It was early September and the lobby of the Adventurers Association was quite busy. Large groups of newcomers were walking around and going from shop to shop to find the next shiny piece of equipment. The Adventurer’s Association has seen quite a boom in new adventurers lately. A large part of these will give up within several months and some might even die. Personally, I didn’t take adventuring seriously when I applied to become one but I got away with it, these youngsters might not. The Adventurers Association, which I''m going to call AA now, has gotten in trouble because teenagers are forgoing their magic education and attempting to make a name for themselves.


    Unfortunately, I am somewhat responsible for this… Why is everything my fault? Because I joined at quite a young age and made a name for myself, other youngsters think they can do the same. Luckily this is not completely my fault. It seems Greg hasn’t been just reading in libraries these 4 years. He got the adventurer name, Obsidian Prince. I regret not being there when he got this edgy name. I doubt that he has a skill by that name so someone must have named him that just like I named Kyle, Toxic Donkey. I would like to meet this person.


    Nothing on Raishin it seems, but back to Greg. He seems to be quite popular with the female adventurers. Is this related to why he is called the Obsidian Prince? I don’t think he would want to tell us even if we keep asking. But maybe it''s funnier if we find out from someone else. I am fully abusing the new passive skill I made [Hide in plain sight] which makes it hard for people to realize I''m here, I’m sure I would have gotten an army of young adventurers around me without it. I sighed. Maybe this is a bad time to announce that we will be back in business soon. I need these people to forget about me.


    Hjuva had been met with a setback after Boshi town disappeared. It was one of the top producers in lumber, ore, pelts and more. This has caused the AA to send out more adventurers to investigate and find areas to find more resources and to investigate what could have possibly happened to Boshi town.


    I know what happened. A petty goddess nuked it into oblivion. Not many things can create a hole that large and cause light corruption so I''m curious to what conclusion the humans will come.


    I got up. It’s time to leave. Cnidaria Forest isn’t far for me but the longer I stay here the more likely I am to get into trouble. My new passive skill isn’t all-powerful. People that know me for example will have no problem spotting me. And this is what scares me. If I stay too long, maybe Healerguy randomly appears, making my life hard. I have been able to avoid him for a long time so I have the feeling a meeting is due. So I decided to leave Ainahs and head for Cnidaria forest, maybe a bit early but I could wait in the cabin where we would meet up.


    It didn’t take long for me to arrive near where Cnidaria forest should be but… Did I go wrong? I don’t get lost often and why is there a desert here? Don’t tell me this is my fault too! Wait I haven’t been here in almost 4 years there is no way this is my fault! Did someone unseal that Dimsha and turned this forest into a sandbox? Ugh, I’m trying to be more accepting toward sand but this is pushing it! The river ran still through the forest/desert but nothing was growing next to it.


    How strange. Whenever you think you’ve seen it all you get surprised by something else. There was nothing but sand. I got to where the cabin was supposed to be but only saw a dune and a strange guy digging. It looked like he was wearing some tribal outfit. He wasn’t exactly bare-chested but he might as well have been and he was wearing a tiger hat or well not a tiger hat he wore a tiger head. Decapitated and hollowed out. What a weirdo.


    Unfortunately, I have a feeling that I know this weirdo. I could hear an electrifying buzz sound from Raishin which disappeared shortly after. Is this his version of my rain smell?


    Need help?


    Oh no, thank you, whoa Agnis! Long time no see!


    A hug for a greeting and inspection of each other’s attire.


    So, what are you wearing?


    My battle armor!


    I get the battle part, where is the armor? How is this going to keep you  safe?


    It is the intimidation! It has the intimidation! Nobody has approached me or messed with me since I left Lopahz, which means it’s working!


    Are you sure they’re not just weirded out by your outfit?


    Why would they?


    Never mind, how have you been these last 4 years?


    Single… but I got way stronger! Look at these muscles!  Raishin flexed and showed off his muscles.


    Aha… good job, I guess.


    So, what have you been up to? I see that this continent is still in one piece so I guess you were slacking.


    Hey, come on I behaved! Kinda… I did notice a lightning pillar from the direction of Lopahz though!


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Oh, but that’s nothing compared to the 2 orange lightning beams that could be seen from even across the mountains!


    Ugh, fine, you win this round.


    It’s good to see you alive and well! So, did you get a girlfriend yet?


    No… you do know that our objective was to become stronger right and no chasing skirts…


    Some action couldn’t hurt! Anyways this sand is in the way, help me dig out the forest! It must be under here somewhere!


    I think this is the forest, how weird it might sound.


    So, we can dig with lightning magic then?


    Yes, but why do we need to dig?


    For our cabin!


    But we just need to meet up here we don’t have to chill in it, moreover it will have a lot of sand in it… let''s just dig up Ted’s memorial stone.


    I located the memorial stone, connected to the underground leyline currents, and moved the sand off it.


    Stupid sand, heavy as fuck as always.


    Ooh, you can use earth now! And without magic! That’s some progress there!


    It’s just sand and I’d rather not deal with it if possible.


    We kept chatting during the day. Raishin’s training didn’t seem to be that intensive or special. He just hunted and hunted. he did work on his skillset but it was nowhere close to what I had been through in my last 4 years. I asked him about the national animal that seemed to have disappeared and as I suspected he was responsible for it. It was supposedly some strange kind of deer and he mistook it for a normal one. He was sleepy so he just thought he was seeing things and he killed it and ate it… It was refreshing to hear that I wasn’t the only one creating chaos somewhere. It did seem that nobody knew he was responsible, so that was good.


    I guess both of us have the luck or skill where nobody realizes the chaos we create. Since his training wasn’t anything special, he wanted to know about my adventure. He did tell me an interesting story though it seems the elven population had seen a considerably large baby boom. I wonder why. I told Raishin about some of my adventures till sunset.


    Damn, I wish I could’ve been there, sounds fun, although I would probably die miserably on most of those though…


    Ah right, here are some dynamo beans.


    Thanks! So that goddess that sealed Azu is active, eh? How long do you think we can hold out before we kick the bucket?


    I don’t know, I do have some ideas so we might at least last several hours.


    A strange purring sound approached and a man with pale skin, black hair, and in a black and purple suit approached.


    I meet up with you guys for the first time in 4 years and the first thing I hear is when we will kick the bucket, at least I’m glad that none of you have changed.


    Good evening, Mr. Obsidian Prince!


    I couldn’t see you there in the dark, Obsidian Prince.


    And still as annoying as ever, I had hoped at least that had changed. How have you guys been?


    We spent the rest of the night telling and retelling our stories. Gregory had studied seals and curses. He told me about his encounter with the Dimsha that I had sealed away and boring stories of him spending years in the library and mastering potions. Raishin asked him about his adventurers'' name but we couldn’t get anything out of him. He did say he had mastered some nasty dark, shadow, and earth magic skills and even some nature energy and that we should look forward to seeing them in action.


    You surely have made a name for yourself Silver Torrent. I have the feeling it is named after some ridiculous skill or stunt you pulled off.


    Uh yeah, I needed it to kill a demigod, it was kind of rough.  Silence fell in our small camp.


    Right, I have to congratulate you on making it out these 4 years alive on your own. If it wasn’t for regular updates of the Silver Torrent’s achievements, I would have thought that Raishin and I would have to continue the search for Hourai with just the 2 of us.


    Oh, come on I’m not that… reckless… never mind. Anyways! I’m still alive and kicking so it’s time to revive Team Hourai!


    I took food and drinks out of my dimensional pocket and we started to party the rest of the night until morning. It transitioned into a memorial day for Ted. We told him about how we’ve grown and how we’re hopefully wiser now. For the first time in our lives Raishin and I joined Greg in drinking liquid shadow vodka. There was quite a lot to go around. My alcohol tolerance is low so I stopped early.