Chapter 324: Breaking Time

———Lerim———

<5: 07 pm>

“Been a while since you came out of that office.” I said to him as the three of us sat down with nothing but drinks on the table.

“You made it sound like I live there.” He said, his tone a bit livelier than it has been in a while.

“With how you have been moving for the past few months, that might as well be true.” I don’t mince words on that observation. It’s not as if he never had breaks, but it’s clear that things have gotten monotonous for him and it’s sapping away at his spirit. There are only a few instances of him coming out for fresh air and moving his muscles.

“By the way, have you been exercising at all? You look a bit lethargic.” Evari asked.

“I’m fine, just haven't been eating much lately, or a lot of sleep.” He answered.

“Hopefully things will get a bit better going forward.” I said before taking a sip of my drink. “Say, Evari, I heard you got a new record today?”

“Yeah, I almost hit eighty floors.” She modestly said. That isn’t much of an improvement, but as long as it’s not regression it’s not worth worrying about. “What about you?”

“One-seventy.” I answered as I shifted my focus back to the text. I didn’t even use up all my strength. I need to keep some in case of responding to emergency calls.

“Huh!? That’s so deep!” She said in disbelief while I checked the chat history. I want to make sure I didn’t misremember the earlier conversation.

“It must be nice to be able to talk about such a thing. Here I am documenting everything and reporting it to the higher ups…” Our guild leader said, still sounding exhausted.

“Do those guys still exist? Actually how does the guild even profit at all?” I asked, wondering how it even manages to last this long. It seems like a weird idea someone came up with and never bothered to think of the benefits that will come from it.

“I never really question it. They didn’t ask for any sensitive information, and they still financed the guild to keep running.” He said. The whole operation looks suspicious from the start. The government started it and yet it doesn’t feel like anything came out of it… I know that those laboratories are supposed to do something with those carcasses and other loot, but then why not shut the whole thing down when the majority of them got dismantled?

“Certainly weird, but if we keep getting paid then what is there to say?” Is there even any chance of the whole thing collapsing tomorrow? Maybe. We still should coast if it still exists anyway, and I won’t be surprised if Idea or Kara might manage to get some inside information with the kind of connections they seem to have. “If it’s not around anymore that does mean I don’t have to be on standby forever, but that probably wouldn’t stop certain daredevils… We’ll worry about that later, no need for this guy to feel even more exhausted.”

All of us didn't say anything as we took a sip of our drinks and looked through our phones. It’s a bit awkward but the three of us really don’t have that much in common. The fact that our boss has mostly been doing paperwork and not going out often means he doesn’t have a lot to say in general. Not a lot of interesting stories to go around for him to experience or hear, which is definitely quite a sad life. He can show a lot more of his capabilities elsewhere.

…Speaking of sad, I still can’t find any modeling job. Letting my beauty be left wasted inside the deep cold depths of the dungeon is not acceptable. Livestreaming is completely out of the question, there’s always a chance of imperfection being seen and there’s the chance of being lumped with those bitches, and that’s not what I wanted at all. I don’t care if online entertainment is still doing good, I won’t take up streaming.

“...The place is quiet today.” Evari remarked. “It has been a while since I’ve been here as well. A dessert shop like this is usually not on my mind.”

“Just one of those days that they don’t have that many customers.” I mindlessly said while trying to think of any topic needed bringing up. “Or maybe it’s just the time of day. Maybe wait a few minutes before making that judgement.”

“Say, is it fine for this to be out of your own pocket?” He asked.

“It’s fine. I’m sure I’ll find a way to swindle people out of money sooner rather than later.” I said while reading through the messages. “Things are going to shake up pretty soon, I bet. I would suggest not leaving the town for a while.”

“What makes you say that?” He asked.

“Just from how things are moving at the moment, at least in the States.” I haven’t been looking in the development of anywhere past that since that’ll probably just overload my brain with information. Every country is going to present themselves as being stable and out of the world news, but it doesn’t take too much digging to see all the crazy stuff happening underneath the surface. I have heard plenty of rumors going about that sound absolutely outlandish happening in other countries that are probably true, but it’s so far removed from me that it’s not worth thinking about.

“Right… Is anything big gonna happen though? I thought anyone in power was just letting the world burn while they waited in their office.” Evari said. There has been a suspicious lack of communication of any kind, but considering all the fumbling they suffered through when they do show their hands it’s no surprise. Aside from stuff like provoking Wiina that one time there are also some smaller skirmishes a few months back that people don’t really talk about, just a mess all around. No one really knows for sure what is happening behind the scenes there, but it’s obviously not pretty even if nothing leaked. So many people taking control of their small region through force just shows how little control they have left.

“Who’s to say? Something is going to happen regardless. Do you really think the country being slowly divided into itty bitty little pieces is something anyone could ignore? At some point it’s going to cause a massive national incident.” I pointed out. “Whether it’ll affect us in the short term is unclear, but we’ll probably need to get used to a new status quo after everything is said and done.”

“Hey, if it means we’ll sound less unemployed, I’m up for it.” Evari takes a bright look at such a grim inevitability. I suppose with how few incidents occur in this place that is only natural. Looking at that guy’s face he obviously knows better than to say something so hopelessly optimistic.

“Say, Lerim, do you know much about this friend of yours?” He suddenly spoke up about that.

“More than enough.” I need to put on an air of confidence just so he feels more relaxed about the idea of getting help from Idea. They’ve been my online friend for years at this point, so even if I don’t know much about their personal life their character is solid. Though technically their assistance provides more confidence in that judgement more than the years of faceless communications to be honest. “Their stuff is quite good, and as I said before, they help with that little problem, as you know.”

“You could’ve been lying about that.” He casually said. I know that he isn’t that paranoid, but the fact that he even said that at all is a bit disheartening.

“Alright dude, chill out a bit.” My composure breaks a bit as I say those words to him. Those are not the words I want to hear from someone who needs my assistance more than a few times. Certainly not the most chill of guys despite being an ice mage. “Let’s just be grateful for the assistance and leave it at that…”

We’re relaxing and for someone like him this is no doubt quite a novel experience after a while. Even as the closest person to him due to all the work we don’t really hang out. I didn't really know him before and he doesn’t have a lot of free time to himself, unlike with this woman next to me. Probably the loneliest person I’ve ever been acquainted with, now that I think about it. It’s weird considering he has the charisma to be the leader of that terrorist suppression group.

“Yeah, we should all relax and drain her pocket dry.” Evari said with a straight face. What an annoying bastard she can be at times.

…It’s really quiet. We really can’t do more than the smallest of talks. Really not eventful, but I guess that’s kind of the point of this little meeting.

———Sixson———

<5: 26 pm>

*Grab* *Slam* *Slam* *Throw* *Crash*

Kist unfortunately got grabbed and slammed around in quick succession before being thrown away. It was only two seconds at most and yet his approach was quickly dismantled despite my best effort to stall her.

*Swing* *Evade* *Swing* *Evade*

I had to continue putting in any sort of pressure in order to keep her occupied for him to get back into the fight. Despite the brutality shown with that sequence of actions, Kist doesn’t seem to bleed nor have his power reading dropping rapidly. It seems to be done just to flex that she can, and even now she’s still toying with us.

*Swing* *Coil*

“Put a bit more power into those, will ya?” The fake Glery said as one of the snake protrusions lunged at and tied itself on my wrist and restricted my movement. Those things are way longer than what the real deal has, and that came with a set of problems we wouldn’t have to deal with when sparring with the original.

*Punch* *Strike* *Crash*

“Uagh!” I screamed out after getting hit by two strikes in quick succession and being sent flying by the impact of the second strike.

*Dash* *Swing* *Leap*

Kist quickly got back up in time to swing his karambit at her, making sure to take away her attention before she could lay down more punishment on me. I need a few seconds to catch my breath and stabilize.

*Swing* *Parry* *Leap*

As she falls back down she swung her spear right at Kist, who managed to parry the sudden counter attack before jumping away as to not deal with a potential second swing.

That spear is so long and bulky that combined with her absurd strength means that there is no real loss of speed evening out its range.

*Lunge* *Clash*

She then lunged at me with that giant weapon, not giving me enough time to do anything else aside from blocking it with my daggers. I nearly lost my grip on both of them due to the force behind that incoming strike.

*Clash* *Clang* *Slide*

A few more exchanges later and I managed to smoothly retreat out with a backward slide, giving me a small room to breathe before she could continue the offensive.

She hasn’t even started using spells yet and I’m already feeling overwhelmed. I don’t know how much longer I can keep up like this.

———Karra———

<5: 33 pm>

“Hmm…” I mumbled to myself while doomscrolling. Doesn’t look like anything world-shattering has appeared just yet. Maybe a day or two later some crazy stuff would happen. Wiina has been promising that something juicy will come up soon.

The only thing really noticeable right now is the fight happening in the usual location. It’s not looking like she’s going easy today either, and those two are certainly not averse to combat by any means.

As for me. I’m just taking a break while their bones are being broken. It’ll quickly heal with all the medical tools that exist just in that stadium alone, let alone with her capabilities. As long as she heals them up after the fight is done there won’t be any lasting damage to worry about.

Hopefully she went extra hard on Jeff since he has been pretty annoying about the whole affair, but it’d be quite petty to say that out loud to her.

…Now is there anything on tomorrow’s agenda… I don’t think so? Nothing on the schedule for me, at least.