Chapter 457: Catching up with the guild

After a hard day of being taught the basics on human biology again, Eldrian climbed into the cabin looking forward to a day of wandering around the kingdom of Taurus. 

While he knew that Kynigo's situation was still complicated, Eldrian had no desire to rush right back to it. He first wanted to give Cephaphyr some good memories before heading there. As such, they stopped at each of the cities on their way to Kynigo. 

Even so, it took them only another three days to arrive at this city. Naturally, Eldrian had set the temple of Skepsi as a teleportation point before having left Valan. 

Arriving at the camp, Cephaphyr couldn't help but make a face of disgust when he saw the forest beyond the now 10 meter tall stone walls. 

"How awful, is that the undead's fault?" He asked after landing and turning into his elven form. 

Their arrival had shocked everyone in the camp, however, alarms hadn't been raised as quite a number still remembered the elf who had caused the start of quite a number of rumors. 

They also didn't bother to question if it was him and instead immediately used Observe. Eliminating the need for uncertainty and causing everyone to breathe out in relief. Naturally, nearly no one knew of the alicorns and most weren't even able to get any information of the beast, now little elf. 

This last little fact scared everyone out of their minds. As it was only possible if either the beast's grade was that of an Ancient or Mythic, or if its Tier was far higher than all theirs. Both were equally scary thoughts. 

"Yes, that is why we came here. I need to figure out and destroy the source of this so this part of the kingdom can have some peace."

Hearing this, Cephaphyr nodded in full agreement that it had to be cleansed.

"So you are finally back!" A familiar voice shouted in joy, turning around Eldrian smiled as he greeted Ayden.

"When did you cut your hair?" 

"It was getting in the way! Do you like it? I did it myself." Ayden said with pride, flaunting his decent haircut. Though some areas could do with a recut, for sure. 

"It's alright, come on. Catch me up on what has been happening."

"Not much honestly, outside of a few weaker undead checking to see if we are still manning the walls, there has been no other developments. There have also been no more reinforcements from the encroaching nor from the drylands."

"That's great, and the wall looks really impressive... Oh right, this here is Cephaphyr."

"Hi, you can just call me Ceph!" Cephaphyr smiled and extended his hand in greeting which Ayden promptly shook. 

"Ayden... But, aren't you a little young to be on the frontlines?" 

"I might be young, but I am by no means weak!" Ceph countered, suddenly turning the handshake into a battle of strengths, which he promptly won. 

Rubbing his ass, Ayden smiled, "Seems that you certainly are, though you did catch me off guard."

"Want to try again?" Ceph asked and Ayden immediately took a big step back. "Thought so."

Despite trying to act cool, Cephaphyr was brimming with pride and happiness. 

"By the way, why didn't you tell me you were going to leave?" Ayden suddenly turned serious and turned to Eldrian expecting a proper answer. 

"Sorry about that, you were still unconscious from the accident."

Ayden stared at the elf before him with narrowed eyes, slowly a smile formed as he asked, "Did you ever manage to learn what that spell does?"

"No, I would need to get a hundred times more mana than I currently have to try that. But I am quite certain it is going to make something. I have no idea what though."

"Really?" Ayden look at the elf before him in disbelief, however, when trying to observe Cephaphyr he had also drawn a blank. Thus, his disbelief slowly turned into acceptance, especially when also recalling all the other things Eldrian had gone and done. 

"Forget it, why did you finally decide to come back?"

"That is a long story. The short of it is I got some training from some of the strongest people on Gaia, and also had this guy become my partner in crime."

"Crime?" Cephaphyr questioned in confusion, causing to other two to laugh. 

"It's just a saying." Eldrian said while ruffling Ceph's hair, "Right, want to join me?"

"Join you, for what?" Ayden asked, but fell in behind Eldrian without missing a beat. 

"Time to finally push back the undead. But first I need to go greet a friend of mine."

Arriving at Phoenix's tent, which had grown in size to occupy nearly as much space as the command tent, Eldrian quickly greeted all of his old friends. Of course, he had informed them that he was coming on the second day of his and Ceph's journey. 

"Eldrian! Great to see you in person again!" Judith shouted, going in for a bearhug and looking at the two tags along in questioning. 

"First thing first, this is Ceph and that is Ayden. And Ayden, my real name is Eldrian. The name Haru is that of my avatar with which I visit this world." Eldrian said, leaving the poor man in his own world to try and work through all the information going through his mind. 

"Oh, this cutey is Ceph?" Judith coached down and tried to stretch Cephaphyr's cheeks, only for him to dodge. Which then quickly turned into a test of speed, which Judith lost from the get-go. Yet, she refused to give up. 

"Eldrian, you asked us to make sure we would be here. I assume you have something big planned?" Elizabeth said after the chaos started to calm down. 

"Yes, but first. Congrats on reaching Tier 3!"

"Thanks, I don't know many Tier 3 spells yet, I only managed to break through a week ago."

"Haha, but I bet you are still one of the strongest priests thanks to your titles."

Eldrian's teasing caused her cheeks to redden as she recalled how useless she had been in the tournament. Now, if they were to fight again, she would actually be able to do a great deal for the team. 

Ayden looked on at the easy-going nature of those around him, finding it strange but refreshing. In curiosity, he also used Observe to try and see what titles Eldrian was talking about. The titles sent his mind reeling. 

It was only natural that this would happen. There was no chance that he would ever be able to meet one of the leaders of the faiths. Yet, here before him stood one. 

And, unlike the priestly aura and dignity he had always envisioned, she was just a normal girl. She smiled and laughed, and even blushed as she and Eldrian talked and joked. 

"Enough reminiscing, we should get started." Eldrian finally said after catching up with everyone.

The guild had grown over the past 2 months, not only had those from Herglem come to Kynigo. Many other players had also taken the journey to come and join Phoenix along with the second wave of reinforcements from Phallos. 

"I assume you plan to get started on the quest again?"

"Yes," Eldrian said, calling up the quest as he did. The part of protecting the king had been canceled, but other than that it was still the same. 

AN: A big thanks to everyone who continues to support this novel on WN.