
Lancelot replied him.
He straightened his posture.
His hand moved to his chin, almost stroking it, before he brought it down.
“What were you thinking?” Mia was curious.
She had noticed that his mind didn’t seem to be here with them.
Like he was recalling some memories.
“Oh, boss.
You shouldn’t have asked.” Derek groaned.
“Nothing, team leader.” Lancelot replied her.
“Come on, tell me.
I want to know.”
“Boss…” Derek was fed up of this curious boss of theirs.
Lancelot knew Mia.
He knew it would be very hard for her to drop something, when she was this interested.
She never liked hearing the word no.
“I was just thinking back to the time when I first joined the Adventurer Guild, and became an adventurer.”
“And here comes the story of ages ago.” Derek knew it was going to be one long story moment.
He might as well just lie down.
It had been long since Lancelot told a story.
Even before Neo joined them.
“Back to the time.” Sofia repeated.
“Why do you make it sound like it was some long, long time ago?”
“Who knows, it might actually be that long.
Where were you then?” Derek looked like he was thinking hard.
“Running around the streets of Decan, chasing the poor dogs as snot ran down your nose?”
Sofia wanted to counter him that she wasn’t that young, but that answer felt wrong somehow.
“Damn you!
It’s not like you were some grown up then.”
Lancelot cleared his throat.
It wouldn’t be wise to let the two start their bickering now.
He might as well just say what he wanted to say.
“That time I joined a team.
One far more larger than our current one.”
“Naturally.
We are a team of elites.” Derek said.
Mia frowned at him.
“Indeed, we are.” Lancelot didn’t mind the interruption.
“It was a very large team.
An adventurer company, as it is called.
I was placed in a unit.
We were altogether twenty newbies in the unit.
I along with five other newbies had the job of holding up the shield, and stopping the demons from tearing us apart.
“Naturally, they didn’t just throw us out there.
We had experienced adventures looking after us.
The missions we were given were just training missions.
They determined which proper unit we ended up in.
Cleaning up the scene was another job I had.”
He looked at them.
“Let me not bore you with the details of what I did when I became an adventurer.
“What got me thinking now, was the messy relationship among the upper echelon of the team.
It was very messy.”
Mia raised an eyebrow.
What juicy detail was he about to tell.
“There were two people, a husband and wife, who were very much in love with each other.
“They were childhood sweethearts who couldn’t bear to be apart.
They had become adventurers together, joined the same adventurer company.
“They grew together, and both climbed up to be high ranking members of the adventurer company.”
“What now?” Derek was fed up.
“Hopefully, they both figured out they weren’t in love with each other.
Broke up.
End of story.”
“No.”
Lancelot shook his head.
He continued.
“The man had suffered a grievous injury during his last entrance into the true outlands.
It left him crippled.
Almost dead.
“The woman had been at his side all through the time he was on his deathbed.
“It was true that she loved him.
There was no doubt.
But her decision to stay by his side as he laid there dying, had been one borne out of a crushing guilt.”
Edited.
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(^o^)
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