"Let me introduce myself. My name is Zuna, a rank 6 acolyte and two of my companions here are Zaku and Zidi, they're both rank 5. Our homeworld is called Zaiueo."
Emery and his friends were still at a loss on how they'd be able to distinguish these three people from Zaiueo apart. Of course, saying their name was one thing, but what if they called Zuna, Zaku or Zidi, would that be considered rude? Not only their faces were similar, the trio's personalities, name, habits, as well as almost everything were identical. So, the five youths couldn't help but wonder.
Julian again was the first to recover his composure; he stepped up to talk to them. He was somewhat their unproclaimed leader. Julian said, "Welcome, my name Julian, this is Thrax, Emery, Chumo and the beauty here is our pride, Klea." Julian waved his arm at the four youths and added, "As for our ranks, all of us are rank 5, except for our beauty here, she's rank 6."
Truth be told, Julian had guessed their ranks. It wasn't a stretch to guess anyway since Magus Minerva mentioned most of them were rank 5, a few were rank 6, but didn't mention anything about rank 4. And with everyone nodding to confirm his statement, Julian smiled in satisfaction for figuring it correctly.
"Great," said Zuna, the one in the middle. "With this, we have two rank 6 acolytes but… wow, your names are weird."
Everyone didn't know how to react to such remarks. Their names were weird? What about them and their faces? They all looked the same from their footwear, height, body frame, to the blemishes on their faces, eyes, nose, ears… there was definitely something wrong with this group…
Julian coughed, breaking the ice. He said, "Umm… yes… okay, I think I heard you said you want to join our group?"
"Yes, although we didn't have the chance to talk with you guys last year, we hope we can help each other this time," said Zuna, the others nodding in approval.
Klea decided to join in the conversation, moved forward, and said, "So, why don't you guys honestly tell us, the reason for your interest?"
The three looked at each other, nodded, and then answered Klea, "Well it seems you guys are close, we like that. Also, we are a team of three and you, five. It is like the universe is telling us to join together. What do you think?"
The five youths went back to discussing amongst themselves while the three youths stared at them with confused eyes. Occasionally, Emery's group glanced at them and although they were indeed a bit weird in everything they did and said, they seemed to be trustworthy somehow, the five youths concluded.
Just when Emery's were about to say something, Zuna said, "How about this, let's get to know each other better first."
Julian let out a chuckle before answering, "And how do you propose we do that? By learning the meaning behind our names?"
Emery first thought Julian's joke was a bit offensive and feared that their collaboration would break apart before it even started since the three humans from Zaiueo were silent. A second later, however, they tilted their head, expressed their confusion by staring with straight faces. Clearly they didn't understand what Julian had meant for the next words that came out of Zuna's mouth, who seemed to be the leader, were "Easy, we will do one task that we can do together. Nothing big, of course, but just enough to test and synergize between ourselves, what do you think?"
"Can you tell us more?" asked Julian, a bit more serious this time.
Zuna proceeded to explain about finding a task, which would reward them with some contribution points or spirit stones after finishing it. This way, Zuna reiterated, they would be able to learn more about each person's likes, dislikes, abilities, etc. Of course, by having those rewards, they'd be able to purchase better equipment for the upcoming magus game in ten days.
Klea made her excitement known by exclaiming, "That sounds like a good idea! Reward and shopping!"
The group then decided to retire for the day due to the darkening sky and meet up here again tomorrow morning for the task finding.
"Until tomorrow morning then," said Julian.
"Yes, see you tomorrow," replied Zuna.
"Tomorrow, we will, yes," followed up Zaku.
"You will see us tomorrow," said Zidi last.
Hearing their weird sentences, the group fell into conclusion that it probably was the universal translator the symbols on their hands provided were just having a hard time to comprehend or fully translate their language.
Emery then looked at the orange glow on the sky and fell into contemplation. There were only ten days until the magus games, he needed to prepare a lot so he could catch up, compete with the others and get that reward, which would be extremely beneficial once he returned. He was about to leave to plan out his to-do list regarding the elemental institutes or many other things, when Klea suddenly grabbed his arm, seemingly unwilling to let him go after reuniting with them.
"You are not going anywhere, my Emery," exclaimed Klea. She turned to the others and said, "Let's catch up! We haven't seen each other for a year, so there must be a lot of things that must've happened. Also, let's show each other how their progress has been, that'll be important for the upcoming event."
Julian and Thrax said, "Agreed."
Chumo, who had returned to be quiet again whenever Klea was near, nodded in agreement.
As much as he wanted to rush go back and train to reach acolyte rank 6 in his personal residence, there was some sense in what Klea had proposed. In fact, he could only go so far if he went on alone, so he needed people and friends to be with him. Forging and strengthening friendships were also crucial in getting by in whatever world he would be. Hence, Emery let Klea do whatever she wanted, leaving his fate to her.
Klea led everyone, passing another stone bridge, and went to one of the more secluded houses on a cliff, which had its own waterfall on the side and a personal courtyard on the side! She invited them inside, and in contrast to Emery's empty living room, hers actually had a lot of furniture.
The floor was made of shiny wood, Emery suspected that if it was polished a bit more, he might be able to see his reflection. The large living room had a hanging lighting on the ceiling, the soft chairs were a mix of blue, yellow and black, some purple. And there was more than enough space to host at least a dozen guests.
Klea called for her personal cube attendant and the group tried to access the cube to order food and drink. The group still amazed at how the cube is able to create things out of thin air.
She smiled in satisfaction and mentioned to the others to make themselves feel at home while they waited in the living room.
Thrax, Chumo and Julian had eyed the lit courtyard outside earlier, they asked Klea if they could use it to do a bit of sparring. The first to spar were obviously Thrax and Julian, after Thrax won the spar again, he challenged Chumo next.
Chumo gave more of a resistance against Thrax by using his some darkness spell, but after a while, Chumo gave up, making Thrax to be the undefeated winner. Thrax raised his hands, seemingly enjoying himself to be crowned as the best in physical combat. It looked like his battlefield experience improved his raw strength and skill against the rest.
Thrax then asked Emery if they could spar, but Klea, shouting from the inside of the residence
"Can you boys stop with all the sparring already and come in"
Emery actually feel an itch to spar with Thrax, but now probably not the right time. Everyone obliged and went inside sat together in the living room.
"Ok lets share our progress shall we?" Asked Julian
Thrax presented his status first to the group.
[Thrax]
[Fire Spirit - High Stage]
[Battle power: 29]
[Spirit force: 74]
[Acolyte Rank 5]
[Julian]
[Earth spirit - High Stage]
[Battle power: 23]
[Spirit force: 78]
[Acolyte Rank 5]
[Chumo]
[Darkness Spirit - High Stage]
[Battle power: 20]
[Spirit force: 84]
[Acolyte Rank 5]
"Damn you, Chumo. You're so quiet but you've almost reached rank 6! Klea show me yours!" said Julian, and Klea happily complied.
[Klea]
[Lightning- early foundation]
[Wind - early foundation]
[Water - early foundation]
[Battle power: 17]
[Spirit force: 105]
[Acolyte Rank 6]
"Oh wow, early foundation, you really are the pride of our world Klea. Julian then turned to Emery and said, "What about you Emery?"
Check out "Doomsday Pillars" Author first novel, in the same Universe with Earth's Greatest Magus