Jake just kept looking at him. It was clear that he was having some difficulty believing in Aiden at the moment.

‘Who gets kicked out from a founding family, is that even possible?’

Aiden noticed this and knew he needed to explain a little. “Problem related to awakening. They didn’t like it and kicked me out because of it.”

“What family kicked you out?”

Jake seemed interested in knowing about it, for some reason.

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“The Nightshades.”

Jake didn’t seem too surprised. “Ah. Then, it makes sense don’t worry. Sylas can be a real bitch sometimes, but none of that matters. Look at you, getting an item that leads you to me. You must have some talent.”

Aiden was surprised by the words that Aiden had used. For example, treating Sylas as one of the strongest people in the World of a bitch is truly something.

‘I heard about his strengths from Maelis, and how he would be able to answer most of my questions. But I wonder… Is he really as strong as the rumors?’

Aiden was also somewhat sure that the one who could use Qi with a lot of proficiency was the person in front of him. Or else, why would he have asked about it?

That question had simply come out of nowhere.

“Probably a weird request, especially after meeting one another… But can we spar? I want to see how strong you are.”

Jake just had a smile on his face when Aiden uttered those words.

“Follow me!”

***

A few minutes later, Aiden was no longer in Jake’s cave and was now outside in the middle of what seemed to be a jungle.

The trees were massive and tall. Aiden couldn’t even the top of a single one of them. As for the ground, the grass was tall almost reaching Aiden’s tights, and there were also a couple of rocks which made it difficult to move around.

“So, are you ready to fight?” Jake asked.

While he uttered those words, a huge sword appeared out of nowhere in his hands as if he had called it. Aiden obviously knew that it came from the inventory, but the way Jake had pulled it out seemed different. He hadn’t pulled it out of a portal, the sword had just appeared.

However, Aiden didn’t question it as he pulled out his dagger.

Emma was only watching the two of them with great attention. She knew she would be able to learn a couple of things from all of this.

‘There’s a reason that the system pulled me here, and I need to find it!’ Aiden thought.

He could feel the determination slowly summoning within his body, as a deep flame had appeared deep inside his core. It was weird that only after all this time, had appeared, that determination.

Aiden had been determined in the past but right now was completely different. Before he had only aimed at getting stronger to find freedom, but now it was different, he wanted to get stronger not only because of that, but also because he wanted to protect those close to him.

“Let’s do it!” Aiden shouted.

Suddenly, Jake disappeared in a flash of light, the only thing he left behind was the grass slowly burning because of the friction from his movements.

‘Where?’

Aiden looked around himself, but he couldn’t find him.

‘Is he behind?’

Aiden turned around and there was already the sword right in front of his head. If he had turned around one minute later, he would have been killed, or at least, he would have lost his fight if this was a real fight.

Aiden raised his dagger and struggled to defend the strike causing him to be pushed back.

‘Is this his full strength?’

Aiden was mindblown, he had never been attacked in such a way, and it seemed like it was only starting as Jake once again disappeared appearing behind him.

The only emotion that could be seen in Aiden’s eyes at the moment was pure shock from what was happening. He knew that no matter what he would do, there was no way he would win against that man.

For the first time in his life, he truly felt overpowered. He knew that whatever move he would pull out, it would all be meaningless.

“Let’s stop this right now… No point in going further.”

Aiden knew there was no point. He had fought and put his life on the line against the director in his trial. But the man in front of him… he was… a lot, a lot stronger. Even if he managed a miracle, Aiden knew.

There wouldn’t be a scratch on him.

Jake who had been about to make another attack, stopped completely. “Oh, you know when to admit defeat. That’s great.”

Aiden only gritted his teeth in response. ‘I don’t, you’re just too strong.’

Aiden had seen Melinda and Sylas fight in the Inter Family Tournament, but that was different. Seeing Jake fight, Aiden was sure about it… the founding families heads, they were weaker… a lot weaker than him.

‘That’s probably why they leave him alone, they know that he’s much stronger.’

That was the only logical as to why the founding families wouldn’t beg for Jake to join them.

“Well, now that we fought shall I show you around a little. I don’t think I told you yet, but you aren’t the only one who appeared here recently. There’s another person… a girl, an Enchantress.”

“I wasn’t the only one? How did she come here?”

Jake looked lost when he heard that question. “No idea, one day I woke up and she was there. My guess is that someone, most likely the system, sent her here for some reason.”

Jake took a small break and started walking forward. “Well, I’ll make you two meet… Oh, now that I remember, she did say something weird when I woke up, I think it was along the lines that she had been sent here because of fate or something like that…”

Jake noticed the look in Aiden’s eyes and giggled. “Yeah, I know… she’s weird.”

***

A few moments later, Aiden was back in the cave, and only now did he realize how big it was. Jake had a nice home, even if it was situated in the middle of nowhere.

“So, I’m guessing the reason you came here is to become stronger? That’s probably why the system sent you, they do that once in a while. It’s always annoying.”

‘They send people here, why? Just who the hell is this man?’

Aiden was confused, he thought he had been the lucky one. But it seemed that this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. Maybe that’s why the man didn’t look too troubled to have a portal appear in his home.

“Where is that girl you talked about earlier?” Aiden asked as he continued to follow the man, keeping those thoughts to himself.

“A little bit further down there, she’s meditating. So, don’t make too much noise.”

‘Meditating, what the fuck is going on here?’

Aiden didn’t ask any questions as he continued to follow Jake down the cave. He had to admit that he was quite impatient to find out, who was there a the bottom of the cave.

‘He said it was an Enchantress, right? Do I know any?’

At first, there wasn’t anyone coming up in Aiden’s mind. But then, he remembered that there was someone, the first person he had met when being thrown inside this world.

‘There’s no way, it would be her though, right?’

Aiden thought of Ava, but he knew that the chances of it being her were very small. Nonetheless, Aiden asked Jake about it.

“What’s the name of the person training down there?”

However, didn’t seem to remember… “Uh… I think it started with an A or something… I don’t know, I’m not good with words after all.”

‘An A…’

While Aiden knew there were a lot of people in the world who had a name that started with an A… the chances were higher than before.

‘There’s no way, right? After all this time….’

Aiden wasn’t sure, but he remembered what had happened between them. If they ever met again, then Ava would have no choice but to listen to everything that Aiden would be saying.

“Can’t we go a little faster?”

Aiden was getting impatient, he wanted to find out about who she was as fast as possible.

“Sure, just run down there and at one point you’ll see her. I’m going to continue walking though, I can’t be bothered.”

Aiden heard him and exploded in terms of speed. He ran down the cave, he wanted to see if the person down there really was Ava.

Even if they hadn’t been best friends at the start, it was still meaningful to see her after all this time.

He ran and ran, and finally arrived around the area that Jake had talked about.

Aiden was now face to face with the person meditating, and she still had her eyes closed.

“Ava? Is that really you?”

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