When time resumed, the trio’s gazes met, and it was obvious that they were all thinking the same thing. Crazy time-stopping things didn’t just happen; they had lived their lives so far, and not one of them had ever been in such a situation. Then they had all met Tesilim, and suddenly, they had all experienced the stopping of time, not once, but twice. Furthermore, they doubt it was the last time that it would happen. So, without much talking, they all nodded and set off in a sprint.

  They hadn’t been that far from the city, and at a fully empowered sprint, it didn’t take long for them to arrive. On arrival, they found, for the first time since they had been in Wildwood City, that the gates were closed. Not only that, but the walls were fully manned, and the enchantments on the walls were active and so strong that they could feel the power radiating from them. Alyx wasn’t sure why the enchantments weren’t always active, but to each their own, he supposed.

  At the gate, they were quickly stopped, along with a growing number of adventurers who had been outside the city. All of them were trying to get inside, but the guards refused. Whatever Tesilim had done, whether directly or not, had, for good reasons, set the entire city on the highest level of security. Even if the mana was already starting to settle, it was only natural that the leaders took no chances in case it was a ploy by any of the many, many factions who always looked to cause trouble.

  For his part, Alyx couldn’t be bothered to make a racket, and he quickly brought out his cube. It was only a matter of seconds before he and the two ladies were inside. Alyx didn’t like bringing the item out where too many eyes could see it, but at the same time, he couldn’t be bothered to care about the many greedy gazes he felt on him before he entered.

  Inside his spatial room, the door closed, and Rose brought up a valid point he had toyed with.

  “Alyx, couldn’t you have gotten us inside?” The redhead said this as more of a statement, like he held the power to make it happen, and she was questioning why he hadn’t.

  “Maybe. I am just not a big fan of pulling rank when I don’t have to. If it had been a real emergency, then yes, I would have. However, since we,” The gnome gestured at all three, “know what’s going on, I don’t see the reason.”

  Apparently, Alyx’s answer was good enough, and he saw that he had gained some level of respect from the redhead.

  Checking the gates every fifteen minutes or so to see if the status quo had changed, the trio was happy to find that about an hour into the whole mess, the adventurers were trickling inside.

  During their wait, Alyx had been prompted by his two companions to send a message to Tesilim, but he had quickly shot down the idea. For one, the city's defenses would block any such things outside of very powerful exceptions or connections. Also, though message spells were great, too much mana or magical turbulence would make the magical signature of the spell fall apart. Not to mention, message spells could be intercepted.

  Either way, when the gates opened, the much larger group of adventurers that had gathered during the hour of waiting quickly entered the city.

  Inside the city, the trio headed to Jolly’s inn. Alyx knew that Tesilim had gone to meet the dryad for the contract, so it was likely that’s where they were. As for the city's status, well, things were slowly returning to normal. There were still many guards and adventurers walking around, the guards actually working, and the adventurers probably just trying to feel important.

  With the streets mostly clear, it wasn’t long before the trio got to the inn, and it took them even less time to appear inside Tesilim’s room, where they found the dual-colored elf relaxing on the bed, talking with Lili and Drex.

  “Oh, hey Alyx, surprise, you are outside your room,” Tesilim said before addressing the other two, “Jasmine, Rose, welcome to my humble abode.”

  “You! What did you do!?” The gnome said, ignoring Tesilim’s statement.

  “There is nothing humble about this,” Rose said, looking at the large room. The place was triple the size of the room she stayed at in the temple and much nicer.

  Tesilim’s new room was essentially two times larger than his previous one. The place had been separated into the usual areas found in an apartment back on Earth, except with fewer rooms for guests. Instead, it compensated by enlarging the existing rooms, such as the master bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room. Not to mention, Tesilim could customize the walls to some extent, allowing him to effectively create a huge open area. On that note, Tesilim had wanted to question how exactly things like running water and drying worked since, technically, the inn was Jolly’s tree, but those thoughts had taken him down a dark path, and he chose to explain it away with “magic.” As for the teleportation circle, that hadn’t changed much, still having been placed in a secluded area, at least until Tesilim had made the wall disappear.

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

  It was a matter of fact that he could be lazy, and when he was actively using the room, he changed the layout, making the entire place a relatively open space apartment. At least the kitchen and master bedroom were given the treatment, while the other areas remained unchanged for privacy's sake.

  “This is pretty nice, Tesilim. And if it wasn’t for the cost, I imagine it has, I wouldn’t mind staying in a room like this,” Jasmine added as she took in the room.

  “Whatever do you mean, my friend?” Tesilim finally answered the gnome after acknowledging the responses of the other two. He made his response sound as innocent as possible, and Lili snickered, getting a glare from Alyx.

  “You know what I mean! Time doesn’t just stop like that! Not to mention mana disappearing as if it was being eaten by the void!” The gnome yelled as he moved around, his arms gesturing wildly.

  “Oh, yeah, you guys felt that too. It was crazy. What do you think caused it?” Tesilim asked, still trying to portray innocence.

  “You!” Alyx, Rose, and Jasmine answered simultaneously, the two ladies having honed in on the conversation.

  For his part, Tesilim slapped one hand to his chest, the other to his forehead, acting like he was one of those ladies from TV who were obviously guilty but were still trying to act shocked and offended at being accused of a hideous crime.

  “I would never do such a thing! And I have to say you have deeply wounded me by accusing me of such deeds!” Tesilim added, unable to stop a smile from coming to his face as he spoke. Naturally, Alyx didn’t appreciate the theatrics and just glared at him. He knew he was stuck waiting for Tesilim to finish his play. Tesilim, seeing he had at least gotten some smiles from Rose and Jasmine, decided to stop playing.

  “Okay, yeah, it was my fault, but I didn’t mean to do it.”

  “Lie,” Lili added, and Tesilim threw her a glare.

  It didn’t take long for Tesilim to explain what had happened.

  He started by giving Alyx the rundown of his improved power and the reasons why he had pushed to gain it. Then, it was just a simple explanation of the infusion and how the contract had absorbed the mana to power itself. Something Tesilim had been aiming to make happen, though he didn’t think it was going to have such a wide area of effect.

  The explanation continued with the appearance of the World Crystal, which Lili explained, at least the first part, as she omitted the whole death thing. Tesilim took up the explanation, giving the party a quick rundown of his and the god’s conversation. Of course, through the entire thing, Alyx was flipping between regretting not going with them and annoyance at Tesilim. The annoyance was mainly because Tesilim wasn’t giving as much detail as the gnome wanted.

  As for Rose and Jasmine, well, the two were tuned into the conversation, neither bothering to ask questions. For one, Rose had no idea what to ask; the entire thing was far out of her knowledge base, at least in terms of anything she understood. The redhead was mainly listening to integrate the information in case she ever needed it.

  On the other hand, Jasmine was absorbing every piece of information and comparing it to her own experience. Compared to her and her brother's interaction with the World Crystal, the entity seemed much more human. Oh, and there was the fact that the god had confirmed its connection with Tesilim was more direct, almost like the connection between a god and their follower, though with major changes. The entire situation made her question whether connecting with Tesilim and his so-called system was worth it. There weren’t guarantees that the World Crystal would speak with them again, but it would be much more comforting to know there was a secondary way to possibly reach the entity directly.

  Once the explanation was complete and Alyx had taken as many notes as he could, the gnome asked a question that Tesilim was hoping to avoid.

  “What was the result of the Chaos Event? There was a Chaos Event, right?”

  Hearing the question, Tesilim and Lili’s eyes met as they remembered what had happened. Then Lili shrugged. Tesilim sighed and began explaining what happened.

  “What!?” The trio of voices emerged as Tesilim reached the death part.

  “What do you mean you died?” Alyx questioned, his face scrunched up as the gnomes and Jasmine’s will-infused Presence washed over Tesilim. Tesilim let the two scan him and even felt Jasmine’s healing magic enter his body as the half-elf stared at him with a frown.

  “You seem pretty alive to me,” Rose added, her voice skeptical.

  “Well, yes, I came back to life, as per the World Crystal that was part of the effect. It killed me, then brought me back.”

  Upon hearing Tesilim’s answer, Rose threw a questioning look at Lili.

  “He is telling the truth. Jolly and I scanned him. He was indeed dead. Soul hadn’t detached just yet, but that takes time depending on the individual. What was more problematic was that healing or resurrection magic didn’t work.”

  After listening to Lili’s words, Alyx’s and Jasmine’s inspection increased in intensity, with Rose joining in as well, though hers was quick, almost like she was making sure he was indeed alive and not a form of undead.

  Eventually, everyone accepted that Tesilim was indeed fine. Alyx had even studied his soul and couldn’t find any damage or lingering problems from dying. Once everyone had been satisfied that he was alive, the conversation quickly turned to other matters.

  Jasmine informed them that she had maybe two or three days before their weakness period kicked in. And they had discussed taking one or two more missions the following day. The other topic of discussion was about the possible upcoming raid, even if it was just speculation. However, that topic led them to discuss training.

  The party discussed various forms of training they could do to improve their abilities to work as a team. Mainly, more sparring to learn each other's styles or even doing some “solo missions” where the entire party would go, but only one or two would fight.

  Lili also told Tesilim that he would need training with weapons that didn’t magically grant him proficiency. Tesilim didn’t like the idea but understood the value. Furthermore, he was told to develop some more techniques and learn more spells, though that particular one went for Rose and Jasmine as well.

  More importantly, and something that wasn’t necessarily hard, the same newbie trio had to acquire more specific enhancements. The General Enhancement was nice, at least until you needed more of one specific boosting aspect at the wrong time during a battle. A sentiment the trio agreed with.