Skyler laughed, feeling relaxed, as if all the exhaustion he was feeling earlier was gone.
"Shouldn’t you wait for me to say it first?"
She frowned in mild indignation.
"But I wanted to say it first."
It was at that moment that a faint cough echoed from opposite them. Both pairs of eyes—the red and the blue—immediately shifted toward the sound. There stood an old man who seemed to have come out of the small wooden hut across from them.
The mermaid shifted back.
Skyler stood up, wiping the water off his face and dusting his clothes. He saw the old man—his calm gaze—clad in a white robe—and immediately knew he was the fallen god they had been searching for.
"We found you."
The old man pointed at himself.
"You two were looking for me?"
Skyler nodded, then shook his head.
"Not us."
He dragged out the five unconscious bodies from the pocket space and laid them near the old man, who looked very confused. Then he gave a slight bow.
"Master of this Realm, please help my friends who have been searching for you reach Mythic tier. They just fainted after searching for days, so I took them here."
The old man was still confused.
But before he could inquire why he should do what Skyler asked, or demand a clearer explanation of the situation, the youth had already started walking away with his lover. The old man called out to Skyler, but by that time the kid was already long gone. For the first time, a low curse slipped from his lips.
"What the actual hell."
In the end, Suri—the fallen god—simply sighed and utilized his divine senses to examine the five people laid before him.
"They seem fine. Just exhausted."
Rubbing his brows, Suri waved his hand, and the five bodies floated into the hut.
He had just recently parted with a disciple; after that calm yet strange Max kid left, he had been feeling lonely. So it wouldn’t be a big deal to teach a few more young people.
He could tell from the aura around these kids that they had never harmed innocents.
Only the blue-eyed youth who had left earlier carried the faint stench of blood.
Also, these kids all had strong physiques and well-formed elemental crystals within their bodies. Although some of them had low potential, it could be improved with a few good treasures—nothing too difficult.
So, when Zack, Charles, Isaac, Austin, and Yuris woke up, they found themselves lying on wooden beds inside a small hut, with no sign of Skyler. As they crawled their way out of the hut, they were met by the fallen god, who introduced himself and told them how Skyler had left them there and disappeared.
Zack nearly crushed the doorframe of the hut, realizing Skyler had dumped them with some unknown man and vanished without a trace, revealing how unreliable he was.
"That guy! Where did he even go? Weren’t we supposed to get stronger together?"
Austin huffed, equally angry.
"Don’t worry. He won’t leave this realm. Perhaps he wants us to play chase? We should track him down to beat him up!"
They all cursed Skyler, then gathered in front of the old man. Yuris exchanged a glance with the others and cupped his hands in front of Suri, his face solemn.
"Sir, please help us grow stronger. There’s an annoying person we all want to beat up. Skyler’s the strongest, so we’re always the ones on the losing side. If we all become stronger, we can finally turn the tables."
Suri raised a brow, then let out a chuckle. He was pleased with their polite attitude. Moreover, they weren’t afraid of him, even knowing he was the master of this realm. Still, these kids were a little too—what was the word? Yes—naive... nothing like Max.
"I see. But training under me won’t be free. In return, if you ever obtain a higher power, help me leave this place. If you can’t, so be it—but if you can, don’t forget this promise. After all, unlike you all, I can’t leave here."
"Second, accept me as your master."
Yuris glanced at the others. The old man’s conditions weren’t hard to accept, so they exchanged nods and agreed. Then all five of them inclined their heads toward Suri.
"Greetings, Master."
And so, their training began.
At first, they thought it would be easy.
Even so, they resolved to put in twice the effort so that, when they eventually found Skyler, they could defeat him. Suri’s gentle appearance only strengthened that belief.
But they soon learned that Suri was only kind in appearance. His training methods were torturous—even worse than Skyler’s!
Forget about twice the effort—even when they pushed themselves ten times harder, the old man never looked satisfied, always insisting it still wasn’t enough. Suri would always compare them to his ’first disciple,’ whom he often described as someone no one could match. It got to the point where Charles and the others wanted to find out who this damn ’disciple’ was, who had set Suri’s standards so high, and strangle him!
That first disciple became their greatest imagined rival—someone they wanted to find and beat up even more than Skyler.
The problem was that the old man never told them his disciple’s name, the one he had gifted the Legendary Blade of Aethel.
This only fueled their frustration and pushed the five to work even harder.
Every day, before dawn even broke in the Realm, they would already be exercising under gravity. They ran endurance circuits with weights, pushing through exhaustion through meditation, and refining all their elemental crystals under brutal guidance.
Each of them was drilled in their chosen weapon—sword, javelin, dual blades, bow, and gauntlets. Suri, who was skilled with many weapons, would fight them without holding back, forcing them to adapt until their instincts replaced thought itself.
When they weren’t sparring or meditating, they hunted in the realm, battling beasts, obstacles, and creatures far beyond their level, or were sent to gather rare treasures that would strengthen their physiques and stabilize their elemental crystals. Even their breathing was trained under strict routine—regulated cycles meant to circulate Evol more efficiently through their bodies.
By the end of each day, Charles, Austin, Zack, Isaac, and Yuris could barely lift a finger, falling asleep wherever as long as Suri was somewhere nearby, before being dragged back to the hut to rest in a haze.
Slowly, the five grew quite familiar with the Realm, learning its terrain and dangers. Yet even after a year of relentless training and exploration, they still had no trace of Skyler.