Chapter 62 - Team Fairy Tail

(Arthur POV)

Well, I always expected that someday a participant would come by and try to join the ranks of Fairy Tail, after all there's even some new big shots in some other guilds like Phantom Lord that are obviously players, given the fact that the original timeline didn't have them there and they're my age.

However, I never thought Mystogan himself would be a participant once he joined… I guess this makes him the player of Edolas…? But still, that doesn't make much sense…

Anyway, let's go to a secluded place first so that we can talk.

"I don't want any trouble man, I just wanna talk this out with you." I spoke to Mystogan, trying to get him to come with me someplace where we can talk alone.

Mystogan looked at his left hand which held many different rings on each of his fingers, gazing at them for a moment before replying, "That's fine I suppose, but only if we go to a place that I choose. Come on, let's go." Mystogan said and turned around, ripping off a job request from the jobs board all the while.

I smiled wryly at his back and followed, hoping to resolve this issue peacefully.

Mystogan is a central part of Fairy Tail for the most part when looking at the original timeline, as one of their best S ranks he was viewed by many with awe.

It was a real shame that he vanished from the story so quickly, perhaps now that he's become a participant of the death game he'll opt to stay on Earth Land even after the whole Edolas business is taken care of?

…

(3rd Person POV)

As Arthur and Mystogan walked out of the guild together, the word soul magic user's friends started discussing the matter to themselves.

"He didn't even come by to say hi…" Cana sulked, laying her face on the table with hands hanging down towards the floor.

"Haha, well I'm sure he wanted to get that Mystogan fellow to talk and see what he's like. It's alright Cana." Ultear patted Cana on the back with a smile, trying to soothe her.

"Quite the quick meet up though and they were staring at each other quite intensely, I wonder if they know each other?" Lyon questioned.

"Yeah, and you'd think he'd call him over to us but instead they went to talk in private… Seems fishy!" Lisanna commented.

"Arthur hasn't told me anything about any masked friends of his, however…" Erza said, placing a hand on her chin while entering her own thoughts on the matter.

"Oh, do you know something about them Erza?" Elfman inquired.

"Mmm… No, not really. Just thinking about some stuff." Erza replied and decided to sit down with her friends.

'Could it have something to do with the so called "Chosen ones" nonsense from Crego island? Maybe that Mystogan fellow is like Arthur then… It would explain how he'd be able to win against Mira and deal so much damage to her while being seemingly unscathed himself…' Erza thought to herself.

-"Are you worried about Arthur?"- Lazarus asked Erza through telepathy.

-"Yeah, a little… The last time he met someone and acted on his own with them he ended up getting really hurt after all…"- Erza replied via her own telepathy.

-"Mmm, I don't think you should worry. Arthur is way stronger now, you know that well by now."- Lazarus commented, referring to Arthur's ever-expanding pool of magic power.

If you were to compare the current Arthur to the one from two years ago, then you'd be comparing a cat to a lion.

-"Yeah, but that Mystogan guy didn't even have magic power…"- Erza said, her worry rising slightly, yet what Lazarus had said was true.

She decided to trust Arthur's judgement this time.

…

(Arthur POV)

I walked with Mystogan for about thirty minutes, he took us outside of Magnolia city and into the mountains and their forests.

We soon stumbled across a cave buried deep under one of the huge hills that filled the area. Mystogan walked towards and into it without uttering a word.

"Is this where you want to talk then?" I asked, entering the dark cave that Mystogan had brought me to.

You could not see anything after walking about five meters into the cave.

"Yes, it's rather secluded no?" Mystogan said while turning towards me.

"Mmm, yeah. If you can call a base of operations like this secluded… {Light}" I said and lit the entire area up, removing any visage of darkness that once shrouded the vast rocky caves.

After doing so, the terrain was revealed to be one filled with rocks as you'd normally guess… However there was something here that ticked off my danger perception.

The entire place was covered in Runes!

"You can't blame me for being cautious, right? It's not exactly safe to just 'talk' with your enemies after all." Mystogan replied, staring at me with a calculative gaze.

"Haaaa, look man." I sighed, "I'm all for being cautious and stuff, but really. If you are going to be part of Fairy Tail, then I'd like to team up with you for the game. That place is my home, my family. Since you have joined the guild that means you are now part of said family. Capeesh?" Explaining to Mystogan, I smiled and extended my hand for a handshake.

Mystogan then looked at his rings again, no reaction came from them so he turned back to me and extended his hand as well, shaking mine with a rather tight grip.

"You don't seem to be lying, and since the Gods' game encourages teaming up with other players then I'll be sure to take you up on the offer, I am in a need of allies as it is so if you and Fairy Tail can be those allies for me then I'm more than happy about this team up." Mystogan said before continuing, "Besides, despite the long walk here you didn't exude even an ounce of hostility towards me, I'm sure that would make you one of the 'Good' players among the many bad patches."

"Oh? You can tell lies apart from truths and detect hostility, huh? That's rather neat." I said with a smile, releasing his hand and turning to the side. "{Storage}, and yes. The gods do seem to encourage it from what I've seen thus far, teaming up that is." I continued, taking out a small wooden table equipped with built in seats for us both to use.

"Yes, and having allies is always better than acting alone after all." Mystogan replied as he walked closer to the table.

I then went ahead and sat down on the far end seat, pointing towards the other end for Mystogan to sit down on.

"Thank you." Mystogan said, sitting down and looking at me in wait.

"So, why don't we begin with introducing ourselves? I am Arthur Wulf, born on the 19th of January in the year 765. I have been a member of Fairy Tail for about 6 years now. Before that I lived in a small town with a couple of friends, one of which was also a participant of the death game. They've since both been captured and are currently in the Tower of Heaven. How about you my good sir?" I said with a soft smile, supporting my chin with the top of my currently interlocked hands.

He didn't react to my mention of the Tower of Heaven, a good poker face indeed.

Mystogan looked at his rings, then answered. "I am called Mystogan, I've been wandering around for quite some time now. There isn't much else to tell you." Buzz! He lied! On all three no less…

"Mmm, so your name isn't Mystogan, you haven't traveled around for very long and there's a lot else you can tell me." I replied, shocking Mystogan quite a bit.

"… You possess a truth telling skill too then?" Mystogan asked.

"No, it's just a gut instinct." I replied.

Mystogan then looked to his ring once more, a small blue light the size of a dot then glowed for about a moment before disappearing.

"Oh so that's how you tell lies apart huh? I just get a ringing sound in my head hahaha!" I laughed heartily.

"Mm… It would appear that there is no use in lying to each other is there?" Mystogan said, before continuing. "My real name is Jellal Faust, I come from a world that mirrors Earthland named Edolas, I was sent here last year and have spent most of that time doing my own thing while looking for a good base of operations, Fairy Tail seemed like a strong guild in a country that didn't have too many players. I could earn money there too, so it was a win win scenario for me, I didn't expect to meet you there though." Edolas Jellal replied.

"Mmm… I see, a mirror world huh. Does that make you the mirrored version of Jellal Fernandes? The criminal who currently owns the Tower of heaven?" I asked.

"Yes, that is why I must keep my identity hidden. So please refer to me as Mystogan at all times." Mystogan asked of me, in turn removing his masked face.

What was revealed was a young boy with blue hair, dark eyes and a red tattoo on the right side of his face.

"Sure thing, just explain something though…" I inquired, "How come you only came to Earthland recently? Weren't all participants supposed to be born in the year 765 and on Earthland? As people who died in their world and were reborn here with their memories intact?"

This honestly sounds like Zeref's case, I wonder if there is anything similar going on with it?

"Mmm, I'm not entirely clear on it myself to be honest… I was only told of these things when I first transitioned into Earthland. The god of Edolas had apparently chosen me as his representative, using a special privilege of a god whose world mirrors the one that the game takes place on." Mystogan explained.

Ah, so it is similar to Zeref's case.

"I see, so he could pick any living person from Edolas as long as he sent him to Earthland?" I asked.

"Mmm… not that simple no, the rules stated that the participant had to be born in the same timeframe as the others, it is usually considered a stupid decision for a god to use this privilege unless their participant is one with a huge talent for fighting. Whether I have such a talent remains to be seen…" Mystogan answered, then continued explaining. "All I know is that through some events I came to Earthland, met a god and rolled a wheel that granted me an ability of my own to use in a death game among other similar 'players'. You should know the rest, so that's all I can say." He finished his explanation.

"Hmm… What was the god like?" I decided to ask.

"What?" Mystogan was surprised, "Why is that important?" he asked.

"Just curious. That's all." I replied while remembering my own experience with my god…

Oh, that beautiful horse faced bastard still haunts my dreams… *shivers*

"I'd rather not talk about it…" Mystogan said, smiling wryly.

"Eh? Why not? Don't tell me it was a weirdo?" I asked, surprised that there are other idiots like my god.

"It… It was a chair…" Mystogan nervously admitted.

A what now…?

WHAT?

"… What?" I asked, my face breaking into confusion.

"The god of Edolas was… A chair… A talking chair with a sheet covering it's seat, on it there was an… Image? I'm not sure what it was but the 'God' called it an 'Anime Waifu' or something, there was also a lot of doll like figures with similar designs to that image… Honestly it was weird and sketchy…" Mystogan said in a low tone.

Ahhh, he's had it rough too…

I place my hand on his shoulder, reaching out across the table. "I totally get you man… I getchu… My god was a nȧkėd muscular old man with a horse mask and a cooking apron…" I admitted too.

Are all gods such weirdoes?

"Are all gods such weirdoes…?" Mystogan asked right as I thought the same thing.

"I hope not…" I simply said with a wry smile, sitting back in my seat and proceeding to talk to Mystogan about other things.

Like how he had got to Earthland and about the situation in Edolas, I didn't really learn anything new but I pretended to be surprised about his whole Prince identity and the Anima device that takes Magic Power from Earthland.

I myself told him some of my old life too, although it was mostly explaining stuff about the modern world and technology, I didn't tell him anything about Anime.

I'll tell him eventually, should probably leave it for when he trusts me more than just an official teammate that he can exploit, when he sees me as a friend.

The question arose eventually about the Teaming system itself and how it worked, Mystogan said that I needed to simply call out to the system of the game and it'd allow me to configure my personal team.

His chair god told him that… Yet…

Why didn't horse face explain this stuff to me?? I feel cheated…

Oh well, whatever… I'll just roll with it.

"Okay… Let's try it then, {Open System Team Management Menu}" I said and what seemed to be a floating screen appeared before my eyes.

On it read:

-------------------Create Team-------------------

-------------------Yes : No-------------------

I pressed on the 'yes' option and the menu changed.

-------------------Pick Team Name-------------------

-------------------this option can be saved for later-------------------

-------------------UNNAMED-------------------

-------------------Accept : Cancel-------------------

After looking at it for a second, I turned to Mystogan and asked. "It's asking for a team name, do you mind if I pick it?"

"Not at all, I can already ȧssume what you have in mind anyway." Mystogan smirked and allowed me to proceed.

"Yeah, it should be that right?" I replied with a grin and wrote in the name of our team using the hologram like keyboard buŧŧons below the text.

-------------------Pick Team Name-------------------

-------------------this option can be saved for later-------------------

-------------------Fairy Tail-------------------

-------------------Accept : Cancel-------------------

After writing in the name of the team, I clicked the accept buŧŧon and the system made a ding sound in my head before speaking with a cutesy, chipmunk like anime girl voice.

-"Congratulations! You have created the Team "Fairy Tail"! Yeheyyy! Enter the Team configuration menu to send invites to other participants of the Game of the Gods via the command "System Team Management" and clicking on the invite option. Thank you for playing this game for us! Entertain our masters more you puny mortals! MWIHIHIHIHI"- The system said with its squeaky voice, irritating me quite a bit.

The irritation was visible on my face even…

"What's wrong Arthur? Did the team creation fail?" Mystogan asked in concern.

"No… Just… Maybe you'll find out in a second…" I replied and called out to the system once more, "System Team Management"

A menu appeared before me with ten slots, presumably for ten members. There was an invite and a kick buŧŧon, my name was at the top slot with a crown beside it and some text that explained the meaning of it.

The crown apparently meant Team Leader.

Aside from that my ability from the wheel of fate was also under my name, meaning that teammates can see what your ability is, or at least the name of it…

Sweet…

It looked something like this:

Arthur Wulf -Team Leader- Word Soul Magic User

After looking the menu through, I clicked on invite.

-"Ara ara~ Sure thing, I'll invite your new friend for you~ Just look at the one you want sweety~"- The system spoke with an onee-chan like voice this time…

I looked at Mystogan and he seemed to react, seeing the invitation in front of him.

He moved his hand up and clicked on the air, presumably accepting the invite.

Then he had another reaction, his face shifting to a rather disturbed expression.

"What the hell is this voice…" He asked, looking at me judgmentally. "Why is it like that…" He asked.

"How should I know? Don't look at me like that! Look at whichever weirdo made this thing!" I answered in my own defense.

I guess there's anime fanatics among the gods?

-"Congratulations! Wheeeeee~ you have a teammate! Tis cool right? Very cool right? Now go murder some other players together! Yeheyyy~"- The cutesy chipmunk anime girl voice came back…

Both me and Mystogan simply looked at each other, the serious atmosphere of before having vanished completely.

…

The menu now showed two names,

Arthur Wulf -Team Leader- Word Soul Magic User

Jellal Faust -Team Member- Runic Enchanting User

…