F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 270: Quick Reunion
The moon was a celestial sentry, hovering in the black heavenly canvas as the dark of the night settled over Edgehaven.
Dancing lights illuminated the streets, however, allowing for vibrance that otherwise would’ve been impossible.
A silent eve where everyone dreamed had long faded into obsolescence.
In one of the private rooms of a cozily lit establishment, two youngsters sat, waiting.
The door creaked open, revealing a third youngster — a blonde young man.
"Daru! Come, sit." Cody called with a smile.
Daru didn’t hesitate, taking a seat in front of the two. "Sorry, I...got a bit lost."
"Ah, no worries, we already took that into account. In fact, the two of us just got here around ten minutes ago. Oh, and Cody already ordered. He got lucky the other day and obtained good loot. Max paid him a lot, so he said he’ll be treating us today.
He nodded and turned to Cody, bowing in appreciation.
"Aihh, stop that, Daru. Why are you being so formal?" the latter said, a bit hurt. But at the same time, this was Daru, and he knew that the guy was not too used to social matters yet.
Before the conversation had a chance to grow deeper, though, the door creaked open again, and a waiter pushed a cartful of food in.
There were multiple dishes. A whole fried turkey, steak for sharing, two bowls of assorted vegetables, mild yet savoury seafood, and many more.
It wasn’t quite on the level of Hailey’s treat, but it was fairly close.
Cody clearly went all out for this quick reunion.
Seeing Daru’s eyes sparkling at the lavish meal made it all worth it, though, and the two chuckled inwardly.
This was definitely not their first time dining in such an expensive restaurant — Elune mostly due to her family, and Cody owing the experiences to the few meetings with the agents of the Seven Sword Guilds in the past month.
Scouts had been observing him and liked his work ethic and competence, so they decided to approach and attempt to recruit him for the party of their young masters.
The fact that his background wasn’t too good only made him more preferable in their eyes.
None had secured him yet, though there were a few guilds in the lead that Cody had been considering joining.
Elune was still under observation, but after the tournament, scouts were bound to drown her in meetings.
A top-tier B-ranker was hard to find, after all, and the fact that she was able to defeat an A-ranker qualified her as one.
"Alright, how bout we eat while talking?" Cody offered with a grin, to which the two nodded enthusiastically.
Everyone secured portions for themselves. Then, a few bites later, Elune finally couldn’t resist.
She aggressively swallowed the clam meat, almost choking in the process.
"S-So, Daru, you told us you got stuck in the Underworld..."
Daru glanced at her while gulping water. The moment he put the glass down, he nodded, but what came out of his mouth next, they didn’t expect.
"Ah, right, I’ve been told that what I’m about to tell you guys is restricted information, so please don’t tell other people."
The two froze.
Right...their friend, for some reason, had been transferred to a government facility, which was why they had no idea what happened to him after that fateful day.
Cody and Elune’s minds had even been plagued by the thought that he was indeed gone.
"We won’t..." the two nodded in unison, though Daru was now a bit more aware that verbal promises weren’t too effective.
Still, he decided to trust the two, proceeding to explain what happened to him.
How he obtained an Underworld Key, descended to Limbo, and got trapped as he failed to return to the Surface on time, thanks to a certain, hateful wretch.
His anger would flare a bit every time he was reminded of the matter.
From there, he roamed the monochrome realm in search of a way out, accidentally found allies in what should’ve been the deadliest place, and how they worked towards freedom.
The two naturally fell speechless.
Just from the eerie atmosphere of the realm, it might already be difficult for them to fight to the best of their abilities. The nightmarish appearances of the abominations only made things worse.
Yet, why is it that Daru was speaking of them as though he was reminiscing about some pleasant experiences?!
And Elune thought she had seen a madman before.
The sheer difficulty of it all...it was a miracle that Daru even made it back for the Inter-Class Representative Competition.
But more than anything, the knowledge about the Underworld, which the two had brushed upon but weren’t too interested in before, simply because of the unreliability of the reports, made them shudder. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
The mere fact that one would have to fight for their survival with only one life was horrifying. Enough so that the two realized that, despite being serious about becoming reliable Bladeborns, they had still been underestimating the dangers of the Myriad Sword Realm too much.
That, like the majority, they had still been treating it as though it were a fun game.
The assurance of having three lives made it impossible not to be overcomplacent. Now that they learned about the one-life mechanic of Limbo, who can say for sure there wouldn’t be a zone like that in the Surface?
Perhaps they would be drowning in their own blood, waiting desperately for salvation that wouldn’t come if they didn’t change the way they thought.
Daru’s story had been a great wake-up call for the two.
After discussing Limbo’s matters for a while longer, the topic of the conversation slowly shifted to the Inter-class Representative Competition.
Cody couldn’t have been more proud of Elune. The two of them had been training together all those times, after all, and witnessing her efforts bearing fruit made the A-ranker happy.
"Hahahaha! The moment it got to that point, where the two of you were panting and the match was extremely close, I just knew you’d win. You were focused; he was not. That I learned from brother Daru." Cody laughed.
"Ah?" Elune’s head tilted, surprised to learn of that seemingly insignificant information.
"What, you think I’ve always been so competent? I was a mid-tier A-ranker at the beginning of the academic year for a reason. It was only after I had talked to Daru that I had made some realizations, then applied them in combat and increased my mastery of focus in the daily Myriad Sword Realm grind."
"I-I see..."
It wasn’t that it was difficult for Elune to believe his words. It was just that she was always fascinated by Cody’s stories about how high Daru’s level of swordsmanship was.
She somewhat considered the A-ranker as her mentor now, so hearing that her mentor had just learned that from their friend felt a bit weird.
’Daru’s my Grand Mentor?’ she mused. The idea felt weird, considering that he’s an F-ranker.
Elune suddenly shook her head.
"R-Right, Daru...you mentioned you were much stronger than Aureus...c-can you explain more about that?"
Daru scratched his cheek. "I...don’t know how much more I can expand on that...maybe be more specific?"
"A-Ah, right! First, physical attributes, I guess? C-Can we know your current level?"
"Ah, sure. I’m level 64 right now."
Cody and Elune’s worlds stopped.
