Chapter 416: A Reunion After Nine Months II

The number on paper was one thing, but hearing it from someone who had actually been there was something else, and the deaths of this many Awakened was not a small matter.

"What about Seraphina? Is she okay?" Kain lowered his eyes for a moment, but almost immediately raised his head again.

Lian nodded.

"She’s fine, her injuries are completely healed, and there is no special danger, she should return to the academy with the others tomorrow." Lian added.

"Thank God she’s okay, and what about the rest of your group?"

"Our academy group was lucky, none of us died." The young Vorhelm answered without hesitation, among all the other groups that had been sent there, they could be considered the luckiest.

Not only did none of them die, but they had also somehow taken the lead in the Main Quest and among the other Awakened in the Special Area.

Of course, One himself had died, but he probably did not need to explain that detail right now.

"Good... really good." Kain’s smile returned, then he stayed silent for a few seconds before the familiar curiosity from the past returned to his eyes.

"But one thing, did you really fight an entire civilization?"

"The rumors reached here too? Of course, I shouldn’t expect anything less, I guess the Special Area is the number one trend in the news these days."

"Dude, you came back after nine months and only one-third of you came back, what did you think people would talk about? The weather?"

"Yeah, I can underestand that." Lian gave a short laugh and then started explaining, and he briefly talked about the Cindari.

The civilization that had formed in that world, about their cities, and then about how they occupied the city, and a little about the Giant Forest and especially the nest of that giant bird where he had appeared.

In the end, he explained the part about the Black Silence very briefly, and when he finished his explanation, Kain only looked at him for a few seconds.

"Man... I feel like you guys had a much better time than us."

"That’s an interesting definition of having fun, and do you know how many times each of us came close to death? The fact that I’m still alive is almost a miracle."

"I killed monsters for nine months, and you fought an ancient civilization." Kain shrugged.

"And I almost actually died." Lian added dryly.

"When you put it like that, I feel even happier that I didn’t come, but I still would have preferred to be with you and Seraphina instead of spending these nine months." He sighed, it was clear that he was not talking about having fun at all.

Things had simply happened to him during these nine months that made him wish he had entered the Special Area instead of facing those things.

Lian looked at him, he had really missed this idiot, but he could also see that these nine months had not been easy for him.

A few moments later, Kain looked at Lian more carefully, and his eyes moved over his shoulders and the different structure of his body.

"By the way... did you complete your first evolution?"

"One or two days ago." The young Vorhelm answered.

"Just now?"

"You know that less than thirty days have passed for us in there, right? You guys were the ones who had nine months, not us."

"Makes sense, but what level are you?"

"I’m Level 23 now, but the main problem isn’t the level, I’m thinking about where I should collect Fragments." Lian sighed.

There was silence for a moment, and then Kain suddenly laughed.

"Finally! At least now you understand how painful it is."

"That’s true, and collecting them won’t be easy either."

"Before the first evolution, everyone thinks a Fragment is just a side reward, then you evolve and suddenly the system needs Fragments even for you to breathe."

"You mean they didn’t clearly explain the importance of Fragments in high school classes? After the first evolution, they explained it very clearly, we just didn’t know that instead of needing a few or a few dozen, we would need several thousand, you were just too lazy and didn’t know this."

Kain became silent after hearing that sentence and preferred not to answer anything about his laziness.

"So you also completed your first evolution." Lian said after seeing that.

His friend’s smile suddenly changed, he realized at that moment that he had made a mistake, that question was exactly the opportunity Kain had been waiting for.

The young man sat straight on the bed, moved his shoulders back, pushed his chest slightly forward, and said with completely fake pride.

"I didn’t just evolve." He deliberately waited for a few seconds, then added with a wide smile.

"I’m Level 34 now, and I’m not far from my second evolution." He then continued proudly.

Level 34, Lian thought about the number, before entering the Special Area— both he and Seraphina were ahead of Kain.

Now? He was Level 23, and he was not sure about that girl, but since she had not completed her evolution, she should still be Level 20.

Kain had gotten almost eleven levels ahead of him, this difference was not small, but it also did not matter, he was happy for his friend that he had managed to progress so quickly.

"Congratulations, now you’re even ahead of me." This sentence was correct in terms of level, but in other areas... not so much.

"Don’t worry, from now on I’ll look after you myself." Kain proudly put his hand on his chest.

"Are you sure?" Lian looked at him for a few seconds, then the corner of his mouth rose slightly, and he asked suspiciously.

"Completely."

"But Professor Aldric said you became isolated in the academy, how are you going to protect me like this?"

And Kain’s smile disappeared almost at the same moment, and the pride that had been on his face a few seconds ago disappeared.

His eyes moved away from him for a moment and stopped on the floor, his shoulders, which had been pulled back proudly a few moments ago, dropped slightly.

The change was small, but to Lian it meant more than any explanation, and his eyes narrowed slightly, so Aldric had told the truth, in fact, maybe he had made it sound softer than reality.

"So it’s true."

The boy did not answer and only gave a short sigh.

"And judging by your face, ’isolated’ is the polite version."

"Lian—"

"Tell me what happened." The young Vorhelm said completely seriously this time.

There was no threat in his voice, no pressure, but Kain knew him well enough, and if he did not explain, Lian would find the answer himself, and his way of finding the answer would probably not be much calmer than simply explaining it to him.

He hesitated for a few seconds, then put his hand through his longer hair and pushed it back.

"It’s a long story." He finally opened his mouth.

"I lost nine months, a few more minutes won’t matter." Lian leaned against the wall behind the bed.

Kain looked at him more carefully for a moment, then took a deep breath and looked toward the window for a moment, when he turned back, his expression was serious.

"After you entered the Special Area... the first few weeks were almost completely normal."

"Everyone was talking about your departure, the things you might experience there, and the opportunities you had gotten, I also spent most of my time in the Ruined Realm, hunting and helping expand the territory of the base."

"Academy life continued normally for a while." His eyes became cold, and he paused for a moment.

"And then Roderick came back, and Elena was with him." Kain said.

Roderick.

Elena.

The first was only a hateful and jealous bastard from high school who had bothered him for a long time because of his own complexes after Lian failed the Awakening process.

And the other was a name that had been pushed into a far corner of his mind for almost two years, and during this one year, it had not even crossed his mind.

The same girl who had once been a much closer part of his life.

Kain looked at him, and his expression now had no trace of the jokes from a few minutes ago.

"From that moment... everything in the academy changed." He finally added.