Chapter 201 El-Vul-Or Tournament [2]

In the ancient world of the past, veiled in mysteries to be unearthed and presumed to be only existing due to the power of time possessed by the ambiguous existence of Cosmos Ocean and the eternal power of everything from the Last Close Mystery Tower, Ruri Zerem, on the roof of her dormitory room, was gazing at the far-off transparent raven night sky with glistening stars, where the pollution was severely less compared on the Orion Continent of Earth.

"I miss them... I miss them so much."

Sitting in a lotus position with both her hands acting as pillars as they were against the roof's surface, Rumia muttered solemnly. It's been almost two months on her side, and without knowing herself if the time difference on Earth was the same as where she was currently, Rumia could only hope because the other possibilities would be a nightmare for her.

"But we've taken another step, even though it's far from ending these circumstances, delaying my way home."

Without anyone to talk with regarding the things of Earth, Rumia mostly spent her time alone on the roof, especially after her roommates, Alice Rua of the Rua Barony Household and Alani Ashford of the Ashford Ducal Household, fell asleep every tranquil, chilling night.

As though they were playing cat and mouse, the number of transmigrators almost didn't dwindle, as each of them was probably hiding and cautious about openly interacting with anyone. But, during these past few months since everyone was unexpectedly transported into this ancient world, the first transmigrator had been slain, finally ending the random changes as per the System's notice.

Rumia and the one she secondarily suspected, her professor in the alchemy class, after the Duke's daughter, Alani, were the ones who managed to obtain the first blood achievement. To Rumia's surprise, it was truly the professor who had shown signs of being a transmigrator in a discreet manner, almost unnoticeable for ordinary citizens of this world.

Apart from that, there was a time when the professor, named Sol, confronted Rumia, blurting out to the latter her acting skills during the first attempt in the Alchemy Laboratory. In other words, Miss Sol somewhat caught Rumia's fake reaction regarding being poisoned by misplaced ingredients or the results of wrong concocting methods.

And adding to her initial surprise, which Rumia felt glad to know, was that Miss Sol's name on Earth was Aya Himeno. Although Aya wasn't popular everywhere on the Orion Continent, unlike the daughters or sons of the players at the top of the food chain on humanity's side, Rumia recognized her for one reason: It's because Aya Himeno was Anya Amasawa's distant cousin!

The two of them weren't close in person, but neither of them harbored any animosity toward the other, which made it easy for them to form an alliance.

On the other hand, regarding the transmigrator that both of them had killed after they formed an alliance and acquiesced to taking the alternative route of finishing this bizarre situation, in other words, both of them would either eliminate the Divine Pope residing in the Republic of Holacis of the West Alpha Continent or eliminate the Demon Queen reigning on the Omega Forest in the far North of the Alpha Continent.

The transmigrator they had murdered without hesitation was done in self-defense because Rumia and Aya, in the bodies of Ruri and Sol, as per what they had agreed on, would rather take on the Divine Pope or Demon Queen, which meant that they needed more people, but unfortunately, the one they found by using Rumia's underhanded tactics was someone they didn't know, but who was also weak and acted on instinct, and who was a senior student in the Augaia Knights Academy.

Rumia, for some reason, felt accomplished as her unusual method of identifying a transmigrator worked, even though the second attempt became a murder case.

The Augaia Knights Academy was in a state of incredulity because of a murder case happening within the academy. It was investigated, but to no avail, as it happened in a discreet place within the academy, and the suspects, Rumia and Aya, weren't caught. But their actions brought unrest among the parents of the students, who were soon to be assistant knights or knights themselves in the future.

"I'm glad it's someone I know."

Rumia muttered, recalling her first personal encounter with Aya in this world.

"If I think about it... if the only choice is to eliminate every transmigrator, it would mean that I needed to kill Anya's cousin..."

Feeling the freezing wind of the night, various thoughts surfaced in her mind, but in the end, she was more than enough grateful for the alternative way of going back home.

Among the thoughts flooding her mind, there was one crucial thing she was bothered by:

"I wonder why the alternative includes killing the Divine Pope."

As time quickly passed, Rumia fell asleep on the roof.

***

January 07, 2063

Breaking News:

— The Elnira-Vulcan-Orion Tournament will commence on this day and will run for five days until the eleventh of the month!

— The rewards to be given to the winners will be announced later on by the Queen of Elnira!

— Who will come out on top? The adaptive humans? The mana-blessed elves? Or the technology-driven dwarves? We'll see later on the live broadcast starting at 10:00 A.M. Stay tuned-!

"This media company sure is excited, huh."

In Russell's dormitory room in the Rigel Building, Amelie, feeling cozy, sat on the couch while watching the early morning news as the yellow sun have yet to show its brightness.

"How about you? Awake at this time, what... 5 A.M.?"

Freya, lying on her older brother's bed, was still drowsy. As a light sleeper, she woke up just by minor interruptions in the surroundings just like the sound of the news.

"Shh... Apart from stealing his place to sleep, you should be quiet by letting Russell sleep, Ken, too."

Amelie whispered as both she and Freya glanced at the floor with a comfortable bed mattress, which could fit at least four people. Russell and Ken were soundly sleeping, undisturbed by the noise.

"Well, he said he'll wake up early because he has something to say regarding our first mission as a mercenary group."

This time, sitting beside Amelie, Amery's soft voice sounded. Russell had picked her up from the Chaos Training Grounds. Although she's not participating in the El-Vul-Or Tournament because she's not an Obelisk Student, she still could visit the event to see what's about to happen with her own eyes.

"Sigh... Whatever. Wake me up when everybody's awake. The last time my Oppa woke me up using a television, it didn't end well for him."

The two shifted their gaze at Freya, not knowing what she was referring to. After Freya covered her face with a pillow, she recalled the moment when Russell had turned up the volume of the television to the maximum just to wake her up, causing her to smack his head after.

***

After some time, around almost two hours, Russell woke up and saw the invaders of his dormitory room, who seemed to forget that they owned something similar.

Stretching his hands as he yawned, with a turned-off television causing the silence to prevail, he glanced and scrutinized everyone's business.

Amelie was lying on the couch, with her feet on Amery's lap, fiddling with her smartwatch. The latter, though, was gazing outside the window with thoughts unknown. Freya, on the other hand, was still sleeping.

"Good morning."

With his words, the two women were jolted awake and saw his morning face.

'Good morning, Russell."

Amelie said with a smile, while Amery only nodded her head, displaying her typical aloof personality, which was more extremely introverted than a genuine cold demeanor.

"Where's Ken?"

Noticing the one on his side gone, Russell curiously looked around.

"Oh, you're awake. By the way, your sister said to wake her up after everyone's awake, so... Do the job. She seems like a tiger."

Appearing from the kitchen with bundles of delicacies for breakfast in a tray, Ken shifted his gaze to the sleeping Freya before putting the food on the long glass table, which they moved aside at this time to be replaced by the bed mattress where they fell asleep.

Without explaining to everyone his actions, Russell stood up as his strength came back, opening the television and grabbing the remote control. He then muted it first before turning the volume up to the maximum.

Amelie, Amery, and Ken who saw this glanced at it other out of instinct with confused expressions.

The moment the volume reached its upper limit, Russell unmuted it and the sound of seemingly unending upcoming El-Vul-Or Tournament news reverberated throughout his dormitory room.

The sleeping Freya flinched, woken up by the deafening sound that lasted for three seconds.

"W-what..."

Seeing the smile of the perpetrator, Freya frowned and sat on the bed. With her morning face, she stretched her body and without warning, lunged forward and kicked her older brother on the abdomen, sending him flying a meter or two away.

Bam-!

***

Crashing on the long glass table, Ken Raven lamented at the food that was scattered upon impact.

"I told you not to do that again-!"

"Hahaha! Oh, come on! It's been a while since we can joke around like this."

Russell didn't mind the kick. In fact, Freya seemed glad that she could do it without worrying about her older brother's well-being because his body became sturdier as he continued to be strong.

"Whatever! Let's prepare first.

"Uh, Ken, sorry for the food."

Still staring blankly at what he prepared, Ken just nodded while Russell went to the bathroom to wash up.

"Hey Freya, aren't you being rough? Is that how you bond with your older brother?"

Amelie asked, somewhat bewildered at what just happened.

"Hmm... No... But you see, wasting food aside, I think the more we become strong, the more we can bond in a fierce manner, too."

"Oi! Your head must be spinning! Even if we become SSS+ Rank or whatever in the future, it's still wrong to act that way, I mean — don't include the food!"

Freya scoffed at Amelie's words, which pertained to that she only cared about the food and not Russell's well-being after that kick, in which Freya didn't use much force to perform.

After that, everything came back to normal apart from the broken glass table. Russell made breakfast for everyone, giving an apology to Ken for Freya's unforeseen behavior.

"Alright. I'll tell the details of our first mission under Umbra and not just some students."

***

"So we need to capture a lurking vampire on the outskirts of the borders of the Elnira Kingdom?

"I don't know the land area of that kingdom, but if its capital was located in the center, it would be quite far from where we are going."

Amelie voiced her perspective.

"Don't worry about that. With the Spade Warp, we can request you to see the outskirts first so we can set up an endpoint after we meet the condition of your skill."

Russell reassured, glancing at everyone.

"And just as we talked about, we will use Ken's Avatar skill to do a reconnaissance mission, but yeah, we need to supply him with many Mana Potions since his skill consumes too much Mana. Although it's only an alternative because it's a Chaos-related Skill, don't use much Chaos Mana for unforeseen circumstances.

"Also a reminder for Ken, do not act rashly the moment you see a vampire. We know what you've been through, but don't do anything that would jeopardize this mission. Is that clear?"

"Yes. Trust in me. I'll do my best!"

Since Russell had saved his parents, Ken was increasingly becoming more mature as the importance of his loved ones reached its peak at the thought of almost losing them.

***

One hour before the El-Vul-Or Tournament, Russell, Samantha, together with some others that they either know or not, finally arrived at the capital of the Elnira Kingdom.