I was bogged down with a very annoying task. To have to go and retrieve a weapon used by an Outer God to destroy one of the worlds that had gone to trash was not the problematic part.

It was having to go there with a group that was.

I traced my way through the tree-made passageways and found myself in the hundred foot tree that connected pathways to all the different worlds that we had discovered. A true world tree in the sense of the word.

As I reached the central portal hub created in the world of the elves, I found the people that Charlotte said would be my ‘teammates’

“Oh! It’s Na-Ri!”

“Hey! Na-Ri!!”

Even when I had just hit my twenties I had to be stuck with the same faces.

Emily and Kevin, the people from the same class in my Pantheon days were waiting down there. Amongst all of us, these two were the only students who had risen to a level of strength almost near mine.

Alongside them was a giant man with the scales and the skin of a dragon.

I walked over and looked at the dragon who stretched his hand out.

“Miss Han Na-Ri. Daughter of Han Jun-Ho, I am the son of Rathnaar, Kalanaar!”

“Sure.” I nodded at the weirdo’s introduction. He laughed it off, but my other two old friends seemed fairly surprised.

Was this kid someone important?

The next person I turned toward was a small dryad, just like the elves, the dryads were a race that rarely aged. Being completely one with trees, their immortal bodies were just as beautiful as they were youthful. But this guy looked like a kid even for those druids.

I was getting annoyed. He would be a burden definitely.

“Hey Kalanaar guy, you better take care of the dryad.”

“Oh? I, the mighty Kalanaar am being asked to babysit?”

I nodded.

There seemed to be no one else.

“Should we move and get this over with?”

“We still have to wait for the group leader.”

I tilted my head at Em’s words.

“Group leader?”

“Na-Ri has done so many individual missions that she has no idea,” Kevin talked to Em as if I didn’t even exist.

“Right? What a loner.”

Loner.

Ever since I heard that my brother had been transmigrated and had not died, I had become kind of a loner. I guess.

It was unfair, wasn’t it? For someone to come in front of you just to inflict the same pain all over again. I was sure that my parents wouldn’t be able to handle that kind of twisted truth, so I never told them it.

Especially my dad.

He already guilted himself for the death of Charlotte’s ‘son.’ How would he feel when he figured that the one who he failed to save was his own?

It would be crushing for the man. I didn’t even want to go there. And if my mom learned of it, I would doubt she would be able to keep her sanity that already seemed to be loosening out of her grasp.

I held my head and sighed. There was no time to think about that stuff.

“So, who is this person that is going to be our leader, and why should I accept them when they are tardy?”

“Oh! You guys are already here?”

A familiar voice called out from behind me just as I finished my words.

“I said nothing,” I glared at the bastards in front of and turned back. “Noa!”

Noa Roselle, a woman with hair that locked in shades of black and white. For how much rose her name held, her personality was anything but.

She was wild like a boar and strong like a bear.

I waved my hands at Noa and smiled brightly.

“Na-Ri! I heard you were coming along and came running!”

And she was still late! This person was also as flippant as a fox.

She wrapped her arms around my back in a tight hug and patted my head. As it would turn out, she had some kind of relationship with my brother while he was transmigrated, but I had no idea what it was.

Regardless, I didn’t like it. I only accepted Miss Lethe as a person I could call my sister in law, no one else.

But damn it, Noa was way too cute to just say no to. Damned brother scored way out of his league, how dare he without even asking me!

“Alright, this is a rather star studded team, huh?” Noa hummed as she swept her gaze over the rest.

Was it now? I didn’t care enough about others to know those things. I doubted any of them even lifted.

Noa, with her hand still wrapped around my neck, started pulling me along and took the lead.

“Alright, let’s move and get this over with.”

I had just said that, don’t steal my limelight, damn it.

“If any of you are left behind and end up dying don’t fault me. Make sure not to die even if you feel like you’re about to!”

“Eeek!” The dryad squealed like a rat.

“Bwahaha! I like the leader!” And the damned Dragonewt was busy laughing his guts out.

“Let’s try our best, right, Kev, Na-Ri?”

What a shit line up this was.

With no more words, we pushed ourselves into the portal connecting two worlds.

And everything around us changed.

This was the beginning of the trip to another world that would soon become one of the most important mission records taken in by the Worlds Association.

Where the true, fearful, might of the Outer Gods that could leave the world in despair was experienced first hand for the very first time.

The mission where the danger of the Outer Gods became clearer than ever.

And the mission.

Where a being above all of that despair appeared.

A mission…

That marked the first page in the tales of the ‘Strongest.’

[Volume 8: STRONGEST Begins Now]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep